Happy National Pi Day! Math Club Celebrating With Moon Pie Sale
March 14, 2017
The math-inspired Pi Day was observed Tuesday, 3/14.
In case it’s been a few years since your last geometry lesson…remember Pi ( π ) is the number than begins with 3.14 and represents the mathematical constant of the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.
At Northview High School, members of the Math Club celebrated Pi Day by selling Double-Decker Moon Pies, both banana and chocolate flavors, as a fun fundraiser.
Pictured: Members of the Northview Math Club selling Moon Pies for Pi Day Tuesday morning were: (front, L-R) Lexi Broadhead and Charleigh Parham; (back) Cassidy Boutwell, Ashlan Harigel, Cloe Smith, Teriana Redmond, Abi Mascaro, Savannah Spence and Addison Albritton. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
New Log Jam Once Again Blocking The Escambia River
March 14, 2017
In 2015, a log jam blocking the Escambia River south of Century was removed, but now a new log jam appears to have formed, once again blocking the river.
The new log jam is about a half mile downriver from the previous log jam, or about a half mile feet upriver from the entrance to Cotton Lake.
Under a contract with Escambia County, Southern Forest Recyclers removed the old log jam in 2015 at a cost of $68,498. The company reportedly had a multi-million dollar contact to sell the reclaimed wood.
Pictured above and below: Photos for NorthEscambia.com show a new jog jam blocking the Escambia River north of Cotton Lake. Pictured bottom: A map of the log jam location. NorthEscambia.com images, click to enlarge.
Viewpoint: What’s A Fair Share Of $1.5 Billion?
March 14, 2017
submitted by Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded, caught fire, and eventually sank, resulting in the largest offshore marine oil spill in U.S. history. Six years later BP reached a settlement agreement that resolved claims worth more than $20 billion, with Florida receiving a total of $2 billion for economic damages alone.
As we approach the seventh anniversary of the spill Pensacola is finally seeing some projects that were funded from early damage claims start to take shape, but the lion’s share of the settlement has yet to be distributed. The City has submitted applications for additional funding from the different BP settlement funds, but in every case, instead of being able to control a certain percentage of the money from City Hall, we have to join the parade of supplicants in Tallahassee or at the county office building.
We have an opportunity to do things differently with the $2 billion economic damages settlement commonly known as Triumph Gulf Coast. What’s at stake is potentially more money in one year than the entire amount Escambia County will receive over fifteen years from RESTORE Act Direct Component funds (aka Pot 1).
There is $300 million in Triumph money in the bank today that belongs to what are known as the eight disproportionately affected panhandle counties (Escambia to Wakulla coastal counties). Politicians in Tallahassee are debating how that money should be distributed and how projects should be approved by the state. So far they have made no effort to decide how much money each county should get, instead they have focused on who should control it, and as you can imagine, the focus of the discussion has been on everything but local control.
For all the talk about the importance of local decision-making by the people and firms adversely impacted the disaster, it seems some politicians are bent on building a monolithic state structure to oversee spending. One has to ask, whose interests are they serving? And, how would they respond to action by the federal government to limit state level decision-making? Not favorably, to say the least.
The current process for distributing BP settlement funds is slow, inflexible and fraught with uncertainty. In fact, the only thing certain is that meetings will be held, consultants will be paid and we will wait a few more years to see who gets the money and what it can be used for.
There’s a better way to handle this, and it starts with a distribution formula that would guarantee some share of the revenue to the counties and the cities. In 2013 the eight panhandle counties jointly agreed to a formula for allocating RESTORE Pot 1 funds. Based on that formula, Escambia County is guaranteed 25.334% of Florida’s RESTORE Pot 1 allocation, or about $69 million. I am asking our representatives in Tallahassee to apply the same distribution formula to Triumph. Doing so would guarantee Escambia County more than $75 million of the money that is already in the bank and more than $375 million of the $1.5 billion total.
More importantly, I am asking that a guaranteed portion of the counties’ revenue be distributed to the cities. The simplest way to do that would be to give the cities a percentage of the revenue based on their percentage of the counties’ population. In Pensacola’s case that would mean about 17% of Escambia County’s share, or $12.75 million and $63.75 million respectively.
It goes without saying that the formula could be adjusted, and some amount could be set aside for regional projects. What is important is that cities get a seat at the table. Without guaranteed local control over some percentage of revenue, cities will be left waiting for scraps to fall from the table and real progress will come at a snail’s pace.
Vernon Stewart, spokesman for Mayor Ashton Hayward, told NorthEscambia.com Monday that Hayward also supports the Town of Century receiving a share of the funding based upon their population.
Escambia Armed Robbery Suspect Sentenced To Life In Prison
March 14, 2017
An Escambia County man convicted of armed robbery is headed to prison for life.
Demeko Sims was sentenced as a prison releasee reoffender to life in state prison without the possibility of parole by Circuit Judge Joel Boles. On January 25, 2017, an Escambia County Jury found Sims guilty of robbery with a firearm and petit theft.
Sims has an extensive criminal record including possession of a firearm by a minor, corruption by threat against public servant, battery, burglary, and numerous
charges of grand theft auto and violations of probatio
On October 24, 2015, the Kwik Mart on Fairfield Drive in Pensacola was robbed by two masked gunmen who stole money from the cash register. Sims and his co-defendant, Joseph Vaughn, were developed as suspects. On November 12, 2015, Sims and Vaughn were detained while driving in a truck together. A search of the truck returned the firearms and clothing worn in the Robbery. A search warrant of the apartment where Sims was staying, returned additional clothing Sims wore during the Robbery. Sims was interviewed at the Escambia County Sheriff’;s Office and confessed to the robbery.
On November 10, 2016, Joseph Vaughn pled and was sentenced to 10 years in state prison.
Local Unemployment Rates Show Largest Increase In Months
March 14, 2017
The latest job numbers released Monday show the employment rate increased in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
Escambia County’s seasonably adjusted unemployment rate increased from 4.8 percent in December to 5.5 percent in January. There were 7,786 people reported unemployed during the period. One year ago, unemployment in Escambia County was 5.3 percent.
“Hardworking businesses in the Pensacola area have created 4,100 new jobs over the year – creating thousands of opportunities for North Florida families. We will keep fighting to diversify our economy and grow jobs so Florida remains the best place to work, live and build a business,” Gov. Rick Scott said.
The industries with the largest job gains in the Pensacola area over the year were leisure and hospitality with 1,800 new jobs and trade, transportation and utilities with 1,000 new jobs. The Pensacola area had 4,161 job openings in January, including 1,256 openings for high-skill, high-wage STEM occupations.
Santa Rosa County unemployment rate jumped from 4.4 to 5.1 percent from December January. Santa Rosa County had a total of 3,863 persons still unemployed. The year-ago unemployment rate in Santa Rosa County was 4.8 percent.
Florida’s unemployment rate was 5 percent in January, up 0.1 percentage point from the end of 2016. Scott went to Herc Rentals, an equipment rental firm headquartered in Bonita Springs, to announce the numbers. In a news release, Scott focused on private-sector job growth and his support for the economic-development agency Enterprise Florida.
The jobless numbers released by the state do not include persons that have given up on finding a job and are no longer reported as unemployed.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.
Scott Quickly Signs New Death Penalty Sentencing Bill
March 14, 2017
After more than a year of uncertainty, Florida is again poised to begin executions and prosecute death penalty cases after Gov. Rick Scott signed a law Monday aimed at fixing flaws in the state’s capital sentencing procedure.
“Governor Scott’s foremost concern is always for the victims and their loved ones. He hopes this legislation will allow families of these horrific crimes to get the closure they deserve,” Scott spokeswoman Jackie Schutz said in a statement early Monday evening.
The new law — the second death penalty “fix” in a year — came in response to a series of court rulings, set off by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in January 2016 in a case known as Hurst v. Florida.
The 8-1 opinion, premised on a 2002 ruling in a case known as Ring v. Arizona, found that Florida’s system of allowing judges, instead of juries, to find the facts necessary to impose the death penalty was an unconstitutional violation of the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury.
The Legislature last year hurriedly passed a law to address the federal court ruling, but the Florida Supreme Court struck down the new statute. Florida justices said the law was unconstitutional because it only required 10 of 12 jurors to recommend death, instead of unanimous jury decisions.
The state and federal court rulings — and others related to it — created confusion regarding Florida’s death penalty, with circuit judges split on whether they could move forward with capital cases until the Legislature addressed the issue of unanimity.
Although the Florida court recently decided capital cases could proceed even in the absence of a statutory fix, legislators nevertheless rushed to address the issue, making it the first bill passed by both chambers and sent to the governor by the end of the first week of the 2017 legislative session.
The Florida Senate unanimously approved the proposal (SB 280) Thursday, and the House approved the measure by a 112-3 vote the following day.
Under the law, juries will have to unanimously recommend death for the sentence to be imposed on defendants convicted of capital crimes.
With nearly 400 inmates on Death Row, Florida has more prisoners facing execution than almost any other state.
As of last year, Florida was one of only three states — along with Alabama and Delaware, which has since blocked the death penalty — that did not require unanimous jury recommendations for death sentences to be imposed.
At the time, Florida required only a simple majority of jurors to recommend death. But the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Hurst, which did not address the unanimity issue, forced Florida lawmakers to reconsider the state’s entire capital sentencing system.
The “fix” authorized by lawmakers last year, and signed by Scott, required, among other things, at least 10 jurors to recommend death. But a majority of the Florida Supreme Court decided that the state’s constitutional right to trial by jury required unanimous jury recommendations, as in every other jury verdict, for death to be imposed.
Lawmakers backing this year’s effort maintained that, even if they disagreed with the court-ordered unanimity requirement, they were willing to back the change to put the state’s death penalty system back on track.
“It was important to me that, in the very first week of session, that we address this issue so we have a constitutional statute — as juries are being selected and as families of victims are in court in very stressful circumstances and in very difficult circumstances, we want a law that is orderly and structured and constitutional,” Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, said Thursday, after his chamber’s vote.
But public defenders and criminal defense lawyers contend that the state law remains flawed.
Requiring unanimous jury recommendations is “only one step in a long journey,” 10th Judicial Circuit Assistant Public Defender Pete Mills told The News Service of Florida on Friday.
“Florida’s death penalty still has problems of constitutional magnitude, including but not limited to the failure to limit the scope of its application, racial disparities, geographic disparities, and execution of the mentally ill,” Mills, chairman of the Florida Public Defenders Association Death Penalty Steering Committee, said after the House overwhelmingly approved the measure.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
No Serious Injuries In Highway 95A Wreck
March 14, 2017
There were no serious injuries in a two vehicle crash on Highway 95 just south of East Kingsfield Road early Monday evening. The white vehicle (above) was moved into the Whataburger parking lot following the wreck. NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
Aggie Classic Gets Underway (Scores, Schedule)
March 14, 2017
Here are Monday’s scores and Tuesday’s schedule in the 24th annual Aggie Classic. Many of Monday’s games were rained out and rescheduled for later in the week, including Tate’s game against Durant, OK, which was moved to 10 a.m. Wednesday.
Monday scores:
Presbyterian Christian, MS vs. Washington, OK 12 – 7
Milton, FL vs. Southmoore, OK 5 – 3
Ft. Gibson, OK vs. Niceville, FL 1 – 7
Houston, TN vs. Jenks, OK 7 – 5
Edmond North, OK vs. Bartlett, TN 13 – 0
Mustang, OK vs. Knoxville Catholic, TN 13 – 3
Mustang, OK vs Washington, FL 10 – 2
Tuesday Schedule:
At Escambia High: Mustang, Oklahoma vs. Houston, Tennessee at 4 p.m.; Gibson, Oklahoma vs. Knoxville Catholic, Tennessee at 7 p.m.
At Gulf Breeze High: Pryor, Oklahoma vs. Leon at 1 p.m.; Leon vs. Durant, Oklahoma at 4 p.m.; Piedmont, Oklahoma vs. Gulf Breeze at 7 p.m.
At Milton High: Milton vs. Edmond North, Oklahoma at 4 p.m.; Bartlett, Tennessee vs. Pryor, Oklahoma 7 p.m.
At Pace High: Choctaw, Oklahoma vs. Magnolia Heights, Mississippi at 1 p.m.; Magnolia Heights vs. Southmoore, Oklahoma at 4 p.m.; Jenks, Oklahoma vs. Pace at 7 p.m.
At Tate High: Second Baptist, Texas vs. Union, Oklahoma at 1 p.m.; Second Baptist vs. Coweta, Oklahoma at 4 p.m.; Tate vs. Coweta, Oklahoma at 7 p.m.
At Washington High: Niceville vs. Washington, Oklahoma at 4 p.m.; Choctaw, Oklahoma vs. Pensacola Washington at 7 p.m.
At West Florida: West Florida vs. Piedmont, Oklahoma at 1 p.m.; Presbyterian Christian, Mississippi vs. Union, Oklahoma at 4:30 p .m.; Berryhill, Oklahoma vs. West Florida at 7 p.m.
Northview, Pine Forest Baseball Game Reschedule For Thursday
March 14, 2017
Northview High School’s home game against Pine Forest High School that was rained out on February 27 has been rescheduled for Thursday, March 16.
Missing Teen Found
March 13, 2017
UPDATE…This missing teen has been located.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help in locating a missing teen that may be in need of medical treatment.
Linda Faye Bruster, 14, was reported missing about 12:30 a.m. Monday from her home located in the 1500 block of Kyle Drive. She is 5′7″, 160 pounds, and was wearing a shoulder length purple wig, with a brown purse.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP or the ECSO at (850) 436-9620.