News

Mar 23, 2024

Top Pensacola news stories from the week: July 31

Here's a roundup of our top stories from the past week that are available only to our subscribers. With a subscription to the Pensacola News Journal, you will receive full access to the work done by

Here's a roundup of our top stories from the past week that are available only to our subscribers.

With a subscription to the Pensacola News Journal, you will receive full access to the work done by our journalists and photographers as they head out every day to help inform and explain the important issues affecting your community.

Subscriber benefits: 8 digital benefits of a Pensacola News Journal subscription

When Hurricane Sally tore through the Pensacola area in 2019, it forced the Navy to condemn an aircraft hangar at Naval Air Station Pensacola. Three years later, local leaders are advocating for more federal funding to repair that hangar to avoid a distant but catastrophic scenario of losing the Blue Angels.

The advocacy effort is part of reorganizing how the local business community advocates for bases like NAS Pensacola and NAS Whiting Field.

The Pensacola-Escambia Development Commission is requesting $125,000 from Escambia County to help organize a new group being formed between Escambia County and Santa Rosa County to advocate full-time for area military bases locally and in Washington. D.C.

NAS Pensacola was badly damaged in Hurricane Sally, with more than $500 million in damage to the base, according to the Navy.

The repair program for the base from the 2020 storm is expected to run until 2025 but does not include a hangar condemned after post-storm inspection.

Full story:'One storm away from a crisis': Effort underway to keep Blue Angels in Pensacola

Emerald Coast Utilities Authority customers may soon be paying more whether they want a recycling can or a second trash can.

The ECUA board voted last week to raise sanitation rates by 9.5% and allow customers to decide if they want their currently included recycling can to be swapped to a second trash can.

Previously ECUA allowed customers to opt-in to curbside recycling when opening their account as a service that was included in their trash bill. Under the new proposal, customers will decide whether they want a recycling can or a second trash can instead, but regardless will be paying a higher rate.

Full story:ECUA customers may have to pay 9.5% more and choose between recycling or second trash can

The Florida Commission on Ethics last month reviewed 36 citizen complaints against public figures to determine whether the complaints stood up to legal scrutiny.

Twenty of those complaints had been filed against one man, Santa Rosa County Commissioner James Calkins.

The sheer volume of complaints filed against Calkins is noteworthy. No other elected official whose name appeared on the Ethics Commission July 28 docket was facing more the two.

Full story:Santa Rosa Commissioner's anti-Democrat rant angered 20 residents enough to file ethics charges

Curious eyes grew wide as baskets of steamed soup buns were passed around the Xian Noodle Place dining room during its soft opening Tuesday morning.

The building at 6014 Ninth Ave. once housed longtime neighborhood favorites like Italy’s Finest Pizzeria and Kooter Brown’s but recently saw turnover as JAKS Bar and Grill and Chasing Cars Pizza and Grill, which both closed abruptly in the past year under different ownership.

Now Xian manager Rena Lin and her family are determined to transform the space into a “Cantonese brunch” inspired destination open from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

At 10:28 a.m. on Tuesday, guests were already lined up and eager to order a hearty noodle bowl or refreshing fruit tea. Upon walking in the front door, the right side of the restaurant grabs your attention with the 30-plus bubble tea bar boasting a rainbow assortment of colors and flavors like the orange Mango Cloud, purple Taro Smoothie and pink and green Matcha Strawberry Milk.

Full story:Craving some traditional Chinese cooking in Pensacola? Xian Noodle Place plans to please

The 20-year-old Pensacola man charged with the murder of two people allegedly trying to sell marijuana in 2021 sat in court Wednesday and listened to a recording of his law enforcement interview in which he admits he was one of the shooters.

In a recorded interview with Escambia County Sheriff's Office investigators played during the murder trial, Nathan Brown admitted he robbed and killed David Purchase and Natalie Greenough on Nov. 9, 2021, during a planned drug deal at the intersection of Waycross and Stonewall avenues.

"Nobody was supposed to die. I didn't shoot nobody," Brown said early on during the recorded interview. "We were just going to hold them up and snatch the dope."

Full story:'Nobody was supposed to die': Pensacola man admits to fatal shooting to save his sister