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Six Sigma story was well-received

Re: The 80-Cent solution, July 31

I want to thank you for the excellent article you wrote. I've gotten a great deal of positive feedback from students and faculty members. It was gracious of you to take the time to attend the project presentations, visit with the students and work with the folks at TSE. As my son used to say when he was little: "More Better" things are yet to come.

Jerry McCollum, instructor, Six Sigma program, St. Petersburg College

Phones that just make and accept calls are just fine

Re: Cingular to charge $5 a month for old phones, Aug. 1

I am a Cingular Wireless customer who uses a Nokia model 6360 phone. For those of you unfamiliar with that particular model, it does not have e-mail. (It has) no video phone, no camera phone, no special ring tones and no music. But believe it or not, it does send and receive phone calls quite nicely and it even allows me to check my voice messages.

Your article mentioned a $5 monthly charge that Cingular is planning to impose of users of "old" cell phone technology, such as myself. I was told by a Cingular representative that the additional $5 per month is necessary because it is expensive for Cingular to maintain the "old" digital cell phone towers inherited from AT&T Wireless. Sorry, guys, but I'm not buying your story.

According to the St. Petersburg Times, "about 4.7-million Cingular Wireless subscribers will have to pay $5 extra each month ..." If my math is correct, that equates to $23.5-million per month in additional revenue for Cingular.

But wait, there's more! I was told by my Cingular representative that I could switch to a newer GSM phone that does not have a lot of gadgets for free. I was told that to be eligible for a new GSM phone, I would be required to sign a new two-year contract. Now is it just me or am I (and every other digital phone user) being taken for a ride by this cellular phone carrier?

The bottom line is we, the mobile phone consumer, have no voice. We are told when our perfectly usable phones are no longer good enough for us, we are told which services we can't live without and we are told that we should be taking pictures, sending e-mail and downloading our favorite musician's album with our phones. Give me a break!

Kevin Viebrock, Largo

Only winners in tobacco suits are the lawyers

Re: Smoke over tobacco not clear, column, July 31

Every few years the government and the media trot out the old bugaboo about tobacco and second-hand smoke. Most of this is nothing but bull, but the courts and the public eat it up. Your article states the cigarette companies are negligent, the products defective, addictive and the cause of 16 major diseases. How are cigarettes defective? Yes, they are addictive and the public has been aware of this since the mid 1950s.

When the lawyers won these lawsuits a few years ago against the tobacco companies, the money was supposed to be used to treat all the "smoking-related diseases." Very little, if any, of this money was used for this purpose. Instead, it enriched the lawyers with obscene fees and was a windfall for the states. Now you say the lawyers are gearing up for another onslaught of lawsuits. It is simply that the tobacco companies are vulnerable and have extremely deep pockets. The tobacco companies have become a cash cow for the lawyers. Pure and simple.

If smoking is so bad why not make it illegal?

Larry Travis, Tarpon Springs

Average is perhaps not best way to judge wages

Re: Pasco workers bring home less bacon, July 31

I live in St. Petersburg and know few if any folks who make $18.25 an hour, which is the presumed "average" pay hereabouts. I suspect that the real significance of the respective rates of pay cited for Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties is that there are more comparatively very highly paid workers in Pinellas and particularly in Hillsborough who pull the average up.

I suspect that a look at other measures like the median pay rate would show that the typical working person's wages are more similar than these average rates would suggest. Otherwise, the plan by Pemco World Air Services to draw "aircraft people still in Tampa doing $10-an-hour auto mechanic jobs" to Dothan, Ala., discussed in Steve Huettel's article (Airline mechanics may find jobs up north, July 31), would be doomed to failure.

Richard Johnson, St. Petersburg

Does Progress produce more than it consumes?

Re: Among the nation's dirtiest, July 28

According to this article, Progress Energy used 6-million tons of coal to produce electricity, while generating 17-million tons of carbon dioxide. This means that Progress Energy has created a mass generator, producing at least 11-million tons more than they consumed.

This is a remarkable achievement considering that in addition to generating all this mass, they generated an additional 22-million megawatt hours that they sold to us.

Jim Throne, Dunedin

EDITOR'S NOTE: According to a spokesman for Progress Energy, each ton of coal burned uses 10 tons of oxygen, which produces, as a byproduct, the 17-million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

Where can I find a meal prep store?

Re: Meal prep shakeout, Aug. 2

Where can I find a meal prep store near me? Are they listed as meal prep in the yellow pages? The story was great but because the industry is new, many people such as me cannot locate a store nearby.

Yvette Feazell, Largo

EDITOR'S NOTE: The easiest place is the easy meal prep association Web site: www.easymealprep.com. It has a state-by-state listing. Not all stores are listed because of the rapid growth of the industry. Some local stores may not appear if they are not members of the trade group.

[Last modified August 6, 2006, 01:01:01]