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Okaloosa County

Airbnb says county agreements should lead it to equal 2016 tax payments in first six months

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Vacation home-rental marketing giant Airbnb said Tuesday its expanding list of tax agreements and its growing business should lead it to equal last year’s total sales and tourist tax payments just in the first six months of 2017. The company announced that its five-month totals in sales and tourist taxes paid to the state and individual counties surpassed $18 million through June 1, so it expects to clear $20 million by July 1. Last year the company’s combined total for…

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House advances pilot program to treat mental health versus jail

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A House committee voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of a bill to begin the Forensic Hospital Diversion Pilot Program in the Panhandle’s Okaloosa County. Rep. Mel Ponder, who sponsored HB 1051, introduced the measure to the House Children, Families and Seniors Subcommittee. The bill intends to alleviate overcrowding in the state’s prison corrections system with a significant percentage of individuals with mental health needs Often, those individuals go ignored while incarcerated. “We believe those inmates would be better served with…

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Matt Gaetz, Greg Evers among candidates in Florida’s 1st District

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A legislator who backed comments describing Black Lives Matter as a terrorist group and another who held an online giveaway of a semi-automatic rifle are among eight Republicans trying to succeed a retiring congressman in Florida’s conservative Panhandle. U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller‘s heavily conservative 1st Congressional District, which is home to five military installations and a large population of veterans, has gone Republican since 1994. State Sen. Greg Evers and state Rep. Matt Gaetz announced they were running in the…

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Gary Stein: Time for Northwest Florida Daily News to respect medical marijuana

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In the age where cannabis is finally being re-recognized as treatment for a vast plethora of human ailments and regaining the stature it had for centuries before it was degraded by lies, bigotry and greed, it’s time that the media grow up, and start by using the appropriate nomenclature for the plant that has been used by humans for over 12,000 years and recognized as medicine for 4,000 years. To paraphrase Mrs. Willy Loman, via playwright Arthur Miller, “Respect must…

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HD 4 hopeful Wayne Harris might call himself ‘tax cutter,’ but he is anything but

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From the start, Wayne Harris, a Republican running for Matt Gaetz’s House District 4 seat, has strutted his conservative credentials. A recent mailer to voters in HD 4 even boasts Harris as an “Emerald Coast tax cutter.” But after a closer look, it becomes increasingly difficult to describe Harris in those terms, especially compared to the other Republicans in the race. Examples of this abound; Harris used his current campaign account to contribute and attend dinners with Democratic clubs such as…

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