The Palm Beach Post
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Goodbye Palm Beach, and thank you!

radaronline_logoIt’s hard to say goodbye when you’re having fun!

Yet, this is my last Page2Live entry.

On Tuesday, I became executive editor of Radar Online, one of the country’s biggest celebrity websites.

The sandbox I get to play in now is a lot larger, and the gig often will take me to Los Angeles and Las Vegas and New York City.

But I leave The Palm Beach Post and the readers who supported me with news tips, kudos and criticism for the past seven years with a heavy heart.

I love Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, and not just because it’s my home. There are few places in this country as quirky as Palm Beach, Stuart, Boca and Wellington. News people who work here know they’re lucky because, indeed, there never is a dull moment.

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Asleep at the desk: PBSO lieutenant catches up on sleep during classroom training

Rough day for Lt. Swank (Special to the Palm Beach Post)

Rough day for Lt. Swank (Special to the Palm Beach Post)

I’m told the snoring could be heard across the room!

To the right, fellow taxpayer, is Lt. Jeff Swank, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Internal Affairs executive officer!

And this cell-phone picture of Swank sound asleep obtained by Page2Live has been making the rounds among the chuckling rank and file.

How do I know he’s snoring?

Well, there’s a video, and the sound is quite clear.

I’ve been trying to get a hold of it, but I’m told by an insider that Internal Affairs head Capt. Larry Easton, to0, is hot on the trail of the footage.

Swank was among 70 local enforcement officials at a three-day class last week at the Hilton Palm Beach Airport.

The classroom training focused on the handling of police-involved shootings.

But Swank apparently got so bored he dozed off while fellow policemen, who must have been just as bored, snapped away with cell phones.

Swank’s I.A. squad, by the way, does investigate incidents in which deputies are “rude” during such training sessions.

Said PBSO Chief Deputy Mike Gauger: “Lt. Swank attends college after hours and he was called out twice the previous night.

“Things happen. I fall asleep at church sometimes!”

Today show Hoda’s new beau a Boca Raton lawyer?

Blumenkopf

Blumenkopf

Today personality Hoda Kotb has been trying her darnedest to keep her new man’s identity under the radar, but even her best isn’t good enough for Page2Live.

Meet Boca Raton lawyer and single dad of two Jay Blumenkopf, the corporate law guru who, sources say, has been sharing the NBC morning star’s life for the past six months.

With Kathie Lee Gifford on Today’s fourth hour Monday through Friday, the oft-imitated (on Saturday Night Live) but-never-duplicated Hoda has been squawking about how sweet and gentlemanly her “Jay” is.

Never, however, has she mentioned his last name.

But insiders at the New York/Boca lawfirm of Yoss LLP tell me Blumenkopf has been telling his colleagues he’s da man!

“You could say he’s pretty proud of himself,” one informant told me. “So he makes no secret of it.”

Hoda (right) and Gifford last November (Bruce Bennett/The Palm Beach Post)

Hoda (right) and Gifford last November (Bruce Bennett/The Palm Beach Post)

When I called Hoda, 46, in her New York City condo to confirm, what had started as a pleasant conversation was cut short when I brought up Blumenkopf’s name. Hoda’s publicist declined comment. And neither Blumenkopf nor his daughters have returned calls or emails.

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Ex-GOP moneyman and alleged war profiteer Harry Sargeant bankrolls son’s $1 million-wedding

Harry Sargeant III, middle, introduces then-Gov. Charlie Crist to King Abdullah of Jordan in 2007 (AP Photo)

Harry Sargeant III, middle, introduces then-Gov. Charlie Crist to King Abdullah of Jordan in 2007 (AP Photo)

Gulf Stream oilman Harry Sargeant III, who’s been called a war profiteer by a Congressional leader, is putting to good use the $200 million-plus that Pentagon officials now say they overpaid him during the Iraq War.

Sargeant, a former finance chairman for the Republican Party of Florida and a college friend of ex-Guv Charlie Crist, is throwing lavish parties in Palm Beach this weekend to celebrate the wedding of his son, 27-year-old Harry.

The younger Harry is marrying Port St. Lucie hottie Morgan Elam Saturday at The Breakers.

I’m told the elder Sargeant reserved about 60 rooms for friends and family through the weekend. In season, most rooms at the resort go for $400-plus.

With the $300-a-bottle banquet, weekend activities for all the guests and not just one, but two rehearsal dinners tonight, word is the elder Sargeant could spend upward of $1 million.

“We’re having about 280 guest at the wedding,” said the bride, 28, when reached at The Breakers today. She’s the daughter of Fort Pierce CPA James H. Elam.

“I’m wearing a Vera Wang dress. Everybody’s going to be in black and white. There’s a five-course meal after the ceremony.”

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EXCLUSIVE: Municipalities quietly fired doc named in DEA pill mill probe

Wolff, as emergency room doc at JFK Medical Center in 2001 (The Palm Beach Post)

Wolff, as emergency room doc at JFK Medical Center in 2001 (The Palm Beach Post)

Five Palm Beach County municipalities quietly fired their contracted medical director — Dr. Randall Wolff — after DEA agents reported that Wolff is under “pill mill” investigation.

Wolff, 60, of Delray Beach, is a critical care doctor who wrote EMS procedures for fire rescue in the Town of Palm Beach, North Palm Beach, Greenacres, Delray Beach and West Palm Beach and provided continuing education for emergency techs.

In Delray, Wolff’s $130,000-a-year contract also covered physicals for cops and fire fighters.

What’s more, the departments piggy-backed on Wolff’s DEA license to prescribe drugs, allowing ambulance crews on accident and crime scene to dispense dangerous drugs such as morphine, dilaudid and tranquilizers.

Now, turns out Wolff may also have been busy running a pain clinic that illegally sold powerful pain killers!

He was listed as owner of Coast to Coast Pain Management Inc. in Deerfield Beach, according to state records. And the clinic, on Hillsboro Boulevard, was raided by agents of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency Dec. 16.

That day, the five city halls were visited by DEA agents and some fire rescue records may have been seized.

Click here to view Wolff’s termination letter from West Palm Beach

Wolff hasn’t been arrested but his DEA license to dispense controlled substances and narcotics was pulled pending the investigation’s results, according to records. That forced the fire departments to replace Wolff in a hurry or face ordering EMTs to stop injecting drugs.

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