Fire Destroys SUV In Piggly Wiggly Parking Lot
September 14, 2015
Fire destroyed a SUV in the parking lot of the Piggly Wiggly on Highway 97 in Davisville Sunday afternoon.
The engine compartment of the vehicle was fully involved when the first firefighters arrived on scene. No other vehicles were threatened or damaged, and there were no injuries.
The Atmore Fire Department, the Walnut Hill Station of Escambia Fire Rescue and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office responded to the blaze.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
West Florida High Football Player Killed In Crash
September 13, 2015
A pedestrian – who has been identified as a West Florida High School freshman football player - was struck and killed Friday night in Escambia County.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, 21-year old Khadija Aujahne William of Pensacola was traveling south on W Street approaching Lloyd Street in a 2008 Ford Edge when she struck pedestrian Caravez Peterson about 9:36 p.m.
Peterson was pronounced deceased at the scene. Further details have not been released the Florida Highway Patrol.
Grief counselors will be available Monday morning at West Florida High School.
Photo courtesy WFHS Football.
Inmate Mistakenly Released From Jail Is Back Behind Bars
September 13, 2015
The inmate mistakenly released from the Escambia County Jail last Monday by corrections officers is now back behind bars.
Correction officers meant to release Steve Watson on bond, but they retrieved the wrong inmate and mistakenly released 53-year old Peter Watson instead. Peter Watson was being held on $2,500 bond on a shoplifting charge. Shortly after the release, corrections officers realized their mistake and unsuccessfully searched the immediate area surrounding the jail, according to a county news release.
Watson was re-booked into the Escambia County Jail late Friday night.
The incident was under investigation by jail administration and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
Barrineau Park Community Gets Together For Day Of Fun (With Gallery)
September 13, 2015
A Barrineau Park Community Gathering was hled Saturday at the community center on Barrineau Park School Road. Residents of Barrineau Park were joined by friends, family and neighbors for a day of family fun.
There were arts and crafts vendors, plants sales, a bounce house and other games for children, a cake walk, live bands and free admission to the historical museum.
The event was sponsored by the Barrineau Park Historical Society.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
FWC Law Enforcement Report
September 13, 2015
The Florida FWC Division of Law Enforcement reported the following activity during the weekly period ending September 11 in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY
Officers Clark and Pineda were on vessel patrol in Pensacola Bay when they observed a group of individuals snorkeling along the shoreline. One of the individuals was found in possession of 15 Stone Crabs. Most of the crabs were undersized and they were in whole condition. It is unlawful for a stone crab to be kept in whole condition and the claws are required to be at least 2 3/4 inches long. The season for harvesting Stone Crabs is currently closed. Officer Clark issued the individual notice to appear citations for the violations.
Officers Manning and Barnard conducted off shore patrol in federal and state waters. They cited two individuals for possession of red snapper during the closed season and issued a state citation to another individual for possession of grey triggerfish during the closed season. Additionally, they cited a charter boat captain for not having a federal reef fish permit.
SANTA ROSA COUNTY
Officer Hutchinson and Reserve Officer Strong were on patrol at the Blackwater State Park when they observed an SUV parked in a Day Use area. The SUV did not have a day use permit attached to the vehicle. The officers approached the vehicle and made contact with the vehicle’s owners and confirmed that they had not paid the day use fees. While speaking with a passenger of the vehicle, Officer Hutchinson determined that there was a bag containing cannabis in the vehicle. The cannabis was seized and the passenger was charged with possession of less than 20 grams of cannabis.
This report represents some events the FWC handled over the past week; however, it does not include all actions taken by the Division of Law Enforcement. Information provided by FWC.
UWF Holds First Ever Football Scrimmage
September 13, 2015
Chalk up another ‘First’ for the University of West Florida and it’s football program
Head coach Pete Shinnick put his team through a 90-minute scrimmage at University Park Field Saturday morning, marking the first-ever such event in team history.
Crowd estimates of more than 750 were reported with a large number of student groups and Argonaut fans and boosters were in attendance.
The Argonauts currently have 108 student-athletes on the roster for the 2015-16 academic year.
UWF will hold four more scrimmages this season, with three on campus and one at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium in downtown Pensacola on October 17. The remaining scrimmage dates are October 24 (during UWF Homecoming Week) and November 7. Each scrimmage will begin at 11 a.m.
Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Strength Team Delivers Strong Message
September 13, 2015
With feats like crushing concrete and bending steel, the Strength Team brought their strong inspirational messages to Highland Baptist Church, Molino Park Elementary and Jim Allen Elementary.
At the elementary schools, the Strength Team delivered a motivational message, addressing how students can work hard toward obtaining their goals and dreams through education and hard work.
The leader and founder of The Strength Team, Mike Hagen, has dedicated over 20 years of his life to this kind of work. He has spoken to hundreds of thousands of people and performed at thousands of school and church assemblies. He has been featured on CNN, ESPN, and the popular television show “Walker Texas Ranger” with Chuck Norris.
Pictured: The Strength Team Saturday night at Highland Baptist Church in Molino. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Blue Wahoos Out Of Playoffs As Historic Season Ends
September 13, 2015
With one swing, Pensacola 
Blue Wahoos first baseman Marquez Smith cleared up his club’s playoff blues and cleared the bases with a grand slam that rocketed over the left field fence.
In the snap of a finger, Pensacola had five runs in the seventh inning and trailed the Biloxi Shuckers, 7-5, Saturday at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.
Smith’s stroke also ended a Pensacola slump that saw them score just two runs on nine hits through 24 innings and hit .115 (9-78) against one of the best starting rotation in the Southern League, which boasted a 3.17 ERA.
However, the comeback fell short as the Shuckers held on for a 7-5 victory over Pensacola in front of 4,104 fans Saturday. They celebrated with champagne in the dugout as the team’s fireworks show fired up and Biloxi fans chanted “Shuckers!”
Pensacola manager Pat Kelly said Biloxi easily has five position players that are future Major Leaguers, not to mention its stellar pitching rotation.
“That’s a heck of a club,” Kelly said. “They are very talented. Not only can they hit, they got speed and they got defense.”
Smith said he enjoyed playing for the Blue Wahoos all season. He finished the season with nine home runs and 50 RBIs.
“Biloxi is obviously a good team and has a really good staff,” Smith said. “We gave ourselves a chance in the end, we just fell a little short. (Our comeback) says a lot about our guys. That’s a good group of guys in there who are always going to battle.”
It was the first postseason appearance for both franchises. The Blue Wahoos ended the longest drought of missing the playoffs by a Southern League Major League affiliate. The Cincinnati Reds last Double-A team to make the playoffs was Chattanooga in 2006.
The Blue Wahoos, which won a half for the first time since its inaugural season in 2012, came into Saturday’s best-of-five series in a must-win situation after dropping the first two playoff games to the Biloxi Shuckers at MGM Park. But Pensacola quickly fell behind, 7-0.
Biloxi right-hander Tyler Wagner gave up three runs in 6.2 innings and struck out six batters. Meanwhile, the Shuckers were led by a two-run bomb by shortstop Orlando Arcia in a five-run fourth inning.
Pensacola, which finished its season 6-17 against Biloxi, was simply overmatched by the Shuckers, who boasted 11 of the Milwaukee Brewers top 30 prospects, including four of the top 10.
Arcia certainly played against Pensacola like the Brewers top prospect. He went 4-5 with a homer, three doubles and two runs batted in Saturday and for the series batted .615 (8-13) with two home runs, six RBIs, five runs and a triple.
Jesse Winker, who went 1-3 with a single and run, is the Cincinnati Reds top prospect. He was asked about his future and said jokingly he was going home to watch the Buffalo Bills play.
“I have no idea what’s in store for my future,” he said. “I’m going to work hard and just try to get better. Everyone in there (the clubhouse) has a bright future ahead of them.”
Tim Adleman looked to turn around Pensacola’s fortunes. But the tall righty, who entered the game with the third best ERA in the Southern League at 2.64, gave up six runs in his third start in a row, lasting just 3.2 innings.
Adleman allowed 18 runs, 17 earned in 13.1 innings on 22 hits in his last three starts. That’s a very un-Adleman like 11.77 ERA for the Southern League All-Star.
Winker, who played the entire season for the Blue Wahoos, said he enjoyed his second season with the team.
“We went from last place to first place,” said Winker, who led the team in home runs (13), RBIs (55) and batting average (.280). “We’re all proud of that.”
Kelly, who was managing the Blue Wahoos for the first time this year, also said the season was “very fulfilling for me.” He said he was proud of how the team battled in every game all year long.
“You see our turnaround and we basically did it with the same guys,” said Kelly, who plans to manage in the Puerto Rican league this winter. “It’s nice to see them have success and be rewarded for all the hard work they put in.”
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Game On
September 13, 2015
As football season finally has arrived, politicians, special interests and others are setting up plays in Florida’s sports-crazed capital city and the hilltop establishment that calls it home.
The Legislature and critics who challenged congressional districts drawn by lawmakers during the 2012 redistricting process prepared this week for what many hope will be the final drive of the lengthy lawsuit over the state’s U.S. House delegation. Taxi companies, meanwhile, tried to go on offense to fight the mileage being picked up by ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft.
And football itself drew the spotlight in the form of a legal challenge to Florida State University over whether and how guns should be allowed on campus during the Seminoles’ home games. In way, that was a dry run — call it practice — for a legislative showdown over whether firearms should be allowed on campuses in a more-permanent fashion.
Of course, any football fan knows that a team’s game plan is only as good as the results it gets. There was an early (if unsatisfactory) victory by those who wanted to have their guns nearby at real football games, but most of the other players were still waiting to see if the plans set in motion this week would lead to a win or a loss.
REDISTRICTING KICKOFF SET FOR NEXT WEEK
For those who doubted the litigation over the state’s congressional districts was ever going to end, there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. At least for this phase of the fight. And it only took 3 ½ years.
Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis on Friday gave everyone involved in the complicated legal battle until Monday to file maps they believe should be used in the looming 2016 congressional elections. Lewis will then select which one he believes should replace a version of the map drawn by the Legislature and thrown out in July by the Florida Supreme Court. Justices ruled the Legislature’s original plan violated the anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” standards approved by voters in 2010.
Under the schedule approved by Lewis, he will hear arguments starting Sept. 24 on what could be as many as four maps. The House and Senate are each expected to submit plans. Also, a coalition of voting-rights organizations and a group of voters that filed lawsuits challenging an initial version of the map drawn by lawmakers in 2012 could each submit a set of districts to Lewis.
Some plaintiffs — perhaps ironically — said that they didn’t think they should be required to disclose who helps draw their maps. But during a trial last year over the map drawn by the Legislature in 2012, those same plaintiffs harped on the revelation that lawmakers relied on plans that GOP political operatives secretly funneled through a public comment process.
Lewis’ ruling came a few days after the state House foreclosed, once and for all, the possibility of a second special session to try to redraw the districts. The first effort collapsed after a bitter fight between the House and Senate over how far lawmakers could go in amending a “base map” drawn by aides and intended to answer the Supreme Court’s objections.
“It is possible that the Senate will agree to another special session to pass the map that the House adopted with overwhelming and bipartisan support,” House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, wrote in a memo Tuesday to his members. “However, if the Senate continues to maintain its position that the Florida Constitution … gives members more leeway to influence regions of the map for community interests, then we can bring our maps to the court for further guidance.”
That wasn’t precisely what the Senate had in mind, and so the talk quickly died down. Meanwhile, both sides of a lawsuit by Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Brown challenging potential changes to her district have asked a federal judge to delay that trial. Sometimes, the light at the end of the tunnel is another train.
CAB COMPANIES THROW A FLAG ON UBER, LYFT
The rapid growth of ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft has caught state law and taxi businesses off guard. But this week, the taxi industry decided that it was time to fight back in court.
Taxi companies in Tallahassee and Broward County sued the state Tuesday over app-based transportation services, alleging that Florida officials aren’t requiring Uber and Lyft to prove that the way they calculate trip distances — and charges — is accurate.
The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services certifies taxi drivers’ meters — which measure distances, and, consequently, charges — but doesn’t do anything to ensure that the GPS-based systems on Uber and Lyft drivers’ cell phones, also used to calculate charges, are correct, according to the lawsuit.
That puts the taxi drivers at an economic disadvantage, alleges the lawsuit, filed by Tallahassee lawyers Steven Andrews; his son, Ryan Andrews, and Brian Finnerty.
The lawyers want Uber and Lyft to have to submit their software systems for tracking drivers — as well as the drivers’ cell phones — to the agriculture department for inspection. They’re also asking the court to order the department to immediately begin collecting fees from the transportation network companies, called TNCs.
Companies like Uber and Lyft, which are not defendants in the lawsuit, use cell-phone apps to connect customers searching for rides with drivers. The companies then use the same technology, connected with GPS on the drivers’ phones, to measure the time and distance of the rides and calculate the customers’ fares.
The lawsuit points to an example of an Uber driver who charged a Brooklyn woman more than $16,000 for a seven-mile ride to Manhattan in March.
“There could be no clearer example for the need for Uber’s platform, technology, and each Uber driver’s GPS to be measured, tested, and certified by the state of Florida utilizing the standards promulgated by the Department of Agriculture in conformity with National Institute of Standards and Technology,” wrote the lawyers.
Uber officials said the charge was a mistake and apologized to the rider a month later. A company spokesman declined to comment on the Florida lawsuit.
The cab companies followed up Wednesday with another lawsuit, this one accusing services like Uber and Lyft of operating without proper insurance in Florida.
The cab companies alleged in the lawsuit that the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is allowing drivers for the transportation services to operate without the kind of insurance required by law for commercial drivers.
The type of insurance that Uber provides for its drivers, who own or lease their cars, does not meet the requirements of for-hire vehicles, the lawsuit alleges.
Lawmakers earlier this year grappled with proposals to impose a new layer of insurance on the technology companies in an effort to close a coverage “gap” between when a driver is notified about having a customer to pick up and the “on-call” time when the passenger gets in the vehicle. The proposals failed to pass.
But there might be hope for the new services. House Rules Chairman Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, works as an Uber driver while in Tallahassee, raising questions about whether his chamber might view Uber-friendly legislation in a more positive light in the future.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF GUNNER
Florida State University officials probably never imagined that their “Game Day Plan 2015,” a 28-page information packet about the rules for the Seminoles’ home contests, would land them in the middle of the gun-rights fight. But Florida Carry Inc. announced Tuesday that it and FSU graduate student Bekah Hargrove were seeking an injunction against university officials over the game-day guide.
Hargrove, a member of Florida Students for Concealed Carry, and Florida Carry Inc. filed the suit against FSU President John Thrasher and university Police Chief David Perry. They argued the guide failed to follow a 2013 ruling by the 1st District Court of Appeal that said the University of North Florida cannot prevent firearms from being stowed in cars.
Under a section titled “weapons,” the FSU packet stated that weapons are prohibited on campus and that a “fan may not store firearms or other weapons in their vehicles parked on campus while attending the game.”
The school quickly backed down, updating information in the guide about fans keeping firearms in their vehicles.
But that won’t holster the legal challenge. Florida Carry Executive Director Sean Caranna said the group would continue seeking an injunction against Thrasher and Perry.
In updating the guide Wednesday, the university removed references to weapons from a section regarding parking. In another area of the guide, the school noted that while weapons and firearms are permitted in vehicles on campus, the items must be “securely encased in the vehicle.”
But Caranna said only handguns must “meet the definition of being securely encased.”
“The new policy and the statements in their press release are insufficient and factually wrong,” Caranna said. “They could have saved us all a lot of trouble by giving us a call asking us and our attorneys to help them update the policy and come in compliance.”
In a way, both sides could be warming up for next week, when House and Senate panels consider controversial proposals (HB 4001 and SB 68) that would allow people with concealed-weapons licenses to carry firearms at colleges and universities. The idea stalled during this spring’s legislative session, but gun-rights supporters are bringing it back for the 2016 session.
Thrasher, a former powerful lawmaker, has been a key opponent of legislative proposals that would allow people with concealed-weapons licenses to carry guns on college campuses.
“While we fully intend to continue complying with Florida law, I nevertheless reiterate my strenuous opposition to the recent initiatives to permit the carrying of guns on university campuses,” he said in a prepared statement. “I do not believe that arming students increases campus safety.”
STORY OF THE WEEK: The battle over Florida’s congressional lines continued, following a Florida Supreme Court ruling that returned the case to a Leon County judge.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Robe color also could be seen as a reflection of a judge’s mood or attitude that day. Should a defendant facing the death penalty feel trepidation when the presiding judge appears in a red robe or feel more at ease when the robe is green?”—The Florida Supreme Court, in a ruling ordering that all judges should wear black robes on the bench.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Authorities Search For Missing Santa Rosa Man
September 13, 2015
The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s help in locating missing and endangered person.
David Glenn Dobson. 21, was last seen by his family Tuesday evening, September 8. Shortly after dinner he left his residence in the Gulf Breeze area, presumably on foot, and sent a text message to his family saying “I love you”, according to investigators. He has not gone to his job since Tuesday, his cell phone is off and family said that his Facebook account has been deactivated. Deputies said his friends have also not heard from him, and the areas that he has frequented in the past have been checked but no contact has been made.
Dobson is also required to take daily medications, but those were also left behind.
He is 5′8,” 135 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. He has Asian-type lettering tattoos on his right bicep area.
If anyone knows anything about the disappearance or whereabouts of of David Glenn Dobson, they should contact their local law enforcement agency.