JENSEN BEACH — Country singer Chuck Wicks made his case as a good boyfriend Saturday night after his girlfriend Julianne Hough came down with the flu and couldn’t perform at the 22nd annual Pineapple Festival in downtown Jensen Beach.

In a surprise last-minute move, Wicks played in Hough’s place — and said he scored some brownie points with his better half — to cap off a breezy Saturday filled with rides, traditional festival food and drink, daredevil BMX trick shows, parades and music.

“It was touch-and-go all day,” said Ron Rose, Jensen Beach Chamber of Commerce executive director. “A lot of people went out of their way to make it happen. I just thank God he (Wicks) was on his way to Homestead and turned around.”
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After losing several national chain retailers this year, the Treasure Coast Square mall is starting to see those empty spots fill up — this time with local businesses.

Five of six new stores at the mall are locally owned.

New stores include: Kiss My Glass, a glass jewelry store with a location in Vero Beach; Vogees Boutique, a women’s store with a location in Wellington; The Fishing Center, which has another location in Fort Pierce; and Jumping Times, a bungee jumping and trampoline center.

Also new is an environmentally friendly car wash called ProntoWash Eco AutoSpa. (more…)

STUART - Just before opening arguments were expected to begin this morning in the trial of one of several teens arrested after an officer-involved shooting, Jose Sebastian Francisco’s attorneys and prosecutors reached a plea agreement that will keep him out of prison.

Francisco, 18, was just 17 in June 2008, when a Martin COunty Sheriff’s deputy pulled over the car he was riding in near the Treasure Coast Square Mall in Jensen Beach.

According to witnesses, at least two men in the car attacked Deputy Jason Howard, causing Howard to shoot and kill 21-year-old Miguel Pablo.

Francisco and Pablo’s brother, Francisco Pablo, were arrested on aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest charges.

Jury selection had ended Monday and Francisco’s trial was expected to begin this morning, but prosecutors and Francisco’s attorney Jerome Stone told CIrcuit Judge Sherwood Bauer that they had reached a plea agreement.

Under the agreement, prosecutors agreed to drop the aggravated battery charge and a misdemeanor resisting charge. Fancisco pleaded no contest to a single charge of resisting an officer with violence and was sentenced to two years’ probation. (more…)

More than three years after Hurricane Wilma tore the roof off Island Water Sports’ building in downtown Jensen Beach, the 27-year-old surf shop is finally celebrating its reopening.

The owners are restocking kayaks, surfboards and skim boards — and slowly watching their customers return to their old location on the shore of the Indian River Lagoon.

“It was very hard,” said co-owner Chris Cea. “We lost a lot of the following.”

In the years since Wilma struck in October 2005, the business has operated out of four different locations.

The moves drained the resources of the owners, who didn’t get any assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the U.S. Small Business Administration, said Kristen Nielander, who co-owns the shop with Cea and her husband, Ted.

“We got turned down completely,” Kristen said. (more…)