 |
| According to NeighborhoodScout, West Palm Beach is in the top 10 percent of Most Dangerous Cities in America. |
 |
| Riviera Beach, according the Post's expert source, is more than twice as safe as West Palm Beach. |
While the vast majority of the major municipalities contracted with PBSO will see a 3 percent increase in their contract cost, Lake Worth will only see a one percent increase.
Lake Worth was notified of a three percent increase also.
Mayor Pam Triolo took Lake Worth’s plight to Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and explained, once again, the financial condition of the City. Bradshaw listened and agreed to a one percent increase for the next year.
The initial contract with the Sheriff’s Department has a cap on the price escalation for the first three years. The City is entering it’s eighth year contracting PBSO services and there is no cap on the amount the Sheriff can increase price of the contract.
Sheriff Bradshaw and PBSO have worked with Lake Worth to help keep the cost of law enforcement in the City under control.
“We are ripe for these kinds of improvements but in the last few years we haven’t gotten them off the ground,” Bierman said. “We are at a point where our traffic problems will have a negative impact on our ability to grow and attract new business and talent to our community because people don’t feel like the can thrive in a community where you have to have a car, and where a trip between home and work can take 90 minutes to two hours."The article states that Denver used the model of public-private partnerships with "private developers" to create transit-oriented development (TOD) in that city.
Chris Nicolaus used to drive around Fort Lauderdale with a Confederate flag proudly flapping on the antenna of his truck. But in the mornings, he’d find his vehicle had been keyed overnight. He started bringing the flag into his house in the evenings and putting it back up in the mornings, but that became too tedious, so he stopped. It’s a shame, Nicolaus says, because to him, the Confederate flag is an emblem of Southern culture, not racism.The flag being referred to is this one (a pleasant message from The Other Blogger [TOB]):
“For some people, it means one thing. For others, it means another,” Nicolaus tells New Times. The 35-year-old has lived in South Florida his whole life. “It might’ve meant something different 135 years ago, but for me it means that I’m Southern and enjoy fishing and hunting and being outdoors in the Everglades. We’re not the KKK.”
 |
| This flag, the 'southern cross' is confused with the authentic Confederate flag called the 'stars and bars' (See link in following paragraph). |
Florida's statewide hunt begins Saturday.
The limited entry hunt starts at 5 p.m. Aug. 15 and runs through Nov. 1. Hunting usually occurs at night and in the early hours of the morning.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission gave out around 6,000 permits last year. The FWC website says about 5,000 permits will be awarded to approximately 10,000 applicants for the 2015 season.
Several restrictions listed by FWC include feeding the gators, the use of traditional firearms, the use of baited hoots and using gig-equipped bang sticks.
Pedalcyclists, as defined for this fact sheet, are bicyclists and other cyclists including riders of twowheel, nonmotorized vehicles, tricycles, and unicycles powered solely by pedals. A traffic crash is defined as an incident that involved one or more motor vehicles where at least one vehicle was in transport and the crash originated on a public traffic way, such as a road or highway. Crashes that occurred on private property, including parking lots and driveways, are excluded. Pedalcyclist crashes in this fact sheet will not include bicycle wrecks that do not involve motor vehicles.Here is the data from 2013 (note, we're only dealing with fatalities, not injuries):
An unidentified resident shot and killed one intruder and injured a second one Thursday night south of town, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said.Meanwhile the TV news is reporting the shooting took place in Lantana and one report even had Boynton Beach. I verified Mr. Whigham was correct and started Tweeting the news media, specifically all my good friends at CBS12/WPEC. One or two reporters Tweeted back they would verify the information.
The shootings took place on Hibiscus Tree Drive in the San Castle neighborhood south of Hypoluxo Road and east of Interstate 95.
"I can't thank the people at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center and the members of the Gulfstream Masonic Lodge enough. For all that they have done for the Lake Worth Community, they are honoring me with an award. Thank You and I will work at making my best even better."
As for helping to prevent climate change in the first place, GM has not been much of a slouch. Adopting GM technology has reduced pesticide spraying by nearly 9 percent. [emphasis added] This arises from replacing broad-range pesticides with glyphosate and in some cases 2,4D, reducing the volume of pesticides used and the fossil fuel needed to spray them.Chipotle for lunch anyone?
In addition, tillage, necessary for organic and some conventional farming, is usually not necessary for genetically modified crops. A Purdue University study found that no-till fields released 57 percent less nitrous oxide (another greenhouse gas) than fields that required tillage. Thus, less tillage sequesters more carbon and nitrogen in soil.
Finally, genetic modifications produce crops that can get higher yields using less space. This means that less land needs to be disrupted—fewer trees are removed, more plants are preserved and less carbon is released (not to mention the carbon dioxide taken up by plants). The USDA recently found that organic agriculture would require almost twice and much land than is necessary using conventional methods (measured against GM crops, that number’s more dramatic. Organic agriculture would require an extra 121.7 million acres to grow all US-produced food—that’s an area the size of Spain.
“Q. The map on the city page looks like it covers a broader area than the city. Does this mean the crimes used for this report come from a broader area than the city limits?So to clarify, although the map shows surrounding unincorporated areas, only the crime incidents and population of Lake Worth are included in our crime risk analysis.
A. Our map may show census tracts (neighborhoods) assigned to a city for visual purposes, based on a spatial overlay of census tracts to municipal boundaries. Rest assured the data used for the development of these reports are the crimes that occurred within the city limits, along with the population of the city.”
LULA Lake Worth Arts and the Lake Worth Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) present the final Screen on the Green in this Summer’s Outdoor Film series in the Cultural Plaza, Downtown Lake Worth on Saturday, Aug. 15. The Neighborhood Association Presidents Council (NAPC) will be there to once again hosting their Front Porch in the Plaza welcoming new friends and neighbors from all over the City to relax and enjoy the original version of Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder and the Oompa Loompas.
NeighborhoodScout recently listed the 10 most dangerous cities in the state, with Lake Worth coming in at — drum roll, please! — No. 4., beating out Riviera Beach, listed at No. 7NeighborhoodScout is a perfect example of data collection and the principle of Garbage In Garbage Out (GIGO). Lake Worth is only 6 square miles but look at what they include, vast areas of unincorporated PBC:
The site said there is a one in 14 chance of being the victim of a violent or property-related crime in Lake Worth.
The site said it researched all 17,000 reporting agencies for its data and factored in the size of the population.
 |
| The City of Lake Worth is 6 square miles in Palm Beach County (shaded light blue, center/right side in image). NeighborhoodScout included all the other shaded areas inaccurately/unfairly as "Lake Worth". |
“With this report on the most dangerous cities, what we’re seeing is a really different picture of the types of locations that have the highest violent crime from what many people expect”Good point, Mr. Schiller. Here is more from NeighborhoodScout:
Developing a reliable measure of a city’s safety, especially if you’re comparing them, requires a full count of the total number and types of violent crimes in each city, and getting the cities on a level playing field for comparison.From the flawed data in NeighborhoodScout they ranked Lake Worth as the 34th most dangerous city in the U.S. Then Victoria Winkler from OnlyInYourState used the flawed data to rank Lake Worth as the 4th most dangerous city in Florida (ahead of Miami [population 400,000] at #5):
PB Post blog: Lake Worth ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in Florida....http://t.co/YCu204lPeX pic.twitter.com/bCeOYzB6UF
— Kevin D. Thompson (@KevinDThompson1) August 7, 2015
We're left to wonder, since the data is proven flawed, why is the Post proceeding with the story for this weekend? Possibly Sunday's paper? Here is an excerpt from the article in the works:LAKE WORTH — The numbers aren’t pretty.To be fair to their readers the Post should include a map showing the "suburban surroundings" they falsely label as 'Lake Worth' along with the actual borders of the City; a map like this one:
With a crime rate of 71 per one thousand residents, Lake Worth (the city and its suburban surroundings) has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to communities of all sizes, according to the real estate website, NeighborhoodScout.com.
“We have four offices, we have six desks,” explained Laura McGlynn owner of Social House in Lake Worth. “Then we have 20 that we're maxing out at for our shared open area space.”If you have been there and work out of the space occasionally, share your experience in the comments below or send me an email.
Social House is just one example of a coworking space that provides areas for professionals to hold meetings in a polished space and they also provide a community. "Being able to have a place to come out and meet other people and network with other people, referral opportunities," McGlynn said.
Twitter is removing the 140-character limit from DM's which means you can send us your #TIPS without limitations. pic.twitter.com/eiD6F5wnxa
— PBSO (@PBCountySheriff) August 12, 2015
That day, a massive hurricane smashed the coastline from the Treasure Coast to Miami, then moved inland and washed out what then was a flimsy dike around Lake Okeechobee, sending a wall of water into the countryside. The official death toll is 2,500, but it could be as high as 3,000. [emphasis added]
With 86 years now having passed, finding anyone who survived the storm, and was old enough at the time to have any memories now, has become nearly an impossible task. We were thrilled when longtime reader John Weigand of Delray Beach directed us to retired shop teacher Leslie Douglas, now living in Ocala.
Douglas, who turned a spry 96 in February, was born in Jacksonville; his father, an electrical contractor, moved a wife and four young children in 1925 to a home along Federal Highway in Lake Worth.
Three years later, the big storm approached. Young Leslie, then 10, and his siblings helped his father nail three-quarter inch plywood to the windows.
Soon the wind was roaring, perhaps as much as 50 to 60 mph.
“I remember very well being flattened,” Douglas recalled last month from his home. He said he felt like “a human kite.”
Soon the storm was on; “it was almost like a fire siren,” Douglas said. “The trees shook. The house shook.”
For as much as four hours, he recalled, his mother, “94 pounds of her, was sitting in the high chair with her fingers in her ears. We could see a lot of things going by.”
When the storm had passed, Douglas recalled, “our little bungalow was not touched.”
Much of the region hadn’t been as lucky. Douglas recalled victims being brought by the truckload to the iconic Gulf Stream Hotel in downtown Lake Worth, where his father had helped organize a relief command post. Some were alive, but “didn’t have anything. I’m talking about nothing but the shirt on their back.”
 |
| Another in a long line of hysterical stories from The Obtuse Blogger (TOB). |
 |
| There is really a website called the End Times Headlines: "News and Headlines from a Prophetic Perspective". Lake Worth pastor Olive was featured there when he was promoting his 'war on religion'. |
Both Millerite [followers of William Miller] leaders and followers were left generally bewildered and disillusioned. Responses varied: some continued to look daily for Christ's return, while others predicted different dates—among them April, July, and October 1845. Some theorized that the world had entered the seventh millennium—the "Great Sabbath", and that therefore, the saved should not work. Others acted as children, basing their belief on Jesus' words in Mark 10:15: "Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." Millerite O. J. D. Pickands used Revelation to teach that Christ was now sitting on a white cloud and must be prayed down. Probably the majority, however, simply gave up their beliefs and attempted to rebuild their lives. Some members rejoined their previous denominations. A substantial number joined the Shakers.PBS' Paul Boyer on Frontline did a story on believers of the End Times (also called 'apocalypticism'), specifically about David Koresh and the Branch Davidians:
I think doomsday cults are very significant. I see them in some ways like the canaries that used to be taken down into coal mines. If the canary died, you knew that there was a buildup of dangerous gases and you'd better be careful. It seems to me that doomsday cults tell us something about a contemporary cultural climate of anxiety, of apprehension, of uneasiness about trends in our contemporary world. And some groups, usually under the influence of a very charismatic and potent sort of leader, withdraw from the larger society and act on their belief system in a quite literal and sometimes catastrophic fashion. [emphasis added]The End Times, apocalypticism, or the 'doomsday', whatever you wish to call it is nothing new. It's a "climate of anxiety" being manipulated by some very clever people.
 |
| From June of this year, Ryan Maier's tenant applied to adopt a pet at the 609 2nd Avenue South address. |
 |
| Inspection record from 2008 when Mr. Maier purchased the home. Note that there was only one bathroom. |
 |
| The 'City' of Lake Worth is that tiny area shaded light blue on the right, in the center of image. |
In a recent Nerd Wallet survey, the city was ranked as one of the best in Florida for young families.Very charming, isn't it? Here is the Tweet Mr. Thompson sent out after discovering this 'news' about Lake Worth:
Well, according to another survey, those families may want to stay inside and lock their doors.
PB Post blog: Lake Worth ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in Florida....http://t.co/YCu204lPeX pic.twitter.com/bCeOYzB6UF
— Kevin D. Thompson (@KevinDThompson1) August 7, 2015
Nice graphic. The story here is that this is bogus news. The crime data includes crimes outside the City in suburban Lake Worth, or as some call, unincorporated Palm Beach County (more on this tomorrow). Here is where Mr. Thompson found his information about 'crime' in Lake Worth. Victoria Winkler, the 'crime expert' the reporter sites also has these highly important journalistic articles about the state of Florida.
The East Coast version of California's Passages Malibu is coming to South Florida, and it's expected to create hundreds of high-wage jobs.
Passages is a holistic treatment company that uses a 12-step program to help those battling addiction and eating disorders, and it's transforming the 100,000-square-foot site of the former Glades General into Passages Belle Glade.
The rehabilitation center at 1201 S. Main Street in Belle Glade will also provide behavioral treatment for juveniles. It's expected to open in 2016 with about 225 workers, according to the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County. Employees at Passages Belle Glade will be paid a rate above the city's average wage, the economic development organization added.
Yale Law School graduate Stewart Rhodes in 2009 founded the far-right Oath Keepers, a fiercely antigovernment, militaristic group that improbably claims more than 30,000 law enforcement officers, soldiers and military veterans as members. The core idea of the group is that its members vow to forever support the oaths they took on joining law enforcement or the military to defend the Constitution. But just as central is the group’s list of 10 “Orders We Will Not Obey,” a compendium of much-feared but entirely imaginary threats from the government — orders, for instance, to force Americans into concentration camps, confiscate their guns, or cooperate with foreign troops in the United States.[and. . .]
In 2013, the group took on a more aggressive stance, announcing the planned formation of “Citizen Preservation” militias meant to defend Americans against the New World Order.Read about the New World Order here, one of the most creative of all conspiracy theories ever created.
How would you like to order groceries on your phone and have them delivered to your door? Now there's an app for that.
A company called Shipt is launching a Publix grocery delivery service in South Florida next week.
The service starts Aug. 18 and will operate from West Palm Beach to Miami. A company representative says there are currently no plans to expand into the Treasure Coast.
Members have to join the service, which costs $49 per year if you sign up during their current early bird promotion. In return, Shipt says you will get unlimited deliveries on orders over $35.
In 2014, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) named 30 landmarks across the country that could face irreparable damage or be lost forever due to climate change. Moving forward, we will be partnering with them to save these and other historic places. To do so, we may have to consider novel approaches, such as moving buildings, raising them up, or implementing creative waterproofing and reinforcements to help them withstand flooding.
The All Aboard Florida West Palm Beach station has a lot to offer residents and tourists. The 60,000 square foot station will include apartments with direct access to the station. There will be a 23 story apartment complex within the station. From the West Palm Beach station visitors can get to Miami in 1 hour, Fort Lauderdale in 30 minutes, and Orlando in 2 hours. This station will provide $164 million in economic impact for Palm Beach County through 2021. The West Palm Beach All Aboard Florida station will also provide 1,200+ new jobs in Palm Beach county through the construction of the station and rail line. This station is also within walking distance to City Place, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, and Clematis Street.
The city’s law-enforcement officers next year will trade in their dark blue uniforms for money-green outfits.Money-green? Here is how the paragraph reads in the print edition:
The city’s law-enforcement officers next year will trade in their dark blue uniforms for forest-green outfits.Anyhow, here is another excerpt that explains why Greenacres decided to merge with PBSO:
Councilwoman Lisa Rivera said the move was long overdue.The PBSO critics in Lake Worth that continue to fantasize about our City having its own PD can never find a way to solve this problem: if we recruit and train new officers and can't afford to pay them what PBSO pays then all the good ones will leave after they get experience and we'll be left with the rest who PBSO isn't interested in.
“Our police department is incredibly understaffed,” she said. “The department is used as a training ground to gain knowledge and experience. We want officers to stay with our city, and we can no longer afford (to operate) a small-town police department.”
 |
| This sign was at the protest organized by EarthFirst! against PBSO last year. |
Looking for the prime dinner location? @clematis_street has a wide variety of options @palmsugarwpb @pistachewpb @greaseburgerwpb
— Palm Beaches, FL (@PalmBeachesFL) August 10, 2015
 |
| Image from the SPLC website. |
The Southern Poverty Law Center compiled the information in this map from lists created by other human rights organizations, hate groups and its own research in order to give a sense of the size of this reactionary movement. When available, event organizers, hate groups and key members involved, source information and crowd sizes at past events have been included. When not explicitly reported by credible news sources, the number of attendees has been estimated from photos and video evidence. Our hope is that the map will serve as an interactive resource for those seeking to understand the scope of the forces supporting the embattled flag.Then there is the cadre of bully bloggers who provide the flag supporters the encouragement to continue:
 |
| The flag shown above is not the 'Confederate' flag. The link in the paragraph below explains the public confusion about this issue. |
 |
| TOB loved President Barack Obama and then something happened. |
 |
| Now she hates President Obama. |
 |
| What happened to the poor woman? Why is her heart so filled with hate? |
 |
| Was she radicalized? What turned her heart so cold? |
 |
| "Angry black men"? Who is the angry one? |
![Dr. W. H. Cotton’s ode: “Oh, My Lake Worth, Florida!” [circa 1920].](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUL75cv6zJQFjX15ojOIIz9AjnbqH4asHJTYSDhnGnYr7rJZRha1NcNTirj2xPcId158vkz5Hw-wXgOfrlztj8Zr8jLFFCfuEN6PyV44ZlpMRmJ68xbtFL9vzxNiG7xDs_HJvm/s1600/LakeWorthPioneers.JPG)
