Your Evening Sift

Winding down another great weekend with a not so busy evening Sift. Enjoy.

A- Miami had an Aquarium Ship back in 1928 and The305.Com has the photo to prove it.

B- South Florida Food and Wine chats it up with Aniece Meinhold, partner in the Pious Pig Restaurant Group.

South Florida Food and Wine: What is a typical day like for you as the owner of The Federal, Acme Bakery & Coffee and the occasional recurrence of Phuc Yea!
Aniece Meinhold: Monday is my usual day off. I normally wake up at about 11, take my dogs to the park for a couple of hours and try to spend time with my fam or Cesar’s fam depending who answers the phone first.

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SFDB Chart Of The Day

Another great reason to live and work in the United States...

-via The Economist




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Cuban Sandwich Crawl

Something that can only be done in Miami: a Cuban Sandwich Crawl.






-via Burger Beast





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Obama Derangement Syndrome: Cause And Effect

Christopher Anderson/Magnum Photos/New York Magazine

Cause...

Last summer, Obama was again desperate to reach compromise, this time on legislation to reduce the budget deficit, which had come to dominate the political agenda and symbolize, in the eyes of Establishment opinion, Obama’s failure to fulfill his campaign goal of winning bipartisan cooperation. In extended closed-door negotiations, Obama offered Republicans hundreds of billions of dollars in spending cuts and a permanent extension of Bush-era tax rates in return for just $800 billion in higher revenue over a decade. This was less than half the new revenue proposed by the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission. Republicans spurned this deal, too.

Instead the party has bet everything on 2012, preferring a Hail Mary strategy to the slow march of legislative progress. That is the basis of the House Republicans’ otherwise inexplicable choice to vote last spring for a sweeping budget plan that would lock in low taxes, slash spending, and transform Medicare into ­private vouchers—none of which was popular with voters. Majority parties are known to hold unpopular votes occasionally, but holding an ­unpopular vote that Republicans knew full well stood zero chance of enactment (with Obama casting a certain veto) broke new ground in the realm of foolhardiness.

The way to make sense of that foolhardiness is that the party has decided to bet everything on its one “last chance.” Not the last chance for the Republican Party to win power—there will be many of those, and over time it will surely learn to compete for nonwhite voters—but its last chance to exercise power in its current form, as a party of anti-government fundamentalism powered by sublimated white Christian identity politics. (And the last chance to stop the policy steamroller of the new Democratic majority.)

Effect...

Albert Peterson shot dead his wife and two sons hours after going to church because he dreaded the thought of Obama winning the election, a family friend has revealed.

[...]

Recently, Mr Peterson began writing paranoid emails to his friends and family about politics on a daily basis, sometimes even more frequently, Maggie said.

'I got emails and the emails stopped all of a sudden last week,' Maggie said. 'He felt that our God-given rights were being taken away. He didn't like where the country was going.'

Mr Peterson, also mentioned pressures at work that troubled Maggie.

Explaining his increasingly erratic behavior, she said: 'He said he wanted to expose something at work. He also got the impression at work, that if they didn't vote for Obama and get him elected, they would lose their jobs.'

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Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

Hope you're all having a great morning. Grab some coffee and enjoy your Sunday morning Sift.

A- Jeff Eats disagrees with the Sun-Sentinel's review of Italian Red Sauce in Sunrise.

Last night, Jeff Eats tried Italian Red Sauce…and let me start by saying, “I knew John Kennedy and you sir are no John Kennedy”…maybe 2 1/2 stars, but 4 stars…give me a freaking break.

B- Discourse is still writing about his crappy Sears customer service experience, as well he should.

C- Eye on Miami notes a Miami firm's connection to ballot counting machines.

H.I.G. principals may not enjoy being singled out for scrutiny, but money and investment in ballot counting machinery is not an agnostic matter; not when there is such significant potential for miscreants to steal elections. Some may remember the 2004 controversy involving Diebold Election Systems. H.I.G. key managers in Miami should not be surprised about public scrutiny. It wouldn't be the first time that Miami-based individuals popped up on the national radar, involving ambitions for the White House.

D- Bark Bark Woof Woof reprints a letter to the editor addressing same sex marriage from Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe.




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SFDB Saturday Night Turndown Service

Neil Young, Long May You Run




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Your Evening Sift

Went over to Lincoln Road for a short time this afternoon and then hit Blue Collar on the way back. Wasn't too busy for a Saturday evening, but then we got there around 7 before things really got rolling. The bread pudding was flat out amazing, readers. I think I'm going to dream about it tonight. Here's your evening Sift. I'll be back in about a half hour with the Turndown Service.

A- Gorgeous aviary photos at Nikon Miami.

B- Obalesque is reporting that the Crespogram Report is toast.

C- The305.Com has the menu at the newly-opened Cooper Avenue on Miami Beach.

D- Photos from last night's Metric concert at the Fillmore are up at Beached Miami.

E- Interesting illustration at Gun Free Zone of how screwed up Orlando Airport is when it comes to gun laws.

F- Photos of decadent dining are shared at The Chowfather and South Florida Food and Wine.

G- Great video of a Congressman from Virginia ripping Mitt Romney's disrespect of American veterans, at Bark Bark Woof Woof.

H- Discourse's nightmare with Sears continues.




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The Colbert Report: Skewed Presidential Polls

Stephen Colbert lampoons those on the Right who are claiming that the political polls are skewed in favor of Republicans. Hilarious stuff...

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

I'll be back a little later with the Sift and a Turndown Service.




-via Bark Bark Woof Woof



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Absentee Voting

Readers, one of the best ways you can avoid the long lines and other possible hurdles and deterrents designed to make it difficult for you to vote at a polling station this year is to vote by absentee ballot.

You can request an absentee ballot by making your request online and having it sent to your house. I did this week and so should you.

Request an absentee ballot ASAP.

Miami-Dade
Broward
Palm Beach


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SFDB Quote Of The Day

"I think my biggest concern obviously would just be for his mental well-being," she said. "I have all the confidence in the world in his ability, in his decisiveness, in his leadership skills, in his understanding of the economy. ... So for me I think it would just be the emotional part of it."

- Ann Romney on the concerns she has for her husband if he were elected

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SFDB Republican Bumper Sticker Of The Day

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Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

What are you going to do today? You might want to scope out the SFDB Weekend Widget in the right sidebar for suggestions. We'll get you started with a morning Sift.

A- The Miami Bike Scene reports that Critical Mass attracted a celebrity last night.

B- Guess which political party is engaged in real voter fraud? As Bark Bark Woof Woof shows us, it's the one yelling about it the most.

C- Discourse is still dealing with Sears and trying to get a treadmill delivered to his house but they just can't seem to make it happen.

The robot called again twice this morning. This afternoon I called Stephanie to see what was up. First, everything seems less clear than it did yesterday: Stephanie says she isn’t sure how to work the transaction. Normally they take back a good (I presume a damaged one or a lemon) and replace it. But I don’t have anything for them to replace and this apparently introduces a complication which could take A WEEK to resolve. I honestly don’t see why just delivering something is harder than picking up something and delivering it, but this is Sears after all.

D- On Two Shores links to a great summary of the David Rivera soap opera.



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Your Evening Sift

The weekend is here and the SFDB Weekend Widget in the right sidebar in bloated with things to do over the next few days. I'm off to do burgers on the grill. Y'all make yourself at home and enjoy the Sift.

A- Food for Thought decides to offer an "honest assessment" of the latest Cobaya dining experiment at 1500° on Miami Beach.

I admire and appreciate the ambition and effort of Chef DaSilva and her crew: they served more than twenty different dishes to a group of 36 diners, and dared to do simple instead of trying to impress with flash. I think the diners enjoyed the relaxed, sociable feel of the dinner that the family style service encouraged. And for sure, nobody went home hungry. But I believe they could have done it even better had there been some more rigorous editing of the menu: if they had focused their efforts on half as many dishes, this probably would have been an even better "last meal."

B- Burger Beast posts the results of this year's Zagat Fast Food rankings.

C- On Two Shores notes the hypocrisy of Cuban-American hardliners who consider themselves conservatives.

D- Beached Miami reviews Kevin Lamar's performance at the Fillmore last night and also throws in a few photos.

Lamar’s performance was, for lack of a better word, epic. “K-Dot, K-dot, K-dot!!!” the crowd shouted in anticipation before he took the stage. The room exploded when Kendrick came out, the energy overwhelming as fans got their first glimpse of the rapper. K-Dot gave his fans exactly what they wanted, a slew of old school hits from earlier projects with a mix of freestyles and newer songs and, toward the end, a preview of the new album with hits like “The Recipe” and “Swimming Pools (Drank)”. In the process, he showed us all why he’s the total package as an emcee.

E- Check out Big Bear Brewing Company in Coral Springs with South Florida Food and Wine.

This neighborhood venue has quite the loyal-local following; just shy of 300 seats this mammoth brew pub/American grill is the Cheers of Coral Springs. There are 169 22-oz mugs hanging around the bar, named and numbered for each of the guests who belong to the Brew Club; from what Matt tells me it is quite the competitive lottery so if brews and beers and malt and hops is your thing, consider this a tip, get your name on the brew list lottery before April 1.

F- Bad lawyer videos at South Florida Lawyers.



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Catapulting The Propaganda And The Black Fidel Castro

This afternoon, the Great Republican Whale surfaced and compared President Obama to Fidel Castro.


That should provide a little fodder for conversations over cafecito at the Versailles tomorrow morning.

Oh yeah, about those "plummeting aspects of our economy"...

Dow Jones Industrial Average, 2008-2012

George W. Bush had a saying for Limbaugh's style of delivery....






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Friday Flashback

I'll be listening to these guys tonight.

1982...



Modern English, I Melt With You




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Friday Blog Notes

Time to highlight a few blogs/blog posts from South Florida folks that currently aren't appearing on the SFDB blogroll.


Triathalon Mami

Miamian Cristina Ramirez is training for triathlons but is very concerned about the dangers that are present for cyclists on South Florida roadways, especially the Rickenbacker Causeway. That concern led to a recent meeting with the Mayor of Key Biscayne that she describes in Meeting the Mayor.

Triathlon Mami uses the Blogger platform and has been active since May of this year.


Fat Girl Hedonist

The French Toast at 660 at The Angler's is some real awesome and Fatgirl Hedonist captures it on film perfectly. The restaurant's version of Eggs Benedict is also rather special. Don't venture to this blog if you're the least bit hungry.

My friend went with their Benedicto; their take on eggs benedict with short rib, tomato salsa and scallion hollandaise on a Cuban roll. The eggs benedict also come with a side of papitas and mixed green salad. The eggs were perfectly poached, the short rib was well seasoned and ridiculously tender.

Miami Nice

I'm going to give Miami Nice another mention in the Friday Blog Notes for their nice post on Panther Coffee.


How Was Your Day, Dan?

Former Real World: Miami cast member Dan Renzi still lives in South Florida and blogs about his life here. A neighbor on Miami Beach recently had his bike stolen after locking it to a palm tree. The thief cut down the palm tree and took the bike. Dan posts pictures of the aftermath in a post suitably titled, "Miami Sucks!"




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Chat Chow TV Talks To Blue Collar's Danny Serfer

Nice job, Danny.





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Morning Chuckle

I have a real urge to pretend that the guy with the hair is Mitt Romney and the other is Obama on November 6th.

But I won't.






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The Cooler

Not a whole bunch for your TGIF Cooler, readers. Let's see what caught my attention in the news this morning.

A- Herald: Because criminals don't take vacations just because there aren't enough police officers.

Acknowledging it can’t hire police officers fast enough, Hollywood will now offer current officers overtime shifts to fill the gaps.

“This is an immediate fix,” said Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez, who oversees public safety.

Until the Police Department can get trained officers out on the streets, Hollywood can use the nearly $840,000 budgeted for 20 positions which remain vacant to pay the overtime costs.

B- Herald: Living in the NRA's world.

An appeals court Thursday agreed with the dismissal of criminal charges against a Miami-Dade County man who relied on the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law after a confrontation with two Florida Power & Light workers on his property.

Ernesto C. Vino was sleeping in his mobile home on March 9, 2009, when two FPL workers used a ladder to climb over his fence because of unpaid electricity bills by Vino and a neighbor. The workers were supposed to try to collect money from the customers or turn off their power.

Vino, who had been a previous victim of crimes in his home, grabbed a rifle and went outside after being awakened by barking dogs. He confronted the workers with the gun and, though accounts differed, shot into the air as they left the property, according to a Circuit Court judge’s findings.

[...]

The 3rd District Court of Appeal in Miami on Thursday upheld a decision by Circuit Judge John W. Thornton, Jr., who found that the charges of aggravated assault with a firearm and improper exhibition of a firearm should be dismissed because of the Stand Your Ground law.

Also, however, the appeals court agreed with Thornton that Vino could be prosecuted on the charge of unlawfully discharging a firearm — because he shot the gun after learning the men worked for FPL and were not a threat.

The ruling noted that FPL has the legal right to enter customers’ property to do such things as cut off electricity, and said the utility filed a brief in the case.

C- Herald: They write letters.

Convenient position

When Republican Rep. Paul Ryan arrived in Washington, he was advocating ending the Cuban embargo. But recently during the half hour he was at Versailles, he had a divine intervention thanks to the dynamic duo and perennial Republican cheerleaders Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart. Now he’s a strong pro-embargo supporter.

At the end of the day, when he returns to his largely agricultural state of Wisconsin, he will be anti-Cuban embargo again.

Politicians come to Miami for a few minutes then exaggerate and play the vanishing act until the next election.

Jose Carlos Iglesias, Miami

D- WPLG: Life in South Florida.

MIRAMAR, Fla. (WSVN) -- A South Florida mother is speaking out after she was punched in the face while walking her kids to school.

Myra Williams, a single mother of five was walking her kids to school Thursday morning in Miramar.

Williams said a strange man was walking in her direction when he punched her in the face and took off running. "He just punched me right in the face and he took off running, and this was early in the morning while I’m walking my kids to school," said Williams. "He had no regards for my children and that’s not safe."

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Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

The SFDB Weekend Widget in the right sidebar has already been updated so we're in full TGIF mode. Enjoy your morning Sift and your Friday morning, readers.

A- You know the Right is getting desperate when they're resorting to years-old urban legends, as Some Blogging Guy does this morning.

B- A Holocaust Museum decides that downtown Hollywood doesn't work for them after all and pulls up stakes, while Obalesque opines on where they need to go.

While I don’t have a problem with this museum. or the mission of the organization behind it, it just doesn’t belong in a tourist district. It belongs on a college campus, or the back lot of a synagogue, or in a space of its own set apart from areas where people seek entertainment, diversion, and fun. Isn’t this obvious?

C- On Two Shores lays out their position in support of people-to-people contact in Cuba.

No, travel hasn’t changed Cuba to the extent the hardliners want, but it has done more for us than the isolationist policies they have imposed for more than fifty years. It’s incredible to me, as somebody who grew up in a country where one of the primary policies of the regime was to keep us isolated from the outside world, to hear supposed “freedom lovers” plea to keep Cubans isolated. Doing away with people-to-people contacts will only serve those who want to continue churning the anti-Castro machine in Miami.

D- Some of President Obama's positions have caused a conflict for Democrats looking for a perfect candidate, as Bark Bark Woof Woof explains, but in the end, you only get two choices.

I would love to be able to vote for a presidential candidate who swears off drone weapons and makes that the so-called “deal breaker,” but it is never that easy. It’s bad enough that we’re still in Afghanistan many long years after proving our point and only making it worse. There is one thing I do know — at least I believe it to be so — and that is that President Obama will not start a war just to start one. Unlike Mr. Romney or the previous Republican administration, going to war is not something you do in order to shore up your base in the Iowa straw poll.

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Your Evening Sift

Are you ready for Friday, readers? I sure am. But before we get there we I have a great evening Sift for you. Have fun.

A- We're knocking on the dry season's door, according to Go Hydrology! who, of course, has a graph to prove it.

B- I think Discourse's position on Obama is shared by a lot of Democrats.

C- Because many of us only take the time to criticize and condemn them, I think Broward Blog's mention of yesterday's loss of a BSO motor officer is worth noting.

D- Obalesque gives us plenty of reasons why he doesn't set foot on boats.

E- Coconut Grove Grapevine is done, for sure...maybe.

I have decided to end the Grapevine, but maybe not totally end it, I don't know yet. What I am doing is stopping daily publication for now, only because I feel that I have other things I need to do and I believe that you physically have to shut one door to have another door open.

F- For photos of the M83 concert at the Fillmore go to Beached Miami, for a review, check out Salty Eggs. From the latter...

I forgot I was at the Fillmore, forgot I was on the planet — a good, high-energy, perfectly-timed, well-performed show can do something like that to you, but M83 is at this point deft when it comes to creating the euphoric feeling you get when you hear them at home. Their lead guitarist threw himself on the floor after “Couleurs.” I feel like that is what the rest of us probably wanted to do, too.

G- Is downtown Pompano's revival going to be centered around the new Tri-rail station? Possibly, as Curbed Miami explains.

The plan radiates from the station, reconnects the area's former street grid, puts the densest areas near the station itself, creates smaller neighborhoods within the larger scope that have varying characteristics, adds bike lanes, and creates a new network of public green spaces.

H- If you plan on going to the F.A.T. Vullage Art Walk this weekend [see the Weekend Widget in the sidebar] then you might just catch Rip Her To Shreds at the Projects...at Arterpillar.

I- Choices Cafe in Miami is a great choice for vegans and vegetarians, according to Meatless Miami.

The place is called Choices because you can eat any "style" from completely raw to hearty cooked food, and everything there is vegan. The staff are great and they throw vegan-related events too. Highly recommended!

J- South Florida for Beginners moves on to Congressional District 25, which they call the The Diaz-Balart Fiefdom, and provides an in-depth look at the DB Family.

The main leitmotif that runs through the family is their implacable hatred for Fidel Castro. Both Lincoln and Mario have been in the vanguard of the anti-Castro hardline in Congress, and don’t seem to have modified their views one iota. Well, they keep getting elected, so why should they? And it’s really a symbiotic relationship—the Castros need the hardliners to rally support on the island, and the hardliners need Castro to keep getting elected.

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Mitt Romney: Those People

More like this, please.




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O'Reilly And Koppel

Great back and forth between Ted Koppel and Bill O'Reilly about the integrity of cable news today, particularly at MSNBC and Fox. O'Reilly couldn't be more condescending, but that's who he is.

Hang on until the end.






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Skewed Polls And Sobbing Republicans

So I spent part of yesterday torturing myself and listened to Rush Limbaugh whining about how all the mainstream media polls are wrong and are acting in concert to [ready for this?] suppress the Republican vote.

LIMBAUGH: The purpose of the people right now, most of them doing these polls, they're trying to make news, not reflect it, they're advancing an agenda. They're all Democrats. They're all liberals. They just have different jobs. The polls are the replacement refs. They see certain things. They don't see other things. They don't call certain things, and other things go by. In this case, what they're trying to do is exactly what they've done in your case: frustrate you, make you pull your hair out, say, what the hell's happening to the country? They want you thinking the country's lost. They want you thinking your side's lost. They want you thinking it's over for what you believe. And that makes you stay home and not vote. That's what they're hoping.

And here you thought voter suppression was only done by the Tea Party. See what you can learn from Rush!

"Skewed polls" is actually the latest meme from forlorn and sorrowful conservatives who are shocked that there aren't more batshit crazy Angry White Guys in America.  How could Obama be leading in the polls with Republicans wanting to get rid of Social Security, Medicare, affordable and fair health care, and any chance of stopping the flow of tax dollars that help out the very needy uber wealthy? Not to mention their hate and derision of immigrants, gays, education, Muslims and every single liberal mind out there.

I mean, what the heck is not to like about them?

Sure, the polls are skewed. And Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and 9/11 was all Bill Clinton's fault and Cuban-American exiles recognize the 2nd coming of Fidel Castro, albeit a darker version, when they see him.  We know. We've heard it before.

Cowboy up, Republicans. Take some solace in the fact that the real poll, and the only poll that counts, is in November.

Quit being such wussies and holster your whimpering until November 7th.




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Where's Worst Pizza When You Need Them?

Cone Crust Pizza from Pizza Hut...




I stopped eating at Pizza Hut years ago primarily because I want to see what 55 years old is like. I'm not sure who consumes this culinary garbage but someone must because they're still around.



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The Cooler

Here's your daily review of the morning news from around South Florida. Enjoy your Cooler.

A- Herald: A lot of trouble for [maybe] 36 people.

Florida’s noncitizen voter-purge program roared back to life Wednesday when Gov. Rick Scott’s elections department produced a new list of 198 potentially ineligible voters — including 36 who might have cast ballots illegally.

[...]

Democrats account for 44 percent of the potential noncitizens on this list and 41 percent of the overall active voter rolls, a Herald analysis found. More than a third of the list is made up of no-party-affiliation voters, who account for about a fifth of the rolls. Republicans make up 16 percent of the purge list and 36 percent of the overall voter rolls.

Of the 36 potential noncitizens who may have voted, 39 percent are African American and 25 percent Hispanic. About 64 percent of those voters are Democrats and 19 percent are independents.

B- Herald: Another South Florida success story.

Their last address was a waterfront McMansion in Lighthouse Point.

Their ride was a Bentley when the feds busted them last fall.

On Wednesday, a federal judge sent convicted serial scammers Joseph Harvey and wife Anja Karin Kannell to prison for 13 years. Their crime: stealing the identities of about 600 people and filing about $3 million in phony claims for oil-spill and natural-disaster relief payments in others’ names.

“The defendants were leeches on the public and the government of the United States ... to support a lavish lifestyle,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Watts-FitzGerald told the judge.

C- Palm Beach Post: Because of all those recent hurricane claims.

State regulators said Wednesday they approved a 6.4 percent average increase in homeowners insurance rates for State Farm after the state’s former No. 1 property insurer asked for a 14.2 percent average hike.

The move marks the fifth significant increase in three years, following boosts of about 28 percent, 14 percent, 7 percent and 19 percent.

D- CBS4: Life in South Florida.

KENDALL (CBSMiami) — New surveillance tape released by Miami-Dade Police shows a violent attack on a 55-year-old woman and an attempted carjacking inside a busy parking garage by the Dadeland Metrorail station.

E- WPLG: Michael Putney gets hit with a pitcher of water.

CUTLER BAY, Fla. - When I knocked on Justin Lamar Sternad’s door Wednesday, I noticed a sign warning, “Trespassers leave -- or get wet.” I didn’t leave and got wet.

When a woman in her 30’s, presumably Mrs. Sternad, opened the door, she splashed a pitcher of water on me and then slammed the door shut.

F- WPTV: Stupid South Florida criminals.

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. -- Some people use Facebook and Twitter to keep in touch – but Sam Drummond used them to solve a robbery. His own.

Aided by his computer and armed with the phone number of the man who lured him to a Lantana trailer park and robbed him, the 26-year-old Delray Beach man plugged the digits into a Facebook search.

The results startled him. Up popped a profile page, and there, spreading out a wad of cash for the camera, was the man who robbed him. A comment on the picture said: "crime pays."

But maybe not so much for 20-year-old Jonathan Coleman and 19-year-old Billy Jean Jacques, the Lake Worth men now charged with robbing Drummond at gunpoint.

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Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

And here we go with the Thursday. The SFDB Weekend Widget is revved up and tracking in the right sidebar. Make sure you check it out this morning. In the meantime, enjoy your morning Sift.

A- The Upper Eastside Farmers Market has been operating through summer, according to Redland Rambles, who gives us a good idea of what to expect if we visit.

You can count on lots of fruit during the summer. In the last several months I’ve seen lychees, canistel, dragon fruit, mamey, longans, white sapote, Thai guava, jackfruit, starfruit, monstera, mango, avocado, mamoncillo, red guava, sugar apples (anon), bananas and plantains as they come in (and go out) of season. The market also offers eggs, callaloo, collards, both sweet and hot peppers, herbs, french sorrel, potatoes, carrots, eggplant, tomatoes, okra, squash, boniato, calabaza, snake gourd, allspice berries, katuk, honey, Art’s pickles and whatever else is available. You won’t go hungry in the summer!

B- The South Florida Theatre Scene has the latest on theater in South Florida.

C- Bark Bark Woof Woof is just looking for an Obama win in November, he's looking for a big Obama win in November to send a message to the bigots on the Right.

Which brings me to my second point. The right wing needs to be seriously beaten, humiliated, shamed, chastised, denigrated, and bumfuzzled. And it has to be done with a determination and resolution that will leave no doubt as to who did it to them. None of this humble-in-victory crap; I want the winners to dance in the street and make the losers — especially Karl Rove and that little snot Ralph Reed — cry for their mamas.

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Your Evening Sift

Wow. Busy day in the South Florida blogsphere. Lots of good stuff for you tonight in your evening Sift. Enjoy.

A- The305.Com sends some love SFDB's way.

B- Liam Crotty shows off his recent Herald Op-Ed.

C- Been looking for a healthy food truck? Burger Beast finds one for you.

Their food is good, the portions are right and even though their prices are a little higher than the average truck I can see where the additional bucks go.

D- Miamism profiles the Lenny Kravitz-designed Paramount Bay Condos.

Seriously! Sexy interiors! With finishes that made my jaw drop – from the diamond patterned cladding on the walls, to the choice of stone and lighting. My first question when I walked in the building was, “How exactly was Lenny Kravitz involved, or is it just another celebrity hoax to attract sales?”. I was told that Mr. Kravitz was involved in all the common areas of the building including approach, circulation and functionality.

E- Norman Brothers Produce in Kendall gets the Critical Miami treatment.

If you should find yourself down in Kendall, there’s a nifty little produce market that you should check out. Norman Brothers is sort of a cross between a Fresh Market and Trader Joe’s (coming to Miami!), but it’s a one-off, family owned place, so it’s got a unique and funky flavor.

F- Curbed Miami has the info on some pie-in-the-sky development that someone is thinking of doing in the area around the new Intermodal Center at MIA.

G- On Two Shores selects a few snippets from a recent HuffPo op-ed on why Cuban-Americans don't have to be stuck being Republicans their whole life.

H- Leave a comment at Hello, I'm Scott and you might get some of his photography.

I- Roy Black loved Bill Clinton's convention speech and is obviously a big fan of the Big Dog.

Clinton reminds me of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s take on the charisma of Jay Gatsby also someone who everyone liked: “He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life.”

I like Fitzgerald’s novels, but he made one serious miscalculation when wrote there are no second lives in American life. He never met Bill Clinton. The comeback kid. In spades. Gennifer Flowers, Impeachment, Al Gore was so afraid of his toxic aura that he kept him off the 2000 campaign trail. Yet he comes on as the savior of Barack Obama and gives one of the most stirring political speeches in recent political history. Hard to beat that.

J- Coconut Grove Grapevine's vision of Stars Hollow continues.

I'm going up north in the next week and that made me think of fall leaves. How about if we truck in lots of fall leaves, dump them in Peacock Park and let people jump around in them and play in them for a fee? Or even for free? It's sort of like Snow Days, but with leaves, it could be called "A Taste of Fall."

K- Soul of Miami shares a number of Brickell Art Walk photos.

L- The Cuban Triangle opines that David Rivera's legal troubles are boding nicely for Democrat Joe Garcia and a new approach to Cuba from a politician in Miami-Dade.

With Garcia in the mix, Cuba policy will not be transformed, but the debate will get healthier. For the first time the diversity in Cuban American opinion will be reflected right there in the Florida delegation. By a Cuban American who, like most Americans, sees openness as part of our identity, and as part of our strength.

M- The Romney campaign is approaching meltdown mode as a video at Bark Bark Woof Woof shows us.




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The Daily Show: Why Obama Is The Luckiest Dude On The Planet

The Daily Show explains why President Barack Obama is having so much success against Willard Romney. Hint: it's not because the Prez is doing a lot of things right.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

It says something about your political party when the best you can nominate is a guy like Romney.




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The Atlantic: National Geographic Photo Contest

The Atlantic posts a number of entries from this year's National Geographic Photo Contest, which is going on until November 30th.

You can check out 50 of the Atlantic's choice images thus far here.



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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.

Another week of posts in the South Florida blogosphere and while nothing really jumped out and yelled "Post of the Week!", it was still a mighty fine grouping to examine. Shall we start?

Runners-Up: South Florida art coverage is particularly scarce in the summer months, primarily because there just isn't all that much going on, so last week's coverage of a Myra Wexler exhibition in North Miami by Arterpillar was a real treat. Salty Eggs did their best to try to find out why some Congressional Democrats were flip flopping on a controversial issue, but unfortunately they didn't have much luck. Of all the Tony Goldman tributes, I liked Artlurker's the best.



Winner:  South Florida for Beginners is new to South Florida but they have already found out what natives have known for quite some time: that Miami-Dade politics can be some of the dirtiest around.  Congressman David Rivera has been capturing the spotlight recently for all the wrong reasons and has a tough battle ahead of him against the comeback kid, Democrat Joe Garcia, in District 26. Congressional District 26, or: Who’s the Ugliest One of All? does a good job in looking at the seemingly lopsided race and lists Rivera's long list of vices and foibles that he's been involved in over the years. South Florida for Beginners uses lots of links for readers to reference and composes the voluminous information into an easily digestible blog post. This week, it's SFDB's pick for Post of the Week.


'Til next time, keep on blogging!



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Wednesday Morning Start

Florence and the Machine tickets are still on sale for tonight's concert at the BB&T Center (formerly the BankAtlantic Center) in Sunrise. Cosmic Love is one of the tunes you'll probably see them perform if you go...





Chills....



Ticketmaster


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The Cooler

Looks like it's only a matter of time before Congressman Rivera is frog marched into an awaiting government vehicle for the trip downtown. That and more in the Cooler.

A- Herald: Folded like a wet noodle.

Justin Lamar Sternad, whose failed congressional campaign became the subject of a federal grand-jury investigation, has told the FBI that U.S. Rep. David Rivera was secretly behind his run for office, The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald have learned.

Sternad, 35, also told authorities that his campaign manager, Ana Sol Alliegro, acted as the conduit between the campaign and Rivera, who allegedly steered unreported cash to the Democrat’s campaign, according to sources familiar with the investigation and records shared with The Herald.

Sternad said Alliegro referred to the congressman by his initials, “D.R.,” and called him by the nickname, “The Gangster.”

B- Herald: I'll never understand why this happens so often.

A baby girl was found dead in a car where she had accidentally been left for as long as nine hours.

The discovery was made Tuesday evening at Doral Academy Preparatory School in West Miami-Dade.

Police said the 6-month-old’s father was supposed to have dropped her off at a daycare center about 9 a.m. Tuesday, but apparently forgot she was in the car and went about his day.

C- Herald: Hope and change.

Consumer confidence hit a five-year high this month in the Sunshine State, thanks largely to significantly better outlooks on the national economy’s health. The latest reading from the University of Florida confidence index hit its highest level since October 2007, two months before the official start of the 2007-09 national recession.

D- Herald: Pitts.

Romney’s remarks, then, are of a piece with a narrative — poverty as character defect — favored by many who know exactly jack about the reality of poverty, but who have discovered that demonizing the faceless poor, giving us someone new to resent and blame, is good politics.

They wrap their attacks in rags of righteousness and pretensions of pragmatism, but there is something viscerally wrong, morally shrunken, in a nation where the most fortunate are encouraged to treat the least fortunate as some enemy race.

E- TC Palm: It's the NRA's world...we just live in it.

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — A 5-year-old C.A. Moore kindergartner found with a loaded .380-caliber pistol in his backpack told authorities his father accidentally put it there and he didn't know he had it.

The boy told St. Lucie County Sheriff's deputies that his father needed the gun for protection, saying a man wanted to "knock him out," according to a sheriff's incident report.

F- South Florida Business Journal: The latest SoFla restaurants with bug problems.

G- WSVN: A-holes.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) -- A Good Samaritan rescues a dog after it was thrown out of a car on a busy highway.

"I was getting ready to exit 95 on Stirling Road," said Richard Powers, "and a guy in a Toyota truck threw a black bag out the window. Then I looked over at the bag and it started moving."

A little dog was inside. Skinny, scared, but otherwise OK. "I'm a dog lover myself," said Powers. "I have four dogs. I couldn't just leave him there."

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Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

Folks were busy around the South Florida blogosphere last night. You have your work cut out for you so grab a coffee and let's get into your morning Sift.

A- On Two Shores gets me chuckling with their post about David Rivera.

B- Political Cortadito spots more campaign signs in Miami Lakes that she suspects bow to Santeria beliefs.

Because, while this may be (again) yet another sign (Ladra loves a good pun when she sees one) that — at least in terms of politics — Miami Lakes is, indeed, becoming Hialeah North, it’s still not Hialeah.

C- South Florida for Beginners notes that the ballot for November's general election is incredibly long.

The main reason the ballot is so long is that: 1) There are twelve proposed constitutional amendments which are not summarized, but printed in their entirety, 2) There are a number of local questions peculiar to your county of residence, 3) There are all those judicial elections, and 4) Everything is printed in three languages: English, Spanish, and Kreyol.

D- Obalesque posts a reprise of his traditional Yom Kippur thoughts.

E- Get inspired with a wonderful video of a local man who is not letting his disability slow him down...at The Miami Bike Scene.

F- Eye on Miami explains why the current iPhone/Google maps controversy is a big miscalculation on Apple's part.

But to launch a great new phone with a weaker mapping feature -- as universally reported -- is the kind of mistake Steve Jobs would never have made. The Apple strategy is apparently to let consumers suffer while it boot-straps into its own mapping expertise.

G- The latest in the Republican War on Reality is that the polls showing Obama with a lead are wrong, according to Bark Bark Woof Woof.

It’s perfectly understandable that the Romney folks want to deny reality; polling is a tricky business and there’s lots of room for error — which is why they include the “margin of error” in their results. But when you have every major polling organization showing pretty much the same results, then chances are it’s the way things are.

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Your Evening Sift

It's only Tuesday? Sheesh. The SoFla blogosphere was buzzing today so take a break and check out your busy evening Sift.

A- Meatless Miami reviews The Meatball Joint...and finds it fine for vegetarians.

One of the three main ball choices is the vegetarian "West Hollywood" which is made of eggplant, herbs and Parmesan. I'm pretty sure there were some mushrooms in there as well. In NY the veggie balls were dry and crumbly but these were moist and well-seasoned. The sauce options are a fantastic marinara, a very tasty Alfredo, and a chunky mushroom gravy. There are always specials too, and they day I was there they had a falafel ball that was spot-on.

B- Obama is now leading in Florida, according to polls and Bark Bark Woof Woof.

C- Hello, I'm Scott provides some excellent homegrown music to read your Sift by.

D- Halloween is just around the corner and South Florida Food and Wine has all the pumpkin patch locations in the area.

E- Salty Eggs notes the moment that Willard Romney lost the election.

It was Romney’s appearance at the Iowa State Fair that first marked him out as not merely a less than stellar candidate, but a sure-fire loser. That was when he started talking about how to make entitlement programs work and set up his no-taxes-evah position by saying that one way to do it is to raise taxes on people. He was about to knock down that position when someone yelled, “Corporations! Corporations!” Romney responded to this tax-the-corporations voice in the crowd with five simple words:

“Corporations are people, my friend.”

F- South Florida Lawyers makes me laugh about politics in the Sunshine State.

G- So it looks like 8 Oz. Burger and Bar on Alton is closed, after all, according to Eater Miami.

H- The305.Com says he has found a great sandwich place in North Miami that we should check out.

For now, this is officially my favorite sandwich spot in Miami. I had to move La Sandwicherie to my number 2 spot. Cane A Sucre offers the most delicious sandwiches you could ever order. I found out about this place about 3 weeks ago and I’ve gone back at least 6 times. My go to sandwich here is the El Pollo, which is a grilled chicken breast sandwich topped with caramelized onion’s, smoked gouda cheese, and roasted tomato aioli on a french baguette. DANK!

I- Critical Miami meticulously dissects the Florida constitutional amendments that we'll be voting on this November while Eye on Miami is a little more broad.

J- The latest on the Midtown Walmart at Curbed Miami.

K- Unbelievably, Discourse's Sears treadmill experience takes a new turn.

The second thing was that when I got into the office there was a message from “Stephanie” at the Sears executive offices, who wanted to talk to me about my “treadmill experience”. This although the problem with my treadmill experience is of course that I have not in fact had any opportunity to experience the F80 treadmill. I called right back and identified myself, name, order number, zip code, address, and Steffane found my record. “This shows as complete” she said. I started laughing.

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10,000 Posts

It turns out that "The Weak and Dubious" post was my 10,000th post here at SFDB.

That number kinda boggles my mind and I suppose it is a milestone of sorts...

No, I don't have a favorite although I still remember putting together the first post and how exciting it was to start fresh again. The Saturday Night Turndown Service feature is probably my favorite for a variety of reasons but what keeps things interesting and challenging is staying on top of the South Florida blogosphere. It's what drove the creation of SFDB and it continues to be be the heart and soul of this effort.

It's still all good although I'll admit that this thing feels like a ball and chain on some days and at certain times. Mostly, though, it's still good.

And that's why I keep coming back...day after day.

Thanks for reading. Even if you've only caught the last 1,000 posts :), I appreciate your readership.




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Ana And David, Sitting In A Tree

Miami Herald

Here's a little taste of the level Republican politics has dropped to in Miami-Dade County.

From the Herald, we get a wonderful picture of Congressman David Rivera's political "pal," Ana Alliegro [right].

Alliegro is a key figure in a federal investigation of Sternad’s campaign finances that focuses on the funneling of tens of thousands in cash tied to U.S. Rep. David Rivera.

Authorities believe Rivera and Alliegro, both Republicans, helped the Democratic Sternad undermine a political rival in his recent congressional primary race.

“Politics is rough and I play like it,” Alliegro, 42, once tweeted on Twitter.

So what's "playing rough" for Ana?

In January 2007, she was arrested in a dispute with her ex-husband, Moshe Cosicher, at his Tigertail Ave. home in Coconut Grove. They had been divorced for two years, but Alliegro wanted to get remarried, according to reports from Miami police and prosecutors.

“We are going to Vegas,” she told Cosicher, a report said. The report noted that when Cosicher refused, she grabbed a gun, which appeared to be a .45 that she kept at bed side.

She then sat naked at a desk with her leg up and compared the gun to a male sexual organ.

“If you think your [expletive] is powerful (showing the gun), this is mine,” Alliegro told Cosicher, who tried to ignore her by going to make coffee, a report said. Alliegro followed him and told him to sit on the couch.

She fired a round into the ceiling.

Oh, but that's not all...

Alliegro, a single mother, has politics in her blood: Her grandfather was the president of the Senate in Cuba during the Fulgencio Batista era in the 1950’s.

Her father, Anselmo Alliegro, who once helped train contra rebels in Nicaragua for the U.S. military, also made a failed bid for the Florida Legislature in 1998. He ran a business called Political Intelligence.

[...]

In December 2009, Alliegro married former Miami mayor Joe Carollo. But the romance was short-lived: Carollo — a former police officer — quickly filed for divorce, saying that he feared Alliegro, court records show.

Alliegro “has become irrational, abusive and has harassed the husband at all hours,” Carollo’s lawyer wrote in court papers. “The wife has left several threatening messages and texts. The husband genuinely fears for his safety.”

Read the whole Herald article and then head to The Straw Buyer for a nice arrest photo of Alliegro when she's not so Brickell Avenued up.

So now it seems she's teamed up with a congressman who ran a mail truck off the Palmetto and allegedly got rough with a girlfriend. It always seems like these kind of people manage to find each other. I'm not sure why that is, really. Kind of amazing.

But what's even more spectacular and what is so Miami-Dade County, is that many voters don't seem to mind and keep putting these human pieces of garbage in positions of power again and again and again.




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SFDB Culinary Adventure Of The Day

Exhaust burger...

Before you start complaining about the taste of carbon monoxide and the cancer risks of automotive air pollution, look closely at the design. The exhaust merely heats the upper element of the device, cooking your burger much like a Foreman Grill.

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The Cooler

Here's your review of the mainstream media sources this morning. Enjoy.

A- Herald: Breathe in that capitalism.

WASHINGTON -- Discover Bank will refund $200 million to more than 3.5 million cardholders to settle charges that its telemarketers used deceptive tactics to sell credit card “add-on” products, such as credit score tracking and identity theft protection.

Discover also agreed to pay $14 million in civil penalties as part of the settlement, announced Monday by federal regulators.

B- Herald: Business suited for South Florida.

PALM BEACH GARDENS -- Stuart Lawley has made millions in his short stint as an Internet porn impresario, but the mild-mannered Brit seems more buttoned-down businessman than Hugh Hefner-style high-roller.

Lawley runs ICM Registry, the Palm Beach Gardens-based owner of the newly launched dot-xxx domain. The content on dot-xxx is risque, but company headquarters is just plain boring. It’s a 3,000-square-foot cubicle farm in a PGA Boulevard office building.

[...]

For Lawley, Internet porn is all business. And business is pretty good. Lawley said he brought in $25 million in revenue during the final three months of 2011, when dot-xxx went live.

ICM Registry has sold some 230,000 domain names. Lawley acknowledges that fully 80,000 were so-called defensive registrations bought by organizations such as retailer Target, the University of Kansas and Northwestern University. They purchased dot-xxx addresses to keep someone else from snapping up their names and posting dirty content.

Even after accounting for the brands that paid to protect their names from being sullied, that leaves a whole lot of porn providers.

C- Herald: They write letters.

We’re not the same

In the middle of my Rosh Hashanah family dinner, the last thing I expected to receive was a robo-campaign call with a recording from Mitt Romney! I am a registered Democrat with a fairly obviously sounding Jewish name and he calls me during my sacred holiday at dinner time?

So after hearing him pontificate about the huge number of jobs he would create as president, without anything resembling an actual plan as to how that might happen, and listening to him embarrassing himself and most Americans by declaring his disinterest in 47 percent of us, he then adds insult to injury and calls me on my holiday. Are we really supposed to believe that he has any consideration or sensitivity to anyone not exactly like himself?

Hazel Goldman, Pinecrest

D- TC Palm: Bad timing, but enjoy the "calm."

The U.S. weather satellite that tracks the East Coast and Atlantic hurricanes is broken.

Meteorologists are scrambling to fill in lost data for forecasters with a spare satellite and help from a European satellite.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokesman Scott Smullen said engineers shut down the East Coast satellite Sunday because of vibrations. They're still trying to diagnose the problem.

E- NBC Miami: Life in South Florida.

What started as a quick stop to take care of some car trouble turned into tens of thousands of dollars lost for a South Florida musician.

Evan Lamb says he hasn't slept since his van and everything in it was stolen from a BP gas station near Coral Gables early Monday morning.

"He gets in the front seat, puts it in reverse and I tried to catch up to him," Lamb said. "He had the door open and smashed it on one of the gas pumps. So then I ran up to that and I tried to grab the door but then he just floored it and took off."

Inside the van was nearly $70,000 worth of equipment. Lamb is a musician, and in the back of his van were numerous guitars, a pedalboard, amplifier, speakers, and much more.

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Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

It's days like today that I wonder how I keep doing this thing called SFDB. You'll see what I mean later on. For now, enjoy your morning Sift.

A- Thoughts on Yom Kippur at Justice Building Blog.

Interwoven throughout Yom Kippur is the credenda that sins one might have committed against another in the past year are not forgiven on Yom Kippur. For that you need to address the person you have hurt and ask for forgiveness.

Isn't that part of what we're all about? Helping people right their wrongs. Prosecutors enforce the law; defense attorneys (at times) help guide their clients to the path of forgiveness and hopefully redemption.

B- Prepare for the soon-to-arrive drought, Go Hydrology! says.

C- Obalesque traces the root of Mitt Romney's doublespeak and doesn't have to go far.

D- Bark Bark Woof Woof offers up his thoughts on a NY Times opinion column written by a well known conservative who says that today's conservatism has lost its way.





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Your Evening Sift

Man, long day. It doesn't help things at all when you get up at 4 after heading to bed at midnight. Here's your pretty decent evening Sift.

A- Beached Miami provides their impression of the Dolphin's losing performance this weekend.

The season’s bright spot so far, running back Reggie Bush, went down early in the first quarter and didn’t return to the game. Which gave way to second stringer Daniel Thomas who is basically as useless as a drunk intern. Seriously, does that guy actually have flippers? I feel like if you took off his gloves off it would look like Danny Devito’s hands when he played The Penguin in Batman Returns. He’s fumbled twice this season in two games. And we gave up three draft picks to get this stooge.

B- Jeff Eats claims that BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse looks better than the food it serves.

BJ’s is OK...but that’s about it.

The joint looks better than its food is, so you are setup for a huge disappointment when the food arrives.

C- Random Pixels takes a look at the backgrounds of the three guys who stand accused of robbing and shooting an off-duty Miami-Dade police officer.

D- Curbed Miami gathers up the links that describe a new residential project coming to SoFi near Joe's.

South of Fifth (Call it SoFi, and die), that section of South Beach at its tippy-tip bottom, is getting another super de-luxe residential project by starchitect Enrique Norten, of firm TEN Arquitectos. Called One Ocean, the building is not actually on the ocean at all, but at 1 Collins Avenue, practically next door to Joe's Stone Crab.

E- Worst Pizza slams The Ale House's pizza and gives it...yeah, you got it...4 stars.

The first bite revealed a crispy crust as I had suspected. It was tasty, but not in that sort of pizza parlor way. The cheese and sauce were extremely reminiscent in my opinion of that square type of pizza you buy in the frozen food section. Actually combined with the crust, it really tasted like that sort of frozen pie. Some people love Ellio’s Pizza so maybe this is a good thing for the Ale House in Boca Raton.

F- South Florida Lawyers makes me laugh.

G- If you're into Oktoberfest, then you don't want to miss South Florida Food and Wine's list of South Florida celebrations.

H- Discourse continues to battle Sears in order to get a treadmill delivered. I'll give the guy credit: he's sticking with it.

Mention the web site, and the jaws of the script snap shut: any questions about that and I have to call sears.com. She’ll connect me. Wait! I say, what do I do if I’m disconnected? Call 800 349 4358. There are clicking noises and a very ominous moment of silence. But, again, having a fallback plan saves me from disconnection, and I am through to “Joyce” who sounds like she might be from somewhere a little south of the Mason-Dixon line.

I- Ho hum, another Republican sex scandal...at Bark Bark Woof Woof.



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South Florida [Animated] Cartoon

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A Bad Week For Romney

It's an understatement that last week was a tough one for Willard. He deserves every last bit of it, however.









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SFDB's Then And Now

Then...

Miami News, September 24, 1961...

Now....

1031 NW 201st Street, Miami

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SFDB Monday Morning Kickstart

The luckiest truck driver in Russia...






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The Cooler

The mainstream media is apparently still snoozing in South Florida. Not a lot here, folks.

A- Herald: Who is going to complain?

To go after those pesky signs illegally placed along Miami-Dade County’s main thoroughfares — think “We Buy Junk Cars” and “We Fix Computers” — the county’s building department took a page from the political playbook:

Flood the repeat sign offenders with robocalls. Annoy them enough that they will comply with the law.

[...]

The department has more than 200 telephone numbers on its current list. Each is called every day during business hours, about once every 45 minutes.

“Some of them answered and said, ‘You’re driving us bananas,’ ” said Charlie Danger, the county’s building chief.

B- Herald: Morin.

C- CBS4: Life in South Florida.

SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE (CBSMiami) — Police and fire crews responding to the scene of an explosion at a home in Southwest Miami-Dade found a marijuana grow house inside, investigators said Saturday.

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Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

Monday, Monday. Here's your morning Sift, readers. Enjoy.

A- If you like photos of guys leaning motorcycles into corners, you're in luck this morning because Nikon Miami has tons of them.

B- Burger Beast doesn't give much love to 2 fritas that he picked up in Westchester.

I brought the patty right up to my nose, took a good sniff and decided I wouldn’t even take a second bite if someone dared me. You’ll be happy to know my dad fed this Frita to the cats in his neighborhood. Please do not call PETA claiming animal cruelty.

C- Worst. Congress. Evah. At Bark Bark Woof Woof.

D- Justice Building Blog sets out their purpose.

This blog, in its highest sense of purpose, is here to give those who have legitimate complaints a place to air them without fear of retribution. And, when a tragedy strikes our close knit community; when we lose a judge or a lawyer who has touched our lives, this is a place to gather and shed some tears, and reminisce. So, young lawyer or old lawyer, please pitch in. The blog is not a place to call people names- ugly and hurtful comments are something we do our best not to air. But if you want to contribute, with tips, information, or witty comments, were are here, listening, grateful for your continued support.

That is who we are.

E- Beached Miami posts a little about local band Palette Town and has a couple samples of their music.

F- Reading Discourse's tale of customer service at Sear's this morning will make you never, ever want to purchase anything from that company.

G- Redland Rambles reports that a local has received this year's Florida Innovative Farmer of the Year Award.




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