Trending at Hallandale Beach Blog: WBAL-TV's Lowell Melser's consistently crisp, thorough & detailed reporting at the George Huguely V murder trial in Charlottesville of Cockeysville native Yeardley Love

WBAL-TV News, Baltimore video: Breaking News: Correspondent Lowell Melser reports on the details surrounding the jury in the George Huguely V trial handing down a 26-year sentence in Charlottesville, VA for the Second-degree Murder of Yeardley Love. February 22, 2012.


Trending at Hallandale Beach Blog: WBAL-TV's Lowell Melser's consistently crisp, thorough & detailed reporting at the George Huguely V murder trial in Charlottesville of Cockeysville native Yeardley Love.

Whether detailing the ins-and-outs of the voir dire process, the Huguely defense team's strategy -and even the health of the defense attorneys- the emotional and evidentiary highs-and-lows of each day before a judge who works long hours and expects as much from the 12-member jury, or revealing the heartbreaking testimony of the Love family, Lowell Melser's reporting from the hometown of UVA, the school my niece currently attends and the one that Yeardley Love had grown-up dreaming of playing for, and as a young woman had grown to love representing for four happy years, has been first-rate and exemplary, a real credit to WBAL.

I've watched Melser's reports since before the trail started, which is of such great interest to me as well as to folks in the greater Baltimore community for the myriad reasons I've mentioned here in my February 6th post, titled, Yeardley Love in our thoughts: UVA & Charlottesville, extended UVA family & U.S. Lacrosse community are bracing themselves for the graphic details/photos that'll emerge in George Huguely V's murder trial starting Monday
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/yeardley-love-in-our-thoughts-uva.html


I had really hoped to have been able to post a few days worth of Melser's stories each weekend of the trial here for you to see, but logistically, that just wasn't going to work out, given how often Google Chrome has been crashing at the worst possible times, making what should've otherwise been a 20-30 minute operation take 90 maddening minutes, instead.
Sorry about that.


Ashley Robertson in The Cavalier Daily in Charlottesville captured the gaping hole in the souls of Yeardley's family about as well as you could, something you probably never saw in whatever TV news story you saw about the verdict or sentencing, but which is important to know:

Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman called Love’s mother Sharon and older sister Lexie to testify about the impact of Yeardley’s death on their family.

Few eyes in the courtroom stayed dry and multiple jurors needed tissues as Sharon Love described losing her daughter just five years after the death of her husband.

“Every year that goes by, I’m afraid I’m forgetting little pieces about her,” Sharon Love said between sobs. “[The pain] never goes away. You just pick yourself up and try to do the best you can for Yeardley.”

Lexie Love’s testimony also evoked tears as she described the emotional pain she suffered from losing a sister she talked to “at least once a day.”

“I’ve never wanted something so bad in my life as to see her again… it physically hurts,” Lexie Love said. “It’s like something’s missing — there’s a huge hole that will always be there and nothing’s going to fill it.”

It just breaks your heart all over again.
At least it did mine.
Yeardley Love and her family are still in our thoughts.


See the whole article here:


The Cavalier Daily 
The Verdict
By Ashley Robertson, Section Editor 
February 24, 2012
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/2012/02/24/the-verdict/


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http://www.wbaltv.com/index.html 


One Love Foundation: http://www.joinonelove.org/

News re Ben Gamla Charter; Csaba Kulin informs us how Mayor Joy Cooper seeks to divide the community again and make-up new rules for her own benefit

Hallandale Beach Municipal Complex, February 13, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Below, excerpts from my email earlier this afternoon to interested parties in Hallandale Beach, Hollywood, Broward County and South Florida:


Now they tell us! 
"Ben Gamla, ironically, probably spoke Aramaic." 
Rimshot! - http://instantrimshot.com/


With news that he is now trying to tap the Tampa Bay area for one of his Hebrew Charter schools, the first article mentioned in the Google Alert I received today is especially good at describing Peter Deutsch's mendacity, his verbal sleight-of-hand with facts, and his facility for using an air of presumed authority to get his way if he can't simply bulldoze neighborhood opposition out of the way.


Florida Jewish Journal
Ben Gamla Schools: Threat to Judaism and the Constitution
By Rabbi Bruce Warshal
1:46 p.m. EST, February 21, 2012
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/florida-jewish-journal/opinion/fl-jjps-warshal-0222-20120221,0,6894869.story


It goes without saying that it would've been nice for those of us in Hallandale Beach opposed to Deutsch's proposal on N.E. 8th Street, and in particular, his constant belittling treatment of HB citizens and frequent use of bullying tactics, if there'd been some articulate people in South Florida like this particular author writing in local newspapers last year, who could've verbally supported the NE neighborhood's opposition, instead of keeping quiet like church mice.
Oh well, a victory in hand... 


http://www.browardbulldog.org/2011/05/hallandale-beach-neighbors-fight-plans-for-charter-school-pushed-by-ex-congressman-peter-deutsch/


http://www.browardbulldog.org/2011/07/hallandale-to-vote-on-1-2-million-deutsch-land-deal-purchase-would-quell-upset-neighbors/

Above and below, looking east from in front of 416 N.E. 8th Avenue, the former Hallandale Jewish Center that the city purchased last year from Peter Deutsch; main building above, parking lot below. February 20, 2012 photos by South Beach Hoosier.

Speaking of that apparent "victory" though, what do we actually have right now, as of February 22nd, after four years of fighting Deutsch?
Correct, the city owns a property on N.E. 8th Avenue in a largely single-family neighborhood, but it's one with an old building on it -and lots and lots of asphalt.
That's it.
But that's NOT at all what the HB community desired for the property long-term, is it?


Not by any stretch, so make sure you take advantage of the opportunity and ask questions 
and state your own personal preference for ensuring that the future of that property, which the city over-paid for, WILL BE a park or recreational space, at tonight's Town Hall meeting at the Hepburn Center on NW 8th Avenue at 6:30 pm, or the one being held at the North Beach Center on A1A next Wednesday night at 6:30 pm.
The sooner that green metamorphosis begins, the better for the kids.
Especially the older kids.


And now on to my main reason for writing you today, rather unexpectedly.


Those of you who recently received a copy of Csaba Kulin's very-informed email about the proposed undemocratic Charter change re the HB City Commission, should re-read it soon, or, if you no longer have it, look for it on my blog tomorrow, where I will post both his first and second email, and some thoughts on what he wrote.
Here's why it's IMPORTANT.


Having previously used undemocratic methods that violate the spirit of the City Commission's own established recommendations for filling the then-upcoming Commission seat vacancy in August of 2008 -the topic of many past blog posts here- without ever allowing the public to speak, Mayor Joy Cooper is going full-bore to do what she can to ensure that her very own Rubber Stamp Crew stays in place, even if that means she has to use extraordinary measures.


She's trying to head off 'the posse,' i.e. an informed, pro-reform HB citizenry that wants big changes and genuine financial accountability at HB City Hall come November 6th.


As most of you know, the HB City Commission recently voted to have this Charter issue appear on the 2012 General Election ballot in November, believing, quite naturally, that having it in August during a party primary would be a very bad idea, besides the simple fact that many Hallandale Beach residents don't come back to the area until around Labor Day, to escape the awful summer heat.
Comm. Keith London even made a point of reminding his colleagues of these self-evident facts in saying why November was the clear preferred time so that the largest number of voters could participate.


Well, this morning I received a copy of an email from Csaba detailing his experiences last night at Comm. Alexander Lewy's meeting over at Brio, the restaurant at Village of Gulfstream Park closest to U.S.-1. 
And it's a revelation in its own small way, which is why I wanted to share it with you ASAP, with Csaba's permission.


It shows that even more than many of you have privately expressed to me in confidence -via phone calls and emails- of your fears that Mayor Cooper is SO anxious to stay in power in November, after ten years as mayor, that she will attempt to split the community if need be, or even act in a clearly undemocratic manner, to get what she wants.


Simply put, Mayor Cooper does NOT want the largest number of eligible and well-informed Hallandale Beach citizens to have a chance to vote AGAINST this bad Charter idea, enthusiastically supported by her and Comm. Lewy. 
Instead, she wants the smallest number of people deciding its fate, and she wants to get her way, even if that means foisting a 100% vote-by-mail referendum that would happen before November.
This, in a city where there has NEVER previously been a 100% vote-by-mail election.


Again, I plan on posting most of the particulars of this issue on my blog tomorrow, which will also incorporate and analyze some particularly laughable, galling and condescending statements made by Comm. Lewy as well, so go there mañana and check it out and ponder its deeper significance for us.
It's a lot to take in, I know, but we also all know from personal experience that an educated voter is Joy Cooper's worst fear.


-----
N.B. to readers of the blog:


Rather than my trying to characterize Csaba Kulin's email, since I think it speaks for itself as far as Comm. Lewy and Mayor Cooper's myopia about the public's current mood and what they're willing to tolerate, I decided to simply post his words and let you read it for yourself and draw your own conclusions. 
Keep in mind, too, that Michele Lazarow and Csaba have already filed with the City Clerk to run for the Hallandale Beach City Commission, for what are currently the two seats on the dais with terms ending in November, now belonging to Dotty Ross and Anthony A. Sanders.
Michele and Csaba are pro-reform candidates opposed to the stealthy and incompetent way that Hallandale Beach has been mis-managed for many, many years under Mayor Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew, a motley group which over the years has variously consisted of Ross, Sanders, Alexander Lewy and former commissioner William "Bill" Julian, the latter of whom was defeated for re-election in 2010 and who is running again this year, as is Sanders for re-election. 
  
After the meeting Comm. Lewy approached me with a question. Who am I running against in the election? I responded that "I am not running against anybody, I am running for one of the two seats available in November." He than stated that "we must maintain a minority seat on the dais and it would be good for me if I would run for Ross's seat." I reaffirmed that "I intend to get the most number of votes I can and let the chips fall where ever they will." It was not the answer he wanted or expected.

After that, Comm. Lewy started to talk about the hypothetical "numbered seats" idea of his. He wanted to know if there was if there was "numbered seats" who's seat would I run for." I told him that it will not be an issue in this year's election so any discussion is purely theoretical. He tried to trap me to somehow say something different. 

As we all walk out of Brio, we see Mayor Cooper sitting about 30 feet away. Comm Lewy walked over to her for a 10 minute chat while I am talking to two people from the earlier meeting. After another 5 minutes, Mayor Cooper walk over to us and proceeds to tell us that she "enthusiastically" supports Comm Sanders for the commission. After then she said "I made a big mistake before" but now I support Bill Julian for the commission.

Mayor Cooper continued saying that "she is ready to start a petition drive" to put the "residential districting" on the ballot. No discussion, she walked away. After the she left, I asked the two residents standing there with me if they heard what I heard. They said that they heard the same thing. 

As far as Comm Lewy is concerned, I believe he is fishing for another person to endorse in November. He is not comfortable with Julian. 

The Mayor is clearly forming a "slate" of Sanders and Julian to run with her. It is not surprising to me, or to you, but wanted to share it with you anyway.

Sweden's nationally-televised WTF (musical) car crash moment of Saturday night -Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li., performing "Mirakel"; a new low for Melodifestivalen?

Sweden's nationally-televised WTF (musical) car crash moment of Saturday night during Melodifestivalen -Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li., performing "Mirakel"

Proof that, at least in Sweden, some people love a (musical) car crash as long as they are not in it...

No, it's NOT your imagination.

I really HAVE been avoiding mentioning what's been going on thus far at this year's installment of Melodifestivalen, the iconic and nationally-televised song selection contest over five weeks that annually leads to Sweden's choice for the Eurovision Song Contest, this year, taking place in Azerbijan in a few months.

I could get into the reasons why I've NOT mentioned what's doing with familiar Hallandale Beach Blog favorites like Molly Sandén and Timoteij so far, but it's easier to say why I've broken that silence -Sweden's nationally-televised WTF (musical) car crash moment of Saturday night -Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li. 

As always, seeing is believing!

*All screen grabs on this page are from SVT by South Beach Hoosier

To say the least, the reviews of Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li are in and they are so angry, scathing and unmerciless in their pummeling, that it's a wonder that many of my friends and folks I know, like Sofie and Pernilla -who keep coming back to the blog!- who watched the show LIVE Saturday night didn't, well, blow a gasket.

Or make like Elvis and shoot their TV set! 

Though now that I think about it, maybe some of them did, since as of early Monday morning, I have NOT heard from some of them after Saturday night's deltävling 3 -Third heat-of this year's competition in Leksand, like I did after the two previous weeks the past two Saturday nights in Växjö and Göteborg, respectively.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1keVBfBrVI4

I urge you to watch this video ASAP because this video will probably be yanked-off YouTube very soon by SVT for copyright reasons, but it's the only one I've seen that shows how truly horrendous the act was.

Oops! Too late. 

They already hit it and removed it since I saw it a few hours ago.

Since that's the case, watch their performance here on SVT Play's website, which will have the entire show online for viewing until MIDNIGHT Tuesday morning Stockholm/Central European Time (CET), which is one hour ahead of GMT and six hours ahead of yours truly in Miami, in U.S.  Eastern.
So the deadline for seeing this is 6 p.m. Eastern.

Get moving, because the clock is ticking!

Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li appearance starts at 0:45:58 on the vid, ends at 0:50:05.

http://svtplay.se/t/102943/melodifestivalen

I watched the show in its entirety on Sunday afternoon, taking notes.

So, did I mention that people were angry?!!!!

Apparently, more than I thought, there were thousands of people watching TV in Sweden on Saturday night who thought they'd say a big f-ck you to the Swedish music industry, and do it by spending what amounts to about two bucks to text this "car crash" -the favorite metaphor being used among Swedish bloggers to describe this performance the first 36 hours afterward- and send them directly to the Finals in Stockholm on March 10th, at Globen.

Hmm-m... imagine if a participating country's national Eurovision song selection competition was hijacked by the country's usually-friendly folket in order to send the worst possible act to Baku, Azerbijan for the actual European competition...

Hmm-m... now that's a question so preposterous and diabolical that even Stieg Larsson never thought of it while toiling away in Gamla Stan thinking of things for Lisbeth Salander to get upset about!

Yes, it's sort like what the Florida Marlins did in November in announcing their new Miami Marlins logo and uniforms for their new stadium in Little Havana... which was, itself, a rainbow-colored WTF moment as far as most fans were concerned!
Yet typically, the condescending Marlins owners and management act like this finished product is what they always wanted, and don't much care what fans really think.
They're so in love with the idea of being "bold," of marketing themselves in Latin America in pastel colors, that they've lost sight of what the real fans who actually attend their games think.

For those of you reading this outside of South Florida, I honestly DON'T see anyone wearing this stuff around the area, that is, except for the sort of person at the shopping mall who does so clearly to bring attention to themselves.
Like the sort of woman who purchases a new expensive purse or accessory and takes it with them to Sunday brunch and tried to appear blase about it, even while craning her neck to see who notices it.

Miami Marlins New Logo and Uniform

http://youtu.be/mC-zle_rk4g

Here's what some of the Usual Suspects, music-wise, have been saying so far.

Over at Scandipop, 

...it certainly got people talking, as well as voting – “Björn Ranelid” and then “Ranelid” both became wordwide trending topics on twitter last night after his performance.

At the ESC Xtra, which LIVE blogged the show, when it was finally announced that Ranelid & Li  had qualified to go directly to the Finals in Stockholm, along with Molly, they wrote simply,

I am lost for words Sweden. See ya next week…

At the more action-oriented Schlagerblog, which was not so crazy about Molly's song, either, they wrote

The big surprise for the Schlagerboys was how excited we got about Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li. Who'd have thought a bonkers orange bloke wandering around the stage rambling on in Swedish while his granddaughter prances around for the chorus in a glittery frock would be so fab! The best bit was near the end where the key change should have been, when he clearly forgot his microphone was live and started mumbling the words to the chorus. Love it!

I'll have my updates on Molly Sandén and Timoteij and what else is going on in the competition later in the week before Saturday's competition from Malmö.

-----

http://svt.se/melodifestivalen/


http://www.visitsweden.com/

FULL SPEECH video: Kevin Costner's heartfelt & nuanced speech about Whitney Houston delivers an emotional wallop that won't be forgotten by anyone who heard it

ITN's Show Biz 411 video: Kevin Costner's ENTIRE speech at Whitney Houston's funeral at the New Hope Baptist Church, Newark, N.J. February 18, 2012 http://youtu.be/2wjh0N1EzPI

Kevin Costner's ENTIRE heartfelt and nuanced speech about Whitney Houston delivers an emotional wallop that won't be forgotten by anyone who heard it. Given the level of sadness that was both inside and outside of that church, this speech was about as close as you can come to pitch-perfect.

Now THAT was funny! David Spade's recent appearance on David Letterman was a reminder of why we like him: sly, sardonic, shocking and genuinely funny

David Spade - Stand-up comedy segment and sit-down interview on CBS' Late Night with David Letterman. The real-life housekeeping story that Spade shares in his own inimitable style, had the audience and Dave curious and laughing the whole way thru. February 10, 2012. 720p.

http://youtu.be/rfqxfNY9spk

Please note this honest Tweet of David's from Wednesday that partly answers a question I'd been pondering, too, by HIS admitting that even HE doesn't know the answer to the question he constantly gets from fans of his show:

Rules of engagement comes back thursday march 29 for 8 weeks straight. I know i know, i dont get whats going on either... 

My final comment here is a simple one - Get well, Heather! We're rooting for you.

-----

http://twitter.com/#!/DavidSpade

http://www.davidspade.com/

http://www.cbs.com/shows/rules_of_engagement/ 

Miami Herald's Fred Grimm weighs in -again- on the faux newspaper in Hallandale Beach and its sweetheart CRA deal from HB City Hall to be a propaganda arm

Having known the ins-and-outs about this awful deal for years and writing about it here, and having attended the Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting last year where it finally came out how little the recipients of HB CRA loans were actually paying back, if anything, galling gallows humor to even the most jaded veteran observer of HB City Hall nonsense, it's been interesting to observe how now that the Broward Bulldog has reminded everyone in South Florida paying attention what a ridiculous deal Hallandale Beach taxpayers were stuck with, on behalf of the mayor and three of the four commissioners, everyone wants to get in their licks on the unethical low-hanging piñata...
------

Miami Herald
IN MY OPINION
Hallandale Beach paper shows way to make easy money  
BY FRED GRIMM  
FGRIMM@MIAMIHERALD.COM
February 14, 2012

Money problems have pretty much flummoxed the newspaper industry. Corporate executives spend a lot of time obsessing over various strategies to recapture lost revenues. I worry about Strategy Number 17, which entails columnists in sandwich boards.

Who would have guessed that the solution to the industry’s financial problems would come from a little weekly newspaper in Hallandale Beach? The South Florida Sun Times gets all the credit for the brilliant new business plan: free money. Much better than cranky old guys in sandwich boards.

The Sun Times cache of money comes from the city of Hallandale Beach. The BrowardBullDog.org, a regional non-profit dedicated to investigative journalism, reported last week that the weekly newspaper received $50,000 from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency back in 2009. The money was ostensibly a loan, but special terms excuse the newspaper from the burden of paying back more than half the money. The Sun Times gets away with repaying the other half at only 2 percent interest over 10 years.

This is what’s known in the financial sector as “one sweet deal.”

CRAs are special defined urban districts that levy taxes to fund infrastructure improvements. Stuff like slum clearance, water and sewer projects, street lights, sidewalks.

In Miami, CRA funds have occasionally been diverted toward the improvement of private property owned by the close relatives of unscrupulous politicians. We know this because newspapers like The Miami Herald dig into the CRA records and report the scandalous truth. Then the unscrupulous politician goes on radio and says unkind things about The Herald. This is the old, tried, true but not very profitable model of newspaper journalism.

In Hallandale Beach, a city conjured out of the Broward tomato fields by mob boss Meyer Lansky, the Sun Times has invented a better way. The newspaper doesn’t investigate the questionable distribution of CRA funds. The newspaper takes the funds.

The $50,000 was the first “loan” given out under a CRA program supposed to rescue struggling city businesses. BullDog.org reports that the Sun Times was the only business in the program allowed to shrug off half the loan.

BullDog.org, looking at the tax records filed with the CRA, noticed that the president of the “struggling” Sun Times was paid $259,193 in 2007 and $239,054 in 2008. The weekly’s vice president received $192,052 and $229,010 those same years.

Experts in employee compensation have a special term for this level of pay: “Wow!”

Under the old newspaper model, a courageous, slightly overweight, aging but still virile columnist would have gone berserk, suggesting that with that kind of executive pay, no wonder the Sun Times needed a bailout from the city. And why on earth, the columnist would ask, would the mayor of Hallandale Beach push such a dodgy deal through the city’s CRA?

Except that Mayor Joy Cooper, the potential object of the Sun Times columnist’s scorn, also happens to be the Sun Times columnist. Admittedly, her style does not recall Chicago’s Mike Royko (“The subject of criminal rehabilitation was debated recently in City Hall. It’s an appropriate place for this kind of discussion because the city has always employed so many ex-cons and future cons.”) or New York’s Jimmy Breslin (“Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anybody I have ever studied, writing columns for newspapers.”)

But there she is, the mayor/columnist, with her regular space in the Sun Times, with an unfettered opportunity to enhance her public persona. Meanwhile, City Commissioner Keith London (or any other critic of municipal policy) is nowhere to be seen in the pages of the uncrusading newspaper. That may be because London has not only railed about the $50,000 loan, he has criticized the $105,000 the city has spent advertising in the Sun Times over the past two fiscal years. The Sun Times deals were never approved by the city commission, he complained.

(In 2009, a letter was mailed out to city businesses on official Hallandale Beach city stationery stating: “Just about everyone is feeling the effects of the economy and doing what we can to get through tough times. In an effort to promote and support local businesses, the city encourages all businesses to advertise in the city’s only local newspaper.” The love letter was signed by both Mayor Cooper and City Manager Mike Goode.)

A columnist under the old newspaper model would argue that the mayor has a very suspicious relationship with the recipient of so much city money. But the columnist under the much cozier Sun Times model, with the free money strategy, would write, “Hey, suckers. I’m the mayor. I do what the hell I want.”

Read the readers comments at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/13/2639870/hallandale-beach-paper-shows-way.html

Csaba Kulin on Hallandale Beach's crony capitalism deal with a fake newspaper that stands ethics on its head and takes CRA money in exchange for being a City Hall propaganda machine

Above, the September 12, 2010 issue of the Stongsville Post, a genuine "community newspaper" that reports both sides on issues and controversies in its part of suburban Cleveland, Ohio

Today I'd like to share with you a copy of the email my friend and fellow Hallandale Beach/Broward County activist Csaba Kulin sent out on Monday concerning the continuing controversy surrounding what Csaba and I and many other concerned HB residents have long believed is the city's completely unethical and financially unsound arrangement with a faux newspaper located here in the city.

The problem is simple to understand: in exchange for operating as a propaganda arm of Hallandale Beach City Hall and its mayor of the past ten years, Joy Cooper, the owners receive funds from the city's CRA, which is generally supposed to be used to eliminate blight within the CRA zone of the city.

Since Csaba brings up his former full-time home of Strongsville, OH in his email from yesterday, I thought it was important to preface his new email with another instance where Csaba used Strongsville as a means for comparison to what passes for normal here in Hallandale Beach, so you could judge for yourself.

That instance comes from a Bob Norman blog post from last year, before he left the NewTimes for WPLG-TV, Channel 10, the ABC-TV affiliate here in South Florida, which concerned an email Csaba had written to Mayor Cooper and the other four members of the City Commission contrasting municipal spending habits and patterns of Strongsville to those in Hallandale Beach.  

BrowardPalm Beach NewTimes

Bob Norman's Pulp

Hallandale Beach Mayor Defends City in Sloppy, Error-Filled Email

By Bob Norman

April 27, 2011 at 8:54 AM Comments (55)

Ever heard of Strongsville, Ohio?

Neither had I, but it's apparently a suburb of Cleveland and a place where Hallandale condo president and activist Csaba Kulin used to live.

Kulin is amazed at the bloated cost of Hallandale Beach's budget compared to that of Strongville and recently wrote a letter about it to the City Commission.

Read the rest of the post and the reader comments at: http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/04/hallandale_mayor_joy_cooper_budget.php

----- 

Dear Friends and Hallandale Beach Residents,

I am sure by now you read or heard about the "sweet deal" the South Florida Sun Times receives from the City of Hallandale Beach. In case you are not aware of it, I included the link to the Miami Herald and the Broward Bulldog articles. My name was mentioned in both articles, so I decided to make a comment to both publications to state my position.

I hope you will find the stories informative. At the bottom you can see my comments.

Sincerely,

Csaba Kulin 

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2012/02/sweet-deal-for-owners-of-hallandale-newspaper-that-features-mayor-as-columnist/

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/09/2633582/hallandale-beach-newspaper-gets.html

From personal experience, I'm a great believer in the importance of an "independent community newspaper" that covers issues that larger mass circulations newspaper can't or won't cover. I know something about that because when I'm in Ohio for part of the summer every year, the town I lived in full-time before moving to Hallandale Beach has one of the best "community papers" in the country, the Strongsville Post. There was no community issue or policy that the Post won't send reporters to examine or report upon, and because of that, the newspaper remains trusted, popular, a good place to advertise a product or service, and accepted as an important part of the community there.

Conversely, that same experience informs my opinion that the South Florida Sun Times (SFST) failed the “independence” test the moment it asked for and accepted money from the City of Hallandale Beach for services NOT provided. The SFST, having accepted funds that could have been better spent elsewhere within the CRA zone to eliminate blight, has for years adhered to a policy that's ever mindful of biting the hand that feeds it.

As opposed to the Post in Strongsville, OH, the SFST has become a one-sided house organ in its "reporting," and has thus become both irrelevant and a subject of open ridicule throughout the community, practically a punch line. In my own condo complex, we routinely discard large bundle of unread copies that were placed in the condo lobby into the recycling bins every week.

A legitimate newspaper that aspires to consider itself a "community newspaper" should, without even having to think about it, write about both sides of an issue or policy, and must encourage and publish opposing points of view. So in our case here in Hallandale Beach, routinely publishing something against the “party line” given by Mayor Joy Cooper in her so-called "columns," rather than NOT publishing anything that challenges what she says, as is currently the case. And the same goes for publishing Letters to the Editor without censorship with respect to topic and content. They ought to publish updated police blotter and proceedings of the City Commission Meetings. The SFST currently does NONE of these things.

If the SFST continues to operate in its current fashion, they might as well change their name to PRAVDA.

The Hallandale Beach CRA, with policy set by the elected City Commission and the mayor, has had more than its share of problems in the recent past. One episode in particular is worth mentioning here as it's indicative of the sort of favoritism and cronyism it has practiced in the past, a story never mentioned in the SFST. A loan in the amount of $125,000 loan was given for what was called at the time, THE CITY CHANEL, and was promoted and developed by Steve Fecske of California, and his local partner, a person very well-connected to HB City Hall. Mr. Fecske’s previous expertise includes, among other things according to Google's search engine, developing pornography web sites.  Like Seinfeld said, “not that anything is wrong with that”.

The night of the city commission meeting, Hallandale Beach taxpayers showed up in force to vehemently oppose the proposed loan on its merits, as well as the transparent way the commission waived its own meager requirements that the business group did NOT meet. Commissioner Keith London took the lead in objecting to it from the dais, but because the mayor supported it, it passed. Where was the SFST?

Well, forward to today, the local partner has since passed away, the money expended from the CRA is lost, and nobody in charge is asking any questions about it. And the South Florida Sun Times remains silent.

In November, voters of Hallandale Beach will have a chance to make major changes in the way this city is governed and the public policies that guide it. Concerned voters who want a better-managed and more transparent City Hall that is proactively accountable to taxpayers, and NOT in love with crony capitalism excesses like the loan to the SFST, should heed the recent lessons that have cost them and their neighbors both money and lost opportunities to make this a better community, and should vote for reform candidates.

Csaba Kulin, candidate for Hallandale Beach City Commission

More about Hallandale Beach's unscrupulo​us crony capitalism deal b/w the faux newspaper, the SFST, and Mayor Joy Cooper, Cub Reporter...

 Above, a photo I took back on October 8, 2010 of the never-ending embarrassment...  for us as Hallandale Beach taxpayers and the world of journalism.
Below, a copy of the email that I wrote and sent out last Friday to the Usual Suspects thoughout South Florida and journalism watering holes in the U.S. and elsewhere.


Sixteen months ago, I wrote the following on my blog, just one of many over the years on the faux newspaper in Hallandale Beach. My biggest problem wasn't writing it, of course, but rather trying to decide which was THE most outlandish and absurd front page of the dozens they've run that I've kept...

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2010
Csaba Kulin's common sense take on the faux newspaper in Hallandale Beach that gobbles up taxpayer funds, the South Florida Sun Times



It's hard to imagine a more ridiculous, self-serving and un-true headline than this one from August 13, 2009 in the faux community newspaper, the South Florida Sun-Times: AHEAD OF THE GAME: Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper continues to do the job residents elected her to do -once again!

Read the rest of my post above at:http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/csaba-kulins-common-sense-take-on-faux.html

That followed by five months the effort to create...
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2009
Hallandale Beach insiders to offer goodies/new propaganda TV channel to HB City Hall for $200k CRA loan Wed. morning.

As you'll recall above, despite NOT meeting most of the very-low standards the city usually required for a loan, the loan was made... more money down the drain!
That eye-opening post of mine from almsot three years ago is at: http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/hallandale-beach-insiders-to-offer.html

I'm planning on posting some more incriminating info about the SFST in a few days on my blog, possibly including some eye-opening video I still have from 2010 that makes clear how steadfast and stuuborn HB City Hall remains in trying to funnel money to people who, as I'll show, couldn't even do the one thing they needed to consistently do -reliably inform the people of this community.

That info will be news to most of you in Southeast broward and elsewhere I think, since what was in the Broward Bulldog and then the Miami Herald last Thursday is, as some of you already know, just the tip of the iceberg on this story about the mayor's ambition and desire to always get her way being subsidized by taxpayers dollars -yours.

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2012/02/sweet-deal-for-owners-of-hallandale-newspaper-that-features-mayor-as-columnist/
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/09/2633582/hallandale-beach-newspaper-gets.html Make sure you read the comments!

Below, more on Joy Cooper, Cub Reporter...
I was going to say Nancy Drew, but of course Nancy Drew in her stint as a reporter in the 1940's film series tried to bring facts to light, not to bury them; she cleared a girl of murder, after all.
http://www.archive.org/details/nancy_drew_reporter

Also, Nancy Drew never threatened a "publisher" before like the mayor and her husband did a few years ago when, out-of-the-blue, something true-but-unflattering about her somehow wound-up in the faux newspaper.

Again, I remind you, that something was true-but-unflattering, but as we all know, the mayor really hates hearing Inconvenient Facts, whether from me or any other citizen paying close attention to what's going on -or isn't- right in front of us, so, as you'd expect, she and her husband went to the "newspaper's" office and went ballistic.
They demanded that... well, that's the part of the story still to come.
-----

I also commend to you the following piece as well on the blatant disregard for fairness and journalism ethics.

South Florida Business Journal
Why fight City Hall when you get a h andout?
by Kevin Gale, Editor in Chief
Friday, February 10, 2012, 12:10pm EST
http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/blog/2012/02/why-fight-city-hall-when-you-get-a.html

If you have a Facebook account, you can leave a comment... I don't, so can't.

See this mention of our mayor from last month...http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/dc/2012/01/occupy-protest-leads-arrest-assault-officer/165117

And in case you forgot one of the previous Joy Cooper crony capitalism deals with the faux
newspaper... I still have a copy of the letter and envelope that was sent out on HB City Hall
stationary to try to drum up business for a fake newspaper that nobody trusts or believes.

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/columnists/story/850227.html
Miami Herald
Mayor, paper are very cozy in Hallandale
By Fred Grimm
January 13, 2009

It pays to be nice.
If only The Miami Herald had been a little nicer, a little more accommodating, a little less critical, some grateful mayor might be sending out swell letters to our potential advertisers.
Consider the South Florida Sun-Times in Hallandale Beach. A nice weekly paper. Very nice. Self-consciously nice. ''We do mostly positive stories. We don't do a lot of negative,'' Sun-Times President Craig Farquhar said.
No nasty (or otherwise) letters to the editor. (Too bad, given that Hallandale Beach residents are both literate and famously contentious. Their letters would liven up any newspaper.)
The Sun-Times (circulation about 55,000) especially eschews articles critical of the mayor of Hallandale Beach. Not exactly what you'd call a media watchdog when it comes to local government. More like a lapdog.
But niceness pays off. Last month, a surprising letter was mailed out to city businesses on official Hallandale Beach city stationery: ''Just about everyone is feeling the effects of the economy and doing what we can to get through tough times. In an effort to promote and support local businesses, the city encourages all businesses to advertise in the city's only local newspaper.'' The letter was signed by both Mayor Joy Cooper and City Manager Mike Goode.


LETTER STARTLING
For an old newspaper guy, who harbors an almost religious reverence for the contentious relationship between journalism and government, it was a startling read.
For Jeanne Roonoe, a businesswoman who has owned Dixie Top Shop down on Dixie Highway for 28 years, it was startling for other reasons. ''For one thing, the city mailed out these letters using first-class mail instead of bulk mail.'' But mostly she wondered why, when so many businesses are hurting, ``the city singled out just one to help.''
Because it pays to be accommodating. The Sun-Times runs a weekly column by Mayor Cooper. City Commissioner Keith London, often at odds with the mayor, claims that the paper refuses to print contrary opinions from him.
In particular, last fall after the mayor ran a column critical of a lawsuit London had filed against the city, the newspaper refused to publish the city commissioner's response. ''We chose not to run his article. We choose not to run lots of stories from people,'' Farquhar said.


SWEET DEAL
London, using Freedom of Information requests to pry the information out of City Hall, found that Hallandale Beach city government spent $18,500 buying ads in the Sun-Times over the past two years. The commissioner suggests that the newspaper, at city expense, has become a kind of unfiltered house organ for the mayor's office.
(However, to be fair, Mayor Cooper's latest column is not exactly a scintillating read. Not a whiff of controversy. No political attacks. No mention of her blood enemy Keith London.)
Mayor Cooper told the Sun-Sentinel that in exchange for the letters to potential advertisers, she expected stories in the Sun-Times that would ``promote the city.''
That happened to be the same term employed by the very nice president of the Sun-Times. ''We all have to work together to promote the city and business,'' Farquhar told me Monday.
Not that I have anything against being nice, even to mayors. It's just a peculiar ethos for a newspaper.

-----

I only wish the South Florida news media had taken this whole embarrassing situation more seriously when I knew about it and was writing about it before they were.
I constantly contacted all four English-speaking TV stations and both the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel with the pertinent facts, delivering it on a silver platter with all dots already connected, but as you know if you read my posts at the time, the local news media just didn't care.
Not a whit.

All of which makes this sudden media interest in a longstanding situation that HB taxpayers have had to live with for years, now seem rather curious to lots of well-informed people I know and interact with regularly.
Adminstrators and elected officials from other cities and up at Broward County Govt. HQ and regular taxpayer citizens.
They all wonder why the concerns of HB residents didn't matter to the news media when it might've done some good.
It's a little after-the-fact, now.