School Principal Dies When Hit Head-on By Man Fleeing Police; Suspect Also Dead
August 12, 2010
T.R. Miller High School Principal Donald Rotch was killed Wednesday night when his vehicle was hit head-on by a man fleeing Brewton Police in a high-speed chase.
(Read an update to this story by clicking here.)
Samuel Martin Reid, the man being chased by police, also died in the crash on Highway 31 north of Walmart near Old Castleberry Road.
Brewton Police reportedly attempted to pull over Reid, but he fled in what was described as a “high-speed” chase that lasted for about three miles shortly after 8 p.m. The chase reportedly began after a domestic dispute in the parking lot of the Brewton Police Department. the chase reportedly reached speeds over 100 mph on Highway 31.
Rotch (pictured) was southbound on Highway 31 toward Brewton when his vehicle was struck by Reid. The accident site was less than two miles from T.R. Miller High School.
There were no passengers in either vehicle. The accident is still under investigation by Alabama State Troopers.
Rotch had served as T.R. Miller’s principal for about 10 years. Known fondly as “Coach Rotch”, he served as the head baseball coach and assistant football coach during his long career at the Brewton school. Rotch, who joined the T.R. Miller staff in 1974, was on the coaching staff that led the Tiger’s to a state football championship in 1984 and 1991.
Word quickly spread through Brewton that T.R. Miller’s beloved principal had been killed. Within hours, a memorial Facebook page eulogized Coach Rotch.
“From the Freshmen Class all the way out to our Alumni, Coach Rotch was there. He was a mentor, a principal, a coach, and a friend to all. His name will forever be remembered in the halls of T.R. Miller High School. He changed so many peoples lives with his guidance. He will forever be in the hearts and minds of everyone who knew him. Rest in Peace Coach Rotch, and we will miss you,” the Facebook memorial stated.
Photos top and bottom courtesy WEAR TV for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Florida Sales Tax Holiday Begins Friday
August 12, 2010
Friday will mark the first day of Florida’s 2010 Sales Tax Holiday, offering shoppers the chance to stock up on school supplies and clothing without paying sales tax.
The school sales tax holiday runs from 12:01 a.m. Friday until midnight Sunday. After a two-year hiatus, consumers are excited about the return of a holiday that provides a break at the cash register for families during a time of year when their expenses climb.
Retailers across Northwest Florida are gearing up for a big weekend, stocking up on merchandise and planning for a boost to their bottom line. In addition to locals, retailers are expecting to see a lot of Alabama tags in their parking lots as Alabama residents cross the state line to save a few extra dollars this weekend.
In general, Florida’s sales tax holiday will apply to “the sale of books, clothing, wallets, or bags, including handbags, backpacks, fanny packs, and diaper bags, but excluding briefcases, suitcases, and other garment bags, having a sales price of $50 or less, or on sales of certain school supplies having a sales price of $10 or less for the period beginning 12:01 a.m., August 13, 2010, and ending at midnight, August 15, 2010,” according to the Florida Department of Revenue.
For complete details on exempt items in Florida, click here (pdf).
Florida defines books as “a set of printed sheets bound together and published in a volume.” Newspapers, magazines, other periodicals and audio books are not books and will be taxable during the holiday.
Clothing is defined as any article of wearing apparel, including all footwear (except skis, swim fins, roller blades and skates) intended to be worn on or about the body. Clothing does not include watches, watchbands, jewelry, umbrellas, handkerchiefs or sporting equipment.
School supplies include pens, pencils, erasers, crayons, notebooks, notebook filler paper, legal pads, binders, lunch boxes, construction paper, markers, folders, poster board, composition books, poster paper, scissors, cellophane tape, glue, paste, rulers, computer disks, protractors, compasses and calculators.
The state also has a rule about where purchases can be made or, more importantly, where they can’t be made.
For example, eligible items are not exempt from sales tax if purchased at a theme park or entertainment complex. So, a T-shirt with a cartoon character on the front purchased at Disney World would be taxable, although a similar T-shirt purchased at a department store would be exempt.
Eligible items also lose their tax-exempt status if purchased at a public lodging establishment, aka a hotel, motel, resort, beach cottage, or airport.
Weather Permitting: Watch Year’s Best Meteor Shower Tonight
August 12, 2010
If the weather cooperates, you can look skyward in the North Escambia area tonight for the year’s best celestial fireworks show.
Tonight is the peak viewing night for the Perseid Meteor Shower. With no clouds and a dark viewing location, you can see a meteor every two to three minutes, especially from midnight until dawn, according to Dr. Wayne Wooten, Pensacola State College astronomer. They will seem to come out of the constellation Perseus, rising in the northeast just before midnight.
If you miss tonight’s meteor show, the Perseid Meteor Shower will continue through August 24.
Astronomers say it will be a good show as earth passes through a swarm of dust shed by periodic comet Swift-Tuttle.
“Earthgrazers are meteors that approach from the horizon and skim the atmosphere overhead like a stone skipping across the surface of a pond,” explains Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. “They are long, slow and colorful—among the most beautiful of meteors.” He notes that an hour of watching may net only a few of these at most, but seeing even one can make the whole night worthwhile.
Pictured top: Looking northeast around midnight Tuesday, the red dot is the Perseid radiant. Although Perseid meteors can appear in any part of the sky, all of their tails will point back to the radiant. Image courtesy NASA and Spaceweather.com.
Rainy Forecast
August 12, 2010
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Tonight: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 7pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 75. South wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- Friday: Showers and thunderstorms likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 92. Heat index values as high as 105. South wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
- Friday Night: Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 77. Southwest wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
- Saturday: Showers and thunderstorms likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 93. West wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- Saturday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 77. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Sunday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 93. West wind around 5 mph.
- Sunday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 78. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Monday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 93. North wind between 5 and 10 mph.
- Monday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 76.
- Tuesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 91.
- Tuesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 76.
- Wednesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 89.
- Wednesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 74.
- Thursday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 88.
Thieves Steal Copper From Church Air Conditioners
August 12, 2010
Copper thieves hit a church near Flomaton, ripping apart all the church’s air conditioners.
Three air conditioning units at Friendship Freewill Baptist Church on Friendship Road were dismantled, with the bandits cleaning out the copper coils. Church members said the theft occurred sometime between 5 p.m. Tuesday and 9:45 Wednesday morning. Two of the units were used to cool the church’s main sanctuary, while one was used to cool their fellowship hall.
The Escambia County (Ala.) Sheriff’s Office is investigating the theft. Anyone with information on the crime should contact the Sheriff’s Office at (251) 809-0741.
Deputies Seek Suspects In Gas Station Murder
August 12, 2010
A man was gunned down at an Escambia County gas station Tuesday night, and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office has named two suspects in the death.
Escambia Sheriff’s investigators said Omar Shereef Hickenbotham, 18, and Tyrone Vincent Moultrie, 21, are suspects in the shooting death that occurred Tuesday night at an Exxon Gas Station parking lot located on West Fairfield Drive in Pensacola. Arrest warrants have not yet been issued for either man.
The victim’s name is being withheld until out of town next of kin are notified. He was found lying in a ditch behind the Exxon station.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9620.
Crist Stumps For $700 Million In Federal School Funds
August 12, 2010
Gov. Charlie Crist’s pitch was simple: Florida is united this time, from school boards to unions, in its bid for up to $700 million in federal education stimulus funds.
The governor and a delegation of Florida educators hope that the everyone-on-board message puts them over the top in a stiff, 19-state competition for the windfall – part of the federal Race to the Top grant program. The Florida group made its pitch in a 90-minute meeting Wednesday with U.S. Department of Education officials in Washington.
Florida is vying for a share of $3.4 billion in remaining education-reform money, which would be used to improve the state’s chronically poor graduation rates, lift low-performing schools and develop performance-pay plans for teachers.
“I think the big difference is the level of support, and frankly that’s one of the first topics that we addressed,” the governor said. “Broad support by the Florida Education Association and the unions around the state is significantly higher than the first time around. That cooperation, that collaboration, bodes well.”
If Florida wins the grant, half will go to county school districts and half will stay in Tallahassee, at the Department of Education, to develop statewide initiatives.
Winners will be announced later this month or in early September.
The Race to the Top program is part of President Obama’s $800-billion-plus stimulus plan passed in 2009. The money is doled out to states that show plans to use data-driven approaches to improve teacher quality and turn around failing schools.
In the first round of federal awards, announced in March, only Delaware and Tennessee won grants. Florida was a finalist – and widely considered a frontrunner – but finished fourth, out of the money.
Only five of Florida’s 67 local teacher unions supported that first bid. Fifty-eight of those locals now back the second, said Florida Education Association President Andy Ford, who was on hand at Wednesday’s meeting to support Florida’s application.
Florida’s Race to the Top application includes a merit pay plan for teachers – a lightning rod in state politics. But the proposal wouldn’t judge teachers solely on student test scores. It allows districts to weigh other factors such as socioeconomic conditions and family problems that can hinder learning gains.
The Republican-run state Legislature caused a stir in the spring legislative session by passing SB6, a bill to base teacher pay and job security mostly on student test scores, but Crist vetoed it.
“Every time (merit pay) comes up it’s controversial, but we’re getting closer,” said Ford. “If we can come up with a system that people believe in, the fear goes away.”
Crist said the lack of union support was the main factor in torpedoing Florida’s first bid for funds. “When you come in fourth out of 50, that’s pretty darn close. Just a little bit more effort should be enough to let Florida prevail.”
The delegation presenting Florida’s case included Crist, Ford, Miami-Dade schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho and Education Commissioner Eric Smith. The president of the Miami Dade teachers union, Karen Aronowitz, also traveled to Washington for the meeting.
The presence of Ford and other union leaders at Wednesday’s meeting, the governor said, “makes a real statement.”
Florida was one of six states to go before U.S. Department of Education officials Wednesday, along with Arizona, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Illinois. Each state made their presentations in private, closed-to-the-press meetings in hotel conference rooms. Only two governors made personal appeals, Crist and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
The other 13 finalists made their pitches Tuesday.
By Josh Hafenbrack
The News Service Florida
Flash Flood Watch Issued
August 11, 2010
.Flash Flood Watch in effect from midnight CDT tonight through
Friday afternoon…
The National Weather Service in Mobile has issued a
* Flash Flood Watch for portions of southwest Alabama…
northwest Florida and southeast Mississippi…including the
following areas…in southwest Alabama…lower Baldwin…lower
Mobile…upper Baldwin and upper Mobile. In northwest
Florida…coastal Escambia…coastal Okaloosa…coastal Santa
Rosa…inland Escambia…inland Okaloosa and inland Santa
Rosa. In southeast Mississippi…George and stone.
* From midnight CDT tonight through Friday afternoon
* the heavier rains are possible generally south of a line from
Wiggins Mississippi to Citronelle…Bay Minette Alabama to
Crestview Florida. Latest forecasts call for storm total rains of 3
to 5 inches during the duration of watch. A few areas may see locally
higher amounts of around 6 inches.
Precautionary/preparedness actions…
A Flash Flood Watch means that conditions may develop that lead
to flash flooding. Flash flooding is a very dangerous situation.
You should monitor later forecasts and be prepared to take action
should flash flood warnings be issued.
George Elliott Strickland
August 11, 2010
George Elliott Strickland, 51 of Navarre died Tuesday, August 10, 2010, at his residence. He was retired MSGT with The United States Air Force 26½ years,
employed with the United States Post Office, born in Atmore on December 23, 1958, to Donald and Willie Marie Amos Strickland.
He is preceded in death by his mother, Willie Marie Strickland.
Survivors are: wife, Roberta Strickland of Navarre; one daughter, Sarah Strickland of Navarre; father, Donald Strickland of Walnut Hill; two stepsons, Billy Franklin of Atmore and Bobby Franklin of Atlanta; two stepdaughters, Gina Burnett of Cullman, AL and Windy Meredith of Tampa; one brother, Bill Strickland and wife Sandy of Broken
Arrow, OK; two sisters, Becky Madeira and husband, Paul of Miami, Donna Dees and husband Jon of Spanish Fort; 14 gandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Services will be Friday August 13, 2010, at 10 a.m. from Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Ted Bridges officiating. Interment will follow in the Walnut Hill Baptist Cemetery with full military honors.
Family will receive friends Thursday evening August 12, 2010 at Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m.
Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home, Inc in charge of all arrangements.
Myrtle Inez Lucas
August 11, 2010
Myrtle Inez Lucas, age 92 of Pensacola, went to be with the Lord on Tuesday, August 10, 2010. Mrs. Lucas was a native and lifelong resident of the Pensacola area. She was a member of Enon Baptist Church.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Archie A. Lucas; a daughter, Bobbie Lucas and an infant son.
She is survived by her son, Archie A. Lucas, Jr.; two daughters, Janice Clark and Jewel Morris; eight grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren; one great great-grandchild; a brother, Hilbert Beck (Mildred); numerous nieces, nephews, other relatives and many friends.
Funeral Service will be held at 10:00 a.m., Friday, August 13, 2010 at Faith Chapel Funeral Home with Dr. Charles Mitchell officiating. Interment will follow at Enon Baptist Cemetery.
Faith Chapel Funeral Home, 100 Beverly Pkwy, is in charge of arrangements.
The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Friday, August 12, 2010 from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.