Palm Beach County
COMMISSION QUESTIONS
Staples and Office Depot announced they have reached compliance with the Federal Trade Commission’s request for details about the companies’ $6.3 billion deal. The FTC must approve the merger, but must first ensure it will not violate any antitrust laws. Office Depot CEO, Roland Smith, is confident the regulatory agency will approve the deal.
RETIRING
After 24 years at the helm, Palm Beach County Administrator Bob Weisman is retiring. Verdenia Baker has been chosen as his successor and is already at work. She is the long time deputy county administrator and many expect her to continue Weisman’s policies and mirror his management style.
Broward County
SIBLINGS KILLED
24-year-old Joseph Lytell shot and killed his sister, Mandy Lytell and then turned the gun on himself. Authorities say they do not have a motive for the killings. A friend who accompanied Mandy to the home to check on her brother waited outside. She reportedly texted her husband to say Joseph had been using drugs and was suicidal. Moments later, the friend heard gunshots and called police. After a brief standoff, SWAT deputies found the bodies inside the home.
TEACHER CHARGED
Omar Daniel Costa, 40, of Davie is facing charges related to collecting images of children having sex. Police tracked Internet activity involving child pornography to a computer at his home. Costa, a substitute teacher, is being held on $52,500 bail.
BABYSITTER ARRESTED
Yehuda Albaz, 63, of Sunrise is being held without bond on multiple counts of sexually assaulting two girls, ages five and six, while babysitting them in 2009. Albaz is already serving probation for a previous charge of molesting a child.
MAYOR SOBEL?
Hollywood Mayor Peter Bober announced that he will not seek reelection and the wagons are circling to succeed him. State Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, who served as a Hollywood city commissioner from 1992 to 1998, is rumored to be interested, but so are others.
Miami-Dade County
FLIES FOUND
State officials say they have identified Oriental fruit flies in Miami and are working to kill the insects by traps they have set around the area. The Oriental fruit fly is one of the most ferocious pests in the world. It destroys more than 230 different fruits, vegetables and nuts, causing billions of dollars in agricultural losses each year.
FAKE HANDBAGS
Officials have seized thousands of counterfeit designer Gucci, Louis Vuitton and other handbags at PortMiami. The contraband, found inside a container, came from China and have a street value of more than $1 million.
SPRING HIRED
North Miami has hired former City of Miami Chief Financial Officer Larry Spring. He will head North Miami’s Finance Department. Spring resigned his City of Miami position in 2011 amid a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into that city’s finances.
FOOTBALL
Two South Florida high school powerhouses fell to defeat this week. Miami Central High School football team was shellacked by Dematha Catholic High School in a showdown in Maryland. Booker T. Washington High School was thrashed by Fort Lauderdale’s St. Thomas Aquinas High School. The losses all but dashed any hopes of a national championship for the Miami teams.
Monroe County
NEW MANAGER
Charles Lindsey has no previous experience, but he has been hired as the City of Marathon’s city manager. Lindsey is command master chief in the U.S. Coast Guard and was selected by unanimous vote of the five-member city council.
TEACHER ARRESTED
Barbara Warnock, 56, a teacher at Horace O’Bryant School, was arrested for violating a ‘no contact’ court order to stay away from her ex-husband. Warnock reportedly yelled and pointed her finger at her ex-husband during a football game at Key West High School. The kindergarten teacher was booked into the Stock Island jail and released on $25,000 bond.
POLICE CAMERAS
Thanks to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, some Key West police officers are now wearing body cameras. Despite resistance from police unions, the trend is spreading across the nation amid outcry from activists following several shooting deaths of unarmed black people.
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