FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL ๐Ÿ›ซ๐ŸŒ๐Ÿ“บ๐Ÿ“ฝ️๐Ÿˆ. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'

Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
Showing posts with label tourism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tourism. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Broward County Ethics in Action! Sometimes the gravy train of cronyism leads you and your family to a yacht vacation to The Bahamas; Local10 investigative reporter Bob Norman asks Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel to answer questions about his family's yacht vacation after the Sheriff claimed paying $1,500 settled the matter. But websites say the value of that yacht trip is MUCH MORE!; @CityEthics

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player


Local10 News video: Broward Sheriff Scott Israel won't talk about yacht vacation
Sheriff didn't disclose vacation, claims $1,500 footed bill
Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com
Published On: Jul 23 2013 05:35:26 PM EDT   
Updated On: Jul 23 2013 11:00:00 PM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/broward-sheriff-scott-israel-wont-talk-about-yacht-vacation/-/1717324/21129710/-/im030b/-/index.html

I love a good story as well as the next person, more than most, actually, but that said, there's no way that five days on a top-of-the-line yacht for Scott Israel, his wife and three kids to The Bahamas cost Broward's Sheriff less than twice the cost for me -alone- staying at a very nice B&B -with absolutely delicious breakfast but without elevators to my 3rd-floor room- for four days in the Sรถdermalm neighborhood of expensive Stockholm.
In January, the coldest month of the year, and, yes, definitely off-season!
Just saying...

A well-informed friend writes me that after watching this video and thinking about the high level of endemic corruption and longstanding culture of wink-wink back-scratching attitudes among elected officials and their bankrolling friends here in Broward already, the most-corrupt county in the country's fourth-largest state, their sad prediction is that Sheriff Israel will be making a lot of headlines in the coming years for all the wrong reasons.
I tend to agree, absent something big happening in the next year that causes his judgement to fundamentally get better.

I sent an email with most of this info to lots of people throughout the state to get their take on it, as well as to blogger Robert Wechsler of cityethics.org up in Connecticut, hoping that he will consider giving this matter that at first blush fails the smell test, his usual careful ethical scrutiny and give it the column inches it deserves, which he has given other Florida ethical situations, including a few I first alerted him to.

Check out his blog on the website at: http://www.cityethics.org/Blog-RobWechsler

Robert's blog posts re Broward County: http://www.cityethics.org/search/node/Broward

The City Ethics Twitter feed of @CityEthics is at https://twitter.com/CityEthics

Sunday, September 2, 2012

re Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort - Sara Case of Hollywood's Balance Sheet Blog weighs in on the plausible merits of the City of Hollywood CRA's plan to increase their stake in the Johnson Street project from $10 million to $23 million; Starwood Capital Group jumps on board, but why now?

Above, looking west at Hollywood City Hall, where Tuesday night's very important Hollywood CRA meeting will be held at 6 p.m. September 20, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.
re Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort - Sara Case of Hollywood's Balance Sheet Blog weighs in on the plausible merits of the City of Hollywood CRA's plan to increase their stake in the project on Johnson Street from $10 million to $23 million; Starwood Capital jumps on board, but why now?


Over the weekend, well-informed Hollywood civic activist and blogger Sara Case posted some thought from her point-of-view on the city's new proposal to stanch the bleeding in the Johnson Street project known as Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort and mentions why she, rather counter-intuitively, supports it, despite the large number of CRA dollars involved.
I urge you to read it before Tuesday night's meeting, which I will be at.

Balance Sheet Blog
MARGARITAVILLE FINANCING
By Sara Case
September 1, 2012, 4:08 PM 
Hollywood residents in need of tax and fee reductions and City employees in need of salary increases …Time to Pay Attention!
As we all know by now, the Margaritaville project has been unable to secure funding from foreign investors as the original plan required.  So now we have a new proposal in which the CRA is to give the developer $23 million for construction financing.  When I learned of this plan, I initially opposed it as one more boondoggle — a massive developer subsidy like Radius, Hollywood Station, WSG, Great Southern, and Block 55, to name a few.
Read the rest of the post at:

My post on this topic from Friday, August 31st, was titled, Important public forum on the proposed Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort is scheduled for Tuesday Sept. 4th at 6 p.m. Chief among topics will be whether the Hollywood CRA should increase their investment in the Lon Tabatchnick project on Johnson Street and the Broadwalk from $10 million to $23 million

Saturday also brought forth this news, which is interesting in ways that I can't get into the details of now, but which I may be able to get into after Tuesday night, depending upon what gets said.

The Miami Herald
Hollywood’s Margaritaville project gets new funding source
By Carli Teproff
August 31, 2012
Margaritaville — the $130 million beach resort Hollywood city leaders have been dreaming about for years — has a new funding source: Starwood Capital, the investment group which once financed high-end hotels such as the St. Regis, W, Westin and Sheratons around the globe.
“We now have the necessary funds to complete the project,” developer Lon Tabatchnik said Thursday. “This is what we were waiting for.”
Read the rest of the article at:

After reading the above, you're more than reasonable if you ask whether or not anyone from Starwood Capital Group will be making themselves available for some serious questioning by Hollywood taxpayers at Tuesday night's meeting -besides City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark, some city staffers and developer Lon Tabatchnick or one of his reps, and, most likely, every single candidate challenging a City Hall incumbent.

Like, well... were they interested in the project much earlier and turn it down because of concerns about some aspect of the overall plan, marketing concept or the strength of the financing, or were they always biding their time in the bushes waiting for Tabatchnick and Company to get desperate enough to finally agree to meet their demands for whatever concession it was they weren't given originally?

It would also be great if someone asked Mr. Tabatchnick, given how over-confident he has appeared to many observers to be, when was the last time that he and his group actually met two of his promises, guarantees or legal deadlines (to the city and its taxpayers) in a row regarding this project?

Isn't that sort of history animating at least some of the opposition in Hollywood to this project getting more CRA funds now?
Yes, it is.

March 21, 2012  CNBC video: Maria Bartiromo interviews Starwood Capital's CEO Barry Sternlicht.
http://www.executiveinterviews.com/delivery/v1/mini/default.asp?order=U14414

http://www.starwoodcapital.com/Overview.aspx



Saturday, August 18, 2012

Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica - Just another one of the many things that iJustine and I both love, which she shares while vlogging during VEDA on the drive over towards the beach; #ijustine, @ijustine




ijustinesiphone video: What is VEDA? Our favorite Renaissance blogger, Justine Ezarik, explains the concept and a couple of other things on her mind one sunny day in August of 2012, while vlogging.and driving towards this amazing area. Uploaded August 9, 2012. http://youtu.be/0k1oR0yi65I

Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica is just another one of the many things that iJustine and I both love.
Whenever I've gone somewhere in person to hear people like Bernard Zyscovich talk about making various parts of South Florida better, especially in Hollywood, this is what I always think of, but you have to get the mix right. 
Unfortunately, The Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex here in Hallandale Beach still has NOT done this yet.


Back on April 13th, I remember writing some friends in LA about a fire near there, and a month later, they were in the news once again when a mountain lion swung by to check out the scene.
 

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Want to see a sneak peek of my future? Prescient geniuses with a camera at BeepShow have already filmed part of my future -away from the heat & humidity of Miami- and it includes Iceland and the Northern Lights. But sadly, I'll end up missing Sigur Rรณs at Iceland Airwaves; #Iceland, #BeepShow, #Icelandair, #InspiredByIceland


Beep Show's VIMEO video: London to Iceland in Ten Minutes. July 2012. Music by Sigur Rรณs. Move your cursor away from the video to have the text disappear and see the video more clearly. Complete information about this incredible video is here: http://vimeo.com/45121903  http://beepshow.com/
It's truly amazing what genius, talent, ingenuity and technology can create!
Want to see a sneak peek of my future? Prescient geniuses with a camera at BeepShow have already filmed part of my future -away from the heat & humidity of Miami- and it includes Iceland and the Northern Lights. But sadly, I'll end up missing Sigur Rรณs at Iceland Airwaves; #Iceland, #BeepShow, #Icelandair
Back in November, following several very emotionally-draining roller-coaster months with my dad's health a year after his stroke, where we found ourselves frequently at the hospital or at the doctor's office for one thing or another, I wrote here:
It's not exactly a secret that I definitely could use a break for about a week or two from everything and everyone in South Florida to unwind.
Not that there was really ever any doubt where I'd eventually wind-up to relax, but I've finally made my mind up about where I'll be going to get away from South Florida for a while, which I had originally wanted to do back in February or March to decompress after my dad died, then maybe even return to during Midsommar in order to get away from the summer swelter of South Florida.

But perhaps as these things sometimes do of their own accord, it's worked out for the best schedule-wise, since despite it meaning I'm still here during the hottest part of the summer, I'll now be able to experience, first-hand, one of nature's most amazing sights and spectacles.
 
Ten weeks from this morning, unless something crazy and unexpected happens, like a powerful hurricane barreling its way across the Atlantic or the Caribbean towards South Florida -and maybe, even if there is!- I'll be greeting the sunrise far, far away from the land of gridlocked traffic, sleepwalking journalists and corrupt politicians, with nary a decent Ethiopian restaurant to be found that compares to the Red Sea in D.C.

I don't want to give everything away right now with this one post, but I will tell you that as of now, The Plan, as such, is that ten weeks from this morning, I'll be having a relaxed and delicious breakfast right near the water and my temporary home-away-from home in a place where I can sing or hum Stockholm i mitt hjarta to my heart's delight.


Mรฅns Zelmerlรถw, Bjรถrn Skifs, Loa Falkman and Peter Jรถback sing "Stockholm i Mitt Hjรคrta" (Stockholm in My Heart) from the intro of a 2011 episode of SVT's "Allsรฅng pรฅ Skansen" in Stockholm, Sweden. http://youtu.be/JEPvZBDOjdc




View Larger Map


After more than a week or so in the greater Stockholm area, mostly in and around Gamla Stan, but with some boat trips with friends along the archipelago as well, finally doing the things I've wanted to do the last few years but had to keep on hold because of my dad's health, I'll be heading for fun in a place that is THE polar opposite of South Florida, our old friendReykjavikIceland, and eventually, a night-time encounter with destiny and the Northern Lights.

And with any sort of luck at all, maybe I can even run into longtime blog favorite, Yohanna, whom I just love, and want to see succeed and get the world-wide success she deserves, because her talent is so immense. 
Yes, to quote myself, Yohanna "hennes enorma talang!"



@yohannamusic

Below, from TV3 in Sweden, Yohanna's amazing performance at their "En Sรฅng Fรถr Hemlรถsa 2009" (A Song For The Homeless 2009) telecast, singing "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day." 


http://www.myspace.com/yohannamusic


Icelandair video: Unique Iceland: What to do in Reykjavik?
Icelandic actress รžรณra Karรญtas รrnadรณttir -a.k.a. Thora Karitas - explains a few things about the fascinating and awesome island known as รsland. http://youtu.be/Rkr1O6mvHUc

LIVE camera of Blue Lagoon: Blรกa lรณniรฐ - Live Webcam - Inspired by Iceland

Unfortunately, because of when I'll be there, I won't be able to see Sigur Rรณs at the Iceland Airwaves music festival in Reykjavik, owing to it coming later in October, right before we have elections here in the U.S.. http://icelandairwaves.is/
http://icelandairwaves.is/sigurros/

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Arizona's immigration law goes before U.S. Supreme Court; Myanmar's natural beauty -largely tourist-free, but for how long?; Rupert Murdoch before the Leveson Inquiry




Timescast of the New York Times for April 25, 2012: Arizona's immigration law goes before U.S. Supreme Court; Myanmar's natural beauty -largely tourist-free, but for how long?; Rupert Murdoch before the Leveson Inquiry. http://youtu.be/WKktlz4UVHc


I'll have some thoughts to share later today on Murdochpรจre et filsand the Levseon Inquiry later today, including some thoughts on an angle to the story involving former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that, curiously, never seems to quite get mentioned in the American press, but which if it did happen here, would be the thought uppermost on everyone's minds.


It's hard not to look at those islands in Mynamar and not think of the scenery for two 007 films, The Man with the Golden Gun and Tomorrow Never Dies, since both were filmed in both Thailand and near the South China Sea.


I wonder how long it will be before Sports Illustrated shoots their annual swimsuit issue there?
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/swimsuit/home/index.htm
Once that happens, there'll be no putting the genie back in the bottle.
As we have all seen before...

Colorized clips from first episode of NBC-TV's I Dream of Jeannie, The Lady In the Bottle, September 18, 1965. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_In_The_Bottle


The first episode, in glorious Black & White



http://youtu.be/Er547IHK6Io



Sunday, March 18, 2012

It's like a tourism ad for Miami: DJ M.E.G. - Moscow to California ft. ะกะตั€ะณะตะน ะ›ะฐะทะฐั€ะตะฒ & ะขะธะผะฐั‚ะธ - Moscow to California -with a water pit-stop in Miami!


https://youtu.be/b2kRM46QYls

DJ M.E.G. - Moscow to California ft. ะกะตั€ะณะตะน ะ›ะฐะทะฐั€ะตะฒ & ะขะธะผะฐั‚ะธ - Moscow to California -with a water pit-stop in Miami!

What's surprising is not that this video was done or even that it's so damn catchy, but rather that Moscow to California has a pit-stop in Miami.

But then you remember that there's a good reason why I've left that 'anchor' labeled The South Florida I Grew Up In with quotes from Joan Didion's Miami, 1987, Simon & Schuster, which has this line that I end with
In this mood Miami seemed not a city at all but a tale, a romance of the tropics, a kind of waking dream in which any possibility could and would be accommodated... 
I know, I know, it's not the sort of music I usually listen to, or which you regular readers of the blog have come to expect from me, but it's got a real "hook," and both the cinematography and shots of Miami and Miami Beach are imaginative and exciting.
I'm sure it beats to hell whatever video the folks at the Greater Miami Convention Bureau currently have.

That goes double for you know who up in Ft. Lauderdale, Nicki Grossman, she of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, i.e Sunny.org, http://www.sunny.org/ who judging from the marketing efforts friends and I have seen over the past ten years, seem to only be targeting affluent, effete tourists with artistic pretentions for visits to Broward County.
The more pretentiou$, the better. (As if the locals like that were not already too much to bear.)
 
Especially if they are from Europe and have more money than sense -and don't know when they are being taken advantage of.  

Here's another classic view of Miami Beach by boat, Old School which I grew-up with living elsewhere, and posted here a few weeks ago...


The Jackie Gleason Show opening
http://youtu.be/E4b_-iwJwic


Hat tip to Europopped blog's March 8th entry, which a friend tipped me off to within 24 hours of it appearing online:
Summer Anthem Arrives Early in Russia! Timati, Sergey & DJ M.E.G. Drop "Moscow To California" Clip

Official Timati You Tube Channelhttp://www.youtube.com/user/TimatiOfficial 

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Tourists, "amateur detectives" and the curious descend on Giglio to see Costa Concordia shipwreck for themselves and opine on its future


Euronews video: Tourists, "amateur detectives" and the curious continue to descend on Giglio to see the Costa Concordia shipwreck for themselves, and opine on its future. Death toll now stands at thirteen. http://youtu.be/2ISKK6XDqTM


On Thursday I got the chance to watch Aftonbladet TV's LIVE streaming of the disaster site for about a half-hour or so, and was quite amazed at how LITTLE was actually happening in the early afternoon, their time.
It was very odd and no doubt a bit distressing for family members to observe. I emailed the URL out to some of you and would include it here but it's no longer operating.



Aftonbladet TV video: Video of the Costa Concordia and computer graphics depicting various options that may be employed to salvage and tow the ship
away to safety. January 2012.
http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/nyheter/olyckor/article14233903.ab



Euronews video: Decision on Costa Concordia salvage operation imminent. January 22, 2012. http://youtu.be/HoeoO4jR8ms


See more videos of, on and near the ship at:
http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/nyheter/olyckor/


For a discussion of how society's norms have changed since the Titanic disaster 100 years ago, see

PJTV video: Costa Concordia disaster: Women and Children First?
http://www.pjtv.com/s/G43TMNA


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http://www.aftonbladet.se/

Monday, November 14, 2011

My life of late: another brush with the good side of America's healthcare system, plus the consistent downside of Adobe Flash & Google Chrome -Crash!

Looking northwest from N. Johnson & N. 35th Avenue in Hollywood at part of the main campus of Memorial Regional Hospital, the flagship facility of Memorial Healthcare System's far-flung Broward healthcare empire. Now if only there was a place where I could get some TLC for my mis-behaving desktop computer that's been driving me crazy the past month. November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

My life of late: another brush with the good side of America's healthcare system, plus the consistent downside of Adobe Flash & Google Chrome -Crash!

Though you well-informed readers out there in the blogosphere are blithely unaware of it wherever you are reading this now, which could be anywhere in the world or from one of South Florida's many feudal duchies or banana republics, the past three weeks have been quite difficult around my little media empire.

First, my father, who suffered a stroke exactly one year ago -while watching a Dolphins game!-and whom since May has been confined to a wheelchair at the nearby ALF in Hollywood where he lives, has been sick and eventually needed an operation late last week at Memorial, above.

My father received excellent care there from everyone from beginning to discharge, and best of all, it was very efficient -no long waits for anything, unlike Aventura Hospital.

(Plus, I was able to become reacquainted with the surgical lobby reception area and memorize yet another code of cable TV numbers during one particular nine-hour stretch on a sofa there. More useless numbers in my head!)

Consequently, I've had to spend even more time than usual with him during the day and night, wearing my hats of chauffeur, walking medical history and medical paperwork expert.
As it affects things here at Blog Central, I've been getting home later and much more exhausted and frazzled, with the result that my post-midnight dispatches from my corner of South Florida have been far and few between.

I've even had to miss a few Hallandale Beach and Hollywood City Commission/CRA meetings that I'd usually have been at and participated in via a pointed question or two.

It's not exactly a secret that I definitely could use a break for about a week from everything and everyone in South Florida to unwind.
And as I've been pondering the solution to that, what is more the opposite of South Florida right now than our old friend, Reykjavik, Iceland?


Icelandair video: Unique Iceland: What to do in Reykjavik?
Icelandic actress รžรณra Karรญtas รrnadรณttir -a.k.a. Thora Karitas - explains a few things about the fascinating and awesome island known as รsland.

http://youtu.be/Rkr1O6mvHUc

(More on that possible trip soon.)


Second, I have been having bad problems with the computer, ones that have NEVER been worse than they have been the past two weeks, which explains why I have so many blog posts still frozen in Draft form that I thought would've long since been posted here.

I seemingly can't go two hours without something happening with Google Chrome or Adobe that causes me to get up and walk away from the computer in anger.
As if my ridiculously slow Internet speed from AT&T U-verse wasn't frustrating enough.

Why in November of 2011 are the Google geniuses in Mountain View, CA unable to fix Google Chrome so that everything isn't crashing all the time?

This recent avalanche of Chrome crashes is literally making me re-think my fateful decision to axe Mozilla Firefox a few months ago and go back to Chrome after their I initially exiled them during the Browser War Crimes Tribunals of 2008 and 2009.

So, in conclusion, that's why I have not been posting as much as I'd like -Google Chrome and Adobe laying a minefield for me every time I turn the computer on- so some of my next few posts, those unfrozen drafts, may seem a day or two -or three weeks- old.
To me.

But they'll be new to you.

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A Web Developer Speaks: Flash Player is Dead. HTML5 isn't ready. Long live AIR!
By Jason Perlow | November 11, 2011, 10:14am PST


Mobile Flash: So long and thanks for all the crash.
By Ken Hess | November 9, 2011, 3:05pm PST

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=2974f4989350aa38&hl=en

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

BP oil spill remediation funds: Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, little towns gotta spend money like crazy like... well, little towns. And South FL?

Entering Miami-Dade County sign on south-bound U.S.-1/Biscayne Blvd., Aventura, coming out of Hallandale Beach. Aventura Hospital on the right. November 16, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, little towns gotta spend money like crazy like... well, little towns...
Like many of you out there reading this post today, I'm really looking forward to finding out where the
BP remediation funds sent to Miami-Dade and Broward Counties -that saw no oil- actually wind-up being spent.


Given the long and well-chronicled tradition in South Florida of our elected officials and municipal/county leaders' outside-the-box thinking when it comes to ways of treating themselves (and their pals) like kings and queens, with money that's supposed to be spent in very specific ways -for instance, money for environmental code enforcement getting squandered by cocky and patronizing Miami-Dade cops on TVs, see below- I wait with baited breath to see which local print or TV reporters are first to expose how the money was spent down here in ways that only raise more questions about the character and caliber of the people making those decisions.


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St. Petersburg Times
BP buys Gulf Coast millions in gear

By Michael Kunzelman, Mike Schneider and Melinda Deslatte

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Tasers. Brand-new SUVs. A top-of-the-line iPad. A fully loaded laptop. In the year since the Gulf oil spill, officials along the coast have gone on a spending spree with BP money, dropping tens of millions of dollars on gadgets and other gear - much of which had little to do with the cleanup, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The oil giant opened its checkbook while the crisis was still unfolding last spring and poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Gulf Coast communities with few strings attached.
Read the rest of the article at:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GULF_OIL_SPILL_SPENDING_SPREE?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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Orlando Sentinel
Central Florida Politcal Pulse
blog

BP gives NW Fla $30 M

Posted by khaughney on April, 11 2011 11:54 AM

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2011/04/bp-gives-nw-fla-30-m.html

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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/13/2015129/miami-dade-police-wont-repay-misspent.html

Miami-Dade police won't repay misspent environmental funds

By Matthew Haggman

January 13, 2011

The Miami-Dade Police Department is acknowledging it misspent funds meant to fight environmental crime on flat-screen TVs, SUVs and firearms.

"Clearly inappropriate,'' Police Director James Loftus says.

But putting the money back into the green funds, as the county's inspector general has requested? Not so fast.

"No, we are not,'' county police spokeswoman Nancy Perez said.

Miami-Dade Inspector General Christopher Mazzella said in a recent memo to Mayor Carlos Alvarez that the police have adopted many of his recommended fixes, following a scathing IG audit that found the police used two environmental trust funds as a kitty for pricey purchases with little connection to environmental crime-fighting.

But the police department is flatly rebuffing two IG recommendations: that it stop using green-fund money to pay expenses such as monthly cellphone and aircard bills, and that it repay the misused public dollars.

"We continue to stand by our original recommendations that the Trust Funds be reimbursed,'' Mazzella said in a Dec. 21 memo to Alvarez.

The police department isn't obligated to follow the IG's recommendations, unless the mayor or the county commission act. And there's little push coming from the county executive's office.

Mayoral spokeswoman Victoria Mallette would only say in a statement that "administrative procedures have been strengthened.'' When pressed whether the mayor thinks county police should pay up, she referred questions to Loftus and hung up.

The standoff is the latest chapter in a scandal that erupted last year over county stewardship of funds that were meant to combat polluters. Instead, amid "overall chaotic administration,'' the funds were steered to "excessive, unreasonable, or unnecessary'' purchases, the IG audit found.

The IG's inquiry, following a Miami Herald series last year that detailed dubious spending, focused on nearly $6 million spent from 2000 to 2009 from two funds: the South Florida Environmental Task Force Trust Fund and Florida Environmental Task Force Trust Fund.

More than $1.1 million was spent on vehicle-related expenses, including the purchase of 23 SUVs and trucks that went to top brass rather than environmental investigators working in remote areas. Another $1.1 million went for cellphones used, in many cases, by officials in non-environmental departments.

Three Sharp 52-inch flat screen TVs were snapped up for about $6,000. Nearly $35,000 was spent on 30 Smith & Wesson M&P-15 rifles and holographic sights. Police justified the firearms on the grounds that an environmental investigator might encounter "a wildlife poacher armed with a high-powered rifle.''

Three Segways were bought for $25,000. One was used periodically to patrol MDPD's suburban headquarters, and two were found "sitting unused in a warehouse,'' auditors found.

The episode served as an embarrassment for embattled Mayor Alvarez, who is facing a recall vote on March 15.

Division Chief Frank Vecin, a close ally and supporter of Mayor Alvarez, was in charge of fund spending. At one point, Alvarez was ferried around in a Chevy Tahoe purchased with green-fund money. The county mayor later returned the automobile, saying he didn't know it was bought with funds meant to fight polluters.

The revelations of fund mismanagement prompted the retirement of Vecin.

"The IG believes the funds were managed improperly,'' said C. Michael Cornely, Vecin's attorney. "It was their opinion. To me, the IG justifies its existence by looking for things and making issues out of things that are not really an issue.''

The two environmental funds, created in 2000 by the county commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, were established to help fight polluters in South Florida, which the county has called a "drum dump capital.'' Funding sources included fines and court judgments.

Police director Loftus -- named to the top job in February, after spending questions were already being raised -- now says new money will not be accepted into the two funds. The remaining balance in the accounts is $1.5 million.

In defending his position that the police department need not repay the misspent dollars, Loftus contends that over the life of the trust funds, the department paid some $27 million out of its general fund for the salaries and benefits of officers and directors working environmental investigations -- that, in sum, the contribution of personnel costs far offset the questioned expenses.

Mazzella responded that the trust fund money was "to augment, not replace'' general funds.

If they police were to repay for misspending, the precise amount isn't clear, though the August audit provides a road map.

"We left it to the police to determine what was justified, and repay what was not,'' said Mazzella.

Miami Herald staff writer Martha Brannigan contributed to this report.
In case you live outside of South Florida and are reading this and wondering if the sort of inappropriate behavior by law enforcement officials -described above in such great detail by Matthew Haggman- is common, and whether the cumulative effect of such moral and intellectual laxness was a factor in the successful recall from office of former M-D mayor Carlos Alvarez last month, the answer to both questions is YES.

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Not that you asked but the BP station in Aventura on Biscayne Blvd. & N.E. 211th Street, across from Aventura Hospital and near the Venezuelan Target, is my favorite service station in the area to use, as I've probably only used a different operator maybe five times in the past year. They are always clean, efficient and extremely well-lit at night, which is more than I can say for many other service stations in SE Broward/NE Miami-Dade.

Plus, they usually have copies of the NY Times available when other places are already out.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

"Nothing... rhymes with capita" - New Minnesota tourism TV ad is lame vs FL's "When You Need It Bad We've Got It Good" spot of yore


"Explore Minnesota" March 2011 TV commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hkp_KNT_e0
www.exploreminnesota.com


"Be a friendly Floridian..."
-Anita Bryant


Back when my brain was a little more media-savvy than the other kids the one year I attended Sabal Palm Elementary School in North Miami Beach -1968-'69 Second Grade- the very kids whose parents insisted they have their birthday parties up at Pirates World in Dania instead of over at Greynolds Park or Figaro's Pizza in NMB, or Marcella's Restaurant in North Miami- all iconic spots for my friends and I in NMB, pre-1980 and IU- I knew that cringe-worthy tune sung by Anita Bryant backwards and forwards, because it played SO OFTEN on Miami TV.
How often?


Well, you know how irritating and numerous those Bob Seger "Like a Rock" car commercials were on NFL Sundays a few years ago...
The ones that made you cringe at the first note...
Well, like THAT!

http://smashedfrog.blogspot.com/2006/12/be-friendly-floridian.html


Are there any restaurants in Broward County that still use/have paper table place mats with the outline of the Sunshine State on them?
It's true, you simply can't put a price on kitsch.

Personally, I always preferred this Florida tourism commercial from over 20 years ago, which many people still remember.



Excerpt from Florida Tourism TV ad -
"When You Need It Bad We've Got It Good"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxB0kjqO6SI

Of course, the real hummable ditty that my friends and I could sing back in '68, a time of really great TV themes, were the lyrics to my favorite show.

If my mother wanted to really threaten me with a punishment, she'd say that I better do as she said or else she wouldn't let me watch NBC-TV's Daniel Boone.
The rippin'est, roarin'est, fightin'est man
The frontier ever knew!
Yes, forthright, loyal and patriotic Daniel Boone, starring Fess Parker as the iconic American frontiersman for whom so many things today in beautiful Kentucky and Kentuckiana are named.
Oh, Kentuckiana!

Yes, Kentuckiana, yet another part of the country that people here in South Florida have no real conception of.

Theme from NBC-TV's Daniel Boone - 'Classic theme'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7sPvWrL6KY


My problem with the Minnesota tourism ad is the lyrics and... well, even keeping in mind that they threw in
"capita," on purpose to be clever and cute, if you're going to do something with unusual words, do it with some style.

Compare that to what the woman who wrote the Daniel Boone theme song almost fifty years ago, Vera Matson -who co-wrote Love Me Tender- came up with the rhyming scheme that produced a tune known by millions of people:
From the coonskin cap on the top of ol' Dan
To the heel of his rawhide shoe;
The rippin'est, roarin'est, fightin'est man
The frontier ever knew!
Now that's pure genius!

Lyrics and the three different speeds of the song are at:

http://www.danielboonetv.com/index.php?page=theme_song_lyrics


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


http://www.earlyamerica.com/lives/boone/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057742/

http://www.danielboonetv.com/

http://www.kentuckytourism.com/explore/regions/daniel_boone_country.aspx
http://www.kentuckytourism.com/