Air Force Captain Sentenced In Child Sex Scheme
July 25, 2015
An Air Force captain has been sentenced in a child sex sting.
Kenneth D. Lebay, 31, was sentenced by Judge Michael Jones to 28 months in state prison, plus seven years probation. He will also be required to register as a sex offender. Lebay’s attorney immediately appealed the sentence and asked that he be released pending the outcome of the appeal, but Jones denied the motion . Lebay was remanded into custody.
According to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, Lebay traveled to a local business to meet what he believed was a juvenile female but was actually an undercover investigator. He was charged with obscene communication using a computer to lure a child for sex, and obscene communication using a two-way device.
The arrest came as part of “Operation Blue Guardian”, in which six other people were arrested.
Weekend Gardening: Distinctly Southern Hydrangeas
July 25, 2015
by Santa Rosa County Extension
Nothing defines a southern landscape more than hydrangeas.
These beautiful, large flowering shrubs fill gardens with their green, leafy foliage and incredible blooms during the warm months.
In order to ensure consistent and reliable blooms, these shrubs must be cared for correctly. In addition to proper site location, fertilizer and moisture conditions, hydrangeas may require pruning. Proper pruning includes correct timing.
Hydrangea aficionados are constantly debating pruning techniques. There are many different types of hydrangeas and pruning differs according to the type. It is a big genus of plants and so it’s important to know what type of hydrangeas you may have and on what type of wood they bloom on.
Blooms on old wood, prune after flowering
The bigleaf hydrangeas, known scientifically as Hydrangea macrophylla, are what most people think of when you mention hydrangeas. Most gardeners will know these as mopheads (also called hortensias) and lacecaps. Many of these blooms will be blue or pink although other colors now are available.
Many large colonies of bigleaf hydrangeas have existed around old homes for decades, surviving and blooming in spite of neglect. This tells us that it is not necessary to prune bigleaf hydrangeas.
However, if you want to keep these shrubs within a defined boundary, control their height or rejuvenate old shrubs, it will be necessary to prune them.
Bigleaf hydrangeas can be reduced in size immediately after flowering. A general rule of thumb is that you may remove up to a third of the shrub’s height. Be sure to complete your pruning before August. This is critical because next year flower blooms start to form in August. Pruning after August will remove next year’s blooms.
There now is a small group of bigleaf hydrangeas that are everblooming or remontant. Endless Summer® is one well-known brand. According to the developers of these reblooming hydrangeas, remove spent flowers to encourage rebloom. They are quite forgiving and will not suffer if left unpruned or pruned at the wrong time because these cultivars bloom on both old and new growth.
Our native oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) is a large, deciduous shrub that can grow up to six feet tall. It has deeply lobed, oak-like leaves which turn bronze in the fall. This plant does not usually need pruning. If reshaping or size-reduction is necessary, prune after blooms begin to fade.
Article Continues Below Photo
Lacecap hydrangea
Blooms on new wood, prune in early spring
Smooth hydrangea (H. arborescens) is the other U.S. native. The most common cultivar, ‘Annabelle’, produces rounded inflorescences that may reach up to a foot in diameter.
The panicle hydrangea (H. paniculata) is more of an upright type. It is typically a 10 to 15-foot large shrub or low-branched tree.
Panicle and smooth hydrangeas flower on current year’s growth and can be pruned anytime from late summer until early spring. If pruning these two species in the spring, try to prune before leaves appear.
Winter pruning
Established bigleaf, panicle, oakleaf and smooth hydrangea plants can often benefit from rejuvenation pruning. Remove about one-third of the oldest stems each year. The result is a fuller, healthier plant. This type of pruning is easiest to do in winter, since the absence of leaves makes it easier to see and reach inside plants.
Hydrangeas offer a wide variety of plants which can make the timing of pruning difficult to remember. Just keep in mind, if in doubt, either don’t prune at all or prune after flowering.
Rejected Medical Pot Apps Likely To Be Challenged
July 25, 2015
Even before selecting five nurseries to become Florida’s first legal pot producers, Department of Health officials will face a challenge from at least one grower whose application was tossed out because it was late.
The department’s Office of Compassionate Use staff rejected two of the 30 applications from nurseries hoping to get chosen as one of the five coveted “dispensing organizations.” Both were tossed because they were received after a 5 p.m. deadline following a frenzied scene during a torrential downpour July 8 at the agency’s headquarters.
Both nurseries say their representatives were told by Department of Health workers that the 5 p.m. deadline didn’t apply.
Lawyers for O.F. Nelson & Sons say they intend to challenge the rejection because the Apopka-based nursery’s representatives were told that the deadline was extended for a day, in part because of the weather.
“Our application was complete, and we were prepared to submit it until the DOH expressly represented that it would extend the deadline a day. We relied on that representation, and the following day the DOH accepted our application and fee without reservation. We only recently discovered that the DOH rejected the application despite its previous assurances that we were timely,” Derek Young, a lawyer with Kaplan Young & Moll Parron who represents the nursery, told The News Service of Florida on Friday.
The O.F. Nelson application was time-stamped 12 p.m. on July 9.
“Our dispensing organization is by far the most qualified and includes one of the leading medical cannabis companies in the world. Florida’s patient population deserves the high standards of quality and safety our dispensing organization represents, and we therefore intend to challenge the DOH’s indefensible position to ensure our patients receive exactly that,” Young said.
Ed Miller and Son Nursery also received a letter from Patricia Nelson, then-director of the Office of Compassionate Use, saying that the application from the Palm City nursery — time-stamped at 5:27 p.m. July 8 — was “untimely.” Nelson left the Office of Compassionate Use post a week ago.
The certified letters, sent July 16, also say that the nurseries have 21 days to file a challenge. Department officials referred to state law in response to questions about the rejections.
Ed Miller and Son is trying to get a license in the southeastern region of Florida. Anthony Ardizzone, a partner in the nursery, said the deadline wasn’t clear and he is considering a challenge.
“We’re reviewing our options,” he told The News Service of Florida this week.
While the application for the dispensing organizations said that documents would be accepted “no later than 5 p.m.” July 8, the Office of Compassionate Use’s website says that the applications would be taken “through” 5 p.m.
Ardizzone is relying on Webster’s Dictionary definition of “through,” which means “during the entire period of” or “from the beginning to the end of.” That means the applications should have been accepted all through the 5 o’clock hour until 6 p.m., according to Ardizzone.
Ardizzone also said that a representative who delivered his nearly 2,000-page application was told by a Department of Health worker that applications received before 5:30 “would be OK.”
“The doors were open. It was accepted. It was received,” Ardizzone said. “Our contention is that they took it. And they took additional information two days later.”
The health department responded to requests for comment with excerpts from a rule, which says that applications would be received “no earlier than 10:00 AM, Eastern Time, on the effective date of this rule and no later than 5:00 PM, Eastern Time, 21 calendar days after the effective date of this rule.” The rule went into effect on June 17.
Health Department spokeswoman Mara Burger also referred to the language in letters sent to the two nurseries citing Florida law allowing affected parties to petition for administrative hearings within 21 days of receiving the letters.
Nearly all of those seeking licenses waited until the last day to submit the applications, resulting in a frenzy at the health department’s Tallahassee headquarters as the 5 p.m. deadline loomed and a downpour raged during rush-hour traffic, according to one observer.
The door to the building facing the street was locked and visitors were supposed to enter through a side door, creating more confusion as individuals toting boxes of documents scrambled to beat the clock, said Jeff Sharkey, a lobbyist who represents the Medical Marijuana Business Association of Florida, which he founded.
“You could smell the anxiety and the desperation in the air as the clock ticked towards 5 p.m.,” Sharkey said. “People are coming in and handing in their applications. … One person came at 4:55 and ran up to the door and I opened the door for him. They stamped in at 4:57.”
Things worsened one minute before 5 p.m., Sharkey said.
“It’s raining. There’s no place to park out there now. And this poor kid comes screaming up in some little car and grabs this box of stuff and runs up to the door and he’s pounding on the door. And 5:00 is like a minute away,” he said.”His face was up against the glass. He’s mouthing ‘Please open the door!’ He’s sopping wet.”
Sharkey said he opened the door for the man, who was told by a worker that he had missed the 5 p.m. deadline.
“And the poor kid just freaked out,” Sharkey said.
A three-member panel, which includes the new head of the Office of Compassionate Use, has three months to choose five nurseries — one from each region of the state — to grow, process and distribute marijuana that is low in euphoria-inducing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and high in cannabadiol, or CBD. Parents of children with a severe form of epilepsy pushed the Legislature last year to approve the low-THC cannabis, believing it can end or dramatically reduce life-threatening seizures.
Doctors were supposed to be able to begin ordering the medical marijuana for patients with severe muscle spasms or cancer on Jan. 1, but the 2014 law has been mired in challenges.
In November, Administrative Law Judge W. David Watkins rejected health officials’ first attempt at a rule governing the pot industry, agreeing with Miami-based Costa Farms and others that objected to the Department of Health’s proposed use of a lottery to pick the licensees.
Watkins upheld a second version of the rule in May after it, too, was challenged.
Under the current regulations, the panel will pick the five licensees based on a weighted scorecard that evaluates cultivation, processing, dispensing, financials and the operation’s medical director.
Nurseries that have been doing business in Florida for at least 30 continuous years and grow a minimum of 400,000 plants at the time they apply are eligible for a license. The applications ask nurseries about their investors, pot consultants, protocols and the types of cannabis they intend to cultivate.
Applicants had 21 days to collect documents, secure the $5 million bond required in the law and submit them to state health officials, a timeline many grumbled was too hasty. Some out-of-state consultants were charging at least $150,000 to craft the applications.
Nearly everyone in the industry, including those on the sidelines, predict that, once awarded, the licenses will be challenged. From four to seven nurseries applied in each of the five regions.
In addition to the non-refundable $60,063 application fee, $5 million bond and costs to submit the license, Ardizzone estimated that it would cost $12 million to get his operation up-and-running.
The possibility that Florida voters could have another shot at legalizing full-blown medical marijuana in November 2016 makes the licenses even more appealing. The applications are a public record, except for information that is deemed “proprietary” or is exempt by Florida’s broad open records laws, so losers will be able to scrutinize their competitors’ winning documents.
“Everyone involved in this process has always assumed that the losers of the selection process will challenge. I think that is a given,” said Louis Rotundo, a lobbyist who represents the Florida Medical Cannabis Association.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Chance of Showers, Middle 90’s Today
July 25, 2015
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
This Afternoon: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 95. North wind around 5 mph.
Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 74. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph.
Sunday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 95. East wind around 5 mph.
Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 73. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Monday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 97. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 74. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Tuesday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 97. Calm wind becoming north around 5 mph.
Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 75. Southwest wind around 5 mph.
Wednesday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 95. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming north in the afternoon.
Wednesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 75.
Thursday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 93.
Thursday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 75.
Friday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 93.
Biloxi Ends Wahoos Win Streak
July 25, 2015
No one expected the Pensacola Blue Wahoos to win the final 42 games of the season.
Although, Pensacola manager Pat Kelly said jokingly that he would have liked that.
The Biloxi Shuckers – the first half champions – ended the Blue Wahoo’s four-game win streak and 11 straight wins at home with a 3-2 victory Friday in front of 4,348 at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.
The loss dropped Pensacola into second place behind the Mobile BayBears at 17-11 (42-54) in the second half of the Southern League South Division race.
For the first four innings, the Blue Wahoos breezed along. Pensacola second baseman Ryan Wright belted his first home run of the year, a solo shot, to left field to give the Blue Wahoos a 1-0 lead.
Wright has played in four games since coming off the disabled list with back spasms July 20 and is hitting .429 (6-14) with two doubles, one homer and four RBIs.
“It was a first pitch fastball,” said Wright, who scored both of Pensacola’s runs. “I think I took him (Tyler Wagner) by surprise a little bit. But I wanted to be aggressive and that was the best pitch I saw all night. He’s a very good pitcher. We’ve seen him a few times this year.”
Meanwhile, Pensacola starter Tim Adleman started the game by setting down the first nine Shuckers before walking second baseman Nate Orf. He threw four hitless innings before the Shuckers scored three times on two hits in the fifth to go up, 3-1.
Biloxi left fielder Victor Roache scored an unearned run and then pitcher Tyler Wagner took matters into his own hands. His double rolled to the left center wall to score third baseman Taylor Green and catcher Adam Weisenburger and give the Shuckers a 3-1 lead.
Wagner had a season-high 11 strikeouts in seven innings against the Pensacola lineup and improved to 7-5 with a 2.53 ERA. His two RBIs also helped his cause. The Milwaukee Brewers No. 10 prospect according to MLB.com had been 0-3 with a 2.77 ERA in four starts in July, getting just six runs of support from Biloxi’s lineup.
Wagner made one appearance with the Brewers against the Arizona Diamondbacks May 31 and lasted 3.2 innings giving up five runs on nine hits.
Kelly said Wagner was impressive.
“He singlehandedly won the game for them,” Kelly said. “He was throwing a helluva game. We got some guys on base but he didn’t give us a lot of opportunities.”
Pensacola cut Biloxi’s lead to, 3-2, in the sixth inning when right fielder Juan Duran doubled off the left field wall to drive in Wright, who singled up the middle to lead off the sixth inning.
Pensacola went down in order in the seventh and eighth before putting the tying run on second and the winning run on first. But second baseman Ray Chang hit a line drive to first baseman Nick Ramirez, who caught the ball and tagged pinch runner Juan Perez out to end the game.
The fourth game of the five-game series is scheduled at 6:35 p.m. Saturday with the Milwaukee Brewers Double-A affiliate Biloxi Shuckers. RHP Josh Smith (5-2, 3.00) takes the mound for the Wahoos and is scheduled to be opposed by Shuckers LHP Hobbs Johnson (6-4, 3.36).
Sheriff David Morgan Involved In Minor Traffic Accident
July 24, 2015
Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan was involved in minor traffic accident about noon Friday, colliding with a bicyclist that was riding on the sidewalk.
According to a release from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office:
“The sheriff was attempting to pull out of a parking lot onto Fairfield Drive. While Sheriff Morgan was watching oncoming traffic, a bicyclist riding on the sidewalk in the opposite direction of traffic attempted to ride in front of the sheriff’s vehicle as the sheriff was pulling into traffic. The bicyclist suffered minor abrasions to his leg and attempted to leave.
“Sheriff Morgan convinced the man into getting checked out by EMS and to wait for Florida Highway Patrol to work the accident.
Billings Murder Accessory Pamela Long Wiggins Dies In Prison
July 24, 2015
Pamela Long Wiggins, who was convicted of accessory to murder after the fact in connection with the Billings murders, died Thursday in state prison.
Wiggins was serving a 28 years sentence for her role in the robbery and murders of Byrd and Melanie Billings at their Beulah home in July 2009.
She was accused of helping to hide a safe that was taken from the Billings home in her Gulf Breeze backyard and taking guns to Mississippi that were used in the murders.
Wiggins cause of death remains under investigation. In April of this year, she petitioned for a conditional medical release due to an unreleased terminal illness that had left her with six to 12 months to live. That release was denied.
Another Billings murder suspect, Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Sr., died in state prison in June.
Escambia Ups County Fire Tax $15 Per Year To Staff South-End Stations
July 24, 2015
Escambia County homeowners outside the city of Pensacola will pay an extra $15 per year for fire services, with the money going toward paid firefighters bolstering the ranks at fire stations in the south-end of the county.
The Escambia County Commission voted 3-1, with Steven Barry against and Lumon May absent, to add the $15, increasing the fire tax for the average homeowner from $85 to $100 beginning with the next fiscal year.
The proceeds from the extra $15 per year municipal services benefit unit assessment (MSBU) will fund 24/7 paid firefighters at the Ferry Pass and West Pensacola fire stations, with 12 firefighters assigned per station.
The board also voted to hire another dozen firefighters using reserve funds. They will either fully staff the Myrtle Grove fire station or be split between Myrtle Grove, Innerarity Point and Bellview. The final staffing decision will be made by Fire Chief Pat Grace and Public Safety Director Michael Weaver.
The Ferry Pass, Bellview, Innerarity Point, Myrtle Grove and West Pensacola stations have recorded volunteers missing a large number of calls for service, between 10 and 60 percent of fire calls, according to county data.
Two commissioners, Doug Underhill and Wilson Robertson, lobbied Thursday night for a $30 per year increase which would have funded full-time paid firefighter coverage at all five stations when coupled with reserve funds.
The county will continue to use available volunteer firefighters at all fire stations. North of Nine Mile Road, the Cantonment fire station is staffed 24/7 by paid crews, while the Century fire station has a paid crew of three firefighters on duty from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Volunteers are on call the remainder of the day at the Century fire station and all-day at the McDavid, Walnut Hill, Molino and Beulah stations.
Pictured top and inset: A fully involved house fire battled by volunteers on Highway 97 in Davisville. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge. Pictured below: Five Escambia County fire station, in priority order, in need of staffing. It would cost each homeowner in the county $7.50 per year to full staff each fire station.
More Rain Possible Tonight
July 24, 2015
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Tonight: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 7pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 76. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Saturday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 94. Calm wind becoming north around 5 mph in the morning.
Saturday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly clear, with a low around 76. Calm wind.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 95. Light east wind increasing to 5 to 10 mph in the morning.
Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 76. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Monday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 97. Light and variable wind becoming east 5 to 10 mph in the morning.
Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 73. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 96. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming northeast in the afternoon.
Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 74.
Wednesday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 96.
Wednesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 76.
Thursday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 92.
Thursday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 74.
Friday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 91.
BOE Approves College Performance Funding; Pensacola State On Underperforming List
July 24, 2015
Pensacola State College is among five schools in Florida that have some of their existing funding held back until they show improvement.
A new performance-funding system for state colleges was approved Thursday by the State Board of Education, the latest step in Florida officials’ drive to tie money for higher education to how well institutions and their students do.
Board members unanimously approved the model, but some did so hesitantly, discouraged by standards that were left out of the model under legislative instructions or did not feature as prominently in the scores colleges receive because of a scarcity of data.
The performance system will control how the state divvies up a total of $40 million, including $20 million of new funding for colleges and $20 million in money that colleges were already receiving. In that respect, it resembles a larger performance plan for state universities that started last year.
Colleges will be scored based on four categories: Completion rates for students, retention rates for students, job placement and continuing education for graduates and the entry-level wages for graduates. At least initially, completion and retention rates will be weighed more heavily than job placement and wages.
That bothered some board members, who noted that Gov. Rick Scott and other state officials have pushed for colleges and universities to put more emphasis on the prospects of those with college degrees to find work. But Christopher Mullin, executive vice chancellor of the Division of Florida Colleges, said the state isn’t able to get the information it needs from some states where students are likely to move.
Both of Florida’s closest neighbors — Alabama and Georgia — aren’t part of a multistate agreement that would allow Florida to get accurate information about jobs and wages, Mullin said.
“What we have is a number of colleges along the I-10 corridor whose students might live or work right across the border. … We’re working really hard to get Georgia and Alabama to join in as well, where we won’t have to worry about this issue moving forward,” Mullin said.
Board Chairwoman Marva Johnson said the department should try to find other routes to get the information it needs regardless of what happens with the data-sharing agreement.
“I don’t want to have to wait on them to get to 50 (states),” she said. “I really would love for us to try to find a way to get, maybe it won’t be perfect data, but as close as we can to the best data, so that we can properly value job placement and wages in the metric system.”
Meanwhile, board member Rebecca Lipsey said she was disappointed that lawmakers set aside a recommendation from Education Commissioner Pam Stewart that the performance formula include a measurement focused specifically on students who received federal need-based financial aid. In all, lawmakers dropped five metrics that Stewart had proposed.
“By removing that, we’re no longer, when thinking about performance funding for our college system, finding a way to incentivize and reward colleges for specifically ensuring that their low-income students are having great outcomes,” Lipsey said.
According to information provided to the board, seven colleges will receive their existing funding back and a higher share of the new money: Santa Fe College; Valencia College; Tallahassee Community College; Lake-Sumter State College; Gulf Coast State College; State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota; and Florida SouthWestern State College. Five schools — Pasco-Hernando State College, the College of Central Florida, Daytona State College, Northwest Florida State College and Pensacola State College — will not receive new funding and will have some of their existing funding held back until they show improvement.
The other 16 colleges will receive their existing funding and some performance funding, though not as much as the seven highest-scoring schools.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service Of Florida