FAU tenured Professor James Tracy, who took some withering backlash earlier this year when he questioned whether a gunman had actually killed children at Sandy Hook Elementary, is back at it.

This time, Tracy -- who makes more than $60,000 per year in public money and teaches courses on conspiracy theories -- thinks the Boston bombing was a hoax. According to an impossibly long and impossibly confusing missive he posted yesterday on his blog, the professor of communications thinks the government planted "mass-casualty drill actors" at the Boston Marathon before the bombs exploded.

"A multitude of evidence has already emerged in the last few days suggesting government involvement in the Boston bombing," Tracy clacked. "None of this information has been ferreted out or acknowledged by major news outlets, which... contribute to the mass psychological effect and provide additional rationale for a heightened police state."

See also:
- James Tracy, FAU Professor, Says Sandy Didn't Happen; Revels In Notoriety
- FAU Prof. James Tracy Finally Apologizes but Still Peddling Conspiracies

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Your terrorist apron right here

Listen close, junior terrorists. How do you, aspiring distributor of chaos and mayhem, orchestrate something that will stir things up -- really get your jihad on -- when you're stuck in the middle of suburbia, without a car, money, and your mom blows?

Well, al-Qaeda is here to help. And our two local terrorist suspects, Raees and Sheheryar Qazi, that perennial well of incompetence and fecklessness, took advantage to build their "weapon of mass destruction" with remote-car parts and Christmas lights. The acumen required to facilitate such an inoperable devise sprung from the al-Qaeda guide, "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom."

The article was penned by someone named the "AQ Chef" -- yes, the al-Qaeda Chef -- virtuoso of low-grade explosives and a damned fine tomato sauce.

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Nise Wiseman: Not sweating this catastrophe.

Well, by not doing much, it turns out.

Guess it figures. If your life is anchored by gaming out possible doomsday scenarios, a little media hype about Mayan calendars or some such bull ain't about to slow your step. Mayan, shmayan. Have you heard about the asteroid swinging by next February?

But members of South Florida's survivalist community -- subculture depths we've spelunked before -- aren't losing sleep about the catastrophe on the books for December 21. If anything, the people who focus so much thought power toward terminal What Ifs are taking the whole idea of impending doom with a measure of humor.

"My official opinion is that it's a bunch of crap," says Chris Petrovich, head of South Florida Preppers. "What I'm concerned about is people who actually believe in that crap." 

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Jayme Gershen

Chris Petrovich

See our cover story on South Florida preppers.More »

See also: Herald Reporters Remember Hurricane Andrew
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An outbreak of tuberculosis has spread from Jacksonville to as far south as Miami and was kept secret from the public, according to an expose by the Palm Beach Post.

The CDC team investigating the spread said it is the worst it's investigated in 20 years. At the time of their report in April, 13 deaths and 99 illnesses had been linked to the strain.

And yet, the public was never notified, and the information was kept from lawmakers. Rick Scott closed a state hospital specializing in the disease, seemingly oblivious to the situation.

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When we were putting together this year's Best of Broward-Palm Beach edition (out on the streets now), we stumbled across an old category we had dreamed up for something else: Best Meetup group (i.e. on Meetup.com). 
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PFCMA

Less than two weeks to hurricane season, amateur preppers: not so much time to study up on your Mormon theology or survival medicine before the ol' cones start showing up and the TV weathermen experience the only exciting time of their year.

As you've surely learned from us by now, a central tenet of prepping is that you never know what's coming, and it's best to do all you can for any type of scenario. This year, however, economic situations have put a pinch on a valuable commodity: gas cans to hold the extra fuel for your escape route out of town.

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NOAA via Wikipedia

If it happens again, where will you be?

We're less than a month away from the official opening of hurricane season. After reading our recent cover story about modern-day survivalists, you may feel compelled to make better preparations this year than the usual ritual of hoarding toilet paper, bottled water, and Chef Boyardee from Publix at 10 p.m.

After all, we lie in one of the most vulnerable geographic areas in the country, subject to yearly poundings by hurricanes, flooding, wildfire, and (maybe) alien attacks.

Yesterday morning, Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet approved this year's Statewide Emergency Shelter Plan. A new plan is approved every even-numbered year, and this year's designates "an estimated 939,395 spaces around the state."

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As our recent cover story about local survivalists, or "preppers," was going to press, we learned that one of the main characters in the story, Hollywood-based agricultural consultant Chris Petrovich, had been interviewed by the CBS affiliate up in West Palm Beach.

So treat yourself to the TV station's three-minute CliffsNotes version, in which they interview Petrovich and a guy who has a really big truck and throw in some b-roll of the Twin Towers collapsing.

Of course, we won't let our bitterness about local media competition get in the way of fair coverage -- the preppers are happy to spread their message of readiness any way they can.

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