Troopers Out In Force For New Year’s Holiday
December 31, 2012
Law enforcement officers will be out in force as 2012 comes to a close, cracking down on drunk and impaired driving.
“December is National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month, and I encourage Floridians to act responsibly this holiday season,” said Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Those who drive under the influence endanger everyone on the road and will go to jail.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finds fatalities in crashes that involve one or more impaired drivers appear to increase significantly during the Christmas and New Year’s Day holiday period and for thousands of families across Florida, the holiday season brings a somber reminder of the loved ones they lost to an impaired driver.
“We want everyone to enjoy the holidays, but also we want driving on our roadways to be safe,” said Col. David Brierton, FHP director. “The Patrol will be out in full force to help save lives, and we are not going to tolerate impaired driving. So remember: Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.”
Florida Government: 2012 In Review
December 31, 2012
In an election year and a redistricting year, you might have expected this. The biggest stories of 2012 ended up being an election and redistricting.
A third ongoing story also pervaded the year’s news: The economy continued its long, slow rise from the ashes of the recession, and by year’s end the rebound – while facing the possible stomach-punch of a fiscal cliff setback – appeared to be solid. Unemployment is down dramatically from a year ago; home sales are back, as are home prices; and consumer confidence is up for most of us.
FAIR DISTRICTS?
For political junkies, the election competed with the precursor to the election, the once-a-decade redrawing of political lines, for the biggest news of the year. In retrospect, the remapping of political boundaries had a stunning effect that likely few truly expected: It seems to have re-jiggered the boundaries in a way that allowed the minority party, Democrats, to gain some ground, to make the election a little bit fairer.
That was the goal of a couple of constitutional amendments that were in effect for the first time this year. Voters in 2010 approved the amendments, called “fair districts” for short, which essentially required legislators to remap the state’s politics in a way that sought to avoid protecting incumbents or political parties.
Impossible, most of us said. And a true measure of whether it worked may also be impossible.
But one thing was clear – a number of Republican legislative incumbents in the House were drawn into the same districts as fellow GOP members, and some were drawn into districts that nearly assured they’d lose. Gone from the Legislature after Election Day, arguably as a result of redistricting, were big-name Republican lawmakers Scott Plakon and Chris Dorworth, who had been in line to become speaker in 2014. A number of other Republican lawmakers also lost, with Democrats gaining seats in the Legislature for the first time in years.
The same was true in Congress, where national tea party superstar Allen West lost to neophyte Democrat Patrick Murphy, despite being one of the biggest fundraisers in the country. Credit in part the new district West had to run in. Another tea party favorite, U.S. Rep. Sandy Adams, was also victimized by the establishment Republicans drawing the lines – they put her in the same district as long-time incumbent Republican Rep. John Mica, who won.
In a stunner, Republican Cliff Stearns, who was elected to Congress in 1988 the same day the first George Bush was elected president, was ousted, in part, because he had to run in a revamped district. Stearns lost in the GOP primary to Ted Yoho despite a fundraising advantage of 16-1. Yoho went on to win the seat in November.
Democrats didn’t hail the redistricting plans when passed – in fact they went to court over how the Republican majority drew the maps. Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith said the GOP had failed to implement the will of the people. While the state Supreme Court forced lawmakers to redo the Senate maps, the House plan as drawn by lawmakers was approved, and the congressional map withstood a court challenge.
But in the end, Democrats appeared to benefit more from the new districts than the Republicans.
In the November election, Democrats picked up two seats in the Senate, though Republicans still have a 26-14 advantage. Democrats picked up five House seats, narrowing the GOP margin in that chamber to 76-44. They also gained seats in Congress.
Republican legislative leaders at first fought and tried to nullify the Fair Districts amendments. And it is hard to assess the degree to which the amendments ultimately worked.
A key difficulty is that the amendments are predicated on intent. Lawmakers can’t draw districts that favor incumbents – but if an incumbent wins, who is to say whether it was because of the way the district was drawn or not? Whether they tried to draw districts to help themselves or not is in the eye of the beholder (a judge, or Supreme Court justice, in this case).
Despite their initial anger at the amendments and attempt to invalidate them, Rep. Will Weatherford and Sen. Don Gaetz, who were generally in charge of redistricting efforts, eventually said they would try to follow them. Whether the redistricting process is fairer may ultimately take several years to determine. If legislative representation comes to more closely resemble other measures of political preference, such as party registration and how people vote in statewide and national elections, then perhaps at the end of a decade or so, the determination can be definitively made.
ELECTION DAY – ER, DAYS
Whether owing largely to redistricting or not, the Democratic success in November was the main political story this year for most casual observers.
And Democratic President Barack Obama’s winning of the state’s electoral votes was the apex of that year-long story, and a big surprise to a number of people on both sides of the political spectrum who thought the race might be closer.
Democrats replicated their strong registration push and get-out-the-vote effort from 2008, doing something that conventional wisdom said would be unlikely with the economy having been in the tank the last few years.
The state’s senior U.S. senator, Bill Nelson, also benefited from the Democratic effort, easily defeating Republican Connie Mack.
But Obama’s Florida win this time wasn’t needed – it turned out he won plenty of electoral votes across the country, and Florida’s mattered only in the margin of victory.
With that lack of drama, the story of a Democratic presidential candidate winning for a second election in a row in swing state Florida was overshadowed by the fact that it took us a few days to know exactly what happened.
FLORIDUH
Yet again, Florida voters seemed to have trouble voting, and officials seemed to have a problem counting votes.
As was the case in 2000, when Florida burst onto the late-night election joke scene in a big way, it was really only a few counties where there were problems. Most Floridians either voted early with no problems, or showed up on Election Day and cast a ballot in a generally unremarkable way.
But for some voters, and it was a large number because the trouble was most pronounced in heavily populated counties, particularly Miami-Dade, the election wasn’t so easy.
Voters reported waiting, in some cases, seven hours – nearly a full work day – to cast a ballot. Lines were unbelievably long on Election Day, even though voters had been able to vote early on eight days leading up to the election.
ELECTION CORRECTION
Afterward, there were calls for investigations of what went wrong, and a few are ongoing. Gov. Rick Scott determined that three questions need to be looked at closely: whether local elections supervisors need more flexibility in setting up polling sites; whether the ballot was too long and difficult for people to read; and whether the state messed up when Republican lawmakers passed – and he signed – a bill that reduced early voting from 14 days in 2010 to eight this year.
That last one was an extraordinary admission: Rarely in recent memory has a leading member of the majority party suggested that a high profile reform measure – especially one that was so heavily criticized by the other party – might have been a mistake.
But that’s exactly what Scott said.
For two years, Republicans in Florida have said that the 2011 changes to the election laws were needed to help prevent fraud, wouldn’t keep legal voters from voting and were benign in every way. Democrats warned the whole time that the changes would make it harder for legally registered voters to cast ballots.
Scott may have sold his GOP colleagues, who have so adamantly suggested the changes were needed, down the political river. Scott didn’t make any commitments but said that the number of early voting days is certainly something worth re-examining.
“People are frustrated in our state,” Scott said. “We’ve got to restore confidence in our elections.”
GRACIAS, LATINOS
If there was a voter of the year it was the newly registered Hispanic. Latino voters not only registered heavily as independents – making them up for grabs – but they registered in huge numbers. And then they voted in huge numbers, largely for Democrats.
Democrats worked hard for that Latino vote, aiming much of their ground game at Hispanic communities. Republicans have generally acknowledged they didn’t, and that was a big part of the difference in November.
ECONOMY, BACK AGAIN
In the latest numbers this year, Florida’s jobless rate stood at 8.1 percent. While not great when compared to the go-go days of the late-90s or mid-2000s, it looks pretty good when considering that it was over 10 percent just a year ago.
The unemployment rate is now at its lowest point in Florida since 2008, good news for Scott who has staked his whole governorship on getting the state back to work. So far, whether he can really claim the credit or not, he’s looking good. The jobless rate has dropped and jobs are being created.
Unfortunately for Scott a lot of people say the state’s economy is coming back just as the nation’s is – a recent poll showed many Florida residents don’t credit Scott with the turnaround.
Consumer confidence was up near the end of the year, though after the election about half the people – presumably those who wanted Mitt Romney to be president – got a little less optimistic about the future. But people’s perceptions about their own personal financial status are much higher than a year ago.
Home prices have also risen, as sales have picked up. Real estate fueled earlier Florida booms, and economists say now that a housing recovery is within sight, the state is just about back on its feet.
There was one major caveat as the year came to a close: the fiscal cliff talks in Washington. If a deal isn’t reached, the economy could go back into a stall.
CHARLIE CRIST, BACK AGAIN
When was the last time that the year’s most fascinating politician was someone who is not in office or technically running for office — and lost his last election after having to leave his party because he would have likely been defeated in a primary?
If 2011 was the year of Marco Rubio in Florida, Charlie Crist was undoubtedly the most intriguing political figure of the year. Even those who hate Crist – and that’s much of the Republican political establishment – have to admit his reincarnation as a Democrat, his re-emergence as a magnet for media attention, and his continuing popularity among the general non-political crowd has been astonishing.
Crist made a number of interesting moves, from changing his registration to Democrat to endorsing Obama for re-election. He also managed to get himself inserted into the lineup of speakers at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., even though he hadn’t yet become a Democrat.
Just as when he was a Republican governor of the state from 2007 to 2011, Crist generally was able to read where the political winds were blowing – getting out ahead of a Democratic wave year in a way that would benefit him.
In December, we learned that Crist’s re-emergence appears to be for real. A Quinnipiac University poll found that Crist had a 47 percent favorable rating – higher than Gov. Scott, who remains mired in the mid-30s in approval. And more than half of voters at the end of the year told pollsters they didn’t think Scott should get a second term, which must have been interesting to Crist and anyone else contemplating a run against the governor.
“Obviously, the governor has almost two years to go until the election and anything is possible, but he faces a herculean task in changing public opinion to his favor,” Quinnipiac pollster Peter Brown, said after the survey’s mid-December release.
OTHER BIG STORIES
As the year began it wasn’t clear whether the federal health care overhaul would be in place come the end of the year. But it is because of two things: first, Florida and other states lost a U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the law and second, the president won re-election, defeating Romney who had promised a repeal.
For what amounts to an arcane overhaul of insurance law, the Affordable Care Act has grabbed the attention of the American people like few other new laws in history.
To their credit, Floridians also widely debated another controversial law this year, with discussions in town halls, on radio talk shows, on Facebook and in letters to the editors about the 2005 “stand your ground” self-defense law.
The reason for the examination was tragic, however. The shooting early in the year of an unarmed African-American teenager, Trayvon Martin, by a neighborhood watch volunteer under disputed circumstances, not only exposed the continuing racial divisions embedded in criminal justice in the state, but also raised questions about when and where Florida residents are allowed to shoot each other.
A year-long examination of the stand-your-ground law by a special panel appointed by Scott ended with a draft report that suggested few major changes. But by the end of the year the talk of gun culture had shifted dramatically after the December school shooting in Connecticut that killed 20 children and six teachers and staff.
FIRST OPENLY GAY LAWMAKERS
The year may be remembered by advocates for gay and lesbian people as the year in which Florida voters, for the first time, sent openly gay legislators to represent them in Tallahassee. It wasn’t just one: Florida voters elected Rep. David Richardson, D-Miami Beach, and Rep. Joe Saunders, D-Orlando.
Both ran largely on other issues but said they’d be proud to help advance issues important to gay Floridians, too.
“If people want to ask me about being gay, I’ll talk about that,” Richardson told the News Service. “If you want to talk to me about the budget, I’ll talk about that.”
PASSINGS OF NOTE: Among those who left us in 2012:
-Sam Gibbons, a legend of Florida politics who served three decades in Congress and was chairman of Ways and Means, died at 92 in October. The Tampa Bay area Democrat never lost an election and was considered the “father of the University of South Florida.”
-Doyle Conner, who was the state’s agriculture commissioner for 30 years, from 1961 to 1991, died in December at age 83, Conner became speaker of the Florida House at age 28 and remains the youngest person to hold that post in the state’s history.
-Bill McBride, who ran for governor in 2002, losing to Republican Jeb Bush after defeating Janet Reno in the Democratic primary, died at 67 in December. McBride was married to Alex Sink, who lost the governor’s race in 2010.
-Phil Lewis, who was Senate president from 1978 to 1980 and served in the Senate for a decade, before becoming a member of the Board of Regents, died Sept. 4. He was 82.
-Ken Sorensen, who served in the House from 1998 to 2006 and then worked in the House for Speaker Marco Rubio, died in July at age 77.
-Former House Republican Leader Jim Tillman, who represented Sarasota County from 1967-1974, died in July. He later worked as a lobbyist.
By The News Service of Florida
2012 In Photos: June, July
December 31, 2012
All this week, we are looking back at the photos that were in the news in 2012. Today, we are featuring photos from June and July.
Tropical Storm Debby brought heavy surf to Pensacola Beach.
The Northview High School Food for America program was named the best in the Florida during the 84th Florida FFA State Convention in Orlando.
A Walnut Hill man escaped serious injury when a car reportedly fell on his neck.
Portions of Escambia County experienced extreme flooding in June.
June flooding in Pensacola.
Hundreds of people turned out in Walnut Hill in June to apply for one of just 20 jobs available with the opening of a new crude oil transfer station.
Graduations were held for area schools, including Tate High School.
The Northview High School Class of 2012 graduated at the school.
A July fire caused minor damage at a Century apartment complex.
Numerous churches held Vacation Bible Schools, including Highland Baptist Church in Molino.
Wounded Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Daniel Palmer was welcomed home in July.
The new Escambia County Tax Collector and Property Appraiser offices opened in Molino.
Farmer’s markets, including the Market at St Monica’s in Cantonment, offered the best of summer’s bounty.
Northwest Escambia brought home the state title Sunday from the 16A State Babe Ruth Softball Tournament in Brewton — the first ever softball state championship for NWE.
Fire set by an arsonist damaged Escambia High School.
Relatives comfort each other following the death of an 11-year old in an Atmore house fire.
Flomaton and Century celebrated the Fourth of July with fireworks at Showalter Park.
Walnut Hill, Bratt: 911 Back In Service
December 30, 2012
An outage is over that left Frontier Communications landline customers in the 327 Walnut Hill and Bratt exchanges unable to 911 Sunday morning, according to Escambia Fire Rescue officials.
Residents should now be able to reach 911 from their landline phones.
Residents unable to reach 911 should call (850) 471-6300 from their landline or cell phone for fire or EMS services, or call (850) 436-9620 for the Sheriff’s Office.
Fire Destroys Bratt Barn
December 30, 2012
Fire destroyed a barn early Sunday morning in Bratt.
The 20×40 foot open barn, which was located just a few feet behind a mobile home, was a total loss before the first firefighters arrived on scene. The cause of the 4:35 a.m. fire on Morton Road, just south of State Line Road, is under investigation.
The Walnut Hill, McDavid, Century and Molino stations of Escambia Fire Rescue and the Atmore Fire Department were dispatched to the blaze, along with Atmore Ambulance.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Recycle Your Christmas Tree
December 30, 2012
You can recycle your natural Christmas tree in Escambia or Santa Rosa counties.
In Escambia County:
The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority (ECUA) will pick up Christmas trees from customers for free with the regular collection of yard waste.
Customers are asked to remove all decorations from their trees and cut the trees so that no portion is longer than six feet. Trees can be placed at the curb with other yard trash, and should not be placed in the regular garbage container or recycling cans.
For more information, call ECUA Customer Service at (850) 476-0480.
In Santa Rosa County:
Santa Rosa County residents are urged to start the New Year “green” by recycling their live Christmas trees. Trees dropped off by Tuesday, January 31 at the five recycling areas around the county will be chipped and offered as free mulch at Clean Community System in Milton at a later date to be announced.
When dropping off trees, please place the trees in the designated area identified by signage. Do not place trees in front of the recycling containers. Trees can be disposed at:
- Jay Transfer Station, on Transfer Station Road
- Quintette Recycle Area at the Five Points Intersection
- Pace Patriot Boulevard next to Pace Volunteer Fire Department
- Tiger Point recreation area in Gulf Breeze, east of Walmart
- Clean Community System on Park Avenue
Escambia Moving Forward With $1.5 Million 4-H Facility
December 30, 2012
The Escambia County Commission is set to move forward with design work on a new Escambia County 4-H Center located at the Escambia County Extension Office on Stefani Road.
Earlier this year, the children and teens on the 4-H County Council voted to sell their 240 acre Langley Bell 4-H Center to Navy Federal Credit Union. Navy Federal will pay $3.6 million for the property next to the credit union’s campus in Beulah, and the Escambia County Commission is constructing the new 4-H Center on Stefani Road with $1.5 million in local option sales tax funds.
At their January 3 meeting, the Escambia Commission is expected to approve a $170,000 contract with Hernandez Calhoun Design International for architectural and engineering services for the new 4-H Center. The design project is expected to be complete in 105 days, plus an additional 30 days for construction bids and 240 days for construction administration.
The new 4-H Center will be a single story building just under 10,000 square feet that will include a multi-purpose room/auditorium with stage, kitchen, offices, reception area, life skills room, science room with wet lab, volunteer room with technology lab, county council,club meeting room and storage. Plans also call for a potential 500 square foot exterior teaching pavilion.
A 12-member 4-H Task Force is currently holding meetings to study the needs of the local 4-H Youth Development program by evaluating options to compliment the 4-H Center on Stefani Road.
During the next six months, the task force will develop viable options that may be considered to meet the animal science, natural resources, and outdoor education needs of
the UF/IFAS Extension 4-H Youth Development Program in Escambia County. The Task Force will present its findings to the UF/IFAS Dean of Extension, who will in turn use the information provided by the task force to make decisions for the 4-H program.
Pictured top: The Langley Bell 4-H Center was sold to Navy Federal Credit Union for $3.6 million. A portion of the neighboring Navy Federal complex in Beulah can be seen in the background of this photograph of the Langley Bell Building. Pictured below: A new 4-H Center will be constructed adjacent to the Escambia County Extension Office on Stefani Road. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Big Medicaid, Obamacare Issues Face Florida In 2013
December 30, 2012
Dealing with issues that affect the health care of millions of poor and uninsured residents, Florida leaders in 2013 could move forward with a long-awaited overhaul of the Medicaid system and likely will decide how to carry out the federal Affordable Care Act.
Both issues are highly complex and politically controversial.
Gov. Rick Scott and Republican legislative leaders want to require almost all Medicaid beneficiaries statewide to enroll in managed-care plans, an effort that has drawn opposition from Democratic lawmakers and some patient advocates. Meanwhile, after waging a legal and political battle, Scott and his GOP colleagues face the reality that the Affordable Care Act — better known as Obamacare — is here to stay.
Lawmakers in 2011 approved the Medicaid overhaul, but it requires approval from the federal government. State Medicaid director Justin Senior told lawmakers this month that he expects a decision from federal officials in February about the first part of the overhaul.
That part would lead to managed-care enrollment for seniors who need long-term care. If approved by federal officials, those changes would start taking effect by Oct. 1. Broadly, the idea is that HMOs and other types of managed-care plans could provide services that would allow seniors to stay in their homes and communities instead of having to live in costly nursing facilities.
The state Agency for Health Care Administration has been seeking approval from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for more than a year and also has started the contracting process for managed-care plans that want to take part in the long-term care system. The state would be split into 11 regions, with a limited number of plans receiving contracts in each region.
Senior said much of the state’s negotiations with federal officials have focused on safeguards to make sure that the program would be based on providing services in people’s homes and communities and would not be a “nursing home light” system.
The state also is seeking approval to require the broader Medicaid population, such as low-income women and children, to enroll in managed-care plans. Those changes would start to take effect by October 2014, though Senior said the state has focused first on getting approval for the long-term care portion of the overhaul.
“As we get that approval, I think our guns will turn, if you will, onto the (proposal dealing with the broader Medicaid population), and we will really start to negotiate with the federal government to get to the best possible product there as well and do it in a timely fashion,” Senior told the House Health & Human Services Committee.
Supporters of the overhaul contend that it will help hold down costs in the Medicaid program and better coordinate care for beneficiaries. Medicaid serves more than 3.2 million people in Florida, and is expected to spend about $20.8 billion this fiscal year.
But critics of the overhaul have long raised concerns that for-profit HMOs will scrimp on care for the beneficiaries. Rep. Elaine Schwartz, D-Hollywood, pointedly asked Senior about whether the state will have enough oversight of the managed-care organizations.
“I don’t hear from you that there is a beefing up in these programs to oversee these managed-care companies who could easily be diverting that money to the wrong purposes,” Schwartz said.
Senior said AHCA is aware it will have to be a “watchdog” over managed-care organizations, looking at such things as the health plans’ finances and medical data. But while Schwartz is concerned about the overhaul, other state officials want to get federal approval of what are known as “waivers” and move forward quickly with the changes.
“I’m very concerned about the length of time it’s taken us to get the waiver,” said Rep. Gayle Harrell, a Stuart Republican who has long been involved in health issues.
As AHCA works to get approval, lawmakers this spring also will debate whether the state should play an active role in carrying out the Affordable Care Act.
Scott and Republican legislative leaders largely refused over the past two years to move forward with the law, which President Obama and congressional Democrats approved in 2010. But after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June and Obama’s re-election in November, it became clear that the Affordable Care Act will not be tossed out or repealed.
The House and Senate have formed select committees that will study issues such as whether the state should create what is known as a health-insurance exchange, which is a key part of the law’s attempt to expand coverage to millions of more Americans. Also, the committees will study issues such as a potential expansion of Medicaid eligibility in Florida.
Scott, whose opposition to the Affordable Care Act helped propel his political career, is scheduled to meet Jan. 7 with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
He and other Republican leaders say they need more information about issues such as the insurance exchanges, which are designed to be online marketplaces where people can shop for coverage. Depending on income levels, many people will be able to receive subsidies to buy the coverage.
Florida has already missed a deadline for states that plan to operate exchanges starting in January 2014. That means, at least initially, the federal government will run an exchange in the state.
But lawmakers during the spring session will look at the possibility of operating an exchange in the future or entering into a partnership with the federal government.
The House and Senate also will discuss a series of other issues stemming from the Affordable Care Act, including whether to expand Medicaid eligibility to offer coverage to more people. The federal government would pay for the eligibility expansion from 2014 to 2016, with the state gradually picking up some of the costs after that.
In grappling with the Affordable Care Act, Scott and Republican lawmakers likely will face pressure from conservatives to avoid taking part in an exchange and the Medicaid expansion. That political pressure was evident early this month when a meeting of the Senate select committee turned raucous after a group of activists pleaded with lawmakers to not carry out the law.
But Sen. Eleanor Sobel, a Hollywood Democrat who is vice chairwoman of the select committee, said the state has to abide by the law and pointed out that Florida has one of the largest uninsured populations in the country.
“I think that needs to be reckoned with, and we need to adjust our attitudes so we make sure that everybody has health insurance and a health care policy that’s affordable and accessible,” Sobel said.
By The News Service of Florida
2012 In Photos: May
December 30, 2012
All this week, we are looking back at the photos that were in the news in 2012. Today, we are featuring photos from May.
The annual Relay for Life was held at Tate High School.
Jim Allen Elementary held a Sock Hope to raise money for Relay for Life.
Life in the Slow Lane: A wagon train passed through North Escambia.
The Northview Spring Musical “The Dastardly Dr. Devereaux”, was presented in early May.
Funeral services were held in May for Robert Stewart, the former chief of the Walnut Hill Volunteer Fire Department.
The Jay Lady Royals finished second in the Class 1A State Championship game in Clermont, Florida.
The “Big Banana Car” was spotted headed south through North Escambia in May, turning lots of heads.
Record crowds attended Century’s Sawmill Day and Car Show.
The 38th annual Pen Wheels Fishing Rodeo was held in Walnut Hill.
Crowds attended Mayfest in Atmore.
Services honored those that have served on Memorial Day in May.
Dry weather led to several brush fires, including this five acre fire near Walnut Hill.
The Northview High School Class of 2012 held their Baccalaureate service at the First baptist Church of Bratt.
A black bear was spotted around a Cantonment apartment complex for weeks before being euthanized by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
There were no injuries when a freight train derailed in Molino.
A waterspout formed over Pensacola Bay.
The Northview Chiefs took on West Florida in a spring football game.
Sgt. Charles Gilliard of Century Correctional Institution was named the Florida Department of Correction’s statewide Institutions Employee of the Year.
A Pensacola man was killed in a multiple vehicle wreck involving a horse on Highway 29 in Molino.
“A Dancing Circus” was presented at Flomaton High School by Heather Leonard’s Danceworks.
Gulf Power Crews Continue To Restore Power In Snowy Arkansas
December 30, 2012
Gulf Power crews are continuing to work in near Hot Springs, Arkansas, with restoration efforts following a Christmas Day snowstorm. After a high of 194,000 outages, about 78,000 Entergy Arkansas customers remained without power Saturday.
A total of 28 line crew personnel and 15 support employees from Gulf Power are taking part in the restoration efforts.
This is the fifth storm restoration trip that Gulf Power crews have made in the last six months. A restoration crew spent 17 days restoring power in Philadelphia and New Jersey during November after Hurricane Sandy struck.
Pictured: A Gulf Power crew works to restore power near Hot Springs, Arkansas, on Saturday. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.