CareerSource ESCAROSA, in partnership with Santa Rosa Economic Development, presents the 2025 Honoring Our Heroes Career Fair. The career fair will take place from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. on Thursday, August 14 at the Santa Rosa County Auditorium, 4530 Spikes Way in Milton.

Another month, another series of meetings! Here’s a couple of things to look out for on the Board of County Commissioners meeting agenda, from firework bans to $2 million grants. The meeting will take place August 11, 2025 at 8:30 a.m. in the County Administration Offices at 6495 Caroline Street in Milton. 

On my recent visit with family in Canada, I was not surprised when one of my brothers called me “Pasquale.” He has called me Pasquale as long as I can remember but I don’t remember why. He has nicknames for other family members, their origins more easily recognized, yet, I am Pasquale, and we are not Italian.

The City of Milton announced its intention to begin construction on Magnolia Avenue starting this week, August 4-8, before continuing moving on to their construction on Lakeshore Drive.

The City of Milton has released its Bands on the Blackwater schedule. Bands on the Blackwater will present free, live music along Blackwater River every Friday night from August 29 to October 24, 7-9 p.m.

Gulf Breeze High School teacher Molly Mersereau was arrested July 29 following the Gulf Breeze Police Department’s investigation of a Crime Stoppers tip.

The University of West Florida College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities announces “After Hours with the Artist: Sunken Series,” a compelling cross-disciplinary collaboration between the Florida Public Archaeology Network and The Art Gallery at UWF that blends art, archaeology and public engagement in a novel way. This after-hours event highlights the work of artist Jenna Zydlo, whose Sunken Series exhibit reimagines maritime archaeology through intricately crafted ceramics inspired by a fictional 17th – 18th century Spanish shipwreck.

Labels can get you into trouble if you don’t know fully what it is to which they refer. A case in point: I was born and raised in a part of Canada where all Americans, northerners and southerners alike, are called “Yankees.” You can imagine the firestorm that ignited when, after I moved to South Florida, in ignorance, I called a native Floridian a Yankee. His eyes blazed, his body went rigid, his face blossomed red, and his nostrils flared to accommodate the building steam. I was grateful that all I received that day was a short, very intense lesson in American history with extra emphasis on what my friend called, “the war of northern aggression.” The label “Yankee” no longer resides in my vocabulary.