Regional

Joe Kennedy, a former assistant football coach at Bremerton High School in Bremerton, Wash., poses for a photo March 9, 2022, at the school's football field. (TED S. WARREN/AP File)

Joe Kennedy, a former assistant football coach at Bremerton High School in Bremerton, Wash., poses for a photo March 9, 2022, at the school's football field. (TED S. WARREN/AP File)

SCOTUS backs coach in praying on field after games

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monday, June 27, 2022
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Monday that a high school football coach who knelt and prayed on the field after games was protected by the Constitution, a decision that opponents said would open the door to “much more coercive prayer” in public schools.
Demonstrators gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years, a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (JOSE LUIS MAGANA/Associated Press)

Demonstrators gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years, a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (JOSE LUIS MAGANA/Associated Press)

Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade; states can ban abortion

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, June 24, 2022
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has ended the nation's constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. Friday's outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.
The enclosure for Spike, a tiger, at Mystic Jungle was heavily damaged in a tornado on Friday afternoon. (COURTESY)

The enclosure for Spike, a tiger, at Mystic Jungle was heavily damaged in a tornado on Friday afternoon. (COURTESY)

Surviving the storm: Mystic Jungle facility damaged in tornado

JAMIE WACHTER
Friday, June 24, 2022
LIVE OAK — Vera Chaples and the staff of Mystic Jungle Educational Facility got a pair of scares Friday afternoon. First was the storm that “came out of nowhere” and brought a tornado with it through central Suwannee County around 3:30 p.m. Mystic Jungle, which resides along U.S.

DeSantis OKs smoking ban, vetoes business lawsuit bill

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, June 24, 2022
TALLAHASSEE — Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed 35 bills on Friday, including a law allowing local governments to ban smoking on beaches and in parks and vetoed five, including legislation that would have made it easier for businesses to sue local governments over ordinances.

Surfside victims remembered on first anniversary

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, June 24, 2022
SURFSIDE — A year ago in the middle of the night, a 12-story oceanfront condo building in Surfside, Florida, came down with a thunderous roar, leaving a giant pile of rubble and claiming 98 lives — one of the deadliest structure collapses in U.S. history.

Black farmers vie for marijuana license

NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
Friday, June 24, 2022
TALLAHASSEE — A 99-year-old matriarch who began her agricultural career in cotton fields in Northwest Florida. A rancher who served in Vietnam and grew up in an Alachua County community terrorized in the past by lynchings. A family that got its start picking apples on a New York farm.

Panel hears Trump pressured DOJ officials

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, June 23, 2022
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump hounded the Justice Department to pursue his false election fraud claims, striving in vain to enlist top law enforcement officials in his desperate bid to stay in power and hosting a dramatic Oval Office showdown in which he weighed replacing the agency’s leader with a...
Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum leaves the federal courthouse in Tallahassee after pleading not guilty on Wednesday. (RYAN DAILEY/News Service of Florida)

Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum leaves the federal courthouse in Tallahassee after pleading not guilty on Wednesday. (RYAN DAILEY/News Service of Florida)

Gillum faces federal fraud, conspiracy charges

NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
TALLAHASSEE — Former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, a Democrat who narrowly lost the 2018 gubernatorial election to Ron DeSantis, was arrested Wednesday on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy and lying to federal agents.

Lafayette's BOCC District 2, LCSB District 3 races contested

JAMIE WACHTER
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
MAYO — Two school board members and the county commission chairman will return to office without opposition. Two other county seats — one on the Lafayette County School Board and the other on the Lafayette County Board of County Commissioners — will be contested this fall.
The Lafayette County Courthouse clock tower restoration project should soon end. Gray Construction and CRA Architects plan to restore the tower to the top of the courthouse in early July. (JAMIE WACHTER/Lake City Reporter)

The Lafayette County Courthouse clock tower restoration project should soon end. Gray Construction and CRA Architects plan to restore the tower to the top of the courthouse in early July. (JAMIE WACHTER/Lake City Reporter)

Courthouse clock tower repairs ticking down

JAMIE WACHTER
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
MAYO — The time is nearing for the clock tower to return to the Lafayette County Courthouse.