FHP Seeks Ford Explorer Involved In Hit And Run Crash
December 10, 2016
The Florida Highway Patrol is searching for a hit and run driver after a shopping center crash Friday afternoon.
According to the FHP, the driver of a Ford Explorer rear-ended a Kia Soul at a stop sign in the parking lot of Publix on University Parkway. The driver of the Explorer fled the scene on University Parkway.
The driver and three passengers in the Kia Soul suffered minor injuries.
The driver of the Ford Explorer was described as a white male, possibly in his 30’s. The vehicle was described as a mid 1990’s to early 2000’s Ford Explorer that was black or navy blue in color. It has a white tape residue around the passenger side window, missing paint at the front of the roof line and rust across the top. The rear of the vehicle has a white decal across the center of the window, a red decal in the right bottom and another decal
in the bottom left corner of the window.
Anyone with information on the crash or the Ford Explorer is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP or email joshuatucker@flhsmv.gov. Tipsters can remain anonymous.
Pictured: Surveillance images of a Food Explorer involved in a hit and run crash Friday afternoon.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: The Plot Thickens
December 10, 2016
If the Florida legislative session were a television series — one of the serial types that have taken over in the last several years — this week would serve as the season premiere, where all of the plot lines were being put into motion.
Gov. Rick Scott and House Speaker Richard Corcoran worked to sell their top priorities for the 2017 session. The perennial skirmishes over gun bills and capital punishment started to boil. And there were those subplots that might play a role later, in ways that are still unclear: Attorney General Pam Bondi’s role in the Trump Administration, for example.
Meanwhile, lawmakers began their training for when the curtain officially rises in March, as the House held “Legislator University” and the Senate geared up for its first week of committee meetings. Soon enough, all of the plot lines that have started up will come together in May. Unless, of course, the show gets an extension that no one wants.
LAW AND ORDER
Associated Industries of Florida’s annual conference offers a chance for state leaders to get the powerful lobbying group behind their top priorities for the legislative session. There was never a doubt that a priority for Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, was an overhaul of the state’s judicial branch. And he argued that it should be one of Associated Industries’ top priorities as well.
Business groups need to realize that the courts — not the Legislature and not Scott — are the main obstacle to free-market reforms, the speaker told the conference, held in Tallahassee.
“If you don’t wrap your heads around the problem that we’re having with the Supreme Court, you’re just going to be doing this over and over again, and at some point you’re going to run out of a good run of conservative leaders in the (legislative) chambers that are willing to work with you,” he warned.
Corcoran also laid out his wish list for the Constitution Revision Commission, which is set to begin working in April to propose changes to the state Constitution for voters to consider in the 2018 elections. As speaker, Corcoran gets to name nine of the 37 members.
In addition to a judicial term-limits proposal, Corcoran said he would like the commission to consider trying to overrule a Supreme Court decision that struck down private-school vouchers funded directly by public money and seek to roll back the courts’ involvement in redistricting under anti-gerrymandering amendments approved by voters in 2010. Corcoran suggested a redistricting commission — an idea favored by Democrats — could be one way to go.
Scott told the conference that more tax and fee cuts could be coming in his budget proposal, which will be unveiled in piecemeal fashion between now and the beginning of the session. Scott has already proposed pay raises for state law-enforcement officers, which he pitched during an appearance the same day in Tampa.
“It’s the right thing to do,” said Scott, whose $11.7 million proposal would boost the salaries of some 4,000 officers such as state troopers, Capitol police and wildlife law-enforcement officers.
Citing a 45-year low in Florida’s crime rate and a rash of recent police killings nationally, Scott said a raise for sworn law-enforcement officers —- whose last raise came in 2014, when all state workers received increases — was overdue.
Scott also refused to rule out granting Florida Department of Corrections officers a similar raise.
“They’re hard workers, correctional officers. State workers work really hard,” said Scott, adding he would consider further proposed raises as he rolls out additional aspects of his budget plan
.
GUNS AND (LETHAL INJECTION) DRUGS
Florida State University President John Thrasher didn’t waste any time this week staking out the same position he and other college presidents have held in the past about guns on campus: They’re not necessary.
While he was a Republican legislator, Thrasher also worked against a bill that would have allowed gun owners with concealed-weapons licenses to bring their firearms to state colleges and universities.
“I opposed it. I killed it. I have worked against it since then,” Thrasher told the FSU faculty this week during his “state of the university” address. “And you have my promise that I will work against it this year also.”
The so-called “campus carry” bill, which in the past has been approved by the House, has already re-emerged as an issue for the 2017 session. Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, filed a new version of the bill (HB 6005) on Wednesday.
A companion bill to that measure — which also contains several other items off the National Rifle Association’s legislative wish list — was filed Friday by Senate Judiciary Chairman Greg Steube, R-Sarasota.
Meanwhile, another hot-button issue drew renewed attention this week when word emerged that the state decided to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit a landmark case in which the justices struck down a death-penalty sentencing process because it gave too much power to judges instead of juries.
Bondi’s office will appeal a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court in the case of Timothy Lee Hurst, according to a motion asking a judge to put on hold a resentencing hearing for Hurst. That resentencing hearing was ordered by the Florida Supreme Court in October.
The state is objecting to the Florida court’s interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in January in the Hurst case, according to the document filed last week in Escambia County.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Hurst’s case found that Florida’s system of allowing judges, instead of juries, to find the facts necessary to impose the death penalty was an unconstitutional violation of the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury. The court sent Hurst’s case back to the Florida high court.
Amid all the legal battling about the death penalty, executions have been on hold.
But records obtained by The News Service of Florida suggest that, whenever resumption of executions happens, state officials could be planning a dramatic change.
The Department of Corrections has spent more than $12,000 this year stockpiling three drugs likely to be used to kill condemned prisoners, according to the records.
The state has never previously used any of the three drugs it has been purchasing since last year, even as Florida’s death penalty remains in limbo after a series of rulings from the courts. The new triple-drug cocktail would be the only one of its kind among the states that rely on similar procedures to kill prisoners.
One of the drugs that Florida could be planning to use as the critical first dosage, used to anesthetize condemned inmates, has never before been used as part of the three-drug execution procedure in the U.S., according to a death-penalty expert at the University of California, Berkeley Law School.
Department of Corrections officials would not comment on whether the agency is considering a change to the lethal-injection protocol or whether the state was forced to seek new drugs due to some pharmaceutical manufacturers in recent years banning the use of their products for executions.
“The death penalty is our most solemn duty. Our foremost objective of the lethal injection process is a humane and dignified process,” agency spokeswoman Michelle Glady said in an email.
MS. BONDI GOES TO WASHINGTON?
Whether the legal strategy of the state will remain in the same hands next year wasn’t at all clear this week. There were rumors that Bondi, who is barred by term limits from running for re-election in 2018, might be headed to the administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
Bondi gave few indications about whether she was really a candidate to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, a position informally known as the drug czar. That speculation is in part fueled by her work as attorney general in trying to crack down on pill mills and synthetic drugs.
“I’m not going to confirm or deny anything right now. I went to New York at the request of the president of the United States-elect,” Bondi told reporters Tuesday after a state Cabinet meeting. She met with Trump the previous week. “I was up there meeting with him, and frankly I don’t think anyone should come out of those meetings and talk about anything that was said in those meetings.”
Scott, asked if he’s considered the type of candidate he’d consider as a replacement for Bondi if she were to resign, also indicated he wasn’t into the speculating.
“I have a total of about 2,900 appointments to boards and commissions. I focus on the things that are in front of me,” Scott said after the Cabinet meeting. “I hope that Attorney General Bondi stays.”
STORY OF THE WEEK: Gov. Rick Scott and other state leaders outlined their legislative priorities as preparations for the spring legislative session began.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “We don’t want this to turn into Lord of the Flies. But at the same time, we have to be cognizant of that.”—House Appropriations Chairman Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, explaining to House lawmakers that any proposed local projects in the budget will have to be paid for by cutting spending somewhere else.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Rule Would Bar Use Of Telemedicine For Marijuana
December 10, 2016
The Florida Board of Medicine this week proposed a rule to make clear that doctors cannot use “telemedicine” to order medical marijuana for patients. Telemedicine involves doctors using the internet and other technology to treat patients who are in other locations. The proposed rule, published Thursday, said that medical marijuana “may not be ordered by means of telemedicine.”
Lawmakers in 2014 approved allowing some patients to use non-euphoric medical cannabis and followed up this year by allowing full-strength marijuana for terminally ill patients. But the use of medical marijuana is expected to dramatically expand after voters last month approved a constitutional amendment that legalizes marijuana for a much-larger number of patients.
by The News Service of Florida
Nemith Signs With Pensacola State
December 10, 2016
Pace High School’s Jake Nemith has signed to play baseball for Pensacola State College. He played his freshman and sophomore years at Gulf Breeze before transferring to Pace two years ago. He is the son of Chris and Gina Nemith. She is a pharmacist in Molino. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Register Now For Century’s Boats And Floats Christmas Parade
December 9, 2016
Century’s 4th Annual Boats and Floats Christmas Parade is set for 5 p.m. on Saturday, December 17.
The parade will line up at 5 p.m. at Century Auto Parts and travel south on North Century Boulevard (visitors must stand on the southbound side) to Showalter Park were there will be vendors and many more festivities. Winners of the boat/float contest will be announced at Showalter Park.
For more information, or to register to enter the parade, call Kim at (850) 256-3208.
Pictured: The 2015 Boats and Floats Christmas Parade in Century. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Woman Charged With Hitting Ex-Husband With Kitchen Pot
December 9, 2016
A Walnut Hill woman has been charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon after allegedly striking her ex-husband in the side of the face with a metal kitchen pot.
Shelley Denise Foster, 46, was booked into the Escambia County Jail where she remained Thursday with bond set at $5,000.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office responded to a reported domestic disturbance on Foster Road off South Pineville Road. When they arrived, they found Foster’s ex-husband covered in blood with a wound to his face. He told deputies that Foster struck him with an unknown object.
Foster told deputies that her ex-husband began to call her vulgar names and threw her onto the kitchen floor. She said she swung a kitchen pot that she had in her hands in attempt to escape her ex.
She also told deputies that she had been ordered by a judge to stay away from her ex-husband. She went to his house, where she currently lives, to retrieve items for a court case, according to the arrest report.
The ex-husband was highly intoxicated at the time of the incident, telling deputies that he had consumed two pints of whiskey. He denied any wrongdoing toward his ex-wife.
The woman claimed that her ex-husband unsuccessfully tried to hit her with a piece of wood, and she said that her back and arms should be bruised or scratched from the altercation. Deputies said in their report that she showed no sign of any injuries.
Deputies arrested Foster at the scene and seized the metal pot as evidence.
Florida Supreme Court Questions Medical Malpractice Law In Escambia Case
December 9, 2016
In an Escambia County case, Florida Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical Thursday about the constitutionality of a 2013 medical-malpractice law that critics argue could lead to violations of patient privacy rights.
Five justices asked critical questions about the law, which is part of years of battles between groups such as doctors and plaintiffs’ attorneys about the state’s malpractice system. The 1st District Court of Appeal upheld the law last year.
The law allows what are known as “ex parte communications” as physicians’ defense attorneys gather information in medical-malpractice disputes. The communications would involve defense attorneys talking with other doctors who have treated the patients involved in the disputes. Those doctors may have treated the patients for issues unrelated to the malpractice allegations — and the patients’ attorneys would not be present for the conversations.
Critics argue, in part, that the law could dissuade people from pursuing medical-malpractice cases because of concerns that private medical information would be disclosed during conversations between their doctors and defense attorneys. During Thursday’s hearing, Justice Barbara Pariente suggested that the law could have a “chilling” effect on malpractice cases.
“Your medical information is one of the most private of what you possess as a citizen, what you talk to your doctor about, your treating doctors, and it could go far from just your medical condition,” Pariente said at another point in the hearing.
The challenge to the law was filed in 2013 in Escambia County. The plaintiff in the case, Emma Gayle Weaver, contemplated filing a medical-malpractice lawsuit against physician Stephen Myers but was concerned about the constitutionality of the ex-parte change, according to court documents. Weaver was the wife of the late Thomas E. Weaver, whose care was at issue in the malpractice allegations.
Erik Bartenhagen, an attorney representing Myers, told the Supreme Court that other states have similar laws and that ex parte communications are aimed at helping resolve malpractice cases.
“The purpose of it is to have a full and free exchange of all information relating to a claim prior to entering the courthouse doors in order to weed out frivolous cases and settle meritorious cases,” Bartenhagen said.
Robert Peck, an attorney representing Weaver, raised a series of constitutional objections to the law, including arguing that it violates privacy rights in the Florida Constitution. Also, he contended that the Legislature’s passage of the law violated the separation of powers because the Supreme Court has the constitutional authority to decide issues such as whether to allow ex parte communications.
The Supreme Court typically takes months to rule on cases. But Pariente was joined by Chief Justice Jorge Labarga and justices R. Fred Lewis, Peggy Quince and James E.C. Perry in asking critical questions about the law. The other justices, Charles Canady and Ricky Polston, sat quietly throughout the 45-minute hearing.
Lewis was particularly pointed in his questions of Bartenhagen, at one point referring to conversations allowed by the law as “clandestine.”
Bartenhagen said much of the patient information can be obtained through other types of evidence-gathering in malpractice cases, but the use of ex parte communications can make the information available earlier.
“I think the feeling is that this will lead to more open and free discussion and that therefore the value of the case will be determined earlier,” he said. “Right now (without ex parte communications), there’s no way for these frank and candid discussions between the defense and other treating physicians to happen until you take a formal deposition or you schedule a sworn statement with the plaintiff there.”
But Lewis indicated he doesn’t think such reasoning means the law is constitutional. He also refuted assertions by Bartenhagen that other protections are in place to prevent the disclosure of private patient information that is not relevant to the malpractice cases.
“There’s no one there (in ex parte discussions) to say, ‘Hey, that’s not relevant, don’t go there,’ ” Lewis said. “How can you protect against it if nobody knows it’s going on?”
by Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida
Third Red Bulb Placed On Fire Safety Wreath
December 9, 2016
A third red bulb was placed on the “Keep the Wreath Green” fire safety wreath to represent a residential structure fire in the 4500 block of Versailles Drive on Thursday, Dec. 8.
Escambia County Emergency Communications received a call at 9 a.m. reporting the fire, which was called under control at 9:21 a.m. One adult male and one adult female were transported by Escambia County EMS to Baptist Hospital. Escambia Fire Rescue Engines 3, 6, 17, 16, Ladder 12, Navy Ladder 34 and EMS responded. The Florida State Fire Marshal is investigating, and the American Red Cross is assisting three adults who were displaced. While the home had a smoke detector, it did not have a battery and was not operational.
The “Keep the Wreath Green” fire safety campaign is a collaborative initiative with the city of Pensacola to promote fire safety during the month of December. During the month-long campaign, five-foot wreaths are on display at 18 county fire stations and five city fire stations, with wreaths also placed outside Escambia County’s Ernie Lee Magaha Government Building downtown, the Escambia County Public Safety Building, Pensacola City Hall and Cordova Mall near the food court entrance. Each time firefighters respond to a residential fire with damage, a green light bulb will be replaced with a red one to remind citizens of the dangers posed by fires in residential home.
Photo Gallery: Flomaton Christmas Parade
December 9, 2016
The annual Flomaton Lighted Christmas Parade wound through the street of Flomaton Thursday night. The parade featured the Flomaton High School Band, Northview High School NJROTC, multiple floats, fire trucks and Santa Claus.
For a photo gallery, click here.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Winner Claims $55K Prize For North Escambia Lottery Ticket
December 9, 2016
The owner of a winning ticket sold last week at a Highway 97 lottery store has claimed his prize.
The Florida Lottery says the December 2 Fantasy 5 ticket worth $55,345.54 was sold to Alphonso Wilson of Grove Hill, AL. He purchased the ticket at the State Line Gift Shop, 11208 Highway 97. It was one of four winning tickets; the other tickets matching all five numbers were sold in Palm Bay, Beverly Hills and Delray Beach.
The ticket was the third winning Fantasy Five ticket sold this year at the State Line Gift Shop.
The 307 tickets matching four numbers won $115 each. Another 8,873 tickets matching three numbers are worth $11 each, and 88,646 ticket holders won a Quick Pick ticket for picking two numbers.
The December 2 winning numbers were 16-20-23-28-33.