Florida to take over Weeki Wachee Springs

Florida to take over
Weeki Wachee Springs

WEEKI WACHEE, Fla. — The famous mermaids of Weeki Wachee Springs will become state employees on Nov. 1.

That’s when the venerable roadside attraction will become a state park. The Southwest Florida Water Management District, which owns the land and spring, approved the deal Jan. 29.

The tiny town of Weeki Wachee owns the park but asked the state Department of Environmental Protection to take it on after years of disputes with the water management district. The state says it plans to keep the famous live mermaid shows intact.

The park opened 60 years ago about 50 miles north of Tampa, making it one of Florida’s oldest tourist attractions.

8 Earth Day festivals
planned across U.S.

WASHINGTON — Eight simultaneous Earth Day festivals are being planned across the country for April 20 with the flagship event on the National Mall in Washington.

Organizers plan to stage free outdoor concerts in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco. Producers of the Green Apple Festival, which began three years ago in New York, and organizers of the first Earth Day in 1970 are staging the events in landmark parks.

The D.C. event will feature political leaders, scientists, celebrities and bands.

Producer Peter Shapiro says more than a dozen music venues in each city will be enlisted to help carry the environmental message throughout the weekend.

For more information, visit www.greenapplemusicfestival.com.

Lincoln museum
will go on the road

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A mobile Abraham Lincoln museum will make its debut at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site.

The Kentucky Historical Society will debut the traveling “Kentucky’s Abraham Lincoln” display during the opening ceremonies of the National Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commemoration on Feb. 12.

According to a release from the Historical Society, its HistoryMobile is a 300-square-foot exhibit inside a tractor trailer.

The Lincoln display has several visits scheduled across the state, from Ashland to Paducah, during Lincoln’s birth month of February. It also has a two-week visit scheduled at the Kentucky State Fair in August.

Singapore Airlines
to fly Airbus A380

SINGAPORE — Singapore Airlines Ltd. plans to fly the world’s largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380, on the Singapore-London route starting in March.

The airline will take delivery of the third of the double-decker planes into its fleet by mid-March, and will fly it daily between the city-state and London from March 18, the carrier said in a statement.

Singapore Airlines received its second superjumbo on Jan. 11, and said it would use it to complement the first A380 service on the Singapore-Sydney route.

The double-decker A380 ends the nearly 37-year reign of the U.S.-made Boeing 747 jumbo jet as the world’s most spacious passenger plane. The first plane was delivered to Singapore Airlines on Oct. 15, 18 months behind schedule after billions of dollars in cost overruns for Airbus SAS.

Associated Press