The odds are better than picking all six Powerball numbers — but still pretty slim.

Of the 8,000 or so job-hunters that flooded tiny Indiantown last month with hopes of landing work building a solar-power plant, about 50 to 100 could get offers in July.

That’s when Lauren Engineers & Constructors — the contractor overseeing construction of Florida Power & Light Co.’s solar-thermal plant — expects to need the first batch of employees, mostly concrete helpers and finishers. (more…)

More than three years after Hurricane Wilma tore the roof off Island Water Sports’ building in downtown Jensen Beach, the 27-year-old surf shop is finally celebrating its reopening.

The owners are restocking kayaks, surfboards and skim boards — and slowly watching their customers return to their old location on the shore of the Indian River Lagoon.

“It was very hard,” said co-owner Chris Cea. “We lost a lot of the following.”

In the years since Wilma struck in October 2005, the business has operated out of four different locations.

The moves drained the resources of the owners, who didn’t get any assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the U.S. Small Business Administration, said Kristen Nielander, who co-owns the shop with Cea and her husband, Ted.

“We got turned down completely,” Kristen said. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — If any school district knows the FCAT is a fickle lover, it’s St. Lucie County.

Improve in writing and watch your math scores drop. Improve in math and watch science take a dip.

This year, St. Lucie’s third-graders improved in math only to see their reading scores drop three percentage points, erasing the previous year’s gains.

“We’re back down to where we were the year before,” said Troy Ingersoll, a school board member.

A slight drop in third-grade reading scores might not seem like a big deal, but it is. Scores on the reading test, unlike math, are used to determine if a child moves on to fourth grade. And how third-graders fare on the test may be an indicator of what lies ahead for the district’s scores. Already, school officials are regrouping, looking for ways to correct the problem. (more…)

STUART — A teen faces a grand theft charge after allegedly admitting he stole his high school’s yearbooks and sold some of them.

Martin County High School Assistant Principal Jack Valerio told Martin County sheriff’s deputies that eight of the yearbooks had been stolen out of the gym’s concession stand area earlier this month.

The 17-year-old boy told Valerio that he was the one who had taken the books – valued at $85 each – and sold a couple of them, according to a sheriff’s report. The teen agreed to return the books back to the school.

Valerio contact sheriff’s officials and the teen was charged with grand theft.

VERO BEACH — The private defense attorney for Indian River County Administrator Joe Baird said Thursday he plans to enter a not-guilty plea to the driving while intoxicated charge Baird was arrested on Saturday night in Vero Beach.

Baird was driving from a Youth Guidance Volunteer Program fundraiser near Wabasso and “many people who saw him there say they don’t believe he was impaired at all,” said attorney Bobby Guttridge. “They spoke with him and interacted with him.”

Vero Beach Police allege Baird was speeding — doing 43 mph in a 30 mph zone — in his private car and crossed a centerline before an officer stopped him at 10:26 p.m. on 21st Street, according to police reports.
(more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Thousands of jobs will come to the Treasure Coast if Port St. Lucie gets the chance to live up to its first name.

The Port of Palm Beach in Riveria Beach is looking for a site in South Florida to build an inland port, or an Intermodal Logistics Center, that uses roadways and railways rather than congested waterways to increase transport efficiency.

Studies commissioned by the Florida Department of Transportation found that an inland port would bring at least 25,000 jobs to a community.
(more…)

Third-graders in Martin County bested their peers statewide on this year’s reading and math sections of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, while St. Lucie students trailed them, according to results released today by the state Department of Education.

In Martin, 81 percent of third-graders passed the reading test, while 63 percent did in St. Lucie. Statewide, about 71 percent of third-graders passed.

Martin’s score was a slight improvement over last year’s 80 percent passing rate. St. Lucie’s average was a drop of three percentage points compared to 2008.

St. Lucie School Superintendent Michael Lannon said he was “not thrilled” by the drop in reading scores and staff members would be looking for reasons to explain, and correct, it.

“I’m disappointed because I know our teachers are more highly skilled than they’ve ever been and more effort has been put in” than ever before, he said.

The third-grade reading FCAT is one of the most important tests a child takes because it can determine whether the student has to repeat the grade. The only other test with so much at stake is the high school FCAT, which can determine if a child graduates.

Across Florida, 34,872 third-graders failed the reading test and are in danger of having to repeat third-grade next year. In St. Lucie, about 684 students are in danger of repeating the grade; in Martin, about 118 are. (more…)

Theresa Platt

Theresa Platt, 34, left her 6-year-old son and twin 3-year-old boys with a Port St. Lucie woman on Wednesday, telling her, “I don’t want my kids, you can have them!”

The woman told Port St. Lucie police that she had driven to Platt’s home in the 300 block of Northeast Solida Drive and offered to take her kids to school. But Platt reportedly told her she didn’t want her children any more and gave the woman their sleeping bags.

The woman also showed police numerous bug bites across the children’s legs and arms. She said Platt and the children had been living in a home in the 400 block of Southeast Seahorse Drive, which was infested with ants.

(more…)

NORTH HUTCHINSON ISLAND – County officials announced today the precautionary boil water notice has been lifted for all St. Lucie County Utilities customers who reside on North Hutchinson Island.

The notice was issued Tuesday after a water main break.

If you have any questions, contact St. Lucie County Utilities at (772) 462-1150.

FORT PIERCE — A registered sex offender and his girlfriend were arrested Tuesday following allegations that they beat an 11-year-old girl and her siblings, according to records released Wednesday.

The 11-year-old girl told sheriff’s investigators John Louis Cooper, 30, burned her with a cigarette lighter. She said she feared being raped by Cooper because he “raped a 13-year-old girl before,” records show.

Cooper was convicted in 2002 of lewd act on a minor less than 16 and is a registered sex offender because of it, records show.

The girl said Cooper and his 32-year-old girlfriend, Kathy Ann Carson, push them around and punch her and her 9-year-old brother “all the time,” according to the report.

The brother had an injury on his finger he said was caused by Cooper purposely burning him with a lighter, records show.

The elder girl said Cooper punches her in the chest when she misbehaves, the records show. The boy said he has difficulty with bed-wetting and Cooper punches him in the chest because of it. The boy also was found to have a “fungal scalp infection” that had been present for months.

Cooper faces two counts of child abuse, and Carson was arrested on a single child abuse charge. Carson’s charge stems from alleged abuse on a 4-year-old girl. A doctor examined the 4-year-old girl and the two older children and founds signs of abuse or neglect.

Cooper and his girlfriend live in the 5100 block of La Salle Street.

By Will Greenlee, TCPalm.com