I used to make my living as a professional guitarist, and there is a universally shared experience among guitarists who have played in bands. At some point in your performance, someone is going to shout out, “Freebird! Freebird!” For those who don’t know, Freebird is a song by the southern-rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, and it features several iconic guitar solos. I have heard that request often and most of my 6-string colleagues have as well. For the many times we’ve been asked to play the song, you’d think that we would take the time to learn it. I never have, and neither have any of my guitar playing friends. Perhaps, deep down, we fear that, were we to play it, we would be disrupting a long-established order of things.

The Okaloosa County School District celebrated the academic achievements of 619 high school seniors during the Anne T. Mitchell Academic Senior Honors Assembly on Tuesday at Northwest Florida State College’s Raider Arena.

An Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office deputy conducting a traffic stop on North Highway 189 in Baker on Saturday discovered the driver was a habitual traffic offender with a total of five guilty dispositions for driving with a license that’s been cancelled, revoked, or suspended.

A Shalimar man was charged with child neglect after Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office deputies on Saturday located a young boy who said the defendant was not caring for or feeding him.

Billed as “Florida’s Greatest Hurricane Preparedness Party,” Okaloosa County’s 2nd Annual Hurricane Expo is set for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 3 at the County Administration Building, 1250 N. Eglin Parkway, Shalimar.

Due to an increase in bear populations, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is seeking public feedback on proposed changes to bear hunting regulations in Florida. To help them with this, please complete a short comment tool to share your thoughts on this topic.

The SMP (Senior Medicare Patrol) program offers volunteers an opportunity to make an important difference in their communities. Volunteers take pride in working to ensure that the Medicare program will be protected for future generations. In 2020, the SMP projects had a total of 5,720 total active team members who conducted 9,870 group outreach and education events, reaching an estimated 425,103 people. In addition, the projects had 249,134 individual interactions with, or on behalf of, a Medicare beneficiary.

“It’s your favorite day today!” my wife said cheerily to me first thing this morning. “It is!” I responded with equal cheer, “the best day of the week!” What day might that be, some of you are perhaps wondering. Well, it’s trash day!