The Cooler

Here's what caught my eye early this morning in the local mainstream media.

A- Herald: Video, El Palacia de los Jugos.

B- Herald: South Miami is the new black.

The once sleepy downtown known as a hangout for teenage movie-goers is slowly finding a following as a sophisticated place to be.

The area is attracting a wide mix: college students, professionals in their 30s, baby boomers from Pinecrest or Coral Gables.

The transformation is no accident. It's all part of a planning process that began more than a decade ago.

``The area has really picked up,'' said Hiers, 48, a consultant, who lives in Palmetto Bay. ``It's alive, but it's not the craziness of South Beach. I don't want to be in a crowd of 20-year-olds where I'm out of my element. This is more my scene.''

C- Herald: There's always the backyard.

Sandy Ketcham, the manager at Broward Pet Cemetery in Plantation, said she typically handled 30 funerals a year, but that number has dropped along with the economy.

``People don't have the money to spend like they used to,'' she said. ``The economy has affected everybody. People are pinching their pennies.''

D- Herald: They write letters.

Give us real news

Our country is in a recession; President Obama is defending healthcare reform and wants to bring Israel and the Palestinians to the table for peace talks; and the ayatollah in Iran is criticizing our president.

But instead, The Miami Herald has given us front-page headlines about some guy named Juanes whom most non-Latins have never even heard of.

What is happening in our country?

Now we have to search inside the paper for important information about our own country.

How about putting pertinent news that concerns all Americans on the front page?

JUDITH PALGON, Miami

E- Sun-Sentinel: Editorial, the great American anti-tax myth.

That people make money all by themselves is the Great American Anti-Tax Myth. In reality, they do it with the help and cooperation of countless other people — including, in your case, your employees, Mr. Smith — and a government that functions to protect them, their property and the economic environment in which they do business. You don't get all that for nothing. Remember that before you whine again.

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