WJCT News Now
Stay connected to Jacksonville and Northeast Florida with WJCT News Now — your free, daily news podcast from WJCT Public Media. Every morning, anchor Steven Ponson breaks down the headlines you need to start your day informed. Then go deeper with First Coast Connect — the show, hosted by Anne Schindler, is where local newsmakers, civic leaders, artists, and community voices come together to talk through what's happening in your backyard. Subscribe and make WJCT News Now part of your daily routine.
Episodes
Nassau and Duval County school officials are investigating reports of an alleged racist incident at a high school volleyball game involving Fernandina Beach and Andrew Jackson last week. Also, the CDC says a nationwide cyclospora outbreak linked to contaminated lettuce is over, after more than 500 confirmed cases were reported in Florida.
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Two major projects that could reshape Jacksonville’s downtown skyline are moving closer to construction, after receiving conceptual approval from the Downtown Development Review Board. Plus, 25 years after the September 11 attacks, a Florida State University history professor discusses how educators are teaching a defining moment in American history to a generation that knows it largely as history rather than lived experience...
A Jacksonville City Council member is pushing to restore $4.9 million for an affordable housing trust fund that was removed from the city's proposed budget. Also, today is the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, Florida Public Radio Emergency Network meteorologist Megan Borowski explains why the season could remain quiet.
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Jacksonville’s teachers union is facing a recertification election after failing to meet a required membership threshold. Also, fuel prices have spiked overnight in Florida following the Labor Day weekend.
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Jacksonville City Council President Nick Howland’s trip aboard a developer’s private jet to a Tampa Bay Rays game is raising questions. Howland says the trip was connected to fundraising for his political committee and will be disclosed in campaign finance reports. Also, the IRS and Treasury Department are proposing rules that could strip tax-exempt status from private schools that consider race in admissions, scholarsh...
The family of 22-year-old Asia Bennett is continuing to seek accountability after she was fatally shot by Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office officers during a domestic dispute call. Attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family, is expected to hold a news conference about the case this morning. Also, a new mural in Jacksonville’s Five Points neighborhood celebrates the area’s history and LGBTQ+ community, following the...
A proposed heavy industrial facility in Northwest Jacksonville is drawing pushback from the surrounding community, which has raised concerns about health effects, increased traffic and perpetuating the damaging legacy of “redlining,” which has historically concentrated undesirable development in poor, often Black, neighborhoods. We talk to public health experts and community advocates about how...
St. Johns County law enforcement will remove license plate reader cameras from state roads after the Florida Department of Transportation revoked permits for the devices. Also, Neptune Beach Police are ending their school-zone speed camera program following public feedback and the state’s decision on license plate readers.
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JEA CEO Vickie Cavey says she will retire later this month. Interim CEO Jody Brooks will continue leading the utility while officials search for a permanent successor. Also, Jacksonville’s Museum of Science & History says design work for its new Northbank location is 60% complete, with groundbreaking targeted for 2027.
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Florida is revoking permits for Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers installed along state highways, prompting law enforcement agencies across Northeast Florida to discontinue their use.
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Demolition could begin this week on the east wing of Jacksonville’s former Regency Square Mall, clearing the way for apartments and new retail space. Also, forecasters are tracking two areas of tropical activity, neither of which is expected to become a tropical cyclone threatening Florida, but both could contribute to increased rainfall and rough seas this week.
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Each Friday, our media roundtable dives into the biggest stories of the week. Among our topics this week:
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A grand jury finds the DeSantis administration “misappropriated” taxpayer money for political purposes. What does it mean for the state's attorneys general as they both run for election in November?
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The City Council prepares for possible property tax cuts with prophylactic budget ti...
The City of Jacksonville wants to bring the annual Army-Navy football game to EverBank Stadium, and Florida health officials are moving toward removing school vaccine mandates for multiple diseases.
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It was a 24-hour cocktail party, an extended drug trip and a time of unbridled creative and sexual abandon. Nineteen-seventies-era Key West was also a destination hideaway of literary, cinematic and musical luminaries including Hunter S. Thompson, Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Margot Kidder, Thomas McGuane, Jerry Jeff Walker, Truman Capote and, perhaps most iconically, Jimmy Buffett. Amid it all was St. Aug...
The first person charged in the 2022 ambush killing of Jared Bridegan in Jacksonville Beach has been found guilty of first-degree murder. Mario Fernandez faces a mandatory life sentence, while trials for Bridegan’s ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, and alleged shooter Henry Tenon are still ahead. Also, a Florida grand jury found the DeSantis administration misappropriated $10 million in taxpayer money tied to a Medicaid settlement and...
Flock together
Growing protests over the seeming omnipresence of Flock surveillance tools have focused largely on their use by police and their ubiquity on roads. But they are also a growing presence in private communities, including cameras aimed at swimming pools and personal property. Their widespread, voluntary adoption by HOAs, property managers and landlords has broadened the footprint of surveillance. And a Jacksonville Toda...
A Flock camera installed near a Jacksonville apartment complex pool is raising questions about privacy and how footage can be accessed and shared. We’ll also remember A.J. Laguerre Jr., Jerrald Gallion and Angela Carr, who were killed three years ago in a racially motivated shooting at a Dollar General in Jacksonville.
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The educational landscape of climate change is itself changing dramatically after key deletions from Florida's science textbooks. A new report by WUSF News and The Hechinger Report found significant changes to how Florida students are being taught, from language tweaks (“climate change” becomes “changes in the environment”) to factual elisions (instead of learning that an additional...
Two childhood friends are riding from Fernandina Beach to Maryland on jet skis to raise money for Active Minds, a mental health organization serving teenagers. Also, Florida is moving toward making four childhood vaccines optional, despite warnings from pediatricians that the change could increase preventable illnesses.
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National Parks Week arrives amid growing concern over the future of funding and land use plans, following deep cuts, staff reductions and unprecedented incursions into public lands. From the recent removal of educational markers in the Carolinas to bulldozers in Big Bend, the changes are prompting a “day of action” on Aug. 25, in which the National Parks Conservation Association asks the public ...
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