STUART — For the kids at the East 10th Street Recreation Center, shooting hoops or playing football for the Stuart Hornets is all a part of growing up.

Taking a few swings with the bat or playing soft toss on the diamond is not, a reflection of baseball’s diminished grasp in some areas of the country especially those populated by black youth. (more…)

Opening arguments are expected to begin today in the federal death penalty trial surrounding the 2006 slayings of a young Greenacres family of four along Florida’s Turnpike.

A panel of seven men and five women was picked Monday to decide the drug conspiracy case against Danny Varela, Liana Lee Lopez, Ricardo Sanchez and Daniel Troya. Jurors could impose death sentences against Sanchez and Troya, who are charged in the killings of the Escobedo family. (more…)

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Scenarios including closing some public schools and sending their students to other schools reportedly are being discussed by officials as among many ideas to deal with an expected $30 million loss in education funding next school year.

Schools Superintendent Mike Lannon and individual members of the St. Lucie County School Board stressed that no decisions had been made by Monday, except that they would unveil budget-trimming proposals to the public at a town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Feb. 26 in the School Board meeting room, 4204 Okeechobee Road. (more…)

A showdown is brewing near Port Mayaca in Martin County as a group of environmental protesters are camping out for a second night tonight demanding access to a natural swamp on land owned by Florida Power and Light Co.

“If they don’t open the swamp, we will cross the tracks and risk arrest,” said Peter Shultz of Hobe Sound, a member of Everglades Earth First. (more…)

New boating restrictions have been approved by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission that will reduce speed limits in parts of the Martin County Intracoastal and Okeechobee waterways, officials announced today.

The new rules, which will take effect next year, came from the results of the Martin County Vessel Traffic Study and input from residents and community members during the last two years.

An Okeechobee man is accused of indecent exposure in front of a teenage clerk at a Port St. Lucie gas station.

A 17-year-old clerk at the Shell gas station said she saw Roger D. Arnold, 33, approach the cash register counter on Nov. 18 with his pants’ zipper down.

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OKEECHOBEE — State officials are investigating the death of a teen at a juvenile detention center but say that initial reports indicate the staff followed procedure after he collapsed.

Sixteen-year-old Kevin Christie was playing basketball with a group of boys at the Eckerd Youth Development Center in Okeechobee on Friday night when he went to help another teen who had fallen during the game, according to an initial report from the state Department of Juvenile Justice.

Christie then fell backward to the ground and tried to stand up again but fell down again, the report states. Other boys tried to help Christie, who was unresponsive, officials said.

Counselors at Eckerd told state investigators that when they rushed to him, Christie was unconscious and had a weak pulse. He was also breathing sporadically, they said.
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Officials are awaiting autopsy results to determine what caused the death of a teen at a juvenile facility on Friday.

Sixteen-year-old Kevin Christie was playing basketball with a group of boys at the Eckerd Youth Development Center in Okeechobee when one of the boys fell, said Robert Patterson, operations director for the facility.

Christie bent over to help the boy up, then fell on his back, Patterson said today. Once on the ground. he lifted himself up a little, as if he were gasping for air, Patterson said.

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