Waldman, second from right, with Rep. Joe Gibbons.

​Tip of the iceberg.

A Sun-Sentinel story published today on the conflict of interests involving state Rep. Jim Waldman and his role as general counsel for Keiser University was just a start. But it's a very good start that provides a damning portrait of Waldman's work.

Basically, the article by Sally Kestin and Scott Travis shows convincingly that Waldman was using the power -- and resources -- of his elected office to help his boss, Art Keiser, and Keiser's for-profit colleges.

Waldman, for instance, co-sponsored two pro-Keiser bills this year. He's also throwing his weight as a legislator around to try to influence state community colleges to back off Keiser in what amounts to a college turf war.

Forget that for-profit colleges are under fire for burying students under mountains of debt and poor graduation performance. The bottom line is that Waldman is dirty dancing on the legal line. It's clearly wrong what he is doing, but is it illegal?

I believe it is. Inside, see the case against Rep. Waldman.

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Former Kim Rothstein bodyguard Joe Alu can be a very slippery guy. He called me today because he didn't like the mention of the steroids investigation in the previous post, but when I asked about his former employer, he went all "60 Minutes lawyer" on me. A snippet of our conversation:

​Me: How long have you been out of Kim's employ?

Joe: How do you know I'm not working for Kim anymore?

Me: I have different sources.

Joe: You don't know I'm not working for Kim. You have no way to know that.

Me: You're not working for Kim, are you?

Joe: You don't know that because you have no way of knowing that.

Me: Well, are you working for Kim?

Joe: I'm not saying that I'm working for Kim, no. I'm not saying I even see Kim anymore. But obviously you have no way of knowing that I work for Kim. You don't know what I do. 

Me: You don't work for Kim, though.

Joe: It's obvious I don't work for Kim anymore, but you can't...

Sun-Sentinel

Alu

​It went on and on. Bottom line, Alu says he's doing well post-Kim Rothstein. He doesn't rule out trying to get work at another police department since FLPD apparently isn't going to hire him to fill one of its three open positions.

Alu also took issue with my mention of a "steroids investigation" and said his retirement from the Plantation Police Department had nothing to do with any steroids investigation (which he claimed didn't exist either -- it was an "administrative inquiry" he said). 

"The chief cleared me of any wrongdoing," Alu said. "I had legal prescriptions for a medical reason. I didn't leave because of any kind of investigation. I left for more money."

That offer, of course, came from Scott Rothstein, who represented Alu and another officer in the steroids investigation before giving both cops jobs as bodyguards. 

Inside, more on the whole steroids angle, and it's about a whole lot more than just Joe Alu.

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Stacy Ritter seems to be retreating deeper and deeper into perhaps the only place that takes her seriously as a politician anymore.

No, it's not her bedroom closet but a place even more suspended from the real world, a place where voter ignorance isn't a problem but a path to victory. It's the Kings Point Condos, the political heart of Tamarac, which itself is the heart of political corruption in Broward County.

This is what a real bunker looks like

​Ritter has made multiple trips to Kings Point of late to rally the troops. Or is she trying to rally herself? Whatever it is, she's obviously starting to worry that the truth about her conflicts of interest with her lobbyist/husband and the fact that she's under criminal investigation are starting to seep even into deeply propagandized mindmeld of Democratic (note big D) Tamarac.

So she goes there and tells the senior citizens to basically not believe anything they read and instead just trust what she says.

Kings Point itself is where former Tamarac Commissioner Marc Sultanoff holds court. He's one of the five commissioners who voted for the housing project pushed by the dirty developers, Bruce and Shawn Chait. He's also part of the ongoing state criminal investigation. Also prominent at the condo is Norma Goldstein, who was such a good political organizer for Ritter's campaigns that the commissioner put her on the county payroll as an assistant. Her assistant in what, we're still trying to figure out.

Ritter has made a few visits lately to Kings Point to give speeches to the party faithful. There she laments that she's a misunderstood corruption fighter. (Somehow people got it mixed up and think she's corrupt!). And she blames her problems, including that pesky state corruption investigation that's digging into her business, on the media.

Inside I've posted a couple of videos with highlights from her visits (which were posted by Ritter's own camp), but first I want to say another thing about those condos, not just Kings Point but also Wynmoor, Century Village, and the rest. If the overall voter turnout is as low as some think it will be, then they could carry the day. And if that happens, then it looks like it might be a bad day for real reformers like School Board candidate Nick Sakhnovsky. His opponent, Jennifer Gottlieb, is of course another darling of the condos.

Another scenario would be that the people in Broward County have truly had enough corruption, have taken the time to find out the truth, and will come out in big numbers and vote the bastards out on Tuesday.

Talk about a fantasy.

Click inside for the vids, with summaries, if you're so inclined.

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Okay, there's a saboteur in the house. He or she or they posted a bunch of "reviews" of my little book, Florida Pulp Nonfiction, on Amazon.com. Check it out here. It's clearly a slime job -- and what really hurts is that it's obvious they didn't even bother to read the book before the assault.

Each review was posted on July 27 and they each follow pretty much the same formula -- insult whatever they thought might be insultable in the book (with no supporting details) and then advocate other books. Yeah, they tout Ann Rule, James Patterson, Naked Came the Manatee, a children's book, and even Mind of Mencia. Oh and they also give a shout out to Miami Psychic, a book by a fake clairvoyant and Sun-Sentinel writer that I've recently debunked. (I think that's the best clue of all as to who is behind it).

But hey, who's pointing fingers? They also mistakenly refer to it as a novel, which it is not at all, take a weird shot at Jim DeFede, deride the fact that it's published by a self-publishing house, and label it a get-rich-quick scheme. While that is all laughable, I want to say the book was a gift to me from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

I haven't even put the book in stores yet. I just don't have the time (anybody know a decent book publicist, by the way?). In fact, I haven't marketed it at all other than a mention on this here blog. There are two reviews on the Amazon page that are from people who used their actual names. Read those to get an idea of what this book is really like. Or check out this site.

The slimer(s) had some passion, I'll give them that. Check out this line: "As I read each story and realized how much Bob Norman "contributes to the abuse of power and illegal/unethical behavior" by so-called "investigative" reporters from two-bit tabloids riddled with porn ads, hiding behind the FIRST AMENDMENT, I laugh."

Or: "Exploiting to line his own pockets in my opinion! It seems it is nothing more than cheap paparazzi transformed into want-a-be novelist. Shame on this guy. I bought the book thinking it was going to be interesting, it is nothing more than a bore and a get rich quick plan for the author at the expense of others is what I believe."

And my favorite: "Better luck re-writing a recipe from your Mimaw's Derby Pie, Kentucky Bob, than piecing some semblance of a novel together from archives, it seems. At least Mimaw added some Bourbon-y kick to spice it up. I'd have to drink an entire bottle of Mimaw's nerve tonic to get through the slow-as-molasses I dun-dunnit."

Good show. Work it out. More power.

But one thing really does piss me off: The scalawags clearly lied about the part where they said they bought the book.