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Mavericks in Palm Springs opened last August.

Aside from the kids in the Palm Beach County jail, tenth-grade students at Mavericks High in Palm Springs fared worse on the FCAT reading test than any of their peers in the county, according to data released last week by the state Department Education.

Only 7 percent of the 54 students who took the FCAT at Mavericks last fall passed the reading portion of the test. The 16 students who took the test while in jail had a 6 percent passing rate.

Mavericks in Palm Springs opened last August. It's the newest in a chain of charter schoolsMore >>

Chris George

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Biden says he's on a mission from God.

Frank Biden, younger brother of the man who is second in line for the White House, has a flair for the dramatic. Last year, he called the Mavericks High charter school in Palm Springs a "hope factory" and said its management company, Mavericks in Education Florida, was "on a mission from God." 

Now, he says Mavericks schools are going to "save the country." As he wrote on his blog yesterday:

Frank Biden plans to save the country, one student at a time. With the dropout rates in the state of Florida and in the entire nation reaching alarming levels, the brother of US Vice President Joe Biden is dedicated to eradicate eradicating the silent epidemic by serving as the President and Director for Business Development for Mavericks in Education.

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Angela Pileggi Silverstein at Phil Spector's trial.

We recently brought you the story of the murder of Fort Lauderdale multimillionaire Ron Vinci, for which his girlfriend Catherine Pileggi is awaiting trial. In addition to the accounts of their lives before the murder, there are things that don't make sense and a mysterious poisoned bottle of gin. But there's also more to something we touched on in the cover story: the death of Pileggi's sister in St. Lucia and the strange family politics that surrounded it.

According to friends of the couple, Pileggi often blamed Vinci for playing a role in the death of her sister while they were partying by a marina in St. Lucia in late 2009. He allegedly slipped Angela Pileggi Silverstein some pills, which may have played a role in her death by what St. Lucia authorities called "death by misadventure," specifically, acute intoxication.

"She blames me 100 percent for her sister's death," an acquaintance of Vinci's told police Vinci would tell her. When the case goes to trial, prosecutors may attempt to build a link between Pileggi's resentment over that incident and Vinci's eventual murder.
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Ron Vinci

The bulk of the background information for this week's feature story about the murder of Ron Vinci came from evidence released by the prosecutor's office at the end of last year, during an initial media inquiry. At the time, media outlets had been reporting that Vinci's body had been found wrapped in duct tape -- which was untrue, though the situation (as you'll find in the story) was plenty bizarre without.More >>

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A former special-education teacher at Mavericks High in Palm Springs has filed a whistle-blower lawsuit alleging that the charter school is inflating enrollment records and fabricating grades.

Angenora Mechato's suit is the third whistle-blower case to be filed against Mavericks in Education Florida, a for-profit, West Palm Beach-based company that manages eight charter schools in the state. Two former employees at Mavericks High in Homestead made similar allegations last year, and their suits are still pending.

In her legal complaint, Mechato says she began working as a special-ed "lead teacher" and
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​The CEO of the high-volume plastic surgery center in Lauderhill where a patient died last month is an ex-felon. Jeffry Davis was convicted of financial crimes related to his former company, which made replicas of vintage cars.

Long before he became head of Strax Rejuvenation and Aesthetics Institute, Davis was president of Classic Roadsters Inc. In 1995, he pleaded guilty to failing to pay taxes and making false statements to get a loan for the company. He served five months in federal prison. The Sun-Sentinel investigated Davis in 1998:

"Davis pleaded guilty in April 1995 to federal charges of making false statements to obtain a $250,000 loan for Classic Roadsters and failing to pay payroll taxes of about $280,000 owed by the firm, court records state."

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​The surgeon who performed a fat transfer procedure that proved fatal for a 50-year-old Hollywood woman last week has repeatedly had his medical license suspended.

Records show that Dr. John Nees' disciplinary troubles date back to 2002, when he was working in the Pacific Northwest. The Washington Board of Medicine ruled that he could only practice medicine in a group setting because of "unethical conduct which included sexual relationships with a patient and altering records for two patients," according to a complaint later filed by the Florida Department of Health.

In 2003, Florida suspended Nees' license for reasons not specified in the public record. Yet he continued performing at least 16 surgeries. The following year, he was slapped with a $10,000 fine and had his license suspended again because of the violation. The Florida Board of Medicine ordered his license to remain suspended until Nees' "personality disorder is under control and...he is capable of practicing medicine with appropriate skill and safety."
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​A 50-year-old grandmother seeking a liposuction and fat transfer operation this month became the fifth patient to die during or after surgery at Strax Rejuvenation and Aesthetics Institute in Lauderhill. According to Strax officials, the surgical complication that killed her was the same one that killed a 35-year-old Strax patient last year.

Idell Frazer stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest at the high-volume plastic surgery center on March 22, according to the Lauderhill police. Rescue workers arrived and discovered Frazer did not have a pulse. They brought her to Florida Medical Center, where she died, according to her family.

Last year, 35-year-old Lidvian Zelaya died during a fat transfer surgery at Strax, after a glob of fat entered her bloodstream and clogged her arteries. Strax officials say Frazer also died of a fat embolism.

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Mavericks High in Homestead has suffered violence too.

​Last month, we brought you news of violence involving Mavericks High charter school students in Homestead. One 17-year-old was arrested for bringing a gun to school, and a 16-year-old student was shot and killed by a police officer. Now the Mavericks High in North Miami Beach is making headlines for crime -- and city officials are not happy about it.

According to the Miami Herald : "Police records show that since the school opened in 2009 to December 2011, police have arrested 32 Mavericks students and responded to 88 calls for service at the school. But police say the number of incidents is likely much higher."
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