Flomaton Mourns Loss Of Longtime Educator John Folsom, Sr.
January 23, 2019
The Flomaton community is mourning the loss of a longtime educator.
John Lewis Folsom, Sr., 92, passed away on Monday.
Folsom was a member of the Flomaton community for 60 years. He was an educator for 40 years in the Escambia County (AL) School System, with 18 of those years as the principal of Flomaton High School.
He was also a member of the Flomaton Lions Club.
Visitation for John Lewis Folsom, Sr. will be Saturday from 5-8 p.m. at Flomaton Funeral Home Chapel with funeral services Sunday at 2 p.m. at Flomaton First Baptist Church. Interment will follow at Flomaton Cemetery.
For the complete obituary, click here.
Showers, Thunderstorms And Strong Winds
January 23, 2019
Isolated severe storms are possible Wednesday, and there is a wind advisory in effect for winds 25-30 mph with frequent gusts of 30-35 mph. Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Tonight: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm before 1am, then a slight chance of showers between 1am and 4am. Low around 37. Breezy, with a southwest wind 15 to 20 mph becoming northwest after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.
Thursday: Partly sunny, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 51. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 33. Northwest wind around 5 mph.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 53. North wind around 5 mph.
Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 28. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 55. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 34. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 61. Calm wind becoming west around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 39.
Monday: Sunny, with a high near 64.
Monday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly cloudy, with a low around 46.
Tuesday: A 30 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 58.
Tuesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 33.
Wednesday: A slight chance of showers. Mostly sunny, with a high near 48.
Century Cross Country Classic 5K This Saturday
January 23, 2019
The Century Chamber of Commerce will present the “Century Cross Country Classic 5K” this Saturday. Runners and walkers will lace up their shoes and run and walk over a mixture of grass, gravel, dirt, and pavement through Anthony Pleasant and Showalter parks in Century.
The 5K will being at 8 a.m. with a half mile fun run/walk to follow at about 9:15 a.m. Race day registration is $25 and begins at 6:30 a.m. at Anthony Pleasant Park on East Highway 4. For a printable registration form, click here.
Awards will be presented in 34 different age groups, and t-shirts will be given to the first 50 registered runners and walkers.
“It will be fun and family-friendly. I’m looking forward to helping with the event. It’s the perfect setting for a community cross country race and it’s safer because it’s not being conducted on a city street. Anthony Pleasant and Buck Showalter are two Century sports icons. They have given notoriety to Century in professional sports. How fitting that we exercise through the parks named after them. Come run and walk with us,” Matt Dobson, race director, said.
For more information, contact Dobson at (850) 217-2603 or Tony Nolen at (850) 232-1453.
Tuesday High School, Youth Basketball Scores
January 23, 2019
Tuesday scores:
Boys High School
Freeport 74, Northview 64
Milton 75, Pensacola High 62
Escambia County (Atmore) 66, UMS Wright 65
Girls High School
Freeport 43 , Northview 7
— Freeport’s Bulldogs held Northview scoreless in the second and fourth period as they allowed only seven points from the Chiefs.
Pine Forest defeats Tate
Washington 49, Choctaw 32
West Florida 65, Walton 42
Youth Basketball
Rockets 27, Century Heat 12
— Milkavion White lead the Century Heat in scoring with six points as the Heat came up short against the Rockets in Atmore on Tuesday.
Gaetz Nominates 30 Students To U.S. Military Academies
January 23, 2019
Congressman Matt Gaetz has nominated 30 students from the 1st Congressional District to U.S. military academies.
“This is the best part of the year for me to be the Congressman from the 1st Congressional District. There is no part of my job I like better than today. Before the day is over, I will nominate 30 of North West Florida’s best patriots for service in our military academies. At times like these where it is easy to be discouraged about government, we’re in the middle of a shut-down, it’s nice to be able to see the applications of people in northwest Florida who see the value in serving our country and who want to express their own love of country through service in our military academies,” Gaetz said.
Nominated from Escambia and Santa Rosa counties were:
- Connor Stibolt, Pensacola Christian Academy – Air Force and Naval academies
- Clint Hinrichs, Pensacola High School – Air Force and Naval academies
- Jeffrey Sutherland, Pensacola High School – Air Force Academy
- Allison McGaugh, Pensacola High School – Naval Academy
- Malcolm Rivers, Pensacola High School – Naval Academy
- Noelle Matzinger, Pine Forest High School – Naval Academy
- MacKenzie Schmidt, West Florida High School – West Point, Naval and Merchant Marine academies
- Isaac Kelly, Pace High School – Naval and Merchant Marine academies
- Trevor Compton, Gulf Breeze High School – Naval Academy
- Zachary Walden, Gulf Breeze High School – West Point
- Caroline Opager, Santa Rosa Christian School – Naval and Merchant Marine academies
- Luciana Combs, Navarre High School – Naval Academy
- Westen Key, Milton High School – Naval Academy and West Point
“These are the ones who stayed after class and did the extra homework, they are the ones who maybe didn’t have as much fun on the weekends because they were doubling down on that school project,” Gaetz said. “They are the ones who their peers look to for leadership in organizations whether it’s athletics or service clubs. We see a tremendous wealth of leadership in the people we have selected to advance from our community.”
Gaetz also explained that this is a highly competitive process. Students had to show academic excellence, strong citizenship, and they were interviewed by a committee of local leaders. He also stressed that the nomination is not a guarantee of admission. It is a key step in the highly competitive application process, but not the final step.
Additional students received service academy nominations, but their names won’t be released until they are notified.
Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Escambia County (AL) High School Listed As Failing School
January 23, 2019
One Escambia County (AL) school is on a list of failing schools released by the state.
Escambia County High School in Atmore was one of 76 schools listed as failing under the Alabama Accountability Act. The school has made the list for at least three consecutive years.
The bottom 6 percent of schools by number of students that are proficient on standardized testing in the spring are listed as failing.
Students who live in the attendance zone of a failing school like Escambia County High School can request a transfer to another school in the same district or qualify for a tax credit or a private scholarship funded by tax credits to attended a private school.
NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
DeSantis Picks Muniz As Third New Supreme Court Justice
January 23, 2019
In the final step in reshaping the Florida Supreme Court, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday named Carlos Muniz, general counsel at the U.S. Department of Education, as his third selection to the state’s highest court.
The appointment of Muniz, 49, who served as chief of staff to former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and deputy general counsel to former Gov. Jeb Bush, solidifies a conservative majority on the court after years of justices regularly thwarting the Republican-led Legislature and the GOP governor.
“The court is going to apply the law as written,” DeSantis said while announcing his selection outside the governor’s mansion. “You may not agree with every decision, but they are not going to go off on a major tangent. I think that is very good for us. I think that the separation of powers will be strengthened with the newly constituted court.”
Muniz said in his new role he has a “solemn duty to set aside my own policy preferences.”
“The role of a judge is to preserve the Constitution, not to add to it or subtract from it,” Muniz said. “I believe strongly in judicial independence, but judges have to earn that independence through their fidelity to the Constitution.”
Muniz noted he shares DeSantis’ “judicial philosophy,” which was outlined in the governor’s inaugural address this month. DeSantis said justices should not “legislate from the bench” and should make the state and federal constitutions their “supreme” guide.
In between his state and federal positions, Muniz worked in private practice. DeSantis said Muniz’ lack of a judicial background should be a plus.
“One of the critiques I’ve had of the court is that they have not understood their proper jurisdiction,” DeSantis said. “They’ve expanded it beyond where they should.”
However, the Florida Democratic Party criticized the selection by noting the appointment leaves the court without a black justice for the first time since 1983 and that Muniz lacks experience as a judge.
“From his appointment it’s clear that Ron DeSantis has no respect for the rule of the law and is seeking to stack the courts with his political allies,” state Democratic Party Chairwoman Terrie Rizzo said in a statement. “Carlos Muñiz has no judicial experience, instead comes with a long political resume that includes working for (U.S. Secretary of Education) Betsy DeVos’ Department of Education and Pam Bondi’s Attorney General Office.”
But Senate President Bill Galvano, a Republican from Bradenton, applauded Muniz’s “comments on the importance of judicial independence and the commitment each judge must make to set aside personal policy preferences.”
In a past role as chairman of the House Rules Committee, Galvano worked with Muniz, who also served as a counsel in the Florida House and as a general counsel of the Florida Department of Financial Services.
As Bush’s deputy general counsel, Muniz worked under Charles Canady, now the chief justice of the state Supreme Court. At the time, Canady was Bush’ general counsel.
Bush praised the selection.
“Carlos Muniz is one of the brightest legal minds I know, and he will serve Florida with integrity and with the utmost respect for the rule of law,” Bush tweeted on Tuesday.
Muniz, a Yale Law School graduate who clerked for two federal judges, was appointed in 2017 to the U.S. Department of Education role by President Donald Trump, an ally of DeSantis and Bondi.
DeSantis during the past two weeks appointed appellate judges Robert Luck and Barbara Logoa to the Supreme Court. Luck and Logoa served on the 3rd District Court of Appeal in Miami.
Lagoa, Luck and Muniz replaced longtime justices Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince, who were required to step down this month because of a mandatory retirement age.
Muniz, Luck and Lagoa were among 11 names recommended for the court by the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission.
DeSantis, an attorney, said he did not ask Muniz during an interview about how he would act on specific matters but rather how they approach questions of law.
“I’m confident if you have the intellectual horsepower and the wherewithal, the right method and you’re applying that, I may not agree politically with whatever decision comes out, but you shouldn’t do that,” DeSantis said. “But I’m confident those will be well-rounded decisions. I think that goes for Carlos. I think that goes for others.”
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
FHP Looking For Dump Truck With Equipment Trailer In Hit And Run
January 22, 2019
UPDATE: The Florida Highway Patrol has released a photo of third vehicle wanted in connection with a hit and run crash January 17 on Fairfield Drive.
Troopers are looking for a single axle dump truck with a white cab and black dump bed, towing a 30-foot dove-trail trailer that is possibly yellow with three pieces of equipment, including a Bobcat.
The photo released by the FHP is above.
A white Dodge pickup truck was traveling westbound on Fairfield Drive approaching Pace Boulevard as a pedestrian was crossing northbound on Fairfield Drive. Witnesses told troopers that the pickup did not have headlights and was driving in two lanes when the pedestrian was struck.
The truck is a white in color Dodge pickup, possibly a dually, with white hub caps. It may have a black color front grill protector.
Friday afternoon, the FHP said they are also looking for a dark in color pickup that may have also been involved in the crash. Troopers also said the drivers of the black and white pickup trucks many not have known they struck the pedestrian.
The pedestrian was pronounced deceased on the scene. His name has not yet been released pending notification of next of kin.
Anyone with any information about this crash or information about a possible vehicle, is asked to contact FHP Corporal E. Diaz at (850) 484-5000.
Early Morning House Fire In Cantonment Under Investigation
January 22, 2019
Fire destroyed a home on Cedar Tree Lane just east of Highway 29 in Cantonment early Tuesday morning.
No one was home and there were no reports of any injuries in the 12:30 a.m. blaze. The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office.
The Cantonment, Molino, Ensley and Bellview stations of Escambia Fire Rescue and Escambia County EMS responded to the blaze.
Reader submitted photos by Sonameukia Banks for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Safety Improvements Made At Cantonment Crossing Where Train Hit Vehicle Last Month
January 22, 2019
The railroad crossing where a vehicle was hit by a train last month has been upgraded with crossing arms.
The marked crossing on on County Road 97 just south of Muscogee Road had flashing lights but no crossing arms on December 13. That’s when 20-year old Dustin Ryan Crumbley of Atmore was traveling north at 11:40 p.m. and failed to stop in time at an Alabama Gulf Coast Railway railroad crossing, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
He was transported to an area hospital as a “trauma alert” by Escambia County EMS. A puppy in the vehicle was also injured and taken to a veterinarian at an emergency animal clinic in Pensacola.
The FHP cited Crumbley for failure to obey a railroad crossing traffic control device and for not wearing a seat belt.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
