Between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., community members can help reduce electronic waste by bringing unused computers, monitors, motherboards and other consumer electronics to the Coolcat truck at WJCT Studios, located in downtown Jacksonville at 100 Festival Park Avenue across from Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.

“At WJCT, we are committed to the environment,” says WJCT President and CEO Michael Boylan. “We know it’s important to work together to protect and sustain our planet. We encourage everyone to pitch in and do their part to reduce electronic waste, by bringing the outdated computers and other consumer electronics in their drawers, closets and garages down to WJCT for recycling.”

The following is the complete schedule of the drawings for next year:

POWERBALL Wed. and Sat., 10:59 p.m. ET
FLORIDA LOTTO Wed. and Sat., 11:15 p.m. ET
MEGA MONEY Tues. and Fri., 11:15 p.m. ET
FANTASY 5 Daily, 11:15 p.m. ET
PLAY 4 Daily, 1:30 p.m. and 7:57 p.m. ET
CASH 3 Daily, 1:30 p.m. and 7:57 p.m. ET

By a two-to-one margin, Florida voters in 1986 approved a constitutional amendment authorizing the state to operate a lottery for the purpose of generating significant additional funds for education. Operators boast that since 1988, the Florida Lottery has contributed more than $19 billion to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund, benefiting students and schools, as well as helping to fund more than a million Bright Futures scholarships.

As always, it’s an excellent issue that is worth reading from cover-to-cover! And as we have since the magazine’s launch issue in January, Stephen and I have contributed an article. This time the we take a look at a few of the various “day jobs” of our city councilmembers. It’s a quick little read that can be found starting on page 70.

We’re less than three weeks away from an important election, and three months from an even more important election, and usually the most you hear about it on the local stations is during the advertisements, where the candidates pay to pound on each other with sound bites.

This is tonight’s “local news” according to Channel 4’s website…

A visitor to Jacksonville would think he had stepped into the “Old Detroit” setting of the Robocop films, not a vibrant, rapidly growing, and relatively prosperous city.

I don’t discount the importance of covering our crime problem. Particularly, covering the proposals to combat it. But delighting in the gorey details of every single carjacking or home invasion just seems crude to me.

At what point do people start looking for more out of their local newscast? More actual news and fewer segments like “Crime Where You Live” — which seems to be a recurring Fox 30 feature aimed at convincing viewers to weld their doors shut at night.

Is that asking for too much?

Maybe it is. After all, I don’t seriously think most reporters enjoy covering car accidents and shootings. They would much rather dedicate their energies to more worthy pursuits… but ratings are what decide the content of the program.

Maybe it’s the viewers who are to blame. After all, we keep tuning in night after night.

The show, which has aired both on TV and 89.9-FM, has provided a much needed venue for local and state political discussions. Unfortunately, tough economic times are forcing cut-backs everywhere, and WJCT is no exception.

“I’ve had a great time with Week in Review, and it had a great run. Eight years for a 13 week experiment,” Patton told us, when asked for a comment. “We’re still discussing what will come next, whether it’s a continuation of Week in Review on the radio, or a new project. But we ARE committed to offering Northeast Florida a solid, relevant public affairs program.”

Here’s hoping that a new format or program is quickly devised to fill the void left by WIR.

As we have since the launch issue in January, Stephen and I have contributed an article to this issue. This time the topic deals with the difficult choices that property tax cuts have created for both state and local government.

As always, it’s an excellent issue that is worth reading from cover-to-cover!

To be fair, the author does use the term marijuana to describe the drug inside the actual article.   And it is actually quite amazing how much of the substance the woman was carrying:

When they arrived, Duckworth was getting out of her vehicle with a large suitcase. They found a bale of marijuana in the suitcase and seven vacuumed packs in her home, the report said. It was about $31,000 worth of pot. A small amount was in her car, along with 2 grams of cocaine and drug paraphernalia.

The focus will be on locally produced and syndicated programs that provide family-friendly entertainment and education, with a pretty clear focus on Jacksonville’s minority communities. A new morning show called The First Coast Breakfast Club will lead things off. Some other planned shows include Sports Peeps, I Hear a Choir, and Taking the FCAT. The station also promises movies, children’s programming, and relevant special events.

The WJXE-TV website is currently under construction, but here is a video that gives previews of some of the programming that we can look forward to…

In addition to the above, WJXE-TV has just signed a deal to televise Jacksonville JAM games. The JAM are Jacksonville’s team in the American Basketball Association, sort of a minor league version of the NBA. The new Channel 15 will broadcast locally all the team’s 18 home games at the University of North Florida Arena, starting with the November 9th season home opener.

 

It probably would have been wiser for them to stick to “Ron Paul for President” signs and avoid the word “Revolution” as it doesn’t really appeal to Republican primary voters.  And for people totally unfamiliar with Congressman Paul’s campaign it would aviod the confusion with a cult or any other non-political connotations.  Still, they clearly got the job done of making Ron Paul a more familiar name in the Jacksonville area.

The danger with posting videos like this and taking credit for the project is that the effort involved hanging signs on quite a bit of public and private property.  Not entirely legal, though I really don’t know what (if any) penalties would be involved if someone was caught.

• Only one 2007 homicide has been recorded in the 04 ZIP code (Riverside and some surrounding areas), and only 4 in 2006.
• 38 homicides in total have been recorded on the Northside (defined as the ZIP codes 06, 08, 15, 18 and 19) in 2007.
• The highest 2007 concentration anywhere was in 09, which had 15 deaths. All were black, and all but two were male.
• This year, murder victims in 2007 have been 79% black (68), 26% white (22), 5% hispanic (4) and 1% asian (1). They were 79% male (68) and 21% female (18). 72% (62) of the deaths were attributed to shooting, 7% (6) stabbing, 2% (2) beating and 1% (1) choking.
• 2006 saw 130 murders, a rate of about one killing every 2.8 days. 2007 is already at 86 so far - an increase of about 15%. At that rate, Jacksonville is on track for 149 murders for this year.

The point is that the murder problem here is not going away - it’s getting worse. The 32209 ZIP code is most in need of help. The police and city are working to turn things around, but it’s clearly not enough. A ZIP code map is available here so that you know what you’re searching inside of. Just type in any ZIP in Jacksonville and it will show you the whole city.