Beach County

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - There was plenty of time to greet the guests who came in the morning. "You want to take a seat and see what's going on?" Palm Beach County Judge Charles Burton asked Christine Todd Whitman, the Republican governor of New Jersey. "We'll kick her out soon," he jokingly assured his colleagues on the county's canvassing board, which is under a tight deadline to finish a hand recount of 466,000 ballots cast nearly three weeks ago. But before nightfall yesterday, with Secretary of State Katherine Harris less than 24 hours from certifying the winner of the presidential contest in Florida, it was clearly crunch time.

On December 17, 2008, David Sneider Services and internment will be private. Please omit flowers. Contributions in his memory may be made to Hospice of Palm Beach County, 5300 East Ave., West Palm Beach, FL 33407. A memorial service will be conducted at a later date.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - This is the spot they have religiously flocked to for days, with their ever-changing signs, their chants and bullhorns, their new chad-related T-shirt designs. But yesterday, there was no crowd of protesters outside Palm Beach County's Emergency Operations Center. Inside, the hand counting of the last 466,000 of Florida's presidential votes was over. Outside, so was the spectacle. "They say it put West Palm Beach on the map," Danny Meldrum, a 31-year-old waiter and Bush voter, said as he nursed a beer inside nearby Flanigan's Bar yesterday afternoon.

On Friday, June 6, 2008, GORDON LEINBACH WOELPER of West Palm Beach, FL, formerly of Monkton, MD, beloved husband of Edith Seward Woelper, loving father of his son Gordon L. Woelper, Jr., and daughter Georgeanna Woelper, brother of J. Thomas Woelper and dear grandfather of Catherine and Justin. Contributions may be made to the Hospice of Palm Beach County, 5300 East Avenue, West Palm Beach, FL, 33407, in his memory.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - There was the breakfast spread before 7 a.m.: bagels and Danish and bananas. Then they were fed and ready for a long day of counting Palm Beach County's 430,000 ballots - ballots that could mean the difference in one of the tightest presidential races in history. Another day, another day of confusion, another day of counting lost. The 50 people who volunteered for a week's worth of counting cards learned before 8 a.m. yesterday that there would be a delay: The county's Canvassing Board wouldn't start until a local judge determined whether they should count so-called "dimpled ballots," those that aren't punched all the way through but seem to show who a voter preferred.

LAKE WORTH, Fla. - The wreckage of Florida's 2000 presidential election remains a motivating force in the 2004 race, as Sen. John Kerry demonstrated when he campaigned yesterday in the county that spawned the infamous "butterfly ballot." "We can be angry. We can be frustrated." the presumptive Democratic nominee said yesterday at an outdoor rally on the campus of Palm Beach Community College. "But most importantly, we have the power ... to decide to do something about it." Kerry was accompanied by Connecticut Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, the Democrats' vice presidential candidate in 2000.

LAST YEAR, when the Kansas State Board of Education decided to de-emphasize the importance of teaching evolution in science classes, Kansas became the target of national and international derision. Never mind that many news media outlets misreported what the state board actually did -- it did not eliminate the teaching of evolution. Nor, as some media reports declared, did the board impose the teaching of creationism instead of science. Instead, the state board removed questions about evolution from statewide testing and permitted local school boards to determine for themselves how science curriculum would be taught.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The fax machine brought the news: An all-nighter, a strict diet of almond M&M's and bottled water, and a furious last gasp at trying to whip through the last dwindling stacks of Palm Beach County's 466,000 ballots wouldn't be enough to finish on time. The county canvassing board had pleaded with Secretary of State Katherine Harris earlier in the afternoon, asking for a few more hours to finish tallying by hand the county's votes for president, votes that were being counted with the help of hundreds of volunteers for 10 days.

BOCA RATON, Fla. - In the place that made chads famous, Steven L. Abrams is settling in to his newly elected job as mayor, a hard-fought race he won this week with the help of some succinct advice to voters: "Don't leave me hanging." The message, which he mailed to thousands during his campaign, is one that reverberates throughout chad-crazy Palm Beach County, where Abrams and a host of other political candidates have zealously given supporters an education in how to cast a dimple-free, clearly punched ballot.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Before this, the words "Palm Beach" probably conjured up two pictures: the sun-dappled playground of the very rich and gossip-column famous or the spot where every Jewish grandmother retired to play canasta with the girls. Now, it's being talked about as the home of the foolish voters who couldn't figure out how to punch their Election Day ballots. It's the place where the presidency could be at stake. It's the place undertaking a hand recount of 460,000 ballots, a tedious process the county Canvassing Board doesn't expect to finish until Sunday night, nearly two weeks after the votes were cast.

Drought has uncovered what some are calling the most significant archaeological find in Palm Beach County's recent history. Now researchers are in a race against looters and the weather to preserve it. Since March, state and local archaeologists have been studying and collecting artifacts from various sites around drought-ravaged Lake Okeechobee - places where water has receded from the bank, leaving thousands of acres of mud and muck. Researchers have found human bone fragments, tools, pottery fragments and pieces of ceremonial jewelry thought to have belonged to the natives who lived near the lake before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Mark Foley's sudden resignation from Congress sparked a political furor yesterday when Democrats accused House Republicans of failing to respond to initial reports of his sexually suggestive e-mails to a congressional page. The House voted late Friday to turn the matter over to the Ethics Committee before Congress adjourned for the fall election campaign season, hours after House leaders acknowledged that they had known about the e-mails for months. In Washington and Palm Beach County, Democrats tried to broaden the sex scandal by condemning an alleged cover-up by the House majority.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Rush Limbaugh didn't go with any more Viagra jokes on his radio show yesterday, after Palm Beach County prosecutors cleared him for possessing the erectile-dysfunction pills in his psychologist's name. Prosecutors determined that Limbaugh, 55, of Palm Beach, had been prescribed the pills, but they referred the case to Miami-Dade prosecutors for review because the prescription was issued there, not in Palm Beach County. Customs agents detained Limbaugh for more than three hours June 26 at Palm Beach International Airport when he returned from the Dominican Republic and was found to have a Viagra prescription in someone else's name in his luggage.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Rush Limbaugh was arrested yesterday on a doctor-shopping charge in the Palm Beach County state attorney's office's long-running investigation into his drug use, and he agreed to supervision for 18 months while he continues his rehabilitation. Limbaugh, 55, a Palm Beach, Fla., resident, his lawyers and prosecutors reached an agreement on the single felony charge, and the conservative radio talk show host surrendered at the Palm Beach County Jail late yesterday afternoon.

LUCILLE B. LOWMAN, 83, passed away at Hospice of Palm Beach County in the wonderful new inpatient unit at Good Samaritan Medical Center on February 12, 2006. She is survived by her devoted and loving husband of 35 years, Elmer G. Lowman, son of deceased Pastor and Mrs. G.E. Lowman of Baltimore, Maryland, deceased brother and his four sisters who live in the Towson area of Maryland. She leaves with loving, cherished memories her two daughters, Lila Lucille Hill Young, husband Jim of West Palm Beach, Florida and Linda Larabee Livingston Hill Burdick, husband Bruce, of Springhill, Florida.

JOHN ALDEN PAUL 1910-2005, 96, a former resident of Palm Beach and Jacksonville, Florida and longtime summer resident of Cashiers, North Carolina, passed away on December 30, 2005. He was the son of the late Alexander and Marie Paul of Watertown, Florida. He attended the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut, the University of Virginia, and received a law degree from the University of Florida in 1934. Mr. Paul practiced law for over 40 years in Palm Beach County, Florida. He served on the Board of Governors of the Florida Bar and was a member of its Judicial Section Revision Committee.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Steamy South Florida grew hotter yesterday as ballot counters in Broward and Palm Beach counties sprinted toward today's 5 p.m. deadline for completing manual recounts of contested presidential ballots. As demonstrators faced off in the streets and national political leaders scrutinized ballot counters' work, canvassing board members in the two counties continued to try to determine the will of voters by examining tiny marks on punch ballots, sometimes using magnifying glasses.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Haitian community leaders in Palm Beach County say that U.S. immigration officials have been sweeping through neighborhoods in Lake Worth, Delray, Rivera and West Palm in recent weeks searching for undocumented immigrants. While the deportations are within the law, civic leaders say enforcement is more aggressive than in the past and fails to distinguish between criminals and those who lack papers but pose no threat to society. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Adelina Pruneda said the department was not conducting any "enforcement actions" targeting a particular group in Palm Beach County.

RUTH M. BURNS, 77 years old, a resident of Palm Beach, FL., died Monday, October 31, 2005, at the Palm Beach home of her son Donald A. Burns. Mrs. Burns was born July 5, 1928, in Duryea, Penn., daughter of the late Frank and Margaret Hoeffner. She was a graduate of Duryea High School and the Moses Taylor Nursing School, Scranton, Penn. Mrs. Burns was a homemaker and also worked outside of the home as a Registered Nurse. She was a member of the United Methodist Church of the Palm Beaches, West Palm Beach, FL. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Donald A. Burns Foundation, Inc. and she supported numerous charitable causes including Habitat for Humanity and Doctors Without Borders.

On December 7, 2004, GERALD J. UHLHORN, beloved husband of 50 years to C. Monica Uhlhorn, father of Victoria Shipley, Gerald Uhlhorn, Jr. and Joseph N. Uhlhorn, father-in-law of Craig Shipley, and grandfather of Andrew, Patrick and Anna Shipley, peacefully passed away from cardiac arrest at his home in Palm Beach Gardens. He was born on May 16, 1927 in Baltimore, Maryland, son of the late Helen and Joseph Uhlhorn Sr. and brother of the late Joseph Uhlhorn, Jr. In 1951 Gerry received a Ph.B.