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PORT ST. LUCIE — Thomas Carmine Maresco Jr., a 2004 graduate of Lincoln Park Academy, was shot and killed Friday in what appeared to be an attempted robbery in the African Kingdom of Lesotho, where he was serving with the Peace Corps.

“He wanted to see a little bit of the world and Africa was at the top of his list,” his mother, Emily Maresco explained Sunday while fighting back tears. She and her husband, Thomas Maresco, were awaiting details from Washington about flying the body of their 24-year-old only child home.

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By Eve Samples

Beyond the hermit crabs and past the busty wooden mermaid, in the back of the knickknack store Nautical But Nice, the “Wall of Shame” is growing.

It’s papered with Internet printouts and signs that read “Comrade Obama” and “Destruction of a Nation.”

There’s a photo of President Obama with a pacifier in his mouth. The caption: “Plug the damn hole.”

Nearby, a bumper sticker likens him to Osama bin Laden.

Six months after the store’s owners started the collection, there’s no more space on the wall. So an adjacent door is getting papered, too.

It’s the “Door of Shame.”

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By Tyler Treadway

Robert Charles Escala (Photo: St. Lucie Sheriff's Office)

Robert Charles Escala, 55, of the 700 block of Southwest Addie Street in Port St. Lucie, was arrested April 2 on charges of possessing child pornography following an investigation by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office and Port St. Lucie Police Department.

In a recording of his post-arrest interview played Friday in U.S. District Court, Escala told detectives that if he didn’t look at pornography, he might “go to the next level … actually go out and expose myself” or have improper contact with children.

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Natayia Atmore (Photo: St. Lucie Sheriff's Office)

Natayia L. Atmore, who pleaded no contest to the charge in August, faced up to five years in prison. The sentence was levied by Circuit Judge Dan Vaughn.

According to a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s office arrest report, a Department of Children and Families worker called deputies to Atmore’s home in April after seeing a 3-year-old girl with deep purple bruises on her arm and back.

The girl told deputies, “My mommy whooped me.” When deputies asked why, the girl said, “My mommy had to.”

Atmore said she had been trying to teach the girl how to color when the girl became silent and wouldn’t cooperate.

Posted September 3, 2010 at 4:04 p.m., updated September 3, 2010 at 4:08 p.m.

By Alexi Howk

Drive U.S. 1 from Stuart to Fort Pierce, and Port St. Lucie’s designation as the safest driving city in Florida might seem like a head-on collision with reality.

But a report by the Allstate Insurance Co. released this week ranks Port St. Lucie as not only the safest driving city in the state but also one of the safest in the country — landing at No. 30 on the list.

“That’s a little surprising I would say because, and not to be discriminatory, we have a lot of old people, and I would think we would have more accidents,” Port St. Lucie resident Robert Murphy said. “There are a lot of small towns in Florida with not as many people as us so you wouldn’t think we’d be the safest.”

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Wendy Portillo

PORT ST. LUCIE — Wendy Portillo, who two years ago led her kindergartners to vote an autistic student out of class, has again been accused of discrimination against a student with a disability.

Portillo will be getting new training after the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights received a complaint in February against the St. Lucie County School District. The complaint said the district failed to implement the student’s health plan during the 2009-2010 school year, according to information provided by the U.S. Department of Education press office.

Read past coverage of Wendy Portillo’s career here.

“OCR investigated and found compliance concerns,” the press office said. The situation is being monitored after the Office of Civil Rights and the district agreed Aug. 9 on a resolution plan, the press office said.

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By James Kirley

MARTIN COUNTY — Scientists were dispatched Thursday morning to aid a pigmy sperm whale found alive and stranded in shallow water, just south of Jensen Beach public beach park.

Beachgoers and nearby residents found the whale, reported to be 8-10 feet long, about 10 a.m. Thursday near the 4100 block of Northeast Ocean Drive. An officer from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission arrived and summoned experts from Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University.

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Rodney McGill (Photo: Martin County Sheriff's Office)

Around this time last year, the former pastor, radio show host and real estate mogul had sat in a packed courtroom and openly wished pestilence and cancer upon everyone who helped convict him on racketeering and grand theft charges.

But on Tuesday the only victim McGill identified in the room was himself — afflicted, he said, by jail guards who took his legal paperwork, investigators who intimidated witnesses against attending hearings and Circuit Judge Sherwood Bauer, who has denied most of the requests he has written while battling more fraud charges from jail.

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Jupiter Island golfer Tiger Woods’ secret divorce settlement may be so expensive that Woods had to mortgage his home to pay for it!

Woods' Martin County house (Click on the photo for more)

Official records that just popped up in Martin County hint that Woods will have to pay ex-wife Elin Nordegren $54 million by January 2016 — or risk losing the house he spent five years building.

How do I know?

Well, the philandering club-swinger took out a $54 million-mortgage Friday, almost two weeks after his quickie divorce was finalized in Panama City.

Click here for more

Kobi Anderson

A 16-year-old Stuart youth will likely begin a 25-year prison term in October after pleading no contest to second-degree felony murder Tuesday.

Kobi Buchae Anderson, of the 900 Block of Southeast 13th Street in Stuart, was 15 when he delivered a single fatal blow to the side of Keith Hall’s head in April 2009.

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