Lead Stories *One of four annual Pennsylvania rattlesnake-bagging tournaments was held in Curwensville in June. (Amateurs in teams of two pay an entry fee and race the clock in an eight-foot-by-eight-foot cage to bag five rattlesnakes; one person holds the bag above knee level while the other puts the snakes…
Passed last week with all the subtlety of a kidney stone, Dade County’s $4.1 billion budget immediately sparked a debate as to its political winners and losers. Tops on everyone’s list of winners was Dade County Interim Mayor Alex Penelas. The big loser, by general agreement, was the county commission,…
Lead Stories *Environmentalist blues: The August fire that burned through 700 acres in the Angeles National Forest near Los Angeles was started, said state officials, by an environmentally conscious camper who was dutifully burning his used toilet paper. And in Oregon clean-water activist Patrick Shipsey is awaiting trial for shooting…
Natacha: Moooooo! Regarding Jacob Bernstein’s article “Remains of the Day” (September 18), I agree with Dade County Commissioner Natacha Millan that democracy and freedom prosper in South Florida. But they do so because of the very people she attacks. While the Cuban American Defense League advocates for a dialogue with…
Mash Note I am writing in response to Paula Park’s informative story about Deborah Mash’s valiant effort to do research on ibogaine (“Addicted to Addiction,” September 11). Since the controversial psychedelic has been used widely by addicts in Europe to reduce the craving for cocaine and heroin, why hasn’t the…
Lead Stories *Extreme political protest: At the Eugene, Oregon, city council meeting on August 6, an unidentified man who had been sitting in the audience walked up to controversial Mayor Jim Torrey, leaned over, and vomited on his shoulder. He then walked out, unpursued. One council member who was watching…
No Mo’ Blamin’ Mo We must have been doing something right to have lasted four and a half years in this swamp where couch potatoes are the major crop — not only to survive, but to be voted Best Jazz Club three times by two major publications and be given…
Lead Stories *An official at a community health clinic in Rimouski, Quebec, issued a warning in July about the growing numbers of local teenagers who are getting high by injecting beer directly into their veins, a practice that gives a faster rush than drinking and leaves very little odor. *The…
Lead Stories *In July a judge in Doncaster, England, released suspect Martin Kamara, age 43, a black man who had been accused of threatening a financial adviser, because of police impropriety. Cops wanted to put Kamara in a lineup, but no black men could be found who were willing to…
Hey Stratogen, You’re Fired! After reading Kathy Glasgow’s article “Good Work, Now You’re Fired,” (August 14), I canceled my scheduled appointment at Stratogen Health. It would have been appropriate to call in the cancellation, but considering the absence of appropriate notice Stratogen’s new owners gave both Lori Bell and Susan…
Lead Story *In a kidnapping trial in San Mateo, California, in July, the eleven-year-old victim was asked to identify the man who had abducted her. She gazed around the courtroom, past defendant John Paul Balocca sitting with his attorney, and pointed to juror number eleven. Fortunately Balocca had already confessed…
This past January 22, shortly before 5:00 p.m., Dany Toussaint arrived at Miami International Airport aboard American Airlines flight 1292 from Port-au-Prince and was detained by officials from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Although he is a legal permanent resident of the United States, Toussaint had become accustomed to…
It’s Not How You Conduct the Trial, It’s Whether You Send ‘Em to the Slammer Kirk Semple’s article about Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Udolf (“Witness for the Prosecution,” August 21) was — succinctly stated — silly. Its silliness was surpassed only by Mr. Udolf’s responses to Mr. Semple’s questions. Prosecutors…
Lead Stories *In July a St. Paul, Minnesota, jury acquitted the well-to-do Gerald and Judy Dick and an adult daughter of all but one of the shoplifting counts brought against them by Roseville, Minnesota, police, who had charged family members with engaging the services of a personal shoplifter to steal…
The Very Best Politicians Ethnicity and Religion Can Offer From reading Ted B. Kissell’s article “The Body Politic Hits the Beach” (August 14), it appears to me that political consultant Armando Gutierrez was a hypocrite of the worst order when he said a group of Hispanics discussing how not to…
Lead Stories *In April DSC Communications of Plano, Texas, filed a lawsuit against ex-employee Evan Brown to force him to surrender a thought. DSC had fired Brown for allegedly not honoring a contract that it says gives the company the right to know any idea Brown had for ten years…
E. Howard Hunt Finds the Spirit I was thrilled and delighted by Lynda Edwards’s study of black male choirs in South Florida (“Gospel Truth,” August 6). A terrific piece, and long overdue for understanding by the white community. As a boy back in the mid-Twenties I was driven every Saturday…
Lead Stories *In July British Labor Party politician Ken Brookman, age 54, was fined $1500 for picking a fight with a man on a train near Cardiff, Wales, and biting off part of his ear. And a week later in St. Mary’s, West Virginia, county judge Joseph Troisi, who had…
The Captain Captured As a visitor to Bimini for the past 35 years and an acquaintance of the Brown family for that same time period, I thought Sean Rowe’s story on Capt. Harcourt Neville Brown (“The Bell Tolls for Him,” July 31) was one of the finest pieces of prose…
Since last October’s election of Alex Penelas as Dade mayor, Natacha Millan has emerged as the most commanding — some would say domineering — influence on the county commission. None of her colleagues on the dais moved as quickly to fill the power void created when Penelas, Art Teele, and…
Over His Dead Body I am writing in reference to Jim DeFede’s column on the Versace aftermath (“The Versace Experience,” July 24). I was outraged reading his depiction of the ridiculous behavior certain people have shown. It has turned into a profoundly disgusting spectacle. Among those childish people making their…
Lead Stories *Explaining his June no vote in the California legislature on a bill to ban discrimination against gays, assemblyman-rancher Peter Frusetta told his colleagues: “I’ve seen thousands and thousands of [heifers and] three, maybe at the top four, had the hormonal imbalance … that makes them shy away from…
