Sláinte! Top Five US Cities to Visit for St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations
Although St. Patrick’s Day is traditionally a religious holiday, this day is also a day for celebration. It is a day celebrated all around the world. Cities hold grand parades, decorated with green shamrocks, gold coins and filled with mischievous leprechauns. People enjoy traditional Irish cuisine all guzzled down with a swig of green beer! Families gather to partake in all the festivities by dressing up in wild costumes, painting children’s faces with shamrock’s and even bringing along the family pet. And, even though this day is mostly to promote culture, and attend mass, people can have the opportunity to be Irish for one day and experience all things Irish like learning a traditional dance of an Irish tune. This year partake in an event; enjoy a day of fun and laughter in one of these amazing cities that have been doing it for years! Here are the top five US cities to visit for an extraordinary St. Patrick’s Day celebration.
* Savannah, Georgia
This year’s Parade, the 186th edition, will take place on Wednesday, March 17th. In honor of Saint Patrick’s dedication to Christianity, the day will start with the celebration of Mass at the beautiful Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. The Parade will step off at 10:15 am. It is expected that over 400,000 people will visit Savannah to help celebrate the second largest Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in the United States. www.savannahsaintpatricksday.com
* New York, New York
The St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Fifth Avenue is a New York City’s tradition. The Parade marched for the first time 247 years ago, on March 17, 1762 - fourteen Years before the Declaration of Independence. The parade is held to honor the Patron Saint of Ireland and the Archdiocese of New York and celebrates Irish Faith and heritage. The parade takes off from Fifth Avenue on St Patrick’s Day at 11:00am www.nyc-st-patrick-day-parade.org
* Chicago, Illinois
The Downtown Chicago Parade begins at 12:00 noon, on Saturday March 13th. The parade is held the Saturday before the actual calendar date of Saint Patrick’s Day which allows families to participate in the festivities without having to remove their children from school. Dyeing the Chicago River Green!! This is also scheduled for Saturday March 13th at 10:45AM, and can be best viewed from the East side of the bridge at Columbus Drive or upper and lower Wacker Drive between Columbus and Lake Shore Drive. www.chicagostpatsparade.com
* Boston, Massachusetts
Historians believe that the first St. Patrick’s Day Parade ever conducted in America took place in Boston in 1737, when the newly formed Charitable Irish Society held a brief procession up Tremont Street in honor of Ireland’s patron saint. Today, Massachusetts boasts seven parades across the Commonwealth. These expressions of cultural and ethnic pride are family-events, free and open to the public. This year’s parade season opens on Saturday, March 6, when the Cape Cod Irish parade gets underway in Yarmouth. On Sunday, March 14, Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade takes place in South Boston starting at 1:00PM (ET). www.IrishMassachusetts.com
* Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Irish in Philadelphia first celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in 1771, five years before the Declaration of Independence was signed! The first documented St. Patrick’s Day Celebration Parade in Philadelphia was held in 1771, celebrating over 240 continuous years of celebrations. Throughout the years this celebration has honored this religious and cultural celebration. Thousands of marchers and spectators in their green bedecked finery, the bands and floats, the flags and music highlight one of the grandest parades in a city that loves parades. www.philadelphiastpatsparade.com
On February 27th, Weston’s first annual Chocolate and Wine Festival was held, where the Weston Town Center went chocolate! This fabulous event was comprised with the “crème de la crème” of food-and-wine enthusiasts from all over South Florida. More than 200 wines from around the world were on display for you to taste and enjoy, as well as countless types of chocolate. And although the day began with a torrential down pour, it didn’t stop all the wine and chocolate lovers from supporting the event. A portion of the proceeds from this event went to the charity “Healing Hands for Haiti” 
which provides medical support to the most vulnerable victims of the disastrous earthquake that took place. Weston Town Center’s beautiful location made it a posh afternoon, after the rain stopped, for wine-lovers and chocolate-lovers alike.
. Turn signals will give away your next move. A real Florida driver never uses them.
2. Under no circumstance should you leave a safe distance between you and the car in front of you, or the space will be filled in by somebody else, putting you in an even more dangerous situation
. 3. The faster you drive through a red light, the smaller the chance you have of getting hit.
4. Never, ever come to a complete stop at a stop sign. No one expects it and it will result in you being rear-ended.
5. Never get in the way of an older car that needs extensive bodywork, especially someone from Florida With no-fault insurance the other guy doesn’t have anything to lose.
6. Braking is to be done as hard and late as possible to ensure that your ABS kicks in, giving a nice, relaxing foot massage as the brake pedal pulsates. For those of you without ABS, it’s a chance to stretch your legs.
7. Never pass on the left when you can pass on the right. It’s a good way to prepare for people entering the highway.
8. Speed limits are arbitrary figures, given only as a suggestion and are apparently not enforceable in any County during rush hour.
9. Just because you’re in the left lane and have no room to speed up or move over doesn’t mean that a Florida driver flashing his high beams behind you doesn’t think he can go faster in your spot.
10. Always slow down and rubberneck when you see an accident or even someone changing a tire. This is seen as a sign of respect for the victim.
She’s tried before, and Democratic state senator Nan Rich of Weston is trying again: Rich wants to make it legal for gays to adopt and illegal for Floridians to have sex with animals
You’d have thought by now, in the year 2009, the law would be the other way around.
But not in Flori-duh.
Give Rich credit for continuing her quixotic quest.
She’s made a push on both fronts in the past, but the efforts haven’t gotten far with the righteous right-wingers of Tallahassee.
Even though gays are legally allowed to become foster parents for children in the state’s welfare system, they are still prohibited from taking the logical last step — adopting them permanently.
Rich has sponsored SB460 and co-sponsored SB500 to right that wrong. Rich would like the Legislature to erase the 1970s Anita Bryant-era ban in order to make an ongoing court fight over gay adoption moot.
Fat chance. So far there is no twin House bill, and the Republican-dominated House is usually loathe to such progressive thinking. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m betting by the end of the session on May 1 the gay adoption ban stays in place.
The bestiality ban, SB448, has a better shot. There is already a twin House bill with several Republican co-sponsors. The bill should get the backing of powerful animal-rights groups, and I can’t imagine anybody working the other side of this issue. (Unless there’s a North American Man-Sheep Love Association out there that I’m not aware of).
Here’s hoping Rich goes at least one-for-two
300 Fort Lauderdale workers made at least
$100,000 in 2008
The city of Fort Lauderdale’s annual list of the top-paid employees — released in a spirit of disclosure — shows the number of workers earning six figures
Consider police Officer Jason Maldonado, the highest compensated officer whether overtime was included or not. He earned $193,680 in compensation, including about $70,000 in overtime, and the city’s pension contribution of about $25,000.- You got to be kidding
Police spokesman Sgt. Frank Sousa said officers do not comment to the media. Gee I am so surprised
Most of the Fort Lauderdale employees work in the police or fire departments, and about 90 percent are men. Others include officials in parks, the building department, public works, human resources and public information, among other areas
Wow we sure are getting our monies worth- crime increases, services are down, many of the store fronts on Las Olas Blvd are closed. The robbery of the US general public continues- Shame on Ft lauderdale!
Florida is number one in road rage in the USA, number one in rudeness in the USA, last in education in the USA- So why not let THESE PEOPLE have as many concealed weapons as possible-and the guy in charge of weapon permits is named CHARLES BRONSON—Only in Florida-
Floridians in record numbers want to carry concealed weapons, a trend linked to a surge in crime, economic anxiety and fears of stricter gun laws.
The state is buried under a backlog of 95,000 applications for concealed-weapons permits and it needs to hire a lot more people to handle the paperwork. A legislative panel Wednesday gave Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson the OK to spend $3.9 million more so he can hire 61 temporary workers.
”Once the economy gets bad, crime always goes up,” said Bronson, a police officer. “People get desperate whenever things are not going the way they feel like they should be going, and they’ll do things they normally wouldn’t do.”
The state reported a surge in applications in November after the election of President Barack Obama, who in the past has advocated stricter gun control laws but who also campaigned as a defender of Second Amendment rights. Florida received 75,679 first-time concealed-weapon permit applications in 2007 and 86,269 in 2008, in addition to tens of thousands of renewal forms. About 541,000 Floridians have permits for concealed weapons.
In a state were we have cut budget for essentials like EDUCATION we are hiring 61 workers to process concealed weapons permits- You have to be kidding-
CASE IN POINT TODAY”S (Feb 20th) Miami Herald
Had Diego Jose Feliciano been satisfied with merely flicking off a motorist on Florida’s Turnpike Friday morning, it’s possible he could still be a free man.
Instead, he waved a revolver at the driver — a Miami police officer — leading to a chase that ended with Feliciano lying face down on the highway in Miramar.
Feliciano, 56, of Hollywood, was arrested and has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill, according to Miramar police.
According to an arrest affidavit, Feliciano was driving a 2002 Ford pickup truck north on the turnpike about 9 a.m. when he leaned out the window and showed his middle finger to a Miami police officer who was driving from his home to a shooting range in Medley.
The officer, who was in an unmarked unit, said Feliciano then changed lanes and shook a revolver in his right hand.
At that point, the officer called 911 and backed off, said Officer Jeff Giordano, a Miami police spokesman.
The Florida Highway Patrol and Miami-Dade County police were notified.
Feliciano was pulled over near Northwest 52nd Avenue in Miramar, where he was arrested. Miramar police say a Colt .32 was found in his truck.
Well let’s see, two more creeps who seem have stole more money by being a”financial genius”. I believe this is the tip of the iceberg and we will eventually see thru the course of 2009/2010 hundreds if not thousands of these scams.
I probably shouldn’t say this, considering my financial skills are at best mediocre, but I have a strong feeling that all these great economic years over the previous decade have a smoke and mirror feel .My instincts they me that maybe 20-25% of our “great economic successes” was B.S. paper doctoring or “Fools Gold”-let me know what you think and I will print it, send comments to tom@thinkweston.com
With worldwide attention riveted on the spectacular collapse of investor Bernard Madoff several Broward County investors fear they may have lost their hard-earned savings in a similar fraud.
For years, investment clients of Michael Riolo, 37, who lives west of Boca Raton, received account statements showing substantial returns from thriving investments in foreign currency. Now, they say, they are being told nothing is left.
Three investors filed suit Jan. 8 accusing Riolo of stealing more than $1 million from them and “perpetrating a Madoff-like Ponzi scheme” through his Coral Springs firms, LaSalle International Clearing Corp. and Sterling Wentworth Currency Group Inc.
First, the Madoff scandal, in which as much as $50 billion has been lost, hit hard, particularly among the elite of Palm Beach County Last week, an Indiana financial adviser was arrested at a Florida campground after allegedly trying to fake his own death by jumping out of a plane.
Currently, federal investigators are looking for Arthur Nadel, a 75-year-old hedge fund manager from Sarasota, who went missing last week along with hundreds of millions of dollars.
AP
![[casualties of the economy]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/P1-AO260A_ECONO_NS_20090109210416.gif)
The New York metropolitan area will lose 181,000 jobs this year - more than any other region in the country, according to a US Conference of Mayors forecast that notes Wall Street will be especially hard hit.
The Los Angeles area is expected to lose 164,000 jobs, in part because of a huge drop in home prices that has punctured the California economy.
Greater Miami comes in third with a projected decline of 85,000 jobs, while the Chicago area is fourth with 80,000.
—-Well none of this is good news, I have been watching the South Florida recession now for two years ( I thought I could be a real estate baron-Ha!). Our problem down here is pretty deep, we have little industry, less organization and a high cost of living. Without construction and tourism we flounder. Ok maybe we need to help each other-If I hear of a job out there I will post on this blog the details-and I hope you guys are looking for employees will send me a note @ tom@thinkweston.com
Let’s hope fopr the best for everyone.
Wow- report says our cops drive poorly
I had a feeling that this topic is out of control in South Florida-see this story
A Sun Sentinel examination of collisions in six law enforcement agencies in Broward and Palm Beach counties from 2007 through mid-2008 found more than 2,000 accidents involving public vehicles. In roughly one in four of those collisions, supervisors declared the employee at fault and said the accident never should have happened.
Officers were disciplined in many of the accidents for crashing unnecessarily and risking life, limb and the taxpayers’ purse. At least one officer was fired.
Some of these accidents have been deadly. In just the past two months, a Hollywood officer crashed into a palm tree and died, and a sheriff’s deputy in Palm Beach County smashed into a van, killing the driver. In the past 2 1/2 years, at least three officers, five pedestrians and a civilian driver have been killed in Broward and Palm Beach counties in accidents involving police officers.
State and local laws give police officers leeway to speed, blow stop signs and run through intersections when responding to calls. But the laws and policies require officers to balance a quick response time against the public’s safety, said former Davie Police Officer Mitch Frank, an associate professor in charge of driving curriculum at the Broward Police Academy.
Deputies and officers are trained in emergency driving, but Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Deputy Eric Davis said that doesn’t prevent crashes.
“The best drivers in the world are NASCAR drivers. And every race you see crashes,” said Davis. “Those are professionals. It’s inevitable.”
That’s “ludicrous,” said police driving expert Capt. Travis Yates of the Tulsa police force. “We would never go into any other type of law enforcement activity … and say about a fourth of the time I’m going to make a mistake here. It’s a culture that has become inbred in our profession.”
The driving habits of police officers remain a sore point in the community.
Hundreds of readers complained about speeding officers when the Sun Sentinel reported in August that Fort Lauderdale uses satellite technology to monitor its officers’ speed. It’s the only South Florida agency to do so. Drivers across the region complained that squad cars whiz by or run red lights at intersections when the officers don’t appear to be headed to emergencies.
—this report was not complete, the legendary Davie {Police were not included for some reason- Hmmm-But come on people at least 25% of the collisions should not have happened! Patrol cars are suppose to set an example when just routinely crusiing- I thought?
God bless, Adam Walsh murder has been resolved. 27 years later, the pain for John and Eve Walsh I am sure has been incredible. Congrats to Chief of Police of Hollywood Chad Wagner ( I have met him several times-he’s one of the good guys)
Rest in Peace Adam Walsh
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She’s tried before, and Democratic state senator Nan Rich of Weston is trying again: Rich wants to make it legal for gays to adopt and illegal for Floridians to have sex with animals