The Cooler

After a couple quiet days in the mainstream media, we finally have ourselves a decent amount of news to share with you this morning.

A- Sun-Sentinel: A not-so-great investment.

Broward County's median price for existing homes in 2008 dropped 23 percent to $278,000, the Florida Association of Realtors said Monday. Sales did increase 4 percent, to 6,377 from 6,127, as buyers jumped into the market to take advantage of deep discounts.

In Palm Beach County, there were 6,953 sales last year, off slightly from 6,971 in 2007. The median price declined 18 percent to $302,800.

B- Sun-Sentinel: Don't put away that down comforter just yet.

More cold air is on the way and should arrive by the end of the week.

It shouldn't be as chilly as the blast we experienced last week. And it shouldn't last as long.

Still, it's expected to be a bit nippy on Friday night, dipping into the mid to upper 40s. High temperatures on Saturday should be in the mid to upper 60s.

C- Sun-Suntinel: The Geek Squad breaks out their cuffs.

WELLINGTON -- A Boynton Beach man was caught with child pornography not by police, but by the Geek Squad, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

Guy Gripor, 37, was arrested Sunday on six charges of obscene sexual pictures of children. In May he dropped his computer off at the Best Buy electronics store in Wellington, according to a sheriff's report. Andrew Lafferty, a computer technician for the "Geek Squad" that fixes computers at Best Buy stores, found several pictures while working on the computer, according to the report.

D- Sun-Sentinel: Editorial, U.S. policy with Cuba.

And so we wait. And we speculate.

Fidel's alive — or maybe not. Raul Castro will make a seamless transition once his older brother passes — or maybe not. Cubans will accept Raul's leadership — or maybe not. Cubans will protest in the street — or maybe not.

It's all guesswork because the policy of isolating Cuba has also isolated U.S. leaders and U.S. policy. What's been most embargoed is U.S. influence in Cuba.

The new Obama administration would be smart to understand this and follow up with greater diplomatic engagement. Doing so might remove some of the guesswork and replace it with more trustworthy intelligence and knowledge about the leaders who will follow Fidel. It might even prod Cuba to make the reforms it so desperately needs to make.

And then maybe it won't matter so much whether the maximum leader is alive or dead.

E- Palm Beach Post: Your feets are your property.

FORT PIERCE — A former St. Lucie County firefighter was arrested today on theft charges in connection with a severed foot she took from an accident site in September.

Cindy Economou, 38, of Port St. Lucie, was arrested on one misdemeanor charge of petit theft and booked into the St. Lucie County Jail, then released on her own recognizance, according to an arrest report.

Economou admitted to taking Karl Lambert's foot from the scene of the crash on Interstate 95 in St. Lucie County on Sept. 19. Lambert had crashed into a tree, severing his foot, and was later flown to St. Mary's Medical Center.

Lambert, 46, of Melbourne, survived. Economou told St. Lucie County Fire District investigators that she took the foot because it was too damaged to reattach and she intended to use it for training cadaver dogs.

[...]

According to the arrest report, investigators believe that by taking the foot without Lambert's permission she intended to "either permanently or temporarily deprive the owner, Mr. Lambert, the right to his property."

F- Herald: The Eagles kicked some butt last night in Broward.

The Eagles were polished but playful on slashing rock numbers like Walsh's comical 1978 solo hit Life's Been Good, the landmark Life in the Fast Lane and a couple of Walsh's James Gang staples. The finale, Desperado, the Eagles' old ballad standard, found Henley's distinctive rasp sounding as pliable and soulful as it did when the band originally released this tune during President Nixon's abridged second administration.

At the end of a long night, the four Eagles might even have had, gasp, fun. The audience certainly did.

G- Herald: And you wonder why traffic blows in South Florida.

Drunk driving, speeding, driving the wrong way on an expressway ramp -- in eight years, Gabriel Delrisco has been ticketed 26 times in Miami-Dade County for traffic infractions of all types.

But Delrisco, the suspect in the red-light wreck that killed three children in South Miami-Dade Sunday, always did enough to keep his license, records show.

That's not unusual in Miami-Dade's swollen traffic court system, lawyers say.

H- Herald: Morin.

I- CBS4: Video, Florida's best companies to work for.

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