Hey that's quite a story you got there. We just have:

Robert Downy sleeping in other people's house's

One of the largest transportation projects in the nation now (the LA Subway, why anyone would want to ride a subway in the earthquake capital, I have no idea) that you guessed it, is full of corruption.

A local politian who had to get booted out of office because he refused to acknowledge his cocaine habit was getting him in trouble.

One of the largest (and most expensive) new highways (I105) that will be in constant repair because they sunk a section down too close to the water table so its always cracking.

An imcomplete high school that is already one of the most expensive ever built, that is uninhabited because it was built on a toxic waste dump.....

We should start a section in the UT for local news.

PF


>Here's an example of fun-loving Miami (I couldn't make this stuff up):
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>The Miami Herald, 6 October 1999
>'Doctor' accused of botching surgeries by Sonji Jacobs
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>Last spring, champion bodybuilder Alexander Baez, 47, went to the Ocean Health Center in Miami Beach to have his pectoral muscles enhanced. He thought it would be a routine surgical procedure that would help boost his career.
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>Instead, he woke up to find female breast implants.
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>''They told me everything was OK,'' Baez said. ''I couldn't talk. They sent me home immediately.''
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>An investigation by Miami Beach detectives revealed that a phony doctor, Reinaldo Silvestre, 58, allegedly performed several operations on the bodybuilder and at least two women -- resulting in gross disfigurement and severe physical and emotional pain. Police said there may be other victims who are too embarrassed to come forward.
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>Police have charged Silvestre with practicing medicine without a license, assisted aggravated battery and administering narcotics without a license. He is missing and may have left the country, they said.
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>''Silvestre has no license to practice medicine anywhere,'' said Miami Beach Capt. Charles Press.
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>Silvestre charged patients between $3,000 and $4,000 per surgery, police said.
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>Police have arrested two other people in the case: Julio Montesdeoca, 56, the clinic's anesthesiologist, and Sophie Bozza, 51, an assistant at the clinic and Silvestre's fiance.
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>Silvestre, born in Cuba, last resided at 122 E. Second Ct. on Hibiscus Island in Miami Beach. During a sweep of his home, police said they found some medical supplies there.
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>Silvestre had operated the Ocean Health Center, at 169 Lincoln Rd. in the heart of South Beach, since at least June 1998, but he sold all his equipment before the police investigation. Patients said the clinic looked more like an business office than a medical practice.
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>Mileidi Pimienta alerted police to the case in mid-September when she described the multiple surgeries she had undergone. Pimienta told police she went to the clinic for a breast augmentation in the spring and experienced difficulties during the recovery period.
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>To correct the first surgery, Pimienta said Silvestre performed several more operations -- with increasingly dismal results. Pimienta then investigated Silvestre on her own and realized he was not a licensed physician, police said.
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>By then, her breasts were uneven and different sizes, police said. Pimienta decided go to police.
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>During her dealings with Silvestre, police said Pimienta developed a quasi-friendship with the phony doctor -- and did him a favor. At Silvestre's request, she videotaped him operating on another patient: Alexander Baez.
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>That video proved invaluable once Pimienta informed the investigators about the clinic. It showed, graphically, the level of incompetence displayed by Silvestre and his team, police said. At a news conference Tuesday, Press said the video was bizarre.
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>''This was a horror movie and nothing short of it,'' he said. ''Amateur doesn't describe what they were doing.
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>''There was a close-up of the alleged doctor trying to force the implant in,'' Press added. ''It almost looked like a spatula type of thing. He was just trying to jam this thing in.''
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>Police said Baez woke up several times during the procedure because he was given Katamine -- an anesthetic used on animals by veterinarians.
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>''I was crying,'' Baez said. ''I kept thinking '¿Donde estoy?' -- Where am I?''
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>Baez said he met Silvestre a month before the May operation at a Mexican restaurant on South Beach and thought he was intelligent and savvy.
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>A former Mr. Mexico and a Mr. Universe runner-up, Baez hoped the plastic surgery would help his body-building career -- not stop it dead in its tracks. Now, scars mar his right breast and his left breast still has the female breast implant.
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>The hardest part of the whole ordeal, he said, is not the effect on his career, but the personal and emotional toll of the surgery. He said he must wait a least a year to recover and can't really exercise during that time.
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>''Working out for me is my life,'' he said. ''It's oxygen. It's everything to me.''
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>Jeannette Bernal, 32, another patient, blames Silvestre for ruining her relationship. She said her boyfriend left her soon after the surgery.
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>Three months after giving birth to her first child, she first visited Silvestre for a breast augmentation. From June to December 1998, she said she underwent five operations.
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>The result: She says both of her breasts are now disfigured.
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>''He kept telling me it was my skin,'' said Bernal, ''I trusted him and he deformed my breasts.''
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>She said she is now seeing a psychologist.
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>Baez said he suspected something was wrong when he went to the Lincoln Road clinic and noticed it looked like an office. But he disregarded his instincts at that crucial moment.
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>''I trusted him,'' Baez said, shaking his head and shrugging. ''I'm not a dummy. But sometimes you lose.''
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>Herald writer Dominique Collins-Berta contributed to this report.
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>Copyright 1999 Miami Herald