Note to teens facing a potential prison term: don’t use your MySpace page to post photos of police officers and wish “AIDS and genocide to all law enforcement.”

That’s what Stuart resident Jesse Alan Walker, 19, did while awaiting a June trial in which a jury convicted him of robbery with a firearm related to a 2008 home invasion armed robbery. At trial, he was accused of planning the robbery with two then-20-year-old co-defendants, who once played football for Jensen Beach High School.

“I hate the (expletive) police,” Walker posted on MySpace last December, along with photos of Stuart Police officers and derogatory comments.
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STUART — More than a century ago, shipwrecked sailors who washed up on the Treasure Coast immediately looked for mile markers nailed to trees and posts to direct them to safety.

These markers were designed to be easily understood by men from every country and education level. Over time they were lost to history, but replicas are currently on display at the House of Refuge at Gilbert’s Bar. (more…)

VERO BEACH — Local amateur fossil collector James Kennedy appears to have made an unprecedented archaeological discovery that might help confirm a human presence here up to 13,000 years ago.

A prehistoric bone fragment found near Vero Beach contains a crude engraving of a mammoth or mastodon on it.

“It is humbling to realize that we are seeing what the hunter saw more than 13,000 years ago,” Purdy said.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — A 19-year-old bicyclist sustained critical injuries Monday night after being struck by a dark-colored vehicle that fled the scene, police said Tuesday.
John J. Mejias, of the 2700 block of Northwest Hatches Harbor Road, was pedaling north on Floresta Drive south of Thornhill Drive about 8:20 p.m. when a vehicle hit him from behind, Officer Alex Gaufillet said, standing at the scene.
Mejias, who was flown to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, ended up about 130 feet from where he was struck. (more…)

STUART — The party hearty crowd at local bars is going to have to tone down the sound as a result of stricter new noise rules set to go into effect this weekend.

The Martin County Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to ban noise from traveling more than 150 feet beyond an entertainment venue’s property line during the day and evening.

The new rules will ban noise from crossing an entertainment venue’s property line between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Former President Jimmy Carter cruised the St. Lucie River, mingled with friends and family at the local Club Med resort and helped raise more than $800,000 on Saturday to support the Carter Center.

Carter, his wife, Rosalynn, and some of his children and grandchildren were in town this past weekend for the annual “Winter Weekend,” an event for supporters of the non-profit, Atlanta-based Carter Center, which promotes peace and health worldwide. (more…)

Gov. Charlie Crist’s holiday card features a painting by a prominent Fort Pierce artist who was one of the original Highwaymen painters.

The Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee is home to 22 of James Gibson’s paintings. Gibson completed Nightscape I, the painting featured on the card, about a year ago for Crist. It depicts a palm tree on the bank of the Indian River.

The Highwaymen were a group of African-American landscape artists based in and around Fort Pierce in the 1950s and 1960s. Gibson and others sold their paintings for $15 or $20 from the trunks of their cars.

Some of Gibson’s paintings can now sell for as much as $18,000.

– The Associated Press

A Port St. Lucie man reported that someone stole a painting he said was worth $6 million from his home.

Forty-four-year-old Bobby Lee Kirk told police on Monday that he discovered his safe and the painting missing from his home in the 800 block of Southwest Idol Avenue early that evening.

Kirk reported that the safe contained a Paul Klee painting he estimated was worth $6 million and prescription pills for his wife. Police say they have not been able to verify the painting’s worth. (more…)