Man Charged With Recording Women In Hospital Bathroom
July 29, 2015
An Alabama man has been charged with using his phone to record women in a bathroom at Atmore Community Hospital.
Atmore Police Chief Chuck Brooks told NorthEscambia.com Tuesday night that 49-year old Curtis Overstreet of Jackson, AL, was a part-time employee at the hospital. He was charged with three counts of criminal surveillance and later released on bond.
Overstreet reportedly confessed to video recording three women in an employees-only bathroom inside the hospital in Atmore. He would allegedly leave his phone in the female employees’ bathroom where one employee reported finding the phone in record mode. The phone was traced to Overstreet, and a search warrant was served at his home in Jackson, AL, where no evidence of the alleged video recordings was found.
According to Infirmary Health, parent company of Atmore Community Hospital, Overstreet is no longer employed with Atmore Community Hospital.
Pictured top: Atmore Community Hospital, NorthEscambia.com file photo. Pictured inset: No booking photo of Curtis Overstreet was available, but he is seen here in a Facebook photo.
Mid 70’s Tonight; Lower 90’s Thursday
July 29, 2015
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Tonight: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 9pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 75. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Thursday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 93. Calm wind becoming north around 5 mph in the morning.
Thursday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 76. Calm wind.
Friday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 91. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph.
Friday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 75. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm after midnight.
Saturday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 90. Calm wind becoming northeast around 5 mph in the morning.
Saturday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 74. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Sunday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 92. North wind around 5 mph becoming east in the afternoon.
Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 75.
Monday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 93.
Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 75.
Tuesday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 94.
Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 76.
Wednesday: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 94.
One Injured As Kitchen Fire Damages Century Mobile Home
July 29, 2015
A kitchen fire damaged a Century mobile home Wednesdays morning and sent one man to the hospital.
The kitchen fire, caused by cooking, was reported about 7:10 a.m. in the 9400 block of Ivey Street. The first firefighters on scene reported some smoke inside the trailer when they arrived.
One resident of the mobile home was transported by Escambia County EMS to Jay Hospital for smoke inhalation and burns.
The Century, McDavid and Walnut Hill stations of Escambia Fire Rescue, the Flomaton Fire Department and the Jay Fire Department were dispatched to the fire.
NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Escambia County Business Tax Bills In The Mail
July 29, 2015
Business tax bills have been mailed.
Escambia County Tax Collector Janet Holley was set to mail over 20,000 business tax receipt renewal notices on Tuesday. Business owners can renew through September 30 without a delinquent penalty.
Business tax receipts can be renewed online, but other options are available including payment by mail, by phone or in person at any one of three tax collector offices.
Applications and information for business tax receipts are available at www.escambiataxcollector.com. For more information or to make an appointment, visit the tax collector’s website or call (850) 438‑6500, ext. 3252.
The New Ernest Ward: Where To Park, And Where Is The Front Door?
July 29, 2015
As the new Ernest Ward Middle School nears completion, and the new school year nears the first day, here’s a look at where to park and how to find the not-so-obvious front door.
Since students moved into the school back in February, parents and visitors have used a side parking lot and door to enter the school. That side door is now locked on a regular basis, and that parking lot is for employees and will be closed to the public.
Parents and the public should enter and exit from the northernmost gate on Highway 97. That’s the one farthest away, not actually in front of the school, all the way up near the fire department (pictured above).
The other Highway 97 gate, located in front of the school, is closest to the front door. But it’s the wrong way in. This gate (pictured above) is only for buses to exit and is marked “Do Not Enter”.
Back to that northernmost gate for the public, up near the fire department. After driving through the gate(pictured above), it’s still hard to even see the front door. But it’s there. Just keep driving and find the parking spaces, which, by the way, still are not in front of the front door.
The awning, and the driveway the loops around to the right of the above photo the student drop-off and pick-up line. The parking lot is to the the left (look for the arrow to the left of the picture). It’s still very hard to see and find the front door from here, but it’s there.
From the public parking lot the front of the school looks like this. Over on the bottom left of the photos, at the end of the awning, is the elusive front door of Ernest Ward Middle School. The awning, and the driveway that loops around by the front door, is the student drop-off and pick-up line for parents.
And finally, here are the front doors — the only doors that will be unlocked for the rest of the summer and during the school year for the public to use.
There are plans to install signage to help those entering the campus, but those signs may not be completed in time for the first day of school.
Second Motorcylist Dies Following Saturday Crash Near Century
July 29, 2015
An Alabama man died Tuesday afternoon from injuries he received in a motorcycle crash Saturday evening that claimed the life of his wife.
Wilmer Rankin Barnes, age 54 of Stockton, was pronounced deceased at 1:39 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Wilmer Barnes was westbound on a 2015 Harley Davidson motorcycle on Highway 4 near Canoe Creek just after 7 p.m. Saturday. The Harley left the roadway in a curve and struck a culvert, causing the motorcycle to overturn. Barnes and his passenger, 55-year Linda Ann Barnes of Stockton, were both ejected from the motorcycle. Linda Barnes was pronounced deceased at the scene by Escambia County EMS.
Both occupants were wearing their helmets.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Appeals Court Upholds Doctor-Patient Gun Law
July 29, 2015
For the second time in little more than a year, a federal appeals court Tuesday upheld a controversial Florida law that restricts doctors from asking questions and recording information about patients’ gun ownership.
The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was a victory for the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights advocates and a defeat for medical groups that argued, at least in part, that the law infringed on doctors’ First Amendment rights.
The appeals court last July also upheld the 2011 law but issued a revised ruling Tuesday. After last year’s decision, medical groups continued challenging the law, including asking for a rehearing before the entire Atlanta-based appeals court.
Dubbed the “docs vs. glocks” law, the measure includes a series of restrictions on doctors and other health providers. As an example, it seeks to prevent physicians from entering information about gun ownership into medical records if the physicians know the information is not “relevant” to patients’ medical care or safety or to the safety of other people.
As another example, the law says doctors should refrain from asking about gun ownership by patients or family members unless the doctors believe in “good faith” that the information is relevant to medical care or safety. Also, the law seeks to prevent doctors from discriminating against patients or “harassing” them because of owning firearms.
A federal district judge in 2012 sided with opponents of the law and issued an injunction against it. But the appeals court last July and again Tuesday overturned the injunction.
“The purpose of the act, as we read it, is not to protect patient privacy by shielding patients from any and all discussion about firearms with their physicians; the act merely requires physicians to refrain from broaching a concededly sensitive topic when they lack any good-faith belief that such information is relevant to the medical care or safety of their patients or others,” said the majority opinion, written by Judge Gerald Tjoflat and joined by Judge L. Scott Coogler.
But Judge Charles Wilson wrote a lengthy dissent arguing that the law violates the First Amendment rights of physicians.
“Simply put, the act is a gag order that prevents doctors from even asking the first question in a conversation about firearms,” Wilson wrote. “The act prohibits or significantly chills doctors from expressing their views and providing information to patients about one topic and one topic only, firearms.”
The Republican-dominated Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott approved the law after hearing accounts of doctors unnecessarily asking questions about gun ownership or even refusing to continue providing care if such questions were not answered.
In Tuesday’s majority opinion, Tjoflat repeatedly pointed to instances in which doctors can continue justify asking about firearms, such as in the case of a patient considered at risk of suicide.
“Thus, a physician may make inquiries as to the firearms-ownership status of any or all patients, so long as he or she does so with the good-faith belief — based on the specifics of the patient’s case — that the inquiry is relevant to the patient’s medical care or safety, or the safety of others,” the majority opinion said. “If, for example, the physician seeks firearm information to suit a personal agenda unrelated to medical care or safety, he or she would not be making a ‘good-faith’ inquiry, and so the act plainly directs him to refrain from inquiring.”
But Wilson’s dissent raised questions about whether the law stemmed from anecdotal incidents. He also argued that doctors should have the right to ask questions about guns in addressing the well-being of patients.
“There is nothing to suggest that the doctors’ inquiries or messages regarding firearms were not genuinely believed to be in the patients’ best medical interest when given,” Wilson wrote. “But there is evidence in the legislative history to suggest that the harassment provision (of the law) is designed to prevent these conversations from taking place in the future. That is certainly the result it will achieve. Doctors will largely cease inquiring into and counseling on the topic of firearms, lest they be accused of crossing the line between providing life-saving preventive medical information and promoting an anti-firearm political agenda.”
by Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida
Traffic Shift For I-10 Near Scenic Highway
July 29, 2015
Interstate 10 (I-10) eastbound traffic near U.S. 90 (Scenic Highway) in Escambia County will be shifted to the south near the Scenic Highway overpass beginning this week. The shift will allow crews to place a large crane in the median needed for the demolition and reconstruction of the Scenic Highway overpass. The traffic shift will be in place until the end of 2015.
Drivers destined for Scenic Highway will continue using the I-10 on-and-off ramps. The speed limit on I-10 eastbound near Scenic Highway will be reduced to 60 mph.
All planned construction activities are weather dependent and may be re-scheduled in the event of inclement weather.
Injured Teen Airlifted After Cantonment ATV, Vehicle Crash
July 29, 2015
At teen was airlifted to the hospital following an ATV crash with a vehicle Tuesday afternoon in Cantonment.
The accident happened about 5:20 p.m. at the intersection of Nowak Road and Country Road 97 when the ATV and a SUV collided. According to the FHP, the 2000 Yamaha ATV driven by 16-year Timothy Trouch of Cantonment was traveling northbound on County Road 97 in the right turn lane. As Trouch attempted a right turn onto Nowak Road, he pulled into the path of a 2006 Lexus RX 400 driven by 46-year old Tammi Hill of Cantonment.
A passenger on the ATV, 17-yar old Morgan Long of Cantonment, was airlifted by Lifeguard helicopter to Sacred Heart Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Trouch received minor injuries.
Hill and her passenger, a 14-year old female, were not injured.
Trouch was cited by the FHP with driving an all terrain vehicle on the roadway.
Escambia County EMS and the Cantonment Station of Escambia Fire Rescue responded to the crash.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Donna Dodge Tyree
July 29, 2015
Donna loved to enjoy life to the fullest. She loved to play cards (and cheat), dance, travel, watch movies, and spoil her grandchildren. She was a loving and devoted wife, amazing mother, nana, sister, and friend. Donna was an active member of Ray’s Chapel Baptist Church in McDavid.
Donna was preceded in death by her husband, Billy Tyree.
She is survived by her daughter, Kristy (Eddie) Carnley; grandson; Lane Carnley; granddaughter: Ashtyn Carnley; brothers: Jimmy (Bertha) Dodge and Tommy Dodge; nephews, and many friends.
The family will receive friends at Pensacola Memorial Gardens Funeral Home on Thursday, July 30, 2015, from noon until the 1 p.m. funeral service. Burial will follow in Pensacola Memorial Gardens. Reverend Nathan Brown will officiate.