Local Students Win Rotary Four-Way Test Essay Contest
May 6, 2013
Four North Escambia students were recognized as winners in the annual Rotary Four-Way Test Essay Contest by the Suburban West Rotary Club.
Grand prize winner was Jessica Amerson of Northview High School, a student of Raja Atallah. She received a $500 prize. Other finalists, all from Tate High School, were first runner-up Noah Hintz (teacher Linda Leggett), Honya Richbourg (teacher Stephanie Tompkins) and Eion Blanchard (teacher Linda Leggett).
The Four-Way Test Essay Contest is open to all Escambia County high school students, with each participant writing a short essay on the topic “Why is the Rotary Four-Way Test relevant today?”. The Four-Way Test is used by Rotarians to encourage value-driven, ethical behavior at work, at home and in the community.
During a recent luncheon, the winners read their essays to the club and were presented with certificates of achievement and cash prizes.
Pictured top: Suburban West Rotary Four-Way Test Essay Contest finalists (L-R) Jessica Amerson, Northview; Noah Hintz, Tate; Eion Blanchard, Tate; and Honya Richbourg, Tate. Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Wahoos Avoid Sweep With 8-2 Blowout Over Montgomery
May 6, 2013
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos broke out the bats and snapped their season-high five-game losing streak with an 8-2 blowout win over the Montgomery Biscuits on Sunday afternoon at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium in front of a sell-out crowd of 5,038.
Pensacola used two big innings to put the game away early against Montgomery starter Victor Mateo (1-4). With runners on first and second and two outs in the second inning, Michael Gilmartin blooped an RBI double down the left field line to put the Wahoos on the board. Theo Bowe and Devin Lohman followed with RBI singles to open up a three-run advantage for Pensacola.
In the third inning, the Wahoos put the game out of reach in the span of four pitches. With one out and a runner on third, Tucker Barnhart singled up the middle to make it 4-0. On the next pitch, Bryson Smith launched a two-run homer to left center to give Pensacola a six-run lead. After a first-pitch ball, Travis Mattair blasted a solo homer to extend the Wahoos’ lead to seven. It was the first time all season that Pensacola had hit back-to-back homers.
Pensacola would add its eighth run of the day on a solo shot from Gilmartin in the fifth inning. It was Gilmartin’s first homer with the Wahoos and fourth overall this season. Every player in the Pensacola lineup reached base at least once and eight of the nine hitters recorded at least one base hit.
Montgomery chipped into the deficit with a sixth-inning sac fly from Mikie Mahtook and an eighth-inning solo homer from Shawn O’Malley.
Pensacola starter Tim Crabbe (2-1) was the beneficiary of the run support while posting his third quality start of the year. Crabbe gave up a run on four hits while striking out six to match his longest outing of 2013.
The Wahoos will now have an off day tomorrow before traveling to Jacksonville for a five-game series with the Suns. The set starts on Tuesday at 6:05 p.m. CT with Chad Rogers (2-1, 1.47) matching up against Jacksonville’s Matt Neil (0-2, 4.79).
by Kevin Burke
Pictured: The Blue Wahoos topped the Montgomery Biscuits Sunday 8-2. Photos by Gary McCracken for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Florida Passes Elections Reform Bill
May 6, 2013
A bill aimed at preventing the problems that plagued parts of Florida during the 2012 elections sailed through the Legislature on its final day after lawmakers dropped an effort to punish problematic local voting officials.
The legislation (HB 7013) passed the House overwhelmingly, 115-1, after a similar almost-unanimous vote kicked off the session two months earlier. The Senate approved it on a nearly party-line vote, 27-13, with Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, joining every Republican in approving the measure.
In a statement issued following the vote, Gov. Rick Scott said he will sign the bill.
“Following the 2012 General Election, we recognized there were inefficiencies in our election system that needed to be corrected, and I am very pleased with the Legislature’s responsiveness,” Scott said.
Elections reform vaulted to the top of legislative priorities after the November problems, which included some voters not casting ballots until after networks had projected President Barack Obama the winner nationwide. It also took days before Obama was declared the winner in Florida.
The bill had passed the House in March and the Senate last week, but had languished as the two chambers worked on the final shape of the proposal.
The bill that passed would allow up to fourteen days for early voting, though local supervisors could remain at the current eight days, and allows for more flexibility with early voting sites. It would limit the length of some ballot summaries for constitutional amendments.
And, in a move that the Tampa Bay Times-Miami Herald’s Tallahassee bureau reported was aimed at helping U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s presidential ambitions, it would dissolve a committee that sets the date of the presidential primary and instead require that vote be held on the first Tuesday that complies with party rules.
Both Republican and Democratic delegations to national conventions had lost members over the last several years as Florida vied for an earlier primary date.
Lawmakers paved the way for the agreement when Senate members agreed to a House demand to get rid of a provision that would have allowed the secretary of state to punish county elections supervisors. All but one of those officials is elected, and House members noted that there are already ways under current state law to take care of a supervisor who gets too far out of line.
“We feel like that accomplishes what we need to, remembering of course that these supervisors are elected constitutional officers, like we’re elected as well, and ultimately, they’re accountable to their communities for what they do or don’t do,” said Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton.
Sen. Jack Latvala, the Clearwater Republican who sponsored the upper chamber’s version of the bill, pinned the blame for the deleted provisions on the protests of local supervisors.
“So the House buckled on that,” he said. But Latvala agreed to the change to get the bill through.
Democrats remained divided on the measure, with those in the House praising the bill even as they saw it as a partial solution.
“It takes men and women of maturity to understand when you’ve done something in error to come back and correct it,” said Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg. “And we saw what happened in the November elections, and as a body we have come back this year to correct it. … I look forward to us coming back next session and fixing it just a little bit more.”
Groups that have traditionally sided with Democrats on voting-rights issues also welcomed the legislation.
“We believe the changes in this bill will help prevent the long lines, observed all across the world, that Florida voters endured last November,” said Deirdre Macnab, president of the League of Women Voters, in a statement.
But Senate Democrats were tepid in their comments on the bill, and the Florida Democratic Party blasted it, saying lawmakers should have undone a bill passed a couple years ago that was blamed by Democrats for many of the elections problems.
“A full repeal of HB 1355 would have solved the vast majority of the problems we witnessed last year, and today’s half-hearted attempt by the GOP at ‘reform’ only hurts the process,” said Scott Arceneaux, the party’s executive director. “It is certainly not the last word.”
by the News Service of Florida
Going, Going, Gone: Bills Die At End Of Session
May 5, 2013
State lawmakers had a week-long funeral for proposals to expand health coverage to tens of thousands of low-income Floridians.
But as the legislative session ended Friday, piles of other bills met the same fate.
The House, for example, let die a Senate proposal that would have given motorists a break on their vehicle-registration fees. The rub: It would have required eliminating a longstanding tax credit for insurance companies.
Other dead bills ranged from a measure to overhaul the Florida High School Athletic Association to a proposal to change sentencing laws for juveniles who commit murder or other serious crimes.
Also dying were a bill that would have made it harder to seek punitive damages in lawsuits against nursing homes, proposals to revamp the regulation of assisted-living facilities and an attempt to pass what had become known as the “anti-Sharia law” bill.
Each session, hundreds of bills die, some without even getting heard in a committee. But perhaps the most-controversial issue of this session — expanding health coverage — died a slow, public death before getting put out of its misery Friday.
Legislative leaders made clear throughout the week that the prognosis was not good for reaching agreement on such a plan. House and Senate Republicans decided weeks ago they wouldn’t expand Medicaid to carry out the Affordable Care Act, but they took vastly different approaches in trying to come up with an alternative.
That didn’t stop House Minority Leader Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale, from immediately reiterating a call Friday night to hold a special session to take up the issue again. House Democrats and Gov. Rick Scott backed a Senate bill that would have used federal Medicaid money to offer private health-insurance to roughly 1 million people, but House Republicans rejected the federal money and proposed a smaller-scale program that would have offered state subsidies.
“Despite ample opportunities to pass a bipartisan health care solution that enjoys the backing of Republican Governor Rick Scott and the Florida Senate, House Republican leadership dropped the ball,” Thurston said.
But not everyone was unhappy that a Medicaid expansion and the Senate health proposal failed. The conservative James Madison Institute issued a statement Friday night pointing to potential problems with the Affordable Care Act and praising the House for not getting pressured into a “rash decision.”
“In this case, taking no action instead of the wrong action was a wise decision by Florida’s leadership,” Bob McClure, president and CEO of the institute, said in the statement. “Expanding a badly flawed program such as Medicaid — which already consumes an inordinate share of the state budget — would not even necessarily benefit those whom it’s intended to help.”
Some of the issues that died Friday were tangled in broader bills that died. For example, the Senate included the proposal to reduce vehicle-registration fees in an omnibus insurance bill that never got taken up in the House.
But the anti-Sharia law bill (HB 58), which would restrict courts from applying foreign law in family-related cases, was publicly put to rest Friday morning by Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, after it failed to clear a procedural hurdle Thursday. Gaetz singled out bill sponsor Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, for trying to get the measure passed.
“Senator Hays did all he could to advance the bill,” Gaetz said.
But the Anti-Defamation League, which opposed the bill, had a less-charitable view, issuing a news release saying the Senate “sidestepped embarrassment for Florida” by preventing the measure from moving forward. While the bill was dubbed the “anti-Sharia law” and was widely perceived to target Islamic law, the Anti-Defamation League said the measure would have prevented Florida from recognizing divorces granted in Israel to Jewish couples.
Passage of this bill would be another unnecessary, legislatively manufactured inanity for the State,” said David Barkey, the group’s national religious freedom counsel.
By The News Service of Florida
Record Crowds Attend Sawmill Day And Car Show
May 5, 2013
Record crowds attended the third annual Sawmill Day and Car Show Saturday at the Historical Park in Century.
The event featured continuous entertainment, a car show, yard sale, plenty of good food, arts and crafts and free museum tours.
- For a photo gallery from Sawmill Day and Car Show, click here.
- For a photo gallery of Heather Leonard’s Danceworks performing at Sawmill Day, click here.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Cooler Weather Continues
May 5, 2013
Saturday was a great day for most any outdoor activity, including fishing at Lake Stone near Century. NorthEscambia.com photo.
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast
- Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 46. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Monday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 69. Southwest wind 5 to 15 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon.
- Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 50. Northwest wind around 5 mph.
- Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 56. Northwest wind around 5 mph.
- Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. West wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 58. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
- Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 84.
- Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 61.
- Friday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 84.
- Friday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 62.
- Saturday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 85.
Pedestrian Struck, Killed By Santa Rosa Deputy
May 5, 2013
A Santa Rosa County deputy struck and killed a pedestrian Saturday night.
Just after 8:20 p.m., Deputy Joseph Dunne, 45, was traveling westbound on Highway 90 in a 2011 Chevrolet Impala near the intersection of Sunset Drive in Pace. Pedestrian Bruce Crutchfield, 56, was walking westbound within the outside lane of Highway 90, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Dunne was unable to see Crutchfield in order to stop in time, the FHP said. Crutchfield was wearing dark clothing in an area with poor lighting.
Crutchfield was pronounced deceased at the scene. No charges were filed against Dunne.
The accident was investigated by the Florida Highway Patrol.
Photo Gallery: Dancing In The Streets
May 5, 2013
Members of Heather Leonard’s Danceworks entertained the crowds at the second annual Century Sawmill Day in Century on Saturday. The group practices weekly in Byrneville.
For a bonus gallery with over 140 photos, click here for a gallery on the NorthEscambia.com Facebook page. (“LIKE” NorthEscambia.com on Facebook to see the photos.)
Pictured: Members of Heather Leonard’s Danceworks perform Saturday in Century. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge
Woman Charged With Allegedly Sneaking Drugs Into Century Prison
May 5, 2013
A Tallahassee woman was arrested Saturday morning after officials say she tried to smuggle drugs into a visitation at Century Correctional Institution.
Rose Ann Wiggins, 22, was charged with possession of marijuana and smuggling contraband into a detention facility. She was released from the Escambia County Jail on a $1,500 bond.
Biscuits Beat Wahoos 8-3
May 5, 2013
For the second straight day the Pensacola Blue Wahoos jumped out in front early but weren’t able to fully capitalize as the Montgomery Biscuits responded with seven straight runs en route to an 8-3 win on Saturday night at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium. A capacity crowd of 5,038 was on hand for the fifth sellout of the season for Pensacola.
Pensacola immediately jumped on top of Montgomery starter Enny Romero in the first with three straight singles. Steve Selsky brought home a run on a fielder’s choice, but after a walk to Bryson Smith, Romero got a strikeout and a ground out to leave the bags packed. The trend of stranding runners unfortunately continued for the Wahoos who left a season-high 12 runners on base, including 10 in the first five innings.
Montgomery, meanwhile, took advantage of the opportunities they were presented. The Biscuits entered the fourth inning hitless against Pensacola starter Josh Smith (3-3), but Shawn O’Malley led off with a ground rule double and scored two batters later on an RBI single from Cameron Seitzer. The next batter, Todd Glaesmann, then launched a two-run homer to left to give the Biscuits a 3-1 lead after four.
Smith was pulled after five innings despite giving up just three runs on three hits and striking out six. His scoreless streak was snapped at 19.1 innings with the fourth-inning runs.
The Biscuits would extend their lead in the sixth inning against reliever Chris Manno. After back-to-back one-out walks, Glaesman doubled home a run to make it 4-1. Two batters later, Riccio Torrez put the game out of reach by blasting a three-run rocket over the wall in left to give Montgomery a 7-1 advantage.
Devin Lohman provided a bright spot for Pensacola out of the leadoff spot. Lohman launched solo homers in the sixth and eighth innings for the first multi-homer game for any Wahoo this season. He reached base in all five plate appearances, going 3-for-3 with a single, two homers, two walks, three runs scored and two RBI.
Enny Romero (1-0) worked around multiple base runners in every inning of his outing but picked up his first win of the season. Romero tossed five frames, allowing a run on five hits with five walks and three strikeouts.
Pensacola will look to avoid the five-game sweep at the hands of Montgomery on Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. Tim Crabbe will toe the rubber for the Wahoos against the Biscuits’ Victor Mateo.
by Kevin Burke