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About the columnist
Fred Grimm joined the Herald in 1976. Since 1991 he has written a column about crime, politics and life in Broward.
E-mail Fred at fgrimm@herald.com
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THE GRIMM TRUTH
Disparate thoughts and random opinions of longtime Miami Herald columnist Fred Grimm
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: What DCF is good at: spin
A few dead kids aside, 2013 has been a winning year for the Florida Department of Children and Families. DCF walked away with this year’s coveted “Award of Distinction” from the Tallahassee chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association.
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: Fakery and schemes abound at pari-mutuels
Once, at a Dolphins game, watching from the nosebleed seats, I found myself distracted by two young guys in the next row clutching fistfuls of dollar bills, their antics more interesting than the dismal excuse for football down below. They were betting with one another on the minutia of the game. With each punt, they wagered on the hang time.
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: Fighting for our virtue, one growler at a time
It’s so good to know that on this most beery of American holidays, our backyard celebrations won’t be menaced by evil growlers of craft beer. Not in Florida, anyway.
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: Crippled Voting Rights Act should inspire a new level of clever election ‘reforms’
Just two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act last week, Texas celebrated by reinstating a discredited voter ID law, designed to tamp down those damn nuisance minority voters. Mississippi was not far behind.
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: The other Zimmerman trial on the Web
Rachel Jeantel testifies at the George Zimmerman trial Wednesday; the Twitter commentary spikes — 2,393 tweets a minute — with a running critique of her diction, her grammar, her demeanor, her hair, her physique, her combativeness, her surly performance.
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: Vigilante justice? It’s OK now
If justice were based on a homicide victim’s virtue, it would be inarguable — Bryan Antonio DeJesus deserved no justice.
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: Rush to privatize is all about bucks
Our governor was deeply offended by a burst of unkind aspersions after an insurance company that didn’t exist 11 months ago finagled a $52 million deal out of the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Company.
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: Florida’s corruption knows no ethnicity
After Miami Herald stories exposing corruption in Miami-Dade County, a familiar disparagement has become inevitable in the e-mail reaction and readers’ comments. “Nothing but a damn banana republic,” they complain, implying an ethnic superiority, as if local government was a pristine enterprise before an influx of Cuban exiles ruined South Florida’s fine Anglo ethic.
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: Surprise! Both parties cheated in Joe Garcia’s district
We’re calling the game off down in District 26. Suspending the democratic process. Citizens of District 26 will have to get by without a voice in the U.S. House of Representatives until they can come up with congressional candidates not inclined to subvert elections.
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: Maybe Margaritaville beats Hollywood ‘Curse’
Not to descend too deeply into hoodoo, black magic, sorcery, the dark arts, but after 87 years of unholy debacles, “cursed” has come to seem a plausible explanation for a certain five-acre tract on the Hollywood shore.
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: Dead Dozier kids finally matter
No one much cared before. Not when these children were brutalized by the guards at the Dozier School for Boys. Not when their bodies were discarded into unmarked graves.
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: It’s sink or swim time for hall of fame
Only me. Only visitor in sight. Couldn’t even find someone to take my $8 admission fee before setting off among the yellowing wax effigies of Johnny Weissmuller, Duke Kahanamoku, Mark Spitz, past the black swim trunks of Greg Louganis, onto an exhibit of exceedingly modest swim wear once forced on American women. The 1915 Sports Illustrated swim suit issue would not have been so very titillating.
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: Broward may be Koch brothers’ own ‘deal from hell’
As puns go, the caption was pretty vapid. “Sun Sentinel doesn’t need a Koch problem.” (Pronounced, by the way, “coke.”)
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: On Robaina, Miami-Dade voters got it right
Credit the wisdom of Miami-Dade voters. They saw through Julio Robaina.
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: Bail bondsmen unfettered by civil niceties
So you’ve just finished your workout at a very nice Miami Beach gym. You’re in the shower. The curtain is drawn. It’s a setting that comes with certain expectations.
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: Scoreboard: Panthers $4.2 million, taxpayers zip
The Florida Panthers picked up a $4.2 million bauble this week, a new digital scoreboard, courtesy of the taxpayers. Not that taxpayers had any say in the deal.
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In My Opinion
Fred Grimm: Boondoggle? Hey, it’s for the kids
Tallahassee has long resonated with talk about our precious, precious school children. Except lately the allusion has become quite literal.
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