Area Unemployment Rate Declines
May 19, 2018
The Escambia County area unemployment rate was 3.3 percent, down 0.5 percentage point from one year ago, according to the latest numbers announced Friday.
The industry with the highest growth over the year in Pensacola was leisure and hospitality with 1,100 new jobs. The Pensacola area had 5,110 job openings, including 1,291 openings for high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations.
Florida’s jobless rate continues to stand at 3.9 percent, where it’s been since the end of 2017, according to the state Department of Economic Opportunity. With the state rate holding steady, it is now matched by the national unemployment rate, which hit 3.9 percent as May began after standing at 4.1 percent since October. The reduction in the national rate has been seen as a sign that the employment market has become even more competitive. I
The jobless numbers released by the state do not include persons that have given up on finding a job and are no longer reported as unemployed.
Free Youth Concert ‘Praise In The Park’ Today In Flomaton
May 19, 2018
There will be a free Christian concert for youth this afternoon in Flomaton.
The Escambia County (AL) Youth Leaders will present the “Praise in the Park Youth Rally”. The concert will feature “Catching Foxes” and “Eternal Emce live at the gazebo in downtown Flomaton from 4-7 p.m. Admission is free, and there will be free food and door prizes.
Attendees are encourage to bring a chair or blanket.
Spring Football: Northview, Escambia County Atmore Play To Tie
May 19, 2018
The Northview Chiefs and the Escambia County County Blue Devils battled it out Friday night in a Spring Game and walked away in a 14-14 tie.
The varsity programs played to 14-14 in the first three quarters, while junior varsity fourth quarter was scoreless in Bratt.
“We were sloppy, they were sloppy, you expect that at this point,” Northview Chiefs Head Coach Derek Marshman said. “I think both teams are going to have a chance to be really good football teams. They’ve got a ton of athletes; they do a really good job. We are going to get after it this summer; that is where games are won. Our kids know that.”
For a photo gallery, click here.
Mashman said he’s looking forward to a competitive season in the fall.
“We are going to come out and compete every game. The main thing we want is when we walk off the field for the other team to say that team competed as hard as anyone we’ve played. We have the opportunity to win each and every game, but we are never going to promise a win. But we want the other team to know we brought our A-game.”
Escambia County will be at Wilcox Central on August 31. The Northview Chiefs will host Vernon in a Kickoff Classic on August 17 and open the regular season on the road August 24 at Lighthouse Christian.
NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Alabama Attorney General Releases Info On W.S. Neal Grade Changing Scandal Case
May 19, 2018
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall as confirmed that his office was involved in the arrest of two people in a grade changing case in Escambia County, AL.
Matthew Hutchins, 18, of Brewton and Lisa Odom, 58, of Castleberry were each charged with felony computer tampering by altering grades at W.S. Neal High School in East Brewton. Odom has been identified as a special education teacher at the school; she has been placed on administrative leave.
The defendants were arrested by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office on warrants brought by special agents of the Attorney General’s Office. The Attorney General’s Office Cybercrime Unit initiated an investigation after being notified by local officials on May 11 that grades had been altered through the school’s INow computer system. Prosecution will be handled by the Attorney General’s Criminal Trials Division.
If convicted, Hutchins and Odom face a maximum penalty of one to 10 years for the felony charge.
Due to an ongoing investigation, Marshall’s office said no further information about the investigation or about the defendants’ alleged crimes will be released at this time.
Firefighters Respond To Smoke In Store’s Beer Cooler
May 19, 2018
Escambia Fire Rescue responded to a report of smoke in a beer cooler at the Circle K at Highway 29 and East Kingsfield Road Friday afternoon. The smell of smoke was traced to an electronic energy saving controller inside the cooler (pictured left). There was no other damage reported. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
NRA Appeals Ruling On ‘Jane Doe’ Gun Case
May 19, 2018
The National Rifle Association is appealing a federal judge’s refusal to keep the identity of a 19-year-old Alachua County woman secret in a challenge to a state law that raised the age to purchase rifles and other long guns.
The case was placed on hold Friday pending a decision regarding “Jane Doe” from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to court documents.
The gun-rights group filed the appeal after U.S. District Judge Mark Walker this week decided that previous court rulings forced him to reject the request to keep the identity of “Jane Doe” private.
The NRA requested the use of the pseudonym for Jane Doe and “John Doe,” another 19-year-old who is part of the case. The request was based largely on a declaration filed by the group’s Florida lobbyist, Marion Hammer, who detailed threatening emails she had received featuring derogatory words for parts of the female anatomy.
“It’s time somebody stood up for the First Amendment right to go into court to fight to protect our Second Amendment right without being victimized by hatemongers who threaten you and your family,” Hammer, a onetime president of the national gun-rights organization, told The News Service of Florida on Friday.
The debate over the pseudonyms came in a lawsuit filed March 9 by the NRA, just hours after Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a sweeping school-safety measure that included new gun-related restrictions. The legislation was a rapid response to the Feb. 14 shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 students and faculty members dead and 17 others wounded.
The law raised from 18 to 21 the minimum age to purchase rifles and other long guns. It also imposed a three-day waiting period on the sale of long guns, such as the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz last year legally purchased and is accused of using in the Valentine’s Day massacre at his former high school.
In late April, the NRA filed a motion to add “Jane Doe” as a plaintiff to the lawsuit, which contends the age restriction in the new law “violates the fundamental rights of thousands of responsible, law-abiding adult Florida citizens and is thus invalid under the Second and Fourteenth Amendments.”
The NRA asked Walker to allow the woman to remain anonymous due to fear that public exposure could result in “harassment, intimidation, and potentially even physical violence.”
But, representing the state, lawyers for Attorney General Pam Bondi argued the request for anonymity “does not provide a sufficient basis for overcoming the strong presumption in favor of open judicial proceedings.”
Suggesting that the courts have not kept up with the times, a reluctant Walker agreed.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will hear the appeal, “has made it clear that pseudonyms may only be used in ‘exceptional’ cases … and that there is ‘a strong presumption in favor of parties’ proceeding in their own names,’ ” the judge wrote in a 17-page opinion Sunday.
The relatively rare circumstances where pseudonyms are allowed involve issues such as abortion, prayer and personal religious beliefs, Walker wrote.
Based on precedent, “this court finds that mere evidence of threats and harassment made online is insufficient to outweigh the customary and constitutionally-embedded presumption of openness in judicial proceedings,” Walker wrote. “This is especially true where the targets of such threats and harassment are not minors and where the subject at issue does not involve matters of utmost intimacy.”
But, expressing sympathy for Jane and John Doe, Walker wrote that the factors laid out in the previous decisions fail to take into account “concerns about the potential harassment and threats they face.”
“To be clear, this court does not intend to diminish those concerns,” he added.
In a joint motion filed Friday, lawyers for the NRA and the state asked Walker to put the case on hold until the Atlanta-based appellate court decides on the pseudonyms. The judge agreed.
In a footnote in Sunday’s order, Walker called the messages sent to Hammer “hateful and abhorrent” and of such an “offensive nature” that he would not repeat them in his ruling.
“The attorney general has made it clear that she won’t agree to protecting a 19-year-old woman from bullying, harassment, threats of death or injury, and Judge Walker doesn’t seem to think he has the authority or that it’s his job to protect her, so maybe a higher court will,” Hammer said.
In Sunday’s order, Walker noted that the world has changed since the courts established the standards allowing the use of pseudonyms.
“Today we have the internet, social media, and the 24-hour news cycle. What this means is that if a person attaches their name to a lawsuit — and especially if that lawsuit is sensational — then everyone will quickly be made aware of it. Articles get posted online, and the responding comments, tweets, and whatever-else-have-yous often devolve into a rhetorical barrage of hate. Unfortunately, it seems the internet just doesn’t always bring out the best in us,” he wrote.
“Maybe the law should be modified to reflect these changes. But it’s not this court’s job to change the law; this court’s job is to apply the law,” Walker wrote. “And the law unfortunately directs that the NRA’s motion must be denied.”
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Chance Of Afternoon Rain
May 19, 2018
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Saturday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 1pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 90. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph in the morning.
Saturday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 69. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Sunday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 89. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Sunday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 68. East wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Monday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 87. East wind 5 to 10 mph.
Monday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 67. East wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Tuesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 88. Southeast wind around 5 mph.
Tuesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 68. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Wednesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 87.
Wednesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 68.
Thursday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 89.
Thursday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 69.
Friday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 90.
New Splash Pad Opens In Atmore
May 19, 2018
A new $150,000 splash pad opened Friday in Atmore. The splash pad was made possible through a partnership between the City of Atmore and the Atmore Rotary Club, along with additional donations. The splash is open 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. daily at South Trammel Street and West Craig Street, just behind Heritage Park on South Main Street. There is also a new covered seating area for parents.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
William D. (Bill) Robbins
May 19, 2018
William D. (Bill) Robbins was the son of Joe and Mae Robbins of Walnut Hill, Florida. He was born on December 2,1926. He went to be with his Lord on May 17, 2018. He was 91 years old. He served his country in the Navy and later in the Air Force. On retirement from the military, he went to work with civil service working with sheet metal fabrication.
He was married to Ramona Yosin Robbins and raised 4 children. He became a widower in 1975. He later married Bernice Lucas Robbins. He became a widower in 2015.
He is survived by a daughter, Ramona Anne Robbins Gay (Charles) of Walnut Hill and a son Michael Joseph Robbins, Pace, Florida; by his grandsons Nathan Robbins (Jenny) of Yokosuka, Japan, Kurt Robbins of Walnut Hill and Michael Gay (Brittaney) of Walnut Hill and a granddaughter Tina Parr of North Carolina; four great granddaughters: Brianna Gay, Ella Robbins, Lily Mae Robbins and Destiny Hensley; three great grandsons: Alexander Gay, Tyler Hensley and Daniel Lunsford. He is survived by a niece who was raised like a sister to him. Arlene Delafosse. He is survived by many nieces and nephews, etc.
He is predeceased by his parents, three sisters: Mary Magdalene Robbins, Louree Battaglia, and Charline Warrick and three brothers: Alton Robbins, Theodore Robbins, and Harrell Robbins; a son, Bill Robbins, Jr. and a daughter Peggy Robbins Parr and a granddaughter, Tammy Michelle Gay.
Funeral Services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Monday May 21, 2018, at Faith Chapel North in Cantonment, Florida with Rev. Ted Bridges officiating. Burial will follow services at Walnut Hill cemetery. Pall bearers will be his grandsons Kurt Robbins and Michael Gay and nephews Alan Robbins, Matt Robbins, Phillip Robbins and Greg Robbins.
Lula Mae Colbert Parker
May 19, 2018
Lula Mae Colbert Parker, 84 of Atmore, AL, passed away Thursday May 17, 2018 in Atmore. She was born on October 13, 1933 in Monroe County, AL, to the late Wesley B. Arlie Shipp Hayles. She was a retired draw twist operator at Masland Carpets. She is preceded in death by her parents; first husband David Colbert and her second husband William “Bill” Parker; son Curtis David Colbert and a sister Lisa Freeman and a brother Eubie B. Hayles.
She is survived by her two sons Cecil Wayne (Belinda) Colbert of Davisville, AL. and James Wesley (Lisa) Colbert of Atmore, AL. Two brothers Ed (Frances) Hayles of Poarch, AL. and Tommy (Janice) Hayles of Atmore, AL. Two grandchildren Linda (Kevin) Jones and Haley (Dempsey) Rolin. Seven great grandchildren and one great great grandchild.
Graveside services will held Saturday, May 19, 2018 at 2:30 PM from Serenity Gardens Cemetery with Bro. Ricky Tedder officiating. Active pallbearers will be Nick Boutwell, David Boutwell, Jonathan Boutwell, Kevin Jones, Dempsey Rolin, and Robbie Hayles.
Visitation will be held Friday, May 18, 2018 from 6pm until 8pm from the Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home.
Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.