A South Florida city is being plagued by thousands of poisonous toads.
Experts say the amphibians are bufo toads, also known as cane toads. Residents in the infested Palm Beach Gardens neighborhood worry toxins secreted by the toads will harm their pets and children.
News stations broadcast images of the small toads clogging pool filters, hopping en masse across driveways and sidewalks, and lurking in landscaped lawns.
Resident Jennifer Quasha told WPBF her family first noticed the toads Friday. She said hundreds of them were in her swimming pool.
Mark Holladay of the pest removal service Toad Busters told WPTV that recent rains coupled with warm temperatures sent the amphibians into a breeding cycle.
Holladay said even more toads are likely to spread throughout South Florida in the coming weeks.
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An Aventura woman was disturbed to find a crocodile in her backyard, and has to wait over a month for its removal, according to a report by WSVN, a Fox affiliated news station serving Miami.
Patricia Jesurum was walking her dog Sunday when she spotted the crocodile on her lakeside property near Northwest 25th Court and 214th Street, according to WSVN.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told Jesurum that it would be 45 days before they could remove the animal, since the crocodile is in its natural habitat, WSVN reported.
Jesurum was disturbed to hear this as there are several families with children and pets in the neighborhood.
The actor who is filming the third “Bad Boys” film posted an invitation for fans “to come hang with ME…in MIAMI…on the set of “Bad Boys For Life.”
Smith called the invite “a Bucket List experience in the making” which is being organized through online fundraising site omaze.com to support the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
When fans make a donation to the nonprofit through Omaze, they will be entered for a chance to win a trip for two to be flown to Miami and stay in a four-star hotel. They will also get behind the scenes access of the movie and spend a day on the set with Smith. Filming was expected to start in April; scenes will be shot at PortMiami, nearby causeways and in various parts of Miami Beach.
The deadline to enter is March 29. You have to be at least 21-years-old and able to travel on or around April 9.
Production for the third installment of the Smith and Martin Lawrence action comedy movie began shooting in Atlanta in January.
Lawrence and Smith are reprising their roles as Miami narcotic detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett. In the new film, the characters reunite “when an Albanian mercenary, whose brother they killed, promises them an important bonus,’’ according to IMBD.com
Fans of the franchise may recall that the first film “Bad Boys” in 1995 and its 2003 sequel with Gabrielle Union were also filmed in South Florida.
Area art aficionados and the just plain curious will have the chance to visit with an eclectic mix of Lake County artists and watch them create art during the last leg of the ninth annual Off the Beaten Path Florida Arts Tour this weekend.
The free self-guided tour takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at 21 professional studios in the Golden Triangle, Leesburg, Umatilla and Weirsdale areas, with stops at area cultural venues, including museums and art centers, too.
In February, the annual region-wide event took art lovers to studios across east and west Volusia County, for visits with 54 artists in 40 studios during two separate dates.In Lake, 29 artists will give demonstrations at their studios and “talk shop,” during the tour. They include watercolor, acrylic, and oil painters; artists who work with clay, metal, paper, wood and mixed media; and jewelers, potters and sculptors.
“Visitors can see what’s going on, how we create our art and the atmosphere of the studio,” said Eustis artist Kace Montgomery, who’s known for her work in clay. “Artists will talk your ear off, if you let them.”
Patrons can also purchase artwork from the artists at any of the stops.
A grassroots effort founded in Lake County in 2011 by painter Brenda Heim, metalsmith Doug Hays and Montgomery, who works in several media, the tour began with a vision to take the mystery out of the artists’ studio and build rapport with the public.
The inaugural tour featured 13 Lake County artists, with Volusia County joining in a few years later.
“Artist studios have been a sanctum for many years and this was a way to get people in and allow artists to share their methods and inspiration with them,” said Montgomery, who works alongside fellow artist Kate Esplen at their Shared Lines Studio, a tour stop at 129 N. Grove St., Eustis. Wild Ibis Art Studios and Gallery, in the same building at 133 N. Grove, features eight artists on the tour.
Leesburg sculptor Kimberly Miller, who creates mind-boggling totemic clay sculptures in her 800-square foot studio at 8200 Treasure Island Road, has participated in the tour for several years and enjoys the interaction with art lovers.
“People are always happy to see my space and how I work,” said Miller, an artist since 16, when she discovered a potter’s wheel in her school’s art room. “They are surprised to walk in and see the setting. There’s a lot of windows and it’s beautiful.”
Last year, nearly 50 people on the tour visited Miller, with one art lover purchasing a $2,000 sculpture.
“It doesn’t really sound like a lot of people, but it is when your studio really is off the beaten path,” she said.
John Kellum, a potter who specializes in Raku firing, will be a guest artist at Miller’s studio, giving demonstrations on the technique at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Besides Montgomery and Esplen, other participating Eustis artists include Nora Thomas, Tim Dardis, Lois Stover, Barbara Lange, Jennifer Harper; and at Wild Ibis, Jackii Molsick, Lou Buigas, Dodi Truenow, Emily Lewis, Kelley Batson, Krysta Smith, Cathy Caine and Liz Wincup.
In Mount Dora, artists on the tour include Barb Batson, Elisabeth Ferber and Corinne A. Garrett, with Heim and Hays showcasing their talents in Umatilla. Also, Michele Pasternak, Reid Pasternak, Cynthia Powell-Allen and Denise Kirsop at the Wekiva River Art Studio in Sorrento, owned by Michele Pasternack.
In Leesburg, artist Kelly Cornell will be on the tour, and in Weirsdale, potters Steve Lytle and Jenny Murin will be the last stop on the tour.
For studio maps, guides and additional details about the artists and venues on the tour, go to floridaartstour.com.
A great man once said to never tell him the odds, but we’re sorry to inform you that the odds of winning the Powerball are 1 in 292,201,338.00, and nobody beat them this time around.
The Powerball numbers announced during Saturday night’s drawing were 24, 25, 52, 60, 66, and 05. With no winning grand prize ticket, the pot for the multistate lottery is now at $750 million, swollen with the hopes and dreams of millions who purchase tickets for the biweekly drawings. The jackpot is the fourth-largest in U.S. history and the biggest Powerball total so far this year.
While a player must match all six winning numbers to win the grand prize, some Saturday drawing winners matched enough to earn a mere $2 million or $1 million dollar prize.
In December, David Johnson of Brooklyn bought the winner Powerball ticket for a $298.3 million.
Last year, a secretive Mega Millions player won a jackpot worth $1.5 billion, and kept everyone in suspense as they waited until the last minute to come forward. The person received a one-time payout of $878 million, the largest ever awarded to a single lottery player.
The lottery overlords know that these giant jackpots lure ticket buyers, and have tweaked their games in recent years to lower the odds and help the grand prize climbs to tantalizing heights. Hoping to be the next lucky exception, scores will purchase tickets for the next Powerball drawing, which occurs on March 27.
A great man once said to never tell him the odds, but we’re sorry to inform you that the odds of winning the Powerball are 1 in 292,201,338.00, and nobody beat them this time around.
The Powerball numbers announced during Saturday night’s drawing were 24, 25, 52, 60, 66, and 05. With no winning grand prize ticket, the pot for the multistate lottery is now at $750 million, swollen with the hopes and dreams of millions who purchase tickets for the biweekly drawings. The jackpot is the fourth-largest in U.S. history and the biggest Powerball total so far this year.
While a player must match all six winning numbers to win the grand prize, some Saturday drawing winners matched enough to earn a mere $2 million or $1 million dollar prize.
In December, David Johnson of Brooklyn bought the winner Powerball ticket for a $298.3 million.
Last year, a secretive Mega Millions player won a jackpot worth $1.5 billion, and kept everyone in suspense as they waited until the last minute to come forward. The person received a one-time payout of $878 million, the largest ever awarded to a single lottery player.
The lottery overlords know that these giant jackpots lure ticket buyers, and have tweaked their games in recent years to lower the odds and help the grand prize climbs to tantalizing heights. Hoping to be the next lucky exception, scores will purchase tickets for the next Powerball drawing, which occurs on March 27.
The crash took the life of one person around 8:30 p.m. at International Speedway Boulevard and Tomoka Farms Road near the Interstate 95 entrance, said FHP spokeswoman Lt. Kim Montes.
The victim was dead at the scene, Montes said.
Three other peope were transported to the hospital, according to Montes.
This is a developing story, check back in for updates.
Groveland spent years wallowing in the muck of incompetent government, community discord and looney lawsuits.
Everybody was suing everybody else and controversy was the order of the day in city government. The single biggest mess involved a guy who fabricated his military service and medals but won an election anyway and sat as mayor until he was tossed out because he was a convicted felon and not eligible to hold office in the first place.
A former city manager ignored the City Council and began running the city as his own little fiefdom, spending far more time stirring trouble than getting anything done. The police chief used a city credit card to stay in motels because he lived several hours away. Sometimes, a now-deceased council member would carry on at meetings about the devil being at work in Groveland.
It was tempting to wonder whether he was right.
Over the last year or so, however, a professional city manager came to town and started building a team of professional employees. The lawsuits over the felon-mayor got thrown out of court, a new police chief was hired and council meetings became more like government and less like the TV show “Survivor.”
And now, Groveland has gotten its reward for behaving like a good little city: A business is coming to town that is expected to employ as many as 520 people when it gets up to speed after a 2021 opening.
The nation’s largest grocery retailer, Kroger, has joined forces with British online grocery retailer Ocado to build a 375,000-square-foot, robot-powered customer fulfillment center at U.S. Highway 27 and American Way adjacent to the Christopher C. Ford Industrial Park on the north side of the city limits.
Kroger, which invested $248 million in Ocado last year, considered a piece of property in the unincorporated area of Lake County, 10 feet from the one on which it finally settled, Groveland City Council member Mike Radzik said. He said he believes the company chose to be in Groveland because the city pledged to help Kroger get the warehouse operating within two years.
“We displayed that type of cooperation and assistance they wanted,” Radzik said. “What really sold them on the city was the response time to questions — the fact that our permitting has been streamlined, and we gave assurances that we’d meet their two-year construction window.”
Kroger and Ocado are expected to spend $125 million in the building and its technology, and in return, Groveland is putting up $1.4 million in incentives and the county is providing a property tax rebate.
The companies estimate the area around the industrial park near U.S. 27 and State Road 19 will see $67 million of investment in restaurants, retail and places for employees to live.
Wow. If it’s half that much, it’s a blessing for Lake County, which rarely attracts the kind of companies that bring the number of jobs that Kroger is estimating.
Radzik said the companies’ plan is to use robots to fetch grocery items in the warehouse, which will be packed and sent to consumers within a 4½-hour driving time from Groveland. That would include a big swipe of Florida, taking in Orlando, the Tampa-St. Petersburg area and Jacksonville.
The robots, square-shaped stout little dudes, glide across the top of a football-field sized grid with bins underneath. They’re manipulated by an air-traffic control system so they don’t crash into one another.
They are battery-operated and zip around at a top speed of 4.4 yards per second. They take themselves to charging stations to “top up” their batteries when needed. After bringing items to packing stations, either another robot or a live human packs the items for delivery.
Want to watch the robots work? Check out a video from an Ocado warehouse in Andover, United Kingdom, at bit.ly/2rI3wmD. Ocado, an online grocer, did $1.9 billion in sales in 2018 using warehouses like the one in Andover.
The companies have an interest in having groceries delivered in autonomously driven vehicles. That might be a few years away.
For now, this is a lovely plum for Groveland to have plucked. Though the company has not stated how much employees might be paid, it’s for certain that Lake will still be desperate for jobs outside government and home construction when this warehouse opens. Nice go, Groveland.
