Typical Summer Weekend Weather
June 13, 2015
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Saturday
A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 90. South wind 5 to 10 mph.
Saturday Night
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 72. South wind 5 to 10 mph.
Sunday
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 92. South wind 5 to 10 mph.
Sunday Night
Partly cloudy, with a low around 70. South wind 5 to 10 mph.
Monday
Mostly sunny, with a high near 92. East wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south in the afternoon.
Monday Night
Partly cloudy, with a low around 70. South wind 5 to 10 mph.
Tuesday
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 94. Northeast wind around 5 mph becoming south in the afternoon.
Tuesday Night
Partly cloudy, with a low around 71. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm after midnight.
Wednesday
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 95.
Wednesday Night
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 72.
Thursday
A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 93.
Thursday Night
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 72.
Friday
A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 90.
Wahoos A Washout
June 13, 2015
Friday night’s game between the Pensacola Blue Wahoos and the Montgomery Biscuits was rained out.
Friday’s game will be made up Saturday night during a doubleheader scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. in Montgomery.
Pensacola’s Tim Adleman (2-6, 2.33) will pitch the first game, while reliever Jacob Johnson (3-1, 4.61), who has pitched in 14 relief appearances, is scheduled to make a spot start. The Blue Wahoos return home for a five-game series against the Mobile BayBears Wednesday June 17-21.
Scott Heads To Paris Air Show
June 13, 2015
Donning his Sunshine State salesman hat, Gov. Rick Scott left Friday for the Paris Air Show for what is likely to be an abbreviated weekend promo.
Scott’s trip comes even as lawmakers enter the final week of the special session — slated to end Friday — focused on a state spending plan for the fiscal year that ends June 30.
Scott, who is expected to return Monday, is traveling to the 51st International Paris-Le Bourget Air Show with officials from Enterprise Florida and 17 Florida-based companies. The renowned trade show runs from Monday to June 21.
Scott’s travel plans should allow him to attend the opening of the Enterprise Florida pavilion at the air show, which includes vendor space — costing from $8,860 to $21,600 — for the Florida companies. The first four days of the event are restricted to industry representatives, followed by three days open to the general public.
“Governor Scott is confident this economic development trip will result in job creation for Florida,” Scott spokeswoman Jeri Bustamante said in an email.
Enterprise Florida spokeswoman Beth Frady said the agency’s staff has lined up more than 40 “one-on-one” business-development meetings during the air show. The show “provides a unique and cost-effective platform for business and trade development in the state,” Frady said.
Enterprise Florida claims that the 2013 Paris Air Show, also attended by Scott, generated more than $170 million in export sales for the Florida exhibitors on the trip and spawned more than more than 40 projects involving aviation, aerospace and defense.
According to the organization, Scott’s first-term international excursions — to Panama, Canada, Brazil, Israel, Spain, the United Kingdom, Colombia, Chile, France and Japan — resulted in sales topping $474 million for the companies that participated in the missions.
The effectiveness of the trips, however, remains suspect to some.
Ben Wilcox, research director of the Tallahassee watchdog group Integrity Florida, wants more details about the trips from Enterprise Florida, which has its expenses covered by private and public dollars.
“I would be skeptical of the numbers provided by Enterprise Florida and would like to see a more specific breakdown of how much in sales each company benefited from,” Wilcox said. “There needs to be more transparency and accountability before the public can know whether these missions are justified. The same can be said about Gov. Scott’s attendance.”
Paris marks Scott’s first international business trip since he went to Japan in November 2013. He put such ventures on hold during his re-election bid last year.
Scott’s office waited until the final moments before the governor’s Friday afternoon departure early to announce he was taking part in the Enterprise Florida trip. Until Thursday, his aides said “it will be a game-time decision” if Scott would embark on the mission while lawmakers were busy finalizing budget details.
by Jim Turner, The News Service Of Florida
New Signal Now Active At Highway 29, Highway 97 In Molino
June 12, 2015
The new traffic signal at Highway 29 and Highway 97 in Molino became operational Thursday. Drivers are being advised by the Florida Department of Transportation to use caution when approaching the intersection.
The new signal is mounted on horizontal mast arms. Since the signal is in the horizontal position, motorists with color weakness problems will need to remember red is on the left and green on the right.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Century Continues Work To Hammer Out New Budget
June 12, 2015
The Town of Century continued work on their 2015-2016 budget Thursday during a special council workshop meeting.
Additional budget workshops are planned for Thursday, June 18 and Thursday July 9. An additional budget workshop will Thursday, July 16, if needed. All meetings will be held at 1:30 p.m. on the listed dates in the council chambers at the Century Town Hall at 7995 North Century Boulevard.
Final approval for the budget will come in September, with Century’s 2015-2016 fiscal year beginning October 1.
The Town of Century’s budget for the current fiscal year is $5.1 million.
Tate Senior Norre Named Florida VFW Eagle Scout Of The Year
June 12, 2015
Tate High School senior Jacob Norre was named the Florida VFW Eagle Scout of the Year during a special ceremony Thursday in Orlando. Norre was presented the award and a scholarship by Gov. Rick Scott.
Norre’s application for the award was presented by Pensacola VFW Post 706. He is a member of Boy Scout Troop 628 charted by the Gonzales United Methodist Men.
Norre was also recently named a drum major for the Tate High School Showband of the South.
Free Sports Physicals For All NHS Athletes
June 12, 2015
Free sports physicals will be offered for all Northview High School athletes this Saturday, June 13 at 7 a.m. at the Andrews Institute in Gulf Breeze. All forms must be complete and signed by a parent prior to the physicals.
Click here to download the physical form.
Appeals Court Rules Against High Tax Rate For Satellite TV
June 12, 2015
An appeals court Thursday said a Florida law is unconstitutional because it imposes a higher tax rate on satellite-television companies than on their cable-TV competitors.
The 1st District Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 ruling, also ordered a lower court to determine how much money should be refunded to satellite-TV companies. The ruling overturned a decision by a Leon County circuit judge, who found the differing rates in the state’s communications-services tax were valid.
The Florida Department of Revenue quickly vowed to appeal Thursday’s ruling.
“The department has reviewed this opinion and plans to challenge the ruling,” department Executive Director Marshall Stranburg said in a prepared statement. “The court’s opinion is contrary to decisions on this issue in numerous state and federal courts and misconstrues the effect of the communications services tax.”
The case stems from the state communications-services tax being set at 6.65 percent for cable TV and 10.8 percent for satellite service. The appeals court found that the tax is discriminatory and violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“Here, the sales tax portion of the CST (communications-services tax) is discriminatory in effect because it affects similarly-situated entities, cable and satellite companies, by imposing a disproportionate burden on satellite service and conferring an advantage upon cable services, which use in-state infrastructure,” said the majority opinion, written by Judge Clay Roberts and joined by Judge Ronald Swanson.
A key part of the case involved a question about whether the tax law discriminates against out-of-state satellite companies when compared with cable companies that have large amounts of infrastructure in Florida. Such discrimination can violate what is known as the “dormant” Commerce Clause.
In a dissenting opinion, appeals-court Judge Simone Marstiller disputed that the law violated the dormant Commerce Clause.
“Inasmuch as the cable providers and the satellite providers both have human and physical assets in Florida which they use to provide services to their customers, they both have significant in-state economic interests,” Marstiller wrote. “I fail to see how, under these facts, the cable providers have local economic interests, but the satellite providers do not. And I find nothing in dormant Commerce Clause jurisprudence that would justify invalidating Florida’s CST based on one group’s comparatively greater economic investment in the state where both groups have economic investment here.”
The potential ramifications of the ruling were not immediately clear Thursday, as the appeals court sent the case back to circuit court to determine a refund amount.
The ruling came as state lawmakers negotiate a budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 — and, somewhat ironically, are discussing a reduction in the communications-services tax.
House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, said Thursday afternoon he was waiting to get a briefing on the potential ramifications of the ruling. But he noted that an appeal would likely delay its effects.
by Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Scott Signs Controversial Adoption Bill
June 12, 2015
Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday signed 48 bills Thusrday, including an controversial adoption bill..
The bill (HB 7013) will provide $5,000 payments to government workers who adopt foster children, with the payments increasing to $10,000 for adopting children with special needs. But the bill also sparked fierce protests over what one critic called its “poison pill” — a provision repealing the state’s decades-old ban on gay adoption.
An outcry by social conservatives about repealing the ban led the House this spring to approve another measure — dubbed the “conscience protection” bill — that would have protected faith-based adoption agencies from lawsuits or loss of licensure for refusing to place children with gays. But the “conscience protection” bill did not pass the Senate.
Scott sought to bridge the divide in a letter Thursday that accompanied his signing of HB 7013. He noted that the gay adoption ban hasn’t been enforced since 2010, when the 3rd District Court of Appeal struck it down. However, he wrote, “It is my hope and expectation that the Legislature will take future action to make clear that we will support private, faith-based operators in the child welfare system and ensure that their religious convictions continue to be protected.”
Sen. Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican who was the Senate sponsor of HB 7013, indicated he was elated — and grateful — that Scott signed the measure.
“I know that there was political pressure to veto the bill,” Gaetz said. “I know there were people who were passionate, and I’m sure very well intentioned, who believe that one line in this bill was enough to encourage the governor to veto what was otherwise truly an expression of hope and support by the state of Florida for hundreds and hundreds of hard-to-place kids.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Dennis Baxley, an Ocala Republican who supported the “conscience protection” bill and is one of the most-prominent social conservatives in the Legislature, pointed to the difficult decision that faced Scott.
“The governor certainly articulates the conundrum we find ourselves in,” Baxley said. “I don’t hate anybody. I’m not phobic or afraid of anybody. I simply can’t morally run over my Biblical beliefs about homosexuality. And I still believe that every child deserves a mom and a dad.”
John Stemberger, president of the conservative Florida Family Policy Council, had a harsher assessment of the bill. Stemberger tweeted that the governor had signed a “bad homosexual adoption bill putting faith-based agencies at risk.”
But Rep. David Richardson, a Miami Beach Democrat who played a key role in getting the gay-adoption ban repealed, said in a prepared statement he was “glad the governor did the right thing.”
“This is a momentous day and an important advance for civil rights,” said Richardson, who is gay. “It’s also great news for children who will be adopted into loving homes.”
Scott signed the adoption bill just hours after formally receiving it.
by Margie Menzel and Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Florida Department Of Education Honors Involvement Of Two Escambia Churches
June 12, 2015
The Florida Department of Education has recognized two Escambia County churches with the Commissioner’s Business Recognition Awards. The awards acknowledge businesses for their extraordinary contributions to public education in Florida.
For Escambia County, the awards were presented to Calvary Baptist Church on Pine Forest Road and Pine Summit Baptist Church on Bellview Avenue.
Calvary Baptist has been involved in a five year partnership with Bellview Elementary School, having adopted this school as a part of the church’s “Impact Ministry”. Originating from a vision to have a positive impact on the community, the church has numerous members who volunteer as mentors through the Escambia County School District’s Youth Motivator Program.
The church also provides “backpack food” for more than two dozen children identified by the school as lacking food to eat over the weekends. Church volunteers also assist in the classroom and with special projects as requested by the school’s teachers and administrators.
“Everyone benefits when businesses are actively involved in education in their communities,” said Chancellor of K-12 Public Education Hershel Lyons. “I commend our partners’ efforts to ensure students receive the tools and resources they need to be successful in college, career and life.”
“We understand that as Christians, we have a unique and solemn responsibility and privilege to make our community a better place. It is simply not ‘good enough’ to exist in our community and not address the real and prevalent needs of those here,” said Calvary Senior Pastor Chris Aiken. “Teachers have the ‘high ground’ of influence in the lives of children. We simply want to help our schools in fulfilling their mandate to train up and educate this generation of children.”
Calvary also serves the broader school district as hosts of the baccalaureate services for Pine Forest and West Florida high schools, providing mentors at Ransom and Bellview middle schools and MacArthur Elementary, as well as providing leadership to First Priority programs at Pine Forest High, as well as Bellview and Ransom Middle Schools.
Pictured top: Calvary Baptist Church. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.