FYI Miami is a weekly feature of Miami Today, keeping readers ahead of the news. Here are highlights from the most current edition.

MOVING MESSAGE: The defeat of a sales tax initiative for transportation isn't the end of efforts to bolster county transportation infrastructure, Mayor Alex Penelas told the Beacon Council last week. "I am more committed now than ever in our efforts to bring forth a world-class transportation system for this community," he said, adding "don't be surprised" if he comes back soon to ask the Beacon Council to push a new, unspecified transportation initiative. BOUNCING BACK: It was good to be able to be present, Ryder System President and COO Gregory Swienton told those at the Beacon Council's mid-year meeting Thursday at the Biltmore. "To those who watched the Heat-Knicks game" the night before, "if you saw Marcus Camby fall out of bounds, he fell on me" — leading Ryder's human resources head to ask him if he wanted to file for workers comp.

BETTER LATE...: Months ago a blue-ribbon panel that he appointed recommended an authority be created to run Miami International Airport, but Mayor Alex Penelas never backed the findings. Now, with an authority proposal by County Commission Chair Gwen Margolis before the commission this week, the mayor hints he has something in mind. "I can assure you that I will be proposing major reforms," the mayor told the Beacon Council last week — something that will make the airport run more like a business.

FACE TO FACE: Gov. Jeb Bush phones companies to lure them to Florida. County Mayor Alex Penelas goes him one better and visits — to keep companies here. "This year alone we've visited 10 businesses," he told the Beacon Council's mid-year meeting last week.

DREDGING COMMITMENT: The Florida Inland Navigation District last week agreed to provide a $330,000 matching grant to reimburse the county's Department of Environmental Resource Management for environmental studies done to prepare for the dredging of the Miami River, said Fran Bohnsack, executive director of the Miami River Marine Group.

CITY NEGOTIATION: Diane Johnson, senior development coordinator for the City of Miami, said Florida Inland Navigation District commissioners strengthened their commitment to fund dredging when the project was removed from a competitive grant program. Instead, district commissioners agreed to negotiate a pact with county and city governments. Dredging is expected to benefit the Intracoastal Waterway maintained by the district. Although the city has not formally sought the funds, Ms. Johnson said, it will.

BANK VISITORS: International banks in Miami annually draw an estimated 186,700 foreign and domestic visitors, 115,762 foreign clients, 3,262 officers from Latin America and 2,978 officers from US affiliates, says a survey sponsored by Florida International Bankers Association. Banks managed $39.5 billion in foreign assets and employed 5,291 people in Miami at the end of 1999.

MIAMI VOTES: Political humorist Mark Russell drew laughter at a recent Northern Trust Bank breakfast forum with his own presidential poll, throwing into the equation non-candidates as well as candidates and rating the results by the volume of applause. The crowd got progressively louder as he called out Bradley, then McCain, then Gore and finally Bush. But he got by far the loudest applause for his fifth choice: "None of the above."

ANOTHER CANDIDATE: Mr. Russell clearly knew where he was speaking, and his audience loved it. "I come to you," he began, "to announce that I am a candidate for the city manager of the City of Miami. I know that you already have one — but it's only Wednesday." Loud laughter. "Mayor Carollo called his secretary to say if the police chief calls to get his name." Louder laughter. And then, "I came here to personally thank you for six months of material."

GRAND PACO: Edgardo Defortuna, president of Fortune International Realty, and four other investors bought 84 unsold units at the Paco Rabanne condominium, 5900 Collins Ave., for $15 million. Built by Edel Development, the property got a certificate of occupancy in February and went into bankruptcy with 39 units sold. Mr. Defortuna says units at the tower, renamed The GrandView, range from $190,000-$450,000. "The beauty of this is it's one of the few new buildings that can be occupied immediately — a plus for buyers such as Colombians who can't buy in preconstruction and wait." Details: Ana Defortuna, (305) 868-5900.

FLOWN THE COOP: Richard Cooper, a director in Cushman & Wakefield's commercial brokerage division who had been with the company 17 years, has moved to Grubb & Ellis, where he's senior vice president in the office services group.

HONORARY HOSPITALITY: Johnson & Wales University gave R. Donahue Peebles his first honorary degree — a doctorate of business administration in hospitality management — at graduation ceremonies held in the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. Mr. Peebles is president and CEO of Peebles Atlantic Development Corp., which is responsible for developing the Royal Palm Crowne Plaza Resort and Lincoln office building under way in South Beach and the Bath Club Estates condo under construction in Miami Beach.

MANAGEMENT MEET: The North American Lake Management Society announced Miami is host city for its 20th annual international symposium Nov. 6-11. The program will feature 42 technical sessions and 150 presenters, according to Larry Butler, the association's president.

HISTORIC BIKES: Historian Paul George will lead a historical education tour and observe National Bicycling Month all at once starting at 10 a.m. Saturday when he guides a 2.5-hour, 20-mile bike tour from Mack Cycle & Fitness, 5995 Sunset Drive, South Miami, to Larkins and Cocoplum. The tour was organized by the Historical Museum of Southern Florida. Cost is $5. Details: (305) 661-8363. BAR BUSINESS: The Dade County Bar Association will install Ervin A. Gonzalez, attorney with Robles & Gonzalez, as its president in ceremonies June 9 at the Hotel Inter-Continental Miami. Details: (305) 371-5946.

FOUNDATION EDUCATION: The University of Miami and the Turkel Resource Foundation are presenting sessions on "Marketing & Public Relations" June 8 and "Fund-raising 104: How to ask for money" July 13 with Bruce Turkel of Turkel Schwartz & Partners and Louise P. Yarbrough, executive director for the Health Foundation of South Florida, presiding. Cost is $25 each. Details: (305) 284-5670.

ENTERTAINING FUTURE: The next Miami Today International Roundtable, co-sponsored by Bacardi USA, will look at "The International Future of Miami & Miami Beach as an Entertainment Mecca" at 5 p.m. June 15 in Penrod's South Beach, 1 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach. Reservations requested by June 8. Casual attire. Details: Jody Bray, (305) 358-2663.

E-INSIGHTS: Deloitte & Touche and the law firm Becker & Poliakoff are offering a half-day seminar on "Practical insights for today's growing e-business" from 5-9 p.m. June 13 in the Coral Gables Hyatt Regency, 50 Alhambra Plaza. Cost is $79; $59 before June 1. Details: (800) 432-7712, ext. 4144.<02>THREE-WAY: Miami-based 3Com Corp., a provider of data systems, is offering Latin Americans access to the Internet via cell phones, promoters say. In conjunction with Vesper in Brazil, 3Com will use third-generation mobile systems to help people in Latin American countries do e-commerce, get live stock quotes and send e-mail using mobile phones, company executives say. Details: (305) 461-8400.

WESTON WELCOME: Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the Broward Alliance, the Weston Chamber of Commerce and Itflorida.com will join together to welcome Semtor — an e-business consultancy firm — to Weston. The welcoming ceremony will take place at 1 p.m. May 26 in Suite 190, 3050 Universal Blvd., Weston. Details: (305) 347-4349.

CYBER AGENTS: Miami-based Willow CSN Inc. has signed Fingerhut Cos. — one of the nation's largest direct marketing and on-line retailers — as its newest client, promoters say. Willow CSN is a customer-care network that uses high-speed telecommunications to provide clients with access to the Willow CyberCenter Network — a group of customer service specialists or "Cyber Agents," company executives say. Details: (305) 810-1844.

GAME WIN: Boca Raton-based WinDough.com announced plans to give away $500,000 plus as much in related prizes. The new game in which players must choose a winning window, will run through Nov. 15, promoters say. In addition to the $500,000 grand prize WinDough — which promoters say makes its money through advertising — says it will also give away one $100,000 prize, two $25,000 prizes and five $10,000 prizes. Details: (954) 321-6334.

AD & SELL: Advertium.com — a media buying and selling site for the region and Latin America — announced it has secured first-round funding from the investment firm Hicks Muse Tate & Furst. Promoters say Advertium offers sellers of radio, print, television and the Internet industry in Latin America the opportunity to post inventory on-line for free. Company executives will not release the amount of funding.

HOT TOPICS: E-commerce, telecommunications, technology and logistics will be just a few of the topics discussed at the "New Industrial Revolution" seminar at 7:30 a.m. June 15 in the Don Shula Hotel, 6842 Main St., Miami Lakes. The seminar is being sponsored by the Urban Land Institute Program. Details: (800) 321-5011.

NEW VP: Guby.com — an Internet company that unites top Latin American search engines — announced the addition of Adriana Scalabrin as vice president of business operations. Before working at Guby.com Ms. Scalabrin was vice president of international media for McCann-Erickson Worldwide. She has also managed global initiatives for Coca-Cola, Nestle, General Motors and Motorola.

E-CHANNEL: The Boca Raton-based EmailChannel — a provider of e-mail services for permission-based marketers — announced it has received funding from Tampa-based Advantage Capital Florida Partners. The investment firm gave the EmailChannel an initial equity investment of $1 million.

GOOD SPORTS: Todosport Network Inc., a sports marketing firm on the Internet for Spanish and Portuguese communities, announced an initiative with financial site Consejero.com and MovilGo — a portal for wireless communications. The partnerships will help US Hispanic and Latin Americans to access sports content though the Internet and wireless devices. Details: (305) 695-2690.

SECURE MONEY: MercadoLibre.com, which operates on-line auctions in Spanish and Portuguese, announced it secured $46.5 million in a second round of financing. Executives say the financing came from Goldman Sachs, GE Equity, Banco Santander Central Hispano, Chase Capital Partners, Flatiron Partners and Hicks Muse Tate & Furst. Since August 1999 MercadoLibre has been launched in nine countries — the US, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Uruguay and Spain.

HALFWAY HOME: United Airlines scheduled a topping off event Wednesday to announce that construction of its $26.5 million, 95,000-square-foot cargo facility on 8.23 acres at Miami International Airport has reached the halfway point. United is moving 3 million pounds of cargo through Miami weekly, the airline announced, after moving 125 million pounds through MIA in 1999. The new cargo building is due to open in November.

LET'S TALK: More communication is needed between the South Florida Water Management District and county flood control systems to avert severe flood damage, a county task force concluded. Thomas MacVicar, a hydrologist who chaired the group, said more small pumps at coastal structures are also needed to regulate the flow of water in extreme circumstances.

CALLING 911: After being told response time in emergency services in some parts of the county averages 7 to 8 minutes Miami-Dade commissioners Tuesday called for faster reaction and a report on upgrading 911 equipment in 30 days. Randy Whitt, fire board spokesperson, said a task force is reviewing a substitute automated dispatch system that would help. County Manager Merrett Stierheim scheduled a June workshop on the matter. NO FOOLS WE: Miami-Dade Commissioner Javier Souto blasted unnamed state legislators whom he said were bad-mouthing commissioners and County Manager Merrett Stierheim during a Spanish-language radio program Tuesday over the commission's role in handling Jackson Memorial Hospital. "Some people in this town want to portray us as fools. They say we are incapable of working with the Public Health Trust," he said. He said he would have a transcript of the program read before commissioners so they would know what was being said about them.

ALLOWANCES CUT: Miami-Dade Commissioners Tuesday capped at 5% the amount county contracts of $500,000 or more can be increased for allowances, contingencies and added services. They also prohibited change orders that would raise a contract's cost by more than 10% without approval from the county audit department.