News Archive

A Navarre man was arrested on May 14 after a warrant was executed because he allegedly trespassed on a neighbor’s property nude and removed a security camera mounted outside her home.

Kimahri Blevins, 15, and Gabriel Williams, 16, are due back in court this summer.

The pair were charged with first-degree premeditated murder or felony murder for allegedly killing their classmate Danika Troy, 14. The two teens were indicted Dec. 19, 2025.

A cyber attack left colleges and universities across the U.S. scrambling to adjust amidst finals. Other nations’ institutes of higher learning were also impacted.

The attack, reportedly perpetrated by a criminal hacker group known as Shinyhunters, was against Instructure, the host company of Canvas. The hacker group claimed it had breached Canvas, getting possession of user data such as names, email addresses, messages and ID numbers.

Next week, the Santa Rosa County Commission will begin to deliberate whether to approve a contract that will bring speed enforcement programs to three school zones in the south end of the county.

A Gulf Breeze man was arrested in Foley, Alabama, after authorities said he held a 71-year-old man at gunpoint and forced him to drive to a bank and withdraw money.
Grant Barrett, 42, is charged with kidnapping an adult for ransom and battery.

Four years after narrowly losing to Kerry Smith for the District 2 Santa Rosa County Commission seat, Jeff Ates IV is back. This go round, he is facing seven other candidates, including Smith.

Ates is a lifelong East Milton resident and ran a dirt pit in the area for around 25 years. The pit has supplied dirt and other earthworks for projects across Santa Rosa County. He also managed hunting land in the 1980s and 1990s and currently consults for North American IPS, LLC.

While most Santa Rosa County schools are focused on finishing the 2025-26 school year, Kasie Windfelder is already planning for the opening of Soundside High School in 2026-27.

Windfelder is the principal of Soundside High School, the new high school on the south end of Santa Rosa County. Located in Midway across from the Gulf Breeze Zoo, the school is nearing completion. Construction cost around $115 million.

On May 1, Windfelder gave Navarre Press reporter Hansen Hasenberg a tour of the new school.

Jan. 1, 2026, was anything but fun for Monica McBrien, who works for Santa Rosa County Tourism Development Office. While many were ringing in the new year with fireworks, she suffered a seizure.

After coming to, she couldn’t recognize her family’s faces. She knew something was wrong. Shortly after, an MRI unveiled a diagnosis no one wants to hear: “you have brain cancer.”

An Okaloosa County judge on May 11 denied a request from a former Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputy charged in the 2024 shooting death of Senior Airman Roger Fortson to travel outside the bounds of his pretrial release, after Fortson’s mother delivered an emotional plea asking the court to keep him in the area.

Each month, a support group for caregivers meets at Navarre Gardens. The common thread among those who attend: They care for a person with Alzheimer’s disease.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 7 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s disease, and 1 in 3 older adults die with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. The organization estimates there are more than 13 million unpaid caregivers of dementia patients in the United States.