A Hero’s Goodbye: Family, Community Honor Fallen Soldier (With Photo Gallery)
June 23, 2013
Hundreds and hundreds of people turned out Saturday to honor Army Staff Sgt. Jesse Thomas, 31, who was killed June 10 while serving in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
Hundreds of Patriot Guard members stood guard outside the East Hill Church of God in Christ in Pensacola for the memorial service. An estimated 400 Patriot Guard riders escorted the funeral procession from the church to Barrancas National Cemetery aboard Naval Air Station Pensacola for the graveside service.
Many supporters held signs and waived flags in support for the solider and his family. Rumors were rampant prior to the service that the Westboro “church” would protest the funeral, prompting many to stand outside the service with signs targeting the Kansas hate-group “Westboro Baptist Church” — a controversial “church” that protests at the funerals of fallen soldiers.
“WBC You’re Mean”, read the sign of young girl. “God Is Love”, read a sign held by Father Nathan Monk, a Pensacola priest, as he stood next to an American flag. “Jesus (Heart’s) The Troops and So Does Pensacola”… “WBC The Village Idiots”…”God Loves All” – were just a few of the other signs outside the church aimed at the Westboro “church”.
For a photo gallery, click here.
During the memorial service, U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller spoke in tribute to Thomas, as did his brother Darrin Thomas and friend Randae Jordan.
Staff Sgt. Thomas attended Pensacola High School and joined the Army after graduation.
Thomas was assigned to the 39th Transportation Battalion, 16th Sustainment Brigade, 21st Theater Sustainment Command out of Kleber Kaserne, Germany. He leaves behind his wife, Michelle, also an active duty member, three stepchildren, and his mother, Irma Oliver.
During his service to his country, he earned numerous awards: Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Army Superior Unit Award, Army Good Conduct Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Medal, Korean Defense Service Medal, Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, Non-Commissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon and the NATO Medal.
Pictured: The funeral service of Army Staff Sgt. Jesse Thomas Saturday afternoon in Pensacola. Photos by Mark Taylor for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Molino’s Gindl Gets First MLB Hit
June 23, 2013
Molino’s Caleb Gindl had his first hit Saturday for the Milwaulkee Brewers in their 2-0 win over the Atlanta Braves. Gindl picked up his first Major League hit — a single — as a pinch-hitter in the sixth, before stealing his first bag.
He was called up by the Brewers a week ago for Ryan Braunl, who is on the 15-day disabled list with a thumb injury. Thursday against the Houston Astros, Gindl made it to third on an error — hitting a drive that was dropped by an Astros’ center fielder.
Century Reports Financial Bottom Line Is In Good Shape
June 23, 2013
The financial bottom line at the Town of Century is in good shape, according to the town’s accountant.
The latest figures show the town’s water and sewer fund with about $240,000 available, including about $35,000 from a motor vehicle wrecks settlement. Excess money from the water and sewer fund is used toward the town’s general fund.
Overall, the town’s general fund is about seven percent below projections, but expenses are over over 10 percent less.
Next month, the town will begin the budget making process for the next fiscal year. In July, the town’s accountant will meet with department heads who will in turn present their budget requests on August 1. Tentative budget workshops are set for August 15 and August 29, if needed.
Tate’s Eion Blanchard Awarded Telluride Summer Scholarship
June 23, 2013
Tate High School junior Eion Blanchard has been awarded a full scholarship to the 2013 Telluride Association Summer Program at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, “Food”.
This year Telluride Association is co-sponsoring four programs, two with Cornell University and two with the University of Michigan. These six-week-long educational programs involve college-level seminars for gifted and highly motivated high school juniors.
Admission to the TASPs is highly selective. This year’s 64 participants were chosen from 1,256 applications from all parts of the United States and abroad. The Telluride Summer Programs solicit applicants from high scorers on the Educational Testing Service’s PSAT and receive recommendations of potential applicants from school teachers and counselors.
Telluride Association is an independent not for profit educational organization that has offered summer programs to high school juniors of exceptional promise since 1954.
Photos: Nature Photography Contest At Century Care Center
June 23, 2013
The residents at Century Care Center held their own Nature Photography Contest last week.
Most of the photographs were taken around the Century Care courtyard, and they were judged by staff and resident photographers. First place went to Carolyn Moye (top), second place to Clarice Simmons (left) and third place to Mittie Allen (below).
Other photographic entries are below.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Scott’s Tres Bonne Week
June 23, 2013
After a weekend where Democrats expressed confidence that they could beat Gov. Rick Scott in 2014, a pair of events this week sent them a stark reminderthat approaches cliché: In politics, 17 months is a lifetime.
On Tuesday, a public poll showed Scott’s approval rating improving — not enough to give him a lead on some of his possible Democratic opponents, but enough to give him a chance to put his rumored $100 million re-election budget to good use.
“Now that doesn’t mean that happy days are here again for the governor, but if he is going to make a comeback these are the kind of steps that would be required,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, in a news release announcing the results. “Whether it is the start of something larger, we’ll see in the coming months.”
And the governor got more encouraging news by the time he stepped off a plane Friday, returning home from a trip to Paris. The state’s unemployment rate fell to 7.1 percent in May, the lowest since September 2008.
SCOTT’S TRES BONNE WEEK
The positive news for Scott’s political fortunes could only be seen when considering where he was a few months ago. Florida voters were evenly divided on his job approval rating, with 43 percent approving and 44 percent disapproving. That’s an improvement for a governor who, in March, was staring at 36 percent approval and 49 percent disapproval.
Scott also boosted his standing in a hypothetical race against former Gov. Charlie Crist, who spent the weekend showing off his newfound Florida Democratic Party membership at the Jefferson-Jackson soiree in Hollywood, Fla., but wouldn’t directly answer questions about whether he would challenge Scott.
If Crist does take that step, the poll showed the race moving from a drubbing for Scott to a sound defeat. Crist led the poll by 10 points, instead of 16 points just three months ago. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson would also win by 10 points if he reverses his not-quite Shermanesque insistence that he won’t run.
Scott would beat former state Sen. Nan Rich, but that could have more to do with the fact that Rich remains unknown to 84 percent of Floridians despite Republican Party of Florida Chairman Lenny Curry’s efforts to bring attention to the only current or former elected official to announce her candidacy for the Democratic nomination.
In perhaps the surest sign that the poll was good news for Scott, Democrats tried to downplay the numbers.
“Only in Rick Scott’s world does going from an F to a D- represent success,” state Democratic Party Chairwoman Allison Tant said in a statement. “While polls will go up and down, what’s certain is that Florida voters do not trust this governor to fight for them and their families, and we are confident they will vote him out of office next year”
The governor was not in town to hear about the poll numbers — he had spent the week in Paris, attending an air show while leading a trade delegation. Nor was he there to hear Brown’s advice for how Scott could continue to turn things around.
“The governor needs to make voters believe he is responsible for a better economy. That’s the key to his electoral future,” Brown said. “He isn’t going to get re-elected because he is Mr. Personality. He needs to essentially convince voters, ‘You may not like me, but I’m the guy who is making things better.’ ”
But as Scott returned to the country — voila! — the state’s unemployment rate continued its turnaround. It fell to 7.1 percent in May, the latest chance for Scott to use his campaign slogan: It’s Working.
“Each month, we continue to distance ourselves from the national unemployment rate, and it is clear we are succeeding in growing opportunities for Florida families to pursue the American Dream,” Scott said in a release. “Once again, Florida’s unemployment rate is well below the national average.”
The national mark stands at 7.6 percent.
The state’s seasonally adjusted figure is down from 7.2 percent in April, according to the Department of Economic Opportunity.
Economists said, however, that some of the drop is still due to people having dropped out of the work force, in addition to new jobs created in a clearly recovering economy.
An economic overview released Wednesday by the Florida Legislature Office of Economic and Demographic Research estimated the unemployment rate would have been 8 percent in April if the workforce participation rate hadn’t change since December 2011.
Scott also returned to some work that could affect his standing, at least at the margins: the final bills from the legislative session that ended in early May have now hit his desk. Among the newcomers that the governor needs to grapple with are measures to ensure the public has a right to speak at government meetings (SB 50) and block firearms purchases by some people who voluntarily admit themselves for mental-health treatment.
SUMMER SCHOOL
Despite most of their students being out, the two boards that oversee the vast majority of education in Florida spent the week considering policies concerning public schools and universities.
After hearing hours of presentations about the future plans of universities, the Florida Board of Governors shot down those schools’ proposals on student fees — even though the increases were favored by students.
The most sweeping decision came on a proposal by eight universities to increase the “capital improvement trust fund” fees, or CITF fees, which pay for construction projects approved by university panels that draw at least half their members from the student body. But the board also rejected new environmental fees at two Florida schools.
Carlo Fassi, the student body president at the University of North Florida, said he and other colleagues strongly support the increase in the construction fee and the projects it could fund.
“I truly, and the student body presidents here truly do not believe that a vote against CITF is pro-student,” Fassi said. “Not whatsoever.”
But board members said they were growing exasperated with repeated requests to boost fees by what they were constantly assured was a small amount.
“And we amount it to, well, it’s only a cup of coffee,” board member Norm Tripp told students backing one of the fees. “But what we’ve got now are gallons and gallons of coffee that you’re paying for every credit hour.”
Meanwhile, the State Board of Education was maneuvering to avoid another embarrassing rollout for school grades after last year’s release was botched. Superintendents from around the state are warning that a possible collapse could happen because of a slew of changes to testing standards.
“When you put all of that together, I don’t think anybody’s taken the time to examine the implications of the simultaneous coming together of all these variables,” Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.
The board asked Education Commissioner Tony Bennett to put together a task force to look into the issue. Bennett’s predecessor, Gerard Robinson, resigned in 2012 after less than a year on the job after the public-relations pounding the department took when FCAT scores collapsed, followed a few months later by a school grades mix-up.
SLOW-WALK THE LINES
Looming almost as large as Scott’s poll numbers in the 2014 electoral picture is whether the districts that lawmakers drew for congressional districts — and legislative districts for that matter — would stand. Leon Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis decided Thursday to push back the trial on a case challenging the congressional maps, in part because Lewis is still working on which documents can be used during arguments over the lines.
The trial was set to begin in August, but will now likely be pushed back to December or January, Lewis said. In that trial, a coalition of voting-rights groups will argue that the maps violated the state’s new, anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” standards.
Lewis’ decision became despite arguments from Ashley Davis, counsel for the Florida Department of State, that the delay could impact the 2014 election cycle, with candidates facing a March 31 deadline to collect signatures for qualifying petitions.
Meanwhile, the two sides continued scuffling over whose maps were actually biased. George Meros, an attorney for the Florida House, said the coalition’s maps would intentionally favor Democrats.
“A fundamental part of their complaint is that these are non-partisan entities that joined together that wanted to draw fair districts, when we know the evidence shows to the contrary,” Meros said.
But the newest filing from the coalition also included portions of the May 16 deposition of Marc Reichelderfer, listed as a “political operative,” which indicated that he received seven electronic drafts of congressional maps a couple of weeks before they were made public. The maps were given to Reichelderfer by an aide to then-House Speaker Dean Cannon.
When asked during the deposition if he received the maps so he could analyze the political impact of the proposed lines, Reichelderfer responded, “I could have done that, yes, sir.”
STORY OF THE WEEK: The Florida Board of Governors, under pressure from Gov. Rick Scott, shot down a series of fee increases requested by students.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “We always anticipate that when former Gov. Bush doesn’t get his way, he just keeps coming back until he can try and get it.”–Florida Education Association President Andy Ford, on whether he anticipates the return of an education bill backed by former Gov. Jeb Bush
By The News Service of Florida
Photos: Northview Summer Ball
June 23, 2013
After 22 games against several larger local schools and teams from as far away as Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana, the Northview Chiefs will wrap up their summer ball schedule on Sunday with games at Catholic and Escambia.
Pictured: Northview summer ball action from Saturday. Photos by Ramona Preston for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Biscuits Walk Off Over Wahoos
June 23, 2013
Robby Price belted a two-run walk-off homer lifting the Montgomery Biscuits to a 4-3 victory over the Pensacola Blue Wahoos on Saturday night at Riverwalk Stadium.
Entering the frame trailing 3-2, Kevin Kiermaier reached on a one-out hustle double setting the stage for Price, who ripped a no-doubt shot off Pensacola hurler Loek Van Mil (0-4). It was Van Mil’s third blown save of the year.
The back-and-forth affair was scoreless headed to the last of the fifth. Kyeong Kang led off the frame with a single and came around to score on a Robi Estrada single through the right side. The Biscuits ended up loading the bases in the fifth with one out against Pensacola starter Shaun Ellis, but Ellis induced two lazy pop-ups to escape the jam.
Ellis earned a no decision for the Wahoos, but once again gave a superb outing. The right-hander allowed just a run on six hits in five innings with two strikeouts.
Pensacola knotted the game at one in the top of the sixth on Yorman Rodriguez’s RBI single that extended his hitting streak to 13 games between Bakersfield and Pensacola. Much like Montgomery, the Wahoos loaded the bases with two outs, but Erik Hamren got Barnhart to pop out to end the threat.
Montgomery pushed back on top 3-2 in the seventh inning on a two-out double from Mikie Mahtook. Wilkin De La Rosa was able to retire Cameron Seitzer with two insurance runs in scoring position.
The Blue Wahoos rallied for a pair of runs in the eighth inning against Hamren. With runners on second and third and one out, Travis Mattair bounced a ball to the third baseman, but it was hit softly enough that it allowed Corey Wimberly to scamper home with the tying run. After a walk to Marquez Smith, Barnhart greeted new pitcher C.J. Riefenhauser with a solid single up the middle to score Devin Lohman from second.
Despite allowing the then go-ahead run, Riefenhauser ended up picking up the win to improve to 3-0 on the year. The southpaw tossed a scoreless 1.1 innings, but allowed an inherited runner to score.
The two teams will square off in the rubber game of the series on Sunday night at 6:05 p.m. Josh Smith (5-6, 3.66) gets the start for Pensacola against Montgomery’s Jake Floethe (1-1, 6.00).
story by Kevin Burke
Murder Under Investigation
June 22, 2013
An early Saturday morning murder is under investigation in Escambia County.
Just before 1 a.m., the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office received a report of shots fired near the intersection of North “S” and West Cross Street. When deputies arrived, they discovered a female on the ground suffering from what appeared to be a gunshot wound. The, later identified as 31-year old Taccora L. Luckett, was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced deceased upon arrival.
Further details are not yet been released by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
Citizens Property Insurance Considers Rate Hike
June 22, 2013
The Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Board of Governors will review proposed rate increases for the state-backed agency’s 1.26 million policy holders next week during meetings at Miami Dade College.
The new rates, which for policy holders will vary depending on coverage and location, are expected to be between 6.9 percent and 8.8 percent higher.
The premium costs are expected to cover Citizens’ projected losses and expenses during the next year. The 6.9 percent increase would create a $178 million increase to premiums. An 8.8 percent increase translates into $226 million more in premiums.
Citizens’ committee meetings are planned for Tuesday, with the board meeting on Wednesday.