Opinion – Page 4 – West Boca News

Sonic Judgment, Posse Comitatus and Public Notice

F-15; U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Samuel Rogers

Shortly before 7 pm Friday night many thousands of South Florida residents were startled by a loud noise that shook homes from Weston to Wellington.
West Boca News received dozens of messages, calls, text messages along with hundreds of comments from readers. We were unable to find solid answers for hours.
Some local officials put out short, vague notices. The Broward Sheriff was particularly confusing:

A military event could mean a lot of things – an attack on our country, a coup, a training exercise, etc.
This morning we did find a release from NORAD that seems credible.

A pair of Air Force F-15s … intercepted an unresponsive general aviation aircraft near the Palm Beach, Fla., area at approximately 7 p.m. EST.
The intercept required the Air Force F-15s from Homestead Air National Guard Base to travel at supersonic speeds, a sound noticed by area residents, to get to the general aviation aircraft where they were able to establish communications.

This leaves us with two concerns about the judgment of whoever made the decision to go supersonic.
First, was it necessary and appropriate?

Air Force procedures require that, whenever possible, flights be over open water, above 10,000 feet and no closer than 15 miles from shore. Supersonic operations over land must be conducted above 30,000 feet or, when below 30,000 feet, in specially designated areas approved by Headquarters United States Air Force, Washington, D.C., and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Going supersonic is not something the Air Force is supposed to take lightly. Moreover, military operations within the borders of the United States are supposed to be limited by the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.
The reports are that the sonic booms started in Weston and continued to somewhere near Boynton Beach or Wellington. That’s in the ballpark of 40 miles. At 750 mph (just below the speed of sound) a plane would travel that distance in just over 3 minutes. At 1500 mph an F15 would get there in half the time. Going supersonic got them there perhaps 90 seconds quicker.
We would like to give the Air Force the benefit of the doubt and hope that yesterday’s decision was correct under the circumstances. But that leads to our second concern.
If they’re going to rattle homes over a 40 mile densely populated stretch, alarming over 100,000 people, they should let us know what happened immediately. We heard numerous reports of distress, including police coming out of their stations with guns drawn, children crying, 911 calls overwhelming the operators, and neighbors rushing outside their homes and getting to know each other.
NORAD should have plans in place to notify local law enforcement and media when this happens. We don’t expect West Boca News to make the list but the local TV stations and major regional newspapers certainly should.

Student Article: Welcome to the World Today

By Amanda Brooke from West Boca High
Take a look around you. Look at all the faces surrounding you as you sit in math class, or at the park. Are they happy? Are they smiling? They may appear happy, but perhaps that joy is only temporary. Around the world, millions of people face oppression within society on a daily basis.
Welcome to the world today, take a look at how the U.S. Government handles laws; we have bans on anti-discrimination. In what way does prohibiting kindness towards others make any logical sense? Is it not bad enough that fifty-five percent of students feel unsafe in school due to the harassment they receive for their sexual orientation, and thirty-eight percent due to their gender expression (GLSEN*)? They say we should keep distances between church and state, but then they turn around and deny gays services based on beliefs. The courts rule in favor of places such as Hobby Lobby, who won’t help their employees get proper contraceptives, yet Hobby Lobby is willing to give money to companies who support birth control. Why do we put religion before the greater good, if we have such freedom from religion?
Let’s talk about suicide and scarred up thighs; let’s talk about the grades that are dropping lower, as teens are getting higher. Transgenders have a higher risk of being murdered than soldiers in the Afghanistan war, one out of eight compared to one out of twelve. About 38% of the homeless youth are gays and lesbians who have been kicked out of their homes due to whom they love. According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, there are 293,000 rape incidents every year, and those are just the ones that get reported. Of all those sexual assaults, 47% of the rapists were family members or acquaintances. What’s going on? How do we stop it? Welcome to the world today.
People in magazines tell us if we want a future, we need to be skinny, beautiful, and tall. Eyes all around are judging us based on looks, fashion, and behavior, but what about what’s inside of us? Doesn’t our personality count for anything? We live in a society where little kids can’t stand to look in the mirror, for fear of blemishes or having too much meat on their bones. Middle schoolers starve themselves to fit a size zero, while the others shove fingers down their throats, because ‘the calories don’t count if it’s not fully digested.’ The rate of eating disorders in ages fifteen to nineteen years old has increased every decade since the 1930’s, according to the National Eating Disorder Archives records. Unimaginable pressures are put on everyone to do their best, be the best, look the best, but what about our health? What about our sanity? Parents tell us that school is our jobs, that boys will be boys, but does anyone tell us it’s okay to be a little selfish? No, because grades are more important than our well being. Welcome to the world today.
When will Congress wake up and realize that people can no longer survive on minimum wage? Maybe in the 1960’s people could live off twenty dollars for a week, but now that will buy you a box of cereal and some apples. And how is it, exactly, that when a man does the exact same work as a woman, it’s decided he deserves more than her? I don’t remember a consensual discussion occurring in which it was deemed that a male’s labor is worth twenty-two cents more than that of a female’s. We give millions of dollars to celebrities and athletes, but what do they offer to the world? Nothing. We throw money at them like it grows on trees, meanwhile, there are hundreds starving on the streets; they just want to know when they’ll receive their next meal. Welcome to the world today.
We thank the lawyers for getting us out of jail, we thank the doctors for saving lives, but we never thank the teachers who taught them to be the incredible people they now are. No one just wakes up as the top lawyer in their state; they’ve all gone to school. So many people who deserve our thanks get overlooked. Without farmers, we’d have no food. Without teachers, we’d have no intelligence or understanding. Without journalists, we’d be disconnected from the world around us. Lawyers, doctors, businessmen, they are all wonderful, but we must not forget those who do the background work. Welcome to the world today.
What are we doing to our Earth? What is happening to our society? We twist the words of oppression to make everything disguised as being great. Nothing is truly great, we are all in major peril. We need to stand up and make a difference. We need to fight for freedom — for our true freedoms. We need to stand as one nation, for liberty and justice for all. Welcome to the world today.
*Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network

If you are in need of assistance regarding a crisis of some sort, call the National Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Once you place your call, you will be forwarded to the center closest to your location. All calls are confidential and free!

"Penny" Sales Tax Increase Will Cost You $12,000

The average West Boca family of four will pay an additional $12,000 over ten years if the proposed sales tax increase is approved. These estimates follow from the numbers stated by speakers at Tuesday’s West Boca Community Council meeting.
Four speakers addressed the audience (note we covered a similar event in February: Avossa and Berger Speak). First up was County Administrator Verdenia Baker. Substantial details of the plan are available on the One County One Penny website.
Like the three speakers after her, Baker was tone deaf to West Boca residents. In her talk she described how the money that would come to “your area” but a closer look showed she was including all of Boca, Delray and Boynton Beach in that area. She also referred to money going to the City of Boca Raton as in “our area” even though most of West Boca is west of the city lines.
Baker indicated that the total amount of revenue they expect to raise from this tax increase is $2.7 billion. In our analysis, with 1.3 million county residents that works out to over $2000 per resident. For a family of four it’s $8000. With average incomes in West Boca higher than for the county, it translates to roughly $12,000 over the ten years. A typical West Boca family of four will spend an extra $1000 on sales tax in the first year, with the number rising to $1500 or more in later years.
Fifty percent of the money from the tax will go to the school district, thirty percent to the county and twenty percent to the cities.
She described a lengthy list of projects that the money is supposed to go to. We have seen this list before and over half the money goes to projects in West Palm Beach. A very small share will benefit West Boca.
Baker briefly answered questions from us toward the end of the event:

The next speaker was Mike Burke, CFO for the school district. He also described various “needs” in the district. To his credit he started off with a funny joke about the jail and he spoke well. But as with the other speakers he was somewhat tone deaf, focusing on projects far from West Boca and apparently not recognizing the difference between the city and the rest of us.
Our post-event conversation with him is below. It became a little uncomfortable in certain moments but we give him credit for his demeanor and his answers.

As a follow up to this conversation we found the report he mentioned. Contrary to what he said the document does not say that projects will be prioritized by need. That may be the intent but it’s not in there.

Also the report’s descriptions do not match the apocalyptic tone set by Superintendent Avossa, Burke and others.

Finding #3: Of the 196 District schools and facilities assessed, the elementary schools are generally in fair condition (average FCI=15.2%), the middle schools are generally in good condition (average FCI = 13.1%), the high schools are generally in good condition (average FCI = 14.9%), and the ancillary facilities are generally in fair condition (average FCI = 23.1%). The overall District FCI average is 15.0%, which is in the “good” range, but borders on the “fair” range, which begins at 15.1%.

Finally with regard to the schools it should be noted that none of this money will go to hiring teachers or paying them more. It’s only for capital projects.
Next up was Sid Dinerstein, a long-time county Republican leader. After the two previous speakers took a full hour or more, Dinerstein was told he would only have 10 minutes. Dinerstein was also ignored when the event host announced various attendees and left him out.
Dinerstein was by far the most animated and interesting speaker of the four. We caught a brief clip of his speech but he had already left when we looked for him to answer questions at the end.

Dinerstein pointed out that the so-called “penny tax” is a 17 percent increase – from 6 percent to 7 percent. He dismissed the claimed needs asserted by the previous speakers and said the school district is “grossly overfunded”.
He suggested that the main needs of the county are really closer to $400 million rather than the $2.7 billion they are hoping to get from the sales tax increase. Dinerstein argued that it would make more sense to do a $400M bond issue with today’s low interest rates.
Dinerstein demonstrated the same disregard for the West Boca audience. Standing within arm’s reach of Ellen Winikoff he advocated for an extension of the Sawgrass Expressway from Broward into Palm Beach County, an idea that is widely hated here in West Boca. In describing the projects he viewed as necessary they all seemed to be in West Palm Beach, so his approach would do even less for West Boca residents.
The last speaker was Dave Kerner, a state representative who is now running for a county commission seat. He claimed (as did Baker) that 25% of the sales tax would be paid by tourists. If true that only adds to the burden imposed by the recently increased hotel tax to pay for a stadium in – where else – West Palm Beach. They seem unconcerned about or unaware of the risk of killing the goose that lays our golden eggs. If you raise taxes on tourism, tourists might come less often. He also repeated Mary Lou Berger’s February threat to raise property taxes if the sales tax increase is not passed.
Some other interesting details from the evening were:

The Lamborghini exemption – Baker said that the sales tax is capped at purchases under $5000, so if you buy a Lamborghini you won’t pay extra sales tax on most of that purchase.
Kerner and Baker both denied that sales tax is regressive. This is contrary to well established economic studies showing that sales taxes place a higher burden on the poor.
Taniel Shant, who is running against Mary Lou Berger, was in the audience. Shant opposes the sales tax increase.
In other news there has been some talk about developers buying the Boca Municipal Golf Course (north side of Glades west of the Turnpike) and building homes. Nothing has happened yet.
The proposal to build on the farm behind Home Depot is apparently making progress and may possibly resemble Delray Marketplace.
A new park or children’s playground has been built in Watergate Estates (aka West Sandalfoot) and will have a grand opening soon.
There has been an ongoing problem with trucks parking on swales on 66th Street (SW 66th we think) and PBSO is working to stop that.

Endorsement: Lisa Grossman for Judge

Before this election we had no opinion on Judge Marni Bryson. We do now.

Today in the mail we received a highly offensive mailer attacking Lisa Grossman, who is running against Bryson. The mailer identifies itself as being sent by “Keeping Citizens First, Inc.”, which is run by campaign consultant Rick Asnani. Asnani appears to be working for Bryson along with other judicial candidates.
The mailer and similar slurs on the internet and social media misuse personal photos from Grossman’s Facebook account and refer to personal matters that apparently took place thirty years ago. The mailer misleads readers by indicating that Grossman was “found guilty” of what are at worst minor campaign errors, and falsely suggests she has been convicted of crimes. It’s classic libel.
Judge Bryon’s decision to hire a dirty political consultant and participate in such nasty, below-the-belt campaign tactics renders her unqualified to sit as a judge.
As a result, we are endorsing Lisa Grossman for Judge.

Grossman has broad experience in health care and education. As an attorney she served as an assistant public defender, which is one of the hardest jobs in the law.

Car Burglar Arrested – Olympic Heights Alum Caught on Video

The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office arrested Hunter Brett (19) on two counts of car burglary. The arrest happened on Tuesday the 23rd. Brett is a former student of Olympic Heights High School.
On August 15th a reader forwarded us this video showing the car burglaries as they happened:

We posted the video on our Facebook page and commenters helped identify Brett as the likely burglar.
We reached out to the victim in this incident, who said the following:

We are grateful to the West Boca News and its readers for their help in catching this criminal. Let this be a lesson to other criminals that this is a tight knit community and we look out for each other.

Mr. Brett has developed a substantial court history in his short time as an adult. We don’t know what charges he may have faced as a juvenile. What we can see started in December of 2015 with two felony burglary counts and two misdemeanor counts. He was released on $6000 bond (usually meaning someone pays $600 to a bondsman). If you find yourself in a situation where you need a bondsman though, then it might be a good idea to check out a website like johnthebondsman.com.

While that was pending he was arrested in February in Broward facing five different counts including a first degree felony aggravated battery on a police officer, a felony resisting with violence and two drug felonies. He was released on $11,000 bond ($1100 to a bondsman).
For some reason we cannot explain, the pending burglary felonies in Palm Beach County were then resolved with “pre-trial diversion” which is usually a favorable result for a defendant – no jail time and a relatively clean record.
In June he was arrested again on drug charges, at least one of which was a felony. He was released on $5000 bond ($500 to a bondsman).
Now he’s been arrested for a fourth time. It’s not completely clear from the court records but we think bond was set at $23,000 this afternoon.
The last address we have for Mr. Brett is in the Lakes at Boca Raton (north of Yamato near Cain). He is being represented by public defenders on all the cases mentioned. For the first burglary case it appears he was rejected from the diversion program in August and the case has been reopened.
At this writing he remains in custody. Perhaps he will get out and resume visiting area cars again soon. Of course he is innocent until proven guilty. But since it seems likely that he will be doing significant state prison time, some might wonder why they keep letting him out. This soft approach to bail is commonplace in South Florida but unusual in other parts of the state.