Talk of the bay: Mass appeal to ramp up efforts in mass transit
By Times staff, wires
Published March 16, 2007
Mass appeal to ramp up efforts in mass transit
Give us fast buses, give us commuter trains, give us trollies, but let our people get to work on time. Three groups representing hundreds of Tampa-area companies have pitched their support to mass transit as an alternative to traffic jams. The Tampa Downtown Partnership, the Westshore Alliance and the New North Transportation Alliance urged aggressive action to build commuter links between major employment centers. "To maintain our competitiveness in attracting businesses and qualified employees, we need to provide multiple ways for people to get around," said Fred Dobbins, chairman of the downtown partnership.
Verizon connects in cell phone study
It says its network has the "fewest dropped calls." Verizon Wireless seems to be living by its slogan. A 2007 J.D. Power and Associates wireless call quality performance study found Verizon scoring top marks in the Southeast, Southwest, West, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Customers surveyed said the company had fewer problems with interference, static and voice distortion.
It's Miami airport, not a liquor store
Miami International Airport is swimming in booze, specifically large bottles of the stuff confiscated by federal screeners. The Transportation Security Administration collected more than 9-million tons of oversized bottles at the airport between October and January, according to USA Today. Most are bottles of alcohol taken from passengers returning from Caribbean cruises. Since last summer, the TSA has limited travelers to carrying liquids in bottles 3 ounces or smaller aboard aircraft. Larger bottles are allowed inside checked luggage. A spokesman for American Airlines was perplexed why so many passengers put the bottles in carry-on bags. Maybe they've seen the rising number of checked bags lost by the airlines.
Correction
The last paragraph of a short item on page 1D was omitted on Thursday. Here's the omitted paragraph:
Syniverse Technologies said it now provides number portability solutions to most U.S. mobile operators and all mobile network operators in Europe. The company built the number portability system in Finland and is also involved with systems in parts of Asia.
All about money
Times personal finance editor Helen Huntley answers your finance questions at blogs.tampabay.com/money.