Broward Palm Beach News Blog

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Maloney

​Patrick Maloney resigned Friday as the chief executive officer of Coral Springs Medical Center, inviting speculation that he found himself the wrong side of a political faultline at the public hospital district.

There were signs of Maloney's departure as recently as last week's board meeting. That's when Dr. Carrie Greenspan, chief of staff at the Coral Springs hospital, gave the four newly appointed commissioners a long list of Maloney's virtues as an executive. She described his "open-door" policies and the climate of high-morale fostered by his leadership. Her remarks were much more expansive than those given by other chiefs of staff, and now it seems she either hoped to save Maloney's job or at least place her support of him on the permanent record. There was also a "farewell" tone to Maloney's remarks later in the meeting.

Lake Worth Commissioner Jennings and Sunflower: Thriving

​City Commissioners are not often noted for their vibrant good health; up there on the dais under those fluorescent lights, most of them look little gray around the gills. But judging from her consumption of green leafy vegetables, Lake Worth City Commissioner Cara Jennings, 33, now in her second term, may well outlive her most hostile opponents. Jennings, who has been  associated with the anarchist movement for more than a decade, keeps an open house:  What you see with Jennings is  what you get.

We stopped by Jennings' Pepto-Bismol pink bungalow on Lake Worth's C St. -- it's nicknamed "The Canew," -- last Friday night. A sign taped by the heavily-flyered front door reads: "We Are a Community-Oriented Anarchist Collective Home," followed by a list of reasonable requests: 

While most of South Florida was obsessed with that little "Super Bowl" business this weekend, Wellington resident Vanilla Ice (Robert Van Winkle) was at a basketball game. In Canada.

For the chilled Toronto crowd, Ice played his cover of "Play That Funky Music," then asked, "How 'bout a little old-school for Canada?"

Having had our own favorite teams eliminated from the NFL Playoffs, my friends and I were dispassionate observers of yesterday's Super Bowl. We had a slight preference for a Saints victory, if only because it's easy to empathize with New Orleans' hurricane misfortunes and for the franchise's four decades of football futility. But we hoped to summon a more passionate stake in the game by watching it at the newly opened New Orleans themed restaurant in Pompano Beach, the French Quarter.

Flickr: laoruuh609

​Even the irony of it has become a cliche: Reality television is the best place to deceive the world. Ross Mandell's looking to convince the public that he's not the boiler-room-based white collar crook he appears to be in the U.S. government's criminal complaint; rather, that he's a honest, funny, family-lovin' guy who can't help that he's such an ingenious businessman.

Mandell told the Los Angeles Times. "I would love to allow the world to see me as a I really am."

Careful what you wish for. Here's an article that suggests he's really a guy who cheated investors out of $140 million.

If Mandell's pitch gets a green light, the camera crews will be setting up shop in his $1.8 million home in Boca Raton.

image by Octavio Diaz http://octaviodiaz.blogspot.com/

​A couple of days ago we asked Vice Mayor George Brummer about the City of Pompano Beach's official opposition to the controversial Amendment 4. The "Hometown Democracy" movement is sweeping across Florida, revving up its engines for a vote this November 2010 that would put growth back in the hands of ordinary citizens rather than, say, politicians who might be likely to fall headfirst into the pockets of developers. If Amendment 4 passes, it shall be written into the consitution that major land use changes will be subject to popular vote.

The Pompano Beach City Commission, we learned last week, is hardly the first city in Broward County to want to make a grand symbolic gesture about Amendment 4. We asked Rhonda Calhoun over at the Broward League of Cities about this, and she forwarded us a list of cities who have already passed official resolutions decrying the Amendment.

Nearly every news outlet in South Florida, including, New Times, has a cell phone signup form where you can receive headlines and tidbits via text message. Most of the local news outlets in both television and print also have mobile versions of their sites that load automatically when you visit from your phone. The Sun-Sentinel has a good example of that in action.

​Here's what's going on in the local metro scene:

• The underdog New Orleans Saints knocked off the Indianapolis Colts at Sun Life Stadium, to the jubilation of their hard-luck fans, as well as a clutch of celebrities who made it to the game. [WPLG-10]
• Yet more evidence that the Broward County School District's construction department can't be trusted with a checkbook. This time it paid out nearly $300,000 to a construction contractor for a classroom addition it didn't need, only to ditch those plans. Now the district's just hoping the contractor will be kind enough to give the money back. [Sun-Sentinel]
• Turnout statistics from last week's special congressional primary show that the South Florida Tea Party and similar groups did little to boost turnout, making those activists less bold about predicting a Scott Brown-type upset in a Democrat-dominated district. [Palm Beach Post]
  

Flickr: Hank Halsey

A high-def image of the Super Bowl sign that spent the last two weeks at Fort Lauderdale Beach and Las Olas.

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Flickr: .f@rfie.

​This was the week that Broward County played host to a Super Bowl shindig. While the New Times print edition gave our visitors a crash course in South Florida vice, the Juice attended media day and came back with an exotic array of photographic evidence that pop culture is a mess. These winsome television commercials would have redeemed it -- if only they hadn't been banned by the censors.

A body painter from West Palm told of a request from a client who had a perverse fondness for The Flintstones. A cartoon character like Homer Simpson would surely appreciate the kind of lavatory luxury we discovered at the Dunkin' Donuts in Davie.

In the week that brought the beginning of the end for the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays, Juice talked to Dr. Alan Steidman the highest ranking military figure to come out as gay.