Asked in a questionnaire by Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers for TCPalm.com’s “Ask the Candidates” page whether they had been convicted of a felony, both candidates on the ballot for state Senate District 28 seat wrote “no.”

The answer from one of the candidates isn’t accurate, according to a Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers investigation.

According to court records and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern Pennsylvania, Democrat Bill Ramos, a mortgage broker from Jensen Beach, pleaded guilty to a single count of embezzlement of postal funds — accepting a three-year probation and repaying the missing money — in 1989. That charge is a felony.

Ramos said Thursday he didn’t consider pleading “no contest” the same as a conviction.

“I answered specifically as it was asked,” Ramos said. “It just said have you ever been convicted of, and I answered no. I plead no contest.”

The court documents show Ramos pleaded guilty.

Assistant State Attorney John Cannizzaro, of Florida’s 19th Judicial Circuit in Fort Pierce, said judges advise defendants before they enter a guilty plea that the action is the same as being convicted at a jury trial.

“There is no difference,” he said. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — St. Lucie County has set its sights on landing an unnamed eyeglass lens research firm that could bring 200 high-paying jobs to the Treasure Coast and create a curriculum at Indian River State College focused on training people to work for the company.

The county is awaiting Enterprise Florida, the state’s economic development arm, to approve its share of an incentive package that would require the local government to provide about $550,500 as its part of a state and local package that includes a job growth incentive grant and property tax breaks.

“This is a serious competition for us,” said Larry Pelton, president of the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County. “I can’t give you more until we see how this all turns out.”
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FORT PIERCE — The man whose invention vibrated millions of Americans to sleep, John Joseph Houghtaling, 92, died Wednesday in Fort Pierce.

Houghtaling invented the “Magic Fingers” machine, a coin operated device that caused motel beds to vibrate when a quarter was dropped in the machine.

Born in Kansas City, Mo., Houghtaling joined the Army Air Corps during World War II. He was a crewman on the B-17 bomber and made 17 missions before the end of the war, said his son, Paul Houghtaling of Alexandria, Va.

After the war he became a salesman for a company selling mattresses with built in vibrators. Sales were not good, according to an article by John Grossman in the Spring 2000 edition of American Heritage Magazine. So in 1958, Houghtaling decided to build a device that could attach to a mattress, be cheap to operate and return revenue to his firm and the motels using it. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — It didn’t take long for retiring state Sen. Ken Pruitt to find a new gig.

The Port St. Lucie Republican announced Tuesday that he has accepted a job handling government relations and public affairs for the Boca Raton-based law firm Weiss, Handler, Angelos & Cornwell.

Cynthia Angelos, a partner at the firm and former St. Lucie County chief circuit judge, is a longtime friend of Pruitt’s.

The firm has offices in Port St. Lucie, Boca Raton and Palm Beach.

After 19 years as a state legislator, Pruitt announced in May he would retire in August — more than a year before the end of his term.

Pruitt said he achieved his goals as a legislator and wanted to spend more time with his family.

St. Lucie County Clerk of Courts Joe Smith announced this afternoon that he is offering buyouts and early retirement packages to some employees but will eventually have to lay off others by July to make up for a $546,000 budget cut.

Smith told his employees about the imminent layoffs in an email this afternoon, saying his office received the new numbers late last week from the Florida Clerks of Court Operations Corporation.

The new budget would give the office about $8.1 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1, down from more than $8.6 million they had for the current year.

The cuts come after state lawmakers in the last legislative session voted to change the way clerk’s offices are funded.

It’s disappointing,” Smith said this afternoon. “As a manager the worst thing you can tell you employees is ‘I have to let you go.’”
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State officials said they are reviewing the actions of 10 employees at two Treasure Coast prisons in incidents where children were shocked with stun guns when visiting for Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day.

The incidents happened on April 23 at the Indian River Correctional Institution and the Martin Correctional Institution, according to the Department of Corrections. Several children, ages 8 through 14, were at the facilities for the educational initiative, department spokeswoman Jo Ellyn Rackleff said.

Five employees at each facility are on paid administrative leave for the investigation, she said. None of the children were seriously hurt, Rackleff said.
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Investigators are still trying to figure out what caused the natural gas pipeline rupture that shut down Interstate 95 and Florida’s Turnpike for several hours Monday morning.

Florida Gas Transmission, the Houston-based company that owns the 5,000-mile pipeline, sent three investigators to Martin County to examine the damage.

They probably will ship pieces of the broken 18-inch pipe for metal testing to help find clues, said company spokesman John Barnett. The segment of the pipeline that ruptured was built in 1959.

It’s unclear how long the investigation will take, Barnett said.

Cash is drying up at local nonprofits as the recession lingers.

That’s not surprising, but the numbers are sobering:
— Seven percent of nonprofits in the region have no cash reserves.
— Twelve percent have a month of less of cash on hand.
— And 10.5 percent said they will reduce their services in the next three years.

That’s according to a survey released last week by the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties and Allegany Franciscan Ministries.

More than 300 nonprofits — mostly from Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties — responded to the survey, which was conducted in January.

The results showed demand for services is growing. The areas of greatest need include health care, unemployment, housing and education.

For a glimpse of what could have been in Port St. Lucie, look to Orlando.

There, at the massive Lake Nona development, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research is moving into its new $85 million building.

Scientists who specialize in diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease are unpacking their microscopes and robots as they settle into the green-certified 175,000-square-foot laboratory.

By this summer, it will be home to a system that can screen more than 2 million chemical compounds a day — one of four such screening centers in the country, said institute spokeswoman Deborah Robison.

All the buzz surrounding Burnham has been a huge boost for Orlando’s business recruitment efforts.

“Before Burnham, we used to get about five life-science inquiries per year,” said Jennifer Wakefield, spokeswoman for the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission. “Since that time, we’ve had about 50 per year.” (more…)

Port St. Lucie’s next biotech institute is one step closer to reality.

Oregon Health & Science University’s Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute signed a deal this month to design and build its new $30 million laboratory in the Tradition development west of Interstate 95.

The institute tapped Baltimore-based Whiting Turner Contracting Co. to oversee construction of the 105,000 square feet of laboratories and offices. The building is on target to be completed in May 2011, said Andrew Favata, vice president for Tradition’s developer, Core Communities LLC.

VGTI Florida, as the local campus has been dubbed, will be built on eight acres at Core Communities’ Florida Center for Innovation at Tradition, a fledgling research park that’s now home to another biotech outfit, the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies. (more…)