Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Sunset after the Storm

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After the storm - South Golfview Road

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Corner of S. Golfview and 2nd Avenue
At the high mark, the water went up to seat of bench.


2 cars were flooded...water to floor boards.


High water mark
Sludge all the way up to door step.

Barbara Jean took the photos and reports that the Casino was without power for 3 hours..burned out switch. The water crossed over to the houses and to the back alley on Golfview.. You could not walk across S. Lakeside Drive.

Dylan Harrison taking a legal Pot Shot

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Dylan Harrison, convicted fake pot dealer and one of the owners of the Kavasutra in downtown Lake Worth, is back in the news. Read what he's up to now. This guy doesn't know when to quit.

Let's kick the bums out!

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West Palm Beach voted to kick a citizen out of its meeting because he addressed a few on the dais by name.  Tsk, tsk.

Read about it.. and see Glen Torcivia, Lake Worth's city attorney, giving an opinion.

Just looking for answers in our code "enforcement"


The Mess of the Week for April 13th is getting worse. The sign is back in an upright position now with a price. Why is it that we don't have any clout to enforce our Code? Why do these people continue to have a boat there, with a For Sale sign under a temporary sort of covering that is being used as a permanent fixture? Will someone buy this darn thing so part of the problem will be gone?

Lake Worth's Electric Utility

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Lake Worth Utilities
One of our most valuable assets

Last night I attended most of the Electric Utility Advisory Board meeting that has given staff a directive for pertinent information in order to ascertain the feasibility of selling our electric utility.

In a nutshell, so as not to get embroiled with details, the Board appointed by the various commissioners, are fulfilling the majority commission's desire to get a value of our electric utility system in order to determine if a sale is worth our while. They all believe that the high cost of energy is detrimental to Lake Worth and destroying investment. They don't like the fact that we are pulling $6 million out of it every year to operate our city and fill in the pot holes.

The Commission majority, as well as some on this Board, are still perturbed that the sale of our Utility was not on the original RFP even though our expert consultant, Sue Hersey, said that if a sale was desirous, it should have been a separate RFP at that time. Now they plan on putting out an RFP for the sale of our utility which was founded in 1914, once the numbers are declared "logical." The timeline for this RFP is no later than 1.5 years from now.

The conclusion here is this handful of people do not believe experts if they disagree with them. They don't believe in "studies"' either for the very same reason. They are the experts or they will find their own with their desired result. They believe that Lake Worth can't manage its way out of a wet paper bag and shouldn't be in the power business. They have managed to dismantle our police department, our fire department and nearly gave away our 19 acre beach property to a flim flam artist, not to mention they wanted to raise heights of buildings in our low-rise downtown.

Clay Lindstrom, who has been Assistant Director of Utilities ever since Rebecca Mattey resigned, was there to give information on timelines for the various aspects of data accumulation to meet the Board's demands. He had one interesting statement last night which is paraphrased as follows: "If we consider the City the ‘owner’ of the utility, we can consider the contribution to the general fund as the ‘dividend’ paid back to the owner."

There are only three ways to go with our Utility:  1) go out to market and purchase power like we are now doing. The Orlando Utilities contract begins on January 1, 2014 for three years. 2) Upgrade our present system and remain totally independent or 3) sell it which will have to be by vote of the electorate.

Gov Rick Scott making strides

Aside from the $2,500 raises across the board to "effective" school teachers, (Democrats are screaming about that) Rick Scott is making strides in Florida.

Education budget
The more than $1 billion allows for:
• A $405 million increase in per-student funding or roughly $150 per student.
• An extra $47 million for enhanced reading programs.
• $663 million to fill funding gaps due to the influx of 31,000 expected new students next year and lower property taxes.
• Funding that will enable districts to reward the best teachers.

Gov. Rick Scott has made a three year agreement to eliminate the tax on manufacturers' sales tax on equipment purchases. The figure is estimated at $141 million and it may require a super-majority in both chambers. This might be tricky as it reduces the percentage tax-rate collected by local governments.

Florida has created 282,200 private-sector jobs and Florida’s January unemployment rate decreased below the national average to 7.8 percent – down from the revised December 2012 rate of 7.9 percent. This is Florida’s lowest unemployment rate since November 2008, and falls below the national average unemployment rate for the first time since January 2008.

The 2012-13 budget makes ends meet in spite of a budget gap in excess of $1 billion, on top of a $3.7-billion gap during the current budget year. Governor Scott vetoed $142.7 million from the budget, adding to Florida’s reserves.

Now if he will just veto the campaign finance reform which raises contribution limits from $500 per person to $3,000 for statewide candidates and $1,000 for legislative ones, we will be on our way with attracting manufacturing, creating more jobs, and keeping more special interest money out of campaigns.

The Benghazi Cover-Up


Monday, April 29, 2013

Quote of the Day - David Stockman

“The head of GE, for crying out loud, says Obama’s doing a great job...Give me a break.”

~ David Stockman, former Congressman and Ronald Reagan Budget Director

The quote is referring to Jeffrey Immelt, head of GE. Stockman blasts everyone in his new book, The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America. from the GOP as irrelevant, to the neocons who are only oriented to an aggressive, imperialistic foreign policy of big defense establishment and suppression of our civil liberties, to George W. Bush and to Obama.

He further states to Newsmax--“When you have wild men, like Bernanke and company, running the Fed and just crushing the financial system and savers in America, when you have people like the president and the Congress that’s unwilling to make any tough choices about anything, and just keep borrowing money on the grounds it’s going to get better in 2017 or something, you are in big trouble.

Read more...

The Crazy Mother and America's bleeding-hearts

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We allow just about anyone into this country. Can you even imagine doing background checks on the estimated 24 million illegals in this country? Now we have to worry about naturalized citizens who become radical. Who can say that some of them were not that way all along?

Now we learn that the Boston bomber's mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who wears a hijab gathered tightly under her chin, was also in a federal Terrorism database 18 months before her sons set off two bombs in Boston thus killing and maiming innocent American citizens. This is the crazy woman who is a terrorist who denies her sons did any of this and says that they were "set up." There is also a warrant out for her arrest for theft while she lived in this country.

The Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database contains between 500,000 and 1 million names of people on the radar of various national security agencies, but a person's presence on the list does not automatically mean he or she is suspected of terrorist activity and does not automatically subject them to surveillance, security screening or travel restrictions. Read more...

By the simple fact that someone is listed in this database should be reason enough to deny them entry into this country. We don't need immigrants that badly. But then, future terrorists can simply walk across our borders and be given royal status--food stamps, healthcare and government stipends and then turn around and kill us because there is no wall that will be built high enough to keep them out and no amount of reason to ever change their minds.

Choosing the right City Attorney is crucial

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Wellington fired its city attorney, Jeff Kurtz of the Glen J.Torcivia law firm about 6 months ago which just happens to be the same law firm hired by the city of Lake Worth on July 30th of last year. Wellington decided after ten years that they wanted their own staff lawyer again. Laurie Cohen, the former Wellington councilwoman was hired and she begins on Monday as a village staff member at $187,500 and a $350 monthly car allowance.

Read more...

It is projected for year 2014 that Lake Worth will spend $669,147 for legal fees. This number will probably change as we continue with the Budget Workshops.  Torcivia makes $195 an hour with para-legals making $95, a deal we are told. And all those open-ended contracts that the commission has complained about in the past--well, Mr. Torcivia has one of them. And he gets an automatic 3% raise each year. The Commission still has not given a public statement on the effectiveness of the contract we have with Glen Torcivia. They were to evaluate this arrangement after six months which was up on January 30, 2013.

The City of Lake Worth has hired outside counsel in the past, as a staff attorney can't be an expert on every type of matter. The Greater Bay Lawsuit was defended by outside counsel with the objective of going to trial. After three years of billable hours, the new mindset in Lake Worth, and under the guidance of our new city attorney, was/is to settle and boy, did they ever, still blaming it all on a past commission and the wrong one to boot.

In a Study that appeared in the September issue of the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, it was said that on average, getting it wrong cost plaintiffs at about $43,000; the total could be more because information on legal costs was not available in every case. For defendants, (which the City of Lake Worth was in the GB case) who were less often wrong about going to trial, compared to settling, the cost was much greater: $1.1 million. We settled with Greater Bay for $1.6 million even though it was always stated that this case was a "slam dunk" for Lake Worth. If the goal is to settle cases as soon as possible,  a goal with which I disagree, a staff attorney can do this.

Today's PB Post Editorial--Torcivia was the attorney who gave the opinion to Marty Rogel and although legal, the Post says what Rogel did was "not in the spirit of anti-corruption reform."

Choosing the right city attorney is crucial in this litigious society as is the hiring of a city manager. As Lake Worth has little on the agenda these days, (the commission does not want to be bothered with pesky residents taking up their valuable time) our city attorney does not have to be on his toes as often to keep our commissioners from doing something stupid.

It is important to get the best advice, not just an attorney who will agree with you and slant a case toward your desired end.

Judge Jeanine on the Bomber's mother

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Electric Utility Advisory Board in Lake Worth

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Volunteers--what would the world do without them?

Now we have a volunteer Lake Worth city board that is investigating the possibility of selling our electric utility, even taking on the daunting task of coming up with a value. Tomorrow night at 6pm, the Electric Utility Advisory Board meets. None of these board members are professionals in the electric utility business.

We have a city commission majority that voted to wean us off utility funds to operate our city at 20% a year for 5 years and a group of vocal residents who firmly believe it is the high cost of energy that is making Lake Worth an unattractive place to invest. And we have a handful of citizens who are still fuming that this commission chose Orlando Utilities Commission to be our new energy provider beginning on January 1, 2014. They were determined that it be FPL.

There will be four presentations:

A. Radio Read Meters by Mary Lindsey (She previously stepped down as chair of this Board)
B. Timeline for Long Term Purchase Power Supply
C. System Valuation
D. Re-powering of Smith Plant

There will also be two reports by Clay Lindstrom, Assistant utility director:  Purchase of electric power cable and purchase of transformers.  Both of these reports will be on the Commission Agenda the first meeting in May.

Everyone needs to show up.

Mess of the Week

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535 Wright Drive

Appraised at $73,276, the last time it sold in 2006 the buyer paid $232,000 for this little 1281 sq. foot house. The banks were nuts back then and those buying into the American Dream were a part of the craziness. The property is not homesteaded but the owner's mailing address is the same as the property.  There used to be someone in the landscape business who lived there who at least kept the property up--not now.  Perhaps they consider this xeriscaping--full of flowering weeds. There is even Santa wrapping paper used to cover one front window.

Not to mention the overall unkempt condition of the property, the code violation is the vehicle parked on the front "lawn." Today, two cars, the norm, were parked on the front yard.

As our neighborhoods are getting more blighted each day, which is the biggest detriment for people to move here and own a home, it will be interesting to learn what Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell will be doing to clear it up.  I hear he has a plan.

We still don't understand why Code Enforcement can't send out a notice to the owner soon after they are informed about blighted houses/properties. Why can't they investigate the complaint and confirm the code violation and tackle owner occupied properties first? These could get cleaned up quicker than those abandoned or those foreclosed.

James "Pepper" Martin is gone

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A lifetime resident of Lake Worth and a graduate of Lake Worth High School and honored sports hero, James "Pepper" Martin, 85, has passed. To read his obituary, click here.

Pepper Martin was a fixture on our Lake Worth beach for decades. He was head lifeguard and ran the concessions at the beach and was a former Recreation Director of Lake Worth.

Mounts Botanical Gardens Spring Plant Sale


As I love orchids, I concentrated on them while I was there on Saturday but the entire experience is worth your while. The sale continues today from 9am until 4pm.  If you haven't been, it's worth the effort. They are located at 559 North Military Trail between Southern and Belvedere. 

Mounts Botanical Garden displays tropical and subtropical plants from around the world, including plants native to Florida, exotic trees, tropical fruit, herbs, citrus, palms and much more. Plants from six continents grace Mounts Botanical Garden’s fourteen acres and reflect the tremendous horticultural opportunities provided by Palm Beach County’s unique growing environment. From temperate North American trees to the rarest of tropical fruits, from Florida natives to edible landscapes, from aquatics to arid-land plants, Mounts offers something for every taste and interest.

The Hope and Change of Hitler

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WND author Ray Comfort, whose “Hitler, God and the Bible” addresses the religious standards and failings of Hitler points out Hitler also devised a master strategy to crush all Christian churches.

In a special Christian Broadcasting Network program, Comfort cites the head of Hitler Youth, Boldur von Schirach, who said, “Destruction of Christianity was explicitly recognized as a purpose of the National Socialist Movement.”

Show host Gordon Robertson explains that Germany’s economy and political quagmire after World War I left the people hoping for a savior. Along came Hitler, preaching a message of hope and change, restoring the glory, loving neighbors and taking a stand against violence.

Read the rest of the article on how Christians were the next targeted group by Adolph Hitler in his hope and change platform.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Tonight's Sunset

Susan Stanton was furious

"She has no heart, and he has no brains," Stanton said of her children.

Read more...

Did curiosity get the best of ya?

On Paranoia at our local level

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According to Wikipedia--Paranoia is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. (e.g. "Everyone is out to get me.") Making false accusations and the general distrust of others also frequently accompany paranoia.

We have a lot of that right here in Lake Worth with even some elected officials leading the bandwagon when it comes to Cara Jennings. Jennings has been out of local politics for years. She is about to be a mother. They honestly believe that this little group of anarchists are plotting and planning to take over our government in Lake Worth. Anarchism is voluntary Socialism. They have wrongly put the blame on this small band of people for every ill in this city.  I must admit, this group does act ridiculous at times, but how ridiculous can you get?  No one can over-throw our government unless YOU let it happen.

Paranoia is a medical term for a condition in which the person has either recurring delusions that people are trying to harm him or a false sense of exalted self-importance that leads him to be suspicious of others. It is the latter that is believed by some local officials and the small paranoid group who follow them who make waves and are attempting with every cyber attack to exaggerate and be oppressive and belittle all those they "fear"-- therefore, they are anarchists in their own right. Both groups are pretty silly.

Am I being paranoid?

Katie and "Naughty"

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Katie and Mr. McNaughty

As someone asked about "Naughty" in a comment, Katie brought him over the other day to say "woof." He is now five years old and a very alert, protective and sweet little guy.

Lake Worth High School Dollars for Scholars

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DFS AWARDS CEREMONY

May 8, 2013

Lake Worth Community High School

Tommy Hansen Hall - Auditorium

7:00 PM

2012 AWARDS REPORT

When this year's efforts by the Dollars for Scholars Foundation members tallied the total given out to mostly Lake Worth High School students and a handful of other students from area public, private, and parochial schools, they had given out $74,750.

Dollars for Scholars President, Former Lake Worth High School Principal Dave Cantley said this year *55 Lake Worth High School students were awarded nearly $65,000 and 7 students from other schools were awarded $10,000 from the Barry Grunow Scholarship Fund. The Grunow scholarship fund was established to honor Barry Grunow, a Lake Worth Middle School teacher who was murdered in his classroom on the last day of school in 2000. "This year's growth was made possible, in part, by the contribution of $20,000 from Principal Dr. Kirk Howell from the school's Flea Market account" Mr. Cantley explained. "We also receive annual donations through our partnerships with The Kiwanis Club of Lake Work, The JFK Medical Center Foundation, The Lake Worth Women's Club and Wayne Akers Ford. The Florida Atlantic University Foundation continues to be an invaluable partner by matching our awards 100%," he continued.

Lake Worth Dollars for Scholars continues to flourish and to gain the respect of the community. The organization has a board of directors of 22 people who take their responsibility seriously and work hard to "make it happen" year after year. This year's contributions put the overall organization's awards over the $600,000 mark.

For those interested in more information, contact Mr. Cantley, 561-964-4025 or email Dave1Cantley@aol.com.

Please mail donations to Lake Worth Dollars for Scholars PO Box 1166 Lake Worth, FL 33462.

Source:  Lake Worth Community High School's web site.

llegal Aliens -

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It has been reported that the Gang of Eight is changing or even "fooling" the public by including waivers, exemptions and loopholes when it comes to certain aspects of their immigration reform bill.  Nothing surprises me. I wanted to believe that Marco Rubio had the answer to an impossible and costly problem by his non-partisan Gang of Eight and its Plan. NumbersUSA says: Our Capitol Hill team has finished crunching the numbers of the new amnesty bill and found that the bill would grant 33 million new green cards in the first 10 years after enactment. Look for more details to come...

Rep. Lamar Smith has reintroduced the Legal Workforce Act, HR 1772 which would require all employers to use the E-Verify system. This should have been done years ago and our laws enforced. Instead, the federal government has made law enforcement impotent.

On April 24 Attorney General Eric Holder told the crowd at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), that “creating a pathway to earned citizenship” is a critical element of any comprehensive immigration reform plan. He said that establishing legal status for the nation’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants is a “matter of civil and human rights.” Obviously he speaks for Obama. Since when is illegally crossing our border a "civil right?"

The federal government is also "fooling" you. The popular myth that there are "10-11 million undocumented workers in the country" is misleading, disingenuous and blatantly false. It's more than double that. That figure fails to factor in the chain migration unemployed dependent family members (wives, grandparents, migrant children, migrant girlfriends, single mothers, anchor babies), the adult unemployed, those incarcerated, transients and fugitives. After the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was directed by Congress to stop counting in 1981, even the conservative numbers of the 2000 Census Bureau (CB) estimated at that time the total illegal immigration population was about 8 million. That figure was never intended to only represent the number of workers as is incorrectly quoted today, says Numbers USA.

The government never gives the real figures on the cost of illegal aliens. Social services alone have cost $347,454,769,945 since they first started tracking the numbers.

Once again, this important matter that is costing the American citizen trillions of dollars, will be swept under the rug because the majority in this administration does not have the will to remove these people from our country and now want to be "politically correct" and tell you that it is the right thing to do, that no one is "illegal."  They tell you that this country was and is based on immigration but they fail to implement the laws on the books.

Elected officials continue to undermine this country with terrible policy.



Friday, April 26, 2013

ICE's Immigration Amnesty Concerns


Chris Crane, president of the union representing the nation's 7,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, testified about his concerns with immigration amnesty proposals. He is the President of the 7,000 ICE officers who have filed suit against Janet Napolitano for restricting their arrest powers on illegal immigrants and visa overstays.

Florida Senate approves humongous rate hike for Citizens Insurance

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The Florida Senate approved a rate hike of up to 85% for Citizens Insurance. The vote was 24/15 and now moves to the Florida house.

Jeff Clemens, once again, voted on the right side of reason by voting NO. “If you want to raise insurance rates, vote for this bill,” said Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth. Joe Abruzzo of Wellington and Joe Negron of Stuart did just that and voted for the hike. Eventually it could be up to Governor Rick Scott whose political action committee received $718,000 from insurance interests.

Current Citizens customers would remain under a cap that limits rate increases to 10 percent a year, but new customers would have to pay what are deemed “actuarially sound” rates. That means new customer rates 60 percent to 85 percent higher in three terrorities in Palm Beach County, many of them with wind-only policies, according to Citizens records.

Read more... The people continue to get screwed and have no protection in the State from insurance company gouging.

Dial One For English

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Well, we didn't listen to Russia when it alerted us about the Boston bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, so perhaps we now need to look at their advice a heck of a lot closer.

At a January 2012 meeting of the Board of the Federal Migration Service, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president noted in a speech:
We must create the conditions for immigrants to normally integrate into our society, learn Russian and, of course, respect our culture and traditions and abide by Russian law. In this regard, I believe that the decision to make learning the Russian language compulsory and administer exams is well grounded. To do so, we will need to carry out major organizational work and introduce corresponding legislative amendments.

In today's paper, there was an article about a woman who got "screwed" out of unemployment insurance--she didn't speak English. Now the Department of Labor has said that Florida violated her civil rights when it required job seekers to apply on-line. Oh, and the form wasn't in Spanish and no one she called spoke Spanish either. 

Clearing up Lake Worth Political Myths

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Most of us believe in giving credit where it is due. But some play the blame game or just simply do not understand the facts when it comes to the subject of  robbing our Reserves to the tune of $9 to $12 million, attributing it to "the previous commission." This is a totally false declaration.

Those who say this tell the tale that it was this last commission that totally screwed up our city, meaning Suzanne Mulvehill and Jo-Ann Golden, and even if the allegation was remotely true, which it is not, they are only two votes. It takes three votes to royally screw up and make a difference. Now the story is that this present commission is cleaning it all up.

Well, I have news for you. If you want to put the blame on a commission, which I think is unfair to begin with because the commission must rely on the city manager and city attorney giving them the facts and guiding them correctly, then the blame goes to the Commission elected in March 2006 and the majority commissioners who were on the dais at that time:  Vespo, Burns and Lowe. Their first huge and costly mistake in 2006 was later that year, signing over our beach property to a flim flam artist (who NEVER performed and a company that they NEVER vetted) because Lowe (who signed the deal) and the rest of the majority were tired of kicking the football on the beach for another 30 years and wanted something finally done.

In the Fall of 2006, the budget for 2007 was formulated and agreed. We broke even in 2007. The following budget year, 2008, we spent more than we took in but all the plans and contracts were formulated and laid for the future.  At that time we had a city manager, Bob Baldwin, who made a bundle and was never here--he didn't even live in the city. This was against our Charter but was allowed by the Commission with Retha saying he was a "great guy."  In the 2008/2009 budget year, we had spent 9 million more than we brought in and dipped (big-time) into reserves.  Our Union costs were out of control--still are. The Utility was called the "black-hole" as revenue and expenses never could be tracked. Line items were moved, erased or disappeared. Money was gone too. Mark Bates was then the finance director.  In those days there was usually 10 to 14 items on Consent Agenda. At least you were allowed to pull them for discussion. We are now reverting to the same practice of putting everything possible on Consent.

We then hired a new city manager, Susan Stanton, in April 2009 and during her first year, she cleaned house. The city, once again, got in the black with a surplus of $843,000 after her first year. The next year was even better than that. The trend continued with budget cuts and delaying some capital improvements and at the end of the 2012 budget cycle, we had $3.8 million to the good. In 2013 we are back in the Red and the projection for 2014 is Red.

The bottom line here, we are as good as the management team we hire. Commissioners will always have their personal agendas but commissions have to get all the correct facts and must be guided. They need to read and understand everything that comes before them and question everything. City managers must stay out of politics. We must have an excellent internal auditor watching over the entire enterprise. We can't continue to spend more money than we bring in. Trust but verify.

Note:  If anyone has something that does not agree with my timeline of events, get in touch.




Thursday, April 25, 2013

ObamaCare

Politico broke a story late last night on the leadership of both Parties that have been secretly meeting for months to discuss a solution to the high cost of ObamaCare in Congressional offices. They are just now realizing that ObamaCare is going to cost the Members of Congress and their aides thousands of dollars in new health care costs, says the Tea Party.

Their solution? Make Congressional staff exempt from ObamaCare!

Read about it...

Theft on Virginia Drive

Robert Waples reports:

"Just wanted to let all the residents who have lawn trailers and equipment or other equipment they use to make a living to know someone stole, in the overnight hours Monday night, a whole dump truck and landscape trailer that was attached. The thieves must have known what to do because they also dismantled the transmission on his personal vehicle so if he did wake up he could not catch them. These properties were in his own driveway and both were locked up. This happened on Virginia Drive."

Thanks for the report and making us aware of the continued crime in our city. My question is, why did this resident have a dump truck and landscape trailer parked in his driveway?  As far as I understand it, parking commercial vehicles in a residential neighborhood is against Code.

The Farce

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Even illegal immigration is falling off the radar of priorities which is strange as there are too many "bad guys" trying to bring this country down and cross our borders and to end our way of life as we know it.

The ALIPAC website currently features a Reuters poll released Tuesday showing “more than half of U.S. citizens believe that most or all of the country’s 11 million illegal immigrants should be deported.

Marco Rubio's plan is a good one unless, of course, we kick them all out of here and that is impossible. The border must be secured first and foremost. I would love to know how many radical Muslims are in this country right now, living and breathing among us, plotting and planning for the next Jihad. Even this 11 million figure is a farce. There hasn't been 11 million illegals in years...try doubling the number. This is 100% the fault of the U.S. government and its lax policies and its concern about the rights of criminals crossing our borders rather than the right of its own citizens.

President Obama has lost ground on immigration:  39 percent of voters approve of the job he’s doing, down from 47 percent in February.  A slim 51-percent majority disapproves now.  The drop in approval comes from a decline among white voters; approval among non-whites held steady since February. Read more...

I would bet if they took a poll right now after the Boston bombing and the recent plot that was uncovered regarding Canadian Jihadists to derail a train from Toronto to New York, Obama's approval rating would be much lower.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's mother and father say they are coming to the United States any day now. Who knows about the mother--she has a shoplifting charge against her. Who knows what the authorities would do to her, after all, she has one son dead and the other who should be dead who were "framed." These parents have twisted the facts completely around and are blaming our law enforcement. Knowing us, we will probably put them up at the Fairmont Battery Wharf and she can scream "Allahu akbar" (Allah is Greater) to her heart's delight.

Robotic Outsourcing

One of these days and perhaps sooner than we realize, we won't have to worry about illegals taking American jobs. There won't be ANY jobs.


Florida House and Senate make deal on Campaign Finance and Ethics

State Senator Jeff Clemens had the right vote. He was one out of two Democrats who voted against SB2 which will increase campaign contribution levels from a maximum of $500 to $1,000 for local elections and from $500 to $3,000 for state elections.

Clemens said, "I couldn't see myself going back to Palm beach County and telling people that I voted to double the campaign contribution limits... and that's the opposite direction that the people want us to move in."

The bill passed in the Florida Senate on a 37 to 2 vote and the House Bill 569 passed 79 to 34.

Read more...

Lake Worth Library will have Meet the Author Night

Meet the Author Evening--

Tonight at 7:00 pm at the Library. Local author Mi Sun Gordon will be presenting her new book. She will also be autographing after the event.  Books are $19.95. Hope to see you all there.

 Vickie Joslin
 Library Services Supervisor Lake Worth Public Library

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Man had a bad day

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Think you've had a bad day?  All you guys consider yourself lucky as nothing compares to this guy who had his penis cut off and then wife throws it in the garbage disposal.  Read more...
It pays to be nice to the little woman. Ouch!

We have to change the pace a little around here and divert from politics every now and then.

Boy Scouts and Gay Ban

Mark Foley is a hero to some people around here as he once was viewed proudly by his hometown of Lake Worth for his achievements--starting in politics as a Lake Worth City commissioner and rising to U.S. Congressman. But he doesn't get the ring with Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX).

Gohmert says that he’s disappointed that Democrats do not support banning gay people from the Boy Scouts of America, mainly because former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) was revealed to have made sexual advances toward underage congressional staffers. Read more...

The "System Worked"-- after the Fact

Saturday is Clean-Up day - AGAIN


Is nothing sacred?  Do citizens have to continue to clean up trash caused by people who don't give a hot damn? What about littering fines? What about stringing them up by their heels?  A little drastic?  Trashing and ruining the environment should be a crime.

Clean up at Snook Islands

Tips on spotting a "grow" house

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PBSO gives tips on marijuana grow houses and what to look for. Click here...

The Saudi connection


The Welfare State - Now it's Obama phones

No one seems to be talking about our growing and unsustainable DEBT anymore. Have you noticed that?  There have been way too many issues that have taken over front page news...terrorists who bomb and kill in our country and who this administration believes are NOT enemy combatants, for one.

However, the debt continues to escalate to unimaginable levels. Right now, we owe $16.798 trillion dollars and we continue to give away our money, borrowed to boot, to the enemy.  Now "free" phones are back in the news, the Lifeline Program that was started 28 years ago to provide discounted phone service to poor folks.

Our poor is growing, thanks to the crappy economy and the vast unemployment as well as the 11 to 22 million illegals in this country taking American jobs. And Obama wants to play games with sequestration.

Under Obama, “the Lifeline program has nearly tripled in size from $800 million in 2009 to $2.2 billion per year in 2012. American taxpayers — and their elected representatives — need to know how much of this growth is because of waste, fraud and abuse.”

Read about it

Quote of the Day - Allen West

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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will not be declared an enemy combatant, will be charged in federal court and read Miranda rights. This is just another example of how we need to have leaders that are flexible in their comprehension of this 21st Century battlefield and the application of the rule of law. This battlefield knows no borders or boundaries and we must develop new processes and procedures in dealing with American citizens, born and naturalized, who take up arms, not just overseas, but on American territory against fellow Americans.

We have two previous cases, Carlos Bledsoe and MAJ Nidal Hasan, as examples where both attacked and killed Americans and soldiers, in the name of violent Islamic jihad. The rule of law and precedent is vital, however, these actions are treasonous and when they result in the death of Americans, the harshest penalty must be pursued. These people should be declared enemy combatants (for intelligence gathering purposes). They deserve the constitutional rights of a fair trial in the American court system…and then the hangman's noose.

~Allen West

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Tonight's Moon

ICE Union President Chris Crane speaks out on Comprehensive Immigration


"Lawmaking in our nation has indeed taken a strange twist as Senators invite illegal aliens to testify before Congress and groups representing illegal aliens are brought into the development of our nation's laws, but America's citizens working as law enforcement officers within our nation's broken immigration system are purposely excluded from the process and prohibited from providing input."

Know thy Enemy

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Four jets, which reached Egypt in February, are the first of 20 Block 52 F-16s due to be delivered this year under a $1.3 billion a year U.S. military aid program signed by the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, a key U.S. ally who was swept from power in February 2011. This deal should have been OFF the table.

"I think it's a blunder of the first proportion to send sophisticated weapons to a country that's allowed a mob to attack our embassy and to burn our flag," U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. Read more... Rand Paul is right. What in the heck are we thinking? This is all "turning the other cheek" and being politically correct once again to the detriment of common sense and the protection of our country and our friend Israel in the Mid-East. 

Muslims (and they are all taught from the same Quran so basically they all have the potential to be "radical") are taught to hate America and embrace Jihad. Sura 5:51: “O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: they are but friends and protectors to each other. And he among you that turns to them for friendship is of them.” This friendship makes any Muslim an enemy of their own and deserving of the same fate as the unbeliever. This is because God does not guide an unjust people."

"Know thy enemy," is a quote from Sun Tzu that goes back to the 2nd Century BC, in his Art of War.

Immigration Reform Facts

Click here to go to Marco Rubio's new web site that explains the gang of eight's position.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.)     

The Bill on comprehensive Immigration and Reform.

The Red and Black of it

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Finance Director, Steven Carr, offered his first Power Point presentation last night on the 2014 Budget.

Explaining the hierarchy, he compared it to an organizational chart using General Motors Corporation as his example. There is a Board of Directors (the city Commission), Chairman of the board (our Mayor) and department heads who report up the chain with the commission overseeing all that happens and directing the CEO, (city manager) to implement their policies. The basic difference is that a corporation maximizes profits delivering value to its shareholders whereas a city government generates revenue to pay its bills to operate the city and to come out even in revenue and expenses.

One thing of interest in the organizational chart was, the Residents used to be at the top of the Chart...now it is side by side with the Commission.  We used to be the boss. We have learned over the last year that the residents have less and less of a voice and this commission has shown its contempt for some who have spoken before them.

This commission has given away some of its control as the city manager now can spend $25,000 or under without asking the commissions' permission. The sum used to be $15,000 until just a few months ago.  I have always been against this new policy.

As this budget is a living document" (it changes when necessary), I have to wonder about all the expensive items that are thrown on the Consent Agenda with absolutely NO discussion. Just because they might be budgeted does not necessarily mean that they are still relevant. Years ago we got into a lot of trouble with a few city managers spending like there was no tomorrow. It has taken us since the 2010 Budget in which Susan Stanton was a part, to start turning this city around and be in the Black.

In 2013 and now predicted for 2014, the city has once again spent and will be spending more than it will generate in revenues with ad valorem staying flat. This is in spite of the fact that it was  recommended to delay paying the principal on the casino loan this year in the amount of $500,000 that we borrowed from ourselves. We have a good reserve starting but I thought our goal was not to spend more than we make. A corporation like GE would not survive with that mindset overseen by their Board of Directors.

Did Washington turn a blind eye to Muslim Jihad?

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Is Obama finally seeing the light?  Is this "politically correct" attitude over? Are we going to call a spade a spade going forward?

U.S. officials familiar with the FBI’s counter-terrorism training program and its controversial public outreach program to Muslim groups said FBI policy toward Islam—that it should not be used to describe those who seek to wage jihad or holy war against the United States and others they regard as infidels—has prevented both effective counter-terrorism investigations and training.

Read more...

Monday, April 22, 2013

Creep robs Lake Worth woman

Moonlight walk on a warm Spring night ended up with cold hard metal pointed at a Lake Worth woman's face--

Lake Worth woman carjacked after date with creep

FL Senator Jeff Clemens on Ethics

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Senator Jeff Clemens (D-Lake Worth) believes ethics legislation offered this session could be historic.

Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev -The Terrorist

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Described as a nice guy by his friends and as an "angel" by his father, federal authorities just charged the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings with using a “weapon of mass destruction” against people and property. The White House rejected demands by some congressional Republicans that he be tried before a military tribunal as an “enemy combatant.”

Read more...

Farmer Girl Restaurant

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Owner Pete Roubekas with Helen Marino, who is chowing down on one of the worlds' best homemade soups at the Farmer Girl Restaurant. Every day, Pete has two yummy soups from which to choose. Also, he has the best egg salad in town. The Farmer Girl is a restaurant with a family friendly atmosphere and staff; it never disappoints.

Lake Worth Budget Workshop tonight

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Tonight at 6pm, is a city commission meeting workshop, Session No. 1, on the 2014 City budget.

Click here for the first draft budget presented by Finance Director, Steve Carr.

Florida teachers - Do they deserve a raise just for showing up for work?

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The House and the Senate aligned their position on teacher pay raises Sunday, putting the Florida Legislature on a collision course with Gov. Rick Scott. The chambers agreed to spend $480 million on salary increases for educators — the same figure Scott has in his budget. The key difference: the Senate and the House are insisting on performance-based raises, while Scott is championing $2,500 across-the-board increases for every classroom teacher.

Read more.

Performance-based raises are the way to go. Gov. Scott is pandering to the Union.

In 2010, Bill Graham lost his School Board seat because he was for merit based raises. The PBPost endorsed his opponent, Karen Brill, who was for non-performance based raises even though our student test scores were atrocious. Florida, especially south Florida has a unique problem--the immigrant situation with kids from non-speaking English homes. Realizing that it is extremely difficult when we have kids in school who can barely read or write English, teachers can still teach. A raise is not deserved just for showing up to do your job.  In 2011, Lake Worth High School had 98.% of the Seniors take the SAT. The mean score in reading was 388 and in Math, 403.  Any combined score below 900 is considered LOW.


There should be more of an emphasis on scholastics and homework, not football.

City of Lake Worth Comprehensive Plan Amendment Workshops

PUBLIC WORKSHOPS FOR PROPOSED COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENTS

Housing & Neighborhood Element | Economic Development Element

District 3 | April 23 | 6pm | St Andrews Episcopal Church | 100 North Palmway

District 1 | April 25 | 6pm | Osborne Center | 1699 Wingfield Street

District 2 | May 28 | 6pm | Shuffleboard Courts | 1121 Lucerne Avenue

District 4 | May 30 | 6pm | Cultural Council | 601 Lake Avenue

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Saturday, April 20, 2013

After the Sun had set


This was taken at 7:52pm last night after the sun had set...
 a pastel beautiful sky.

Lazy Day by Rowena Limauro

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Credit to the artist. The photo below did it no justice.

The Art Bistro Bash in Lake Worth

Having a big passion for art and all those with so much talent, last evening I attended the Lake Worth Art League Bistro Bash. I now own two paintings that were sponsored by the Art League.

Lake Worth artist, Rowena Limauro and her watercolor entitled "Lazy Day."  It is too bad that the light from the camera bounced off the glass frame. It is a lovely painting of 3 palm trees with a beach chair at the ocean's edge that she painted in 2007.


Artist Lynne Pittard lives on Lake Victoria Drive and her medium is exceptional oils of animals, birds, sunsets, the sea, flowers and natural beauty. These paintings of Great Egrets were stunning.

We are so lucky to have so much talent in our city.

Follow-up on MESS OF THE WEEK

Last week this house was featured located in the 1800 block of Lake Osborne Drive. All who live out here are familiar with this property. Ever since it was taken back by the bank two years ago and in a foreclosure process, it has fallen into disarray. They rent out the property to what appears to be students. Another code violation was submitted, one among many.

We were told that the worst cases are worked first. In the meantime, our neighborhoods go to slum and blight and this particular house has been cited for years.

llegal for Sale Sign on an illegally parked boat.

Large sign now off the boat and turned sideways. Small For Sale sign now on side of boat. These kids keep pushing the envelope.

Quote of the Day - Allen West

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“Let me be very clear. The terrorist attack in Boston and evolving events indicate we have a domestic radical Islamic terror problem in America. No more excuses. No more apologies. We are in a war of ideological wills and we shall prevail.”

~ Allen West

We are not going to prevail with this present administration and its lack of homeland security... its lack of border protection and newly devised pathway to citizenship. We let every Tom, Dick and Harry cross into our country. It seems that we are way too trusting of a nation in this cruel and evil world in which we live. This government needs to do more to protect its citizens and to protect us from them. Are any of us safe anymore?

Quote of the Day - Marco Rubio

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"We should look for ways to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill prone to misusing them, but I oppose legislation that will be used as a vehicle to impose new Second Amendment restrictions on responsible, law-abiding gun owners. We should work to reduce tragic acts of violence by addressing violence at its source, including untreated mental illness, the lack of adequate information-sharing on mental health issues, and the breakdown of the family."

~ Marco Rubio

Today, Palm Beach County Democrats have organized a two hour protest at Marco Rubio's Palm Beach Garden's office--they don't like his stand on gun control and they don't like his recent votes on concealed firearms and expanding background checks even though he was on the majority of the vote.  I guess they don't like the first two amendments to our Constitution either.

Person of Interest in Boston Marathon Bombing

Remember the original "person of interest" we blogged about the other day, Abdul Rahman Ali Issa Al-Salimi Alharbi?  Originally the FBI stated that they thought they knew who the bomber was and no wonder.  It turns out that the "Alharbi clan has long been active in al-Qaida. Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harbi, for example, is a Saudi national who joined Osama bin Laden’s mujahadeen group in the 1980s. He reportedly became an al-Qaida member in the mid-1990s. He turned himself in to Saudi authorities in 2004 as part of an amnesty deal.

The BBC reported Khaled Alharbi was married to the daughter of al-Qaida’s number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri. He reportedly appeared with bin Laden in a video praising the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In light of recent reports that Alharbi was scheduled for deportation on ‘national security grounds’, the first lady’s visit (to the Saudi who was injured at ground zero in Boston) takes on much added significance if those reports are true. We already know that the Alharbi clan consists of multiple al-Qaida members. This would seem to bolster the claims of scheduled deportation this Tuesday, not claims to the contrary made by the likes of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, who actually never really answered the question; she just got rankled and blew it off.

Atlas Shrugs: Debka is reporting that the brothers were members of a Wahhabi cell funded by Saudi al Qaeda." Read the entire article HERE. Perhaps over the next weeks or months, we will learn more of the story.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Photo of Dead Boston bomber

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View the body and read the article on dead Marathon bomber

No one can stop the Jihad

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Posted apparently by one of the bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, though not yet confirmed, shows a belief in the coming of the Shiites’ 12th Imam, Mahdi, and the rise of an Islamic army with black flags out of Khorasan, a province in Iran.

WND’s source said the Chechen brothers were likely recruited and trained by other assets connected with Hezbollah operators with centers in South Asia to carry out their terror attack and then abandoned so there would be no link to Iran.

Read more...

Jill Karlin Art Exhibit tonight in Lake Worth

Jill Karlin

Art exhibit
Tonight, Friday April 19  from 4:00p.m.
The Lake Worth Art League Bistro Bash  at The Cottage 
522 Lucerne Avenue Lake Worth, FL 33460 561-586-0080

Street closed on that block and lots of parking nearby

Politicians Who Don't have a Clue by Allen West

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Politicians Who Don’t Have A Clue They ignore reality and shun smart solutions

Before we dive into this installment of the Next Generation weekly update, please make sure you go to our website and print your updated monthly NextGen data card. This will give you the latest stats on key economic indicators so you can compare the Obama administration’s record with the past.

Now let’s tackle the theme for this week: “I don’t have a clue.”

President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are running around the country, on your taxpayer dollars, talking about gun control. However, a CNSNews.com report by Gregory Gwyn-Williams reveals that there have been 32 background checks for gun purchases every minute during Obama’s presidency.

Between Feb. 1, 2009 and March 31 of this year (the latest data from the FBI) there have been 70,291,049 such checks. That’s 1,520 days, the equivalent of 36,480 hours or 2,188, 800 minutes. So as the president would say, it’s math. Divide 70,291,049 background checks by 2,188, 800 minutes, and voila, you get 32 every minute.

Listening to the POTUS, you would think no background checks have been done during his entire presidency. Doggone, I knew that after retiring I should have opened a gun store with a firing range. At least we have found one business that is booming in the Obama economy.

See, if the president had a clue, he would realize that law-abiding citizens obey the law, and he is just pushing for more laws for them to obey. Perhaps Obama wants to hit 50 background checks per minute. That could be an important political statistic for White House press secretary Jay Carney to report.

However, consider that this week at Lone Star College in Houston, a deranged individual randomly stabbed 14 college students. If all things are equal, then Obama and the first lady should be calling for knife control, or at least box-cutter control or maybe even barbershop straight-razor control.

Actually, we probably should ban cars because we did recently have a severe multiple-car pile-up on an interstate in Virginia.

My former House colleague, Democrat Carolyn Maloney of New York, has come up with her own grand idea -- gun insurance. I recently discussed it on Fox News. She doesn’t have a clue, either.

Lantana, now a gated community

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Any blog written today will be anti-climatic. We all have our eyes on the Marathon bombers.

Lantana, the Flower
Pink is the color associated with warmth and love,

but it hasn't transcended when it comes to ingress into Lantana and its road block which  was a loud message to Lake Worth. We don't want your speeding cars or you low lives coming down our road into our town.

Lantana now has a gated community. Essentially in the eastern area, there are only 4 roads into Lantana from Lake Worth:  Dixie Highway, I-95, North Ridge Road (which you would enter after one turn off of Tropical Drive from 12 Avenue South) or Andrew Redding Road after detouring off of North Ridge and driving around Barton Elementary School where children are bused.
 
Lantana, now a gated community

Today, we stopped at a house on North Ridge Road directly next door to the iron fence that was installed in the "stealth of night." It must have really surprised all those speeding cars and criminals leaving Lake Worth on their way to Lantana to buy groceries at Publix when they saw this. The woman living there said she is finally relieved that the street is blocked off...that it's just too bad that we are unhappy--people from Lake Worth can drive on Congress or I-95 to go to Publix...not on "her" street.


As we wanted to get the "real" scoop (not the political message) as to why this road was blocked off, we drove to Catherine Skervin's house on Southwinds Drive, the activist who is getting the credit for the petition drive and making Lantana a gated community, at least from its undesirable neighbors to the north. Unfortunately there was no phone number in the book for her and we could not knock on her door--she lives in a gated house in her newly created gated community. Read about Catherine who has been a loud voice in Lantana and who has fought to reduce crime in her neighborhood with petitions and drive. She literally has taken on the gangs.

Lantana only has 10,423 people and 4164 households in the town, but a handful of people had enough clout to shut off a public road. Now where will the "speeders" and Lake Worth undesirables go?  Detour to Andrew Redding Road right next to Barton Elementary?

Whatever happened to speed bumps? Whatever happened to goodwill? 

Boston Bomber Name Released

One dead; one on the run...just a matter of time. Massive manhunt. I am so proud of our FBI, the Boston police and all involved.

Click here

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Another Lake Worth Low Life booked

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Javier Alejandro Paz who lives in the 200 block of South Lakeside Drive, was just booked on 22 counts for possession and distribution of child pornography.

Read more...

Lake Worth City Board Appointments

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This morning the Palm Beach Post announced a few board appointments.  I agree with Commissioner McVoy that those applying to city boards should be publicly vetted. As everyone knows, this majority commission changed the rules on this...just another decision excluding the public.  One of particular interest was sent in by a reader--

3.9.13  Jean Robert Saint-Thelus Sign Holding $120.00
&

3.12.13 Jean Robert Saint-Thelus Haitian Coordinator $200.00

$320.00 PAID for "NO"Vote AND a Board Position - NOTHING 2 C Here?!? http://www.lakeworth.org/vertical/sites/%7B5E6FE119-0228-4C9B-B2DB-067168049C16%7D/uploads/Q1%281%29.pdf

4.18.23
The commission also appointed Jean Robert Saint-Thelus to the Sister City board
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/local/lake-worth-board-members-appointed/nXPPz/

Who's Fooling Who???

Congratulations to Marshall Pass and David Cavanaugh, just appointed to the Tree Board.