News Archive

(By Jim Turner) Republicans are poised to drop around 15 seats and their supermajority hold in the Florida House, but are poised to recapture a district that includes President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

And the GOP supermajority hold in the Senate is on thin ice as Democrat John Lowndes, the mayor of Maitland, was ahead of Sen. Jason Brodeur, a Sanford Republican.

Soon to be the largest artificial reef in the world, the S.S. United States will be sunk Thursday, Nov. 12, approximately 22 nautical miles southwest of Destin.

The 990-foot ocean liner will now serve as home for numerous species of marine life, provide a premier diving destination and contribute to the local and regional fishery.

The long-abandoned Summerhouse Restaurant building on the north side of Highway 98 has been torn down. The demolition came Oct. 26.

Originally located in Fort Walton Beach, the building was moved via barge to an area of Highway 98 between Navarre and Fort Walton Beach. The building reportedly was moved in 2005 to avoid demolition but after years of neglect, eventually met that fate anyway.

Veterans Day, which honors all former U.S. military service members, is held annually Nov. 11. This year, even amid hurricane debris cleanup efforts, Santa Rosa County will host several events for Veterans Day.

From old-school hot rods to the latest high-performance sports cars, the 26th annual Navarre Beach Car, Truck & Bike Show featured a plethora of vehicles for car enthusiasts. In all, 75 vehicles participated during the Oct. 31 event.

The event is organized by the Pirates on the Panhandle, a philanthropic social club based in Navarre. Since its founding in 2009, the organization has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and donated those funds to nonprofits and schools throughout Northwest Florida.

A 28-year-old man wound up in the hospital following an incident Tuesday, Oct. 27, in which he fell from a debris removal tractor trailer and was subsequently run over.

According to emergency dispatch, the man was riding in a boom operator’s seat on top of the moving vehicle when he was clipped by a low-hanging power line. He fell down and was run over by the trailer and a passenger vehicle near 8082 Gulf Blvd.

A new documentary is giving voice to veterans of the Vietnam era here in Northwest Florida.

“Their Vietnam: Voices of Azalea Trace” is an approximately 100-minute-long film highlighting the service of veterans currently residing at Azalea Trace, a retirement community near the University of West Florida in Pensacola.

The men at the center of the controversial killing of a Milton-area alligator in March have entered into a pretrial diversion (PTD) contract. If the men complete the court-ordered tasks, their charges could be dismissed.

Kevin Lacz, Richard Reder and Jason Griffin are accused of illegally removing an 8.5-foot alligator from a retention pond in Milton and bringing the live alligator to a residence, where it was killed with a power drill. Lacz had previously been a SNAP trapper.

As Santa Rosa County is past the two-week mark of Hurricane Isaias’ landfall, the county is now working on the months-long chore of cleanup, a task that local officials say could cost them at least $50 million combined.

That task involves clearing roads, both public and private, along with clearing debris from the Town of Jay, which was approved by the Board of County Commissioners Oct. 20.

Hurricane Isaias knocked out both generators at Santa Rosa County’s Emergency Operations Center as it made landfall Oct. 9, forcing the county to relocate 911 dispatchers mid-storm, said County Administrator Brad Baker at a Board of County Commissioners meeting on Oct. 20.