Updated: It disappeared! South Florida Sun-Sentinel article -online Thursday- re allegations of indecent exposure being investigated by the Broward Sheriff's Office against Hallandale Beach Comm. Leo Grachow has disappeared completely from website; @TweetsByMAOS has more news on this unraveling story that HB City Hall is trying to stonewall

Blog updated October 14, 2014 Woman accuses Hallandale commissioner of indecent exposure in condo sauna
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/hallandale/fl-grachow-hallandale-sauna-20141009-story.html

So what happened to South Florida Sun-Sentinel's article -online Thursday- by Susannah Bryan re allegations of indecent exposure being investigated by the Broward Sheriff's Office against interim Hallandale Beach Comm. Leo Grachow, who is running in November to retain Seat 2 against former HB Comm. Keith London?

At the top is a photo of what that URL looks like at 3:30 p.m. today, many, many hours after I started being deluged with phone calls, emails and texts from people in the area asking me:
1.) if I knew what happened in the incident,
2.) why the city was trying to cover it up by refusing to legally produce public records for the newspaper, and 
3.) why the article disappeared from the Sun-Sentinel's website.
Unfortunately, I have no definitive answers, but strongly suggest you contact the newspaper directly and ask her; sbryan@tribune.com

For more on this issue, see what our friend up in Deerfield Beach, Chaz Stevens had to say on the matter, first yesterday afternoon, BEFORE the story disappeared, complete with some details;

BOLO Issued for Commissioner Leo Grachow and his Penis! http://t.co/DsqjzRFi81
— Chaz PBRFestivusPole (@TweetsByMAOS) October 9, 2014

https://www.myactsofsedition.com/blog/2014/10/09/bolo-issued-for-commissioner-leo-grachow-and-his-penis/


Chaz subsequently posted the following:

Hallandale Beach candidate Leo "The Lien" Grachow's Personal Financial Armageddon http://t.co/jDtfEeoacT
— Chaz PBRFestivusPole (@TweetsByMAOS) October 10, 2014

http://www.myactsofsedition.com/blog/2014/10/10/hallandale-beach-candidate-leo-the-lien-grachows-personal-financial-armageddon/

and then there was this well-aimed blast at the Heart of Darkness in Hallandale Beach, 400 S. Federal Highway

We send up a Public Records Flare! http://t.co/qyXE356wbo
— Chaz PBRFestivusPole (@TweetsByMAOS) October 10, 2014

http://www.myactsofsedition.com/blog/2014/10/10/we-send-up-a-public-records-flare/

plus this

A Leo Grachow Penis Gate update! http://t.co/8CaDGVqDgM
— Chaz PBRFestivusPole (@TweetsByMAOS) October 11, 2014

http://www.myactsofsedition.com/blog/2014/10/11/a-leo-grachow-penis-gate-update/

and most recently,

The S-S story that was pulled. http://t.co/pyG6EtCZQQ
— Chaz PBRFestivusPole (@TweetsByMAOS) October 12, 2014

http://www.myactsofsedition.com/blog/2014/10/12/the-s-s-story-that-was-pulled/

It's noteworthy to me, and a rather sad commentary on the general lack of a sense of old-fashioned competitiveness or enterprise journalism among South Florida's news media that days after this story saw the light of day, at least for a few hours, that neither the Miami Herald or any of the four English-language TV stations have reported word one on this story, or why the City of Hallandale Beach is fighting so hard to keep public information AWAY from the public that is entitled to it by state law.

At least as of 9:50 a.m. today.

Why do you suppose that is?
Look at who runs things there: Mayor Joy Cooper, City Manager Renee C. Miller and City Attorney , V. Lynn Woodward. 
It's exactly what it looks like. 
People who do NOT want to see former HB Commissioner Keith London elected over Cooper-supported interim HB Commissioner Leo Grachow. 
Joy Cooper wants to keep her Rubber Stamp Crew intact!

These are, after all, the very same people who refused to turn over public information -phone records and text messages- that I was legally entitled to under the state constitution and had had formally requested in 2013 through a PRR.
I strongly suspected those records would show Cooper and Miller and others lobbying the members of the Broward County Commission and County Adminstrator to prevent an audit of the scandal-plagued Hallandale Beach CRA, which has wasted millions of dollars under Joy Cooper.

I never got those records I was legally entitled to, but I was proven 100% correct.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/latest-on-curious-case-of-at-city-of.html

Meanwhile just on Sunday, with nothing on this blog newer than this post re Grachow, I had 2,355 pageviews, and I suspect most of them were headed to this particular post. 
Because what was their alternative if they wanted more news on this subject, other than from Chaz?
The so-called professional news media of South Florida was asleep at the switch!

My last blog post about Leo Grachow was this much-read one from June 19, 2014. Since the story hit the fan last week, nearly everyone around South Florida and environs who covers or follows politics and local govt., esp. in Broward County, to say nothing of Hb residents themselves, has been looking at it: 
Observations re Leo Grachow's selection as Hallandale Beach's interim Commissioner: "I thought he was a perfect fit for the job." So says a clearly disconnected-from-reality Comm. Bill Julian, who DIDN'T rate Grachow best, but instead voted BEST the least-qualified of the 3 finalists! Meanwhile, the candidate giving the single-best oral presentation, Chad Lincoln, received a 1 (out of 25) from HB's notoriously thin-skinned Mayor Joy Cooper; voting distribution chart

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2014/06/observations-re-leo-grachows-selection.html

2014 Florida elections, Broward Sheriff's Office, Chaz Stevens, crime, Hallandale Beach, indecent exposure, Joy Cooper, Keith London, Leo Grachow, My Acts of Sedition, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Susannah Bryan, 

Video: Local10's Glenna Milberg examines an ethical & financial problem in Hallandale Beach that I've been writing about for over 3 years re Comm. Anthony A. Sanders, who KEEPS stonewalling the public; Keith London: "Broward Inspector General closing in on Hallandale Beach, Mayor Cooper and Vice Mayor Sanders"

actsofsedition video:  Local10/Miami: "City's pricey purchase." 
On July 26, 2012, Local10 reporter Glenna Milberg went to Hallandale Beach to learn more details about the curious case involving Pastor and City Comm. Anthony A. Sanders' rushed sale of his and his wife's property at 501 N.W. 1st Avenue to the city in 2009 -when the city had ZERO written plans for what it would actually do with the property afterwards!- for about $89,000 more than it was actually worth. Sanders continues to stonewall Hallandale Beach taxpayers about the exact details of this deal as he has now for over three years, and he refused to speak with Milberg on Thursday. Outside of the city-owned property that the city now receives $10 a year in rent for, Mayor Joy Cooper's explanation was unconvincing for HB taxpayers. Three years later she continues to hem and haw when asked simple questions -and to defend the indefensible- as she still can't logically explain what the rush was to buy the property at a higher price, esp. if there was no definite plan in place. It was left to Comm. Keith London -the only vote against the purchase and Cooper's re-election opponent in November- to again explain why this deal was so egregious from HB taxpayer's point of view. It's just one of the dozens of inexplicable and nonsensical things that I've personally observed with Hallandale Beach taxpayer or CRA funds under Mayor Cooper's reign since I moved here. This time, it's drawn the full attention of Broward County Inspector General John W. Scott, who wants the commissioners to explain to him and his agents what actually happened and why. Uploaded July 27, 2012. http://youtu.be/XlOgkrL9CWI

(In case you didn't recognize him, the other individual interviewed at the property by Glenna Milberg  is Josh Brown. If you forgot what the story with him was, go back to my April 12th blog post titled, An IG investigation! Finally! Plus, more curious CRA matters to ponder - William Gjebre in BrowardBulldog: Broward Inspector General's office zeroing-in on Hallandale Beach after numerous reports re city's curious CRA loans and land purchases with no written plan in place for the latter http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/ig-investigation-finally-plus-more.html

 Per that post, you might reasonably ask, whatever became of Brown's failed attempt to commit fraud against the Broward Democratic Black Caucus? I don't know, you might want to ask Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz. That's his job.)

Friday morning I received the following email from Comm. Keith London about the segment with WPLG-TV's Glenna Milberg, above.

Broward Inspector General closing in on Hallandale Beach, Mayor Cooper and Vice Mayor Sanders Watch Glenna Milberg’s Report on WPLG Channel 10 _________________________________________________________ Your Tax Dollars at Work What every citizen and taxpayer in Hallandale Beach should know about the purchase of Vice Mayor Sanders' property by Mayor Cooper and Bill Julian: The “special” meeting (read minutes from that meeting) to purchase the property was held upstairs behind closed doors in a room far away from the public view. The purchase was NEVER on a listed agenda with all the appraisals provided to the public to this day. In addition, Mayor Cooper and Bill Julian voted and approved the purchase under “OTHER” in the secret meeting. They spent $235,000 on “OTHER”! Commissioner Keith London was the only NO vote. Besides “appraisal shopping”, here is another fact: "Mayor Cooper, you conveniently forgot to mention that the sale closed within hours of the vote. In what world other than yours, Mayor, do closing documents get produced and the check clear the bank in less than 12 hours?" Question: "Mayor Cooper, what have you done with the property in the last 3 years?" You leased it to another one of your buddies for 10 dollars per year! That’s good business. Thanks for looking out for the taxpayer, Mayor Cooper! Keeping you informed, Keith Commissioner Keith S. London

Phone: 954-494-3182   613 Oleander Drive Hallandale Beach, FL 33009 email: keith@keithlondon.comwww.keithlondon.com Political Advertisement paid for and approved by Keith S. London for Hallandale Beach Mayor, Non Partisan

I'm reprinting this from above in case it is hard to read:

Your Tax Dollars at Work

What every citizen and taxpayer in Hallandale Beach should know about the purchase of Vice Mayor Sanders' property by Mayor Cooper and Bill Julian:

The “special” meeting (read minutes from that meeting) to purchase the property was held upstairs behind closed doors in a room far away from the public view.

The purchase was NEVER on a listed agenda with all the appraisals provided to the public to this day.

In addition, Mayor Cooper and Bill Julian voted and approved the purchase under “OTHER” in the secret meeting. They spent $235,000 on “OTHER”!

Commissioner Keith London was the only NO vote.

Besides “appraisal shopping”, here is another fact:
"Mayor Cooper, you conveniently forgot to mention that the sale closed within hours of the vote. In what world other than yours, Mayor, do closing documents get produced and the check clear the bank in less than 12 hours?"
Question: "Mayor Cooper, what have you done with the property in the last 3 years?"
You leased it to another one of your buddies for 10 dollars per year!
That’s good business. Thanks for looking out for the taxpayer, Mayor Cooper!

----------
Chaz Stevens' Acts of Sedition blog: http://www.myactsofsedition.com/
His YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/actsofsedition

When the subject is pet adoption and 'puppy mills' -not roses- Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper shows why I often invoke the fable about the scorpion and the frog. She's the scorpion, of course. Which is why so many voters here aim to kick her out on November 6th

ActsofSedition video: The April 4th, 2012 Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting promised HB residents and pet lovers the opportunity they've been waiting for for several years, but when so many people showed-up and wanted to have their voices finally heard, they got a first-hand lesson in how Mayor Joy Cooper does things -her way or the highway- as she is heard threatening to toss members of the public out. Mayor Cooper remains defiant as always, but Comm. Keith London and HB resident (and longtime opponent of puppy mills) Michele Lazarow comment to Local 10's Ross Palombo on what happened last week and the spectacle that is HB City Hall under the wearisome reign of the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew. April 11, 2012. http://youtu.be/UNEn1jgTvw4


When the subject is puppy mills -not roses- Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper shows why I so often have invoked the fable about the scorpion and the frog to describe her to others who have never seen her in action, or, who can't quite believe that she is as described here here on the blog and elsewhere in South Florida's blogosphere. 


Well, she's the scorpion, alright, but whereas the scorpion in the fable can't help it, what's the mayor's excuse, after ten years as mayor?
The truth is that the mayor likes getting her way on everything, no matter how picayune the matter, even if it isn't sound public policy, and that is made worse by the fact that she also happens to see it as her prerogative as mayor to let everyone know what she thinks about everything.


Which is just one of the many reasons that so many voters here aim to kick her out on November 6th, so this beleaguered city can finally escape her clutches and breathe a little bit and relax -and start to become the city it ought to be already but isn't.


Friend of the Blog, Chaz Stevens of MAOS, posted this video from Local10/WPLG-TV's 11 p.m. newscast Tuesday night to his YouTube Channel on Wednesday, and as I saw it before hitting the sack this morning, I am happy to share it with you here, however long it stays up on YouTube.


Here are the links to the Channel 10 story and a related essay on their website, which DOESN'T embed news videos.


WPLG-TV/Channel 10 News

Puppy mill ban prompts shouting match at commission meeting
Citizens outraged at Hallandale Beach meeting
By Ross Palombo
http://www.local10.com/news/Citizens-outraged-at-Hallandale-Beach-meeting/-/1717324/10473368/-/102ko1b/-/index.html



WPLG-TV/Channel 10 News
How much is that doggy in the window?
Pet stores vs. Pet adoptions
By Barbara A. Besteni, Managing Editor, Local10.com
Published On: Mar 31 2012 09:17:49 AM EDT  
Updated On: Apr 02 2012 06:35:20 PM EDT
http://www.local10.com/Managing-Editor-Local10-com/-/1717430/4716224/-/ylj0rbz/-/index.html


Be sure to read the reader comments above!


To find other related videos on YouTube, use this URL to find them:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22Hallandale+beach%22+%2B+%22puppy%22&oq=%22Hallandale+beach%22+%2B+%22puppy%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_nf=1&gs_l=youtube.12...5784.27444.0.29989.30.30.0.0.0.0.162.3203.12j18.30.0.


Obviously, like most of the concerned residents of Hallandale Beach who continually chafe over the jaw-dropping antics they observe at the city's dysfunctional City Hall and the local South Florida TV stations ignoring it, I'd have greatly preferred that Channel 10 and the other three English-speaking Miami TV stations had actually shown up for the meeting themselves.


Attending last week's meeting, the first of two required readings necessary to pass the proposal as an ordinance, which would make Hallandale Beach the first city in Broward County to pass such an ordinance, would have given them some much-needed first-hand context for better understanding what residents go through pretty frequently, and what I write about so often on this blog.


Plus, showing-up would have also given them more current B-roll for their archives and allowed folks at the station who couldn't make it to see how HB City Commission meetings so often get sidetracked in this small ocean-side city because the mayor is so ultra-sensitive to any sort of criticism.


Since the mayor doesn't really much care what others think to begin with, which is why she talks SO MUCH during the meetings and why the meetings run SO LONG, as mentioned here SO MANY times in the past -as recently as two weeks ago- it would have been nice for area reporters to see latest smoking gun for themselves.
The proof is all around the city, you only need to open your eyes.
----
http://www.facebook.com/people/Michele-Lazarow/1498909170


http://www.myactsofsedition.com/


http://www.youtube.com/user/actsofsedition

A visit to The Institute for the Advancement of Political Corruption, in Deerfield Beach, is a trip your kids will never forget! And neither will you!

Today I make up for an oversight of mine and give more attention to someone who actually deserves it.

Someone who is the anti-Kardashian - Chaz Stevens.

Despite being at polar ends of Broward County, Deerfield Beach to the north and Hallandale Beach to the south -right next to Aventura in Miami-Dade County- these two cities are Kissin' Cousins in the world of South Florida municipal corruption and indifference to public appearances.

If a different person was in charge at the Broward State's Attorney's office, it's not so far-fetched to imagine that they'd have a temporary office located at those two respective city halls to make it easier for the investigators to get the requested docs -and save gas money from driving to-and-from the SAO's office in the Broward Courthouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

But - sigh- we have the person we do until next year's election.

----

Excerpt from an email I sent Chaz Stevens about six weeks ago:

May 15th, 2011
10:55 p.m.

Dear Chaz:

I'd have said something congratulatory to you by now about this morning's Herald article but I've been having constant computer problems all weekend.
Je me regrette!

I'll try to post a comment on the Herald's site on Monday and will, hopefully, reference it on my blog later on Monday, after some time has settled to see which of your naysayers -who've never done anything themselves- come out of the woodwork to rain on your (long overdue) parade.

Longtime bomb-throwers like West Hollywood Dissident and Unowho, et al, who never seem to be right in either their predictions or their after-the-fact analysis when they've publicly attacked you, me, Keith London and many others we could name who want to reform this part of the Sunshine State.

I'm thinking that my comments at the Herald might be better taking one of them to the woodshed, as opposed to my simply saying what I think.

But who knows, perhaps I'll rise above the fray... and pay no heed to the peanut gallery of misfits that spins their wheels on other people's blogs and websites trying to make excuses for their

favorite political pets (miscreants) in Broward that we have been given in such generous amounts!

Instead, perhaps expose them at my blog for the frauds they are.

Cheers!

-----

In my comments above, I was referencing certain people who CONSTANTLY used Bob Norman's then-extant blog at the Broward NewTimes to go off-topic from what he'd written about, to delve into picayune matters that 99% of Norman's readers could care less about, including their various feuds with other readers, anonymous and otherwise.

-----

Miami Herald

Activist uses email blasts, blog to keep politicos honest

By Daniel Chang

May 14, 2011

Chaz Stevens is not a professional investigator, yet his digging has led to several Deerfield Beach officials facing corruption charges.

Prosecutors secretly admire him. Defense attorneys openly loathe him. And followers of Broward politics can’t seem to get enough of him.

Still, it’s hard to know what to make of Chaz Stevens, the rabblerousing activist who wields email blasts and a website — myactsofsedition.com — like a bludgeon, heaping scorn and ridicule upon, and leveling criminal complaints against his hometown public officials.

Since launching his tech-savvy anti-corruption crusade in 2007, Stevens’ tips to the State Attorney’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have led to the arrests of three Deerfield Beach politicians for corruption, including ex-Mayor Al Capellini and former commissioners Stephen Gonot and Sylvia Poitier.

It’s a track record that might earn Stevens a great deal of respect and admiration — if only he didn’t take such conspicuous pleasure in degrading his targets with equal amounts of scurrilous name-calling, innuendo and condescension, delivered with a generous helping of narcissism.

“I have only one thing to declare,’’ Stevens blogged this week after a Broward jury convicted Gonot. “My genius.’’

Indeed, Stevens filed the initial complaint that led to an FDLE investigation of Gonot in 2008, then followed up with leads for investigators and prosecutors, including an email he sent last week to Assistant State Attorney David Schulson, the prosecutor, who had already rested his case but reopened it to share the new evidence with the jury.

Stevens’ tip to Schulson: that Gonot had flown to Las Vegas to participate in a poker tournament the morning after his best friend had cashed a $5,100 campaign check at the center of the state’s theft and misconduct charges.

The evidence provided a plausible motive for Gonot’s theft, and undermined the defendant’s claims that he was overwhelmed at the time with a divorce and the failing health of his parents.

It is unknown whether the revelation swayed the jury’s verdict, but Gonot’s defense attorney, Jeffrey Harris, attempted to discredit Stevens early in the trial, accusing the activist of trafficking in “rumor and innuendo,’’ and questioning why state investigators would take seriously complaints from such a source.

Stevens wears Harris’s remarks as a badge now, and makes no apologies for his clearly biased reporting on Deerfield Beach and on Gonot’s trial, from which he posted exclusive videos of the defendant testifying and provided running color commentary.

“People don’t like me because I am who I am,’’ Stevens acknowledges. “I wish people were smarter to see the message. They get so hung up on the messenger. It’s disappointing.’’

He began his civic activism by ridiculing city politicians with doctored photos and outrageous claims posted on his blog.

An expert in Photoshop, Stevens recalled one occasion where he took a screen grab from TV of Gonot, and edited the photo to look like it was taken from a surveillance camera. Then he alleged the image came from cameras Gonot had surreptitiously planted in city hall.

Stevens shivers as he recalls the “buzz’’ his post created.

“I got calls from city employees,’’ he said, laughing. “The police came and did a sweep of city hall. They didn’t find anything.’’

By 2008, Stevens was looking to take his watch dogging game to another level. He learned to cull public records for the types of facts that could stand up as evidence in a criminal complaint and, eventually, a court of law.

It was a turning point for Stevens’ activism. While his complaints against Gonot and Capellini were based on the investigative legwork of the alternative newspaper New Times and others, Stevens’ complaint against Poitier was the first to originate from his own exhaustive review of meeting minutes, financial reports and other documents.

Stevens launched his crusade against Poitier in 2009, brazenly taking on a matriarch of Broward politics first elected to the Deerfield Beach commission 37 years ago and who also had served on the Broward County Commission from 1985 to 1998.

By his count, Stevens filed 23 criminal complaints against Poitier. But what really seemed to push the 75-year-old politician to the point of exasperation was the incessant taunting and vilifying on Stevens’ blog, in email blasts, on T-shirts and in doctored photographs that he posted online.

In March, Stevens posted a video on YouTube of Poitier on the Deerfield Beach commission dais, threatening to sue the activist for libeling her reputation and calling for “a showdown.’’

He made much hay of this on his website, and even threatened to sue Poitier for defaming his character.

And then the roof caved in for Poitier.

On April 12, state prosecutors charged Poitier with five misdemeanor counts of falsifying records, based on an investigation launched by Stevens’ original complaint. (She has plead not guilty.)

Stevens was overjoyed.

“It’s a glorious day,’’ he crowed in an email blast addressed to the press. Contained in the same email was an example of Stevens’ unflagging activism — a criminal complaint he had filed with FDLE in March, alleging the Deerfield Beach Housing Authority had violated state laws on public bids.

Tom Connick, a Deerfield Beach attorney who represents housing authority director Pam Davis, said Stevens is “flat out wrong’’ about the agency. And though he gives Stevens credit for rooting out corruption among city officials, he takes issue with the manner in which Stevens works.

“There are some things which he has brought to light that appropriately should have been brought to light,’’ Connick said. “There are other things that he claims are problems or issues, and he’s just flat out wrong. They’re not. ... I think the tragedy of Stevens is that he appears to be essentially someone who gets his self esteem by destroying instead of being constructive.’’

Stevens said he piles on the insults and attitude for effect, and suggests it is a strategy.

“It irritates,’’ he said. “It draws attention. ... I’m kind of an attention whore.’’

Connick said Stevens abuses public records laws by issuing broad requests that require hours of manual labor and reams of printed materials. He accused him of making unfounded accusations and degrading women.

But what bothers Connick most is Stevens’ in-your-face style.

“His destructiveness is so overpowering and inextricably woven into his personality,’’ Connick said, “that he’s really a negative factor.’’

To be sure, Stevens’ over-the-top manner has earned him enemies.

He believes someone poisoned his dog, and said he sometimes fears for his personal safety.

Physical threats, though, don’t seem to get under Stevens’ skin like the anonymous comments about him posted online at various local news websites and ridiculing his living arrangements, love life, weight and employment status.

It’s the two-way rule of the Internet, giving equal platform to anyone with a keyboard, a computer and something to say.

Stevens, 46, says such comments used to bother him, but that he’s “grown a thicker skin’’ about the personal attacks.

“It doesn’t matter where I live,’’ he says. “It doesn’t matter if I have a girlfriend or not.’’

For the record, Stevens lives with his parents in Deerfield Beach.

“I travel a lot,’’ he said. “It doesn’t make sense for me to have a house.’’

He works as a freelance software designer and website developer, and estimates that he devotes about 60 percent of his free time to activism.

And though he doesn’t get paid for his work, Stevens does enjoy some fringe benefits — namely the attention, but lately something closer to fulfillment.

“Now it has meaning,’’ he said of his activism. “Now it serves a purpose. It serves a public good.’’

This is not Stevens’ narcissism talking.

In April, on the same day that Poitier was charged, Kessler International, a forensic accounting and investigative firm that has audited Deerfield Beach’s community development division and civic festivals, announced it had created a new award called “The Chaz.”

Michael Kessler, chief executive of the firm, said the award will be bestowed annually to an activist with a proven track record of exposing government corruption.

He credited Stevens for reaching out to his financial investigators with leads, which ultimately led to an audit by the U.S. Housing and Urban and Development’s Office of Inspector General, which ordered the city to repay $224,000 in grants after finding that Poitier and another commissioner, Gloria Battle, had violated federal regulations intended to curb special interests.

“He supplied us with a tremendous wealth of information at the onset,’’ Kessler said of Stevens. “If you followed his blog, there were always tidbits of information.’’

And while Kessler also noticed the heavy doses of scorn, ridicule and name calling on the website, he is willing to indulge Stevens’ personality based on his track record.

“You have to take the whole enchilada,’’ he said, “but I think it brings levity to a very serious situation. That levity sometimes can be detrimental, but ... I don’t think I’ve ever seen an email that he’s written that when we went back and looked at the documentation, that the documentation was false.’’

Stevens points out that he’s not a professional journalist or corruption investigator and has no credo he must follow.

“Who cares if you have to put up with my stupid foibles?’’ Stevens said of his brand of activism. “It’s a little greedy that you want a corruption fighter and a grown up.’’

-----

Following his missive this morning:

Subject: DBHA BSC: The Institute for the Advancement of Political Corruption

If you have the misfortune opportunity to have listened to Anus T. Connick's rave review of Deerfield Beach Housing Authority Executive Director Pamela Davis*, you'd not ever want to second guess her credentials. However, according to the published Roles and Responsibilities of the Board Commissioners, doing just that is at the top of their to-do list.

So being that the existing BOC won't allow you and I (mostly me) a chance at that discussion, let's take a moment this morning to discuss an issue regarding Davis' performance and you decide for yourself if she makes the grade.

Speaking of which, we are *not* grading on a curve.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.myactsofsedition.com/my_acts_of_sedition/2011/06/the-institute-for-the-advancement-of-political-corruption.html

I wrote the following to Chaz this morning:

Come for the lack of oversight - stay for the star-spangled corruption!

And closer to us, hard by the Broward/Miami-Dade County line, coming soon: another look at what former Congresswoman Carrie Meek has been doing with all that free land and the tens of thousands of dollars that Miami-Dade County has been funneling her way for years.

Teaser Alert: Putting lots of photos of herself on a fact-free website DOESN'T make the project she promised the county an actual success.

Just saying...

-----

http://www.myactsofsedition.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/actsofsedition

Blogger Chaz Stevens vindicated, Sylvia Poitier arrested: An ethical journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

South Florida Sun-Sentinel video:
Deerfield Beach Comm. Sylvia Poitier is greeted by My Acts of Sedition blogger Chaz Stevens at the Broward County jail, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/videobeta/842e7b01-db82-4e2f-9c92-807a5f2c4d24/News/Poitier-confronted-by-blogger-at-jail
Videographer & Editor: Sarah Dussault, Length: 01:29

-----

WSVN-TV
South Florida politician facing corruption charges
Reporting: Derek Hayward, Posted: 04/14/11 at 6:30 am EDT
Video at http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21004040851597/

There's a new sheriff in town who goes by the name of John W. Scott.
The eyes, ears, mouths and memories of Broward County activists and bloggers are about to be deputized.
Time to Cowboy up!

Question: Where were all the elected officials and activists in South Florida who knew from personal experience that Sylvia Poitier was an unethical crook, and yet did nothing and said nothing, when her reign of ruin could have been ended so very long ago?

And what about the South Florida reporters who consciously ignored this story, except when there was a new development, when they used Chaz's blog for crib notes because of their own inherent laziness?
Yes, we know exactly who you are -and we haven't forgotten!

Chaz's tireless efforts have finally produced the exact results he predicted -and that his detractors said would never happen.
Game, set, match, Chaz Stevens.


Broward Beat
Chaz Stevens Q & A: Poitier, His Work And How He Got His Name
By Buddy Nevins
April 14, 2011

Blogger Timothy “Chaz” Stevens has been labeled profane. He’s been branded biased. He’s accused of being a shameless self-promoter.

Whatever you think of Stevens, he is unique. No one has shaken up a local City Hall in recent years like this phantom of the Internet.

Read the rest of the post at http://www.browardbeat.com/chaz-stevens-q-a-poitier-his-work-and-how-he-got-his-name/

Do you want to know what's especially delightful about the above Broward Beat post?
The insufferable sour grapes expressed by so many people in Broward County who've continually sat on their asses for years bitching about everything on other people's blogs -like Buddy's and Bob Norman's- but who have never done anything tangible themselves to improve the civic ethos in Broward County, yet who never fail to criticize Chaz whenever they had the opportunity, regardless of the circumstances.



Here's some Breaking News for you: Chaz has the last laugh!




Acts of Sedition video:
My interview with Sun-Sentinel's Mike Mayo, April 16, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDf0iTVN-5s

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Miami Herald
In My Opinion
Deerfield Beach’s Poitier couldn’t be saved from her old ways
By Fred Grimm
April 17, 2011
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/16/2171161/deerfield-beachs-poitier-couldnt.html

Reader comments at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/16/2171161/deerfield-beachs-poitier-couldnt.html#disqus_thread

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Acts of Sedition video:
Deerfield Beach mayor Peggy Noland asks Commissioner Sylvia Poitier to resign, October 5, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIp64ZYIJIM


Chaz Stevens blog, My Acts of Sedition is at http://www.myactsofsedition.com/

His YouTube Channel is http://www.youtube.com/user/actsofsedition

Broward Comm. Stacy Ritter plays her indignant card -again- in Sun-Sentinel's Broward Politics blog video of her sounding off on "paparazzi''

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h5d2utn39w&hd=1

Broward Politics YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BrowardPolitics
Website: http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/

Below, some other politically-oriented or current events-themed YouTube Channels you may want to peruse or subscribe to, like yours truly.

I'm still subscribed to The Hotline TV and Sayfie Review, but neither has posted anything new in one month and four months respectively.
http://www.youtube.com/user/HotlineTV
http://www.youtube.com/user/sayfiereview


MyActsofSedition YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/actsofsedition
Website: http://www.myactsofsedition.com/

Change Hallandale Beach YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Butler1Mike
Website: http://www.changehallandale.com/

BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BrowardPalmBeach Website: http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/

Newt Gingrich YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ngingrich

Red Eye Recap YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/RedEyeRecap
Website: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/red-eye/index.html
Red Eye airs weeknights at 3am ET, 12am PT, on Fox News Channel.

I'm always saying here that "seeing is believing" -yes, you can quote me on that- but since so many South Florida print/TV reporters I've talked to in the past have expressed interest in shedding a well-needed light on some of these problems, often after hour-long, in-person conversations at their studios, news rooms or over at Panera's, only to actually do nothing
about making that story idea a reality, more direct action is necessary.
Well, I'm eliminating the middle-man -the South Florida news media.

After Thanksgiving, as part of some changes and additions I'm making to the blog and to the Hallandale Beach Blog YouTube Channel, which I have greatly under-utilized thus far, I will finally get those videos I've been promising here since... well, quite a while ago.

I plan on finally posting key highlights (or low-lights) of not only Hallandale Beach and Hollywood City Commission/CRA meetings, Broward County Commission meetings, and the myriad South Florida civic meetings I hit, but also video of some longstanding Quality-of-Life problems throughout SE Broward and NE Miami-Dade that have proven troublesome or irritating to local citizen taxpayers, and which in many cases, have largely been ignored by the appropriate authorities, or incompetently managed.
No more.

While that will principally be in Hallandale Beach, Hollywood, Aventura and the odd world north of North Miami Beach, Home of the Chargers, I will also be posting video of what I observe and find troubling in Miami, Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale and other parts of South Florida as well.

Please check back there again soon: http://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog

"The 2,100 gun salute" is about to begin. The shells start firing on Hallandale Beach City Hall on Wednesday.

Above, September 15, 2010 photo of Hallandale Beach City Hall by South Beach Hoosier.

See 2,100 gun salute at
http://www.myactsofsedition.com/my_acts_of_sedition/2010/10/2100-game-salute.html

Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper's own version of the Battle of Waterloo -the last of the battles of the Waterloo Campaign of 1815- is about to begin this week, with her self-cast as the Little Napoleon of our area, thanks to her towering ego, overweening ambition and juvenile intransigence in the face of ALL of the known facts and FL STATE LAW.

Not to mention, Weiss Serota's curious legal advice, which you and I and all Hallandale Beach taxpayers are already paying for in order for Cooper to continue to defy the STATE LAW -and common sense.
Her ego, our tax dollars!

Me, well, this week, I'm channeling one of the Duke of Wellington's top generals -and I have a very strong intuition about how it all will end.

See more prior recent posts about Hallandale Beach City Hall senselessly fighting against both the spirit and letter of the Florida Constitution at Chaz Stevens' blog: http://www.myactsofsedition.com/

There is plenty there about Hallandale Beach to make your jaw drop, and wonder exactly what Mayor Cooper thinks she is accomplishing, other than to continue to embarrass the citizens of this community and make the outside counsel happy to have the City of Hallandale Beach as a very dopey client.

Plain and simple, Joy Cooper is NOT above the law.
Period.

See also: http://fsne.org/news/sunshine-sunday/sunshine-sunday-2010/

[$#*! My Mayor Says and Does- Joy Cooper of Hallandale Beach, Florida

[$#*! My Mayor Says and Does - Joy Cooper of Hallandale Beach, Florida

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at8Efl451k8



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUKenR9k238



The video on the top of Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper is by BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes "2010 Activist Of The Year" Chaz Stevens of Deerfield Beach, who keeps attention focused like a laser beam on the antics and skullduggery of South Florida's elected officials, government toadies and their back-slapping lackeys, esp. in his hometown, at his two very popular sites:
http://www.myactsofsedition.com/ and
http://www.youtube.com/user/actsofsedition

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/

Upcoming 2010 Spring Cleaning Media & Blog Purge: Sleepwalking South Florida news media and lemming blogs to be tossed overboard!

There is just a tremendous amount of news and information that will be coming to this space over the next few weeks, much of it about political ideas and strategy and upcoming elections that will have the possibility of seriously shaking up the deplorable status quo hereabouts.

Things both long in the planning as well as items that I've, admittedly, sort of lucked-into by paying close attention while most of South Florida's news media continues their 2010 spring slumber, preparing for their 2010 summer-long siesta.

But that's how it goes when you try to keep your eyes and ears open, return emails and phone calls from others promptly, and try to remain on good terms with people in a position to either make news -or cover it- all over the county, state and country.

In fact, I suppose you might even call what I have in mind -and in many cases, already have written- a torrent, though given the Broward School Board's continuing sub-par performance, if there are any Broward high school grads reading this, that's your cue to right-click 'torrent' and see what Google says it means.

I've got some big changes in store for my humble little blog, as this weekend I'll begin my 2010 Spring Cleaning Media and Blog Purge, wherein I make some long overdue changes that I had originally planned on making after Christmas, but couldn't due to time constraints
and some family obligations.

It's my hope that these particular changes will improve the blog's functionality and topicality, though perhaps not to everyone's satisfaction.
C'est la vie.

Frankly, I don't spend any time worrying about what people I've NEVER met, actually spoken to or received an email from, think about the blog, whereas those who have taken the time to actually contact me with their thoughts know that I generally take their constructive criticism pretty well, and only wish that I could change it the way I want to.

In the case of the former, people who have never contacted me but who have heaping helpings of criticism, I refer to people who never seem to actually manage to attend South Florida govt. or public policy meetings in person, what most people in the country might call no-shows, and who seem to "cover" things almost entirely second-hand from their living room or dens.

As anyone paying attention knows, that's the exact OPPOSITE approach of Genius of Despair and Gimleteye at Eye on Miami, http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/;
Daniel A. Ricker at Watchdog Report, http://www.watchdogreport.net/;
Chaz Stevens at My Acts of Sedition, http://www.myactsofsedition.com/;
Michael Butler at Change Hallandale Beach, http://www.changehallandale.com/;
Sara Case at Balance Sheet Online, http://www.balancesheetonline.com/;
Bett Willett at Blog by Bett, http://blogbybett.blogspot.com/ and myself.

(In case you're unfamiliar with the situation involving my friend Michael being sued by Joy Cooper, the thin-skinned, anti-democratic mayor of our fair city -who calls her political opponents "Nazis" while at Hallandale Beach City Hall- for simply attempting to get some public records, YET ANOTHER story that the Miami Herald and all of the local Miami TV stations have completely ignored, please see the following:
1.) http://openrecords.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/michael-butler-sunshine-troublemaker-of-the-week/

2.) http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2009/10/mayo_why_are_taxpayers_footing.html )
3.) http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2009/10/judge_patti_henning_and_mayor_joy_cooper.php )

While I obviously don't agree with them on everything they might say about a particular subject,
I ALWAYS know that they are actually spending their time and energy to be physically present and accounted for when news could be made that's of interest to the discerning and concerned citizens of South Florida.
And they don't lie or intentionally misrepresent the facts.

Both are more than can be said for the large majority of South Florida's sad sack excuse of a press corps, who would be greatly improved if 75% of them were fired toute-de-suite, and simply replaced by some of the plucky and curious kids on the journalism farm at Ernie Pyle, Medill and some other places I could name, where curiosity is a prerequisite.
See http://journalism.indiana.edu/ and http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/

Then we'd see some serious Who, What, Why, When Where and How action in our local media diet, and improved verb subject agreement and proper verb tense, to boot, and less fluff TV stories on liposuction, women's clothes, Rapping Grandmothers, and Grade D celebs and celebutantes making paid appearances at South Beach clubs.

It's exactly like the sad and feeble approach employed over at WTVJ-6 -the News Nobody Watches- "who don't know what's going on, and send a cameraman (without a reporter) to an event at the last minute just so they can maintain the illusion they're a real news operation."

That particular tart quote comes from one of their most industrious TV news competitors, who told me that exact thing two years ago while we were both sitting in the Broward County Chambers for a Broward County Charter Review Commission meeting.

This comment about Channel 6 only served to confirm what I'd long felt since returning to the area from D.C., and when I shared this comment with other industrious reporters and bloggers I know, who have often shared their take on what ails South Florida and its incurious news media, they all seconded that emotion.

It goes without saying that if I knew then what I know now, I'd have perhaps made some different choices when starting the blog, perhaps going with TypePad instead of Blogger, or perhaps some other blogging platform, as many newspaper and TV friends of mine in D.C. had originally suggested. http://www.typepad.com/

Since many of you readers probably don't know this, with Blogger's software structure, unless I remove all the 'anchors' on it at the beginning, the photos and thoughts about the area, I can't physically move my most recent comments up to the top of the blog.
If I could, I'd have done that years ago.
But I can't, hence the upcoming changes.

But even with the changes I hope to make over the next few weeks, I know that I won't be matching the prodigious blog posting and video output of South Florida's number one Watchdog, Chaz Stevens, who surely must get less sleep than anyone in the 954 area code.

FYI, last night and early this morning, I downloaded all the video I shot from Tuesday afternoon's historic Broward County Commission meeting, where the plucky underdog activists from Hallandale Beach brought the Broward County development/lobbying machine to heel, 6-3, and hope to have at least some of it on my YouTube page on Thursday.

My personal take on what transpired yesterday will soon be here, along with photos, now that I'm finally starting to get caught up on all the sleep I've been missing the past few weeks.