“We are on a war footing” Pentagon brass’s blunt message for the Emerald Coast:
When Dale Marks, Assistant Secretary of War for Energy, Installations, and Environment, spoke to the Niceville-Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce, he delivered a blunt message: Northwest Florida is on the front line of America’s industrial “arsenal of freedom,” and time is now the nation’s most dangerous adversary. Marks, who is also Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Acquisition and Sustainment, credited his time on the Emerald Coast with shaping his view of defense, stating, “The military does not operate in a vacuum… We operate within the strength of our host communities”.
Massie accuser Cynthia West talks Okaloosa School Board race in exclusive interview
Okaloosa County School Board District 5 candidate Cynthia West addresses a high-profile deposition involving Representative Thomas Massie and explains why she walked away from a $60,000 settlement requiring a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to uphold the transparency she demands of district staff. West supports school vouchers, arguing that public education must adapt to school choice, and suggests co-locating charter schools in underused facilities to retain capital outlay funds. She criticizes recent school closures as “irresponsible to taxpayers” and proposes funding teacher raises by scrutinizing and reworking expensive contracts, such as for IT and School Resource Officers (SRO). She also highlights the current board’s lack of dissenting votes, warning against “groupthink” and an “echo chamber” in governance.
The return of ‘School Prayer?’ This candidate’s spicy take you’ll love or hate:
Walton County School Board District 3 candidate Gordon Porter, a senior project manager, is running on a platform that blends professional expertise in fiscal oversight and construction management with an ideologically driven push for conservative change. He is challenging two-term incumbent Bill Eddins Junior, hoping to close the three percent margin he lost by in the last election. Porter emphasizes a need for a proactive budgeting mindset and design oversight for the district’s construction boom, arguing his value is in managing “large sums of money”. Ideologically, Porter aligns with an “America First” worldview, defining school board members as “gatekeepers” against liberal drift and advocating for a thorough review of the curriculum, including American history, math, and science, while challenging DEI policies. A central plank of his campaign is returning prayer and teaching the Bible as a core cultural text in schools, even if it means anticipating and structuring legal challenges to existing case law. He also pledges to quickly move for live-streamed school board meetings to increase transparency.
