WOKC Local News – December 30, 2025, 7:40 AM
Transcript
WOKC News. School board honors bus driver with WOKC News. I’m Charles Murphy. Terrible crash could have been much worse in October when a driver in the wrong lane collided with an Okeechobee school bus near Platts Bluff Road on 70 West. The school board in December honored David Joyner, the bus driver who was driving. Superintendent Dylan Tedder says investigators told him that Joyner did an excellent job avoiding serious injuries. We honor David Joyner, who was the bus driver that was involved in that October accident. We just honored him. We didn’t make him speak. We just wanted to honor him for his service to ensuring students are safe. The school board honored the OHS Future Farmers of America Farm and Agribusiness Team. They were third in the state at the competition this year. They also honored 30-year veteran of teaching Patricia Bolan, who retired. Kitchen fires is the number one call around Okeechobee County fire rescue stations during the year. With all this holiday cooking and baking, Fire Marshal Keith Burgault took a few moments to give us some safety tips. He says the main thing is to keep kids away from things that are hot this time of year like stoves and ovens. A kitchen fire is not as bad because it contains, for the most part, that kitchen and we get there pretty quick for those. The kitchen fire is a grease fire or something that’s a small pot on the stove that maybe got left on and they left and went to go get some more cookie dough or whatever it may be but and they left the pot on and it dried out. Michael Mortel was fired as Stewart City Manager but is a licensed attorney, applied to be St. Lucie County Attorney. St. Lucie County opted to promote their assistant county attorney Catherine Barbieri to the job. County Commission Chair Jamie Fowler was not impressed with the list of applicants. She questioned whether Barbieri really wanted the job. I always want the person that really wants it, right? That’s hungry for it. And so that did give me a little pause. More people are buying medical marijuana and more doctors are prescribing it in Florida. According to the director of the Office of Medical Marijuana, Bobby Smith, 19.1 billion milligrams of medical marijuana was dispensed last year, an increase of 9%. Representative Juan Carlos Porras would like to see a crackdown on pot products being offered to our kids. Medical marijuana products that are attractive to children. I know in that same legislation, we allowed for the department to come after some of these products, to come after some of the advertising that’s been poisoning families across the state of Florida. A dirt bike crash in Pahokee claimed life on Christmas night. It happened about 540 p.m. At the intersection of Lake Avenue and 4th Street. Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies identified the victim as 39-year-old Joshua Jones. Their news release claims that Jones was driving at a high rate of speed when he collided with a Dodge Charger driven by 59-year-old Karen Mullins of Pahokee. She was not injured and no charges were filed. I’m Charles Murphy WOKC News.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).