VB32963_ISSUE21_052616_OPT

Motive in South Beach murder
apparently not money. P10
Crazy wet weather
tests utility crews. P8

Governments grappling with
complex railroad crossing plans. P11

For breaking news visit

MY VERO Charter schools

BY RAY MCNULTY

Haunted by neglected Two big cranes were installing trusses last week at the Surf Club on A1A. So far, 7,000 cubic yards of concrete, 25,000 concrete to a higher court
graves in a cemetery blocks and 100 tons of steel reinforcing bar have gone into building 11 luxury townhomes on the oceanfront. PHOTO BY PHIL SUNKEL
BY KATHLEEN SLOAN
I'm ashamed to admit that Vero helps Florida Institute of Technology raise $123 million Staff Writer
it had been years since I last
visited a cemetery, mostly be- BY ALAN SNEL ogy President Tony Catanese taking a fundraising campaign The end-game just got far-
cause my parents, grandpar- Staff Writer knows all about the affluent with a $100 million goal, he ther away for cash-starved
ents and all but a few other investors, retired corporate ex- charged his trusted special as- public charter schools in Indian
relatives are buried on Long Vero Beach is only a 45-min- ecutives and arts lovers to the sistant, Frank “Fritz” Spitzmill- River County that say they are
Island. ute car ride from the Florida south in Indian River County. er, to set up meet-and-greet entitled to a larger share of tax
Tech campus in Melbourne, forums where Florida Tech revenue from the school board.
A recent trip to the Gifford so Florida Institute of Technol- For that reason, during the But that certainly doesn’t mean
Cemetery made me feel even past few years, while under- CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 they are giving up.
worse – for all of us.
Division of Administrative
There, as I walked the Hearings Judge Cathy Sellers
mowed-but-dusty grounds of has decided she does not have
the 49th Street cemetery, my jurisdiction to rule on a case
emotions soared and sank as filed by the charter schools in
I found plenty of newer, well- mid-April seeking millions of
marked and nicely maintained dollars in back payments.
graves in some sections and
too many older, sometimes- So the charter schools are
unmarked, grossly neglected now preparing to up their le-
graves in other sections. gal-fee ante by filing in a high-
er court.
It's the memory of the dis-
graceful condition of those “We’re, frankly, pretty ex-
forgotten and seemingly for- cited about this,” said Gene
saken burial sites that haunts Waddell, president of the In-
me as I write this column.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 9
"It's something that every-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

Change in focus: A reimagination of
the Environmental Learning Center

Aerial photo of the Environmental Learning Center PHOTO BY PHIL SUNKEL BY STEVEN M. THOMAS in Vero Beach, the 28-year-
Staff Writer old nonprofit organization
is expanding its ecological
The environmental Learn- portfolio to include more
ing Center is reinventing itself. “nature therapy,” reaching
out to young and old alike
Without letting go of the to reconnect people with the
children’s nature education natural world in ways that
curriculum that has made it a
treasured part of growing up CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

May 26, 2016 Volume 9, Issue 21 Newsstand Price $1.00 Volunteer Ambulance
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Editorial 44 People 13-26 Wine 63 CALL 772-226-7925

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2 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

Environmental Learning Center board, Steinwald is seeking to make ing, putting a special focus on people ect that is addressing social problems
the Environmental Learning Center who may have difficulty accessing na- at the same time. I have always been
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 into a portal through which people ture for a variety of reasons, including adamant and passionate about chang-
can enter back into a more healthy age, physical and mental disabilities ing the way environmental education
enhance both human and environ- and meaningful way of relating to and time limitations. is done so that it is helping people and
mental health. themselves and the world around is also more effective.
them, leaving behind some of their “There is a real necessity to change
“There is so much research that is stress and “disease” as they explore the from a traditional environmental orga- “The world is a rough place. People
growing and growing that there is a ELC’s 64-acre campus and engage in nization and traditional environmental are physically in pain, psychologically
significant human/nature discon- projects that help protect and restore education – kind of yelling at people, in pain, and nature can help people in
nect that is associated with increased the lagoon that laps against the insti- and telling them the rain forest is burn- so many ways. As more and more re-
screen time and reduced access to tution’s green shores. ing down, or the lagoon is shot to hell, search shows wellness benefits from
green spaces,” says ELC Executive Di- and it is your fault,” says Steinwald. being in contact with nature, I see the
rector Molly Steinwald. “That discon- At the same time, Steinwald is striv- ELC becoming a center for environ-
nect is leading to a rise in depression, ing to help reinvent environmentalism, “There has been a lot of work over mental stewardship that puts human
obesity, ADHD and other health prob- participating in a worldwide trend that the past 15 years focusing not just on health and environmental health on
lems.” seeks to integrate caring for the natural the environmental problem but also equal footing, because they are inex-
world with improving personal wellbe- on what people value and how you get tricably intertwined.”
With the strong backing of her to an environmental message or proj-
“We are reimagining what the insti-
tution will be, embracing new choices
for new audiences and creating access
[to nature] for those who lacked access
before,” says ELC board Chairman Bill
Clemons.

The change in focus came in con-
junction with Steinwald taking over
the top job at the Learning Center in
November 2014, stepping into the
shoes of founding Executive Director
Holly Dill, who ran the institution for
26 years until her retirement.

“We wanted someone from the
next generation – to the extent we
could find someone who blended
deep knowledge and passion for na-
ture,” says Clemons, a senior partner
at executive recruitment firm Spencer
Stuart before he retired who led the
search for the ELC’s second executive
director. “We wanted someone with
management experience for whom
this represented a significant move
forward in her career. Whatever she
lacked in direct management expe-
rience, Molly made up for in intelli-
gence and passion.

“The board recognized that to grow
meant to change. Exactly what that
meant in terms of programs we were
less sure of. Molly brought a rich mix
of experience that made it possible for
us to see this vision more clearly.”

“Following a 26-year founding di-
rector obviously has its challenges, but
I was really excited about this place
when I was recruited for the position,”
Steinwald says. With all its impressive
accomplishments over the past sever-
al decades, she felt there was yet great
untapped potential in the expansive
grounds set on an island in the middle
of a beautiful but ecologically troubled
lagoon.

“I have worked in the botanic gar-
den and zoo world and a lot of that
work has been building collaborations
with social service agencies or other
education or environmental organiza-
tions, and I have been doing that here
to expand our demographic.”

Among other initiatives, Steinwald
is developing collaborative programs
with The ARC of Indian River County

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 3

NEWS

(serves special needs children and out on hiking and biking trips on some dents are fourth- to eighth-graders riety of tasks, trying out career paths,
adults), the Scott Center for Autism of the Land Trust Trails on Wednesdays and you can see how delighted they and on scientific research on Land
Treatment, the Senior Resources Cen- when they have a half day at school,” are to be out there, directly in nature, Trust properties. This year, the pro-
ter, the Gifford Youth Achievement he says. “The ELC has taken that to the participating in projects like planting gram will be expanded with competi-
Center and the Indian River Land next level, because they have staff and mangroves, having fun and knowing tive, paid internships for high school
Trust, to bring the benefits of environ- volunteers who are more experienced they are helping the environment.” students from disadvantaged back-
mental education and immersion in at nature education. We did twice as grounds.
nature to more people. many programs the second year as the The Land Trust also partners with
first year with their help. ELC in an internship program, in Another initiative Steinwald is work-
“What we are doing with the ELC which college students work at the En- ing on will create greater access to the
is so truly exciting,” says Senior Re- “It is a fruitful partnership. The stu- vironmental Learning Center on a va-
sources CEO Karen Deigl. “Molly and I CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
have been talking for a year, looking at
interactive programs. ELC volunteers Exclusively John’s Island
will come to our campuses to work
with seniors on nature projects such Conveniently located on a quiet no-thru street near the south gate is this furnished
as planting and potting, and there will 3BR/3BA residence overlooking expansive, multiple fairway and lake views of
be field trips to the ELC campus. Molly the South Course. The large .41± acre lot with majestic Oaks ensures privacy
has been just wonderful about reach- and tranquility. Features include 3,603± GSF, gracious living room with fireplace
ing out and partnering and collabo- opening onto the lanai, dining area, wet bar, island kitchen and 2-car garage.
rating and having great ideas.” 331 Sabal Palm Lane : $1,700,000

Senior Resources offers adult day- three championship golf courses : 17 har-tru courts : beach club : squash
care, case management, emergency pickleball : croquet : water sports : vertical equity membership
home assistance, meals on wheels
and other services. ELC staff and vol- 772.231.0900 : Vero Beach, FL : JohnsIslandRealEstate.com
unteers will be working with adult
daycare patients, 85 percent to 90 per-
cent of whom have some form of de-
mentia, according to Deigl.

Senior Resources Director of Pro-
grams Shawna Callaghan says lack of
access to nature is a problem for many
older people. “A lot of them have mo-
bility problems and can’t get out very
much or go very far. If they have mem-
ory problems or dementia, they can’t
be left unattended and may not have
had freedom to simply open the door
and go out in many years.”

Callaghan says her clients have a
strong, positive response to gardening
projects and immersion in the natural
world. “Being out in nature is so ben-
eficial in so many ways for them. It re-
duces confusion and calms them. It is
hard to motivate many of our clients to
get up and do things but they are eager
to go out and work in the garden.”

Deigl says gardening benefits cli-
ents physically and stimulates cogni-
tive activity for those with dementia,
awakening memories and reconnect-
ing them to the world.

Even seniors who don’t have de-
mentia or memory issues can be cut
off from nature because of physical
limitations and Steinwald recently
acquired four all-terrain wheelchairs
that can be checked out for free at the
environmental Learning Center.

“The chairs open up 85 percent of
the campus that people with difficulty
walking could not get to before,” she
says happily. “We plan to get more
chairs.”

Indian River Land Trust Executive
Director Ken Grudens is another fan
of Steinwald and her partnership ap-
proach to drawing people into the
natural world.

“We started a program with Gif-
ford Youth Achievement Center in the
2014-15 season, where we took them

4 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

Environmental Learning Center Florida Institute of Technology Beach,” Catanese said. “It’s a power- ing Barefoot, a former Wall Street
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 house, especially for philanthropy.” investment firm executive and for-
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 mer president of Babson College – to
professors could share their latest Under Catanese’s leadership, Flor- travel to the FIT campus to talk with
ELC campus for everyone in the com- research and chat with Vero area resi- ida Tech has established itself as a business school faculty and stu-
munity. dents at island clubs including The big-time player in the technologi- dents.
Moorings, John’s Island and Windsor. cal university market. It recently was
“We are will be extending the hours ranked one of the top 20 universities Barefoot’s involvement with the
we are open,” she says. “Instead of just Spitzmiller also arranged for re- in the world by the Times Higher Ed- university extended to serving as a
being open during the hottest part of tired island execs such as Indian Riv- ucation, based on size, and U.S. News judge for student business plan com-
the day and the time when many peo- er Shores Mayor Brian Barefoot to go and World Report routinely recogniz- petitions. “Education is our number
ple are at work, we will open earlier, north to talk about the finer points of es it as a Tier One Best National Uni- one priority,” he said. “Florida Tech
maybe as early as 6 in the morning, and entrepreneurship at FIT’s business versity. faced the issue of how to change this
stay open later, until 7 or maybe 7:30 in school. fledgling business school and com-
the evening. Those details are still being That kind of educational quality bine it with the well-known engineer-
worked out.” At the same time, Catanese realized is a big reason donors in Vero Beach ing program and propel the universi-
Vero’s strong arts community could and elsewhere are buying into the ty’s reputation.”
“I saw a quote that said ‘the greatest be tapped to bring more attention to Florida Tech brand.
threat to the planet is the belief that the university and more visitors to the Barefoot said he enjoyed meet-
somebody else will save it,’” says Clem- university’s Foosaner Art Museum in Catanese explained that aerospace ing FIT faculty members with back-
ons. “That is why we are pressing for- Eau Gallie and the Ruth Funk Center corporations such as Harris and grounds similar to his during round-
ward, with the hope of igniting a spark for Textile Arts on the FIT campus. Northrup Grumman, plus founda- table discussions.
in someone who will make an impor- Indeed, Florida Tech director of uni- tions and trusts, were the single big-
tant difference to the planet’s future. versity museums Carla Funk – no re- gest fundraising source for the just Besides tapping Vero Beach’s deep
If you sit on a bench and listen to the lation to Ruth Funk – is investing ad closed $123.4 million “Create the Fu- pool of retired business talent, Flori-
joy and excitement in children’s voices dollars from a special Brevard County ture” campaign. da Tech also lured Vero’s arts-minded
when they are exposed to nature, may- tourism grant to entice Vero Beach residents to check out its museums.
be for the first time, that is what moti- residents north. “How did we do it? Frankly, the old-
vates you and gives you hope. fashioned way. Legwork, visits and “We do get a lot of visitors from
Making new friends in Indian River cold calls,” Catanese said last week. Vero Beach,” said Funk, FIT’s muse-
“We don’t know the exact shape the County helped Catanese exceed his “As president, I had to devote the ums chief.
changes here will take. I would like fundraising goal and end on a high majority of my time for two years to
to see current exhibits improved and note his 14-year tenure as president of fundraise and delegate day-to-day “We find a lot of Vero Beach arts
made more interesting and more ap- the 16,000-student, 58-year-old tech operations to the people in my ad- community members are visiting the
pealing, along with a greater blend be- university known for its engineering ministration.” textile museum” on the FIT campus,
tween nature, music and art, inviting and aeronautics programs. she said. “It’s a nice day trip from
photographers and artists to be part To make contacts in the Vero Beach Vero.”
of the campus, along with people who By the time the campaign wrapped area, Catanese relied on Spitzmiller,
have an interest in science and the la- up earlier this month, Catanese and former director of advancement at St. To market the museums, Funk is
goon. We want to keep the process of his team had raised a stunning $123.4 Edward’s School. using a $20,000 grant from the Space
change open-ended and imaginative, million that will help pay for every- Coast Office of Tourism earmarked
reaching out to children, teens and thing from scholarships and build- One of Florida Tech’s biggest for drawing visitors from outside Bre-
adults. ings to beefing up the endowment names, former astronaut Winston vard County.
and supporting athletics. That comes Scott, spoke at events in the Vero
“We are on a great trajectory with on top of a successful $60 million Beach area and Spitzmiller ran a Funk said the Foosaner museum
an exciting future with Molly at helm, “Golden Anniversary” fundraising ef- speakers bureau that brought FIT anchors the Eau Gallie Arts District,
bringing fresh perspective while at fort Catanese led a few years back that professors south to speak to local res- so Vero Beach residents can spend
the same time embracing values that concluded in 2009. idents at places such as PNC’s com- the day at the museum while also
have made the ELC so successful in munity room. hitting coffee shops and antique
the past.”  “We spent a lot of time in Vero shops.
At the same time, Spitzmiller re-
cruited local retired chief executives “The museums are a real link and
and chief financial officers – includ- offer a cultural outlet for the Vero
Beach community,” Funk said.

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 5

NEWS

FIT is also spending ad dollars from Windsor and John’s Island have ness retirees in the Vero area, FIT also He added that Florida Tech would
to market the university’s summer donated ethnic textiles from Latin has its Vero Beach Marine Laboratory like to create an aquarium for visi-
sports, academic and arts camps to America, Central Asia and Africa to along A1A, where aquaculture-relat- tors to see farm-raised fish and other
Indian River County kids. the textile museum collection. ed research is front and center. ocean creatures, including seahorses
– which fill many tanks at the lab and
Funk said another Vero Beach area Besides Spitzmiller’s efforts to line “We think aquaculture will be a are a focus of research there. 
connection is that local residents up speakers and attract local busi- big part of the future,” Catanese said.

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6 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

My Vero A neglected section of the Gifford Cemetery. PHOTO BY PHIL SUNKEL chipped. A few were littered with the
remnants of pottery and pieces of wood.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 rent plot price, which she said is set Some headstones had large chunks
by the cemetery association and is a broken off. Some had metal name- Some older graves had no head-
one here wishes was better than it is," one-time, up-front payment with no plates that were so rusted that the stones, no plaques, no markings at all.
local NAACP leader Tony Brown said. ongoing maintenance fees. Whatever names weren't legible. Others had
"But Gifford is a community with a it is, though, it's obviously not enough. stick-on lettering and numbers, some What was especially troubling was
whole bunch of needs that take prior- of which didn't stick and have left the seeing that several of the older graves
ity over the wants. During my hour-plus, afternoon grave unidentified. hadn't been tended to – other than
stroll around the cemetery, I found regular mowing – in years, maybe de-
"The cemetery gets caught between headstones that were chipped, pitted, Many graves had no headstones, cades. Grass and weeds had grown
a need and a want." cracked, tilted, eroded and otherwise marked by only small metal plaques. over the concrete slabs, some of which
weather-beaten, so much so that the Several were bordered by cinder blocks, were covered with ant hills, pine nee-
Certainly, the good people of Gif- names or dates or both couldn't be read. some of which were cracked and dles and fallen tree branches.
ford, which lacks the affluence and
influence of many other parts of our And remember: It was less than
county, have more pressing needs five years ago that the cemetery as-
than a spruced-up cemetery. sociation faced harsh criticism from
Gifford residents who were horrified
Anyone with a conscience, however, when nearly 22 inches of October rain
should want our neighbors to enjoy a flooded the cemetery and unearthed
more proper and dignified final rest- several of the concrete vaults contain-
ing place – something closer to the ing caskets.
manicured, park-like setting at Crest-
lawn Cemetery, which is owned and "We've worked very hard to improve
operated by the city of Vero Beach. the cemetery, and we're still working
hard," Hayes said. "We've been work-
"We maintain the property with the ing with the Indian River Genealogical
money we raise from selling the plots," Society, going through every row and
said Delores Hayes, spokesperson for trying to identify each grave. Family
the Gifford Cemetery Association, the members can go to a website and find
non-profit group that operates the exactly where their loved ones are bur-
cemetery, where more than 2,000 peo- ied, and the project is not complete.
ple are buried. "But we price our plots
so they're affordable for the people of "We have a paid position to maintain
our community." the property, and we've also had vol-
unteers from the community come out
Hayes refused to provide the cur- and help us," she added. "We're very

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 7

NEWS

thankful to the people who have bought local American Legion post as a burial
beautiful new headstones that enhance ground for black military veterans.
the appearance of the cemetery.
There are currently 122 veterans
"We're not ignoring anything, but buried there, Hayes said.
there's only so much we can do if the
family members don't take care of the Surely, they deserve better. So do the
individual graves." civilians – men, women, children and
even unnamed babies – who were laid
That, it appears, is at least part of to rest decades ago. So does the Gif-
the problem. ford community.

What if there are no living family "If people want to come out and
members? What if there are no family help us with the cemetery, we'd be glad
members still living in the area? What to have the help," Hayes said.
if the surviving family members can't
– or don't want to – visit the cemetery? Anyone interested in volunteering
can contact Hayes by phone at 772-
Who takes care of those graves? 567-8871 or write the Gifford Cem-
Based on what I saw: Nobody. etery Association at P.O. Box 2492, Vero
That's undoubtedly the case for the Beach, FL, 32961.
graves containing people whose iden-
tities remain a mystery. Nobody knows In the meantime, Brown said he'll try to
who's buried in them and nobody rally the Gifford community to the cause.
seems to care enough to claim them.
"There are some unknowns buried "I think writing about this and trying
there," Hayes said. "The Genealogi- to get people to help is an awesome
cal Society did a study of all the cem- idea," Brown said. "Now that you're
eteries in Indian River County in 1987, calling attention to the situation, may-
and they were unable to identify them be we can get something done."
then. So unless family members come
forward, we might never know who This needs to be done – as a matter
they are." of dignity, respect and pride – and we
That's understandable, given that all should want to help, just as we've
the cemetery's earliest recorded inter- answered the call of our community
ment was in 1922, nearly 20 years be- so many times before.
fore the state deeded the property to a
Sprucing up the Gifford Cemetery
will make this county a better place to
live. It might also make you feel better
about yourself. 

8 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

Utility systems and crews tested by
crazy, record-setting wet weather

BY LISA ZAHNER nado warning and to seek shelter. Due
to a second wave of storms passing
Staff Writer through, some of our customers expe-
rienced back-to-back outages.”
With last week’s downpours mark-
ing the “wettest day in history” for City Council members praised the
Vero Beach, flooding low-lying areas, staff for the hands-on attention and
closing schools and cancelling events, extra hours and effort devoted to the
the storms more than doubled the weather-related problems. At last
usual volume of water in the city sewer Thursday’s City Council meeting –
system and utility crews scrambled to which was cancelled Tuesday night due
deal with weather-related outages and to weather – city officials noted that,
malfunctions. ironically, like many private citizens
who were trapped at their offices or
More than 11 inches of rain fell in homes by the storms, some key city em-
a single day, setting a record for the ployees were held captive at City Hall
74 years the National Weather Ser- and other municipal facilities by the
vice has been tracking rain data for flood waters, so their service during the
the area. “The storms produced hail, storm was somewhat involuntary.
strong winds, lightning and flooding.
During the storms, we experienced 30 Water and sewer Director Rob
breaker actions, multiple county-wide Bolton said there were no significant
outages, equipment damage due to snafus in the water or wastewater sys-
lightning, etc.,” Vero Electric Opera- tem due to power outages “We went
tions Director Ted Fletcher said. from a flow below 3.0 million gallons
a day on Monday to over 8.0 million
Fletcher and his crews have been gallons [the next day, but] the sewer
battling a weary transmission and dis- plant did real well and the deep injec-
tribution system for months, with an tion well handled the flow. The sewer
estimated $20 million needed over the system had two manholes that over-
next five years to bring all the compo- flowed in the Country Club area today
nents and equipment back to their op- due to a lot of stormwater entering
timum readiness. the system.” Reports are that volume
actually rose to 11 million gallons the
“Most of our outages [during the day after the storm as heavy rains con-
storm] ranged from one to 50 custom- tinued.
ers with one outage resulting from an
open feeder at west substation that re- Vero has been working the past few
sulted in approximately 800 custom- years to beef up its capacity for han-
ers being out. Some of our customers dling large volumes of stormwater
experienced outages in durations of through grant funding and the use of
one to two hours and some for dura- innovative strategies like porous pav-
tions of three to six hours,” he said. ing materials. The city has also been
studying the prospect of establishing a
When customers are in the dark for stormwater utility tax to fund projects
hours, Fletcher said, it’s typically not sooner rather than later.
a simple fix under ideal conditions.
“The delay in restoration to our cus- In the meantime, it appears that
tomers is due to many factors. We ex- the efforts by Public Works Direc-
perienced damaged equipment that tor Monte Falls and his staff to clean
had to be replaced, our linemen had out drains and install baffle boxes at
to be pulled off of the field due to tor-

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 9

NEWS

major stormwater outfall points have Charter schools school, and who supports the char- The school board came to the char-
paid off. ters’ effort to get more funding. “I'm ter school leaders in 2012, Waddell
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 hopeful an equitable resolution that said, and asked them to help get a
After a power outage in February places the needs of all public school referendum passed to replace and in-
caused a Vero Beach Utilities boil wa- dian River Charter High School board. students, including our public char- crease a school tax levy soon to expire.
ter notice and mass confusion among He said he spoke with the leadership ter school students [on equal footing], The leaders gave their support with
city, county and Indian River Shores of the county’s charter schools short- will be arrived at in the near future.” the understanding charter school stu-
residents, Vero started looking into ly after the case was dismissed, and dents would count equally with other
ways to better communicate with found a consensus to take the court Even though the charters – Indian public school students, and the mon-
utility customers. The city also imple- case further. River Charter High School, Imagine ey would be shared among schools on
mented an interim patch of utilizing School at South Indian River County, an equitable per student basis.
the Vero Beach Police Department’s “We see this issue as being too big Imagine Schools at South Vero, North
established social media network to and too important for a lower court,” County Charter School, Sebastian Char- The referendum stated it was for
get information out. he said. ter Junior High and St. Peter’s Academy “all students” in the district, and by
– are public schools entitled to tax dol- law public charter school students are
City Manager Jim O’Connor said “It is unfortunate that the challenge lars, they say they have been short- supposed to be funded equally, ac-
his staff didn’t have the time to get the was being heard in the wrong forum,” changed by the Indian River County cording to Waddell.
notification systems up and running said school board member Shawn School Board for the past three years.
prior to this freak May storm, though Frost, whose children attend a charter CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
he’s hopeful about having something
in place before the height of hurricane
season at the end of the summer. “Only
the notice by the City’s website and
Facebook are being used now. We are in
the process of developing a notification
system with the use of our customer ac-
counts but need to work through sys-
tem security,” O’Connor said.

Over at Indian River County Utili-
ties, Utility Director Vincent Burke
said parts of the county wastewater
system handled triple the normal vol-
ume due to the storms. Of the coun-
ty’s three treatment plants, the south
plant surged from its typical 500,000 to
600,000 gallons per day to 1.5 million
gallons per day. The central plant also
saw an uptick from 2.25 million gallons
to 3.5 million gallons and the western
plant increased its flow from 2.5 mil-
lion gallons to 3.6 million gallons.

“We had lift stations under water
and we lost power at some lift sta-
tions, but were able to go in with our
vacuum trucks after the power came
back on and fortunately we had no
power outages at the plants,” Burke
said, noting that the plants have back-
up generators that kick in when power
is lost.

“We have some really awesome
guys who really stepped up, some lift-
station mechanics who worked until
3 a.m. to keep everything going and
to keep chlorine levels up and within
Florida Department of Environmen-
tal Protection requirements. Was it
difficult – yeah, but we’re certainly
thankful for the efforts of these men
and women who keep it all running,”
Burke said.

Meanwhile, in Indian River Shores,
the weather caused few problems for
public officials.

Shores Public Safety Chief Rich
Rosell said, "We fared much better
than the mainland. No issues to re-
port at all."

Town Manager Robbie Stable con-
curred with Rosell, saying, "I was
pleasantly surprised that we were able
to handle such a storm event. My of-
fice was made aware of no significant
flooding issues." 

10 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

Charter schools zanne D’Agresta and Vivian Cocotas, say case of administering the law. He said the referendum’s language, requiring
the charters are not owed any money. the tax-levy laws are clear on their face a circuit court’s authority, which per-
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 that charters should share equally, and suaded Sellers, who then dismissed
The charter schools’ case appears that equitable funding is further sup- the case for lack of jurisdiction.
The 0.60 levy “passed overwhelming- to be the first that will test a Florida ported by the referendum’s language
ly” in November 2012. Because of the school board’s authority over the dis- that “all students” would benefit from "Administrative Law Judge Sellers
levy, property owners in the county pay tribution of local property taxes. the new taxes and by the state Consti- clearly understood the limited juris-
an extra 60 cents for each $1,000 of as- tution’s requirement that a “uniform” diction of the Division of Administra-
sessed value each year, which brought “We believe this is a case of first education be provided “all” students. tive Hearings and we appreciate her
in an extra $26 million in revenue for impression,” said Shawn Arnold, the thoughtful consideration of the law,”
the schools over the past three years. lead attorney for the charter schools, But Cocotas argued the case called said D’Agresta, lead attorney for the
meaning “a question of interpretation for the judge to “interpret” the “all” in school board. 
So far, so good. But when it came of law is presented which has never
to doling out the revenue, which is arisen before in any reported case,” Home where Cynthia Betts was killed on
controlled by the district, the charter according to a legal definition. 2120 Seagrape Drive.
schools were given only 5 percent of
the total collected – even though char- The Florida Charter School Alli- Motive in bizarre South Beach
ter students make up 13 percent of the ance could find no similar complaint murder apparently not money
county’s student population. among its members, and Department
of Education Deputy Communica-
Waddell said the district owes the tions Director Cheryl Etters said she
charter schools about $2 million in did not know of any legal or informal
back disbursements. In the coming complaint concerning property taxes
year, the fourth and final year of the withheld from charter schools.
levy voters approved in 2012, another
$600,000 to $700,000 will be due to the The charter schools were follow-
charters according to their calculation. ing Department of Education proto-
col when they filed the case with the
The charters are asking for 1 per- Division of Administrative Hearings.
cent monthly interest calculated daily The department requires charter
on top of the past due revenue, in ac- schools and their respective school
cordance with a state law penalizing districts first go to mediation, provid-
districts for withholding money from ed by the department. If mediation
charter schools. “We haven’t calculated fails, as it did last December in this
that [interest total] yet,” Waddell said. case, then going before an adminis-
trative law judge is the Department’s
District Superintendent Mark Rendell recommended next step.
and the school board’s attorneys, Su-
Arnold argued this was a simple

BY LISA ZAHNER Since 1999, according to Betts’
sworn statements in the case file, she
Staff Writer and Perkins were 50/50 partners in a
home-based business called Target
South barrier island resident Asbury Electronics, which Betts told the court
Lee Perkins is charged with the pre- marketed products to the military.
meditated shooting death of his es-
tranged wife Cynthia Betts back in No- Records indicate that over the
vember, telling police on the scene he course of their tumultuous marriage –
did it because she constantly nagged with documented violent run-ins dat-
him and took money from their ac- ing at least as far back as 2008 – it may
count. But court papers show Perkins have been the ongoing joint business
was not set to inherit a windfall had he interest, not their marital bond, which
managed elude prosecution. kept Betts and Perkins in close con-
tact, even after Perkins’ drinking prob-
The Last Will and Testament of Cyn- lem got worse and his temper flared.
thia Betts, drawn up in 1991 when Betts
and Perkins were still just newlyweds, On May 27, 2013, Betts called police
states that she would bequeath near- and had Perkins arrested on domestic
ly all her worldly possessions to her violence charges after a drunken alter-
brother in New Jersey, or as a backup, cation at their home, which began the
to her father. Should Betts perish, the night before. In a statement to police,
will states, Perkins would only receive Betts, in her own words and handwrit-
$5,000, some “household goods” and ten account, describes what happened:
his wife’s Volvo station wagon.
“Last nite Asbury started drink-
By the time he was arrested for mur- ing vodka and got mean and hurtful,
der after being found at 2120 Seagrape verbally abusing me and threatening
Drive with Betts’ body rolled up in an to leave because he hated me and his
area rug, Perkins had been declared life here and because he couldn’t drive
indigent while facing DUI and domes- a car or get a job on his own because
tic violence charges. The couple’s half- of past records and hated being de-
million dollar home in Vero’s south pendent upon me,” Betts stated, add-
beach had been quit-claim deeded ing that Perkins banged doors, ripped
over to Betts and Perkins had signed clothes and threw potted plants on the
his Power of Attorney over to Betts for floor, making a mess.
personal and business matters.
According to the paperwork, the ar-

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 11

NEWS

gument centered around several pric- tion because of the following reasons: bury,” Betts wrote in her own hand. Perkins moved to Indian River County
ey bottles of wine. Betts said Perkins Asbury Perkins resides and works at “I have lived with Asbury Perkins Betts concluded, “It is an important sale
threatened to drink some wine that 2120 Seagrape Drive, Vero Beach, Flor- for us to have to alleviate financial prob-
she needed to use for a demonstra- ida where we have a business at home since 1990 and he has never harmed lems, I am not fearful of Asbury and not
tion for her job – wine that was in the and we are in the process of selling a me or injured me other than the inci- worried that he will harm me in any way.
house yet off-limits to him. portion of the business and he is my dent with the phone where the phone I do not feel that I am in danger.”
business partner and needs to be in- hit my lip. I believe it was a mistake and
“I went to sleep in my own bedroom volved in the day to day decisions not done intentionally to injure me.” Perkins has entered a plea of not
with the door locked and got up to and the partial sale of the company in guilty and is awaiting a jury trial, which
find that he had drank all the bottles which we own together,” Betts wrote. Court papers cite at least two pre- could take several years to happen.
of wine for my work and today I had vious incidents of violence in South Meanwhile he is being held without
a demonstration to do with the par- “I can’t handle some of the business Florida, in 2008 and 2009, against Betts bond in the Indian River County Jail. 
ticular wine, Robledo, which was $50 responsibilities that he handled since and against her father, before Betts and
a bottle and he drank a few others and Oct. 1999 and I need his assistance. I
hid the bottles in his bedroom.” believe he will act accordingly and not Governments just beginning to grapple
become a threat to me anymore,” she with complex railroad crossing plans
“We had words and I went to call continued. “He is willing to go to coun-
the police and he took me in a head seling and treatment for the alcohol BY LISA ZAHNER crossing mitigation requirements”
lock from behind when I picked up the problem. I do not feel that I am in any Staff Writer set out by the agency.
phone to call 911, and he hung up the danger if he comes to the residence
phone and this morning I went to get the to assist with the day to day business City and county government of- Local public works directors were
phone again and he took me into a head affairs with our company Target Elec- ficials have not yet weighed in on then sent links to the plan docu-
lock and forced the phone handle on my tronics Inc. that he founded in 1999.” hundreds of pages of detailed draw- ments specific to their jurisdictions
mouth and hurt my neck by squeezing it, ings released three weeks ago by All on May 5, and the first public meet-
and my left arm was twisted and bruised. Three weeks later, Betts filled out a Aboard Florida to fulfill Federal Rail ing to examine the plans was set for
He threw a plant on the floor with rocks second “Motion to Dissolve Injunc- Administration requirements for so- this past Wednesday afternoon at the
in it all over the family room.” tion for Protection Against Domestic called 100 percent design plans. Indian River County Administration
or Repeat Violence” and implored the Complex. Staff members at Vero and
The court granted Betts a protection court to lift the order. “Our business The Rail Administration informed the county have not yet pre-digested
order on June 6, banning Perkins from is up for sale and Asbury is the more All Aboard Florida’s chief engineer the intricate blueprints and provided
going near her or the house. Then two knowledgeable one in our electronics that the plans “comply with the grade
months later on Aug. 13, Betts, also in business to the military contractors CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
her own handwriting, applied to have and I can’t conduct the business or
the injunction lifted, saying it was not sale without his guidance and assis-
practical to have Perkins stay away tance in this transaction and I need
from the home. to have personal contact with As-

“I would like to dissolve this injunc-

12 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

Complex rail crossing plans Stops are scheduled in Fort Lau- mental Impact Statement. AAF’s receipt of plans approval from
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11 derdale and West Palm Beach, but not AAF rail infrastructure official Adri- the FRA this week,” Share wrote to lo-
along the Treasure Coast or in Bre- cal government officials.
their respective elected officials with vard County, where the train is set to an Share forwarded the plans to city
any kind of interpretation or recom- make the turn west to Orlando, stop- and county public works directors, The Vero Beach City Council has
mendations. ping near the Orlando International with a cover letter asking them to not reviewed the plans as a group,
Airport. “please take this early opportunity to and Councilwoman Pilar Turner said
Indian River County has a team of review the plans. Our team will reach she has not received a set of the plans
attorneys and consultants looking for “Once the counties and the Florida out to you soon to schedule an in- or been asked to meet with staff to
legal, regulatory and financial mech- Department of Transportation con- person meeting to gather your feed- look at them yet.
anisms to slow down or even halt clude their review,” Federal Rail Ad- back.”
plans to send the All Aboard Florida ministration official Patrick Warren The only action the Board of Coun-
trains whizzing through Indian River wrote to AAF, “FRA will be available “These plans represent the culmi- ty Commissioners was set to take was
County at up to 110 miles per hour 32 to meet with the counties and AAF to nation of a thorough design exercise, to approve a date and time for a pub-
times a day on their trek from Miami assist with a definitive crossing lay- which began with your staff during lic viewing of the plans.
to Orlando and back. out for AAF’s final 100 percent design the Florida Department of Trans-
consistent with the Final Environ- portation Grade Crossing Diagnostic County Attorney Dylan Reingold
Process in 2014 and culminated with said Monday, “[Assistant County At-
torney] Kate [Cotner] and I have not
prepared executive summaries con-
cerning the 100 percent design plans
from AAF.”

The plans are virtually indecipher-
able to the non-engineer as far as
the impact on traffic or the potential
cost or work needed to complete the
crossing improvements.

But the plans do show aerial-view
and street-view drawings of rail
crossings, traffic signals and street
signs, noting which of those items
would remain the same, or be made
larger, smaller or simply moved.

The elevation and grade of each
crossing is noted, with a red and yel-
low color-coding system to show
which signs and structures would
need to be removed, relocated and
constructed.

A cover letter states that the plans
show “which safety enhancements
will be constructed at each grade
crossing” with regard to a “Quiet
Zone Analysis” should governments
apply for quiet zones to be imple-
mented.

The plans do not include budget fig-
ures for how much the improvements
would cost, but a cover letter from the
FRA does address one fraction of this
topic.

“With respect to sidewalk safety
along the entire passenger rail route,
AAF must bear the cost of the equip-
ment and installation of pedestrian
gates wherever sidewalks exist as pro-
vided in the Final Environmental Im-
pact Statement,” the FRA letter says.

“This also includes locations where
no crossing license agreements exist.
Where a sidewalk does not exist, AAF
is not required to install a pedestrian
gate assembly.”

The document, which includes 98
pages for the City of Vero Beach cross-
ings alone, also lists dozens of “poten-
tial utility conflict plans” which show
points on the train route where phone
lines, electric lines, underground wa-
ter and sewer pipes, fiber optic lines,
gas lines, cable lines and other com-
munication or utility lines come into
contact with a crossing. Potential
overhead utility conflicts are also
identified for each crossing. 



14 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Scholarship Foundation $$$teps up for students

BY CHRISTINA TASCON SCHOLARSHIP PHOTOS CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 PHOTOS: PHIL SUNKEL Vero Beach Theatre Guild.
Correspondent Camilla Wainwright, Andrea Livingston and Carol Fischman. After each student was handed

Fifty-two students anxiously Richardson and the members of the is critically important and ultimate- their awards, they walked off back-
waited on stage at the Waxlax Cen- Rotary Club as Dollars for Scholars ly strengthens our community, as stage for congratulations from
ter for the Performing Arts at Saint until 2013, when we went off on our many of the students come back to proud family members and a chance
Edward’s School last Thursday eve- own,” said Scholarship Chair Gaye work and raise their families here to shake hands with the individuals
ning as scholarship recipients in the Ludwig. “We were one of the biggest and are giving back today them- who made their scholarships pos-
Scholarship Foundation of Indian chapters in the country.” selves.” sible.
River County’s 51st annual Awards
Ceremony. The foundation celebrat- “Since 1965, the Scholarship Ben Earman, a 2006 Orchid Out- A memorial scholarship in the
ed the student accomplishments of Foundation has awarded $10.4 mil- reach Scholar, was asked to give the name of local sports celebrity and
the Class of 2016 through the presen- lion to 2,812 students in Indian River alumnus address this year. Earman Vero Beach High School graduate
tation of 99 scholarships this year. County,” said Wainright. “Thanks is currently the community affairs Tyrone McGriff Sr. was presented
to the generosity of all the residents director at the Senior Resource As- to Christina Norman by McGriff’s
After welcoming the students and in our community this is possible. sociation of Indian River County and friend Terry King and his sisters,
introducing the board and scholar- All of our donors and sponsorship is also well known through his work Claudine Reaves and Harriet Evans.
ship sponsors, SFIRC President Joan sponsors feel that higher education as an actor and director with the McGriff died in 2000 of a heart attack
Cook announced that they would be at just 41 years old following a foot-
presenting an astounding $695,000 ball career with Florida A&M and the
in scholarships, raised through Pittsburgh Steelers. He was active lo-
community events, endowment cally with the Gifford Youth Achieve-
funds and generous donors. ment Center.

“All of the students will receive “He would have loved this,” said
scholarships tonight, with our top Evans. “This memorial scholarship
awards given at the end of the eve- keeps his memory alive.”
ning – the Richardson and Jaffe
scholarships,” said Camilla Wain- “He loved coaching children,” add-
right, SFIRC executive director. ed King. “He really believed in educa-
“These are students who went tion and even though he died, both
through our whole application pro- his children graduated college.”
cess and have to meet a higher level
of SATs and GPAs and go before the “We were so proud of him going to
panel, so it is a lot more rigorous pro- the NFL and especially for getting
cess.” his education,” agreed Reaves.

“This [Scholarship Foundation] Norman and her mother Phillippa
was established in 1965 by Dan were both excited to be granted the
scholarship, which will enable her
to attend the University of Central
Florida. 



16 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

SCHOLARSHIP PHOTOS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 Gaye Ludwig and Mike Mersky. Laura Bass and Vince Boyle.
Emily and Patti Gibbons.

Ben Earman, Troy Hafner and Jordan Schwiering. Bobby Sexton, Allison Brown and Joan Cook. Sayre Schwiering, Martha Redner and Wanda Lincoln.

Jonathan Sternberg, Amanda Gard, Jonathan Schwiering, Mykhanh Nguyen-Tran and Katy Faires.

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 17

PEOPLE

Kendall Peterson, recipient of the Richard C. Moore Joan Cook with Barrett Jellie, winner of the Frances
Memorial Scholarship, with Emily Gibbons. and Ronald Jaffe Education Foundation Scholarship.

Dolf Kahle, shaking hands with Richardson Scholar winners Marissa Mokoban and Jennifer Asselin.

Gaye Ludwig with Emily Miller, recipient of the Danforth Kidd
and Marjorie Hopwood Richardson Memorial Scholarship

Cole Lipkin with Emily Gibbons and Patti Gibbons. Cole was the recipient
of the Morris A. “Darby” Gibbons Memorial Scholarship.

18 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Cheers on 50 years: Thanks, Volunteer Ambulance Squad

BY SAMANTHA ROHLFING BAITA Squad Administrator April Hargett. PHOTOS: PHIL SUNKEL EMTs, and a budget healthy enough
Staff Writer to provide the community with the
medical transportation, decided to Ambulance Squad. Dur- best-equipped ambulances avail-
This May marks the 50th anni- get out of the “ambulance” business. ing its heyday in the 1970s, able.
versary of the Indian River County the squad had more than 400 active
Volunteer Ambulance Squad, cel- A determined group of volunteers volunteers, including 150 licensed They became the primary first
ebrating a half-century of provid- stepped in, launching with one ve- responder in the county, covering
ing free medical transportation to hicle what came to be known as medical emergencies, automobile
county residents. Last year alone the Indian River County Volunteer accidents and at least one aircraft
volunteers made more than 14,000
trips for 7,400-plus clients, prompt- accident. But by mid-1979 volun-
ing them to be chosen recently from teer numbers had dwindled to less
among 750 applicants to receive than 150, stemming from increased
a prestigious National Volunteer state requirements and a greater de-
Transportation Center Award. As far
as anyone knows, it's the only orga-
nization of its kind in the state.

The story of one of the oldest,
most respected nonprofit organiza-
tions in the county begins in 1966.
Medicare had just begun, New York
City public transportation workers
were on strike, U.S. troops in Viet-
nam reached 190,000 and “Sweet
Charity” opened on Broadway. Here
in Indian River County, the local
funeral homes, which for years had
used their hearses for emergency

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 19

PEOPLE

Volunteers Paul Rubado and Jim Manor help Steve Huber into the van. Bob MacDonald and Walter Burns, p.m. Monday through Friday. And,
John Thompson heading to pick up another client. the “Honorary Chief,” joined during although calls for service remain
the emergency response days, and it relatively constant throughout the
is said that Burns even helped deliv- year, volunteer numbers drop sig-
er a baby. Driver John Lipski was so nificantly as snowbirds head north.
dedicated to the mission that he and
wife, Tina, donated a vehicle two The clients are also diverse, in-
years ago, shortly before he passed cluding one man who had been the
away. personal pilot for radio and TV leg-
end Arthur Godfrey, and another
Squad Administrator April who had fought for the Polish Resis-
Hargett, considered “the face of tance in WWII.
IRCVAS,” spent 17 years teaching
English in Japan before joining as “Last February I got a letter from
a driver in 1993 and becoming ad- the VAS and I felt like it was a letter
ministrator in ’97. Today Hargett from God,” said caregiver Patti Ke-
can be found on the phone and the ane, who uses the service to trans-
two-way radio, taking reservations, port her elderly patient. “I was flab-
scheduling, dispatching and keep- bergasted. There's nothing like it.
ing records. She is praised equally April is wonderful. (My patient) can
by volunteers and clients for the un- go in the van with her wheelchair.
ruffled way she handles the hectic They call her by name and she has
job, serving clients with warmth, no more anxiety. They couldn't be
courtesy and respect. more kind and caring.”

She and squad volunteers all un- “I lived in Jacksonville for many
derstand the importance of their years. They don't have something
services to individuals who are of- like this,” said another client, Helen,
ten elderly and alone, wheelchair- to Eberhart when he came to pick
bound, no longer driving or oth- her up. “They don't have YOU! I give
erwise unable to get to medical you a thumb’s up, and April is a doll!
appointments. You can be sure everybody loves the
VAS. We (older people) need all the
“The doctors like us, too. It's eas- help we can get, and this is one of
ier for them to schedule appoint- the best!”
ments,” said Hargett, who sched-
ules drivers between 8 a.m. and 3 The IRCVAS can be reached at
772-231-1230. 

mand from the growing population. niversary celebration, who comes
The IRCVAS officially shut down from 45 years in non-theatrical film
production, including post-grad
July 14, 1979, with the county taking work at USC with George Lucas;
over virtually all emergency ambu- Art Eberhart, chief of training, is a
lance services other than in Indian former FBI agent who later worked
River Shores and Fellsmere, which as security chief for Coca-Cola; Jim
had their own. The squad turned Manor, head of maintenance, was
over its emergency equipment to the sales manager for a chain of New
county, with then-squad President York auto parts stores; and John
Lloyd Clark observing, “We have Ross, who comes from a career in
just outlived our usefulness as a optics, creating lenses for printing
provider of emergency services.” and photography in New York City
and Pittsburgh.
But the remaining volunteers, not
ready to stop serving their commu- “We're all here because we want
nity, opted to breathe new life into to be,” said Ballard. “We enjoy giv-
the squad and provide non-emer- ing back to the community. Some
gency transportation to people in wouldn't be able to get to the doc-
need of medical treatment. tor if not for us. Some repeat clients
we get to know well; some for years.
Today the squad operates from Some, like three-times-a-week di-
its headquarters at the northeast alysis patients, for life.”
end of the Barber Bridge, utilizing
three wheelchair vans, six Toyota “We give clients and their fami-
Scions and roughly 70 volunteers, lies’ peace of mind,” said Goembel,
including eight women, plus two adding that their clients can remain
paid staff. The trips are still free and in their homes longer and that fam-
the nonprofit receives absolutely no ily members don't have to take off
funding from local, state or federal work to get their loved ones to medi-
agencies, existing solely on private cal care.
donations. Active fundraising oc-
curs only once a year via a mailing. Longtime volunteer Frank Ver-
couteren, aka Frank the Baker,
The squad’s diverse board in- brought the squad homemade cakes
cludes: President Carl Goembel, an every Wednesday. Despite retiring
author and retired career Air Force as a driver, he still comes by weekly
fighter pilot who served in Europe with his wife to help clean the vehi-
and Southeast Asia; Vice President cles – cakes in hand.
Clark Ballard, chair of the 50th an-

20 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Elegance personified at Diamonds and Pearls Cotillion

Deandra Shelly, Kristen Tripson and Verna White. PHOTOS: DENISE RITCHIE Zelda Peterson, Alice Flowers and Gwendolyn Slaughter. Kathryn Wilson, Elizabeth Jackson, Venda Burgess and Shirley Atkins.

BY CHRISTINA TASCON
Correspondent

The third annual Diamonds and Evelyn Mayerson, Simone Hayes,
Pearls Cotillion – hosted by the Cynthia Douglas, and Dolores Colley.
Dasie Bridgewater Hope Center and
held in the Seagrape Banquet Room
of Disney’s Vero Beach Resort – hon-
ored several extraordinary women
while also giving several young girls
an opportunity to showcase some
of the etiquette skills they learned
through the organization’s after-

Client 1st Advisory Group Deborah Williams, Tim McGilberry, Joe and Nadia Schulke, and Alma Miller.
welcomes Dasie’s Diamond Dancers perform.

Shaun P. Fedder
as Managing Partner

Client 1st is the result of a proud merger between
Client 1st Advisory Group and Capital Investment Advisors -

serving Indian River County for over 15 years.

The father-daughter dance at the Jada Rainey, Layla Taylor,
Diamonds and Pearls Cotillion. Omariah Foote and Iyana Hayes.

736 Beachland Blvd.  Vero Beach, FL 32963 school programs. to become self-confident, responsi-
(772) 231-3122  www.c1ag.com Approximately 85 guests attend- ble and well-rounded, the organiza-
tion provides mentoring, tutoring
ed the elegant event to benefit the and programs such as leadership,
organization, which was founded in life skills and finance, and also
2001 to offer a variety of programs, funds scholarships.
projects and events to benefit the
sorely underserved children of Wa- “I am overwhelmed,” said found-
basso. Seeking to empower children er and Executive Director Verna

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

Wright. “There are people I haven’t
seen in years. It gives me hope that
this event will just get bigger.”

Four young ladies dressed in co-
tillion gowns gracefully entered the
room, escorted by their formally at-
tired fathers or brothers before tak-
ing to the floor for a heartwarming
waltz, followed by a performance by
Dasie’s Diamond Dancers.

Guests were treated to an ear-
ly dinner while honoring “Com-
munity Hero” Elizabeth Faulkner
Jackson, the featured speaker, Al-
ice Slaughter-Flowers, and Dean-
dra Shelly. Each received engraved
crystal awards for their service to
the children, DBHC and the Wabas-
so community.

Flowers spoke from the heart
about domestic violence and the
tragic murder of her sister, Rose-
mary Slaughter-Pate, who was killed
by her own son, Everett Pate. Her
son had convinced his girlfriend
to stay in the house while he and a
friend robbed and killed his mother
and the girl is now incarcerated al-
though she hadn’t actively partici-
pated.

“I know this is a depressing topic
but it is important to get the word
out to these women and girls to
raise awareness about this kind of
domestic abuse,” said Flowers. “If
their boyfriends are violent to their
mothers, they probably will abuse
them, so they have to be careful
who they date.”

The room’s elegant décor, with
crisp white-linen tablecloths ac-
cented with aqua centerpieces and
chair bows, had been created by
Wright and her staff members Elois
Harden and Carol Pinder.

“We all worked very hard yester-
day but it was for a good cause,” said
Harden, who works with the cen-
ter’s kindergarten and first-grade
students.

“I was pretty nervous,” said Je-
mal Hayes after dancing with his
daughter, Iyana, adding that he
could imagine one day dancing at
her wedding.

Jada Rainey asked her brother
Hakeem Rainey to be her escort
and, although he had no previ-
ous training in the waltz, the pair
seemed completely comfortable on
the dance floor.

“She asked me to do it and I am
always involved in everything she
does, so I said yes,” said Rainey. “I
am very proud of her.”

“It’s awesome that they are teach-
ing these girls etiquette and poise,”
said Cynthia Douglas. “Verna really
helps these girls out and these skills
really make a difference. We thank
Dasie Hope and the parents for in-
stilling those values in the girls.” 

22 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Sew talented! Kids impress at art/fashion show

1 23

BY CHRISTINA TASCON 456
Correspondent
FASHION AND ART CAPTIONS
There is something magical that
happens when you combine thread 1. Liya Lawsmith, Martha Ann Sloan and Darci
and cloth to create wearable art,
or use paints and canvas to create Wagner. 2. Kristin Sellers, Julia Ryan and Grace
artwork you can hang on the wall.
The students at Martha Ann Sloan’s Murphy. 3. Steve Sloan with Carolyn and Liston
business, Create at Studio M.A., have
found a tangible way to see and feel Orr. 4. Kayla, Mark and Andrew Osowski.
creativity, and last Friday evening
had a chance to present their artis- 5. Hannah El-Zein and Austin Jimenez.
tic designs to family and friends at a
Kids’ Art and Fashion Show. 6. Addison Coya and Lila Legler. 7. Calie Huff

This was the first year the studio and Angelina Zaccaro. 8. Brad Jefferson and
owner had put together a show that
combined both her fashion and art Alexandra Jefferson. PHOTOS: DENISE RITCHIE
students, although in prior years she
has held small fashion shows at the 78
conclusion of the weekly classes.

“In one week we will make two or
three outfits and then have a fash-
ion show, but this one is for the af-
terschool art and sewing students,”
explained Sloan.

Children and adults filled the
bright and cheerful studio, which
was bursting with open tins of col-
orful buttons, paint brushes and bits
of craft materials. Visitors munched
on cookies while viewing the cloth-
ing and artwork produced by Sloan’s

budding young artists, ages 6 to 18. through the afterschool sewing class
All in attendance beamed with pride before realizing that they were in the
at what they had accomplished. same art classes at high school.

The young seamstresses had “I wanted to learn how to create
worked on flannel pajamas, skirts my own things,” said El-Zein. “And I
and stylish shift dresses, such as am hoping to study fashion design at
the sleek evening gowns created by
Austin Jimenez, 16, and Hannah El-
Zein, 18 – a long version created by
Jimenez and a shorter one crafted by
El-Zein.

“We designed it together,” said
Jimenez. “First we came up with
ideas, then I sketched it out and we
both sewed it.”

Jimenez, who has taken sewing
classes for more than a year, and El-
Zein, who joined in November, met

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 23

PEOPLE

the Academy of Art University in San trophy which she proudly showed her creative side to create things that June 6 and summer sewing camp
Francisco.” off to her father. besides being art are also functional. June 13. She also has various classes
Now she wants to design high fashion for adults. “I think sewing skipped a
Other young artists bustled about, “This gets her thinking about pos- clothes and set up a shop.” generation. Now I am amazed at all
pointing out their beautiful paint- sibilities of what she wants to do,” the kids who want to sew and have
ings which were hung along the wall. said Eric Wagner of his 8-year-old “Sewing is something they will take their own real sewing machine that
Ten-year old Kayla Osowski’s paint- daughter, Darci, who was wearing through their whole life,” said Sloan, they will keep forever.” 
ing “Vegetables” won a Best of Show her handmade pajamas. “She uses whose next summer art camp begins

24 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Arts, activities highlight RT Star’s B-day bash

BY MARY SCHENKEL
Staff Writer

The high-energy students of Riv-

erside Children’s Theatre showcased

their multiple singing, dancing and

acting skills Saturday at RT Star’s Big

Birthday Party, a free day filled with

children’s activities and shows to

celebrate their smiling star mascot’s

special day.

Bubbling with excitement, young-

sters led parents and grandparents to

the performances which took place

throughout the event, alternating

between RCT’s Anne Morton The-

atre and the Live in the Loop outdoor 1
stage in front of Riverside Theatre.

Outdoor presentations by RCT stu-

dents included two helpings of an en- RT STAR CAPTIONS

thusiastic Big Birthday Performance, 1. Dianne and Ned Hogan with granddaughter 2 3
plus a preview of songs from “Alad- Lillian Pfennig. 2. Leigh Anne Webster with
din,” coming up June 17 and 18. Kate, Lily and August. 3. Quincy and Jason
Frandsen. 4. Rachel and Byron Clark, with Adam
Inside, the Anne Morton Stage fea- Schnell and Charlie Clark. 5. Lissette and T.J.
tured “The Tiger Who Came to Tea” Asencio. 6. Karen, Ximena and Carol Martinez.
and “The Lion, The Witch, and The
Wardrobe,” performed by six appren- PHOTOS: DENISE RITCHIE

tices with RCT’s On the Go Touring

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Celebrating Over 25
Years in Vero Beach

3790 7th Terrace
Suite 101

Vero Beach, Florida

772.562.5859

www.rosatoplasticsurgery.com

Ralph M. Rosato
MD, FACS

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 25

PEOPLE

Annika Taylor, Alenda Yancy and Keira Taylor. Andrew Manero with Gabrielly.

Larson and Erik with grandparents Paul Sisilli and Doreen Schildt.

Program. That program takes theater cause it always floods,” she added.
to children at their schools and after- Summer is a busy time at RCT,
school settings as part of Riverside’s
academic outreach component. with Kinder Camp, Beginning Stag-
es, Second Stage Workshops, Show
Staff members are looking forward Workshops, the iRascals Experience
to the new director of education, Jim and Teens in Concert. Things will re-
Van Valen, who is scheduled to come ally be hopping on Aug. 6, when this
on board June 1. Van Valen replaces year’s Riverside Dance Festival, in
longtime director Linda Downey, collaboration with Ballet Vero Beach
who retired in 2015 from the position and the Wylliams/Henry Contempo-
after 35 years at the helm. rary Dance Company, coincides with
RT’s Back to School Bash, which is
“I’m excited because he seems hosted in partnership with the Edu-
to be interested in making lifelong cation Foundation and the School
arts learning a priority,” said Adam District of IRC.
Schnell, RCT director of dance and
the founding artistic director of Bal- There is something going on every
let Vero Beach. “He was supportive of weekend for adults as well, with free
starting our adult dance classes. As outdoor concerts every weekend – no
far as I know, he’s also going to start tickets required. The concerts co-
some adult theater classes as well. incide with the alternating Comedy
So it sort of becomes the whole spec- Zone and Howl at the Moon Experi-
trum.” ences on the Waxlax Stage inside,
where tickets are required.
The previous week’s drenching
rains had mostly receded, with the “We’re definitely keeping busy,
exception of a little pond in front that’s for sure,” said Riverside’s Man-
of the building that attracted some aging Director Jon Moses.
curious looks from youngsters who
hadn’t remembered seeing it before. Discounted tickets are also avail-
able this summer only for a Rock and
“This is our Lake Agnes,” said RT Disco bundle special, offering two
Director of Finance Patti Rooney, ref- shows for the price of one – “Ring of
erencing Agnes Wahlstrom, whose Fire: The Music of John Cash” in the
name graces the building. fall, and “Saturday Night Fever: Songs
from the Bee Gees” in the spring. 
“We’ve called it that for years be-

26 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

All ‘Hands’ on deck to raise enviro awareness

BY MARY SCHENKEL
Staff Writer

A group of concerned environ- Howard Ofner, Diane Morgan, John Warner, Erin
mentalists gathered at the Tracking
Station Beach Park at Noon Satur- Lomax and Beth Thomas. PHOTOS: PHIL SUNKEL
day for Hands Across the Sand, join-
ing thousands of others around the search Associate and Site Manager
country to symbolically draw a line Nancy Pham Ho provided a fascinat-
in the sand to promote clean renew- ing behind-the-scenes visit of the
able energy sources for a sustain- facility where the mission is “to de-
able planet. The group also hoped velop new strategies for responsible
to raise awareness of the Atlantic aquaculture and educate the com-
Seismic Airgun Protection (ASAP) munity about aquatic organisms
Act, to protect marine mammals, sea through research demonstrations
turtles, fish and wildlife with a mor- and hands-on learning programs.”
atorium on oil and gas exploration
along the coast. Scientists at the four-acre satellite
campus focus on the research and
Dave Rauschkolb founded the production of sustainable resourc-
Hands Across the Sand movement in es, including single-celled algae,
October 2009 after the Florida House shrimp, seahorses, aquarium fish
of Representatives passed a bill to and food fish, in a responsible man-
lift a ban on near-shore drilling. The ner to reduce their being harvested
bill was tabled in early 2010 after in the wild. Their teams also col-
more the 10,000 Floridians joined laborate with numerous nonprofits
hands in united opposition, just two and private firms such as Spirulina
months before the devastating BP Ice, which rents space to produce its
Deepwater Horizon explosion in the nutritious, high-protein algae.
Gulf of Mexico.
Ho explained that the amazing
“We learned from the Deepwa- little seahorses – after an elaborate
ter Horizon disaster that there is no courtship, the male eventually gives
such thing as cleaning up an oil spill. birth by expelling the babies from
Two weeks ago there was another his stomach – are one step away
900,000-gallon spill in the Gulf again,” from endangered status, primarily
said organizer Debra Messer, Indian due to overharvesting, especially in
River Democratic Party environmen- Asia where they are thought to have
tal chair, who is leading the local ef- medicinal purposes. FIT researchers
fort to end the country’s dependence are working with others on a Species
on potentially destructive fossil fuels. Survival Plan Program to improve
their numbers in the wild.
“This is our home; it affects us,”
said Messer. “We can make a differ- The three native Florida seahorse
ence. We can.” species – lined, longsnout and dwarf
– are all found in the Indian River La-
As folks began to gather, Justin goon amongst the threatened seagrass
McSweeny, of Oasis Organics, led beds, yet another reason for concern.
early arrivers on an interpretive na- Their research has shown that the spe-
ture walk, pointing out native and cies can hybridize, so they are current-
invasive plants on the dunes, in- ly collecting and researching seahorse
cluding the quite pretty “sea burger” DNA to determine how populations
seeds that drift in with the tide from along the coast might be related. 
Central America.

Following the beachside joining
of hands, many took advantage of
the offer to tour the Florida Institute
of Technology’s Vero Beach Marine
Laboratory adjacent to the park. Re-



28 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

ARTS & THEATRE

Shooting stars: All ‘Eyes’ on Backus photo exhibit

BY ELLEN FISCHER Barbara Rice, Cana Bamberg, “Dueling Perspectives” by Quinn Hi-
“Old Truck.” “Ring of Fire.” aasen was one of these. His color photo
Correspondent of a street in Havana sets a shiny, red
Mitch Kloorfain of Port Saint Lucie has to enter the “Eye of the Camera” know mid-1950s Chevrolet against the back-
The annual “Through the Eye of the 30 years’ professional experience, while what is expected of them. First and fore- drop of a crumbling neo-Renaissance
Camera” competitive photo exhibition Ric Rumley of Fort Pierce has 35. most, an exhibition-ready print must style building. Jim Cohoe’s equally ro-
at Fort Pierce’s A.E. Backus Gallery is demonstrate the artist’s mastery of pho- mantic “Barcelona Rainy Evening” fo-
known for its quality and diversity, and Displayed along with the art this year tographic basics (focus, depth of field cuses on the retreating silhouettes of
the 2016 selection is no exception. Not is a bullet list of pointers from the judg- and exposure). Almost as important, two strolling lovers on a wetly reflective
to boast, but photos from Indian River es. In it, how-to tips are interspersed the print must be well-presented. Pho- street.
County make a solid contribution to the with caveats that let those who aspire tos can be “actually disqualified due to
show’s excellence; a third of the works poor framing,” the judges warn. J. Patrick Rice has two prints in the
currently on display are from Vero show that are the result of a photo-
alone. Overall the competition received Most of the comments that follow graphic field trip to Charleston, South
237 entries this year, 105 of which were are elaborations on those two cardinal Carolina, with his wife Barbara, who
selected for exhibition. rules. The judges’ final caution sums up also has prints in the show. “The Bridge”
their emphasis on professionalism: “If is Rice’s abstract black-and-white study
This year’s crop comes from artists it looks like a nice vacation photo, odds of the pylons and cables of Charleston’s
in Brevard, St. Lucie, Martin and Palm are it isn’t going to get into the show.” Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. His “Black-
Beach counties as well as Indian River. smith” shows a historic reenactor work-
The competition is not limited to pho- As far as presentation goes, there is ing before a blazing forge at Middleton
tographers within Florida’s borders. The not a brazen offender in the lineup. Place Plantation.
present offering includes two works With an exception or two that made
from South Dakota. this visitor scratch her head, mats and Charleston’s ancient Angel Oak and
frames do not battle with their images the Ravenel Bridge at dusk are the sub-
The competition awards first-, sec- for supremacy. jects of two of Barbara Rice’s pictures.
ond- and third-place ribbons in six Her third is a portrait in black and white
categories, as well as merit awards and There are no vacation photos in the of a defunct grain truck parked some-
a grand prize. Seven photos from Vero show, but there are plenty of pictures where in the Palouse region of south-
won ribbons, including a first place for from places that, judging by their eastern Washington state.
Linda Leonard’s “City Watcher,” a black- photogenic qualities, you might want
and-white portrait of an aging man to visit. A harvested wheat field in Palouse is
hunkered on a curbside. the subject of Charles Kellington’s mini-
malist composition, “Palouse Hay Bale.”
Mary Lou Christy’s color portrait It received an award of merit.
“Pastel Princess” also took a blue rib-
bon. Cana Bamberg took second place The manipulated imagery of com-
for “Ring of Fire,” a color photograph. mercial and portrait photographer Phil
“Pears” by David Bence, “Night in Bolo- Reid takes the viewer to places that exist
gna” by Jim Cohoe and “Layers” by Phil only in the artist’s imagination. “Wait-
Reid won third-place ribbons, respec- ing” is a color portrait of a smiling girl
tively, for a color still life, a black-and- perched on suitcases stacked between
white photo, and a digitally manipulat- two sets of train tracks. As disconcert-
ed photograph. ingly real as the image looks, the girl
posed for the picture in the safety of the
Three professional photographers photographer’s studio. Reid later com-
judged the show. Retired photojournal- bined her carefree image with that of
ist Paul J. Milette of Jensen Beach had a some separately photographed tracks
26-year career with the Palm Beach Post. in his computer’s photo editor.
He was also a judge for last year’s “Eye
of the Camera” competition. The other Reid’s award-winning “Layers” shows
two judges are photographers with their a prettily pouting pre-teen holding a Ve-
own wedding and portrait businesses: netian Carnival mask next to her face. A
second mask floats in mid-air nearby.
This print also combines multiple lay-
ers of imagery via Photoshop.

“Layers” is “a surreal thing,” says Reid.
“People should take away whatever they
want to from it.”

The special effects in Cana Bam-
berg’s “Ring of Fire” have a less techni-
cal origin. Opening her camera’s ap-
erture for a long exposure, Bamberg
photographed her brother swinging a
firework on a string above his head on
the beach after dark (he happens to be
standing atop a lifeguard station, but
you didn’t hear it from this writer). The
result is a looping lariat of light from
which countless luminous arcs fall to
the ground. It’s quite a show.

Bamberg’s other print in the exhibi-

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 29

J. Patrick Rice,

ARTS“Blacksmith.” & THEATRE

Mary Lou Christy,
“Pastel Princess.”

Phil Reid,
“Layers.”

tion features a breathtaking view of Bix- chameleon’s tightly curled tail; next to
by Creek Bridge on California’s Big Sur it are the finger-like petals of a fleshy
coastline. plant. It is mesmerizing.

The animals of faraway places have Sometimes the eye of the camera
a strong presence in the exhibition; in focuses closer to home, and Mary Lou
fact, the best-in-show winner, “Kept, Christy’s “Pastel Princess” does just that.
Kept Safe” by Port Saint Lucie’s Larry The first-place-winning photo shows a
Novotny, is a portrait of a captive African dainty baby girl embracing one of a se-
elephant whose head is crisscrossed by ries of white balusters in her effort to
the shadows of his enclosure. stand tall for the photographer, who
happens to be her grandmother.
Vero photographer Susan Kasven has
two prints featuring jewel-like rainfor- “This was a quick shot, not posed,”
est frogs; her “Curves and Reflections” says Christy. “Sometimes those work
– an undulating snake on a mirrored out the best.”
surface – won an award of merit.
“Through the Eye of the Camera” is
Although it did not win a prize, one on view through June 17. The Backus
of the most intriguing animal photos in Museum is at 500 N. Indian River Drive
the show is “Swirls and Petals” by Anne in Fort Pierce. The museum is closed
Malsbary. It is a textural close-up of a Mondays and Tuesdays. 

30 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

ARTS & THEATRE

Old-school WFIT-FM still making waves on radio dial

BY MICHELLE GENZ
Staff Writer

At any time on the Internet, and on Todd Kennedy. PHOTOS BY PHIL SUNKEL station through the 1970s and ’80s were While its fans are rabid, growth has
a good day between Cocoa and Vero slowly replaced with salaried profes- been thwarted by FCC limits. Still,WFIT’s
Beach, listeners can find a rare gem in seven-story dorm, Roberts Hall, the fire sionals. tiny 8,000-watt transmitter manages to
the radio world: WFIT-FM in Palm Bay, department sent a truck out to help. reach not only Sebastian and Wabasso,
a proudly old-school radio station with Kennedy, meanwhile, was forging a but south to Central Beach on the island
live deejays and progressive playlists. That stick is still in use today. But the career path in the record business. Born and State Road 60 on the mainland. (And
broadcast studios long since moved out in 1959 and raised in the Boston area, it is broadcast in HD, the first Brevard
Fanatical about their genres, they of the basement. Four years ago, they he laughs about his first deejaying ex- County radio station to do so.)
broadcast at 89.5 FM from the campus moved into a new, 5,000-square-foot perience – spinning records and reading
of Florida Institute of Technology. Mul- complex next to the Gleason Performing the announcements in his elementary By contrast, WQCS, the NPR affiliate
tiple times a week, musicians from both Arts Center. The university provided the school cafeteria. At 14, he got his first in Fort Pierce, is more than 100 times
local and nationally-known bands tour- property and an architect, and the sta- paying job in a record store. that size. At 100,000 watts, its signal ex-
ing the area are featured in interviews or tion, with help from the Corporation for tends from northern Palm Beach Coun-
play live in a state-of-the-art studio. Public Broadcasting, raised the funding Later, at Springfield College, he got ty to Melbourne.
for the building. Along with grants, they involved in the college radio station that
The dozen or so deejays are wrangled survive now through donations raised teamed with talent from nearby Boston, The programming on WQCS is almost
by program director Todd Kennedy, who during two annual fund-raising drives. which fully embraced London’s punk entirely syndicated news shows and
doubles as a deejay himself. When Ken- bands. “It was really exciting,” recalls classical music. While WFIT also airs
nedy graduated from college, he came Programming continues to evolve as Kennedy. NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “All Things
to Cocoa Beach to surf. He ended up its devoted audience ages and new lis- Considered,” its music programming
finding another kind of wave – radio – teners are recruited. After graduation, with savings from includes not only public radio standards
and he has ridden it for the last 20 years. his record store jobs, he came south to like blues and jazz, but reggae, roots,
By the late 1980s, the station ranked in Florida with his future wife Robin for world beat, doo-wop and indie rock.
For all of that time, he says, people the top five college radio stations in the that three-month surfing vacation that One show offers nothing but great gui-
have been predicting that his profes- nation. In 1993, to the horror of some never ended. He got a job at the Record tar music; another explores emerging
sion would go extinct. Instead, Kennedy fans, the station dropped its alt-rock Bar in the Melbourne Mall and eventual- trends like synthpop and nu-disco.
has watched his tiny, community-sup- format for jazz. Two years later, it signed ly opened his own record store in down-
ported NPR station steadily increase its on with NPR. The students who ran the town Melbourne. Called Jazz Waves, it “We still have deejays coming in with
audience – including in Vero – even as it focused on independent music – blues, shipping crates of CDs,” Kennedy says.
clings to the traditional model of locally rock and folk. With his baby boy parked
produced music shows. in a bassinet by the cash register, Ken- He encourages a logical flow to his
nedy would counsel music buffs pawing deejays’ playlists, mixing the better
Kennedy’s own four-hour midday through the albums, or special ordering known with the less known. “A lot of Tri-
show, Sound Waves, recently featured from Kennedy’s vast catalogues. “This ple-A stations do that, and record com-
an 11-minute interview with George was before Amazon,” he notes wryly. panies are putting more emphasis there
Clinton, founder of the bands Parlia- to get new artists heard. If you like Tom
ment and Funkadelic and the headliner In 1997, he started volunteering at Petty, you might like this band called
for the lagoon fund-raiser LagoonFest. WFIT, hosting a late-night jazz show. Band of Horses. Or if you like the Allman
In the same show, Kennedy aired a con- The next year, when the station’s pro- Brothers, you might like the Alabama
cert in the WFIT studios of another artist gram director left for California, Ken- Shakes.”
at the music festival, Beebs of Beebs and nedy got the job.
Her Money Makers. One of the longest running shows on
Within a few years later, the station WFIT is Sunday morning’s “FM Odys-
The mix of deejays, concerts and in- officially changed from a jazz format to sey” with Joe Migliore. It began in Mel-
terviews has been a foundation of the Triple-A – Adult Album Alternative, a bourne in 1991 and is now syndicated
station’s success since it first went on the format that grew out of album-oriented nationally. His interview subjects in-
air in 1975. rock. clude Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Judy Col-

Melbourne was still a small town,
small enough that when the antenna
needed to be hoisted onto the top of the

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 31

ARTS & THEATRE

lins, Richie Havens, Rita Coolidge and three decades. That follows “Christoph’s as Sister Mary, has a blues show and is with a Friday night jazz show Kennedy
Arlo Guthrie. Vault,” hosted by longtime King Center the self-appointed “den mother” of the declares “the finest blues show you will
staffer Chris Hauck; he describes his blues show deejays; Kennedy says she hear on the radio,” is taking the summer
Longtime residents pack the daily show, which only started last year, as “keeps them pointed in the right direc- off, “a sabbatical,” Kennedy calls it jok-
schedule. a “heavily funkified Americana retro- tion,” making sure they record their pro- ingly; Mr. Z, like the rest, is a volunteer.
roots rock jam.” mos and put their playlists together.
Wednesday’s “On the Latin Side” is “He said he hadn’t had a Friday night
hosted by Panama-born Anselmo Bal- One deejay, Mary Elwood, known Another deejay, Gary Zajac, or Mr. Z, off in 30 years,” says Kennedy. 
donado, who has lived in Brevard for

32 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

ARTS & THEATRE

Coming Up: ‘Hair’ we go … and Florida Folk Festival

BY MICHELLE GENZ “Hair” is performing at the Kravis Center. Ben Prestage will perform this weekend
Staff Writer at the Florida Folk Festival.

1 The show may be more golden
oldie than ground-breaking, but

the move of the 1960s musical “Hair”

to Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse in

West Palm is something of a milestone

for the Boca Raton production compa-

ny staging it. It marks the second sum-

mer in a row that producers Michael

Lifshitz and Marcie Gorman-Althof

have mounted a show in Delray Beach

and then taken it on to Kravis.

The pair collaborated in December

2014 with “A Chorus Line” at the Crest

Theater at the Delray Beach Center for

the Arts, then eight months later took

their second show, “Side by Side by

Sondheim,” to Kravis’ Rinker Theater.

That was a first for the Crest, which

normally stages toured shows. And it’s

a further sign that South Florida is gen-

erating enough work opportunities to

get top-quality talent to relocate here.

“Hair” wraps up its run at Kravis June 5.

2 Some of those aging hippies who Prestage, who grew up in Martin Springs, northeast of Gainesville. Memphis Blues band GT Express, then
loved “Hair” will no doubt head County, has roots in Mississippi, his This year’s focus is on the heritage cranks up Saturday afternoon with
grandfather a sharecropper, and his of Dade County. Other top acts are the boogie-woogie blues band The
to the Suwannee River this weekend great-grandmother a Vaudeville mu- John McEuen, founding member of Bees; Otis Cadillac and the El Dora-
sician who toured with Al Jolson. His the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band; Billy Dean, dos around cocktail hour; and prime
for a huge outdoor musical festival, household was always full of blues who hails from Quincy, Florida, and time’s Matt Schofield, the 38-year-old
music, until he borrowed a friend’s is known for his 1990 hit, “Only Here Manchester native in the British Blues
the 64th annual Florida Folk Festival. banjo and learned bluegrass. With his for a Little While”; Jim Stafford of Hall of Fame.
cigar-box guitar, dobro and diddly- Winter Haven, whose songs include
There, they’ll find two Vero folk sing- bow, he may present his music with “The Swamp Witch” and “Spiders and Sunday features Mike Zito and the
a backwoods personage – complete Snakes”; and guitarist Les Dudek from Wheels, another blues band but with
ers at the top of the ticket, taking the with full beard and engineer’s cap. But Auburndale, who played with Dickie a strong rock influence.
his sense of humor infuses his song- Betts on “Ramblin’ Man.”
stage along with 300 other perform- writing with modern-day sensibilities. Following the Wheels is the award-
There’s a reason he’s played multiple winning J.P. Soars, with his band the
ers. The first is the festival’s headliner: times at the Suwannee festival: He’s a Red Hots. Two more bands continue
crowd pleaser, and if you miss him this into the night, and then on Monday
the prototypical hippie himself, Arlo weekend, check his website to catch the cover band Luna Pearl plays all
him locally when he gets back from afternoon.
Guthrie, whose second home is a con- his tour.
Earl’s boasts that there’s never a
verted crab-packing house in Sebas- The three-day festival takes place cover charge. If your eardrums need
on the 250-acre state park in White a break, it’s an easy stroll to a number
tian. He’s performing Saturday night. of quieter spots along Sebastian’s Riv-
erwalk. 
Friday night, it’s Vero’s Ben Prestage, 3 Closer to home, Earl’s Hideaway
in Sebastian does Memorial Day
much younger but an old soul none-

theless, whose one-man band perpetu- up big, with its audience heavy on

ally bowls people over at venues around veterans, especially those arriving on

Florida and far beyond. After the folk Harleys. Pick an hour, any hour, and

festival, he’s headed off on a European you’re likely to find a rowdy crowd this

tour with stops in Austria, Belgium, Ger- weekend. The fest starts Friday night

many, Netherlands and Norway. with the Melbourne-based Motown-



34 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT COVER STORY

In August 2015, Turing Pharmaceuticals and its other sum known as the coverage gap or the donut much is clear: A million-dollar contribution from

then-chief executive, Martin Shkreli, purchased a hole, and more-modest ongoing costs. It adds up a pharmaceutical company to a copay charity can

drug called Daraprim and immediately raised its fast. After Turing raised Daraprim’s price, some toxo- keep hundreds of patients from abandoning a newly

price more than 5,000 percent. plasmosis patients on Medicare had initial out-of- pricey drug, enabling the donor to collect many mil-

Within days, Turing contacted Patient Services Inc., pocket costs of as much as $3,000. lions from Medicare.

or PSI, a charity that helps people meet the insurance
copayments on costly drugs. Turing wanted PSI to cre-

“Drug companies aren’t contributingate a fund for patients with toxoplasmosis, a parasitic
infection that is most often treated with Daraprim.

hundreds of millions of dollars forHaving just made Daraprim much more costly,
Turing was now offering to make it more affordable. altruistic reasons” – Professor Joel Hay
But this is not a feel-good story. It’s a story about

why expensive drugs keep getting more expensive,

and how U.S. taxpayers support a billion-dollar sys-

tem in which charitable giving is, in effect, a very That’s just a fraction of the total cost. Turing’s new The contributions also provide public-relations

profitable form of investing for drug companies – price for an initial six-week course of Daraprim is cover for drug companies when they face criticism

one that may also be tax-deductible. $60,000 to $90,000.Who pays the difference? For Medi- for price hikes. An internal Turing case study about

PSI, which runs similar programs for more than care patients, U.S. taxpayers shoulder the burden. how to talk about price increases, written last Octo-

20 diseases, jumped at Turing’s offer and suggested Medicare doesn’t release complete data on what it ber and released by Congress earlier this year, con-

the company kick things off with a donation of $22 pays pharmaceutical companies each year, but this tained the suggestion that patient assistance pro-

million, including $1.6 million for the charity’s costs. grams be “repeatedly referenced.”

That got Turing’s attention. “Did you see the “It looks great for pharmaceutical companies to

amounts??? $22MM!!!” wrote Tina Ghorban, Turing’s say they are helping patients get the drugs,” says

senior director of business analytics, in an e-mail to a Adriane Fugh-Berman, a doctor who’s studied phar-

colleague. (The document was obtained by congres- ma marketing practices for three decades and is an

sional investigators looking into the company’s pric- associate professor of pharmacology and physiology

ing.) Turing ultimately agreed to contribute $1 mil- at Georgetown University. The intent of these dona-

lion for the patient fund, plus $80,000 for PSI’s costs. tions, she says, is to “deflect criticism of high drug

PSI is a patient-assistance charitable organization, prices. Meanwhile, they’re bankrupting the health-

commonly known as a copay charity. It’s one of seven care system.”

large charities (among many smaller ones) offering It’s not just Daraprim. In 2014, the drug company

assistance to some of the 40 million Americans cov- Retrophin – run at the time by Shkreli – acquired

ered through the government-funded Medicare drug Thiola, a 26-year-old drug that treats a rare condi-

program. tion in which patients constantly produce kidney

Those who meet income guidelines can get much stones. As Retrophin raised the drug’s price 1,900

or all of their out-of-pocket drug costs covered by a percent, it also gave money to PSI for copay aid for

charity: a large initial copay for a prescription, an- kidney-stone patients.

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 35

INSIGHT COVER STORY

In 2010, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Turing added that it gives hospitals discounts of treatments. He also began working as a counselor to
bought a pair of old drugs that treat Wilson Disease, up to 50 percent on Daraprim and that most patients hospital patients, and in that capacity he saw how
an obscure disorder in which copper accumulates in receive the drug through programs such as Medicaid medical costs harmed families, even those with in-
the body. Three years later, amid a series of price in- that pay just 1¢ per pill. surance. Patients blew through their savings; some
creases that ultimately exceeded 2,600 percent, Vale- had to sell their homes, he recalls.
ant gave money to the Patient Access Network (PAN) Nonetheless, a document in which PSI laid out its
Foundation for copay aid to Wilson Disease patients. plans for the new fund contained a clue about whose He founded PSI from his kitchen table in 1989 and
interest was being served. It says: “Client | Turing ran it without drawing a salary for the first seven
Fueled almost entirely by drugmakers’ contribu- Pharmaceuticals.” years. “The right kind of assistance can keep some-
tions, the seven biggest copay charities, which cover body in their home, help them maintain a job, and
scores of diseases, had combined contributions of In 1983, Dana Kuhn was a young man working in keep them as a productive member of society,” says
$1.1 billion in 2014. That’s more than twice the figure a Presbyterian church in Jackson, Tenn., when his Kuhn, now a lanky 63-year-old with close-cropped
in 2010, mirroring the surge in drug prices. For that life took a tragic turn. During a fundraising basketball brown hair and a graying mustache.
$1 billion in aid, drug companies “get many billions game, he went up for a rebound, came down awk-
back” from insurers, says Fugh-Berman. wardly, and broke his foot. A mild hemophiliac, Kuhn Kuhn created the model, and an act of Congress in
received a blood infusion. It contained the HIV virus. 2003 allowed such charities to dramatically expand
“Drug companies aren’t contributing hundreds of Not realizing he was infected, Kuhn transmitted the in scale. That year, lawmakers expanded Medicare,
millions of dollars for altruistic reasons,” says Joel Hay, virus to his wife, who died in 1987, leaving him the creating Medicare Part D to cover prescription drugs.
a professor and founding chair in the department of sole parent of their two young children. This big, taxpayer-funded market came with a catch
pharmaceutical economics and policy at the Univer- for drugmakers: They’re allowed to give direct help
sity of Southern California. The charities “don’t ever Kuhn became an advocate for hemophilia patients to patients covered by commercial insurers – and
have to scrounge for money. It falls right to them.” and a plaintiff in a lawsuit against drug companies discount cards covering drug copays have become
Both Hay and Fugh-Berman have served as paid ex- that were slow to address the risk of HIV in clotting ubiquitous – but they can’t do the same for Medicare
pert witnesses in lawsuits against drug companies. patients. Direct gifts to these people can be consid-
ered illegal kickbacks, improperly steering patients
When Turing bought Daraprim and sought to to a particular company’s drug instead of cheaper
boost its annual revenue from $5 million to more alternatives.
than $200 million, the use of patient-aid funds was
considered essential, internal company documents However, government policy does allow “bona
show. Last May, as the company did its due diligence fide, independent” charities to help Medicare pa-
before the purchase, one executive warned in an e- tients with drug costs. Pharma companies can con-
mail that new, high copays would force toxoplasmo- tribute to charities for specific diseases, provided
sis patients to seek alternative drugs. they don’t exert any sway over how the nonprofits
operate or allocate their funds.
“We want to avoid that situation,” wrote Nancy
Retzlaff, Turing’s chief commercial officer. “The need Under the new rules, PSI’s revenue grew rapidly,
to address copay assistance is a key success factor.” from $16 million in 2003 to $128 million last year.
Turing officials declined an interview request but In 2014 the charity said just over half its funds came
said in an e-mail that by “success,” Retzlaff meant from a single drug company, though it didn’t name
that “no patient is denied access to our medicines by the donor. Former employees say it was Novartis; No-
inability to pay.”
CONTINUED ON PAGE 36

36 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 35 INSIGHT COVER STORY

vartis confirmed it’s given to PSI, but declined to say pensation as being commensurate with his experi- says. “What goes around comes around. Don’t contin-
how much. ence. The price increase on the buildings purchased ue to shovel dirt onto patients. The foundations, we’re
from Kuhn’s company was in line with the shifting just trying to throw out lifejackets to people who were
The largest copay charity, the PAN Foundation, real estate market, it says. And the spreadsheet was on the Titanic. Everyone else is trying to throw debris
grew even faster, soaring from about $36 million in valued at nearly 10 times the amount Kuhn received on the patients to sink them. It’s just cruel.”
contributions in 2010 to more than $800 million last for it by a firm hired by PSI’s board.)
year. About 95 percent of PAN’s contributions come “I’d be dead without PSI,” says Steve Ashbrook,
from the pharma industry, the charity says; in 2014, Kuhn talks about PSI only until he’s asked about the a retired optician in Cincinnati. He was diagnosed
five unnamed drug companies kicked in more than Turing donation. Then his tone grows fierce. “I want in 2009 with chronic myeloid leukemia, or CML, a
$70 million apiece, according to PAN’s tax filing. to make sure you’re not getting into a situation here slow-moving cancer that starts in the bone marrow.
where a patient dies because of what you write,” he His doctor prescribed Gleevec, a Novartis drug that’s
With this eager stable of donors, PAN spent just
$597,000 on fundraising in 2014. That’s less than 1
percent of the fundraising expense for similar-sized
charities, like the American Cancer Society and the
American Heart Association.

Kuhn’s compensation has increased along with PSI’s
scope. In 2014 his salary was $576,000, making him the
highest-paid copay charity executive. Kuhn has also
had close business dealings with the charity he created.

Before 2004, PSI contracted out some of its opera-
tions, including fundraising and program services, to
a for-profit company called Managed Care Concepts,
which Kuhn co-owned. The charity also leased of-
fice space from Kuhn’s company. In 2005 the charity
purchased office buildings from Managed Care Con-
cepts for $1.06 million, or about $200,000 more than
the company had paid for them in 2000 and 2003.

During that time, PSI also paid Kuhn $476,000
for intellectual property that was “vital to the ongo-
ing activities of the organization,” according to the
charity’s tax filings. The IP in question is an Excel
spreadsheet that helps calculate how much aid pa-
tients should get, according to six former employees
and managers at PSI.

(In a statement, the charity defends Kuhn’s com-

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 37

INSIGHT COVER STORY

helped double CML patients’ five-year survival rate, At first, Novartis gave him free medicine, as drug- Ashbrook says he couldn’t care less where PSI’s
to 63 percent, since the 1990s. makers often do for patients who can’t afford it. The money comes from. That’s presumably true of most
industry has a term for that: “compassionate prod- of the hundreds of thousands of patients supported
When Ashbrook started on Gleevec, he was on uct.” Ashbrook’s doctor told him about PSI, and a by copay charities – they’re just grateful for the help.
a high dose that cost $6,000 per month. Ashbrook, month or two after starting on Gleevec, Ashbrook But Ashbrook’s story illustrates how the system en-
who lives on $1,600 per month from Social Security, qualified for help. PSI began covering his out-of- ables drug pricing that squeezes Medicare.
was facing initial out-of-pocket costs of more than pocket costs while his Medicare plan paid the rest.
$2,000, and $300 a month after that. CONTINUED ON PAGE 38

38 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 37 INSIGHT COVER STORY

A year’s supply of Gleevec can be produced for less than $200, according to
Andrew Hill, a researcher at the University of Liverpool. When the drug was in-
troduced, in 2001, its U.S. price was $30,000 a year. At that level, it would have
recouped its development costs in just two years, according to a letter from 100
cancer specialists, published in the medical journal Blood in 2013.The price is now
up to $120,000 a year in the U.S. (It’s priced at drastically different rates around the
world: $25,000 a year in South Africa, for example, and $34,000 a year in the U.K.)

As Gleevec’s price has climbed, so has the burden on taxpayers. Medicare
spent $996 million on the drug in 2014, up 158 percent from 2010. Most of that
increase is the result of price hikes; Gleevec’s U.S. list price jumped 83 percent
from January 2010 to January 2014, from $139 to $255 per 400-milligram pill.

Eric Althoff, a spokesperson for Novartis, said via e-mail that the company’s
pricing isn’t, and shouldn’t be, based on the cost of developing and manufacturing
its drugs. “We invest in developing novel and current treatments to find ways to
make more cancers survivable,” he said. “This is challenging and risky and needs
to be taken into consideration when discussing pricing of treatments.” Althoff also
said Novartis had contributed $389.4 million to copay charities since 2004.

The charities are at pains to distance their work from the drugmakers’ pric-
ing strategies. “Pharmaceutical companies do want to donate to nonprofits to
help people,” says Kuhn. “For what reasons? I can’t answer that.”

Daniel Klein, PAN Foundation’s chief executive officer, says his organization
has no influence over drug prices. “We are unaware of any data demonstrating
that the help provided by charitable patient assistance organizations such as PAN
has any impact on drug prices,” he says. In interviews and e-mails, the heads of
several other copay charities also stressed their independence from donors.

If a charity fund pays mostly for one particular drug, it may be for reasons
that have nothing to do with whether the drug’s maker is a donor – one drug

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 39

might simply have a bigger market share, for ex- INSIGHT COVER STORY
ample. If, however, a charity supports one drug over
another when both treat the same disease, that could To ensure that charities and drug companies op-
violate Medicare’s anti-kickback rules. The criminal erate independently, federal regulators prohibit the
penalties for such violations can reach $25,000 and charities from disclosing detailed information about
five years in prison for each kickback, and civil fines their operations, which drug companies could use
can be up to $50,000 per violation. to calculate the impact of their donations to their
bottom lines. However, data obtained through the
Freedom of Information Act shows that pharma
companies are able to sponsor funds that mostly
support their own drugs.

Over a 16-month period in 2013 and 2014, PAN
Foundation had 51 disease funds, 41 of which got
most of their money from single drug-company do-
nors, according to data PAN provided to regulators.
Of those 41, 24 funds paid most of their copay assis-
tance claims for patients using drugs made and sold
by their dominant donor.

PAN’s Klein says all its funds are managed “in strict
compliance with federal regulations and all are man-
aged independently of the donors.” Charity directors
say they try to have their funds cover wide varieties
of medicines, lessening the chance that a drugmaker
can support mostly its own customers.“In our mod-
el, the money gets spread out across a lot of differ-
ent treatments and products,” says Alan Balch, CEO
of the Patient Advocate Foundation, which counsels
patients and also has a copay program.

But in presentations and marketing materials over
the years, some charities have explicitly pitched drug
companies on how donations can help their bottom
lines.

In a PSI newsletter in 2004, Kuhn promised a “win-
win” solution for patients and drugmakers. “We pro-
vide a way for pharmaceutical companies to turn

CONTINUED ON PAGE 42

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 39 INSIGHT COVER STORY

their ‘free product’ programs into revenue by finding and a partner at law firm Venable. He says the bro- from these charities, if their contributions are nec-
long-term reimbursement solutions,” he wrote. Even chure hasn’t been used in a decade and “is complete- essary to help patients. “Of course there are benefits
today, on the PSI website, one executive describes ly inconsistent with every policy and position that to drug companies, but the benefits to the general
how companies working with the charity “have real- the organization takes.” public are greater,” says Tenenbaum.
ized increased product usage” while reducing “use in
compassionate product.” He adds that there was nothing improper with The Department of Health and Human Services
the Questcor relationship and that there’s nothing responded to the CDF flap by telling all nonprofits
Another charity, Chronic Disease Fund, was even wrong, in general, with drug companies benefiting in 2014 that it was going to scrutinize disease funds
more explicit. In a brochure published in 2006, it said
drugmakers’ gifts to copay charities – which, again,
may be tax-deductible – can be more profitable than
many of the companies’ for-profit initiatives. “In
other words,” the CDF pamphlet said, “to achieve
the same return as your charitable patient financial
assistance program you would need to run a pre-tax
for-profit program with a return of 81 percent.”

CDF now goes by the name Good Days from CDF.
It changed its moniker after the copay charities en-
dured the closest thing they’ve ever seen to a scandal.
In 2013, Barron’s published an article suggesting CDF
was creating disease funds to help Questcor Pharma-
ceuticals, a drugmaker that was donating millions of
dollars to the charity.

CDF was offering assistance to people afflicted
with 37 diseases, but eight of its funds supported only
a single Questcor product called Acthar, according to
Barron’s. Acthar treats a range of ailments from infan-
tile spasms to lupus, but other treatments for those
maladies are available. After additional publicity, in-
cluding a couple of detailed reports from short sell-
ers, who suggested Questcor’s sales were propped up
by an improperly close relationship with the charity,
CDF replaced its top executive and board of directors.

CDF “completely disavows” the 2006 brochure,
says Jeffrey Tenenbaum, an attorney for the charity

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INSIGHT COVER STORY

more closely to make sure they weren’t favoring drug-company donors. Since
then, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at Health and Human Services,
which oversees Medicare spending, has largely signed off on the operations of
most of the charities.

In December the inspector general gave a favorable advisory opinion to Car-
ing Voice Coalition, a charity that attracted $131 million in contributions last
year. Five former managers and employees say Caring Voice favored drug com-
panies that were donors over those that weren’t.

Patients who needed donor companies’ drugs got help quickly, the former
staff members say, while patients who had the same disease but used another
company’s drug were sometimes steered away or wait-listed. The former em-
ployees asked that their names not be used because they signed nondisclosure
agreements or they feared backlash from the charity’s executives.

In 2011, Caring Voice set up a fund for narcolepsy, and Jazz Pharmaceuticals
made a donation. Jazz makes the narcolepsy drug Xyrem, which has risen in
price by more than 1,000 percent since 2007 and now costs about $89,000 per
year for a typical patient, according to Connecture, which sells software that
compares drug prices.

Two other drugs that treat narcolepsy, Provigil and Nuvigil, were made at the time
by a company called Cephalon, which wasn’t a Caring Voice donor. When narco-
lepsy patients contacted CaringVoice, those who used Xyrem could typically expect
help quickly, the former employees say. Patients who used Provigil or Nuvigil were
referred back to Cephalon. Patients who could prove that Cephalon’s foundation
denied them help would be added to a Caring Voice waiting list. One former man-
ager says he doesn’t recall anyone moving off the wait list and getting help.

On May 10, Jazz Pharmaceuticals announced that the Department of Jus-
tice had issued a subpoena for documents related to the company’s support
of charities that provide financial assistance for Medicare patients. The Jazz
disclosure specifically mentioned Xyrem but didn’t provide details about which
relationships with specific charities were under scrutiny. The company declined
to comment about the subpoena.

Medicare spent $996 million
on Gleevec in 2014 after the
cancer drug’s price spiked

It’s unclear how much money Jazz contributed to Caring Voice, but a com-
pany spokeswoman confirmed it has given since 2011 and said the company
has no role in determining which patients the charity supports.

In an e-mailed statement, Caring Voice’s president, Pam Harris, said the
nonprofit’s programs cover a broad variety of drugs and its staff members use
uniform criteria to determine patients’ eligibility for help, regardless of which
drugs they use. “Assistance is awarded without regard to any donor’s interest,”
Harris said. She declined to answer additional questions.

Earlier this year, the copay charities gathered for a conference at Baltimore’s
Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor Hotel, where their staff members mingled with
representatives from Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Genentech, and oth-
er drug companies.

One panel discussion focused on “OIG oversight” and “opinions and devel-
opments on patient assistance.” Another focused on “legal and compliance con-
siderations.” A third touched on “manufacturer/foundation relations.” Bloom-
berg wasn’t allowed to hear what was said; at the check-in desk, a conference
staffer told a reporter that journalists weren’t welcome at the two-day event, even
if they paid the $2,399 entrance fee.

In the hotel lobby, Kuhn, the father of this industry, sat alone, eating a light
breakfast. He was wary of answering more questions and demurred on a request
to visit PSI’s offices. He asked for a guarantee that a story wouldn’t damage the
system he built.

The charities, Kuhn said, “are all totally legitimate.” On the phone, weeks ear-
lier, he’d expressed a similar concern. “I don’t want to see people put uneducated
questions into people’s minds about not-for-profit foundations,” Kuhn said.

If the government forced charities to expand their funds to include multiple dis-
eases and more drugs, pharma companies might pull their support, he said. “Some
foundations might have to close programs because they become so broad.”

Is that because drug companies won’t support charities if they can’t be sure
they’re also helping themselves?

“Of course,” Kuhn said. “We live in a capitalistic society. Everyone needs to make
a little bit of money.” 

44 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT EDITORIAL

Heads up! Obama’s new employment rule impacts many

The U.S. Department of Labor last week issued The editors, reporters and photographers who ministration seeks, the result will be a degradation
a rule, set to take effect on December 1, which will work for community newspapers like ours are cur- in the quality and quantity of local news reported by
force most white-collar employees who earn less rently exempt employees – professionals who have community newspapers.
than $47,476 a year to begin punching a clock, and never thought of themselves as hourly workers.
require that they be paid overtime for any hours they According to the National Newspaper Associa-
work exceeding 40 in a week. As is the case with many other Vero businesses tion, more than 83 percent of community newspa-
and organizations, the new threshold – $47,476 – pers believe the requirement will be a “huge” or very
To understand what’s happening, you need to will affect several of our staff members who are at significant problem for their business.
know that the federal government divides all work- relatively early points in their careers. The Obama
ers into one of two categories: exempt workers, who Administration’s response would be: ‘Put them on a We expect many other businesses and their asso-
are not required to receive overtime pay, and nonex- straight 40-hour week, and if they work more hours, ciations to weigh in with similar forecasts shortly.
empt workers, who must receive overtime pay. pay them overtime!”
The National Newspaper Association also has
The exempt category is largely reserved for em- But for us, as well as other businesses, it is not urged the Labor Department to adopt a regional
ployees who perform executive, professional or quite that simple. For people covering the news, the approach that accounts for differences in the cost
technical services, outside sales employees, and a work is difficult to standardize to a particular time of living between big cities and smaller communi-
few other narrowly defined categories. An employee frame, which has always been one of the key tests for ties.
also must earn at least $23,660 a year at present to be exempt employees.
considered exempt. While $47,476 might make sense as a minimum
Let’s say, for example, depending on the ebb and salary level for exempt employees in places like New
The Obama Administration’s new rule doubles flow of news, that one of our reporters or photogra- York City and Washington, D.C., it is way too high
this threshold. It is expected to have its greatest phers works 50 hours this week, 30 hours next week for small towns and rural areas. In fact, $47,476 is
impact on sectors that include health care, finance, and 40 hours the following week, knowing we de- significantly higher than the median household in-
retail trade, insurance, nonprofits, restaurants, edu- pend on him or her to simply get the job done. come in Indian River County.
cational services and community newspapers.
If the new rule makes them nonexempt, we will We recognize that the problems this new rule
There is no exemption from this rule for small be required by law to track all those hours and pay will create for us and other community newspa-
businesses or nonprofit organizations. overtime for any hours over 40 in a given week, even pers are not unique. Many other Vero Beach and
if they work less than 40 the next week. Indian River County businesses will also be ad-
Nearly all employees who earn less than the new versely affected.
required salary will be automatically classified as The tracking is the biggest part of the problem.
non-exempt regardless of their job duties. The likelihood is we will be forced to require report- We believe Congress should require the Labor De-
ers and photographers – who largely spend most of partment to stay the rule, and go back to the draw-
About 35 percent of all full-time salaried employ- their time covering events – to spend at least the be- ing boards to study the impact this huge change in
ees in the United States will become eligible for time ginning and end of their workdays at the office so the exempt employee threshold will have on small
and a half when they work extra hours under the we can accurately monitor the number of hours they businesses and small communities.
new rule – huge increase from the 7 percent who put in. The same is even more the case for graphic
qualify under the current threshold, according to designers, whom we allow to telecommute on week- Companion bills have been introduced in the
the Labor Department. ends. They will no longer be able to work from home. House and Senate (S. 2707 / H.R. 4773) that would
suspend the rule.
Now, if you think that $23,660 doesn’t sound like The new rule also means we will have to tell staff-
a high enough salary to be exempt from earning ers they cannot check their company email accounts Already, 139 national organizations and 201 re-
overtime, we agree – and that is precisely what the in their off hours. That would count as work time. gional, state, and local organizations have joined
change is designed to address. That salary thresh- letters urging Members of Congress to support these
old was last set in 2004, so more than a decade has If the new rule is allowed to take effect, according bills.
passed and it hasn’t increased with inflation. to a National Newspaper Association survey, more
than 30 percent of community newspapers will be We strongly suggest that Indian River County en-
In our view, an increase in the threshold was overdue. forced to eliminate staff positions, and 33 percent trepreneurs and non-profits focus now on the eco-
None of our professional employees earns that little. will reduce news coverage. nomic impact and compliance burden Obama’s new
But we also agree with the National Newspaper Associ- rule will impose on their business or organization,
ation that the abrupt doubling of it was a big mistake. Rather than the increased wages the Obama Ad- and contact Rep. Bill Posey to urge him to vote for
H.R. 4773. 

BRAIN ATTACK, PART III control it. Many people are able to control high cholesterol
Can You Prevent a Stroke? with diet and exercise; however, some require medication.
 CIRCULATION PROBLEMS
While there are risk factors for stroke that are beyond your Find out from your doctor if you have circulation problems.
control, such as age, gender and ethnic background, below If so, work with him or her to control them. Fatty deposits
are steps you can take to help lower your risk for stroke (ar- can block arteries that carry blood from your heart to your
ranged alphabetically): brain. Sickle cell disease, severe anemia, or other diseases
 ALCOHOL can cause stroke if left untreated.
Although drinking a glass of wine or beer or one drink each  DIABETES
day may lower your risk for stroke (if there’s no other medi- Diabetes puts you at an increased risk for stroke. If you are
cal reason you should avoid alcohol), if you don’t drink, don’t diabetic, follow your doctor’s recommendations. He or she
start. If you do drink, do so in moderation. Remember that can prescribe a nutrition program, lifestyle changes and
alcohol is a drug; it can interact with other drugs you take. It’s medicine that can help control your diabetes.
harmful if taken in large doses.  EXERCISE
 ATRIAL FIBRILLATION (AF) Make exercise part of your daily routine. A brisk walk, swim
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common type of arrhyth- or other exercise activity for as little as 30 minutes a day can
mia (a problem with the rate or rhythm of your heartbeat). improve your health and may reduce your risk for stroke.
AF can cause blood to collect in the chambers of your heart.  LOW SODIUM/LOWER FAT DIET
This blood can form clots and cause a stroke. Your doctor can By lowering your sodium (salt) intake and eating a lower fat
detect AF by carefully checking your pulse. If you do have AF, diet, you may be able to lower your blood pressure and risk
work with your physician to manage it. for stroke.
 BLOOD PRESSURE  SMOKING
High blood pressure is a leading cause of stroke. Be sure to Smoking doubles the risk for stroke. If you smoke, stop. As soon
check your blood pressure periodically—at least once a year; as you stop smoking your risk for stroke begins to decrease.
more often if you have a history of high blood pressure. Work
with your doctor to keep it under control. By making positive lifestyle changes, it is possible to low-
 CHOLESTEROL er your risk for stroke.
High cholesterol can indirectly increase stroke risk by putting Join us next time as we conclude this series on Brain Attack. 
you at greater risk of heart disease—a significant stroke risk
factor. If your cholesterol is high, work with your doctor to Your comments and suggestions for future topics are always
welcome. Email us at [email protected].

© 2015 Vero Beach 32963 Media, all rights reserved

46 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT BOOK REVIEW

Nathaniel Philbrick knows how to tell a good tale. and absorbing, but it is his revisionist portrait of with a description of the setting that mirrors the dark
In “Valiant Ambition,” he tells not one but three of Maj. John André that makes this book an important motives and the greed that drive these two schem-
them. The first is an account of the early years of the one. Traditionally, this young, handsome and charm- ers. They stood, he writes, “in the combined shadows
Revolutionary War, with the battlefield victories and ing British officer who collaborated with Arnold in of two mountains and the surrounding trees. It must
defeats, the ebb and flow of the public’s support for the West Point plot is presented as a sympathetic, have been so dark that they could barely make out
the cause, and the endless struggles between the even noble figure. But Philbrick tells us that we have each other’s presence, only their white breeches and
civilian government and military leadership that been duped. André has far more in common with André’s expensive, white-topped boots visible in the
hamper the war effort. This story, which could stand Arnold than we had supposed; beneath his mask of gloom.” After the plot is discovered, Philbrick follows
alone, provides the context for the finely drawn char- dignity and simple patriotism, André is ruthless and André’s flight to freedom, step by step, until his con-
acter studies of George Washington and Benedict Ar- ambitious. The André we think we know, Philbrick tempt for the common soldier leads to his capture.
nold that are the central tales of the book. explains, is a con artist, skilled in ingratiating himself
with anyone who can advance his career or write him Only two things mar this book. The first is that the
In less skillful hands, the war’s narrative could into history as a man of dignity and honor. multiple tales do not flow into one another smoothly.
have been an exhausting account of battle after bat- There is a jerky shifting, back and forth, between the
tle, producing little more than a scorecard of wins From beginning to end, the relationship between larger picture of war and politics and the intimate
and losses for the American Army. But Philbrick Arnold and André is the most compelling tale in portrait of Washington, just as there is too abrupt a
wants his readers to experience the terror, the suffer- the book. Philbrick introduces their fateful meeting, shift in perspective between the betrayed general and
ing and the adrenaline rush of battle, and he wants where the terms of Arnold’s betrayal were settled, his former protégé. The second is a flawed interpre-
us to grit our teeth at our early politicians who, by tation of the significance of Arnold’s thwarted plot.
their pettiness and shortsightedness, shape military Ten top-ranking Nazis were sent to the gallows Philbrick’s insistence that Arnold’s treason awakened
events as profoundly as generals and admirals do. Fi- in 1946 by the international war crimes tribunal in Americans “to the realization that the War of Inde-
nally, he reveals the emotional and physical cost of Nuremberg. Many more escaped justice for decades pendence was theirs to lose,” that his betrayal taught
war on colonial society. He succeeds on all fronts. or forever, some by taking their own lives, some by them what they were fighting for and that it spurred
going into hiding and some merely because all but a them to focus on transforming 13 colonies into a na-
Consider how vividly he captures the destruction of few dedicated avengers lost interest in them. In “The tion is a serious misreading of the era.
Philadelphia by the British occupation: “The city was Nazi Hunters,” Andrew Nagorski scrutinizes the vary-
a shambles. The British had used the State House as a ing backgrounds, means and motives of the small The revolution, it turns out, was the French na-
prison, and the floors of its once immaculate rooms number of investigators and prosecutors who re- vy’s to win or lose – something Washington knew
were heaped with human waste … ‘Genteel houses’ fused to give up. “Notions of revenge and justice were well. Men like Thomas Paine and Patrick Henry and
had been used for stables by the British, who cut holes often intermingled,” Nagorski writes of the effort to Thomas Jefferson, not to mention hundreds of pa-
in the floors so that the dung could be shoveled into punish Nazi war criminals, “whatever the motives of triotic women who entered politics as “daughters
the cellars.” Consider also his use of the journal of the executioners themselves.” of liberty,” gave ample testimony to the purpose of
young Joseph Plumb Martin to capture the terrors of the war. And Arnold’s betrayal did not jump-start the
battle and the deprivations of military life. As British Nagorski is a veteran author and foreign corre- consolidation of 13 independent and separate mini-
warships bombarded the American Army at Kips Bay, spondent whose “Hitlerland: American Eyewitness- nations into one. It would take two constitutions, a
the 15-year-old soldier contemplated his death by es to the Nazi Rise to Power” is the alpha to the ome- farmer’s revolt in Massachusetts, the combined ge-
considering “which part of my carcass was to go first.” ga of “The Nazi Hunters.” Even before the final defeat nius of nationalists such as James Madison and Alex-
of Germany, as Nagorski points out, partisans and ander Hamilton, and a second war with Great Britain
Washington’s and Arnold’s tales take shape under surviving inmates of liberated concentration camps to turn “these” United States into “the” United States.
similar circumstances. Washington has, of course, were subjecting their persecutors to rough justice. The tales Philbrick tells do not need such lofty conse-
been the subject of countless books and articles, For a few years after the first Nazi war criminals felt quences to be worth reading. 
paintings and sculptures. His records, including the nooses around their necks, hundreds more were
daily business of his plantation, his military order judged and condemned in less-celebrated trials con- VALIANT AMBITION
books, his personal correspondence, and his political ducted by both the Allied victors and by the countries
addresses and proclamations, have been edited, an- GEORGE WASHINGTON, BENEDICT ARNOLD, AND
notated and digitized, and used by scholars to plumb THE FATE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
his depths. But Philbrick brings us a Washington we By Nathaniel Philbrick, Viking. 427 pp. $30
may not have appreciated before, a man who was less Review by Carol Berkin, The Washington Post
hero than thoughtful leader, a man given to musing
and contemplation, and a man of empathy as much only recently liberated from German occupation. But
as action. The author captures this Washington in a Nagorski also allows us to see that the ardor for find-
single scene: The general was wrapped in his cloak, ing and punishing war criminals quickly abated, and
lying amid his men through the long night after the the task fell to a handful of self-appointed seekers of
Battle of Monmouth.When a soldier hesitated to wake retribution.
him, Washington relieved him of his concern. “I laid
here to think,” he told the officer, “and not to sleep.” Among the Nazi hunters whose lives and work are
reprised in Nagorski’s book are figures who are now,
Washington was a man of “valiant ambition,” but like Simon Wiesenthal, nearly mythic. But Nagorski
his striving was social rather than personal: its goal insists on affording both blame and credit wherever
was the independence of his country. Here is the they are due. At the heart of his book is the agonizing
critical contrast with Benedict Arnold, a man of un- saga of Nazi hunters such as Tuvia Friedman – who
bounded personal ambition who saw the war as a ve- has been mostly overshadowed by Wiesenthal – and
hicle for his own elevation and profit. Arnold was not Mossad Director Isser Harel and West German Attor-
so much a villain as a narcissist; he was, in Philbrick’s ney General Fritz Bauer, who both worked to locate
view, high-strung and libidinous, impatient, greedy and recover Adolf Eichmann. Their tales feature mo-
and self-serving, an elitist contemptuous of the men ments of intrepidity and recrimination in equal mea-
who admired him and vengeful toward those who did sure. Indeed, the Eichmann case is not the only one
not. He had a temperament and character that made in which Nagorski perceives that the Nazi hunters
him oblivious to the harm he did to others, but he had battled each other as much as they fought those who
neither the malice nor the sadism of a true villain. In had served the Third Reich.
starkest terms, Washington was a leader of men while
Arnold was a user of them. Among the synonyms for That was particularly evident in the case of Kurt
“valiant” are “heroic,” “gallant” and “lionhearted,” Waldheim, who had already served as secretary gen-
which defined Washington; “bold,” “daring” and “au- eral of the United Nations and was running for the
dacious,” which defined the man who betrayed him. presidency of Austria in 1986 when his Nazi asso-

Philbrick’s reading of these two men is nuanced

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 47

INSIGHT BOOK REVIEW

ciations came to public attention. It turned out that The post-WWII Nuremberg Trials in Germany new adversaries behind the Iron Curtain – pre-
Waldheim had served under a superior officer who cisely because they had proved to be such ruthless
was later hanged as a war criminal, and questions Nagorski also reminds us of the ugly fact that the enemies of the Soviet Union during World War II.
were raised about Waldheim’s war record. Waldheim West seemed to lose interest in the punishment of Thus did the Advisory Board of Clemency, headed
went on to win his election, but the revelations “not Nazi war criminals during the Cold War. At that time, by Cold War power broker John J. McCloy, commute
only ignited a fiery debate on the campaign trail but some former Nazis in West Germany were regarded the death sentences and reduce the prison terms of
also led to angry recriminations among rival Nazi as useful collaborators in the struggle against our various Nazi war criminals, an act that Nuremberg
hunters, and between the Jewish community in Aus- prosecutor Telford Taylor condemned as “the em-
tria and the New York-based World Jewish Congress,” bodiment of political expediency.”
as Nagorski reports. “No one emerged a clear winner,
and many reputations were tarred in the process.” As many as 10,000 participants in Nazi war crimes
may have been welcomed to the United States un-
Nagorski also introduces us to Nazi hunters whose der a law that was meant to shelter the victims of
exploits have been mostly overlooked. Jan Sehn, de- Nazi aggression and persecution. Only the efforts of
scribed as “about as original a Nazi hunter as could a few freelance Nazi hunters such as Serge and Be-
be imagined,” was a Polish investigative judge who ate Klarsfeld, who delivered SS officer Klaus Barbie
interrogated and prosecuted Auschwitz camp com- to a French courtroom in 1987, and a few prosecu-
mandant Rudolf Höss. Sehn may have been aton- tors who acted on the available evidence have con-
ing for his own German ancestry when he dedicated tinued to remind the world of the war criminals who
himself to gathering, preserving and presenting live among us.
hard evidence of the war crimes of Poland’s occupi-
ers. Höss, too, was sentenced to die, but even more Nagorski acknowledges the sharp debate over the
important is the testimony that Sehn extracted from diminishing returns of Nazi hunting at a time when
him before he was hanged. From the witness stand, the last of the perpetrators are far more likely to die
Höss provided a flat repudiation to the Holocaust of old age than at the end of a rope. Still, he sees a
deniers: “The ‘final solution’ of the Jewish question,” transcendent and enduring purpose to all these ex-
he testified, “meant the complete extermination of ertions. “Genocide” – a term coined in 1933 by the
all Jews in Europe.” Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin and first used
in court by Ferencz in a trial of Nazi war criminals
Much of Nagorski’s evidence is archival, but he – is now an established principle of international
has also found his way to some firsthand testimo- law. Remarkably, it was Ferencz who delivered the
ny from the last surviving participants in the war- closing argument in the first trial of the Interna-
crimes trials. Benjamin Ferencz, for example, was 93 tional Criminal Court in 2011, when a Congolese
years old when Nagorski interviewed him in Florida rebel leader was convicted of recruiting child sol-
in 2013, and Ferencz vividly recounted his experi- diers. And a line from his closing argument in the
ences as a young war-crimes investigator and pros- Einsatzgruppen trial was quoted in the proceedings
ecutor in postwar Europe. When Ferencz examined of U.N. tribunals on war crimes in Yugoslavia and
a cache of secret reports in a Gestapo file that de- Rwanda: “If these men be immune, then law has lost
tailed the shootings of Jews, gypsies and civilians by its meaning, and man must live in fear.”
mobile killing units on the Eastern Front, he went to
work with an adding machine. “When I passed the Exactly here is the raison d’etre for Nagorski’s
figure of one million, I stopped adding,” Ferencz re- deep and sweeping account of a relentless search
called. “That was quite enough for me.” Armed with for justice that began in 1945 and is only now com-
documentary evidence, he served as the U.S. pros- ing to an end. 
ecutor in the trial of the willing executioners whose
fingers were actually on the triggers, a proceeding THE NAZI HUNTERS
the Associated Press called the “biggest murder trial
in history.” By Andrew Nagorski, Simon & Schuster. 393pp. $30

Review by Jonathan Kirsch, The Washington Post

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48 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT TRAVEL

Three for the road: Tips for summer travelers

BY JOHN OWENS freshed Queen Mary 2 from New York
Columnist to Southampton, England. The seven-
night crossing on this modern ocean
CUT THE LINE. Imagine zipping liner costs as little as $1,100 per per-
through airport security. Forget the son for a balcony stateroom.
endless lines. No need to remove your
shoes, belt or laptop. More than 4 mil- From there, you could spend two
lion flyers already have done this by weeks wending your way home across
enrolling in one of the Department of the Atlantic on any number of ships
Homeland Security’s Trusted Traveler and still not come close to the busi-
Programs. If you haven’t yet joined, it’s ness-class airfare. One heck of a bar-
not too late to minimize the hassles gain, indeed.
for what the Transportation Security
Administration says will be the busi- KIDS VISITING THIS SUMMER?
est (i.e., most backed-up) summer in If they’re fans of the “Frozen” movie
recent memory. franchise, you can earn huge hero
points by heading straight for Walt
The best bet for those expecting to Disney World. “Frozen” characters
travel both domestically and abroad and activities are popping up around
is Global Entry. Fill out the form at the Mouse Kingdom.
www.cbp.gov (look under the Travel
At Epcot’s Norway Pavilion, the Fro-

tab); pay the $100 non-refundable ally every major line are winding up Want a more exotic itinerary? Dur- zen Ever After water ride launches in
fee; and after initial processing, an their moves from winter/spring itin- ing the 13-night cruise from Barce- June (though Disney isn’t being more
in-person interview and fingerprint eraries in the Caribbean to spend the lona to Fort Lauderdale’s Port Ever- specific), along with Royal Sommer-
scan will be scheduled at a Global summer in Alaska or summer/fall in glades, the Celebrity Equinox stops hus, a warm-weather getaway for char-
Entry Enrollment Center. The nearest Europe. Come autumn, the exodus in Cartagena, Spain; Agadir, Morocco; acters from the movie.
one is at West Palm Beach Interna- reverses, and during late October and and both Lanzarote and Tenerife, Ca-
tional Airport. early November, dozens of ships cross nary Islands. The departure date is Even the most jaded member of the
The Pond from Europe. Oct. 25, and with balcony staterooms family will be impressed by Epcot’s Soa-
Once approved, you will get five selling for as little as $1,500, this is an rin’ Around the World as you fly over
years of membership, and be able to With so many berths on offer during even bigger bargain than the Eclipse the Great Pyramids of Egypt and dash
check in at special kiosks in airports a relatively short period, prices are re- cruise. In fact, depending on the line through the Eiffel Tower. Replacing the
around the country, as well as in sev- markably low. And if you act now, you and stateroom, you can pay as little as long-in-the-technological-tooth Soarin’
eral other countries, including the Ba- can lock in not only the best deals, but $50 per person per day. Over California, this new ride, which
hamas, Ireland and Abu Dhabi. the best itineraries, too. opens June 17, serves up the sights,
Another way to look at these reposi- sounds and even smells of our planet as
Even if there isn’t a kiosk, the program Consider, for instance, Celebrity tioning deals is to consider that in late laser projectors and special effects sur-
touts “expedited entry benefits in other Cruises’ 15-night transatlantic voyage October/early November, a round- round you within an 80-foot-tall dome
countries.” Just bear in mind that your aboard the Celebrity Eclipse. Depart- trip business-class ticket from Orlan- and gobsmack you with the sensations,
membership covers only you, not mem- ing Southampton, England, on Oct. 29, do to London’s Heathrow Airport costs if not the reality, of flight.
bers of your family. So if you travel as a the ship visits Boston, New York, Ber- at least $4,200.
group, make sure each person signs up. muda and Port Canaveral before wrap- Have you recently returned from a
ping things up in Miami. The price for But if you were to take Elite Airways trip? We would like to tell your story,
FROM EUROPE, WITH DEALS. a balcony stateroom is under $2,000 from Vero to Newark on Oct. 23 ($149), and share your insights and adventures
When it comes to blue-chip travel per person. On a per-day basis, that’s and then spend two nights in Manhat- with your neighbors. Send us an email at
bargains, nothing beats repositioning about half what you’d pay for a typical tan ($500), you could get aboard the [email protected]. 
cruises. Right now, ships from virtu- high-season Caribbean cruise. Oct. 25 sailing of Cunard’s newly re-

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 49

INSIGHT GAMES BRIDGE

ANOTHER VARIATION ON A THEME WEST NORTH EAST
?532 A Q 10 7 ?
By Phillip Alder - Bridge Columnist A 10 8 7 3 52 Q96
96 AK4 10 8 7 5 3
Aldous Huxley’s book “Themes and Variations” was published in 1950. It included this 10 7 8532 QJ94
sentence: Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for
granted. SOUTH
J964
Beginning bridge players soon learn not to take much for granted. There are so many KJ4
variations on themes — this deal, for example. QJ2
AK6
Last week, I discussed the right play for J-9-6-4 opposite A-Q-10-7. In isolation, taking
the finesse is correct. In theory, it will win 50 percent of the time. A priori, the king will Dealer: South; Vunerable: East-West
be singleton offside a little under one time in 33. But in yesterday’s deal, taking the
finesse was wrong, because the king was known to be offside from the bidding. That The Bidding:
does not apply here, but why is it an error for South to take the spade finesse in three
no-trump after West leads a fourth-highest heart seven to East’s queen and declarer’s SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST OPENING
king? 1 NT Pass 3 NT All Pass
LEAD:
If North had used Stayman, South would have been in four spades, a contract that 7 Hearts
would have normally required either the spade finesse to work or a good heart guess (or
heart lead from West).

In three no-trump, South has seven top tricks: one spade, one heart (trick one), three
diamonds and two clubs. He will obviously play on spades for the extra winners, and if
that finesse is working, he can gain an overtrick. However, if it loses and West led from a
five- or six-card suit, the contract will fail. Declarer should fight to keep East off the lead.
He should start with the spade jack, to encourage a cover by West, but then rise with
dummy’s ace. If the king drops, great; if the royal does not appear, South leads another
spade and hopes for the best.

50 Vero Beach 32963 / May 26, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™
SOLUTIONS TO PREVIOUS ISSUE (MAY 19) ON PAGE 70
INSIGHT GAMES & CO.

ACROSS DOWN
1 Policeman (3) 1 Surrender (10)
3 Edible seed (3) 2 Flag (7)
5 Ceremony (4) 3 Choose (4)
7 Terror (5) 4 Fleet (6)
8 Spanish capital (6) 5 Heater or cooler (8)
10 Russian emperor (4) 6 Hackneyed (5)
11 Close by (8) 9 Required (10)
13 Epistle (6) 12 Answer (8)
14 Front cover of shoe (6) 15 Whim (7)
17 Dramatic actor (8) 16 Fondle (6)
19 Gemstone (4) 18 Weird (5)
21 Cower (6) 20 Encircle; arena (4)
22 Moron (5)
The Telegraph 23 In this place (4)
24 Droop (3)
25 Finish (3)

How to do Sudoku:

Fill in the grid so the
numbers one through
nine appear just once
in every column, row
and three-by-three
square.

The Telegraph