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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”)

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.

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.

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.

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.

In My Opinion

Fred Grimm: A crabby savoir for the parimutuels

Old (slightly crabby) Jim Morgan, who races more animals on a weekend than most trainers run over a lifetime, could be the last, best hope for Florida’s faltering parimutuel industry.

In My Opinion

Fred Grimm: Florida oxy pills have long, deadly reach

Oceana is a misnomer, a small town at the confluence of the Clear Fork and Laurel Fork rivers in the mountains of southern West Virginia, some 400 miles from the nearest ocean. Lately, locals have given it a more accurate appellation. They call it Oxyana.

Fred Grimm: As other states ban executions, Florida says kill ’em faster

On Thursday, Maryland became the sixth state in the past six years to abolish capital punishment. Eighteen states have now done away with the death penalty. Florida, of course, is not among them.

In My Opinion

Fred Grimm: Tallahassee sticks it to the locals

Our good ol’ boys in Tallahassee surely do resent those meddlers from Washington sticking their big government noses in Florida’s business. “We know what’s best for Florida,” they’re fond of saying.

In My Opinion

Fred Grimm: Journalism’s bright side: few rattlesnakes

So a soldier, a lumberjack and a newspaper guy walked into a bar. Which might have had the makings of a joke, except they couldn’t afford a punch line.

In My Opinion

Fred Grimm: Pro teams get sweet deal for spring training stadiums

It’s as if when they sold naming rights to South Florida’s sports stadiums, the winning bid went to “controversial.”

In My Opinion

Fred Grimm: Boston bombing has FAU’s nutball prof blathering again

The likes of James Tracy wouldn’t have thrived before the digital age.

In My Opinion

Fred Grimm: The error was small, the damage immense

Andrew Flaherty, new to Florida, could not escape the feeling he had moved to a unwelcoming place. He was often treated with a dismissive brusqueness, particularly at businesses where he was asked to produce an ID.

In My Opinion

Fred Grimm: These days, the news comes fast and furious in our pockets

“Ping!” goes my pocket. And Pavlov’s neurotic dog goes for the cellphone like Wild Bill Hickok going for his holstered Colt. Like it was urgent. Like I was expecting Lebron to phone. Or the president. As if Eva Mendes was finally returning my call.