Your Evening Sift

Is it only Tuesday? Sheesh. Not a very busy day in the SoFla blogosphere as I think things are starting to wind down for the holiday. Here's your Tuesday evening Sift...

A- Miamism uses some extra soft photos and shows us what $900 G's will get you in Miami Shores these days.

B- Sounds like someone got to Matt Meltzer over at Miami Beach 411 and told him to chill a little on the Miami critiques.

I’m not going to use this column to tell you what the realities of living here are, I’ve done that at great length on this site. What I’ll say is for you to enjoy those glorious Miami experiences when you can, because that’s what makes the rest of life here worth it. And if you do live here, get out to the beach and live like a tourist once in a while. It’ll make you forget all the reasons this city drives you nuts, and make you remember why you choose to call it home.

C- It's a mixed bag over at South Florida Lawyers today. There's a note about the passing of impressionist Fred Travelena and a nod to the success story of a recently laid off female lawyer who has moved on and thrived outside the confines of a law firm.

D- Food For Thought gives his first impressions of Mercadito, a Mexican restaurant that's poised to open this winter in Midtown.

I'm not sure what to make of the fact that their 5-page menu only has 2 pages of actual foodstuffs, the rest being a pretty impressive list of tequilas, cocktails, wine & beer, other than that you may be carrying me out of there. The food items look to have the same contemporary, vaguely upscale, geographically unplaceable quality of, say, Rosa Mexicano, another Mexico-to-Miami-by-way-of-New-York mini-chain.

E-Soul of Miami shares some information on something called Yelp! Eats Restaurant Week that's coming up later in July.

F- Mood Vane attended Can I Say at Cinema Paradiso in Lauderdale this weekend as has some photos.

The in-between song banter was quite precious and amusing, but how else do you react to an audience almost entirely composed of amused hecklers, asking, without expectation, for new songs, making flatulent noises and whispering faint “I love yous” to crack everyone up? I couldn’t wipe the stupid smile off of my face the whole time.

G- The Cuban Triangle has some thoughts on the coup in Honduras.

What I don’t understand is how the Honduran military’s resolution of this situation – putting troops in the streets, seizing broadcast media, grabbing the President in his pajamas and putting him on a plane to Costa Rica – has earned so much applause on the right in the United States. Is a B-movie military coup the only tool or a legitimate tool to counter the advance of Chavez-style leftist politics in this hemisphere?

H- Karma shows up on the doorstep of a Republican, says Bark Bark Woof Woof.

.

Democracy On The March

This is the kind of democracy many of your fellow Americans are now supporting...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Honduran troops detained seven international journalists covering the aftermath of a military coup Monday, freeing them unhurt a short time later. The government also took at least two television stations off the air and interrupted the broadcasts of others.

At least 10 soldiers, most with rifles drawn, arrived at the hotel where journalists from The Associated Press and the Venezuela-based television network Telesur were staying and unplugged their editing equipment in an apparent attempt to stop their coverage of protests in support of deposed President Manuel Zelaya.

[...]

The media apparently have been acting on orders from the government, though it is unclear who has been giving them. Soldiers have been posted around some television and radio stations and around the national power and phone companies.

Meanwhile, Rush declares that what is happening in Honduras is "what many of you wish would happen here, without the military..."



Being patriotic means supporting torture? Defending liberty and freedom means backing a Central American coup that sends a democratically elected President to another country in his pajamas? Loving the United States of America means wanting to overthrow your President?

No. The end doesn't always justify the means, as some in America apparently believe.

It is times like these that I'm damn proud to say that I voted for Democrats in this last election and will continue to support their idea of what democracy is and isn't. While President Obama is far from perfect, he sure beats the hell out of the crap I hear coming from conservative's mouths these days.

-photo via AP

.

How I Spend My First Ten Minutes Online In The Morning

Shamelessly stolen from ProBlogger, I liked the idea of their post, so here goes nothing.

How I spend the first ten minutes online in the morning...

1. Open up Gmail

I open up my Gmail and see what mail I've received overnight and what comments might need to be moderated [if I'm in the comments moderation mode]. Usually I don't answer any mail until later in the morning, but I'll see what needs to be addressed, at least.


2. Open up Google Reader

...to see what kind of activity there has been since the previous evening Sift. There are a few feeds that I'll check immediately, but mostly I'm just getting an idea of the volume of activity so I can mentally calculate how much time composing the Sift is going to take me.


3. Check My Stats

Usually just a simple scan of what my numbers were like for the day before and how they're trending for the current day. I also like to determine where people are coming from to see if someone has linked to me.


None of this is done before I've made myself a cup of coffee, of course.

After finishing the above three items, I'll begin the Sift and then transition into the Cooler.

So does your morning online routine look similar to mine?

.

The Cooler

Make sure you wear your seat belt because it just got a lot more expensive not to. This and more in today's Cooler...

A- Herald: Only because it's Brickell?

A sudden crime surge in the burgeoning Brickell area has prompted the Miami Police Department to flood the area with more cops and to create a makeshift police station to process arrests.

''When crime steps up, we as a police department step up as well,'' said Miami Police Commander Lorenzo Whitehead on Monday in launching ``Operation Difference.''

The area, which includes Brickell Avenue and Coral Way, has seen a recent increase in burglaries of motor vehicle and robberies.

Working out of the parking lot of Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1770 Brickell Ave., Whitehead dispatched some 25 officers from various units.

The location served as the police headquarters for the day, and all arrests made through the operation were brought to the church parking lot.

B- Herald: Click it or ticket.

Beginning Tuesday morning, Florida law-enforcement officers will have the authority to pull you over and issue a ticket for not wearing a seat belt. In the past, an officer could only ticket a driver for failing to wear a seat belt after stopping them for another offense.

The fine under the new law: $114 or $115, depending on the county of offense.

[...]

Under the law, drivers and passengers will be required to wear seat belts in the front seat. Minors under 18 seated in the back must also buckle up. If they don't, adults will get a ticket for every minor not wearing a seat belt.

''So if you are a mom driving with two children in the backseat and they're not wearing seat belts, you get two tickets,'' said Lt. Pat Santangelo of the Florida Highway Patrol.

C- Herald: Editorial, the military coup in Honduras.

The forcible removal from office of President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras is an undeniable setback for democracy in a country that, until this weekend, had relegated the military overthrow of governments to the history books.

That Mr. Zelaya's own ambitious political schemes set in motion the chain of events that led to his ouster is no excuse for a coup d'etat. He stubbornly insisted on holding a plebiscite that the Supreme Court had disallowed.

Sure, it was a thinly veiled attempt to circumvent a restriction that limits a president to a single term, but there are ways to deal with presidents behaving badly short of a military coup.

[...]

Fed up with Mr. Zelaya's recklessness, they chose instead to short-circuit the process by apparently conspiring with the military to remove him by force.

On Sunday, Roberto Micheletti, president of the Congress, was appointed to take Mr. Zelaya's place and promptly had his Woody Allen moment. In a scene straight out of the farcical movie, Bananas, Mr. Micheletti proclaimed ''Long live democracy!'' insisting no coup d'etat had occurred.

Nonsense. What else do you call it when soldiers wearing hoods stage a pre-dawn attack on the presidential palace, seize the president and send him into exile, still in his pajamas? Not an orderly transfer of power, even by Woody Allen standards.

Two wrongs do not make a right. What happened in Honduras makes political power the hostage of whomever has the most guns.

Democracy is messy and does not always yield instant results, but it beats resorting to gunplay. Mr. Zelaya gave his enemies ample ammunition by his political recklessness, but he was elected for a four-year term and should be allowed to complete it -- unless he were to be removed by a legal and orderly process.

D- Sun-Sentinel: Chan Lowe.

E- TC Palm: Over spray.

JENSEN BEACH — A man was charged Saturday evening with domestic battery after he drenched his wife with a garden hose and attacked her, according to an affidavit released Monday.

The altercation began when the victim entered the couple’s residence in the 1400 block of Northeast Chardon Street, while smoking a cigarette.

The affidavit says the victim’s husband, John Jeffrey Murray, 51, began yelling at her about smoking in the house and sprayed her with the hose.

[...]

Despite the victim’s clothes being soaked with water, Murray told deputies he had been watering the grass and did not intend to spray her. The affidavit says he claimed the water was simply “over spray.”

F- CBS4: Video, new video and 911 recordings from Donte Stallworth accident.

.

Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

Not too much in the way of posting last night. Everyone was pretty wiped out from the very, very busy blogging day, no doubt. Here's your short and to the point morning Sift...

A- The South Florida Watershed Journal still is not sure whether Florida has monsoons.

The evidence – or lack there of – is seemingly in favor of “no”:

The term “monsoon” is simply not part of Florida’s water lexicon, in both speech and written word. I can’t find it mentioned once anywhere in any of my book on my Florida book shelf.

But that raises my curiosity even more:

“Yes” it’s not mentioned, but “no” it’s not outright refuted either … that keeps me digging.

And after all, South Florida has a distinctly seasonal rainfall pattern.

B- Fuerza Bruta extends its stay at the Arsht through August and offers discount tickets, according to Soul of Miami.

C- Mango&Lime says that Coral Gables' new Greek restaurant is opening tomorrow.

It turns out they were more ready to open than I thought. Cafe Hellas opens Wednesday, a gentleman who was walking into the place told D. I really hope they bring us some good food.

Cafe Hellas will serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hours of operation will be Monday-Thursday from 7:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m., Friday 7:30 a.m.-11:00 p.m. and Saturday 11:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.

.

Your Evening Sift

Big Monday in the SoFla blogosphere and I have all the good stuff collected for you in tonight's evening Sift...

A- Ipanemic admits that he's tired of traveling.

I’m just ready to get back to normal life. The first part of this trip, going to LA, presented new challenges constantly. There was a certain rhythm to traveling across the land, riding along the gulf coast, driving to Corpus Christi, driving through the southern part of New Mexico and eventually arriving in LA. The return trip has been the same challenges, but I am finding little of interest on the way back. I know the southeast, having lived here before and there is no magic in this land. Antebellum homes, train tracks running through towns that visibly divide the haves from have-nots, the feed and seed stores, the rollling hills… I’m done. Rome seems nice and I’m sure it is, but I just want to get the hell out of here.

B- Swampstyle laments the loss of the Surfside Community Center before its time.

To their credit and our support, the current commission of deciders got into office the hard way, they campaigned as activist citizens doing the heady lifting. They were and still are concerned neighbors. But for some inexplicable reason they made a big strategic mistake. Once in, they quickly condemned the community center and soon after demolished the old place... ready for the kicker?... before securing the funds to build a new one.

C- Justice Building Blog ponders the 150 years that Bernie Madoff got today.

Doesn't giving a 70 something year old man 150 years speak more of vengeance than the 3553 sentencing factors? Is 150 years the minimum sentence necessary to accomplish all the other goals and concerns under the statute?

D- Eye on Miami discusses some scandalous accusations against a former county commission chairperson. Lots of comments.

E- The Burger Beast will be holding court at John Martin's on July 6th.

So on Monday July 6th at 8pm, come by John Martin's, there'll be burgers, there'll be drink specials as well as the whole Burger Beast crew.

F- The Havana Club is history, according to South Florida Lawyers.

G- Don't look for a foreclosed house until you read this post at Miami Beach 411.

“The best thing to do to find properties and agents, I found was to look up REO (real estate-owned) properties on specific bank sites. A lot of banks, like Chase, Countrywide and Indymac have search pages where you can enter a specific city, state or zip code or any combination of the three and pull up current lists of properties they own.

H- If you've ever ridden a bike through the Rickenbacker tolls, you'll "get" this Transit Miami post.

And while recent bicycle lane improvements have done much to improve safety along the Causeway, it’s entrance/exit at the Miami Avenue-Brickell-Avenue-South Dixie Highway-Southeast 26th Road intersections remain perilous for almost all users. The diagram that I made below reveals just how complex the environment is for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motor vehicle drivers. If you know the area’s traffic patterns, many of the necessary maneuvers forced upon bicylists and pedestrians, or taken by choice, are illegal and unsafe.

I- Crazy Pianos in the Grove apparently did something to tick off the locals because Coconut Grove Grapevine is on a tear. Lots of comments, too.

They actually made the bar crawlers wait outside because it was "dinner hour" and then only let in a few at a time. After 9 pm, if you had shorts or tank tops on, you were not allowed in. They basically just went through the motions. What type of bar crawl allows a person or two in, lets them have a beer and then shoves them out? What fun is that?

They were given the liquor to serve by the Alfest organizers, but refused to serve it all. They supposedly kept most of it for their own profit. Apparently the door staff was rude and so were the bartenders. The Alfest organizers received numerous phone calls with complaints.

Why sign up for the bar crawl if you don't want to participate? What's the point? To make yourself look good? Didn't work, you made yourself look bad. Screwing the charity and Grove patrons is not the way to gain friends and fit in with the village.

J- SFLTV breaks the news that some major players at WTVJ were laid off today.

Breaking news now confirmed by SFLTV.com: Major talent layoffs at WTVJ NBC6 today. Shocked tipsters are telling SFLTV.com that longtime anchor and South Florida icon/news legend Kelly Craig was laid off from the station early Monday afternoon. You heard right. The anchor that has been there since April of 1990 was laid off. Joining in this major round of lay-offs are weekday morning reporter Joe Carter, and Andrea Brody, the only female sports anchor at WTVJ. SFLTV is told that these layoffs were all most likely due to the economy.

K- Jeff Eats lists his 17 Best "Regular" Pizza Joints in South Florida.

L- Remember the big hubbub about some high-ranking Cuban officials leaving their jobs last March? Yeah, me neither. The Cuban Triangle has an interesting follow up.

Now we know why Cuban authorities gave out so little information, apart from a terse announcement and a cryptic Fidel Castro reflection, when Vice President Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque left their jobs last March.

They were making a movie.

M- I Heart Miami has a run down of South Florida's July 4th celebrations if you can discern them through the difficult color combination on the blog.


.

SFDB Post Of The Week

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

Wow. It was a super week for blogging in the South Florida blogosphere. I had 10 posts that made the final cut. But, of course, I only have room for 4 of them so there were a number of wonderful posts that are not mentioned here today. Let's get started, shall we?

Winner: What goes on in the kitchen of a first class restaurant has always been a bit of a mystery to many diners. But this week, Food For Thought gave us a peek into how some local artisan chefs work their magic. Wearing a chef's jacket and actually lending a hand in the kitchen, Food For Thought put his readers in the driver's seat for one night at Paradigm at Neomi's Grill in Sunny Isles and took them minute by minute through the preparation and the serving of an exotic meal. The experience, which was actually documented in two posts, was very well written and generously supplemented with plenty of images. It's an experience the likes of which I've never seen documented in a blog format before. For his extraordinary efforts that provide a one-of-a-kind insight, I'm happy to recognize Food For Thought's two-part post called "In The Test Kitchen at Paradigm." with this week's SFDB's Post of the Week.


Runners-Up: Brickell Life continues to produce some great exposes on life in the Brickell area and this week his post titled On The Boat To Key Biscayne For Breakfast, shared his ride across Biscayne Bay for a delicious Sunday breakfast in true South Florida style. There's something about Swampstyle's writing that makes it wonderful in a very strange but exposed way. His Father's Day post, called Are You My Papi? follows that formula in a particularly gratifying way this week. And finally, Sex and the Beach does a magnificent job on a review of Kafa Cafe, making this blogger want to go out and try Ethiopian food when I don't even like Ethiopian food.

The Post of the Month poll is coming up [already!] so stay tuned and, of course, 'til next time, people, keep on blogging!


.

Checking In On "Real America"

MSNBC:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A gun-toting Kentucky pastor says it's OK to bring weapons to church — at least for one day.

Ken Pagano asked his flock to bring their unloaded handguns — in holsters — to New Bethel Church in Louisville for a celebration of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Consitution that guarantees the right to bear arms.

More than 200 people answered his call. There was just one rule for the several dozen who brought their guns along: No bullets.

[...]

The "Open Carry Celebration" included a handgun raffle, patriotic music and screening of gun safety videos. Some gun owners carried old-fashioned six-shooters in leather holsters, while others packed modern police-style firearms. Kentucky allows residents to openly carry guns in public with some restrictions.

[...]

Across town, a coalition of peace and church groups concerned about Pagano's appeal to gun owners staged their own gun-free event.

"I think when people first learned about this invitation to wear guns to church, many people were deeply troubled," said Terry Taylor, one of the organizers. "The idea of wearing guns to churches or any sacred space I think many people find deeply troubling."

Pagano's event also troubled his church's longtime insurance carrier, which declined to insure the event and informed him it won't renew the policy. He found a new carrier at a cost of $700 for the day, but guns had to be unloaded.

Kentucky was virtually solid for McCain in 2008.

.

SFDB Ecard Of The Day

.

SFDB Receives Threats

People who followed me at the other blog and here at SFDB know that I have been quite critical of Cuban-American hardliners and their rhetoric. I routinely point out their duplicitous hypocrisy and mock their ignorance of facts and their extremist form of conservatism. I call them on their thuggish behavior and the bullying techniques that they employ against those who disagree with them.

It's harsh criticism, make no doubt, but that's all it is.

Lately, I've been getting comments on SFDB, usually late at night, that are just generally vulgar in nature. They address my writing at the old blog, my sexual orientation and, lately, even my girlfriend. As a result, I've had to resort to periodic comment moderation in order to enforce my comments policy.

But this morning I got this comment from someone who calls himself "Berocos Menocál" [go ahead and Google it and see where this guy hangs his hat] that surprised even me.

Rick you f*cking [Ed.] looser, don't be surprised when you get a knock at your door at three in the morning any day now, your days of provoking while hiding behind your now no longer existent anonymity are over, we have discovered your identity[...] Your ass is ours now monkey boy.

I've edited the comment for its vulgarity and I removed some additional allegations about my work.

Let me make sure that I am very clear here: I have no idea who is behind this email. I have my thoughts on the matter given the verbiage "Menocál" uses and the very salient fact that this fits perfectly with the modus operandi of certain persons that I have criticized in the past. But the bottom line is that "Menocál" remains, ironically enough, anonymous.

As I've said, these comments come late at night or in the early morning hours when SFDB traffic is extremely light and my stats tracker can easily sort out the originating IP of those who make comments at that hour. Needless to say, this threat is being taken very seriously by me and IP's are being recorded and noted.

In the world of blogging, you can't be thin-skinned. If you dish it out, you have to be able to take it, too. However, I believe a line is crossed when bloggers are threatened and stalked in order to dissuade them from being critical or sharing their opinions. It's bullying at its worst.

And there may be some who even consider it criminal.

.

The Cooler

There's still news out there that doesn't deal with Michael Jackson, believe it or not. Here's some of it.

A- Herald: Sousa on the recent Medicare fraud arrests.

Many of the suspects in the story had Hispanic names, including Arturo Apolinar, who was arrested in May at Miami International Airport as he traveled from Havana to Detroit. The Herald's online story featured a gallery of fugitives suspected of fraud, most of them Cuban.

So it's easy to understand why a reasonable person would automatically blame this particular class of crime, Medicare fraud, on Cuban immigrants.

A reasonable person, but not an educated one.

Certainly many Cubans have been involved in the recent strings of Medicare fraud arrests, and I wouldn't even be surprised if, as some believe, the Cuban government were benefiting from a scam that totals hundreds of millions of dollars. But the notion that Cubans are primarily responsible for such a popular criminal scheme highlights a myopic mentality in vogue these days.

Jump to the Detroit Free Press' version of the story, and the names are along the line of Brown and McDade. The main image is of an FBI agent leading a black woman into court. Is it now reasonable to blame Medicare fraud on the black community?

B- Herald: Video, Bud & Mary's struggle.

C- Herald: Video, South Florida Paddleboard Championships.

D- Sun-Sentinel: Mangoes can kill.

OAKLAND PARK - A Coconut Creek man was electrocuted this morning while trying to knock mangoes from a tree in Oakland Park.

Thanhkim Giang, 43, was attempting to knock fruit from a friend's tree at 720 NE 47th Court, according to a Broward Sheriff's Office news release. Police said Giang was trying to get the fruit with a 23-foot aluminum pole that hit a high-voltage wire, electrocuting him.

Giang was taken to Holy Cross Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

E- TC Palm: Hopefully they'll get around to human babies, too.

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — People are finding ways to beat the heat this summer, but officials said some are forgetting their pets are vulnerable as well.

Indian River County Animal Control and the Humane Society of Vero Beach said they’re often called in cases of pets left inside cars or dogs left in back yards with no shade or water. In a few recent cases under review for prosecution for abandonment, the animals died from heat exhaustion, officials said.

[...]

Recently, Animal Control purchased a couple of laser temperature readers to determine how hot a car is and whether a locksmith should be called to help take an animal out, said director Jason Ogilvie. The devices cost about $70 and are commonly used by air-conditioning technicians, he said.

“What we did previously was slide in a thermometer to get the air temperature,” Ogilvie said. “But this will allow us to get the surface temperature of the seats inside the car. If you sit on a leather car seat that’s been in the sun, it’s going to burn.”

F- WPLG: Snakes in your yard.

MIAMI -- Miami-Dade firefighters with the department’s elite Venom Response Team are finding themselves increasingly busy as more non-native pythons and boas slither into populated areas.

“This year I’m surprised by the numbers a little bit,” said Lt. Lisa Wood, one of six firefighters responsible for capturing the large snakes and responding to calls about snake bites. “They're just hitting critical mass in the Everglades and they are having to disperse out from there,” she said.

.

Your Morning Sift [UPDATED X2]

Good morning.

I'm feeling a little under the weather so I won't be making my daily sojourn to Miami to clock in. I know, I know, BIG disappointment here. Make the most of your Miserable Monday by starting off with a well-fed morning Sift...

A- Artlurker has a very interesting interview of Miami artist David Rohn that discusses, in part, the art scene in Miami back in the early 90's before there was a South Beach.*

There weren’t any galleries to speak of but there were a lot of open studios in storefronts on Lincoln Road - which at the time was completely dead as a retail area. It had one restaurant and a few stores for things like orthopedic shoes but not much else except artists and it was deserted after dark.

In the afternoons you might see some people around (other than the rows of 80-somethings parked in wheelchairs in front of their buildings) and maybe at the beach on 23rd street or South of 5th too but it was mainly in clubs like Warsaw, Torpedo, and Boomerang. There you could see that a very grass roots and rather gritty (by current standards) community had somehow congealed in a place that was otherwise literally dying right before your eyes.

B- Food For Thought shares the lessons they learned working beside the high-energy and creative chefs in the Paradigm kitchen.

Mise en place is where it's at. I know this is really basic and that just about any book about cooking will tell you the same thing. But there is simply no way any menu like this can be done, or indeed virtually any professional kitchen could function, without a lot of advance prep work.

C- There was some rain to dodge but Mango&Lime says the Toyota Los Sabores del Mercado Venza held yesterday in the Lincoln Road area still happened and she has a bunch of pictures to prove it.

Lately I’ve found myself caught in the South Florida rains quite a bit. It happened yet again yesterday at Toyota’s Los Sabores del Mercado Venza. The rain surely deterred many from coming, which in a way made it better for those who attended because we were able to watch the chefs and taste the food without fighting crowds. Still, a good amount of people showed up even with the poor weather conditions.

D- At least one reporter at The Washington Post apparently has blogger envy, according to Bark Bark Woof Woof.

E- Incertus files a rare food review.

Finding a pizza in Fort Lauderdale with good toppings isn't difficult, and that shouldn't be surprising--good toppings are easy. Just use quality ingredients and use them in good measure. The tricky thing with any pizza is the crust, finding that balance between crunchy and chewy, especially when it comes to leftovers--a good crust holds up to the ingredients. It's the crust that sets Franco & Vinny's apart from other pizza places in Fort Lauderdale.

......

* I've been emailed that the Artlurker link in "A" is not working. Apparently, Artlurker has removed the post, for whatever reason. We're going to keep the link up there for now, hoping that the post is reinstated in the near future. [Note: the link is working now]

.

Favorite Fever Foto Of The Week

Another one from the archives...




-miami-fever.com

.

Your Evening Sift

There were some fine Sunday posts out there in the South Florida blogosphere today. Here are some of them, packaged up nicely in your evening Sift...

A- Man or Maniac? shares with us what he misses about his Sunday mornings these days.

Although I'm back in Fort Lauderdale, with a couple of diners to choose from, Sunday breakfast at the counter is just not the same without a good paper. I make coffee, and pick through my fridge, and huddle over my computer, trying not to dribble crumbs into my keyboard.

11 years later, I sorely miss Tropic Magazine, the heart of Sunday morning.

B- Some Cranky Guy shows us what we can find out in the westernmost portions of Broward County.

C- Brickell Life treated himself to a real Miami Sunday morning.

That’s why today, we woke up and decided to kick it Miami style. Shorts, t-shirts and chancletas were thrown on and out the door we went. My brother swung by on the boat, picked us up off the seawall next to the Mandarin Oriental hotel and we throttled up, passed under the Rickenbacker Causeway and made our way towards No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne.

D- Coconut Grove Grapevine has some photos from last night's Alfest.

E- The Burger Beast stops by Tortilleria Mexicana in Oakland Park.

Marcela says to try the Enchiladas and Tacos but everything on the menu is good and authentic.

E- Is Greek food coming to Coral Gables? Mango&Lime finds evidence that the answer is "yes."

F- Eye on Miami comments on a New York Times article that discusses the Sanford scandal and the Republican Party's hypocrisy.

"They could avoid this hypocrisy," Blow writes, "by focusing more on what happens in their own bedrooms and avoiding the trap of judging what goes on in everyone else’s."

Now there's a prayer for Sunday.

.

This Is What Broke Looks Like These Days

Bernie Kosar's house in Weston that is listed for $3.5 mill...

Kosar's home in Weston is a 9,900 square-foot mansion on the lake which has a large backyard area with a summer kitchen, pool, spa and cabanas. It is located in the same community, Windmill Ranch Estates, that Marino lives in and the home has a similar Florida Mediterranean style. This ample residence includes an office/library, a kitchen and a separate butler's kitchen and seven bedrooms.

-via Luxist

.

Ten Examples Of Journalistic Excellence

.

Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

Kind of a quiet Saturday night in the SoFla blogosphere but I still have some good reads for this morning. Enjoy your Sift...

A- Brickell Life provides a nice slideshow of his Brickell neighborhood and thinks about what makes it so great.

Nowhere is this cultural diversity more prevalent than in the growing urban core of Brickell and downtown. I’m always struck by the multitude of languages I hear as we navigate the streets of the district and make our way to Starbucks, the bank or over to Publix for some kitchen essentials.

B- South Beach USA says Miami's first edible bikini is about to hit the market.

C- The South Florida Watershed Journal reveals what gets him excited.

It took hours to drive to, an equal time to drive back from, plus the time we spend on the water. I was giddy with anticipation to see the structure – as, say, meeting a long lost relative – but upon seeing it, I was stupefied by the giant sprawling conglomerate of concrete, steel, earth, and electric my eyes looked out on.

.

SFDB Saturday Night Turndown Service

Los Lobos, That Train Don't Stop Here


.

Your Evening Sift

Well, between the lateness of the Mid-Afternoon Sift and it being a weekend, there just wasn't all that much out there to review for this evening's Sift. Here's a little bit of it...enjoy.

A- Some Cranky Guy has posted some butterfly photos and other random images taken in his backyard during the day.

B- Former Miami New Times reporter Tamara Lush is working on some heavy hitting stories for the AP, according to Random Pixels.

.

Ummm...Don't Look Now

....but babalu's readership is actually talking about the logistics of overthrowing the Obama Administration with force. One of the hang-ups, they've come to realize, is that the military would be loyal to their Commander-in-Chief.

You think I kid.







[As always, click on images to enlarge]

.

Are You Listening Miami Herald?

Take a look at the Miami Herald's front page online. Note the extensive MJ coverage that takes up a large portion of what a visitor to the site first sees. Then take a look at the right of the screen to see what news is being viewed the most by Herald readers.



When you're not in tune with your readership, how can you expect to grow your readers?

.

Your Mid-Afternoon Sift

My girlfriend and I went down to Lincoln Road for breakfast this morning and it felt like an oven. At 10:35, it was showing 87 degrees on my car thermometer as we drove across the Julia Tuttle. How anyone manages to sit outside and have a meal in this swamp-like environment is beyond me. Here's your Saturday mid-afternoon Sift...

A- Miamism links to yet another Forbes list (is that all Forbes does these days?) that says Miami is one of the top cities in the country to buy a home.

B- Radio or Not somehow survives a South Florida summer day without air conditioning. Thanks FPL!

I awakened again at 7, this time deciding to call the power company. They said that they were aware of the problem, and expected power to be restored by 10:45am to the 155 customers who were affected by this outage. At 11:00, the message had been changed to an expected restoration time of 11:45 and, at noon, they said we'd probably have our power back by 4pm!

C- Carlos Miller says he'll get around to thanking contributors to his legal defense as soon as he's done collecting all the negative evidence he can against a Miami Beach cop who was recently involved in a controversial shooting.

Transcribing pages is not easy work. Especially when there are so many pages.

I am very thankful to them as well as to those readers who have sent donations. I plan to send each and every one of you a personal response. I’ve just been a little busy digging for evidence against a certain trigger-happy cop. If only half of what I’ve been told on him is true, then he is screwed.

D- Great tapas at Calafate Grill, according to All Purpose Dark, although the neighborhood leaves a little more to be desired.

A quick glance at the happy hour menu and I give it a try. $3 sangria and beers - including a cold and citrusy Blue Moon draft - and a long list of $3 small plates. So we order up a slew. First up: the mushrooms.

Oh the mushrooms. Easily the best in show. A heaping bowl sauteed in tons of garlic swimming in white wine and olive oil. Perfect with the crusty bread imported from Spain to sop up the garlicy juices. Good sign of things to come.

E- What $2600 a month will get you at the 1800 Club, according to Miami Condo Investments. Make sure you read the comments.

F- Here's looking at you, says Tropic of Mom.

G- The Burger Beast doesn't care for Peoples Bar-B-Que, for the most part.

I order their cheeseburger and some hot wings with fries. The burger was way too salty as if it had been salted after it was cooked.

It was pretty bad. The wings, which were served with the hot sauce on the side were ok and the fries were just plain oily.

The cornbread which I had heard so much about tasted very bland.

H- The South Florida Watershed Journal has a very simple yet elegant picture posted of a field of string lilies from deep in the Everglades.

I- Ipanemic is putting in some long hours on his scooter as he makes his way east.

9pm. LaMesa. A line at the drive-in theater. Pickup trucks. Cars parked inside. On the outskirts of town, I pass by the Welcome Inn, the apparent refuge for forbidden loves. The lot is full.

The town is behind me. It is that time of the evening when the world sits between being too flat and too abundantly alive; life lies somewhere between the second and third dimension. The trees are too still. The landscape is too stretched. My eyes play tricks on me.

Darkness consumes the sky and I still have over one-hundred miles to go. I am driving well into the night.

Twenty six point nine
One hundred. Twenty-eight miles.
Lights.
Car. Is he passing? Does he see me?
Rearview mirror. He’s passing.
Everything was brown at the inn. Everything was dark.
Ten-sixths.
Three-fifths.

.

Saturday Morning Break

I'll be back later with the mid-afternoon Sift, but in the meantime, please feel free to laugh yourself silly as The Colbert Show takes on the Republican health care plan.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Commonsense Health Care Reform Infomercial
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

.

Your Evening Sift

The weekend is here, folks!

It was a pretty good Friday in the SoFla blogosphere but I have to say that I've reached my limit with Michael Jackson posts. No more. There's a lot more to come, unfortunately, but from this point on, SFDB will be Jacko Free. Count on it.

Have a great evening and enjoy your Sift...

A- The Cuban Triangle explains in very simple terms why wet foot/dry foot delays change in Cuba.

The reason is simple: our exceptional immigration policy toward Cubans tells them that if they want to come to the United States, they will be admitted even if they have no visa, and once they arrive they will receive federal benefits. One can argue that this makes sense on humanitarian grounds, but the policy and the message it sends strongly undercuts any impetus toward political change. In effect, it encourages Cubans who are discontented and want to do something about it, to leave their country rather than stay and work for change.

B- New photos of Miami's underbelly are posted over at The Street.

C- Bark Bark Woof Woof addresses the hypocrisy of the Republican Party when it comes to sexual scandals.

When the news broke that Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and then Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) had confessed to having extramarital affairs (and in the case of Mr. Vitter, engaged the services of a prostitute), the knee-jerk reaction among the conservatives was to respond with "Spitzer-Edwards-Clinton did it too!" even if no one had brought up the former Governor of New York, the former Senator from North Carolina and presidential candidate, or the former president. It was a preemptive attempt to inoculate them from accusations of hypocrisy by distraction. It's a juvenile response and it really doesn't work because a) it's irrelevant, and b) why would conservatives, who make a living bashing liberals or anyone who doesn't toe their line of granular morality, want to compare themselves to people they view as moral degenerates?

D- The Grove is full of unique characters, as Coconut Grove Grapevine shows us.

E- Miami Bike Scene posts the 411 for next week's Loose Cannons ride.

F- Anthony's Coal-Fired Pizza wins Food For Thought's pizza poll but Round 3 of the Pizza Crawl is next week.

G- Get acquainted with the owner of Kafa Cafe, an Ethiopian restaurant, and the food they serve with this interesting post from Sex and the Beach.

The food at Kafa Café is delicious and even more so because it's home-cooked and unpretentious. We like that kind of thing around here! For me, it's like comfort food with an exotic twist. Come here enough and I'm sure you'll feel the same way.

H- Holy Crap takes FIU to task for the energy-sucking plasma TVs that the school is using.

Why were all these plasma TVs bought when the school has such a big budget deficit? You would think that the Graduate School of Business Administration would like to waste less money. Do you know how much electricity those plasma waste? 650 watts apiece. At four plasmas in the main area that’s 2600 Watts.

.

Friday Flashback

I figured that everyone is pretty much maxed out on Michael Jackson songs for the moment so I decided on the following kick a*s jam that, until last week, I hadn't heard for close to 30 years.

Enjoy.



Soul Sonic Force, Planet Rock


.

SFDB Ecard Of The Day

.

Getting The Message, Loud And Clear

What do you think a guy like this...


...thinks about when he hears a nationally syndicated and adored talk radio show host say this?

Saving the United States of America means Obama has to be stopped. Rahm Emanuel has to be stopped. David Axelrod has to be stopped. Mayor Daley in Chicago has to be stopped because that's who's running the show. They have to be stopped.

How, exactly, does Rush Limbaugh expect his listening audience to "stop" these politicians and civil servants? The next presidential election isn't until 2012. I suppose Limbaugh could be urging his audience to write emails or publicly protest through "tea parties" and the like. But, really, does he sincerely believe that this would "stop" Obama or his advisers from implementing their plan for rehabilitating the U.S. economy after 8 years of abuse? I don't think so.

So one has to wonder what exactly Rush expects from his incitements and calls to action to stop President Obama.

Unfortunately, the United States is chock full of Jim Adkissons who hear one message and one message only. When it's coming out of their car radio at 2 in the afternoon, they figure everyone else must hear it, too. All of a sudden, thanks to Rush and those like him, what they've been thinking about for the last year doesn't seem so aberrant anymore.

And we all well know how this story can end.

.

Mourning Fail

Caption:

Musician Tyson Stevens, center, joins other fans to remember Michael Jackson at the star they believe belongs to pop star Michael Jackson but that belongs to a radio personality of the same name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Thursday June 25, 2009 in Los Angeles.

-via TBogg

.

The Cooler

All MJ, all the time. Here's some of the other stuff that is gracing the pages of your local mainstream media this morning.

A- Herald: Pitts on MJ.

Thriller consumed Michael Jackson. It raised the stakes on everything he did, and until his last day he was always competing with it, always looking to top what he had done. He never did. And yet, you wouldn't have been surprised if he had. That's how good he was.

Which is why for those of who remember Michael Jackson before, those of us who memorized his little ad libs in ABC and stayed up late to watch him dance the robot on Carson, those of us who saw him move seamlessly as liquid, or sing in a voice that shifted without apparent effort from saw-toothed rawness to a sweet and ethereal falsetto, there is a poignancy beyond mere grief here. We were waiting for him to get back to what he had been before all the extraneous madness: a singer and showman of astonishing genius. We were waiting for that, even those of us who thought we weren't.

B- Herald: Perfect pooches are pilfered from pet stores by pinchers.

According to Detective Aida Fina-Milian, a police spokeswoman, two women walked into a pet store in the 6700 block of Southwest 40th Street on the afternoon of June 8 and began looking for the perfect pups.

Police said they had no intention of paying for them.

When one of the women started stuffing Chihuahua puppies into a black bag, store employee Rafael Sanchez, 32, noticed and approached her.

That was when the second woman, clad in pink nurse's scrubs, jumped in front of Sanchez to block him as the other woman ran from the store. The woman who had grabbed four Chihuahua puppies scurried into a white Lexus SUV. Sanchez gave chase and was somehow able to get a handle on the bag.

As Sanchez fought with the woman in the car, the second puppy-snatcher ran from the store with two Yorkies in tow.

The driver of the Lexus hit the gas. Sanchez was dragged about 200 feet before he fell to the ground, suffering minor scratches and bruises.

C- Herald: MIA impresses visitors.

As one of probably millions of travelers who gets only a few hours' view of Miami, I'd like to comment on the eyesore that is Gate E6 at Miami International Airport. On June 23, my wife and I were returning from nine days in the British Virgin Islands. Unfortunately, we had a delayed flight on our final leg back to Denver. I travel a lot in my job and spend more time than I would like in airports. But, typically that just means a mass-produced meal and a few extra business calls in surroundings that are better than a pig sty.

I cannot say that about Gate E6 and the surrounding waiting areas, which contained pizza boxes, empty soda and water bottles, twist-off tops, crumpled napkins, gum and straw wrappers and used Band-Aids.

I mentioned the litter to a gate attendant, who said that she had called and reported the mess when she came on duty six hours earlier. I paid about 9-percent tax on the salad and soda I bought for dinner. Perhaps some of the tax revenues could be used to clean the joint.

By the time you read this, I will be long gone from Miami. But the memory of the trash will linger longer than my recollection of the interesting airport art.

JACK CHESNUTT, Evergreen, Colo.

D- Sun-Sentinel: Nice.

Workers last week began digging a path for the new $5.6 million New River Greenway that eventually will allow people to skate, stroll or bike between Markham Park in Sunrise and the Secret Woods Nature Center off State Road 84 in Dania Beach, just west of I-95.

The greenway is part of a network of trails and bike paths planned by Broward County.

[...]

The new greenway will be 12 feet wide and paved with concrete. Concrete was chosen over asphalt because officials believe it will hold up longer and be easier to maintain.

"Concrete is going to be better for biking and (roller blading)," said Mark Horowitz, bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for the Broward County Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Construction of the first leg between 136th Avenue and University Drive should be finished in six months.

E- South Florida Business Journal: Yeah, yeah, we know already.

Miami has the distinction of being the “sexiest” American city, according to a newly release poll by TripAdvisor.

F- Miami Today: Still going down.

Miami condominiums continue to sell steadily but prices have endured a 50% drop in the past year.

Real estate analyst Jack McCabe projects an additional fall in prices of 10% to 15% in the months to come.

The median sale price for a Miami-Dade condo unit in May 2008 was $280,700, a price that has fallen to $140,300 this May, according to a report released Tuesday by the Florida Association of Realtors.

[...]

Many investors are buying condo units for cash because they can buy them at a low price and rent them out, "earning a positive cash flow," he said.

First-time homebuyers are also taking advantage of an $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit, which runs out at the end of November, he added.

Mr. McCabe says the worst is over but he forecasts residential prices dropping another 10% to 15% because the biggest wave of foreclosures hasn't hit yet.

G- CBS4: Just taking care of a friend with taxpayer money.

Miami's Civilian Investigative panel last January fired its executive director, Shirley Richardson. Richardson, board members said, was an overpaid underperformer. The vote to terminate the allegedly incompetent manager was unanimous.

But for the five months since her dismissal, Richardson has continued to draw her full executive director's salary of $168,000 a year, an $800 a month car allowance, and a $200 a month cell phone allowance.

Miami City Manager Pete Hernandez, who opposed Richardson's firing, is the source of the largess. Declaring that "the budget is my domain," Hernandez shifted Richardson to his office in city hall - as an assistant to an assistant - where her job duties and responsibilities were unspecified. Hernandez told CBS4's Gary Nelson Thursday that he felt bad for Richardson getting fired, thought she deserved a "severance" of some sort, and thought it was "fair" to continue to pay her full executive director's salary while he "looked for a position to place her in."

.

Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

Another week in the can, folks! Happy Friday. As you might expect, lots of posts last night about Michael Jackson's passing. There's that and more in your TGIF morning Sift...

A- Sweat Records ponders the life of Michael Jackson, as does 305. From the former...

Making cruel jokes at Michael expense said that I was a judgmental as*hole [Ed.]. I took more pleasure in mocking his queerness than in admiring his brilliance. Nobody’s dance moves made me ponder physics like Michael’s. No song can funk-up a crowd like “Billy Jean.” And no one took on the important social issue of walking away from street violence like MJ did in “Beat It.”

Let’s consider the adversity that Michael Jackson dealt with over his life…physical abuse, racial prejudice, isolation, going from poverty to abundant wealth, gender identity issues…you name it. And despite all that, he found the strength to continue making his art.

B- Mango&Lime recommends Gusto's sandwiches.

Driving South on Le Jeune toward Miracle Mile, shortly after you pass the Courtyard Marriott on the right side of the road, you may miss the sign on the window that reads Gusto Fino Italian Deli Market. I know I did for months after I moved to the Gables. And even after I took notice, the place remained only a mental note until last weekend when I visited thinking it was a market. Gusto Fino does sell a few things but I wouldn’t call it a market. It does, however, have a pretty big selection of sandwiches, pastas and salads.

C- Man or Maniac and Random Pixels also remember Michael Jackson...in a different way. From the former...

Michael Jackson may very well be the victim of our adulation, a boy thrust into the limelight and robbed of his childhood. Certainly, we loved his art more than the man. Let's be honest, no one ever really knew who Michael Jackson really was, including the man himself. His early work came from the heart: he sang of things that interested him, of things he wanted to say, of things he was feeling. But over time, his music became calculated. It was a man making music not because he wanted to say something, but because he wanted something to do, something to show he could still do...something.

And that is the real tragedy.

D- Obalesque takes a more, ahem, detached view of this week's celebrity passings.

Dying as they did in the first week of the summer in the first decade of the Oughts, they’ll be linked for awhile, and then forgotten. In fact, it’s almost the weekend. I vote for accelerating the amnesia. Whose round is it?

E- Coconut Grove Grapevine enlightens us with a little South Florida Michael Jackson trivia.

F- Some Cranky Guy's rant today deals with the Miami Herald's registration system. SFDB readers should remember that they can always use the user name SFDB and the password SFDBSFDB.

.

Your Evening Sift

Some of you may have noticed that comments were being moderated today. Last night and again this afternoon, the cockroaches came out and attempted to disrupt things a bit here at SFDB. I suppose until the boys grow up and become men, this will continue to happen so don't be distressed if you encounter a little moderation, as I'm going to try to mix it up a bit in an effort to deter these modern day Fred Flintstones of the SoFla blogosphere. With as much anger that these folks have at 2 AM in the morning, you have to wonder how they work all that into their home lives with their wives and their kids, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I have off tomorrow, so enjoy your Feels Like A Friday Thursday evening Sift...

A- Spokes 'n' Folks explains the impact that proposed changes at the Rickenbacker Causeway tollbooths are going to have for causeway cyclists.

Hundreds of bicyclists do training rides out the causeway and back, and out again, every weekend and sometimes more often. The riders' turnaround is less than 100 yards from the toll booths. Riders come back from Key Biscayne, merge left as they near the mainland, then shoot through the causeway office parking lot and across the outbound lanes to regroup and start again.

If you think of the toll booths simply as fare-collection points, the choice for the county would seem to be easy. But toll booths here also serve as traffic-control measures, making drivers slow down a bit before they venture out past the beaches on that first island before the tall Powell Bridge. If you remove the booths, cars equipped with SunPass can be traveling at highway speeds as they pass the point where today they must pause and wait for a gate to open.

B- Burnettiquette says that Michael Jackson was the Elvis of Generation X.

And love or hate the guy, you must admit that long after Britney Spears is a distant memory, and long after the Ashlee Simpsons, Pinks, Chris Browns, and Rihannas of the world are just dusty footnotes on some defunct VH-1.com memories page, you will remember the name Michael Jackson.

C- Grove Bucks are here, according to Coconut Grove Grapevine.

The Merchants Group is hoping to use these at other events, too, like during the Great Grove Bed Race and maybe even during the holidays. I think it could work for bar crawls and just about anything. In the future we could actually have people use them instead of money in Coconut Grove by giving them more for their Grove Buck, like every 100 Grove Bucks would cost $90.00 in cash to buy, so the person with the Grove Bucks would automatically have an extra $10.00 to spend.

D- South Florida Lawyers' own Sift covered some interesting territory today. Read the comments, too.

E- SFLTV does a comparison of two South Florida TV station's websites after they switched formats and became more independent of the TV stations themselves.

Right off the bat … JustNews.com wins quite handily. In total traffic terms, WPLG’s site has about 1.7 million readers monthly vs 417,326 for WTVJ.

Looking at the chart the first thing I notice is the trend NBCMiami.com seems to be in at this time. They have a huge drop off in unique visitors at the end of April 2009, while beating WPLG’s web site. But by mid May NBCMiami has another even bigger drop in visitors going from what looks like a high of 700-800,000 to something in the range of 250-300,000 at the lowest. And by mid June JustNews.com continues to make huge gains.

Now to be fair here, JustNews.com also gets front-page links on CNN.com because of the deal between InternetBroadcasting and CNN.

F- Brickell Life has an interesting idea for SoFla neighborhoods.

G- Florida's Senate race is drawing national attention and Bark Bark Woof Woof says it could get very entertaining.

If Mr. Rubio actually becomes the nominee, I'd like to see how he campaigns to win over the independent and moderate voters that make up a large part of the Florida electorate, which has been borderline blue for years and went for President Obama last fall. And even if he does appeal to the more conservative wing of the Florida Republicans, his Hispanic ancestry might be a little hard to swallow in parts of the state where they're still not crazy about voting for someone who isn't lily-white, Protestant, and whose name ends with vowel. Old times there are not forgotten.

.

One Helluva Day For Pop Icons

There are two things that measure the passage of time for me these days: kids growing up and the passing of celebrities who I watched or listened to when I was a kid.

This was a tough day for the latter and a day many of us won't soon forget.

.

South Florida Cartoons

Jim Morin, Miami Herald


.

SFDB's Most Likely's

When spending time in the SoFla blogosphere, you are most likely to...

...hear the latest righty wingnut conspiracy theory at Computer Colonics.

...want some Alka-Seltzer after reading a Burger Beast post.

...read the most eloquent writing, on a very terribly infrequent basis, at Hidden City.

...be warned that Fidel might be dead but that President Obama is becoming more like him at babalu.

...find out what "corking" is at Miami Bike Scene.

...hear the word "joint" at Jeff Eats.

...go try a new restaurant after reading the latest from Food For Thought.

...be pointed to the latest Miami Herald gaffe at Random Pixels.

...receive a lecture on how all politicians suck at Some Cranky Guy.

...be motivated to go on a treasure hunt at Tilefortlauderdale.

...see a photo of a down and out addict at The Street.

...get the impression that all cops are brutal thugs at Carlos Miller's.

...read a post, stop, and wonder, "What the hell was that?" at Swampstyle.

...want to jump into the computer with a fork in hand when viewing I Shot The Chef's pictures.

...take your camera to South Beach in an effort to be the next Miami Fever.

.

The Cooler

Running a little short on time this morning so here's an abbreviated Cooler for you.

A- Herald: Shaq sells his house.

At last: The Miami Beach waterfront estate of Shaquille O'Neal -- listed in '05 at $32 million, then in '06 at $35 million, and most recently at $22.5 million -- has sold. Deal closed on Wednesday, real estate insiders say. Tight-lipped sources won't discuss -- confidentiality agreement -- but word is the NBA star did not get his asking price for the Star Island mansion, which has seven bedrooms plus a two-bedroom guest house.
[...]
FYI, house has an indoor racquetball court, outdoor tennis court, pool, dock, six-car garage -- and a 2008 tax bill of $547,326.49.

B- Herald: More cat killers?

Ten days after arresting a South Miami-Dade teen, law officers are still investigating whether cat-killings suspect Tyler Weinman had accomplices.

''We have not confirmed he acted alone,'' prosecutor Michael Von Zamft said Wednesday during a hearing on whether to unseal Weinman's arrest affidavit.

C- Sun-Sentinel: Go, granny, go, granny, go, granny, go.

DEERFIELD BEACH - Three people suffered minor injuries when a car crashed through the front door of a Wachovia bank branch Wednesday afternoon, one of two crashes involving cars hitting Deerfield Beach banks within the same hour, authorities said.

The Broward Sheriff's Office identified June Kennedy, 80, of Pompano Beach as the driver of the gray Toyota Solara that plowed into the Wachovia branch. She was trying to park in a handicap zone when she lost control of the car, striking the building, a bank employee and a customer, the Sheriff's Office said.

[...]

In the other bank-crash incident, another elderly woman hit the gas pedal instead of the brake, ran over a curb, crashed through some hedges and hit a Washington Mutual bank branch at 1031 S. Military Trail, the Broward Sheriff's Office said.

D- Sun-Sentinel: Video, Neptune Memorial Reef.

E- Sun-Sentinel: FAU bike share program finds out that in order to have a bike share program that works on an honor system you have to have honorable people.

BOCA RATON - Florida Atlantic University's bike-sharing program was a simple, even utopian, plan.

Instead of chugging to a building on the other side of campus in a four-wheel global warmer, hop on a free community bicycle and pedal to class.

Unfortunately, some people kept right on pedaling.

With no locks - the Green Bike system operated on an honor code - it wasn't long before there were also no bikes.

"They were done, it worked, and they got stolen," said Alexander Van Mecl, a 19-year-old student on FAU's sustainability committee. "You can think of hundreds of different scenarios as to why we don't have the bikes anymore. Kind of a depressing story."

F- WPLG: Miami makes the list only once...and that's a good thing.

Using crime data compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, NeighborhoodScout.com made a list of areas with the highest predicted rates of violent crime in the United States.

[...]

Here is the list:

1. Cincinnati, Ohio (Central Pky./Liberty St.)
2. Chicago (State St./Garfield Blvd.)
3. Miami, Fla. (7th Ave./North River Dr.)...

.