Coach in hot water over sexuality comment

Franklin County’s middle school boys basketball coach has resigned his position, and been placed on administrative leave from his job as a fifth grade paraprofessional, after a relative of one of his players raised strong objections to a comment the coach made pertaining to the young man’s sexuality. The incident in question arose following the…

A hallowed week

It was about as complete a Halloween week as can be imagined, full of fall festivals, all wrapped up with weekend theatre and a ghost walk and finally Beggar’s Night on Sunday evening. The Live from Apalach production by the Panhandle Players Friday evening, directed by Natalie Parsley, was a lot of fun, with appearances…

|

Jimmy Bloodworth’s boys debut as authors

Their legendary major league ballplayer father was a master storyteller, and now Jimmy Bloodworth’s two sons are following in his base path by putting their own stories down on paper. River Rats and Salty Dogs, a debut novel by Apalachicola’s Leon Bloodworth, and “We Who Remain” by Orlando’s Darryl Bloodworth, a legal thriller, both appeared…

State backs city’s challenge to FEMA rule change

The Florida Division of Emergency Management has backed Apalachicola’s appeal of a more than half-million-dollar claim that FEMA had rejected based on a recent rule change regarding roads submerged by flooding. If the Oct. 29 decision by Melissa Shirah, FDEM’s recovery bureau chief stands, then Leo Bebeau. the city’s s finance director, will succeed in…

County slams door on island incorporation

Franklin County commissioners on Tuesday morning put an emphatic kibosh, at least for the time being, to a nearly two-year long effort by St. George Island activists to incorporate as a town. By a unanimous vote, commissioners rejected a request from a member of the working group that advocates for incorporation to place a non-binding…

The construct of “Two Americas” has changed
|

The construct of “Two Americas” has changed

By Ron Hart In speeches at Stanford University in the mid-1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr coined the term “Two Americas.” He described the then starkly different lives and opportunities of social classes in America. Like many cool things, that term was stolen from an African American and co-opted by white liberal Democrats. It was…

Man guilty of trafficking in more than 200 grams of Methamphetamine

Man guilty of trafficking in more than 200 grams of Methamphetamine

A traffic stop three years ago turned into a 5-minute guilty verdict Thursday for a man charged with Trafficking in more than 200 grams of Methamphetamine, State Attorney Larry Basford announced. A jury deliberated for only 5 minutes before returning the guilty verdict against Reggie Gathers, 40, who now faces a minimum-mandatory 15 years in…

Northwest Florida Wound Care and Hyperbaric Center Educating Providers on Limb Preservation
|

Northwest Florida Wound Care and Hyperbaric Center Educating Providers on Limb Preservation

 In 2018, seven counties in Northwest Florida including Bay, Walton, and Jackson accounted for 164 diabetic amputations. With proper care, many of these could have been prevented. Northwest Florida Wound Care and Hyperbaric Center is providing education to area medical providers on “Advanced Wound Care & Limb Preservation”. The event will be held on Tuesday,…

School board land sought for workforce housing

All eyes will soon be focused on a 26-acre tract of land north of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office on State Route 65. That’s because Franklin County’s Community Land Trust, a non-profit group working to expand the stock of housing that middle-income working people can afford, has approached the school board in hopes of securing…