The Cooler

Slim pickins in the mainstream media today. Take a look...

A- Palm Beach Post: A couple South Floridians are on the upcoming new Real World on MTV.

All Katelynn Cusanelli was trying to do was give a friend a ride to Miami.

But that ride began a journey that continued on to a reality show in New York City and, if Cusanelli has her way, will end in a happy and uplifting place.

"I want to use this as an opportunity to educate the public at large. Everything else is circumstantial," says the 24-year-old former Palm Beach Community College student, who makes her debut on Jan. 7 as the first ever transsexual cast member on MTV's reality stalwart The Real World, on its 21st season.

[...]

"I never expected to be selected," says Cusanelli, who "as a '90s kid grew up watching that show."

But she was, indeed, cast on the show, along with a hipster Mormon, a gay dolphin trainer from Miami Beach, a personal trainer/model, a former teen beauty queen and a former U.S. Army member who guarded Saddam Hussein.

B- Sun-Sentinel: Hey, I thought they were supposed to help.

A Road Ranger hit two cars, injuring the driver and three other people Thursday morning while en route to assist a vehicle stopped on westbound Interstate 595 near Pine Island Road, the Florida Highway Patrol reported.

The back of Road Ranger David Grimstead's truck spun sideways and swiped the side of a Nissan when Grimstead applied his brakes on the wet highway, trying to help the driver of a stopped Ford just before 11 a.m., FHP spokesman Sgt. Mark Wysocky said. The truck then bounced off the Nissan and rear-ended the stopped Ford, Wysocky said.

C- Sun-Sentinel: Chan Lowe.

D- Herald: Miami.com's New Year Guide.

E- Herald: Morin.

F- Herald: Just kidding.

Police say that parents who reported the Tuesday disappearance of their 6-month-old child, Riley Archer Buchness, were lying.

Miami police spokesman Willie Moreno put it simply Friday morning.

''The mom was lying,'' he said.

Police said there was no child, and the mother, Meagan McCormic, had actually had a miscarriage six months ago.

She had used the fake existence of the baby to lure back an ex-boyfriend, who had traveled south to Miami from whereabouts unknown to meet his supposed son.

G- TC Palm: Coyotes in St. Lucie County.

Northern St. Lucie County has a coyote problem that has been escalating over the past several months, according to county Animal Control Officer Ricardo Pellot.

"The coyotes are everywhere," Pellot said. "I've seen three killed by cars on Kings Highway. It's been about six or eight months since we've noticed them coming out more."

DiFrancesco, whose homestead is off Okeechobee Road, just west of Florida's Turnpike, knows that all too well: He recently lost four animals to the ever-daring and clever creatures.

"Last week I lost two sheep and two goats to the coyotes," DiFrancesco said. "So far I can't catch them. They took three babies, one lamb and two goats and tore them to shreds. The last one they took was a big 120-pound sheep right up by the fence."

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