KWTN: The Blue Paper

Could a Giant Tsunami Decimate the Keys?

by Rhonda Linseman-Saunders

It seems silly now, of course, but don’t tell me you weren’t at least a little freaked out by the possibility of a tsunami hitting the Keys after the earthquake in Haiti last Tuesday.

About half an hour after the earthquake, rumors were swirling about the possibilty of a tsunami barreling its way toward South Florida. Thoughts of the devastating seismic wave in Indonesia filled the heads and fueled the imaginations of many. One local mother (okay, it was me) contemplated putting life vests on all her children and sitting on the roof to wait for the powerful, mile-high wall of water to strike.

Since we seem to have a constant stream of people moving to and from Key West, I think it’s safe to assume I am not the only local person who sometimes feels like an idiot about what is and is not realistic in terms of natural disaster possibilities around here. So I asked the experts at the National Weather Service in Key West. I knew they’d come through for us on short notice. I’ve yet to meet a weather geek who doesn’t love to talk about his or her area of expertise.

OPINION: STORIES OF THE YEAR

Ducks, $8 Million and a Trick Ordinance for CityView Trolleys

by Dennis Reeves Cooper

It is always an interesting end-of-year project to review the top news stories for the past 12 months— especially the stories that have been written in chapters during the year.

For example, the city commission’s pay-out of $8 million to finally settle the long-running Ducks lawsuit was a big story last March. Actually, this story had been written in chapters since 1995 when city officials illegally put Duck Tour Seafari out of business.

The significance of the court ruling in the Ducks case is that it slapped down the sightseeing monopoly that the city has been selling to Historic Tours of America (HTA) for decades. HTA is the parent company of the Conch Tour Train and Old Town Trolleys.

But fast forward to the past couple of months. The majority of the members of the city commission seem intent on perpetuating HTA’s monopoly— which will almost certainly get the city in trouble with the courts again.

Last May, we were the first to tell you that, two months after the settlement with the Ducks stockholders, representatives of the Boston-based CityView Trolleys had sent letters to city officials asking for a license to go into business here in competition with HTA. It just so happens that HTA competes with CityView in Boston.

OPINION: STORIES OF THE YEAR

Living in the Keys: Quite an Education

by Rhonda Linseman-Saunders

We don’t have “beats” to cover at Key West the Newspaper (KWTN), probably because we don’t like being told what to do and how to do it. Instead, we cover things about which we feel passionate, or about which people in the community feel passionate enough to bring to us. Yes, we do that. We advocate for what we think is right, we are clear about that, and we do not apologize for it.

But if we did have assigned beats like a traditional newspaper, one of mine, undoubtedly, would be education. This was not a dull year in local education, thanks to scandalous behavior at the highest levels in both the Monroe County Public School District and at Florida Keys Community College (FKCC).

The KWTN stories of the year in education include our February piece about Rebekah Mitchell, a teacher-aide at Horace O’Bryant Middle School (HOB) who, with closed fists, repeatedly beat a child in the face and upper body. The student, Mitchell’s son, had already been restrained by the school’s resource officer, rendering him helpless to defend himself against the blows. Police ripped the teacher-aide away from the student and immediately arrested her on both misdemeanor and felony charges. She reportedly resisted arrest with more violence.

OPINION: Making Journalism a Contact Sport for 15 Years

by Dennis Reeves Cooper

Once upon a time, there were lots of weekly newspapers in Key West. In fact, there were so many that some called the competition the “Paper Wars.” But that war has been over for quite some time.

When the first issue of Key West The Newspaper hit the streets on January 7, 1994, there were already two other non-daily newspapers on the scene: Island Life, an entertainment-oriented weekly; and the everyother- week Solares Hill. Both of those papers took long vacations during the slow summer season.

KWTN was the first true weekly newspaper in Key West, publishing every week, 52 times a year. Island Life soon went out of business and Solares Hill, in financial difficulty, was absorbed by the Key West Citizen, the daily paper. Solares Hill is now published as an insert in the Sunday Citizen. And other weeklies came and went: Mark Howell’s Islander, former Citizen publisher Winston Burrell’s Island News and Charlie Ramos’ Morning Star and others we can’t even remember.

As a result, at only 15-years-old, Key West The Newspaper is the oldest independent weekly on the island.