News Cast for May 21st:
County pulls the plug
The promoter of a Douglas Park festival in April won’t be allowed to hold anymore events on county property after complaints of persistent loud and vulgar music from the event.
Complaints were plentiful with 19 calls for first responders according to county commissioner Kelly Owens.
“Our deputies have a lot of calls that they have to handle that are of a serious nature. Having to run them 19 times, with dispatch tied up, someone else might have something going on and we have people pulled away from very important first responder duty because somebody won’t cooperate.”
She added she can’t support allowing Smith to use the facility again.
County Community Services Director Denise Whitehead said the promoter was not cooperate and responsive to the complaints for several hours.
“The deputies did make an attempt to communicate with the promoter and asked for the noise issues to be addressed. The promoter was often non responsive to these requests and at times argumentative with deputies.”
She added once the event moved indoors at Douglas Brown school there were no more requests.
In the courts, 38 year old Terry McQueen was sentenced to 8 years in prison and just over $53,000 in fines and court costs for cocaine trafficking.
McQueen allegedly sold $2,400 of cocaine at a gas station and some 43 grams were seized by authorities on September 8, 2022.
A week earlier McQueen had sold $400 worth of molly and agreed to sell $1,200 worth of cocaine. Officers located 21 grams of molly.
The affidavit of arrest said McQueen gave the officer some cocaine for free during the deal.
Florida Tax Watch released their list of state budget turkeys. 450 projects totaled $885 million was listed.
The only turkey from the local area was $10 million for a water storage and treatment project in Glades County called Lykes Turkey Branch.
Tax Watch counsel Kurt Winner said these budget items were not properly debated in public and could have been.
The governor has until July 1st to sign the budget.
Democrat priorities in the farm bill include climate smart agriculture methods and more funds for food stamps or Snap.
Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee Debbie Stabenow supports more disaster assistance programs for farmers dealing with storms and drought.
They also want to improve rural health care.
Republican congressman GT Thompson said they do not support cutting food stamps but do want to reduce food stamp fraud.
“Fraud takes food out of the mouth of people that need it.” I want SNAP to have good integrity and that we do everything we can do to reduce fraud and abuse. We have a duty to do that.”