Working 120 Feet Above Bratt
April 7, 2008
Eric Strehl had a tall job in Bratt Friday afternoon. Strehl, who works for Moody’s Electric in Bay Minette, was on top of the water tower at North Highway 99 and Water Tank Road doing electrical work.
He was doing maintenance on the tank’s probe system. That probe is part of the overall control system for the tank, according to his coworkers who were having lunch on the ground while he worked 120 feet above them.
The tank is part of the Bratt-Davisville Water System.
Pictured above: Erci Strehl works 120 feet above Bratt under cloudy skies Friday afternoon. Pictured below (scroll down to see both photos): Strehl doing electrical work on the tank’s control system and another shot of Strehl on the tank. NorthEscambia.com exclusive photos.
MySpace, Your Online Danger; We Take An In-Depth Look At Local MySpace Pages
April 7, 2008
Students at Northview High School are scheduled to attend a CyberSafety presentation from the Florida Attorney General’s office today. NorthEscambia.com will begin a multi-part series about Internet safety today, and we will continue those articles each day this week.
We encourage you to read this entire article, and to read the blog linked at the end of this article. If you only read part of this story, you will not fully understand the intended message. This article and this series is written for both parents and students. For that reason, we will sometimes stop and explain something that parents unfamiliar with MySpace might not understand.
The statistics are frightening. As many as one in five Florida youth will be solicited for sex online. That’s one in five. Florida ranks fourth in the nation in the volume of child pornography. Florida ranks fifth in the nation for identity theft.
But numbers are just numbers. The numbers say that a problem exists. But that is surely in the rest of the Florida. Not here in North Escambia, right? Maybe not. If you are a parent, and you don’t know was “a/s/l” or “LMIRL” means, you better keep reading.
NorthEscambia.com decided to take a look at what Northview High School students were posting on their MySpace pages. MySpace is a social networking site for teens and adults alike. People post items about themselves along with snapshots and sometimes videos. It is probably safe to assume that almost every Northview student has a MySpace page. There are other social networking sites, but MySpace is the most popular. MySpace can be a safe and normal part of everyday life in 2008, especially for teens.
Here is how we conducted our look at Northview High MySpace pages: We used the search feature of myspace.com to search for Northview High School. Then we narrowed our search to “current students”, both male and female, ages 16 to 17. MySpace does not allow searches for users younger than 16, and nobody under 14 is suppose to have a MySpace page. That search returned over 200 MySpace pages; that is over 200 people. We picked about the first 100 and allowed ourselves up to three minutes on the profile of a MySpace user’s page in order to see what personal information we could find.
We want to make it very clear that everything we did can easily be done by anyone visiting MySpace (or even by people searching Google or Yahoo). It is what millions of ordinary users do everyday on the site. We did not send a “friend request” to anyone, nor did we contact any MySpace user by email, phone or any other means. The information on a MySpace page is provided by the user and may or may not be true.
We found that most Northview student profiles were set to private. Private means that unless a user allows you to see their page, you don’t see anything but a single photo and just a little basic information. Internet safety experts generally recommend that MySpace profiles be set to private. For a teen, a private profile is a good thing.
But we found a few that were downright frightening. We want to stress that these were not typical of the average Northview MySpace pages we viewed. We’ll take a look at those first.
We easily find a 16 year old that says he will graduate in the Northview class of 2009. His profile lists that he lives in Turkey and he’s a Pacific Islander, both obviously not true from his photographs. That’s considered a good thing on a public profile…not revealing actual facts about yourself. But it gets worse.
We are not telling you his profile name because, like a scene from every parent’s cyber safety nightmare, he lists his complete phone number. It’s a 256 number. We, of course, do not know if this is really his phone number because we did not call it. Perhaps it is a fake number, a randomly chosen number or a number of a friend listed as a practical joke. But it is a local phone number that might be easily used to contact him, or perhaps even locate his exact street address with a simple search.
It gets a bit worse from this same page. His friend says in a comment “You just call me. 221-XXXX’. Her MySpace profile is private, but there is what appears to be her cell phone number on his page.
But it gets even worse. Another female friend with the screen name “I love you (His Name)” writes “hey babe. miss you already. call me. 516-XXXX”. There is her photo and her cellphone number. But her profile is not private. We have her cellphone number. In less than a minute on her page, we learn her name. She says she is 17 from Century. She recently moved to Florida. Two friends from her former town list their phone numbers on her page.
Then there’s the 17 year old male “from the 587” (that would be Molino). His page lists his full name. His AOL Instant Messenger screen name. His cell phone number. A friend write in his comments that he just quit McDonald’s and went to work for Whataburger in Century. Right next to his picture, he details that he will be leaving for work at 9:20 on a particular date.
Another Northview student writes in large, bold print on his MySpace page: “my name is XXXX XXXX XXXXX, i go to northview high school, i am 15, my b-day is march XX, i play baseball, and football, i wear #XX in baseball, #XX in football, that is about it but if you want to know more write me some messageor call 850-380-XXXX.”
Another Northview student’s page says she is 16. She works at Whataburger. She loves photography, and she’s pretty good at it. She’s a sophomore in FBLA that will be going to Orlando in April, the weekend of the 19th. We know her real name from her blogs, learn her political opinions and her thoughts about school. She has a friend who works at Whataburger from 5 to 10. We know her friend’s name, and of course know what she looks like from her photo.
There’s another that says he is a 16 year old from Walnut Hill, a sophomore that plays football (he includes his jersey number and the position he plays too), drives a white mustang, and we know his girlfriend’s name. His profile also clearly lists his first and last name.
There is a 16 year old girl that attends Northview. Her MySpace page includes hundreds of pictures, including pictures of her in a bikini (but nothing that most would consider offensive or overly revealing) and pictures of her kissing her boyfriend. She lists her full name, including her middle name. There are details of the date and time some friends will be meeting family members at the interstate and where they will be going.
Language is another issue on a few of the pages we viewed. A few might include a word or two that some would possibly consider offensive. But then there was this MySpace page pictured left.
The first black box covers a name. The rest of them are words that are very offensive. And, in addition to obscuring his face for privacy, we had to add the black boxes over his hands. His profile is set to private. But this page and those words will potentially forever be available on the internet. Available to potential employers, available to anyone that googles him.
So what’s the big deal? Let’s go back to those numbers we mentioned at the beginning. As many as one in five Florida youth, both male and female, will be solicited for sex online. When a MySpace profile lists some of the information we wrote about above, it become super easy to contact a teen. When a sexual predator has a name, a phone number, a cell phone number, knows a student’s school, knows where they work, knows what they look like, knows…we believe you should have the idea.
A simple message could appear in a student’s MySpace inbox:
a/s/l
That’s “age, sex, location”. It could appear to the student that the message is coming from, just for example, a 16 year old girl that attends Tate High School. But that person may actually be a 45 year old man in Mobile. Anyone can pretend to by anyone else online.
A MySpace profile typically includes information about a person like their hobbies, favorite music, favorite movies and more. The predator can use that information to become “friends” through the Internet with the student. And that can lead to five of the most dangerous letters on the Internet:
LMIRL
That’s “Let’s Meet In Real Life”. That’s the beginning of how many, many of the one in five youth in Florida get solicited for sex.
Tomorrow, NorthEscambia.com will take a look at information from the Florida Attorney General’s office about online safety.
Now, back to the Northview student MySpace pages. We did find that most were private. Without being the student’s online “friend”, we could not see those pages. But we did find some that were not private that were not frightening like those above.
We found one 15 year old female student’s page to be pretty much what you would find in high school yearbook. Happy pictures of her, her friends and her high school activities. Writings about teen life:
“im sadly single :[ i love god. my favorite show is CHARMED…i live each day trying notto make any regrets. well thats it so peace out girl scout,” she writes in her profile.
Another female Northview student writes about problems with her “backstabbing” friends. Then she writes “Life is short so don’t let those backstabbing friends ruin it! You were made to have fun, with or without them! Jesus knows something better is coming for you but it may take a little while! It’s a challenge he gave each and every one of us and he expects us to win it! He makes times hard and he makes times easy. He has planned your life already but if you dont win the challenge then it will take a long time to see what the better plans are! You need to realize that you can’t just call somebody a friend! You have to watch very carefully when you are deciding! Just take a moment to think about this and eveyrthing you have and how much strounger you are now than you were then.”
There were several other pages that were generally “clean” with the kind of ordinary conversation and information that most parents would find agreeable.
Make sure you join NorthEscambia.com for the next part of our Internet safety series tomorrow as we take a look at the Attorney General’s Office CyberSafety program that took place Monday morning at Northview. In the meantime click here to read our blog on the subject for more insight into this story.
We invite your comments on this story; email news@northescambia.com or use our online contact form.
In the MySpace screen grabs on this page, we have blurred pictures. Each item in this pictured was freely and openly available to anyone on MySpace as of late Sunday night. The black boxes cover profile names, phone numbers and profanity.
Blog: Our Take On Northview Students And MySpace
April 7, 2008
Sunday afternoon, I was reviewing my calendar for the week. On Monday morning, I was scheduled to attend one of two CyberSafety presentations from the Florida Attorney General’s Office at Northview High School. I googled for information about the attorney general’s CyberSafety program. I read a line that made me stop; it slammed me like the proverbial ton of bricks.
As many as one in five Florida youth will be solicited for sex online.
While we live in wonderful little communities in North Escambia, the MySpace pages and other online activities of our youth extend to the world. So while the potential here is perhaps not as great as some places in Florida, the potential for the unthinkable is real.
If you have not read our story about Northview student MySpace pages, stop reading here and click here to read the article first. If you have read the article, read on…
Why did we single out Northview High School? Simple. MySpace restricts users to age 14 or older, and students that age would be in high school. The only high school in the NorthEscambia.com coverage area is Northview. Our findings are not a Northview problem; in fact, I would venture to guess what we found would have been MUCH worse at any other public high school in this county. I want to stress that the bad examples we pointed out in our story were not typical of most Northview MySpace pages.
How popular is MySpace among Northview teens? I would venture to guess there are not very many without a MySpace. Almost every Northview teen MySpace page we viewed on Sunday had been updated within the last 48 hours. Many of the students were listed as “online” while we were viewing their pages.
I want to make a point to the parents (I’ll get to students below). I am in no way whatsoever saying you should run to your child and say “delete your MySpace”. I’m not going to tell you how to raise your child, but I feel strongly that’s not the answer. That would be like saying “some kids drink and drive, so you are never to drive a car again”. You can’t ignore it to make it go away. MySpace and online social networking is just as much a part of life now as hanging out at the burger place and cruising parking lots was when you were in high school. Repeat after me: Having a MySpace in itself is NOT evil. Doing the wrong thing with it is evil, but there’s nothing wrong with having a MySpace page.
I want to stress that most of the Northview student MySpace pages we found were not accessible to the public. Unless your student lets someone in, they don’t see what’s there. Many of the ones we found that were open to the public were not a problem. In fact, some were inspiring, and few were downright spiritual…discussing Jesus or youth meetings at church. I’d be downright proud as a parent of many them to know they had the freedom online to do and say what they want, but they chose the right things to do and say.
I personally know several of the Northview students who’s MySpace pages I saw. Or I know their parents. And knowing everything I know about them, there was nothing on their pages that would have clued anyone into anything they should not know.
Should you look for your child’s MySpace page? If it is a publicly accessible page, yes. If the rest of the world can see it, you should join in. If it is a private page? That’s where I’m not getting in your business. But I will say this…many Northview students have their parents in their “friends”, because they are just that — friends. But if not, should you demand to see it? Honestly, you as a parent will have to decide. I will explain to you that are not familiar with MySpace, that reading your child’s private MySpace would be very much like listening to each and every one of their phone conversations. Is that something you would do? It becomes a level of trust between you and your child.
And I know that many, many Northview students read NorthEscambia.com. Many copy NorthEscambia.com photos and videos for their MySpace pages. We appreciate all of you, and we are glad you like the site. I hope U and NorthEscambia.com can be like BFF. NALOPKT I think MySpace is KEWL and I wish it was around B4 I got out of school. I understand P911, PIR and POS. I know you are saying OMG and LOL, but that is TMI 4 ME.
But here’s the 411 (oops, sorry moms and dads, here’s the deal)…when your MySpace page has your name, your phone number and lots of ways to figure out were you are going to be when, along with your “I am a QT” pix (I mean picture), that IMHO is DUMB. k?
Let’s just be 100 percent honest and adult about this here…that’s like walking around a mall full of pervs (moms, dads: those are sexual predators) with sign around your neck with your name, address, phone number and a map to your house. Oh…you might as well pass out keys to your house and gas money at the same time. And don’t think it is just the girls that have to be careful…the same things happen to guys.
Be KEWL about it, and MySpace is well, KEWL.
Usually the biggest problem is a generation gap. Many parents just don’t get MySpace, or text messaging or any of that Internet stuff. Their kid might as well be speaking Russian.
And, dear students, IMHO, there are a few of you that just don’t get it. Like those in the news story that posted their phone numbers. Or just never thought about saying “I’ll meet you at Whataburger at 3:00 Tuesday afternoon”. There are just some sick people in this world. They know who you are, what you look like and where you will be. That’s creepy. And many more of you don’t realize that the moment you post something on the Internet, there is NO WAY to delete it forever. It’s stored on computers in all sorts of places, and it might come back to bite you one day. Everything on your MySpace might be seen by a college admissions rep. By the guy who is going to hire you for your dream job. By your future husband or wife. Or your kids might google you one day and find all that stuff, even if you delete it today.
Again, MySpace is not evil if you do the right, and the smart, thing with it.
I know I’ve gotten your attention. Probably made a few people mad. If your MySpace is featured in the news story, you might want to edit that thing like right now. If you are a parent and you are lost, this week is the week you will learn something. It’s not about parents controlling their kids. It’s not about spying or getting into their business. It’s about understanding.
We’ve brought up some issues and said some words that you may not have expected to find. But I’d rather all of us talk about this now as a community than for you to read the story I have to write when a youth in North Escambia becomes a victim. The words I’ll have to write then won’t be nearly as nice. I don’t want to go there.
Join us again tomorrow as we look at this issue some more. And let us know what you think by email at news@northescambia.com or use our online contact form.
Walnut Hill VFD Assists With Sunday Morning Atmore House Fire
April 6, 2008
The Walnut Hill Volunteer Fire Department was called to assist with a house fire in Atmore early Sunday morning. Walnut Hill VFD’s water tanker and several firemen responded to the house fire near the Atmore Airport just after 6:00 Sunday morning.
Damage to the home was contained to attic. There were no injuries.
For more information on the fire, visit AtmoreNews.com.
Pictured above: The Walnut Hill Volunteer Fire Department assisted with this Atmore house fire Sunday morning. Photo courtesy AtmoreNews.com
Scott Signs Bill To Crack Down On Animal Abuse
April 6, 2008
Thursday, Gov. Rick Scott signed “Ponce’s Law’ which creates harsher penalties for animal abusers. “Ponce’s Law” is named for a 9-month-old Labrador retriever puppy found beaten to death in Ponce Inlet last year. This legislation allows a judge to bar someone convicted of animal cruelty from owning a pet, and makes it more likely that an offender would to go prison. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Up To 12 Inches Of Rain In Parts Of North Escambia
April 6, 2008
A few areas around North Escambia received up to a foot of rain by midday Saturday. Minor flooding was reported around the area, but there were no reports of major damage.
Flood warnings were issued for the Escambia River near Century, and for the Perdido River near Barrineau Park. Both warning have since expired.
Radar estimates from the National Weather Service indicate seven to twelve inches of rain in an area from Highway 97 in Walnut Hill west and southwest into Baldwin County, Alabama. By contrast, the radar estimates about two inches in the heart of Molino and about two to three inches in Century. It estimates about four inches to six inches fell from Davisville to Bratt, and about five or six inches in McDavid and Bogia. The graphic at the top of the page shows the total NWS rainfall estimates.
Pictured below: Water roars through the spillway at Wiggins Lake in Walnut Hill Saturday afternoon. Pictured bottom: Water standing near a home on North Highway 99 in the Bratt community Saturday afternoon. NorthEscambia.com exclusive photos.
Enjoy A Little Free Fishing Today
April 6, 2008
A free fresh water fishing weekend will continue across North Escambia today, with no fishing license needed for Florida residents or nonresidents.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) encourages families to enjoy all the pleasures of fishing in Florida this weekend.
The FWC has designated the weekend of April 5 and 6 as Free Fishing Weekend. Both residents and nonresidents can fish in public fresh waters across the state without a license. All other fishing rules apply (see MyFWC.com/Fishing).
“The FWC is proud of our state’s recreational fishing heritage and designation as Fishing Capital of the World,” said Bob Wattendorf, special projects coordinator for the Division of Freshwater Fisheries Management. “More people fish here than in any other state, and more tourists come here to fish and spend their money than anywhere else in the country, according to a recent national survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.”
With Florida’s 7,700 public lakes and 12,000 miles of fishable rivers and canals, opportunities for families to reconnect with nature and share quality time together are abundant.
The FWC also is offering a special five-year freshwater fishing license bonus program, which kicked off on April 1. This promotion provides an extra incentive to anglers in the form of free tackle, publications and fishing accessories that add to the convenience and cost savings already associated with a five-year license. Matched with the priceless memories created from family fishing experiences, the FWC makes this a deal difficult to resist. Five-year licenses cost $79, plus up to $5.23 in convenience fees, depending on where licenses are purchased.
The first 3,000 customers to upgrade to a five-year freshwater fishing license after April 1 not only will save from $6 to more than $20 in fees, but also receive a free bonus package by mail with samples, magazines and coupons from fishing-related companies. Some of the items offered include free hooks from Daiichi and Owner and lures from Culprit and Berkley, plus a coupon for free sunglasses from Penn, a Larchy dehooker and a lure retriever mail-in coupon, with handling fee.
In addition, innovative products – like Worm-glo by Sure Life, a fluorescent worm feed – will also be a part of the package. Several publications, including Florida Wildlife magazine, will provide information about safe, fun and successful fishing. Other package inserts include a Polk County Lakes Map and coupon book, and coupons from Bass-Online, Canoe Outpost, e-Angler, Disney Fishing, Gambler Lures, Ladies Let’s Go Fishing, Mage Eyes and Ocean Waves.
Fishing license fees are used only for fish and wildlife conservation purposes and are a major source of funding for conservation programs, from habitat restoration to fish stocking and fishing-access enhancement. Since a resident freshwater fishing license costs just $17 for an entire year, it is already an outstanding recreational value. The average angler takes 17 trips a year, so that is approximately a dollar per trip that typically lasts four to six hours.
Five-year licenses are available online at MyFWC.com/License and via the toll-free phone number, 1-888-347-4356. In addition, they may be purchased at any license agent, such as retail stores that sell fishing supplies and bait-and-tackle shops or at local county tax collectors’ offices. Even if your current license hasn’t expired, you can order a five-year license now and have the effective date for the license set for 60 days after the purchase. The package typically arrives in three to four weeks, without you or the agent having to do anything else.
For information about local fishing opportunities, visit MyFWC.com/Fishing/Forecasts. You can verify the offer is still in effect and that you will be one of the first 3,000 by visiting MyFWC.com/Fishing/5yr-2008.html, where you can also see all of the contents. The offer ends when 3,000 five-year licenses are sold.
Pictured above: Fishing on the Escambia River near Century.
Aldersgate Relay For Life Team Holds Rummage Sale
April 5, 2008
There was a large indoor rummage sale Saturday to benefit the American Cancer Society Saturday at Aldersgate Methodist Church. The day’s heavy rains did not stop the indoor sale, that featured kitchen items, linens, toys, small appliances, collectibles, clothing, electronics, furniture, books and more.
All proceeds were to benefit the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.
The Aldersgate Methodist team is one of about 25 scheduled to take part in the North Pensacola Relay for Life on May 2 at Tate High School.
Ribbon Is Cut On A New Daycare Facility In Century
April 5, 2008
With the cut of a ribbon, a nine year old dream of a childcare facility in the town of Century became a reality Saturday morning. The new Camp Fire USA child development center on Industrial Boulevard will official open for business at 7:00 Monday morning.
“This has been such a long time coming, La-Vonne Haven, executive director of the Gulf Wind Council of Camp Fire U.S.A., said. “This is just wonderful. I’m so glad this has finally happened.”
“I’m so excited; it’s going to be great,” Director Barbara Rigby told NorthEscambia.com as we took an exclusive sneak peek at the facility Friday afternoon.
The facility, which is licensed for up to 75 children, will accept kids from age one to age 12, and it will have an after school care program for those older kids.
“This is not just for Century,” Rigby said. “This is for Century, Bratt, Byrneville, McDavid, Walnut Hill…all of the communities around here.”
The facility, which was built with the cooperation of the Town of Century, will employ five staff members in the beginning, all highly qualified teachers will all the required certifications. More staff members will be added as the center nears capacity.
So far, there are 18 children registered…all of which are currently in a voluntary pre-k program. That program will move effective Monday from Byrneville Elementary to the new Camp Fire USA facility in Century.
“They are so excited,” Rigby said. “Oh man, they are so excited to get here and see their new school.”
An open registration was held during Saturday’s open house. Parents needing financial assistance with the daycare costs can receive assistance from the Early Learning Coalition, Rigby said. Families that meeting financial guidelines will be able to receive vouchers for childcare at the facility.
The voucher program is income based, and parents must work at least 20 hours to qualify, “no stay at home moms,” Rigby said. Parents can obtain more information on the voucher program at Saturday’s open house.
The facility will be open, beginning this Monday, from 7:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Pictured above: The ribbon is cut at the new Camp Fire USA child development center in Century Saturday morning. Pictured below: The interior of the new Camp Fire USA childcare facility in Century during our exclusive sneak peek tour Friday afternoon. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Century Care Center Celebrates Taste Of Success
April 5, 2008
Century Care Center celebrated the taste of success Friday with steak and all the trimmings.
Century Care has received a top award for patient care, beating out 13 other nursing homes in the state of Florida. And Friday, Director Don Ripley (pictured above) treated all of the staff, invited guests from the community and residents to steak, potatoes, salad, cake, ice cream and more.
Century Care received the President’s Circle of Excellence award from Summit Care. Summit Care is a management company based in Tallahassee that currently manages Century Care and 13 other nursing care facilities in the state. Century Care was rated the company’s number one facility.
“We have a wonderful team working to provide the best care available to your moms, dads, grannies, grandpas, aunts, uncles, and friends. We work hard, we care, and
we are proud,” said Activities Director Mae Hildreth.
Century Care is also ranked among the top five percent of nursing homes in Florida, currently ranking 33 out of 670 care facilities in the state. When new numbers are tabulated, they expect that to increase to number 12 out of 670.
March 2008 information from the Florida Agency for Health Care Information shows that Century Care Center received five of a possible five stars for “Quality of Care”, “Quality of Life”, “Nutrition and Hydration”, “Restraints and Abuse”, “Pressure Ulcers”, “Decline” and “Dignity”. The five star rating in categories like “Pressure Ulcers” indicates that facility does not suffer a problem in that area.
“Thanks to all staff for making our surveys rank above average in quality of care,” Hildreth said.
The only other Summit Care facilities in Northwest Florida are located in Milton.
