Gary Laufenberg, Cooper City Mayoral Candidate, Drops Out of Race

Looks like Cooper City mayoral candidate Gary Ross can start planning that victory party early. His opponent, Gary Laufenberg, tearfully announced he is dropping out of the race. The reason: Laufenberg is basically taking the bullet for campaign aide and family friend Ryan Shrouder after he was caught stealing a…

Obama and Romney Hitting Up Florida for the Home Stretch

Polls are tight in Florida as the presidential election mercifully grinds down to its final days, and anything can and will happen in the Sunshine State, because that’s just how we roll. A Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS News Poll have Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in a virtual tie in…

Florida Whooping Cough Cases Hit Ten-Year High

We’ve been predicting it for months, and new data from the Department of Health now confirm it. Whooping cough cases are the highest they’ve been in Florida for the past decade, and probably a lot longer than that. As of Tuesday, there have an astonishing 515 cases around the state, according to DOH…

I-4 Corridor Predicts Florida for Romney

Are you ready for Tuesday’s election? Having flashbacks to 2000, when Florida’s sleaze­ball recount decided the election of George W. Bush? Well, as likely as not, we in Florida will choose the president again this year. With 29 electoral votes up for grabs, ours is by far the largest swing…

Voting Absentee This Year? You May Not Be Counted

If you’re among the 1.4 million Floridians who have decided to vote via absentee ballot this year, your voice might not get heard. Because FLORIDA! Also because PAY ATTENTION. Basically, because we live in the Voting Fuckup Capital of the World, absentee ballots have been known to go to the…

Republican Voter Suppression Is the Perfect Crime

By now, more than 2 million people have already voted in Florida, accounting for nearly one-fifth of the state’s voters and trouncing early concerns that voter-suppression measures would stymie turnout. We already knew how bogus concerns over voter fraud were, but does the same go for our trepidation regarding voter…

Buju Banton Issues Statement After Judge Delays Resentencing

A set of motions filed Monday night delayed the resentencing of reggae singer Buju Banton on a federal gun charge.One motion again asked for the judge to reconsider resentencing Buju, while the other requested an entirely new trial on all charges based on New Times reporting that indicates a juror…

Miami Heat Players Get Their Championship Rings, Take Down Celtics

The Miami Heat kicked off the 2012-12 season last night by first getting its championship rings and then by sticking a foot into the Celtics’ assholes. ‘Twas a glorious night indeed. And while traditionally ring ceremony games have been a snoozer, mainly because the team getting the rings were still…

Patrick Murphy Leading Allen West in Latest PPP Poll

There’s one more week of campaigning (*party streamers and fireworks!*), and polls show an ever-tightening race between Allen West and Patrick Murphy. In August, the DCCC polling people reported a tied race. Then, on October 1, the Garin-Hart-Yang poll reported Murphy with a lead. Now comes a new Public Policy…

Nine Men Arrested for Gambling on Pee Wee Football Games

Nine men have been arrested for gambling on pee wee football games, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office. The Lauderhill and Fort Lauderdale police departments, as well as the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the United States Marshals Service, all joined forces in an 18-month-long investigation called “Operation Dirty…

Hurricane Sandy: A What-to-Do Guide From SoFla to New York

Hurricane Sandy was downgraded to something called a post-tropical cyclone, which we think probably means “like a hurricane, except not.” Either way, Sandy was a menace. Her post-tropical cycloneness slammed into the North Atlantic, leaving water and wind devastation all over parts of New York and New Jersey. Millions are…

Cops on TV, Part Two: When Entertainment Becomes Evidence

This is the second post in a two-part series about the BSO’s fondness for TV cameras.On February 1, 2011, two bald, white Broward Sheriff’s deputies were talking to Devin Matthews, a 32-year-old black man, as he stood on his front yard. Detective Andrea Penoyer, a beautiful blond woman in tactical…

Big Early-Voting Numbers in Broward, Palm Beach

In some cases, it’s taken five minutes, in others, almost three hours, but people on Broward and Palm Beach Counties are coming out in droves to vote early. Nearly 80,000 people hit the early-voting booths over the weekend, with the biggest turnout coming from Broward, which recorded 54,338 early voters…