The Cooler

Here's what I found interesting in this morning's mainstream media.

A- Herald: Better to cut hurricane hunters than let the Bush tax cuts expire.

WASHINGTON -- With the cleanup from Hurricane Irene ongoing, and Hurricane Katia looming in the Atlantic Ocean, some lawmakers and top federal scientists are making the case for maintaining healthy research budgets that sharpen the accuracy of hurricane forecasts.

At issue are research flights by the three-plane "Hurricane Hunter" squadron based at Tampa’s MacDill Air Force Base, and operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A spending plan passed in July by a House Appropriations Committee would cut the budget for such flights $17 million, a decrease of 40 percent.

B- Herald: The private sector rocks.

By day, the Balare Language Academy is an A-rated charter school, home to children in kindergarten through middle school.

But when the kids are tucked into bed, Balare apparently becomes a playground of a different kind.

Party fliers, printed and on the Web, indicate that the campus at 10875 Quail Roost Dr. has been hosting raunchy, booze-soaked bashes into the wee hours. One flier for an upcoming party features a voluptuous, scantily clad woman posing with champagne bottles. Another shows a woman in a string bikini bending over suggestively and a man with flashy jewelry sitting on a stack of currency in front of a gold sports car.

[...]

Parents at the school were the first to sound the alarm this week.

The school district received complaints from parents who wondered why there were empty beer bottles at their child’s school. They also complained about a lingering smell of smoke — and those provocative party promotions advertising Push it to Da Limit Pt-1: The Flossin Edition this coming Saturday.

[...]

There’s little the district can do. Charter schools are funded by taxpayer dollars, but run by private or nonprofit boards independent of the school district.

C- Herald: Buying up Miami.

The Malaysian investment firm that bought the Miami Herald headquarters and adjacent land three months ago continues to expand its footprint in the surrounding area.

An affiliate of the Genting Group in the past month has assembled nearly two blocks west of Biscayne Boulevard near the Herald property, according to the Daily Business Review. The group paid $29.4 million for a total of 3.6 acres of mostly vacant land, according to Miami-Dade County property records.

And that’s not likely the end of the buying spree for the cash-rich company that spent $236 million in May for the 13.9 acre Miami Herald site, say real estate industry sources. Reports have swirled for months that Genting tried to purchase the old Omni International Mall site adjacent to the Herald; Genting officials have denied those reports, although they said they looked at it before settling on the Herald site.

On Aug. 17, a Genting affiliate purchased 17,500-square-feet for $1.25 million from former Sony Music executive Tommy Mottola. Genting bought the property at the northwest corner of Northeast First Avenue and 15th Street under the name of ABC Biscayne LLC, which is managed by Two Digital Threes LLC. In 2008, Genting acquired 48 percent of Two Digital, an investment holding company.

D- Herald: Awaiting the outrage.

Two teenagers were shot Thursday afternoon when someone in a car fired into a crowd of people in front of an apartment building at 1490 NW 69 Terrace, Miami police said.

Department spokesman Delrish Moss said a crowd was standing in front of the building when the car pulled up and someone inside opened fire, Moss said.

E- Herald: They write letters.

The Cuban Adjustment Act shouldn’t be amended, it should be repealed. The majority of Cubans who entered the United States prior to it becoming law were political refugees and still consider themselves exiles. But most of the Cubans who enter now are economic refugees and immigrants.

Cubans today need to be treated as every other refugee in the world who has to prove persecution as the basis for entry into this country.

I think my Cuba visits and eight years as an aide to Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen make me more than qualified to speak on this matter, probably more so than Claver-Carone.

Alonso R. Del Portillo, Miami

F-Palm Beach Post: Classy.

A suburban Boynton Beach woman is facing child neglect charges after a deputy found her two daughters home alone on Wednesday, and one of them playing with a condom as if it were a balloon.

G- South Florida Business Journal: Too bad number of burger joints didn't count for anything.

South Florida ranks 44th on a list of the 50 manliest areas in the U.S., according to Combos brand's America's Manliest Cities study.

Apparently hot bodies on the beach and blue-collar neighborhoods count less than the number of home improvement stores, steak houses, "manly occupations" and motorcycles per capita, which were criteria listed in a press release.

No. 1 Nashville, which replaced Charlotte, N.C., was cited for its love of rodeo events and pickup trucks, among other things..

The press release mentioned too many cupcake shops as a minus – haven't seen too many of those here – and fancy furniture stores. Yes, we do have that in abundance – at least those that haven't gone into bankruptcy court.

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