July 4th Tragedy: Toddler Drowns In Bratt Pool
July 5, 2015
Emergency officials responded to the reported drowning of an 18-month old toddler in a swimming pool Saturday afternoon in Bratt. The child was pronounced deceased a short time later at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola.
The 911 call came in about 4 p.m. from a home in the 4400 block of West Highway 4, near Northview High School. First responders attempted to save the young female, airlifting her from the nearby Travis Nelson Park to Sacred Heart Hospital.
The incident is under investigation by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. Further details have not yet been released.
The Walnut Hill Station of Escambia Fire Rescue and Escambia County EMS also responded to the incident.
Pictured top: An 18-month old toddler is airlifted from the Travis Nelson Park in Bratt to Sacred Heart. Pictured inset and below: The incident occurred at a home in the 4400 block of West Highway 4, near Northview High School Saturday afternoon. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Alabama Man Seriously Injured In Walnut Hill Crash
July 5, 2015
An Alabaster, AL, man was seriously injured in a single vehicle rollover accident Saturday afternoon in Walnut Hill.
Christopher Scott Bryant, 41, was southbound on Kansas Road near Smith Lane about 2:10 p.m. when his vehicle traveled off the east side of the roadway and struck a concrete culvert. His pickup then re-entered the roadway and traveled across both lanes of Kansas Road, overturning several times, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.. His 2002 Ford Ranger came to rest upside just off the road in a ditch.
Bryant was transported by Escambia County EMS to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola with serious injuries. Bryant was wearing his seat belt, and alcohol was not a factor in the crash, according to the FHP.
The Walnut Hill Station of Escambia Fire Rescue also responded to the crash.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Georgia Church To Offer Youth Revival For Century Teens This Week
July 5, 2015
Rivertown Church from Columbus, GA, will return to Century for their fifth community outreach this week.
Rivertown will conduct a daily Youth Revival Sports Clinics at the Century Business Center Monday through Thursday for teens aged 13 and up, followed by a free dinner and worship at the Abundant Life Assembly of God. Participating teens will also be a part of the music video “No Compromise” which was written and will be filmed exclusively for Century.
The schedule of events will be as follows:
Photos: Atmore Fireworks
July 5, 2015
Crowds from across the area celebrated the Fourth of July Saturday night with a fireworks show and a performance by the Escambia County Community Band at the Wind Creek Hotel in Atmore.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Ditto Gorme, click to enlarge.
4th Weekend Recipe: Yankee Doodle Dandy Treats
July 5, 2015
Looking to spend some time with the kids in the kitchen? Yankee Doodle Dandy Treats are a fun, easy and patriotic way to celebrate.
The recipe is not only easy, but it also lots of fun. It’s terrific for a “just-because” snack or as a sweet way to finish off a family picnic. And kids of all ages can help – from pouring and stirring to dipping and decorating, there’s something everyone can do.
Yankee Doodle Dandy Treats
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
- 1 package (10 ounces, about 40) regular marshmallows OR 4 cups miniature marshmallows
- 6 cups Kellogg’s® Rice Krispies® cereal OR 6 cups Kellogg’s® Cocoa Krispies® cereal
- 1 1/2 cups white chocolate morsels
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
- Red-, white- and blue-colored sprinkles
Preparation
- In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.
- Add cereal. Stir until well coated.
- Using buttered spatula or wax paper, evenly press mixture into 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray. Cool. Crosswise cut in half, forming two 9 x 6 1/2-inch rectangles.
- Meanwhile, in small saucepan melt white chocolate morsels over low heat, stirring frequently. Stir in oil. Add powdered sugar, stirring until combined. Add water. Stir until smooth.
- Spread chocolate mixture over one cereal rectangle. Top with second rectangle. Sprinkle with red, white and blue sprinkles, pressing lightly into cereal mixture. Refrigerate about 30 minutes or until set. Cut into 3 1/4 x 1-inch strips. Best if served the same day.
Serves
Servings 18
Preparation Time:
30 minutes
Total Time:
1 hour
Baybears Best Wahoos
July 5, 2015
The Blue Wahoos took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh on Saturday night at Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile, Ala., but the BayBears rallied for six runs with the help of four walks on their way to a 9-4 series-opening win over Pensacola.
Barrett Astin was outstanding in his second start for the Wahoos. He allowed just two runs/earned on only three hits over 6.1 innings. He added six strikeouts and he scattered four walks. Astin retired 10-straight from the second through the first two outs of the fifth.
After he was lifted following a one-out walk in the seventh, Mobile poured on their six-run rally. Blaine Howell (L, 1-1) faced three batters and gave up a single off the glove of second baseman Juan Perez, and two walks. The second forced in a run. Nick Christiani made his Blue Wahoos debut in back of Howell and walked in the BayBears second run of the inning and later gave up a two-run double to Rudy Flores to cap the rally.
The BayBears added two more runs against Ben Klimesh in the eighth. He threw four wild pitches with four walks in two-thirds of an inning.
Penascola looked to be in control after scoring a pair of insurance runs in the sixth inning to extend their lead to three, 4-1. Zach Vincej singled in Seth Mejias-Brean, and Juan Perez scored behind him on an errant throw from Socrates Brito at third base.
Jesse Winker paced the Blue Wahoos offense with his team-leading 21st multi-hit game of the year. He finished 2-for-4 as one of four in the Wahoos lineup with a multi-hit effort. Marquez Smith drove in the go-ahead run for Pensacola in the third as part of a 2-for-4 night. Mejias-Brean and Perez also had a pair of hits.
Will Locante picked up the win out of the BayBears bullpen after working 1.2 innings with three strikeouts.
The two teams will continue the series at Hank Aaron Stadium on Sunday evening. The Blue Wahoos will start LHP Wandy Peralta (3-7, 5.32). The BayBears have not announced a starter yet for the game. First pitch is set for 5:05 p.m.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: See You In Court
July 5, 2015
As Floridians across the state prepared to set off fireworks to celebrate Independence Day, news around state government seemed to fizzle this week.
The Legislature has been gone for almost two weeks, and Gov. Rick Scott’s list of vetoed projects is a thing of the past — except, perhaps, to some perturbed lawmakers. And with 2015 being a year free of any major elections, the campaigns did not gear up to fill the summer lull.
As a result, most of the action seemed to be taking place in the courts, which don’t take the same breaks as lawmakers and keep weighing in year-round. (Though, it should be noted, the U.S. Supreme Court was finishing up its opinions so that it could take a summer breather of its own.)
And even there, the biggest decisions of the year — the Supreme Court’s rulings upholding a key portion of the Affordable Care Act and legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide — were in the rear-view mirror. After weeks and weeks of news generated by the regular legislative session, a health-care crisis and a special legislative session, Tallahassee seemed to be quiet.
COURTS ON LIFE AND DEATH
One of the more important decisions announced this week was the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion rejecting a challenge to the lethal-injection protocol used in Oklahoma and several other states, including Florida, which uses an almost identical procedure to the one under scrutiny.
In a 5-4 majority opinion issued Monday, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that Oklahoma prisoners failed to prove that the use of the drug midazolam, the first of the three-drug lethal cocktail used also used in Florida, “entails a substantial risk of severe pain.”
The petitioners also failed to offer an alternative execution method that would be less painful, Alito wrote.
“…Because some risk of pain is inherent in any method of execution, we have held that the Constitution does not require the avoidance of all risk of pain. After all, while most humans wish to die a painless death, many do not have that good fortune. Holding that the Eighth Amendment demands the elimination of essentially all risk of pain would effectively outlaw the death penalty altogether,” wrote Alito, in an opinion joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia.
But, in a harshly-worded dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued that it is essential that the first drug effectively render inmates unconscious because the following two drugs “in a tortuous manner” cause “burning, searing pain.”
Allowing the use of midazolam, Sotomayor wrote, leaves inmates “exposed to what may well be the chemical equivalent of being burned at the stake.” Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan joined Sotomayor’s dissent.
The decision quickly rippled down to the Florida Supreme Court, which in February halted the execution of convicted killer Jerry William Correll. Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a request with the Florida court on Monday, asking that the justices lift the stay on Correll’s execution.
But Correll’s attorneys pointed to another case before the U.S. Supreme Court that deals specifically with Florida’s death penalty. That case focuses heavily on Florida’s lack of a requirement that juries be unanimous in recommending imposition of the death penalty. The appeal also focuses on Florida not requiring juries to be unanimous in finding what are known as “aggravators” that justify death sentences.
“If this Court vacates the stay of execution that is in place, Correll may be executed and later found to have been sentenced under an unconstitutional death penalty sentencing scheme,” his attorneys wrote.
Meanwhile, a state law requiring women to wait at least 24 hours before undergoing an abortion was put on hold by the courts twice in two days. On Tuesday, Leon Chief Judge Charles Francis granted a request by opponents of the law for a temporary injunction, placing the law on hold. But Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office filed an appeal within hours, triggering an automatic stay and putting the law back into effect.
On Thursday, Leon Circuit Judge Charles Dodson granted a motion by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights to vacate that stay and put the law back on ice.
“We are grateful that the judge blocked this dangerous intrusion by politicians into the private, medical decisions of a woman, her family and her doctor,” Jennifer Lee of the Center for Reproductive Rights said in a statement.
The state’s position is that it has a vested interest in its residents’ well-being, and that the 24-hour wait will give women more time to reflect on their decisions.
“The Attorney General’s Office is appealing the temporary injunction and is reviewing the judge’s order vacating the automatic stay,” Kylie Mason, a spokeswoman for Bondi, wrote in an email.
‘THE GAME CHANGER’
The end of the working week also brought word that Florida will receive about $3.25 billion as part of a multi-state federal settlement with BP over widespread damages caused by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
The deal announced Thursday requires London-based BP to pay $18.5 billion in economic and natural resources damages to the five Gulf Coast states affected by the disaster, which pumped at least 3.9 million gallons of oil off the coastlines of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
Sen. Don Gaetz, who as Senate president pushed for the creation of a consortium to oversee the bulk of the settlement funds, said the money will help boost economic development throughout the Panhandle, now largely reliant on tourism and the military industry.
“This could be a game changer,” said Gaetz, R-Niceville. “Just as the Deepwater Horizon was the worst economic disaster to befall our area, this settlement could be the best economic opportunity in our times. This kind of money allows you to build out our current economy in northwest Florida, as well as being able to development entire economic sectors that don’t exist today.”
Florida stands to receive $2 billion for economic damages, the most of any Gulf Coast state, and $680 million for restoration projects. The deadly explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and ensuing massive spill affected the environment, tourism and the fishing industry along the Gulf of Mexico but its effects rippled throughout the state.
GAMBLING ON NEW RULES
Meanwhile, state regulators released a draft of their latest version of proposed rules for pari-mutuels — which kept up with the theme of the week in part because they seemed destined to end up in court. Industry insiders predict that the rules face a challenge if they aren’t revised.
After working on them for nearly two years, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s Division of Pari-mutuel Wagering, which oversees non-tribal gambling operations in the state, released the latest proposed rules on Tuesday. This version mirrors the 2013 plan, but with changes that give some industry representatives pause.
Portions of the proposed regulation address a controversy about barrel racing at a Panhandle facility in Gretna. State regulators initially granted a pari-mutuel license for the rodeo-style horse races — the first in the country — four years ago, but an appeals court later ruled that the license was granted in error.
Unlike a previous iteration of the rule, tracks would not have to be in an oval shape, something that would benefit the Gadsden County facility, where horses now run against each other in a straight line.
But, under the proposed rules, horse tracks would have to be a certain length, have “breakaway” rails, and require starting gates for horses. That would put an end to the “flag drop” races at tracks like Gretna Racing.
“This stuff is thrown out there as an economic barrier to keep the new tracks out,” said David Romanik, a lawyer who is also part owner of the Gretna track.
The state’s own games, meanwhile, are doing just fine. The Florida Lottery announced sales reached $5.58 billion in the fiscal year that concluded on Tuesday, the fourth consecutive year of record sales.
“We’re on our way to $6 (billion),” said Lottery Secretary Cynthia O’Connell.
STORY OF THE WEEK: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the lethal-injection protocol used by Florida and several other states, which could clear the way for the state to resume its use of capital punishment.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Under the Court’s new rule, it would not matter whether the State intended to use midazolam, or instead to have petitioners drawn and quartered, slowly tortured to death, or actually burned at the stake: because petitioners failed to prove the availability of sodium thiopental or pentobarbital, the State could execute them using whatever means it designated.”—Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, in a dissent from a ruling upholding the lethal-injection protocol used in five states, including Florida.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Floriday
Cantonment Woman Dies Week After Pine Forest Road Crash
July 4, 2015
A Cantonment woman passed away Friday morning as the result of injuries she received in wreck last Saturday evening.
Melanie Ann Clark, 42, was traveling northbound on Pine Forest Road near Highway 297A at a high rate of speed when she lost control of her 2003 Chevrolet Trailblazer and traveled into the path of a southbound Ford F150 pickup driven by 64-year old Gary Stephen Frederickson of Cantonment, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Following the June 27, 6:20 p.m. crash, Clark was ejected from her vehicle due to not wearing a seat belt. She was transported to Sacred Heart Hospital where she passed away July 3 at 10:24 am.
A passenger in Clark’s vehicle, 35-year old Newman Jefferson Clark was transported to Sacred Heart Hospital with minor injuries. Federickson was not injured.
Reader submitted photo by Stephanie Norton for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Century, Flomaton Celebrate With A Bang (With Photo Gallery)
July 4, 2015
Fireworks lit up the night Friday with an early celebration at Flomaton’s Hurricane Park.
The fireworks show was a joint effort of both the Town of Flomaton and the Town of Century. The towns alternate hosting the festivities each year.
For a photo gallery, click here.
NorthEscambia.com photo by Ditto Gorme, click to enlarge.
Two Injured In Crash With Semi In Century
July 4, 2015
Two people were injured in a traffic crash Friday afternoon after pulling into the path of a semi.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, 22-year old Ederlin Pimentel of Century was stopped at the stop sign on Jefferson Avenue at West Highway 4 about 2:35 p.m. Pimentel then accelerated into the intersection, causing 43-year old Chad Cooper of Brewton to swerve his 2013 Volvo semi . The front right of Pimentel’s 2012 Mazda struck a ladder on left side of the semi. The semi’s axle struck the car, causing it to rotate.
Pimentel and passenger Alyssa Moya of Century were transported to Jay Hospital with minor injuries. Cooper was uninjured.
Pimentel was cited with violation of right of way at a stop intersection, according to FHP.
Pictured: Two people in this car were injured Friday afternoon after colliding with a semi truck in Century. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.