Free Republic

Treasure hunters have apparently found the 500-year-old remains of a naval expedition led by a colonizer who could have changed Florida's history, making it French-speaking at least for a while. The big question is if the shipwreck is that of "La Trinite," the 32-gun flagship of a fleet led by Jean Ribault, a French navigator who tried to establish a Protestant colony in the southeast US under orders from King Charles IX. They probably are, say authorities in Florida, the French government and independent archeologists. And if they in fact are, this is an unparalleled find, said John de Bry,...

Students at Ribault High School will become the first in Northeast Florida eligible for vouchers after the Jacksonville school received a second F from the state within four years. Overall, however, the region's school systems saw increases in the numbers of higher-performing schools and some saw elimination of lower-performing schools. Seven schools in Northeast Florida received an F: Six in Duval County and a charter school in St. Johns County. Last year, Duval County's dozen F schools were the only ones in the region. Out of 228 schools in the region's six school systems, 41 percent received As in the...