• The Jacksonville Public Library will host a recital by baritone Krzysztof Biernacki and pianist Gary Smart Feb. 11 at 2:30 p.m. in the main branch’s conference-level auditorium. Biernacki and Smart are professors of music at the University of North Florida and will present an afternoon of love songs and vocal masterpieces ranging from Beethoven to Finzi. The performance is part of the library’s Intermezzo Sunday Concert Series, which is free and open to the public. A reception for the artists, funded in part by Friends of the Jacksonville Public Library, Inc., will follow the concert.
• Jacksonville Suns President and owner Peter Bragan, Jr. is serving as this year’s corporate recruitment chair of the ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) Association’s Jacksonville 2007 Walk to D’Feet ALS. Last year, over $405,000 was raised statewide and the goal this year is $500,000. It’s in March at Seven Bridges Grille, so look for Bragan to work the corporate community for donations.
• The Navy & Marine Corps Society honored Jacksonville Area Legal Aid consumer attorney Lynn Drysdale with its Distinguished Service Award for her dedication and assistance to military families who were targeted by the payday loan industry, which was charging triple digit interest rates before Drysdale intervened. Drysdale was recognized for drafting legislation, presenting seminars, providing free legal services and testifying before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on the issue. She received the award at the Navy & Marine Relief Corps annual volunteer luncheon.
• According to the American Bar Association, there were 1.11 million licensed lawyers in the United States last year.
• Attorney Jeff Morrow is the new world record-holder for catching a striped marlin on a fly fishing rod. Morrow’s fish weighed 225 pounds, topping the previous mark by 14 pounds. “I have been trying to break this record for a long time,” said Morrow, who caught the fish on a recent trip to Ecuador