Gov. Charlie Crist’s holiday card features a painting by a prominent Fort Pierce artist who was one of the original Highwaymen painters.

The Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee is home to 22 of James Gibson’s paintings. Gibson completed Nightscape I, the painting featured on the card, about a year ago for Crist. It depicts a palm tree on the bank of the Indian River.

The Highwaymen were a group of African-American landscape artists based in and around Fort Pierce in the 1950s and 1960s. Gibson and others sold their paintings for $15 or $20 from the trunks of their cars.

Some of Gibson’s paintings can now sell for as much as $18,000.

– The Associated Press

JENSEN BEACH — A 96-year-old woman walked into her home Monday night and was surprised by a burglar who threatened to kill her, according to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.

Now she’s worried about staying in her home in the Pinecrest Lakes Mobile Home Park, where she has lived for more than 30 years, she told TCPalm.com.

“All the cops said he won’t come back,” the victim said. “He got what he wanted the first time, but he realizes you can’t have that much money and he won’t come back. But it makes me nervous just the same.”

According to the report, the victim had been at a bridge game and returned to her home in the 100 block of Northeast North Warner Drive around 9 p.m. When she unlocked the door and walked into the kitchen, a man came up behind her and put his hand over her mouth. The man told the victim he would kill her if she said anything and demanded she give him all her cash, according to the report. She gave him around $650 from her bedroom before the man ran out the front door.

Investigators looked through the home and discovered a broken pane of glass from one of the doors and a screen removed from the front door. According to the report, the man had moved several items around in the closet of the master bedroom.

The victim could not give a detailed description of the man because he remained behind her as he ordered her through the house.

TcPalm.com staff

Shelby Goff, 10, picks out a Cabbage Patch Kids doll as her sister, Jessica, 8, and Fort Pierce Police Officer Jesse Streeter look on during this year's Shop With a Cop event at the Fort Pierce Wal-Mar.

Tuesday was his third time out perusing toys with kids as part of the holiday shopping spree paid for by Wal-Mart. The event gives families some extra help with gifts for the kids of the household.

So, as a toy-shopping veteran, here’s what Streeter’s learned: Keep the mental calculator running.

After all, someone’s gotta make sure there’s enough on the gift card donated by the retail giant to pay for every toy plucked from the aisles.

The event, Chief Sean Baldwin said, is a way for the department to show kids another side of law enforcement.

“Unfortunately, all they see of a police officer is when they’re taking enforcement action,” Baldwin said. “This is an opportunity to see the officer in a positive manner. … For these kids, the officers today are Santa Claus.” (more…)

Robert Murray

Then Det. Carlo Sciandra found it: a handgun and three loaded magazines resting on top of the valve flap.

That’s what Sciandra explained in the report detaling Murray’s arrest on Tuesday.

The week before, deputies responded to the 3700 block of Adriatic Lane in Jensen Beach, where a man reported more than $10,000 in jewelry and a semi-automated handgun stolen from his home.

The man told deputies that Robert J. Murray Jr. was at the home before the burglary alarm went off and the items were discovered missing at about 12:30 p.m. on Dec. 18, according to a sheriff’s report.

Deputies later learned that Murray was staying at a Holiday Inn, where they headed for an interview.

During the questioning, an investigator asked to use the restroom, the report states. But when Sciandra couldn’t flush the toilet, he lifted the tank cover to see if he could fix the problem.

Then he found the stolen handgun, he said.

Murray later admitted to stealing from the Jensen Beach man, deputies said. He is being held at the Martin County jail on $25,000 bail and faces felony charges of grand theft and theft of a firearm.

A luxury senior community in Port St. Lucie is going on the auction block. Bankrupt builder Levitt and Sons is auctioning off homes in Tradition in western Port St. Lucie.

The builder still owes $86 million on the 55 and older Seasons development. Seasons at Tradition is one of 11 Levitt communities under construction and in the process of foreclosure. Contractors stopped building last November, leaving many unfinished homes.

The properties are scheduled to be auctioned on Dec. 29 at 11 a.m. at the St. Lucie County courthouse.

– Tara Simone, CBS 12

The management company of Port St. Lucie’s Spanish Lakes I has given Dorrine Vilot, 66, a Christmas ultimatum: Get rid of your dog or leave.

The dog in question is Peanut, a 12-pound pomeranian-poodle mix that Vilot got earlier this year under doctor’s orders. Vilot has asthma, depression, high blood pressure and macular degeneration, so her doctors suggested she get a service animal. (more…)

More and more people on the Treasure Coast and throughout South Florida are turning to federal bankruptcy courts for relief from mounting debts, and that trend is expected to continue for years, experts say.

From Indian River County south, personal and business bankruptcy filings were up about 71 percent last month, compared to November 2007, said Katherine Gould Feldman, clerk of the U.S. Southern District of Florida Bankruptcy Court in Miami. “I think you’ve got people in real need here,” she said. (more…)

MARTIN COUNTY — Martin County Sheriff’s deputies are looking for thieves who crashed a truck into the front window of a motorcycle shop Saturday, stealing three motorcycles before leading authorities on a two-county chase that ended after some of the stolen motorcycles fell into oncoming traffic.

According to incident reports, deputies received a call at about 5:30 a.m. Saturday that an alarm had sounded at the WMR Competition Performance shop at 7749 Ellipse Way in Stuart.

Soon afterward, Sgt. Edward Brochu noticed a Dodge Ram pick-up with motorcycles in the bed traveling on Interstate 95. There was fresh damage to the back of the truck and a tail light was missing, according to reports.

Brochu tried to stop the truck, but the driver refused and continued south to Riviera Beach.

There the chase continued, and according to incident report, the driver was driving recklessly and swerving so that the motorcycles could fall off the truck bed. Two motorcycles fell off the truck and landed on Indiantown Road in front of Brochu’s squar car. (more…)

Police are looking for the man who shot two teens in the leg on Saturday after a fight at a restaurant spilled outside, police said.

The fight took place inside the Denny’s on U.S. 1 and then continued outside to the parking lot, where two teens were standing at about 2:30 a.m., police said. Both were shot in the leg, police spokesman Sgt. Marty Jacobson said.

Management shut down the restaurant and called police when the shots were fired, police said.

Witnesses told officers a man had brandished a revolver and shot the two teens as they stood in the parking lot. He then fled north in a vehicle, police said.

One victim was treated at the scene and transported to the hospital, and the second victim had admitted himself to the hospital for a gunshot wound, police said.

Police are not releasing any other details on the incident, including whether the teens were involved in the fight, police spokesman Jacobson said.

Anyone with information about this shooting is asked to contact the Stuart Police Department at (772) 220-3906 or Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at (800) 273-TIPS.