Dateline Florida

By Times Wires
Published November 30, 2007

Lunchtime shoppers park free

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio wants you to keep your quarters for shopping this holiday season. Throughout December, all parking meters in Ybor City will be free between 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m., to encourage lunchtime holiday shopping in the business district. But there's a price tag for helping Ybor's merchants and patrons. City officials estimate they'll take a $21,000 hit in revenue. Garages will charge regular rates.

Alleged crime didn't pay; neither did extra effort

Burglary is hard work. First, police say, a man cut a hole in the fence at Bond Auto Sales in Tampa. Then he broke into a car trunk to swipe a jack, which he used to prop up the dealership's garage door. All that for a few tools. Alas, a witness saw it all go down and called police. Reinaldo Figueroa, 26, was arrested and faces three felony burglary charges and one felony grand theft auto charge.

Trials will stay together

A judge denies suspended USF student Youssef Megahed's request that his trial on explosive charges be separate from Ahmed Mohamed's. Eckerd College touts environmental efforts

Eckerd College wants everyone to know how green it is. The St. Petersburg private liberal arts school just launched a Web site - www.eckerd.edu/green - that highlights all its environmentally friendly efforts. You can read about Eckerd's yellow bicycle program, which plants the free wheels around the campus to encourage students to alternative modes of transportation. Learn about the student-run recycling program, the environmental film festival or how campus restaurants have switched from Styrofoam to biodegradable containers.

[Last modified November 30, 2007, 00:04:23]