John Frankman didn’t plan on running for Congress. The former Army Special Forces Green Beret says he spent years after leaving the military fighting for service members punished under the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, writing op-eds, testifying on Capitol Hill and appearing on national media. What he saw in Washington convinced him that wasn’t enough.

The prolonged dry spell settling over the Florida Panhandle may feel unprecedented to residents, but a National Weather Service meteorologist said drought conditions like these are a well-documented feature of the region’s spring climate.

Okaloosa County commissioners voted unanimously April 7 to partner with Divers Alert Network, a nonprofit recognized worldwide for dive safety research and emergency medicine, as the county prepares to sink the SS United States as an artificial reef.

A new internal report by Northwest Florida State College obtained by the Crestview News Bulletin says the college improperly stored more than 170 pounds of live medications, including controlled substances such as morphine, fentanyl and a paralytic drug, in its School of Nursing building for an unknown period.

State Rep. Nathan Boyles, R-Baker, is wrapping up what he calls his first full legislative session in Tallahassee, and the freshman Republican said the biggest adjustment has been learning how to move policy in a chamber with far more colleagues — and competing interests — than the Okaloosa County Commission he came from.

The Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners voted March 24 to ban red-light cameras and speed enforcement cameras from county-owned rights of way and county-maintained roads, citing due process concerns raised by a recent Florida court ruling.

A masked student armed with a sharp weapon attacked two classmates and a paraprofessional at Walton Middle School early Tuesday morning before being taken into custody within minutes, authorities said at a press conference in DeFuniak Springs on March 24.

Doug Chico didn’t plan to run for Congress. The 35-year-old Navy veteran and sixth-generation Northwest Florida native said he’d rather spend more time with his family. But a local surveillance camera rollout last fall set him on a path to challenge incumbent Rep. Jimmy Patronis in the August Republican primary for Florida’s 1st Congressional District.

The Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners is set to consider ratifying the submission of a $5 million federal grant application to fund the widening of a heavily congested stretch of State Road 85 in Crestview known as the “Miracle Mile.”

The Okaloosa County Commission will consider a resolution Tuesday to ban red light cameras and speed detection systems from county roadways and rights-of-way, a move prompted by a Broward County court ruling that struck down part of Florida’s automated traffic enforcement law as unconstitutional.