News Cast 11/16

ByTaylor

November 16, 2023

News Cast for November 16th:

A ring of thieves were rounded up in South Florida that targeted Home Depot stores.

Two cases were reported at the Okeechobee store.

Okeechobee County Sheriff Deputies and Home Depot Criminal Investigations worked on six theft cases in June and July.

Over $4,100 in tools were stolen like sanders, circular saws, and rotary  hammers.

Detectives said the pair would remove bar codes from more expensive items and replace them with barcodes from less expensive items.  They would then take the item to a self checkout and pay less than the item sold for.

Facing grand theft charges in Okeechobee are Robert Williams of Deerfield Beach and Nicholas Poltronieri of Port St. Lucie.

Okeechobee will highlight the contributions of youth to agriculture during the 29th annual Farm City week luncheon today at the Ag Civic Center.

County commissioner Brad Goodbread read a proclamation to honor farmers and ranchers.

He said unfortunately it’s getting tougher and tougher and more expensive to farm in Okeechobee.

“Be proud that we are still a thriving industry in Florida.  With over 1,000 people moving here each day and all the changes in water policy with the federal and state government it won’t be long before its too expensive to farm and ranch in Florida.”

The city council also passed a proclamation last week.

The village of Indiantown honored a local producer Diana Cordeau who has a farm to table produce business.  She noted many have to diversify operations now in agriculture.

She appreciated the recognition from the village.

“We are a farm to table venue, we do weddings, demonstration dinners and we are very grateful that the village could recognize us for this award.  There are so many farms and ranches in Indiantown.”

The US House approved a continuing resolution to keep the federal government going until January 19th. Some other programs were funded into February.

Local congressman Scott Franklin wants to reduce spending.  He said there are no winners when it comes to a government shutdown.

“Historically they don’t save money.  There is a common thought that gosh if the government is wasting all that money if we shut them down for two weeks, look how much we would save.   We still incur every expense if the government had been open.  There is a lot of overtime for those that cover those that are out.  Everyone gets back pay for the time they were out.  It actually costs the government more money than if we had just stayed open.”

The Glades County School Board will hear about the guardian program again tonight.

Sheriff David Hardin is scheduled to appear and discuss the program.  Last year he expressed concerns about the amount of training needed noting his small department would have a hard time providing it.

The meeting gets underway at 6 pm.

ByTaylor