Sen. John McCain’s Straight Talk Express passed through the First Coast Sept. 15 for a campaign rally at the Veteran’s Memorial Arena.

The event was originally scheduled to take place at the Jacksonville Fairgrounds but was rescheduled during the weekend to accommodate the overwhelming demand for tickets.

The original venue could only support 2,000 people.

Venue staffers estimated there were approximately 4,000 in attendance at the arena, only a quarter of its capacity.

A new hot dog stand opened on campus eight months after the departure of Miracle Kate’s, which university officials said was due to a conflict of contract issues.

Owned and operated by the Mayes family, the new stand also operates the concession stand at the UNF Arena.

Miracle Kate’s stopped serving in January after Chartwells presented the mom and pop stand with a new contract, stating Miracle Kate’s had to serve one less day a week and could be asked to leave at any time, owner Mary Yeoman said.

A new advising program is in the works that will free UNF from its U Never Finish moniker, UNF officials said.

The Roadmap Initiative will outline term-by-term the recommended courses students should take in the particular major they have chosen, said Dr. David Jaffee, Assistant Vice President of Undergraduate Studies at Academic Affairs.

The program was modeled after the universal tracking system at the University of Florida as a way to provide students with guidance to move more expeditiously through their program, Jaffee said.

They went back and forth, arguing their points of view and answering questions for the audience. The only thing the two could agree on was that UNF was the perfect setting for the debate, they said.

Adam Guillette, state director of the Florida chapter of Americans for Prosperity, and Ken Hurley, Greater Jacksonville American Civil Liberties Union president, debated formally proposed Florida constitutional Seventh and Ninth Amendments Sept. 15 in the Fine Arts Center.

Dr. Jarik Conrad, president of Conrad Consulting Group, LLC. Conrad grew up in a housing project in East St. Louis, Ill., an area that has been described as the most distressed small city in America.

Conrad recently led the Blueprint for Prosperity, an initiative to improve Jacksonville’s quality of life.