Illustration by Pat Kinsella

Boos slice through the air as Dr. Red Roberts peacocks around the ring while snapping the straps of his red and white leotard. A comic-book-villain grin peeks out from a thick beard when he jabs his chin at the full house, each jut shaking his messy brushfire of red curls. An excited surf of noise reverberates from the risers, like schoolyard kids ganging up on a bully.

It's 1986, inside a drab Miami TV studio. The rowdy spectators are waiting for Roberts' matchup with a 230-pound slab named Ted Marshall. The fan favorite is clear.

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Jean Robb smash; Jean Robb destroy

Rare is the day that we see a video that makes us sound the newsroom conch and gather every reporter within earshot -- but Thursday was a such a day.

At Tuesday's city commission meeting, Deerfield Mayor Jean Robb -- who's embroiled in controversy over alleged lapses in ethics -- succumbed to a holy-mother-of-God-make-for-the-hills-we're-all-going-to-die meltdown.

It was awesome.

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Tom Truex was chosen to lead the GOP into a brighter future by not changing anything they do whatsoever.

After a short-lived term as Broward Republican chairman came to a close for Rico Petrocelli because he didn't get along with people, or some such thing, the Broward GOP had a chance to really come out swinging, especially after getting slammed in the November elections, and choose a new leader who doesn't embrace the hard-line social conservative standards that have made them so lovable to the rest of the country.

Then they went and chose a dude with hard-line social conservative standards that have made them so lovable to the rest of the country.

And so, Tom Truex is your new Broward GOP huckleberry.

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Patricia Atkins-Grad

Just because you're a public official once accused of corruption, doesn't mean you can't pick make a comeback.

Tamarac city commissioner Patricia Atkins-Grad in December was acquitted on corruption charges stemming from a 2010 indictment. The commissioner, a realtor who goes by the nickname "Positively Patte, had been accused of bribery, official misconduct, receiving unlawful compensation, and conspiring to commit unlawful compensation. During her ordeal, she was suspended from the dais for two years. After her acquittal, she was reinstated as a commissioner.

This upset some residents, who are launching a campaign to see Atkins-Grad recalled. Even though recall efforts are underway, City Attorney Sam Goren on Tuesday said that Atkins-Grad can continue acting in her official capacity so long as she holds office.

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Anyone making the rounds through Broward County's political blogosphere earlier this week might have found an unexpected detour waiting for them over at RedBroward.com. Instead of the site's usual serving of GOP insider gossip and thought, browsers redirected here, to a gloomy bit of existential boilerplate courtesy of German big brain Friedrich Nietzsche.



But RedBroward wasn't sending a particular message. The blogger claims his web site was yanked out from under him by a high-placed staffer in Rick Scott's administration. The cyber squat was political payback for an earlier RedBroward detailing an inner-party squabble in the Broward GOP. Updated with clarification below.

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Move over, Broward County.

There's a new sheriff in town.

Al Lamberti lost his bid for reelection to Scott Israel as Broward sheriff.

See also:
- Al Lamberti Mystery Emailers Remind Voters of the Sheriff's Shady Past

Around 10:30 Tuesday night, with 100 percent of precincts reporting, Israel had a 53.31 percent t 46.69 percent lead over Lamberti. Israel declared himself the winner in front of a raucous crowd of supporters in Davie.

"I thank my kids, my in-laws, this beautiful lady, I thank my wife, just thank everybody," he said.

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transgriot.blogspot.com

Did they just not vote? Or were they suppressed?

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 suppression? Did everyone lose his mind over what was ultimately just a bunch of nonsense?

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sciencecodex.com

Alas, if only it were that easy in Broward County

It's been four days. Just four days of early voting. But our New Times freelance photographer, Ian Witlen, says at least one voting station in Broward County is already having troubles.

It went down like this. He got to the Northwest Regional Library at 7:30 yesterday morning to get his vote on when problems sprang up. He couldn't get the machine to work right. (Yes: After some 300 years of this democracy shit, we still can't seem to get it right.) He put the ballot into the Scantron-esque machine so it would tally his vote, but again, it was rejected.

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stpetersblog.com

Broward State Attorney Mike Satz, who has held the office for 837 years and counting, has rarely faced a serious challenger in his reelection bids. This November, he'll be running against Republican Jim Lewis, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer who most recently ran (unsuccessfully) for attorney general.

The main talking point of that bid was his wonderful but quixotic proposal to legalize medical marijuana. Satz has been criticized for being too hard on punishing drug abusers.

In private practice, Lewis has amassed a fascinating troupe of clients who would test the mettle of even the best defense attorney. Below, we list our favorite cases. More »

brandybailbonds.com

Wayne Spath, Israel's friend and supporter.

Previously: Israel vs. Granteed in fundraising.

Scott Israel's campaign for sheriff this year has taken heavy contributions from some of the least glamorous enforcers in the chain of justice: bail bondsmen from Miami to Jacksonville. Thirty-eight of them, to be exact, shelling out $13,700 for the primary election alone.

Chumming around with bail bondsmen has earned Israel criticism in the past. During the 2008 election, in which he unsuccessfully challenged Al Lamberti, he took $500 from a bail bond agent named Wayne David Collins. Collins, arguably the most powerful bondsman in South Florida, had gotten in trouble with the law in the '80s for throwing around his influence in the Mob town of Providence, Rhode Island. He had his criminal record expunged so he could get a bail bondsman's license. The Miami New Times ran a hell of a story on him back in 2004.

Collins' companies also allegedly gave thousands to the Common Sense Coalition, which supported Israel in 2008 (and which, for you history buffs, took in $160,000 on Israel's behalf from two of Scott Rothstein's partners, while Rothstein continued to pump money to Lamberti).

Israel says Collins isn't supporting him this time around -- though the agency Collins started, Universal Bond, has given the $500 maximum to Israel's primary campaign this season. But it's worth a look into why, exactly, a potential sheriff might be getting so friendly with bail bondsmen in the first place.

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