There is a story of how several years ago a teacher assigned to visit children in a large city hospital received a routine call requesting that she visit a particular child. She took the boy’s name and room number and was told, “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in his class now. I’d be grateful if you could help him with his homework, so he doesn’t fall behind the others.”
It’s estimated that there are 204 homeless people in Okaloosa County in 2024, according to the Florida Department of Health.
That’s just a small portion of the 31,462 estimated in Florida overall.
Sometimes it amazes me what makes news.
As Hurricane Milton came ashore last week in Florida, lives were lost. Millions of damage occurred, if not more. And there are people who survived who will have a drastically different life in the aftermath.
On Oct. 1, Florida’s minimum wage increased to $13 an hour, the latest in a step raise that voters approved in 2020. In two years, the state’s minimum wage will increase to $15 an hour.
The arrival of October means things get a little more interesting when it comes to high school football in the area.
For teams like Pace and Jay, it’s about continuing their respective pushes for the playoffs. The Patriots are the second-best team in Region 1-6A and a top 10 team in the state. Jay is in the same position in the Rural Classification.
At one point last week, 64 of Florida’s 67 counties were under a hurricane or tropical storm warning. Santa Rosa County, Okaloosa County and Escambia County were the three not under that type of warning.
I saw a Facebook post a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday morning that caught my attention. It was on one of the Milton pages and featured photos of several players doing yard work just hours after they walked off the field at Bennett C. Russell Stadium in Navarre. They were holding rakes, working and smiling.
