INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Opponents of the school superintendent’s decision not to let students see President Barack Obama’s nationally televised back-to-school speech live, lashed out at him Tuesday night.

“You have chosen to put politics in front of good citizenship and good patriotism,” Vero Beach resident Peter Hyatt said during a public comment period at the beginning of a school board meeting.

Hyatt called for Schools Superintendent Harry La Cava’s resignation.

Board members took no action following speeches by about 10 people.
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ST. LUCIE COUNTY — St. Lucie County Health Department officials confirmed Thursday the county’s first death from H1N1 flu, commonly called the swine flu.

Jason Christopher Schenck, 23, of Port St. Lucie, died Tuesday at St. Lucie Medical Center from the H1N1 virus, his family said.

“He had more friends than I knew he had, and he was just a good kid. He was a good all around kid. He was very polite,” father Clifford Schenck said. “They’re (Jason’s friends) calling me and telling me that Jason was the only one they could talk to and they know he would listen.”

Schenck suffered from asthma his entire life, Clifford Schenck said. And that condition along with several bouts of pneumonia left scars on the young man’s lungs and made him susceptible to the virus, his father said.

Clifford Schenck said his son, who had been in the hospital since Aug. 15, became ill after attending a concert with friends in West Palm Beach. None of his friends have reported feeling sick, his father said.

“When we took him in on the 15th, when he got admitted, his fingers were turning purple and his toes from lack of oxygen,” Clifford Schenck said. “I don’t care if you’re 23 or 70 years old, you don’t need to go out with this because it eats you up.”

The public shouldn’t panic with the county’s first death from the swine flu but practice good hygiene skills, said Arlease Hall, St. Lucie County Health Department spokeswoman.

“It’s imperative that if you sneeze or cough, to do so in your sleeve and not in your hands,” she said. “Wash your hands, and if you are sick, please, just stay home.”

Known as swine flu, H1N1 is a unique strain of the influenza virus that emerged this spring first in Mexico and now is widespread throughout the United States.

“I can tell you, if someone has flu symptoms, it is almost certainly H1N1,” said Karlette Peck, epidemiologist for the St. Lucie County Health Department.

Symptoms include fever, chills, aches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and fatigue.

People most at-risk: pregnant women, infants and children and those with chronic health conditions, including morbid obesity.

People born before 1957 seem to have some immunity to the H1N1 strain.

Like any flu virus, H1N1 is spread person-to-person through droplets.

Staff writer Hillary Copsey and WPTV contributed to this report.

By Keona Gardner, TCPalm.com

TREASURE COAST — The number of Treasure Coast medical equipment suppliers for Blue Cross/Blue Shield patients will dwindle to three starting Nov. 1.

The cutbacks follow a competitive bidding process by regional suppliers who provide products from diabetes testing strips to oxygen machines statewide to remain in the Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida network.

Liberty Medical Supply and Physician’s Choice Respiratory Services, Inc., both in Port St. Lucie, and Rotech Oxygen & Medical Equipment in Stuart remain as the lone Treasure Coast suppliers after the bidding, according to a Blue Cross/Blue Shield list sent to Oxygen Plus in Vero Beach.
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A six-member jury took only two hours to find Indian River County Administrator Joe Baird not guilty of DUI late Wednesday afternoon.

Baird, noticeably jubilant, sat with his attorney Bobby Guttridge as the court clerk read the verdict at 3:57 p.m. Baird then hugged his girlfriend and deferred comments to his attorney, before leaving the courthouse. (more…)

VERO BEACH — New Orleans resident Lionel Sims broke a hole in his roof to be rescued from Hurricane Katrina’s devastating flood waters in August 2005, but he had to leave behind a best friend, his dog Peanut.

Rescuers said they couldn’t take the dog.

Sims didn’t know if Peanut was dead or alive for about two months, until an American Red Cross volunteer tracked it to the Humane Society of Indian River County and Vero Beach.

And the two were reunited.
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MARTIN COUNTY — If the Martin County Commission approves changes to the shoreline protection law next week, 28 properties with seawalls and hardened shorelines could develop marinas and restaurants within 20 feet of the water.

The change would allow the properties in Community Redevelopment Areas to expand within the current 20-foot wide protection buffer on hardened shorelines. The amendment includes a 10-foot construction setback for principal structures.

Commissioner Doug Smith, who proposed the change, said the amendment will allow waterfront properties to complete shoreline projects that could stimulate business. The waterfront was fruitful for development before the current shoreline protection law passed in the 1990s.
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VERO BEACH — The DUI trial of County Administrator Joe Baird continues today with more defense witnesses testifying about his physical condition before his arrest at 10:25 p.m. May 16 in Vero Beach.

Baird “appeared perfectly normal to me” around 10 p.m., Baird’s long-time friend John Binkley testified Tuesday at the end of trial testimony for the day.

Testimony is expected to end today, possibly in time for the case to go to jurors for a decision.
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HOBE SOUND — Thirty-year-old fire station #32 in Hobe Sound will soon have a new 5,000-square-foot, hurricane-proof addition that will add eight dorm rooms and two bathrooms, enabling the station to finally separate male and female firefighters.

The $520,000 addition is being installed by Royal Concrete Concepts of West Palm Beach, which manufactures pre-engineered concrete building systems that arrive virtually complete on the construction site. Workers simply connect the utilities, add the flooring and other touches and the new wing is nearly ready for occupancy.

“It takes just one day to set the units up because they arrive on site from our Okeechobee manufacturing plant 95 percent complete,” said Jeff Wisinski, the company’s head of business development.
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FORT PIERCE — A 22-year-old man accused of forcing a teen girl to perform a sex act on him before raping her at his mother’s home faces felony charges, according to an arrest affidavit released Monday.

The 16-year-old girl told police Sunday she met Timothy E. Mitz, of the 2800 block of Avenue H, about three to four weeks ago and engaged in “semi-consensual” sexual activities during that time.

She told investigators she was at Mitz’s mother’s residence on the 700 block of South 29th Street and went to sleep about 3 a.m. Sunday.
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VERO BEACH — County Administrator Joe Baird was a victim of police “rush to judgment,” his defense attorney said in the opening arguments of his DUI case Tuesday.

Bobby Guttridge told jurors when Baird stepped out of his Jeep when it was stopped May 16, Baird was wearing a flowered Hawaiian lei around his neck. Because of that, police “never gave Baird the benefit of doubt.”

Baird was arrested after attending a community fundraiser in Wabasso at which Guttridge said Baird had two beers. But Assistant State Attorney David Dodd told jurors Baird failed all of the police roadside sobriety tests. Baird couldn’t stand on one leg, walk a straight line, count backwards or follow the movement of a pen with his eyes.

Guttridge blamed that on Baird having physical problems, including vertigo.

Dodd also said an officer found an alcoholic beverage spilled on the floorboard of Baird’s Jeep.

Prosecutors Tuesday morning are putting the arresting police officers on the stand to testify. Vero Beach Police Lt. Matt Harrelson is first. He stopped Baird at 10:26 p.m. May 16 near the Miracle Mile Plaza on 21st Street.

Harrelson testified he could smell alcohol when he was within 6 feet of Baird. Because of Baird’s appearance, he called in a DUI investigator.

By Elliott Jones