Gambling Negotiations With Seminoles Back On Track
August 23, 2015
A stalemate between the state and the Seminole Tribe of Florida about the tribe’s right to offer blackjack and other games at its casinos appears to have thawed, according to a top Senate negotiator.
The renewed talks signal the possibility of a new deal before an October deadline. Without a deal, the state contends the tribe would be forced to shut down banked card games, including blackjack. The Seminoles maintain they have the right to keep the cards going even without an agreement, known as a “compact,” with the state.
Senate Regulated Industries Chairman Rob Bradley told The News Service of Florida on Friday that he, his House counterpart and Gov. Rick Scott’s top lawyer met with the tribe on the issue as recently as this week.
The latest discussions could be a significant turnaround from the standoff over the banked cards, part of a $1 billion deal inked five years ago by then-Gov. Charlie Crist. According to the 2010 agreement, the Seminoles have 90 days after the compact expired on July 31 to continue operating the banked card games. Both sides hope to finalize a new pact before that time period runs out. But legislative leaders have likened the complicated gambling deal — which also affects the state’s pari-mutuel industry, especially in Southeast Florida and the Tampa Bay area — to a “three-dimensional game of chess.”
Talks broke down during this spring’s regular legislative session and languished, prompting the tribe late last month to request mediation in the dispute. Also last month, Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Ken Lawson asked the tribe “to discuss your plan and proposed timeline for the closure of banked card games at your tribal facilities.”
In the recent détente, Scott’s general counsel Tim Cerio, House Regulatory Affairs Chairman Jose Felix Diaz, R-Miami, and Bradley have held meetings with tribal representatives over the past three weeks, Bradley said. Scott’s administration confirmed that negotiations are ongoing.
“We are making progress in discussions with the tribe. I’m hopeful that we can reach a point where we have something to offer to the membership to consider and debate,” Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said Friday.
Relying on agents from both chambers and the governor’s office “is a good model,” Bradley said.
“If we’re going to find a solution here, that’s the way to do it,” he said.
Before the original compact was finalized, the Legislature sued Crist for entering an agreement with the Seminoles without lawmakers’ approval. The Florida Supreme Court later ruled that any deal between the state and the tribe requires the Legislature’s blessing.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Galvano, who, as a House member was the Legislature’s chief negotiator on the original compact five years ago, has maintained that Scott could enter an agreement with the tribe prior to the banked card-game deadline. Lawmakers could authorize the agreement when they return for the regular session in January, thus allowing the tribe to keep the games running without a legislative special session to ratify the compact, according to Galvano, R-Bradenton.
Specifics of the current talks remain under wraps, but the Seminoles have expressed an interest in adding roulette and craps and expanding the number of casinos — now limited to five of their seven facilities — where they can offer banked cards. In exchange, the state would want more than the $250 million minimum annual payment now guaranteed by the tribe. Any agreement, however, would have to include some sort of “exclusivity” for the tribe, and would have to be approved by the federal government.
“The tribe obviously wants to have as much exclusivity as possible. But you also have the political realities of finding a majority of votes in both houses and you have to get the governor satisfied,” Bradley said.
The Seminoles did not comment on the negotiations.
The looming fall deadline boosts the odds for an accord, Bradley said.
“The closer we get to the deadline, the more pressure is put upon the parties to find a resolution. Deadlines are very useful in that way. I would anticipate that if a deal is to be had, it would be done within the deadlines contained in the agreements,” he said.
New West Florida Library Director On The Job
August 23, 2015
The new director of the West Florida Public Library system is settling in after a few weeks on the job.
Todd J. Humble spent 13 years at the library supervisor at the Northview Richland Hills Library near Fort Worth. With more than 30 years experience, Humble was worked as library director for a county library in Garden City, KS, a middle and high school library specialist in Michigan, an adult education teacher and he provided computer consulting for small businesses. He holds Bachelor’s degrees in computer science and history from Eastern Michigan University and a Masters of library and information science from Wayne State University.
As library director in Escambia County, Humble is responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the West Florida Public LIbrary, and is responsible for the administration, supervision, management, and coordination of all branch libraries and personnel. As director of library services, Humble also administers the library’s youth, circulation, computer, outreach, reference and support services.
The West Florida Library system includes the following locations:
- Main Library, 239 North Spring Street
- Tyron Branch Library, 1200 Langley Avenue
- Southwest Branch Library, 12248 Gulf Beach Highway
- Century Branch Library, 7991 North Century Boulevard
- Molino Branch Library, 6450-A Highway 95A
- Westside Branch Library, 1301 West Gregory Street
- Genealogy Branch Library, 5740 North 9th Avenue
Pictured: New West Florida Library Director Todd J. Humble at a welcome breakfast with the Friends of the West Florida Public Library breakfast. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Dysfunction Prevails
August 23, 2015
A hurricane named Danny was churning in the Atlantic. Another storm named Trump is spinning through the Republican presidential field. Florida’s governor, who continues to wage his own health care battles, is stirring the pot with a quest for more public money to lure businesses to the Sunshine State.
But in Tallahassee on Friday, the thundercloud eclipsing the House and Senate — who concluded the special session without passing a congressional map — overshadowed everything else.
The blast of the sweltering Tallahassee heat met upon stepping out of the Capitol on Friday was quite refreshing after the legislative theatrics that resulted in the GOP-dominated Legislature’s second meltdown of the year — so far.
MISMATCHING MAPS
In April, a number of senators were downright indignant when the House ended its regular legislative session more than three days ahead of schedule.
The Senate even got a majority of the Florida Supreme Court to declare that House leaders violated the state constitution when they called it quits early because of an impasse over the budget.
On Friday, it was the Senate’s turn to pull the walkout routine.
Led by Senate Redistricting Chairman Bill Galvano, a group of senators stood up and exited a committee meeting, leaving Galvano’s counterpart, House Redistricting Chairman Jose Oliva, in the lurch just hours before the two-week special session’s noon deadline.
For most of the week, the Senate had refused to budge from an amendment prodded by Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon. The proposal would have altered the staff-drawn base map (HB 1B) by consolidating eastern Hillsborough County into a single congressional district.
House members expressed concern that the “parochial natural” of the proposed Hillsborough County lines, and the impact the change would have on districts in and around Orange County, would violate the anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” constitutional requirements approved by voters in 2010.
On Friday, Oliva — who characterized the current state of the Legislature as “dysfunctional” just before Galvano and his entourage exited — argued that the Senate map wouldn’t meet Supreme Court muster.
“These amendments have put upon us an insurmountable obstacle,” Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, said. “My concern is the interpretation of the court. The court has shown its tendency to use circumstantial evidence and place the burden upon this Legislature. And that is what I’m trying to free us of.”
The special session was called when the court tossed eight of the state’s congressional districts, saying they violated the new constitutional requirements.
Galvano maintained that the Senate has followed the dictates of the court in its amended map.
“That’s why we recorded our meetings,” Galvano, R-Bradenton, said. “That’s why we had open discussion in committee. That’s why we made sure that everything we did along the process was corroborated and so the genesis of ideas and amendments was known.”
Oliva then resisted Galvano’s request to have the two chambers “conference” over the issue, something usually reserved for budget negotiations.
“Chairman, I think at this point I’m going to respectfully reiterate the Senate’s request for conference and leave it at that. Thank you,” Galvano said.
Before Oliva could reply, Galvano and his cohorts were on their way out.
“Well, certainly, members of the House, I think that probably speaks a little bit to the nature that this has taken,” Oliva said. “Up until now, these meetings were held in a very courteous fashion. What you see here is probably what should concern all of you, and certainly anybody out in the public, about the function of their government.”
The House later rejected two attempts by the Senate to extend the session until Tuesday evening.
The matter will now probably have to be resolved by the Supreme Court, which House Speaker Steve Crisafulli said will have to decide “whether or not they want to redraw a map, take a plaintiff map or take one of the maps produced here through the House or Senate.”
Lawmakers are scheduled to return in October to redraw Senate districts. At least the weather should be a tad less hot.
SCOTT V. PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Three Planned Parenthood clinics filed and then withdrew a lawsuit against the Agency for Health Care Administration this week, but the dispute with Gov. Rick Scott’s administration lingers.
Amid news reports that AHCA had backed down due to the lawsuit, the state agency released a letter from its top lawyer reiterating that the clinics were still under investigation and had broken the law.
The agency wanted it known that, while the clinics could continue to operate, state officials didn’t give in, contrary to some of the news reports’ headlines.
“Your client, Planned Parenthood, continues to misrepresent to the media that AHCA has changed its position, and Planned Parenthood clinics in Florida may now provide unauthorized second trimester abortions. This is false,” AHCA General Counsel Stuart Williams wrote to the clinics’ lawyer, Julie Gallagher, on Wednesday.
The agency targeted the clinics after Gov. Rick Scott ordered health officials in July to investigate 16 Planned Parenthood clinics in the wake of a national firestorm over a series of undercover videos by the pro-life group Center for Medical Progress. The secretly taped footage included a senior Planned Parenthood doctor discussing the procurement and sale of fetal tissue from aborted fetuses.
AHCA accused three Planned Parenthood clinics in Naples, St. Petersburg and Fort Myers last week of unlawfully performing second-trimester abortions while the clinics are licensed only to perform first-trimester procedures.
In a lawsuit filed Monday, Gallagher pointed to a nearly-decade old agency rule that allows first-trimester abortions during the 14 weeks after a woman’s last normal menstrual period. The lawsuit sought an emergency injunction and a declaratory statement to clarify whether the clinics could continue to operate.
But the lawsuit was dropped two days later after both sides agreed on the 14-week period.
Barbara Zdravecky, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, called that a “concession,” but the agency wasn’t willing to let it go at that.
State officials maintained that Planned Parenthood may be relying on a different interpretation of when pregnancy actually begins. Or the disagreement could simply be a reporting error, they said.
MONEY, IT’S WHAT SCOTT WANTS
Minutes before he was scheduled to appear before the Enterprise Florida Board of Directors on Thursday morning, Scott’s staff worked the phones to make sure reporters were aware that their boss would be giving an important address.
The message from Florida’s fiscally conservative standard-bearer was that lawmakers short-changed the agency this year. Scott vowed to pressure the Legislature to ensure that millions of dollars are added to the economic-development till to woo out-of-state businesses.
“We’re on a roll. There is no place like Florida. There is nobody that can compete with us,” Scott declared at the meeting. “We can win everywhere. However, we do have to fund it. So this year our Legislature didn’t fully fund our tool kit and it’s pretty frustrating.”
Scott said the public-private agency has only $9 million left this year for recruitment efforts, while companies such as Connecticut-based General Electric are being courted by a number of states, including Florida.
“When was the last time you ever heard a Fortune 500 company publicly say they’re thinking about moving from a state?” Scott, who went to Connecticut in June on a business-recruitment mission, said. “GE did that. We have a shot at getting companies like GE. But we can’t get companies like GE if we don’t have any money.”
Earlier this year, Scott asked lawmakers to set aside $85 million for business incentives. The final budget for the fiscal year that started July 1 included $53 million for Enterprise Florida, which included $43 million for incentives and $10 million for marketing.
Senate Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Chairman Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, argued in June against Scott’s request. He said the agency should use more private money for incentives and that marketing dollars should come from $86 million that Enterprise Florida already has in an escrow account.
STORY OF THE WEEK: The failure of the Legislature to complete on time a Supreme Court-ordered redraw of congressional districts.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “They should be ashamed, but they’re not. Just the other day, senators were crying on the Senate floor about conversations having to be recorded. What’s the big secret? If there is nothing to hide, who cares if the conservations are being recorded?” — Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Coral Springs, referring to the Florida Senate’s refusal to pass the House’s proposed congressional map.
Wahoos Take Series Against The Lookouts
August 23, 2015
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos (31-24, 56-67) won the series against the Chattanooga Lookouts (24-29, 67-54) with a 10-6 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 5,038 at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium. The Wahoos are now 0.5 ahead of the Mississippi Braves for first place. The two teams will face off against each other in a five-game series starting Sunday in Pensacola.
Pensacola starter Barrett Astin pitched 5.0 innings and allowed three runs on three hits, but he did not earn the decision. That distinction went to reliever Kevin Shackelford (2-4), who went 0.2 and did not allow a run. The save went to Kyle McMyne, his eighth of the season.
Chattanooga reliever Alex Wimmers (7-4) earned the loss, allowing the sixth and seventh runs of the game, which proved to be decisive.
Phillip Ervin, who went 2-4 with a home run and two RBIs, led Pensacola at the plate. Jesse Winker and Alex Blandino also stood out at the plate, driving in two runs apiece.
The Wahoos took the early lead on a Marquez Smith solo homer that carried over the wall in right-center field. It was Smith’s eighth deep shot of the season. He was also the 10th Wahoo to hit a home run in the month of August.
Chattanooga got on the board in the third with three runs, one of which was the result of Beau Amaral’s first error of the season.
Pensacola responded in the bottom of the third with a homer from Zach Vincej, the 11th Wahoo to hit a home run this month.
The Wahoos knotted it up at three runs apiece after Yovan Gonzalez took one deep to left in the bottom of the fifth. It was his third homer this August.
Pensacola retook the lead in the sixth with a pair of runs on three hits and two walks. One of the runs came on a single from Phillip Ervin, which was his first hit as a Wahoo.
Stephen Wickens brought Shannon Wilkerson home on an RBI double to bring the score back to 5-4 for the Lookouts. Adam Brett Walker then singled to bring one run home, but the second runner, Max Kepler, was gunned down at the plate by Ervin to keep the score tied.
Blandino put the Wahoos in good position with a sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the seventh, which followed a pair of singles by Amaral and Vincej. Winker brought them both home with a single on the next at bat, making the score 7-5 in favor of the Wahoos.
The Lookouts brought it back to a one-run game in the eighth as Travis Harrison scored on a groundout. Levi Michael earned an RBI on the play.
Ervin extended the lead with a solo shot to left in the bottom of the eighth, the fourth of the night for the Wahoos. It was Ervin’s first Double-A homer of the year and 13th overall. Blandino made it 10-6 with an RBI double that scored Amaral and Vincej.
The Mississippi Braves come to town on Sunday for a five-game series
One Person Shot Early Saturday Morning In Molino
August 22, 2015
An adult male was shot in Molino early Saturday morning.
Deputies responded to Cedartown Road just off Highway 95A about 12:30 a.m. The victim, who was reportedly shot in the arm or elbow, was transported by ambulance to an area hospital, according to Sgt. Andrew Hobbs of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. The victim’s injuries were not considered life threatening.
Early Saturday, Hobbs said the investigation was underway and a suspect had not yet been developed. He said preliminary information indicated the shooting happened as a crowd of people had gathered.
Further details will be published as they become available.
NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Cantonment Man Gets Three Life Sentences For Molesting 7-Year Old
August 22, 2015
A Cantonment man will spend the rest of his life in prison for molesting a 7-year old child.
An Escambia County jury convicted George Gilbert Heady, 56, of three counts of sexual battery of a child under 12, one count of lewd or lascivious molestation, one count of lewd or lascivious exhibition, and one count of battery of a child by expelling certain fluids.
Immediately following the jury’s verdict, Circuit Court Judge J. Scott Duncan sentenced Heady to three concurrent life sentences. Heady was also designated a sexual predator and will be required to register as a sexual predator and comply with all statutory requirements.
The case involved a three-year-long pattern of sexual abuse by Heady on a young family member. The child disclosed the abuse to her mother in January 2015.
The victim told investigators that Heady promised to take her shopping if she would not tell anyone.
ECUA Driver Killed On The Job In I-65 Wreck
August 22, 2015
An Emerald Coast Utilities Authority driver was killed on the job Thursday afternoon in an Alabama traffic accident.
According to the Alabama State Troopers, 27-year old Roosevelt Dial of Pensacola was killed when his 2010 Freightliner tractor trailer collided with a 2013 Kenworth tractor trailer on I-65 near the Pintlala exit, between Fort Deposit and Montgomery.
The crash happened about 4 p.m. Thursday. Dial was pronounced deceased on the scene; the other driver was not injured. The collision closed the interstate for several hours.
Dial was hauling ECUA recyclables to a facility in Montgomery.
6A Washington Tops 1A Northview (With Photo Gallery)
August 22, 2015
Sometimes it’s just easier to play somebody your own size. But if you can hold you own against the big boys, it only makes you stronger.
The 1A Northview Chiefs certainly held their own against 6A Washington Friday night in a kickoff jamboree, in Bratt with Washington coming out on top 14-12.
And it won’t get any easier the next few weeks as the 1A Chiefs continue their trial by fire….they’ll face a pair of 6A teams – Crestview and Gulf Breeze.
“It’s not ideal playing much larger schools,” Northview Head Coach Sid Wheatley said. “It’s not what in a perfect scenario you would draw up. But that’s the way it fell, and as long as we can stay healthy I think it will make us better in the long run.”
Unlike the traditional kickoff Jamboree where junior varsity or backup players square off few a few quarters, Friday night’s meeting between the Chiefs and Wildcats was four quarters of full-on football.
Northview took the lead in the first quarter on a 6-yard run from Jared Aliff. And Northview held the lead at the half after a Luke Ward make a jumping catch of a 19-yard pass from quarterback Gavin Grant.
Wheatley was confident that his offense held their own during the four quarters with more possession time than the Wildcats, but NHS made a couple of key errors, including a fumble on the 2-yard line and another fumble inside the 15.
“You can’t leave points out there,” he said. “The difference could have been if we punched that touchdown in, but as it was we failed to do so.”
“For the most part, I thought we were sound. But those little mistakes, those can be fixed,” Wheatley said.
The Northview Chiefs will open the regular season at 7:00 next Friday night on the road against the 6A Crestview Bulldogs. They will sit out September 4 with an open date before hosting 6A Gulf Breeze on September 11.
For a photo gallery, click here. (Band, cheerleader and dance team photos will be published later.)
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Redistricting Session Falls Apart Amid House-Senate Battle
August 22, 2015
A special session called to redraw state congressional lines was derailed Friday, the latest sign of growing acrimony between Republican leaders of the House and Senate.
The end of the session without agreement on the shape of Florida’s 27 congressional districts likely means the final decision will be made by the courts, though some lawmakers held out slim hopes for a resolution in the coming days that could avoid such an outcome.
The special session was sparked when the Florida Supreme Court threw out eight of the state’s congressional districts, saying they violated the “Fair Districts” prohibition on favoring political parties and incumbents.
Negotiations between the House and Senate broke down Friday over a Senate proposal that emerged last week to amend a staff-drawn base map (HB 1B). The Senate proposal would have consolidated eastern Hillsborough County into a single congressional district and drawn all of Sarasota County into one district.
But the House balked, saying the cascading population trade-offs required to make the numbers in all districts equal would force a district now wholly combined in Orange County to pick up some territory in Lake County — something the House said could run afoul of the anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” requirements approved by voters in 2010.
The Senate requested Friday that the two chambers set up a formal House-Senate “conference committee” to hammer out a deal. The upper chamber also voted twice to extend the session through Tuesday, but both efforts were shot down by the House.
“We went in this morning with an understanding that there is a little bit of a divide,” said Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando. “We kind of thought that when you have a divide between chambers, then let’s put together a conference.”
But House Redistricting Chairman Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, said a conference committee was generally used to negotiate budget issues and wouldn’t gel with the Supreme Court’s insistence on a fair redistricting process.
“Having two people get into a room, public or not, make all of these decisions without any of your inputs and come back and have you have to accept those decisions might be workable in a budget, and some have even questioned it in that capacity. It is certainly not workable in this one,” Oliva told the House.
Earlier Friday morning, Senate Reapportionment Chairman Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, walked out of public meeting with Oliva as the House continued to press its concerns. Galvano referred to a decision by the Senate to record conversations between senators and staff members during discussions of potential maps — a decision that the Senate said was aimed at preventing suspicions of improper political meddling.
“I put our members in the very uncomfortable position, for really the first time that I know, historically, where they would sit with staff and be recorded and have those sessions recorded, which yielded hours of tape, just to make sure that we didn’t have to deal with some speculative presumption,” Galvano said. “And if the House has a speculative presumption nonetheless, then this process was done from the start. Frankly, we were damned if you do, damned if you don’t. And so I think, at this point, I’m just going to, chairman, respectfully reiterate the Senates’ request for conference and leave it at that. Thank you.”
Talking to reporters after the senator’s walk-out, Oliva cast doubt on the prospect of a conference meeting.
“But something that’s very concerning is the nature and the way that this meeting ended,” he said. “I don’t think that, again, in business, if you invite me over to your office to talk about something and we’re in the middle of that discussion, you don’t get up and leave unless you’re trying to cast an impression of, ‘I no longer have an interest in talking to you.’ ”
Asked whether the courts could draw the maps, Oliva didn’t rule it out.
“Based on what I saw today, if I’m just the average citizen, I’d say with what you’ve seen today, we’re looking at the court redrawing the map,” he said.
by The News Service of Florida
Agents Arrest Man On 21 Child Porn Charges
August 22, 2015
Friday, Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents, along with agents from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, and detectives from the Pensacola Police Department arrested Daryl Emory Bruner, 36, on 20 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of transmission of child pornography.
A search warrant was served at Bruner’s residence at 6100 East Shore Drive in Pensacola. The investigation began after FDLE agents determined that a computer located at Bruner’s address was offering to share files containing child pornography on the internet.
Agents located numerous child pornography images and videos. Several digital devices were seized for further forensic analysis. The investigation is on going, authorities said.
Bruner was booked into the Escambia County Jail on $100,000 bond. The case will be prosecuted by the Office of the State Attorney, 1st Judicial Circuit.