Jacksonville | featured news

The mother of murder victim Shelby Farah said Monday morning she wants attorney Melissa Nelson to defeat incumbent state attorney Angela Corey in next week's election.
Darlene Farah has been a persistent critic of Corey over the last 18 months because she wants prosecutors to drop the death penalty and allow James Xavier Rhodes, 24, to plead guilty and be sentenced to life without parole.
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Classes at Flagler College and St. Johns River State College begin this week, so it won’t be long before students trade hot summer days for long study nights.
The end-of-vacation reality settled in for more than 600 new first-year students who moved into the Flagler dorms this past weekend in preparation for the fall semester beginning Thursday.
According to Bobbie Stewart, a Flagler spokeswoman, the college has an enrollment of 761 students to kick off the new school year.

The mother of murder victim Shelby Farah said Monday morning she wants attorney Melissa Nelson to defeat incumbent state attorney Angela Corey in next weeks election.
Darlene Farah has been a persistent critic of Corey over the last 18 months because she wants prosecutors to drop the death penalty and allow James Xavier Rhodes, 24, to plead guilty and be sentenced to life without parole.
read more

Classes at Flagler College and St. Johns River State College begin this week, so it won’t be long before students trade hot summer days for long study nights.
The end-of-vacation reality settled in for more than 600 new first-year students who moved into the Flagler dorms this past weekend in preparation for the fall semester beginning Thursday.
According to Bobbie Stewart, a Flagler spokeswoman, the college has an enrollment of 761 students to kick off the new school year.

Charlie Cofer stood in a corner of a smoky room counting the strangers. The men in leather vests were potential voters, and the voters beckoned. Whenever he did an event like this – a Rotary Club, a Republican women’s group, a barbecue – he never knew if he’d be talking to three or 300. This particular Sunday at the American Legion Post 316 looked to be somewhere in between.
He struck up a conversation with an Air Force vet who said he’d once completed drug-offender court.

When people volunteer, they can change lives — including their own. Each week in Reason, we will highlight a volunteer’s story of giving back and how that selfless act was a true revelation. The volunteer project is a collaboration among the Times-Union, the University of North Florida, the United Way of Northeast Florida and HandsOn Jacksonville.
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Jacksonville police were investigating a possible abduction of a young pajama-clad girl who witnesses said was picked up and placed into a car by a man early Sunday in the 1600 block of Kings Road.
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A Jacksonville woman died early Sunday when her car rolled onto its side after striking a tree in the median in the 1600 block of Mindanao Drive, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Rachel M. Carroll, 46, was dead at the scene of the crash about 6:20 a.m. She had been alone in the car, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Teresa Stepzinski: (904) 359-4075

Baker County Sheriff Joey Dobson said a man suspected of abducting a female pizza delivery driver at gunpoint Saturday night in Jacksonville should be considered armed and dangerous.
A convicted felon, Cornelius Ruise III, 32, also is a suspect in the attempted robbery of a Dollar General store in Union County and the arson of the Papa Johns Pizza delivery driver’s car in Macclenny following her abduction after luring her to a vacant house in the 4600 block of South Lane Avenue in Jacksonville, Dobson said.

Charlie Cofer stood in a corner of a smoky room counting the strangers. The men in leather vests were potential voters, and the voters beckoned. Whenever he did an event like this – a Rotary Club, a Republican women’s group, a barbecue – he never knew if he’d be talking to three or 300. This particular Sunday at the American Legion Post 316 looked to be somewhere in between.
He struck up a conversation with an Air Force vet who said he’d once completed drug-offender court.