Fact checking the Miami Herald's dubious claims on Education: Over the weekend, I unexpectedly found myself forced to 'school' the Herald's Executive Editor after she bragged about the Herald's coverage of Education. I had to bring up some inconvenient facts rebutting that claim

A Miami Herald vending machine in front of the Denny's restaurant on West Hallandale Beach Blvd., Hallandale Beach, FL, right near one of the city's two infamous red-light cameras. (Now the daily price for a Herald is 75 cents, of course, not the 50 cents depicted in photo.) July 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

On Sunday morning, in going thru the Miami Herald's crummy and uninspiring website, mostly  making mental notes about all the stories that should've been present eight weeks before national, state and local elections take place -but WEREN'T-  rather than looking for something in particular that I was expecting to be there, I came up short when I clicked "Opinion" and saw something there that was as objectively false as anything I'd seen in the paper this year. http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/#navlink=navbar

You see it was there that I first came across Herald Executive Editor Aminda Marques' piece about the Herald's coverage of education policy, and in my opinion, bragging about something she had no business bragging about. That is, IF facts and reality matter.
They still do to me, what about you?

If I'd had a few minutes to really think it through, I'd have actually posted the knowing response below to my blog right away instead of placing it on the Herald's website, since more people would likely see it here sooner than in that Herald article, since depending upon how many comments the original article garnered, my experience in talking to other people is that most people won't read more than whatever comments happen to be on that particular page, depending upon whether your default setting is Most Recent or chron order of first comments to most recent. 
Me, I read all comments of articles I find of interest in chron order.


Now perhaps it was because I'd already had more Hazelnut-flavored coffee than I should've yesterday morning, while lisitening to the network TV morning chat shows on in the background while checking out my usual Sunday morning media breakfast buffet on the computer. 

The only thing that was different this time than the past few months was that I had to be sure not to get too engrossed in something I was reading once This Week in South Florida with Michael Putney ended, since I needed to swing by the store and pick up some bags of ice on the way to catch the Dolphins 2012 season-opener in Houston at my sister's place out in Pembroke Pines, and not be late for the 1 p.m. kickoff.

(As usual, the part of the drive from Hallandale Beach to Flamingo Road in Pembroke Pines via Pembroke Road that was the worst stretch, even on a Sunday afternoon, was between Washington Park in Hollywood and  University Drive in The Pines. The reason? The number of speeding drivers who ride-on-your -bumper when you're doing the speed limit out-numbers safe drivers like me by a factor of 3:1. Some day, I know I'll see a cop on that stretch giving speeding tickets, but after all these years, still nothing as of yesterday! Some day though...)

Miami Herald

Why everyone — parent or not — should care about education coverage

By Aminda Marques Gonzalez

In Print September 9, 2012

Two weeks into the school year and The Miami Herald education team has as much on its to-do list as most children returning to school.

The Miami-Dade school system is putting a $1.2 billion bond referendum before voters, money that would be used to repair aging schools and upgrade technology. The Broward school district is struggling with a troubled transportation system that has left scores of children without rides. The embattled Florida education commissioner resigned weeks before the start of a new term.

Few topics we cover have as broad an impact as education.

“Anyone who has a child in school feels so close to the news,” said Charlene Pacenti, The Miami Herald’s education editor. “Does my school have a leaky roof? Does my child’s classroom have the technology it needs? Is my child’s bus going to come on time? — these are the issues they care about.”

Beyond the parents of school-age kids, what happens in the classroom and at the school district touches the entire community, from the homeowners whose property taxes support our educational system to the business community, which has made education a touchstone of economic growth.

No one is better poised to provide substantive, unbiased schools coverage than The Miami Herald education team. Our coverage is led by Pacenti, a 20-year news veteran with school-age daughters. She also oversees MomsMiami.com, which she helped launch.

Reporter Laura Isensee covers the Miami-Dade school district and Michael Vasquez covers Broward schools and higher education. Both bring years of experience in government reporting to the education beat, as well as an ability to explain how local, state and national policies affect children, parents and teachers. For live coverage, follow Isensee on Twitter at @LauraIsensee and Vasquez at @mrmikevasquez. Pacenti tweets using @MomsMiami.

Parental engagement in education issues has risen dramatically, Pacenti said, fueled by cuts to school budgets across the state.

“Parents are getting involved like I have never seen,” she said. “They have an appetite for this news. They are sharing it and they are acting on it.”

This year’s coverage will focus on three key issues: the Miami-Dade bond referendum and the state of schools in Broward; the introduction of new federal “common core” standards as the FCAT is phased out; and the role of technology in education.

“Education is fundamental,” Isensee said. “It’s so important how well we’re educating students and preparing the next generation. I care about those things. It’s why I wanted to be a journalist in the first place, to tell stories that shape people’s lives.”

-------

My response, such as it was on the spur-of-the-moment is here:

Ms. Marques, how many emails have I sent you and Rick Hirsch and other key Herald managers and editors over the past few years, and posted on my blog, asking a simple question of you all: WHY do you all persist in using the personnel and technology you have in the strange way you do that does NOT take full advantage of either the personnel or technology, which regularly cheats readers out of useful content? Here are some facts that you seem to want regular Herald readers to ignore:

In the year 2012, the Herald STILL has no Education blog. Is there a newspaper in this country with your circulation size that DOESN'T? I doubt it. Now, if something important happens involving Education, especially up in Tallahassee, it appears on the Naked Politics blog, which while slightly better than it had been for years, is NOT the place that anyone goes to read about Education policy news. But because you lack an Education blog, you stick it there. Bad idea.

You've STILL never replaced the former Public Ombudsman, Edward Schumacher-Matos, who left well over a year ago for D.C. and NPR, someone whom you NEVER gave a blog to so he could update columns and comment on breaking stories or controversies. Because he was NOT even a regular Sunday feature, often, entire MONTHS would go by in between columns, and at that point, the stories he wrote about were either forgotten -or hidden behind the Herald's archives pay-wall. How is that any way to engage the public???

While you DO run a Gay blog on the website, it seems more like a pep squad or bulletin board for Gay interests rather than an objective news outlet that shows Gays here are like everyone else in South Florida: some good, some bad, most apathetic like everyone else down here. Unfortunately, on that blog, Gays are either heroes or victims but they're never anything else. It's unrealistic.

For reasons that nobody can figure out, you persist in posting Spanish-language blogs on the Herald's website instead of having them at El Herald.

I could go on... and have gone on with lots of specificity in those emails I've sent you and others at One Herald Plaza. And yet you do nothing...and the unsatisfactory status quo persists. 
Honestly, it's time you folks making the final decisions look in the mirror and figure out a way to make the Herald's print and website content better and more useful to readers who want to be engaged before you become even more irrelevant to South Florida.

------

By the way, just for the record, on Sept. 24, 2010, I sent several members of the Herald's management team an email noting that the Herald had neglected to effectively report on the search for a replacement for then-Broward School Board General Counsel Ed Marko -in place since 1968!- and had yet to mention the candidates being considered as Marko's replacement for that important and high-paying job.
I noted in that Sept. 24th email that the last time the Herald even mentioned Marko leaving was Nov. 3, 2009.
Nearly 11 months!

Some of you newer readers to the blog might never have seen my past emails to Herald management -and my subsequent posting to my blog- taking them to task for the downward spiral that prevents real news from ever appearing in print like it used to, especially local government stories.

You might want to read the following to consider yourself brought up to speed.

May 21, 2012 - What's going on at the Miami Herald? More than a year after the last one fled, the Herald still lacks an Ombudsman -and shows no sign of getting one- to represent readers deep concerns about bias, misrepresentation and flackery on behalf of South Florida's powerful & privileged at the Herald. And that's just one of many unresolved problems there...

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/whats-going-on-at-miami-herald-more.html

December 21, 2011 - For another consistently lousy year of journalism at the Miami Herald, esp. covering Broward County, more lumps of coal in the Christmas stocking of One Herald Plaza -Part 1

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/for-another-consistently-lousy-year-of.html

December 21, 2011 -Part 2 of More lumps of coal in the Christmas stocking of One Herald Plaza for another consistently lousy year of journalism at the Miami Herald, esp. covering Broward County

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/part-2-of-more-lumps-of-coal-in.html

Needlessly repeating history once again in Hallandale Beach to limit voter's choices; Comm. Anthony A. Sanders dares the South Florida news media to report on his adamant refusal to tell the truth to HB residents he's supposed to represent re the four-year old ethical scandal swirling around him. Except for Michael Mayo, Bill Gjebre & Glenna Milberg, the news media here has been rolling over like a lapdog, instead of playing the role of watchdog; @SandersHB, @MayorCooper, @AlexLewy

actsofsedition video:  Local10/WPLG-TV Miami: "City's pricey purchase." 
On July 26, 2012, Local10 reporter Glenna Milberg went to Hallandale Beach City Hall to learn more details about the curious case involving HB City Commissioner and Pastor Anthony A. Sanders and the rushed sale of his and his wife's property at 501 N.W. 1st Avenue, to the city in 2009 -when the city had ZERO written plans for what it would actually do with the property afterwards!- for about $89,000 more than it was actually worth. 
For well over three years now, since the purchase was finalized, Sanders has  consistently stonewalled Hallandale Beach taxpayers asking about the exact details of this deal, and he refused to speak with Milberg on the day of her appearance at City Hall, too. 

You'd think that if he were honest and done nothing wrong, he'd desperately want to defend himself publicly and give his side of the story, but he doesn't do that now -and he DIDN'T even before there was a Broward Inspector General. 
To the vast majority of well-informed HB residents and other interested parties, people who have been completely underwhelmed by his dismal puppet-like performance on the dais -including other elected officials in Broward County I have personally spoken to on the matter- the reason that Sanders won't talk to taxpayers about it is because it's exactly what it appears to be -a quid pro quo. 

The city purchased property it didn't need and overpaid for it, and Mayor Joy Cooper forced Sanders onto the City  Commission, and in exchange, he supports Cooper regardless of what the issue is, no matter how preposterous or lacking it is in common sense. Which makes him one of the three members of Cooper's current Rubber Stamp Crew.

Unfortunately, other than this Milberg segment in July, the occasional piece by South Florida Sun-Sentinel columnist Michael Mayo in 2010 and 2011, or the Broward Bulldog's William Gjebre this year, South Florida reporters have completely ignored this story and the larger issue of an elected official -and Pastor- who for well over four years has avoided responding truthfully to and interacting with HB taxpayers and business owners he is supposed to be accountable to.  
So why do the other reporters in South Florida refuse to report or prod on this matter? 

Well, with 58 days until Election Day and with no sign that this reporting apathy is going to change, some residents wonder what's going on in particular with the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, both of whose Editorial Boards rather surprisingly endorsed Sanders in 2008 over much better-qualified candidates. 
Some HB residents genuinely wonder if the newspaper's beat reporters, Carli Teproff and Tonya Alanez, are under orders from editors or higher-ups on the food-chain to ignore the Sanders ethics story altogether, as well as his adamant refusal to speak publicly with residents, in order to keep the mediocre and perpetually under-prepared Sanders in office. 


While it may sound crazy to those of you living outside of this city, how else do you reasonably explain the complete failure of the Miami Herald and the South Sun-Sentinel to print ANYTHING about Sanders that's written by their own people, NOT the Broward Bulldog? That is, other than sheer apathy and unprofessionalism?
What is that OTHER reasonable alibi that explains their abject failure to report the news that people here want to read more details about? 
For instance, to state the most obvious question, will Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz bring charges against Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and his wife Jessica or anyone else at HB City Hall before Early Voting begins here for the November 6th election? 
We'd like to know BEFORE the election!  
http://youtu.be/XlOgkrL9CWI

What follows is an excerpt of an email that I wrote and sent out this past Tuesday to various people up-and-down the management chain at the Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel, plus other selected print/TV reporters and columnists in the area.

It was also sent as well to about 150-175 residents, business owners, civic leaders and other very interested parties with a keen interest interest in seeing this part of Broward County grow and become all it can be, which will necessarily mean it becoming unshackled from the likes of autocratic and thin-skinned Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper and her very negative and alienating sphere of influence.

People really do avoid moving here or locating a business here simply because of the bureaucratic fiefdom and crony capitalism culture that she has created here, one that is totally unhealthy and destructive long-term to everyone not named Cooper.

Owing to the fact that at least some of the people who received it on Tuesday do NOT often hear from me or necessarily know that "What's past is prologue" here in Hallandale Beach times TEN, it necessarily repeats some pretty basic things about this city that most of you more-regular readers of the blog already know and could probably recite back to me were we ever to meet.

I apologize for that but I can't assume that our common knowledge is their particular common knowledge and frame of reference, so I kept it pretty simple in some cases by bringing up come connections to things going on now as best I could.

Again, keep in mind that this was sent out the day before the HB City Commission meeting Wednesday night that attracted so many people, and where everything came fast-and-furious as some new information was introduced into the equation that I didn't know when first writing
this.

Not that this new information in any way excuses the South Florida news media's glaring failure over the past five years to accurately and fairly report local news as it actually is, and NOT as some would have it or like it to be.
Say, the way the two local Editorial Boards would prefer that you NOT know certain information, especially before an important election.
-----

First, a history lesson, since it's clear that at least some of you need it:

Four years ago last week, Pastor Anthony A. Sanders was forced down the throats of Hallandale Beach citizens by Mayor Joy Cooper ignoring the city's own rules and made an interim City Commissioner; he was elected 9 weeks later. 
Today marks 9 weeks exactly until Election Day, leaving only 62 days before a majority of citizens here vote in person. 

Four years ago, Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper forced Anthony A. Sanders down the throats of Hallandale Beach residents by filling a HB City Commission vacancy that wasn't even legally vacant, and wouldn't be for another three weeks, days AFTER the second City Commission meeting of the month, where there would have been plenty of time for public comments re the city's extant policies for filling vacancies. 

Cooper she did so by blatantly violating the city's own rules and protocols -used just the year before for Keith London to replace Joe Gibbons on the Commission after his election to the State House- in large part because she knew that then-City Attorney David Jove was a veritable bump on a log, someone who wouldn't do anything to jeopardize his outrageous pension by reminding the mayor that what she was doing was patently illegal under the city's own rules.

Cooper didn't care that the whole thing was a sham from beginning-to-end since she was in on it. Cooper already knew that then-City Manager Mike Good actually wrote then-Commissioner Francine Schiller's letter of resignation, not Schiller, at her condo, or that it, supposedly, ALL happened after Friday at 5 p.m., so that way they wouldn't have to legally place anything about it on the printed agenda for the following Wednesday night's City Commission agenda.

(Not that the the agenda was on the city's website then, though, since that didn't happen until the following Monday.)

There was nothing accidental or coincidental about when and where Schiller resigned.
Cooper didn't leave anything to chance, and made a point of NOT allowing basic fairness, democracy or following the rules to get in the way of her getting her way, her number-one priority.

It was a complete contrivance from beginning to end, and again, Joy Cooper didn't care then or afterwards about the spirit or the letter of the law, she only cared about getting what SHE wanted -another pliable puppet on the Commission.

Fairness? Please!

That's why she NEVER allowed any member of the public to speak before she ramrodded Sanders into the position, despite how obvious and egregious her actions were, or how many HB citizens in the Chambers wanted to speak about what she was so obviously trying to do.

Why do I bring this up? 
Because history is repeating itself, possibly starting tomorrow.
Mayor Cooper and two of her Rubber Stamps, Commissioners Lewy and Sanders are working together on passing a proposal coming up before the Commission on Wednesday whereby they enshrine their own personal bitterness and political pettiness into the city charter.

Item 11B  http://www.cohb.org/files/2012-09-05/Agenda%20Outline%20for%202012-09-05%2013-00.htm

More on that in a moment, as you see what links these stories...

Back to Sanders... 

For 39 months, since May of 2009, when his property was bought by the city for more than it was truly worth by any reasonable appraisal standard, despite the the City NOT having a single written plan for what they would do with it afterwards, 39 months since all of that $235,000 was placed into his bank account within 48 hours, practically light-speed in this city, Anthony A. Sanders has adamantly refused to speak to the citizens of this community about this matter, regardless of how much controversy has swirled around him and his wife Jessica.

Sanders honestly believes that he is above having to explain himself to the very public he is supposed to represent, and is intent on saying nothing before Election Day.

Sanders thinks this in part because he knows, like I do, what the grand total actually has been in news coverage re his refusal to talk to the public face-to-face -NOTHING.

That's the grand total of the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Channel 4 News, Channel 6 News, Channel 7 News and Channel 10 News -NOTHING.

No articles, no columns, no editorials -no nothing.

Sanders laughs at and ignores his own constituents and he also laughs at and ignores the  South Florida news media, whose lack of effort has been duly noted by everyone in this community.

So it this how the last 62 days of the campaign are going to go down, with the South Florida news media implicitly appeasing Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and his wife, Jessica, by refusing to say anything about it and make no effort at all?

I recently asked the woman who knows, Cathie Schanz, the head of the city's Parks & Rec. Dept., whether her dept. had officially received any formal request from Comm. Sanders or his wife reserving a room at any of the city-owned facilities to have a public meeting to finally discuss this.

You can see the answer below for yourself:

(I've removed the actual email addresses here as well as info about me.)

From: Hallandale Beach Blog
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2012 3:14 PM
To: Parksrecreation
Cc: Hallandale Beach Blog

Subject: re Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and possibly renting space at city-owned facilities

August 21, 2012

Dear Ms. Schanz: 

Since you're in a position to know as Director the city's Parks & Recreation Dept, can you please tell me whether as of today, if Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders has reserved either a room or the auditorium at the HB Cultural Center, or any other room in any other city-owned facility -like the closed-to-the-public North Beach Building- for any non-campaign public purpose in the next eleven weeks? 

I ask because a few weeks ago, I'd heard that after his doggedly refusing for three years to speak in person to the community about what he really knew, Comm. Sanders was finally going to talk to HB residents, taxpayers and business owners about what had transpired, what with the city rushing to purchase his property without any semblance of a written plan in place, for more money than the property was worth, even to the point of the city getting the entire sale amount into his bank account within 48 hours, a quickness and efficiency that I and other concerned HB residents found quite...well, astonishing. 

Especially since taxpayers have never seen the city apply similar speed and energy applied with respect to any other project (or purchase) in this city the past eight-plus years I've livedhere, even when it was probably actually needed. Obviously, if Comm. Sanders is scheduled to speak on this matter, I'd like to know and to be able to tell others about it as well, so any information you can provide me about this matter would be most appreciated.

-----
From: Schanz, Cathie 

Date: Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 4:10 PM
Subject: RE: re Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and possibly renting space at city-owned facilities
To:  Hallandale Beach Blog 

Vice Mayor Sanders does not have any non-campaign public purpose rentals in the next eleven weeks.

Cathie Schanz, CPRE

Hallandale Beach Parks and Recreation Director

-----

And so here we are 9 weeks before an election, and the very individual that was endorsed by both newspapers in 2008 has not had a single thing written in either newspaper about his deliberate refusal to speak to the public about this matter for over three years, the single biggest scandal in the city, because of what it represents about the way things have been done in this city under this mayor?

Why are the Herald and Sun-Sentinel consciously avoiding mentioning this or anything else about Sanders' embarrassing track record of ethics and crony capitalism? Why?

Why the dogged refusal to report on Sanders unwillingness to face the music with citizens as both paper's Editorial Boards would no doubt be publicly saying if this were happening in a larger city, esp. in Miami, Hialeah, Coral Gables, Hollywood or Ft. Lauderdale?

The media does itself no favors by consciously avoiding unpleasant news about someone it once foolishly painted a rosy picture of, a promise that has gone completely bust, and one of the logical consequences of this is that you will have marked yourself as entities NOT to be trusted in this community.

If you keep avoiding it for another nine weeks, as many people here think you will, there'll be logical consequences, and one is that anyone in this city who pays close attention to what happens here will have nothing to do with either one of the reporters assigned to this city.
Why should they (we) indulge you, after you've continually refused to simply report

news that is considered "news" by the very people who actually live here?

Once you've been publicly labeled persona non grata and someone not to be trusted

due to your calculated avoidance of news stories, there's no going back.

Just saying...

Having previously gotten rid of someone once before who was legally-elected and replaced them illegally, Schiller by Sanders, now, Cooper, Lewy and Sanders together are attempting to repeat history by trying to game the electoral system.

I recently wrote some friends in the area...

In case you've forgotten or never knew, earlier this spring, Comm. Lewy tried -unsuccessfully- to actually force an unscheduled mid-August election upon all of us here in Hallandale Beach, due to his own personal and political interests, seemingly unconcerned with the fact that so many residents of this city would be out-of-town for the summer then, just as was the case in June with the vote on the Beachwalk development project on the Intracoastal, where so many of the people most-directly affected by that proposal were NOT in a position to speak to their interests.

So what's Lewy's goal? 

Simple, to take away Comm. Keith S. London's ability to run for his own HB City Commission seat on January 15th, in the unlikely event he loses the Mayoral election in November.

That other people are also affected, seven possible candidates and this city's citizenry's ability to vote for candidates of their choice, ought to make angry anyone who values democratic principles for who THEY want.

Absent a public referendum that affirmatively ratifies that and makes it legal, Comm. Lewy, Mayor Cooper and Comm. Sanders have no legal authority under the city's charter or the state's constitution to attempt to shorten the term of office of a duly-elected public official in this state, absent provable misconduct resulting in expulsion- something that most well-informed people we know around here already know, or which several State offices in Tallahassee would've told them if they'd simply asked.

But like bullies and political outliers everywhere, rules aren't for this crew, so they didn't ask, mostly because it didn't really matter what the answer would be -they already knew what they'd be doing, regardless of the law.

Question: Is there any city in South Florida that currently requires a sitting elected official running for another elective office to be forced from his present office many months before an election, rather than the date of the election, as Lewy, Cooper and Sanders propose.

In a word - NO.

But that's what these three already tried and failed at.

There's certainly not one in Ft. Lauderdale or Pembroke Pines, since in both communities, ones that easily dwarf Hallandale Beach in size, population and prestige, sitting commissioners there have (or will) resigned to run for another elective office with their resignation date being that upcoming Election Day, NOT some earlier date chosen arbitrarily by their colleagues with the sole intent of scoring political points and consolidating their power, as is so obviously the case here with Lewy, Cooper and Sanders.

If you don't already know the names of those candidates in Pembroke Pines and Ft. Lauderdale, who ran for their own seats again, perhaps you'll recognize them when I say them now: Anglelo Castillo and Charlotte Rodstrom.

It's entirely possible that many citizens and elected officials in those cities didn't like what Comm. Castillo did in 2010, or even what Comm. Rodstrom will be doing in a few months, to re-capture a seat she was already elected to and resigned from.

In fact, it's probably likely.

But you don't see their colleagues in those cities attempting to change their city's charter out of spite, did you, as if that was really the appropriate response, rather than letting the public decide who they  wanted and who they didn't want? 

Nope, changing a city's charter, it's constitution, completely out of personal pique and political spite is what the small minds of our own small city think of first over at HB City Hall, and typically, they have the audacity to think they can actually get away with it without anyone noticing it or suffering any personal or career consequences for their naked anti-democratic efforts.

We beg to differ.

    

Democracy is messy, but isn't that part of what makes it compelling?
Cooper, Lewy and Sanders may succeed Wednesday night at the First Reading by being too-clever-by-half, but ultimately, they ought to be careful what they wish for, since there are hundreds and hundreds of people like me who will be only be too happy to give these three the "credit" they want for limiting voter's choices -right before Election Day.

Nine weeks from today...

----------

My July 17, 2012 blog post was a particularly good overview of some of the issues I spoke about regarding the longstanding ethical cloud that Comm. Sanders has been under, so you may want to refer back to it: 

re Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders' stealthy "meetings." From the same man who's stonewalling the Broward Inspector General, who NEVER returns your phone calls or email, and who WON'T visit your neighborhood to meet with you or your neighbors; #HallandaleBeach, @SandersHB, @MayorCooper, @AlexLewy

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/re-hallandale-beach-comm-anthony.html

I followed that up with this one on July 28, 2012: 
Video: Local10's Glenna Milberg examines an ethical & financial problem in Hallandale Beach that I've been writing about for over 3 years re Comm. Anthony A. Sanders, who KEEPS stonewalling the public; Keith London: "Broward Inspector General closing in on Hallandale Beach, Mayor Cooper and Vice Mayor Sanders"

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/video-local10s-glenna-milberg-examines.html

Last week's Coldplay serendipity with YouTube videos, Sveriges Radio and Coldplay's LIVE concert at Stockholm Stadium just hours before; I've embedded SR's coverage of concert so you can listen to it

C83S87 video: Coldplay LIVE in Stockholm - Intro. Back to the Future, Mylo Xyloto, Hurts Like Heaven, Xylobands [HD] Concert held on and video uploaded on August 30, 2012. http://youtu.be/fAP_wRo27Ao

Last week's Coldplay serendipity with YouTube videos, Sveriges Radio and Coldplay's LIVE concert at Stockholm Stadium just hours before

I was sort of restless last Friday night because I'd been busy all day and spent more time outside than usual most of the day, hot and humid as usual, so when I woke-up early Saturday morning, I couldn't fall back asleep right away.
I was literally too tired to fall asleep, and all that earlier Hazelnut coffee at Panera Bread around dinner time didn't help.

I flipped the TV on but seeing nothing interesting on TV that either amused or informed me, and not really wanting to watch ESPN's Sports Center for a third time and know how they'd describe the various highlights before they even said it, I turned the TV back off and walked over to my computer and let my fingers and keyboard do the walking.

In no time at all I was on YouTube looking at what was waiting for me in my inbox, then I minimized that screen for a second and went six hours in the future and began listening to "Godmorgon Stockholm" with Peder Gustafsson on Sveriges Radio, SR.
Then I minimized that window, turned up the volume and maximized the YouTube window again to look at what I'd been sent from all parts of the world.

What are the odds that within one minute, I'd hear Coldplay's "Clocks" played on SR about 1:13 a.m. here in Miami -7:13 a.m. in Stockholm- just moments after seeing some really great videos of yet another one of their amazing concerts that'd taken place just hours before at the old Olympic Stadium, i.e. Stockholm Stadion, in the Östermalm area of Stockholm?

Astronomic!
Even more so when you know that I'm not a big Coldplay fan, per se, which is to say that I'm never really EVER thinking of them -that's what makes it super-serendipitous. 

Among the videos I saw then were these videos at the top and below, all shot so well at the concert by C83S87 at http://www.youtube.com/user/C83S87/feed and Marcelinho88 at http://www.youtube.com/user/Marcelinho88/feed 
Go to their respective YouTube Channels to see more of the concert than what I've posted here!


Here is Sveriges Radio's P3 LIVE coverage of the Coldplay concert and the audio quality is fabulous!






C83S87 video: Coldplay LIVE 2012 in Stockholm - Viva La Vida/Charlie Brown/Paradise [HD]. Uploaded August 30, 2012
http://youtu.be/mj5sg9kUdy0


Marcelinho88 video: Coldplay's Chris Martin taping their segment for the "Stand Up To Cancer" TV program in the U.S. that aired nationally Friday night, performing Paradise LIVE in Stockholm. Uploaded August 30 2012
http://youtu.be/5Sf7KrUAxF4


Coldplay på Stadion - Hör introlåtarna här/ Medley of intros. August 30, 2012 
http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/noje/musik/article15335413.ab

Video above is from Aftonbladet's always interesting WebbTV homepage, something I actually  look at everyday, http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/

No longer a secret in Hallandale Beach: More details on Bill Julian's longstanding anti-democratic tendencies while HB City Commissioner - he wanted to require residency of 3 years in order to run for local office in HB!; The worst enemy of Bill Julian is a smart voter who pays attention and who possesses a good memory; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB, @AlexLewy

The worst enemy of former Hallandale Beach City Comm. William "Bill" Julian -and his illegally parked car above- is a smart voter who pays attention and who possesses a good memory. March 21, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

As if the years-and-years of former Hallandale Beach Commissioner William "Bill" Julian's habit of routinely parking in Handicapped/Handicapped Access/NO Parking spaces all over this small but dense city while in office wasn't bad enough, as he set a terrible example of someone successfully being able to use their perceived power as a shield to get and receive special treatment that regular residents of this city couldn't get and wouldn't expect -due to HBPD always looking the other way- or, his infamously trying to triple City Commission salaries over lunch at a City Commission meeting with no TV camera to record his selfish and delusional words and actions for posterity, having claimed in press accounts that he and the rest of the Commission deserved "executive" corporate salaries -for their part-time job- there's yet another particularly galling nugget about Julian's queer and anti-democratic notions of civics and a participatory democracy that far too few people in this community know about.
That is, until now.

Bill Julian's car in 2008 parked in the Handicapped access parking spot  at North Beach, where at at the time there was only one Handicapped spot and one Handicapped Acess spot on surfaced parking, with the fine for illegally using the latter being the same as for the former. March 21, 2008 photos by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

Another day at the beach, another day of entitlement! 

Bill Julian: Red white and blue -and illegally parked! Yet again! 

Yes, Julian really does think he's entitled!

It's a very telling and troubling anecdote that says much about Julian and his strange ideas, notions and alternative universe, a world he probably much prefers to reality, since there, at least, his consistently bad judgment and bad votes on public policy that hurt both individuals and the city collectively, never require him to sincerely apologize or express remorse for all the lasting damage he has done to this community, where he had power far beyond he what he could competently handle, just like Comm. Anthony A. Sanders does now in the opinion of so many of the most-informed people in this city.

I quickly referenced this anecdote on Wednesday night, speaking next-to-last among a dozen or so Hallandale Beach citizens who were overwhelmingly against the original motion of Comm. Alexander Lewy, Agenda Item 11 B, 
B.    AN ORDINANCE OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH, FLORIDA, AMENDING CHAPTER 12 "ELECTIONS," SECTION 12-04.  QUALIFICATION OF CANDIDATES TO ESTABLISH CRITERIA AND PROCEDURE FOR CALLING A SPECIAL ELECTION BASED ON THE IRREVOCABLE RESIGNATION OF A COMMISSIONER AND SETTING OF QUALIFYING PERIOD IN CONFORMANCE WITH STATE LAW; PROVIDING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE; PROVIDING A CODIFICATION CLAUSE; PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE; PROVIDING A REPEAL CLAUSE; PROVIDING A CONFLICT CLAUSE; AND FOR ALL OTHER PURPOSES. (FIRST READING) (STAFF: CITY ATTORNEY) (SEE BACKUP) (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

This one issue brought close to a full room to the City Commission Chambers on the same night as the NFL's 2012 opening-night kickoff, with the Cowboys at Giants game on national TV while we were busy observing our local government chasing its tail and finding out -yet again- that nobody in the city really knows what the city's charter says or means.

After spending most of my three minutes reminding everyone in the room and watching on TV about some true and inconvenient facts surrounding aspects of the HB Charter Review Commission -and yet more broken promises and poor to non-existent oversight by former City Manager Mark. A. Antonio, which I will detail here in a separate post soon- and refuting with facts the predictably disingenuous and dishonest remarks uttered earlier by a few people, including Andrew Markoff, who even on a group he sought to join proved to be an outlier once again, I hurriedly spent the last twenty-five seconds of my three minutes reminding everyone once again of how truly lacking in character and judgment former HB Commissioner and CRC member Julian, was and remains.

Julian, who's running again in November after coming in a well-deserved third in a two-seat race in November of 2010, has seemingly never learned from any of his experiences and dozens and dozens of egregious mistakes while in office for ten years, and his support of Lewy's efforts, detailed by Lewy himself in an email he circulated last week, is entirely in keeping with that dismal track record Julian earned, and which this town bears the scars for.
That dubious track record of ten years is why he came in third, after all -people remembered what he said and did.

Here's the rest of the story that I couldn't fit in and mention on Wednesday night... which I'd originally planned on posting here on Tuesday but was unable to.

Unfortunately for both common sense and the wallets and purses of HB's residents, taxpayers and business owners, trying and succeeding in in doing something both ridiculous and anti-democratic has a long and undistinguished history at Hallandale Beach City Hall.

After all, who'll ever forget former Comm. Bill Julian famously musing from his seat on the Commission dais on whether he should bring forth his idea for an ordinance of a residency requirement that would mandate that all candidates for city office in Hallandale Beach have lived in this city for THREE YEARS before being eligible to run.

Really.

Showing the sort of very bad judgment that was long Julian's trademark in office for ten long years, Julian had convinced himself that this ordinance of his would ensure that only well-qualified candidates ran for local office here, as if simply living here for a finite period of time and breathing our air made residents either well-informed or articulate about the public policy issues confronting this city.

Showing his well-known parochialism, it never even seemed to have occurred to Julian that

it wasn't HIS job or the City Commission's to decide for all of us who got to run for local office

in this town.

It's called a democracy for a reason, and as long as someone met the reasonable eligibility requirements, that decision to run was solely up to any potential qualified resident, NOT to incumbent politicians who had a vested self-interest in discouraging people from running against them.

Especially well-informed citizens who know the issues better than the Commissioners, their worst fear. 

Julian's idea was so preposterous and so patently unconstitutional, that even bump-on-the-log

then-City Attorney David Jove found himself forced to explain some very basic concepts of 

democracy to Julian on why such a thing would never fly, due to its unreasonable and capricious nature.

It would also subject the city to a barrage of lawsuits the city could never hope to win,

since the ordinance was so clearly unconstitutional on its face.

You'd think that an elected official living in the 21st Century in a modern American city would

have the good sense to implicitly understand this, but once again, Comm. Julian did NOT.

He had to have it explained to him before he pulled his idea off the table.

You won't be surprised to hear that Julian, now a Commission candidate in November, fully

supports what Lewy, Cooper and Sanders were attempting to do to Hallandale Beach's citizen voters at Wednesday night's City Commission meeting.

Yes, it's classic Julian being Julian, always with the bad judgment, in or out of office.

Julian the outlier, always the person who fails to pay attention, fails to grasp the obvious and who consistently put his foot in his mouth and embarrass the citizens of this community.

The worst enemy of Bill Julian is a smart voter who pays attention and who possesses a good memory. 

Chic & sleek Sweden counts down the hours 'til "Mad Men" premieres Thursday at 21:00 on TNT-TV; “What you call love was invented by guys like me to sell nylons.” – Don Draper

TurnerNordic video: TNT-TV.se's Mad Men Competition Spot SWE. Uploaded August 22, 2012. http://youtu.be/DnhH5naTt34

Now my friends there who don't watch TV -yes, I really do have such friends, hard as that is to believe- will have a reason to watch TV again.

And soon, all will be right again with the world and Sverige as Matthew Weiner finds that Swedes love his insight into humanity, families, corporate life and 1960's consumerism.

It will be hugely popular in what is now home to one of the most consumer-driven countries in the world, which explains why it seems like every third 17-year old girl you see on the street there has a fashion blog that gets more eyeballs coming to it every day than almost all of the blogs in South Florida.

http://www.tnt-tv.se/

Mad Men webpage: http://www.tnt-tv.se/shows/mad-men