Urban News

(MIAMI) -- One of the most durable symbols of south Florida, the annual Orange Bowl Parade, has become the victim of changing times. According to the Miami Herald, the parade -- a 62-year tradition -- has seen its final rank-and-file performance.

The Orange Bowl's governors voted 120-1 this week to abolish the New Year's Eve event, saying that the parade and its attached festivities have outlived their usefulness. Back in 1997 the event lost a national TV contract and with it the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate sponsorships. No visibility on national TV, no chip-in of funds.

Couple all of this with increased concerns about security and it's "Bye, Bye, Orange Bowl Parade!"

(NEW YORK) -- When Cantor Fitzgerald lost more than 650 of its employees when the World Trade Center towers collapsed on Sept. 11, everyone wondered what future action the company would take. The investment firm had posh offices on the 101st-through-105th floors of the north tower. When the towers were attacked, there was no way down. Published reports indicate that more than one third of the company's workstaff died in the terror attacks.

Now, rising as a phoenix, the company says it's about to move into new digs in Manhattan, five floors of a sweeping 32-story building near Lexington Avenue.

Since the events of late September, the company's Big Apple corps has been operating out of temporary suites in a variety of buildings. The move back to a single office will not only be a boon to the efficiency of the company but will serve as a psychological shot in the arm as the venerable brokerage house seeks to rebuild ... and move on.

(CHICAGO) -- More information is emerging about that freak scaffolding accident at the John Hancock building in Chicago last weekend that took the lives of three people on the ground. City investigators tell the Sun-Times that the company operating the scaffold used it beyond the manufacturer's specifications.

The publication says that the company that made the elevated work platform specified that in heavy weather -- and it was extremely windy in the Windy City when the accident happened Saturday -- the structure should have had better anchorage. Forecasters had posted wind warnings of nearly 60 miles per hour for that day.

The scaffolding was not in use at the time and was "docked" on the 42nd floor of the building. A portion fell to the street below, crushing passing cars.

(SALT LAKE CITY) -- Officials at the University of Utah say they have filed a lawsuit in a federal court seeking to continue a ban on firearms on campus, in spite of calls from some state legislators to end the practice. A spokesman for the university's president, Bernie Machen, tells media that he must continue to do all he can to keep his school safe. Machen says that carrying weapons on school grounds is "fundamentally incompatible with academic freedom" and that guns endanger free speech on campus. The ban has been in existence for 25 years.

Meanwhile, Utah remains one of the easiest states to get a permit to carry a weapon. The state's attorney general is quoted as saying that the ban is not workable because it is the state government's right to dictate policy in that arena.

State legislators did ban the carrying of weapons by those other than police and other law enforcement units in the area around the Winter Games last month.