• Randy Jenks, director of tennis at Palencia, has been named Florida’s District Professional of the Year by the United States Professional Tennis Association. The Palencia Tennis Center received the American Sports Builders Association’s 2006 Facility-of-the-Year Award. In less than two years, Palencia’s tennis program has grown to more than 100 regular members and 12 league teams.
• If you have ever ridden the elevator to the top floors of the Bank of America Tower and noticed your ears popping like they do when you take off in an airplane, there is a good reason: you’re traveling 600 feet straight up at a rate as fast as 1,400 feet per minute, going from the lobby to the top in less than 26 seconds. That’s 16 miles per hour.
• The City and local convention bureau announced a new partnership during a press conference in the mayor’s office Monday. For more, see page 4.
• Former Jacksonville Fire & Rescue spokesperson Bennie Seth resigned earlier this month, but she’s still with the City. Seth is the new policy director at the Supervisor of Elections Office. Other changes made by elections chief Jerry Holland include naming Robert Phillips as the director of operations and Sandra Henderson chief of staff. Henderson was with Holland when he was on City Council.
• The local Republican Party of Florida opened its new beach office over the weekend. It’s on North Third Street in Jacksonville Beach and U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw was on hand.
• The Florida Lottery has surpassed the $16 billion mark in contributions to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund. The fiscal year 2005-2006 financial report also shows a record $1.2 billion for education. That’s more than $100 million over the previous year’s contribution, which was also a record. 2005-2006 was also the biggest year in history in sales for the lottery with total ticket purchases of $3.93 billion.
• Duval County Public Schools by the numbers — each day, more than 50,000 students are transported on nearly 1,000 bus routes in Duval County. The school district is the 19th-largest in the country and has more than 14,000 employees including teachers, administrators, support personnel and part-time workers.