The local news for Friday morning:
- Five years of probation is the sentence for Ed Portner, former Tamarac commissioner, for pulling a gun on his daughter, Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter, at her Parkland home last October. That whole episode seems to me like it was some bizarre dream that comes from too much exposure to Broward politics. But I guess it really happened. [Daily Pulp]
- Palm Beach Gardens Councilwoman Jody Barnett announced her resignation last night, almost a year before her second three-year term was to expire. A lightning rod for controversy, Barnett waged a political death match with City Manager Ron Ferris, but her campaign to oust him was undermined by a disciplinary measure taken after her police officer husband was caught running background checks on Gardens officials. [Palm Beach Post]
- The Broward Teachers Union rejected a request by Broward school officials to spare high-achieving, less-tenured teachers from the layoffs, insisting on keeping to a contract that stipulates the most recently hired teachers are the first to be laid off. [Sun-Sentinel]
- Based on statements Fitzroy Salesman made to undercover FBI agents, he should be considered a flight risk and kept in jail before he receives his federal prison sentence, say prosecutors who tried the former Miramar commissioner for corruption. [Sun-Sentinel]
- D'Andre Bannister, on trial for the murder of his 4-year-old stepson in 2002, told a Palm Beach County jury that the child fell out of a tree. He admitted only a single lapse in judgment: being slow to bring the child to the emergency room. [Palm Beach Post]
- With the pilots' strike over, Spirit Air resumed flights Thursday. The pilots' walkout lasted for five days. [South Florida Biz Journal]
