No Injures In Early Morning International Paper Fire
August 14, 2011
There were no injuries in an early Sunday morning fire at International Paper in Cantonment.
The fire was happened about 3:50 a.m. in an area located about 100 feet high in a structure. Firefighters believed they had the fire out about 4:35 a.m., just before it reignited. Firefighters continued to work to extinguish the blaze in the equipment until about 6:15 a.m.
The blaze was reportedly sparked by an overheated piece of equipment that was covered in grease. There was no major damage reported, and most of the plant continued to operate normally during the incident.
The Cantonment, Molino, Ensley and Beulah stations of Escambia Fire Rescue responded to the fire, along with a ladder truck from Ferry Pass.
Shoppers Take Advantage Of Tax Free Bargains
August 14, 2011
Many Escambia County stores were packed over the weeknd as shoppers took advantage of Florida’s three day sales tax break.
At Target on Nine Mile Road, the Linam family of Molino stopped by after Ben Linam’s ninth grade orientation Saturday at West Florida High School. Ben and sister Kayleigh, a student at Ernest Ward Middle School, used the opportunity to look for a few tax-free school supplies.
“We are just seeing what we can find,” mom Lana said.
Florida’s 2011 Sales Tax Holiday ended at midnight Sunday. In general, the sales tax holiday meant no state or local sales tax on clothing, footwear and some accessories selling for $75 or less or school supplies for $15 or less.
Pictured top: Kayleigh and Ben Linam of Molino look at school supplies Saturday afternoon at Target on Nine Mile Road in Pensacola. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Good Neighbors: Communities Celebrate With Back To School Bash (With Photo Gallery)
August 14, 2011
About 300 Cantonment, Farm Hill and Cottage Hill residents came together Saturday in an area park, sharing food, fun and learning how to make their neighborhoods better places.
“The back to school bash and neighborhood watch block party was a great success,” said Michael Steadham, one of organizers of a Back to School Bash and Neighborhood Watch Party held at the Santa Maria Plaza Park in Farm Hill.
During the event, there was lots of free food, activities for the children, a mini car show, several child safety events, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office Mounted Patrol was on hand, and there were several child safety events. About 70 children participated in a child identification program offered by the Masonic Lodge.
The event was sponsored by the Cottage Hill, Farm Hill and Village neighborhood watch programs.
Pictured: The Back to School Bash and Neighborhood Watch Party Saturday morning. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Two Men Bitten By Snakes In Separate Incidents
August 14, 2011
Two men were bit by snakes in Escambia County on Saturday, including one in Cantonment.
Robert Moore was working under a home on Highway 95A near South Chipper Road in Cantonment shortly after noon when he was bitten by what was believed to be a rattlesnake. He was transported to a Pensacola hospital by LifeFlight in stable condition.
In an unrelated incident, a second man, Steve Watson, was bit by another snake Saturday at a home near Big Lagoon State Park. Watson reportedly tried to suck the venom out of his own thumb before emergency workers arrived on scene. He was transported to an area hospital.
NorthEscambia.com photo.
Featured Recipes: Beef Steak Tacos, Lime Cheeseburgers
August 14, 2011
Grilling is a great way to get a whole lot of flavor that goes way beyond plain burgers and basic barbecue. Lean meats, juicy marinades and zesty toppings add up to terrific flame-kissed dishes that will make guests want to kiss the cook.
(Scroll down for both recipes.)
Beef Steak Soft Tacos
Ingredients
Marinade
- 2/3 cup prepared Italian dressing
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
Beef Tacos
- 2 boneless beef chuck shoulder steaks, cut 3/4 inch thick (about 1-1/2 pounds)
- 12 small flour tortillas, warmed
Toppings
- Thinly sliced lettuce, chopped tomato, dairy sour cream, guacamole (optional)
Preparation
- Combine marinade ingredients in small bowl. Place beef steaks and marinade in food-safe plastic bag; turn to coat. Close bag securely and marinate in refrigerator 6 hours or as long as overnight, turning occasionally.
- Remove steaks; discard marinade. Place steaks on grid over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, uncovered, 14 to 17 minutes for medium rare (145°F) to medium (160°F) doneness, turning occasionally.
- Carve into thin slices; season with salt. Serve in tortillas with toppings.
Serves
Serves 6
Lime Cheeseburgers
Ingredients
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 1/2 lime, juiced
- 1 teaspoon garlic
- 1/2 cup diced onion
- 1/2 cup diced tomatoes
- 6 slices Monterey Jack cheese
- 6 hamburger buns
- Your favorite flavor of guacamole
Preparation
- In a large bowl mix together ground beef, lime juice, garlic, onion and tomatoes. Form meat into 6 patties.
- Cook burgers to desired doneness on a preheated grill. Add a slice of cheese to each burger during the last minute of cooking.
- Serve on toasted buns with a healthy dollop of guacamole.
Serves
Serves 6
Notes, Tips & Suggestions
This recipe also makes great sliders. For a leaner version, use ground turkey instead of ground beef.
Show And Tell: Collectors Gather In Century (With Photo Gallery)
August 14, 2011
The Alger-Sullivan Historical Society held a “Collector’s Day” — think of it as show and tell for history buffs — Saturday in Century. Many private collections were displayed, including coins, bottles, Indian and Civil War artifacts, old tools, stamps and more.
For a photo gallery from the event, click here.
Pictured top: Flintnapping by Winston Burnham of Pace Saturday at Collector’s Day in Century. Pictured inset: A collection of bottles. Pictured below: A pickup truck size camera on display. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Atmore’s Linam Standout During Saturday UCF Scrimmage
August 14, 2011
A former Atmore resident was the shining star for the University of Central Florida Knights Saturday morning during the teams’ first full contact scrimmage of training camp.
Surrounded by mostly youth and inexperience in the linebacker corps, Josh Linam takes seriously his role as a playmaker and leader for the Knights’ defense.
Linam’s growth as a player and focus as a leader was evident as he made play after play in the middle of the defense.
Linam’s stellar, stingy play helped UCF’s defense carry the day in a steamy session where yards were hard to come by and the defense swarmed on tackles. The offense did play well late in the day, getting three-straight touchdown runs from quarterback Jeff Godfrey and tailback Latavius Murray. But for the most part, the defense proved itself to be slightly ahead of the offense – in large part because of the sure tackling by Linam.
“It’s a team defensive effort and everybody has to be doing their job for us to be successful as a whole. We made some strides forward in doing that today,” Linam said Saturday. “As a senior, a lot rests on my shoulders. I expect myself to get everyone lined up, make sure they are doing the right things and playing with effort and enthusiasm. I think everybody was doing that today.”
As for Linam, he is UCF’s lone senior at linebacker and he could very well be lining up alongside true freshmen Terrance Plummer and Willingham at times this season. And another of the standout linebackers in camp, Ray Shipman, is a converted basketball player from the University of Florida. So Linam, UCF’s third-leading tackler last season, knows that much of the responsibility for UCF remaining atop Conference USA in defense rests on his shoulders.
“Again today (Willingham and Plummer) took another stride forward. They’re doing their jobs, they’re really athletic and they’re running to the ball and making plays,” said Linam, who had 78 stops and nine tackles for loss last season in his first year as a starter. “I think the chemistry on defense right now is great. Everybody is really into it with one heartbeat and trying to get better. Everyone is focused on playing team defense and getting better. If we keep this up we have a chance to be a really good defense.”
Last season, Linam was the defensive MVP for the UCF Knights as they defeated the Georgia Bulldogs 10-6 in the Autozone Liberty Bowl.
Linam was named to the All Conference USA All Academic 1st Team, ESPN-nominated for Academic All American, ESPN All District 3 Academic 1st Team and Conference USA player of the week versus Houston with 17 tackles. He finished last season with 78 tackles, 9.0 tackles for losses and one interception.
Linam is the son of Dr. Kevin R. Linam of Atmore.
Pictured top: Josh Linam (#50) assists with a tackle in the Autozone Liberty Bowl as UCF beat the Georgia Bulldogs 10-6. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Schlobohm, Jones To Wed
August 14, 2011
Brook Nicole Schlobohm and Colton Dewayne Jones will be united in marriage at 3 p.m. August 20, 2011, at Victory Bible Baptist Church in Pensacola.
Brook is the daughter of Patrick and Angie Schlobohm of Molino. Grandparents are Nancy Register of Pensacola and Barbara Schlobohm of Cantonment. Colton is the son of Dennis and Michelle Fowler of Atmore. Grandparent is Marie Sanders of Atmore.
Brook is a 2011 graduate of Northview High School of Bratt. Brook currently works at Winn Dixie and will be leaving for the United States Coast Guard October 25, 2011. Colton is a 2009 graduate of Central Christian Academy of Winter Park, Florida. Colton currently works at Winn Dixie and Pizza Hut and will also be entering into the United States Coast Guard November 15, 2011.
Family asks for prayers for the couple as they start their future and careers together.
Florida Weekly Gov’t Roundup: Courts, Elections Law And Personnel Decisions
August 14, 2011
It was a week full of legal maneuverings, from a major ruling in the battle over the landmark health-care law passed last year to a series of controversies over attorneys leaving the attorney general’s office.
And that wasn’t all the courtroom- and lawyer-related drama. The Department of Justice approved parts of the state’s controversial elections law, while the quasi-judicial Public Service Commission took up a rate case that could end with almost $200 million being passed on to FPL consumers.
Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Scott made ripples with a personnel decision while two long-time figures on the political scene bowed out of their high-profile jobs.
APPEALS COURT NIXES HEALTH-CARE MANDATE, BUT UPHOLDS LAW
The appeals court’s ruling on the health-care law had something for almost everyone to like and many people to hate. The court called the law’s requirement that all Americans buy health insurance an “unprecedented exercise of congressional power” that ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution.
But while the divided three-judge panel struck down the linchpin of the health-care overhaul that President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats pushed through in 2010, it allowed the rest of the law to stand.
That overturned part of the findings of Pensacola federal judge Roger Vinson, who ruled that the entire health-care law should be tossed out because the individual mandate could not be separate from the other changes approved by Congress.
“This economic mandate represents a wholly novel and potentially unbounded assertion of congressional authority: the ability to compel Americans to purchase an expensive health insurance product they have elected not to buy, and to make them re-purchase that insurance product every month for their entire lives,” Chief Judge Joel Dubina and Judge Frank M. Hull wrote in the 207-page majority opinion.
But Judge Stanley Marcus mocked that reasoning, siding with the Obama administration’s argument that the mandate is allowed under the constitution’s Commerce Clause, saying the law “portends no such impending doom.”
The appeals court ruling was just one more step on the road to a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on the law, but Republicans still hailed the decision.
“It is critical that this case be expedited to the United States Supreme Court so that we can put this job-killing federal government mandate behind us and begin making the meaningful improvements our healthcare system needs without infringing on the liberties of Americans,” said Gov. Rick Scott, who has made opposition to the law one of his signature issues.
But advocates for the law, like health-advocacy group Florida CHAIN, focused on the next stages of the fight.
“Implementation of the (law) is critical to the health and well-being of Floridians,” Florida CHAIN said in a statement.
COMING AND GOING IN THE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE
When the state’s attention wasn’t riveted on the outcome of the court case, it was instead focused on the lawyers who argued the cases. It was getting harder and harder to keep up with the organizational chart in Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office, or at least to track who was leaving and why.
Assistant Attorney General Andrew Spark quit Wednesday as Bondi was threatening to put him on administrative leave. Spark wrote a 16-page memo outlining what he saw as shortcomings in the office’s effort to go after fraud, and accused two fellow employees of trying to block his efforts to initiate investigations. But Bondi said the memo divulged information about ongoing investigations — and “failed to include that [Sparks] was the subject of an ongoing investigation for using the services of a business he was investigating.”
Or maybe it did. Spark wrote about a case in which he was investigating a health club chain of which he was a member.
But conflict-of-interest accusations surrounding AG employees were all too common. Joe Jacquot, who left the attorney general’s office earlier this year, defended his work at the office before he took a job with Jacksonville-based Lender Processing Services, which was under investigation during his time with the state. But Jacquot said he was careful to wall himself off from any discussions about the firm once he knew he might take a job there. (Incidentally, Jacquot spent much of his time working on the health-care lawsuit.)
Jacquot’s departure in May and his landing at LPS was scrutinized in part because Bondi has been under the microscope for the firing of two attorneys who worked in the economic crimes unit on the fraud cases. Critics alleged that the attorney general’s office has gone soft on the firms, and claimed also that there’s a revolving door culture between the agency and the firms.
And two other former McCollum attorneys have ties to firms that were under investigation — one who quit when Bondi took over and another who was fired by Bondi.
It wasn’t long before politicians entered the fray, with Reps. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee and Ron Saunders, D-Key West, and Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, announcing they were working on legislation to prevent lawyers who leave the attorney general’s office or certain other agencies from going to work for a company that had been under investigation while they were there.
“It is bad policy for the integrity of the investigation, and the perception,” Soto said Wednesday in an interview.
DOJ: VOTING LAW LOOKS OKAY TO US. WELL, PART OF IT
The federal Department of Justice also had its day in the news, when Secretary of State Kurt Browning announced that he had gotten the go-ahead from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to enforce the state’s controversial elections law in the five Florida counties that require preclearance under the Voting Rights Act.
Or at least that he had gotten the go-ahead to enforce the uncontroversial parts of the state’s controversial elections law in those counties.
The rest of preclearance process — required for areas that have a history of racial discrimination in voting — was moved recently to the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., apparently paving the way for this week’s announcement.
“I am appreciative of the work the DOJ has done to approve Florida’s new election laws,” Browning said in a statement released by his office. “Their decision confirms what we already know, that Florida’s new election laws are fair and not discriminatory.”
Not so fast, opponents said.
“As the Secretary should know well, the State stopped the Department of Justice from reviewing the most discriminatory portions of the law and, moreover, the Department of Justice is only reviewing these changes for compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act — not their legality or fairness overall,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida. “To suggest otherwise is dishonest.”
HEARINGS ON FPL RATE CASE
It might have taken the DOJ weeks to consider the state’s election changes, but it took the Public Service Commission almost no time at all to finish up a hearing on Florida Power & Light’s proposal to collect $196 million next year to pay for nuclear-power projects. A ruling is scheduled for Oct. 24.
The PSC had set aside all or parts of three weeks to hear about FPL’s plans and a request by Progress Energy Florida to pass along about $141 million in nuclear costs to customers in 2012.
But the hearing on FPL’s request started Wednesday and ended Thursday, and Deputy Public Counsel Charles Rehwinkel said negotiations on the number of witnesses in the Progress case could allow it to be wrapped up in a day or two.
At the hearing, attorneys for consumers and business and environmental groups questioned whether FPL will ever build two new nuclear reactors and whether the company increased costs by trying to do an upgrade project quickly and told the PSC that the utility used out-of-date information during a similar 2009 hearing about the upgrade project.
Joe McGlothlin, an attorney for the Office of Public Counsel, accused the company of “willful withholding” of information that would have shown higher project costs.
But FPL denied wrongdoing. “Let me be very clear,” company President and CEO Armando Olivera said in written testimony. “FPL did not willfully withhold information that the commission needed to make an informed decision during the September 2009 hearing.”
COMINGS AND GOINGS
Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Scott made waves by hiring tea party activist Robin Stublen as a new “deputy director of public liaison” at $70,000 a year. The state Democratic Party said Scott was offering his “Tea Party cronies” jobs.
“It looks like Rick Scott only believes in less government when it means slashing jobs for hardworking Floridians,” the statement said.
But Scott said he didn’t hire Stublen because he was a tea party activist.
“I hired him because he’s good — and don’t worry, I’ll hold him accountable,” Scott said.
Meanwhile, Barney Bishop said he would resign as president and CEO of Associated Industries of Florida at the end of the year, saying there are “other things in life — other passions” that he wants to pursue. And Rod Petrey resigned as head of the Tallahassee-based LeRoy Collins Center, according to the Tallahassee Democrat, but said he was bound by a confidentiality agreement from discussing the circumstances surrounding his departure. The newspaper reported that four board members quit last month over concerns about the organization’s cash flow.
STORY OF THE WEEK: A federal appeals court sides with Florida and 25 other states, ruling the health-care mandate approved by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats is unconstitutional.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “There is a less of a chance that an individual will go through his entire life without ever consuming health-care services than there is that he will win the Irish Sweepstakes at the very moment he is struck by lightning,” wrote federal Judge Stanley Marcus in a dissent to the health care ruling.
By Brandon Larrabee
The News Service of Florida
Escambia Extension To Offer Food Safety Workshop For Farms
August 14, 2011
Escambia County Extension will offer a Food Safety Workshop to help growers develop their own personalized food safety manual.
Most intermediate and large chain store buyers require some level of food safety program from each farm before they buy. Even smaller operations selling directly to consumers may be required to develop a manual for their farm.
The workshop, which is limited to 10 farms, will be taught on computers, using a web-based food safety manual development program. Farmers needing assistance on the computer can bring a computer-savvy helper.
The registration fee is $20 for the person representing a farm and $10 for each additional attendee. Lunch is included.
The workshop will be held on Tuesday, August 23 from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. at the Escambia County Extension Windstorm Building at 3740 Stefani Road.
For more information or to register, call 475-5230 or contact M. Allison Meharg at allisonm@ufl.edu or Libbie Johnson libbiej@ufl.edu.