Cooper City News

Bruce Adler, two-time Tony Award nominee and fixture of the South Florida theater community, died Friday morning of cancer, which he had been struggling with in recent years.

A memorial service was held Wednesday for a Broward Sheriff's Office K-9 shot and killed in the line of duty.

AT&T turned on television service Monday in South Florida, becoming the first big phone company to challenge cable and satellite companies in Florida since the state last year opened the cable TV industry to ...

A Broward Sheriff's Office sergeant was hospitalized Saturday night after a car collided with her cruiser, the department said.

Forget the sigh of relief when you see that the officer behind you is outside his jurisdiction. If you drive in Broward County , those jurisdictional lines soon will disappear.

Under a new policing-without-boundaries plan set to launch in two weeks, city officers could make traffic stops in any other city in Broward.

Sheriff Al Lamberti has quietly signed agreements with several cities in Broward that have their own police departments and hopes to get all the Broward cities signed on. Under the sheriff's plan, city officers in Broward would be like county deputies, able to enforce traffic laws countywide, even when they're off duty and driving to the grocery store.

Oozi, a Belgian Malinois, helped his partner capture 35 people this year. Number 36 turned out to be fatal.

Despite talk of compromise, words about healing, and headlines about Florida's delegation getting seated at the Democratic National Convention this summer, there is still massive anger roiling the ranks of party activists.

The discontent is so strong, some Democrats said Sunday, it could threaten their party's ability to win Florida and its 27 electoral votes - one-tenth of the total needed to win the presidency - in November.

For many South Florida Democrats, the half-loaf approved Saturday by a national party committee isn't nearly good enough. The compromise will seat all 211 Florida delegates but give each of them only half a vote.

Dare to wear an Obama or McCain campaign pin to a Cooper City meeting and you might get hit with a $75 fine.

That's if city leaders embrace an ordinance that would outlaw wearing buttons or clothing with a political message at city events held on public property. Political signs and literature, profane language and boisterous behavior also would be banned under the plan the commission is expected to discuss tonight.

Commissioner John Sims said on Monday he is pushing the proposal as a way to restore polite behavior at the city's notoriously raucous public meetings. 'You've got to hit people where it hurts, in their pocket,' he said, explaining that a $75 fine would discourage rowdiness.

Cooper City may be flirting with yet another federal lawsuit centering on religious freedom.

One woman collapsed on Las Olas Boulevard when a water meter's lid gave way under her feet. A man broke his hip when he tripped on a sidewalk warped by tree roots, then had a heart attack two days later and blamed the city. A Canadian tourist fell on a sidewalk and died from complications during surgery.

They are among the many who have tripped on sidewalks in Fort Lauderdale and sued.

A South Florida Sun-Sentinel review of lawsuit settlements over the past 4 1 2 years shows people are frequently falling on city sidewalks and heading to the courthouse for payback. City officials say they have successfully contested most of the lawsuits.

The sign on the empty field promises a new park for Cooper City.

That empty field, on Flamingo Road just south of Stirling Road, will someday be home to a new park - just not any time soon. The future park will occupy 27 acres of land that came from two sources. One is from the 500-acre Monterra housing development, which was required to give the city 24 acres for recreation. The remaining 3 acres were purchased as part of the county's bond program approved by voters in 2000.

When completed, the park could include features such as a nature preserve, five soccer fields, a picnic area and walking trails, said Ken Richardson, the city's parks and recreation director. After gathering input from residents, Richardson said the city developed an initial master plan for the park.

The quiet Frenchman had kept a low profile since his move last summer into a Cooper City community on Southwest 89th Way.

The blank wall on the side of the Cooper City Optimist Club building isn't much to look at now, but it makes a good canvas for a mural.

In about a month, that's exactly what it will be when Lauren Barmann is done with it.

Barmann, 17, who will be a senior this year at Cooper City High, is painting a sports mural on the front wall of the building. Because the building is within the Cooper City Sports Complex, 10100 Stirling Road, the mural will feature depictions of six sports in the city's program: baseball, hockey, football, basketball, soccer and cheerleading.

A French man pleaded guilty Thursday to attempting to sell four valuable paintings that were stolen last year from a French art museum in a brazen robbery by masked, armed thieves.

Susan Bernard is retiring Friday after 30 years as city clerk. The city honored her last month, praising her dedication and long service.

A crash caused by heavy rain backed up traffic for hours on Florida's Turnpike in southern Palm Beach County, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Parents of students in Sunrise elementary schools will have to wait another year for another middle school to be built in the city.

The Broward School Board delayed funding for construction of a middle school, dubbed NN, on the site of the former Cypress Bay Annex, at 270 N. New River Circle, where ninth-graders were once taught in portable classrooms.

The $27 million earmarked for the project now will be used to offset a portion of a $143 million shortfall in the 2008-09 budget. Funding for the new school is expected to be in the 2009-10 budget, School Board member Phyllis Hope said.

Olivia Napoleon enjoyed a major cultural experience recently: the 4-year-old had her first taste of sushi.

The signs have been posted, the grace period has run its course, and now the Broward Sheriff's Office is enforcing the new 25-mph residential speed limit.

FRENCH NATIONAL CHARGED IN INTERNATIONAL STOLEN ART CONSPIRACY INVOLVING PAINTINGS BY MONET, SISLEY, AND BRUEGHEL R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jonathan I. ...