Tara Valinda Ferguson Moore
February 24, 2014
Mrs. Tara Valinda Ferguson Moore, age 40 of Flomaton, passed away Saturday, February 22, 2014. She was a native of Metarie, Louisiana and a long time resident of Escambia County, Alabama. Mrs. Moore was a member of the Flomaton First Baptist Church, a 1991 graduate of T.R. Miller High School, an LPN, former employee of Weaver’s Clothing Store and a substitute teacher for the Escambia County, Alabama School System.
Survivors include her mother, Beverly Ferguson of Brewton; husband, Fed Moore of Flomaton; two sons, Tripp Bates Moore III and Johnathan Ben Moore III, both of Flomaton; two brothers, Eric (Abigail) Ferguson of Cleveland, Tennessee and Kyle (Sara) Ferguson of Thomasville; and father-in-law and mother-in-law, Fred (Betty) Moore of Bratt, Florida.
Visitation will be held Wednesday, February 26, 2014, from 12 p.m. until 2 p.m. at the Brewton First Baptist Church in Brewton.
Memorial services are scheduled for Wednesday afternoon February 26, 2014 at 2 p.m. at the Brewton First Baptist Church with Rev. Dustin Stockstill and Rev. Jack Fitts officiating.
Williams Memorial Chapel Funeral Home is directing.
Russia Tops With Olympics Medals In Sochi; U.S. Is 4th
February 24, 2014
The 22nd Olympic Winter Games have ended. Here are some highlights of the two plus weeks of action.
Only three gold medals were awarded on the final day and two of them went to host Russia. The Russians swept the medals in Sunday’s first event, the men’s 50-kilometer cross-country ski race. Alexander Legkov won it with a time of 1:46.55.2
That was 0.7 of a second faster than teammate Maxim Vylegzhanin (1:46.55.9) and 0.8 better than bronze medalist Ilia Chernousov (1:46.56.0).
Russia won its first-ever gold medal in the four-man bobsled, as driver Alexander Zubkov made it a clean sweep, after earlier in the games winning the two-man event.
Russia unexpectedly ended up on top of the medals table, with 13 gold, 11 silver and nine bronze for a total of 33. At the 2010 Vancouver Olympics the Russians were back in 11th place with three gold, and sixth in total medals won with 15.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said he was pleased to see the Russians do so well before enthusiastic fans.
“It is not just enough to organize the Games, but you also need a good home team. So they were working hard after the shock they had in Vancouver ,” Bach said. “And I think it is just remarkable the progress that has been made within four years from Vancouver until today, so can we only congratulate the Russian team for this great success.”
Also at his closing news conference, Bach said the response from all the participants – athletes, National Olympic Committees, international sports federations, sponsors and broadcasters – has been overwhelmingly positive.
He added that in speaking to many athletes, after spending four nights in different Olympic villages, he did not hear one complaint.
“They loved the sports facilities, the quality of the Olympic villages,” Bach said. “What impressed (them) the most was the proximity of the Olympic villages and their venues.”
Second to Russia in the gold medal count was Norway with 11. Canada was third with 10, one more than the United States, by successfully defending its men’s ice hockey title with a 3-0 win over Sweden. That was the final sporting event of the Games.
The United States was second behind Russia in total medals with 28, while Norway had 26 and Canada 25.
In all, 26 nations won medals at the Sochi Olympics, the same number as in Vancouver.
Bach said that even though so much attention has been given to the huge cost to stage these Olympics, estimated at $50 billion, Sochi’s operational costs were about the same as Vancouver.
He emphasized that the investment in the region for infrastructure will be here a long time – new roads, railroads, housing, sports venues, winter training facilities and more. Sochi will host a Formula One auto race and 2018 World Cup football games.
“This project was not limited to just building a winter sports center,” Bach said. “It was about the transformation of a whole region into a modern destination for tourists, for conventions and for sports. And it was amazing what happened here.”
Five athletes tested positive for banned substances during the Sochi Games, including Austrian cross-country skier Johannes Duerr on the final day. His expulsion for the red blood cell booster EPO prevented him from competing in Sunday’s 50-kilometer race.
The other four testing positive were a Ukrainian cross-country skier (Marina Lisogor), a German biathlete (Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle), a Latvian ice hockey player (Vitalijs Pavlovs) and an Italian bobsledder (William Frullani). Those four other cases involved minor stimulants that can be found in food supplements. None of the five had won medals.
As for the United States, a number a favorites like two-time Olympic snowboard halfpipe champion Shaun White failed to make the podium, while other underdogs came through. Alan Ashley is the chief of sport performance for the USOC.
“There is always at the Olympics times when you are like going, ‘Oh my gosh, I wish so and so had done better,’ but just as many times there is like a whole new generation of athletes or a new group of athletes that surprise you, and that is the beauty of the Games,” Ashley said.
But the U.S. figure skating team had its worst Olympics showing since 1936 with no medals in men’s, women’s or pairs, and the long track speed skating team had its worst Olympics ever.
“Our job now is to say, OK, what went wrong, what went right?,” said Ashley. “How do we improve so that the next generation, when we go into Pyeongchang (in 2018) that we have corrected some things and moved this forward so that that group of athletes and that group of skaters that goes with us to the next Olympic Games has an even better opportunity to perform?”
The United States did come through with one notable performance in figure skating, as Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the first-ever Olympic gold medal for their country in ice dancing.
[VOA]
Foggy Night Possible
February 23, 2014
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Tonight: A 20 percent chance of showers before 9pm. Patchy dense fog after 9pm. Otherwise, cloudy, with a low around 53. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
- Monday: Partly sunny, with a high near 70. North wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Monday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 49. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Tuesday: A 50 percent chance of showers, mainly after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 69. Calm wind.
- Tuesday Night: Showers likely. Cloudy, with a low around 47. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
- Wednesday: A 20 percent chance of showers before noon. Partly sunny, with a high near 56. North wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.
- Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 30. North wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 56. Northeast wind around 5 mph becoming west in the afternoon.
- Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 38. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
- Friday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 61.
- Friday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 43.
- Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 68.
- Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 47.
- Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 68.
Hundreds Attend Walnut Hill Ruritan Auction
February 23, 2014
Hundreds of people attended the 39th Annual Walnut Hill Ruritan Club Farm Equipment Auction Saturday in Walnut Hill.
Items sold included farm equipment, lawn and garden equipment, household items and more during the event, which is held each year on the last Saturday of February. All proceeds from the auction benefit the Walnut Hill Ruritan Club’s community service projects in the Walnut Hill area.
Pictured: Hundreds attended the annual Walnut Hill Ruritan Club farm equipment auction Saturday in Walnut Hill. NorthEscambia.com photos by Bethany Reynolds, click to enlarge.
Tribal Beat Band Members Receive Superior, Excellent Ratings
February 23, 2014
Several members of the Northview High School Tribal Beat Band received superior and excellent ratings at the Florida Bandmasters Association District 1 Auxiliary Solo and Ensemble MPA event Friday night at Gulf Breeze High School.
Taylor Brook and Maddi Weber received a superior for their trumpet duet, while Brook received a superior for her trumpet solo. Cory Hester received a superior for his saxophone solo. Kylie Brook, Kendrick Walker, Paula Spicer and Abbie Johnson each received an excellent rating.
Pictured: Taylor Brook and Maddi Weber (right) perform their superior-rated trumpet duet before the judges. Submitted photo for NorhtEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Hospital Lands Top Spot In Chili Cook Off
February 23, 2014
An Atmore Community Hospital team won first place during a chili cook-off in Atmore’s Tom Byrne Park Saturday, while second place went to the L.A. Bikers and third place to the First United Methodist Church.
The “People’s Choice” award for the best chili went to the Greater Mt. Triumph Baptist Church.
Proceeds from the event will benefit the hospital’s efforts to purchase a new X-Ray machine.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Bethany Reynolds, click to enlarge.
Mmmm – Girl Scout Cookie Time
February 23, 2014
Girl Scout Troop 903 from Molino/Cantonment was busy Saturday selling Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Patties and other Girl Scout Cookie favorites at the intersection of Highway 29 and Highway 97 in Cantonment. Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Nelson Wants Fed Review Of State’s Unemployment Website
February 23, 2014
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., wants the Department of Labor’s inspector general to look into the state’s trouble-plagued $63 million unemployment assistance website for potential “waste, fraud or abuse or violations of law” due to months of delayed claims.
“Somebody owes taxpayers an explanation,” Nelson wrote Inspector General Scott S. Dahl on Friday. “They are the ones who paid the $63 million for this project.”
Nelson twice before has asked the Labor Department to look into the Department of Economic Opportunity’s Connect system that went on live in October. After Labor Department staff visited Tallahassee in December, the state agency announced that claims would be paid in cases that had been in dispute for more than one week. The move was intended to ease a backlog created by the new website.
Since Dec. 23, the state has imposed a $15,000 per business day fine against contractor Deloitte Consulting and withheld a $3 million payment to the company for failing to deliver a “fully functioning” system. The agency hired about 250 additional staff in January, at a cost of $165,000 a week. DEO reported about 6,000 applications were pending on Friday, a drop from a backlog of more than 60,000 in mid-January.
Nelson in his letter noted that, although the state agency claims the system has improved, media outlets continue to report that people “were still reaching out for help.”
Northview Shuts Out Washington
February 23, 2014
The varsity Northview Chiefs beat Washington High 8-0 Saturday in Pensacola.
Winning pitcher Brannon Freeman pitched for seven, allowing two hits, two walks and eight strike outs. He is 1-0 as a starting pitcher with one save.
Stats: Jody Bonner 1-3 with a double, one RBI and a run scored; Chasen Freeman 3-3 with a triple, 2 RBI and a run scored; Thomas Moore 1 -4 with a double and one run scored; Aaron McDonald 1-4 with a double , one RBI and one run scored; RJ Pritchett 2-4 with two doubles, two RBI; Kevin Barrow 1-3 with one run scored; and Roman Manning 1-3 with two runs scored.
Pictured: The Northview Chiefs shut out Washington Saturday in Pensacola, 8-0. Photos by Ramona Preston for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Rotary Clubs Partner To Create 110,388 Meals For Manna
February 23, 2014
Rotary Clubs from Escambia and Santa Rosa counties came together Saturday to pack 110,388 meals at Manna Food Bank. It was part of the Rotary Against Hunger service project of the Combined Rotary of Pensacola (CROP). Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com click to enlarge.
