Young Marines Honor The Memory Of LCpl Travis M. Nelson
August 17, 2014
A young Travis Nelson of Bratt grew up in a military family and had two things on his mind — fishing and growing up to join the military.
He lived that dream, spending many days at his favorite fishing spots. At 14, he joined the Young Marines of Pensacola. By age 19, he had made it from Bratt to the front lines in Afghanistan as a United States Marine. It was there in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, that LCpl Travis M. Nelson lost his life in August 2011 defending the freedom of his family, friends and the America he loved so much.
Saturday, the Young Marines of Pensacola gathered at the LCpl Travis M. Nelson Park on Highway 4 in Bratt, near Nelson’s childhood home, to honor one of their own that paid the ultimate price.
The Young Marines, boys and girls ages 8 to 18, stood silently at attention as a wreath was placed at the park’s memorial to Nelson. Then they posed for a photo, the Young Marines and the memorial to a fallen Marine.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Cantonment Improvement Association Provides Free School Supplies
August 17, 2014
The Cantonment Improvement Committee’s annual Back to School Bash was held Saturday. The event included free school supplies and a hot lunch at Carver Park.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Century Softball Tourney Benefits Chiefs Football
August 17, 2014
The Northview High School Quarterback Club held a double elimination coed softball tournament Saturday at Showalter Park in Century. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Northview Chiefs football program.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Bethany Reynolds, click to enlarge.
Photos: Northview Tribal Beat Band Car Wash
August 17, 2014
Members of the Northview High School Tribal Beat Band held a car wash Saturday morning in Century. The band members will held another car wash next Saturday, August 23, at Marvin’s Home Improvement on Lindberg Avenue in Atmore. Proceeds from the events go toward the band’s expenses, such as travel.
Pictured: A Northview High School Tribal Beat Band car was Saturday morning in Century. NorthEscambia.com photos by Bethany Reynolds, click to enlarge.
1st Day Of School: Supply Lists, Bus Routes
August 17, 2014
Monday is the first day of school in Escambia County.
For a school supply list, click here.
For school bus routes and traffic laws, click here.
Pictured top: Bratt Elementary School fifth grade teacher Lee Cassady prepares Friday for the first day of school. Pictured below: First grade teacher Pamela Trice finishes a bulletin board Friday at Bratt Elementary School. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Molino ‘Day Of Hope’ Provides Free School Supplies, Groceries, Haircuts And More
August 17, 2014
A free “Day of Hope” provided free school supplies, food and an encouraging word Saturday in Molino.
Hundreds of people lined up outside Victory Assembly of God Church on Highway 29 to wait for a backpack, groceries and free haircuts. Church members met with each attendee and offered prayer and words of encouragement for the upcoming school year.
“It turned out to be a very big day,” Victory Assembly Pastor Jeff McKee said. “We have been able to help a lot of people.”
The church also provided a free lunch for attendees.
Pictured top: Just a few of the hundreds that lined up for free school supplies and free groceries Saturday at Victory Assembly in Molino. Pictured inset: Picking out a free Hello Kitty backpack. Pictured below: Getting a free back to school haircut. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Signed, Sealed Delivered
August 17, 2014
It might not have been the shortest special session in history — that honor likely goes to an hours-long offshore drilling session that then-Gov. Charlie Crist called in 2010 — but lawmakers who gathered in Tallahassee to address a redistricting mess didn’t stay long.
In fact, the session ended a little more than 102 hours after the opening gavel. And 48 of those hours were part of the weekend.
With that, Tallahassee returned to its usual summer slumber. Crist swung by, campaigning to get his old job back, as part of a bus tour to tout his plan for education spending. The monthly jobs numbers were released, but largely remained flat, prompting relatively tepid responses from both sides of the aisle despite a looming November election.
BATTLE LINES
By the time the week opened, there wasn’t even that much suspense left about what would happen in the special redistricting session prompted by a court ruling on the old lines. A map released by GOP lawmakers was going to pass, and the only question would be how many Democrats would vote for it.
The answer, it turns out, was relatively few.
The plan (SB 2A) passed on nearly party-line votes in both chambers. The Senate voted 25-12 to approve a new map for seven congressional districts, with Democratic Sens. Audrey Gibson of Jacksonville and Bill Montford of Tallahassee voting with Republicans. In the House, Reps. Mia Jones and Reggie Fullwood, both of Jacksonville, were the only Democrats to support the bill as part of the 71-38 vote in favor of it.
“I certainly hope that litigation time is over and that fair voting time has started,” said Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville.
That was more wishful thinking than anything else.
Prior to the vote, Democrats pounded the map, saying the process wasn’t any better in 2014 than it was in 2012, when the last lines were drawn and when, according to a ruling by Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis, Republican consultants found a way to influence the map-making.
“Such behind-the-scenes collusions violated the constitution as well as the public’s trust. … Nothing really changed in this process this time around which would restore the integrity called into question the first time around,” said Rep. Karen Castor Dentel, D-Maitland.
Lewis ruled the original map unconstitutional last month after voting-rights organizations and some individual voters filed a lawsuit saying the plan didn’t follow the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts amendments. In his decision, Lewis said lawmakers put too many African-American voters in Congressional District 5, currently represented by Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Brown, in an apparent effort to channel those Democratic-leaning voters away from surrounding districts.
The judge also found fault with an appendage of white voters added to Congressional District 10, now represented by Republican Congressman Dan Webster; Lewis said the voters were placed in Webster’s district to try to help the incumbent hold onto his seat.
The Republican response could more or less be found in a brief the Legislature filed with Lewis on Friday, defending the new plan.
“The Legislature acted promptly and in good faith not only to correct the deficiencies identified by this court but also to enact a plan that dramatically enhances both the visual and numerical compactness of the entire region, while protecting from diminishment the ability of minorities to elect their preferred candidates,” lawyers for the House and Senate wrote.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Ken Detzner’s office told the court in a separate filing that any special general election to fill the seven seats couldn’t take place until May 26, 2015, if Lewis decided to delay the voting to allow the lines to take effect.
Voting-rights groups that challenged the districts, such as the League of Women Voters of Florida, signaled that Gaetz’s hopes for the litigation to be over wouldn’t be fulfilled.
“We do not agree with the positions taken by the legislative defendants, the secretary of state or the supervisors of elections in their filings today,” attorney Thomas Zehnder said. “We will be filing our response with the court by noon on Monday.”
CRIST: GREEN FOR SCHOOLS, GREEN LIGHT FOR LEAFY SUBSTANCE
Ignoring the primary opponent that he’ll face Aug. 26, Crist embarked on a three-day tour of the state, boarding a yellow school bus in an effort to school Gov. Rick Scott on education funding.
Crist, a former Republican governor who is running as a Democrat, said more of the state’s surplus should be devoted to schools.
“We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a priority problem in Florida,” Crist said during a Tallahassee stop. “The priority needs to be education. It needs to be our hardworking school teachers.”
But Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, pointed to a decline in school spending during the tail end of Crist’s term and said Scott had revived the economy to allow more funding for education.
“The reason that we’re able to invest more in education is because we finally have an actual leader in the Governor’s Mansion, not somebody that can’t figure out where he lives, can’t figure out what party he wants to be a member of and is generally, I think, someone who’s rudderless,” Gaetz said.
By the end of the week, Crist was talking about something more closely related to after-school specials than school spending: marijuana. He took Scott’s administration to task Friday for using a lottery to select five organizations to grow, manufacture and dispense a now-legal type of marijuana that purportedly does not get users high but can reduce or eliminate life-threatening seizures in children with epilepsy.
“The best way to award any contract is to have a good, open, honest, competitive process,” Crist said when asked about the issue Friday. “I don’t know that a lottery is the right way to go, frankly. It seems to me that people ought to submit their applications. They ought to be reviewed, thoroughly reviewed in a comprehensive fashion, and those that are determined to be the best are the ones that should get the contracts.”
The rule including the lottery provision is far from a done deal, however. After holding two workshops on the rule, health officials will hold another hearing Sept. 5 and could modify the proposal after that.
Lawmakers gave the state’s “Office of Compassionate Use” until Jan. 1 to come up with a regulatory framework for getting into the hands of patients a strain of marijuana that is low in euphoria-inducing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and high in cannabadiol, or CBD.
Meanwhile, former Gov. Jeb Bush, a national Republican star reportedly considering a run for president in 2016, joined Scott on the campaign trail for the first time this season at the Homestead event.
On Thursday, Bush came out against a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow doctors to order “traditional” medical marijuana for critically ill patients. That amendment will appear on the November ballot.
Scott has said he personally opposes Amendment 2, which has been heavily bankrolled by Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan, who also is Crist’s Morgan & Morgan law firm boss.
But Crist on Friday called medical marijuana “the right thing to do,” reiterating his support for the amendment.
“I think it’s compassionate. I think that if a doctor prescribes medical marijuana to somebody who’s truly suffering and in need of help, I think it’s a lot better than prescribing something powerful like oxycontin that’s so harmful,” Crist said.
JOBS NUMBERS FLAT
State unemployment numbers issued Friday didn’t necessarily give Scott a lift in his bid for re-election, but they didn’t hurt him either. Florida’s jobless mark continued its steady run through 2014, holding at 6.2 percent from June to July, the state Department of Economic Opportunity announced.
But the numbers indicate there were about 1,600 fewer people employed in July in Florida than a month earlier.
Scott accentuated the positive Friday, focusing on private-sector job growth.
擢lorida痴 private sector created more than 2,000 jobs for Florida families in July, bringing total private-sector job creation since December 2010 to 620,300,” Scott said in a prepared statement. “Every new job positively impacts a family, and today痴 announcement is more great news for Florida families looking to live the American Dream in the Sunshine State.”
That drew a rebuke from the Florida Democratic Party.
Democratic Party spokesman Max Steele tweeted that Gov. Scott’s “email touts FL gaining 2.1k jobs in July. Only problem? FL lost ~3.7k in the same month, for net of -1.6k.”
The state’s unemployment rate, which stood at 7.3 percent a year ago, has been mostly flat this year, wavering between 6.2 percent and 6.3 percent.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Lawmakers approve a new set of congressional districts, ending a special session that began last week.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “I think it’s going to be the biggest yawner, and the only thing really to look for is, what is the margin for Crist? This is not the first, second or third thing on anybody’s mind.”—Screven Watson, a political consultant and former executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, on the primary between Crist and former Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich, a heavy underdog.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Wahoos Lose 3-0, Drop Series With Mobile
August 17, 2014
The 140 game Southern League season is down to the last 15 games for the Pensacola Blue Wahoos.
Wahoos Manager Delino DeShields said win or lose he just wants to see the team continue to play hard.
Saturday night, they had the bases loaded in the seventh inning with no outs and they reached base every inning but couldn’t score, falling to rival Mobile, 3-0, in front of a 5,038-sellout crowd at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.
“We couldn’t get the big hit tonight,” DeShields said. “But I think we’re playing hard. My biggest concern is not the wins or losses, my concern is the effort. I just want to see them keep playing hard.”
Pensacola’s best opportunity came in the seventh inning when center fielder Yorman Rodriguez had a lead off walk, Brodie Greene hit a bloop single to right field and Kyle Waldrop walked.
That’s when Mobile reliever Seth Simmons came in. All he did was strikeout the next three batters on nine pitches. Pensacola batters are now 6-for-52 against Simmons, or a .115 batting average.
“We were over swinging,” DeShields said. “He didn’t throw a lot of strikes but we got greedy. If we were patient a lot of at bats would have changed.”
Pensacola first baseman Travis Mattair was the first one to go down swinging against Simmons in the seventh. But otherwise had a good series going 7-for-20 (.350) against Mobile’s top pitching with one home run and 6 RBI. He’s raised his season average to .237 after struggling much of the year.
“You just have to keep working hard and stay positive,” Mattair said. “We’re playing good baseball. We just have to keep having fun and stay together as a unit.”
The BayBears showed why their pitching staff has a league leading 3.22 ERA, Saturday. Archie Bradley, who is the No. 1 pitching prospect in all of the minor leagues, according to Baseball America, shut Pensacola out over four innings. He gave up four hits, four walks and struck out three. In his last outing against Pensacola, the Wahoos chased Bradley with seven runs in 2.2 innings.
Mobile moved to 32-21, which is good for first place in the second half and is 74-48 overall. The BayBears are attempting to become just the second team in the Southern League’s 50-year history to win four consecutive halves.
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos start a five-game series against the Miami Marlins Double-A affiliate the Jacksonville Suns at 5:05 p.m. Sunday. RHP Daniel Corcino (10-10, 4.21) takes the mound for the Wahoos and is scheduled to be opposed by the Suns RHP Jose Urena (10-8, 3.64).
The Wahoos return for their last homestand of the season against the Tampa Bay Rays Double-A affiliate the Montgomery Biscuits.
School Bus Routes; Traffic Laws
August 16, 2014
School begins Monday in Escambia County, with over 300 yellow buses back on the road.
To locate your child’s bus stop and pick up/drop off times, click here.
A reminder about Florida traffic laws when you approach a bus:
Burglar Shot In Walnut Hill Sentenced To Prison
August 16, 2014
A burglar shot last summer by a Walnut Hill homeowner was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison.
Ricky DeWayne Taylor, now 34, was sentenced by Circuit Judge Michael Allen to 15 years in state prison for burglary of a dwelling with battery; five years for battery on a person age 65 or older; five years for burglary of an unoccupied structure; and five years for grand theft. Taylor pled to the charges on January 21 but then failed to appear for his sentencing on February 20.
Taylor was arrested by the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office in Lousisana on a misdemeanor charge of possession of stolen things and extradited from Louisiana in June. Allen also sentenced Taylor to five years on two counts of failure to appear. Each sentence is concurrent to the 15 years sentence.
On May 17, 2013, Taylor broke into the victim’s home on Rockaway Creek Road and began removing items. The victim unexpectedly returned and caught Taylor and co-defendant Teresa Sunday in the act. Sunday, who was acquainted with the victim, had called him earlier that day to lure him away from the home to meet her at a local pool hall.
The victim held them at gunpoint with a .38 caliber revolver and contacted the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. As the victim was speaking with dispatchers, Taylor lunged toward him. The homeowner fired a .38 caliber revolver, striking Taylor in the leg and grazing Sunday on the left cheek. Taylor was alert and conscious when he was transferred to LifeFlight to be airlifted to Baptist Hospital in Pensacola. He was charged with burglary, larceny, criminal mischief property damage and battery.
Sunday, age 35 of Century, pleaded guilty to charges of burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and grand theft of a dwelling. In January, she was sentenced by Judge Michael Allen to five years in state prison.
Pictured: The scene on May 17, 2013, at a burglary victim’s home on Rockaway Creek Road in Walnut Hill. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
