I had a fleeting thought this morning when I saw at least five cars lined up at the corner of my house with parents and children waiting for the bus to arrive.

I wondered if my parents were throwing caution to the wind by letting me walk the .8 miles to school and .8 miles home from school every day in Orlando when I was 7 years old until I was 12 and moved on to middle school. The answer is no.

It is hard to believe that our schools will be back in session next week.

The summer just flew by for us and I’m sure it did the same for you. Kindergarten through 12th grade students go back to school on Wednesday, August 10, and their first holiday is September 5 for Labor Day.

This election season seems very low key compared to years past.

We had a difficult time even getting some of the candidates to answer basic questions.

The truth is our currency: We must know the truth to make good decisions. The same is true for our community – they must know the truth.

This is our first core value for our organization and foundational to the remainder of our core values, one of which is personal responsibility.

This week we have asked five questions from our County Commissioner candidates who are running for District 2 and 4.

Unfortunately, three of the District 2 candidates didn’t respond as of press time and in District 4, two didn’t respond.

As usual, we have a lot of very interesting stories about our community in this week’s issue.

We have a story on an 11-year-old Navarre violinist winning the state concerto competition, a story about boating under the influence resulting from our ride-along with Florida Fish and Wildlife and the Okaloosa Sheriff’s Department, an entire spread on the Blue Angels Team for 2022 and their show this weekend – just to name a few of our stories.

Independence Day should mean what it says, Independence. Friday, June 24, we had a taste of what Independence means.

The Supreme Court actually wrote that they, the Supreme Court of the United States, do not have the power to rule that abortion is legal throughout out the United States.

Thankfully the Garcon Point Bridge toll has finally been reduced to as low as $2.30 per trip versus $5 per trip.

Another bonus is that the tolls collected on the Garcon Point Bridge will remain in Florida instead of to an out-of-state bond.

I’ve been running between all three newspaper locations, and I’m often in Navarre, Milton and Crestview in the same day.

At the first of the year as I was visiting all of the properties, I decided that it was very difficult to drive carefully and pay attention to the road while also paying attention to everything in the three organizations.