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 public trust in one of the oldest…
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 every day to go to a job…
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 directed at the Pensacola News Journal for…
News story #5: When Love Is Not Enough
The summer of 2013 was too hot and too long for the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. The shooting of unarmed Roy Middleton in the driveway of his mother’s house and the fatal…
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 another promising young reporter departing from the…
IN cover #5: A Mother’s Pain
The Independent News wanted to show the human toll of the increasing numbers of homicides in our community, many of which were going unsolved because witnesses were reluctant to come forward. A…
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 of Visit Pensacola, Inc.–an independent non-profit formed…
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 over 300 people–black, white, brown, old, young….
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 best humanoid robotics development teams in the…
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 to do everything, every day to keep…
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 from Gulf Coast shoreline since Deepwater Horizon…
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 win control of the U.S. Senate in…
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 the state since July 2008.
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 and statements made to the media is…
Florida saves Christmas from Elf care shutdown (video)
Produced by Sachs Media Group parody on Obamacare. Sigh, if only it was funny as they think is. “The video opens as a battle over ‘elf care’ causes a shutdown of Santa’s…
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 hoping that the county wants to participate….
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, has given permission that the MOU be…
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 were her ex-boyfriend’s who testified against her…
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, Inc. and the City of Pensacola that…
DOJ sends County settlement agreement on jail
The Department of Justice has sent Escambia County its settlement agreement regarding the Escambia County Jail. Brief History: DOJ finished its five-year of investigation of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and the…