Broward Palm Beach News Blog

New look. Couldn't post earlier during the transition period. Can't post now because I'm working my ass off.

More later.

Courtesy of CNN

The Mayor With Big Media

That thing they call progress -- or, if your prefer, ever denser sprawl and crowded city life -- moves north in South Florida. And critical mass in recent years has subtly shifted from Miami to ... Plantation.

A sign of that: Last week CNN moved its bureau from Miami to Fort Lauderdale's first western suburb town last week. Why Plantation? Well, think about it: It's the geographical center of South Florida (which essentially consists of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties). Huge news stories have been breaking in Broward at least as much as in Miami, most recently the Anna Nicole Smith death and ensuing legal saga. And now when something breaks in Palm Beach, CNN is a whole lot closer, too.

A CNN rep named Megan Mahoney notified the Pulp of the move yesterday and sent along a couple of pictures. The first one here shows Plantation Mayor Rae Carole Armstrong chumming it up with CNN assignment editor Cristy Lenz (center) and senior producer Kim Segal.

After the jump: CNN's Rick Sanchez's Role In This Post

The Sentinel's Jerome Burdi tells us about Anthony Thompson, a 26-year-old man who picked up his brand new crotch rocket, a Yamaha YZF-R1 (pictured), last evening at about 7:15 p.m. On his first ride on the motorcycle, he lost control on North Federal Highway in Boynton Beach, slammed into a utility pole, and died.

This page on the Yamaha site can give you a decent idea of the power of the motorcycle and inform you of its special features, which include the YCC-T fly-by-wire throttle system that provides "flawless response under all conditions," the ever-popular slipper-type back torque-limiting clutch, and six-piston radial-mount front brake calipers and 310mm discs.

The machine also comes with a one-year warranty. Unfortunately, its less-cautious riders don't.

After the jump: Lake Worth Massacre

Assistant Hollywood Police Chief Louis Granteed contacted me to rebut the post below. I told him that I'd take down what he said and print it straight from his mouth. In a nutshell, he defended both himself and the department in light of the recent FBI's mafia sting operation that took down four veteran officers whom he considered good friends.

"Remember, this was an investigation that was put together by the FBI," he told the Pulp. "We didn't have corruption in our department. The FBI seeked out an individual. Their investigation started -- and I'm not putting down their investigation at all -- but I'm saying we didn't have corruption here until they came in and started their investigation."

Now let's break down the allegations that were mentioned in the post, starting with those concerning Granteed himself and then moving on to larger issues:

1. That he was named in lawsuit from a female officer alleging that he sexually harassed her.

Granteed: "That woman released me from

I'm getting new information on the smear of former Davie town council candidate Philip Busey -- namely that another political player, or set of players, might have been involved in giving Buddy Nevins the now infamous porn story. While nothing is conclusive, and I doubt anyone will ever take responsibility for providing the info to the reporter, I've taken the liberty of removing previous posts about this matter down until my investigation is completed.

I had never heard of Doris Mansour before this morning, but thanks to an excellent obituary by John Dorschner in this morning's Miami Herald, I feel like I've met her. Mansour, who died Tuesday at the age of 68, was the office manager and copy editor for the Herald's defunct Tropic Magazine. Dorschner contacted former Tropic writers far and wide to paint a picture of both Mansour and Tropic, quoting Madeleine Blais, Gene Weingarten, Dave Barry, and Meg Laughlin, among others.

All had insightful observations, with Weingarten providing a bit about how Mansour, who had only a high school education, came up with a great headline on a story about a fishing tournament -- "Bass Hysteria" -- when a roomful of Ivy Leaguers and Pulitzer winners couldn't muster a thing. But it was Laughlin, who now works at the St. Petersburg Times, who supplied the most memorable -- and heartbreaking -- lines of

Bennett

Another Miami Herald guy is heading to the Broward County's top black newspaper. Brad Bennett, an daytime assignment editor in Broward, has given his notice at the newspaper. His last day will be April 13, according to sources. The former Fort Lauderdale city beat reporter's new job: Editor-in-Chief of the Broward Times.

Wow. This on the heels of the news that former Miami Herald VP and general counsel Robert Beatty is buying the newspaper. Things are happening over there. I called columnist Elgin Jones to get the scoop and all he would say was to wait, more news coming. To quote our fine and upstanding commander-in-chief, bring it on.

Congratulations, Mr. Bennett.

There is an insane standoff around a bank on Miami Beach happening right now. Apparently, robbers hit the Commercial Bank of Florida on 41st Street. Then they got separated and police nabbed one man. Now the others are threatening to shoot people if they don't release him. A SWAT team is searching a building across the street from the bank for the other robbers. It was on CNN but isn't to be found yet at the Miami Herald website.

(I take that back: There is a little piece about the bank situation on the site. They just haven't put a package together for the home page yet.)

Speaking of the Herald web site, what follows is a little blurb about Herald columnist Claire Mitchel. They're going to have a reception for the 85-year-old writer at the Broward headquarters in Pembroke Pines. She apparently hasn't missed a day in 22 years, but almost failed

You've got to watch this Jon Stewart take on our own Rick Sanchez, the Channel 7 wonder who now works at CNN. Hey, it's a living. (To supplement the Sanchez experience and for more laughs read this).

Looks like ALM (American Lawyer Media) -- the company that owns the Daily Business Reviews -- is going up on the chopping block. The company, which caters mostly to the legal crowd and is known to produce outstanding journalism, consists of 19 magazines, including flagship The American Lawyer, and 14 newspapers, including three DBR editions in South Florida.

Here's the full press release from the firm that owns ALM:

New Times staff writer and former music editor Jeff Stratton is off to unchartered territory, almost literally. He left the NT last week to move to Roatan, a small island off the coast of Honduras. Think South Florida, circa 1922, only with "jungle-covered hills." There he will live in his unbelievably inexpensive house near the beach, snorkel, and shamelessly market the island to the world with his brother, who is already nested there. We're going to miss Stratton, who has a knack for finding strange and unpredictable cultural stories and on whose couch several of us have woken up on with horrific hangovers, but mostly we're just going to hate him. See photograph to understand why.

Mr. Beatty Going To Broward

The inimitable Whitey Fraud alerted us below to this news, but it certainly deserves its own post. Robert Beatty, former V.P. and general counsel for the Miami Herald, is buying the Broward Times from publisher and erstwhile political candidate Keith Clayborne, according to Herald business briefs. This is a fascinating development -- and the deal is expected to close this week.

Former Hollywood Police Chief Richard Witt should be enjoying a semblance of vindication right now. He tried to clean up the PD during his tenure and was fired for his efforts. Now some of the officers he tried to expunge are part of a scandal involving an FBI mafia sting. His whistleblower's lawsuit with the city, which by all rights he should win, is expected to go to trial in July. But Witt, who lives in north Florida, has been hit with some very bad news. He was diagnosed last week with a particulary virulent form of lung cancer.

The news will probably be in the newspapers tomorrow. The Pulp obtained a copy of the e-mail he sent to his friends and family. It speaks for itself:

-- The Sun-Sentinel had an interesting and important report by reporter Scott Wyman and database guru John Maines about the way rich people -- like Dan Marino, Austin Forman, Jim Moran, Rick Case, Bill "Bag Man" Scherer, and Preston Henn -- benefit mightily from the increasingly controversial Save our Homes property tax cap. Sound familiar? That's because Jeff Ostrowski did the same thing for the Palm Beach Post last year. (Here's the list of rich benefiteers the newspaper put together). Doesn't make the Sentinel story less worthy, but thought it was worth mentioning.

-- Reporter Elgin Jones has been writing in the Broward Times about an egregious case of police abuse in Plantation for a few weeks now. Seems the Plantation cops tasered a teenager after handcuffing him on a marijuana possession charge (due to a miniscule amount of pot found on his friend's shirt). The teen, Fredrick Cuyler, was later taken to the hospital by his mother and found to have an accellerated heart rate. Well, his reporting may have done some good: The State Attorney's Office has dropped the charges. My question: Where's the Sun-Sentinel on this one?

-- Top of the front page of the Palm Beach has a story that begins: "They came. They blinged."

And we

Granteed: Is He The Leaker?

The Sun-Sentinel's John Holland revealed the depths of Hollywood Police Chief James Scarberry's delusions in this morning's newspaper. Scarberry swears the leak of the FBI investigation into his department didn't come from his men even though he squealed about it to six members of his command.

Apparently Big Go0mbah-wannabe Kevin Companion -- the leader of a quartet of crooked cops who were suckered into an FBI mafia sting -- said that if he got in any trouble Asst. Chief Louis Granteed and Capt. Tony Rode would bail him out. But Scarberry tells Holland what a couple of great guys "Louie" and "Tony" are and says they would never protect Companion or anyone other wrong-doers in the Hollywood PD.

What garbage. First off, Rode is a guy who is so deep in the department's long history of misdeeds that he should have been fired a long time ago. Oh wait, Rode was fired a long time ago. Former Chief Richard Witt fired him for his leading role in hiring 40 or so derelicts with criminal records onto the force. Witt also fired Rode's

That's Felix At Left

A former CIA agent who tracked down Che in the mountains of Bolivia says he believes the supposed remains of the revolutionary behind held in Cuba are fake. Gustavo Villoldo, a Cuban exile, says he knows this because he kept buried Che himself. And he claims he has a lock of the dictator's hair to test for the DNA.

It's just the lastest curve in the continuing intrigue surrounding the capture and summary execution of Che, as Luisa Yanez reports in the Miami Herald. What is truly weird about this claim is that Villoldo has waited until now to tell about the lock of hair. He didn't even put in a 1999 book he wrote about Che.

I don't know what to think. You can't believe any CIA spooks, least of all Cuban exiles who were half-mad with revenge against Castro and were involved in all kinds of American-sponsored shenanigans back in the day (remember Operation Mongoose?). The man on the left in the picture of the defeated Che, for instance, is Felix I. Rodriguez. He went on to star in the Iran Contra affair while working under George Bush I. It's rumored he has more than Che's hair. Yeah, they say he has the guy's hands in a jar. And Felix admits to taking the man's watch. You can read about him in Florida Pulp Nonfiction.

But this here looks like another mystery that won't soon be solved, if ever. Maybe the DNA doesn't match, but how do you prove that the hair belonged to the Marxist? Is there any other Che DNA out there?

After the jump: Tony Light Weight?

Well, the truth for one thing. But, more specifically, the community newspaper owned by big Bush family backer David Eller was akeert to print the following letter from town activist and attorney Tom Connick.

The letter -- and Connick's preamble -- speak for themselves.

Enjoy. --------------------------------------------------
David Eller is a bully who likes to dish it out, but a coward who cannot take it. Below is a letter that I wrote and was advised would appear in the Observer (the actual letter was ever softer in that I used the description "the Observer Publisher" instead of David Eller's name specifically). That was before David Eller pulled the letter, refusing to allow it to appear. Since David Eller owns the Observer, he has the dictatorial power to put whatever he wants in the Observer, and can keep out any challenge to his unacceptable behavior. I challenge David Eller to engage in a discussion concerning the contents of this letter, but David Eller, like all bully/

Funny Guy

A lot of people wonder what it is Democratic Party Chairman Mitch Ceasar actually does with his time. The place is packed with donkeys and yet the local party produces poor candidates and is basically a sorry mess. Not good.

Well, it turns out that Ceasar has been trying to compile material for a career as a stand-up comic. But his television debut, as hilariously written in Tailpipe by Pulp colleague Thomas Francis, could hardly have gone worse. He appeared on NBC-6's South Florida Today show and unveiled some Anna Nicole Smith-aimed material that bombed like a bad insurgent. After making insipid and vaguely offensive jokes about the recently deceased's sluttiness and breast implants, anchor Tony Segreto yanked him off the show. "We wanted to apologize for some of the comments (Ceasar) made," Segreto told the audience after Ceasar was politely expunged from the studio. "We certainly did not expect the comments that he made today to come out the way they did. As it is now, NBC 6 is not planning to have him back on the show."

If you'd like to read the actual jokes, with Francis' commentary, jump onto Tailpipe (here's the actual page).

After the jump: More On The Mayor Mara's Boy

It's U.S. Census time, so it's time for the dailies to make broad prognostications in front-page stories on what the population numbers mean. This year, the numbers show slowed growth -- and the Sun-Sentinel took it the farthest, with their giant hand-wringing top-o'-the-fold headline: "Has The Luster Faded?"

Oh lord no, say it hasn't. I've always loved the luster. It's almost as great as the sheen. The Miami Herald was much more sedate, with a little bottom corner piece by Lisa Arthur, Tim Henderson and Roberto Santiago under the headline: "Broward's soaring costs have many leaving home." But the more telling piece on the page was a gloriously packaged story by Matthew Haggman titled "WANTING OUT." The article is about some buyers in new condo buildings trying to bail out of their contracts over technicalities since the units aren't going to be worth much of a damn. Very good piece, but the over-the-top play competes with the Sentinel for this week's Chicken Little Award.

Yes, those condo investors are in for a rough ride. And yes, growth is slowing down. So what's so wrong with that? The hilarious part of all of this is that if growth were still going at record rates the newspapers would publish similarly alarmist reports about the overcrowding of schools, potential water

Check this from SotP. This is Rick at his best, bringing the story to you in a way that's better than the story itself.

And in case you missed it, here's a bit in the Miami Herald about DeFede and dress codes at WFOR. His "'mere presence is more powerful' than his wardrobe." Can you not not love Joan Fleischman?

Korda

The NAACP doesn't have anything better to do? What does Judge Korda's pot arrest have to do with the advancement of colored people?

Yeah, this one's perplexing -- and a bit overplayed, I think, by the Sentinel. The Miami Herald's Nikki Waller and Kathleen McGrory hit the right tone in their article, taking us to the park and trying to question Korda about the arrest at the courthouse (he was mum but "cordial" -- which I can tell you is journalistic code for "stoned out of his mind"), and reporting the weird NAACP action lower down. The Sentinel poll asks readers if Korda, should the marijuana charge stick, be allowed to remain on the bench. 41 percent say "yes" -- which is, uh, higher than I would have expected. Next question: Should marijuana be legalized? Let's see the numbers.

Quote of the day comes from one of our most colorful defense lawyers, Fred Haddad: "With all the problems going on on the bench, who cares if

Phil's New Look

Good thing music mogul and murder defendant Phil Spector got a new haircut. He was starting to look a little spooky there for a while.

After the jump: The Old Look

Joe Rose has been called into the principal's office at NBC-6 to explain what he said on the air last week about the desirability of black women, whom he distinguished as "redbones" and "chocolates."

He is meeting today with station executives about the comments he made last Wednesday on his radio show on 790-AM The Ticket, according to Broward Times reporter Elgin Jones, who is dogging this case. Jones just now interviewed Larry McDaniel, NBC-6 vice president of programming, who told him that the station is looking into the matter and that Rose was coming into the office to explain what he meant when he said on the air that he prefers "redbones," or light-skinned black women, to "chocolates" and that he understood most black men feel the same way. I left a message with McDaniel to confirm it, but haven't heard back from him.

While NBC-6 is looking into the matter, The Ticket is hiding under the bleachers on the story. It hasn't returned numerous phone calls and e-mails from Jones asking for comment, which has the reporter feeling a bit blistered. "When Tim Hardaway made his comments [about hating gay people] on their station, they blasted it everywhere," he said. "But in this case they won't even return a phone call."

Rumors are still rumbling that some of Rose's coworkers are upset about the comments. His boss, says Jones, happens to be a black woman. So he really stepped in it.

But should the former tight end be canned by NBC and/or the Miami Dolphins for being so idiotic? No. That would be wrong. For one thing, his audience -- other than attorney Jack Thompson -- apparently wasn't offended by it (Rose must not be real big in the black women demographic). But he should definitely be made to apologize publicly for being such an insensitive bonehead.

After the jump: Korda Smoka The Ropa

Gee, never saw this coming with newest Miami Dolphins shining hope Joey Porter, especially after Sun-Sentinel reported the linebacker's pit bull had killed a neighbor's pony. At least he hit somebody his own size. Maybe bigger.

And, also on the Miami Herald website, we see that Judge Lawrence Korda, who handled part of the Anna Nicole Smith thing, has been charged with smoking a joint on a bench at Stanley Goldman Park in Hollywood. Somebody tell me, what's so wrong about doing that, assuming he was off work today? And don't say because it's against the law. Bad laws were meant to be broken. Hey this probably finishes Korda as a judge, so he should retire and fight this thing. How does the cover of High Times sound to you, Larry?

Get Used To It

Get used to working for a corporation, Pulpy boy. Today I was going to write about how the Sun-Sentinel's resident crotchety old man Tom Jicha needs to stick to writing lame TV pieces instead of politics (is there something in the water? Jicha rants about global warming when he should be writing about TV shows, Pat Riley spews about the Iraq War when he should be talking about the Heat, and Joe Rose mouths off about race when he should be talking sports).

But then somebody told me the New Times website was screwed up and they couldn't get on the Pulp. As I told him, bookmark it, make it a favorite, and the bastards can't screw it up (yeah right, give them time). I checked out the NT home page and sure enough it was

Yeah, I was rolling along, with 11 of 14 Sweet 16 teams intact until that last two games of the day. Kentucky-Kansas and Texas-USC.

Kentucky, my team, got whupped. I had them making it to the 8 to lose to UCLA. Texas got whupped. I had them going all the way.

So I've lost any chance in the big pool I'm in. But I'm also in a head-to-head bracket-buster with a friend. Here's what I need to win:

On the air Wednesday morning, NBC-6 sports anchor and Miami Dolphins color commentator Joe Rose commentated on, um, color -- and what he said wasn't pretty.

When a caller mentioned something about the difference between light-skinned and darker-skinned black women on Rose's morning drive radio show on 790 The Ticket, Rose intoned that he preferred lighter-skinned black women, whom he termed "redbones," than darker-skinned black women, or "chocolates." And then he added that it is his understanding that most black men feel the same way.

Now, this is breaking as I write this, but Coral Gables attorney Jack Thompson, who gained national fame fighting "obscenity" and Howard Stern, has contacted the NAACP about the comments and Broward Times' reporter Elgin Jones is digging into the matter. Said Jones, "Apparently many of Rose's coworkers who are black women are

Memphis Will Excite

Why talk about the news or crime when the best days of the tournament are here. The first round is so great, all those games going on at once, with the scores and times going like stock tickers, the occasional gem (like VCU-Duke), the mini-dramas in routs (like Eastern Kentucky's 30-9 run against North Carolina). We take these First Rounds for granted, but they are the very best days of our lives.

Okay, maybe not. But it's sweet. My bracket yesterday was stunningly average, as I got 12 of the 16 games right (BYU, Gonzaga, Texas Tech, and, happily, Duke failed me). No Sweet 16 teams were plucked, thankfully. Oh and I tried that CBS Sportsline thing and unfortunately the streaming vid kept stopping to reload so often that it was basically useless to me. Could have been my laptop, though. I'll be trying again tonight during the Ky game -- and the audio worked really well, so that's a decent fallback. WFOR has a better lineup of games today, though I'm a bit disappointed that ARK-USC, which I think will be one of the great games of the day, isn't slated.

The Balance Sheet is reporting that the City of Hollywood's CRA is producing a video starring ... Mayor Mara Giulianti. They've gotten a copy of the script, which includes this little stage direction: "Mayor Mara in outside locations (downtown & broadwalk)." And ends with the mayor, who is running for reeelection, telling the lucky viewers:

"And I'm the Chair of the CRA Board, Mara GUILIANTI. Together as a Community Redevelopment Agency we are working to make YOUR Hollywood a great place to

Don't you hate it when the people who program your sports don't know a damn thing about the games? Our CBS affiliate, WFOR-Channel 4 appears to have made several horrible decisions regarding its TV coverage of March Madness today.

The second game, at 2:30, they have Georgetown-Belmont -- which has every indication of being a blowout dud. Just ten minutes later starts the Oral Robert-Washington St. game, which a lot of people believe is going to be a competitive barn-burner with great upset potential.

The next featured game, at 7, is Duke-Virginia Comm. Okay, this should be a decent game so I can't complain too much about missing what I think will be a superior game in Marquette-Michigan State.

The next choice is just ridiculous -- the late game will feature UNC-Eastern Kentucky. This is 1vs.16 nonsense. At the same time a very competitive and exciting game will be playing out: Indiana vs.