The flags on top of the Police and Fire Pension Fund building are flying at half-staff this week in honor of National Police Officer Memorial week. The City held a commemorative ceremony May 5.
• The North Florida Artist Cooperative is holding its annual festival of short films directed by local filmmakers tonight and Saturday from 9 p.m.-midnight at Flat 38, 38 W. Monroe St.
• Reminder: the Springfield Home and Garden Tour is Saturday and Sunday from noon-5 p.m. It begins in Klutho Park and tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door.
• Fidelity National Financial, Inc. chair and CEO William P. Foley II is joining the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens Board of Trustees for a term of five years. Fidelity National Financial is a neighbor to the Cummer on Riverside Avenue. “I look forward to helping the Cummer Museum continue to be a powerful catalyst in the community for cultural activities, exhibitions and innovative arts education programs that are inherent to Jacksonville’s quality of life,” said Foley.
• When Clay County commissioner George Bush addressed board members of the First Coast Metropolitan Planning Organization, he joked that he could have used his time to serve a different purpose. “It’s dangerous to be giving me a microphone right now,” said Bush. “You know I’m up for reelection.”
• Though Peggy Sidman, an attorney in the General Counsel’s Office, doesn’t have a television in her office she’s got something almost as good. In its place on a mounted stand, Sidman has a cardboard box with a screen and various knobs drawn on with magic marker. “But the reception isn’t all that great,” she said.
• Recovering: City Council member Art Shad, who has suffered from a bad back for some time, underwent surgery this week to correct the problem.
• Congratulations to the Jacksonville & the Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau. The CVB has been selected by the readers of Successful Meetings magazine as a 2004 Pinnacle Award recipient. This marks the fifth year in a row the CVB has received the award, which honors the top meeting destination support organizations.