PORT ST. LUCIE — Alfredo Felipe opened his new barber shop in Port St. Lucie because he liked the hometown feel of the community.

Felipe, 33, never thought that a month after his grand opening, an odd theft would occur at his business, Fredo’s Barbershop Hair Trends International, 698 Southwest Port St. Lucie Blvd.

Felipe said his homemade, 7-foot barber pole, made out of Styrofoam, mesh, stucco and some light metal materials, was stolen between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. Friday at his shop.
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Esther A. Guzman, a scientist at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce, has received a $375,000 grant for a three-year project to find marine organisms that might help prevent pancreatic cancer.

The 36-year-old Guzman grew up in Mexico City and earned a doctorate in immunology from the University of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston in 2004. She joined the drug discovery program at Harbor Branch, a division of Florida Atlantic University, the following year. (more…)

VERO BEACH — Indian River County Administrator Joe Baird was charged with driving under the influence Saturday night.

“I would like to apologize to the public and (Indian River County) commissioners and I will continue to work hard for the county,” Baird said Sunday. “This is a personal matter and I plan to handle it personally.” (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…)

Posters of professional athletes line the walls of Demeterius Wells’ bedroom.

His bulky textbooks from Indian River State College are stacked near his computer, and a bookshelf displays his Vero Beach High School diploma next to trophies he won on the track and field team.

His grandmother Patricia Chambers, who raised him after his mother died from ovarian cancer complications when he was 8, broke down in tears Sunday after describing the untimely death of her 18-year-old grandson early Saturday morning.

The Fort Pierce Police Department said Wells was shot several times on the 1300 block of North 31st Street in Fort Pierce at about 1:50 a.m. Saturday. Family members said he was dropping off a friend when the shooting occurred. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Kyle Wahl, 5, Tuesday night lost his battle with medullohblastoma, a type of brain cancer.

Kyle is the son of Chris Wahl, 33, and mother Sasha, 30, of Port St. Lucie, and was featured in Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers by columnist Geoff Oldfather.

Kyle Wahl, 5, break dances during a holiday party in Dec. 2008. Photo by Damien Higgins.

Greg Osborne has trouble sleeping at night.

Osborne, a former Piper Aircraft Inc. employee who got laid off earlier this month, wonders how he’ll be able to pay for his five prescriptions when his medical insurance runs out at the end of the month. He worries about how he’ll make rent this month and how he can delay paying for utilities.

But most of all, he prays that his kidney cancer doesn’t return.

“I loved my job. I loved that company, I loved my co-workers, it was my life. It was my family,” said Osborne, a former aircraft inspector at Piper for more than 11 years. “There’s days go by, I don’t even eat.”

Osborne joined other former Piper employees at a workshop organized by the United Way and Workforce Solutions of Indian River County Monday. The two agencies held seminars to help former Piper employees find social services and other financial assistance from the county and state. (more…)

A Tampa area plane crash that resulted in the death of a pilot and his two Martin County passengers over the summer was likely due to pilot error, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The board released a report this week stating that it found probable cause that pilot H.E. Northcott, 81, made an “improper decision” when he took off from Vandenberg Airport east of Tampa with a tailwind. He also failed to keep a straight path during the initial takeoff, officials said.

Also inside the small Beechcraft Bonanza were 49-year-old Patty Snyder and 15-year-old Tyler McLellan. McLellan was accompanying Snyder, a family friend, to Tampa for cancer treatment.

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