Jax Daily

Local Rotarians are putting on a Gingerbread Extravaganza. Take a moment and enjoy the smell of gingerbread and the sites of St. Nick. Gigantic creative Gingerbread Houses built by architects, engineers and home builders along with other local professionals are now on display at the Jacksonville Historical Society….

Children can play the scavenger hunt and find items throughout the display.

Tomorrow is the final day of the Gingerbread Extravaganza, it runs from 11am to 5pm at the Jacksonville Historical Society downtown next to the Baseball Grounds…

OLD ST. ANDREW’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
317 A Philip Randolph Blvd
Jacksonville, FL 32202

Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children.

Solar, wind, and tidal energy are the forms of alternative energy that generally get the most buzz. But biomass is catching on in a very big way around the state of Florida.

The story from the Miami Herald…

Nobody loves biomass. When talk turns to global warming and the green movement, it’s hardly ever mentioned. Biomass can be garbage (literally) or wood chips or sugar-cane remnants or grass.

Still, among energy experts, biomass has some strong supporters, and for good reason: Right now, virtually all the renewable-energy power in Florida comes from biomass, including three plants in Miami-Dade and Broward.

What’s more, it’s cheap — cheaper in some instances even than coal, which is generally considered the nation’s least expensive way of producing electricity but is also the biggest producer of greenhouse gases that scientists say are heating up the globe.

”We’re very strong supporters of biomass,” says Stephen Smith, head of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. ”In the short run, it will be a real workhorse.” But he adds: “There are various shades of green in biomass. Some is better than others.”

Click here to read the rest of this story.

Doug Adkins submitted the following photo from Charlie Crist’s recent Christmas party…

Pictured: Former Fernandina Beach mayor Bill Leeper and his wife Emma, Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp, State Representative Janet Adkins, her son Douglas (age 7), and Nassau GOP State committeeman Doug Adkins.

Winter officially began today at 7:04 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. The new season is bringing lots of cold, windy weather, as well as snow and ice to much of our nation. Here in Jacksonville, temperatures are expected to drop sharply early in the week and then we’ll see a rapid return to warmer weather by Christmas Day. Tonight’s low is 32 and tomorrow’s high is expected to be 48, with another light freeze tomorrow night.

By Christmas, the highs will be back in the upper-70’s and lows in the lower 50’s. That will be followed by a gradual cooling to more seasonally appropriate temperatures by next week.

The absolute coldest temperature ever recorded in the U.S. was at Prospect Creek, Alaska, an unbelievable 80 degrees below. Among continental U.S. cities, Bismarck, North Dakota, holds the all-time record low winter temperature at 44 below zero, followed by Great Falls, Montana, just one degree warmer.

When it comes to winter precipitation records, Sault Saint Marie, Michigan, is tops with more than 117 inches. Juneau, Alaska, is next with 96 inches.

Florida’s unemployment rate continues to rise.

State officials said Friday unemployment went up 0.3 percent to 7.3 percent in November, the highest level it has been at in over 15 years. Economists expect things to get even worse before the recession ends, perhaps hitting 8 percent next year.

The November rate means that 680,000 people were jobless in Florida.

Today’s issue of the Times-Union includes a rather interesting overview profile of Craig Van Horn, the man who purchased dozens of properties in the Springfield area. Van Horn came to Jacksonville about a decade ago and was considered the leader of a massive revival of the neighborhood, but things haven’t quite panned out for Van Horn. Some of his properties have be foreclosed upon and others are about to be seized.

Read the full story on Jacksonville.com…

Today, the building called 9th & Main is vacant again. The city has declared Symbiosis in default on the loan with $219,000 still unpaid. City lawyers filed a foreclosure lawsuit Thursday to take possession of the property, adding it to other buildings Van Horn has lost to foreclosure this year. The city will seek to recoup its loss by selling 9th & Main, but that could take time in the sluggish real estate market.

It’s a long way from the can-do optimism Van Horn voiced in 1999 about his business prospects in Springfield. He came from Atlanta the same year then-Mayor John Delaney launched a bring-back Springfield program. The city had made similar gestures over the years for Springfield. This time, redevelopment did take hold. Van Horn touted “the new Springfield” on his Web site while buying property for resale and rental, spreading his influence in residential and commercial sectors.

But Van Horn has faded from the scene, leaving behind unmet expectations along with an array of loan defaults and unpaid bills related to properties that neighborhood leaders once saw as part of Springfield’s resurgence.

He gets credit for jump-starting private investment in Springfield. But going forward, Van Horn’s financial woes could hold back Springfield because he bought numerous commercial properties along Main and Eighth streets and he doesn’t appear able to develop them, said Louise Despain, executive director of nonprofit Springfield Preservation and Revitalization.

City officials say they have tried in vain to contact him via phone calls, letters and personal visits to his office. At meetings of Springfield neighborhood advocates, the chatter includes questions of “whatever happened to Craig Van Horn.”

If the current plan to retire the space shuttle program in 2010 holds true, NASA will be looking for a place to store and display the remaining orbiters. Likely to be popular tourist draws, the cost for a city to take on a shuttle could run $50 million or higher depending upon the circumstances.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports…

The space agency said Wednesday it’s looking for ideas on where and how best to display its space shuttles once they stop flying in a few years. It’s put out a call to schools, science museums and “other appropriate organizations” that might be interested in showcasing one of the three remaining shuttles.

Beware: NASA estimates it will cost about $42 million to get each shuttle ready and get it where it needs to go, and the final tab could end up much more.

The estimate includes $6 million to ferry the spaceship atop a modified jumbo jet to the closest major airport. But the price could skyrocket depending on how far the display site is from the airport. Only indoor, climate-controlled displays will be considered.

“The orbiters will not be disassembled for transportation or storage,” NASA insists in its nine-page request for information.

One space shuttle appears headed to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington. The remaining two would be placed in storage at Kennedy Space Center until their final homes are decided.

If a space shuttle is too pricey, NASA is offering some of its shuttle main engines for anywhere between $400,000 and $800,000, not counting shipping costs.

The space shuttles, so you know, will not come with any main engines.

NASA plans to retire Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour by Sept. 30, 2010, in keeping with President George Bush’s initiative calling for a return by astronauts to the moon by 2020. A transition team set up by President-elect Barack Obama is reviewing all the options, however, including the possibility of keeping the shuttles flying beyond 2010.

If that happens, then all space shuttle deals are off.

Former State Representative Terry Fields is running for the State Senate in 2012. He is seeking the seat currently held by the recently re-elected Tony Hill. Senator Hill, as we reported back in October, used his campaign account to raise and spend massive amounts of money to defeat a no-name third party candidate who had raised no money. Basically, they washed donations from special interests through the campaign for use on an assortment of odd expenses — including a trip to Africa, trip to the Democratic National Convention, other travel, meals, and so-called “donations” to groups and individuals.

While Terry Field’s campaign is just getting off the ground, at the end of the last reporting period he’d already raised $14,000 and spent $2,500 of that. What did he spend it on? Well, his biggest expense was a hotel room in Denver at the Democratic National Convention. Office supplies from BestBuy and Office Depot.

And a plane ticket on U.S. Air with the purpose listed as GOTV.

GOTV stands for “Get Out The Vote” - normally considered activities that a campaign engages in during the days and weeks prior to an actual election. Stuff like literature drops, phone calling, sign waving, driving people to the polls, etc.

How an airline ticket bought four years prior to an election qualifies as helping to get out the vote is somewhat confusing. It seems that Representative Fields has learned a thing or two from Senator Hill. Certainly it will be interesting to see his next financial report, and the report of his rival - Representative Audrey Gibson.

General Electric has secured a $300 million, 12-year contract to provide F-414 engines to the Australian mulitary that will be serviced and overhauled right here in Jacksonville.

The Jacksonville Business Journal reports…

The engine parts that will power Australia’s F/A-18A/B Hornet and its soon to be acquired F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft will need the service after about 2,000 flight hours and will be shipped to Jacksonville for the work. The Fleet Readiness Center Southeast, a tenant of Naval Air Station Jacksonville, will start providing refurbishing services to the Australian aircraft in about 2011, said GE Business Operations Leader Mike Walsh.

It’s the first overhaul contract between GE and Australia, but it’s only the latest partnership between a General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) operating unit and NAS Jacksonville.

The Fleet Readiness Center Southeast, one of just six in the U.S., is the largest manufacturer in the Jacksonville area ranked by its 4,047 employees, according to The Business Journal’s 2008 list of manufacturers. Aircraft, aircraft engines and components are manufactured and serviced at the Jacksonville center. About 300 employees work on the engines.

Mike Schoonover, a Fleet Readiness Center business management specialist, said the contract is a win-win for all parties involved, and will hopefully be part of a growing trend.

“We’re expecting more contracts and to grow,” Schoonover said.

WJCT Public Broadcasting invites First Coast community members to recycle consumer electronics. From December 15-21, WJCT is hosting a one-week e-waste recycling event in partnership with Coolcat, Inc., an EPA-compliant electronic recycling company headquartered in St. Augustine.

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.”