Florida Keys’ so-called “liveaboards” – people who live on boats anchored in nearshore waters – think proposed new regulations are “insane.”

Cartoon by Arnaud Girard

There’s a new ripple in the “Treehouse Murder” case. In a March 8, 2021 deposition, the lead detective claims his boss at the sheriff’s office had coached witnesses and used fabricated evidence in building a murder case against Franklin Tyrone Tucker.

“I grabbed the fire extinguisher and rushed to the forward cabin,” said Ted. “In less than a minute the floor was so hot the paint started to blister. I was bare foot and I couldn’t even go back. Austin was trying to save the cat and the birds. We had five birds. But there was no time.”

If Florida’s House of Representatives Tyler Sirois has it his way, the Florida legislature will soon prohibit boat owners from remaining anchored in the same location for more than 90 days anywhere in the Florida Keys.

The naked man, who the report says, had committed no crime and posed no threat was pepper sprayed at least five times – once at extremely close range.  Riggs even attempted to tase him, and to get in the water and “choke [him] out,” threatened to gaff him, threatened to drown him and ultimately used a potentially lethal choke hold to remove him from the water.

We report to you from the front – the waterfront that is. It seems that while we are all looking elsewhere private businesses are quietly grabbing and blocking access to publicly owned waterfront…

Once again the issue of public access to the ocean has pinned some Florida Keys residents against developers and the public officials they lobby…

Here in Stock Island, in just a few years, we have had such over development that we have a hard time getting off Stock Island and onto US 1 highway, the traffic has become horrendous with too many cars. Parking has become an issue. Our neighbors have been evicted from their homes, with no protection from our local government, only assistance to the developers who evicted these families.

On May 21st Adam Bounds, who was shot 3 times inside his houseboat by FWC Captain David Dipre during an October 15th welfare check, was arrested for attempted arson and threatening a law enforcement officer. Bounds has since been released on bond. Today we received an unredacted copy of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office’s May 20th probable cause statement.

The governor of the state of New York just initiated an interesting program: over the next nine months he invites every community in his state to “put pen to paper” and propose what kind of police force they want. “It’s not that government gives us their vision of what the police should look like because we have government’s vision of what the police should look like: It’s called the current police.” He wants to hear what ideas the people have to propose. Now that is a great idea. Why couldn’t the Keys and Key West do the same?