Frankel at a green market in West Palm Beach

West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel quietly left the city Wednesday for a five-day stay in New York City without telling her own staffers, including city spokesman Chase Scott, what she’s up to.

Why all the cloak-and-dagger stuff?

She’s visiting Manhattan green markets with other locals whose job it is to make of the new downtown waterfront a destination.

There’s a plan to bring a green market to the West Palm Beach waterfront, and I’m told you can only know about green markets if you actually go to one or two in exciting places like, say, Manhattan.

The motley crew with Herhoner on her Labor Day weekend jaunt includes: mayoral friend and waterfront manager Joan Goldberg, Downtown Development Authority associate director Rafael Clemente and Willie Perez, the fired Miami cop who runs a security service hired by the city to keep the waterfront peaceful. Sometimes, he’s Frankel’s bodyguard.

So, who’s footing the bills?

For more, look below or click (Read more…)

Smith, headed to Motown (Courtesy WPTV)

Now that the Atlantic’s churning with hurricanes, the heat’s turned up on South Florida TV weathermen.

And that’s the moment that one of them chose to exit the kitchen!

WPTV-Channel 5’s Keenan Smith, who was the first to forecast the day’s weather for T-Coast and Palm Beach County viewers at 4:30 a.m., is hightailing it outta Dodge. His last day was today.

Check this out: He wants to work somewhere that has four seasons!

So he picked Detroit, a dying city that people usually leave, over vibrant West Palm Beach.

Sup with that?

“I’m thrilled to be moving back to the Midwest and back to a climate with four seasons,” he said in a statement. “I’m also excited to be moving to the Detroit area.  There’s a unity of spirit in the people in Southeast Michigan that you don’t find everywhere.”

Smith’s new gig at WXYZ-TV, Motown’s ABC affiliate, starts in two weeks.

We hardly got to know the guy, except that he seemed competent enough albeit a little stiff. Smith arrived in 2008 from Chicago to replace long time forecaster Dean Tendrich, who quit to go into real estate. The 4:30 a.m. dudes are now weekend meteorologists James Wieland and Glenn Glazer, who’ll rotate in and out of the shift.

By the way, Keenan, we have four seasons here: Football, snowbird, mosquito and hurricane season, in case you didn’t have the time to notice!

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Among the 37,157 comments posted on Page2Live so far, some stand out by their laugh-out-loud humor, wry wit, clever reasoning, bald-faced meanness or abysmal stupidity. Here are five from the past few days that caught my attention. You vote. And I’ll print the highest vote-getter in my column in The Palm Beach Post while the winning author gets a new Page2Live t-shirt. For the grand prize’s purposes, voting shuts down at midnight Saturday!

1. “I have to say the officers at the prison were really nice, treated me and the other guys in there pretty good. The food on the other hand wasn’t the best, LOL, but I guess jail food is supposed to be nasty. If you ever have to post bail, don’t go to either one of the bail bonds near the jail.” (by Lional Dalton, former NFL star who ended up in the pokey after a domestic violence incident, commenting on Ex-NFL tackle Lional Dalton accused of tackling the wife)

Bondi

2. “If I had my way, I’d vote for that awesome St. Bernard!” (by Doglover, commenting on this photo of Florida Attorney General wannabe Pam Bondi, And Pam Bondi wins Miss GOP 2010)

3. “He should not have been fired. If anything, they should have promoted him for cleaning up the mess on the streets. Since prison has turned from punishment into a free hotel, its up to the police to spank them.” (by Morgan, commenting on the firing of a PBSO deputy nicknamed The Punisher, Who’s The Punisher Now?)

4. “Oh brother, how silly! I am going to cancel my appointment with Corcoran, I can not be subjected to this kind of stuff, while shopping for my new beach house in Palm Beach. Any home listed by them is now off my list. Such a shame!” (by DAB, commenting on a story about a spat at the Corcoran real estate office in Palm Beach between a millionaire buyer and a broker, Millions or not, don’t mess with mom!)

5. “After exhaustive research, I could not find the ‘professional courtesy’ exception in the Florida Statutes, particularly under Chapter 316.” (by Kojak, commenting on WPB to cops caught on red-light cameras: Pay up!)

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Would you vote for a gun-loving, twice-divorced family values advocate who once clogged up the court system by suing over the ownership of a pooch?

What if she were endorsed by Sarah Palin?

What if she favored Arizona’s controversial immigration policy?

Didn’t think so!

But then, what if she looked like this:

(Click on the photo for the full gallery)

This, guys, is Pam Bondi, the 44-year-old ex-prosecutor who won the Republican Party’s nomination for Florida attorney general. And she probably was the hottest-looking candidate on yesterday’s ballot! (Click here for more photos)

Bondi takes on Democrat Dan Gelber in the November general election.

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The Detters in 2000, as Wendy receives the Palm Beach Post's Distinguished Law Officer of the Year (Lannis Waters/The Palm Beach Post)

The pending divorce of a husband and his wife, both West Palm Beach cops, spilled into their workplace recently.

The husband, Police Officer Steve Detter, 49, complained that his wife, Community Response Division Sgt. Wendy Detter, 48, searched his workstation for his girlfriend’s phone number then called her — while on duty.

Steve also told the brass he was worried Wendy would confront the paramour in person, and that Wendy has been checking out the girlfriend’s Facebook page from her city-owned computer.

So Internal Affairs got involved. And Wendy — winner in 2000 of The Palm Beach Post’s Distinguished Law Officer of the Year — was found to have used Facebook while on duty.

She faces a three-day suspension.

Wendy told the IA sleuths that she just wanted to print the Facebook entries of the husband’s paramour about romantic trips to use in their divorce. She added that she, not the paramour, is the victim of cyberstalking.

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

Alla Kournikova's booking mug in January (Click on the photo for more)

Palm Beacher Alla Kournikova, the mother of Russian tennis hottie and commercial pitchwoman Anna Kournikova, quietly pleaded guilty to felony child neglect in a court in West Palm Beach.

Alla Kournikova, 47, left her 5-year-old son Allan, Anna’s half brother, home alone with a cellphone in January as she ran errands on Worth Avenue for about an hour.

Allan either fell or jumped out a window on the second floor of the $2.2 million-house on Seabreeze. He was found, dirty and bloody, wandering the street. He suffered minor injuries.

Alla Kournikova was sentenced to three years probation, according to records, and 100 hours of community service. Other conditions of her probation include random drug testing and a substance abuse evaluation.

The court withheld adjudication, which technically means she wasn’t convicted of a crime.

The plea helps her avoid a public trial that would have included K-Swiss pusher Anna Kournikova, and possibly jail time.

Alla, meanwhile, went back to her tennis-playing socialite cougar (her boyfriend is 25) life flawlessly.

She packed her bags and took Allan to Pinehurst, N.C., where the little one is competing in the US Kids Golf World Championship today through Sunday. Allan will be playing against 1,300 other children from around the world in golf’s equivalent to the Little League World Series.

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

Ken and Elaine Langone at Mar-a-Lago

Billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett asked the megarich to give half of their wealth to charity.

They’ve been heard loud and clear in these parts.

As many as four families or individuals with ties to Palm Beach County have pledged to follow the challenge thrown down six weeks ago by Microsoft founder Gates, and Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.

Buffett today published the list of 38 others joining the duo in pumping a whopping $60 billion into philanthropy throughout the world. The group represents just 10 percent of the richest Americans.

Among the locally familiar names are Ken and Elaine Langone, a North Palm Beach couple, and Boca’s Bernie and Billi Marcus.

“Our family is thankful for the many blessings we have enjoyed,” Ken Langone wrote in a letter addressed to Buffett as he accepted the invitation. “It is because we live in a special country, where freedom of opportunity is a cherished virtue that we can reach so high in the first place. But nothing makes our society better than when we live up to its most caring ideals of service and selflessness. So it is also with a deep sense of gratitude that we are pleased to be included in this wonderful undertaking.”

For more, and why Boca’s Bernie Marcus is giving, look below or click (Read more…)

Dean Turney with his wife, Priscila

A popular Palm Beach County Commissioner is arrested, resigns and issues a made-for-TV mea culpa — all in less than 12 hours.

Convenient, isn’t it?

Something about the Jeff Koons scandal smells of a Versailles palace-style intrigue — one that results in the county’s shadowy establishment getting rid of one of its own.

Koons’ well-connected “Judas,” Dean Turney, was not only his closest friend for nearly 25 years — he also ran most of Democrat Koons’ seven political campaigns, five for West Palm Beach Commission and two for Palm Beach County!

“Everyone is dumbfounded about this,” said a local Democratic party operative who asked not to be identified. “Everybody likes Jeff Koons. And Dean is his best friend!”

According to the probable cause affidavit, the 62-year-old Koons left nasty voice messages on to lobbyist Turney’s phone a few weeks ago. Koons took offense with the fact Turney worked for a family that stood in the way of his pet project, and promised to use his elected office to retaliate.

Once upon a time, this sort of spat would have been handled behind closed doors, one-on-one.

Instead,  the recordings ended up in the office of the ambitious new state attorney, Mike “Future Governor of Florida” McAuliffe, and the clock on Koons’ fall from grace started ticking.

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

Lemoine

Judge hopeful Ken Lemoine’s history as a West Palm Beach Police officer is a colorful one.

His personnel file — he rode the thin blue line from 1986 to 1993, before he became a lawyer — is stuffed with incident reports that include joyriding on a city-owned forklift and shooting himself in the leg.

“I also received a police combat cross for a fire fight,” Lemoine said, “and letters from members of the public saying how good of a job I was doing. I once was officer-of-the quarter. Nobody’s talking about how I would chase the bad guys in bad parts of the city in the middle of the night.”

When it comes to the negatives, however, the 48-year-old dismisses them as “20-year-old things.”

“Frankly, I don’t even remember some of these,” he said.

According to city archives, Lemoine once described himself as “bored” while working the night shift at the old West Palm Beach Auditorium. So he took a forklift on a joyride. Of course, he crashed and damaged it.

“He got on the lift,” reads the incident report, “and was running it up and down when it hit the cement overhang. Officer Lemoine knows it was wrong . . . (and he received) a copy of the bill for the repairs.”

Cost him $313.50!

For more, look below or click (Read more…)

Among the 31,191 comments posted on Page2Live so far, some stand out by their laugh-out-loud humor, wry wit, clever reasoning, bald-faced meanness or abysmal stupidity. Here are five from the past few days that caught my attention. You vote and I’ll print the most popular one in my column in The Palm Beach Post:

1. “In these times of want and woe, and a tumultuous sea of change for everyone in this world, it is good to see that nothing ever changes at the PBSO.” (by Mike Katz, commenting on PBSO forks over half a mil)

2. “I wish people would stop making comments saying Tori has a face like a ‘horse.’ No one deserves that!! No wonder she has low self esteem.” (by Sara, commenting on 90210 star Tori Spelling hawking books in SoFla)

3. “I would like to thank those who took time to comment. For those who don’t like me, I’m sorry, but when you’ve lived a great portion of your life in a fish bowl, there will be times people just won’t agree with you . . . I’m sorry that someone might feel I’m egotistical, but I promise you I’m much less stuck on myself than many people in my business . . . I promise you I was without fault in any way, shape or form. I was verbally abused and threatened, and friends stepped in to protect me from what they percieved to be a physical threat.” (by Bob Nichols, commenting on Former TV anchor Bob Nichols in golf club fight)

4. “You mean to say that there wasn’t another candidate for this position??? One without any question marks about the use of school funds? PLEEEEASE!!!! I’m sure there are other qualified educators looking for a job.” (by wonder, commenting on Controversial ex-school principal Texas-bound)

5. “Dara, you are an amazing athlete, you look great! We know you look great. Pulling up your top in public (often) to promote a fitness book . . . getting old. We live in Palm Beach, we can tell you’re ripped with your shirt on. That’s all.” (by Susan, commenting on Olympic medals? Who cares? Looks at the abs on Dara Torres)

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