• Each Wednesday throughout the 2010 legislative session, the Daily Record will report the news and views from the state capital, particularly in terms of how what transpires in Tallahassee affects the businesses and residents of Northeast Florida. The series begins today and includes a guide to the people who represent all of us.
• Light at the end of the tunnel? Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Jacksonville Branch executive Christopher Oakley said yesterday that the recession which began in December, 2007 is over. “We don’t know when it ended,” he told the Economic Roundtable of Jacksonville. Oakley added the “best guess” is it ended last summer. He also said the economy is in recovery, “but it’s slow and bumpy.”
• Jacksonville Area Legal Aid now has a Facebook page. Just go to the social media’s Web site and search “Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Inc.” Development Director Christa Figgins uses the site to promote JALA and the local publications that do stories on the law firm.
• Baptist South will mark its fifth anniversary Saturday with a big party and has invited special guests — the over 900 babies born at the hospital during the first year it was open. The party is from 9-11 a.m. and there will be tours of a Life Flight helicopter and the labor/delivery room where the children were born.
• Kevin Doyle, former state director for U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, has opened a new consulting and public affairs firm, Kevin Doyle and Associates, based in Jacksonville. The firm specializes in public affairs, strategic development and campaigns. Doyle’s professional experience includes federal, state, local and international levels of government and politics.