Here's a look back at our top stories of the week
Here's a roundup of our top stories from the past week that are available only to our subscribers.
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Escambia's fighting for control of 60,000 texts a commissioner claims were 'stolen' by a rival
Escambia County is alleging in legal filings that more than 60,000 of Commissioner Jeff Bergosh's text messages were illegally taken from his personal cell phone by his former political opponent Jonathan Owens.
It’s the latest development in the Emergency Medical Service training scandal that upended the Escambia County government in 2019 and resulted in the arrest of four senior-level EMS personnel in 2020 for falsifying training records.
Two of the four arrested entered a pre-trial diversion program and avoided criminal penalties, the former EMS chief pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges, and the training director was adjudicated guilty of seven felony charges of falsifying an official document.
Escambia County's former medical director, Dr. Rayme Edler, who publicly blew the whistle on the training issues and was forced out of county government, filed suit against the county in federal court in 2020 under the False Claims Act.
The suit has quietly been moving through the early stages of litigation for the last three years.
Full story: Escambia's fighting for control of 60,000 texts a commissioner claims were 'stolen' by a rival
South Navy Boulevard is plagued by blight. Can cleanups (and citations) help it shine?
Pat Page has spent most of her life in Navy Point. The 76-year-old artist was born there to a military family in the 1940s. She remembers walking to the neighborhood movie theater as a child with her siblings when Navy Point and Warrington were part of a thriving community of homes and businesses in southwest Escambia County.
Page recalled one of the busiest hubs was South Navy Boulevard. The stretch of road that leads to Navy Point and the main gate of Naval Air Station Pensacola was once bustling with shops, medical offices and restaurants like Marchello’s.
The Italian restaurant overlooked Bayou Grande and the bridge to the main gate of the base. For decades, it was the place to be for special occasions or to grab a pizza on a Sunday afternoon before boating to tiny White Island in Pensacola Bay.
Long closed and boarded up, the old Marchello’s Italian Restaurant is now dilapidated. One of many vacant buildings lining South Navy Boulevard that no longer draws customers, and instead attracts homeless people looking for shelter, vandals and graffiti taggers.
Full story: South Navy Boulevard is plagued by blight. Can cleanups (and citations) help it shine?
Oysters to po'boys to smash burgers, Perdido Key seafood spot does it all
Perdido Key’s newest restaurant, Salty Pearl Raw Bar, is a diamond in the rough positioned under the Theo Baars Bridge on 13470 Perdido Key Drive neighboring Fisherman's Corner.
Although seafood restaurants are easy to find in the Pensacola area, the Salty Pearl Raw Bar was intended to be a place for the locals.
From the “Hook & Cook” seafood platter that allows customers to bring in their own fresh catch to be cooked and loaded up with sides like fries, coleslaw and hushpuppies — to the oysters purchased from nearby market, Gulf Coast Seafood — the place is intended to be a place that exists for its community.
Full story: New Perido Key restaurant looks to be the local spot for seafood and smash burgers
Pensacola Restaurant Week is here, and we found our 5 favorite dishes
Great Southern Restaurants’ Summer Restaurant Week has begun, and we’ve found five must-try items to make a trip out for this week.
The annual restaurant week kicked off Monday and runs through Sunday, beginning at 5 p.m. each night.
In addition to the restaurants’ normal menus at The Fish House, Jackson’s Steakhouse, Angelena’s Ristorante Italiano, Atlas Oyster House and Five Sisters Blues Café, each restaurant offers a special three-course, fixed price dinner menu at $33 per person with choice of appetizer, entrée and dessert.
For foodies, it’s a fun challenge to see how many restaurants they can visit throughout the week for their limited-edition menus.
Full story: Restaurant Week has begun in Pensacola. These were our top 5 dishes you need to try
Pensacola Beach, Perdido Key see first sea turtle hatches of season
Escambia County welcomed the first sea turtle hatches of the season on both Pensacola Beach and Perdido Key this week when more than 160 loggerhead hatchlings safely made their way to Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday.
This is the first of two nests on Perdido Key and the first of 13 on Pensacola Beach. While local numbers are lower than expected, the region overall is having a strong nesting year, county officials reported. A higher number of green and Kemp’s ridley nests are being reported alongside the more common loggerhead.
Full story: Pensacola Beach, Perdido Key celebrate first sea turtle hatches of season
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola top news stories: Aug. 7-11
