With a written summary by the Santa Rosa County planning and zoning director as prelude, the county commission engaged in a long debate and absorbed sometimes unsparing criticism from the public about the future of a proposed amendment to the Comprehensive Plan that would allow expanding borrow pits inside the East Milton Wellfield Protection Area.

Authorities are investigating the discovery of a body found at Gulf Islands National Seashore Sunday.

The body, which has not yet been identified, was found on a sailboat that was anchored in shallow water on the north shore of the park’s Naval Live Oaks area.

Motorists should brace themselves for even higher gas prices in
the days ahead, enhanced by the extreme cold weather hitting much of the country. According to GasBuddy, a travel and navigation app, the national average price of gasoline may jump 10-20 cents per gallon from its current price of $2.54 per gallon over the next two weeks as millions of barrels of refining capacity has gone offline due to the extreme cold in the South, with little relief on the horizon as overall gasoline demand continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the investigation into an alleged animal rescue in Laurel Hill continues, workers at the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society are providing temporary homes for six adult pigs and eight juvenile pigs.

The pigs had been living in a pit of standing water and feces at the “Frye Branch Rescue,” before animal control workers saved them Friday.