Naples Daily News Weekend Digest Miss something this week? Catch up on a few of our big stories in this quick digest
Mayor-elect Bill Barnett looking at making some quick changes in Naples government
When Bill Barnett takes over as the next mayor of Naples, a few things will change right away. He wants to paint the walls of the mayor's office. He hasn't picked a color. He says he will let his wife decide.
The carpet, too, might need to go. He says the carpet has been there for years. And the way the office is arranged now, with the computer desk against the far wall, any visitor who walks in can see what Barnett is looking at on his monitor.
"I'd rather cut a hole in the desk and put my computer there than have my back to the door," Barnett said.
When it comes to the city's business, Barnett also has change in mind. He wants to make it easier for the public to speak on more controversial matters at council meetings and he wants to shorten meetings. He, along with several new City Council members, will confront major city issues, like paying for Baker Park and the termination of the city's fire chief.
Barnett, the longtime City Councilman who has also served three terms as mayor, won a fourth term Tuesday when he overcame a massive fundraising effort by incumbent Mayor John Sorey and fought off the campaign of City Councilwoman Teresa Heitmann that gained large support in just two months. Barnett's term begins April 6.
Barnett won 46 percent of the vote, a little more than the 43 percent he got in the city's last three-way mayor's race that Barnett won in 2004. Heitmann came in second with 33 percent. Sorey, who won an unopposed mayor's election in 2012 and raised close to $180,000 for this race, got 21 percent.
Panel: Florida law enforcement needs more training, support for DUI manslaughter cases
Sharon Mahar, Scott Walter and Donald Day have all become intimately familiar with how Florida handles cases of deadly impaired drivers.
And through their experiences — Mahar, the mother of a fatal crash victim; Walter, a former traffic homicide investigator; Day, a criminal defense lawyer — they've all reached the same conclusion: Florida can do better.
Speaking at a forum hosted Wednesday by the Naples Daily News in response to the newspaper's investigation, "Free to Flee," the trio said state and local officials should provide more training and support for law enforcement working DUI manslaughter cases, so suspects are arrested sooner and victims' families can receive justice in a more timely manner.
"Where (victims' families) become very frustrated is where nobody is answering their questions and somebody drops the ball, and we're seeing that unfortunately," said Day, who has represented thousands of DUI defendants, including those charged in fatal crashes.
The Daily News found police across the state have routinely allowed DUI manslaughter suspects to go free following a crash without facing any charges, even when there's probable cause for an arrest. In the meantime, at least 45 suspects have become fugitives, dozens of others committed new crimes and others considered potentially high-risk spent many months free before being arrested.
It's often the result, the Daily News found, of overworked investigators and lab analysts, which haven't been able to keep up with their caseloads. Many of the delays in investigations and arrests are in cases handled by the Florida Highway Patrol.
Palmetto Pride shows its green (and black) to New York’s parade
The perfect participant for a St. Patrick's Day parade has to be a Big Green Marching Machine, and the Palmetto Ridge High School marching band, in green and black school colors, was all that. Some 150 members of the band marched Thursday in the 255th New York St. Patrick's Day Parade, the culmination of months of rehearsal and more than a year of fundraising.
Their two days of sightseeing in the Big Apple actually included some coincidental coaching: The band was performing selections from the Broadway musical "Wicked" on the parade route, and the group actually saw it Wednesday evening. Fittingly, its heroine is green.
"The kids think they're dreaming," said chaperone Maria Ruiz. "Every minute is great. A lot parents heard people say we were one of the best bands in the parade."
It wasn't just a thrill for the kids; Ruiz said it was her first trip to New York City as well: "I can check one off my bucket list."
"They really do a great job. I was very happy with their performance — they always pull it together," said Annabelle Sarmiento, director of bands for the school. "We received a lot of compliments along the parade route."
Trackers finish successful capture season with 2,000 pounds of pythons
As the python trackers traipsed through the brush, the radio receiver's beeps got louder. They were getting closer, but to what, they couldn't tell.
The signal came from a radio-tagged python. Trackers hoped the so-called "snitch snake" would lead them to a breeding aggregation of the invasive species that is overrunning the Everglades, including Southwest Florida. The idea was to capture the non-tagged snakes and get them out of the ecosystem.
"We got through the scrub oak trees, and, 'Bam!'" said Conservancy of Southwest Florida wildlife biologist Ian Bartoszek.
There it was, lying in an S-shape in tall grass in a remote corner of Collier County, a big python, so big they thought it was a female, which grow larger than males. A closer look showed it was a male. But not just any male — the biggest male python any of them had ever seen, and maybe the biggest male python recorded in South Florida: 16-feet long and 140 pounds.
Of the five largest male pythons captured in and around Everglades National Park since 2003, the largest weighed 97 pounds, park spokeswoman Linda Friar said. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported that the biggest male python in the FWC's records measures 12-feet-9-inches.
The trackers nicknamed the giant constrictor Colossus, one of 43 pythons the team captured this breeding season from mid-December to mid-March. It was the most successful capture season since the radio-tracking project began in 2013, Bartoszek said. In all, the team pulled 2,000 pounds of python out of the woods of rural Collier County, roughly east of Collier Boulevard and along U.S. 41 East.
College basketball: Young Dunk City “hungry” to get back to NCAA tournament next year
Heading into the NCAA tournament, Florida Gulf Coast University men's basketball coach Joe Dooley said one of the main goals was to build momentum for the future.
Check.
After a not-so-hot 8-6 Atlantic Sun run, fourth-seeded FGCU (21-14) won the conference tournament — blistering top-seeded North Florida, 89-56, on the Ospreys home floor along the way — to notch its second NCAA tournament berth in just five years of Division I eligibility.
The Eagles ran past Northeast Conference champion Fairly Dickinson, 96-65, in Dayton, Ohio, on Tuesday in the First Four play-in's biggest-ever margin. It was their eighth win in the previous 10 games.
A 16th seed, FGCU then played one of the best halves in program history on Thursday night when the Eagles shot 60 percent from the field and out-rebounded third-ranked and top-seeded North Carolina to stay within 41-40 in baby-blue smeared PNC Arena in Raleigh.
Alas, the magic ran out as the Eagles fell, 83-67, against their much-taller foes from the ACC.
There is much to build on.
