• City Council President-elect Stephen Joost has a first order of business upon being sworn in: Having his mother, Rita, choose a new hair style. “My first act as president is we’re going to pass a law requiring you to change your hairdo,” joked Joost in a speech after the election Tuesday. “She’s had the same hair for 50-plus years, so we’re going to outlaw that.” “Good luck, buddy. I’m not changing my hair style,” she said Wednesday. “I wouldn’t know how to comb my hair.” She said Joost has been urging a new do for at least eight years, once offering a lifetime supply of Firehouse Subs, where he’s CFO. “Nice try,” she said, adding that if she was 30 years old, she might have been tempted. She said she changed her hair once, 20-25 years ago, cutting it very short, but didn’t like it. Being a good son, he called her his No. 1 supporter and thanked her for her sacrifices.
• Mayor-elect Alvin Brown will make his first transition announcement at 2:15 p.m. today in the Lynwood Roberts Room at City Hall, according to spokeswoman Meredith O’Malley Johnson. Brown, elected May 17, is assembling a transition team as he prepares to take office July 1.
• Jacksonville ranked No. 6 on the MSN.com report of the 15 cities where “home prices are still plummeting.” Jacksonville’s average fourth-quarter 2010 price of $194,200 was down 7 percent from the end of 2009 and is forecast for another 4 percent drop.
• Correction: The June 23 and July 21 meetings of the Paralegal Association of Florida Inc., First Coast Chapter, will be at the Wyndham Hotel. Also, to RSVP to the June 9 association meet-and-greet at Blackfinn American Grille, email Leigh Gentry at [email protected]. Incorrect information was reported in the May 30 Legal Calendar.
• City Kidz Ice Cream Café owner and CEO Clinton Bush is stepping down from the daily duties of his Springfield restaurant to focus on leading the Springfield Area Merchant Business Association as president. Bush’s wife, Sonya, will run the café operations beginning Monday. City Kidz was the first commercial tenant to open in The Lofts at Third & Main.
• Those 15 cities with plummeting home prices included seven in Florida: Jacksonville, Lakeland, Orlando, Sarasota, Pensacola, Tampa and Daytona Beach. One Florida city made the list of the most-improving markets: Cape Coral-Fort Myers.
• Jacksonville’s housing news wasn’t any better from CoreLogic, a research service that said home prices, including distressed sales, fell 9.55 percent from April 2010 to last month and declined almost 12 percent from March 2010 to the past March. Excluding distressed sales, prices fell over the year by 4.7 percent April-April and 5.7 percent March-March.
• Nationwide, CoreLogic said home prices rose 0.7 percent from March to April, the first monthly increase since homebuyer tax credits expired in mid-2010. Still, year-over-year prices fell 7.5 percent April-April and 6.8 percent March-March.
• Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland appointed Tracie Collier, former director of communications, as deputy supervisor of elections. She took the oath in writing, as required by state statute, on Wednesday. The role has been vacant since the death of former Deputy Supervisor Sandra Henderson in 2010.