FORT WALTON BEACH — The City Council on Tuesday approved the first reading of an ordinance for the voluntary annexation of a church-owned property on Hill Avenue.The 13.85-acre parcel is at 233 Hill Ave. N.W., just north of the west end of Lovejoy Road. The land is owned by Miramar Beach-based Destiny Worship Center Inc., and currently stands in unincorporated Okaloosa County.The [...]

NAVARRE — A Fort Walton Beach man died and two of his three passengers were injured in a single-vehicle crash Wednesday night.According to a press release from the Florida Highway Patrol, 49-year-old David Miles Weichman suffered fatal injuries when he lost control of the Toyota Tundra he was driving on U.S. Highway 98 near Snapdragon Drive at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Weichman's car traveled onto the south shoulder of the roadway before it overturned and collided with a tree. [...]

FORT WALTON BEACH — A group of Choctawhatchee High School students is organizing a "March for our Lives" to push for gun reform and school safety.Baili Pettet, a 17-year-old senior at Choctaw who is dual enrolled and one of three student organizers of the event, said the march is part of a nationwide day of protests to encourage legislative action on gun reform.“It’s really important for us to raise awareness because students everywhere in our [...]

Fifty-seven percent of all adults, including more than 8 in 10 blacks, three-quarters of Hispanics and nearly half of whites, said they think Trump is racist.

FORT WALTON BEACH — City officials are accepting proposals through late March from entities interested in leasing the city-owned building that formerly housed Venture Hive on the north end of Fort Walton Landing.The roughly 5,900-square-foot building is at 139 Brooks St. SE. The nonprofit Emerald Coast Science Center leased the property at below-market rates from 1989 until late 2014, when it moved to its current location [...]

Trump held a freewheeling, televised meeting with lawmakers at the White House that stretched for an hour Wednesday, and he rejected both his party's incremental approach and its strategy that has stalled action on gun legislation.

Speaking in a state-of-the-nation speech, Putin said the weapons include a nuclear-powered cruise missile, a nuclear-powered underwater drone and new hypersonic missile that have no equivalent elsewhere in the world.

FORT WALTON BEACH — Students at Silver Sands School presented a check to the Air Force Enlisted Village on Thursday after selling handmade notepads and gift tags to raise funds for their local community.Scott Delveau, director of development for the Enlisted Village, and Magnolia Grill owner Tom Rice accepted the check from a room full of excited students."It's not about the number of dollars they give us," Rice said. "It's a gift that comes from the heart. They're [...]

"We're not skipping lunch because it's fun," said Arrianna Zellner, one of the students who organized the protest. "We don't want to go hungry. We're doing this for them."