CRESTVIEW — Ashley Bailey, Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office crime prevention specialist, will present “Active Shooter—Anytime, Anyplace: Do You Know What to Do?”

The First Tuesday Talk is 10:30 a.m. March 7 at the Crestview Public Library, 1445 Commerce Drive.

The hour-long presentation is free to attend. Coffee and cookies will be available at 10 a.m. when the doors open. Call 682-4432 for more information.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 'Active shooter' safety presentation set

Hello, my name is Veronica Graham and I am the new 4H Program Assistant for Okaloosa County.

I started working at the extension office as a volunteer for the Master Gardener Program in 2016, but joined the 4-H team just before Christmas of 2016. I grew up in Livingston, Montana, where I enjoyed outdoor activities such as bike riding, hiking and spending time with my three horses and two dogs. 

After high school I joined the Air Force, where I served four years as an EOD technician.

During that time, I had two beautiful children and decided that they needed me more than the military did. I put down my boots and picked up the books. By 2014, I had my bachelor’s degree in Project Management with a focus in Training and Development.

Currently, I am leading the Embryology School Enrichment Program in 8 schools that include 54 classes. I really enjoy the fact that these students are learning the developmental stages of life.

I have also been working with the Family Nutrition Program to develop new raised bed gardens for local schools.

Contact me at vgraham@co.okaloosa.fl.us or call 689-5850 to find out more about 4-H in our county.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Graham joins Crestview extension office staff

CRESTVIEW — Okaloosa County Courthouse records of marriages from Feb. 14-20 include:

•Starniliya Coleman and Theodore Uecker, both of Crestview.

•Sarah Downen and James Wright, both of Crestview.

•Ashley Booth and Rylanda Campbell, both of Crestview.

•Ashley McIver and Zachary Putnam, both of Baker.

•Taquanna Mobley and Jerome Wilks, both of Crestview.

•Adrianna Jernigan-Laroe and Anthony Bolerjack, both of Crestview.

•Benjamin McCabe and Shawna Kennedy, both of Crestview.

•Shaina King and Andrew  Stanley, both of Crestview.

•Antonio Mills and Emily Jackson, both of Crestview.

•Natasha Hallett and Jacob Collins, both of Crestview.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Okaloosa County marriage licenses

FORT WALTON BEACH — The Spring Panhandle Job Fair is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 2 at St. Mary’s Parish Life Center, 65 Coral Drive SW, Fort Walton Beach.

Job fair business participants are:

•1 SOFSS NAF Human Resources Office, Acorn Food Services, Adcomm, Aerotek, Air Force Reserve, Airbus, American Water, AOCE, Inc., Arby's

•Benjamin Franklin Plumbing/One hour Air Conditioning, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Emerald Coast, CareerSource Okaloosa Walton, Community Broadcasters, Complete Florida, DeVry University

•Early Learning Coalition of Okaloosa & Walton Counties, Edward Jones, Emerald Coast Utility Services, Inc., G4S Secure Solutions, Gulf Coast Youth Services

•Heavy Equipment College of Georgia, Home Instead Senior Care, Kelly Services, Kitty Hawk Kites Inc., LandrumHR, Mary Kay Inc.

•Navy Federal Credit Union, Northwest Florida Daily News, Okaloosa County BCC, Okaloosa County Head Start, Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office, Okaloosa Gas District

•ResortQuest By Wyndham Vacation Rentals, SA Technical Services, Inc., Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, The Exchange – AAFES, Tom Thumb, Turner Construction

•University of West Florida Emerald Coast, Verizon, Vet Center, VT Mobile Aerospace Engineering, Inc., Waffle House, White-Wilson Medical Center, Wyndham Vacation Ownership

Check-in and registration for employer set-up is 8 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. March 2 at the church.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Panhandle Job Fair comes to St. Mary's

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 3 things to do this week

CRESTVIEW — A number of at-risk and trafficked teenage girls recently received a day of pampering.

Tracie Esmond and the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice in Crestview's Ryan Bullard spent months raising funds for the event, which took place Feb. 19 at Penton House Salon and Day Spa in Pace.

“During the event, local girls were given the opportunity to receive haircuts, styling, hair dying, manicures and pedicures, and makeup,” a media release stated. “Many cosmetology professionals were on site to provide services to these youth at no charge. The youth were treated to pizza and snacks at the salon.”

What were the benefits?

“The event supported a pro-social atmosphere for teen girls, the event served to allow at-risk and trafficked girls to feel better about themselves and enjoy a day of beauty with their peers, and the list could go on,” a media release stated.

What’s next?

“We are working closely with product manufacturers such as Paul Mitchell and Bare Minerals to acquire donated products for future events,” the release stated.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: At-risk teens enjoy spa day

CRESTVIEW — One club's efforts to provide a garden park and decorations in the city are apparently appreciated — to the point of thievery.

The Dogwood Garden Club maintains Garden Park, an area near the intersection of Ferdon Boulevard and Main Street in Crestview. The site contains a Blue Star monument at its south end, benches and tables, and plants that members seasonally replace.

"This year, evidently, the pots of plants are so irresistible that someone felt it necessary to take one (pansies). Pot and all," club member Thea Duhaime stated in an email to the News Bulletin.

The club paid about $35 for fall-season plants, and planted them — still in their pots to deter weed growth — at the park. "The cost of all our projects comes out of our treasury," Duhaime said.

The flower theft is just one example of alleged mischief.

In the fall, club members found destroyed and overturned concrete benches and someone allegedly broke a pipe used for the fountain and ground watering.

Due to the vandalism, the city turned off water and electricity to the fountain and other pipes, so Duhaime and other garden club members now have to bring gallons of water with them during maintenance sessions.

"It's so disheartening," Duhaime said of the damage. "It is too bad that we can't have nice things in Crestview."

There is some good news: One of the park’s regular visitors spoke to Duhaime Feb. 22 and volunteered to paint the tables.

In addition, Crestview Department of Public Services employees assist the club's members with occasional heavy lifting, such as righting overturned benches after vandals struck last year.

"They helped us with trimming plants … sandblasted paint from the tables originally used at the park, heavy lifting for tree removal and the like," Duhaime said. "If it's heavier than what a group of older women can do, they do it for us. They’ve been great and we're so grateful that they're there."

While there hasn't been excessive local vandalism, Crestview Police Department Sgt. Ray Harp said the best way to deter criminal activity is for area residents to alert the CPD.

"Just call it in if you see any suspicious activity going on. That way we can check it out," he said.

The CPD dispatch phone number is 682-2055.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Garden club reports pansy theft

CRESTVIEW — A Crestview resident is dead following a wreck involving a bicycle and a vehicle, according to a Florida Highway Patrol media release.

The crash occurred at 4:58 a.m. Feb. 23 at the intersection of Country Road 393 and Harielson Road in Crestview.

Mark S. Dunafan, 56, of Crestview, was riding a bicycle in the southbound lane of County Road 393, approximately 10 inches to the left of the solid white painted edge line for the CR 393 southbound lane.

Kelvin J. Williamson, 19, of Crestview, was driving a 2008 Chevy Cobalt in the southbound lane, and the right front of his vehicle struck the rear tire of the bicycle, according to the release.

Dunafan landed on the hood and windshield of the vehicle and then tumbled onto the roadway on the west shoulder of CR 393, just north of the Harielson intersection. Williamson was not injured in the crash.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview man dies in bicycle crash

Incomprehensible laws on when an incoming president’s national security adviser can talk to a Russian ambassador cost Mike Flynn his job.

I am actually for term limits, but I believe our national security adviser’s term should last longer than a gallon of milk.

President Obama signed an executive order in his final days saying all intelligence agencies can share information. He did it to trap Trump, knowing career Democrat bureaucrats would be able to leak something on Trump. About 90 percent of D.C. government employees are Democrats.

Clearly, Obama did not want this law in place when his was “the most transparent administration in history.” Obama signing that executive order, with just days to go in his administration, was as magnanimous as Thomas Jefferson freeing his slaves in his will.

Eric Garner, the guy in NYC, was killed for essentially selling untaxed cigarettes. Probably for a crime he didn’t understand.

The problem is that we are becoming a country of too many laws, lots and lots of laws, layered upon each other with perpetual ambiguity. And it seems we keep adding to the laws that we have, thus making the federal and local government larger and more unaccountably powerful with each and every passing bill the president signs.

Enacting more laws — laws that even lawyers cannot understand — makes Americans less free.

When a problem happens in this country, both parties run to the microphones, wag their fingers with amazement that it occurred, blame the other party, and announce another law that they are going to pass or an agency they will start.

Most of the time, it just makes the matter worse.

The Affordable Care Act was not affordable and the Patriot Act was not patriotic. So bad law is piled upon bad law, unevenly enforced. It has all become a joke.

I dream of a day when I can tape a baseball game "without the expressed written consent of Major League Baseball," but I know deep down that my desire will remain only that. I’m not even sure how my DVR gets away with recording TV.

There is not a person in this country who could not be harassed, indicted and probably convicted on some law by a zealous prosecutor. Just ask the Duke Lacrosse Team kids. Yes, they were eventually acquitted, but a politically ambitious prosecuting attorney who was up for re-election ruined some young men's lives.

I once saw a saying on a bathroom wall that said, "Give me ambiguity or give me something else." I have never hired a lawyer to look at some legal issue who came back quickly with a straight answer. Usually, he or she comes back with more questions than answers.  Since they are paid by the hour, they like it that way.

Trump needs to decide what is important in this country and almost start over with our laws and the tax code. We need to rebuild our laws, starting with the most important ones where there is a clear victim (such as rape, incest, murder and robbery). And we need to stop at some point when we realize a law is outdated, unclear, unenforceable or redundant. Laws need to be clear and evenly enforced. And citizens need to understand them.

A more evolved society needs fewer laws. The more totalitarian a country, the more laws and rules it has. We really need to take stock and realize that passing law upon confusing law is not the direction we need for our country.

I wrote this same column in 2006 when George W. Bush was in power. Sadly, the problem has gotten worse.

I hope that President Trump will look into the fatty folds of government and cut out many of these rules and regulations. When you have a hammer, you are always looking for a nail. So it is with growing government agencies, laws and regulators.

With each law or regulation, freedom is diminished.

Ron Hart, a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author, is a frequent guest on CNN. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Freedom diminishes with each new law

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 3 things to do in Northwest Florida