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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Selena Gomez Talks Justin Bieber to Nylon Magazine

Even before it was splashed across blogs that Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber had split, the Spring Breakers star was already playing coy as to her relationship status. In an interview with NYLON magazine, Gomez offered up her views on this "normal thing" called love.

"I'm having fun," the actress/singer, 20, said when asked about dating by the publication (via London Daily Mail). "At the end of the day, love is such a normal thing, and everyone deals with it. Just because it's a different lifestyle doesn't change the meaning of what I've been raised on, which is fairy tales."

RELATED: 10 More Shocking Celebrity Breakups

There is one relationship that is still going strong for Gomez -- the one with Taylor Swift. "We both experienced the same things at the same time," she said of her bestie. "But we've never once talked about our industry. She just became the person I'd go to for an issue with my family or boyfriend. It's so hard to trust girls, so I'm lucky to have her."

RELATED: Is Swift Writing About Ex Harry Styles?

Who do you think Gomez should date next? Let us know, below.

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New details released from Part II of Oprah's interview with Armstrong as IOC blasts TV confession

@LanceArmstrong via Twitter

Armstrong tweeted this pic of himself over the weekend.

The IOC lashed out at Lance Armstrong one day after his confession to doping aired on TV as Oprah Winfrey released new details from her sit-down with the former cycling star.

Armstrong's doping confession to Winfrey was "too little, too late" and failed to provide any new information that will help clean up the sport he tarnished through years of cheating, the vice president of the IOC said Friday.

Armstrong finally admitted to cheating his way to the top of the cycling world during a bombshell interview with the last night.

Reuters

THE LYIN’ KING: Lance Armstrong keeps a stiff upper lip during his interview with Oprah Winfrey, which aired last night.

The stone-faced liar answered “yes” four times when Winfrey asked whether he took the drugs he was accused of using.

A day after stripping Armstrong of his bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the IOC urged the disgraced former Tour de France champion to supply details to anti-doping authorities in order to "bring an end to this dark episode."

In an interview with The Associated Press, IOC vice president Thomas Bach said Armstrong's admission to Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs — after years of vehement denials —was not enough.

"If he thinks this interview would help him get credibility back, I think this is too little, too late," said Bach, a German lawyer who leads the IOC's anti-doping investigations. "It's a first step in the right direction, but no more.

"If he really loves his sport and wants to regain at least some credibility, then he should tell the whole truth and cooperate with the relevant sports bodies."

Winfrey tonight will target Armstrong's family's reaction to his doping admission — including how his mother and son were handling the news — as well was the "arrogant" tweet of Armstrong with his jerseys.

"Was it just you being your cocky, arrogant jerk self that did the tweet with you lying with all the jerseys?" Winfrey asks the former cycling star.

The second part of interview will air tonight at 9 on OWN.

Meanwhile, Armstrong's former teammate, Tyler Hamilton, calls the cyclist's confession a "big first step" but says Armstrong must follow it up by telling authorities everything he knows about the doping programs he used to win his Tour de France titles.

Hamilton's testimony was key to the case against Armstrong. He described the doping program on Armstrong's team and the power Armstrong wielded in pressuring teammates to go along with the doping.

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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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Judge throws out Taliban terror case against Margate imam

A federal judge threw out the terrorism charges against a young Muslim cleric from Broward County in a trial where he and his father, an imam in Miami, are accused of providing financial support to the Pakistani Taliban terrorist organization.

Izhar Khan, the imam of a mosque in Margate, will be a free man later Thursday after U.S. District Judge Robert Scola issued a verdict of acquittal for the 26-year-old Muslim scholar.

The prosecution, which rested its case Wednesday in the material support trial, failed to mount sufficient evidence of wrongdoing against the younger imam, imam of Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen mosque off Sample Road.

“I do not believe in good conscience that I can allow the case to go forward against Izhar Khan,” Scola ruled Thursday.

The judge also noted that the government nonetheless “proceeded in this case against Izhar Khan in good faith.”

After the judge’s verdict, the defendant hugged defense lawyer Joseph Rosenbaum and members of his Margate mosque shook each other’s hands, quietly celebrating.

Both father and son have been held in the Miami federal detention center since their arrest in 2011 on charges of funneling about $50,000 to the Taliban to target U.S. interests in Pakistan. The Taliban allegedly used the funds for buying arms and other ammunition to carry our terrorist attacks against the Pakistan government, which is a U.S. ally.

Scola already denied Hafiz Khan’s bid for an acquittal verdict halfway through the trial. Scola said Thursday that the government’s case against the 77-year-old imam of the Flagler Mosque is overwhelming.

The government’s case has been built largely on FBI-recorded phone conversations between Hafiz Khan and other members of his family and suspected Taliban sympathizers. His bank records have also been central to the government’s case against him.

This article will be updated as more information is available.

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Spring Breakers Official Trailer

This isn't your mother's spring break. The latest trailer for Vanessa Hudgens, Rachel Korine Selena Gomez and Ashley Benson's bikini-clad movie Spring Breakers shows the young ladies behind bars of many kinds, and features a strange Matthew McConaughey accent coming from James Franco's Kevin Federline-looking character.

The trailer is pretty busy, flashing very fast scenes of the girls in their neon swimwear as they party, rob a diner, get thrown in jail and find themselves in even more trouble with a gold-toothed guy named Alien (Franco).

RELATED: New Spring Breakers Posters

The film, expected to hit theaters sometime this spring, follows four college girls who land in jail after holding up a restaurant in order to fund their spring break vacation. Bailed out by a drug and arms dealer, the ladies are dragged into doing his dirty work.

One of the highlights of the trailer comes at the end when the girls are seen singing Britney Spears' song Oops! I Did It Again. What do you think of the trailer? Play movie critic in the comments.

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Lhota officially enters race for mayor

@JoeLhota via Twitter

Joe Lhota tweeted today: "All my followers should follow @joelhota4mayor The campaign has begun!"

He’s in.

Former MTA chairman Joe Lhota officially entered the race for mayor this morning after filing documents with the city Board of Elections and Campaign Finance Board.

“It’s official. Joe Lhota is a candidate to be the 109th mayor of New York City,” Lhota tweeted about 10 a.m.

Lhota, a Republican who served as top deputy to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, also launched his campaign website, Joelhotaformayor.com.

“Since I left my position as chairman and CEO of the MTA just two weeks ago, I’ve been asked over and over, 'Joe, why do you want to be the mayor of New York City?,’” Lhota said.

James Messerschmidt

Joe Lhota

“I understand that a lot of politicians will come up with a slick, scripted answer, but my answer is a lot like me: direct and straightforward. I love this city – I love its diversity and optimism, and the opportunity it represents. But the very things I love about New York City are fragile and must be protected,” Lhota said in a “From Joe” message on his Web site.

“In the upcoming weeks and months I look forward to discussing the issues that matter most to you and our fellow New Yorkers and how together we can continue to see New York City thrive.”

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Jackson Health System asks Kendall trauma center be shut down

Ratcheting up the stakes in Miami-Dade’s hospital wars, Jackson Health System has filed two petitions with the state demanding a hearing to consider its belief that the license for trauma operations at Kendall Regional Medical Center was granted illegally and should be revoked.

Jackson, which for years has had the county’s only trauma center, has been complaining loudly since the Scott administration decided the state needed more centers. Kendall Regional’s opened in November 2011.

Jackson executives estimate it has been losing about $28 million a year since then because, as one of its trauma doctors quipped, Jackson Memorial’s Ryder Trauma Center tends to get the inner-city gunshot victims who have no insurance while Kendall gets the suburban car accident victims with insurance.

State officials and the HCA hospital chain, which owns Kendall Regional, maintain that Miami-Dade’s size requires more than one trauma center.

Mark McKenney, medical director of the Kendall center, said Wednesday the center has treated 2,500 patients in its first year -- “with mortality rates significantly below the state and national averages.” He said Kendall treats anyone who comes through the door, including plenty of gunshot and stabbing victims who may or may not have insurance.

McKenney said the state decided Miami-Dade needed more trauma centers after a 2005 study showed that only 39 percent of the county’s trauma victims were treated in trauma centers. Those treated in ordinary emergency rooms showed a considerably higher mortality rate, McKenney said.

In Miami-Dade, HCA’s Mercy and Tenet’s Palmetto General have also applied for trauma licenses. Jackson countered by seeking trauma units at its two community hospitals, Jackson North and Jackson South.

In its filings to the Department of Health on Jan. 2, Jackson’s lawyers asked for formal administrative hearings, maintaining North and South were unfairly denied approval in a Dec. 13 Department of Health letter that stated the regulators were rethinking trauma rules on trauma centers after court rulings.

The Jackson petitions, first reported on Tuesday by Jim Saunders of News Service of Florida, noted that an administrative law judge in November 2011 decided that the Department of Health’s trauma certification rule was invalid. After that, the department granted provisional licenses to Kendall Regional and three other hospitals.

On Nov. 30, 2012, the First District Court of Appeal upheld that decision. Seven days later, the department approved the application of Ocala Regional, another HCA facility, and allowed it to open the following day. Gov. Rick Scott is the former chief executive of HCA.

Jackson’s attorneys accused the department of giving these other hospitals a “selective benefit.” They said that a hearing would establish that “the ultimate facts” show that “all provisional licenses issued under the invalid trauma rule need rule should be revoked,” as well as all pending applications, until the department established a legally acceptable rule on trauma centers.

Steve Ecenia, an attorney for HCA, called Jackson’s petition “bizarre” because, instead of seeking approval for its own applications, it was trying to hit back at other hospitals, including Ocala, “hundreds of miles away.” He said the appeals court decision wasn’t final, because there are demands for a rehearing, and the Department of Health’s licensing has been fair.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said Wednesday that the department “had no additional information to provide.” A Jackson spokesman said executives couldn’t comment “because of pending litigation.”

Wayne Brackin, chief operating officer of Baptist Health South Florida, said Baptist is “very worried about this trauma issue,” because in the 1980s, the trauma system fell apart in Miami-Dade with many hospitals losing money on the service, and Baptist doesn’t want the Ryder Trauma Center weakened by competition that could again endanger trauma care in the county.

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Driver in Rickenbacker Causeway cyclist death to be sentenced

A motorist who killed cyclist Aaron Cohen in a hit-and-run crash on the Rickenbacker Causeway will learn his fate Wednesday.

A Miami-Dade judge on Wednesday afternoon will sentence Michele Traverso, 26, who earlier pleaded guilty for the crash that killed Cohen last February.

The fatality, and a similar hit-and-run wreck in 2010, has renewed calls for increased safety for cyclists and joggers on the popular causeway. Fellow cyclists staged a memorial ride and erected a billboard overlooking Interstate 95 in Cohen’s honor.

Members of Miami’s avid cycling community are expected to be on hand for the 1 p.m. sentencing.

Traverso, driving on a suspended license, struck Cohen and cycling partner Enda Walsh as the two rode in the northbound lanes near the crest of the bridge. Traverso surrendered to police 18 hours after the crash.

Though there were reports of Traverso drinking in Coconut Grove that night, investigators could not prove that his blood alcohol content level was above the legal limit because of the delay in turning himself in.

Traverso pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident involving a death, leaving the scene of an accident with great bodily harm, and driving with a suspended license. He also pleaded guilty to earlier cocaine possession charge.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge William Thomas could sentence him to as little as 22.8 months in prison, and as much as 35 years behind bars.

In May, Thomas told Cohen’s widow, Patricia Cohen, that he would be unlikely to deliver the maximum sentence, although he could consider “20 or 25 years” after hearing from her and Traverso’s own family at a possible sentencing.

The Cohen family is suing Traverso and his father, who owned the car.

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SAG Awards Flashback: Marion Cotillard 2008

Prior to 2007, Marion Cotillard had a prevalent film career in France for over a decade. Then, she portrayed French music icon Edith Piaf in La Vie en rose. The film got her recognition from critics around the world, and led to incredible avail the ensuing awards season. It was a dream come true for her.

In 2008, the French actress was nominated at every major awards show on the circuit from the Critics' Choice Awards to the Oscars. In that pile of nominations was a SAG Awards nomination for Best Actress.

VIDEO: Marion Cotillard Lifetime Achievement Honor at 37

"When I was a little girl, I used to watch a lot of American movies, so they really inspired me; they really gave me the desire to be an actress," she says to ET's former co-host Mark Steines on the red carpet. "To be here, to have a nomination amongst those amazing actresses, it is something huge for me."

While Cotillard was basking in a moment in her life that she had probably awaited since she was a young girl, there was a dark cloud hanging over that year's ceremony due to the ongoing Writers Guild strike and pending SAG negotiations that were trending towards a strike.

RELATED: Five Things You Don't Know About Marion Cotillard

That cloud wouldn't rain on Cotillard's parade, though.

"It's the first time for me that I live all this, so I'm enjoying every single minute of it," she says. "I'm not disappointed by how it would have been [without it]."

After winning a Golden Globe a few weeks prior, that twinkle in her eye also suggests that she may have had a premonition that she would be leaving the show with some hardware that night; however, she surprisingly did not.

VIDEO: SAGs Flashback '03: Day-Lewis Meets His Celeb Fan

Nevertheless, she would go on to win an Academy Award shortly after. More importantly, she went on every filmmaker's radar, and soon landed a role in a major American film, Public Enemies.

Five years later, Cotillard is up for her fourth SAG nomination, this time for the French film Rust and Bone. Now that she's come full-circle, perhaps she'll leave this year's show with that heavy trophy in her hand.

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