National Guard, Scott Back Emergency Concealed Carry Measure
March 26, 2014
A measure backed by the National Rifle Association that would allow people to conceal a firearm without a license during an emergency now has the open support of Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida National Guard but is still on hold in the Senate.
St. Petersburg Republican Sen. Jeff Brandes on Tuesday for the second time delayed a vote on his bill (296), now seemingly stalled in the Senate Military and Veterans Affairs, Space, and Domestic Security Committee.
“Clearly we’re going to continue to work with law enforcement and the agencies involved to come up with a better product,” Brandes said Tuesday after again postponing a vote on the measure.
The bill could still advance because the committee may hold up to two more meetings, Chairman Thad Altman, R-Melbourne said.
Scott and the National Guard this week came out in support of the plan after NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer took issue with objections to the bill expressed by the chief lawyer for the Florida Department of Military Affairs. The agency is overseen by Scott, who is seeking re-election this year.
Hammer said she questioned the governor’s aides about comments made by Capt. Terrence Gorman, general counsel for the military agency, at a March 19 meeting.
“I’m not interested in bringing law enforcement on board. This is about law-abiding people being able to protect themselves in a time of emergency,” Hammer told reporters after the vote was postponed on Tuesday. “It is not about the convenience of law enforcement.”
Allowing people who have not had the required training to carry firearms during stress-filled times like evacuations can create a potentially “tricky” situation, Gorman told the panel during a March 19 meeting.
“When people aren’t thinking clearly … they probably shouldn’t have a weapon shoved in the back of their pants,” Gorman said last week.
After Gorman’s testimony, Sen. Charlie Dean, an Inverness Republican and former Citrus County sheriff, said he would no longer support the measure.
But in the wake of Hammer’s visit and at the request of Scott’s staff, the head of the Florida National Guard, Maj. Gen. Emmett Titshaw, sent Altman a letter saying the Guard backs the bill.
“Capt. Terrence Gorman is not authorized to speak for the Department of Military Affairs on legislative issues,” Titshaw wrote on March 20. “Department of Military Affairs supports Senate Bill 296.”
Titshaw said Tuesday that Gorman was only providing information last week.
“As the questioning proceeded, the perception could have been that he was in opposition of the bill,” Titshaw added.
Scott’s office confirmed that Titshaw was asked to write the letter and that the governor supports the bill.
“Our office took action to correct an inaccurate representation of this administration’s policy during a Senate committee meeting,” Scott spokeswoman Jackie Schutz said in an email on Tuesday.
Brandes’ bill is slated for another committee stop before reaching the Senate floor for a full vote.
The House companion (HB 209) by Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen, R-Fort Myers, is scheduled for a vote by the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, the bill’s final stop before it reaches the floor.
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
County Paving Remaining Dirt Roads In Old Molino Area
March 26, 2014
An Escambia County dirt road paving project is near completion in “Old Molino”.
According to the county, the project consists of the design and paving of all or portions of:
- Brickyard Road
- Brickton Road to Barth Road
- Molino Road to Blake Street
- Blake Street from the West End to Brickyard Road
- McKinnonville Street from Molino Road to Brickyard Road
The project also addressed drainage upgrades necessary to prevent roadway flooding.
The project was designed to eliminate the dirt roads in the Old Molino area, eliminating the need for the county to send a motor grader to the area to perform routine maintenance.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Smith, click to enlarge.
Lawmakers Focus On Child Protection Gains Momentum
March 26, 2014
A Florida House panel approved a potentially groundbreaking child-protection measure Tuesday, designed to upgrade the effectiveness, professionalism and transparency of a state agency under fire after a series of children’s deaths.
The House Healthy Families Subcommittee unanimously passed the measure it had worked on since September, sparked by media reports about the abuse and neglect deaths of children — who, in many cases, had earlier drawn the attention of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
The bill (PCB HFS 14-03) would add tens of millions of dollars to the state’s child-protection services, said panel Chairwoman Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart.
“It’s got a big fiscal (impact),” Harrell said. “It’s probably $30 (million) or $40 million.”
Ryan Duffy, a spokesman for House Speaker Will Weatherford, said the House is proposing $1,071.5 million for child protection services during the upcoming budget year, with $791,168,438 going to privatized community-based care lead agencies.
The complex legislation would create an assistant secretary for child welfare at the Department of Children and Families. It would establish education requirements for child-protective investigators, case managers and their supervisors, along with tuition-exemption and loan-forgiveness programs for them.
It would keep siblings together and medically fragile children in their communities whenever possible. It would establish the Florida Institute for Child Welfare to conduct research and review policy results.
The bill would also create critical-incident response teams to conduct immediate investigations of child deaths, disappearances and other serious episodes of child abuse and neglect. It would require the Department of Children and Families to publish the basic facts of all deaths of children reported to the state abuse hotline.
And it would require greater transparency from the community-based care lead agencies about their budgets and administrators’ salaries.
“We want to have the very best child-protection system in the entire country,” Harrell said.
Gov. Rick Scott has recommended spending nearly $40 million to hire 400 new child protective investigators during the upcoming fiscal year.
But as the House and Senate studied the Florida child welfare system, it became apparent that other aspects were under-funded as well. Last fall the Department of Children and Families began conducting a “gap analysis” to identify the availability of services such as mental health and substance-abuse treatment programs.
This month, a Miami Herald investigative series, “Innocents Lost,” analyzed the deaths of 477 children whose families had a history with DCF over a six-year period. The Herald reported that the children died despite warnings that they or their siblings could be in danger. It also found that the agency’s budget had been reduced from $2.88 billion in fiscal year 2005-06 to $2.80 billion in fiscal year 2013-14 – even as the state budget grew from $64.5 billion to $74.1 billion.
The report galvanized lawmakers in both chambers. The Senate had already passed three measures (SB 1666, 1668 and 1670) along the lines of the House bill. But Sen. Eleanor Sobel, a Hollywood Democrat who chairs the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee, is rewriting her measure (SB 1666) to add the requirement of comprehensive services for children and families. Gaetz spokeswoman Katie Betta said the Senate could release an estimated cost for the bill as early as next week.
“I’m very hopeful,” said DCF Interim Secretary Esther Jacobo. “Nothing is guaranteed in life, I guess, but every legislator I’ve talked to, the governor’s office, everyone is so committed to — at the end of the session — having some comprehensive solutions to the child welfare system. Starting from resources, because you can do as many tweaks to the law as you want, but if you don’t have the time to do the things you need to do, you’re not going to do a good job.”
Sobel said that the community-based care lead agencies, which oversee adoption, foster care and case management services, “are doing a decent job. However, we need to provide more services with accountability measures.”
Harrell said if the committee process had permitted it, she would have kept the bill for another week to refine it further.
“Money is extremely important,” Harrell said. “You can’t do this without additional resources, whether it’s for (child protective investigators) or additional money into services — you’ve got to have both.”
She also pointed to troubled homes plagued by domestic violence. She said she’d continue trying to find legislative language to deal with boyfriends in the homes who can’t be put under court order, and to protect battered spouses as well.
“If there’s domestic violence in the home and you’re holding the victim responsible for the acts of the perpetrator …you don’t want to do that,” Harrell said. “So we’ve got to find the right language to make sure that we can help parents make the right decisions and take care of their children, keep their children safe.”
by Margie Menzel, The News Service of Florida
Chiefs Beat Holmes County
March 26, 2014
The Northview Chiefs beat the Holmes County Blue Devils Tuesday 13-10.
The Chiefs will travel to Jay Friday, with junior varsity playing at 4:00 and the varsity at 6:00.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Ramona Preston, click to enlarge.
Atmore Murder Suspect Arrested By U.S. Marshals
March 25, 2014
An Atmore man was arrested Tuesday morning by the U.S. Marshals Regional Task Force in Escambia County, FL, for failure to appear on charges in connection with an April 28, 2013, murder in Atmore.
Kendrell “Dick” McCants of Atmore is charged with the murder of 50-year old Marvin D. Norman of Atmore. A failure to appear warrant was issued for his arrest in late February after he skipped out on a court appearance in Brewton.
McCants is being held without bond in the Escambia County Jail in Pensacola awaiting extradition back to Alabama.
About 6:17 a.m. on Sunday morning, April 28, 2013, Atmore Police responded to a reported unconscious person in the 80 block of Brooks Lane. As officers arrived, they observed a man later identified as Norman on the ground in a yard. Police said he had injuries consistent with an assault.
Norman was transported by Atmore Ambulance to Atmore Community Hospital. He was later airlifted by LifeFlight to Baptist Hospital in Pensacola where he passed away a short time later.
Cantonment Woman Busted With Active One Pot Meth Lab In Her Trailer
March 25, 2014
A Cantonment woman was arrested after deputies found her with an active meth lab in her trailer when they went to arrest her on an outstanding warrant.
Vanesa Lea Sharp, age 54, had an active arrest warrant for failure to appear in a shoplifting case. When deputies arrived her travel trailer on Beck’s Lake Road, they reported finding the meth lab.
When Sharp opened the door of her travel trailer, deputies were able to see coffee filters, bottles, a clear blastic baggie with a white substance and other items indicative a methamphetamine production, according to an arrest report. The white substance field test positive for methamphetamine, and deputies obtained a search warrant for the travel trailer.
Inside the travel trailer, deputies reported finding an active, still-bubbling one pot method meth lab in a jug.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit reported the recover of 364 grams of methamphetamine from the one pot lab, along with the recovery of numerous items and listed chemicals used in the manufacture of meth. They also recovered two plastic bags containing marijuana.
The one pot and other items were disposed of by a hazmat team.
Sharp was charged with trafficking in methamphetamine, possession of a listed chemical (anhydrous ammonia), production of methamphetamine, possess of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of methamphetamine and failure to appear.
Sharp remained in the Escambia County Jail Tuesday with bond set at $172,250.
U.S. Supreme Court Turns Down W.D. Childers Appeal
March 25, 2014
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up an appeal by former Escambia County Commissioner and Florida Senate President W.D. Childers in a bribery case that has bounced around the legal system for years. Justices did not give any explanation for the decision.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in November ruled against Childers on a question about whether he received a fair trial before getting convicted on bribery and unlawful compensation charges.
Childers, who represented the Pensacola area in the Senate for three decades, was convicted in 2003 for actions while serving on the Escambia County Commission after leaving the Legislature.
The appeals-court decision stemmed from arguments that Childers was not able to fully cross-examine a key witness in the case — another county commissioner — and whether Florida courts properly dealt with claims that Childers’ constitutional rights had been violated. Childers, 80, who was in the Senate from 1970 to 2000, has already served a prison term.
Childers was convicted of bribery and accepting unlawful compensation for official acts in connection with a Highway 29 soccer complex scandal in 2002 while he served as an Escambia County Commissioner.
The soccer complex scandal eventually resulted in charges against four Escambia Commissioners — Childers, Willie Junior, Terry Smith and Mike Bass. Junior was later found dead under a house, committing suicide the day before he was to be sentenced.
Childers, once known as “The Banty Rooster” for bringing home the bacon for Northwest Florida, was released from state prison on June 17, 2009, having served almost three years of a 42-month sentence on the charges related to the $3.9 million soccer complex purchase. Junior testified that he received a collard green pot full of cash in exchange for his vote to purchase the soccer complex.
Childers was also the first man in Florida jailed for violating the open-meeting portion of the Sunshine Law for a phone call he and Smith made to then Supervisor of Elections Bonnie Jones. Childers served about a month in jail before being released.
Most notably for North Escambia, Childers was the man responsible for securing the funding to four-lane Highway 29 to the Alabama state line.
Century Donates $1,200 To Little League For New Concession Stand
March 25, 2014
The Town of Century has donated $1,200 to Century Little League for a portable concession stand.
The league was in need of a concession stand that could be moved closer to outlying fields on game days. The town council voted to up their usual $1,000 per year donation to $1,200 to cover the cost.
Bondurant Lumber in Century will provide the materials and building the concession stand.
Lawmakers Could Be Setting Up Framework For Medical Marijuana
March 25, 2014
As much as they dislike a ballot question that would let doctors write prescriptions for marijuana, Republican lawmakers are laying the groundwork to implement the proposal, should voters approve it in November.
Legislation opening the door for a strain of marijuana that doesn’t get users high but can dramatically reduce life-threatening seizures in children with epilepsy could also create the framework for regulation of the more traditional medical marijuana on the ballot in November.
“It would be naïve to suggest that what we’re doing now would have no effect on what a regulatory scheme would look like if the constitutional amendment were passed. As this process goes forward, you’ll see more discussion of long-term implications of what we’re doing,” said Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Chairman Rob Bradley, a Fleming Island Republican and former prosecutor who is co-sponsoring the Senate’s plan to legalize the non-euphoric cannabis.
GOP leaders in both chambers are backing proposals that would make available a strain of cannabis that is low in tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component in marijuana, but high in the derivative cannabidiol, or CBD. They’ve lined up against the constitutional amendment, backed by Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan, even though many polls show that the ballot measure is widely popular among nearly all voting blocs.
The House and Senate are split on how much — if any — regulation the state should impose on growers and distributors of the substance, sometimes referred to by the most widely known strain, “Charlotte’s Web,” named after a Colorado girl with a rare form of epilepsy.
Meanwhile, Florida investors, nurserymen and growers across the state are lining up to get in on the ground floor of the medical marijuana movement in Florida, but with an eye on the constitutional proposal on the November ballot. They’re hoping that any legislative proposal approved this year would give them some idea of what to expect should the amendment receive the 60 percent approval required for passage.
“They are looking at the larger marketplace and the longer play. We’re soon to be the third-largest state in the nation. Realistically, we have a diversity of illnesses in this state that seemingly could benefit from a larger application,” said Louis Rotundo, a lobbyist representing the Florida Medical Cannabis Association, a recently formed non-profit organization whose board of directors includes investors and landowners.
The Senate’s proposal would create a statewide “compassionate use” registry of individuals deemed by their physicians to be eligible for “low-THC” treatment and would allow state health officials to authorize from one to four dispensaries to distribute the substance, which could contain no more than .5 percent of THC and at least 15 percent CBD.
The House plan (HB 843), in its current form, would allow for cannabis with .8 percent or less of THC and more than 10 percent of CBDs, which supporters believe could be used to treat a wider range of neurological and medical disorders than the Senate measure (SB 1030). The House plan would give growers, distributers, and users an “affirmative defense” if they are arrested or charged with crimes but lacks the regulatory structure included in the Senate version.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, said he is working with Bradley to address concerns raised during a House Appropriations Committee last week from members who “wanted to see more oversight and regulation and control over any form of marijuana, even non-euphoric forms of marijuana.” Gaetz said his bill will likely not be heard this week as previously scheduled by the Judiciary Committee, whose chairman Dennis Baxley has expressed concerns about the proposal, while he works out the details.
“Our plan is not to influence the outcome of the constitutional amendment or the implementation of the constitutional amendment one way or the other. We’re trying to pass a bill this year to get some medical cannabis to people as soon as possible,” Gaetz said Monday.
When asked if the regulation of the low-THC, high-CBD marijuana could be used to implement the amendment if it passes, Gaetz said, “I really don’t care.”
But Baxley acknowledged that whatever lawmakers do this year could be used as a template next year. The constitutional amendment gives the Legislature nine months to implement the proposal.
“Everything we’re doing could be preparation for what kind of enabling legislation would you start with should it pass,” Baxley, R-Ocala, said. “But I don’t want whatever we do on this to be the first step off the sled of just going after open marijuana chaos that we see in Colorado and California.”
Bradley’s proposal, co-sponsored by Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, and Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, received just one “no” vote from the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on Monday. Sen. Thad Altman, R-Melbourne, said he voted against the measure because he believes more scientific testing is needed on the substance, which does not have FDA approval.
Colorado’s medical marijuana industry generated $263 million in sales last year, according to one estimate. Rotundo said the members of his group are paying close attention to how the Legislature handles Charlotte’s Web even though most won’t manufacture the substance and are more interested in the estimated 1.5 million people who could be eligible for medical marijuana if the amendment passes.
“Businesses like regulatory certainty. I would hope that the Legislature would strongly consider an iterative approach and, if they’re going to do this now, that the next phase will not be a radical departure from that,” Rotundo said.
by Dara Kim, The News Service of Florida
NHS Downs Randolph; JV Jags Over Chiefs
March 25, 2014
The varsity Northview Chiefs defeated Randolph School Monday night 3-2, while the JV Chiefs fell to West Florida 2-1.
The Chiefs will host Holmes County in a varsity district game at 6:00 Tuesday. The junior varsity game has been canceled.
Pictured: Action between the junior varsity West Florida Jaguars and Northview Chiefs Monday afternoon in Pensacola. NorthEscambia.com photos by Ramona Preston, click to enlarge.
