Artist’s work in residence ... at Bass Pro Shops
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Vitalia, PGA team up
Residents offered golf privileges
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“Fiddler’ on tap
Presented by South Fork High School
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PALM CITY/TESORO
YourVoiceWeekly.com VOL. 2/ISSUE 13
YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
Honoring the father
FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2014
Jobs report 2014 starts with improving employment numbers Patrick McCallister Staff writer
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
Palm City man receives medal awarded to his father posthumously Patrick McCallister Staff writer
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
PALM CITY — Pfc. Albert Morton “Morey” Brand was the last survivor of an ambushed patrol in World War II Germany. He was also a Jew. As a final act of self-defense, he buried his dog tags before being taken prisoner
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of war. For decades, the story emboldened his son, Palm City’s Darrell Brand, to face challenges and dangers. “That is the part (of the story) he used to always tell us,” Brand said. “He always said that if he went back to Germany, he could find those dog tags.” Brand said while his father was largely silent about his
war experiences — like many World War II veterans are — the son always knew that his father’s months as a prisoner of war were a defining time of the man’s life. The elder Morton died on Independence Day in 1996. The younger Morton continued to draw strength from his fa-
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Photo by Patrick McCallister Palm City’s Darrell Brand looks at the Prisoner of War Medal posthumously awarded to his father, Pfc. Albert Brand, who died in the 1990s. The elder Brand was captured in Europe after all others in his patrol died in an ambush. A Jew, he buried his dog tags before Germans got to him. The younger Brand, middle, received the POW Medal for his father from Congressman Patrick Murphy, left, on Thursday, Jan. 23, under the eye of the Florida National Guard’s 1st Sgt. Phillip Jackson, right.
TREASURE COAST — News from Tallahassee is right on with what local business people are saying around area chambers of commerce. “The people I’m talking to, a lot of our members, are hiring,” Joe Catrambone, president/CEO of Stuart/Martin County Chamber of Commerce, said. “That’s a good sign.” On Friday, Jan. 24, the state released the monthly employment report that covered December. The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity reported that the statewide, seasonally adjusted, unemployment rate was 6.2 percent, down a smidge over the previous month. When looked at over the year, the employment report bodes much good. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate at the end of 2012 was 7.9 percent. Last month, the state’s unemployment rate was the lowest since the middle of 2008. In June that year, it was 6.0. Governor Rick Scott’s office claims that more than 479,000 found jobs in 2013.