News Archive

A motion to establish a policy on personal electronic device use by board members during public meetings died for lack of a second at a long, contentious Santa Rosa Board of County Commissioners meeting Tuesday morning.

The motion by Commissioner Colten Wright led to an outburst by Commissioner James Calkins. After refusing to stay on topic – which had been the focus of the first five hours of the meeting – Calkins was silenced by the gavel. Chairman Dave Piech put the meeting in recess until Calkins could control himself.

On a recent July morning, Andrew Thompson let Bitty and Bentley, his two Yorkshire terriers outside, just as he had done for years.

They had both been outside for about 5 minutes before Bentley came bolting back in. This behavior wasn’t out of the ordinary for Bentley, who is still a puppy, Andrew said. What was out of the ordinary was the fact that 12-year-old Bitty had not come back with Bentley. 

Critical race theory is still a topic of concern amongst parents, even after superintendent Karen Barber announced in May that Santa Rosa County School District would not be teaching it in public school classrooms.

Local residents stepped up to the microphone during the July 22 school board meeting to voice their continued concerns, saying that the SRC books and instructional materials include critical race theory.

In addition to sportswriter Brian Lester’s usual collection of sports awards, this year he was also selected for a special tribute.

The Jon A. Roosenraad Award for First Amendment Defense was awarded to Brian for his work pressuring the Florida High School Athletic Association into opening a crucial meeting to the public.

COVID-19 positivity rates are rising in Santa Rosa County, a trend that is also being seen statewide.

Last week saw 938 people vaccinated in Santa Rosa, up from 624 the week before.  But the number of new cases more than doubled in one week, rising from 219 to 441. The positivity rate jumped from 15% to 23.2% in the same time frame.