Wahoos Take Series Against The Lookouts
August 23, 2015
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos (31-24, 56-67) won the series against the Chattanooga Lookouts (24-29, 67-54) with a 10-6 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 5,038 at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium. The Wahoos are now 0.5 ahead of the Mississippi Braves for first place. The two teams will face off against each other in a five-game series starting Sunday in Pensacola.
Pensacola starter Barrett Astin pitched 5.0 innings and allowed three runs on three hits, but he did not earn the decision. That distinction went to reliever Kevin Shackelford (2-4), who went 0.2 and did not allow a run. The save went to Kyle McMyne, his eighth of the season.
Chattanooga reliever Alex Wimmers (7-4) earned the loss, allowing the sixth and seventh runs of the game, which proved to be decisive.
Phillip Ervin, who went 2-4 with a home run and two RBIs, led Pensacola at the plate. Jesse Winker and Alex Blandino also stood out at the plate, driving in two runs apiece.
The Wahoos took the early lead on a Marquez Smith solo homer that carried over the wall in right-center field. It was Smith’s eighth deep shot of the season. He was also the 10th Wahoo to hit a home run in the month of August.
Chattanooga got on the board in the third with three runs, one of which was the result of Beau Amaral’s first error of the season.
Pensacola responded in the bottom of the third with a homer from Zach Vincej, the 11th Wahoo to hit a home run this month.
The Wahoos knotted it up at three runs apiece after Yovan Gonzalez took one deep to left in the bottom of the fifth. It was his third homer this August.
Pensacola retook the lead in the sixth with a pair of runs on three hits and two walks. One of the runs came on a single from Phillip Ervin, which was his first hit as a Wahoo.
Stephen Wickens brought Shannon Wilkerson home on an RBI double to bring the score back to 5-4 for the Lookouts. Adam Brett Walker then singled to bring one run home, but the second runner, Max Kepler, was gunned down at the plate by Ervin to keep the score tied.
Blandino put the Wahoos in good position with a sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the seventh, which followed a pair of singles by Amaral and Vincej. Winker brought them both home with a single on the next at bat, making the score 7-5 in favor of the Wahoos.
The Lookouts brought it back to a one-run game in the eighth as Travis Harrison scored on a groundout. Levi Michael earned an RBI on the play.
Ervin extended the lead with a solo shot to left in the bottom of the eighth, the fourth of the night for the Wahoos. It was Ervin’s first Double-A homer of the year and 13th overall. Blandino made it 10-6 with an RBI double that scored Amaral and Vincej.
The Mississippi Braves come to town on Sunday for a five-game series
One Person Shot Early Saturday Morning In Molino
August 22, 2015
An adult male was shot in Molino early Saturday morning.
Deputies responded to Cedartown Road just off Highway 95A about 12:30 a.m. The victim, who was reportedly shot in the arm or elbow, was transported by ambulance to an area hospital, according to Sgt. Andrew Hobbs of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. The victim’s injuries were not considered life threatening.
Early Saturday, Hobbs said the investigation was underway and a suspect had not yet been developed. He said preliminary information indicated the shooting happened as a crowd of people had gathered.
Further details will be published as they become available.
NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Cantonment Man Gets Three Life Sentences For Molesting 7-Year Old
August 22, 2015
A Cantonment man will spend the rest of his life in prison for molesting a 7-year old child.
An Escambia County jury convicted George Gilbert Heady, 56, of three counts of sexual battery of a child under 12, one count of lewd or lascivious molestation, one count of lewd or lascivious exhibition, and one count of battery of a child by expelling certain fluids.
Immediately following the jury’s verdict, Circuit Court Judge J. Scott Duncan sentenced Heady to three concurrent life sentences. Heady was also designated a sexual predator and will be required to register as a sexual predator and comply with all statutory requirements.
The case involved a three-year-long pattern of sexual abuse by Heady on a young family member. The child disclosed the abuse to her mother in January 2015.
The victim told investigators that Heady promised to take her shopping if she would not tell anyone.
The Latest On Hurricane Danny, Your Weekend Weather Forecast
August 22, 2015
The latest information on Hurricane Danny is in the graphic above. Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Saturday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 92. Calm wind.
Saturday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1am. Partly cloudy, with a low around 74. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Sunday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 94. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Sunday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 74. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Monday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 94. North wind around 5 mph.
Monday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 71. Northwest wind around 5 mph.
Tuesday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 92. North wind around 5 mph.
Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 66.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 89.
Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 66.
Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 90.
Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 69.
Friday: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 90.
ECUA Driver Killed On The Job In I-65 Wreck
August 22, 2015
An Emerald Coast Utilities Authority driver was killed on the job Thursday afternoon in an Alabama traffic accident.
According to the Alabama State Troopers, 27-year old Roosevelt Dial of Pensacola was killed when his 2010 Freightliner tractor trailer collided with a 2013 Kenworth tractor trailer on I-65 near the Pintlala exit, between Fort Deposit and Montgomery.
The crash happened about 4 p.m. Thursday. Dial was pronounced deceased on the scene; the other driver was not injured. The collision closed the interstate for several hours.
Dial was hauling ECUA recyclables to a facility in Montgomery.
6A Washington Tops 1A Northview (With Photo Gallery)
August 22, 2015
Sometimes it’s just easier to play somebody your own size. But if you can hold you own against the big boys, it only makes you stronger.
The 1A Northview Chiefs certainly held their own against 6A Washington Friday night in a kickoff jamboree, in Bratt with Washington coming out on top 14-12.
And it won’t get any easier the next few weeks as the 1A Chiefs continue their trial by fire….they’ll face a pair of 6A teams – Crestview and Gulf Breeze.
“It’s not ideal playing much larger schools,” Northview Head Coach Sid Wheatley said. “It’s not what in a perfect scenario you would draw up. But that’s the way it fell, and as long as we can stay healthy I think it will make us better in the long run.”
Unlike the traditional kickoff Jamboree where junior varsity or backup players square off few a few quarters, Friday night’s meeting between the Chiefs and Wildcats was four quarters of full-on football.
Northview took the lead in the first quarter on a 6-yard run from Jared Aliff. And Northview held the lead at the half after a Luke Ward make a jumping catch of a 19-yard pass from quarterback Gavin Grant.
Wheatley was confident that his offense held their own during the four quarters with more possession time than the Wildcats, but NHS made a couple of key errors, including a fumble on the 2-yard line and another fumble inside the 15.
“You can’t leave points out there,” he said. “The difference could have been if we punched that touchdown in, but as it was we failed to do so.”
“For the most part, I thought we were sound. But those little mistakes, those can be fixed,” Wheatley said.
The Northview Chiefs will open the regular season at 7:00 next Friday night on the road against the 6A Crestview Bulldogs. They will sit out September 4 with an open date before hosting 6A Gulf Breeze on September 11.
For a photo gallery, click here. (Band, cheerleader and dance team photos will be published later.)
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Redistricting Session Falls Apart Amid House-Senate Battle
August 22, 2015
A special session called to redraw state congressional lines was derailed Friday, the latest sign of growing acrimony between Republican leaders of the House and Senate.
The end of the session without agreement on the shape of Florida’s 27 congressional districts likely means the final decision will be made by the courts, though some lawmakers held out slim hopes for a resolution in the coming days that could avoid such an outcome.
The special session was sparked when the Florida Supreme Court threw out eight of the state’s congressional districts, saying they violated the “Fair Districts” prohibition on favoring political parties and incumbents.
Negotiations between the House and Senate broke down Friday over a Senate proposal that emerged last week to amend a staff-drawn base map (HB 1B). The Senate proposal would have consolidated eastern Hillsborough County into a single congressional district and drawn all of Sarasota County into one district.
But the House balked, saying the cascading population trade-offs required to make the numbers in all districts equal would force a district now wholly combined in Orange County to pick up some territory in Lake County — something the House said could run afoul of the anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” requirements approved by voters in 2010.
The Senate requested Friday that the two chambers set up a formal House-Senate “conference committee” to hammer out a deal. The upper chamber also voted twice to extend the session through Tuesday, but both efforts were shot down by the House.
“We went in this morning with an understanding that there is a little bit of a divide,” said Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando. “We kind of thought that when you have a divide between chambers, then let’s put together a conference.”
But House Redistricting Chairman Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, said a conference committee was generally used to negotiate budget issues and wouldn’t gel with the Supreme Court’s insistence on a fair redistricting process.
“Having two people get into a room, public or not, make all of these decisions without any of your inputs and come back and have you have to accept those decisions might be workable in a budget, and some have even questioned it in that capacity. It is certainly not workable in this one,” Oliva told the House.
Earlier Friday morning, Senate Reapportionment Chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, walked out of public meeting with Oliva as the House continued to press its concerns. Galvano referred to a decision by the Senate to record conversations between senators and staff members during discussions of potential maps — a decision that the Senate said was aimed at preventing suspicions of improper political meddling.
“I put our members in the very uncomfortable position, for really the first time that I know, historically, where they would sit with staff and be recorded and have those sessions recorded, which yielded hours of tape, just to make sure that we didn’t have to deal with some speculative presumption,” Galvano said. “And if the House has a speculative presumption nonetheless, then this process was done from the start. Frankly, we were damned if you do, damned if you don’t. And so I think, at this point, I’m just going to, chairman, respectfully reiterate the Senates’ request for conference and leave it at that. Thank you.”
Talking to reporters after the senator’s walk-out, Oliva cast doubt on the prospect of a conference meeting.
“But something that’s very concerning is the nature and the way that this meeting ended,” he said. “I don’t think that, again, in business, if you invite me over to your office to talk about something and we’re in the middle of that discussion, you don’t get up and leave unless you’re trying to cast an impression of, ‘I no longer have an interest in talking to you.’ ”
Asked whether the courts could draw the maps, Oliva didn’t rule it out.
“Based on what I saw today, if I’m just the average citizen, I’d say with what you’ve seen today, we’re looking at the court redrawing the map,” he said.
by The News Service of Florida
Agents Arrest Man On 21 Child Porn Charges
August 22, 2015
Friday, Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents, along with agents from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, and detectives from the Pensacola Police Department arrested Daryl Emory Bruner, 36, on 20 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of transmission of child pornography.
A search warrant was served at Bruner’s residence at 6100 East Shore Drive in Pensacola. The investigation began after FDLE agents determined that a computer located at Bruner’s address was offering to share files containing child pornography on the internet.
Agents located numerous child pornography images and videos. Several digital devices were seized for further forensic analysis. The investigation is on going, authorities said.
Bruner was booked into the Escambia County Jail on $100,000 bond. The case will be prosecuted by the Office of the State Attorney, 1st Judicial Circuit.
Prep Football Scores
August 22, 2015
Here’s a roundup of prep football games from around the area Friday night:
FLORIDA
(Scores are from the varsity portion of preseason scrimmages.)
Washington 14, Northview 12
PHS 15, Tate 14
West Florida 13, Pine Forest, 7
Baker 13, Jay 6
Niceville 14, Catholic 7
Pace 19, Choctawhatchee 7
Navarre 43, Dothan 22
Gulf Breeze 24, Fort Walton 14
ALABAMA
Flomaton 42, Chickasaw 8
Andalusia 25, T.R. Miller 0
Baldwin County 35, Escambia County 22
Edgewood 33, Escambia Academy 21 (Thurs)
Milton 21 WS Neal 14 (Thurs)
Pictured: A very wet game between Jay and Baker Friday night. The Tate Aggies also experienced rain and lightning delay of about 45 minutes. Photo by Michele Gibbs for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Escambia Businessman Indicted On Multiple Federal Charges
August 22, 2015
Herdeypal Singh Bhatti, 41, was arraigned Fiday in the U.S. District Court in Pensacola after a federal grand jury returned two separate indictments charging him with unlawfully attempting to procure naturalization and with wire and mail fraud.
The naturalization indictment alleges that, in November 2011, Bhatti knowingly and falsely indicated on his naturalization application that he never failed to file a required federal income tax return and that he did not owe overdue federal taxes. The trial is scheduled for September
The fraud indictment alleges that, in 2010 and 2011, Bhatti committed wire and mail fraud by knowingly submitting fraudulent claims and supporting documentation to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (“GCCF”) in connection with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The indictment alleges that Bhatti falsely claimed to be a hotel manager seeking payment for his lost earnings from the spill. The trial is scheduled for October 5, 2015.
These cases resulted from an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, the Pensacola Police Department, and the State Attorney’s Office for the 1st Judicial Circuit. Assistant United States Attorney David L. Goldberg is prosecuting the cases.