• Congratulations to U. S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan. His son Brian was recently accepted to Notre Dame.
• Jaxport Deputy Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer Ron Baker was the guest speaker at Downtown Council last Friday. Baker said the port is still searching for a permanent cruise ship terminal, but is leaning towards the Blunt Island site.
• Cafe Athena will be hopping this week during the Jazz Festival. The Bay Street cafe is hosting and catering the festival’s pre-party on Wednesday. There will be live music from two bands and three European artists will display their wares.
• The Fourth Circuit mock trial competition is set for April 22. Teams from schools in Duval, Clay, Nassau and Orange counties will compete.
• A two-year tradition may be slipping by the wayside. The Jacksonville Suns are set to start their season this week and there is no word on whether there will be a media vs. Mayor’s Office softball game at the ball park this year.
• Speaking of the Suns, they open against the Birmingham Barons on Thursday, but play the University of North Florida in an exhibition game Tuesday night at 7:05. The Ospreys are coming off a 8-0 thumping of cross town rival JU last week.
• How did Phil Tufano, the new general manager of the downtown Hyatt, snare the much sought after position? “He offered 10 percent of his salary to pay for my kids’ education,” joked Hyatt executive Victor Lopez, who oversees the hotel chain’s Florida operations. Mayor John Peyton hopes that’s the only incentive necessary for the hotel. He likes the fact that Hyatt hasn’t asked for any City money to overhaul the former Adam’s Mark. “It’s a deal driven by the marketplace not incentives,” he said.
• There must be cynics running the San Marco branch library. A sign in the stacks informs readers that romance novels have been moved to the fiction section.
• Arguably the best burger in town is back in business. Cruisers Grill in South Jacksonville Beach reopened over the weekend after being closed for over a month. The popular restaurant caught fire in February and suffered lots of damage. The owners remodeled and painted.
• Apologies to Mayor John Peyton and Hyatt General Manager Phil Tufano. Our cutline from Friday’s front page photo reads as if Peyton is the new GM. He’s still mayor and will be for at least another two years.
• Clarification to last week’s story about the grants the City received from the state. Delphia Williams and her staff in the Community Services Department actually wrote one of the grant proposals. We said Emergency Preparedness chief Chip Patterson wrote both.