Every day, week and month is busy in the news business because news never sleeps. However, this month has been especially busy, and we are only halfway through. We have high school graduations to cover and a Visitor Guide to design, get to press and then distribute before Memorial Day Weekend. On top of that, we have staff taking vacations and going to graduations for their family members. And it is Navarre Press’s 25th Anniversary in a week and a half. We have known this milestone anniversary was coming for the last – 25 years, actually. However, we haven’t slowed down enough to even think about it. Maybe we will have something ready by the end of the year. Navarre Press began with the first graduating class of Navarre High School – so this is Navarre High School’s 25th graduating class which is set to graduate on Friday, May 30.
I can’t emphasize enough how important it is that you buy tickets to Navarre’s Centennial Celebration which will be held on June 21. The tickets are $100 each and almost every dollar of that ticket is being spent on the food, the decorations, the party favor of a commemorative coin, and the entertainment. You will enjoy learning about Navarre’s founding in 1925 and the recording history of this area dating back a century before that. You don’t have to be a history nerd to hear the stories that will be told. In fact, our history has every element of what makes a good story – fantastic, but true. You will hear stories of murder, sheriff’s politicking, love, lust, marriages, adoptions, divorce, more death (or was it murder) money, fame, fortune, and then losing it all again – all wrapped up in what was going on with the rest of the world and in Northwest Florida. You will be amazed at how busy our little unincorporated area of Santa Rosa County has been in the last 100 years. All that, and a phenomenal band, Six Piece Suits and scrumptious food.
Last week I was writing about my critics and this week I started scanning pages of one hundred-year-old copies of the Milton Gazette, which is now the Santa Rosa Press Gazette. I found the following printed on May 1, 1925 – which could have been my column last week – just said in a different way…
When we have mistakes in the paper, I not only hear about it from the general public, I also get called into the kitchen by my husband – usually about my column. A couple weeks ago, one of our writers called me to tell me there was something wrong with my explanation of what was going on with tariffs. It turned out I was correct. At least our team feels free to always look out for the paper’s integrity, even if they have to approach me about a mistake, or five. I’m not beyond making mistakes.
My column this week may be considered “religious,” but I’m going to be as factual as possible and even include a historian who was a Jew, but didn’t necessarily believe Jesus was the prophesied messiah.
A tariff is a duty (tax) imposed by the government of a country or customs territory, on imports (or, exceptionally, exports) of goods. Let’s have a factual look into Trump’s “Liberation Day” – the day of the Tariff proclamation. After looking into the history of tariff’s, I’m wondering why Trump didn’t impose universal tariffs – that are equal to (at a minimum) what other countries were charging us in 2018. What has been going on for a very long time isn’t fair to American workers and manufacturers. Albeit there are not as many manufacturers as there used to be – because of tariffs and the lack thereof coming into the U.S.A. Hopefully that will change in the very near future especially for necessities – such as pharmaceuticals. Let’s look at what happened in 2018 with the Steel Tariffs. Trumps steel tariffs in his first term led to a gain of thousands of jobs in the metal industry and wage increases. There was a boon to the Minnesota iron ore industry with state leaders crediting them for strengthening the local economy. Steel and aluminum imports decreased and created a wave in investments across the US – with more than $10 billion committed to build new manufacturing facilities. There were reports from local media such as:
Happy Birthday, Navarre! Last week was Navarre’s 100-year birthday according to county records and plat maps. The Navarre Beach Area Chamber of Commerce held a birthday party last week complete with birthday cake and blowing out the candles. Thankfully there were only three candles, a 1, and two zeroes. I felt privileged to be able to blow out one of the zeroes. Cindy Davidson with Centennial Bank blew out the number 1 – which is very appropriate since the bank is Centennial, and we are celebrating 100 years. Her company also is a sponsor – also very appropriate. Frankie Gibbs, who has been working on the centennial for more than two years also blew out a zero. We have some exciting plans for the paper in the coming months leading up to the Gala on June 21. Can’t wait to hear when the tickets are going to be on sale. You will definitely see an announcement in Navarre Press.
Word to the wise with all our spring chores out in the yard. If you are blowing anything with a blower, wear eye protection. If you are cutting limbs above you or next to you, wear eye protection. My brother was out blowing leaves one evening recently. He wasn’t wearing even sunglasses – because it was evening. The next morning, he woke up and his left eye was glued shut from eye gunk. He went to the urgent care, and they told him he had scratched his eye and it was healing. Turns out, it was probably from blowing leaves without eye protection.
I’m very honored to be on the board of Main Street Crestview Association (MSCA) as their Vice President, and together we have accomplished a lot of positive changes. However, the board has never seen the kind of “trouble” that tends to follow me. Luckily, they are very astute and have seen this as an opportunity to learn what slander and libel looks like and how to address very negative social media posts – that are patently untrue. Also, they have learned how to resist the urge to address every accusation on social media. Crestview isn’t used to having a real newspaper that reports the news, no matter who might be the subject.
We are happy a judge decided to dismiss the case local community agitator, Romi White, filed against the Holley Navarre Water System to try to stop the election at the annual meeting. I wouldn’t be surprised if she files something else in the future just to keep the drama going. I’m fairly sure she is filing these injunctions on someone’s behalf and with someone’s credit card or check book. I didn’t miss-type the “s” on the end of injunctions. She filed two but didn’t file the first one correctly and was told to try again, and that will be an additional $410. Actually, $410 is pretty cheap to file an injunction just so you have something to write about. Because, otherwise, she wouldn’t. The funniest part is she writes blogs and interviews herself. It is quite comical.
