U.S. District Judge Kenneth Ryskamp must really like Kevin McCarty.

Ryskamp allowed the disgraced husband of soon-to-be-jailed former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty to roam free for another three weeks even though Kevin was supposed to surrender to authorities Monday and star serving his eight-month sentence.

Because the feds have not contacted Kevin with information about his prison destination, Ryskamp signed a motion this week allowing McCarty to report May 26.

Ryskamp also spared McCarty the humiliation of being temporarily held at the Palm Beach County jail until he’d be transported to his permanent camp.

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Yet another West Palm Beach city commissioner is feeling the economic pinch.

Commish Kimberly Mitchell, who’s mulling over a run for mayor, soon could lose her day job.

Her bonds underwriting firm, the Chicago-based Loop Capital, is considering a strategic change in Florida.

Kimberly Mitchell

Mitchell is Loop’s sole representative in the state, at a time when the government bonds business has slowed to a crawl. So Mitchell’s scheduled to fly to the Windy City next week to discuss the firm’s new plan, which may not involve her.

“The issuance of bonds in the state is down 50 percent,” Mitchell said. “Loop is a small firm and their resources may be better allocated in a more active place.”

Bonds are financial instruments by which government raises capital, often for things like land purchases and construction.

Mitchell said the situation has nothing to do with the fact that Palm Beach County is re-thinking how it deals with bond issues. Former PBC Commish Mary McCarty is facing five years in prison partly because she voted to favor her husband Kevin’s bonds business.

“That hasn’t been part of the discussion,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell has underwritten bonds for the county and the South Florida Water Management District. Her fourth term as commissioner is considered a part-time job. Her City Hall pay is $30,000.

Earlier this year, her fellow commissioner Molly Douglas faced watching her home getting sold on the courthouse steps. She said she paid off her loan.

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Show me yours, and I’ll show you mine — celebrity, that is.

Disgraced former Palm Beach County Commish Mary McCarty and Mark Foley, the former U.S. congressman who quit in 2006 when his suggestive text-messages to young pages surfaced, were name-dropping like there was no tomorrow at a recent luncheon.

They were loud enough that a bat-eared source overheard the two fallen Republicans from a nearby table at the Lake Park soul food emporium Pritchard’s.

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A Scripps Florida higher-up has been wining-and-dining soon-to-be felon and former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty in a strange show of support.

Ben Starling

McCarty, 54, is scheduled to plead guilty to a corruption-related charge later this month.

But that hasn’t stopped Scripps Director of Philanthropy Ben Starling from cozying up to the disgraced commissioner in an oh-so-public display of affection.

On at least two occasions this year, Starling invited large groups of friends to lunch with McCarty at, of all places, the Lake Park soul food emporium Pritchard’s.

Starling picks for those rendezvous a table smack-dab in the middle of the small, busy restaurant.

In late January, three sources told Page2Live, Starling gathered a group of about 20 to hang with the former south county Republican powerhouse. Among them: Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, who also knows a thing or two about the proverbial hot seat. (Read more…)

Mary McCarty leaves Middlebrooks' courtroom with husband Kevin a month ago

. . . Good luck to disgraced former Palm Beach County Commish Mary McCarty when she’s sentenced on a corruption-related charge, possibly next month, by U.S. District Judge Don Middlebrooks. Wasn’t so long ago, circa 2005, that McCarty called “a sick, cruel joke” Middlebrooks’ decision to allow the building of the Scripps Florida research campus on Mecca Farms while prohibiting access to roads, water and power. Little did she know that her future, too, would once be in the guy’s hands . . .

. . . The CityPlace nightclub formerly known as Hotel Nightclub/Rock Lobby then known as Hotel will now be known as Lobby. With the name switch came with a change in looks, now Miami Beach-style. The West Palm Beach club’s frontman, Josh Sagman, tells me the owners were recently confronted by reps of The Cordish Companies conglomerate because it owns a Hotel nightclub in Louisville, Ky. So happens the Cordish’s nightclub name is trademarked. “They’re a giant company,” said Sagman. “We didn’t want to fight them. We were going to reopen with a different look anyway.” . . .