The state Health Department thinks they have the virus nailed than caused last week’s outbreak of nausea, the sweats and worse at Camp Cloverleaf, but where it came from is still a question. The Norovirus is a very contagious bug – it can be communicated any number of ways … contaminated food or water is one, but simple direct contact with someone who already has it, or touching an object touched by someone with the virus can also pass it on. Because of that, the health department says they can’t pinpoint the origin of the outbreak. As for the camp, management there says they’re taking all necessary steps to ensure the place is safe. About 33 out of 120 kids at a camp session last week got sick from the virus.
Detectives hadn’t even finished gathering all the information on last Thursday’s shooting at a fried chicken restaurant in Avon Park when they got another shooting call yesterday. Deputies responded to the 200 block of Tulane Drive a little after 2p.m., where two victims riding a bike were fired on by a gunman driving by in a car. Several rounds also struck a nearby home. Deputies later found 22-year-old Jomorris Tysheim Mack in Sebring and arrested him on a collection of charges including attempted murder.
A Sebring High School graduate scored the first-ever Highlands County win of a Jimmy Whitehouse Scholarship yesterday. Rachel Boyd received the $1,200 award from County Supervisor of Elections Penny Ogg in a brief ceremony in Ogg’s office yesterday. The scholarship is named for the former Highlands County Elections Superisor, who passed in 2000, but it’s the first time a local student has won it.