Florida
Crucial decisions made in 1980 in South Florida cast a shadow on Jimmy Carter’s presidency
Many thought the president was fooled by Fidel Castro as the Mariel boat lift taxed South Florida. His indecision after the Liberty City riots angered many.
Jimmy Carter’s favorite moment in Palm Beach County might have been the time 2,500 people turned out for a book signing in 1995 at a Boca Raton bookstore.
His low point, at least in South Florida, likely was the day 15 years earlier, when he came to Miami’s riot-scarred Liberty City in 1980 and angry protesters tossed rocks at the presidential limousine.
Carter, who died Sunday at 100, was an unassuming but charismatic Georgia peanut farmer who rode post-Watergate anger to oust Gerald Ford from the White House in 1976 and become America’s 39th president. He was himself voted out four years later by Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America” conservative wave.
He then spent the rest of his life becoming perhaps the most beloved former president, by becoming a respected elder statesman on numerous domestic and world topics and setting a standard for community service worldwide through numerous organizations, all while fighting advancing age and several health issues, including a bout with brain cancer.
Mariel boat lift, Iran hostage standoff, energy crisis tested Carter’s presidency
Carter’s struggles with Miami’s boiling summer of 1980 — a one-two punch of the Mariel boatlift from Cuba and the May race riots — might not have been on the same level as the humiliating 14½-month Iran hostage standoff, an energy crisis, and what Carter infamously called the nation’s “crisis of confidence.” But the image of people booing him at a Liberty City town hall meeting fed criticism that he was a nice guy who was in way over his head as president. And it helped cost him re-election that fall.
Carter had been the original anti-Washington outsider presidential candidate.
In February 1975, Carter, then 50 and fresh off wrapping up his term as Georgia governor, visited The Breakers in Palm Beach to speak at a money-raising dinner for a medical school. He drew little attention from passers-by as he told reporters, “Yes, I am a serious candidate” for president.
Almost exactly a year later, when he came through for a three-day campaign swing through Palm Beach and Broward counties, all that had changed. He had won the Florida primary in March, with 34% in a field of 12 Democratic candidates, and by the summer, he led the pack of 1976 Democratic presidential nominees. And by the end of that year, he was president-elect. He’d beaten Gerald Ford, 55 to 45%. In Florida, his margin was about 52 to 47%.
Over the next four years, Carter would deal with a full plate of issues. Some would become great successes: top among them the Israel-Egypt Camp David peace accords. But 1970s economic “stagflation” — weak job growth coupled with inflation — steadily eroded the nation’s patience and confidence in the man who had won them over by promising never to lie to them.
Early in 1980, his attention again would turn to Florida.
After six Cubans had crashed the Peruvian embassy on April 1, then-Cuban President Fidel Castro declared that anyone who wanted to boat down to the port at Mariel and pick up a loved one was free to do so. Carter announced the United States would take 3,500, saying on May 5, “We welcome you with an open heart and open arms.”
Castro called his bluff. In the ensuing weeks, South Florida absorbed 125,000. Miami-Dade County’s social services and schools were overwhelmed. Eventually, some refugees would migrate north, taxing Broward and Palm Beach counties and the Treasure Coast.
For Castro, it was a convenient purge of dissidents, the disaffected and troublemakers, whom his propaganda machine branded as unworthy “worms.” And he also took the opportunity to empty his prisons. About 10 percent of the refugees were Cuba’s most hardened criminals or people with mental illnesses. They fed a crime rate that became a national sensation. People suggested the wily Cuban dictator had hoodwinked an American president again.
That would have been more than Florida could handle. But other refugees, especially those who had arrived from Haiti to a far different welcome, complained newly arrived Cubans already were getting preferred treatment.
And then there was Arthur McDuffie.
From Liberty City race riots to Habitat for Humanity
On Dec. 17, 1979, the insurance salesman — black, 33, and with no criminal record — had been chased by police through Liberty City and ended up dead. District Attorney Janet Reno, who later would be Bill Clinton’s U.S. attorney general, took four white cops to trial, alleging they beat McDuffie to death and then covered it up. Blacks fed up with what they saw as decades of police abuse seethed and waited. In March, a judge, warning the case was “a time bomb,” moved the trial to Tampa.
It didn’t matter. When the officers were acquitted May 17, furious residents of Liberty City broke windows, looted, pulled white motorists from their cars and beat them to death and burned one shop after another. The violence would last three days and leave 18 dead, 400 hurt and $100 million in damage.
In a four-hour visit to South Florida, Carter was noncommittal about what the federal government would do — if anything — to help South Florida recover from a refugee crisis brought about by national policy, and rebuild neighborhoods burned after decades of building Black rage that certainly wasn’t specific to Miami. As Carter left a community center following a tense town hall meeting, people threw rocks, cans and bottles at his limo; one bottle hit it.
“The people are not easily fooled,” a Miami News editorial said, “and they have long memories, longer even than Mr. Carter may think.”
By July, Carter’s White House would reveal a package of aid. It was too late. Months later, Carter was voted out.
In the ensuing decades, his image would shift as he devoted his life to philanthropy and peacemaking. In 1989, now eight years into his forced retirement, Carter still was a popular figure when he addressed about 2,500 people at a $60-a-head benefit at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
And two years later, he was back in South Florida with Habitat for Humanity, which builds affordable housing around the world. In that one week, he and volunteers would build 14 houses and a daycare center. The neighborhood: Liberty City.
Eliot Kleinberg retired from The Palm Beach Post in 2020 after a 36-year journalism career.
Charmaine Hickey, of Lang Realty in Port St. Lucie, was named in KNOW Women’s “100 Women to KNOW in America” list.
A Treasure Coast woman was named in a “100 Women to know in America” list for 2026.
KNOW Women is a global media company dedicated to giving women leaders connections and visibility. The company released a list of “100 Women to know in America” for 2026 to highlight the most influential women in business and leadership.
Charmaine Hickey, who works for Lang Realty in Port St. Lucie, was on the list.
“Charmaine’s recognition on a national stage like this comes as no surprise,” said Scott Agran, president of Lang Realty in a news release. “Her leadership, integrity, and commitment to both her profession and her community exemplify what this award stands for. She represents the very best of our industry.”
Hickey holds many industry designations and is known for her expertise in complex real estate transactions, as well as her client-first approach defined by honesty, patience and attention to detail, according to the news release.
Her community involvement includes serving on nonprofit boards, mentoring emerging leaders and supporting initiatives focused on education, women, families and youth.
“I am truly honored to be recognized among such an inspiring group of women,” said Hickey in the news release. “This award reflects not just individual achievement, but the power of community, mentorship, and lifting others as we grow. I’m grateful to be part of a network of women who are building meaningful impact every day.”
To see the full list go to theknowwomen.com.
Olivia Franklin is TCPalm’s trending reporter. You can contact her at olivia.franklin@tcpalm.com, 317-627-8048 or follow her on X @Livvvvv_5.
A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death.
In a deposition from November that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply”.
Bryan died after the botched surgery; and in April, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter.
“I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during difficult circumstances”.
The deposition provided Shaknovksy’s first detailed account of the operation that killed Bryan and eventually garnered national news headlines.
According to Shaknovksy’s deposition, after removing Bryan’s liver, the surgeon instructed a nurse to label the organ as a “spleen” – and he also identified it as a spleen in Bryan’s postoperative notes. Shaknovsky later said he had been “mentally compromised” at the time of Bryan’s death, explaining that he was “devastated, demoralized, crying over his passing, felt that I failed him”.
A lawsuit filed by Bryan’s widow, Beverly Bryan, accuses Shaknovsky of medical malpractice. The suit alleges that he “wrongfully omitted any reference to Mr Bryan’s liver being removed in order to ‘cover up’ his gross negligence/recklessness and to hopefully avoid the embarrassment due to such derelict care”, as NBC reported.
In April, the Walton county sheriff’s office said in a statement that Shaknovsky’s actions inflicted on Bryan “catastrophic blood loss and the patient’s death on the operating table”.
Shaknovsky’s deposition testimony described the chaos in the operating room after Bryan began bleeding extensively, causing his heart to stop. Medical staff performed chest compressions, and Shaknovsky attempted to find where the bleeding was coming from.
“I couldn’t tell the difference because I was so upset,” he said, referring to the organ he mistakenly identified.
“It was like a overflown sink that’s clogged up, and I am looking for a fork at the bottom, trying to feel and find the bleed, and I was not able to do so,” Shaknovsky said. He added: “After 20 minutes of struggling – desperately trying – to save his life, that’s when the wrong-site event took place.
“It’s a devastating thing, which I will have to live with the rest of my life,” Shaknovsky said in the eight-hour deposition reviewed by NBC. “I think about it every single day.”
After the medical team was unable to resuscitate Bryan, Shaknovsky said he went to the hospital’s medical library. “I went there to cry because I was devastated,” he said. “I didn’t want the staff to see me like that.”
Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, Shaknovsky said he believed Bryan’s spleen was “double the size of what is normal” because of a mass on it. Beverly Bryan’s lawsuit, however, states that a medical examiner told her that her husband’s spleen was anatomically “nearly normal”, according to NBC.
Shaknovsky would face up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 if eventually convicted as charged.
Omelet, taco and chicken salad joints are in, while spaghetti gelato, pizza and (for now) wing places are out.
At least when it comes to recent openings and closings on the Southwest Florida foodie scene, that is.
Let’s begin this recap of events in Cape Coral, where a popular breakfast-and-lunch restaurant made its long-awaited debut.
This is where the omelets come in…
House of Omelets
The fourth location of this popular breakfast and lunch restaurant made its highly anticipated debut along Cape Coral Parkway on Monday, May 4.
“It’s amazing,” owner Toni Dedaj said. “I’m very happy. I like this area, the way Cape Coral is growing. And this building is beautiful.”
That building is the eye-catching Bimini Square off Cape Coral Parkway. House of Omelets, which anchors the first-floor northeast corner unit, has a classic European feel. With seating for 89 inside and 40 outside, it’s about half the size of Dedaj’s Pine Island Road location.
“We like it,” he said. “We still have the big menu, but we like the smaller seating area. Service is more personal.”
And speaking of that menu (the same you’ll find at all House of Omelets locations), it is indeed huge, with about 30 signature omelets alone. Add in all the egg dishes (House Slam is a best seller), favorites (like corned beef hash and chicken & waffles), off the griddle dishes (multiple pancake, French toast and waffle options), Benedicts and crepes, and we’re already up to huge without even getting to the lunch items.
Those include appetizers, salads, signature sandwiches (from lobster grilled cheese to Philly steak), burgers & melts, and pitas & wraps. Free parking can be found in the parking garage, shared with neighboring Bimini Basin Seafood.
“It’s easy in and out,” Dedaj said. “Very easy. Come visit us.” Find it at 440 Cape Coral Parkway; (239) 360-8083; there are two locations in Cape Coral and one each in Fort Myers and Naples. Go to houseofomelets.com or follow on Instagram.
Chicken Salad Chick
More than 100 customers were waiting outside when this chicken salad-loving, fast-casual restaurant opened its new Cape Coral location on April 29. Located in the Shops at Del Sol (near Swig!), Chicken Salad Chick has 13 different types of chicken salad, including traditional, fruity & nutty, savory and spicy flavors. Get it in one or two scoops, in a sandwich, in a melt (Bacon cheddar or chicken) or in a BLT. A turkey club is also available. It’s all scratch-made, just like the sides which include broccoli, grape and pasta salads, fresh fruit, mac ‘n cheese and soup. A few desserts (white chocolate layer cake and signature cookies) are also on the menu. Get it all by dining in, driving through, taking out, or by delivery. It’s open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Go to chickensaladchick.com or follow on Facebook for more.
Point Ybel Brewing
We recently checked out this brewery’s new downtown Fort Myers location off First Street in the Fortiner Building, and we love it. It’s all the good things from the original San Carlos Boulevard location plunked down in a lighter, brighter space (and it’s next to another Chocolattes location!!!). With 17 taps, you’ll find all the same award-winning beers Point Ybel is known for — including Sanibel Light, Snook Bite IPA, Sanibel Red and (our favorite) The Full Breakfast stout. Even though it’s only been open since April 11, it’s already right at home with a full slate of events — from live music and yoga to trivia and music bingo.
“This is a new chapter for us,” owner and brewer Jordan Weisberg said. “We’re excited for it. We want to build the same community downtown that we have (in south Fort Myers).”
It’s off to a great start. Drop by 2451 First St., Fort Myers; (239) 603-6565; pointybelbrew.com and on Facebook
Turco Taco
With three locations in Naples, this fast-casual taco joint has finally come to downtown Fort Myers. It opened April 24 at 2451 First Street. In a former office space, it’s across from Fort Myers Regional Library, on the northwest corner of First and Bay streets. Turco Taco is known for its fresh and bold gourmet Mexican-Turkish fusion tacos, gourmet quesadillas and organic salads. We can’t wait to check it out. (239) 344-7732; theturcotaco.com or on Facebook
Capriotti’s
We’ve already reported that this popular Delaware-founded chain opened a Cape Coral location on April 28 in the Shops at Del Mar off Pine Island Road. But can we just say that The Bobbie — billed as the original Thanksgiving sandwich — lives up to the hype? The slow-roasted turkey (cooked overnight and hand-pulled in the morning), house-made stuffing, cranberry sauce and mayo combination won us over on the first bite. Order it hot or cold, in 4, 8, 10 or 18-inch sizes. And if you’re not feeling Thanksgiving-y, Capriotti’s has plenty of other options, including cheesesteaks, tuna, classic Italian, BLT, meatball, Capastrami, Wagyu beef sandwiches and more. Find it all at 327 SW 10th Place, unit 202, Cape Coral; (239) 471-0469; capriottis.com or follow on Facebook.
Closings
The Fat Apple: The sign is down and the doors of this pizza joint in North Fort Myers are locked. After nine years, this staple in the Publix-anchored Eagle Landing plaza off Bayshore Road has permanently closed. It steadily built a loyal following after Guy Beekman, who owned the legendary Birdie’s Pizza in Fort Myers for 20 years, opened it in July 2017.
Spaghy Gelato: This small Cape Coral shop in Chelsea Place off Del Prado Boulevard has closed. “Cape Coral … thank you,” an April 28 post on its Facebook page read. “Because of your support, your love, your energy … we’re taking the next step. We are officially relocating to the East Coast.” It was known for its viral spaghetti gelato — handcrafted gelato shaped into spaghetti form and topped with a variety of toppings. “Thank you for the memories, the laughs, and for believing in something a little different,” the post concluded.
Wingnuts: After spending the last 15 years at 231 Del Prado Blvd. in Cape Coral, this popular chicken wing restaurant is closing. For now, anyway. “Our time at this location has come to an end,” an April 30 post on the Pub & Grub’s Facebook page read. “Our last day will be May 16th. HOWEVER, we will be moving to a new location soon.” It’s currently in Moderna Plaza, north of Cape Coral Hospital and south of Hancock Bridge Parkway (where the recently closed Misto Bar & Grill was). “Although it will take us time to relocate the restaurant, we will keep you posted, EVERY STEP OF THE WAY,” the post continued. “… We look forward to seeing you in the very near future. Our thanks again for all your support.” Follow along on Facebook for updates.
Robyn George is a food and dining reporter for The News-Press. Connect at rhgeorge@fortmyer.gannett.com
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