WOKC Local News – April 28, 2026, 7:40 AM
Transcript
WOKC News. Another teacher-student relationship with WOKC News. I’m Charles Murphy. A 36-year-old Okeechobee teacher, like McNeil, is facing two felony charges, including authority figure engaging in a romantic relationship with a student. Okeechobee County Sheriff detectives, say McNeil, visited an 18-year-old student in jail. They record all those conversations and interactions and learn that there was some kind of relationship going on. The investigation found evidence revealing ongoing contact between McNeil and the student across multiple platforms, both during and after the student’s time within the school system. Okeechobee schools released a statement regarding the arrest. The employee, they say, was reassigned to a position that does not involve contact with students as soon as the district became aware of the allegations. A dog park near Taylor Creek would be popular. That’s what the Okeechobee City Council is saying. The city trying to get with the Okeechobee Utility Authority. The OUA would like to see some real plans for the park. Vice Mayor Monica Clark says in other communities, there’s not a lot of positive feedback about dog parks. It becomes very expensive constantly cleaning up from the people and bringing their pets. Who’s responsible and liable when the pets get in a fight or bite somebody else or whatever? The Florida Highway Patrol promising to increase patrols and focus on impaired driving this month. They now have an elite patrol of troopers in each of their districts that focuses only on impaired driving. Lieutenant Greg Bueno provided a grievous example of DUI impairment they came across recently. We’ve arrested someone that’s passed out in a Taco Bell line waiting for food that’s happened to be passed out right in front of a trooper. Nearly 2,300 fatalities have involved drug-impaired drivers in Florida between 2018 and 2023. He says in some cases, even Uber drivers are impaired. We had an Uber driver picking up patrons while significantly impaired. Luckily, the patron was able to get out of the vehicle. The Uber driver went up on the interstate, passed out, and we came across him and held him accountable, placed him under arrest. Friends of Lake Istopoga meeting in Lareda, 85 people on hand, including Ben Butler with the Water Management District. He says many people in attendance wanted to keep the lake clean and productive. Lake Istopoga faces a lot of the same challenges that Lake Okeechobee does. There’s concern on sediment buildup in the lake. There’s concern on the regulation schedule. There would be interest, or there is interest in seeing that regulation schedule evaluated. Okeechobee Brownman Baseball defeated Hialeah in the regional quarterfinal Friday night at home 5 to 1 to advance to the semifinals. They will travel to Hialeah to take on Mater Academy. The next round of playoffs is a best of three, so they’ll be playing Friday night at Mater Academy. I’m Charles Murphy, WOKC News.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).