Stet NewsGood morning, Moon children. For you today, a scuttled vocational school near the fairgrounds, a billionaire philanthropist for Congress, a policing breakthrough for PEACE, a Community Voices report on Riviera Beach and a red-sauce chef in Jupiter.
🥾 School plan booted, jail up in the air
A proposal to build a vocational high school on county land next to the fairgrounds pits a political activist against County Mayor Sara Baxter.
First, activist Jorge Garrido had Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s support to give up 11 acres at the shuttered stockade, which is set aside for the sheriff’s use. Then he didn’t.
Garrido blamed the turnaround on Baxter’s opposition, prompted by Garrido’s refusal to endorse Baxter’s reelection bid.
Why it matters: While the dispute started over a school, it raises questions about the future of Palm Beach County’s 12-story Gun Club Road jail, which towers over President Donald Trump’s Summit Boulevard golf course.
Zoom in: Since he ran afoul of Baxter, Garrido said county officials have been throwing up roadblocks to derail the proposal to donate county land for SouthTech Academy, a 1,200-student branch campus of the A-rated Boynton Beach-area SouthTech Schools.
What they’re saying: “I would bet everything I own that (a top county administrator) or someone contacted the sheriff and said that land needs to be taken off the table,” Garrido told Stet News.
Garrido described Baxter’s action as trying “to extort” an endorsement. Said Baxter: “It is unfortunate that he feels that way. It is illegal for us to give preference to one applicant over another.”
Bradshaw wrote a letter last April expressing “full support” for the school because it would be “immensely beneficial for both the community and our students.”
Yes, but: In March, Bradshaw’s facilities chief told county staff that the 38-acre stockade area should be off-limits to anything except “the sheriff’s office’s current and future operational requirements.”
The bottom line: The county won’t be leasing land to Garrido for the school, Administrator Joe Abruzzo told Stet News.
Zoom out: The county administrator is considering options for the 34-year-old jail, even after the county recently spent $42 million renovating the adjoining sheriff’s administrative offices.
- “We are getting close to making a decision on expending hundreds of millions of dollars on renovating the existing jail,” he said. “The building is massively out-of-date.”
Of note: It won’t go on the stockade property, Abruzzo said.
See SouthTech’s school plan here.
Read more about Garrido’s clash with the county over the vocational high school and the possibility of moving the main jail at StetNews.org.
— Jane Musgrave
🕶️ Herbie Wertheim throws his red hat into the ring
Billionaire Dr. Herbert “Herbie” Wertheim recently spent $2 million at a charity auction to take his grandsons to dinner at the White House with President Donald Trump.
Now, he’s preparing to spend even more to go to Congress.
Catch up quick: In an exclusive interview with Stet News, Wertheim announced that he had seeded his campaign with $2.5 million to seek the Republican nomination to face off against longtime incumbent Lois Frankel in U.S. House District 22.
Why it matters: Frankel, the former West Palm Beach mayor, has faced many challengers but no close calls since she defeated Republican Adam Hasner in 2012 to lay claim to the House district that includes Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
Zoom in: Wertheim, a retired optometrist, inventor and philanthropist with homes in Palm Beach and Manalapan, is known for wearing a red fedora.
- His philanthropy includes a $100 million gift to the University of Florida to enable its takeover of the Scripps Florida campus in Jupiter. He focuses on preventative health care, an issue he hopes to raise during the campaign.
What they’re saying: “I really believe honestly I can do some good,” he told Stet News. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to differentiate ourselves from others running for the Republican nomination. I don’t want things. I want to give things rather than take things.”
Zoom out: The Republican primary features eight candidates, including Dan Franzese and Deborah Adeimy, who have faced off in the past two election cycles. Franzese won the nomination but lost both times to Frankel.
- Frankel is facing an aggressive challenge from Victoria Doyle for the Democratic nomination.
Of note: The Democratic-leaning district runs from Yamato Road in Boca Raton to Southern Boulevard and along the coast to the north end of West Palm Beach. State legislators plan to redraw congressional district maps at a special session from April 20 to 24, so its ultimate makeup is uncertain.
Read more about Herbie Wertheim and his decision to run for Congress at StetNews.org.
Note: Joel got to know Wertheim when he worked with him on an event in 2023.
— Joel Engelhardt
🚔 A closer look at police traffic stops
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office is for the first time collecting data on verbal warnings made during traffic stops.
Driving the news: The change comes after years of urging by faith-based social justice coalition PEACE and is advised by a nationally recognized expert on bias in policing.
Boston-based Northeastern University Professor Jack McDevitt told the more than 1,200 people gathered last month at the annual PEACE meeting in Jupiter that the verbal warning information provided by Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is a solid data set to start.
Yes, but: McDevitt needs more information to determine whether traffic stops are distributed equally among ethnic and racial groups.
Why it matters: Excessive traffic stops can escalate into police brutality and unnecessary arrests. Data analysis and public transparency can show our community that law enforcement agencies can be trusted, PEACE leaders say.
Initial data showed that of the 140,824 traffic stops conducted by deputies, 23% resulted in a verbal warning, McDevitt said in a report for PEACE.
Zoom out: Sheriff’s deputies patrol unincorporated portions of the county and several cities, including Lake Worth Beach, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach and the Glades.
Zoom in: Persuading the sheriff to collect and share verbal warning data is a breakthrough for PEACE. It creates records of tens of thousands of traffic stops that in the past were not documented, PEACE lead organizer Paige Shortsleeves said.
What they’re saying: “He has followed through on this,” she said. “We are told that most departments aren’t doing this level of data analysis unless they are mandated by federal authorities.”
What’s next: The sheriff, who attended the PEACE meeting, agreed to provide data on written warnings and traffic tickets by the end of April to allow a deeper analysis and bias check.
Keep reading about PEACE’s work with the sheriff’s office at StetNews.org.
— Carolyn DiPaolo
📋 City boards on the agenda
Riviera Beach City Council members are streamlining how they choose advisory board members.
Why it matters: The city’s advisory boards are a bridge between the public and the City Council.
Driving the news: At a March 26 workshop, council members tentatively agreed to follow the model of the city’s Planning and Zoning Board, which they revamped about two years ago.
Development Services Director Clarence Sirmons said at the meeting that there are five voting members on the planning board and five nonvoting alternates.
How it works: Council members representing districts 1 through 4 each appoint a voting member and a nonvoting member.
- The council member for District 5, which is an at large district, also appoints a voting member.
- The mayor also appoints a nonvoting member, who is subject to council approval.
- Zoning board members serve three-year terms.
The library board and recreation board members now serve one-year terms. The library board meets on the second Tuesday of the month. The recreation board meets on the second Monday of the month. Board members have to be Riviera Beach residents who are registered to vote.
What’s next: The staff will review the City Council’s direction and come back in a future meeting with proposed changes to the two boards.
Who wrote this story: This story was reported by Community Voices writers Abigail Guillaume and Myles Whigham.
What is CV: Community Voices is a partnership between Stet News and Inlet Grove High School. Stet News is underwriting the pilot to train and pay students to cover Riviera Beach.
Inlet Grove journalism teacher C.B. Hanif and Stet’s Carolyn DiPaolo contributed to this story.
— Community Voices
🍊 The Juice
👑 A federal judge has found that Wellington developer Glenn Straub and his attorney, Craig Galle, fabricated corporate operating agreements and meeting minutes to wrest ownership of the Miss America organization from Robin Fleming. U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks ordered Straub and Galle to pay Fleming’s attorneys fees. They are seeking nearly $4.9 million. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
👋 Chief Deputy County Administrator Todd Bonlarron retired last week after 30 years of service. County commissioners named the learning center at Green Cay Nature Center in his honor.
- Deputy County Administrator Patrick Rutter returns to the chief deputy administrator position he held from 2024 to 2025.
- Jonathan Brown, the county’s Housing and Economic Development director, has been promoted to deputy county administrator.
🔌 Juno Beach-based Florida Power & Light’s profit margins consistently ranked among the highest in the nation over the past five years and topped other utilities’ in 2024 and 2025, with 27 cents of every dollar in revenue last year retained as profit, according to a new report by the Energy & Policy Institute. The utility did not respond to requests for comment on the analysis. (Inside Climate News)
⭐️ A lender sued to foreclose on the G-Star School of the Arts property in Palm Springs. Stet reported last year on the efforts to oust G-Star founder Greg Hauptner. (WPEC)
🔎 Florida’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee, created two decades ago to investigate why Florida moms are dying during and after pregnancy, stopped releasing annual reports until pressed by the Florida Trib, a nonprofit digital news organization based in Jacksonville. It released narrowly focused reports for deaths in 2021, 2022 and 2023. (Florida Trib)
📜 Florida won’t enforce a plank of its constitution barring public money from going to religious institutions, Attorney General James Uthmeier announced last week. He declared the ban on state money for religious institutions a violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion. (Sun Sentinel)
⛱️ The Lantana Town Council is considering a multimillion-dollar renovation of Lantana Beach Park, but residents say they don’t want it to turn into another overdeveloped beachfront. (The Coastal Star)
🕯️ Richard Wille, Palm Beach County’s longest-serving sheriff until Ric Bradshaw, died on Easter morning at 97. He served from 1977 to 1995. (WPBF)
🇺🇸 Riviera Beach is one of 20 finalists in the 2026 All-America City competition. Finalists have distinguished themselves through their commitment to strengthening civic health and building trust, organizers wrote in Monday’s announcement. The winning city will be announced in June. Delray Beach won in 1993, 2001 and 2017. (National Civic League)
🦖 Harry’s Banana Farm, the Lake Worth Beach watering hole famous for its witty roadside marquee messages, removed a dinosaur statue from its roof after amassing $15,000 in code enforcement fines, prompting residents to worry that the city’s proud “Keep Lake Worth weird” vibe may be headed for extinction. (Lake Worth Beach Independent)
✍🏼 Former Palm Beach Post Editorial Board chief Randy Schultz retired after 12 years of covering Boca and Delray for Boca Magazine. (Boca Magazine)
🗳️ Polls are open from 7 am to 7 pm today in North Palm Beach as voters decide between Ron Okolichany and Kendra Zellner to fill the Village Council seat left open by the death of Kristin Garrison. (Stet News)
🎧 “Top of Mind Florida,” the podcast by Michael Williams and Brian Crowley, welcomes Alexandria Ayala, CEO of the Homeless Coalition of Palm Beach County. A former school board member elected at 25, Ayala breaks down who is really homeless in Palm Beach County, why the official count of 1,300 dramatically understates the problem and how federal cuts and Florida’s anti-camping law are making a hard situation harder. (Listen now ; watch after 4 pm today)
561NSIDER: 🍝 N.Y. chef’s dash of chicken parm
Joe Isidori is serving up his red-sauce, New York City Italian heritage to Jupiter with Arthur & Sons.
The back story: A former chef for The Trump Organization and at Mar-a-Lago, Isidori wants it known that “Arthur & Sons isn’t about being fancy or showing off. It’s about honoring old-school ways with a little new-school fun.”
The restaurant is open for dinner seven days with entertainment nightly, including disco dancing on the weekends with a DJ. The early birds get a crooner belting out Sinatra, Martin and Darin.
The big picture: The first Arthur & Sons opened in New York City in the West Village in Manhattan. Its Italian-American menu is now in Jupiter.
- While much is the same with the restaurants, Isidori “leaned into the neighborhood.” He calls the New York eatery “downtown” but “Jupiter is more ‘uptown,’” he said.
- The 3,300-square-foot restaurant in the Bluffs Square Shoppes plaza on U.S. 1 is designed as a social club, where guests are welcomed from the porte cochere as family.
What they’re saying: “As I like to say, don’t be fancy, knock it off, nobody cares, it’s just chicken parm! Now we can eat!” from “Chef Joe” on a card that is placed on the table at the start of the meal.
Zoom in: A four-year Jupiter resident, Isidori, 37, chose the spot in Jupiter vacated by Uncle Eddie’s because, he said, “Authentic New York City Italian was missing here.”
The yummy stuff: Spicy rigatoni alla vodka, cavatelli and broccoli rabe, gnocchi alla tartufo and chicken parm — heard often in the conversation — are signature dishes. The classic spumoni to finish.
The bottom line: Arthur & Sons is booked for reservations through the end of April already, but that’s by design, as well.
- “I’m not flooding the restaurant right now. We’re taking a specific number of reservations per night, right around 200.”
Keep reading to go behind the scenes at Arthur & Sons at StetNews.org.
— Jan Norris
