Jacksonville, Florida | featured news

City officials blocked off downtown Jacksonville to let a monster truck roll in and then announced that Monster Jam will have two dates in February at EverBank Field.
The first show will be at 7 p.m. on February 18th followed by a 2 p.m. Monster Jam on Feb. 19.
The monster truck, known as Soldier of Fortune, was driven to the Hemming Park location by its driver, Chad Fortune.
City officials announced that they are ready to hold two events, Tampa being the only other Florida city that holds back-to-back Monster Jams.

The first union negotiations since Duval County voters approved a half-cent sales tax for the city’s pension debt quickly turned rocky Tuesday when the Jacksonville Supervisors Association decried a lack of action on its request for restoration of a 2-percent pay cut its members took in 2010.
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NBA in Jax isn’t rebounding to Jacksonville this year.
The city hosted NBA pre-season games from 2013 to 2015, dubbing the games NBA in Jax. But the city decided not to pursue an NBA game this pre-season.
City spokeswoman Tia Ford said the decision was based on wanting to “bring in other events.”
“It is a continual goal to diversify the portfolio of events at the arena,” she said.
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WASHINGTON — Americans finally got a raise last year after eight years of stagnating incomes.
The Census Bureau says the typical U.S. household's income rose 5.2 percent in 2015 to $56,516. That is still below the median household income of $57,423 in 2007, when the Great Recession began. The median is the point where half of households fall below and half are above.
The proportion of Americans in poverty also fell sharply last year, as 2.4 million more people found full-time, year-round jobs.

City officials blocked off downtown Jacksonville to let a monster truck roll in and then announced that Monster Jam will have two dates in February at EverBank Field.
The first show will be at 7 p.m. on February 18th followed by a 2 p.m. Monster Jam on Feb. 19.
We’ll have a full story coming soon on Jacksonville.com and in Wednesday’s Florida Times-Union.
- Spotted: Monster Jam 2016 fans

The first union negotiations since Duval County voters approved a half-cent sales tax for the city’s pension debt quickly turned rocky Tuesday when the Jacksonville Supervisors Association decried a lack of action on its request for restoration of a 2-percent pay cut its members took in 2010.
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Marilyn McGuire is so appreciative of Hart Felt Ministries that she offered to stand on a street corner wearing a clown outfit and holding up a sign promoting the nonprofit.
A person doesn’t have to spend much time with the boisterous McGuire, 84, to know she would actually do that.
Hart Felt, a faith-based nonprofit that has about 730 volunteers helping Jacksonville-area seniors, has done repairs around her Atlantic Beach-area home and is working on fixing some electrical issues.

A Pensacola girl airlifted to Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville after a near-drowning incident at the Hilton Garden Inn on PGA Tour Boulevard over the weekend has died, according to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.
No adults were present when Raven Malden, 10, went swimming with three family members, all juveniles, in the pool on site late Saturday night, Cmdr. Chuck Mulligan said.
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The Duval County School Board voted Monday night to approve the district’s plan to expand gifted services and bolster services for students with disabilities.
The only dissenting vote from the six-member board came from Constance Hall. She left the meeting without commenting on her vote.
The plan has been controversial in recent weeks because there were differences of opinion about how fast and far to spread the most intense gifted academic programs.

Time takes its toll on an investigation. It can fade memories or even claim key witnesses. But over his career with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, Cmdr. Howard “Skip” Cole has made it a practice to take advantage of the benefits of time rather than focus on the negatives.
“Things change. Technology changes. Relationships change, connections with people change,” Cole said Friday, seated in a conference room at the Sheriff’s Office.