Just because it got published in the paper does not mean it’s true.

Today was another error in the print edition
of The Palm Beach Post.

This latest one follows several other 
recent errors (see below).


And worth noting: Three more quality reporters have recently left the Post. They are County reporter Alexandra Seltzer, Boynton Beach beat reporter Chelsea Todaro, and Emily Bloch who you may recall penned this Special Report about the eradication of invasive Muscovy ducks from a Village of Palm Springs neighborhood.

After this error today it might be time to invite journalist Al Tompkins back to Palm Beach State College (PBSC) to do another presentation on accuracy in the press and news media. PBSC, by the way, is not located in the City of Lake Worth. Learn more about Mr. Tompkins a little later in this blog post.

This latest error is on p. B4 ‘LOCAL’ and headlined, “Man arrested after wrecking vehicle in Lake Worth”. The reporter got this wrong. This did not happen in this City.

This event occurred far west in unincorporated Palm Beach County east of the City of Greenacres, at 4480 S. Congress Ave., a restaurant called the Country Inn Restaurant.


[Briefly, if anyone is looking for the absolutely best country- and family-style food actually in the City of Lake Worth please consider the Farmer Girl Restaurant at 1732 N. Dixie Hwy. They are open every day from 6:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m.]


And of course, of all the errors of late published in the Post the most egregious was publishing the wrong location of where a 21-month-old Guatemalan child was killed. The Post reported it happened “in Lantana”. Wrong. Find out the correct location by clicking on this link.

The publisher of the Post as of May 1st is GateHouse Media.

Maybe some time in the near future a journalist from GateHouse can research a landmark called the E-4 Canal. And then that journalist can teach all the reporters at the Post about where this landmark is located. You’ve probably driven over the E-4 canal hundreds or thousands of times and never noticed it. But the E-4 is very significant. Learn more at the end of this blog post.


And then was this error from four days ago. . .



“He [lottery winner] bought his winning ticket from Presidente Supermarket, 2485 10th Ave. North in Lake Worth [sic]. The retailer will receive a $10,000 bonus commission for selling the ticket.”

—Published in Post print edition on Thursday, Jan. 10th, p. B4 above the fold.


The Presidente Supermarket on 10th Ave. North (located on the west side of the E-4 “Keller Canal”; see graphic below) is not located in the City of Lake Worth.

It’s not located in the Village of Palm Springs either.

This supermarket is located in unincorporated Palm Beach County. However, at some point this area will get annexed into a municipality.

So even though the ‘news’ published in the Post is wrong we can still make this a “teachable moment” today.

Some of you may recall when journalist Al Tompkins visited Palm Beach State College back in August 2016. It was an incredibly eye-opening presentation about the press and news media. One of the major points by Tompkins was this: “The public needs to sort out what’s accurate and what’s true.” That goes for national, state and local news; big news and small news.

For example, the headline last week in the Post was this:

Lake Worth man, 54, wins $5M

in scratch-off game

Was the “Lake Worth man” a resident of the City of Lake Worth? We don’t know because the lottery winner refused to talk to the Post reporter. That lottery winner may be from any number of areas with a ‘Lake Worth’ zip code. But what we do know is the lottery winner did not purchase that winning ticket ‘in Lake Worth’.

Whilst on the topic. . .

Presidente Supermarket is,


“[A] privately-owned business, run to this day by the Cuban American family that started the Presidente Supermarket enterprise 30 years ago.

“The life experience of our immigrant founders provides us with a special understanding of the everyday customer and how to fashion our inventory to their satisfaction. It is of the greatest importance to us that our stores provide what our customers seek, at the prices our customers expect.”


And they sell lottery tickets too!

Now back to the E-4 Canal, also referred to as the “Keller Canal”, next to the Presidente Supermarket.

The E-4 is managed by the Lake Worth Drainage District (LWDD). And yes, a small part of the City of Lake Worth is within the LWDD water management area.

For example, the City’s Park of Commerce (and Boutwell Rd. west of I-95) is within the LWDD.

“Without adequate drainage, human health and safety would be jeopardized and extensive property damage could occur.” To learn more about the Lake Worth Drainage District click on this link.

The north-south E-4 Canal connects with the east-west C-51 Canal which is managed by the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD). The C-51 then drains into the Intracoastal (aka, the Lake Worth Lagoon).

The C-51 is also the border between the City of
West Palm (a city without a beach) and the
City of Lake Worth (with a Beach!).

Click on map to enlarge:

Hurricane Season begins once again on June 1st.
In the meantime the work continues:

“In 2015, the Lake Worth Drainage District completed an inventory of its canals and identified about 180 miles of district-owned land that was ‘encumbered with nuisance vegetation and other encroachments’ ”.

In conclusion: that ‘news’ published in the Post was wrong about that supermarket ‘in Lake Worth’. But hopefully you learned a lot more today about this place in Central Palm Beach County called the City of Lake Worth (with a Beach) and areas west of the city in what can be called “suburban Lake Worth” or unincorporated Palm Beach County.