There was enough equipment from Deerfield Fire Rescue to handle a multi-car pileup on Interstate-95, but it was a single car causing all the ruckus – this one pulled into the south wall of Marlee’s Diner, at 699 S. Federal Highway.

Captain Tim Hanley said he was prohibited by the Health Insurance Portabilty and Accountability Act from disclosing the details of the accident but, he said, it involved a Lighthouse Point septugenarian who said she was faced with a choice of hitting an oncoming car or pioneering a drive-through window at the diner. Turns out, the diner is intact.

There was minimal damage to the car, and the damage to the building, Hanley said, “is not even requiring code officials.” - so Marlee's won't be taking to-go orders through a window.

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When David Fraser backs out of his own driveway, he beeps his horn just a bit before depressing the accelerator. It’s just a precaution, but it’s ingrained in him by now.
“I don’t care if they think it is obnoxious,” he explains of the irritated looks he sometimes inspires from his Plantation neighbors. “I’m not going to run somebody over because they are walking when I’m back out of the parking lot.”

Call him prudent. Call him compulsive. That kind of precaution has won Fraser five driver safety awards from FedEx Ground, for which he has been delivering packages in Deerfield Beach and Pompano Beach since 2003.

An independent contractor for FedEx, Fraser has four other drivers working for him under the FedEx name.

Each morning begins with him presenting a pep talk on safety, as well as a safety tip of the day. So Fraser said when FedEx issued a list of Safe Summer Driving Tips for Sharing Roads with All Vehicles, he found himself reinforcing a litany safe driving precautions issued by the corporate office.

Among them: be patient and stay focused; adhere to the speed limit and remain calm; keep your eyes on the road to avoid fender-benders in stop-and-go traffic; let your eyes lead your wheels as you drive.

David Westrick, spokesman for FedEx Ground based in Pittsburgh, Pa., said the corporate office issued these guidelines because traffic almost everywhere, but Florida increases with summer breaks.

Family vacations and the like put millions of drivers on the open road in most places. The situation isn’t so dire in South Florida where snowbirds go home and even vacationers stay put.

But caution is in order, Fraser said.
“It’s what you have to do every day to avoid an accident,” he said. “Using turn signals, watching the mirrors every 5 to 8 seconds; slowing down in wet weather; using the lights in the rain and any time the windshield wipers are on,” he said. “If you anticipate what the other driver is going to do, you are in a good position to avoid those oh-my-gosh types of situations.”

Those tips, he said, he learned from his father. And FedEx has reinforced those lessons.
“I always was a safe driver,’ he said. “But with the training FedEx has given us, I have become a much better driver.”

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Was it a political statement, performance art or an ad for a blog?
According to James Chaikong, the answer is yes to all three.

Chaikong is the hired gun for political gadfly/watchdog Chaz Stevens, whose blogged allegations of improprieties in city hall have gone to law enforcement, justice department and ethics commission officials.

On June 16, Stevens had submitted the required written request to speak at a City Commission meeting. Instead, it was Chaikong who came — along with an eye-catching paralegal in a fuchsia dress as short as her stilettos were tall. The “friend of Chaz” turned out to be recording the speech with a video camera.

Stevens/Chaikong was given the usual three minutes. Chaikong introduced himself as “the official ninja for Acts of Sedition” and read a statement carefully crafted to explain the substitution, cover 17 alleged infractions and offer free T-shirts in three minutes flat.

The audio-visual presentation was quashed by a commission fearful that it would offend. Even so, Chaikong’s was the most dramatic moment on the dais since Amadeo Trinchitella keeled more than two decades ago. But was it a political statement? Was it performance art?

“My craft is to get up in front of people and to entertain them and share information and make an impression. That’s part of my M.O.,” said Chaikong, whose half-Thai, half-Texan genes and 5-foot-4 stature led him to fight his way through a childhood on a Texas military base.

Chaikong is no mere mixed martial arts instructor, however. He describes himself as a Christ-centered Buddhist more comfortable strumming guitar than teaching a hammerlock. Yet he earns his living teaching and training athletes at Punch Fitness in Deerfield Beach.

His ninja designation, embraced in college, came from growing up in a corner of Texas where recreational bull riders like him had stage names. His first love, however, is music. He sells his recordings of poetic ballads and acoustic guitar riffs on Craigslist – which is where he stumbled on an ad seeking a spokesperson.
Chaikong liked the challenge of calling out officials who had misused public funds. A week later, he met Stevens at Dunkin’ Donuts and worked out a script. Several times. And yes, Chaikong got paid.

“I have played and performed as a songwriter [but] getting up and speaking in front of people isn’t [a skill] I have exercised,” Chaikong said. “But the money would not have made a difference if I didn’t support his ideology. I think it is up to citizens to keep hired politicians accountable.”

Would that make it a worthwhile investment for Stevens? Or is it the publicity he got for his blog, www.myactofsedition.com? Yes, on all accounts. Page views spiked 400 percent after the presentation, Stevens said, and the best is yet to come.

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The city is set to end a 15-year agreement with Poitier Gardening that had the company maintaining the swale surrounding Century Village and Natura at city expense.

Charles DaBrusco, the new director of public works, said the agreement predated his tenure, but private properties customarily maintain the public space directly adjacent to their property.

City Attorney Andrew Maurodis said the Poitier Gardening agreement did not need city commission approval since it was less than $10,000 per year.

“Our contention is that the mowing is the responsibility of the community adjacent to the right of way,” DaBrusco said. “I don’t know how this came about.”

Poitier Gardening earned $1,200 a pop, about seven times a year, said Carl Peter, the city’s recently re-assigned assistant director of Public Works. Since the annual cost was less than $10,000, the ceiling above which city business legally must be put out to bid, the contract never was subject to a competitive bid, he added.

Dan Poitier, ex-second cousin of Vice Mayor Sylvia Poitier, said he began cutting the ficus “a few years ago” when the city called him and asked for a proposal. His company continued to cut the hedges several times a year until it came under the scrutiny of blogger Chaz Stevens.

“All I can tell you is they called me and told me to give them a proposal and that’s what I did,” said Dan Poitier.

In a recent posting, Stevens pointed out that his letter of June 3 had asked why Poitier Gardening was tending city-owned hedges and lawn at two properties: Natura and Century Village. He noted that since his letter, the city had resumed responsibility for maintaining the areas.

Century Village and Natura will assume responsibility for maintaining swells adjacent to their properties.

City Manager Mike Mahaney declined to explain why the city has chosen this moment to end by e-mail a long-standing relationship with Poitier Gardening.
“I can’t talk about that right now,” he said.

Peter said the agreement died by e-mail.

“The city manager sent out an e-mail to somebody at Century Village and copied it,” he said, explaining how he learned that maintaining the swale now was the responsibility of the two private communities. The e-mail offered no further explanation, he said.

That deal was negotiated under the former City Manager Larry Deetjen and predates Peter’s tenure with the city, But, Peter said, “He offered a good price when they picked him to do it, and he held his price for years. So he continued doing it without a written contract.”

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