WOKC Local News – September 16, 2026, 7:40 AM
Transcript
WOKC News. An important position. With WOKC News, I’m Charles Murphy. Local rancher, John Williamson, is the Florida Cattlemen’s Association president this year. He says the future of ranching is conservation easements. He also says he’s glad to take on this job. It’s just very important to me. It’s something far bigger than myself, anything I can do, or anything my family can do. Cattlemen also pushing the University of Florida to create a beef academy. Dusty Holley would like to see more promotion of Florida-grown beef. There’s 23 million people in this state every day that have something between a knife and a fork. There’s 140 million visitors that come here every year with something between a knife and a fork. Okeechobee City Council learned that calls for fire rescue decreased slightly in the second quarter of the year. Fuel prices are high, fewer motorists are on the road. They reported 342 calls. The council also honored the 12 and under Ozone Division I Youth Baseball team. They were state champions this year. The new culvers may not open until November. They’re having utility problems. Congressman Darren Soto says he’ll continue to be a huge advocate for clean water, a free elected, and representing Okeechobee. He notes he supported the Kissimmee River restoration, the Herbert Hoover Dike project, and the Everglades. He says with Lake Okeechobee, the levels are everything. The lake can’t be too high with regard to Lake Okeechobee, and it can’t be too low, and so adjusting to the changing seasons, obviously the wet season, the rain season being June, July, although it was a little late this year, throughout the summer and the hurricane season. Governor DeSantis defended Florida’s immigration enforcement. There was a report saying that some were mistreated, kept in small cages for about an hour at Alligator Alcatraz. Speaking in Lakeland, the governor says he hasn’t seen the watchdog report. The facility is now shuttered. Now look, I know that it was inspected. All those standards were not only, the goal was not only apply to those standards, but to exceed the standard. That’s part of the reason why we devoted a lot of resources to it. A Clewiston man, Jorge Hernandez Valdez, charged an aggravated battery on a pregnant woman. She requested that they go to the hospital to visit her sick mother. He said no, they don’t have the gas money, and they got into an argument that allegedly became physical. Okeechobee deputies say they may have interrupted a burglary spree on Southeast 57th Drive. They found some juveniles with all black clothing with hoods over their heads. They simply stated they were going to a friend’s house and had been coming from a friend’s house, and they were just walking around the neighborhood in circles. They did not seem to know the neighborhood. They said they took off the juvenile’s cigarettes, scissors, a phone, a phone charger, a lighter, screwdrivers, and a crab leg cracker tool, and took them home to their parents. I’m Charles Murphy, WOKC News.
Recorded from the WOKC daily newscast (Glades Media).