• The Legislative Committee on Intergovernmental Relations, chaired by State Sen. Tony Hill, will have its summer meeting June 22 from 9:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m. at City Hall. The committee is authorized to serve as a discussion and study on intergovernmental problems and the meeting has a full agenda on tap. The morning session will address various topics, while the afternoon portion will be a panel discussion on assisting homeowners keep their homes amid the foreclosure crisis and will include participants from the housing and financial communities.
• The economy may have started its downward spiral last year, but 2008 was pretty good for The First Tee. According to First Tee CEO Joe Barrow Jr., in 2008 The First Tee reached about 685,000 kids nationwide. That’s an increase of more than 30 percent from 2007.
• One local company is looking to capitalize on federal stimulus money. Cleve Warren, president and CEO of Essential Capital, has indicated his company is looking to secure $50 million in New Market Tax Credits. According to Warren, there were 249 applicants seeking $22.5 billion of the $5 billion available through the Treasury Department. Expect an announcement of the awards in October.
• People traveling along Bay Street Friday afternoon may have witnessed a line of about a dozen Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office patrol cars with their lights on leading a JSO box truck toward Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. The officers were participating in a training exercise, the nature of which was confidential, according to JSO Public Information Officer Melissa Bujeda.
• The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida will open its new Downtown office June 24 from 5-7 p.m. It’s in the Schultz Building on West Adams Street.
• The Destination Downtown promotion, which combines the efforts of several Downtown bars and hotels to provide beverage and lodging specials for patrons to encourage more Downtown business traffic, marked its sixth month Friday. See www.destinationdowntownjax.com for more information.
• The Landing will host the monthly “Yappy Hour,” a monthly event for dogs, Sunday from 2-5 p.m. This month’s theme is a luau, recognizing the first official day of summer, and will also include an activity to celebrate Father’s Day: a Daddy/Doggy look-a-like contest. Photos can be submitted through e-mail to [email protected] or dropped off at the registration table in the courtyard from 2-4 p.m. Sunday.
• Greenscape of Jacksonville, Inc. announced the election of the following officers for year 2009-10: President of the Board Robb Mitchell, Vice President Shirley Trier, Vice President Carol Worsham, Treasurer Barney Smith, Secretary Joan Pattison, Members-At-Large Peggy Bryan and Bob Chabot and Past President Jeff Bryan. Greenscape also named new board members Mark Bachara, Linda Ingham, Jennifer King and Nancy Pedrick.
• Dr. Parvez Ahmed, a member of the OneJax Board of Directors since 2004, has received a Fulbright Scholar grant to teach and do research in Bangladesh this fall. The grant, one of approximately 1,100 awarded to U. S. educators and professionals this year, will send Ahmed to the Independent University of Bangladesh in Dhaka. Ahmed is an associate professor of finance at the Coggin College of Business at the University of North Florida. In addition to teaching, the Fulbright Scholar grant will fund his research focused on financial asset pricing, market efficiency and other business topics in Bangladesh. OneJax works to overcome bias, bigotry, and racism. To learn more, visit www.onejax.org.