Kim Roden, the Martin County manager who was thrown in the middle of the Mahoney sex scandal, is leaving her $73,000-job with the county. County officials say the hottie’s affair with the married congressman has nothing to do with her departure.
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FORT PIERCE — Two treasure Coast scientists have solved a mystery that for decades has been wrapped up in the coils of a conch shell.

With less than two years of research and experimentation, Megan Davis and Héctor Acosta-Salmón, both scientists at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce, have developed a technique to culture, or grow, pearls inside queen conchs. (more…)

JENSEN BEACH — A female pedestrian was struck and killed by a car about 6:15 a.m. Thursday at Dixie Highway and Northeast Roberta Street, shutting down Dixie Highway at that location, officials said.

The woman was dead at the scene, officials said.

The accident happened in front of Langford Park in the area of Jensen Heights. According to Florida Highway Patrol troopers, a husband and wife were taking a walk when the wife was struck by a car heading north on Dixie.

The woman appeared to have walked out in front of gold, four-door Ford driven by a man, troopers said. She ended up about 45 feet from the point of contact.

The car and driver were on the scene. The driver was too distraught to talk.

The area that was closed was roughly from Jensen Beach Bowl to the Stuart Welcome Arch. Dixie Highway reopened about 8:55 a.m.

FHP troopers were called to the scene at 6:33 a.m. and arrived at 6:56 a.m. Martin County Sheriff’s deputies were also at the scene.

MARTIN COUNTY — Two Port St. Lucie parents were charged with child neglect after shoppers noticed their 7-month-old girl had been left alone in an unlocked car for half an hour Monday, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said.

Monica Alastra, 33, and Walter Lugo, 32, were taken into custody after they had been shopping at a fabric store in the 3500 block of Southwest Federal Way, Jensen Beach. They each posted $5,000 bail Monday.

Someone called 911 shortly after 7 p.m. when they noticed the infant was in the Toyota minivan in the store parking lot, the Sheriff’s Office said. Deputy Lynn Martella said she found the parents inside the store with a 3-year-old child.

“They seemed relatively calm. They saw that I was holding their child and they were looking at me and they wanted to know, could they have their baby and I said no,” the deputy said. “I said, ‘You understand you’re both going to be placed under arrest,’ and that is when they became upset.”

The infant in the minivan was sweaty and agitated, but did not require medical attention, the deputy said. The Department of Children and Families gave both children to another family member, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Alastra and Lugo told the deputy they had used poor judgment, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release.

WPTV Channel 5 contributed to this report.

Lamaur Stancil, TCPalm.com

A couple accused of leaving their 7-month-old daughter unattended in a mini-van was arrested Monday, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said.

Walter Lugo

According to a sheriff’s report, deputy Lynne Martella responded at approximately 7:15 p.m. Monday to the parking lot of Joanne’s Fabrics in Jensen Beach. Witnesses reported that the child had been left in the vehicle for approximately 30 minutes.

The vehicle was discovered unlocked and with the windows rolled-up and the ignition turned off. The child did not require medical attention, but her clothing was damp from perspiration and no supplies to care for her were located, the report said.

Monica Alastra

The Department of Children and Familes was notified and both children were turned over to a family member.

Some extra cash could be a phone call away for dozens of Treasure Coast residents.

The Internal Revenue Service is looking for 223 Treasure Coast taxpayers who are due refund checks worth more than $15 million statewide. The refund checks were returned to the IRS by the U.S. Postal Service because of mailing address errors. (more…)

JENSEN BEACH — Country singer Chuck Wicks made his case as a good boyfriend Saturday night after his girlfriend Julianne Hough came down with the flu and couldn’t perform at the 22nd annual Pineapple Festival in downtown Jensen Beach.

In a surprise last-minute move, Wicks played in Hough’s place — and said he scored some brownie points with his better half — to cap off a breezy Saturday filled with rides, traditional festival food and drink, daredevil BMX trick shows, parades and music.

“It was touch-and-go all day,” said Ron Rose, Jensen Beach Chamber of Commerce executive director. “A lot of people went out of their way to make it happen. I just thank God he (Wicks) was on his way to Homestead and turned around.”
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STUART — An online neighborhood Web site is including the city of Stuart in its top 20 list of best places to retire.

NeighborhoodScout.com ranked the city No. 18 in the nation on a list of 20 cities where people can retire for less than $150,000.

The rankings were posted on the popular Web search engine AOL.com.

Corpus Christi, Texas is No. 1 on the list.
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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.
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