Thomas To Serve On School Grading System Task Force
June 26, 2013
Escambia Schools Superintendent Malcolm Thomas will serve on a Florida Department of Education Task Force that will review the state’s system of grading schools ahead of the release of the annual school report cards.
The group was formed amid worries by some educators that a complicated mix of new grading policies could lead to a collapse in scores.
“I look forward to working with superintendents and other task force members as we continue the important job of holding schools accountable and maintaining high expectations for teachers and students,” Florida Education Commissioner Ton Bennett said.
In addition to Bennett, the task force will include five superintendents, several DOE officials and one state lawmaker.
The superintendents include Thomas from Escambia County, Alberto Carvalho of Miami-Dade County, MaryEllen Elia of Hillsborough County, Margaret Smith of Volusia County and Wally Cox of Highlands County.
Dale Chu, the DOE’s chief of staff; Will Krebs, the agency’s deputy chief of staff; Kim McDougal, who handles education policy for Gov. Rick Scott; Jason Rose, director of data and policy for the Jacksonville Public Education Fund; and state Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, will also serve on the panel.
The advisory task force’s first meeting has been scheduled for July 1 in Tallahassee. Advisory task force members will review FCAT 2.0 and EOC assessment results, as well as other factors to make sure the accountability system is designed in the best interest of Florida’s students.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.
U.S. Marshals Arrest Escambia Attempted Murder Suspect Near Detroit
June 26, 2013
An Escambia County man wanted on multiple charges including attempted murder was busted by the U.S. Marshals Tuesday just outside of Detroit.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office had been looking for Chandler O’Brien Bass since early May. He is suspected of shooting a person multiple times in what was an apparent drug deal gone bad in Brent near Lenox Parkway and Cary Memorial Drive.
Marshals in Pensacola had tried to locate Bass but received word Monday night that he was in Michigan. The US Marshals Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team was contacted, and Bass was taken into custody a short time later.
“Hopefully this quick response and apprehension enforces to our law enforcement partners the importance of the Marshals Services Task Forces and working together,” stated Inspector Dominic Guadagnoli of the Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force in Pensacola. “Because these task forces are cohesive groups that extend nationwide apprehensions can be made swiftly.”
The 29-year old Bass, who is also wanted on charges of convicted felon in possession of a weapon and a violation probation warrant for a cocaine possession conviction, was arrested at an apartment complex in Taylor, Michigan.
ba
Lake Stone Receives Community Pride Award
June 26, 2013
The Century Area Chamber of Commerce has awarded the June 2013 Community Pride Award to Lake Stone.
Lake Stone Campground is a 100-acre campground and boat ramp facility located at 801 West Highway 4 in Century. The campground has 77 campsites for everything from big RV rigs to tents. Recently updated to accommodate the more modern and much larger RV’s, Lake Stone is the Escambia County’s only facility located on a fresh water lake.
Lake Stone facilities include a boat ramp , indoor public use pavilion, a playground, showers, restrooms, a fishing pier, security lights, electrical and water hookups, a sewage dump station, picnic areas and the lake.
The Lake Stone pavilion or campsites can be reserved by calling the Lake Stone campground manager at (850) 256-5555 or Escambia County Parks and Recreation at (850) 475-5220.
Pictured top and bottom: The Century Area Chamber of Commerce June 2013 Community Pride Award was presented to Lake Stone. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge. Pictured inset: Lake Stone caretaker Dennis Cole receives the award from the chamber’s Don Ripley (courtesy photo).
Molino 12U Allstars Win Tourney
June 26, 2013
The Molino 12U team beat NEP 12-10 Tuesday night to win the GCYBA District Allstars Championship in Navarre. Team members are (front, L-R) Tanner Jackson, Carson Daniels, Spencer Newton, Spencer St. Cyr, Nick Venable, (middle row) Brett Fillingim, Tanner Deese, Taylor Meacham, Caleb Abney and Issac Kelly. Coaches (back, L-R) are Jerry Venable, Larry Meacham, Ken Daniels, James Newton and Mark Jackson. NorthEscambia.com photo by Kristi Smith, click to enlarge.
Gulf Power Warns Customers Of Scam Phone Calls
June 26, 2013
Gulf Power is warning customers not to fall victim to a scam in which someone is impersonating utility company employees.
Utility customers receive a phone call with someone pretending to be a Gulf Power employee. The person then says your electric bill is past due and that electricity will be cut off if you don’t provide a credit card payment immediately. The card numbers were then used to make fraudulent purchases.
A person calls on the phone pretending to be a Gulf Power employee. They say your electric bill is past due and that electricity will be cut off if you don’t provide a credit card payment immediately. The card numbers were then used to make fraudulent purchases.
To prevent this from happening to you, Gulf Power says:
- Gulf Power employees will never call a customer at home seeking any personal information including credit card numbers.
- Gulf Power representatives will never ask a customer for money when they visit a residence.
- All Gulf Power representatives carry badges with picture identification that includes the employee’s name and the company’s name and logo.
Customers should call Gulf Power at 1-800-225-5797 if they have any questions about the identity of anyone representing Gulf Power.
Clay Shoot Saturday To Benefit Junior League, Kid’s House
June 26, 2013
Shooting enthusiasts to participate in a charity clay shoot on this Saturday at Santa Rosa Shooting Center. Clays for Kids will raise funds for Junior League of Pensacola and a portion of proceeds will be directly gifted to Santa Rosa Kids’ House, the child advocacy center serving Santa Rosa County.
Santa Rosa Shooting Center, located at 6950 Quintette Road in Pace, is a 14-station sporting clay course suitable for any level shooter. The cost to participate in Clays for Kids is $100 per shooter. Participants may register online at juniorleagueofpensacola.org/clay-shoot.
Junior League member Jennifer Major and her husband Tom are teaming up to chair Clays for Kids.
“We are excited to be partnering together on a project that supports our community,” Jennifer Major said. “Tom has been a Joe Junior Leaguer for years now. We both believe in the work of the Junior League and we are proud to present Clays for Kids as a new fundraiser to support Junior League and Santa Rosa Kids’ House.”
The tournament will begin at 10 a.m. with a shotgun start. Registration for shooters begins at 8:30 a.m., followed by a safety briefing at 9:45. A lunch and awards ceremony will complete the day. Shooters are encouraged to sign up in advance, but also can sign up the morning of the tournament.
For more tournament details or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities, call (850) 433-4421 or email president@juniorleagueofpensacola.org.
Molino’s Gindl Goes 2-4, Has First Major League RBI
June 26, 2013
Molino’s Caleb Gindl of the Milwaukee Brewers went 2 for 4 Tuesday night against Chicago Cubs and had his first Major League RBI.
The Brewers trailed, 3-1, entering the fifth, but Rickie Weeks started the scoring with an RBI double into the left-center-field gap, scoring Juan Francisco all the way from first base.
Weeks then took third on a Edwin Jackson wild pitch, and Gindl tied the game with his first Major League RBI, a liner up the middle past a diving Darwin Barney. KyleLohse bunted Gindl to second before Norichika Aoki walked to set up a run-scoring double from Jean Segura and a two-run single from Jonathan Lucroy, putting Milwaukee ahead, 6-3.
The Brewers went on to a 9-3 win against the National League Central-rival Cubs at Miller Park.
Supreme Court Strikes Major Part Of Voting Rights Act
June 26, 2013
A closely divided U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key section of the Voting Rights Act that applies to five Florida counties, leading to protests from voting-rights organizations that said the change will make it more difficult to protect citizens’ access to the ballot box.
Writing for the 5-4 majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said that the formula Congress established in the 2006 version of the law to single out so-called “covered jurisdictions” like the five Florida counties is antiquated. That formula, based on data from the 1960s and 1970s, is used to decide which parts of the country must submit almost any changes in voting laws or practices to the federal government for approval, a procedure known as “preclearance.”
“Our country has changed, and while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions,” Roberts wrote.
Roberts was joined by the more-conservative members of the high court, including Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
But in a dissent joined by all of the more-liberal members of the court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the section of the voting of the law struck down by the court was crafted specifically to make sure that discriminatory voting laws never returned to areas of the country that had used them to bar minorities from participating in elections.
“Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet,” Ginsburg wrote. ” … The sad irony of today’s decision lies in its utter failure to grasp why the VRA has proven effective.”
Joining Ginsburg’s opinion were Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
Florida officials said the ruling would allow them to more fairly administer elections in Florida without waiting for approval from the U.S. Department of Justice or a three-judge panel in Washington, D.C. Secretary of State Ken Detzner said the state spent more than $500,000 last year to secure preclearance for its voting changes.
Parts of a 2011 state elections law were either struck down by courts or altered to get approval from the D.C. court.
“Any time we have the opportunity to make our own decisions, I think that’s great for our state,” Gov. Rick Scott told reporters Tuesday following the state Cabinet meeting.
Five Florida counties have been covered by preclearance: Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough and Monroe. But failure to gain preclearance for laws in those counties has put any changes in jeopardy across the state.
There will be some limits to the ruling’s effects in Florida. For example, the state’s redistricting process will likely not change as much, in part because protections for districts crafted to help minority voters elect their preferred candidates are now written into the state Constitution as part of the 2010 “Fair Districts” amendments.
Still, voting-rights groups that have spent years fighting a slew of election changes approved by Scott and state lawmakers said their efforts would be undermined by the court’s decision. While citizens can still sue the state for voting discrimination under another section of the Voting Rights Act, those cases are more difficult to win and often don’t finish until after the changes have been used for at least one election cycle.
In addition to the preclearance for the 2011 changes, a Voting Rights Act lawsuit has been filed against the state’s efforts to purge suspected non-citizens from the voting rolls.
“This governor and this Legislature have been walking advertisements for why federal oversight is needed,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.
Simon’s group is looking at other ways of attacking the voter-purge initiative.
Meanwhile, voting-rights organizations said, Congress should pass a new version of the formula that would allow preclearance to take effect again.
“It should be disturbing to every Florida voter that the Supreme Court seems not to have noticed what happened in Florida over the last two years, where we have battled the Legislature’s partisan manipulation of our voting rights,” Deirdre Macnab, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, said in a statement. “Today’s decision undermines 40 years of fundamental protections against discriminatory voting laws and the League urges Congress to act quickly to restore the Voting Rights Act.”
By Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Pensacola Rolls Past Mississippi
June 26, 2013
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos rallied from a 3-0 fifth-inning deficit, scoring seven unanswered runs over four straight at-bats in a 7-3 triumph over the Mississippi Braves on Tuesday night at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.
Pensacola won for the first time after trailing by three or more runs this season. Down 3-0 halfway through the game, the Wahoos started the comeback with a two-run double in the last of the fifth by Brodie Greene, cutting the Braves lead to one.
Travis Mattair provided the deciding blow in the contest for Pensacola, breaking out of a 0-for-16 skid in the sixth inning. With the Wahoos trailing 3-2, Yorman Rodriguez singled with one out in front of Mattair, who launched his team-leading ninth homer of the season to left-center field off Mississippi starter Michael Lee, putting Pensacola on top 4-3. Lee fell to 3-6 by allowing four runs on six hits in six frames for the Braves.
The Wahoos added two more runs in the last of the seventh inning against Major League rehabber Cristhian Martinez. Ryan LaMarre led off with a walk, stole second base, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a balk by Martinez to make it 5-3. Devin Lohman drove home Pensacola’s sixth run of the day with a two-out single scoring Greene.
In the eighth, Mattair led off with a single and came around on a LaMarre base knock to give Pensacola a four-run cushion. That was more than enough for Trevor Bell, who picked up his second save of the season by tossing the final two frames to shut the door on the Braves.
Wahoos starter Tim Crabbe retired the first 10 batters of the game before allowing a solo homer to Christian Bethancourt in the top of the fourth inning to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. An inning later, Mississippi had runners on second and third with one when Dan Brewer chopped a ball to Mattair at third. Mattair threw home to catcher Tucker Barnhart, who dropped the ball when he was run over by Barrett Kleinknecht. The ball trickled away allowing Kleinknecht and Mycal Jones to score, opening up a 3-0 lead.
Crabbe exited after five innings, not factoring in the decision. The right-hander allowed three runs, two earned, on four hits while striking out three. Josh Ravin (1-2) picked up the win for Pensacola out of the bullpen by firing two scoreless innings, facing the minimum six hitters in the sixth and seventh innings.
Winners of three in a row for only the second time all season, Pensacola looks for a season-long four-game winning streak and a series win against Mississippi on Wednesday night. Ryan Dennick (3-8, 3.23) will get the ball for the Wahoos against Braves southpaw Ian Thomas (3-4, 2.70). First pitch is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
story by Kevin Burke
Man Stabbed, Robbed Just Off Nine Mile Road
June 25, 2013
A transient was stabbed and reportedly robbed early Tuesday morning just off Nine Mile Road.
About 5:30 a.m., the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office responded to a stabbing in the 5400 block of Music Lane. They discovered a male transient who had injuries consistent with stab wounds outside the Liberty Church, just behind Wendy’s. The victim described the suspects as two white male juveniles and one black male juvenile.
According to the victim, the juveniles stabbed him prior to taking some of his personal belongings.