Training to respond to a school shooting

Submitted by Jessica Clark, Reporter

Wednesday, July 30th, 2014, 7:36pm

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – A training session for law enforcement and fire-rescue personnel took place in St. Augustine today at a Flagler College dormitory.

The scenario was a shooter had entered the dormitory and was holding students hostage.

Some Flagler College students participated, role playing as victims.

The idea is to train patrol officers for these scenarios – not just SWAT team members – because patrol officers may be the first on the scene. The police chief says the idea started with former St. Johns County Sheriff Neil Perry and spread nationwide.

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Beat the heat: Mobile coolness

Submitted by Jessica Clark, Reporter

Wednesday, July 30th, 2014, 7:32pm

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- There's a new way to beat the heat.

It's called the Polar Pod. It's like a walk in cooler on wheels. It can be pulled like a trailer behind an SUV.

Steve Parry of St. Augustine invented it.

The concept: people can sit inside of the Polar Pod on benches for 4-8 minutes. It's about 49 – 55 degrees inside. And the inventor says it cools down your core, not just your skin.

It was a big hit at a police and fire training session today in St. Augustine.

Parry said the Polar Pod is available for festivals and outdoor events.

"One day I was hot. I was at my buddy's restaurant and asked if I could go inside his walk-in cooler because I was feeling heat exhausted. After a few minutes, I was good. And I thought, 'Wow. I'd pay money for this."

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Submitted by Jessica Clark, Reporter

Monday, July 21st, 2014, 7:03pm

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- The search is on for what could be the oldest French shipwrecked vessel in the New World.

A team from the St. Augustine Lighthouse is leading the charge.

A crew of marine archaeologists from St. Augustine just returned from the Canaveral coast line.

They are looking for the lost fleet of Jean Ribault, the Frenchman whose name is attached to Ribault High School and many other places around Jacksonville.

"This is something I've been think about since I was a little boy growing up in Jacksonville," Archaeologist Chuck Meide said Monday. He is talking about French colonist Ribault who was sent to help the French colonists in the New World. "When I became an archaeologist, I knew I wanted to find these ships."

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Submitted by FirstCoastNews Web Staff

Thursday, July 17th, 2014, 5:57am

ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH, Fla. -- One man is dead after an apparent work-related electrocution at a gas station in St. Augustine Beach.

Police Chief Robert Hardwick said the incident happened at an unspecified time on the roof of the Kangaroo Express in the 300 block of A1A Beach Boulevard.

An on-duty patrol officer, Hardwick said, noticed an unidentified truck in the business's parking lot and a latter going up one side of the building.

"The officer thought it to be suspicious because unfortunately that's how our criminals in St. Johns County have tried to gain access to businesses before," the chief said.

Hardwick said the officer checked with the on-duty gas station attendant, who reported no prior knowledge of the truck or latter's presence.

"There was a shift change. The clerk didn't come on until about 11, so they were unaware," he said.

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Two dead in crash on I-95 in St. Johns County

Submitted by FirstCoastNews Web Staff

Wednesday, July 16th, 2014, 2:07pm

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Authorities say two people died after their car veered off Interstate 95 in northeast Florida and hit a tree.

The Florida Highway Patrol reports that a Cadillac Eldorado was travelling north on I-95 in St. Johns County Monday evening when it swerved from the left lane onto an exit ramp.

The car left the road and hit the tree. The driver, 60-year-old Robert Lee Jones, and his passenger, 57-year-old Patricia Kim Newman-Jones, were both pronounced dead at the scene.

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Submitted by FirstCoastNews Web Staff

Saturday, July 12th, 2014, 6:59am

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- A former employee of the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind is facing lewd or lascivious molestation charges.

According to court records, a sworn complaint against 26-year-old Amber Nicole Blackmer was filed June 6 and a warrant was issued a few days later. Blackmer was arrested on June 10 on charges of lewd and lascivious behavior following an alleged incident at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind.

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Submitted by Jessica Clark, Reporter

Wednesday, July 9th, 2014, 8:26pm

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla -- A documentary for St. Augustine's 450th birthday is in the filming process. Filmmakers aim to have it air on PBS next year.

The goal of the four-part documentary is to tell the history of America which predates Jamestown and Plymouth Rock. While many people on the First Coast know America's European roots have something to do with northeast Florida, many people around the county may not.

The documentary is called America: The Prequel, but the name could change by the time it hits the PBS airwaves, according to Tony Haines. He's the director of the project, and he is with Small Planet Productions out of Jacksonville Beach.

"It will be a television event," Haines said. "We were taught the wrong story about the founding of our country when we were growing up and going to school. This is supposed to set the record straight."

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