Back to Home > Opinion > Columnists > Joan Fleischman

Joan Fleischman   RSS Add to My Yahoo

TALK OF OUR TOWN

Joan Fleischman
Joan Fleischman, the Miami Herald's Talk of our Town columnist, has been a staff writer since 1978. Among her beats: general assignment reporting, police and state and federal courts. E-mail Joan at jfleischman@herald.com.

Top Story

  • Rob Thomas, left, and Brian Yale of the band Matchbox Twenty perform during a video shoot in Los Angeles in this Aug. 8, 2007 file photo.

    TALK OF OUR TOWN

    Lofty drumstick leads to lawsuit against singer

    Lisa Gelbard, wife of Broward neurosurgeon Dr. Steven Gelbard, is suing rock singer Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty fame. Lisa, 43, says she was hurt at a December '05 concert at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Thomas was on tour -- without MB 20 -- to promote his first solo album. A member of Thomas' band threw a drumstick into the audience, and it hit ''about her face,'' says Lisa's complaint, filed by attorney Walter ''Skip'' Campbell Jr. She suffered a cervical herniated disk, Campbell...

MORE STORIES

  • TALK OF OUR TOWN

    Restaurateur, ex-ballplayer call it quits

    E frain Veiga, founder of Yuca restaurant and co-creator of Nuevo Latino cuisine, and partner Billy Bean, a former Major League Baseball player, have split after 13 years. ''Sometimes things don't work out,'' Veiga says. ``There's still love.''

  • Talk of Our Town

    Bryan Norcross leaving CBS4 for a new gig

    B ryan Norcross, a South Florida TV meteorologist for 25 years, has signed off. His contract at WFOR-CBS4 expires on Monday, and he told station president and GM Shaun McDonald he will not renew.

  • Talk of Our Town

    Exec recovering after serious crash on his scooter

    Story line: handsome Miami executive, headed to work, crashes his Yamaha Majesty scooter, wakes up from five weeks of sedation with no memory of the wreck and remains hospitalized for another two months, learning to walk again.

  • TALK OF OUR TOWN

    'Early' birds: Critter crew, Magill team up

    Ron Magill, the face of Miami Metrozoo, gets face time Saturday on national TV -- CBS' The Early Show. Magill will talk with the animals -- but not residents of his zoo.

  • Talk of Our Town

    Milli Vanilli producer tangled in paternity suit

    F ranz Reuther -- aka Frank Farian, the 66-year-old German songwriter and music producer who created the disgraced lip-syncing pop duo Milli Vanilli -- is a defendant in a Miami-Dade paternity suit. Longtime companion Henrietta ''Chinya'' Onyewenjo, 39, a former fashion model, says he is the father of daughters Yanina, 11, and Zoe, 1. Onyewenjo wants child support, a court order requiring him to ''stay away'' for allegedly threatening her, and new digs.

  • TALK OF OUR TOWN

    Record producer's legal, tax problems spin out of control

    Record producer Scott Storch, who owns a $10.5 million home on Miami Beach's Palm Island, is behind in property taxes -- $511,839.16. He owes $294,492.50 for '06, and $217,346.66 for '07.

  • Talk of Our Town

    No relaxing over some time spent in hammock

    B roward attorney Norman Kent is suing Bed Bath & Beyond -- for negligence. Kent says he tried out a hammock on display outside the store at 2701 N. Federal Hwy. in Fort Lauderdale when it ''flipped backwards, causing [him] to strike his head and jam his neck'' into a concrete wall.

  • Talk of Our Town

    Pretty Foxy: WFOR-CBS4's Stone, Rodriguez

    C ool dudes: WFOR-CBS4's Shomari Stone and Eliott Rodriguez. Their voices -- audio samples from a CBS4 newscast -- are on the title track of rapper Foxy Brown's latest album, Brooklyn's Don Diva. The newsmen were reporting on Foxy's Feb. 16 release from Broward County jail following her arrest in a fight at a Pembroke Pines beauty supply store.

  • Talk of Our Town

    A hero's welcome for the military at Miami airport

    The Armed Forces Service Center Military Lounge at Miami International Airport, a hospitality suite for traveling military and their families, is drawing more visitors since its move to a former VIP club space in Concourse E, departure level.

  • Talk of Our Town

    The Sunshine Band singing the blues over $20K check

    H arry Wayne Casey's KC & The Sunshine Band sued South Florida concert promoters Modesto and Karen Reyes, saying they owe the band $20,000 for a March 7 performance at BankUnited Center at the University of Miami. The Reyeses paid the initial $20,000 on Feb. 7. Concert night, they handed over a check for the $20,000 balance. The band later deposited the check, only to discover that the Reyeses had stopped payment, the suit says. The check was returned, stamped ``non negotiable.''

  • Talk of Our Town

    The hole truth: How a stuffed bagel was born

    M iami connection to Bagel-fuls, a cream cheese-stuffed bagel bar that is new from Kraft in the frozen breakfast foods aisle. The inventor is Alvin ''Al'' Burger, 74, original owner of Roasters' n Toasters in Pinecrest. The fellow who made the product a commercial success and pitched Kraft to take it national is Gary Schwartzberg, 56, owner of Filled Bagel Industries in Medley.

  • Talk of Our Town

    TV judges await the verdict for a Daytime Emmy

    TV judges Marilyn Milian (The People's Court) and David Young (Judge David Young), residents of South Florida, are contenders for a Daytime Emmy in a new category -- Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program.

  • Talk of Our Town

    S. Florida nun 'can't complain' after hip surgery

    Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, Barry University chancellor and former president, is in Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, recovering from surgery to replace her left hip. Dr. William Leone Jr. operated April 23.

  • Talk of Our Town

    Nine-time killer loses a new round

    Former Sweetwater cop Manuel ''Manny'' Pardo Jr., awaiting execution on Florida's Death Row for nine murders, lost another bid to escape lethal injection. Pardo, 51, claimed his 1988 convictions and death sentences should be set aside. Among the reasons: He says he was incompetent at trial because of a ''thyroid and hormonal disorder'' that wasn't diagnosed at the time.

  • TALK OF OUR TOWN

    Only a star can afford to buy home of the stars

    A waterfront residence on La Gorce Island in Miami Beach that was once home to Cher and temporary digs for Janet Jackson and Julio Iglesias is back on the market -- for much more than a song. Asking price: $14.9 million.

  • Talk of Our Town

    Prosecutor swears vanity tag contains vulgarity

    V eteran Miami-Dade prosecutor Abbe Rifkin, stuck in northbound traffic on I-95 near Northwest 62nd Street, did a double take at the vanity tag on the pickup truck in front of her: A four-letter word that begins and ends with T. Poll Available

  • Talk of Our Town

    The weight they lost was from their heads

    C hris Korge, real estate developer and political fundraiser, and Rodney Barreto, political consultant and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission chairman, are a couple of losers -- in a local Body Fat Challenge. That's why Korge is sporting the bald look, and Barreto's thick salt-and-pepper mane is bare on top. The fellows who finished at the bottom of the three-month diet and exercise competition agreed to shave their heads, says Agustin ''Tino'' Herran, 39, president of the Sedano's...

Miami Top Jobs

    Quick Job Search

    Enter Keyword(s): Enter City: Select a State: Select a Category: Advanced Job Search Search by Category