In the news

Dixie Chicks will stop in Tampa

The Dixie Chicks, who scored three Grammy Awards on Sunday night, announced Monday that their new tour will bring them to the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa at 7:30 p.m. May 5, with special guest Joan Osborne. The U.S. tour starts May 1 in Greenville, S.C., and continues for nearly 60 arena dates before wrapping in Nashville in August. From there, the trio will tour Europe and Australia. Tickets for the Tampa show are $35-$65 and go on sale Saturday through all Ticketmaster outlets and the Forum box office. Charge by phone at (813) 287-8844 or (727) 898-2100, or online at www.ticketmaster.com.

Arnett goes to Baghdad for MSNBC

NEW YORK -- Peter Arnett, whose Baghdad reporting during the 1991 Gulf War helped put CNN on the map, will have a new outlet if there's another war in Iraq: CNN rival MSNBC.

The veteran foreign correspondent, who left CNN under the cloud of a retracted documentary he anchored, was named Baghdad correspondent for National Geographic Explorer, a series that airs Sunday nights.

As part of the deal, Arnett will also provide live reports from Baghdad for MSNBC, as the network needs him, an MSNBC spokesman said. Although MSNBC and parent NBC News have their own reporters in Baghdad, Arnett, the spokesman said, has more of a history over there than most reporters and he knows his way around.

Governor names new film commissioner

ORLANDO -- Gov. Jeb Bush named a Universal Orlando Resort executive Monday to be the state's new film commissioner.

Susan Albershardt, who has worked for more than 25 years in the film and television industry as a writer, producer and promotions vice president, replaces Rebecca Mattingly. Albershardt currently works as the assistant manager of television development at the Universal Orlando Resort.

Albershardt said she would push for state and city governments to offer more incentives for production companies to film in Florida. Florida has lost film business to Canada and other countries that offer more cash and tax incentives than the Sunshine State, she said.

"Those incentives are very, very important to big projects here that really affect our economy in a major way," Albershardt said.

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