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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 6, 2007

TAMPA BAY AREA

Customers of Tampa Electric and Progress Energy Florida will pay less for electricity next year under plans approved Tuesday by Florida's Public Service Commission. Electric bills for Tampa Electric's residential customers will drop 16 cents to $114.38 for 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month, or 21 cents for 1,250 kilowatt-hours a month, the average consumption of a typical Tampa Electric customer. Electric bills for Progress Energy's residential customers will drop $2.23 to $108.11 for every 1,000 kilowatt-hours of consumption.

The developers of Trump Tower Tampa may find out Thursday whether they will get more time to get the luxury tower back on track. A hearing originally set for Tuesday was rescheduled to 9 a.m. Thursday at federal court in Tampa. Developer SimDag LLC and Donald Trump are seeking an extension of up to 65 days for SimDag to respond to a lawsuit Trump filed in May. In the lawsuit, Trump asked to terminate his licensing agreement with the developer. Now, SimDag is trying to work out a financing deal with a New York hedge fund.

STATE

A cosmetics company has sued Dreamworks Animation SKG and Paramount Pictures,the movie studios behind the "Bee Movie" that was released Friday, claiming they wrongfully used the marketing slogan "Give Bees A Chance" in the movie's advertising. Fort Lauderdale-based Beeceuticals LLC sells cosmetics and skin care products made with organic honey. Its lawsuit said Beeceuticals' slogan has been used more than 400 times since March on radio personality Howard Stern'ssatellite radio show. Beeceuticals said in the lawsuit that it filed an application to trademark the slogan in October 2006. Stern is a cousin of Richard Gerber, a cosmetics company director.

NET

Oprah Winfrey now has a channel on the online video site YouTube (youtube.com/oprah) offering behind-the-scenes footage from "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

NATION

General Motors said Tuesday that it will book a $39 billion, third-quarter noncash charge for today's earnings announcement as it reduces some net deferred tax assets to $0 to comply with federal accounting rules. The company cited a "three-year historical cumulative" third-quarter 2007 loss in the United States, Canada and Germany for the charge, as well as a $1.6 billion third-quarter loss at its partly owned GMAC finance unit.

A staff and wire report

Watch the Tribune's Business report at 5, 6 and 11 a.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. Saturdays on WFLA-TV.

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