The Florida Botanical Gardens holiday lights are back. With more than 500,000 twinkling lights on display from treetops, along walkways and on the bougainvillea, hibiscus and bromeliads.

The 12th annual Holiday Lights in the Garden has been a much-enjoyed tradition since 2002. This year, the holiday lights will have new lighting displays. Two new fountains will light up with lasers on boths sides of the McKay Creek bridge.

"As people enter and walk over the bridge, they'll see the fountains, with varying degrees of light and intensity. We're excited about it,'' said Chuck Scaffidi, president of the Florida Botanical Gardens Foundation, the all-volunteer, nonprofit group that took over Holiday Lights from the Pinellas County government in 2008.

That's not all that's new, expect more lights on display as the Holiday Lights in the Garden has expanded into the Botanical Gardens Vinery. Created in the spring, the vinery is near the Palm Garden.

"It includes a dozen different types of vines, and people should check it out. It is still a bit immature as far as growth goes, but the trellises will be lit up. They have been decorated, and it's interesting to see," Scaffidi said.

"I think people should check out the dogwood shrubs. They are just gorgeous, large blooms. There's a white, pink and red. Also, in the same area where they are on the Tropical Walk, everybody should also see the Christmas ornament tree. That is what it is really called. It always blooms around Christmastime, and it's budded up now. In a few weeks it'll have a large flower that drapes from the stems. It's pink and really something," Scaffidi added.

The holiday event includes refreshments for sale, live entertainment, and Santa visits..

While Scaffidi has 300 volunteers through the foundation to help with Holiday Lights, volunteers are still needed to help at the display. They expect 60,000 people to visit this season.

Holiday Lights in the Gardens will be held from 5:30 to 9:30 every night from Friday, November 23, 2012 through January 1, 2013. Although it is free, a donation of $2 per adult is requested.

The gardens are located at 12520 Ulmerton Road, Largo.

Holiday Lights in the Gardens 2012

A child was shot in Homestead, Florida while riding on a bus headed to Somerset Silver Palms campus, which enrolls students K-12, Tuesday morning.

It happened at the area of Southwest 296th Street and SW 137th Avenue.

Initial reports from Homestead police indicated that a 13-year old who was shot in the neck. The girl was airlifted to Miami Children's Hospital and her condition is unknown at this time.

Four Miami-Dade Police officers have been seen at Miami Children's Hospital this morning.

At the time of the shooting, Miami-Dade police were unsure if the shooter was on the private bus or if the shot was fired into the bus. Later, police said the shooter is a boy who is also a student.

Detective Alvaro Zabaleta confirmed that they are questioning a boy in connection to the shooting.

It's not clear if the bus was operated by the charter school or an outside bus company.  Local 10 spoke to a mother of a student who was also riding on the bus at the time of the shooting. She said the bus takes students to three schools and the driver had just started it's route.

The Palm Glades Middle School and Summerville Elementary schools will have counselors from other campuses and the principal, Kerri Ann O'Sullivan, walking through all classrooms to make sure everything was running on schedule and students are okay, said Lynn Norman-Teck, spokeswoman for Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools.

Homestead Police have closed Southwest 137th Avenue from Southwest 288th Street to Campbell Drive while detectives investigate the incident.

Gov. Gary Johnson at Sneaker's Sports Bar in Jacksonville, FL

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson visited Florida last week, launching his tour of the state with a trio of events right here in Jacksonville.

Johnson, a former Republican who is now the Libertarian Party's nominee for President, spoke to a crowd of around 40 people during an afternoon visit to the Southeast Regional Library on Tuesday.   In addition to shrinking the overall size of government, the candidate addressed the Supreme Court's decision to uphold President Obama's health care reforms.  Johnson, a strong advocate of free markets, was sharply critical of both the President and Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who has promised to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something else.

Romney has promised to both balance the Federal budget and increase spending on Medicare and the military, according to Johnson.

"I finished the second grade and the mathematics that went along with that," said the Libertarian nominee.  "And Romney's a smart guy, but it doesn't add up."

Johnson also told the crowd that when he was Governor of New Mexico, he vetoed spending more than the other 49 governors combined.

The library event was open to the public and was book-ended by a lunchtime fundraiser and an evening get together at Sneaker's Sports Bar in the Baymeadows area.  It was at that event where Johnson told the assembled libertarians he hoped that he carry the party's banner in the 2016 election as well, noting he was running a frugal campaign that has depended almost entirely on small donors.

After departing Jacksonville, the Johnson campaign headed south for events in Orlando and Tampa.  On Friday, he threw out the first pitch at a minor league baseball game in Dunedin.

A teenager was killed in a motorcycle accident on Sunday in St. Augustine around 4:40 p.m.

The accident happened on Woodlawn Road in the Heritage Park subdivision, said Florida Highway Patrol troopers.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers stated that 16-year old Mark Ochkie Jr. was headed northbound on Hefferon Drive, in the Heritage Park neighborhood near Woodlawn Road, when he was rounding a curve before he hit a curb, went off into the median, and hit a palm tree.

He was celebrating his friend's birthday party at his house a few blocks back from the Heritage Park subdivision. Ochkie left to go back to his job to pick something up that he left there. He was riding his 2010 Kawsaki Ninja motorcycle back to his friends house to celebrate his birthday by going out to dinner when the motorcycle accident happened.

The 16-year old, Mark Ochkie Jr. was taken to Flagler General, where he was pronounced dead from his injuries.

There were no other vehicles involved in the crash and FHP say he was wearing a helmet.

According to the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office, Ochkie's father is a deputy.

Toxicology reports have been requested to determine if alcohol played a part in the late afternoon crash.

Carsen Willey, Mark Ochkie Jr's. best friend told reporters, "He came over to my house pretty much every day. He gave me rides to school every day this past year. He was super easy to get along with, like, everybody loved him. He was one of the funniest people I've ever met."

Comments have been fired up on the News4Jax Facebook by the parents allowing the 16-year old boy to have a motorcycle. One comment left by Scotty Boyforever says, "Why would anyone buy a 16 year old a sportbike? I know all motorcycles can be dangerous in the wrong hands, but why give them such temptation with a sportbike? I remember what I was like at 16, and I sure didn't need that type of bike...so sad for his family and friends."

Carol Prettyman Rost responded that she is Mark's Aunt and answered why the parents allowed him to have that motorcycle. "Mark is my nephew and he saved his money from a job he had and he bought the bike with his own money. He was told always to wear a helmet and he was only allowed to ride when he was with someone. He was always told to be careful. He was a responsible boy who had a tragic accident."

Tragic accident indeed. Our thoughts go out to the Ochkie family.

A report was sent to Florida health officials by Dr. Robert Luo of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that a tuberculosis outbreak in Jacksonville was the worse seen in 20 years.

Governor Rick Scott had signed a Department of Health bill that required the closure of A.G. Holley State Hospital in Lantana, where tuberculosis cases have been treated for more than 60 years on April 5, just nine days before the CDC issued its warning about the tuberculosis outbreak.

In Dr. Robert Luo's report, he wrote that 3,000 people in the last two years have had contact with tuberculosis at Jacksonville's homeless shelters, an outpatient mental health clinic and in area jails. However, only 253 people had been located and screened for tuberculosis, and a third of them tested positive for tuberculosis exposure, Luo wrote.

The public didn't learn of the tuberculosis outbreak until June when a man with TB was spotted in a Jacksonville soup kitchen. Officials believed it was contained within the homeless population and it was unclear whether the outbreak had spread beyond areas where the homeless congregated in Jacksonville. That's why Duval County health officials decided not to inform the general population.

"What you don't want is for anyone to have another reason why people should turn their backs on the homeless," said Charles Griggs, the public information officer for the Duval County Health Department.

According to the Post, the tuberculosis outbreak cover-up began in February, "when Duval County Health Department officials felt so overwhelmed by the sudden spike in tuberculosis that they asked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to become involved. Believing the outbreak affected only their underclass, the health officials made a conscious decision not to tell the public, repeating a decision they had made in 2008, when the same strain had appeared in an assisted living home for people with schizophrenia."

A decision to keep it under wraps was a bad decision because by April, it had spread to the general public. The tuberculosis outbreak in Jacksonville has caused 13 deaths and 99 illnesses, including six children, according to a report by The Palm Beach Post.

"The high number of deaths in this outbreak emphasizes the need for vigilant active case finding, improved education about TB, and ongoing screening at all sites with outbreak cases," Luo wrote in his report.

Worst Tuberculosis Outbreak in 20 years in Jacksonville

What is Tuberculosis?

Each year, more than 13,000 cases of tuberculosis are reported in the United States. Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease that is spread through the air from one person to another. There are two kinds of tests that are used to determine if a person has been infected with TB bacteria: the tuberculin skin test and TB blood tests.

Tuberculosis Symptoms:

General tuberculosis symptoms may include feeling weak or sick, weight loss, fever and/or night sweats. Symptoms of TB of the lungs may include cough that lasts for 3 weeks, chest pain and/or coughing up blood.

Tuberculosis Treatment:

An estimated 10 to 15 million people in the U.S. who are infected with the TB germ with the potential to develop TB disease in the future. If a person gets a TB skin test and it comes back positive, they must take an antibiotic daily for as long as six months.

It seems logical that compensation for any worker should be based on production, whether it’s a teacher or marketing executive. If a marketing person loses a large account due to errors in judgment or a lack of understanding of her client, she is held accountable. For the most part, she is in control of her destiny. Plus, her boss has the ability to fire her, especially if her erros are repeated. Thus, his productivity isn’t compromised due to his employee’s shortcomings. Their compensation is reflective of their own efforts and judgment.

Teachers, however, have little or no such control over their charges. In fact, it’s the other way around. Let’s take a look: Twelve year old Brittany and her family have been homeless for six months, so they have moved repeatedly during that time. They’ve lost their car, so Brittany has been enrolled in three different schools, and has had eighteen different teachers. Each teacher was in a slightly different place in the curriculum, which means that there are huge gaps in Brittany’s educational progress. Coupled with the emotional horror of her situation, her chances of reaching required scores on “the test” are minimal. And totally out of the control of the teachers who happen to find her sitting in their classrooms on testing day.

School districts do a good job of broadcasting the importance of these tests and the implications of the scores. Marquees in front of schools scream the test dates as parents drop their kids off for school. Flyers are sent home in backpacks, phone calls are made to parents of often-absent students, rallies are held. Yet, there are still parent who don’t notice. So, on testing day when sixteen year old Karl wakes up and doesn’t “feel good” as a mechanism for avoiding the test, Mom lets him stay home. Make-up day comes, and he has a mysterious relapse, and Mom is still clueless. His teachers have no control over this parent’s lack of knowledge or desire for her son to succeed. Yet, his teachers’ pay will be dependent on it?

So, what are the correct questions? Schools reflect the society that surrounds them. They are as flawed as the citizens of that community allow them to be. It doesn’t matter what our hopes and dreams are for our schools if we are not willing to be held to the same standards of behavior that we expect from our young people.

We howl in horror at some of the acts of violence perpetrated in schools, but what is the violence like in the community surrounding the school? We expect children to undergo a transformation while they are at school, but we ignore the fact that many come from homes with little or no supervision and often no one there addresses right and wrong. Some parents teach their children to defy authority, and these parents effectively role model that behavior every day. Many parents hold to the concept of “You’ve got them during the day, so don’t bother me” while their kids are creating havoc at school. And in many homes, children of all ages watch anything they want on TV at any hour of the day or night, and have unsupervised access to the Internet, pornography and all.

Ethical behavior seems to be in short supply, with adults from all walks of life and positions of leadership succumbing to convenience, comfort, and profit. We all know the right thing to do in most cases, and can spout those platitudes from a dais as admirers eat their $200.00 dinner. But when the cameras stop rolling and the audience goes home, what’s right often gives way very quickly to something quite different. And then we expect our children to comport themselves with dignity and restraint at school. It’s not logical, or ethical, to have such expectations.

Therefore, rather than ask why schools are “allowing” such poor behavior and sub-par performance, maybe we should really be asking why we as individuals aren’t willing to behave the same way that we are expecting our young people to behave and perform at school? Why doesn’t the mother know (or care) when her son’s most important test of the school year is being given? We might say we want our children to behave responsibly, yet we repeatedly drop the ball ourselves.

Why do we merely shudder at the crime rates in our cities, but cry foul when those acts of violence spill over into the halls of the local schools? Girls are raped in bathrooms at nearby schools, but what’s going on along the streets leading to that school? What are we doing about that?

And what effect is this having on test scores? Studies show that teens routinely cheat on their schoolwork, but isn’t that the same thing that is going on in the boardrooms and government offices across this country? Too often, our “leaders” believe that as long as an action is legal, it is also ethical. Because of that erroneous belief, we have city governments all over the country rife with corruption, and Congress people who have proven to be untrustworthy time and again.

It’s easy to let educators take the fall for sub par schools, but they can’t control the players: The parents and those making the rules. It’s up to us as individuals to level the playing field. We must control our own behavior and then model those positive lessons as if we really mean them. Then, there might be a chance of having schools that are true places of learning and preparation for the future for our children and our society.

Until then, we’re asking the wrong people the wrong questions.

“To be the Northeast Florida leader in providing effective,
coordinated and integrated multimodal transportation solutions.”
Mission Statement, JTA

I had a great job when I lived out west in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Traveling between Denver, my home base, and San Diego and San Francisco wasn’t a hardship, that’s for sure.

I was single with no family responsibilities, not even a pet, so life was good and I was on the road a lot. I’d fly out of Denver on Sunday and then work in one city and then the other for a couple of weeks, and then I’d head back home to check on the home office.

The amazing thing to me, Floridian that I am, was that I never had to rent a vehicle in the Bay area. I jumped on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) at the airport, which took me within a block or even closer to my hotel. In the morning when it was time to go to the office in Oakland across the Bay, I’d join the throngs of people slipping tokens into the turnstiles and off we’d go. Business people with briefcases, shoppers, families, everyone surging around a geographic area over 200 miles long and 100 miles wide. No parking angst, no traffic snarls. It was a thing of beauty.

BART took us just about wherever we needed to go, all up and down the Bay area. Then, for shorter distances we could hop on the cable car or electric rail system. Taxis were plentiful and always available in a reasonable amount of time, meaning minutes, not “maybe in an hour” if you were lucky. Heck, even messengers on bicycles were available to make important deliveries around the city, darting in and out between all the other modes of transport people were hanging off or out of. Later, some of us would get together and travel to a great restaurant in another town around the Bay, and off we’d go again, BART ready take us. No one had to worry about having that extra glass of wine, since ‘ole BART was driving. I get nostalgic just thinking about it.

People who lived in the area told me that they had never owned a car. They didn’t need one. As a matter of fact, they said, it was more expensive to own one, considering parking, plus regular upkeep of a vehicle. The mass transit system had too many options, was cost effective, and could get them anywhere any time they needed to go. I checked it out again just now and they’re still right. Routes are extensive, trains (or whatever the form is that you need) run continuously for about 18 hours a day AND on weekends, and fares are reasonable. Why do it alone for more money when the city’s mass transportation system actually takes care of it for you?

Why, indeed. I returned to Florida in 1984, settling here in Jacksonville to be near family. I had an infant, no job, one car between two adults, and a desperate need to make a living. It wasn’t easy in a town with a bus system that is sketchy at best, no mass transit at all at that time, and hundreds of miles to traverse. And when is the last (or first) time you’ve seen someone standing on a curb downtown hailing a cab? Getting around this huge area to find work, shop, or recreate was then, and remains, a monumental headache.

Here’s what I know. If I decided to ditch my car and use the bus system here, I could catch a bus about 2 miles away from my house at the “nearest” bus stop and go directly downtown at 7:05 AM. Until last year, this bus stop had no cover at all. It was just a place on the ground, with a pole next to it marking the bus number. At least now there is a covered bench for about 4 people.

Several restaurants claim the parking areas on the other side of the hedges from this stop, so if I had to drive to the bus stop because it was pouring rain, where would I park my car? Plus, one of the reasons to use mass transit is to NOT use a car if you’re lucky enough to have one at all. Or someone else in the family might need to use it to get to work or go to the doctor’s office that isn’t anywhere near a bus route at all. According to the schedule listed on JTA’s website, I would arrive downtown at Rosa Parks/FCCJ Station at 7:36. Not bad, if it works that way. I think I’ll try it one day soon and let you know.

The schedules on the website are difficult to read and follow, especially if I needed to transfer from that station to go, say, to the airport. In that great job I had out west, I arrived at the airport and jumped on BART, which ran continuously, little wait time between one train and the next. The JTA bus system does offer service to and from the airport. Once an hour. Not very conducive to doing business in the 21st century, especially in a recession when every second has to be milked for a dollar.

If I lived on the Westside and worked near the Avenues Mall, I could catch a bus at 5:48 AM, which would take me downtown, where I would transfer to another bus at 6:50, with a scheduled arrival time of 7:47. But then I would need to get from the Mall to my office in one of the surrounding business centers. How? And what if the bus is late? I’d be late for my 8 AM start time, with my boss chewing me out and maybe writing me up.

Every day... until he fires me.

An effective mass transit system with multiple modes of transportation forming a network across the metropolitan area is a necessity not only for growth, but also for sustaining our city. We had an opportunity to make it so in previous decades and settled for less than that. We’re all to blame for this, taxpayers and short-sighted politicians alike, and now it’s probably too late.

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ABOUT DEBORAH HANSEN: Deborah Hansen writes about education and family. Her latest book is “Broken Strings: Wisdom for Divorced and Separated Families.”    She has lived on the First Coast for over 20 years and is a former member of the Jacksonville Ethics Commission.

Signing a 10-year multimillion dollar contract, Gilmore led the league in field-goal percentage, rebounds, and minutes per game in his rookie season, winning him not only the Rookie of the Year award, but also the league’s MVP. He was also named to the ABA’s All-Star team — the first of four such honors in his five years in the league.

Over the next four years, Gilmore won the ABA’s rebounding title three more times and was again named the league’s MVP in 1974. He also led the Colonels to an ABA championship in 1975, a year before the league folded.

In five seasons in the ABA, Gilmore didn’t miss a single regular season game, appearing in all 420 games.

When the ABA merged into the NBA in 1976, players from the Kentucky Colonels and the Spirits of St. Louis — the two remaining ABA teams not included in the merger — took part in a dispersal draft hosted by the NBA in August of that year. Gilmore, who was probably the greatest center in ABA history, was selected by the Chicago Bulls.

In his first three seasons with the Bulls, Gilmore continued his prolific rebounding and scoring prowess while establishing one of the highest field goal percentages in the league. Incredibly, he also played in 246 consecutive regular season games during his first three seasons in the NBA, expanding his professional record to 666 contests in which he never missed a game.

Gilmore, who was traded to San Antonio in 1982 before joining the Bulls again in 1987, ended his professional career with the Boston Celtics in 1988.

In his eighteen years of professional basketball, Gilmore scored 24,041 points and pulled down 16,330 rebounds. He also blocked 3,179 shots, including 1,431 during his five seasons with the Kentucky Colonels in the now-defunct ABA.

Gilmore’s career .599 field goal percentage — he hit a sizzling 67% of his shots with the Chicago Bulls in 1980-81 — makes him the all-time NBA leader in that category. Shaquille O’Neal is second on the NBA’s all-time leader list at .582.

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Dear Neighbor,

In the August edition of Arlington Monthly, I made you aware of what I knew about the proposal by Jacksonville Kennel Club (JKC) to convert the Garden Ridge at 201 Monument Road into a Poker Room. I also shared that the matter did not require approval by the City Council, though there has been a new development.

On August 22, Mr. Paul Harden, an attorney/agent for JKC, notified me that he was filing a re-zoning request with the City to change the zoning on a portion of the property in order to make it more compatible with JKC’s preferred gambling operation. Surprised by this, I conveyed to Mr. Harden that I met with Mr. Howard Korman (President of JKC) on August 1 and was told no significant City-level approvals were needed. Mr. Harden then acknowledged Mr. Korman thought that was the case.

The proposed Poker Room site has two zoning districts assigned to it. The eastern half, on which the building is located, is zoned CCG-1. The western half, mostly parking lot and frontage along Monument Road, is zoned CCG-2. The acronyms stand for Commercial Community, General 1 and 2, respectively, and are the broadest commercial districts in the city. Among other uses, the CCG-1 district allows for indoor facilities operated by a licensed pari-mutuel permit holder; however, without special approval of a CCG-1 “exception,” a pari-mutuel may not sell or serve every type of alcoholic beverage, which JKC would like to do. Under CCG-2, no exception is required for the sale and service of all alcoholic beverages as long as they are sold and served in conjunction with food ordered from a menu. In short, JKC is seeking to make the entire property CCG-2 so that it may operate with little restriction.

Although it is still unknown whether the facility might operate 14-18 hours per day during the week and 24 hours per day on the weekend, it is well-known that there is a grade school, public library, and residential apartments all within 1,000 feet of the building, and a nursing home (The Atrium) down the next block, not to mention other businesses and Regency Mall in close proximity.
All re-zonings require City Council approval. The Poker Room re-zoning legislation (Ordinance 2011-585) is scheduled to be added to the Council’s agenda on September 13.

It will then have a public hearing (no vote) at the October 11 Council meeting, be heard by and receive a recommendation from the City’s Planning Commission on October 13, and have a public hearing in front of the Council’s Land Use & Zoning Committee on October 18 (with recommendation vote to full Council). It is then set to be before the full Council for a final vote on October 25, if there are no delays.

I will be hosting a Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, October 4, at 6:30pm at Terry Parker High School to hear input from the community regarding the Poker Room and re-zoning request. Please plan to attend and bring a neighbor. Also, below is a list of all other Council Members and their contact information.

When 2011-585 comes to the full Council, every Member is expected to cast a vote. Email or call them in advance of the public hearings and meetings to let them know what is best for the Regency area and Arlington.

On a concluding note, the Council is preparing to vote on the City’s annual budget at the end of September.

A public meeting will be held on Monday, September 19, at 6:30pm at Regency Library regarding the budget and general District 1 issues (not including Poker Room).
I look forward to seeing you.

Clay Yarborough
City Councilman, District 1