First Coast

Health departments in Bryan, Camden, Chatham, Effingham, Glynn, Liberty, Long, and McIntosh counties in Georgia are now offering offering third doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines to immunocompromised people, in line with new federal guidelines for boosters.

The Downtown Investment Authority tabled a vote Wednesday on a development deal for the old Florida Times-Union building's property so DIA staff can talk more with Fuqua Development about adding a riverfront restaurant that  might require several hundred thousand dollars in taxpayer assistance.

Florida faith leaders are launching a new campaign to encourage congregants to get vaccinated. The “Keep the Faith, Get Vaccinated Florida” campaign is from the progressive nonprofit group Faith in Public Life. 

Another event is being postponed due to concerns about the local COVID-19 surge and the delta variant. The American Lung Association in Florida announced Wednesday that the Jacksonville Lung Force Run/Walk, originally scheduled for this Saturday, August 21, at The Haskell Company, is being postponed. 

Meridian Waste Florida will begin residential solid waste and recycling collection for the City of Jacksonville on Oct. 1. To get ready, Meridian is hosting a job fair this Saturday, Aug. 21.

Baptist Medical Center South is among the Jacksonville hospitals swamped with COVID-19 patients, with some staff pulling double or even triple shifts to treat everyone.

Following calls for masks in schools at a previous school district meeting, the Nassau County School Board on Tuesday held a special meeting to discuss the hot button topic and get feedback from the community.

Jacksonville Fire Rescue Lt. Mario Moya, a 17-year veteran of the department, has passed away from COVID-19, JFRD confirmed Wednesday morning.

With one of every 813 residents hospitalized with COVID-19, Duval County is the nation's hot spot at this moment in the pandemic that's seen a summer surge of infections, hospitalizations and deaths.

Mariam Nasery fled Afghanistan with her family when she was 10 to escape violence stemming from the Soviet-Afghan War. This week she woke up to what she describes as her “worst nightmare” as Taliban forces took over Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul.

The North Florida Land Trust has canceled its upcoming fundraising event in historic American Beach due to concerns over the rising cases of COVID-19.

A former finance director for the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office has been sentenced to seven years behind bars for embezzling well over a half million dollars from the department.

The Museum of Science & History (MOSH) said Tuesday it has selected DLR Group as the lead architect for its planned Northbank location. DLR Group will work with kasper architects + associates, a Jacksonville architecture firm, and SCAPE, a New York-based landscape architecture firm.

The proposed $182.2 million redevelopment of the former Florida Times-Union campus along Riverside Avenue is moving forward.

Duval County Public Schools is paying $300,000 dollars to terminated employee Amy Donofrio, according to a settlement agreement. In exchange, Donofrio agrees to release her charges against the district. 

The Regeneron monoclonal antibody treatment site at the Downtown Jacksonville Main Library opened Tuesday morning, offering a COVID-19 treatment option with no doctor referral needed. 

The Jacksonville Jaguars have released Northeast Florida native and former Florida Gators standout quarterback Tim Tebow as a tight end, the Jaguars announced Tuesday.

James Weldon Johnson Park supporters have raised enough to money to keep two local sculptures in the park for years to come.

The PARC Group announced Aug. 16 that Publix Super Markets Inc., with a drive-thru pharmacy, will open in early 2023 to anchor a new shopping center in Exchange East in the eTown Village Center. 

A third-grade teacher at River City Science Academy died Saturday of COVID-19.

The developer building the Publix-anchored East San Marco shopping center sold an adjacent 1.03-acre property Aug. 12 to homebuilder Toll Brothers for $2 million.

The Duval County Public School system is reporting 35 coronavirus cases in the first three days of school. That’s a faster spread than last year, when there were 27 reported cases in the first 2 weeks. 

When shopping for a face mask for yourself or your kids, keep in mind that not all masks are created equal.

That’s especially important as transmission levels are very high in the Jacksonville area and kids are returning to school.

St. Johns County is asking residents to pre-register for appointments at its COVID-19 testing site, which is opening Monday, Aug. 16. 

The Jacksonville area gained about 260,000 people over the past decade, pushing the population to 1.6 million as people of increasingly varied colors and backgrounds made homes in Northeast Florida, census data released Thursday showed.

With climate change helping produce a global horror film of extreme weather disasters this summer, and the peak Atlantic hurricane and Western fire seasons just arriving, a new landmark United Nations climate report by the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change offers the most thorough evaluation of the physical science associated with global warming so far, including the climate science of tropical cyclones.