Man Dies In Traffic Crash Near 10 Mile Road
April 28, 2016
A Pensacola man was killed in a traffic crash Wednesday night.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, 24-year old Aaron James Streeter of Pensacola died when he lost control of his 1998 Ford Ranger on Holsberry Road south of Ten Mile Road. The FHP said he was traveling north on Holsberry when his truck left the right shoulder of the road and struck a mailbox before hitting three parked vehicles.
Streets was not wearing his seat belt, according to the FHP.
Opponents Take Aim At ‘Docs V. Glocks’ Law
April 28, 2016
Doctors and physician groups filed an 86-page brief this week asking a federal appeals court to reject a controversial Florida law that would restrict doctors from asking questions and recording information about patients’ gun ownership.
The brief came as the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals prepares to hear arguments June 21 about what has become known as the “docs v. glocks” law. The state filed a brief last month urging the court to uphold the law.
The plaintiffs’ brief filed Monday argued, in part, that the 2011 law violates the First Amendment rights of physicians to discuss safety-related issues with patients.
“In (the law), the Florida Legislature does what no legislative body has done before or since; it prevents doctors from providing patients with truthful advice to keep their families healthy and safe — speech that is recommended as standard protocol by national medical associations,” the plaintiffs’ brief said. “If (the law) is allowed to stand, it sets precedent for states, at the bidding of other industries or special interests, to prevent doctors from speaking to patients about risks posed by other dangerous products or activities. The First Amendment does not allow the state to single out and censor one topic (firearms), or one group (doctors, or patients), or to so interfere with the doctor-patient relationship.”
The full appeals court agreed in February to take up the case, after a three-judge panel issued three rulings upholding the constitutionality of the law.
The law, backed by groups such as the National Rifle Association, includes a series of restrictions on doctors and other health providers. As an example, it seeks to prevent physicians from entering information about gun ownership into medical records if the physicians know the information is not “relevant” to patients’ medical care or safety or to the safety of other people.
The NRA filed a friend-of-the-court brief last week that said it championed the law after members were asked intrusive questions about gun ownership during visits to doctors’ offices. The NRA brief described the law as “a modest regulation of the medical profession that does not infringe upon First Amendment rights.”
by The News Service of Florida
Repairs Completed To Jay Power Substation After Major Fire
April 28, 2016
The power supply is back to normal for Jay area residents.
Fire damage to a power substation that serves the Jay area was extensive on April 3. It was estimated that it would take six weeks to bring the destroyed substation back online.
PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, owners of the substation and power suppler for Escambia River Electric Cooperative, brought in a mobile substation to provide power to Jay.
Wednesday, just over three weeks after the fire, repairs to the substation were completed and EREC members’ power was switched from the mobile substation back to the repaired Jay substation. The switch was made “hot”, with no disruption of electric service.
Pictured: PowerSouth crews switch EREC members Wednesday afternoon from a mobile substation back to the Jay substation after repairing extensive fire damage. Pictured below: Fire damage to the substation back on April 3. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Tate Wins Regional Quarterfinal
April 28, 2016
The Tate High Aggies won the regional quarterfinal Wednesday night 4-2 over Navarre. The Aggies are headed to the regional semifinals as they host Milton on Tuesday.
Trace Penton gave up just two hits, allowed no earned runs, walked one and struck out two during his three innings of work. Jake Davis pitched the win. He allowed two runs over four innings. He struck out three, walked two and surrendered three hits.
Tate hitters – Mason Land 2-3 R; Logan McGuffey 1-2 HR, RBI, R; Logan Blackmon 1-3 RBI.
Fire Destroys Escambia Home
April 27, 2016
The cause of a Wednesday morning fire that destroyed an Escambia County home is under investigation by the Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office.
The blaze in the 200 block of Hansen Boulevard, off Highway 29 near Brentwood Elementary, was reported about 8:40 a.m. The home was mostly involved in flames when the first firefighters arrived on scene.
They were able to quickly extinguish the fire. There were no reported injuries.
It was not immediately known if anyone lived in the structure.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Price, click to enlarge.
Molino Man Facing Felony For Unlicensed Contracting During State Of Emergency
April 27, 2016
A Molino man has been arrested for allegedly acting as a contractor without a license during the state of emergency that was declared following the February tornadoes.
Kenneth Brian Malarik, Sr, was charged with felony unlicensed contracting during a state of emergency, felony grand theft and unpermitted construction. The charges were directly filed by the investigative division of Escambia County Building Services Building Code Enforcement.
On February 23, Malarik, 51, allegedly entered into a written contract and accepted a $5,841 down payment to build an outdoor pergola at home near Pine Forest High School. He never finished the work, according to an arrest affidavit, after the homeowner demanded a copy of a building permit. He never returned to the jobsite, and his tools where retrieved by an employee, the affidavit states.
Escambia County’s building officials reported that they attempted unsuccessfully to reach Malarik by certified mail and email. A records search determined that Malark is not licensed by the county or state as a general, building or residential contractor.
At the time Malarik was working on the pergola, Escambia County was under a declared state of emergency due to the tornadoes that struck the Century and Ferry Pass areas. The pergola construction was not in an area damaged by either tornado.
Malarik was released from the Escambia County Jail Tuesday afternoon on a $5,500 bond.
Healthy Start: Signs Of Recovery In Century
April 27, 2016
Contractors have started work on tornado repairs to two buildings in Century used by the Healthy Start program.
The roof of the Healthy Start building at 511 Church Street was damaged during the EF-3 tornado that tore through Century on February 15. The county-owned building was cleaned, dried out and temporary tarps were put in place. The tarps were no match for Easter weekend winds and rain, with water once again pouring into the building.
Healthy Start moved next door to another county-owned building at 501 Church Street, a building that Healthy Start had already leased but had not yet been renovated. The building is former location of the Health and Hope Clinic.
Century site manager Laura Nelson said all Healthy Start services, including WIC and patient visits by Jay pediatrician Marian Stewart, have continued at the new location.
Tuesday, contractors were busy removing water damaged furniture from the Healthy Start building at 511 Church Street, while additional crews were hard at work putting new roof on the former Health and Hope building at 501 Church Street.
Pictured: Contractors were working hard Tuesday at two county-owned buildings used by the Healthy Start program in Century. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Ernest Ward’s Dive Team Places At County Championship
April 27, 2016
The Ernest Ward Middle School Dive Team earned a second and a 10th place finish during the Escambia County Diving Championships at Washington High School.
The Ernest Ward Dive Team consisted of just two team members — Jayda Crabtree and Louis Crabtree III. Jayda placed 2nd, with a total score of 154.95. Louis placed 10th with a score of 114.60. Their scores will be added to Ernest Ward’s County Girls and Boys Swim Teams final score.
There were a total of 29 divers in the competition.
Pictured: Ernest Ward Middle School Dive Team Coach Randy Sanderson, Jayda Crabtree, Coach Betty Coon, Louis Crabtree III. Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
PBA Attempting Comeback As Prison Workers’ Union
April 27, 2016
The Florida Police Benevolent Association, “divorced” by the state’s prison workers as their union five years ago, is staging a comeback.
The organization, which served as the collective-bargaining representative for corrections and probation officers in Florida for three decades before being ousted by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 2011, has started gathering petitions in an attempt to recapture the job, PBA Executive Director Matt Puckett confirmed this week.
The PBA needs about 5,000 signatures — or 30 percent of the 17,000 workers — to force an election, a process that could take several months, according to Puckett.
“Over the last two years, we’ve just been hearing from a lot of former members and corrections officers in general, are you guys ever going to try to make a comeback?” Puckett said in an interview. “I think the requests had gotten to the point where we couldn’t ignore it anymore.”
A recent survey of correctional officers “came back really positive,” Puckett said.
“They want to see us come back. They’d at least like to see a campaign. So we’re moving forward with that. We’re in the early stages, but we’re moving forward,” he said.
The PBA’s move comes as the Department of Corrections has struggled to cope with reports of inmate deaths and brutality by prison guards, allegations of cover-ups and corruption, and low morale and high turnover among workers. Since her appointment more than a year ago, Corrections Secretary Julie Jones — the fifth agency chief in six years — has continued the housecleaning crusade launched by her predecessor, Michael Crews.
“Secretary after secretary has come in. They’ve had good plans. Some things have happened that are maybe outside of their control. They need a partner in labor, too, to be standing up and doing the same thing, and I don’t feel like the Teamsters are doing that,” Puckett said. “The people that aren’t out there doing the kind of things that are in these headlines are being forgotten about. And the agency is being kind of dragged down by that. The labor organizations should be stepping up and doing what they can to help right the ship.”
One of corrections workers’ chief complaints, however, involves salaries. Corrections and probation workers have gone without across-the-board pay raises for more than six years, and lawmakers again declined to include pay hikes in next year’s budget.
“They have not received the type of support from their bargaining representative like they should have,” Puckett said.
The pay-raise issue played a major role in the November 2011 election, when the Teamsters captured 55 percent of nearly 8,000 votes cast in the November 2011 election and ousted the PBA after 30 years. At the time, the Teamsters — which represents about 1.4 million workers nationwide — said that corrections workers wanted a more vocal brand of union.
“I’m sure the PBA’s going to hit on (the pay raises) aspect. But that’s not why we came in here. We came in here, that is part of the reason, but we also came in here for representation for the guys in all sorts of cases,” Les Cantrell, statewide coordinator for the Teamsters Local 2011, said in a telephone interview.
For example, the Teamsters have taken all corrections officers’ dismissal cases to arbitration rather than to the Public Employees Relations Commission, a process preferred by the PBA, Cantrell said.
“In arbitration, the guys have a better chance,” he said, adding that the Teamsters have had an excess of 1,500 “touches” — cases where they’ve represented corrections or probation workers in Florida — over the past five years.
“So, we’re very responsive when it comes to the membership, when it comes to representing them at all levels in DOC,” Cantrell said.
Cantrell said the Teamsters have also included union members in negotiations with the state.
“We don’t just send our staff in to negotiate by email,” he said.
And, Cantrell said, the Teamsters have won other perks, including special compensation for workers.
Under a previous “use it or lose it” agreement with the state, corrections officers who worked holidays had to forfeit the time they earned for working those days if they did not take days off within a certain period of time. Under the new agreement, employees get paid for working holidays.
“We now have the only contract in the state that if an officer cannot use special comp, they get paid for it,” Cantrell said. “There’s still a lot more work to be done. But we’ve made some parts of the contract better, and we’re happy about that.”
The Teamsters are preparing to file an unfair labor practices complaint against the Department of Corrections, challenging the agency’s ability to fire corrections and probations workers without reason for up to a year after they have been promoted. The complaint could be filed as early as Monday, Cantrell said.
The Teamsters and the state are at an impasse in negotiations over a new contract, which expires on June 30. The state had included the promotions policy in its proposed contract.
“This discourages officers from applying for a promotion — thinking that if they are promoted, they are at risk of losing their entire careers for up to one year without any reason,” Teamsters International Vice President Ken Wood said in a press release.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
New Candidate Files For Broxson House Seat
April 27, 2016
A new candidate has opened a campaign account to try to succeed state Rep. Doug Broxson, R-Gulf Breeze who is running for Senate this year, according to the state Division of Elections website.
Navarre Republican Johnathan Walters opened an account Tuesday to run in Broxson’s House District 3, which includes parts of Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties. He joined fellow Republican Jayer Williamson, a Santa Rosa County commissioner, in the race.
Broxson is seeking a Senate seat that will be vacated by Sen. Greg Evers, a Baker Republican who is running for Congress and the seat held by Rep. Jeff Miller.
by The News Service of Florida