Santa Rosa Man Pleads In Shotgun Play Death
January 24, 2015
James Hunter Gates entered a plea Friday in Santa Rosa County to manslaughter with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted delinquent. Circuit Court Judge John Miller ordered a presentence investigation and scheduled sentencing for March 17. Gates faces a maximum sentence of 45 years in state prison.
Gates, 20, was arrested on August 25, 2014 after deputies responded to a shooting at a residence on Keyser Lane in Pace. They found 24-year old Romeo Wolff dead from a gunshot wound to the head. Investigators with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office determined that Gates and Wolff were drinking alcoholic beverages in a bedroom that evening while playing with a shotgun that belonged to Gates.
As a convicted delinquent, Gates was prohibited from possessing any firearms.
Wolff pointed the barrel of the gun at his face and dared Gates to pull the trigger. Gates responded by pulling the trigger which caused the gun to fire. Wolff was struck in the face with the blast and died at the scene.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Trying To Change The Subject
January 24, 2015
Any week when a Republican governor can propose more than a half a billion dollars in tax relief and announce that the unemployment rate has ticked down by 0.2 percentage points is supposed to be a good week.
And Gov. Rick Scott got to open and close his week on those two positive notes, the perfect bookends to any week. Or, at least, any other week.
Because the middle of the week was once again consumed by questions about the ouster of former Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey, a story that has become one of the most serious challenges to Scott’s 4-year-old administration. Everyone expected Scott would run into trouble in his second term — but few thought it would come this quickly.
That said, the news was not all FDLE, all the time. There were the positive notes from Scott, as well as the usual noise generated by a week of legislative committee meetings. Legislation that would allow firearms to be carried on college campuses started moving in the House. And the heads of two besieged departments trekked to the Capitol to answer lawmakers’ questions.
The question hovering over it all, though, was whether the fallout from Bailey’s dismissal would drag into a third week.
QUESTIONS, FREQUENT AND OTHERWISE, ABOUT FDLE
There’s nothing new anymore about noting that the week was a bad one for Scott. Things weren’t much better, though, for Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty, Office of Financial Regulation Commissioner Drew Breakspear and Department of Revenue executive director Marshall Stranburg.
All three were mentioned by Scott as possible targets for removal by the Florida Cabinet — though it seems questionable that Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and Attorney General Pam Bondi would be willing to make changes right now.
Largely because Scott and the Cabinet members spent much of the week subtly and not-so-subtly arguing with each other about who was told what about Bailey’s removal, and when they were told.
By Thursday, Putnam and Atwater were beginning to entertain the idea of an investigation into the personnel changes at FDLE. And Putnam talked about holding the Feb. 5 Cabinet meeting in the Capitol instead of making the traditional sojourn to the Florida State Fair in Tampa.
“We need to have a more normal location and platform to have these conversations than the agenda that typically occurs when we’re holding a Cabinet (meeting) on the road,” Putnam said.
Earlier in the week, he proposed clarifying the requirements for agency heads, requiring candidate interviews, establishing an appointment-selection committee and setting a process to review each agency through quarterly performance standards.
Putnam and Atwater also said this week there should be a follow-up to reports from the joint Tallahassee bureau for the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times, including allegations that Bailey was forced out of office by Scott in part for rejecting a request to participate in the governor’s re-election efforts. Another report had Bailey alleging that Scott and members of his staff sought to have the state police in 2013 indicate that acting Orange County clerk of court Colleen Reilly was the target of an investigation.
“Just as they’ve been said, they’re very serious and they should be looked into,” Atwater told reporters Thursday. “Everybody should be able to see all of this. It should be all very transparent, very exposed, all the questions answered.”
That same day, Scott’s office issued its most-detailed response to the allegations in the form of a “Frequently Asked Questions” document — the kind you might get to help troubleshoot your new microwave. The forum allowed Scott’s office to control both the questions and the answers.
“Is it true that Gerald Bailey was forced to resign?” one question asked.
“Prior to December 16, 2015, the Governor’s staff notified cabinet staff (including the offices of the Attorney General, the Chief Financial Officer, and the Commissioner of Agriculture) that the Governor wanted new leadership at FDLE. Cabinet staff raised no objection,” the answer began. Presumably, it was intended to be Dec. 16, 2014.
The document also promised Scott’s full budget proposal will be announced next week. It wasn’t news, since the governor is essentially obligated by law to release his spending plan by the following Sunday, but it pointed to one more opportunity to distract from the brewing scandal.
LOOK OVER HERE!
Not that Scott wasn’t already trying to change the subject at every available opportunity. He was helped out by the calendar; January is generally a time when governors start to roll out some of their legislative initiatives for the upcoming session, and this week was no exception.
The biggest item was a $470 million reduction in taxes on cell-phone and television services the governor pitched Monday. The governor’s office said it would save about $43 a year for a family that spends $100 a month on cell-phone and cable services, though spending on such services varies widely by household.
“With our cell phone and TV tax cut, every Florida family is saving real money — around $40 a year for spending as little as $100 a month between cell phone, cable and satellite bills,” Scott said in a prepared statement.
Scott’s proposal would reduce what are known as “communications services tax” rates, which are now 9.17 percent on nonresidential landlines, cell phone, and cable services and 13.17 percent on satellite services. The tax has generated about $1.4 billion in annual collections in recent years, according to the Florida Tax Handbook.
The governor also floated proposals to eliminate the sales tax on college textbooks — price tag: $41.4 million — and extend Bright Futures scholarships to cover summer courses, at a cost of $23.5 million.
But will the Legislature go along? Senate Appropriations Chairman Tom Lee, R-Brandon, when asked about the communications tax cut: “Whether or not we can do that and still address the needs of the Senate and House kind of remains to be seen. As I said, everybody has to walk out of here with their priorities addressed to some extent.”
Scott also had one more mostly good piece of news to close the week: The state’s unemployment rate dropped from 5.8 percent in November to 5.6 percent in December. “Mostly” good because the drop in the unemployment rate came as the state’s workforce of 9.6 million declined by 17,000 from November to December, with people considered to have jobs falling by 4,000, according to the Department of Economic Opportunity.
In a prepared statement, Scott highlighted the growth of 11,500 private-sector jobs in December and reiterated that as he enters his second term he “will stay laser-focused on our goal of making Florida the global destination for business and job creation.”
MEANWHILE, IN THE LEGISLATURE …
It’s a rare January committee week that’s overshadowed by news about the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, but the Legislature seemed to spend much of its time playing second fiddle to the Bailey imbroglio.
Not that there wasn’t plenty going on. The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee voted 8-4 along party lines to pass a measure (HB 4005) allowing anyone with a concealed-carry permit to have a weapon — usually a firearm — on campus. Currently, people are banned from carrying such weapons at Florida colleges and universities, with the exception of stun guns or similar devices.
Supporters said current law actually makes students on campus less safe.
“This bill eliminates a possible pool of victims,” said Brant Hargrove, a member of the public who spoke in support of the legislation. “Predators know where victims are. They’re in places where people cannot defend themselves.”
But opponents, including several students and faculty members who showed up to argue against the legislation, said drugs, alcohol and stress prevalent on college campuses make the atmosphere particularly bad for allowing guns.
“I can only imagine walking through mid-terms week or finals week and being afraid, because these people, at times, college students break down, especially when they’re in engineering and in the sciences and mathematics,” said John Quiroz, a 22-year-old political-science student at the University of South Florida.
Elsewhere, Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary Mike Carroll spoke to lawmakers in the wake of a horrific child death earlier this month, discussing about how the tragedy might affect efforts to reform the state’s troubled child-welfare system.
Carroll told House and Senate panels that he’s waiting for a report from the agency’s Critical Incident Rapid Response Team, which he dispatched to Tampa on Jan. 8. That day, John Jonchuck allegedly dropped his 5-year-old daughter, Phoebe, 60 feet into the waters of Tampa Bay.
Ironically, Carroll had testified before the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee on the morning of Phoebe Jonchuck’s death and provided mostly good news about the progress of a new child-welfare law, which went into effect July 1.
“We have done a lot of work on that, and I think we’ve made a lot of progress with it,” he told the same Senate committee Thursday. “The sad irony is that as we were speaking of the progress we’d made, at the same time there was a tragedy that unfolded in Tampa on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.”
Meanwhile, new Corrections Secretary Julie Jones made her first appearance before the Legislature, painting a picture of an understaffed agency embattled by a crumbling infrastructure, skyrocketing numbers of mentally ill prisoners and private health-care vendors who aren’t living up to their contract requirements.
“Staffing is key to lowering the temperature in these facilities,” Jones said. “It’s going to take all hands on deck and it’s going to take a true change in how we look at the role of the corrections officers and also the expectations of what those corrections officers, what services, they deliver to those inmates. Quite frankly, it’s a service. They’re there to keep them happy and they’re there to keep them healthy … and do it in such a way that they enter the facility in the same way that they exit the facility. And we’re not doing that.”
STORY OF THE WEEK: Gov. Rick Scott continued to be dogged by questions about the dismissal of FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey, which contributed to a growing rift between Scott and his fellow Republicans in the Cabinet.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “What I’m trying to do is prevent further loss of life by giving God-fearing and law-abiding citizens who have gone through background checks and all the things they have to do to get a (permit) to be able to defend themselves and their family.”— Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, on his bill to allow firearms on college campuses.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
IRS Warns Of Increasing Number Of Local Phone Scammers
January 24, 2015
Area residents are receiving an increasing number of aggressive and threatening phone calls by criminals impersonating Internal Revenue Service agents.
The IRS has seen a surge of these phone scams in recent months as scam artists threaten police arrest, deportation, license revocation and other things. The IRS reminds taxpayers to guard against all sorts of con games that arise during any filing season.
“If someone calls unexpectedly claiming to be from the IRS with aggressive threats if you don’t pay immediately, it’s a scam artist calling,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “The first IRS contact with taxpayers is usually through the mail. Taxpayers have rights, and this is not how we do business.”
Phone scams have been a persistent and pervasive problem for many taxpayers for many months. Scammers are able to alter caller ID numbers to make it look like the IRS is calling. They use fake names and bogus IRS badge numbers. They often leave “urgent” callback requests. They prey on the most vulnerable people, such as the elderly, newly arrived immigrants and those whose first language is not English. Scammers have been known to impersonate agents from IRS Criminal Investigation as well.
“These criminals try to scare and shock you into providing personal financial information on the spot while you are off guard,” Koskinen said. “Don’t be taken in and don’t engage these people over the phone.”
The IRS will never:
- Call to demand immediate payment, nor will the agency call about taxes owed without first having mailed you a bill.
- Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe.
- Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card.
- Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.
- Threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.
If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money, here’s what you should do:
- If you know you owe taxes or think you might owe, call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040. The IRS workers can help you with a payment issue.
- If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to believe that you do, report the incident to the TIGTA at 1-800-366-4484 or at www.tigta.gov.
- If you’ve been targeted by this scam, also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” at FTC.gov. Please add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments of your complaint.
Northview Girls Weighlifting Team Honors Presented
January 24, 2015
The Northview High School Girls Weightlifting team presented the following awards Friday morning:
- Myisha Syria
- Danielle Robinson
- Lakelynn Parker
- Moriah McGahan
FHSAA Releases Final Football Classifications For Next Four Years
January 24, 2015
The Florida High School Athletic Association has released final football series classifications for the next four years.
Tate, Crestview and Niceville move down from 7A to Class 6A. That creates a local 1-6A with Escambia, Pine Forest, Washington and Tate. Northview, Baker and Jay stay in 1-1A, while Freeport slips over to District 2 Class 1A.
Class 6A
District 1
Escambia
Pine Forest
Tate
Washington
District 2
Navarre
Gulf Breeze
Milton
Pace
District 3
Choctawhatchee (Fort Walton Beach)
Fort Walton Beach
Crestview
Niceville
Class 5A
District 1
Arnold (Panama City Beach)
Bay (Panama City)
Mosley (Lynn Haven)
Pensacola
West Florida
Class 3A
District 1
Pensacola Catholic
Taylor County (Perry)
Florida High (Tallahassee)
Class 1A
District 1
Baker
Jay
Northview (Bratt)
District 2
Cottondale
Graceville
Holmes County (Bonifay)
Sneads
Vernon
Wewahitchka
Firefighters Revive Cats Following Travel Trailer Fire (With Gallery)
January 23, 2015
Two cats pulled apparently lifeless and unresponsive from a travel trailer fire Thursday are alive and well today thanks to firefighters from Escambia Fire Rescue.
Firefighters from the Ensley and Cantonment fire stations were called to the travel trailer fire in the 6000 block of Untreiner Avenue in Ensley just after noon. The fire was quickly extinguished, saving surrounding structures. Firefighters removed the cats from the fire and revived them using oxygen from specially designed masks donated by the Junior Humane Society and a little tender loving care.
At last report, the cats were doing well.
For more NorthEscambia.com photos, click here.
There were no injuries to people in the blaze. The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office.
NorthEscambia.com exclusive photos by Kristi Price, click to enlarge.
Escambia To Settle With IRS Over Firefighter Stipends, Work To Keep Volunteers
January 23, 2015
The Escambia County Commission voted Thursday night to pay back taxes under an IRS audit of the county’s fire services and to work toward keeping things as normal as possible for volunteer firefighters while keeping the IRS and other agencies happy.
Volunteer firefighters in Escambia County currently receive stipend pay for answering 25 percent of their station’s calls during the month, ranging from $300 for a Firefighter I to $550 for a district chief.
The audit was prompted after the IRS discovered that several Escambia County employees were receiving both a W-2, showing taxes withheld from their “day” job with county, and a 1099, showing no taxes withheld as a volunteer firefighter. The IRS found Escambia County should have been withholding taxes on a stipend pay for all volunteers and the county owes over $78,000.
The county will pay the $78,000 and agree to the settlement as offered by the IRS.
Volunteer firefighters will continue to receive a stipend check will taxes withheld, and they will receive a W-2 rather than a 1099 at year’s end. As it stands now, any volunteer that works a paid job for the Board of County Commissioners can’t volunteer for the fire department because of potential tax overtime issues. About a dozen volunteers are impacted.
The commission authorized County Administrator Jack Brown and other staff to continue talks with the volunteers and to find any potential solutions.
Commissioner Wilson Robertson’s motion stated that volunteers should keep their stipends, no additional minimum training beyond Firefighter I should be required and staff should reach out to federal agencies to solve employee volunteer issues. The commission unanimously approved the motion.
NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Appeals Court Upholds Conviction In Murder Of Former PNJ Reporter
January 23, 2015
An appeals court has upheld the conviction of the man responsible for the murder of a former Pensacola News Journal reporter.
William Joseph Cormier was convicted by an Escambia County Jury of first degree murder on February 13, 2014, and received a mandatory life sentence for the murder of Sean Dugas. Cormier appealed his convcition to the First District Court of Appeals, which upheld his conviction and sentence.
Dugas was reported missing on September 13, 2012. His body was discovered buried in the residential backyard in Winder, GA, where the father of William Joseph Comier lived. In October 2012, Cormier was arrested and later charged with first degree murder. His brother, Chris Comier, was also charged with accessory after the fact to first degree murder.
Chris Comier pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in state prison in February 2014.
Ernest Ward Names January Students Of The Month
January 23, 2015
Ernest Ward Middle School has named January Students of the Month. They are: (L-R) Addison Albritton, seventh grade; Amber Gillman, sixth grade; and Dalton Hamilton, eighth grade. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Gulf Power, Military Bringing Large Scale Solar Power To Area
January 23, 2015
Gulf Power is partnering with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force to build solar energy farms at three different facilities across Northwest Florida. Today, the utility submitted the renewable projects to the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) for approval. The projects could be in service as early as December 2016.
“This is an important collaboration between Gulf Power, the Navy and the Air Force,” said Stan Connally, Gulf Power president and CEO. “As military installations seek solutions to promote renewable energy generation, we have worked alongside our military customers to help provide cost-effective solutions — and all our customers will reap the benefit.”
This is Gulf Power’s second alternative energy project since launching the 3.2-megawatt Perdido Landfill Gas-to-Energy facility in 2010. Together, these new solar facilities, which will be developed by HelioSage Energy, could produce enough energy to power approximately 18,000 homes for one year.
“We’re excited to be able to add solar energy to our generation mix,” Connally said. “With some careful planning, we’ve been able to make sure these projects are cost-effective for our customers.”
Once approved by the FPSC, the solar energy farms will be constructed at Eglin AFB in Fort Walton Beach (30 megawatts), Holley Field in Navarre (40 megawatts) and Saufley Field in Pensacola (50 megawatts). Gulf Power will serve customers across Northwest Florida with power from these renewable energy-generating facilities.
Capt. Keith Hoskins, commanding officer of NAS Pensacola, said the project is part of the Secretary of the Navy’s Strategy for Renewable Energy and provides an opportunity to assist local and state industry partners in understanding the Department of the Navy’s overall strategy and commitment to renewable energy.
“This project will provide a potential benefit to the U.S. Navy in providing energy security during outages to allow seamless operation of our critical assets,” Hoskins said.
NAS Whiting Field’s commanding officer Capt. Todd A. Bahlau addressed the benefits of the solar projects.
“NAS Whiting Field is excited to participate in the Secretary of the Navy’s plan to invest in renewable energy to diversify the Navy’s energy sources,” Bahlau said. “This is a win-win for everyone involved and another example of the tremendous partnerships between the military and the leaders of Northwest Florida.”
The Air Force, also striving to meet new federal renewable energy and energy conservation goals, is excited to get the project started.
“This project helps meet the DoD goal of 25 percent renewables by 2025 and the Air Force’s energy goal of 1 gigawatt of on-site capacity by 2016,” said Brig. Gen. David Harris, 96th Test Wing commander.
The Air Force Civil Engineer Center’s strategic asset utilization division chief Dave Funk highlighted how the solar facilities will not only benefit the community, but will make good use of Air Force property.
“This project exemplifies how a regional utility provider like Gulf Power can effectively partner with the Air Force to achieve common renewable energy and asset-optimization objectives,” Funk said. “The proposed agreement is expected to optimize the value of 240 acres of non-excess Air Force real estate through the development and operation of a ground-mounted solar photovoltaic facility, which will directly benefit Gulf Power, Eglin Air Force Base, and the local community.”
As an intermittent energy resource, the solar farms will not replace Gulf Power’s generation plants, but will have the capability to provide energy that will diversify the power supply and provide a cost-effective alternative during peak energy usage.
Pending FPSC approval, HelioSage is scheduled to begin construction in February 2016.
“HelioSage is excited to partner with Gulf Power on these landmark projects which will bring renewable energy to Northwest Florida,” said Chris Quarterman, vice president of Strategy for HelioSage Energy. “These projects serve as another example that large-scale solar has become a cost-effective technology. We congratulate Gulf Power and the Department of Defense for their leadership and vision, and look forward to working together on this effort.”
Pictured: Examples of HelioSage Energy solar photovoltaic (PV) facilities. Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.