Slimmed-down cook-off helps Eastpoint VFD

It wasn’t the same big shindig that the Eastpoint Volunteer Fire Department is used to, but the 20th annual charity rib cookoff, which the department sponsors every year the third week of March, still brought in much-needed funds to the department. Chief George Pruett said the pre-sale of Boston butts, corporate sponsorships and entry fees should…

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Court: FCI inmate can seek punitive damages

In a case that has drawn interest from a wide range of civil-liberties groups, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that a state inmate can seek punitive damages in a lawsuit that alleged threats by guards at Florida Correctional Institution violated his First Amendment rights. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Conraad…

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Supreme Court shuts out Florida 9-0

TALLAHASSEE — After years of legal battling, the U.S. Supreme Court last week unanimously rejected a lawsuit in which Florida argued Georgia has used too much water in a river system shared by the states. The 12-page ruling dismissed the lawsuit that Florida filed in 2013 after the oyster fishery collapsed in Franklin County’s Apalachicola…

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County leaders warn of ‘devastating’ prison closures

Both Franklin and Gulf counties are pushing back against a state plan to shutter up to four state prisons, a plan spreading alarm throughout Florida’s rural regions where correctional institutions have played an outsized role in providing jobs and supporting businesses for decades. “If we no longer have any inmates, will we need to hire…