Charles William “Billy” Thompson
August 20, 2013
Charles William “Billy” Thompson Jr., 61, passed away unexpectedly on Friday, August 16, 2013.
Billy was an avid outdoor sportsman, who loved fishing, hunting and being around friends and family. Billy was also involved in racing, helping his brothers and nephew on their race cars. When he wasn’t enjoying the outdoors or at the racetrack, you could find him shooting a game of pool.
Billy was born June 4, 1952, in Pensacola and resided in Pensacola his entire life.
Billy was preceded in death by his grandparents, Marion and Sally Thompson and Grady and Ruby Allbritton; father, Charles W. Thompson Sr.; and the love of his life, fiancé, Kay Jackson.
Survivors include his mother, Christine Bonds; brothers, Rick (Joni) Thompson, Tim Thompson, Mike Bonds and Chip Bonds; sisters, Tonya (Mike) Brantley and Gayle Falke; and a host of aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins and many friends.
Visitation will be held from 9 a.m. until funeral services begin at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, August 21, 2013, at the funeral home with Dr. Dale Patterson officiating. Burial will follow at Bayview Memorial Park.
Pallbearers will be Randy Thompson, Tim Thompson, Glenn Fowler, James Hallman III, Micah Hallman and Hunter Mandel.
Honorary pallbearers will be Mike Fine, Ricky Fine, Danny Fine, and Doug Mandel.
Trahan Family Funeral Home, 419 Yoakum Court, is in charge of arrangements.
Court Records: Greer Tried To Get Gambling Regulator Fired
August 20, 2013
Former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer, on the payroll of a South Florida dog track, tried to get a gambling regulator fired two days before the veteran state worker was forced to resign, according to court records obtained by The News Service of Florida.
Greer is now serving an 18-month sentence in state prison after pleading guilty to money laundering and theft in connection with a scheme in which he created a company and then steered party business to it.
But while Greer — hand-picked by former Gov. Charlie Crist to head the state GOP —was party chairman in 2009, he was also working for the owners of the Mardi Gras Casino in Broward County, getting paid $7,500 a month as a consultant for entertainment and hospitality regulatory issues.
Four years later, gambling operators are still jockeying over lucrative pari-mutuel permits even as the Legislature explores how much — and what types of — gambling the state should allow.
A case involving the quest for a quarter-horse permit near Homestead, which could open the door for more slot machines in South Florida, demonstrates a tangled web of the relationships between gambling lobbyists, regulators and politicians.
The company Greer was working for was one of the “three loudest voices” opposing South Florida quarter-horse permits, according to Florida Administrative Law Judge R. Bruce McKibben.
McKibben in an Aug. 6 recommended order said the Department of Business and Professional Regulation didn’t do anything wrong by denying a permit to Ft. Myers Real Estate Holdings, a company trying to get the permit for the venue in Florida City, near Homestead. The permit, if issued, would allow a card room and possibly slot machines. Marc Dunbar, a lawyer who represented the Ft. Myers group, said it plans to appeal McKibben’s ruling.
But the court documents and interviews with the players reveal a marked shift in the state’s handling of permits after Chuck Drago, Greer’s close friend and godfather of his oldest son, became secretary of the agency and after long-time DBPR Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering Director Dave Roberts was ousted.
Critics, including Drago’s deputy secretary Scott Ross, accused Roberts of issuing the quarter horse permits “like candy.”
Within a week after Greer demanded that Roberts be fired, Drago ordered Ross to terminate the regulator, Ross testified in the case.
Drago denies being asked by Greer to get rid of Roberts, targeted by South Florida tracks angry over the quarter- horse permits and other issues.
“Nobody asked me to have Dave Roberts leave. That never happened,” Drago said.
But Delmar Johnson, former executive director of the RPOF under Greer, said his old boss had “unfettered access” to Drago, who served as police chief in Oviedo while Greer was a city commissioner prior to becoming the GOP chairman. Greer also had access to Crist and his top two aides.
On July 14, 2009, Greer and Johnson met with Ross — Johnson’s fraternity brother — at Po’ Boys, a bistro close to RPOF headquarters in downtown Tallahassee frequented by Greer and his gang.
After the lunch, Greer took Ross aside and directed him to “fire your pari-mutuel director,” Ross told The News Service of Florida.
Ross, who had been on the job less than two months, said he refused. But Greer insisted, saying, “I’ve heard really bad things about him and he needs to go,” according to Ross.
Ross said he had no idea Greer, who never registered as a lobbyist for Hartman and Tyner, Mardi Gras’ owner, was working for the dog track and slots venue at the time.
“Do I have an idea now why that ask was made? I can connect the dots,” said Ross, a lobbyist and gambling lawyer who worked for Las Vegas Sands before being hired by Drago in 2009. His client roster now includes Las Vegas Sands, one of several gambling operators trying to convince Florida lawmakers to approve “destination resort” casino-style gambling in South Florida.
Johnson also said he didn’t know that his boss had a side job as a Mardi Gras consultant when he arranged the lunch with Ross at Greer’s request.
“Greer had to meet Scott. We had to go to lunch. Scott had to be there, and I had to get Scott there and he wouldn’t say why,” Johnson, now an AFLAC insurance agent, said in a telephone interview.
After the meeting, “Greer was frustrated,” Johnson added. “He didn’t seem happy.”
Hartman and Tyner Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Dan Adkins said he hired Greer as a consultant for a constitutional amendment that would have lowered the tax rate on slot machines. That plan was dropped after lawmakers reduced the tax rate in legislation dealing with a compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
Adkins said he never asked Greer to lobby for him and didn’t seek to get Roberts fired.
“Absolutely not. I had very little communication with Jim Greer during that whole time. He was on retainer strictly for the issue of running the constitutional amendment,” Adkins said. “It’s just nonsense. Sorry. But the people playing the bad games here are Dunbar and Romanik.”
Dunbar has represented the Ft. Myers group, and David Romanik is a principal of and attorney for Ft. Myers Real Estate Holdings Inc. Romanik and Dunbar are both affiliated with Gulfstream Park Casino in Broward County and are both part-owners of a controversial track in the north Florida community of Gretna. The pair is frequently at odds with other South Florida pari-mutuels.
Greer’s lawyer Damon Chase claims Greer got his orders from Crist, who is now a Democrat and is expected to announce a bid for governor in October.
“Suffice it to say, Mr. Greer served at the pleasure of Charlie Crist during that time. Mr. Greer was steadfastly loyal to Charlie Crist and always followed instructions consistent with Mr. Crist’s agenda. Any involvement Mr. Greer would have had in this story would have been at Charlie Crist’s express direction,” Chase said in an e-mail.
Crist did not return calls seeking comment.
Drago, who left his post as DBPR secretary in November 2009 and went to work as Crist’s deputy chief of staff, said the former governor never pressured him about the quarter-horse issue.
“I never got direction that I can ever recall from the governor’s office one way or the other. The only concern was that they were kept in the loop as to what we decided. I never got any direction and I never even got a sense from the governor’s office that they wanted me to do anything particular,” Drago said.
Roberts left the agency the day after he inadvertently released documents to a lawyer for Mardi Gras, a competitor of Gulfstream, related to an investigation into a ring of Gulfstream workers who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from slot machines using free play cards.
DBPR officials at the time said that the public records fiasco had nothing to do with Roberts’ departure. Roberts now works as a lobbyist for Magic City Casino, the former Flagler Dog Track in Miami-Dade County.
But the depositions and testimony in the case show that the governor’s office was keenly interested in the quarter-horse permits.
For two years, Crist’s administration had been negotiating a deal with the Seminole Tribe of Florida to allow the tribe to operate slots. Lawmakers refused to go along with the first compact Crist signed with the tribe in 2007 and, in 2009, the Legislature was preparing to pass a bill approving the agreement, ultimately authorized in 2010. In 2004, voters approved slot machines in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, opening the door for slots on tribal lands.
Between September 2008 and February 2010, the agency issued nine quarter-horse permits, including five approved by Roberts. Races have been run at two of the facilities — Gretna and Hialeah.
Three weeks after Roberts was forced to resign, Drago, Ross and the agency’s chief gambling lawyer, Joe Helton, met with representatives of Calder Race Course, Flagler Dog Track and Mardi Gras at Calder in Miami. Calder lobbyist Wilbur Brewton organized the meeting where the group aired concerns about the quarter-horse permits and suggested ways the agency could halt or at least slow them down.
The permits hadn’t resulted in licensed activities and thus weren’t bringing any taxes and fees to the state, the quarter-horse opponents pointed out.
State law imposed a restriction on other types of gambling permits, barring new facilities from opening within 100 miles of an existing track. But a loophole in the law did not include the mileage restriction for quarter-horse permits. The Legislature was expected to include the 100-mile restriction in a bill authorizing the compact with the Seminoles.
The South Florida tracks also believed that Roberts’s interpretation of the law relating to zoning requirements was too slack and complained to him about it, according to McKibben’s Aug. 6 order.
Gambling attorney John Lockwood told the court that “the special interests wanted Roberts terminated, because they were concerned with the quarter-horse application review process,” McKibben wrote.
Under “The Roberts Regime,” McKibben wrote, the agency would accept a letter from a land-use lawyer saying that zoning for the proposed location “was obtainable” from local authorities.
Lawyers for the quarter-horse opponents urged a stricter interpretation of the law that would require prior zoning approval before a permit could be issued.
After Roberts left, the agency adopted the proposed zoning requirements when considering the permits. DBPR officially rejected the Ft. Myers group’s permit in January, 2010, almost a year to the day after the application was first submitted.
Dunbar blamed Crist’s inner circle for the switch.
In the court filings, Dunbar and Romanik accused DBPR of stalling the Florida City permit until the 100-mile restriction went into effect, making approval unobtainable. After denying the permit, the agency refused to grant an administrative hearing on the issue. Romanik sued, and the 1st District Court of Appeal agreed that DBPR should have granted the hearing. The appeals court also ordered DBPR to pay nearly $80,000 in legal fees to the Ft. Myers group.
Ross said Dunbar is making “wide-ranging accusations of a conspiracy when there wasn’t one” because he disagrees with the different interpretation of the law.
“Nobody’s denying there was a philosophical change in how these were handled,” Ross said. “The interpretation was wrong. That’s why there was a policy change. You can see that the interpretation was wrong because to this day only one of them with the exception of Hialeah which has had a facility for decades is operational.”
by The News Service of Florida
Wahoos Sweep Double Header 2-1, 3-2 From Huntsville
August 20, 2013
The Blue Wahoos won their second and third straight games by sweeping their doubleheader with the Stars with a 2-1 win in game one, before claiming a 3-2 win in a rain-shortened second game.
In game one, the two teams waited out a 30-minute rain delay with two on and two outs and the Stars batting in the bottom of the first. Once it stopped, Huntsville took a 1-0 lead when Jason Rogers tried to move in to third on a pitch in the dirt, but Tucker Barnhart’s throw got away and allowed Rogers to score the first run of the game.
Pensacola evened the score in the fourth when Mike Costanzo unloaded on his third home run of the season, all against Huntsville. In the fifth, the Wahoos went ahead with back to back doubles from Jon Moscot and Ryan LaMarre. That proved to be all the Wahoos needed as Moscot (W, 2-1) finished five strong innings on the mound allowing just the one unearned run on only two hits with four strikeouts to earn his second win of the season.
Trevor Bell nailed down the save, his 15th of the season with a 1-2-3 seventh inning.
In the second game, the Blue Wahoos used a solo home run from Brandon Short to kick start the offense. Later in the inning, Yorman Rodriguez plated two more with a two-run single to right. That was enough with the Wahoos holding off late rallies of a run each from the Stars in the fourth and fifth innings. With the Wahoos batting in the top of the seventh, the rains hit hard at Joe Davis Stadium immediately following a double to right by Corey Wimberly. The game was delayed and eventually called making the Wahoos the winners of the rain-shortened game.
Parker Frazier (W, 2-1) earned the win for the Blue Wahoos out of the bullpen with 1.2 scoreless innings worked. Stars starter Frankie De La Cruz (L, 1-4) surrendered all three Pensacola runs and was charged with the loss. Daniel Renken started for Pensacola and allowed just one run on four hits over four innings. He fanned six while walking just two.
The Blue Wahoos and the Stars will continue the series on Tuesday night in Huntsville. Pensacola will send RHP Tim Crabbe (6-8, 3.35) against Stars RHP Taylor Jungmann (9-8, 3-95). First pitch is slated for 6:43 p.m.
Rainbows And Rain Showers
August 20, 2013
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Tuesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 71. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Wednesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 88. Northeast wind around 5 mph becoming south in the afternoon.
- Wednesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 71. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Thursday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 93. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph in the afternoon.
- Thursday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 72. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Friday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 91. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph in the afternoon.
- Friday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 72. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Saturday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 91.
- Saturday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 73.
- Sunday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 90.
- Sunday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 72.
- Monday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 90.
Pictured: A rainbow Monday afternoon over Flomaton, Ala. Photo by Ditto Gorme for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Democrats’ Chief Financial Officer Candidate Out After Bankruptcies Emerge
August 20, 2013
Allie Braswell, who last week was rolled out as the Democrats’ first high-profile challenger for a state Cabinet post, ended his campaign Monday following revelations that he had filed for bankruptcy three times, most recently in 2008.
Braswell, 51, the head of the Central Florida Urban League, apologized to supporters while taking full responsibility for his actions in a release that announced his departure from the 2014 campaign for Florida’s chief financial officer.
“The bright spotlight of a statewide campaign has cast the ups and downs of my life into harsh relief, and I now know that this campaign is not the way I was meant to serve my community,” Braswell said in the release. “Running statewide is a daunting challenge for any candidate; as a political outsider, I have now learned that I underestimated how my campaign would affect those I care about most.”
On Friday, a day after Braswell opened his campaign, The Florida Times-Union reported that Braswell had filed for bankruptcy in Orlando in 2008, after having done so twice in South Carolina in the 1990s.
Joshua Karp, a spokesman for the Florida Democratic Party, said Monday that while Braswell is a self-made man, he was “not ready for the rigors of a statewide campaign, and that was plain.”
Steve Schale, a Democratic political consultant, wrote on Twitter that Braswell made the right decision.
“Braswell had an immense mountain to climb if he ran perfect campaign,” Schale tweeted. “After that first day, he was done. Smart to get out now.”
Braswell’s sudden departure leaves the Democrats once again without a highly recognizable name for a Cabinet post in 2014.
Karp expects that will change, but he wouldn’t say if the party had anyone lined up for the CFO slot.
“In the course of a long campaign cycle, with a lot of statewide offices, I think you’ll see any number of people consider it,” Karp said.
Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and Attorney General Pam Bondi make up an all-GOP Cabinet and plan to run for re-election. Each won by at least 13 percentage points in 2010.
Atwater has already raised $195,125 in cash for his re-election bid and received $366,651 in in-kind contributions, state elections records show.
Last Thursday, Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Allison Tant praised Braswell as “exactly the kind of leader we need in Tallahassee.”
Republican Party of Florida Chairman Lenny Curry used Braswell’s departure as a chance to take a shot at his Democratic counterpart.
“Allie Braswell had better sense to drop out than Allison Tant did to endorse him,” Curry said in a statement. “To back a candidate in charge of Florida’s finances without vetting that candidate’s handling of his personal finances shows either a high level of incompetence or a new level of desperation for Allison Tant.”
Karp declined to discuss party candidate vetting.
Democrat Thaddeus “Thad” Hamilton also has filed to run for agriculture commissioner. Hamilton drew 2 percent of the vote for that office as a non-partisan candidate four years ago.
According to the Times-Union, Braswell said the first bankruptcy filing in South Carolina was dismissed because of a mistake, leading to the second. Braswell said he “used bankruptcy as way to responsibly pay my debt” and that his financial problems would allow him to empathize with voters.
“Honestly, my story is of a regular guy,” Braswell told the Times-Union. “I’ve felt the pain that a lot of people feel.”
Braswell, who spent 13 years in the Marine Corps and whose career after the military included time as a technology executive with Disney, said when he entered the race that he would focus on foreclosures and property-insurance rates. He touted his ability to cut a $14 million budget he oversaw at Disney to $11 million without cutting jobs.
In his withdrawal statement, Braswell pointed to his experiences, including his personal financial struggles, for what made him want to run for the statewide office in 2014.
“At the Urban League, I work every day with people who are struggling to make it,” Braswell said. “As I have experienced struggles in my life, so many people are struggling, and that is what inspired me to run for Florida’s chief financial officer — to be a champion, standing up for the poor and middle class.”
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Donald Elburn Morris
August 20, 2013
Mr. Donald Elburn Morris, age 59 of Brewton, died Sunday, August 11, 2013, in Biloxi, MS.
Mr. Morris was born in Mobile and had been a long time resident of Brewton. He was a veteran of the Vietnam War, having served with the U.S. Marine Corps. Mr. Morris worked as a truck driver. He was of the Christian faith and was a member of the American Legion. Mr. Morris was preceded in death by his father, Mr. Marvin Raymond Morris and a brother, Mr. Marvin Stanley Morris.
He is survived by his mother, Mrs. Hazel P. Morris of Brewton; nephews, Daniel Morris of Gatlinburg, TN, and Raymond (Rachel) Morris of Fife Lake, MI; nieces, Gina Welch of Cantonment, and Angela Nicole Grantham of Axis, AL; four great-nephews; and special friends, Jane Middleton of Kinmundy, IL and Robin Delph of Maple, NC.
Funeral services were held on Friday, August 16, 2013 from the chapel of Craver’s Funeral Home with Rev. Phillip Pettis and Rev. Barbara Pugh officiating.
Interment, with military honors, was at Green Acres Memorial Gardens.
Wesley Nelson
August 20, 2013
Wesley Nelson, 91, of Pensacola, died Tuesday, August 13, 2013. Wesley was born September 13, 1921, in Brewton, and was a retired truck driver and former produce worker.
Wesley is survived by his children, Raymond J. Nelson, Sr. (Nell), Wesley Henry Nelson (Cindy), Joseph F. Nelson, Sr. (Marie), Carl Eugene Nelson (Pat), Shirley Ann Phillips (Gene) and Mary Delores Adkisson (Robert); numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
Pallbearers will be Joseph Nelson, Jr., James R. Nelson, Charles Nelson, John Godwin, Luther E. Godwin and Henry Joseph Godwin.
Funeral services were held Friday, August 16, 2013, at Faith Chapel North with Rev. Donald Leavins officiating.
Interment was at Pensacola Memorial Gardens.
Faith Chapel Funeral Home North is in charge of arrangements.
Pensacola State College Theatre Technician Missing
August 19, 2013
Escambia County Sheriff’s investigators are attempting to locate a missing Pensacola State College theatre technician last seen leaving work a week ago.
Tiffany Heaven Daniels, 25, of Pensacola, has not been seen since August 12 at 5 p.m. when she left PSC. She is 5-foot, 7-inches tall with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was driving a gray 1999 Toyota 4-Runner.
Friends and family said her vehicle, bike and cell phone were found on Pensacola Beach Tuesday in the Park West parking lot. Volunteers spent the day scouring the beach and passing out flyers while looking for information about Daniels’ whereabouts.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9620.
Rainy Back To School Forecast
August 19, 2013
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Monday: Showers and thunderstorms likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 89. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- Monday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 72. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
- Tuesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 89. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph in the morning.
- Tuesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 72. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
- Wednesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 89. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph in the morning.
- Wednesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 73. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Thursday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 91. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph in the afternoon.
- Thursday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 72. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Friday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 91.
- Friday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 71.
- Saturday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 92.
- Saturday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 73.
- Sunday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 92.
Thomas: New School Year Brings Focus On Improvement
August 19, 2013
As about 40,000 students head back to school today in Escambia County, Superintendent Malcolm Thomas says the district is ready for a successful school year.
“We are looking for new ways to engage students,” he said, “and teachers are working every hard toward that goal.”
Following last year, when a majority of Escambia schools dropped one letter on their school grade, Thomas said the focus will be academic improvement.
One simple target will be tardiness. If a student misses the first 30 minutes every day, the superintendent said, that amounts a significant amount of class time over the course of a week or a month. Part of that focus will be geared toward parental responsibility.
“We are also going to bring back a better focus on attendance,” Thomas said, “especially at the elementary level.” Awards will return for monthly perfect attendance to encourage other students to attend school everyday.”
Thomas said statistics show the majority of students in Escambia County with low standardized test scores miss more than 15 days per year.
“We are going to have a clear focus on incentives to improve,” Thomas said. “And we are going to have a great school year.”