Inweekly Oct. 27 2022

It’s a really tough problem.

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designer Tim Bednarczyk co ntributing writers Gina Castro, Savannah Evanoff, Jennifer Leigh , Jeremy Morrison, Sydney Robinson, C.S. Satterwhite, Tom St. Myer

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winners & losers

winners losers

PENSACOLA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The League of American Orchestras' Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation selected Pensacola Sympho ny Orchestra as one of 30 orchestras to partici pate in its Orchestral Commissions Program. The unprecedented national consortium ensures that new works by women composers, each commis sioned by the League, will be infused in orches tra seasons to come, with multiple performances throughout the country. The consortium's initial six lead orchestra-composer pairings were previously announced, with more than 80 orchestras applying for the additional 24 spots. Pensacola Symphony Orchestra will partner with composer Wang Lu for a performance of her new work "Surge."

PENSACAN 2022 The annual event presented by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Flor ida Northwest was a success, raising the equiva lent of 16,820 healthy meals for neighbors in need in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties through do nations of food and funds to Manna. The event has provided more than 58,050 healthy meals to the hungry since its start in 2009. AIA Florida North west again partnered with Manna for this year's PensaCan: Demolish Hunger, Design Hope. Pen saCan is a competition where architectural firms and community amateurs create impressive struc tures made entirely out of full cans of food.

PUBLIX SUPER MARKETS CHARITIES The nonprofit recently awarded a $12,500 grant to Manna Food Bank to support its programs and partnerships in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. The grant will fund the equivalent of 7,500 healthy meals that will be distributed to children, seniors and families in Northwest Florida. The founder of Publix Super Markets, the late George Jenkins, es tablished Publix Super Markets Charities in 1996 with a commitment to meeting the basic needs of the communities Publix serves. Since 2015, Pub lix Super Markets Charities has contributed more than $32.5 million to hunger-related programs.

INTERNATIONAL PAPER The Pensacola Mill donated $20,000 to support the UWF Communi ty Garden. A check presentation was held on Oct. 17. The UWF Community Garden is an active ser vice project of the Kugelman Honors Program and is open to the public.

PFIZER Pfizer is set to sell its COVID vaccine commercially as early as next year and has stated that the price per dose will be around $110-$130, more than 400 times what the government paid for the doses. Angela Lukin, Pfizer's U.S. presi dent, added that the U.S. supply runs out when its federal government contracts expire. After Con gress cut COVID funding in September, the feds are set to end offering free vaccines before the end of 2022. Lukin felt that health insurers and employers would likely pick up the shot costs, similar to flu shots, and most people won't have to pay for them. The U.S. government spent $19.50 a dose for the Pfizer vaccine under its first contract and $30.50 under its most recent one.

LIZ TRUSS The British prime minister resigned after only 45 days, making her Great Britain's short est-tenured prime minister. Her nearest rival for that dubious distinction is George Canning, who served for less than four months before his death in August 1827. A primary factor in Truss's resignation was her tax cut plan, which spiraled the country's financial markets as investors feared it would wors en inflation. Truss tried to abandon the plan and even fired her finance minister, who spearheaded it. Unfortunately, the political damage caused by the tax proposal left Truss with few other choices.

JOHN H. DURHAM Attorney General Wil liam P. Barr appointed the special counsel to re view the FBI's inquiry into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia for any wrongdoing. Three years lat er, the two cases Durham brought to court result ed in acquittals. Michael Sussmann, a cybersecu rity lawyer with ties to Democrats, was tried lying to the FBI when he shared a tip about possible cy ber links between Mr. Trump and Russia. He was found not guilty in May. Last week, Igor Danchen ko, an analyst who provided much of the research for a notorious Steele dossier, was acquitted on four counts of lying to the FBI.

DOUG UNDERHILL The State Commission on Ethics voted 6-1 to recommend that Gov. Ron DeSantis remove the Escambia Coun ty Commissioner for District 4 from office, pri marily for misusing his power and publicly shar ing confidential minutes from shade meetings. He was also fined $35,000.

outtakes

By Rick Outzen

A BROAD LEGACY

The event that I'm most looking forward to seeing during Foo Foo Fest is the "Van dals to Vanguards" exhibit at the Pensac ola Museum of Art. The exhibition opens on Nov. 4 and will explore the evolution of pop art and street art by featuring the masterpieces of such artists as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Banksy and Mr. Brainwash. Most of the art work will come from the Belle and Lewis Bear Jr. collection.

It's fitting that the Bear collection is being displayed during Foo Foo Fest, a 12-day celebra tion of Pensacola's art and culture that their son David helped start eight years ago in the wake of the dissolution of the Arts Council of North west Florida, and at the Pensacola Art of Mu seum that Lewis's par ents, Lewis Sr. and Peggy, helped launch in the mid-1950s.

While doing my re search for my inter view with Lewis, I came across a News Jour nal article by the late John Appleyard about how the Bears, Rainwa ters, Davenports, Balls, McAddams and oth er Pensacola families reached an agreement to lease for a dollar a year the old City Jail and Police Headquarters on South Jefferson Street for an arts center. Ac cording to Appleyard, the families literally got down on their knees to refinish floors and fig ured out how to repurpose barred doorways and cells to display art.

from New York City as the first center's director of the Pensacola Museum of Art. Takach con vinced the board to change the art center to a museum and helped the Pensacola Museum of Art become accredited, which helped it attract funding from the Florida Arts Council.

Lewis succeeded his mother on the board and organized a capital campaign that led to PMA purchasing the building from the city of Pensacola in 1988. In 2016, the Pensacola Mu seum of Art entered into a gift agreement with the University of West Florida to transfer the museum to the university.

How did Lewis become attracted to pop and street art? He shared, "In 1962, I was 21 and had a chance to see some of the beginning of the pop art that was showing up in the big museums, like the Modern Museum of Art in New York. And I started looking at some of this stuff, and I realized it really was developing as a revolution."

The exhibition opens on Nov. 4 and will explore the evolution of pop art and street art by featuring the masterpieces of such artists as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Banksy and Mr. Brainwash. Most of the artwork will come from the Belle and Lewis Bear Jr. collection.

Lewis continued, "It dawned on me that real ly is what this art is about. And at the same time, it's light and fun if you're look ing at the pictures and not thinking about some alle gorical level. And over the last 60 years, we've seen people like Banksy and Mr. Brainwash take it to another level."

Lewis was in his teens when his parents started the arts center. He told me, "It was a great opportunity for Pensacola when the police moved out of that building. And it wasn't just my parents; it was six couples that really worked hard to form an arts center, where they were not only exhibiting art, but also art classes."

With a smile, Lewis added, "I was one of those that got forced to go down and learn how to paint back in those days."

Peggy Bear served the art center's board for several years and helped recruit Mary Takach

He admitted that he and Belle are excited to share his art collection at a museum his fami ly helped create. "We're looking forward to it. It's going to be, I think, a fun exhibit. The museum is doing a great job at curating it, and I'm looking forward to having it down at the museum."

Lewis is also proud of what his son has cre ated. "Foo Foo Fest has been a great draw for Pensacola. A lot of people come from out of town for it, and I hope local people will take ad vantage of all the different things going on be tween all the different arts organizations here in the community."

The "Vandals to Vanguards" exhibit is just an other part of the broad Lewis Bear legacy. Please take time to enjoy it yourself.{in} rick@inweekly.net

DISMAL ROI ON EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT

tion. They do the same thing their parents did— give birth, leave them alone until they're five and expect the school district to figure it out."

His opinion aligns with what the Stud er Community Institute and Achieve Escam bia have aggressively promoted since 2016. Both have pushed for investing resources in educating children in the 0-3 age range. The county's kin dergarten readiness rates have yet to improve, but their efforts convinced 61% of voters to ap prove the establishment of the Escambia Chil dren's Trust in November 2020.

The Trust is responsible for allocating an nually over $10 million in property taxes to fund programs that provide educational, preventive, developmental, treatment, intervention and reha bilitation services for children within the county.

Trust Executive Director Tammy Greer said one of the primary focuses is out-of-school pro grams that enhance cognitive, emotional and so cial development. In September, the Trust board approved a matching grant of $238,875 for the Early Learning Coalition to allow the Coalition to receive the county's allocation from the State of Florida School Readiness Program to expand eli gibility to working families.

The significance of the matching grant is the opportunity to expand eligibility, not the amount of money. The Coalition's annual budget in each of the past two fiscal years has topped $30 million.

School readiness and VPK expenses account for about $22 million of the Coalition's budget that is primarily devoted to operating expens es for childcare facilities. This investment in pre paring children to enter school ready to learn and helping families achieve economic self-sufficien cy comes with three restrictions:

district pays more but only hires certified teach ers, which is problematic for a county facing a teacher shortage at all grade levels.

The school district just opened VPK programs at Brentwood and Ferry Pass elementary schools and now accounts for 16 of the 80 VPK providers in the county. Overall, the school district operates 31 VPK classrooms in the 16 schools with an aver age of 19 students per classroom.

Title I Director Laura Colo oversees the VPK program for the school district. The program is costly considering the school district offers fullday VPK, provides transportation for the stu dents and pays for certified teachers. Colo said the VPK program is at capacity due to financial and staffing challenges. The state only reimburs es the school district for about three hours per day. Title I and Head Start funds take care of the rest. The school district is only allowed to use its general fund for K-12 initiatives.

Ideally, the school district would operate VPK programs at all 32 of its elementary schools, but the average income in seven elementa ry school zones is too high to qualify for Title I funding. Only schools with an enrollment of at least 40% of children from low-income families are eligible to use Title I funds to operate school wide programs.

Take away those seven schools and the 16 al ready in place and that still leaves nine schools without VPK programs. Colo said the school dis trict chose schools based on them being in the poorest economic zones and in north Escambia County where few other VPK providers operate.

LOOKING FOR A BREAKTHROUGH

By Tom St. Myer

Nonprofit agencies spend millions of local, state and federal dollars annually on early childhood development in Escambia County. Yet, the county still ranks among the worst in the state in kindergarten readiness rate at 42%, 54th among 67 counties.

Why? There is no simple answer. Early child hood development initiatives have come and gone at a dizzying rate for decades with no sus tainable improvements.

Never one to let political correctness muffle him, Escambia County Commissioner Jeff Ber gosh sees generational poverty and social condi tioning as root causes.

"We have folks who don't work or have nev er worked and don't necessarily contribute to society, yet they have one or two or three or four or five or more kids and that becomes their entitled lives—having children, staying home, having more children, staying home, getting checks from the government and not working," Bergosh said.

He questioned why the government devotes billions to Head Start and other early childhood development programs. The programs pay some dividends but not at a rate that warrants dollars

spent. Citing his research for a master's degree at the University of West Florida, Bergosh found no differences in education levels among thirdgrade students who had completed high-level VPK programs vs. those who had not.

His preference is to invest in third-grade reading comprehension. Bergosh said, "If you want the best bang for your buck, make sure kids in third grade are reading at grade level."

The former school board member also rec ommends incentivizing families to stay togeth er through tax incentives that grow each year. He said early childhood development will improve dramatically if the county reduces the number of impoverished and dysfunctional families.

Early Learning Coalition Executive Direc tor Bruce Watson agrees with Bergosh to an ex tent. Watson said ideally, the federal government would provide parents with formal training. He believes too many parents follow the child-rais ing examples set by their parents and grandpar ents and perpetuate the neglectful parent cycle.

FIRST THREE YEARS CRITICAL

However, Watson argues that the first three years of children's lives are critical to their devel opment. He said, "So many of our parents work and don't understand the need for communica

•Parent(s)/guardian(s) must be working or participating in an educational activity such as attending college or trade school at least 20 hours per week.

•Gross income must be at or below 150% of federal poverty level for family size.

•Families must pay a copayment for child care based on income and family size.

STAFFING ISSUES

Identifying families that meet the criteria is burdensome for the Coalition, but that pales in comparison to the challenge of staffing all the childcare facilities. Like other industries, the non profit agency has had difficulty finding employ ees willing to work for minimal pay since the CO VID-19 pandemic. The staffing shortage explains why 2,640 children enrolled in the School Readi ness Program, but 568 children were put on a wait ing list. Watson said the Coalition has the facilities to serve more than 3,500 children if fully staffed.

"Right now, our biggest challenger is the number of people we have available to work in our childcare facilities," Watson said. "We're op erating at about 76% capacity. We've given many of them enough to pay more than the $11 mini mum wage we have in Florida right now."

Escambia County Public Schools operates a VPK program separate from the Coalition and deals with the same staffing issues. The school

Kimberly Krupa, former executive direc tor for Achieve Escambia and now the director of programs and performance for the Trust, said enhancing early childhood development starts with improving education in the programs and more thoroughly monitoring the quality of ser vices offered by the providers.

"When we put children in care that's subpar, we actually do more harm in those cases," she said. "When you're looking at Escambia Coun ty, the conversation for too long has been quan tity instead of quality. All you have to do is drive around and see who is providing childcare."

Greer and Krupa have met with Pensaco la State College about expanding educational opportunities in the early learning fields so that qualified teachers are at facilities instead of glo rified babysitters.

Bergosh is rooting for the Trust to break through and positively impact youth of all ages, but he is admittedly jaded. He has seen too many initiatives rise and then fall without making any substantial headway.

"They have really bright people on their board—first-class board, first-class director and you've got the players," Bergosh said. "Now you got the money, and now it's time to make something happen. It's a really tough problem. Unless you raise these kids yourself and really parent them, I'm not sure you're going to move the needle." {in}

Venues for Every Occasion

Venue

Photo Credit: Phocus &

Photo Credit: Meg Burke

PADDLING TRAIL STUDY STINKS After testing last year revealed the presence of human waste in the waters along downtown Pensacola's Bruce Beach, city officials expanded testing to find out about issues along a proposed paddling trail. The results are in, and they're not particu larly encouraging.

"I'm not gonna butter it up for you; I'll just go ahead and lay it out for you," said Barbara Al brecht. She and Dr. Jane Caffery co-authored the University of West Florida's Center for Environ mental Diagnostics and Bioremediation's Pensac ola Bay Paddling Trail Bacterial Study, which was delivered to the city in late September.

The study confirmed significant levels of En terococcus, indicative of animal waste and po tentially human waste from wastewater infiltra tion, at various testing points along the paddling trail, which runs along the municipal Pensaco la Bay waterfront starting at Sanders Beach and into Bayou Texar to Carpenter Creek.

Pensacola City Councilwoman Ann Hill ini tiated this testing along the paddling trail fol lowing the concerns raised about issues at Bruce Beach, where the city is investing millions in public improvements to draw people to the downtown waterfront.

"I am grateful to Barbara Albrecht and Jane Caffrey for proving what we've all suspected for decades," Hill said in an email. "Namely, that our bay water quality is concerning, particularly after a heavy rain."

According to this new report, Enterococ cus levels spiked after rain events, indicating the issue stems from stormwater and groundwa ter making its way into the bay due to rain. Thir teen sites along the paddling trail were tested for Enterococcus from November 2021-April 2022. Five sites showed consistently high levels— Sanders Beach stormwater outfall at I Street, Joe Patti's stormwater outfall at A Street, Spring Street outfall, Bartram Park and Upper Bayou Texar at the 12th Avenue bridge.

"The fact that the worst bacterial contami nation is closest to our stormwater drains and our oldest sewer pipes confirms that we are on the right track in working with ECUA to locate where the leakage is coming from," Hill said. "With continued collaboration with our envi ronmental experts, I am hopeful we can one day return our bays, creeks and bayous to good health so we can fully enjoy our amazing pub lic waterfront."

Albrecht points to earlier studies that raised the same concerns as this new paddling trail study and laments the pace and seeming lack of urgency. She contends that ECUA should be more proactive in pursuing the directives of the DEP consent order and more communicative with the public.

Environmental concerns about the city's waterfront are nothing new. This new paddling report further verifies the already acknowl edged issue. Albrecht wonders if it will actual ly change anything. Will it spur a speedier and better-funded restoration of the wastewater in

frastructure? Will it impact further develop ment in areas that might be unsustainable or environmentally negligible?

"D.C. Reeves claims he's data-driven," Al brecht said, referring to Pensacola's incoming mayor. "Well, that report is packed with data; let's see what he does with it."

EUREKA! While Inweekly reporter Jeremy Mor rison was interviewing leaders about the Pad dle Trail Study, Emerald Coast Utilities Authority reported to city officials that the utility had re vealed E. coli from human sources in the storm at Garden and Spring Streets while repairing a line at the intersection.

ECUA immediately scheduled an emer gency repair/replacement project on Wednes day, Oct. 9, and once the line was excavated, the deficiency became evident. In the mid-'90s, an FDOT storm drain was installed around the ECUA main. The ECUA's 8-inch diameter gravi ty sewer main may also have been damaged and inadequately repaired with a 6-inch diameter section. ECUA's contractor replaced approxi mately 100 feet of antiquated clay sewer main from manhole to manhole on Friday, Oct. 14, eliminating the point source of cross-contami nation with the stormwater system.

While this point source may be a significant contributor to the recently detected E. coli sam pling results, the ECUA, City of Pensacola and FDEP team will continue investigating to ensure no other point sources exist.

At his Monday, Oct. 17, presser, Mayor Gro ver Robinson was optimistic. "We believe that may be our primary culprit. We'll continue to work and continue to test, but we may have found our problem that was creating all of our problems at Bruce Beach."

A REAL IMPACT IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area announced the 11 grant recipients select ed at this year's Annual Meeting held on Sun day, Oct. 16—Pensacola Little Theatre, Santa Rosa Community Theatre, Central Gulf Coast CDF Freedom Schools, General Daniel Chappie James Flight Academy, Keep Pensacola Beau tiful, Navarre Beach Sea Turtle Conservation Center, Escambia County Public Schools Foun dation for Excellence, Pensacola Habitat for Humanity, District One Medical Examiner Sup port, Feeding the Gulf Coast and Healing Paws for Warriors.

"IMPACT members were able to choose to meet at either in-person Focus Area Commit tees or virtual Focus Area Committees," said Roz Leahy, IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area pres ident. "Again, this year, hundreds of IMPACT 100 members participated in the process to re view each grant application, conduct site visits to all applicants and select finalists from each Fo cus Area Committee. We are so thankful for our members who participated and to our volunteer board. Their dedication enables IMPACT 100 to continue serving the community we love."

With 1,142 members this year, IMPACT 100

was able to award $103,820 each to 11 nonprof it organizations in our community for a total im pact of $1,142,020. Since its inception, IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area has now awarded 142 grants totaling $15,092,020 to the Pensacola Bay Area communities.

Membership season begins today, and the first Meet and Mingle event will be held 4:306:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 8. Rishy Studer and Mallory Studer Appleyard will host the event at Bodacious, 407 S. Palafox St. For a full schedule of upcoming Meet and Mingles, visit impact 100pensacola.org/impact-events.

Any nonprofit organization that believes a grant of over $100,000 would be impactful for their organization should check out a new, fun and informative series called Link & Learn, cre ated specifically for the nonprofit community. These events are for nonprofits to link with oth er nonprofit organizations to network and share ideas and learn detailed information about the IMPACT 100 grant process. The first of this series will be 7:30- 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9, at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church, 3200 N. 12th Ave. More information can be found at impact100pensacola.org.

'A REAL HEALTH ISSUE' DeVilliers Street resident Gloria Horning has been tracking the sewage issue for eight years. She credits Coun cilwoman Ann Hill for pushing for water test ing and added, "We see we have a real health issue here."

Horning worries about the new construc tion adding more stress to the antiquated sew er system in downtown Pensacola. "We have infrastructure that's nearly as old as this city. We need to be proactive and stop this fill-andbuild until we get some infrastructure under the ground," she told Inweekly.

"As we move forward, Rick," she shared, "ac countability has to be first and foremost on this. And second, the unbridled building down here that is impacting an infrastructure that can't handle what it has now."

Horning continued, "I've got 13 homes going up behind me that will all take their sewer down Government Street. Government Street at DeV illiers is one of the highest areas where we have SSOs, sewer sanitation overflows. It only takes an inch of rain to make that happen."

LUMON RUNNING AGAIN Days after his Southern Youth Sports Association hosted its largest-ever Soul Bowl at Blue Wahoos Stadium, Escambia County Commissioner Lumon May announced that he would file to run for another term in 2024.

"We are committed to running again," Com missioner May announced on WCOA's "Real News with Rick Outzen. "I mean, we're probably more excited now than we have been about get ting ready for the next election because we cer tainly believe that we have accomplished a lot in District 3, but there are a lot more things that we want to do in District 3."

He continued, "My campaign team is actual ly ready; we're ready for this election cycle to be over and to be able to get out on the campaign trail to continue to do the work that we've start ed here in District 3."

In the Democratic primary in August 2020, Commissioner May defeated his younger brother, LuTimothy May, by an 8-to-1 margin. LuTimothy, a former city official in the Hay ward administration, only received 48 votes more than an unknown write-in candidate did in the 2020 general election against Commis sioner May.

The commissioner praised his campaign team, which has been working with him since 2008 when he ran for the Florida House. "It's not about a campaign or an election. It really is what we did with the Bowl. It's about bringing people together to get their input and have them en gaged and involved."

POSITIONS FILLED Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons told Inweekly publisher Rick Out zen that his agency's recruitment efforts have been very successful.

"For the first time in anyone's memory, we had filled every sworn position that we have," Simmons said. "That's the 20 additional positions we've picked up over the last two years. We do have some non-formal positions that we're still working on filling."

The sheriff's office now has a waiting list. Simmons said, "We continue to have people in the pipeline, and we're continuing to do our test because, as you know, through attrition, through retirements and such, we're going to continue to have some openings. But we look for proba bly the first couple months of the year; we'll have them all in uniform, all in the streets, answering calls for service."

The sheriff has focused on hiring local re cruits. "I'm a local boy, and we really wanted to concentrate on the kids, the boys and girls that grow up in this county or region that want to be a law enforcement officer, whose family is here, and who care that much about our communi ty because it's the community that they grew up in."

He added, "They may work as a resource of ficer in the school that they went to. That to me, that's valuable."

GUN VIOLENCE Gun violence served as the entry point, but a roundtable consisting primar ily of elected officials expanded into a broad conversation about Black-on-Black crime, fa therless households, mental health, socioeco nomic issues and the negative influence of so cial media and video games.

Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons or ganized the gun violence roundtable on Tues day, Oct. 18, in the Brownsville Community Center in the wake of a deadly shooting ear lier this month at Bellview Athletic Park. The roundtable attracted about 100 community members and included three county commis

sioners, two state representatives, a state sena tor and a city councilman.

Simmons opened the roundtable discussion by citing statistics related to 25 homicides cur rently being investigated or already cleared by the Sheriff's Office. He said the homicides were predominantly Black males killing Black males in poor neighborhoods.

Commissioner Lumon May said Black-onBlack crime is a longstanding problem with no easy solutions. He noted that more Black peo ple were killed at the hands of a fellow Black person in 1977 in the U.S. than the number of soldiers who died during the entirety of the Vietnam War.

May spoke in favor of incentivizing em ployment opportunities, particularly for young adults who grow up in low-income families. He said low-income children grow up without the proper tools to succeed, and that falls on the elected officials to figure out how to provide those to them. His words motivated the crowd to respond with applause.

"I agree with what he said 100%," said Has san Hills, a reformed drug dealer who founded the nonprofit Youths Left Behind after his re lease from federal custody. "At the end of the

day, you can put 100 programs in place, you can say 100 things we need to do, but the root of the problem is we have to go into those commu nities that are considered risky behavior, high crime, underserved, low income and give these young adults the opportunity and show them a more excellent way."

Fellow Commissioner Jeff Bergosh recom mended finding means to incentivize families to stay together. He said 40% of children grow up without a father in the household.

"If you're born in a house without a dad, the deck is stacked against you," Bergosh said.

Dr. Michael Roberts lent an educator per spective to the roundtable. Roberts serves as the middle school director of Escambia County Pub lic Schools. He said children today are desensi tized to violence from playing popular shooter video games and that their violent tendencies are detectable as early as pre-kindergarten.

Simmons plans to hold another roundta ble discussion with the same panelists by no lat er than January. At the recommendation of Ber gosh, Simmons asked each panelist to email him short-term and long-term goals as they begin to craft an action plan.

Hills suggested that Simmons expand and

form a second roundtable that includes those directly impacted by poverty. "I'd like the pan el that was there to be at the roundtable, but for them to design another roundtable for those in the urban community, underserved in highcrime areas, and bring them to the roundtable and figure out what can we do to make things better for you."

The sheriff committed to Inweekly and oth ers to having neighborhood leaders and school officials, who were absent due to a scheduled board meeting, at future roundtables.

Simmons also spoke about local law en forcement investing more in technology to pre vent and reduce crime. He estimated the coun ty would utilize a real-life crime center within six-12 months.

A real-time crime center is a state-of-theart hub that enables analysts to merge infor mation gleaned from street cameras, body and dash-mounted cameras, license plate readers, integrated computer-aided dispatch systems and police-operated drones, among other tech nology. The data is overlaid onto a mapping sys tem and immediately relayed to officers.

"I've already identified the location and some of the funding sources," Simmons said. "We have

to make sure we get the right one. We've isolated a program. To move forward, we're going to get some bids and make sure that's the right one."

LEAP CALL OUT The Leadership Pensacola Alumni Association seeks to build a couple of re sources for its business and nonprofit members.

The Speaker's Bureau will serve as a re source of expert speakers willing to present on their given topics. These speakers may have fees that come with their services. Each speaker can be contacted directly at bit.ly/3MSwdXg. If you want to be added to the speaker list, fill out the form at bit.ly/3EVRiOs.

The Community Leadership list features LeaP Alumni willing to step up and serve in vol unteer leadership positions around our commu nity. If you have a board of directors or you're putting on an event, this list can help provide a pool of willing volunteers and can also be found at bit.ly/3eLMel9. Each alumnus has their pas sions listed, so you can be sure you're connect ing with them in the best areas. If you want to be added to the leadership list, fill out the form at bit.ly/3SkeyZm.

For more information, contact Jessica Simp son at leap@pensacolachamber.com {in}

For some of you, the 2022 mid-term elections may seem like a ho-hum affair. Many of the local races were determined in the August primary, which means this ballot won't be as long as past ones. And we haven't seen as many sparks fly as in past elections. Four years ago, we had very competitive U.S. Senate, governor and Pensacola mayor races that drew voters to the poll. Republi can Ron DeSantis beat Democrat Andrew Gillum by only 32,463 with over 8.2 million votes cast. Democrat Nikki Fried upset Re publican Matt Caldwell by less than 6,800 votes.

This year, the race of Democratic Congressman Val Demings vs. incumbent GOP Sen. Marco Rubio appears to be the most competitive statewide race. Republicans have controlled state

BALLOT BREAKDOWN

FEDERAL & STATE

U.S. SENATE

Term: Six Years Salary: $174,000 (source: senate.gov)

Val Demings (Democrat) valdemings.com

Marco Rubio (Republican, incumbent since 2010) marcorubio.com

Uloma Uma Ekpete (Write-in) electulomaekpete.com

Steven B. Grant (No Party Affiliation) stevenbgrant.com

Edward A. Gray (Write-in) givesendgo.com/americanpatriotmovement

Howard Knepper (Write-in) facebook.com/howard.knepper

Tuan "TQ" Nguyen (No Party Affiliation) letsbe-american.com

Moses Quiles (Write-in) iamforussenator.com

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Term: Two Years

Salary: $174,000 (source: house.gov)

Matt Gaetz (Republican, incumbent since 2016) mattgaetz.com

government for the past 34 years, and few believe they will lose much power this election cycle.

Gov. Ron DeSantis needs to win to be seen as the top con tender not named Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomi nation. Charlie Crist won the office as a Republican in 2006, and now a Democrat, he hopes DeSantis' anti-woke agenda will con vince independents to return him to Tallahassee.

The Democrats have fresh faces running for Attorney Gener al, Chief Financial Officer and Commissioner of Agriculture. Sev eral daily newspapers around the state have endorsed their can didacies, but dailies don't have the influence they once did.

Locally, D.C. Reeves won the mayoral race by a large enough

Rebekah Jones (Democrat) rebekahjonescampaign.com

GOVERNOR

Term: Four years

Salary: $141,400 (source: salaries.myflorida.com)

Charlie Crist (Democrat) charliecrist.com

Ron DeSantis (Republican, incumbent since 2018) rondesantis.com

Carmen Jackie Gimenez (No Party Affiliation) carmenjackieforflorida.com

Hector Roos (Libertarian) roosforflorida.com

ATTORNEY GENERAL

Term: Four years

Salary: $132,841 (source: ballotpedia.org)

Aramis Ayala (Democrat) aramisayalafl.com

Ashley Moody (Republican, incumbent since 2018) ashleymoody.com

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Term: Four Years

Salary: $132,841 (source: ballotpedia.org)

Adam Hattersley (Democrat) adamforflorida.com

Jimmy Patronis (Republican, incumbent since 2018) joinjimmy.com

COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER SERVICES

Term: Four Years

vote to avoid the general election. However, a county commis sion seat, school board position and two city council posts are on the ballot.

The ballot has one county referendum regarding an eco nomic development incentive and five amendments to Pensac ola city's charter, one of which will more than double the council members' salaries. There are also three constitutional amend ments to be considered.

Please take the time to visit the candidates' websites and check out the other resources we've provided. Do your home work and remember your vote matters.

Salary: $132,841 (source: ballotpedia.org)

Naomi Esther Blemur (Democrat) naomiblemur.com

Wilton Simpson (Republican) wiltonsimpson.com

FLORIDA SUPREME COURT

Charles T. Canady Appointed by Gov. Crist in 2008

John D. Couriel Appointed by Gov. DeSantis in 2020

Jamie Grosshans Appointed by Gov. DeSantis in 2020

Jorge Labarga

Appointed by Gov. Crist in 2009

Ricky Polston Appointed by Gov. Crist in 2008

Biographies on each can be found at: floridasuprem ecourt.org/justices

FLORIDA CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS

Source: Florida League of Women Voters

AMENDMENT 1: Limitation on the Assessment of Real Property Used for Residential Purposes

ORIGINATOR: Florida Legislature

BALLOT SUMMARY: Proposing an amend ment to the State Constitution, effective Jan. 1, 2023, to authorize the Legislature, by general law, to prohibit the consideration of any change or improvement made to real property used for residential purposes to improve the property's resistance to flood damage in determining the assessed value of such property for ad valorem taxation purposes.

OVERVIEW: Many home improvement proj ects ultimately increase the assessed value of a home, which means the homeowners pay high er property taxes. This amendment would al low the Florida Legislature to pass laws that would make improvements intended to pro tect homes from flood damage exempt from higher assessments. The amendment is in re sponse to the threat to Florida homes from ris ing sea levels.

A YES VOTE WOULD: Authorize the Flori da Legislature to pass laws that would exempt flood resistance improvements from contribut ing to increases in property assessments. That means property owners wouldn't pay higher taxes because of those improvements.

Exempt flood resistance improvements such as "elevating structures, filling basements, and waterproofing," as well as improvements "to allow for stormwater runoff, waterproof ing basements, installing check valves capable of preventing water backup, and elevating fur naces, heaters, and electrical panels." Take ef fect Jan. 1, 2023.

A NO VOTE WOULD: Maintain the sta tus quo, which means homeowners' flood re sistance improvements might result in higher property assessments and higher taxes.

AMENDMENT 2: Abolishing the Constitution Revision Commission

ORIGINATOR: Florida Legislature

BALLOT SUMMARY: "Proposing an amendment to the State Constitution to abolish the Con stitution Revision Commission, which meets at 20-year intervals and is scheduled to next con vene in 2037, as a method of submitting proposed amendments or revisions to the State Consti tution to electors of the state for approval. This amendment does not affect the ability to revise or amend the State Constitution through citizen initiative, constitutional convention, the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, or legislative joint resolution."

OVERVIEW: An amendment to Florida's Con stitution can get on the ballot several ways, in cluding through a vote by the Legislature, a citi zen-led petition drive, constitutional convention, the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission and the Florida Constitution Revision Commis sion (CRC), which convenes every 20 years and whose 37 members are appointed by the gover nor, legislative leaders and the chief justice of the Florida Supreme court. This amendment would abolish the CRC, which last convened in 2017-18 and placed eight amendments on the 2018 ballot, several of which bundled different amendments into one question.

A YES VOTE WOULD: Eliminate the Constitu tion Revision Commission, which was created in 1968 and meets every 20 years to consider chang es to the state Constitution. Leaves four ways for a constitutional amendment to get on the ballot— through the Legislature, a citizen-led initiative, constitutional convention or the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission.

A NO VOTE WOULD: Preserve the state's Con stitution Revision Commission and its ability to present amendments to the voters every 20 years.

AMENDMENT 3: Additional Homestead Property Tax Exemption for Specified Critical Public Service Workforce ORIGINATOR: Florida Legislature

BALLOT SUMMARY: "Proposing an amend ment to the State Constitution to authorize the Legislature, by general law, to grant an addi tional homestead tax exemption for nonschool levies of up to $50,000 of the assessed val ue of homestead property owned by classroom teachers, law enforcement officers, correctional officers, firefighters, emergency medical tech nicians, paramedics, child welfare services pro fessionals, active duty members of the Unit ed States Armed Forces, and Florida National Guard members. This amendment shall take ef fect January 1, 2023."

OVERVIEW: This amendment would authorize the state Legislature to create a new homestead exemption of up to $50,000 for certain public service employees, including "classroom teachers, law enforcement officers, correctional officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, para medics, child welfare services professionals, active duty members of the United States Armed Forces, and members of the Florida National Guard." The exemption means property owners in these pro fessions can subtract $50,000 from the assessed value of their property, which will reduce their lo cal property tax bills. The exemption would be in

addition to the standard $50,000 homestead ex emptions Floridians already receive on their pri mary residence. The new exemption would not apply to assessments for school taxes. The Legis lature has already passed a companion bill that, if the constitutional amendment is passed by 60% of Florida's voters, will create the new exemption and make it effective on Jan. 1, 2023.

A YES VOTE WOULD: Allow the Legislature to create a new homestead exemption up to $50,000. Exclude the exemption from assessments for school property taxes. Cost local governments $85.9 million in lost revenue for fiscal year 202324, growing to $96 million in fiscal year 2026-27. The state would make up for the losses in Florida's 29 "fiscally constrained" counties, primarily rural counties in the Panhandle and South Florida's inte rior. Trigger a companion bill that puts the new ex emption into effect as of Jan. 1, 2023.

A NO VOTE WOULD: Reject giving lawmak ers the ability to create a new homestead exemp tion for certain public service occupations up to $50,000. Have no effect on property tax revenue collected by local governments. Render moot the bill that would have created the new homestead exemption if the amendment had passed.

LOCAL

FLORIDA LEGISLATURE

FLORIDA SENATE, DISTRICT 1

Term: Two Years

Salary: $29,697 (source: ballotpedia.org)

Doug Broxson

(Republican, incumbent since 2016) dougbroxson.com; facebook.com/dougbroxsonfor florida

Prior to his election to the Florida Senate, Broxson represented District 3 in the Florida House, 20102016. If re-elected, he is slated to chair the pow erful Senate Appropriations Committee. He has supported Gov. DeSantis's legislative agenda. He has pledged to "stand with Gov. DeSantis against Joe Biden and Washington's woke liberals to pro tect Florida and our constitutional freedom."

Charlie Nichols (Democrat) escambiademocrats.org/our_candidates

Nichols served in Escambia County as a school administrator for over 30 years. He is a re tired honorably discharged Army veteran with 21 years of military experiences. He has had two gubernatorial appointments and served on many community and state boards and present ly serves as Chair of the Senior Advisory Coun cil (Council on Aging).

FLORIDA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Term: Two Years

Salary: $29,697 (source: ballotpedia.org)

District 1

Franscine C. Mathis (Democrat) facebook.com/people/franscine-mathisfor-florida-state-house-representative-dis trict-1/100057714803422

Mathis has repeatedly displayed selflessness to serve when reaching out and helping District 1 members. As a proud Army mom, with two sons serving our country, she understands our veter

ans' needs. With a daughter in college, she values the need for higher education. Finally, as a work ing-class District 1 citizen, she wants to fight the problems that affect our most vulnerable—poor water quality and the criminal justice system.

Michelle Salzman (Republican, incumbent since 2020) michellesalzmanforhouse.com

In her first term, Salzman helped bring $20 million in appropriations funding for local project. She or ganized the local mental health task force. She has protected and expanded our Second Amendment Rights, fought against abortion-as-a-contraceptive, instituted term limits to ECUA, removed harm ful regulations on small at-home businesses and worked with Gov. DeSantis to help our senior citi zens and fight illicit Fentanyl distribution, human traffickers and dozens of other measures. Salzman processed over 100 constituent cases and hosted or co-hosted six town halls and public forums.

District 2

Alex Andrade (Republican, incumbent since 2018) voteandrade.com

Andrade has worked to pass conservative, promilitary, pro-life and small government legislation. He sponsored HB 7105, which provides benefits for families of members of our armed forces and of first responders who make the ultimate sacri fice in the line of duty. He also sponsored HB 7B, banning the state from enforcing vaccine man dates, and HB 5C to fight against big tech censor ship and carve-outs for big corporations. He has a 100% Pro-Life voting record and has worked to protect Second Amendment rights. Andrade con sistently supports Gov. DeSantis's agenda.

Carollyn Taylor (Democrat) carollyntaylorforfl.com

Taylor works in the cannabis industry with a back ground in insurance and human resources. Her political career was sparked when she saw Dr. Jennifer Zimmerman speak at a local Women's March. She went on to manage Zimmerman's congressional campaign in 2018. Taylor later was a field organizer for the Florida Panhandle for Eliza beth Warren's 2020 presidential run. She has since consulted and managed a variety of campaigns.

ESCAMBIA COUNTY

C OUNTY COMMISSIONER, DISTRICT 4

Term: Four years

Salary: $92,738 (source: edr.state.fl.us)

Myra Van Hoose (Democrat) myravanhoose.com

A former certified public accountant, Van Hoose has most recently served as Achieve Escambia's interim director. In 2021, she was the Monument to Women Veterans donor relations director. She served as president of the Institute for Women in Politics of Northwest Florida, 2018-2020, and is a founding member of the Equity Project Alliance. Van Hoose pledges to bring back honor to the county commission and focus on our community rather than on self-enrichment.

Robert Bender (Republican, incumbent since 2018) voterobertbender.com

An MBA and former insurance consultant,

Bender has been a full-time commissioner since being elected in 2018. He served as commission chairman during the COVID pandemic and the recovery from Hurricane Sally. Bender pushed for an automated toll booth on Pensacola Beach that helped the beach handle record traffic numbers this past summer. He also helped bro ker the deal that led to a mixed-use plan for OLF-8. He has a reputation for thoughtful, de liberate leadership.

EMERALD COAST UTILITIES AUTHORITY, DISTRICT 2

Term: Four years

Salary: $44,693 (source: edr.state.fl.us)

Anderson "Andy" Romagnano (Democrat)

Romagnano is running on a platform of giving the people of Escambia County a vote on whether to establish an electrical utility under ECUA that would be a county utility district and promises to respond to all constituent communications. He wants an ECUA that is more democratic and ac countable to the people, where the janitor work ing the nightshift is treated equally to the wealthi est billionaire with a multimillion-dollar mansion on Bayou Texar.

Lois Benson

(Republican, incumbent since 2004)

facebook.com/loisbensonecua

Benson fought to replace the Main Street Sewage Treatment Plant that was dumping treated wastes into Pensacola Bay with a new state-of-the-art fa cility in northern Escambia County. As an ECUA board member, she also led in establishing curb side recycling. Before her election to the ECUA board, she served on the Pensacola City Coun cil and in the Florida House. Benson's mission is to promote a clean, green and healthy community while keeping rates low.

ESCAMBIA COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD, DISTRICT 2

Term: Four years

Salary: $44,693 (source: edr.state.fl.us)

Paul Fetsko (Incumbent since 2014) vote4fetsko.com

After beginning as a teacher of deaf and hear ing-impaired children, Fetsko's career culminat ed in service with the Escambia County School District as assistant superintendent of Curric ulum & Instruction from 2000-2012. He advo cates to constantly update, develop and expand all necessary tools to maintain the safety of our students and staff. Fetsko's experience, exper tise and track record of success are critical to im proving academic achievement. He will continue to work to find ways to retain high-quality staff.

Ray Guillory rayguillory.com

Growing up in Warrington, Guillory knows Dis trict 2 and believes teachers, parents and stu dents need a strong voice to stand up for them. The board needs someone who will say no more failing schools and students, no more ignoring problems and no more having the lowest-paid teachers and support staff in Florida. We must ensure our children have the tools to succeed. This idea must be at the forefront of every vote and discussion the Board has.

SANTA ROSA ISLAND

AUTHORITY BOARD

Term: Two years

Salary: $6,600

Jeremy Johnson facebook.com/jeremyforsria

As a third-generation beach resident, Johnson is committed to making a difference on Pen sacola Beach. He is running to be an advocate in ensuring that the SRIA receives adequate funding for infrastructure, capital improvement projects, maintenance and public safety from Escambia County. Pensacola Beach is a strong economic engine that benefits all of Escam bia County and deserves more to ensure the Is land's future is healthy for those who live, work and play here.

Thomas Campanella (Incumbent since 2010) thomascampanella.com

For the past 12 years, Campanella has been the residents' voice on the SRIA board. The SRIA always needs to be on guard against special in terests that could compromise community val ues. Campanella has battled developers and outside interests while preserving the charac ter of the beach community. The SRIA board must ensure that our beaches are safe and clean. He will protect Pensacola Beach's proud identity as a resident, tourist and environmen tally friendly island.

Charletha Powell charlethapowell.com

Powell has been active in the community serv ing on the city of Pensacola Planning Board as well as the boards of FloridaWest Economic De velopment Alliance and Ciclovia Pensacola. Her primary issues are responsible economic devel opment, safe and vibrant neighborhoods, and natural resource perseveration. She is running to help create a thriving District 2 though her willingness to support everyone with resourc es and opportunities for generational health, wealth and sustainability.

District 6 Allison Patton electallisonpatton.com

An attorney and financial business leader, Pat ton is ready to take on the challenges of inves tigating the causes and solutions to homeless ness, preparing for the City's negotiations with FPL and developing a strategic plan for Pensaco la. She will be an advocate for our right to a safe and beautiful city, quality housing options, fulfill ing career opportunities, walkable and bikeable neighborhoods, an excellent education system, a variety of outdoor recreational activities, a clean environment and a vibrant downtown.

Ann Hill (Incumbent since 2018) electannhill.com

OVERVIEW: Since 1992, the Economic Develop ment Ad Valorem Tax Exemption (EDATE) has been a tool to incentivize businesses to relocate to Escambia County and encourage local busi nesses to expand. Over the last three years, Es cambia County has had eight active EDATE or dinances that have helped create 5,400 new jobs and $1.2 billion in capital investments.

CITY OF PENSACOLA REFERENDUM

Question No. 1: Shall the Charter be amend ed to delete, add or revise provisions including the preamble; scope of municipal powers; duties of Mayor and Council Members; removing Coun cil staff; notice of special meetings; computation of time; procedures for adopting Charter amend ments and for appointing members to Charter Re view Commission; and deleting transitional lan guage from original charter? Yes–For Approval; No–Against Approval.

OVERVIEW: This cleans up the language of the charter, deleting wording that handled the transi tion from the city-manager form of government when the new charter became effective in 2010 with the election of the strong mayor. It also adds statements regarding equal opportunity, equity, cultural diversity, inclusiveness and environmen tal stewardship to the preamble.

cutting the petition requirement to run for elected office from 5% to 2.5% of the number of registered voters in a normal election year and from 2.5% to 1.25% in a redistricting year.

Question No. 4: Shall the Charter be amend ed to provide that the annual salary of members of City Council be set each year by a formula de rived from Florida Legislature's Office of Econom ic and Demographic Research, beginning in 2024 and continuing thereafter for each fiscal year that a member is in office? Yes–For Approval; No–Against Approval.

OVERVIEW: This takes political pressure off council members who want to raise their salaries by basing it on a state formula, which is similar to how county offices are handled. Council members would see their annual pay jump from $21,486 to $44,693, the same as the school board.

Question No. 5: Shall the Charter be amend ed to add a further exception to the powers of ini tiative for ordinances and of referendum for any measures passed by the City Council regarding the compelling of government speech in a partic ular manner; and to clarify the timing of and pro cedures for petitioning for initiative and referen dum? Yes–For Approval; No–Against Approval.

CITY COUNCIL

Term: Four years

Salary: $21,486 (source: cityofpensacola.com)

District 2 Charles Bare bare4council.com

A combat veteran who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Bare is seeking another term on the Pensacola City Council after having served as an at-large member from 2012-2016. He be lieves city residents should receive a discount on natural gas from Pensacola Energy. He wants to create a Stormwater Task Force to ensure that funds are spent effectively and equita bly between districts. He has pledged to spend time in each neighborhood and attend neigh borhood association meetings when invited.

In seeking re-election, Hill points to the city's accomplishments over the past four years. Her "Ann Plan" prioritizes five facets of life that make District 6 better for all its residents—a cleaner environment, bike/ped safety, attain able housing, historic/cultural preservation and increasing public amenities. By focusing on the quality of life for our citizens first, business es are naturally attracted to Pensacola, and we progress forward as a top destination for entre preneurs and tourists.

Question No. 2: Shall the Charter be amended to provide that City Clerk and City Attorney shall have the sole power to hire, discipline and termi nate staff and employees supervised by them and that neither Mayor nor City Council shall interfere with the exercise of that power? Yes–For Approv al; No–Against Approval.

OVERVIEW: This gives the city clerk and city at torney control over the hiring and firing of their staffs without interference from the mayor or city council. The mayor and council retain power over the hiring and firing of the city clerk or city attorney.

OVERVIEW: This prevents a citizen-led refer endum initiative that would compel government speech. It adds language that any challenge to a city ordinance must begin within 60 days of the passage of the ordinance being challenged.

Renewal of Authority to Grant Economic Development Ad Valorem Tax Exemptions

Shall the Board of County Commissioners of Escambia County, Florida be authorized to grant, pursuant to s. 3, Art. VII of the State Con stitution, property tax exemptions to new busi nesses and expansions of existing businesses? Yes-For authority to grant exemptions; NoAgainst authority to grant exemption.

Question No. 3: Shall the Charter be amend ed to reduce filing fees for candidates for offices of Mayor and City Council; reduce the percentage of signatures needed for being placed on a ballot for either the office of Mayor or City Council; and further reduce, during decennial census years, the percentage of signatures needed for candidates for Mayor or City Council to be placed on the bal lot? Yes–For Approval; No–Against Approval.

OVERVIEW: This is makes it easier for residents to run for mayor or city council, by lowering the filing fee to 3% of the position's salary to 1.5%. and

Eats

Bar–West Pensacola/Perdido Key

for Games

EARLY VOTING

Early voting in Florida started on Monday, Oct. 24, and continues through Saturday, Nov. 5.

Any registered voter can cast their ballot at the early voting location of their choice. In Escambia County, voters have 10 spots to pick from, and each is open 8 a.m.-6 p.m. daily.

Early Voting Locations:

Supervisor of Elections Office —213 S. Palafox, Second Floor

Main Library—239 Spring St.

Molino Community Center —6450-A Highway 95A, Molino Genealogy Branch Library—5740 N. Ninth Ave.

Southwest Branch Library —12248 Gulf Beach Highway

Bellview Branch Library —6425 Mobile Highway Escambia County Extension —3740 Stefani Road, Cantonment

Brownsville Community Center —3200 W. DeSoto St.

UWF International Center —11000 University Parkway, Bldg. 71

Billy G. Ward Courthouse —7500 N. Century Blvd., Century

VOTE BY MAIL

All qualified voters can vote using a vote-bymail ballot under Florida law. A voter, or some one designated by the voter, may request a voteby-mail ballot from the Supervisor of Elections in person or by mail, email or telephone. For the

information required to request a ballot, visit es cambiavotes.com. The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29.

Vote-by-mail ballots must be received by the Supervisor of Elections no later than 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 8. If you are worried about using the mail service, you can drop it off at the Super visor of Elections office or any early voting loca tion during the early voting period.

You can also surrender your vote-by-mail ballot at an early voting location and opt to vote in person instead. Your vote-by-mail ballot will be securely discarded, and your in-person ballot will be counted in its place. But the key thing to remember is you have to bring in your ballot and surrender it. If you are unable to return the bal lot, you'll have to vote via provisional ballot, and nobody wants that.

Already sent in your vote-by-mail ballot? You can track it online at escambiavotes.gov/ track-my-ballot. They are counting them as they come in, so once it's marked "received," it should take about 48 hours or less to be marked "counted."

ELECTION DAY Tuesday, Nov. 8

So you decided to vote on Election Day? First, find your precinct by using the "Find My Precinct" tool at escambiavotes.gov/precinctfinder. And don't worry if you moved recently and forgot to update your address information. The Supervisor of Elections can help you up to,

even on Election Day. Call (850) 595-3900 or stop by their office, 213 S. Palafox, Second Floor.

Polls are open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov 8. If you're trying to gauge your wait time, the heaviest times for voters are usually be fore 8 a.m. and between 4 and 6 p.m. No matter what time you show up, make sure you're pre pared and patient.

To vote in person (early and on Election Day), you must present a photo and signature identification card. Acceptable forms of this kind of ID include Florida Driver's Licenses, student and military IDs and U.S. passports. Your voter registration card isn't necessary.

If you need assistance due to a disability or inability to read or write English, you are entitled to assistance in voting. You may bring someone with you, or poll workers from different political parties will assist you.

And remember—if you're in line when the polls close, you still get to vote. So don't leave just because the clock strikes 7 p.m.

ELECTION PROTECTION

Escambia County has plenty polling sites and normally short wait times to vote. But vot er suppression is still an issue and could happen anytime, anywhere.

If you experience a problem while trying to vote, don't just walk away. Try going to the SOE office and asking them what's up. Or call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683)—it's a na tionwide non-partisan election protection hotline.

WATCH YOUR SELF(IE)

Florida is one of 18 states that have laws against taking photos in polling places. Florida laws prohibit photography in the polling room or early voting area. You also cannot take a photo of your or someone else's ballot and share it on social media. Save the selfies of you with your voting sticker for outside the poll location.

You can wear political or promotional ap parel while voting. But you can't verbally ex press political views of any kind inside the poll ing place.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

•The League of Women Voters of Pensacola Bay Area has launched a nonpartisan election re source, vote411.org. Voters can enter their ad dresses to find information about the candidates appearing on their ballot.

•The Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce has published the responses to its 2022 Candi date Questionnaires from the candidates for Es cambia County Commission at Pensacola City Council at bit.ly/3O8VknK.

•WSRE's

•League

•Escambia

Arts & Entertainment

art, film, music, stage, books and other signs of civilization...

Good and Gay

By Dakota Parks

"Good and gay" is at the heart of what Sun day's Child does. Since 2013, this philanthrop ic LGBTQ-focused nonprofit has been striving to make the Gulf Coast not just a better place for the queer community but a more inclusive, accepting and empathetic community for all. The original founders set out to promote wider visibility and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community—to show the Pensacola Bay Area that "gay is good"—by set ting a philanthropic example.

This impact can now be seen across the en tire community, from funding film equipment at the Stamped LGBTQ+ Film Festival and an X-ray machine at the Pensacola Humane Society to fur nishing the recently opened Ella L Jordan Afri can American History Museum and helping Gulf Coast Kid's House fund customized training mod ules for working with LGBTQ+ victims of abuse. Since its inception, Sunday's Child has awarded more than $764,000 to local charities in the Pen sacola Bay Area that place a value on diversity, in clusion and equality.

"I want people to know there is an accepting community in Pensacola—not just our communi ty itself but also our members of Sunday's Child. We are an accepting group of allies and mem bers of the LGBTQ+ community who are trying to make a difference here on the Gulf Coast," Sun day's Child President Jacey Cosentino said. "Our mission is to educate the community and serve as a pillar in the LGBTQ+ community to teach others about diversity and inclusion and how that can be translated into our day-to-day lives—in our work places, our homes or traveling—to ultimately cre ate a more inclusive environment within our com munity and beyond."

While not all the grants that Sunday's Child awards have a direct tie to the LGBTQ+ com

munity, each organization that receives fund ing is dedicated to diversity and inclusion with in their organization and beyond. In addition to funding LGBTQ-specific grants, Sunday's Child has provided funding to a myriad of organiza tions dedicated to curbing food insecurity, closing education gaps, serving vulnerable populations, protecting wildlife and endangered animals, and influencing cultural change through the power of art. Many organizations have also been influenced by Sunday's Child to reexamine diversity within their own organization.

"It's easy to say you're inclusive, but the hard part is actually implementing a strategy and a mindset of equality in all aspects of your life," Cosentino said. "We've had organizations implement gender-neutral bathrooms, intro duce better health care options for transgender employees, enact non-discrimination policies and even reexamine their bylaws after work ing with Sunday's Child and learning about the work that we do. That's why I think empathy and diversity training is so important. We are cur rently working on furthering the education of our board and building workshops for business es and nonprofits to learn about creating inten tionally inclusive environments."

Part of this current community outreach ef fort also includes membership and ensuring that anyone who wants to join Sunday's Child is able to— regardless of income.

To fund the $25K-$50K grants that Sun day's Child awards each year, members pay annu al membership dues that are pooled together and used to fund grants. Every dollar down to the last penny from annual membership is used to fund grants that promote diversity and inclusion. Indi viduals can pledge $1,000 to join, duos can pledge

$500 a piece to become a member and trios can pledge $333. Sunday's Child also has a scholar ship option that is volunteer and need-based for college students, young professionals and poten tial members who cannot afford dues. Now, there is also an introductory level membership for $100 a year that opens the door even further for new members to join.

"As a scholarship recipient myself for several years, I was able to make a positive impact on this community while many of my peers wouldn't join citing financial reasons," Hane McLeaish, a non binary musician and Sunday's Child board mem ber, explained. "The voices of our membership bring diversity from inside our organization to a community of service. It felt imperative for me to work on this initiative in order to increase access for those that want to help shape a more inclusive Pensacola. Our community is made up of a beau tiful variety of humans, and there is so much love to share through the work of Sunday's Child. Now anyone can help make our community more di verse, accepting and inclusive through our new $100 introductory membership option."

Sunday's Child is currently accepting new members for 2023, and the membership cycle closes on Dec. 31, 2022.

If you are interested in learning more about Sunday's Child or becoming a member, there are four events left this year—a Halloween costume party hosted by Denise & Nichole Lippy with cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and live music by Brynne & Bones; an educational workshop on the com ing out journey and supporting LGBTQ+ youth led by Dr. Lisa B Schwartz, a sexuality educator and psychotherapist with more than 20 years of ex perience; the annual Big Mixer outside the Stud er Community Institute; and an exclusive film

screening of the local documentary "Someone Waits For Me," directed by the Council on Aging of West Florida. This short documentary follows the experiences of five elderly LGBTQ+ residents of the Gulf Coast and was funded by a Sunday's Child grant.

"Sunday's Child not only highlights the strengths of the LGBTQ+ community locally but also the heart of what it means to be a compas sionate human through philanthropy, education and service. If that is something you are interested in doing, we have plenty of ways for you to help," McLeaish said. {in}

UPCOMING SUNDAY’S CHILD EVENTS

DETAILS: sundayschild.org or facebook.co m/ sundayschildpensacola

•HALLOWEEN COSTUME MIXER

WHEN: 6 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 30

•"UNDERSTANDING THE COMING OUT JOURNEY" WORKSHOP

WHEN: 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 2

WHERE: Voices of Pensacola, 117 E. Govern ment St.

•BIG MIXER

WHEN : 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 17

WHERE : Studer Community Institute, 220 W. Garden St.

•"SOMEONE WAITS FOR ME" FILM SCREENING

WHEN: 6 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 1

WHERE: Hellcat Hangar, 1008 N. Navy Blvd.

HALLOWEEN EVENTS

ROCKY HORROR MURDER MYSTERY

DINNER SHOW Improbable Cause Mystery Theatre and Seville Quarter present a special murder mystery dinner show Thursday, Oct. 27, from 6-9:30 p.m., at Seville Quarter, 130 E. Gov ernment St. Dress as your favorite Rocky Horror character. Tickets are $65 and available at seville quarter.com.

HAUNTED CAR WASH Take part in a Haunted Car Wash now-Oct. 31 to benefit Alzheimer's Association at Aqua Express Car Wash, 789 W. Nine Mile Road. Visit aquaexpresscarwash.net for details.

BOO AT THE ZOO Boo at the Zoo runs each weekend through Oct. 30. Have your little ones don their favorite costumes for a fun time at the Gulf Breeze Zoo's Boo at the Zoo, located at 5701 Gulf Breeze Parkway. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m., with the last admission at 4 p.m. Tickets are $9 for members and $19.95-$25.95 for regular ad mission. Visit gbzoo.com for details. The Zoo will be decked out for Halloween fun complete with bounces houses, face painting

and, of course, our Ambassador Animal Head quarters. Explore the trick-or-treat trail, featuring more than 50 vendors with candy, treats and toys.

HAUNTED HOUSE WALKING AND TROL LEY TOURS Get your ghoul on with the UWF Historic Trust's Annual Haunted House Walking and Trolley Tours. Buy your tickets today for the Trolley of the Doomed; Adults Only Redlight Walking Tour; Murder and Mayhem Walking Tour; or the Seville Spirits Spooky Walking Tour. Tours are at 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 28. Tickets are $10-$20. For tickets and informa tion, visit historicpensacola.org.

HALLOWEEN SKATE JAM AT WATERBOYZ

Skate contests including costume contest, live music with Cookies and Cake and Basilantros, and raffle tickets to benefit First Ride, Friday, Oct. 28, from 6-8 p.m. Free jam admission with costume. $15 to compete without costume. Visit facebook. com/waterboyzsurfandskate for details.

MUMMY & ME CHARCUTERIE Visit Boda cious, 407-D S. Palafox, 6 p.m., Friday, Oct. 28, for a Halloween-themed charcuterie class. Cost is $85. For more information, visit bodaciousshops.com.

RITUAL 6 AND HALLOWEEN PARTY Listen to goth/industrial band Ritual 6 and enjoy a Hal loween party at The Handlebar, 319 N. Tarragona St., Friday, Oct. 28, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 and available at thehandlebar850.com.

THE HORROR BALL DRAG SHOW Enjoy a Halloween-themed drag show hosted by Terrah Card at Alga Beer Co., 2435 N. 12th Ave. Show starts at 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 28. $10 cover for ages 13 and up. Featuring performances by special guests Dotte Com and Drunk Text featuring Ter rah Card, Alastina, Aniyah Jade Samore, Judah and Sunny Daze.

ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW Get ready for Halloween with an adults-only showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Blue Wa hoos Stadium, 351 Cedar St., 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 28. Come in costume and be prepared for an im mersive experience. Tickets are $20 and include a prop bag. For more information, visit facebook. com/bluewahoosbaseball.

HALLOWEEN AT LAGUNA'S Enjoy fall fest activities, pumpkin and costume contests, and more, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 29, at La guna's, 460 Pensacola Beach Blvd. Visit lagunas pensacolabeach.com for details.

AUTISM PENSACOLA'S TRUNK OR TREAT

Enjoy a Spooktacular Trunk or Treat for special needs families Saturday, Oct. 29, from 1-3 p.m., at Pearl Nelson Center, 916 E. Fairfield Drive. Visit autismpensacola.org.

FAMILY FUN CLASS: HALLOWEEN HOCUS POCUS CHARCUTERIE Learn to make a fes tive charcuterie board Saturday, Oct. 29, from 4-6 p.m., at Pensacola Cooks, 4051 Barrancas Ave., Ste. C. Tickets are $65 per family. Visit facebook. com/pensacolacooks for details.

OPEN BOOKS HALLOWEEN BOOK SALE

Stock up on books at the Open Books Halloween Book Sale with thousands of titles available for $1, Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 29 and 30, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., at 1040 N. Guillemard St. Visit face book.com/openbooksbookstore for details.

ZALLOWEEN "Zalloween," hosted by Zarzaur Law, 100 S. Palafox, is 4-6 p.m., Friday, Oct. 29, and will include candy, games, a fire truck that

kids can explore from the Pensacola Fire Depart ment, free mini snow cones, an arts and crafts station with First City Art Center, Pensacon, can dy and crafts with Pen Air Federal Credit Union, a hands-on creepy crawly exhibit with Animal Tales LLC and more. A kid's costume contest will kick off at 5 p.m. with four age group categories and a $100 first prize for each age group. The first 250 kids in costume will also receive a reflective trickor-treat bag and a pumpkin strobe light.

HALLOWEEN COSTUME CONTEST AND PUMPKIN BOWLING AT O'RILEY'S Head to O'Riley's Uptown Tavern, 3728 Creighton Road, on Saturday, Oct. 29, to participate in their an nual costume contest. There is $500 in cash and prizes for the top three contestants. Pumpkin Bowling will be set up in the backyard area at 9 p.m. You must be 18+ to participate. Final judging for the costume contest is at 11 p.m.

TALKING TO THE DEAD: ALL HALLOWS EVE AND THE VICTORIAN SÉANCE Learn about the fascination, history and theatrics of spiritualism and the Victorian séance. UWF's living history department will share the origins of All Hallows Eve and the rise of spiritualism in the Victorian era into the 1920s and demonstrate the theatrics common in a Victorian séance. $30/per person (18 years and older only). Space is limited to 7 people at 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 29. Refreshments will be served. Tickets are $30 per person and can be purchased at his toricpensacola.org.

THE WITCHING HOUR Join Perfect Plain Brewing Co., 50 E. Garden St., for cocktails, spooky décor, costumes, tarot card readings and more, 5 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 29. Visit facebook. com/perfectplainbrewingco for details.

BARKTOBER AT BOODACIOUS Join Boda cious, 407-D S. Palafox, Saturday, Oct. 29, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., for their Barktober dog costume con test. There will be prizes for best costume, most well-behaved pup and most creative dog name. There will also be a pup-cup eating contest.

WAHOOLOWEEN AT BLUE WAHOOS Come in costume to the annual Wahooloween celebration at Blue Wahoos Stadium, Satur day, Oct. 29. Trick or treat begins at 5 p.m., and a showing of "Hocus Pocus" begins at 6 p.m.

a&e happenings

Admission is just $7. No outside food, drinks or chairs permitted. Concessions will be open. Get your tickets by visiting the link at facebook.com/ bluewahoosbaseball.

STRONG STREET STUDIO PUMPKIN PARTIES This year, Strong Street Studio is offering a mix of shopping options for your convenience with multiple sales online and in studio. New Inventory will be released for sale online as well as in the studio. Studio sales are 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 29, located at 109 N. A St., Unit B. Details at strongstreetstudioglass.com.

ODD HALLOWS' EVE AT ODD COLONY Join Odd Colony, 260 N. Palafox, Saturday, Oct. 29, from 7 p.m.-midnight, for dark beer releases, cos tume contest, baked goods, MI SU Street Food and classic Halloween movies. Visit facebook. com/oddcolony for details.

NIGHTMARE ON MAIN STREET Take part in a Halloween-themed market with spooky ven dors, food and drinks, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 30, at The Garden, 501 S. Palafox.

HOWL O' WEEN Head to Perfect Plain Brewing Co., 50 E. Garden St., Sunday, Oct. 30, for its fifth annual Howl O'Ween Pet Costume Contest. Reg istration is at 1 p.m. and the contest is at 2 p.m. Visit facebook.com/perfectplainbrewingco for details.

CCB SKELETON SCAVENGER HUNT Help Coastal County Brewing, 3041 E. Olive Road,

locate their missing skeleton with a fun scavenger hunt, 2-4 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 30. First 50 to enter receive a Halloween goodie bag for kids or a CCB gift card for adults.

PENSACOLA HUMANE SOCIETY BARKTOBER FEST Make a date with your best furry friend and treat him or her to a howlin' good time at the Pensacola Humane Society's annual Bark toberfest, Sunday, Oct. 30, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., at Community Maritime Park, 351 W. Cedar St. Animal rescue organizations will be on hand with adoptable dogs and plenty of information about different programs each offers such as volunteer ing, fostering, donation needs and more.

ARTS & CULTURE

PENSACOLA FAIR SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

The Pensacola Fair is Thursday, Oct. 20-Sunday, Oct. 30. located at 6655 Mobile Highway. Gen eral gate admission is $14 for adults, $6 for chil dren ages 4-11 and free for children 3 and under.

Unlimited ride wristbands are $25 for MondayThursday (also good on Sunday, Oct. 30) and $30 for Friday-Sunday. Individual ride credits will also be available. There is also a $5 parking fee.

For more information on the Fair, call (850) 944-4500 or visit pensacolafair.com. You can also join us on Facebook at facebook.com/pensaco lainterstatefair.

Thursday, Oct. 27

•Fair hours: 2–11 p.m.

•Entertainment: The Beach Buoys-Tribute to the Beach Boys, 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 28

•Fair hours: 4 p.m.–2 a.m.

•Entertainment: White Tie Rock EnsembleTribute to Styx and Van Halen, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29

•Fair hours: 11 a.m.– midnight

• Entertainment: Parmalee, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30

•Fair hours: 11 a.m.–10 p.m.

CROCHET CLUB Meet up with the Crochet Club at Molino Library, located at 6450-A Highway 95A, 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 27, to craft.

OPERA AFTER DARK Enjoy a live perfor mance from Pensacola Opera with food trucks, local vendors and glow sticks, Friday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m., at Museum Plaza. Show is free to attend. Visit facebook.com/pensacolaopera for details.

UNREQUITED Based on William Shake speare's romantic tragedy "Romeo and Juliet," "Unrequited" is an immersive theatrical event at Pensacola Little Theatre, 400 S. Jefferson St. Dance with the Capulets in their grand ballroom, dodge the Montagues on the streets of Verona and be a part of a thrilling affair. Must be 21 to attend. Shows are 7, 8:15 and 9:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 28; 7 and 8:15 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 29; 7, 8:15 and 9:30 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 30; 7 and 8:15 p.m., Monday, Oct. 31; 7, 8:15 and 9:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 4; 7, 8:15 and 9:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 5;

7, 8:15 and 9:30 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 6; 7, 8:15 and 9:30 p.m., Tuesdays, Nov. 8 and 7, 8:15; and 9:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 9. Tickets are $50 and come with three drink tokens. Visit pensaco lalittletheatre.com for details.

DIY PUMPKIN BATH BOMBS Join Bellview Library's STEAM team on Friday, Oct. 28, at 5 p.m., for a fun, interactive class on how to make a bath bomb. Recommend for ages 12 and up. Located at 6425 Mobile Highway.

BODACIOUS BIBLIOPHILES BOOK CLUB

Join Bodacious' book club for a discussion of "Hidden Pictures" by Jason Rekulak Tuesday, Nov. 1, at 5 p.m. Bodacious Bookstore is located at 110 E. Intendencia St. Visit facebook.com/ bodaciousbookstore for details.

MEET GGAF INTERNATIONAL ARTIST

LARA SOPHIE BENJAMIN An Invited Inter national Artist will be a part of the festival once again after being canceled the last two years due to the pandemic. This year's invited artist is Lara Sophie Benjamin from Cyprus. She is a painter who works primarily in oil paints.

Join for a reception and presentation Wednesday, Nov. 2, at 5:30 p.m., at Pensacola State College Art Gallery, 1000 College Blvd.

for more listings visit inweekly.net

free will astrology

WEEK OF OCTOBER

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): Of all the rich philanthropists in the world, Aries author MacK enzie Scott is the most generous. During a re cent 12-month period, she gave away $8.5 billion. Her focus is on crucial issues—racial equality, LG BTQ+ rights, pandemic relief, upholding and pro moting democracy and addressing the climate emergency. She disburses her donations quick ly and without strings attached and prefers to avoid hoopla and ego aggrandizement. I suggest we make her your inspirational role model in the coming weeks. May she motivate you to gleeful ly share your unique gifts and blessings. I think you will reap selfish benefits by exploring the perks of generosity. Halloween costume suggestion—phi lanthropist, Santa Claus, compassion freak.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): What animal best represents your soul? Which species do you love the most? Now would be a good time to try this imaginative exercise. You're in a phase when you'll thrive by nurturing your inner wild thing. You will give yourself blessings by stoking your creature intelligence. All of us are part-beast, and this is your special time to foster the beauty of your beast. Halloween costume suggestion— your favorite animal or the animal that symboliz es your soul.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): During the ty rannical reign of Spain's fascist government in the 1930s, Gemini poet Federico García Lorca cre atively resisted and revolted with great cour age. One critic said Lorca "was all freedom in side, abandon and wildness. A tulip, growing at the foot of a concrete bulwark." I invite you to be inspired by Lorca's untamed, heartfelt beau ty in the coming weeks, Gemini. It's a favorable time to rebel with exuberance against the thing that bothers you most, whether that's bigotry, in justice, misogyny, creeping authoritarianism, or anything else. Halloween costume suggestion—a high-spirited protestor.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): If the trick ster god Mercury gave you permission to do one mischievous thing today and a naughty thing to morrow and a rascally thing two days from now, what would you choose? Now is the perfect time for you Cancerians to engage in roguish, playful,

By Rob Brezsny

puckish actions. You are especially likely to get away with them, karma-free—and probably even benefit from them—especially if they are motivat ed by love. Are you interested in taking advantage of this weird grace period? Halloween costume suggestion—prankster, joker, fairy, elf.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): Everyone's mind con stantly chatters with agitated fervor—what I call the ever-flickering flux. We might as well accept this as a fundamental element of being human. It's a main feature, not a bug. Yet there are ways to tone down the inner commotion. Meditation can help. Communing with nature often works. Do ing housework sometimes quells the clamor for me. The good news for you, Leo, is that you're in a phase when it should be easier than usual to cul tivate mental calm. Halloween costume sugges tion—meditation champion; tranquility superstar; gold medalist in the relaxation tournament.

time to re-access resources and powers and po tentials you possessed long ago—even as far back as your previous incarnations.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): I guess it would be difficult to create a practical snake costume for Halloween. How would you move around? You'd have to slither across the floor and the ground ev erywhere you go. So maybe instead you could be a snake priest or snake priestess—a magic conjur er wearing snake-themed jewelry and clothes and crown. Maybe your wand could be a caduceus. I'm nudging you in this direction is because I think you will benefit from embodying the mythic attributes of a snake. As you know, the creature sheds its old skin to let new skin emerge. That's a perfect sym bol for rebirth, fertility, transformation and heal ing. I'd love those themes to be your specialties in the coming weeks.

Halloween costume suggestion—your most fasci nating ancestor.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): "Education is an admirable thing," said author Oscar Wilde. "But it is well to remember that nothing worth know ing can be taught." What?! That's an exasperating theory. I don't like it. In fact, I protest it. I reject it. I am especially opposed to it right now as I contem plate your enhanced power to learn amazing les sons and useful knowledge and life-changing wis dom. So here's my message for you, Virgo—what Oscar Wilde said DOES NOT APPLY to you these days. Now get out there and soak up all the inspir ing teachings that are available to you. Halloween costume suggestion—top student.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): To celebrate Hal loween, I suggest you costume yourself as a char acter you were in a past life. A jeweler in first-cen tury Rome? A midwife in 11th-century China? A salt trader in 14th-century Timbuktu? If you don't have any intuitions about your past lives, be play ful and invent one. Who knows? You might make an accurate guess. Why am I inviting you to try this fun exercise? Because now is an excellent

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): "I need my sleep," proclaimed Sagittarian comedian Bill Hicks. "I need about eight hours a day and about ten at night." I don't think you will need as much slumber as Hicks in the coming nights, Sagittari us. On the other hand, I hope you won't scrimp on your travels in the land of dreams. Your decisions in the waking world will improve as you give your self maximum rest. The teachings you will be giv en while dreaming will make you extra smart and responsive to the transformations unfolding in your waking life. Halloween costume suggestion— dancing sleepwalker; snoozing genius; angel ban ishing a nightmare; fantastic dream creature.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): Recent ly, my mom told me my dad only spoke the Slova kian language, never English, until he started first grade in a school near Detroit, Michigan. Both of his parents had grown up in the Austro-Hungari an Empire but immigrated to the United States in their youth. When I related this story to my Slova kian cousin Robert Brežny, he assured me it's not true. He met my dad's mother several times, and he says she could not speak Slovakian. He thinks she was Hungarian, in fact. So it's unlikely my dad spoke Slovakian as a child. I guess all families have odd secrets and mysteries and illusions, and this is one of mine. How about you, Capricorn? I'm hap py to say that the coming months will be a favor able time to dig down to the roots of your family's secrets and mysteries and illusions. Get started!

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): My Aquari an friend Allie told me, "If a demon turned me into a monster who had to devour human beings to get my necessary protein, I would only eat evil billion aires like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg." What about you, Aquarius? If you woke up one morning and found you had transformed into a giant wolfdragon that ate people, who would you put on your menu? I think it's a good time to meditate on this hypothetical question. You're primed to ac tivate more ferocity as you decide how you want to fight the world's evil in the months and years to come. Halloween costume suggestion—a giant wolf-dragon that eats bad people.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): Do you value the feeling of wildness? Is that an experience you seek and cultivate? If so, what conditions rouse it? How does it feel? When it visits you, does it have a healthy impact? Are you motivated by your plea surable brushes with wildness to reconfigure the unsatisfying and unwild parts of your life? These are questions I hope you will contemplate in the coming weeks. The astrological omens suggest you have more power than usual to access wild ness. Halloween costume suggestion—whatever makes you feel wild.

THIS WEEK'S HOMEWORK: Here’s another Hal loween costume suggestion—be the opposite of your self. newsletter.freewillastrology.com {in}

Tired of suffering from droopy eyelids?  Uplift your eyelids with the once daily eye drop, Upneeq. Call now to schedule your appointment with the eye care specialists at Terrezza Optical: 850-434-2060

freewillastrology.com freewillastrology@freewillastrology.com Rob Brezsny © Copyright 2022

All of us are part-beast, and this is your special time to foster the beauty of your beast.

Your decisions in the waking world will improve as you give yourself maximum rest.

news of the weird

WHAT BURN BAN? Things got a little heated— which is to say 73 vehicles were utterly consumed by raging flames—at the annual fall festival at the Robinson Family Farm in Temple, Texas on Oct. 15, an event that features a pumpkin patch, hay rides, live music, kids' games and more. The Bell County Fire Marshall's Office is seeking informa tion about an attendee who, according to witness es reporting on social media, flicked a cigarette butt in the grassy parking lot, which, combined with the gusty winds and dry conditions that had already prompted the county to issue a burn ban, most likely started the blaze. "I have to say that is the most exciting and expensive pumpkin patch we've been to," one attendee posted on Facebook after the disaster claimed their family van.

UNSPORTSMANLIKE David Alan Taylor, 41, of Pensacola, Florida, did not follow the guide lines for safe tackling recommended by the vari ous youth, college and professional football orga nizations when he charged onto the practice field on Sept. 20, donned a helmet, got into a football stance and charged his target, burying his hel met in said target's chest before grabbing him by the arms and pushing him to the ground. But it wasn't Taylor's form that got him in trouble; it was the fact that his victim was 9 years old. The Pen sacola News Journal reported that shortly before demonstrating his rusty football skills, Taylor had become enraged upon seeing his son being over powered by the victim during a one-on-one tack ling drill. The tackled youth was not seriously hurt, and Taylor was booked to the Escambia Coun ty jail on a first-degree felony count of aggravat ed child abuse and a misdemeanor count of disor derly conduct.

AWESOME! When your horse runs off with a herd of wild mustangs, let him go, because man, he's gone. That was the reality Shane Adams of Fielding, Utah, had to accept when his 10-yearold horse, Mongo, joined a passing herd in the middle of the night during a camping trip eight years ago. Adams reported his horse missing and searched the area regularly for years, to no avail. But Yahoo Insider reported that the Bureau of Land Management recently contacted Adams with incredible news: Mongo had been found. The horse is seriously underweight due to the scarcity of food in the region where he and the herd were roaming, but Adams said Mongo is in good health and has not forgotten his training. Adams said his life had taken a downward turn in the years since Mongo disappeared; he and his wife divorced, and an auto accident in 2021 left him disabled. However, he now feels things are looking up: "My life is like down in the dumps, like the car accident. I lost my house, I lost every thing. I got my horse back though."

RARE VINTAGE A pair of Levi's jeans found in an abandoned mine in the American West sold for a staggering $87,400 at a New Mexico auction on Oct. 1, reported CNN.com. What was so special about the jeans? They dated back to the 1880s, and while it's not uncommon for "denim archae

By the Editors at Andrews McMeel

ologists" to find jeans from that period of history, it's incredibly rare to find them so well-preserved. "There's a couple of soft spots on the jeans that could use a bit of reinforcement, but otherwise they're super-duper solid jeans," said Zip Steven son, who runs a denim repair shop in Los Angeles and placed the winning bid with a partner. Though Stevenson would prefer the jeans were purchased and put on display in a museum, he said he would consider selling them to a private buyer. "I could easily imagine Johnny Depp or Jason Momoa wearing them," Stevenson said.

PEOPLE WITH ISSUES Rorie Susan Woods, 55, of Hadley, Massachusetts, is facing multiple as sault and battery charges after she took extreme measures in an attempt to prevent what she and other protestors believed was a wrongful evic tion being carried out by sheriff's deputies in Longmeadow on Oct. 12. WWLP-22 reported that Woods drove an SUV hauling a trailer load ed with beehives to the residence of Alton King, the homeowner being served an eviction no tice. While wearing a protective beekeeping suit, Woods shook the beehives, unleashing a swarm of angry bees on the officers, three of whom were allergic to bee stings. Sheriff Nick Cocchi said Ross' actions could have gotten someone killed: "We had one staff member go to the hos pital and luckily, he was all right or she would be facing manslaughter charges."

BUT IS IT ART? The city of Cheadle, Alber ta, Canada, is the temporary home of a newly re vealed shrine to snacking. A 17-foot-tall statue commissioned by Frito-Lay was unveiled in ear ly October. The work memorializes the signature Cheetos experience: three fingers holding up one of the crunchy snacks, their tips covered in the powdery orange residue the brand has christened "Cheetle." "We're excited to be celebrating Chee tle and Canadians' cheesy, Cheetle-dusted finger tips on such a grand scale and in such a uniquely mischievous way," said Lisa Allie, senior market ing director at PepsiCo Foods Canada. CNN re ports that the Cheetle Hand Statue will be on dis play in Cheadle until Nov. 4, when it embarks on a tour of Canada.

EWWWWW WRGB in Albany reported the ar rests of Chrystal Thomas, 33, on Oct. 4, and Aus tin Smith, 20, on Oct. 15, for the duo's part in the illegal tattooing of a 10-year-old boy. Thomas, the boy's mother, claimed she was not in the room when Smith permanently inked the child's name on his arm "in full-size block letters." Authori ties were made aware of the situation when the boy asked a school nurse for Vaseline to apply to the tattoo. Both Thomas and Smith were charged with endangering the welfare of a child, and Smith was additionally charged with second-degree un lawfully dealing with a child. {in}

From Andrews McMeel Syndication News Of The Weird © 2022 Andrews McMeel

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