How's Your Hendry County Water?

Tests Show Some Surprises For Hendry County Drinking Water

LABELLE, FL. -- Water quality tests made available by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection lists the chemicals and other substances that may be in your drinking water in Hendry county from water plants around the county from Clewiston to LaBelle.

The city of LaBelle has incurred 10 EPA water quality violations over the period surveyed, Port LaBelle Utilities only 1. South Shore Water Association in Clewiston had 3 violations, Whisper Creek RV Park in LaBelle, 3 violations, and Riverbend Motor Coach Resort in western Hendry county, 4 EPA violations. The city of Clewiston has a fairly clean record compared to nationwide averages, and only had one bacteria monitoring failure in 2006 according to the report.

Drinking water quality reports now available online show results of 5 years of tests conducted by the area's water utilities as provided to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

The drinking water statistics are part of EWG's national database that includes 47,667 drinking water utilities and 20 million test results. Water utilities nationwide detected more than 300 pollutants between 2004 and 2009. More than half of these chemicals are unregulated, but legal in any amount. Despite this widespread contamination, the EWG says the federal government invests few resources to protect rivers, reservoirs, and groundwater from pollution in the first place.

The information found online for Hendry county summarizes test results for each utility company and lists potential health concerns. At the website click on your water utility company's name to get five years of water pollutant details and any EPA violations incurred during the period studied.

http://www.ewg.org/project/2009tapwater/search.php?zip5=33935&search=&x=search

Obama - We Must Think Anew About Just War And Peace

Barack H. Obama Nobel Prize Lecture - December 10, 2009

OSLO, NORWAY --  U.S. President Barack Obama accepted the 2009 Nobel Prize for Peace in Oslo today and in a prepared lecture speech says the world must find new ways to think about the concept of just war and a just peace.

Excerpts from the speech text, released by the President's Press Secretary:

Over time, as codes of law sought to control violence within groups, so did philosophers, clerics, and statesmen seek to regulate the destructive power of war. The concept of a "just war" emerged, suggesting that war is justified only when it meets certain preconditions: if it is waged as a last resort or in self-defense; if the forced used is proportional, and if, whenever possible, civilians are spared from violence.

For most of history, this concept of just war was rarely observed. The capacity of human beings to think up new ways to kill one another proved inexhaustible, as did our capacity to exempt from mercy those who look different or pray to a different God.

Wars between armies gave way to wars between nations – total wars in which the distinction between combatant and civilian became blurred. In the span of thirty years, such carnage would twice engulf this continent. And while it is hard to conceive of a cause more just than the defeat of the Third Reich and the Axis powers, World War II was a conflict in which the total number of civilians who died exceeded the number of soldiers who perished.
 
Terrorism has long been a tactic, but modern technology allows a few small men with outsized rage to murder innocents on a horrific scale.

Moreover, wars between nations have increasingly given way to wars within nations. The resurgence of ethnic or sectarian conflicts; the growth of secessionist movements, insurgencies, and failed states; have increasingly trapped civilians in unending chaos. In today's wars, many more civilians are killed than soldiers; the seeds of future conflict are sewn, economies are wrecked, civil societies torn asunder, refugees amassed, and children scarred.
 
...Martin Luther King said in this same ceremony years ago – "Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones." As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King's life's work, I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence. I know there is nothing weak –nothing passive – nothing naïve – in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.
 
But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation... I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism – it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.
 
More and more, we all confront difficult questions about how to prevent the slaughter of civilians by their own government, or to stop a civil war whose violence and suffering can engulf an entire region.

I believe that force can be justified on humanitarian grounds, as it was in the Balkans, or in other places that have been scarred by war. Inaction tears at our conscience and can lead to more costly intervention later. That is why all responsible nations must embrace the role that militaries with a clear mandate can play to keep the peace.
 
Where force is necessary, we have a moral and strategic interest in binding ourselves to certain rules of conduct. And even as we confront a vicious adversary that abides by no rules, I believe that the United States of America must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war. That is what makes us different from those whom we fight. That is a source of our strength. That is why I prohibited torture. That is why I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed. And that is why I have reaffirmed America's commitment to abide by the Geneva Conventions.

... peace is not merely the absence of visible conflict. Only a just peace based upon the inherent rights and dignity of every individual can truly be lasting.  I believe that peace is unstable where citizens are denied the right to speak freely or worship as they please; choose their own leaders or assemble without fear. Pent up grievances fester, and the suppression of tribal and religious identity can lead to violence.

... the promotion of human rights cannot be about exhortation alone. At times, it must be coupled with painstaking diplomacy. I know that engagement with repressive regimes lacks the satisfying purity of indignation. But I also know that sanctions without outreach – and condemnation without discussion – can carry forward a crippling status quo. No repressive regime can move down a new path unless it has the choice of an open door.
 
...we must try as best we can to balance isolation and engagement; pressure and incentives, so that human rights and dignity are advanced over time.
 
...a just peace includes not only civil and political rights – it must encompass economic security and opportunity. For true peace is not just freedom from fear, but freedom from want.  And that is why helping farmers feed their own people – or nations educate their children and care for the sick – is not mere charity.
 
Adhering to this law of love has always been the core struggle of human nature. We are fallible. We make mistakes, and fall victim to the temptations of pride, and power, and sometimes evil. Even those of us with the best intentions will at times fail to right the wrongs before us.

But we do not have to think that human nature is perfect for us to still believe that the human condition can be perfected. We do not have to live in an idealized world to still reach for those ideals that will make it a better place. The non-violence practiced by men like Gandhi and King may not have been practical or possible in every circumstance, but the love that they preached – their faith in human progress – must always be the North Star that guides us on our journey.
 
We can acknowledge that oppression will always be with us, and still strive for justice. We can admit the intractability of depravation, and still strive for dignity. We can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace. We can do that – for that is the story of human progress; that is the hope of all the world; and at this moment of challenge, that must be our work here on Earth.
 

Clewiston Murder Suspect Turns Self In

Clewiston Murder May Bring Additional Arrests

CLEWISTON, FL. -- On Friday morning, December 4, 2009, at approximately 6:25 a.m. Hendry County Sheriff's Deputies responded to the area of 10th Street and Kentucky Avenue in the Harlem subdivision of Clewiston, Florida after receiving a call that someone had been shot.

(Photo: Murder Suspect Timothy Arthur Rumph) 

Once Deputies arrived on scene they immediately saw a man known to them as 35 year old Gee Gee Gary of 1220 Harlem Academy Drive lying on the ground suffering from a gunshot wound.  Medics arrived and transported him to Hendry Regional Hospital where he later died. 

Investigators with the Hendry County Sheriff's Office immediately began searching for witnesses and were able to locate one individual that saw the entire incident occur.  After speaking with several witnesses, Investigators were able to request an arrest warrant for Timothy Arthur Rumph for the charge of 2nd Degree Murder. 

On December 5, 2009, at approximately 4:45 p.m., 20 year old, Timothy Arthur Rumph turned himself in to Hendry County Deputies.  He was then placed under arrest and is currently being held in the Hendry County Jail on $250,000 Bond. 

Investigators acknowledge this is an ongoing investigation and additional arrests may be forthcoming.

Update: Trial is scheduled for May 23, 2011 at 9 a.m. in LaBelle.
Update2: The case was dismissed on January 30, 2012, and Rumph was released from jail.

Hendry Deputies 'Drug Warrant Roundup'

Eight Arrests On Drug Related Warrants

LABELLE, FL. -- On November 23, 2009, members of the Hendry County Sheriff's Office Special Operations Team conducted a county-wide warrant roundup arresting eight individuals on drug related warrants throughout Hendry county. 

The warrants stemmed from undercover drug buys and previous investigations by the Sheriff's department.  Two additional arrests were made in Highlands County and Lee County.

Those arrested were 30 yr-old Jose Gonzalez, sale and possession of cocaine, 34 yr-old Jaime Perle, cultivation and trafficking in marijuana, 42 yr-old Irenia Sariol, cultivation and trafficking in Marijuana, 45 yr-old Robert Peterson, sale and possession of cocaine, 48 yr-old Anthony Lyons, sale and possession of cocaine, 39-yr old Roberta Moxley, sale and possession of cocaine, 30 yr-old Alexander Roman, violation of probation, possession of cocaine w/intent to sell, possession of firearm by convicted felon, and 18 yr-old Brandon Mejias, Possession of cocaine and marijuana. 

Arrested in Highlands County on HCSO Warrant, was 46 yr-old Angel Martinez on charges of cultivation and trafficking in marijuana, and in Lee County, 68 yr-old Alfonso Maldonado charged with sale and possession of cocaine.

Marijuana Mail Sent To LaBelle Man

11 Pounds Marijuana Mailed From Texas To Hendry County

LABELLE, FL. On November 20, 2009, Hendry County Sheriff's Office was contacted by the U.S. Postal Service after intercepting a suspicious mail package that was later found to contain approximately 11 pounds of marijuana.  The package was sent from Alamo, Texas and addressed to a Robert Perez of Alice Street in the city of LaBelle. 

(Photo: Jose Pedro Vasquez)

On November 24, 2009, members of the Hendry Sheriff's narcotics division, special operations division along with U.S. Postal Service employees responded to the address on the package. 

An individual later identified as Jose Pedro Vasquez entered the driveway of 1191 Alice Street and got out of his vehicle.  Sheriff's deputies watched Vasquez for approximately one hour.  An undercover employee with the Postal Service, posed as a postal carrier pulled into the driveway to deliver the package.  

Before getting out of his vehicle Vasquez walked out to meet him.  After the undercover postal employee asked the man if he was Robert Perez, to which Vasquez stated he was, the package was then delivered to Vasquez.  Vasquez then placed the package inside of the vehicle he was driving and left the residence.  Sheriff�s office members followed Perez.  After witnessing him run a stop sign they initiated a traffic stop. 

Deputies were then able to verify the identity of the man, after he produced a Mexico Identification Card as Jose Pedro Vasquez.  It was then determined through a routine drivers license check that Vasquez did not have a valid Florida drivers license.  After additional questioning by authorities 33 year old Jose Pedro Vasquez was placed under arrest and charged with Possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, Possession of Marijuana over 20 grams, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, and Driving without a Valid Driver's license.  

Vasquez is currently being held in the Hendry County Jail on a $31,500 bond.