Santa Rosa County Commission Chairman Colten Wright says that a proposed amendment on the November ballot that would eliminate property taxes on certain homesteaded properties would guarantee cuts to public safety, infrastructure and other core county services.

Karson Ellis and Emmy Lou Nelson have become quite the success story in the rodeo world.


The two Central students capped off the Alabama Junior High School Rodeo Association season with championship saddles, punching their ticket to nationals in Oklahoma later this month.

Breast cancer diagnosis rates in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties exceed the state average, and a new program from Ascension Sacred Heart is working to change that one free mammogram at a time.

Local base commanders and Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-FL1) made the case on May 27 that the area’s congested roadways are not just a quality-of-life problem, it is also a threat to national security.

The old hospital on Stewart Steet could become a 300-unit apartment community with a public library and technology hub. A three-acre lot off James Street could become a new home for senior housing. A 10-acre plat in the city’s northern end could become a planned community of manufactured homes where people can actually afford a home.

The Legislature will convene on Monday, June 1, in a special session called by Gov. Ron DeSantis to consider the governor’s proposal to cut or even eliminate property tax bills.

A small family farm in East Milton is calling for an investigation after the owners say more than 50 chickens died following the alleged spraying of an herbicide over Florida Power & Light right-of-way across the street from their property.

The Santa Rosa County Commission voted to approve a contract for school zone speed cameras, brushing aside privacy concerns raised during public comment over AI-powered surveillance tied to the deal.

The contract, requested jointly by the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office and Santa Rosa County District Schools, is with Maryland-based company Altumint, a speed camera provider that will install enforcement cameras in 15 school zones across the county.

For retired Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. David Post, getting from the bedroom to the bathroom used to mean crawling on his hand and knees.
Post lost his left foot to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2011. A recent ankle fusion has made him rely more on a wheelchair to get around. In a regular home, that meant narrow doorways his chair couldn’t clear and a bathroom that felt more of an obstacle course than a relaxing getaway.
“I’ve crawled on my hands and knees to safely transition into a shower and then crawled back on the same floor to exit, in situations more than I’d like to admit,” Post said in a presentation outside his new home.
With help from a national nonprofit, those instances are now a memory.

Next week, the Santa Rosa County Commission will begin to deliberate whether or not to approve a contract that will bring speed enforcement programs to twelve school zones in the north end of the county.