Celebrating Babalu's 3 Million Visitors

They have a special post up for this special occasion that I screen captured for you this evening. I'm actually kind of flattered [click for larger image]...



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On The Way Home From Work This Evening

I wish every interstate exit ramp had this view.

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Your Evening Sift

Friday Eve here in the SoFla blogosphere. Here's your getting-ready-for-the-weekend evening Sift...

A- People who don't say, "Hi, Val!" and have Obama bumper stickers on their car are really rotten folks, says babalu. Jim Adkisson wasn't available for comment.

B- The name does not fit the doggy, from Matt's Photo Blog.

C- Eye on Miami likes Joe Garcia's chances.

[W]hat would make a Garcia victory significant, should it occur, would be the nature of the victory, with a campaign focused on domestic and pocket book issues. He is essentially seeking to use his own extensive background dealing with US-Cuban relations to neutralize the Cuba issues, and drag Diaz-Balart into a race fought on terrain where he hopes to have the upper hand – in the domestic and social issues where votes are leaning democrat.

D- Miami, bro is saving herself for Stephen Colbert.

E- Discourse's travel misfortunes continue...unbelievably.

The lady at the ticket counter was not wearing a name tag, just an Air France pin, so I cannot alas report her name, but she wasted little time in getting to the point: we didn’t have tickets. Or, rather, my 14 year old son had a ticket, but the other three e-tickets we were relying on to fly home with had been refunded. They were gone.

F- I shot the chef makes a wonderful-looking cake without a kitchen. Some gorgeous cake photography [as usual] here.

G- The Tropic of Mom household is considering a boat purchase.

Almost everyone here has a boat. If you don't have a boat, then you make friends with someone who does, so you can go out on the water. At the very least you have a Jetski or Waverunner. After all, you have a rep to protect. You live in Florida! What will your relatives/friends/college roommates think of you if you live in Florida and don't even have a boat? Don't they just hand you a boat the moment you get a Florida driver's license?

H- Reidblog has the latest dumbing down from the McCain campaign.

I'm almost sad for the right. They were turned into a neocon cult, worshipping the person of George W. Bush after 9/11, and then when that went sour, they've been forced to kiss the very old bottom of John McCain. Pitiful.

I- The Cuban Triangle discusses Chris Simmons appearance on a local Miami television station tonight and links to a Washington Times article written in October 2007, that says that Simmons works for the Defense Intelligence Agency. And he also has a private consulting business that uses information that he has privy to during his employment at DIA? Something isn't right here. Hopefully, he'll clear that mess up on the show.

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South Florida Cartoons

Jim Morin, Miami Herald

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The Cooler

Here are some of the stories that grabbed my attention from today's mainstream media.

A- Herald: Hard times for jai-alai.

"It's an embarrassing place to go," said Benny Bueno, one of the sport's best players for 24 years before retiring in 2005. "People don't want to be seen at jai-alai frontons. Everything is old and decaying. It looks like a house in shambles. And no one wants to go to a house in shambles."

B- Herald: Prominent Miami attorney dies in hiking accident in Colorado.

Prominent Miami attorney Steven E. Chaykin died Wednesday in a freak hiking accident as he tried to rescue his wife after she had slipped while climbing a waterfall near Aspen, Colo.

C- Herald: No soup for you...unless you're going to the chair.

Miami-Dade Public Defender Bennett Brummer took the witness stand Wednesday to make the case that his office is so underfunded his attorneys must refuse to take hundreds of cases.

Brummer is asking Circuit Judge Stanford Blake to allow his office to refuse appointments for all new felony cases that don't involve the death penalty. He's arguing that his attorneys are already overburdened and can't do their constitutional duty for any new clients.

''Our capacity to handle existing cases is declining, and I expect it to get much worse very rapidly,'' Brummer said.

D- Herald: Irony and the recently indicted de Céspedes brothers.

Back in 1999, Carlos de Céspedes added his name to a letter, now dripping with irony, from Miami's most prominent Cuban leaders. ''We are outraged by what has happened in our beloved community,'' the letter said. ``Once regarded as the crime capital of America, we are now perceived as its corruption capital.''

E- Sun-Sentinel: Your Only in South Florida Moment of the Day.

HOLLYWOOD - Swingers and Hollywood have not exactly been loving bedfellows.

Yet starting today, the city that once declared war on a downtown swingers club and tried to ban 2 Live Crew's smutty rapping is playing host to Swingfest 2008, billed as the "world's largest swingers party" and adult trade show.

The four-day-and-three-wild-nights event takes over the entire Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa, rife with themed parties, hundreds of exhibitors, a shuttle service to a nude beach and the Fore Play golf tournament.

Porn stars, including former California gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey, will be in town, mingling with the expected 10,000 or so convention delegates.

F- WPLG: Dirty dining at Bagels & Co. in North Miami Beach.

G- Miami Today: The Miami Arena could be gone in 2 weeks.

The Miami Arena could be demolished within two weeks and its Northwest First Avenue site cleared within a month, says building owner Glenn Straub.

H- WPLG: Miamians "addicted" to email.

MIAMI -- According to a survey conducted by America Online, nearly a quarter of Miamians open their eyes, stretch, get out of bed and immediately check their e-mail.

The city-by-city survey found 39 percent of Miami residents admit they're hooked on e-mail, lower than the national average of 46 percent. According to AOL, the average Miami e-mail addict checks personal e-mail at work at least three times a day and checks work e-mail at home during the weekend on average three times.

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Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

Here's some of what was posted last night while you caught up with your beauty sleep.

A- The South Florida Fan Blog gives us their take on the Manny Ramirez trade rumors.

My thoughts? DO IT! The price is steep, certainly, but Manny is a sure thing. This is a franchise desperately in need of a publicity stunt. The Marlins are deep enough in pitching prospects that they can afford to make the sacrifice.

One thing I have to say: No matter what criticism people levy on the Marlins, they have always shown a propensity to make bold moves. While the rest of the league plays cowards, the Marlins go for it. The Marlins may be cheap, but they have guts. And guts won them two titles already.

B- Tilefortlauderdale leaves Courtney at a Shell station on Federal Highway.

C- Speaking of Tilefortlauderdale, Incertus demonstrates that blogger's worlds sometimes intersect.

D- If you think you've had some bad luck flying lately, you really need to check this post by Discourse.

So we’re back in Miami. Cabin crew tell us that anyone who wishes to leave the plane here may do so, but if we leave we may not be allowed back on. The captain explains that the offending part is easy to replace, it’s just like a circuit board - you snap it in, test it, and then he’s fully confident in flying the plane. One Swedish couple leaves, saying they don’t trust the plane any more. There’s a trickle of departures. One person returns with coffee from Starbucks, and now we all want off.

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Obama Returns

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Your Evening Sift

Why does it feel like a Thursday to me? this has been bugging me all day. Another full day in the SoFla blogosphere, folks. Here we go...

A- Tropic of Mom finds something interesting in a Publix ad.

B- Sazón Cuban Cuisine in Miami Beach is reviewed by Eat It, Miami and they like it but you get the feeling they would rather be at their other favorite Cuban restaurant.

C- The first day of lobster season begins early and ends early for the Computer Colonics household in the Keys.

I worked until 10 pm last night so I missed the boat out. Dave, TO2 and one of TO2’s friends went out on the little boat in the Bay. Dave said there were a ton of boats out there at midnight in the Tavernier Creek area, all with a net poised over a lobster. Marine law enforcement was out watching, also. At the stroke of midnight, Dave said, you could hear the shouts from the other boats as they netted up their first lobster of mini-season.

D- Blast Off! gives us our Republican Hypocrisy of the Day in true Blast Off! style.

E- The Joanie Watch continues at Random Pixels.

F- The Linchpen continues his internship at the Herald and puts together a nice clip of the unique Tarks restaurant of Dania.

G- The South Florida Fan Blog says trade rumors are making it an interesting time for South Florida sports fans.

H- Miami, bro is discovering the joys of dog ownership.

I have never known the stresses of dog life. I mean, if my cat meows, it's cute, and if I tell him to stop, he stops, but these beasts, they don't stop, they won't stop.

I- Incertus takes a look at just how big Obama's lead is.

J- Reidblog posts and comments on John McCain's idiotic ad.

Who's running the McCain campaign, anyway? The latest ad is a dud, mixing footage of Obama receiving global adulation (duh, it makes him look GOOD, folks) with a thin attack accusing him of wanting "higher taxes and more foreign oil." The ad actually has pics of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears! Seriously.

K- Habla Mierda is gone. WTF?

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Validating The Hatred

Leonard Pitts' column this morning that discusses the liberal-hating, gay-hating, Sean Hannity reader who recently shot up a Tennessee Unitarian church deserves its own post.

But it is increasingly the case that what we are being presented isn't a debate between competing worldviews so much as it is a morality play: righteous good versus unholy evil. Conservatives have cast themselves in the former role, leaving liberals the latter. It's a libel to which liberals have responded as the bug does to the windshield: splat.

Unable to say what they believe or to frame it any compelling way, they have allowed themselves to be defined instead from without, standing ineffectual in a mudstorm of invective. They are, the propaganda goes, effete, unpatriotic, unstable, un-American, anti-God, evil, and the source of a voter's every problem, down to and including the death of his goldfish and the breakup of his marriage.

It is so over the top, so patently ridiculous, it's almost funny. Until you remember that dehumanizing people inevitably has consequences.

That's what Knoxville is, a consequence.

No, conservatives did not cause this bloodbath. Jim Adkisson allegedly did. But in telling him ''liberals'' were the source of his every disaffection and woe, conservatives certainly validated the hatred and madness that drove him.

And with that I give you the introductory sentence of a babalu post from this morning.

Yes folks, the ACLU and radical lefties who hate and damn the USA and cream in their pants over Obama and who swoon over the scumbags in Gitmo couldn't be any happier with this story .... They would not be any happier if all the terrorists in Gitmo were released to kill more Americans.

...or yesterday...

Yes infidels all of the liberal, or rather Socialist democrats are still creaming in their pants (not over the Obama girl) but over Obama. The liberals, I mean progressives, I mean neo-marxists love Obama so much that they'd consider sleeping with the guy (I'm talking about the men and women). You can see the libs swoon over this guy like a bunch of girlies at a Justin Timberlake concert. Sounds silly huh? Well it scares the beejesus out of me thinking that this Hahvahd educated opportunist putz could be our president. Sadly, W lowered the standard so much that this shmendrick is now a serious contender. Oy vay.

....or the image they posted this weekend.



I don't think I have anything else to add.

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The Cooler

Loads of stuff out there to read in the mainstream media this morning. Here is some of it...

A- WPLG: Another South Florida genius.

MIAMI -- A man was arrested Tuesday after he strapped a lamppost onto the top of a van and tried to sell it for scrap at a recycling center, Miami police said.

Elio Valera had recycling in mind when he strapped the light pole to the top of a borrowed van and drove it about 40 blocks to a recycling center near Northwest Seventh Avenue and 21st Street, where he intended to sell it for a few hundred dollars.

"It's been on the ground for three months," Valera told Local 10's Mark Joyella. "Nobody's picked it up. So if they don't want to recycle and use it, I'll do it."

B- WPLG: Hollywood water tower gets vandalized.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Two men were arrested late Monday night after they scaled the Hollywood water tower and spray-painted it with graffiti, police said.

Hollywood police said Kevin Harrison and Evan Reichert, both 22, climbed a barbed-wire security fence to access the tower in the 2800 block of Sheridan Street shortly before midnight. That activated a silent alarm at the Hollywood Police Department.

As the vandals climbed the tower, other alarms went off. Hollywood police quickly surrounded the tower and ordered them to come down from the 150-foot-high catwalk.

C- WPLG: Live chickens and more at North Miami Beach's Ham and Eggery.

D- WPLG: It's the 1st day of mini-bug season.

E- Herald: I hope her contract specifically points out that "she does not get paid if she does not work."

The Miami-Dade County School Board attorney should not have kept $10,000 for moving expenses because she never actually relocated from Palm Beach County to Miami-Dade -- as required by the payment, the school district's Inspector General's said in a report released Tuesday.

[...]

The report did, however, acknowledge that the wording on the contract between Rico and the district was vague and did not provide consequences if she accepted the money but did not move.

F- Herald: Boycott McCain!

WASHINGTON -- The pending merger of American beer giant Anheuser-Busch and a Belgian company that brews and sells beer in Cuba is thrusting John McCain into the middle of thorny Cuba-U.S. relations.

McCain's wife, Cindy, owns the third-largest Anheuser-Busch distributor in the country -- which means she would stand to profit by partnering with a company that is in business with the Cuban government.

G- Herald: Morin

H- Herald: Cop's son takes his Dad's cruiser for a ride in Broward and pretends. Classic.

I- Sun-Sentinel: Yes! More signs will help things.

New signs posted every mile in the median will tell drivers how far they have to go to get out of Interstate 95's new express lanes in Miami-Dade County.

The signs are meant to reassure drivers who enter the express lanes without realizing they can't get off at local exits.

"Stay calm. Don't panic. Only 1/2 mile to go!" Make sure they're also written in Spanish.

J- Palm Beach Post: 2nd bag goes to $50 on Delta.

Delta Air Lines Inc., the nation's third-largest carrier and the largest airline at Palm Beach International Airport, will double its charge for checking a second bag on a domestic flight as part of a set of fee increases to help offset the high cost of fuel.

The Atlanta-based carrier said Tuesday that the changes will apply to customers who purchase a ticket on or after Thursday for travel on or after Aug. 5.

Fee changes include an increase from $25 to $50 to check a second bag for domestic travel. Fees for specialty items that require special handling, such as surfboards or ski equipment, will increase on domestic and international flights, Delta said.

K- CBS4: Video, DeFede on Rudy Crew.

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Your Morning Sift

Do bloggers sleep? I mean, you wouldn't think so based upon the number of posts I had to Sift through this morning. Sheesh.

A- Super cool photo of a most ordinary subject by Matt's Photo Blog.

B- Carlos Miller shares with us his story of Miami restaurant owner Maximiliano DeVita, who has become another Miami statistic.

It started out as another random murder in Miami. A restaurant owner shot down in cold blood during a dispute over a condo tenant.

I would not have even finished reading the article had it not been for the victim’s name.

Maximiliano DeVita, owner of several Italian restaurants in Miami.

I knew him as Max; a friendly man with a constant smile; the proud owner of Che Sopranos on Biscayne Blvd. An Argentine-Italian who boasted of having the best pizza in Miami. An amiable host who treated his customers with respect, friendliness, appreciation and welcoming.

C- Miami Provocateur finds a Miami trivia webpage on the net that long timers need to visit.

D- There's going to be a number of Miami-Dade high school students rallying outside the School Board Administration Building before the commission meets this evening, according to Stuck in Hialeah.

E- This is Miami, from Miami Fever.

F- All Purpose Dark stops by South Garden in South Miami for breakfast.

G- Volunteering at Fairchild walks through the mangroves in a video.

H- Tilefortlauderdale drops Maggie at a public restroom on Fort Lauderdale Beach.

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Really? [UPDATED X2]

Babalu blog is posting tonight that an active U.S. Army counterintelligence officer by the name of Lt. Col. Chris Simmons is going to reveal the names of Cuban spies currently operating in South Florida.

If you saw the videos I posted a few weeks ago with Lt. Col. Chris Simmons, who is a U.S. Army counterintelligence agent and expert on Cuban intelligence, you may have learned that Oscar Haza of "A Mano Limpia" challenged him to reveal the names of the Cuban spies that are in South Florida. He has accepted the challenge and will reveal the specific names of the spies on "A Mano Limpia" on Thursday, July 31st at 8:00 p.m.

This surprises me for a couple different reasons.

One, because this information is probably classified at some level. And two, revealing these names will no doubt compromise active investigations let alone place these alleged spy's lives at risk.

Has the U.S. Government really reduced itself to answering "challenges" made by radio talk show hosts by divulging sensitive national security information?

I doubt it.

And I think LTC Simmons knows it and the writers at babalu know it. But it's great for ratings and blog hits, isn't it?

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If anyone can listen to this show and tell me what actually happens, my email address is at the bottom of the right sidebar. Thanks.

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Who exactly is Lt. Col. Chris Simmons? Is he an active military officer and "counterintelligence agent" as his title suggests and as he represents himself to be to the media and internet readers? Or is he retired from the military and just one more Washington Beltway Bandit offering "expertise" to those who are willing to pay?

******

No matter how many times I tell them to stay away and no matter how many times they vow never to come back, the boys of babalu can't resist the writings of SFDB.

In response to this post, babalu apparently contacted Mr. Simmons and this is what he had to say...

"Naturally, I would never divulge US classified information. However, I have in my possession declassified US Government information (only some of which was publically released), previously undisclosed eyewitness accounts of espionage-associated events (also unclassified due to the sources or data provided), and information provided to me from Cuban intelligence defectors now under US control (ergo, the material is Cuban classified information). There is some public-domain information thrown in there as well. I will divulge no US classified information and the USG has no ongoing or anticipated investigations of those I identify. Not every spy's career ends with an arrest; sometimes public awareness is enough."

Well, that's good to hear. And I'm sure Mr. Simmons former, and I emphasize former, employer is happy to hear that, too.

So I guess there's still a question as to how much really new information will be "revealed" tomorrow night and whether or not the former colonel is ever going to make it clear to listeners that a "retired" goes after that title that he apparently can't let go of.


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Your Evening Sift

Back in town again after driving through thunderstorms all the way down 95 from Jacksonville. Lots 'o stuff out there today in the SoFla blogosphere. Here we go with your evening Sift...

A- Some Cranky Guy has found a silver lining to the high gas price cloud.

I am seeing far more people on bikes, be it bicycles, scooters, skateboards or motorcycles. Especially on the little trips to Publix on Sheridan and Pine Island Road. This is making us healthier people too!

I am seeing more people walking! Hell, I am walking more!

B- Random Pixels has the trailer for the new movie by Oliver Stone that's going to make Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 look like Finding Nemo. The Chowfather adds his non food-related comments.

C- Another rockin' Black Sunday video from Rakontur.

D- 305 wanders into the 954 and finds that downtown Hollywood is pretty slick.

Yesterday, in an attempt to escape the craziness of Miami, I thought it would be a good idea to head north. I was going to trek further but instead thought - hey, I haven't been to Hollywood in like a year, so it's time to see what's going on there. I was mighty surprised in a good way to see that there are way more restaurants and bars and other establishments than I remember, and the beach front was all fixed up with the new Broadwalk and looked all purdy. Hollywood has a smalltown feel yet it has such a mix of ethnicities and randoms that you feel like you are in some small European town/yet know in the back of your mind that you're still in South Fla.

E- Volunteering at Fairchild reminds us that Sundays are free at Fairchild Gardens in August and September.

F- German bratwurst, watermelon and grapes for dinner? Daily Cocaine says yes.

G- Coconut Grove Grapevine likes the rickshaws of the Grove.

H- Is Miami a world class city? Let's hear Eye on Miami's answer..

Wasn't the American Airlines Arena suppose to make Miami a "World Class City"? And the Arsht Center, wasn't that also a "World Class City" maker? And the museums in Bicentennial Park, they are going to make this a "World Class City" too.

You can build a hundred stadiums but as long as you don’t fund our schools and take politics out of them, Miami will remain a little-sh*t [Ed.] town. You are dressing up the pig, Mayor Alvarez. Look deeper. Ridding Miami of poverty, having good transit and schools is what makes a city world class. A stadium doesn’t cut it. Just say you want baseball, don't include the "World Class City" bull, no one is buying it.

Will everyone please remove this phrase from their vocabulary until they are ready to get serious?

Make sure you read the comments.

I- Bennigan's closes up, reports MenuPages Blog: South Florida.

J- Smashed Frog restates its blogging mission.

In my view, the current political climate, whether local, state, or federal, smashes us all against the proverbial windshield. Although we fight back as constituents, to make our wishes known, elected officials of both major parties ignore us and do exactly what they want....proposing and enacting detrimental, restrictive, unconstitutional legislation. Why?

Because they can.

These jokers don't care about you. Me. Us. Or our families.

Smashing flat our quality of everyday life? THAT, they care about about.

The purpose of this blog is to wake people up, to initiate a tiny revolution of talk and of action.

Time to scrape ourselves off the windshield.

K- Incertus discusses the Wal-Mart that is being proposed for downtown Miami.

These are reasons to object to big box retailers in downtown areas--they're not practical when it comes to land use or traffic congestion, and considering that given gas prices, Miami is going to have to become even more public-transportation-friendly instead of less so, that has to be a major consideration when deciding if Wal-Mart should be allowed to build down there.

L- Discourse gives us an in-depth look at who he thinks is going to be Obama's vice-president.


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Elites

Bill Maher

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The Cooler

Here's your mainstream media highlights to read and discuss.

A- Palm Beach Post: Hello? Is stupid there?

FORT PIERCE — Police arrested five people in connection to an early Sunday morning armed robbery of a waterfront restaurant.

At around 1:20 a.m., police were called to Mangrove Mattie's at 1640 Seaway Drive, where a restaurant manager and dishwasher reported they had been confronted by robbers wearing masks and demanding money from a safe, according to a police news release.

The manager was hit in the head with a gun and a frying pan, the release states, and one of the robbers grabbed the manager's cell phone before fleeing. Soon after, police stopped a suspicious vehicle driving over the Seaway bridge toward the mainland, the release shows. When officers called the manager's cell phone, the phone rang inside the vehicle, police said.

B- Herald: Downtown Wal-Mart is controversial.

''Horrors!!'' resident Sharon Dodge recently wrote to City Hall.

Another resident chimed in: ``There goes the neighborhood!''

And this, from a City Commission aide: ``Visualize a Wal-Mart customer in his pick-up truck, and family of four, driving past tuxedo-clad PAC center guests arriving simultaneously.''

C- Herald: Carol Brady ate at Pasha's on Saturday night!

Florence Henderson dined al fresco Saturday evening at Pasha's on Lincoln Road with a tall, attractive, 60-ish man. (They later were spied holding hands). ''A special friend,'' is how she describes Dr. Jesse Rogers, ''a wonderful chiropractor in Fort Lauderdale,'' Henderson says, according to pal Jean Ann Ryan, who directed the entertainer four years ago in Florida Follies.

The TV icon -- who will forever be known as Carol Brady -- was just as personable and smiley as she seemed on The Brady Bunch. She said she had just returned from performing in Russia.

D- Herald: He can be roommates with Posada!

Several Cuban exile organizations have launched a campaign to persuade President Bush to pardon convicted Cuban exile militant Eduardo Arocena, reputed mastermind of Omega 7, whose group was blamed for numerous bombings in Miami and New York.

Arocena, now 65, was sentenced to life plus 35 years in prison for gunning down a Cuban diplomat and for several bombings in the New York City area. Also, a federal jury in Miami convicted Arocena of planting nine bombs over a four-year period in the Miami area.

E- Herald: This is called "legal immigration" by those who are against "illegal immigration."

It was a run-of-the-mill immigrant-smuggling case -- a boatload of Cubans brought from the island for $10,000 a head -- until the smugglers made a serious goof.

As often happens, the alleged smugglers held onto their passengers until relatives paid their fee. Except that one relative they phoned to demand cash from happens to be a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer. He promptly alerted agents at his sister agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to documents filed in Miami federal court.

The officer and an ICE agent then set up a late-night meeting at a drugstore parking lot, swapped the cousin for $10,000 in cash and signaled a waiting ICE SWAT team, which arrested the two alleged smugglers.

Now the pair find themselves indicted not just for alien-smuggling, but also on the rarer and more-serious charge of hostage-taking. The accused smugglers, Niovel Chirino Alvarez, 33, and Lazaro Martinez Padron, 21, face life in prison if convicted.

F- Sun-Sentinel: A famous local bartender in Fort Lauderdale died too young last week.

If you've been to the Southport Raw Bar on Cordova Road in Fort Lauderdale, you probably knew the bartender they called "Big Al."

Big Al died of heart failure last week, a sudden and shocking loss at a local institution.

He was 47.

By coincidence, Restaurant Gal also mentions Big Al in her latest post.

G- WPLG: The Palm Restaurant in Coral Gables closes its doors.

H- NBC6: No back-to-school tax-free week this year.

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Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

Kinda quiet in the blogosphere last night. Here's your morning Sift.

A- Bark Bark Woof Woof takes a moderate stance on the recent Tennessee shootings.

In the end, no one yet knows what pushed Mr. Adkisson to snap Sunday morning. What was the trigger, so to speak, that moved him to action rather than just sitting around his house fuming about those damn liberals and queers? He won't say, probably because he doesn't know himself. That should be reason enough for the speculators and prognosticators to stop looking for someone else to blame.

B- Foodtastic reminds us that it's almost Miami Spice time.

C- Discourse posts the latest Obama commercial from MoveOn.org.

D- Traffic lights that actually "talk" to cars, from Transit Miami.

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Your Evening Sift

There's a ton of stuff to cover this evening so without further delay, here's your Sift, originating from the backwoods of Georgia.

A- Depth of Field has some gorgeous black and whites of the musicians of the Miami-Dade Parks jazz ensemble.

B- Tough times for Eye on Miami.

There was no warning when the announcement came at my job's last general staff meeting, but I can't say I was completely surprised either - business has been down, management said, and the cost of providing insurance has gone up. Solution: eliminate everyone's health insurance. Layoffs may be next.

C- Matt Meltzer, writing for Miami Beach 411, reviews Carl Hiaasen's Nature Girl.

The book is high on characterization, is extremely funny in many parts, has great conflict in every scene and uses the Everglades almost as a constant character to help the story along. But unfortunately, “Nature Girl” becomes like a baseball team full of great players who just can’t win the big game. The book keeps you reading only because you want to see what the characters do and how they interact, but does not have a long enough story to make you really care about what happens. Kind of like if you tried to condense “Lost” into 296 pages.

D- Oh no, that poor Cayenne...from Miami Fever.

E- Miami, bro has pictures and some commentary from Imagine Miami Reborn, including a few photos of the Chongalicious Girls, who made an appearance.

The reason I say that the event was very un-Miami is that... let me say this gently... I think Miami is a beautiful place with much to offer in terms of creativity and cultural, but it is not a place that typically celebrates "otherness," or strangeness, as this night did.

F- Wide Lawns and Narrow Minds flies from Iowa to South Florida and doesn't crash.

G- Tropic of Mom visits the frog exhibit at the Museum of Discovery and Science with her family. Lots of pictures of frogs and a disconcerting story of her son taking a tumble in this one.

H- Spend 30 hours with Rakontur on the day of the premiere of Cocaine Cowboys II.

I- MiamiNights reviews Bella Rose. Make sure you read the comments, too.

J- Random Pixels exchanges emails with Mayor Diaz who assures him that he is keeping his day job.

K- Get acquainted with Butterfly Days at Fairchild Gardens with Volunteering at Fairchild.

L- Go to UF for an education, get a beer. Blast Off! has the linkage that names UF America's #1 Party School.

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If You Can't Beat 'Em, Shoot 'Em [UPDATED X2]

Yesterday:

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- The suspect in a fatal shooting at a Knoxville church Sunday was motivated by frustration over being unable to obtain a job and hatred for the liberal movement, police said Monday.

[...]

[Jim] Adkisson killed two adults and wounded seven others before being overpowered by congregants, authorities said.

"It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred for the liberal movement," Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen IV told reporters Monday.

[...]

Owen said Adkisson apparently acted alone and chose the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church because of recent publicity about activities there that Adkisson considered liberal.

Owen said police found Adkisson's letter in his vehicle, and that Adkisson signed it but did not address it to anyone. The letter specifically expressed hatred for gay people, Owen said.

$100 says 'ole Jimbo was a Rush listener. And another $100 says he also listened to Hannity when he wasn't busy watching Fox News.

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Oh, my. Would you look at this?

Adkisson told Still that "he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement that he would then target those that had voted them in to office."

Adkisson told officers he left the house unlocked for them because "he expected to be killed during the assault."

Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly. [Emphasis SFDB]

Shocking.

Absolutely shocking.

-Thanks to Bark Bark Woof Woof for the tip

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What conservative commenters at The Free Republic are saying about the shooting, via Pandagon.


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The Legal Risks of Blogging

Pretty good post over at one of my regular reads, The Blog Herald, about the legal risks that bloggers face these days.

The problem is that, while journalists have long studied media law as part of their education and training, most bloggers have not and are both unaware of their rights and the gray areas they have to avoid. Likewise, many people who feel that they were wronged may not understand the rights a blogger has and that they, the allegedly infringed, have no recourse.

The threat of legal action is often times enough "to scare many bloggers into changing the way they write, removing content or otherwise altering their site."

Not sure where a commenter implying that he's going to phone in a bomb threat to the New York Times falls into the grand scheme of things.

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A Cup of Joe [UPDATED X3]

Democratic congressional candidate Joe Garcia has a blog.

Welcome to our official campaign blog.

We know that Washington is broken. Lobbyists set the agenda and the voice of regular folks get drowned-out in the process. The goal of our campaign is to change that and put the needs of South Florida's working families first.

That's why we created this blog. Whether it be to chat about news or current events, we want you to use this as a place to share your thoughts, ideas and concerns with our campaign.

The blog was launched this weekend so there's only a couple posts and a few links to some YouTube videos they call "Joe TV."

Should be interesting to see how Garcia uses this medium to communicate his message and win the election in November.

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Someone [I think we all know who] has created a parody Garcia website on Blogger. If you find the language and the content offensive like I did, make sure you "flag it" in the Blogger toolbar at the top of the page.

******

Commenter "Anonymous," who arrived here via the website's statcounter, asks me if I understand what the "flag" button does. I sure do. I wouldn't want my child or anyone's kid reading the vulgarities on that website, so I flagged it.

I just would like to note that the moniker "Joedilocks" is used only by one group of people that I know of. In addition, the language and style, or lack of it, fits them perfectly.

******

It appears as though the administrator for the parody blog has disabled the Blogger navbar, contrary to Blogger's terms of service. You can still report a Blogger terms of service violation here.

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The Cooler

Slow, slow sllooooooowwww news day, folks. I had to struggle to find just this.

A- Herald: Your South Florida story of the day.

MIAMI -- Miami-Dade police officials plan to include in their 2009 handbook a note about how to respond to calls about ritual animal sacrifices.

The decision comes a year after Coral Gables officers raided a home where practitioners of Santeria were slaughtering goats, chickens and pigeons.

B- Herald: Morin

C- CBS4: Video, Jason Taylor takes out full-page newspaper ad to thank Miami.

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Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

It's Miserable Monday, time to log in another work week. Things were very slow around the SoFla blogosphere last night so there's just a couple posts to share with you in this morning's Sift.

A- Ipanemic had a good day yesterday.

And it just dawned on me: this is my childhood all over. My parents would have these parties with all of their friends but I would be in the backroom with my pajamas with plastic footies on. I would proudly walk out and ask for a glass of milk or something and impress a man on a couch with my ability to count to 100. It was the early 70s. It was Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. It was Frank Sinatra. It was a stylish lime-green sofa and matching drapes.

Weird. How did I get here?

B- Florida Speaks points out that McCain and the Castro regime are business buds.

McCain's family holdings include Anheuser's Arizona distributorship and McCain is going to make nearly $2 million on InBev's takeover. And he'll have a direct line into the Cuban dictatorship through his business holdings.

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Favorite Fever Foto of the Week

Miami Beach


-miami fever

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Your Evening Sift

It's Sunday evening in the SoFla blogosphere. Do you know where your favorite blog is? Maybe not, but here's your evening Sift.

A- Some Cranky Guy visited Dolphins training camp today and got some nice photos for us.

B- SporTech Matter posts a great clip of a back-handed catch by a Marlins pitcher during yesterday's game.

C- Nice, from Miami Fever.

D- Volunteering at Fairchild answers the question, "Who volunteers at Fairchild?"

E- Swampstyle gives us a wrap-up of this weekend's Design District Yard Sale.

The First Annual Design District Artist Rummage Bonanza trial balloon was a resounding success, but few pickers showed up. Of the likely explanations, two top the list- the heat and the Herald. Realize that a one inch classified ad in the herald costs about 50 bucks and more so tip off the permit people. Then you'd be 60-70 bucks in the hole before even making a sale. But honestly it is so blinking hot here that folks just scramble for air-conditioned safety.

F- Tilefortlauderdale drops Lilith at Lester's on SR 84.

G- Black mushroom risotto from Daily Cocaine.

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SFDB Post of the Week

SFDB selects its Post of the Week by going back and reviewing all the Sifts that we've done during the past 7 days. We find the best post of the week and note the runners ups as we judge them to be.

There are very few Sundays here at SFDB where I'm not impressed by the blog posts of the previous week. I can count on one hand the number of times since we started doing this in February where it's been easy to select the Post of the Week. This week was no exception.

Winner: We don't have many any other 16-year-olds like Abel in the SoFla blogosphere. His perspective on Miami politics and social issues belies his age as does his writing at Stuck in Hialeah. Homeless Heartbreak is the kind of post that makes you want to help and get involved in a problem that is so ridiculously solvable, it's almost criminal that society won't do more. Abel's writing does a fine job in conveying those thoughts and that's why it's this week's SFDB Post of the Week.

Runners Ups: Sex and the Beach writes about the decidedly unsexy sport of fishing in the Everglades but does a fine job in Nature Girl: Fishing of making it sound romantic, in a natural kind of way. Transit Miami interviewed a Miami resident about her bicycle commute to work in Commuter Profile: Ellen Haas and came up with story that should be serve as an inspiration to all of us. And finally, in Mar Abierto, Vivir el Presente shares with us her love of South Florida and expresses her concerns that we all do our part to preserve it's beauty for future generations.

Keep on blogging!


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The State of the Newspaper Industry

Here's an informative Google Map mash-up detailing the buyouts and the layoffs in the newspaper industry thus far in 2008.



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The Cooler

It's a busy Sunday morning in the mainstream media. Here's some of the more interesting stuff I found...

A- Herald: Pitts: Dumbing down.

For as much as we obsess over black vs. white and red vs. blue, I suspect the defining division of this technology-driven era will be between those who have and can exploit information and those who do not and cannot. Between intelligence and its opposite. One wonders how long we can continue to equate stupidity with ''keeping it real,'' being a regular Joe or Jane, and hope to continue leading the world.

There's a movie, Idiocracy, which posits a post-intelligent future in which the stupid have inherited the Earth. It's not a great film, but there is a truth to it. You watch the characters watching a reality show that consists entirely of some guy being kicked in the testicles and you realize you wouldn't be surprised to see that show on VH-1 tomorrow.

Why not? In recent years, we have seen intelligence demonized as the sole province of the ''elite,'' a term that once described accomplishment, but is now used to condemn anyone who looks like he might have accidentally cracked a book or had a thought.

B- Herald: Slideshow, Haulover Beach.

C- Herald: Fred Grimm on FIU's hiring of Marco Rubio.

A miracle! Had to be a miracle.

Admittedly, that won't jive with the university's canon of rational inquiry. But no amount of rational inquiry can explain the unfathomable appearance of Marco Rubio on the campus of Florida International University.

Out of nowhere. Out of a budget that was in shambles. Rubio just materialized.

Oh my God, it was freaky supernatural. Earthly hypothesis can't explain how a university that just cut 38 positions, shut down six research centers and eliminated 23 degree program could then concoct a new teaching job for Marco Rubio. Had to be black magic.

The extraordinary news last week could have had students and professors dancing for joy -- except FIU whacked the dance program.

D- Herald: No, Myriam Marquez is definitely not a Ana Menendez. Brace yourself for the hardliner lovefest.

[Rudy] Crew's relations with the Cuban-American community have been strained since the Vamos a Cuba kids' book controversy two years ago. Instead of trying to reach out, he hunkered down.

When a middle-school principal canceled a play that same year because it might offend the Jewish community, no one made a fuss because people understood. Yet few outside South Florida's exile community seem to care what a painful affront that fact-challenged Vamos a Cuba book was to the thousands of former Cuban political prisoners in South Florida.

Crew never seemed to care -- he made no effort to communicate, to explain First Amendment rights while acknowledging exiles' pain.

So Crew's failure to pander to the used-to-being-pandered-to hardliner community is costing him his job? Nope, nothing ever changes in this town.

E- Sun-Sentinel: Be wary of SoFla's latest rip off.

Payton Fuller seemed resigned to paying 10 cents more for a gallon of gas than the posted price on the sign in front of the Mobil gas station at 1862 Nob Hill Road in Plantation. But he still was upset.

"It's a pretty lousy deal," the Plantation resident said as he used a credit card to pay for his purchase.

The station advertises a cash price, but the price is higher for customers who pay with a credit card.

F- Palm Beach Post: Technology for cops.

Car thieves and other criminals beware: Some Palm Beach County sheriff's patrol cars now have cameras that can identify you without the deputy slowing down or lifting a finger.

The sheriff's office is the latest law enforcement agency in the county to use a system that can read license plates and automatically identify cars that are stolen or registered to wanted criminals.

G- CBS4: Are you a survivor?

South Floridians who think they can "out wit, out play, and outlast" any opponent should head to Hollywood, as in Hollywood, Florida, where there's a casting call for the latest incarnation of TV's "Survivor."

CBS4 is holding a casting call Sunday, July 27th at the Improv at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood from Noon to 4:00 p.m.

H- WPLG: Any volunteers?

MIAMI -- Blame it on the traffic. Or the number of new immigrants. Or the allure of the beach. Whatever the reason, Miami has secured the bottom spot -- No. 50 among major U.S. cities -- in new rankings of the percentage of adults who volunteer.

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Your Morning Sift

Here's your typically and thankfully (for me, at least) short Sunday morning Sift...

A- Miami Condos Investments goes all current events on us. Cool.

I’m NOT an advocate of this housing bailout plan. I saw too many people unwisely refinance their properties to withdraw money from the paper profits in their homes in order to spend the money on new vehicles, surround-sound systems, large plasma TVs, furniture, clothes, etc. Now, the governement wants the country to foot the bill for these people to reminisce about the times that they were living LARGE?

B- Weston, FL Daily Photo reports that Weston is the #1 city in Florida to live according to CNN Money and ranks #73 nationally.

C- Reidblog tells us that conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage is feeling the karma after some disgusting on-air comments.

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SFDB Saturday Night Turndown Service

The Pretenders, Back on the Chain Gang


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Your Evening Sift

I thought South Beach slowed down in the summer. Apparently not. Started the evening at Monty's then moved over to the Hofbrau Bar on Lincoln and everywhere we went was packed with wet, sweaty bodies. Quite amazing, actually, to see so many people dressed up and doing things outdoors in this humidity. They make you buy food if you want to sit outside at the Hofbrau. I recommend the potato pancakes with applesauce.

Here's your late evening Sift.

A- FTL Today gives us a summary of what each Broward County racino took in their first full year of operation.

B- The 110th Congress is cowardly, says Reidblog.

If the 109th Congress will go down in history as boot-licking hand maidens to a criminal White House, the 110th will go down as the most cowardly, utterly useless opposition body in U.S. history -- the polar opposite of the body that faced down Richard Nixon, and the wimp-ridden antidote to the scheming, partisan body that tried to undo the election of William Clinton.

C- Lots of photos and great descriptive writing make All Purpose Dark's review of Taste of the Nation a good one.

Usually at these events you also get a lot of duplicate dishes going on and this year the theme of the night was beef. Lots of rare, raw, seared, braised, grilled meat. Whereas last year's was all about the tuna - seared tuna, tuna tartar, tuna ceviche, tuna sashimi (I swear by the end of the night you were pumped so full of mercury you set off the metal detectors) this year it was all about the Kobe.

D- The State of Sunshine argues for offshore drilling.

“But wait,” you say! “Oil companies already have many acres of oil leases with no drilling. Use those first!”

I’ve never claimed to be a genius (and plenty of people are willing to back me up on this), but don’t you think if it was economically viable and the oil was plentiful on those leases that companies would already be drilling? You have to figure that they secured the leases when oil was only $30-$40 per barrel. So why didn’t they drill at $100 per barrel? Or $140 per barrel? Or when the chief minister of OPEC was hoping for $200 per barrel?

Oil companies earn margins of only about 4% (i.e. 4 cents per dollar on a gallon of gas). Given those slim margins, you can bet that they know when to place their bets and when not to.

Yep. And when you're making $40 billion in profits every quarter, why would you want to go back to only $30 billion? Especially when you have Republicans who will make it easy for you.

E- Foodtastic enjoyed their dinner at North One 10.

F- PhinPhanatic gives us a wrap up of Day One at Dolphins Training Camp.

G- Tilefortlauderdale leaves Jo at one of the Starbucks that is closing in Broward County.

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Obama Quest

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An SFDB Weekend Morning: A Short Story

I get so many emails asking me, "Rick, could you please tell us more about your personal life and what you like to do on the weekends. You are such an interesting person." Okay, not really, but for those of you who are fortunate enough not to live in the South Florida suburbs, I thought I would relate to you how my very busy and non-productive morning went down today.

After the requisite blog posts and a swing by my dry cleaner, I made my way over to the Lowe's at University and Pines in search of sod. Yes, sod. If you own a house in South Florida, you know what sod is. I need sod to fill in some bare spots in my lawn so there I am at Lowe's asking Carlos if they carry any sod. "No sod," says Carlos, with a heavy Nicaraguan/Guatemalan/Mexican/Spanish accent. Eyebrows raise. I repeat, "No sod?" "No sod," says Carlos.

Off I go to the Home Depot at Pines and Hiatus, a couple miles down the road. "Hey, you carry any sod?" American Dude (woo hoo!!!) says, "Yeah I think there may be some in the back but...[voice trails off]" I wheel my shopping cart to the back of the Garden Center to find one square foot of yellow sod. American Dude, you disappoint me.

I decide to drive up Flamingo to look for another Home Depot I think is around there somewhere but have no luck. Decide to turn west on Griffin and start heading towards the Lowe's at Sheridan and I-75. This is turning out to be a real cluster, I think to myself. Just then I pass by a little nursery on the south side of Griffin. Aha! They have to have sod. So bang a uey and go back. I jump out of my car, grab my leather work gloves and am ready to load some sod in the back of my car, dammit.

Old Spanish Guy emerges from the foliage, greets me and I tell him I'm looking for sod. I say this as I rub my leather covered hands together, anxious to get started. "No sod," says old Spanish guy. What?! "Too wet. No deliveries this week. Maybe next week." My shoulders slump and I get back in the car cursing that today, of all days, I decided to lay some sod. I decide to continue to Lowe's and head west on Griffin to get to I-75.

On the way my spirits are lifted because I get right behind one of these...



Schweet.

I admire the lines of this beautiful Porsche and then immediately kick myself for not having my camera that I ALWAYS seem to carry with me in the car. Except for today.

I roll behind him down 75, torn between jealousy and frustration and take the Sheridan Street West exit that dumps me right at Lowe's. I walk up to the Garden Center and, intent on not wasting any more time, immediately ask a Lowe's employee [all together now], "Do you carry any sod?" "Sure," the African-American Chic says. Woo-hoo! My search is over! "Is it in the back?", I ask? "No, right out front," she says and walks out toward the entrance I just went past without seeing any sod. Uh-oh. African-American Chic gets out to the sidewalk, stops, looks right and left and announces, "Nope. No sod." Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh. So close.

By this point, I'm a broken man. I walk back to my car, throw my work gloves in the car and start to head home.

But then I ask myself, "Self, what can I do to make lemonade out of lemons? How can I make traveling 20 miles and burning through 1/4 tank of gas for nothing seem worthwhile?" And then the answer came to me.

The Fresh Market.

The Fresh Market is located at University and Sheridan which was right on my way home. I had been to this Whole-Foods-Wannabee kind of grocery store years ago and remembered it as a cool kind of place to shop. So I stopped and picked up a nice lunch (chicken breast and grilled vegees), sipped something they were giving out called cinnamon roll coffee [gak] and generally loitered for about 45 minutes in an attempt to justify my epic voyage that got me there. It was while I was lingering over their fine wine collection that I remembered: hey, today is Free Vivanno Day.

So I paid for my groceries and with a new spring to my step, hightailed it over to my favorite Starbucks on Pines just west of Douglas and picked my free cold Starbucks beverage. I rate the orange mango banana combination as very good. And even more uplifting to the soul when half your day has been shot in a fruitless attempt to find sod.

I'm back home now, obviously, and am going to try to accomplish something today before heading down to South Beach this evening in an attempt to put lipstick on what has otherwise been one pig of a day.

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The Cooler

Just a few things from the mainstream media to start your morning.

A- Herald: Fidel Castro's time in Miami.

Castro's first visit to the Miami area came in mid-October 1948, and was typical for the times:

A newlywed, he came to honeymoon with his new bride, Mirta Díaz-Balart. The couple stayed at a Miami Beach hotel -- perhaps the Saxony, the San Souci or the Shelborne. ''Those were the hotels where well-healed, upwardly mobile couples honeymooned in the late 1940s,'' said Miami Beach historian Paul George.

Castro's bride was the sister of Castro's University of Havana law school classmate and then-close friend, the late Rafael Díaz-Balart -- father of Cuban-American congressmen Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart.

B- Sun-Sentinel: 15-year-old boy allegedly kills 14-year-old girl after sex.

FORT LAUDERDALE - One was a pudgy 15-year-old boy with an anger problem. The other, a 14-year-old girl abandoned by her parents.

Police say the middle school students had sex and then Jason Hartley strangled Neica Marie Gibbs in anger after an argument. "I know he had some anger problems," Hartley's mother, Lorraine Boggess, said.

Fort Lauderdale police arrested Hartley Thursday night on a murder charge and say he confessed to killing Gibbs on June 28 and stashing her body next to a garbage bin in the Azalea Trailer Colony in the 2700 block of Southwest Sixth Drive where he lived.

Gibbs was reported missing the next day. Her body sat by the bin for three weeks until two women investigating a foul smell found it.

C- Palm Beach Post: Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary.

Today the Lupellas live in an apartment complex on State Road A1A. They are cared for by home health services personnel from Boca Raton Community Hospital. They have five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Often they get asked by young couples about the secret of a durable union.

Michael says that whenever they didn't agree on something, they walked away and let it rest for a while.

"We knew exactly when we had to stop being together," he said.

Sure, there were arguments. Theirs is a long marriage, not a perfect one.

"But love is bigger than anything," Judith said.

D- NBC6: Fort Lauderdale is #1 in the state for foreclosures.

E- WPLG: The owner of the old Miami Arena wants to tear it down and build a new Marlins stadium on the land.

In a phone interview Friday, [Glenn] Straub said the interior of the arena has already been gutted and the building will be imploded in about two weeks.

Straub said he and his partners want to build the long-sought Marlins stadium on the property and will finance it themselves. Straub also said he wants to swap the land for the site of the demolished Orange Bowl because he has plans to develop it.

F- WPTV: The Estefans love Vero Beach.

Miami and it's sound machine made them famous in the mid 80's.

But these days Gloria and Emilio Estefan ---are enjoying the peaceful sounds of Vero Beach.

"We fell in love." says Gloria Estefan. "Vero is so quaint and quiet. We found the perfect house 7 years ago...we bought it and enjoy it very much. We bring friends and family here. This place has become our haven--really an escape."

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Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

Hope your weekend is beginning well. Lots of bloggers using their cameras it seems. I have some of the links here in your morning Sift...

A- Matt's Photo Blog gets some shots of an FHP DUI checkpoint in progress last night in Miami-Dade County. The irony of the checkpoint being set up outside a Ticket Clinic made me smile.

B- The South Beach Bum borrows some B-52's Temptations lyrics to describe some photos he took around South Beach this morning.

C- A Pretty Good Guy gets his letter to the editor published in the Sun-Sentinel.

D- Discourse posts the video of an excellent TV ad that Florida Democrat Alan Grayson is running. I love the comment that the post gets.

E- Interesting post by Transit Miami where they describe a survey of bicyclists using the Venetian Causeway one Tuesday morning.

What I discovered is instructive. Overall, I counted 90 bicyclists. Interestingly, I saw no children, kids, or teens. About 60% of the riders were headed east, while another 40% were heading west. Those readily identifiable as recreational bicyclists were doing loops, while the rest, with their backpacks, saddle bags, and lack of spandex, were probably on their way to or from work.

Men outnumbered women by 40%, which says something about users, safety and preference.

As it relates to bicycle behavior, 100% of users were using the on-street bicycle lanes, opting to stay away from the sidewalks. What is more, 100% of bicyclists were riding with traffic.

F- 305: Misadventures in the MIA captures a sort of surreal scene on the MacArthur Causeway yesterday evening at 7 PM with no traffic on the roadway. Of course it was heading west, but still...

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Your Evening Sift

On the night of one of the longest Sifts produced here, it's only fitting that BellSouth AT&T has, once again, proven itself unable to deliver a consistent internet connection to my household. Thank goodness for neighbors who have Comcast (or something else) and who don't bother to encrypt their wifi.

Here's your evening Sift that was written on "borrowed" broadband.

A- Jeff Eats reviews Morton's The Steakhouse...

The food is fair. The service is as phony as a 3-dollar bill. The prices…are upscale steakhouse prices, figure a complete meal runs somewhere around 100 bucks a head. Morton’s like every other upscale steakhouse prides itself on having tip-top service. Morton’s is also “big” on tableside presentation…having its wait-staff show/explain “raw cuts of meat” during the ordering process. The wait-staff also “shows” desserts before ordering.

In my most recent outing, the waiter during the meat-showing told my party, ” My personal favorite is the 24 oz porterhouse.” Amazingly…near the end of the meal, the very same waiter (I guess feeling a bit comfortable with our group) told me that he was “a vegetarian.”

Like the waiter, Morton’s is nothing but a scripited joint.

B- A Transit Miami reader takes the Summer Transit Challenge and makes everyone jealous.

My experience today was much like every other work day:

* 7:55 drive one mile to the South Miami metrorail station
* 8:00 park & catch a train as I reach the top of the stairs
* 8:12 depart to Brickell metrorail station
* 8:20 catch the Metro Mover to Financial district
* 8:25 first to arrive in the offce - unlock the office door

C- Ipanemic posts a kick-a** video of a Lincoln Road model shoot that he and a couple other notorious South Beach photographers took part in recently.

D- South Florida Theatre Scene submits his usual weekend wrap up.

E- Bark Bark Woof Woof does a weird experiment with his blog and finds out that Comcast might be reading.

F- I shot the chef shares some pictures of the beginning of the renovation of her kitchen.

G- MiamiNights explains to us why he favors raises for Miami-Dade's commissioners.

H- Big City Dogs gets A Pretty Good Guy's award for Best Hot Dog in Broward County.

I- Random Pixels opines on Marco Rubio's new job at FIU and how he got it. Flablog joins in, too, because it's so darn obvious.

J- All Purpose Dark ventures across the causeway and reviews the Dolphin Mall's new Cinebistro. APD found the food a bit over priced but...

All in all it's a fun movie-watching experience. There are no kids, everyone's a bit tipsy and every so often you'd hear plates crash to the floor as some clumsy theater patron fumbles with their tray table.

K- Fond memories provided by Miami Fever.

L- Reidblog takes a hard look at John McCain, The Angry American...

It would be different if McCain came off as righteously indignant at some external ill that All Americans can relate to; if he railed against an economy that's hurting the little guy, or against big corporations that take American jobs overseas... if he spouted off about the administration's failure to find Osama bin Laden (something that would also help distance him from his ball and chain, George W. Bush.) Instead, McCain's constant outrage these days is that Barack Obama won't admit that the surge is working, damnit! Not exactly the issue on the top of struggling middle class American minds.

McCain rages that Obama won't allow the big oil companies to have more oil leases (though he says nothing about oil companies that refuse to drill on the leases they have, or who are bilking the American people (not to mention his opposition to a bill that would have forced oil companies to sell any oil they drill offshore in the U.S., to Americans, rather than the higher bidding Chinese...) Thus, he misses the chance to take advantage of a tried and true political axiom: attack the unpopular big guy in defense of Joe American.

Most of all, McCain doesn't seem to be angry on behalf of the American people -- he seems angry for HIMSELF, and at his situation, which makes him look petty and mean.

Basically, John McCain is acting like every wingnut conservative who is pissed at the way Obama is making McCain, Republicans, and, of course, them, look like yesterday's news.

M- FinsNation adds some comments of his own to the Miami Herald's Dolphin training camp primer.

Any tips?

Bring water [or you will die. Seriously], sunscreen [or you will die. Seriously] and a long attention span. It's going to get hot.

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Friday Flashback

Trying to redeem myself from last week...



Pink Floyd, Run Like Hell

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Tile Tales [Updated]

SFDB has been a big fan of Tilefortlauderdale since our blog birth in February. The concept of leaving a hand-painted tile for someone to find in a restroom or under a mail box or in a newspaper box is just so creative and so unique that we try to mention each and every "drop" and the story behind the tile.

Most of Tilefortlauderdale's tiles have not been found or, at least, have not been reported back as being found. Mary Tiler More, Tilefortlauderdale's writer and tile painter, leaves the blog address on the back of every tile so that "finders" can contact her if they want.

Recently one did and the story of "Feisty Fred" grew to such epic proportions that a Clarksville, Tennessee, newspaper picked up on it and, well, you have to read it to believe it.

Finding an artifact from a previous civilization outside one of the oldest structures in this area would have been less surprising. What 8-year-old Samantha Smith found outside her church after a day at Vacation Bible School was an artifact of the Internet age, a monument of new expressions of creativity.

Under the sign for Patriot Park outside Bethel United Methodist Church, Samantha, who goes by the nickname Sami, saw what looked like the brightly colored edge of a poster or greeting card.

"I saw something sticking out. I thought it was a piece of paper, but it wasn't. It was this," Sami says, holding up a large floor tile.

On the tile is painted a dapper-looking cat with a ring of bells around its neck, standing tall and staring ahead boldly. "Fred Feels Feisty" is painted in block letters up one side. Fred looks feisty!

Read the whole story to find out how the tile made it from Florida to Tennessee. I will tell you that the best part of all, in my opinion, is the influence this has had on one 8-year-old's life.

Sami is so excited about Fred that, although she intends to keep him and not hide him in another spot, she is thinking about painting tiles of her own and hiding them for others to find. The found art has provided a new charge for Sami's own artistic nature.

[...]

"I like how she paints on this. I like the texture," Sami says. "When I take art classes, I want to learn how she does it. Drawing is my hobby that I will always cherish."

And that, folks, has to be about as much "impact" that a blogger can hope to have. Don't you think?



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The Miami Herald has picked up on the Tennessee story that is now AP syndicated.

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