• Wednesday is the American Heart Association’s National Start! Walking Day. The Association is encouraging the country to fight heart disease by getting out and walking for 30 minutes and follow up by creating a walking plan online at www.mystartonline.org.
• Jacksonville Port Authority Executive Director Rick Ferrin was originally scheduled to sit at the head table at Friday’s Jacksonville-Curitiba, Brazil Sister Cities ceremony, but decided to stay in the audience instead. He recently had hip replacement surgery, and said it will be a few more days before he’ll be climbing even a few steps. “It’s one of those solid metal ones,” was Ferrin’s description of his new prosthesis, “So I’ll carry a card that’ll get me through airport security.”
• Also at Friday’s ceremony, City Council Vice President Richard Clark made Curitiba City Council President Joao Claudio DeRossa an honorary member of Jacksonville’s Council. “Can he vote?” asked Mayor John Peyton, to which Clark replied, “That may be the mayor’s 10th vote for Trail Ridge,” referring to the controversial proposed landfill contract.
• The English Speaking Union will hold its annual Queen’s Tea April 19 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Thompson on Ortega Farms Boulevard. Included is a tour of the rose garden and a presentation by a member of the Rose Society. Tickets are $25 and proceeds will support the Shakespeare Competition for high school students and the British Universities Summer School Fellowship that each year sends a local high school teacher to Great Britain for three weeks. Call Mary Alice Phelan at 389-8918 for reservations.
• The next North Florida Transportation Planning Organization meeting is scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m. at the organization’s Prudential Drive office. Agenda items include a presentation on the Port Authority’s Master Plan as well as a staff presentation on the updated Transportation Improvement Program for fiscal years 2009/10–2013/14. A final draft of the program will be presented and finalized at the May meeting.
• Top honors for Nemours, as officials of the the children’s health system recently announced it had received full accreditation for its human research protection program. The distinction was approved by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs Inc. and places the organization among the top research institutions in the U.S. in assuring participant protection and conducting high levels of research.
• Money magazine recently released its Home Price Forecast for the top 100 metropolitan areas in the U.S., with Jacksonville coming in at No. 8 with a 17.2 percent drop in home prices over the next year. The feature also indicated the city will hit “bottom” in the second quarter of 2011. Coming in at No. 1? Miami with a -27.2 percent drop over the same year but the same “bottom” in the second quarter of 2011.