Thanksgiving Wreck Claims One Life
November 24, 2018
An Alabama man died in a Thanksgiving day vehicle crash in Escambia County.
Tyler William Glen Nelson, age 22 of Foley, was traveling east on Barrancas Avenue near Seamarge Lane when he left the roadway and overcorrected, causing his 1998 Jeep Cherokee to overturn about 12:20 a.m. Nelson, who was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected from the vehicle, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Dorothy F. Hellman
November 24, 2018
Dorothy F. “Dot” Hellman, 94, passed away on Monday, November 19, 2018, in Pensacola, Florida. She was born in Pensacola to Adrian V. Farinas, Sr. and Genevieve Erickson Farinas.
Dot was a 1942 graduate of Catholic High School. She worked at Mutual Federal for 30 years where she retired as Assistant Vice President. Dot was married to Carl Crosby for 36 years until his death in 1982. She was very fortunate to later meet William F. Hellman, to whom she was married for twenty-three years until his death in 2011. Dot enjoyed traveling the world with family and friends, going to Biloxi, and playing Bunco with her friends of over seventy years. She was an active and faithful member of Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church.
Dot was preceded in death by her two brothers, Adrian V. Farinas, Jr. and Thomas William “Bill” Farinas, Sr.; sister-in-law, Claire Farinas; nephew, Adrian V. Farinas, III; stepdaughter, Kathy Sullivan; and step-grandson, Sean Sullivan.
Dot is survived by her sister-in-law, Betty Farinas; stepsons, Ted Hellman, Greg (Deborah) Hellman and Mark (Susie) Hellman; nephews, Bill (Karen) Farinas, Jr., Bob Farinas, and John (Suzanne) Farinas; niece, Susan Otte; step-grandchildren, Ryan (JJ) Sullivan , Christina (Chris) Tillman, and Garrett Hellman; grandnieces, Kimberly Farinas, Kerri (Cody) Cobb, Katie (Allen) Givens, and Kristen Farinas; six step-great-grandchildren; three great-grandnieces; and two great-grandnephews.
A Mass of Celebration was held on Friday, November 23, 2018, at Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Nativity Catholic Church or Covenant Care of Pensacola.
Faith Chapel Funeral Home North is entrusted with arrangements.
Jesse J. Mulder
November 24, 2018
Jesse J. Mulder, 77 of Flomaton, AL, passed away Wednesday, November 21, 2018, in Atmore, AL. He worked with timber as a heavy equipment operator. He was born in Canoe, AL, on June 10, 1941, to the late James Ralph and Viola Powell Mulder.
He is preceded in death by his parents; wife, Dorothy K. Mulder; son, Thomas Christopher Agerton; and grandson, Brandon Christopher Agerton.
Survivors include one son, Keith (Melinda) Agerton of Ponchatoula, LA; one daughter, Tonya (Tony) Smith of Deatsville, AL; one brother, Robert O’Neal (Virginia) Mulder of Laurel, MS; three sisters, Doris M. Jones and Thelma Baker both of Atmore, AL and Louise (Larry) Hadley of Rabun, AL; four grandchildren, Khristian Agerton, Morgan Hadley, Taylor Smith and Tanner Smith.
Services were held Friday, November 23, 2018, at 11 a.m. from the Unity Baptist Church with Bro. Josh Long and Bro. John Johnson officiating.
Interment was in Sardis Baptist Cemetery.
Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home is in charge of all arrangements.
Clark Hill, II
November 24, 2018
Clark Hill, II, 62, of Atmore, AL, passed away Sunday, November 18, 2018, at his residence. He was an operator with Scott Paper Company. He was born in Atmore, AL on May 9, 1956.
He is preceded in death by his father, Dr. Robert Clark Hill; mother, Margaret Hill Lockwood and sister, Sheila Lockwood Ross.
Survivors include his daughter, Megan Hill of Atmore, AL; three sons, Robert Clark Hill and John Drew Hill both of Pensacola, FL and Timothy Brandon Hall of Atmore, AL; mother, Margaret Ellen Lockwood of Atmore, AL; and one sister, Deborah L. Soderlind of Pensacola, FL.
Memorial services were held Friday, November 23, 2018, from Crosspoint Church with Bro. Guy Heath officiating.
Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home is in charge of all arrangements.
Cantonment Man Charged With Sex Crimes Against Juvenile Male
November 23, 2018
A Cantonment man was charged with sex crimes against a juvenile male.
Michael Davis Edgar, 45, was charged lewd lascivious behavior, distribution of obscene material to a minor, and two counts contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Edgar operated a business out of a trailer on Fowler Avenue near the Hadji Temple. Inside that trailer, he allegedly provided a juvenile male with alcohol, marijuana and prescription medication while he was working on the trailer, according to an arrest report. The victim told Escambia County Sheriff’s Office investigators that he and Edgar watched pornography together and sexual acts occurred.
Edgar’s statements to deputies were redacted from the arrest report. He was released from the Escambia County Jail on a $112,000 bond.
Photos: A Christmas Carol At The Molino Library
November 23, 2018
The Hampstead Stage presented A Christmas Carol Wednesday at the Molino Branch Library.
For a photo gallery, click here.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Showers And Possible Storms Move In Tonight
November 23, 2018
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast
Friday Night: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. Low around 54. East wind 5 to 10 mph becoming north after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Saturday: A 20 percent chance of showers before noon. Partly sunny, with a high near 72. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the afternoon.
Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 52. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph.
Sunday: A 30 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 75. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming southwest in the morning.
Sunday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 49. Southwest wind around 10 mph becoming northwest after midnight.
Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 58. North wind 5 to 10 mph.
Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 37. North wind around 5 mph.
Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 57.
Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 36.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 60.
Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 41.
Thursday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly sunny, with a high near 63.
The Faces Of Thanksgiving At Waterfront Rescue Mission (With Gallery)
November 23, 2018
Dozens of volunteers spent their Thanksgiving working to feed the less fortunate at the Waterfront Rescue Mission. Turkey, dressing, gravy, vegetables and dessert were served to about 1,000 people in need at locations in Pensacola and Mobile.
For a photo gallery, click here.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Proposal Takes Aim At Cell Phone Use By Drivers
November 23, 2018
A proposal that would allow law-enforcement officers to pull over motorists for using cell phones while driving will be back before lawmakers in 2019.
Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, has filed a measure called the “Florida Ban on Wireless Communications Devices While Driving Law,” which would prohibit texting, reading data or talking on wireless handheld devices while behind the wheel.
Currently, texting while driving in Florida is prohibited, but it is enforced as a “secondary” office. That means motorists can only be cited if they are stopped for other infractions, such as running a stop sign or speeding.
House during the 2018 legislative session approved a proposal that would have made texting while driving a “primary” offense, allowing police to pull over motorists for tapping away on phones. But the measure failed to advance in the Senate amid concerns about issues such as minority drivers facing increased racial profiling.
Simpson’s new proposal, which is filed for consideration during the 2019 session, would impose a broader ban on use of cell phones by drivers and allow enforcement as a primary offense. It would allow drivers to communicate hands-free on wireless devices. Also, motorists would be allowed to use handheld devices for such purposes as getting safety-related information or for navigation.
by The News Service of Florida
Election Changes Eyed As 2018 Results Finalized
November 23, 2018
After months of mudslinging, weeks of court wrangling and days of ballot counting that again landed Florida in an unwelcome national spotlight, a state panel matter-of-factly finalized the 2018 election results in a five-minute meeting Tuesday.
The certification came on time, but problems with other election-related deadlines in two large, heavily Democratic counties — Palm Beach and Broward — are prompting county supervisors and legislative leaders to ponder possible solutions to the state’s ballot-box woes.
Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher blamed mechanical failures for missing deadlines for recounts ordered in statewide races. Broward County Supervisor Brenda Snipes, meanwhile, experienced myriad problems, including failing — by two minutes — to meet a Thursday deadline for a machine recount in Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s race against Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.
Scott — who eventually emerged the victor in the Senate race — and other Republicans castigated Snipes and Bucher for their handling of the recount, accusing the elections chiefs of incompetence and outright fraud. Snipes on Sunday submitted her resignation to Scott.
But other county supervisors say this year’s three statewide recounts — the first since Florida law was changed after the 2000 presidential recount — show that the system generally worked well.
“Clearly, being the first test of the system for a statewide recount, there are some things that need to be tweaked,” Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections Paul Lux, the president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections, told The News Service of Florida in a telephone interview. “There’s room for improvement, especially as it relates to the deadlines.”
Floridians cast more than 8.2 million ballots through the mail, at early voting sites or on Election Day, according to the state Division of Elections website. In addition to a recount in the U.S. Senate race, recounts were required because of slim margins in the races for governor and agriculture commissioner.
The state Elections Canvassing Commission on Tuesday quickly certified the results of the elections, two days after results of manual recounts were submitted in the U.S. Senate and agriculture-commissioner races. The governor’s race required a machine recount but did not go to a manual, or hand, recount.
In 2000, Florida law did not require statewide recounts, meaning only some counties conducted recounts and, because they had different types of voting machines, the counties used different recount methods. The law was changed in 2001, but the crafters never envisioned the state would undergo three recounts at once, Lux said.
Deadlines for the manual and machine recounts included in state law are built around a mandate that legislators be seated two weeks after the general election — which was Tuesday this year. Also, the deadlines are built around an early December deadline for the Electoral College to vote on the results of presidential elections.
State lawmakers might consider pushing back deadlines to give larger counties more time to tabulate absentee ballots and conduct recounts, Lux and several other elections supervisors suggested during interviews with the News Service this week.
“The discussion has to be, did we see actual problems, or did we see problems that were perceived as problems based on a particular candidate or a particular campaign seeing something that was not going their way, or that was perceived as not going their way,” Lux said. “There’s a huge difference.”
The state also may want to revisit deadlines for mail-in ballots, Lux said. Under current law, mail-in ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day. But overseas ballots postmarked by Election Day can be counted up to 10 days following the election. The mail-in ballot deadline was the subject of one of several lawsuits filed by Democrats in the days following the Nov. 6 election. Other states allow up to 10 days after the election for mail-in ballots to be counted.
Florida could consider allowing mail-in ballots to be counted if they are postmarked before Election Day and received by elections offices within two days after the election, Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles said. That’s the same amount of time allowed for voters who cast provisional ballots to provide documentation to elections offices, Cowles said.
“Our U.S. postal service is not what it used to be,” Cowles said. “I can’t tell you the number of ballots that people put in the mail on Tuesday, thinking they’re still going to count.”
And lawmakers may want to authorize the use of vote centers, Lux proposed. The “mega-precincts” could help eliminate the need for provisional ballots, which are given to voters whose identities or other information cannot be confirmed on Election Day. Critics say minority voters, as well as young or old voters, are more likely to have their provisional ballots tossed.
“Imagine a world where everyone is using some version of a vote center instead of precinct-based voting on Election Day, and you could go to any one of them. You would never find yourself in the wrong precinct. Bam. You’ve just eliminated all of the provisional ballots that are voted by people for being in the wrong precinct,” Lux said.
Elections chiefs also cautioned against basing changes to state laws on hiccups in this year’s election.
“I’m concerned that the Legislature is going to jump on this and overreact. I think that, for the most part, the process worked the way it was supposed to. We’re not supposed to have instant results. When you have a close race, we need to methodically review every ballot,” Polk County Supervisor of Elections Lori Edwards, a former state representative, said.
Many of the county supervisors lamented that the state’s 67 elections chiefs are being viewed with the same contempt as the isolated areas that experienced high-profile problems.
“Clearly there were issues in the counties that were reported, but I think we need to remember, in totality, we got it right,” said Pasco County Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley, adding that the supervisors and their staff “work tirelessly” in the months leading up to the August primary.
The hectic pace continues until after recounts are completed following the general election.
“It’s not fair to the clear majority of supervisor of election offices that went above and beyond,” Corley said. “To be dragged down with a perception of the whole state having issues, it’s not accurate. It’s not fair.”
Edwards also said she wished politicians and the public would tone down the rhetoric in the days following an election.
“I think the folks that were claiming fraud knew darn well, and had plenty of lawyers to explain to them the process, that an election takes a couple of days,” Edwards said. “I think they knew it. And I think it was a political strategy to try to condemn the process for their own political gains.”
Given the razor-thin margins that have become the norm in Florida elections, the state should be prepared to be the focus of scrutiny, even in years like 2018 that don’t involve presidential contests.
“When you’re the largest battleground state in the nation and all the eyes are going to be on Florida forever, there’s no such thing as a low-key midterm,” Corley said.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida