Play Ball! Opening Day For Northwest Escambia (With Gallery)
April 3, 2016
Saturday was Opening Day for Northwest Escambia at Bradberry Park in Walnut Hill
For a photo gallery, click here.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
FDOT: Weekly Traffic Alerts
April 3, 2016
Drivers will encounter traffic disruptions on the following state roads in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties as crews perform construction and maintenance activities.
Escambia County:
· Interstate 10 (I-10) Widening, Escambia County – Intermittent and alternating lane closures, between State Road (S.R.) 291 (Davis Highway/Exit 13) and U.S. 90 (Scenic Highway/Exit 17), from 7 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. the week of Monday, April 4 as crews perform construction activities.
· I-10/U.S. 29 Interchange Improvements, Escambia County – The outside lane of I-10 eastbound near U.S. 29 (Exits 10A and 10B) will be closed Sunday, April 3 and Monday, April 4 from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. as crews install barrier wall.
Santa Rosa County:
· U.S. 98, Santa Rosa County - Alternating lane closures, between Central Parkway and the Gulf Breeze Zoo, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Sunday, April 3 through Thursday, April 7 as crews perform work list items.
· I-10 Widening, Santa Rosa County – Alternating lane closures on I-10, between the Escambia Bay Bridge and S.R. 281 (Avalon Boulevard/Exit 22), from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday, April 3 through Thursday, April 7 as crews place barrier wall. In addition, alternating lane closures on Avalon Boulevard near the I-10 interchange during this time as crews perform bridge work.
All activities are weather dependent and may be delayed or rescheduled in the event of inclement weather. Drivers are reminded to use caution, especially at night, when traveling in a work zone and to watch for construction workers and equipment entering and exiting the roadway.
Pictured: Work on widening I-10 near Scenic Highway in Escambia County. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Cantonment Ballpark Revived
April 3, 2016
After an absence of several years, baseball and softball returned Saturday to the Cantonment Ballpark.
For a photo gallery, click here.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Takeout Of Citizens Policies Approved For June
April 3, 2016
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation agreed Friday to allow National Specialty Insurance Co. to acquire up to 19,535 personal residential policies in June from the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance through what is known as the “takeout” process.
The majority of the policies are not expected to exit Citizens, because private insurers typically seek the least-risky policies and policyholders can opt to reject offers. Regulators have approved up to 444,684 policies to potentially be shifted this year in the takeout process. Not all of the takeout periods have occurred, but so far 33,434 policies have changed hands, according to the Office of Insurance Regulation.
The process has helped reduce the number of Citizens policies by about 1 million over the past three years. Citizens reported having 485,588 policies as of Feb. 29.
Century Woman Charged With Stealing $22.7K From Jailed Man’s Account
April 2, 2016
A Century woman has been charged with withdrawing over $20,000 from a Century man’s bank account while he was in jail.
Lolita Shantel Thomas, 27, was charged with grand theft and fraud for withdrawing $22,700 without the account holder’s permission.
The victim, according to arrest report, is former jail bunkmate of Thomas’ boyfriend. Thomas was given permission to retrieve the victim’s vehicle from the county impound lot following his arrest, but she was not given permission to withdraw funds. Thomas was caught on credit union surveillance video with a black male passenger cashing checks at a drive-thru window. The passenger has not yet been charged in the scheme.
The withdrawals were made over a period of two months in 2015.
Tomas was released from the Escambia County Jail on a $10,000 bond.
Flood Warning For Escambia River At Century
April 2, 2016
A flood warning continues for the Escambia River near Century. Minor flooding is forecast. The flood stage is 17 feet. The river is forecast to rise above flood stage by tonight and continue to rise to near 19.8 feet by Sunday evening.
* At 19 feet…Low lying pasture will flood. Cattle should be moved to higher ground.
* At 17 feet…Considerable flooding of lowlands.
* At 13 feet…Minor overflow of lowlands in the area.
Ernest Ward Names Students Of The Month
April 2, 2016
Ernest Ward Middle School has named Students of the Month for January. They are (L-R) Makayla Ramsey, sixth grade; Ariel Ward, seventh grade; Trenton Peebles, eighth grade. Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Driver Cited After Hitting School Bus
April 2, 2016
There were no student injuries in a collision involving a car and a school bus south of Century Friday afternoon.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, 60-year old Steven K. Smith of Montgomery was northbound on Highway 29 near Elsie Davis Road in a Chevrolet Malibu when he braked on the wet roadway and slid into the a school bus. The bus, driven by 53-year old Linda C. Flowers of Century, was stopped with lights activated.
Flowers and 16 students from Byrneville Elementary School were not injured. Smith was transported to D.W. McMillan Hospital in Brewton with minor injuries.
Smith was also cited by the FHP for careless driving.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Florida Dept. Of Corrections To Hire Over 4,000 Corrections Officers
April 2, 2016
The Florida Department of Corrections announced Friday that the agency seeks to hire more than 4,000 correctional officers statewide before July 1, 2017, to fill existing vacancies and account for projected turnover.
A career in corrections offers the unique opportunity to serve and protect our state and communities while making a positive difference in the lives of Florida’s inmates, the agency said in a news release.
“Properly staffing our institutions is critical to the safe and secure operations of our facilities. To ensure that our prisons are staffed appropriately, the Department is seeking more than 4,000 qualified individuals to proudly and bravely serve our state as correctional officers. Our hiring efforts are focused on recruiting courageous, honorable and hardworking men and women to join our team and take on our mission to provide a continuum of services to meet the needs of those entrusted to our care, creating a safe and professional environment with the outcome of reduced victimization, safer communities and an emphasis on the premium of life,” Secretary Julie Jones said.
Correctional officers are responsible for the supervision, care, custody and control of inmates in a correctional institution or facility.
NorthEscambia.com file photo.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Postscripts
April 2, 2016
.No matter what the political fight, there’s almost always a postscript, some lingering bit of fallout that has to be dealt with in the aftermath of victory, defeat or even agreement.
And it was a week of postscripts in Tallahassee. Not any that might require a special session — regardless of a cruel April Fool’s Day tweet from House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island — but some that were notable nonetheless.
The Florida Supreme Court issued yet another decision on the redistricting mess, almost six years after lawmakers began the once-a-decade process of redrawing lines for legislative and congressional districts. Also, a federal judge issued a final decision meant to put to an end, once and for all, to the battle over same-sex marriage.
Gov. Rick Scott signed yet more bills sent to him by the Legislature after the regular session that wrapped up in March. And he and the Cabinet bade farewell to one of the last of the group of outsiders who tried to help Scott navigate the treacherous waters of the Capitol after getting elected in 2010.
WINNING MARGINS
For years, the state’s Republican power structure has been bedeviled by the one institution that has seemed beyond its grasp: the Florida Supreme Court. While a majority of the seven justices on the panel were appointed by GOP governors, the more-liberal wing of the court often enjoys a 5-2 advantage on split decisions.
But twice in the last week, the court saw a division that hasn’t been the usual order of things. Chief Justice Jorge Labarga and Justice R. Fred Lewis, both of whom often vote with the liberals, instead joined conservative justices Charles Canady and Ricky Polston in rulings on a proposed constitutional amendment dealing with solar power and the latest installment of the five-year legal tussle over redistricting.
The solar case didn’t focus on the merits of the proposed amendment, sponsored by a group called “Consumers for Smart Solar.” Instead, the court found that the measure meets wording requirements to go on the November ballot, such as being limited to a single subject and being unambiguous.
“When read within the full context of the ballot title and summary, none of the terms contained within the ballot title and summary are misleading and none of the terms constitute political or emotional rhetoric,” the majority opinion said.
The Consumers for Smart Solar measure, which is supported by major utilities, would generally maintain the status quo in allowing Floridians with solar equipment on their property to sell energy to power companies.
Justice Barbara Pariente wrote a sharp dissent Thursday that echoed views of opponents of the initiative.
“Let the pro-solar energy consumers beware,” Pariente wrote in an opinion backed by justices Peggy Quince and James E.C. Perry. “Masquerading as a pro-solar energy initiative, this proposed constitutional amendment, supported by some of Florida’s major investor-owned electric utility companies, actually seeks to constitutionalize the status quo.”
The same 4-3 split emerged on an issue where Pariente has usually held sway: the redistricting process. In this case, groups that successfully sued to overturn a congressional map approved by the Legislature — which critics said violated the anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” standards approved by voters in 2010 — wanted the state to pay their legal fees for the appeals process.
It was the first opportunity at the Supreme Court for the groups to try out their proposal for a “private attorney general doctrine,” which would allow private parties to collect legal fees in public-interest lawsuits when the government chooses not to pursue litigation.
It fell flat, with Labarga, Lewis, Canady and Polston rejecting the request without comment. That also drew a rebuke from Pariente, who said the Legislature could hardly be counted on to approve a law allowing for those who challenged redistricting proposals to collect attorney fees. Courts would generally rely on such a law to weigh requests for attorneys’ fees.
“The legislative parties spent millions of dollars at taxpayers’ expense to defend their redistricting plans by hiring private attorneys as well as expert witnesses from across the country,” Pariente wrote. “There can be no doubt that the legislative parties, which vigorously opposed the Fair Districts Amendment at the outset … would have never enacted a prevailing party attorneys’ fee statute to support the enforcement of the Fair Districts Amendment, making adoption of the private attorney general doctrine in this instance all the more critical.”
Meanwhile, a federal judge put a coda on the legal fight over same-sex marriage in Florida. Marriage ceremonies have already been underway for more than a year, but U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued a harshly worded final judgment Thursday rejecting state officials’ arguments that such a ruling was unnecessary after last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex nuptials.
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, “one might have expected immediate, unequivocal acceptance,” Hinkle wrote in a 10-page order. Florida lawmakers drew Hinkle’s wrath, at least in part, for refusing during the recent legislative session to address a dispute over birth certificates for children born into same-sex marriages, or to repeal a state law banning gay marriage.
“Here the Florida Legislature has refused to budge; the challenged statutes remain on the books. That result is fully consistent with the defendants’ approach to this case all along. There has been nothing voluntary about the defendants’ change of tack,” Hinkle wrote.
NEED AN AUTO-PEN?
If Scott didn’t already have an ergonomically correct pen before this week, he might be doing some shopping for one now. With the Legislature sending bills to the governor at a relatively brisk pace, Scott spent much of the week churning through proposals that needed his final approval to become law.
The governor signed nearly 30 bills this week, including batches of 14 each on Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesday, he also OK’d a proposal to resolve years of legal disputes between the state and counties about juvenile-detention costs.
The most emotionally resonant measure might have been one (SB 708) setting aside money for the reburial of remains removed from the 1,400-acre site of the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys and establishing plans for a memorial at the reform school, which operated from 1900 to 2011 in the Jackson County community of Marianna.
In recent years, tales of abuse at the school have emerged from former students.
“This law finally ends a tragic chapter in Florida’s history,” Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, a Tampa Democrat who sponsored the bill, said in a prepared statement. “It buries the dead with dignity and establishes a permanent reminder so that the atrocities the children endured at Dozier are neither forgotten nor repeated.”
A 168-page report by University of South Florida researchers was presented to Scott and the Cabinet in January on excavations at the site. The report didn’t verify any students were killed by Dozier staff, but outlined 51 sets of remains unearthed from an area known as the Boot Hill Burial Ground.
The law provides up to $7,500 per family for funeral, reburial and grave-marker costs and calls for the creation of a task force that would make recommendations about an appropriate memorial for the site and how to rebury remains that are unidentified or unclaimed.
Scott also approved a measure (SB 514) that would increase the pay for county supervisors of elections — dramatically in some cases — as well as a bill (SB 912) cracking down on “skimmers” to steal credit-card or debit-card information at gas pumps and a prohibition (SB 938) on selling a number of over-the-counter cough medicines to youths under age 18.
YOU SAY GOODBYE, I DON’T SAY HELLO
Two key figures in Scott’s administration said farewell this week, even as the governor and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater struggled to fill another agency-head position that’s opening up.
The first move was an announcement that Enterprise Florida President and CEO Bill Johnson will leave his job. The announcement came about two weeks after the Legislature declined to go along with Scott’s request to provide the public-private agency with $250 million for corporate recruitment.
The governor’s office announced that Johnson will be “transitioning out” of the Enterprise Florida top job, which he started in March 2015 at an annual salary of $265,000. No reason for the “transitioning out” was provided.
And while the exit of the executive director of the Florida Department of Veteran Affairs might not usually be all that notable, the job is currently held by Mike Prendergast, who was briefly Scott’s first chief of staff and one of the governor’s few early loyalists left in state government.
Prendergast told Scott and the Cabinet that he’s gearing up to run for Citrus County sheriff.
“We do expect you to win if you’re going to do this,” Scott told Prendergast.
The search for Prendergast’s replacement might go more smoothly than the hunt for a new insurance commissioner, which continues after Scott and Atwater couldn’t agree on a candidate.
Atwater recommended that the Florida Cabinet choose state Rep. Bill Hager, R-Delray Beach, for the position and pay him $190,000 a year. Hager is a former Iowa insurance commissioner. But Scott, who had proposed Palm Harbor resident Jeffrey Bragg as a finalist for the position, refused to second Atwater’s motion.
Filling the insurance commissioner job, which attracted 55 applicants, requires the governor and chief financial officer to jointly recommend an applicant for the entire Cabinet to approve.
The Cabinet did unanimously back Scott’s recommendation to hire Leon Biegalski at $150,000 a year to replace departing Department of Revenue Executive Director Marshall Stranburg.
STORY OF THE WEEK: U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle issues a final order declaring that Florida’s voter-approved prohibition against gay marriage is unconstitutional.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “It’s a dark chapter in Florida’s history. We sent young men there to be reformed. It was a reform school. We didn’t send young men there to die.”—Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee, on Scott’s signing of a bill dealing with the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys.