May Century Community Pride Award Presented To Consultant
May 6, 2013
The Century Area Chamber of Commerce has presented their May 2013 Community Pride Award to town consultant Debbie Nickles. Nickles has played a key role in Century obtaining several grants, including grants that allowed for housing in the town to be rehabilitated or rebuilt. Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Atmore Murder Suspect Arrested
May 6, 2013
An Atmore man is behind bars, charged with an April 28 murder.
Kendrell “Dick” McCants, age 28 of Atmore, surrendered at the Atmore Police Department Saturday afternoon. He was charged with the April 28 murder of 50-year old Marvin D. Norman of Atmore. He is being held without bond in the Escambia County Detention Center in Brewton.
About 6:17 a.m. on Sunday morning, April 28, Atmore Police responded to a reported unconscious person in the 80 block of Brooks Lane. As officers arrived, they observed a man later identified as Norman on the ground in a yard. Police said he had injuries consistent with an assault.
Norman was transported by Atmore Ambulance to Atmore Community Hospital. He was later airlifted by LifeFlight to Baptist Hospital in Pensacola where he passed away a short time later.
List: Bills That Passed And Failed During 2013 Legislative Session
May 6, 2013
Here’s a look at significant bills that passed and failed during the 2013 Legislative session:
BILLS THAT PASSED
HEALTH CARE/MEDICINE
-HB 1159: Creating an expedited process for new nursing beds for certain communities, including The Villages retirement community in central Florida.
-HB 1159: Allowing Miami Children’s Hospital to offer 10 obstetrics beds.
-HB 1159: Creating a prescription drug monitoring database
-HB 1159: Requiring insurers who offer IV cancer drug coverage to also cover oral cancer medications
-HB 1129, requiring medical care for newborns who survive botched abortions and penalizing abortion providers who don’t provide medical care for infants born alive after a failed abortion.
-SB 1520, gradually revamping the state’s system of billing counties for Medicaid care.
-SB 1844, revising enrollment period for the Florida Health Choices Program, a marketplace program linking up Florida residents with health plans. It includes $900,000 for the program.
- HB 239, relating to practice of optometry. The bill will allow optometrists to start prescribing oral medications and reflected a compromise between optometrists and ophthalmologists. It allows optometrists to go beyond prescribing “topical” medications, such as drops and creams. – SIGNED BY GOVERNOR
ETHICS AND ELECTIONS
- SB 2, relating to ethics. The bill makes changes to state ethics law, such as barring elected officials from taking advantage of their positions to get taxpayer-funded jobs. Also, it includes blocking lawmakers from lobbying state agencies for two years after they leave office.
-HB 569, relating to Florida Election Code. The bill makes changes to the campaign-finance system, such as eliminating a type of political funding vehicle known as “committees of continuous existence,” or CCEs. It also ups limits on individual contributions to candidates.
-HB 7013, the elections bill that allows county supervisors to increase early voting days, among other things.
EDUCATION
-SB 1108, giving parents of exceptional students more say in their education
-SB 1076, the CAPE bill, attempting to tie educational goals to the job market
SMALL BUSINESS
-HB 623, relating to wine. The bill would allow the sale of wine in 5.16 gallon canisters which can be tapped like a keg, allowing easier sale of wine by the glass in restaurants and bars. Florida is one of only a couple of states that still requires wine to be sold in gallon or smaller wine bottles.
-SB 160, requiring the Department of Health to waive license fees for veterans
-HB 423, creating a sales tax break on dyed diesel fuel used by commercial fishermen, shrimpers, oystermen and clammers.
-HB 347, allowing craft distillers to sell small amounts directly to consumers.
LAWSUITS/TORTS
- HB 7015, relating to expert testimony. The business-backed bill that would tighten standards for expert witnesses in lawsuits. It would lead to Florida adopting the same standards that federal courts use in deciding whether expert testimony will be admitted.
-SB 1792, making changes to the medical malpractice lawsuit rules, including tightening requirements for expert witnesses.
- HB 55, relating to deceptive and unfair trade practices. The bill would require that customers give demand letters to auto dealers at least 30 days before filing lawsuits. Dealers could avoid litigation if, within that 30-day period, they pay the amounts sought in demand letters, along with surcharges of $500 or 10 percent of the amounts of damages claimed.
CRIMINAL LAW
-HB 7083, speeding up the death penalty appeals process
- SB 92, relating to searches and seizures. The bill will restrict the use of unmanned aerial drones by law enforcement. It bars law enforcement from using the automated surveillance aircraft unless a judge issues a warrant, there is a “high risk of terrorist attack” or officials fear someone is in imminent danger. SIGNED BY GOVERNOR
-HB 1355, closing a loophole in an effort to prevent people who are mentally ill but have committed themselves for treatment and then left from purchasing guns.
-SB 964, preventing a convicted rapist from suing for parental rights if a child is conceived as a result of the rape.
-SB 390, prohibiting businesses from claiming to be veterans service organizations when they’re not
- HB 95, relating to charitable contributions. The bill says that if a Ponzi schemer gives money to a charity, later that charity won’t have to surrender the money after a criminal prosecution, if it took it in good faith.
-HB 217 requiring check cashing companies to report checks over $1,000 to the state to try to prevent workers compensation-check cashing scams.
-HB 15, preventing protests at funerals
HOUSING
-SB 1852, setting out spending from the National Mortgage Foreclosure settlement
-HB 87, a bill aimed at speeding up the foreclosure process.
GAMING
- HB 155, relating to electronic gambling devices. The bill outlaws the types of electronic games used in Internet cafes, effectively shutting down the controversial industry. Lawmakers rushed to pass the bill after raids on Internet cafes across the state, charges of racketeering and illegal gambling and the resignation of Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll because of her past ties to the industry.
SIGNED BY GOVERNOR
TAXES
-HB 7007, contained an elimination for three years of the sales tax on manufacturing equipment, a key issue for Gov. Rick Scott.
-SB 406, the three day sales tax holiday on some items in August. Passed as part of a broader economic incentives bill.
-SB 342, which allows someone with a homestead exemption to rent their property out for 30 days without losing their homestead exemption
FAMILY LAW
-SB 1036: extending foster care to age 21, rather than 18 as is currently the case. It also has some independent living training language, and provides training and support for foster parents. The bill was named the Sen. Nancy C. Detert Common Sense and Compassion Independent Living Act.
-SB 718, overhauling the state’s alimony laws, including eliminating the concept of permanent alimony. It also would have created new legal standards based on the lengths of marriages and would set limits on the percentages of monthly income that could be awarded in alimony based on the lengths of marriages. VETOED BY GOVERNOR
INSURANCE
-SB 1770, setting up a clearinghouse to push Citizens Property Insurance policies into private companies, restricting Citizens coverage in some cases, giving the company an inspector general and changing how its leaders are appointed.
- SB 1842, relating to health insurance. The bill would make insurance-regulation changes as part of carrying out the federal Affordable Care Act. In part, it would temporarily rely on the federal government to do rate reviews for many insurers.
ENERGY
-SB 1472, putting in review benchmarks for power companies that want to collect money from customers in advances of building new nuclear generating plants.
- HB 4001, relating to Florida Renewable Fuel Standard Act. The bill would lift the 2008 state law requiring gasoline sold by a terminal suppliers or wholesalers to be blended with ethanol. The Florida Renewable Fuel Standard Act was created to attract the ethanol industry to Florida, but repeal supporters argued the requirement damages engines and drives up fuel and food costs.
TRANSPORTATION/HIGHWAY SAFETY/MOTOR VEHICLES
-SB 52, banning texting while driving except when stopped.
-HB 7125, keeping local governments from using red light cameras to ticket people for not stopping before turning right on red.
- HB 7059, which repealed a 2012 law that required foreigners to have a special international permit to drive in Florida. The 2012 law caused confusion among tourists, such as Canadian snowbirds. SIGNED BY GOVERNOR
-SB 606, creating the Northeast Florida Regional Transportation Commission, passed unanimously.
GOVERNMENT
-SB 50 guaranteeing people the right to speak before local government boards and commissions.
LABOR/EMPLOYMENT
-HB 655, to keep local governments from setting their own policies on forms of compensation like earned sick leave.
ENVIRONMENT/NAT RESOURCES
-HB 7065, setting up a process for Everglades cleanup
-HB 999, a wide-ranging permitting bill
MISC.
-SB 674, requiring many animal shelters and animal control agencies to keep records about how many animals they euthanize and make the records available to the public.
-SB 142, removing the word “retardation” from statutes in favor of “intellectual disability.”
———————-
BILLS THAT FAILED
HEALTH CARE
Several bills aimed at expanding health care coverage under the federal Affordable Care Act
Several bills aimed at increasing oversight over assisted living facilities
EDUCATION
-HB 867, the so-called “parent trigger” bill that would have given parents the ability to petition school district about a turnaround plan for failing schools.
-HB 1279, a bill overhauling the Florida High School Athletic Association
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/INCENTIVES
-SB 306, giving the Miami Dolphins the ability to get a local hotel tax increase and use it to renovate a stadium. Setting out a process for other facilities to get state money for rehabs.
TAXES/FEES
-SB 1832: Rolling back motor vehicle registration fee increases, lowering the cost by $12. In turn, the bill would eliminate a premium tax credit that out-of-state insurers pay based on payroll in Florida.
PENSIONS/RETIREMENT/LABOR ISSUES
-SB 1932: Changing the default retirement plan for state employees who don’t select a type of retirement plan to the defined contribution system and shortening the vesting period for those workers who choose the defined contribution plan, rather than the defined benefit pension plan.
-SB 1216, pre-empting wage theft regulations to the state.
AGRICULTURE
-HB 761, SB 752, making certain agricultural operations that use alternative energy technology eligible for capital investment tax credits
TOURISM
-SB 140, exempting short term rentals of cars used for 6 hours or less as part of a car sharing service from the rental car surcharge.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
-SB 1350, changing sentencing guidelines for juvenile offenders to deal with Supreme Court rulings preventing life sentences for certain juveniles.
-HB 797 preventing police from searching cell phones of arrestees without a warrant. (A Supreme Court ruling during the session essentially did the same thing, however.)
-HB 159: Increasing the amount of oxycodone and hydrocodone one may be in possession of before being charged with trafficking and reducing prison terms in some cases, therefore, for possession of prescription painkillers.
-SB 874, prohibiting open parties where minors are in possession or are consuming alcohol.
BUSINESS REGULATIONS
-HB 715: Allowing 64-ounce growlers to be filled up at brewpubs.
MISCELLANEOUS
-HB 589: Officially creating in statute the position of State Poet Laureate and providing for how the poet shall be chosen
-SB 634, re-enacting a ban on loud car stereos
-HB 58, a bill barring foreign legal systems from being honored in American family courts
FHSAA Overhaul To Wait Until At Least Next Year
May 6, 2013
The push by Lakeland-area lawmakers to assert more state control over the organization that oversees high school athletics in Florida failed to advance through the Legislature this year.
The measure which would have put new restrictions on investigations by the Florida High School Athletic Association, according to sponsor Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland.
“I’d prefer not to have to work on this again. I’d prefer the FHSAA do what we’ve asked them to do, which is restructure their bylaws (in a way) that is fair to students,” she said.
The bill also would have expanded the ability for students to transfer schools during the school year, give charter and home school students more opportunities to play for public school teams, alter the makeup of the board of directors, give school districts more say over athletic regulations in each county, and set a 2017 date to sunset the 93-year-old organization.
The FHSAA lobbied against the bill. The House had approved the measure 89-26 on April 24.
By The News Service of Florida
Pictured top: The coin toss before the FHSAA District 1A Football Championship game last December in Orlando between Northview and Trenton. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Local Students Win Rotary Four-Way Test Essay Contest
May 6, 2013
Four North Escambia students were recognized as winners in the annual Rotary Four-Way Test Essay Contest by the Suburban West Rotary Club.
Grand prize winner was Jessica Amerson of Northview High School, a student of Raja Atallah. She received a $500 prize. Other finalists, all from Tate High School, were first runner-up Noah Hintz (teacher Linda Leggett), Honya Richbourg (teacher Stephanie Tompkins) and Eion Blanchard (teacher Linda Leggett).
The Four-Way Test Essay Contest is open to all Escambia County high school students, with each participant writing a short essay on the topic “Why is the Rotary Four-Way Test relevant today?”. The Four-Way Test is used by Rotarians to encourage value-driven, ethical behavior at work, at home and in the community.
During a recent luncheon, the winners read their essays to the club and were presented with certificates of achievement and cash prizes.
Pictured top: Suburban West Rotary Four-Way Test Essay Contest finalists (L-R) Jessica Amerson, Northview; Noah Hintz, Tate; Eion Blanchard, Tate; and Honya Richbourg, Tate. Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Wahoos Avoid Sweep With 8-2 Blowout Over Montgomery
May 6, 2013
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos broke out the bats and snapped their season-high five-game losing streak with an 8-2 blowout win over the Montgomery Biscuits on Sunday afternoon at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium in front of a sell-out crowd of 5,038.
Pensacola used two big innings to put the game away early against Montgomery starter Victor Mateo (1-4). With runners on first and second and two outs in the second inning, Michael Gilmartin blooped an RBI double down the left field line to put the Wahoos on the board. Theo Bowe and Devin Lohman followed with RBI singles to open up a three-run advantage for Pensacola.
In the third inning, the Wahoos put the game out of reach in the span of four pitches. With one out and a runner on third, Tucker Barnhart singled up the middle to make it 4-0. On the next pitch, Bryson Smith launched a two-run homer to left center to give Pensacola a six-run lead. After a first-pitch ball, Travis Mattair blasted a solo homer to extend the Wahoos’ lead to seven. It was the first time all season that Pensacola had hit back-to-back homers.
Pensacola would add its eighth run of the day on a solo shot from Gilmartin in the fifth inning. It was Gilmartin’s first homer with the Wahoos and fourth overall this season. Every player in the Pensacola lineup reached base at least once and eight of the nine hitters recorded at least one base hit.
Montgomery chipped into the deficit with a sixth-inning sac fly from Mikie Mahtook and an eighth-inning solo homer from Shawn O’Malley.
Pensacola starter Tim Crabbe (2-1) was the beneficiary of the run support while posting his third quality start of the year. Crabbe gave up a run on four hits while striking out six to match his longest outing of 2013.
The Wahoos will now have an off day tomorrow before traveling to Jacksonville for a five-game series with the Suns. The set starts on Tuesday at 6:05 p.m. CT with Chad Rogers (2-1, 1.47) matching up against Jacksonville’s Matt Neil (0-2, 4.79).
by Kevin Burke
Pictured: The Blue Wahoos topped the Montgomery Biscuits Sunday 8-2. Photos by Gary McCracken for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Florida Passes Elections Reform Bill
May 6, 2013
A bill aimed at preventing the problems that plagued parts of Florida during the 2012 elections sailed through the Legislature on its final day after lawmakers dropped an effort to punish problematic local voting officials.
The legislation (HB 7013) passed the House overwhelmingly, 115-1, after a similar almost-unanimous vote kicked off the session two months earlier. The Senate approved it on a nearly party-line vote, 27-13, with Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, joining every Republican in approving the measure.
In a statement issued following the vote, Gov. Rick Scott said he will sign the bill.
“Following the 2012 General Election, we recognized there were inefficiencies in our election system that needed to be corrected, and I am very pleased with the Legislature’s responsiveness,” Scott said.
Elections reform vaulted to the top of legislative priorities after the November problems, which included some voters not casting ballots until after networks had projected President Barack Obama the winner nationwide. It also took days before Obama was declared the winner in Florida.
The bill had passed the House in March and the Senate last week, but had languished as the two chambers worked on the final shape of the proposal.
The bill that passed would allow up to fourteen days for early voting, though local supervisors could remain at the current eight days, and allows for more flexibility with early voting sites. It would limit the length of some ballot summaries for constitutional amendments.
And, in a move that the Tampa Bay Times-Miami Herald’s Tallahassee bureau reported was aimed at helping U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s presidential ambitions, it would dissolve a committee that sets the date of the presidential primary and instead require that vote be held on the first Tuesday that complies with party rules.
Both Republican and Democratic delegations to national conventions had lost members over the last several years as Florida vied for an earlier primary date.
Lawmakers paved the way for the agreement when Senate members agreed to a House demand to get rid of a provision that would have allowed the secretary of state to punish county elections supervisors. All but one of those officials is elected, and House members noted that there are already ways under current state law to take care of a supervisor who gets too far out of line.
“We feel like that accomplishes what we need to, remembering of course that these supervisors are elected constitutional officers, like we’re elected as well, and ultimately, they’re accountable to their communities for what they do or don’t do,” said Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton.
Sen. Jack Latvala, the Clearwater Republican who sponsored the upper chamber’s version of the bill, pinned the blame for the deleted provisions on the protests of local supervisors.
“So the House buckled on that,” he said. But Latvala agreed to the change to get the bill through.
Democrats remained divided on the measure, with those in the House praising the bill even as they saw it as a partial solution.
“It takes men and women of maturity to understand when you’ve done something in error to come back and correct it,” said Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg. “And we saw what happened in the November elections, and as a body we have come back this year to correct it. … I look forward to us coming back next session and fixing it just a little bit more.”
Groups that have traditionally sided with Democrats on voting-rights issues also welcomed the legislation.
“We believe the changes in this bill will help prevent the long lines, observed all across the world, that Florida voters endured last November,” said Deirdre Macnab, president of the League of Women Voters, in a statement.
But Senate Democrats were tepid in their comments on the bill, and the Florida Democratic Party blasted it, saying lawmakers should have undone a bill passed a couple years ago that was blamed by Democrats for many of the elections problems.
“A full repeal of HB 1355 would have solved the vast majority of the problems we witnessed last year, and today’s half-hearted attempt by the GOP at ‘reform’ only hurts the process,” said Scott Arceneaux, the party’s executive director. “It is certainly not the last word.”
by the News Service of Florida
Going, Going, Gone: Bills Die At End Of Session
May 5, 2013
State lawmakers had a week-long funeral for proposals to expand health coverage to tens of thousands of low-income Floridians.
But as the legislative session ended Friday, piles of other bills met the same fate.
The House, for example, let die a Senate proposal that would have given motorists a break on their vehicle-registration fees. The rub: It would have required eliminating a longstanding tax credit for insurance companies.
Other dead bills ranged from a measure to overhaul the Florida High School Athletic Association to a proposal to change sentencing laws for juveniles who commit murder or other serious crimes.
Also dying were a bill that would have made it harder to seek punitive damages in lawsuits against nursing homes, proposals to revamp the regulation of assisted-living facilities and an attempt to pass what had become known as the “anti-Sharia law” bill.
Each session, hundreds of bills die, some without even getting heard in a committee. But perhaps the most-controversial issue of this session — expanding health coverage — died a slow, public death before getting put out of its misery Friday.
Legislative leaders made clear throughout the week that the prognosis was not good for reaching agreement on such a plan. House and Senate Republicans decided weeks ago they wouldn’t expand Medicaid to carry out the Affordable Care Act, but they took vastly different approaches in trying to come up with an alternative.
That didn’t stop House Minority Leader Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale, from immediately reiterating a call Friday night to hold a special session to take up the issue again. House Democrats and Gov. Rick Scott backed a Senate bill that would have used federal Medicaid money to offer private health-insurance to roughly 1 million people, but House Republicans rejected the federal money and proposed a smaller-scale program that would have offered state subsidies.
“Despite ample opportunities to pass a bipartisan health care solution that enjoys the backing of Republican Governor Rick Scott and the Florida Senate, House Republican leadership dropped the ball,” Thurston said.
But not everyone was unhappy that a Medicaid expansion and the Senate health proposal failed. The conservative James Madison Institute issued a statement Friday night pointing to potential problems with the Affordable Care Act and praising the House for not getting pressured into a “rash decision.”
“In this case, taking no action instead of the wrong action was a wise decision by Florida’s leadership,” Bob McClure, president and CEO of the institute, said in the statement. “Expanding a badly flawed program such as Medicaid — which already consumes an inordinate share of the state budget — would not even necessarily benefit those whom it’s intended to help.”
Some of the issues that died Friday were tangled in broader bills that died. For example, the Senate included the proposal to reduce vehicle-registration fees in an omnibus insurance bill that never got taken up in the House.
But the anti-Sharia law bill (HB 58), which would restrict courts from applying foreign law in family-related cases, was publicly put to rest Friday morning by Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, after it failed to clear a procedural hurdle Thursday. Gaetz singled out bill sponsor Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, for trying to get the measure passed.
“Senator Hays did all he could to advance the bill,” Gaetz said.
But the Anti-Defamation League, which opposed the bill, had a less-charitable view, issuing a news release saying the Senate “sidestepped embarrassment for Florida” by preventing the measure from moving forward. While the bill was dubbed the “anti-Sharia law” and was widely perceived to target Islamic law, the Anti-Defamation League said the measure would have prevented Florida from recognizing divorces granted in Israel to Jewish couples.
Passage of this bill would be another unnecessary, legislatively manufactured inanity for the State,” said David Barkey, the group’s national religious freedom counsel.
By The News Service of Florida
Record Crowds Attend Sawmill Day And Car Show
May 5, 2013
Record crowds attended the third annual Sawmill Day and Car Show Saturday at the Historical Park in Century.
The event featured continuous entertainment, a car show, yard sale, plenty of good food, arts and crafts and free museum tours.
- For a photo gallery from Sawmill Day and Car Show, click here.
- For a photo gallery of Heather Leonard’s Danceworks performing at Sawmill Day, click here.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Cooler Weather Continues
May 5, 2013
Saturday was a great day for most any outdoor activity, including fishing at Lake Stone near Century. NorthEscambia.com photo.
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast
- Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 46. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Monday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 69. Southwest wind 5 to 15 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon.
- Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 50. Northwest wind around 5 mph.
- Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 56. Northwest wind around 5 mph.
- Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. West wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 58. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
- Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 84.
- Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 61.
- Friday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 84.
- Friday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 62.
- Saturday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 85.