From "Eye On Miami" Best Blog 2008, Mining and Moral Turpitude 2009

Excellent blog that covers what the mainstream media will not:

Eye On Miami

Sunday, August 02, 2009
Moral Turpitude: The Cement Manufacturer and Rock Miner Hall of Shame ... 

by gimleteye

We have enough to keep us busy as citizen journalists and bloggers, but every now and then a news report washes in from around the state that remind us we are not alone.

Let's take rock mining for cement and cement products as an example.

All over Miami-Dade County the conversion of Everglades wetlands and farmland to suburban sprawl has sped along on the rails of zoning changes and federal permits to mine limestone. That fossilized coral reef under our feet in South Florida makes very good base material for cement.

Blasting and mining and refining it is a multi-billion dollar industry: the wealthiest and most secretive in Florida.

Without cement, there are no roads, buildings, and ambitions to put more growth and development than can possibly float on the Florida peninsula.

Rock miners started out as small family businesses in Miami-Dade and elsewhere: they are now mostly large multi-national corporations owned by foreign shareholders. Still, they pay beaucoups dineros to downtown Miami lawyers and lobbyists who wield their power like cudgels in the Neanderthal world of local politics.

In West Dade, rock mining activities have violated federal law protecting endangered species and the Everglades.

These violations of law triggered some of the most important litigation in the US, revealing the miserable performance of federal agencies like the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Rock miners have not only failed to live up to their commitments for mitigating impacts on wetlands, they have stifled dissent at county commissions and with the public.

In Miami-Dade, rock mining has imposed huge liabilities on drinking water supplies and costs on taxpayers.

In South Dade, rock mining has sped salt water intrusion.

In Palm Beach County, rock mines were the backdrop for a land use deal during the first term of Gov. Jeb Bush that helped push the cost of land acquisition for environmental purposes into the stratosphere, giving heart and hope to land speculators everywhere-- but especially speculators who were Repubican.

Rock mines are popping up in the ambitions of Big Sugar to extract further profit from the Everglades. They also, it so happens, provide the backdrop for criminal prosecution and imprisonment of Palm Beach County Commissioners.

The cumulative influence of rock miners has suppressed science related to the security of aquifers and encouraged the vast oversupply of roads and suburbs during the late, great building boom that is now in cinders.

Pervasive corruption, environmental assault of epic proportions, commissioners in prison, public safety blatantly disregarded, undue influence and all so Mr. Vecellio can live in a 40,000,000.00 house in Palm Beach, throw parties on the 140 ft. mega yacht "Lady Kathryn" (named for his wife) and live in the uber high society crowd. 

This all paints a picture of excess and greed at the expense of humanity and the environment that borders on obscenity.

"The 145-foot, $24.85 million Lady Kathryn III returns to the Palm Beach International Boat Show after having served as "Queen of the Flagler Waterfront" during last year's event. She is among the brokerage yachts that comprise the majority of the show's mega yacht category.

Built in 2003 by Australian-built NQEA Shipyard, the yacht is named after Palm Beacher Kathryn Vecellio, who purchased the vessel with her husband, Leo, and oversaw the transformation of its interiors with her longtime decorator, Jack Fhillips.

The Vecellios have frequently hosted charity events, business retreats and dinner parties on the yacht, which offers ample entertaining space inside and out, thanks to her 27-foot-beam design. Sailing with a crew of eight, she has five staterooms – including a VIP stateroom – that accommodate up to 10 passengers."

  (Photos from Google images)

Lady Kathryn III

Three mansions In Palm Beach and suing over the last one: 

Years ago, I spent four weeks as a juror on a construction case that by time of deliberation was an endless blur of expert testimony except for the fact that the plaintiff, Palm Beach County, had flown one of its experts from West Palm Beach to Belle Glade, a 30-minute overland drive on a slow day. This must have made sense to someone.  

Whatever, that case was not quite the scale facing one Palm Beach couple. In October 2009, two months before Leo and Kathryn Vecellio filed suit against 14 defendants at Palm Beach County courthouse, the prominent couple bought their third Palm Beach house.

But, rather than ocean or lake views, this one, a one-story 3,000-sq.-ft. Bermuda-designed house purchased for $2.1 million, is across the street from their oceanfront mansion, where they now have a spectacular view of the house’s ongoing reconstruction and remediation work. 

About a year after Mr. Vecellio, president, chairman and CEO of the Vecellio Group, one of the nation’s leading contractors, and his wife, Kathryn, closed on their reportedly more than $40 million new oceanfront house, they moved out and have filed a civil case against Dean DeSantis, Laura DeSantis, Addison Construction, Danny E. Swanson, Phoenix Architecture, and at last count, nine other building-related companies. 

Mr. Swanson is regarded among Palm Beach’s stellar builders. While a uniformed security guard stands poised at all times to protect their oceanfront villa, in court, the Vecellios are being represented by attorney G. Joseph Curley, with Gunster, Attorneys at Law. Stay tuned. (From Palm Beach Panorama)

How much is enough Mr. Vecellio? 

Mr. Hurley WRQ president how about you? Your house is worth 3.7 million, (he is "slumming it" compared to the Vecellios.)
How much more money and power do you three need before you are satisfied?

How many mansions, yachts, jewels and luxurious gowns can you acquire Mrs.Vecellio?
How many more communities and people do you and your husband intend to destroy to get them?

What a fitting color for "Lady Kathryn's" gown...blood red.

Take a good look at what Vincent, Alabama will be helping to pay for: Palm Beach high society.