• If you need to get to the University of North Florida over the next three weeks, use the Kernan Boulevard entrance. The St. Johns Bluff entrance will be closed while the road is resurfaced.
• Big fishing tournament soon and it’s not the annual Kingfish Tournament. On May 20, over 200 kayakers will participate in what organizers are calling “the world’s largest kayak fishing tournament.” The event benefits the St. Johns Riverkeeper and daniel. There are two ways to register: daniel.org; and jaxkayakfishing.com. Anglers can launch and fish anywhere inshore within Duval, Nassau or St. Johns county.
• The Republican Party of Duval County Executive Committee will gather May 15 at the Wyndham. The social gets underway at 6:30 p.m. followed by the 7 o’clock meeting.
• Promotions for this weekend’s American Business Women’s Association conference at the Omni Hotel sound a lot like fashion magazine headlines. The Web site touts Jacksonville as having “much to offer sun goddesses.” The title of one series of meetings is “ABWA Extreme Makeover.” According to a press release, ladies who stay for dinner on Saturday will be treated to an etiquette lesson where they can “be entertained with dining tips you don’t want to miss!” Attempts to compare ABWA’s agenda with a similar American businessmen’s organization were fruitless. An online search didn’t turn up any appropriately male-specific associations.
• Shelly Marino formerly of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and the Super Bowl Host Committee has landed with FreshMinistries. She’s the inter-faith based, non-profit’s new director of external affairs.
• Clarification. In Monday’s article on attorney John Mills and the Daniel Benitez case, we wrote: “In the early 80s, Benitez fled Cuba with thousands of other illegal immigrants.” According to Mills, however, “Benitez was part of the Mariel Boatlift and, along with several hundred thousand other Cubans, came to the United States at the invitation of President Carter, was processed by immigration officials in South Florida and was allowed to enter and live in the United States. Thus, he and the others were very much ‘legal’ immigrants.” Our facts came from a January 2004 Associated Press article and the Cornell Law School Web site.
• If you were trying to drive around Hemming Plaza yesterday morning and found streets closed it was because a production crew was there shooting a training video for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.
• How ironic: A consultant in Sarasota sent the mayor a letter this week hoping to sell advice on how to help improve service quality and performance. Quote: “In my 40 years of public sector consulting,working with over 200 cities around the world, I have never found a local government that couldn’t improve its performance.” Two problems: The letter was addressed to “Ms. John Payton, Mayor.”
• A little national publicity for the Inn at Oak Street in Riverside. It’s featured in the latest issue of Southern Living magazine.