Santa Rosa County Commissioner Colten Wright said the county paid for his airfare and hotel during a July trade mission to the United Kingdom, defending the trip as economic development rather than a taxpayer-funded vacation critics have described online.

Residents of the city of Milton will cast votes in two races this November, as most of the races have already been decided after the candidate qualifying period came to a close Aug. 10.

The Milton Police Department announced Aug. 12 a second arrest in a November 2025 shooting death of a man at Lucille Johnson Park, saying forensic testing on two recovered firearms linked a suspect to the killing.

U.S. Rep. Jimmy Patronis has asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to study establishing a national veterans cemetery in Okaloosa County and announced a steering committee to build a case for a roughly 200-acre site in Northwest Florida.

Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Deputy Shane Forsman starts his day with coffee and a walk of the fence line.

He checks the gates. He looks for anyone who shouldn’t be there. Then the buses pull in at Bennett C. Russell Elementary School, the doors open, and for the next several minutes he is handing out high-fives and good mornings to a share of the school’s roughly 900 students.

“They trust me with their lives day in and day out, so I take that very seriously,” he said.

The Santa Rosa County School Board voted unanimously July 28 to eliminate the public committee that decided whether challenged library books stayed on school shelves, handing that decision to the superintendent.

The Santa Rosa County Board of County Commissioners is set to meet twice next week as it discusses possible loans to a local fire district, sets the upcoming mosquito control budget and approves a contract to resurface a county road in rural Santa Rosa.

Here are three things you need to know ahead of the meetings.

Santa Rosa County District Schools is awaiting a judge’s order to see if it can fire a suspended employee accused of inappropriate communication with Central School students in 2024 and 2025.

The Florida Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH) is hearing a case between the school district and Keith Elliott, an IT professional who was suspended by the district last September.

A portion of Benny Russell Park has been closed as crews begin to replace playground equipment, with the project expected to be finished by mid-November, the county announced Aug. 6.

Milton Police Chief Jennifer Frank brought members of her staff to Milton’s first budget workshop on Aug. 1, asking the City Council to consider raising wages for dispatchers and officers who help city residents in times of need.