Florida in 2018 saw a horrific school shooting, a devastating hurricane that ravaged parts of the state's Panhandle region and a contentious election that dragged on for weeks.
The shooting sent reverberations through the nation, in schools across the country and in the halls of power.
In February, 17 students and staff were gunned down at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. The entire world watched as the students who survived organized marches, gave rousing speeches and appeared in countless media interviews, all on the topic of gun control.
"If us students have learned anything, it's that if you don't study, you will fail," said Parkland student Emma Gonzalez during a rally in Fort Lauderdale days after the shooting. "And in this case if you actively do nothing, people continually end up dead, so it's time to start doing something."
In November, Archbishop Desmond Tutu gave their student organization, March For Our Lives, the International Children's Peace Prize.
The shooting also changed state policy in ways that had been previously unthinkable in Florida's gun lobby-friendly Legislature. Three weeks after the attack, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill that raised the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21, extended a three-day waiting period for handgun purchases to include long guns and baned bump stocks, and created a so-called guardian program enabling some teachers and other school employees to carry guns.
Survivors had wanted a ban on assault-style weapons, like the ones the gunman used during the massacre. But the bill didn't go that far. Still, the National Rifle Association fought back with a lawsuit, saying the measure "punishes law-abiding gun owners for the criminal acts of a deranged individual."
Six months later and 300 miles to the north, a 24-year-old gamer walked into a Madden NFL tournament at a Jacksonville Landing game room with two handguns and extra ammunition and opened fire. Two people died and 10 others were shot before the gunman took his own life.
Unfortunately, that was only one of several mass shootings in Jacksonville in 2018. Four people were injured in an April drive-by on the Westside, three killed and a fourth injured in a shooting on Town Center Parkway in June, three people were injured and one died in a shooting after the first Raines High School football game of the year and six people were shot, one killed, in October about one half mile from TIAA Bank Field less than an hour before a Jaguars home game.
The ambush shooting deaths of Gilchrist County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Noel Ramirez and Deputy Taylor Lindsey as they were eating lunch in a small, north Florida town in April caused outrage and an outpouring of support for their families and the community.
Those deputies were among 11 Florida officers killed in the line of duty in 2018. Traffic accidents took the lives of Officer Lance Whitaker, a 17-year veteran of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office killed May 15 in a traffic crash on Interstate 295, and Clay County Sheriff's Office Deputy Ben Zirbel, died Aug. 19 from injuries from an accident while on motorcycle patrol.
3rd major hurricane in 3 years
The state's most devastating natural disaster came in October when Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle, killing at least 43 people. It all but wiped the small community of Mexico Beach off the map, and caused massive damage in Panama City and at Tyndall Air Force Base.
It was the third major hurricane to impact the state in three years and, at Category 4, the strongest storm on record to hit the Panhandle. It upended every aspect of life in the Panama City area, from schools to businesses to traffic and electricity. Many people still haven't recovered.
Earlier this month, it was announced that one of Panama City's two hospitals would lay off 800 people because it was unable to reopen parts of the building due to storm damage. The city's largest mall also remains closed due to damage sustained in the storm.
Another disaster also hit Florida's Gulf communities in 2018, but it was slow moving and spread up the coast over the summer. A massive, naturally occurring red tide bloom began in Naples and eventually drifted north. It killed hundreds of tons of fish, and communities along the coast scrambled to clear the normally pristine beaches from the stinking mess. The red tide also reached the state's Atlantic coast, which is unusual.
In addition to the red tide, some communities saw a spread of blue-green algae in freshwater. Heavy rains in the spring caused Lake Okeechobee to discharge water containing the goo-like algae into rivers and canals. The bright green sludge oozed onto docks and into rivers and canals.
Both types of algae threatened to affect the state's tourism industry, which scrambled to reassure visitors that many parts of Florida were algae-free.
One of Florida's major stories centered around politics. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum became the state's first black gubernatorial nominee when he won the Democratic primary in August. He faced former Congressman Ron DeSantis, a Republican. The U.S. Senate race was a bruiser, too, with Republican Gov. Rick Scott up against sitting Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.
Contentious races for U.S. Senate and governor were too close to call on election night. That led to a recount, which dredged up memories of the much-maligned 2000 presidential election. In the end, Scott was declared the winner in the Senate race and DeSantis the winner in the governor's race. Voters also approved two amendments of note: one allowing most felons who have served their sentences to vote (excluding sex offenders and those convicted of murder). Floridians also voted to ban greyhound racing.
QUIZ: 2018 year in review
No relief from gun violence
While the number of people killed in Jacksonville in 2018 was down from the previous year and well below historic highs, there were more than 100 murders in the city in the last 12 months. The vast majority of those involved guns. More than 10 percent of those were killed by a domestic partner or family member. Nearly 70 percent of the year's murders remain unsolved.
Each death is devastating to those close to the victim, but a few rocked the community. One was the death of 7-year-old Heidy Villanueva, who was caught in the crossfire of rival gangs. The shooting deaths of three transgender women in separate incidents this year forced the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office to address how they identified the names and sex of the victims.
The community was also shaken by the apparent death of Joleen Cummings, a 24-year-old Nassau County woman whose disappearance from her hair salon over Mother's Day weekend prompted community searches, an FBI-organized exploration at a Georgia landfill, and murder charge against a co-worker, who we learned has multiple identities and a sorted past.
Courtroom drama
Five years after the death of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle, we endured gruesome details in the trial of sex offender Donald Smith. After a weeklong trial, Smith was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges and, later in the year, sentenced to death.
Nearly 20 years after a newborn was abducted from the maternity ward of what was then called University Hospital, Gloria Williams pleaded guilty to kidnapping Kamiyah Mobley and raising her as her daughter. Williams is now serving an 18-year sentence.
Last-minute legal filings didn't keep former U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown from reporting to prison in January to begin serving a five-year sentence on federal charges of fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.
Four months later, Jacksonville City Council members Katrina Brown and Reggie Brown were indicted on fraud and money laundering charges. The two are not related to each other or the longtime congresswoman, but they shared the spotlight of recent federal prosecutions of public corruption cases.
Other big stories in Florida
In February, a Florida International University pedestrian bridge collapsed and killed six people. Two days before the collapse, an engineer with the bridge's design firm left a voicemail for state transportation officials to report cracking had been found at one end of the concrete span, but the company didn't think it was a safety issue. State officials didn't hear the voicemail until after the collapse. Federal authorities are still investigating.
In October, prominent Democratic officials, CNN's Manhattan offices and others who have been critical of President Donald Trump were targeted with package bombs. The suspect, 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc, was from Miami-Dade County. He's in jail while awaiting trial and faces nearly 50 years in prison if convicted on five federal charges, which were filed in New York.