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Good morning!
Scallop evidence has been found in Choctawhatchee Bay for the first time in years, with more than 200 shells collected. Charter has completed its Cox transaction, bringing the Spectrum brand to Northwest Florida by mid-September, and the Okaloosa County School District’s summer feeding program served more than 71,000 meals this year. Niceville volleyball is eyeing a big season behind senior leadership, a young core, and grit. Also, five open houses this weekend in Fort Walton Beach with at least four bedrooms, and today’s weather outlook.
BIG BOOM TODAY: Eglin Air Force Base announced that a large detonation is scheduled for Aug. 21 between 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. with a backup date of Aug. 25 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Residents in Navarre, Crestview, Baker, Niceville and Destin may hear a large detonation during these windows. No major roads will be closed for this mission.
BUSINESS
Charter completes Cox transaction, bringing Spectrum brand to NWFL by mid-September
Cox Communications customers in Northwest Florida will begin seeing changes to their internet, television and mobile service after Charter Communications announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Cox, creating the nation’s largest broadband and video company.
- Spectrum branding, pricing and packaging will launch for all Cox customers beginning in mid-September, the company said.
Charter, which operates under the Spectrum brand, also completed its acquisition of Liberty Broadband Corporation as part of the deal. The combined company will serve more than 70 million homes and businesses across 45 states.
Starting today, Cox internet customers who do not already subscribe to Cox Mobile can receive a free year of Spectrum mobile service, the company said.
In mid-September, Charter plans to roll out its full product lineup to Cox customers, including Spectrum Internet, Spectrum Mobile, Spectrum TV and Spectrum Voice.
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GAMES
WordroW: August 21, 2026
WordroW is brought to you by Fort Walton Beach Chiropractic – keeping your mind sharp and your spine aligned, one game at a time.
Can you guess today’s 5-letter word in six tries?
WordroW is Get The Coast’s daily word puzzle featuring local words, places, and phrases from our community. You have six guesses to find the mystery word – green letters are correct and in the right spot, yellow letters are in the word but wrong position, and gray letters aren’t in the word at all.
SCHOOL
FWBHS biomedical student Micah Johnson attends national medical congress
Micah Johnson’s mom made him take the biomedical science class at Fort Walton Beach High School as a freshman. He didn’t want to.
Now a senior and a Captain on the football team, Johnson was selected as a Delegate to the Congress of Future Medical Leaders, a three-day honors program held in June at the University of Massachusetts Lowell campus just outside Boston. His nomination was signed by Dr. Mario Capecchi, a Nobel Prize in Medicine winner.
The highlight came on the final day when Johnson watched a live shoulder replacement surgery on screen.
- “I want to be a part of that to just help someone,” he said. “To be able to help save someone’s life, or help change someone’s life for the better, indefinitely.”
Johnson is now in his fourth year of the school’s Project Lead the Way biomedical science program and spent the summer volunteering in the emergency room at HCA Florida Fort Walton-Destin Hospital. He’s leaning toward a career in anesthesiology.
SPORTS
Niceville volleyball eyes big season behind senior leadership, young core and grit
Niceville volleyball is coming off a first-round playoff loss to Horizon last season. But there’s already reason to believe the Lady Eagles will be much improved.
For starters, the program lost just one senior from last year’s roster: Kiera Bess. Everyone else is back, and those contributors should only continue to get better.
- “I have seven seniors, and we have a lot on offense that are younger, but we’re here to win,” head coach Karson Jessup said.
And so far, the Lady Eagles have done exactly that. Niceville opened with an impressive preseason outing Saturday that included a sweep of Choctaw, then continued its strong start with a dominant sweep over Navarre.
At the core of this Lady Eagles squad is sophomore outside hitter Kate Jannazo.
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REAL ESTATE
5 Open Houses this weekend in Fort Walton Beach with at least 4 bedrooms
This week’s Open Houses take us across Fort Walton Beach with five homes offering at least four bedrooms and plenty of room for buyers who need more space. The lineup includes newer construction, renovated homes and properties with flexible floor plans designed for larger households, guests or working from home.
Beyond the extra bedrooms, these homes bring some standout features to the table — from custom kitchens and oversized living spaces to private pools, fenced backyards and room for a boat or RV. Several also offer features that can be harder to find, including paid-off solar panels and potential assumable VA loans with interest rates as low as 2.5%.
With open houses scheduled throughout the weekend, buyers can get an in-person look at homes across several established Fort Walton Beach neighborhoods and compare a range of layouts, upgrades and price points.
SCHOOL
Okaloosa County School District’s summer feeding program serves more than 71,000 meals
From giving back to investing in the future, FPL is powering strong communities. Learn more here.
The Okaloosa County School District’s Summer Feeding Program provided more than 71,000 meals to students this summer, serving 27,848 breakfasts and 43,926 lunches to help ensure students had access to nutritious food while school was out.
“Ensuring our students have access to nutritious meals doesn’t stop when the school year ends,” said Superintendent Marcus Chambers. “We are grateful to everyone who helped make sure our students had access to the meals they needed throughout the summer.”
The district’s athletic programs also played an important role in supporting the initiative by helping ensure their athletes had access to breakfast and lunch. Fort Walton Beach, Choctaw, Niceville and Crestview high schools, along with Davidson Middle School, participated this year.
WEATHER
Today’s weather outlook
TODAY: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 10am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 89. West wind 0 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. New rainfall amounts less than a tenth of an inch possible.
TONIGHT: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 79. West wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts less than a tenth of an inch possible.
COASTAL RESOURCES
First scallop evidence found in Choctawhatchee Bay in years
The annual Great Scallop Count on Choctawhatchee Bay drew 29 community volunteers and produced the first confirmed evidence of scallops in the bay in years, though no live scallops were found among the more than 200 shells collected.
The event, organized by Okaloosa County’s Natural Resources Team and Florida Sea Grant, sent participants across designated survey grids in the bay to search seagrass beds for bay scallops, a shellfish species historically found in Choctawhatchee Bay that has gone unseen there for years.
“The turnout this year was fantastic, and it made all the difference,” said Danielle Lasseigne, Coastal Resources Coordinator for Okaloosa County. “With that many people in the water covering ground, we were able to search far more of the bay than we normally could, and that’s exactly how we ended up finding shells for the first time in years.”
By the end of the day, teams had recovered more than 200 scallop shells, the first confirmed scallop evidence logged in the bay in years. Every shell recovered was empty, with no live scallops observed anywhere in the survey area.
The results are a bit of a mixed bag for researchers. Just last month, survey teams conducting preliminary monitoring in the bay documented numerous live scallops, raising hopes that a small but viable population may have been reestablishing itself.
OK, that’s all I have for you this morning! I hope you have a great Friday! Help us shape the future of local news and make a meaningful impact on your community. Click here to learn how you can support us!
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Jared
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