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.

STUART — A Martin County grand jury on Wednesday returned first-degree murder and robbery indictments against two Stuart residents accused in the April 5 beating death of Keith A. Hall, who died three days after being attacked.

Charged are James Louis LaForteza, 29, and Kobi Anderson, 15, who authorities say beat Hall into unconsciousness to steal $40 he’d shown the man and teen in an attempt to buy drugs. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — Not much will change Friday when Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute begins serving as a provisional state trauma center.

Much of the $15 million Lawnwood invested in five trauma surgeons, staff training, new equipment and emergency department renovations was earmarked two years ago when hospital officials proposed St. Lucie County taxpayers chip in $7 million a year to pay for the regional, Level II trauma center.

Trauma tax opponents said then Lawnwood’s parent company, Tennessee-based HCA Inc., would find the cash if it really wanted to care for trauma patients. Nearly 75 percent of voters rejected the trauma tax.
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SEBASTIAN — Police said they have found the mummified remains of a woman who had been missing for as much as six years in a home where neighbors complained of a foul smell.

Penelope Jordan, 61, of the 500 block of Wimbrow Drive, was charged Monday with fraud and theft by the Sebastian Police Department. Investigators are still looking into the circumstances of the death of Jordan’s mother, Timmie Jordan, who was born in 1913. Police said Penelope Jordan had been cashing her Social Security checks for the past six years.

Code enforcement had been called to the home Friday for complaints of bad odor, poor living conditions and numerous cats, said police spokesman Steve Marcinik.
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FORT PIERCE — Two men are suspected of trying to break in to a Fort Pierce Dunkin’ Donuts, according to arrest affidavit released Sunday by the Fort Pierce Police Department.

The report does not say whether the men were attempting to steal cash or doughnuts from the store at 920 U.S. 1.

Eric Demond Donley, 35, of the 1100 block of 32nd Avenue in Vero Beach, and Rony Harold Jeudy, 19, of the 1100 block of South U.S. 1 in Fort Pierce, were arrested on charges of burglary, property damage and criminal mischief and resisting arrest without violence on Friday. (more…)

JENSEN BEACH — The Treasure Coast Square Mall suffered significant smoke and water damage after a small fire broke out inside Santa’s Helper, Thursday morning, though the fire was quickly extinguished, a Martin County Fire Rescue spokesman said.

Just after 7 a.m., fire rescue received a call from an alarm company reporting a smoke alarm at Santa’s Helper, and about a minute later a security guard confirmed the fire, said Jon Belding, bureau chief of communications and public information officer for Martin County Fire Rescue.

The mall reopened about 10 a.m.

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The Baehrs — Derek, Kellyanne and their two young daughters are five months behind on their mortgage payments. They sometimes eat at a soup kitchen and shop at a food pantry. They expect to lose their three-bedroom suburban house before the end of the school year.
“This is just awful, and I know that we are not the only ones going through this,’’ says Kellyanne, 37, an accounting clerk. Derek, 40, is disabled. “We used to try to go day by day. Now we are just trying to get to the end of each day.’’

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PORT ST. LUCIE — Police are investigating to see whether a burglary and an attempted break-in at two check-cashing stores discovered this morning are linked.

Sometime overnight, someone broke into the Advance America Cash Advance at 10169 S. U.S. 1 and made off with cash and the store’s surveillance video, police spokesman Officer Thomas Nichols said.

The suspect or suspects pried open a back door, cut a hole in a floor safe and took an unknown amount of cash, Nichols said. An employee discovered the theft this morning. (more…)

VERO BEACH — About 98 percent of registered nurses at Indian River Medical Center rejected a new contract and notice will be sent to hospital officials that nurses will picket or go on strike at 7 a.m. Jan. 24, nurses union spokesman Steve Myers said Wednesday.

The nurses’ contract, which was rejected on Wednesday evening by Teamsters Local 769, the union that represents the hospital’s 467 registered nurses, would have added about $500,000 to IRMC’s budget. (more…)