ST. LUCIE COUNTY — State Road 70 east from the St. Lucie and Okeechobee county line could get a jump-start from $37 million worth of stimulus money.

The road-widening project for a 5- to 10-mile stretch east of the county line is one of four transit projects in St. Lucie County and 11 throughout the Treasure Coast placed before the Florida Legislative Budget Commission to review for federal stimulus money.

The road widening has been planned and designed but lacked the construction money to complete, St. Lucie Transportation Planning Organization Director Peter Buchwald said.

“Any project that’s been in the cycle for so long is a benefit,” Buchwald said. “I wish the TPO priority projects, which are Crosstown Parkway, Kings Highway, Indrio Road and Midway Road, would get funded as well.”

Another key project on the Treasure Coast is the $200 million-plus Indian Street Bridge between Stuart and Palm City.

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Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in the Oklahoma City bombing

A jury has sentenced Ricardo Sanchez Jr. and Daniel Troya to death for killing the Escobedo family of four along Florida’s Turnpike in St. Lucie County.

The federal death penalty is different from the state of Florida’s death sentence in many ways.

Only 51 inmates are on federal Death Row in Terre Haute, Ind. Florida houses 392. Crimes punishable by the federal death penalty include genocide, killing witnesses, in a trial, terrorism and murder committed as part of a drug enterprise.

Florida has executed 67 men and women since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976. The feds have executed three men since Congress reinstated it in 1988. Some of the more famous of those executed were Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted of sabotage for selling atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.

Here’s some of those executed since 1927:

James Horace Alderman

1927: James Horace Alderman, known as “King of the Rumrunners,” was intercepted by a Coast Guard vessel 30 miles off Florida’s coast. His boat was laden with alcohol during the era of Prohibition. As Alderman boarded the vessel, he pulled out his pistol. When two Coast Guardsmen and a Secret Service agent rushed him, he shot them all dead. Later, his execution was scheduled for the Broward County Jail, but the county wanted it to occur on federal property. So a makeshift gallows was erected at the Coast Guard hangar.

“When this is read I will have passed over the brink of eternity into the Great Beyond. “I would like to state through the medium of The Miami Herald that I am feeling fine, physically, mentally and spiritually. With the wonderful comfort and strength that I received from Jesus Christ, I am assured that when tomorrow comes I will go with smiles of comfort on my face. … “As I sit here in my cell I can look back and see just what caused me to be where I am today. Drunkenness first starts a young man to gambling — and swearing grows on him — and from that step he becomes hardened in his heart in envy and hatred toward mankind. Then, as he grows up, he becomes what you would call educated to crime. Bootlegging and smuggling is the next step. And there are other angles of downfall that lead to the devil. “The money I made neither did me nor my dear family any good. We thought it did, but no. You can see what it has done — a death sentence by hanging — and a broken-hearted family.”

Read the 1929 Time magazine account of his hanging, here. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — A U.S. Appeals Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that Port St. Lucie resident Colleen Demers was wrongly fired by Adams Homes when she took maternity leave four years ago and reinstated the $5,000 in damages awarded by the jury.

Demers worked as a real estate agent for Adams Homes, which builds houses in Viera, Melbourne and West Melbourne, when she became pregnant in 2005. The company dismissed her, claiming she was an independent contractor and not entitled to family leave benefits.

But a trial judge in Orlando last year ruled the company had treated Demers as an employee for 3 1/2 years and offered no evidence that she was an independent contractor. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — A plan that includes eliminating 331 jobs and closing three schools to cut $30.6 million from next year’s budget was explained in detail Tuesday evening to elected members of the School Board, who sat silent through the presentation by Schools Superintendent Michael Lannon.

Their lack of comment was deliberate. Chairwoman Judi Miller said after the meeting all five members of the School Board had previously agreed in individual conversations with Lannon not to speak until after a town hall meeting on the proposal, scheduled for 6 p.m. March 31 at Fort Pierce Central High School auditorium.

Lannon spoke for almost one hour on a problem that he laid entirely at the feet of Tallahassee lawmakers who refuse to raise more money in the face of shortfalls created by the economic recession.
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Port St. Lucie is getting into the home-buying business.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last week gave city officials the go-ahead on a plan to spend $13.5 million in federal money buying, repairing and reselling foreclosed homes.

Port St. Lucie hopes to start working with local real estate agents this week and begin closing on homes in as little as a month, said Pat Selmer, assistant director of the city’s community services department. (more…)

Beth Mazzouccolo, a widow with two children and her 86-year-old mother living at home, is concerned about landing a new job and being able to pay for health care.

But she’s hopeful that President Obama’s $75 billion housing plan will allow her to reduce her monthly mortgage payments.

With her unemployment benefits soon to run out, Mazzouccolo’s income tax refund has allowed her to catch up on her $1,600-a-month mortgage on the Fisherman’s Cove duplex in Stuart that is now worth nearly $40,000 less than the $195,000 she bought it for two years ago. (more…)

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — After driving in and out of John’s Island to clean homes through most of February, Charles Sereika said he was surprised to learn of a new policy the wealthy gated community had recently put in place.

According to a statement from the John’s Island Property Association, all contractors and subcontractors who show up to work on homes in the beachside community must have a valid driver’s license or identification. The policy became effective Feb. 1.

“If you have an employee that is an illegal alien, do not send them,” the letter said. “If you have an employee that is unable to obtain a U.S. driver’s license or I.D. card, please do not send them to work on John’s Island, as they will be turned away.”
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STUART — Despite two of its advisory committees last week ranking the Indian Street Bridge as the top priority for federal stimulus money, the Martin Metropolitan Planning Organization Monday decided County Road 609 improvements should top the list.
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The news isn’t all rosy at Liberty Medical in Port St. Lucie.

Even as the diabetes-supply firm undertakes a huge hiring spree, it’s wrangling with allegations that it defrauded the federal government.

Liberty’s parent company, Medco Health Solutions Inc. received a subpoena from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General as part of an investigation into Liberty, Medco disclosed this month in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The investigation arose from a “qui tam” complaint, a legal mechanism under the False Claims Act that allows people with evidence of fraud against federal programs to sue on behalf of the government. (more…)

“Hopefully, this is going to bring an end to the massive overtime problem we’ve had in Martin County for the last 12 years,” Billington said. The county paid $2.3 million in overtime to fire rescue workers last year. (more…)