Apparently, James Giordano didn't get the memo that the Internet had freed up otherwise-illegal gambling only because you could serve American customers by operating your business from another country. That is, it's not just that you had a cyber arm to your bricks-and-mortar syndicate; you had to be in the other country to avoid prosecution. His Internet hardware was abroad, but according to the FBI, he and all the players worked stateside, and beaucoup wiretaps prove it. They raided his Broward home and other locations, and arrested a total of 27, including the whole Giordano immediate family. Since the feds are frustrated by all the Costa Rican, etc., companies making billions off American gamblers, they're probably gonna lower the boom on Giordano. [Miami Herald]
Serena Williams Double-Faults Truth A pit bull bit a security guard outside her Palm Beach Gardens home. Police were called. Serena was home. It's not her dog, she said, but she was looking after it for a friend. Actually, same dog appears with her in a photo on her website. Actually, dog's collar has her phone number on it. Actually, dog is registered to her. [Palm Beach Post via Miami Herald]
An F State Record-Holder Passes Away Ms. Rosalie Bradford, 63, died in Auburndale last week. She once (in 1987) weighed 1,050 pounds, which the Guinness Book calls a record, and slimmed down to 314 (in 1992), which is another Guinness record, for weight-loss (736 lbs.). She was at around 400 on her passing. [The Ledger (Lakeland)]
Floridians With Worse Sex Lives Than You Rookie police officer Arthur Lewis, 37, on duty in an Orlando suburb, was fired after allegedly conducting an intimate (but unspecified) "exam" on a 14-year-old girl, supposedly to certify whether she had been sexually active, since her grandparents had complained to Lewis about the girl's boyfriend. (Complicating the case is the fact that no sex-tinged news is ever taken solemnly if it arises from the town of Longwood.) [Orlando Sentinel]
Your Daily Loser Dexter Harrah, 51, was charged with manslaughter in Clearwater after he attempted to resuscitate a heroin-overdose victim by injecting him with three shots of cocaine. He told deputies he didn't see any problem since he had done that before. [St. Petersburg Times] (Sadly, the online version lacks Harrah's rather feral-looking booking photo.]
More Things To Worry About Today The truth is still out there, which is why a retired Bradenton-area couple started the UFO Group of Manatee in October, meeting monthly at a local library [Sarasota Herald-Tribune] . . . . . Sheriff's deputies in Deltona arrived to stop three kids at Pine Ridge High who had attracted a crowd by beating on a fourth kid until some teeth were knocked out; charges were filed even though the victim said he welcomed the beatdown as a condition of joining their gang [WFTV (Orlando)] . . . . . Trial began this week in Melbourne in a love-triangle-involved shooting, with the jilter named Anntwinnett (Dixon) and the jilted named Taj Mahal (Owens) [Florida Today] . . . . . In Boynton Beach, two squad cars, racing to back up a drug bust, collided with each other, and the perp got away [Palm Beach Post] . . . . . Guaranteed that you didn't know this: Florida has representatives on a Southeast regional council on the welfare of gopher tortoises, and there was just a meeting in Englewood [Sun-Herald (Port Charlotte)].
This article appears in Nov 29 – Dec 5, 2006.