• City Council Vice President Jack Webb is the acting Council president through Sunday. Council President Richard Clark is out of town.
• Speaking of Webb, he and Council member John Meserve are meeting this morning to discuss Webb’s election bill. The meeting notice says they’ll also talk about Council leadership.
• The folks at Southland Waste Systems are paying for and cooking and serving tonight at the Sulzbacher Center, which serves 1,200 meals a day. In fact, the company has committed to sponsoring a meal every quarter.
• Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce Chair Mike Hightower will have a great seat for Saturday’s Army-Navy game in Philadelphia. He’s sitting with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
• The Government Affairs Committee of the First Coast Manufacturers Association was recently presented with the Manufacturers Association of Florida’s president award in Orlando. The organization’s president is former Council President Lad Daniels.
• According to Penny Thompson of Shands, Jacksonville may be in danger of losing its only indigent care hospital. Thompson told the Taxation, Revenue and Utilization of Expenditures Commission at its Dec. 3 meeting that Shands and the University of Florida are “drastically restructuring their relationship” and that could have “major consequences” for the hospital’s operations in Jacksonville. In fact, she said, Shands — which was seeking an additional $3 million from the City for fiscal year 2009-10, but was denied — could pull out of Jacksonville altogether.
• The Friends of the Jacksonville Public Library have started a new program to give books to military personnel serving overseas. The organization is collecting donations at the BookTique store at the Main Library to cover shipping costs. They’re also accepting donations of prepaid U.S. Postal Service mailing boxes. “We’ll fill them up with paperbacks and send them overseas,” said FJPL President Harry Reagan.
• There’s an app for that: The Jaguars have kicked off a new mobile application for the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch and Google Android platforms. The application has features including team, editorial, and fantasy football news; game recaps and schedules; player, coaching, and cheerleader rosters and bios; and (no surprise) the ability to buy tickets within the application. It’s available for download free of charge in the iTunes App Store and through the Android Marketplace.