HISTORIC CITY NEWS
Historic City News has been published daily since March 2000. Reporting local news for St Augustine and St Johns County Florida, Historic City News is the county's only free press. Our mission is to hold public figures accountable to the public.
Historic City News learned that a vacation rental home outside of St Augustine Beach became a crime scene Saturday night after residents reported hearing gunshots at 5318 A1A South in Anastasia Hills. Detectives with the St Johns County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the discovery of two Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office deputies found dead inside.
On Friday, January 21, 2022, St Johns County Civic Roundtable Chairman Jim McLane provided Historic City News with a copy of 35 suggestions for how to better handle growth in St Johns County, as submitted to the Board of County Commissioners. The purpose of the Roundtable is to preserve and improve the quality of life in St Johns County, and to that end, they spoke with various stakeholders to solicit their ideas.
In 1973, the Florida Legislature enacted the Municipal Home Rules Power Act, giving cities and counties the power to enact their own laws — unless state law overrides them. This legislative override, or “preemption”, is either the trampling upon local rights – or – a bulwark against a patchwork of parochial laws, depending on who you ask.
The annual assault on Florida’s popular open government laws continues this legislative session. Even as the public clamors for greater transparency and access to their elected officials and government, our own Representative, Cyndi Stevenson, has added to the problem by introducing a bill that would hide voter registration records from media and members of the public.
Counties across Florida collectively bring in hundreds of millions of dollars a year in hotel bed tax revenue — but the uses for that money are limited. Historic City News has reported when controversial organizations have used pressure locally to influence who the recipients of that money will be in St Johns County and what percentage of their “ask” will be funded.
Florida Department of Transportation Community Outreach Specialist Allen Nelson has updated Historic City News with the weekly lane closure report containing information regarding ongoing construction projects and traffic impacts for the coming week. Our readers and subscribers will be updated every Friday by 5:00 p.m., with some unavoidable exceptions and state holidays.
Florida Highway Patrol Troop G Public Affairs Officer, Master Sergeant Dylan L Bryan, reported to Historic City News that, following a three-county long pursuit by law enforcement officers, Benjamin Cody Dirkhising, a 30-year-old resident of 11976 Arbor Lake Drive in Jacksonville, is in custody and being held in the St Johns County detention center without bond since 6:59 p.m., Friday, January 21, 2022.
In the Spring of 1964, St Augustine would be the final stage of what was called “The Great Moral Drama” leading to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Historic City News remembers the impact of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Civil Rights movement in St. Augustine, aided by this compilation from the St. Johns Cultural Council.