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Business Today

By Times Wire
Published January 19, 2005

PSC APPROVES SURCHARGE REQUEST: The Florida Public Service Commission voted 4-1 Tuesday to approve Florida Power & Light Co.'s request to add a preliminary surcharge to customer bills to cover more than $350-million in hurricane recovery costs. The PSC hasn't held hearings to determine whether the costs were prudently incurred. If the commission later decides they weren't, the Juno Beach utility will be required to refund its customers the storm costs plus interest. Consumer advocates oppose the surcharge, which will amount to $2.09 per 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity consumed per month.

EX-EDITOR, DEAN ARE FINALISTS: The former editor of the Tampa Tribune and the dean of the University of Florida College of Journalism are finalists to become dean of the school of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of North Carolina, according to published reports. Frank Denton resigned from the Tribune in December after 11 months. Terry Hynes has been dean at UF since 1994. The third finalist is Gerald Baldasty, chairman of the communications department at the University of Washington.

JABIL EXPECTS "EXPLODING' DEMAND: Jabil Circuit Inc., the St. Petersburg company that designs and builds electronics for other companies, will benefit this year from "exploding" demand, chief executive officer Timothy Main told Bloomberg News Service. "Since our trough in 2002, we've more than doubled our revenue and more than tripled our earnings, so there's been a tremendous amount of growth in our business," Main said.

MAY STOCK JUMPS: May Department Stores Co. stock surged Tuesday amid renewed optimism for the company in the wake of chief executive Gene Kahn's abrupt resignation Friday. The shares rose $4.37, or 16 percent, to close at $32.21 on the New York Stock Exchange. President John Dunham is interim chairman and chief executive.

WORLDCOM TRIAL BEGINS: The judge in the trial of ex-WorldCom Inc. chief Bernard Ebbers ruled Tuesday that the defense could quiz the star witness about marital infidelity and blocked testimony about Ebbers' knowledge of hearings into the Enron scandal. The government had sought to produce evidence that Ebbers watched the hearings on the collapse of Enron Corp. and discussed them with Scott Sullivan, his chief financial officer. The judge also said she would allow Ebbers' defense lawyers to question Sullivan about marital infidelity because it addresses "Mr. Sullivan's character for truthfulness."

[Last modified January 19, 2005, 00:35:17]