More STEM degrees may not equal more jobs

Science, technology, engineering and math — the fields collectively known as STEM — are all the rage these days. Florida state leaders are so eager for more STEM students that they may even create discounted college tuition for students who pursue those fields.

In an economy that is still struggling to regain its footing, boosting STEM is seen by many as a path to jobs.

Except ... what if it isn’t?

As STEM has become an education buzzword in recent years, a steady stream of research has emerged that challenges the notion of STEM as an economic elixir. In some STEM careers, the employment picture is downright lousy.

“Record Unemployment Among Chemists in 2011,” screamed the March headline in Science magazine’s Careers Blog. A headline from June: “What We Need is More Jobs for Scientists.”

Unemployment in STEM fields is still well below the general population (and slightly below college graduates in general). That “record” unemployment for chemists, for example, was 4.6 percent, compared to overall U.S. unemployment at that time of 8.8 percent.

Nevertheless, the glut of workers in some STEM areas (resulting in flat wages, and STEM grads forced to take jobs in non-STEM fields) directly contradicts the widely held view that the United States — and Florida — suffer from a critical shortage of qualified STEM graduates. The truth, many experts say, is more complicated.

“In a general sense, science and innovation do create jobs and drive growth,” said Elizabeth Popp Berman, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Albany whose book Creating the Market University examines the history of university research and its economic impact. “As a nation, having lots of scientists and people inventing stuff is good for us.”

But that doesn’t mean all STEM graduates have a guaranteed job, Berman stressed. The STEM employment picture, Berman said, is “very mixed” and largely dependent upon a student’s particular major. Petroleum engineering majors are doing very well these days; biologists and chemists are not.

Some studies, meanwhile, have challenged the notion of an overall STEM worker shortage — instead finding that the United States is producing vastly more STEM graduates than there are STEM jobs awaiting them. As science organizations and corporations continue to sound the STEM shortage alarm, critics charge that these groups are motivated by self-interest — tech companies, for example, have claimed a shortage of trained workers even as they laid off thousands of U.S. employees, and moved those jobs to low-wage developing countries.

“It’s a way for them to sort of excuse why they’re shifting so much work offshore,” said Rochester Institute of Technology professor Ron Hira, who has testified before Congress on the need to tighten the legal loopholes that allow such maneuvers.

Deciphering what economic benefits STEM offers — and what it doesn’t — has become more important as Gov. Rick Scott continues to strongly advocate investing more state resources promoting STEM-related degrees. At the same time, Scott has sometimes mocked liberal arts majors as impractical.

Speaking to a Tallahassee business group last year, Scott asked: “Do you want to use your tax dollars to educate more people who can’t get jobs in anthropology? I don’t.”

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How They Pulled Off 'The Impossible'

The true story of the devastating 2004 tsunami that consumed the coast of Phuket, Thailand -- and how one family survived it -- is reenacted by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor in The Impossible. Watch the video to go behind the scenes...

Video: Tsunami Survivor Petra Nemcova Reacts to Latest Disaster in Japan

In theaters December 21, The Impossible finds Naomi as Maria and Ewan as her husband Henry, who are enjoying their winter vacation in Thailand with their three sons. On the day after Christmas, their relaxing holiday in paradise becomes an exercise in terror and survival when their beachside hotel is pummeled by an extraordinary, unexpected tsunami.

Video: Watch the Trailer for 'The Impossible'

The Impossible tracks just what happens when this close family and tens of thousands of strangers must come together to grapple with the mayhem and aftermath of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time.

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Speeding SUV slams into Jeep, which then runs over family of four in Brooklyn

Benny J. Stumbo

This jeep flipped over and hit a family of four during a terrible accident in Brooklyn sparked by a speeding SUV.

An out-of-control SUV driver blew a stop sign and caused a domino effect of destruction — hitting a jeep that flipped over and struck a group of pedestrians in Brooklyn this afternoon, witnesses and authorities said.

Horrified onlookers watched as Jeep hit a family of four standing on a sidewalk, leaving one member clinging to life, witnesses and authorities said.

At least four others were injured in the massive accident.

“My mother and I heard screaming and a huge explosion coming from [the street.] I immediately thought my brother could be out there,” said Diana Babbo, 18.

“I ran up the street and saw that a Jeep was flipped over. An entire family was pinned between the jeep and a parked car on the street, she said.

“A lady was completely dead or passed out. It was horrifying. An infant and two other people were under the car. It was so terrible. I’m trembling thinking about it.”

Babbo bawled as they pulled the car off the woman, she said.

“She was turning blue,” the teen recalled.

“The guy driving the Jeep had his head cracked open. He was walking towards the police after they cut him out of his car.”

The man passed out on the street, she said.

“I pray to god everybody is okay. I can’t get their faces out of my head.”

Other residents like Mohammed Umair, 17, said accidents have happened at this location many times before.

“This cross street is a death trap,” he said.

“A car smashed into a house. This isn’t going to stop until there are more lights and signs put up. More people are going to die if something isn’t done.”

cgiove@nypost.com

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Events showcase Miami’s growth as tech center

One by one, representatives from six startup companies walked onto the wooden stage and presented their products or services to a full house of about 200 investors, mentors, and other supporters Thursday at Incubate Miami’s DemoDay in the loft-like Grand Central in downtown Miami. With a large screen behind them projecting their graphs and charts, they set out to persuade the funders in the room to part with some of their green and support the tech community.

Just 24 hours later, from an elaborate “dojo stage,” a drummer warmed up the crowd of several hundred before a “Council of Elders” entered the ring to share wisdom as the all-day free event opened. Called TekFight, part education, part inspiration, and part entertainment, the tournament-style program challenged entrepreneurs to earn points to “belt up” throughout the day to meet with the “masters” of the tech community.

The two events, which kicked off Innovate MIA week, couldn’t be more different. But in their own ways, like a one-two punch, they exuded the spirit and energy growing in the startup community.

One of the goals of the TekFight event was to introduce young entrepreneurs and students to the tech community, because not everyone has found it yet and it’s hard to know where to start, said Saif Ishoof, the executive director of City Year Miami who co-founded TekFight as a personal project. And throughout the event, he and co-founder Jose Antonio Hernandez-Solaun, as well as Binsen J. Gonzalez and Jeff Goudie, wanted to find creative, engaging ways to offer participants access to some of the community’s most successful leaders.

That would include Alberto Dosal, chairman of CompuQuip Technologies; Albert Santalo, founder and CEO of CareCloud; Jorge Plasencia, chairman and CEO of Republica; Jaret Davis, co-managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurig; and more than two dozen other business and community leaders who shared their war stories and offered advice. Throughout the day, the event was live-streamed on the Web, a TekFight app created by local entrepreneur and UM student Tyler McIntyre kept everyone involved in the tournament and tweets were flying — with #TekFight trending No. 1 in the Miami area for parts of the day. “Next time Art Basel will know not to try to compete with TekFight,” Ishoof quipped.

‘Miami is a hotbed’

After a pair of Chinese dragons danced through the audience, Andre J. Gudger, director for the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs, entered the ring. “I’ve never experienced an event like this,” Gudger remarked. “Miami is a hotbed for technology but nobody knew it.”

Gudger shared humorous stories and practical advice on ways to get technology ideas heard at the highest levels of the federal government. “Every federal agency has a director over small business — find out who they are,” he said. He has had plenty of experience in the private sector: Gudger, who wrote his first computer program on his neighbor’s computer at the age of 12, took one of his former companies from one to 1,300 employees.

There were several rounds that pitted an entrepreneur against an investor, such as Richard Grundy, of the tech startup Flomio, vs. Jonathan Kislak, of Antares Capital, who asked Grundy, “why should I give you money?”

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South Florida summit message: Climate change is here

South Florida took the threat seriously before most everybody else, with four counties reaching a landmark compact in 2009 to work together to start addressing the risks of global warming.

But four years and one “super storm” named Sandy later, the risks to Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties — as well as much of coastal Florida — seem only bigger, scarier and no longer quite so far down the road.

An eye-opening example: Fort Lauderdale’s famous “strip,” where waves from Sandy, followed by routine high tides and heavy seas three weeks later, chewed away beach, seawall, sidewalk and roadbed, leaving a four-block-long swath of State Road A1A whittled from four lanes to two.

During a two-day regional climate change summit that ended Friday in Jupiter, political leaders and climate experts stressed two messages: One, South Florida faces a long, immensely costly war to protect its heavily developed coast and economy from the rising sea and increasingly destructive flooding from hurricanes like Sandy. Two, the “super storm” underlined why the region should quickly ramp up “adaptation” efforts and spending to reduce its exposure — from restoring beach dunes to building bigger sea walls to elevating roads and homes and maybe even moving them from the most vulnerable areas.

“Planning is nice, but now it’s all about implementation,’’ said Susanne Torriente, an assistant city manager in Fort Lauderdale who helped craft a wide-ranging climate-change action plan approved by Broward and Monroe counties in the past few months. County commissions in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach are expected to consider the plans by early next year.

Fort Lauderdale, Torriente said, is working with Broward County and state transportation experts on shoring up its heavily eroded strip. Repairs will easily run into the tens of millions of dollars and include elevating some of the iconic strip or building beach dunes, which some residents have long resisted because it spoils the view from AIA.

“Adaptation is not something we’re talking about in textbooks any more. It’s happening right in our backyard,” she said. “People like to see the water, but let’s be realistic.”

Though Sandy’s worst impacts were in the Northeast — where the storm killed more than 100 people, flooded New York City subways, swamped New Jersey coastal — it also caused extensive erosion along much of the South Florida coast.

While it remains uncertain what if any impact climate change had on Sandy, the devastating storm, which caused tens of billions of dollars in damage, gave both the public and political leaders across the country a glimpse of potential future scenarios. It also has injected new urgency in efforts in South Florida, many of the elected officials, planners, scientists, engineers and other experts at the annual regional summit agreed.

John Englander, an oceanographer who this year published a book called High Tide on Main Street, called Sandy a wake-up call for many coastal communities like Fort Lauderdale.

“People are starting to get increasing awareness to their vulnerability from storm surge,’’ he said. “They just can’t ignore the beach and walk away from billions of dollars worth of hotels.’’

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New iPad mini orders will be delivered in time for Christmas

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Obama asks for $60 billion in Sandy aid

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama asked Congress Friday for $60.4 billion in federal aid for New York, New Jersey and other states hit by Superstorm Sandy in late October. It's a disaster whose cost is rivaled only by the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2005 Hurricane that devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Obama's request adds a huge new to-do item to a congressional agenda already packed with controversy on how to resolve the nation's budget woes and avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.

"Our Nation has an obligation to assist those who suffered losses and who lack adequate resources to rebuild their lives," Jeffrey D. Zients, deputy director of the budget office, wrote congressional leaders in a letter accompanying the formal request. "At the same time, we are committed to ensuring Federal resources are used responsibly and that the recovery effort is a shared undertaking."

The measure blends aid for homeowners, businesses, and state and local government walloped by Sandy and comes with just a few weeks to go before Congress adjourns. Whether it passes this month or gets delayed in whole or part until next year is unclear. Most of the money — $47.4 billion — is for immediate help for victims and other recovery and rebuilding efforts. There's another $13 billion for mitigation efforts to protect against future storms.

The massive request comes after protracted discussions into late Friday afternoon with lawmakers and officials from impacted areas. Officials from the affected states had requested significantly more money, but they generally praised the request and urged Congress to enact it as quickly as possible.

"This is a powerful first step," said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at a news conference in New York City. He said the Obama administration is open to more funding if needed in the future. "We're going to be OK, if we get this funding. This is going to be a significant asset for this state."

Cuomo, a Democrat, and New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie came to Washington this week to press for as large a disaster aid package as possible. Friday's request was at the top end of what had been expected and came after Obama allies like Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., had criticized the White House following reports it had settled on a $50 billion figure.

Christie — who endured some criticism from Republicans for praising Obama at the tail end of the campaign — joined Cuomo in praising the administration.

"We thank President Obama for his steadfast commitment of support and look forward to continuing our partnership in the recovery effort," the two governors said in a joint statement.

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Events showcase Miami’s growth as tech center

One by one, representatives from six startup companies walked onto the wooden stage and presented their products or services to a full house of about 200 investors, mentors, and other supporters Thursday at Incubate Miami’s DemoDay in the loft-like Grand Central in downtown Miami. With a large screen behind them projecting their graphs and charts, they set out to persuade the funders in the room to part with some of their green and support the tech community.

Just 24 hours later, from an elaborate “dojo stage,” a drummer warmed up the crowd of several hundred before a “Council of Elders” entered the ring to share wisdom as the all-day free event opened. Called TekFight, part education, part inspiration, and part entertainment, the tournament-style program challenged entrepreneurs to earn points to “belt up” throughout the day to meet with the “masters” of the tech community.

The two events, which kicked off Innovate MIA week, couldn’t be more different. But in their own ways, like a one-two punch, they exuded the spirit and energy growing in the startup community.

One of the goals of the TekFight event was to introduce young entrepreneurs and students to the tech community, because not everyone has found it yet and it’s hard to know where to start, said Saif Ishoof, the executive director of City Year Miami who co-founded TekFight as a personal project. And throughout the event, he and co-founder Jose Antonio Hernandez-Solaun, as well as Binsen J. Gonzalez and Jeff Goudie, wanted to find creative, engaging ways to offer participants access to some of the community’s most successful leaders.

That would include Alberto Dosal, chairman of CompuQuip Technologies; Albert Santalo, founder and CEO of CareCloud; Jorge Plasencia, chairman and CEO of Republica; Jaret Davis, co-managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurig; and more than two dozen other business and community leaders who shared their war stories and offered advice. Throughout the day, the event was live-streamed on the Web, a TekFight app created by local entrepreneur and UM student Tyler McIntyre kept everyone involved in the tournament and tweets were flying — with #TekFight trending No. 1 in the Miami area for parts of the day. “Next time Art Basel will know not to try to compete with TekFight,” Ishoof quipped.

‘Miami is a hotbed’

After a pair of Chinese dragons danced through the audience, Andre J. Gudger, director for the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs, entered the ring. “I’ve never experienced an event like this,” Gudger remarked. “Miami is a hotbed for technology but nobody knew it.”

Gudger shared humorous stories and practical advice on ways to get technology ideas heard at the highest levels of the federal government. “Every federal agency has a director over small business — find out who they are,” he said. He has had plenty of experience in the private sector: Gudger, who wrote his first computer program on his neighbor’s computer at the age of 12, took one of his former companies from one to 13,000 employees.

There were several rounds that pitted an entrepreneur against an investor, such as Richard Grundy, of the tech startup Flomio, vs. Jonathan Kislak, of Antares Capital, who asked Grundy, “why should I give you money?”

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Driver of MIA bus crash that killed two offers apology

The driver behind the wheel of a bus that rammed into an overpass at Miami International Airport — killing two passengers and leaving many more injured — issued an apology Thursday, while a group of survivors began speaking with a lawyer.

On Thursday, a relative sent out a short statement in Spanish from driver Ramon Ferreiro. In it, Ferreiro extended his sympathies to the families of those killed in the crash.

“I know there are no words of comfort for what happened, but my family and I are praying for all those affected and their loved ones,” he wrote in Spanish. “I’m emotionally and physically very shocked by what happened, and for this reason I ask you to respect my family’s privacy during this difficult time.”

The crash happened a few minutes before 7:30 a.m. Saturday. The bus carried members of a Jehovah’s Witness congregation on their way to the annual general assembly meeting in West Palm Beach.

Ferreiro, 47, took a wrong turn on South Le Jeune Road. He was going too fast. He sped past multiple signs warning of the low clearance at the airport’s arrival concourse, smashing the 11-foot-tall bus into an overpass.

Two people sitting in the front were killed; the remaining 30 passengers went to hospitals for examinations and treatment.

As of Thursday, four people from the crash remained at Jackson, spokeswoman Lidia Amoretti said. Of the group, three were in good condition and one was in critical.

Another eight people admitted after the crash already had been discharged.

And some of the survivors have begun speaking with West Palm Beach lawyer Patrick Cousins.

Cousins, who also is Jehovah’s Witness, said that members of his religion tend to shy away from legal battles, and that’s why he hopes to settle the matter with the bus service’s insurance company out of court.

The goal, he said, would be to get compensation for costs such as their hospital bills.

“We are not the type of people to create problems or issues,” Cousins said. “But this is not something we really created. We just want to make sure everybody gets their compensation.”

Saturday’s accident appears to be the first blemish on the record of both the driver and the bus company, Miami Bus Service Corporation, which is own by Mayling and Alberto Hernandez.

Ferreiro has a valid commercial driver’s license with the proper endorsement to carry passengers, according to records from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

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Stars We Lost in 2012

They're gone, but not forgotten.

Pics: Stars Who Passed Away in 2011

From Dallas legend Larry Hagman to the iconic Whitney Houston, ET remembers the celebrities we lost this year in a special segment airing Friday.

Also tomorrow, an update on Kate Middleton's health. Plus, how the Duchess of Cambridge is coping with her pregnancy condition.

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New Jersey gets baked for the first time

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, New Jersey — as long as you’ve got a prescription.

Weed-smoking New Jersey residents sparked a joint today to celebrate the opening of the Garden State’s state’s first medical marijuana dispensary — but the card-carrying patients weren’t doing the toking.

Wilfredo Gomez, 32, and his brother, Angel — neither of whom have pot prescriptions — lit up outside the Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair to cheer the first bag of legal reefer doled out.

“It will give people a chance to, you know, relax,” said Gomez.

It was less of a party for the first six clients, including an injured electrician, a man with a cane and chronic pain-sufferer, all of whom declined to talk to reporters.

David McGlynn

The Greenleaf Compassion Center, the first legal medical marihuana facility in Monclair, NJ.

The clinic sells three types of medical marijuana, grown in a warehouse by owners, but no edible ganja, said owner Julio Valentin.

Inside looks like “an upscale doctor’s office,” where patients must present state-issued health cards, Valentin said.

Windows are tinted and a security guard monitors the site.

A law legalized cannabis for patients with some medical conditions — like cancer and glaucoma, among others — in New Jersey three years ago.

“The patients are very excited — they don’t have to live in the shadows anymore,” Valentin said.

kkowsh@nypost.com

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New equity options exchange owned by Miami company starts trading on Friday

MIAX Options Exchange, a new fully electronic, equity options trading exchange, said it will begin trading on Friday.

MIAX Options Exchange is based in Princeton, N.J., but its parent company is Miami International Holdings. While MIAX’s executive offices, technology development center and national operations center are based in Princeton, additional executive offices, and a multi-purpose training, meeting and conference center will be located in Miami, the company said.

MIAX Options Exchange’s trading platform has been developed in-house and designed for the functional and performance demands of derivatives trading, the company said.

INA PAIVA CORDLE

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Reward offered for information in Miami-Dade correction officer’s death

The reward for information leading to an arrest in the case of a corrections officer shot to death in his driveway grew Wednesday, while police continued to search for the killer.

Officer Andrew Johnson, 46, was off-duty when he was shot dead Saturday night outside his Miami Gardens home near Northwest 211th Street and 27th Avenue.

He was married, had three children and had been with the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department for a decade.

On Wednesday, the Dade County Police Benevolent Association announced it had raised $5,000 to put toward the reward for information that leads to an arrest.

PBA President John Rivera said the money came from fellow officers and members of the community. They hope the money and ability to remain anonymous would encourage people with information to come forward.

“Someone has to have seen something,” Rivera said.

Miami-Dade police are investigating. But what motivated the killer — and if that person even knew Johnson was a corrections officer — remained unclear Wednesday.

Johnson graduated from Miami Central Senior High School, the PBA said, and received an associate degree from Miami-Dade College.

He started with Miami-Dade corrections in 2001, according to the corrections department, and worked the day shift at the Metro West Detention Center.

Outside of work, Johnson served as an elder, head deacon and drum player at Razor Sharp Ministries in Miami. He volunteered to feed the needy and mentor youth.

On Saturday night, according to the PBA, Johnson’s wife, Ebony, was out getting her nails done. He dropped off his daughter at a movie theater and came home, where he was shot in the driveway.

“They killed a life. And let’s assume for a second that they didn’t know he was a corrections officer, they are still a danger to the community,” Rivera said. “And if they knew he was a law enforcement officer, it only intensifies that danger. If you’re willing to kill a law enforcement officer, you still surely will kill anybody.”

Anyone with information is urged to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers, anonymously, at 305-471-8477.

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Hugh Hefner Sends Well Wishes to Pregnant Ex Holly Madison

After recently opening up about a bout of extreme morning sickness similar to Kate Middleton, a pregnant Holly Madison received some kind words of support from her famous ex, Hugh Hefner.

Video: Holly Madison 'Freaked Out' by Hospitalization

The newly engaged head honcho of Playboy took to his Twitter to deliver the thoughtful message to his former bunny girlfriend.

"I hope Holly Madison is feeling better after being hospitalized for morning sickness in the late stages of her pregnancy," wrote the 86-year-old, signing off his tweet with "Love, Hef."

Related: Holly Madison Reveals Baby's Gender

The mom-to-be spoke to ET this week about her troubling ailment which, seven months into her pregnancy, landed the 32-year-old model in the hospital.

"I was really vomiting a lot during the day, it freaked me out," Madison said. "I was told to go to the doctor and get an IV and everything. So, that was kind of scary to me just because it seemed like something so unusual...but everything's O.K. so far, so that's good."

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Chief's Belcher's daughter to receive $1M from NFL

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The estate or guardian of the infant of the Chiefs player who killed her mother before turning a gun on himself will receive more than $1 million under terms of the NFL's collective-bargaining agreement.

Jovan Belcher's 3-month-old daughter, Zoey, stands to receive $108,000 annually over the next four years, $48,000 in the fifth year and then $52,000 each year until age 18. She'll continue to receive that amount until age 23 if she attends college.

The beneficiary of Belcher, who was in his fourth season, also will receive $600,000 in life insurance, plus $200,000 for each credited season. There is also $100,000 in a retirement account that will go to his beneficiary or estate.

Facebook

Kasandra Michelle Perkins and daughter Zoey.

Players' beneficiaries are kept confidential.

The current collective bargaining agreement was ratified in August 2011.

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DCF wants its kids out of nursing homes

With Florida under heavy fire for funneling sick and disabled children into nursing homes designed for elders, child welfare administrators have quietly enacted a new policy aimed at keeping sick foster kids in community settings.

The Department of Children & Families has distributed a new agency policy that requires high-level approval before any child in state care can be admitted to a nursing home, or move from one institution to another. DCF also will ramp up its efforts to recruit foster parents who are specially trained to care for children with significant special needs. Such medical foster homes reduce the need for nursing homes.

DCF has custody of 31, or close to 15 percent of the 220 or so disabled or fragile children who currently live in nursing homes, and child welfare bosses have no authority over the remaining youngsters.

But the move sends a powerful message: DCF, the “parent” to 19,000 Florida children in state care, no longer favors the institutionalization of kids. The new policy runs counter to that of another branch of state government, the Agency for Health Care Administration, whose funding formula has forced some parents to put their disabled kids into institutions.

“A core mission of DCF is to ensure that children are raised in families,” wrote Assistant Secretary for Operations Pete Digre, whose signature will be required before a foster child can be institutionalized.

The Florida health agency’s decision to shunt very sick children into nursing homes has come under attack in recent weeks as the U.S. Justice Department has threatened to sue the state to curtail the practice, which, civil rights lawyers say, violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The landmark 1990 federal legislation, signed by President George H.W. Bush, requires that people with disabilities be allowed to live and receive care outside large, segregated institutions.

Forcing children into nursing homes, advocates say, is especially cruel because isolation and lack of socialization can stunt their development and lead to psychological disorders. Records reviewed by The Miami Herald show that, at many nursing homes, children receive little education or stimulation; some children appear to spend their days in virtual isolation.

The policy appears to be an about-face, comes on the heels of Miami Herald reports about the death of a 14-year-old girl with cerebral palsy and a seizure disorder hours after she arrived at a Miami Gardens nursing home. Marie Freyre, sent to the home against her mother’s strong objections, had been in DCF care for two months.

In a letter to a children’s advocacy group three months ago, DCF Secretary David Wilkins defended his agency’s actions regarding severely disabled foster children.

“These children have very complex medical diagnoses requiring a 24-hour nursing environment,” Wilkins wrote to Christina Spudeas, who heads the advocacy group Florida’s Children First. “As part of our review of the children in long-term care facilities, we take special care to ensure that their case managers are providing strong, active advocacy and oversight.”

In recent months, the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division has accused the state of “systematically” forcing disabled children into nursing homes through a combination of deep cuts to in-home nursing care that enables parents to keep their children — as well as offering financial incentives to nursing homes that accept children. AHCA will pay homes $506-per-day to care for children, double the per-diem for elders.

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iOS users generate double the Web traffic of Android users

According to the latest numbers from Chitika Insights, iOS users generate more than twice the amount of Web traffic as Android users. The six-month study found that while the two operating systems were nearly tied when it came to smartphone Web traffic, Apple (AAPL) has a substantial lead with its iPad tablet. Despite Android’s commanding share of the overall mobile market, the Cupertino-based company’s platform totaled 67% of Web traffic measured in the past six months, compared to Android’s 35% share.

“Despite all the new Android and Apple devices that have been released over the past six months, little has changed in the overall Web traffic distribution between iOS and Android,” the research firm wrote. “iOS’s share has hovered around 65%, while Android largely has stayed around 35%, the OS hit a peak of 40% in late August thanks partially to strong Samsung Galaxy S III sales. Apple then regained some share with the release of the iPhone 5 in the September timeframe.”

To qualify for the study Chitika Insights analysed billions of ad impressions coming from iOS or Android devices from May 27th to November 27th.

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Celebrities and Their Twin Siblings

Who knew?

From Brazilian bombshell Gisele Bundchen to Two and a Half Men star Ashton Kutcher, Wednesday's ET reveals the lesser-known counterparts of your favorite celebrities—their twins!

Video: Tori Spelling Talks 'Practically Raising Twins'

Also tomorrow, more on Kate Middleton's pregnancy and Britney Spears gives us an update on her upcoming wedding.

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Orthodox pre-teen allegedly sexually abused drew disapproval from sect leadership, says principal

She wasn’t like the other girls.

The yeshiva principal who forced an Orthodox Jewish pre-teen to continue seeing the Hasidic counselor prosecutors say sexually abused her testified that her clothes and behavior drew disapproval from the leadership of the insular Satmar sect.

“It was brought to my attention her behavior, her modesty, was not like the other girls,” Benzion Feuerwerger, a principal at the United Talmudical Academy in South Williamsburg, testified today in Brooklyn Supreme Court. “The principals were not happy and it came to the attention of the other rabbis, too.”

The school would have expelled the teen if she stopped going to prominent Hasidic leader Nechemya Weberman, 54, for counseling after her manner of dress — including her tights and the open top button of her shirt — drew reproach from the conservative Satmar sect, Feuerwerger testified.

Weberman allegedly sexually abused the girl during their counseling sessions over three years beginning when she was just 12 years old, prosecutors charge.

The recently married girl — who testified for four grueling days last week — turns 18 tomorrow.

“When we see a girl is not following the tradition, we try to work on it,” testified Feuerwerger, who answered, “Yes,” when asked if the goal of his school was to make sure the students followed “each and every role of Satmar.”

Feuerwerger, who is Weberman’s first cousin, drew incredulous laughter from several Orthodox spectators when he testified that the modesty squad — or Vaad Ha’Tnius — didn’t exist.

The alleged victim testified last week that part of the reason she was afraid to report Weberman was his Vaad Ha’Tnius membership.

The brave teen was so distraught when she reported the alleged abuse by Weberman that she fled the room, a social worker testified in the morning session.

“It took her awhile to get the words out. At the end of the session she uttered the words, ‘I was molested,’” said Sarah Fried, a social worker for a Jewish organization. “Then [she] ran out of the office.”

jsaul@nypost.com

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The business behind the artist: Miami’s art gallery scene still evolving

This week, thousands of art collectors, museum trustees, artists, journalists and hipsters from around the globe will arrive for the phenomenon known as Art Basel Miami Beach. The centerpiece of the week: works shown at the convention center by more than 260 of the world’s top galleries.

Only two of those are from Miami.

While Art Basel has helped transform the city’s reputation from beach-and-party scene to arts destination in the years since its 2002 Miami Beach debut, the region’s gallery identity is still coming into its own.

“Certainly Miami as an art town registers mightily because of the foundations, the collectors who have done an extraordinary job,” said Linda Blumberg, executive director of the Art Dealers Association of America. “I think there’s a definite international awareness there. But the gallery scene probably has a bit of a ways to go. That doesn’t mean it’s not really fascinating and interesting.”

The gallery business, especially where newer artists are concerned, is a game of risk, faith and passion. Once a gallery takes on an artist who shows promise, they become an evangelist on their behalf, showing their work in-house and at fairs, presenting it to museums and curators and potential collectors and bearing the cost of that promotion.

For contemporary artists, most galleries take work on consignment, meaning they get a cut of as much as 50 percent when works sell. While local art galleries have been growing in number and popularity in the last several years — just try to find parking during the monthly art walk in Miami’s hot Wynwood neighborhood — even some of the area’s top art dealers say that while business overall is good, they struggle in the local marketplace.

“Our problem is that we have to do lots of art fairs in order to connect with the market that we need to connect with to sell the work that we have,” said Fredric Snitzer, a Miami-Dade gallery owner for 35 years. “The better the work is, the harder it is to sell in Miami. And that ain’t good.”

A handful of serious collectors call Miami home and store their own collections in Miami, including the Braman, Rubell, Margulies and de la Cruz families. But outside a relatively small local group, many gallerists say, their clients come from other parts of the country and world.

And some gallerists point out the troubling reality that even the powerhouse Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin could not stay open in Miami for more than a few years.

“The fact that big galleries have not been able to sustain their business models in South Florida tells you we’re obviously not at this high established point,” said gallery owner David Castillo. “It’s not like we’ve arrived, let’s sit back and watch Hauser & Wirth open down the street.”

Still, Miami’s gallery business has come a long way since the early 1970s, when a few dealers on Bay Harbor Island’s Kane Concourse were selling high-end pieces but the local scene was hardly embraced.

Virginia Miller, who owns ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in Coral Gables, first opened in 1974 to showcase Florida artists, though her focus soon added an international scope. She and other longtime observers credit several factors for Miami’s transformation, including the community’s diversity, the establishment of important museums, the Art Miami fair that started 23 years ago, the presence of major collections and, of course, Art Basel Miami Beach.

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Police arrest couple for allegedly leaving kids at West Palm Beach bar

After guzzling down beers and throwing back some shots at BB King’s Restaurant and Blues Club in West Palm Beach, Amanda Marsh and her boyfriend Perry Buesking left the restaurant and walked to the CityPlace parking garage on Gardenia Avenue.

A few minutes later a 7-year-old boy and his 10-year-old brother went up to the bartender asking where their mom was.

A restaurant employee soon found Marsh, 28, and Buesking, 44, on the third floor of the parking garage and attempted to bring the kids to the couple.

An employee soon called police after Marsh denied being the mother of the two kids who were seen in the restaurant with her, according to a West Palm Beach Police probable cause affidavit.

Now the mother of two and her live-in boyfriend of five years are facing criminal charges in the Palm Beach County Jail. They were booked into the jail Saturday on charges of neglecting a child without great bodily harm, disorderly intoxication and resisting an officer. Marsh is being held in lieu of $15,000 and her boyfriend in lieu of $10,000, jail records show.

The boys told police they have been living in a van or in motels since October when Marsh and her boyfriend, Buesking, removed them from school in Arizona. The couple sold their property and the four have been on a “road trip” since then, the affidavit says.

Police were called to the parking lot around midnight Saturday and tried speaking with the couple and the restaurant employees.

Restaurant employees told police one of the workers stopped serving the couple alcohol and noticed soon after that they left the bar.

A few minutes later the boys asked where their mother was and that’s when the employee met up with them in the garage.

The employee asked Marsh if she has two kids. She responded “no”, the affidavit says.

Buesking began giving Marsh strange looks and finally spoke up and claimed the kids after Marsh denied the kids again.

While officers tried speaking with the couple, Marsh yelled obscenities while slurring her words and failing to maintain her balance.

She refused to answer if she was the mother of the two boys.

Then she tried to kick the officer but was unsuccessful as he swept her left leg using his right foot which caused her to fall to the ground. She was then handcuffed, the affidavit says.

“Her actions caused patrons walking to and from CityPlace to stop and stare,” the officer wrote.

Meanwhile, Buesking was cursing and smelled of alcohol. When told he was under arrest, Buesking tried walking away but was soon taken into custody.

Marsh has been taken into custody numerous times since 2002 in Florida and in other states. She has been arrested in Palm Beach County on charges of domestic battery, obstruction of justice, possession of paraphernalia and displaying another driver’s license.

She was arrested in 2007 in Arizona on two counts of driving under the influence while a person under the age of 15 is in the vehicle.

Records show she pleaded guilty to one count and the other was dropped.

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Is Pregnant Kate Middleton Having Twins

The royal couple has something extra to be thankful for this holiday season.

Related: Prince William & Kate Middleton Expecting a Baby

Prince William and his bride Kate, The Duchess of Cambridge, announced they're expecting a baby in the coming months. Tomorrow, ET breaks down all of the exciting details including rumors that the mother-to-be is pregnant with twins.

Also Tuesday, Melissa McCarthy's Vanity Fair exclusive!

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Bloomberg: Hillary Clinton would make a great mayor

Mayor Bloomberg wants Hillary Clinton to succeed him at City Hall.

In a recent telephone chat with the secretary of state he told her she’d make a terrific mayor, two sources told The Post.

Hizzoner - apparently unfazed that she lives in Westchester – told her it was a great job and one the one-time presidential contender should seriously consider.

The suggestion seems to suggest that Bloomberg - a one-time Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent - isn’t entirely thrilled with the current crop of mayoral candidates, who include his long-time ally City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

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The business behind the artist: Miami’s art gallery scene still evolving

This week, thousands of art collectors, museum trustees, artists, journalists and hipsters from around the globe will arrive for the phenomenon known as Art Basel Miami Beach. The centerpiece of the week: works shown at the convention center by more than 260 of the world’s top galleries.

Only two of those are from Miami.

While Art Basel has helped transform the city’s reputation from beach-and-party scene to arts destination in the years since its 2002 Miami Beach debut, the region’s gallery identity is still coming into its own.

“Certainly Miami as an art town registers mightily because of the foundations, the collectors who have done an extraordinary job,” said Linda Blumberg, executive director of the Art Dealers Association of America. “I think there’s a definite international awareness there. But the gallery scene probably has a bit of a ways to go. That doesn’t mean it’s not really fascinating and interesting.”

The gallery business, especially where newer artists are concerned, is a game of risk, faith and passion. Once a gallery takes on an artist who shows promise, they become an evangelist on their behalf, showing their work in-house and at fairs, presenting it to museums and curators and potential collectors and bearing the cost of that promotion.

For contemporary artists, most galleries take work on consignment, meaning they get a cut of as much as 50 percent when works sell. While local art galleries have been growing in number and popularity in the last several years — just try to find parking during the monthly art walk in Miami’s hot Wynwood neighborhood — even some of the area’s top art dealers say that while business overall is good, they struggle in the local marketplace.

“Our problem is that we have to do lots of art fairs in order to connect with the market that we need to connect with to sell the work that we have,” said Fredric Snitzer, a Miami-Dade gallery owner for 35 years. “The better the work is, the harder it is to sell in Miami. And that ain’t good.”

A handful of serious collectors call Miami home and store their own collections in Miami, including the Braman, Rubell, Margulies and de la Cruz families. But outside a relatively small local group, many gallerists say, their clients come from other parts of the country and world.

And some gallerists point out the troubling reality that even the powerhouse Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin could not stay open in Miami for more than a few years.

“The fact that big galleries have not been able to sustain their business models in South Florida tells you we’re obviously not at this high established point,” said gallery owner David Castillo. “It’s not like we’ve arrived, let’s sit back and watch Hauser & Wirth open down the street.”

Still, Miami’s gallery business has come a long way since the early 1970s, when a few dealers on Bay Harbor Island’s Kane Concourse were selling high-end pieces but the local scene was hardly embraced.

Virginia Miller, who owns ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in Coral Gables, first opened in 1974 to showcase Florida artists, though her focus soon added an international scope. She and other longtime observers credit several factors for Miami’s transformation, including the community’s diversity, the establishment of important museums, the Art Miami fair that started 23 years ago, the presence of major collections and, of course, Art Basel Miami Beach.

Read More..

Passengers, signs warned driver to turn around before deadly crash at Miami International Airport

Seconds before a bus full of Jehovah’s Witnesses slammed into a low overpass at the Miami International Airport Saturday morning, passengers urged the driver to turn around, according to the daughter of one of the survivors.

“When he was going to go under the overpass, the people in the front of the bus told the driver that he was going a way that he shouldn’t,” said the daughter who didn’t want to be named because her pastor hadn’t said she could speak to reporters. “They told him to back up, but he didn’t pay attention and they crashed.”

The driver, Ramon Ferreiro, 47, took a route through the airport that is marked with three yellow warning signs for high vehicles, one of which is illuminated with blinking yellow lights.

His mistake had tragic consequences for two men who were sitting near the front: Serafin Castillo, 86, was killed on impact, and Francisco Urena, 57, died at Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital soon after. Thirty other passengers went to the hospital, and two remained in critical condition late Sunday.

Ferreiro had been working for the Miami Bus Service for only a few months, according to Mayling Hernandez, who owns the company with her husband, Alberto. She said Ferreiro had driven for them “a few times before.”

The driver did not have any traffic violations on his personal driver’s license, and commercial records were not available on Sunday.

The company had never reviewed or traveled the route with the driver, and Hernandez insisted that the driver just made an honest mistake.

“We are human beings, just like the people who were on the bus. Human beings can make mistakes, and now we are mourning as human beings,” Hernandez said.

When asked if the driver knew the height of the 1999 Van Hool 57-passenger bus — which is more than 11 feet tall — Hernandez said, “I don’t know. Ask him.”

Hernandez said the Jehovah’s Witness congregation was referred to the Miami Bus Service by another bus company. There were two other buses that took members from the Sweetwater congregation to West Palm Beach, but Hernandez wouldn’t say if they were also from her company, declining to answer questions not directly related to the bus that crashed.

The regularly scheduled Sunday services at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses at 11699 West Flagler Street were canceled on Sunday so members could go to the annual general assembly meeting in West Palm Beach. The bus that crashed was bound for the same two-day conference, but it took a wrong turn into the airport at about 8 a.m. on Saturday.

The contract that the congregation had with the bus company will determine what kind of civil suits, if any, can be filed against the driver and the company, said Michael Milton, a Tallahassee attorney who deals with truck crashes and wrongful deaths.

Milton said the airport, a governmental agency run by the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, would have sovereign immunity from civil suits. However, if the signs were deemed to be insufficient or erroneous, they could still be subject to charges of operational negligence.

The metal support of the overpass that sheared off the top of the bus on Saturday is marked as “Clearance 8’ - 6” ” but is actually more than 10 feet tall. Airport spokesman Mark Henderson was not able to explain the discrepancy but said, “Either way, the bus still would have hit.”

Friends of the victims were incredulous that the driver didn’t heed both the warning signs and the pleas of the passengers.

“It’s hard for me to believe this tragedy,” said Oswaldo Mesa, a truck driver and neighbor who had known Castillo for four years. “As inexperienced as the driver might have been, it’s incredible to me that this man would have wanted to go through there. He should have stopped; he shouldn’t have kept going.”

Castillo, a retired handyman, was originally from Cuba but lived most of his life in the United States. Clara Pupo, another neighbor in the Sweetwater neighborhood of mobile homes, described him as someone who was respected in the community.

“In spite of his age, he was a very active man, who was well-loved because he was always willing to help others,” Pupo said. “I was very sad to hear about this tragedy.”

Family members were gathered Sunday at the Kendall home of Francisco Urena, the other victim. Urena, originally from the Dominican Republic, worked in the customer service department of Nordstrom, according to his Facebook page.

Miami-Dade police said Sunday there were too many unknowns to determine if criminal charges would be filed against the driver, but the investigation is still open.

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Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 2 Tops Box Office Again

In its third week of release, Breaking Dawn: Part 2 continues to dominate the box office.

Related: The Ultimate 'Twilight' Guide to 'Breaking Dawn' Actors & Their Characters

The final film in the Twilight Saga series raked in $17.4 million in ticket sales over the weekend, putting the vampire drama ahead of Skyfall, which earned $17 million for second place.

The spy thriller beat out Steven Spielberg's biopic Lincoln ($13.5 million) and the family friendly flick Rise of the Guardians, which took in $13.5 million.

Ang Lee's Life of Pi rounds out the top five with $12 million.

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Chiefs linebacker Belcher struggled with head injuries, alcohol and painkillers before he snapped and killed girlfriend: report

Kansas City Chiefs linebacker and former Long Island high-school star Jovan Belcher was allegedly battling football-related head injuries and booze, painkiller and domestic problems when he snapped and murdered his girlfriend before killing himself in front of two coaches Saturday.

A pal of Belcher’s told the Web site Deadspin.com that Kasandra Perkins, the mother of Belcher’s 3-month-old daughter, had threatened to leave him for good amid fighting between the pair.

The couple had only recently reconciled after Perkins left their rented house in Kansas City with the baby at one point to stay with friends. Perkins had returned, but friends said the relationship was still volatile.

Kansas City Chiefs running back Jovan Belcher (right) battled head injuries, drugs and alcohol before he snapped and killed his girlfriend Michele Perkins (left), friends said.

It didn’t help that he was drinking every day and taking painkillers while dealing with the effects of debilitating head injuries, the friend said.

Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said today that Belcher was "a player who had not had a long concussion history.’’

Belcher, 25, and Perkins, 22, had argued for the last time when she returned home late from a concert Saturday morning. But the Belcher friend said the concert was only a “tipping point.”

“This was the result of a long-term conflict,” the pal said. “She made it clear that she was leaving and would contact a lawyer’’ to fight for custody and child support.

Cops today revealed that Belcher shot Perkins nine times before committing suicide with a different gun. His mother witnessed the slaying; she had been in town to help Perkins with the new baby, sources have said.

Belcher’s mother, Cheryl Shepherd, will now take custody of the couple’s infant daughter and plans to return with the child to the family’s West Babylon home, where her troubled son grew up, his relatives said.

The kin said the baby was in another room when Belcher snapped and unloaded on Perkins.

“[Shepherd’s] taking it as anyone else would've taken it,” said Belcher’s cousin, Eric Oakes, 20, who lives in the mom’s renovated house where Belcher grew up. “She just lost a son. We're all coming together.”

Oakes, wearing a game-warn Chief’s jersey with Belcher’s number 59 on it, said his cousin was his role model.

"[He's] always trying to steer me right. That's the only person I wanted to be like. A role model, basically my father. He's the person who made me play football,” said Oakes, who played running back for West Babylon HS.

In Kansas City, relatives trickled in an out of the home that had become a murder scene.

“I think she was home alone a lot,” said Kristen Van Meter, 31, a neighbor who went to community college with the victim. “He was kind of quiet. he would come and go.”

When he was there, she said, there were lots of parties.

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Boat Show may block Miami’s 2016 Super Bowl bid

This winter, the biggest NFL match-up in South Florida might be Super Bowl versus Boat Show.

As South Florida readies a bid for the 2016 Super Bowl, it must contend with a major potential conflict on the tourism calendar. The National Football League may move the Super Bowl to Presidents’ Day weekend, already home to the five-day Miami International Boat Show since the 1940s.

It’s a significant enough conflict that, in the past, local tourism officials have declined to pursue a Super Bowl if it fell on boat show weekend. But this time around they may have no choice. For the first time, the NFL is requiring that potential host cities agree to a Presidents’ Day weekend Super Bowl if they want to pursue the big game at all, said two people who have seen the NFL request for Super Bowl bids.

The NFL “invited South Florida [to bid] knowing there was going to be an issue with Presidents’ Day weekend and the boat show,” said Nicki Grossman, Broward’s tourism director. “In the past, South Florida has not responded to a Super Bowl date that included Presidents’ Day weekend. This package is different.”

South Florida vies with New Orleans as the top Super Bowl host, with government and tourism leaders touting the game as both a boon to the economy and a publicity bonanza. But the notion of accommodating both Super Bowl and boat show — not to mention a major arts festival in Coconut Grove — strikes some top tourism officials as a bad idea.

“There is not sufficient hotel inventory available in Miami that weekend to host a Super Bowl,” said William Talbert, president of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We have taken a close look at that weekend, and it’s not physically possible in Miami to host Super Bowl during the Presidents’ Day weekend because of the boat show and the Coconut Grove Arts Festival. The hotel inventory is all being used for these two great events.”

His comments are at odds with the region’s top Super Bowl organizer and reflect the burden that the boat show may be to South Florida’s Super Bowl hopes for 2016 and 2017. The NFL invited Miami and San Francisco to bid for the 2016 Super Bowl by April 1, with the loser vying with Houston for the 2017 game. Talbert said the bid package states both decisions will be made in May.

For now, South Florida’s Super Bowl organizers face a largely hypothetical challenge, because the current NFL schedule has the Super Bowl occurring two weeks before Presidents’ Day weekend. The bid requirements for the ’16 and ’17 Super Bowls include three consecutive weekends as possibilities for the game, with the latest falling on the Presidents’ Day holiday.

Still, possible logistical hurdles may combine with political obstacles if the Miami Dolphins resume their push for a tax-funded renovation of Sun Life Stadium, the Super Bowl’s South Florida home.

Last year, the Dolphins proposed that Broward and Miami-Dade counties subsidize a $225 million renovation at Sun Life as a way to keep the region competitive for Super Bowls and other large events. The renovation includes a partial roof that would prevent the kind of drenching Super Bowl spectators suffered in 2007 when a rare February downpour hit Miami Gardens.

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