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.

In My Opinion

Fred Grimm: Rural senators’ clout mis-represents America

We don’t count for much down here in Florida. Not in this particular democracy.

In My Opinion

Fred Grimm: At least Jay-Z paid his own way to Cuba

Marco Rubio, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Mario Diaz-Balart have been complaining all week that the Havana travel agenda of Beyoncé and Jay-Z was too light on the “schedule of educational exchange activities” required to circumvent the Cuban travel embargo.

Fred Grimm | In My Opinion

Fred Grimm: Lobbying around those pesky regulations

On a thirsty tract up in Clay County, some savvy businessmen pulled off a nearly magical act of hydraulic engineering. They converted hundreds of acres of dry piney woods into an extremely profitable wetlands mitigation bank. And they did it without water.

In My Opinion

Fred Grimm: Feral-cat bill is bad news for wildlife

Florida Senate Bill 1320 has to do with feral cats. And little to do with science.

In My Opinion

Fred Grimm: $36 million later, the son also whines

So much for plans to up my kid’s allowance by $36 million. Palm Beach philanthropist Lois Pope tried it with her boy Paul. As she testified Monday in Palm Beach circuit court, that turned out to be a mighty poor parenting strategy.

In My Opinion

Fred Grimm: For kids in isolation, a shrug from Florida lawmakers

Reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been subjecting scores of immigrant detainees to solitary confinement, many of them for 23 hours a day, some for stretches of 75 days or more, brought a quick, angry response in Washington.

In My Opinion

Fred Grimm: In the long run, ‘maquinitas’ didn’t beat the odds

Miami’s maquinitas are suddenly illegal. It’s official. The mayor said so.