Mobile Home Fire Injures One, Cause Under Investigation
January 24, 2016
The cause of a Century fire that sent one man to the hospital Saturday night is under investigation.
The fire was reported about 10:30 p.m in the 6700 block of Jefferson Avenue, just off Pond Street. A resident of the mobile home was rescued from the fire by the first firefighters on scene.. He was transported to a Pensacola area hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze in under 10 minutes.
The Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office was called to investigate the exact cause the fire.
The Century, Walnut Hill and McDavid stations of Escambia County Fire Rescue, the Flomaton Fire Department and Escambia County EMS also responded to the fire.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
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Eagle Scouts Complete Extension Service Garden Projects
January 24, 2016
The Escambia Extension Service Horticulture program recently benefited from Boy Scouts Troop 36 Eagle Scout projects. The young men built two composters and installed an outdoor classroom in the Extension Service’s demonstration garden in Cantonment. Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Fallout Zone
January 24, 2016
When lawmakers return to Tallahassee every year for the legislative session, they are usually more or less proactive, passing legislation and holding committee hearings that shape the news that comes from the Capitol.
Every so often, though, outside events tend to shape what goes on in the Legislature more than the members of the House and Senate do. This week was one of those periods.
The biggest or most significant stories of the week — including the decision of Senate leaders not to push forward with a redistricting appeal and the move by state economists to slash almost $400 million from revenue projections — involve legislative reactions. Senate leaders were reacting to court rulings, while lawmakers will have to react in the coming weeks to the economists’ forecast. Meanwhile, much of the political energy remained focused on the Republican presidential primary, where real estate tycoon Donald Trump continued his reign in the polls.
It was only the second week of the session. For better or worse, the House and Senate will have to regain the initiative over the next several weeks. There are budgets to be passed and legislation to be hammered out. And no one, at least no one on the Republican side, wants a replay of the slow-motion collapse of the session that happened last year — an encore that would take place just months before voters go to the polls.
But much of what they do before the traditional session-ending hanky drop could be shaped by what happened this week.
THE END OF THE LINE
For nearly four years, Republican leaders in the House and Senate have been locked in the litigious equivalent of warfare with voting-rights organizations that say Senate and congressional districts drawn by the Legislature in 2012 violated a voter-approved ban on political gerrymandering.
After repeatedly losing at the trial-court level and repeatedly appealing to the Florida Supreme Court, top lawmakers announced this week that they’ve had enough. Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, said his chamber would not appeal a ruling that would result in a version of the Senate map drawn by the voting-rights groups.
The ruling, issued last month by Leon County Circuit Judge George Reynolds, gives Democrats a chance at eating into the GOP’s 26-14 edge in the state Senate during the November elections— and maybe a far outside chance of breaking even in the chamber.
Senate Reapportionment Chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said it was time to move on.
“At this point, with the lines themselves, I think the members of the Senate are ready to have closure with regard to those lines,” Galvano, who also serves as Senate majority leader, told reporters. “We want to do our work this session and then pivot into the political season.”
Galvano said he believed there were still open questions about how lawmakers should operate under the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts amendments, added to the Florida Constitution in 2010. But he suggested those issues could be hammered out during a constitutional revision commission that starts meeting next year or when the once-a-decade redistricting process rolls around again in 2022.
A lawyer for the coalition of voting-rights groups, including the League of Women Voters of Florida and Common Cause Florida, declared an unqualified victory. The organizations also drew a congressional map that will be used in November.
“In 2010, Florida voters sent a strong message to the Legislature: Stop drawing districts to favor yourselves and your parties. Just over five years later, we are thrilled to be able to say that the voters’ wishes have been granted,” lawyer David King said. “With the Legislature’s decision not to appeal Judge Reynolds’ final judgment, in 2016 Floridians will for the first time have the opportunity to vote in legally drawn Senate districts that fully comply with the Fair Districts Amendments.”
The only ongoing legal challenge to the current redistricting proposals is a federal lawsuit filed by Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Brown, who says changes to her district would undermine the rights of African-American voters. If needed, oral arguments in that case are set to be heard March 25.
WHAT’S $400 MILLION BETWEEN FRIENDS?
Gov. Rick Scott set a lofty agenda for this year’s budget, asking lawmakers to approve $1 billion in tax cuts, boost economic-development incentives by tens of millions of dollars and increase education spending to record levels. Making room for all of those proposals already required an elastic definition of what constitutes the “surplus” that lawmakers have to work with this year.
The definition doesn’t matter quite as much anymore, after state economists slashed almost $400 million from their forecast for state tax collections over the next 18 months, something that will force budget-writers to try to squeeze the priorities of the Legislature and Scott into a smaller spending plan than the one the governor suggested. Even the House, which had said it was willing to along with $1 billion in tax cuts, suddenly sounded more guarded.
“Fortunately, we have instituted conservative budgeting principles year after year,” said House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island. “We will be able to make adjustments to our spending plan which will come out in the next few weeks.”
Scott’s office tried to play down the drop as “a minor reduction” and pointed to a proposed gambling agreement with the Seminole Tribe that would bring in $2.3 billion over eight years. While that funding wouldn’t be available until after the coming budget year, it could soften the tax cuts’ impact on future spending plans.
“We are pleased to also learn that we still have a significant increase in revenues of over $1 billion in fiscal year 2016-17,” said Scott spokeswoman Jackie Schutz. “Additionally, most actual revenues end up higher than revenue estimates.”
Left unsaid in Schutz’s statement was the gambling “compact” with the Seminole Tribe is what Capitol dwellers call a heavy lift — and a bipartisan grilling of one of Scott’s aides during a meeting of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee was a reminder of that.
The meeting was the first public vetting of the deal since Scott and tribal leader James Billie signed it on Dec. 7. The agreement would allow the Seminoles to add craps and roulette to their casino operations in exchange for increased guaranteed payments to the state over seven years.
House and Senate leaders have said that the compact would have to be tweaked to get needed approval from the Legislature, which was evidenced by pointed questions from several members of the committee.
Committee Chairman Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, told reporters after the meeting that he hadn’t decided whether to put the compact into bill form. Its future may rest in Scott’s hands, Bradley indicated. At the same time, the economic forecast Tuesday showing lower-than-expected state tax revenues may broaden the compact’s appeal for lawmakers as they craft the state’s budget, Bradley said.
” … Anything that can be impactful on the revenue side of the ledger, such as adding money from revenue sharing with the tribe, is a very important part of the discussion,” he said. “This all should be viewed through the lens of making the budget balance. I think that, as the revenue projections go down, it certainly does ratchet up pressure to take a serious look about whether we need these dollars in order to provide basic services.”
TRUMP’S LEAD: STILL YUGE
Donald Trump is known to like bragging about his poll numbers as his longshot bid for the Republican presidential nomination has turned into a credible threat to the GOP establishment. And a new poll released this week by the Florida Atlantic University Business and Economics Polling Initiative gave him new ammunition: a 32-point lead over the next-closest candidate among Florida’s Republican voters.
The business magnate and reality TV star had the support of 47 percent of the party’s voters, 12 points more than the same poll gave him in September and enough to have a yawning lead against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Coming in third was U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida — one of two candidates expected to have a home-field advantage in the Sunshine State — with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush landing in fourth with 9.5 percent.
Neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who was challenging Trump in earlier polls but has slumped in Florida and nationally, checked in at fifth with 3.3 percent.
“The mood of the electorate is very anti-establishment. That’s clear. In a lot of ways, Donald Trump is probably one of the most reassuring candidates to people who are frustrated with the state of American politics,” said Kevin Wagner, an FAU political science professor.
The new poll also showed Democrat Hillary Clinton leading U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders by 36 percentage points and gaining in match-ups against the Republican candidates in Florida.
STORY OF THE WEEK: The Senate decided not to appeal a case setting districts for the November elections, ending most of the litigation surrounding the redistricting process that began in 2011.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “But Sen. Bradley knows that accurately and fairly reporting to a hungry man without money the true prices for all the items on the menu that he can’t afford in the restaurant he can’t get to doesn’t mean he’ll get to eat. Price transparency is good for its own reasons — and I sure support it — but posting a price list doesn’t by itself reduce costs or provide access to care.”—Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, discussing efforts to increase health-care price transparency, including a transparency bill filed by Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island. Gov. Rick Scott has pushed price transparency as part of a solution to the state’s issues with health-care spending.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
FDOT: Weekly Traffic Alerts
January 24, 2016
Drivers will encounter traffic disruptions on the following state roads in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties as crews perform construction and maintenance activities.
S.R. 4 over Escambia River, Escambia County – Lane closures from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25 and Tuesday, Jan. 26 over Escambia River, 1.5 miles east of U.S. 29, as crews perform a routine bridge inspection.
S.R. 742 (Creighton Road), Escambia County – Eastbound outside lane closed near intersection of 9th Avenue from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday, Jan. 25 through Thursday, Jan. 28 as crews perform construction activities.
S.R. 4 over Wilson Branch and East Relief, Santa Rosa County – Eastbound lane closure from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. over Wilson Branch, 2.7 miles east of U.S. 29 and East Relief located 3.1 miles east of U.S. 29, Monday, Jan. 25 as crews perform routine bridge inspections.
U.S. 90 (Scenic Highway) at the intersection of Scenic Highway Circle, Escambia County – Emergency repair work will resume Monday, Jan. 25. New stormwater pipe will be installed beneath Scenic Highway. Traffic flaggers will be on site to assist with traffic control as construction vehicles enter and exit the work area. The repair work will take about two months to complete.
I-10 Widening, Escambia County – Alternating east and westbound lane closures near U.S. 90 (Scenic Highway/Exit 17) from 7 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Mon, Jan. 25 through Thursday Jan. 28 as crews perform bridge deck work for the new Scenic Highway overpass. Drivers are reminded that the speed limit on I-10, between Davis Highway and Scenic Highway, is reduced to 60 mph.
S.R. 289 (9th Avenue), Escambia County – Crews continue paving operations between Bayou Boulevard and Creighton Road. Lane closures will be in effect from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. Between Bayou Boulevard and Cervantes Street, motorists will also encounter intermittent and alternating daytime lane closures as crews adjust manholes and valves.
I-10 over Eleven Mile Creek Bridge, Escambia County – East and westbound traffic reduced to one lane at the bridge near exit 5 ( U.S. 90 ALT/ 9 Mile Road) as crews reconstruct the bridge approaches.
U.S. 29, Escambia County – Intermittent and alternating lane closures within the town of Century and from Champion Drive north continue.
I-10 Widening, Santa Rosa County – Alternating lane closures on I-10 between the Escambia Bay Bridge and State Road (S.R.) 281 (Avalon Boulevard/Exit 22) from 8 p.m. to 6 Sunday, Jan. 24 through Thursday, Jan. 28 as crews perform construction activities.
FWC Law Enforcement Report
January 24, 2016
The Florida FWC Division of Law Enforcement reported the following activity during the weekly period ending January 21 in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY
Over the last couple of weeks, Officer Livesay has been working a site in Perdido River Wildlife Management Area (WMA) that was baited with sweet potatoes. This week, he made contact with the hunter who he suspected put the bait out. The hunter admitted to putting the bait out and deer hunting at the baited site. Officer Livesay issued the subject a notice to appear criminal citation for placing bait in a WMA.
SANTA ROSA COUNTY
Officer Hutchinson received a phone call late at night from a Santa Rosa County Deputy who had stopped a truck in the Munson Seed Orchard within the Blackwater WMA. The deputy observed two subjects in the bed of the truck and found a shotgun they tried to hide from view. Officer Hutchinson arrived on scene and interviewed the three juveniles. All three eventually admitted to trying to kill a deer and explained their plans to the officers. The juveniles’ parents were contacted and all three were given notices to appear for attempting to take deer at night with a gun and light.
Officer Hutchinson received information that a subject had two tree stands in his yard and had supposedly stolen them from a closed section of Blackwater WMA. While discussing it with his squad mates, Officer Hutchinson was informed by Officer Lewis that some stands and blinds were stolen from a section of Blackwater where the Florida Forest Service holds their Annual Wounded Warrior Hunt. The wounded veterans who had hunted there over the last few days went in to hunt and found their stands missing. Officers Lewis and Hutchinson went to the suspect’s home and observed a tree stand that fit the description of the stolen property. After interviewing the suspect, two additional suspects were identified, as well as another subject who bought one of the stands. After several interviews, the officers determined that the three suspects went hunting in the Emachamee closed area in Blackwater and stole two tree stands, a ground blind and more blind material. Two of the three suspects broke a lock off of a gate to enter the property. Charges of grand theft and criminal mischief were filed with the court and warrants were issued for the three suspects.
This report represents some events the FWC handled over the past week; however, it does not include all actions taken by the Division of Law Enforcement. Information provided by FWC.
Peighton Dortch Named Miss NHS 2016 (With Photo Gallery)
January 24, 2016
Peighton Dortch was crowned Miss NHS 2016 Saturday night at Northview High School.
Maddi Weber was named first runner-up, while Jadlyn Agerton was named second runner-up from among 18 contestants.
Other awards were presented as follows:
Miss Congeniality – Amber Freeman
Miss Hospitality – Maddi Weber
Miss Physical Fitness – Peighton Dortch
Miss Poise and Appearance – Jadelyn Agerton
For a pageant photo gallery, click here.
Pictured top: First Runner-up Maddi Weber, Miss NHS 2016 Peighton Dortch and Second Runner-up Jadlyn Agerton. Pictured inset; Miss NHS 2016 Peighton Dortch.
Unemployment Rate Declining In Escambia, Santa Rosa
January 23, 2016
The latest job numbers released Friday show the unemployment level decreasing in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida, but on the rise in Escambia County in Alabama
Escambia County’s unemployment rate fell slightly from 5.0 percent in November to 4.9 percent in December. There were 6,713 people reported unemployed during the period. One year ago, unemployment in Escambia County was 5.6 percent.
Santa Rosa County unemployment decreased from 4.4 to 4.3 percent from November to December. Santa Rosa County had a total of 3,130 persons still unemployed. The year-ago unemployment rate in Santa Rosa County was 4.6 percent.
In Escambia County, Alabama, unemployment increased from 6.6 percent in November to 6.9 percent in December. That represented 985 people unemployed in the county during the month. One year ago, the unemployment rate in Escambia County, Alabama, was 6.8 percent.
Florida’s unemployment rate stood at 5 percent as 2015 came to a close. The December number is down from a revised 5.1 percent in November, according to figures released Friday by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. The state had initially listed the November mark at 5 percent, which is where the national figure has been for two consecutive months.
Alabama’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, at 6.2 percent in December, was up from November’s rate of 6.0 percent and was also up from the year-ago rate of 6.1 percent.
The jobless numbers released by Florida and Alabama do not include persons that have given up on finding a job and are no longer reported as unemployed.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.
Jacks Branch Rezoning Case Withdrawn
January 23, 2016
Escambia County Planning and Zoning announced Friday that the applicants in case Z-2015-19 (1700 block of Jacks Branch) have requested that the case be withdrawn until further notice.
The adoption hearing for the case, which falls within the Escambia County Sector Plan, was scheduled to take place during the February 2 Board of County Commissioners meeting.
Residents of surrounding properties are asked to disregard the mailing they received regarding this case.
Lower 20’s Tonight
January 23, 2016
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 23. North wind 5 to 10 mph.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 53. Wind chill values between 15 and 25 early. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the morning.
Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 32. South wind around 5 mph becoming southeast after midnight.
Monday: Partly sunny, with a high near 63. Southeast wind around 5 mph.
Monday Night: A 30 percent chance of rain, mainly after midnight. Patchy fog after midnight. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low around 52. Southeast wind around 5 mph.
Tuesday: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. High near 66. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
Tuesday Night: Rain likely. Cloudy, with a low around 44. West wind 5 to 10 mph becoming north after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
Wednesday: Rain likely, mainly before noon. Cloudy, with a high near 52. North wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Wednesday Night: A 40 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 37.
Thursday: A 30 percent chance of rain. Mostly sunny, with a high near 50.
Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 35.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 60.
Escambia Man Gets 23 Years For Burglaries
January 23, 2016
An Escambia County man on trail on for burglary pleaded guilty to nearly a dozen burglaries.
Michael Collins’ was tried before Circuit Judge Jennie Kinsey. Collins was charged with burglary of an unoccupied dwelling, grand theft and criminal mischief.
This trial pertained to one of the 11 homes that Michael Collins burglarized in Escambia County during June and July 2014. Prosecutors said Collins would break into the homes during the daytime while the home owners were absent and primarily steal jewelry.
After the state presented their case, Collins pleaded guilty to that case as well as 10 additional burglary cases.
Kinsey sentenced Collins to 23 years in state prison as a prison releasee reoffender and habitual felony offender. He was also ordered to pay $121,034 in restitution.