JT CURTIS & the Silver Eagle Band are in the house at Cowboy
Bill’s Friday, Saturday and Sunday,, January 2-4, starting at 10
(9 on sunday).
JEFF HARRIS entertains during happy hour on
Friday, starting at 6.
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MANAGER JULIO
AVAEL BUSTED FOR RIDING HIS
MOTORCYCLE WITHOUT A LICENSE
KWTN REPORTED IN 2006 THAT HE
WAS RIDING ILLEGALLY. HE GOT
A TEMPORARY LICENSE AT THAT
TIME, BUT APPARENTLY NEVER
TOOK THE RIDER’S TEST
Special Report
Former City Manager Julio Avael was in Judge Wayne
Miller’s courtroom this week after receiving a notice to appear
for riding his motorcycle without a motorcycle license. Miller
sentenced him to six months probation and Avael had to pay
$243 in court costs and another $75 for the cost of prosecution.
According to police department records, Avael was involved
in a traffic accident on November 10. Reportedly, the accident was
not Avael’s fault, but when Officer Kevin O’Connell asked him
for his motorcycle endorsement—
the document that shows that
a motorcycle rider has passed the required rider’s test— Avael
admitted that he didn’t have one.
THE DOERFELS, an amazing 12-member family bluegrass band, kicks off the weekend with a
3-hour “super soundcheck” this afternoon, Friday, January 2, starting at 5:30. And they’ll do it
again Saturday afternoon!
ROCKIN’ JAKE, right, and his band will be in the house both
Friday and Saturday nights, starting at 10.
THE MUSE GURUS, featuring Larry Baeder and Dora
Does, will do a “super soundcheck” Sunday afternoon, starting at 5:30.
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by Dennis Reeves Cooper
If you’ve been reading
this newspaper for the past
couple of weeks, you know
that we have been asking some
obvious questions about why,
when Key Westers are seriously
injured in accidents or at crime
scenes, paramedics seem to
be quick on the trigger to call
for helicopter airlift to Miami,
rather than simply transport
ing them to the emergency
room at Lower Keys Medical
Center (LKMC), just minutes
away?
Then, if somebody can
convince us that paramedics
are, somehow, more qualified
than emergency room doctors
to make the airlift decisions,
why do they almost always call
the county helicopter, Traumastar—
which must fly 50 miles
down from Marathon— rather
than Lifenet, based at the hospital,
right here on the island?
We asked City Manager
Jim Scholl those questions last
week. We thought he would
know the answers because he
is responsible for administering
the city’s $800,000 annual
contract with Key West Rescue.
Key West Rescue, a subsidiary
of an Ohio-based company,
American Medical Response
(AMR), provides paramedic
and ambulance service here.
DANNY MORRIS and his band are at Schooner Wharf Bar tonight
and tomorrow night, Friday and Saturday, January 2-3, 7
‘til midnight.
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Keys Energy Services (KEYS) will be performing scheduled
maintenance on the US1 Substation from 1-6am on Monday,
January 5. KEYS’ customers should not see an interruption of
service during this time, but should be aware the possibility of
a remote power outage exists, a company spokesman said.
To accommodate the planned maintenance work, the City
of Key West and the southeast side of Stock Island will be disconnected
from the tieline to the mainland and powered by local
generation at KEYS’ Stock Island Generating Facility. All other
KEYS’ customers will remain connected to the tieline. The planned
tieline separation will allow for the replacement of equipment
at the electrical substation on US1, near the entrance to the Key
Haven development. This is the first of several planned tieline
separations during the winter months as KEYS performs various
system-wide upgrades.
The Scenic America Travel Blog listed Key West as one
of the top 10 scenic places to celebrate New Years Eve. Other
locations on the list included Niagra Falls, New Orleans, San
Francisco and Honolulu.
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The monthly First Thursday Art Walk on Caroline Street
has been rescheduled this month to the second Thursday, January
8, 6-9pm.
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Inevitably, around Christmastime every year, a
Christian questions my audacious choice to celebrate
Christmas with my family. I’d like to say I’m not interested
in their thoughts or opinions, but that would
quite obviously be childish defensiveness sloppily
cloaked as strength of conviction. It’s barely a notch
above “I know you are but what am I?” We all care what
other people think; It’s human nature. Then again, we
all know a few people who, but for biology, would
scarcely qualify as human on any other level.
Look, it’s probably no secret that I have some
skepticism about Christianity, especially Catholicism,
and I’m certainly not alone. The basic conundrum, for
me, is much simpler than a failure to produce proof
of the supernatural or a complete failure to recognize
that “Sorry, ma’am, but you don’t have a penis” is
not an acceptable reason to exclude a person from a
position of authority within any organization. No, the
principal dillema, from my perspective, is that I see
absolutely no correlation between Christian religious
profession of faith and exemplary living.
The previous tangent should tell you that I’m
unable to think about Christianity without bias. Independent
of my predisposition, though, Christians
(those determined to do so) struggle to make a sensible
case for exclusive Christmas entitlement. Christmas
has, at best, a weak tie to Christianity. I guess that’s
why I can’t grasp the intense sense of ownership over
the holiday harbored by some Christians. What are
they afraid of? Consult a doctor before taking my
word for it, but to my knowledge, neither atheism
nor agnosticism are communicable.
kwtn-test 
PAGE ONE COMMENTARY
January 4, 2009 — kwtnTop Story of 2008:
Police Chief Bill Mauldin’s
Fall from Grace
by Dennis Reeves Cooper
The story of the year in
2008 was the fall from grace
of former Police Chief Bill
Mauldin. Mauldin abruptly
resigned on April Fool’s Day in
the midst of an internal investigation
by city management
looking into allegations that he
repeatedly sexually harassed
Christie Phillips, his public
information officer.
But it is likely that “Bumbling
Bill” was already on
the way out. He had recently
been caught lying to the press
about charges he had allegedly
trumped up to try to fire Officer
Tom Neary because he feared
that Neary might be ready to
go public with allegations of
corruption, incompetence and
favoritism inside the Key West
Police Department (KWPD).
And last summer, we here
at Key West The Newspaper
were able to uncover and report
what appeared to be an effort
by Mauldin to manufacture an
illegal “September Surprise” to
discredit City Commissioner
Mark Rossi just weeks before
the October election.
Read the rest of this entry »