By The Numbers: About 1 In 4 Escambia Voters Took Part In Primary Election
August 27, 2024
Nearly 1 in 4 registered voters in Escambia County turned out for last week’s 2024 Primary Election.
Of Escambia County’s 198,336 active eligible voters, 48,385 or 24.4% voted, according to the Escambia County Supervisor of Elections.
Nearly 60% of the ballots were cast before election day. There were 15,781 early votes cast and 13,255 that took advantage of early voting and 10 Escambia County locations.
Preliminary data indicates just 22.4% of registered voters statewide participated in the primary election season. That is the lowest turnout during a presidential election year since 2012.
Meet Gracie, The 911 Support Dog
August 27, 2024
Escambia County’s lifeline for emergencies isn’t just staffed by dedicated professionals – it has a furry friend too.
When you call 911, you connect with the Emergency Communications team, a group working tirelessly around the clock at the Escambia County Public Safety building on W Street. These communications specialists are the first responders behind the scenes, dispatching help to those in need.
But there’s another member of the team offering comfort and support – Gracie.
Gracie, an emotional support animal, lives alongside the communications crew. Known for her warm greetings and love for treats, Gracie provides a welcome dose of stress relief in the high-pressure environment..
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Library Board Of Governance Holds Meeting At Molino Library
August 27, 2024
The West Florida Library Board of Governance held their regular August board meeting Monday afternoon in Molino.
The board establishes policy and oversees the management of the West Florida Public Libraries and makes annual budget recommendations to the Escambia County Commission.
During the meeting at the Molino Branch Library, the board discussed a collection development policy and other library policy updates.
Director of Library Services Todd Humble also reported that a book vending machine could be coming to a new community center at Carver Park at Webb and Washington streets in Cantonment.
Pictured top: The West Florida Library Board of Governance met Monday afternoon in Molino. Pictured below: Molino Library Branch Manager Rachel Kahalley explains the many community programs at her branch to the board. Pictured below: WFPL Assistant Director of Library Services Christal Bell-Rivera and Director of Library Services Todd Humble met with the board. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
UWF Debuts At No. 12 In 2024 AFCA Preseason Coaches Poll
August 27, 2024
The UWF football team will open the 2024 season ranked No. 12 following the release of the AFCA Division II Preseason Coaches Poll.
The Argonauts are among three Gulf South Conference teams in the poll, with Valdosta State at No. 7 and Delta State at No. 18.
UWF’s week four opponent, Grand Valley State, was slotted at No. 4 with one first place vote.
UWF went 8-4 a year ago and advanced to the NCAA Division II Playoffs for the fifth time in the last six seasons. The Argos were ranked 23rd in the final poll a year ago.
UWF is 64-25 all-time with five NCAA postseason appearances in seven seasons. The Argos have reached the national semifinals three times and the national championship twice, winning the title in 2019. Since 2019, UWF’s 42 victories rank fifth among all Division 2 programs.
The Argos open the 2024 season on Thursday, September 5 when they host McKendree at PenAir Field on the UWF campus. Kickoff for the game is at 6 p.m.
Photo Scott A. Miller/UWF for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
One Area Winn Dixie Will Soon Be Converted Into Aldi Store
August 26, 2024
Get your quarters ready.
The process to convert some of the Winn Dixie grocery stores in Florida is beginning. Aldi tells NorthEscambia.com that one Aldi in the North Escambia area will close next month to begin the conversion into an Aldi.
In March, the Germany-based Aldi completed the purchase of all Winn Dixie stores.
The Winn-Dixie store located at 312 East Nine Mile Road will close for renovations in late September. The store will reopen as an Aldi in the next several months.
“While this store is temporarily closed, we continue to proudly serve the residents of Pensacola at our other area stores. We thank our customers for their years of loyalty at this location and look forward to seeing them soon as a new Aldi,” an Aldi spokesperson told us.
“Customers can expect a quick, easy shopping experience with great products at the lowest possible prices. Our smaller stores are stocked with only the items customers need so they can get in and out,” the company said.
Employees at the Nine Mile Road location will have priority when applying for positions at the new Aldi. The company emphasizes its commitment to minimizing the impact on staff, offering support and opportunities for redeployment within Aldi or transfers to nearby Winn Dixie stores.
Not all Winn-Dixie stores will become Aldis, and the only confirmed Escambia County conversion so far is the Nine Mile Road store.
In case you are wondering why you need a quarter — you insert a quarter to get a shopping cart at Aldi. But don’t worry, it’s like a deposit. You get the quarter back when you return the shopping cart.
The first Aldi store opened in Germany in 1913 and now operates thousands of stores in more than 10 countries. Aldi has opened over 2,300 stores in the U.S. and continues its path as one of America’s fastest growing grocery retailers.
Pictured: The Aldi store on Mobile Highway in Pensacola. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
University Of Florida Biologist Prepares For Space Travel Thursday
August 26, 2024
How do plants adapt when they go into space?
That’s the question the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) hopes to answer with a novel space-based experiment happening Thursday at 9 a.m. EST when a UF/IFAS horticultural sciences researcher launches with his experiment into suborbital space on a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket.
Rob Ferl, the University of Florida Astraeus Space Institute director, will fly in the Blue Origin craft and perform the experiment himself. The experiment builds on prior research that showed a type of plant – Arabidopsis thaliana – can detect that it is in space and then change how its genes are expressed.
“This moment is a milestone not just for the University of Florida and the Astraeus Space Institute but for an entire community of scientists who can now consider experiments in space that might have previously been viewed as impossible,” said UF Interim President Kent Fuchs. “I look forward to cheering Rob on during Thursday’s mission and to watching him make history yet again.”
This experiment will determine which genes turn on and off at various stages of flight. Although much is known about how plants respond to living in spaceflight environments, like the International Space Station, researchers know less about how plants respond molecularly as they travel to space. The experiment will provide new insights into how plants adjust their gene expression as they transition from Earth to space.
One day, plants might be an essential part of space exploration as food and air scrubbers, and understanding how they react to a space environment is the first step toward learning how to effectively grow them there.
“We envision plants will keep us alive in space or on the Moon,” said Ferl, who is also assistant vice president for UF Research. “What does it take to adapt to living in space? We’d like to know.”
Anna-Lisa Paul, co-principal investigator for the experiment, a horticultural sciences research professor and director of UF’s Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research, said researchers have only been able to see what this plant’s genes are like before and after space flight, not during.
“It’s something outside the evolutionary environment of any terrestrial species,” she said. “This is something we’re learning that has never been done before.”
The research was funded by a grant from NASA’s Flight Opportunities program and the agency’s Biological and Physical Sciences division.
Ferl will carry the plants in specialized tubes, called Kennedy Space Center Fixation Tubes (KFTs), that have a plunger to release a preservative solution. The tubes will be Velcroed to the legs of his flight suit during the flight. Before and after the flight, they will be moved in custom transit bags designed by the UF Space Plants Lab out of blackout fabric and a golden thermal blanket.
The experiment has a second purpose: to validate that having researchers do their own experiments on flights is a valuable use of research funding, rather than relying on untended experiments or robotics. This is the first NASA-supported researcher-tended suborbital flight.
“There’s something to be said about first-hand experience,” Ferl said. “The experiment is enriched when a human mind and a human brain go with it.”
The study will look at the plant’s transcriptome, the collection of all expressed RNA that contains answers to which genes are turned on and off to change the plant to adapt in a space environment. Ferl will chemically “lock” the genes with a preservative solution to pause the plants at a moment in time during various points in the launch – just before takeoff, at the start of zero gravity, at the end of zero gravity and at landing.
Researchers will then sequence the plants’ expressed genes and compare them to an on-Earth control experiment to figure out exactly which ones were activated or deactivated during the flight.
Jordan Callaham, assistant director for the UF Astraeus Space Institute and research coordinator for the UF Space Plants Lab in the UF/IFAS department of horticultural sciences, said this will help researchers begin to understand how plants would respond on space missions, on the Moon or on Mars. But it will also give them a better idea of the fundamental properties of the chemical pathways within plants and how they respond to all novel environments.
“We’re understanding how biology responds to space on a very basic level,” said Callaham, who will be doing the on-Earth control experiment while Ferl is on the Blue Origin rocket.
Florida Department of Health Reports Data Breach
August 26, 2024
The Florida Department of Health (DOH) has confirmed a significant data breach. The breach, which occurred on June 26, 2024, resulted in unauthorized access to sensitive personal information, including names, Social Security numbers, and medical records.
The Department has begun notifying affected individuals and offering complimentary credit monitoring and identity theft protection services. A dedicated toll-free call center has been established for those who believe they may have been impacted but have not received a notification letter.
The compromised data included a variety of personal identifying and protected health information, such as dates of birth, addresses, banking information, credit card numbers, driver’s license numbers, and medical histories.
In response to the breach, the DOH has taken immediate steps to enhance security measures and prevent further unauthorized access. The Department is also cooperating with law enforcement and cybersecurity experts to investigate the incident and mitigate its impact.
Individuals who have been affected by the breach are urged to remain vigilant against identity theft and fraud. Regular monitoring of financial accounts and credit reports is recommended, and any suspicious activity should be reported to the appropriate authorities.
For more information, call a dedicated toll free number at (866) 997-1602.
International Paper’s Whitney Fike Named Florida PR’s Communicator Of The Year
August 26, 2024
Whitney Fike was recently honored at the Florida Public Relations Association’s Golden Image Awards and Pinnacle Awards Gala, a three-day communications and marketing conference.
Whitney Fike, Regional Communications Manager at International Paper, received an inaugural Gold Pinnacle Award for Communicator of the Year. This was awarded to a public relations or communications practitioner who does exceptional work as a solo practitioner or as part of an agency, business, nonprofit or other organization that has some element of its business in the state of Florida.
This year’s award winners demonstrated the best in public relations, marketing, advertising, digital, social, design, events, promotions, educational materials and beyond. Nonprofit and for-profit organizations throughout the United States were invited to submit their projects for consideration during the 2024 awards program.
Other local area winners were:
Brittany Sherwood, president of FPRA Pensacola Chapter received a President’s Award for Professional Development.
Visit Pensacola; Nicole Stacey, vice president | Destination Development and Lindsey Steck Jackson, Marketing and Communications Manager received an Award of Distinction for Visit Pensacola Influencer Marketing Campaign.
University of West Florida Office of Institutional Communications received an Award of Distinction for the 100K Alumni campaign.
Photo for NorthEScambia.com, click to enlarge.
AAA: Labor Day Gas Prices Could Be the Lowest in Three Years
August 26, 2024
Florida gas prices averaged $3.29 per gallon on Sunday. That’s the lowest daily average price in two months.
Escambia County’s average per gallon stands at $3.06.
The state average jumped 8 cents early last week, then reversed course, declining 9 cents by the weekend. One Cantonment station was the cheapest in North Escambia at $2.76 per gallon Sunday night. In Pensacola, the lowest price was $2.76 on Pensacola Boulevard, Airport Boulevard and Nine Mile Road.
“Low oil prices have kept pump prices in check,” said Mark Jenkins, spokesman, AAA – The Auto Club Group. “Floridians planning to hit the road for Labor Day weekend are likely to find the lowest gas prices for the holiday weekend in three years.”
Florida drivers paid $3.68 per gallon on Labor Day 2023 and $3.52 during the 2022 holiday weekend. The state average was $3.02 per gallon on Labor Day weekend 2021.
Blue Wahoos Swept Out of Tennessee Despite Late Comeback
August 26, 2024
written by Erik Bremer
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos (62-56) mounted a late comeback in Sunday’s finale versus the Tennessee Smokies (74-45), but fell victim to another late home run and lost in walk-off fashion 9-5. The defeat marks the Wahoos’ 11th loss in 13 games and their first time being swept in a six-game series since August 8-13, 2023 in Chattanooga.
Both teams scored early and often to begin Sunday’s game. In the bottom of the first inning, Tennessee struck first against Pensacola righthander Jeff Lindgren (5.0 IP, 8 H, 4 ER) when third baseman Jonathon Long drove home right fielder Christian Franklin with a single. The Wahoos answered with three runs in the top of the second when center fielder Shane Sasaki doubled home the tying run before second baseman Johnny Olmstead singled home two more to give Pensacola a 3-1 lead.
The Smokies tacked on another run in the second, then jumped ahead in the third inning when Jonathon Long hit a two-run home run to give the Smokies a 4-3 lead. Neither team scored again until the bottom of the sixth when Tennessee tacked onto its lead when left fielder Parker Chavers singled home catcher Casey Opitz.
Trailing 5-3, the Pensacola offense came to life in the late innings. In the top of the seventh, Johnny Olmstead smacked his second home run of the series to cut the lead to 5-4. In the eighth, third baseman Graham Pauley followed up with a solo home run of his own to tie the game 5-5.
In the ninth, the Wahoos put a man on but could not score against Smokies righthander Zac Leigh (W, 2-2). In the bottom of the ninth, Pensacola lefthander Chandler Jozwiak (L, 3-4) took the mound for his second inning of relief following a scoreless eighth. Tennessee immediately put men aboard via a leadoff bunt single from second baseman Reivaj Garcia and a walk to right fielder Felix Stevens. Following a fielder’s choice and a one-out walk to load the bases, Smokies first baseman Haydn McGeary stepped to the plate and hit a 2-2 pitch for a walk-off, series-ending grand slam. The homer marked the third time in as many games that Tennessee hit a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning or later.
The 9-5 defeat marks the Wahoos’ eleventh loss in 12 regular season games versus Tennessee. Pensacola has three series and 18 total regular season games remaining this season.
The Wahoos return home on Tuesday to begin a series versus the Mississippi Braves. First pitch from Blue Wahoos Stadium is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. CT.