Import woes! American teens now bypassing U.S. crooks and importing foolproof fake IDs from China! Dozens arrested in Chicago & 'burbs

Dozens Charged in Cook County Fake Driver’s License Bust: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

FoxChicago/WFLD-TV video: Dozens Charged in Cook Co. Fake ID Bust. July 22, 2011. Dozens of Chicago-area kids have been busted for buying fake IDs after an extensive investigation into counterfeit driver’s licenses being ordered from Chicago and paid for with money orders and shipped from China.

This video consists of two separate reports, the first with reporter Tisha Lewis doing a stand-up on the city's busy bar-heavy Near North Side, and the second with Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart appearing in studio downtown to speak on the seriousness and stupidity of the crimes and the degree of sophistication involved.

Related article at: http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/crime/dozens-young-people-charged-fake-id-drivers-license-bust-cook-county-20110722

As for the "young people' the Sheriff is talking about, me, I'm putting my money on the clever kids and future leaders from Evanston High or New Trier!
Fake ID Rush Hour on the Near North Side!

(Link)
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Risky Business Quotes and Sound Clips
and

Joel Goodson Quotes and Sound Clips

"Princeton could use a guy like Joel."

This also answers the question of whatever happened to former WTVJ-TV/NBC6 reporter Tisha Lewis.
She got the last laugh on everyone down here, a few years after-the-fact, finally getting to a media market where people really do pay serious attention to local news, unlike down here.
Like the newspapers, for instance.

People who have moved to South Florida since roughly Hurricane Andrew have no earthly idea of the amount of space the Miami Herald once dedicated to covering local TV and radio trends, personalities, feuds & firings in their entertainment section in the 1970's and '80's, since I read every article.

(For more on that long ago media era, see my South Beach Hoosier post of July 14, 2008,
Speaking of Marlins stadium cost over-run provisions...
http://southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/2008/07/speaking-of-marlins-stadium-cost-over.html)

I don't even bother to look at that section of the Herald any more, as it goes right into the recycling pile. And when I do look there, just out of curiosity, it's unappealing in the extreme.

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http://www.myfoxchicago.com/

Now Trending at Hallandale Beach Blog: Nobody -anywhere- is saying, "I miss seeing Katie Couric on TV"; 163rd Street Shopping Center

WTVJ-TV (Miami) video: 1984 Katie Couric report for the-then WTVJ/Channel 4 on increase in crime at South Florida shopping malls, reporting from the-then extant 163rd Street Mall in North Miami Beach,FL, which no longer exists as shown. Above, Couric is standing in the eastern-side mall parking garage next to what was once the Jordan Marsh Dept. store, near the N.E. 15th Avenue entrance to the complex.
http://youtu.be/rbpHgMvM918



In the background above -thru the garage and across the street- is the location of my favorite job as a teen in NMB, Record Shack, on NE 164th Street, the BEST record store in all of northeast Dade County, which I've previously mentioned in a July 9th, 2009 post, viz a viz some news re Benny Andersson of ABBA.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/abba-geniuses-at-it-again-story-of.html


Now Trending at Hallandale Beach Blog: Nobody -anywhere- is saying, "I miss seeing Katie Couric on TV."
Who's going to watch her upcoming daytime talk show on ABC-TV?

I grew-up in North Miami Beach in the 1970's just four blocks from there -on N.E. 159th Street & 14th Avenue- and worked at a couple of retail shops there while in high school at NMB Senior High, including the Burdine's in the middle of the three-block long facility when it was an outdoor pedestrian complex called the 163rd Street Shopping Center, a name that many people in South Florida recall fondly.

NMB Sr. High and JFK Jr. High were just across the street from the shopping center on the north side, which made it a huge social hang-out, back before the Aventura Mall -or the City of Aventura- existed, something I mentioned a few years back on my 2007 Wikipedia entry for NMB HS and the shopping center, both of which were eventually shorn of their color and context by the Wiki editing police, who only want name, rank and serial number.
I'll post that information full of facts and anecdotes here soon, so people can benefit from my under-appreciated effort then as a griot.


Meanwhile, up in Canada, our neighbor to the north, which lends Hallandale Beach savvy former MP from Ontario Don Boudria for a few months every year...



Robin Sparkles - "Let's Go To The Mall" (full version, from CBS-TV's 'How I Met Your Mother')
http://youtu.be/GF1b1pf9DRY

Cobie Smulders, above, is easily one of the ten most attractive actresses on American TV today, even when she plays a Canadian newscaster -like Peter Jennings.
But then she's not from fashionable Westmount like my smart, savvy, chic and super-cute friend and NMB classmate Tracey was, so I know a thing or two about very attractive Canadian teenagers, in or out of the Mall.

Real Canadians Elisha Cuthbert and Kari Matchett, whom I've mentioned here before, are also on that carefully thought-out short list.
Another win for Canada, eh?


Trust me, you can spend an entire day looking at these old South Florida photos!
Main webpage http://www.pbase.com/donboyd/memories

I'm going to be adding some memories here in the next few months:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mall_at_163rd_Street

http://www.deadmalls.com/malls/mall_at_163rd_st.html

http://www.pbase.com/donboyd/memories_shopping

a. -1960 - Artist's rendition of the proposed Wometco 163rd Street Theatres,
http://www.pbase.com/donboyd/image/80670007

b. -1960's/70's? - a night time view looking west in the 163rd Street Shopping Center
http://www.pbase.com/donboyd/image/125600809

See also, this Facebook page titled, "Teenager's jobs in the '70's in NMB" as for some blog readers finding this site, it will be a blast to the past -like a night out having Figaro's pizza and garlic rolls with Coach Pete Saponaro and the NMB Mens and Womens gymnastics team after a home meet.
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=46380987521&topic=9655

1977 interview with Miami R&B legend Betty Wright; Clean up Woman; Miami Groove

1977 WCIX-TV interview with Miami R&B singing legend Betty Wright on her recollections of the Miami music scene, and the artists who performed at the Sir John Hotel in Miami.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-thfb6BFwo

The long-since destroyed Sir John Hotel discussed in the clip was located in downtown Miami on N.W. 6th Street & N.W. 3rd Avenue, and was only a few blocks from the old Channel 4 WTVJ-TV studio that was at 316 N. Miami Avenue.

C.T. Taylor, mentioned in the clip by Betty Wright as a music DJ at WMBM-AM, was hired in 1968 by Channel 4 news director and anchor Ralph Renick to become the first African-American on-air news reporter in Miami.

That fateful year was the year of the Liberty City riots in Miami during the Republican National Convention over on Miami Beach at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
(In 1972, it hosted both national party conventions.)

Taylor's extensive knowledge of the area and its personalities, people's trust of him, and his nightly fact-filled, context-heavy reporting from the scene during the riots, gave WTVJ a huge reporting advantage over their local news competitors and the three TV networks of the time.
His insightful reports sometimes appeared on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.

For most of my childhood growing-up in Miami, Taylor and Renick were each among the best-known and most widely-respected men in all of South Florida.
They had credibility earned thru merit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Wright
http://www.youtube.com/user/wolfsonarchive




Betty Wright Clean up Woman (LIVE)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0ssMVL9I1Q




Betty Wright - Miami Groove
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azb8MtVzCO4

Two spot-on columns by Orlando Sentinel's Darryl E. Owens and Miami Herald's Jackie Bueno Sousa demand your attention

August 25, 1982 Ralph Renick editorial on WTVJ-4, Miami,
on the filming of Scarface in South Florida
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyuJGHrjbRY

It's neither here nor there, per se, but per this excellent column by the Orlando Sentinel's Darryl E. Owens that I spied on Saturday -the same day the Miami Hurricanes played like disinterested turkeys two days after Thanksgiving Day- I can distinctly recall as a kid growing-up in North Miami Beach in the 1970's that when a story like this would bubble up to the surface in South Florida, i.e. with lots of context, it would quickly become the main topic of discussion of AM Talk Radio, back before it was almost all nationally-syndicated fare.

Of course, back then, when the Dolphins were consistently good, the area also had an All-News Radio Station, something it now sadly lacks, with South Florida being much worse off for that, as I've often lamented here and at various websites.

Some subject would get under the skin of a columnist at the Miami Herald far enough in advance of some planned public event that a rather pointed column would soon appear, and either cooler heads would prevail, the best option, or, local politicians and govt. officials would be publicly embarrassed and hung out to dry.

If the issue reached a certain threshold of seriousness, local broadcasting powerhouse Ralph Renick at Channel 4, back when it was WTVJ, on N. Miami Avenue in downtown Miami, would make one of his devastating editorials on the six o'clock newscast and simply mop the floor with whomever was responsible for the problem by pointing out the simple facts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Renick

Après toi, le déluge!

That was a measure of the power and influence throughout all aspects of life in South Florida that Ralph Renick had to wield.

Renick was THE most-respected man in South Florida other than perhaps Dolphins head coach Don Shula.

But now, in my opinion, other than the rare Herald column that takes us all completely by surprise, or Jackie Bueno Sousa's common sense columns that demand accountability and integrity from local elected officials or govt. agencies, there's just lots of dopey paint-by-numbers news stories about inconsequential fluff or shopping or diets.

See http://www.miamiherald.com/columnists/jacqueline-bueno-sousa/ and my post from July 12, 2009
May the good news be yours: Ralph Renick's South Florida TV scene 18 years later; Where's the news in Broward? Or local investigative news anywhere? http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/may-good-news-be-yours-ralph-renicks.html

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Orlando Sentinel
City funded Amway party — but not a Parramore tradition
Darryl E. Owens COMMENTARY
12:46 a.m. EST, November 27, 2010

Good thing Charlie Brown doesn't call Orlando home.

In his world, his only worry is Lucy snatching away the football as he prepares to make the kick.
The City Beautiful might send cops to snatch the pigskin.

This isn't an anti-cop screed.

After all, the would-be footballers — all three of them — who were confronted by police on Thanksgiving Day at the John H. Jackson Community Center lacked a permit.

Instead, consider this a reflection on an embarrassing — and obvious — missed opportunity for Orlando.

Read the rest of the post at: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/columnists/os-ed-darryl-owens-parramore-football20101126,0,5199263.column

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http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/23/1940706/real-leaders-in-short-supply-in.html
Miami Herald
Real leaders in short supply in Miami
By Jackie Bueno Sousa
November 23, 2010

It's not that Miami lacks leadership. Rather, it lacks bold, transformational leaders.

You know, the kind of people who use their power and influence to bring about fundamental change in a community, even though doing so will make enemies of other people of power and influence.

And so it is that so many Miamians now are fascinated with Norman Braman. Beyond his battle to recall Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, he's filling a civic leadership vacuum long felt in this community.

Bold, transformational leaders aren't easy to find. That may be a good thing; too many of them could be more problematic than too few of them. But when they become scarce, as they are now, we flock to them and their causes, knowing that they represent a rare opportunity.

Such leadership requires a unique combination of attributes not found in ordinary, run-of-the-mill leaders. Nothing wrong with ordinary leaders; their generosity, in terms of both time and money, has brought many good and worthwhile programs for our community.

It's just that every once in a while we need something more. We need, for example, leaders who are passionately focused on a cause.

MAS CANOSA

The late Jorge Mas Canosa had that passion and focus. The Cuban exile leader was vilified and chastised for his sometimes close-minded stance on Cuba policy. Yet no other person could so effectively spur large numbers of followers to take action, to show up at a rally, to lobby congressional representatives, to write letters to the editor. Who has filled that void in the Cuban exile community?

Such leadership also requires community-wide status and power. It helps to be the chairman of this or the president of that, but such titles aren't always necessary.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas was a simple journalist and writer, and yet she helped preserve the Everglades for future generations. She once wrote a pamphlet on behalf of creating a botanical garden that resulted in countless speaking invitations at local garden clubs and ultimately helped create Fairchild Gardens. Who is today's Marjory Stoneman Douglas?

Such leaders must back up their words and actions with money. The money can be their own -- as in the case of Braman's recall battle. Or it can come from the ability to access money, as was Alvah Chapman's gift. In the 1970s, Chapman led the creation of The Non-Group, an elite body of business and civic leaders who set an agenda for resolving the area's most pressing problems. Who in the business community is filling Alvah Chapman's void today?

We see contemporary glimpses of extraordinary civic leadership every so often. Former TotalBank chairman Adrienne Arsht gave $30 million to save the performing arts center. Banker Adolfo Henriques has the power to rally important business leaders. Miami Dade College President Eduardo Padrón is passionately focused on improving education in our region.

CHARTER REVIEW

And we even see glimpses of bold leadership. Attorney Victor Diaz Jr., as the head of the Miami-Dade County Charter Review Task Force, a couple years ago proposed a series of fundamental changes that could have brought about important improvements in local government.

When the County Commission slapped down most of the suggestions, which civic and business leaders came forward to fight for the proposed changes?

And, so, the void remains.

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Personally, I would have chosen different people, but her central premise is sound and echoes a sentiment that nearly everyone I know and respect in South Florida agrees with completely.

Which is why all the unethical behavior by elected officials in South Florida, from small-fry to County Commissioners, grates on people here in a way that is different than other parts of the country.

For those of you who don't live down here, there's a real brazenness and entitlement that's neither funny or amusing but simply venal and creepy.

Tom Llamas above the scenes of the devastation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Former WTVJ-TV/NBC6 reporter Tom Llamas,
born and raised in Miami, and now at WNBC-TV
in New York, reporting from above the scenes
of the devastation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.



You can follow his reports at http://twitter.com/TOMLLAMAS4NY