Weekes Arrested Again: Charged With Providing Drugs To Minor
April 4, 2017
A Flomaton man has been arrested for allegedly providing marijuana to a teenage boy.
Trey Alexander Weekes, 20, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance (marijuana) and distribution of drugs to a minor. He was booked into the Escambia County (AL) Detention Center in Brewton Monday night.
Flomaton Police Chief Bryan Davis said a grandparent came forward after seeing a news report that Weekes had been arrested on unrelated charge. The grandparent told police Weekes had provided marijuana to his grandson, an allegation that Davis said the investigation supported.
The drug charges are unrelated to arrest for which Weekes was in the news last week. He was charged with two counts of rape second degree for alleged misconduct with two female victims under the age of 16.
That case, authorities said, will be presented to a Escambia Co. Grand Jury for “further prosecutorial efforts”.
Anyone with further information is asked call the Escambia County (AL) Sheriff’s Office at (251) 809-0741 or visit their website at escambiacountysheriffal.org.
Convicted Felon Pulls Gun On FHP Trooper
April 4, 2017
An Escambia County man is accused of pulling out a gun on a state trooper during a traffic stop.
T
he incident happened early Monday morning on Lillian Highway.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, 28-year-old Markies Devon Smiley rushed the trooper’s car and reached for a gun. The trooper used a taser to stop him.
Smiley was charged with resisting arrest, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, carrying a concealed weapon and failure to obey police. He was booked into the Escambia County Jail with bond set at $17,500.
Local Elected Officials Mark National Donate Life Month
April 4, 2017
Several elected officials in Escambia County took part in a National Donate Life Month flag raising ceremony Monday morning at the tax collector’s Marcus Pointe office on W Street.
This event and a month-long celebration are designed to raise awareness of the life-saving role residents of Escambia County can play by registering as an organ, tissue and eye donor. During National Donate Life Month, tax collector employees are participating in the annual Donate Life Challenge, a month-long effort among tax collectors and the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to promote awareness of Florida’s organ donor registry.
“I am honored that my offices are part of such an important awareness campaign,” said Escambia County Tax Collector Scott Lunsford. “We are proud that in 2016, Escambia County remained in the top 10 counties statewide in the Donor Designation Rate and 60 percent of individuals visiting our office signed up to donate. We hope to increase that percentage this year.”
Tax collector employees help register potential organ donors by asking all driver license customers if they would like to join the registry. Eighty-eight percent of Florida’s donor registrations now occur through driver license transactions. Last year’s Donate Life Challenge led to more than 54,000 new donor registrations throughout Florida.
According to Donate Life Florida, one person can save up to eight lives through organ donation and enhance dozens more through tissue and eye donation.
Florida offers three simple ways to register as an organ, tissue or eye donor:
1. On Donate Life Florida’s website at DonateLifeFlorida.org.
2. When renewing a driver license or identification card online at GoRenew.com.
3. When obtaining a new or renewed driver license or identification card in a tax collector office.
Pictured: A National Donate Life Month flag raising ceremony Monday morning at the tax collector’s Marcus Pointe office on W Street. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Special Olympic Athletes Take Part In Young Athletes Program
April 4, 2017
The Escambia County School District’s Young Athletes Program took place Friday at Escambia Westgate School’s Greenhouse Playground.
The event included an opening ceremony with following a torch run. Nearly 100 athletes took part in the event.
“Our students have been learning these skills throughout the school year and now is the time for them to shine and have fun demonstrating their personal best in each activity,” said event coordinator Mona Burch.
Special Olympics Florida provided T-shirts for all the students, staff and volunteers that are registered participants. In addition, all students received a participation certificate and ribbon at the conclusion of the event.
Partnering with Escambia Westgate in putting on this big event were 31 student volunteers from Tate High School’s Early Childhood Education Academy. They ran each of the activity stations and assisted some of the classes.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Woman Attacked, Robbed Leaving Cantonment Subway Restaurant
April 4, 2017
A woman was assaulted and robbed Sunday night after she left a Highway 29 restaurant.
The victim told the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office that she was attacked about 9 p.m. as she walked out of the Subway, next to Winn Dixie on Highway 29 at Old Chemstrand Road. The attacker took her purse and later used the debit cards inside to wipe out her bank balance. He also got away with keys and cash.
The woman was not injured.
The suspect was described as being a slender black male about 6-feet tall, wearing all black and a gray face mask. Witnesses reported that he jumped into the passenger side of an older electric blue Dodge or similar truck with shiny chrome rims. The truck fled the area northbound on Highway 95A.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone that witnessed the incident or that has possible information on the suspect or truck to call them at (850) 436-9620 or Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP. Callers to Crime Stoppers do not have to provide their name and may be eligible for a cash reward.
Century Delays Garbage Rate Increase, Moves Toward Water, Sewer Rate Hike
April 4, 2017
The Century Town Council has delayed action on raising garbage fees, while taking a required first-stop toward raising water and sewer rates.
Century’s 545 garbage customers currently pay $16.98 to per month. In order to stop financial losses in the garbage department, Hawkins is proposing a 36 percent increase of $6.21 per month, for a total bill of $23.19. The increase will allow the town to continue to collect bulk items such as furniture and appliances and vegetative waste.
Monday night, the council tabled the resolution in order to clarify language and add a discount for low income senior citizens. The discount was suggested by council President Ann Brooks, who noted that ECUA offers a similar senior discount to their customers in Escambia County.
The council also approved the first reading of an ordinance allowing the council to set water and sewer rates by future ordinance. The second reading of the ordinance and public hearing will be held on April 17 during a 7 p.m. council meeting. Once approved, the council is expected to approve water and wastewater rate increases.
A Florida Rural Water Association rate study has recommended water and sewer rate increases that would increase the average customer’s bill by nearly 60 percent.
The average family of four customer using 5,000 gallons of water per month currently pays $18.65 for water and $13.00 for wastewater, for a total bill of $31.65. The rate study recommends three-year incremental rate increases totaling a 59 percent ($18.59) increase for the average user….$21.27 for 5,000 gallons of water and $27.58 for wastewater.
Pictured: The Century Town Council meets Monday night. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Escambia Man Gets Life For Robbery
April 4, 2017
An Escambia County man will spend the rest of his life in prison for an armed robbery.
Jarrell Blackmon to life in state prison as a prison releasee reoffender by Circuit Judge Jennie Kinsey. T
Jarrell Blackmon was convicted by an Escambia County Jury of robbery with a firearm while wearing a mask, grand theft and resisting an officer without violence.
On February 6, 2016, a masked gunman entered a Beacon Store in Pensacola and pointed a handgun at the clerk while demanding money from the cash register. The clerk gave the masked gunman $500. During the robbery, the mask fell off of the gunman’s face and the clerk was able to identify Blackmon. The clerk then shot Blackmon as he was fleeing the store.
Blackmon was located within two city blocks of the Beacon Store. DNA evidence was presented at trial which further identified Blackmon as the masked gunman.
Senate Plan Would Lead To Fewer Student Tests
April 4, 2017
An effort to scale back standardized testing in Florida schools gained approval from a key Senate committee Monday after a last-minute flurry of amendments aimed at gaining bipartisan support.
The Senate Education Committee unanimously backed the revised measure (SB 926), which would require school districts to begin testing later in the year, eliminate requirements on four end-of-course tests in high school and allow students who do well enough on college-entrance and other advanced exams to skip some state tests.
But the legislation could run into problems in the House, where lawmakers have traditionally been more hesitant about rolling back testing requirements and have moved forward with a less-aggressive approach.
The Senate bill is the result of weeks of discussion that involved the sponsor, Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami; Sen. David Simmons, an Altamonte Springs Republican who chairs the chamber’s education budget-writing committee; and Sen. Bill Montford, a Tallahassee Democrat and head of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents.
The legislation also includes components important to Sen. Tom Lee, a Thonotosassa Republican who spearheaded an effort to block the bill in committee last week over concerns that it wasn’t far-reaching enough.
“This is a result of not just working together over the last week, but really working together over the last several months with Senator Montford, with Senator Simmons and with others,” Flores told reporters after Monday’s meeting.
It also marks a departure from years of policy aimed at tying testing more closely to education practices. For example, the state would no longer require school districts to base part of teachers’ pay on a formula developed by the Florida Department of Education that measures student learning but critics say is convoluted and unfair.
One of the more significant concessions to critics of the “Fewer, Better Tests” legislation is that the Senate version now would repeal the requirement of end-of-course tests in civics, U.S. history, geometry and Algebra II. Students still would have to take at least one math exam in high school, something senators said was a federal requirement.
That would dramatically dial back the number of standardized tests some students would have to take during high school.
“That’s what we had for years, and then we changed it and we put in the end-of-course exams, and so now the state and the citizens are asking us to recalibrate what we did,” Flores said.
Provisions allowing students to use tests like the SAT, ACT, Advanced Placement exams and other national assessments were pushed by Lee for years.
“To the extent that we can utilize those tests, there’s a chance that we can help (students) to avoid having to take duplicative tests,” he said Monday.
However, the amendments to the Senate bill — many of which were approved with little discussion in the waning moments of the committee meeting — also created differences with the House version (HB 773).
That legislation, which mirrors Flores’ original bill, would also require the state’s language-arts and math tests to be administered in the last three weeks of a school year, with the exception of the third-grade reading exam.
But the state would only conduct a study of whether college-entrance exams are closely aligned with Florida’s high school standards, with an eye on potentially using them as at least a partial replacement for the state’s graduation tests.
The bill also includes reporting standards for local exams, which supporters say could cause some of those tests to be jettisoned. However, House members haven’t yet adopted language that would do away with end-of-course testing requirements.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
International Paper Resumes Full Operations
April 4, 2017
International Paper’s Pensacola Mill in Cantonment, Fla., has successfully resumed full operations following a digester incident that occurred on January 22, 2017. The company, with the assistance of independent third-party experts, has implemented enhanced procedures and protections across the enterprise to prevent the recurrence of such an incident.
“We are pleased to report that full operations at our Pensacola site have resumed,” said Tim Nicholls, senior vice president, International Paper. “Our primary focus remains on ensuring the health and safety of our employees, contractors and community members – along with providing our customers the excellent service they have come to expect,” added Nicholls.
Including capital expenses, the company estimates total costs related to the incident will be between $80 and $120 million. The majority of these costs are expected to be recovered through insurance coverage.
Pictured top: Emergency crews on the scene following an explosion January 22 at International Paper in Cantonment. Pictured below: First responders coordinate their response efforts from a command post at IP shortly after the explosion. Pictured bottom: A vehicle that was passing the mill at the time of the explosion covered in black liquor from the explosion. NorthEscambia.com file photos.
Century Correctional Institution Inmate Assaults Officer
April 4, 2017
On March 22, an inmate assaulted a correctional officer at Century Correctional Institution, according to information recently released by the Florida Department of Corrections.
Inmate Michael Corrales assaulted the officer at approximately 6:10 p.m. Corrales struck the officer several times in the face and head. Staff responded appropriately, and the inmate was subdued, according to FDOC.
Medical staff examined the officer and noted minor injuries.
Corrales will receive a disciplinary report for this assault. He is serving a life sentence for second degree murder and armed burglary .