WAFC Local News – September 03, 2026, 8:06 AM
Transcript
I’m Charles Murphy reporting. The city of Cleveland wants to provide $500,000 to help develop a downtown business district. They would get matching funds for business facade, sidewalk, and other improvements. Administrator Danny Williams would like to see some cooperation from businesses and merchants alike. Everybody I send is the same story. He’s arrogant and doesn’t care. To me, that bothers. We’ve sent business to him and he declines it. So I’m actually looking at an eye center now to go there. When I went to get my checkup, they want to come to close to recommend that building, but I don’t want them to walk up and they get this attitude. An inmate at Moorhaven Correctional Facility sued the state. He was badly burned while working there. Richard Young naming United Rentals, Pride, or the Prison Rehab Industries and Diversified Enterprises, Moorhaven Correctional, and the GEO Group in the negligence lawsuit. Litigation contends on April 14th of 2025, Young was assigned to help dig retention ponds, clear trees, and help widen the road. United Rentals rented out heavy machinery and an excavator. The lawsuit contends the machine did not work properly and overheated, and that the excavator was never repaired. It claimed the prison supervisor of the job was not qualified. Young tried to repair the equipment when a radiator cap unexpectedly burst and shot out hot antifreeze, water, and other fluids, burning him severely in his stomach, both legs, and groin area. He was forced to walk a mile back at the prison and was flown to HCA Kendall Hospital burn unit and underwent several skin grafts and surgeries. He also fell on October 22nd of 2025 at the prison from a reaction to medicines he was taking from the burning. The lawsuit claims the equipment was in a state of disrepair. The parties had the ability to fix it and chose not to. There was non-qualified supervision on the work site. It didn’t maintain a safe working environment and also alleged the prison ward did not properly care for his injuries. Young is serving a 12-year sentence for homicide in Brevard County. He allegedly stabbed to death an 80-year-old man in Titusville during a robbery. Pahokee Mayor Keith Babb wants Palm Beach County to take the lead in building a swimming pool. He says they had one in the past. He thinks Pahokee deserves one. We don’t have a swimming pool. We had one once. We have the land for it if it happened to be in the city of Pahokee where the old swimming pool was. If the county can take the lead on it and do the funding, it’ll be probably at Duncan Padgett Park, but I at least want to see us push for that. There’s been an alarming increase in arrests on US 27 for super speeders, those going over 100 miles an hour. Lieutenant Gary Johnson with the Glades County Sheriff’s Office says these high speeds are not worth it. We get all kinds of stories. I got one one time that she was late for a hair appointment. And I’m like, well, you might want to call the hairdresser and say, hey, I’m going to be running late and just slow down a little bit because your life’s not worth it, neither is somebody else’s life that you possibly could harm. A Pahokee man was caught hiding in the bushes after a car crash he was involved in on Lakeshore Drive. Kevin Hernandez Martinez, when seen by the deputies, began walking towards the vehicle and said, oh my God, my truck. He then ignored questions and would not identify himself. He’s facing charges of leaving the scene of a crash involving property damage. I’m Charles Murphy, WAFC News.
Recorded from the WAFC daily newscast (Glades Media).