Regional

Crews finish work on the dynamic envelopes — giant connecting white X’s — at the rail crossing on U.S. Highway 129 (Ohio Avenue) in downtown Live Oak. The crossing reopened Monday night after being closed for two weeks for the improvements, which are part of the Florida Department of Transportation’s Operation STRIDE. (COURTESY FDOT)

Crews finish work on the dynamic envelopes — giant connecting white X’s — at the rail crossing on U.S. Highway 129 (Ohio Avenue) in downtown Live Oak. The crossing reopened Monday night after being closed for two weeks for the improvements, which are part of the Florida Department of Transportation’s Operation STRIDE. (COURTESY FDOT)

Rail project completed, U.S. 129 reopens in Live Oak

NEWS STAFF
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
LIVE OAK — Just in time for Rail Safety Week, the Florida Department of Transportation completed a rail crossing project in downtown Live Oak. The project began Sept. 8 on the rail crossing on U.S. Highway 129 (Ohio Avenue).

Early morning crash claims one

NEWS STAFF
Monday, September 21, 2020
A 29-year-old Lake City man was killed in a two-vehicle crash Saturday morning when his vehicle rear-ended a tractor-trailer. The wreck occurred around 3 a.m. on U.S. Highway 41 and south of Northwest Guerdon Street.

Sewer fee hike upsets Live Oak residents

JAMIE WACHTER
Friday, September 18, 2020
LIVE OAK — More money from Live Oak residents will be going down the drain. Literally. The Live Oak City Council approved a sewer fee increase by a 3-2 vote at its meeting Tuesday night, which will raise between $50,000-$100,000 for the city.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, pictured at the University of Chicago on Sept. 9, 2019, passed away Friday at 87. (ARMANDO L. SANCHEZ/Chicago Tribune)

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, pictured at the University of Chicago on Sept. 9, 2019, passed away Friday at 87. (ARMANDO L. SANCHEZ/Chicago Tribune)

Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg dies at 87

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, September 18, 2020
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a diminutive yet towering women’s rights champion who became the court’s second female justice, died Friday at her home in Washington. She was 87. Ginsburg died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, the court said.

Area jobless rates decline in August

NEWS STAFF
Friday, September 18, 2020
After a jump in July, the unemployment rate in Columbia and Suwannee counties dropped from around 8% to just above 5% last month, according to figures released Friday by the state. The unemployment rate in Hamilton County dropped to below 7% from 10.6%. Statewide, 7.

Mobile lab testing in Hamilton

NEWS STAFF
Friday, September 18, 2020
JASPER — A state mobile covid-19 testing lab will visit Hamilton County next week. The lab, sponsored by the Florida Division of Emergency Management in partnership with Florida Department of Management Services, will be in Jennings and White Springs on Thursday.

12th dies from covid in Lafayette

NEWS STAFF
Thursday, September 17, 2020
MAYO — For the second straight day, covid-19 has been linked to a death in Lafayette County. The Lafayette County Health Department announced Thursday the death of an 84-year-old woman that had previously been diagnosed with covid-19.

DOC, workers tangle over shift changes

NEWS STAFF
Thursday, September 17, 2020
TALLAHASSEE — As Florida’s corrections department grapples with deadly coronavirus outbreaks, staff shortages and high turnover rates, a drawn-out legal battle over changes to prison workers’ shifts is escalating.