Tate High Showband Of The South To Perform At Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
October 14, 2015
The Tate High School Showband of the South is headed to Hawaii in December 2016 to take part in the 75th Anniversary Pearl Harbor Mass Band. They will join bands from around the United States and Japan in a concert commemorating the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The mass band, including the Tate Showband, will perform on the pier of the U.S.S Battleship Missouri in a worldwide live webcast “Gift of Music” concert on December 7, 2016.
“This is truly a once in a lifetime event; it really is,” Band Director Mike Philley said Tuesday night as he announced the trip at a Band Boosters meeting. “It is going to take a community effort to get us there.”
The Tate High Wind Ensemble has taken part in the Pearl Harbor event at Naval Air Station Pensacola for at least 10 years, making the Pearl Harbor trip a natural fit.
“When this came about. that was the right way to go. It’s a natural tie-in; we are a Navy town. a lot of military, active duty and retired,” Philley said. “And it just really felt like it would be a great fit for our kids and our program.”
The trip was announced more than a year in advance to give the Band Boosters and band members a chance to raise the funds needed for the 215 member band. Those fund raising plans will be announced soon.
Last year, the Tate Showband took part in the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade and ventured to Washington, D.C. The band has taken part in many major venues, including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Tournament of Roses Parade, the Cotton Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl parades and even a St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin, Ireland.
Pictured top: Students and parents react Tuesday night as Tate High School Showband of the South Director Mike Philley announces and upcoming performance in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (Courtesy image.) Pictured below: The Tate Wind Ensemble performs last December during the Pearl Harbor ceremony aboard Naval Air Station Pensacola. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
The ‘Midol’ Defense: More Details Released In Century Attempted Murder
October 14, 2015
More details have been released about a shooting incident last Wednesday night that ended with Century man charged with attempted murder and a car full of bullet holes in a Whataburger parking lot. And there were also holes in a potential Midol purchase defense offered by the suspect’s mother.
Akino Jama Jackson, 23, was charged with attempted first degree premeditated murder shooting into an occupied vehicle and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He remains in the Escambia County Jail without bond, awaiting an arraignment hearing on October 30.
According to an Escambia County Sheriff’s Office report, Jackson armed himself with an unknown model and type of firearm and fired eight times into a Dodge Charger, shooting Roosevelt Dixon in the back four times causing serious injuries. Dixon’s girlfriend, Amanda Conner, was in the front passenger seat at the time the shots were fired. She suffered injuries from broken glass but did not seek medical treatment.
At the scene at the Whataburger, Conner told deputies that she had received threatening text messages for the last several weeks from Jackson, her ex-boyfriend. She said the messages included threats about harming her and threats about shooting her car.
Conner told investigators that she and Dixon were at his mother’s residence on Ivey Street in Century, and they had noticed a car in the area that Dixon was concerned about. She said they left the mother’s trailer, eventually turning onto Old Flomaton Road. She said they traveled a short distance when she heard a loud noise followed by a another loud noise during which glass shattered. Dixon told Conner that he had been shot. At this point, they turned the car around, still not seeing the vehicle from which the shots were fired, and headed back to Ivey Street where Dixon got out of the Dodge Charger.
Conner then headed toward the Century Sheriff’s Precinct on Highway 29 in the Charger, stopping along the way at the Century Whataburger where she observed a deputy on a traffic stop.
An investigator noted finding numerous text messages from Jackson on Conner’s phone making threats to harm her and Dixon and to shoot the vehicle in which they were passengers.
At Whataburger, the investigator was approached by Jackson’s mother who said she knew deputies were looking for him. However, she said Jackson could not have been him because he called her from the Wal-Mart in Ensley near the time of the shooting. She continue to explain that he called her and she asked him purchase Midol. She said he did purchase the drug.
However, the call data she provided was from an outgoing call to Jackson, not an incoming call, according to the arrest report.
An investigator contacted Dixon at Sacred Heart Hospital, and he positively identified Jackson as the person who shot him. Dixon’s injuries were not considered life threatening.
Investigators were able to obtain transaction reports on the potential Midol purchase, but those purchase were made at 2:20 p.m. and 10:53 p.m. — hours before or after the shooting at about 8 p.m.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Senate Committee To Consider Evers’ Guns On Campus Bill
October 14, 2015
Amid a national focus on campus shootings, a state Senate committee next week will consider a bill that would allow people with concealed-weapons licenses to carry firearms at Florida colleges and universities.
The Senate Higher Education Committee is scheduled next Tuesday to take up the bill, filed by Sen. Greg Evers, R-Baker. The proposal has already passed the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, which is chaired by Evers, and an identical House version (HB 4001) has been approved by the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee.
The bills are filed for the 2016 legislative session, which starts in January. The issue has been highly controversial, with university-system leaders opposed to allowing guns on campus and Second Amendment advocates arguing for the bills. But it is likely to draw even more debate after a mass shooting Oct. 1 at an Oregon community college and other shooting incidents in Arizona and Texas.
by The News Service of Florida
U.S. Supreme Court Weighs Death Penalty Law In Nine Mile Road Killing
October 14, 2015
U.S. Supreme Court justices Tuesday spent an hour questioning attorneys in a case that could force key changes in the way Florida carries out the death penalty.
The appeal was brought on behalf of death row inmate Timothy Lee Hurst, who was convicted in the 1998 murder of a fast food worker in Escambia County and contends that Florida’s unique sentencing system is unconstitutional.
In part, Florida’s system does not require unanimous jury recommendations before judges can sentence defendants to death. Also, the case focuses on the interplay between juries and judges on “aggravating” circumstances, which must be found before death sentences can be imposed.
Seth Waxman, a former U.S. solicitor general representing Hurst, argued Tuesday that Florida’s sentencing system is unconstitutional under a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling known as Ring v. Arizona, according to a transcript of the hearing. But state Solicitor General Allen Winsor disputed that argument, saying “Florida’s capital sentencing system was constitutional before Ring v. Arizona and it remains constitutional in light of Ring v. Arizona.”
It likely will take months for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule, but the case could have far-reaching effects if justices find the system unconstitutional.
Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami, and Sen. Thad Altman, R-Rockledge, filed bills last month that would require unanimous jury recommendations before death sentences are imposed and would make changes in state law about the issue of aggravating circumstances. The bills (HB 157 and SB 330) will be considered during the 2016 legislative session, which starts in January. Rodriguez and Altman also filed bills for the 2015 session, but the measures did not make it to the House and Senate floors.
Hurst, now 36, was convicted of the murder of Cynthia Lee Harrison, who was an assistant manager at a Popeye’s Fried Chicken restaurant where Hurst worked. Harrison’s body was discovered bound in a freezer, and money was missing from a safe, according to a brief in the case.
Two Women Suspected In Theft From Nine Mile Business
October 14, 2015
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is searching for the two women in this surveillance camera image.
Investigators said Tuesday that they are suspected of stealing an employee’s wallet at Uniquely Yours Boutique on East Nine Mile Road last month. A witness says while one woman distracted the employee, the other stole the wallet. The victim’s credit cards were then used multiple times.
Anyone with information on their identity is asked to call the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9620 or Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP.
Image courtesy Escambia County Sheriff’s Office for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Gambling Talks Continue Between The Seminoles And Scott
October 14, 2015
Seminole casinos would get craps and roulette, a Palm Beach County dog track could have slot machines and the state could reap at least $3 billion over seven years, under a gambling deal being negotiated between state leaders and the tribe.
The agreement — still a long way from being finalized — would also allow a new gambling operation in Miami-Dade County to start up with slot machines and permit dog tracks to stop racing greyhounds while retaining lucrative card rooms.
Multiple sources close to the negotiations provided details to The News Service of Florida about the ongoing talks between the Seminoles and Gov. Rick Scott’s office, which is working in tandem with House and Senate leaders to rewrite a 20-year agreement, called a “compact,” that authorized the tribe’s slot-machine and table-game operations. A provision of the deal, inked in 2010, gave the Seminoles exclusive rights to operate banked card games, such as blackjack, for five years in exchange for a minimum payment of $1 billion. That portion of the compact expired this summer.
Under the talks, the Seminoles would guarantee a minimum $3 billion over seven years as part of compact that would last another 20 years.
“What I can confirm is that negotiations have made significant progress. We’re at a place where the taxpayers will be seeing a significantly higher share from the tribe than they currently receive. That would be hundreds of millions of dollars that we could use to invest in education, infrastructure or other core services. … I can also confirm that we could do all of this and also, for the first time, contract gaming in areas where it’s dying,” Senate Regulated Industries Chairman Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, told The News Service on Tuesday.
A portion of the revenues would go to supplement purses for thoroughbred horse races, now running at Gulfstream Racetrack and Tampa Bay Downs.
The latest proposal would also ban “player-banked” card games, now underway at a number of pari-mutuels, in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Pari-mutuels in other counties could continue to run the games, in which the “bank” is another player instead of “the house,” but the state would impose clearer guidelines regarding the popular games.
The Seminoles contend that the games, first authorized by state gambling regulators in 2011, violate the tribe’s rights to exclusivity in operating banked card games, which typically involve players betting against the house instead of against each other.
Many of the components now under discussion don’t directly affect the Seminoles but instead deal with the pari-mutuel industry and would be considered as part of a bill authorizing the agreement, which lawmakers would most likely consider during the legislative session that begins in January.
For example, the Seminoles are purportedly “agnostic” about decoupling horse and dog racing from other gambling activities, including slots at the South Florida pari-mutuels and card rooms at facilities in other counties. Currently, pari-mutuels are required to have racing or jai alai games if they want to offer card rooms or slots.
While it is almost certain that any legislation would allow dog tracks to drop greyhound races, doing away with horse racing is more contentious. One possibility, according to sources involved in the talks, would require thoroughbred tracks to continue racing but allow tracks that use other types of horses, such as quarter horses, to do away with racing altogether if they choose.
The Seminoles are also seeking to tighten a “hope provision” included in the original agreement that allows the tribe to reduce its payments to the state if South Florida pari-mutuels are allowed to have banked card games, or if slots are authorized at any facilities that weren’t already operating in Broward or Miami-Dade, except for Hialeah Race Track, when the deal was signed in 2010.
That could dash South Florida operators’ hopes of adding blackjack. Instead, they would have to settle for decoupling and as much as a 10 percent reduction in the tax rate that they pay on slot machine revenues.
Getting the requisite support for such a deal from the Republican-dominated Legislature is problematic. Many members are prone to protect pari-mutuel operators in their own backyards or have ideological objections to gambling in general, which could prompt them to cast a “no” vote against any gambling-related proposal.
Slots for the Palm Beach Kennel Club are considered crucial to getting any bill out of Bradley’s Regulated Industries Committee, whose members include several Palm Beach County legislators.
The addition of slots would be contingent on the track’s purchase of at least one active pari-mutuel license elsewhere, according to those involved in the negotiations. The same would apply to a new gambling permit for a facility in Miami-Dade County, which would likely be granted based on a competitive bid and require some sort of payment to the state. Both the new facility and the Palm Beach dog track would be restricted to having fewer slots than the maximum 1,500 machines now allowed at pari-mutuels in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Granting slots to the Palm Beach dog track while prohibiting the cash cows in other counties where voters have approved them — including Lee, Brevard and Gadsden — is rife with political problems. Limiting slots expansion to Palm Beach County, just north of the two counties where slots are already in operation, could gain support among gambling-leery conservatives in the House. But it could also cost the endorsement of legislators who want their local operators to reap the same benefits.
Requiring the Legislature’s approval injects doubt into a complicated gambling agreement much like “putting a queen-sized sheet on a king-sized bed,” according to House Regulatory Affairs Chairman Jose Felix Diaz, a Miami-Dade County Republican.
“It’s a Rubik’s cube. I don’t think a Rubik’s cube is impossible to solve. If you give an intelligent person enough time, they’ll figure it out. But in the world of competing interests where you have so many other things taking place. … Right now we’ve been singularly focused on the compact because it’s the off-season. But we’re about to ramp up and start swallowing water out of the fire hose. So where Rob Bradley and I have been able to fully dedicate ourselves to this negotiation over the past few months, now I’m going to have to be digesting insurance bills and energy bills and business regulation bills that come before my committee. The timeline for an easy landing is winding down. With each passing day, it becomes more difficult to have a soft landing,” Diaz told The News Service on Tuesday.
And, unlike nearly a decade ago when then-Gov. Charlie Crist championed the gambling deal with the Seminoles, neither Scott nor leaders in the House and Senate leader have openly advocated for a new agreement with the tribe, making the odds for final passage of a compact even longer.
“The state of the economy is completely different than it was when the original deal was inked back in 2010. At the time the deal was put together, the state budget was enhanced by $435 million. Now, we’re in a situation where the economy is much better. We’re not spending or counting on the dollars from the Seminole Tribe. And we’re not dealing with a governor who is defending an existing deal as being valid, like we were with Gov. Crist back then,” said Senate Majority Leader Bill Galvano, a Bradenton Republican who, as a House member, was instrumental in crafting the 2010 deal with the Seminoles.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Northview Chiefs Volleyball Marks Senior Night
October 14, 2015
Tuesday night was Senior Night for the Northview High School volleyball team as they honored seniors Hanna Ging, Savanna Roux, Maddi Weber, Leah Fischer, Brittney Ward and Laurie Purdy.
On the court, W.S. Neal defeated Northview 18-25, 25-19, 20-25, 25-11, 15-12. In junior varsity action, W.S. Neal defeated Northview 25-22, 27-25.
Both teams will travel to West Florida on Thursday.
Pictured top: Northview seniors (L-R) Hanna Ging, Savanna Roux, Maddi Weber, Leah Fischer, Brittney Ward and Laurie Purdy. NorthEscambia.com photos by Gary Amerson, click to enlarge.
FHP Investigating Fatal Crash
October 14, 2015
A fatal crash Tuesday in Escambia County is under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol.
According to the FHP, a 2010 Toyota Camry drive by 57-year old Doan Thi Thuy-Nga and a 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier drive by 76-year old Clara Darby Ward collided at the intersection of Mobile Highway and Boulder Avenue.
Ward was pronounced deceased at Sacred Heart Hospital after the crash; Thuy-Nga was taken to Sacred Heart in serious condition.
The FHP has not released details on the cause of the accident as they continue their traffic homicide investigation. And charges are pending the outcome of that investigation.
Another Atmore Home Heavily Damaged By Fire
October 13, 2015
A home in the 300 block of South Presley Street in Atmore was heavily damaged by fire early Tuesday morning. It was the second house fire in Atmore in less than 24 hours.
There were no injuries reported in either fire.
For information about Monday’s fire, click here for an earlier story.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Farm Tour Highlights North Escambia Agriculture (With Photo Gallery)
October 13, 2015
Participants in the Escambia County Farm Tour recently learned about agriculture in the North Escambia area.
Local governmental officials, community leaders and even international visitors toured several agricultural locations in North Escambia and get an up close and personal look at a variety of farming activities.
Following registration at the Molino Community Center, farm tour participants heard presentations from 4-H members before heading to Lulu Road in Molino to learn about forestry. Attendees then observed peanut production with Eric Koehn on Crabtree Church Road, visited the Birdsong Peanut Buying Point outside Atmore, and watched a cotton harvest with Mike Koehn on Kansas Road in Walnut Hill.
The farm tour then stopped to observe the growth of a sun hemp, a cover crop growing at Highway 97 and Kansas Road in Walnut Hill, and then visited the West Florida Gin Company on Meadows Road near Davisville.
Pictured top: Cotton production, and pictured inset: Peanut production. Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com. Pictured below: Inside the West Florid Gin with cotton ginning equipment. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
