Category — Florida

… The National Weather Service in Mobile has issued a flood warning for the following rivers in Florida and Alabama:

• Big Coldwater Creek near Milton affecting Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties.
• Yellow river at Milligan affecting Covington, Okaloosa, and Santa Rosa counties.

… Forecast flooding changed from minor to moderate severity for the following rivers in Alabama and in Florida:

• Blackwater River near Baker affecting Covington, Escambia, Okaloosa, and Santa Rosa counties.
• Shoal River near Crestview affecting Okaloosa County.

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The Pensacola Beach Blogger noted that “Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan is so mad at county administrator Bob Laughlin that he broke a law of grammar.”

Following up on his “success” with the Sheriff, Bob has created a little problem with the County Commission over hiring a new deputy Escambia County administrator:

County Administrator Bob McLaughlin offered [Cindy] Anderson the job. While she has signed a letter accepting the job, the Escambia County Commission has not yet signed off. The position was eliminated last year. The Escambia commission is set consider the job April 2.

McLaughlin has refused to comment on the position, but county spokeswoman Sonya Daniel said McLaughlin has discussed the position with all five commissioners individually.

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The Local Puppy Trainer reports on a victim of Bushenomics: Destin radio station ceases broadcasts.

How bad was it? “… the station’s revenues have dropped by 75 percent due to the economic slump, the release states.”

There is dead air, where before: “The station aired syndicated talk shows from Glen Beck, Laura Ingraham and Alan Colmes.”

Alas, you would think in an area where Karl Rove has a vacation condo there would be more support for this programming. Maybe they should have held a few bake sales. 😈

In the weekly mailing of local ads there was a page of coupons for the Florida Lottery!

Times are hard when people don’t have a buck to throw away on an infinitesimal chance of winning millions.

[Note: one of my neighbor’s kids is learning to play the recorder. I have been hearing the same riff for three hours. Music is important, so, as much as I want to do terrible things to that whistle, I will maintain, or scream at the cats, or blog…]

So the Local Puppy Trainer reports on an actual successful conclusion to a criminal matter: Eglin shooting: ‘You don’t know what the potential was’

The manhunt for Willard began after a 3 a.m. car chase and shooting in Fort Walton Beach – where Nicholson said Willard took off in pursuit of a 29-year-old man, Jason Ward, who dropped off Willard’s wife near the family’s home.

Willard came out and chased away Ward in his car – then shot him as the chase reached the Northwest Florida Fairgrounds.
…

There was little information on what may have set off Willard.

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The guys at Danger Room have a picture of the new AF Special Ops Osprey with the beach just east of Destin in the background.

The over-abundance of condos are mostly vacant, and available cheap for a quick sale from those companies that are not in receivership or foreclosure. Destin was once a nice place to go for seafood, but you can’t see the Gulf anymore, unless you are in one of the condo towers.

In a bit of serendipity I saw an Osprey flying overhead as I walked over to my Mother’s at about 6PM. It would be on it’s way from Hurlburt to the ranges on Eglin. It didn’t crash while I was watching it, which is pretty good for an Osprey.

… at the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.

The Daily News reports that Two sheriff’s jobs hinge on interviews:

Chief Deputy Michael Coup and Technology Specialist David Yacks — Teresa Adams’ brother — are both on paid administrative leave.
…

Jim Murray, who had been with the Sheriff’s Office as a staff attorney since 2001 and began contracting to do its legal work in 2006, was notified March 5 that his services were no longer needed.

It would appear that the interim sheriff is unhappy with many of the things he has found in the department.

I would be interested in knowing if “Technology Specialist” Yacks has any connection to the $500K earmark for “Okaloosa County Law Enforcement Technology” that Congresscritter Jeff Miller stuck in the budget bill that was just passed. It would certainly be embarrassing if they had to return the money, the bulk of Miller’s earmarks, to the Federal government.

Remember: this is the Bible belt; these are all Good Christians®; these are Republican patriots who all wear their flag pins and emblems proudly.

Neil Macdonald, the Washington correspondent for the CBC, has a reasonably thorough look at the dysfunctional mess that is my state in his article, The giant Ponzi scheme that is Florida.

Republicans are not fiscal conservatives, no matter what they claim. They refuse to accept the concept of “saving for a rainy day”, because they apparently don’t believe in rain. If they receive a windfall they throw it away on nonsense and then lower taxes to ensure it doesn’t happen again. If things go into a slump, they lower taxes to ensure it will continue longer than necessary.

It doesn’t occur to them to pay off bonds, i.e. retire long-term debt, or to save for bad times. Republicans want to continually run at a loss. They lie openly about states having balanced budgets. Issuing bonds is taking on debt – it is running a deficit. All the states do it, and then claim only the Federal government has deficits.

Many people have been consigned to political death for suggesting that the state needs to reform its revenue structure. The successive Republican governments have suggested that there really is “a free lunch”. They have been hoping for someone else to pick up the check.

The hits keep coming for local law enforcement as the Local Puppy Trainer reports on the Crestview Police Department: Two police officers arrested at Ying Yang Twins concert

OKALOOSA ISLAND – Two Crestview Police officers were arrested after an altercation with security and deputies at The Swamp nightclub early Thursday morning following a Ying Yang Twins concert.

Bryan Crawford, 26, was arrested for battery on a law enforcement officer and disorderly intoxication. His brother, Danny Crawford, 28, was arrested for resisting arrest with violence and disorderly intoxication, according to an Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office offense report.

The Ding Dong Brothers should have passed on the Ying Yang Twins concert. Well, they made lay off decisions easier for their chief.

There is a major problem in Florida even when the police do manage to make a mental health arrest [Baker Act], and not much is being done to correct it. Just today the local paper reported: Baker Act patient escapes, calls taxi, heads to Destin.

The local hospital is owned by HCA, and HCA hospitals in Florida have a rotten record on keeping people who have been ordered held in a facility for mental evaluation from walking away. If they can’t or don’t want to confine these people, they shouldn’t apply for the contract to supply the services.

If your actions have been obvious enough to actually be confined by a Baker Act proceeding, you are dangerous to yourself or others. The purpose of the confinement is to protect people while the best course of action is determined. Some people just need their medication straightened out, other need to be confined to the secure state facility. Until that is determined, the individual is a “ward of the state” and the state is responsible for them.

I assume it will take a major law suit before any real reform takes place. I hope it doesn’t involve mass murder.

I located the Florida Sheriffs Association biography of Charles W. “Charlie” Morris (R), and it turns out I didn’t forget he was retired military. According to the timeline he was caught in Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney’s reduction in force after the first Gulf War and pushed out after 18 years, two years short of retirement. Cheney targeted people who were one more enlistment from retirement to be sure that they weren’t eligible for any benefits.

Fortunately the Air Force is part of the Social Security system, because Charlie only has 16 years in the state law enforcement retirement system, and, if he isn’t re-instated, that’s another retirement option that is gone. With no cash flow, by the time this trial is over, he will have lost all of his “encumbered” real estate holdings, so he is in deep yogurt regardless of the verdict.

In a related story, the Northwest Florida Daily News has more detail on the Sheriff’s Office shakeup. My initial reaction is two make-work jobs.

The Pensacola Beach Blog notes how bad the timing of the arrest was for Morris, because the Chumuckla Chucklehead, AKA Congresscritter Jeff Miller, had a $500K “enforcement technology” grant in the recently passed budget bill. Miller is, of course, a Republican fiscal conservative who doesn’t believe in earmarks or pork barrel spending. I haven’t got a clue as to what Charlie wanted, because our deputies would never be confused with geeks. Frankly I think they switched to Glock auto-loaders because revolvers were too complicated for many of them. I would really love to see that grant proposal.

I am beginning to like Tom McLaughlin. He’s the reporter for the Northwest Florida Daily News who has been following the Charlie Morris [the local Sheriff] saga. His lead sentence in his article today, Morris appears in court, requests public defender, was snark worthy of a blogger:

PENSACOLA – Suspended Sheriff Charlie Morris, a retired Air Force major who until recently was pulling down six figures as Okaloosa County’s ranking law enforcement officer, can’t afford a lawyer.
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Morris affirmed what U.S. Magistrate Judge Miles Davis read from an affidavit – that he was no longer working and that all his real estate holdings were “totally encumbered.

“I have no liquid funds at all,” Morris told the magistrate.

I forgot that Charlie was retired military. He would be drawing half-pay for a major, plus a number of other benefits, like health care, that should enable him to live comfortably in this area with no other income. Having been Sheriff for a dozen years, he would have made about a million or so dollars in salary from the county on top of his retirement.

It should be interesting finding out where all the money went, and why he obviously needed more.

The city of Pensacola has its own retirement system that is really a collective 401k with employer/employee matching contributions. As the Pensacola News Journal reported: Pension costs pinching City of Pensacola. Big surprise, the investments aren’t doing very well.

So today the PNJ runs an editorial: City’s pension system is no longer supportable

… It needs to be changed and brought into line with the kind of retirement plans private businesses provide.

And in the private sector, the defined benefits plan that issues a monthly check to retirees is all but dead — because businesses can’t afford it.

Neither can government.

Today, defined contribution plans — like 401(k)s — have become the norm. They don’t impose long-term future liabilities on businesses (or taxpayers), are portable when employees change jobs, and cost less to administer.

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The Destin Log ran an article about personnel changes at the Sheriff’s Department:

The fallout that began with Sheriff Charlie Morris’ arrest Friday continued Wednesday as interim Sheriff Ed Spooner eliminated two employee positions and reorganized several administrative offices.

Maj. Sabra Thornton, Morris’ chief of staff, was informed her position had been “discontinued due to the lack of current needs of the agency,” a news release said.

Randall Holcombe, the assistant director of administrative services, was told “his services are no longer needed for that position as it has been eliminated in order to streamline operations and reduce costs,” according to a second release.
…

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