For more than a year, New Times has been investigating Thompson Academy, a publicly funded, privately run juvenile detention center in Pembroke Pines where teens have alleged they faced physical and sexual abuse. Most recently, the lockup's top administrator, Craig Ferguson, left his post while under investigation by the state Department of Juvenile Justice. According to allegations made by former Thompson employees, last year Ferguson took three boys home with him, bought them clothes, and allowed them to shower at his house. New Times is currently wading through more than 200 pages of documents detailing the state's investigation of Ferguson.

Meanwhile, Youth Services International, the Sarasota-based prison company that runs Thompson, is facing additional scrutiny in Minnesota. Martin and Faribault counties, More >>

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Goodman and Tupac, out on bail.

UPDATE 5/18: Goodman was released from jail this morning and is now home in Wellington.

5/17: When polo mogul John Goodman goes home to Wellington to serve house arrest while appealing his conviction for DUI manslaughter, he will join a prestigious group of felons who had a similar luxury. As we noted yesterday, Boynton Beach femme fatale Dalia Dippolito is currently out on a $500,000 bond while appealing her conviction for solicitation to commit murder. But she's not alone:

Tom DeLay, longtime Republican congressman from Texas and former House Majority Leader, is currently out on bail while appealing his conviction for conspiracy and money laundering charges related to corporate campaign donations.

Former media mogul Conrad Black was temporarily released from prison while he
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Dalia Dippolito is on house arrest pending her appeal.

Multimillionaire John Goodman will soon return to the lap of luxury, at home beside the lush green grounds of the International Polo Club he founded in Wellington. Rather than immediately serving his 16-year prison sentence, he will win this get-out-of-jail pass after posting a $7 million bond and paying for off-duty cops to monitor him around the clock.

For a man convicted of killing a 23-year-old in a drunk driving accident, the setup hardly sounds like harsh punishment. But it's the deal Goodman struck to avoid prison while appealing his case, and it brings to mind another high-profile appeal in Palm Beach County. Dalia Dippolito, the Boynton Beach newlywed convicted last year of plotting to have her husband whacked by a hit man, is currently on house arrest after posting a $500,000 bond.

Both celebrity criminals were sentenced More >>

A hearing in Palm Beach Circuit Court this morning hammered out the final details of John Goodman's release on bond while he appeals his conviction (and 16-year sentence) in the 2010 death of 23-year-old Scott Wilson. It looks like what was agreed to late Friday, but the document wasn't finalized and released until this morning.More >>

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Careful out there, drivers.

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Ferguson left after the state began investigating the allegations.

One year after Thompson Academy settled a federal lawsuit alleging a 14-year-old boy was twice sexually assaulted by a counselor at the lockup, the head of the Pembroke Pines juvenile detention center is facing scrutiny. Administrator Craig Ferguson has left his post amid allegations that he took residents home with him, bought them new clothes, and allowed them to shower at his house.

Thompson is an all-male, "moderate risk" detention center for teenagers, funded by the state and run by the for-profit company Youth Services International. Local attorney Michael Aaron Hoffman represents three former Thompson Academy employees -- Kamal Warren, Farouto Austin, and Marcus Blue. In March, Hoffman called the state Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) to report a troubling incident described by the ex-employees.

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THIS is the guy who caught you sneaking through that intersection late in the yellow light.

Data is starting to come together in Fort Lauderdale's red-light camera program, which dished out more than 25,000 tickets between September 2010 and February 2012. A lot of it is more complicated than just the raw numbers (Where's that money going? How many people are actually paying them? What about challenges in court?), but there are a few numbers that manage to speak for themselves -- the ones that list where those tickets are given out.More >>