BayBears Power Past Wahoos 9-4 In Season Opener
April 6, 2018
The Mobile BayBears spoiled the Blue Wahoos encore to their Southern League Championship with a 9-4 win over Pensacola on Opening Day at Hank Aaron Stadium on Thursday night.
Daniel Wright suffered the shortest outing of his professional career as the Wahoos lost on Opening Day for just the second time in team history.
After a clean opening inning for Wright and the Blue Wahoos, things quickly turned south in the second.
The BayBears opened the scoring early in the inning. Double-A debutant, Michael Barash, homered off the first pitch he saw in the second to give the hosts a 1-0 lead. Connor Justus and Zach Gibbons fired back-to-back singles before Bo Way doubled Mobile’s advantage with an RBI groundout.
With two outs, the BayBears rallied for five additional runs thanks to a pair of BayBear hits and a pair of Blue Wahoos errors. Wright had a chance to end the second when Thaiss hit a weak grounder towards first but Wright’s flip to Gavin LaValley sailed over the first baseman’s head allowing Brennon Lund to score.
Two batters later Hutton Moyer made the Blue Wahoos pay when he crushed his first home run of the season to make it 7-0.
Pensacola tried to climb back into the game when they plated a pair of runs in the third. LaValley’s two-run single gave the Blue Wahoos a brief surge of momentum.
The BayBears proved to be relentless as they answered Pensacola’s two runs with two of their own in the bottom of the inning.
There were several bright spots that could be extracted from Thursday’s contest. Nick Longhi, in his first game since injuring his elbow, went 3-for-4. LaValley and Gabriel Guerrero both reached base twice.
The bullpen also turned in a solid effort after the seven-run rally. Brennan Bernardino, in his second season with the Blue Wahoos, pitched two near-perfect innings while newcomer Jose Rafael De Paula did not allow a run over his two innings of work.
Pensacola will put this game behind them and get ready for tomorrow when RHP Keury Mella gets the ball for the Blue Wahoos opposite RHP Luis Pena.
Escambia’s Second Steel Pre-Fab Bridge Installed On Nokomis Road
April 5, 2018
Workers installed a new prefabricated steel bridge to replace the Nokomis Road bridge over Reedy Creek on Wednesday.
Now that the 50 x 36 foot bridge is in place, work on the asphalt approach and other items are expected to be complete and the road is expected to be open by the end of April, according to County Administrator Jack Brown.
Due to structural deficiencies, the state ordered the Nokomis Road bridge closed in December. The county implemented a short detour on the dirt Albritton and Jakes Roads. Due to the November 8 closure of a bridge on Arthur Brown Road and a November 14 closure of a bridge on Arthur Brown Road, the only detour options were a 31-mile, 30-35 mph average speed detour in Florida, or a lengthy detour into Alabama.
The detour solutions all presented hazards to the public, according to county officials.
After implementing the detour, the county received several calls from area residents who are concerned about meeting and passing truck traffic because of the narrow width of Jakes Road and its steep shoulders making them feel unsafe when pulling to the side when meeting trucks and other vehicles. Rain also causes the dirt road surface to become slippery and unstable. Vehicles, including emergency vehicles, are at risk of becoming stuck when pulling onto these shoulders.
The first steel permanent replacement bridge in Escambia County recently opened on Arthur Brown Road (there were two bridges closed on Arthur Brown Road). The bridge over Freeman Springs Branch was closed November 8 and bridge replacement work began on December 6 after prep work was completed. The new 24-foot wide steel bridge arrived in three major pieces on January 5. It was installed on January 6 and was open by January 29.
The steel bridge on Arthur Brown Road saved several months of construction time and cost about $400,000 as opposed to $1 million for a concrete bridge.
The new bridges are solid American steel with corrugated decks that are paved with asphalt after installation for several decades of service.
Pictured: A prefabricated steel bridge was installed Wednesday on Nokomis Road. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Firefighters Respond To Possible Natural Gas Leak In Bratt
April 5, 2018
Firefighters responded to a possible gas leak from a natural gas valve station near Bratt.
A passerby reported the smell of gas on North Highway 99 near Amerson Drive about 9 p.m. Wednesday. The Walnut Hill Station of Escambia Fire Rescue responded and found a strong smell of gas coming from the high pressure Pensacola Energy pipeline located in the yard of a residence about 150 feet off the roadway.
It was not immediately clear if there was an actual minor gas leak or a leak of the mercaptan — the harmeless chemical added to natural gas that gives off a strong “rotten egg” odor. It was known that if any natural gas was leaking, it was not a high enough level to be extremely dangerous.
Pensacola Energy responded to evaluate the pipeline.
There were no evacuations ordered.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
State Fights Ruling On Felon Rights Restoration
April 5, 2018
Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet on Wednesday continued battling a judge’s ruling that would require the state to overhaul the controversial process for restoring ex-felons’ voting rights, taking the case to a federal appeals court.
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office filed a notice of appeal at the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Also, it requested a stay of an order by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker that gave the state an April 26 deadline for making changes to the rights-restoration process.
But Walker, in a sharply worded decision, quickly rejected the request for a stay and reiterated earlier rulings that the state’s current process for restoring rights is unconstitutional.
“Rather than comply with the requirements of the United States Constitution, defendants continue to insist they can do whatever they want
with hundreds of thousands of Floridians’ voting rights and absolutely zero standards,” Walker wrote in a six-page decision. “They ask this court to stay its prior orders. No.”
Walker in the earlier rulings said the current process is unconstitutional, in part, because it gives Scott and Cabinet members, serving as the state Board of Executive Clemency, “unfettered discretion” in deciding whether former felons should have their rights restored after completing sentences.
But in a 27-page motion Wednesday requesting the stay, attorneys in Bondi’s office hammered Walker’s rulings and defended the state’s authority to decide how to handle restoration of rights.
“(The) injunction in this case does not just prevent the state from effectuating state law,” the motion said. “It also directs four of the state’s highest-ranking executive officers to revamp a 150-year-old vote-restoration scheme in 30 days. A federal court order requiring state officials to come up with new state policies impinges on the sovereignty and autonomy of the state.”
That drew a sharp rebuke in the decision Walker issued later in the day rejecting the stay.
“The stay motion is littered with other astounding arguments that fail to outline substantial likelihood on the merits or irreparable harm to any party,” he wrote in one part of the decision. “For example, this court is left scratching its head when considering how its order directing defendants to comply with the federal Constitution impinges on state sovereignty. This extraordinary argument is rooted in neither common sense nor reality. As this court has made clear again and again, defendants shall be the body to promulgate constitutional rules, not this court.”
Walker, in an order issued March 27 and in an earlier ruling, said the state was violating First Amendment rights and equal-protection rights of ex-felons. But the state’s attorneys wrote in Wednesday’s motion that Walker “relied on unsubstantiated insinuations of actual discrimination,” and they sought to dispel arguments that the restoration process is unconstitutional.
“In short, federal law, as authoritatively construed by the (U.S.) Supreme Court, affirmatively authorizes the state not to maintain any vote-restoration system; this (Walker’s) court may not instruct state officials on how to conform their conduct to state law; state law does not require the Board (of Executive Clemency) to come up with a new process for considering applications seeking restoration of civil rights; and, even if state law could be construed to require an active and ongoing process by which voting rights may be restored, such a process is already in place,” the motion said. “Thus, this court’s injunction improperly prevents the state from pursuing policy options consonant with federal and state law.”
In his decision rejecting the stay, Walker wrote that state officials “remain bound” by the April 26 deadline, though he noted the state can seek a stay from the appeals court.
“This court does not play games,” Walker wrote. “This court is not going to sit on defendants’ motion and run out the clock. If the Eleventh Circuit finds that a clemency scheme granting unfettered discretion to elected officials — with personal stakes in shaping the electorate —over plaintiffs’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights passes constitutional muster, this court must accept that holding. Until that day, if it ever comes, this court denies defendants’ request for a stay.”
Restoration of voting rights has long been a controversial legal and political issue in Florida. After taking office in 2011, Scott and Bondi played key roles in changing the process to effectively make it harder for felons to get their rights restored.
Under the current process, ex-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.
A political committee known as Floridians for a Fair Democracy has collected enough petition signatures to place a measure on the November general-election ballot that, if approved by voters, would automatically restore voting rights to felons who have served their sentences, completed parole or probation and paid restitution. Murderers and sex offenders would be excluded under the measure, which will appear on the ballot as Amendment 4.
As a sign of the political implications of the restoration issue, Democratic gubernatorial candidates Gwen Graham, Philip Levine and Andrew Gillum quickly issued statements Wednesday criticizing Scott and Bondi for appealing Walker’s decision. Critics of the current process say it disproportionately prevents African-Americans from voting.
“Stripping Floridians of their voting rights is a shameful policy with roots in the Jim Crow era,” Graham said in her statement. “If Rick Scott won’t act to restore voting rights, the people of Florida will do it for him this November — and, as governor, I will ensure the rights restoration amendment is fully implemented.”
But John Tupps, a spokesman for Scott, issued a statement that said state elected officials, not federal judges, should determine clemency policies.
“The governor will always stand with victims of crime,” Tupps said. “He believes that people who have been convicted of crimes like murder, violence against children and domestic violence, should demonstrate that they can live a life free of crime while being accountable to our communities.”
The Fair Elections Legal Network and the law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC filed the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the restoration process.
Walker’s March 27 ruling chastised Scott and other state officials and ordered the clemency board to devise a constitutionally sound program with “specific, neutral criteria that excise the risk — and, of course, the actual practice of — any impermissible discrimination, such as race, gender, religion or viewpoint.”
Walker did not specify a particular process but ordered that “Florida’s corrected scheme cannot be byzantine or burdensome.”
by Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida
Report Filed Week Before House Fire Claiming Evicted Tenant Cut Wires
April 5, 2018
The owner of a house that burned Monday in Bratt had evicted the residents and filed a police report a week ago stating that electric wires in the house had been damaged.
Flames were shooting several feet into the air from the home in the 5500 block of West Highway 4 near Still Road when firefighters arrived on scene shortly after 3 p.m. The attic of the home was fully involved.
According to an Escambia County Sheriff’s Office incident report obtained by NorthEcambia.com, deputies responded to the home on Monday, March 26. The landlord told deputies that she had evicted a tenant on Friday, March 23. She told deputies that the previous tenant left the house wide open, in complete disarray with property left behind, and that power cords had been cut to two air conditioning units, a stove and and refrigerator.
“There was no way to tell if the tenants damaged the cords or of someone walking into the open house and damaged them,” the ECSO report states.
The exact cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office.
For more photos, click here.
Video is at the bottom of the page.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Cantonment Man Found Passed Out At Traffic Light Convicted Of Meth Trafficking
April 5, 2018
A Cantonment man found passed out in his vehicle at an intersection in Santa Rosa County has been convicted of drug trafficking.
Robbie Donaldson, 60, was found guilty by a Santa Rosa County jury of trafficking in methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
On May 20, 2017, the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office responded to a citizen report of a reckless driver. Deputies arrived to find Donaldson passed out over the steering wheel with his vehicle running and in gear at a traffic light. While the Donaldson was being cleared by a EMS to ensure that he was not experiencing a medical emergency, an officer observed a syringe on the driver’s side floorboard of the his rental vehicle and an empty baggie.
After a positive alert from a K-9, deputies searched the vehicle and found 17.8 grams of methamphetamine in the center console of the vehicle along with numerous syringes, small baggies, a scale and other drug paraphernalia.
Circuit Judge David Rimmer scheduled sentencing for June 2. Donaldson faces a three year minimum mandatory sentence for the trafficking conviction and up to 30 years in state prison.
Escambia County 4-H Livestock Show Results Announced
April 5, 2018
Youth from Escambia County and surrounding areas had the opportunity to show off their animals and compete for prizes last recently at the Gulf Coast Agriculture and Natural Resources Youth Organization’s annual Spring Livestock Show in Molino.
The livestock show , featured animal exhibits of swine, cattle, poultry, sheep, goats and more. Is was the culmination of livestock projects by 4-H youth and FFA members lasting 100 days or longer, during which they raise their animals, monitor their health and nutrition, keep records and work to obtain a buyer.
For a photo gallery from the livestock show, click here.
The livestock show took place at the 4-H barns located at 5701 Highway 99 in Molino, in conjunction with the Blue Jacket Jamboree hosted by Northview FFA.
The results of the 2018 livestock show, separated by category, are:
Chiropractor Charged With Arson
April 5, 2018
A Pensacola chiropractor was arrested on a charge of arson following a fire at her office on March 22.
Vicki Lee Dempsy, 33, was charged with second degree arson and booked into the Escambia County Jail with bonds set at $25,000. According to the Florida Department of Health, Dempsey is a licensed chiropractor at 744 East Burgess Road, the site of the fire.
Escambia Fire Rescue firefighters found a fire coming from a window that was traveling into the attic. They reportedly found a stove with a knob turned to “on” and papers on the stove top.
File photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Area Teams Compete In Jay Invitational Track Meet (With Photo Gallery)
April 5, 2018
Here are results from the Jay Invitational track meet held Tuesday.
For a photo gallery, click here.
Top Schools, Women (with points)
- Baker High School 166.50
- Pensacola Christian Academy 156.50
- Paxton School 88
- Northview High School 79
- Jay High School 71
- Rocky Bayou Christian School 61
- Central High School 13
- Freeport High School 10
Top Schools, Men (with points)
- Pensacola Christian Academy 139
- Northview High School 129
- Jay High School 81
- Paxton School 77
- Central High School 64
- Baker High School 62
- Rocky Bayou Christian School 51
- Freeport High School 40
For complete results, click here (pdf).
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Twelve Constitution Revision Commission Proposals Could Land On The Ballot
April 5, 2018
When they go to the polls in November, voters could face a dozen ballot measures from the Florida Constitution Revision Commission, under a plan advanced Wednesday.
The plan, which received preliminary approval from the commission’s Style and Drafting Committee, groups 24 proposed changes to the state Constitution into 12 ballot measures for the Nov. 6 general election.
The proposed ballot measures, if approved by the full commission, would be added to five proposed constitutional amendments already on the 2018 ballot.
The preliminary groupings combine:
— A ban (Proposal 65) on workplace vaping or electronic cigarettes with a ban (P91) on offshore drilling for gas and oil in state waters.
— Three public-school issues, including an eight-year term limit (P43) for school board members and a requirement (P10) that students be educated in “civic literacy.”
— Three judicial or criminal justice issues, including a measure focused on victims’ rights (P96) and a proposal (P41) that would increase the mandatory retirement age for judges from 70 to 75.
— Two higher-education measures combined with a proposal (P49) to provide survivor benefits to families of police officers, other first responders and Florida-based military members who are killed in the line of duty.
— Four “government structure” measures, including a proposed requirement (P13) that constitutional officers such as sheriffs be elected officials in charter counties and a proposal (P103) for the annual legislative session to begin in January in even-numbered years.
— Three “clean up” measures, including eliminating a defunct reference in the Constitution to a high-speed rail system (P12) and the repeal (P3) of language aimed at preventing “aliens ineligible for citizenship” from owning land. The land-owning provision, which was aimed at Asian immigrants in the 1920s, was never enforced.
The 37-member Constitution Revision Commission meets every 20 years and has the unique power to place proposed constitutional amendments directly on the ballot. Each of the issues considered by the Style and Drafting Committee received an initial approval from the full commission but will ultimately need backing of 22 commission members to go on the ballot.
Along with the issues that have been grouped, the Style and Drafting Committee also decided to let six other constitutional changes remain as “stand-alone” proposals.
Commissioner Brecht Heuchan, chairman of the committee, said two measures were left as separate proposals because they may be amended. One proposal (P39) is an ethics measure, which includes a six-year lobbying ban for former public officials, while the other (P93) would allow the creation of “innovation” school districts.
Four other measures were left as stand-alone proposals because they were initially endorsed by the commission in votes that fell short of the 22 that will be necessary for any constitutional change to be placed on the ballot.
Those measures include a proposed ban (P67) on greyhound racing and a requirement (P29) that employers use a federal verification system to determine the immigration eligibility of workers.
Carey Theil, a lobbyist for Grey2K USA Worldwide, an animal-welfare advocacy group, said his organization supports the racing ban as a separate ballot proposal, while expressing confidence the final vote by the commission will exceed the 18 votes that proposal originally received.
“We’re comfortable being by ourselves,” Theil said. “We do not believe we are at 18. We believe we are in excess of 22 votes today.”
Jack Cory, a lobbyist for the Florida Greyhound Association, which opposes the racing ban, said his group also supports leaving the measure as a separate ballot item. Cory said the proposal “does not belong in the Constitution” and that it should be a decision made by the full commission.
The Style and Drafting Committee also approved the “ordering” of the dozen ballot measures, beginning with the measure dealing with victims’ rights and judicial retirement ages and ending with the proposed greyhound-racing ban.
Heuchan said he looked back over the voting history of ballot proposals since 1998 and could not find any correlation between the ballot position and the fate of the measures, although he acknowledged it was an informal survey. He said other factors seemed to impact the amendments more, including the visibility of the issues with voters and whether advocacy groups were campaigning for or against the proposals.
With the prospect of the commission advancing a dozen additional ballot measures, Heuchan said “decision fatigue” by voters is a factor that the commission will have to consider before its final decisions.
“This whole notion of fatigue is real. It’s a real thing,” Heuchan said.
The five proposed constitutional changes already on the November ballot include a measure to expand the homestead-exemption property tax break, a measure to restore voting rights to former felons and a measure to give voters the final authority in deciding whether to allow casino-style gambling.
The next major task facing the Style and Drafting Committee will be approving the ballot-title and summary language for each of the dozen measures. The titles are limited to 15 words, and summaries cannot exceed 75 words. Courts have held both must not mislead voters.
Ballot measures endorsed by the committee are scheduled to move to the full commission beginning on April 16. The full commission can amend the measures with support from at least 22 of the 37 members.
The commission faces a May 10 deadline for finishing its work.
by Lloyd Dunkelberger, The News Service of Florida