• State Attorney Angela Corey announced that former prosecutor Alexis Sykes has returned to the State Attorney’s Office. Sykes will prosecute homicide and major cases. Sykes, a Jacksonville native, joined the office in October 2007 and left in May 2011 to work for the State Attorney’s Office in Miami. Sykes graduated from Florida State University in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in criminology. She is a 2007 graduate of the Howard University School of Law.
• The Jacksonville Aviation Authority received an A rating from Fitch Ratings for its $157 million of series 2003 and its series 2006 airport revenue bonds for the Jacksonville International Airport. According to the Fitch report, the JAA received the rating because of its flat-to-decreasing debt service profile, moderate cost recovery framework, midsized origination/destination enplanement base, modest capital program and manageable leverage and adequate liquidity. Enplanements are down this fiscal year, but Fitch Ratings said the airport’s importance in the area along with the region’s growth prospects make for future high travel demand.
• The Players Championship Executive Director Matt Rapp will be the spotlight speaker at the JAX Chamber Health Council lunch meeting today at Brighton Bay Resort Style Retirement Living. The keynote speaker will be T. Eric Foster, senior vice president and principal of Compass Consulting Group, to talk about “The Future of Health Care Reform: Supreme Court Review and the 2012 Presidential Election.” Information: www.myjaxchamber.com.
• Jacksonville-based Survival Straps hired Tim Wagstaff as vice president of sales. Wagstaff has more than 28 years of experience in outdoors product sales, including having served as vice president of sales for Coleman Outdoor Products. Wagstaff will help Survival Straps break into the mass retailer marketplace, its retail storefront presence. Survival Straps was founded by Kurt Walchle in 2007, initially as a home-based business. The company has more than 50 employees and operates a 16,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. Survival Straps are bracelets and gear made from parachute cord that unravels when needed in an emergency.
• JAX Chamber Chair Tom Van Berkel is scheduled as the keynote speaker Friday morning at the chamber’s Downtown Council breakfast meeting at The University Club. Upcoming speakers include Matt Rapp of The Players Championship on April 20, historian Wayne Wood on May 4 and St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman for the annual river tour May 18. For information, visit www.downtowncouncil.org.