Good morning, Tallahassee.

On Thursday the stretch of W.

Virginia St. between Copeland and Adams was renamed Drs. RB & Gloria P. Holmes Street to honor the couple's 40 years leading Bethel Missionary Baptist Church and their community work on foster care, Frenchtown, housing, and mental health.

Allison DeFoor, a Tallahassee-centered public servant who led Everglades conservation, chaired FSU’s Project on Accountable Justice and served as judge, sheriff, law professor and Episcopal priest, died Oct.

27 in Jacksonville after a battle with cancer; state leaders and local colleagues issued tributes.

Charlie Ward Champions Ranch unveiled its first outdoor multi-purpose field on Thursday, Oct.

29 (5601 Capital Circle SE) with a ribbon cutting; Charlie Ward threw the first football to Boys & Girls Clubs members and local leaders, university presidents, and city officials attended.

Florida State University hosted the Arts-Humanities-Health Symposium during Discovery Days (at the Claude Pepper Center) to show how art, music, film, and design can support physical and mental health, with workshops, therapy research, and student pediatric unit design proposals on display.

FAMU‑FSU College of Engineering professors Ralm Ricarte and Junliang Liu received U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Research Program awards this year, each getting $875,000 over five years to study energy-absorbing rubbers and fusion-ready vanadium alloys; they were FSU's only recipients in 2026 and two of eight awardees in the Southeast.

Florida State’s Career Center hosted its annual Graduate and Law School Fair on Oct.

21 at the Dunlap Success Center, drawing 578 students and representatives from more than 115 graduate programs — law schools were the biggest draw as attendees start applying amid a tight job market.

The district suspended the Foundation for Leon County Schools in September and hired an outside firm to audit spending after audits found material weaknesses, pausing fundraising and teacher grant reviews until a full accounting is complete.

Leon County Schools is expanding ZeroEyes AI gun-detection across elementary, middle and high schools and has upgraded surveillance cameras at 12 campuses (including Rickards, Godby, Chiles and Leon), while continuing random weapons screenings, K-9 patrols and multiagency emergency drills this school year.

FSU leaders are defining a new athletic director role before launching the hiring process, which will begin soon, and say the AD should have a major voice in deciding coach Mike Norvell's future (he will either remain or be fired).