Arrest Made In Weekend Murder Case After Cantonment Traffic Stop
December 21, 2010
A Cantonment man has been arrested in connection with the weekend death of a Pensacola man.
Jacob Gaulden, 25, of Turnberry Road, was charged with possession of cocaine, possession of drug equipment and hit and run, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, in connection with the death of Christopher James Holland, 22. Gaulden was taken into custody after a traffic stop near Cantonment late Tuesday morning.
A red truck involved in the weekend incident on Hollywood Avenue was spotted just after 11 a.m. near the Walmart on Highway 29 in Ensley. Witnesses said the red truck driven by Gaulden headed north on Old Palafox with another vehicle in pursuit. The chase headed north, crossed onto Highway 29 and ended when deputies stopped the truck on West Roberts Road near Pine Forest Road about 11:45 a.m.
Holland was found lying near Hollywood Avenue about 3:25 a.m. Sunday. He was transported to Baptist Hospital were he later died.
According to witnesses, Holland was last seen in a red, four door Chevrolet truck with dark green or black paint on the passenger side. A white male was said to be driving and they were traveling south on Hollywood Avenue from Massachusetts Drive.
Pictured above: The scene shortly after a traffic stop on West Roberts Road near Pine Forest Road Tuesday morning. The red truck in the photo was believed to possibly be the truck involved in a weekend homicide. NorthEscambia.com photo by Kristi Smith, click to enlarge.
Population Figures Announced: Florida Gets 2 New Seats In Congress
December 21, 2010
Florida picked up two new seats in Congress in the new apportionment announced Tuesday morning with the data on national and state population from the U.S. Census.
Florida will have 27 members of Congress after the reapportionment is completed. The state Legislature will draw the new map, deciding where to place the new districts.
Florida remains the fourth largest state in the nation, with 18,801,310 people, a 17.6 percent increase over 2000. The U.S. population on April 1 was reported as 308.7 million.
Roadmap Emerging For New Governor Scott’s $1 Billion Prison Cuts
December 21, 2010
One of Governor-elect Rick Scott’s most high-profile campaign promises – to slash $1 billion from the state’s prison system – drew a powerful response when the union representing correctional officers aired television spots warning he would start releasing inmates to reduce spending.
But a lengthy list of less-stunning belt-tightening measures is quietly emerging. Many are likely to find their way into Scott’s February budget proposal to lawmakers, those close to the incoming administration say.
“The plan was to find a billion in seven years,” said Scott spokesman Brian Burgess, disputing the Florida Police Benevolent Association’s TV spots, which implied the cut would be a first-year reduction that dramatically shrunk the Corrections Department’s $2.4 billion budget.
“We will do that and more by eliminating waste and improving efficiency,” Burgess said of the $1 billion savings claim. “Privatization isn’t necessary for us to achieve that goal, but nothing is off the table while we are still in the review and planning phase.”
The Florida Senate may be among those providing Scott with a roadmap to some savings. A recent study by the Criminal Justice Committee points out that state spending on inmate health care services hit $400 million last year – almost double the level of a decade ago. The study suggests that some of Scott’s cost-cutting could be reached by giving private vendors a bigger share of inmate care.
Meanwhile, the state’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) has sent to state legislative leaders a host of other potential prison savings, some of which mirror those also advanced by state business groups, led by Florida TaxWatch.
Expanding state drug courts to keep thousands of nonviolent criminals out of prison, expanding faith-based institutions to reduce recidivism, and expanding the use of electronic monitoring could save millions of dollars, analysts said.
But just as Scott is lining up such major repositories of cash as the Florida Retirement System and state worker health insurance for changes to extract savings, prison health care services are a big-ticket item that could rain dollars if revamped just right.
Still, done badly, the initiative could also backfire on the incoming governor.
With more than 103,915 inmates scattered across 55 prisons and 77 other lockups, the Corrections Department has had a checkered history with inmate health. A federal court in the milestone Costello v. Florida case in 1979 found that inadequate medical care amounted to cruel and unusual punishment in the state, prompting more than two decades of litigation and continued federal oversight of prison health care.
The Correctional Medical Authority was formed in 1986 to provide independent evaluation of the prison system’s health care services. CMA’s future also is in doubt, with allies of Scott and public health leaders recommending it be moved out of the Department of Health, as part of a likely overhaul of that agency.
About one-third of inmate health care dollars currently go to community providers. But the department has scaled back an ambitious, five-year privatized effort in South Florida after first having trouble with vendor, Wexford Health Sources, Inc., who failed to meet some of its contract requirements, and then later Prison Health Services, now PHS Correctional Healthcare, which dropped its state contract in 2006 after facing higher-than-expected hospitalization rates.
PHS, which has prison health contracts in 20 states, is headquartered in suburban Nashville, near where Scott’s former health care company, Columbia/HCA, was anchored. States with larger prison systems than Florida’s, Texas and California, contract privately for much of their inmate health care.
“We’d be excited at the prospect of putting in a proposal if the state moves in the direction of privatizing,” said Martha Harbin, a Florida spokeswoman for PHS. “Inmates are the only people with a constitutional guarantee of health care and it has to meet a community standard of care. That can be expensive. But with a private company, you’re getting a centralized management, saving on malpractice insurance…and you might even be able to have some inmates become eligible for Medicaid.”
Howard Simon, executive director of Florida’s ACLU, which has represented inmates in civil rights cases, said he hopes Scott puts as much emphasis on changing sentencing laws as he does on cutting prison costs through layoffs of correctional officers or privatizing health care.
“If you don’t have sentencing reform, drug treatment and the expanded use of drug courts to keep people out of prison, you are just adding to the inmate population that is exploding in the prison system,” Simon said.
Matt Puckett, a PBA spokesman, said it’s clear Scott’s $1 billion in corrections cuts may not involve wholesale inmate releases. But the changes may prove controversial on another level.
“I think you’re going to see more taxpayer money going to for-profit corporations providing care and treatment of inmates,” Puckett said.
Pictured: A guard tower rises above Century Correctional Institution. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
By John Kennedy
The News Service Florida
Some Fog Tonight; Colder By Christmas
December 21, 2010
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Tonight: Areas of fog after midnight. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low around 54. Southwest wind between 5 and 10 mph.
- Wednesday: A 20 percent chance of showers after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 65. Northwest wind between 5 and 10 mph.
- Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 40. North wind around 5 mph.
- Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 57. North wind between 5 and 10 mph.
- Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 36. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Friday: A 20 percent chance of showers after noon. Partly sunny, with a high near 64. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph.
- Friday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers. Cloudy, with a low around 39. South wind 5 to 15 mph becoming west.
- Christmas Day: Mostly sunny, with a high near 52. North wind between 10 and 15 mph.
- Saturday Night: Clear, with a low around 26. North wind around 10 mph.
- Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 48.
- Sunday Night: Clear, with a low around 22.
- Monday: Sunny, with a high near 51.
- Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 24.
- Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 48.
Trial Delayed For Man In Police Chase, Deputy Death Threat
December 21, 2010
Trial was delayed Monday for a Century man that led police on a vehicle chase and then threatened to kill a deputy.
Christopher Angelo Phifer, 39, appeared in court Monday morning before Judge Joel Boles who reset his trial for January 10. Phifer was returned to the Escambia County Jail where he is being held without bond.
An Escambia County Circuit Court judge ordered a psychological evaluation of Phifer earlier this year and committed Phifer to a state institution. Following another psychological evaluation, Judge Joel Boles has ruled Phifer competent and set Monday’s trial date.
Phifer was charged with DUI, fleeing/eluding a law enforcement officer, registration/tag expired more than six months, driving while license suspended/revoked, threatening a public servant, two counts of resisting arrest, possession of weapon by a convicted felon and violation of probation. He is being held in the Escambia County Jail without bond.
According to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Department report, Deputy James Gilman spotted a Jeep Cherokee occupied by Phifer at McMurray Park in Century at 12:20 am September 6, 2009. When Gilman ordered Phifer to exit the vehicle, Phifer took off in the Jeep, according to the report.
Deputy Gilman gave chase, using his lights and siren as he pursued Phifer down Pond Street, onto Jefferson Street and onto Salters Lake Road. On Salters Lake Road, Phifer hit a washed out area in the road, according to the report, causing his vehicle to roll over. Phifer fled into a wooded area on foot, with Gilman giving chase, also on foot. Gilman tackled Phifer, the report says, and arrested Phifer with the help of deputies Jason Land and Scott Rivkin.
About 10 minutes after Phifer was placed in the back of Gilman’s patrol car, he told deputies he had pain in his arm. Atmore Ambulance was called to the scene, and Phifer was transported to Baptist Hospital where he was treated and released.
A search of Phifer’s Jeep turned up a .22 long rifle cartridge on the driver’s side floorboard.
At the hospital, Phifer told the deputy “Gilman I’m going to kill your a** and you know I have guns,” according to the ECSO report on the incident, and that he intended to kill or put a hit out on Gilman.
Fox Pen Ban Applauded By Humane Society; Last Was In Walnut Hill
December 21, 2010
Florida’s move to permanently ban all fox pens — the last of which was in Walnut Hill – was named by The Humane Society of the United States as one of their Top Ten State Victories of 2010.
The rule approved by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission in September permanently prohibited the chasing of foxes and coyotes with dogs within an enclosure in Florida. The FWC had considered the issue for more than a year, and the practice was temporarily prohibited in February. At that time, the FWC ordered the Shady Oaks Fox Pen at 4000 South Highway 99 in Walnut Hill to cease any operations. The FWC did not accuse Shady Oaks — the last legal fox pen in Florida –or its owners of any wrongdoing.
Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, said his organization campaigned for years to ban the fox pens. He named the FWC’s actions on of the “10 most important policy gamins of the year at the state level”. The fox pen ban was one of two Florida actions making the top ten list — the group also applauded the ban on import, breeding, sale and possession of many large constricting snakes.
There were as many as six state permitted fox pens in Florida in 2009, but all had closed by the end of the year except for the approximately 200 acre Shady Oaks Fox Pen in Walnut Hill. At one time, there were about 50 fox and coyote pens from the Panhandle to Central Florida.
In a prepared statement, The Humane Society of the United States praised the unanimous decision by the FWC banning what the group termed a “cruel practice”.
“We thank Chairman Rodney Barreto and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commissioners for their decisive leadership and thorough work to end the inherently cruel practice of fox penning that has no place in the 21st century,” said Jennifer Hobgood, Florida state director for The Humane Society of the United States.
“This is not about taking away hunting opportunities,” said FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto. “I’m a big believer in fair chase, and I have a list of places where hunters can still engage in those activities.”
“Coyotes and certain other nonprotected furbearers can still be taken year-round using several methods, including dogs,” Maj. Curtis Brown, head of the FWC’s Captive Wildlife and Investigations Section, said. “This can occur on open private lands and in specific wildlife management areas.”
Public input on the recommendation to permanently prohibit the enclosures varied from stating that “the prohibition preserves the true sportsmanship that hunting is all about” to saying that “legitimate fox and coyote hunters have been misrepresented on the issue”.
“This is not a referendum on hunting – we are a pro-hunting commission,” FWC Commissioner Brian Yablonski said Wednesday. “It is a question of fair chase and protecting the essence of hunting.”
Deliberations over this issue began last September, when Commissioners directed the agency’s law enforcement staff to review the permitting process and research the history and numbers of fox/coyote enclosures in the state.
At the February meeting, commissioners agreed to temporarily prohibit the practice. FWC staff was directed to work with stakeholders to address certain issues of concern regarding the enclosures and to draft proposed rules for the Commission’s consideration.
Pictured: A fence surrounds the former Shady Oaks Fox Pen on South Highway 99 near Walnut Hill. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Ernest Ward Names Students Of The Month
December 21, 2010
Ernest Ward Middle School has named Haley Weaver, Denise Floyd and Tristan Brown (pictured L-R) as Students of the Month for December. Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Century, Cantonment Cable Customers Could Lose WEAR 3 In 10 Days
December 21, 2010
Cable television subscribers in Century and Cantonment are just 10 days away from possibly losing WEAR TV 3, the local ABC affiliate.
The current retransmission agreement that allows Bright House Networks to deliver the Sinclair Broadcast Group owned WEAR expires on December 31. That contract is still in the negotiation stage.
“If another agreement is not reached by the end of the year, our programming will no longer be available on their system,” WEAR Operations Manager Joe Smith said.
“Unfortunately, based on the status of the negotiations Sinclair does not believe we are going to be able to reach agreement on an extension of the deal,” according to statement released by Sinclair. “As a result, (Bright House) would no longer be carrying the stations covered by the agreement with Sinclair beginning on January 1, 2011.”
“As a normal part of business operations, our agreements with channels come up periodically for renewal. As a negotiating tactic, sometimes the channel owner threatens to take its channel off of the cable system. While this is an extreme measure, it rarely happens in our markets. Most channel owners stay on and put our mutual customers first,” Bright House said in a statement on their website.
In information aired on WEAR, the station is urging Bright House customers in Century and Cantonment to begin considering other methods to received WEAR 3.
“We are telling them to make plans to receive the station elsewhere, like DIRECTV, Dish Network or over the air with an antenna,” Smith said.
Bright House does not currently carry WEAR sister station WFGX MyTV 35. However, Smith said part of the Sinclair negotiations with Bright House would include adding the station to the cable provider’s lineup.
SEC Bowl Game Schedules
December 21, 2010
For the second straight season, the Southeastern Confernce has 10 teams participating in post-season bowl games. Here’s a look at SEC team bowl games:
Thursday, Dec. 30
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl
Tennessee (6-6, 3-5) vs. North Carolina (7-5)
LP Field (67,000) • Nashville, Tenn. • ESPN • 6:40 p.m. ET (5:40 p.m. CT)
Series Record: UT leads, 20-10-1 • Last Meeting: UNC, 22-21 (Nov. 4, 1961 at Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Tennessee in bowl games: 25-23 • Tennessee in Music City Bowl: First appearance
Friday, Dec. 31
AutoZone Liberty Bowl
Georgia (6-6, 3-5) vs. #25 Central Florida (10-3)
Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium (61,737) • Memphis, Tenn. • ESPN • 3:30 p.m. ET (2:30 p.m. CT)
Series Record: UGA leads, 1-0 • Last Meeting: UGA, 24-23 (Sept. 25, 1999 at Athens)
Georgia in bowl games: 26-16-3 • Georgia in Liberty Bowl: 1-1 (1967, 1987)
Chick-fil-A Bowl
#20 South Carolina (9-4, 5-3) vs. #23 Florida State (9-4)
Georgia Dome (71,147) • Atlanta, Ga. • ESPN • 7:30 p.m. ET (6:30 p.m. CT)
Series Record: FSU leads, 15-3 • Last Meeting: FSU, 38-10 (Nov. 9, 1991 at Tallahassee, Fla.)
South Carolina in bowl games: 4-11 • South Carolina in Chick-fil-A Bowl: 0-1 (1969)
Saturday, Jan. 1
Outback Bowl
Florida (7-5, 4-4) vs. Penn State (7-5)
Raymond James Stadium (65,657) • Tampa, Fla. • ABC Sports • 1 p.m. ET (Noon CT)
Series Record: UF leads, 2-0 • Last Meeting: UF, 21-6 (Jan. 1, 1998 at Orlando, Fla.)
Florida in bowl games: 18-19 • Florida in Outback Bowl: 1-2 (2003, 2004, 2006)
Capital One Bowl
#16 Alabama (9-3, 5-3) vs. #9 Michigan State (11-1)
Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium (65,438) • Orlando, Fla. • ESPN • 1 p.m. ET (Noon CT)
Series Record: First Meeting
Alabama in bowl games: 32-22-3 • Alabama in Capital One Bowl: 1-0 (1995)
Gator Bowl
#21 Mississippi State (8-4, 4-4) vs. Michigan (7-5)
EverBank Field (73,000) • Jacksonville, Fla. • ESPN2 • 1:30 p.m. ET (12:30 p.m. CT)
Series Record: First Meeting
Mississippi State in bowl games: 7-6 • Mississippi State in Gator Bowl: First appearance
Tuesday, Jan. 4
Allstate Sugar Bowl
#8 Arkansas (10-2, 6-2) vs. #6 Ohio State (11-1)
Louisiana Superdome (72,000) • New Orleans, La. • ESPN • 8:30 p.m. ET (7:30 p.m. CT)
Series Record: First Meeting
Arkansas in bowl games: 12-22-3 • Arkansas in Sugar Bowl: 1-4 (1962, 1963, 1969, 1970, 1980)
Friday, Jan. 7
AT&T Cotton Bowl
#11 LSU (10-2, 6-2) vs. #17 Texas A&M (9-3)
Cowboys Stadium (71,167) • Arlington, Texas • FOX • 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT)
Series Record: LSU leads, 26-20-3 • Last Meeting: A&M, 33-17 (Sept. 2, 1995 at College Station, Texas)
LSU in bowl games: 21-19-1 • LSU in Cotton Bowl: 2-1-1 (1947, 1963, 1966, 2003)
Saturday, Jan. 8
BBVA Compass Bowl
Kentucky (6-6, 2-6) vs. Pittsburgh (7-5)
Legion Field (71,594) • Birmingham, Ala. • ESPN • 12 p.m. ET (11 a.m. CT)
Series Record: First Meeting
Kentucky in bowl games: 8-6 • Kentucky in BBVA Compass Bowl: First appearance
Monday, Jan. 10
Tostitos BCS National Championship Game
#1 Auburn (13-0, 8-0) vs. #2 Oregon (12-0)
University of Phoenix Stadium (73,000) • Glendale, Ariz. • ESPN • 8:30 p.m. ET (7:30 p.m. CT)
Series Record: First Meeting
Auburn in bowl games: 20-13-2 • Auburn in BCS National Championship Game: First appearance
Runner Up For Local Singer’s Group On NBC’s ‘The Sing-Off’
December 21, 2010
A local singer’s group finished as the runner-ups on NBC’s national a cappella singing competition series “The Sing-Off” Monday night.
Adam Chance Ray, who performs as Adam Chance, sings bass for the six-member Street Corner Symphony. The group was one of four to make it through the preliminary rounds to appear on Monday night’s live show, but they fell short of America’s internet and telephone voting for a $100,000 prize and a Sony Music recording contract. First place went to the group Committed.
Chance’s friends and family gather at Atmore restaurant to cheer on the Nashville-based Street Corner Symphony, while Chance’s parents Glenn and Kristi Ray were in the live audience to cheer for their son.
Chance (pictured), who was born in the Florida Panhandle, currently resides in Tuscaloosa, but still has numerous relatives in the Atmore and Jay areas.
The members of Street Corner Symphony are from all over the Southeast United States and call Nashville their home base. The group was formed in May of 2010 for the sole purpose of competing in The Sing-Off.