• College basketball fans can scout men’s basketball teams in town for the NCAA tournament for free. An open practice will be held Thursday at the Arena with doors opening at 11 a.m. Practice sessions are from noon to 7 p.m. The City will offer free parking for the event.

• Speaking of the tournament, Fanfest activities will be held before both basketball sessions. The events start at 9 a.m. both days - Friday and Sunday - and feature sponsors Coke, Vitamin Water and Papa Johns.

• There also is college baseball Saturday. Baseball teams from Jacksonville University and the University of North Florida will play each other at 1 p.m. at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.

• In addition to players, coaches and fans here for basketball this weekend, there also are 7,600 cheerleaders participating in the All-Star Challenge Cheer & Dance National Championship at the Osborn Center and 2,100 athletes from around the Southeast competing in the First Coast Volleyball Tournament at the University of North Florida. In other words, good luck finding an available hotel room in Northeast Florida until next week.

• The St. Joe Company announced early this morning that it plans to move its corporate headquarters from Jacksonville to a large-scale development project in Bay County in Northwest Florida. The real estate development company will consolidate offices from Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Port St. Joe and South Walton County into the new location. The relocation will be completed by summer 2011. Its current headquarters are along Riverside Avenue.

• Food Lion will open its newest Jacksonville store March 24. It’s at U.S. 1 and Dunn Avenue. The ribbon-cutting is 7:30 a.m.

• Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department Director Dan Kleman has released the department’s “Plan for Excellence.” In the report, Kleman says the biggest advance the department has made since the last report is a more diverse pool of applicants for entry level JFRD positions and he credits a more aggressive recruiting plan. Of the 92 recruits hired last year, Kleman says, 37 percent are African-American.

• Mayor John Peyton is out all week. He and his wife Kathryn — who’s a doctor — and his sons are at a medical conference in Utah.

• A handful of unlicensed cosmetologists and barbers at the Norwood Flea Market were investigated over the weekend by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. Overall, six were checked, two were issued citations, one was given a cease and desist order and cases were opened against four others.