Jacksonville, Florida | featured news

The Duval County School Board today is considering how it will expand gifted and talented education next year and how it will incentivize principals through pay to take on more challenging or larger schools at meeting workshop.
Board members are also scheduled to discuss governance issues and the agenda for the September monthly school board meeting.
The meeting is expected to last until 3 pm at the Board headquarters.

Denise Amos: (904) 359-4083

U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown is due in federal court again Tuesday to tell a magistrate who she plans to use as a defense attorney in her fraud trial.
The hearing on counsel will be the third one held since a 24-count indictment against Brown and her chief of staff, Ronnie Simmons, was unsealed July 8.
Without permanent counsel, “Ms. Brown is really in limbo,” U.S. Magistrate James R. Klindt said last week, since plans for a trial, now set for sometime in October, can’t be finalized.

The Duval County Democratic Party will join state Sen. Audrey Gibson and other Democratic leaders to urge voters to reject a half-cent sales tax on the Aug. 30 ballot.
The Duval County Democratic Party’s executive committee passed a resolution Monday against the half-cent sales tax, which would go toward paying down the city’s huge pension debt.
Gibson, D-Jacksonville, is scheduled to join Duval Democratic Party Chairman Neil Henrichsen at an 11 a.m. Tuesday news conference to talk about the party’s opposition.

Tile by tile, demolition of the former Woman’s Club building has begun.
Cummer Museum and Gardens recently installed construction fencing around the building, and is working to salvage its clay roof tiles and bricks before moving on to treating the building and grounds for Formosan termites. Demolition will complete a process that will take 12 weeks, weather permitting, and cost more than $250,000.
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A special prosecutor has cleared state attorney candidate Melissa Nelson of any wrongdoing in a complaint filed against her by one of her election opponents.
Wesley White, who is running for state attorney against Nelson and incumbent Angela Corey, said Nelson and her campaign team threatened him if he didn’t get out of the race. White complained to Corey and asked her to investigate the matter, but Corey recused herself and asked Gov. Rick Scott to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the issue.

On the first day of school, Ciara Smith reluctantly followed her kindergartner into Smart Pope Livingston, one of three Early Learning Centers Duval officials created for preschool through second grade students this year.
Smith’s son, Tashawn Gallon, was excited and walked ahead, but Smith was overwhelmed and had trouble finding his class, especially after being directed down the wrong hall.
“I feel like there are too many kids going here,” she said. “There are too many cars. There is going to be chaos.”

Eureka Garden’s owners must hire a security consultant this week, and in the meantime the apartments will have more police patrols following the shooting of seven residents last week, federal housing officials announced Monday at a meeting with residents.
Housing and Urban Development Regional Administrator Ed Jennings Jr. met with the residents and some public officials at the apartments to update them on what has happened since the late-night Aug. 7 shootings. The meeting was closed to reporters, but Jennings spoke with them afterward.

Mayor Lenny Curry faced hard-charging questions Monday night at a town hall meeting on Jacksonville’s Northside from a predominantly African-American crowd when speakers grilled him about his appearance at a recent rally with Donald Trump and said their neighborhoods have historically been short-changed when it comes to city spending.
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Eureka Garden’s owners must hire a security consultant this week, and in the meantime the apartments will have more police patrols following the shooting of seven residents last week, federal housing officials announced Monday at a meeting with residents.
Housing and Urban Development Regional Administrator Ed Jennings Jr. met with the residents and some public officials at the apartments to update them on what has happened since the late-night Aug. 7 shootings. The meeting was closed to reporters, but Jennings spoke with them afterward.

Mayor Lenny Curry faced hard-charging questions Monday night at a town hall meeting on Jacksonville’s Northside from a predominantly African-American crowd when speakers grilled him about his appearance at a recent rally with Donald Trump and said their neighborhoods have historically been short-changed when it comes to city spending.
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