Jacksonville, Florida | featured news

A Jacksonville driver and bicyclist both died in a collision Saturday night in the 6600 block of Wilson Boulevard.
Michael F. Ciopryna, 75, of Jacksonville, was driving west when for an as-yet unknown reason his car drifted across two lanes and off the road where it hit 26-year-old bicyclist Ashley A. Nier, also of Jacksonville, about 9:35 p.m. Nier was riding east on the sidewalk when she was struck, according to Officer Melissa Bujeda, a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.

Two drivers were killed and two youngsters injured early Sunday when a pickup truck and sport utility vehicle collided head-on in Putnam County, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The pickup driver, Luis Cruz Clarrera, 46, of Crescent City, and SUV driver Elizabet Peralez, 21, of Pomona Park, died at the scene of the crash about 12:30 a.m. on U.S. 17 near Woodside Lane in Pomona Park, the Highway Patrol said.
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St. Johns County sheriff’s detectives are investigating the near-drowning of a 10-year-old girl nearly drown shortly before midnight Saturday at the Hilton Garden Inn, 45 PGA Tour Blvd., Ponte Vedra Beach.
The girl was in critical condition when taken to Beaches Baptist then flown by air ambulance to Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, according to Cmdr. Chuck Mulligan of the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.

Gary Noesner jokes: He knows the story of his life would be better if he’d had a troubled, challenging childhood to overcome before he became a top FBI hostage negotiator.
That’s perhaps pertinent now, as actor Michael Shannon readies to play Noesner in a TV miniseries called “Waco,” about the deadly 1993 standoff between federal agents and cult leader David Koresh at the Branch Davidian compound in Texas.
But, unless the TV people come up with a fictional back story for him, his early life was, he says, pretty blissful.

A roundtable meeting Saturday with the Atlantic Beach City Commission and Atlantic Beach City Manager Nelson Van Liere shed some light on communication problems between the commission and city staff and among commissioners.
The meeting marks the beginning of a longer conversation commissioners will have moving forward about setting up policy to streamline communication between the commission and city staff. It was held at the Adele Grage Cultural Center with at least a dozen residents in attendance.

Andrew Baker learned about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for the first time in a middle school history class when he was 12 years old. The pictures and videos of smoke filling the sky above the rubble that was once the World Trade Center were so powerful that he knew it was more than just another history lesson.
He went home to his parents that day and asked them where they were when the terrorists attacked. The story he heard about their experience is burned into his memory.

A Northeast Florida surfer died following a surfing accident Thursday on the coast of Nicaragua, his parents confirmed on Facebook.
Devan Kennedy was found face down in the channel at Punta Miramar near Casa Sirena Surf Lodge. Kennedy died despite efforts to revive him by rescuers who pulled him from the water, reported Surfline, a Huntington Beach, Calif. company and website providing coverage of surfing and surf conditions worldwide.
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Shade was scarce, the sun brutal and the humidity stifling. But impervious to it all, veterans from throughout Northeast Florida and beyond stood shoulder-to-shoulder with pride Saturday morning to honor fallen comrades, spouses, sons, daughters and friends at Jacksonville National Cemetery.
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Gary Noesner jokes: He knows the story of his life would be better if he’d had a troubled, challenging childhood to overcome before he became a top FBI hostage negotiator.
That’s perhaps pertinent now, as actor Michael Shannon readies to play Noesner in a TV miniseries called “Waco,” about the deadly 1993 standoff between federal agents and cult leader David Koresh at the Branch Davidian compound in Texas.
But, unless the TV people come up with a fictional back story for him, his early life was, he says, pretty blissful.

A roundtable meeting Saturday with the Atlantic Beach City Commission and Atlantic Beach City Manager Nelson Van Liere shed some light on communication problems between the commission and city staff and among commissioners.
The meeting marks the beginning of a longer conversation commissioners will have moving forward about setting up policy to streamline communication between the commission and city staff. It was held at the Adele Grage Cultural Center with at least a dozen residents in attendance.