South Florida's Jewish community just can't catch a break. First Bernie Madoff, now an alleged Ponzi scheme by Fort Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein -- what gives?
Madoff lured Jewish friends at the Palm Beach Country Club to be investors in his Ponzi scheme, and when his fraud collapsed, Jewish charities lost hundreds of millions of dollars. It's not yet clear how Rothstein's scandal will impact Jewish investors -- although Yeshiva World News is buzzing with rumors that the Orthodox community in Brooklyn may have lost millions.
One thing is obvious: Rothstein's imprint on the Fort Lauderdale Jewish community is indelible and very visible. The chabad center on Broward Boulevard bears his name -- the Rothstein Family Downtown Jewish Center Chabad.
Coach Slick making a wish list, checking it twice.
The Heat season is officially upon us again, and judging by the very small sample size thus far, Miami will go 82-0 and Dwyane Wade will finally secure the MV3. Most experts have them finishing fourth or fifth in the division and either barely making or missing the playoffs.
There are many story lines facing the Heat this season: Will D-Wade leave after this season? Will Beasley perform post-rehab? Will off-season additions Quinten Richardson and Carlos Arroyo supply enough depth to compete in the now-stacked East? Will the team still be haunted by the slow, stilted mummy wearing a Jermaine O'Neal jersey last year?
We at The Juice wanted to put together some sort of preview for this young season. Instead of the dry "Here's your starting line-up. Here are the big games. Here's a mediocre prediction we'll back away from soon" type of preview, we did a little (imaginary) investigating and found a list of five super-secret, extra-special goals team president Pat Riley has for the upcoming season.
What you won't find on this list are items like: "Sign Dwyane Wade." Because that's no secret at all.
The Reynolds 'stache in full bloom at the 1992 Emmys
We have some splendid local mustaches, but the only suspense in this week's contest was for readers who forgot that Burt Reynolds is eligible based on his brief residence at a West Palm Beach addiction treatment center. Reynolds lives just north of the Palm Beach County border, in Hobe Sound, but he spent much of his youth -- at least the mustache-growing years -- in Riviera Beach.
Don and Derek: Two racially appropriate names for baby.
If you were a jew-hating, black-bashing, out-and-proud white supremicist, what would you name the little bun you had baking in your oven?
We've been poking around on the web forums of our own homegrown hate group, Stormfront, lately. In part because theThe Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition has claimed
Maxwell is one of the leading rabble rousers on illegal immigration: He sees the issue as a major problem facing Lake Worth. He's joined by a vocal coterie of local frothers including blogger Lynn Anderson. Until recently, Maxwell broadcast a radio program devoted to the subject, "Connecting the Dots on Illegal Immigration," which ran Thursdays at 8 pm on WBZT 1230 Clear Channel.
It's been decades since a young aspiring comedian named Brian Regan took the stage at an open-mic night in a Fort Lauderdale comedy club. He knew that his debut might be tough, but he never imagined a worst-case scenario like the one that occurred that night.
With three failing companies swamped by bankruptcy proceedings in Florida, Bernie needed a break. And he got one. Bernie Kosar is rejoining the NFL team he took to the playoffs in his first five seasons as a player.
Although the details of the arrangement remain vague, it appears the Weston resident and former U. Miami and Cleveland Browns quarterback will be an adviser to Browns owner Randy Lerner, based on this Yahoo Sports report. Football advising, we presume. Not financial advising.
I wonder if Big Brother winner and Delray Beach resident Adam Jasinski was dipping into his stash of pills prior to the
interview above, 'cause he sure does look slightly skeeted to me. Oh,
and Mr. Jasinski, you really aren't "smarter than you look" -- hence the
$1 million in drug charges you now face.
67-year-old Jeffry Picower was found dead in the pool at his $33 million Palm Beach oceanside mansion at 1410 South Ocean Boulevard
yesterday afternoon, leaving lots of unfinished business. Picower was the guy
who helped Madoff manage his Ponzi scheme, and he appears to have made even
more money in the grift than his mentor - as much as $7.2 billion. Picower, whose
rates of return on his Madoff investments sometimes reached as much as 100
percent, was under investigation by trustees filing suit on behalf of Madoff's
jilted investors, and lawyers say his death will make it a lot harder to recoup
the billions they had hoped for.
If you happened to be a highly prominent person of color visiting West Palm Beach in the first half of this century, chances are you would have stayed at Haley Mickens's house at 801 4th Street.
Mickens and his wife Dr. Alice Frederick Mickens, a well known civil rights activist, played host to dozens of African American athletes, musicians and political figures during the years they lived in their spacious two story wood frame house, in part because no local hotel would give black dignitaries a room. The celebs that slept in the Mickens's guest room included Coretta Scott King, Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Ralph Bunche, and Count Basie.
Now a local group of historic preservationists headed by attorney and historian Harvey Oyer III are
Florida has seen its history of hilarious marketing strategies. (Remember the Tampa Bay Bandits' million dollar give away...that was actually $50,000 every year for 20 years, starting in 20 years? The team folded after three years. Nobody got a dime.) But offering Brits the chance to have tea with dated ironic icon MC Hammer may be the best yet.
It's part of a new ploy from Pompano Beach-based Cash4Gold. And more than 1,600 UK residents have already entered their names, hoping to win the honor of tea time with Hammer--and a UK-based celebrity to be named later.
Just imagine all the questions you could come up with as you load little squares of sugar into your tasty black tea. The pants. The dance. That cool song with the Addams Family. Probably best if nobody mentions financial planning though.
It sounds like a joke, but Vanilla Ice really is huge in South Africa. Same goes for Australia and East Asia. He just returned from South Africa, where he played several sold out arenas.
So who could blame the ad folks at Castle Lite, the South African brew, when they were charged with selling an ice cold beer to the masses and came up with the highest selling rap song of all time that just so happens to have the word Ice right in the title (TWICE!)?
And if you thought Rob Van Winkle doesn't have a sense of humor about his 20 years as Vanilla Ice, you clearly haven't seen this apology, done as a part of an Australian music campaign.
Whattaya say, Broward Dems? Are you willing to pay higher taxes purely for the sake of watching the portly pontificator pack his bags and move to Texas? Am I hearing a yes? Thought so.
A recent St. Pete Times article cited a portion of Rush Limbaugh's radio show in which he declared that the high taxes in New York were the reason he stayed close to his Palm Beach home, but that he might leave if the Florida taxman gets too demanding.
To quote a third-grader I once knew: "Is that a promise or a threat?"
The Material Girl's Manhattan neighbors are none too pleased about the singer using her posh NYC pad as a stomping ground for dance rehearsals.
Madonna's upstairs neighbor, Karen George, has filed a lawsuit, saying she was forced to move out of her West 64th Street apartment because of the "intrusive and excessive noise," coupled with constant stomping that shakes walls for hours on end, sending "pounding noise and vibrations" into the floor above.
If Madonna managed to tick off New Yorkers, who are used to the sound of loud traffic and honking horns. who don't even flinch at the sound of shots fired, followed by blaring sirens, how will her soon-to-be Wellington neighbors react when the man eater's in town?
Whatever comes of the DUI manslaughter case against Jim Leyritz, there's no doubting he's been humbled by the experience. This past weekend, the former Yankees catcher, who stands accused of killing a motorist while driving drunk in Fort Lauderdale, was barred from an on-field celebration of the 1996 team on which he provided the most dramatic, most heroic moment -- the home run in Game 4 to beat the Braves.
Yet from the sounds of it, Leyritz was just happy to be able to still make a buck selling his signature to Yankees fans at a table outside the park. From an article in the New York Times:
This Saturday night at around 8:30 local time, the world will be attacked by zombies. They'll look like the ones in the video above. It's part of Thrill the World 2009, the global attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the largest simultaneous performance of Michael Jackson's "Thriller." An estimated 10,000 to 50,000 zombies from more than 400 events in 42 countries are expected to crawl from the crypt and bust a move in honor of the late King of Pop.
But no Eighties-era dancing drama is complete with some rule-harping wet blankets who just might stop the music.
It's that time a year again. All week, WLRN-FM (91.3) has been filled with the guilt-inducing sounds of yet another NPR fund drive. It's oppressive and embarrassing for everyone involved.
Today on Morning Edition, Bonnie Berman cut to the chase: "By giving now, you'll help keep WLRN's fund drive short," she said.
With that in mind, I have a few suggestions for how WLRN and all the local NPR stations can make these annual money grabs more enjoyable for everyone involved. Forget rewarding donors with wine tote bags and Caribbean cruises, people. Give us something we really want:
After a short ad, that's the trailer for "The Oxycontin Express," the first episode of this season's Vanguard. That's correspondent Mariana van Zeller boldly reporting from within Broward County, pain pill capital of the world. Aren't we just beaming with pride?
The show airs on Current TV, the diy network launched with the help of Al Gore. The show aired on Wednesday night. Full episode is here.
Sheree Silver is the psychic who, for an episode of the TV series "Wife Swap" left Florida for a week to live with the Heene family in Colorado earlier this year. In that episode, which originally aired in the spring, Silver remarks on camera that the show will be her destiny. Still, she didn't quite expect that the Heenes would make world news yesterday when it was feared that the youngest member of the family, six-year-old Falcon Heene, had accidentally flown off in his dad's makeshift silver balloon. He was later found safe at home and speculation grew that the whole incident had been a publicity stunt. Silver, reached at home in St. Augustine, was gracious enough to answer a few questions: As a psychic, did you predict this at all? Yes. This morning I woke up and felt the need to call First Coast News [the TV station in Jacksonville]. My children had been cast in an Edgar Allan Poe play at the Limelight Theatre. They were all set to put me on the news for that, and within two hours, [I saw on CNN that Falcon was feared to be in the runaway balloon]. But you know, I didn't sense danger; I didn't pick it up. I wasn't panicked.
Did you stay in touch with the Heene family after filming was over? I actually did. I sent presents to the boys, care packages.
People are now speculating that the father, Richard Heene, may have staged a hoax. I wouldn't put anything past Richard...
Audiences were riveted to TV yesterday as authorities tracked a homemade flying saucer across Colorado, believing that a six-year-old boy, Falcoln Heene, may be trapped inside the wayward flying vessel. Later in the day, after the boy was found safely at home, speculation grew that the incident was a hoax -- a publicity stunt staged by an out-of-control father and acted out by kids who have been rewarded for rude and raucous behavior.
A little digging on You Tube yielded some interesting videos of the Heene family. In one (above), the dad says that when the family was chosen by audiences to be on a second episode of "Wife Swap," it was "the best thing that's ever happened to us in our life -- seriously." Richard Heene and his boys -- who are encouraged to curse and act unruly -- disrespect the woman who comes and lives with them for a week -- psychic Sheree Silver of Orlando. Mr. Heene displays a hot temper, screaming often and even throwing a glass of milk on Silver at one point. He comes around only after the woman does a past-life regression workshop with him, his ego clearly boosted when they determine he was once the captain of a spaceship that shuttled aliens back and forth from Earth.
You Tube also yielded three home videos of the boys: one where they are walking down railroad tracks and rapping that they are "not pussified,"; and two videos where the kids make a dessert and "booger soup."
The first ten minutes of the "Wife Swap" episode can be seen above; the rest are here.
And here's the lovely burp- and fart-filled "Not Pussified" home video:
The uproar over Rush Limbaugh's bungled bid to buy the St. Louis Rams wouldn't be complete without a mention of his membership in Palm Beach's oldest and most exclusive country club, the Everglades Club.
Palm Beach's infamous bloviater was kicked out of a group trying to buy the Rams after several black NFL players objected to the deal. Shockingly, they weren't thrilled to have an owner who has said the NFL "all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips" or that "all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson."
To make matters worse, Page Six, the New York Post's infamous gossip column,
The minute Michael Jackson took his last breath, albums started flying
off the shelves, an army of "faithful" fans took to the streets
professing their undying love for "The King of Pop," and everyone from
celebrities to musicians hailed him as their storybook hero.
Where were they when Michael Jackson was alive? Throwing stones to hide their hands.
Suddenly, the lynch-mob media are nowhere to be seen. Gone are the "Wacko Jacko" days. The pedophile days. The freak days.
Because everybody loves him now.
On every street corner, people are donning MJ gear, rediscovering his
music. His movie, which opens nationally October 28, is selling out
fast. People can't get enough of his posthumously released
single This Is It, which hit the airwaves
this week. Before his death, DJs refused to play his songs. But now,
Michael's on heavy rotation at radio stations spanning the globe.
The same media that exploited Michael Jackson when he was alive are now exploiting him in death.
I saw through it then, and I definitely see through it now.
Anyone who watched ESPN this weekend, though, saw video proof of the price Ms. Estefan paid to play the game, so to speak.
Above is footage of her singing a duet with Hank Williams, Jr. The two are singing Hank's customized Dolphins-Jets version of "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight." (The country star has, of course, performed the opening theme to Monday Night Football since 1991, and has won four Emmy awards.)
Notice the lyrics "Esta lista para football?" and "El Monday Night Party!"
That's the trailer for the new Chris Rock documentary, about the torment of African-American women endure for their hair. At about the two-minute mark, you'll see Rock wearing a sweatshirt that says "Palm Beach."
No, he doesn't live in Palm Beach. Rather, Rock lives in perhaps the only neighborhood in the nation that is equally, if not more exclusive: Alpine, N.J., the zip code with the highest median home value in the U.S. at $4.14 million. What's it like living in a neighborhood more exclusive than Palm Beach? Fortunately for us, Rock addressed that question in an instant classic comedy bit that I've posted after the jump.
Reading this post on Pulp about how Broward Mayor Stacy Ritter sprinted 400 yards to the home of lobbyist Michael Moskowitz, I tried to imagine the scene that must have taken place in Moskowitz's Parkland home. And it conjured up the above scene from Michael Clayton. Substitute a dented Jaguar for a gun-wielding father -- voila!
But the reason this is a lame record is that it's doomed to defeat. Consider that the previous recordholder was this one, presented at a car show in Royal Oak, Michigan, on August 16. The 1,224-pound cupcake spent just six weeks in the Guinness Book of World Records. (Video of that cupcake after the jump.)
Plus, this is a category that has seen an arms race of sorts. Consider that just 18 months ago, a 61-pound cupcake was awarded the Guinness record. And just three months ago, the record-holder was a mere 151 pounds. Sorry, Big Top -- at this rate, we'll have the world's first one-ton cupcake before the new year.
Ha! That's Vincent "Big Pussy" Pastore, the Sopranos actor who lives in Coral Springs. His pistachio commercial is much better than the one by Levi Johnston, which is getting all the attention this week. It's after the jump.
Jennings was arrested for "Resisting an Officer without Violence" during the demonstration, where she was photographed wearing a hooded shawl and carrying a sign that read
Contributors: Eric Barton, Michelle Centrone, Deirdra Funcheon, Keith Hollar, John Linn, Michael J. Mooney, Bob Norman, Lisa Rab, Nicole Rodriguez, Gail Shepherd.
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