Since 2002. Published Tuesdays and Fridays
Letters to the Editor with pictures
 [FTR] Facts not concerns! On Friday a poster wrote about Skeeter Board candidate Katheryn Watkins hubby, Dr. John Norris, and his stand against the use of GMO in the fight to use GMO to comabt Zika. The poster also wrote that Dr. Norris warns that the bacteria carried by the GM mosquitoes will lead to an increase in resistance to the drug tetracycline — an antibiotic used in producing the mosquitoes — in humans
Dr. Norris’ concerns are ill founded. Dr. Norris fails to provide any data or studies to support his position. He merely articulates his personal concerns. He speculates. The same concerns he articulates have been carefully weighed and examined by the FDA and found to be without merit. The FDA, after careful and meticulous study of the science and process involved, has clearly stated that the GM process poses no significant threat. That finding was reached only after a multi discipline study conducted by the Center of Veterinary Medicine, CVM’s Animal Biotechnology Interdisciplinary Group (ABIG), experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the FDA. You should consider the fact that the FDA has estimated that about 30 million pounds of antibiotic are fed to the animals that feed us each year. By contrast, the amount of antibiotic used on 3 million GM mosquitoes is less than is found in your urine sample if you are being treated with tetracycline. Dr. Norris’ speculation aside, ZIKA is here now, right now. There are pregnant women living in your neighborhood. About 750 babies are born in Monroe each year. At any given moment between 4 and 10% of women are pregnant. Simply put that means there are scores if not hundreds of women and the unborn at risk in Monroe County. Public health, especially the health of the unborn, is of vastly more importance than any political issue, or the property values of a few wealthy real estate investors. It is no secret that it is big money real estate that is driving the battle against the use of GMO to fight ZIKA. Big real estate fears that somehow GMO will drive down their property values. One can only marvel at that line of reasoning. Given that big real estate has threatened political reprisal against Skeeter Board members, one can only wonder if Dr. Norris’s letter is driven by political rather than public health concerns. Let’s get on with it. C’mon Mosquito Control start the damned program. Babies lives are at stake. |
Russian Olympic pole-vaulter Svetlana Gevenskaia says she doesn’t know what all the fuss is about! |
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| I think senility is going to be a fairly smooth transition for me. |
New motel on Big Pine? |
| [Sunday’s Headline] “Naked man arrested on North Roosevelt” You’ve got to love Key West! |
I’ve been here in the Keys 42 years and I hear a lot of old folks talking about what it used to be like. Well, actually, nowhere in the world is what it used to be and I dare say, if you look in the mirror that isn’t what it used to be either (damn mirrors). Things are always changing. That’s why it’s good to think about the past; it can enrich your present and inspire your future. |
| [Zika] The U.S. government on Friday declared a public health emergency in Puerto Rico as a result of a Zika epidemic. The declaration allows the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to award grants, access emergency funds and temporarily appoint personnel where needed, among other things. |
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| Making fake lettuce in China. Don’t worry, it’s wax and for display only. But we have to do something to get more food until folks stop breeding like we do. Video |
 [Free Advertisement for Stephen Murray-Smith] When I was elected to mosquito control nineteen years ago, our program consisted of aerial spraying with a 1940’s aircraft, a few spray trucks, no entomologist or biologists, and a $500,000 budget shortfall. Fast forward to today – our county has one of the best mosquito control programs in the nation.Late 2007, FKMCD began talks with the City of Key West to purchase property in order to build a new structure then vacating the existing building. Appraisals secured at our expense and a tentative offer were submitted to the City Manager. We received a letter in September, 2008, stating they would not recommend the city sell us property or renew our lease which expired in 2012. We negotiated extensions through January 2018. If we remain in the building beyond March, 2018, we will pay retroactive rents of $530,000. I have reminded our board for 8 years that the day to vacate our home since the late 1970’s was rapidly approaching. Rather than accruing reserves for constructing a new office, 5 out of the last 7 years the board majority cut our budget by voting rollback or below and balancing the shortfalls with our reserves contrary to the advise of director Doyle and our comptroller. We did purchase property a couple years ago, however the majority chose not to set aside funds to build offices. These delays have increased costs considerably and further delays will just cost more. This year we are forced to propose a tax rate for 2016-2017 of .6831 up from .5019 allowing the replenishment of reserves and accrual of the funds to build our new offices. If adopted, this would increase the tax by $18.31 per $100,000 assessed value, although the rate will be reduced before our final budget is in place this September. I understand that one of the commissioners who voted in favor of the building is bowing to pressure from a few people, and may choose to change her vote at the upcoming meeting. I do not want to increase taxes. My taxes will also increase, but mosquito control needs a facility in the lower Keys as we have as many as 38 employees working out of the Key West office. Included in the project is an important lab to test alternatives to genetic modified mosquitos, an area for vehicle maintenance and storage, and EPA rated chemical storage. It is not a palatial building, it is a well thought out highly functional space that should serve the taxpayers for the next 50 years. The majority may vote on August 16, to delay construction and look for an alternative such as trailers or rental space. Previous delays of this necessary project have increased the construction costs; further delaying will result in even higher costs. New technology on the horizon will help reduce the mosquito population, but we will never eliminate these pesky bugs. They will be here when we are gone, so will the need for a state of the art mosquito program and as will our new facility. |
 [Conspiracy Man] Many here on the CT have accused me of being a paranoid conspiracy theorist nut job, who wears a tin foil hat with the sole purpose of spreading fear to our readers, especially with the research I’ve done concerning chemtrails. People have sworn that chemtrails do not exist and have stated that the trails in the sky are “con-trails” and nothing more. Well, here’s a video of CIA Director John Brennan admitting to the Council of Foreign Relations, That chemtrails are real, while using the proper terminology “Stratospheric Aerosol Injection”, and why our skies are being sprayed. Which brings me to the next subject, that the opinionators on the CT also have denied — global warming. If global warming doesn’t exist, then why has our government been causing chemtrails in our skies? Do any of you opinionators out there even know who the Council of Foreign Relations are? Video |
How Americans see the Olympics. |
| [“Hospital scandal”] Lower Keys Medical Center has been one of the most profitable hospitals in the state since 2009, when its profit margin tripled from 7.4 percent to 21.6 percent. |
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| [“Diver down flag”] Divers 150 feet from any dive flag should be fair game. “300 feet” is way too big an area to have to avoid. |
Ever been to the Eiffel Tower? No, not the one in Las Vegas. Mouse the controls at the bottom. Video |
| [Crook] Pope Alexander VI’s, a Borgia, wild extravagance had drained the Church’s finances. Julius had therefore set about collecting taxes with ruthless efficiency, halting devaluation of the currency by minting a new coin, and punishing counterfeiters. He also bolstered revenues by creating and then selling ecclesiastical offices, a practice known as simony (and a sin whose practitioners Dante had placed in the eighth circle of Hell, where they were buried upside down and had their feet roasted by fames). In 1507 Julius promulgated a bull offering indulgences, which meant people could pay to reduce the time their friends or relatives spent in Purgatory (usually calculated at 9,000 years). All of the funds accruing from this controversial measure were earmarked for the building of St. Peter’s |
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| Do you think racism is ever going away? Think again. Keep stirring the pot and this is what you get. The horse is dead but they just keep hitting it. We have never been more divided and it’s only getting worse. Black on black killings and what happens? The blacks still tear up their own town. Am I missing something |
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| [Old Shark] Scientists say they have found a Greenland shark that is about 400 years old – making it the longest-living vertebrate known. Video |
[Female Bacon] I was going to make BLTs for lunch until I noticed my bacon still had a nipple on it! |
| [Homeless News] … a few of these fine folks have told me not to stay at KOTS. The risk of MRSA, scabies, and the disease ridden folks that are in close quarters to other people is very dangerous. I know from being there that Mike Tolbert does a really good job of having the place cleaned and washed with even bleach. He was making the folks coming in take a shower right away. Even so, a lot of the clientele out there are filled with disease that don’t wash off with a little water few of these fine folks have told me not to stay at KOTS. The risk of MRSA, scabies, and the disease ridden folks that are in close quarters to other people is very dangerous. I know from being there that Mike Tolbert does a really good job of having the place cleaned and washed with even bleach. He was making the folks coming in take a shower right away. Even so, a lot of the clientele out there are filled with disease that don’t wash off with a little water. |
 [FTR on Zika] It is well established that big money real estate interests are working their butts off to prevent the use of genetic engineering to fight Zika. They are on record as not giving a damn about public health, they are convinced that even testing the GM process in Key Haven will ruin their property values.
I quote from one threatening email sent to the mosquito control board: “… (testing this theory) would create a drop in real estate values within this community. May I remind you perception is reality to prospective buyers.” One of our communities most wealthy and politically powerful real estate investors, Ed Swift, is the author of that email. Perhaps even worse, Swift threatened each and every board member with legal action and political retribution unless they caved to him. Real estate interests have established Facebook groups in which they flood social media with their propaganda. They claim that the test in Key Haven in fraught with danger. They spread misstatements of fact, sow fear, and insult those who disagree. The stone cold, hard fact is that the EPA, the CDC, and the FDA have jointly studied the test and its procedures and have issued a FONSI. That is a guv’mint acronym for Finding Of NO Significant Impact. Translated that means that they have examined the test from all angles and determined it to be safe. What follows are some quotes from that FONSI. “….(the potential of) allergenic effects in humans is extremely low and the risk is negligible.” “Almost all of the OX513A mosquitoes released as part of the proposed field trial will be male, and male mosquitoes do not bite humans or other animals.” “(the possibility of DNA transfer is) … extremely low and the risk is negligible.” “The likelihood that the release of OX513A mosquitoes would result in an increase in transmission of dengue or other diseases transmitted by mosquitoes is extremely low and the risk is negligible.” In short, the test is safe to humans, animals, and the environment. The document is 8 pages long and time after time after time it repeats that the test will be safe. I suggest you take the time to read the document for yourself. Its appended below. We’re coming up on a primary election very soon. Two of the skeeter board want their jobs backs. Steve Smith and Jill Cranney-Gage. Both of these individuals were all for the project. Both supported it wholeheartedly, citing how important it was for the health and safety of the community. Both repeatedly voted for the project, and voted to advance the project. But as soon as the real estate crowd started twisting arms, both folded like cheap lawn chairs. And a peek at their campaign contributions shows that big time real estate is contributing to their campaigns. Ed Swift included. Real estate wants these two persons to remain in office. Remember that these persons swore to protect the public health, not to protect real estate values and profits. Instead they chose to try to protect their jobs. Don’t let it happen. Link |
My tuxedo cat (black, white with green eyes) went missing from Sea Lane last week. She is microchipped, petite, spayed, and very friendly. My number is 305-432-1401. If anyone sees her please let me know right away! |
| [Citizen of the Day] How often have you seen a photo of a bartender or someone, who says, “I love the beaches and the beautiful women of Key West”? How about having a guy saying, “I love the beaches and the handsome men of Key West.” Come on, Mike Hentz let’s get with the program—update! |
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| [Big Boat Big Ego] I know this isn’t true all of the time, but it seems to me the bigger the boat the bigger the a-hole who is driving it. |
 [Strange Medicines] From William Hackley’s 1855 Key West Diary: “The pain in my chest still continued, caused by indigestion from eating a Mush Melon yesterday morning which has brought on a spell of dyspepsia. Took a gall pill before breakfast. Yesterday gave Babe some gin for wind and pain and think I will use it instead of the usual carminatives.” |
| There are 16-year-olds competing at the Olympics, and I still push on the pull doors. |
Tonight at 7:30 Art Loft will show The Coconuts Cut, Headlining the Coconut Ukulele Orchestra |
| [Sloan’s Girlfriend] As previously reported by me, last Tuesday, Judge William Ptomey up on Plantation Key sentenced Kari to 20 months in prison, with 591 days jail time credit, and he told her she would have 24 hours to report to the the Probation Office after she was released. Kari was before Judge Ptomey for having violated her probation by failing a drug screen; a condition of her probation was she not drink alcohol.
Kari asked me last week to call her Probation Officer (PO) in Key West to see if I could find out where she was to report to a Probation Office in the Florida Keys. In Key West? Plantation Key? I called PO’s direct line and got her voicemail and left a message why I was calling and left my name and telephone number. Later same day, I called and got PO’s voicemail. Next day, I called the Probation Office’s main line and was told PO was out the office for the week and would be back Monday. PO called me back this morning, Monday, and said she’d gotten my message and was looking at Judge Ptomey’s Order as we spoke. PO said she had argued against Kari being put on probation again, it would not work because Kari will not stop drinking. PO said she was not happy Judge Ptomey put Kari on probation again. ~Sloan Bashinsky |
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| Sinkholes, the groundbreaking truth. Watch the earth devour stuff. Something is happening to the ground beneath our feet. Video |
[Watched Food Network Once] I made a puréed nut spread w/ a grape relish reduction paired with a brioche bun. |
| A few weeks ago James Meek (Jimbo) of Marathon was savagely beaten by 3 cab drivers from Island taxi. According to an eyewitness, his ribs were stomped and his head kicked while he was on the ground. He was airlifted to Kendall Medical Center and was in intensive care. Why doesn’t the States Attorney investigate this? |
 [English Explorer in Africa] John Hanning Speke discovered the source of the Nile in 1858. He wrote about it, the good and the bad, but mostly the bad: A candle was lighted to rearrange the kit, and in a moment, as though by magic, the whole interior became covered with a host of small black beetles, evidently attracted by the glimmer of the candle. They were so annoyingly determined in their choice of place for peregrinating, that it seemed hopeless my trying to brush them off my bedding. One of these horrid little insects awoke me in his struggles to penetrate my ear, but just too late: for in my endeavour to extract him, I aided his immersion. He went his course, struggling up the narrow channel, until he got arrested by want of passage-room. This impediment evidently enraged him, for he began with exceeding vigour, like a rabbit at a hole, to dig violently away at my tympanum. The queer sensation this amusing measure excited in me is past description.
Neither tobacco, oil, nor salt could be found: I therefore tried melted butter; that failing, I applied the point of a penknife to his back, which did more harm than good; for though a few thrusts quieted him, the point also wounded my ear so badly, that inflammation set in, severe suppuration took place, and all the facial glands extending from that point down to the point of the shoulder became contorted and drawn aside, and a string of boils decorated the whole length of that region. It was the most painful thing I ever remember to have endured; but, more annoying still, I could not masticate for several days, and had to feed on broth alone. Khamis, a merchant from Kasengé, bound for Ujiji, arrived, and kindly gave me a long needle to stir up the beetle in my ear; but the insect had gone in so far, and the swelling and suppuration of the wounds had so imbedded him, that no instrument could have done any good. For many months the tumour made me almost deaf, and ate a hole between the ear and the nose, so that when I blew it, my ear whistled so audibly that those who heard it laughed. Six or seven months after this accident happened, bits of the beetle—a leg, a wing, or parts of its body— came away in the wax. Video |
| NOAA, the Marine Sanctuary and FDOT all have the same thing in common. If they don’t make changes every week they’ll all be out of a job. |
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| [Hurricane] NOAA is upping the chance of named storms hitting us. This is good news in my opinion because it’s when they predict a quiet season that I get nervous. Hey, NOAA, fix the damn anemometer at Sombrero Light will you? |
1887: Two new cases of yellow fever were reported in the last 24 hours, with one death. There had been 242 cases since the epidemic began, with 47 deaths. An yellow fever quarantine tent was set up out at Sand Key. |
| Which are the GMO Mosquitos? the males or females or both? Like with any species, only the females lay eggs. I suggest spraying the whole country with some DNA stuff to wipe out all bugs and some illegals too! |
Casino Pool in Alcazar Hotel, St. Augustine, FL, 1905 |
| [Stuff the Bus] Please join us next Tuesday, August 23rd for UWFK’s annual “Stuff the Bus” celebration at the Hard Rock Cafe in Key West!
For seven years now, UWFK has been collecting school supplies for all of the school children throughout the Keys. Help us make this year’s drive the most successful ever! |
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| [“Sewer bill tripled”] “Walker’s Folly” In conversation with a Cudjoe grinder pump victim recently, she said her FKAA bill tripled (as it has or will for us all). Do you remember the LKPOA public meeting BS story where FKAA said they would credit $1 to your sewer bill to cover the operating cost of your grinder pump? When a lynching appeared imminent they said okay, maybe $2, but it won’t cost you that much. Well, this lady said she had a credit off her exorbitant bill of 97 cents (not even the whole dollar!) for electrical she had to supply at considerable expense. I heard that a few kilowatt hour meters installed on Key Largo grinder pumps were averaging about $4 per month in actual power used, and they do not operate against extreme conditions like many of those in the Cudjoe Regional will. (Some CRWS pumps are actually designed under expected conditions exceeding the manufacturer’s pressure rating!) If you are a grinder pump “loser”, then when you are paying your electrician $1,000 or more to run the circuit that FKAA should rightfully be providing, consider having him add a KWH meter in a little box near the panel that will monitor actual power usage of the pump. They cost under $8 direct from China to your mailbox, or from a US distributor for under $13 (delivered). They are also available for AC or DC in various power capabilities for other applications. If you have a solar home, you may need to be creative since they do not operate properly on inverter power. Typically, though, you need one that will handle our widely varying 240v power and at least 30 amps of AC current, like this $13 one. Link http://www.ebay.com/itm/100A-AC-LCD-Panel-Digital-Power-Watt-Meter-Monitor-Voltage-KWh-Voltmeter-Ammeter-/271952136069?hash=item3f519c4785:g:6~YAAOSwLVZVxiLV (I may get one for my A/C circuit and experiment with temperature settings to balance economy with comfort) Please send your power usage findings to CudjoeFail@mail.com with an indication of at least roughly where you are located. I predict that once enough people connect, the actual power usage will be much higher in some areas than FKAA claims. That is assuming the system even works. (Privately, FKAA engineers have doubts it will work for long, and a DEP official has said in a public meeting that they are not sure it will work- even though they defended Walker’s folly.) |
Did you know that if you multiply 111,111,111 times 111,111,111 you get 12,345,678,987,654,421? Wow, and you can’t lick your elbow either. Isn’t life amazing. |
| [“We’re new, what restaurant is worth going to that isn’t bad”] Welcome to the Florida Keys where the seafood and the people serving you come from somewhere else. It never used to be this way, just since the tourists overran us. My suggestion is the Square Grouper. Locally owned with excellent food and service. Just be prepared to open your wallet – the Keys aren’t cheap any more |
Here’s some throw up from the cat. It it’s not food it’s hair. It’s always something. At least she doesn’t drool. |
| [GMO Mosquitos] Now there is a confusing subject. It seems to me these bugs should be let out all over the planet, not just in neighborhood XYZ. If the bugs don’t fornicate, then why wouldn’t the non-GMO bugs go get the unsatisfied females? Just like the bars in the Keys, if one bar has no hot broads then all the guys go to the bars with the hot chicks and leave the fat useless eaters to die off at the old bar. Logical right? |
There is a simple fix for this hassle about bi-sexual bathrooms. Just take out all the stalls and urinals and put in European floor holes. You never have to put the seat down! |
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| Liveaboards and low-income renters may not be the only victims of the Sunset Marina development agreement approved last month by the City Commission. Sunset Marina’s $2700/month “affordable housing” project appears to have also cheated small commercial boat owners out of over 100 legally required parking spaces. By the look of things, developers may also be lining things up to cheat the building department on permit fees by an estimated $125,000 by misrepresenting construction costs by nearly 9 million dollars. |
How to tell a great date. |
| [Crap Food] I suggest Frank’s Grill in Towne Square Mall in Marathon. ~aslllandlllas@yahoo.com |
 [“Mission to take her business out”] My name is Theresa and most of you know me from my many years working at Napa on Big Pine and M & M Automotive and I would like to inform all of you about Cynthia at the dog grooming place. As most of who know her know, she is one sandwich short of a picnic (to be very nice about it). Well, I had her clip my Chloe’s nails for about a year. She just clipped her nails two weeks ago and she still has 6 nails that are way too long. I called her to rectify this situation and all I got was slandered. So I am now on a mission to take her business out. I gave her the benefit of the doubt the two separate times she unleashed her insanity on me (this was before I took my Chloe to her) and forgave her both times, but now she has crossed the line by refusing to rectify her mistake and had the nerve to slander me. I just want all of you that use her services to know how unprofessional she really is and hope all of you understand this before I see you writing about her unprofessionalism. ~theresadawnbright@aol.com |
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