• Officials from the East/West Shrine Game have contacted City officials about possibly moving the game to Jacksonville. The annual college football all-star game was held in San Francisco before moving this year to San Antonio’s Alamo Dome. Mike Sullivan, the director of the JEDC’s Sports and Entertainment Board, said the JEDC would look at the possibility of bringing the game here, but he noted that its usual mid-January kick off could be a tough time to fit a game into Alltel Stadium. The date is sandwiched between the Jan. 1 Gator Bowl and possible Jaguar playoff games.
• Speaking of the Shrine Game, its Web site portrays a bowl game with a slightly elevated sense of importance. The site refers to the game as football’s “finest hour,” and has a clock counting down the seconds to kickoff. But give the game credit for benefiting a good cause. The Shrine Game has raised $14 million for Shriner’s Hospitals since it started in 1925.
• Nearly 15,000 fire and rescue personnel from around the country will be in town this weekend. To find out why, see page 3.
• JTA plans to launch a new campaign March 1 designed to draw customers to the Kings Avenue Garage on the Southbank. Anyone who pays for two months will get a third month free. The campaign expires May 31.
• FYI: Canadian quarters will work in downtown parking meters.
• A mention in our legal notes was just the start. Local attorney Jefferson Morrow is attracting national attention for his fishing exploits off the coast of Guatemala. Morrow reeled in a sailfish using a fly rod from an inflatable one-man kayak. A video depicting Morrow, 40 miles out in the Pacific, getting dragged around by a several-hundred-pound fish is all over the Internet and has landed him interviews this week on MSNBC, ESPN and CBS This Morning. Inside Edition is also in town for a story. See our Monday paper for a photo of Morrow clutching the defeated beast.
• The Police and Fire Pension Fund has its eye on another historic downtown building. Already at work on the Laura Street Trio, Fund Administrator John Keane thinks the Snyder Memorial Building across from Hemming Plaza would make a great setting for an upscale restaurant.
• Many around here are familiar with Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach, the world’s biggest (think mid-size Wal-Mart), but the shop is getting into another industry. The Canaveral Port Authority recently recently approved a plan that will allow Ron Jon to build a $147 million surf-themed resort that will include 400 hotel rooms, 20,000 square feet of meeting space, a water park and an entertainment complex.
• Jacksonville Community Council Inc. will release its 21st “Quality of Life Progress Report” Feb. 7 in the rotunda inside City Hall. Refreshments begin at 9:30 a.m.
• Good news, sort of. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data on obesity in Florida and Duval County ranks in the bottom half of the state. According to the results, 21.9-25.5 percent of the population of Duval County is considered obese. Local lean counties include St. Johns and Flagler while Nassau and Putnam are in the top quarter in obesity (30.3-38.9 percent).
• The new Criminal County Courthouse Annex better look at least as good as the new Main Library or Chief Judge Don Moran may be a little hot. In a letter to Mayor John Peyton, Moran said he told all the judges that Peyton advised him the new courthouse would look good, be durable and something the City and citizens would be proud of.
• The new downtown library has only been open since mid-November but it has already won a national engineering award. Stephen DeSimone of DeSimone Consulting Engineers out of New York, advised the City that the library was picked for a Gold Award in the category of structural systems during the ACEC New York 2006 Engineering Excellence Awards Competition. A City rep can pick up the award during an April 1 black tie dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.
• The Jacksonville Waterways Commission will meet Feb. 2 at 9 a.m. in Council Chambers. A manatee update and Landing proposal presentation are on the tentative agenda.