Last Minute Christmas Gift Bargains: Try An Area Thrift Store
December 23, 2010
If you are looking for bargains on your last minute Christmas shopping, one of the area thrift stores might just have what you need. From the We Care Economy Shops in Atmore and Flomaton, to the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store in Century, to the Junior Humane Society Thrift Store in Cantonment, the deals await Christmas shoppers looking to save.
We Care Economy Shops, Atmore and Flomaton
The We Care Economy Shops in Flomaton and Atmore offer a wide variety of merchandise, from clothing for the entire family to housewares and furniture in their thrift shop.
The store also sells a variety of toys, furniture seasonal items and clothing. All of the items are inspected before being sold, and some items are new.
Proceeds from the store fund the We Care Program, a prison ministry program founded in 1970. The We Care Program spreads the Word of God in prisons, including Holman and Fountain in Atmore and the Century Correctional Institute.
The We Care Economy Shop in Flomaton is located on Highway 31 about a half mile from Highway 113 in a former hardware store building. The We Care Economy Shop in Atmore is located downtown at the intersection of Highway 31 and Main Street.
St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store, Century
The St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store also offers a variety of merchandise at bargain prices.
The store offers a vast array of items including glassware, toasters, lamps, couches, desks and office equipment, books, movies, shoes and the complete range of clothing in their new location on North Century Boulevard next to the Dollar General.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is an international organization with a mission to help the poor and homeless. Their thrift stores are a way of raising money to accomplish that mission.
Junior Humane Society Thrift Store, Cantonment
The Junior Humane Society Thrift Store in Cantonment held their grand opening just over a year ago.
The store features a variety of clothing for all ages, shoes, office furniture, kitchen supplies, books, toys, pet supplies and other items with new merchandise arriving daily.
The store also features a wall featuring photos of dogs and cats looking for new homes through JHS.
Proceeds benefit JHS activities, such as finding homes for homeless cats and dogs, while also providing unbelievable bargains for area residents battling tough economic times.
Christmas Recipes: Red Velvet Cake, Holiday Dips
December 23, 2010
The holidays are a time when a lot of people head into the kitchen to cook for family and friends. Over the next few days, NorthEscambia.com will share some submitted holiday favorite recipes.
You just can’t go wrong with a red velvet cake, and we have a great recipe today from Shirley Boone. We also have a couple of dip recipes just in time for your Christmas entertaining — a black bean dip and a hot cream cheese dip.To submit your recipes to share with our readers, email them to news@northescambia.com.
Today’s recipes are from the Molino Homemakers Club.
Red Velvet Cake
by Shirley Boone
CAKE
- 1 ½ cups oil
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 2 ½ cups cake flour
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp. cocoa
- 1 oz bottle red food coloring
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. cider vinegar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
Mix oil and sugar together. Add eggs and beat well. Add food coloring. Add vinegar to buttermilk and pour into oil mixture. Add vanilla. In small bowl combine cake flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Mix with other ingredients until well blended. Pour into 9 inch greased and floured pans. Bake at 350 degrees. Two pans bake for 30-35 minutes, three pans bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes and wrap in plastic wrap until cool.
ICING
- 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 1 box confectioners sugar
- 1 stick Parkay margarine, softened
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 tsp. vanilla
Mix all together until creamed. Spread on cooled cake.
Black Bean Dip
by Mona Brown
- 2 cans black beans, drained
- 2 cans shoe peg corn, drained
- ½ bunch green onions, chopped
- Sprinkle of garlic powder
- Mix ½ cup olive oil, ½ cup apple cider vinegar and ½ cup sugar.
Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Marinate for 24 hours. Drain and add 8 ounces of feta cheese. Serve with Scoops.
Hot Cream Cheese Dip
from the Molino Homemakers Club
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 8 oz sour cream
- 1 cup cooked crumbled bacon
- 3 stalks green onion diced
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Mix all ingredients and pour into a 9×9 glass pan or pie plate. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve warm with Chicken in a Biscuit crackers.
Douglas Indicted In Death Of Woman Found In Woods
December 22, 2010
A grand jury has indicted a Pensacola man for the brutal rape and murder of a woman whose body was found in wooded area off Nine Mile Road.
Joshua Wayne Douglas, 22 , was indicted Wednesday for first degree murder and sexual battery with a deadly weapon or force likely to cause serious personal injury for the death of Jamie Broxson, 25.
According to the state attorney’s office, Douglas was interview by investigators on December 7, at which time he admitted to placing duct tape on Broxson and having sexual contact with her.
Broxson and Debra Jones, 19, were found dead in a wooded area off Nine Mile road on November 29. Broxson has not been charged with Jones’ death.
Both bodies were found near a Gulf Power substation on Jernigan Road, just south of Nine Mile Road. Douglas’ home address, according to jail records, is directly across from the power substation.
Douglas is being held in the Escambia County Jail without bond.
Christmas Recipes: Sweet Potato Casserole, Cameo Cake
December 22, 2010
The holidays are a time when a lot of people head into the kitchen to cook for family and friends. Over the next few days, NorthEscambia.com will share some submitted holiday favorite recipes.
You can save your marshmallows for S’mores. Today, we are featuring a scrumptious sweet potato casserole with a traditional crunchy pecan topping. We are also featuring a Cameo cake. With white chocolate and plenty of cream cheese, this one is sure to be a family favorite this Christmas.
To submit your recipes to share with our readers, email them to news@northescambia.com.
Today’s recipes are from the Molino Homemakers Club.
Sweet Potato Casserole
by Terri Brown
- 3 cups sweet potatoes
- 1 heaping cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ stick Parkay margarine
- 1 cup milk
Mash potatoes, add remaining ingredients mixing well. Pour into a greased 9 inch square pan.
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 cup granulated brown sugar
- ½ cup plain flour
- ½ stick melted margarine
Mix ingredients. Sprinkle over potatoes. Bake 30-40 minutes at 325 degrees.
Cameo Cake With White Chocolate Frosting
by Mary Elizabeth Corley
CAKE
- 3-1/2 cups plain flour divided
- 1 cup chopped toasted pecans
- 2-1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1-1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter (cut up, no substitutions)
- 3/4 cup water
- 4 ounces white chocolate squares, coarsely chopped
- 1-1/2 cups buttermilk
- 4 large eggs lightly beaten
- 1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour three 9-inch round cake pans: tap out excess flour. Line bottoms with wax paper. Combine 1/2 cup flour and pecans in small bowl. Combine remaining 3 cups flour, granulated sugar, soda and salt in large bowl. Set both aside. Bring butter and water to a boil in medium saucepan, stirring occasionally until butter melts. Remove from heat. Stir in chocolate until melted. Stir in buttermilk, eggs and vanilla until blended. Gradually whisk chocolate mixture into dry ingredients until smooth: Fold in pecan mixture. Pour into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Unmold cakes onto racks and cool completely.
WHITE CHOCOLATE FROSTING
- 4 ounces white chocolate squares, coarsely chopped
- 8 ounce pkg. cream cheese, softened
- 3 ounce pkg. cream cheese, softened
- 5 Tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine, cut up
- 3 cups confections sugar, sifted
- 1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup chopped pecans or
- Chopped toasted pecans for garnish
Microwave chocolate in small bowl on high 1-1/2 minutes until almost melted: Stir until smooth. Cool slightly 10 minutes. Beat cream cheese and butter in large mixing bowl on medium/high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in melted chocolate. Gradually add confectioner’s sugar and vanilla: beat scraping down sides of bowl with rubber spatula, until frosting is completely smooth: add pecans, refrigerate 1 hour until frosting is firm and spreadable.
Place cake layer on serving plate and spread with about 3/4 cup frosting: top with second adding frosting then third layer and sides of cake using all frosting. (Optional: Garnish with pecans around edge if desired.) Cover cake loosely and refrigerate overnight. (Can be made ahead. Wrap well and freeze up to 1 month. )
Work Continues On New Molino Library, Community Center And Museum
December 22, 2010
Work is continuing toward the renovation of the old Molino School into a community center, library and museum, with construction work slated to begin in 2011.
The architects, DAG, have completed the design documents and are at the 90 percent stage on the construction documents. Escambia County Facilities Management is reviewing the 90 percent construction documents.
The drawings show one section of the 15,600 square foot main building converted into a library with both a children’s and adult area, computers and thousands of linear feet of book shelving. The old auditorium will remain a community auditorium with available seating for 242 people. The rest of the building will include a museum, classrooms and meeting rooms.
In May, 2009, commissioners approved the $400,000 purchase of the building from the Escambia County School District. Commissioners have since approved a budget of $2,089,156 from Local Option Sales Tax monies for the renovation project. DAG Architects is being paid $214,580 to design the renovations.
The school campus includes 9.66 acres and four buildings — the largest of which is 16,630 square feet.
First opened in 1939, the Molino School closed in 2003 when the new Molino Park Elementary School consolidated Molino Elementary and Barrineau Park Elementary.
Pictured: A front hallway of the old Molino School. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Two Held In North Santa Rosa Shooting
December 22, 2010
Two people are behind bars charged with shooting at a pickup at a Highway 4 home near Berrydale.
A truck with six people was driving past Gary Phillips home in the 7000 block of Highway 4 west of Jay when something hit their truck. They stopped to investigate, and that’s when they said gunfire erupted. The victims told the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office that Phillips threatened them and fired his rifle, hitting the truck.
Phillips told deputies that he fired into the air to threaten the people in the truck after one of them fired a gun into the air first.
Gary Phillips was charged with aggravated assault and unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Jerry Phillips of Navarre was also charged with aggravated assault in connection with the incident. Both men remain in the Santa Rosa County Jail without bond.
Scott Team Wants School Vouchers, Teacher Merit Pay
December 22, 2010
Florida schools should enact a number of changes championed by former Gov. Jeb Bush, including expanding school choice, eliminating teacher job protection and basing educators’ pay on student performance, members of Gov.-elect Rick Scott’s transition team said Tuesday.
The governor-elect’s education transition team released briefing documents of recommendations that it was making to the incoming governor, who will take office in two weeks. The documents included ideas that have been tossed around by the Legislature for years, but have failed to gain traction or have been knocked down by the Florida Supreme Court.
One of the biggest priorities for elementary and high school education is letting children go to any school they want to, whether it be public, private, a charter or virtual school – and possibly even a school in another county’s school district. Scott, throughout the campaign, maintained his support for school choice efforts and also appeared recently with advocates for the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program, which sends low income students to private schools.
The biggest issue is how to pay for it. Scott has proposed eliminating the corporate income tax, which funds the scholarship program. Corporations who give donations to the scholarship are given a tax credit. Scott’s team’s solution is to find a “constitutionally-defensible” funding source to continue and expand the program. In 2006, the Florida Supreme Court struck down Bush’s statewide voucher program creating an obstacle for school choice advocates.
One option being forwarded by Bush’s education foundation is an education savings account that allows parents to request and receive funds equal to 85 percent of what the state earmarks for students in the public system. Currently, the state’s per pupil funding rate is $6,843.
The money could be used for private school tuition and fees, online “virtual” school, tutoring, books and tuition for dual enrollment programs, textbooks or curriculum for a home schooling program or contributions to a child’s higher education savings plan.
Florida university system chancellor Frank Brogan, who is a former state education commissioner and school principal, told reporters last week that many people in the school system would see the school choice expansion as an “assault” on public education, but defended the transition team’s rudimentary plans, saying it was simply an “opportunity” for parents and children to go to better schools.
Brogan, who served as Bush’s lieutenant governor and is also on Scott’s transition team, said there was no way to know, however, it if a plan could be upheld in court.
“But I do believe the reality of the thing is it will be court tested if it is passed and signed into law,” he said.
Another major component of the Scott transition team’s proposal is a merit pay system for teachers that would base half of what teachers make on student performance. The issue was a major part of last spring’s legislative debate in which the Republican-led Legislature passed a merit pay bill only to have it vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist.
Key lawmakers have already said that the bill will be reintroduced this coming spring with some changes from last year’s proposal. A draft is already being circulated by Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education and foundation director Patricia Levesque briefed the Senate Prek-12 Education committee on details this past month.
Levesque is the chairwoman of Scott’s education transition team.
“The transition team was a very wide variety of individuals from a teacher all the way to an education advocate,” said Bush foundation spokeswoman Jaryn Emhof. “And the report, we find most encouraging because it continues talking about the bold reforms he talked about on the campaign trail.”
A state teachers’ union spokesman said the organization would withhold comment until union officials can review the plan in more detail.
The report also contained several other suggestions including a broad, but still vague idea for developing a new funding system for public schools.
The transition team also suggests investing in mentoring initiatives, recruiting teachers in science and math and developing an autonomous charter school authorization body.
In higher education, the team suggested full support of the university system’s effort to ramp up degree production and increased emphasis on science and math. It also suggested a look at changes to the Bright Futures Scholarship program, including upping the SAT score requirement.
By Kathleen Haughney
The News Service Florida
Not Down The Drain: ECUA Offers Free Holiday Grease Pickup
December 22, 2010
The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority is offering free holiday grease pickup.
As the winter temperatures drop, waste water from homes and other sources tends to flow more slowly in sewer lines. The primary reason is because the fats, oils, and grease which are discharged into the sewer system tend to harden and collect in the relatively cold sewer pipes. As these blockages build, sewer lines can become clogged and back up into homes and businesses, causing an unsightly and unsanitary situation.
ECUA residential customers are asked to take used cooking grease, place it in a can, let it cool, and then throw it away. The grease, according to ECUA, should not be dumped down the sink.
“As the winter temperatures get colder, grease entering into the sewer system congeals in the interior of the pipes, which causes clogs or chokes. The pipe wall becomes so cold it solidifies the grease particles, requiring removal of the blockage and even sections of pipe,” said Jim Roberts, spokesperson for ECUA. During the first 11 months of 2010, almost 100 “grease chokes” requiring costly repairs were reported in the ECUA system.
ECUA will pick up used holiday cooking grease from sanitation customers for free as part of their Household Hazardous Waste recycling service. The service also includes free pickup of items like pool and household chemicals, automotive fluids, pesticides, paint, fertilizers and cleaners.
Household Hazardous Waste is normally collected on the first Saturday of the month, but due to the New Year’s holiday, the next pickup will be January 8. To request a pickup, ECUA sanitation customers should call the ECUA Customer Service Line at (850) 476-0480.
For more information on the Household Hazardous Waste program, click here.
All Of Alabama, Plus Escambia And Santa Rosa, Declared Natural Disaster Areas
December 22, 2010
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated the entire state of Alabama as a natural disaster area due to losses caused by drought and excessive heat that began March 1, 2010. The disaster declaration also qualifies farmers and ranchers in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida for natural disaster assistance.
“President Obama and I understand these conditions caused severe damage to a wide variety of crops and prevented farmers from harvesting these crops,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This action will provide help to hundreds of farmers who suffered significant production losses.”
All qualified farm operators in the designated areas are eligible for low interest emergency (EM) loans from USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), provided eligibility requirements are met.
Farmers in eligible counties — including all counties in Alabama and Escambia and Santa Rosa in Florida — have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses. FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. FSA has a variety of programs, in addition to the EM loan program, to help eligible farmers recover.
Person Of Interest Named In March Murder
December 22, 2010
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a man for questioning in connection with a homicide on March 21.
Sheriff’s investigators are looking for Anthony Clayton Bell, Jr., 19, for interrogation about the death of Donald Diego Turner, 24. Turner was found shot to death inside a mobile home on Augusta Avenue near Gulf Beach Highway. There have been no arrests in the case.
Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Bell is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9620 or Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP.