College Official Suspended after Getting Caught Changing a Grade for a Friend

LYDIA ESTENOZ SAYS THE
SUSPENSION IS UNJUSTIFIED
BECAUSE SHE DID NOTHING WRONG.

COLLEGE PRESIDENT: ESTENOZ
GROSSLY UNDERMINED THE
SANCTITY OF FKCC’S ACADEMIC
RECORDS AND INTEGRITY

KWTN Team Report

A high-level Florida Keys
Community College (FKCC)
administrator has been suspended
for abusing her access
to FKCC’s scheduling and
grading system.

Lydia Estenoz, the executive
director of workforce
development at FKCC, allegedly
accessed the schedule and
grades of her friend’s daughter
and made changes referred to
in a disciplinary letter as “administrative
withdrawal.”

In the letter to Estenoz
dated July 30, FKCC President Larry Tyree told her that she
was being placed on an unpaid
disciplanary suspension
starting on August 2, 2010, and
ending on August 6.

“During this time, you
are not to report to work, nor
are you to engage in any work
related activities on behalf of
Florida Keys Community College,”
Tyree wrote.

Police Crackdown on Scofflaw Bicyclists Continuing

POLICE SPOKESWOMAN:
APPROXIMATELY 50
CITATIONS ISSUED TO
BICYCLISTS IN JULY

The police crackdown on scofflaw bicyclists is
continuing, according to police spokeswoman Alyson
Crean. She said that an estimated 50 citations were issued
to bicyclists in July for infractions like riding the
wrong way down one-way streets and running stop
signs and red lights.

Since the crackdown started last May, hundreds
of bicyclists have been pulled over by police officers.
Most got away with warnings, but increasingly, officers
are writing tickets. The fine for running a red light is
$231.

PAGE ONE COMMENTARY: Tier Pressure “TAKING” LAWSUITS COULD COST COUNTY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS

COUNTY STAFF HIRES A LAW FIRM
FROM LOS ANGELES. LEAD
ATTORNEY BILLS $610 PER HOUR—
EVEN WHEN FLYING BACK AND
FORTH FROM LA TO THE KEYS

by Rick Boettger

County Commissioner
Candidate for District 2 Danny
Coll has alerted us to a looming
threat to our tax-paying
wallets here in Monroe. Legal
challenges to people’s property
being classified “Tier 1” or “Tier
2” could cost the County tens of
millions of dollars in compensation
and legal fees in the coming
decade. A low tier designation
forces landowners to pay prohibitively
high fees to build a
home, effectively making their property worthless.

The crux of the matter
is simple: if your government
makes a law that takes or devalues
your property, it is supposed
to pay you for what you
lost. Classically, roads cannot be
stopped by one guy who refuses
to sell his property at any price.
We live in a land where we the
people have decided that the
common good outweighs individual
property rights in such
situations, and we the people,
through the hand of our government,
simply pave over the
guy’s land and pay him what
it was worth.

Down here in Not-So-
Simple land, it’s a lot trickier.
The common good is not a roadway,
but a more amorphous
concept called “environmental
sensitivity.” We the people have
collectively decided that our
special subtropical paradise
must be maintained by banning
development of some land
based on its having particular animals or plants on it. We the
people have decided that, for
example, maintaining a coral
hammock is more important
than your building a house on
land that you bought.

LETTER FROM BAGHDAD: Broken Hearts and Baghdad Girls— Part 3

THIS IS KEN’S LAST COLUMN!

by Ken Davis

At this, Trax smirked and
looked away. “Cause I didn’t
have what it takes to pull the
trigger. I thought if I came here
God would do it for me. If he
does, I want Sophie to know
that I was here because of her.
That she might as well have
pulled the trigger herself. ”

And there it was. Trax
had come to Baghdad hoping
to die.

“Well, you’ve been here
for four months and you’re still
alive. I don’t think you dying an
unhappy man is in God’s plan.
Maybe you should reconsider.
Maybe if you go back home and
see Sophie you can put a little
more closure on this thing.”

“I don’t know. I don’t
know if she’ll see me.”

“I heard from Alicia. Sophie
is worried sick. She doesn’t
know where you are or what
you’re doing.”

“She knows I’m in Iraq,
Ken. She just doesn’t know how
to get a hold of me or what I’m
doing.”

“How long are you here
at this base?”

RHONDA: Shark Week Bites

by Rhonda Linseman-Saunders

Last week was Shark Week on Discovery Channel.
In my nightmares, sharks attacks are second in
frequency only to alligator and crocodile attacks.
Shark Week has been freaking me out for the 23
years in a row that it has been airing. And historically,
I’ve been able to keep some perspective. I’ve even
been able to say the right things out loud like, “The
sharks are an important part of the ecosystem and
they were only doing what was natural when they
RIPPED THOSE PEOPLE APART!”

But now that we live here on a speck in the middle
of the ocean where my firstborn child spends half his
waking hours spearfishing in these shark-infested
waters, I feel my perspective slipping away. A little.

He and his friends go out regularly, and the
company varies depending on who has gas money
that day, who isn’t grounded or working, and who
has boat access. Some I know better than others, but
they’re all good kids as far as I can tell. All as experienced
and as safe as I can hope for at their age.

Free Markets or Free Medical Care

by Hal O’Boyle

Americans who think ObamaCare is a wonderful
idea show a great, and on the evidence, inexplicable
trust in Uncle Sam’s ability to do exactly what he
promises. They show an equal distrust of ‘greedy’
insurance companies.

While mistrust of insurance companies is understandable,
often based on personal experience,
faith in government’s ability or even desire to keep
its promises demonstrates a deep misunderstanding
of how governments and free markets work.

Focusing the debate on insurance only makes
the misunderstanding worse. Even Americans who
know there’s no free lunch are succumbing to the
‘entitlement’ mentality. The debate over insurance
is not about reducing costs, it’s about getting other
people to pay those costs for us.

Free NicoDerm Patches Available to Smokers Who Want to Quit

Free NicoDerm CQ patches are available from the Keys to
Quit Smoking program. Smokers who want information on how
to get the free nicotine patches should call (305) 743-7111 or go
to http://www.keystoquitsmoking.com.

Open House and Picnic at the Animal Shelter

The Florida Keys SPCA
invites the community to an
Open House Picnic on Sunday,
August 22, from noon till 4pm,
at the shelter located at 5230
College Road on Stock Island.

Very special guests will be the
shelter’s current longest residents:
Ari, a lab mix who has
been at the shelter for a year;
and Ms Bee, a black and while
cat now two years at the shelter.
(The shelter’s longest resident
ever, a cat named Marietta,
was recently adopted after five
years!)

Admission is free and hot
dogs and hamburgers will be
provided by Centennial Bank,
along with other refreshments
from GFS. Christopher Rounds
of Antonia’s restaurant will be
baking his famous cupcakes for
sale, some of which will have a
lucky number underneath to
win a prize.

A highlight of the afternoon will be the drawing for a unisex silver/grey/black Giant
Suede GX aluminum frame bicycle, value $500, donated by Pirate
Scooters and Bicycles of Key West. Raffle tickets, $1 each (six for
$5, 25 for $20) will be available at the picnic, and in advance from
the shelter and from Antonia’s restaurant on Duval Street, where
the bicycle will also be on display this Friday and Saturday.
Shelter staff will be on hand for those who would like to tour
the shelter and meet some of the animals. Info: (305) 294.4857.

Free Car Show

The Florida Keys Southernmost Car Club (FKSCC) holds its
monthly SHOW &SHINE this Sunday, August, 15. This event is
for the lovers of classic, custom, and street rod automobiles of all
years and makes. Fords, Chevys, trucks, lowriders, and chrome
loaded motorcycles. If it cool and on wheels it will be here.

This fun afternoon event is FREE to all, starts at noon till 4pm
. The event continues at the Sugarloaf Lodge, on Sugarloaf Key.
MM17. Prizes, 50/50 good food and cold beverages are available.
The Club’s sound system will provide 50’s and 60’s music .Bring
the kids to enjoy these beautiful relics of the auto world. .

Club members are seeking new members for a full schedule
shows events.Join Sunday and get the new Club HAT or Shirt!
For more information contact Dick Moody (305) 942-1758.

What’s on at the Tropic

by Phil Mann

Ready for something serious…
and seriously good?
WINTER’S BONE is the
kind of movie that transports
you into a hidden world, and
sticks with you long after you
leave the theater. The world is
the southern Missouri Ozark
mountains, home of a fiercely
independent, self-sufficient
culture — a raw, rough, ragged
place, where life’s guideline is
“Use it up, wear it out, make it
do or do without.”

It’s far removed from the
world of suburban Washington
where writer-director Debra
Granik grew up, the daughter of
government officials, but she’s
managed to create a film so true
that, despite its unflinching
portrayal of a harsh land, has
won the hearts of local residents
and played to sell-out crowds
at area multiplexes. The film
has become a phenomenon,
the rare independent movie
that is drawing audiences in
rural America, not just big city
art houses. In some ways that’s
a higher compliment than the
Grand Jury Prize and Waldo
Salt Screenwriting Award that
Winter’s Bone won at this year’s
Sundance Film Festival.

The story is a tough one.
Seventeen-year-old Ree Dolly
is in charge of and responsible
for her two young siblings and a
depressed, withdrawn mother.