Apply Now For Southern Pine Beetle Assistance And Prevention Program
June 2, 2018
To help combat the invasive Southern Pine Beetle, which is currently present in 52 infestation sites throughout six Florida counties, the Florida Forest Service is accepting applications for the 2018 Southern Pine Beetle Assistance and Prevention Program from non-industrial, private forest landowners through June 29, 2018. The program is limited to 44 northern Florida counties, the known range of the southern pine beetle.
The southern pine beetle is one of the most economically devastating forest pests of the southeast, with periodic outbreaks leading to deaths of millions of pine trees. In 2017, 260 SPB infestations were reported in Florida, killing trees on 1,768 acres. This pales in comparison to the last major outbreaks between 1999 and 2002, which caused an estimated $59 million in timber losses. Since it was first offered in 2005, the program has been implemented on more than 183,000 acres and helped thousands of landowners.
“These small infestations average less than an acre now, but they have the ability to expand rapidly this time of year,” said Jim Karels, State Forester and Director of the Florida Forest Service. “It’s imperative that we remain vigilant to keep this invasive pest at bay.”
The Southern Pine Beetle Assistance and Prevention Program, supported through a grant by the United States Forest Service, provides incentive payments for landowners who conduct a first pulpwood thinning and offers partial cost reimbursement for activities, such as prescribed burning, mechanical underbrush treatments, and the planting of longleaf or slash pine rather than the loblolly pine, the beetle’s preferred species. Qualified landowners can apply for up to two different practices per year, and funding requests may not exceed $10,000. All qualifying applications received during the submission period will be evaluated and ranked for approval.
To obtain an application or to learn more about the Southern Pine Beetle Assistance and Prevention Program, visit FreshFromFlorida.com/SouthernPineBeetle/Prevention.
Shrimp Beat The Wahoos
June 2, 2018
The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp got out to a fast start with three first inning runs against Blue Wahoos starter Vladimir Gutierrez (L, 1-8) and never looked back on their way to a 4-0 win Friday night at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.
The first four Shrimp reached in the first inning before Gutierrez struck out Eric Jagielo for the first out of the inning. Isan Diaz singled home Kyle Barrett for the first run, then Monte Harrison scored on a fielder’s choice before Diaz come home on a single from Brian Schales.
They added another run in the third with Sharif Othman hit a long single to centerfield which scored Jagielo from second. Gutierrez struggled with his control throughout his 2.1 innings on the hill for the Wahoos. He finished with four walks and a hit batter. Two of the walks and the hit batsman scored to account for three of the Jacksonville four runs. The Wahoos starter did get five strikeouts and allowed just three hits. Four Blue Wahoos pitchers combined to strike out 10 Jumbo Shrimp batters over the seven-inning game.
Kolton Mahoney and Major League rehabber Brett Graves (W, 1-1) worked seven scoreless innings with nine strikeouts. Graves pitched the final three innings for the win.
The contest was supposed to be the first game of a doubleheader, but the start was delayed for nearly three hours forcing the second game to be moved to Saturday as part of a doubleheader.
Saturday’s twin-bill will start at 4:05 c.t. when RHP Wyatt Strahan (4-4, 6.70) takes the hill against RHP Robert Dugger (0-0, 5.40). Game two will feature LHP Seth Varner (2-0, 3.33) against RHP Max Duval (1-5, 6.45).
Beat The Summer Heat With Florida Fruit Salad With Lime And Honey
June 2, 2018
Summer weather is here. Beat the heat with quick and easy recipes like this Fresh From Florida Fruit Salad with lime and honey.
Florida Fruit Salad with Lime and Honey
Ingredients:
1/4 seedless Florida watermelon (depending on size), peeled and diced large
2 Florida mangoes, peeled and diced large
1 pint Florida blueberries, rinsed
2 tablespoons Florida honey
1/4 cup fresh mint, hand torn
2 limes, juiced
fresh citrus for garnish, sliced
1 small pinch sea salt
Preparation:
In a medium-sized mixing bowl add lime juice, honey, and salt. Stir the lime juice mixture to get the flavors working together. Add all of the rest of the ingredients, and gently stir to combine. Keep fruit salad refrigerated until ready to eat. This dish can be made a day ahead. Garnish fruit salad with fresh sliced citrus.
PPD: Man Damaged Monument At Pensacola Veterans Memorial Park
June 1, 2018
Pensacola Police have arrested a man and charged him with felony criminal mischief after he intentionally caused damage to memorial display at the Veteran’s Memorial Park downtown.
Police charged 55-year old Robert Link of the 5000 block of Paddlewheel Drive in Milton with the incident, which damaged a section of the Global War on Terror Memorial, which contains an actual piece of the World Trade Center.
Link damaged the display on Wednesday of last week, then returned again on Saturday and damaged it a second time. Link was hanging onto the display, and his body weight caused it to bend, according to police.
“It was really devastating to find out that someone would deface a brand new monument like that, that has such significance to everyone in our community and country,” said Paul Entrekin of Walnut Hill, a Veterans Memorial Park board member. “To damage the artifact from the World Trade Center, that was terrible.”
Entrekin said the damage has been repaired, and the new monument will be dedicated on June 14 at 7 p.m. during a Memorial Day ceremony that was delayed due to Subtropical Storm Alberto.
Pensacola Police Chief Tommi Lyter said the park is a place of solemn reflection, and it should be treated in the same manner as a cemetery.
Pictured top: The Global War on Terror Memorial at Pensacola Veterans Memorial Park. Park officials said the “bent” piece in the eagle’s talons was the result of the vandalism and has now been repaired. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Century Inmate Receives Life For Prisoner Stabbing Death
June 1, 2018
Friday morning, an inmate was sentenced to life in prison for stabbing another inmate over an alleged bad debt inside Century Correctional Institution.
Robert L. Hunt was charged with second degree murder for the June 19, 2017, incident.
Judge Jan Shackelford sentenced Hunt to life in state prison as a prison releasee reoffender. He will not be eligible for parole.
According to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrest affidavit, Hunt stabbed inmate Jorge Slaughter multiple times in the abdomen with a metal weapon inside the G Dorm. Slaughter died from his injuries a short time later at Century Correctional.
Preliminary findings from Slaughter’s autopsy indicated that the weapon used by Hunt caused Slaughter to bleed out internally.
The entire incident was captured on video by security cameras inside the dorm. Inmates who witnessed the incident identified Hunt as Slaughter’s attacker. Witnesses also told the FDLE that Hunt attacked slaughter over an unspecified debt that Slaughter owned Hunt.
Slaughter, 30, was serving a 30 year sentence out of Miami-Dade for armed burglary, grand theft and robbery. Hunt was serving a 15 year sentence out of Polk County for attempted robbery with a gun or deadly weapon. He had previously served a year and a half for aggravated assault with a weapon and methamphetamine possession.
Slaughter’s family filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the Florida Department of Corrections the then-warden.
Florida Prison Visitation Changes Spark Outcry
June 1, 2018
Tearful, angry and resentful family members of Florida inmates pleaded Thursday with state corrections officials to abandon proposed changes to visitation rules that could cut in half the amount of time they are able to spend with locked-up loved ones.
The Department of Corrections is proposing a change that would allow the agency to limit prison visits — which can now take place on Saturday and Sunday, in addition to holidays — to every other weekend. Under the proposed rule, changes to the “standard” visitation schedule would be implemented on a prison-by-prison basis and would be based on a variety of factors, such as staffing shortages and the amount of contraband being sneaked into the institutions.
The proposal eased off an original plan, floated last month, which could have allowed corrections officials to impose the reduced visitation schedule throughout the prison system and reduce the current six-hour daily visitation period to two hours.
But the modifications did not eliminate the concerns of dozens of people who urged corrections officials to drop the plan during a hearing about the proposed rule Thursday,
“I really don’t want my visits or anyone’s visits to be taken,” 11-year-old Cody Calhoun told prison officials, saying he “will be devastated” if the change goes into effect. “Why would you even take them away? I mean, they’re already having a bad enough time in prison. Why would you make it worse? Please. I need to see my dad on the weekends. … I love playing with him and it brings me closer to him.”
Families and prison-reform experts pointed to research showing that face-to-face visits play a significant role in reducing recidivism and assisting ex-inmates to re-enter society when they are released. The critics also relied on studies showing that visitors are responsible for just a fraction of the illicit items, such as cigarettes and cell phones, brought into prisons.
But Richard Comerford, assistant deputy secretary of institutions for the Department of Corrections, said those concerns, and others, were taken into consideration when corrections officials modified the proposed visitation changes, which would only go into effect if needed.
“We’ll evaluate that visitation schedule based on institutional security, staffing, safety and security of the inmates, visitors and staff, the maximum capacity of these parks, the numbers of visitors and the frequency of contraband that’s introduced into our facilities,” he said.
Lawmakers placed such a value on visitation that it is included in a state law, which says that “maintaining an inmate’s family and community relationships through enhancing visitor services and programs and increasing the frequency and quality of the visits is an underutilized correctional resource that can improve an inmate’s behavior in the correctional facility and, upon an inmate’s release from a correctional facility, will help to reduce recidivism.”
If there are barriers or deficiencies regarding visitation, the law also requires the corrections secretary to submit budget requests “identifying capital improvements, staffing, and programmatic needs necessary to improve the quality and frequency of family visits and the visitation program and services.”
Prison officials are also responsible for “protecting society and citizens at large,” Department of Corrections lawyer Gregory Hill said at the onset of Thursday’s hearing.
“It’s with these two competing goals that the department has to compose these rules, and that’s what the department’s strived to do in revising and revamping the rule that’s been presented and will be presented here today,” he said.
But sharply reducing the time inmates can spend with their loved ones could put the public at risk, many of the speakers warned. Apart from committing more crimes when they are released, the reduction in visitation could lead inmates to riot, some cautioned.
Heather Walker said her “baby brother” has served five years of a life sentence.
“These visits are all that he has to look forward to. Decreasing them, taking them away, is no way going to help him,” a tearful Walker, who said she has another brother who is a corrections officer, said. “If this was your brother, this was your child, would you put these same standards into the law?”
About 100 people showed up for the hearing, including several who said they were traveling more than 16 hours round-trip to be able to speak.
Jodi Chambers-Wilson, whose son is in prison, said even more family members would have appeared but for the reason she kept silent on prison-related matters for seven years.
“Fear of retaliation. Period. Point blank,” an angry Chambers-Wilson said, reminding prison officials that the law requires them to encourage visitation.
“I birthed him, and I am allowed to visit him because the state Legislature says it is your responsibility to facilitate it. Let me be a mother to my son,” she said, receiving a standing ovation from the audience members.
The corrections agency — which houses 90,000 inmates — has been chronically underfunded and is currently running a budget deficit of nearly $80 million. Agency officials attribute about a third of the deficit to spending on contracts with private health-care companies and increases in the costs of prescription drugs.
The agency also is struggling with staffing shortages.
The corrections department is offering $1,000 hiring bonuses at 18 of Florida’s 50 state-run institutions, according to the department’s website. The bonuses are being offered at facilities that are at least 10 percent below desired staffing levels, agency spokeswoman Michelle Glady said in an interview.
But until the proposed rule is finalized, Glady said it’s impossible to know what the staffing standards would be to spark the “modified” visitation schedule.
“No one would argue that visitation isn’t valuable, that the family connections aren’t important, that having those connections contributes to the reduction of recidivism,” Glady said. “In-person visitation is very important, but we have to balance the security of the institution, and that’s why the rule outlines when we would have to go to a more modified schedule.”
Beth Gammie, a lawyer who has spent two decades representing people seeking clemency or parole, warned that the rule could be challenged because it fails to specify that the schedule would be modified if the frequency of contraband brought into a facility increases is due to visitors, “because that is apparently what you are trying to get at.”
After the meeting, Gammie said the biggest issue with the proposed rule is the modified visitation schedule.
“That’s clearly what they’ve been wanting all along,” Gammie said, referring to the corrections department. “They know that visitation is positive. So this whole rulemaking effort, which they would only do if they want to change the present practice, they’re either ignoring that or it’s not mattering that much to them.”
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Take Stock In Children Awards $300K In Scholarships To Local Students
June 1, 2018
Take Stock in Children and the Escambia County Public Schools Foundation recently awarded $300,000 in scholarships to 21 graduating seniors.
Each student received a four-year scholarship and a laptop computer. The volunteer mentors who met weekly with their students were also recognized.
The 2018 Take Stock in Children graduates are
- Escambia High: Diamond Franklin
- Northview High: Jason Fischer, Kayla Galvan, Lari McCann
- Pensacola High: Latavia Grace, Aaliyah Medley, Markita Sapp, Joshua Van Fleet
- Pine Forest High: Lina Foust, Brianna Walker
- Tate High: Olivia Brown, Devin Searcy, Taylor Smith, Sabra Stewart
- Washington High: Armelle Delouis, DeMarcus Harris, Clay Johnson, Brooke Nemeth
- West Florida High: De’Shawn Brundidge, Dezmond Booker, Savon Johnson
Take Stock in Children was established in 1995 as a non-profit organization in Florida that provides a unique opportunity for deserving low-income students to escape the cycle of poverty through education. Students receive college scholarships, caring volunteer mentors, college readiness skills, and hope for a better life. Students are selected through a need-based application process in middle school, and comprehensive services continue through high school and include the students’ transition into college. Each student is matched with a volunteer mentor who meets with the student weekly at school.
Pictured top: (front row) Olivia Brown, Latavia Grace, Lari McCann, Kayla Galvan, Lina Foust, Taylor Smith, Sabra Stewart, Aaliyah Medley, Clay Johnson, Devin Searcy; (back row) Rep. Frank White, Dezmond Booker, Joshua Fan Fleet, Savon Johnson, Armelle Delouis, Superintendent Malcolm Thomas, Diamond Franklin, DeMarcus Harris, De’Shawn Brundidge, Brianna Walker and Rep. Clay Ingram. Not pictured: Jason Fischer, Brooke Nemeth and Markita Sapp. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Local Teacher’s Summer Lessons Go Viral
June 1, 2018
There won’t be any of that dreaded summer homework for students of Betsy Eggart, a teacher at Lipscomb Elementary School. Instead, she’s offering lessons that are not found in the first grade curriculum — and they are going viral.
Her Facebook post had been shared over 190,000 times by Friday morning, and it was featured online by Good Morning America. She wrote:
“A parent asked me the other day, ‘Are you sending home a packet of work for the summer?’ I paused and felt half-guilty as I replied, ‘No…’”
She continues -
“This is so great, in theory. And maybe one day I’ll put one together. Although, the more I thought, the more I decided that this summer packet should be less addition practice and sight words and more…LIFE.
“So take it or leave it…here’s my “Summer Packet.”
“Teach your child to tie their shoes. Find a fun trick! Watch a video! Give an incentive! Be persistent! Just make sure your child isn’t the one dragging their laces through the bathroom and cafeteria then asking the teacher to tie it.
“Keep bedtime in the routine. It may be a little later and there will be nights that bedtime doesn’t apply. But overall, if we keep our bodies in a routine with sleep, August won’t hit quite so hard.
“Choose a few family members and friends to write a letter to this summer. Ask your child to write in full sentences, ask questions and give details. Writing with a purpose makes it relevant and real for your child. Maybe someone will write them back! Include an envelope with return address and stamp to encourage that!
“Sit at the table and eat together. Really watch your child. Is he sitting on his knees, mouth wide open, food everywhere? This is how he looks in the cafeteria. Work on that.”
Other tips include encouraging kindness, read to your child, put down your phone and rest.
“Squeeze in the fun, but allow the time to rest. Boredom gives way to creativity. Rest renews our bodies and our minds for all the next school year has in store,” she said.
Woman, Five Kids Injured In I-10 Rollover Crash
June 1, 2018
Six people, including five children, were injured Thursday in a crash on I-10 between the Highway 29 and Davis Highway exits.
The Florida Highway Patrol said 26-year old Keandra Winley of Pensacola was driving a 2005 Dodge Durango eastbound on I-10 when the left rear tire blew out. Winley lost control, and the vehicle slid across three lanes of travel. The vehicle then struck a guardrail and overturned. The vehicle came to rest on its roof.
Winley and five children ranging in age from 1 to 10 were injured. Four including Winley suffered minor injuries, while a 4-year old and 6-year old were seriously injured. All were transported to Sacred Heart hospital.
Winley was charged by the FHP with driving with a suspended license and a child restraint violation.
Northview Graduate Wright Graduates From U.S. Air Force Academy
June 1, 2018
Victoria A. Wright has graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. She eceived a bachelor of science degree and was commissioned as a second lieutenant.
The academy is a four-year military institution of higher learning that develops and inspires new air and space leaders with a vision for the future. Its curriculum provides instruction, education, training and experience in academics, military training, physical and athletic conditioning, and spiritual and ethical development to all cadets.
Cadets graduate with the knowledge, character and skills essential for future career officers in the U.S. Air Force. As new lieutenants, they will go on to serve as pilots, navigators, engineers, maintenance officers or professionals in various technical fields, while other cadets may go on to attend medical or graduate school with special scholarships, or directly to non-rated Air Force-wide assignments.
Wright is the daughter of Melissa N. Haddix of Massillion, OH, and Joseph P. Wright of Walnut Hill, step-daughter of Tami L. Wright of Walnut Hill, and Rick Haddix of Massillion, OH, and sister of Elizabeth A. Wright of Pensacola.
She is a 2014 graduate of Northview High School.