Home Near Flomaton Destroyed By Late Night Fire
November 16, 2014
Fire destroyed a single residential home just northeast of Flomaton late Saturday night.
The fire was reported just before midnight Saturday in the 3600 block of Wolf Log Road, near Jordan Road. The home was fully engulfed by flames when the first firefighters arrived on scene.
The occupants of the home were able to escape without injury. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.
The Flomaton, Friendship and Lambeth volunteer fire departments from Alabama and the Century Station of Escambia Fire Rescue from Florida were among the units responding to the fire.
First Baptist Bratt Will Serve As Operation Christmas Child Central
November 16, 2014
Volunteers will soon be busy at the First Baptist Church of Bratt during “National Collection Week” for Operation Christmas Child. For the 21st year, the simple, gift-filled shoe boxes will bring Christmas joy and evangelistic materials to children in over 130 countries across the world.
National Collection Week for OCC is November 17-24. The First Baptist Church of Bratt will be the official OCC Relay Center for the north end of Escambia County, FL. The FBC Bratt will also accept boxes from individuals, groups or churches in Escambia County, AL, again this year.
“This is not about the FBC of Bratt”, says Student Pastor Tim Hawsey, Relay Center coordinator. “This is about being a blessing and bringing God’s love and hope to children in poverty around the world that would not receive it otherwise. We have gone through the intense process of been approved as a church to be a Relay Center to collect the boxes from individuals, families, and churches of our area, document and pack them into special cartons and take them to the next level for Samaritan’s Purse, and we are blessed to do it.”
Collection hours at the First Baptist Church of Bratt will be:
- Monday, Nov. 17: 8 a.m. – noon, 4-6 p.m.
- Tuesday, Nov. 18: 8 a.m. – noon
- Wednesday, Nov. 19: 8 a.m. – noon, 4 PM – 6 PM
- Thursday, Nov. 20: 8 a.m. – noon
- Friday, Nov. 21: 8 a.m. – noon
- Saturday, Nov. 22: 8 a.m. – noon
- Sunday, Nov. 23: 8 a.m. – noon, 4-6 p.m.
- Monday, Nov. 24: 8 a.m. – 11 a.m.
Operation Christmas Child boxes should be packed in a specific manner, and there are changes this year. For more information, call Hawsey at the First Baptist Church of Bratt at (850) 327-6529, visit www.samaritanspurse.org/occ, or call (800) 353-5949. Resources are available for churches that wish to participate.
Pictured: Some of the Operation Christmas Child boxes collected at Ray’s Chapel Baptist Church in Bogia. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Out Of The Woods: What You Need To Know About Hunting Season
November 16, 2014
November means the 2014-15 huntin’ season is in full swing. In this month’s column, I cover almost everything you need to know about general gun, fall turkey, quail, snipe and the second phase of mourning and white-winged dove season.
The first thing you need to do is pick up a $17 Florida resident hunting license. Nonresidents pay $46.50 for a 10-day license or $151.50 for 12 months.
If you plan to hunt one of Florida’s many wildlife management areas (WMAs), you’ll also need a $26.50 management area permit, but don’t forget to study the brochure for the specific area you plan to hunt, because dates, bag limits and rules can differ greatly from area to area.
You can get these brochures at the tax collector’s offices in close proximity to the WMA, or you can download them from MyFWC.com/Hunting.
You can buy your license and permits by calling 888-HUNT-FLORIDA or going online at License.MyFWC.com. But have your credit card ready. You also can purchase them from a tax collector’s office and most retail outlets that sell hunting and fishing supplies.
The general gun season in Zone D (including Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties) always starts Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 27) and lasts four days until Nov. 30. Two weeks later, the season reopens Dec. 13 and runs through Feb. 22.
Regarding deer, hunters may take only legal bucks, and they must have the $5 deer permit. On private lands, the daily bag limit for deer is two, but during some quota hunts on WMAs, the bag limit is only one deer, so read the particular WMA brochure before you hunt.
On private lands, hunters can take wild hogs year-round with no bag or size limits. On most – but not all – WMAs, there’s also no bag or size limit on wild hogs, and hunters can take them during any hunting season except spring turkey. Again, check the WMA brochure to be certain.
On private lands only there’s the highly anticipated antlerless deer season. In Zone D, there’s been a change. The antlerless deer season used to run seven consecutive days, but now it’s been changed to a Saturday-Sunday (weekend) format. North of Interstate 10 in what is now called Deer Management Unit (DMU) D2, these new antlerless deer weekends are Nov. 29-30 and Dec. 6-7, 20-21 and 27-28. In DMU-D1, which is south of I-10, the doe weekends are Nov. 29-30 and Dec. 27-28.
During antlerless deer season, the daily bag limit is one legal buck and one antlerless deer, or two legal bucks. You may not take two antlerless deer in one day like you can during archery season, and spotted fawns are never legal game. By the way, WMAs do not have an antlerless deer season, so this opportunity applies to private property only.
Fall turkey season in Zone D is Nov. 27-30 and Dec. 13 – Jan. 18, except for Holmes County, where there is no fall turkey season.
Only bearded turkeys and gobblers are legal game; you must have a turkey permit ($10 for residents; $125 for nonresidents) to hunt them. You may now take up to two turkeys in one day on private lands, but there’s still the two-bird fall-season (archery, crossbow, muzzleloading gun and fall turkey seasons combined) limit. And on WMAs, you may still shoot only one turkey per day.
Quail season runs statewide Nov. 8 – March 1, and the daily bag limit is 12.
Shooting hours for deer, turkey and quail are a half-hour before sunrise to a half-hour after sunset. All legal rifles, shotguns, muzzleloaders, bows, crossbows and pistols are legal for taking these resident game animals during the general gun, antlerless deer, fall turkey and quail seasons.
Snipe hunting in Florida ranks second in the nation in number of birds harvested each year, and the season always runs Nov. 1 – Feb. 15 statewide. The second phase of the mourning and white-winged dove season also comes in this month and runs Nov. 8 – Dec. 1. Shooting hours for migratory game birds are one-half hour before sunrise to sunset. The bag limit for snipe is eight; for doves, the bag limit is 15.
You must get a no-cost migratory bird permit if you plan to hunt snipe, doves or any other migratory game birds.
The FWC even provides an online “Dove Hunters’ Hotline,” which gives up-to-date information on Florida’s public dove fields. The address is MyFWC.com/Dove, and it is updated every Thursday throughout dove season. Information includes dove densities, previous week’s harvests and field conditions.
Whether small-game hunting with friends and family or hunting solo, going after that monster buck, boar hog or big tom, November brings loads of great hunting opportunities.
Here’s wishing you a happy Thanksgiving and a successful hunting season
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: A Big Supply Of Demand
November 16, 2014
.It was a demanding week in Tallahassee.
The Florida Supreme Court demanded that a Republican political consultant turn over documents related to the state’s 2012 redistricting process, continuing a legal battle that has raged for more than two years. That ruling will also give the public a look at documents that a Leon County judge said were key to his decision over the summer to toss the state’s congressional districts.
Florida Democratic Chairwoman Allison Tant demanded that a group of Democratic “bed-wetters … shut up” instead of continuing their attempt to unseat incoming House Minority Leader Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach. Pafford and his allies spent the week more quietly attempting to show that the challenge would die out on its own.
And a group of students demanded that new Florida State University President John Thrasher make a series of changes to prove that the university wouldn’t be in the thrall of conservative forces.
Of the demands, the only one that seemed certain to produce results was the one by the Florida Supreme Court, which has the authority to compel people to follow its orders.
‘DESIGNED TO DELAY AND OBFUSCATE’
Two things stood out in the Supreme Court’s decision to reject GOP consultant Pat Bainter’s efforts to keep his redistricting records private: the harshness of the language used by the majority opinion in the case, and the fact that all seven justices on the famously divided court agreed that Bainter’s documents should be publicly released.
The decision means that evidence from Bainter and his consulting firm, Data Targeting, Inc., will no longer be kept under seal. Justices said Bainter waited too long to argue that releasing some of the documents would violate his First Amendment rights. And in writing for five members of the court, Justice Barbara Pariente accused Bainter of stalling at best and dishonesty at worst.
“We simply do not countenance and will not tolerate actions during litigation that are not forthright and that are designed to delay and obfuscate the discovery process,” Pariente wrote.
Joining Pariente in the opinion were Chief Justice Jorge Labarga and justices R. Fred Lewis, Peggy Quince and James E.C. Perry. In a separate opinion, justices Ricky Polston and Charles Canady supported the outcome.
The documents were used during the summer as part of a trial over a challenge by voting-rights groups, including the League of Women Voters of Florida, who argued that the Republican-dominated Legislature drew congressional districts that violated a constitutional ban on gerrymandering.
But the documents have remained under seal, and the public was barred from the courtroom during Bainter’s testimony.
“Today’s ruling from the Florida Supreme Court will finally force sunshine into the shadow process that has robbed the citizens of Florida of their right to fair representation in Congress,” said David King, one the coalition’s lawyers, in a statement following the decision. ” … We think it is beyond time to lift the veil of secrecy and ensure that all proceedings going forward are open and fully transparent.”
Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis ruled in July that GOP consultants managed to taint the redistricting process by submitting maps under the name of another individual. In his decision throwing out two congressional districts that he said were unconstitutionally gerrymandered to benefit Republicans, Lewis wrote that the documents were “very helpful to me in evaluating whether (the voting rights groups) had proved that first prong of their theory.”
The maps were later redrawn during a special session in August.
‘MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH’
The fact that Tant was upset with House members threatening a revolt against Pafford doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Depending on what you count as a decision to keep or get rid of a leader, Democrats in the chamber have made seven such decisions in the last two years.
But it was a little surprising that Tant held so little back in a lengthy criticism of those backing a rebellion by Rep. Dwayne Taylor, D-Daytona Beach. The rebellion came after Democrats lost the governor’s race and six House seats in the Nov. 4 elections.
“I’m ready for the bed-wetting to stop. You know, you can go ahead and continue to whack each other over the head about what went wrong, what didn’t go right, what we could have done better — the coulda shoulda woulda,” Tant told The News Service of Florida in an interview this week. “Meanwhile, back at the ranch, it’s a done deal!”
The statement came in a five-and-half-minute harangue aimed at the dissidents. It was a none-too-subtle message to drop the challenge before a caucus meeting Monday.
Whether that will happen is another matter entirely. Incoming Rep. Evan Jenne, D-Dania Beach, said Wednesday that Pafford has “more (votes) than he had the last time he ran,” when Pafford won on a 29-12 vote with one abstention.
Jenne said he hoped the caucus could avoid a contested election next week.
“It’s just not necessary,” he said. “The votes are where they are.”
Meanwhile, Pafford announced that he would keep Rep. Mia Jones, D-Jacksonville, as the No. 2 Democrat in the House. Rep. Darryl Rouson, a Democrat who was supposed to be leader before a fundraising dispute with Tant, narrowly defeated Jones last year when he won the initial race to head up the caucus.
“I look forward to working with Mark to solidify the caucus as one body, to recognize the importance of standing as one, and fighting as one, for the things we believe in,” Jones said in a release announcing her appointment. “Now it really becomes a greater responsibility to stand united as Democrats to fight for what’s most important to us.”
‘A PRODUCTIVE DIALOGUE’
There are many ways Thrasher could have spent his first morning as FSU president: Measuring the drapes is a popular cliché. He could have learned how the coffeemaker worked.
Instead, the 70-year-old former state senator from St. Augustine spent the first hour in his new position engaging with a group of about 25 confrontational students who had vocally opposed his recent appointment and now refuse to recognize him as the school’s new president.
If there was good news in the confrontation, it’s that the students were not uncompromising in their position toward Thrasher. Instead, they came with demands.
Those demands included ensuring that grants and agreements involving the school and the FSU Foundation were open to public review, and ending a 2008 contract the school has with the Charles Koch Foundation to help fund the economics department.
Rather than agreeing to or rejecting each item, Thrasher said he would need time to research the demands.
“As long as they want to have a productive dialogue, I’m more than willing to do it,” Thrasher said after the meeting. ” … This university, by the way, has 42,000 students, and I’m interested in all of their interests and making sure the university thrives.”
The students, who also listed in their demands that Thrasher admit he “lied” to the students about campaign funding received from the politically influential Koch bothers, called his refusal to accept their demands “insulting” and “disappointing.”
“We’re going to keep pushing the administration to protect the university from violations of academic freedom,” said Ralph Wilson, a seventh-year graduate student who is among the leaders of the student group. ” … We have to harness the power that students have, and thanks to people like John Thrasher and politicians, it’s a decreasing amount of power that students have.”
Meanwhile, the chain reaction of special elections set off by Thrasher’s resignation from his Senate seat kicked up a stampede of lawmakers and politicos hoping for their chance at legislative fame (or infamy, depending on what you think of the Legislature).
On Monday, Gov. Rick Scott set elections for Thrasher’s seat and the seats of two House members who have decided to run to succeed Thrasher. Voters will fill the seat in Senate District 6, Thrasher’s Northeast Florida district, along with the House District 17 seat held by state Rep. Ronald “Doc” Renuart, R-Ponte Vedra Beach, and the House District 24 seat held by Rep. Travis Hutson, R-Elkton.
Special primaries for the three seats would be held Jan. 27, with the special general elections set for April 7. District 17 is in St. Johns County, while District 24 includes Flagler County and parts of St. Johns and Volusia counties.
At least three Republicans were already lining up to succeed Hutson. Paul Renner, who recently moved to Palm Coast after running for a Jacksonville-area House seat, and Sheamus McNeeley of St. Augustine have both filed for the special election. Also, Palm Coast Republican Donald O’Brien has opened an account to run for the seat in 2016, a move that could be a precursor to running in the special election.
STORY OF THE WEEK: The Florida Supreme Court orders the release of redistricting records belonging to GOP consultant Pat Bainter.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “We have to marshal our energies, put on our big-girl pants and move the heck down the road. The bed-wetters need to shut up, and we need to move on.”—Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Allison Tant, on a fight within the House Democratic caucus over the leader for the coming legislative session.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Serious Injuries In Friday Night Cantonment Crash
November 15, 2014
At least two people were transported to area hospitals as “trauma alerts” following a crash at Highway 29 and Woodland Street in Cantonment Friday night.
The two people were in a pickup involved with a collision with a passenger car. At least one was partially ejected from the truck, while the other was trapped in their vehicle following the crash.
The Ensley, Molino and McDavid stations of Escambia Fire Rescue responded to the crash, along with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and Escambia County EMS. The accident remains under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol; further details have not been released.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Price, click to enlarge.
Tate Aggies Advance In 7A With Win Over Lincoln
November 15, 2014
The Tate Aggies beat the Lincoln Trojans 34-24 Friday night in Tallahassee in a regional quarterfinal playoff game.
The Aggies took the lead 7-0 with 6:06 to go in the first quarter before Alondo Thompkins ran for 78 yards to make it 14-0 with :32 second in the first. Thompkins added another 73-yard touchdown in the second half to finish to 166 yards rushing and 125 receiving.
Overall, the Aggies rushed for 265 yards and had almost 500 yards total offense against Lincoln.
The Aggies advance on the road to Orlando next Friday night as they take on Niceville in the 7A regional semifinal round. During the regular season, Niceville’s Eagles beat Tate 35-7.
Pictured: The Tate Aggies beat Lincoln 34-24 Friday night in Tallahassee. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Vernon Ends Northview’s Playoff Hopes
November 15, 2014
The Northview Chiefs’ dreams of a second state championship were stopped cold in round one of the playoffs Friday night in Vernon. The Yellow Jackets beat the Chiefs 36-19 in the Region 1-1A football semifinal.
Vernon was first on the board with a six yard touchdown on their first possession of the game from four and four. The Chiefs answered with a 14-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Gavin Grant to Cameron Newsome with 1:54 to go in the first. With a good kick, the Chiefs were out to a 7-6 lead.
The Yellow Jackets regained the lead 14-7 with a short touchdown run and two point conversion with 10:58 to go in the half. With 11.6 seconds to go in the half, the Chiefs were in for a game tying touchdown that was called back on a penalty.
Northview felt the sting of the Yellow Jackets in the second half with three unanswered Vernon TD’s.
Grant threw thee touchdowns, two of them to Newsome, to go 22 of 45 for 191 yards.
The loss ended the 1A playoff run for the Chiefs (7-3). Vernon (10-1) will advance next week to take on Baker, who knocked off Graceville 21-7 Friday night.
Pictured: The Northview cheerleaders console one another as the football team gathers in the background following playoff run ending loss Friday night in Vernon. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Friday Night Football Finals
November 15, 2014
Final scores from tonight’s area playoff games below.
Here is tonight’s schedule:
- Vernon 36, Northview 19 [Read more...]
- Tate 34, Lincoln 24 [Read more...]
- West Florida 41, Wakulla 34
- Navarre 44, Escambia 30
- Choctaw 27, Pensacola 24
- Niceville 44, Leon 6
- Baker 21, Graceville 7
- Flomaton 43, Cottonwood 32
- Montgomery Academy 30, T.R. Miller 28
- Munford 29, W.S. Neal 22
- Escambia Academy 30, Restoration Academy 8
Judge Strikes Down Pot Rule
November 15, 2014
An administrative law judge Friday struck down a rule proposed by health regulators as a framework for Florida’s new medical-marijuana industry, finding multiple flaws in the controversial rule challenged by the state’s largest nursery and other growers.
Administrative Law Judge W. David Watkins sided with Miami-based Costa Farms and others that objected to the Department of Health’s use of a lottery to pick five licensees that will grow, process and distribute strains of non-euphoric marijuana authorized by the Legislature and approved by Gov. Rick Scott earlier this year.
The lottery process is invalid because it is “vague, fails to establish adequate standards for agency decisions and vests unbridled discretion in the agency,” Watkins wrote in a 71-page ruling.
In addition, the rule is “arbitrary … in that the ultimate decision as to which applicant will be approved is left to chance, rather than logic and an evaluation of all necessary facts,” he wrote.
“Assuring the dependable delivery of consistently high-quality, low-THC medicine is too important to be left to chance. Rather than minimally qualified applicants, citizens of the State of Florida, including sick and vulnerable children, deserve approval of the most qualified growers, processors and dispensers of low-THC cannabis,” Watkins wrote.
Health officials claimed that using the lottery system would reduce potentially drawn-out litigation over the selection of the five dispensing organizations and refused to back down from the selection process despite protests from nursery owners at public hearings where the rule was vetted.
But Watkins said the Department of Health needs to pick the most-qualified applicants to grow and process marijuana low in euphoria-inducing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and high in cannabadiol, or CBD. The Legislature intended for the low-THC cannabis to be “reasonably available and accessible to patients needing this medicine,” Watkins wrote.
“The evidence adduced at hearing supports the common sense notion that this objective requires selecting the most dependable, most qualified dispensing organizations to cultivate, process, and dispense low-THC cannabis as prescribed by physicians. The proposed lottery rule to select these special franchises by chance creates risks that substantially reduce the likelihood of this objective being met,” Watkins wrote.
Supporters of the low-THC, high-CBD strains of cannabis believe the substance can eliminate or dramatically reduce life-threatening seizures in children with severe forms of epilepsy. Under the new law, patients with other spasm-causing diseases or cancer would also be eligible for the strains of marijuana if their doctors order it, and if their doctors say they have exhausted all other treatments.
In his ruling, Watkins also rejected the department’s argument that all applicants that made it as far as the lottery would be equally qualified to cultivate, process and dispense the low-THC cannabis. The criteria laid out in the law regarding applicants’ security and safety plans, inventory-control plans, location and transportation plans and financial ability can be “compared on the merits using ordinary business judgment without special knowledge of technical methods of production or preference for any one technical approach,” he wrote.
“While the department’s present inexperience in technical program areas may make comparison more difficult, it can avail itself of expert assistance to determine which applicants have superior programs and the best chance of success,” Watkins wrote. “There is no discernable reason why the exercise of the department’s reasonable discretion in applying the criteria should not determine which applicants are approved.”
Watkins also rejected health officials’ contention that it would be difficult or impossible to compare the applications because the applicants may use different methods to process the extract from the cannabis.
“Different proposals can be evaluated in the exercise of reasoned judgment as to which will best serve the need identified consistent with the statutory objectives and criteria,” he wrote.
The judge agreed with Florida State University economics professor David Cooper who said that the lottery system would likely reduce competition between providers and could make the product more expensive for consumers, especially problematic because insurance won’t cover the substance’s cost.
The rule is also invalid because it imposes a vague ” ‘qualification’ regime” not included in the statute that fails to create adequate standards for the health officials’ decision-making process to determine which applicants get entered into the lottery, Watkins wrote.
Health officials did not immediately say whether they intend to appeal Watkins’s ruling. The new law requires the health department to have the regulatory structure in place by Jan. 1.
“The Department of Health will consider all options that will most expeditiously get this product to market to help families facing serious illnesses,” department spokesman Nathan Dunn said in an e-mail.
Watkins also decided that several other portions of the rule were invalid, including who can apply and when they must pay an application fee.
The law limited potential applicants to nurseries that have done business continuously in Florida for at least 30 years and are registered to grow at least 400,000 plants. About 75 nurseries meet the criteria.
But the rule would have allowed nurseries to pair with other entities to be eligible for the licenses. The rule would have restricted nurseries to a single application but would not have imposed any limit on the number of applications other businesses involved with the nurseries could make.
Watkins found that the agency “relaxed” the requirements in the law regarding applicants and that the plain interpretation of the statute means that only nurseries that meet the criteria are eligible to get one of the five licenses.
Costa Farms vice president Peter Freyre praised Watkins’s decision.
“We feel today’s resolution is the right decision for the state’s sick and suffering patients who will be helped by the use of low-THC cannabis — their medication should be produced by the best and most qualified applicants, not the luckiest. We look forward to working with DOH to craft a rule based on quality and we hope to get to work as soon as possible,” Freyre said in a statement.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Friday Night Fire Damages Walnut Hill Mobile Home
November 15, 2014
Fire damaged a Walnut Hill mobile home Friday evening.
The fire was reported about 5:20 p.m. on Mitchell Road, just off Arthur Brown Road. Firefighters arrived to find a fire in the attic of the single wide home. There was no major fire damage to the mobile home.
The fire was believed to have started near a chimney after a fire was lit in a fireplace. There were no injuries reported.
The Walnut Hill, Century, McDavid and Molino stations of Escambia Fire Rescue, the Nokomis (AL)Volunteer Fire Department and the Atmore (AL) Fire Department were dispatched to the scene, along with Atmore Ambulance.
Pictured: Fire damaged a mobile home on Mitchell Road in Walnut Hill Friday evening (the mobile home is mostly hidden by bushes in these photos). NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
