Con game
Wall Street is on a roll, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching a history-making high of 17,068 last week. Seems like only yesterday that George W. Bush was president and Wall Street, the auto industry and the real estate market had collapsed, some of it due to fraud. Now things are looking up and not one of the people responsible for the foreclosures and investment frauds have been brought to justice. Let’s hope President Barack Obama will make this one of his priorities during the last 30 months of his presidency. If not, history will hold him accountable.
PALM BEACH COUNTY
Adding jobs
Cancer Treatment Centers of America, which is relocating its headquarters to Boca Raton from Chicago, is hiring. The company has about 225 employees at its current location and will add more once the relocation is completed.
Craigslist sales
Boca Raton Police Chief Dan Alexander is recommending that people who use Craigslist should arrange to meet at the police station to complete sales transactions. The advice comes after a number of Craigslist buyers and sellers have been robbed at arranged meeting places.
Stalking charge
David Wesley Brown, 84, of Boca Raton is facing a stalking charge after allegedly harassing a neighbor for several years and threatening to kill her dog.
BROWARD COUNTY
Fracking concern
For more than 40 years, the focus has been on offshore oil drilling around the Florida peninsula. Now drilling and the latest technology, hydraulic fracturing or fracking has been expanding in the Everglades. That has caught the attention of environmentalists and lawmakers. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and state legislators are wondering if a ban is in order.
Pizza quick
Blaze Pizza, the California-based pizza chain that has LeBron James and other famous people as investors, is coming to South Florida. The first store will open in Fort Lauderdale’s Uptown Centre at 6334 N. Andrews Ave. in September. Other locations will include Davie and Boca Raton. Blaze Pizza is known for three-minute, thin crust pizzas.
Professors’ pay
Kim Laffont, an adjunct professor at Broward College, is the founder of the South Florida Part-Time Faculty Association which has been pushing for better
wages and working conditions. Like most small colleges in Florida, Broward College relies heavily on adjunct or part-time professors to teach courses but the pay is not the best. The Broward College Board of Trustees has now approved a pay increase of $100 per course but don’t expect that to close the book on this issue.
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY
Taxi wars
Uber and Lyft, ride-sharing service that compete with traditional taxi cabs, are operating in Miami and other cities around the country. The service is popular in part because of lower prices, with drivers using their own cars. No money is exchanged because all transaction are done on a mobile app or computer using credit or debit cards. But these peer-to-peer ride services are not regulated, as cab companies are, and that is causing tensions with cab drivers and elected officials.
Open carry
Target CEO John Mulligan is requesting shoppers not take guns into Target stores. The move comes as several states pass so-called open-carry laws that allow gun owners to openly display firearms, with few restrictions. Florida currently does not have any open carry statutes but that may change in the next legislative session. Some Republicans are openly advocating a change and may push through a bill and use the upcoming election and support from conservative groups to force Gov. Rick Scott to sign it.
MONROE COUNTY
Dog lover
Luke Meadows, 46, of Big Pine Key is facing multiple charges after admitting he broke into an animal shelter and freed his dog. He then went to a restaurant at around 2:30 a.m. and stole alcohol but was spotted by a security guard and ran off when confronted, police said. Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies were called and found Meadows under the 7-Mile Bridge with his dog and the liquor, the report said.
Ex-commander sentenced
U.S. District Court Judge Jose Martinez sentenced Dennis Zecca, a former U.S. Coast Guard commander at the Islamorada station, to the maximum 10 years in prison over a murder plot. Zecca was convicted of trying to hire someone to kill Marathon realtor Bruce Schmitt. He did not cooperate or say why he wanted Schmitt dead. Schmitt said he doesn’t know Zecca or why he wanted him killed. He also questions why drug smuggling charges against Zecca were dropped in exchange for his admitting to the murder-for-hire charge, when he was caught red-handed because the supposed hit man was actually an undercover FBI agent.
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