Trump Touts Rural Broadband Initiative, Farm Agenda
January 9, 2018
President Donald Trump Monday unveiled a major initiative designed to strengthen a rural economy that has lagged urban areas in recovery from the recession of 2007-2008. Trump signed two executive orders that fund and streamline the expansion of rural broadband access after an address to 7,400 farmers and ranchers gathered at American Farm Bureau Federation’s 2018 Annual Convention in Nashville.
White House agriculture aide Ray Starling said, “High-speed internet should remain a high priority for the administration.” The report urges faster federal permitting for broadband internet expansion in rural areas and for eased rules for providers to place cell towers on federal lands.
In addition to economic development, Trump touched on issues of particular importance to agriculturists such as regulations, labor and trade. He praised farmers for their enduring values. “We are witnessing a new era of patriotism, prosperity and pride—and at the forefront of this exciting new chapter is the great American farmer.” Farmers, Trump said, “embody the values of hard work, grit, self-reliance and sheer determination.”
“In every decision we make, we are honoring America’s proud farming legacy,” Trump said.
The president spent much of his address decrying the costs of excessive regulation and tallying the rules his administration has moved to eliminate.
“We are also putting an end to the regulatory assault on your way of life. And it was an assault,” he said. Trump singled out the Waters of the United States rule, now being withdrawn following an executive order he signed in the first weeks of his administration. “It sounds so nice, it sounds so innocent, and it was a disaster. People came to me about it and they were crying – men who were tough and strong, women who were tough and strong – because I gave them back their property and I gave them back their farms. We ditched the rule.”
Trump acknowledged controversy over the North American Free Trade Agreement and other trade agreements that account for roughly a quarter of U.S. agriculture revenues. “To level the playing field for all of our farmers and ranchers as well as our manufacturers we are reviewing all of our trade agreements,” he said. “On NAFTA I am working very hard to get a better deal for our farmers and ranchers and manufacturers.”
Trump promised the farm bill would continue to provide a safety net for farmers who are now entering their fifth year of declining incomes. “I look forward to working with Congress to pass the farm bill on time so that it delivers for all of you, and I support a bill that includes crop insurance,” he said.
AFBF President Zippy Duvall said Trump’s visit marked a watershed in D.C. politics.
“Farmers and ranchers have too long faced burdensome regulations,” Duvall said. “This president understands the toll government overreach has taken on ordinary business and is moving swiftly to clear the way for prosperity. We are moving into yet another year of economic difficulty. Relief could not have come at a better time.”
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Barry To Host Road And Bridges Town Hall Meeting
January 9, 2018
District 5 Commissioner Steven Barry will host a Roads and Bridges Town Hall meeting Monday, January 22 at 5 p.m. at the Walnut Hill Ruritan Building at 7850 Highway 97. Residents are invited and encouraged to attend the open forum event to discuss issues with their commissioner.
Pictured: The construction on the Molino Road bridge over Penasula Creek as seen in October. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Scott Proclaims UCF Knights Football National Champions In Florida
January 9, 2018
Governor Rick Scott issued a proclamation Monday declaring the University of Central Florida Knights football team as national champions in Florida after their undefeated, 13-0 season. The UCF Knights beat the Auburn Tigers 34-27 in the Peach Bowl on New Years Day. This season, the Auburn Tigers beat both the Georgia Bulldogs and the Alabama Crimson Tide, who are playing in the last game of the College Football Playoff.
“Florida is home to the country’s best college football, and this season, UCF proved to the world that they can beat any team. By having a perfect season and beating the only team that defeated both Alabama and Georgia this season, the UCF Knights are clearly champions,” Scott said.
Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Century Saves Cash On AED Units, You Can Too With Escambia County Program
January 8, 2018
When the Town of Century decided purchase three automated external defibrillators (AED), they discovered they could save hundreds of dollars using a county program that is available to all Escambia County residents.
The best quote Century obtained for the LifePak CR Plus was $1,659 each, including a wall-mount cabinet. The town was able to purchase the exact same unit at a price of $1,317.31 plus $99 for the cabinet through the Escambia County program, saving the town hundreds of dollars on the three devices.
Century placed their new AED units at town hall, the community center on Highway 4 and the maintenance shop.
Escambia County announced the program in 2016 that gives churches, businesses and even individuals the chance to purchase an AED at the same cost ($1,317.31) the county received during its last bid solicitation.
An automated external defibrillator is a lightweight, portable device that delivers an electric shock through the chest to the heart. The shock can stop an irregular heart rhythm and allow a normal rhythm to resume following sudden cardiac arrest. Sudden cardiac arrest is an abrupt loss of heart function. If it’s not treated within minutes, it quickly leads to death.
According to Escambia County, AEDs are important because they make it possible for more people to respond to a medical emergency where defibrillation is required. Because AEDs are portable, they can be used by anyone who has been trained how to use them – not only by medical professionals. They can be made part of emergency response programs that also include rapid use of 9-1-1 and prompt delivery of CPR. All three of these activities are vital to improving survival from cardiac arrest.
For more information, contact Escambia County Public Safety at (850) 471-6400.
Pictured; An AED installed in the lobby of the Century Town Hall. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Winter Jacket Drive Underway At Tate High School
January 8, 2018
A “Jacket Drive” is going each through January at Tate High School. The school is collecting jackets and sweatshirts in teen and adult sizes. The first period class that collects the most jackets will get a free breakfast.
The goal is to make sure that every Tate Aggie has a warm jacket this winter.
Tate students should take their jacket and sweatshirt donations to the Military Family Counselor’s office in a bag labeled with their first period teacher’s name and room number.
GED Classes Begin At The Molino Community Center
January 8, 2018
GED classes start January 8 at the Molino Community Center and meet every Monday and Thursday from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. This is an open enrollment program, so students may enroll anytime during the semester
Classes are actively taught by certified teachers and personalized instruction is given based on each individual student’s academic level.
Ernest Ward Middle Names Student Of The Month
January 8, 2018
Ernest Ward Middle School has named Students of the Month for December. They are (L-R) Ryleigh Barnes, sixth grade; Drake Driskell, seventh grade; and Tymiriana Wesley, eighth grade. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Escambia BOCC Weekly Meeting Schedule
January 8, 2018
Here is a schedule of Escambia County public meetings for the week of January 8-12:
Monday, Jan. 8
Marine Advisory Committee – 5:30 p.m., Escambia County Central Office Complex, 3363 West Park Place (Agenda)
Tuesday, Jan. 9
Planning Board – Rezoning – 8:30 a.m., Escambia County Central Office Complex, 3363 West Park Place (Agenda)
Planning Board – Regular – 8:35 a.m., Escambia County Central Office Complex, 3363 West Park Place (Agenda)
Environmental Enforcement Special Magistrate – 1:30 p.m., Escambia County Central Office Complex, 3363 West Park Place (Agenda)
Escambia County Housing Finance Authority – 5 p.m., 700 S. Palafox Place
Wednesday, Jan. 10
Contractor Competency Board – 9 a.m., Ernie Lee Magaha Government Building, 221 Palafox Place
Development Review Committee – 1 p.m., Escambia County Central Office Complex, 3363 West Park Place
Mass Transit Advisory Committee – 2 p.m., Escambia County Central Office Complex, 3363 West Park Place (Agenda)
Thursday, Jan. 11
Committee of the Whole – 9 a.m., Ernie Lee Magaha Government Building, 221 Palafox Place
FWC Law Enforcement Report
January 8, 2018
The Florida FWC Division of Law Enforcement reported the following activity during the period ending December 28 in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY
Officer Land was on patrol in the Gulf Islands National Seashore with U.S. Park Ranger Robinson and witnessed multiple duck hunters near the Johnson Beach area of the park. Officer Land and Ranger Robinson contacted the hunters for a resource inspection. When Officer Land inspected one of the subject’s firearms, he found that it was capable of holding more than three shells. The subject was issued a citation for the violation.
Lieutenant Hahr was working in the Perdido River Wildlife Management Area when he contacted a subject in the management area 1.5 hours after sunset as allowed by management area rules. While talking to him, he observed fresh blood on the trunk of the subject’s car. The subject told Lieutenant Hahr that his friend killed a six-point buck that morning, but was evasive when describing the deer. After an interview with the subject and the subject’s friend, who was hunting with him earlier in the day, the friend admitted to killing a “big cow horn.” When Lieutenant Hahr located the carcass, the antlers were only slightly over 4 inches in length. He issued the subject a notice to appear for taking the illegal deer.
Officer Allgood received information that someone was possibly deer hunting in Big Lagoon State Park. He walked into the area and found where someone had been hunting on private property near the property line. There was also sign that the hunter had been in the park. A ground blind, a pile of corn and fresh blood was found on the private property. After a short investigation, Officer Allgood found out who was hunting the area. Officer Manning joined Officer Allgood to interview the subject. After a short interview, the subject admitted to killing a doe deer out of season and illegally entering the park. Officer Allgood seized the deer meat and issued a notice to appear citation for the violation.
Officer Allgood received information that a subject killed two doe deer in one day during the recent doe weekend. The past antlerless weekend it was legal to harvest one antlerless deer per day on private property. Officer Allgood interviewed the subject and obtained a confession. The deer meat was seized as evidence and the subject was issued a notice to appear for the violation.
SANTA ROSA COUNTY
Officers Mullins and Officer Roberson responded to a call in Blackwater River State Forest where a subject was reported to have shot a doe out of season. The subject stated that he had shot the doe by accident and was aiming at a buck. The subject was also hunting two days before deer season reopened in Blackwater River State Forest by management area rules. Officer Roberson issued the subject a misdemeanor citation for hunting out of season and a warning for taking a doe out of season.
Florida GOP Leaders Urge Focus As Mid-Terms Gear Up
January 8, 2018
Florida Republican leaders Saturday talked of the need to drown out media chatter amid predictions of Democratic gains in this year’s mid-term elections and attacks on the GOP’s unconventional president.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio told members of the Republican Party of Florida gathered for an annual meeting in Orlando to stick with the game plan of policy and tax reform and judicial appointments pushed by President Donald Trump.
“All the headlines in the year to come are going to be about how Republicans are going to get wiped out because in a mid-term election, the president’s party always loses seats. But I would just say this is not a conventional president,” Rubio said to applause. “I think if we’ve learned anything in the last year-and-a-half is that Americans have changed a lot in the way they view politics and in the way they consume news and information. And the country is facing some real stark choices.”
Party Chairman Blaise Ingoglia, a state representative from Spring Hill, advised members to maintain “grassroots” efforts that worked in 2016, as the GOP tries this year to keep the governor’s mansion and state Cabinet in “capable Republican hands” and to “finally send (Democratic U.S. Sen.) Bill Nelson into a final retirement.”
“Then we (can) put the final nail in the coffin of the Florida Democratic Party,” Ingoglia added.
Still, the two-day conference was not all about rallying the troops and harmony.
In a surprisingly divisive contest among “Trump Republicans,” Kathleen King was elected to complete the final two years of the term of former Florida Republican National Committeewoman Sharon Day.
Day, a former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, stepped down last year when she was named by Trump as ambassador to Costa Rica.
King, the Manatee County Republican chairwoman, was appointed in the fall as an interim replacement for Day. She received 128 votes Saturday from among 177 state party members to defeat Karen Giorno of West Palm Beach.
Giorno served as Trump’s state director during the 2016 primary. But she was moved out of that role during a campaign shakeup in September 2016 that saw veteran campaign strategist Susie Wiles become the new Florida director, a matter that was played up in support of King on social media prior to Saturday’s vote.
Tony Ledbetter, chairman of the Volusia County Republican Executive Committee who backed Giorno, denounced the online attacks against his candidate’s lack of party credentials as “fake news.”
“For 25 years (Giorno’s) been working presidential campaigns,” Ledbetter said of Giorno while both candidates met with various party caucuses Friday night.
Giorno said Saturday it was “not fair” to call her an outsider, pointing to her resume as a strategist for national Republican figures and existing relationships with Trump and Gov. Rick Scott.
She had criticized King as an “establishment figure” with no national political experience.
The party’s committeewoman, committeeman and party chairman represent the state on the Republican National Committee.
Saturday’s meeting also came on the heels of U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, a Republican from Palm Coast, vowing to “drain the swamp in Tallahassee” as he formally jumped into the gubernatorial contest on Friday.
Rival candidate Adam Putnam, who was among a number of statewide candidates making the rounds at the conference Friday night, dismissed the notion that the Republican-dominated state Capitol resembles the Washington quagmire.
“Washington is a swamp. A big part of the reason I left was to come home where you can make a difference, you make an impact, you can drive an agenda,” said Putnam, a congressman before getting elected in 2010 to the first of his two terms as state agriculture commissioner. “And that’s exactly what we’ve done. We’ve transformed the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in the last seven years. And with Gov. Scott we have brought Florida back from the brink. I think you can pull any random 20 people out of a Circle K and ask them where the real swamp is and all of them would know that it is Washington.”
DeSantis, who on Saturday gave a partisan overview of where Congress is going in 2018, told reporters that his “swamp” comparison was more in reference to a culture where sexual harassment and entitlement behavior are rampant in both locations.
“I think the thing that we’ve seen in Tallahassee is a lot of people having to resign from the Legislature. A lot of bad conduct has come out. I think there are problems with harassment that need to be addressed,” DeSantis said. “In Washington, the bureaucracy really doesn’t change when Republican get in there. It’s a permanent bureaucracy. So, it’s a little bit different.”
A number of this year’s statewide candidates addressed different caucuses Friday, with some hosting ice cream socials.
State Rep. Jay Fant of Jacksonville, running for attorney general on a platform of “God and family, the United States Constitution and free enterprise,” vowed to prosecute elected officials who support “sanctuary cities” and told party members that “you want to see Planned Parenthood go away. I want to see them go away the very first day I’m attorney general.”
Former Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Ashley Moody, also running to replace term-limited Attorney General Pam Bondi, pointed to courtroom experience on issues ranging from the opioid epidemic to human trafficking and senior abuse.
“These are complicated prosecutions,” Moody said. “You need somebody who has handled these in the past. This is not time for Florida to elect an attorney general who is a politician. We need a practitioner.”
While Ingoglia noted statewide candidates in attendance, he acknowledged that some state lawmakers were excusably absent on Saturday, as this was the final weekend to raise money before Tuesday’s start of the 2018 legislative session. Legislators are prohibited from fundraising during the 60-day session.
Scott, meanwhile, is widely expected to challenge Nelson for the U.S. Senate seat, though he has not declared his candidacy. Scott was not in attendance at the party meeting.
A schedule released by the governor’s office had him in Hollywood on Saturday afternoon to attend services for Broward County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael David Ryan, who died Dec. 31 after collapsing outside a jail.
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida