Huge crowd last year: The July 4th Raft Race in the little City of Lake Worth

For more information on this year's Raft Race visit the NAPC website or the NAPC Facebook page.

Is the "war on religion" over? Has the KGB returned home? So many questions for 'pastor' Mike Olive

What happened to all the drama by the 'pastor' and his 'Common Ground' (no 's') church? 

A "soviet-style crackdown"?

The 'pastor' Mike Olive gave Lake Worth an undeserved black eye on the national stage. He's never apologized.

And the 'pastor' has some in the community who continue to ignore the damage he's done to our City.

City Press Release—July 4th Celebration and the Bryant Park Boat Ramp

The Annual Lake Worth 4th of July Celebration will be held on July 4, 2015. The City will be closing down the Bryant Park boat ramps on Friday, July 3, 2015 at 9:00pm and will reopen on Saturday, July 4, 2015 at 10:00 p.m. For event details please visit the City’s website.

For any further information on the July 4th Celebration please contact the Leisure Services Department at 561-586-1600.

Editorial: The economic power of historic preservation

From the Savannah Morning News was this recent editorial about a study linking historic preservation to economic development. Donovan Rypkema is an award winner in the field and was brought to Savannah, Georgia to explore the link historic neighborhoods play in the economic activity and lives of the general area. He found that its role was "substantial."

His conclusions are simple:

    Savannah, he said, is an international example of local business development through preservation rather than instead of preservation.
It’s time, Rypkema said, to permanently eliminate the false choice of we have to choose either to have economic development or historic preservation.
     “In Savannah, you’re doing the former by using the latter,” Rypkema said.
     Rypkema’s findings are hardly surprising to anyone who’s been paying attention for the last few decades, but they serve as useful reminders that ideas and approaches long advocated by a variety of organizations within the community are on track.

Earlier on the editorial points out the following:

     Did anything in the results surprise Rypkema?
     The answer was yes. He found that what he called “the extraordinary attractiveness of the historic districts to both small businesses and start-up businesses was at a magnitude that was quite surprising.”
     One element of the attractiveness of the city’s historic district, he said, is that they’re not museums frozen in time but, rather, are dynamic neighborhoods.
     Evidence of that, he said, is the fact that over the last 15 years more money has been invested in new construction in the neighborhoods than in rehabilitation.

If you haven't been to Savannah and walked through their downtown and surrounding areas, you really need to. The city plan is laid on a grid, but with the addition of "squares" which serve as urban oasis(es) and help define the character of individual neighborhoods. There isn't a parallel in Lake Worth like the "squares", but there is the abundance of public land that we have on the water. That really has always been a defining characteristic of Lake Worth. We have the beach, the golf course, north and south Bryant Park, the county's Lake Osborne and adjacent John Prince Park. All attractive elements that our city's leaders of past generations attempted to make the most of.

Anyway, back to historic preservation, more and more I am referring to the concept of historic evolution as it relates to preservation. Neighborhoods and cities are not static things or museum pieces that exist in a vacuum. The natural order of life is change and finding the balance between historic preservation and that innate constant of change is the challenge that we face here, and in other historic communities around the nation.

[UPDATE TO THE UPDATE] From Andrew Marra—"West Boca principal’s speech to grads: poignant but plagiarized"

[UPDATE: Sonja Isger has an update on this story. UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: The Post had another article about this in Sunday's paper (6/28) titled "Principal’s plagiarism soars over bar set by local teachers". The original post on this blog about the article by Andrew Marra follows:]

This article by Andrew Marra delves nicely with another recent case of plagiarism. The Boca Raton Tribune plagiarized FAU editor Emily Bloch and she, well, got really really really pissed off. You can read about that here. Ms. Bloch makes the point of what would happen to her academic career if she got caught stealing. Here is what she had to say:

Andrew Marra at The Palm Beach Post has this article about a commencement speech that was too similar to another famous speech given a few years ago that went viral. Here's an excerpt from Marra's article:

     Citing Sophocles and Henry David Thoreau, the principal of West Boca High School regaled hundreds of graduating seniors and parents last month with a stirring commencement speech [emphasis added], calling on them to “resist the easy comforts of complacency” and “be worthy of your advantages.”
     What Principal Mark Stenner didn’t tell them: He had plagiarized almost the entire seven-minute performance from a well-publicized commencement address, one written three years earlier by an English teacher in Massachusetts.

[and. . .]

     A video of it reveals it is almost identical to the popular commencement delivered by David McCullough Jr., a Massachusetts English teacher and the son of Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough.
     McCullough’s 2012 speech, in which he told students they were “not special” and that “it’s where you go from here that matters,” gained national media attention and acclaim for its straight talk. It drew millions of views on YouTube and led to a book deal.

Here is the speech that the principal of West Boca High was so impressed with:

If you are interested, you can read the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics here.

All Aboard Florida's CDO Mike Reininger on the train service and jobs

All Aboard Florida will create thousands of jobs in Florida. Mike Reininger, President, Chief Development Officer of All Aboard Florida, discusses job creation for the $2.5 billion dollar passenger rail project that will take visitors from Miami to Orlando in less than 3 hours and have stops in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

And. . .don't forget about the Coastal Link that will serve the smaller cities along the route after AAF is operational:

NBC5/WPTV's Brian Entin did an excellent news segment about the Coastal Link you can read about here.

News from Kevin D. Thompson about the Bamboo Room in the little City of Lake Worth, FL

This story made the front page of the print edition today (6/29), 'B' section, above the fold. Here is an excerpt from the article:

     On a recent afternoon, inside the storied — and empty — Bamboo Room, Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” is booming over the sound system as the swivel-hipped Bruno Mars stylishly croons about being hotter than fire.
     In a sense, that the hit song is playing as sweat-drenched workers feverishly scramble to give parts of the trendy blues and jazz lounge a quick nip-tuck before its upcoming close-up, is fitting.
     The new owners of the Bamboo Room, after all, want the 16-year-old club to be hot again, to be part of the hipster fabric that is downtown Lake Worth, to be, well, downright funky the way customers always remembered it.

If you have good news you want The Palm Beach Post's beat reporter to know about here is his contact information:
Kevin D. Thompson, beat reporter
Email: kthompson@pbpost.com
561-820-4573
Twitter: @kevindthompson1

Main Street News in Town of Palm Beach (33480) closing at end of month

Michele Dargan at the Palm Beach Daily News (aka The Shiny Sheet) has this about the Main Street News closing up shop. Here is an excerpt from the article:

     Main Street News, a popular stop for locals and tourists since 1928, will close its doors July 31st.
     Owner Thomas Morrison confirmed Sunday that he’s forced to close the business at 255 Royal Poinciana Way because the the shop’s mainstays, newspapers and magazines, aren’t selling. The costs associated with selling those items have increased, while profits have decreased, he said.
     Morrison said he’s “heartbroken” but had no other choice.
     “I wish we could stay open,” he said. “I’ve had no other opportunities to make it work. I finally had to pull the plug.”

Tony Doris: West Palm Beach in the Sunshine

Tony Doris at the West Palm Beat has a follow-up on West Palm Beach's Sunshine Law training that was originally held in the dark. The quote by Barbara Petersen below pretty much sums it up. Here are two excerpts:

     West Palm Beach held a second Sunshine Law training session Wednesday for city officials and advisory board members.
     This time it was an open meeting.
     Pat Gleason, special counsel for open government in the Florida attorney general’s office, gave a brief history of the law, which she said offered broadest protections of any government in the sunshine law in the United States.

[and. . .]

     City spokesman Elliot Cohen said later that before the meeting, the administration checked with Gleason [Pat Gleason, special counsel in the Florida attorney general’s office] and was told that training sessions did not need to be held in public.
     But another of the state’s top experts in the law, Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation, a Tallahassee nonprofit, said that the issue was legally a gray area.
     “But as a policy, particularly when we’re talking about sunshine, I mean, that’s the ironic thing here,” she said.

If the Sunshine Law if of interest to you, Lake Worth's City Attorney Glen Torcivia gave a very good presentation about the law:

[BLOG TRAFFIC OFF CHARTS FOR THIS POST] Palm Beach Post editor Rick Christie: "Charleston was racist hate crime; Now, let’s talk"

Strong words from Rick Christie vis-à-vis Dylann Roof, racism, and "deflective rhetoric":

     The fact that in the face of all of this folks still choose to walk around with racial blinders on is mind-boggling. An attack on faith? A war against Christians? Really? How then do we explain that Roof had to pass by numerous other churches to get to this one? [emphasis added]
     Not everything is about race. But this is a case of racially motivated domestic terrorism. Period.
     There is no amount of deflective rhetoric about dealing with the mentally ill, or debate about taking down the Confederate flag, that will change the evil this incident unveils.

[and. . .]

     Words and symbols have meaning. They have power, especially when they are connected to terrible actions like those of Roof. We can’t keep putting off this conversation.

The video below has nothing to do with the Charleston massacre or Dylann Roof but thought this incident back in March was a perfect opportunity to start "this conversation" but it was ignored by everyone in the media except The Lake Worth Herald. The protests that followed were also ignored by the mainstream media in Palm Beach County.

Watch former Lake Worth Commissioner Retha Lowe respond to Dee McNamara's use of the 'N-word' in our City commission chambers earlier this year:

[UPDATE] HOT NEWS: Mike Olive of Common Ground (no 's') church on Channel 12 tonight? Again!?!?

Is this for real or a parody? Tune in to CBS12/WPEC tonight to find out!

[UPDATE: 'pastor' Mike Olive and his Common Ground (no 's') church didn't make the news last night. However, on his Facebook page he let the world know how upset he is with recent developments:

"Criminalize Christianity"? Just a bit dramatic?

Here is a prayer he wrote for me:

Note the "Wess" (with extra 's') from my friend at the Common Ground (no 's') church.

Here is a video about a member of his flock:

Doesn't That Other Blogger (TOB) deserve a prayer too?]

State Senator Jeff Clemens' remarks on receiving the 2015 Compass Leadership Award:

"I want to thank the members of the Compass team that chose to bestow upon me the 2015 Compass Leadership Award last night. It was frustrating to have it happen in the one year I was not be able to be there, due to a trip planned 7 months ago. I apologize I couldn't celebrate with all of my friends. But from raising the rainbow flag at City Hall in 2007, to pushing for and sealing the deal to bring Compass to Lake Worth in 2008, to establishing transgender as a protected class, to filing bills to stop so-called "reparative therapy," to helping kill this year's absurd transgender bathroom bill, while assisting the elimination of the statutory ban on gay adoption, it has been a wonderful decade of fighting for equality.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for this honor."

The video below is from March of 2009; then-Mayor Clemens' remarks at the grand opening of Compass Gay and Lesbian Community Center in Lake Worth.

Compilation of timelapses from the International Space Station showing Earth's magnificence

West Palm Beach Mayor Muoio on the Same-sex Marriage Ruling

Mayor Jeri Muoio reacts to SCOTUS same-sex marriage ruling from City of West Palm Beach on Vimeo.

Charming comments by Matthew Vadum on SCOTUS' Obamacare ruling: "third world bullshit" and "Treason"

Oliver Willis and Libby Watson of AlterNet compiled a long list of outrageous claims made in the media following the decision by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). Here is one by Matthew Vadum from The American Spectator:

Decision Is Roberts Court's "Dred Scott," "Treason." In a series of tweets, senior editor of the Capital Research Center Matthew Vadum slammed the decision and compared it to a legal confirmation of slavery, calling it "the Roberts court's second Dred Scott decision," "third world bullshit" and "Treason."

Not to be outdone . . .

MRC's Dan Gainor: "Scumbag Roberts" Was "An Awful Pick." After the decision was released, the Media Research Center VP Dan Gainor tweeted that the "scumbag" Chief Justice Roberts -- appointed by George W. Bush -- was "an awful pick" for the court