Back To School Bash, Neighborhood Watch Party In Farm Hill
August 11, 2011
A Back to School Bash and Neighborhood Watch Party will be held this Saturday in Farm Hill.
There will be free hot dogs, chips and drinks. The Cantonment Volunteer Fire Department will provide fire safety education and display a truck, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office Mounted Patrol will be on hand, plus there will be plenty of activities for the children.
Donations of school supplies will be accepted, and school supplies will be distributed to children in need.
The Back to School Bash and Neighborhood Watch Party will take place Saturday, August 13 from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Santa Maria Plaza Park in Farm Hill. For more information, call (850) 554-7376.
The event is sponsored by the Cottage Hill, Farm Hill and Village neighborhood watch programs.
Two Escambia Residents Get Life In Federal Drug Case
August 11, 2011
Two Escambia County residents have been sentenced to life in prison in a federal drug case.
Terrence L Watson, 30, and Senica C Herbert, 34, received a life sentence from Senior U.S. District Judge Lacy Collier following their convictions for participating in a narcotics conspiracy involving five kilograms or more of cocaine.
The sentences were the latest of more than 20 convictions stemming from related Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) prosecutions by the United
States Attorneys Office in Pensacola over the last two years. The convictions have resulted in four life sentences and five sentences of 20 years or more on charges involving narcotics, firearms and related violence.
Those convicted have been from Florida, Alabama and Texas, including several defendants with direct ties to organized crime in Mexico, according to Pamela C. Marsh, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.
Escambia Proposes $4.3 Million Cantonment Fire Training Facility With Ascend
August 11, 2011
A partnership between Escambia Fire Rescue and Ascend Performance Materials could lead to a new fire training facility worth over $4 million.
Escambia County officials are proposing the facility on 20 acres currently owned by Ascend at their Cantonment manufacturing facility. If an agreement is reached to build the fire training area, the property’s ownership would be transferred to the county.
Escambia County currently has $817,492.10 in the budget for a fire training facility; early estimates are the county will need another $3.5 to $3.75 million for the facility.
The facility, as proposed, would include a fire tower, a burn building, confined space training area, an area for structural collapse training, a rail car prop, an area for vehicle extrication training, industrial fire training, a helipad and classroom space.
The proposed fire training facility and a funding source must first be approved by the Escambia County Commission at a later date.
Pictured above: A proposed Escambia Fire Rescue training facility in Cantonment, click to enlarge.
New Jay High Won’t Be Ready For First Day Classes
August 11, 2011
Students won’t begin the first day of school in the new Jay High School later this month; instead, the school’s nearly 500 students will attend classes in the old buildings as crews work to complete the facility.
The new target completion date for the project is October, pushed back due to rain and unexpected construction delays.
Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis caused extensive cracks to appear in the walls of Jay High, prompting the installation of over five dozen braces in the school’s 48,000 square foot main building north of the gym.
The new phase one that will open in October will include classrooms and administrative areas. Once it opens, phase two plans call for the demolition of the old school building and the construction of more classrooms, a band room and cafeteria. Bids have not yet been accepted for phase two.
Jay High To Hold Royal Night
August 11, 2011
Jay High School will hold “Royal Night” next week to give fans the chance to come out and meet this year’s Royal football team and some future Royals.
Events begin at 6 p.m. on Friday, August 19 at Merle V. North Stadium at Jay High School. Admission is $3 with concessions available from the band.
There will be scrimmages between future Royals — Mini Mites at 6 p.m., Mites at 6:20, and Midgets at 6:40. The band will perform at 7 p.m., followed by a junior varsity scrimmage at 7:15. The varsity Royals will hold a scrimmage at 7:35.
Season passes are also on sale now in the front office for the Jay Royals. Family passes at $175 and individual passes are $100.
Ticket prices for football games this year will be $6 pre-sale and $7 at the gate. Junior varsity game tickets are $5 for home games.
Group Plans Lawsuit Over Florida Textbook Adoption Changes
August 11, 2011
A Boca Raton group that believes some Florida textbooks are slanted to favor Islamic beliefs plans to file a lawsuit against the state of Florida and Gov. Rick Scott for approving a new law that changes the state’s textbook adoption process.
Citizens for National Security will file its lawsuit Thursday in a Palm Beach County circuit court, saying the new law violates the state constitution’s promise of a “high-quality” education.
The dramatic changes to the textbook adoption process contained in SB 2120, a new state law tied to the education budget, eliminated the use of large statewide committees of public school teachers, administrators, school board members and private citizens to review textbooks.
Instead, the education commissioner hand-picks three state or national “subject matter experts” to examine the books, with only two people reviewing the books and the third acting as a tie-breaker.
“It is not possible for two people to review all the textbooks in Florida within a 4 month period of time,” the complaint says. “Prior to the passage of SB 2120, the selection/adoption process for history and geography textbooks required the reviews of more than 40 people, and took approximately one year to complete.”
Citizens for National Security Chairman William Saxton said his group believes the new law removes a valuable form of oversight from the textbook selection process.
“We need to have the new law repealed because what the new law does is totally disenfranchise the public from having any role in the selection of K-12 public textbooks,” Saxton said. “In the old law it wasn’t a significant role, but it was a role. There was oversight.”
Barry Silver, an attorney representing Citizens for National Security and a former Democratic state representative, said changing the textbook adoption policies opens the window to religious indoctrination of children.
He called textbook selection a “monumental undertaking” and the suggestion that three people could handle this task is “absolutely ridiculous” because it is so time-consuming.
“We need more people, not less, engaged in that task,” Silver said.
Saxton said his group has helped conduct a review of existing textbooks and found that some “embrace or embellish” Islamic values over Judeo-Christian values. Saxton said he believes through lobbying textbook adoption committees and textbook publishers, Islamic groups have gotten their point of view into textbooks.
“It’s another form of jihad,” Saxton said, with “hearts and minds of children” the target.
He said these concerns were brought to the Department of Education and Scott prior to his signing the bill.
Scott has become a popular target for lawsuits and this marks at least the eighth time he has been sued since taking office.
“This isn’t the first time Gov. Scott has been inappropriately added to a lawsuit where he’s not a proper defendant. It’s all just a ploy to get a splash in the media and any good lawyer would know better,” said Scott spokesman Lane Wright.
School districts can appoint a teacher or district curriculum specialist to review the recommendations by the reviewers. Ultimately, school districts must spend 50 percent of their textbook budgets on state-approved books.
In May, the Department of Education explained the change as a way of curing some problems with the existing adoption process. Mary Jane Tappen, who is in charge of curriculum for the department, said it had become difficult to find people to sit on the committees since it is a huge undertaking.
“We felt like going to a review process where first experts review the content to ensure it is error-free and factual, followed by every district in the state participating in a second review,” Tappen said.
The Department of Education said it has yet to select new textbook reviewers under the new law.
“We’re still in the process of getting volunteer experts from the universities, state colleges, national organizations other state agency social studies program specialists and private university systems,” said department spokeswoman Cheryl Etters. The next textbooks up for adoption are K-12 social studies books.
It’s not just groups like Citizens for National Security that are concerned about the new adoption process.
Teachers and school board members who had previously sat on the statewide adoption committees also sounded alarms earlier this year when the Legislature first passed the bill that made the changes.
“We are going to see what happened in Texas, with curriculum being challenged and changed,” said April Griffin, a school board member from Hillsborough County Schools, in a May interview with the News Service of Florida. “We are going to see favoritism for certain companies. I think we are going to lose the voice of the front lines in this process.”
By The News Service of Florida
Afternoon Fire Destroys Abandoned Mobile Home
August 10, 2011
Fire destroyed an abandoned double wide mobile home this afternoon between Davisville and Nokomis.
The home had already burned to the ground by the time the first firefighters arrived on Miller Road east of Rockaway Creek Road, just south of the Alabama-Florida line. Firefighters said the home had no power, no gas and there was no obvious source of ignition. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
There were no injuries reported in the blaze, which happened about 2:15 p.m.
The Walnut Hill Station of Escambia Fire Rescue and the Atmore Fire Department responded to the blaze.
Pictured above: Fire destroyed this abandoned double wide mobile home on Miller Road Wednesday afternoon. Pictured below: Fire burns on the last wall standing in the structure. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Deputies Seek Help In Identifying Vehicle Related To Funeral Service Burglaries
August 10, 2011
Santa Rosa County investigators are seeking the public’s help in identifying and locating a vehicle that may have been involved in vehicle burglaries during a graveside funeral service last weekend.
The incident happened Saturday during a funeral service at Serenity Gardens Cemetery in Milton. When deputies arrived, they found that five vehicle burglaries had occurred while the owners were attending the funeral service only about 50 yards away.
Now deputies are working to identify a late model grayish green four-door Mazda Tribute with a Georgia tag seen at the Circle K at Dogwood Drive and Willard Norris Road in Milton shortly after the funeral service burglaries. The SUV was caught on camera as a credit card was used that was stolen during the burglary. Investigators need to speak with the individual in order to further the investigation.
Editor’s note: Earlier Wednesday, deputies were looking for the white pickup seen in the photos above. The truck was located and was not part of the incident.
Anyone with information concerning the burglaries is asked to contact Santa Rosa County Crime Stoppers at (850) 437-STOP or www.srccs.com.
For an earlier NorthEscambia.com story with more information about the vehicle burglaries during a nearby graveside service, click here.
Atmore Man Charged With Attempted Murder After Victim Found In Road
August 10, 2011
An Atmore man is charged with attempted murder after a man was found severely injured and bleeding in a local roadway.
The man was found lying on Airport Road near Atmore Saturday night with severe head trauma and multiple abrasions. Investigators were able to take a brief statement from the man, whose identity has not been released, before he was airlifted to a Pensacola hospital where he remains in critical condition.
Derek Coleman, 21, was later taken into custody and charged with attempted murder. He is being held in the Escambia County Detention Center in Brewton on the attempted murder charge with bond set at $50,000.
Investigators are not saying exactly what happened — if the man was beaten and left in the roadway or if a vehicle was involved in the incident. The incident was investigated by the Escambia County (Ala.) Sheriff’s Office, Atmore Police Department and Alabama State Troopers.
McDavid Man Gets 2.5 Years In Prison For DUI
August 10, 2011
A McDavid man with a long history of alcoh0l-related driving convictions has been sentenced to two and a half years in state prison after a Molino DUI arrest.
It took an Escambia County jury just 25 minutes to find 31-year old Michael Aaron Killam guilty of his fourth or subsequent DUI.
Judge Michael Allen sentenced Killam to 30 months in state prison to be followed by 30 months probation and ordered him to pay $2,786 in court costs and fines. He was also ordered not to consume alcohol or be in any vehicle or residence with alcohol, and once released from prison any vehicle he drives must have an ignition interlock to test for alcohol consumption. Killam remains in the Escambia County Jail while his attorney has filed motions seeking to modify the sentence.
Several stations of Escambia Fire Rescue were dispatched to a possible accident on Highway 97 near Molino Park Elementary School about 5:40 a.m. on July 18, 2010. Rather than an accident, they found Killam apparently passed out or asleep behind the wheel of a Nissan Frontier truck in the ditch alongside the roadway.
Killam was arrested by the Florida Highway Patrol after he failed a field sobriety test.
Killam was arrested in late May, 2009 for driving under the influence, driving while his license was suspended, resisting arrest without violence and for threatening a deputy and his family. He was also issued traffic citations for an open container of alcohol and failure to drive in a single lane.
Escambia County deputy James Gilman was on Pine Barren Road the morning of May 20, 2009, at a brush fire when Killam made a u-turn in the roadway to avoid approaching Gilman’s patrol car and fire trucks. He sped away, prompting Gilman to follow. After observing Killam cross the yellow center and side white lines of the highway several times, Gilman initiated a traffic stop on Highway 164, according to Sheriff’s Office records.
That’s when Gilman said Killam headed for the passenger seat, reaching into the floorboard. After Killam was removed from the vehicle, he refused a field sobriety test and stated that his license was already suspended for DUI.
Killam was found guilty and sentenced to community control for 12 months, 24 months probation, 90 days in jail and community service. He was also ordered to avoid the possession or consumption of alcohol, ordered to use an ignition interlock system to test for the presence of alcohol before driving, and his driver’s license was revoked for 10 years.
Escambia County Court records show the following arrests or convictions for Killam:
- DUI, third conviction within 10 years after prior conviction
- Driving with license suspended
- Threatening a public servant
- Resisting arrest without violence
- Driving with license suspended, third or subsequent conviction
- Open container of alcohol in vehicle
- Failure to drive in a single lane
- Open container of alcohol in vehicle
- Trespassing
- DUI, third conviction within 10 years
- Refusal to submit to DUI test
- Driving with license suspended, second conviction
- DUI property damage, second offense
- Refusal to submit to DUI test
- Driving with license suspended
- Open container of alcohol in vehicle
- Failure to display registration
- Careless driving
- DUI property damage
- failure to leave info at accident
- Unlawful speed
- Careless driving
Pictured top: Michael Aaron Killam of McDavid is given a field sobriety test during the early morning hours of July 18, 2010, along Highway 97 in Molino. Pictured below: Killam is taken into custody. Pictured inset: A Florida Highway Patrol trooper pours out an apparent container of beer found in Killam’s truck. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
