Brockman adds oversight for Disney-ABC International TV, publishing unit Hyperion and Buena Vista Prods. to his duties.

He also spearheads corporate, news and entertainment communication for the Disney-ABC TV Group, which includes ABC; Disney Channels Worldwide; cable networks ABC Family and SOAPnet; Radio Disney; Walt Disney TV Animation; ABC Studios; and ABC corporate initiatives.

Brockman reports to Disney-ABC TV Group president Anne Sweeney and Walt Disney Co. exec vp corporate communications Zenia Mucha.

"A consummate professional and a skilled communications executive, Kevin is simply the best of the best," Sweeney said.

"It really was that group of students that helped to make the A possible," said Lana Saffold, the school's fifth-grade team leader.

Every year, the Florida Department of Education assigns grades to public schools based primarily on results from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test - FCAT. Schools, like students, are graded on a scale of A through F.

After earning a second A the following year, students and teachers at Wimauma Elementary are awaiting the announcement of this year's grades to see if they can make it three years in a row.

Either way, Saffold wanted to reward that particular class - now in fifth grade - before they graduated and moved on to middle school.

On May 15, 86 Wimauma Elementary students, along with 15 chaperons, took a field trip to Epcot in Orlando.

"We specifically picked Epcot because not only would it be a fun trip for the students, but it's also the most educational out of all the Disney parks," Saffold said. "The students got to see in person and touch a lot of the concepts they'd only heard about from a textbook in school."

It was a trip Saffold and the rest of the school had been preparing for since the start of the school year.

The outing was budgeted at $6,747, including transportation costs.

Since the start of the fall semester, the school raised $4,427 through individual and business donations, as well as fundraisers such as spaghetti dinners and the Spring Fling Festival in February.

That left $2,320 for the school to find to make the trip possible.

Saffold turned to the Community Foundation of Greater Sun City Center.

The organization, which serves the area south of the Alafia River, is a division of the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay, an administrator of endowment funds that connects donors with philanthropic projects.

"Kids are the building blocks for the future and we like to do everything in our power to build a better community for them," said Evelyn Lunsford, chairwoman of the Sun City Center foundation on her organization's mission.

On Feb. 20, Saffold wrote a grant requesting the rest of the money necessary to make the field trip. The next month, she found out it had been accepted.

"I was like, 'Oh my God, we got it,'" Saffold said. "We're very grateful to them because we all worked very hard and they came in and gave us a third of our budget."

The trip also corresponded with the school's multicultural festivities throughout May, including the Multicultural Parade and Display on May 14 and the Multicultural Festival on May 23.

"Epcot has all those different displays for all the different cultures, and this was the first time a lot of our kids had seen those things," Saffold said. "It was also the first time a lot of them had been to Disney.

The money is the largest cash infusion in the project's nearly 20-year history. It will pay for environmental studies for the first leg of the project.

The money had been delayed by a drafting error in Congress' 2005 highway bill, which was corrected along with some other changes by the legislation signed Friday by Bush. The delay had allowed a competing and cheaper diesel-electric plan to emerge as an alternative, but with the money now freed up supporters hope to move forward with the MagLev plan.

The train is meant to ease traffic on increasingly clogged Interstate 15, the main route for the millions of Southern Californians who make the 250-plus-mile drive to Las Vegas each year. There is no train on the route -- Amtrak's Desert Wind between Los Angeles and Las Vegas was canceled in 1997 because of low ridership.

Teens have embraced gift cards faster than any other segment. According to the Teen Gift Card Survey commissioned by Comdata in 2007, teens reported that nearly one-half (46 percent) of the presents they give are gift cards — a 12 percent increase from 2006.

"Combining Seastone's best-of-class gift card packaging with world famous Disney characters is going to revolutionize gift card giving – particularly for children, teens and Disney lovers of all ages," said Eric Child, Seastone President. "In 2007 teens purchased almost double the number of gift cards they did in 2006*. We believe innovative packaging featuring the Disney brand will make gift cards and gift card packaging even more popular."

The Seastone Walt Disney Collection will also feature Winnie the Pooh, Pirates of the Caribbean and Disney Fairies. The timing of this news comes during the ramp up for 2008 year-round and holiday gift card programs. With more than 100 million units shipped in 2007, shoppers can purchase Seastone gift card packaging from many top retailers, including Kohl's, Albertson's, Home Depot, Dick's Sporting Goods, Walgreens, and Wal-Mart.

Following in the footsteps of the highly successful, record-breaking "High School Musical" franchise, “Camp Rock” uses songs to tell much of its story with the themes "believe in yourself," "express yourself," and "be proud of who you are" carried through the lyrics. Together, the songs tell the story in this celebratory, song and dance-filled movie.

Starring platinum-certified Hollywood Records’ recording artists and Top 40 and Radio Disney hit-makers Jonas Brothers (Joe, Kevin and Nick) and singer/songwriter/actress Demi Lovato (of Disney Channel's "As the Bell Rings"), "Camp Rock" is the story of a talented yet unsure teen who yearns to share her songs with the world, and of a tempestuous young superstar who's lost his passion for music and is sent packing by his band mates. Together, at a camp for aspiring young music artists, they learn to believe in themselves and to value the freedom to be who they really want to be.

The accomplished songwriters who contributed songs to the soundtrack are: Andy Dodd, Adam Watts, Mitch Allan, Greg Wells, Pam Sheyne, Toby Gad, Antonina Armato, Tim James, Jamie Houston, Robbie Nevil, Matthew Gerrard, Nikki Hasman, Adam Anders and Kara Dioguardi.

A spokesperson for State Attorney Larson Lamar in Orlando said the charge of carrying a concealed weapon was dropped following "receipt of exculpatory evidence." She said that means law enforcement officials determined that there wasn't sufficient evidence to proceed with prosecution.

Richardson's trial had been scheduled to start on Monday, June 2. The Orange County, Fla., clerk of courts office said due to an error, the trail date was not deleted from the court calendar posted on its website when the charges were dropped.

The film is scheduled for release in theaters in 2009.

"We're exploring what we should do," said Tom Toumazis, exec VP and managing director of Disney-ABC Intl. TV. "We're kicking ideas around as to whether we put on a road show and go to each of the markets and present our new lineup in full, or whether we host something."

Like all the other U.S. studios, Disney hosted a slimmed-down version of its annual sales bazaar last month as a result of the WGA strike, which delayed pilot production.

"We had a very different screenings this year," said Toumazis. "We didn't have a big event on the lot; we didn't have our full lineup."

Of the six new shows on offer from ABC Studios, just one -- CBS laffer "Project Gary" -- was for a broadcast network's fall schedule.

The other five series included Steven Bochco's new legal drama "Raising the Bar" for TNT and first run syndie series "Wizard's First Rule."

Given the strength of ABC's current schedule, Toumazis said, it was going to be a quiet year for the studio even without the strike.

ABC added just one scripted series to its fall lineup, a remake of British cop drama "Life on Mars." Come September, though, London-based Toumazis is expecting to have a number of midseason pickups to unveil to international buyers.

"I'm very optimistic we're going to have another three or four network shows to present to all our clients," he said. "Then what we've got to figure out is how we do that."

ABC Studios has nine pilots in development for midseason, including ABC comedy "Bad Mother's Handbook" and the dramas "Finnegan" and "The Prince of Motor City."

"I like the idea of taking our shows to our markets, and at the same time, I also like the idea of bringing a collection of buyers together," added Toumazis. "So we may do a little bit of both."

According to U.K. program buyers, one possible location Disney execs are discussing is Turkey. But the possibility of traveling to yet another event in a busy sales calendar has met with mixed reactions.

"I'm not shipping out my staff to Turkey," said Jay Kandola, director of acquisitions at commercial web ITV. "I don't think it makes more sense to have more screenings."

Other buyers, though, said they would be keen to make the journey if there was a critical mass of new shows to screen.