DCF Food For Florida Emergency Program Holds Mock Disaster Drill
June 7, 2014
Friday, the Florida Department of Children and Families completed a two-day mock disaster exercise of the Food for Florida program in Escambia County.
More than 100 employees participated in the exercise to test equipment and ensure the department is ready to quickly distribute food benefits to eligible families if a disaster strikes.
“We need to do everything possible to prepare for disasters so we can serve vulnerable Florida families when they need us most,” Interim Secretary Mike Carroll said. “Hurricane season can bring unexpected challenges to our state and this training allowed our department staff to be better equipped for a time of crisis.”
The Food for Florida program offers emergency food assistance to eligible victims of hurricanes or other types of disasters. The last time DCF activated the program was in 2005, when Hurricane Wilma struck Florida.
The department has since streamlined the application and preregistration process using satellite and other wireless technologies.
The changes have positioned DCF to better serve disaster stricken Floridians and identify individuals who try to fraudulently obtain benefits during a time of crisis. The department launched a first-of-its-kind fraud prevention initiative to combat public assistance fraud last May and has seen unprecedented cost avoidance and increased security for Florida’s
public assistance clients.
Pictured: More than 100 Florida Department of Children and Families employees participated in a two-day mock disaster exercise of the Food for Florida program in Escambia County. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Wahoos Rained Out In Montgomery
June 7, 2014
The Blue Wahoos and the Montgomery Biscuits were rained out Friday night at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery. The two teams will make up Friday’s postponement as part of a Saturday doubleheader beginning at 5:30 p.m.
The twin-bill will consist of two seven-inning games with roughly a half-hour break between the two contests.
The Blue Wahoos will send RHP Robert Stephenson (2-5, 3.39) to the mound in game one followed by RHP Jon Moscot (4-3, 2.33) in game two. The Biscuits will counter with RHP Victor Mateo (7-4, 3.93) and RHP Dylan Floro (5-5, 3.74).
The Blue Wahoos are on the first leg of a 10-game, 11-day road trip before the Southern League All-Star Break June 16-18. The Blue Wahoos open play on the second half of the season at home against the Huntsville Stars on Thursday, June 19.
by Tommy Thrall
Escambia County 2014 FCAT Scores
June 7, 2014
Here are Escambia County FCAT scores released June 6, 2014, for every Escambia County school. For District 5 school scores and a story about the results, click here.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: State Your Case
June 7, 2014
It is the season of making your case in Tallahassee.
Lawmakers from across the state found out Monday if they had made convincing enough cases for Gov. Rick Scott to spare their pet projects when he wielded an unusually light veto pen while trimming a bit from the state budget. Lobbying for other bills being weighed by Scott was undoubtedly still going on.
Meanwhile, lawyers were already starting to put the finishing touches on their arguments about the state’s 2012 redistricting process, with attorneys for voting-rights groups arguing that the Legislature had improperly crafted politically motivated districts and those representing the state arguing that the give-and-take was all above-board.
And Sen. John Thrasher, a “country lawyer” and rabid Florida State University alumnus, was making his case to take on a new post: president of his alma mater. But by midweek, the candidacy of a Supreme Court justice and the protests of some students and faculty had complicated matters a bit.
After all, for everyone making a case, there’s almost always someone else arguing the other side.
SCOTT THE SPENDTHRIFT?
There was no real surprise in Scott’s decision to sign the $77 billion election-year budget approved last month by lawmakers. The surprise, to the extent there was one, was how much of the document the once-skinflint governor allowed to become law.
Since he came to office in 2011, Scott had never vetoed less than the $142.7 million he struck from the budget the Legislature passed in 2012. His first year in office, the governor slashed $615 million in potential spending, though accounting gimmicks inflated the number. And in 2013, Scott slashed almost $368 million.
This year: $68.9 million.
For the second year in a row, Scott also didn’t make a big deal out of the budget signing. He announced it via email, then talked to reporters later, after a campaign event in Panama City.
“It’s nice to have a budget surplus to work with, to make strategic investments, to keep our state working, more jobs, improve education, improve transportation, and that’s what we did,” Scott said.
Still, some of the grass-roots, small-government voters who helped propel Scott to office four years ago seemed pleased. Chris Hudson, director of the Florida chapter of Americans for Prosperity, one of a constellation of groups that have helped fuel the tea-party movement, applauded the budget signing.
“This budget sends the message that Florida is focused on the long-term growth of economic opportunity and prosperity for all its families and businesses,” Hudson said in a statement.
Other political players were less thrilled. Democrats slammed the spending plan as a “pork-filled” measure that didn’t fund the state’s needs.
“Per-pupil education funding remains below 2007 levels. Bright Futures scholarships have been slashed to the bone,” Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Allison Tant said in a prepared statement. “Nearly 1 million Floridians still lack access to affordable health care. In a re-election campaign where Rick Scott is trying desperately to run away from his failed record, one thing has not changed: Rick Scott takes care of the wealthy special interests while ignoring the needs of middle class Floridians.”
Scott isn’t done deciding the fates of a slew of legislation approved by lawmakers. The Legislature sent him 105 bills this week, including high-profile bills allowing some undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at Florida colleges and universities (HB 851); adding further restrictions to Florida’s abortion laws (HB 1047); and legalizing a form of medical marijuana that purportedly does not get users high while alleviating life-threatening seizures.
THRASHER: BRING IT ON
When the week began, it looked like Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, might be a shoo-in for the presidency of Florida State University. The school’s presidential search committee had decided to interview Thrasher, a longtime fixture in state politics and chairman of the influential Senate Rules Committee, before deciding whether to look at other candidates.
On Tuesday, that changed.
Ed Burr, chairman of the FSU Presidential Search Advisory Committee, said an outpouring of interest in the position led to the decision to delay the conversation with Thrasher, which was scheduled for June 11.
Burr essentially said his committee’s initial concern — that Thrasher’s desire for the position had kept other potential candidates from applying — was disproved by Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Ricky Polston and state Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee, putting their names forward for the post. Educational consultant Harold McGinnis has also filed papers asking to be considered.
“Since the meeting, we have received applications from several additional candidates,” Burr wrote in a message to the committee. “This has persuaded me that allowing this phase of the search to evolve before conducting any interviews would be most effective.”
Burr said the committee will still meet next week to consider an application deadline for the position.
But Thrasher was getting more backing for the presidency — in terms of letters of support — than any other applicant.
Thrasher, widely considered the front-runner for the position, has received 10 letters of support, and two in opposition, since the search for a new president has been underway.
None of the other 15 applicants — including Polston and Rehwinkel Vasilinda — has had more than two outside recommendations submitted to the search committee.
Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, compared Thrasher to the Founding Fathers in saying that his legislative colleague would be an “unconventional president.”
“He has devoted his professional life to public service and the law,” Gaetz said of Thrasher. “But if that were a disqualifier, then America’s greatest public university, the University of Virginia, could not have been founded and managed by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe.”
However, Thrasher also has detractors, including faculty members and students.
Leon County Commissioner Bill Proctor, a Democrat, sent a letter to the committee, saying Thrasher’s “conservative politics will ignite a combustible, explosive and polarizing impact for students at Florida State and for other stakeholders across Leon County.”
Thrasher said Friday in an interview with The News Service of Florida that he didn’t mind the committee’s decision to broaden its search.
“If there are people that want to apply, let them apply,” he said. “I’m interested in the job, and I have the right to apply like everyone else.”
ENDING WITH A WHIMPER
Meanwhile, after two weeks of lawmakers and political operatives being grilled about the 2012 redistricting process and a whodunit mystery that emerged around a map supposedly submitted to the Legislature by former Florida State University student Alex Posada, the redistricting trial underway in Leon County Circuit Court finished with three days of testimony that was — well, kind of dull.
There were some constituents of Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Brown who defended her sprawling district and said they wanted to make sure African Americans could still elect a candidate of their choice to that seat. John Guthrie, the man who led the Senate staffers who drew maps, was back on the stand.
And statistical experts called by the state parried the suggestions of experts called by voting-rights organizations that the maps were the result of the kind of political gerrymandering barred by the Fair Districts amendments, which voters approved in 2010.
But the most spirited remarks came not from any of the witnesses, but from Brown, who showed up this week for portions of the trial after hearing that her district was being invoked in the case against the maps.
Brown, one of the first African-Americans elected to Congress in Florida since Reconstruction, rejected the arguments of plaintiffs that a different district with a lower concentration of black voters would still elect a candidate favored by African Americans. She also referred to efforts to mark the upcoming 50th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
“And it’s just like, it didn’t happen,” she said. “And it’s just very important that African Americans need to know that they are constantly going to have to fight in order to keep representation, because there are people that would take you back.”
After the case wrapped up, both sides said they believed they had convinced Judge Terry Lewis.
“We’re confident that we’ve met whatever standard the court is going to hold us to in this case with our evidence,” said David King, a lawyer for the groups challenging the congressional map.
But Raoul Cantero, a former state Supreme Court justice representing the Senate in the case, said lawmakers and staff members testified repeatedly they did not illegally craft districts that would help or hurt political parties or candidates.
“And we think that all the plaintiffs have done was put up innuendo and whatever other third parties were doing that were not involved,” Cantero said. “They have not shown that anything [improper] has affected the drawing of the maps.”
STORY OF THE WEEK: Gov. Rick Scott signed a $77 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, while cutting $68.9 million with his line-item veto pen.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “I’m a young 70. I’m up to the job. You couldn’t do the job in the Florida Senate, the way we do it, for 60 days without being in fairly good physical condition.”–Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, on his bid for the FSU presidency at age 70.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
June Is Move Over, Slow Down, Save A Life Month
June 6, 2014
Move Over. They are two simple words that can mean the difference between life and death to the first responders who work alongside Florida’s busy highways.
In an effort to bring new awareness to Florida’s Move Over law, the Florida Highway Patrol and law enforcement agencies across the state have declared June as “Move Over – Slow Down – Save a Life” month.
During the month-long safety campaign, law enforcement officers will work together to better educate the public about the law and the threat that ignoring it can pose to first responders.
“Our troopers are out there every day working traffic stops and crash scenes along busy highways with cars speeding past them, often just feet away,” said Col. David Brierton, director of the Florida Highway Patrol. “And every day they face the real possibility of never going home to their families because someone fails to obey the Move Over law.”
Under Florida’s Move Over law:
- The law protects law enforcement officers, emergency workers and tow truck drivers stopped along roadways while performing their jobs;
- It requires motorists to move over when a patrol car, emergency vehicle or tow truck/wrecker is stopped on the side of a road with lights flashing. If such movement cannot be safely accomplished, motorists shall slow down to a speed of 20 mph below the posted speed limit.
- Approach the emergency vehicle with caution;
- Violating the Move Over law puts motorists and public safety professionals at risk.
Pictured: First responders work along Highway 97 last month. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Century Seeks Support In Fight Against Pensacola Energy
June 6, 2014
With an offering of smoked pork and baked beans, the Town of Century took their gas franchise dispute to Walnut Hill Thursday evening, making their case and hoping to drum up support against Pensacola Energy.
Pensacola Energy customers in Walnut Hill and Bratt were invited to join the Walnut Hill Ruritan Club for a BBQ thrown by the town and its gas department. During the event, Century Mayor Freddie McCall explained the town’s current dispute with Pensacola over a gas franchise, and he presented several reasons why Century’s gas service would be superior. The ultimate goal was to drum up support among Walnut Hill and Bratt residents with the hopes that they will lobby Escambia County commissioners to pass a new Century gas franchise agreement.
“We can sell it (natural gas) cheaper than Pensacola Energy can,” McCall said. “I can give you better service.”
Pensacola Energy currently provides natural gas service to three schools and one commercial customer in Bratt and Walnut Hill, plus 43 residential customers — all within the Town of Century’s exclusive gas franchise area. Pensacola and Century are disputing Pensacola Energy’s continued right to serve those customers, as Century seeks a franchise extension from the Escambia County Commission for a geographic area that spans from the Escambia River westward to almost the Perdido River and from the Alabama state line southward to near Bogia.
McCall said he expects the town will prevail and get their franchise renewal and work out amicable terms with Pensacola. He and Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward had just spoken for the first time about the dispute on Wednesday.
“There won’t be interruption in service,” he said. “I’m willing to cooperate to get them to move out quickly.” McCall said Pensacola Energy has threatened to destroy their Walnut Hill and Bratt gas lines if they are pushed out, but he did not think that would happened or be allowed by the state.
One resident complained that he recently had a gas bill from Pensacola Energy that included $20 for gas and $35 in fees.
“Y’all are being gouged,” McCall said. “They are just pirates.”
Pictured: Century’s gas department made a presentation at the Walnut Hill Community Center Thursday evening. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Molino Man Charged With Stealing Checks From Mom
June 6, 2014
A Molino man is facing multiple felony charges after allegedly writing checks stolen from his mother.
Dakota John Kimrey of Chalker Road was charged with two counts of grand theft and two counts of uttering a forged instrument.
According to an arrest report, Kimrey, 21, tried to cash one check at the Speedmart on Highway 29, and successfully cashed a $425 check at the Pen Air Federal Credit Union in Century. He was positively identified as passing the checks in a photo lineup, surveillance video and from his identification presented at the credit union, the report states.
Kimrey remained jailed Friday morning with bond set at $12,000.
Florida Educaton Association, Local Teachers To Appeal Teacher Evaluation Case
June 6, 2014
Opponents of a 2011 Florida law that tied teacher evaluations to student performance will appeal a federal judge’s ruling that upheld the constitutionality of the system, according to a document filed Wednesday.
Plaintiffs in the case, which is spearheaded by the Florida Education Association and includes four Escambia County teachers, gave notice that they will appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
The lawsuit, filed last year, raised constitutional due-process and equal-protection arguments. It took issue with part of the law that has allowed some teachers to be evaluated based on the test scores of students who were not in their classrooms. Similarly, teachers could be evaluated on student test scores in subject areas they didn’t teach.
But U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, while raising questions about the fairness of the system, issued a ruling last month that sided with the state and school districts named as defendants in the case.
Walker wrote, in part, that “the state defendants could rationally conclude that the evaluation policies further the state’s legitimate interest in increasing student learning growth. The same can be said of the district defendants.”
Local teachers named as plaintiffs in the case at the time of filing were Emily Jefferis, an art teacher at Ransom Middle School, Cathy McConnell, a music teacher who teaches orchestra at Tate High and Ransom Middle schools, Shauna Paedae, a math teacher in the IB program at Pensacola High, and Catherine Boehme, a biology teacher at West Florida High School. The Escambia Education Association is also a plaintiff in the case.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this story.
Florida’s Top Business Regulator Checks Out Molino Diner, Addresses Chamber
June 6, 2014
Florida’s top business regulator personally checked out a Molino restaurant Thursday before discussing the importance of his office at a Century Chamber of Commerce meeting.
Secretary of Business and Professional Regulation Ken Lawson gave rave review to Fran’s Diner and their blackberry cobbler. Fran’s Diner is one of the thousands of Florida restaurants regulated by Lawson’s department. The department also regulates cosmetologists, veterinarians, real estate agents, contractors and a long list of other businesses and professionals.
“I love to get out with the people,” Lawson told chamber members at a meeting in Century. “It’s important to have regulations, but it’s important to make doing business as easy as possible. When the economy is cold in Miami, it’s freezing in Century. So we have to do all we can for business. We are here to be partners with you. If you have rules in place, they better make sense.”
Lawson also expressed the importance of make sure contractors and other professionals have a valid license.
“We want people to trust but verify on our website,” he said. “If a licensee does wrong I can go after them.”
For more information on the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, visit www.myfloridalicense.com.
NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Fizz, Boom, Read: Summer Reading At The Library (With Molino Photo Gallery)
June 6, 2014
The Fizz, Boom, Read: Summer Reading Program made science and reading exciting for kids of all ages Thursday at both the Century and Molino branch libraries.
Children participated in the Page Turner’s Adventures with a story, magic tricks, and displays of talent.
For a photo gallery from Molino, click here.
Children and teens 6-12 are invited to participate in the West Florida Public Library’s 2014 Fizz, Boom, Read program, which focuses on experimenting with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).
The interactive program is a fun way for students to keep their minds sharp throughout the summer months. Join the library for the summer reading game and interactive enrichment programs where there will be prizes for reading books, a chance to take part in science experiments and meet new people.
The program will continue through the summer until August 9.
Century Branch
Weekly on Thursday, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.
- June 12
- June 19
- June 26
Molino Branch
Weekly on Thursday, 6 to 7 p.m.
- June 12
- June 19
- June 26
Tryon Branch
Weekly on Tuesday, 11 a.m.
- June 10
- June 17
- June 24
Main Library
Weekly on Wednesday, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
- June 11
- June 18
- June 25
Southwest Branch – program to be at Big Lagoon State Park Amphitheater (12301 Gulf Beach Highway)
Weekly on Wednesday, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
- June 11
- June 18
- June 25
Pictured: The Summer Reading Program Thursday evening at the Molino Branch Library. NorthEscambia.com photos by Bethany Reynolds, click to enlarge.
