News story #2: Failure to Serve

At September Escambia County Commission meeting, a half-dozen disabled citizens and bus drivers appeared before the commissioners to speak against the extension of the ADA…

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News story #3: Talking Trash

Escambia County and Emerald Coast Utility Authority have squared off over the future of solid waste collection, recycling and disposal in the county. The battle…

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IN cover #3: Not Invisible Anymore, The Reality of Rape in the Military

Sexual assaults in the military and how poorly the military command has handled them were big national stories. We found that the rapes were also…

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Outtakes #4: Sucker USA

  Despite concerns about what might eventually be developed on the site, the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority voted this afternoon to take the next step…

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News story #4: Calming the Chamber Storm

The Greater Pensacola Chamber imploded during the first half of 2013. Former Pensacola Mayor and House Majority Leader Jerry Maygarden was called in to restore…

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IN cover #4: Get Out of Jail Free

This story by Jesse Farthing was largely ignored by mainstream media. An inmate at the Escambia County Work Release Facility checked himself out of lock-up…

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Outtakes #5: How Do You Like Us Now

Last year, Escambia County Commissioner Wilson Robertson blasted the local media declaring we were the worst enemy of the county. Most of his ire was…

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Another reporter exits daily newspaper

Rhema Thompson, education reporter for the Pensacola News Journal, announced today in a column in the paper that she is leaving the area. Thompson is…

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News story #6: Into the Sunshine

The control over Escambia County’s tourism marketing and its $5.5 million was moved this fall out of the Greater Pensacola Chamber and into the hands…

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IN cover #6: We Are Trayvon

On a hot, sticky Saturday afternoon a small crowd of families and teenagers gathered on South Palafox Street. Within an hour, the crowd swelled to…

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IHMC places 2nd in Robotics competition (video)

A team from Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition achieved a second-place finish in the elite DARPA Robotics Challenge, which featured 16 of the…

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A year after promises to make schools safer, Thomas starts assessments

In the days after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn., Escambia County Superintendent Malcolm Thomas told the daily newspaper, “We’re going…

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Cleanup crews picked up 4.6 million lbs. of BP oil and tar balls this year

Gulf Coast Cleanup In Numbers 4.6 million pounds — oily material collected from Gulf Coast shoreline in 2013 106,465 tons — total oily material collected…

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Political analyst believes GOP will win control of U.S. Senate in 2014

David Wasserman, editor in charge of House elections for the Cook Political Report, predicted at today’s Panhandle Tiger Bay luncheon that Republicans are likely to…

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State unemployment continues to drop

Gov. Rick Scott reported Florida’s unemployment rate fell to 6.4 percent in November, down from 6.7 percent in October. The mark is the lowest for…

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December timeline for ST Aerospace MOU

I thought it might be helpful to have a timeline of this month’s events regarding the MOU with ST Aerospace. The sequence of press releases…

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Escambia County will discuss ST Aerospace in January, City says it has a Plan B

The County has said they will discuss ST Aerospace in January. Meanwhile Tamara Fountain, the mayor’s spokesperson, told Pensacola Digest: “Of course we are still…

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ST Aerospace releases MOU

ST Aerospace, the Malaysian-based company that signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Pensacola to bring 300 jobs to the airport commerce park,…

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Stephanie George gets sentence commuted by Obama

Pensacola native Stephanie George was sentenced in 1997 to a mandatory life sentence when police found drugs in a lockbox in her attic. The drugs…

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City declares MOU is exempt from Florida open records law

12/19/2013 Publisher Richard Outzen RE: PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST of 12/18/2013 for: The Independent News requests a copy the memorandum of understanding between ST Aerospace, Mobile,…

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