News

Businesses and government agencies are moving to require proof of vaccination as the Delta variant surges in on the First Coast and around the country. 

A funeral service will be held Saturday in Pennsylvania for Leon Haley Jr., the UF Health Jacksonville chief executive officer who died over the weekend in a personal watercraft accident in South Florida.

Each week First Coast Connect with Melissa Ross hosts a live video stream on this page of the Friday Media Roundtable, where Jacksonville journalists discuss the biggest stories of the week.

Nassau County has the highest rate of COVID-19 cases per capita of any large metropolitan county in the United States, according to an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data by WJCT News partner News4Jax.

Huey Magoo’s Chicken Tenders franchisees are working on three locations in Jacksonville and two in St. Johns County, with plans for more.

In a campaign email this week from the Friends of Ron DeSantis political action committee, Gov. DeSantis called for the nation’s leading infectious disease doctor to be fired and investigated.

The University of North Florida is offering free COVID-19 vaccinations on campus through this Friday, July 30.

Public safety officials announced Wednesday that the man who carried out a mass shooting this spring at an Indianapolis FedEx facility was motivated by suicide, not racial bias.

Parts of the South Jacksonville Presbyterian Church campus could soon be removed as buyers of the property prepare to build the 133-unit The Hendricks at San Marco apartments.

The Jacksonville City Council voted 12-4 on July 27 to keep Duval County’s property tax millage tax rate unchanged for another year despite some members calling for it to be reduced.

WJCT News partner the Jacksonville Daily Record reports the rate in Mayor Lenny Curry’s proposed $1.41 billion 2021-22 fiscal year city operating budget will remain at $11.4419 per $1,000 of taxable property value.

Amid the wave of coronavirus infections, Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) said Wednesday that at least 1,400 students have enrolled in optional virtual learning ahead of the August 10th start to the new school year. 

Next year, out-of-state college students could be eligible to attend Florida’s public universities at the same cost as in-state residents – if they have a grandparent living in the state. 

By Lindsey Erdody and Christine Herman

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday reversed course on its mask guidance, once again suggesting all individuals wear masks indoors in areas where COVID-19 cases are surging.

Here’s what else we learned from the CDC’s Director Rochelle Walensky:

As coronavirus infections spike because of the delta variant, workers at one major hospital, some doctors’ offices and veterans’ health-care facilities across Florida will face COVID-19 vaccination requirements.

Gov. Ron DeSantis quietly held a roundtable discussion Monday at the Capitol that focused on opposition to mask mandates in schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, with DeSantis’ office not giving prior public notice and excluding reporters.

Make sure you’ve got your face mask when you head to Naval Air Station Jacksonville.

Classes begin in less than two weeks in Duval County amid rapid shifts in the coronavirus pandemic and the response from local, state and federal governments. 

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., has again been ranked the No. 1 Best Hospital nationwide by U.S. News & World Report in its 2021-2022 Best Hospitals rankings for the sixth consecutive year.

Two Jacksonville women are continuing their lawsuit against the state of Florida and Gov. Ron DeSantis over a 2019 law restricting some residents with felony convictions from voting after those rights had been restored by a state constitutional amendment.

As COVID-19 cases surge in Florida, a lawyers’ group is urging the state to return to virtual court hearings.