Carlos Noriega out as Miami Beach police chief

From the Miami Herald's David Smiley:

Miami Beach Police Chief Carlos Noriega’s reign over his embattled police force effectively ended Thursday.

According to a city memo, [embedded below] Noriega will likely remain chief until his official retirement date Dec. 31, but in name only.

“Police Chief Carlos Noriega will no longer be responsible for day-to-day command and administrative oversight of our Police Department,” City Manager Jorge Gonzalez wrote Thursday to elected officials. “During this almost 60-day period, Chief Noriega will use his vacation and other leave days until his official retirement at the end of the calendar year.”

Assistant Chief Raymond Martinez will take over for Noriega as the city conducts a national search for a new chief.

LTC 270-2011 Police Chief Carlos Noriega_s Separation Date

Patience + 288,000 Jelly beans = Wow!

What would you do with 288,000 jelly beans? You could eat them.

Or, you could make a music video.

From PetaPixel.com:

Want to see what pure dedication looks like? This music video for the song “In Your Arms” by Kina Grannis is a stop-motion animation done with a background composed of jelly beans. It’s a crazy project that required 22 months, 1,357 hours, 30 people, and 288,000 jelly beans. They could have used CGI, of course, but each frame was carefully created by hand and photographed with a still camera. It’s even more mind-blowing given this fact: none of it was done with a green screen.

The way we were...Hialeah politics and Miami cops

Miami News, Nov 3, 1971

40 years ago, Nov. 3, 1971:

Hialeah voters elect Henry Milander to a 14th term as mayor, despite the fact that he was on probation following a conviction on grand larceny charges the year before.

One of Milander's challengers, William Lockward, told the Miami News he would file suit to have the election returns inspected. "It's unbelievable. I don't think the people would endorse a convicted criminal," Lockward said.

Also victorious was Francis A. (Tony) Benedetto, candidate for the city council. The Miami News reported Benedetto "served on the city council for 15 years before he was convicted in 1969 ... of possessing untaxed cigarettes with the intent to sell them. He is currently under indictment on charges of accepting a payoff for fixing a traffic ticket."

Miami News, Nov. 4, 1971

Meanwhile, in other news 40 years ago, the Miami Police Benevolent Association decided to spend $20,000 to fight a lawsuit filed by black cops who were seeking admission to the all-white union.

Miami News, Nov. 3, 1971

Spending wasting your tax dollars - a Guide for Dummies

Click image to enlarge.

Big shots at County hall getting $10,000 in "executive benefits."

Millions more spent on 3,000 "take-home cars" for county workers.

3,100 of the county's 27,000 employees hauling down six-figure salaries.

How many more ways could there possibly be to waste your tax dollars?

Frank Alvarado at Miami New Times knows and he's put together a list of eight of the most outrageous examples of wasted taxpayer money in Miami-Dade County.

He started off the series today with a look at how a traffic circle mysteriously appeared one day in front of Miami Commissioner Marc "The Shark" Sarnoff's Coconut Grove home

In 2001, Marc Sarnoff was president of the Center Coconut Grove Homeowners Association. He complained to city and county road planners that he needed a traffic circle to slow traffic in front of his two houses. Their response: the four way stop sign at Virginia Street and Shipping Avenue did a fine job. Six years later, newly elected City Commissioner Sarnoff made the circle one his top priorities.

Alvarado continues Thursday with a look at why the South Dade Cultural Center was a waste of $51 million.

On Friday he takes readers for a ride on the $50 million, 94-foot tall I-95 flyover.

Then on Monday he takes a tour of Raul Martinez's $411,000 monument to Hialeah.

Alvarado tells Random Pixels that the rest of the series will feature a $350,000 park with no parking for cars and a $1.8 million parking lot with no cars!

Follow the series daily at Miami New Times.

Aerial view of "Marc Sarnoff Circle" at Virginia Ave. and Shipping St. in Coconut Grove.

Miami Herald circulation dips slightly; St. Petersburg Times is still Florida's largest newspaper

From the St. Petersburg Times:

The St. Petersburg Times saw Sunday circulation increase 6.6 percent in new figures released for fall 2011 by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Weekday circulation dipped 1.4 percent in the figures, which were the second set of numbers this year released under new counting methods established by the ABC.
[...]
Some more numbers:

Sarasota Herald Tribune: 83,140 Sundays, 63,864 daily.

Miami Herald: 209,116 Sunday, 160,505 daily.

Sun Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale): 224,763 Sundays, 147,860 daily.

Orlando Sentinel: 286,982 Sunday, 171,418 daily.

Here are the numbers for the same newspapers from May, 2011:

Tampa Tribune: 262,218 Sundays, 164,568 daily.

Sarasota Herald Tribune: 106,127 Sundays, 83,085 daily.

Miami Herald: 217,163 Sunday, 173,555 daily.

Sun Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale): 253,247 Sundays, 174,641 daily.

Orlando Sentinel: 287,845 Sunday, 187,841 daily.

Your lunch hour time waster

Cute baby feeds Cheerios to the family dog.

Put all your calls on hold!

You're going to want to watch this one 20 or 30 times.