The Cooler

The new week for the South Florida mainstream media doesn't start until around noon today so there's not much "new" for you this morning in the news. Enjoy.

A- Herald: Now there's a great idea.

Bachmann drew well over 1,000 people to the Shriner’s Temple in Sarasota on Sunday, where — among other things — she said that she would consider oil and natural gas drilling in the Everglades if it can be done without harming the environment.

Bachman said the United States needs to tap into all of its energy resources no matter where they exist if it can be done responsibly.

B- Herald: Editorial, the Herald is Pro-Castro except, of course, when it isn't.

An extraordinary event occurred in Havana last week. Four women staged a brief protest against the Castro regime on the steps of the Capitol building — unusual in itself — and a host of onlookers quickly gathered. The surprise came when police showed up to arrest the protesters, members of the Rosa Parks Feminist Movement for Civil Rights, and the crowd suddenly erupted with taunts and jeers against the security agents.

Suéltalas, carajo! (Let them go, damn it!), yelled an angry bystander. Others called the police shameless ( descarados) and hurled epithets. The crowd did not try to stop the detentions, but they had no qualms about calling Castro’s thugs by the names they richly deserved — bullies and abusers.

This is something new in Cuba. By the standards of, say, the Arab Spring, the event may not seem like a lot. But by the standards of Cuba, where tension and discontent with a half-century of dictatorship have been unable to find a powerful voice, it represents a daring show of defiance, all the more so because it was a spontaneous reaction from average Cubans.

C- Sun-Sentinel: $16 mill for Wifi?

HOLLYWOOD— More than three years ago, the city borrowed $16 million to pay for a wireless communications platform that would give residents free computer network service, as well as automate the water-meter reader system and solar-powered parking meters.

But the system, meant to improve residents' quality of life, isn't completely functional.

"It is definitely not working the way we hoped it would," said Hollywood spokeswoman Raelin Storey.

[...]

"It is disappointing to say the least that it hasn't worked," Storey said. "But people shouldn't be left with the impression that $16 million is down the drain."

D- Palm Beach Post: Life in South Florida.

Thieves have cast 33 miles of Interstate 95 into darkness in Palm Beach County by yanking out the underground copper wire needed to power the overhead lighting.

The wire can be sold to metal recycling companies for as much as $3 a pound. State officials say it will cost $200,000 to replace the wiring and install anti-theft devices to prevent thieves from removing it again.

[...]

The thefts along I-95 are so rampant that West Palm Beach police put out a media release last month urging drivers to call them or the Florida Highway Patrol if they see vehicles stopped near light poles.

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