Stet News🔎 Stephen Ross entertained Palm Beach County Mayor Sara Baxter in his private box at the collegiate national football championship in Miami at a time when the billionaire downtown West Palm Beach developer’s company is seeking approval for a $310 million convention center hotel deal with the county. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
🔥 The urgency behind Riviera Beach Council Member Bruce Guyton’s March 18 move to fire City Manager Jonathan Evans could stem from Guyton’s support for Assistant Fire Chief Keith Golden, who Evans reprimanded after the death of a man in a canal, as the city prepares to replace retiring Fire Chief John Curd. On April 15, Evans’ supporter Shirley Lanier, the council chair, delayed the vote to end Evans’ four-year contract through a parliamentary maneuver. (WPBF Channel 25)
💉 The vaccination rate for Florida kindergartners hovers around 88% for the second school year in a row, after having been well above 90% in the decade before the pandemic, Florida Department of Health data show. In 2016, the rate had been as high as 94%. Immunization levels for seventh-graders in Florida dropped from 92.1% last school year to 91.9% in the 2025-26 school year, the lowest level in more than a decade. (Sun Sentinel $$$)
🦖 Responding to growing complaints, Lake Worth Beach city commissioners said they plan to consider code changes and review allegations of overzealous code enforcement. (Lake Worth Beach Independent)
🤖 “What happens when a data center comes to town,” a look at Google’s effort to build a data center in Franklin Furnace, a rural town of about 1,500 in Ohio. (The Free Press)
🇮🇱 Palm Beach County commissioners got lambasted last week for supporting investments in Israel bonds. So many speakers derided the decision during public comment April 14 that Clerk and Comptroller Mike Caruso came down from his office to defend the policy. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
🏅 Benjamin Ferencz was honored with a Congressional Gold Medal last week for his work as a prosecutor of Nazi war crimes after World War II. Ferencz, of Delray Beach, died in 2023 at age 103 knowing the medal was in the works, but the minting of the medallion, engraved with a likeness of the prosecutor in his youth, took years. (Sun Sentinel $$$)
🕯️ Palm Beach County theater pioneer Lou Tyrrell, an innovative producer involved in starting Theatre Lab, Arts Garage and Florida Stage, died April 10 at age 75. (Sun Sentinel $$$)
🥩 Legacy Place in Palm Beach Gardens will be home to a new, large steak and seafood restaurant starting April 26 when Eddie V’s Prime Seafood is scheduled to open. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
🚗 Waymo has begun offering rides in its driverless robotaxis through its app on highways in Miami. (South Florida Business Journal $$$)
🎧 “Top of Mind Florida,” the podcast by Michael Williams and Brian Crowley, explores “American democracy at a Crossroads” with Dianna Wynn, president of the League of Women Voters. Wynn explains why her 106-year-old organization has declared a constitutional crisis for the first time in its history — and what she says is at stake for Florida voters in 2026. (Listen now ; watch after 4 pm today)
