Miami-Dade sees first hiring drop since 2010




















Miami-Dade ended 2012 with its first overall job loss in more than two years as sharp drops in construction, healthcare and government jobs wiped out other gains.

The sectors all share one key funding source — tax dollars — as ongoing squeezes in government budgets force cutbacks in hospitals, infrastructure projects and basic municipal staffing. Miami-Dade lost nearly 5,000 local government jobs in December compared to the year before. Its hospital and construction sectors were both down almost 2,000 jobs each. Miami-Dade last saw its overall payroll number decline in June 2010.

Along with a hiring loss, Miami-Dade reported a sharp increase in people describing themselves as unemployed. Miami-Dade’s unemployment rate went from 8.4 percent in November to 8.8 percent in December, the sharpest increase since the recession was still underway in 2009.





Miami-Dade’s new job numbers were easily the most discouraging data set in Florida’s latest employment report. Florida reported an unemployment rate of 8 percent for December, down from 8.1 percent in November even though hiring is down for the year. And Broward recorded its second month of job gains, up about 5,000 positions.

Construction and government hiring have been rocky for years in South Florida, but the decline in the healthcare could mark a new, disturbing milestone for Miami-Dade’s economy. Before the end of 2012, Miami-Dade hospitals hadn’t reported a net job loss for 56 months. The losses follow significant layoffs at both the University of Miami medical school and the Jackson hospital system.

Miami-Dade’s 8.8 percent unemployment rate is still significantly lower than where it was a year ago, when unemployment sat at 10.2 percent in December 2011. Monthly employment reports also subject to revisions, so the hiring picture could look much better in a month. Still, Miami-Dade’s increase of four-tenths of percentage point in the unemployment rate is the fastest growth since April 2009, two months before the 2007-09 recession officially ended.

Of all the local job markets, only Miami-Dade receives a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate on the same day as the statewide report. The smaller markets’ raw rates aren’t considered as reliable.

Broward’s raw unemployment rate was 6.7 percent in December, down from 7 percent in November.





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King’s son brings message to South Florida




















The past few days have kept the eldest son of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. busy. He’s been to at least three states to carry on his father’s message: ending violence and learning from historical wrongs.

In a Fort Lauderdale Baptist church early Friday, he delivered another directive:

“A nation is judged on how we treat our most prized possession,” Martin Luther King III said. “And our most precious resource, I think, is our children.”





King served as the keynote speaker at the ninth annual Martin Luther King Jr. inspirational breakfast hosted by the YMCA of Broward County.

More than 500 gathered inside the First Baptist Church on Broward Boulevard, selling out the $2,500 per table event, to honor King’s legacy.

“My concern was that it would not be reduced to a day of relaxation,” said King III. “We have to look at this as a day on — not a day off.”

The Rev. King, a prominent civil rights leader, was born this week 84 years ago. He lead peaceful protests and bus strikes working for racial equality until his 1968 assassination.

The younger King told the South Florida audience about spending his youth at the local YMCA in Birmingham, learning to swim and working out with his dad.

“Those were wonderful experiences, experiences that I will never forget,” he said.

Like his father, King III has been a fighter for human rights, justice and non-violence in the United States and abroad. He also served as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s president, a position his father once held.

During his 2009 inauguration, President Barack Obama declared the holiday honoring King should be spent as a national day of service.

At Friday’s event, 15 youngsters from the Lauderhill YMCA were honored for their service to the community. The young friends managed to clean up a popular overpass and get rid of gangs who were harassing children.

They called their project “Own the Overpath.” The idea started when 14-year-old Kervens Jean-Louis was attacked by a gang on a fenced in walkway that spans the Florida Turnpike while coming from the YMCA, based at Boyd Anderson High School. But Jean-Louis didn’t back down.

He and other students mobilized and launched a campaign to clean-up the area surrounding the “overpath.” The youngsters made a formal presentation to the Lauderhill City Commission and Florida Department of Transportation officials.

Now, there is a $400,000 project in the works to install more lights on the bridge to increase visibility. The city broke ground in November.

“I learned that when you speak out loud it makes a difference,” said Jean-Louis.

For Jean-Louis, speaking loud meant going back to the bridge to warn others of the dangers of traveling across it at night.

He will spend this upcoming Saturday as a volunteer, painting and cleaning up a garden.

“Now I tell others what’s going on and how they can help out,” he said, much like the man they had all come to honor.

After the youngsters were honored, King III left the crowd to ponder a final thought: “We can either be a thermometer or a thermostat.”

A thermometer, he explained, takes the temperature while a thermostat regulates the temperature.

Despite the progress his father saw in his lifetime, and the decades since his death, there is still much work to be done, King III said.

“I always come with a heavy heart in January,” he said. “Because we have not fully realized the dream.”





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How Your Great-Grandmother’s Hobby Is Transforming One Alabama Town






Natalie Chanin’s life-changing epiphany struck while standing on a New York City street corner.


For days, she had traversed throughout the city with a trash bag of her deconstructed T-shirts, seeking a manufacturer to help her make them. None of them, however, understood what kind of stitching she wanted on her creations, which had become popular in New York fashion circles after she made one on a whim and wore it to a party. Chanin was frustrated.






But then, she remembered a group of women who constructed hand-made quilts with bold stitching passed down through the generations. Chanin envisioned those stitches on her deconstructed T-shirts, She believed that those women could help her fuse the past with the present.


So, like a modern-day Scarlett O’Hara, Chanin knew where her immediate future lay, and it was back home in Florence, Ala. When Chanin returned to Florence in 2000, it was a much different place than when she left it in the 1980s. Then, the historic quaint town was the T-shirt capitol of the world, thanks to a thriving textile industry that employed thousands.


But a decade later, that industry had nearly vanished. People were unemployed in the town of 40,000 and warehouses were closed. The cotton once used for T-shirts was now shipped aboard. Chanin squarely blames NAFTA for these changes.


Public Citizen, a non-profit grassroots organization, cites that Alabama lost 118,125 manufacturing jobs from 1994 to 2012. The Bureau of Labor Statistics stated in a 1995 report that while the textile industry was seeing employment decline in the 1980s because of technology and overseas jobs, but it noted, “Future employment levels will be affected by the North America Free Trade Agreement” and that job loss would be “incremental” over the years.


NAFTA was touted as a good thing by many people because it would ease trade regulations and increased investment between the United States, Canada and Mexico. In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the legislation, saying at the time: “NAFTA means jobs, American jobs, and good-paying American jobs. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t support this agreement.”


Chanin doesn’t proclaim to be an expert on NAFTA, but the trade agreement angers her, and she blames Clinton for it.


“I often wonder if he regrets NAFTA,” Chanin says. “NAFTA helped to put a nail in the coffin of manufacturers in America. It created fear and anger, and we didn’t get the open commerce we wanted.”


The unemployment and the textile industry’s death in Florence haunted Chanin. She says she did what she knew how to do – sew – and never had a plan to become an eco-friendly fashion leader, a cheerleader for artisan seamstresses or a poster girl for Made in the USA. But that’s exactly what happened.


Chanin’s handcrafted, organic couture line – Alabama Chanin – has become emblematic of what’s possible when someone focuses on community commitment, sustainability and local traditions.


“I believe in ‘Made in America’ where at all possible,” Chanin says. “I see it almost as a matter of national security. It’s disturbing when you see that there are no steel mills in the South anymore. Food, clothing, shelter, right? Those are essential to sustaining life. Sewing was once a vital necessity for men and women.”


 Photo: Alabama Chanin


Chanin, 50, has certainly stitched her own path with a needle and thread.


On this January day, Chanin wears a black skirt, white boots and a white long-sleeve shirt with a black overlay T-shirt. Her trademark white hair frames her ageless face. Sitting at a long white table, she weaves her story like any good Southern storyteller. To fully grasp Chanin’s role in the Slow Fashion movement that promotes quality over quantity, you have to absorb Florence’s history and Chanin’s connection to it.


In the 1800s, Florence, a river town, had an abundance of water and streams that made it geographically suited as a cotton mill town. Villages soon cropped up where men, women and even children made underwear, union suits and undershirts for paltry wages. It was a rough life, dependent on soil, water and the seasons. Cotton was king, and it supported generations through the Civil War, the Great Depression and World War II.


Chanin’s Alabama roots cross many decades, and her family tree goes back seven generations in the area. Her great-grandmother knitted socks in east Florence’s Sweetwater Mill. Both of her grandmothers were avid quilters. Her parents still live around Florence and her 30-year-old son, Zachariah, moved to the town five years ago. Six years ago, Chanin’s daughter, Maggie, was born, and five months ago, her son became a father to Chanin’s first grandchild, Stella Ruth.


“There are five generations of my family alive and living here now,” she says. “It’s home, and that’s why I came back. It’s home.”


Sweet Home Alabama


When Chanin returned to Alabama, she set up shop in a three-bedroom brick house “10 miles as the crow flies” from Florence in a community known as Lovelace Crossing. “We say it like ‘loveless’,” Chanin says.


There, she began what she considered “just an art project” with the recycled, reworked T-shirts. She visited the quilting circle, and the women still met weekly, sold their completed quilts and reinvested the money into the community center – just as Chanin remembered. She told the women that she wanted to hire them for her project. But she hit a deadend.


“They said, ‘This is something we do for the community, we don’t want a job,” Chanin recalls. “They had gardens, grandchildren and they didn’t want the responsibility.”


Chanin persevered.


She placed an ad in the local newspaper seeking part-time seamstresses. Sixty people responded; she locked in 20 of them as independent contractors, creating a cottage industry that allowed women to work on their own terms and time. Many of these women lived in rural areas, had limited, if no, transportation and children to care for during the day.


The idea worked and evolved into the company Project Alabama. Eventually a few hundred stitchers sewed for her Project Alabama line. But, then the U.S. Department of Labor entered the picture in 2003 and investigated the independent contractor methods.


“We lost 90 percent of our workforce from one day to the next,” she says. “We refined the system because the Department of Labor was instrumental in showing us how the independent contractor system could work.”


The Birth of Alabama Chanin


“There are no rules; that is how art is born.” That’s the greeting on a lighted sign inside the front door of the Alabama Chanin spacious office and work space. Another handmade fabric sign states, “Waste Not Want Not.” On the back of two chairs, the words “Simplify, Simplify, Simplify” are carved into the natural wood. All of these sum up Chanin’s ethos.


Chanin left Project Alabama in 2006 amid differences about the company’s future regarding retaining jobs in her home town.


She soon started Alabama Chanin, leaving the house in Loveless and renting a 5,000-square-foot warehouse in Florence with a long history in the textile industry. The space was once part of a larger 100,000-square-feet complex that housed wall-to-wall sewing machines and workers who dyed fabric and made T-shirts.


Now a rack of Chanin’s designs – beautiful white coats with red stitching, appliqué skirts, stenciled T-shirts – has replaced the machines. Wire shelves hold Chanin’s white swatch books with hundreds of appliqué designs. Southern books, including the three she wrote, are displayed along with her examples of her jewelry and ceramic lines. Vintage Alabama quilts, which Chanin has “stabilized” with remnant fabrics and embroidery that tells stories, hang on one wall.


 Photo: Rinne Allen/Alabama Chanin


Unlike most clothing companies, Alabama Chanin doesn’t mass produce hundreds of items for retail, in an effort to maintain a policy of zero waste. Instead, each piece is a work-of-art, an item to be treasured, and like art, an Alabama Chanin garment is expensive – some range upwards of $ 5,000 and beyond. Fans often save for two or three years to own one.


Chanin uses only 100 percent organic cotton grown in Texas. It is spun into yarn in North Carolina, knitted into fabric in South Carolina and dyed in Tennessee and North Carolina. In the best case scenario, Chanin says, she attempts to use 100 percent American products, but occasionally organic domestic cotton is not available.


She no longer shows her designs at New York City Fashion Week, instead developing her brand through trunk shows, word-of-mouth and the Internet. While many designers keep their designs secret, Chanin does not. She is a zealous believer in the DIY and open-source movement. A significant part of her business is now centered on teaching workshops, writing books and her blog and selling custom sewing kits that allow others to create their own clothing and accessories.


It’s the operation of her business, however, that is most innovative.


Chanin employs only eleven people at the warehouse, but 30 seamstresses work as independent contractors. Over the years, Chanin estimates that more than 500 seamstresses in the Florence area have contributed to her design business. Her system is now similar to a cottage industry.


The concept hearkens to the Industrial Revolution when workers couldn’t travel from rural areas to urban ones. It allowed workers to have employment and also flexibility, something that is still needed in the 21st century.


“I’m just as proud of the system [we’ve developed] as for the designs that have been in Vogue,” she says. “Women are the primary caregivers whether it is a sick child or a caregiver for an elderly parent. They can work when they want, where they want and it empowers them to set their own schedule.”


A product isn’t made until a customer places an order. A bidding sheet for projects is sent to the 30 seamstresses via email and is also available at the warehouse. Seamstresses bid on projects, quoting Chanin a price that they think is fair depending on the project’s complexity with design, beading and appliqué. The bid may be in the thousands of dollars and take several months to complete as every piece is hand-sewn with not one stitch made on a machine.


 Photo: Rinne Allen/Alabama Chanin


The seamstress then invests her money into the project by purchasing the unassembled raw materials (fabric panels, thread, an Alabama Chanin label and other supplies) in person at the warehouse.


“When everyone is invested, you have a better ratio for success,” Chanin says. “They work by the project not by the time,” she explains. “We don’t ask. That’s their business. It’s totally up to them how they want to do it.”


When the project is finished, the seamstress initials the label and sells the creation back for the value she thinks it is worth. Rarely does an item fail to meet standards or a deadline. Ever conscious, Chanin tries to ensure everyone has a project during slow periods.


“We are always looking for ways to keep our artisans busy, and if we don’t, they will try to find other jobs because they have to feed their families,” she says. “These people are like our families. We care about them. We know their kids. We know who they are. We have become grandmothers together. We have broken bread together. We have prayed together. Keeping them in work is one of the responsibilities I have as a business owner.”


The Future Is Bright


Along back roads of the South, cotton fields extend for miles. The fluffy white bolls remain an integral part of the Southern economy and culture. No one knows this better than Southerners like Chanin and Florence fashion designer, Billy Reid, and his staff.


“This whole conversation sprang up about two years ago because there is an organization interested in bringing manufacturing back to the South,” Chanin says. “We were saying that it would be amazing if we could have vertical manufacturing here from growing the cotton to cutting and sewing it.”


Chanin gives credit to K.P. McNeill, who works for Billy Reid, for finding the six-acre untouched and unfarmed spot for the organic cotton experiment. From there, Chanin calls the farming adventure “a miraculous journey.”


“We found two sacks of seeds after we couldn’t find any,” she says. “We didn’t have a tractor and suddenly we had a tractor. We didn’t have a planter and then we had a planter.”


A severe drought threatened to kill the cotton crop, but amazingly, the cotton grew. Last October, Chanin closed her warehouse for the day and headed to the cotton patch to attend Alabama Chanin and Billy Reid Cotton Picking Party and Field Day. Family, friends and the community were invited to join Chanin. She hoped that people would learn about organic farming and the future possibilities that exist for Florence textile industry. While the acreage only produced a bale and half of cotton, it offered hope for the next season.


For Chanin, growing jobs was once her primary concern, but she has expanded her mission to include cultivating DIY ingenuity and, now, tackling the land. Her latest farming project should not surprise those who know and admire Chanin. After all, she believes that other businesses and designers should simply follow their heart.


“It’s about making the right decisions which aren’t always the easiest decisions,” Chanin says. “But every time I’ve made the right decision, I’ve been rewarded.”



Suzi Parker is an Arkansas-based political and cultural journalist whose work frequently appears in The Washington Post and The Christian Science Monitor. She is the author of two books. @SuziParker | TakePart.com 


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Drew Barrymore on Oprah's Next Chapter

Drew Barrymore opens up about her complicated childhood and the lessons she's learned when it comes to being a new mother on Oprah's Next Chapter, and we have a sneak peek!

Pics: Celebs and Their Cute Kids

Marking the first time cameras have ever been allowed inside her home, Drew also talks to Oprah about her new marriage to Will Kopelman, shares details about their newborn baby Olive, and reveals the story behind why her mother did not attend her wedding.

Related: Drew Barrymore's Daughter Olive Lands First Cover

Oprah's Next Chapter with Drew Barrymore airs Sunday at 9 pm ET/PT on OWN.

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Subway pusher Erika Menendez describes killing Sunando Sen









He didn’t go down without a fight.

The Muslim-hating maniac who shoved a Queens immigrant to his death in front of the 7 train told The Post yesterday that the victim tried to shake her off at the last second — but she was determined to kill.

“My mind was just racing that day. I was mad. I was just angry,” Erika Menendez, 31, said in a rambling interview on Rikers Island.

“I was homeless. I was hungry. I was fighting with my boyfriend. He came running up the stairs, and I just got up and pushed him.”

Sunando Sen, 46, didn’t have time to react.

“He was trying to shake me off,” she said.





Erika Menendez

Paul Martinka



Erika Menendez





Menendez — glassy-eyed, greasy-haired and clad in a prison jumpsuit — professed her hatred for Muslims and Hindus and said the murder was revenge for 9/11. Sen was Hindu.

But the massive loss of life in the World Trade Center attacks was not what left her enraged.

“I’m not mad about the people. I’m mad because I liked the buildings,” Menendez said.

“I just wanted to hurt Muslims and Hindus ever since [9/11].”

Her attachment to the buildings, she said, comes from being a native New Yorker.

For much of the interview, she was emotionless.

But her eyes lit up and she became very animated when describing other violent run-ins with people she believed were Muslim or Hindu.

“I’ve been beating up Muslims and Hindus for a long time. I just want to hurt them. I would punch them,” she said.

Her racist rants and callous disregard for Sen’s life horrified the dead man’s heartbroken friends.

“How could she do this to him? My hands shake. I can’t be alone. I think of him all the time, all the time,” said the woman he rented a room from in Queens.

Her son is now scared to ride the subway, she said.

“We were family. Who cares if he is Muslim or Hindu? He was a man,” she said.

That’s not what the unhinged Menendez saw on Dec. 29.

In her first interview since being arrested, she told The Post that Sen had stood out from the other riders because of his religion.

The tragedy might have been averted if she had taken the medicine she is prescribed.

She said she doesn’t take them because she hates the side effects, which make her “shaky.”

She “self-medicates” by smoking pot.

“If I smoked a blunt that day, I wouldn’t have pushed him,” Menendez said.

Sen was the second person fatally shoved in front of a subway train last month.

Queens father Ki Suk Han, 58, was pushed into the path of a Q train at the 49th Street station in Manhattan on Dec. 3 by Naeem Davis, cops said.

Additional reporting by Natasha Velez

jennifer.fermino@nypost.com










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Prices for Miami Beach luxury condos soar to records




















Ultra-luxury condominiums on South Beach are fetching nosebleed prices.

On Tuesday, a penthouse at the Setai Resort at 2001 Collins Avenue closed for $27 million — the highest price ever for a South Florida condominium, according to real estate agents.

“We’re definitely seeing the market turning upward,” said Jeff Miller, of Zilbert International Realty in Miami, who represented the buyer in the sale of the palatial 7,100-square-foot condominium. “We’re seeing buyers come in from all over the globe.”





Just a few weeks ago, Ohio coal mining businessman Wayne Boich Jr. completed the sale of his Icon South Beach penthouse at 450 Alton Road in the uber-trendy South of Fifth neighborhood for just under $21 million.

The 6-bedroom, 7 1/2-bath Icon condo sparked a bidding war that drove the sale $2 million above the listing price — a level that is three times the $7 million Boich paid in July 2007 in the depths of the bust. It was a record price for a Miami Beach bayside condo.

“The luxury market is on fire in South Beach — especially the South of Fifth neighborhood,” said Dora Puig, principal of PuigWerner Real Estate Services, who was the listing broker for the Icon unit. “It’s moving Miami to totally different pricing points.”

The Setai’s record may not reign for long.

Penthouse 2 in the decade-old Continuum South tower at 100 South Pointe Drive in the South of Fifth neighborhood is on the market for $39 million.

That is a record listing price for a Miami-Dade condominium, according to Puig, who also snagged that listing.

Amid the market sizzle, Puig bumped up the asking price late last summer from $35 million.

The penthouse, which has 11,000 square feet of interior space, belongs to Manhattan real estate developer Ian Bruce Eichner, who built the Continuum project at the tip of South Beach and kept the trophy for himself.

The Continuum penthouse, which has 6,000 square feet of deck and a rooftop heated pool, boasts sweeping 13 1/2-foot ceilings that give the feel of a single-family home. The floor-to-ceiling glass walls offer a 360-degree view of the Atlantic Ocean, Biscayne Bay, downtown Miami and Miami Beach from 40 stories up.

“It looks down on Fisher Island, way down,” Puig said with a smile.

The unit has a private interior elevator, of course, and stretches over two indoor levels and two largely exterior levels.

One big plus: It has a gated entrance and sits on an expansive enclave of rolling lawns and gardens adjacent to a city park at the tip of the island.

The unit comes with an additional 874-square-foot guest quarters that would delight most mortals. “The guest unit is intended for professional quarters: the maid, the nanny, the chef, the pilot,” Puig explained.

Also included is a snazzy cabana on the beach.

Eichner has used it as a vacation home and once rented it to Tom Cruise for a couple of months while he was in Miami to film Rock of Ages.

On Thursday, Puig hosted Miami’s power brokers for a look at the Continuum penthouse over champagne and hors d’oeuvres. Next week, she plans to spend three days in New York touting the property to high-end brokers.

Such palatial properties typically are paid for in cash. But what would a monthly payment be?

With a 20 percent down payment of $7.8 million, the buyer would have to finance $31.2 million.

“I don’t know that I’d be able to find anybody willing to go that high on one unit,” warned Steve Schneider, a mortgage broker who is owner and president of Abacus Lending Group in South Miami.

If a buyer could line up a 15-year fixed rate mortgage at 3.5 percent, the monthly payment for principal and interest would be $223,043.35.

“I’d hate to see the tax bill,” said Schneider.

According to Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser records, the 2012 property tax bill on the Continuum penthouse was $264,896.17. That was based on an assessed value of just $9.5 million, less than half what the Property Appraiser listed as the market value of $19.3 million. The tax break came as a result of the state law that caps increases in assessed values on non-homesteaded property at 10 percent a year.

The condo maintenance fee for Eichner’s unit runs $7,624 a month. “I think that’s low for what you get,” said Puig.





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Sen. Marco Rubio to swear in Miami-Dade commissioner Rebeca Sosa on Friday




















Miami-Dade Commissioners Rebeca Sosa becomes Miami-Dade commission’s first Hispanic chairwoman when she is sworn in on Friday by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.

Also being sworn in is fellow commissioner Lynda Bell, who is now the vice chair. Miami-Dade County Judge Gladys Perez will swear in Bell

The installation ceremony will be at 11:30 a.m. ceremony at the commission chambers at the Stephen Clark Center, 111 NW First St.





First elected in 2001, Sosa represents District 6, which includes areas of Miami, Coral Gables, West Miami, Hialeah and Miami Springs, as well as unincorporated zones.

Sosa’s office explained the Florida Senator is doing the honors at the historic swearing in because the two are long-time friends.

Bell who was elected in 2010 represents District 8, which encompasses a significant area of southeastern Miami-Dade, including the municipalities of Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay and Homestead with portions of Kendall an the Redlands.

Sosa and Bell won two-year terms in November.

The installation ceremony is open to the public.





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Let’s Talk






Hi!


I’m Mark Atwood, and I’m the Director of Open Source Evangelism for HP Cloud Services.  I’ve been working at HPCS for several months now, getting a feel for HP and our place in the open source and OpenStack® community.






I’ve been evangelizing open source for decades, since before “Evangelist” was a technology industry job title, since I was a teenager in high school, when I first read rms’s manifesto in the printed pages of Dr Dobbs magazine. Read more about Let’s Talk »


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Undercover Boss Gets Chastised by Pushy Manager

A verbally abusive manager is bound to get his comeuppance on the next Undercover Boss.

PICS: Celebrity Dream Jobs

President of Moe's Southwest Grill, Paul Damico, gets a rude awakening while going through employee training at one of the restaurant's branches. Under the alias Marc, Paul is chastised by a store manager on a power trip.

"Tito's a little flippant with me," Paul says, who felt the atmosphere was less than professional. "As the leader of the brand, I don't like to see managers run a shift like this."

Paul grows more irritated as he realizes that Tito has been treating all of the associates with the same lack of respect.

"I'm not okay with what is happening in front of the guests," says Paul.

Click the video for more. Watch an all-new Undercover Boss Friday at 8/7c on CBS.

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B'klyn teen dialed 911 more than 400 times for fake emergencies: police








A Brooklyn teen dialed 911 more than 400 times to phone in fake emergencies, police said yesterday.

Dean Whylie, 16, disguised his voice as a girl when he made 404 calls reporting non-existent incidents, starting on May 26 of last year, police added.

“He reported police officers needing assistance, shots fired, motor vehicle accidents and disputes,” a police source said.

Whylie allegedly used two phones that weren’t yet activated, but were set up for emergency calls only — which made it difficult to trace the hundreds of fake reports, police said.




At least 329 bogus incidents were reported at locations in the 70 Precinct, which includes Kensington, cops added. Other fake calls reported crimes in Borough Park and other parts of southern Brooklyn, according to police.

Investigators finally traced cell phone pings to the teen’s home on East 22nd Street in Ditmas Park, where he made his last call Monday, police said.

The teen gave no explanation as to why he made the prank calls, cops said.

He was arrested Tuesday afternoon and charged with reckless endangerment, criminal impersonation, obstruction of governmental administration, filing false reports and criminal nuisance, police said.

One of the two phones — which had been used to dial 186 bogus calls — was recovered, cops added.










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Florida led nation in 2012 foreclosure activity




















Florida posted the highest foreclosure rate in the nation in 2012, eclipsing Nevada for the first time, according to RealtyTrac.

In Florida, 3.11 percent, or one in every 32 homes, received some sort of foreclosure filing last year, the California-based data firm said.

Much of the rising foreclosure activity represents loans that soured a long time ago, rather than a major new round of defaults.





Foreclosure activity in Florida rose 53.5 percent in 2012 from a year earlier, as lenders stepped up activity after a long hiatus during the robo-signing controversy. With the settlement last spring between 49 state attorneys general and five large banks, lenders now have clearer guidelines on how they can press foreclosures.

“With the Miami numbers we’re seeing the expected rise off the artificially low numbers in 2011 as lenders pushed through foreclosures delayed by questions surrounding proper foreclosure documents and procedures,” Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, said in an email.

While the rising number of bank-owned sales of homes creates a headwind for the housing market, the inventory of homes for sale has been so tight that those distressed sales haven’t proved, at least so far, to be the onerous “other shoe” that many had predicted.

The Miami Association of Realtors next week is expected to report the county posted record home sales for 2012, beating a record year in 2011. Median home and condo prices in Miami-Dade are posting consistent gains, instilling confidence that the housing recovery is on strong footing.

Realtors insist they don’t expect the continued, or even accelerated, flow of distressed properties into the market to derail that housing recovery in Florida.

In many cases, professional investors are in the wings to snap up distressed property as soon as it becomes available, making it tough for the average home buyer to get a shot at the properties.

“A lot of investors are buying at the courthouse,” said Liza E. Mendez, a broker and owner of Petro Realty International in Hialeah.

“Everyone talks about the shadow inventory,” said Francisco Angulo, a Coldwell Banker agent and regional coordinator to South America for the National Association of Realtors. “Well, there are shadow buyers to go with that shadow inventory.”

The surge in foreclosure activity in Florida came as half the states saw increases in foreclosure activity and half saw declines. Most of the increases occurred in “judicial” states, those that handle foreclosures in protracted court proceedings rather than the quicker administrative processes.

“2012 was the year of the judicial foreclosure, with foreclosure activity increasing from 2011 in 20 of the 26 states that primarily use the judicial process, and a judicial state — Florida — posting the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate for the first time since the housing crisis began,” Blomquist said.

Twenty percent of the nation’s foreclosure activity centered on Florida last year, with some 305,766 properties in some stage of foreclosure or owned by a bank. California ranked second with 14 percent of the total, followed by Illinois, which had 9 percent. Ohio and New York each had 5 percent.

Florida had eight of the 20 metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rate, including Miami at No. 5 in the nation; Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, at No. 6; and Orlando at No. 8, RealtyTrac reported.

Within Florida, Miami-Dade County ranked second only to Okeechobee County in foreclosure activity during 2012. Foreclosure activity in Miami-Dade was up 56 percent in 2012 to 44,284 foreclosure filings.

In tallying foreclosure filings, RealtyTrac includes default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, thus a single property will log multiple events over the course of a foreclosure proceeding.

Broward had 25,935 foreclosure filings of all sorts in 2012, marking a 26.4 percent increase from a year earlier, RealtyTrac data show.





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An Operation Pedro Pan veteran to give benediction at Monday’s inauguration




















In 1961, Luis Leon fled his native Cuba for Miami. He was only 11 and traveling alone.

He carried only a change of clothes a toothbrush and $3 in his pocket.

In exile, Leon would choose a life in the clergy and eventually head the historic church near the White House known as "Church of the Presidents" — John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.





At Monday’s inauguration, the young boy who was among the 14,048 Cuban children spirited away from Fidel Castro’s Communist indoctrination during the famed Operation Pedro Pan will take center stage as he gives the benediction at President Barrack Obama’s second swearing in.

The Episcopalian pastor embodies the spirit of the country’s diversity. On Election Day, Obama cemented his victory with strong support from Latinos.

“It’s an honor to be a part of such a milestone in American history, as all inaugurations are. And it’s a special honor because as an immigrant, this is the only country where something like this could happen to me,” Leon, 63, told The Miami Herald in a telephone interview on Wednesday from his church.

"I feel that in some way I am representing the U.S. Hispanic community. And we’re an important part of this country," said Leon, who is married to his wife, Lu, and has two grown daughters.

Leon is not the only Cuban-American with Miami ties taking part in the inauguration ceremony, which will be held at the National Mall starting at 11:30 a.m.

Obama also personally chose Miami-raised poet Richard Blanco, who was born in Spain to Cuban parents, to read an inauguration poem. Blanco is the first Hispanic and also the youngest poet to ever participate in a swearing in.

Leon is no stranger to presidential ceremonies. As minister of St. John's since 1995, he has counseled from the pulpit three presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama.

It’s also not the first time for Leon giving the benediction. In 2005, he became the first Hispanic to deliver the inaugural benediction to President Bush.

During his three allotted minutes on Monday where he will hopefully have the attention of millions of American watching, Leon said he will speak of reconciliation.

"My concern is that we are not speaking to each other," Leon said. "I think when God blesses us, God is calling for the best in us in our relationships with each other.’’





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You Can Use Facebook for Free Cellphone Calls Now






Wait, what?


RELATED: Facebook’s Faster iPhone App Isn’t Fast Enough






Yes, theoretically you can kis those talk-time minutes from your cellphone data plan goodbye — as long as you’re content to have all your voice conversation with other Facebook users over data or Wi-Fi by way of your Messenger app. It’s called Voice Over Internet Protocol talking, and it’s the same thing that was supposed to help Skype take over the world last decade, and it might end up being a lot more useful to the savvy consumer’s pocketbook than the Graph Search, which Mark Zuckerberg called the “third pillar” of Facebook yesterday.


RELATED: Everything There Is to Know About That Facebook Phone


To make a call, all Facebook users have to do is tap the little “i” at the top right corner of the revamped app, which leads to the screen pictured above at right. As long as the other caller has the Messenger app, U.S. users can now tap Free Call, and, well, it’s just like making a phone call, really — except that instead of ringing, a push notification pops up: “You have a call from Carly.” (Seriously! We just tried it! It was free!)


RELATED: What Can Apple’s Acquisition of Chomp Mean?


Of course, this isn’t a Facebook-branded piece of hardware, or even the full-scale cellphone OS many have been drooling over as the social network figures out its mobile future. But this software could replace the traditional way we make calls. As we’ve explained before, Facebook has a lot of things going for it in taking VoIP calls to the masses in the way the Skype never really could: Messenger’s got all the right contacts, it costs almost nothing, and it even works in areas with terrible reception. Not to mention it works over data plans for everyone and not just people with compatible phones — Apple’s FaceTime feature only works on the iPhone 4S or 5, even if it’s more available now. Still, Facebook doesn’t have video chat for Messenger. But, hey, one world dominating step at a time, right?


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Kirstie Alley's Cheers Reunion

It's been nearly two decades since Cheers went off the air, but the onscreen chemistry hasn't changed between Kirstie Alley and Rhea Perlman, as seen in Kirstie's new TV Land pilot, Giant Baby.

On the show, Kirstie plays a Broadway diva whose life gets up-ended.

VIDEO: Kirstie Alley Celebrates 62nd Birthday with ET

"You know, we were planning this when we were doing Cheers," Kirstie said of reuniting with Rhea. "We said when Cheers isn't on the air anymore we'll do a show together."

Rhea plays Kirstie's best friend on Giant Baby, but she's also been a close friend to the Golden Globe winner in real-life, as Kirstie mentions in her New York Times bestseller, The Art of Men.

Kirstie's book, detailing her sexual exploits and struggles with drug addiction, has had so much success that it's attracted readers that Kirstie never thought would buy it.

"It never dawned on me that my dad would read my book," Kirstie said. "I didn't give it to him!"

Click the video for more.

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Ex-pal: Lance is ‘a criminal’








Lance Armstrong’s former right-hand man blasted the cycling cheat yesterday, saying that he should be in jail for lying about taking steroids.

“He’s a petty criminal,” Mike Anderson told The Post after the disgraced champion admitted to Oprah Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs.

“This is a guy who never had a real job in his life. If he had not weaseled his way into [the] sport and undertook this incredible fraud, he would be a petty criminal.”

Anderson sued his former boss in 2005 for allegedly reneging on a deal to help him open a bike shop after serving as his assistant for more than two years. Armstrong settled.




Their relationship fractured in early 2004, shortly after Anderson found Armstrong’s stash of steroids in an apartment where the star cyclist stayed while training, according to court papers.

Anderson says he’s vindicated by the confession, but still wants to see his former boss locked up.

“I’d like the guy to be brought to justice — jail would be good,” he said.

Winfrey hasn’t revealed many details on the “emotional” interview, which is set to air tonight and tomorrow night.

“I left it all on the table with her, and when it airs, the people can decide,” Armstrong told The Associated Press.

His former cancer charity said it expects full disclosure.

“We expect Lance to be completely truthful and forthcoming in his interview and with all of us in the cancer community,” Livestrong said.

The TV confession comes after Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and barred for life from Olympic sports.

Armstrong faces a slew of possible legal troubles over his confession. The Department of Justice was reportedly considering joining a whistleblower lawsuit against the doper, and could still reopen a criminal probe, sources said.

Armstrong’s attorney declined to comment. A rep did not respond to an e-mail.










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Miami Dolphins bill would bring state money to aging stadiums




















A bill drafted by the Miami Dolphins would give Florida sports teams $3 million a year in state money to improve older stadiums, provided the owner pays for at least half the cost of a major renovation.

Under the law, the stadium would need to be 20 years old and the team willing to put in at least $125 million for a $250 million renovation. That’s less than the $400 million redo of Sun Life Stadium that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross proposed this week, which he hopes will win state approval thanks to his offer to fund at least $200 million of the effort to modernize the 1987 facility.

Miami-Dade and Florida would fund the rest through a mix of county hotel taxes and state general funds set aside for stadiums. Sun Life currently receives $2 million a year through the program, and the Dolphins want to create a new category that would give them an additional $3 million.





While the Miami Marlins and Miami Heat both play in stadiums subsidized by county hotel taxes, the Dolphins receive no local dollars. The bill would change that by allowing Miami-Dade to increase the tax charged at mainland hotels to 7 percent from 6 percent, and eliminate the current rule that limits the money to publicly owned stadiums. Sun Life Stadium, in Miami Gardens, is privately owned but sits on county land.

The bill pits enthusiasm for one of Florida’s most popular sports teams against a lean budget climate and lingering backlash against the 2009 deal that had Miami and Miami-Dade borrow about $485 million to build a new ballpark for the Marlins. Ross also must navigate a Republican-led Legislature that has twice rebuffed his requests for public dollars.

“I would be surprised if that bill even got a hearing in committee,” said Mike Fasano, a Republican representative from the Tampa area and a critic of tax-funded sports deals. “I’m a big Dolphin fan, and have been for years. But with all due respect, we’ve got people who are struggling throughout this state right now . .. The last thing we should be doing is giving a professional sports team or facility additional tax dollars.”

While the bill would open up the $3 million subsidy to other the teams, the Dolphins see it as unlikely that another owner would be willing to put up as much money for renovations as Ross, a billionaire real estate developer.

If the bill were enacted today, any stadium opened before 1993 would be eligible for the money, provided it could show the proposed renovation would generate an additional $3 million in sales taxes.

Ross and his backers are pitching the renovation as a boon to tourism, with Sun Life a magnet for the Super Bowl, national college football games and other major events. The National Football League is considering South Florida and San Francisco for the 2016 Super Bowl, and the Dolphins say approval of renovation funding is crucial to winning the bid.

Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens, who sponsored the Senate bill, said the funding makes sense because when Sun Life hosts a Super Bowl, the entire state benefits from both tourism dollars and publicity.

“It’s a small price to pay for economic development, and for all the shine we get from major sporting events,” said Braynon, whose district includes Sun Life. Rep. Eduardo “Eddy” Gonzalez, R-Hialeah, is the sponsor on the House side.





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Mother of Trayvon Martin to demand repeal of Stand Your Ground law




















The mother of Trayon Martin, along with state lawmakers, plan to hold a news conference on Wednesday morning to decry the state’s controversial Stand Your Ground law and demand that the Florida Legislature repeal it.

Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon’s mother, and family attorneys will join Democratic state Rep. Alan Williams, of Tallahassee, and Democratic state Senator Dwight Bullard, of Miami, to talk about the new legislation. HB 4009, introduced last week, would repeal certain provisions of the state’s self-defense statute.

The Stand Your Ground law passed in 2005, grants legal immunity to people who use deadly force if they reasonably believe their life is in danger.





The law drew worldwide media attention last year when 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a crime watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla. The volunteer, George Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder. His trial is pending.

Zimmerman insists that he was jumped and pummeled by the 17-year-old Michael Krop High School junior, whom Zimmerman had followed after finding him suspicious.

In response to the shooting, Gov. Rick Scott created a 19-member task force to review the law. The task force, which spent six months traveling the state and taking public testimony, concluded there was no need to overhaul the controversial self-defense law.

Critics charged that the task force was dominated by Stand Your Ground law supporters.

The task force included two lawmakers who helped draft the law, along with two others who voted for it in 2005. Another lawmaker appointed to the panel was the chief sponsor of a NRA-backed law prohibiting doctors from asking patients about guns.





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Apple scoops PBS on “Downton Abbey” episodes, but PBS is cool with it






NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Apple is making the entire third season of “Downton Abbey” available on iTunes before every episode airs on PBS – and that’s just fine with PBS.


Fans who buy a season pass on iTunes beginning January 29 will get to see three episodes before they air on PBS. The Season 3 finale airs February 17.






But PBS CEO Paula Kerger isn’t worried that viewers will watch the show online, then tune out PBS. In fact, she says, Apple isn’t the only place Americans can see “Downton” before they can see it on her network.


“You can also buy the DVD sets. They’re being shipped at the end of January, and the DVD sets and Apple are going up at the same time,” Kerger told TheWrap. “I think that for people who are really passionate and want to have it, it’s a great thing.”


Kerger says she hopes more viewers will discover “Downton” on whatever format they like best – and then watch it on PBS next season.


“At the end of the day, my interest is just in seeing it get to the widest possible audience, and there are people that would pick it up on Apple that may not pick it up anywhere else,” she said.


The first episode of the third season premiered to a record 7.9 million viewers earlier this month. Many of those viewers, no doubt, caught up on the previous seasons online or through DVD viewing.


“Downton” airs in the U.K. in the fall but on PBS in January, which means PBS viewers must shield themselves from spoilers. That has led to some grumbling from American fans.


But Kerger said airing the show in January allows the show to get more attention domestically than it might otherwise receive in the crowded fall season.


Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Megan Fox Apologizes for Lindsay Lohan Comments

In the process of explaining her reason for removing a Marilyn Monroe tattoo on her forearm to Esquire magazine, cover girl Megan Fox unleashed what appeared to be a harsh criticism of actress Lindsay Lohan. In light of all the attention Fox's words have garnered, the star has taken to Facebook in an attempt to clarify her comments. 

Pics: New Mom Megan Fox's Sexiest Shoot Yet

"In the newly released article that I did for Esquire, there is a reference that is made to Lindsay Lohan that I would like to clarify before it snowballs into something silly," began Fox in an open letter posted to her personal page.

"The journalist and I were discussing why I was removing my Marilyn Monroe tattoo, especially since, in his opinion, Marilyn was such a powerful and iconic figure for women. I attempted to draw parallels between Lindsay and Marilyn in order to illustrate my point that while Marilyn may be an icon now, sadly she was not respected and taken seriously while she was still living.

"Both women were gifted actresses, whose natural talent was lost amongst the chaos and incessant media scrutiny surrounding their lifestyles and their difficulties adhering to studio schedules etc.

"I intended for this to be a factual comparison of two women with similar experiences in Hollywood. Unfortunately it turned into me offering up what is really much more of an uneducated opinion. It was most definitely not my intention to criticize or degrade Lindsay.

"I would never want her to feel bullied, as she does not deserve that. I was not always speaking eloquently during this interview and this miscommunication is my fault."

Related: How Megan Fox Lost All That Baby Weight

Fox's original quote to Esquire reads as follows:

"I started reading about [Marilyn] and realized that her life was incredibly difficult. It's like when you visualize something for your future. I didn't want to visualize something so negative.

"She was sort of like Lindsay [Lohan]. She was an actress who wasn't reliable, who almost wasn't insurable. ... She had all of the potential in the world, and it was squandered. I'm not interested in following in those footsteps."

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2 dead after helicopter crashes in London








Getty Images


Smoke pours from the burning debris of a helicopter which crashed in in London.



LONDON — Police say two people were killed when a helicopter crashed Wednesday during rush hour in central London after apparently hitting a construction crane on top of a building.

Two people were taken to a nearby hospital with "minor injuries," London Ambulance Service said.

The helicopter crashed just south of the River Thames near the Underground and mainline train station at Vauxhall, and the British spy agency MI6.

Video on Sky News showed wreckage burning in a street, and a large plume of black smoke rose in the area. The video from the crash scene showed a line of flaming fuel and debris.





EPA



Firemen at the wreckage of a helicopter crash in London. Two people were killed when the aircraft collided with a crane during rush hour.





Witness reports that the helicopter hit a crane atop a 50-story residential building, the St. George Wharf Tower, were not immediately confirmed.

The Ministry of Defense said it was not a military helicopter, and a British security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the press said the incident was not terror-related.

London Fire Brigade said it was called at 8 a.m. to a report of a crash on Wandsworth Road on the south bank of the Thames.

"There was a flash and the helicopter plunged to the ground. It exploded and you can imagine the smoke coming out of it," Paul Ferguson, an office worker near the scene, told BBC News.

"The top of the crane was actually obscured by fog so I didn't see the impact," Michael Gavin told the BBC. "But I heard a bang and saw the body of the helicopter falling to the ground along with pieces of the crane and then a large plume of smoke afterwards."

Erin Rogers, who was waiting at a bus stop near Vauxhall Station, said she "heard a bang and saw bits of crane debris falling to the floor."

"Then the helicopter was in flames. The rest of the people at the bus station were looking on going, 'What was that?'"

Police said the helicopter appeared to have hit a crane.

Early reports indicated the crane was at St. George's Wharf, a high rise apartment complex with apartments that offer sweeping river and city views.

The area, roughly 10 blocks from the major Waterloo train and Underground station, is extremely congested during the morning rush hour. Many commuters arrive at the main line stations from London's southern suburbs and transfer to buses or trains there.










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Global entrepreneurship nonprofit Endeavor coming to Miami




















Flawless execution helped propel Argentine Marcos Galperin’s e-auction site, Mercado Libre, above the competition to become a $3.8 billion company. Some 50,000 small businesses now use it to market their wares.

Leila Velez and Heloísa Helena Assis, cousins who grew up in the slums of Rio, started with one product and one salon. Today their company, Beleza Natural, operates 24 salons that bring in $75 million in revenues, employs 1,500 people and has an eye on U.S expansion.

Both were powered, in part, by Endeavor, a global nonprofit that selects, mentors, supports and accelerates high-impact entrepreneurs in metropolitan areas of 16 countries — and, soon, in Miami.





Endeavor and its local supporter, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, announced Tuesday that Knight is providing Endeavor with $2 million in grant funding over five years for Endeavor’s first U.S. expansion. Endeavor’s Miami office could ultimately service dozens of local entrepreneurs, but first a local board needs to be assembled, a managing director hired and offices set up.

Beginning late this year, South Florida’s innovators will be able to apply to become Endeavor Entrepreneurs, connecting them to a global network of mentors and advisors who can help grow their ventures. “We think this is a cornerstone of making Miami more of a place where ideas are built,” said Matt Haggman, Miami program director for the Knight Foundation, which has made entrepreneurship a key focus of its Miami program.

The announcement is an important milestone in Miami’s efforts to accelerate an entrepreneurial ecosystem, which has been gaining momentum, said Haggman, who led the effort for Knight, its largest investment in entrepreneurship to date. Accelerators, incubators and co-working spaces have been opening up, including Launch Pad Tech, which is receiving $1.5 million in public funding and opens for its first class next week. Last month, the first ever Innovate MIA week attracted hundreds of entrepreneurs, investors and other supporters to a packed schedule of daily events, which included the Americas Venture Capital Conference and Endeavor’s International Selection Panel.

“Miami is almost the perfect seeding ground for Endeavor,” said Peter Kellner, co-founder of Endeavor and now an Endeavor board member, an investor and South Florida resident who began discussing the project with Haggman in the spring. “There are commitments from large institutions like Knight, FIU, UM, there is capital, there are people that are interested in making things happen, there are already clusters of activity like accelerators and incubators. That’s where Endeavor thrives.”

Endeavor works primarily with companies from a wide range of industries that are earning $500,000 to $15 million in revenue and ready for the next stage of growth.

“While the vast majority of small businesses employ two or three people, Endeavor businesses employ an average of 237,” said Endeavor co-founder and CEO Linda Rottenberg.

Launched in 1998 and headquartered in New York City, Endeavor now operates in 16 countries throughout Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Southeast Asia and supports more than 750 entrepreneurs who are chosen in a rigorous selection process.

Those chosen receive access to mentors and a volunteer advisory board of local business leaders as well as access to international networks that include entrepreneurs like Reid Hoffman, co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn; Diego Piacentini, who heads Amazon international; Robert Polet, former CEO of Gucci; and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, co-founder of Gilt Group. There are also programs that provide interns from top business schools and professionals from Ernst & Young to work with Endeavor companies and a new Endeavor Investor Network that includes top venture capital firms.





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Miami City Commissioner Francis Suarez: I’m running for mayor




















It’s official: Miami City Commissioner Francis Suarez is running for mayor.

The 35-year-old son of former Mayor Xavier Suarez will make the formal announcement Tuesday at a press conference at his Coral Gate home.

Suarez’s candidacy has long been the subject of speculation around City Hall. The chatter intensified late last week, when campaign finance reports showed that in the last three months of 2012 he raised $460,000 through his “political communications organization.”





Suarez, in an interview Monday with The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, outlined his vision for the city. It includes replenishing rainy-day funds, promoting small business, beefing up the police department and making the mayor a player on the national stage.

“It starts with having a stable government that is forward-thinking and innovative,” he said.

Despite having flush campaign coffers and key allies, Suarez faces a tough road to the Nov. 5 election. Incumbent Mayor Tomás Regalado has already launched his bid for reelection, and observers say his popularity remains high among likely voters.

“It is going to be a competitive race,” said Barry University political science professor Sean Foreman.

Suarez, a real estate attorney, first ran for the City Commission in 2009. He was elected to represent District 4, which includes Flagami and stretches to the city’s western edge, and was previously held by Regalado.

Early on, Suarez and Regalado often appeared in public together. The mayor asked Suarez to serve as City Commission chairman in late 2011.

But the relationship soured last summer, when Suarez grew increasingly critical of Regalado’s administration. He voiced concerns about the high turnover among top staffers and questioned the finance department’s ability to balance the $500 million budget on time.

Suarez said those frustrations prompted his decision to run for mayor.

“I fundamentally believe that the administration is not being run professionally,” he said. “I have concerns about what will happen if nothing is done about it.”

Suarez said he has already proven his leadership abilities. He points to a pair of controversial motions he made, both of which passed the commission: one to cut employee salaries and another to fire then-Police Chief Miguel Exposito, who was feuding with the mayor at the time.

“I’ve taken the lead on very difficult positions,” he said.

During his three years in office, Suarez has had mixed results passing policy. In 2011, he championed changes to the city zoning code that made it easier to build affordable housing. But his biggest legislative push to date — an effort to create a strong-mayor form of government — failed to find support.

Suarez said he has a couple of new proposals to pitch, including a measure that would reduce permit fees for home repairs that cost less than $2,500. He also said he has ideas for using technology to make city departments run more smoothly.

If campaign contributions are any indication, Suarez will have the support of key business leaders, including Jackson Health System CEO and former city manager Carlos A. Migoya and former Mayor Manny Diaz.

Regalado, who has raised about $160,000 for his campaign and enjoys popularity in neighborhoods like Little Havana and Flagami, said he welcomed the competition.





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PlayStation 4 could be unveiled in May









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Nicki Minaj Cannot Trust Herself on American Idol

On tomorrow's episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, American Idol judge Nicki Minaj confesses that she's worried about looking like 'a crazy psycho again' on the popular singing competition.

"I am not really a crazy psycho you guys," Nicki says, referring to the infamous web video that showed the singer/rapper launching into a tirade during Idol auditions. "No, I am serious. I am really not."

Nicki calls the outburst a defense mechanism, explaining that she began to suspect that fellow judge Mariah Carey was displeased with her being on the panel.

VIDEO: Nicki Minaj on Idol Drama: There is No Feud!

With the incident still fresh in her mind, Nicki admits that she is "not looking forward to live shows" because she "cannot trust [herself]."

"Just, like, if there's a slick comment being made..." Nicki says before catching herself. "I just want it to go well. It's about the contestants."

Watch the entire interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Tuesday, January 15. Check your local listings.

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VOTE for the worst liar in history








Lance Armstrong’s lies weren’t the first to lead to a stunning crash. Here is a list of the rest of history’s 10 all-time greatest liars, a rogues gallery of devious dissemblers who can all be enshrined in the forked tongue Hall of Shame.






AFP/Getty Images


RICHARD NIXON — You know when a guy says “I am not a crook,” watch out. “Tricky Dick” Nixon took presidential perfidy to new heights, when he went on TV on August 15, 1973 and said “I had no prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in.” A year later, he resigned.








AP



BERNIE MADOFF — He was more of a Ponzi King than the scam’s inventor, Charles Ponzi. Madoff pretended to be one of the most savvy investors in New York, but his firm was a bogus house of cards that wound up costing his investors $50 billion when it collapsed. Now Bernie cooling his heels in prison.

Spencer A. Burnett



TAWANA BRAWLEY — Her lie set racial tensions in New York to boiling in the 1980s. The Dutchess County teen falsely claimed to have been abducted and raped by a group of men, including a cop and a prosecutor. In 1988, a grand jury found her story was a horrific hoax.

AP



JOHN EDWARDS — A slick haircut doesn’t mean you’re honest. The clean-cut Edwards went from possible President to loathed liar when — after two years of denials — he admitted in 2010 to siring a love child with mistress Rielle Hunter while his wife, Elizabeth, was dying of cancer.

AP



MILLI VANILLI — Their album may have been called “Girl You Know It’s True, ” but it was really a big lie. The “musical” duo of Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, became laughing stocks in 1990 when they had to return their Grammy for best new artist after it was revealed they did not actually sing the songs on the album.

AP



ANTHONY WEINER — Sure, you were “hacked” Mr. Weiner. When a picture of the Queens Congressman’s “member” wound up on the internet he tried to claim he got shafted — by a hacker to stole the picture and put it on line. Later it was revealed that he actually sent the pic to a young woman who was not his wife. He finally admitted “I have not been honest,” and short time later resigned.

AP



PETE ROSE — He was known as “Charlie Hustle.” It was an appropriate nickname. Baseball’s all time hit leader denied for years that he ever gambled on baseball, even though he was banned from the game in 1989. Then in 2004, he admitted he did place bets on the national passtime, and even bet on his own team, the Cincinnati Reds “every night.”

AP



MARION JONES — She lost her golds on the track, but still takes top honors for lying. The disgraced track star had the five medals she won in the 2000 Summer Olympics stripped for doping, charges she initially denied. She was later sentenced to six months in jail for lying to federal prosecutors who were probing use of steroids.



PINOCCHIO — History’s all time greatest liar, this little wooden “boy” wouldn’t know the truth if it bit him. His fibs were so devious that they actually made his nose grow, making him the forerunner of all politicians throughout history.











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Miami Dolphins worry Marlins stand between them and a tax-funded redo for Sun Life Stadium




















The Miami Dolphins are reviving their failed bid to win tax dollars for a football stadium. But team executives want no comparisons to a successful bid to win tax dollars for a baseball stadium.

Dolphins owner Stephen Ross has called a press conference for Monday to unveil a plan for an improved Sun Life Stadium. Sources say the plan will include asking state and local governments to help pay for a $400 million renovation of the 1987 facility.

State lawmakers in recent years rebuffed the Dolphins when the team asked for help on a less-expensive renovation. And while the economy and state finances are more favorable this time around, Dolphin executives see a bigger challenge now from lingering backlash against the $639 million ballpark taxpayers built for the Miami Marlins in order to move the baseball team from their old home in Sun Life. .





“It can’t be anything close to what the Marlins did,’’ said state Sen. Oscar Braynon, a Democrat whose Miami Gardens district includes Sun Life Stadium and who sponsored a 2011 bill to raise hotel taxes to fund the Dolphins renovation plan. “Unless you do something totally counter to what the Marlins did, nobody is going to vote for it.”

Both the Marlins and the Dolphins declined to comment for this story. The Dolphins have not released details of how they want to pay for the renovation, or what they want to do the stadium. But sources close to the team describe an extensive renovation of Sun Life, including adding a partial roof, a redesign of the seating configuration to improve views of the field, and shifting capacity from the low-priced seats in the upper deck to the more expensive seating closer to the sidelines. Without the space demands of a baseball field, the front row will move 18 feet closer to the field, according to a person briefed on the plans.

Polls showed Miami and Miami-Dade’s 2009 votes to build the baseball stadium with 75 percent public money were never popular. But the Marlins’ recent stripping of star players from their payroll has made the new Little Havana park Topic A when it comes to plotting a Dolphins’ victory for winning tax dollars themselves.

Dolphins executives plan to pursue two funding sources from state and local government, according to several people familiar with the team’s plans. For the first funding stream, the Dolphins plan to ask Miami-Dade to raise taxes charged mainland hotels from 6 percent to 7 percent and earmark the extra money for the stadium. The Dolphins also plan to ask Florida for an additional $2 million rebate on sales taxes on top of the $2 million the stadium already receives from the state each year under a special subsidy for professional sports teams.

Ross is expected to pledge a significant amount of the renovation money himself. Sources who have been briefed on the Dolphins’ proposal say the total pricetag for the project is $400 million. That’s almost double the renovation budget the Dolphins proposed when the team last went to the Legislature for money in 2011.

Staying competitive

At the time, the Dolphins unveiled a $225 million redo of Sun Life with expanded sideline seating, high-definition lighting and a partial roof that would both shade seats during hot games and shield spectators from the kind of downpour that drenched the stands during the 2007 Super Bowl in Miami Gardens. The Dolphins, top executives at the NFL and some community leaders have warned that without upgrades to Sun Life, South Florida risks losing its standing as one of the nation’s top venues for the Super Bowl and college football championships.





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SunPass coming to Rickenbacker, Venetian causeways in 2014




















The introduction of SunPass on two Miami-Dade causeways is the latest in a series of initiatives to expand use of Florida’s electronic toll-collection system beyond state highways.

“We are hoping that a year from now, in 2014, the new system will be in place on both the Rickenbacker and then the Venetian Causeway,” said Michael R. Bauman, chief of the Miami-Dade public works and waste management department’s causeways division.

Originally, the county had planned to activate SunPass on the causeways in 2012, but the project was delayed because of contractor issues and efforts by all Florida tolling agencies to centralize back-office operations that include billing and other customer services, Bauman said.





Conversion of causeways’ C-Pass system to SunPass transponders will be one of the most significant changes in the history of the storied roads that carry tens of thousands of commuters every day to and from the mainland.

The 5.4-mile Rickenbacker, the longer of the two causeways, is also the newest. It opened in 1947. The 2.8-mile Venetian opened in 1925.

Tolls have been charged on both causeways for decades. The Rickenbacker was the first to adopt electronic tolling in 1997 with the C-Pass system, followed by the Venetian shortly after.

Both causeways still take cash at some toll plaza lanes.

While the plan is to eliminate cash tolls, Bauman said details are more advanced for the Rickenbacker than for the Venetian.

As a result, he said in an interview, details of how SunPass will operate on the Venetian remain undecided.

On the Rickenbacker, however, he said the toll plaza will be removed and its eight lanes will be reconfigured into four lanes with electronic gantries. Cash will no longer be accepted.

In both cases, said Bauman, lower annual tolls paid by residents and commuters served by the Rickenbacker and Venetian will be preserved under the SunPass arrangement.

The vehicles of residents and commuters already registered with causeway systems will be recognized by SunPass, and no additional toll charges will be made, Bauman said.

The current cash toll price on both causeways is $1.50. Whether that rate will remain once SunPass kicks in is still under discussion, Bauman said.

On the Rickenbacker and Venetian, residents with C-Pass transponders pay a flat $24 per year. Nonresidents who drive the Rickenbacker pay $60 per year and Venetian commuters pay $90.

Registration will continue, but it will be done online.

Drivers who don’t have SunPass will still be allowed to use the causeways. They will be billed later via Toll-by-Plate, Bauman said.





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E-Ink on a Smartphone? This Android Phone Has 2 Displays






Times Up


You can use the rear of the YotaPhone as a clock, or to display wallpapers.


Click here to view this gallery.






[More from Mashable: Hands On With Pebble, the Internet’s Favorite Smart Watch]


LAS VEGAS — What if your phone had two displays? Announced in mid-December, YotaPhone aims to change how people use their smartphones by bringing together a full-color LCD display on one side of the phone and an e-ink display on the other.


I caught up with Yota Device’s Vladislav Martynov at CES to give the phone a closer look.


[More from Mashable: 5 Chinese Tech Brands You’ll Be Hearing From in 2013]


In essence, the two displays on the handset each have their own unique purpose. The front display is used just as you might your traditional smartphone screen to run apps, browse the web or watch videos.


The rear display on the YotaPhone is what makes it stand out. An electronic paper display, it shows content you push to it from the front of the device. Less for interacting with and more for reference information, you can use the display for a map to your next destination, a clock, or a place to keep the boarding pass for your flight handy.


Martynov showed me a few applications designed specifically to use with the screen as well, including an app that shows low long you’ve kept a particular goal, such as not smoking. The company plans to release an API for other developers to make applications that take advantage of the dual-screen functionality as well.


Running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Martynov says that he plans to keep Android as vanilla as possible, something he feels is very important. He also wants to make sure that the phone is on-par with high-end Android smartphones, spec-wise. The current iteration uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM 8960 platform, and Corning’s 3D Gorilla Glass. It’s also a multi-band LTE handset that can run on LTE networks anywhere in the world.


YotaPhone is expected to go one sale during the second half of 2013.


What uses do you see for an e-ink second screen? Let us know your thoughts in the comment.


This story originally published on Mashable here.


Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Golden Globes Fashion Video

From Jessica Chastain's tantalizingly low-cut Calvin Klein creation to Jennifer Lopez's curve-hugging Zuhair Murad gown, the stars definitely brought their fashion A-game to the 2013 Golden Globes.

Pics: Hit or Miss -- The 2013 Golden Globes!

Click the video for an in-depth look at the show-stopping ensembles of Hollywood's elite!

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It’s all jerks, jokes & Jodie Foster









headshot

Linda Stasi









What do you get when 85 freeloading freelancers without genuine media affiliations vote for winners in an industry that’s filled with affiliations and worth more than most small countries?

A) A scam; B) The Golden Globes; or C) Jodie Foster.

If you guessed A, you are correct, if you guessed B, you are correct, and if you guessed C, you are as confused as the rest of us.

Last night, for the 70th time, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association held their annual confusing grifter fest, the Golden Globe Awards, filled with Hollywood honchos pretending it was all real, while millions of viewers tuned in pretending to believe those Hollywood honchos believed it was all real.




Get it? Good.

The show was hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler for the first time, and if Ricky Gervais hadn’t set the bar so high for the past two years by killing the very hands that fed him — the Golden Globes — they would have seemed better than they did.

But somehow, these two wildly funny women made it all seem tame and, yes, sort of old-fashioned.

Thank God for Jodie Foster. In an industry filled with insane people who make no sense when left to their own devices and, worse, left to their own words, Jodie Foster set the bar lower than ever and managed to stand out as maybe the most confused human ever to hit the Golden Globes stage.

It seemed that in one 75-minute (or maybe five-minute) speech, she said that nothing is more important in the world than privacy and that her sexuality was no one’s business and then promptly came out and quit show business. I think.

But what about Fey and Poehler, who were supposed to be the big story?

Yes, their opening dialogue was funny, but we’re so used to hosts roasting the rich and famous in the audience that it seemed not so fresh. I prefer Gervais’ mean-spirited honesty.

Chances are good the gig is up for Fey and Poehler. I mean, seriously, how could they stand out when Jodie Foster comes out and goes back in, all in one speech? Bottom line? The Globes is either an international conspiracy of dunces or a mass fugue or some sort probably manufactured in China of inferior ingredients and sold at Walmart.

But it still beats the Oscars.

linda.stasi@nypost.com










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After rough year, Carnival hopes for calmer waters




















After boarding the latest addition to the Carnival Cruise Lines family, Josh Beaver sampled lasagna at the new onboard Italian restaurant, downed some drinks with his traveling companions and hit the water slides while the afternoon was still young.

“So far, from what I’ve seen, there’s lots to do,” said Beaver, 33, of Holden Beach, N.C.

The Carnival Breeze hadn’t even left PortMiami yet on a recent Saturday, and already it buzzed with vacationers exploring all there was to do: nosh on a Pig Patty from the new Guy’s Burger Bar, make friends with bartenders at the new RedFrog Pub or check out a novel and a glass of the grape at the new Library Bar.





Here aboard one of the largest ships in the biggest brand of the Number One cruise ship company in the world, there was little hint that the last year was one of the toughest in the 41-year history of parent company Carnival Corp. & plc.

Last year got off to a catastrophic start when Costa Concordia, owned by Carnival unit Costa Cruises, struck rocks in Italian waters as the captain steered the ship on an unauthorized route. The massive liner listed to one side, and 32 people died in the chaos that followed.

“When you lose lives, it’s heartbreaking,” said Carnival Corp. Vice Chairman and COO Howard Frank, who devoted much of his time last winter handling the aftermath with Costa leaders. “And so I think in terms of our emotional reaction to it, it’s been the toughest year we’ve had.”

Carnival Corp. Chairman and CEO Micky Arison took criticism for not going to Italy following the wreck, but said he believes the company did the right thing and doesn’t second-guess his actions.

Financially, the company took a hit as well, starting with discounts that were necessary to drum up business after the accident. Costa’s future bookings plunged, but picked up after the operator slashed prices. As of mid-December, prices at Costa remained lower than they were a year earlier, though the company expects that to change once the anniversary of the accident passes.

“I think we’ve been consistent in saying the recovery at Costa is not a one-year issue,” Arison said during the December earnings call with analysts. “It’s going to be multiple years, and we are forecasting a recovery of about half the yield deterioration.”

The ship remains on its side off the island of Giglio; it’s expected to be removed by the end of summer.

A flurry of civil lawsuits have been filed, but none have reached trial yet; the company has reached compensation agreements with 70 percent of the more than 3,000 passengers who were not physically injured and 60 percent of injured passengers and families of those who died.

As the company and broader industry focused anew on safety, the summer months presented a fresh set of problems when the European economy weakened just as cruise lines were stationing more ships in the Mediterranean. While North America was immune to those concerns, the run-up to the Presidential election and the fiscal cliff debates prompted Carnival to worry about a slowdown in business at home.

Last month, Carnival forecast 2013 earnings that were lower than expectations and said advance bookings for the year were behind what they were a year earlier at lower prices. Many analysts believe the projections were conservative, though, and executives said they were hopeful that January would bring more robust business.





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Newark mayor to headline Broward Democrats’ fundraiser




















Rising Democratic star and Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker will be the keynote speaker at the Broward Democrats’ annual fundraiser March 23.

“He is clearly part of next generation of Democratic leaders,” local party chairman Mitch Ceasar said.

Booker, an African-American Rhodes scholar and Yale University law grad, became mayor at age 37 in 2006. He turned down a job offer from President Barack Obama after his first win. In 2012, Booker spoke at the Democratic National Convention and recently confirmed he is exploring running for U.S. Senate.





The Unity Dinner is the main fundraiser for Broward Democrats, who are preparing for the 2014 elections — most notably, a challenge to Gov. Rick Scott.





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People’s Choice Awards Will Air on Xbox 360 Tonight






CBS’s televised broadcast of the People’s Choice Awards will also be aired on Xbox 360, Microsoft’s gaming and entertainment-streaming console.


Xbox LIVE Gold subscribers in the United States can tune in and interact with the festivities starting at 8 p.m. EST with the red carpet event. The ceremony begins at 9 p.m. EST.






[More from Mashable: NBC Comedy ’1600 Penn’ Launches Social Media Cupcake Contest]


Using the console’s controller, viewers will be able to answer polls and trivia questions and give their two cents about the red carpet shenanigans, the show and performances in real time.


The People’s Choice Awards honors celebrities and their work in music, film and TV. Performers on tap include Christina Aguilera, Jason Aldean and Alicia Keys.


[More from Mashable: Justin Bieber Will Host and Perform on ‘SNL’]


Notable attendees are Jennifer Aniston, Ellen DeGeneres, Robert Downey Jr., Josh Hutcherson, Jennifer Lawrence, Chris O’Donnell, Marisa Tomei and The Wanted.


Xbox also offered streams last year for the presidential debates and Video Game Awards.


People have cast more than 400 million votes in the many People’s Choice Awards categories via the show’s website, Facebook app and Twitter.


Emojis


See if you can guess the popular television slow in each slide of the gallery. If you need to peek at the answer, simply use your cursor to highlight the text following the word “Answer.” The title will appear like magic — oooOOOooooo!


Click here to view this gallery.


Image courtesy of YouTube


This story originally published on Mashable here.


Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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