News Archive

Forty-two years ago on Feb. 9, someone gunned down a popular convenience store clerk working on Okaloosa Island. Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office investigators are still hoping for a break in the cold case.

When the Santa Rosa County Zoning Board meets Feb. 11, expect Mike Sandler to be in the audience.

Sandler, whose home of 30 years lies 230 feet from a proposed gas station, is very much opposed.

If a proposed initiative plays out, some tourists will come to Navarre Beach to not only enjoy the beach, but to help conserve it.

In a first degree murder case, it’s rare for a defendant to plead guilty, according to Mark Alderman at the First Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office.

The charge carries a mandatory life sentence, with no room for negotiation and therefore, very little incentive to plead guilty, Alderman said. But that’s what Jerry Geisler Odum did Friday.

Let the good times roll… on golf carts. That’s exactly what happened on the streets of Navarre Beach Saturday afternoon at the 1st annual Navarre Beach Mardi Gras Golf Cart Parade.

More than 4,000 people have signed two petitions that oppose expanding borrow pit mining in Santa Rosa County.

One petition is on the national website change.org and the other on the local website sponsored by the three governing bodies, Holley-Navarre Water System, Midway Water System, and the city of Gulf Breeze, comprising the Fairpoint Regional Utility System (FRUS).

After fishermen hooked a 12-foot, 6-inch tiger shark Wednesday, photos shot of the event lit up the internet.

The fishermen, reportedly associated with True Blue – a self-described community of shark fishermen based in Milton – walked the fishing line down the pier and pulled the animal into shallow water, where they measured, tagged and released it, according to spectators.

Santa Rosa County commissioners will not vote Feb. 25 on whether to repeal key wellfield protections as anticipated. Instead, county staff will bring the matter to the board at the Feb. 9 work session to ask for further direction.

When the temperature dips below 40 degrees, folks with homes turn on the heat. And a few of them head to Ferris Hill Baptist Church in Milton.

That’s where the county’s only cold weather shelter program opens, offering dinner, a cot, restroom facilities and breakfast for folks who need a place to stay.

Santa Rosa Beach attorney Daniel Uhlfelder, who has attracted national media attention during the coronavirus pandemic by dressing as the Grim Reaper to criticize the state’s handling of COVID-19, has set up a political committee to target Gov. Ron DeSantis.