Cal State Long Beach Continues Reversing The Number Of College Dropouts – Patch.com

From California State University Long Beach:

Cal State Long Beach continues to be at the forefront of reversing the number of college dropouts nationwide.

The national dropout rate hovers around 50% over a six-year period, according to UC Berkeley professor and author David Kirp. However, Cal State Long Beach, through its connection with the Long Beach College Promise program, has seen its graduation rates increase yearly.

The progress Cal State Long Beach has made in this area is why Kirp touts the university as a success story in his book, "The College Dropout Scandal." He called the national trend a "scandal."

"It means that at four-year schools, students are leaving with debt and no degree to show for it," Kirp said Monday in a chat with President Jane Close Conoley at the Martha B. Knoebel Dance Theater. "And that leaves them without the credential to get the kinds of jobs that will allow them to pay off their debt. In fact, it's not short-term; it's life-changing."

Cal State Long Beach has increased its four-year graduation rate for those who enrolled as first-time freshman to 34% in 2019 from 16% in 2015. This improvement is a combined result of the College Promise and a CSU-wide initiative to increase graduation rates by 2025.

The College Promise teams the city's K-12 schools with Long Beach City College and Cal State Long Beach to ensure the success of its students by offering continuous support from the time a student enters kindergarten and into their career.

Kirp wrote in his book that Cal State Long Beach "has turned into a go-to school. With nearly 100,000 applicants, the seventh-highest number nationwide, it could admit a class composed entirely of students with 24-karat credentials. Instead, it accepts local students with substantially weaker grades and SAT scores. Those students are likelier to graduate than their classmates from outside the region. "

Kirp said Monday that a program such as the College Promise addresses the student success problem and boosts graduation rates, which in turn shrinks the opportunity gap of the new generation of students.

"I went around the country looking for schools that were doing good things, and the hope is that places like Long Beach State University and what the city is doing, would actually get other people interested," he said. "And that other institutions would be willing to go out on a limb to make the kind of efforts that all the successful schools have made."

Kirp found that Cal State Long Beach and Georgia State were among the best in promoting student success through personal connections, such as counseling programs. He said many new-gen students come from communities and families who don't have the knowledge or resources to help them.

"The bottom line is the personal connection," Kirp said, pointing out that depression and loneliness can derail college plans.

"It's been my experience here to think at Long Beach, and other places you mentioned, about how we need to be for students to succeed instead of how students need to be in order to succeed with us," Conoley said.

"(We have to ask) are we student-ready? Instead of are you student ready to come here. I think that's a pretty profound switch in mindset."

Kirp said he thought student success was the top priority of every university and college. He called himself "nave."

"The No. 1 priority at many universities is where are you in the U.S. News and World Report rankings, and that drives a whole array of decisions about selectivity and where it is you end up investing in resources," Kirp said.

He added that campus leaders need to make student success their No. 1 priority and it can't be rhetoric, adding that "everyone featured in that book has got to have the guts to do as much as possible along that line."

This press release was produced by California State University Long Beach. The views expressed here are the author's own.

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Cal State Long Beach Continues Reversing The Number Of College Dropouts - Patch.com

Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach Plan to collaborate on cargo operations – Logistics Management

In a move that was much anticipated by industry experts, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have announced that they will strengthen collaborative measuresin their San Pedro Bay cargo operations.

Americas two largest and most competitive ports have a long and successful history of collaborating on key issues, said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka. This agreement significantly expands these efforts and underscores our shared commitment to lead and succeed.

In his recent 2020 State of the Port address, Seroka, the Executivehinted that such a deal might be driven because the port is stronger when we act togetherbecause we are all connected.

He went on to outline many of the challenges and achievements that are occurring within Southern Californias supply chain. In his closing comments he noted that ...we are truly at an inflection point.

Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero, observed that the Our two ports are the fastest way to move goods between Asia and U.S. markets and manufacturers.

The kind of cooperation that will flow from this agreement ensures we will continue to be the most efficient gateway for shippers, he added.

The nations largest seaport complex will work in concert with industry stakeholders to identify and address operational issues to unlock additional efficiencies and lower costs for shippers while improving sustainability, business continuity and security.

The two neighboring ports that share the San Pedro Bay move 37% of the nations containerized imports and 25% of its exports. More than 3 million jobs nationwide are connected to the complex. Meanwhile, the ports continue to face competitive challenges for market share.

The newly approved memorandum of understanding (MOU) is an opportunity to explore five areas of additional cooperation that will enhance competitiveness: cargo transfer predictability, digital connectivity, cybersecurity, establishing metrics and workforce development.

The Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners approved the MOU on Feb. 20. The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners approved the MOU on Feb. 24. Both votes were unanimous.

The first steps will be for the staffs of the two ports to establish a work plan that will prioritize efforts, create work groups and define objectives for each of the areas outlined in the MOU.These efforts will be done in collaboration with stakeholders from marine terminals, labor, drayage, railroads, shipping lines, cargo owners and more.

The MOU is entered into pursuant to authority granted under Federal Maritime Commission Agreement No. 201219, which permits the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles to collaborate on issues such as the environment, supply chain optimization and infrastructure development.

Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, president John McLaurin, notes in the most recent edition of West Coast Trade Report thatSan Pedro Bay ports saw their combined percentage of containerized import tonnage slide in December to 26.9% from 30.4% a year earlier.

"The two experienced an equally sharp drop in the declared value of containerized imports to 33.8% from 37.7%," he said.

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Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach Plan to collaborate on cargo operations - Logistics Management

Miami Beach Chefs to be Honored At City Hall Ceremony – Miami New Times

The South Beach Wine & Food Festival (SOBEWFF) is over till next year, but its impact still resonates in South Florida.

According to the SOBEWFF website, a report generated with the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau's research division in 2018 concluded the festival has an estimated economic impact of more than $34 million on Miami-Dade County, including Miami Beach, where signature SOBEWFF events such as Burger Bash and the Grand Tasting Village are held.

Of course, the festival wouldn't be complete without the chefs who spend time away their restaurants to cook at the various parties, events, and dinners during the five-day extended culinary weekend.

Tomorrow several local chefs will be recognized in a ceremony at Miami Beach City Hall.

Miami Beach CommissionerMichael Gngora will present 18 chefs with a certificate of recognition for their role in "helping shape the city's food scene and reputation as a major culinary destination." In a news release, Commissioner Gngora said, "The festival is an outstanding vehicle to highlight the incredible culinary talent based right here in our own back yard, alongside some of the worlds most well-known chefs, restaurants, and food personalities."

The chefs chosen to receive this recognition were participants at this year's SOBEWFF, which has raised more than $30 million for the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at Florida International University since the festival's inception, according to SOBEWFF.

The chefs to be honored at the ceremony, which is open to the public, are as follows:

City of Miami Beach Chef Recognition Ceremony. 5 p.m. Wednesday, February 26, at Miami Beach City Hall, Commission Chambers, third floor, 1700 Convention Center Dr., Miami Beach. Admission is free.

Laine Doss is the food and spirits editor for Miami New Times. She has been featured on Cooking Channel's Eat Street and Food Network's Great Food Truck Race. She won an Alternative Weekly award for her feature about what it's like to wait tables.

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Miami Beach Chefs to be Honored At City Hall Ceremony - Miami New Times

Relics washed up on beaches reveal lost world beneath the North Sea – Science Magazine

A sharp-eyed collector spotted this translucent flint bladecrafted by hunter-gatherers about 8000 years agoon a Dutch beach.

By Andrew CurryJan. 30, 2020 , 2:00 PM

MONSTER, THE NETHERLANDSOn a clear, windy autumn afternoon last October, Willy van Wingerden spent a few free hours before work walking by the sea not far from the Dutch town of Monster. Here, in 2013, the cheerful nurse found her first woolly mammoth tooth. She has since plucked more than 500 ancient artifacts from the broad, windswept beach known as the Zandmotor, or sand engine. She has found Neanderthal tools made of river cobbles, bone fishhooks, and human remains thousands of years old. Once, she plucked a tar-covered Neanderthal tool from the waters edge, earning a co-author credit in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) a few months ago.

Sun, wind, rain, snowIm here 5 or 6 days a week, she says. I find something every day, almost.

Van Wingerdens favorite beachcombing spot is no ordinary stretch of sand. Nearly half a kilometer wide, the beach is made of material dredged from the sea bottom 13 kilometers offshore and dumped on the existing beach in 2012. Its a 70 million experimental coastal protection measure, its sands designed to spread over time to shield the Dutch coast from sea-level rise. And the endeavor has made 21 million cubic meters of Stone Age soil accessible to archaeologists.

That soil preserves traces of a lost world. During the last ice age, sea levels were 70 meters lower, and what is now the North Sea between Great Britain and the Netherlands was a rich lowland, home to modern humans, Neanderthals, and even earlier hominins. It all disappeared when glaciers melted and sea level rose about 8500 years ago.

That vast continental shelf has been a blank spot on the map of prehistoric Europe because archaeologists cant mount traditional excavations underwater. Now, thanks to the Zandmotor and construction work on a harbor extension in nearby Rotterdam, van Wingerden and a dedicated cadre of amateur beachcombers are amassing an impressive collection of artifacts from that vanished landscape. Scientists on both sides of the North Sea are applying precise new methods to date the artifacts and sequence any genetic traces, as well as mapping the sea floor and analyzing sediment cores. The effort is bringing to light the landscape and prehistory of a lost homeland of ancient Europeans.

Willy van Wingerden has found hundreds of ancient artifacts on beaches near her home in the Netherlands.

The finds show that the region was an inviting place in the few thousand years before it vanished, with forests and river valleys rich in game. Its not a blank area, its not a land bridge, its probably one of the best areas for hunter-gatherers in Europe, says Vincent Gaffney, an archaeologist at the University of Bradford.

The dark, cold waters that now hide the region add to its allure because they preserve organic material for DNA analysis and radiocarbon dating better than on land. And the techniques now being tested to explore the area could aid research on submerged landscapes elsewhere, such as Beringia, the vanished land between Asia and North America inhabited by the first Americans. It really is a pioneer field and will make a huge difference to our understanding of prehistory, retired University of York archaeologist Geoff Bailey says.

Clad in a bright yellowwindbreaker and blue rubber boots, van Wingerden kept her eyes on the sand as she crunched across razor clamshells and bits of driftwood. To the south, the cranes of Rotterdam harborEuropes largest portwere just visible on the horizon. To the north, oversize kites bobbed in the sky, pulling kitesurfers along far below. Sometimes things are on dry sand; sometimes theyre near the water, van Wingerden said of her finds. Theres really no logic to it.

Fifty thousand years ago, the landscape looked different. Doggerlandwhich University of Exeter archaeologist Bryony Coles named in the 1990s after the Dogger Banks, a productive North Sea fishing spotextended from Amsterdam up to Scotland and southern Norway. The region once encompassed at least 180,000 square kilometers of dry land, four times the size of the Netherlands today (see map, below). But until the Zandmotor was built in 2011, archaeologists had glimpsed only the outlines of Doggerland. Fishermen had dragged up isolated bones, tusks, and stone tools.

In calmer seas, archaeologists might have dived to the sea floor for follow-up searches. But the rough, cold, murky waters of the North Sea, crisscrossed with busy shipping lanes, ruled that out.

The technology [to explore the sea floor] wasnt available, nobody knew what might have survived sea-level rise, and it all seemed hopelessly expensive and useless, Bailey says. Archaeologists were also reluctant to be seen chasing after lost continents, he adds, lest they be associated with fringe theories such as Atlantis.

Thats changing fast, thanks in part to beachcombers like van Wingerden. In his office at the National Museum of Antiquities, archaeologist Luc Amkreutz opens his email and scrolls through messages, some just hours old. This morning a fisherman sent in photos of an elk antler with a shaft hole, he says, opening an attachment. It just goes on and on.

Over the millennia, Doggerland has been an icy wasteland, verdant valleys and forests, and now the bottom of the cold North Sea. Various kinds of humans have adapted to all these changes, with Homo antecessor, Neanderthals, and H. sapiens likely making use of the lands bounty at different times.

(GRAPHIC) A. CUADRA/SCIENCE; (DATA) EUROPES LOST FRONTIERS PROJECT/EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL; (PHOTOS, LEFT TO RIGHT) NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES (ROM) LEIDEN (1); MANON BRUININGA

Using email and a WhatsApp group with the straightforward name Stone Age Finds, Amkreutz and Marcel Niekus, an independent archaeologist, keep in constant contact with amateurs scouring beaches all along the Dutch coast. The archaeologists help identify prehistoric artifacts from photos and get access to dozens of specimens in exchange. Were easy to approach, and people can bring us finds, Amkreutz says.

Other researchers are reaping similar bonanzas. In late 2018, Leiden University Medical Center archaeogeneticist Eveline Altena was part of a research group that invited van Wingerden and other amateurs to an open house, asking them to bring human bones for identification. The response was overwhelming: In a single day, beachcombers brought more than 50 human skeletal fragments, many suitable for dating and DNA analysis. Now, were getting new fragments on a weekly basis, she says. I cant keep up anymore.

In 2015, van Wingerden found a flint flake with a gob of tar stuck to one end to form a simple handle. Niekus and Amkreutz recognized it as a Neanderthal hand tool at least 50,000 years old. Chemical analysis helped show how Neanderthals used complex methods to process birch bark into tar, as a team including Niekus, Amkreutz, and van Wingerden reported inPNAS.

Archaeologists cant know exactly where on the sea floor an artifact found on the beach originated, so the context they prize is missing. But because coastal reclamation efforts such as the Zandmotor dredge from specific locations, archaeologists know the artifacts sources to within a few kilometers. There are complete cemeteries being sucked up and sprayed on beaches, Amkreutz says. Even though these finds arent in their original find spot, they can say something about a huge area.

Those findings suggest several phases of occupation. Tools and other relics 800,000 years old or more harken back to when this part of Europe was likely occupied byHomo antecessor, an early human thought by many researchers to be an evolutionary dead end. One set of footprints, found in a layer of compressed sand on a beach in the United Kingdom and dated by its geological context, recorded children and adults apparently migrating across a mudflat.

Archaeologist Luc Amkreutz cultivates contacts with local beachcombers, who bring him finds like this Neanderthal tool with a birch tar grip (left).

Long cold spells then covered parts of the region in ice. About 100,000 years ago, small, hardy bands of Neanderthals arrived on the trail of megafauna such as mammoths and woolly rhinoceros. Hundreds of tools and a lone skull fragment offer evidence of a population living on the fringes of habitable Europe, resourceful enough to eke out a living in small groups under what Amkreutz calls extreme conditions on the edge of glaciers.

Neanderthals died out about 45,000 years agoabout when anatomically modern humans entered Europe. A few flint tools, found among stones dredged from the sea floor to create artificial sea walls for the Rotterdam harbor, suggestH. sapiensmay have been active in Doggerland even as early as 40,000 years ago, when it was still an icy steppe. (More conclusive tools have turned up in the United Kingdom and Belgium, on each side of Doggerland.) About 20,000 years ago, a severe cold spell made the entire region too cold to be habitable.

But the end of the last ice age, about 15,000 years ago, brought a brief idyll: Pollen samples, DNA evidence, and fossilized wood fragments recovered from the sea floor suggest a fertile landscape of forests and rivers, with plentiful birds, fish, and mammals. Human remains and finely worked stone, bone, and antler tools suggest modern humans made the most of the area, occupying it even as rising waves transformed large parts into a coastal wetland.

The seafloor bones are filling in the picture of Europes genetic past. Studies of ancient and modern DNA indicate that certain groups of hunter-gatherers entered northern Europe from the south and east perhaps about 14,000 years ago, after much of the ice had melted; modern European populations still carry their genetic legacy.

The trove of human bones that amateurs turned over to Altena for sampling promises to add to the picture. Of the bones amassed in June 2019, 90 were well-preserved enough for radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis. Altena and researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (SHH) in Jena, Germany, identified teeth and bones between 8000 and 10,000 years old, when modern human hunter-gatherers occupied Doggerland. They have started to extract DNA, and so far have recovered it from more than five individuals. In some ways the context is limited, but we can still do so much more than anyone ever expected, Altena says.

Drawn from the outer limits of hunter-gatherer expansion in the fringes of Europe at that time, those samples are fascinating, says Cosimo Posth, an SHH geneticist. He notes that the DNA could illuminate how these early populations mixed with others in Europe.

Most Doggerland findshave been accidental. A long-term goal is to learn enough about the past landscape so researchers can go to sea and look for sites instead of waiting for evidence to wash ashore. Until you have reliable maps, you cant do much, Gaffney says. Were dealing with a completely unexplored country we cant visit.

More than 10 years ago, Gaffney set out to do the next-best thing, persuading oil, gas, and wind power companies to pass on data gathered in seismic surveys done to plan offshore oil and gas wells. Initial maps were coarse, but over the past several years, Gaffney and colleagues used 2.5 million in funding from the European Research Council to deploy side-scan sonar and other undersea imaging technologies to make their own maps, in what they call the Europes Lost Frontiers project. Maps in hand, the researchers looked for ancient areas suited to human habitation.

This jaw belonged to an ancient teenager whose home is now submerged beneath the North Sea.

More than a decade of work paid off last year when Gaffney and Belgian researchers headed to the Brown Banks, about 50 kilometers off the U.K. coast. Mapping had suggested that between 7000 and 13,000 years ago, the spot was an elevated area 30 kilometers long, overlooking a river.

Researchers aboard the Belgian research vesselBelgicatook core samples, scooped up sediment, and made grabs with a metal claw. Among the finds were traces of a fossilized forest 32 meters beneath the waves, including tree roots, terrestrial snail shells, and peatplus a small flint flake and part of a broken flint hammerstone shaped by hunter-gatherers. We went to the place where we thought [human artifacts] would be and recovered them, Gaffney says. Thats a first.

Putting those maps together with the sheer number of samples emerging from the North Sea, researchers are beginning to answer a question particularly relevant to humanitys future: What do people do when sea levels rise?

About 8500 years ago, a massive freshwater lake in North America called Lake Agassiz, formed by melting glaciers, drained suddenly into the sea. What had been gradual sea-level rise accelerated, and seas rose a few meters within decades. Doggerland transformed from a temperate, forested plain into an estuarial wetland dotted by drier highlands. Core samples collected along river valleys by the Lost Frontiers team traced the flooding, amounting to a transect through time, Gaffney says.

To explore the impact on people, Amkreutz analyzed dozens of human bones dragged up by fishing boats as well as finds plucked off the Zandmotor and other Dutch beaches. He traced the bones to 18 offshore sites around the prehistoric Rhine River estuary and dated them with radiocarbon to a precision of about 100 years; all were about 8500 years old.

He and Niekus then used chemical signatures from collagen preserved in dozens of the bones to analyze what people in Mesolithic Doggerland were eating before and during that transition. As the landscape changed, the diet of its residents did, too, shifting from land animals to freshwater fish. It shows their flexibility in the face of climate change, Amkreutz says. They didnt leave as sea levels rose; they changed their diet.

Eventually, that, too, came to an end. On the basis of sediments and computer models, researchers think a tsunami originating off modern-day Norway around 6150 B.C.E. devastated Doggerland with waves at least 10 meters high. Soon the landscape vanished as global sea levels continued to rise.

This 13,000-year-old skull fragment of a modern human was fished up off Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

At his lab at the University of Warwick, Robin Allaby is tracing the changes by searching 60 of the core samples collected by Gaffney and his team for whats called environmental DNA, shed into water and soil by ancient species. The team scoops up and analyzes all the DNA in a sample, using next-generation sequencing methods that capture millions of DNA fragments, and compares it with libraries of known genomes. The surprising thing is just how much DNA is still down there, Allaby says. The results chronicle changes in Doggerlands ecosystems as seas rose.

In the older, earlier layers, We can see quite a broad range of DNA thats clearly terrestrial, he says. Allaby has picked out terrestrial species, including bears, boars, birds, spiders, and mosquitoes. He has identified plant species, too, including hazel and linden trees and meadow grasses. Its obviously a lowland, very fertile and probably more attractive than the British uplands and adjacent Europe, he says.

Higher up, in the younger core samples, the DNA tells a tale of inexorable transformation. We can see the rise of an estuarine environment and a slow switch to marine taxa, Allaby says, as bears and boars give way to sea grasses and fish.

Researchers say the techniques being pioneered or perfected in the North Sea could be applied to far-flung hot spots of human migration, including Beringia and the waters that surround the archipelagos of Oceania. There are big questions about human dispersal and development which can only be answered by looking at submerged landscapes, Bailey says. These same landscapes were probably good places to provide stepping stones into new territory.

At the end of van Wingerdens afternoon walk, all she had to show for 2 hours of searching were a few pieces of animal bone and a wide smile. But the next day, her luck turned. Tucked in among a pile of seashells, she found a carefully worked tool with characteristic Neanderthal handiwork, dating back at least 45,000 years: one more piece of a lost landscape, rediscovered.

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Relics washed up on beaches reveal lost world beneath the North Sea - Science Magazine

Helicopter Crash Victim Alyssa Altobelli to Be Honored at Newport Beach Vigil – NBC Southern California

An eighth-grader who played basketball with Kobe Bryant's 13-year-old daughter Gianna and shared her family's passion for sports will be remembered Thursday night at a vigil in her hometown of Newport Beach.

Alyssa Altobelli, 13, was with her mother and father, a veteran baseball coach at Orange Coast College, and six others -- including Bryant and Gianna -- in a helicopter when it crashed Sunday in foggy conditions in the hills above Calabasas. They were on the way from Santa Ana to a girls basketball tournament at the Mamba Sports Academy.

"She was going to be the next superstar, basketball player for sure," said Tony Altobelli, John's brother, earlier this week. "She loved her teammates. She loved being apart of that Mamba group. So its hard for many reasons."

The community will gather Thursday at 5 p.m. in Mariners Park to remember the aspiring young athlete.

Alyssa and her family had a passion for sports, something they shared with everyone on Sunday's flight that ended in tragedy. Her father, John, coached baseball at OCC for nearly 30 years.

OCC acting baseball coach Nate Johnson told the OC Register that Alyssa and 16-year-old sister Alexis were batgirls for their father's team their dads team, Johnson said. He said the Altobellis have been described as the First Family of OCC.

Alyssa was in eighth-grade at Ensign Intermediate School. Those attending Thursday's vigil are encouraged to wear green and yellow.

Bryant was scheduled to coach the girls' basketball game on the afternoon of the crash that killed nine. In addition to Bryant, Gianna and Alyssa, John and Keri Altobelli, and Zobayan, the crash killed Sarah Chester, Payton Chester and Christina Mauser.

The National Transportation Safety Board said authorities have ended the investigation at the scene of the crash on a rugged hillside outside Los Angeles. The probe will continue in Phoenix, where the wreckage was transported.

The crumpled pieces of the aircraft are sitting on a flatbed truck west of downtown.

The NTSB revealed Tuesday that the helicopter did not have a BlackBox voice recorder. It also did not have a Terrain Alert Warning System, something that could've called pilot Ara Zobayan's attention to the steep terrain his aircraft eventually crashed into.

The FAA does not require TAWS on private helicopters.

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Helicopter Crash Victim Alyssa Altobelli to Be Honored at Newport Beach Vigil - NBC Southern California

Beach chairs, blankets and trash. Massive mess left after Trump’s Wildwood rally. – NJ.com

If you were in the market for a new beach chair, Tuesday night in Wildwood was the time to pick one up.

The thousands of people who descended upon the Jersey Shore town for President Donald Trump's 'Keep America Great' rally at the Wildwoods Convention Center left behind a sea of trash in the parking lot including their abandoned beach chairs and blankets after the rally wrapped up.

Rally-goers were allowed to bring chairs as they waited in line some for up to 48 hours before the event but they weren't allowed to bring them inside the venue.

Factor in the blankets they used to stay warm, and all their drinks and food they were snacking on during the long wait in the parking lot and the convention center ends up with a parking lot full of trash to deal with Wednesday morning.

Fox Park, however, where the line ended Tuesday and where crowds remained to watch Trump on the jumbotron when they couldn't get inside, was spotless Wednesday morning.

City officials said the park cleanup was the responsibility of Wildwood, while the parking lot mess was the responsibility of the convention center, which Wildwood city does not manage.

Mayor Pete Byron on Tuesday said he wasn't invited to the rally after he told NJ Advance Media he would be seeking reimbursement from the local Republican party. He had instructed all city workers to keep detailed logs of hours and expenses related to the rally. Byron did not return a request for comment early Wednesday morning.

By midday, the city announced the parking lot was cleaned up.

Some of the blankets and chairs that were retrieved are being donated to homeless shelters, according to North Wildwood Recreation and Tourism department.

Clean up begins after President Donald Trump's "Keep America Great Rally" in Wildwood, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Workers were seen throughout the day on Tuesday, picking up trash and emptying cans.

In the frigid January air, a group of men was moving about the night on Tuesday, not long after the streets and lots emptied out.

Lugging shovels and dressed in their orange and neon green vests and worn gloves, they walked about the parking lot, their eyes scanning the dark concrete beneath them, intensely focused as if a hawk had been tracking a field mouse.

The group of workers said they had been on the clock since 8 a.m. emptying the trash cans. Now, at 8:22 p.m., more than 12 hours into their shift, their efforts had accelerated. Nearby, was a small mountain of chairs along with an industrial-sized container of full trash bags.

But by daylight, most of the trash remained in the convention center parking lot.

Garbage cans that were scattered throughout the parking lot were overflowing. The fencing and big screens for viewing the rally were removed before 9:30 a.m.

There were discarded cans, food, signs, blankets and even an air mattress.

See below for more photos from the mess left behind Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Clean up begins after President Donald Trump's "Keep America Great Rally" in Wildwood, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Clean up begins after President Donald Trump's "Keep America Great Rally" in Wildwood, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Clean up begins after President Donald Trump's "Keep America Great Rally" in Wildwood, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Clean up begins after President Donald Trump's "Keep America Great Rally" in Wildwood, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Clean up begins after President Donald Trump's "Keep America Great Rally" in Wildwood, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020. (Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

The parking lot outside the convention center on Wednesday morning was full of garbage. A trailer was being used to pick up abandoned chairs. Chris Franklin | For NJ.com

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Beach chairs, blankets and trash. Massive mess left after Trump's Wildwood rally. - NJ.com

Miami Beach Hires Hunting Service to Kill City’s Invasive Iguanas – Miami New Times

Iguanas immobilized during last week's cold snap are in for a rude awakening. The City of Miami Beach has officially contracted a private removal service to hunt the reptiles in public parks across the island.

City Manager Jimmy Morales announced the decision in a recent letter to the mayor and members of the commission. The city has hired the Hollywood-based Redline Iguana Removal to try to stymie the rapidly growing iguana population in Miami Beach.The $75,000 contract, which began January 13, will expire at the end of September, according to city spokesperson Melissa Berthier.

Iguana populations have surged in South Florida since they were introduced to the area as exotic pets in the 1960s. Warm weather and a lack of natural predators have allowed the reptiles to proliferate, causing homeowners serious headaches. Iguanas can grow up to five feet long, and their droppings can spread diseases such as salmonella. The reptiles have been known to chomp on landscaping plants and damage sidewalks and seawalls by burrowing under them.

Miami Beach first experimented with using a termination service following some serious iguana drama in July 2019. That month, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) declared open season on green iguanas, which are considered an invasive species, but then tempered its approach after complaints from animal advocates and an incident in which an iguana hunter in Boca Raton accidentally shot a pool boy in the leg.The agency has continued to encourage homeowners to kill iguanas on their own property or on public land without a permit, but only if they are capable of doing so safely "this is not the Wild West," the FWC said.

Miami Beach decided to take on a more regulated approach. It launched a pilot program last summer with Redline to trap or snare iguanas in five locations: Muss Park, Pinetree Park, Brittany Bay Park, Scott Rakow Youth Center, and Flamingo Park. The pilot was successful more than 200 iguanas were removed during the trial period and the city decided to continue working with the company. According to Morales' letter, Redline has already captured more than 200 adult iguanas this year.

Animal advocates view the use of professional removal firms as an improvement over the wanton killing of iguanas by the general public, but they still worry some of those firms might not have the training and guidance needed to ensure the reptiles are euthanized appropriately. Iguanas are protected by Florida anti-cruelty laws and must be killed humanely, but FWC has yet to offer explicit directions on which methods of killing are humane and instead deferred to guidelines on euthanasia published by the American Veterinary Medical Association.

"Our concern is that FWC's guidelines are written for veterinarians, not the general public or unregulated iguana hunters. They require personnel to be highly trained and skilled," says Lori Kettler, vice president and deputy general counsel of regulatory affairs for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). "Iguanas have the ability to suffer a great deal if they're not killed humanely."

Redline cofounder Perry Colato maintains that his company humanely kills every iguana it captures, but he would not reveal which methods are used to euthanize the reptiles.

"We follow all rules and regulations set by FWC. We keep in close contact with them throughout the process," Colato tells New Times.

Last year, PETA sent a letter to FWC condemning the agency's decision to allow the public to hunt iguanas and demanding the agency provide more details on humane methods of killing the reptiles. An FWC spokesperson told New Timesthere was an"ethical obligation to ensure iguanas and other nonnative species are killed in a humane manner that results in immediate loss of consciousness and destruction of the brain" but did not offer any approved methods.

As a public service, FWC keeps a list of wildlife trappers and hunters such as Redline Iguana Removal but lacks a certification process for any of the iguana hunters listed anddoes not exercise oversight of iguana removals.

Manuel Madrid is a staff writer for Miami New Times. The child of Venezuelan immigrants, he grew up in Pompano Beach. He studied finance at Virginia Commonwealth University and worked as a writing fellow for the magazine The American Prospect in Washington, D.C., before moving back to South Florida.

Excerpt from:

Miami Beach Hires Hunting Service to Kill City's Invasive Iguanas - Miami New Times

The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach Celebrates 40 Years – Palm Beach

Past Preservation Foundation dinner dance chairs from left: Hillie Mahoney, Kit Pannill, Talbott Maxey, Darlene Jordan, Karin Luter Photography by Navid

On a sparkling afternoon in Palm Beach, a group of elegantly dressed women gathers in Bradley Park. Theyve come to the recently renovated space to have their photos taken and reminisce about the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beachs four decades of success in protecting and promoting the culture and architecture of the small town with a big history.

The 4.5-acre park at the base of the Flagler Memorial Bridge anchors the historic main street and was once the location of Colonel E.R. Bradleys Beach Club and residence. The $2.7 million beautification project, completed in 2017, will be the site of the foundations annual dinner dance in March to mark its fortieth anniversary.

The park abounds in local significance. A limestone fountaindonated by Mrs. Frederick E. Guest from her Palm Beach estate, Villa Artemis, in 1938centers the space. A Gilded Ageera tea house partially frames the noted water feature, while a sweep of lawn invites wanderers with gravel paths that curve toward the Lake Trail. I walk the Lake Trail every day, says Karin Luter, who joined the foundation about five years ago because she was impressed by what the members of the nonprofit had accomplished. Their vision tugged at my heartstrings.

Bradley Park is such a gift, says Darlene Jordan, another of the relatively new members recruited by John Mashek, the organizations late former chairman who served in the role for 27 years. Both Jordan and Luter agree that the park was in desperate need of renovation. Weve been in Palm Beach 20 years, continues Jordan, and I used to push my daughter in a stroller on the trail and never even thought of stopping here because it was just a little sad-looking and unkempt. These days, she and her family often pause at the park when riding bikes or walking.

Given its location at the towns entrance, the park is a prominent feature, says Jordan, adding that she was especially touched by the masses of American flags covering the park grounds to commemorate Veterans Day last fall. My father was in the Army and my husband was in the Navy, and I cant tell you how moved I was to see those flags.

Today the island boasts a unique architectural amalgam, but the creation of Palm Beach as a perfect paradise more than a century ago was the mission of a single man, Florida developer and Standard Oil partner Henry Flagler. Over the years, as the town grew from a lush, semitropical seasonal resort centered on grand hotels for Americas aristocracy to a thriving year-round enclave, the architectural baton passed from one visionary to the next. The result is a distinctive legacy of design, including Beaux Arts symmetry, Mediterranean and Georgian Revival, Moorish flights of fancy, and American bungalow.

Fast-forward to the decades following the Roaring 20s, when many of the towns historic homes and buildings had been razed or languished in a state of neglect, including such prize properties as Flaglers private residence, now the Flagler Museum, and Mar-a-Lago, home to cereal heiress and businesswoman Marjorie Merriweather Post, now a private club and residence of President Donald Trump. Beginning in the 1950s, some of the vast homes that were built in the 1920s were considered white elephants because they were designed for formal entertaining, and families were more interested in smaller homes to accommodate the new technologies developed in the mid-century, explains Pauline Pitt, chairman of the Preservation Foundations board of trustees. The organization was formed in 1980 with the mission of saving Palm Beachs architectural legacy.

Bradley Park is just the latest of the Preservation Foundations accomplishments. Past projects include the restoration of the circa-1886 Sea Gull Cottage, the oldest existing residence on the island, as well as the creation of Pans Garden adjacent to its headquarters on Peruvian Avenue. A recent acquisition of 45,000 plans and 4,000 photos from the estate of architect John Volk, valued at more than $1 million, has greatly enhanced the foundations extensive archives, which are currently being digitized. From the 1920s to the 1980s, he was one of the most prolific architects, says executive director Amanda Skier.

Pitt, who became friends with the legendary Volk and is a longtime member of the foundation, was approached about taking the helm after Mashek passed away in 2016. A philanthropist and treasure trove of knowledge regarding the history of gracious living in Palm Beach, Pitt remembers when people dressed in black tie every night, even if they were dining at home. Her grandfather, Charles Munn, known as Mr. Palm Beach, owned a 1920s home he named Amado (Spanish for beloved) on North County Road, designed by the architect perhaps most synonymous with the island: Addison Mizner. I used to tear up a little when it was time to go home, Pitt says of childhood visits to the estate.

She adds that she views the foundation as both a guardian and an educator. Newcomers to Palm Beach get a sense of the importance of preservation with the highly publicized winners of the Polly Earl and Ballinger awards recognizing historic renovations and through the foundations archives, which will be more readily available once digitized. But a quick tour around the historic main street, Royal Poinciana Way, reveals the domino effect of preservation efforts surrounding Bradley Park. To the south, the Volk-designed Royal Poinciana Plaza has undergone a renaissance with new shops and restaurants. To the east, the Frisbie Group and The Breakers Palm Beach have completed the new Via Flagler by The Breakers, a mixed-use development that includes Mizner-inspired vias and fountains. The former Bradley Park Hotel is scheduled to reopen this year as the White Elephant.

The idea of maintaining history as a crucial part of a towns identity is not lost on longtime residents like Kit Pannill, a foundation member of more than 30 years. Theyre tearing down history all over the country, and I think its important to preserve it for future generations, she says. Children need to learn that they have a part in conserving the world.

As a member of The Garden Club of Palm Beach as well as the foundation, Pannill has played a dual role in the beautification of Bradley Park and notes that every year the garden club brings a group of schoolchildren to the park to plant a tree and learn about the importance of cultivating nature. Similarly, Hillie Mahoney, who says shes been a member of the foundation since forever, has traveled around the world and noticed the decline in places that dont value preservation. The Palm Beach resident says she wants to maintain the islands culture because everybody realizes its paradise.

In addition to preserving historic properties, the foundation is continuing to expand its focus to include land, with the half-acre Pans Garden presenting a microcosm of Floridas native, unspoiled beauty for more than 25 years. Open to the public, the garden showcases hundreds of thriving native species, some endangered, and none touched by pesticides or herbicides, says Skier. On a tour of the garden, she strolls along the pathways connecting areas representing Floridas upland terrain and wetlands. Small signs identify the flora, ranging from the prosaically named red oak and cabbage palm to the more exotic alligator flag, Southern frogfruit, and elephants foot.

The garden provides a habitat for pollinators, Skier says as she indicates a small red caterpillar hidden among the leaves that will transform into the native Atala butterfly. They have black wings with blue spots and red bellies. Theyre just beautiful.The garden is a somewhat hidden gem that nevertheless attracts a fair amount of attention ranging from Audubon Society groups to local residents looking for ideas on easy-to-maintain native landscaping. A charming statue of Pan, the Greek god of wild nature, guards the main entrance. Behind him is a colorful mosaic wall with tiles from Addison Mizner Industries that originally graced the Casa Apava estate. Its a popular backdrop for small weddings and other events.

As the foundation widens and adapts its reach and influence, Talbott Maxey, who joined the foundation nearly 20 years ago, envisions an even stronger role in preservation. Im most proud of the voice we have, she says. We have evolved over the years, but we have a voice.

The respect the foundation has earned ensures a place at the table on discussions about any potential threats to the towns property, including weighing in on global issues such as the rising sea levels encroaching on oceanfront establishments up and down the coast. Pitt lives on the Lake Trail and has noticed a marked difference in the number of higher-than-usual tides, called king tides. Skier says the foundation is also working with the town on a new historic site survey to replace the last one from 2010.

Combining preservation and progress is no easy task, but Skier believes Palm Beach can rise to the challenge. We want to accommodate change, while at the same time not lose Palm Beachs sense of charm, she says. Preservation is about the management of change and seeing progress as another chapter of development within the context of the history of the town. Through public-private partnerships, the foundation is able to fulfill its mission of preserving the incredible beauty of Palm Beach.

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The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach Celebrates 40 Years - Palm Beach

This Weekend’s Long Beach Island Area Entertainment Lineup for January 30 through February 2, Presented by the Tide Table Group – TAPinto.net

LONG BEACH ISLAND There are many opportunities for food, fellowship, drinks and entertainment. Check them all out here in this weekend's entertainment lineup in Stafford and Long Beach Island presented by the Tide Table Group of Restaurants.

Old Causeway Steak and Oyster House: 1201 E. Bay Avenue in ManahawkinFriday 10 p.m: 40 NorthSaturday 10 p.m: Tommy Allen BandMonday 7:30p.m. Monday Night Tailgate Party: Ted Hammock and the Pickles, Food and drink specialsTuesday 7 p.m. Chris Fritz Acoustic Open Mic

Black Whale, Beach Haven

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The Arlington: Ship BottomSunday 6 p.m. Greg Warren

Buckalews, Beach HavenFriday 4 p.m. Earl SuttonFriday 9 p.m. Gary PhillipsSaturday 4 p.m. Kevin on PianoSaturday 8:30 p.m. Docherty Duo

Daddy O, 44th and Long Beach Blvd, Brant BeachThursday 6 p.m. The PicklesFriday 6 p.m. Sam MarieSaturday 6 p.m. Shannon Harrington

Daymark:Barnegat LightFriday 6 p.m. Allison StellaSaturday 6 p.m. Greg Warren

Gateway:Ship BottomNo information provided

Hotel LBIMonday 4 p.m. Wing NightTuesday 4 p.m. Artisan Pizza Night Wednesday 4 p.m. Locals NightThursday 4 p.m. Buck a Shuck NightFriday 4 p.m. Weekly Wine DownFriday 7 p.m. Live Music with Vince BasileSaturday 7 p.m. Live Music with Sean Cox

Sunday 4 p.m. Burger Night

Daily Happy Hour Specials

Drink Specials$3 Select draft beer$5 Well drinks$5 House wines by the glass

Food Specials$1 Wings (served in orders of 10)$1 oysters & clams (ordered by half dozen)$8 all pizzas

Half off small plates:

Kubel's Barnegat Light:

Kubel's Too, Brant BeachSaturday 6 p.m. The Pickles

Mainland at the Holiday Inn: Route 72, ManahawkinThursday 6 p.m. Ted HammockFriday 4 p.m. Rob SilversFriday7:30 p.m. Chris FritzSaturday 4 to 7 p.m. Ted HammockSaturday 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Vince Basile

Nardi's Tavern and GrillFriday 5 p.m. Brian WeissSaturday 5 p.m. Todd Meredith

Tucker's Tavern,Beach HavenThursdays 6 p.m. Chris Fritz (January)Friday 7 p.m. Jacob SmithSaturday 7 p.m. Ty Mares

TAPinto Stafford-LBI thanksthe Tide Table Group of Restaurants serving as ourPresenting Sponsor, so we can get this great list of entertainment out for our readers.

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This Weekend's Long Beach Island Area Entertainment Lineup for January 30 through February 2, Presented by the Tide Table Group - TAPinto.net

Where to retire on the beach for $95,000 a year – msnNOW

Dear Catey:

My wife and I are 58. She will retire at 62 and I at 67. Our annual retirement income at 67 will be approximately $95,000 from Social Security, pensions and investments. We would like to find an affordable, friendly place to rent during the winter months, that is warm and as close as possible to the ocean in the good ole United States of America.

We plan to pay off our home in the Midwest in about six years. Grateful for no other debt. Ideally, the location would also be near stores, in restaurants and walkable. It cannot be on the West Coast. In the coming years, wed like to visit locations to test the waters. Can you help with some recommendations for the future snowbirds?

Thank you,

G.A.

Dear G.A.:

I get a number of letters from aspiring snowbirds, and frankly, escaping the cold months sounds like a plan to me (I write this as Im bundled up in a sweater in chilly New York City and dreaming of a palm tree and umbrella drink).

Of course, there are things to consider like taxes (heres a piece from Money on how snowbirds can avoid a blizzard of taxes), home security, winterizing your home and more (this guide is a good start).

That said, snowbirding is a compelling option. Here are three spots in walkable, pretty affordable beach towns.

St. Augustine, Florida

This city of about 15,000 residents is nestled along the countys 42 miles of pristine beaches and boasts tons of history. You cant walk very far in St. Augustine without being reminded that it is the oldest European-established city in the U.S.one that houses more than 60 historic sites and attractions, including a town square that dates to 1573. The city is still very much alive, however. Pedestrian-only St. George Street, lined with bistros, boutiques and bars, bustles all day and well into the night, with live music coming from practically every other open door, writes Kiplingers of the town, which it calls a smart place to retire.

And Travel & Leisure, which named it one of the seven best places to visit in Florida, notes that: Its a walkable town, imbued with intrigue; whispers of the past swirl through every cobblestoned alley. Kiplingers adds that St. Augustine has everything from golf to belly dancing for retirees as well as plenty of cultural activities, affordable luxury living, and first-class health care.

To be sure, there are cheaper cities to live in Florida the cost of living in St. Augustine is slightly above average for the U.S. but this city has so many perks to recommend it, and with your income you can likely make this work: The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $800 and the median two-bedroom is under $1,000, according to Sperlings (though you may pay more in the heart of things) not to mention that Florida is one of the most tax-friendly states in the country for retirees, Kiplingers notes. (Heres a piece on how snowbirds can be taxed as Florida residents.)

Related video: How to retire with $1 million, $2 million or $3 million (provided by CNBC)

UP NEXT

Galveston, Texas

Texas, like Florida, has no income tax and is tax-friendly to retirees and Galveston itself has a cost of living thats significantly below average. Its also, at least in parts, reasonably walkable and offers quiet beaches as well as a lively cultural scene, writes Kiplingers, which calls it a great place to retire.

You wont be bored there: Because Galveston attracts a lot of weekend visitors, theres always something going on, writes Kiplingers including annual celebrations like Mardi Gras, the Food and Wine Festival, the Brewmasters Craft Beer Festival, as well as an amusement park, and summertime concerts. Plus, Houston which has excellent health care and plenty more to do is under an hours drive away. Crime is slightly elevated in Galveston, but there are safer neighborhoods.

Its not just a resort town either, writes the New York Times: Galveston (population, 49,000) has more character than most flip-flop playgrounds. Its history, as rich as that of Charleston, S.C., or New Orleans, is evident in the majestic downtown structures and in palm-lined neighborhoods of Victorian homes painted in jelly bean shadesMore recently, an enormous rebuilding effort in the 1980s started a new round of changes. Artists and entrepreneurs are filling downtown lofts and restaurants; these days many visitors come for the manufactured wonders as well as natural ones along the shore.

Tampa, Florida

Tampa landed on Kiplingers list of the best places for early retirement thanks in part to its particularly affordable living costs as well as all the things youd look for in a Florida retirement: white sand beaches, warm blue waters, plenty of golf and generous tax breaks.

You can also find certain neighborhoods that are walkable and plenty of other perks too like a growing food and live music scene, killer lineup of breweries and almost eternally beach and boat-friendly weather, writes Thrillist, which calls the quality of life here appealing.

Tampa (population of about 370,000) and the surrounding area also offer both a laid-back beach lifestyle and the amenities of a large metropolitan area, including professional sports teams, interesting museums and an array of entertainment and dining options, writes U.S. News. However, some complain of the citys growth and sprawl.

Excerpt from:

Where to retire on the beach for $95,000 a year - msnNOW

7 victims of Kobe Bryant crash lived in Newport Beach – Los Angeles Times

Kobe Bryant was a Los Angeles superstar.

But he called Newport Beach his home. It was here he raised his daughters, was involved in its schools and youth sports and made friends at the neighborhood grocery store and Starbucks.

And it was this community that saw so much loss Sunday, as the helicopter carrying Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others slammed into a hillside above Calabasas, killing all on board.

Also on the copter were Newport Beach residents John Altobelli; his wife, Keri; and their daughter, Alyssa, who played on the same club team as Gianna Bryant. Newport Beach mother and daughter Sarah and Payton Chester were identified by friends and family as also being on board.

The tightknit community was also grieving the death of Christina Mauser, the top assistant coach of the Mamba girls basketball team, whose players included Gianna Bryant and Alyssa Altobelli. Mauser had worked at Harbor Day School in nearby Corona del Mar from 2007 to 2018, where she and her husband coached the eighth-grade girls basketball team to its first championship.

The day after the crash, two young girls dressed in Lakers purple and gold dropped flowers off at a bench outside the school, adding to a makeshift memorial that has sprouted over the last day. The Bryant family was active at the private school, where two of Bryants daughters attended.

Two bouquets propped up under the schools entrance sign were left with letters, one addressed to Gigi, Mr. Bryant and Mrs. Mauser, Forever in our Hearts and the other To Mr. Bryant, Gigi and Mrs. Mauser, Our 3 Angels.

Harbor Day School officials described Gianna, who started attending the school in kindergarten, as a strong leader whose work ethic was unmatched. She had a level of maturity beyond her 13 years, officials wrote in a statement.

This loss is indescribable; as is the loss of her father who was a respected and active member of the school community, said Noelle Becker, director of communications at Harbor Day School. Our students took great pride in seeing Mr. Bryant on campus regularly.

The school on Monday issued a statement about the collective loss:

To support our grieving community, last night ... Harbor Day opened its doors to the eighth grade class to come together at school to support each other and receive support from their advisors, teachers, and mental health professionals, including our school psychologist. We are grateful to our neighboring schools who sent their counselors to our school last night and whose counselors will remain on campus today and this week to support our students.

A vigil participant relights a candle for Kobe Bryant at Newport Ridge Community Park in Newport Beach on Sunday.

(Hillary Davis)

Maria Paun, 81, used her walker to deliver an assortment of pink flowers to the front of the school, depositing them on a bench. It was years ago, she said, that she sat with Bryant on a bench at the school when he was waiting to pick up one of his daughters and she was waiting for her granddaughter.

He gave me a hug and he said, I like your accent, Grandma, she said. He was tall, and he was somebody and Im nobody, but he bent down to give me a hug. And I never forget this hug.

Paun said it was no accident that she wore a purple sweater Monday morning. She did so because he liked the color.

Its hard for me, and its hard for everyone, she said, her voice cracking with emotion.

During a vigil Sunday night, Bryants fellow Newport Beach residents spoke of the athletes life outside of his storied NBA career. He was, first and foremost, a dedicated father whose love for his family was apparent to anyone who came across him, friends say. He was also the type of man whose fame never got in the way of his sharing a warm greeting at Starbucks or the grocery store.

Mario Nunes, 50, hung his Kobe Bryant jersey from one of the tables in front of the Pavilions grocery store on Newport Coast Drive, which Bryant was known to frequent, on Monday. Nunes, a job trainer with the Rehabilitation Institute of Southern California, said he used to see Bryant at the store every few weeks. Nunes was quick to whip out his phone to show some of the pictures hed taken with Bryant over the years, including one he said was from shortly after the Lakers last championship in 2010.

He was always cool with me, he said. He was always friendly. He signed a couple basketballs here and there.

Michael Young, 40, said he also saw Bryant periodically during the three years hes worked as a courtesy clerk at the grocery store. When he heard the news about Bryants death, Young said his first reaction was tears.

He brought a lot of good energy a lot of positive energy, a lot of good stuff for the community, Nunes said.

Both Young and Nunes said the shock of seeing the superstar in the flesh never completely wore off, no matter how many times he came to the grocery store or made a run to the Starbucks in the same shopping complex.

Its like hes still here, Young said. His spirit is all around us.

Kim Shipman placed a votive candle in a delicate filigreed holder on the pavers not far from the parks basketball court and recalled how friendly and gracious Bryant was.

Every time that we would run into him at Starbucks, he always had the biggest smile on his face. He was always so kind and always so loving to the children more than anything, she said, her 10-year-old-daughter, Angeline, at her side. He was such a great encourager to everybody around, always with a big smile on his face.

Crystal Alford said everyone should follow Bryants lead and say hello to people they dont know.

Thats what he did, she said. He said hi to everyone.

Originally posted here:

7 victims of Kobe Bryant crash lived in Newport Beach - Los Angeles Times

Wrightsville Beach and the Dread God of Fire – StarNewsOnline.com

Cape Fear Unearthed looks at the devastating 1934 fire that claimed nearly every structure on the beachs north end

NEW HANOVER COUNTY In 1934, Wrightsville Beach was on a high from nearly three decades of immense growth.

Massive hotels like The Oceanic brought in tourists, and venues like the famed Lumina Pavilion entertained them, as well as local residents, when they werent on the beach. Even the Great Depression hadnt completely dampened the spirit.

It all seemed indestructible, until a fire on Jan. 28, 1934, wiped out the entire north end of the island and threatened the beachs livelihood in a matter of hours.

The devastating fire is the subject of this weeks new episode of Cape Fear Unearthed, the StarNews local history podcast.

The fire thrust the beach into a new era of change in the months and years after it scorched the pride and progress of the island. Madeline Flagler, the executive director of the Wrightsville Beach Museum of History, joins the show to talk about the islands growth, the fiery impact of the blaze and how it ultimately left a lasting mark on the beachs 20th century development.

In 2020, Cape Fear Unearthed will debut new episodes every two weeks, each of which will explore a new chapter from Southeastern North Carolinas history books. The first two episodes of the year have recounted the monumental history of Fort Fisher and the legacy of the Cape Fear Indians.

Since 2018, the podcast has produced more than 40 episodes on topics ranging from Prohibition in the Cape Fear, to the Battleship North Carolina, to the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1862. Each episode pulls from a different chapter in the regions more than 300-year history with the help of a local historian or expert on the subject.

The entire catalog of episodes is available to stream for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher and TuneIn.

You also can listen to every episode of the podcast at CapeFearUnearthed.com, which features other local history content and historic photo galleries compiled by the StarNews.

Listeners can also join the Cape Fear Unearthed Facebook group to stay up to date on extra content for each episode and upcoming events across the region. You can find that group by searching Cape Fear Unearthed on Facebook.

Cape Fear Unearthed is sponsored by Northchase Family Dentistry and Tidewater Heating & Air Conditioning.

Reporter Hunter Ingram can be reached at 910-343-2327 or Hunter.Ingram@StarNewsOnline.com.

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Wrightsville Beach and the Dread God of Fire - StarNewsOnline.com

One Paycheck Away: Families struggle to survive in Palm Beach County – WPTV.com

WPTV is committed to raising awareness about affordable housing issues in South Florida. "One Paycheck Away: American Dream In Crisis" is a series of special reports looking into the reality of living one paycheck away from losing it all.

Nearly half of all families in Palm Beach County cant afford to live here, according to a 2016 report funded by the United Way.

The report shows 47 percent of families in Palm Beach County live below the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) threshold for cost of living, and 17 percent of people live in outright poverty.

READ THE REPORT HERE

To afford a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment, a person making minimum wage at $8.46 an hour would have to work two and a half jobs, the report says.

Carmen Fusco and Racheal Miralda are two moms with different backgrounds, sharing the impact of a crisis. Fusco is a single mother of two, and Miralda is married with two kids and another on the way.

"When both dads and I separated it was like, okay, youre on your own, you got the kids. Boom!" Fusco said.

However, both mothers said the cost of living in Palm Beach County eventually led to them living in guilt on the streets.

"I'm trying to find somewhere for us to sleep," said Fusco. "Im trying to find somewhere for us to go, and theyre Iike, but its raining. Im like, we have nowhere to go, baby."

"Yes, we stayed in the car at that rest stop," Miralda recalled. "I said, I was so sorry. I apologized to my son for not being careful enough."

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, in 2019 the West Palm Beach metro area was the fourth most expensive area for housing in the state, requiring a $27.58 per hour income.

"Everywhere you go, you have to pay something," Fusco said.

"Like that paycheck to paycheck, and a lot of families, that's how we do live," Miralda said.

The median monthly income in Palm Beach County is $1,100, while the median rent for a two bedroom apartment is $1,400.

Fusco knows the stress of not enough money at the end of the month. She said she made $12 an hour and worked 50 hours a week and still couldnt afford a place for her family.

"My lowest point was when I was sleeping in the park with Kyla and Jacob," Fusco recalled.

According to the School District of Palm Beach County School, there are 4,000 homeless children in the school system. Fuscos children, Kyla and Jacob, are two of them.

"How do you come up out of this?" Fusco asked. "How do you break the cycle? How do you change what you are in?"

Adopt-A-Family of the Palm Beaches is trying to help. On a construction site in Lake Worth Beach near the organization's office on 1712 2nd Avenue, 14 new apartments and a community center are being built.

Matt Constantine, the President of Adopt-A-Family, said they raised the money through aggressive fundraising.

"I can tell you, last week our agency received over 400 phone calls," said Constantine. "So it's not physically possible for us to serve all these folks."

"Out of the 110 units, how many are available?" WPTV journalist Sabirah Rayford asked Constantine.

"They are all occupied or spoken for," Constantine answered. "Unfortunately, there is a waiting list for every program that we operate."

When asked if he would call this a crisis, Constantine was quick to respond.

"I would call the housing issue a crisis in Palm Beach County," said Constantine.

After living in a park for two months, Fusco is happy to be in one of Adopt-A-Familys temporary shelters with her two kids. While she waited for a spot to open up, Adopt-A-Family assigned a case worker to help her in the meantime.

Miralda got one of four spots with the Family Promise Agency. Their program takes in homeless families and helps them find jobs or budget and save to afford an apartment.

For the Miralda family, it took three months of extreme budgeting to be able to afford a one bedroom apartment in West Palm Beach.

"Its a miracle apartment," Miralda said.

County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay has a proposal she hopes will prevent people from living in the parks.

"I'm a single parent and trying to find a place where I still have enough leftover for car payment, car insurance, gas, food, what the kids needed, utility bills, health care costs, it's a struggle," McKinlay said.

McKinlay pushed for three years to get funding for the countys first family cottage community. The proposal calls for at least 17 small homes on two plots of land in Lake Worth Beach, located at 3551 S. Military Trail and 4521 Clements Street.

"People don't need that much," McKinlay said. "They just need a small, safe place to live."

Its a small step toward solving a growing crisis, but one Miralda and Fusco believe could save other families.

"When you work so hard, you never really think it could get so bad," Miralda said.

"Coming from being homeless and seeing people and sleeping next to other homeless people, I realized if no one sits down and talks with them, some are, like, stuck," Fusco said. "They dont really have the mindset or havent thought of how to get out, or know how to get out."

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One Paycheck Away: Families struggle to survive in Palm Beach County - WPTV.com

Sandy Point Beach House restaurant coming to Grand Rapids – mlive.com

GRAND RAPIDS, MI Sandy Point Beach House, a restaurant in West Olive, is opening a second location in Grand Rapids.

Geoff Gaskin, president of CDKI Holdings, said he plans on Feb. 1 to close his restaurant, Zoko822, located at 822 Ottawa Ave. NW, and reopen the space by the second week of February as Sandy Point Beach House GR.

He said he plans, at some point this year, to reopen Zoko822 at 2130 Plainfield Ave. NE. Zoko822 is a Spanish tapas and gin bar that opened in December 2017.

Sandy Point Beach House GRs menu will feature items such as burgers, halibut, steak and frites, roasted chicken and mussels. The restaurant has seating for 99 people and an outdoor patio with space for 100 people, Gaskin said.

Bringing Sandy Point Beach Houses standard of Live Jazz Thursdays, Easy Listening Music Fridays, and our renowned Reggae Saturdays to the new Grand Rapids location this summer should make for a great time, Gaskin said.

Gaskin said he thinks Sandy Point Beach House Grand Rapids will be a better fit for the 822 Ottawa Ave. NW location than Zoko 822. Thats in part because Sandy Points menu and atmosphere will better complement Street Eats GR, a food truck court with a full-service bar located at a parking lot adjacent to 822 Ottawa Ave., he said.

In addition to Zoko822 and Sandy Point Beach House, Gaskins company, CDKI Dining, also owns MeXo, a Mexican restaurant at 118 Fulton St. E in Grand Rapids.

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Sandy Point Beach House restaurant coming to Grand Rapids - mlive.com

Fortnite Frozen Firework Locations: Where To Light Frozen Fireworks Found On Beaches – Forbes

Fortnite

Another trip around the sun, another chilly January morning. 2019 was something of a problematic year, like most of them, but its over now, time to start anew. Fortnites Winterfest challenge today is New Years themed, just like it was last year, asking you to launch some fireworks and celebrate 2020, whatever it might bring. Read on for a map, guide and location for where to launch frozen fireworks found on beaches at Dirty Docks, Craggy Cliffs and Sweaty Sands. Your reward will be the quite stylish 2020 glider.

We know where were going: its right there in the name. Spawns for frozen fireworks do not seem to be consistent, so the best you can do is head to one of the requisite coastlines and just start running around until you find one of them. Ive marked each coastline on the map here:

Fortnite

Youll want to land right away, because once a Firework is launched, its launched, even if you didnt launch it. Just get down early, fire something off and try to stay alive to earn the glider.

A note: like an idiot, I initially just sort of loaded up a match and tried to light fireworks, but didnt see anything on the ground. Thats because these things will not spawn unless you head to the Winterfest cabin first and open your stocking, thus triggering the challenge. So dont be like me, and dont forget to open your stocking.

2019 was a year of stabilization for Fortnite. It started things off near the peak of its fame, but declined off of those highs throughout the year. This is pretty standard for any game that becomes as big a phenomenon as Fortnite, but it can still be a bit of a come down for fans when it actually happens.

2020 should be an interesting year, however. Its starting off slow with a dramatically extended Chapter 2, Season 1, but then well see if Epic has used some of that extra time to build some more features. But expect more standard content, an expanded creative mode, and more likely than not a ton of crossover events. Well see what happens.

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Fortnite Frozen Firework Locations: Where To Light Frozen Fireworks Found On Beaches - Forbes

Thousands of Australians flee to beaches as wildfires rage – NBCNews.com

Thousands of Australians fled their homes on New Year's Eve, taking refuge on beaches from raging wildfires that turned the sky bright red, destroyed houses and businesses and caused deaths in the country's most populous states.

The devastating fires, fed by intense heat and winds, rampaged across Australia's southeastern states of New South Wales and Victoria heading into the new year, turning coastal towns into dangerous traps and forcing residents to the oceanside.

As of 3 a.m. local time Wednesday, 112 fires were burning across New South Wales and several large and dangerous fires continued to burn on the southern coast, according to the New South Wales Rural Fire Service. More than 2,500 firefighters were combating the fires, it said.

Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews requested assistance from 70 firefighters from the United States and Canada, while Australia's military sent air and sea reinforcements, The Associated Press reported.

Officials said that all telecommunications, including cellphone coverage, would be lost overnight on the south coast of New South Wales between Nowra and Moruya and that hospitals would be among the affected facilities, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

The massive blazes have already destroyed more than 10 million acres of bush and 1,000 homes after the devastating fire season began in September. Record heat, windy conditions and ongoing drought have exacerbated the blazes this annual fire season a combination that environmentalists say has been aggravated by climate change.

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Australia recorded its hottest day on record in mid-December, beating the mark that was set just the day before. This comes after Australia's Bureau of Meteorology declared spring 2019 to be the driest on record.

Shane Fitzsimmons, commissioner of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, told The Sydney Morning Herald that it was "absolutely" the worst bushfire season on record.

"What we really need is meaningful rain, and we haven't got anything in the forecast at the moment that says we're going to get drought-breaking or fire quenching rainfall," he said.

In Mallacoota, in the state of Victoria, about 4,000 people swarmed to the beach to escape the fires, according to authorities. An image released to AFP/Getty Images showed people taking shelter offshore on a boat near Mallacoota, covering their mouths against an orange sky.

"The community right now is under threat, but they will, we will hold our line, and they will be saved and protected," Steve Warrington, chief officer of the Victorian Country Fire Authority, said Tuesday.

Andrews said Tuesday that four people remained unaccounted for.

Police in New South Wales said in a statement Wednesday that a third man had died in the fires in the states South Coast. His body was found in a burned car Wednesday morning on a road a little less than 4 miles west of Lake Conjola.

Tuesday, police in that state said two men, believed to be a father and his son, died in a house in the wildfire-ravaged southeast town of Cobargo.

"They were obviously trying to do their best with the fire as it came through in the early hours of the morning," New South Wales Deputy Police Commissioner Gary Worboys said, according to the AP.

A 72-year-old man remains unaccounted for at Belowra, which is around 31 miles west of Cobargo, police said Wednesday.

Dramatic video captured the moment a fire crew's truck was overrun by a bushfire south of Nowra, a town south of Sydney. The truck is seen making its way through the raging fires as smoke and embers fill the air. Massive flames are then seen surrounding the truck from all sides. Fire and Rescue New South Wales, which released the video, said the crew was forced to shelter in their truck as the fire front passed through. The fire service confirmed in a follow up post on Twitter that the crew survived the incident.

On Monday, a volunteer firefighter died when his truck overturned in a rare phenomenon known as a fire tornado, authorities said.

Cyclonic winds lifted the truck which weighs 10 to 13 tons and "flipped it onto its roof, trapping the people inside," and killing firefighter Samuel McPaul, 28, Fitzsimmons said. Three other people were injured.

McPaul is survived by his wife, who is pregnant with their first child. He was due to become a father in May, officials said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison expressed condolences, calling McPaul's death "absolutely heartbreaking."

"The fires in New South Wales and Victoria are continuing to rage, and we expect further difficult news out of both of those states," he said.

"I want to thank all of those out there fighting those fires, all of those out there supporting them in these difficult times," he added. "The conditions remain tough, and for the rest of us it's a matter of just simply listening to the instructions, staying safe and being patient and doing what we need to do to put ourselves in a place of safety."

Daniella Silva is a reporter for NBC News, specializing in immigration and inclusion issues, as well as coverage of Latin America.

Associated Press contributed.

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Thousands of Australians flee to beaches as wildfires rage - NBCNews.com

Australia: Thousands trapped on beach as fires approach – DW (English)

More than 4,000 people weretrapped on a beach by advancingfires in southeast Australia on Tuesday as devastating blazesencircled the seaside town of Mallacoota, wheresea or airborne evacuation was being planned.

"Mallacoota is under attack, it is pitch black and very scary," Andrew Crisp, emergency management commissioner of the state of Victoria, said."We have 4,000 people on the beach and nearby who are protected by our firefighters."

Some people took boats out to sea for fear that the fire would move closer to the beach.

For days, authorities have been warning tens of thousands of holidaymakers to leave popular seaside towns and seek shelter elsewhere.

Read more:Oceans play role in Australian bushfires drama, say experts

"We're naturally very concerned about communities that have become isolated,"Crisp said. He also confirmed "significant" property losses across the area.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said there were plans to evacuate those trapped on the seaside by boat. There was also concern about four missing people. "We can't confirm their whereabouts," he said.

Fires are raging across many partsof the country, and 100,000 people were evacuated from thesuburbs of Melbourne on Monday.

Massive fire fronts continue to blaze across other states. Sixteen "emergency fires" were designatedin New South Wales and Victoria on Tuesday.

Aerial view of an approaching fire in New South Wales

Batemans Bay: Three deaths

In the seaside town of Batemans Bay, New South Wales, residents also fled to beaches for safety as fires encroached upon the town.

Authorities have not yet confirmed whether buildings have been affected, but Youtuber Chloe Morello, a resident of the town, tweeted "We lost our home" after documenting herself fleeing from her house.

Three people have been confirmed deadin small towns in New South Wales.

"These fires moved quickly this morning," the New South Wales Rural Fire Service saidina warning to residents. "They pose a serious threat to life. Do not be in their path. Avoid bushland areas. If the path is clear, move to larger towns or beaches to take shelter."

Police were checking drivers' licenses for people entering and exiting the areas affected by fires,redirecting those whowere not residents.

The fire service tweeted a warning about a fire in Shoalhaven, New South Wales.

'Fire tornado' claims life

Firefighter Samuel McPaul became the 12th confirmed fatality since the fires broke out weeks ago. His 12-ton fire truck was lifted into the air and spun around in a "truly horrific" incident on Monday.

"It was a fire tornado or a collapsed pyro convective column that had formed above the main fire front. That resulted in cyclonic winds that moved across the fireground," Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said.

Firefighters in Melbourne

Two other firefighters in the truck were seriously burned and are being treated in hospital.

The "freakish" weather incident resulted in the fire truck being lifted and dumped on its roof.

Over 34,000 square kilometers (13,100 square miles) of land have been razedsince the fires began in October and more than 1,000 homes have been destroyed.

Conditions are expected to worsen with high temperatures andno rain in the forecast.Despite major criticism, Sydney's environmentally impactful New Year's Eve firework display wentahead on Tuesday.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of theday's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up toreceive it directly here.

ls,ed/cw (AFP, dpa)

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Australia: Thousands trapped on beach as fires approach - DW (English)

13,000-pound buoy removed from New Smyrna Beach, taken to Ponce Inlet – WESH 2 Orlando

13,000-pound buoy removed from New Smyrna Beach, taken to Ponce Inlet

Updated: 12:24 PM EST Jan 2, 2020

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TO WATCH IT GO. >> ITS BEEN THE CENTER OF ATTENTION FOR ALL THE SNOW BIRDS FOR THE LAST WEEK OR SO. CLAIRE: RED NUMBER 8, AS THE BIG BEACON CAME TO BE CALLED, HAS BEEN THE TALK OF THE TOWN. AFTER ALL, ITS NOT OFTEN A 13,000 POUND MARINE MARKER WASHES UP, THIS ONE ALL THE WAY FROM SOUTH CAROLINA, DISLODG FOR A SECOND TIME FOLLOWING HURRICANE DORIAN. >> HOW COULD IT BE LOOSE FOR THAT LONG AND NOBODY REALIZE IT, AND REPORTED IT, OR RAN INTO ANOTHER SHIP? CLAIRE: THE COAST GUARD CONTRACTED WITH VOLUSIA COUNTY TO BRING IN A FRONT-END LOADER AND LIFT THE BUOY ONTO A FLATBED STARTING AT FIRST LIGHT. MANY GATHERED TO WATCH THE MARKER MOVE, AMAZED IT GOT THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE. >> ITS SO BIG, AND IT WAS S FAR UP ON THE SHORE. IT ALMOST LOOKED LIKE IT DROPPED OUT OF THE SKY INSTEAD OF WASHED UP FROM THE OCEAN. CLAIRE: DURING ITS TIME AS A NEW SMYRNA BEACH LANDMARK, PEOPLE CAME FROM ALL OVER TO TAKE PICTURES WITH IT. CHILDREN ENJOYED PLAYING ON IT. IT WAS PREVIOUSLY STRIPPED OF ITS ELECTRONICS IN PREPARATION FOR REMOVAL. WHETHER IT WILL EVER BE USED FOR NAVIGATION AGAIN IS UNCERTAIN, BUT ITS OFF THE BEACH -- AT LEAST FOR NOW. THE CREW DROVE THE BUOY TO T PONCE INLET COAST GUARD STATION, WHERE IT WILL BE SECURED AND STORED

13,000-pound buoy removed from New Smyrna Beach, taken to Ponce Inlet

Updated: 12:24 PM EST Jan 2, 2020

Plenty of people were drawn to New Smyrna Beach on New Year's Day for the sunshine, but also for the 13,000-pound buoy that washed ashore.The beacon washed up last week and red number 8 had brought in a steady stream of visitors since then, among them, Donna Bruno of Clermont. "I just had to see it. (I) wanted to take some pictures with that and clouds in the background, just kind of a neat first day of the new year," Bruno said. According to the Coast Guard, the unexpected tourist attraction belongs off South Carolina but broke free following Hurricane Dorian. Visitors were busy taking pictures with the behemoth buoy and children climbed all over it. The buoy was removed Thursday morning. It was taken to Ponce Inlet, where it will be stored.It is unclear if it will ever be used for navigation again.

Plenty of people were drawn to New Smyrna Beach on New Year's Day for the sunshine, but also for the 13,000-pound buoy that washed ashore.

The beacon washed up last week and red number 8 had brought in a steady stream of visitors since then, among them, Donna Bruno of Clermont.

"I just had to see it. (I) wanted to take some pictures with that and clouds in the background, just kind of a neat first day of the new year," Bruno said.

According to the Coast Guard, the unexpected tourist attraction belongs off South Carolina but broke free following Hurricane Dorian. Visitors were busy taking pictures with the behemoth buoy and children climbed all over it.

The buoy was removed Thursday morning. It was taken to Ponce Inlet, where it will be stored.

It is unclear if it will ever be used for navigation again.

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13,000-pound buoy removed from New Smyrna Beach, taken to Ponce Inlet - WESH 2 Orlando

Never-Lived-In Palm Beach Mansion Listed For $43M – Forbes

This never-lived-in oceanfront mansion is priced at $43 million.

The eight-bedroom mansion on the oceanfront in Palm Beach, Florida, is a reminder of the Gilded Age. But, no one has ever lived in it.

Its a eight-bedroom, 14,000-square-foot spec house developed by English native Sir Peter Wood, who lives next door. He built the French Provincial-style mansion after tearing down a house where Jimmy Buffet and his wife, Jane, once lived.

The mansion, constructed in 2017, is listed for $43 million with Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate in Palm Beach.

Its about a mile from Mar-a-Lago Club, the resort owned by President Donald Trump. So, its close enough to make it a short jaunt to an al fresco dinner on the clubs patio, yet far enough away to not be house-bound by traffic jams when the president comes to town.

The street its on, South Ocean Boulevard, was recently cited as one of the top 10 most exclusive address in a global ranking by Knight Frank and Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The brokerages sorted luxury addresses by the number of residential sales priced above $25 million during the last five years.

Streets in Manhattan, Hong Kong, and London all ranked above South Ocean Boulevard, which was listed in the No. 10 spot. In the last five years, there were 10 transactions price over $25 million on the boulevard, at an average price of $34.5 million, the report said.

The property has a 43-foot pool.

Bath with a view: one of the mansion's 11 full bathrooms has a soaking tub with a view of the ... [+] Atlantic Ocean.

The kitchen has a marble-topped island.

Sign up for OpenHouse, the twice-weekly newsletter I produce covering the U.S. real estate market, by clicking here. For weekday real estate news updates, follow me on Twitter by clicking here.

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Never-Lived-In Palm Beach Mansion Listed For $43M - Forbes

Restaurant Review: It’s worth braving the crowds for Sake in Vero Beach – TCPalm

Maribeth Renne, Special to TCPalm Published 10:15 a.m. ET Jan. 2, 2020

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Asian food is good anytime but when it comes to sushi, many swear by it to lose a few pounds after the holidays.Most people believe Japanese cuisine in general tends to be healthy and low in calories but its important to consider the amount of rice and sauces included in sushi.The lowest calorie rolls are those made with veggies or fish without a lot of other ingredients.An even better low calorie option might be sashimi, which consists of just the raw protein.

A good place to conduct your own research on the subject is Sake at Royal Palm Pointe in Vero Beach.

We had Sakes sashimi combo deluxe ($26.99).This was a big, beautifully presented assortment of twenty pieces of fresh raw fish, including buttery salmon and tuna.There were two chef appetizers in the combo with seaweed and cucumber salads and a small bowl of rice.

Our vegetarian guest ordered the vegetarian sushi platter ($14.99), also presented in an extremely appealing fashion with five pieces of fresh veggie sushi and two vegetable rolls.She also had the tofu spicy noodles ($10.99), a large dish of stir-fried rice noodles with egg, onions, mushrooms, scallions, bell peppers, carrots and fresh basil in a Thai chili sauce.Based upon the menu description, she thought it would have been a bit spicier.

The chicken tempura dinner ($14.99) with a light, crunchy batter enrobing the tender chicken cutlets and vegetables including sweet potato, onion rings and broccoli, made a very pretty and delicious entre.Obviously, this deep-fried entre would not qualify as low on calories.

Nor would my choice of massaman curry with tofu ($11.99).This rich, creamy Thai specialty was most likely healthy but certainly not low in calories.

The Sake staff members were extremely congenial.After an unfortunately long wait, our food finally arrived.Although the platters and dinners are listed on the menu as coming with a salad or miso soup, our choices of salad never did arrive but we were anxious to have dinner and get on with our evening.We chalked the snafu up to it being a very busy pre-holiday evening.

This restaurant is fairly small and extremely popular so it gets quite crowded with a line of folks waiting for tables.Another consideration might be take-out.We witnessed a steady stream of large orders being carried out.

Parking directly in front of the restaurant can be difficult to find but there are plenty of parking spots just a few feet away between the in and out lanes of Royal Palm Point.

Maribeth Renne dinesanonymously at the expense of TCPalm for #WhatToDoIn772. Contact her atmaribeth.d.renne@gmail.comor follow@mebpebon Twitter.

Cuisine: Japanese and Thai

Address: 42 Royal Palm Pointe, Vero Beach

Hours: 11:30 a.m. 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. 9:30 p.m., Monday Friday; 12 p.m. 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. 9:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday

Phone: (772) 978.9798

Website:sakemenus.com

Alcohol: Sake, beer, wine

Read or Share this story: https://www.tcpalm.com/story/entertainment/dining/2020/01/02/restaurant-review-its-worth-braving-crowds-sake-vero-beach/2755724001/

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Restaurant Review: It's worth braving the crowds for Sake in Vero Beach - TCPalm