Historic City News editor Michael Gold says that the best strategy to win any election is to run unopposed.  Although it is rare to see a county commissioner run for re-election without drawing some opposition, and common to see a judicial candidate returned to the bench, we saw both in the 2018 qualifying period that closed Friday at noon.

“It is 12:00 noon, any others who are not already in progress have missed the deadline to qualify,” St Johns County Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes announced in the lobby of the elections office today.

The City of St. Augustine reported to Historic City News that although they still are trying to collect millions of dollars lost to Hurricane Matthew, the first of two deadly hurricanes to devastate our coastal community, they have recently received a relatively small payment for Hurricane Irma from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

With less than 24-hours left to qualify to appear on the 2018 ballot for those candidates required to file with the St Johns County Supervisor of Elections Office, still only 69 candidates have done so.

The Supreme Court ruled today that states can collect state sales taxes from online retailers on consumer purchases. The decision overruled a decades-old precedent that had protected out-of-state sellers from being required to collect such taxes.

Historic City News has counted forty-eight individuals who qualified with St Johns County Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes yesterday; the first day of qualifying for candidates in the 2018 Election Cycle.

Last week Historic City News obtained a copy of a letter from Florida Representative Cyndi Stevenson addressed to St. Johns County School Board Chairman Bill Mignon and Henry Dean, Chairman of the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners, apologizing for her absence at the joint meeting of the two boards.

According to details obtained from Meredith L. Breidenstein, CPA – Director of Budget & Performance Management for the ‎City of St Augustine, the books for these killer storms are still largely open and there is much work remaining to be done. Our local reporters followed up on the collection results by the City on about $20.7 million in preliminary claims estimated against the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the State of Florida.