Photo of the day: Bees swarming on Davie Boulevard near the SE 2nd Avenue intersection in Fort Lauderdale. Photo by Cal Deal.
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First, state Rep. Ari Porth said he was going to run against embattled Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter.
Then Porth bowed out of that race before even filing and decided to seek an appointment to the judgeship being left behind by outgoing Chief Judge Victor Tobin instead. Here's a piece of the email he wrote me last month: "I have decided to apply for that circuit seat. My focus at the State Attorney's Office over the last 15 years and in the Legislature over the last 7 has been on helping at risk youth. Continuing to work with that population on the delinquency or dependency bench has been desire of mine for many years, and I hope to be positively considered by the members of the nominating commission and the Governor should my name be recommended."
So a liberal Democrat decides not to run in a liberal political district and opts instead to throw his political future at the mercy of an arch-conservative governor like Rick Scott?
Crazy, right?
Maybe not.
Here's an interesting connection: Rick Scott is very close to Fort Lauderdale lobbyist Billy Rubin, who has been a staunch client and ally of Scott for decades and whose business is on the rise ever since Scott was elected. Rubin has a whole lot of influence with the governor.
And who is a friend -- and former partner -- of Billy Rubin? Why, lobbyist Russ Klenet, who is of course the wheeling and dealing husband of Stacy Ritter.
The idea: Porth will get the judgeship with Rubin's help to keep Ritter in office. Everybody's happy and nobody gets hurt (except perhaps the populace).
This is only a theory being chattered about by some in the political world. Take it with a grain of salt, but shadowy arrangements like this are done all the time in politics.
We'll see if the proof will be in the pudding.
-- Here's a warning from the North Miami Beach Police Department (via the Miami Herald):
There appears to be a resurgence of telephone scams that involve persons being called on the phone and advised either a relative of theirs, usually grandson or granddaughter, is in jail and needs to be bonded out, or calls are being received by individuals claiming to have kidnapped one of your relatives and are demanding ransom money.The relative needing to be bonded out of jail scam has been around for a few years. It usually targets the elderly and tells them their grandson or granddaughter is in trouble and in jail and needs money to bond out. The person calling identifies themselves as a bail bondsman. The caller tries to get to you wire them money usually through Western Union.We are seeing a resurgence of these types of calls:Also, we are getting reports of a Spanish-speaking person being called and advised that one of their relatives has been kidnapped and the caller demands a ransom. Investigations have revealed that many of these callers are actually Puerto Rican jail inmates using prepaid cell phone cards that have been smuggled into jail. Prepaid cell phone cards cannot be traced. (There have been English-speaking victims also).Please be aware of these type of calls, and never give any information out about any of your relatives and don?t send money without verifying the legitimacy of any call.
Yes, before paying ransom on a loved one, make sure they are, indeed, missing. Otherwise you might feel like an idiot.
-- There have been problems with commenting on Disqus again. It's holding up some comments. I've been having problems logging on with anything but my old Pulp moniker, so that's going to have to do for now. I apologize for not keeping a better eye on that system and am going to get a better handle on it.