The Florida Times Union
■ Dredger accuses port figure: A private contractor says the Jaxport board member threatened his business -
A businessman trying to establish a foothold for his dredging company in Jacksonville said Tony Nelson told him he could find the company work -- as long as the owner agreed to sell Nelson 70...
■ Nelson said to press for favorites -
A Jacksonville Port Authority consultant who complained about the role Tony Nelson played in choosing contractors to build a new terminal was ousted from that job after relaying his concerns to the board. The complaints...
■ FBI seizes records of Jacksonville port partners -
The FBI has raided businesses connected to a member of the Jacksonville Port Authority board, seizing records from companies he leads and from companies doing business with the port. In separate raids conducted Wednesday, agents...
■ City grows steadily more expensive to live in -
When Bill Marino was looking to move somewhere warm a couple of years ago, Jacksonville was just the place. Besides having nicer weather than Connecticut, the difference in housing prices meant he would make money...
■ Runway extension: Really about safety? -
Numbers swirl around the fight over the possible extension of a runway at Craig Municipal Airport. The weight of aircraft, the size of crash zones, the cost of construction: Each side has its own figures....
■ Symphony lockout has long-term effects -
Alan Hopper had planned to spend this past week in the mountains of North Carolina, celebrating the holidays away from the hustle and bustle of Jacksonville. The people who work for Hopper had hoped to...
■ A time to give, a time to receive -
A month ago, D.R. dropped off a box of canned goods at his church, helping fill food baskets to hand out to the needy at Thanksgiving. Last week, the New York native was again talking...
■ Port ready to land major deal -
The Jacksonville Port Authority plans to ink a deal next week with a major shipping line who wants to build a massive port facility along the St. Johns River, people familiar with the negotiations said...
■ The Dollar Tumbles -
It's the type of conversation you have to expect to have when you do business around the world, when you're trading another country's currency for the dollar, a form of money that has lost its...
■ Frustrating travel woes may worsen -
Brett Waller wasn't having a good day. After several hours of delays at Jacksonville International Airport, Waller received the news no flier wants to hear. His flight was cancelled because of weather. That's when Waller...
■ CSX VS. THE HEDGE FUND: The company is at odds about what's best for it, consumers and investors. -
Snehal Amin has big plans for CSX Corp. Over the next few years, he'd like the Jacksonville-based railroad to increase its debt load, buy back more shares and increase the rates it charges shippers, all...
■ Area has share of questionable bridges -
There are 43 "structurally deficient" bridges in the greater Jacksonville area, including 18 owned by Duval County, according to federal data analyzed by the Times-Union in the wake of Wednesday's Minnesota bridge collapse. Twenty-three of...
■ Jacksonville's Global Ambitions -
It's been a steady drumbeat for almost two years, since the day a Japanese ocean carrier said it was establishing its East Coast hub in Jacksonville. More trade is coming, the drumbeat goes, more international...
■ Local crane operator sets the bar high -
Although he's sitting still, Homer Wright is dancing. It's not his legs that are dancing, but his hands - and his hands' extensions: the flippers dangling 100 feet below the cab of the crane Wright...
■ Trucking takes a different route -
Ledell Hayward can get to sounding pretty poetic when he starts talking about some of the sights he's seen. "The farms, the animals - you just see different things. That's good," he said. "And the...
■ The perfect storm -
Forget Jaguars teal or Main Street Bridge blue. Spend a little time on the First Coast, and it's obvious the area's colors are the orange and white of the barrels strewn up and down our...
■ Shipping port rules burning daylight -
When an NYK Lines ship loaded with cars showed up at the mouth of the St. Johns River last month, it had to sit at anchor for several hours before being allowed into port. The...
■ JEDC pursuing big projects to go into Cecil -
The Jacksonville Economic Development Commission is pursuing at least a dozen specific projects that it hopes to lure to Cecil Commerce Center, according to an internal planning document prepared by commission staff. If all of...
■ Helicopter repair firm Sikorsky plans to vacate Craig -
Sikorsky Support Services Inc. is likely to shut down its Jacksonville operation and move the 75 workers there to a facility in Beeville, Texas, employees were told this week. The company - which handles maintenance...
■ A safer track? -
Anna Garcia was drifting off to sleep when she heard the train. It began with the usual noises, noises she was used to: Living just a couple dozen yards from the railroad tracks, Garcia often...
■ Airport overhaul -
The end of 2001 was a bad time for airports. The combination of economic downturn and travelers fearful in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks kept planes empty and airport revenue down. In Jacksonville,...
■ Business scores in sports -
Billy Burbank's fingers seem to function independent of his mind, flickering a threaded shuttle through the twine while he stares out at the water and reminisces about the Fernandina Beach of the past. It's a...
■ Moving on distribution -
Brown and blue. Blue and brown. No rhyme. No reason. Or, at least, not an obvious one; not to a human. To the computer brains inside Coach Inc.'s worldwide distribution center in Jacksonville's Tradeport industrial...
■ Proposed whale rule would slow ships -
Mike Getchell has spent years around ships sailing on the St. Johns River, working as a tug captain and now serving as manager of marine operations for Crowley Liner Services' East Coast division. With his...
■ Cargo security: A weak link? -
Stephen Flynn's nightmares are rather specific. In one - the one that most keeps him awake at night - a dirty bomb is loaded into a shipping container in Indonesia with the aid of a...
■ Jacksonville shipping salivates about Cuba -
When Dick Morales was growing up in Cuba, his family's concrete products business would buy wire mesh from the United States. It was a product that would be shipped through the then-much-smaller Port of Jacksonville...
■ Airport gun rules tested at hearing -
Jacksonville International Airport's rules for law enforcement personnel boarding planes with handguns are "extremely confusing," according to an arbitrator hearing the first official grievance filed by a Jacksonville Aviation Authority police officer. Among the signs...
■ TNT Logistics sold in $2 billion deal -
TNT Logistics has been sold to a private equity firm for 1.5 billion euros -- almost $2 billion -- meaning a new name and a sharper focus for the firm, whose North American headquarters...
■ Some aboard Carnival ship complain about ruined trip -
Hundreds of disgruntled passengers streamed off the cruise ship Celebration Thursday morning, returning to Jacksonville without ever setting foot in the Bahamas after the vessel's propeller scraped the ocean floor while the ship was...
■ Water, makeup, liquor land in JIA trash bins -
Mark Adams hauled away his first load of the day around 8:45 a.m. Inside the rolling red trash receptacle, black plastic garbage bags. Inside the bags, liquid-filled containers: Evian. Clinique. Jim Beam. All day...
■ Cold storage business heats up -
Twin forklifts dance around each other in the frigid air, readying pallets of fish, shrimp, pancakes and other delicacies for their final trip. The shrimp, to pick one, began its journey days ago, in...
■ Trash or Treasure -
One-ten, one-ten, one-ten. One-twenty. In less than a minute, Randy Kerr was up to $200, with the numbers rising far more quickly than they had just moments before, when bidding started at $45. Two hundred...
■ STUCK IN TRAFFIC: Would you call 911? -
From his office on Park Street, Orange Park Town Manager John Bowles can tell if the morning commute is bad, as drivers start backing up onto nearby Kingsley Avenue. A block away, the Orange Park...
■ JIA rips out $15 million baggage system for newer one -
In the bowels of Jacksonville International Airport, 1.16 miles of conveyor belt carry bags through a cramped room, transporting the luggage through scanning machines and into the hands of security personnel. That $15 million scanning...
■ Sometimes a cigar is just . . . a cigarette? -
For decades, Swisher International has filled the air around the Springfield neighborhood with the redolent aroma of dried tobacco, tobacco that it turns into 8.5 million cigars a day. Or at least what Swisher produces...
■ No 'Welcome' for workers at AOL's Southside campus -
Tammy Holt fought back tears as she pulled out of AOL's Southside campus early Tuesday morning, minutes after finding out that her job -- and that of the other 819 employees at the call center...
■ JIA soars through turbulence: Flight numbers are down, but officials see clear skies for the facility, saying it will weather the industry's unrest -
Bob Molle is under no illusions about what the coming year holds for him. "I'm calling this spring 'the perfect storm,' " he said, a half-smile on his face. Even he's not sure if he's...
■ TNT NV set to sell logistics business -
TNT NV is looking to sell its logistics business, including its North American unit, which is based in Jacksonville. The Netherlands-based company announced the sale Tuesday during a news conference in Amsterdam. It said it...
■ Is Space in Cecil's Future -
Space's next frontier could be Jacksonville's Westside. Cecil Commerce Center could become a commercial spaceport, capable of sending tourists into orbit, if Florida and local officials have their way. The quiet efforts to land space...
■ Why you pay what you do: Statewide and environmental inspection taxes, plus distance from ports influence fuel prices. -
While the Senate grilled oil executives about September's record high gasoline prices on Wednesday, Sharon Perez was quietly rejoicing about the drop in prices. With the Citgo on Beach Boulevard where she's assistant manager selling...
■ What's on the horizon for Cecil? -
When Ron Barton was weighing the offer to become executive director of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, one aspect of the city's plans for development helped seal the deal: the future represented by Cecil Commerce...
■ CSX Corp. moving 10% of area dispatchers -
CSX Corp. is eliminating about 10 percent of its dispatcher jobs in Jacksonville and moving the positions to other locations, the company told the dispatchers' union Monday. Although several employees have said they fear the...
■ Airport fraternity answers Biloxi's call for help -
Kurt Ferguson got the call at 10 a.m. Sept. 1. His instructions were simple: Be on a plane that afternoon. Be ready to help. "I left a note for the missis on the table: 'Gone...
■ Katrina Ignites Fuel Prices -
Gas prices were already ticking their way toward a true record this year, one that would top the charts even after adjusting for inflation. And that was before Hurricane Katrina. Afterwards? "It was exactly what...
■ Port close to signing huge deal with line -
The Jacksonville Port Authority is on the verge of signing a deal with an Asian shipping line that will bring a mammoth new facility to Dames Point and could create thousands of jobs, double the...
■ How CAFTA shapes up on First Coast -
In a cavernous facility down a side road in Macclenny, dozens of workers put the final touches on sport coats destined for department stores around the country. This week, many of the garments have arrived...
■ Software Showdown in Vegas -
Brian "Catfish" Edwards might be the only professional poker player who got his nickname from the Economist magazine. Of course, he is also probably one of the few poker players competing in a $100,000 tournament...
■ 'Is it even a business we want to be in?' -
Port wants to nourish growing cruise ship industry, but it must find balance with lucrative cargo trade The board of the Jacksonville Port Authority was just settling in to a discussion of the future of...
■ Driven to Desperation -
Joe Knowles has been hauling long-distance loads for years, but never, the grey-haired trucker said, has he seen diesel prices reach the levels they have in recent weeks. "It's about to break us," he said...
■ New era dawns in shopping -
It was almost a week before St. Johns Town Center would officially open, but that didn't stop Jason Watkins from being amazed at what he saw. "It's amazing to see Jacksonville grown up like this,"...
■ Railroads run into new regulators: State, local governments try for more oversight -
When New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer told CSX Corp. that he was investigating the railroad because of safety issues at railway crossings, CSX responded that the state didn't have the right to do so...
■ 99 sick following Carnival ship's cruise -
When Dean Adams walked onto the Carnival Cruise Lines ship Celebration, the smell of raw sewage, he said, hit him almost immediately. When he walked off the ship five days later, Adams and his wife...
■ Now What? -
The Super Bowl is history, the crowds are dispersing and the cruise ships are sailing away, leaving Jacksonville with one question: NOW WHAT? While most of the attention of the crowd at Veterans Memorial Arena...
■ Adam's Mark fights an image: Problems from parking to a $2 million plumbing disaster plague the Super Bowl hotel -
As the Adam's Mark hotel continues to prep for its week in the Super Bowl spotlight, it has had to deal with behind-the-scenes issues -- including valet parking delays and room service snafus -- that...
■ The future of telephony gets a whole lot simpler -
When someone calls Jim Kutsch's desk, it doesn't matter if the Convergys executive is in his Jacksonville office or working out of a hotel near the company's North Carolina call center: Either way, his phone...
■ Spy aircraft to be built at Cecil -
Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer will be making the military's newest spy plane at Cecil Commerce Center as part of a team led by defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. Lockheed won the $879 million contract to...
■ INSURANCE 101: What type of safety net you really need -
First, let's get this out of the way: This might not be the most gripping story you've ever read. Wait, wait! Come back! We know that reporters aren't supposed to admit things like that, but...
■ Yulee chicken fans to eat more free food -
Robert Davis probably wasn't at his best Thursday morning. His eyes drooping, his legs shuffling slightly as he walked, the 19-year-old tossing himself into a chair as though he might never leave it: "I'm strung...
■ Budgeting through the game of life -
Ever wonder where your money goes? The paycheck comes in; the bills go out. A few cups of coffee, restaurant meals, nights out with friends, shopping sprees, and suddenly you're hoping that next paycheck shows...
■ Leaders bond on Mideast -
SEA ISLAND -- Sea Island's moment in the world spotlight ended Thursday with an ebullient president and a group of once-estranged allies talking about the renewed closeness of their relationship. Along the way, the leaders...
■ Nations ask what, if any, role in Iraq -
SEA ISLAND, Ga. -- The G-8 nations' leaders will have barely shaken the sand out of the shoes they wore on the dunes of Sea Island when they'll have to once again take up perhaps...
■ Torrent awaiting Savannah lies dormant -
SAVANNAH -- Georgia's First City settled into a lazy waiting mode Monday, keyed up for today's beginning of the G-8 Sea Island summit. With little on either the official or alternative agendas, security personnel patrolled...
■ Does Jacksonville have a cultural divide? -
When Ryan Buckley decided to start carrying the works of Jacksonville artist Reese Foret Verschueren at his San Marco gallery and frame shop, he figured he'd sell a few. He liked them, and, after only...
■ Wireless Internet coming to Duval -
WASHINGTON -- Communications industry pioneer Craig McCaw will launch a wireless broadband service in Jacksonville over the next few months, using the First Coast as the starting point for a national network. McCaw's company, Clearwire,...
■ THE STEEL CRISIS: Demand from China is driving up the cost of construction in the U.S. -
A load of steel coils was dropped off in Bruce Mancuso's warehouse Thursday morning, giving him a little more wiggle room. But just a little. All of the material, used in making steel buildings, has...
■ Become a portrait of financial bliss: New parents are prone to making money mistakes -
Just to get this out of the way first: If you ask a few people about the biggest financial mistake made by parents, you're sure to get one response: "Having kids in the first place."...
■ Technology Trends that are Changing Us Today -
We're living in the future. It might not be the future of George Jetson and Buck Rogers, of Star Wars and Star Trek, a future of flying cars and laser rifles. But our present isn't...
■ The $1 Million Challenge -
The qualifying run was going really well. Then the concrete wall got in the way.
■ Dish drops Viacom shows in fee dispute -
Local Dish Network subscribers looking for Jon Stewart's take on the news or SpongeBob Squarepants' latest antics have been confronted with a blank screen since early Tuesday.
■ UNF buys tech park for $14 million -
The city's Research and Development Authority has agreed to sell the First Coast Technology Park to the University of North Florida for $14 million, a purchase that must be approved by the state.
■ Cool Cities -
At first glance, Max Michaels doesn't look like the type of guy who makes an economy soar.
■ U.S., allies agree to compromise on dollar -
BOCA RATON -- The United States reached a compromise with its economic allies over the falling dollar this weekend, although how it would be put in place remained vague.
■ Shock jock gets shocked -
He had to wait almost two years, but a Jacksonville man appalled by the content of the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show has received the support of the Federal Communications Commission.
■ Miami stumps for trade zone headquarters -
MIAMI -- Stressing its reputation as the "Gateway to the Americas," Miami took the next step on Friday in its bid to house the headquarters of a proposed hemisphere-wide free-trade zone.
■ Protesters, Miami police clash during free-trade protests -
Hundreds of North Florida residents, mostly union members, joined the throngs of protesters surging through Miami on Thursday to protest a hemisphere-wide free trade area being negotiated in nearby downtown hotels.
■ FTAA draft lacks wide-ranging nature the U.S. initially sought -
MIAMI -- Trade negotiators seeking to form a free trade area covering the entire Western Hemisphere agreed Wednesday to a rough draft. But the draft lacks the wide-ranging nature the United States initially sought after two of Jacksonville's largest port customers -- Brazil and Venezuela -- expressed concerns about such an approach.
■ Doctors facing 'painful' ethical issues -
As head of Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital's department of psychology, Cynthia Beaulieu is no stranger to issues of mortality.
■ Disney puts its twist on watching movies at home -
Hoping to attract people who "love movies and love watching them," The Walt Disney Co. rolled out a new video-on-demand service yesterday in Jacksonville, one of the three cities nationally where the product debuted.
■ Thinking Global -
The 114,000 square feet of greenhouse space is in place. Some 30,000 orchid seedlings have been shipped in, and the state-of-the-art shading system is set up, ready to protect the fledgling plants from the harsh sun.
■ The MBA grind -
You shouldn't get an MBA. (Shhhh ... just wait a second.) Still there?
■ Seed money -
You have a dream. Whether it's been bouncing around in your head for years or it woke you up out of a sound sleep a week from last Tuesday, the dream has now taken over your life: You want to start or expand a business.
■ Fed to swat at deflation with rate cut -
Own a house? Your mailbox is probably full with offers from banks who want you to refinance. If you have student loans, the mailman's bag is even fuller from all those refinancing offers.
■ It's always a political season -
So, you don't bother playing office politics? Figure you can just hunker down, do your job and everything will work out fine?
■ 'Everyone went flying and screaming' -
The engineer glanced down at the speedometer. Fifty-six miles per hour.
His eyes flicked up, looking out the window, watching the train tracks stretching out before him.
■ Retailers pocket less amid gas hike -
The average price for gasoline in Florida hit record levels yesterday, but retailers might actually be pocketing less money as the numbers on the pumps tick higher.
■ Send me an angel -
Al Rossiter still remembers the cotton toilet tissue guy.
■ New wireless broadband service arrives in Jacksonville -
A Dallas-based company is debuting its wireless broadband service in Jacksonville, hoping to compete with BellSouth, Comcast and others in providing high-speed access to the Internet.
■ Unemployment looms over many this season -
The people who walk into Anna Brost-Gibson's office are rarely happy -- and the holiday season does little to help. In fact, the faces that Brost-Gibson, who works at the local unemployment office, sees are a little longer, a little sadder, this time of the year.
■ Incubators give big hand to small businesses -
The cubicles lining the small room are empty on a Tuesday afternoon, with just a few handwritten nameplates giving any hint of who usually sits at the desks.
The Prague Post
■ Prague voters skeptical on national vote -
In this month's national elections, Michal Nohejl will vote ODS - reluctantly. Though Nohejl grants that the conservative Civic Democrats (ODS) may not be the country's most attractive political force, he says "they're the best we have at the moment."
■ City Hall cracks down after television report on fare-boosting device -
Miloslav Novak thinks local cab drivers get a bad rap. "We can't get customers. They re all afraid," said Novak, basking in the sunshine near his green Ford taxi, parked on Wenceslas Square.
Columbia University
■ Sunnyside Gardens provides "oasis" in Queens -
The stately tree in the midst of the old brick buildings reluctantly surrendered to autumn, holding on to a few orange leaves while sending their brown brethren to the ground below.
■ Have you seen this candidate? -
Trina knew the name, she said. It was on the tip of her tongue.
She lit a cigarette with a customer's lighter, leaning over the bar to return it. It didn't help. "Nope," she finally said. "I'm not sure who's running."
■ The tale of the tape -
By day's end, they didn't even bother shredding the stuff. Not enough time; too much excitement.
■ 'A legal loan shark' -
She has a job, the woman says, pressing her fingertips against the scarred plastic window. She just can't prove it.
■ There's nothing funny about the comic book business -
Nobody wandered over to the comic section of the store.
Perhaps surprisingly for a place named Comic Heaven, the thin trickle of customers roaming this Sunnyside shop Wednesday afternoon seem interested in anything but comics.
■ Lions and tigers and elephant-headed gods, oh my -
Alex Gonzalez pulled the sweatshirt over his head and turned around, displaying a bare back decorated in a mosaic of primary colors.
■ Peddling peaches -
Some of the homeward-bound commuters almost seemed afraid of Tony Burtin's hoarse shout.
■ Mob sends mixture of messages at UN -
The drums outside the United Nations stopped at 11 a.m. Exactly 11 a.m.
Sure, it was a protest. But that didn't mean they had to be uncivilized about it, does it?
The Daytona Beach News-Journal
■ Neighbor Discovers Woman Murdered -
DELAND -- A 77-year-old woman was found murdered in her home Friday morning, stunning residents in her quiet country club community.
■ Thousands pay tribute to officer -
ORLANDO -- His comrades in arms said their final goodbyes Monday morning to Orlando police Officer George S. DeSalvia, bidding him farewell just yards away from where he was fatally shot.
■ Pupils preserve the past -
DELTONA -- King Chicken began his journey to the underworld Thursday.
After month of preparation, pupils at Discovery Elementary finally laid to rest a chicken -- perhaps one of the most honored chickens in the history of poultry.
■ Condo meeting turns into fracas -
DELTONA -- A meeting of the Edgewater Condominium association devolved into chaos over the weekend, with two senior citizens coming to blows in the lobby of the Deltona Civic Center.
■ Curmudgeon vows to stay put -
ORANGE CITY -- Christmas is being stolen from the Grinch. While the Whos in Who-ville gather in song, a self-admitted crotchety old man is being forced from his mobile home park.
■ 'It was like obvious death' -
DELAND -- Four people including two flight instructors, a commercial pilot and a student were killed in a midair collision between two small planes Friday morning over DeLand Municipal Airport.
■ 'SUICIDE RATE IS OUTRAGEOUS': LOCAL OFFICIAL TOUTS PREVENTION -
Three more Volusia County residents took their own lives last weekend.
Their deaths brought the county's 1999 suicide total to 72, a number that shocks local experts and places the county far ahead of national and state averages.
■ DEBARY MAN CHARGED IN PLOT TO KILL STEPMOTHER -
DEBARY -- A marina owner accused of hiring a transsexual trucker to kill his stepmother left jail Thursday after posting a $1 million bail bond.
■ A CENTURY OF LIVING: 'OLD AGE SHOULD BE SATURATED WITH DREAMS' -
ORANGE CITY -- They've grown old as the world waits to become young again.
■ OPERATIONS CENTER RACES TO KEEP SPEEDWAY TRAFFIC UNDER CONTROL -
DAYTONA BEACH -- A collective sigh went up from the workers in the traffic operations center at 7 p.m. Saturday.
■ INTERNET, BOOKS OFFER QUICK ACCESS TO BOMB RECIPES -
DELTONA -- "Pipe bombs are some of the easiest and deadliest ways to kill a group of people or destroy a few things. First off, we will talk about the pipes. Second will be the explosives and last will be the shrapnel."
■ SNAKES LEAD CHARMED LIVES -
DELTONA -- Snakes have belly buttons.
■ TRASH JOB OFTEN REEKS OF DANGER: WORKERS CAN FACE HIGH MORTALITY RATE -
DELTONA -- The smell grows and mutates, slowly.
■ ORANGE CITY WONDERS FOR WHOM THE BELL (RANDOMLY) TOLLS -
ORANGE CITY -- File it in the "be careful what you wish for" department.
The Willoughby News-Herald
■ NICOLE'S ESCAPE: A teen-age girl's battle for acceptance ends in suicide -
"Dear Mom -- By the time you get this I'll be gone. It's not your falt (sic). It's no one's fault. I was just sick of everything and I needed to get away."