Patchy Fog, Cool Tonight
February 14, 2012
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Tonight: Patchy fog after midnight. Otherwise, partly cloudy, with a low around 44. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Wednesday: Isolated showers and thunderstorms after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 74. Southeast wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
- Wednesday Night: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after midnight. Cloudy, with a low around 59. South wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- Thursday: Scattered showers and thunderstorms before noon. Cloudy, with a high near 74. South wind around 10 mph becoming north. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
- Thursday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 51. North wind between 5 and 10 mph.
- Friday: Partly sunny, with a high near 70. North wind around 5 mph.
- Friday Night: Scattered showers and thunderstorms after midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 44. East wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
- Saturday: Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Cloudy, with a high near 66. East wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
- Saturday Night: Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Cloudy, with a low around 45. North wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
- Sunday: Partly sunny, with a high near 66.
- Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 39.
- Washington’s Birthday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 67.
- Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 43.
- Tuesday: Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 69. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Bratt Students Raise $2,117 For St. Judes Children’s Hospital
February 14, 2012
Bratt Elementary students raised over $2,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital during a recent Math-A-Thon event.
The 49 students that took part in the Math-A-Thon raised $2,117.32 for St. Jude. Students turning in the top three donation amounts were Christopher Nordman ($503), Drake Jordan ($100) and Hadden Barlow ($78.77), according to results that were announced Monday morning.
The Math-A-Thon program allows students to use their math powers and help the kids of St. Jude at the same time. Participants received donations from sponsors for completing a “Funbook” filled with math problems.
Donations and used by St. Jude to continue its mission of finding cures and saving children with cancer and other serious childhood diseases.
“We would like to thank all the students who participated and all the people who donated to help our Math-A-Thon be a success,” said Bratt Math-A-Thon coordinator Linda Jackson.
Pictured top: Most of the 49 Bratt Elementary students that took part in a Math-A-Thon raising $2,117.32 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Pictured below: Top fund raisers in the event were Christopher Nordman, $503 (middle), Drake Jordan, $100 (left) and Hadden Barlow, $78.77 (right). Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Flomaton Woman Charged With Junk Car Theft
February 14, 2012
A Flomaton woman has been arrested on a felony theft-related charge for allegedly taking a broken down car last year.
Elizabeth Jackson, 43, was booked into the Escambia County Jail on a charge of dealing in stolen property with bond set at $2,500.
A resident on Trammel Boulevard in Pensacola reported that a junked car was stolen from her yard in November 2011. The same day it was reported stolen, the car was sold for scrap at Weis Recycling, allegedly by Jackson who showed her identification during the transaction.
Jackson was arrested on an outstanding warrant in the case on February 10.
Northview, Flomaton’s ‘Dig Pink’ Volleyball Honored
February 14, 2012
Northview and Flomaton high schools’ Dig Pink volleyball match last October to raise breast cancer awareness has received an award.
The Lady Chiefs and Lady Canes were together able to raise over $1,000 for the Side-Out Foundation which promotes breast cancer awareness as well as funding toward finding a cure.
“We would like to thank our students, faculty, staff, and communities for your help in this endeavor. Our players know through your participation that they live in communities that care not only for athletes, but for the advancement of breast cancer awareness,” said Barbara Luker, Northview assistant coach.
Pictured top: Members of the Northview High School volleyball team (front, L-R) Hannah Fiellin, Josie Doucette, Shelley Mothershed, Taylor Roberson, Paeton Hadley, Makayla Flowers, Mikaela Santos, (back row, L-R) Assistant Coach Barbara Luker, Lily Townson, Tiffani Pritchett, Misty Doran, Morgan Payne, Kyndall Hall, Rebecca Masitias, Danielle Steadham, Rebecca Grim, Penny, and Coach Betty Heaton. Pictured inset: The Dig Pink award. Pictured below: Action from last year’s Dig Pink game at Northview. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Bank Robber Busted In Just 6 Minutes
February 14, 2012
An Escambia County bank robbery suspect was taken into custody six minutes after holding up a Wells Fargo branch.
Thomas Patton, 55, of Pensacola, was charged with robbery following the 1:39 p.m. holdup of the bank on Bayou Boulevard.
“This quick arrest was the result of the good police work of Officer Danny Harnett and other officers responding to the incident,” said Pensacola Police Department Chief Chip W. Simmons.
After getting an undisclosed amount of cash, Patton fled the bank in an unknown direction in a red Chevrolet Aveo. Approximately four to five minutes later, Harnett spotted the vehicle on Twelfth Avenue at Langley Avenue and took the suspect into custody without incident. The stolen cash was found inside the vehicle.
Police said no weapons were shown during the incident.
Prison Privatization Bill Lives – For Now
February 14, 2012
A measure driven by the Senate leadership that would privatize prisons in South Florida narrowly survived a lethal amendment on Monday, but opponents of the change predicted they have the votes to kill the bill on Tuesday.
“Twenty-twenty,” said Sen. Paula Dockery on her way out of the chamber – a prediction for a tie vote on the floor on Tuesday, which would kill the proposal, one of the top priorities for Senate President Mike Haridopolos and Senate Budget Chairman JD Alexander. The bill is seen by backers as a must-have cost saving measure in a tight budget year.
The proposal would require private companies to promise savings of a minimum of 7 percent a year in order to get the contract to run any or all of the nearly 30 facilities currently run by the Department of Corrections in its southern region, an 18-county area across the southern third of the state. Alexander has said for weeks that he thinks the measure would actually save much more, but has repeatedly pointed to the guarantee of savings of 7 percent, or $16.5 million a year.
Opponents, however, have said the savings can’t be achieved and that the proposal would end up being a giveaway to private prison companies that would mean unemployment for thousands of corrections officers who wouldn’t be retained.
The measure was nearly killed Monday, but backers mustered just enough votes against an amendment to keep it alive. The Senate voted 21-19 against the amendment, which would have eliminated the language in the bill requiring the privatization, and instead called for a study on the issue.
The amendment was sponsored by the leading critic of the plan, Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, a veteran senator who has emerged as a frequent thorn in the side of the leadership of his own party – and recently was stripped of a budget subcommittee chairmanship mainly over the issue of prison privatization. Fasano also predicted the bill would go down on Tuesday.
But it was a senator who voted against Fasano’s amendment who emerged as a key player in the drama – the first close vote on a major, far-reaching issue this year. Sen. Dennis Jones, who supported Haridopolos and Senate leadership in Monday’s vote, confirmed to reporters late Monday that he won’t vote for the bill on Tuesday. Assuming no one else changes, that would give the tie vote backers predicted.
“If everyone is here, the bill should die on a 20-20 vote,” Fasano said about Tuesday’s floor session. The remark about attendance referred to a time change in Tuesday’s vote announced late Monday. The Senate moved the scheduled floor session from Tuesday morning to Tuesday afternoon, leaving opponents of the bill scrambling to change travel plans. Some members had planned to leave town Tuesday afternoon with a light week ahead for all but the members of the Senate Budget Committee.
Haridopolos, meanwhile, wouldn’t predict that the bill would prevail, but said reports of its demise were premature.
“I hope the Senate passes the bill tomorrow, and if they don’t we’ve got to go find the savings elsewhere,” he said.
But he appeared more concerned with debunking accusations that he had tried to get the bill passed using strong-arm techniques. During floor debate on Monday, an opponent of the bill, Sen. Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, made an almost off-handed remark that annoyed Haridopolos. Latvala referred to the issue that leadership was “breaking arms” over.
Haridopolos’ major point in speaking to reporters following the session was to argue he wasn’t doing anything other than arguing the merits of the bill to try to get it passed.
“The thing that is abundantly clear … I didn’t twist arms,” Haridopolos said. “I’m a consensus builder….We are free will.”
After Fasano’s amendment aimed at derailing the bill failed, the Senate approved a few amendments that appeared to be concessions to opponents, including a couple of major changes that were aimed at easing some of the opponents’ biggest concerns.
One amendment, by Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, shifts the responsibility of paying unpaid benefits to laid-off corrections officers, such as unpaid sick leave or vacation they’re owed, to the private companies. Earlier, the bill had limited what the state would have to pay with the rest being left to the private companies, but the amendment removed all the state’s responsibility.
In another major concession, the Senate adopted another Fasano amendment that allows the state to charge private prison operators for all costs of recapturing any prison escapees.
“If we keep this bill around one more week or two we might get unanimous consent on it,” Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, an opponent of the bill, joked.
But Fasano said later that opponents of the bill generally didn’t think the concessions would stay in the legislation.
“They will try to change the bill in the House,” said Fasano. “Private companies will never accept the amendment” putting them on the hook for the cost of escapes.
The privatization issue hasn’t broken totally along traditional party lines, with the ruling GOP split on the question.
In addition to Fasano, Dockery and Latvala, others Republicans who voted for the amendment that called for a study and would have killed the bill were Sens. Charlie Dean, Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, Greg Evers, Steve Oelrich, and Ronda Storms.
Democrats nearly voted as a caucus for the amendment, with only Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, voting with backers of privatization.
Dockery, R-Lakeland, was confident of Tuesday’s outcome.
“Our 20 are solid, 100 percent,” she said.
By The News Service of Florida
House Puts Candy, Chips, Soda Back In Public Assistance Bill
February 14, 2012
A bill moving through the Legislature that has drawn national attention is shaping up as a showdown between the House and Senate.
The Senate version, sponsored by Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, would keep Floridians from using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, funds to buy unhealthy food such as candy, ice cream, sodas and chips – or from using the money in gambling, liquor and other adult establishments.
The original House version (HB 1401) by Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, did the same.
But on Monday the House Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee took out the food restrictions by a vote of 9-5. The amendment deleting that language was proposed by Rep. Dana Young, R-Tampa, and backed by Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples and the panel’s chair.
Hudson said he opposed the limits for reasons of “personal freedom…And so if that language should appear again, I can tell you that I will certainly rise in support of someone who would amend that off and I will vote against the bill on the floor should that language appear again.” Rep. John Wood, R-Winter Haven, said the taxpayers have every right to set such limits.
“We are talking about a government benefit,” Wood said. “And therefore, in my mind, we can restrict how that benefit is utilized.”
The bill in the Senate (SB 1658) still contains the food constraints, however. “The biggest opponents I have right now are Coca Cola, the soda companies, the chip companies and the convenience store operators,” Senate sponsor Storms said in an interview last week with Fox News.
The dueling bills each face one more committee before heading to their respective floors.
By The News Service Florida
Convicted McDavid Sex Offender Arrested Monday
February 14, 2012
A convicted sex offender from McDavid that was recently released from prison was arrested Monday afternoon for violating his probation.
Nathan Arron Mack, age 20 of 403 Railroad Street, was booked into the Escambia County Jail without bond on the probation violation charge.
In January 2011, Mack was convicted of the sexual battery of a 14-year old girl. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, with credit for time service awaiting trial, followed by 18 months probation. Under the terms of his probation, he was forbidden to have unsupervised contact with any minor and enter a sex offender counseling program.
Mack, a registered sex offender, was released from the Okaloosa Correctional Institution on November 30, 2011.
The victim’s stepfather told Escambia County Sheriff’s deputies that the 14-year old, who had been reported as a runaway, was at Mack’s residence on Railroad Street. When deputies arrived at the residence, they found Mack and the teen girl.
According to a Sheriff’s Office arrest report, Mack admitted to having intercourse multiple times with the 14-year old. He admitted that he had picked up the Pensacola girl at the Winn Dixie on Nine Mile Road because he knew the victim’s mother would not allow the two to be together. The young girl corroborated Mack’s story, according to the report.
When deputies contacted the victim’s mother, she advised that she wanted to pursue criminal charges against Mack. The mother stated that she had retrieved her daughter from Mack at the McDavid Mini Mart the week prior and had forbidden him from having any contact with her daughter.
Love Baseball? Chiefs Diamond Club To Meet, Seeks Members
February 14, 2012
The Northview High School Diamond Club will meet Thursday and is looking for new members.
The Diamond Club supports Northview’s JV and Varsity baseball programs by purchasing equipment, maintaining or improving the facilities, providing transportation and meals, volunteering at the concession stand and participating in fundraisers.
“We need parents’ involvement for Northview to continue to have successful seasons and programs,” said Diamond Club member Tricia Vaughan.
Membership dues are $10 per family. All parents are encouraged to attend and to volunteer.
The Northview Diamond Club will meet Thursday at 6 p.m. in the Northview Media Center. For more information about the Diamond Club, contact Tricia Vaughan at (251) 359-4209.
‘Inspirational Message’ Bill Passes Florida House Panel
February 14, 2012
A controversial measure allowing students to deliver “inspirational messages” at public school events passed the House Education Committee on Monday, leaving it one stop away from what could be the final vote on the House floor.
The bill (SB 98) passed the committee on a party-line, 9-6 vote, with Republicans arguing the measure would boost freedom of religion and speech while Democrats said it could become a vehicle for divisive messages and hate speech.
The measure — sponsored in the House by Rep. Charles Van Zant, R-Keystone Heights — does not specifically reference prayer at school events, but would allow that as a kind of inspirational message, along with just about anything else. Adults would have no say over what could be said by students under the bill.
Van Zant acknowledged it would allow any type of speech – but admitted it was aimed, in part, at protecting students who want to give a prayer and have felt they’ve been unable to do so publicly.
“When we took school prayer … out of school, it’s clearly documented that school discipline – disciplinary cases went up, that we had a lot more school vandalism, that we had a lot more disrespect for schools, including the physical plant as well as school personnel, teachers and principals,” Van Zant said.
Still, he said, the primary reason for the legislation was to allow students to exercise their free-speech rights.
But critics argued the measure would instead leave students as young as kindergartners in charge of what is inspirational, since teachers are not allowed to have a roll in preparing or delivering the message.
“What inspires me may not inspire you,” said Rep. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami.
Bullard and other Democratic members said that there was nothing to prevent a student from presenting a racially-charged inspirational message, even one that contained racial slurs. Bullard grew emotional as he recounted his own experience when a schoolmate called him a racial slur when he was in elementary school.
“What this bill does is open up the possibility of messages of hate,” he said. “Whether you like to believe it or not, hate is inspirational.”
Republicans argued that allowing students to air views that others find offensive in an open forum might actually prove beneficial.
“It is better that some young man or woman espouses those views in public so the issues can be properly debated,” said Rep. Jimmie Smith, R-Inverness.
But Rep. Cynthia Stafford, D-Miami, said she wasn’t convinced it would spark a healthy debate.
“It may start a fight,” she said.
Other groups, meanwhile, were worried that the danger lies in the potential for infringing on the rights of other students, who would be forced to listen to prayers or messages they don’t agree with.
“What would happen in your school district if the prayer was to Allah, to Buddha, to HaShem — which is how we say ‘God’ in Judaism — or another faith in which children were not brought up?” asked David Barkey of the Anti-Defamation League of Florida.
Republicans countered that not allowing students to voice their beliefs itself amounted to a form of discrimination.
“That tolerance goes both ways,” said Rep. Janet Adkins, R-Fernandina Beach.
The measure now heads to the House Judiciary Committee. If it clears that panel and the House floor without an amendment, it would go to Gov. Rick Scott for his signature.
By The News Service of Florida