It was about this time last year when I started putting together this annual year in review story and for some reason I stupidly believed that once the clock struck midnight bringing in 2021, all the troubles from 2020 would magically go away.

There was a vaccine available and things would get back to normal, right?

Then two things happened: the Delta variant made its way to the U.S. and roughly 40 percent of Americans — for whatever reason — chose not to get vaccinated. 

The result? Mask mandates, arguments about mask mandates, maxed-out hospitals and a very sharp pin popping the balloon of optimism making 2021 seem an awful lot like 2020 at times.

Like Yogi Berra once said, “it’s like deja vu all over again.”

The people who were most at risk from the highly contagious Delta variant were the unvaccinated. A friend of mine died this year and unfortunately he was not vaccinated. Brevard was certainly not immune and local doctors shared their horror stories with us.

ICUs and inpatient wards were at 98% capacity for weeks during the summer. At the peak, on Aug. 17, Health First was caring for 333 COVID-19 patients. Parrish CEO George Mikitarian appealed to the community to take the virus seriously.

Hundreds of COVID-19 related deaths overwhelmed local funeral homes. 

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been a total of 82,136 COVID-19 cases and 1,176 COVID-19 related deaths in Brevard County, according to data released by the Florida Department of Health.

And now as we wheeze, limp and crawl our way toward 2022, we have to worry about something called the Omicron variant. Could they have picked a scarier sounding name? Omicron sounds like some inter-galactic warlord bent on destroying The Avengers.

So, excuse me for the pessimistic view of the coming year, but I’m starting to think things will never go back to how they were before the pandemic.

Still, as they say, life goes on and it surely did here in Brevard County where major news stories made headlines from a record number of manatee deaths to the heartbreak of two young children allegedly killed by their guardians.

Still, it wasn’t all bad news. The space age truly arrived with citizen astronauts taking to the stars. Cruises finally resumed from the port and two of our high school football teams made it to the state finals and hey, we finally got a Costco.

The Melbourne Viera Costco warehouse at 4305 Pineda Causeway opened to members on December 9 at  7:30am.

There was not one but two sad stories about two different people with the same name: James Nance, a Cocoa Beach dad whose precious son, Jameson, never made it to his fourth birthday. The boy’s mother and live-in boyfriend are in jail awaiting trial on charges of murder.

Another unrelated James Nance — a well-known local attorney — passed away during the summer but not before he allegedly made gifts of $9 million to some of his employees. The “deathbed gifts” are now the subject of a lawsuit that may take years to resolve. 

The sign at Nance-Cacciatore in Melbourne pays tribute to James Nance, who died at age 90.

The irony was not lost on me. James Nance made his fortune in a courtroom and now his estate and its beneficiaries will be decided in one. I’m not sure that’s how he would have wanted it.

You all know the drill by now. The following are the top 10 stories of 2021 serving as a sort of recap of anotheryear many of us would like to forget. And with a few more days left on the 2021 calendar I am reminded of another “Yogism”: “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”

Lakeisha Mitchell, 42, faces multiple charges, including first-degree murder in the death of 4-year-old Joy King Castro,

Foster mom murder charge

On Aug. 23, four-year-old Joy King-Castro was pulled unresponsive from her foster mother’s bathtub. Two days later, Joy died at Arnold Palmer hospital in Orlando.

The Titusville foster mother, Lakeisha Mitchell, was arrested and charged with murder.

Joy had only been in Mitchell’s care since June, but it was already at least her fifth placement. And two months prior to getting Joy, Mitchell had two other foster children removed from her care amid allegations of abuse. She was not charged but a whistleblower said Mitchell shouldn’t have been given Joy.

Mitchell’s attorney, Jason Wandner, argued that Joy had behavioral problems and frequently attempted to self-harm, contributing to the difficulty in finding a placement for her and possibly contributing to her death. Foster care workers cited other reasons for foster care placement issues, such as one parent having a medical emergency, another closing their home to foster kids and another being newly licensed. 

‘Joy wasn’t worth it’:How did a 4-year-old foster child, bounced from 5 different homes, end up dead?

More:Titusville foster mom accused of killing 4-year-old granted bond, prosecutors ‘strongly disagreed’

While Wandner repeatedly brought up Mitchell’s accounts of Joy’s tantrums during an October and December bond hearing, others described Joy differently. Kirsten Larson, Joy’s case worker who later quit over what happened to Joy, described her as “wild, sassy and brilliant.” Samantha DeFile, a foster mother who temporarily provided housing for Joy, recalled Joy waking the entire house one morning by shouting, “Good morning family!” She said her family’s time with Joy was “very smooth.”

During a December bond hearing, the Brevard County medical examiner described the numerous injuries he found on the child, including at least 11 isolated bruises, or contusions, on her head, seven on her face, three on her torso and at least six on other parts of her body. Joy also had burst blood vessels in her eyes and a mark around her neck that he said was consistent with strangulation made by a belt, cloth or a similar object.

Mitchell was granted bond by Judge Samuel Bookhardt III, who noted she was not a flight risk. Now she’s home awaiting trial.

— Finch Walker

Crosley Green gets emotional talking about his sister who died while he was in prison.

Crosley Green is released from prison

A cigarette with his morning coffee, sitting outside every night with family, just about the perfect collard greens and strawberry ice cream.

Strawberry ice cream every night.

After spending 31 years in prison — including nearly three years even after his murder conviction was overturned —-  Crosley Green was released from prison in April, pending a ruling nearly two years in the making from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

And Green is relishing every second of it. 

More:Torres: Knowing the fight is not yet finished, Crosley Green adjusts to life and freedom

More:Torres: Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody proving she cares very little for justice

Green’s murder conviction was overturned in July 2018 after it was revealed Brevard County prosecutor Chris White withheld information favorable to Green’s defense. This came after every witness but one recanted their testimony, saying they were pressured or coerced into making statements by White.

The state appealed the ruling and the 11th Judicial Court of Appeals has yet to rule, despite the hearing taking place in early March of 2020.

There was never any evidence directly tying Green to Chip Flynn’s murder in 1989 and numerous advocates have supported his claims of innocence over the years. 

Green actually was sentenced to die in Florida’s electric chair and spent almost 20 years on death row. He was given a new lease on life when the Washington D.C law firm  Crowell & Moring was assigned his case by the American Bar Association’s Death Penalty initiative. Their task was simply to save his life. But attorney Keith Harrison believed Green to be innocent of the charges. And so even after Green’s sentence was commuted to life in prison, the law firm retained the case for more than a decade, all without collecting a dime.

“I get up every day and smile and thank God,” Green said. “All I want is peace man. It’s all about enjoying my life now. And love, I’ve been getting heavy duty love.”

— John A. Torres

Melbourne Orlando International Airport personnel work alongside Allegiant Flight 2430, which touched down in Melbourne one recent   morning.

Historic Growth for airport

Melbourne Orlando International Airport underwent a year of historic growth, crowned by construction of a $72 million passenger-terminal expansion project.

The 86,000-square-foot terminal expansion is scheduled to open in time for TUI’s first flight on March 7. The U.K. travel company is projected to fly in about 150,000 passengers aboard two or three Dreamliner flights per day during its inaugural year in Melbourne.

More:New Allegiant flights to Nashville, Pittsburgh, Concord celebrated at Melbourne airport

Last month, Allegiant debuted service at MLB with nonstop routes to Pittsburgh, Nashville and the Charlotte suburb of Concord.

Allegiant is the first low-cost airline to operate in Melbourne since Spirit canceled operations shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

What’s more, airport officials conducted an October groundbreaking ceremony for a five-story, 143-room Hyatt Place “fly-in hotel” with rooftop bar and outdoor swimming pool just west of the terminal. 

Pilots will be able to taxi aircraft up to a flight line just outside the hotel, so passengers can disembark and walk inside.

— Rick Neale

To Mask or not to mask…

School Board meetings in 2021 were marked with controversy over Brevard Public Schools’ mandatory mask policy, which required all students, staff and visitors to wear face coverings unless they could provide medical exemptions. 

More:Brevard School Board will discuss mask policy for younger students with opt out

The district began the school year without a mask requirement in place, but School Board members voted 3-2 in favor of a mask mandate in August in response to rising COVID-19 cases. Despite pushback from the state, which notified board members their salaries would be withheld in October due to the policy, the board continued to require masks without allowing parental opt outs until weekly cases in Brevard fell to 50 per 100,000 residents on Oct. 22. 

School board member Jennifer Jenkins at the December 14, 2021 Brevard County School Board meeting in Viera.

Protesters for and against mask requirements gathered before School Board meetings and dozens spoke on the issue during public comments section. Some protested outside the home of board member Jennifer Jenkins, the board’s most outspoken supporter of masks. 

The last iteration of the mask mandate required masks for grades pre-K through 6 but allowed parental opt outs. It expired at the end of November. 

— Bailey Gallion

Help Wanted, really!

Brevard County businesses across the spectrum experienced difficulties filling job openings during 2021, as the county’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.4% by November. 

In comparison, the local unemployment was as high as 13.2% in April 2020, as businesses laid off workers because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Denise Biondi, communications director for CareerSource Brevard, said employers in a wide range of categories now are finding difficulty filling job openings.

“I don’t remember, in my 10 years being at CareerSource Brevard, that it’s been that difficult,” Biondi said. “I’m just seeing that across the board right now. It’s every industry, and it’s throughout Brevard County. There are certainly many open jobs.”

Help wanted signs were a common sight in Brevard County throughout 2021.

Biondi said one of the more visible employment sectors having trouble filling jobs is restaurants and other hospitality businesses. In that sector, a number of staff members reevaluated their job futures during the pandemic, and decided to leave.

“I think the pandemic took a good swipe at our food service and hospitality industries,” Biondi said.

That trend is being called “The Great Resignation.”

But the difficulty in filling openings also is affecting many job categories — construction, engineering, health care, information technology, manufacturing and others, Biondi said.

More:Redemption policies can provide an easy solution to Florida’s labor shortage | Opinion

Compounding the problem is that many baby boomers have decided to retire early, and there are not enough younger workers to fill those jobs, Biondi said.

A recent Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that, for every 83 unemployed workers in Florida, there were 100 job openings.

“Employees remain firmly in the driver’s seat,” CareerSource Brevard said in analyzing the federal data. “Employees now have more leverage.”

As a result, Biondi said, employers are having to concentrate on creating more of a “work/life balance” for their staff, making the jobs more attractive.

“It’s about talent retention, for sure,” Biondi said.

— Dave Berman

The Valiant Air Command's TBM Avenger made an emergency landing in the ocean just offshore south of the former Officer's Club at Patrick Space Force Base during the Cocoa Beach Air Show earlier this year.

Air show makes a splash

A vintage World War II torpedo bomber made an emergency ocean splash-landing during the Cocoa Beach Air Show – and spectators along the beach shot harrowing cellphone videos that generated worldwide media coverage.

The April air show mishap occurred when the TBM Avenger’s engine sputtered and failed, forcing a sea splashdown off Patrick Space Force Base.

More:WWII Avenger owners vow to restore plane after ocean landing during Cocoa Beach Air Show

More:Efforts to Bring the TBM Avenger from the Ocean After Emergency Landing

The Titusville-based Valiant Air Command, which owns the aircraft, had spent 18 years repairing and restoring the Avenger, courtesy of thousands of volunteer man-hours. The warbird returned to flight in January 2020.

After the air show, a large crane hoisted the Avenger off the shoreline and onto a truck, which transported the crippled plane back to the Warbird Air Museum at Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville.

Cocoa Beach Air Show Chairman Bryan Lilley compared the ocean landing to the dramatic 2009 emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in New York’s Hudson River by pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger.

— Rick Neale

Pack the sunscreen, cruises finally return to the port

Multi-day cruises returned to Port Canaveral on July 31, with the debut of Carnival Cruise Line’s Mardi Gras, the line’s newest and largest ship, and the first North American-based cruise ship to be powered by liquefied natural gas.

Cruising had been idled there for 16½ months, since mid-March 2020, because of the coronavirus pandemic, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention implemented stringent guidelines for the return of cruising.

Now that cruising is back, there are 10 multi-day cruise ships based at Port Canaveral, including five that are among the world’s 25 largest cruise ships.

“With the difficult ‘pandemic year’ behind us, we are sailing on smoother seas and have set our sights on a very bright horizon for 2022,” Port Canaveral Chief Executive Officer John Murray said. “We’re back to work on key capital projects, focusing on rebuilding and expanding outdated cargo facilities, making berth improvements, and moving ahead with some operational plans that were delayed throughout 2020 due to the global pandemic.”

More:Port Canaveral returns to profitability after cruises resume, after 16 months of losses

 At Cruise Terminal 1, Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas held a simulated cruise on Tuesday, July 27, with several hundred employees and volunteer passengers who have been COVID vaccinated and will also be tested before boarding.

The Port Canaveral lineup now includes Carnival’s Elation, Magic and Mardi Gras; Disney’s Dream and Fantasy; MSC’s Meraviglia; Norwegian’s Escape; and Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas, Independence of the Seas and Mariner of the Seas. Additionally, Carnival’s Liberty is scheduled to join the lineup on Jan. 24.

The Victory 1 gambling ship — which continued sailing for most of the pandemic — also offers twice-daily sailings from Port Canaveral, Wednesdays through Sundays. That ship was idled by the pandemic for only 2½ months — from March 15 through May 27, 2020 — as it does not fall under the CDC’s purview.

The port’s cruise operation is vital for the local tourism industry. Before the pandemic, the cruise sector generated about 20% of the overall tourism industry revenue in Brevard County, as many passengers on Port Canaveral-based ships stayed at local hotels before or after their cruises, ate in local restaurants, visited local attractions and shopped at local stores.

Port Canaveral has been the world’s second-busiest cruise port, based on passenger volume, behind PortMiami and ahead of No. 3 Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale.

The return of cruises has helped return Port Canaveral to profitability in recent months. In the port’s last pre-pandemic budget year (Oct. 1, 2018, through Sept. 30, 2019), combined revenue from cruise lines and cruise passenger parking accounted for 74.4% of Port Canaveral total revenue.

Canaveral Port Authority Chairman Jerry Allender noted that “it’s good to be back in the black, as opposed to the red.”

— Dave Berman

The Year of the Crew

While 2021 saw billionaires embark on the age of space tourism, locally we witnessed the continued feverish pace of launches set in 2020 as well as an unprecedented flight.

SpaceX successfully launched two crews on official NASA missions to the International Space Station, continuing its streak in the field of human spaceflight. But the company also pulled off another first-of-its-kind mission: the launch of Inspiration4, a four-person “all-civilian” crew made up entirely of non-professional astronauts. 

More:Q&A: Chris Sembroski, Inspiration4 and SpaceX Crew Dragon flyer

Inspiration4 was the brainchild of Jared Isaacman, a payments industry billionaire who purchased a Crew Dragon mission to fulfill his personal dream of reaching orbit. Along the way, he took three others — healthcare worker Hayley Arceneaux, professor Sian Proctor, and engineer Chis Sembroski — on a three-day mission to an orbit even higher than the ISS.

But it wasn’t just the flight that mattered to Isaacman: Inspiration4 also raised some $250 million for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The hospital recently dedicated its newest facility, the Inspiration4 Advanced Research Center, in recognition of the mission.

Inspiration4 is just the beginning for private missions launching from the Space Coast. Next year, for example, Axiom plans on launching a mix of private and NASA astronauts on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.

An all-civilian crew took off on the Inspiration4 mission in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center earlier this year

This year also saw more commercial activities than ever before.

From launches of Starlink internet satellites to crewed missions for NASA, Falcon 9 lofted the majority of missions in 2021 and set SpaceX on a path for its busiest year ever. The company launched two crews to the International Space Station, the first all-civilian team of astronauts known as Inspiration4, and reaffirmed its commitment to the Space Coast for its next-generation Starship vehicle.

United Launch Alliance and its Atlas V rocket also contributed to the cadence with three total launches: two for the Space Force, one for NASA’s asteroid-hunting Lucy probe.

Despite the summertime surge in coronavirus cases that led to the diversion of liquid oxygen – a critical spaceflight propellant – to hospitals, the pace picked up again in the fall. The ongoing chip shortage also meant SpaceX was ready to launch Starlink satellites, but producing them in the first place became a challenge all on its own.

In total, the Space Coast is on track to match or beat last year’s cadence of 31 total launches.

— Emre Kelly

RECORD MANATEE DEATHS

A record number of manatees died in 2021. As of Dec. 10, a total of 1,056 manatees had died, well surpassing the previous record of 830 that perished in 2013. 

About a third of the deaths, 345, have happened in Brevard. Biologists say the main cause was lingering seagrass loss from consecutive years of widespread algae blooms. The blooms are fueled by nitrogen and phosphorus pollution from septic tanks, fertilizers, sewage leaks and other human sources. The die-off overwhelmed manatee rehabilitation facilities statewide.

More:Starving manatees overwhelm Florida rescuers. Is there a future for the gentle marine giant?

More:Florida mulls the once unthinkable: feeding starving manatees in the wild

Senior Animal care Specialist Kelly Cluckey walks an orphaned manatee over to the edge of the pool to tube feed the young manatee at . SeaWorld in Orlando earlier this year.

And the tragedy prompted FWC to decide to do the previously unthinkable: feed the threatened species in the wild this winter if they’re struggling to find seagrass.

The nonprofits, Save the Manatee Club and the Center for Biological Diversity, recently put the federal government on notice that they plan to sue if more is not done to protect the species and its habitat.

— Jim Waymer

Double dose of state football finalists

Brady Denaburg and the Merritt Island Mustangs present the state runner up  trophy to their fans after their loss to Miami Central Friday, Dec. 17, 2021. Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK

Both Merritt Island and Cocoa High football teams have won state championships. The Mustangs have three: 1972, ’78 and ’79, while the Tigers won titles from 2008 through ’10 and again in 2016. What they haven’t done is play for a championship in the same year, let alone in a period of less than 24 hours.

They did that in 2021. Cocoa played Cardinal Gibbons for the Class 4A championship on Dec. 16. in Fort Lauderdale, where Merritt Island faced Miami Central the next afternoon on the same DRV PNK Stadium field for the 5A crown.

Looking back:Merritt Island’s Class 5A state final season of 2021

Tigers try for fifth title:Cocoa High football season review

Cocoa QB Davin Wydner passes the ball during the Class 4A state football championship Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021. Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK

Both lost, finishing as state runners-up. The Tigers went down in a thriller to Cardinal Gibbons, 21-19. Two unsuccessful 2-point conversion tries were the difference. The Mustangs seemed to be in a good spot in their game the next afternoon, but three touchdowns in three minutes by Miami Central turned a one-score game into a 49-14 defeat.

Two teams in the state finals is rare for Brevard County. In 2000, Palm Bay won its first state title in Class 6A, while Astronaut finished as the 3A runner-up. Two years later, both Palm Bay (4A) and Rockledge (3A) won championships. Those were the last area teams to play for state until the Tigers went in 2008. The Mustangs hadn’t played in a championship football game since 1989, when they finished second in 4A.

— Brian McCallum

Contact Torres at 321-242-3684 or at jtorres@floridatoday.com. You can follow him on Twitter @johnalbertorres or on Facebook at facebook.com/FTjohntorres.

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