Start this Monday with a current events rundown.
Obama is making a strong charge (making for what will be a historically contentious, Florida-centric convention).
Shawn Marion is about to learn how to lose (a lot).
Thousands of worthy students are getting shut out of Florida's universities because of enrollment [...]
You want to know about the newsroom of the future? Well, the Palm Beach Post is taking a step toward trying to shape it.
Saying the newspaper has been "stuck" in the past, Managing Editor Bill Rose sent the following memo to Palm Beach Post staff Thursday morning describing a [...]
Slow week, so I'll opine about a couple of things.
First, the Democratic primaries. H. Clinton is in the catbird seat (even without her Florida victory on the books). She'll get the nomination and all dems should be relieved about that. Why? Because she's more electable than Barack Obama. And [...]
This is hilarious. Click to hear Sam Zell answer an Orlando Sentinel photographer's question and punctuate it with an almost imperceptible "fuck you" (I'm sure most in the room thought he said "thank you"). After clicking above, make sure you view both video versions. The questioner, according to Gawker, [...]
The good John DeGroot got ahold of the new Tribune Co. employee handbook -- and it doesn't disappoint. The rules were recently sent via PDF to all Tribune employees, including those at the Sun-Sentinel (and Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, and other newspapers, TV stations, etc, the company [...]
The Palm Beach Post's Mark Schwed died unexpectedly at the age of 52. He called in sick Monday, wasn't heard from, and was found today by a coworker. Cause of death hasn't been determined. Scott Eyman wrote the obit and here's a guest book for him that includes [...]
The Pulp want's to give a warm welcome this a.m. to new Tribune Co. czar Sam Zell, who is making his first trip to Fort Lauderdale. The trip dispels Thom Fiddler's repeated assertions that Zell, in fact, didn't realize he owned the Sun-Sentinel.
Should get more on that later. As [...]
-- Just a rumor at this point, but sources say that the Miami Herald's Todd Wright was kicked out of Mara Giulianti's election party (wake?) by the mayor's husband, Donald, who allegedly shouted at the reporter. Trying to get more, but if it's true, more power to Wright. I slammed [...]
I believe the Florida trounce paves the way for President Hillary Clinton and I think most of her electoral power comes from people yearning for the 90s, when another Clinton was president. You ask what was so great about the last decade? I point you to the current one, this [...]
Here are some electoral prognostications that everyone can look back on tomorrow and laugh at my utter idiocy:
-- Mara Giulianti loses Hollywood mayorship. Look, Mara may have all the money, but she knows she's in trouble. The desperation is evident in her frantic campaigning.
Case in point: When voter [...]
It's true, S.V. Date, the Tallahassee reporter and Jeb Bush chronicler, has left the Palm Beach Post. Paul Blythe, the newspaper's state editor, confirmed that Date resigned on Friday, but wouldn't elaborate on the reason.
If you'll recall, Date -- who has been covering the Florida capital for 10 years, recently [...]
I've been hit with several rumors lately that will make excellent future posts, but for now, let's do a little news-crunching.
-- First, the Sentinel had a front-page piece on the fed rate cut in Sunday's newspaper. Written by Harriet Johnson Brackey, it took a pollyanna tone, beginning with [...]
I'm not so much a size guy as a quality guy when it comes to newspaper-watching, but, hey, everybody knows size matters in journalism. And our favorite Sun-Sentinel critic, Palm Beach-based "Ellen Dalton," snickers at some recent, uh, shrinkage at the Tribune pub in a morning note to the Pulp: [...]
Some recent headlines in the South Florida media:
-- From this morning's Sun-Sentinel: "Salerno's legacy: Growth, rancor"
Outgoing Sunrise city manager Pat Salerno couldn't have liked that one. You can hear his eulogy, now: "Yes, he was a good man, full of both great growth and boundless rancor." At least [...]
Florida state Rep. Elaine J. Schwartz is being accused of using the Holocaust to drum up votes against Peter Bober in his bid to unseat Hollywood Mayor Mara Giulianti.
And after looking at the evidence, the Pulp finds probable cause to charge Schwartz, who represents parts of Hollywood and Pembroke [...]
In case you've been busy taking time off the past few days, there are a couple things brewing in the world. First, the stock market is widely expected to crash hard today. Fun, eh? Another is that L.A. Times Editor Jim O'Shea was fired over the weekend after fighting for [...]
That's what Bill Barber asks in a letter to New Times:
SENT FROM: browardpalmbeach.comDATE/TIME:
January 14, 2008, 10:59 am MSTSUBJECT:
Fort Lauderdale Beach HotelsLETTER:
Our family has lived in the west Broward county for over 20 years and every winter we invite family to visit the beach where we all get [...]
Last night, I was listening to the Heat-Bulls game on satellite radio, so I got a little taste of the Chicago perspective. And the commentators didn't dissapoint. They talked about how Heat defenders seemed to be standing around aimlessly. They mused about how it was no wonder there were so [...]
Quote from Sam Zell, the new owner of Sun-Sentinel mother Tribune Co.:
"I don't think this company has been particularly well run in the past."
He was addressing the staff of Newsday -- and the quote reportedly drew a round of applause from the staffers in the room. Click [...]
Ken Mitchell, who was made president of the Sun-Sentinel's Forum Publishing Group in 2005, has left the company. Don't know the details, but here's the corporate memo:
TO: Sun-Sentinel Company Employees FROM: Howard Greenberg RE: Ken Mitchell Leaves Sun-Sentinel CompanyJust a brief note to let you know that Forum Publishing Group President Ken [...]
-- Florida Rep. Steve Geller has announced that he is running against Sue Gunzburger for county commission. This isn't surprising, as rumors have been swirling about Geller's plans for weeks, but it should rival the Rodstrom race for drama. It's got a compelling subtext:
The ethics activist versus the [...]
I've been hearing grumbling, on this blog and off, about the Miami Herald's outsourcing to India. The story, broken by the Associated Press, came out during the holidays, an off-time this year at the Pulp. Hence the silence.
No more. My take on this isn't suprising, and it's not [...]
Just received outgoing North Broward Hospital District CEO Alan Levine's farewell email and though I'd share it with you. Following the email are snippets of some responses from staffers and other recipients:
From: Levine, Alan Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 3:26 PM Subject: Good afternoon. Please take a moment to read [...]
The Sun-Sentinel's Linda Trischitta -- a former People mag reporter who recently joined the newspaper -- begins her Metro section-leading story about the investigation into Deerfield Beach Mayor Al Capellini this way:
Deerfield Beach Mayor Albert R. Capellini has said that he is being investigated by State Attorney Michael J. [...]
Some interesting news and developments local-wise:
-- The Miami Herald's Todd Wright produced a quality piece of daily journalism for us this morning. In a story about Hollywood Mayor Mara Giulianti's campaign mailings that target challenger Peter Bober, Wright lays out Giulianti's false claims and then soberly tells us [...]
Here's what Miami Herald sports columnist Dan Le Batard wrote in his column Friday:
"And you'll have a hard time finding a leader anywhere in sports who was as unlucky this year as Cameron. Six three-point losses. Zach Thomas and Trent Green and Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams all [...]
The Sun-Sentinel's home page leads with a question:
"Tough choice: Should boy, 12, face prison in murder?"
Tough, you say? Let's see, the kid beat a 17-month-old girl to death with a baseball bat because she was crying when he was watching TV. Then he lied about what happened to [...]
Caught up in the presidential primary races? Well, you don't have to go to New Hampshire this week for political entertainment anymore. The local election season just got a whole lot more interesting.
Davie Commissioner Bryan Caletka has confirmed to the Pulp that he is going to resign his seat [...]
The following is a true story written by John DeGroot:
At 41 years and crippled, Jason Roy Thomas says he will not take his life before 2008 – something he tried and failed to do this Thanksgiving past.
In a proud act of faith, Jason has decorated a small tree in [...]
Nobody really knows what to expect from Sam Zell when he takes the reins at Tribune Co., but I think it's safe to say that, good or horrendous, it's going to be a hell of a lot more interesting than anything the button-downed and oh-so-corporate entity that owns the Sun-Sentinel [...]
This came into the New Times about this morning's Sun-Sentinel story on cop killer Michael Mazza:
DATE/TIME: December 18, 2007, 3:12 am MSTSUBJECT:
SentinelLETTER:
As a former S-S staffer, I would love to read DeGroot's take on the
miserable story in today's paper about Michael Mazza discussing why he
[...]
Dennis FitzSimons, CEO of the Sun Sentinel-owned Tribune Co., is checking out on the day that Sam Zell checks in to buy the company. Don't worry about FitzSimons, though, his landing will be very soft, cushioned by the $40 million in cash he's taking with him.
In other big [...]
The first is basically just a brief by Breanne Gilpatrick in the Miami Herald, but it's essential to understanding government in Broward County. It's so short I'll include it here:
Potential Broward county commissioners who lobby other local governments won't need to worry about giving up their side jobs, [...]
Back from out of town and saw that Stuck on the Palmetto closed shop Sunday night. My initial reaction was disappointment. But just in case you're confused, I didn't kill that blog, Rick did. His overreaction speaks volumes. Not only did Rick spike the blog over a vague comment, [...]
In what many reporters believe to be a troubling move, Sun-Sentinel Publisher Howard Greenberg announced to staff Thursday that the newspaper's Internet site -- including news content -- is being taken over by a marketing director, according to a memo that made its way to the Pulp.
"Vice President and [...]
So a bigshot financial analyst at Credit Suisse named John E. Klim says the newspaper business is going to come back strong as soon as the housing market does (most people seem to think that's going to happen early 2009). He says the downturn -- which has seen the [...]
The Stuck on the Palmetto controversy keeps churning over at SotP. Now that Rick's quit, his sidekick Alex is fighting for him:
We embark sometimes in heated arguments which we should be able to keep them confined to opinions and ideas. You don't like somehing you read, attack the [...]
Bad news: The Miami web newspaper Category305 is gone. Rebecca Wakefield and Celeste Fraser Delgado gave it a valiant effort, with at least one house second-mortgaged. It just never really took, which is a shame since it was a quality pub.
Here's the death notice, written by Delgado:
From: Celeste [...]
Well damn. Rick over at Stuck on the Palmetto took a minor ball-busting of mine a too seriously and quit blogging. (He also accused Critical Miami of "piling on"). I think Carlos Miller's comment, the brunt of which is reproduced below, on Rick's (final?) post sums up my [...]
The Megan Meier suicide is going to make for a helluva made-for-TV movie, no doubt. You know the story. Girl meets boy online. Boy belittles her online. Girl commits suicide. Boy turns out to be the creation of a neighbor girl's mother.
Now all the well-meaning dolts in America [...]
Ellen Dalton informs the Pulp that the Sentinel has killed its "North Palm" edition. Damn, they tried though. Talk about pissing money into the wind. Let Dalton do the talking:
So the Sun-Sentinel has quietly done away with its "Palm North" zoned edition, thus ending a weak foray into the [...]
And no, not in that way, either. The infamous Liberty City Seven trial will either end in a not guilty or a hung jury. Period. Jay Weaver of the Miami Herald breaks down what's going on in today's paper.
Weaver says the jury it's racially deadlocked and I've heard the [...]
Rick at Stuck on the Palmetto got going this morning with a rather rancid take on Michael Mayo's column in the Sun-Sentinel about the isolation of gay inmates at the Broward County Jail. His post on the column, illustrated with a bar of soap, ends thusly:
"Hey, if [...]
I don't know, for some reason it's hard to conceive of Gov. Charlie Crist without George LeMieux, his longtime advisor/campaign strategist/chief of staff. But we're going to have to, because the Associated Press is reporting that LeMieux is leaving Crist's side to return to private law practice in Fort [...]
It's almost a given you've never heard of Rick Saltrick. I never had, but found out he's an engineer with Hazen & Sawyer who lives in Hollywood. He has little political experience and is so far unproven to the public.
But he's an instant frontrunner to become a Broward County [...]
Well, it's been no secret that the Pulp has long coveted a couple of proven great baseballers named Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin (damn, look how fast those Wikipedians are getting at updating the site). Well South Florida, it's time to celebrate because they are both now Florida [...]
