Glenn Beck on the Covington kids

Andrew Gillum committed "Face Crime"

"Andrew Gillum (thank God he's not our governor) jumped at the opportunity to score who-knows-what kind of political points. His tweet -- which has been resent more than 14,000 times -- remains up on his feed. Gillum uses the word “honor” for a man who tries to claim active-duty status when he in fact was busted numerous times for abandoning his duties." SunshineStateNews]

Gillum took the side (of course) of the Indian in a tweet, a guy who has a serious history of being a bad actor, instead of even attempting to find out the facts. After all, it was kids wearing Make America Great Again caps. But with Andrew Gillum, along with the nutty news media, jumped right in and attacked the kids, Christian schools, etc.and glorified Phillips.

P.S. Andrew Gillum's tweet is still up. So much for hatred and ignorance, Andrew.

IRS hits Indians with humongous bill

The Internal Revenue Service has hit the Miccosukee Indians with a $170 million bill for failing to report and withhold taxes from its distribution of gambling profits to tribal members.

OMG, do you think perhaps they were targeted for being anti-Obama?

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Scenes of the Everglades

More than 2,000 Seminoles live on six reservations in the State and are located in Hollywood, Big Cypress, Brighton, Immokalee, Ft. Pierce, and Tampa. There was never a peace treaty signed and the Seminole Tribe has always been an independent nation.

As a very young child living in West Palm Beach, I witnessed Seminoles living at the Park off Flagler Drive, sleeping in thatched huts called chickees, a palmetto thatch over a cypress log frame. I was told that they slept off the ground so that the tarantulas would not get them, later to find out that was a fairy tale. We had no understanding of what a tarantula was other than it was poisonous and deadly.

They all wore the traditional bright colored clothing, selling their hand-made wares to the tourists. To kids, it was curious and fascinating--real Indians. As children, we played the game "Cowboys and Indians" and we never envisioned Indians looking like these. It has been a lasting memory.


I don't know where Chief Jim Billie lived back in the late 60's when I was a dental assistant here in Lake Worth. He was a patient where I worked and as I recall, about my age and good looking. When he was a boy, he lived in Dania. He was orphaned as a teenager and was taken in by the famous Osceola family. He became chairman of the 2,600 member Seminole tribe of south Florida from 1979 to 2001. Chief Billie spearheaded a drive that resulted in the Seminoles becoming the first Native American Indian tribe to establish a gaming industry on sovereign land.

Ron Exline and Betty Anderson were down at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood a few weeks ago contributing towards the tribe's multi-millions a year in profit that it takes in from gambling that has led to the Seminoles becoming one of the most financially solvent tribes in the United States. Earlier in the year, Charlie Crist and the Seminole tribe of Florida signed off on a gambling deal guaranteed to bring at least $1 billion to the State over the next five years.

Seminole Hard Rock Casino and Hotel
Hollywood, FL

The One Eyed Bandit - John Ashley

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Stephen Carr, Lecturer

The John Ashley Story in a nutshell

In Thursday’s Neighborhood News there was a small segment on the Ashley Gang. Coincidentally, Katie had invited me to the Lantana Historical Society’s meeting that night to hear a lecture on, you guessed it, The Ashley Gang.

Stephen Carr, a Lake Worth High School alumnus and former Lake Worth firefighter/paramedic, gave the lecture. He has a love for history and is an amateur archeologist. Having lived in PB County off and on forever, for some strange reason I had no knowledge of the Ashley Gang and wanted to learn more about some of our notorious history. It was an interesting 1.5 hours.

John Ashley, whose one eye was shot out by a foe, along with his girlfriend, Laura, were sort of like the pre Bonnie and Clyde of their day based in the southern half of Florida. John began his career in Pompano cutting wood for the railroad. Soon tired of that, he became a trapper of otters in the Florida Everglades where he met his friend DeSoto Tiger, the son of a former Seminole Chief who became his partner in the otter skin trade. Ashley ended up murdering him on a boat trip to Miami to sell the skins and dumped the body. This is what started his life of crime.

His tentacles reached out all over the State. He was a prolific bank robber and train robber extraordinaire. He and his family were well known. John and his gang stole an estimated $1 million between 1915 and 1924. Robbery, murder mayhem, rum running and moonshine stills were his way of life. He was in and out of jails as well as in Raiford twice where he escaped both times.

In the end, he was betrayed by his lover and murdered while handcuffed by the PB County Sheriff. Stephen Carr said it was his bawdy girlfriend, Laura that turned him in because she thought he was running out on her with their last stash estimated at around $250,000. His crime spree lasted for approximately ten years; John Ashley was only 32 when he was shot to death. Laura ended up taking her own life a few years later by drinking a can of Lysol. The stash was never found and people search for it to this day.