Sen. Ed Hooper, R-Clearwater, is again asking lawmakers to consider increased safety standards for residential pools.
Hooper has re-filed legislation (SB 124) for the 2021 session that would increase from one to two the number of safety measures needed for new pools and for existing pools, when a property is sold.
It has been a year of many lost traditions, but the Navarre Beach Area Chamber of Commerce held on to a few Saturday as Santa Claus stopped by for his annual visit.
The festive fun kicked off along Presido Street with the 26th annual Navarre Community Christmas Parade. Costumed characters, dancers and riders tossing toys, candy and beads accented this year’s floats. Children and adults in festive wear lined the sides of the streets, spaced out in family groups, to wish the paraders a merry Christmas and snag a few freebies.
TALLAHASSEE --- The state Department of Health on Sunday reported that 19,177 Florida residents have died of COVID-19. Here is a breakdown of the resident deaths by age group:
--- Ages 0-4: 0 deaths
A man who fled to Georgia after allegedly shooting a clerk at a Milton Tom Thumb store has been extradited to Santa Rosa County.
Hakeem D. Peterson was booked into the Santa Rosa County Jail Dec. 4.
TALLAHASSEE --- More than seven years after an 8-year-old girl was abducted from a Jacksonville Walmart, raped and murdered, the Florida Supreme Court will hear arguments this week about whether a man sentenced to death in the slaying should receive a new trial.
The June 2013 murder of Cherish Perrywinkle drew huge amounts of news coverage and public attention in Jacksonville, with a jury in 2018 finding Donald James Smith guilty and a judge sending him to Death Row.
The second annual “Grace’s Place Family Dinner” was held outdoors the afternoon of Nov. 1 on the grounds of Covenant Community Church in Navarre.
A crowd of about 50 attended, with several participating in the featured event, a chili and soup cookoff. The winners were Wendy Justice for the best soup and Alex Ramirez for the best chili, each of whom took home a large gift basket.
When some folks think of a turkey shoot, they think of shotguns and turkeys dropping in a flurry of feathers.
Last weekend’s 13th annual American Legion Post 382 Turkey Shoot was not like that. Think pellet guns, pictures of turkeys and heading home with a frozen bird for the Thanksgiving Day table.
If Navarre Beach had an official bird, brown pelicans would likely be in the running.
They fly in a graceful V-formation over the beach, dive straight down in the water to catch fish, and pester fishermen on the pier for a free meal.
They’re also frequently photographed, appearing almost to be posing for photos. But experts warn that they don’t care about us, just what we have to offer.
“They don’t want to be friends,” said Cody Nash, a biology research assistant and adjunct professor at the University of West Florida. “They just want food.”
Pelicans are social creatures, who are not only born and raised in groups of nests called rookeries, but fly together. They are also frequently seen in groups of a dozen or more.
On the Navarre Fishing Pier though, they are more commonly socially distanced at careful intervals. Nash speculated that they might have staked out territories for the free fish handouts they get from fishermen.
Many of the pelicans on the pier are juveniles who have recently fledged the nest and haven’t quite figured out how to support themselves. Juveniles are light brown with brown necks, while adult pelicans tend to be more colorful.
You’ll probably never see a baby pelican. They are raised in relative isolation in the rookeries, which are often on unpopulated islands.
“The babies, they look like little dinosaurs,” said Dr. Caroline Stahala, the Panhandle Shorebird Program Manager for Audubon in Florida. “They are really odd looking.”
Their pouch distinguishes them from most birds. They dive down, catch fish and then let the water run out. It’s kind of like a scoop, Stahala said.
In the air, pelicans are beauty and grace.
On land, not so much. That may be part of their appeal, Shahala said.
“They walk around – they kind of waddle,” she said. “They are charismatic, and they do come up to people. They do have this personality and that endears them to people.”
When the board decided to end the work of the TT Wentworth Jr. Foundation four years ago, we believed our efforts had been completed. We left our work on the history of northwest Florida and the contributions made by the Wentworth family in the good hands of the UWF Historic Trust and Pensacola State College. However, sometimes history finds us. Recent revelations about our founder’s leadership in the KKK now compel us to return to right past wrongs wherever possible. This is where we now find ourselves as the family and former board members of the foundation.
