No wonder Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is begging the already-strapped Palm Beach County Commission for more money.

Ric Bradshaw (Rich Graulich/The Palm Beach Post)

When he could have picked up the phone and simply asked Page2Live to help him out, he hired a private law firm to write a two-page letter — at the cost to taxpayers of $480, according to his office’s records.

Sometime in April, some knucklehead posted a comment to this item that included the sheriff’s home address. 

Out of courtesy to law enforcement officers, Page2Live won’t publish the personal addresses of cops and deputies. So, I deleted the comment as soon as I noticed, possibly an hour after it was written.

That, however, wasn’t good enough for Bradshaw, who then hired the Fort Lauderdale lawfirm of Purdy, Jolly, Giuffreda and Barranco to ask me and my bosses at the Palm Beach Post to make sure it doesn’t happen again. The comment that included Bradshaw’s address, attorney Summer Barranco wrote, compromised the safety of the sheriff and his family.

A few days after his address appeared, according to a PBSO spokeswoman, Bradshaw received at his West Palm Beach home a highly-critical letter from a citizen.

For more, and the poll, look below (Read more…)

In an artist’s life full of extraordinary days, Tuesday will stand out for ever for frequent Palm Beach visitor Natalie Cole, the songbird daughter of jazz great Nat King Cole.

Natalie Cole

The ailing nine-time Grammy winner, 59, was watching tearfully as her older sister Carol lay dying in a Tarzana, Calif., hospital early that day when she received a phone call from her surgeon.

An organ-procurement agency, he told Natalie, finally found a kidney for the transplant she’d been awaiting for months.

Natalie’s other sisters, Boca Raton twins Timolin and Casey Cole, watched the incredible scene.

For Timolin’s interview, look below (Read more…)

With dancing girls like this one, it should be renamed Exit 666! (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

Tats, kitsch, American pop, flesh, pole dancing, mermaids, Peewee Herman wannabes — all meet up at the brand spanking new Exit 66, a nightclub that, if the recent grand opening is telling, will become a heavy-hitter in the Fort Lauderdale’s alternative nightlife.

Brought to life on the beach near the Elbo Room by the folks who opened Crobar in Miami Beach back in the days, Exit 66 officials claim the joint will “give the Bates Motel a run for its money.”

They weren’t kidding.

Check out Michele Sandberg’s other pix below (Read more…)

Greg Norman's Jupiter Island home. (Bill Ingram / Post file photo)

It’s back to the future for links Leviathan Greg Norman.

Part-time vintner and developer Norman and his wife Chris Evert, the tennis legend, have found a new love nest.

Chris Evert and Greg Norman

And it’s the same love nest that Norman shared with the wife he divorced in 2007 when he took up with Evert.

Boca Raton’s coosome twosome – they’ve been living in the Boca home that Evert once owned with her ex, former Olympic skier Andy Mill – is moving to Norman’s Jupiter Island home, according to several sources close to the couple.

The palatial Martin County home, a 9-bedroomer just one hole away from fellow golfer Tiger Wood’s new digs, has been on the market for nearly two years. Sale price for the 8-acres beach-to-Intracoastal estate now stands at $40 million, from $65 million originally.

But with no buyer in sight, Norman and his bride of one year are about to have the home, dubbed Tranquility, gutted and rebuilt.

There’s also a plan to redo the basketball court into, you guessed it, a tennis court.

For the poll, and more details, look below (Read more…)

Yes, Kim, it's called a Swiffer! (Storms Media Group/Special to Page2Live)

Reality star Kim Kardashian and her sisters, Kloe and Kourtney, are discovering work this week.

The famous-for-being-famous-crew, last seen in Keeping Up With The Kardashians on cable’s E!, is opening a clothing store on Washington Avenue in Miami Beach this week.

The kardashians' store, Dash (Storms Media Group/Special to Page2live)

So Tuesday, they all showed up for various chores inside the new store, Dash Miami.

Kim even picked up a mop and swept between cell phone calls while her sisters checked out the merchandise they’re about to sell.

Unfortunately for them, the Kardashians found out someone painted the letters GUK on the storefront and called the cops.

But it that’s the biggest problem the business ever has, then they’ll be okay.

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Desperate Housewives' James Denton and Terri Hatcher (Storms Media Group/Special to Page2Live)

While it’s clear neither should quit their day jobs as stars of ABC’s Desperate Housewives, on-screen couple Terri Hatcher and James Denton, who plays Hatcher’s on- and off-love, Mike Delfino, screeched a couple rock tunes on the poolside stage of Miami Beach’s Shore Club at a charity concert over the weekend. Both (especially Hatcher in a tight tank top) gave guests at the fundraiser a thrill when they jumped, fully dressed, in the pool. 

For more pictures, look below (Read more…)

Two weeks before disgraced former Palm Beach County Commish Mary McCarty is sentenced in a corruption scandal, citizens’ letters to the court about her punishment started trickling in.

Mary and Kevin McCarty (Lannis Waters/The Palm Beach Post)

So far, eight people have taken the time to write federal Judge Don Middlebrooks.

Seven letters, peppered with words like “dishonor” and “political aristocracy” and calling her Palm Beach County’s version of The Godfather’s Don Corleone, asked the judge to throw the book at McCarty, demanding the “maximum.”

So far, just one, a school district employee, asked for leniency. But McCarty recently told friends she is expecting onslaught of more than 60 requests for a lenient sentence over the next few days.

In the end, McCarty is expected to get five years in a minimum-security prison camp for women – quite possibly the West Virginia facility that housed insider trading domestic diva Martha Stewart.

For more letters and the poll, look below (Read more…)

. . . But this is 2009, and Donna Summer has changed. To see the disco queen at the Seminole Hard Rock this weekend, look below . . . (Read more…)

Head-scratching move at WJNO-AM 1290.

A couple days after morning drive-time newswoman Natalie Nichols was laid off from the station, her replacement took out her hoop nose-ring, put it in her pocket, and took over.

Twenty-something Rosemary Altier may be a little green. She is, after all, just a junior in college. But she’s eager to learn. And Nichols, who was canned for “economic reasons,” trained her.

But there’s something extra that Altier has to offer: a sterling lineage. Her real last name is Toulas, as in George Toulas. He’s a high-ranking executive at the station’s owner, Clear Channel, the world’s biggest radio station company.

Altier

Nepotism, anyone?

“Not at all,” says Clear Channel’s exec in West Palm Beach Dave Denver. He hired Altier, and not because she is the boss’ little girl.

“She’s part-time and we’re saving Natalie’s full-time salary and benefits,” Denver said. “Rosemary is getting the regular Clear Channel part-time pay. She’s also willing to learn, and she is a hungry young woman. This had nothing to do with her dad. That’s exactly why she changed her name when she’s on-the-air. She wants to be seen as her own person.”

Altier lives at papa’s $1.1 million home in Delray Beach. Neither returned calls. Nichols had no comment.

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(Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

Nice idea at the new 251 Sunrise lounge in Palm Beach to welcome what’s supposed to be the slow season.

The owners put together a fashion runway smack dab in the middle of the watering hole and had dancers from Ballet Floria model in a West Side Story-themed show.

The 1950s Penguin threads came from Rhythm Clothiers at CityPlace downtown West Palm Beach. CityPlace’s Sephora did the make up and Northwood’s The David K Space handled the hair. And Bruce Sutka did the set design for Friday night’s event.

The midnight kick off of the show didn’t prevent wall-to-wall partiers, some of whom engaged into serious PDAs.

See the Michele Sandberg photos of the fun by clicking (Read more…)