Broward Health Commissioner Mike Fernandez is breathing a bit easier these days. He won’t face criminal charges or disciplinary action in connection with a conflict of interest between his public role and his private-sector work.A few weeks ago, the Florida Commission on Ethics ruled that Fernandez did not commit an…
That’s the opening two minutes of an ambitious documentary premiering tonight on public television station, WPBT-2. It’s called Imagining a New Florida, a more elegant title than Paradise Gone to Hell, which may be more appropriate.Of course, if the expert who says that Floridians are selfish transplants with no stake…
It’s hard to believe that there’s a crack whore crazy enough to have sex in a graveyard; and it’s even harder to believe that a john would follow her there. That’s a B-movie murder scene waiting to happen.So we’re skeptical about this WPBF report about purportedly human sex activity in…
OK, so the housing bubble that exploded in Florida, then the world, may not entirely be Charlie Crist’s fault. But that 12.3 percent unemployment figure in the state is just too enticing for Marco Rubio’s campaign to resist, especially now that it’s looking to keep Republican centrists from bolting to…
Joy Cooper is quickly gaining a reputation as one of the most erratic political figures in South Florida, and now the Hallandale Beach mayor has picked a fight with Broward County Commissioner John Rodstrom.Rodstrom was one of the commissioners who two weeks ago voted against a controversial $500 million proposal…
A glass of what’s-goin’-on in South Florida news:Ana Gardiner, the former Broward judge who resigned rather than face possible penalties for judicial misconduct, awarded $600,000 in legal fees last summer to an attorney, Richard Cole, who has recently hired Gardiner at his firm. Cole denies a quid pro quo, but…
Beth Kofsky doesn’t seem the type to offer free labor. At least not based on what we know about her from the forensic audit in Deerfield Beach.As Juice reported last week, Kofsky’s Housing and Assistive Technology is paid an hourly wage, but she always collected the maximum allowed under her…
Following a helicopter-assisted search by Broward Sheriff’s Office, a 30-year-old man, Marvin Johnson, has been arrested in connection with the May 7 murder of a Pompano Beach grandfather.The body of Samuel McWhorter, 79, was discovered on that day by his granddaughter. Around noon today, BSO received a tip that Johnson…
Try tho’ he might, Bill McCollum can’t shake the scandal over the $120,000 his Attorney General’s Office paid to George Alan Rekers, the antigay activist who was outed by New Times writers Penn Bullock and Brandon K. Thorp last week.McCollum tried to pin it on the Florida Department of Children…
The death Saturday of a homeless man, Bradly Schmidt, was not accidental, as investigators first believed. Rather, the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office has reversed its original ruling, based on what it has learned from detectives, and is now calling the case a homicide:From the Fort Lauderdale police news release:Investigators…
Retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens was a former Navy man — the lone former serviceman on the high court — and so some observers expected President Barack Obama to nominate a justice with a military background. Or at least, that appears to be the expectation of one Allen…
Let’s see what’s happening in South Florida this Tuesday morning:After financial struggles led to the closing of Westgate Tabernacle’s homeless shelter last week, Palm Beach County commissioners are wrestling with the question of how to care for the region’s transients. [Palm Beach Post]Scott Rothstein’s luxury car collection is on display…
Here’s some good old-fashioned police work from a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy in Oakland Park. The BSO press release: While on routine patrol on Monday, May 3, Sergeant Pat Murray observed a blue Dodge Pickup driving slowly past three girls, each walking separately between the 1600 and 1800 block of…
In remarks made during an appearance this weekend on MSNBC, congressional candidate Allen West had sharp criticism for the chairman of his party, Michael Steele, over Steele’s response to a question about the Republicans’ appeal to black voters.After hearing a quote from Steele about the party having not given black…
Spirit pilots’ union is claiming that the Miramar-based airline is run by no-good cheapskates, meaning that now everybody aboard a Spirit Air plane can agree on that sentiment. The passengers complain about getting gouged for their luggage. The flight attendants complain about the airline using their uniforms as advertising space.And…
Here’s a glance at the headlines in South Florida this Monday morning:Investigators still don’t know what caused a major fire Friday at a Lauderhill apartment complex. Whatever it was, footage of the aftermath makes it clear that there’s no salvaging the building, nor the belongings of residents who lived on…
A Miami-based nonprofit corporation called Housing and Assistive Technology appears to have played a role in what a forensic auditor called a pattern of “suspected fraud” in the Deerfield Beach’s spending of low-income housing funds from the federal government.Judging by its tax filings, the nonprofit is a one-woman operation: specifically,…
It’s been about one year since Jeb Bush teamed with Rep. Eric Cantor and Mitt Romney to throw a pizza party with the hope of bringing the Republican Party back from its extremist brink. How’d that go for you, Jeb?Not good, according to this article in Congressional Quarterly, which reports…
The Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office has elected not to file charges in a stabbing that took place in October at the Ritz-Carlton in Manalapan during a speech by a neo-Nazi historian.The prosecutor’s close-out memo released this morning cites interviews with those involved as well as footage from a hotel…
