• City Council member Art Graham has submitted a requisition for $40,000 of his Dist. 13 bond money for renovations at the San Pablo Elementary playground. The biggest item is a customized play structure that goes for just over $30,000. Overall, the project will cost $200,000.
• In addition to Wayne Hogan, Terrell Hogan attorney and former Jacksonville Bar Association President Alan Pickert was named to the list of Florida Trend Magazine’s “Legal Elite.” Hogan and Pickert were selected for their work in the Civil Trial/Personal Injury category. Hogan and firm partner Evan Yegelwel were also named to the list of top 100 lawyers in the state by Law & Politics magazine.
• Twelve Jacksonville-based companies made “Florida Trend’s” Florida Public 150 list. A large number of the top 150 Florida-based publicly traded companies are located in Jacksonville, more than any other city in the state.
• The Hyatt is hosting an art and wine event Aug. 23 and some of the area’s top restaurants are participating. Morton’s, Plaza III, the Melting Pot and others as well as 25 artists from all over the country will help raise funds for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Shands. Admission is $40 in advance and $45 at the door. For more, call Jennifer Russ, manager of special events at Shands, at 352-733-0000.
• Former City Public Information Officer Kortney Mosely resigned back in May. We hear she started a PR firm.
• Paola Parra of Harris & Guidi said her firm’s annual Christmas party is back on this year after having to cancel the event last year due to construction near the San Marco location. “People can expect the same delicious barbecue and libations,” said Para, who plans to send invitations to “a couple thousand of our closest friends.”
• The University of North Florida recently made several investments in their campus including: $21 million in the College of Education and Human Services by 2009, a $10.25 million health classroom and services building opening next year and a $4 million sanctuary and mediation center opening next year, too.
• Two of Jacksonville’s hospitals — Baptist Medical Center and Mayo Clinic — made the “U.S. News & World Report’s” Best Hospitals 2007 list.
• The St. John, a new residential development to be built on the Southbank recently registered for certification in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. The St. John is the first residential or commercial high rise in Northeast Florida to receive the LEED registration designation by the U.S. Green Building Council.
“A trial is still an ordeal by battle. For the broadsword there is the weight of evidence; for the battle-ax the force of logic; for the sharp spear, the blazing gleam of truth; for the rapier, the quick and flashing knife of wit.”
– Lloyd Paul Stryker