Registration Event Scheduled For Danceworks
August 22, 2011
Registration is underway for Heather Leonard’s Danceworks, and a registration event will be held Tuesday in Byrneville.
The registration will be from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday at the Byrneville Community Center. Or students can register by mail; click here for a form.
Ballet, tap and jazz classes will be taught by Heather Leonard beginning September 6 to girls ages 3 and up, including a class for 15 and up. Leonard has taught dance to hundreds of girls from North Escambia and surrounding areas. She is also the teacher for the Northview High School Dance Team.
For a printable information sheet, schedule and registration form, click here. For further information, contact Heather Leonard at (850) 256-0948 or email hldanceworks@gmail.com.
Pictured: The May2011 Danceworks Recital. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Officials Urge Safe Back To School Driving Habits
August 22, 2011
As students prepare for a new school year, Escambia County Fire Rescue is asking for the public’s help to ensure this school year starts safely. Fire department and EMS crews will be manning school crossing zones during the week of August 22 to remind motorists to abide by traffic safety laws for the sake of children returning to school.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, drivers must follow these rules:
- Adhere to the posted speed limit in designated school zones.
- When approaching an intersection where a crossing guard is present in the crosswalk with the stop sign raised, do not cross – or turn – into the crosswalk until the guard has completely left the crosswalk.
- Never stop a vehicle in a manner that blocks a crosswalk.
- When you approach a stopped school bus (from behind) with lights flashing and the stop arm extended, you must stop.
- When you approach a stopped school bus (from front) with lights flashing and the stop arm extended, you also must stop, unless:
- you are on a divided highway and the roadways are separated by an unpaved space at least five feet in width, or
- you are on a divided highway and the roadways are separated by a physical barrier.
- You are required to stop at least 10 feet away from the school bus.
- You must not resume driving until the school bus turns its lights off and withdraws its stop sign.
- Be certain all exiting children have reached a safe place before proceeding.
Food Drive Underway At Century Town Hall
August 22, 2011
A food drive is currently underway in Century to benefit the Bay Area Food Bank.
A donation box is in the lobby of the Century Town Hall for the 7th Annual Emerald Coast Hospice Food Drive. Lobby hours at the town hall are 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. weekdays.
All nonperishable food items are welcome.
Weather: Hurricane Irene And Lots Of Heat
August 22, 2011
Hurricane Irene and hot weather will dominate the weather news this week. Hurricane Irene continues on a path toward Florida; the latest information is in the graphic above.
Meanwhile on our stretch of the Gulf Coast, we’ll keep a watchful eye on Irene and keep the air conditioners humming. Here is your official North Escambia are forecast:
- Monday Night: Isolated showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 72. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming north. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
- Tuesday: Isolated showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 97. North wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
- Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 70. North wind around 5 mph.
- Wednesday: Isolated showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 96. East wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
- Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 74. East wind around 5 mph.
- Thursday: Isolated showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 94. East wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
- Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 74. East wind around 5 mph.
- Friday: Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 93. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
- Friday Night: Isolated showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 74. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
- Saturday: Isolated showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 94. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
- Saturday Night: Isolated showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 75. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
- Sunday: Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 94. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Battle Of The Badges To Benefit ARC Gateway
August 22, 2011
In honor of the 10th anniversary of September 11th, area first responders are teaming up to help others.
First responders from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, the Pensacola Police Department and the Pensacola Fire Department will don their baseball caps and cleats for the first annual benefit softball game, the Battle of the Badges, on Saturday, September 10th at Exchange Park in Pensacola, Florida.
The event is an opportunity for members of the community to come out and cheer on the people who protect and serve our community every day and help raise money to benefit ARC Gateway.
Since 1954, ARC Gateway has been providing direct services and support to children and adults who have developmental disabilities. With the help of members, supporters and volunteers, the agency currently serves approximately 900 individuals through a variety of services that begin at birth and continue through the senior years.
The tournament will feature teams from the ECSO, PPD, Escambia Road Prison and Pensacola Fire Department. Games will begin at 10 a.m. on at Exchange Park, 3100 East Lakeview Avenue. There will be activities for kids and Georgio’s first responder pizza eating contest. Attendees are encouraged to bring their stadium seats and chairs and enjoy an afternoon of fun.
Special Section: Back To School Info You Need To Know
August 21, 2011
School starts Monday in Escambia County, and we have the last minute information you need to know, including start times, school supply lists, lunch prices, bus routes, and information on free and reduced price lunches.
Click a link to visit that story.
- School Start Times
- School Lunch Prices
- Free And Reduced Lunch Guidelines
- School Lunch Menus
- School Supply Lists
- School Bus Routes
Tropical Storm Irene Headed Toward Florida
August 21, 2011
Tropical Storm Irene formed Saturday evening, and residents around the Gulf Coast area need to keep a watchful eye on this one into next week. Forecast models take the storm into South Florida by week’s end, but a slight deviation in the forecast could take Irene into the Gulf or out over the Atlantic.
The latest info on Tropical Storm Irene is in the graphic above, click to enlarge.
Molino Residents Report Possible Door To Door Fraud
August 21, 2011
Several Molino area residents have reported men going door to door false claiming to be raising money for three area schools.
Residents say the two men say they are from, or raising money for, Northview High, Molino Park Elementary and Ernest Ward Middle, but the schools say that they are not conducting any sort of door to door fundraising.
“There’s nothing like that going on,” said Northview Principal Gayle Weaver. “It is not the school.”
One man, who says his name is “Mikel”, was described as being about 5-foot 11-inches, 180 pounds with blue eyes, thick blond hair and an accent. The other was over 6-feet tall, very thin with dark hair. They were driving a white four door car, possibly a Toyota Camry or Mazda, according to several residents.
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Latest Unemployment Numbers Are Mixed News For Local Area
August 21, 2011
The latest job numbers show mixed news for the three counties in the North Escambia area.
Escambia County’s unemployment rate held steady in the double digits — at 10.5 percent in June and July. There were just 64 jobs lost during the period, for a total Escambia County unemployment of 14,833 people. One year ago, unemployment in Escambia County was 11 percent.
Santa Rosa County unemployment increased— from 9.9 percent in June to 10.2 percent in July. Santa Rosa County lost 299 jobs during the period, with a total of 7,481 persons still unemployed. The year-ago unemployment rate in Santa Rosa County was 10.6 percent.
Escambia County, Alabama, had a drop in unemployment — from 12.4 percent in June to 11.9 percent in July. Escambia, Alabama gained 93 jobs during the month-long period, with 1,780 people out of work.
Florida
Florida’s unemployment rate in July remained unchanged at 10.7 percent after state labor market officials revised June’s rate upward, the Agency for Workforce Innovation reported Friday.
The rate, which is still nearly a point lower than the 11.5 percent the state experienced in July 2010, translates into 987,000 jobless out of a workforce of just over 9.2 million.
Included in the monthly announcement was a downward revision in the number of jobs created since the first of the year. Last month, state economists estimated that 85,500 had been created since Jan. 1. The latest update reduces that estimate to 64,300
Alabama
Alabama’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, at 10.0 percent in July, was up from June’s rate of 9.9 percent and was above the year-ago rate of 9.2.percent.
Florida Weekly Gov’t Roundup
August 21, 2011
Florida Gov. Rick Scott this week found his policies on the receiving end of numerous challenges as the governor’s calls for less government, privatization and less red tape wound their way through the courts.
Meanwhile, the governor’s quest to bring 700,000 jobs to the state was made both easier and more difficult depending on which economic data you choose to hang your hat on. While unemployment remained uncomfortably high, brisker home sales, slow but steadily increasing state revenue collections and government-backed efforts show the state’s economic engine is at least engaged.
BUSY WEEK IN THE COURTS
It was a hectic week in legal circles. The Florida Supreme Court early this week ruled that Scott overstepped his legal bounds when he put a hold on proposed agency rules until they could be reviewed by the governor’s office.
Scott, who in his first act as governor suspended agencies’ ability to make rules, immediately called the 5-2 opinion nonsensical, while attorneys for a blind woman who sued over the new requirement said the ruling would help preserve the ability of Florida residents to participate in the process by which new regulations that affect them are put into place.
The state’s highest court said that agency rules are largely an extension of legislation, which makes Scott’s action a separation of powers issue.
Chief Justice Charles Canady and Justice Ricky Polston, disagreed with the majority, saying the constitution gives the governor “supreme executive power.”
“If supreme executive power means anything, it must mean that the governor can supervise and control the policy-making choices — within the range of choices permitted by law — of the subordinate executive branch officers who serve at his pleasure,” Canady wrote in dissent.
Scott faces another challenge next month for his attempts to privatize a hefty chunk of Florida’s prison system. A Tallahassee circuit judge, Jackie Fulford, this week scheduled a hearing for September on a motion for summary judgment in the Florida Police Benevolent Association’s lawsuit challenging a plan to privatize several state prisons.
The PBA is challenging a Scott-backed move to privatize prisons in South Florida, an effort backers say will save millions.
Critics including Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, are skeptical of such savings, and got information this week that might make them right – internal documents show the prison system is worried about a $25 million price tag related to corrections officers losing their jobs, payments for things like untaken vacation or sick time. Scott told reporters this week that if the savings don’t materialize, the privatization won’t be done, simple as that.
Meanwhile, a Florida appeals court ruled that agencies must take into account collective bargaining agreements when they look to trim employee health costs. The Second District Court of Appeal this week ruled that the Polk County school district couldn’t bypass collective bargaining in imposing insurance changes.
JOBLESS RATE REMAINS HIGH, BUT STEADY
Florida’s 10.7 percent unemployment rate for July was unchanged from an upwardly revised June figure. The legion of jobless remains just shy of 1 million as the state claws its way back to economic prosperity.
On Friday, the Agency for Workforce Innovation reported that the number of jobs created since Jan. 1 had shrunk from previous estimates, a drop that negatively affects Scott’s promise to add 700,000 jobs to the state’s economy in the next seven years.
The drop of 21,200 immediately became fodder for politicians – Democrats quickly put out a statement questioning what happened to all those jobs, jobs, jobs.
State employment officials, meanwhile, cautioned that the unemployment rate, which represented a 0.1 percentage point uptick from preliminary June figures, was not unexpected as the state crawls its way back from the biggest economic downturn since the 1930s.
“You need to look at the long term trends,” said AWI Chief Economist Rebecca Rust. “There will be fluctuations month to month.”
Tourism-related employment continues to make steady headway while construction jobs remain well below historic levels.
A number of the job losses were in the government sector – something that also continued this month.
Though their number didn’t show up in the July figures, 134 workers were laid off from the South Florida Water Management District in the last week, saving the district $9 million in salaries.
Included in the group are 20 scientists with an average of 15 years of service. They join 19 scientists who took a buyout in June and several others who found jobs at different agencies or institutions before the layoffs.
Unlike construction and water management sectors, the lobbying business appears alive and well. We learned this week from new disclosure filings that despite the state’s economic woes, legislative lobbyists earned as much as $52 million for the quarter ending June 30, up from the $49.3 million spent on lobbyists that same time last year.
Lobbying firms Gray Robinson; Ron Book; Smith & Ballard and Southern Strategy Group earned the most, with each reporting income of greater than $1 million for the quarter.
Speaking of jobs, Associated Industries of Florida this week named insurance lobbyist Cecil Pearce the business group’s interim managing director. Pearce replaces the talkative and provocative Barney Bishop, who is stepping down as president at the end of the year.
ECONOMIC NEWS
Despite jobless rates that have remained higher than national averages since 2008, signs of economic rebirth were there this week if you looked. Favorable interest rates and ample inventory helped boost home sales in July by 12 percent compared to a year ago, with some markets seeing much higher increases.
The statewide average belied much heftier increases in some markets. Sales jumped 47 percent in Miami and 57 percent in Tallahassee as buyers appeared to be taking advantage of lower prices in those markets, where median prices fell 8 percent and 10 percent respectively. Statewide, prices held relatively stable, falling 1 percent year to year, from $137,700 to $136,500.
Doing its part, the state began a $291 million road project in Jacksonville to be financed by the Florida Turnpike Enterprise and repaid by tolls. The First Coast Outer Beltway project will be one of the first of a series of new projects aimed at jumpstarting infrastructure construction while the economy is slumping, taking advantage of low costs for the work, and – the Scott administration hopes – helping to lower the state’s unemployment rate.
The project is a harbinger of things to come as the state weans itself off fuel taxes to pay for roads. State transportation officials expect to lose $5 billion by the end of the decade in gas tax revenue that traditionally pays for roads, bridges and other infrastructure that connects Floridians.
The Florida Transportation Commission found out Tuesday that the effects of improved gas mileage will have an even more immediate impact, reducing 2011 revenue by $24 million and reaching $500 million a year by 2015.
Florida’s recovery efforts will also get some help from the feds. The state will get nearly $100 million in federal money for small business loans.
Meanwhile, BP Oil has, as of this week, paid Florida individuals and businesses more than $2 billion in payouts. But federal officials overseeing the payouts said the going may get tougher for some with more stringent requirements for future payments under the $20 billion program.
All is not rosy on the business front. Florida businesses could see an 8.9 percent increase in workers-compensation insurance rates next year, as costs slowly creep up after several years of massive declines.
The National Council on Compensation Insurance, an organization that files workers-
compensation rate requests for the industry, submitted the proposed increase Thursday to state regulators.
Businesses were hit with an overall hike of 7.8 percent last year, after enjoying years of rate cuts that stemmed from lawmakers overhauling the system in 2003.
POLITICS
Lawmakers redrawing Florida’s political boundaries took their caravan south this week as they took testimony from interested parties from Stuart to Key West. Given the range of testimony, it will be no easy task.
At a Wednesday hearing in downtown Miami, lawmakers got a checklist of sorts, from Cubans and other Latinos to Haitian immigrants to African Americans. Even the gay community called for a seat or two — though the chairman of the Senate committee charged with drawing maps said he doesn’t even know how that would be achieved.
Several candidates in the U.S. Senate GOP primary are preparing to debate this weekend in a debate co-sponsored by the Florida Family Policy Council and The Central Florida Tea Party Coalition. Confirmed candidates are Adam Hasner, George LeMieux, Mike McCallister, and Craig Miller.
The field is also set for the election to replace former Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, who quit the Legislature to go work for Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown. The overwhelmingly Democratic Senate District 1 takes in parts of Duval, Flagler, Putnam, St. Johns and Volusia counties.
Four candidates qualified to be on the ballot: Audrey Gibson and Terry Fields, who are both former state representatives; and Ramon Day and Leandrew Mills III. The primary is Sept. 20.
Former House Speaker Ray Sansom this week filed an ethics complaint against state attorney Willie Meggs who prosecuted Sansom on corruption charges that were eventually dropped, but only after Sansom lost his job as speaker and had to leave the Legislature.
The complaint alleges illegal and unethical behavior by Meggs in pursuing the case by manipulating a grand jury and illegally releasing testimony to the public. Sansom agreed to pay $300,000 to the state after being accused of misappropriating state money in the budget.
MAKING PROGRESS?
Progress Energy Florida brought its case to state regulators this week as the utility asked to pass along about $140 million in nuclear costs to customers: Attorneys for consumers and business and environmental groups repeatedly tried to cast doubt on the company’s hopes for meeting 2021 and 2022 target dates for the project.
The Florida Public Service Commission is expected to decide Oct. 24 whether to grant Progress’ request, along with a $196 million nuclear-cost request by Florida Power & Light.
MOVE OVER DORA THE EXPLORER:
Pre-kindergarten programs should test their students more extensively, argues David Lawrence, the head of the Early Childhood Initiative Foundation. Lawrence said this wouldn’t be a “baby FCAT,” but instead a loose assessment of a child’s social, emotional, and cognitive skills in order to determine progress.
Next week, the State Board of Education will take up a draft legislative budget request for next year that asks for $4.6 million to begin offering voluntary pre-kindergarten assessments at a cost of $25 per student.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Gov. Rick Scott’s effort to vet all pending rulemaking in a central office is wiped out by a state Supreme Court majority that said the governor doesn’t have the power to meddle in rulemaking in such a way, because that’s a legislative function.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “The complaint won’t undo what Mr. Meggs did to me. What I do hope it does is prevent Mr. Meggs from doing this to another innocent family,” Former House Speaker Ray Sansom in regard to his ethics complaint filed against State Attorney Willie Meggs.