Approximately 40,000 people will die on U.S. roads this year, and thousands more will be injured. A disproportionate number of those traffic injuries will befall people from lower-income communities. According to new research, pedestrians in the poorest neighborhoods of Montreal were six times more likely to suffer traffic injuries than pedestrians in the wealthiest neighborhoods. Bicyclists and motorists in poorer neighborhoods were also at greater risk; they were four times more likely to be injured on the road.
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Issue: JEA pay raises
What it means: The council considered five bills that would authorize new labor contracts for unionized JEA employees. About 1,730 employees would get up to 3 percent base pay raises.
Bill Nos. 2011-677 through 2011-681
Action: Vote delayed until Feb. 14
Issue: Parking garage subsidy
What it means: The council considered changes to a contract with Metropolitan Parking Solutions, which operates three downtown parking garages that receive city loans because they annually lose money. The changes would give the city two more years to buy out the MPS contract and lower the return on investment the city has guaranteed MPS.
Bill No. 2011-700
Action: Approved
Issue: Meat packer incentives
What it means: The council was asked to endorse a package of $1.2 million in state and city aid for Bruss Co., a meat packing subsidiary of Tyson Foods. The company would spend about $10 million updating a factory at 5441 W. Fifth St. that would employ 200 people.
Bill No. 2011-728
Action: Approved
A look at some of the issues Jacksonville’s City Council considered in its meeting Tuesday:
Issue: City election dates
What it means: The council was asked to authorize a referendum in November 2012 on changing city election dates to coincide with Florida’s gubernatorial elections.
Bill No. 2011-654
Action: Denied
Issue: Poker room rezoning
What it means: The council was asked to rezone part of the site of a planned poker room at 201 Monument Road across from Regency Square mall. The effect was to make the entire property zoned CCG-2, a designation that allows the sale of liquor as well as beer and wine.
Bill No. 2011-585
Action: Approved
Issue: Fire and rescue projects
What it means: The council was asked to defer for a year a set of projects once intended to improve the city’s fire and rescue services.
Bill No. 2011-657
Action: Approved
Issue: Curb, gutter and sidewalk bills
What it means: The council was asked to raise the price the city charges people who want curbs, gutters and sidewalks built at their property. The price hasn't changed since 1989 and would rise from $12 per linear foot to $35.
Bill No. 2011-410
Action: Approved
Issue: Council members using computers
What it means: Council members considered whether to allow themselves to use city phones and computers to stay in touch with their outside jobs. Other city employees can't do that. Council members wouldn't be allowed to run up special costs to the city. Bill No. 2011-576
Action: Approved
Issue: Kernan speed zone
What it means: The council was asked for permission to agree to a joint project with the Duval County School Board to set up flashing lights and other controls for a speed zone on Kernan Boulevard near Kernan Trail Elementary and Kernan Middle School. The city could spend about $100,000. Bill No. 2011-594
Action: Approved
Item: Ready for Tomorrow contract.
What it means: Consider a contract not exceeding $270,000 to continue the Ready for Tomorrow tutoring and mentoring program at Raines and Ribault high schools and North Shore Elementary School and offer it at Andrew Jackson High School.
Action taken: Approved 7-0.
Item: Upgrade the SuccessMaker program for 13 elementary schools designated
Correct II schools.
What it means: SuccessMaker is a computer-based software program that provides adaptive, individualized intervention in both reading and math concepts and skills. Purchasing the upgrade would cost up to $638,000.
Action taken: Approved 7-0.
Item: Per-capita and examination fees for 2011-12 to International Baccalaureate North America for Stanton College Preparatory School, Paxon School for Advanced Studies and Ribault High School.
What it means: The cost would not exceed $123,325 for Stanton, not exceed $58,000 for Paxon and not exceed $10,500 for Ribault. Legislated incentive funds for passing schools on exams will be used to refund the school district for the cost of the exams.
Action taken: Approved 7-0.
Item: Selection of initial option for first-year intervene schools Forrest High School, A. Philip Randolph High School and Ed White High School.
What it means: The board decided to select the option to reconstitute the three high schools and make them "district-managed" high schools. The district will have to proceed with the option if the schools fail to make enough progress this school year.
Action: Approved 7-0
Item: Selection of an option for third-year intervene schools Andrew Jackson, Raines and Ribault high schools and North Shore Elementary.
What it means: The board selected the option to hand the schools over to a management organization for the 2012-13 school year if the schools fail to make the needed progress this school year.
Action: Approved 7-0
The Duval County School Board had its monthly meeting Tuesday. Among the actions taken were:
Item: KIPP's charter school applications
What it means: Despite its first school earning the lowest area FCAT score last year, the charter school organization wants to open two elementary schools in the 2012-13 school year.
Action: Delayed approval; will invite KIPP to discussion at Oct. 18 meeting. (6-1, Hazouri)
Item: Public hearing and vote on a new policy for teen-dating violence or abuse
What it means: State law mandates all school districts adopt policies addressing teen-dating violence and institute curriculum designed to teach teens how to recognize if they are in an abusive relationship and how to seek help.
Action: Approved, 7-0
Item: Suspensions without pay
What it means: Frederick Richardson, a teacher at Highlands Middle, faces a 15-day suspension for choking a student and pinning him against a concrete wall. Richardson got into a physical altercation May 9 with a student he said was disobedient and disruptive in class. This would be Richardson's second time being suspended by the district for his conduct as a teacher.
Action: Richardson was suspended for 5 days (6-1, Wright).
Cigarettes and lighters will now be considered contraband inside prison fences.
The ban is being implemented for two reasons, said Gretl Plessinger, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Corrections.
She said the state spent almost $9 million on hospital bills for inmates for tobacco related illnesses. Additionally, to smoke you need a lighter.
Jacksonville has lent $16 million in five years to subsidize a parking company it picked to own and run three downtown garages.
Now, the city could spend $50 million buying its way out of the deal.
That would leave City Hall owning and operating garages it never wanted and hoping that spending big money up front can cut taxpayers' losses - eventually.
The justices unanimously ruled on Thursday that a 2007 law creating the offices unconstitutionally passed overhead expenses to Florida's 67 counties.
Forty-eight Jacksonville police officers are being laid off as the Sheriff's Office cuts payroll to handle a shrunken 2012 budget, Nelson Cuba, the police union's president, said Tuesday.
Cuba said he learned the number of layoffs from a letter sent to the union from the city's Human Resources Department. Another 23 vacancies have been eliminated, along with an uncertain number of civilian employees, Cuba said.
The police layoffs, from the last two police academy classes, occurred Monday and Tuesday.
Rutherford has been repeatedly critical of the police union opposing a 2 percent salary cut, which the sheriff said would allow him to fund the positions. Cuba called that argument "smoke and mirrors."Issue: Outdoor bar seating
What it means: The council was asked to let bars around downtown's Bay Street Town Center entertainment zone have outdoor seating, and rename the area the E-Town Zone.
Bill No. 2011-443
Action: Approved
Issue: Foreclosure intervention
What it means: The council was asked to release $425,000 to homebuyer counseling and foreclosure intervention programs from fees collected by registering foreclosed properties.
Bill No. 2011-371
Action: Approved
Issue: Green building lease
What it means: The council was asked to approve a five-year, no-rent lease for the U.S. Green Building Council's North Florida chapter. The council would pay to build a sustainability center inside an unfinished, dirt-floor storefront area in a city-owned parking garage at 33. W. Adams St.
Bill No. 2011-494
Action: Approved
Nearly 250 new immigration laws and resolutions were enacted in 40 states during the first half of 2011 indicating a growing frustration with the federal government's handling of the issue, according to a new report.
The laws range from hiring restrictions to voter identification and allowing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, according to the report released Tuesday by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Metro Jacksonville residents earned $53.8 billion last year, placing it 42nd among the nation’s 366 metros.
That marked a 2.8 percent rise over the area’s total personal income for 2009.
The new rule will take effect July 1. People living outside the county could still be hired but would have to move within six months.
The changes don't affect existing employees who live outside the county, a group that Brown said early this year totaled more than 1,500. It would apply, though, to people who left the city payroll and were hired back.
More than 235,000 taxpayers earned $1 million or more in '09, with 8,274 making more than $10 million, the Internal Revenue Service said. All told, there were 140 million taxpayers.
The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center reported last month that 46% of American households (known as "units") actually will not pay federal income taxes for this year nor will receive refunds. That's because of low incomes, credits for children or other dependents, or exemptions.UNF is the only Northeast Florida university to make the list and came in at No. 19 among best buy colleges in the country.
The three other Florida universities to make the top 20 are the University of Florida (No. 11), Florida State University (No. 13) and New College of Florida
Issue: Enterprise zone boundaries
What it means: The council was asked to approve boundary changes to an enterprise zone at Imeson industrial park that would help Kaman Aerospace qualify for incentives if it adds 200 jobs there.
Bill No. 2011-383
Action: Approved
Issue: Pension study
What it means: The council was asked to delay until next year an actuarial study on the city's general employee pension system. The city has not budgeted for an additional multimillion-dollar payment the study could decide is needed, and advocates say the cost can be handled better with time to plan a funding source.
Bill No. 2011-377
Action: Postponed two weeks
Issue: Elections records
What it means: The Supervisor of Elections Office asked for an ordinance change requiring local candidates to file treasurer reports electronically.
Bill No. 2011-409
Action: Approved
Issue: Mothballing buildings
What is means: The council was asked to let homeowners in historic districts "mothball" properties that could be bulldozed for code violations. Owners would have to make the building structurally stable and watertight, then maintain the exterior in return for a three-year delay to make improvements.
Bill No. 2011-408
Action: Approved
States that seek relief from certain provisions of NCLB must demonstrate commitment to education reform, Barnes said, adding that the President's process is "not a pass on accountability."
The administration proposes to reform NCLB by a more flexible and targeted accountability system based on measuring annual student growth on college- and career-ready standards, focusing on data and quality of teachers and principles.
On the heels of its surprise downgrade of U.S. long-term debt from AAA to AA+, Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the credit ratings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
S&P lowered its credit rating on both Fannie (OTCBB: FNMA) and Freddie (OTCBB: FMCC) one level from AAA to AA+.
The S$P 500 ended at 1,119.46, a drop of 79.92 points, or 6.66%. (Uh-oh, the "devil's number" ...)
The Nasdaq finished at 2,357.89, a daily loss of 174.72 points, or 6.9%.
The eighteen transition committees set up by Mayor Alvin Brown released reports today that included about 300 recommendations for changing city government.
They're available on the city's website here.
The reports examine city government procedures and look for ways to make them more efficient.
"It is an absolute treasure trove of work," said Peter Rummell, a co-chair of the transition effort. He said the ideas grew from 3,800 hours of meetings that involved 217 volunteers and about 125 city staff and subject experts.
For the nine months that ended June 30, the Postal Service lost a total of $5.7 billion. Mail volume continued to decline, led by first-class services, as more consumers relied on e-mail and electronic bill-paying. Total volume fell to 39.8 billion pieces, a drop of 2.6% from the same period a year ago.
Though regulated by Congress, the USPS does not receive taxpayer funding. The default threat has raised the specter of a bailout.
The back and forth came after Standard & Poor’s, one of the world’s three major credit rating agencies, cited “difficulties in bridging the gulf between political parties” as a major reason for the downgrade from U.S.’s top shelf AAA status to AA+, the next level down. The rating agency has essentially lost faith in Washington’s ability to work together to address its debt.
The downgrade, hours after markets closed on Friday, is a first for the U.S. since it was granted an AAA rating in 1917. S&P warned about a downgrade as far back as April. Its decision came just four days after fractious debate over raising the nation’s debt ceiling ended in a compromise that would reduce the country’s debt by more than $2 trillion (euro1.41 trillion). S&P said Friday the cuts did not go far enough.
The most successful blacks and Hispanics are more likely to have poor neighbors than are whites, according to a new analysis of Census data.
The average affluent black and Hispanic household — defined in the study as earning more than $75,000 a year — lives in a poorer neighborhood than the average lower-income non-Hispanic white household that makes less than $40,000 a year.
"Separate translates to unequal even for the most successful black and Hispanic minorities," says sociologist John Logan, director of US2010 Project at Brown University, which studies trends in American society.
"Blacks are segregated and even affluent blacks are pretty segregated," says Logan, who analyzed 2005-09 data for the nation's 384 metropolitan areas. "African Americans who really succeeded live in neighborhoods where people around them have not succeeded to the same extent."
Do you know how many district administrators Duval County Public Schools has? Go ahead, take a guess.
The number is 288.
Some readers may say this is too high, but consultant group Education Resource Strategies says the district spends significantly less on administrators than other districts.
U.S. health insurance companies must fully cover women's birth control and other preventive health care services under Obama administration rules released on Monday.
The mandate from the Health and Human Services Department represents a landmark decision in a decades-long debate on women's health issues that has pitted family planning groups against conservative organizations.
"Under the law, we're making it illegal to charge women more just because of their gender," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Monday.
Florida has added 21,400 government jobs since 2006, one of 35 states that saw an increase, according to new On Numbers analysis.
Texas led the way with 168,600 new federal, state and local government workers added between the midpoints of 2006 and 2011, according to seasonally adjusted data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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