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The Times-Union editorial staff recently submitted the following question to its e-mail list of residents regarding the Property Tax amendment:

“If passed, the constitutional amendment on property taxes will double the personal homestead exemption and save the average homestead property owner about $225 a year. Supporters say government is fat and needs to be forced to cut spending. Opponents say this approach for cutting taxes is all wrong and that the potential damage to local government services isn’t worth the annual savings. What is your view and why?"

Here are some of the responses sent to My St. Johns Sun. If you have thoughts on this topic, please create a username and post a comment.

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Related: read more | JonathanBennett's blog | login or register to post comments | Tags: awesome | the playbook | week 5

St. Johns County high school football fans: your show has arrived. Join us for the inaugural episode of The Playbook

We will debut a new episode every Friday morning, previewing up-coming games, and reviewing last week's biggest hits.

Stayed tuned this season for the most complete St. Johns County football coverage.

Here are the 10 Questions! The only way to participate is to create a username and be logged in. Once you are logged in, just click "add new comment" at the end of this blog to submit your answers. Yes, we know, you can see other people's guesses and they can see yours, but don't worry! We will be giving several prizes, so there will be more than just one or two winners.

Each question is worth one point, and those of you with the most points are eligible for prizes. This contest will be open through next Saturday. Good luck!

1) What happens when you click on the MyStJohnsSun.com logo (at the top-left of every page)

We might only be 7 years into this century, but I might have just stumbled upon the greatest discovery of the next 1,000 years. The cure for heart disease.

It all started with this article: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/06/27/pl.nuts/

The story, dated from June, mentions that "Women who eat nuts more than four times a week are 40 per cent less likely to die of heart disease". Wow, that's kind of amazing, isn't it? The research suggests that you can almost half your risk of deadly heart disease just by eating nuts 4x a week.

Then I started thinking: Weren't there similar findings for chocolate, wine, fish, aspirin, a low carb diet and so on and so forth?

It looks like they're selling the new Harry Potter book early in Nassau, and we have photo proof-

Here's the entire photo gallery 

Have you ever been enjoying a meal at a fine restaurant (or slopping your way through a burger and fries) and wondered what was happening behind the kitchen's swinging doors?

Well, we have compiled a list of all the restaurant violations from every establishment in Northeast Florida, which means that your favorite haunt is definitely listed. Just to whet your appetite- one St. Johns restaurant had 50 violations in 2006. 

Ready to peek behind those doors?

Just drag that mouse of yours on top of the "News" link in the black menu bar at the top of the page and you'll see "Restaurant Violations" appear just underneath. Click on that and you'll be there! 

I am endlessly fascinated by maps- and I thought I would share one of my favorite online map collections. Worldmapper.org has hundreds of Cartograms, which are basically maps whose territories are re-sized depending on the shown variable. Enough technical talk, here's an example:

It probably wouldn't take you more than two or three guesses to figure out what this map is measuring, but it's HIV prevalence. In 2003, 4 out of every 10 people in Swaziland (which is in Southern Africa) were HIV positive. Sure, 4 out of 10 people is a lot, but seeing a map of the problem is stunning.