Biscuits Blast Wahoos 6-1
May 3, 2013
The Montgomery Biscuits smacked two home runs en route to a 6-1 win over the Pensacola Blue Wahoos in front of 4,206 fans on Thursday night at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.
The game was originally delayed an hour and 28 minutes by rain and both offenses came out cold. Neither team had a hit through three innings before Montgomery ignited their onslaught. With one out, Mikie Mahtook walked, Cameron Seitzer singled and Todd Glaesmann blasted a three-run homer to left off of Ryan Dennick for a 3-0 lead.
An inning later, it was Mahtook delivering the goods as he launched a two-run homer off Dennick to push Montgomery’s lead to 5-0. Dennick (1-2) went just five frames, allowing a season-high five runs on five hits.
The Biscuits added their sixth run of the day on an RBI single in the sixth from Shawn O’Malley.
Pensacola’s lone run came on an RBI single from Brodie Greene in the seventh that scored Tucker Barnhart who had doubled earlier in the frame.
Matt Buschmann (3-1) was dominant for Montgomery, going a season-high eight innings and yielding just a run on five hits combined with eight strikeouts.
The Blue Wahoos continue their series with the Biscuits on Friday night with a 7:00 p.m. first pitch. Daniel Renken gets the start for Pensacola against Montgomery’s Merrill Kelly.
story by Kevin Burke
21 Arrested In Internet Prostitution Investigation
May 3, 2013
An Escambia County Sheriff’s Off task force has arrested 21 1 people in an internet prostitution investigation known as “Operation Back Page”.
One Injured In Minor Hwy 97, Hwy 29 Accident
May 3, 2013
One person was injured in a minor accident Thursday afternoon at the intersection of Highway 97 and Highway 29 in Molino.
The driver of a Nissan Maxima was stopped at a stop sign on Highway 97 when she was lightly bumped from the rear by the driver of a Toyota Hybrid, witnesses said. Both vehicles were moved to the nearby Tom Thumb parking lot.
The driver of the Maxima was transported by Escambia County EMS after complaining of injuries in the low-speed crash. Her condition was not available.
The only obvious damage to either vehicle was small scuff mark on the bumper of the Maxima. The accident is under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol. Further details were not available.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Southeastern Conference, ESPN Announce New SEC TV Network
May 3, 2013
A new SEC television network which launch next year.
The Southeastern Conference and ESPN have signed a 20-year agreement through 2034 to create and operate a multiplatform network, which will launch in August 2014, it was announced today by SEC Commissioner Mike Slive and ESPN President John Skipper. The new network and its accompanying digital platform will air SEC content 24/7 including more than 1,000 events in its first year.
The network will televise approximately 45 SEC football games, more than 100 men’s basketball games, 60 women’s basketball games, 75 baseball games, and events from across the SEC’s 21 sports annually. Programming will also include studio shows, original content such as SEC Storied, spring football games, signing day and pro days coverage. Hundreds of additional live events from various sports will be offered exclusively on the digital platform. The network and its digital extensions will connect with each SEC institution and create opportunities for each school to produce and develop content.
“The SEC Network will provide an unparalleled fan experience of top quality SEC content presented across the television network and its accompanying digital platforms,” stated Slive. “We will increase exposure of SEC athletics programs at all 14 member institutions, as we showcase the incredible student-athletes in our league. The agreement for a network streamlines and completes an overall media rights package that will continue the SEC’s leadership for the foreseeable future.”
Each weekend throughout the season, the new network will air multiple top-tier matchups from the strongest conference in college football. Since 2006, the SEC has claimed seven consecutive football national championships. In 2011-12, SEC teams won eight national championships: football (Alabama), men’s basketball (Kentucky), gymnastics (Alabama), men’s indoor track and field (Florida), women’s tennis (Florida), women’s golf (Alabama), men’s outdoor track and field (Florida), and softball (Alabama). Since 1990, the SEC has won 149 national team championships for an average of more than six per year.
Skipper said, “The SEC is unmatched in its success on the field and its popularity with fans nationwide. The new network’s top-quality SEC matchups across a range of sports will serve all sports enthusiasts including the most passionate, die-hard SEC fans. Also, it will serve the needs of our multichannel distributors and advertisers by providing extremely attractive programming options across all platforms.”
As part of the agreement, ESPN will now oversee the SEC’s official Corporate Sponsor Program. In addition, ESPN and the SEC also agreed to extend their existing media rights agreement through 2034. ESPN has televised the SEC since 1982. ESPN’s existing networks present more than 1,600 hours of SEC action each year. The new network will focus exclusively on the SEC and add another outlet to deliver sports fans more SEC content than ever.
AT&T U-verse has been secured as the network’s first national distributor.
HUD Awards Nearly $1 Million In Area Homeless Grants
May 3, 2013
U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan on Friday awarded nearly a million dollars in a second round of grants to support local homeless housing and service programs in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
Local grants totaling $987,587 include:
HMIS Expansion 2 $31,342
Loaves and Fishes Transitional Housing Program $248,672
Permanent supportive Housing Escambia $162,231
Permanent Supportive Housing Santa Rosa $108,125
Supportive Housing Program $129,330
Transitional Supportive Housing $307,887
“We know these modest investments in housing and serving our homeless neighbors not only saves money, but saves lives,” said Donovan. “These local programs are on the front lines of the Obama Administrations efforts to prevent and end homelessness as we know it once and for all.”
HUD’s Continuum of Care grants are awarded competitively to local projects to meet the needs of their homeless clients. The grants fund a wide variety of programs from street outreach and assessment programs to transitional and permanent housing for homeless persons and families. HUD funds are a critical part of the Obama Administration’s strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness.
HUD’s Continuum of Care grants announced Friday will continue offering permanent and transitional housing to homeless persons as well as services including job training, health care, mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment and child care. Continuum of Care grants are awarded competitively to local programs to meet the needs of their homeless clients. These grants fund a wide variety of programs from street outreach and assessment programs to transitional and permanent housing for homeless persons and families.
Supreme Court: Cops Need Warrant To Look At Cell Phone Pics
May 3, 2013
Police officers need a warrant if they want to search through photos on a cell phone in possession of a defendant at the time of arrest, the Florida Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
The ruling, which overturns an opinion from the 1st District Court of Appeal, also is related to an issue before the Legislature, which this session has considered putting the warrant requirement in statute.
While police officers in Jacksonville had the right to take the defendant’s cell phone, they should have gotten a warrant to look at the photos on the device, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-2 decision. Justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente, Peggy Quince, Jorge Labarga and James E.C. Perry were in the majority. Justice Charles Canady and Chief Justice Ricky Polston dissented.
The district appeals court had ruled that the cell phone search was legal but asked the state’s high court to take the issue, calling it a matter of great importance that should get a statewide ruling.
The ruling came in the case of Cedric Smallwood, who was arrested in connection with a convenience store robbery in 2008. Officer Ike Brown had taken Smallwood’s phone, and a year later as the case was about to go to trial, he notified prosecutors that he had looked through photos on the phone and there were some that prosecutors might want to see. The prosecutor notified the defense and then sought a warrant.
The photos were of a gun and stacks of money.
Even though prosecutors sought a warrant, the defense argued the initial search of the phone was illegal. The defense argued people have an expectation of privacy in their smart phones, which are essentially small computers that fall within a “constitutional zone of privacy.”
The state contended the search was OK – noting that if the pictures had been printed photos in Smallwood’s wallet, previous court rulings have held there would be no problem with looking through them. During trial, Brown said it’s not unusual for criminals to document what they’ve done with photos, and that’s one of the reasons he looked on the phone.
Smallwood was convicted of robbery and sentenced to 50 years.
Smallwood lost on appeal to the 1st DCA, which relied on a U.S. Supreme Court decision called United States v. Robinson in finding that police have broad ability to search personal items found on arrestees without a warrant.
“The (U.S.) Supreme Court has clearly and repeatedly found that anything found on an arrestee or within an arrestee’s immediate control may be searched and inspected upon arrest,” the appeals court said. There’s no reason to except cell phones, the 1st DCA said.
But Justice Lewis, writing for the Supreme Court’s majority, said a cigarette pack containing drugs that was the focus of the Robinson case was very different from a modern smart phone.
“That case clearly did not involve the search of a modern electronic device and the extensive information and data held in a cell phone,” Lewis wrote. “When Robinson was decided, hand-held portable electronic devices in the form of cell phones containing information and data were not in common and broad use.
“Further, in recent years, the capabilities of these small electronic devices have expanded to the extent that most types are now interactive, computer-like devices,” Lewis continued. “Vast amounts of private, personal information can be stored and accessed in or through these small electronic devices, including not just phone numbers and call history, but also photos, videos, bank records, medical information, daily planners, and even correspondence between individuals through applications such as Facebook and Twitter.”
He cited a federal court opinion that noted that computer searches can’t be treated the same as searches of someone’s pocket because computers contain so much personal information. And, he noted, phones are computers now.
“Thus, we agree and conclude that the electronic devices that operate as cell phones of today are materially distinguishable from the static, limited-capacity cigarette packet in Robinson, not only in the ability to hold, import, and export private information, but by the very personal and vast nature of the information that may be stored on them or accessed through the electronic devices,” Lewis continued.
The Supreme Court said Officer Brown had a right to take Smallwood’s phone, but since there was no possibility that he could use information on it as a weapon and no need prevent the destruction of the evidence, the officer needed a warrant to further search the device.
“We refuse to authorize government intrusion into the most private and personal details of an arrestee’s life without a search warrant simply because the cellular phone device which stores that information is small enough to be carried on one’s person,” Lewis wrote.
Canady, in dissent, noted that police didn’t use the phone to access any significantly personal information, and said the majority’s opinion “would transform the traditional understanding of the right of the police to inspect items found on the person of an arrestee.”
The Legislature this year considered legislation (HB 797, SB 846) that would make photos and other data on cell phones not subject to search after an arrest in exactly the situation involved in the Smallwood case. Both of those bills remain in committee with less than two days left in the legislative session.
By The News Service of Florida
Judge Rejects Teacher Performance Pay Challenge
May 3, 2013
A Leon County circuit judge Thursday sided with the state in a constitutional challenge to a 2011 law that links teacher pay and evaluations to student performance.
A group of teachers, backed by the Florida Education Association, contended in the challenge that the law violated constitutionally guaranteed collective-bargaining rights and that lawmakers had given too much decision-making authority to the state Board of Education.
But Circuit Judge John Cooper rejected the arguments in seven-page order, finding that the law does not “explicitly bar collective bargaining.”
“While the court finds it undisputed that the challenged provisions implicate mandatory subjects of bargaining, the court finds it equally undisputed that the act does not explicitly prohibit collective bargaining over any of the subjects embraced in its provisions,” Cooper wrote.
Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association, issued a statement expressing disappointment, but he left open the possibility that the union could appeal the ruling or undertake additional legal challenges.
“We’re discouraged that the court ruled against FEA members,” Ford said. “But there’s nothing in the ruling that prevents us from going to court in the future when specific aspects of SB 736 (the 2011 bill number) impairs our members’ collective bargaining rights. We believe that this has occurred already and will continue to occur throughout the state as this flawed law is implemented.”
The law, known as the “Student Success Act,” has been a highly controversial issue in the state’s education system, with supporters touting it as a way to spur improved schools and critics saying it would not be fair to teachers.
The teachers and FEA filed the lawsuit in 2011 and, in a later court document, said the law dictates numerous issues that ordinarily would be subject to collective bargaining.
“Senate Bill 736 prohibits an employer and an employee organization from agreeing to (or continuing to agree to) certain wages, hours and terms and conditions of employment that are customary in labor relations generally and public educational relationships in particular,” the November 2012 document said.
But attorneys for the state Board of Education and the state Department of Education responded in a document that the law is “facially neutral” about collective bargaining.
“The plaintiffs claim that any change to the educational system must be bargained,” the state’s attorneys wrote. “This would achieve unintended and unworkable results and is not what the law requires or mandates.”
Along with ruling against the teachers and union on the collective-bargaining issue, Cooper also rejected arguments that the law is unconstitutional because it delegates too much authority to the Board of Education to develop critical standards to measure learning growth. Broadly, the issue is about the separation of powers between the Legislature and the executive branch.
While the FEA lost in the circuit court, it also recently filed a federal challenge that alleges the law violates rights of teachers who are evaluated on test scores of students or subjects they don’t teach.
By The News Service of Florida
Senate Rejects Fertilizer Law Moratorium
May 3, 2013
The Senate on Thursday rejected a House proposal to put a three-year moratorium on new local laws aimed at preventing nitrogen pollution of water bodies and wetlands. The House had put language on an environmental regulation bill that would prevent local governments from putting fertilizer ordinances in place and calling for a study of effect of fertilizer runoff on the environment.
The moratorium would have prevented new ordinances to regulate “nonagricultural fertilizer or its use,” unless using a model ordinance adopted by the state between July 1, 2013 and June 3, 2016.
The Senate sponsor of the bill, Sen. Thad Altman, said the language was never heard in a Senate committee, and was highly controversial and that “to take it on Day 59 as an amendment from the House,” was a bad idea. The Senate voted to take the language out of the bill, which didn’t come up for a final vote. The Senate could take a vote on the bill without the fertilizer language on Friday. It would still need approval in its new form from the House.
By The News Service of Florida
Cantonment Building Inspection Office Closed Friday
May 2, 2013
The Escambia County Building Inspection Office at 3470 Highway 29 in Cantonment will be closed Friday, county officials said. The office will be open regular business hours beginning Monday, May 6.
Flash Flood Watch Today
May 2, 2013
There is a flash flood watch in effect for today. Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Today: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. Some of the storms could produce gusty winds and heavy rain. High near 74. East wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%.
- Tonight: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm. Some of the storms could produce gusty winds and heavy rain. Cloudy, with a low around 62. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- Friday: Showers and thunderstorms likely. Cloudy, with a high near 78. Northeast wind around 10 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- Friday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Cloudy, with a low around 47. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph.
- Saturday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1pm, then a slight chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 71. Northwest wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
- Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 48. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Sunday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly sunny, with a high near 77. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph increasing to 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph.
- Sunday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly cloudy, with a low around 48. West wind 5 to 15 mph.
- Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 73. West wind 5 to 15 mph.
- Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 51.
- Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 77.
- Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 55.
- Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 82.