Happy New Year!

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy and healthy new year and thank everyone for stopping by and reading, and for sending tips.

The District changed quite a bit this year and will continue to undergo a transformation in 2013. Should be fun to watch -- and blog about.

Best posts of 2012

Kyle Swenson of the New Times covers local blogs' best posts here, including SDFLA.

I picked the posts about Judge Jordan's confirmation process.  The blog gets lots of traffic when there are posts about new judges and magistrates (thanks to all my tipsters, who get me this information quickly and before the main stream media), and Judge Jordan's confirmation process seemed to get the most attention, including lots of hits from the court family (judges, clerk's office, prosecutors, and defenders) and nationally.


We should have a bunch of new judges to discuss in 2013...

"[The] president’s most enduring legacy."

That's what Federal Public Defender Michael Caruso said about the appointment of judges in Jay Weaver's article about "the new generation" of appointees.

There's some good stuff in the article, including Judge Scola joking that he wished he was "king of the world." I'm not sure there is anything closer than being an Article III judge....

Here's a photo from the article from C.W. Griffin:

Happy Festivus...

... for the rest of us!

(One day late).

Mixed verdicts in B-Girls trial

Three of the four were found guilty of some counts and one was found NG across the board. The Herald coverage is here:

Miami federal jury convicted Stanislav Pavlenko, Albert Takhalov and Isaac Feldman of fleecing hundreds of thousands of dollars from dozens of male customers by racking up bogus bills for champagne, vodka and caviar on their credit cards at Russian-style clubs on Washington Avenue.
A fourth defendant, Siavash Zargari, who did business with Takhalov, was acquitted.
The jury reached its unanimous verdicts on a variety of conspiracy, wire fraud and money-laundering charges after deliberating for five days after an 11-week trial before U.S. District Judge Robert Scola that zigged and zagged with tales about Miami Beach’s underground bar scene. Scola ordered the three convicted men into custody immediately because he found that they gave testimony “I don’t believe was honest.’’ His decision prompted loud wails and crying by relatives in the courtroom. Court security officers had to separate the defendants from their loved ones.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/20/3150589/bar-girls-federal-trial-in-miami.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy