Hunter Safety Courses Offered In Molino, Cantonment
April 9, 2017
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is offering free hunter safety courses in Escambia County. (List follows.)
Students who have taken the online course and wish to complete the classroom portion must bring the online-completion report with them. Traditional course students must complete the entire course in person.
All firearms, ammunition and materials are provided free of charge. Students should bring a pen or pencil and paper. An adult must accompany children younger than 16 at all times.
Anyone born on or after June 1, 1975, must pass an approved hunter safety course and have a hunting license to hunt alone (unsupervised). The FWC course satisfies hunter-safety training requirements for all other states and Canadian provinces.
The locations and times are:
Online-completion Courses
April 19 (6 to 10 p.m. CDT) and May 6 (7 to 10 a.m. CDT)
Molino Community Center
6450 Highway 95A in Molino
April 24 (6 to 10 p.m. CDT) and May 6 (7 to 10 a.m. CDT)
Langley Bell 4-H Club Center
3730 Stefani Road in Cantonment
Traditional Course (must complete all days)
April 24, 26 & May 1, 3 (6 to 10 p.m. CDT) and May 6 (7 to 10 a.m. CDT)
Langley Bell 4-H Club Center
3730 Stefani Road in Cantonment
Those interested in attending a course can register online and obtain information about future hunter safety classes at MyFWC.com/HunterSafety or by calling the FWC’s regional office in Panama City at 850-265-3676.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: All About The Benjamins
April 9, 2017
In real estate, it’s “location, location, location.” In the legislative session, it’s “budget, budget, budget.”
And the all-important budget process — the one thing lawmakers are constitutionally required to complete every year — started moving from the outline phase to the endgame this week. The House and Senate will officially approve their spending plans next week, but little is likely to change between now and then.
Including, apparently, the attitudes of those responsible for hammering out a compromise allowing everyone to go home. Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, and House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, were among the leaders already laying out what they considered to be non-starters in the negotiations. Turns out, the budget is full of non-starters.
“It’s $4 billion, so there’s plenty of starting points,” said House Appropriations Chairman Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, of the differences between the budgets. “We just have to pick the right one.”
Finding it and following through will be the story that shapes the rest of the regular session.
WHAT’S $4 BILLION AMONG FRIENDS?
The $4 billion amount is a bit inflated, as it includes things like federal payments to hospitals that might not materialize. The Senate has roughly $600 million in the spending plan for that, and the House doesn’t; whether the money appears will go a long way to resolving that.
But $4 billion is closer to reality than a bottom-line look at the chambers’ budget proposals. The House plan (HB 5001) is $81.2 billion, while the Senate proposal (SB 2500) is officially $83.2 billion. However, the Senate doesn’t include nearly $2 billion in university tuition that does show up in the House proposal.
Accounting sleights of hand were not the main topics of discussion as the House and Senate budget-writing committees met this week to discuss their competing proposals. Each side received an overwhelming vote in favor of its plan. The Senate Appropriations Committee signed off unanimously, while the generally more partisan House Appropriations Committee approved its blueprint by a 24-2 margin.
Not that there wasn’t some controversy. Senators were trying to figure out what to do about a proposed $1.3 million cut — currently in both budgets — to the office of State Attorney Aramis Ayala, elected last year as the top prosecutor in Orange and Osceola counties.
Ayala recently announced she would not pursue the death penalty in capital punishment cases, drawing criticism from state Republican leaders and prompting Scott to shift 22 cases away from her office.
“State Attorney Ayala’s complete refusal to consider capital punishment for the entirety of her term sends an unacceptable message that she is not interested in considering every available option in the fight for justice,” Scott said Monday, as he removed Ayala from 21 of the cases.
Lawmakers say the budget cut would account for the fact that Ayala’s office wouldn’t be handling those cases.
But Kamilah Perry, Ayala’s chief of staff, told the Senate committee that her office is covering many of the costs of the transferred cases. And she said the cut would actually affect efforts to combat human trafficking.
“Less than 1 percent of all of our cases are death penalty, so the caseload is not going to be (reduced) that much,” Perry said.
An amendment that would have restored the money — proposed by Criminal Justice Chairman Randolph Bracy, D-Orlando — was withdrawn after Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, promised to look for a compromise.
“I think one thing that’s clear is, none of us really know exactly how these costs are going to break down, and how we can correctly apportion them. … I don’t want to be responsible for lessening our enforcement in human trafficking,” Latvala said.
But Latvala conceded after the meeting that he didn’t know exactly what that compromise might include.
Meanwhile, Democrats in the House were trying to decide whether or not to vote strategically. All of them had misgivings about the plan, but Rep. Jared Moskowitz, the ranking Democrat on the committee, suggested his vote was about keeping leverage in a potential standoff between Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature.
“I would also remind my Democratic colleagues and my Republican colleagues that, should what we’ve been reading about for the last couple of months happen, where the governor decides to send our budget back with a veto, the override of the veto runs through the Democratic caucus in the House,” said Moskowitz, D-Coral Springs.
Spring often brings to Tallahassee as much talk of Scott vetoing the budget as it does pollen in the air, and so far there’s been no such standoff.
WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE
One potential stumbling block got a little smaller — even if it didn’t go completely away — when the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a scaled-back version of Negron’s plan to create a water storage project south of Lake Okeechobee.
The $1.5 billion measure (SB 10), which relies on federal money to cover half the costs, is designed to reduce polluted water discharges from Lake Okeechobee that have been tied to toxic algae in the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries east and west of the lake.
Negron, who has made the issue one of his top priorities, agreed to reconfigure the proposal after the House and some area residents balked at a $2.4 billion version that targeted farmland south of the lake for a reservoir.
Acquiring farmland remains on the table, but the plan now first would use a smaller amount of state-owned land to construct a deeper storage area.
“We’re not done yet, but this is his vision,” bill sponsor Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said of Negron. “He’s put it all on the line, and the political courage he has shown is something we can all emulate.”
The proposal has faced strong criticism from Glades-area residents, politicians and landowners since being proposed last year. Opponents have included powerful players in the sugar industry.
That doesn’t mean that the House is now copacetic to the plan, even if Corcoran sounded positive about the changes so far.
“The more the Senate works on it, the happier we are,” he told reporters Thursday.
A key philosophical difference remains: whether to increase state debt through bonding voter-approved money. The House has resisted that idea throughout the talks over Negron’s bill.
“We’re not bonding. Bonding is an issue,” Corcoran said. “I didn’t say we’re going to go along with it. I said it’s getting better and better.”
The same day, Negron insisted that the project needs to include bonding to bulk up funding for the work.
“I think we need to have bonding authority in Senate Bill 10 to accomplish the goals in a short period of time,” Negron said. “And I think that issue of bonding for environmental purposes, I think that’s a settled question by the voters.”
The bill proposes $64 million for the water-storage project next fiscal year, delaying for a year plans to increase the state’s share through bonding.
Money for Negron’s water project would come from the state’s Land Acquisition Trust Fund, funded through a portion of an existing real-estate tax. Voters in 2014 approved setting aside money from the fund for land and water conservation.
“We’re all entitled to our points of view on bonding, but when the voters speak and send us a directive to do bonding for environmental land purchases, I think we’re obligated to honor that constitutional imperative,” Negron said.
IN OTHER NEWS
Not everything was about the budget — or at least not directly. The House and the Senate remain divided over what to do with a measure to shift to the state the burden of proof in some self-defense hearings.
The proposals would force prosecutors to carry the day in pre-trial hearings involving the state’s controversial “stand your ground” self-defense law. The House wants prosecutors to overcome the self-defense immunity through “clear and convincing evidence.”
The Senate version of the proposal (SB 128) sets a higher standard known as “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“I’ve said from the beginning, if the government wants to convict you of a serious crime and send you to prison, they should have the burden of proof at every stage of the proceeding beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt,” Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, told reporters on Thursday. “It’s the highest legal standard in the world. It’s served us well. And in order for the government to prevail in the underlying criminal case they’re going to have to prove beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt. ”
House sponsor Bobby Payne, R-Palatka, told reporters the clear-and-convincing-evidence threshold was a “reasonable and fair place to land” after hearing from numerous groups regarding how the 2005 law should be interpreted.
“We need to consider the opportunity for encouraging victims to come forward in those particular situations,” Payne replied when asked why he supported the “clear and convincing” language.
Lawmakers were also working on two more symbolic but still weighty measures. One would apologize to victims of decades-old beatings and sexual abuse at the now-shuttered Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, a state reform school that operated from 1900 to 2011.
Another would apologize to and urge the consideration of a pardon for four black men accused of raping a white woman in June 1949. Two of the men were killed by law enforcement, while two more were convicted. Many of those who have studied the case seriously doubt or outright dismiss the men’s guilt.
“This resolution is us simply saying we’re sorry, understanding that we will never know nor be able to make up for the pain we have caused,” said Rep. Bobby DuBose, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat and sponsor of the House version of the proposal (HCR 631).
The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the Dozier apology; the House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved both measures.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Key budget-writing committees approved both the House and Senate budget plans, setting up the next stage of the critical negotiations aimed at closing out the 2017 legislative session.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “”It’s been said that this workers’ compensation issue and the bill that we have before us today in general is an egg on a spoon on a tightrope over a whole bunch of molten lava.” — House Insurance & Banking Chairman Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, who is spearheading the proposal.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Scott Visits Local Leaders At Navy Federal
April 8, 2017
Gov. Rick Scott was at Navy Federal in Beulah Friday for financial round table with local government officials and business leaders. Pictured top: Debbie Calder, executive vice president of Navy Federal, addresses the group including Gov. Rick Scott (seated light blue shirt), Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward (seated, right) and Century Mayor Henry Hawkins (standing, right). Pictured below: Enterprise Florida’s Mike Grissom talks about the importance of partnerships in diversifying and stregthening Florida’s economy. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click toe enlarge.
Man Convicted Of Armed Robbery Of Cantonment Couple
April 8, 2017
An Escambia County man has been convicted of robbing an elderly couple at gunpoint in Cantonment during an armed home invasion.
Aray Donell Levine, 22, was convicted by an Escambia County jury of robbery with a firearm, theft from a person 65 years of age of order ($10,000 or more but less than $50,000), aggravated battery while actually possessing a firearm, two counts of aggravated assault (actual possession of a firearm) and grand theft auto.
Deputies arrived at the victims’ home on Pelican Pointe Drive after a reported invasion on May 7, 2016. They found one victim lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen and a second on the floor in a back bedroom. Levine and two other perpetrators forced their way into the home after ringing the doorbell. They were armed with firearms and demanded money and guns from the victims.
One victim was pistol whipped while two more were threatened at gunpoint.
Prior to fleeing the scene the perpetrators stole nearly $20,000 in cash as well as the elderly victims’ 2008 Cadillac.
Levine is scheduled to be sentenced on May 2 before Circuit Judge Gary Bergosh. He faces up to life in state prison with a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years in state prison.
Bond Denied For Former Coach Accused Of Sex Crimes
April 8, 2017
A former Tate High School football coach and church youth leader facing 42 sexual assault charge has been denied bond during a hearing Friday. He is due back in court next week for an arraignment hearing.
Charlie Hamrick, 54, is charged with abusing four victims. He faces a total of 42 counts of sexual abuse, including 36 counts of capital sexual battery. Upon conviction, each capital count carries a minimum mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.
Eight additional people have come forward as possible victims in the case. The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is investigating those claims. So far, no additional charges have been filed.
Those new allegations include claims that Hamrick gave unlicensed physical exams to athletes at Tate High School during is 2012-2015 tenure there as a supplemental football coach. Those physicals, it is alleged, may not have been limited to just football players. The physicals included genitalia exams.
Hamrick was paid a supplement as a football coach at Tate High School from August 1, 2012, to September 14, 2015. He was not a teacher and did not have students under his watch in a classroom. He passed all of the background checks at the time.
For a previous story, click here.
Dry Weather Creates Increased Fire Potential
April 8, 2017
Officials with the Florida Forest Service’s Blackwater Forestry Center are issuing words of caution as high winds and low humidity have all but negated the effects of this week’s rainfall.
Thursday brought winds upwards of 25 mph in much of the three-county area and the forecast calls for extremely low humidity through Sunday. When combined, these factors dry out smaller vegetation such as grass, shrubs and small limbs and debris that while great for backyard burning of yard trash, can increase the chances of a wildfire.
“We’re certainly not in an extreme fire situation, we’re simply urging caution,” said David Smith, operations administrator for Blackwater. “Spring is the peak of Florida’s fire season and we want people to be aware of the potential.”
There are no burn bans in effect in our area but residents must still follow certain requirements: Burning piles of yard debris less than 8 feet in diameter is allowed if it is 25 feet from and wooded area or combustible structure, 25 feet from your house, 50 feet from a paved public road and 150 feet from other occupied dwellings.
Piles greater than 8 feet require a burn authorization from the Florida Forest Service and must meet more stringent standards. For more information about authorizations, call Blackwater Forestry Center headquarters at (850) 957-5701.
Tate Baseball Beats Washington; Softballs Suffers Loss In Kissimmee
April 8, 2017
BASEBALL
Tate 4, Washington 3
The Tate Aggies beat Washington 4-3 Friday night when Washington walked Logan Blackmon to drive in the winning run.
Logal McGuffey earned the win for the Aggies. He pitched one inning, giving up no runs, not hits, nowalks and striking out one. Trey LaFleur opend the game for the Aggies, pitching five innings, giving no runs, one hit and striking out nine.
Tanner Helton, Ryan Greene, Jesse Sherrill, and Ethan Bloodworth had one hit each for the Aggies.
Tate 10, Washington 3 (JV)
SOFTBALL
Lake Howell 8, Tate 3 (Kissimmee Tourney)
Weekend Gardening: Remember Your Houseplants When Spring Cleaning
April 8, 2017
by UF/IFAS Santa Rosa Extension
Warmer weather signals that spring is here. After months of being cooped up indoors, it’s finally time for gardeners to go dig in the dirt. It’s also time for cooped up house plants to be revitalized.
Locate a shady area for this work. Even if houseplants are to be left out for a short period, after being shut up all winter, leaf damage can occur with only brief exposure to direct sunlight.
First, give the houseplants a bath. Use a soapy solution made of two teaspoons of mild liquid soap mixed with one gallon of water. Wash the leaves and stems, being certain to clean both upper and lower leaf surfaces. Allow the solution to remain on the plants for a few minutes, but rinse it off thoroughly before it is allowed to dry. This not only cleans plants, making them more attractive, but the soap helps to remove aphids, mealybugs and other insects.
Next, see if your plant needs re-potting. Although some plants require being pot-bound in order to flower eventually all plants outgrow their containers and become root- or pot-bound.
Why repot in the spring? Plant roots grow most actively in the spring, which means the plant will be able to quickly overcome the shock associated with re-potting.
When repotting, start with a clean, appropriately sized pot. If you want the plant to grow larger, then you will need to repot it in a larger pot. If you want it to maintain its present size, you’ll have to prune its roots.
In general, the pot size should be increased by only about two inches per re-potting. Therefore, a plant whose root ball is in a six inch pot is normally transplanted to a pot with an eight inch diameter. For some reason, drastic changes in pot size when re-potting seems to be detrimental to some plants.
Watering the plant several hours prior will help you remove the plant more easily. Invert the pot and gently remove the plant by grasping the main stem. Give it a slight tug, and it should slip out of the pot. If it doesn’t, use a butter knife or other flat-bladed tool to loosen the sides of the pot and try again.
Once the plant is free of the pot, take the time to inspect the root system. Look for large, old circular roots which can strangle the plant and prevent much-needed nourishment. Sever or remove these old roots to allow new feeder roots to establish.
To re-pot, first add enough new soil mixture to the bottom of the pot to return the plant to its original depth. After the plant is replaced, fill in the sides with new potting soil.
Use a quality potting mix when re-potting. Gardeners generally rely on commercially available potting soil mixes for growing most types of houseplants. A lot of brands are out there and not all of them are especially good. In particular, avoid heavy, black potting soils. If the bag feels dense and heavy for its size, put it back.
The best potting mixes include vermiculite, bark and perlite in proportions that create a fairly light, loose mix that water penetrates readily but drains rapidly.
If you don’t want to change pots, there is a way of dealing with a pot-bound plant and keeping it in the same size pot. First, remove the plant from the pot and trim off one-quarter to one-third of the lower part of the root ball. Put a layer of fresh potting mix in the bottom of the original container equal to the amount of the root ball removed. Place the plant back in the pot, adding a little more soil around the sides. Water well, and place the plant in a shady location to recover.
House plants would also benefit from fertilization at this time of year. There are many commercial materials available for fertilizing indoor plants. Most are effective and safe if used as directed.
Smokies Beat Wahoos
April 8, 2017
In his second game of the season, Pensacola right hander Luis Castillo did his impression of Amir Garrett who toed the mound for the Blue Wahoos last year. The Tennessee Smokies defeated Pensacola, 2-1, Friday to tie the series at one game apiece in front of the second sellout crowd of 5,038 this season.
Despite the loss, Blue Wahoos coaches liked what they saw from Castillo, the Red’s No. 7 prospect according to MLB Pipeline. Castillo was the No. 2 prospect in the Miami Marlins organization and its Minor League Pitcher of the Year before being picked up in a trade Jan. 19.
Castillo, who effortlessly throws a fastball in the upper 90-mph range, allowed just one run, three hits, walked one and struck out five in six innings in his first start for Pensacola. It was just his fourth start in Double-A.
Blue Wahoos pitching coach Danny Darwin compared Castillo’s explosiveness to Garrett’s.
“The only thing holding him back right now is his slider,” Darwin said. “There are not many arms that can throw 97, 98 mph like he does with ease.”
Speaking of Garrett, all he did was become the first Reds’ pitcher since 1970 – 47 years ago – to throw six or more scoreless innings in his debut. In franchise history, it has only been done three times. His line against the St. Louis Cardinals: 6 IP, 2H, 0R, 2BB, and 4Ks and picked up the victory.
Castillo had his slider working against Tennessee. After allowing a leadoff single to Tennessee left fielder Charcer Burks, the 24-year-old Dominican, struck out the next batter and then got out of the first inning on a double play by second baseman Josh VanMeter and shortstop Blake Trahan that wowed Blue Wahoos fans. Castillo then set down the next 11 batters in a row.
He ended his night on the hill striking out Smokies second baseman Davis Bote on a slider. He pumped his fist and looked up to the sky.
“That was great to see him use his slider,” said Pensacola manager Pat Kelly. “He did a really good job. (Catcher Adrian) Nieto made him throw it.”
The only run off of Castillo came on a two-out solo shot over the left center wall in the fifth inning to Tennessee center fielder Trey Martin, who was 2-4 Friday.
Pensacola got its third solo home run of the season when center fielder Brian O’Grady yanked the ball deep over the right field fence to tie the score, 1-1, in the bottom of the fifth.
Tennessee regained the lead, 2-1, in the eighth inning when Smokies second baseman Davis Bote hit a ground rule double that bounced just inside the right field line over the fence. It dove in pinch hitter Cael Brockmeyer, who had reached first when he was hit by a pitch thrown by Pensacola reliever Alex Powers.
Right-handed reliever Austin Brice, who is doing rehabilitation in Pensacola to recover from an inflamed ulnar nerve of his throwing elbow, relieved Castillo. In his one inning of work, Brice struck out two, hit Tennessee hitter Jeffrey Baez in the back with a fastball, and got Martin out on a long fly ball to the warning track in left field.
“The pitch he hit the guy with was his first two-seamer in three weeks,” Darwin said. “He threw on the side the day before and was a little anxious.”
College Class Donates Cases Of Water To Flomaton Police, Fire
April 8, 2017
Ethics class members at Coastal Alabama College collected just over 60 cases of water for the Flomaton Police and Fire departments. Rebekah Turner, Perri Scurlock, Leah Paige Findley, and Emily Loring took part in the community service project. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
