• Tim Khrien is out as Metro editor of the
T-U. After refusing a reassignment to the Community news sections, he resigned. He’s been replaced by Marilyn Young.
• With Mayor John Peyton, City Council president Lad Daniels and Council vice president Elaine Brown in Dallas on the Chamber’s Leadership Trip, Council member and Rules Committee chair Michael Corrigan gets to be mayor for the rest of week. In case of emergency, Finance chair Warren Alvarez is next in line.
• He didn’t go to Dallas, but Council member Jerry Holland does have a big trip planned for the weekend. He’s running in a marathon in Dublin, Ireland to raise money for leukemia patients. Holland, who ran in a similar race in Hawaii last year, is being sponsored by a four-year-old boy who’s currently undergoing treatment.
• Comcast advertising general manager Susan Hagaman is stepping down from the Mayor’s Advisory Commission of Television, Motion Picture and Commercial Production. During three years on the commission, Hagaman said Jacksonville has brought in more than $90 million in film and commercial productions.
• The Bartram Trail High School Marching Band will provide the halftime entertainment at Sunday’s game between the Jags and Tennessee Titans at Alltel Stadium. The band was crowned grand champions at the Isle of Eight Flags Festival in Fernandina Beach last year. The Paxon School for Advanced Studies Marching Eagles will perform the National Anthem. There will be a flyover following the anthem by a U.S. Air Force Heritage Flight.
• Five Points News Stand in Jacksonville Beach has closed. The owner, who also operates the news stand in Riverside, cited slow sales as the reason.
• The National Weather Association has been holding its first annual meeting this week at the Adam’s Mark Hotel, and the signs say this may not be the last time. The organization’s experiences in the city and at the Adam’s Mark have been “fantastic,” said NWA president Bill Read. “The feedback I’m getting is, if this isn’t the best venue we’ve held a meeting in, it’s one of the best.” For more on the convention, see page 3.
• The president of the Americans with Disabilities Act Consultants of Northeast Florida told Mayor Peyton in an e-mail the City’s decision to close its handicapped-accessible rear entrance to the City Hall Annex may violate the ADA. Chip Wilson said keeping a guard at the entrance would be the ideal solution. The City closed the rear entrance after a disgruntled employee drew a gun inside the building.