PAGE ONE COMMENTARY: KWPD Investigative Report: PAL Officials Initially Covered Up Board Member’s Credit Card Fraud

ONLY AFTER THE SCHOOL
DISTRICT CREDIT CARD SCANDAL
HIT THE PRESS LAST MARCH, DID
PAL OFFICIALS BLOW THE
WHISTLE

CHARNETTE VALDEZ: “THEY
TOLD ME IT WAS OKAY TO USE
THE CARD FOR PERSONAL
PURCHASES—AS LONG AS I
PAID THE MONEY BACK”

by Dennis Reeves Cooper

We reported to you last
month that Charnette Valdez,
a civilian employee with the
Key West Police Department
(KWPD) and a member of the
Police Athletic League’s (PAL)
board of directors, had been
caught making personal purchases
on her PAL credit card.

And we were able to
build on the story last week by
reporting to you that Valdez
had abruptly resigned, right in
the middle of a predetermination
hearing being conducted
by City Manager Jim Scholl
to decide if she should be
fired. Police Chief Donie Lee
had recommended to Scholl
that Valdez’ employment be
terminated.

The hearing and Valdez’
subsequent resignation came
after a month-long internal investigation
requested by Chief
Lee and conducted by Inspector
Randy Smith, the KWPD’s
Internal Affairs investigator.

Race Series Recalls Wreckers Tradition of Old Key West

The first race in the 2010 Wreckers Cup Series is set for this
Sunday, January 31, with a start time of 1 p.m. This all-in-fun
race recalls the tradition of the “wreckers” in Key West of the
1800s. Vessels laden with rich cargoes from the Gulf and Caribbean
ports often became the victims of storms and unmarked
reefs off Key West. The first wreckers to reach the wreck sites
had the responsibility to save the passengers and crews— but
they also won the right to salvage the cargoes. Some historian
have written that it was not unusual for 20 or 30 boats to race
to a wreck.

In the Wreckers Cup Series, boats race seven miles from
Key West Harbor to the Sand Key light. Then, of course, there is
a party at Schooner Wharf Bar to view the race on video. Boats
race in five classes, with awards in each class.

All boaters are welcome to participate. There is a $30 entry
fee. The captains meeting is tomorrow evening, Sunday, at 7p.m.
on the Schooner Wharf’s upper deck. Info: Call (305) 292-3302
or visit http://www.SchoonerWharf.com.

LETTER FROM BAGHDAD: Teaching Them to Be Like Us

By Ken Davis

On March 1, 2009, I
stepped off a heavily fortified
bus called a “rhino” onto
a gravel street in Baghdad’s
International Zone. I had been
recruited weeks before to be
an advisor to the government
of Iraq’s Ministry of Interior.

My position would have me
working side by side for the
next year with Iraqi Muslims,
learning their culture and social
mores while helping to build
a criminal-intelligence agency
to combat terrorism and organized
crime.

In the past year my attitudes
and ideas regarding Iraq,
the Muslim faith and the Arab
race have changed considerably.
The previously-formed
opinions, based on stories from
U.S. news agencies, have been
cast aside and replaced with
unbiased ones founded by my
own eyes and ears. While some
opinions are still forming, I ask
if we are not expecting too much
too fast.

RHONDA: A Little Travelin’ Music, Please

by Rhonda Linseman-Saunders

I don’t know what happened. I don’t even allow
a gaming system in our house, but somehow my toddler
has grown to believe it is his birthright to watch
DVDs every time we get into the minivan.

I think it all started when I justified letting him
watch the shows on a couple of really long road
trips. Then slowly, the definition of “long road trip”
morphed from “Key West-Tampa,” to “Key West-Miami,”
to “Key West-Sugarloaf” and finally “Sigsbee
Park-Circle K.”

He starts saying “movie peace” before I’ve even
finished strapping him into the car seat. It’s embarrassing.
It makes me feel like a failure, on some level,
because I am. Forget Are You Smarter Than a Fifth
Grader? I’m not even smarter than a nineteen-month-old.
He outwits me at almost every turn.

O'BOYLE: Delusions of Legitimacy

By Hal O’Boyle

This column was originally published in 2005.
Nothing much has changed except, perhaps, that we
are closer to the end of the game.
The pyramid scheme is the most enduring of
thousands of tricks, buncos, fiddles and stings that
con artists throughout history have used to relieve
suckers of their cash. The two undisputed masters of
the pyramid scheme are Charles Ponzi and Franklin
D. Roosevelt. For his accomplishments the intellectual
left has canonized FDR. Ponzi is immortalized in the
American vernacular.

Charles Ponzi was a charming, dapper Italian
immigrant who, in the summer of 1920, pulled in a
million dollars a week with his “postal reply coupon”
investment scheme. Promising a 50% return on your
money in 90 days, he paid out in just 45. Word spread
like an internet virus. New investors flocked to his offices
at locations from Maine to New Jersey. At every
office cash overflowed from desks, cabinets and closets
like champagne surging out of a starlet’s bathtub.
Ponzi could hardly haul it away fast enough.

Continue reading here…

Ballet Performance Will Benefit Nutcracker

Paradise Ballet Theatre
Presenters, Inc. will present two
performances of the American
Ballet Theatre II at the Tennessee
Williams Theatre on Saturday,
February 6 at 8 PM and a matinee
performance on Sunday, February
7 at 2 PM.

Performances will benefit
the December 2010 production
of the renowned Nutcracker Key
West, notes Ann Reynolds, Board
Chair of PBT Presenters.

American Ballet Theatre
II, under the direction of Wes
Chapman, is a classical company
of 12 young dancers of outstanding
potential. Handpicked from
around the world, the dancers
(ages 16-20) are rigorously
trained in preparation for joining
American Ballet Theatre,
the main company and world
premier ballet company based
in New York City, or other leading
ballet companies throughout
the world.

Red Barn Theatre: Two Plays to Choose From

Power and Money.
Menopause and Tequila. The
Red Barn Theatre presents two
outstanding productions that
explore human behavior while
working for laughs. Pulitzer
Prize winner David Mamet’s
classic Speed-the-Plow joins
Carter W. Lewis’s Women Who
Steal in this seven days a week
line-up of great theatre and
great entertainment at the Red
Barn Theatre, located at 319
Duval Street.

PHOTO: MIMI McDONALD in Women
Who Steal

Women Who Steal takes
a fresh and irreverent look at
the relationships that create
meaning for our lives: friendship,
marriage, and the other
woman. It is a hilarious tightly
constructed journey, complete
with a tires-squealing, tequilachugging,
Meat Loaf-blaring joy
ride that leaves everyone’s lives
irrevocably changed.

“No Child . . .” Continues At the Waterfront Playhouse

Audiences are cheering
Lela Elam’s tour-de-force performance
in “No Child…” by
Nilaja Sun, now playing at the
Waterfront Playhouse through
February 6. Directed by Carbonell
Award winner Rich
Simone, “No Child…” shines
a light on the struggles and
miracles that occur in America’s
public schools. Awardwinning
actress, Lela Elam,
creates sixteen characters that
hilariously and touchingly reflects
the dynamics in today’s
classrooms. The Miami Herald
theater critic Christine Dolen
said in her rave review, “Elam
is inspired…compelling…’No
Child’ earns a solid A.”

“No Child…” was the
breakout hit of the 2007 Off-
Broadway season. It received
an Obie Award, a Lucille
Lortel Award, two Outer Critics
Awards, a Theatre World
Award and the US Comedy
Arts Festival Award. Ms. Sun
created the play based on
her experiences as a teacher
in New York City and has
performed the play all over
the country. The Washington
Post called “No Child…,” “Riotously
funny…brilliant and
highly entertaining.”

Heart Health Month: The Beat Goes On

by Chris Tittel

Public Information Officer
Monroe County Health
Department
Almost 700,000 people
die of heart disease each year
in the United States, making it
the leading cause of death in
both men and women.

Although the Florida
Department of Health reported
in 2008 that death and hospitalization
rates in Monroe County
due to coronary heart disease
were on the decline, the death
rate in the county due to heart
failure – which can be the result
of coronary heart disease – remained
almost twice as high as
the statewide rate.

A heart attack happens
when the arteries to the heart
are narrowed or blocked by fat
and cholesterol buildup. This
prevents the heart from getting
the blood and oxygen it needs.
Without oxygen, the cells in the
heart begin to die. The more
time that passes without treatment,
the greater the damage
to the heart.

NEWS BRIEF: Craft Show This Weekend

THE 25TH ANNUAL KEY WEST CRAFT SHOWs happens
this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, January 30-31. More than
100 artisans and craftmen from all over the United States are
expected to be on hand to show their wares. As in past years,
the show will be set up on Whitehead Street at Caroline. Hours
both days: 10 a.m. ‘til 5 p.m.