• The Jacksonville Port Authority has released its end-of-fiscal year numbers and 2005-06 was a good year for our port. Annual revenue for the year was $38.5 million, up 13 percent over the previous year’s record of $34 million. For the second time ever, over 600,000 vehicles were moved through the Port — 609,967 to be exact, enough to make the port the nation’s second-busiest for vehicles behind New York. That figure is up 12 percent over last year and just shy of the 2002 record (615,030). Overall, 8.7 tons of cargo moved through the port, up 3 percent from last year. The only down figures involve cruise ship passengers. Last year, 128,745 cruised out of Jacksonville compared to 138,289 the previous year. Last year’s figures are still up 60 percent over 2004, the first year the port offered cruise ship service.
• Two Jacksonville attorneys — Harvey Jay III and Scott Makar — and Circuit Court Judge Waddell Wallace have made the list of six nominees for the First District Court of Appeal. Those three, along with David De La Paz of Crawfordville, and L. Clayton Roberts and Daniel Woodring of Tallahassee, will now be reviewed by Gov. Jeb Bush.
• Fans of Claude’s Chocolate in St. Augustine can now save a trip and order their European treats online. See www.claudeschocolate.com for more details.
• Two Jacksonville Jaguars quarterbacks, David Garrard and Quinn Gray, will greet Winn Dixie customers at the grocery store’s 11701 San Jose Blvd. location on Thursday. Mascot Jaxson de Ville will also attend, and customers will have the opportunity to win tickets to Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts.
• Jacksonville-based advertising and public relations agency On Ideas just announced two appointments: Steve Galpin as studio manager and Kyle Nolan as graphic designer.
• Only one Jacksonville restaurant made the top lists in Florida Trend magazine’s annual restaurant guide. Matthew’s of San Marco earned a golden spoon award. The Ritz Carleton at Amelia Island did earn Hall of Fame honors from the magazine which annually lists the top 500 restaurants in the state.
• The town of Baldwin is getting a skateboard park and campground facilities courtesy of the local landfill. City Council is considering legislation that would appropriate $371,927 from the Trail Ridge Landfill Mitigation Account to Baldwin for the skate park ($198,000), campground/restroom/shower materials ($63,000) and site clearing and other fees ($110,927). Everything will be adjacent to the Jacksonville-Baldwin Rail Trail visitor’s center.
• WebEx, a software-as-a-service applications business, has opened a North Florida office in Deerwood and is expected to bring an estimated 50 new jobs in the next two years and at least $6 million annually. The company is based in Santa Clara, Calif., and has been named to the Forbes 25 Fastest-Growing Technology Companies list four years in a row.
• Florida Attorney General-Elect Bill McCollum will address the 27th annual Florida TaxWatch membership luncheon at noon Wednesday in the Conference Center at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club. McCollum, a 20-year veteran of Congress and founder and former chairman of the House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, will talk about his plan to make Florida a safer place to live and work and his advocacy for tort reform.