The list of those who signed their favorite childhood books and shipped then to Stuart for a charity auction reads like a pop culture Top 100: Poet Maya Angelou; The Apprentice’s Donald Trump; golfer Tiger Woods; former First Lady Barbara Bush; her son, former Gov. Jeb Bush; chimp lover Jane Goodall; former Miami Heat star Shaquille O’Neal; Pres. Barack Obama; Nike’s Phil Knight; Hollywood stars Sean Connery, Steve Martin and Robert Wagner; TV news readers Katie Couric and Brian Williams; Palm Beach musician Jimmy Buffett; and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, among others.

In all, a total 60 A-listers contributed. It took time, nearly two years, said organizer Karla Preissman. The first to respond to her requests was Jeb Bush, who shipped her The Travels of Babar. The last? The prez. Obama rush-mailed a pop up book of the White House two weeks ago.

What charity will benefit? For more, and the pictures of Thursday night’s preview of the auction at the Elliott, please click here.

FORT PIERCE — Just minutes before Circuit Judge Robert Belanger began Andrew Michael Gosciminski’s sentencing hearing Friday, six women walked into the courtroom and sat together.

Since September, the former strangers have endured a grueling jury selection process, listened to gory details about the 2002 murder of Joan Loughman and cried along with Loughman’s family in court as they described their heartache.

They became part of the jury that recommended last month that Gosciminski die for the crime. And on Friday, they became part of the audience that watched Belanger follow their recommendation and sentence Gosciminski to Death Row for the killing — for the second time.

“I’ve never had this happen before,” Assistant State Attorney Lynn Park said of the jurors’ presence. “Three others said they wanted to come but couldn’t make it.”

Belanger said testimony about Gosciminski’s military service and mental health problems failed to outweigh the cruelty and cold planning that justified a death sentence.

Gosciminski, who won a new trial last year after the Florida Supreme Court overturned his original death sentence, never looked at the jurors during the short hearing.
(more…)

Kobie Orande Gary, a son of prominent Stuart attorney Willie Gary, is one of three men indicted Thursday on federal charges of maintaining a grow house where authorities say they found 213 marijuana plants.

The U.S. District Court grand jury in Fort Pierce indicted Kobie Gary, 30, of Jensen Beach; Stephen Shepherd, 33, a tenant at the $125,030 home in the 7200 block of Mulberry Drive in Hobe Sound that was the alleged grow house; and Scott Daniel Gibson of Stuart. (more…)

MARTIN COUNTY — Joan Bausch stood in the pavilion on Bathtub Reef Beach this week and discussed the future of the eroded beach. The Sewall’s Point resident values the natural beauty of the mangroves and the worm rock reef, and she wants to protect the popular beach from harm.

“My preference would be to let this beach heal and to not allow too many people,” Bausch said Monday. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — A 36-year-old woman was arrested Wednesday after selling an informant nearly 160 oxycodone pills, according to an affidavit released Thursday.

Gina M. Sanchez, of the 100 block of Everglades Boulevard in Stuart, met the informant about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in the 200 block of Southwest Port St. Lucie Boulevard.

The informant, who met earlier with a police investigator, had been given $1,020 and had been followed to the scene by members of the police department’s Special Investigations Unit.

The informant got into Sanchez’s vehicle, and Sanchez exchanged 157 oxycodone pills for the money.

Police arrested Sanchez on a felony trafficking in oxycodone charge and took her to jail.

Will Greenlee, TCPalm.com

PALM CITY — Retired attorney, Pauley Kellum was a Marine First Sergeant during World War II. He spent 15 months in the hospital after being severely wounded during the liberation of Guam and was then discharged with little ceremony.

“I took the GI Bill college aid and became a lawyer,” the 89-year-old Palm City resident said. “I thought that was it.” (more…)

By DAPHNE DURET
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
STUART — At the end of his first contested race for public office in 14 years, incumbent Stuart commissioner Jeff Krauskopf coasted to another term Tuesday with a victory over political newcomer Jeff Callahan.
Krauskopf, 59, won more than 67 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s contest, according to unofficial elections results. Callahan, a 41-year-old Martin County lifeguard who had hoped to bring a fresh voice to the commission, received about 32 percent of the 1,047 ballots cast.

(more…)

PORT SALERNO _ Detectives with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division are investigating a multiple stabbing that occurred on Monday night.

According to a sheriff’s office release, two men, Denny Evangelista and Robert Ruiz, traveled to a residence in the 5000 block of Primose Avenue at approximately 9:30 p.m. While at the residence, an altercation occurred between Evangelista, Ruiz and an unknown man, the release said.

Evangelista was stabbed once in the chest and Ruiz was stabbed multiple times in the abdomen. Evangelista and Ruiz left the residence on Primose and returned to Ruiz’s home on Isabelita Avenue and called for law enforcement and emergency medical response. Evangelista was transported by air to St. Mary’s Hospital. Ruiz was transported by ambulance to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center.

The suspect fled the scene. He is described as being approximately 28-30 years of age, 5 feet 8 inches tall and 180 pounds, with a muscular build and shaved head. He was last seen wearing an orange shirt and blue jeans.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective M. Flynn at (772) 220-7169, or Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at (800) 273-TIPS (8477).

STUART — Lisa Stukel was working at the Pelican Café downtown Monday afternoon when she learned of a visitor in need.

While Stukel, 25, of Port St. Lucie, was on-duty as a cook at the cafe, a manatee ensnared in something swam close to the restaurant dock and got stuck between the dock and a column of the Roosevelt Bridge. (more…)

STUART — A Palm City man, who was driving without a license when he was involved in a fatal traffic accident in 2000, was arrested Saturday morning for driving on a suspended license.

Charles E. McComas, 24, was stopped on the west side of the Palm City Bridge about 10 a.m. Saturday, after a Martin County deputy’s radar registered his vehicle travelling at 54 mph in a 35 mph zone. (more…)