• Florida State University recently honored State Sen. Jim King by dedicating the James E. “Jim” King Jr. Life Sciences Building. The school’s new medical facility is near Doak Campbell Stadium.
• Jacksonville Area Legal Aid has received enough funding from City Council to add two attorneys to the staff and open an office on the Northside, primarily to handle foreclosure cases. Called “House-Hold,” the effort was spearheaded by City Council members Jack Webb and Glorious Johnson. The funding also came from The Community Foundation. Council provided $175,000 while The Community Foundation kicked in another $30,000 in the form of a grant.
• The Jacksonville Ethics Commission will meet Oct. 20 at 3:30 in the Lynwood Roberts Room at City Hall.
• The South Jacksonville Rotary will hold a clean up at Memorial Park at 1600 Riverside Avenue Saturday from 8 a.m.-12 p.m. The San Marco Rotary will provide beverages for participants. Suggested items to bring to the event include gloves, pruning shears and anything else that may help during cleanup. For more information contact Randy Gordon at 389-0432.
• Fans of politics can figure out what states their candidate must win in order to reach 270 electoral college votes by using www.270towin.com. The site can calculate the electoral votes from the different states and people can use the site to develop the various combinations of states needed to garner a majority of the 538 available electoral votes. The site is recommended by UNF Political Science and Public Administration Department Chair Matthew Corrigan.
• Council member Daniel Davis, who is also serving as chair of the Seaport and Airport Special Committee, has set the meeting dates and times all the way through June 23 of next year. The next meeting is set for Tuesday at 4 p.m., an hour before the full Council meeting.
• John Clark, executive director and CEO of the Jacksonville Aviation Authority (JAA) has been named chairman of the Airport Council International-North America (ACI-NA) for 2009. The organization’s membership includes 174 airport operators with 366 airports in the U.S. and 49 operators with 180 airports in Canada. ACI-NA facilities emplane more than 95 percent of domestic and virtually all of the international passenger and cargo traffic in North America.
• The City’s Military, Veterans and Disabled Services Division has received two state grants totaling $325,000. A Defense Reinvestment Grant in the amount of $125,000 will be used to hire an advocacy team to work the halls of Congress and the Pentagon to promote Jacksonville’s military initiatives and veterans programs. A $200,000 Defense Infrastructure Grant will be used to acquire property and easement rights to mitigate noise issues near the Whitehouse out-lying field on the Westside. In the past year, the City has received $1.6 million in state and federal grants to support the division’s programs.
• Mayor Peyton received a couple notes of thanks from two area non-profits for the same reason: He invited officials from the Jacksonville Humane Society and the Girl Scouts of Gateway Council to his private suite to take in a Jaguars home game. The Girl Scouts officials took in the first home game against the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 13 while Humane Society officials watched the Houston Texans game on Sept. 28.
• Mayor mail part two: Peyton’s subgrant application to the Florida Department of Transportation for highway safety funds was approved, with $27,328 awarded for funding for a traffic analyst position. The subgrant provides reimbursement of personnel costs.
• Clarification: When we reported that John Keane, executive director and adminstrator of the Police Fire and Pension Fund, commented that the Sept. 29 investment market losses averaged $3 million a minute, he was referring to the New York Stock Exchange in general, not the pension fund in particular.
• Speaking of openings, a new golf shop will open next month at Town Center. Golf Galaxy opens Nov. 7 with three days of specials and promotions.
• U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw is the guest speaker at an Oct. 22 community leader for forum hosted by the law firm of GrayRobinson. It’s at The River Club from 11:45 a.m.-1:15 p.m.
• While others are cutting back Tropical Smoothie is doing its part to bolster the local economy. The company plans to quadruple its locations in the Jacksonville market adding over 30 stores over the next few years. That means about 450 new jobs as well.