Nationally and internationally-recognized health industry professional, Dr. Yank Coble, spoke at the JAX Chamber Health Council’s monthly luncheon about opportunities within the health, medical care and bioscience industries.

“There is a critical mass growing here in terms of the health, medical care and bioscience industries,” Dr. Coble said. “We have made significant progress in the past five years as a result of the collaboration in Jacksonville. I have never seen a place with more collaboration.”

Dr. Coble is a distinguished professor and director of the Center for Global Health and Medical Diplomacy at the University of North Florida and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Florida. He shared the importance of addressing the challenges within the medical industry, Jacksonville’s medical assets and optimizing the region’s growing and diverse health care and bioscience industries.

An endocrinologist in Jacksonville for more than 35 years, Dr. Coble is also former chair of the Department of Community Health at the University of Florida, past president of The World Medical Association (WMA) and chair and editor of the WMA Caring Physicians of the World Initiative.

Five of the top 10 companies in the JAX region provide or are affiliated with health care, and one in every six employees in the area works in the health care and bioscience sectors. In addition to employing nearly 94,000 people and an annual economic impact of $23.6 billion, the region enjoys convenient, first-class health care and specialized services.

sbaThe nation’s top entrepreneurs will be honored at the U.S. Small Business Administration’s National Small Business Week events May 20-22 in Washington, D.C. A series of award ceremonies, small business events and educational forums will mark the 59th anniversary of the agency and the 49th annual proclamation of National Small Business Week.

National Small Business Week is cosponsored by the SCORE Association as well as numerous corporate and trade sponsors to be announced.

More than 100 outstanding small business owners from across the country will receive awards while gathering for three days at the city’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel. They will meet with top administration officials, congressional representatives and national business leaders. The highlight of the celebration will be the announcement of the National Small Business Person of the Year.

Men and women also will be recognized for their involvement in disaster recovery, government contracting and their support for small businesses and entrepreneurship, and awards will be presented to SBA partners in financial and entrepreneurial development, including the year’s top SCORE Chapter, Small Business Development Center and Women’s Business Center.

Interested parties can register online at www.nationalsmallbusinessweek.com where additional information (updated weekly) is available regarding registration, awards ceremonies, small business forums and educational and matchmaking sessions. The event also will be webcast live at the web site.

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) officially introduced the newest version of its highly successful “I Love My Community Bank” campaign. Dubbed “I LUV MY CB 2.0,” the grassroots-style social media campaign offers consumers and small businesses a forum to share their experiences with their community bank. Consumers and small businesses who share testimonials by May 1 are eligible to receive one of five $500 gift cards, courtesy of ICBA.

ICBA’s original “I Love My Community Bank” campaign was launched last year on Valentine’s Day. The second installment will dovetail those efforts by continuing to leverage the campaign’s interactive website, www.ilovemycommunitybank.com. There, consumers and small businesses can post comments, upload photos and deliver video testimonials about their community banking experiences. The campaign’s special Twitter handle, @iLuvmyCB, will help highlight the campaign’s entries.

The “I LUV MY CB 2.0” campaign will be driven by community banks across the country that promote the initiative on their own websites and through multiple social media tools. The campaign is a natural progression for helping community banks celebrate Community Banking Month in April and taking part in the nationally recognized Go Local Initiative, www.icba.org/golocal.

ICBA will continue to encourage broad participation of community bank members by once again supplying turnkey marketing designs through several supporting ICBA state associations, which will disseminate the information and marketing collateral to the state member banks that wish to participate in the program.

The 2nd Annual Sawgrass Wine Festival will kick off with Uncorked, An Evening with the Sawgrass Wine Festival Judges on Saturday, Feb. 18, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa. Earlier that day two teams of three judges each will take on the task of sampling over 200 different wines in over 35 classifications to determine the award winners you will taste that evening.

In addition to Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards, Best Buys Awards will be given to all Gold Award Winners priced under $20, all Silver Award Winners under $15 and all Bronze Award Winners under $10. In addition to judging the more popular varietals, chardonnay, pinot gris, cabernet and merlot, some lesser known ones such as gruner veltliner, torrontes, meritage and rhone will also be judged.

Returning as Head Judge for Team One is Dr. Barry Gump, who is the first holder of theHarvey R. Chaplin Eminent Scholar’s Chair in Beverage Management at Florida International University’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. Joining him is Vinny D’Agostino, Food and Beverage Director at the Prince and King Resort in St. Simons Island and also a Certified Sommelier. Iija Manevki, a Certified Sommelier and the General Manger of the Marriott Sawgrass’ Augustine Grille is also on Team One.

Ryanne Carrier, also returning from last year as the head judge for Team Two, is a member of the Sea Island Resort’s Sommelier team and located at their award winning restaurant The Cloisters. Joining her on Team Two is Steven Jones, Certified Sommelier and Regional Director of Food and Beverage Operations for TPC Resort Destinations. Jeremy Vass is the last member of this team and is a Certified Sommelier and Assistant General Manager of III Forks Steakhouse in Jacksonville.

Uncorked is the forerunner of the 2012 Sawgrass Wine Festival which will be held April 19-22. This four day wine and spirits extravaganza will feature a wine dinner on Thursday, wine and spirits seminars and tastings on Friday and then gourmet food and wine and spirits tasting Friday and Saturday under tents on the ground of the Sawgrass Marriott plus you can purchase your favorites there as well. The Festival is made possible by the generous support of the Marriott Sawgrass Golf Resort & Spa and the Tourist Development Council of St. Johns County.

Tickets are just $20 and can be purchased by calling the Ponte Vedra Chamber at 285-2004 or by going online to www.sawgrasswinefestival.com. If you wait to purchase them at the door, the price will be $25. For more information on any other Ponte Vedra Chamber event, visit our website www.pontevedracahmber.org.

Jacksonville-based Dalton Agency, an advertising and public relations agency, and Kilgannon, an Atlanta-based, advertising agency, announced that the two firms have merged. The joined companies will operate under the Dalton Agency name with Kilgannon serving as the newly expanded group’s Atlanta office. The Dalton Agency currently has offices in Jacksonville, Orlando, Savannah, Ga., and Columbia, S.C.

While terms of the deal were not disclosed, the now combined agency has approximately $35 million in invoiced billings and employs approximately 100 individuals between the five offices, with Jacksonville continuing to serve as the company’s headquarters. The combined-agency client list includes: American Heart Association, BAE Systems Products Group Safariland, NFL Jacksonville Jaguars, McDonald’s, Bealls Department Stores, Manheim, Shands Healthcare, and SouthernLINC Wireless, among others.

For more information, visit www.daltonagency.com.

Kraft Tennis, Maharaj Tennis and the Yulee Tennis Foundation sponsored an afternoon of round robin tennis Jan. 29, in support of the Barnabas Center Food Pantry in Fernandina Beach, Fla.

Fifty-six players in three divisions at two different tennis sites took to the courts and donated groceries and funding for the food pantry, resulting in 722 lbs. of groceries.

“The entry fee to the event was one bag of nonperishable food items, and it seems that entrants were extremely generous in their donations this year,” said event organizer Michele Maharaj. “The food pantry tennis event has been an annual occurrence since Maharaj Tennis came to town in 2006.”

In 2011, Kraft Tennis joined forces with Maharaj Tennis and the Yulee Tennis Foundation to sponsor the event as part of their community outreach programming. For 2012, Kraft Tennis was once again a host site for the event, joined by the Ritz Carlton.

The Yulee Tennis Foundation is an official USTA Florida Community Tennis Association (CTA).

For more information on the event e-mail Michele Maharaj at michelemaha@msn.com.

The dermatology practice of Dr. Michael E. Lutz has formally changed its practice name to Jacksonville Skin Cancer Center.

“We chose to change the name of the practice to distinguish the services that we offer to the community, and to more successfully indicate to patients and referral doctors what our practice is about,” says Dr. Lutz.

The Jacksonville Skin Cancer Center is one of the only dermatology practices in the area that completely focuses on the treatment of skin cancer, and more specifically, Mohs Micrographic Skin Cancer Surgery. Concentrating on this specific area of care allows the staff to better diagnose and treat patients who have skin cancer. This enables the staff to give their attention to the serious issues that their patients present with, and to keep abreast of the latest treatments and therapies available.

The Jacksonville Skin Cancer Center offers services such as:

• Diagnosis and treatment of skin cancers, including Mohs Micrographic Surgery

• Dermatology surgery referrals from physicians and other health practitioners

• Skin cancer management for organ transplant patients

For more information, visit www.jaxskincancer.com.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department announced the results of a massive national sweep cracking down on suspected identity theft perpetrators as part of a stepped-up effort against refund fraud and identity theft.

Working with the Justice Department’s Tax Division and local U.S. Attorneys’ offices, the nationwide effort targeted 105 people in 23 states. The coast-to-coast effort took place over the last week and included indictments, arrests and the execution of search warrants involving the potential theft of thousands of identities and taxpayer refunds. In all, 939 criminal charges are included in the 69 indictments and informations related to identity theft.

In addition, IRS auditors and investigators conducted extensive compliance visits to money service businesses in nine locations across the country in the past week. The approximately 150 visits occurred to help ensure these check-cashing facilities aren’t facilitating refund fraud and identity theft.

The national effort is part of a comprehensive identity theft strategy the IRS has embarked on that is focused on preventing, detecting and resolving identity theft cases as soon as possible. In addition to the law-enforcement crackdown, the IRS has stepped up its internal reviews to spot false tax returns before tax refunds are issued as well as working to help victims of the identity theft refund schemes.

The law-enforcement sweep started last week across the country, reflecting investigative efforts stretching back months and even years.

The nationwide effort by the Justice Department and the IRS led to actions taking place in 23 locations across the country with 105 individuals. The actions included 80 complaints/indictments and informations, 58 arrests, 19 search warrants, 10 guilty pleas and four sentencings. A map of the locations and additional details on the actions are available on IRS.gov, the IRS Civil and Criminal Actions page and the Department of Justice Tax Division page.

Beyond the criminal actions, the IRS enforcement personnel conducted a special sweep last week and on Monday to visit 150 money services businesses to help make sure these businesses are not knowingly or unknowingly facilitating identity theft or refund fraud. The visits occurred in nine high-risk places identified by the IRS covering areas in and surrounding Atlanta, Birmingham, Ala., Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Phoenix, Tampa and Washington, D.C.

In addition, the IRS has more than 250 check-cashing operations under audit across the country and will be looking for indicators of identity theft as part of the exam effort.

The information from these audits and compliance visits will be used to assist continuing IRS investigations into refund fraud and identity theft.

The IRS also is taking a number of additional steps this tax season to prevent identity theft and detect refund fraud before it occurs. These efforts includes designing new identity theft screening filters that will improve the IRS’s ability to spot false returns before they are processed and before a refund is issued, as well as expanded efforts to place identity theft indicators on taxpayer accounts to track and manage identity theft incidents.

To help taxpayers, the IRS earlier this month created a new, special section on IRS.gov dedicated to identity theft matters, including YouTube videos, tips for taxpayers and a special guide to assistance. The information includes how to contact the IRS Identity Protection Specialized Unit and tips to protect against “phishing” schemes that can lead to identity theft.

Identity theft occurs when someone uses another’s personal information without their permission to commit fraud or other crimes using the victim’s name, Social Security number or other identifying information. When it comes to federal taxes, taxpayers may not be aware they have become victims of identity theft until they receive a letter from the IRS stating more than one tax return was filed with their information or that IRS records show wages from an employer the taxpayer has not worked for in the past.

If a taxpayer receives a notice from the IRS indicating identity theft, they should follow the instructions in that notice. A taxpayer who believes they are at risk of identity theft due to lost or stolen personal information should contact the IRS immediately so the agency can take action to secure their tax account. The taxpayer should contact the IRS Identity Protection Specialized Unit at 800-908-4490. The taxpayer will be asked to complete the IRS Identity Theft Affidavit, Form 14039, and follow the instructions on the back of the form based on their situation.

Taxpayers looking for additional information can consult the Taxpayer Guide to Identity Theft or the IRS Identity Theft Protection page on the IRS website.

Get tips on how to plan a communications strategy that will eliminate confusion and support your recovery efforts during a free webinar titled “Crisis Communications Planning—The Keystone of Disaster Recovery Response” on Tuesday, Feb. 14, from 2 to 3 p.m. EST hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration and Agility Recovery Solutions.

The discussion will help you assess your company’s needs, identify a good spokesperson and develop fact sheets and talking points. Space is limited. Register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/421917136

SBA has partnered with Agility to offer business continuity strategies through its “PrepareMyBusiness” website. Visit www.preparemybusiness.org to access past webinars and get additional preparedness tips.

The SBA provides disaster recovery assistance in the form of low-interest loans to homeowners, renters, private nonprofits and businesses of all sizes. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov/disaster.

The sixth annual Remodelers Council Sporting Clay Tournament presented by Ferguson Enterprises, attracted 75 participants and raised more than $3,750 for the Remodelers Council of the Northeast Florida Builders Association (NEFBA).

The tournament began with a shotgun start at W.W. Sporting Clays. Teams of four competed with the Wells Fargo Advisors team, comprised of Matt Turner and Chris Sivley, both of Wells Fargo, Wayne Holmes of Panel Tek and Lonnie Pomar of Osteen’s Restaurant, taking home top team honors with a combined score of 309. Pomar was the overall highest individual scorer with 87 and Mandy Bouton of Ferguson Enterprises earned top female shooter with a score of 35.

In addition to Ferguson Enterprises, event sponsors included Enterprise Fleet Management, Tile Market of San Marco, Florida Custom Marble, B&G Plumbing, Heating & Air, Identity Theft Training, Touchton Plumbing and Vigneaux Corporation.

Founded in 1982, the Remodelers Council of the Northeast Florida Builders Association represents and serves the interests of remodeling industry members. More information is available at www.nefba.com.

For more information about NEFBA, visit www.nefba.com or call (904) 725-4355.