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The Palm Beach Post's Mark Schwed died unexpectedly at the age of 52. He called in sick Monday, wasn't heard from, and was found today by a coworker. Cause of death hasn't been determined. Scott Eyman wrote the obit and here's a guest book for him that includes a photo.

Schwed was a feature writer who used to work for TV Guide. I never met him, but we communicated a time or two. He was a reader of this blog; we once had a friendly spat in the comments (no one else knew it was Schwed). We also happened to have both shared a choice for best Super Bowl commercial from last year's game. I also once praised a great story he wrote about a man lost at sea and directed y'all to a story he wrote about the plight of gays in the closet.

I'm going now to raise a glass to Mark Scwed and his work -- and I'm going to leave you with the top of the closet story:

There are as many ways to come out of the closet as there are colors in the rainbow.

But always, it begins as a secret. This is Dale Pflum's truth. Even he didn't know he was gay.

Pflum grew up a farm boy, the member of a conservative Catholic family in rural Appleton, Wis.

"It was just something that was unacceptable," says Pflum, 65, of Boynton Beach.

And yet, he knew he was different.

"I can remember back in high school, even grade school, I'd look at some guy, and I'd get a flutter in my heart. And I never got that flutter when I looked at a girl."

But he did not act on his feelings. He joined the military, and when he came home, at 27, he married a nice girl because that's what men in Appleton did. He and his wife had two children. He worked tirelessly to make a good life for his family. But something was very wrong.

He was depressed, lonely, bitter. His marriage began to fall apart. His wife told him to get help. But for what?

Finally, he came up with a plan. He would kill himself.

He entered the barn, duct-taped the windows of his car, hooked up a hose to the exhaust, switched on the engine and waited to die.

He blacked out. His wife found him unconscious on the floor.

"She said, 'Whatever your problem is, I will accept it.' "

There were two more suicide attempts, hospitalizations for depression and years of therapy until the truth came bursting forth.

"I finally told her that I was gay. I will always remember what she said: 'If I can accept it, why can't you?' "

If only it were that easy.

The Pulp want's to give a warm welcome this a.m. to new Tribune Co. czar Sam Zell, who is making his first trip to Fort Lauderdale. The trip dispels Thom Fiddler's repeated assertions that Zell, in fact, didn't realize he owned the Sun-Sentinel.

Should get more on that later. As for the news this morning, got to give a shout-out to Harriet Johnson Brackey, who followed up a pollyanna piece on the fed rate cuts (yesterday's half-point shave proved to be little more than a crack hit for the struggling stock market, which looks to be a bit strung out this morning) with a realistic look at the economy this morning (co-written with Paul Owers). The lede:

Now that Florida has approved portable and perhaps more affordable property tax bills, the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates and consumers could have tax rebate checks in hand by summer, there is a new economic outlook.

The outlook, a growing number of economic forecasters say, is that all these measures may not be enough to halt the housing slump in Florida and the nation. The housing market has been tanking for almost two years. And South Floridians feel it.

It's gloomy. That said, portability in Florida might move some real estate. I know a lot of people who have stayed put for tax reasons and have been waiting for this as a chance to move up (or down). And buying and selling inside a particular market is a wash. You buy low, you sell low. In fact, I believe it's better to make a move up in a down market.

So you're going to see more action the Florida market. The dark cloud looming over all of this is that portability may very well get struck down as unconstitutional. The Pulp believes it will, in fact, get tossed by the courts. Here's the $10 billion question:

Will the tax breaks for those who take advantage of portability before its reversed be grandfathered in? Or will they be reassessed and hit with a big fat tax bill?

Dan Gelber, do you know? Charlie Crist (as if!)? Anyone?

-- Just a rumor at this point, but sources say that the Miami Herald's Todd Wright was kicked out of Mara Giulianti's election party (wake?) by the mayor's husband, Donald, who allegedly shouted at the reporter. Trying to get more, but if it's true, more power to Wright. I slammed him a little bit on his coverage of Keith Wasserstrom's trial, but his election reporting was excellent.

-- The last woman standing in Cooper City is Debbie Eisinger, who was reelected as mayor. She may have gotten lucky, since her two opponents split the opposition vote. In the past year, all of her colleagues have exited stage left. Bart Roper decided not to run for reelection. John Valenti and Linda Ferrara were both unseated last year. And Elliot Kleiman got beat last night. Why? Well, the destruction began after CBS-4's broadcast on the commission's having eats and drinks on the taxpayers' dime. But there are other issues I may get into later. To add insult to injury to Kleiman, NBC-6 couldn't get his name right during last night's election coverage. The station spelled it "Kleinman." Ooch.

-- Funniest line from election reporting comes from Dave Barry (whodathunkit?): "Most of the candidates ignored Wyoming and focused on the New Hampshire primary, except Rudy Giuliani, who's following a shrewd strategy, originally developed by the Miami Dolphins, of not entering the race until he has been mathematically eliminated."

-- Who is Peter Bober, anyway?

I believe the Florida trounce paves the way for President Hillary Clinton and I think most of her electoral power comes from people yearning for the 90s, when another Clinton was president. You ask what was so great about the last decade? I point you to the current one, this dead decade we're enduring now. The tone for the double-oughts was set with the election of George W. Bush, a life-long failure with a rich-boy syndrome who cynically promised that he would be a "uniter" and a "compassionate conservative." Then came September 11, which gave the entire nation something it hadn't had in at least 60 years -- existential fear. Then came Shock and Awe and the illegal Iraq War, in which America played the role of invader. So far it has left a country in ruin, spilled blood from all sides, and left a generation of American soldiers to pay the emotional and physical toll. We're all paying. The war has stolen our national prestige and left us in debt, just in time for a recession brought on by a housing bubble and credit crunch, where millions of people lived above their means borrowing money they could never pay back. Don't worry, maybe the Fed, the Chinese, and the Arab sheiks will bail us out.

Compared to this dire, dead decade, the 90s were real halcyon days. The economy was strong, housing prices were cheap (yeah, that actually used to seem like a good thing), we found the Internet, newspapers were booming (if not actual journalism), America had a surplus (!), and Bill Clinton's smooth rhetoric set a sweet tone for all of it. Yes, there were bad spots (Cobain killed himself, the dot-com frenzy led to the tech bubble, Bill had too much fun with his cigar), but compared to this disaster, the entire decade seems like a good dream.

And it's a dream that people want to have again. There's a huge power in that for Hillary, one that not even Barack Obama, an orator that might even outrank Bill, can overcome. There are, of course, other reasons that Hillary is going to pull it out, but don't underestimate the pull of the 90s.

Here are some electoral prognostications that everyone can look back on tomorrow and laugh at my utter idiocy:

-- Mara Giulianti loses Hollywood mayorship. Look, Mara may have all the money, but she knows she's in trouble. The desperation is evident in her frantic campaigning.

Case in point: When voter and mom Courtney Ortiz, a supporter of Peter Bober, told canvassing Mara workers that she wasn't supporting the incumbent, Mara paid her a special visit. Giulianti, in her Mercedes, and her assorted entourage, in a Porsche and Chrysler SUV, pulled up to her curb and came to her door. As Ortiz describes it, Giulianti proceeded to browbeat her about Bober, saying he wasn't any good.

When Ortiz said she was voting for him anyway, Giulianti told one of her comrades, "Well, if she doesn't want to participate in the government, she doesn't have to."

This illustrates the mayor's arrogance to a T (Ortiz describes the event in detail on her blog). And I think that kind of crap has finally reached its tipping point (oh, damn, Malcolm Gladwell got me). The city has been wracked with scandal for the past four years and Giulianti has played a leading role in it. By all rights, she should be awaiting sentencing for official misconduct with her (former) top ally on the commission, Keith Wasserstrom.

Part of me says voters will mete out a little justice today, another part of me screams, "As if!" I'm still betting Giulianti gets a vacation from office, though. Told you I was an idiot.

-- Here's an easy one: Hillary Clinton wins the now-meaningless Florida vote. She'll win South Florida convincingly. I'm going to be honest: I still don't know who I would vote for between her and Obama. I go back and forth. But the Florida mess with the non-delegates could pose a huge quandary. The Sentinel's Michael Mayo put it well in his column this morning:

Meanwhile, the Democrats (Motto: We've never met an election we couldn't screw up) have done a gang-buster job sticking to principles. So the party that screamed about widespread disenfranchisement and how every vote must be counted in Florida in 2000 now has no problem flushing away an entire 4.1 million votes.

The nightmare scenario: the Clinton-Obama battle isn't settled before the convention and Florida's disputed delegation becomes the key to the nomination, this summer's version of hanging chad.

I've been thinking the same thing: Bill Clinton's first lady might be undone by the same state that foiled his vice president.

-- McCain wins Florida. This is a complicated-as-hell call so I just simplified it: Crist's endorsement is going to put McCain on top, which might just propel him to the nomination. That, in turn, would put Crist on the short list of VP candidates, though he'll never get it.

(MORE COMING)

It's true, S.V. Date, the Tallahassee reporter and Jeb Bush chronicler, has left the Palm Beach Post. Paul Blythe, the newspaper's state editor, confirmed that Date resigned on Friday, but wouldn't elaborate on the reason.

If you'll recall, Date -- who has been covering the Florida capital for 10 years, recently had a major conflict with management after his wife got a job in the administration of Gov. Charlie Crist. The problem with that was that Date was covering Crist at the time. The Post eventually pulled him from the governor beat. As for his leaving the newspaper, word on J Street is that there was a dispute over a blog Date was writing away from work (possibly his Omega Blog, which is no longer up and running). Whether it had to do with coverage of Crist isn't known. Date didn't return an email in which I asked him for comment.

This is a big loss to Florida journalism, at least for the moment. Date, a very good and dogged reporter, will be back in one form or another. For now you might want to read Date's book on Jeb titled, yes, Jeb. It's pretty interesting.

UPDATE: I wrote this post in a mad rush before a meeting, so this morning I dug just a little more and found this Omega Blog post by Date on Yahoo (for some reason it didn't come on Google). It was posted December 20, after the Post barred him from covering Gov. Crist. He writes of Crist's controversial compact with the Seminoles -- and defends the governor (aka his wife's employer) in it. Here's a key passage:

During his campaign for governor, Crist said he would oppose the expansion of gambling, and since then has modified that to say that he dislikes only one thing more than gambling, and that's increasing taxes. This shift is certainly fair game for criticism.

But to blame him for cutting a deal with the Seminoles while not criticizing Bush for allowing the amendment to pass in the first place seems more than a bit disingenuous. Perhaps Crist could have jerked the tribe around for another year or two, but the facts on the ground cannot be ignored. Florida is now permitting slot machines in the state, which means the tribe was going to get at least that no matter what. It's also quite possible that had the state played hardball, the tribe could have played right back -- and wound up with full-blown slots without having to share a dime with the state. Does it really make sense to risk that merely to keep out the so-called banked table games?

Understand, the Post had barred him from covering Crist after his wife, Mary Beth, landed a job at the governor's Office of Policy and Budget. And here he was defending Crist's gambling compact on his personal blog (I disagree with Date's analysis here, by the way, and think the compact is a blight on Crist's tenure as guv). Might this have played a role in the conflict that led to his quitting?

I've been hit with several rumors lately that will make excellent future posts, but for now, let's do a little news-crunching.

-- First, the Sentinel had a front-page piece on the fed rate cut in Sunday's newspaper. Written by Harriet Johnson Brackey, it took a pollyanna tone, beginning with the headline: "Federal Reserve's rate cuts good for your wallet— and your mood, too."

Is it, now? This kind of rah-rah coverage of the economy isn't going to help anyone but the thieves at the banks who created the subprime disaster.

I'm not saying a rate cut wasn't in order: a precipitous fall in the market (I won't use the term "crash"), which is what we seemed to be facing early last week, ain't good for anybody. But it should have been 50 basis points instead of 75 (and this week the fed shouldn't cut any more at all after its meeting, though I suspect at least a 25bp cut, if not 50).

My gut tells me that the market should just have to take its medicine and fall to 11,000 (or 10,000 possibly). Because all the cuts in the world are probably only postponing the inevitable plunge in the markets brought on by the housing and credit mess. And the fed is supposed to control inflation -- and the rate-cutting will only exacerbate that.

Have you noticed the prices at Publix lately? Bread that used to go for $1.50 is going for $2 or more. Milk is climbing. The damn rotisserie chickens they sell are now going for more $8 (they used to go for under $6). The fed's hair of the dog might just see those chickens hit the 10-dollar mark.

Why do you think the smart money is running to gold right now?

The economy is in trouble. I don't know if the downturn is going to last another year or another decade, but rate cuts aren't going to make it magically disappear and might make it worse (can you say "stagflation"?). You want to read something about it, read this piece from InvestorsInsight's John Mauldin. Yeah, it's long and it's complicated, unlike the happy Sentinel, but you might actually learn something from it.

-- Speaking of the housing mess, Michael Mayo had an interesting column on the property tax amendment in which he confessed to voting for the property tax amendment. As he writes, Mayo has been criticizing the amendment publicly for a long time, so his vote might come as a surprise. Not to me, though. I'm voting for the thing, too, just because I think portability (unconstitutional though it may be) will give a strong jolt to the market before it gets stricken down by the courts. And I'm just as selfish as the next guy I suppose.

-- Let's see, what else. Oh, might as well post Sentine Editor Earl Maucker's column about newspaper endorsements. It's too broad to be worth reading, though. The really sad part is that he could have addressed his newspaper's endorsement of Hollywood Mayor Mara Giulianti, which has further eroded the thinking man's confidence in the newspaper. Rumors are circulating in Hollywood that Publisher Howard Greenberg embraced Giulianti during her interview with the board, sending a subtle message to his minions. But don't worry, Earl tells us there's nothing to see behind the curtain.

I'm not so much a size guy as a quality guy when it comes to newspaper-watching, but, hey, everybody knows size matters in journalism. And our favorite Sun-Sentinel critic, Palm Beach-based "Ellen Dalton," snickers at some recent, uh, shrinkage at the Tribune pub in a morning note to the Pulp:

So the Sun-Sentinel has quietly folded its South Broward edition. This time last year, they had four editions. Now, with the demise of south Broward and northern Palm Beach County, it's HALF that. I guess they figure they could never lick the Palm Beach Post and that the Herald, in its weakened state, isn't going to be a threat. And it saves money to pay off Sammy Zell's debt!

Some recent headlines in the South Florida media:

-- From this morning's Sun-Sentinel: "Salerno's legacy: Growth, rancor"

Outgoing Sunrise city manager Pat Salerno couldn't have liked that one. You can hear his eulogy, now: "Yes, he was a good man, full of both great growth and boundless rancor." At least it gives us some good ideas for what to rename the street that bears his name out at Sawgrass.

(More here on Salerno's ouster from Natalie P. McNeal in the Miami Herald)

-- From the Miami Herald: "Shaq to miss at least two weeks."

Yes, and we care because ...?

-- From Tamarac Commissioner Ed Portner: "What kind of heart are we showing? Are we showing a heart that really cares or are we showing a heart that's hard-hearted."

I know, I know, that's not a headline, but play along here and guess what Portner was talking about:

A. Displaced Puppies
B. Sisters of the Poor
C. Foreclosed Homebuyers
D. None of the above

The answer is, of course, D, because Portner (father of ethically challenged county commish Stacy Ritter) is well-known to be driven not by the downtrodden creatures of the world but by well-monied special interests. The answer is: Developers. Portner tried to engineer a $711,000 fee break for Prestige Homes, which is building a large development at the old Sabal Palm and Monterey golf courses. Thankfully the gift was voted down by a majority of the commission. (Read the Sun-Sentinel article here).

-- Ihosvani Rodriguez of the Sun-Sentinel wrote a Metro-front story about the Holocaust-baiting political episode in Hollywood I wrote about yesterday. In it, Rep. Elaine Schwartz -- a Mayor Mara acolyte -- stood by her despicable actions, which isn't surprising. Nobody's ever lost money short-selling Schwartz's leadership abilities. Take her recent analysis of the property tax amendment on the Jan. 29 ballot. In the document, which a kind reader sent the Pulp yesterday, Schwartz decries the fact that it is "too big a cut to education." Then, in the same analysis, she complains that it is "too small a tax break."

Way to take a disciplined stand, Elaine.

Florida state Rep. Elaine J. Schwartz is being accused of using the Holocaust to drum up votes against Peter Bober in his bid to unseat Hollywood Mayor Mara Giulianti.

And after looking at the evidence, the Pulp finds probable cause to charge Schwartz, who represents parts of Hollywood and Pembroke Pines (Dist. 99), with first-degree pandering and reckless disregard for decency.

In an email she recently sent out to Hollywood political types that was forwarded all over the city, Schwartz wrote that Bober "voted against essential funding for the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center," adding that "the facts speak for themselves."

Yes, Rep. Schwartz, they do. And they show that Bober, who is Jewish, strongly supported the Holocaust museum from its inception, including a $500,000 loan to help get it going. It was only when the museum, which has been wracked with problems, told the city it didn't want to pay back the loan that Bober balked. He wanted to extend the time to pay back the loan instead of giving away the money. In other words, he was trying to take responsibility for the city's money. Giulianti and the rest of the commission forgave the loan, making it a grant.

For Schwartz to imply that Bober opposed the Holocaust museum, then, is dirty political trick. And Schwartz, of course, is a big Giulianti ally and supporter. In fact, they both share the same campaign manager -- lobbyist Barbara Miller.

Schwartz, you demeaned your office and you should apologize for it. Do what so many good citizens in Hollywood -- including Lori Gold and Charlotte Greenbarg -- have asked you to do.

Apologize for using one of the worst tragedies in mankind to promote your petty political agenda in Hollywood. And say you're sorry for dragging Hollywood even deeper into the muck than it already was.

But hey, at least you didn't use the "anti-Semitic" label -- though that would have been hard considering Bober's heritage.

Here's Schwartz's entire e-mail:

Florida State Representative Elaine J. Schwartz

District 99 – Hollywood & Pembroke Pines

4601 Sheridan Street, Suite 2008

Hollywood , Florida 33021

January, 2008

Re: Bober Vote Against Holocaust Documentation and Education Center

I must set the record straight.
There have been no anti-Semitic accusations in Hollywood 's mayoral race.
One candidate for Mayor says he's been attacked for being Jewish, which is just not true. Religion is not at all at issue since both candidates are Jewish.
However, now that Mr. Bober has brought it up, what is at issue is his own voting record.
It shows clearly that he voted against essential funding for the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center.
The facts speak for themselves.
The Holocaust Documentation and Education Center is so important and vital that I, as a State Representative, proudly sponsored and, along with all your State legislators and Governor Crist, voted to fund the Center in Hollywood.
Hundreds of thousands of state dollars have been approved in Tallahassee to make up the difference of what's needed to restore the Center and preserve a 1940's Rail Car like the ones used to transport Jews to Concentration Camps -- one of only nine in the world.
It will be on display right here in Hollywood despite Mr. Bober's lack of vision and wrong priorities. The Center will be a tremendous asset in fighting prejudice and hatred.
Very truly yours,
State Rep. Elaine J. Schwartz

In case you've been busy taking time off the past few days, there are a couple things brewing in the world. First, the stock market is widely expected to crash hard today. Fun, eh? Another is that L.A. Times Editor Jim O'Shea was fired over the weekend after fighting for his reporters against budget cuts.

LA Observed has the details and the full text of O'Shea's goodbye email, which I have reproduced below. It's a must-read for the journos among you (especially at those who work at L.A. Times' sister paper, the Sun-Sentinel).

In response to the firing, new Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell wrote staffers that he backed publisher David Hiller on the firing.

"I’ve said loud and clear that I am returning control of our businesses to the people who run them," Zell wrote. "That means David Hiller has my full support. He carries direct responsibility for the staffing and financial success of the LA Times.

"I understand that David and Jim together came to the conclusion that Jim’s departure was the best decision for the direction and future of the LA Times. I’d like to thank Jim for is contributions over the years, and I wish him the best of luck."

Read O'Shea's email after the jump.

More

That's what Bill Barber asks in a letter to New Times:

SENT FROM: browardpalmbeach.com

DATE/TIME:
January 14, 2008, 10:59 am MST

SUBJECT:
Fort Lauderdale Beach Hotels

LETTER:
Our family has lived in the west Broward county for over 20 years and every winter we invite family to visit the beach where we all get together. This year we were not able to invite them to the beach because of the over priced hotels on the beach and lack of moderately priced hotels. After driving the area and checking prices we found there were no hotels even a block off the beach with rooms available and more than 8 condemned buildings that once were hotels. It is plain to see after visiting the tourism web-site that the fort Lauderdale beach has bushed out all of the moderately priced chain hotels and replaced them with high end resorts costing on average $350.00 per night.

what happened to the mid priced hotels on the beach, not every body can afford the high end luxury and based on the state of the neighborhood just off the beach it is not any better. Can you get the city to realize we need moderately priced hotels or to fix the abandoned buildings there making them into moderately priced hotels.

Sincerely,
Bill Barber

I feel Bill's pain.

I also feel the pain of the people of Hollywood who have to deal with the Sun-Sentinel. The damn newspaper came out and endorsed ... Mara Giulianti for mayor.

Unbelievable. What an insult, not only to the people of the town, but to the newspaper's own reporters who helped uncover Mara's misdeeds, including the fact that her computer mysteriously broke down after state investigators asked for her emails in a criminal investigation involving the town's sewage scandal. That ended with the conviction of her closest ally, Keith Wasserstrom, who was also her son's law partner. The woman is damn lucky she wasn't indicted and if she had been, she'd most likely be waiting for sentencing along with her boy Keith.

What a clueless, disgusting board. Here's an email string that came across my transom:

From: davidjmach@aol.com Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 7:41 AM Subject: Sun-Sentinel subscription I will be canceling my subscription to the Sun Sentinel. I suggest anyone who loves the City of Hollywood (but not the City's leadership) do the same...

From: Lori E. Gold
Sent: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 8:12 am
Subject: RE: Sun-Sentinel subscription

Dave, I don't think that's necessary! Won't make a mediocre paper any better or worse. Better to renegotiate your rate!

From: davidjmach@aol.com
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 8:50 AM
Subject: Re: Sun-Sentinel subscription

You can't trust a newspaper whose editorial board is on the take. Patty and Beam I can understand, those are tight races and tight calls, but Mara?!? Even though I know Geo, Michael and John are stand up guys, who's to say anything they uncover won't be swept under the rug?

Last night, I was listening to the Heat-Bulls game on satellite radio, so I got a little taste of the Chicago perspective. And the commentators didn't dissapoint. They talked about how Heat defenders seemed to be standing around aimlessly. They mused about how it was no wonder there were so many empty seats. They said the Heat was the worst-looking franchise they'd seen all season.

They were literally laughing at the Heat -- and this was before the of the first quarter, before the Bulls eventually whipped Miami by 30 points at American Airlines Arena.

Oh, and they talked about Pat Riley, too, observing that he was pacing up and down the sidelines as if wondering what in the world he might do to keep this ship from sinking. After the game, Riley basically confirmed that the broadcasters were dead right, saying, "I have no answers."

That's it. Time for Pat to go. Again.

Riley's latest deer-in-the-headlights look was predictable. Take away the championship year (when he stole the team from Stan Van Gundy and watched Dwyane Wade carry the team on his back to glory) and Riley's coaching has been an abomination since Charlotte (led by former Miami players Jamal Mashburn and P.J. Brown) obliterated the top-seed Heat in the first round of the 2001 playoffs.

When he finally fired himself and put Stan Van Gundy in charge, the team had new life -- along with Wade, who blossomed under Van Gundy. Then came the gruesome charade where the Heat organization pressured Van Gundy to quit (under the guise he wanted to spend more time with his kids -- a ludicrous excuse that the local press ate up).

This train wreck of a year could have been avoided, even with Riley as coach. The Pulp said so after last season's sweep by the Bulls: Dump Shaq. It was obviously time. But the local sports press (I'm looking your way Greg Cote and Dave Hyde) got it dead wrong and advocated keeping the big fella.

I had one other must (other than holding onto Wade): Keep James Posey. Of course, Riley kept Shaq and promptly sent Posey to Boston. Now, you can say what you will about Boston's Big Three, but I'm telling you now that Posey is the guy that will give the Celtics a real chance to win a championship. Why? Because Posey has that beautiful combo that every championship team needs: A guy who can play gorgeous D while knocking down the 3.

Bottom line is Riley is a dead-tired coach who lost his way a long time ago. And this year Wade won't be his savior. Wade isn't Wade this year. Too many injuries and too many commercials have doomed "Flash" (how long has it been since you heard that one?) this season. Hopefully he'll regroup next year, along with a new supporting cast -- and, of course, a new coach.

Quote from Sam Zell, the new owner of Sun-Sentinel mother Tribune Co.:

"I don't think this company has been particularly well run in the past."

He was addressing the staff of Newsday -- and the quote reportedly drew a round of applause from the staffers in the room. Click link to read the article, which is an interesting one throughout.

Ken Mitchell, who was made president of the Sun-Sentinel's Forum Publishing Group in 2005, has left the company. Don't know the details, but here's the corporate memo:

TO: Sun-Sentinel Company Employees FROM: Howard Greenberg RE: Ken Mitchell Leaves Sun-Sentinel Company

Just a brief note to let you know that Forum Publishing Group President Ken Mitchell has left the company. We thank Ken for his many years of service and wish him well in his future endeavors. Until a replacement for Ken is named, Ken's direct report managers will report directly to me.

The Forum Publishing Group puts out 29 pubs, including a bunch of community newspapers in Broward, the Jewish Journal, and City Link. Speaking of the latter, here's an illustration that's making the rounds (Jake Cline is editor of City Link):