Editorial Archive

You may have noticed a new name in the paper for the past two issues – Eden Davenport. Navarre Press is excited to introduce you to the young lady behind the name. Eden is a new intern from Navarre High School who is now a budding young journalist. She took a journalism class and loved it – and now she wants to see how the process of putting a newspaper together really works.

With great joy and even tears our community heard the news Monday that Santa Rosa Animal Services would end the practice of breed bans on adoptions. Moving forward they will base decisions on a dog’s temperament instead of the breed.

Let’s not mince words here: there are a lot of amendments on this November’s ballot. A lot. Depending on how the courts rule in the next month or so, as many as thirteen amendments covering more than 20 topics. Those who watch these things closely tend to worry that voters will feel overwhelmed, and simply vote no on everything, or leave them all blank, and this isn’t an unreasonable fear.

We knew about the arrest of school bus driver, Kenneth Webb, Saturday. He was arrested and charged with 10 counts of possession of child pornography. We saw other reports about the arrest and decided to wait before we reported on it. We wanted to dig in a little deeper than just reporting his arrest. He was jailed with originally no bond but after his first appearance the judge set his bond at $100,000. One more zero on the end of that would have been nice.

And, silence is permission

According to governing.com, there are two types of political candidates; those who want to do something (Dave Piech) and those who want to be something (Rob Williamson).

The men and women whom we elect to represent us, and safeguard the reputation of our county, should always conduct themselves in a way that will not bring disrespect to themselves, the office that they hold or our county. Today Santa Rosa County’s District Four finds itself represented by someone who does not adhere to those values.

Not negative, not opinion – just the facts

The Rob Williamson campaign mailer, or “hit piece,” that arrived in voters’ mailboxes over the weekend was one for the record books. We thought the low point of his campaign was running on his addictions. But, to our surprise, he reached a new low – just flat out lying.

Many months ago, District 4 commissioner and incumbent candidate Rob Williamson was keeping count of how many editorials we wrote about him. In the spirit of not wanting to disappoint him, and because time may be running out for the opportunity, we have at least one more. He won’t mind because he recently said on a Facebook post Navarre Press can no longer hurt him or anyone else. Really, we aren’t trying to hurt Williamson or anyone for that matter, but sometimes the truth hurts. In truth, we have given him four years of good advice and counseling – for FREE. But as the adage goes, you can’t help someone who won’t admit there is a problem.