War Of Words Continues Over The Escambia County Jail
June 20, 2013
Words continue to fly over the Escambia County Jail as county commissioners and the sheriff make public letters between their respective sides.
On Wednesday, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan sent a response letter to Commissioner Grover Robinson concerning the jail (click here to read). The sheriff was responding to an earlier letter from Robinson (click here to read).
The letters started with a June 13 correspondence from the sheriff to the commission (click to read), in which he said he was returning the jail to their control on September 1.
The Sheriff’s Office and the county commission remain deadlocked on how to best bring the Escambia County Jail into compliance with a Department of Justice report and pay for the changes.
Dept. Of Revenue Employee Charged With Illegally Searching Info On Her Ex
June 20, 2013
A Florida Department of Revenue employee has been arrested on a felony computer crimes warrant charging her with illegally using a state computer computer system to look up information about her ex-husband.
Amanda Pritchett, age 34 of South Pine Barren Road, McDavid, was charged under a state property crimes statute that prohibits accessing a computer system without authority. She was released from the Escambia County Jail on a $1,000 bond.
Pritchett was employed by the Department of Revenue and worked at Children and Family Services as a Revenue Specialist II working with Child Support Enforcement. As part of her job, she had signed paperwork outlining how the computer system was to be used only for official business, according to an arrest report.
It was discovered that she had used the computer system in 2012 to conduct a search on her ex-husband using his social security number when his employer, a Pensacola car dealership, received an Employee Information Verification Letter from Children and Family Services. The envelope had no Children and Family Services markings and had a return address of a post office box in Cantonment. The form also instructed the car dealership to return the completed form to Amanda Pritchett at a Cantonment post office box, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
The human resource director at the car dealership made contact with DCF Child Support Enforcement. A review by the DOR discovered Pritchett’s actions, and she was released from employment with the agency, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
A log of Pritchett’s internet history showed the inappropriate computer access, according to investigators.
Growing Together: Carver Community Center Kids Learn About Food Production
June 20, 2013
About 50 children, ages 5-14, in a summer education series program at the Carver Community Center in Century are learning a lot about food this summer.
UF IFAS/Extension Escambia County Agents have teamed up with Carver Community Center Director Marilyn Robinson to offer lessons related to nutrition, preparing healthy food, water resources, insects, livestock, discovering where originates, and healthy choices for the youth of Century.
On Wednesday, youth, chaperones and Extensions agents set out on a small farm tour to get up close and personal with food production.
Near Walnut Hill, James Earl and Blaire Hall shared information about their black Angus operation and James Earl and Tucker Hall’s watermelon patch. Unfortunately, Hall’s watermelons are not ripe just yet, but the kids still learned about subsurface drip irrigation, the importance of bees and pollination in watermelons, and how to produce tasty watermelons.
James Earl Hall also shared how livestock producers care for their animals and ensure herd health. One ambitious volunteer allowed himself to be placed in a cattle catch chute so the group could learn what it’s like for cattle to visit the doctor.
After a lunch at the Oak Grove Community Center, the Carver Community Center kids visited Matt’s Produce in Byrneville where the kids saw tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, green bell peppers, yellow banana peppers, and cayenne peppers growing on plastic with subsurface drip. They were also invited to pick fresh blackberries, and try blueberries fresh off the bush.
Many of the children at the Carver Community Center also received free shoes Wednesday as part of the Soles4Souls program.
Above: Fresh veggies at Matt Carter’s Farm near Byrneville.
Above: Learning about a cattle operation with James Earl Hall.
Above: Making a healthy snack.
Above: Enjoying fresh parfaits.
Above: Learning about a worm farm.
Above: Working with the younger children in the program.
Above: Many children at the Carver Community Center received free shoes Wednesday through the Soles4Souls program.
Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
U.S. Marshals Arrest Fugitives For Drug Crimes, Child Sex Offenses
June 20, 2013
The U.S. Marshals Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested two wanted men in the past 24 hours, one a convicted felon wanted to face drug charges in Escambia County, the other a man who faces charges for child pornography and traveling to meet a young boy to purportedly engage in sexual activity.
Robert Lee Hawthorne Jr., 28, wassought by the Marshals Task Force who spent most of today following leads throughout Pensacola. They finally caught up with fugitive Hawthorne at about 2 o’clock Tuesday afternoon where they tracked him to a home on the 2300 block of Jordan Street. Marshals and Task Force Officers from the Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa Sheriff’s Offices arrested him without incident. Hawthorne is wanted by the Escambia County Sherriff’s Office for failure to appear on cocaine possession charges. Hawthorne has an extensive criminal past that includes violent crimes and violence toward law enforcement. Hawthorne is being held in the Escambia County Jail.
Tuesday evening, US Marshals and Task Force members from the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office arrested 79 year-old Norman Rushton in a Hotel in Crestview. Rushton is wanted by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office on a revoked bond warrant for computer pornography and child exploitation, as well as traveling to meet a minor for sexual activity. The Marshals Pensacola Task Force was asked to help the Marshals in Panama City last week following leads that led them to Costa Rica and finally back to the Panhandle yesterday. Rushton was arrested without incident and transported to the Okaloosa County Jail where he remains until he is transported to Bay County.
Counties, Not Including Escambia, OK Incentives To Lure Amazon
June 20, 2013
The Hillsborough County Commission has started to fill its shopping cart with a fiscal package to try to attract Internet giant Amazon, an action under consideration in several communities across central and northeast Florida. Escambia County has not considered any incentives to possibly tease Amazon.
“This is fiscal responsibility,” Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra Murman said Wednesday of the overall $6.6 million local incentives package. “There are hard-working taxpayers in south (Hillsborough) county who want their tax dollars spent to create jobs, and that is the value we’re going to get for this.”
Meanwhile, the Tallahassee-based fiscal group Florida TaxWatch supported the collection of online sales taxes that would come once the Seattle-based retailer begins operating a brick-and-mortar location inside Florida.
TaxWatch President Dominic Calabro said the collection of sales taxes from out-of-state, online retailers could allow Florida to decrease property or corporate taxes, which he said have discouraged investment in the state.
“Not collecting the remote sales and use tax hurts Florida, Floridians and our employees,” Calabro said. “It costs us thousands of jobs.”
Calabro said that as more states push to collect online taxes, Congress will be encouraged to approve the federal Marketplace Fairness Act, which he estimates could increase Florida’s revenue by up to $1 billion a year.
The Marketplace Fairness Act is proposed to end a loophole that has allowed online retailers to avoid collecting sales taxes on purchases made in Florida and many other states where the online businesses don’t have physical presences, such as warehouses.
The act has received mixed reaction in the U.S. House, with U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., joining Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform at a Washington, D.C., press conference on Tuesday to oppose the measure.
The Florida Retail Federation, which supports the act, took exception to DeSantis for siding with “remote sellers outside Florida.”
Conservatives have questioned the act, which is often described as a tax increase on consumers and small businesses. Gov. Rick Scott has voiced his support for closing the online sales-tax loophole, so long as the increased revenue would be offset by cuts in other taxes or fees.
Amazon currently does not collect sales taxes from Florida customers but would have to start if it builds warehouse facilities in the state.
When a spokeswoman for the governor’s office said in May that a potential deal with Amazon had been scuttled, the reason given was that the two sides were unable to reach an agreement on when the company would have to start collecting sales taxes. Amazon wanted to delay collection.
But last week, the governor’s office outlined plans by the online retailer to create more than 3,000 jobs and spend more than $300 million in investments in Florida, with Amazon saying it would abide by state tax-collection laws.
Since the release, the state and Amazon have remained quiet about additional details of setting up shop in Florida, offering no comment Wednesday on the action of the Hillsborough County Commission. Meanwhile discussions about attracting Amazon have also occurred in Winter Haven, Ocala, Lakeland and Jacksonville.
Besides creating jobs for the southeast side of the county, Hillsborough commissioners envision dramatic changes for their region, with a “dynamic” company moving forward with a same-day delivery system that will attract other companies to their community.
And they spoke glowingly of the potential tax dollars.
Hillsborough County Commissioner Victor Crist said the collection of sales taxes will be a good thing for both Florida and the local governments seeking to build infrastructure.
“To the county which they reside in, that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” Crist said.
Murman expects Amazon to become a magnet for other companies.
“This is our hurricane, the feeder bands that come off this will be unbelievable,” Murman said.
Hillsborough commissioners agreed to offer up to $225,000, equal to a 20 percent match of money that the state could put through its Qualified Target Industries Tax Refund Program. To get the full state and local credit, Amazon would have to create 375 new, higher-wage jobs at a facility expected to be located in what is now a dirt-patch along Interstate 75 in Ruskin, on the east side of Tampa Bay.
The commissioners also agreed to hold a public hearing July 17 on providing $6.4 million in property-tax exemptions that would be spread over seven years.
The property tax exemptions would require the company to make a $200 million capital investment and create at least 75 well-paying jobs.
By The News Service of Florida
Pinestraw Convicted Of Murdering Toddler
June 20, 2013
A Cantonment man previously featured on America’s Most has been convicted of murdering a toddler.
The jury returned the verdict Wednesday afternoon against 21-year old Dwayne “Money” Pinestraw for the shooting death of 19-month old Ty’Quarius Moultrie on July 15, 2011. Pinestraw fired a .45-caliber gun through the window of a Pensacola Village apartment, striking to toddler. He was arrested in Texas in December 2011, hours after being featured on the television program American’s Most Wanted.
He was convicted of first degree murder, which normally carries a life sentence. His sentencing date has not yet been set.
It took a jury about four hours to return the guilty verdict.
Earlier, his co-defendant Shaquill Besst, 20, pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of second degree murder and now faces a maximum 20 years in prison for his plea.
Ethel Brown Strength
June 20, 2013
Ethel Brown Strength passed away at her home in Atmore on Tuesday, June 19, 2013. She was born on March 5, 1921 in Mineola in Monroe County, AL and was a lifelong resident of Alabama except for a brief period when she lived near Fort Bragg, N.C. during World War II. She was the ninth and youngest child born to John Wesley and Susie Lucinda (Chaudron) Brown.
During her marriage to her first husband, Fred N. Strength, which ended in divorce, three daughters were born to them, Bernice, Barbara Sue, and Montez.
Mrs. Strength first moved to Atmore with her daughter, Barbara Sue, during World War II. Her first employer in Atmore was Bristow’s Drug Store in 1946. She was later employed for many years by Goodwill Manufacturing Company (the Ribbon Mill) on North Main Street working there from about the time it first opened until it closed. She retired fromVanity Fair Mills.
Since the spring of 1956, she was a faithful member of Brooks Memorial Baptist Church. She was preceded in death by her parents, two daughters, Bernice and Montez, who died in
infancy, all of her brothers and sisters and their spouses, Dewey Brown (Rether), Della Whatley (Ira), Clarence Brown (Ruth), Ike Brown (Ethel), Walter Brown (Opal), Ernest Brown (Edna), Agnes Johnson (Ernest), and Fred Brown (Gladys), and her husbands, John Henry Pugh, and Leon Elijah Strength.
She is survived by her daughter, Barbara Sue Strength Post and husband, J. Wayne Post, in Helena, Montana; two grandsons, Mitchell W. Post of Ignacio, Colorado, and J. Alan Post and his wife, Sarah, and their three children, Brandon, Elizabeth, and Alexandria, and two great-great-grandchildren, all of Billings, Montana; granddaughter, Shannon Leigh Post of Talkeetna, Alaska; stepdaughter, Anne Strength McGuigan (James) and her daughter, Jennifer Allen Blanton (John) and their two sons, Aaron and Kyle of Atmore; stepson, Tim Strength, of Pace and his daughter, Alicia Strength of North Carolina; and numerous nieces and nephews, other relatives, and friends.
Services will be held Saturday, June 22, 2013, at Brooks Memorial Baptist Church in Atmore. Visitation will begin at 12 p.m. and continue until the service time at 2 p.m.
Honorary pallbearers are Mrs. Strength’s Ladies Sunday School Class.
Active pallbearers are Alan Post, Tim Strength, Vernon Brown, Ed Brown, Hubert Brown, and Aubrey Till.
Mrs. Strength will be buried at Oak Hill Cemetery.
Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home is in handling funeral services.
Urban Gardening Project For Children Flourishing
June 20, 2013
Ever’man Natural Foods and the Pathways For Change children’s program, “Pathways For Success” have spent the last six months working on an urban gardening program for children in Pensacola.
Despite the humble beginnings of the partnership, the project is now flourishing and the staff and volunteers are looking to further enhance and expand this educational opportunity for the children.
The Pathways For Success afterschool and summer care program is offered four days per week for children ranging in grades 1-5. After connecting with Ever’man Natural Foods at the end of last year, the two organizations transformed an asphalt area behind the afterschool and summer program center into a lush series of container gardens.
The project works to educate children on healthy food and gardening while empowering the kids to take responsibility for the garden by encouraging input and effort, such as choosing which plants to cultivate and watering the garden regularly.
Throughout the summer months, gardening will continue while staff members look toward the fall, pursing new grants to cover the modest cost need for each season’s transition.
“When a little boy took my hand and drew me to his garden, I knew this project was special. When he said, ‘Look Ms. Connie, this is broccoli, I thought it only came in a box!’ I knew we were changing a future,” said Connie Bookman, the executive director of Pathways for Change.
Pictured: An urban garden behind Pathways for Change in Pensacola. Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Guards Attacked At Holman Prison, Facility Placed On Lockdown
June 20, 2013
Two guards were attacked by prisoners at Holman Prison in Atmore Tuesday night, the Alabama Department of Corrections said Wednesday.
The first attack occurred during a routine shower call, with an inmate and officer involved in an altercation. As more officers responded, a second altercation occurred between a different prisoner and guard. Both altercations were brought under control quickly, and the facility was placed under lockdown.
Both guards and one prisoner were transported to an area hospital for treatment.
Further details, including the names of those involved and their conditions, have not been released pending a continuing investigation.
New Districts Proposed For High School Baseball, Softball
June 20, 2013
New baseball and softball districts proposed last week by the Florida High School Athletic Association will mean some changes for several local schools.
The Tate Aggies and Navarre will move up to a new District 1-7A, along with Niceville, Crestview and Fort Walton Beach.
District 1-6A will drop to six teams without Tate and Navarre — Pine ForestEscambia, Milton, Pace, PHS and Washington.
The West Florida Jaguars and Catholic will be in District 1-4A along with Walton and Marianna.
The Northview Chiefs and Jay Royals will move into District 1-3A in Region 2 along with Baker, Chipley, Freeport and Holmes County.
Schools can appeal the new district alignments with the FHSAA until June 25.