• Artis Gilmore, known as “The A-Train” and “The Gentle Giant,” enters the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame today. Gilmore led Jacksonville University to the 1970 NCAA championship game and continued on with a career in both the ABA and NBA. Mayor Alvin Brown issued a statement Thursday that Gilmore is “an icon and a role model. He’s a symbol of what comes from working hard and playing by the rules.”
• Bankruptcy filings continue at a slower pace than last year’s record rate. Filings in the Jacksonville Division of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Middle District of Florida were down 17 percent in January-July from last year’s first seven months, from 6,883 to 5,733. Monthly filings were down 22 percent, from 1,009 in July 2010 to 786 the past month.
• Capt. John C. “Jack” Scorby Jr. will relieve Rear Adm. Townsend G. “Tim” Alexander as Commander of Navy Region Southeast during a ceremony Thursday at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. The command, led by Alexander since January 2009, supports and guides 17 installations in the Southeastern U.S. and the Caribbean. Scorby is a former NAS Jacksonville commanding officer and a Rear Admiral select currently serving in Washington, D.C. He served at NAS Jacksonville from 2007-10.
• Jacksonville gas prices are dropping. The average price was $3.53 this morning, down 3 cents from Thursday and down a dime over the week. The price was down a nickel from a month ago, but up 84 cents over the year. Prices are tracked at www.jacksonvillegasprices.com
• Jacksonville home prices dropped 10.1 percent from the first quarter of 2010 to this year, and are down 31.4 percent from the first quarter of 2008. They are forecasted to fall another 2.9 percent by next year’s first quarter. That’s according to the Fiserv Case-Shiller Indexes.
• More than a quarter – 27 percent – of adults in the Jacksonville market visit “daily deal websites” for coupons and marketing, according to the Scarborough Report. The highest percentage of what Scarborough calls “digital deal seekers” is in the Grand Rapids area in Michigan, where 36 percent of adults visit coupon websites, and the lowest is the Brownsville, Texas, area, with 13 percent of adults seeking deals online.
• The Jacksonville Women’s Business Center plans “Federal Contracting Forum 2011” from 3-5 p.m. Aug. 24 at the Main Library Downtown. Preregistration and payment is required. Costs are $15 for members of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce and $25 for nonmembers. Call Ashley Lyon at 366-6623 or email [email protected].