Stet News🚨 Palm Beach County leads Florida in arrests of suspected undocumented immigrants with Florida Highway Patrol making about one in five arrests in the county since August, a review of the State Board of Immigration Enforcement database shows. In all, FHP troopers apprehended 1,229 immigrants in the county. Statewide, more than 6,600 immigrants were arrested. (WLRN)
🚫 Federal and state officials are in preliminary talks to close the controversial Everglades immigrant detention center Alligator Alcatraz after officials at the Department of Homeland Security concluded it is too expensive. Florida has been spending more than $1 million a day to run the center and is awaiting reimbursement from the federal government of $608 million. (The New York Times gift)
📍 U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel and her Democratic Party primary opponent Victoria Doyle say they will run for the newly reconfigured Democratic-leaning District 23 seat. The Legislature approved new congressional boundaries that turn Frankel’s current District 22 seat into a Republican-leaning district that stretches from coastal Broward County to Marco Island in Collier County. (Sun-Sentinel $$$)
🎧 House Oversight Committee Democrats plan a shadow hearing today in West Palm Beach to hear from survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. (WPBF-Channel 25)
🔎 A West Palm Beach-based appeals court judge, Jeffrey Kuntz, is President Donald Trump’s nominee for a lifetime position on South Florida’s federal court. He faced questions at his April 29 Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation about holding onto a case pursued by Trump when the judge was seeking the federal appointment from the president. (Florida Bulldog)
☀️ A majority on the Lake Worth Beach City Commission favor giving the Benny’s on the Beach restaurant a 30-year lease extension without allowing competitive bids. (Lake Worth Beach Independent $$$)
🤝 Recently retired Assistant County Administrator Todd Bonlarron is joining Capital City Consulting as a managing partner. The lobbying firm, recently hired by Palm Beach County, opened its county office with former State Attorney Dave Aronberg and veteran lobbyist Tom DeRita Jr. (Florida Politics)
📣 How the Lake Worth Chamber of Commerce got Atlanta-based broadcast pioneer Ted Turner to speak in 1983 at a chamber breakfast. Hint: It involved then-chamber President and City Commissioner Mark Foley. Turner died May 6 at age 87. (The Lake Worth Beach Independent)
🌴 Steven Hudson, CEO of Toronto-based ECN Capital Corp., paid $15.8 million for a five-bedroom, five-and-a-half bath mansion in Palm Beach. ECN Capital is a financing company with an office in West Palm Beach. (South Florida Business Journal $$$)
PulteGroup bought the remaining 53 townhouse lots in the 69-unit Reserve at Tequesta for $15.1 million. Its DiVosta Homes division will be building the homes north of Countyline Plaza off of U.S. 1. They are expected to sell in the $800,000s. (South Florida Business Journal $$$)
☂️ Rainy season begins Friday, and the National Weather Service is forecasting a drier but hotter spell.
- South Florida receives 60% to 70% of its annual rain during the summer wet season that ends Oct. 15. (Sun-Sentinel $$$)
🐴 “Forget Palm Beach. Wellington Has Plenty of Wealth — and All The Horses,” is a look inside the equestrian world of Wellington. (Vanity Fair)
💐 A TV producer and a wellness influencer tie the knot at The Breakers. (Vogue)
🎧 “Top of Mind Florida,” the podcast by Michael Williams and Brian Crowley, welcomes Nicholas Ostheimer, president of the FAU College Democrats, and Joseph Semprevivo, president of the FAU College Republicans, for a conversation about what their generation wants from government. (Listen now; watch)
