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Today’s headlines
Confidence lost
More disturbing company news and wariness from Bush's speech leave little motivation for investors.

Tourism better, but still lagging
While Florida tourism has improved faster than expected, it has come at the expense of steep discounts.

Eckerd halts drug marketing practice
In addition, the drug company agrees to spend $1-million to endow an ethics chair at FAMU.

Loan for tourism marketing sought
CLEARWATER -- Thanks to slumping hotel tax revenues, Pinellas County tourist marketers on Wednesday sliced $600,000 from this year's budget and cut the marketing budget for the upcoming fiscal year by 15 percent.

SunTrust battered by report
Last fall, SunTrust Bank worked hard to defuse all the controversy over the news that it allowed a series of bank accounts to be opened by noncitizens who turned out to be terrorists involved in the attacks of Sept. 11.

Times and entertainment venues in marketing deal
The St. Petersburg Times will have exclusive newspaper sales and promotional rights at St. Petersburg's BayWalk and Tampa's Centro Ybor retail and entertainment complexes under a sponsorship agreement announced Wednesday.

Business today
HOUSE PANEL MOVES AGAINST FOREIGN TAX HAVENS: The House Appropriations Committee approved a legislative amendment that would bar the federal government from contracting with U.S. companies that use foreign tax havens, the Washington Post reported. The amendment would apply to dozens of companies incorporated in places like the Barbados, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, and whose stock is publicly traded in the United States, the Post said.