Local News

Rep. Allen Boyd announced last week that the Quincy Municipal Airport will receive $126,573 from the Federal Aviation Administration. This means that by the end of February, more aircraft could be housed at the facility.

Workers were busy contructing the hangar Monday afternoon.

"This hangar will completely house aircraft," said Bo Rollins, site superintendent with Cathey Construction. The hangar project should be complete by the end of February, according to Rollins.

A tenth grade student at West Gadsden High School died Sunday after being hospitalized with meningitis, less than one month prior to his 17th birthday.

Christopher Grande was infected with cryptococcal meningitis, a form of meningitis that is not spread from person to person and does not require the treatment of close contacts, according to a press release from the Gadsden County Health Department. The illness is acquired by inhaling airborne fungal spores.

Waiting for help for Florida’s education budget? Don’t hold your breath.

The state’s leaders were counting on more than $3 billion from a federal stimulus package to provide relief for an already wheezing statewide budget, but the state may not qualify for the funds because the Legislature has cut the budget too much. Florida’s elected officials are scrambling in Washington, hoping to get a waiver in the Senate stimulus bill that will allow Florida to qualify for the much-needed money for education.

The first-degree murder trial of Hernandez L. Daniels, 39, gets underway in Gadsden County Circuit Court next week. Lopez and another man, Fernando Taylor, are accused of murdering Constance Dupont of Havana in 2006.

Dupont was shot to death in her downtown Havana apartment after she was suspected of being a confidential informant. Daniels is currently serving a life sentence in federal prison on drug charges.

It took more than two years to bring charges in the murder case against the two men.