The Cooler

Another busy day in the mainstream media although it looks like a South Beach rooster is the center of attention...

A- Herald: Go Mr. Clucky!

Mr. Clucky is going to Miami Beach City Hall Thursday morning, which is when the local celebrity chicken will learn whether or not he will be exiled from Miami Beach.

City code enforcement told Mr. Clucky's owner, Mark Buckley, that farm animals are not allowed to live in Miami Beach and that the chicken and his publicity-shy girlfriend, Wallflower, must leave Buckley's Jefferson Avenue studio apartment.

Buckley is crying fowl -- uh, foul. He argued that the chicken delights many children when it rides in his basket along Lincoln Road and has become an ambassador for the city.

B- Herald: I know the perfect blogger to get to the bottom of this.

Two men impersonating police officers are on the run after shooting a man early Thursday in Northwest Miami-Dade.

Laura Magnum and husband Paul, who own a fire restoration business, were heading to a job about 4:15 a.m. When they realized they had forgotten their notebooks at home, they turned around to get them.

As they neared their neighborhood, Laura Magnum said a dark Dodge Charger with flashing red and blue lights pulled them over near Northeast 111th Street and 14th Avenue. Once the couple pulled over, they were told over a loud speaker to get out of the car.

As Paul Magnum got out of his car, Laura Magnum said, two men got out of the Charger. One was carrying a baseball bat.

``They came at him with the bat. They hit him in the back with the bat, and then he started fighting with them,'' Laura Magnum said. ``They ended up in the bushes, where they shot him twice.''

C- Herald: Making sure we stay scared.

``Yes, it seems slow compared to the last couple of years, but this is nothing out of the ordinary,'' said Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the National Hurricane Center in West Miami-Dade County.

Many a hurricane season has started slowly, only to accelerate right about now. In 2004, for instance, the first named storm didn't pop up until the last day of July.

``That was the same year that had Charlie, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne,'' Feltgen said. ``We ended up with 15 named storms.''

D- Herald: Run, doggies, run!

Dog lovers and their pooches didn't let bad weather deter them from celebrating the grand opening of Tropical Park's Dog Park Playground on Saturday.

[...]

The playground is divided into two areas, one for dogs weighing more than 35 pounds and the other for smaller dogs.

Both sections of the playground feature play equipment such as a tire jump, king-of-the-hill ramp and a dog walk. There are also doggy drinking fountains, pooper scoopers and a comfort station where owners can hose down their canines to prevent them from overheating.

E- Sun-Sentinel: Don't they do this all the time?

Drivers who change lanes without warning may get more than just nasty looks from fellow commuters this week.

Today and Friday, scores of Florida Highway Patrol troopers will be monitoring the Florida Turnpike and interstate highways for aggressive drivers, issuing citations to anyone they stop.

Anyone who switches lanes abruptly, tailgates, runs traffic lights, speeds or ignores traffic signs and signals is considered an agressive driver, according to the Highway Patrol.

F- Sun-Sentinel: Collateral damage.

HIALEAH - An off-duty Surfside police officer fired at a charging pit bull this morning, missing the dog but grazing a woman standing nearby, police said.

The woman was grazed in the neck and treated at the scene, said Detective Eddie Rodriguez, a Hialeah police spokesman.

G- Sun-Sentinel: Yeah, but what about the lobsters?

Against choppy seas and wind, the opening day of the two-day lobster miniseason had its usual share of fish tales but was marred by at least two divers' death and several boating mishaps.

H- Sun-Sentinel: One more reason to stay home.

The new Air Lauderdale show that's coming April 24-25, 2010, will be a bit different than the old Air and Sea Show you're used to. For one thing, much of the beachfront will be behind gates, and an entry fee will be charged to get into that area, where concerts and activities will be presented.

I- Sun-Sentinel: Chan Lowe.

J- South Florida Business Journal: Leader of the pack.

Florida, along with three other states, continued to lead the nation in number of foreclosures, accounting for 35 of the 50 highest foreclosure rates among metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more, according to RealtyTrac’s midyear report.

California, Nevada and Arizona were the other three states.

K- CBS4: South Florida's crappy beaches.

The National Resources Defense Council says that Florida beaches rank ninth in the nation overall, and that they are no cleaner or dirtier than they were last year.

However, in its first five-star rating of the nation's top 200 beaches, South Beach only earned a two star rating. No beaches in Broward made the list.

The surveys were based on data collected from the state. A spokesman says it shows that Florida beaches must do a better job of keeping bacteria and other pollutants out of the water.

L- WPLG: Video, "weeding" out Oleta River State Park.

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