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Chuck Kirk spent more time on the golf course the last four days than he did in his bed. Kirk, a Middleburg resident and member at Eagle Harbor, played 72 holes by day in the Jacksonville Amateur Championship this week at the Sawgrass Country Club, and worked a full shift by night at his job at the downtown Jacksonville jail, where he is a corrections officer.

Rodney King, who battled addiction most of his life, died Sunday. King, who was found by his fiancee at the bottom of his pool, will sadly be forever remembered as the face of the nation's racial divide. On the third day of massive urban riots in L.A.

Halsey Beshears is one of four Republicans seeking the House District 7 seat, facing former Rep. Jamey Westbrook, Mike Williams and Don Curtis in the Republican primary. The winner of that primary will take on the winner of a three-way Democratic primary between Thomas Dickens, Robert Hill and A.J. Smith.

The race for the Republican-leaning state Senate District 4, which was viewed as a GOP slug fest, now has one well-known Democrat in the mix. Nancy Soderberg, who has been a staffer for some of the party's biggest names, has qualified to run for the district, which includes all of Nassau and portions of Duval County.

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Jacksonville firefighter Jason Bishop will never have another task written under his name on his station's manpower board, but a grieving comrade left one last message there Saturday afternoon."Will be missed. We love you."Bishop, 39, died Saturday while off duty after falling from a tree he was cutting in the backyard of a San Pablo home.

The Duval County School Board has one charge: the improved and sustained academic success of students. The board can be pleased with improvement in the district's graduation rate, an increased number of nationally certified vocational programs and the spread of rigorous academic programs like International Baccalaureate.

Steve Irvine, who ran for Jacksonville mayor as regularly as elections came around, has died.Mr. Irvine, always unconventional in his campaigns and what one longtime associate called an iconoclast, died of cancer, some who knew him said.Barry Bobek, an attorney who represented him in a zoning case that changed zoning rules after Mr. Irvine won in Florida's Supreme Court, said the description of a man who wanted to tear down idols was close to who his client was.

Col. James Moore and hundreds of invaders from the English colony of Carolina could not do it in 1702. Gen. James Oglethorpe and his hundreds of troops from Georgia and South Carolina could not do it in 1740. Invading U.S. troops in 1812 thought it almost impossible and did not even try to do it.

General layout of Camp Springfield, Camp Cuba Libre and Camp Wells. Source: Otis Historical Archives Nat'l Museum of Health & Medicine¤ St. Johns Bluff Battery(1898 - 1899), JacksonvilleAn unnamed concrete two-gun battery (M1888 8-inch BL guns on modified 15-inch Rodman carriages) was built east of the site of Fort Caroline.

After earlier signing a state budget slashing Florida universities by $300 million, Gov. Rick Scott approved creating a new school today - Florida Polytechnic University. The state's 12th public university, in Lakeland, would be carved from Tampa-based University of South Florida. Senate budget chief J.D.

Criminal defense attorney William Charles "Chuck" Fletcher filed Thursday to run for office against incumbent Public Defender Matt Shirk. Unlike Shirk, Fletcher has extensive experience representing clients in death penalty cases. He told Folio Weekly that he decided to run for Public Defender because he believes Shirk's lack of experience has weakened the office.

Just two days before the Florida Supreme Court heard arguments over the legislative redistricting maps enacted by the Legislature, the law firm of Freidin & Dobrinsky donated the maximum allowable contribution of $500 to three Supreme Court justices, Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince.

When he travels to Washington to talk about the St. Johns River, Mark Middlebrook brings a map to show people in federal offices where it is. "In Washington, the St. Johns River really has no profile," said Middlebrook, executive director of the St. Johns River Alliance.

In a series of one-two-three blows, George LeMieux's Senate campaign has been staggered by anemic fundraising, the specter of a big-name Republican jumping into the race and new court documents that make him a witness in the criminal case against the former governor's hand-picked Republican Party of Florida chairman.

A group of investors says the former head of the First Coast Tea Party used her reputation to mislead them into investing $100,000 in a yet-to-launch media network aimed at providing "a freedom-loving medium for the center-right majority," according to documents filed in Jacksonville federal court.In a pre-emptive lawsuit filed in early March, Billie Tucker denies those claims and others that she violated state and federal securities law.

A new century drama that explored the boundaries of free speech in an online world came to an unceremonious end Sunday.The Rev. Mac Brunson, pastor of downtown's First Baptist Church, offered a public apology to Tom Rich, a blogger who has long been a fierce critic of Brunson's.