No Brotherly Love: Scott To Pitch Florida In Philadelphia
January 11, 2015
Gov. Rick Scott is going on a “business development mission” to Philadelphia, after pitching Florida to residents of New York, Illinois, California and Pennsylvania during his inaugural speech Tuesday.
Scott on Friday announced plans to meet in late February with business leaders in the City of Brotherly Love in an attempt to sway them to relocate to the Sunshine State. Additional trips are being planned to the other states mentioned in the inaugural address.
“Tom Wolf’s proposed tax increases and mandates on businesses will no doubt be heavy blows to Pennsylvania families,” Scott said in a release, referring to Pennsylvania’s newly elected Democratic governor. “In contrast, Florida is working to become even more business friendly.”
Wolf will be sworn into office January 20, replacing Republican Tom Corbett. Wolf’s office was not immediately available for comment on Scott’s travel plans.
Scott will be joined on the trip to Philadelphia by leaders from Enterprise Florida, Visit Florida, the Department of Economic Opportunity and the Department of Education.
During his inauguration speech, Scott said he would be traveling to “New York, Illinois, California, Pennsylvania and others” over the next four years “to recruit you here.” New York and California have Democratic governors. In Illinois, Republican Bruce Rauner will replace Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn on Monday.
Forest Service Conducts 100 Acre Control Burn At Ransom Middle
January 11, 2015
The Florida Forest Service conducted a 100 acre prescribed burn at Ransom Middle School Saturday.
After a recent wildfire caused smoke issues near the Cantonment school, the burn was conducted on county-owned property in order to reduce the risk of future wildfires, eliminate potential smoke issues and allow the school board to better utilize the field adjacent to the school.
“We’ve had two fires there in the past year,” said Adam Parden, the FFS’s Forest Area supervisor for Escambia County. “This will help eliminate future fires and let the school be able to put their field back in working order.”
The field was overgrown with weeds and grass and Forest Service crews had already established fire breaks around the perimeter.
The operation was part of the Forest Service’s wildfire mitigation program and will help protect more than $30 million in structures including Ransom Middle School’s facilities.
NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Rain And Warmer
January 11, 2015
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Sunday Night Rain likely, mainly after midnight. Cloudy, with a low around 50. East wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- Monday A 50 percent chance of rain. Cloudy, with a high near 69. East wind around 5 mph becoming south in the afternoon.
- Monday Night A 30 percent chance of rain. Cloudy, with a low around 51. North wind around 5 mph.
- Tuesday A 20 percent chance of rain. Cloudy, with a high near 59. North wind around 5 mph.
- Tuesday Night A 20 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 46. North wind around 5 mph.
- Wednesday A 40 percent chance of showers. Cloudy, with a high near 58. North wind around 5 mph.
- Wednesday Night A 40 percent chance of showers. Cloudy, with a low around 42. North wind around 5 mph.
- Thursday A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 53.
- Thursday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 35.
- Friday Sunny, with a high near 56.
- Friday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 34.
- Saturday Sunny, with a high near 59.
Weekend Gardening: Tips for January
January 11, 2015
Here are gardening tips for the month of January from the IFAS Extension Service:
Flowers
- Refrigerated bulbs such as tulip, daffodil and hyacinth should be planted in prepared beds.
- Start seeds of warm season flowers late this month in order to have transplants in March.
- There’s still time to transplant some cool season annuals such as carnations, foxglove, pansies, petunias and snapdragons.
- Re-fertilize cool season flowerbeds, using a liquid or dry form of fertilizer. Be careful not to apply excessive amounts and keep granules away from the base of stems.
- Finish dividing crowded perennials. Don’t wait until spring for this job.
- Plant bare root roses immediately after they are purchased.
Trees and Shrubs
- Plant trees and shrubs. This is an ideal time of year for transplanting larger specimens.
- Plant bare root plants such as deciduous ornamental shrubs and trees.
- Prune dormant shade trees, if needed.
- Stick hardwood cuttings of fig, grape, honeysuckle, Althea, Catalpa, Forsythia and Wisteria.
Fruits and Nuts
- Apply dormant oil spray to peach, plum, nectarine and other deciduous fruit trees. This practice is necessary when growing the stone fruits in locations along the Gulf Coast. Note: This applies to the flowering peaches and cherries since they are susceptible to the same pests as their fruiting cousins.
- Plant bare root deciduous fruit trees
- Prune dormant fruit trees if needed
Vegetable Garden
- Start seeds of warm season vegetables late this month in order to have transplants in March.
- Lime (if needed), and begin preparing vegetable gardens for the spring planting.
- Cool season vegetables that can still be planted in the garden are: beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, Chinese cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, leek, mustard, bunching onions, parsley, English peas, Irish potatoes, radishes and turnips.
- Irish potatoes can be started from January through March by planting seed pieces 3 to 4 inches deep in rows. Always purchase certified seed potatoes.
Lawns
- Check soil moisture during winter and water as needed.
Pot Coming Back To The Florida Ballot?
January 11, 2015
Proponents of a medical-marijuana ballot initiative that fell short of passing in November are making a second attempt to legalize weed in Florida.
Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan, who pumped at least $2 million of his own money into the effort last year, said he filed proposed language Thursday with the Department of State for a 2016 constitutional amendment.
“We lost the battle. We plan to win the war,” Morgan said.
The measure clarifies some of the issues opponents, including Florida sheriffs, used to dissuade voters from approving the measure in November, according to Jon Mills, a constitutional law professor and former House speaker who drafted the proposal.
“There is nothing that’s different in the intent and the actual impact,” Mills told The News Service of Florida on Thursday.
Mills said he included in the revised proposal some of the statements the Florida Supreme Court made about last year’s initiative when justices ruled that the proposal met the requirements to go on the November ballot.
“What this will do is to clarify things that will make it really impossible to misinterpret,” he said.
The revamped measure clarifies that doctors cannot order medical marijuana for children without their parents’ approval, Mills said. Mills and other supporters have insisted all along that, as with other medical conditions, minors could not get medical pot without their parents’ or guardians’ permission. But the sheriffs railed about the issue last year, raising the specter of “a joint in every backpack” in discussions about the proposal.
The proposal also clears up ambiguity about what diseases would make patients eligible for medical-marijuana treatment, another major point of contention for the law-enforcement opponents of last year’s measure.
The revised measure defines “Debilitating Medical Condition” as cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, or “other debilitating medical conditions of the same kind or class as or comparable to those enumerated.”
The old proposal would have allowed physicians to order the pot for “other conditions” in which a physician believed the use of medical marijuana would outweigh the potential risks for a patient. Opponents argued that “other conditions” would lead to a California-like parade of horribles in which patients could get pot for something as minor as a hangnail.
“The court said that it has to be the same type of disease, in other words, it can’t be a nosebleed. That was what was always intended, so that is reemphasized,” Mills said.
The language about a physician determining that the benefits of the treatment outweigh the risks is the same in both proposals, Mills pointed out.
People United for Medical Marijuana campaign manager Ben Pollara and other supporters hope the Legislature will broaden a law approved last year that authorized non-euphoric strains of pot for patients suffering from seizures or cancer.
Pollara said he hopes to have 100,000 signatures — enough to prompt a Supreme Court review of the new ballot language — in hand by the time the Legislature convenes in March.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that there’s the potential to pass a much more comprehensive medical-marijuana law” than the measure approved by the Legislature last year, Pollara said. “If we can do something like that, then we don’t need to go back on the ballot.”
But, he admitted, “I’ve gotten a very bipolar read” on what the Republican-dominated Legislature may do.
Proponents of the measure now have to work on gathering nearly 700,000 signatures to get the initiative onto the 2016 ballot. Morgan’s pollsters predict that between 60 and 62 percent of voters would support the measure if placed on the ballot during a presidential election. Reaching that threshold might be easier in 2016 because more voters, especially Democrats who may be friendlier toward legalizing marijuana, show up for presidential elections. The 2014 proposal fell just two percentage points shy of the 60 percent mark.
Getting the proposal on the 2016 ballot will cost considerably less than the $4.5 million it cost to put the issue before voters last year, Pollara said. What remains unknown is how much the opposition, which spent $7 million to defeat the measure last year, will drop to kill it this time around.
“We learned a lot last time. I hope to take those lessons and help me win in 2016,” Morgan said.
by Dara Kam and Brandon Larrabbee, The News Service of Florida
Century Awarded Grant To Find Water Leaks In 60 Miles Of Pipes
January 10, 2015
The Town of Century has been awarded a grant to help their water department locate leaks in the town’s system, Mayor Freddie McCall announced this week.
The Northwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board approved the $44,500 grant that will allow the Town of Century to conduct a water leak survey of the town’s entire distribution system, which includes 60 miles of water main.
The project will also identify and prioritize leak repair efforts to reduce water loss from approximately 22 percent to a target of 10 percent – helping to protect the area’s water supply.
Smoke Prompts Evacuation Of Popeye’s Restaurant
January 10, 2015
The Popeye’s restaurant on Nine Mile Road was temporarily evacuated due to light smoke in the building Friday night.
Multiple Escambia Fire Rescue stations were dispatched to the restaurant after the smoke was reported. The source of the smoke was eventually traced to a burned out motor in the heating and cooling system.
Other than the motor, there was no damage reported.
FWC Law Enforcement Report
January 10, 2015
The Florida FWC Division of Law Enforcement reported the following activity during the weekly period ending January 8 in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
SANTA ROSA COUNTY
Officer Hutchinson was patrolling the Blackwater State Forest when he observed a truck with two occupants wearing hunter orange vests traveling towards him. As he approached the vehicle to conduct a resource inspection, he observed the driver reach down and place something in the floorboard. After making contact with both occupants, they admitted to trying to conceal two open containers of alcoholic beverages. During the inspection, the passenger of the vehicle admitted that he was hunting deer and that he did not have a valid hunting license or the required permits. Officer Hutchinson observed the passenger of the vehicle to be in possession of a high powered rifle. After further investigation, Officer Hutchinson discovered that the passenger was a convicted felon and was not supposed to be in possession of a firearm or ammunition. Officer Hutchinson seized the firearm and the appropriate arrests were made.
Officer Ramos was on patrol in Blackwater WMA responding to a complaint of hunting dogs in a still-hunt area when he came across three men and a dog on a forest road. Upon seeing the patrol truck, all three suspects suddenly fled into the woods after given lawful commands to stop. Officer Ramos pursued the suspects on foot into the woods but terminated the foot chase after he caught the suspect’s hunting dog. Using information on the dog’s collar, Officer Ramos drove towards the dog owner’s private property just south of his location and conducted a traffic stop on one of the suspects who was now trying to leave the area in a vehicle. The suspect was placed under arrest for interference with an FWC officer. Officers Hutchinson and Molnar and Investigators Hughes and Goley arrived to assist. The officers went to the suspects hunting camp and began an investigation to determine the whereabouts of the other two suspects. Both suspects were still hiding in the woods. The officers were able to convince the father of one the suspects to have them come into the camp. When they walked into the camp, one immediately became defensive and non-compliant. After admitting he ran because he did not possess a hunting license, he was placed under arrest for interference. The third suspect was somewhat cooperative. The officers determined that all three suspects had been hunting unlawfully, after piecing together information from the suspects and the physical evidence at the scene. Investigator Goley and Officer Molnar located two shotguns and illegal narcotics that the suspects had ditched while running. And later, Officer Hutchinson located a third shotgun hidden in the woods that the oldest suspect, a convicted felon, possessed when he fled from the officer. The appropriate citations were issued and two of the suspects were booked into the Santa Rosa County Jail.
Officer Johnson and Reserve Officer Wise assisted the Milton Police Department and other agencies with a search and rescue of a male subject at Pond Creek in Milton. Once on scene, the officers learned from a witness that the subject had entered the water and tried to walk across the Pond Creek but was swept away by the current. A short time later, the Santa Rosa Search and Rescue sent a dive team and recovered the victim’s body in close proximity to where he was last seen before being swept away. Officers Johnson and Wise assisted with the recovery of the victim and securing the scene.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY
(No report submitted for Escambia County.)
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.
Escambia BOCC Honors First Responders
January 10, 2015
The Escambia County Commission recognized last week as First Responder Appreciation Week and issued a proclamation thanking area first responders and their families. Accepting the proclamation on behalf of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office were four of the six deputies shot in the line of duty in the last six years. Pictured are: Deputy 1st Class Ryan Robinson, Sergeant Shedrick Johnson, Deputy Chad Brown and Deputy Jason Ates. (The two deputies shot in the line of duty not shown are Deputy Jeremy Cassidy and Deputy 1st Class Sam Parker.) Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Two Blocks Of Florida Politics
January 10, 2015
It was possible Tuesday to get a feel for the state of Florida politics within a two-block area.
Just outside the historic Old Capitol building, Gov. Rick Scott and the three re-elected Cabinet members were taking their oaths of office for a second time. Across the street at the Leon County Courthouse, a series of same-sex marriages that one of those Cabinet officials had fought to prevent were underway, part of the first week of gay weddings in Florida history.
The next great Florida battle was also looming, with Texas Gov. Rick Perry and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie attending Scott’s swearing-in — their visits to an important state in the 2016 primary and general elections serving as none-too-subtle signs of both men’s presidential aspirations.
And the inauguration took place during a lull in the first week of committee meetings in 2015 for the Legislature, which began working on issues ranging from how often students should be tested to how to use billions of dollars of funding that voters insisted go toward land and water conservation.
Call it preparation for when the Florida political scene returns to normal. Or what qualifies for normal in the Sunshine State.
IT’S STILL THE ECONOMY, STUPID
For anyone who thought Scott’s move toward the middle last year marked some revision of what he sees as the core purpose of his governorship, the inaugural address ended such talk. The word “job” still popped up with regularity, and Scott as much as said his goal hasn’t changed.
“If we can make Florida the worldwide leader for families that struggled like mine did to get a job, then I’ve fulfilled my job as your governor,” said Scott, who spoke for about 20 minutes in front of a crowd of around 500 people.
The event took place on a cool day that was still warmer than some past inaugural ceremonies. The three Cabinet officials — Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, all Republicans — were also sworn in.
Scott nixed the parade and inaugural ball, replacing them with a post-election tour across the state touting economic progress, though festivities still included receptions Monday and Tuesday at the governor’s mansion. A prayer breakfast Tuesday morning also remained.
The governor hawked the state to residents of New York, Illinois, California and Pennsylvania, all of which have Democratic governors (though Illinois is soon to inaugurate a GOP chief executive). And despite overseeing a roughly 10 percent increase in the state budget over his four years in office, and promising additional spending to come, Scott warned against the expansion of government.
“While we are focused on growing jobs in Florida, we must realize that positions our state as a fighter in a great movement against the silent growth of government,” he said.
Democrats were unimpressed — though with their diminished numbers in the House and only slightly more influential minority in the Senate, it wasn’t clear what if anything they can do about it.
“Right now, working people are catching hell in Florida,” said Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa. “These low-paying jobs are not doing it.”
GAY MARRIAGE BEGINS, BUT IS THE FIGHT OVER?
For weeks, advocates of gay marriage in Florida had Jan. 6 circled on their calendars. That was the day U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle’s stay of a ruling striking down Florida’s ban on same-sex weddings was set to expire.
But in Miami-Dade County, things got started a bit early. Circuit Judge Sarah Zabel on Monday lifted a stay of an earlier ruling that found the gay-marriage ban unconstitutional.
Even as the ceremonies began, John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council, said the issue is not resolved legally. He said the U.S. Supreme Court could uphold state gay-marriage bans. An appeal about Florida’s ban remains pending at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
“Should the Supreme Court rule for state’s rights, I think you are going to see the Florida marriage amendment immediately reinvigorated, in terms of its authority,” said Stemberger, whose group spearheaded efforts to pass the 2008 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. “Then, we are going to have a confused patchwork of couples who are legitimately married, same-sex couples who now have marriages that are presumptively unconstitutional somehow and same-sex couples who perhaps want to be married but can’t be because of the authority of the Florida marriage amendment.”
On Tuesday, weddings began in most parts of the state. As the oath of office was being administered to Bondi — whose office defended the marriage ban in court — the Leon County Courthouse was open for business to gay couples.
That juxtaposition was not lost on Susan Gage, who prepared to get married to Isabelle Potts, her partner of 23 years in what she called “the longest courtship ever.” They were among about 60 gay and lesbian couples who received licenses Tuesday in Leon County.
“It’s the culmination of a very difficult and hard struggle,” Gage said.
Like Stemberger, Bondi didn’t seem to think the arguments were over — though she also wouldn’t say one way or the other whether her office would continue to appeal Hinkle’s ruling. Bondi said she hoped the U.S. Supreme Court, which has repeatedly refused to consider similar cases, would settle the matter.
“Because that’s what we need again. We need uniformity. And best wishes to all of the couples who are married,” she said.
READY TO DO SOMETHING
Committee meetings to lay the groundwork for the 2015 legislative session also began this week. While many of the meetings were the usual introductory chatter — here’s the staff director, here are the new members, there’s our jurisdiction — other panels quickly moved into meatier business.
The Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee, for example, quickly began to consider how to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars set aside by the Florida Water and Land Conservation Amendment. How many hundreds of millions of dollars is one of the items still to be determined.
Committee Chairman Charlie Dean, R-Inverness, said he intends over the next couple of months to take a “meticulous” approach to the amendment, which over the next two decades requires 33 percent of the revenue from a tax on real-estate transactions, known as documentary stamps, to go into conservation efforts.
Pepper Uchino, committee staff director, estimated that the amendment, approved by 75 percent of voters, will generate $757 million for conservation efforts during the upcoming 2015-16 fiscal year.
Eric Draper, state director of Audubon Florida, put the conservation-money total from documentary stamps at $662 million, which is closer to the $648 million offered last year in a state analysis.
In any case, it’s a large enough pot to draw plenty of interest in how the funds will be divvied up. Some lawmakers say the measure allows funding for stormwater, sewer and similar projects as long as the intent is to preserve the quality of water in Florida.
“We’ve been given an awesome opportunity to solve a major issue that is going to affect generations,” Altamonte Springs Republican David Simmons said. “What is the goal? It is to make sure our water is preserved in a pristine situation.”
Eric Draper, state director of Audubon Florida, said the money could go to the pipes involved in distributing water or to wastewater treatment, but only in limited cases.
“We’re saying except where you can really show a high state priority in doing that, that is not what the voters thought they were doing,” said Draper, who during the meeting represented the group Florida’s Land and Water Legacy, which led the amendment drive. “Wastewater treatment is traditionally a local government expense and we don’t believe that we should transfer that local expense of wastewater treatment on to the state of Florida.”
Meanwhile, the Senate Education PreK-12 Committee zeroed in on the number of tests that the state’s students are taking.
“I’ve got a message very clearly from our members that they’re interested in doing something,” said committee Chairman John Legg, R-Lutz.
But as for the details of the would-be bill, Legg conceded that “I don’t know what it looks like yet.” Issues that might be addressed range from which grades of students should be tested, to how many tests should be administered, to whether “assessments” required by the state necessarily have to be tests at all.
Even lawmakers who spearheaded the state’s accountability movement, which led to many of the testing requirements now on the books, are beginning to rethink things.
“Here’s what I’ve learned today: We don’t know how much time is consumed by state-mandated tests. We don’t know how much money it costs to perform state-mandated tests. We don’t know whether tests that are performed by state mandate are valid and reliable,” said Sen. Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican who has long backed education reform.
In a potentially related development, the state’s largest teachers union said Thursday it will stop challenging a 2014 law that included expansion of a voucher-like program that helps send children to private schools.
The Florida Education Association said it will not appeal a ruling last week by Leon County Chief Circuit Judge Charles Francis, who dismissed the challenge to the law. Francis said the named plaintiffs in the case, a Lee County teacher and two parents, did not have the legal standing to sue.
In a prepared statement, the union said it decided against appealing after a series of meetings with Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando.
“We have opened a dialogue with the Senate president on a broad range of issues, including testing, special needs students and other public education concerns of paramount importance to the FEA,” union Vice President Joanne McCall said. “We look forward to working together for the benefit of our children.”
STORY OF THE WEEK: Gov. Rick Scott and members of the Florida Cabinet were sworn in Tuesday for their second terms.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “My lawyer called me this morning and said, ‘We’ve changed the world, Jim,’ ” Jim Brenner, who, along with his partner Chuck Jones, filed the initial lawsuit against the state challenging the gay marriage prohibition, on the first day of same-sex marriages in Florida.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida