Kingsfield Crash Slows Morning Drive
March 4, 2011
An accident slowed the commute Friday morning on East Kingsfield Road.
The two vehicle crash was reported just before 7:30 in front of Plastic Coated Paper on East Kingsfield Road just east of North Palafox. The accident is under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol. There was no immediate word on injuries, and further details were not available.
Pictured above and below: A two vehicle crash on East Kingsfield Road this morning. Submitted photos by Cheyenne Godwin for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Tiny Town Files Suit Against Giant Dump; Developers Toss Words At Escambia, Florida
March 4, 2011
A town of less than 300 people has filed suit to stop a mega-landfill planned just upstream from North Escambia, just as the landfill company has taken aim at three area counties, including Escambia, Florida.
Repton, Ala., population 280, filed suit this week against Conecuh Woods LLC and the Conecuh County (Ala.) Commission in an attempt to stop a permit from being issued for the 5,100 acre landfill planned for just outside the tiny town.
Numerous counties and cities in the area have passed resolutions against the landfill forwarded to Conecuh commissioners and Alabama’s governor — including Escambia counties in Alabama and Florida, Baldwin County, Century, Atmore and Flomaton.
Now, Conecuh Woods has fired back at three of counties against the landfill, throwing verbal jabs. On the Conecuh Woods website, the company says Escambia County, Florida is against the mega-landfill because “They already have a landfill and a Green Energy facility, and the last thing they want is competition for new industry”. The developer also alleges that Escambia and Baldwin counties in Alabama are against Conecuh Woods because their are landfill operating in their counties, and they don’t want the competition.
Escambia County, Florida, in opposing the landfill by resolution, expressed concerns over runoff that could pollute waterways downstream in Florida.
Conecuh Woods’ landfill, would include a 1,600 acre “disposal cell” from Range to Repton to near the Big Escambia Creek. Big Escambia Creek flows southward into Escambia County, Alabama, through Flomaton and drains through a North Escambia swamp into the Escambia River and then Escambia Bay.
Located only about 30 miles from the landfill site, the Town of Century joined Escambia County in opposing the landfill over water quality concerns.
“Nobody knows more than we do that Florida’s rules on water quality are tougher than Alabama’s,” Century Mayor Freddie McCall said. “If it comes into our river, Florida is in trouble immediately.”
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley issued an executive order providing for a moratorium on new landfills in the state. Conecuh County then, in turn, requested an opinion from Alabama’s attorney general on any impact on Conecuh Wood’s pending application before the commission.
A public hearing for the Conecuh County Commission to consider approval for Conecuh Woods is set for next Thursda, March 10, 9 a.m., at Reid State Technical College in Evergreen. The commission has until April 2 to make a decision on the proposal — if the governor’s moratorium does not stop the process.
Meanwhile, Conecuh Woods, LLC has listed numerous jobs and provided an employment application on the company’s website. The website asserts that the landfill’s annual payroll will be $1.8 million annually, with over $250 million in new revenues.
“This project is about jobs, revenue and who gets them; Conecuh, or some other county,” the website states.
Pictured top: Repton, Alabama, Mayor Terri Carter addresses the Century Town Council recently in opposition to a proposed 5,100 acre landfill in Conecuh County, Alabama. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Mistrial Declared In Trial Of Billings Murder Suspect Donnie Stallworth
March 4, 2011
A mistrial was declared late Thursday night in the trial of Billings murder suspect Donnie Stallworth, Jr. after almost nine hours of deliberation.
The Brewton native was one of seven people charged in the execution-style murders of Byrd and Melanie Billings in July 2009 . Leonard Patrick Gonzalez, Jr. received the death penalty last month for gunning down the Beulah couple as several of their special-needs children watched.
Stallworth, a former U.S. Air Force staff sergeant, was accused of being in the home at time of the murders, armed with a gun. He was charged with two counts of first degree murder.
The accusations came from two co-defendants, 16-year old Rakeem Florence and 21-year old Fredrick Thorton. Both pleaded not contest to a lessor second degree murder charge in exchange for their testimony.
The jury began deliberations just before 2 p.m. Thursday. The hung jury was summoned back to the Escambia County courtroom and released by Judge Nick Geeker just before 11 p.m. Geeker scheduled a retrial for Stallworth, 29, to begin on April 25.
Sometime after the July 9, 2009, murders, Stallworth fled to his hometown of Brewton, Ala., where he turned himself in at the Escambia County Detention Center. At the time of the murders, Stallworth was assigned to the 1st Special Operations Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Hurlburt Field. Much of his family still residents in Brewton.
Fortune Gives High Marks To Gulf Power, Alabama Power
March 4, 2011
Fortune has ranked Gulf Power, Alabama Power and other subsidiaries of Southern Company were ranked number one in the electric and gas utility sector of the magazine’s 2011 list of the “Worlds Most Admired Companies” released Thursday.
Although it shares the top pot with NextEra Energy, Southern Company — which includes Mississippi Power, Alabama Power, Georgia Power and Gulf Power — was ranked first in the utility industry in six of the nine categories on which the survey was based.
Southern Company has ranked number one four times since 2002 in the Fortune survey and has been in the top five on four other occasions.
“We are totally committed to keeping our customers at the center of our business,” said Gulf Power President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Crosswhite. “This honor is a testament to what our employees do every day.”
The survey included more than 600 companies, which were judged on nine criteria – innovation, people management, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment, global competitiveness and quality of products and services.
Southern Company was ranked first in its industry in people management, use of corporate assets, quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment and quality of products and services.
“Being a good value to our customers is part of our mission and therefore part of everything we do,” said Crosswhite. “Our success rests in their complete satisfaction and that’s what we work toward every day.”
Feinberg, Governor and AG Work Out Claims Speed Plan
March 4, 2011
Federal BP Claims Administrator Ken Feinberg has agreed with Gov. Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi on measures for getting compensation into the hands of economic victims of the Gulf oil spill.
Feinberg has agreed that his office will process at least 25 percent of all pending claims by March 31, expanding staffing in the state to get that done, Scott said.
The governor’s office also said that in each Florida claims office, the federal government will refer claimants to independent accounting firms that can assist in gathering the documentation for the claims, with the fee for the firms to be reimbursed by the Gulf Coast Claims Facility.
The claims facility also has agreed it will provide to claimants a named contact for claimants who have questions, and to create a single Florida claims coordinator to assure responsiveness. Feinberg has also agreed that the facility will have accountants either on site, or available by appointment to help claimants with questions.
“Florida’s tourism, fishing and seafood industries are still feeling the impacts of last summer’s disaster almost a year later,” Scott said in a statement. “Mr. Feinberg agrees that it’s time to get to work and implement a streamlined, fair and effective way of paying these claims for Floridians.” Feinberg will be back in Tallahassee next month to report on the process of the claims process. He met with Scott and Bondi separately last month.
High Court Has High Speed Rail Case
March 3, 2011
Two lawmakers who say Gov. Rick Scott has no authority to scrub a Tampa to Orlando bullet train, brought their case to the Florida Supreme Court Thursday in what may be only the first in a series of challenges to the CEO-turned-governor’s approach to the job.
With $2.4 billion in federal funds hanging in the balance, Sens. Thad Altman and Arthenia Joyner brought their case to the state’s highest court as individual lawmakers. But the pair undoubtedly represented colleagues in both chambers who believe Scott overstepped his authority by canceling a high speed rail project approved by lawmakers in December 2009.
“Rather than faithfully implementing that law (Scott) has pretty much said he is going to refuse to implement it,” Altman told reporters after the short arguments by his lawyer and the governor’s general counsel. “The only entity that can do that is the Legislature, not the governor.”
Scott’s General Counsel Charles Trippe countered before the justices that a ruling favoring the legislators would place the court in the position of forcing a governor to spend money that had yet to be received by the state. Trippe said nothing in state law could force the governor to spend the federal money offered as a carrot to states to develop alternative transportation networks.
“The governor is not demanded by the federal government to do anything,” Trippe said. “He only has to spend what has been appropriated. None of that federal grant money has been appropriated so he has no duty to spend it.”
During questioning, justices pressed the lawmakers’ attorney, Clifton McClelland, to explain how Scott’s decision on the yet-to-be received federal money would constitute an overstep. Justice Barbara Pariente echoed the sentiments of at least two other justices that the lawsuit seemed premature, because lawmakers had yet to specifically divvy up the federal funds.
Chief Justice Charles Canady, a former Congressman and the only former state lawmaker on the court, also questioned the legislators’ assertion that Scott is barred from vetoing future state expenditures related to the high speed project – because lawmakers already put into law that the train should be built.
“If there is anything that is integral to the executive function under our constitution, it is the governor’s ability to veto measures coming from the Legislature, including his authority to exercise a line item veto in response to appropriations,” Canady said.
The court is under pressure to move quickly. U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has given Florida until Friday to decide whether to take the money. If not it may be sent to other states.
Last month, Scott notified LaHood that the project was too risky and could leave Florida taxpayers holder the bag for a multi-billion dollar boondoggle. Several senators sent a Scott a letter urging him to accept the funds.
The federal money would pay more than 90 percent of project costs for the Tampa to Orlando route, the first leg of a system backers say could eventually extend south to Miami.
On Thursday, Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, withdrew his name from that letter, saying he had wanted to send a message to Scott that he had to work with the Legislature, but didn’t want to force him to accept the federal money now.
“In my attempt to disagree with the unilateral decision to refuse the funds for the High Speed Rail, I am afraid that my signature on this letter has been misconstrued as support for a High Speed Rail project in Florida,” Bennett wrote.
The Supreme Court hasn’t given a timeline for when it may rule.
By Michael Peltier
The News Service Florida
Federal Judge: Feds Must Move Fast On Health Care Appeal
March 3, 2011
A Pensacola federal judge criticized the government Thursday for moving forward with the federal health care law despite his ruling against it, but he put a stay on his own order to give the government a week to appeal.
U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in essence ordered the government to get that appeal moving quickly – saying the matter was of such consequence it should be fast tracked. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice said the government will appeal to the Eleventh Circuit, but didn’t say when.
Vinson also said he had thought his order finding the massive federal health care law was easy to understand: he ruled that it violates the constitution. And the tone of his “clarifying” order was decidedly perturbed that the Obama Administration sought a clarification.
The administration had noted that the main part of the law that was found unconstitutional by Vinson – the individual mandate for buying health insurance – doesn’t go into effect until 2014, by which time the question of its constitutionality is likely to have been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Vinson said in his clarification that he had believed the federal government would stop implementation after his ruling.
“It was not expected that they would effectively ignore the order and declaratory judgment for two and one-half weeks, continue to implement the Act, and only then file a belated motion to ‘clarify,’” Vinson wrote.
Vinson, a Reagan appointee who sits in Pensacola, said he now expected the government would ask for a stay of his order pending an appeal, but said there was no need to wait for the administration to ask. Vinson went ahead and put the order on hold – but with the condition that the government get moving and file an appeal within a week. The matter is of such import, and in such doubt, that it is in everyone’s interest to get the issue before the U.S. Supreme Court, he said.
“The Act seeks to comprehensively reform and regulate more than one-sixth of the national economy,” Vinson wrote. “It does so via several hundred statutory provisions and thousands of regulations that put myriad obligations and responsibilities on individuals, employers, and the states.
“It has generated considerable uncertainty while the constitutionality of the Act is being litigated in the courts,” Vinson continued. “The sooner this issue is finally decided by the Supreme Court, the better off the entire nation will be. And yet, it has been more than one month from the entry of my order and judgment and still the defendants have not filed their notice of appeal.”
Vinson also acknowledged the government’s argument that ultimately, it would be hard to put the law in place without getting going on planning for its implementation. All the more reason for a swift appeal to get the matter settled, Vinson essentially said.
“We appreciate the court’s recognition of the enormous disruption that would have resulted if implementation of the Affordable Care Act was abruptly halted,” Justice Department spokesperson Tracy Schmaler said in a statement. “We welcome the court’s granting of a stay to allow the current programs and consumer protections, including tax credits to small business and millions of dollars in federal grants to help states with health care costs, to continue, pending our appeal in the Eleventh Circuit.”
The state of Florida was the lead plaintiff of 26 states challenging the law. One of the major concerns of the states is that the new law is expected to require the addition of large numbers people to the states’ Medicaid rolls. Most of the plaintiff attorneys general are also Republicans, and generally opposed to the Obama administration’s efforts to require people to buy health insurance.
The National Federation of Independent Business joined the states as a plaintiff.
“An expedited appeals process for this case is very good news for NFIB and the small-business community,” NFIB’s Florida director, Bill Herrle, said in a statement. “The government’s attempts to stymie the judicial process are simply prolonging the uncertainty surrounding the law and do a disservice to the states, small-business owners and individuals who are seeking resolution.”
While blasting the federal government for not following his initial order, and for slowing the case down, Vinson also wrote candidly about the lack of clear agreement on the legal nature of the case – saying that precisely because it is no slam dunk legally, it ought to continue to move up the legal chain.
“The individual mandate has raised some novel issues regarding the Constitutional role of the federal government about which reasonable and intelligent people (and reasonable and intelligent jurists) can disagree,” Vinson wrote. “Despite what partisans for or against the individual mandate might suggest, this litigation presents a question with some strong and compelling arguments on both sides.”
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who campaigned in part on continuing to pursue the lawsuit against the federal health care law, said she was pleased with Vinson’s reaffirmation of the unconstitutionality of the law, but said she was disappointed he was allowing the government to continue to implement the law pending the appeal.
“While we are disappointed that the stay was granted, we are satisfied that DOJ now has only seven days to file their appeal and seek expedited review or they will lose the stay,” Bondi said.
By David Royse
The News Service Florida
McDavid Postmaster Arrested On Sexual Assault, False Imprisonment Charges
March 3, 2011
The McDavid postmaster has been arrested on attempted sexual battery and false imprisonment charges. Both charges are felonies.
James Bruce Lee, 51, of Cantonment, was booked into the Escambia County Jail Wednesday afternoon on two outstanding state warrants served by the United States Postal Inspection Service with the assistance of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. He was released on $6,000 bond, according to jail records.
According to Postal Inspector Michael Mulder, the charges stemmed from a January 15 incident that allegedly took place inside the McDavid Post Office. A female mail carrier alleged that Lee attempted to sexually assault her inside the Main Street building.
According to the arrest warrant, the woman alleged Lee approached her from behind while she was sorting mail and began touching her all over her body. She told him to stop, at which time he complied. Later in the day, after the other carriers had left the building, Lee once again approached the carrier holding her by her hands while pulling his pants down, the carrier told investigators, before stopping when he heard a vehicle in the post office parking lot.
Lee provided a sworn written statement and interview to postal investigators, however his statements were not released by the United States Postal Inspection Service.
Lee, who has served as McDavid postmaster since January, 2005, has been place on administrative leave, according to Joseph Breckenridge, a postal service spokesman based in Atlanta.
Poarch Creek Indians Donate $50,000 To Northview High
March 3, 2011
The Poarch Band of Creek Indians have donated $50,000 to Northview High School from an educational endowment fund.
“Northview High School is appreciative of the donation of educational funds from the Poarch Band of Creek Indians,” Northview Principal Gayle Weaver said Wednesday. “The monies will be used to enhance and supplement the academic programs at Northview.”
After donating over $1.5 million to Atmore area schools in early December, the Tribe announced the creation of a $350,000 educational endowment fund for schools in surrounding communities. Schools were given the opportunity to seek a portion of the $350,000.
Last year, Northview submitted a “wish list” of items to be purchased with the $50,000, Weaver said. The Tribe will purchase approved items on behalf of the school.
Weaver said the school is seeking technology items, including document cameras and iPads, to enhance existing technology at the school, and equipment for the school’s horticulture program.
In December the Poarch Creek Indians made the following donations to Atmore area schools:
- Escambia County High School/Escambia County Middle School $687,360
- Rachel Patterson Elementary $78,000
- A.C. Moore School $112,547
- Huxford Elementary $337,000
- Escambia Academy $311,500
- Atmore Christian School $100,000.
“Part of being a good neighbor is helping out others in need. Education is the bedrock of productive successful lives for these youngsters; we are happy and proud to be able to make this contribution to their future today,” said Tribal Chairman Buford L. Rolin after the donations were made.
Not Guilty Plea From Man Accused Of Starving Horses
March 3, 2011
The Walnut Hill man accused of starving 10 horses has entered a plea of not guilty on multiple animal cruelty charges.
James Benjamin Bethea, 61, pleaded not guilty before Escambia County Judge Michael Allen. His jury trial on two felony and eight misdemeanor animal cruelty charges. has been set for mid-May.
One of the horses allegedly starved by Bethea was euthanized by a veterinarian in a pasture February 2 in the 5000 block of Highway 97A in Enon. Nine others were seized by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and transported to an animal clinic for medical care.
For an earlier report about the horses and more photos, click here.