Injured manatee rescued in Boynton Beach is pregnant

BOYNTON BEACH — An injured manatee rescued Thursday in the Inter-coastal Waterway is pregnant.
Staff at the Miami Sea Aquarium, where the manatee was taken for treatment, discovered the pregnancy during a medical examination.
A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission team captured the manatee in a side canal about a quarter mile south of the cove at the city's Boat Club Park.
The animal was in obvious distress. Two long gashes on her body were nearly an inch deep.
Fish and Wildlife officials believe she was injured by a boat propeller.
The precarious nature of Florida's manatee population, and the high threat from boaters, is well documented. Last week, the commission reported it had counted 4,840 animals statewide, which actually is up from last year.
The agency credited warmer January weather this year, compared to the catastrophic freezes of January 2010, which killed many manatees.


Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Eliot Kleinberg




Injured manatee rescued in Boynton Beach is pregnant

Scott unveiling Fla. budget plan at tea party bash

The Associated Press

EUSTIS, Fla. -- Gov. Rick Scott will be breaking with usual practice in a couple ways when he unveils his first budget recommendations to the Legislature.

The Republican governor will present a two-year plan Monday rather than the annual version required by the Florida Constitution.

And, he'll do it first at a tea party rally in Eustis before flying nearly 200 miles back to Tallahassee for a traditional news conference at the Florida Capitol.

GOP-leaning tea party activists are expected to give a more favorable response to his proposals for slashing spending by $5 billion and cutting business and property taxes by more than $2 billion.

Leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature say they don't see how the cash-strapped state can afford tax cuts.

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Scott unveiling Fla. budget plan at tea party bash

Alternate Energy Technologies: A success story in Jacksonville Read more at Jacksonville

By Kevin Turner

Jacksonville residents driving past the Westside campus of industrial offices that house Alternate Energy Technologies LLC probably don't notice that one of the world's leading manufacturers of thermal solar collectors is there, quietly making panels for myriad international vendors.

"We're not a walk-in business," said Billy Byrom, company founder, president and managing partner. "We're strictly a manufacturer for wholesale distributors. We lead a lot of tours, though - we want people to see what we do."

The company does not purchase anything from foreign suppliers, Byrom says. Its 60 workers bring in raw materials and manufacture everything in its 67,000-square-foot facility. Byrom said that makes AET one-of-a-kind in the United States, because other U.S. solar manufacturers are really just assembly operations that put together components fabricated in foreign factories.

"Everything is American-made. We're very proud of that," he said. "We are the only complete manufacturer in the United States."

AET has been leasing space at that location since 1987 when it started with 18,000 square feet, he said. But with the return of a federal tax credit for consumers in 2006, business has been booming.

The growing company will move to a new facility in Green Cove Springs in May.

Byrom, 63, went to work for AET predecessor U.S. Solar in 1979 as the company's director of operations. Prior to that, he worked with an Alabama company that manufactured mobile homes. He was educated at the University of North Alabama in Florence, Ala. and moved to Jacksonville to work with a friend in the solar industry, he said.

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Alternate Energy Technologies: A success story in Jacksonville