Inweekly April 23 2026 Issue

SWEET PETUNIA

DiFranco / Original

Photo by Shervin Lainez; Sweet Petunia / Photo by JJ Gonson

winners & losers winners losers

WILLIE CARTER, JR. On April 15, Escambia County and Escambia County Area Transit honored longtime bus operator Willie Carter, Jr. at a retirement ceremony, celebrating his nearly 52 years of dedicated service. Carter began his career with ECAT in 1974 and over the decades became a symbol of excellence in public transit. Most remarkably, he drove 2,817,360 miles over 45 consecutive years without a single accident or incident—a record that sets an extraordinary standard for safety and professionalism. At the ceremony, District 3 Commissioner Lumon May presented Carter with an additional proclamation thanking him for his service to ECAT and the citizens of Escambia County. Carter's retirement takes effect at the end of April.

WUWF PUBLIC MEDIA Its journalists took home five awards at this year's Florida News Awards, the most the station has received in a single year. The Florida Association of Broadcast Journalists presented the honors April 11 in Orlando, drawing entries from more than 50 stations statewide. Sandra Averhart and Christina Andrews each earned first-place awards. Averhart won in the Specials/Features Light category for a program about the Choral Society of Pensacola, while Andrews took top honors for Natural Storytelling/Use of Sound. Reporter T.S. Strickland was named a finalist in both Feature/Light News and Weather Reporting. Andrews also received a finalist nod in Economic Reporting. WUWF Executive Director David Brinkley said, "These awards reflect the standard of excellence that our listeners expect."

CALDWELL ARCHITECTS Founded in 1986 by Miller Caldwell Jr. with just three employees and a rotary phone, the firm has grown from a modest single office into a multi-disciplinary practice with locations in Tuscaloosa, Demopolis, Ala., Birmingham and Charleston, S.C. Over the years, Caldwell has served clients in healthcare, education, commercial, collegiate athletics and civic sectors, guided by a consistent belief that architecture should serve people first. Now led by Miller Caldwell III, the firm enters its second generation with the same founding philosophy intact. He said, "The best work is still to come."

RON DESANTIS In January, the governor called for a special session to address congressional redistricting. Four months later, he still has not released his map, which has forced him to delay the session by one week and move lawmakers' return to April 28 through May 1. To cover up his failure, Gov. DeSantis has expanded the agenda to include a vaccine exemptions bill and AI consumer-protection legislation, two of his priorities that passed the Senate but stalled in the House during the regular session. House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, responded that the House looks forward to reviewing the governor's proposed congressional map but would evaluate the additional items only after seeing draft legislation.

PAUL RENNER While DeSantis has also failed to roll out his plan to eliminate property taxes, Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul Renner used Tax Day to lay out how he would eliminate homestead property taxes for average Floridians. And nobody seemed to care. Speaking in Jacksonville, the former House Speaker said he would claw back $34 billion from local revenue growth since 2019 to offset the cuts—requiring cities, counties, universities and special districts to reduce spending. He also proposed new taxes on tourists and investors purchasing homes. He promised to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot if elected governor.

LIVE NATION A New York federal jury on Wednesday found Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary guilty of illegally monopolizing the live entertainment market, handing down the verdict after roughly five weeks of trial and four days of deliberation. The 2010 merger created an illegal monopoly that harmed consumers and performers. The Trump administration settled its claims with minimal concessions, but most U.S. states and the District of Columbia took up the case despite objections from some DOJ antitrust officials. The jury found that Ticketmaster overcharged concertgoers by $1.72 per ticket at major concert venues, according to NBC News, as a result of its anticompetitive conduct. Damages and a potential forced divestiture of Ticketmaster will be determined in a separate proceeding.

Willie Carter Jr. / Photo Courtesy of myescambia.com

Ron DeSantis / Photo Courtesy of flgov.com

outtakes

By Rick Outzen

DON'T KILL THE MIRROR

On April 17, Florida's State Board of Education voted to remove sociology from the general education requirements of every college in the Florida College System—completing a sweep that had already wiped the subject from the state's public universities.

Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas declared that sociology had "drifted from objective instruction toward the promotion of ideological viewpoints." Board Chair Ryan Petty added that general education must be free of "identity politics, distortion of historical events and discriminatory content." Both men spoke as if purging a discipline were an act of academic integrity rather than a political intervention. They were wrong, and the students who will never take an introductory sociology class will pay the price.

Sociology is not indoctrination. It is a discipline that uses surveys, field research, statistical analysis and peer-reviewed literature to study how human societies function, how institutions are built, how groups behave, how power is distributed and how change happens. Its methods are the same as those used in public health, economics and political science. Its findings are tested, revised and contested the way findings in any serious field are.

What sociology teaches in a typical introductory course is less subversive than its critics suggest. Students learn the difference between correlation and causation. They learn to read a dataset without being manipulated by it. They learn how institutions such as schools, courts, healthcare systems and governments function as systems, not merely as collections of individual decisions. They learn that patterns in wages, health outcomes and educational attainment are measurable and have identifiable causes, rather than simply the sum of personal choices.

The irony is the state's own education law requires general education to produce "informed citizens." Sociology is one of the most direct routes to that destination.

An informed citizen knows more than facts. An informed citizen is someone who can evaluate a claim, trace an argument to its evidence and recognize when data is being used to mislead rather than illuminate. Intro sociology helps students build a matrix to understand data and make decisions.

All this sounds good and worthy of inclusion in higher education. However, sociology's offense, in the eyes of state officials, appears to be that it refuses to stop counting things that are inconvenient to count.

When sociology disappears from the required course list, students lose a framework for understanding the communities and workplaces they will enter. They lose practice in thinking about why societies produce the patterns they produce: why some zip codes have better schools, why some populations have worse health outcomes and why some industries pay more than others. These are not abstract questions. They are the questions that determine how voters evaluate candidates, how employees navigate organizations and how citizens assess the policies that govern their lives.

I find it odd that the Florida Chamber of Commerce hasn't defended sociology. Employers have noticed what is at stake. Companies across industries increasingly seek graduates who can analyze human data, communicate across differences, understand organizational culture and think structurally about problems. These are sociological competencies that led to better solutions.

Nurses who understand social determinants of health treat patients more effectively. Engineers who understand how communities respond to infrastructure build better systems. Managers and administrators who understand group dynamics run better teams. Sociology is not soft. It is applied.

A genuine commitment to a more rigorous education would demand more sociology, not less. The state should push for better teaching of sociology, greater transparency in its methods and a stronger insistence on presenting competing perspectives and following evidence wherever it leads. If the argument is that sociology courses are poorly taught, the answer is better teaching and more research. Elimination is not a quality standard. It is a retreat from inquiry.

Sociology holds up a mirror to society. It counts things some would prefer uncounted. It names patterns some would prefer unnamed. It asks "why" in situations where power players prefer that no one ask. That is not ideology. That is the job of an academic discipline in a democracy. {in} rick@inweekly.net

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CHILDREN'S TRUST APPROVES SWEEPING REFORMS

By Rick Outzen

The Escambia Children's Trust (ECT) board voted unanimously last week to adopt three policy changes aimed at tightening accountability over organizations that receive the Trust's public funding. The policy changes establish new quality standards, cap administrative costs and strengthen the board's discretionary authority over grant awards.

The measures—Resolutions 2026-13, 202615 and 2026-16—collectively overhaul how ECT evaluates provider performance, reimburses indirect expenses and makes funding decisions.

"One of the things when I got here [in December 2023] was, providers were allowed to pretty much prescribe what they wanted to see for their outcomes," said ECT Executive Director Lindsey Cannon. "We had not had anything in stone related to RFPs [Request for Proposals]— that you all need to do this, and this is how we're going to measure you. We all need to be playing from the same sheet of music, and I don't feel like that was happening."

NEW WORLD BELIEVERS DISASTE R

The changes come less than three months after the board canceled its grant agreement with New World Believers (NWB) following the arrests of its executive director and two of his adult children, who worked for NWB.

At an emergency Jan. 30 meeting, board attorney Megan Fry and Cannon outlined the chain of events; it began Jan. 5 with notice of a "material" leadership change and quickly escalated when the Department of Juvenile Justice opened an investigation into the NWB Healthy Opportunities and Options Promoting Success (H.O.O.P.S.) program and executive director Rodney Jones. On Jan. 22, Jones was charged with sexual battery of a teenage girl who was in the H.O.O.P.S. mental health program while she was on Department of Juvenile Justice probation, with alleged repeated assaults and payments tied to her participation in H.O.O.P.S.

Allegations tied to the H.O.O.P.S. facility and Trust-funded vehicles, combined with the arrests of Jones and his children, triggered what Cannon described as an obligation to act when she could no longer "100%" assure children were safe.

As staff dug up records, they documented multiple contract breaches that gave the board independent grounds to terminate. Fry cited failures to complete required Level 2 background screenings, failure to provide the full scope of services promised in the contract, failure to maintain or furnish current insurance certificates and possible lapses in child abuse and incident reporting.

The multiple contract breaches existed before Jones' arrest. Cannon and Fry didn't mention discrepancies in financial reporting. In September 2025, ECT staff received financial statements from Jones labeled an "audit report," but a certified public accountant did not prepare the report. Inweekly reviewed the report and found the numbers did not add up correctly or match the tax returns submitted.

Inweekly and members of the public have questioned why the contract breaches and lack of proper accounting were not reported to the board before it awarded New World Believers an additional $585,685 in December.

A FRAMEWORK FOR QUALITY ACCOUNTABILITY

Resolution 2026-13 may prevent another New World Believers nightmare. It adds Subsection 2.8 to the ECT Policy Manual, establishing a formal Quality Assurance and Continuous Performance Improvement policy, backed by a comprehensive Quality Program Assurances Plan.

Deborah Ray, ECT's director of programs and performance, told the board the framework formalizes standards that staff had long been working from.

"We did many visits to our programs, and we did so without having very firm standards in place that we could measure and have those open conversations and dialogue with all of our providers," Ray said. "What you have before you is a very much prescribed protocol for us to follow that

goes over the expectations of ourselves, as well as anyone that we provide funding to."

The plan organizes provider evaluation into seven key performance areas: program quality and environment, staff qualifications and training, curriculum and instructional quality, attendance and dosage, youth development and outcomes, family and community engagement and data use and continuous improvement. Programs are scored on a 34-point scale, with ratings ranging from Exemplary to Critical.

Under the policy, programs scoring in the Emerging range must submit a Program Improvement Plan within 30 days. Programs rated Critical face an immediate 15-day PIP deadline and risk suspension or contract termination.

"This would not be a 'gotcha' kind of a system," Ray said. "This would be ongoing conversations in real time."

The framework also incorporates a Pre-Award Risk Assessment Tool that ECT staff will use to vet prospective providers before contracts are awarded. The tool evaluates governance structure, health and safety protocols, staffing qualifications, child welfare protections, program design, attendance systems and data reporting capacity. Providers are scored across seven quality areas with a maximum of 36 points, and those falling below the threshold face restrictions on contracting.

A fiscal compliance component, to be administered by ECT finance staff, adds a 10-category rubric assessing providers' accounting systems, budget alignment, payroll documentation, reimbursement processes and responsiveness to audits. The plan also includes formal program site audits closely aligned with Florida Department of Children and Families standards, covering child supervision ratios, emergency preparedness, transportation safety and staff training certifications.

"You can register as a nonprofit and certainly set one up, but do you know how to function as a nonprofit?" Cannon said. "If you're not having regular board meetings, filing your financials, not having board decisions around finances, we need to know."

INDIRECT COST RULES SPARK DEBATE

The sharpest discussion of the meeting centered on Resolution 2026-16, which eliminates standalone indirect or administrative cost line items from ECT-funded budgets and requires all such expenses to be itemized within direct budget categories. The policy sets indirect cost caps at 15% of the total program budget and mandates monthly backup documentation, including general ledger reports, payroll records, invoices and lease agreements.

Tami Hodo, director of finance at United Way of West Florida, addressed the board in opposition, arguing that the documentation requirements would increase administrative burdens on already stretched nonprofits.

"We are currently submitting 55 to 60 documents each month with our reimbursement request," Hodo said. "Requiring us to submit docu-

ments for indirect cost is requiring more time from myself and my accounting specialist, which is going to use more funds from our contract, which is taken away from our programming."

She noted that other federal and state funders routinely allow a de minimis indirect rate without requiring supporting documentation and warned the policy could discourage organizations from seeking ECT funding.

Executive Director Lindsey Cannon acknowledged the challenges but said persistent questions from the public and the board about how indirect costs were being spent made reform necessary.

"As we continue to be challenged by the public to be more transparent, we did have to look at this a little differently," Cannon said. "We don't want to eat away at the infrastructure of our nonprofits, but there is also the question of, is it being spent appropriately and within the scope of what our taxpayers would expect?"

Board Chairman Dr. Rex Northup echoed that rationale. He said, "There are others unfortunately that don't have that clarity and understanding, and we've continued—in spite of trying to work with some of these organizations—to get some items attempted to be passed through our very close scrutiny that I think would have a hard time being justified as an indirect cost or even a legitimate cost at all."

Northup added that the board might revisit the policy once staff gained a clearer picture of what providers across the network were submitting. Cannon agreed, "As we get into this and start producing a review of indirect, we may have to come back and have a conversation about how the policy works."

FUNDING PROCESS LANGUAGE UPDATED

The third resolution, 2026-15, amends existing policy subsections to make the board's discretionary authority over funding awards more explicit.

"We're not creating any specific policies," Board Attorney Sallie Neese said. "We're just adding additional discretionary language that we believe you already have."

The amendments clarify that ECT retains full authority to reject applications, deny contract renewals, waive technicalities and terminate funding when it determines doing so is in the public's best interest. The revisions also add language specifying that no eligible organization is entitled to or guaranteed ECT funding.

Together, the three measures represent the most comprehensive update to ECT's provider oversight framework since the Trust began distributing funds.

"The policies are pretty comprehensive," Cannon said. "This is what we can predict right now with what we've learned the past couple years and what we want to accomplish moving forward. This is not the only version of this we'll ever have, but it's a starting point for the policies that we haven't had that will provide high-quality learning for children." {in}

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City Council members and Mayor D.C. Reeves emerged from the April 16 joint meeting with a clearer path forward on the long-discussed transformation of the Pensacola Bay Center, agreeing in principle on a package of projects totaling nearly $185 million and setting a target of June for a formal vote.

The meeting, held at the Bay Center, followed back-to-back presentations from Legends Global and WT Partnership on facility planning and financing options. After roughly two hours of open discussion, elected officials agreed on four core outcomes.

The county will move forward with an estimated $71 million renovation of the existing Bay Center, a project discussed for more than two decades. The 40-year-old facility prompted unanimous agreement that action could no longer be deferred. Alongside the renovation, officials agreed to pursue an adjacent flex event center, estimated at $84 to $86 million, designed to host business conventions and trade shows Monday through Friday and to convert to sporting events and concerts on weekends.

On the question of a second ice rink, officials reached a narrower consensus: continue negotiating a public-private partnership that would limit the county's exposure to providing land rather than bonding capacity.

Commissioner Steven Barry said the county's bonding capacity is closer to $150 million, which should be enough to fund the renovation and event center, but not sufficient to absorb the estimated $30 million ice facility on the public side. Ongoing discussions among the hockey team's ownership group, bond counsel and underwriters, Barry noted, do not require immediate commission action.

Parking and transportation were assigned

and committing his administration to pursuing federal and state grants to eliminate a nearby off-ramp that would impede pedestrian access between facilities.

The meeting's most substantive disagreement centered on whether to begin designing the facilities before going to the private market or to issue a Request for Proposals for design first. Mayor Reeves wanted to bundle everything into one Request for Information and let developers shape the vision. Commissioners leaned toward starting design because construction costs climb 2-5% every year.

County Administrator Wes Moreno said a May 7 deadline was too aggressive and proposed June as a realistic target for returning with a formal framework ready for a vote.

BEHIND THE NUMBERS Pensacola's 311 service received a record 1,395 calls in March, up from 800 in January, according to city officials.

Mayor D.C. Reeves highlighted the milestone Wednesday at a press conference, calling the increase a sign that residents trust the city to respond to their concerns.

"Keep calling 311," Reeves said. "It's my number one tool to resolve citizen issues."

Sanitation services generated the most calls in March with 193, followed by red light camera citations with 121. Year-to-date through April 15, the city has logged 1,640 tracked calls, with sanitation accounting for 621.

Parking and Constituent Services Director Lissa Dees noted the figures reflect only calls routed to a specific department for follow-up. Calls resolved on the spot by 311 operators are not counted in the totals.

Dees said call volume typically spikes in April as warmer weather draws residents outside. She

said the early arrival of record numbers this year suggests the seasonal surge came ahead of schedule.

In 2025, the city's constituent services team answered more than 11,000 calls, closed 4,659 tickets and maintained an average resolution time of five to seven days.

During his State of the City address in February, Reeves said the 311 system has been transformed since he took office, when the city carried a backlog of roughly 2,000 open service tickets. That number now stands at approximately 30.

KIDS GAMBLING

Two Florida attorneys have filed what they believe is the first underage gambling complaint in New York state history, targeting stake.com, the world's largest crypto-based online casino, for deliberately marketing to and profiting from underage gamblers.

Troy Rafferty and Madeline Pendley of Rafferty Domnick Cunningham & Yaffa announced the lawsuit during a recent appearance on the podcast "We Don't Color on the Dog," where they outlined the scope of the case and the alarming trends driving it.

At the center of the complaint is a teenage client who began gambling on stake.com as a minor, ultimately losing tens of thousands of dollars. The addiction proved so severe that he was forced to withdraw from college after just eight days, having already burned through every dollar he had. He now attends Gamblers Anonymous four to five times per week.

Pendley described stake.com as far from a fringe operation. The offshore platform generates an estimated $5 billion or more annually and funnels hundreds of millions of dollars into influencer marketing, celebrity endorsements and sports team sponsorships, which are aimed at drawing in young American users. Paid streamers broadcast live gambling sessions on YouTube, where no age restrictions exist, giving children unrestricted access to content engineered to make gambling look exciting and attainable.

"Their little brain's getting rewired," Pendley said, noting that online forums openly guide minors on how to bypass age verification using VPNs.

Rafferty drew direct comparisons to past public health crises. "It's no different than tobacco," he said. "If you get to the kids, you're sustaining your business model—because they're the easiest to get addicted. Their brains are still forming."

The statistics bear that out. More than 35% of children between the ages of 11-17 reported gambling in the last year, according to the attorneys. The firm is also investigating potential claims against DraftKings and FanDuel, and plans to ex-

pand the litigation nationwide through a multidistrict litigation process.

For local families, Rafferty announced a free community town hall scheduled from 5:30-7 p.m. on May 15 at the Brownsville Community Center, 3200 W. DeSoto St., bringing together law enforcement, therapists and community leaders to help parents understand and address online dangers facing children.

HEALTH MILESTONES Two Northwest Florida programs dedicated to behavioral health and addiction recovery have marked significant milestones, underscoring growing demand for crisis services and the region's expanding capacity to meet it.

Lakeview Center announced it has completed more than 7,500 screenings since opening its Central Receiving Facility (CRF) and Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) in April 2024. Separately, Escambia County Emergency Medical Services reported its Coordinated Opioid Recovery Effort (CORE) program has assisted its 600th patient since accepting its first case in February 2023.

The CRF serves as the designated adult receiving facility for Escambia and Santa Rosa counties under Florida's Baker Act and Marchman Act, which govern involuntary mental health and substance abuse treatment. Behavioral health professionals conduct screenings to determine appropriate care, including referrals to local hospitals or connections to one of Lakeview Center's 60-plus programs across the region. The adjacent CSU expanded inpatient capacity, particularly for uninsured patients.

"Reaching 7,500 screenings in just two years reflects both the growing need for crisis services and our team's unwavering commitment to ensuring people receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time," said Shawn Salamida, president of Lakeview Center.

The CORE program, funded by the state and expanded to Escambia County in late 2022, pairs Emergency Medical Services (EMS) response with addiction counseling, mental health support and long-term recovery services. Community Health Northwest Florida and Lakeview Center are among the program's key partners.

"We asked people in their darkest moments to take a chance on us," said Joey Kerman, supervisor of the Escambia County EMS CORE Program. "Over 600 patients said yes and placed their trust in us."

For information about Lakeview Center's services, call (850) 469-3500 or visit elakeviewcenter.org. For information about the CORE program, visit myescambia.com/core or call (850) 477-4357.

CHILDREN'S TRUST UPDATE

Legal Services of North Florida has withdrawn its application for continued funding from the Escambia Children's Trust, citing the Trust's anticipated budget constraints, while separately requesting a two-month extension of its existing contract to wrap up services for children currently enrolled in the program.

The nonprofit submitted its withdrawal letter April 10, pulling its sole source application for

Rendering Courtesy of Legends Global

the Expanded Representation of Children in Need project. The withdrawn application had sought $2.23 million over three years. Executive Director Leslie Powell-Boudreaux told the Trust's Board of Directors at its April 14 meeting that the decision was difficult but was made after the programs committee signaled that funding may not be available going forward.

"We don't withdraw the application because the work isn't important or because the need has somehow gone away," Powell-Boudreaux said.

Over three years, the program served more than 300 children facing barriers in truancy, delinquency and dependency court. LSNF received $1,450,924 from the Trust during that period, according to financial reports as of Feb. 28. Rebecca Schernitzki, who led the program's education component, told the Board that in the third contract year alone, the program served 163 children for educational purposes, with 90% of those in delinquency court successfully completing probation without residential commitment.

The Board approved Resolution 2026-17, extending LSNF's current contract through June 30 at no additional cost. The extension will allow attorneys to complete representation of current clients in compliance with Florida Bar professional obligations.

Also at the meeting, the Board approved Resolution 2026-14, formally terminating a $50,000 CAREs Grant with CMB Visions Unlimited, Inc., effective Jan. 31. The organization voluntarily withdrew, citing transportation barriers and late school dismissal times that prevented it from meeting program attendance and engagement goals.

Trust Chairman Dr. Rex Northup said the loss of the Legal Services program was "regrettable" and reflected the board's ongoing uncertainty about future funding.

BRIDGING

TO MIDDLE SCHOOL Escambia County Public Schools has launched a new webpage to help families and students prepare for the transition from elementary to middle school, the district announced Monday.

The resource, titled "Your Middle School Journey," is accessible on the ECPS website and consolidates information on academic programs, school contacts, student support services and key transition dates.

The page includes overviews of middle school curricula and elective course options, links to individual school websites, orientation event details and a schedule of open houses, transition workshops and registration deadlines. Information on student counseling and extracurricular activities available to sixth-grade students is also featured.

Superintendent Keith Leonard said the page is intended to reduce the stress families often experience when navigating the shift to middle school.

"The shift to middle school is a significant milestone for our students and their families," Leonard said. "This new webpage is part of our commitment to smoothing that transition by providing clear, reliable and accessible information exactly when our families need it."

The district serves students across Escambia

County, which includes Pensacola and surrounding communities in Florida's western panhandle.

ECPS said it plans to update the page regularly throughout the transition period as new information and resources become available. Parents and students are encouraged to bookmark the page and check back frequently ahead of the upcoming school year.

Search "Your Middle School Journey" at escambiaschools.org to find more information.

NEW ECAT ROUTES Escambia County Area

Transit is soliciting public input on a proposed overhaul of its fixed-route bus network, an effort transit officials say is long overdue as the county's population grows and gas prices approach $4 per gallon.

ECAT Mass Transit Director Thaddeus Davenport said the redesign targets both expanding areas of the county, such as Nine Mile Road and Pine Forest, and underserved communities that currently lack reliable transportation options.

"Routes have not been changed, but Escambia is growing by leaps and bounds, so we want to make sure we're growing with the growth of the county," Davenport said. "Now, with gas prices, how can we better serve the community?"

On April 13, the agency held a redesign open house at Brownsville Community Center, where attendance was sparse. A survey remains available online for both current riders and residents who do not use public transit. The outreach effort mirrors a similar 2021 engagement campaign that generated more than 1,100 responses and shaped the agency's 2022-2031 Transit Development Plan.

Rider Merit Celaire, who lives near the North Davis Highway and Olive Road intersection, attended the open house and said his bus routes run every two hours, down from every hour before the COVID pandemic.

"So many of us are still pleading for them to get back to their normal schedule on the weekdays," Celaire said.

Restoring hourly frequency would require more buses and drivers. Davenport said ECAT is hiring commercial driver's license operators at a starting wage of $19.97 per hour. The agency recently added 45 cutaway buses to serve neighbor hood pickup routes, bringing its total fleet to near ly 175 vehicles. ECAT also issued a letter of intent to procure 13 new 35-foot buses through a recent federal grant.

Escambia County Commissioner Lumon May urged residents to participate in the survey and cautioned against dismissing public transit as a service only for low-income riders.

"Mass transportation is for everyone," May said. "Where are the jobs? Where are the subdivisions going? Those are the areas I hope we're telling our consultants to go look for."

May also stressed accountability in how the collected data is used. "The failure on this would be to have an implementation plan, utilize the citi zens' time and not come up with something more creative, progressive and economical."

The survey is available online at goecat.com. ECAT officials did not provide a deadline for public submissions. {in}

The Spirit and Sounds of ANI DIFRANCO

By Savannah Evanoff

Ani DiFranco is in what she describes a "lowgrade panic," relearning how to play guitar and dusting off the songs she hasn't played lately for her "Spirit of Love" tour.

Across 23 studio albums, there are quite a few tracks to choose from. Her setlist could include music from her iconic 1995 album, "Not a Pretty Girl," (which she reissued in 2025), 1998 fan-favorite "Little Plastic Castle" or maybe her latest release "Unprecedented Shit" from 2024—all, of course, recorded on her independent record label, Righteous Babe Records.

And how does DiFranco, 55, look at her catalog of folk-rock music that spans almost three decades? Sort of sideways and squinting, she said.

"My relationship with myself and my work is a little bit tortured," DiFranco said. "I'm trying to get over it to whatever degree I can before I'm dead, because it is kind of exhausting to beat yourself up at the end of every day. But in another sense, I try not to look at everything like a problem that needs to be fixed. It's an aspect of my nature that is also perhaps motivating. I seriously feel like every time I put an album into the world, for instance, by the time it's released and anybody else hears it, I'm over it. All I can hear is what I would do differently, its shortcomings."

"But it's motivating, because then the only

thought in my mind when an album is released is, 'Just wait, because the next one will be so much better,'" DiFranco said. "I gotta keep going in order to not justify myself, but redeem myself."

DiFranco doesn't hesitate to revisit the past, though. She recently followed an impulse and contacted singer-rapper Dessa, asking her to remix a song from "Not a Pretty Girl" to celebrate its 30th anniversary. Dessa's remix of "Shy" dropped in March.

"I just got back on my hamster wheel and was spinning away, completely forgetting I'd even called her, and here comes this remix in my inbox—and I was like, 'Oh, damn, that's cool,'" DiFranco said. "For me, it's a 30-year-old kid of mine, that album, those songs. So it's special in that sort of mom kind of way to see your kid get a makeover, all shined up."

MORE THAN SONGS

Writing isn't exclusive to music for DiFranco, who has written children's picture books "The Knowing" and "Show Up and Vote," as well as her memoir "No Walls and the Recurring Dream." She recently expanded on her literary works with "The Spirit of Ani," a conversation-style book co-authored with Lauren Coyle Rosen.

"[Rosen] had read my memoir … and wanted to explore just all things spirituality a little more

with me," DiFranco said. "I don't know, I was having a 'yes day.' I said, 'Sure.'"

A series of conversations over Zoom is the foundation of the book, but they still haven't met in person. Don't worry, they plan to, she said.

They kept the writing in dialogue format for a reason, DiFranco explained. To preface, she believes in reincarnation and eternal souls.

"I think that the reason why we come into these bodies is to have conversations with each other basically for God, Spirit, Source, the sun, to be in conversation with itself—and in so, evolve, learn," DiFranco said. "It's these relationships that make us make choices, that make us experience consequences, that make us learn things. And I think we're all sort of on the same mission, to evolve the mind of God, and that's what we're doing, for better or worse out here. So I thought keeping it conversational was the most indigenous to what we were talking about."

DiFranco doesn't stress what people will or won't take from the book—or any of her art, for that matter—otherwise she just wouldn't do anything, she said. Hearing what others have to say all the time is the curse of the cellphone.

With two teenagers, DiFranco is witnessing it firsthand. But now in her mid-50s, she's starting to put a healthy distance between herself and what others say.

"In one sense, there's like this world of possibility that we carry around in our pockets; but in another sense, I feel like it's a great deterrent, because it's so in-your-face that everything you do will be judged forever in a court of the universe," DiFranco said. "I feel like it's sort of in the way of us, especially young people. I don't envy them at all, sort of growing up in this circumstance and trying to find the bravery to just try something, especially for the first time, and suck at it, and make mistakes—all those things that are part of the process of becoming yourself."

DiFranco is in the process of trying a few new things herself. The first is writing a musical—she's got a team, so it must actually be happening, she said—and the second is a project with her friend Jocelyn Mackenzie that's going to be called a "muse deck."

"It's sort of a cross between a tarot deck, sort of a spiritual reading, divining tool and an artist's creative tools," DiFranco said. "Each card has an artist prompt on it, a creative prompt for people who are in process and they just need a boost. So I'm looking over the artwork that she's doing. My day is bouncing between different creative projects when I'm not on the road."

No matter which artistic endeavor DiFranco is exploring, she suspects it stems from the same creative place.

Photo by Shervin Lainez

"My mother always said, 'Leave every campsite better than you found it,' and that's kind of my motto for life: just try to leave this world better than I found it somehow," DiFranco said. "For me, I think art is my best contribution. So it's kind of like the same thing I've always done, but I'm trying different modes of being creative that are scary, which is fun."

COMMUNITY BUILDING

DiFranco was one of the first artists to start her own record label; she birthed Righteous Babe Records in 1990 as a way not only to release her own music but also realize her anticorporate ideology.

The label lives on today, now with an identity of its own—independent but still connected to DiFranco.

With almost 20 current artists, DiFranco sees it as a place for them to coalesce.

"There's a lot of great, dynamic young artists on the label now, and I feel like not only am I excited about building community with them, but also about them building community with each other," DiFranco said. "And really have Righteous Babe, though it's not a physical place, be a spiritual place, a creative place, where artists can come and find each other and themselves and support and community. I feel like Righteous Babe is actually doing that. We're stronger than ever in that sense."

Righteous Babe artist, alternative folk duo Sweet Petunia, will open for DiFranco on the first leg of the "Spirit of Love" tour.

"I always love hitting the road and being actually able to spend time with some of the artists on the label, like Sweet Petunia in this next run, and get to know them more and get to see them do their thing—and just have those relationships deepen," DiFranco said.

A LETTER

If you call DiFranco today and she doesn't pick up, you'll hear a voicemail message of her now 13-year-old son when he was younger saying, "My mommy can't answer her phone, so please leave a message."

"It breaks my heart sometimes to hear my outgoing message because he's so big now," DiFranco said.

While DiFranco can be called a feminist icon, prolific artist, musician's musician and influential lyricist, she's also a mother. And the real question is: do her kids think she's cool?

"I'm not on their shit lists," DiFranco said with a laugh.

She imagines it rarely occurs to them that she doesn't belong completely to them until she's stopped on the street by the occasional fan. But as DiFranco tracks down the masters from her 2000 album "Revelling/Reckoning" for potential re-release, it's likely she already has one guaranteed and extra important listener in the mix: her daughter.

DiFranco found out her daughter Petah is a fan via the type of letter most parents dream of.

"My daughter is 19, and she lives in New York City now, and she sent me a letter recently—which basically, I could have died happy that day—in her letter, she mentioned that her phone told her that I'm her most played artist for a second year in a row," DiFranco said. "I had no idea that she listened to my music at all and, like really, no idea. I mean, she's always in headphones. She's always listening to music. She loves music. I had no idea I was in the mix. I kind of figured I wasn't, because that would be too close for comfort. So it was really surprising for me to hear that. It felt like I just got applause from the biggest audience there is." {in}

ANI DIFRANCO'S SPIRIT OF LOVE TOUR WITH SWEET PETUNIA*

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, April 25

WHERE : Vinyl Music Hall, 2 S. Palafox St. COST: $52.20

DETAILS: anidifranco.com, vinylmusichall.com

*For more with Sweet Petunia, turn to page 13.

Photo by Anthony Mulcahy

Arts & Entertainment

Maddy Simpson and Mairead Guy aren't related, but their voices are so compatible you might think they are.

And you wouldn't be the first.

It's what their classmates thought in the 21st Century String Band ensemble at Berklee College of Music back in 2018.

"Everybody else in the ensemble assumed that we knew each other or that we were related, because the tone and the timbre of our vocals was so similar," Simpson said. "That was kind of funny, because we were like, 'We literally have never met.'"

After some unexpected time together and bonding over a shared love of Simon & Garfunkel and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, the rest is history. The two Boston-based guitarists formed the alternative folk-rock duo Sweet Petunia.

Guy came up with the name of the band.

"It was what my great grandfather would call his grandchildren," Guy said. "My mom, when I was younger, was like, 'Oh, that would be such a great band name.' I was like, 'Judy, you are so right,' … which was great, because picking your name is, like, the worst part of becoming a band."

Another name Guy had been saving for a rainy day was Sweet Petunia's debut album title, "Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown"—a play on Earl Scruggs' 1940s bluegrass instrumental "Foggy Mountain Breakdown." They came up with it at a bluegrass festival when puns like the band name Michael Cera Palin and singer-songwriter moniker Ritt Momney were trending, they said. They find the album title funny, though its lyrical content goes deeper, often grounded in their real experiences.

For instance, Guy shared their experience with gender dysphoria in "Grub"—writing it around the time they realized they were trans.

"I went to Catholic school for nine years, and went to church a bunch, and I always felt really connected to gay and trans people," Guy said. "I was always like, 'Man, that's so awesome that they're doing that; that couldn't be me.' Then I got to college, and I was like, 'Wait, oh yeah— that is, in fact, me.' So that song was kind of just about grappling with wanting to feel at home in your body, but also wanting to feel at home in your community and surround yourself with your friends and family and people that will help take

care of you when things seem like they're too hard to do on your own—which I feel really lucky to actually have a lot of."

Their single "Good Part" taps into some deeper feelings, too.

"The song is about feeling like somebody that you love is letting you down and how that mirrors the experience of being in—I guess, for lack of better words—a boy house, this kind of disgusting house, where the sink is full of dishes and it's disgusting, and nobody's really like taking care of the place that they live in for whatever reason," Simpson said. "I used a lot of that imagery system to mirror the ways that I was feeling let down by certain people at the time."

That song is particularly fun because they always play it in duo format, Simpson said. When they recorded it, they knew it called for additional production.

"In my head, when I wrote that song, it was sort of a rock song; it had that vibe," Simpson said. "It was pretty apparent to us that it needed drums and electric guitar, which you hear on the recording. It was really fun to get to work up that song in more of a rock band format while still

keeping the acoustic instruments on it—and to play with our friend Christian [Schmidt] and my girlfriend Alex [Blair], who played the drums and the guitar on that song."

Emerson student Claire Maske reached out to them, asking to shoot a music video for the song as a final school project. It features the two strumming instruments in a bathroom (the unexpected backdrop was Guy's idea) alternating with shots of puppetry.

"Claire executed it all, and it came out so cool with the puppets; the animation that they put directly onto the film that they shot on, it turned out so cool," Simpson said. "It was very fun to go to Emerson; we were on a sound stage."

"I've never been in a studio space like that. It felt very cool," Guy added.

The two are destined for even cooler things, as they're about to visit many places neither have been before—like Pensacola— while opening on tour for Ani DiFranco.

"We've never gotten to go on tour with another artist, especially one as nationally and world-renowned as Ani," Simpson said. "It's just really an honor. We're so excited these are going to be the biggest stages we've ever played."

Both were DiFranco fans before they signed to Righteous Babe Records.

"She's kind of a legend in DIY, I would say," Simpson said. "Just her whole story, the way that she kind of always stuck to her guns and did it herself and didn't let anybody take advantage of her."

"Or compromise her values," Guy added. Regardless of where they travel, they're happy to call the Boston area home. The musicians and close friends run the music venue Club Passim in Cambridge, Mass.

"We love Boston; we love living here," Simpson said. "Sort of an unpopular opinion. I think a lot of people feel whatever toward Boston, but we really like living here and we love the people we are surrounded by."

"It's the kind of place where you get out of it what you put in," Guy said. "And we get out a lot. {in}

ANI DIFRANCO'S SPIRIT OF LOVE TOUR WITH SWEET PETUNIA

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, April 25

WHERE : Vinyl Music Hall, 2 S. Palafox St.

COST: $52.20

DETAILS: sweetpetuniaband.com, vinylmusichall.com

a&e happenings

NONPROFITS & FUNDRAISERS

FRIGHT, FORTUNE & VEGAS GLAM: AMIKIDS FUNDRAISER Dress in fashionforward flair or frightening costumes, roll the dice, raise the stakes and enjoy a night of fright, fortune and fun for AMIKids. Live music from John Hart & The Prince Brothers, Vegas-style casino gambling, costume contest, live and silent auctions and more. 6-10 p.m. Saturday, April 25 at Bounce Beach, 400 Quietwater Road. Purchase tickets at give.amikids.org/hauntedvegas.

2026 DRIVING AWAY ADDICTION GOLF

TOURNAMENT Benefit for Pensacola Teen Challenge 8 a.m. Saturday, April 25 at Lost Key Golf Club, 625 Lost Key Drive. Register at one. bidpal.net/pcolagolf26/welcome.

BLUE GALA Annual benefit for Gulf Coast Kid's House recognizing National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Event is 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 30 at Bayview Community Center, 2001 E. Lloyd St. Details and tickets can be found at gulfcoastkidshouse.org/events.

BINGO FOR READING IS FUNDAMENTAL

Play bingo to support RIF Pensacola Friday, June 1. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Play ten games for $15. Located at 651 N. Palafox St. For more information, call (850) 602-4155.

ANIMAL ALLIES FLORIDA BINGO Animal

Allies Florida hosts bingo twice monthly at Beef 'O' Brady's, 1 New Market St., Cantonment (on Nine Mile Road near Pine Forest Road). The cost is 10 rounds of bingo for $10, with cash prizes for winners. Food and drinks are also available for purchase. For more information, visit facebook. com/animalalliesflorida.

ANIMAL ALLIES CAT AND KITTEN ADOP -

TION Visit Pet Supermarket 11 a.m.-3 p.m. every first and third Saturday of the month at 6857 N. Ninth Ave. to meet your furever friend. Visit aaflorida.org for details.

CARING & SHARING MINISTRY FOOD

DRIVE The Gloria Green Caring & Sharing Ministry is attached to the Historic St. Joseph Catholic Church, 140 W. Government St. The ministry feeds the homeless 10:30 a.m. Tuesdays. The ministry's food pantry opens 10 a.m. and also has clothing. Food donations needed are pop-top canned goods, Beanie Weenies, Vienna sausage, potted meat, cans of tuna and chicken and soups. Clothing donations needed include tennis shoes for men and women, as well as sweatshirts and new underwear for men in sizes small, medium and large. Call DeeDee Green at (850) 723-3390 for details.

ARTS & CULTURE

APRIL BOOK CLUB: HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE Visit the Coastal Cat Café and discuss Harry Potter for the monthly book club 6-7 p.m. Thursday, April 23 located at 1508 W. Garden St. Admission cost of $20 applies. Details at coastalcatpcola.com.

VISIT PENSACOLA STORYTELLING SERIES

WITH CHIEF DAN Chief Dan Helms of the Santa Rosa Band shares Native American History

10 a.m. Friday, April 24 at Visit Pensacola, 1401 E. Gregory St.

THE SUGAR WITCH A southern gothic drama by Nathan Sanders at Pensacola Little Theatre, 400 S. Jefferson St. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Fridays April 24 and Friday, May 1; Saturdays April 25 and May 2; Thursday, April 30; and 2:30 p.m. Sundays April 26 and May 3. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online at pensacolalittletheatre.com.

HOUSE OF ANDROGYNY OPEN STAGE

DRAG SHOW Starts at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, April 25 at The Handlebar, 319 N. Tarragona St. 18+. Details at thehandlebar850.com.

SPRING BOOK SALE The Friends of the West Florida Public Library will hold their 2026 Spring Book Sale Friday, April 24-Sunday, April 26 at the downtown library, 239 N. Spring St. For more information visit friendsofwfpl.org.

CLOSING PUPPET SHOW Bread Box Theatre closes its time as the 309 Artist in Residence with a puppet show 5 p.m. Saturday, April 25 at 309 N. Sixth Ave. Details at facebook. com/309punkproject.

WORKSHOP: MOSAIC PENDANTS Art workshop for adults and teens with instructor Gila Rayberg 1-3 p.m. Saturday, April 25 at Pensacola Museum of Art, 407 S. Jefferson St. Register online at pensacolamuseum.org.

HOT GLASS COLD BREW: MAY DAY The next Hot Glass Cold Brew is 5 p.m. Friday, May 1 at First City Art Center, 1060 Guillemard St. Admission is $25 for members and $35 for nonmembers and includes artisan glass or ceramic cups and two complimentary craft beers or wine for adults 21 years or older. Tickets available at firstcityart.org.

IMPROVABLE CAUSE The next IC show is 10:30 p.m. Saturday, May 2 at Pensacola Little Theatre, 400 S. Jefferson St. Tickets are $10 and available online at pensacolalittletheatre.com.

MICHELLE JONES: SEVEN SISTERS Inspired by Greek mythology and the jungle-like landscape of the Gulf Coast, Michelle Jones presents lush, vividly colored landscapes using mixed media. Exhibit is on display through May 1 at the Switzer Gallery at Pensacola State College, 1000 College Blvd. Details are at visualarts.pensacolastate.edu.

THE POETICS OF PAINTING: A CELEBRATION OF THE LINEAGE AND LEGACY OF JOHN MARKOWITZ Pensacola Museum of Art exhibit features more than 50 works of art created by Markowitz's mentors and students on view through August 4. The Pensacola Museum of Art, 407 S. Jefferson St. For more information, visit pensacolamuseum.org.

WEST GARDEN DISTRICT ARTISAN

MARKET Shop local vendors and artisans 16 p.m. Fridays starting May 1 at Del Mar Plaza, 1617 W. Garden St. For more information, contact info@ub-pensacola.com.

FIRST FRIDAY AT BLUE MORNING

GALLERY Visit Blue Morning Gallery, 21 S.

Palafox St., 5:30 p.m. every first Friday of the month for a reception with wine, live music and occasional artist demonstrations. Visit bluemorninggallery.com for details.

MOVIE NIGHTS AT MUGS & JUGS Mugs & Jugs, 12080 Scenic Highway, hosts monthly movie nights. Watch their website for dates and movie announcements at mugsjugsbar.com. All movies are screened 9 p.m. on select Saturdays.

PENSACOLA HERITAGE FOUNDATION

LECTURES Learn Pensacola and Northwest Florida history through interesting, informal lectures every other Tuesday at The Wright Place, 80 E. Wright St. Doors open at 11 a.m., and lunch is served at 11:30 a.m. The lecture starts at noon and lasts one hour. Lecture cost is $5 for nonmembers and is free to members. Lunches are $12. For reservations, call (850) 380-7759.

PENSACOLA ROSE SOCIETY Monthly meetings are normally 6 p.m. the second Monday of the month at the Pensacola Garden Center, 1850 N. Ninth Ave. Visit pensacolarosesociety.org for more information.

BTB COMEDY Watch live stand-up comedy in open mic style 7 p.m. Mondays at Odd Colony, 260 N. Palafox St. Follow BTB Comedy on Facebook for updates.

SCRIPTEASERS Join writers at Pensacola Little Theatre, 400 S. Jefferson St., for Scripteasers every month. Visit pensacolalittletheatre.com for details.

PALAFOX MARKET Palafox Market is 9 a.m.2 p.m. Saturdays. The event features local farmers, artists and crafters on North and South Palafox streets at Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza and Plaza Ferdinand. For updates, visit facebook.com/ downtownpensacola.

SUNDAY MARKET ON PALAFOX Rain-orshine market is Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Located in downtown Pensacola, between Chase and Gregory Streets in the MLK Plaza. Market features handmade crafts, art, baked goods, international cuisine and fresh produce. Visit smopalafox.com for details.

CABARET DRAG SHOWCASE AT AMERICAN LEGION POST #193 Don't miss Cabaret Drag Showcase every second and fourth Saturday at the American Legion Post #193, 2708 N. 12th Ave. Doors open 8 p.m. Showtime is 10 p.m. For more information, contact show director Taize Sinclair-Santi at taizesinclairsanti@gmail.com.

SPIRITS OF SEVILLE QUARTER GHOST TOUR AND LUNCHEON Dine inside Pensacola's oldest and most haunted restaurant and investigate the spirits with actual paranormal equipment at Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St. Tickets are $12 and include a voucher toward Seville Quarter's menu. Tours are 11 a.m.-2 p.m. weekdays and 2-4 p.m. Sundays. Make an appointment by calling (850) 941-4321.

AFTER DARK: SEVILLE QUARTER GHOSTS, MURDER, MAYHEM AND MYSTERY TOUR AND DINNER After Dark Paranormal Investiga-

a&e happenings

tion and Dinner happens inside one of Pensacola's most haunted restaurants with real ghosthunting equipment 6-8 p.m. Sundays. Listen as your guide weaves tales of ghosts, debauchery, murder, mayhem, paranormal activities, history and more related to Seville Quarter and downtown Historic Pensacola. After your ghost tour, enjoy dinner at Seville Quarter Palace Café, 130 E. Government St. Reservations are required. Call (850) 941-4321. Tickets are available at pensacolaghostevents.com.

LIVE MUSIC

BANDS ON THE BEACH The weekly concert series takes place 7-9 p.m. every Tuesday through Oct. 27 at the Gulfside Pavilion on Pensacola Beach. Free to attend. Upcoming dates: Chase Mitchell on April 28 and Southern Breeze on May 5. For more information, call the SRIA at (850) 932-2257 or go to visitpensacolabeach.com for the latest updates.

LIVE MUSIC AT FIVE SISTER'S BLUES CAFÉ

Enjoy live music Thursdays through Sundays at Five Sisters, 421 W. Belmont St. Upcoming dates: D. Scott Riggs on 6-8 p.m. Thursday, April 23 and Cat Daddy Duo 6-8 p.m. Thursday, April 30, Rocky Denney Brotherhood 6-10 p.m. Friday, April 24, The Glenn Parker Band 6-10 p.m. Saturdays, Curt Bol Quintet 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sundays and John Wheeler 6-8 p.m. Tuesdays.

CONCERTS AT ST. CHRISTOPHER'S Weekly concert series is 6-8 p.m. Thursdays

through May 28 at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church, 3200 N. 12th Ave. Upcoming dates: The Modern Eldorados is April 23. Details at scpen. org/christophers-concerts.

GHOSTS AMONG THE PINES, MARA NAGRA, CACA DEL DIABLO AND IHATESUNDAYS Show starts at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 23 at The Handlebar 319 N. Tarragona St. Details at thehandlebar850.com.

EMO NIGHT AT VINYL Show is 8 p.m. Friday, April 24 at Vinyl Music Hall, 2 S. Palafox St. Details at vinylmusichall.com.

CANDLELIGHT CONCERTS The Soundtrack of the 60s is 6 p.m. Saturday, April 25 and Tribute to Bad Bunny is 8 p.m. Saturday, April 25. Both concerts located at First United Methodist Church, 6 E. Wright St. Tickets available at eventvesta.com.

PENSACOLA SYMPHONY 100TH ANNIVERSARY GALA Show is 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 25 at Saenger Theatre, 118 S. Palafox St. Dress rehearsal is 1:30 p.m. Purchase tickets for either showtime, or tickets for the virtual show at pensacolasymphony.com.

PENSACOLA UNPLUGGED: STEVE DEAN Show is 7 p.m. Saturday, April 25 at the Studer Community Institute, 220 W. Garden St.

PENSACOLA SONGWRITER ROUNDS

SERIES  Show starts at 6 p.m. Sunday, April 26

at The Handlebar, 319 N. Tarragona St. Details at thehandlebar850.com.

JAZZ IN THE QUARTER Jazz Pensacola's April Jazz in the Quarter features college and university student musicians on 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 27 at Phineas Phogg's at Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St. Tickets are $12-$15. Details at jazzpensacola.com.

ONE NIGHT OF QUEEN: A TRIBUTE PERFORMED BY GARY MULLEN & THE WORKS Show is 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 28 at Saenger Theatre, 118 S. Palafox St. Details and tickets can be found at pensacolasaenger.com.

CLUTCH: SUFFER NO EVIL U.S. TOUR Show is 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 1 at Vinyl Music Hall, 2 S. Palafox St. Details and tickets available at vinylmusichall.com.

ALICE COOPER Show is 8 p.m. Sunday, May 3 at Pensacola Bay Center, 201 E. Gregory St. Details and tickets available at pensacolabaycenter.com.

OPEN MIC AT ALGA BEER CO. Country Club is hosted by Brett Patterson of Snake and the Rabbit every Monday night. Sign-ups start at 6 p.m. and music starts at 6:30 p.m. All ages welcome. Visit facebook.com/algabeerco for more details.

Florida brings blues to Florida 7 p.m. Mondays at Lili Marlene's in Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St. Food and drink specials start at 8 p.m. Details are at sevillequarter.com.

PENSACOLA PICK NIGHT AT ODD

COLONY Music pickers of all levels are invited to play 7-9 p.m. every last Monday of the month at Odd Colony, 260 N. Palafox St. Bring your acoustic instrument and jam. Visit facebook.com/ oddcolony for details.

TUESDAY NIGHT JAZZ AT SEVILLE QUARTER Enjoy smooth jazz with Melodious Allen and The Funk Heads on Tuesday nights at Lili Marlene's in Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St. Show starts at 6:30 p.m. Visit sevillequarter.com for more information.

ROSIE O'GRADY'S DUELING PIANO SHOW

Watch the famous dueling piano show 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at Rosie O' Grady's at Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St. Doors open at 7 p.m.

OPEN MIC NIGHT AT GARY'S BREWERY

Open mic night is hosted by Renee Amelia 6 p.m. every other Wednesday at Gary's Brewery, 208 Newman Ave. Visit facebook.com/garysbrew for details.

CRAWFISH-inweekly.pdf 1 3/30/26 9:53 AM

MONDAY NIGHT BLUES AT SEVILLE QUARTER The Blues Society of Northwest

for more listings visit inweekly.net

26: 11

- 5

THE STORY OF PENSACOLA SPORTS

Making History Since 1955

FOR MORE THAN 70 YEARS, PENSACOLA SPORTS HAS HELPED SHAPE THE IDENTITY OF PENSACOLA THROUGH THE POWER OF SPORT.

Founded in 1955 as the Pensacola Sports Association, the organization began by managing golf events, including nationally recognized tournaments that placed Pensacola on the map as a competitive sports destination.

Florida’s first and oldest sports commission

From those early days, Pensacola Sports expanded its reach well beyond the fairways. Today, it serves as Florida’s first and oldest sports commission, impacting more than 60,000 participants, fans, and spectators annually across events ranging from running and soccer to tennis, baseball and football.

Signature initiatives like the Double Bridge Run, High School All-Star Series and Annual Awards Banquet have become traditions that celebrate athletic achievement and bring the community together.

driving economic impact

Through decades of growth, one focus has remained constant — strengthening quality of life. By combining event management, sports tourism and community development, Pensacola Sports continues to drive economic impact while inspiring healthy, active lifestyles.

What started as a small effort to organize golf tournaments has evolved into a lasting legacy—one that continues to energize Pensacola and elevate its reputation as a premier sports destination.

Learn more about upcoming events and how to get involved at PensacolaSports.org

Brought to you by Pensacola Sports

By Dakota Parks

Cryptids and Comedy

Monsters, cryptids and creatures that go bump in the night often get a bad rap. But for 17-year-old high school senior Desmond Anzaldo-Satterwhite, they might just deserve a second look, and maybe even a love song.

That's exactly what audiences can expect from "Mothman the Musical," an original production from the Pensacola Little Theatre Education Department.

"The initial inspiration came from the movie 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall,' where a music composer who usually makes music for thrillers randomly gets this idea for a puppet musical of 'Dracula,'" Anzaldo-Satterwhite said. "I just really loved the idea of adapting a character that's so well-known."

Taking something familiar and reimagining it with depth and narrative became the foundation for the musical, created by Anzaldo-Satterwhite alongside his co-writers Gavin Bramblett and Rowan McCollum. Set in 1983 Point Pleasant, W.Va., the show pulls from real-life folklore surrounding the elusive Mothman: a towering, red-eyed, winged cryptid reportedly spotted in the late 1960s and often associated with looming disaster.

Rather than leaning into fear, though, the musical embraces curiosity and humor.

"Mothman is essentially like Bigfoot, a cryptid that people think they saw, but they're really not sure. Maybe there's a blurry photo, but that's about it," Anzaldo-Satterwhite explained. "I thought it was interesting that he's supposed to be so scary, but in reality, he's just a big, fuzzy moth. Unfortunately, it's kind of scary to people that he's so big."

The story begins with a childhood sighting that sends the small town into a frenzy, turning Mothman into local legend. 17 years later, a journalist sets out to uncover the truth, despite pushback from her editor—who happens to be the same boy who first claimed to see Mothman.

"The musical is definitely a comedy that humanizes Mothman throughout. It's almost a 'Beauty and the Beast' kind of story," he said. "It's relatively cliché, but it's a very playful version. Act one is entirely silliness, and it's only in act two that the tension and stakes kind of raise, but the story never loses its humor."

Alongside Mothman, the show introduces a cast of fellow cryptids—some recognizable, others delightfully obscure. From the Jersey Devil and the Loveland Frog to the chupacabra and the Abominable Snowman, each cryptid expands the musical's offbeat universe.

"Each character sort of starts out depicted how the media would portray them; like, 'If you're going to be angry at us for how we look, then we'll be angry right back at you.' But near the end, you get to see this redemption arc," he said.

Beneath the humor, the musical questions just how monstrous and misunderstood Mothman and his fellow cryptids are.

"I wanted to point out that it's really just his visual appearance that makes Mothman anything unhuman. Even though he is a moth, he is also a man, and that's a big part of the show," he continued.

Anzaldo-Satterwhite not only wrote the script but is taking on the role of Mayor Perkins. His co-writer Gavin Bramblett plays the newspaper owner, a character tied directly to the original Mothman sighting that kicks off the show's mythology. While the production keeps its staging simple, period-inspired costumes help ground the story in its 1980s setting.

The musical is being produced through the education department at Pensacola Little Theatre, where Anzaldo-Satterwhite developed the project as part of a high school class. Under the guidance of Education Director Topher Warren, the opportunity came with a challenge—finish the script in time, and it could potentially be staged by the class. Anzaldo-Satterwhite and his co-writers delivered.

The path to his first staged production has been shaped by years of involvement in theater, starting in early childhood and continuing through high school productions and community shows across Pensacola.

"The first show I ever did was when I was five, and I started to really love it and kept doing as many shows as possible," he said. "But I really could not have done this without Pensacola Little Theatre."

"I think the best thing about theater is that the community is so kind and understanding," he added. "People I would never talk to in any other situation, I can immediately become friends with. It helps get me out of my own shell. Pretty much all of my close friends now I've met through theater."

That sense of collaboration naturally led to writing. Inspired by films, books and countless hours of discussion, he found himself wanting to create stories of his own.

"I love watching movies and discussing them with my friends," he said. "I've kind of developed a critique of like, 'Oh, I think this could have been written better.' Then I was kind of like, 'Why don't I just write it?'"

With "Mothman the Musical," he's done exactly that, taking a piece of folklore and reshaping it into something funny, strange and unexpectedly heartfelt. And he's not stopping there. After graduation, he plans to study theater at Florida State University and is already working on his next musical.

He said, "It's kind of absurd, you know, Mothman falling in love, but that's the point. It's supposed to be lighthearted and funny, and I truly hope the audience enjoys it." {in}

MOTHMAN THE MUSICAL

WHAT: An original musical following one journalist's quest to uncover the mystery of the cryptid Mothman

WHEN: 12 p.m. Saturday, April 25

WHERE: Pensacola Little Theatre, 400 S. Jefferson St.

COST: Free

DETAILS: pensacolalittletheatre.com

free will astrology

WEEK OF APRIL 23

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): The visible lightning bolt we see is actually the return stroke. It's electricity racing back up from the ground to the cloud after an invisible leader stroke has created a path. So the spectacular display is actually the earth talking back to the sky. I'd love to see you adopt this phenomenon as your power symbol, Aries. In every way you can imagine, be like the earth conversing with the sky. When a hopeful sign crackles overhead, send out a bold message that you're ready to act on it. If your ideals are vague and wispy, flying high above you, take a brave practical step to anchor them in reality. Proclaim your bright intentions to the clouds and the stars.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): You're finished with energy-draining indulgences. No more seductive perils or cute ailments, either. Once you wriggle free from the tangles that have been hobbling your style, I suspect you will also renounce anything that resembles joyless restraint, naive certainties, pointless cravings, numbing comforts or misplaced bravery. May it be so! Abracadabra! The emancipations that materialize after these escapes will likely stoke your holy appetite to shine more fiercely than it has in ages.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): In music theory, the tritone is an interval exactly halfway between octaves. In old church music, it was considered diabolical because of its unstable, unresolved quality. But this "devil interval" is now essential to blues, jazz and rock. The precariousness that once made it seem outrageous became the source of its potency. What was taboo became foundational. I believe you're entering into a metaphorical tritone phase, Gemini. Lots of interesting and valuable stuff may be a bit wobbly, irregular, hectic or ruffled.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): A treasure you have long yearned for has morphed since the day you first set out to claim it. Either it has genuinely altered its shape and flavor, or it has remained exactly what it always was while you have changed. In either case, the relationship between you and this prize is no longer the same. Its meaning and value have shifted. The strate -

By Rob Brezsny

gies you've been using to pursue it aren't entirely relevant. So I suggest you pause and reconsider. Decide whether you need to formulate a revised approach or identify a different version of the treasure altogether.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22) : My radical predictions: you will soon discern truths that have been hidden and unravel mysteries that have resisted your understanding. A limiting belief that has dulled your mind will fade away, and a so-called ally who has confused your sense of self will drift out of your orbit. And that's just part of the renewal ahead. I foresee that you will emerge from a weird emotional haze, regaining access to feelings you've needed to highlight. And with that awakening, you will be blessed with beautiful realizations that until now have lingered just beyond definition.

strengths. That's hard to do! Each of us carries a share of that leaden dross, of course, but some of us are more tirelessly ingenious in our efforts to transmute it into gold. And the coming weeks will be prime time for you, Libra, to make dynamic progress in harnessing this magic.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): Is it possible there's something you really need but you don't know what it is? Sometimes the soul sends up subtle hints long before it sends clear demands: a vague restlessness, a mysterious sadness or a boredom that doesn't match your circumstances. These are often clues that an unnamed or unacknowledged need is summoning your attention. My advice to you: PAY ATTENTION! Ask your deep, sweet, sensitive self to provide unambiguous clues. To expedite the process, say the following sentence out loud, filling in the blank at the end: "I suspect I might be starving for ________."

experiment. I suggest you follow the clues that life and intuition will drop in your path. Keep this in mind, too: what makes a person a superb lover has a little to do with sheer technique, but is mostly due to emotional intelligence, imaginative responsiveness and tender ingenuity.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): This horoscope isn't composed by me. It's coming from you. I'm channeling it straight out of your own deep mind. Why now? Because your conscious ego has been so swept up in the constant swirl of tasks and distractions that it has been tuning out crucial communications from your still, small voice. And now that precious Spirit Whisperer has conscripted me as its messenger. Here's what it wants to say: "Hey you! Remember me? Your inner guide? Also known as your higher self and the voice of your soul? You urgently need to turn your attention back in my direction. I have a backlog of messages for you, starting with how we can and should intensify our devotion to creative self-care."

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): In theater, "blocking" refers to the carefully choreographed movement of actors on stage. Every step is intentional, designed to create meaning and flow. But if an actor forgets the blocking and moves spontaneously in response to what's happening, sometimes the scene becomes more alive. Let's apply this idea to your life, Virgo. It may be that you have been following the blocking carefully. You know your role well. But now you've been authorized to forget the blocking. You can respond to what's really happening instead of what's scripted. I invite you to speak from your heart rather than parroting what's expected of you. Yes, you might mess up the scene. But on the other hand, you might make it extra real and vibrant.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): In the future I envision for us all, the prizes that truly matter won't be the wealth we've gathered or the impressive names on our contact list. They won't be the clever deals we've made or the attractiveness of those who walk beside us. What will count most is our ability to transform the messy, selfish, frightened parts of ourselves into

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): You have arrived at the Glorious Grunting Season, my dear Sagittarius. I hope you're poised to sweat freely and trust the intelligence of strenuous physical effort. Your wise body, more than your fine mind, can best align you with cosmic rhythms. Whenever you throw yourself into work or play that makes you grunt—hauling, scrubbing, digging, lifting, dancing, running, making love—you will harmonize with the deeper pulse of life. I predict that you will invigorate your instinctual vitality as you clear emotional sediment and ground your energy in the earth's rich rhythms. You will metabolize frustration into focus, inertia into momentum and abstraction into embodiment.

PISCES

(FEB. 19-MARCH 20): In 1967, Piscean biologist Lynn Margulis proposed a revolutionary idea about life's evolution: that many of its great leaps occurred through symbiosis. She theorized that distinct organisms have sometimes merged their identities to form entirely new beings. One example is the mitochondrion, the powerhouse within our cells. It began its existence as a free-living bacterium that later entered into partnership with the ancestral cell. Margulis' formerly controversial idea is now mainstream science. (She was called "science's unruly earth mother.") With this as our guide, Pisces, let's contemplate what separate elements of your life might merge into unprecedented blends. I invite you to consider bold experiments in merging and mixing. Hybrids might be more beautiful and valuable than the sum of their parts.

HERE'S THE HOMEWORK: What secret have you hidden so well you've almost forgotten it yourself? {in}

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): What might motivate you to become an extraordinary lover? I'm not suggesting that your romantic and erotic talents are lacking, only that there is delightful room to grow. And the coming weeks will be prime time for you to have fun with this noble

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news of the weird

NOW IT'S GONE TOO FAR A tech company has produced an AI model of Jesus Christ, the Associated Press reported on April 11. The company, Just Like Me, charges users $1.99 per minute—or $49.99 for 45 minutes per month—to talk to the chatbot. Its avatar is inspired by actor Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus on TV's "The Chosen." The model was trained using the King James Version translation of the Bible, as well as sermons from various preachers, and offers users words of encouragement. "You do feel a little accountable to the AI," Just Like Me CEO Chris Breed said. "They're your friend. You've made an attachment." Just Like Me isn't the only company seeking to integrate matters of faith with AI. Longbeard, a company that digitizes Catholic teachings, developed Magisterium AI, which offers religious guidance for users. Jeanne Lim of beingAI has not yet made Emi Jido, an AI Buddhist priest, available to the public. Roshi Jundo Cohen, a Zen Buddhist priest who ordained Emi Jido in 2024, hopes to see it become a hologram. "She's just meant to be a Zen teacher in your pocket," Cohen said. "It's not meant to replace human interactions." Others are wary of the marriage of AI and religion. Podcaster Graham Martin, an atheist, expressed skepticism when an AI app, Text With Jesus, started prompting him to upgrade to a premium version. "I grew up with Southern U.S. televangelism ... Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and all that crowd. And all they had to do was get on TV once a week and tell you to send money," he said. "We've seen people around the world getting into emotional relationships with AIs. Now imagine that that's your lord and savior, Jesus Christ." [AP, 4/11/26]

RECENT ALARMING HEADLINE A Whittier, California, resident was startled by "an explosion" on April 10, NBC4-TV reported, but the loud noise turned out not to be an explosion at all. Instead, Yuder Grau discovered a large hole in the roof and debris scattered around his living room. The culprit was a block of dirty ice, which shattered into a few pieces. When Grau started sweeping up the pieces, he noticed a foul odor coming from them. NBC4 meteorologist David Biggar, a pilot, said the debris might have been frozen waste or water from a plane. "There can also be something like maybe a leaky valve or leaky seal somewhere," he said. The Federal Aviation Administration said it had not received a report about the incident. Grau's landlady, Thania Magana, said she reviewed flight data from the time of the incident and found that three planes had flown overhead, but both Southwest Airlines and Delta Airlines said they had received no reports of maintenance issues on the flights. [NBC4, 4/10/2026]

WHAT'S IN A NAME? The German soccer club Fortuna Duesseldorf announced on April 12 that it is replacing its coach, the Associated Press reported. The outgoing coach is Markus Anfang, whose last name means "beginning" or "start" in German. The new coach, Alexander Ende, whose name means "end," will coach the final five games of the season. Fortuna is in a precarious position for the season; Ende said he is "convinced that together with everyone at Fortuna we will secure our place in the league." [AP, 4/13/2026]

By the Editors at Andrews McMeel

THE PASSING PARADE Westlake, Ohio, police were asked to check in on a 91-year-old woman who had failed to answer several calls to her home on April 9, News5 Cleveland reported. When they arrived at her house, she didn't answer the door, either. Police Chief Jerry Vogel said when officers entered the home, they found her playing a video game in her bedroom. She told them she missed the calls because she was trying to beat her record. [News5 Cleveland, 4/10/2026]

GREAT ART Ari Hodara, 58, of Paris is the proud owner of a 1941 Picasso painting worth $1 million, the Associated Press reported. Remarkably, he paid only $117 for it. Hodara entered a raffle at Christie's auction house in Paris and found out on April 14 that his ticket had been drawn for the artist's "Head of a Woman." Hodara, who calls himself an art amateur but is fond of Picasso, said he would "take advantage of it and keep it." The raffle was in support of Alzheimer's research. [AP, 4/14/2026]

NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE Monica Deyanira Cabrera Barajas, 26, of Mexico is just happy to be alive after a mishap with her nose ring, Oddity Central reported on April 14. Bothered by a monthlong cough that wouldn't resolve, she finally headed to the doctor for an X-ray, which revealed the cough culprit: her nose ring. "The only theory I have, which I told the pulmonologist, is that I fell asleep, the little ball fell out, and that was it," Deyanira said. "I was lying on my back, I didn't realize, and that's how I messed up." The tiny circular metal barbell was found just half a millimeter from her aorta, and she had to undergo not one but two procedures to extract the ring safely. Its placement put Deyanira at risk of puncturing a lung or major blood vessel, which doctors say would have likely led to her death. Deyanira plans to steer clear of nose rings from now on. "I love piercings, and I really liked my septum piercing, but in my case, I wouldn't get it again because of the terror I experienced," she said. [Oddity Central, 4/14/26]

NO, THANK YOU Meanwhile, in Greece, a 58-year-old woman sneezed, and worms came out of her nose, Metro News reported on April 10. "The patient ... worked outdoors on a Greek island, adjacent to a field with grazing sheep," Dr. Ilias Kioulos, a medical entomologist at the Laboratory of Pesticide Science, Agricultural University of Athens, said. "It was September, during hot and dry weather, and she noticed numerous flies swarming around her face." About a week later, the woman developed pain and coughing, which persisted for several more weeks. After the worm-sneezing episode, the woman sought medical attention for the parasites. An otolaryngologist extracted 10 larvae and one pupa from her sinuses. "She was treated with nasal decongestants and made a complete recovery," Dr. Kioulos said. "None of her co-workers reported similar symptoms." [Metro UK, 4/10/26] {in}