Best Of The Class Of 2018 Honored From Escambia High Schools
April 27, 2018
The top of the Class of 2018 from Escambia County’s high schools were recognized Thursday as the Escambia County Public Schools Foundation hosted the 2018 Senior Academic Awards program.
The Senior Academic Awards recognized outstanding academic achievement, represented by the top five students from each school with the highest GPA’s at the end of the first semester senior year and the top student from each of the six academic disciplines. Students from seven Escambia County high schools and the Pensacola High School Baccalaureate Program will receive a personalized medallion and a Congressional certificate. The awards ceremony also recognized nine National Merit Finalists from Escambia County, eight from the Pensacola High School IB Program, and one from Pensacola High School.
Honorees are listed below under a photo from each school, scroll down, click to enlarge.
Escambia High School
TOP FIVE: Georgia Addy, Emmanuel Apusen, Clara Bonnlander, Andrew Gregg, Nicholas Hamblin.
DISCIPLINES: Ashton Floda, Career & Technical; Matthew Arellano, English; Rachael Cox, Foreign Language; Peyton Anglin, Math; Christopher Harden, Science; Jason Banuelos, Social Studies.
Northview High School
TOP FIVE: Triston Long, Hannah Nelson, Sarah Perritt, Destiny McKenna Watson, Tara Windham.
DISCIPLINES: Cody Alan Kite, Career & Technical; Bria Hardy, English; Logan Hall, Foreign Language; Fisher Logan Spence, Math; Logan Calloway, Science; Justin Cole Hassebrock, Social Studies
Pensacola High School
TOP FIVE: Stanley Dorion, Paul Miron, Hannah Marie Mock, Joshua Ryan Wood (National Merit Finalist), Yu Grace Zhu,.
DISCIPLINES: Leigha Holstein, Career & Technical; Katie Allison Shelnut, English; Christina M. Coker, Foreign Language; Uyen Phuong Tong, Math; Davonchae Bryant, Science; Aaliyah Medley, Social Studies.
Pensacola High School International Baccalaureate Program
TOP FIVE: Lauren Hagy, Tamim Kawakibi, Cara Kizilbash, Lucas Liseth (National Merit Finalist), Dina Razek, Brandon Wu.
DISCIPLINES: Zofia Uszok, Career and Technical; Sydney Rush, English; María José Peña, Foreign Language; Michael Hoffman, Math; Bao-Tien Duong, Science; Abagail Walker, Social Studies; Kareem Bataineh, National Merit Finalist; George Hester, National Merit Finalist; Leo Zhang, National Merit Finalist; James Riggins, National Merit Finalist; Brett Winter, National Merit Finalist; James Henderson, National Merit Finalist; LiAna Patterson, National Merit Finalist.
Pine Forest High School
TOP FIVE: Kyla Cheek, LaLina Foust, Angelo Isidro Mayorga, Melissa Schumacher, Jing Wong.
DISCIPLINES: Josiah Robinson, Career & Technical; Halee Nagem, English; Osdi Flores-Cruz, Foreign Language; Caleb Whitworth, Math; Ja’Lynne Whitaker, Science; Caleb White, Social Studies.
Tate High School
TOP FIVE: Ashlyn Adams, Mollie Anderson, Matthew Blalock, Seth Godwin, Rosemary Smyth.
DISCIPLINES: Levi Shaffer, Career & Technical; Kelsey Strength, English; Madisyn Mitchell, Foreign Language; Camryn Daniels, Math; Hannah Huggins, Science; Thomas Young, Social Studies.
Washington High School
TOP FIVE: Abbigail Abbi Andrade, Meghan Doyle, Daniel Duong, Rachel Nguyen, Elizabeth Teets.
DISCIPLINES: TerriLynn Hale, Career & Technical; Grace Sill, English; Tianna Lewis, Foreign Language; Anderson Nguyen, Math; Alexa Jewel Lapid, Science; Chase Rogers, Social Studies.
West Florida High School of Advanced Technology
TOP FIVE: Amy Elizabeth Brown, Brandon Fenters, Aliya Kaufmann, Dhanvi Patel, Justin Schubeck.
DISCIPLINES: Keyshawn Helton, Career & Technical; Dylan Pitts, English; Craig Crosby, Foreign Language; Rebecca Bivins, Math; Jessica Pardue, Science; Alexander Smith, Social Studies.
Photos courtesy Kim Stefansson for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
EREC Annual Meeting Is Saturday
April 27, 2018
Escambia River Electric Cooperative’s 79th Annual Meeting will be held Saturday at Northview High School.
This year’s meeting begins earlier, with voting and activities from 8 a.m. until 10 a.m. prior to the business meeting at 10 a.m.
There will be entertainment by Dan Kirkland, a breakfast fundraiser for the Northview FFA, gifts for members and door prizes. There will also be children’s activities.
Tate Lady Aggies Win Fifth Consecutive District Championship
April 27, 2018
The Tate Lady Aggies won their fifth straight straight championship Thursday night, 11-1 over the Pace Patriots.
Hannah Brown earned the win for the Lady Aggies in six innings, allowing just one hit, one run and striking out six.
For Tate: Shelby Ullrich 3-4, R, 2RBI, Belle Wolfenden 2-4; Deazia Nickerson 2-2, RBI, R; Ryleigh Cawby 2-2, 2 RBI, 2R; Sydni Solliday 1-3; Shelby McLean 1-3, R; Amber Decous 1-3, 3RBI.
Up next, Tate will host Milton Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the 1-7A regional quarterfinals.
Jay Royals Top Northview For District 3-1A Championship
April 27, 2018
The Jay Royals defeated the Northview Chiefs Thursday night 8-5 in the 3-1A district championship game in Jay.
The Royals took a 2-0 lead after one inning, adding two more in the second and one in the third. The Chiefs added a run in the fifth, with the Lady Royals answering with two for a 7-1 lead after five. In the sixth, Northview had a four-run streak, but Jay went on to an 8-5 final.
Alyssa Baxley pitched the win for Jay in a complete game, striking out 11. At the plate, Christa Sanders was 3-4, and Haylee Watson, Sarah Barnhill and Alyssa Baxley each had a hit.
For Northview, Tori Herrington was 1-2, Ashley Ragsdale had a double as she went 2-4 and Valen Shelley was 1-4.
Regional play begins next Thursday with Bozeman at Jay at 7:00 and Northview at Wewahitchka.
Photos by Diann Tagert for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Northview Track And Field Athletes Qualify For State Finals
April 27, 2018
Several Northview High School track and field athletes qualified for the upcoming 1A state meet May 3-6.
They are:
Brandon Spencer 100 and 200m
Crystal Douglas and Nene Findley 100m
Girls 4×100m Crystal Douglas, Nene Findley, Myisha Syria, Celeste North, Lexi Broadhead
Boys 4×100m Quay Thomas, Joseph Wright, Tim Bush, Jarius Moorer, Brandon Spencer
Boys High Jump Tim Bush
Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Rally Calls For Restoring Voting Rights For Felons
April 27, 2018
A day after a stinging defeat handed down by an appeals court, ministers and civil rights leaders — including national talk-show host Al Sharpton — rallied Thursday at the state Capitol to rev up support for a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would automatically restore voting rights for most Florida felons.
A march from Bethel Missionary Baptist Church to the steps of the Old Capitol, planned weeks ago, followed a late-night ruling Wednesday from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a bitterly fought challenge to the state’s vote-restoration system.
The appellate court handed Gov. Rick Scott and the other members of the Board of Executive Clemency a decisive victory by blocking a federal judge’s order that would have required the state to overhaul Florida’s process of restoring the right to vote to felons by Thursday.
In a series of rulings, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker found the state’s vote-restoration process violated First Amendment rights and Fourteenth Amendment equal-protection rights of felons. Last month, he gave Scott and the board until Thursday to revamp what the judge called a “fatally flawed” process and rejected a request by Attorney General Pam Bondi to put his order on hold.
But in its 2-1 decision Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based appellate court not only granted the state’s request to put Walker’s decision on hold but also indicated the district judge’s invalidation of the vote-restoration process likely would not stand.
Thursday’s march and rally, featuring Sharpton and civil-rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, were organized around what was expected to be the release of the state’s new vote-restoration process as ordered by Walker.
Instead, the 11th Circuit’s decision stirred up already impassioned supporters of the proposed constitutional amendment as they gathered on the steps of the Old Capitol.
“I think that we are absolutely fired up. I intend to spend a lot of time here, and I know that others with national prominence will. More importantly, local citizens are energized. Many would have felt that there was hope if the appellate court had not ruled. But by ruling on the eve of this rally, they gave us the impetus to really build a movement,” Sharpton told The News Service of Florida and other reporters following the noon rally.
The proposed amendment, backed by the political committee “Floridians for a Fair Democracy” and largely bankrolled by the American Civil Liberties Union, would automatically restore the right to vote for felons who have served their sentences, completed probation and paid restitution. Murderers and sex offenders would not be eligible.
Home to an estimated 1.6 million convicted felons, Florida is one of a handful of states that do not automatically restore voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences. An estimated 600,000 felons could have their voting rights restored if voters approve the measure, which will appear on the November ballot as Amendment 4.
Although a majority of the convicted felons in Florida who have lost their right to vote are white, blacks are disproportionately represented among the felon population.
So it’s no surprise that felon disenfranchisement sparks intensely emotional responses from African-Americans like those who gathered in downtown Tallahassee under sunny skies Thursday. Many people at the rally began weathering civil-rights storms decades ago.
For some, Florida’s labyrinthine vote-restoration process is viewed as a modern form of lynching and is a vestige of Jim Crow-era laws designed to keep blacks from casting ballots.
And disenfranchisement also prevents felons who’ve completed their sentences from serving on juries, said Crump, a lawyer who represented the family of Trayvon Martin, a black teen whose shooting death in 2012 in Seminole County drew international attention.
Drawing cheers from the crowd of more 150, Crump said he discovered early in his career that in many courthouses, “the only thing black is you, your client and the judge’s robe.”
The “legalization of discrimination is real, and it’s affecting us in ways we cannot even imagine,” he said.
Felons who are unable to vote are effectively shut out of society, the lawyer added.
“They’re like the walking dead. They just ain’t got the death certificate,” he said.
Florida’s current vote-restoration process began early in 2011, shortly after Scott and Bondi took office. The Republican officials played key roles in changing the process to effectively make it harder for felons to get their rights restored.
Scott’s office has adamantly backed the process, saying the governor is standing with crime victims.
Under the process, felons must wait five or seven years after their sentences are complete to apply to have rights restored. After applications are filed, the process can take years to complete.
Since the changes went into effect in 2011, Scott — whose support is required for any type of clemency to be granted — and the board have restored the rights of 3,005 of the more than 30,000 convicted felons who’ve applied, according to the Florida Commission on Offender Review. There’s currently a backlog of 10,085 pending applications, according to the commission.
In contrast, more than 155,000 ex-felons had their right to vote automatically restored during the four years of former Gov. Charlie Crist’s tenure, according to court documents.
Florida will be “ground zero” to “turn around this affront on voting rights” for felons during the 2018 election season, Sharpton predicted.
“We are going to turn on the light in the Sunshine State,” he said. “There is no more critical issue in this land.”
Mark McMillan, a convicted felon who leads the Tallahassee-based Divine Revelations Ministries with his wife, told the News Service he had his rights restored automatically in New York and Texas for his decades-old out-of-state convictions.
But the restoration didn’t apply in Florida, McMillan, 49, learned.
“I moved back here about six years ago, and my rights were gone,” said McMillan, whose community-based outreach includes a focus on felons.
He applied to have his rights restored four years ago but was told by the clemency board that it would be up to 10 years before he would get a hearing.
“I can’t vote, and my charges are from almost 20 years ago,” McMillan said.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Judge Rejects State Rule Allowing More Methadone Center Applications
April 27, 2018
Pointing to an arbitrary process that “ignores substance in favor of blind luck,” an administrative law judge Thursday rejected a state emergency rule drawn up to help license more methadone-treatment centers across Florida.
Judge R. Bruce McKibben, in a 44-page order, hammered a process in which the Department of Children and Families accepted applications for the licenses on a first-come, first-served basis. The News Service of Florida reported in December that the process led to applicants camping out at the department’s headquarters to be first in line.
The process led to only a handful of providers getting applications accepted, while others were shut out — resulting in the legal challenge.
“The system for accepting applications on a first-come, first-served basis is arbitrary,” McKibben wrote. “It is illogical to assume that the first applications filed, containing scant information, are equal or superior to later filed applications. This scheme contravenes the basic expectation of law for reasoned agency decision making.”
The Department of Children and Families issued the emergency rule last year as officials looked to increase the number of methadone clinics in the state as part of a $27 million federal grant aimed at curbing opioid addiction and overdoses. In all, the department on Oct. 2 accepted 49 applications for clinics in 48 counties, with the successful applicants then able to seek licensure, according to McKibben’s order.
But 20 of the applications were approved for one provider, Psychological Addiction Services, LLC, while another 19 were approved for Colonial Management Group, L.P., and eight were approved for Relax Mental Health Care. Two other applicants each received one approval.
Dacco Behavioral Health, Inc., Operation Par, Inc., and Aspire Health Partners, Inc., challenged the emergency rule, with other organizations also intervening in the case.
McKibben’s order focused heavily on what he described as the first-in-line “scheme” as being arbitrary. He said the department acknowledged that “if the first person in line had filed applications for all 49 new clinics, all the other applicants would have been denied the right to seek licensure.”
“The department felt that allowing applications to be submitted via email would potentially crash its email system, so email submission was not allowed,” he wrote. “The applications received first by the department were to be approved, notwithstanding any substantive shortcomings or comparative failings of those applications as compared to applications received later. No other criteria were considered; first was deemed best. What is fair about approving competing applications based on who filed first rather than on substantive differences in the services being proposed?”
McKibben also wrote that the process could slow down the opening of clinics because of the logistics and expense involved in opening multiple facilities.
“It is more likely that a single entity receiving approval for multiple new clinics might ‘bank’ the approvals, expending time and money for only a few at a time, at best,” he wrote. “If so, that could result in far fewer new clinics coming on line than the 49 projected by the department under the emergency rule. As the applications contained no requirement to provide financial information, it is impossible for the department to determine whether the approved entities, which received multiple approvals, could successfully — and timely — complete their projects. There is no specific time frame for which a granted applicant must commence operations once approved.”
by Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida
Wahoos Lose To Jacksonville
April 27, 2018
For the second night in a row, the Wahoos offense produced plenty runs to win. However, an exhausted bullpen was overmatched Thursday night and Jacksonville came from behind to win the series opener 10-9.
Both teams came out swinging to start the ball game. Pensacola batted around the lineup to open the game against Jumbo Shrimp starter Brandon Barker. Gabriel Guerrero doubled home two runs and then scored on Aristides Aquino’s RBI-single to make it 3-0 after a half inning of play. Jacksonville quickly countered thanks to Monte Harrison’s solo home run and John Norwood’s run-scoring single to cut the lead down to 3-2.
Pensacola went right back to work and scored once in the top of the second, but the Jumbo Shrimp immediately responded by scoring three more runs off Pensacola starter Daniel Wright in the bottom of the inning. The theme continued in the third inning, and by the time the dust settled in the fourth inning, the game was tied 4-4 and both starters were out of the game.
Pensacola manager Jody Davis hoped that his reigning Southern League Pitcher of the Week would deliver a lengthy start to rest his exhausted bullpen from the previous series; however, Wright was chased from the game with two outs in the third after allowing seven runs on 11 hits.
For the second night in a row, Davis used four different pitchers in relief. The bullpen battled throughout the night, and only allowed three runs over the game’s remaining six innings. After the Wahoos tied the game in the top of the ninth on a Taylor Sparks triple and a wild pitch Jeff Kinley (W, 1-0), to tie the game at nine. Sparks finished the night going 3-for-5 and extended his hitting streak to 12 games.
In the bottom of the ninth with Sharif Othman on second, Kyle Barrett doubled off Alex Powers (L, 0-1), which gave the Shrimp a dramatic 10-9 win.
Pregnant Woman Flips Car Trying To Avoid Ducks Crossing The Road
April 26, 2018
A young pregnant woman escaped serious injury Thursday when her vehicle overturned.
The accident happened on Rockaway Creek Road north of Nokomis Road. The driver reportedly stated that she was attempting to avoid ducks that were crossing the road on their way to a nearby pond. She lost control and ran off the roadway, with her vehicle flipping over in a ditch and coming to rest upside down.
The woman refused medical transport by Escambia County EMS and headed to the hospital in a private vehicle.
The accident is under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol. The Walnut Hill Station of Escambia Fire Rescue and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office also responded.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Sheriff, Commission Reach New Budget Deal
April 26, 2018
The Escambia County Commission and Sheriff David Morgan have reach a new budget mediation agreement that will mean an extra $9 million over the next four years for staff pay raises.
“We are pleased that we can start the process to pay our deputies and employees what they were worth all along. We’d like to thank the citizens who stood behind the Sheriff’s Office through the appeal process. We are hopeful that the BOCC will begin a plan to properly fix compensation for their own first responders and employees as well as develop a way to ensure the County never again gets this far behind in proper compensation for the employees it is responsible to fund,” Morgan said.
The $9 million is broken down as:
- $1 million in fiscal year 2018
- $2.5 million in fiscal year 2019
- $2.6 million in fiscal year 2020
- $2.9 million in fiscal year 2021
The agreement will also create a Sheriff’s Mediated Reserve (SMR) to be used in fiscal year 2020 or after for workers compensation, pension and health care costs. The county and the sheriff will contribute a total of $2.5 million to the reserve fund — $500,000 in fiscal year 2019, $1 million in fiscal year 2020 and $1 million in fiscal year 2021.
The SMR can only be used by the sheriff if the BOCC increases their budget allocation for health care costs for each employee by more than $10,000, if there is a net increase to the amount the sheriff contributes to the Florida Retirement System, or if the sheriff has a worker’s compensation premium increase in fiscal year 2020 or 2021.
Once an interlocal agreement is signed by both parties, the sheriff agrees to drop his budget appeal to the governor’s office. The BOCC has retained the right to seek to enforce a previous mediation agreement in the event an interlocal agreement is not signed.
Unlike a previous agreement, the new terms to not require the BOCC to use commissioners’ discretionary funding for outside agencies or Law Enforcement Trust Fund money as a funding source.
The new agreement will prevent the sheriff’s from appealing future budgets to the governor, allow him to request funding for additional positions in fiscal years 2020 and 2021, and the sheriff will be allowed to require additional operational or capital funding.
Pictured: Gov. Rick Scott and Escambia County David Morgan during a meeting October 5, 2017, at the Escambia County Emergency Operations Center concerning then Tropical Storm Nate. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.