Workers Injured In Construction Zone Structural Collapse At Navy Federal
August 27, 2017
Three construction workers were injured early Saturday morning in a structural collapse in Beulah.
The three fell about 25 feet when the floor they were working on collapsed at Navy Federal on Nine Mile Road. They were transported to Sacred Heart Hospital.
One of the workers sustained serious injuries, and is being treated for spinal trauma, officials said. Ten other construction workers were working in the area during the collapse. They declined medical attention.
Navy Federal released the following statement:
“Just after 5 a.m. an accident occurred in the rooftop structure of Navy Federal Credit Union’s Phase Two expansion project at its Heritage Oaks campus in Pensacola. The accident took place in a construction zone, outside of Navy Federal’s current employee workspace.
“Hensel Phelps Construction employees were working on the project when the accident took place. Three Hensel Phelps employees were taken to a Pensacola hospital. Several others also sought treatment. Construction has been suspended in the immediate area of the accident pending a full comprehensive review of the incident.
“The entire construction team is supporting the well-being of the employees impacted by the accident.”
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
Hurricane Harvey Expected To Raise Florida Gas Prices
August 27, 2017
Gasoline prices in Florida are expected to jump in the next week after Hurricane Harvey’s landfall in Texas Friday night.
Oil refineries sit in the path of the storm, and much of the gas that Florida receives is shipped across the Gulf of Mexico from those refineries.
W.D. Williams, a spokesman for AAA Auto Club, said prices could jump between 10 and 30 cents over the next week, depending on how bad the storm is.
“When the refineries are impacted by a storm such as a hurricane, it shuts them down,” Williams said. “The wind interrupts the power supply. You’ll have flooding that interrupts operations. That means there is going to be no gasoline being produced for a bit of time.”
Williams said with Harvey making landfall as a Category 4 storm, some refineries could be offline for up to three weeks.
NorthEscambia.com photo.
Pensacola Episode Of ‘The Great Food Truck Race’ Airs Tonight On Food Network
August 27, 2017
An episode of the Food Network reality TV competition show “The Great Food Truck Race” filmed in Pensacola last May will air tonight on the Food Network.
For lunch aboard Naval Air Station Pensacola, Commanding Officer Capt. Christopher Martin helped the show’s host, Tyler Florence, announce the winning team as decided by 50 service members who acted as judges in a taste testing.
Then it was off to downtown Pensacola for the competitors, who are vying to win their food truck plus $50,000. Several trucks set up at the Pensacola City Hall, while others found vending location along the Palafox Street area.
The Great Food Truck Race episode “Battle for the South: New Marching Orders” airs at 8 p.m. on the Food Network.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Wait Is Over For Death Penalty
August 27, 2017
After more than a year-and-a-half hiatus, Florida carried out an execution this week, putting to death a prisoner convicted of murdering two men in Jacksonville 30 years ago.
The delay was caused by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and subsequent court decisions that forced Florida to overhaul its death-penalty sentencing system. Thursday’s execution also was the first use of a new three-drug lethal injection procedure, which drew a legal challenge.
The execution of Mark James Asay occurred without incident, raising the possibility that the state could resume a more rapid pace of executions. There are still 360 prisoners on Florida’s Death Row, with Dean Kilgore, a prisoner from Polk County, having been there the longest, at more than 46 years.
Meanwhile this week, the debate over Confederate monuments continued, with Gov. Rick Scott contending it will be up to the Legislature to decide whether to remove a memorial from the Capitol grounds.
Also, the Florida Senate lost one of its former members, when Greg Evers died Monday night in a single-vehicle accident near his home in Okaloosa County.
And three Democratic candidates for governor were united in their pledge to support legislation aimed at prohibiting workplace and housing discrimination based on sexual orientation.
FLORIDA RESUMES EXECUTIONS
Asay was executed Thursday evening after spending nearly three decades on Death Row. He was the state’s first inmate to be put to death in more than 19 months and the first executed under a lethal-injection procedure never used before in Florida or any other state.
Asay’s execution at Florida State Prison was the first since a January 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision, in a case known as Hurst v. Florida, that effectively put the state’s death penalty in limbo. He also was the first white man executed for killing a black victim in Florida.
The lack of complications with the previously untested lethal-injection procedure may have eased concerns about Florida’s new three-drug protocol.
“The execution took place without incident,” Department of Corrections spokeswoman Michelle Glady told reporters gathered in a staging area beside the prison. “Our objective with this is a humane and dignified process, which was done this evening.”
Asay was convicted in 1988 of the shooting deaths of Robert Booker, who was black, and Robert McDowell.
Asay allegedly shot Booker after calling him a racial epithet. He then killed McDowell, who was dressed as a woman, after agreeing to pay him for oral sex. According to court documents, Asay — who had white supremacist and swastika tattoos — later told a friend that McDowell had previously cheated him out of money in a drug deal.
A MONUMENTAL UPROAR
The debate over Civil War monuments on public property continued, with Scott saying it’s up to the Legislature to decide whether to remove a Confederate soldier memorial from the Capitol grounds.
Democratic gubernatorial candidates and the Florida NAACP are among a chorus of people calling for Scott to relocate the memorial outside the Old Capitol or to hold a special legislative session on the future of Confederate monuments on public property. The demands, at least in part, are a reaction to a white supremacist rally this month in Charlottesville, Va., that turned deadly.
“We’ve got a regular (legislative) session that starts in January, so that’s just a few months away,” Scott told reporters after an Enterprise Florida board meeting in Fort Lauderdale.
The Confederate soldier memorial has stood outside the Old Capitol since 1882.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat expected to face an election challenge from Scott next year, tweeted Tuesday that “Confederate statues belong in a historical museum or cemetery, not in a place of honor.”
The corrective tweet came a day after the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that Nelson said, “I think leaving it up to the good sense of the communities involved is the best thing to do.”
And the debate stretched to the U.S. Capitol, with state Sen. Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale, and state Rep. Patrick Henry, D-Daytona Beach, filing legislation to have the likeness of a civil rights leader and educator replace a Confederate general in the National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C.
Thurston and Henry want Mary McLeod Bethune, who founded what is now Bethune-Cookman University, to replace Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby as one of Florida’s two representative statutes in the national Capitol.
The legislation will be considered when lawmakers begin the 2018 session in January.
A PANHANDLE TRAGEDY
Tributes and condolences poured in this week from elected officials and others after reports that Evers had died Monday night.
“Ann and I are heartbroken to learn of the passing of Sen. Greg Evers,” Scott tweeted, referring to his wife, Ann. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his entire family.”
The Florida Highway Patrol said Evers, 62, failed to negotiate a curve on a road near Baker, with his pickup truck ending up submerged in a roadside creek where he was found Tuesday. Evers ran a farm that was well known for its strawberries.
“Greg passionately represented his district for many years in both the House and Senate,” Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, said in a statement. “He was especially dedicated to the men and women of his community who were serving or had served in the military, as well as our fellow Floridians across the state who serve as corrections officers.”
A native of Milton, Evers, a Republican, served nine years in the Florida House before his election to the Senate in 2010. Evers left his Senate seat last year to make a bid for the U.S. House but lost the Republican primary to U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz.
Evers’ funeral is scheduled for Tuesday in Milton.
IT’S PERSONAL
Three Democratic candidates for governor pledged to support legislation that would prohibit discrimination in jobs and housing based on sexual orientation.
Despite support from the business community, the legislation, known as the “Competitive Workforce Act,” has stalled in the Legislature in recent years. Also, a call for Scott to use his executive power to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in state agencies has gone unheeded.
“If you elect me governor, you won’t have to wait any longer,” Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum told the LGBTA Democratic Caucus, which represents the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
“Florida is too big, too proud, too diverse a state for our politics to reflect an error of yesteryear, yesterdecade, yestercentury,” Gillum said during a caucus conference Saturday in Tallahassee.
Candidate Chris King, a Winter Park businessman, said passing the anti-discrimination law is morally and economically right for the state.
“I want to make sure everyone is comfortable here, everyone is safe here, everyone is protected here,” King said.
Former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham of Tallahassee said she would work to “stop discrimination in its tracks.”
“We’re going to protect every Floridian, no matter what color their skin is, where they come from, or who they love,” Graham said.
All three candidates said, if elected in November 2018, they would sign an executive order banning discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in state agencies.
Two candidates talked about how ending discrimination was personal for them.
King talked about the discrimination faced by his older brother, David, growing up as a gay man in the South. He said his brother, who moved to California, took his own life at age 30 after battling depression and mental illness.
King said his brother’s experience has compelled him to make anti-discrimination initiatives a centerpiece of his campaign and underscored the importance of speaking “with moral clarity on these issues.”
“I promise you I will,” King told the caucus. “I will give it my best shot.”
Gillum said his older brother, Terrance, faced similar discrimination as a young gay man in Gainesville, moving to California as soon as he could “so that he could live and be himself.”
Gillum said throughout his 15-year public career he has spoken out for LGBT issues.
“Not only because it’s the right thing to do, but it was my little way of showing my big brother that I saw him,” he said.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Florida carried out its first execution since January 2016. Mark James Asay, convicted of killing two Jacksonville men in 1987, died by lethal injection Thursday evening.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Despite the university’s sympathy for plaintiff and all of the students, employees and other members of the FSU community who were exposed to the shooting, it respectfully denies that it is liable in any sum or manner for the action of a madman,” Florida State University said in a court document, asking for the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a former student who was paralyzed by a 2014 shooting at the university’s Strozier Library.
by Lloyd Dunkelberger, The News Service of Florida
Tate Graduate Morton Graduates From Basic Military Training
August 27, 2017
U.S. Air Force Air National Guard Airman Christopher A. Morton graduated from basic military training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, San Antonio, Texas.
The airman completed an intensive, eight-week program that included training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness, and basic warfare principles and skills.
Airmen who complete basic training also earn four credits toward an associate in applied science degree through the Community College of the Air Force.
Morton is the son of Stefanie R. and Wade F. Morton II of Pensacola.
He is a 2015 graduate of J.M. Tate High School.
Wahoos Drop Three Straight
August 27, 2017
Mississippi Braves Kolby Allard proved why, although he just turned 20 Aug. 13, scouting services consider him the top pitching prospect in the Atlanta organization and the top lefty in the minor leagues.
Allard shutout Pensacola in his season-high seven innings and struck out nine as Mississippi won the opener of the five-game series, 5-0, Saturday at Blue Wahoos Stadium. Atlanta’s first pick in the 2015 draft did it in front of Pensacola’s 15th sellout crowd of 5,038.
It was the third straight loss for Pensacola and the 14th time it has been shutout this season.
Blue Wahoos manager Pat Kelly said Allard looked “very impressive.” Pensacola failed to get a runner to second base against him or in the game. All six Blue Wahoos hits were singles.
“The last two times we’ve seen him this season, he’s been really good,” Kelly said. “He’s the best left-hander in the Southern League.”
Meanwhile, Pensacola’s current ace Deck McGuire, a first round pick in 2010, struggled in his sixth attempt to reach a career-high 10 wins, getting chased from the game in the fifth inning.
The 6-foot-6 righty allowed four runs on three walks and six hits, including a homer and four doubles, in 4.2 innings — his second shortest outing in 25 starts this season.
It was abnormal for the 28-year-old right hander whose record in 13 starts at home entering Saturday’s game was 6-3. Plus, he had only given up 18 earned runs in 81 innings for a 2.00 ERA.
The only bright spot for McGuire is he now holds the Pensacola franchise records for innings pitched (162) and Ks (159). Both also lead the Southern League.
“He just didn’t have it tonight,” Kelly said. “We haven’t seen that many times.”
McGuire fell to 9-9 with a 2.78 ERA. Allard, who got seven of the nine outs between the fourth and sixth innings on Ks, improved to 7-11 with a 3.34 ERA.
Pensacola’s bullpen of Alex Powers, Zack Weiss and Tyler Rainey combined to throw 4.1 innings and allowed one run on two hits and two walks, while striking out 10. Rainey struck out the side in the ninth.
Mississippi scored first Saturday in the second inning when it loaded the bases on two walks and a single and Braves right fielder Tyler Neslony hit a deep sacrifice fly to centerfield that scored catcher Alex Jackson to go up, 1-0.
Braves shortstop Dylan Moore ripped a line drive over the right field wall into Hill-Kelly hill for a solo homer and 2-0 lead. Mississippi third baseman Austin Riley doubled on a liner into the left field corner and then with two outs first baseman Joey Meneses drove him to go ahead, 3-0 in the third inning.
The lead was extended to 4-0 in the fifth inning on back-to-back doubles by Mississippi left fielder Jared James and Moore.
Pensacola reliever Alex Powers gave up a two-out infield single deep in the hole to second base to Braves’ James that allowed Neslony to make it a, 5-0, game.
Pensacola won the first half guaranteeing the team a spot in the Southern Division playoffs. It was a Southern League record fourth straight half title, tying them with the Tennessee Smokies, which did it between 2009 and 2011.
In the second half, the Blue Wahoos are in fourth place at 28-33 with just nine games left this season. They are 68-63 overall.
Gloria Sheffield Lambeth
August 27, 2017
Gloria (Sue) Sheffield Lambeth, 62, of Cantonment, FL went home to her heavenly father Tuesday, August 22, 2017. She was a loving wife, mother and grandmother who loved to fish, play bingo and spend time with her family.
Sue is preceded in death by her brother, Chester Pritchett and grandson, (Little) Tommy Hennessey.
She is survived by her husband, Ronnie Lambeth; daughters, Susan Hennessey (George Spraberry) and Tammy Rothe (Timbo); son, Dale Gill (Melissa); stepsons, Ronnie Lambeth II and Shane Lambeth; stepdaughter, Misty Lambeth; 19 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; two brothers and two sisters.
Funeral services were held at Faith Chapel North Saturday, August 26, 2017, at 10 a.m.
Interment will be at Barrancas National Cemetery at a later date.
Faith Chapel Funeral Home North is entrusted with arrangements.
Jackie Samuel Fields
August 27, 2017
Jackie Samuel Fields, 61, of Bonifay, FL passed away Friday, August 25, 2017. He was born and raised in Pensacola, Florida but had resided in Bonifay, FL for the last 20 years.
He is survived by his loving wife, Bonny; mother, Doris Manning; two sisters, Sandra and Ruthie; seven brothers; nine grandchildren; and two stepsons.
Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society in Jackie’s memory.
Pallbearers will be Devin Snipes, Chuck Morgan, Joey Fields, Robbie Manning, Austin Sandonato and Victor Mobarak.
Graveside services will be held Monday, August 28, 2017, at Whitmire Cemetery at 11 a.m.
Faith Chapel Funeral Home North is entrusted with the arrangements.
Florence Davis Maddox
August 27, 2017
Mrs. Florence Davis Maddox, 84, passed away on Wednesday, August 23, 2017, in Bay Minette, Alabama.
Mrs. Maddox was a native and lifelong resident of Atmore, AL. She attended the West End Baptist Church. She is preceded in death by her parents, William and Bessie Davis; husband, Theron Manford Maddox; one brother, Burlie Freeman; and one sister, Martha Brantley.
She is survived by her son, Tim Maddox of Atmore, AL; one brother, Isaac Davis of Perdido, AL; one sister, Louise (Terry) Troutman of Atmore, AL; three grandchildren, Amanda Raines, Caitlin Maddox and Troy Maddox; three great-grandchildren, Hildi, Arden and Ripley; and numerous nieces, nephews other relatives and many friends.
Funeral services were held Saturday, August 26, 2017, at the Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Home with Rev. Larry Patterson officiating.
Burial was at the Oak Hill Cemetery.
Pallbearers were Terry Troutman, Ray Brantley, Dwayne McDonald, Jarrod Shook, Garrett Shook and Jeremiah Raines.
Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Homes is in charge of all arrangements.
Merriam Clay
August 27, 2017
Mr. Merriam “Gary” Clay, 76, passed away on Monday, August 21, 2017, Foley, Alabama.
Mr. Clay was a native of Waynesboro, MS, former resident of Mobile, AL and had resided at the Glen Lakes Golf Community in Foley, AL for the past 22 years. He graduated from Murphy High school in Mobile, AL. He attended the University of Alabama for one year. He was a 1970 graduate of the University of Florida from the school of industrial engineering with a Bachelor of Arts and Science, where he served as a member of four Honorary Fraternities and served as president Tau Beta Phi and OmiCron Delta. He was named Industrial Engineer of the year for the State of Florida, while attending the University of Florida at Gainesville. He was a member of Gainesville Jaycee’s Sertoma Club and the Lion’s Club. He was a member of the Glen Lakes Golf Club Community. He was retired from the United Parcel Service (UPS), as an industrial engineer operation manager for 28 years from Corp Headquarters in Atlanta GA. Mr. Clay’s career carried all across the United States and abroad.
He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Judy (Bell) Clay of Foley, AL; mother, Jewel Whitney Clay of Mobile, AL; one son, Mike P. (Karen) Clay of Mobile, AL; two brothers, Don (Carolyn) Clay of Daphne, AL and Kim (Jane) Clay of Hendersonville, NC; two sisters, Jane Morton of Mobile, AL and Lisa Clay of Mobile, AL and numerous nieces, nephews other relatives & many friends.
Memorial services will be held Saturday, September 9, 2017, at 3 p.m. at the Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Home with Bro. Mike Hutto officiating.
Family will receive friends Saturday, September 9, 2017, from 2 p.m. until 3 p.m. at the Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Home.
Interment will follow at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Atmore, Alabama.
Honorary pallbearers will Mike Clay Steve Jones, Jerry DuBose, Tim Newman, Don Clay and Kim Clay.
In lieu of flowers memorials maybe made to the Moyeville Baptist Church of Overlook Presbyterian Church in Mobile, AL.
Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Homes is in charge of all arrangements.