• The good people who are members of the “Friends of 440” are having their first fundraiser next Monday at the Grotto in San Marco. It’s a statewide group of lawyers, judges and other in the legal profession that quietly raises scholarship money and they’ll be glad to have you join them for a wine tasting and a raffle starting at 6.
• Alena Kleshchik is a new litigator at the Volpe Bajalia firm.
• The Hispanic Bar Association meets March 15 at the Florida Coastal School of Law to hear U.S. Attorney Paul Perez.
• There is a change of venue for Jacksonville Bankruptcy Bar Association’s Thursday meeting. The lunch will be at the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art instead of Drayton’s, JBBA’s usual meeting place.
• A recent article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said a survey of NFL players has ranked Alltel Stadium’s playing surface as the seventh best in the league. Raymond James Stadium in Tampa topped the list while the Indianapolis Colts’ RCA Dome ranked as the worst playing surface in the NFL.
• The JEDC staff gave outgoing executive director Kirk Wendland a much-welcomed going-away gift: a round of golf for him and three pals at one of the World Golf Village’s courses.
• Aren’t career paths interesting? Susan Adams Loyd, vice president and general manager for TV-30 and TV-47, didn’t always aim for a career in television. She once was a professional figure skater.
• Former City land surveyor Bob Pittman has joined Clary and Associates Professional Surveyors and Mappers.
• The Main Street Bridge will be closed for from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. today through Thursday for a safety inspection.
• The Stetson University College of Law recently held a conference with an Iraqi environmentalist on the efforts to restore Iraqi marshlands destroyed by the Saddam Hussein-led government. The conference is available on Stetson’s Web site at http://gpiis03.law.stetson.edu/media/on-demand/alwash.asx.
• Super Bowl comment from Orlando sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi: “Jax did a helluva job despite the weather.”
• Coker, Myers, Schickel, Sorenson and Green will announce a lawsuit against an Amelia Island resort filed on behalf of a Kentucky widow whose husband was swept away by a Hurricane Isabel rip tide. The firm says Amelia Island Plantation did not post warning flags to keep from scaring away guests.
• The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra is on track for record ticket sales, according to an internal memo sent to major contributors. The memo, written by Jacksonville Symphony Association chairman Steve Halverson, said sales are on track for a 10 percent increase. That’s after three years of declining ticket sales.