On Oct. 21, Northrop Grumman employees, their families, and supporters protested in front of their St. Augustine location. The aerospace and defense technology company, as a federal contractor with more than 100 employees, is required to have their employees fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the Biden administration. They gave their employees until Dec. 8 to get the vaccine or be put on unpaid leave.
Protestors say that they have the freedom of choice to decide to get the vaccine or not. Tom, 60, carrying a flag that says “F__k Biden,” is a retired employee of Northrop and has been vaccinated against COVID. “It’s not about the vaccine, it’s about not being forced to get it,” Says Tom. “And why should you lose your job because you don’t want to be vaccinated? That’s ridiculous.”
I’m from here, St. Augustine. I was born and raised here. Right now it’s slow here with everybody going back to school, all the college kids are going back to school so it’s slow around here. But I survive. I need about $25, $30 a day and I’m good. Because it’s expensive to eat downtown and I’m not eating McDonald’s. I don’t like McDonald’s, the only time I’ll eat it is if somebody hands it to me. I’m not going there to buy it.
I’ve got manic bipolar and I’ve got PTSD. I guess, because I’ve learned to deal with it, when people ask me about it and everything, I’ll talk about it. I was sleeping on the USS Cole and the next thing I know, I’m on the ground and all hell breaks loose. And we got 17 stars on the ship. It was the Al-Qaida, yeah, it was a branch of them. They caught all the guys who did it and they brutally murdered them. Yeah, they went to trial and everything and they got brutally murdered. And then not even a year later 9/11 happened. We got bombed in October of 2000 at 5:12 in the morning. It could have been a lot worse.
The VA could put me in a house but, I’d have to go to Jacksonville or Gainesville. I’m not living in either one of them. Because they want to put me in the middle of the most dangerous part of Jacksonville. Okay. I’m not racist by any means, but I am the way wrong color to be there. My buddy did it and five days later, he got shot eight times for the $10 in his pocket.
Carla Forrest, owner of Frisky Cat Cafe, prepares a coffee for customers in St. Augustine, Fl., Sept. 12, 2021. She opened the cafe in spring 2020 as a way to fund her cat rescue, Small Lives Matter. Before this, Forrest regularly fostered cats and noticed they were not getting the adequate attention and medical care they needed. “I was ending up taking them to my vet and making sure they’re healthy,” Forrest said. “I was just spending a lot of money doing it. My veterinarian said you should just have your own rescue and do what needs to be done for these animals and then you don’t have to worry about it anymore.”Read more
Bikers cruise down St. Augustine’s Historic District during the 80th annual Daytona Bike Week on March 10. According to Daytona city officials, around 300,000 people were expected to attend, many of those also visit St. Augustine.
A row of motorcycles next to the Plaza de la Constitución on March 10. St. Augustine saw a surge of visitors and vehicles from March 5 to 14. Richard Baker, who lives in the Historic District, said he welcomes the visitors. He has been riding during Bike Week for the past 27 years. “This isn’t just for bikers; this is an all-around event for everybody,” Baker said. “We have different food samples, different cultures and different people coming together all at once.”
Vicky Diloné 