Inweekly Feb. 11 2021 Issue

Independent News | February 11, 2021 | Volume 22 | Number 6 | Custom cake by Kate's Cakes | Photo by Emily Veal

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winners & losers

outtakes

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5

news

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publisher Rick Outzen

graphic designer Tim Bednarczyk

editor & creative director Joani Delezen

contributing writers Savannah Evanoff, Jennifer Leigh, Jeremy Morrison, C.S. Satterwhite

contact us info@inweekly.net

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Independent News is published by Inweekly Media, Inc., P.O. Box 12082, Pensacola, FL 32591. (850)438-8115. All materials published in Independent News are copyrighted. © 2018 Inweekly Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

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winners & losers

Christian Garman / Baptist Health Care

winners

CHRISTIAN GARMAN A longtime North-

west Florida resident and basketball referee, Garman will serve as the lead on Andrews Institute and Gulf Breeze Hospital public relations, media relations, social media and strategic communication efforts. Garman earned his master's degree in strategic communication and leadership at the University of West Florida, and he holds a bachelor's degree in communication arts/telecommunications and film, also from UWF. He spent almost 20 years as the morning meteorologist at WEAR-TV in Pensacola before retiring in 2016.

GULF POWER FOUNDATION The foundation recently donated $56,398 to the University of West Florida for Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology, or BEST, Robotics and the Take Stock Collegiate Scholars programs.

BEST Robotics is a project-based STEM program that inspires middle and high school students to pursue careers in STEM through participation in a sport-like competition to design, program and build a robot.

BONNIE DORR The Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition's associate director of its Ocala branch has been named a fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery.

Dorr is one of 95 fellows ACM is honoring this year for their contributions in computing and information technologies. She is recognized as one of the nation's leaders in the field of natural-language processing. Together with her colleagues at IHMC, Dorr has established the new field of Cyber-Natural Language Processing, which brings together expertise at the intersection of cybersecurity, social computing, AI and natural language processing. Her interests focus on cyber-event extraction and natural language understanding for detecting attacks, discerning intentions of attackers and thwarting social engineering attacks.

THE 5 BARREL The downtown brewery

will mark its first anniversary on Saturday, Feb. 20. Last February, attorney Jason Mosley and microbiologist Tom Akin were preparing to open on their 3,100-square-foot brewery shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic. Facing extraordinary challenges—mandatory bar and restaurant closures, social distancing, bans on events—they stayed the course. Its Anniversary Aviator Ale is a pre-prohibition pale ale honoring the Cradle of Naval Aviation.

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Joel Valdez / linkedin.com

losers

JOEL VALDEZ The website Gizmodo reported how Congressman Matt Gaetz's aide, Joel Valdez, cheered the rioters as he watched them storm the U.S. Capitol from the rooftop of his boss's office building.

Valdez even captured a five-second video with his phone and posted it to the social media site Parler with this message, "From the top of the Capitol office buildings, WE HEAR YOU LOUD AND CLEAR!" He added the hashtag #StopTheSteal. According to the metadata from Valdez's video, the staffer took it around 1:14 p.m. EST on Jan. 6. The rioters had breached at least three police barricades, according to a timeline of events reported by the New York Times.

According to his LinkedIn account, Valdez has been a press assistant for Gaetz for 18 months after serving one month as a "war room analyst" for the Trump campaign. Before then, the Illinois native was an intern for Gaetz and former Congressman Mark Meadows, who later became Trump's chief of staff. Gaetz's chief of staff, Jillian Lane Wyant, later disputed that Valdez's video depicted him cheering on the mob, according to Gizmodo.

FLORIDA DEMOCRATIC PARTY Its

staffers lost their health insurance. The most recent federal financial reports for the Florida Democratic Party show FDP owed Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida $500,000, prompting the health insurance giant to drop FDP from its insurance and leaving party staffers without coverage. In all, the party had $800,000 in outstanding bills it could not pay at the end of 2020.

Hours after Florida Politics broke the story, new FDP Chair Manny A. Diaz announced that health insurance had been reinstated and backdated to Dec.1—"as if there was never any lapse in coverage."

JULIE JENKINS FANCELLI The heiress

to the Publix supermarket chain helped fund the bulk of former President Donald Trump's Jan. 6 rally in Washington, D.C., that took place just before the Capitol riot. Fancelli committed about $300,000 through a top fundraising official for former President Donald Trump's 2020 campaign, according to organizers. The rally at the Ellipse cost about $500,000, according to the Wall Street Journal.

inweekly.net

outtakes

By Rick Outzen

WHOSE QUALITY OF LIFE? When you hear the words "quality of life," do you think of a grandmother trying to raise three grandchildren in Morris Court or Pensacola Village?

Do you think of the Black child labeled a failure before she reaches the third grade?

Do you think of the young man who made mistakes, spent time in prison and now is trying to find a job to support his family?

When you picture a vibrant downtown Pensacola, are there any people of color that pop into your mind? If our vision of quality of life isn't diverse and multi-layered, then I worry that we've just created another code phrase for segregation and racism.

We have to expand our views of improving the quality of life to more segments of our community. The idea that a rising tide floats all ships hasn't worked so well for Escambia County. Too many families have been left behind or ignored for too long.

The Pensacola Young Professionals have produced a Quality of Life Survey for more than a decade. Seven out of 10 respondents have been white until this past year. In 2020, PYP did a more extensive sampling of the Black community and found a 15-point gap in how African American residents view race relations, law enforcement and our justice system than their white counterparts.

People of color see the current quality of life in Pensacola and Escambia County differently than our white residents. While they may want the same things—nice homes, good-paying jobs, safe neighborhoods, good schools and financial security for their families—the path to achieving this is much more difficult. Because the challenges are generational and without any quick solutions, we tend to gloss over the differences and focus on breweries, bike paths and al fresco dining spots.

I want to borrow a phrase about the mission of CivicCon from the daily newspaper and apply it to how we should build the future of our community. We need to create prosperity for all families, but particularly for those who are just getting by and

living from paycheck to paycheck.

We have to create jobs that provide health care insurance, retirement and wages that will build a robust middle class that stretches across all Escambia County neighborhoods, not just Cordova Park and Nature Trail.

Entrepreneurs can be part of an economic development strategy but not the only tactic because we have too many families who are just getting by. Entrepreneurship alone will not create enough jobs to lift the 46% of Escambia households living below what United Way of West Florida describes as "ALICE" (Asset Limited, Income, Constrained, Employed).

ALICE covers individuals and families who are employed, occasionally working multiple jobs or in essential positions but are unable to achieve or maintain financial stability due to the rising costs of living and stagnating wages.

The 2020 Escambia County ALICE showed 40,264 households were below the ALICE level, and another 14,762 households lived below poverty.

The report showed only 23% of Escambia County's 16 and older population have salaries, and another 24% are paid hourly wages, which leaves 24% in school, 17% retired, 8% part-time and 4% unemployed.

The Studer's Early Childhood Initiative can help with greater academic success for those under the age of four, but the Escambia County School District has 38,386 students who need help now. For those who aren't headed to college, we need to help them attain certifications and training for jobs when they graduate from high school.

And we must have employers who pay good wages and offer benefits who will hire them, such as ST Aerospace Engineering.

It's why commerce parks and economic development are essential. We should help the local companies that attract outside dollars to our area and pay their employees well while continually looking for new employers to settle in our community.

Then improving our area's quality of life will be color-blind. {in} rick@inweekly.net

The idea that a rising tide floats all ships hasn’t worked so well for Escambia County. Too many families have been left behind or ignored for too long.

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PROPOSED PROTEST BILL ALARMS SOCIAL JUSTICE ADVOCATES

Photo by Natalie Allgyer

By Scott Satterwhite The Florida legislature may soon vote on a bill that will drastically increase penalties for crimes committed during a protest, alarming many social justice advocates throughout the state. The bill in question is the Combating Violence, Disorder and Looting and Law Enforcement Protection Act, more commonly known as HB1 or the Protest Bill.

The bill was first introduced by Governor Ron DeSantis after a summer of protests following the murder of George Floyd, and social justice and civil liberties advocates argue it duplicates existing laws, criminalizes activists and targets people of color.

When he introduced the bill to Floridians, DeSantis stated that the right to "peacefully assemble is one of our most cherished as Americans" but claimed, "We've seen that right being taken advantage of by professional agitators, bent on sowing disorder and causing mayhem in our cities."

If passed, the legislation is meant to, in DeSantis' words, "combat rioting and looting," as well as "protect the men and women in law enforcement that wake up every day to keep us safe."

As the bill moves through the legislature, certain aspects will likely change. But if the bill passes in its current form, HB1 will upgrade penalties for crimes during riots, make the destruction of any memorials a felony and limit a city's ability to redirect funding from police departments to social programs.

The bill is supported by many in the majority Republican legislature, including Rep. Alex Andrade and Rep. Michelle Salzman.

"I do currently support HB1, and do not believe I see an 'inherent' bias in the legislation. However, I have met with several groups who oppose the bill, such as the leadership for Florida's Black Voters Matter, Movement for Change and others. We dis66

cussed our local issues for minorities, worked on ideas of how we can overcome the systemic racism with our focus being on how HB1 could impact minority voices. We went through it together and addressed what they see as bias. Their input was greatly appreciated. We agreed to disagree, but have also agreed to continue the conversation as the legislation makes it way through committees," Salzman said.

"Opportunists have co-opted legitimate protests for years," said Andrade, "creating an environment in America where police officers are fair game to attack and property damage is seen as protected speech, even by some in the media."

"This bill aims to re-establish what we've all previously understood to be protected under the First Amendment—the right to peacefully assemble and the right to free speech," said Andrade. "Assaulting police officers, holding drivers against their will and property damage/looting do not fall within the rights enumerated in our Constitution."

Not everyone agrees this bill is necessary, though.

LOCAL ACTIVISTS TAKE ON HB1

Paula Montgomery is a local community activist involved with social justice efforts with Unitarian Universalist Church of Pensacola. "Looks to me like it hamstrings local government in the budgeting for law enforcement," said Montgomery of HB1.

"For example," said Montgomery, "the local [governmental] body decides that it would like to use part of the law enforcement budget to hire social workers or other persons, and that reduces the operating budget of law enforcement; there has to be a hearing."

Montgomery lists myriad reasons why she sees the bill as flawed, including how HB1 "does not define a riot or what constitutes an unlawful assembly."

"We already have laws about assault and battery and destruction of property," said Montgomery. "Is it different during a riot? Does it require a separate law?"

When news of the Protest Bill made the rounds within Pensacola social justice circles, many were shocked.

Hale Morrissette of Dream Defenders said that she was "terrified" when she first read the bill's contents.

Morrissette said that she takes issue with "every part" of HB1. In its early version, the bill called for racketeering charges against protest organizers.

"I was automatically taken back as someone that has been the lead organizer

of direct actions for the past few years," said Morrissette.

"The threat of being put in jail without bond after organizing a peaceful protest, subject to the discretion of officers," said Morrissette, "that's terrifying."

"There are extensions to protect people that want to run over protestors," Morrissette continued.

Morrissette led a protest over the summer in which a motorist carried a man on his car hood the distance of the 3-mile-long Chappie James Bridge. Over 100 documented vehicular assaults against protesters took place at Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests following the death of George Floyd.

"This bill was intentional about targeting BLM activists," said Morrissette, "mainly because it was drafted and announced right after the uprisings of the summer of 2020."

Following George Floyd's death last May, BLM demonstrations occurred in thousands of cities across the country, including daily demonstrations at Pensacola's Graffiti Bridge.

According to a study released by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, more than 7,750 Black Lives Matter demonstrations took place following George Floyd's death, and 93% of them were peaceful. These statistics—and the bill's timing—have led many organizations to question the motives behind HB1.

Several organizations have rallied to express their opposition to HB1, claiming the bill has an inherent anti-Black bias, especially considering the introduction of the bill following a summer of BLM protests.

"This is a bill that will target Black and brown organizations and is looking to criminalize Black organizing power in this state," Jamil Davis of Black Voters Matter said.

Davis sees HB1 as an attempt to silence protesters, as the bill targets organizers and activists in Florida, which "had no violent incidents at any Black Lives Matter protest in the state last year," said Davis.

Though DeSantis officially introduced HB1 to the public on Sep. 21, the Protest Bill officially came to the Florida Legislature on Jan. 6, the very day the mostly white pro-Trump demonstrators rioted at the U.S. Capitol.

Davis said Republicans are using the January insurrection to disguise the bill's intended targets. According to Davis, this bill "is a clear attack on Black and brown organizers in the state to quell the momentum built from last summer's protests for the movement of Black lives."

Among the reasons Davis feels HB1 targets the BLM movement in particular are the bill's language about divesting from police departments and language about statues.

"Toppling a Confederate monument can place you in prison for up to 15 years," said Davis.

"There's also language that gives the state and the governor the power to override a city's decision of divesting funds from their police department. These are clear indicators that this bill is targeted at the momentum that Black and brown organizations have made in this state with the protests following the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery in 2020," Davis told Inweekly.

THE DEBATE CONTINUES

Andrade disagrees. "There is no doubt that opportunists took advantage of BLM protests last year, attacking police officers and burning and looting businesses, many of them minority-owned businesses," he said. "I've asked those organizations to show me evidence of their claims, and I'm still waiting for them to send the evidence to me."

"I don't associate the violence that occurred last year with BLM or other similar organizations," said Andrade. "I'm becoming increasingly concerned that these organizations themselves conflate the attacks and killings of police officers and property damage with their own movements," he said.

"If they say HB1 attacks them because they want the 'right' to continue attacking officers and destroying property, I think Florida has a much bigger concern related to civics education," Andrade said.

Sara Latshaw of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sees the bill differently. The ACLU not only argues the bill effectively targets Black organizers but goes so far as to say HB1 is a violation of the U.S. Constitutional. According to Latshaw, the intent of HB1 is "to silence and criminalize peaceful protests."

Latshaw argues that HB1 "unconstitutionally chills speech, and its vagueness in certain provisions will provide the perfect opportunity for abuse by government officials—abuse that will disproportionately fall on Black and brown Floridians. This is an assault on political debate."

Whatever the motivations for the bill, Florida social justice organizations intend to work vigorously against the passage of HB1. Though Latshaw couldn't speculate on what legal actions the ACLU would take if the bill passes, Morrissette said what Dream Defenders would do was already clear—"Dream of new ways to engage and organize, and take chances in order to defend the future freedom to just be." {in}

If you're interested in learning more or getting involved, local organizers are hosting a rally and march Saturday, Feb. 13, to spread information and awareness about stopping HB1. The event starts at 2 p.m. at MLK Plaza and masks are required. inweekly.net

February 11, 2021

7

NEWPOINT SEQUEL During the sentencing, Escambia County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Dannheisser blamed both May and publicschool officials for the unprecedented loss of millions in school funding.

In a prepared statement, Judge Dannheisser wrote, "(Marcus May) knew the bank guards were asleep, so he walked right into the vault and helped himself to millions. In fact, if his greed was not so enormous, he might still be getting away with his actions."

UNFAIR PREJUDICE?

Photo by Rick Outzen

By Rick Outzen Marcus May, the former Newpoint Education Partners CEO, wants the 1st District Court of Appeal to overturn the 2018 conviction that led to his 20-year prison sentence for racketeering and fraud involving charter schools that his company started and managed in Escambia County and other Florida school districts.

Inweekly first broke the Newpoint story in April 2015 when it reported allegations of grade tampering, abuse of students and misuse of state and federal funds at two Newpoint charter schools in Escambia County. Students' lunch money to state grants went missing, according to a whistleblower who came forward.

BANK GUARDS ASLEEP

Commissioner Jeff Bergosh, who was on the Escambia County School Board at the time, told Inweekly that former School Superintendent Malcolm Thomas initially tried to cover up the whistleblower's accusations. According to Bergosh, when he told the superintendent that he would take the allegations to State Attorney Bill Eddins, Thomas screamed, "You are making a mistake! You are wrong!"

Bergosh explained to Inweekly that school district officials have the duty under state law and its contract to review Newpoint school's finances. However, according to the board member, Thomas kept the board in the dark about the school's problems.

Two days after Inweekly reported the allegations, Eddins announced an investigation into the Newpoint schools. Thomas changed his position and said the school district would help with the investigation.

In May 2015, Thomas recommended the school board terminate the charters for Pensacola Newpoint High, Newpoint 88

Academy and Five Flags Academy, Newpoint's elementary school. The school board terminated the Newpoint High and Newpoint Academy charters. Newpoint said it would appeal the decision, but it didn't. Instead, it closed all three schools in early June 2015 and stiffed the faculty. The teachers were paid for two days and told to apply for unemployment immediately.

Marcus May's name surfaced as former Newpoint teachers from around the state began to contact Inweekly.

A former Bay County teacher said that all financial decisions at the Bay County school had to be run through May. He said, "Newpoint Education Partners is the business. All the money from the school goes to the business. The school itself has nothing.

Everybody's getting paid, and Marcus (May) was sitting on the top of this pyramid."

A former teacher from the Tampa area said he saw thousands of dollars monthly from a "snack fund" leave his school in "money bags, all cash."

Back in Pensacola, a former Newpoint teacher told Inweekly, "The teachers did not have enough textbooks in the classroom. The school was advertised as a technology school, but the internet was down a lot. The phone lines were tied into the internet, so when it went down, we had no phone service to call out, and parents couldn't call the school."

At his 2018 trial, Assistant State Attorney Russ Edgar Jr. argued that May had robbed the school districts of Escambia, Bay, Broward, Duval, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties for a total of $5,216,856.

Edgar showed how the Newpoint Education Partners founder had created a scheme to defraud school systems and support his celebrity-like lifestyle. The jury unanimously found May guilty of two counts of racketeering and one count of organized fraud.

The appellate brief filed by May's attorneys said that throughout the trial, their client contended he complied with "standard business practices" and contracts.

"Mr. May asserted that the evidence at trial showed that there were operation agreements, charter school contracts and contracts with vendors that gave Mr. May the right, authority and responsibility to take the actions in question," the brief said.

"These agreements and contracts also provided authority for the financial compensation he received."

In its answer brief, Attorney General Ashley Moody's office wrote that May and his Newpoint Education Partners controlled the banking, purchasing and bookkeeping for the schools.

"The evidence showed that the (nonprofit) boards did not control the finances and did not know of any conflict of interest between its management company and any of its vendors," wrote Moody's office.

"Nor did the boards participate in selecting a vendor, selecting the location of the schools or the negotiation of leases."

May's legal team also argued that their client was "severely prejudiced" because his sole expert witness, forensic accountant Adam Magill, was precluded by Judge Dannheisser from testifying at trial, while the prosecution's "centerpiece" was its own expert witness.

The defense lawyers claimed, "Mr. May's expert would have provided testimony that both supported his defense and which contradicted the State's expert and the State's theory of prosecution."

Moody's office replied that Magill was "completely unqualified and his lack of experience in money laundering cases showed."

"His testimony was not based upon sufficient facts or data, as he repeatedly misstated the evidence and relied on an old statement of particulars," wrote Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Hoffman. "Nor was Magill's testimony the product of reliable principles and methods, as he created a new tracing method and attempted to pass it off as an established and accepted tracing method."

May's attorneys also asserted that Judge

Dannheisser's exclusion of the charter schools' annual audit reports "precluded Mr. May from presenting his defense in this case."

Moody's office responded, "The reports were not relevant to demonstrate that there was oversight because the witness the defense intended to introduce the reports through—Robert Walker— testified that none of Appellant's self-dealing or conflicts of interest were disclosed to him and that if they had been disclosed, they would have demonstrated a lack of oversight."

In May's appeal, his attorneys also argued that Edgar made inflammatory and inappropriate comments during the trial when the prosecutor focused on May's lifestyle and used the term "kickbacks" in describing the alleged illegal conduct.

"The prosecutor repeatedly noted that Mr. May has a Maserati, yachts, boats and a Rolex, that he regularly traveled and stayed in hotels and makes extravagant use of funds," the attorneys wrote in their brief.

"The type of items Mr. May purchased and owned, and the amount of time he travels, is completely irrelevant to his alleged guilt of the charged offenses. Any minimal relevance is strongly outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice."

Attorney General Ashley Moody's office responded in its brief to the 1st District Court of Appeal, "Under Appellant's (May's) logic, a prosecutor trying a murder case would be barred from using the word 'murder' to describe a killing because the word 'murder' implies illegality."

Moody's office continued, "Put simply, his objection to the term 'kickbacks' is absurd because some of the allegations against Appellant involved his receiving kickbacks."

A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal court heard arguments on Tuesday, Jan. 26. The hearing focused almost exclusively on arguments about whether May's planned expert witness, Magill, was improperly barred from testifying during the trial.

The News Service of Florida reported May's attorney, William Ponall, argued that the rejection of Magill's testimony should result in a new trial for his client. Ponall said a witness for prosecutors was allowed to testify and that preventing Magill from testifying "completely deprived Mr. May of his defense in this case." But Assistant Attorney General Hoffman contended that the circuit judge played a proper "gatekeeping function" in keeping unreliable evidence from going before the jury.

As is common, the appeals-court panel did not indicate when it will issue a ruling.

According to the Florida Department of Corrections website, May is an inmate at Lancaster Correctional Institution. The Florida Secretary of State administratively dissolved Newpoint Education Partners in September 2018 for failure to file an annual report. {in} inweekly.net

LOCAL TINY HOMES REGULATIONS TAKING SHAPE

Photo courtesy of AMR

By Jeremy Morrison What exactly is a tiny home?

"The term being used is 'tiny house' instead of 'tiny home.' We are looking at these as structures of specific size instead of the use of the structures," clarified Laura Cole, Escambia County director for communications and public information.

Tiny home, tiny house, whatever—what, beyond structures of specific sizes, presumably tiny, are they? In general, these structures, typically a few hundred square feet in size, contain all the elements of a traditional-sized house packed into a much smaller package.

The tiny home concept—examples range from barebones to luxury models—has gained momentum across the country in recent years, with proponents heralding the dwellings as useful in addressing issues like affordable housing and homelessness or simply embracing the low-cost, low-impact structures as a minimalist spectacle of spatial economics.

Recently, Florida joined other locales in accommodating the construction of these downscaled houses into its building code with new regulations known as Appendix Q. On the local level, too, accommodations are being planned for the allowance of tiny homes.

"Regulation Q is now a part of our stuff," Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson said in January, explaining that the city is looking to have something on the books

by February that will outline the city's tiny home-specific regulations.

In Milton, too, city officials recently passed an ordinance paving the way for tiny homes with an aim at serving low-income housing needs.

"The range of tiny home developments in Milton could include anything from a single stand-alone tiny home on a lot in the February 11, 2021

allowed zoning districts to full-fledged tiny home subdivisions, either privately-owned and functioning like a traditional subdivision, or potentially as a part of a 'village' operated by a nonprofit with a goal to serve, generally, homeless or very low-income people," explained Andrew Zupkoff, the city's director of planning and development.

Over at Escambia County, it may take a bit longer, but a tiny home ordinance is also in the works there. While the county's planning board green-lighted an ordinance addressing the structures in December, the Escambia County Board of County Commissioners decided Feb. 5 to hold off until staff could iron out some kinks with the new regulations, specifically reworking where clusters of the structures would be allowed to be constructed.

"I think perhaps before we move forward with it, it might be a good idea to send it back to the planning board and maybe have them round off the edges and make sure that it's good to go," said Commissioner Jeff Bergosh.

FIND A SPOT

Commissioner Bergosh suggested reassessing the county's proposed tiny home ordinance after conferring with representatives of a local nonprofit with intentions to construct tiny home communities in the area. Specifically, AMR at Pensacola, Inc. objected to location and design specifics the organization considered overly restrictive.

"Even though we're willing to invest and do the work, we're coming up against some regulation hurdles," said Kevin Hagen, president of AMR. AMR, a decades-old, state-certified Community Housing Development Organization, has plans—dubbed Project Phoenix—to construct 14 tiny home villages in the local area, each with a dozen dwelling

units. The nonprofit views the effort as a new frontier in its longtime mission to provide affordable housing options to low- and middle-income individuals. For its Project Phoenix efforts, specifically, the group received a $106,000 IMPACT 100 grant.

cluded the construction of a tiny home village in many areas, including in three properties AMR owns and is eyeing for use in its Project Phoenix, but also anywhere in close proximity to an existing subdivision, which, it turns out, is a lot of the county.

"I told [Commissioner] Steven Barry," Reeves said, "they're all gonna be in District 5."

"In Cantonment," Hagen said, "north of Nine Mile Road."

AMR expressed a willingness to work with the county's ordinance, suggesting perhaps nonprofits could be granted a variance to some of its restrictions, but ultimately, commissioners decided to hold off on approving the county's tiny home ordinance until concerns could be addressed by staff.

Reeves said that officials needed to stop viewing tiny homes as undesirable elements to be zoned out of certain areas and begin viewing them as solutions to the problem of available affordable housing. "'Tiny homes = bad,'" said Reeves. "'Tiny homes = good' is what I'd like to get people saying."

"Even though we're willing TINY HOMES FROM THE BIG HOUSE While it awaits local governments to to invest and do the work, determine how tiny homes will be accommodated into local regulations, AMR is dipwe're coming up against some into the tiny home arena. regulation hurdles." Kevin Hagen pingOnits atoes piece of property on La Rua Street "We're trying to fill a need," Hagen said.

Within the city of Pensacola, Hagen is hopeful the group will be able to realize some of its tiny home collectives. The city recently unveiled a plan calling for the construction of 500 units of affordable housing in five years, and tiny home structures are specifically identified as one component of realizing that plan.

"In the city, what we believe and what we've been told is 'Find the spot; find the property; we'll make it work,'" Hagen said.

This is not the case in Escambia County.

"Essentially, there's nowhere we can put 12 tiny houses," Hagen said of the county's landscape.

"The county staff is doing everything they can," groused local attorney and founder of AMR, Jim Reeves. "It's just anti, not-in-my-backyard provided by the staff."

While the ordinance produced by county staff and approved by the planning board allows for the construction of tiny houses on residential lots, it includes restrictions that make clustering multiple units together into an effective community prohibitive.

"Think about 12 tiny houses with 12 driveways. How does that make sense?" Reeves said of one of the ordinance's stipulations.

Also, the ordinance would have pre-

where it owns a duplex, the nonprofit is constructing a prototype model to serve as a template of sorts for when it's able to get Project Phoenix airborne.

"In the interest of getting something done, we're building one there," Hagen said.

The construction project is a bit of an experiment. It's meant to gauge potential costs but also serve as an example to warm up local officials to the concept.

"I'm building it so that county commissioners don't have a fear of tiny homes," Reeves said.

Reeves said he's not yet sure how much the completed unit will run AMR—"You give me until the end of March and I'll have a really good idea"—but whatever the cost is, he's hoping that eventually, the organization will be getting the best deal possible by making use of inmate labor.

"That's my ultimate goal, is to have prisoners in Century prison to be building tiny houses," said Reeves, who also serves as a board member for PRIDE, or Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprise, Inc., a not-for-profit that works to provide prisoners with job skills and opportunities. "If I'm paying them a dollar an hour, then my tiny homes ought to be cheaper than theirs." {in} 9

CPAC'S LONELY NIGHT OUT In its first of a pair of public town halls, Pensacola's Citizen Police Advisory Committee held court at the Fricker Community Center Thursday, Feb. 4. While only a half dozen committee members were in attendance, they still managed to nearly outnumber the audience— most of whom were city staff and the media.

Pressing past the near-no attendance and the sound system's unforgiving bounce of reverberation in the cavernous gymnasium, CPAC Chairman Drew Buchanan laid out the group's mission.

"Really, what we wanted to do is try to forge not just new but existing relationships and build them better between the citizens and Pensacola Police Department," Buchanan said, dipping into the group's origin story.

Mayor Grover Robinson convened the committee in the wake of a fatal July 2019 police shooting of a Black man during a traffic stop.

Since this past summer, CPAC has met weekly, discussing issues related to the citizen-police dynamic. It will issue a report of recommendations to the mayor in March. The purpose of the town hall, as well as a second town hall later this month, was aimed at inviting the public into these discussions.

The only member of the public to engage during the Fricker center town hall was Anita Hemphill. However, Hemphill isn't the average member of the public. She's retired law enforcement, having spent 31 years with the Escambia County Sheriff 's Office.

"I was the only black female lieutenant, the only black female captain, the second black female commander," Hemphill told the committee.

Hemphill was interested in how CPAC would be participating in the current search for a new police chief for Pensacola. She wondered what qualities the city would be focusing on in the search.

"The issues like diversity, community policing, use-of-force continuum and the systemic issues that the police department has been dealing with, are you all the ones that are going to be looking for those qualities in the chief of police?" Hemphill asked.

Buchanan explained that CPAC would be an active participant in the discussion, but Mayor Robinson would ultimately be selecting the new chief.

"We're vessels of the community, so we want people to come to us, and we can help elevate those recommendations and thoughts to the mayor's office," Buchanan said.

Hemphill also had some thoughts on improving the local citizen-police relationship, telling CPAC that "officers really have to get out of their cars; they really have to build a rapport with the neighborhood, with the people." She also reflected on training programs designed to improve this relationship that she had participated in, calling them "superficial little classes we have to take just to meet the requirements," and contending 010 1

that instead, any progress would require officers to "get down and dirty."

"They've got to build that trust. It's not going to happen overnight, by any means," Hemphill said. "You've got to have an opportunity for people to still trust the police. And you've got to start from babies on up. They're generational things going on in different communities, and people just don't like the police. So we've got to start in elementary school and work our way back up and build that rapport back."

"Officers really have to get out of their cars; they really have to build a rapport with the neighborhood, with the people."

Anita Hemphill The second CPAC town hall is scheduled for Feb. 18 at 6 p.m. at the Bayview Community Center.

VOTERS WANT JOBS Escambia votes

overwhelmingly want high-paying jobs at Outlying Landing Field (OLF-8), the 500plus acre site next to Navy Federal's campus in Beulah, according to a recent poll conducted by the Listener Group for Inweekly.

During the Community Maritime Park debate 15 years ago, Quint Studer complained that Save Our City, a political action committee that opposed the project, WCOA's Luke McCoy and others kept claiming that most of Pensacola didn't want the stadium in downtown Pensacola. Polls and the voters felt differently. Since then, Quint and Rishy Studer have funded the Quality of Life survey to measure what people really think about issues.

DPZ CoDesign, the consultant hired to develop a master plan for OLF-8, has published on its website, myolf8.com, that its most recent community input indicates that 82% of the participants want some kind of mixed-use plan with commerce, retail, residential and recreational options.

Inweekly wanted to find out what people really feel about OLF-8, not only in Beulah but all of the county. The poll revealed 62.1% favor companies providing high-paying jobs over retail and housing at the site.

Commissioner Jeff Bergosh represents District 1, where OLF-8 is located. He has repeatedly said the residents of Beulah don't want more housing built in their area.

Bergosh has continually advocated for highpaying jobs at the site. According to the poll, he knows his constituents. Two-thirds of District 1 voters wanted companies offering high-paying jobs.

DPZ CoDesign partner Maura Khoury told the commissioners at the board's meeting in December that participants at the

October charrettes had a different reaction.

She said, "Initially, there was some objection to housing, but by the end of the charrette, when we had explained what could come out of this and the benefits of providing some housing on the site, there was overwhelming support for it."

We don't how many people participated in the charrettes. DPZ's presentation didn't give those numbers. Only 271 people voted on the four plans, and we don't how many of those voters were Beulah residents. However, we do know that only 20% of District 1 wants OLF-8 used for housing and retail. Nearby District 5 only has 19.3% that favor more housing and retail.

In the 2020 GOP primary, Bergosh faced three challengers. One opponent, Commissioner Underhill's aide Jonathan Owens, came out strong against developing a commerce park at OLF-8. Owens wrote in a chamber questionnaire, "OLF-8 should never be considered a true commercial or industrial park." Bergosh won the primary with 39% of the vote, while Owens came in third with 23%. Owens' vote percentage nearly matches the poll results of District 1 that want more retail and housing.

COVID UPDATE According to the Florida

Department of Health, Escambia County ended January with a total of 31,029 COVID-19 cases, of which 27,798 were Floridians. By our count, January had 7, 499 new cases with a monthly positive rate of 15.8%—both the highest monthly totals since the pandemic started in March 2020.

The county had 156 deaths reported, also a monthly record. We also set a monthly record for tests, 47, 496.

BRIDGE UPDATE Two weeks ago, Mayor

Robinson relayed word from the Florida Department of Transportation that work on the 17th Avenue portion of the Pensacola Bay Bridge project would be delayed, causing problems for reopening for traffic in March.

State Rep. Alex Andrade told residents at a town hall that he had heard of no such delays (Inweekly, "The Buzz," Jan. 28).

At his press conference on Monday, Feb. 1, Robinson reported FDOT had "sort of reworked some things," and the agency expects to have 17th Avenue available, in some form, for exiting off of the bay bridge when it reopens in March.

"It's not going to be exactly what we had before; it's not going to be what we have when it's completed, but I do believe it will be functional, and it will be usable, and it's much better than the plan they first outlined for us," the mayor said.

While 17th Avenue should be available for exiting the bridge, using the entrance route will be tricky and has yet to be worked out.

"For entrance onto the bridge, we still will be able to utilize 17th, but it will require us to be a little bit more creative with how we do

that," Robinson said, explaining that the city is still discussing the issue with FDOT. The mayor did not say when he expects the work on the 17th Avenue flyover to be completed but said he hoped to see it wrapped up before the start of the summer season. He said, "The landing part was always going to be a challenge, and we knew it was going to take some work and some patience."

GANNETT FIGHTS FOR ADS The Florida House Civil Justice & Property Rights Subcommittee passed HB 35 that would nix the requirement that local governments purchase newspaper advertising from subscription-based newspapers, like the Pensacola News Journal, to let the public know about important deadlines, code changes or events.

If the bill became law, such public notices could be posted directly on government websites, cutting out the advertising costs.

However, governmental agencies would need to buy an ad once a year in a publication "delivered to all residents and property owners throughout the government's jurisdiction," letting them know that they can register to receive public notices by email or mail.

Rep. Randy Fine said the bill was a way to give Floridians free access to public notices, unlike the current system, which requires residents to, in most cases, purchase a newspaper. Democrats argued that older and less affluent Floridians without internet access would be harder to reach.

Florida Politics reported that lobbyist Ron Book, who represents the News Journal's parent company, Gannett, said, "I'm not sure why we're here to fi x something that's working quite well. The public searches when they want to search their daily newspaper for things that are important to them in the way of government notices."

He added that the bill would likely lead some small news outlets to close their doors.

"The fact of the matter is, you will put very small rural newspapers out of business," he said. "Now, you won't put the Miami Herald out of business. You won't put the Orlando Sentinel out of business. You won't put Tampa Bay Times out of business, but you will put a lot of others out of business."

Fine argued the money governments spend putting notices in print could be used to address other issues. He said, "Over the next two years, we will be faced with incredibly difficult decisions about how we're going to prioritize our spending here in the Legislature, and every time we spend a dollar on one thing, it's a dollar that we can't spend on something else."

The bill passed the committee with an 11-6 party-line vote. It now heads to the House Judiciary Committee.

MORE DIRECT FLIGHTS In March 2021, Southwest Airlines will add three nonstop destinations to Atlanta, Chicago Midway and St. Louis at the Pensacola International Airport. inweekly.net

Starting March 11 and continuing through April 11, Southwest Airlines will begin one daily flight to Atlanta, one flight to St. Louis on Saturdays and two flights to Chicago Midway on Saturdays.

"Pensacola continues to be a place where airlines see potential and growth as we navigate through the health crisis," Pensacola International Airport Director Matt Coughlin said. "Our airport staff and our many airline partners are dedicated to providing an easy, safe and healthy flight experience."

The COVID-19 health pandemic has taken a toll on the airport industry across the world. With added safety precautions in place, Pensacola International Airport has seen a steady increase in air traffic. The number of passengers choosing PNS is exceeding national averages by 20-30%.

"This is yet another testament to the resilience of Pensacola International Airport and the desire for airlines to continue to expand their services here," Mayor Grover Robinson said. "I am excited to see new destinations at our airport to not only provide more travel opportunities for residents but also connect new visitors to our beautiful city."

For more information about Pensacola International Airport, visit flypensacola.com.

HEMMER'S HAMMER Last month, Hem-

mer Consulting LLC and 68 Ventures LLC offered to buy 400 acres of OLF-8 for $16 million, leaving only 80 acres for commerce park and 50 for public use. The developers agreed to follow the DPZ master plan approved by BCC. Fred Hemmer of Hemmer Consulting LLC has been before the commissioners to talk about developing OLF-8. In early June 2018, the developer approached the Escambia County commissioners with a conceptual drawing that showed half of the site being developed for multi-family homes, apartments, residential and a hotel.

At a candidate forum on July 2, 2018, Commissioner Doug Underhill said that he favored selling OLF-8 so the county could

get back its $17 million. Eighteen days later, two LLCs run by Hemming—Clearwater 102 LLC and Clearwater 201—contributed $10,000 to the Integrity in Leadership PAC that mailed out a flyer against Underhill's opponent, Alan McMillan.

There's nothing wrong with Hemmer wanting a piece of OLF-8 to make money or with him helping the one commissioner who liked his idea get re-elected. McMillan had plenty of PAC money. However, the public has a right to see the dots and connect them.

Maybe it doesn't take spending $2 million for a "world-class" consultant to come up with a master plan; just have a sharpie and cocktail napkin.

CITY STORMWATER PROJECT Con-

struction of the Scott, Yates, Lakeview and Strong Outfalls to Bayou Texar Stormwater Treatment Enhancement Project will begin Tuesday, Feb. 16, as part of the City of Pensacola's ongoing efforts to improve the water quality of area waterways throughout the city. All work will be contained within the limits of the city-owned right of way.

This project will provide proprietary stormwater treatment for three untreated drainage sub-basins within the Bayou Texar Watershed. This treatment will be provided by retrofitting the underground stormwater conveyance system with underground treatment units to remove trash, sediment and certain solid pollutants and prevent them from being discharged into Bayou Texar.

The City of Pensacola awarded work to Roads Inc. of Pensacola. Construction of the entire project is expected to take approximately 135 calendar days to complete, weather permitting.

A city construction inspector will be monitoring the contractor and project progress daily. Every effort will be made to minimize the impact to traffic flow and adjacent properties during construction.

Also, the contractor will be required to implement all necessary safety precautions on site.

FOOD HELP Feeding the Gulf Coast is

partnering with local community organizations to offer free meals to children, ages 18 and younger, through a nutrition program supported by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

"We know that parents do not always have the resources to provide healthy meals for their kids," said Eugenie Sellier, Child Nutrition Programs Director at Feeding the Gulf Coast. "We are partnering with sites locally to provide meals for kids on a daily basis. Our goal is to ensure that all children have access to nutritious food."

Over 55,880 children are food-insecure in our area. The far-reaching impacts of COVID-19 have created an increased struggle for families trying to balance a new normal while children deal with the complexities of school, some virtually, others in person or a mixture of the two.

"We know that the hardships faced by many in the area have only grown as COVID-19 continues to present problems in 2021," says Michael Ledger, President & CEO of Feeding the Gulf Coast. "The food bank is thankful for our many pantry partners and Child Nutrition site partners who have linked arms with us as we work to meet the needs of communities. We are truly grateful for many volunteers and supporters who have helped us remain dedicated to our mission."

The "Find Help" feature available at feedingthegulfcoast.org is the best source of information for families and individuals seeking assistance. Individuals can also call (888) 704-FOOD. Parents can also text "FOOD" to 877-877 for child meal sites near them.

PROMOTING THE CYBERCOAST Net-

works of Florida, a regionally recognized Information Technology and Cybersecurity Managed Services Provider (MSP), recently announced its complete rebranding to NOF Technologies. The rebrand includes a new name, logo and website to better align

the company's recent growth outside of Florida and increase its value proposition in a nationwide market.

"It's a major milestone and leap of faith for the company, established for over 30 years in the IT market, to rebrand and bring our unique approach to client support nationwide. While most service providers approach solving problems beginning with junior technicians at the Tier I level, NOF Technologies leverages our experienced senior staff to quickly solve the problem, so our clients experience reduced downtime," said Bill Dunn, CEO Since acquiring the company in 2015, Dunn has been an advocate of the CyberCoast, promoting cyber and IT businesses. Now, with the rebrand, his company has an even greater platform to support economic development and growth in the Pensacola area.

Dunn has found excellent opportunities to play matchmaker with Pensacola's tech companies. He said, "We may not be the best fit, or they are looking for something else so we can help a local company that matches their needs. Or if they are looking for expansion, we let them know we've got some great expansion going on in Pensacola. We've gotten some startups and established tech companies coming in."

Dunn believes that the opportunities will only increase on the CyberCoast as more high-tech, high-wage jobs come into the area. He added, "All those things that we want as a community come through the fact that we have high paying jobs, and without those high paying jobs, we can talk all we want to, but we're never going to get there."

Networks of Florida, known for their customer engagement and superior technical support, was established in 1986 as a Managed Services Provider (MSP) and has grown to specialize in all aspects of Information Technology, including cybersecurity solutions.

Networks of Florida, now NOF Technologies, has experienced recent growth in its market share from South Florida, the Midwest and the East Coast. To learn more, visit nof.com. {in}

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inweekly.net

In honor of Valentine's Day, we decided to once again use the holiday as an excuse to declare our love for some of our current favorite people, places and things. And yes, it's mostly streaming options this time around because if you're anything like us, your most sacred relationship right now is with your Netflix queue.

•BE MINE

ten to one episode, we think it should be the one that debuted Jan. 21 and features Tricia Hersey, founder of The Nap Ministry. brittanypacknett.com

We almost always like the monthly smoothie special at Ever'man, but the February one is extra festive and delicious. The "Be Mine" has chocolate almond milk, strawberries and bananas and is just $5 all month long.

315 W. Garden St., 1000 E. Nine Mile Road, everman.org

Amanda Gorman / mccv / Shutterstock.com

Here's hoping our collective national crush on this bright, young poet translates to more poetry in mainstream settings in general. It really does make everything better—just ask the Super Bowl. theamandagorman.com

The soon-to-be local ramen shop is hosting a full-service pop-up this Valentine's Day (Sunday, Feb. 14) at Kingfisher. They'll be serving classic pork tonkotsu, beef shoyu, veggie miso and a new seafood ramen. instagram.com/thefatcatramen

SZA / "Ctrl" Press Image

But if you prefer more of a classic rom-com vibe, Netflix is also giving us the third and final film in the "To All the Boys" series Friday, Feb. 12. This might still be kind of heavy, though, if you aren't ready to say goodbye Lara Jean and Peter yet. netflix.com

•SZA

•THE BUSY BEE

"Honestly, this gave me the energy I needed to put a bow on the album … so thank you.”

No SZA, thank you. Seriously, thank you for tweeting this last month and giving us hope that the follow up to "Ctrl" is coming soon.

Until then, consider us glued to your feeds, just waiting on that "Good Days" video drop. twitter.com/sza, instagram.com/sza

•WANDAVISION

It's just too good for words. disneyplus.com

•RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA Disney+ is also giving the world another gift on Friday, Feb. 12. The network is making the 1997 musical adaptation of "Cinderella" starring Brandy and the forever iconic Whitney Houston available for streaming (finally!). disneyplus.com

•MILK BLOOD HEAT BY DANTIEL W. MONI

Florida hasn't given us many reasons to be proud lately, but this book is changing that.

"Milk Blood Heat" is a debut novel from a promising Florida-based writer that tells stories set in Florida suburbs. dantielwmoniz.com

•THE THREE MOTHERS BY ANNA MALAIKA TUBBS

If fiction isn't your thing, we're also reading and loving "The Three Mothers"—which is a triple biography of Alberta King, mother of Martin Luther King Jr.; Louise Little, mother of Malcolm X; and Berdis Baldwin, mother of James Baldwin. annamalaikatubbs.com February 11, 2021

If you haven't tried a taco or signature melt from this new(ish) food truck yet, you need to fix that this week, OK? They are currently setting up for lunch Tuesday-Saturday outside Salon San Carlos on Garden Street. misustreetfood.com, instagram.com/misu_streetfood

•TO ALL THE BOYS: ALWAYS AND FOREVER

•AMANDA GORMAN

•FAT CAT RAMEN

•MI SU STREET FOOD

We're so excited about this new locally owned market, which is selling produce, specialty grocery items and daily specials from their cafe.

3002 N. Ninth Ave., thebusybeemercantile.com For more with The Busy Bee owner Marni Woodson, turn to page 15

•GOOD TROUBLE

It might be a little corny at times, but "Good Trouble" is still mostly good in our book. We can't wait to see what happens with Alice's comedy career and Malika's trial when season 3 premieres on Freeform Wednesday, Feb. 17. freeform.com

Britney Spears / Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock.com

•#FREEBRITNEY

You've probably seen more than one post or article about "Framing Britney Spears" since the New York Times documentary premiered on Hulu last week, and trust us when we say that's because it really is a must-watch. Just consider this a warning— if you aren’t already on team #CancelTimberlake, prepare to get recruited. hulu.com

•SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

We can't lie, we were a little nervous about SNL. But we're happy to say it is still funny without Donald Trump. It needs more Bowen Yang as Fran Lebowitz, though. nbc.com/saturday-night-live

•BLACK ARTS MATTER

This exhibition, currently on display at Artel Gallery, features the work of five artists who contributed to the Black Lives Matter street mural that was painted on A Street this summer.

223 S. Palafox, artelgallery.org

•MALCOLM & MARIE

Because heavy love stories are still love stories and Zendaya can do no wrong in our book. netflix.com

COVER IMAGE •UNDISTRACTED

If you're looking for a new podcast to get addicted to, UNDISTRACTED with Brittany Packnett Cunningham is it. Every week, she tackles the latest headlines and interviews activists and changemakers. If you only lis-

Custom cake by Kate's Cakes facebook.com/katescakespensacola instagram.com/katescakes_pensacola Photo by Emily Veal emilyveal.com instagram.com/the.flavor.profile 13

a&e happenings VALENTINE'S DAY WITH BEN BELL & MJ'S BY THE BAY Ben Bell and Maureen

of MJ's by the Bay will be performing at Dolce and Gelato from 4-6 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 14.

Special Valentine's Day cocktails will be crafted by Johnny Gelato. For more information, visit facebook.com/dolcegelatopensacola.

VALENTINE'S DAY DINNER AT BONSAI Treat your sweetheart to a special dinner at Bonsai on Pensacola Beach, located at 12 Via De Luna Drive. Chef Omar has designed an eight-course meal, and to match the occasion, there will be live music.

Dinner is $175 or $240 with wine and sake pairings. To make a reservation, visit bit.ly/ bonsaireservations or call 343-6791.

DINNER SERVICE AT UNION PUBLIC HOUSE Union Public House will have a spe-

Attending "normal" events might not be happening yet—but that doesn't mean local businesses and nonprofits aren't still keeping the community connected in creative ways.

VALENTINE'S DAY EVENTS AND DINNERS

LIEBE, L'AMOUR, AMOR: LOVE IN ANY LANGUAGE In this specially cu-

rated date night concert, Pensacola Opera 2021 Artists in Residence will perform a varied program of songs and arias—all containing the word "love" in their titles. From Puccini to Britten to Nat King Cole, this program will span opera, musical theatre and jazz favorites. The event is limited capacity and masks will be required. Tickets are $15 each or two for $25 with the code DATENIGHT. Order online at pensacolaopera.com or by calling 433-6737.

EVER'MAN: CHOCOLATE, WINE, FEELING FINE Partake in a wine tasting

with live music at Ever'man Cooperative Grocery and Café at 1000 E. Nine Mile. Wine tasting is from 4-7 p.m. and live music is from 5:30-8:30 p.m. All for free. For more information, visit facebook.com/evermancoop.

VALENTINE'S ITALIAN WINE DINNER Celebrate Valentine's Day a couple days early with a five-course meal paired with selected wines. The dinner is Friday, Feb. 12, from 6-8 p.m., and Feb. 13, 6:30-8:30 p.m., at Bodacious, located at 407-D S. Palafox. Cost is $95 per person. For more information, visit bodaciousshops.com.

VALENTINE DRAG Bring your singles (pun intended) for a special Valentine's Day drag show at Dolce and Gelato. Show starts at 7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 12. For more information visit facebook.com/dolcegelatopensacola

GALENTINE'S PAINT & SIP Join

5eleven Palafox from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12, for a night of painting and wine with girlfriends. Cost is $45 and includes a full painting session with Uniquely Creative 414 1

and drink of your choice. Class will be at 5eleven, 511 S. Palafox. For more information, visit bodaciousshops.com.

VALENTINE'S MURDER MYSTERY AT GARDEN & GRAIN Enjoy an interactive

mystery dinner show where you solve the crime at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12, at Garden & Grain at 50 E. Garden St. Tickets are $65 and include a full meal. Bar service is also available. Seating is limited. Order tickets at facebook.com/perfectplainbrewingco.

VALENTINE ROMANCE NOVEL SALE

Stock up on romance novels ahead of Valentine's Day at Open Books Bookstore Saturday, Feb. 13, starting at 10 a.m. Dollar books and $5 bags—plus Girl Scout cookies will be for sale. For more information, visit facebook.com/openbooksbookstore.

VALENTINE'S DAY ADOPTION EVENT AT VOLUMEONE Find your

furever love at this fun adoption event with VolumeONE Salon. Pensacola Humane Society will be bringing adoptable cats and dogs for you to meet from noon-4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 13, at 7 W. Main St. For every adoption, you will receive a professional photo with your new fur baby in the VolumeONE photo studio.

LAUGH THE NIGHT AWAY REX Theatre

has date night covered with live entertainment from illusionist Tom Coverly and comedian Joey I.L.O. on Saturday, Feb. 13, from 7-8:30 p.m. Tickets are $20-$55 per person. For more information, visit rexpensacola.com.

HOOKED ON LOVE VALENTINE'S DAY DINNER Bring your special someone

to Red Fish Blue Fish on Pensacola Beach for a backyard meal. Singles can enjoy the fun, too, with double drinks for the price of singles all night long. Dinner is $40 per person or $100 for a couple's meal with a bottle of Prosecco. Red Fish Blue Fish is located at 5 Via De Luna Drive. For more information, visit facebook.com/redfishbluefishpensacolabeach.

cial three-course Valentine's Day menu from 5-7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14, with vegetarian and vegan options available. The regular menu will not be available. Dinner is $65 per person, and reservations are required. To see the full menu, visit facebook.com/unionpensacola.

I LIKE THE WAY YOU ROLL: VALENTINE'S DAY SUSHI MAKING CLASS

Get your tickets for Perfect Plain's Valentine's Day sushi class with Chef Summer of Summer's Sushi. Class is 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14. Tickets are $72-$122. Seating is limited to 50% capacity. Get your tickets at facebook.com/perfectplainbrewingco.

VALENTINE'S WEEKEND AT GREAT SOUTHERN RESTAURANTS Great

Southern Restaurants will offer special Valentine's features for lunch, brunch and dinner from Friday, Feb. 12-Sunday, Feb. 14. For more information and menus, visit greatsouthernrestuarants.com.

The Fish House—600 S. Barracks St. Call 470-003 for reservations.

Lunch Service, 11a.m.-3 p.m.

Sunday Brunch, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Dinner Service, 3 p.m.-until Jackson's Steakhouse—400 S. Palafox Call 469-9898 for reservations.

Friday Lunch, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Sunday Brunch, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Dinner Service, 5 p.m.-until Five Sister's Blues Café—421 W. Belmont St. Call 912-4856 for reservations.

Lunch Service, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Sunday Brunch, 11a.m.-4 p.m.

Dinner Service, 4-9 p.m.

Angelena's Ristorante Italiano—101 E. Intendencia St. Call 542-8398 for reservations.

Sunday Brunch, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Dinner Service, 5-10 p.m.

NONPROFITS + FUNDRAISERS

GULF COAST KID'S HOUSE EAST HILL YARD SALE Gulf Coast Kid's House

(GCKH) is hosting the first ever East Hill Yard Sale from 8 a.m.-noon, Saturday, Feb. 27. The sale is free to attend. Vendor spots

are available for a suggested donation of $25. Any unsold items can be donated to Teen Challenge. Pensacola EggFest will be grilling up tasty grub for purchase. Funds raised allow GCKH to help child victims of abuse. To become a vendor, email outreach@gulfcoastkidshouse.org. For more information, visit gulfcoastkidshouse.org.

$108,000 AVAILABLE FOR 2021 SUNDAY'S CHILD GRANTS Sunday's Child

held its annual Kickoff Event on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021, via a COVID-safe virtual meeting. This year, there will be four grants awarded for $27,000 each, for a total of $108,000 raised by 161 members. These grants will be bestowed to nonprofit organizations that place value on diversity, inclusion and equality within the Pensacola Bay Area.

Over the past seven years, the organization has raised over $644,000. These dollars have funded projects that have impacted areas such as child welfare, animal welfare, hunger issues, LGBTQ+ issues, health, adults with disabilities and the arts.

Sunday's Child will award the four grants of $27,000 in June. Letters of Intent may be submitted now through Feb. 24, 2021. For further information, visit sundayschild.org.

To learn more about Sunday's Child, donate or apply for a grant, visit sundayschild.org. Send press inquiries to press@ sundayschild.org.

IMPACT 100 DRIVE-THRU MEMBERSHIP EVENTS The 2021 Membership Sea-

son for IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area is going on now. In the coming weeks, IMPACT 100 offers many events to introduce prospective members to the process for funding transformative grants in the Pensacola Bay Area. Membership deadline is March 1.

New and renewing members can attend the following events to drop off membership contributions and pick up IMPACT 100 specialty items. Drive-thru participants can drop off membership contributions and see the impact of IMPACT on vehicles that IMPACT 100 has funded. Women 18 years of age and older are welcome to attend any of the Meet and Mingle drive through events. More details can be found at impact100pensacola.org.

Thursday, Feb. 18­—4:30-6 p.m.

Drive-thru Celebration at Fish House Pensacola, 600 South Barracks St. Participants will enjoy grab-and-go treats from the Fish House and can take advantage of this final opportunity to join or renew IMPACT 100 membership in person.

CLINIC AT PENSACOLA HUMANE SOCIETY NOW PROVIDING WELLNESS SERVICES The Barbara Grice Memorial Clinic at Pensacola Humane Society is now offering low-cost wellness services each Friday for the public.

Services include wellness exams, vaccinations, microchipping, deworming, heartworm testing, ear cleaning and more. Wellness visits are available on Fridays only from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Appointments are required and can be made online through the link on the Pensacola inweekly.net

a&e happenings

A Fresh Spot

By Savannah Evanoff

Marni Woodson, owner of The Busy Bee Mercantile & General Store / Courtesy Photo

Humane Society website at pensacolahumane.org or Barbara Grice Memorial Clinic Facebook page or by calling 898-3380.

Spay/neuter surgery appointments are available Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and can be made as mentioned above. Drop off is at 7:30 am with 2 p.m. pick up for dogs and 3 p.m. pick up for cats. The Pensacola Humane Society and Barbara Grice Memorial Clinic are located at 5 N. Q St.

CALL TO ARTISTS

VENDORS AND CRAFT EXHIBITORS FOR JAZZ PENSACOLA 2021 Jazz Pen-

sacola is calling arts and crafts exhibitors to submit applications for the 2021 Pensacola JazzFest planned for May 15-16 at Seville Square in historic downtown Pensacola.

Application forms can be downloaded at jazzpensacola.com. Only original art and handmade crafts will be accepted. No commercial/ mass-produced products will be accepted.

All entries are $200 for a 10-by-10-foot canopy or smaller. All fees go to support Pensacola JazzFest, a free event for the

When Marni Woodson opened Asher & Bee Apothecary and Teahouse in 2017, she felt like it wasn't easy to access fresh produce in all areas of Pensacola. She made it her mission to change that.

Woodson conjured up the idea for The Busy Bee Mercantile & General Store in the summer of 2019, and the opportunity to make it a reality presented itself in November of 2019. It officially opened at the end of last month and is Pensacola's only Black-owned grocery store.

The Busy Bee offers fresh produce, prepped togo items like sandwiches, salads and soups, plus raw sugar, grains, flours, rice, juices, teas, coffee, coffee beans, plants, water, honey, eggs, seasonal items and more, she said. "(I'm most excited about) having fresh options that are affordable ... available and accessible to everyone in D5—not just the areas of gentrification," Woodson said.

community. For more information, call Jazz Pensacola administrator Alice Crann Good at (850) 433-8382, Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-1 p.m., or visit jazzpensacola.com.

ARTISTS/GRAPHIC DESIGNERS: 2021 JAZZFEST POSTER Jazz Pensacola invites

fine artists/graphic designers to submit renderings for the official 2021 Pensacola JazzFest poster. The commission is $500.

Submissions should conform to a vertical orientation using a ratio that will fit, with margin, on a final poster size of 18 inches wide by 24 inches high. All content must be the submitter's original creation and must be unpublished. The submitter must have all rights to images and graphics used in the final artwork and during the design process.

The poster must include the name of the festival—2021 Pensacola JazzFest.

The festival event information, including date, location, sponsors and any additional information, will be added to the poster in the graphic production process. There is no need to include this information within the artwork.

And Woodson isn't concerned with other markets.

"I'm wanting to serve the people in this area that I think have been underserved with fresh, affordable, nutritious options," she said.

Woodson went with a simple look for the space.

"I'm inspired by wood and plants and old-timey things," Woodson said. "I consider it country-living inspired. I have an old washboard on the wall, so kind of old country life meets modern farmers market."

Woodson's high school dream was to be an entrepreneur. She was the vice president of Future Business Leaders of America.

And while she would likely categorize herself as a "busy bee," that's not where she got the name.

"A friend of mine has a podcast called Elle Marie and the Clever Bee, and I used to care for her daughter, whose nickname is Bee," Woodson said.

"So I asked her if she wouldn't mind if we shared a Bee, and she said, 'Of course.'"

The Busy Bee, 3002 N. Ninth Ave., is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. It's closed Sundays and Mondays. For more information, visit thebusybeemercantile.com.

Any mixed media suitable for twodimensional mechanical reproduction is allowed, including both hand-drawn and computer-generated graphics.

Rough drafts or sketches can be submitted, but, if selected, the final art must conform to the submitted draft or sketch.

Substantial deviation from the submitted sketch or draft will result in forfeiture by the artist of the cash prize and the selection of a new winner by Jazz Pensacola.

Submissions must be in low-res (72 ppi) JPEG format and emailed to info@ jazzpensacola.com. There is no limit to the number of entries by a single artist. Each entry must include the artist's name, address, email and telephone number.

The submission deadline is March 8, 2021. If selected, the completed art deadline is April 19, 2021. For more information, visit jazzpensacola.com.

FOO FOO FEST GRANT APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN Pensacola's Foo Foo

Festival officially announced its plans for

its seventh annual events, taking place Nov. 4-15, 2021.

In 2021, the Pensacola Foo Foo Festival will once again fund top-scoring grant applicants, with the number of grants to be awarded contingent upon the number of submissions. This year, the Foo Foo Festival will provide up to $315,000 in grant funding, and grant applicants can apply for up to $100,000 in grant funding. All organizations, businesses and community partners are encouraged to participate as "Friends of Foo," receiving visibility at the 12-day event. To apply for this year's Foo Foo Festival, visit foofoofest.com.

The Foo Foo Fest team will continue to monitor developments surrounding COVID-19 leading up to November's events and will fully cooperate with any instructions heeded for Escambia County by local and state officials and the CDC. The Foo Foo Fest grant application is Friday, April 30, 2021. On Wednesday, May 12, 2021, there will be an announcement of the public grant scoring.

For more information, visit foofoofest.com.

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a&e happenings CALL TO BANDS: 2021 TUNES BY THE DUNES FREE SUMMER CONCERT SERIES The Navarre Beach Area Cham-

ber of Commerce's Tunes by the Dunes Committee will be meeting soon to finalize plans for this year's free summer concert series. The series showcases a variety of local musicians on stage with the beautiful Navarre Beach sunset as a backdrop.

Each week features a different genre of music ranging from jazz, reggae, Southern rock, country, oldies and much more. The summer-long series will take place at the Sand Crab Pavilion on Navarre Beach.

Performances run from 7-9 p.m. starting June 3, 2021, and continue each Thursday through Aug. 12, 2021. The series is free to the public, made possible by local business sponsorships and food and beverage purchases made on-site.

To have your band considered, send the following information to The Navarre Chamber Information Center, 1804 Prado Street, Navarre, FL 32566. Or you can fill out an online form at navarrechamber.com/ form/view/22098. Submissions should be received no later than Friday, Feb. 12.

•A recent sample of the band's music— electronic versions are preferred •ReverbNation/YouTube links/CD/DVD •A brief band bio •Thursdays not available (June 3–Aug. 12, 2021) •Examples of previous gigs/venues played •An electronic promotional photograph

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For more information about the Navarre Chamber's Tunes by the Dunes Free Summer Concert Series, please call 850-939-3267.

ARTS & CULTURE

BALLET PENSACOLA PRESENTS: VOICES OF ART Join Ballet Pensacola in

a repertory evening of collaboration with Pensacola arts groups, featuring performances with members of the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, Pensacola Little Theater, University of West Florida and more at Pensacola Cultural Center on Friday, Feb. 12, and Saturday, Feb. 13, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 14, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $32 and available for purchase at ballepensacola.org or by calling 432-9546.

PENSACOLA SYMPHONY OPENING NIGHT PSO's opening night for 2021 is

Saturday, Feb. 20, at 7:30 p.m. at the Saenger Theatre, 118 S. Palafox. Violinist Jennifer Frautschi will be the guest musician. For tickets, visit pensacolasymphony.com.

PENSACON RESCHEDULED FOR MAY 21-23 After extensive consultation with

partner venues, Pensacon organizers have announced the convention will now take place May 21-23.

To ensure safety, attendees will be required to wear face coverings while on all Pensacon grounds and within all Pensacon

venues, outside of designated, distanced eating spaces. Among other precautions, handsanitizing stations will be set up throughout the convention, and social distancing policies, including seating/capacity limitations at some venues, will be employed.

For those who have already purchased tickets for the original February dates, your tickets are already rolled over to the new dates. For those who are unable to attend in May, your unused tickets will be rolled over to Pensacon 2022, which is expected to return to the convention's usual February timeframe.

Those who still need tickets can get them at pensacon.com. Weekend passes, which include admission for all three days of the convention, are $80. Single-day tickets are available at a cost of $35 for Friday, May 21; $45 for Saturday, May 22; and $40 for Sunday, May 23. VIP Experience weekend passes are $155 and include early admission to the Pensacola Bay Center, preferred seating at panel venues, front-ofline privileges for celebrity autographs and photo ops, and exclusive T-shirt, spaceavailable parking and other perks. Additional taxes and fees apply to all tickets.

For a complete list of guests scheduled to appear, visit pensacon.com.

TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PENSACOLA CHILDREN'S CHORUS: ONE WORLD, MANY VOICES Tickets are now available for the Pensacola Children's Cho-

rus' (PCC) center season performance, "One World, Many Voices," Sunday, Feb. 21, at 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. Audience members will be immersed in a showcase of musical diversity symbolizing "A Brighter Tomorrow."

In addition to the multicultural aspects, audience members will experience gorgeous contemporary music filled with lush harmonies, moving poetry and rhythmic excitement. Each performance will open with an uplifting "virtual choir"-style presentation featuring PCC's exclusively online choir, eSing. An original composition written by five of PCC's middle schoolers will receive its first live premiere. Entitled "Ignite the Spark," its message is one of resilience and determination that directly responds to the hardships of the pandemic. The piece is their message of hope and resilience in response to the hardships of the pandemic.

With respect for those wishing to participate at a distance, the Pensacola Children's Chorus will be offering a live stream option for both performances. The cost of streaming is $18 per concert. To purchase this option, please visit pensacolasings.org.

Tickets to view the production in-person can be purchased by visiting the Saenger Theatre Box Office or ticketmaster.com.

Tickets range from $16 to $30. For additional information, visit pensacolasings.org.

STAND-UP COMEDY AT THE REX THEATRE Visit The REX Theatre every

inweekly.net

a&e happenings Friday at 8 p.m. for national stand up acts.

Tickets are $26-$35 at the door. For more information, visit rexpensacola.com.

COMEDY MAGIC SHOW AT THE REX THEATRE Comedy magician Tom Coverly,

Saturday, Feb. 6, at 3 p.m. in Seville Square. For more information, visit pensacolaopera.com.

OPERALIVE: THROWBACK THURSDAYS Take a walk down memory lane with

known as "The Illusionist," performs Saturday nights at The Rex Theatre, located at 18 N. Palafox. Shows start at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10-$35. For more information, visit rexpensacola.com.

friends of the Pensacola Opera. Learn more about the craft and look back on past productions with live discussions on Facebook Live Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. Viewers are encouraged to join in the conversation. Tune in at facebook.com/pensacolaopera.

ON VIEW AT THE PENSACOLA MUSEUM OF ART "Youth Art Focus" will be

NEW CLASSES AT MIXON MAGIC PERFORMING ARTS Mixon Magic Per-

on display through Feb. 28. "Antarctica" is another new exhibition on view through April 4 at the downstairs gallery. Other exhibitions include "Pretty/Ugly" the UWF BFA exit show of Madisen Pooton and "In Memoriam," from Panhandle Slim, which honors the lives of Ensign Joshua Kaleb Watson, Airman Mohammed Haitham and Airman Cameron Walters, who were killed in a terrorist attack at Naval Air Station Pensacola. For more information and hours of operation, visit pensacolamuseum.org.

NEW EXHIBITIONS AT ARTEL GALLERY

Three new exhibitions will be on display at Artel Gallery through Feb. 25. In the main gallery is "Celebrating Diversity" with various artists. In the vault is "Black Arts Matter" from artists Carter J., Kenneth Burrell, Ashley Gibson, Alys Richardson and Bobby Booker.

And in the alcove is "Shadowland" by Diane Collins. For more information and hours of operation, visit artelgallery.org.

GREAT GULFCOAST ARTS FESTIVAL 2020 LIMITED-EDITION POSTER AVAILABLE ONLINE With the cancel-

lation of this year's Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival due to COVID-19, the festival committee invited local artist Kreg Yingst to create a poster for 2020 in his original woodcut print design.

The 250 limited-edition posters are each signed and numbered by the artist.

Festival posters have become a local collector's item and are available online this year only. The posters are available at ggaf.org for $27, including shipping and sales tax.

Yingst, a long-time GGAF artist, received his B.A. from Trinity University in San Antonio after attending the University of Texas and his M.A. in painting from Eastern Illinois University. After graduation, he taught art for 13 years and has been a full-time artist since 2003.

The Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival returns Nov. 5, 6 and 7, 2021, at Seville Square, Fountain Park, Bartram Park and Museum Plaza in Downtown Pensacola.

DRAG SHOWS AT DOLCE AND GELATO Head to Dolce and Gelato, located at 2050 N. 12th Ave., for regular drag shows. For more information, visit facebook.com/dolcegelatopensacola

PENSACOLA OPERA AL FRESCO Pensacola Opera's outdoor live concerts return February 11, 2021

forming Arts (MMPA), a boutique performing arts studio located at 1010 N. 12th Ave., Ste. 238, will be offering a limited class schedule this fall. MMPA offers professional dance, fitness and "Mommy and Me" instruction for all ages and skill levels with weekly classes including, but not limited to, Creative Movement, Ballet/Jazz Combo, Broadway, Tap, Showstoppers, Acting and Voice. Classes will be provided for children as young as 2 years old (with a parent or guardian) through adult.

MMPA is dedicated to the safety and well-being of all students and families and has implemented protocols based on guidance from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Masks are required for entry into the building and studio. More information about Mixon Magic Performing Arts can be found at mixonmagic.com, by contacting hello@mixonmagic.com or emily@mixonmagic.com or by calling 221-7438.

NEW SHOWING AT PENSACOLA CINEMA ART Coming soon to Pensacola

Cinema Art on Feb. 12 and 13 is "Billie" and on Feb. 19 and 20 is "Blithe Spirit" at the Studer Community Institute building, 220 W. Garden St. Admission is $7. Face masks are required, and there will be 50% maximum seating capacity. Tickets can be reserved by calling or texting 863-446-7300 or emailing jpncinema@gmail.com. For more information, visit pensacolacinemaart.com.

ENCOUNTERS OF HOPE The Chaddah Dance Company performs its multimedia live program with the mission of educating a community to unite and fight victims of trafficking in the cities they live. On Saturday, Feb. 13, the Chaddah Dance Company will bring their show to the Saenger Theatre, located at 118 S. Palafox. Show starts at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are free. For more information, visit pensacolasaenger.com.

CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS AT FIRST CITY ART First City Art Center of-

fers a wide range of classes and workshops for artists of all levels. Classes include glass blowing, ceramics, painting and drawing, kiln-forming, stained glass and more. For a complete list of classes and times, visit firstcityart.org.

for more listings visit inweekly.net 17

free will astrology WEEK OF FEBRUARY 11 ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): Author

Anton Chekhov made a radical proposal: "Perhaps the feelings we experience when we are in love represent a normal state. Being in love shows people who they should be." In accordance with astrological potentials, my beloved Aries darling, I invite you to act as if Chekhov's proposal were absolutely true for at least the next two weeks. Be animated by a generous lust for life. Assume that your intelligence will reach a peak as you express excited kindness and affectionate compassion. Be a fount of fond feelings and cheerful empathy and nourishing ardor.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): Poet and

filmmaker Jean Cocteau told the following story about Taurus composer Erik Satie (1866–1925). When Satie died, his old friends, many of whom were highly accomplished people, came to visit his apartment. There they discovered that all the letters they had sent him over the years were unopened. Satie had never read them! How sad that he missed out on all that lively exchange. I beg you not to do anything that even remotely resembles such a lack of receptivity during the coming weeks, Taurus. In fact, please do just the opposite—Make yourself as open as possible to engagement and influence. I understand that the pandemic somewhat limits your social interactions. Just do the best you can.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): On behalf

of the cosmic omens, I demand that the important people in your life be reliable and generous toward you in the coming weeks. You can tell them I said so.

Tell them that you are doing pretty well, but that in order to transform pretty well into very well, you need them to boost their support and encouragement. Read them the following words from author Alan Cohen—"Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused."

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CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): For a

while, poet Alfred de Musset (1810–1857) was the sexual partner of Cancerian novelist George Sand (1804–1876), also known as Aurore Dupin. He said that after intense love-making sessions, he would fall asleep and wake up to find her sitting at her desk, engrossed in working on her next book.

Maybe the erotic exchange inspired her creativity? In accordance with current astrological potentials, I recommend Sand's approach to you. Vigorous pleasure will coordinate well with hard work. As will deep release with strong focus. As will tender intimacy with clear thinking. (P.S. I know your options for pleasure and intimacy may be somewhat limited because of the pandemic.

Call on your ingenuity and resourcefulness to work the best magic possible.)

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): Leo poet Warsan Shire suggests, "Document the moments you feel most in love with yourself—what you're wearing, who you're around, what you're doing. Recreate and repeat." This would be an excellent exercise for you to carry out during this Valentine season. You're in a phase when you're likely to enhance your lovability and attract extra support simply by intensifying and refining the affectionate compassion you feel and express toward yourself.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): I wish the pandemic would give us a short break so we could celebrate the Valentine season with maximum sensual revelry and extravagant displays of joyful tenderness. I wish we could rip off our masks and forget about social-distancing and hug and kiss everyone who wants to be hugged and kissed. But that's not going to happen. If we hope to be free to indulge in a Lush Love and Lust Festival by Valentine Season in 2022, we've got to be cautious and controlled now. And we are all counting on you Virgos to show us how to be as wildly, lyrically romantic as possible while still observing the necessary limitations. That's your special task.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): Author Raymond Carver wrote, "It ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what

we're talking about when we talk about love."

That seems like a harsh oversimplification to me. Personally, I think it's fun and interesting to pretend we know what we're talking about when we talk about love. And I think that will be especially true for you in the coming weeks. In my astrological opinion, you should be discussing love extensively and boldly and imaginatively. You should redefine what love means to you. You should re-evaluate how you express it and reconfigure the way it works in your life.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): I'm

turning over this horoscope to psychologist John Welwood. His words are the medicine you need at this juncture in the evolution of intimacy. Study the following quote and interpret it in ways that help illuminate your relationship with togetherness—"A soul connection is a resonance between two people who respond to the essential beauty of each other's individual natures, behind their facades, and who connect on this deeper level.

This kind of mutual recognition provides the catalyst for a potent alchemy. It is a sacred alliance whose purpose is to help both partners discover and realize their deepest potentials."

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21):

Transform yourself with the sweetest challenge you can dream up. Give yourself a blessing that will compel you to get smarter and wilder. Dazzle yourself as you dare to graduate from your history. Rile yourself up with a push to become your better self, your best self, your amazingly fulfilled and masterful self. Ask yourself to leap over the threshold of ordinary magic and into the realm of spooky good magic. And if all that works out well, Sagittarius, direct similar energy toward someone you care about. In other words, transform them with the sweetest challenge you can dream up. Dare them to graduate from their history. And so on.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): I

invite you to compose a message to a person you'd like to be closer to and whom you're sure would like to be closer to you. Be inspired by what poet Clementine von Radics wrote to the man she was dating, telling him why she thought they could start living together.

Here's her note: "Because you texted me a haiku about the moon when you were drunk.

Because you cried at the end of the movie "Die Hard" on Christmas eve. Because when I'm sick you bring me fruit, kiss me on the mouth, and hold me even though I'm gross. Because you bring me flowers for no reason but on Valentine's Day you gave me a bouquet of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Because every time I show you a poem I love you've read it already."

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): I've

adopted some lines from poet Walt Whitman for you to use in composing a love note.

Send it to a person you know and love, or to a person you want to know and love, or a person you will know and love in the future.

Here it is: "We are oaks growing in the openings side by side. We are two fishes swimming together. We are two predatory hawks, soaring above and looking down. We are two clouds driving overhead. We are seas mingling, two cheerful waves rolling over each other. We are snow, rain, cold, darkness.

We circle and circle till arriving home again, voiding all but freedom and our own joy."

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): "To

heal is to touch with love that which was previously touched by fear," wrote author Stephen Levine. I propose you make this theme a keynote for your best relationships in the coming days. What can you do to alleviate the anxiety and agitation of the people you care for? How might they do the same for you? If you play along with the cosmic rhythms, you will have extraordinary power to chase away fear with love.

THIS WEEK'S HOMEWORK: How has the pandemic changed your approach to getting and giving love? How have the restrictions on our ability to mingle with each other altered the ways you seek intimacy?

freewillastrology.com

freewillastrology@freewillastrology.com Rob Brezsny © Copyright 2021

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news of the weird THE WAY THE WORLD WORKS The Staten Island Zoo is weathering a storm of controversy over the prediction made by its resident groundhog, Staten Island Chuck, on Feb. 2— an annual event at the zoo. Chuck popped up on a Facebook "livestream" at the designated hour, on the designated day, but something seemed ... off. After hours of accumulating snow in the New York area, the New York Post reported, Chuck was seen to emerge into bright sunlight with no snow on the ground, his handlers wearing sweatshirts. "So there ya have it, folks, we're gonna have an early spring," announced zoo executive director Ken Mitchell. Viewers weren't fooled, one commenting, "Welppp this isn't live." Previous Groundhog Day celebrations at the zoo have also raised a ruckus. In 2014, a stand-in groundhog named Charlotte died after being dropped by Mayor Bill de Blasio, and in 2009 Chuck bit Mayor Mike Bloomberg's finger.

LEAST COMPETENT CRIMINALS Edner Flores, 34, entered a PNC Bank branch in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood on Jan. 27 and allegedly tried to rob it by handing a teller a note stating that he wanted $10,000, with "no die (sic) packs," and that he was armed, according to a federal criminal complaint. The teller activated a silent alarm and the man to fill out a blue withdrawal slip, which he did, then asked for his ATM card. The helpful Flores instead produced a temporary Illinois state ID card, authorities said. WMAQTV reported police arrived while Flores was still at the window, arrested him and found a knife in his jacket, according to a police report.

•Women changing in the locker room at Onelife Fitness in Stafford, Virginia, were unhurt on Jan. 30 when Brian Anthony Joe, 41, fell through the ceiling, according to the Stafford County Sheriff's Office, landing on one of them. Joe, who fell about 10 feet, the sheriff said, was also uninjured, and the New York Post reported the women held him there in the locker room until authorities arrived to arrest him on charges of burglary, vandalism and peeping.

BRIGHT IDEA Drag queen Spar-Kelly and her neighbors in St. Johns, Florida, are tired of parents parking along their street during school pickup to avoid the traffic at the nearby Creekside High School. So she dressed in her finest and for three days held up a simple sign that read, "THIS IS NOT STUDENT PICK-UP, HONEY." "If what it takes is just me standing here and telling people to move along, I'll be a diva and I'll tell someone to move right along," she told WJXT-TV. On Jan. 27, her efforts paid off: A St. Johns County Sheriff's deputy showed up to patrol the street, and plans are being made to install new "no parking" signs.

MOUNTAIN > MOLEHILL Roger Broadstone, 67, was at home in Twining, Michigan, when state police officers arrived on Jan. 20 to investigate allegations of $1,500 worth of

By the Editors at Andrews McMeel

merchandise purchased with a stolen credit card, but he refused to let them in without a search warrant, WJRT-TV reported. When the troopers returned with the warrant, they found the illegally purchased items inside the house, but they also found that Broadstone had barricaded himself inside and allegedly set a booby trap and other items designed to harm the officers. Broadstone was charged with two counts related to the credit card transaction, and 16 counts related to the confrontation with authorities, including five counts of attempted murder and four counts of resisting police. He was being held on a $1.125 million bond.

WEIRD SCIENCE Researchers have solved the mystery of how bare-nosed wombats, native to southeastern Australia, produce poop in cubes, reports the International Business Times. Wildlife ecologist Scott Carver of the University of Tasmania is lead author on a study, published Jan. 28 in the journal Soft Matter, that details the particular inner workings of the wombat's digestive tract that produce the square-shaped dung. "This ability ... is unique in the animal kingdom," Carver said. "Our research found that ... you really can fit a square peg through a round hole."

OH, THAT OLD THING? Italian police arrested an unnamed 36-year-old in Naples on Jan. 16 on suspicion of receiving stolen goods and found a 500-year-old copy of Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvatore Mundi," a painting they returned to the museum it belonged to, surprising museum officials, who had no idea it had been missing. The painting is part of the Doma Museum collection at the San Domenico Maggiore church in Naples, where the room it had hung in "has not been open for three months," Naples prosecutor Giovanni Melillo told The Guardian. The copy was made by Giacomo Alibrandi in the early 1500s; da Vinci's original painting sold in 2017 for a record-breaking $450 million at auction and hasn't been seen in public since.

MISINFORMED Authorities in Essex County, England, received a tip on Jan. 16 and arrived at the Freemasons' Saxon Hall expecting to put an end to the illegal "rave" reported to be happening there, but instead of loud music and wild teenagers, officers found old people lining up to get their COVID-19 vaccines, Echo News reported. "Grumpy old men and grumpy old women were in abundance," confirmed Dennis Baum, chairman of the hall, with "wheelchairs, Zimmer frames and walking sticks." Baum said things got testy when the vaccine was late arriving: "It was absolute chaos ... The car park became chock a block with 80-year-old-plus drivers." Police remained to offer their assistance with the traffic. {in} From Andrews McMeel Syndication News Of The Weird © 2021 Andrews McMeel

Send your weird news items to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com February 11, 2021

19

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