WOKC Local News
By Charles Murphy
WOKC News Director

Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum excited a crowd of a few hundred people in Okeechobee Tuesday. He is believed to be the first presidential candidate to visit Okeechobee in over 30 years. The Republican says he is the only conservative in the race and that his main opponents Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich betrayed conservatives in the past. He also spoke on less government, strengthening the family and against The President’s health care plan.

Okeechobee schools ranked 54th out of 67 school systems in the state in the released state Department of Education rankings. Glades County schools earned an A grade and were ranked 20th in the state in 2011. Individual schools will also be ranked by the state at a later date.

A 58-year-old Okeechobee man is charged in Port St. Lucie with stealing over $40,000 from a trust fund account. John Morgan of North East 96th Avenue was held on $7500 bond on 2nd degree grand theft charges.

57-year-old John Jones was charged with fleeing and eluding police after he allegedly failed to stop for deputies for a speeding violation near Everglades Elementary School on Monday.

A female bus driver was treated at Raulerson after a vehicle apparently violated the right of way and struck a school bus on South East 10th Avenue and 9th Street on Monday morning. 4 kids in route to Osceola Middle school were not injured. No kids were injured.  The bus was headed toward Osceola Middle School for the morning run.

A school bus driver was treated at Raulerson Hospital for minor injury after an accident on South East 10th Avenue Monday morning. Okeechobee police investigated and a 2nd motorist was apparently deemed at fault. Four children kids were on board the bus and were headed to Osceola Middle School.  None of the children were injured.

A local man’s killer enters a plea and gets five years for battery on a person over 65.
Charges of aggravated manslaughter were dropped against 34-year-old Paul Venth in the murder of Thomas Manton of Fort Drum. Both men were inmates at Liberty Correctional in Wakulla, Florida. Venth apparently harassed the elderly Manton for weeks. Manton died just over one year ago.

A 22-year-old local man, Antriel Andrews was charged with throwing a deadly missile, some rocks, at a moving vehicle on South West 28th Street. A windshield to a Cadillac Escalade was apparently struck in last night’s incident.

Deputies Arlene Durbin and Stephen Pollock were honored Tuesday as Deputies of the year for the Okeechobee sheriff’s office. They performed CPR on a person who had overdosed on drugs and saved the woman’s life.

The jobless rate fell by 7 tenths of a point in Okeechobee in December to 11.1%. Okeechobee fell out of the top 10 counties with the highest unemployment in Florida counties dropping to number 11. 2,061 people collected benefits, nearly 4 hundred fewer than December of 2010. Glades County had a 7.6% jobless rate, and only four counties in the state had a lower jobless rate.461 people collected benefits in Glades County.

Hear local news with Charles Murphy on WOKC 1009.FM & 1570AM, weekdays at 7:00am, 8:00am, 9:00am, Noon, 4:00pm and 5:00pm.