"Un-American"? Not a term to lightly throw around, Commissioner McVoy

According to Commissioner McVoy, it is "un-American" to leave a meeting and choose NOT TO LISTEN to someone at the podium in a city meeting. Everyone will be very interested to discover that leaving a meeting and NOT LISTENING to someone is not new in Lake Worth. Look what I discovered here:

What I discovered is from the minutes of the Lake Worth City Commission meeting on October 4, 2011. By McVoy's standards something very un-American occurred at this meeting.

So, you see, what Mayor Pam Triolo, Vice Mayor Maxwell, and Commissioners Szerdi and Amoroso did last December 2nd during Preston Smith's atheist 'invocation' actually has precedent. 

Former commissioner Suzanne Mulvehill left the meeting on October 4, 2011, to NOT LISTEN to Suzanne Squire (7:32 to 7:35). And then former mayor Rachel Waterman left the meeting to NOT LISTEN to Mary Lindsey (7:35 to 7:37).

Will McVoy offer up an apology to Mayor Pam Triolo and the others. Of course not. 

Watch this video from Charlie Keegan at Channel 5 (WPTV) and fast-forward to the 1:15 mark where he calls his colleagues on the Lake Worth dais "un-American".

From a dark period in our nation's history: Hearings of House Un-American Activities Committee:

Money pours into Scripps for groundbreaking research

More good news for Scripps Florida from Carolyn Susman at the Shiny Sheet (Palm Beach Daily News): 

The Esther B. O'Keeffe Charitable Foundation has become the largest local philanthropic donor to Scripps Florida, Scripps officials said.

The foundation has given more than $3 million in gifts and pledges to advance research that the Scripps Research Institute is doing on brain disorders from autism to Alzheimer’s to bipolar disease and other conditions, said Irv Geffen, director of Major Gifts & Planned Giving at Scripps.

[and later in article...]

“These disorders have an enormous impact on our economy and, of course, on any individual who suffers, as well as the family structure,” said Dr. Ron Davis, founding chairman of Scripps Florida’s Department of Neuroscience. “I am often asked when we will have a cure, or effective preventatives or therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, or other major brain disorders. We are not yet there, but what I am absolutely certain of is that we will never get there without research.”

The Lake Worth Project—Final month— Jan 2015 A Better Life for our Community Cats

The Latest Editorial in the Lake Worth Herald (12/18/14)

On Tuesday, December 2nd, atheist Preston Smith delivered his "invocation" before the Lake Worth City Commission. You can read about that and research done on invocations (or the lack of ) in other municipalities in Palm Beach County. For instance, Greenacres does not have an invocation while others do.

Just when you thought the 'invocation' kerfuffle was settling down this week's (12/18/2014) Lake Worth Herald editorial came out swinging and pulling no punches. Good for them. I strongly encourage all my readers to read this editorial. If you don't get the Lake Worth Herald delivered you can subscribe at LWHerald.com or pick up a copy at a newsstand (for instance, the newsstand immediately west of our downtown Starbucks).

Here are three excerpts from the Lake Worth Herald editorial:

     Being elected to any political office does not eliminate one's right to free speech. Neither does it preclude one's right to listen. Everybody is on a level playing field with those rights. 

     Choosing to not listen to someone exercising their right to free speech, for any reason, is not "un-American" as Commissioner Christopher McVoy would say. This was once again McVoy speaking just to promote "his" agenda and take "cheap shots" at his colleagues on the dais.

     McVoy never called his friend, former commissioner Suzanne Mulvehill un-American when she left the room every time Lake Worth resident, Suzanne Squire's turn to speak came around. This was just another example of McVoy's tactics to be a roadblock to progress in Lake Worth. It was completely disrespectful for him to call his colleagues actions "un-American."

     The Mayor and Commissioners who left the dais when Preston Smith stood to give an "invocation" from an atheist's view, did so with a right to listen or not, for ANY reason.

[later in the editorial...]

     Lake Worth has suffered enough of McVoy's diversionary tactics and it is time for him to depart his position on the dais. He has brought nothing constructive to the table since he was first elected, and has only served to interfere with the progress Lake Worth needs to make in order to remain a viable institution. The likes of McVoy and company only lead to the degradation of the quality of life in Lake Worth.

[and...]

     How many more times do we need to hear him [McVoy] talk about "sea level rise" for ten minutes when the discussion is whether to approve a "proximity waiver" or any other topic before the commission. 

Also in the editorial there are questions as to why Preston Smith did his 'invocation' in Lake Worth as opposed to another municipality and speculation as to who may have offered that invitation. I also have my suspicions. 

Lastly, the folks at the Lake Worth Herald offer this to the City of Lake Worth:

SEASONS GREETINGS!

Beware of local political campaigns. Some can be loose with the truth.

From the Tom McGow archives.

Town of Palm Beach Offices Closed on December 24th, December 25th, December 31st and January 1st

From an email from the Town of Palm Beach:

In observance of the Christmas and New Year holidays, all Town offices and the Recreation Center will be closed on December 24th, December 25th, December 31st and January 1st. 
Certain Town recreational facilities will be open per the hours below and the beaches will have lifeguards on duty from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.

December 24th and December 25th:
The Par 3 Golf Course will be open from 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. (closes at 12:00 p.m. on December 25th)
Phipps Tennis Center will be open from 8:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.
Seaview Tennis Center will be open from 8:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.
Town Docks will be open from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. (Closed on December 25th).
December 31st and January 1st:
The Par 3 Golf Course will be open from 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
Phipps Tennis Center will be open from 8:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.
Seaview Tennis Center will be open from 8:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.
Town Docks will be open from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

"All units, attention all units, be on the look-out for a lady who is a suspect in Santa's kidnapping..."

A woman in Boca Raton stole somebody's inflatable Santa and Santa's 7 reindeer too. The Boca PD needs your help finding what lawn Santa and his reindeer came from. Read the entire story here from Kate Jacobson at the Sun Sentinel. 

Boca Raton police said they caught Crystal Tessa stealing Santa Claus.

Police in Boca Raton saw a blue Ford Focus driving through a neighborhood early Wednesday with cords and a tent stake hanging out of the trunk. The driver, Tessa, 37, made a traffic violation and officers pulled her over, according to a post on the Boca PD Facebook page.

That's good news. I hear that Blitzen and Dancer both have chronic medical conditions, one is diabetic and the other has early signs of dementia. We can rest easy now that the culprit has been apprehended. Santa is resting comfortable in a hyperbaric chamber. Re-inflation pressures have been restored.

Coming to a door near you? "It makes our job easier" from 2012

The issues have moved on. Some haven't.

From the Town of Palm Beach - Midtown Beach has reopened

Midtown Beach has reopened. Per Assistant Manager Tom Bradford, the water samples taken yesterday were found to be of satisfactory quality, therefore, the beach has opened back up.

Don't forget the Evening on the Avenues tomorrow night...

Don't forget the Evening on the Avenues tomorrow, Friday at 6:00. It is a wonderful opportunity to meet all the peeps as they drop by the NAPC and find out more about our/your City.

City of Boca Raton routinely uses Twitter...

**MEETING REMINDER** **December 18, 2014** Planning & Zoning Board Meeting tonight at 6:30pm The meeting is... http://t.co/LouzHwdcqA
— City of Boca Raton (@CityBocaRaton) December 18, 2014

Greenpeace, EarthFirst!, and controlling the message

Greenpeace really stepped into the public relations nightmare with this stunt. This is on top of their other recent PR dilemma when one of their executive directors was found to be flying 250 miles to work. Not exactly the kind of carbon footprint a high level exec at Greenpeace wants to claim for himself.

Now we have this, an absolute mess for Greenpeace, the title of the news article says it all: 

Greenpeace May Have Permanently Damaged An Ancient, Sacred Site. Now What? 

Here is an excerpt from the article in ClimateProgress:

This [damaging a Peruvian cultural site] is the dispute that has preoccupied climate and environmental advocates since it was discovered last week that Greenpeace had trespassed on to the world-renowned Nazca Lines to lay a bright yellow banner urging a switch to renewable energy. The combination of banner-plus-Peruvian World Heritage site was meant to draw attention to the U.N. climate talks being held in nearby Lima. But the stunt backfired, and Peruvian officials say the activists’ footprints permanently damaged the area surrounding the ancient hummingbird geoglyph.

Along with riling the Peruvian government (which has pledged to file criminal charges against the offending activists) and damaging the site, the situation has drawn a rift between environmentalists.

Certainly, what our EarthFirst!ers did on November 7th wasn't nearly as bad as Greenpeace, but it still was a PR disaster for EF!. Here is the story about the "battery in the lake". There are about a thousand ways to disable a vehicle. Why they chose to remove the battery and throw the battery into the lake is anyone's guess. The Palm Beach Post actually posted a picture of this, courtesy of the Palm Beach Gardens police department. Oooops. 

This is all about controlling the message. It will take a very long time for Greenpeace to recover from this ill-advised stunt done on an international stage.

Peek-a-boo, I see you...

From AnnaMaria's blog...12/18

Click here for a great story about a new Habitat for Humanity/CRA house dedication here in Lake Worth, this one in Royal Poinciana. There have been 41 such houses built in Lake Worth and 184 in the county.

Lynn on the need to fill our prisons with college students...