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A little off our "beat," but pertinent nevertheless: Late yesterday afternoon, suspended Miami Commissioner Art Teele walked into the lobby of the Miami Herald and committed suicide. After instructing a security guard give a message to Jim DeFede (asking the columnist to tell Teele's wife that he loved her), Teele pulled a pistol from his bag and shot himself in the head. Later that night, Jim DeFede was fired from the Herald after he told superiors that he had recorded a phone conversation with Teele without Teele's permission. Interestingly enough, however, it was Miami New Times reporter Francisco Alvarado who wrote the following introduction to a front-page story on Wednesday:

Art Teele is a man of very big appetites, and because of them he is now in very big trouble ... the once-powerful politician is possessed of a seemingly insatiable craving for all things illicit — adulterous sex, illegal drugs, bribery and extortion.

Oh, God. How terrible. There's nothing more heartbreaking than a media-hate-revenge-suicide directed at the wrong person.

Former Miami Commissioner Arthur Teele Fatally Shoots Self in Herald Building [Newsday]