BEST OF ORLANDO® NOMINATION BALLOT IS OPEN THROUGH MAY 6!

Feb 24 – Mar 2, 1999

Feb 24 - Mar 2, 1999 / Vol. 15 / No. 8

Familia affair

It’s always gratifying to walk into an utterly alien environment and instantly feel right at home. That’s just the experience I enjoyed last Saturday night at the Palladium International club, where the Carnaval Axé 2000 party threw me into close contact with a throng of happy Brazilians whose welcoming, feel-good ethos reaffirmed my belief that…

Steve Schneider

‘Would the waste spill on the ground?’

What follows is an excerpt from the Oct. 22, 1998 deposition of Earl Kenon, who worked in the press room of the Orlando Sentinel in the 1970s and early 1980s. Kenon said he was present when the toxic cleaning solvent trichloroethelene, or TCE, was poured into drains at the Sentinel’s downtown printing plant, and also…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Poison pens?

There’s an old adage about the power of newspaper publishers that states, “Never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel.” But what can be done if that publisher fills his empty ink barrels with toxic waste and dumps them into your groundwater supply? It has been known since the early 1990s that the…

Ericson, Edward Jr.

Who’ll pay for cleanup now?

A peril to the public? Lake Apopka might be that. Or perhaps the peril is just in the “restoration” area. Or maybe it isn’t. Last week state officials suspended the lake restoration project and now they warily await scientific data about the nearly 500 birds that have died in and around the soon-to-be-reclaimed former farm…

Ericson, Edward Jr.

Online honor

In the world of online publishing, industry recognition doesn’t get any better than an EPpy Award. And Orlando Weekly emerged as one of three finalists in the prestigious competition whose winners were announced Feb. 19 at the Interactive Newspapers ’99 conference in Atlanta. The awards are sponsored by Editor & Publisher Interactive, the new-media division…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Fly in the ointment

At one time Orlando International Airport planners predicted a 5.8 increase in passengers from 1997 to 1998. In October they realized the growth would be more like 2 percent. Ends up even that modest goal wasn’t met. The airport handled almost 27.8 million passengers during 1998, or 1.6 percent more than it did in 1997.…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Swamp plan watered down

Six prominent scientists have extensively criticized the $8 billion plan to restore the Everglades over the next several decades. “There is very little restoration, and most of it doesn’t come for the next 25 years,” Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, told the New York Times. Pimm and the other…

Orlando Weekly Staff

Stopping Texacoâ??s crude act

Even the jaded residents of the Big Apple had to stop and gawk at this sight: a group of Amazon tribal leaders in native dress striding down the sidewalks of lower Manhattan. The leaders had come from deep within the Ecuadorian rainforest and were headed to the U.S. Courthouse seeking a measure of justice: “We…

Jim Hightower

Trying to get the feline again

The Japanese firm Matsushita announced in December that the Tokyo government would soon begin distributing to elderly people the company’s new robotic cats (furry, life-size and, thanks to microchips, playful and talkative) to combat loneliness. Skin sensors cause the cat to purr when petted and to jump when startled. The cats are expected to sell…

Chuck Shepherd

Proof positive

Dylan Thomas once said, “I’ve had 18 straight whiskeys … that is the record.” It was the last thing he said. Maybe if he’d had only 17 he would have lived to say other things, but likely not. It’s never really the last one that gets you. It’s the first one. The closest I ever…

Liz Langley

Dexter’s readies to wine and dine

Dexter’s of Thornton Park will revive its wine-tasting dinners with a soiree at 7 p.m. Monday, March 1. Depending on the response, there may be monthly events. Owner Dexter Richardson will host the dinner, with help from several wine distributors. The experts will mingle with guests and explain the character, properties and nuances of the…

Colleen Moore

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