Missing Man Found Alive
September 15, 2011
An elderly man missing from the Brewton area since Tuesday was found alive by searchers this morning in Conecuh County, Alabama. He was transported to D.W. McMillan Hospital in Brewton, where family members said he was in good condition.
Rufus Davis Blair, 77, had not been seen since he left his residence on Cooper Cemetery Road without his cell phone or personal belongings. His 2003 white Buick LaSabrewas found near Castleberry, Alabama, and volunteers from across the area spent the morning searching a heavily wooded area. They first located one of his shoes near a creek, and later found him about 10:30 a.m.
DUI Conviction For Man That Drove Into Two Houses
September 15, 2011
A Cantonment man that drove into two houses last year has been convicted of DUI.
Aaron Lee Deyton, now 22, was found guilty of driving under the influence by Judge Thomas Dannheisser in connection with an incident in Cantonment just after 1 a.m. on November 20, 2010.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Deyton was westbound on Muscogee Road when he left the roadway and struck a culvert west of Rittenberry Road. He then crossed over both lanes of Muscogee Road and left the roadway a second time. His 2004 Ford pickup then struck another culvert and traveled into a yard at 1119 Muscogee Road where it struck a fence, small tree, a house and a parked SUV. He continued through another fence in the yard at 1121 Muscogee Road before striking that house and coming to a final rest.
Deyton was sentenced to 12 months probation, 50 hours of community service, DUI school and his driver’s license was suspended for 12 months. He was also assessed $1,100 in court costs.
Sample Ballots In The Mail For Upcoming Century Election
September 15, 2011
Sample ballots for the October 11 Town of Century election are in the mail and should be arriving this week in the mailboxes of the town’s registered voters.
“The sample ballot includes a sample image of the ballot, instructions on where to go and what to bring with you on Election Day, and information on how to request an absentee ballot,” said Escambia County Supervisor of Elections David Stafford.
For a pdf version of the sample ballot, click here.
Grand Theft Auto, Burglary Charges Dropped Against Century Man
September 15, 2011
Charges have been dropped against a man accused of stealing a car that he says his “homeboy” gave him.
Terryvon Floyd Washington, 20, of Pond Street, Century, was charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle, burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and petty theft. According to Escambia County Clerk of the Circuit Court records, those charges were dropped.
A Pensacola woman reported her 2005 Pontiac Grand Am stolen from her apartment off Blue Angel Parkway. Deputies checked and determined the vehicle had been towed on July 7. The victim said her vehicle had been repossessed, but she retrieved it after catching up all of her payments. She also reported that the keys to the car were missing off her kitchen table. There were no obvious signs of a burglary the apartment, the report states.
The vehicle was stopped a short time later in the area of Caribbean and Coral Creek Drives. Washington was driving the vehicle and had the stolen keys in his possession, according to Escambia County deputies.
Washington told deputies, according to the arrest report, that “he did not beak into anything and he got the car from his homeboy”.
Washington remained in the Escambia County Jail early Thursday morning serving a 10 day sentence on an unrelated trespassing charge.
Florida Prison Privatization Draws Ethics Complaint
September 15, 2011
A union opposed to the privatization of Florida prisons announced Wednesday it has filed an ethics complaint aimed at derailing the move, arguing that Gov. Rick Scott faced a series of conflicts of interest in relation to the initiative.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which is engaged in a showdown over the right to represent correctional officers in Florida, says Scott faces dueling priorities because he oversees both the Department of Corrections and a state investment fund that has invested in private prison companies.
The organization also highlights a total of $30,000 in contributions to Scott’s inaugural committee from two of the companies most likely to win bidding on a new contract that would hand over facilities across the southern third of the state.
“It just raises too many questions, and it creates this impression where we have the fox guarding the henhouse,” said Michael Filler, director of the Teamsters’ public service division.
Separately, another union, the Police Benevolent Association, has sued to try to block the privatization. The PBA represents most corrections officers in the state. The Teamsters are trying to force an election over whether the PBA will continue to be the main union for the guards.
The Teamsters said the state owns millions of dollars in stock in the GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America through its pension fund. That presents a conflict for Scott, who is on the State Board of Administration, which oversees the pension, the union argues in its complaint.
“The governor, as the Chair of the SBA, has an obligation to act in the best interest of the Florida Retirement System Trust Fund – doing so would call for the maximization of profit to the GEO group or the Corrections Corporation of America. … However, State/DOC as the negotiator of the contracts with the companies, is obligated to minimize the payout to the private firms,” the complaint says.
The group argues that the state should bar GEO and CCA from participating in the bidding process, and that the state should investigate the potential conflict before going ahead with the privatization project.
The state owned about $10 million in stock in the two companies as of the close of business Tuesday, said Dennis MacKee, a spokesman for the SBA — $8.8 million in CCA stock and $1.4 million in GEO.
But MacKee said most of the stock was held either in three passive accounts that follow certain indices or in a more active account that is managed externally. Only about $460,000 of the stock is held in an active account run internally.
The total value of the state’s pension fund was $117.7 billion as of Tuesday’s close.
Lane Wright, Scott’s press secretary, also brushed off the contention that the contributions to Scott’s inauguration would influence the bidding.
“Between two and three hundred companies or individuals donated to the inauguration fund,” Wright said. “And that money went to the Republican Party of Florida, in total compliance with the law, not to Governor Scott directly.”
Wright also said Scott would not try to influence the selection process and wants to see the contract awarded to the lowest bidder.
By Brandon Larrabee
The News Service of Florida
Two Caught Stealing Copper
September 15, 2011
Two men are facing a multitude of charges after being caught stealing copper from a trailer south of Jay.
Florida Fish and Wildlife officer David Jernigan responded to a call about a suspicious truck at a trailer near Penton Road and Dusty Trail in the Allentown community. He heard two men inside the trailer and arrested them as they walked outside.
Tremaine Donnell Beasley, age 29 of Pensacola, and 22-year old Matthew Brent Fiquett of Milton, were charged with burglary, possession of burglary tools, larceny and criminal mischief. Fiquett remained in the Santa Rosa County Jail early Thursday morning without bond, while Beasley was held with bond set at $17,000.
Jernigan said more than 80 feet of copper wire was stripped from the trailer.
Teacher’s Union Files Lawsuit Over Merit Pay
September 15, 2011
The statewide teacher’s union filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida on Wednesday, saying the new teacher merit pay law violates the state constitution.
A lawsuit filed in circuit court in Leon County by the Florida Education Association says the merit pay law that ties the salaries of teachers and other school employees to student performance on tests is unlawful because it violates a right to collectively bargain for wages, contracts and promotions that is guaranteed in the state constitution.
“This sweeping change totally changed the teaching profession in Florida,” said FEA President Andy Ford during a press conference Wednesday. “And the Legislature did it while ignoring repeated calls by the FEA and others for a more collaborative approach that sought buy-in from educators and a sincere effort at compromise.”
The lawsuit provoked an immediate response from the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Foundation for Florida’s Future, two groups that are big supporters of teacher merit pay.
“It is unfortunate that the labor union claiming to represent teachers has resisted every meaningful education reform for more than a decade,” said Florida Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mark Wilson in a statement. “Now they are going to spend money fighting one of the most important education reforms this country has ever seen.” Wilson said the law will restore respect for teachers and “opens the door for higher salaries.”
The lawsuit sets the stage for yet another legal battle for the powerful teacher’s union with the Republican-controlled Legislature and conservative Gov. Rick Scott, both of whom were big supporters of not only the teacher merit pay law, but championed other laws that were opposed by unions and public employees.
The FEA and other unions have been in the legislative cross hairs in recent years – one proposed law would have made taking union dues out of a paycheck illegal. That’s because unions are generally supportive of Democrats and are seen as one of the biggest political threats to Republicans.
“The Legislature would love to get rid of the Florida Education Association because we are the only ones that seem to stand up to them on a regular basis,” Ford said. “If they can get rid of us, they can have free reign over government, which is a scary concept.”
The Florida Education Association has already spearheaded two other lawsuits related to new laws passed this year by the Legislature. The first was a lawsuit opposing the new requirement that public employees contribute 3 percent of their salaries toward a retirement plan and the second was a suit over a proposed constitutional amendment that could pave the way for public dollars to be spent on private religious schools.
Ford said efforts by the Legislature to weaken unions have been unsuccessful.
“Last year, we recruited more members to this organization than any period in our history,” Ford said. The FEA has recruited 6,000 more members since Scott became Governor, bringing total membership to about 142,000, he said.
The 15-page lawsuit filed Wednesday over merit pay will be closely watched by teachers throughout the state.
The new law eliminated the use of long-term contracts for teachers, putting new teachers on annual contracts. It also sets up a new system for evaluating teacher performance. The crux of the system would require schools to rate teachers on four performance levels from unsatisfactory to highly effective, using student test scores to determine 50 percent of that rating and an in-person evaluation of the teacher for the other half.
The FEA said the new law was passed despite strong opposition from teachers, and it removes the longtime practice of allowing school districts to negotiate locally with unions on teacher pay, contracts and other benefits.
By prescribing how school districts must evaluate and pay teachers, it removes the ability of teachers to collectively bargain, said FEA attorney Ron Meyer.
“I’m reminded of what is attributed to Henry Ford when he rolled out the Model T,” Meyer said. “It can be any color as long as it’s black. That is what we are telling public employees in this state. You can bargain anything you want as long as it looks like this. That is not effective collective bargaining.”
Meyer said this case gets “right to the heart of the collective bargaining process,” and he predicted the final judgment would be determined by the Florida Supreme Court.
Ford said the teacher’s union doesn’t oppose merit pay, just the way it was established in Florida.
The teacher’s union signed off on some parts of the federal Race to The Top Grant, which contained some of the same elements of the teacher merit pay law. But Ford said that doesn’t equal support for legislative changes.
“What the Legislature decided to do last year was to overstep Race to the Top and put it into state law and make it mandatory for everybody in the state to do it, whether it was a good idea or not,” Ford said.
He also objected to the quick passage of the bill without input from teachers. It was the first bill passed by the Legislature this year and no amendments by Democrats were approved from the House and Senate floors.
A similar bill passed the Legislature last year, but was vetoed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist.
One Democrat, Rep. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, cheered the FEA’s decision to file a lawsuit.
“While teachers, school officials and Democrats throughout the state were unable to stop Republican leaders from cramming this legislation into law, I remain hopeful that the courts will give it a fitting funeral,” Bullard said.
The lawsuit was technically filed by five teachers and one school speech therapist from across Florida, but the Florida Education Association will be paying for the attorneys to fight the case.
Beth Weatherstone is one of those teachers that joined the lawsuit. The 8th grade algebra teacher in Indian River County said she is concerned about the influence of student test scores on her evaluation. Though the merit pay system may not apply to her salary because she is an existing teacher, it could influence how she is rated.
“I am a good teacher, I have been teaching for 32 years,” Weatherstone said. “I have good results with my students and they don’t always show up on FCAT scores.” That’s because she teaches algebra and FCAT tests on other math concepts, such as geometry, she said. Because students now also take algebra end-of-course exams that are required for promotion to the next grade level, she prefers to focus on that test over the FCAT.
But it’s the FCAT, she believes, that will impact how she is rated.
The FEA indicated its willingness to fight merit pay every step of the way. Meyer said the union is also mulling a lawsuit over the details of the merit pay system itself, in addition to this suit on collective bargaining.
“We are looking at other aspects of this law and in particular, the validity of using the testing, the value-added formulas,” Meyer said. He called the formula “voodoo” and said there hasn’t been enough testing of the concept.
By Lilly Rockwell
The News Service of Florida
Panel Lays Brunt Of Oil Spill Blame On BP
September 15, 2011
BP took the brunt of the blame for the April 20, 2010, explosion and fire aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig, but a federal panel charged with reviewing the disaster said Wednesday there was ample criticism to spread around for the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
A 212-page report found BP, Haliburton and Transocean all partially to blame for the Macondo well spill that sent five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico during the 87-day ordeal. Faulty materials, inadequate training and lack of oversight were among the major causes for the spill.
In a statement BP accepted the conclusions of the report. “BP agrees with the report’s core conclusion consistent with every other official investigation that the Deepwater Horizon accident was the result of multiple causes, involving multiple parties, including Transocean and Halliburton.”
By The News Service of Florida
Smoother Parking At Byrneville Community Center
September 15, 2011
Parking will be much smoother in the future at one local community center. Wednesday, crews began paving the parking lot at the Byrneville Community Center at Byrneville Road and West Highway 4. The county owned facility previously had a loose gravel parking lot. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Federal Judge Bars Enforcement Of Doctor Gun Question Law
September 15, 2011
A new state law prohibiting health care providers from asking patients about guns cannot be enforced while the merits of the new law are being litigated, a federal judge in Miami ruled Wednesday in a temporary victory for physicians in the battle between the First and Second Amendments.
U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke granted a temporary injunction to a group of physicians who filed suit over the Firearm Owners Protection Act, which was sponsored by Sen. Greg Evers, passed by lawmakers in May and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott.
In a 22-page ruling, Cooke dismissed the argument that allowing health care providers to query their patients on gun ownership violated the patient’s Second Amendment right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution.
“A practitioner who counsels a patient on firearm safety, even when entirely irrelevant to medical care or safety, does not affect nor interfere with the patient’s right to continue to own or use firearms,” Cooke wrote.
The lawsuit was filed in June on behalf of a group of physicians who argued their First Amendment right of free speech was being violated if they could not speak freely with their patients about guns. Health care providers sometimes ask patients, especially those with young children, if they own guns and how those weapons are stored.
Witnesses testified during legislative debate that the queries were part of a battery of questions often given to patients to address potential health hazards in the home such as the storage of poisons or whether the patient owns a pool.
“It is hard to imagine that even legislators who voted for this bill thought that the state could legislate the doctor-patient relationship – in this case by imposing a gag order on doctors prohibiting them from asking about firearms and ammunition,” said Howard Simon of the ACLU of Florida, which opposed the law, following the ruling Wednesday.
The measure (HB 155) was backed heavily by the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups.
Cooke said the law doesn’t just infringe on doctors’ speech rights, it restricts the right of patients to receive information about safety issues.
Rep. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, said he stood by the intent of the bill, which he said was to protect the privacy of gun owners. “Direct questions about firearm ownership when it has nothing to do with medical care is simply pushing a political agenda, which doesn’t belong in exam rooms,” Brodeur said. “If physicians are worried about safety then I encourage them to give the safety talk to all patients. It is important to note that firearm safety talks are not prohibited at all.”
That is a reference to the fact that bill was watered down considerably from its original language, allowing for doctors to discuss some safety issues if they believe someone might be in danger because of the presence of a gun. In some discussions of the legislation this year, the example of a suicidal patient who says he plans to use a gun to kill himself was used. A doctor might be justified in that case in asking if the patient actually has a gun.
Brodeur said he thought that if doctors were discussing gun safety with all patients, instead of only with those patients who they know have guns, it would likely make the state even more safe because more people would have that talk with a physician.
Marion Hammer, former NRA national president and executive director of Unified Sportsmen of Florida who lobbied extensively in favor of HB 155 didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But through the debate over the measure, Hammer said the difference between discussion by doctors of guns as a potential safety issue and things like poisons or swimming pools is the constitutional protection afforded by the constitution to the keeping of guns.
By granting the injunction Cooke ruled that the physicians in the case have a substantial likelihood of success in their pending challenge and that granting the injunction would not harm the public interest.
“The state’s interest in assuring the privacy of this piece of information from practitioners does not appear to be a compelling one,” wrote Cooke, noting that states and the federal government already heavily regulate firearms ownership and sales. “Information regarding gun ownership is not sacrosanct.”
By Michael Peltier
The News Service of Florida