Two weeks before a law banning texting while driving was set for a public hearing and final approval, the state attorney general's office has ruled states can ban texting but not municipalities.

City Attorney Andy Maurodis said the ruling, on Nov. 9, effectively derails Deerfield Beach’s ordinance. That ordinance was set for a second reading and possible approval on Nov. 23. In light of the attorney general’s finding, Maurodis said "It is not going to be on the agenda.”

It was at Maurodis' request that the attorney general's office considered the question at all and, Maurodis said, the outcome was not a surprise. In a letter to Maurodis, Assistant Attorney General Gerry Hammond said, that cities could pass local laws only if it was for a locally relevant reason. “The only limitation on the power of municipalities is that such power must be exercised for a valid municipal purpose," wrote Hammond in a letter to Maurodis. He added that when municipal law conflicts with state law, state law prevails.

"The concern expressed by legislative staff was the possibility that regulations may be enacted that differ from city to city and county to county,” Hammond specified in the letter. “[That caused] concerns for some who envision a scenario in which a driver lawfully using a cell phone in one jurisdiction might cross into another jurisdiction where the behavior is outlawed.”

The ruling Nov. 12 could have ramifications for surrounding communities. Parkland passed a texting ban in October. Pembroke Pines has asked its attorney to draft a resolution for review, and parallel ordinances are under way in Pembroke Pines, Lauderhill and Coral Springs.

“When Parkland adopted theirs, they knew there was an issue. They decided to ask the attorney general’s opinion,” explained Maurodis in his letter. “And they decided that while they were waiting, they were not going to enforce the ordinance.”

They made the right decision, according to Hammond, in the letter to Maurodis.
His letter concludes that “[...] legislative history [...] expresses the Legislature’s determination to preempt to the state regulation of the use of cellular telephones and other electronic communication devices by both the driver of a motor vehicle and any passengers. [...] Thus it would appear that the Legislature has reserved to itself the regulation of 'texting.' ”

Could it be far behind?

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They are the Robin Hoods of the beach. They fight for the rights of shore-bound anglers everywhere, defenders of the freedom to fish.
From jetties.
From piers.
From the shore.

Their first battle was in Delray Beach last year in June, when they gathered to oppose a proposed ordinance banning shark fishing from the beach.
In the year since, they have quietly presented their positions in the sterile confines of city halls from Lauderdale-by-the-Sea to Deerfield Beach.

In the case of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, the group learned of it too late to do more than send a representative or two. But on Nov. 3, after reading of a proposal to ban shore fishing in Deerfield Beach, they came to City Hall en masse.

One after another filed to the front. They told story after story of growing up on the beach, of fish that bite best in the morning and evening; of parents who dropped them off for a day of fishing at the beach, trusting they were safe and too busy fishing to get into trouble.

“Just about everybody grew up fishing on the beaches,” said Zach Miller, who works construction while studying at FAU. “And I not only believe nobody has been hurt with a rig, I think there are many more instances where bathers have been hurt by non-anglers.”

When they were done, the commissioners unanimously supported District 4 Commissioner Bill Ganz’s motion to deny the proposed ban.
As Ganz said, “Beach fishing is a completely different kind of fishing and you just can’t legislate common sense.”

The yet-to-be-named coalition chalked up a victory for fishermen everywhere and moved on.
They are Miller, a 22-year-old FAU student from Boca Raton; Pat Dirindian, 52, a retired electrician from Fort Lauderdale; Tom Argue, a Web designer and commercial pier manager living in Fort Lauderdale; and the Paxton brothers, legendary fishermen from Northport.

“The shore-based community is pretty tight,” Miller said. “We think people who want to be able to, should be able to recreate using natural resources responsibly.”
Miller said the group has set up a website for people who fish from almost anything but a boat.

“We only deal with land-based fishing matters. That’s how a lot of us know each other,” Miller said. “We have a website set up for people who fish from, basically, any land-based structure. We have a name picked, and we are getting ready to launch it.”
For more information about the coalition, call www.boatlessfishing.com.

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Three days after attorney Scott Rothstein vanished as surely as the millions in his custody, Deerfield Beach blogger Chaz Stevens put a teaser on his blog.

“What is my prize if I know the location of Scott Rothstein?” he asked on his blog, “Are you saying to yourself … Come on, Chaz. The entire county is looking for him. How do you know where he is? .?.?. I am a Certified Genius. Are you?”

It was the most provocative teaser to date on Myactofsedition.com, a blog that has driven one Deerfield Beach mayor and commissioner to jail and another mayor to distraction in 36 short months. Stevens combines superior computer skills with a singular vision and the ability to translate results into verbal and actual indictments. He choreographed the arrest of Mayor Al Capellini and District 4 Commissioner Steve Gonot. Now, he has Mayor Peggy Noland in his sights.
“All I really did was shine a light on things and let you decide,” Stevens said. “I got rid of everybody … but I was truly independent. I just wanted the right thing.”

Timothy Richard Stevens was born 45 years ago in New Jersey, one of four children of an insurance agent and a mother who works for an engineering firm. Even in that family, chuckled father Jim Stevens, “None of them are like Chaz.”

The self-described “big guy” is a portrait in contradictions. He has cottage cheese and coffee for breakfast, yet his physique suggests a beer diet. He works pro bono for Amnesty International, yet hones his martial arts skills five times a week at Punch Fitness. The entry announcing he was taking a break from blogging to nurse his sick dog was posted under one addressed to Peggy Noland.

“I am really good at math and sometimes socially challenged,” he blurted, explaining the traits that relegated him to a closet-sized classroom with three other reading-challenged children in kindergarten.

He always knew he saw the world differently; he recognizes patterns in complex math problems, sees colors in letters and can sift through information to discover core truths. But it wasn’t until he moved to Deerfield Beach in 1981 that he was pegged as gifted. He graduated from Deerfield Beach High School at age 14 and earned degrees in computer science and applied mathematics. His career as a freelance software writer for the likes of IBM, Coca-Cola and Disney took him from Washington, D.C., to Wichita, Kan., but he always came back to Deerfield, where a political sensibility that first took root during the Nixon era led him to scrutinize City Hall.

Specifically, he noticed that Noland voted on issues directly benefiting her family, such as the firefighter contract affecting her firefighter husband. On Nov. 3, he wrote about Noland voting for an event hosted by Island Water Sports that monetarily compensated her son.

“For the last eight years, I waited for this moment,” reads the entry. “And it has arrived. Your time is nigh. Dress accordingly…”

And Rothstein? He is one of the 25,000 people who logged on to Myactsofsedition.com for news about Deerfield, about Broward and the world — and about Rothstein.

When Rothstein clicked from Morocco, he left a signature as clear as Noland’s vote on Island Water Sports, Stevens said.
But only to those who can see it.

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A month after she asked that the legal documents be served through the bedroom window because she was unable to get to the front door, Vice Mayor Sylvia Poitier said she will fight state charges that her dry-cleaning business Deerfield Cleaners and Laundry has been pumping dry cleaning chemicals into the groundwater creating “an imminent hazard to the environment and to public health.”

The charge was filed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the complaint was served Oct. 8. It alleges numerous violations by the store at 85 W. Hillsboro Blvd. They range from failure to perform weekly inspections and labeling hazardous waste containers to conditions that contaminate groundwater supplies.
It further alleges that Poitier has known of the problem since 2006.

“A polluting condition has existed at the facility since at least 2005 and constitutes a continuing violation,” it says. “[...] it includes the presence of dry cleaning chemicals in the ground or groundwater at the Facility in quantities which are or may be potentially harmful or injurious to human welfare, animal or plant life or property.”

The complaint states that since March 1, 1971, when Poitier took over the cleaning business, one or more discharges of hazardous or polluting substances, such as dry-cleaning chemicals have occurred. The complaint asks the Broward County Circuit Court to award the DEP a penalty of $50,000 per day that the violation exists.

Poitier said that the allegations are not true, and that she has hired an attorney to defend her.
“I never got a fine. We were never offered a settlement,” she said, adding that the storefront uses no chemicals at all now.
“We’ve already reduced our business to just a drop station,” she said.

But that wasn’t the case in 2006, according to the court documents. They allege that on March 10, 2006, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection inspected the tiny storefront and identified liquid in a bin beneath hazardous waste drums.
“Also, unlabeled and unclosed containers of hazardous waste were present at the facility,” the document continues.

Will she go to court now? “I’ve got to,” she said.

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