Palm Beach

An article Sunday about the condemned Riverdale Apartments in Essex-Middle River incorrectly described the status of the property. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has foreclosed on half of the complex; Chemical Bank, now part of Chase Manhattan Bank, holds a mortgage on the other half and has not foreclosed.The Sun regrets the errors.PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Richard M. Schlesinger lives a life of controversy -- and contrast.Here on Florida's Gold Coast, he lives among the moneyed elite -- Donald Trump, Rod Stewart and the Ford family -- behind the walls of a $13 million oceanfront mansion.

Weijia Jiang, who came to WJZ-TV in June of 2008 as a reporter, is leaving to join WCBS-TV in New York City. Both stations are owned by CBS. New York is the top market in the country. Jiang came to WJZ from WOBC-TV in Salisbury. She has a bachelor's degree from the College of William & Mary and a master's in broadcast news from the University of Syracuse. Born in China, Jiang grew up in West Virginia where her parents immigrated when she was 2. Jiang, whose last day at WJZ is May 31, will be replaced by Rochelle Ritchie, a multimedia reporter from WPTV in West Palm Beach, Florida.

It had to happen, given the headlines. The newest trend in movie-making is setting a screenplay in Palm Beach, Fla.The first will be a Samuel Goldwyn Co. thriller set in that sun-sex-and-cents capital with Dennis Quaid penciled in to star. Columbia also is considering a Palm Beach-set screenplay. And producers are clamoring to get their hands on the recent New York magazine cover story titled "The Palm Beach Story."So far, no story lines bear any resemblance to the ongoing Kennedy rape scandal.

Baltimore City Councilwoman Helen L. Holton, who pleaded no contest this week to a campaign finance violation, will attend a three-day conference in Palm Beach, Fla., next week at the city's expense. The city spending board voted Wednesday to approve the $1,100 trip for Holton, who will be attending the National Association of Counties conference there from Oct. 13 to 15. Holton pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor stemming from a deal she struck with developer Ronald Lipscomb and bread magnate and developer John Paterakis Sr. Holton asked them to pay $12,500 for a poll during her 2007 re-election campaign, circumventing campaign finance regulations and exceeding the $4,000 cap on donations from individuals during an election cycle.

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Accompanied by his mother, William Kennedy Smith surrendered to police yesterday to face charges that he assaulted and raped a Florida woman Easter weekend.Steadfastly maintaining his innocence, Mr. Smith, 30, a member of America's best-known political family, insisted to reporters here yesterday that the alleged victim had concocted her story about a rape.He called the allegation an "outrageous lie" and said it represented an attack on him and his family.Mr. Smith said he looked forward to a trial, vowing, "The truth will come out."

Think Palm Beach and you think money. That narrow strip of sand and coral that is Palm Beach long has been the playground of the idle rich. They drive more Rolls-Royces per capita than Londoners. Through countless balls and benefits they raise more charity dollars per capita than any other city in the world.But there is another Palm Beach, a much bigger and more varieone. This is Palm Beach County, home of Palm Beach and also North, West and South Palm Beach; Lantana; Hypoluxo Island; Boca Raton; Lake Worth; Delray; and more.

All week, Charles Jaco, CNN's man on the scene at the William Kennedy Smith rape trial, had the look of someone who drew the short straw in the office assignment lottery."

AFTER WATCHING two days of testimony in the William Kennedy Smith rape trial, I've reached one firm conclusion.No, it has nothing to do with guilt or innocence. As a responsible journalist, I leave that to the jury. Besides, the real smutty stuff hasn't come out yet.But I had always heard that Palm Beach, with its many filthy-rich people and their groupies, was a discreetly wild and crazy place.As a student of all things wild and crazy, I listened closely when a witness testified about a joint called "Au Bar."

A man who broke out of the Patuxent Institution in Jessup last week was arrested in West Palm Beach, Fla. Wednesday after robbing two banks by threatening to blow them up with a device that looked like a bomb.Kevin Siler, 31, who escaped last Wednesday from the maximum security prison, was arrested by West Palm Beach police after they pulled over a stolen car in a residential area, said Sgt. John English, a spokesman for the West Palm Beach police.Driving the brown 1982 Cadillac, was Siler's cousin, Lamont Randall, 35, of Riviera Beach, a community just north of West Palm Beach.

Q: My wife and I will be in West Palm Beach, Fla., between Christmas and New Year's. Are there any single-day cruises from that area?A: Palm Beach Cruise Line offers coastline cruises and %o excursions to Freeport, the Bahamas, out of West Palm Beach. The Freeport trips run on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to midnight and include three meals. The price of the weekday cruises is $79 a person plus $24 port tax; the Saturday cruise is $89 plus $24 tax.On Christmas Day, a Saturday, the line will run a coastline cruise from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. instead of the Freeport cruise.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - -Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. has known New York Yankees All-Star Alex Rodriguez for 16 years, but the two have not spoken since Rodriguez admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs while playing for the Texas Rangers. But when they do, he has one question. "I really want to know why," Ripken told the audience at the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County's Men's Night Out banquet Thursday. "I'm going to make it my business to find out." Ripken avoided the topic of steroids during his 40-minute speech but was later asked about baseball's black eye. "The steroid era really puts a dark cloud over baseball," Ripken said.

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.

On August 2, 2008 DENISE LOUISE HITTLE-CORDIAL; beloved wife of Thomas G. Cordial; loving daughter of the late Melvin and Ethel Hittle; dear sister of Melvin Hittle of W. Palm Beach, FL, Renee McCabe of W. Palm Beach, FL, Mary Billings of W. Palm Beach, FL, Gloria Raut and the late Deborah David. Also survived by many nieces and nephews. A Christian Wake Service will be held at the family owned Duda-Ruck Funeral Home of Dundalk Inc., 7922 Wise Ave. on Tuesday at 4:30 P.M. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Wednesday at 9 A.M. at Our Lady of Hope Church.

Rep. Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican, put it best recently in the Congressional Record when he spoke in favor of a bill he has fought hard to pass: "As a conservative who believes in limited government, I believe the only check on government power in real time is a free and independent press," Mr. Pence said. "The Free Flow of Information Act is not about protecting reporters; it's about protecting the public's right to know." The bill, which would give journalists qualified protection from revealing their sources in federal cases, passed the House, 398-21, and has strong, bipartisan support in the Senate, where both the House bill and a Senate version are under consideration.

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.

MIAMI -- It felt to some residents of Briny Breezes like the whole town won the lottery. Most of the 488 shareholders in the oceanfront trailer park will become millionaires as a result of yesterday's vote to sell the community of aging aluminum single-wides to a Palm Beach developer for $510 million. But the owners' decision - seen as capitulation to the condo encroachment that has consumed most of the rest of the sun-splashed South Florida coast - was met with as many tears and jeers as jubilation.

PALM BEACH, Fla. There's trash for sale on Worth Avenue. And guess what? It's gorgeous.At Naturalis the new kid on the block in South Florida's toniest retail district recycled flotsam is art. Discarded metal junk is made into splendid sculptures of birds and beasts. Fallen tree branches are built into one-of-a-kind coat racks. Scrap paper is transformed into featherweight jewelry.These pieces are part of an elegant merchandise mix to help fashionable folks live well in the 1990s. The store's name, in Latin, means "the law of nature."

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Before 200 journalists held back by yellow crime-scene tape and a handful of Palm Beach County courthouse workers in Halloween costumes, William Kennedy Smith said yesterday that he hoped to find "six people with an open mind" who will clear him of rape charges.Before he entered criminal court for jury selection, Mr. Smith, 31, flanked by his mother, aunt, two sisters and brother, said in a slightly trembling voice, "I'm innocent of the charges. I'm confident that when the process is completed, I'll be found innocent.

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.