Thursday, February 7, 2013

DVR Alert! Thursday morning's Turner Classic Movies schedule features three of my all-time favorites: Ingmar Bergman's 'Wild Strawberries' & 'The Virgin Spring,' and Lasse Hallström's 'My Life as a Dog', all from Svensk Filmindustri (SF)


Robin Quivers YouTube Channel video: Ang Lee on The Virgin Spring. Uploaded August 25, 2012. http://youtu.be/GmFGB3hMluk

DVR Alert! Thursday morning's Turner Classic Movies schedule features three of my all-time favorites: Ingmar Bergman's 'Wild Strawberries' & 'The Virgin Spring,' and Lasse Hallström's 'My Life as a Dog', all from Svensk Film Industri (SFI)

Reminiscing on a life that could have been and seeing the uneasy co-existence of good and evil in our hearts, Bergman-style; Youthful lessons learned that are sad and knowing, funny and absolutely amazing.
All on DirecTV Channel 256


7:45 a.m. Wild Strawberries (1957)

9:30 a.m. The Virgin Spring (1960)

(11:01 a.m. short The Battle Of Gettysburg (1956)

11:30 a.m. My Life As A Dog (1987)
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Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Is it government's role to pick winners and losers in the marketplace? Does job creation in Florida depend too much upon corporate welfare and self-dealing? Are Enterprise Florida's attempts to create economic activity and new jobs simply a matter of keeping up with the Joneses, or a foolish waste of tax dollars thrown down a black hole that could have been better spent? WTSP-TV examines what Florida has been doing and why Integrity Florida has been raising red flags about those policies





"I think it's right for the public to ask, 'Is it government's role to pick winners and losers in the marketplace, to give taxpayer money to one company versus its competitors?"-Dan Krassner, Integrity Florida 

Is it government's role to pick winners and losers in the marketplace? Does job creation in Florida depend too much upon corporate welfare and self-dealing? Are Enterprise Florida's attempts to create economic activity and new jobs simply a matter of keeping up with the Joneses, or a foolish waste of tax dollars thrown down a black hole that could have been better spent? WTSP-TV examines what Florida has been doing and why Integrity Florida has been raising red flags about those policies

Fox 13/Tampa video
Job creation or corporate welfare?
Posted: Feb 04, 2013 4:43 PM EST
Updated: Feb 04, 2013 10:20 PM EST
By: Doug Smith, FOX 13
Most of us have heard the old adage, 'It takes money to make money.' In Florida, some leaders in state government also believe it takes money to make jobs.
Governor Rick Scott has made it clear that job creation is a top priority, but are lucrative corporate incentives really necessary or nothing more than corporate welfare?
Read the rest of the related article at: http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/story/20960694/2013/02/04/florida-job-creation-incentives

After reading the article, see this other WTSP-TV video from April of 2011 profiling Mike Fasano when he was still in the Florida Senate, who stated above, "government shouldn't be involved in picking winners and losers."
Exactly!

Perfectly stated common sense that has been desperately needed in Hallandale Beach the past nine years as crony capitalism has flourished with taxpayer and CRA dollars.



Fox 13/Tampa video
Mike Fasano: Florida's renegade Republican
Reporter Noah Pransky profiles the then-FL State senator 
10:53 PM, Apr 25, 2011 
http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/article/188885/8/Mike-Fasano-Floridas-renegade-Republican?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Ct

Meanwhile, feeling the negative effects of being under the gun because his heretofore largely ignored group is getting lots of publicity throughout Florida, most of it negative, Enterprise Florida CEO Gray Swoope feels it necessary to publicly attack Integrity Florida and Dan Krassner and their damning report on Swoope's group, by mentioning that a group opposed to what he calls financial incentives -but which you and I might call corporate welfare- is supportive of Integrity Florida.

Wow, imagine that? 
So how is a group being consistent about their policy negative news?
It really shows how desperate things are getting with the spotlight on him.

Tampa Bay Times
Venture blog
Who is Gray Swoope and how can he reignite Florida's stumbling economy?
Posted by Robert Trigaux at 6:23:41 am on August 08, 2011 
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/venturebiz/content/who-gray-swoope-and-how-can-he-reignite-floridas-stumbling-economy


Orlando Sentinel
Central Florida Political Pulse blog
More on the Enterprise Florida-Integrity Florida cage-match
Posted by Aaron Deslatte on February, 5 2013 4:20 PM


------
http://www.integrityfl.org/

http://www.eflorida.com/

Baltimore Ravens victory parade delayed by traffic gridlock as fans throng to downtown Baltimore and M&T Stadium, but is now proceeding; watch the parade LIVE!; @ravens, #BaltimorePride, #ravens, #nfl, #superbowl47

Maryland National Guard Humvee outside Baltimore City Hall waiting for the Ravens police-escorted buses to navigate the traffic gridlock from training camp and arrive for Head Coach John Harbaugh to stand in the turret for parade.
Baltimore Ravens victory parade delayed by traffic gridlock as fans throng to downtown Baltimore and M&T Bank Stadium; watch the parade LIVE; 
http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/live-video/

12:02 p.m. Floats now leaving Baltimore City Hall 
12:07 p.m. Ed Reed carrying Lombardi Trophy and letting fans along parade route touch it...



Skychopper 13's view looking southwest towards Oriole Park at Camden Yards in foreground and purple-colored M&T Bank Stadium across the expressway as crowds begin to fill the stadium.
By 11:20 a.m., the entire top deck of the stadium was full and fans, allowed on the field for the first time, was nearing the safety capacity.

At 11:30 a.m., Coach John Harbaugh along with team owner Steve Bisciotti, arrived at the stadium, where Harbaugh addressed the crowd and apologized for being late but told them that he and the entire team and organization would be back in an hour after a tour of the downtown area, and for them NOT to leave.
The last point is important as Baltimore Police are concerned that throngs of fans will try to follow team buses back from City Hall to M&T and put it over capacity.

Rumors are also circulating that there may be some 'surprise' entertainers arriving for the ceremony at the stadium.


Above, the Baltimore Ravens t-shirt I wore during Sunday's Super Bowl win over the 49ers, and back on January 12th for the Ravens at Texans playoff game that I watched in Stockholm.

I had to watch that game and the other divisional playoff games online via nfl.com from the B&B I was staying at in Stockholm, after paying the bargain price of $40 to watch all the playoff games and the Super Bowl outside of the U.S., because the Stockholm sports bars wouldn't be staying open late enough for me and other fans to see all of the the games.
One place that I was told was among the best sports bars was going to close at Midnight, roughly the start of the fourth quarter of the Ravens at Texans game, and because the Packers at 49ers Saturday night game started at 2:30 am Stockholm time, well, you can imagine.
I didn't go to sleep until about 6:30 a.m.

More on that watching football on a computer from thousands of miles away in the coming days, which I'd originally hoped to LIVE blog but couldn't due to technical reasons.

Naturally, since the Ravens won, I couldn't wash it during the intervening weeks, so I kept it in a zip-lock bag during the intervening weeks to keep the magic "fresh."
-----
http://www.baltimoresun.com/

Forbes.com
Value Of Super Bowl Champ Ravens Soars Under Owner Steve Bisciotti
Kurt Badenhausen
2/04/2013 @ 12:21PM 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2013/02/04/value-of-the-ravens-soars-under-owner-steve-bisciotti/

Saturday, February 2, 2013

As Super Bowl 47 draws near, I recall "Cool American" chips in Stockholm and the only sign I've seen in two weeks back in Hallandale Beach that someone else here pays attention to detail; #superbowl47


Saw this attention to detail 
at the joint Pepsi and Tostitos display almost immediately after taking a few steps into the Publix grocery store in Hallandale Beach earlier this week.
So, do you see it?
The Roman numerals?
Correct, XLVII.
As in Super Bowl 47.

When I saw it, it was almost like it was a message that intended just for me, given how much I appreciate attention to detail and context.

If you think most kids at Hallandale High and other area high schools would recognize it, you obviously aren't paying attention. Kids in this area are woefully ignorant, which explains a lot, but that's a subject for another time.


http://youtu.be/OrYTsVw53iA
For about the 15th year in a row, I will skip the Super Bowl halftime show tomorrow and either take a short walk outside, or check online for any interesting Super Bowl-related news stories, especially anecdotal ones that will either later prove to be untrue, or be so asinine that I'll wonder why they're even being mentioned. 

While I was in Sweden for about 8 days in January, I noticed many interesting things that I'll be dropping on you readers of the blog in the weeks and months to come as they seem particularly germane.
Today, though, as it concerns Tostitos, I noticed one amusing thing worth mentioning here while twice stopping at the Subway restaurant at Kungsgatan 61, next to the always-busy 7/11 at the corner of Vasagatan in downtown Stockholm -a few blocks from my hotel- where I was waited upon by the very friendly owner/general manager.
(It's opposite the Kebab House; tell the manager at Subway that the guy from South Florida with the Dolphins cap he spoke to sent you.)


View Larger Map


Instead of calling their Cool Ranch chips just that, in Scandinavia and Northern Europe, Tostitos markets them as "Cool American," as the photos below makes clear. 



See also http://metrobloggen.se/americaninsweden/i_miss_doritos_but_olw_chips_will_do/

By the way, for whatever it's worth, Google Maps and Pepsi in South Florida might want to get on the same page because as I found out today, their entry seem to be run by the same folks that gave me such bad directions in Stockholm a few times last month, as the following makes clear.


View Larger Map

  

Must-see TV tonight! #1Michigan at #3 Indiana tonight at Assembly Hall on ESPN at 9 p.m.; @OurIndiana, @TomCrean, @INDIANAMBB, #Iubb, #CollegeGameDay

ESPN video: On CBB Live Extra, Jay Williams breaks down the matchup between No. 1 Michigan and No. 3 IU. http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=8899994
Must-see TV tonight! #1Michigan at #3 Indiana tonight at Assembly Hall on ESPN at 9 p.m.; @OurIndiana, @TomCrean, @INDIANAMBB, #Iubb, #CollegeGameDay
Jay Williams is 100% right about the better strategy being to start Remy Abell instead of slower Jordan Hulls
And it would be great to know in advance which Cody Zeller will show-up tonight?
The one Hoosier Nation expected, or the one who's played most of the year so far, who has shown flashes of what we expected but...

I think/hope Victor Oladipo will win the game for the Hoosiers tonight to put the Hoosiers back into the #1 position in the polls next week -unless the Wolverines get a lot more free throw attempts because the IU defense is allowing too many drives to the hoop and they're called for fouls instead of having proper position and taking the charge.
"ESPN’s Saturday Primetime Presented by DIRECTV telecast - is in its ninth season and on Saturday, Feb. 2, it will originate from the Indiana University campus. The first hour begins at 10 a.m. ET on ESPNU, continuing at 11 a.m. on ESPN with a one-hour edition at 8 p.m. on ESPN The Michigan-Indiana game will tip-off at 9 p.m." 
Photos of the ESPN College GameDay set-up: http://indianambb.tumblr.com/post/42041695138/photos-from-espn-college-gameday-around-assembly


IUAthletics YouTube Channel video: IU coach Tom Crean at Friday's press conference to discuss Saturday night's game against Michigan on ESPN at 9 p.m. http://youtu.be/9LwUO5WiprY


IUAthletics YouTube Channel video: Jordan Hulls and Christian Watford on the task ahead of them Saturday night. http://youtu.be/9czmcI7psPQ

http://www.iuhoosiers.com/sports/m-baskbl/ind-m-baskbl-body.html

(official) Indiana University Athletics YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/IUAthletic

Indiana Athletics on Twitter, @OurIndiana, https://twitter.com/ourindiana

Five Banners - IU Mens Basketball on tumblr: http://indianambb.tumblr.com/

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Once again, Jimmy Kimmel Live Show adroitly skewers puffery, smugness and pomposity, this time, average people talking about having watched the Ravens-49ers Super Bowl Game that's still days from being played; #nfl, #superbowl47, @nfl, @superbowl47


The Jimmy Kimmel Show, Lie Witness News - Did You Watch the Super Bowl, JimmyKimmelLive. Uploaded January 30, 2013. http://youtu.be/zR9NV7D4FVY
Once again, Jimmy Kimmel Live Show adroitly skewers puffery, smugness and pomposity, this time, average people talking about having watched the Ravens-49ers Super Bowl Game that's still days from being played; #nfl, #superbowl47
This humorous effort of Jimmy and his writers to really skewer average people's pomposity, with humorous results, actually reminds me most of the uninformed comments I've heard stated the past nine years on Miami-area TV newscasts as elected officials pontificated about things after-the-fact that they were clearly only dimly familiar with after having actually voted.
Or, just like attending and carefully watching a Hallandale Beach City Commission.

Everyone's afraid to say that they didn't know, don't know or are unfamiliar with a topic, so they try to "wing it."

Hallandale Beach looks the way that it does and is run as poorly as it is because too many highly-paid people in responsible positions have been "winging it" for years.
But Hallandale Beach is not alone on that score in South Florida, just where I happen to live and a place that I'm most highly observant of.

In the new year, you will hear more on this blog about other cities and agencies that have been run similarly, with little concern for actually delivering a dollar's worth of service for a dollar's worth of taxes, and a refusal to face reality when presented with the true facts by citizens and activists.

DVR Alert!: Oscar-winner Lee Marvin gets the TCM 21-gun salute tonight with 4 of his films, as new book on Marvin by Dwayne Epstein gets rave reviews; Tonight features John Boorman's fast-paced '67 noir thriller 'Point Blank' with Marvin as a one-man blunt object of retribution and malice -who does not crack wise- along with Cat Ballou, Monte Walsh, and The Dirty Dozen




Turner Classic Movies video: The Dirty Dozen - (Original Promo Featurette), A look behind the scenes of the making of the World War II thriller, The Dirty Dozen (1967), starring Lee Marvin, Telly Savalas, Robert Ryan, Donald Sutherland, Clint Walker, Jim Brown, et al.

DVR Alert: Oscar-winner Lee Marvin gets the TCM 21-gun salute tonight with 4 of his films, as new book on him by Dwayne Epstein gets rave reviews; Tonight features John Boorman's fast-paced '67 noir thriller 'Point Blank' with Marvin as a one-man blunt object of retribution and malice who does not crack wise, along with Cat Ballou, Monte Walsh, The Dirty Dozen
Los Angeles Times
CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD blog
Rediscovering Lee Marvin's gritty brilliance
By Susan King, Los Angeles Times 
January 29, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
The versatile Oscar-winner, who died at 63 in 1987, is the subject of a new biography, a film-series retrospective and a Turner Classic Movies marathon.
Lee Marvin "is the guy who started it all in terms of modern American cinema violence," according to Dwayne Epstein, the author of a new biography of the iconic actor.

Cat Ballou airs at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, Monte Walsh at 10:00 p.m., The Dirty Dozen at 12:00 a.m., and Point Blank at 2:45 a.m.


TheTrailerBlaze YouTube Channel video: Trailer for John Boorman's 1967 'Point Blank,' starring Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson. Uploaded April 10, 2010. http://youtu.be/N2sKgsKTeEM

When I first saw Mel Gibson in 1999's Payback on one of the pay cable channels after it'd been out for a while, 


it seemed to me to be more his take on Michael Caine's 1971 film Get Carter than anything else, and all I could think of was this Marvin film instead.


No matter what current actors say, even ones who are as dedicated and perfectionist as Mel Gibson, there are very few who are actually willing and able to pull-off playing full-out menace throughout a film, with no light-hearted asides or quips to themselves to lighten the mood -a la 007 or Bruce Willis
They care too much what the audience thinks of them and their character, and I can understand that even if I don't agree that it should be so important.
But in Point Blankunder Boorman, Marvin is all-in, and makes no attempt at all to soften his hard, malevolent edges.

Trust me, you will recognize every-other actor in this film, too, as it has a great supporting cast. 

This video features celebrity chef and TCM's Guest Programmer for the night Alton Brown joining TCM host Robert Osborne and rhapsodizing on why he selected John Boorman's 1967 Point Blank as one of his films to share and talk about.
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/186798/Point-Blank-Movie-Intro-Outro-Alton-Brown.html

Article at: 


If you have never watched this John Boorman documentary on his friend Lee Marvin before, it's flat-out wonderful, so make some time soon to come back to watch it.


smilerbwfc YouTube Channel video: BFI/AMC Documentary: Lee Marvin By John Boorman, Part I, Uploaded December 25, 2007. http://youtu.be/soA0_5oZ8LY


And before there were feature films...
wksufreshair YouTube Channel video: NBC-TV's "M Squad" Golden Look Part 01, starring Lee Marvin as Chicago detective Lt. Frank Ballinger, 1957.
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Monday, January 28, 2013

Eurovision 2013 news: SVT throws the world a curve in naming comedienne and new mom Petra Mede as its sole host for Eurovison Song Contest Semifinals and Finals in Malmö in early May. And not everyone is happy with the choice, whom even the show's producers call "beloved but controversial"; #euro2013, #eurovision2013, #sweden


SVT video: Petra Meade: "It's been hard to keep quiet about it." 
SVT throws the world a curve in naming comedienne and new mom Petra Mede as its sole host for Eurovison Song Contest Semifinals and Finals in Malmö in early May. And not everyone is happy with the choice, whom even the show's producers call "beloved but controversial"
So, either still feeling the effects of lingering jet-lag from my trip to Stockholm and my return to reality -six hours in the past- or restlessness, I woke-up early this morning, more than early enough to watch something that I've known was coming down the pike for a while.

The IT was the press conference carried LIVE on both Aftonbladet and Sveriges Television, SVT, at 5:15 Miami time, to see whom SVT would name as hosts for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest's Semifinals and Finals in Malmö in May, which are expected to be watched by about 100 Million viewers throughout Europe in May. 
Plus me and other interested parties around the world, of course...

The first surprise was that there will be only one host, and the second surprise was the identity of the sole host, a name that created a frenzy this morning: Petra Mede

It's clearly a real coup for anyone to host such a big-time show with so much attention and pressure coming your way, much less for Mede to host solo, since while the veteran Tv presenter and comedienne, who hosted Melodifestivalen in 2009, is well-liked, it's not a slight against her just to recognize that her name was NOT on the tip of anyone's tongue, given that she just had a baby five weeks ago.
http://www.svt.se/melodifestivalen/eurovision/programledaren-klar-sa-vill-petra-mede-leda-eurovision-song-contest
http://www.eurovision.tv/page/malmo-2013

But it's just the latest serendipitous step for the former ballerina-turned-tour guide-turned-stand up comedian, who is so well-liked by most but not all Swedish TV viewers. 

Info about Petra in English:

But already, less than two hours after the official announcement's been made, the mainstream Swedish news media is reporting that a not-so-small element is really NOT-so-crazy about her selection, with many penning words on social media much worse than these: "Det här kan inte vara sant." (This can not be true.)


Sverige uppdelat i två läger. Christer Björkmans beskrivning av Petra Mede "älskad men kontroversiell" stämmer in på reaktionerna.
(Sweden is divided into two camps, Christer Björkman's description of Petra Mede "beloved but controversial" applies to the reactions.)

Additionally, as was somewhat predictable, and as would be the case here in the U.S., with the identity now known, the press is now focusing on the story line of how the brains behind the selection were able to keep their months of inquiries secret from THEM.

It turns out that the small band of SVT insiders involved in the important selection(s) used code words to keep the news about who was being actively considered -and perhaps more importantly, who wasn't!- from being prematurely disclosed and blowing-up in their face.
The name they used for Mede in their various meetings and communications?
"Harry Potter."



Aftonbladet video: Christer Björkman - "Vi kallade Petra Mede för Harry Potter" Björkman om hur hemligheten hölls.
http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/noje/article16142083.ab
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/melodifestivalen/article16140974.ab

This selection of host today effectively starts the three-month countdown for the national music contests throughout Europe, some of which have already started in earnest, like in Iceland, where HBB fave Yohanna has already competed.

In the case of host Sweden and its selection to Eurovision, via Melodifestivalen, which begins on February 2nd with the First Round in Karlskrona, well, it is exactly as I've described here on the blog many times before, a national obsession.

To quote myself from an upcoming blog post here that was written about some news re SVT that I discovered while I was in Stockholm ten days ago:
The whole country watches Melodifestivalen, even people who think it's stupid, and people were talking about it last week to me, despite my only being somewhat famiar with some of the contestants, because the first nationally-televised competition takes place very soon. The Swedish news media positively fixates on the weeks of competition to an extent that would be hard to explain if it wasn't so self-serving, and yet also surprisingly, mean-spirited in many cases, as lots of people have reason to create or pass-along rumors!  
 It's on, baby!

---------

http://www.svt.se/melodifestivalen/

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Why is the McClatchy Company's Miami Herald continuing to ignore media reports the FBI has emails detailing activities of Herald fave, "Cuban-American" Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, repeatedly having sex with underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic -at a resort owned by his Miami pal? No story's complete without a South Florida angle, so why are they acting like ostriches?; This cover-up is exactly the sort of thing that causes reasonable people like me to seriously question the future of the Herald, since their longstanding political bias and sheer laziness are both cancers in the digital era



Updated on Monday January 28th, 2013  5:15a.m.


Why is the McClatchy Company's Miami Herald continuing to ignore media reports that the FBI has copies of emails in its possession detailing unflattering and illegal globe-trotting activities of Herald favorite, "Cuban American" Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey?
The allegation is that Menendez has repeatedly flown-down to the Dominican Republic and had sex with underage prostitutes, and that one of the persons who facilitated these activities was his pal, a Miami surgeon and resort owner named Salomon Melgen.

This unwillingness to report seems especially curious given that there is the requisite South Florida angle, since no scandal in this country seems complete without some connection to this area.

And once you know that the behavior is alleged to have taken place at a resort owned by Melgen, and yet as you can see for yourself above, the Herald has published nothing about him or Menendez related to this story, it becomes especially obvious.

The newspaper has ignored this story for quite some time, even before the election three months ago, when people at ABC News were investigating it, an election which made incumbent Menedez one of three Hispanics in the U.S. Senate, and the presumptive choice for Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if John Kerry becomes Secretary of State, which is a scary-enough prospect on its own, given how consistently unsound his judgment has proven to be over the years.


So ask yourself, is this an example of a an old-fashioned media cover-up by a Miami newspaper that has come to be well-known across the country for ignoring negative news about specific "pets" of its management and Editorial Board, or just the latest example of the arrogant laziness that's been going on for years at the Herald, which has so many predicates over the past few years?


Among those predicates is one that this part of Broward County is especially familiar with , that of the Herald iignoring for well over a year the facts surrounding an affair conducted by former Broward School Chair Jennifer Gottlieb with an individual with business before Broward Schools, a story that investigative reporter Bob Norman deconstructed so well. 


Here's my post of July 26, 2010 on the subject of Gottlieb that remains one of the most-read posts I've had in over five years:
Weeks later, Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel & Miami TV newscasts STILL consciously ignoring Bob Norman's spot-on story re School Board's Jennifer Gottlieb

and
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-perfect-end-to-perfect-wednesday.html

So as you can see, this behavior of putting their head in the sand like an ostrich is nothing new

by the current news crew at the Herald.
It's just more of the same that nobody likes.

I sent a version of the above and what's below to Herald publisher David Landsberg,
Executive Editor Aminda Marques and Managing Editor Rick Hirsch asking just that very
question.

Menendez has been a favorite of Herald management and the Editorial Board because of his
political views towards Cuba, not because of any great original policy ideas of his, or even 
anything of particular note that he's said or done.
-----
And as indicated above from my screen grab of a few minutes ago, you have posted nothing at all on Menendez's Miami surgeon pal and connection?
How come?
http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=Bob+Menendez nothing
The Daily Caller                                                                                                      
Emails show FBI investigating Sen. Bob Menendez for sleeping with underage Dominican prostitutes
By David Martosko, Executive Editor 
1:52 AM 01/25/2013
http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/25/emails-show-fbi-investigating-sen-bob-menendez-for-sleeping-with-underage-dominican-prostitutes/
Thinking that this story will eventually go away on its own if you don't report it, is NOT really much of a 21st Century strategy for managing news, and is exactly the sort of thing that causes reasonable people like me to seriously question the future of your newspaper if it continues to show that it can't be relied upon by readers to honestly report the news without personal or political favor.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Transportation Odds & Ends: Is the news that Ray LaHood is staying on as U.S. Transportation Secretary good or bad for Florida? Especially now that straight-shooter John Mica is no longer chair of House Transport. Comm.?; SFRTA's current Fast Start plan for "Tri-Rail Coastal" completely ignores and skips over Hallandale Beach and Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino, Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex

SFRTA Fast Start Plan from SFRTA IT on Vimeo.
SFRTA IT Vimeo video: SFRTA Fast Start Plan for Tri-Rail Coastal, Uploaded June 2012. This is one of the two competing proposals for a commuter line on the FEC railroad tracks connecting downtown Miami and Palm Beach County, but this plan as written does NOT currently envision a stop where I live -and where Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino and the Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex are located - Hallandale Beach. Not that you've read that anywhere in any of the local newspapers or heard it mentioned on local TV newscasts. Or even heard it publicly discussed at HB City Hall. Well, now you know! As planned, we are completely skipped-over and screwed! 
Transportation Odds & Ends: Is the news that Ray LaHood is staying on as U.S. Transportation Secretary good or bad for Florida? Especially now that straight-shooter John Mica is no longer chair of House Transport. Comm.?; SFRTA's current Fast Start plan for "Tri-Rail Coastal" completely ignores and skips over Hallandale Beach and Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino, Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex
Bloomberg News
LaHood Says He’s Staying On as Transportation Secretary
By Jeff Plungis - Jan 22, 2013 11:25 AM ET
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-22/lahood-says-he-s-staying-on-as-transportation-secretary.html

Transportation Nation 
Mica Gets Transportation Subcommittee Posts 
By Matthew Peddie | 01/23/2013 – 4:06 pm

POLITICO.com 
A picture-perfect end to John Mica's chairmanship
December 5, 2012 04:38 AM EST
By Burgess Everett

Meanwhile, this email was sent to you from a city where the most-popular place on the city's 4 FREE Mini-bus routes, the Publix on Hallandale Beach Blvd. & S.E. 14th Avenue, does NOT and has never had a simple timetable posted there so that riders would actually know when the bus departs. 

Yes, as most of you know, I'm a big, longtime supporter of transit, esp. the South Florida East FEC Corridor study effort, have gone to all manner of transit-oriented forums in South Florida  since moving here nine years ago from the Washington, D.C. area, where I rode the DC Metro twice a day, 6 days out of 7.

I'm all for thinking globally and acting locally, but what if your city's elected officials and highly-paid city administrators are, simply put, stone-cold incompetent?
What then?

Then, all the clever and punchy public policy platitudes in the world, and attending or watching all the seven50.org forums in the world, can't help you.

That seems to be one of the South Florida news media's remaining no-no's.
You can't publicly talk about certain cities or pols having devolved into -accurately- becoming labeled as incompetent until further notice, unless they do something to show that they have applied remediation efforts and succeeded.

And besides, why would Hallandale Beach actually want to let riders know when the bus actually departs the most popular destination, when they can, instead, erect those useful timetables at numerous sites throughout the city where no riders are ever present in large part because of the chronic lack of bus shelters to keep the sun and the rain off of riders?
The ones we have less of now than we did three years ago.

The city-controlled bus shelters that were nearly 90% dark at night for YEARS because the city was so damn negligent in properly maintaining them, something that Mayor Joy Cooper did not like my reminding people of at transit forums throughout the area where important people were in attendance.
My fact-telling ruined the illusion of the city she wanted to create and foster.

Just another small reminder why there is no street in Hallandale Beach where logic and reason intersect.

I sure hope that your outreach efforts to the public and the pro-transit populace will be better than it has been in the past.

http://www.tri-railcoastalservice.com/

I will have more news next week about SFRTA's Fast Start plan and what it would mean to Hallandale Beach if the city is intentionally passed-over and does not get a train station on the FEC tracks, despite the fact that it would do more for this city -more quickly- than any other city in Broward on the route, in part because there is so much space. 

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Happy 4th Anniversary, Mayor Cooper's un-necessary, taxpayer-subsidized office! Which, four years later, STILL isn't even listed on City Hall's own building directory; #HallandaleBeach, @MayorCooper


Above, Hallandale Beach City Hall, October 15, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.
Happy 4th Anniversary, Mayor Cooper's un-necessary, taxpayer-subsidized office! 
Which, four years later, STILL isn't even listed on City Hall's own building directory

Under the City of Hallandale Beach's charter, the only additional power that the elected mayor
has that the four elected city commissioners don't possess is the right to call a meeting and
the right to preside over it. 
That's it.
That's the whole list.

Over four years ago, Mayor Cooper convinced then-City manager Mike Good that despite the
fact that these differences were very slight on the face of it, she believed that she needed to have a much-larger office than her colleagues on the commission, and so, thousands of tax dollars were spent to ensure that Mayor Cooper got what she wanted.
Yes, no expense or amount of feigned ignorance is spared to keep her happy.

And not just a larger office in the back with the other commissioners, but right on the main hallway, just a short distance from where visitors get off the elevator.

Which is how four years ago this week, just as the mayor returned from the first Obama
Inaugural, at taxpayer expense,
that office burst onto the scene, becoming perhaps the only mayor's office in Broward County
or all of South Florida that isn't actually listed on their own City Hall's directory, in this case, the one located to your left as you walk thru the front lobby door.

Yes, because every queen must not only have her own palace, but her privacy... even it's paid for with taxpayer dollars.

In other news, somehow, inexplicably given the known facts, Hallandale Beach doesn't land
on the list of the worst-run cities in America because of... well, a technicality.
Because it's not among the 100 largest cities:

I know what you're thinking.
What a cruel fate for Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper -to be denied her rightful 
pride-of-place on a list of the worst-run cities in America, merely because our town is too short for the ride. 
Yes, it's so very, very cruel...