"East Wind, Rain."

Sheesh, who ordered all the buckets of rain on our golden streets? Too bad the City couldn't afford umbrellas for our downtown ambassadors; they're all hanging out at Walgreens or Stabucks right now. Well, at least the planters that the City dropped in apparently random spots around downtown will get nice and wet. I wonder what our homeless will be doing in them later? Naah, better not go there.

Meanwhile, it says here that Judge Highsmith is planning on retiring. No, you haters, he wasn't already retired. A decent and fair-minded judge, IMO. Can you say that about all our federal judiciary?

In other judge news, apparently Justice Cantero has a bright sunny future, all the bootlickers quoted in the DBR say here. Anyone else agree? Better get on the record now before your absence is duly noted.

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Burnin' Love

So folks, how was your weekend? Like many of you, mine was smoky and hot. Don't you just love it when the Everglades burns, the hot smoke blows east, and there is not a drop of rain?

Walking to Starbucks this morning I bumped into a few lawyers I know, heading to the circuit courthouse, fully dressed in their suits and gas masks. Charming. Downtown is a pit even in the best of circumstances, but right now it's an intolerable cesspool of sights, sounds, and odors. Oh yeah -- and "downtown ambassadors." Your tax dollars at work.

Screw it, I'm going to get my shoes shined.

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Time To Rain On City's Parade

Note to City:

When planning a major parade through the primary transit streets of downtown Miami, try not to schedule it on a Friday at the HEIGHT OF FRICKIN' RUSH HOUR!

At about 9:30 this morning, the City threw rush hour traffic into total and absolute chaos, closing important routes such as Flagler and Miami Avenue for approximately 40 minutes so that a parade could travel down the main streets of Miami.

Listen, the parade was very nice. But how about 11 a.m? Or maybe 2 p.m.? The dowtown commute is hard enough, do you have to purposely make it worse? By the way, I look forward to the ticker tape parade you have scheduled for later this afternoon.

Thank you,

Your Dedicated Fan

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Downtown Takes Another Blow

Bye-bye to all the beautiful women professionals I see rushing to work in the morning:

Macy's will close its Florida headquarters in Miami and eliminate 600 jobs.

The Cincinnati-based retailer (NYSE: M), which operates Macy's and Bloomingdale's department stores, announced restructuring of its central operations on Monday.

A total of 7,000 positions, or about 4 percent of the company's workforce, will be cut from offices, stores and other facilities. Macy's currently has about 180,000 positions.

The moves are expected to reduce previously planned expenses by $400 million a year beginning in 2010, and $250 million in 2009, the company said.

Macy's will begin the process of eliminating its division structure and integrating all functions into a single organization.

Other cuts include 1,400 jobs at the Macy's West headquarters in San Francisco and 850 jobs at Macy's Central headquarters in Atlanta.

Jobs will be phased out by the second quarter, Macy's spokesman Jim Sluzewski said. "Everyone is there until the end of April, at least."

Now that sucks. As it is, that portion of downtown is barely functioning.

Soon all that will be left are us lawyers and the beggars.

Like I said, it'll soon be just us lawyers.

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