On Sunday, Jan. 16 at 6:37 a.m. the winds of change blew at 110 mph for many residents of Gasparilla Mobile Estates. The EF-1 tornado that touched down and cut a narrow swath through the park completely destroyed seven mobile homes, and up to 33 more had damage. Many of the homes that were not destroyed still have been tagged as unfit for inhabitance. That means while people can still go in and get belongings and look at damage at their own risk, they cannot live there.
Out of the homes affected, only two were insured.

Barbara Paul Robinson’s life includes a lot of “firsts.” She was the first woman to make partner at the legendary Debevoise & Plimpton law firm, she was the first woman president of the NYC Bar Association. Indeed, she was unsurprisingly an early second-wave feminist, launching Debevoise’s flextime program for child-rearing attorneys in 1967, another NYC first.

The guest speaker on the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 19 at the Boca Grande Community Center was the focus of a very appreciative and attentive audience – an audience that filled every chair and two additional rows in the auditorium … and the Houghton Room … and the Boca Grande Woman’s Club. The presenter spoke of his newest book and his artwork with a relaxed, casual demeanor and at many points had the crowd howling at his antics with his sister, who joined him. Their family looked on from the first two rows and seemed to enjoy the presentation as much as the audience did.
Former President George W. Bush and his sister Doro were the pair who took the stage Wednesday night, with the focus of discussion centered on his book titled, “Out of Many, One: Portraits of America’s Immigrants.” With a cover adorned by several of President Bush’s portraits of the people interviewed on the inside, it is a beautiful book … inside and out.

When Boca Grande artists Emerson Wickwire, Linda Wolcott and Nancy Bass sat down together and looked at each other’s proposed art pieces for a show they were putting together, they all had a moment of clarity.
Each one of them was featuring animals in their work.
“We looked at each other and said, wait a minute. Animals. It just sort of happened,” Wickwire said …

Jon Meacham may be a Pulitzer prize-winning author and historian, but when he found out that George W. Bush was speaking at a Friends of Boca Grande event in the same week he was, he had a few things to say about it.
Noting the friendly competition, Meacham read the audience a text exchange he had with the former President. “So I wrote, ‘I was just told that I was the best-selling attraction until you wandered onto the scene. I feel like Cheney.”