Wahoos, Braves A Washout
August 18, 2013
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos’ contest with the Mississippi Braves scheduled for Saturday night at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium was canceled due to inclement weather. The game will not be made up as the Braves and Blue Wahoos do not meet again this season.
Fans with tickets to Saturday night’s game can use their ticket for any of the final five 2013 regular season home games, subject to availability for a ticket of equal or lesser value. Exchanges must be made in person at the Blue Wahoos Ticket Office.
The Wahoos now hit the road for a six-game series with the Huntsville Stars starting on Sunday afternoon at 4:03 p.m. Carlos Contreras (1-2, 3.12), Saturday’s scheduled starter, will now get the call on Sunday against Huntsville’s Drew Gagnon (4-6, 5.51).
Sue Hartfelder
August 18, 2013
Sue Hartfelder, 64, passed away August 16, 2013, in Milton. She was a native of Pennsylvania but was a long-time resident of Pensacola and most recently of Milton. She received her undergraduate degree from Bloomsburg State College in Pennsylvania and her graduate degree from Bradley University in Illinois. From 1983 untiil 2001 Sue worked as a speech pathologist in Pensacola area schools and since 2001, was employed as a speech therapist at Bagdad Elementary School in Santa Rosa County. Her hobbies included gardening, making preserves and especially Jalapeno jelly. She had a special love for children and had a unique ability to relate to children of all ages. Those who love her valued her kindness, generosity, and her abundant energy.
Sue was preceded in death by her parents, Warren and June Dieffenderfer.
She is survived by her loving husband of 41 years, Bill Hartfelder (USMC-Ret); three sons, William ‘Burke’ (Kate) Hartfelder III, Rick (Casey) Hartfelder and Greg (Yuka) Hartfelder; six grandchildren, William ‘Will’ Burke Hartfelder IV, twins April and Hayley Hartfelder, Taylor High, Riley High, and Makoto Hartfelder and many friends and former students.
Visitation will be Wednesday, August 21 from 12 p.m. until services begin at 2 p.m. at Faith Chapel Funeral Home North. Reverend Clyde Knights will officiate. Burial will follow at Coldwater Creek in Milton.
Faith Chapel Funeral Home North is in charge of arrangements.
Weekend Shopping: School Supply Lists
August 18, 2013
School starts Monday, August 19 in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. Here are the school supply lists from each elementary school and middle school in Escambia County, plus the North Escambia area schools in Santa Rosa County.
(High schools typically do not have a general supply list. Students are advised of their supply needs in each class.)
North Escambia Area Schools:
- Bratt Elementary
- Byrneville (not provided)
- Central School
- Chumuckla Elementary
- Ernest Ward Middle
- Jay Elementary
- Jim Allen Elementary
- Lipscomb Elementary
- McArthur Elementary
- Molino Park Elementary
- Pine Meadow Elementary
- Ransom Middle
Complete Escambia County Lists:
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
- Bellview Elementary
- Beulah Elementary
- Blue Angels Elementary
- Bratt Elementary
- Brentwood Elementary
- Byrneville (not provided)
- Cook Elementary
- Cordova Park Elementary
- Ensley Elementary
- Ferry Pass Elementary
- Global Learning Academy
- Hellen Caro Elementary
- Holm Elementary
- Jim Allen Elementary
- Lincoln Park Elementary
- Lipscomb Elementary
- Longleaf Elementary
- McArthur Elementary
- McMillan Pre-K
- Molino Park Elementary
- Montclair Elementary
- Myrtle Grove Elementary
- Navy Point Elementary
- Oakcrest Elementary
- Pine Meadow Elementary
- Pleasant Grove Elementary
- Scenic Heights Elementary
- Semmes Elementary
- Sherwood Elementary
- Suter Elementary
- Warrington Elementary
- Weis Elementary
- West Pensacola Elementary
MIDDLE SCHOOLS
- Bailey Middle
- Bellview Middle
- Brown Barge Middle
- Ernest Ward Middle
- Ferry Pass Middle
- Ransom Middle
- Warrington Middle
- Woodham Middle
- Workman Middle
Birth: Carter Ray Wells
August 18, 2013
Carter Ray Wells was born July 16, 2013, at 1:18 to parents Brandy and Jeffrey Wells of McDavid. He weighed seven-pounds, 11-ounces and was 20 inches long.
He maternal grandparents are Anthony (Georgia) Watts of Seminole and Carrie ( Rufus) Evans of Brewton. Paternal grandparents are Jerry and Brenda Wells of McDavid. Carter was welcomed home by big brother Ashton and big sister Justina.
Wet Weekend Forecast; Flash Flood Watch In Effect
August 17, 2013
There is a flash flood watch in effect until 7 p.m. Saturday. Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Saturday: Showers and thunderstorms likely. Cloudy, with a high near 82. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
- Saturday Night: Showers and thunderstorms likely. Cloudy, with a low around 70. Southeast wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- Sunday: Showers and thunderstorms likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 86. South wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
- Sunday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 71. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming east after midnight.
- Monday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 88. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph in the morning.
- Monday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 73. East wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Tuesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 91. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph in the afternoon.
- Tuesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 73. Northeast wind around 5 mph.
- Wednesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 91.
- Wednesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 73.
- Thursday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 92.
- Thursday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 74.
- Friday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 92.
Tuff Times: Burglars Strike Thrift Store That Benefits Homeless Animals
August 17, 2013
A burglary is under investigation at a Cantonment thrift store that benefits homeless and orphaned animals.
The burglary was discovered Friday morning at the Tuff Times Thrift Store on Neal Road, just off Highway 29. Owner Amanda Gifford said hundreds of dollars worth of items were stolen and the store was damaged by thieves. The thieves ransacked an area until they found, and stole, the video surveillance equipment.
She said the thieves entered the store by busting out a window air conditioning unit.
“I work extremely had to keep my prices very low to give the community a little place to shop that’s inexpensive, and I also use the funds to turn around and help homeless and orphaned animals in the community. It’s just a shame that there are people out there that would even steal from a second-hand store,” Gifford said.
The burglary is under investigation by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. Anyone with information on the burglary is asked to call the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9620 or Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP.
Pictured top: The Tuff Times thrift store in Cantonment. Pictured inset: A sign posted in front of the business warns of surveillance cameras. Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Former Pensacola FDLE Special Agent In Charge Arrested
August 17, 2013
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s former top agent in Pensacola was arrested Friday on petit theft charges.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement Office of Executive Investigations received a complaint in June of 2013 regarding former FDLE Pensacola Regional Operations Center Special Agent in Charge Steve Desposito, 48, of Pensacola The complainant alleged that Desposito had appropriated FDLE property for personal use, and the FDLE Office of Executive Investigations, subsequently initiated an investigation.
The investigation revealed that Desposito took fence posts that were the property of the State of Florida and appropriated them for his personal use. Inspectors presented their findings to the Office of the State Attorney, 1st Judicial Circuit, and Desposito was charged with one count of petit theft.
“This is a sad day for FDLE,” said FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey. “We hold our members to the highest standard of integrity and unfortunately, Mr. Desposito breached that trust.”
Desposito surrendered himself at the Escambia County Jail at approximately 1 p.m. Friday. He was released from jail on a $1,000 bond.
Desposito was promoted to Special Agent in Charge in September 2010. He was placed on leave in June pending the outcome of this investigation and resigned in July. He had been a member of FDLE since 1993.
The case will be prosecuted by the Office of the State Attorney, 1st Judicial Circuit.
Work Release Inmate Charged With Car Lot Murder
August 17, 2013
A work release inmate has been charged with a murder last Wednesday at a Pensacola car dealership.
Justin Princes Taylor, 24, was charged with first degree murder and possession of weapon in connection with the August 14 murder of 53-year old Adnan Mohamed Dali Glelati in his office at 7 Stars Auto at 5401 North W Street, next door to the Fast Eddies Fun Center on Michigan Avenue.
Taylor is being held without bond. He was currently assigned to the Escambia County Work Release program, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. His arrest history includes grand theft auto, grand theft, burglary and battery.
Further details, including a possible motive for the crime, have not yet been released. The Sheriff’s Office said Saturday morning that no additional information will be made available until Monday.
Pictured: A man was found dead at 7 Starts Auto on W Street in Pensacola Wednesday morning. Photos by Amber Southard, WEAR 3, for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Dreams And More Dreams
August 17, 2013
As summer began to wind down in Tallahassee, at least one of the sources of inspiration or annoyance for the capital’s denizens wound down as well.
The Dream Defenders, who held the longest-lasting protests in recent memory at the state Capitol, announced they would move on. None of their goals had truly been accomplished, but the protesters argued that they would push forward with enough votes to oust Gov. Rick Scott in 2014, if it came to that.
More action, though, was already in the offing in Tallahassee. Scott announced a lawsuit against the state’s neighbor to the north, the latest skirmish in a three-way “water war,” and Democrats began plotting for campaigns that will provide fodder for more than a year.
DREAMING OF AN END
“What happens to a dream deferred?” Langston Hughes wrote in the poem “Harlem.” “Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun? / Or fester like a sore— / And then run?”
After a month-long occupation of the hallway outside Scott’s office, the Dream Defenders group decided that they had festered enough — and, if not quite run, were at least ready to leave. The last celebrity to visit them, civil-rights icon Julian Bond, applauded the group at its going-away press conference.
“It’s fitting that the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington is coming up in a few days,” he said. “That movement made this movement possible, and that movement — your movement — gave our movement its legacy.”
The sit-in protest began July 16, following the acquittal of Georgia Zimmerman in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The protesters asked for the state to repeal its controversial “stand your ground” self-defense law, which grants immunity to people who use deadly force if they have reason to believe their lives are in danger. Also they called for taking steps to end racial profiling and to get rid of zero-tolerance school discipline policies that the protesters said hurt children’s ability to get an education, often for trivial offenses.
While Zimmerman never used the “stand your ground” law in his defense, instead relying on a more traditional self-defense claim, the discussion of the law often dominated the early debate over the case. And it often overshadowed the other changes the Dream Defenders said they were looking for.
Ending their protest after 31 days, the demonstrators pointed to a list of what they called accomplishments, even as critics could point out that they didn’t have much to show in terms of results. The group forced a poll of lawmakers that could have resulted in a special session to deal with “stand your ground.” But it will end up well short of the 96 lawmakers needed to support a special session; by the end of the week the idea was losing by a 96-45 margin.
The protests prompted House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, to announce a hearing on “stand your ground,” but the chairman of the subcommittee that will hold the hearing has said he’s not inclined to change “one damn comma” of the law.
One thing protesters seemed to do successfully was to discourage Scott from showing up at the Capitol. The governor rarely appeared at his office during the protests. He also seemed content to allow the protests to run out of steam on their own, even as legislative leaders ran out of patience and called for the demonstrators to leave.
After the state had spent more than $400,000 on security for the protests — some of it in the form of overtime for Capitol police — Scott thanked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement “for providing a safe environment for people to exercise their First Amendment rights. We live in a great state, in a great nation, where everyone is free to express their views.”
But the Dream Defenders also vowed to be back Sept. 23, the first committee week leading up to the 2014 regular session. So had the sit-in ended, or had it merely been deferred?
DREAMS OF MY WATER
While the protests raged on at his Tallahassee office, Scott made his way to the Panhandle on Tuesday, where he announced the latest escalation in a decades-long battle between Florida, Alabama and Georgia: a lawsuit at the U.S. Supreme Court aimed at getting more water released downstream from a lake that is used to slake the thirst of the Atlanta metropolitan complex.
For 23 years, the three states have bickered over how to divvy up the water in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River basin. Florida has argued that water use at the top of the system has reduced the downstream flow of freshwater to the Apalachicola Bay region, damaging that area’s oyster industry. Florida and Alabama say too much water is being siphoned off for Atlanta’s drinking water.
Last year, the Apalachicola Bay collapsed. The lack of freshwater combined with a historic drought to produce the lowest flows in 89 years — since they have been recorded. That followed a series of court rulings that sent the responsibility for regulating the flows back to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“It’s having a dramatic impact, and it’s because Georgia has taken our water,” Scott said. “The Corps of Engineers is not worried about us. That’s why Florida’s going to file suit against Georgia. Take this all this way to the Supreme Court.”
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal slammed Scott’s move in a statement.
“Gov. Scott’s threat to sue my state in the U.S. Supreme Court greatly disappoints me after I negotiated in good faith for two years,” Deal said in a prepared statement. “More than a year ago, I offered a framework for a comprehensive agreement. Florida never responded. It’s absurd to waste taxpayers’ money and prolong this process with a court battle when I’ve proposed a workable solution.”
The Atlanta area uses 360 million gallons of water per day, according to Scott’s office, and Georgia’s consumption is expected to nearly double to 705 million gallons per day by 2035 — about the entire amount of water in the Apalachicola Bay.
Scott was able to announce less antagonistic news Friday, saying the state’s unemployment rate had held steady at 7.1 percent. In a video message, Scott chose to focus on the number of jobs created in July.
“In the month of July the private sector in Florida generated over 34,000 jobs,” Scott said. “That’s right, over 34,000 private sector jobs. That’s the biggest growth in private sector jobs in any month in the last two and half years.”
Scott also said the total number of new jobs during his time in office — 369,100 — was half of his claim that he would add 700,000 jobs to the state’s workforce in seven years.
Democrats were quick to remind voters that Scott suggested at one debate that the 700,000 would be in addition to normal economic growth, which would push the number he needs to hit much higher. They also gave credit to President Barack Obama for the job growth.
“Before Rick Scott took office, he promised Floridians 1,700,000 new jobs — he’s barely 20 percent of the way there,” Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Allison Tant said in a written statement. “He has fallen so far short of his promises, his only choice is to take credit for jobs he didn’t create. The truth is that he’s been holding Florida back, with big tax giveaways for special interests.”
DREAMS OF THE DEMOCRATS
Meanwhile, the state party with the fewest legislative seats and just one statewide elected officeholder began dreaming up ways to overcome both problems — though at least one of those efforts seemed to end up with an early wake-up call regarding just how difficult it would be.
On Thursday, Democrats announced they had their first candidate for a Cabinet post, or at least the first candidate that the party was willing to put any weight behind. Allie Braswell, the 51-year-old head of the Central Florida Urban League, announced he would challenge Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater in 2014.
Unseating any of the three Republicans who currently hold the state’s Cabinet posts looks like a tall order; each of them won by at least 13 percentage points in 2010, and all could benefit if Obama’s sagging approval ratings and the normal six-year itch for incumbent presidents generate another GOP wave approaching the one in 2010.
But Braswell was undaunted, touting his ability to slash a $14 million budget he oversaw as a technology executive at Disney to $11 million without cutting jobs.
“We can tighten the belt, and we can also help Floridians,” Braswell said.
The next day, though, reports suggested that the new candidate had not been quite as successful with his personal finances. The Florida Times-Union reported Friday afternoon that Braswell has filed for bankruptcy three times, most recently in 2008 in Orlando.
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.”
The only other Democrat currently on the statewide ballot is Thaddeus “Thad” Hamilton, who is taking another shot at the agriculture commissioner post after getting 2 percent of the vote as a non-partisan candidate four years ago.
Democrats also felt hopeful about their chances to claim the Pasco County seat of former GOP Rep. Mike Fasano, who left the Legislature when Scott appointed him to the vacant tax collector’s office in that county. The seat is the only one in the GOP-friendly county with more registered Democrats than Republicans.
“Republicans have failed meeting the needs of the voters in District 36,” said Lynn Lindeman, chairman of the county’s Democratic Executive Committee, in an email. “They will pay the price, they should have listened to Mr. Fasano.”
But as of Friday, the party had not announced a candidate for the seat. Three Republicans had already filed.
STORY OF THE WEEK: The Dream Defenders decide to bring an end to a month-long sit-in protest over the state’s self-defense laws, school discipline policies and the issue of racial profiling.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Our work and our power have grown too big for these walls.”–Phillip Agnew, the Dream Defenders’ leader, on the decision to leave.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Chief Financial Officer Candidate Has Filed Bankruptcy Three Times
August 17, 2013
The newly-minted Democratic candidate for state chief financial officer has filed for bankruptcy three times, The Florida Times-Union reported on its website Friday afternoon.
According to the report, Allie Braswell most recently filed for bankruptcy in Orlando in 2008, after having done so twice in South Carolina in the 1990s.
According to the Times-Union, Braswell said the first 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 is the first high-profile Democratic candidate for a Cabinet post, though Thaddeus “Thad” Hamilton has filed for agriculture commissioner. Hamilton drew 2 percent of the vote for that office as a non-partisan candidate four years ago. Braswell is the president of the Central Florida Urban League.