Bush Ends Presidential Bid After SC Loss
February 21, 2016
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush had the money. He had support from large parts of the Republican establishment. And he had a golden name in GOP politics.
But none of it seemed to matter.
After another lackluster finish Saturday in the South Carolina Republican primary, Bush announced he was halting his presidential campaign. Bush made the televised announcement with his wife, Columba, at his side.
“I’m proud of the campaign that we’ve run to unify our country and to advocate conservative solutions that would give more Americans the opportunity to rise up and reach their God-given potential,” Bush said, appearing emotional. “But the people of Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken, and I really respect their decision, so tonight I am suspending my campaign.”
The announcement ended the possibility of Bush following his brother and father into the White House and left five Republicans — including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a former Bush protege — in the race.
Rubio later said he has “incredible affection and admiration” for Bush and the Bush family.
“He was the greatest governor in the history of Florida, and I believe and I pray that his service to our country has not yet ended,” Rubio said.
While the favorite of many Republican insiders and fund-raisers, Bush could never appear to get his footing in a race that has been largely dominated by the outsider Donald Trump. That showed again Saturday, with Trump easily winning the South Carolina primary after also winning in New Hampshire.
Bush announced the campaign suspension as results showed him winning less than 10 percent of the vote in South Carolina and trailing Trump, Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Trump repeatedly took shots at Bush during the campaign, including describing the former governor as “low energy” — a description that got widespread attention.
Bush was elected governor in 1998 and was a dominating presence during his two terms in Tallahassee, earning a reputation as something of a policy wonk. In his speech Saturday night, Bush defended his policy-driven approach to the noisy presidential campaign.
“In this campaign, I have stood my ground, refusing to bend to the political winds,” Bush said. “We put forward detailed, innovative, conservative plans to address the mounting challenges that we face, because despite what you might have heard, ideas matter, policy matters, and I truly hope that these ideas that we’ve laid out will serve as a blueprint for a generation of conservative leaders at every level of government so that we can take back our country.”
Rubio, who was in a battle Saturday night with Cruz for second place in South Carolina, tried to cast the campaign after Bush’s exit as a three-candidate race that includes Rubio, Cruz and Trump. Ohio Gov. John Kasich and physician Ben Carson also remain in the race.
“After tonight, this has become a three-person race, and we will win the nomination,” Rubio said.
by Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida
Photos: Go Inside The Tornado Damaged Century Methodist Church
February 21, 2016
Someone joked to the Rev. Janet Lee that a great hymn for this Sunday morning would be the great classic “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”. She didn’t seem amused.
The community has leaned on the Century United Methodist Church for about 114 years. A simple, but beautiful wooden church that’s stood strong on Church Street since just after the turn of the Century. Notably, a couple of years longer, we’re told, than the Baptist church next door.
Now the church building is precariously leaning after last Monday’s tornado lifted it off it’s foundation and shifted the entire building about two feet away. The building, according to a structural engineer, is a total loss and in danger of possible collapse. It will have to be torn down.
Since Monday, church members and volunteers have worked, despite the danger, to remove stained glass windows, pews and other furniture, and chandeliers from the building. Members have former members have stopped by, some posing for pictures on the porch, and reminiscing about the weddings and funerals and special services — the important moments in their lives and the in the lives of their families — that took place in the little wooden church.
Some are quick to point out that Church is the gathering of the Lord’s people, not the physical building. That Century UMC body, for now, will be holding services in a house they own just across the street for the tornado damaged church.
NorthEscambia.com exclusive photos, click to enlarge.
Reimagine Flomaton Touches Communities In Need
February 21, 2016
The goal of Saturday’s Reimagine Flomaton event was to breathe new life into Flomaton where the faithful reached out to touch the hearts and lives of area residents in need. The event was planned months ago, and suddenly took on a new importance after tornado ravaged areas of Century and Flomaton last Monday.
The event at Hurricane Park included a 15,000 pound food distribution, as well as other free activities and giveaways including clothing, diapers, pillows and laundry detergent. A free lunch was also available.
There were free children’s activities including face painting, bounce houses and a coloring contest in which three children won new bicycles. There was also live Christian music, dance and more.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Tate Showband Members Raising Hawaii Trip Money
February 21, 2016
The Tate High School Showband of the South has a variety of fundraisers planned for the next several months to benefit the band’s trip to Hawaii next December to play at the 75th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. Saturday, a group of band students were raising money outside Tractor Supply on Nine Mile Road. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Small Business Mobile Assistance Center Deployed To Century
February 21, 2016
Following the tornado that swept through northern Escambia County on Monday, the Florida SBDC at the University of West Florida deployed its emergency response Mobile Assistance Center to the town of Century to aid local businesses impacted by the storm.
The FSBDC at UWF has partnered with the Century vouncil members and city officials to place the MAC—a 38-foot RV equipped with laptops, printer, satellite communication, and more—at the Century Chamber of Commerce. Florida SBDC at UWF disaster specialists will be available on-site to help affected businesses prepare disaster loan applications and with other post-disaster challenges.
“We are here to help the business community of Century,” said Kelly Massey, regional director for the Florida SBDC at UWF. “Our center is glad to offer assistance through our MAC unit after this recent storm and tornado hit. We know it has caused damage and grief to the people there, and we intend to provide no-cost consulting services to assist Century in their post-storm challenges.”
“We are deeply saddened to see and hear the stories of damage and loss that individuals and small businesses in our area have suffered,” said Michael Myhre, CEO and network state director for the Florida SBDC Network. “We want businesses to know that we’re here to help in this time of need.”
For more information, contact the Florida SBDC at UWF at (850) 474-2528.
Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Crunch Time
February 21, 2016
Members, bills are dying.
Those four words — or something like them — have long been used by legislative committee chairmen and presiding officers to try to get lawmakers to focus on the task at hand or to move quickly through contentious agendas. The line also happens to fit what starts happening as the session enters its second half.
Some of this year’s bills that are in trouble — such as gun bills bottled up in the Senate by Judiciary Chairman Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami — have been on the brink almost since the legislative session began. Others, like legislation to formalize a gambling agreement between the state and the Seminole Tribe, are “heavy lifts,” to use the phrase almost always attached to gaming bills. One high-profile health-care bill is already formally dead in the Senate.
But other fights live on. The House and Senate are still trying to reach a compromise on Gov. Rick Scott’s two biggest priorities, tax cuts and a package of economic development incentives, though it’s not clear how interested the governor is in compromising on either. And a House floor fight on education this week might act as a preview to even more controversial initiatives on public schools in the weeks ahead.
The more time that the Legislature spends on those proposals, the larger the number of bills that will die.
LET’S MAKE A DEAL
Scott came into the legislative session with two key priorities. And whether planned or not, the House and the Senate each seem willing to give him one. Lawmakers in the House favor a $1 billion tax cut, albeit one structured differently than the governor’s idea, and the upper chamber is willing to go along with a $250 million “Florida Enterprise Fund.”
That scenario makes it very likely that each side will get part of the governor’s agenda, and Scott will end up with half a loaf (or maybe a little more) on both issues.
“I think it’s important that everybody is going to have to give, everybody is going to have to give a little,” Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, told reporters Thursday. “The House is going to have to give, the Senate is going to have to give, and the governor is going to have to give.”
At the same time, Scott’s economic development plans seemed to gain some momentum in the House, where the chamber moved closer to the Senate on a new process for approving incentives. But the funding for the effort remains a sticking point between the two sides.
“We’ve got to start sitting down with the Senate and you’ve got to look at the numbers,” House Appropriations Chairman Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, said. “I think the House is committed to doing as much as we can in tax cuts and that’s what we’ve rolled out in our budget.”
Both the House and Senate are now proposing that any incentive deals through the Florida Enterprise Fund would have at least a 20 percent local financial match. Projects would be intended to create at least 10 jobs, and no payments would be made until performance conditions are met.
The Senate incentives-policy proposal (SB 1646) also would require projected economic benefits to provide a 2.5-to-1 return on investment. The House measure (HB 1325), which initially stood at 5-to-1, has been moved down to a 3-to-1 return on investment.
The talks could affect the Legislature’s one constitutionally required duty of passing a budget before the session adjourns. The tax cuts and incentives are at the heart of discussions about allocations — how much money will be put in each part of the spending plan — that must be done before budget negotiations begin. Gardiner and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, said those negotiations wouldn’t begin until at least early next week.
SUPREME COURT AND SCHOOLS
The House floor was consumed this week with two issues: how to fix the death penalty after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling struck down Florida’s process for sentencing and whether to give parents more choices in education.
A compromise with the Senate on the death penalty, which emerged as an issue when the high court handed down its decision on the first day of the legislative session, overwhelmingly passed the House.
The bill would require at least 10 jurors to recommend the death penalty for the sentence to be imposed and would empower juries to decide whether defendants should die or be imprisoned for life without the chance for parole.
The House and Senate had been split on whether jury recommendations for death sentences should be unanimous, an idea supported by the Senate while the House proposed 9-3 jury decisions. Under current law, simple majorities of juries have been able to recommend execution to judges.
Crisafulli praised the legislation, saying lawmakers have complied with the Supreme Court ruling.
“Changing the requirement for a jury’s sentencing verdict to be agreed upon by at least 10 of the 12 jurors has moved us to a position where we have gone beyond what was asked of us by the Supreme Court. These reforms will allow us to keep the death penalty in our toolbox to punish our most violent criminals,” Crisafulli said.
The education legislation caused fiery clashes in the chamber. The House pushed through bills aimed at giving bonuses to teachers based partly on their scores on college admissions tests (HB 7043); easing the path for some charter school providers to open additional campuses (HB 7029); and allowing students to go to any school in the state that has open seats (HB 699).
Democrats hammered away at the provisions they found objectionable. House Minority Leader Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, lambasted the bill that would allow high-performing charter school providers to more easily expand, saying that calling charter facilities “public schools” was a ruse.
“The rigged system that we have continues to channel public tax dollars to a private-school system that over time is diminishing our traditional schools,” Pafford said.
Republicans responded, as they often do on choice bills, that approaches like charter schools increase the chances that students will get high-quality educations.
“We have to break the chains of the prison guards of the past who want to preserve just what was, and open these doors of opportunity for the future,” said Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala.
TAKING A SHOT WITH SLOTS
Following months of negotiations between the Seminole Tribe and the state on a new gaming compact, the Senate Regulated Industries Committee approved legislation that would likely require more negotiations between the Seminole Tribe and the state.
“We are not back to square one, at all,” committee Chairman Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, told reporters after a meeting Wednesday at which the bill was approved.
Whichever square lawmakers are now on, the Senate legislation would allow pari-mutuels in at least six counties to add slot machines, a move that drove a wedge between the House and the Senate on the $3 billion deal signed by Scott and the Seminoles. Under the compact, the tribe would add craps and roulette to its casino operations in exchange for a guarantee of $3 billion in payments to the state over seven years.
The House is considering a less expansive proposal that would ratify the agreement and allow slots at the Palm Beach Kennel Club and at a new facility in Miami-Dade County, items permitted but not expressly authorized by the compact.
Under an amendment folded into the bill (SB 7072) by Bradley’s committee, pari-mutuels could add slots in six counties where voters have approved the machines — and other counties where voters sign off on them in the future. The six counties are Brevard, Gadsden, Hamilton, Lee, Palm Beach and Washington.
Sen. Joe Negron, who sponsored amendments adopted Wednesday and is set to take over as Senate president in November, insisted that the changes to the compact struck by Scott and the tribe were necessary to keep the measure alive.
“If you have a pure compact, and that’s all you have, it’s not going to pass out of this committee,” Negron, R-Stuart, said before the vote. “It’s very important that we have geographic concerns echoed in the amendment, and I think we can go back to the Seminole Tribe and negotiate out a compact.”
House Regulatory Affairs Chairman Jose Felix Diaz, who worked with Bradley and Scott’s top staff for months to nail down the accord with the tribe, said that he wants state economists to evaluate the economic impact of the Senate changes. As a result, a vote from the House Finance & Tax Committee, expected next week, will be delayed, Diaz said.
“This bill will be touch and go all the way through to the end. I’m optimistic that there’s a path forward. I just don’t know what it is,” Diaz, R-Miami, said Wednesday evening. “It’s going to take some creativity and a lot of time.”
HOSPITAL BILL FLATLINES
During the 2015 legislative session, and the budget special session that followed, health-care bills were the hottest lawmaking fad. The Legislature was dealing with the fallout of a rapidly dwindling supply of federal money for hospitals, and Senate leaders were pushing for a version of Medicaid expansion. The House favored overhaul of health-care regulations, an approach that Scott seemed to share.
The hospital funding crisis has largely been resolved, and any Medicaid expansion is off the table for at least a few more years. But the idea of trimming some regulations has remained, and no potential change was more loaded than rolling back the “certificate of need” process for new health-care facilities.
A Senate version (SB 1144) ran into a wall of opposition from hospitals, nursing homes and hospice providers, and the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee voted 6-2 this week to kill it. The measure would have created exemptions to the certificate of need process, under which the state must review and give approval before new health-care facilities are built.
House Republican leaders want to eliminate certificates of need for hospitals. But the Senate proposal, sponsored by Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, took a different approach — proposing exemptions instead of an outright elimination and also including nursing homes and hospice providers.
The defeat of Gaetz’s bill points to bipartisan opposition in the Senate to making major changes in the process and could signal the demise of the issue during this year’s legislative session. Moments after the vote, Gaetz said supporters of revamping certificates of need could try to add the issue to another health-care bill, though it was not clear how that might happen.
“I haven’t got a plan yet,” he said.
STORY OF THE WEEK: The House and Senate continued working toward an agreement on tax cuts and economic development incentives that could unlock negotiations on the state budget.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Always I have concluded the death penalty is wrong, because it lowers us all. It is a surrender to the worst that is in us. It uses a power, the official power, to kill by execution. That has never brought back a life, never inspired anything but hate. And it has killed many innocent people.”—Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Amtrak Rolls Into Pensacola On Day Two Of Gulf Coast Tour (With Gallery)
February 20, 2016
Day two of Amtrak’s inspection train across the Gulf Coast got underway Friday morning in Pensacola for a trip across the Panhandle and on to Jacksonville. The train was packed with Amtrak officials, local officials and VIPs and the media to gauge the reaction to the possible return of rail service to the Gulf Coast.
Amtrak’s Sunset Limited passenger train, which included service from New Orleans through Pensacola to Jacksonville, came to an end along the Gulf Coast due to damage from Hurricane Katrina.
The train is a test of sorts, testing the potential route and testing the willingness of state leaders from Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana to provide millions in funding for the daily train service
For a photo gallery, click here.
For an earlier story and photos from Amtrak’s arrival in Atmore on Thursday, click here.
Pictured: Amtrak’s arrival Friday morning in Pensacola. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Molino Park Elementary After School Students Learn Fire Safety
February 20, 2016
Volunteers from the Molino Station of Escambia Fire Rescue visited Molino Park Elementary School’s after-school program Friday afternoon to teach the students about fire safety. Photos by Kayla Bedell for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Safety Tips, Laws Apply For Burning Yard Debris From Recent Storms
February 20, 2016
In the wake of recent storms and tornadoes, officials with the Florida Forest Service are encouraging people to practice safe burning if and when they began burning yard debris and blown down limbs and trees.
The Forest Service regulates burning and there are several rules, regulations and tips that residents need to follow in order to stay safe, stay legal, and avoid undesirable impacts from smoke. These rules also apply within the town limits of Century.
Click the graphic to enlarge and see setback requirements for burning.
Some tips and requirements to keep in mind before you burn yard waste include:
- Legal burning hours are between 8 a.m. and one hour before sunset.
- It is illegal to burn household garbage (including paper products), treated lumber, plastics, rubber materials, tires, pesticide, paint and aerosol containers.
- Piles greater than 8 feet in diameter will require an authorization from the Division of Forestry.
- Clear down to bare, mineral soil around your pile to prevent the fire from spreading.
- Don’t burn on windy days.
- Never leave a fire unattended – even for a moment. One gust of wind can cause a fire to escape.
- Grass fires can spread quickly. Be prepared. Keep handy a water hose, shovel or other means to put out the fire.
- Make sure the fire is completely out before leaving it – no smoke and no heat.
- If your fire escapes, call for help quickly. Several minutes may pass before a fire department or the Division of Forestry can arrive on scene.
- If your fire escapes, you might be held liable for the cost of suppression and damages to the property of others.
Minimum required setbacks to legally burn yard waste:
- 25 feet from any forested area (grasslands, brush or other wildlands).
- 25 feet from your home or other combustible structure.
- 50 feet from any paved or public roadway.
- 150 from any occupied dwelling other than your own home.
Cantonment Residents Have ‘Coffee With A Cop’
February 20, 2016
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office held a “Coffee With a Cop” this week at the Greater First Baptist Church of Cantonment.
The Coffee with a Cop event provided an opportunity for community members to ask questions and learn more about what the ESCO is doing in their neighborhood.
Coffee with a Cop is a national initiative supported by the United States Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Similar events are being held across the county, as local police departments, sheriff’s offices, and state police forces strive to make lasting connections with the communities they serve. The program aims to advance the practice of community policing through improving relationships between law enforcement and community members one cup of coffee at a time.
Pictured: Coffee With a Cop at the Greater First Baptist Church of Cantonment. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.