JANUARY
Deerfield Beach Middle School teacher Nelson Smalls is investigated after hitting 12-year-old student Hezekiah Jones Jr. in the face with a walkie-talkie radio.
Fort Lauderdale Police Det. Jorge Reyes pleads guilty to money-laundering charges.
New Visions Community Development Corporation Executive Director Jacqueline Tufts is suspended without pay, and later fired, amid allegations she used agency funds to build herself a home.
Lemika Watkins, 29, a substitute teacher at Sunrise Middle School, is arrested and charged with one count of battery, after allegedly pushing a student’s head into a TV, leaving him with a bloody cut that required stitches.
FEBRUARY
E. Pat Larkins, the first black mayor and longtime Pompano Beach city commissioner, dies of brain cancer.
Broward County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger successfully has an area – known as the “colored” beach at John U. Lloyd State Park during segregation – designated as a historical site.
NAACP officials call for an investigation into the beating of suspect Jessie Bentley, 24, of Pompano Beach, by Hollywood police following a chase after an armed robbery.
Opa-locka becomes the first city in the country to name a street in honor of President Barack Obama.
John Nevin, former publisher of the monthly Vanguard Chronicle newspaper, who was known as a community pillar and business leader in South Florida for 20 years, ends his assumed identity. He reveals in a new book, I Wanted To Be Bad, that he is actually James Young, a New York ex-convict who served time in prison on manslaughter, attempted murder and drug charges.
MARCH
Bobby Dubose is elected to the Fort Lauderdale city commission.
Former Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne, who went to prison on corruption charges, is denied his $125,000-a-year pension.
Palm Beach County Commissioner Addie Greene steps down from her seat over health concerns.
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle and Commissioner Carlton Moore both leave office due to term limits.
APRIL
Mary Grey, a 59-year-old homeless woman, protests outside of the Fort Lauderdale police station, alleging she was humiliated and beaten by several police officers during an arrest.
Yvette Miley leaves her news director and vice-president post at NBC-6 to become the executive editor at the MSNBC cable network.
Jacqueline Kassower, former director of Broward County’s Community Action Agency (CAA), pleads guilty to falsifying official records. The CAA failed to distribute millions of dollars in aid to the needy, and Kassower fabricated documents in order to give the impression that her agency had been distributing the funds.
MAY
Former Miramar City Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman is convicted of aggravated assault after pulling a gun on a teenager in a grocery store in 2007.
Deatra McCoy forms a non-profit organization to carry on the work of her late mother, environmentalist Leola McCoy.
Activist Ken Knight organizes protests over the lack of black people employed on the historic Hampton House renovation project in Miami. The Hampton House Motel, in Miami’s predominantly black Brownsville section, was a hotel and nightclub where black stars stayed and performed during segregation.
JUNE
The FBI closes its investigation into a video posted on YouTube that depicts the pending death of Homestead Councilwoman Judy Waldman through suicide or vehicular homicide.
Fort Lauderdale city commissioners table a vote on renaming a street after retiring New Mount Olive Baptist Church pastor the Rev. Dr. Mack King Carter.
Attorney Willie Gary represents Opa-Locka Flightline, the nation’s only black owned, fixed-base operator (private jet servicing center) in the country, in the firm’s fight to remain at Opa-Locka Executive Airport.
Allen B. Jackson becomes pastor of Lauderhill’s Living Word Community Church.
Broward County reviews West Park’s contract bids and advertising practices.
The Florida Democratic Party upholds a ruling handed down by the Democratic Black Caucus of Florida that voided the election of officers for the organization and affirmed Alan Brown as president.
Broward County commissioners presented a proclamation honoring Moremi Akinde, 16, of Pembroke Pines, for speaking out against a noose that was hung in a lunch area at her school.
JULY
Amefika D. Geuka, co-founder of the Joseph Littles-Nguzo Saba Charter School in West Palm Beach, marches 1,000 miles to Washington, D.C. to bring attention to African-centered education.
Michael Edwards, a counselor at a summer program at Reverend Samuel Delevoe Park near Fort Lauderdale, is fired after slapping 7-year-old camper Tyler Rattray in the head.
AUGUST
City of Deerfield Beach maintenance worker Cassandra Moye is suspended for failing to say hello to Mayor Peggy Noland.
Taco Bell manager Tikkitress “Tikki” Johnson, is killed during an early morning robbery at the Oakland Park restaurant.
Three Pompano Beach women – Betty Chappel, Ruthie Mae Miller, and Carlene Duncan – settle lawsuits against the city of Pompano Beach over shoddy work that a city housing program completed on their homes.
Fort Lauderdale overcharges thousands of residents tens of millions of dollars for false-alarm responses.
SEPTEMBER
The South Florida Times dominates the South Florida Black Journalists Association’s awards contest with three honors, more than any other media outlet.
Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion is arrested on federal money-laundering charges. School Board Member Beverly Gallagher and former Miramar City Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman are arrested in an undercover FBI public corruption sting.
Fort Lauderdale police officer Gerome Steven Wright, 26, of Sunrise, is investigated for allegedly picking up prostitutes and forcing them at gunpoint to perform sex acts on him while he was on duty.
Marcia Rolle, 25, of Hollywood, is fired from the Life Skills Center charter school in Oakland Park for having a relationship with a 19-year-old student after her husband, Wilson Rolle, turns her in.
OCTOBER
15-year-old Michael Brewer is splashed with a flammable liquid and set on fire by four other teenagers at his Deerfield Beach apartment complex.
NBC-6 news anchor Julia Yarbough leaves the station to pursue other ventures.
NOVEMBER
Civic leaders Rosemary Fuller and Pat Mellerson succeed at banning Confederate flags from the Homestead Veterans Day parade.
Gov. Charlie Crist appoints Dania Beach City Commissioner Albert Jones to fill the seat vacated by suspended Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion.
Homestead Mayor Lynda Bell, along with incumbent city council members Nazy Sierra, Melvin McCormick and Tim Nelson, suffer stunning election defeats.
Eggelletion is arrested again, this time by state prosecutors on public corruption charges for allegedly accepting bribes.
Police Officer Daniel Zavadil, a four-year veteran who is also a licensed attorney, is terminated for forging a suspect’s name on a citation.
A federal jury awards $210,000 to Broward County School District carpenter Dennis Brown, who suffered retaliation for complaining about racial discrimination and other workplace issues.
DECEMBER
Fort Lauderdale commissioners do not renew City Manager George Gretsas’ contract.
Elaina Norlin, an author, scholar and lecturer is named director of the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center near Fort Lauderdale.
Teah Wimberly, 16, is convicted of killing classmate Amanda Collette at Dillard High School in 2008, after the victim spurned Wimberly’s romantic advances.
The Rev. Gaston Smith is convicted of theft over his personal use of grant funds intended to revitalize an impoverished Miami neighborhood.
City of Fort Lauderdale parking-enforcement officers Thankachan Kanjookaran and Byju Varughese are fired and arrested after issuing a bogus parking ticket to a motorist after he argued with one of them.
EJones@SFLTimes.com
No Comment