Jacksonville, Florida | featured news

Once strangers, six Jacksonville residents sit face-to-face around the largest table at Three Layers Cafe. Each with their own connection to the Aug. 11 Louisiana flood, they band together as 904 At Your Door to transport donations of supplies to flood victims.
It’s a chain reaction that started when Springfield resident Tiffany McDonald frantically reached out through social media to find her sister, who lives in one of the parishes hit by the flood.

Voters on Tuesday ended the longtime Van Zant family political dynasty in Clay and neighboring Northeast Florida counties – at least for now.
Clay County voters overwhelming ousted school Superintendent Charlie Van Zant Jr. in the Republican primary in favor of challenger Addison Davis, chief of schools for Duval County Public Schools.
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A 69-year-old St. Augustine man is a little better off today after accepting his share of the $16 million Florida Lotto jackpot from Aug. 24
Carl Benedict chose to receive his winnings as a one-time, lump-sum payment of $6.05 million, according to the Lottery.
Benedict bought his jackpot-winning Lotto ticket from the 125 Jenkins St. Publix in St. Augustine.

The day after Public Defender Matt Shirk lost re-election, multiple employees say he fired them.
Jerry Coxen, Shirk’s chief investigator until Wednesday, didn’t share any more details, other than to say, “It was a good run. I enjoyed my job. … You go in standing up, and you leave standing up.”
Shirk’s spokesman, Sam Shiver, responded to an interview request with a written statement that said he would not comment on personnel matters.

As voters around the country decided the fates of Sens. Marco Rubio and John McCain and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schulz, at least a few observers focused on the primary for Jacksonville’s elected prosecutor.
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The OneJax Institute at the University of North Florida is seeking nominations for the 2017 Humanitarian Awards.
Nominations are based on community service, improving human relations among diverse groups, personal and professional integrity, commitment to “humanitarian ideals,” placing humanitarian concerns above self-interest and humility, according to OneJax.
The deadline for nominations is 5 p.m. Sept. 30; the awards will be given out at an April 27 dinner. To make a nomination, go to onejax.org.

State attorney candidate Kenny Leigh is withdrawing from the November general election, he told The Florida Times-Union on Wednesday, assuring Melissa Nelson will be Jacksonville’s new elected prosecutor.
Nelson beat State Attorney Angela Corey on Tuesday in the Republican primary, but because Leigh had filed as a write-in candidate, Nelson had not technically won election yet. Now that Leigh is filing his paperwork, that has changed.

Clay County voters elected Darryl Daniels, a retired Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office jails chief, as sheriff. Daniels becomes the first African-American sheriff in county history. Daniels is unopposed in the general election.
He defeated fellow Republican candidates Craig Aldrich, the retired Clay County undersheriff, James “ Jimmy” Jett, former county clerk of courts, and Harold Rutledge, a former law enforcement officer and county commissioner.

Florida’s governor declared a state of emergency in 42 of the state’s counties as Tropical Depression No. 9 is predicted to deluge the Jacksonville area with winds and rain late Wednesday through Thursday night.
And as Gov. Rick Scott visits four Florida cities today to talk about storm preparation just before it’s expected to hit the state, the prospect of soaking rains and high winds is causing numerous cancellations of Thursday afternoon events by area school districts.

A string of voices — law professors, former prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys and John Legend, yes that John Legend — celebrated the defeat of State Attorney Angela Corey on Tuesday with public written statements.
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