WOKC Local News – January 14, 2026, 7:40 AM
Transcript
WOKC News. Be sure to take advantage with WOKC News. I’m Charles Murphy. The South Florida Water Management District has a strike team ready to address Lake Okeechobee health issues this spring with the water levels low. Activists want them to have more controlled burns, more muck removal, and more planting of vegetation. Newton Cook says they need to remove the muck now as the water recedes. Why are we waiting 20 years when we got the opportunity and we don’t have any trucks out there and bulldozers getting the muck off of Lake Bottom? The Florida Farm Bureau wants to make sure farmers have enough water. Lake levels are predicted to go under 10 feet this spring. U.S. Attorney in South Florida, Jason Redding-Quinonez, announced 15 indictment yesterday of previously deported illegal aliens who reentered the U.S. allegedly. Six of them for this area, one in Okeechobee County, 28-year-old Annabel Vidal Bamaca-Bautista of Guatemala. She was deported in 2015 and 2020 and allegedly returned. Highlands County had three illegal aliens indicted, one in St. Lucie County and one in Martin County. The Highlands County Commission delayed for more review a budget amendment that would transfer $100,000 from their general fund to aid the Avon Park Baseball Museum. Some on the county commission would like to use tourist development or bed taxes. Chris Campbell says they need to go ahead with the plan I don’t think it would be right to have a consensus to pay it from TDC with the idea they’re gonna get reimbursed from general fund and then when it comes to force, they change our mind on that. I think we need to be able to stand on our word when we do something like that from the dais. The grand opening of the museum is February 7th. Okeechobee County commissioners are getting some requests for a petition wanting the speed limits on State Road 78 between Okeechobee and Buckhead Ridge lowered. County Commissioner, Terry Burroughs, doubts that lowering the speeds won’t help, saying most drivers aren’t paying attention. I know there was a accident down in front of the Iron Eagle on 78, I think, New Year’s Eve, somewhere in that genre. There was a death there. And there’s this petition going around now, my understanding, about trying to put some, reduce the speed there. I believe the speed is at 55 or 50. Another fatal crash between Okeechobee and Indian Town. It happens last evening. This one, a three vehicle crash near the village limits and Martin Luther King Boulevard. Lieutenant Governor, Jake Collins, entered the Florida Governor’s Race Monday at a news conference in Tallahassee. Collins made his much awaited entry into the race. Today, I am announcing I will be running to become the next governor of the free and great state of Florida to follow on after Governor Ron DeSantis. The Republican field includes the Trump-endorsed Congressman, Byron Donalds, who is leading in the polls. And Okeechobee man, William Fulwider, is alleged to have driven a motorcycle for about 10 miles an hour trying to elude deputies in the Country Hills Estates 441 North area. A sheriff’s canine was able to subdue him. I’m Charles Murphy, WOKC News.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).