Showing posts with label Rahm Emanuel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rahm Emanuel. Show all posts

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Is Chicago becoming the next Detroit? Everyone's asking the same question and one of the main reasons why is unfunded pension costs, which the NY Times gave front page prominence to on Tuesday; Glenn Reynolds' spot-on take on this issue and Chicago as an early battleground in the fight pitting Democrat elected officials vs. Democratic-leaning govt. unions -govt. pensions vs. reducing municipal services and personnel. Pundits are paying VERY CLOSE attention to what Rahm Emanuel & The Democratic Machine will do, with William M. Daley running for governor next year talking tough about reforming pension plans


Fox News Channel video: Chicago the next Detroit? Pension problems raising alarm bells. America LIVE host Jamie Colby speaks to Fox Business Channel's Stuart Varney on the similarities and differences between Detroit and Chicago. Aired August 6, 2013. http://video.foxnews.com/v/2589585215001/chicago-the-next-detroit/



Glenn Reynolds' spot-on take on Chicago as an early battleground in the unfunded govt. pension costs vs. taxpayers fight, and the prospect of Democrat elected officials fighting Democratic-leaning govt. employee unions. Pundits everywhere are paying VERY CLOSE attention to what Rahm Emanuel & The Daley Machine will do, with William M. Daley running for governor of Illinois next year
After having read the original predicate article in the New York Times a few times and even sent links of it to friends around the country, I decided I wanted to also share it and the spot-on comments of University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds on this important issue and the New York Times' decision to give the issue the front page treatment on Tuesday at his terrific and much-read InstaPundit blog, which I've been reading since I was living and working in Washington, D.C. over ten years ago.
It continues to inform, educate and amuse in just the right proportions.

As we've discussed here previously, the editors at the New York Times know that their decision to give their story a push and place it on the front page suddenly gives the story "legs" in other parts of the country in ways that it simply wouldn't have if it had run on page 17A.
Nothing is on the front page of the New York Times by mistake or without the logical consequences of doing so having already been thought about and discussed.

You can't say the same with South Florida's newspapers since there often seems to be no rhyme or reason other than sheer shallowness or brazen bias or a desire to be seen as hip to certain advertisers.


New York Times
Chicago Sees Pension Crisis Drawing Near
By Monica Davey and Mary Williams Walsh
August 5, 2013 

CHICAGO — Corporations are moving in, and housing prices are looking better across the region. There has been a slight uptick in population. But a crushing problem lurks beneath the signs of economic recovery in Chicago: one of the most poorly funded pension systems among the nation’s major cities. Its plight threatens to upend the finances of President Obama’s hometown, now run by his former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.
The pension fund for retired Chicago teachers stands at risk of collapse. The city’s four funds for other retired city workers are short by $19.5 billion. At least one of the funds is in peril of running out of money in less than a decade. And starting in 2015, the city will be required by the state to make far larger contributions to the funds, which could leave it hundreds of millions of dollars in the red — as much as it would cost to pay 4,300 police officers to patrol the streets for a year.
Read the rest of the article at

#understatement: Unions remain angry at the mayor, who was at the helm during the teachers’ strike in 2012.


CHICAGO’S PENSION CRISIS IN BLACK AND WHITE
August 6, 2013
http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/173724/

NYT: Chicago The Next Detroit
August 6, 2013
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/08/06/chicagos-pensions-crisis-in-black-and-white/






New York Times
OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS
A Plan to Avert the Pension Crisis
By Richard J. Riordan and Tim Rutten
Published August 4, 2013 
LOS ANGELES — It isn’t politically feasible for Washington to bail out Detroit, but President Obama and Congress must step in to avert the worst fiscal collapse in urban American history.
They must intervene, because symptoms of the municipal illness that made Detroit, with an estimated $18 billion in liabilities, the largest city in American history to declare bankruptcy are showing up in other cities.
Read the rest at:

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Barrier-protected bike lanes are smart and safe, yet only six weeks into 2013, we may already have THE year's worst portrait of self-justifying govt. bureaucracy run amok: State of Illinois blocks Chicago's plans for barrier-protected bike lanes on state-run roads. Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to install 100 miles of protected bicycle lanes by 2015 is running into a speed bump; the more you know about this subject the more galling IDOT's decision seems


ChicagoMayorsOffice YouTube Channel video: Dearborn Bike Lanes. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel officially opens barrier-protected bike lanes on Dearborn Street through the Loop, becoming the first two-way dedicated bike route with traffic signals in Chicagoland. Uploaded December 19, 2012. http://youtu.be/6rzQXhcaFlY
Active Transportation Alliance Vimeo video: Dearborn Protected Bike Lane - Before and After. Uploaded January 2013. http://vimeo.com/55752870

Chicago Tribune
State blocks city's plans for protected bike lanes on state-run roads. 
Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to install 100 miles of protected bicycle lanes in Chicago by 2015 is running into a speed bump. 
February 12, 2013
http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/ct-met-getting-around-0211-20130211,0,5097859.column

More on this subject from a straight-shooting Chicago-area blog that doesn't miss a thing: Streetsblog Chicago

So why is IDOT delaying designs that several American cities have already been implementing for years? 
The agency says it wants to measure safety impacts based on robust statistical evidence, and that three years provides a representative sample. The rationale for requiring this information would be reasonable if Chicago was the first city to ever implement protected bike lanes, but it doesn’t hold up because the results have been the same wherever protected bike lanes have been installed:IDOT,  The injury rate of all street users is reduced, be they walking, biking, or driving.


I know, I know... it's like "When Worlds Collide"
This is one of the few times I've ever been on Rahm Emanuel's side in an argument, but even one of my former nemeses can't be wrong all the time, and on this particular subject, he is clearly not wrong, as bureaucrats in Springfield try to pull the musty wool of bureaucratic self-justification over Chicago-area taxpayers and biking enthusiasts who merely want to use state roads -they've already paid for.

Reminds me of when I was living and working in D.C. area and was pretty involved in international trade issues, which even more than usual, required my attending lots of long, jargon-filled Congressional hearings on Capitol Hill on topics that were often hard to explain to either my friends and family. 
Like the "Structural Impediments Initiative."

When the Japanese government -buttressed by powerful Japanese manufacturing companies afraid of fair competition from the United States- kept saying that American-made baseball bats and snow skis should not be imported into Japan  because they would have very different performance characteristics in Japan, as if snow on the ground in Japan, real or artificial, was so different from snow in the U.S. that it would cause the skis not to work if properly used, well, those sorry excuses from Japan has a very logical consequence.

Those true-life anecdotes soon turned into fodder for lots of influential scholarly reports and books -and a much-more aggressive approach in U.S. export policy in the early 90's against Japanthat were damning in their conclusions about the power of the Japanese  bureaucracy within every Japanese govt., and their complete unwillingness to accept reality and the facts staring at them.

And now, I read that into that small straight-jacket of bureaucratic conformity and unreality has jumped the Illinois Dept. of Transportation, and their cadre of management types and engineers, who imagine that something that has worked successfully everywhere it has been tried -and worked safely- would somehow produce completely different results if tried on the roads of Chicagoland.

I lived there for a few years in the 1980's and there are no mountains or canals or natural impediments to this smart plan being adopted other than IDOT's intent to keep it at bay for reasons that don't pass the smell test.

And so, once again, government bureaucrats seek to hold innumerable law-abiding citizens and visitors hostage to their old view of the world, until the citizens learn to either accept that bureaucrats know best -or three very long years pass.
Pathetic!

If I ever hear of anything even half as asinine as this by FDOT, policy-wise, you can count on reading about it here in detail, but I doubt they'd try it, because IDOT has set such a jaw-dropping low standard to replicate. 
They'd have to try awfully hard to fail their taxpayers this badly.
-----

Active Transportation Alliancehttp://www.activetrans.org/
Their Vimeo Channelhttp://vimeo.com/user11296014

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Chicken! U.S. Mainstream Media circles-the-wagons, completely cowed, shows their bias by refusing to cover Chick-fil-A's biggest day ever, while others adroitly take the MSM to task for being so obvious about in their bias in news coverage: Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day is NOT what the MSM wanted to portray, so they didn't


Huge Support for Chick-fil-A Day
http://youtu.be/_IDvx-xkRGk

Just in case you forgot, since most local news media in this country conveniently forget to mention it in their coverage of this orchestrated controversy, Dan Cathy's position, i.e. of being against "Gay Marriage," is the same one that Barack Obama's had when he was elected president in 2008.



WallStreetJournalDigitalNetwork video: Chick-fil-A Will Survive Controversy in Short Term. Michael J. Casey of Dow Jones and the WSJ's John Bussey discuss the fast food controversy. Posted August 2, 2012. http://youtu.be/T2F5PmMFN7c

Forbes.com
Chick-fil-A Day Not What The Media Portrays
August 1, 2012 @ 10:35PM 
In case you missed it, about a week ago the CEO of the very popular fast food chain said “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit.” That comment started a firestorm for the chain.
The LBGT community began in full force to try to convince people to boycott the chain regardless of the fact that the popular chain doesn’t discriminate against gays as employees or patrons. 
Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/derekbroes/2012/08/01/chic-fil-a-day/


The Weekly Standard
Mainstream Media Blacks Out Chick-fil-A Story?
By Michael Warren
12:19 PM, AUG 2, 201
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/mainstream-media-blacks-out-chick-fil-story_649234.html


Reason Magazine
The Misguided Assault on Chick-fil-A
Banning a business because of the owner's beliefs is a terrible abuse of political power
Scott Shackford
July 27, 2012
http://reason.com/archives/2012/07/27/eat-mor-liberty-politicians-misguided-as


San Francisco Chronicle
Token Conservative blog, 
Limbaugh: SF Mayor Ed Lee angrier at chicken than —
By Debra J. Saunders
Regarding San Francisco mayor Ed Lee
"Rush Limbaugh jumped on Lee’s comments by observing that the San Francisco mayor welcomes homeless defecating on BART escalators, but not a successful business enterprise. But then, City Hall always has cared more about scrubbing away unwelcome ideas than cleaning up city sidewalks, streets and public spaces."
Read the rest of the post at:  
http://blog.sfgate.com/djsaunders/2012/07/27/limbaugh-sf-mayor-ed-lee-angrier-at-chicken-than/


CBS News
Principle Over Profits For Chick-fil-A
By Stephen Smith
February 11, 2009 5:42 PM
CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports from Atlanta.
Video is at: 

Friday, January 13, 2012

"The Obamas": You've heard the anecdotes, now meet the author Saturday & Sunday on C-SPAN2's Book TV: NY Times reporter Jodi Kantor


Jodi Kantor, The Obamas 
Saturday at 11 p.m.; Sunday at 9:45 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Eastern
        
Jodi Kantor, Washington correspondent for the New York Times, examines the relationship between President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. The author reports on the changes to the couple's relationship as they entered the White House and their efforts to raise their children and balance their personal life against the requirements of their public life. Jodi Kantor discusses her book with David Brooks, columnist for the New York Times at Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC.
It's interesting to imagine whether or not someone in the audience will say something about the criticism of Kantor -from a pro-Michelle Obama p.o.v.- like how can she possibly know what was in Mrs. Obama's mind or what she may've said to Carla Bruni about the fish-bowl existence in The White House, when everyone knows, most especially David Brooks, her colleague, that Times columnist Maureen Dowd -a subject of past blog posts here- has made a speciality over the years of putting dozens and dozens of well-known Washington pols or power brokers on the psychiatrist couch in her columns, and tried to explain their actions without ever speaking to them, which many greatly resent.


She especially milked it in trying to draw distinctions or explain away the policy and emotional differences between Bush 41 and Bush 43, as well as the differences between their respective supporters and friends, like Brent Scowcroft's constant criticism of Bush 43's foreign policy.
Just saying... BOLO! 

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Even with his 57 states, Wash. Post says O is the loner president -'Beyond the economy, the wars and the polls, President Obama has a problem: People'


While we were busy dodging downpours of rain on Friday in South Florida, trying NOT to get drenched walking from a parking lot to wherever we needed to be, or NOT get blindsided on the local, often-poorly lit roads by one of the LARGE NUMBER of South Florida drivers who DON'T believe in using their headlights when it rains -a higher percentage in HB, it goes without saying- the Washington Post was running White House correspondent Scott Wilson's latest piece, and it's devastating.

It's one of the most insightful and persuasive articles of the year, detailing how President Obama's own personality comes into conflict with what he needs to do on a practical level in order to be successful with his own supporters on Capitol Hill, let alone, House Speaker John Boehner and the Hill Republicans and the nation at large.


The Washington Post
Obama, the loner president
By Scott Wilson
October 7, 2011

Beyond the economy, the wars and the polls, President Obama has a problem: people.

This president endures with little joy the small talk and back-slapping of retail politics, rarely spends more than a few minutes on a rope line, refuses to coddle even his biggest donors. His relationship with Democrats on Capitol Hill is frosty, to be generous. Personal lobbying on behalf of legislation? He prefers to leave that to Vice President Biden, an old-school political charmer.

Obama’s circle of close advisers is as small as the cluster of personal friends that predates his presidency. There is no entourage, no Friends of Barack to explain or defend a politician who has confounded many supporters with his cool personality and penchant for compromise.

WaPo reader comments at:

2,830 comments as of Sunday the 9th at 2:10 p.m.
But who's counting?

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

While crime and flash mobs roil Chicago-area residents, City Hall, Police, Tourism & Business Establishment act like ostriches. Sounds familiar!

View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.


WMAQ-TV (Chicago) video: Woman Believes Beach Violence Covered Up. City officials say incidents handled promptly.

Hard as it is to believe, all indications are that the City of Chicago and the Chicago downtown business establishment are STILL trying to deny what so many thousands of Chicago-area residents have seen LIVE over the past few weeks, and what tens of thousands more Americans have now seen via posted videos on YouTube, thanks to quick-thinking witnesses.
It's indicative of many troubling things, not least, a giant fundamental govt. dis-connect to reality.

View more videos at: http://www.nbcchicago.com.


WMAQ-TV (Chicago) video: The Talk: The Real Story Behind the Beach Closure.
Amy Schwartz talks with host Marion Brooks.

The situation in Chicagoland and how poorly it's been handled from the beginning, months before Rahm Emauel was elected mayor, gives you some real insight into how a similar situation down here in South Florida would likely be handled, where much-smaller city governments already have their heads firmly in the ground like ostriches, about what everyone in their own towns (plus visitors) can already readily see for themselves 24/7 about the general state of govt. incompetence, longstanding corruption and the lack of sufficient and properly-trained law enforcement in places where it can make a positive difference.
This despite the fact that Police & Fire personnel costs make up the clear majority of local cities' budgets.

See this post from the CTA Tattler blog,
Flash mobs ride CTA to commit crimes, mayhem on Near North Side


allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/static/flash/embeddedPlayer/swf/otvEmLoader.swf?version=&station=wls&section=&mediaId=8213855&cdnRoot=http://cdn.abclocal.go.com&webRoot=http://abclocal.go.com&configPath=/util/&site=">

WLS-7 TV (Chicago) video: Security stepped up for Taste of Chicago

Here where I live in South Florida, in the SE corner of Broward County, as I've often commented with exasperation on this blog, the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. STILL does NOT regularly patrol the actual public beach, even on crowded, three-day holiday weekends.
Like what's coming up in a few days...

But if you ask me, I can tell you exactly where I've watched them sit in their patrol cars on the road for 5-10 minutes with their A/C going when they have shown up to "investigate."
Or, later, where they stand in the shade (of The Beach Club) when they do actually get out of the patrol car -to smoke or check-out the female 'scenery'.
That's many things, but it's NOT the kind of serious patrolling HB taxpayers have a right to expect at one of the main public areas in the city.

Is it true that there are more HBPD police cars than there are actual HB police officers and administrators, and if so, why are there seemingly DOZENS of police cars that NEVER EVER move from the HB City Hall parking lot, no matter what time of the day you happen upon them?

Some answers to these questions may well be forthcoming, but I don't think I'm ruining the suspense when I tell you that I don't think you'll like the facts I have to share with you on this matter.

It's just more of the same inexplicable, inefficient, wasteful and status quo mentality we deal with here on an everyday basis.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Chicago Trib readers screw w/Trib execs: "The board for this story has been closed because of excessive violations of the Tribune's comment policies"


WBBM-TV, Chicago video

WBBM-TV, Chicago video: Walter Jacobson: Time to be upfront about mob violence
Story at

Upset Chicago Tribune readers are continuing to screw with Trib execs over the paper's fact-free reporting on the rash of mob attacks that have struck the Chicagoland area, prompting the execs to have to shut down their own comment forums.
That these forums, like their blogs, are among the best in the country, and light-years ahead of anything in South Florida goes without saying.

See Chicagoist on "mobs", including this headline, Did Gang Bangers Force Cops to Close North Avenue Beach?, at

This sort of politically correct writing has provoked the counter-force you could expect and that criticism of the Tribune policies and execs has led to the following embarrassing disclaimer being placed at the bottom of news articles:
"The board for this story has been closed because of excessive violations of the Tribune's comment policies. Details of those policies are described below."
Yes, on account of the Trib's self-serving, heavy-handed, condescending and parochial, not-to-mention Politically Correct polices, readers all over Chicagoland are saying f-em and 'shut 'em down!'

Chicago Tribune
3 teens held in downtown attack
By Jeremy Gorner and Dawn Rhodes
Tribune reporters
8:20 a.m. CDT, June 8, 2011

Two teens have told police they were attacked by a group of at least five youths downtown Tuesday evening just west of North Michigan Avenue.
A witness described the incident as similar to last weekend’s downtown attacks when 20 youths were arrested, including five who allegedly robbed and beat several people inStreeterville and on the Magnificent Mile.

Read the rest of the story at:

(Reminder for late arrivals to the blog -I lived in Chicago, Evanston and Wilmette in the mid-80's, including the Bears Super Bowl season.)

Later in the day, under the headline Rahm on the spot over youth mobs this appeared:
The most disturbing feature of the mob crimes is that they seem largely recreational. As early as February, police were warning merchants and residents in the Water Tower neighborhood about "flash mob offenders" — groups of teens who arrived via mass transit to stage shoplifting raids sometimes organized on social media networks. One unruly crowd took over the dining room of a McDonald's in April, forcing it to remain closed for hours after police broke things up.

That led to this eye-roller of a headline on Friday:
Teens feel they're being watched downtown
Most youths don't want to cause trouble, many students say in wake of mob attacks

Well at least the Trib didn't call them "youths" in the story.

Sure, because when you're a news reporter, when something happens, rather than trying to get some answers as to why someone or some group is or was engaged in a particular behavior, you interview a group of people that are NOT doing that, and tell how they feel victimized.
OH, PLEASE!

They still won't interview anyone who was actually involved in any of this because that would involve some work and enterprise, so instead they interview the United Colors of Benneton kids who attend the school for wannabe social activists.
How precious.

Oh, sorry, I mean the Urban Outfitter Crew.

This was all the perfect predicate for the following piece by the Editor of the newspaper which ran in Saturday's Trib.
It tells you almost everything you need to know about the state of American journalism in the year 2011.

Or, put another way, I could've headlined this post "When the PC Police run a newspaper: Chicago Tribune editor writes "When race is relevant in news coverage" Still waiting for Miami Herald's own take on illegal aliens? Good luck!"

Chicago Tribune
When race is relevant in news coverage
By Gerould W. Kern
4:52 p.m. CDT, June 10, 2011

This week the Chicago Tribune published several news stories and related columns about assaults by groups of youths in the Streeterville area of downtown Chicago. More coverage appears Sunday.

A number of readers have asked why we have not included racial descriptions of the assailants and the victims in these incidents.
Read the rest of the editorial at:


See also: Chicago Incapable of Combatting Flash Mobs

Friday, February 4, 2011

Chicago vs. The Blizzard: The Day After. A 'buried city' thaws and claws its way back to life as mayoral election looms on Feb. 22nd



WGN-TV: Mayor, candidates weigh in on city's response to snow
Daley says he supported the Lake Shore Drive decision

http://www.cltv.com/news/wgntv-daley-snow-response-feb3,0,6295269.story


WGN-TV: Chicago Fire Dept. uses rented snow mobiles to rescue residents during the blizzard


Chicago Tribune time-lapse video: The blizzard in 60 seconds
http://www.chicagotribune.com/videobeta/73765844-5b08-4688-a06d-078fbbf4eacd/Weather/Video-time-lapse-The-blizzard-begins


Photos: Blizzard of 2011:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-110201-monster-snowstorm-2011-pictures,0,6718278.photogallery

http://blog.chicagoweathercenter.com/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/


http://www.chicagomayoralscorecard.com/

Friday, October 22, 2010

WBBM-TV's report on the growing "Anybody But Rahm" coalition in Chicago of odd bedfellows - Political Heavyweights May Be Forming Anti-Rahm Alliance

Meanwhile, in the City of Big Shoulders, Chicago, where I lived for a few years, and where unlike Miami's local TV stations, the News divisions often make their news stories fully embeddable for blogs and websites... the growing anti-Rahm Emanuel for Mayor coalition continues to grow in some rather unexpected ways. GOOD!

If Rep. Danny Davis and Rep. Luis Gutierrez and some friends want to talk about things at a diner, like I often do with friends or local civic activists or elected officials, what's the harm?
Jay Levine
of WBBM-TV connects-the-dots on the latest developments.



WBBM-TV - Political Heavyweights May Be Forming Anti-Rahm Alliance



http://video.chicago.cbslocal.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=5215717&h1=Political%20Heavyweights%20May%20Be%20Forming%20Anti-Rahm%20Alliance&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=156067&LaunchPageAdTag=Homepage&activePane=info&rnd=65438093


My previous posts on Rahm Emanuel are here:

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search?q=Rahm+Emanuel

See also:
http://www.dickipedia.org/dick.php?title=Rahm_Emanuel

The latest news on Emanuel is here:
http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=%22Rahm+Emanuel%22


One of the many great videos that I featured here on the blog in the past in conjunction with the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid was this one, which gives you a really clear overview of some of the things that make it such an interesting place to live and work.


Chicago surprises!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlTcFaAs8Sk

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Amy Sherman's Herald post re Gunzburger v. Geller; Ron Book tries to snag HB

What follows is an email that I sent Miami Herald reporter Amy Sherman Tuesday evening about something she wrote that day, in anticipation of Wednesday morning's Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting.
Much of it will no doubt ring familar to those of you who try to make a habit out of coming here from time to time when you can, while for others, some of the following information may no doubt prove]
to be quite surprising or even troubling.

I'll have a full report on Wednesday's meeting about lobbying on Thursday.
__________________________________________
To: Amy Sherman <asherman@herald.com>,
cc: Michael Putney <mputney@local10.com>,
Terry Sheridan <Terry.Sheridan@incisivemedia.com>,
Steve Bousquet <bousquet@sptimes.com>,
Adam Smith <adam@sptimes.com>,
William March <wmarch@tampatrib.com>,
Aaron Deslatte <adeslatte@orlandosentinel.com>,
Breanne Gilpatrick <bgilpatrick@miamiherald.com>,
Beth Reinhard <breinhard@herald.com>,
Marc Caputo <mcaputo@miamiherald.com>,
Mary Ellen Klas <meklas@miamiherald.com>,
Jennifer Liberto <jliberto@sptimes.com>


Tuesday December 2nd, 2008

Dear Ms. Sherman:

Regarding your Herald post yesterday about former State Senator Steve Geller and his effort to be elected to the Broward County Commission in 2010.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/story/793947.html

A few weeks ago in another matter involving Geller, I sent part of the the email below to some of your colleagues in South Florida news rooms, print and electronic, as well as some savvy Tallahassee-based reporters, some of whom are also getting this addendum.

In retrospect, I see that I should've double-checked my list of names and made sure to include you as well, so consider this email an attempt to correct that unintended oversight.
----------------------------------------------------------
Call me old-fashioned but I'd really love to see some stories in the not-too-distant future about what's going on with the investigations surrounding the two people who have died needlessly on Millennium property while Steve Geller has been their attorney, lobbyist and schmoozer-in-chief: Albert Avenhaim and Myron Kafka.
http://millennium-group.blogspot.com/2007/02/blog-post.html

Maybe finally see a story about Brian Bethell, the person who murdered Albert Avenhaim in Hallandale Beach in 2006, in a string of at least three separate murders across Broward County that were THE lead story for quite some time -and then nothing.
As of a few weeks ago, the Broward Court website says that Bethell will have a competency hearing the week before Christmas.
(Obviously, that will be delayed even farther because of the broken water main problem at the Broward County Courthouse.)
---------------------------
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
March 6, 2008,

FORT LAUDERDALE
Family of man killed in elevator files lawsuit,
The family of an elderly man who died trapped between an elevator door and its security gate has filed a wrongful-death suit against several businesses involved in the gate's installation and maintenance, an attorney said Wednesday.
Among those named in the Feb. 13 suit are Associates in Internal Medicine, 2500 Hallandale Beach LLC and Millennium Real Estate Holdings.
Myron Kafka , 81, died in the Millennium Plaza, at 2500 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd., in July.
He stepped off the elevator on a Saturday, the elevator door shut and the gate kept him trapped until the following Monday, July 23, said attorney Rick Ellsley, who represents Kafka's daughter. ----------------------------------------
There hasn't been a single story in the Herald that mentions Bethell since January 7th?
January 7th of 2007.
And that was just a few sentences.
And the Sun-Sentinel? Try November 12, 2006.
Nice follow-up!

That's a record rightly deserving of derision, one to be tossed onto the bonfire when discussing the current deficiencies of South Florida's local news coverage, newsprint division as proof of how local reporters and editors, print and TV, have been sleeping on the job when it comes to following-up on these particular stories.

Millennium and their various partners have some rather grandiose plans to transform that property into a huge office and condo complex a block from the Intracoastal.
And who's leading that effort?
Well, none other than garrulous Steve Geller, someone I'm very open about regarding as a cancer on Broward County's political system and public policy arena, as my blogs make clear.

Yes, the very same Steve Geller that has for so long kept his govt. "hat" at HB City Hall.
I know that Steve Geller represents Millennium's interests because I was at public meeting Millennium was required to hold in Dec. of 2006 at HB's Cultural Center behind their City Hall.

I got there early, expecting some fireworks because of the predictable concerns about the project further exacerbating the already bad neighborhood traffic-flow on HBB -heading towards the beach- the out-of-proportion size of the plan, etc., and sat at the table next to where a Miami Herald reporter was seated.

Just moments after I got there and had grabbed a donut and some coffee, and returned to the table I had all to myself, in walked Geller and his retinue with trademark showy boisterousness, with him not waiting even two beats before continuing on a harangue disparaging then-Gov.-Elect Charlie Crist in tones that would've been loud enough for everyone in the room to hear if the room had been half-full, say, 150-200 people.
As it was, counting his Millennium crew and the interested public, there were no more than 25 people in that room, so his voice was bouncing off the walls.

To be so self-absorbed as to publicly belittle Crist in front of people -and a reporter- before he'd even taken the oath of office, showed me the side of Geller I'd often read and heard about, but never actually seen in person for myself.
But I recognized the type, since I'd had dealings with Rahm Emanuel in Washington at the DCCC, before he was anybody of note, and he already had that insufferable attitude and condescending ego thing down pat that later served him so well at The White House.

(Among his many other tasks was playing the role of errand boy, where he'd walk the three blocks to the NYT's DC Bureau on Eye Street, and relay messages to and from Times columnists Maureen Dowd and William Safire, plus myriad editors, who became bosom pals and Emanuel boosters, which is obvious from all sorts of evidence if you know where to look and whom to ask, positive coverage being the most obvious.
I will tell you that I still have a photo of him at Maureen's (first) book party on Capitol Hill, where, typically, like Geller, he's holding court like he's in The Arabian Nights.

I used to witness it all the time because I swung by the Times just about every day, plus, my reporter/editor friends there who were well aware of my disdain for Emanuel, proved to be great first-hand sources for sightings of him.
Not that I was alone on an island in Washington in my disdain for him and his "fixer" culture of cronyism, inspired in large part by Tony Coelho, which is always part of the problem and NEVER part of the solution.)

Geller's whole shtick was so over-the-top as to be farcical, and I debated whether I should dispense with the pleasantries and simply drop my knowledge on Geller and his client, in front of the reporter and public before the public presentation was over.
Ask them why the lighting around that property has been SO BAD for SO MANY YEARS that anyone who knows the property knew the parking lot was a DISASTER just waiting to happen.
In the end, I simply didn't trust the reporter to properly report the facts, synthesize the narrative and connect all the dots, so I kept my mouth shut.

Given my interests and background, I've been to hundreds of these sorts of meetings over the years, both in the D.C. area and South Florida, but still, listening to the sheer obfuscation and mis-direction coming out of Geller's mouth, his Pooh-poohing of the patently obvious traffic problems, as if a magic wand had been waved over them, rendering them invisible, well, it was all I could do to not ask him straight out if he and his business pals even recognized the name of the murdered Albert Avenhaim -and then go on offense.

A few months later I witnessed Geller wearing the attorney/lobbyist hat he loves, the one where he gets paid to alternately persuade/schmooze/ply city officials -also his constituents- to grant favors to or accept the plans of his myriad corporate clients who pay him so handsomely.

In this particular case, it was Geller playing hardball at a Hallandale Beach City Commission hearing, where he bullied and hectored HB residents in the neighborhood who had the temerity to oppose his client, DOMUS, and their plan to build a 19-story bldg. on a U.S.-1 site that's half of what HB's own rules require, and therefore, needed a variance.
That's why developers pay him the big bucks!

If ever actually completed, according to some, it would be the tallest building on U.S.-1 in Broward south of downtown FTL.
But, as had already become routine by then, the Herald never sent a reporter to the HB commission meeting, so never knew about any of this.

You and others might want to see the videotape of that particular meeting sometime, as it's quite instructional in how Geller tries to bulldoze those who attempt to get in his way, even when they are entitled to be represented and have the floor.
Geller actually tried to prevent a person who owns property next to his client's from being able to speak, even though that person ought to have more right to be heard on the issue than anyone else.
It was quite a circus!

Well, months later, their variance in hand, the DOMUS site on U.S.-1 has been FOR SALE for MONTHS.

It's a shame that South Florida's media didn't write about Geller's recent over-the-top performance at a Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting where he was honored with the key to the city, such as it is.
For folks like me who, quite correctly, view Geller and his ilk as part of the problem and not part of any possible solution, it was CLASSIC Steve Geller, full of feints, mis-direction and nonsense masquerading as sincerity and statesmanship.

The only thing that was more galling than Geller's grandstanding move of passing out Geller-branded campaign tchotchkes, flotsam and jetsam to the City Commission as part of a Clearance Sale -which the Commissioners rather predictably played with like infants, while Geller's colleagues snapped photos of the whole sorry spectacle!- was the performance of HB Mayor for Life Joy Cooper.

Cooper constantly interrupted herself to decry the voter-mandated term-limits laws that would "deprive" her of Steve Geller's continuing presence -or in my opinion, 'reign of error'- in Tallahassee.
Right, the sort of evil genius who authors an Amendment regarding real estate and foreigners and then later admits, "The problem with passing it is the way it's worded. I'm afraid people will get confused."

Perfect!!!

Though it's not high on my list, per se, before the New Years football bowl games get here, I plan on putting Geller's recent over-the-top performance at City Hall on the internet for anyone and everyone to see.
It's like the film of the Hindenburg crash: upsetting and compelling all at the same time.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2380118142773657669&hl=en
If nothing else, it surely deserves a wider audience than the handful of people who've seen it to date.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
excerpt from Miami Daily Business Review,
April 20, 2007
Opposition to beachfront complex mounts
By Terry Sheridan:

[Pompano Beach City Commissioner Kay] McGinn is irate about Geller's role and
calls his representation of Ocean Land "deplorable."
"It's my opinion that state representatives should not represent developers who are
putting up massive projects," she said.
Geller, a land-use attorney with the Hollywood firm Geller Geller Fisher & Garfinkel,
said McGinn is entitled to her opinion, "as wrong and uninformed as it may be. ...
I'm a part-time legislator. Developers are legal in this state, and so is representing them."

http://www.miamiherald.com/548/story/347482.html
Miami Herald
No lobbying ban for Broward commissioners
By Breanne Gilpatrick
Secember 17, 2007

Potential Broward county commissioners who lobby other local governments won't need to worry about giving up their side jobs, after the county's Charter Review Commission rejected a proposed referendum to ban the practice.
The ballot measure, which died in a 10-7 vote, would have prevented commissioners from lobbying Broward's School Board, cities and hospital districts on behalf of a private client, but not for the county itself.
County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger urged the government reform panel to approve the
proposed ban on Wednesday.
''If I'm selling widgets and I go to the city of Hallandale Beach to sell widgets on behalf of my client,'' Gunzburger said, "I think I have a lot more influence because at one point Mayor [Joy] Cooper might want to come to the County Commission.''
Supporters also pointed out that county commissioners making $92,000 a year probably don't need to moonlight.
But opponents said they didn't want to exclude potential commission candidates.
''We need to look at how we might affect someone's profession and how we might prohibit
a certain profession from participating in the process,'' said Charter Review Commission member Hazelle Rogers, who is also a Lauderdale Lakes city commissioner.

Reader comments to Gilpatrick's article is at:
http://pod01.prospero.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?msg=24424.13&nav=messages&webtag=kr-miamitm

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
So, when exactly will South Florida media come clean about all the rumors that Geller's supporters and cronies are spreading throughout Broward that Comm. Sue Gunzburger will either retire or resign for "health reasons," rather than risk the predictable mean-spirited and expensive campaign that Geller and his allies promise to break the bank for, if necessary?
(As if your post yesterday didn't underline that point.)

If a blogger like myself has already heard them repeated more than a few times around the county at different events and venues, including the recent SFRTA Broward County workshop in Dania Beach -though to be fair, I think I do get around more than most local bloggers- and knows them to be false, surely full-time reporters have heard them, too.
And knows exactly who's spreading them, too!

Really, it's time to start seeing some actual names in print, so everything's out in the open.

And what's new with my bête noire Geller's CCE, Floridians for a Stronger Tomorrow? http://www.floridiansforchange.org/
Has the Mardi Gras Casino given it any more since their $30k 13 months ago?
And in the Birds-of-a-Feather Dept., not much of a shocker that Larry Smith has tossed him some loot, too.

Speaking of the disgraced former Hollywood Congressman, whom I used to cringe when watching while at the dozens and dozens of House Foreign Affairs Comm. hearings I used to be at all the time, who also used to be Hallandale Beach's lobbyist, Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. at Hallandale Beach City Hall, lobbyist Ron Book will attempt to add the City of Hallandale Beach to his long laundry list of lobbying clients, for $50k.
http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/2007/09/could-one-lobbyist-be-this-good-by.html

But some of us in HB aren't real crazy about the idea of either being represented by
a.) someone who doesn't want to have to follow the ethical rules that everyone has to abide by, or
b.) find ourselves at the very bottom of his long To-Do list, especially given that as long as Joy Cooper is mayor, more than ought to be true, the city's position will likely be adverse to many of his longstanding, higher-paying clients, including our neighbors.
What does he do then?
Exactly my point!

At that point, HB will likely becomes nothing but excess baggage for him to be tossed out the window to lighten the load.
Since that's so utterly predictable now, why go through the charade of thinking that city taxpayers are getting a good deal with Book, just for having our names on some list of his?
That's typical shortsighted HB City Hall thinking!

And in case you didn't know it, get a load of the city's memo on this matter.
http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/2008-12-03/Agenda%20Outline%20for%202008-12-03.htm

Interesting to me that the agenda itself on the city's joke of a website doesn't mention the specific amounts at issue, which are $50k and $20k:
D. Pursuant to Chapter 23-105, Hallandale Beach Code of Ordinances, Request Authorization to Award RFQ# FY2008-2009-001, State Lobbyist and State Funding Proposal to Ronald L. Book, P.A. and Corcoran & Associates, Inc. If approved, Authorize the City Manager to Conclude Contract Negotiations and Renew the Contracts in the Best Interest of the City.
(Staff: Manager of Intergovernmental Relations) (see backup)
BP #007/09 (
Staff Report)

My favorite part of the memo is this telling sentence:
"...Although the City continues to require a Democrat oriented lobbyist as
its primary representative, it would be in the best interest of the City to retain
a Republican representative as well...

"Required?"

That's just a small part of why they're The Gang That Can't Shoot Straight.

Frankly, I think that it's positively inconceivable that the HB City Commission would be asked by the City Manager's Office to vote at Wednesday's City Commission meeting on a contract for lobbyists without ALL the Commissioners having formally met the principals involved who will be performing the services, yet that's the current reality.

It's also contrary to common sense to have the Commissioners vote on that without having been provided a list -made public- of all their other clients, so that when push comes to shove, HB taxpayers know in advance that they are paying for someone whose first interest is them, NOT a more influential, longstanding or higher-paying client.

As a HB taxpayer and concerned citizen, the person who will actually be paying for these services, that seems like the very least we can expect from the Commissioners who are supposed to represent us.

Plus, well, to be honest, he's not exactly the person who lives up to the letter and spirit of "full disclosure" is he?
No, to the contrary, he actually went to court to prevent laws from being enforced, to circimvent the public from gaining information about him and his clients.
That attitude doesn't seem like the letter and spirit of transparency to me.

As for Corcoran and Associates, they represent Mardi Gras Racetrack & Gaming Center. In fact, on their own website, http://www.corcoranfirm.com/testimonials.aspx they have a lengthy list of clients who sang their praises, one of whom is that HB concern on Pembroke Road, on the border of Hollywood.

"No one delivers like Corcoran and Associates! I had an extremely controversial issue before the Legislature and the pure class, finesse and professionalism of Corcoran & Associates helped bring the issue to a successful close."
Dan Adkins, Vice President Hollywood Greyhound Track

That would be the same Dan Adkins of Mardi Gras Casino who last year consciously and continually REFUSED to cooperate with the consulting firm hired by the City of Hallandale Beach City Commission to develop a new city Master Plan.
This lack of cooperation was mentioned a few times by the consultants at the public unveiling of the plan at the HB Cultural Center, as well as subsequent quadrant meetings throughout the city, as a real handicap to them in accurately completing their project as quickly as possible.

I mention this because some people in the area, especially those at HB City Hall who have less than an arm's-length relationship with him and the facility, seem to have completely forgotten this simple fact.
I haven't.

Since he and the company are very involved in many activities within the city and make contributions to groups in the city that have very close relationships to people at HB City Hall, Mr. Adkins has never publicly accounted for his noteworthy non-cooperation in one of the most important planning tools the city has.

So with Corcoran and Associates, just as with Ron Book, will a lobbyist hired by the city of HB have a primary loyalty to the city, or another client?
I'll bet I can guess the answer to that.