Jacksonville | featured news

 
Pod Rods takes a look at some wild rides around the world, seen at Pebble Beach; we hang on with a fast Volvo - truck; and wish we could go to England to see Chitty.
Plus check out the car event calendar:
 
-- A one-of-a-kind police-escorted drive around Jacksonville in the name of charity will hold its second lap around Jacksonville on Saturday, Oct. 22, preceded by a special hangar party on Friday, Oct. 21, at Malone Air Center at Craig Municipal Airport.

Traffic will be shifted on Interstate 295 at 9 p.m. Monday as part of a safety improvement and resurfacing project between I-10 and Commonwealth Avenue, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.
The shift, to be done weather permitting, will allow the contractor to continue with roadway widening activities.
Motorists traveling north on I-295 from the I-10 interchange will shift to the left onto newly widened lanes about a half-mile north of I-10 past Commonwealth (Exit 22).

Jacksonville’s MAD DADS (Men Against Destruction Defending Against Drugs and Social Disorder) is having its annual Peace Ride for Life at 11 a.m. Sept. 10 at Adamec Harley-Davidson at 8909 Baymeadows Road.
Advance registration for the police-escorted motorcycle ride will be 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. this Saturday. Those early registration sites are at Adamec Harley-Davidson on Baymeadows Road and Florida Riders Restaurant at 243 Edgewood Ave. S.

State Attorney Angela Corey’s opponents are striving to distance themselves from the top prosecutor on matters of juvenile justice.
Though their plans are sometimes murky, Republican challengers Melissa Nelson and Wesley White promise one thing for sure: They will be different — different from each other, but intentionally so from Corey.
read more

A lawsuit challenging the ballot language for Jacksonville’s sales tax referendum won’t be decided before Election Day.
Five Duval County voters filed the lawsuit July 26 and it was still pending Friday in Duval County circuit court.
The lawsuit contends the ballot language is confusing and fails to comply with requirements of state law, a characterization rejected by the city.
read more

For family members of those lost when the cargo ship El Faro went down during a hurricane, each release of details about those last hours is another piece to a difficult puzzle.
“It’s like you live in a movie, live a dramatic movie — just trying to figure out that day, what was happening to them, what they were feeling, what they were going through,” said Carla Newkirk, daughter of Brookie “Larry” Davis of Jacksonville. “For me, I didn’t want to see that my dad got stuck on the ship and drowned. It is a relief for me he got off.”

Erin Meyers was thrilled that American Olympic athletes such as swimmer Michael Phelps brought attention to the therapeutic practice of “cupping” to the public’s attention.
Meyers said that as she was getting a cupping treatment Wednesday in Riverside.
“I can feel it. But it’s actually a very good feeling,” Meyers said as a series of six clear vacuum cups on each side of her spine running from her lower neck to just below her shoulders were pulling the skin up into the cup that was about 3 inches in diameter.

Under a foot of concrete, a construction crew uncovered streetcar rails where North Main Street crosses over Hogan Creek to Springfield.
The rail could possibly be part of the first electric streetcar railway in Florida. Around the turn of the 20th century, mule or horse-drawn streetcars transported people on a fixed track around Jacksonville. Robert Mann, author of Streetcars of Florida’s First Coast, said Jacksonville contained between 60 and 65 miles of streetcar track by the 1930s.

Erin Meyers was thrilled that American Olympic athletes such as swimmer Michael Phelps brought attention to the therapeutic practice of “cupping” to the public’s attention.
Meyers said that as she was getting a cupping treatment Wednesday in Riverside.
“I can feel it. But it’s actually a very good feeling,” Meyers said as a series of six clear vacuum cups on each side of her spine running from her lower neck to just below her shoulders were pulling the skin up into the cup that was about 3 inches in diameter.

Under a foot of concrete, a construction crew uncovered streetcar rails where North Main Street crosses over Hogan Creek to Springfield.
The rail could possibly be part of the first electric streetcar railway in Florida. Around the turn of the 20th century, mule or horse-drawn streetcars transported people on a fixed track around Jacksonville. Robert Mann, author of Streetcars of Florida’s First Coast, said Jacksonville contained between 60 and 65 miles of streetcar track by the 1930s.