Attorney for dad of missing Hallandale Beach baby says evidence was damaged




















The tiny bones recovered from a backyard grave have a story to tell: Are these the remains of Dontrell Melvin, a baby whose family didn’t report him missing for 18 months? And how was the baby killed?

According to notes in the Hallandale Beach police lead investigator’s file, there was blunt force trauma to the child’s cranium after his death, likely caused during the search and recovery of the skeleton.

And that, says attorney Ed Hoeg, who is representing the baby’s father, could have an impact on the case against his client.





“If evidence is compromised, it could change how the case goes,” Hoeg said. “You would hope the evidence would be in pristine condition.”

Meanwhile, the missing child’s parents remain in Broward County jails. Brittney Sierra, 21, faces two counts of felony child neglect; Calvin Melvin, 27, was charged with three felony counts of providing false information to police.

But those charges could be increased if a Texas lab confirms that DNA from a tiny skeleton unearthed in January behind the couple’s former Hallandale Beach rental home matches that of their baby, Dontrell Melvin.

Dontrell, who would have turned 2 last month, had not been seen for nearly 18 months before police learned of his disappearance on Jan 9.

At first, Melvin told Hallandale Beach police that the child was with his family in Pompano Beach. But when police went there, they were told by the grandparents that they didn’t have the child and hadn’t seen him.

During questioning by police, Melvin changed his story several times, investigators said.

At one point, he told them he’d taken the baby to a fire station under Florida’s Safe Haven Law.

But police didn’t believe him and began questioning Sierra, as well. The couple, who have another child together, pointed fingers at one another, police said.

Their answers led police to the backyard of their former rental home at 106 NW First Ave.

It was there that tiny bones were found.

Nearly 90 percent of the baby’s remains were recovered and reconstructed. An initial review of the bones did not reveal any trauma to the bones, said Hallandale Beach Police Chief Dwayne Flournoy.

However, on Jan. 25, forensic anthropologist Heather Walsh-Haney briefed investigators, including Flournoy, Maj. Thomas Honan and Capt. P. Abut, on the case. In his notes, a Hallandale Beach investigator, who was not identified, wrote: “Dr. Walsh-Haney stated that there were no signs of perimortem blunt trauma. However, there was evidence of a postmortem blunt trauma to the cranium. She stated that said postmortem trauma had probably occurred during the search and recovery of the skeleton.”

The notes were provided to The Miami Herald by Hoeg.

The damage to the cranium, Hoeg said, could prove problematic for the case against his client.

“If there is only trauma afterward, did the damage destroy evidence?” he said.

But on Friday, Police Chief Flournoy insisted there was not any damage caused post-mortem to the skeleton. “The bones were not compromised in any way,” said Flournoy.

Regardless, the Texas lab working to identify the baby’s remains has enough evidence to work with.

All a scientist needs is a small bone fragment to create a DNA profile, said John Fudenberg, the president-elect for International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners.

“Unless there is significant trauma noted, it’s very difficult for a medical examiner to determine the cause of death,” Fudenberg added.





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Justin Bieber Tweets Worst Birthday

It's Justin Bieber's party and he'll cry if he wants to! The newly 19-year-old heartthrob took to Twitter Friday night to express his disappointment after his birthday plans were reportedly shut down.

Earlier in the night, the excited Girlfriend singer tweeted "big night ahead" and "gonna be a fun night," but mere hours later he was singing a different tune, writing: "Worst birthday." The tweet has been shared 132,565, and has led to #BeliebersHatePaparazzi to start trending. But the photographers may not be to blame this time.

RELATED: Bieber's Mom Isn't Crazy About His Tattoos Either

A source for E! says that Bieber's circus-themed bash at London's Cirque du Soir was cut short after the pop singer's entourage got into an altercation with the club's security.

Bieber reportedly headed straight back to his hotel after the alleged confrontation.

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Thugs posed as cops to rob Brooklyn home: police










Two dapper thugs posed as cops to rob a Brooklyn home, police said.

The duo forced their way into a Bedford-Stuyvesant residence near Atlantic Avenue and Herkimer Street about 5:30 p.m. Jan. 16, snatching a laptop and cash.

One suspect is about 6 feet tall, and wore a suit and glasses. His accomplice, who dangled a fake shield around his neck, also wore a suit.

Anyone with information about the robbery should call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS.

Tipsters can also log onto the Crime Stoppers website at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com, or text 274637 (CRIMES), then enter TIP577.












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Michelle Singletary: College scorecard didn’t pass our tests




















With my 17-year-old daughter headed to college, I tried out the new college scorecard tool launched by the Obama administration following the president’s State of the Union address.

I was not impressed. Some links didn’t work and certain information I wanted wasn’t there. Overall, the tool just didn’t add much value to help our family figure out which college would be the most affordable.

The tool, which you can find at whitehouse.gov, is too general when it comes to the final price of college, what the academic industry calls the “net price.”





“Net price is what undergraduate students pay after grants and scholarships (financial aid you don’t have to pay back) are subtracted from the institution’s cost of attendance,” the scorecard tells us.

Designed by the Department of Education, the scorecard includes the average net price data for in-state students, the school’s graduation rate, loan default rates, and median borrowing. Oh, and the data used for the average net price are for the 2010-11 academic year.

Honestly, given what I’ve been experiencing and after talking to numerous other parents, the college scorecard doesn’t address our most pressing needs. What would help more would be an intensive effort by the administration to bring down the cost of college so families wouldn’t have to borrow so heavily.

During a recent college tour, we saw one parent become very disheartened because her daughter, a good but not great student, wouldn’t be able to afford the cost of college — and she was a state resident visiting a state school. If a degree is a ticket to a middle-class job, then we’ve got to do something about bringing down the price of attending. Even with a lot of merit and need-based scholarship and grant money available, there isn’t nearly enough to go around.

My daughter Olivia, who has excellent grades, applied to four colleges — two in-state schools and two out of state. She was accepted at North Carolina A&T, Towson University and the Honors College at the University of Maryland, College Park.

The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill turned her down. The UNC rejection notice was nice enough, a more “it’s not you, it’s us” rebuff. “With many more candidates than spaces, we cannot avoid making thousands of difficult decisions,” the vice provost wrote.

My heart sunk when Olivia didn’t get into UNC. But the penny-pincher in me was jumping for joy. We’ve saved for her education, but not enough to pay the $43,848 annual out-of-state price for UNC.

Across the country, families are now waiting for their letters that lay out how much money their kids might get to finance their educations. And when I say money, I don’t mean loans. We are waiting to see if our kid gets a grant, scholarship or work study from the colleges. If that money isn’t offered, many families will opt for loans. We won’t borrow. We hope if our daughter gets aid, we can use what we’ve saved to help her finance an advanced degree, which is increasingly required for many fields.

Roberto Rodriguez, special assistant to the president for education, said the college scorecard is meant to be part of a suite of tools that families can use to help in the college selection process. You can find the tools by going to the National Center for Education Statistics’ website (www.nces.ed.gov) and searching for College Navigator.

A useful tool I’m looking forward to is one the administration previously announced, a financial aid shopping sheet. The administration has gotten more than 600 colleges to agree to provide important financial information to incoming freshmen starting with the 2013-14 school year. As part of their financial aid packages, the schools said they would disclose these key pieces of information: They will be clearer about how much one year of college will cost; they will provide a better distinction between grants, scholarships and loans; they will provide estimated monthly payments for the federal student loans that graduates will likely owe; and they will supply information about the percentages of students who enroll from one year to the next, graduate and repay their loans without defaulting.

The shopping sheet is a tool the administration should demand that colleges provide. Right now it’s only voluntary.

As hard as she tried, Olivia also didn’t make the cut for some very lucrative scholarships she applied for. Those letters said much the same as UNC’s rejection letter — that the competition is just too great.

Now we wait, like so many others, hoping we get some money from the schools that do want our daughter.





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Florida man vanishes after being sucked into sinkhole under his bedroom




















A sheriff's deputy plucked a man from an expanding sinkhole, but neither was able to save the man's brother from being sucked into the rubble, authorities said.

Early Friday, authorities said the site at 240 Faithway Drive had become too unstable to continue rescue efforts and the focus would instead shift to a recovery operation.

The sinkhole opened late Thursday in the home's backyard, swallowing one of the home's four bedrooms.





Someone called 911, and a deputy reportedly found Jeremy Bush trying to pull his brother, Jeffrey, out of the hole when he arrived.

The deputy pulled Jeremy from the growing hole.

But Jeffrey Bush, 36, disappeared into the rubble.

Janell Wheeler was inside the house with four other adults, a child and two dogs when the sinkhole opened. She sat huddled in a lawn chair Friday morning, covered in a green quilt.

"It sounded like a car hit my house," she said.

It was dark. She remembers screams and Jeremy rushing to rescue his brother.

The rest of the family went to a hotel late Thursday, when the house was condemned and neighbors evacuated. But she stayed behind with her dog Baby Girl, sleeping in her Ford Focus.

"I just want my nephew," she said through tears.

Family members returned to the home around 7:30 a.m. Jeremy Bush leaned on a patrol car and cried, his chin shaking as his eyes filled with tears.

He said he just gone to bed when he heard a loud noise and cries for help from his brother's room.

Jeremy opened the door and found the dresser and bed had disappeared into a hole. He jumped in and began to dig. But he heard nothing more from his brother before the deputy pulled him from the rubble.

"I couldn't do anything," Jeremy said Friday, in front of the house where his brother was still buried. "Everything in the room was gone.

"I just wanted to get my brother back," he said. "That's all I wanted."

Wheeler paced the sidewalk nearby and hugged relatives. "It's a dream, right?" she said.

She still wore her blue plaid pajamas.

The rest of the neighborhood area bustled Friday morning with rescuers and neighbors and TV trucks straining to catch a glimpse of the sinkhole, apparently entirely contained within the one-story, four-bedroom home, which records show was built in 1974.

Rescue crews lowered listening devices and cameras into the hole, but found no signs of life, a Fire Rescue spokeswoman said — only more signs of collapse.

Heavy equipment was standing by for a recovery operation and ground-penetrating radar was brought in early Friday to help gauge the extent of the hole, which Fire Rescue says had grown to be about 20 feet deep and 30 feet wide.

Although it has proven somewhat common for sinkholes to open in Central Florida and swallow cars and houses, it is not at all common for people to become trapped in them.

In March 2011, a woman taking pictures in her Plant City back yard plunged into a hole when it opened beneath her.

But she clung on to her cellphone and was able to call for help. Only her fingertips peeked from the ground when an officer arrived, but he was able to pull her to safety.





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Mob Wives Exclusive Clip

From style advice to dating tips, Big Ang has proven, time and again, to be a suitable heir to Dear Abby's throne. And in Sunday's all-new Mob Wives, Ang serves up some stellar sex advice to Drita, who is struggling with Lee in a halfway house.

In addition to suggesting they have sex in a casket (Lee works at a funeral home), Big Ang reveals all the surprising places she's had sex over the years -- and yes, she is a member of The Mile High Club. Watch!


Mob Wives
airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on VH1.

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Mayor Bloomberg says to lose weight you have to eat less








Meet Mayor Bloomberg, diet guru.

Only you're probably not going to like his advice for losing weight -- just eat less.

"If you eat less than 2,000 calories you'll lose weight," the mayor said on his weekly WOR radio show today. "If you eat more than 2,000 calories, you'll gain weight. Now some things metabolize more quickly than others. And everyone says I should go on this kind of diet or that kind of diet. Don't eat and you'll lose weight."

Exercise, by Bloomberg's reckoning, is not a substitute for reducing intake.

"You have to run for half an hour for one muffin. So it' i not exercise, it's overeating. Exercise contributes," he said.




The mayor got to dispensing nutrition advice during of a discussion of the city's plan to restrict the size of sugary sodas to 16 ounces in restaurants starting March 12.

Bloomberg described the new policy as educational, not punitive.

He even recommended that store owners not hike prices of giant sodas.

New Yorkers who want to consume 32 or 64 ounces at a sitting at their favorite fast food joint "just have to carry two cups back or four cups back rather than one. And that reminds you," said the mayor.

"So it's an educational thing. It doesn't prevent you from doing it, and it doesn't mean a store has to charge you more. I mean, it's ridiculous to say it's the cost of an extra cup. If the cost of an extra cup is really a detriment if they're going to be in business, they're not going to be in business."










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Would-be convention center developers make pitches to Miami Beach residents




















Developers on Wednesday presented Miami Beach residents with competing ideas for what the city’s Convention Center could look like after an overhaul.

It was the public’s first glimpse of what could become of the 52-acre site. Two heavy-hitting teams are competing for the project, which could cost up to $1 billion.

Both teams – Portman-CMC and South Beach ACE – stressed that the concepts presented Wednesday were only preliminary ideas.





Both teams’ proposals focus on creating lush greenscapes and ways to connect the enormous convention center with abutting neighborhoods – things that residents at a prior public meeting asked of the developers.

To do that, Portman-CMC, the team led by Portman Holdings, proposed several scenarios. In one, a diagonal plaza would grace the corner of the current convention center property, creating a string of parks to connect the center to the existing Miami Beach Botanical Garden and SoundScape Park.

The design focused on creating shade through both the buildings and landscaping, which is basically nonexistent now.

“This place is a black hole in terms of green, in terms of trees. We aim to change that," said Jamie Maslyn Larson, a Partner of West 8, the company partnering with Portman to landscape the project.

West 8 also worked on Miami Beach’s SoundScape Park, which features free outdoor movies and audio and video feeds of performances at the adjoining New World Symphony.

South Beach ACE, the team led by Tishman Hotel and Realty, proposed an underground parking area to hide idling trucks and buses – an issue that residents have complained about. Above the parking lot would be a rolling greenspace, and views of the now-ignored Collins Canal would be incorporated.

World-renowned architect Rem Koolhaas, part of the South Beach ACE team, called the current convention center a "serious problem" in the middle of the "idyllic" Miami Beach. His team’s design aims to correct that.

Tishman’s proposal also preserves the current Jackie Gleason Theater. Residents have debated whether the theater, which is not deemed historic, deserves to be preserved. The Tishman proposal would essentially remove a back wall of the theater to create a two-stage amphitheater.

Portman-CMC has not made a decision about whether the theater itself would stay, but spoke to preserving the legacy of Gleason himself. The team launched a website to get more resident feedback about its proposal: www.portmancmcmiamibeach.com.





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Miami-Dade mayor says partnerships, technology will move county forward




















Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez will deliver his annual speech to the county Thursday, laying out his goals for revving up the local economy, promoting regional cooperation and improving a public transportation system that is, at best, inadequate.

In a wide-ranging interview previewing his state-of-the-county speech, Gimenez told The Miami Herald that he is optimistic about the county’s future, citing improved economic indicators and a record year for business at Miami International Airport and PortMiami, two major economic engines.

“I think we’re a hot commodity, and people are starting to see our potential,” he said. “We just need to keep our eye on the ball.”





Unlike his first speech a year ago, the political pressure is off this time for Gimenez, who in August was elected to his first full term in office. His first year amounted to a red-shirt season, completing the term of former Mayor Carlos Alvarez, who was ousted in a 2011 recall.

In Thursday’s speech, to be delivered at Liberty City’s Joseph Caleb Center, Gimenez will announce the creation of an advisory group to study rising property-insurance rates and make recommendations about how to lobby state lawmakers on the issue. The Florida Legislature regulates Citizens Property Insurance, the state’s insurer of last resort, which recently increased homeowners’ insurance rates and scaled back coverage.

“We’re going to look at why our people here are getting slammed,” Gimenez said.

A similar task force made recommendations last month to improve the county elections process. The county, however, generally has more control over elections than over property insurance.

The mayor will also promote an initiative — begun with Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and already underway — to prevent youth violence. And he will tout a new partnership announced Wednesday in which the county will take part in technology giant IBM’s Smart cities program, which lets local governments test and use software to better analyze municipal data.

Among his successes in office, Gimenez will mention streamlining permitting at some county agencies — in some cases by three months, he said — posting employee salaries online and providing internships in his office to college students.

Looking to spur entrepreneurship and create local jobs, Gimenez’s administration also has committed $1 million in funding over four years to Launch Pad, in conjunction with the University of Miami. Launch Pad is a public/private partnership that introduces young technology businesses to each other to help them grow.

In his speech, the mayor will also throw his support behind Endeavor, a global nonprofit that works to accelerate entrepreneurship in metropolitan areas. The organization plans to set up shop in Miami after receiving a $2 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Taking the long view, Gimenez said he hopes to make it easier for commuters to take public transportation between Miami Beach and the mainland and from Kendall to the urban core. The mayor said he doesn’t have any specific plans yet — or money to finance them — but said that clogged streets are getting in the way of residents’ productivity.

By way of example, Gimenez said he left County Hall in downtown Miami at 5 p.m. on a recent afternoon for a 6:30 p.m. event at the Hammocks, in West Kendall.

“I didn’t make it,” he said. “I can’t imagine your having to do that every day. We’re wasting time. We’re spending money. We’re spending gas.”

For those and other big-ticket improvements, including looming, extensive water-and-sewer piping that will have to be replaced soon because it is so antiquated, Gimenez said Miami-Dade won’t be able to count on much state or federal financial aid. Instead, there will be some water-rate hikes in coming years, he said, and future transportation projects might be partnerships involving heavy private-sector investments.

“More and more, it’s likely that we’re going to have to do these things ourselves,” he said.

Better than going at it alone, Gimenez said, would be teaming up with counties with similar issues to share ideas and work together for funding and state support. To that end, Gimenez had dinner last year in St. Petersburg with the mayors of Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa. He also has hosted the mayors of Broward and Palm Beach counties to brainstorm ways to work together.

“People have been very good and very successful at dividing us, and we’ve done that to ourselves,” Gimenez said. “We should have a lot more in common than we have differences.”





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Stars Without Makeup!



Jennifer Hudson







Jennifer Hudson looks undeniably gorgeous in this makeup-free Twitter pic she just shared with fans. "Getting into character. I need some eyebrows though!," she joked.








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Barnes & Noble posts third-quarter loss as Nook costs mount








The digital business is weighing on Barnes & Noble Inc., the largest traditional US bookseller.

The company posted on Thursday a loss in the fiscal third quarter, hurt by weak sales during the all-important holiday quarter for its Nook e-book readers as well as at its bookstores. Nook revenue fell 26 percent, and the company has begun cutting costs at the unit due to the sharp decline.

Barnes & Noble, based in New York, has been struggling to find its place as more readers have shifted to electronic books and competition has grown from discount stores and online rivals. The company, which has 689 bookstores in 50 states as well as 674 college bookstores, has invested heavily in its Nook e-book readers and a digital library to try to carve out a niche in the current retail landscape.




The company's founder, chairman and largest shareholder, Leonard Riggio, plans to offer to buy the physical bookstores and website of Barnes & Noble, but not the Nook unit. No terms or other details have been announced. On Thursday, the company said it has appointed board members to evaluate a proposal when it's made and the potential value of the retail business.

In the fiscal third quarter through Jan. 26, the New York company posted a loss of $6.1 million, or 18 cents per share. The company blamed the loss in part on charges stemming from weaker-than-expected sales of Nook e-readers during the holiday shopping season. Analysts had expected a profit of 53 cents per share.

In the same period the year before, the New York company posted a profit of $52 million, or 71 cents per share.

Revenue fell 9 percent to $2.22 billion — analysts polled by FactSet predicted a more modest decline, to $2.4 billion.

Revenue from its retail unit — which includes its bookstores and website — fell 10 percent to $1.51 billion. Revenue in stores open in at least one year fell 7.3 percent. Store closings and lower online sales also hurt results. Excluding Nook sales, revenue in stores open at least one year fell 2.2 percent.

Revenue from the chain's college bookstore unit fell nearly 2 percent to $517 million.

Nook revenue fell 26 percent to $316 million as the company sold fewer e-readers. Barnes & Noble company recorded $21 million in returns due to weak demand during the holiday season, and $15 million in allowances for promotions. Digital content sales rose almost 7 percent during the quarter.

The Nook unit has attracted investors — Microsoft owns 16.8 percent, while U.K. publisher and education company Pearson has a 5 percent stake. But aside from investor funding, the unit has been losing money. CEO William Lynch addressed the problems with the unit in a statement.

"Coming off the holiday shortfall, we're in the process of making some adjustments to our strategy as we continue to pursue the exciting growth opportunities ahead for us in the consumer and digital education content markets," he said.

But he added that the chain remains committed to its tablet and e-reader business.

For fiscal 2013, the company expects revenue in stores open at least one year to fall in the low- to mid-single digit range. Revenue in stores open at least one year in its college bookstores are expected to fall by a low single digit percentage.










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Don’t get too personal on LinkedIn




















Have you ever received a request to connect on LinkedIn from someone you didn’t know or couldn’t remember?

A few weeks ago, Josh Turner encountered this situation. The online request to connect came from a businessman on the opposite coast of the United States. It came with a short introduction that ended with “Let’s go Blues!” a reference to Turner’s favorite hockey team in St. Louis that he had mentioned in his profile. “It was a personal connection … that’s building rapport.”

LinkedIn is known for being the professional social network where members expect you to keep buttoned-down behavior and network online like you would at a business event. With more than 200 million registered users, the site facilitates interaction as a way to boost your stature, gain a potential customer or rub elbows with a future boss.





But unlike most other social networking sites, LinkedIn is all about business — and you need to take special care that you act accordingly. As in any workplace, the right amount of personal information sharing could be the foot in the door, say experts. The wrong amount could slam it closed.

“Anyone in business needs a professional online presence,’’ says Vanessa McGovern, the VP of Business Development for the Global Institute for Travel Entrepreneurs and a consultant to business owners on how to use LinkedIn. But they should also heed LinkedIn etiquette or risk sending the wrong messages.

One of the biggest mistakes, McGovern says is getting too personal — or not personal enough.

Sending a request to connect blindly equates to cold calling and likely will lead nowhere. Instead, it should come with a personal note, an explanation of who you are, where you met, or how the connection can benefit both parties, McGovern explains.

Your profile should get a little personal, too, she says. “Talk about yourself in the first person and add a personal flair — your goals, your passion … make yourself seem human.”

Beyond that, keep your LinkedIn posts, invitations, comments and photos professional, McGovern says.

If you had a hard day at the office or your child just won an award, you may want to share it with your personal network elsewhere — but not on LinkedIn.

“This is not Facebook. Only share what you would share at a professional networking event,” she says.

Another etiquette pitfall on LinkedIn is the hit and run — making a connection and not following up.

At least once a week, Ari Rollnick, a principal in kabookaboo, an integrated marketing agency in Coral Gables, gets a request to connect with someone on LinkedIn that he has never met or heard of before. The person will have no connections in common and share no information about why they want to build a rapport.

“I won’t accept. That’s a lost opportunity for them,” Rollnick says.

He approaches it differently. When Rollnick graduated from Emory with an MBA in 2001, he had a good idea that his classmates would excel in the business world. Now, Rollnick wanted to find out just where they went and reestablish a connection.

With a few clicks, he tracked down dozens of them on LinkedIn, requested a connection, and was back on their radar. Then came the follow-up — letting them know through emails, phone calls and posts that he was creating a two-way street for business exchange. “Rather than make that connection and disappearing , I let them know I wanted to open the door to conversation.”





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Two charged with taking protected live sharks from the Keys




















For the second time in weeks, federal prosecutors have ordered the arrest of people for illegally taking live sharks out of the Florida Keys.

Two officials of Idaho Aquarium Inc. in Boise were indicted on federal charges of conspiracy and illegally purchasing four spotted eagle rays and two lemon sharks, all protected species and all from Keys waters.

Ammon Covino, 39, president of Idaho Aquarium, and corporate secretary Christopher Conk, 40, were arraigned late last week in Idaho and ordered to appear in U.S. District Court in Key West on March 15.





The Idaho Aquarium is a display facility covering 10,000 square feet operating in a converted Boise warehouse. Listed as a nonprofit educational center, the aquarium opened in late 2011. It claims to offer "over 250 different species of animals and marine life" for the $9 adult admission fee.

The indictment from November was unsealed this month.

On Feb. 7, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami unsealed a separate indictment against two Broward County aquarium suppliers. They were charged with conspiracy to acquire and resell juvenile nurse sharks without a required permit, and angelfish larger than the maximum size allowed. Those fish from the Keys allegedly were sold to a Michigan buyer.

"While both cases relate to the marine living resources of the Florida Keys and involve violations of the Lacey Act, predicated in part on [Florida law], there is no public record material to suggest there is any other relationship between the cases," said Alicia Valle, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

In the indictment against Idaho Aquarium and its officials, prosecutor Thomas Watts-Fitzgerald wrote that the defendants knowingly conspired with fish collectors in the Keys to have the rays and sharks captured without permits and shipped north.

After being offered $1,250 for each live eagle ray, an unnamed fish collector eventually told Covino that permits needed to take the rays could not be obtained. Covino reportedly answered, "Just start doing it.... Who gives a ...".

The collector reportedly shipped three eagle rays in May 2012 and another in June 2012. All were sent to Covino at the Idaho Aquarium.

A second unnamed collector reportedly was solicited by Conk in June for two lemon sharks. The collector said no capture permits for lemon sharks are being issued so "the transaction would have to be conducted on the 'down low,' " the indictment says.

In a later conversation, Covino is accused of saying the lack of permits for the lemon sharks was "no big deal." The lemon sharks were purchased for $650 each and sent to Idaho in October.

Neither collector was named in the indictment.

According to the U.S. District Court documents, Covino and Conk could receive prison terms of up to five years on each of four counts.

The Idaho Aquarium could be fined $500,000. The government is seeking to seize Conk's 2005 Ford pickup truck, reportedly used to transport the fish from an airport.





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Prince Harry Dances with Kids & Learns Sign Language During Africa Trip

Prince Harry is once again proving to be a hit as a goodwill ambassador during his latest trip to Africa.

The prince stopped off in the African kingdom of Lesotho on Wednesday to visit children being supported by a British charity he founded.

PICS: Star Sightings

Harry got down on his knees to join kids in a dance during his visit to the Kananelo Centre for the deaf in a rural part of the country's capital Maseru. Harry also donned a teddy bear apron while preparing local food with the students and got a lesson in sign language.

The school is one of only two for deaf children in the country and is funded by the 28-year-old prince's charity Sentebale, which supports children who either suffer from HIV/Aids, have been orphaned, or have disabilities.

RELATED: 5 Things to Know About Prince Harry's New Girlfriend

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Miss Delaware Teen USA resigns on same day alleged porn tape surfaces








The porn video allegedly showing Miss Delaware Teen USA Melissa King (left) and a picture of King wearing her official sash (right).

YouTube and @Melissa_M_King via Twitter

The porn video allegedly showing Miss Delaware Teen USA Melissa King (left) and a picture of King wearing her official sash (right).



Miss Delaware Teen USA, Melissa King, has turned in her crown after a sex tape emerged allegedly staring the 18-year-old beauty.

"The Miss Delaware Teen USA pageant has received a resignation letter from Miss King's attorney," Dara Busch, a spokesperson for the pageant, told the Delaware News Journal yesterday.

King's resignation came on the same day that the video hit the Web on a porn site, "where amateur girls make first time adult videos."





@Melissa_M_King via Twitter



Miss Delaware Krista Clausen (left to right), Donald Trump, and Melissa King





The site claimed Tuesday that the woman in the video was King who was crowned Miss Delaware Teen USA just five months after the film was shot in June of 2012.

In the video, a woman who resembles King sits on a bed wearing a purple dress as an off-camera interviewer asks her questions.

The man starts by asking about when she turned 18, to which the woman says, "Three months ago, in March."

According to the Miss Delaware Teen USA Web site, King's birthday is in March while the beauty queen tweeted on February 24th that, "a year ago almost , I turned 18. I'm about to turn 19 and so much has changed for the better in my life in the past year... Nothing can bring me down:)"

After delving into the woman's sexual history the interviewer asks, "You're actually a Miss Teen for a certain state, I'm not going to say the state," before the woman shakes her head and mumbles "nuh nuh."

The off-camera interviewer then wisens up and coyly asks, "You do beauty pageants?" to which the woman smiles and says, "I've done them, yes."

Besides birthdays and beauty pageants the interviewer also asks the woman in the video about why she got into porn.

"I thought it'd be fun and it sounded like I needed the money, so I just decided to do it," the young woman says.

King denied she was the woman in the tape telling The News Journal, "Absolutely not, it is not."

The Miss Delaware Teen USA is run by the Donald Trump backed Miss Universe Organization.










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Coral Gables native Martin Zweig, Wall Street wiz, dies in Florida




















A decade before he foresaw the 1987 stock market crash, Coral Gables native Marty Zweig was already considered a Wall Street wizard.

Renown business journalist Dan Dorfman called him “the country’s hottest investment adviser” in 1981, his picture appeared on the cover of Money Magazine in 1982, and he was frequent guest on the PBS financial show Wall Street Week.

Wall Street Week





He wrote two best-selling books: Winning on Wall Street, in 1986, and Winning with New IRAs, in 1987.

On Oct. 19 that year, just as Zweig had predicted three days earlier on Wall Street Week, the market plummeted 23 percent.

Zweig, whose three-story Pierre Hotel penthouse is one of New York City’s most lavish residences, died Feb. 18 at another of his homes, on South Florida’s Fisher Island. He was 70. Zweig had been treated for cancer, and underwent a liver transplant in 2010 with tissue from his younger son.

Born Martin Edward Zweig on July 2, 1942, in Cleveland, he spent his formative years growing up in Coral Gables where he was known as Marty Gateman after his widowed mother remarried.

He attended Coral Gables Elementary and Ponce de Leon Junior High schools, was a Coral Gables High School varsity basketball player and track star — class of 1960 — and 2001 Cavalier Hall of Famer.

Childhood friend Richard B. Bermont, a Miami financial adviser, remembered Zweig as a great poker player even in high school, “pretty much a jokester, and the ladies loved him.’’

He legally changed his last name back to Zweig when he was 21, after his mother and Dr. Gateman divorced, said former wife Mollie Friedman.

Zweig wrote that his interest in financial began when the 1948 Cleveland Indians were playing in the World Series.

“I was the kid who knew the most about the team and had a vague idea about what batting averages mean. I had begun to love numbers. Perhaps this was a tip-off that I’d later graduate to the market.’’

He earned a bachelor’s in economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1964, later an M.B.A. from the University of Miami and a doctorate in finance from Michigan State University.

In 1984, Zweig joined with stock picker Joe DiMenna, with whom he co-founded Zweig-DiMenna Partners, their first long/short hedge fund.

Zweig also created two closed-end funds traded on the New York Stock Exchange, according to his corporate biography: The Zweig Fund in 1986 and The Zweig Total Return Fund in 1988.

In his first book, he wrote: “When playing the market, remember you must deal with probabilities, employ sensible strategies to limit risk, and get aggressive only when conditions warrant.’’

He was as quirky in his private life as he was serious about investing. Stan Smith, a Fisher Island friend, said that last year, Zweig installed a “banana yellow’’ 1934 Packard convertible in his living room.

Zweig’s memorabilia collection includes the dress Marilyn Monroe wore to sing “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy in 1962, a pair of JFK’s pajamas, suits The Beatles wore, Super Bowl rings, Heisman Trophies, Oscar statuettes and Gold Records; one of the Harley-Davidson Hydra-Glide motorcycles that actor Peter Fonda rode in the film “Easy Rider;” an outfit that Jimi Hendrix wore in concert; and the booking sheet from one of Al Capone’s arrests, and a letter written by baseball legend Mickey Mantle describing a sexual encounter at Yankee Stadium.





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Miami businessman who pleaded guilty to stealing millions from Medicare is sentenced to 14 years in prison




















A local businessman who moved his mental health chain from Miami-Dade to North Carolina after the feds suspected him of a Medicare scam was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Monday and ordered to reimburse the taxpayer-funded program $28 million.

Kept behind bars since his arrest because of fears he might flee to Cuba, Armando “Manny” Gonzalez pleaded guilty in December to stealing tens of millions of dollars from Medicare by fraudulently billing the federal program and laundering the proceeds to support an affluent lifestyle.

Gonzalez, 50, a convicted cocaine trafficker who joined the Medicare rackets in the mid-2000 era, had opened a pair of mental health clinics in the Kendall and Cutler Bay areas. By 2008, Gonzalez moved himself and his business to North Carolina to stay one step ahead of federal agents.





But they caught up with him. Before his arrest in May 2012, he was planning to open another psychotherapy clinic in Tennessee.

Gonzalez was indicted with others on charges of conspiring to defraud $63 million from Medicare. He was ordered held without bail after prosecutors argued he was a “flight risk” to his native Cuba.

Dozens of Cuban immigrants charged in South Florida with trying to bilk the federal healthcare program for seniors have fled to the island, which historically has turned a blind eye and doesn’t return the fugitives to the United States because the nations do not have an extradiction agreement.

In December, Gonzalez pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Gonzalez agreed to forfeit property valued at several million dollars, including $987,910 seized in July as well as a one-acre home, vehicles and other assets in Hendersonville, N.C.

Several defendants were charged for their alleged roles in Gonzalez’s business, Health Care Solutions Network, with 10 pleading guilty so far.

According to court records, Gonzalez’s company, Health Care Solutions Network, billed both Medicare and the Florida Medicaid program for purported mental health services that patients did not need.

Gonzalez’s three clinics -- accused of entertaining patients with TV and movies instead of providing actual group psychotherapy sessions -- collected $28 million in Medicare payments from 2004 to 2011. Justice Department lawyers said in court papers that the “vast majority” of the money “disappeared” with a “substantial portion ... laundered through shell corporations.”

Among others charged in the scheme are, John Thoen, a registered nurse, and three employees, Alexandra Haynes, Serena Joslin and Sarah Da Silva Keller. All have pleaded guilty.

Also charged in the scheme: Daniel Martinez, Raymond Rivero, Ivon Perez and Alba Serrano, operators of three assisted-living facilities in the Homestead area called Mi Renacer, God Is First and Kayleen and Denis Care.

The ALF operators, who have pleaded guilty, were accused of taking bribes from Gonzalez in exchange for supplying a steady stream of patients, many of whom suffered from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. They could not have benefited from the therapy, prosecutors said.

“Once the unqualified patients were admitted to HCSN, Gonzalez’s employees would fabricate virtually every portion of the patients’ mental health medical records,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

“The fake medical records were then utilized to support false billings to government sponsored health care benefit programs and to avoid detection by Medicare auditors.”

The case was prosecuted by trial attorneys William Parente and Allan J. Medina of the Justice Department’s fraud section, with agents from the FBI and U.S. Department Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General leading the investigation.





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Adorable Tots: Celebs and their Cute Kids!



Jennifer Hudson







Jennifer Hudson posed in front of the Oscar statue while her  little boy David Daniel Otunga Jr. made a funny face. Hudson captioned the pic, writing: "We had fun!!! Until next time ...Oh Oscar!! Big congrats to all the winners!!!"








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Helicopter prison escape foiled in Greece after massive gun battle








A helicopter is seen hovering over a prison in Greece as Panagiotis Vlastos attempts a daring escape.

trikalavoice.gr

A helicopter is seen hovering over a prison in Greece as Panagiotis Vlastos attempts a daring escape.



ATHENS, Greece — A helicopter swooped down on a prison courtyard Sunday as armed men on board fired on guards and lowered a rope to help a convicted killer make his fourth attempt to escape from a Greek prison.

But the plot was foiled after the prisoner was shot and the chopper forced to land in the prison's parking lot.

The dramatic escape attempt was one of a handful involving helicopters in Greece, and the first time such plans have failed.





YouTube



The helicopter used in the failed prison escape of Panagiotis Vlastos. The aircraft was eventually forced to land in the prison's courtyard.





Authorities said the chartered helicopter — carrying two armed passengers, a pilot and a technician — first tried to rip off the chicken-wire fence surrounding Trikala prison with a hook dangling from a rope. But that didn't work, so a rope was lowered down to whisk away Panagiotis Vlastos. Another prisoner, an unnamed Albanian national also in the courtyard at the time, may also have been part of the escape plan.

At the same time, the armed passengers used AK-47 assault rifles to fire on the prison guards. One guard, who was inside a post, was slightly injured by shards of flying glass. He and others returned fire, injuring Vlastos, who had managed to climb into the helicopter, as well as the helicopter's technician. Vlastos fell from a height of about 10 feet into the courtyard, and the helicopter was eventually grounded in the parking lot.

Vlastos, 43, is a convicted murderer and racketeer serving a life term who had tried and failed three times before to escape from prison.

Prison officials told TV stations Mega and NET that they recovered well over 500 bullets fired from the helicopter. The Ministry of Justice, in statements describing the escape attempt, added that the helicopter passengers also carried, but did not use, "improvised explosive devices."

Authorities said Vlastos was wounded in the legs but is being treated in the prison hospital because his injuries were not deemed serious enough for a transfer elsewhere. The technician's hand was slightly wounded.

It was not immediately clear if the pilot and flight technician had willingly participated in the escape attempt or had been forced to fly to the prison, which is located 205 miles northwest of Athens. Also unclear was whether the second would-be escapee was in on the scheme or just happened to be in the courtyard and tried to take advantage of the situation.

The helicopter was hired from a western Athens suburb and was supposed to fly to Thessaloniki, in northern Greece. But it deviated from is flight path to head to the prison.

This is the third time a helicopter has been used in an attempted prison escape in Greece. Convicted criminals Vassilis Paleokostas and Alket Rizaj were whisked by helicopter from the high-security Korydallos prison in Athens in June 2006. They were caught, but escaped for a second time — again using a helicopter — in February 2009. Paleokostas is still at large.

Vlastos was first arrested in 1994 in the murder of two members of a rival criminal gang. He was convicted last year as the behind-the-bars mastermind of the kidnapping of shipping tycoon Pericles Panagopoulos. Panagopoulos was kidnapped in January 2009 and released after eight days, when a ransom of €30 million was paid.

While awaiting trial for the kidnapping, Vlastos tried to escape in December 2011 from Korydallos prison along with three members of armed anarchist group Conspiracy Nuclei of Fire. The four used a pistol and knives to take hostage three prison guards and 25 visiting relatives of other prisoners. The four surrendered to authorities after a five-hour standoff.

Vlastos had also tried to escape, unsuccessfully, in 1994 and 1998.










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Univision bumps NBC into fifth place




















A failing NBC has left Univision the fourth most popular network in the United States — at least for now.

The latest ratings from the February “sweeps” race — a milestone moment for network ratings in the television business — had NBC fall behind its Spanish-language rival. The Doral-based network finished the sweeps period with a viewership that amounted to 1.5 percent of all adults between 18 and 49. That’s considered the key demographic for television advertisers, and it’s the most common yardstick for measuring a network’s success.

The 1.5 percent share was ahead of NBC’s 1.2 percent share. CBS dominated the contest with a 4.9 percent share, followed by Fox (2.0 percent) and ABC (1.7 percent), according to EW.com.





Univision has beaten CBS before in the ratings race, but this is the first time the Spanish-language powerhouse has bested NBC. The victory is a bit sweeter since NBC owns Univision’s cross-town rival, Telemundo. As NBC slid, Univision saw audience for its news programs and telenovelas grow.

But the ratings pecking order can be topsy-turvy. In November, NBC took the fall sweeps contest with a No. 1 ranking, thanks to big audiences brought in by The Voice, Revolution and Sunday Night Football.

DOUGLAS HANKS





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At least one wounded in Miami shooting




















Miami police detectives Monday morning are on the scene of a shooting that wounded at least one person.

Police have cordoned off the area of Northwest Avenue at 43rd street as they investigate.

Still visible on the street: a bloody rag next to the tire of a Ford sports utility vehicle.





This bulletin will be updated as more information becomes available.





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2013 Oscars Speeches, Top 5

This year's Academy Awards saw a few first-timers collect awards (Adele, Jennifer Lawrence) in addition to the veterans that hit the Oscars stage (Ben Affleck, Daniel Day-Lewis) -- but who of these winners gave the most memorable of speeches? Here's the top five acceptance-speech moments from Oscars Sunday:

1. Ben Affleck for Best Picture: The man behind the hit film Argo, Ben Affleck, delivered a speech that had audiences both laughing and grabbing for the tissues. The A-lister attempted to "thank everyone" involved in the film, but left on a serious note, saying as he teared up, "You have to work harder than you think you possibly can. You can't hold grudges. ...And it doesn't matter how you get knocked down in life because that's gonna happen. All that matters is that you gotta get up."

2. Quentin Tarantino for Best Original Screenplay- Winning for Django Unchained, the outlandish director delivered a gracious yet humorous speech that had Django star Kerry Washington in tears. Click HERE to view.

3. Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor- Winning for his critically acclaimed role in Lincoln, Daniel Day-Lewis seemed overwhelmed by his win, but managed to get in a few jokes along the way. "My wife has lived with some very strange men," he joked as he thanked his spouse. On a serious note, he said to his fellow nominees, "I'm so proud to be included as one amongst you." Click HERE to view.


RELATED: Top 5 Oscar Moments You may Have Missed

4. Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress- The Silver Linings Playbook star made quite the entrance onto the Oscars stage when she tumbled over her dress. Earning a standing ovation, she opened her speech by saying, "This is nuts!" Click HERE to view.

5. Adele for Best Original Song- Adding to her Grammy and Golden Globe wins, Adele picked up an Oscar for her James Bond song Skyfall, and like the other winners, she also got rather emotional. What was also moving was her performance of her Oscar-winning song!


What was your favorite speech of the evening? Let us know, below.

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Israel, US successfully test anti-missile system








JERUSALEM — Israel and the US on Monday carried out a successful test of the next-generation Arrow 3 missile defense system, for the first time sending an interceptor into outer space, where it could destroy missiles fired from Iran.

The Arrow 3 is part of a multilayered system that Israel is developing to protect against a range of missile threats, from short-range rockets in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon to medium and longer-range missiles in the hands of Syria and Iran. The Arrow system is being developed to protect against sophisticated Iranian-made Shahab ballistic missiles.





AP



An Israeli missile launch





Israel's Defense Ministry said it was the first flight test of the Arrow 3 interceptor. It was conducted at an Israeli test range over the Mediterranean Sea. The system is about three years away from becoming operational.

"The Arrow 3 interceptor was successfully launched and flew an exo-atmospheric trajectory through space, in accordance with the test plan," it said in a statement. "The successful test is a major milestone in the development of the Arrow 3 weapon system and provides further confidence in future Israeli defense capabilities to defeat the developing ballistic missile threat."

Iran's Shahab ballistic missile can carry a nuclear warhead and has a range of 1,250 miles, putting Israel and parts of Europe within range. With Iran suspected by the international community of trying to develop a nuclear weapon, the success of the Arrow is considered critical for Israel.

Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran to be an existential threat, citing Iranian calls for Israel's destruction, its support for anti-Israel militant groups and its missile and nuclear technology. Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful, a claim that Israel and many Western countries reject.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the test shows Israel's technological capabilities as well as its close cooperation with the US "Israel's hand is always extended for peace, but we are always prepared for other options as well," Netanyahu said after a meeting with Mideast envoy Tony Blair Monday afternoon.

A senior Defense Ministry official said the test was conducted "100 percent successfully."

"This is the first time the interceptor with all of its equipment took off and flew, achieved its velocity and did the maneuver in space," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity under ministry regulations. "The Iranian missiles are a main factor to why this system was developed," he said, but he stressed that the test was not connected to a specific regional development.

The Arrow 3 is being developed by state-run Israel Aerospace Industries in conjunction with American aviation giant Boeing Co.

The Arrow 3, expected to be operational around 2016, would give Israel an additional layer of defense by targeting incoming missiles far closer to their time of launch. The Arrow 2 system, which intercepts targets inside the atmosphere, is already operational.

Last year, Israel also successfully tested a system designed to intercept missiles with ranges of up to 180 miles. That system, called "David's Sling" and "Magic Wand," is expected to be operational next year.

Israel has also developed a system for intercepting short-range rockets. The "Iron Dome" successfully shot down hundreds of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip during eight days of fighting in November.










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Miami medicine goes digital




















About 10 years ago, Dr. Fleur Sack quit her practice as a family physician to become a hospital department head. Spurring her decision was the need to switch from paper records to electronic ones to keep her private practice profitable. “At that time, it would have cost about $50,000,” Dr. Sack recalled. “It was too expensive and it was too overwhelming.”

But times and technologies changed, and last year, Dr. Sack left her hospital job to restart her medical practice with an affordable system for managing electronic patient records. She agreed to a $5,000 setup fee and a subscription fee of $500 per month for the system. Her investment also qualified her for subsidy money, which the federal government pays in installments, and to date, her subsidy income has paid for the setup fee and about two years of monthly fees. “So far, I’ve got my check for $18,000,” she said. “There’s a total of $44,000 that I can get.”

That kind of cash flow is one reason why so-called EHR software systems for electronic health records have been among the hottest-selling commercial products in the world of information technology. EHR system development is a growth industry in South Florida, too. Life sciences and biotechnology are among the high growth-potential sectors identified by the Beacon Council-led One Community One Goal economic development initiative unveiled in 2012; already, the University of Miami has opened a Health Science Technology Park while Florida International University has launched a program in its graduate school of business oriented toward biotechnology businesses.





For many young businesses in the area’s IT industry, government incentives are paving the way. The federal government is pushing doctors and hospitals to use electronic health records to cut wasteful spending and improve patient care while protecting patient privacy — sending digital information via encrypted systems, for example, rather than regular email.

Under a 2009 federal law known as the HITECH Act, maximum incentive payments for buying such systems range up to $44,000 for doctors with Medicare patients and up to $63,750 for doctors with Medicaid patients. Hospitals are eligible for larger incentive payments for becoming more paperless. The subsidy program isn’t permanent; eligible professionals must begin receiving payments by 2016. But by then, the federal government will be penalizing doctors and hospitals that take Medicare or Medicaid money without making meaningful use of electronic health records.

“What the government did is, they incentivized, and now they’re going to penalize,” said Andrew Carricarte, president and CEO of IOS Health Systems in Miami, one of the largest South Florida-based vendors of online software service for physician practices. He said insurance companies also may start penalizing physicians for failing to adopt electronic health records because “the commercial payers always follow Medicare and Medicaid.”

It’s all part of the growth story at IOS Health Systems, which has more than 2,000 physicians across the nation using its online EHR system. Carricarte said many of the company’s customers buy their second EHR system from IOS after their first one flopped. “Almost 40 percent of our sales come from customers who had systems and are now switching over to something else,” he said.





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Miami Dolphins hopeful on stadium referendum date




















The Miami Dolphins are hopeful the Miami-Dade County Commission will approve a May 14 date for a referendum on the $400 rehabilitation of their stadium, time enough to get South Florida in play for Super Bowl 50, a Dolphins spokesman said Saturday.

Spokesman Ric Katz said the language of the proposed referendum has yet to be decided, and ultimately the commission decides the date.

But, he said, “we’d be very happy with” May 14 because “that gives us a week to communicate to the NFL before they make the important decision of Super Bowl 50.”





NFL owners are slated to meet on May 22 to pick the site of the 2016 Super Bowl — seen as a tourist revenue prize for whichever host city gets the 50th anniversary contest.

Mayor Carlos Gimenez met Friday with Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and CEO Mike Dee to discuss the proposed stadium rehabilitation.

From the mayor’s side, there has been no agreement on a date and Gimenez does not plan to bring the proposed May 14 referendum to the commission at this time, said spokeswoman Suzy Trutie.

Friday’s was a “first meeting” at which “many things were discussed,” including the Dolphin’s preference for May 14.

But, “We continue negotiating with the Dolphins with regards to finances.”

One proposed financing plan would increase the bed tax in mainland Miami-Dade by 1 percent and increase the sales tax rebate the team already gets at the stadium in Miami Gardens. Ross had initially offered to pay at least $201 million in his financing plan. But Katz, a Miami publicist representing the team in the stadium campaign, said the two sides were still in negotiation on what the mayor would ask the commission to put to taxpayers in a referendum.

Trutie said the proposed referendum would gauge public opinion on increasing hotel taxes from 6 to 7 percent to fund the stadium renovations.

Of the commission, Katz said, “We do not take them for granted. They have the prerogative.”

Attorney Kendall Coffey did not return calls asking whether the Dolphins had hired him to write the ballot language.

Dolphins lobbyist Marcelo Llorente had said in recent weeks that the team was considering May 7 and 14 as possible referendum dates.

Any activity by the Florida Legislature would likely have to be undertaken before then. The regular session is slated to end May 3.

Miami Herald staff writers Patricia Mazzei and Doug Hanks contributed to this report.





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Independent Spirit Award Winners 2013

The 2013 Film Independent Spirits Awards were handed out in Santa Monica, CA today and lots of Oscar frontrunners cemented their status by dominating in their categories once more.

Check out all the winners below:


Best Feature


Beasts of the Southern Wild

Bernie

Keep the Lights On

Moonrise Kingdom

Silver Linings Playbook


BEST FEMALE LEAD


Linda Cardellini, Return

Emayatzy Corinealdi, Middle of Nowhere

Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook


Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Smashed


BEST MALE LEAD


Jack Black, Bernie

Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

John Hawkes, The Sessions


Thure Lindhardt, Keep the Lights On

Matthew McConaughey, Killer Joe

Wendell Pierce, Four


BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE


Rosemarie DeWitt, Your Sister's Sister

Ann Dowd, Compliance

Helen Hunt, The Sessions


Brit Marling, Sound of My Voice

Lorraine Toussaint, Middle of Nowhere


BEST SUPPORTING MALE


Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike


David Oyelowo, Middle of Nowhere

Michael Pena, End of Watch

Sam Rockwell, Seven Psychopaths

Bruce Willis, Moonrise Kingdom


BEST DIRECTOR


Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom

Julia Loktev, The Loneliest Planet

David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook


Ira Sachs, Keep the Lights On

Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild


BEST SCREENPLAY


Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom

Zoe Kazan, Ruby Sparks

Martin McDonagh, Seven Psychopaths

David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook


Ira Sachs, Keep the Lights On

For the full list of winners, click here.

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Elderly man fatally shot in Brooklyn home








An elderly man was shot and killed inside a home in Brooklyn this morning, police said.

The 72-year-old man suffered a single gunshot wound to the neck and was discovered inside the Gates Avenue building in Bushwick around 2:25 a.m., cops said.

The victim was rushed to Woodhull Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The man, whose name has not been released, has no criminal history and it's unclear whether he was struck by a stray bullet or targeted, sources said.

No arrests have been made.











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South Beach Wine & Food Festival changes Miami's culinary scene, impacts economy




















For Miami restaurateurs, this is Showtime.

With dozens of top chefs — Bobby Flay, Todd English, Daniel Boloud and Masaharu Morimoto among the list — in town for the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, the pressure is on everywhere, from Michy’s to the new Catch Miami. The goal: Show everyone from around the country that Miami’s food scene has arrived on the national stage.

Chef Michelle Bernstein’s staff whipped up dishes designed to impress guests at Michy’s — like foie gras, oxtail and apple tarte tatin — while she juggled menus for multiple events. Bernstein kept her cellphone handy to make sure any chef friends could get a table, even though her namesake restaurant was sold out.





As always, Joe’s Stone Crab was a must-do stop for many, including Paula Deen and New York restaurateur Danny Meyer. Aussie Chef Curtis Stone attracted a string of admirers as he ate his way around town, with stops at Prime 112, Pubbelly Sushi and Puerto Sagua. Khong River House and Yardbird Southern Table & Bar hosted Meyer, The Food Network’s Anne Burrell and Chef Anita Lo.

Michael’s Genuine was another hot spot.

“This is kind of our coming out party for Khong and it’s our chance to knock it out of the park and wow people,” said John Kunkel, owner of Khong and Yardbird.

Prime 112 owner Myles Chefetz admits he’s a fanatic about checking plates when they come back from a chef’s table. And he’s always on the lookout for the table ordering 20 different items, because that’s usually a restaurateur doing research.

“If you have Jean-Gorges or Bobby Flay eating at your restaurant, you want to make sure he has a great experience,” Chefetz said. “You want to put your best foot forward because you know you’re going to get scrutinized.”

The Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival is not just a forum for impressing the culinary elite. It’s among the top three tourist draws for Miami restaurants and hotels. In its 12th year, the festival draws more than 60,000 people to Miami Beach for a weekend of decadence, featuring more than 50 events spread over four days.

It is neck and neck with two of the area’s other most prominent weekends: Art Basel and Presidents’ Day (which coincides with the Miami International Boat Show).

There’s the immediate economic impact, of course, but the festival has made its mark in other ways: helping transform Miami’s food scene from a cultural wasteland to one of the country’s hot spots, one where top chefs all want to set up shop.

“Twelve years ago I don’t know if you could even name five really good restaurants. Now, you can’t think of where you want to eat because there are so many good restaurants,” said Lee Brian Schrager, festival founder and vice president of communications for Southern Wine & Spirits, its host. “What the festival can take credit for is introducing the culinary world to the great talent down here, and really highlighting South Florida as a great dining destination.”

There has been plenty of indulgence to go around. Flay finally broke his losing streak and took home top honors at the Burger Bash with his award-winning crunchified green chili burger. At the Q, barbecue lovers had their choice of Al Roker’s lamb ribs with baked beans or Geoffrey Zakarian’s smoked tagarashi crusted tuna, among other offerings.





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Miami police union challenges officer’s firing for fatal shooting




















The Fraternal Order of Police filed a lawsuit against the city of Miami on Friday, asserting that an officer who fatally shot an unarmed motorist in 2011 was improperly fired from the police department.

Officer Reynaldo Goyos shot and killed Travis McNeil as he sat in a car at a Little Haiti intersection. It was one of a string of seven deadly shootings of black men in the inner city by Miami police officers in 2010 and 2011.

Goyos was cleared of criminal wrongdoing by prosecutors in 2012. But he was terminated last month after the department’s Firearms Review Board concluded that the shooting was unjustified.





The police union lawsuit claims that the board violated state open-government laws by failing to open its meetings to the public.

Goyos “was improperly terminated by the city of Miami Police Department by a review board that violates the law,” union President Javier Ortiz wrote in a statement.

The lawsuit contends that Goyos should be reinstated.

City Attorney Julie O. Bru declined to discuss the specifics of the case. “We reviewed the allegations, and the city maintains that the board has operated consistent with the requirements of law,” she said.





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Michelle Obama The History of Mom Dancing on Late Night

Jimmy Fallon may have gotten The President to Slow Jam the News, but I think getting The First Lady to present A History of Mom Dancing may end up being The Late Night host's greatest accomplishment, yet!


PHOTOS - Michelle Obama's Best Fashions

The routine, in celebration of her Get Up campaign, features Michelle Obama re-creating some of history's greatest mom moves, like The Sprinkler, The Raise The Roof and The Hand Part From Single Ladies.

Watch our FLOTUS break it down. 

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North Korea warns US commander in South Korea of 'miserable destruction' if US goes ahead with drills








PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea warned the top American commander in South Korea on Saturday of "miserable destruction" if the U.S. military presses ahead with routine joint drills with South Korea set to begin next month.

Pak Rim Su, chief of North Korea's military delegation to the truce village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized Zone, sent the warning Saturday morning to Gen. James Thurman, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said, in a rare direct message to the US commander.

The threat comes as the US and other nations discuss how to punish North Korea for conducting an underground nuclear test on Feb. 12 in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions banning Pyongyang from nuclear and missile activity.




North Korea has characterized the nuclear test, its third since 2006, as a defensive act against US aggression. Pyongyang accuses Washington of "hostility" for leading the charge to punish North Korea for a December rocket launch that the US considers a covert missile test.

The US and North Korea fought on opposite sides of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty, and left the Korean Peninsula divided by a heavily fortified border monitored by the US-led UN Command.

Washington also stations 28,500 American troops in South Korea to protect its ally against North Korean aggression.

South Korea and the US regularly conduct joint drills such as the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises slated to take place next month. North Korea calls the drills proof of US hostility, and accuses Washington of practicing for an invasion.

"You had better bear in mind that those igniting a war are destined to meet a miserable destruction," KCNA quoted Pak as saying in his message to Thurman. He called the drills "reckless."

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, meanwhile, has been making a round of visits to military units guiding troops in drills and exercises since the nuclear test, KCNA said.










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South Florida hospitals could lose $368 million from sequestration




















A detailed survey shows that South Florida hospitals could lose $368 million over 10 years in federal budget cuts starting next Friday, if the sequestration program kicks in as scheduled.

The Florida Hospital Association, using data from the American Hospital Association, estimates that over the next decade, sequestration would cause Miami-Dade hospitals to lose $223.9 million and Broward facilities $144.4 million under the Congress-mandated budget cuts that hit virtually all federal programs unless Republicans and Democrats can work out a compromise.

The New York Times and other national news organizations are reporting that sequestration, unlike the New Year’s fiscal cliff, seems virtually certain to take place.





The law requires across-the-board spending cuts in domestic and defense programs, with certain exceptions. Because healthcare represents more than one in five dollars of the federal budget, it will be a huge target for cuts.

For hospitals and doctors, the major impact will be felt in Medicare cuts, which according to the budget law are limited to 2 percent of Medicare payments. Medicaid, food stamps and Social Security are exempted from cuts, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The FHA study calculates that over 10 years, Jackson Memorial Hospital stands to lose $30.6 million, Mount Sinai Medical Center on Miami Beach $27.3 million, Holy Cross in Fort Lauderdale $23.8 million and Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood $21.4 million.

“The problem with sequestration is that it just makes broad cuts across the board,” said Linda Quick, president of the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association. “The Affordable Care Act is looking at all sorts of intelligent ways to reduce costs,” including coordinated care that will stop duplicated tests and reduce hospital readmissions. “But sequestration takes an ax, and that doesn’t make any sense.”

FierceHealthcare, which produces trade publications, says sequestration cuts over the next decade will include $591 million from prescription drug benefits for seniors, $318 million from the Food and Drug Administration, $2.5 billion from the National Institutes of Health, $490 million from the Centers for Disease Control and $365 million from Indian Health Services.

The National Association of Community Health Centers estimates that 900,000 of its patients nationwide could lose care because of the cuts. The group said the cuts were “penny wise and pound foolish” because they would mean less preventive care while more and sicker patients would end up in emergency rooms.

Like the fiscal cliff, Republicans and Democrats agreed on a sequestration strategy, with the idea that the drastic measure would force the two sides to reach agreement on more deliberative budget adjustments. That hasn’t happened.

The White House reports that the law will mean that nondefense programs will be cut by 5 percent, defense programs by 8 percent. But since the first year’s cuts must be done over seven months, that means in 2013, nondefense programs need to be cut by 9 percent, defense programs by 13 percent.





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Bishop Dorsey dies in Orlando of cancer




















Bishop Norbert M. Dorsey, who served as an auxiliary bishop with the Archdiocese of Miami in the late 1980s, died Thursday night in Orlando after a long fight with cancer.

Born Leonard James Dorsey on Dec. 14, 1929 in Springfield, Mass., he was 83.

His religious studies led him to Munich, London and Rome, and he was ordained a priest in April 1956.





In addition to his religious degrees, he was a composer of music, holding the degree of Maestro from the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music.

Throughout the 1960s and ’70s, Father Dorsey was a popular preacher of parish missions and retreats throughout the United States and Canada.

In the early 1980s, while based in Rome, he shared the life and experience of the church in five continents during his periodic “visitations” to most of the 52 countries where the passionists are established.

He learned to speak several languages, including Spanish, Italian, French and Creole.

On Jan. 10, 1986, Pope John Paul II nominated Father Dorsey Titular Bishop of Mactaris and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Miami. He was consecrated by Archbishop Edward J. McCarthy at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Miami on March 19, 1986.

In Miami, Bishop Dorsey served as Vicar General and Executive Director of the Ministry of Persons. He also served on the boards of St. Thomas University and Barry University in Miami, and St. Leo College near Tampa.

He was installed as the third bishop of Orlando in 1990. Under his leadership, the diocese nearly doubled there to 400,000 Catholics.

I 1996, Bishop Dorsey gathered 11,000 people together for the first Diocesan-wide celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation. On this memorable day, Catholics came together from near and far to show their unity and passion for their faith. Bishop Dorsey was the first bishop to establish the Blue Mass, a celebration of the gifts of public safety personnel, in the Diocese of Orlando.

Soon after establishing Bishop Grady Villas, a 10-acre residential community in St. Cloud for adults with disabilities in 2004, Bishop Dorsey retired.

In lieu of flowers, Bishop Dorsey asked that contributions be made to the Passionist Community Support Fund, Passionist Pastoral Center 111 S. Ridge St., Suite 300, Rye Brook, NY 10573 or Bishop Dorsey Colloquium on Priestly Life and Ministry, for clergy education and care, Diocese of Orlando, P.O. Box 4905, Orlando, FL 32802-4905.





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Oscars Flashback: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck 1998

In 1998, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck transcended from two aspiring actors and filmmakers to Oscar winners. As one can imagine, they and everybody they had ever known were ecstatic amid the exciting acclaim--so much so that Affleck received a call while in the press room.

Childhood friends from Cambridge, Mass., Damon and Affleck went on the ultimate journey together after writing Good Will Hunting and watching it come to fruition with them co-starring alongside Robin Williams.


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The film not only went on to rake in over $225 million at the box office ($318 million, inflation-adjusted) but also earned them high honors, including a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Screenplay.

The two were baffled and truly humbled by the success of their film. They brought their moms along as their dates to the Oscars and had a slew of family members and friends eagerly waiting to potentially watch them win their first Oscar that night.


VIDEO: Globes Flashback '98: Affleck's in Shock

While Damon and Affleck are fielding questions from the media about winning the Best Original Screenplay award, Affleck fidgets about, pulls his StarTAC phone (the most technologically advanced phone at the time) out of his pocket, and answers it while Damon continues to answer the question.

After quickly hanging up his phone, Affleck recounts the comical experience of having his mother with him for the Oscars.


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"My mother told me that...she's considering this her grandson and she's holding it for ransom until she gets a real one," the then-25-year-old actor says.

As for the experience as a whole, Damon, who was also nominated for Best Actor, summed it up perfectly when asked which award he wanted to win more.

"Are you kidding me, man? I've never even been here before," he says. "I didn't care."

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United drops Boeing 787 from flying planes through June 5








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A grounded Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet operated by United Airlines is parked at LAX.



United Airlines cut the grounded Boeing 787 from its flying plans at least until June and postponed its new Denver-to-Tokyo flights on Thursday, as airlines continued to tear up their schedules while the plane is out of service.

Investigators are still trying to figure out what caused a battery fire in one plane and forced the emergency landing of another plane last month. The world's 50 787s have been grounded since Jan. 16.

United spokeswoman Christen David said the plane could still fly earlier than June 5 if a fix is found. At that point it would be used as needed around United's system, she said.




United was due to begin flying from Denver to Tokyo's Narita airport on March 31. It's postponing the start of those flights at least until May 12, or longer if the 787 isn't cleared to fly. That would be almost a year after United began selling tickets for the flight.

United has said the flights are a perfect fit for the 787, which is mid-sized and very fuel-efficient. The thinking is that Denver would be unlikely to fill a bigger plane for a flight to Tokyo. But it can fill the plane's 219 seats, and the plane is fuel-efficient enough to turn a profit.

LOT Polish Airlines has pulled its two 787s from its schedule through October. The planes are off of All Nippon Airways' schedule through at least March 30.

Switching the plane to be used on a flight is more complicated than passengers might think. Pilots trained to fly one type might not be able to fly the replacement, creating scheduling problems. Seats are laid out differently, meaning seating assignments have to be redone.

Boeing has deployed hundreds of workers on the project to find and fix the problem with the 787's batteries.

Boeing has long used lithium ion batteries in its satellites, according to Dennis Muilenburg, who runs Boeing's defense and space business. He said at an analyst conference on Thursday that about 20 engineers from the satellite business are among those working on solving the 787 problem.

"We have broadly grabbed ahold of the best expertise in the world, and all of that is being harnessed and applied to work on this issue, and work on it with a sense of priority," Muilenburg said.

The Federal Aviation Administration has said it won't clear 787s to fly until Boeing can show they're safe. Boeing intends to propose a plan to federal regulators on Friday to temporarily fix problems with the 787's lithium ion batteries, a congressional official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Boeing has declined to talk about any planned meetings with federal officials.

The company is in the middle of multiple probes related to the 787. The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are looking into the Jan. 7 battery fire on a Japan Airlines 787 parked at Boston's Logan International Airport. A Japan Airlines emergency landing in Japan is being examined by investigators in that country. And more broadly, the FAA is reviewing the design, certification, manufacture and assembly of the 787.

So far industry and labor have been mostly supportive of Boeing and the government probes. Air Line Pilots Association President Lee Moak said the union is confident that when the investigations are done "we'll have known the reasons behind the system failures and we'll be able to move forward."

He sidestepped a question from a reporter in Washington on Thursday about how pilots would view a potential decision to return the 787 to the air before investigators have found the root cause of the battery problems.

"We're confident the process in place is a good one ... Once that is complete then a decision will be made. But until that time it's still an open and ongoing investigation," he said.

Shares of United Continental Holdings Inc. fell 17 cents to close at $25.91 on Thursday. Boeing Co. rose $1.23 to close at $76.01.










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National Hotel nears end of long renovation




















A panel of frosted glass puts everything in perspective for Delphine Dray as she oversees a years-long, multi-million dollar renovation project at the National Hotel on Miami Beach.

“Chez Claude and Simone,” says the piece of glass stationed between the lobby and restaurant, a reference to Dray’s parents, who bought the hotel in 2007.

“Every time I am exhausted and I pass that glass, I remember why,” said Delphine Dray, who joined her father — a billionaire hotel developer and well-known art collector in France — to restore the hotel after the purchase.





After working with him for years, she is finishing the project alone. Claude Dray, 76, was killed in his Paris home in October of 2011, a shooting that remains under investigation.

In a recent interview and tour of the hotel’s renovations, which are nearly finished, Dray did not discuss her father’s death, which drew extensive media coverage in Europe. But she spoke about the evolution of the father-daughter working relationship, the family’s Art Deco obsession and the inspiration for the hotel’s new old-fashioned touches.

The National is hosting a cocktail party Friday night to give attendees a peek at the progress.

Dray grew up in a home surrounded by Art Deco detail; her parents constantly brought home finds from the flea market. By 2006, they had amassed a fortune in art and furniture, which they sold for $75 million at a Paris auction in 2006.

That sale funded the purchase of the National Hotel at 1677 Collins Ave., which the Drays discovered during a visit to Miami Beach.

After having lunch at the Delano next door, Dray said, “My dad came inside the hotel and fell in love.” The owner was not interested in selling, but Claude Dray persisted, closing the deal in early 2007. Her family also owns the Hôtel de Paris in Saint-Tropez, which reopened Thursday after a complete overhaul overseen by Dray’s mother and older sister.

Delphine Dray said she thought it would be exciting to work on the 1939 hotel with her father, so she moved with her family to South Florida. She quickly discovered challenges, including stringent historic preservation rules and frequent disagreements with her father.

“We did not have at all the same vision,” she said.

For example, she said: “I was preparing mojitos for the Winter Music Conference.” Her father, on the other hand, famously once unplugged a speaker during a party at the hotel because the loud music was disturbing his work.

“We were fighting because that is the way it is supposed to be,” she said. “Now, I understand that he was totally right.”

She described a vision, now her own, of a classic, cozy property that brings guests back to the 1940s.

Joined by her 10-year-old twin girls, Pearl and Swan, and 13-year-old son Chad, Dray pointed out a new telephone meant to look antique mounted on the wall near the elevators on a guest floor. She showed off the entertainment units she designed to resemble furniture that her parents collected. And she highlighted Art Deco flourishes around doorknobs and handles.

“It’s very important for us to have the details,” she said.

With those priorities in mind, she is overseeing the final phase of the renovation, an investment that general manager Jacques Roy said will top $10 million. In addition to the small details, the renovation includes heavier, less obvious work: new drywall in guest rooms, for example, and new windows to replace leaky ones.

Painting of the building’s exterior should be finished in the next two to three weeks, Roy said. Dray compared its earlier unfinished state to resembling “a horror movie — the family Addams.”

And the final couple of guest room floors, as well as the restoration of the original Martini Room, should be done by the end of April.

“At the end, I will be very proud,” Dray said.

The National’s renovation wraps up as nearby properties such as the SLS Hotel South Beach and Gale South Beach & Regent Hotel have been given new life. Jeff Lehman, general manager of The Betsy Hotel and chair of the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority, said the National has always been true to its roots. He managed the hotel for 10 years, including for a few months after Dray bought the property.

“I think historic preservation and the restoration of the hotels as they were built 70, 80 years ago is such a huge piece of our DNA,” he said. “It’s a lot of what sets us apart from any other destination on the planet.”





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Davie criticizes town attorney, but doesn’t fire him




















Davie’s town attorney will keep his job while the Town Council considers setting up an in-house legal department or hiring a private legal firm.

Council member Bryan Caletka brought a motion to terminate town attorney John Rayson at Wednesday night’s Town Council meeting, Feb. 20, but it did not receive a second.

“He gives different opinions to different members of council,” Caletka said at the meeting. “He’s given bad opinions. Mediocre at best describes the legal services that are being provided by the attorney.”





Caletka said he doesn’t trust Rayson’s legal advice and cannot work with him, and that it’s affecting the town.

Mayor Judy Paul and council member Susan Starkey have also criticized Rayson’s performance.

In evaluation forms completed in February, Paul gave Rayson’s performance an overall score of three out of five for “meets expectations,” but wrote in a comment that he should not interject personal opinion when asked for legal advice. Starkey criticized him for not providing Town Council members with training on legal matters like Florida’s open records laws.

Caletka wrote, “He will tell a council member an opinion and in less than an hour communicate the complete opposite in a Town of Davie Council meeting. It is odd that opinions change so quickly, yet the law does not.”

Rayson remained silent while the council discussed his performance.

But in a letter submitted to the council, he summarized his achievements since his 2007 appointment, listing cases he’d settled and his creation of a pre-trial diversion program, which he wrote saves the town money in public defender fees.

“I am honored to be the Davie Town Attorney,” he wrote. “I enjoy the work and look forward to continuing the successful, productive provision of legal services to the Town.”

Vice Mayor Marlon Luis, who gave Rayson the highest evaluation score possible, a five out of five, called Caletka’s criticisms political.

Rayson’s pre-trial diversion program had brought the town money, said Luis, and within six months of becoming town attorney, Rayson had settled a number of backlogged cases.

"I’m sorry to sit up here and listen to this man disparaged like this," said Luis. "To say he’s done a bad job, that’s really disheartening, and I wish we’d just drop this whole thing."

Luis said Rayson was available around the clock to provide legal advice for the town, and that if a council member called him when he was busy or on the phone with someone else, he’d give them a callback time they could set their watch by.

Rayson also received a positive evaluation from council member Caryl Hattan, who wrote that his work served the town and his diversion program brought in money.

Mayor Paul said she had spoken with Rayson about the need to separate his legal opinion from his personal one, but disagreed with Caletka’s statement that the attorney’s performance was mediocre.

“I believe if somebody meets expectations, they’re not mediocre. They’re meeting expectations,” she said.

The town was also on the verge of retaining an in-house attorney, said Paul, and it might be more costly to terminate Rayson than to keep him on as Davie makes the transition.

Starkey said an in-house attorney would cost the town money for staff, benefits and overhead, and shouldn’t be the only option considered. Other municipalities have had success with private law firms, she said, and Davie should consider hiring one.





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