A house in St. Augustine that was firebombed and shot at during a key time in the Civil Rights Movement is now moving to a new location, News4Jax reports. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was scheduled to stay at the Canright House during the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in May 1964. That is, until it was vandalized by segregationists. King was famously photographed inside the house, pointing to where a bullet came through a glass door into the home. The house is now on its way to a new location to preserve its history. The historic house sits on a trailer awaiting its move ..read more

A training incident involving two hovercrafts this week off the Jacksonville coast injured 30 sailors and Marines. The incident, about 100 nautical miles off the coast, involved a collision between two landing craft, air cushions — vehicles used for transporting personnel, weapons and equipment from ships to a beach. Five of the 30 injured were transported to a hospital in Savannah for further treatment, the U.S. Navy said in a statement Friday. Four have since been released and one remains hospitalized for treatment. The Navy did not provide a condition update for the hospitalized sailor. The ..read more

Three days of pro-Palestine protests at the University of North Florida ended late Thursday with 16 people arrested on trespassing charges — an action the university defended Friday. The protesters pushed for the U.S. to help Gaza residents and for the university to divest itself of financial connections in Israel. A campus activist group called Students for a Democratic Society — or SDS — was warned to clear out of the campus Green by 10 p.m. Thursday, then demonstrators were arrested about a half-hour later by Jacksonville sheriff’s officers on bicycles. Of the 16 arrests, eight were student ..read more

Q: A Jacksonville Today reader, Tonya W., wants to know how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can avoid disturbing sea turtles during a current beach renourishment project in Duval County. “Did I really just read that the UACOE is doing beach replenishment during turtle nesting season?” A: Environmentalists, the Corps of Engineers and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission say they work together to avoid disrupting turtle nests during beach renourishment. Kevin Brown is with Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol, a nonprofit organization that documents and protects sea turtles at Duval Cou ..read more

Sexually transmitted disease rates in Florida have skyrocketed by 42% in the last decade. These numbers are surpassing pre-pandemic levels, hitting its highest since 1990. The highest rate in Florida belongs to Leon County with 1,760 per 100,000 people, which is more than twice the state average. Duval County carries the highest rate in Northeast Florida: 1,323 per 100,000 people. Jason Salemi is an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida College of Public Health. He said decreased condom use at a young age, online dating platforms, and even drug problems can co ..read more

Indoor golf and bowling appear to be coming to St. Johns Town Center as national operators Pinstripes and Puttshack are shown on plans in city review. Pinstripes wants to build at the site of the closed West Elm furniture store building along Buckhead Branch Drive at St. Johns Town Center.  The proposed Puttshack is shown on a Jacksonville Planning and Development Department plan as a two-story, 29,534-square-foot building across Buckhead Branch Drive from Pinstripes. Read the rest of this story at the Jacksonville Daily Record, a Jacksonville Today news partner. The post Pinstripes and P ..read more

Despite unanimously approving an overlay that prohibits construction of self-storage facilities in Jacksonville’s “Downtown,” an area that includes San Marco, City Council members last week voted 11-to-8 to make a significant exception to their own rule. Like any good parent — do as I say, not as I do. City council’s majority not only made an exception to its own rule, it did so despite considerable neighborhood opposition and despite objections voiced by San Marco’s city council representative, Joe Carlucci. This kind of city council majority action can drive folks, if not to a deeply cynical ..read more

Jacksonville’s financial services industry could benefit from a bill that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Thursday at VyStar Credit Union headquarters. The law allows credit unions to hold up to 7% of public assets from either the state treasury or the State University System. VyStar CEO Brian Wolfburg said the law increases competition and allows for more Florida dollars to remain with in-state financial institutions. “Each of us in this room has the opportunity to make our own personal choices about our hard earned dollars,” Wolfburg said. “Until today, the state and other agencies have not had tha ..read more

For decades, Davenport Park in St. Augustine was known to many as Carousel Park for the ride owned and operated by Jim Soules. When he died in 2019, the carousel was taken apart and moved to Soules’ longtime home of Port Charlotte.  Nearly five years later, Jacksonville native J.W. Brinkley is working to bring a carousel back to Davenport Park. Thanks to the city’s Corridor Review Committee, Brinkley got one step closer to his dream Thursday.  Brinkley pitched the city on the carousel earlier this year, but he was asked to come back with more information, like a specific site plan an ..read more

The average jumbo shrimp weighs about half an ounce. But thousands of pounds of the tiny crustaceans will be steamed, sauteed and gumboed at a hugely popular event this weekend. An estimated 150,000 people are expected to attend the 59th annual Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival in Fernandina Beach. All those people buying food, antiques, and arts and crafts mean much to a community whose roots stretch back 451 years to the first Spanish mission there. The event brings an estimated $15 million economic impact to Fernandina Beach and Amelia Island, said festival chairman Scott Inglis. “We get ..read more