Masters

Big deal dignitaries, it seems, have a knack for coming to Riviera Beach without notifying the lord mayor, Thomas Masters.

The latest was Gov. Charlie Crist, who visited the city’s Bethune Elementary Friday.

So Masters, whose day job is Baptist preacher, fired off a letter to Crist asking to know why he didn’t give city fathers a heads up.

Masters is a little sensitive about famous people being around without his knowledge. Last year, the then-candidate Barack Obama rested his weary campaigning head at The Resort on Singer Island, and Hizzoner found out a day late — on the news.

This time around, however, Masters wrote to Crist: “. . . I, the Mayor of Riviera Beach, was not notified prior to his arrival. Neither were any of my City Council colleagues . . . Apparently a ‘courtesy call’ was placed to one of our assistant police chiefs at about 6:30 this morning. Is that ‘protocol’ to call police in the host city just a few hours before the Governor’s arrival? And no one else? . . . I am disappointed I was deprived of the honor of welcoming the top leader of our great state of Florida.”

Guess what? The guv’s people agreed that Hizzoner was robbed of his moment with Crist, and asked for forgiveness.

Crist’s director of external affairs, Stephanie Smith, replied with this missive: “I’d like to formally apologize . . . however due to a last minute change of venue this step (notifying public officials) was not completed.”

Said Masters: “I accept the governor’s apology! My faith in the governor is unshattered!”

Joe LePore

– The man arrested in a mysterious attack on a cabbie in West Palm Beach earlier this week has been identified as Joe LePore, brother of former Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore. Joe Lepore, 52, an electrician, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and criminal mischief after West Palm Beach police arrested him Wednesday morning. A taxi driver was trying to turn around in LePore’s driveway on Avenida Allegre when LePore allegedly hit the cab, causing damages. When a cop arrived, LePore allegedly pulled a gun and threatened both the cabbie and officer. “I felt threatened,” LePore told Page2Live. “I had my 357 in my pocket but I didn’t take it out.” He was released from the county lockup late Thursday after paying his $3,000-bond. In 2004, according to Palm Beach County court records, LePore pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor. A judge withheld adjudication. “He has anger management issues,” said sister Theresa. “The cab driver was sitting in his driveway blowing the horn, and he is very protective of his property.” Theresa’s name became intertwined with the disastrous administrations of George W. Bush when, in 2000, her office printed ballots so confusing that some Al Gore supporters voted for the wrong candidate, ultimately, Bush’s election by a hair.  (With The Palm Beach Post’s Eliot Kleinberg)

Jenny

– Jenny Sanford, first lady of South Carolina and a member of a prominent Martin County family, moved out of the governor’s mansion in Columbia today. Sanford is the long suffering wife of Gov. Mark Sanford, who made international news in June after he disappeared to Argentina to tango with a mistress. The Sanfords eventually ended up pow-wowing about it at her dad John Sullivan’s home in Hobe Sound. Mark and Jenny just returned from a vacation in Europe. But AP reporters saw Jenny and several women move boxes out of the mansion Thursday. Jenny says she can be found in the couple’s vacation home, 125 miles away from Columbia.

Livan

– Another athlete’s selling SoFla real estate. Livan “I lo’ you, Miami” Hernandez, the 1997 star pitcher for the World Series winning Florida Marlins, is selling his Miami Beach condo. He’s willing to lose a few bucks. According to South Florida Blockshopper, the beachfronter is on the market for $945,000, nearly $40,000 less than what the current New York Met bought it for last year. The listing agent is a former star of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice, Katrina Campins.

A Palm Beach County man may be holding some of the keys to the future of Michael Jackson’s family.

Al Malnik, an accountant and lawyer and sometime host to Jackson, says he and Jackson signed an agreement in 2003 that makes him the executor to Jackson’s multi-million dollar estate.

Another document they signed makes Malnik the godfather, and guardian, of Jackson’s little one, Blanket, in case Jackson were to die.

Malnik at home, with wife Nancy and three of their children (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

The King of Pop unexpectedly passed away at age 50 from an apparent heart attack Thursday.

“I am surprised because he couldn’t be revived,” Malnik said from his sprawling $20 million-mansion in Ocean Ridge. “A 50-year-old man should be able to survive something like this.”

Malnik knew Jackson for nearly 10 years. Although he won’t confirm that, word is the two met in the waiting room of a famed Beverly Hills plastic surgeon.

Since then, when Jackson needed to fly below the radar like he did in when his strange behavior with young children became an issue in 2003, the star secretly sought refuge at Malnik’s beachfront property.

For months at a time. With children and entourage.

For more on this story, and the legal bonds between Jackson and Malnik, look below (Read more…)

Enid Atwater with brother Jeff Atwater, president of the Florida Senate

The once-embattled Palm Beach County Convention and Visitors Bureau laid off five well-known employees, including the sister of Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater.

Marketing vice-presidents Enid Atwater and Bill Vervaeke, who designed the Bureau’s current campaign centered around the 100^th anniversary of Palm Beach County, were shown the door Friday in a spate of cost-cutting measures.

Also on the chopping block: Data base support manager Kate Black, an 18-year veteran; Director of Sales for South America Maria Gross; and Marketing Analyst Amy McCants.

“This clearly had something to do with the economy,” said Enid Atwater. “Hard decisions had to be made. The cuts were deep.”

She declined to comment further as CVB honchos had her and the others sign confidentiality agreements as a condition for their severance packages.

According to the tourism agency’s website, it still employs 34 people.

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

Disgraced former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty has been transferred to a notorious federal prison that once hosted a deposed dictator and would-be dirty bomber.

McCarty's new home

A week after she was sentenced to three-and-a-half years for her role in a public corruption scandal and immediately taken into custody, McCarty, 54, was moved from the Palm Beach County lockup and driven to Miami’s Federal Detention Center.

And if she thought she had it rough on Gun Club Road, (where she bitterly complained about being cold, lonely and being served bad food in an e-mail to friends), wait until she gets a load of this Soviet-looking high-rise smack dab in the middle of downtown!

According to the federal Bureau of Prisons, the Miami FDC is an administrative facility. And ”administrative facilities are institutions with special missions, such as the detention of pretrial offenders; the treatment of inmates with serious or chronic medical problems; or the containment of extremely dangerous, violent, or escape-prone inmates,” according to the BOP website.

To find out who else is housed with McCarty, and vote on our poll, look below (Read more…)

Palm Beach County Commish Burt Aaronson says I gave the Great Unwashed the wrong impression about him the other day.

So, here’s his letter so he can set the record straight: 

“In The Post’s Sunday (and on Page2Live), Jose Lambiet wrote that I said, ‘The Festival (Palm Beach International Film Festival) has nothing to do with politics. I’d take money and volunteers from the Communist Party is necessary.’

“Yes, I admit that I did say that. However, Mr. Lambiet took that statement completely out of context.

“Several people were present during the conversation. The discussion led to the question of whether or not the Film Festival is political. I replied no and said I would take money and volunteers from the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. Then I laughed and said I would even take money and volunteers from the Communist Party. Everyone who heard me say this laughed, including Mr. Lambiet.

“This was a light-hearted joke which Mr. Lambiet portrayed as a serious comment. I find this an insult to me and the people who were there. He chose to use only a portion of what I said. This could have left the reader with the impression that I support the Communist Party.

“I DO NOT. I NEVER DID. I NEVER WILL. “

We all very happy to hear that, Burt! Thanks for the clarification.

There’ll be no Rush Limbaugh at next week’s “tea party” protest in downtown West Palm Beach, but organizers have drafted former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio as the keynote speaker and rookie U.S. Congressman Tom Rooney as a guest.

(Courtesy Boston Tea Party Historical Society)

Local Republican boss Sid Dinerstein says Cuban expat Rubio’s the man because “when it comes to talking about the American dream and opportunity, he’s the best in the country.”

“This is about creating trillions out of thin air and sticking our children, who don’t even have a vote, with the bill,” Dinerstein said.

Actress Jo Ann Pflug, who made a sexy appearance in MASH  (the 1970 movie) before eventually turning born-again Christian and leaving showbiz, is also expected to attend.

While Limbaugh didn’t respond to organizers’ come-ons, the protest will allow Rubio to make a rare appearance north of his Miami territory. Rubio is considering a run for either the U.S. Senate or governor. (Read more…)

Angst at the office of rookie State Attorney Mike McAuliffe?

More than 10 percent of McAuliffe’s stable of lawyers seem to want out. They’ve applied for two open county judgeships.

Along with 68 other candidates, 12 of McAuliffe’s 100 prosecutors are in the running for the seats vacated by judges Cory Ciklin and Don Hasele.

And among the 12, four prosecutors are well-known major violent crimes specialists with high-profile jobs, including Craig Williams and Angela Miller. That’s half the unit.

What’s going on? (Read more…)

Mob rat Lewis Kasman

Has Palm Beach County’s reputation fallen so low that a former mob operative wants to school the county in integrity?

Sure sounds that way.

Mob rat Lewis Kasman, the self-described spiritual son of dead Gambino godfather John Gotti, is shopping around for a civil rights lawyer.

For what?

A millionaire several times over if you believe former Boca resident’s soon-to-be-ex-wife, Kasman says he’s about to sue Palm Beach County, Judge Martin Colin, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and Boca attorney Carol Kartagener, his wife’s divorce lawyer.

Why? (Read more…)

Fallen Palm Beach County Commish Mary McCarty’s recent transformation from feisty to contrite came courtesy of religion, friends say.

McCarty repeatedly cited her “Catholic guilt” and religious upbringing when she told her entourage she was ready to cop a plea in the corruption scandal that brought her down last week.

(Read more…)