• Four local attorneys — Edward M. Booth, Samuel Konefsky, Raymond L. Simpson and James S. Taylor — will be honored Friday during The Florida Bar convention in Orlando for a half-century of dedication to the practice of law. To receive recognition, attorneys must be members in good standing and attain their 50th anniversary of admittance to the practice of law in Florida during 2003.
• Defeated mayoral candidate Mike Weinstein has opened a consulting office to do “a little lawyering, a little lobbying and a little of anything else.” Weinstein, who finished third to Sheriff Nat Glover and eventual winner John Peyton in the first election, said he had no regrets from the election. “I’m a better man for it,” he said.
• Ouch! T-U social columnist Judy Wells has a knee replacement coming up in two weeks.
• Adam’s Mark Hotel sales director Laura Cagan says she missed an opportunity. “We should have had an ‘implosion’ special on rooms,” she said. The hotel is in a prime spot to see this morning’s death of the Coliseum.
• Tuesday’s city Council meeting had an unwanted ending for Jeanne Miller of the General Counsel’s Office. During the meeting, Miller was taken to the emergency room because of a nasty case of food poisoning. She was recuperating Wednesday.
• Emergency response timing was razor sharp at Wednesday’s mock terrorist exercise at Alltel Stadium, but some of the volunteers had reason to be upset. Many who played injured victims lost some personal items, including changes of clothes and, in one instance, their shoes. For more on the exercise, see page 3.
• Congratulations to Jacksonville Area Legal Aid. It will receive the Fair Housing Practices award for innovative programs from the Equal Rights Center.
• New business at the Landing. Maui Wowi, a smoothie cart, has opened on the first floor near the escalators.
• The construction on Park Street near the King Street intersection isn’t part of the City’s revitalization project for the area. The project hasn’t started yet, but a plumbing problem needed attention.
• Downtown Vision Inc. is posting coupons on its website — www.downtownjacksonville.org — which give downtown visitors $1 off parking at participating lots. The coupons are good after 5 p.m.
• The Peyton Transition Team’s Financing Efficiency Subcommittee is figuring ways to make empowerment zone tax credits more accessible to small businesses. Subcommittee member Mac Holley of Bank of America said the federal credits go relatively unused because the application process is prohibitive. The subcommittee is also studying joint ventures with private investors to encourag e development on large tracts of City-owned land surrounding low-income housing.