Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Shannon NickinsonDecember 15, 2014

“These situations create in me a mixture of emotions: Anger, Fear, Sadness, Frustration, Helplessness. … We teach (our son) right from wrong. Teach him how to be respectful. But does it even matter when he can do all these things and still be viewed as a threat … Just because he has a better natural […]

Shannon NickinsonDecember 1, 2014

What happens when the residents of Pensacola won’t have the Main Street wastewater treatment plant site to kick around anymore? For at least the last decade — make that decades — everything that was wrong with Pensacola could be linked to Old Stinky, a sewer plant that sat on the downtown Pensacola waterfront for at […]

Shannon NickinsonNovember 30, 2014

When you’ve been waiting as long as these Escambia County residents have been, it stings to be asked for more patience. The people who live near the Rolling Hills and Longleaf construction and demolition debris facilities have waited years for their complaints to be heard. So Monday, when they had an audience with people at […]

Shannon NickinsonNovember 10, 2014

The voters have spoken. And mostly they spoke for the incumbent. The results of the Nov. 4 general election brought one new County Commissioner to Escambia County, though all of the political blood sport in that race was contained to the primary election. Sitting Commissioner Gene Valentino couldn’t escape the primary, where Doug Underhill defeated […]

Shannon NickinsonNovember 9, 2014

The third installment of BP money sent to the Pensacola area under the Natural Resource Damage Assessment process includes $18,793,500 for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to build a hatchery and research facility at Bruce Beach. “This is the final sign-off,” said Gil McRae, the director of the Commission’s Fish and Wildlife Research […]

Shannon NickinsonOctober 23, 2014

Santa Rosa County voters first had the chance to fund construction of a new courthouse in 2002. That measure failed, but the need to replace the nearly 90-year-old facility in downtown Milton, about 25 miles from Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle, has only grown in the intervening 12 years. And if it fails again on […]

Shannon NickinsonOctober 8, 2014

I think I had my last chance to be in a wedding party. Thanks heavens I’m going out on a high note. I went through a period for a couple of years where it seemed like everyone I knew was getting matched or hatched. It was gift registries and strappy shoes for months at a […]

Shannon NickinsonSeptember 22, 2014

Kindergarten isn’t what it used to be. Back in the day, kindergarten was a place to learn to work and play well with others. Letter, numbers, a little “See Spot Run.” That’s the way I remember Mrs. Graham’s class at Waverly School. Kids today start out behind the curve if they wait until kindergarten to […]

Shannon NickinsonSeptember 15, 2014

It shouldn’t take an act of God for Pensacola to make progress, but sometimes it feels like it does. Three of the largest projects successfully undertaken in this community in the last 15 years — moving the Main Street sewer plant, building the Community Maritime Park and launching Rebuild Northwest Florida — came in whole […]

Shannon NickinsonAugust 28, 2014

More than once over the six months I have spent reporting material for what became the Pensacola Metro Report, I’ve been asked what I thought the bottom line was from the report. The bottom line is that we have to do better. Back in 2001, I was part of the team that worked with the […]

Tag: Shannon Nickinson

Shannon Nickinson: Reducing the world to black and white is hurtful

Shannon Nickinson: What will Pensacola do without Old Stinky to kick around?

Shannon Nickinson: Progress, but the waiting goes on for some Escambia County residents who want dumps closed

Shannon Nickinson: Gen-X has the power; it’s time to show leadership

Shannon Nickinson: Oil-spill money to pay for bird hatchery, research center

Shannon Nickinson: Our infrastructure is expensive and mostly invisible until it breaks

Shannon Nickinson: Bondi doesn’t realize the ‘majority’ accept same-sex marriage

Shannon Nickinson: Testing students is fine — until it interferes with educating them

Shannon Nickinson: Ivan was an ill wind that blew some good for Pensacola

Shannon Nickinson: Pensacola Metro Report: We can do it, we can do better