Before every performance, Pamela Strecker made one final walk.
She moved through the backstage area from one side to the other, checking on every actor, calling out final cues, making sure nothing had been missed. Then, just before heading up to the booth, she would turn around, look out at the cast and raise a hand in the air.
“Be brilliant.”
It caught on. Cast members started saying it to each other.
Strecker,61, who served as stage manager and eight-year president of Stage Crafters Community Theater in Fort Walton Beach, died earlier this month after a battle with cancer. She had been part of the organization for more than two decades, arriving as a shy backstage helper in 1999 and becoming the heartbeat of one of Northwest Florida’s most beloved volunteer arts organizations.

Local base commanders and Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-FL1) made the case on May 27 that the area’s congested roadways are not just a quality-of-life problem, it is also a threat to national security.

The scenario: A news flash comes across about reports of something falling out of the sky over Santa Rosa County.

Early reports say there is heavy damage to the Blackwater River Bridge. Interstate 10 in that area shuts down, traffic is diverted to Highway 90.

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.

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.

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.

Stan McDaniels does not describe himself as an activist. He describes himself as someone who got beaten up by a system he knew was wrong and decided to do something about it.

After hours of pointed arguments, emotional appeals and tense deliberation, the Santa Rosa County School Board voted April 22 to give district teachers a fully recurring 2% salary increase, ending months of failed negotiations and leaving union leaders relieved.

American Legion Post 78 in Milton is hosting the inaugural Young Patriots weekend this Saturday and Sunday, a two-day program aimed at bringing civics, community service, and patriotism education to middle and high school students across Santa Rosa County.

John Frankman didn’t plan on running for Congress. The former Army Special Forces Green Beret says he spent years after leaving the military fighting for service members punished under the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, writing op-eds, testifying on Capitol Hill and appearing on national media. What he saw in Washington convinced him that wasn’t enough.