Escambia Elementary Student Is National Track Champion
August 20, 2018
An Escambia County elementary school student is national track champion.
Camron Chandler, 8, only started running track back in April.
At the AAU Junior Olympics in Des Moines, Iowa, early this month, the Longleaf Elementary student finished first in the finals with a time of 13:55. That just nine-hundreths of second shy of a national record.
Pictured: Track champion Camron Chandler at Carver Park in Cantonment, where the Gold Elite Running Club took part in a Back to School Bash recently. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Hundreds Lose Power From Walnut Hill To Barrineau Park; Second Outage In McDavid
August 19, 2018
Escambia River Electric Cooperative reported about 430 members without power Sunday morning from Barrineau Park north to Walnut Hill.
The Walnut Hill Station of Escambia Fire Rescue responded to the report of a power line smoking at 7020 Highway 97 near the Walnut Hill Mennonite School about 11 a.m. They discovered smoke coming from a fuse on a utility pole.
A second unrelated outage involving about 130 customers from McDavid to Bluff Springs was reported about 1 p.m.
The power was restored by mid-afternoon.
Courtesy graphic for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
One Seriously Injured In Early Morning Highway 29 Wreck
August 19, 2018
One person was seriously injured in a single vehicle accident on Highway 29 in McDavid Sunday morning.
The female driver was transported to a Pensacola hospital as a trauma alert. A male in the vehicle was not seriously injured.
The vehicle left Highway 29 near Bogia Road and struck a tree. The accident was found about 6:10 a.m., but had occurred earlier in the morning.
The accident is under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol. The McDavid Station of Escambia Fire Rescue and Esambia County EMS also responded.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Even The Sidewalks Help Kids Learn At Cantonment Park
August 19, 2018
Even the sidewalks help children learn at Carver Park in Cantonment.
Decals placed on sidewalks in the park offer children a chance to play and learn. The decals reinforce concepts that will be important for children when they start school. Skills like counting, letter naming, shape and color identification are built into the nine decal designs.
Partners in the project included the Cantonment Rotary Club and the Studer Community Institute.
Cantonment Rotary President Bobby King said the project was a great match for Rotary’s commitment to community, education and improving the lives of children.
“Carver Park has been recently renovated through the efforts of Cantonment Improvement Community (CIC),” King said. “Their organization is dedicated to helping the children by improving this community. Their efforts and dedication has inspired us. For us at Cantonment Rotary, this was an easy and clear decision to utilize our Rotarian grant for this project. It is a piece of the puzzle in making a difference. Seeing the smile on a child’s face while learning and interacting with the decals is special.”
Carver Park is located at 208 Webb Street. The play and picnic areas at the park are located under the largest natural oak canopy of any Escambia County park.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
New Name, New Sign, New Pediatrician For Cantonment Medical Location
August 19, 2018
After a name change earlier this year from Escambia Community Clinics to Community Health of Northwest Florida, a new sign is now up at their Cantonment location. The location also recently welcomed a new pediatrician.
Samuel Ravenel, MD, FAAP, is now on staff at at Community Health Northwest Florida’s Cantonment Pediatrics location at 470 South Highway 29 in Cantonment,.Cantonment Pediatrics provides medical, dental and behavioral health care in one convenient location for families in Cantonment and surrounding communities.
Ravenel, a general pediatrician, is board certified with the American Board of Pediatrics and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. A 1997 graduate of The Medical University of South Carolina, Ravenel completed his pediatric residency at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, VA.
The doctor is now accepting new patients from 0 through 18 years of age for well-baby and well-child checkups, sick child visits, immunizations, routine physicals, diagnosis and treatment of illnesses, and management of chronic conditions such as allergies, asthma, and ADHD.
Appointments with Ravenel can be made by calling Community Health Northwest Florida’s Cantonment Pediatrics location at (850) 780-0111.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Big Turnout For The First Day Of Early Voting In Escambia County
August 19, 2018
Early voting is underway in Escambia County, and turnout was high on the first day.
Saturday, there were 1,591 early votes cast. That is up 25 percent over 2016, and up 151 percent over 2014.
There have no been 14,082 ballots cast in Escambia County for the August 28 primary election – a 6.73 percent turnout so far.
Early voting continues through Saturday, August 25 at the following locations:
- Supervisor of Elections Office, 213 Palafox Place, Second Floor (8 a.m. – 5 p.m.)
- Main Library, 239 Spring Street (9 a.m. – 6 p.m.)
- Molino Community Center, 6450-A Highway 95A, Molino (9 a.m. – 6 p.m.)
- Genealogy Branch Library, 5740 B, 9th Avenue (9 a.m. – 6 p.m.)
- Southwest Branch Library, 12248 Gulf Beach Highway (9 a.m. – 6 p.m.)
- Mobile Hwy/Pine Forest Rd Early Voting Center, 6675 Pine Forest Road (9 a.m. – 6 p.m.)
- Escambia County Extension, 3740 Stefani Road, Cantonment (9 a.m. – 6 p.m.)
- Brownsville Community Center, 3200 W. DeSoto Street (9 a.m. – 6 p.m.)
It’s Alligator Harvest Season In Florida; 79 Local Permits Issued
August 19, 2018
It’s alligator season in Florida.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) issued more than 7,500 permits, including an additional 1,313 county-wide permits, as a method to help manage the alligator population.
There were 21 permits issued for county-wide harvests in Escambia County and 58 issued in Santa Rosa County.
Alligators are a conservation success story in Florida. They were included on the original federal endangered species list in 1967. Conservation efforts allowed the population to rebound, and they were removed from the list in 1987. Today, the state’s alligator population is estimated at 1.3 million alligators and has been stable for many years.
For over 30 years, the Statewide Alligator Harvest Program has been providing sustainable hunting opportunities throughout the state. The FWC establishes management units with appropriate harvest quotas based on research and proven science to ensure the long-term well-being of the alligator resource.
Recreational alligator hunting is just one part of the FWC’s overall approach to managing the species. The FWC’s Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program (SNAP) is another. People who believe a specific alligator poses a threat to people, pets or property should call FWC’s toll-free Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 866-FWC-GATOR (866-392-4286). When someone concerned about an alligator calls the Nuisance Alligator Hotline, we will dispatch an FWC-contracted nuisance alligator trapper to resolve the situation.
Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Century Correctional Donates Schools Supplies To Bratt, Byrneville Elementary Schools
August 19, 2018
Staff from the Century Correctional Institution collected school supplies and donated them to Bratt Elementary and Byrneville Elementary schools. Pictured: Bratt Elementary School Principal Karen Hall (behind counter) accepts a school supply donation from CCI Warden John Kolodziej (right) and CCI staff. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: ‘We Aren’t The Enemy’
August 19, 2018
“The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom.”
Those aren’t the words of editorial writers at The Boston Globe or at more than 300 newspapers throughout the country who spoke out this week in response to President Donald Trump’s branding of the media as “the enemy of the American people.”
It was John Adams who declared more than two centuries ago that an unfettered press is the backbone of a democracy.
True, Adams was writing long before the age of Twitter, Facebook or the 24/7 news cycle.
But the founding father’s words ring as true, if not more so, than they did way back when.
Editorial boards in every state, including Florida, responded Thursday to the president’s repeated attacks on reporters, news outlets and the purveyors of “fake news” — once derided as the “lamestream media” — just weeks after Trump whipped up hostility toward the press at a Tampa rally.
After the president singled out CNN reporter Jim Acosta, a throng of thousands bombarded the cable news reporter with jeers and obscene gestures.
One journalist who attended the event described the frenzied crowd’s rancor as “unvarnished bile” that “made you actually feel like the enemy of the people.”
While the president’s vitriol is generally aimed at the national press, the distrust of the media he’s implanted among his supporters has infected even those whose duties are to inform of activities as benign as high school soccer games.
Here’s a sample of what the Florida ed boards had to say this week:
“A free press, empowered by the First Amendment, serves as a watchdog over every level of American government, from City Hall to the White House,” the Sun Sentinel schooled.
“We aren’t the enemy. And the loose talk calling us that has to stop. Before somebody — before the very country we all love— gets hurt,” The Palm Beach Post advised.
“We all — as citizens — have a stake in this fight, and the battle lines seem pretty clear. If one first comes successfully for the press as an ‘enemy of the American People,’ what stops someone for coming next for your friends? Your family? Or you?” The Miami Herald wrote.
“Being a journalist was a thankless job well before Donald Trump started referring to the news media as the enemy of the people,” the Gainesville Sun editorial board weighed in. “Independent reporting is necessary to ensure government transparency, expose corruption and other wrongdoing, and inform the public about the consequences of the decisions made by their elected leaders.”
“We try to respond and explain. We stick to the facts. We do our best to be balanced. We can’t address the state of the national media but we can tell our readers for a fact that our locally produced content is not born of any political leaning, we’re reporting the news because that’s our job — and for most of us our passion — and we will do it to the best of our ability no matter what,” the Panama City News Herald wrote. “We are not the enemy of the people. More importantly, we are not your enemy.”
The editorials were published on the same day Aretha Franklin, an American icon revered by presidents, pastors and ordinary people, passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
In one of her most universal tunes, penned by Otis Redding, the queen of soul made a request echoed by journalists on the inside pages on the day of her death. “All I’m askin’,” she sang, is for a little “R-E-S-P-E-C-T.”
13 MILLION — AND BEYOND
Some will vote by mail. Some will vote early. Some will go old-school and vote on the actual election day. Some won’t vote at all.
But slightly more than 13 million Floridians are registered to vote in advance of the Aug. 28 primary elections, according to new figures posted online by the state Division of Elections. Democrats outnumber Republicans, but just barely, as both parties gear up for a fierce battle in November for a U.S. Senate seat and the governor’s office.
As Florida’s population has continued to grow, so has the number of voters, with 13,013,657 registered to cast ballots in the primaries. By comparison, 12.37 million were registered to vote in the 2016 primaries, and 11.8 million were registered to vote in the 2014 primaries.
Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans, but not by a lot — 4,839,434 to 4,594,133. While both parties have seen registration increases since the 2016 primaries, the Democratic margin is about the same as it was two years ago.
Voters who aren’t registered with the Democratic or Republican parties won’t be able to cast ballots in many primary races, including the marquee race for governor. But that hasn’t stopped the trend of Floridians ditching the donkeys and the elephants and registering “no party affiliation.”
The total of so-called NPA voters has climbed to 3,493,494 — or about 27 percent of the electorate. That is up from slightly more than 2.91 million voters, or about 23.6 percent, during the 2016 primaries.
A NEW TWIST ON GERRYMANDERING?
Former Florida Supreme Court Justice Harry Lee Anstead is a plaintiff in a legal challenge trying to scuttle a slew of proposed constitutional amendments placed on the November ballot by the state Constitution Revision Commission.
While individual amendments also face separate lawsuits, the petition filed at the Supreme Court targets six of the eight measures approved this spring by the commission, which has the authority to place proposals directly on the ballot.
The case centers on decisions by the commission to lump together multiple issues into single ballot proposals. For example, one of the measures, known as Amendment 9, asks voters to approve a ban on offshore oil drilling and a ban on vaping and the use of electronic cigarettes in workplaces.
The petition contends, in part, that combining disparate issues in single ballot proposals violates First Amendment rights of voters and is “logrolling” of issues that should be considered separately. It raised the specter of voters having different views of issues in the same ballot proposal — for instance, someone could support a ban on oil drilling but oppose the vaping ban.
“This is logrolling and a form of issue gerrymandering that violates the First Amendment right of the voter to vote for or against specific independent and unrelated proposals to amend the Constitution without paying the price of supporting a measure the voter opposes or opposing a measure the voter supports,” the petition said. “This (Supreme) Court has acknowledged that the right to vote is a fundamental right that may not be abridged in the absence of a compelling and narrowly drawn state interest.”
The issue of combining multiple issues into single ballot proposals drew controversy during the Constitution Revision Commission’s deliberations.
“By bundling different proposals together, what we have done is undermine the work that we have undertaken to make sure that each one of the ballot summaries is clear and fairly informs the voters,” commission member Roberto Martinez said during a debate in April.
But member Brecht Heuchan defended the commission’s approach, saying during the debate he rejected “the notion that somehow these people are not capable of understanding basic related proposals.”
“Voters are very discerning when they go through their ballots,” Heuchan said. “They show up. They do their job, and they regularly come to conclusions that are accepted by all.”
STORY OF THE WEEK: More than 13 million Floridians are registered to vote in the Aug. 28 primary elections.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “As incoming Senate President of the third-largest state in the nation — a bellwether for others — I am committed to making sure our re-examination of school safety policies does not end here. Some issues simply must transcend politics. The safety of our children is one.” — Incoming Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, tweeting on Tuesday as students returned to school for the first full academic year following the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Strahan Dazzles In 5-2 Wahoos Win
August 19, 2018
At a time when the Wahoos were playing at their worst, Wyatt Strahan (W, 7-10) took the hill on Saturday and gave the Wahoos his best. Strahan threw seven innings of one-hit ball as the Wahoos cruised to a 5-2 win in front of a sellout crowd at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
Prior to the game, the Blue Wahoos honored members of both teams from the South’s first interracial Little League game, which took place in 1955. Quint Studer, Bubba Watson, and city officials were on hand to celebrate the bravery of the players involved. Former players were welcomed with their families on the field and proclamations were issued as part of the stirring pregame ceremony.
As for the game, the Wahoos were in dire need of a good start from Strahan with the team coming off three straight losses. The Southern California graduate set the tone early by retiring the Jumbo Shrimp in order to begin the game. It looked like Jacksonville was going to strike in the second inning after Brian Schales singled and John Silviano walked, but Strahan induced Sharif Othman into a foul pop out to end the inning. The single to Schales was the only hit Strahan surrendered, and he finished the game having retired the final 11 Shrimp that came to the plate.
Pensacola’s offense returned to form after scoring a total of four runs in the previous three games of the series. It began with a two-run rally in the fourth. After Siri led off with a ground-rule double, Nay singled off Cody Poteet to setup runners at the corners with nobody out. Narciso Crook hit into a fielder’s choice, which allowed Siri to score and give the Wahoos a 1-0 lead. Crook later scored on a base hit from Shed Long to give the Wahoos a 2-0 advantage.
The Wahoos struck for three more runs in the third. With Chris Okey at second, TJ Friedl and Siri hit back-to-back singles put the Wahoos up by three. Friedl would eventually score on a passed ball by Othman and Siri came home on a sac fly from Nay.
Carlos Navas replaced Strahan in the eighth and finished the game’s final two innings. Despite allowing a pair of runs in the ninth, Navas struck out four on his way to ending the Wahoos three-game losing streak.
Pensacola heads to Biloxi for a pivotal five-game series against the second-place Shuckers. LHP Seth Varner (8-2, 3.07) will start the opening game for the Wahoos while Biloxi has yet to disclose their starting pitcher.