KWTN: The Blue Paper

State Attorney Looking at Possible Sunshine Violation by School Board Members

KWTN Team Report

It is a violation of Florida’s Government in the Sunshine Law for two or more members of an elected board to meet privately and discuss matters that may come before the board in the future. In the photo, right, two members of the Monroe County School Board— Steven Pribramsky, far right, and John Dick, back to camera— are seen relaxing at the BottleCap Lounge following a School Board meeting on June 30.

Others in the photo are School board Attorney Richard Collins, far left, Attorney Latour Lafferty, the School Board’s special counsel, and Richard Fetcher, the School Board’s forensic investigator.

Both Pribramski and Dick told Key West The Newspaper that the short get-together was social in nature and that nothing was discuss that would constitute a violation of the law. Pribramsky said that he went to the BottleCap after being invited by Attorney Collins. “When I arrived, only Collins and Dick were there,” he said Wednesday. “We were joined in about five minutes by Fetcher and Lafferty.”

Another Ducks Case in the Making?

SO FAR, CITY OFFICIALS HAVE NOT FIGURED OUT HOW TO GIVE COMPETING TROLLEY OPERATION A LICENSE TO OPERATE

IS THIS DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN?

by Dennis Reeves Cooper

Several weeks ago, Mayor Morgan McPherson and the six city commissioners received letters notifying them that CityView Trolley Tours, a company that runs sightseeing operations in Boston, Salem and Cambridge, Massachusetts, had formed a new Florida corporation— CityView Trolley Tours of Key West— to launch a sightseeing operation here in competition with Historic Tours of America’s (HTA) Old Town Trolley operations. Greg Wythe, vice president of the new company, told Key West the Newspaper that he hopes to begin operations here with four to six trolleys by November.

This announcement came in the wake of the City of Key West’s $8 million payout to Duck Tours Seafari to settle a longrunning lawsuit. As a result of that lawsuit, the Third District Court of Appeal ruled that part of the city’s exclusive sightseeing franchise agreement with HTA violated the state antitrust law. The court had also ruled that city officials had illegally forced the Ducks out of business in 1996.

Although the city still has a franchise agreement with HTA, which requires the company to pay the city a percentage of the profits of the Conch Tour Train and Old Town Trolleys, the agreement can no longer restrict where competing sightseeing companies can sell tickets or pick up passengers.

PAGE ONE COMMENTARY: Federal Lawsuit Alleges Selective Law Enforcement. Trial Starts Here Later This Month

by Dennis Reeves Cooper

We told you last week that the purpose of any law in Key West is to be selectively enforced. And we gave you several examples— like the open container law and bicycle traffic laws. And we told you that the reason most laws are selectively enforced is that law enforcement officers have “broad discretion” as to whether or not they want to enforce the law.

We got quite a bit of feedback on that commentary— emails to our office and comments on our online blog, kwtn.com. Comments were about evenly mixed, ranging from general agreement to questions like, “Do you want the laws enforced or not?” Generally speaking, we would like to see the law enforced fairly and honorably. We would like to see everybody treated the same— whether they are “connected” or not.

But having said that, we know that some laws are actually written by the lawmakers to be selectively enforced. For example, you don’t think that the open container law was enacted by the city commission to keep fun-loving and money-spending tourists from walking between bars on Duval Street with plastic cups of beer, do you?

Kimberley Denney: It’s Not Me, It’s You

by Kimberley Denney

Does oppressive heat cause people to act like dicks? Or do they go out of their way to be rude and thoughtless just because they can? I know we’re all supposed to be one big happy human family down here, but it takes all kinds to round out the gene pool, and my mean gene is in overdrive.

I’ve probably spent the better part of a month pissed off, when off-season is usually my favorite time of year. Every morning I wake up and think, surely today can’t be as bad as yesterday. But it is. Sometimes it’s worse.

It starts out with something as simple as this: a trip to the post office. My route takes me down Whitehead, where I’m inevitably stuck behind at least two Conch trains, which travel on average seven m.p.h. and oftentimes come to a complete stop in front of the Hemingway House. So here we go.

Cop Accidentally Fires Gun Inside Police Station

Key West Police Sgt. JR Torres, one of the department’s firearms training instructor, accidentally discharged his firearm inside the police station during a training exercise on June 25.

According to police reports, Torres and another officer were working with the department’s Firearms Training Simulator. During the exercise, Torres reportedly replaced the simulator’s laser gun with his own duty weapon— a 40 caliber Glock— and discharged a live round. The bullet went through the simulator screen, through the wall behind it and into the female locker room. No one was injured. Sgt. Torres received two hours of remedial training.

Foster Parents Needed

Foster Parents are a unique group of people. Some are married, some have partners, some are single, some have their own children, and some have children who are grown and independent. Foster parents come from many diverse backgrounds, lifestyles and income levels, but they have one thing in common. Foster Parents want to provide a safe, temporary home for children while they are separated from their families.

More Foster Homes are needed throughout Monroe County. Wesley House Family Services is offering a Foster Parent Training Classes starting July 20, 2009. The ten-week Foster Parent Training – MAPP (Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting) will be offered from 6-9 p.m. in Key West at the agency’s Habana Plaza Office, 3114 Flagler Ave. For more information call Molly McAteer or Noreen Dawson at (305) 809-5000 or via email at gail.mcateer@wesleyhouse.org or noreen.dawson@wesleyhouse.org.

LETTERS: Cop’s 12-Year-Old Daughter Not Happy with New Stepmother

EDITOR’S NOTE: Arianna Calvert is the 12-year-old daughter of Key West police officer Thad Calvert— who recently married Key West police officer Janeth Del Cid. The articles she is referring to in this letter, which she sent to KWTN’s blog, are the two commentaries on “Love in Blue” that ran June 12 and June 19. Del Cid went to court to get a termporary restraining order against Arianna’s mother.

Hello. My name is Arianna and this is about my parents.

My mom wouldn’t let me read the articles so I Googled it and found this website. Even though I’m a kid I know what’s going on. Janeth is not afraid of my mom. Janeth will say things to me like if I say I’m not allowed to do something she’ll say “just let your mom mess with me.” She’s mean to me and my brother and calls us names. I even wrote a letter to the Judge saying how mean she was too.

My mom did not bother Janeth but Janeth has called me and left freaky messages for my dad late at night on my cell phone. That’s why my mom went to the police, cause Janeth was bothering me.

She’s sneaky cause she’ll even look at my dad’s computer history and phone when he leaves the room. My dad is being a butt head now, too. He used to be a good dad and even coached my soccer team, but now he calls me an idiot and me and my brother are not even allowed to sit at the dining table with them. Janeth tells us what to do and tells my dad what to do. Like I was scared to take their dog outside cause it’s in Bahama Village and I didn’t know where I was and it was dark so I said I didn’t want to go by myself. She went and told on me and my dad made me.

The worst part though is that my mom and dad just got divorced one month ago and Janeth and my dad already GOT MARRIED. They did not even tell me. They still haven’t. I heard from my friend and it’s even on Facebook. They didn’t even tell me. If they really cared about me or my brother they would have us at the wedding or at least told us before they got married. They still haven’t told us.

Arianna Calvert
Key West

LETTERS: Reader Unhappy With KWTN’s “Foreign” Content

Dear Editor:

Since you don’t seem to take criticism very well, you probably won’t print this, but . . . wouldn’t Mr. O’Boyle’s self-indulgent, know-it-all criticisms of our country be more credible if he were writing them in this country, rather than lobbing them in from Costa Rica?

And, by the way, since the lion’s share of the latest issue was written in Iraq, France and Costa Rica, shouldn’t it be “Anywhere-But-Key West, The Newspaper”?

Frank Kabela
Key West

LETTERS: Reader Unhappy about Criticism of Scofflaw Bicyclists

Dear Editor:

Last Friday while walking in the early morning, I tripped on a stack of blue newspapers that had been tossed squarely in the sidewalk. I took out one of the papers and put the rest safely out of the way of passersby.

Straining in the light and slowly walking along, I started to read the story of the week on scofflaw bicyclists. There was a commotion and I looked up to see another blue pile lying on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street, gusts of wind dealing out its pages to a nearby puddle.

Suddenly a group of pages was lifted high up into the air, they entwined themselves in the dancing arms of a Poinciana tree. I crossed the street and contained the pile but not before a clump of pages ironically wrapped themselves around a line of newspaper machines.

As I continued on my walk, still reading and dodging piles of papers, an anger welled up inside me, compelling me to write this letter.

How can you demand bicyclists be ticketed for rolling through stop signs, while your company litters our streets and sidewalks with tons upon tons of newspapers. Freedom of the press does not entitle you to trash our town or our cyclists. If your paper is so worried about lawbreakers it should step forward and pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars in littering fines it owes to the city for the past ten years of helter skelter paper throwing.

If you can’t find real news or bad guys to attack then perhaps it’s time to fold your tent, because people who live in conch houses shouldn’t throw newspapers.

Tom Theisen
Key West

EDITOR’S NOTE: It is KWTN’s policy, when newspapers must be left outside of a distribution point, the bundle is banded and wrapped in a waterproof bag.

Rhonda: What Goes up

by Rhonda Linseman-Saunders

I went up north but, as promised, fell back down to the Keys. Rock bottom, if you will.

Aristotle and the ancient Greeks said there is a natural tendency for everything to fall toward the center of the universe, which was Earth, of course. Galileo later agreed and expanded on the gravity idea (not yet called gravity), but audaciously suggested that Earth was not the center of the universe.

Newton sort-of concurred and clarified the concept with some laws about motion, including the law of gravity. Einstein eventually added his two cents with relatively important stuff like his theory of general relativity.

Rick Boettger: Gonna Get a Witness

by Rick Boettger

It’s real life mystery time! And I hope someone out there can help us solve it.

We’ve recently reported on one bicyclist killed and another injured. In March still another was run down in the bumper-car streets of Key West. This time it’s poor Coco Ono. Two months after she was unjustly fired from her janitorial job at the Unitarian church, as detailed in this paper earlier this year, a jeep ran her down on North Roosevelt.

The good news is she survived with “only” a hairline fracture of her arm and severe internal bruising. After 4 months, she is almost recovered. But she suffered an aftershock of the crash when she picked up the official accident report from the police department. Reading the report hurt her almost as much as the crash itself did.

Summer Coral Camp for Kids

Reef Relief is now accepting registrations for kids in grades 3-6, to join in this summer’s Coral Camp 2009 at the Reef Relief Environmental Center, 631 Greene Street, next to the Conch Republic Seafood Company.

During the one and two week programs, campers will learn about the living coral reef ecosystem and marine life community. Daily field trips include guided tours through the Eco-Discovery Center, The Key West Aquarium, Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, and Discovery Glass Bottom Boat.

Snacks and transportation for field trips are provided. Costs are $185 per week or $345 per 2 week session. Coral Camp is daily from 8:30am – 2:30pm Monday through Friday. Limited scholarships are available. To register, call (305) 294-3100. Checks and credit cards accepted.

Reef Relief is a global non-profit membership organization dedicated to protecting coral reefs. For more information, contact Reef Relief at (305) 294-3100, email mmccleary@reefrelief.org or go to www.reefrelief.org.

Wyland to Celebrate Birthday with Show Here

Marine life artist Wyland is celebrating his 53rd birthday with a three-night showcase of his new work at Wyland Galleries of Key West’s 623 Duval Street location. The birthday show is set for 7 to 10 p.m., Thursday and Friday, July 9 and 10, and 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, July 11.

Wyland has long been a dedicated environmentalist with a keen interest in preserving the world’s oceans and marine life. Throughout his career he has used his signature large-scale “Whaling Wall” murals, and his smaller paintings and sculptures, to promote environmental awareness and responsibility.

“I’ve been green for 30 years,” says Wyland, who draws ongoing inspiration for his underwater artistry from diving the Florida Keys’ living coral reef.

He plans to unveil his latest sculptures, giclees and ecofriendly paintings of threatened species at the Key West birthday show— and give attendees a glimpse of his creative secrets during live painting demonstrations.

As part of his environmental focus, Wyland plans to cut back on his traveling this year to “decrease my own carbon footprint,” he says. To that end, he will introduce the concept of “virtual gallery shows” at his Key West birthday showcase Saturday evening.

Florida Keys art lovers are invited to meet Wyland July 9 through 11 at Wyland Galleries’ flagship location at 623 Duval Street — and help him make celebrating birthdays an “art form.”

Key West Recycles Looking for Volunteers

It may be an election year in Key West, but not all canvassing campaigns revolve around candidates. The city is looking for volunteers to spread the word on how important it is to recycle.

Key West Recycles, a program developed by GLEE and the City of Key West, is hosting a volunteer training program this Saturday. July 11, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Eco-Discovery Center at the Truman Waterfront.

The training is open to anyone interested in educating others on ways to reduce waste and increase recycling rates in Key West. The volunteers will eventually go door-to-door, distributing stickers that allow any bin to be used for recyclables as well as informational handouts.

Volunteers who complete the training will earn t-shirts that identify them as graduates of the training.

Since the City Commission passed a mandatory recycling ordinance, solid waste tonnage has decreased by 1887 tons in the first two fiscal quarters this year in comparison to last year. Annalise Mannix, the City Environmental Programs Manager says, “That means people seems to be reducing, reusing and recycling more now than in recent years. Rates do vary depending upon our tourism seasons, but we are seeing a steady increase in the numbers of recyclers,” she said. “We look forward to continued increases now that this education program is in place.”

Key West Recycles volunteers have worked closely with Mannix and Waste Management staff to create an education campaign that clearly defines recycling guidelines and offers consistent public information. To learn more about the Key West Recycles training program, contact kwjody@yahoo.com or call Jody Smith Williams at 304-2064, or call Annalise Mannix at 809-3747, amannix@ keywestcity.com.

Musical Treats This Week:

Danny Morris at the Schooner
DANNY MORRIS and his band will be back at the Schooner Wharf Bar tonight and tomorrow night, July 10-11, 7pm ‘til midnight.

Killer Dudes at Big Uns
THE KILLER DUDES are at Big Uns, 218 Duval Street, They play Wednesday through Saturday, 8:30 ‘til 11:30.

Music All Weekend at the Parrot
DASH RIP ROCK returns to the Green Parrot for 10 o’clock shows on both Friday and Saturday nights, July 10-11, THE VRAY BLUES BAND does the Friday afternoon “sound check,” starting at 5:30.

MOOSE & THE BULLETPROOF BLUES BAND do the Sunday afternoon “sound check” this week, starting at 5:30.

Craig Boyd & Southland at Cowboy Bill’s
CRAIG BOYD & SOUTHLAND will be at Cowboy Bill’s Friday and Saturday, July 10-11, starting at 10.

Barry Cuda at Shrimp Shack Sunday
BARRY CUDA and friends will be at Shrimp Shack this Sunday evening, July 12, 6 ‘til 10.

Bartender of the Week

 Who is your favorite drink-server? Let us know!

10 July 2009

JOE is a bartender at the Half Shell Raw Bar.

His specialty drink is an oyster shooter.

What’s On At the Tropic?

By Phil Mann

Dave Eggers burst on the literary scene in 2000 with his tongue-in-cheekly titled memoir, “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,” which quickly rose to #1 on the New York Times best-seller list. In other words, he knows how to get a reader’s attention.

In the years since he’s been busy running his own offbeat publishing company (McSweeney’s), setting up a nationwide series of tutoring/writing projects for inner-city youth (826 Valencia projects) and publishing a couple of novels including the striking story of a Somali immigrant, “What Is The What.” None of this has anything to do with movies, but when Eggers turns his attention to a screenplay, with his wife Vendela Vita (also a novelist), you know it’s going to be a force to be reckoned with.

It’s titled AWAY WE GO, and, as if to prove my point, they nailed Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) to direct, and Maya Rudolph of Saturday Night Live fame and John Krasinski from The Office to star. The movie is, contrary to what you might expect, a romantic comedy, the story of a young couple expecting their first child and traveling around the country looking for a place to settle down. Make that a road-movie/romantic comedy.

Live Music On The Rock

Key West is famous for its Live Music! Following is a listing of this week's top music venues:
To be included, email your music schedule by 5pm Monday. Music schedules subject to change without notice.

10 July 2009

American Legion on Stock Island. County music every Saturday night with George Wright, featuring Wally Hill on harmonica. 6 ‘til 9pm.

Big Uns Sports Bar Right in the middle of the action at 218 Duval Street. The Killer Dudes play Wednesday through Saturday 8:30 ‘til 11:30.

B.O.'s Fish Wagon Locals know this funky place on the corner of Caroline and William. But if you're from out of town, you gotta go here just to say you've been. B.O.'s square grouper sandwich is famous around the world. On most Friday nights. Barry Cuda rolls in his piano about 6, invites a few musical friends and boogies for a couple of hours.

Bottle Cap Lounge One of the oldest and most famous watering holes on the island. A block off Duval at 1128 Simonton Street.

Raven Cooper entertains every Thursday, starting at 10.

Community Calendar

If your club or organization has something special happening, let us know! Email Rhonda or write to us at PO box 567, Key West FL 33041 or Fax 305-292-1882. Please get the information to us by Tuesday noon!

10 July 2009

SATURDAY IN THE PARK, LATIN NIGHTS--will be presented at the Marathon Amphitheater, Sat., July 11, 4-10pm. Live music will be presented by Latin Jazz Band Caribe and the 2009 CAMP and Careers students and faculty. Free community concert, all proceeds from food and beverages will support CAMP. Food prepared by the CAMP culinary department. For more information please call 305-743-6215.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR KEY WEST RECYCLES PROGRAM--Key West Recycles will host a volunteer training program from 10am-noon on Sat., July 11 at the Eco-Discovery Center. The training is open to anyone interested in reducing waste and increasing recycling rates in Key West. Program focus is a citywide, door-to-door education campaign. Volunteers will distribute recycling info, stickers to be used on recycling bins, and handouts that inform residents about hazardous waste disposal, available e-waste drop-off, and how to learn more about the 4Rs. Volunteers will be provided with special t-shirts that identify them as being trained through the program. More info: Jody Smith Williams at kwjody@yahoo.com or (305) 304-2064.

NEW QUIT SMOKING NOW GROUP--Quit Smoking Now will begin a new group session on Tues., July 14 at 7 pm at Fishermen’s Hospital. Participants are instructed to meet in the lobby. Keys AHEC offers this free 6-week smoking cessation program, available to all smokers who want to quit and provides the tools you need to quit with success and live tobacco free. Group sessions are offered ongoing throughout the Keys. Financial assistance for nicotine replacement therapies is available for those who qualify. Call 305-743-7111, extension 205 for more info.