• You might know Jake Schickel as a partner at Coker, Myers, Schickel, Sorenson, Higginbotham and Green law firm or prominent member of the local bar and Chamber. But did you know that Schickel was one of the guinea pigs for the original batches of Gatorade? Schickel was on the track team at the University of Florida in 1966 when Dr. Robert Cade first started testing out his homemade sports drink on Gator athletes. Schickel said the quality of the drink used to be a lot spottier. “You could always tell when Cade had a hangover because the stuff came out kind of strange tasting, he said.”
• More security measures, this time at the Chamber building. No longer can you enter through the back door (where the parking is) plus you now have to sign in.
• The local chapter of the American Red Cross has raised more than $300,000 for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunamis.
• Some good news for local colleges on the accreditation front. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools reaffirmed Florida Community College at Jacksonville’s accreditation with the highest possible rating. FCCJ received a 10-year extension without condition, the best possible outcome.
• The Mayor’s Asian American Advisory Board has named its members for 2005. The new board officers and members are chair Thuy-Anh Nguyen, vice chair Fushan Zhang, secretary Lally V. Ferro, treasurer Pat Patangan, spokesperson Tri Vu and members Shungkwon Kim and Jay Kapur.
• The Orlando Sentinel is sending up quite a bit of smoke about Jacksonville’s inadequacies for the Super Bowl but lead sports columnist Mike Bianchi has figured out that they better do something there or shut up. In a weekend column, he warned his city’s leaders that they need to upgrade their stadium or else Jacksonville might snatch away another prize: the Florida A&M vs. Bethune-Cookman “Florida Classic” game that brings 100,000 or so to the city.
• Former school board candidate Jane Condon, a San Marco resident, is trying to gather up opposition to the neighborhood’s European Street restaurant’s planned outdoor patio. Condon wrote the City Council to oppose the restaurant’s application for a zoning variance that would allow it to serve food and alcohol outside. Condon said she feared the deck would turn her “family neighborhood... into an outdoor party area.”