WOKC Local News – October 20, 2026, 7:40 AM
Transcript
WOKC News. Focus on impacts with WOKC News. I’m Charles Murphy. The Central Florida Regional Planning Council recently held a workshop to discuss data centers spoking on job creation, electric use, water use, and all the pros and cons. This report says local governments now have more control over these facilities. It also requires the Florida Public Service Commission to establish utility requirements designed to ensure large load customers pay their own cost of service, and that the risk of non-payment is not shifted to other rate payers. From the utility’s perspective, the legislation does a great job of setting the rules of the game. No way are other customers going to be forced to subsidize, he said. Okeechobee County Commissioner Terry Burroughs, who moderated the panel, said the legislation also addresses transparency surrounding data center projects. It makes those decisions transparent and out in the open. The midterms are less than three weeks away. Candidate for Congress, Republican Dan Green, wants to represent Okeechobee in the next Congress. He says a big campaign issue is affordability. He says his plan would be eliminating government regulations, more transparency, and ending the war in Iran. He also wants to reduce the national debt plan and the debt payments. It’s a multi-year process. It’s going to be a lot of work. It’s going to require both parties. I think we have to cut the spending. We’ve got to be thoughtful about it. We’ve got to reduce the size of government, but also grow the economy as well. With the economy’s growing, we can have more revenue. We can reduce the debt and try to pay it off. St. Lucie County improving a nine lot industrial park that would be built on Shin Road at Route 68 and include 72 acres. One of the tenants wants to manufacture generators. County Commissioner James Clasby says it’ll fit in the area. This area is much better suited for light industrial than three units per acre housing for sure. The property currently is a cattle ranch and sod farm. An Oogachee woman facing charges of battery and leaving the scene of a crash in a hit and run accident. Yakeesha Gordon allegedly was seen battering a passenger and was distracted from driving and struck another vehicle on Southeast 18 Terrace. When she stepped out to check on the damage, the passenger got into the driver’s seat and tried to drive off. Gordon allegedly jumped on the hood and rode on the car for a while. There were no injuries in the incident. Oogachee City and County recognized Domestic Violence Awareness Month here in October. Edna Malagon says Martha’s House will not go away because these people need help. I’d like to ask Oogachee County to come together so that we can turn more trauma into triumphs and work together as a community to keep our community safe for our children, for the women and men that go through domestic violence. Glades County deputies serving a search warrant in Lakeport after an RV park in Hendry County is victimized by some alleged thieves breaking into vehicles at night wearing masks. Among the stolen items allegedly seized by Glades County in the search warrant was a $20,000 diamond ring reported stolen out of Okeechobee earlier this year. They have made one arrest in Hendry County, 56-year-old Helen Swanson of Lakeport facing a charge of dealing in stolen property. I’m Charles Murphy, WOKC News.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).