Bal Harbour cops spent lavishly with seized drug loot

Flush with millions of dollars seized from drug dealers, Bal Harbour police financed a freewheeling spending spree: $3,200 for a Miami-Dade police chiefs golf outing at Miami Shores Country Club; $1,000 for two nights’ stay at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and thousands more in sumptuous meals at Carpaccio Restaurant in the Bal Harbour Shoppes.

There were trips galore to Home Depot and Party City, for items such as cooking fuel and folding tables and chairs; to Publix and BJs Wholesale Club for food platters, dessert trays and picnic supplies; to BrandsMart USA for a flat-screen TV, a microwave oven and other appliances.

What did these expenses have to do with the department’s duty of serving and protecting Bal Harbour?

Little to nothing, according to the findings of an investigative report released last week by the U.S. Department of Justice that slams a Bal Harbour police task force that traveled the country picking up drug cash and laundering it during undercover investigations. The Justice Department said the task force laundered more money for criminals than it seized, and made no significant arrests or prosecutions — but spent the cash it did seize lavishly on salaries and benefits for officers, exceeding government spending guidelines with first-class flights, luxury car rentals and posh lodgings during undercover operations.

Catered DUI stops

Even when police were not working undercover, they tapped federal forfeiture funds to buy hundreds of dollars worth of pizzas, sodas and snacks for Mothers Against Drunk Driving events or Crime Watch meetings, and they pulled out all the stops for DUI checkpoints, which frequently became occasions for catered cookouts for the cops, according to Bal Harbour credit card statements.

Expense records show Bal Harbour police routinely spent hundreds and sometimes thousands on party supplies and other items that had little to do with actual law enforcement, such as $1,500 worth of Apple iPads and accessories purchased at the Aventura Mall in August 2011 for a drug-prevention event.

Bal Harbour officials have declined to comment on the array of purchases made under Police Chief Thomas Hunker, who is accused of professional misconduct in the Justice Department’s investigative report. He was suspended with pay by the village last week.

Bal Harbour’s mayor, Jean Rosenfield, said she will reserve judgment on Hunker pending the outcome of an investigation into related allegations that the chief sold his influence for gifts, interfered with arrests and prosecutions, and landed a deal on his wife’s personal Jeep after the police department bought several vehicles from the same dealership.

“People can allege anything,’’ she said. “I want to know where these allegations came from.’’

However, some Bal Harbour residents said they are outraged by the Justice Department’s report and the revelations that the village police are conducting undercover operations in far-flung locations that have nothing to do with their small coastal community.

“This is Southern Florida,’’ said Neil Alter, who lives in the Balmoral complex. “Why are we pursuing criminals and drug traffickers who are on the West Coast of the United States? To what degree does it serve the Bal Harbour community?’’

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Samsung Smart TVs: The next frontier for data theft and hacking [video]

Smart TVs, particularly Samsung’s (005930) last few generations of flat screens, can be hacked to give attackers remote access according to a security startup called ReVuln. The company says it discovered a “zero-day exploit” that hackers could potentially use to perform malicious activities that range from stealing accounts linked through apps to using built-in webcams and microphones to spy on unsuspecting couch potatoes. Don’t panic just yet, though. In order for the exploit to be activated, a hacker needs to plug a USB drive loaded with malicious software into the actual TV to bypass the Linux-based OS/firmware on Samsung’s Smart TVs. But, if a hacker were to pull that off, every piece of data stored on a Smart TV could theoretically be retrieved.

[More from BGR: Has the iPhone peaked? Apple’s iPhone 4S seen outselling iPhone 5]

[More from BGR: Dell confirms it will exit smartphone business, drop Android]

As if the possibility of someone stealing your information and spying on you isn’t scary enough, according to ComputerWorld, “it is also possible to copy the configuration of a TV’s remote control, which would allow a hacker to copy the remote control’s settings, and remotely change the channel.”

ReVuln told The Register it hasn’t informed Samsung of the vulnerability and plans to sell the details of in hopes of “speeding up” development of a fix. A video of the exploit as proof from ReVuln follows below.

This article was originally published by BGR

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Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Riveting Details Emerge from CT School Rampage

As morning turned to afternoon on Friday, further details continued to emerge from Newtown, CT, a tight-knit community shaken by a massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School that took the lives of innocent students and teachers, in addition to the gunman, reportedly identified as Adam Lanza.

RELATED: President Fights Tears as He Addresses Nation

As President Barack Obama touched on in his tear-jerking press conference, this is not the first time the nation has witnessed a tragedy of this kind. The recent mass shooting at an Aurora, CO movie theater is just one instance of such violence. Columbine High School and Virginia Tech also resonate as prime examples.

Hollywood's biggest stars were quick to react to the news on Twitter and made an outcry for stricter gun control regulations.

Watch the video for ET's complete coverage of today's biggest headline.

RELATED: Celebs Tweet Reactions to CT School Shooting

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Domino's founder sues federal government over mandatory contraception coverage in Obamacare

DETROIT — The founder of Domino's Pizza is suing the federal government over mandatory contraception coverage in the health care law.

Tom Monaghan, a devout Roman Catholic, says contraception isn't health care but a "gravely immoral" practice.

He filed a lawsuit Friday in federal court. It also lists as a plaintiff Domino's Farms, a Michigan office park complex that Monaghan owns.

Monaghan offers health insurance that excludes contraception and abortion for employees. The new federal law requires employers to offer insurance including contraception coverage or risk fines.

AP

Domino's pizza founder Tom Monaghan in 1996

Monaghan says the law violates his rights, and is asking a judge to strike down the mandate. There are similar lawsuits pending nationwide.

A message left Saturday for Monaghan's attorney, Richard Thompson, was not immediately returned.

The government says the contraception mandate benefits women.

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At Miami’s new urban 7-Eleven’s only the gulps are bigUrban

Miami real estate broker Nathan Kurland was driving downtown on Biscayne Boulevard with his wife the other day when they spotted a red, orange and green-striped sign with a familiar logo on the ground floor of an office tower.

“Was that 7-Eleven store there before?” Kurland said they asked each other.

It wasn’t.

Suddenly, the ubiquitous chain’s convenience stores are popping up all around downtown Miami like mushrooms after a hard rain.

But they’re not your Pop’s suburban 7-Elevens.

Like the corner stores of old, which they recall, these are smaller, urban prototypes with no parking and an emphasis on fresh and grab-and-go foods aimed at downtown dwellers and workers on foot. Like all 7-Elevens, they’re open ’round the clock.

And the stores’ conspicuous arrival here confirms that downtown Miami’s much-trumpeted revival is no figment of boosters’ imaginations, city officials say. The Biscayne Boulevard 7-Eleven, which opened earlier this month in the New World Tower, is the chain’s third new walk-up corner store downtown.

There is a fourth in west Brickell and a fifth under construction in a historic South Beach building.

The thousands of mostly young residents lured downtown by the condo boom of the mid-2000s have now made the district, once desolate outside office hours, an attractive place for national chains’ demographics-crunchers, said Alyce Robertson, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority.

That includes not just 7-Eleven, but also drugstore chains like Walgreens and CVS, which have opened new outlets in the business district, as well as high-end grocer Whole Foods, which has inked a deal to open downtown.

“It’s incredible to see the amount of activity underway, and it doesn’t appear to be waning,” Robertson said in an email.

The opening of 7-Eleven’s bright, sleekly designed stores has been a welcome boon to downtown residents and office workers who formerly had to rely on often-dingy mom-and-pop convenience stores with limited hours and offerings.

“We were very excited,’’ said Rachel Sak, marketing director for Zyscovich Architects, a 90-person firm in the New World building, as she shopped the new 7-Eleven’s wine selection for the office holiday party and gifts to co-workers. “We are taking advantage of it for sure. If you’re downtown and you’re walking, or you want to pick up something on the way home, it’s pretty convenient.’’

The other two stores are on Flagler Street at Miami Avenue, and on Northeast Second Avenue on the ground floor of the Loft Downtown II building, which sits at the foot of a Metromover station and across the street from Miami Dade College.

“It’s doing very well, actually,’’ said franchisee Bobby Abrol, who opened the 7-Eleven at the Loft building this past summer. “It’s all these young couples and young singles who come downstairs for groceries, and the students of course. It’s been a very positive location for me.’’

The urban-format outlets are not new for 7-Eleven, by far the world’s largest convenience-store chain. Company officials say they’ve had them in big cities like Chicago and New York for years. But bringing them to downtown Miami now was a no-brainer as the fast-growing chain, which is adding hundreds of stores in the United States and Canada each year, seeks out new markets in which to expand, they said.

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Miami photographer sentenced to 10 years in child-porn case

A Miami-area photographer who secretly videotaped children while they changed clothes in his home studio was sentenced in federal court Friday to 10 years in prison.

Diego Tobias Matrajt, 37, pleaded guilty in September to distribution and possession of child pornography.

Last February, Matrajt distributed 10 images of child pornography to an undercover agent by using a peer-to-peer file sharing program, according to court records.

In April, FBI agents did a search of his home and computers, uncovering 26 video images of boys and girls changing clothes alone in a guest bedroom with their genitalia exposed, records show.

Matrajt admitted surreptitiously video recording children under the age of 12 as they changed clothes in the guest bedroom during photo shoots.

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Pope needs help sending out blessing in first tweet

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – After weeks of anticipation bordering on media frenzy, Pope Benedict solemnly put his finger to a computer tablet device on Wednesday and tried to send his first tweet – but something went wrong.

Images on Vatican television appeared to show the first try didn’t work. The pope, who still writes his speeches by hand, seems to have pressed too hard and the tweet was not sent right away. So, he needed a little help from his friends.

Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli of the Vatican‘s communications department showed the pontiff how to do it, but the pope hesitated. Celli touched the screen lightly himself and off went the papal tweet.

“Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart,” he said in his introduction to the brave new world of Twitter.

The tweet was sent at the end of weekly general audience in the Vatican before thousands of people.

The pope actually has eight linked Twitter accounts. @Pontifex, the main account, is in English. The other seven have a suffix at the end for the different language versions. For example, the German version is @Pontifex_de, and the Arabic version is @Pontifex_ar.

The tweets will be going out in Spanish, English, Italian, Portuguese, German, Polish, Arabic and French. Other languages will be added in the future.

The pope already had just over a million followers in all of the languages combined minutes before he sent his first tweet and the number was growing.

PAPAL Q AND A

Later on Wednesday after the audience was over and the television cameras turned off, the pontiff answered the first of three questions sent to him at #askpontifex.

The first question answered by the pope was: “How can we celebrate the Year of Faith better in our daily lives?”

His answer: “By speaking with Jesus in prayer, listening to what he tells you in the Gospel and looking for him in those in need.”

The pope, who, as leader of the Roman Catholic Church already has 1.2 billion followers in the standard sense of the word, won’t be following anyone else, the Vatican has said.

After his first splash into the brave new world of Twitter on Wednesday, the contents of future tweets will come primarily from the contents of his weekly general audience, Sunday blessings and homilies on major Church holidays.

They are also expected to include reaction to major world events, such as natural disasters.

The Vatican says papal tweets will be little “pearls of wisdom”, which is understandable since his thoughts will have to be condensed to 140 characters, while papal documents often top 140 pages.

The Vatican said precautions had been taken to make sure the pope’s certified account is not hacked. Only one computer in the Vatican’s secretariat of state will be used for the tweets.

After Wednesday, Benedict won’t be pushing the button on his tweets himself. They will be sent by aides but he will sign off on them.

The pope’s Twitter page is designed in yellow and white – the colors of the Vatican, with a backdrop of the Vatican and his picture. It may change during different liturgical seasons of the year and when the pope is away from the Vatican on trips.

The pope has given a qualified welcome to social media.

In a document issued last year, he said the possibilities of new media and social networks offered “a great opportunity”, but warned of the risks of depersonalization, alienation, self-indulgence, and the dangers of having more virtual friends than real ones.

In 2009, a new Vatican website, www.pope2you.net, went live, offering an application called “The pope meets you on Facebook”, and another allowing the faithful to see the pontiff’s speeches and messages on their iPhones or iPods.

The Vatican famously got egg on its face in 2009 when it was forced to admit that, if it had surfed the web more, it might have known that a traditionalist bishop whose excommunication was lifted had for years been a Holocaust denier.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella, editing by Paul Casciato)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Celebs Tweet Reactions to CT School Shooting

There was breaking news this morning out of Newtown, Connecticut when at least one gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School. CBS News is reporting that a minimum of 27 people were killed in this massacre, including an estimated 18 young children.

Lt. J. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police held a press conference to assure concerned citizens that "the scene is secure" and "the shooter is deceased inside the building." Twenty-year-old Adam Lanza has reportedly emerged as the gunman. Brother Ryan, 24, had previously been named as the suspect, but sources are now telling the Associated Press that after being questioned by police it was determined that he was not involved. Their mother was a teacher at the school and is presumed to be one of the fatalities. An additional investigation is ongoing at another location, where one more victim was allegedly killed. The two crime scenes are thought to be linked. President Obama has been briefed on the horrific situation and offered his condolences to the victims and community. Three additional victims are being treated at Danbury Hospital. The hospital released a statement reading, "Our hearts and prayers are extended to everyone involved in this terrible tragedy."

Aurora, Colorado Mayor Steve Hogan knows all too well the heartbreak Newton, Connecticut is experiencing. His town recently felt the same emotion when a gunman opened fire in a movie theater. He released a statement saying, "We understand all too well the pain the Newtown community is feeling today and our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the tragic event that unfolded this morning. As a fellow community that has recently experienced this type of tragedy, we stand ready to offer our assistance in every way possible to help Newtown provide the support and guidance that will be necessary for their community to begin to recover. Today’s events also remind us that we must continue to take care of ourselves and one another, as we continue to heal."

As word spread about the tragedy, Twitter exploded with reactions from celebrities, many of them parents themselves.

Alyssa Milano: What the f*** is wrong with people?

Hilary Duff: Oh my.I am shocked.Heartbroken.Devastating news about this elementary school shooting. What is wrong w/ people?Praying hard 4 these family's

Mandy Moore: Absolutely devastating news this morning. There are no words.Thoughts, prayers and love to all in #Newtown.

Lisa Ling: Why are we still not seriously talking about gun control? Bless the families of those lost in Conn. My God.

Mia Farrow: #PrayForNewtown. Gun control is no longer debatable- it's not a 'conversation'- It's a moral mandate. '

Maria Shriver: My heart is breaking as this story unfolds. Let's start a #circleofprayer for the children and their families. Just yesterday, I wrote about the joy of becoming a mother. Right now so many mothers and fathers are in indescribable pain. Please say a prayer for the victims of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown...

Russell Simmons: prayers for the children, families and faculty of Sandy Hook Elementary School and the people of Newtown. my heart is broken.

Courteney Cox: Praying for Sandy Hook

Ali Fedotowsky: The shooting at Sandy Hook elementary is so heartbreaking. Children? It just doesn't make any sense. My heart goes out to the families.

Steve Carell: Pray for Sandy Hook, Newtown CT.

Bethenny Frankel: Oh my goodness. There has been a shooting at a school. I had no idea. This is so tragic. Poor babies!

Maksim Chmerkovskiy: University, high school, movie theater, and now ELEMENTARY school?!? What's next Kindergarten? WTF is wrong with people?!? I hate the "my heart is with" this and "my prayers go out" that... We ALL need to get fucking angry and DO something more than 'feel sad'....to unload a weapon on small children!!!!

Piers Morgan: I can't bear this. It's just beyond comprehension that anyone would do this in an elementary school. Those poor children. Don't just mourn these poor dead children America - get angry and do something to stop these senseless shootings happening.

Hilaria Baldwin: These shootings need to stop what do we do? I cannot help but think back to where I was when people committed these heinous acts. Why do they have to be so cruel, sick, and heartless? Guns bring nothing but pain and heartbreak. Violent video games foster rage and troubled imaginations. Why are we so enamored with violence? My thoughts and prayers are with you all in Sandy Hook. Whether you are a victim of violence, trauma or loss, I am sending my love & support

Vinny Guadagnino: Praying for the Victims in the Connecticut school shooting. This is happening too much. 18 children dead

Randy Jackson: Thoughts and prayers go out to those in Connecticut

Chris Cuomo: #Newtown kids as young as grade k may have been involved. Kids told to close eyes while running out. Pray for the families. #Newton story not abt the #'s. The magnitude is so great because so many kids involved. Killing kids is the worst result of violence.

Sophia Bush: My heart aches for Connecticut ....

Chad Johnson: Just seeing my news feed on the Connecticut shooting, what is going on, prayers to the families and students involved.

Kyle Richards: Omg. Just hearing about the school shooting. In shock. So incredibly sad.

Gilles Marini: Enough f***ing violence. Enough. How could a man killed anyone? Even more a child. I'm crushed! #Connecticut elementary school

Jenna Ushkowitz: My heart goes out to all the Families and children affected by the CT shooting. When will the violence end?

Kevin Spacey: Just heard about the shooting in Connecticut. My thoughts go out to all who are dealing with this sad news.

Adrienne Maloof: Terrible terrible news about the shooting in Connecticut. Sending thoughts and prayers to everyone involved....

Kristin Cavallari: The fact that there was a shooting at an ELEMENTARY school makes me sick. My thoughts go out to all the families

Martina Navratilova: There is no proper time to talk gun control except now!

Holly Robinson Peete: I'm following #SandyHookElementary shooting reports like it's MY child's school #parentsworstnightmare…

Lisa Rinna: Horrible news I just heard about the shooting in CT at an elementary school how can we stop this violence?!

Sherri Shepherd: ABC is reporting the shooter was 24 armed w 4 weapons wearing a bullet proof vest.this makes no sense. @ an elementary school? #Sandyhook

Michael Urie: GUN CONTROL LEGISLATION NOW. #enough

Albie Manzo: Absolutely heartbreaking story coming out of CT, I will never understand how someone could do such a horrible thing.

Teresa Giudice: On days like this, we should hug our children just a little bit tighter.

Marlee Matlin: #PrayForNewtown Pray for the children teachers and families. Pray for some sense out of this madness. I am numb as the numbers of the dead - children and adults - keep ticking up. #PrayForNewtown

Christina Applegate: There are just no words. Only sorrow. We are all shedding tears today for those families.

Karina Smirnoff: We need to pray for all the families affected by the Newtown, CT school shooting. Absolutely devastating....

Hoda Kotb: #prayfornewtown

Brandi Glanville: I can not believe this school shooting, what is wrong with people!!!! My heart is breakking for the kids and families.

Ashley Hebert: My heart is broken for these children/families in Newton. This is unimaginable.

Caroline Manzo: school shooting in Connecticut is heartbreaking - poor little babies - may God be with them all

Kristin Chenoweth: Well im hearing about this shooting in CT. Praying. Sending prayers.

DJ Pauly D: My Prayers Go Out To Everyone Affected By This Horrible Shooting In Connecticut

Melissa Joan Hart: How could someone be so evil as to kill innocent children at school? God Bless and watch over those families and children that witnessed it!

KhloéKardashianOdom: To harm children who are defenseless is truly disgusting. I'm in disbelief. #PrayforNewtown my heart truly goes out to EVERYONE affected

Julie Benz: Please pray for the families and victims of the horrible tragedy in CT.

Lisa Gastineau: How could ANYONE harm KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN!! Beyond insane-saddest thing I've ever heard #pain #prayers

Justin Bieber: heard about what happened in CT, my prayers go out to all those suffering in this tragedy. it'ss just wrong. Everyone please pray for them. #PRAYforCT

Jada Pinkett Smith: We have lost innocent lives to madness in Connecticut at Sandy Hook Elementary today. My condolences to the entire community. Please join me in a three day fast in honor of the dead. Let us reflect upon what we can change in our homes and in our relationships with others to help bring an end to these kinds of atrocities in our communities. Life is about the quality in which we treat ourselves and...others.May love keep you ALL safe.

Captain Mark Kelly (husband of Gabrielle Giffords): I just woke up in my hotel room in Beijing, China to learn that another mass shooting has taken place - this time at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in CT. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims and the entire community of Newtown, CT. I just spoke to Gabby, and she sends her prayers from Tucson. As we mourn, we must sound a call for our leaders to stand up and do what is right. This time our response must consist of more than regret, sorrow, and condolence. The children of Sandy Hook Elementary School and all victims of gun violence deserve leaders who have the courage to participate in a meaningful discussion about our gun laws - and how they can be reformed and better enforced to prevent gun violence and death in America. This can no longer wait.

Oprah Winfrey: Dear Lord.. Help us to understand as we Stand with these families. Heal our broken hearts. #PrayForNewton

Bruce Jenner: My heart goes out to all those directly and indirectly affected by this senseless tragedy at a place that I hold very near and dear to my heart. I have the fondest memories of this beautiful town that I grew up in. As a father, I can hardly imagine what the community is going through. My prayers and condolences are with them all.

Alicia Keys: My heart is so heavy right now as I think of these innocent children, teachers, their families and community.

PHOTOS: Families Embrace Outside Sandy Hook Elementary School After Shooting

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SHOCKING AUDIO: Gunman's rampage took only minutes, cop radio calls reveal

AFP/Getty Images

State Police inspect the area near Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Judging by the radio calls, it took only a few minutes for a gunman to snuff out the lives of 20 Newtown school children and six adults.

The first word of the horrifying Newtown school shooting went out over the town’s police radio at 9:36 this morning.

Two minutes later, a dispatcher reported the gunshots had stopped.

UP TO 27 PEOPLE SHOT DEAD AT SCHOOL

“Sandy Hook School. Caller is indicating she thinks there’s someone shooting in the building,” a Newtown dispatcher radioed in the town’s first report of the killings.

Less than a minute later, the dispatcher radioed:

“Units responding to the Sandy Hook School. The front glass has been broken in front of the school They are unsure why ...

“All units, the individual I have on the phone said he is continuing to hear what he believes to be gunfire."

Amid the confusing situation, officers can be heard reporting a possible second shooter headed for the rear of the school.

“The shooting appears to have stopped,” the dispatcher radioed at 9:38 a.m. “There is silence at this time. The school is in lockdown.”

Moments later, an officer apparently at the scene is heard saying: “They’re coming at me through this wood.”

“This is it,” said another.

And after that, at 9:46 a.m., as police searched the school, someone who could not hide the emotion in his voice radioed these haunting words: “I’ve got bodies here. Need ambulances.”

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Miami in spotlight at AVCC, other entrepreneurship events

Entrepreneurs from around the world took the stage during this packed week of entrepreneurship events in Miami: Florida International University’s Americas Venture Capital Conference (known as AVCC), HackDay, Wayra’s Global DemoDay and Endeavor’s International Selection Panel.

The events, all part of the first Innovate MIA week, also put the spotlight on Miami as it continues to try to develop into a technology hub for the Americas.

“While I like art, I absolutely love what is happening today... The time has come to become a tech hub in Miami,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez, who kicked off the venture capital conference on Thursday. He told the audience of 450 investors and entrepreneurs about the county’s $1 million investment in the Launch Pad Tech Accelerator in downtown Miami.

“I have no doubt that this gathering today will produce new ideas and new business ventures that will put our community on a fast track to becoming a center for innovative, tech-driven entrepreneurship,” Gimenez said.

Brad Feld, an early-stage investor and a founder of TechStars, cautioned that won’t happen overnight. Building a startup community can take five, 10, even 15 years, and those leading the effort, who should be entrepreneurs themselves, need to take the long-term view, he told the audience via video. “You can create very powerful entrepreneurial ecosystems in any city... I’ve spent some time in Miami, I think you are off to a great start.”

Throughout the two-day AVCC at the JW Brickell Marriott, as well as the Endeavor and Wayra events, entrepreneurs from around the world pitched their companies, hoping to persuade investors to part with some of their green.

And in some cases, the entrepreneurs could win money, too. During the venture capital conference, 29 companies —including eight from South Florida such as itMD, which connects doctors, patients and imaging facilities to facilitate easy access of records — competed for more than $50,000 in cash and prizes through short “elevator’’ pitches. Each took questions from the judges, then demoed their products or services in the conference “Hot Zone,” a room adjoining the ballroom. Some companies like oLyfe, a platform to organize what people share online, are hoping to raise funds for expansion into Latin America. Others like Ideame, a trilingual crowdfunding platform, were laser focused on pan-Latin American opportunities.

Winning the grand prize of $15,000 in cash and art was Trapezoid Digital Security of Miami, which provides hardware-based security solutions for enterprise and cloud environments. Fotopigeon of Tampa, a photo-sharing and printing service targeting the military and prison niches, scored two prizes.

The conference offered opportunities to hear formal presentations on current trends — among them the surge of start-ups in Brazil; the importance of mobile apps and overheated company valuations — and informal opportunities to connect with fellow entrepreneurs.

Speakers included Gaston Legorburu of SapientNitro, Albert Santalo of CareCloud and Juan Diego Calle of .Co Internet, all South Florida entrepreneurs. Jerry Haar, executive director of FIU’s Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center, which produced the conference with a host of sponsors, said the organizers worked hard to make the conference relevant to both the local and Latin American audience, with panels on funding and recruiting for startups, for instance.

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Now a Democrat, Charlie Crist regrets signing anti-gay marriage petition

ST. PETERSBURG --
Former Gov. Charlie Crist completed his conversion to the Democratic Party on Thursday at a camera-ready media event at which he revised his views on yet another issue: same-sex marriage.

Nearly a week after posing with a party switch form at a White House reception, Crist milked the decision for more publicity by inviting the media to cover him handing in the form at a Pinellas County elections office.

More than a dozen reporters watched as the former Republican governor who ran as an independent Senate candidate in 2010 posed for photos with three county elections clerks, calling them “Charlie’s Angels.”

The scene was classic Crist, and looked like the first step in a 2014 bid for governor, but he said he has no time line for a decision. He said people in President Barack Obama’s administration, though not the president himself, want him to run.

He also spoke of his displeasure with Gov. Rick Scott, his ultimate rival if he were to become the Democratic nominee.

“I am disappointed. It started with rejecting the high-speed rail,” Crist said. “We were successful, I think, in proving that Florida needed it, wanted it and was ready for it. So I think that was disappointing.”

Crist also criticized Scott for cutting education spending by $1.3 billion in his first year in office, for not being more protective of the environment and for not helping disabled people more.

“That’s a big reason I’m a Democrat now — because they care and they’re compassionate,” said Crist, whose entourage consisted of friend Greg Truax, a onetime GOP activist from Tampa, and Michelle Todd, a friend and former staffer.

A couple of silent protesters showed up holding “Go Away-Fake Dems Need Not Apply” signs, but a couple of passers-by shouted their encouragement.

“Welcome to the party,” said Lawrence Williams. “The signs back there? Don’t worry about them.”

Asked if he regretted decisions or positions he took as a Republican over more than two decades, Crist discussed his 2006 decision to sign a petition to enshrine a ban on same-sex marriage in the state constitution.

“Would I do it today? No,” Crist said. “I think the best way to judge where my heart is, is to look at the deeds that I have done, whether as attorney general, governor — restoration of rights, civil rights cases, things of that nature, that I think show a compassionate heart and hopefully someone who cares and knows who the boss is — and the boss is the people of Florida.”

A new private poll of 1,000 Democratic voters gives Crist an overwhelming lead over all other Democrats in a hypothetical primary for governor, including a 21-point advantage in a test matchup with Alex Sink, the party’s 2010 nominee.

The poll found that Crist is much better known than Sink and that 75 percent of Democrats believe he has the best chance of beating Scott in 2014.

In a coincidence of timing, about half of the poll was done before Crist’s Dec. 7 announcement that he was becoming a Democrat, and half was conducted afterward. The poll showed Crist increasing his lead over Sink from 17 points to 25 after his switch became public, for a final advantage of 21 points (55 percent to 34 percent, 11 percent undecided).

The poll was done for an undisclosed client of ClearView Research from Dec. 4-9, and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. ClearView, a market research firm, is run in part by Screven Watson, a former executive director of the Florida Democratic Party and a Tallahassee political operative who said he has no connection to Crist.

“This was not done to promote or demote anybody,” Watson said. “A client had a curiosity. We do not have a dog in this fight.”

According to the poll, 79 percent of Democrats have a somewhat or very favorable view of Crist compared to 58 percent for Sink.

Sink, who lost to Scott by slightly more than 1 percent in 2010, said Crist “has a lot of explaining to do” about his past as a Republican.

“I still think that for Democrats, Charlie Crist needs to get out and explain himself,” Sink said. “There needs to be a vetting process. He needs to convince Democrats he’s one of them.”

She said that a poll focusing on Crist two years before the election seemed designed to “create some kind of narrative” that Crist should be the party’s nominee.

The poll tested six other names, all of whom had much lower favorability numbers than Crist or Sink, largely because they are less well-known: Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler, former state Sen. Nan Rich, former Attorney General Bob Butterworth, Florida Democratic Party chairman Rod Smith and former Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio.

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Hugh Jackman Gets Star on Walk of Fame

Good news just keeps coming for Hugh Jackman. Fresh off the heels of his SAG and Golden Globe Awards nominations his presence was required to accept his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

RELATED: 2013 Golden Globe Nominees

ET's Christina McLarty congratulated Jackman for today's early-morning announcement, naming him as a Golden Globe nominee for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.

"We got in at about two o'clock in the morning from New York, so I had kind of just gotten off to sleep but it's probably the best way to be woken up ever," said the Les Miserables star, who was also nominated for a SAG Award on Wednesday.

Jackman was "humbled" by the appearance of big names such as Anne Hathaway and Jay Leno, who showed up to support him outside of Madame Tussauds on Hollywood Blvd., but it was his family's presence that touched him the most.

"I do genuinely have the coolest wife, the coolest kids," said Jackman. "It's the greatest thing in my life. They've always been a priority for me, and all of this is all the more meaningful because of them."

You can see Jackman in Les Miserables starting Christmas Day.

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Gambino crime family associate known as 'Seven-Second Bandit' cried when he was busted: defense

This mobster turned rat has one heck of a sob story.

Known as the “Seven-Second Bandit,” Gambino crime family associate and speedy serial bank heists Jack Mannino had 24 New York bank stick-ups under his belt — enough to earn him life behind bars — when the FBI caught up to him.

But the feds had no idea the wannabe wiseguy was also a crybaby.

“The day you were arrested by agents, you actually started to cry. Is that right?” defense attorney Elizabeth Macedonio asked the broad-shouldered ex-con.

“Yes,” the mob associate answered.

Mannino was on the witness stand in Brooklyn federal court today testifying as a government witness against his alleged accomplice in his final bank robbery — the one that got both of them arrested earlier this year.

Handout Photo

Jack Mannino

A serial bank robber who was in continual debt to loansharks, Mannino admitted that he decided to flip after his arrest and became a government witness.

Yesterday he gave the jury a detailed account of the Bensonhurst bank robbery and said he planned and executed it with the man standing truial — reputed mob associate Gary Fama.

Despite careful planning by the two experienced stick-up men, unexpected events marred their efforts.

A dye pack exploded inside the bag of money they had stolen from the bank, and the transmission blew out of their getaway Lexus as they tried to speed away when the sound of sirens grew louder.

Just three months after the robbery, Mannino said was holed up in a hideaway on Staten Island, broke and running low on food.

FBI agents eventually tracked him down with the help of belongings he abandoned in the ailing getaway car — including his wallet filled with ID and credit cards and cellphone.

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Florida leads nation in foreclosure activity

Florida led the nation in foreclosure activity for the third month running in November, a dubious distinction that will likely dampen the momentum of the real estate recovery in the coming year, according to RealtyTrac.

Even as foreclosure activity decreased nationally, foreclosure filings in Florida jumped 20 percent in November from a year earlier and rose 3 percent from October, the data firm based in Irvine, Calif., said.

Among the 10 metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates, seven are in Florida, the firm said. The metro area covering Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach ranked No. 5 among cities, with one in every 260 residences logging some sort of foreclosure activity, including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, RealtyTrac said.

The pickup in Florida’s foreclosure activity has emerged since the major settlement last spring of the robo-signing cases.

After 49 state attorneys general filed suit in 2010 against five big mortgage banks over egregious foreclosure procedures implemented amid an avalanche of soured mortgages, foreclosure activity slowed dramatically. With the massive settlement approved in April, lenders now have adapted to the ground rules and have a clearer path forward in pressing foreclosure cases, said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac.

“This is injecting a little reality into the Florida housing market,” Blomquist said of the rising foreclosures. “I don’t think this will crater housing prices, by any means. In markets that are very strong, it may not lower prices at all. It will definitely dampen things. It’ll be a drag on the market.”

One in every 304 Florida residences had some sort of foreclosure filing in November, more than twice the national average, RealtyTrac said.

The rising foreclosure activity in Florida comes as foreclosure activity nationwide fell 3 percent in November from October and plunged 19 percent from November 2011, the firm said. Foreclosure starts hit a 71-month low nationwide.

But in Florida, which is among the states where foreclosures are handled in more time-consuming proceedings in the courts rather than administratively, “we’re seeing a rise in activity across the board,” Blomquist said.

In November in Florida, foreclosure starts rose 7 percent year over year, scheduled auctions jumped 51 percent and bank repossessions rose 15 percent.

Behind Florida, the states ranking highest in foreclosure activity in November were Nevada, Illinois, California and South Carolina, the firm said.

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State investigates foster father in Jackson South case

State child welfare administrators are investigating a Miami foster parent who may be implicated in an alleged scheme to abduct a newborn child from the nursery at Jackson South Community Hospital.

The foster father, who has not been identified, brought his family to the Jackson nursery and visited with a baby that had been taken into state care by the Department of Children & Families, said Esther Jacobo, DCF’s top Miami administrator, on Wednesday.

An unidentified Jackson employee had told the foster father the baby was available for adoption, and the foster father could pick up the child.

The incident, which occurred in October, ended up with Jackson announcing on Tuesday the termination of two Jackson South managers, the chief nursing officer and maternity ward director. Jackson spokesman Edwin O’Dell said they were offered the opportunity to resign and they did so. Jackson did not identify the employees.

DCF sheltered the baby after the agency received a call to the state’s child abuse hotline and investigated the child’s welfare, Jacobo said. The agency placed a hold on the baby, meaning the child could not be released back to his or her birth mother. DCF was called back to the hospital within a day or two amid rumors that “people were selling a baby.”

An investigation showed that a high-level Jackson employee was friendly with the foster father, who was seeking to foster or adopt another child. He allowed the foster father, Jacobo said, to bring his family to visit with the newborn.

On the day the newborn was to be discharged, the foster father appeared and tried to take the baby with him, Jacobo said. A Jackson nurse stopped him before he was able to leave the hospital with the infant. The nurse said that, without a valid DCF identification badge, the father could not take custody of the baby.

A source told The Herald the father currently has only one child in his custody.

In the wake of the incident, Jacobo said, DCF agreed to perform a series of training sessions at Jackson involving dependent children.

“We are not placing any other children” in the home of the foster father, Jacobo said. “We are in the legal process of figuring out what to do with his licensure.”

Jacobo said the agency is looking at all its options, including attempting to pull the foster father’s license.

O’Dell said Jackson executives first learned about the problem about Oct. 9. They started an investigation, which led to the resignations on Oct. 15, but Jackson Chief Executive Carlos Migoya did not notify county leaders and board members until he released a memo on Tuesday — shortly before WTVJ-NBC 6 reported the problem at Jackson South.

In the memo, Migoya wrote: “While no patients were harmed as a result of this incident, we concluded that Jackson policies were indeed violated. Consistent with our culture of accountability, employees were terminated or otherwise disciplined. Appropriate reports were made to regulatory agencies.”

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‘Dishonored’ tops a diverse year in video games

The video game universe in 2012 is a study in extremes.

At one end, you have the old guard striving to produce mass-appeal blockbusters. At the other end, you have a thriving community of independent game developers scrambling to find an audience for their idiosyncratic visions. Can’t we all just get along?

Turns out, we can. For while some industry leaders are worried (and not without cause) about “disruptive” trends — social-media games, free-to-play models, the switch from disc-based media to digital delivery — video games are blossoming creatively. This fall, during the height of the pre-holiday game release calendar, I found myself bouncing among games as diverse as the bombastic “Halo 4,” the artsy “The Unfinished Swan” and the quick-hit trivia game “SongPop.”

Some of my favorite games this year have benefited from both sides working together. The smaller studios get exposure on huge platforms like Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network. The big publishers seem more willing to invite a little quirkiness into their big-budget behemoths. Gamers win.

1. “Dishonored” (Bethesda Softworks, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC): Arkane Studios’ revenge drama combined a witty plot, crisp gameplay and an uncommonly distinctive milieu, setting a supernaturally gifted assassin loose in a gloriously decadent, steampunk-influenced city.

2. “Mass Effect 3″ (Electronic Arts, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, PC): No 2012 game was more ambitious than BioWare’s sweeping space opera. Yes, the ending was a little bumpy, but the fearless Commander Shepard’s last journey across the cosmos provided dozens of thrilling moments.

3. “The Walking Dead” (Telltale Games, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, iOS): This moving adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comics dodged the predictable zombie bloodbath in favor of a finely tuned character study of two survivors: Lee, an escaped convict, and Clementine, the 8-year-old girl he’s committed to protect.

4. “Journey” (Thatgamecompany, for the PlayStation 3): A nameless figure trudges across a desert toward a glowing light. Simple enough, but gorgeous visuals, haunting music and the need to communicate, wordlessly, with companions you meet along the way translate into something that’s almost profound.

5. “Borderlands 2″ (2K Games, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC): Gearbox Software’s gleeful mash-up of first-person shooting, role-playing and loot-collecting conventions gets bigger and badder, but what stuck with me most were the often hilarious encounters with the damaged citizens of the godforsaken planet Pandora.

6. “XCOM: Enemy Unknown” (2K Games, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC): A strategy classic returns, as the forces of Earth fight back against an extraterrestrial invasion. It’s a battle of wits rather than reflexes, a stimulating change of pace from the typical alien gorefest.

7. “Fez” (Polytron, for the Xbox 360): A two-dimensional dude named Gomez finds his world has suddenly burst into a third dimension in this gem from indie developer Phil Fish. As Gomez explores, the world of “Fez” continually deepens, opening up mysteries that only the most dedicated players will be able to solve.

8. “Spec Ops: The Line” (2K Games, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC): This harrowing tale from German studio Yager Development transplants “Apocalypse Now” to a war-torn Dubai. It’s a bracing critique, not just of war but of the rah-rah jingoism of contemporary military shooters.

9. “Assassin’s Creed III” (Ubisoft, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, PC): A centuries-old conspiracy takes root in Colonial America in this beautifully realized, refreshingly irreverent installment of Ubisoft’s alternate history franchise.

10. “ZombiU” (Ubisoft, for the Wii U): The best launch game for Nintendo’s new console turns the Wii U’s GamePad into an effective tool for finding and hunting down the undead.

Runners-up: “Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” ”Darksiders II,” ”Dust: An Elysian Tail,” ”Far Cry 3,” ”Halo 4,” ”Mark of the Ninja,” ”Need for Speed: Most Wanted,” ”Paper Mario: Sticker Star,” ”Papo & Yo,” ”The Unfinished Swan.”

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Sean Didn't Attempt to Win Back Emily Post-Jef

When Emily Maynard was back on the market for a hot second after breaking her engagement to Jef Holm (she's reportedly already in a new relationship), Bachelor Sean Lowe didn't consider asking for a second chance.

"I heard about the split in the final destination, so I had already invested in other women," he told ETonline. "It became clear over time…[Emily's] not the one for me."

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There will be a one blast from Bachelor past as a familiar face tries to capture Sean's heart. Promos show that a mystery former contestant is back in the mix. "I think America will be surprised to see who it is. I know I certainly was when she stepped out of the limo on the first night," Sean hinted. On Ben Flajnik's season, Shawntel Newton made a memorable cameo mid-season, but was eliminated straight away. "I probably would have done the same thing Ben did so I didn't infuriate the other women who had been there for the first several weeks," Sean says.

Although Emily isn't meant to be his Mrs., he says, "My feelings for Emily were very real and authentic. Could I find those feelings again? I owed it to myself to give it a try." After falling in love on reality TV once, he ignores the poor success rate of previous seasons. "I am in the position where I want to find the love of my life and as crazy as it sounds, I think you can find that person on The Bachelor if the stars align," he shares.

Obligated to stay mum on the final outcome, he reveals, "The producers did an excellent job [casting]. When I accepted their invitation to be The Bachelor, I wanted girls that were well suited for me…I was blown away by the amount of wonderful women we had this season. Smart, well-accomplished, funny. That causes internal problems for me as the season progresses…I really had no idea I would become so attached and emotionally invested in so many women."

VIDEO: Ashley & J.P. Rehearse First Kiss

In the clip above, Sean speaks to host Chris Harrison at Ashley Hebert and J.P. Rosenbaum's recent wedding about greeting his 26 women as they arrived at the mansion. He further says of the experience, "I don't think we called it a first impression rose, but there was definitely one girl that catches my eye and she does receive the very first rose. You'll see those initial sparks play out over several episodes and it's going to be an interesting relationship." But, it may not be love at first sight after all because he adds, "Sometimes it takes weeks to see who a woman really is and that first impression isn't really accurate."

Determined to "draw [his] own conclusions" about the ladies' intentions, Sean hesitates to get involved in the "cattiness." As time goes on, "you can't ignore when you have multiple women talking about one woman," he says of listening to warnings. "It always irritated me when girls would get caught up in the drama and lose focus on why we were all there… [It's] inevitable when you put that much estrogen into one house."

When Sean had been wooing Emily, he was prepared to step into the role of stepdad to her daughter Ricki. His outlook is no different this season. He reveals, "You're going to see that there is one woman who does have children. That's not a deal breaker at all to me… [It] almost made [Emily] more attractive in my eyes because I saw the love she had for her daughter." As for having kids of his own, he'd "ideally" prefer to wait a few years to enjoy the company of his wife before starting a family.

The Bachelor premieres on Monday, January 7 on ABC. After handing out dozens of roses over the course of several months, "I would be happy if I didn't see a rose for the rest of my life," he laughs.

RELATED: 'Bachelorette' Wedding Full of Love, No Red Roses

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Justice Dept. won't seek death penalty for mob thugs

Two men charged in a Mafia murder involving a Bonanno crime family associate featured on “Mob Wives” are no longer looking death in the face.

The US Justice Department announced today that they will not seek the death penalty against reputed mob associates Luigi Grasso and Richard Riccardi for the July 2010 murder of a Luchese crime family associate during a robbery-gone bad.

Hector Pagan - the ex-husband of “Mob Wives” star Renee Graziano - already has been given a death penalty pass on the killing, as a reward for becoming an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration, sources said.

Pagan, who was then a Bonanno crime family associate, is believed to have fired the shot during the midday robbery of James Donovan in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn, sources said.

The trio pulled the stick-up on Donovan - a Luchese family associate - because he was carrying a collection of rent checks from his rental properties, officials and sources say.

When he resisted, Pagan allegedly shot him in the leg and Donovan later died.

Grasso and Riccardi still face possible life sentences if they are convicted of participating in the murder, officials said.

mmaddux@nypost.com

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Lennar to borrow $1.7 billion from Chinese bank

Miami-based Lennar Corp. has gotten approval on $1.7 billion in loans from China Development Bank to fund the development and construction of two major projects in San Francisco, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

The contract, set to close by Dec. 31 subject to various conditions, would mark the first U.S. loan by the big state-owned Chinese bank. One condition — tagged the “Chinese component”— is that China Railway Construction Corp. be included as a general contracting partner in the project, the person said.

Closing by year’s end is crucial because of new tax rules set to take effect, the person added.

The agreement, first reported in The Wall Street Journal, would provide funding for the first six years of what is envisioned to be a 20-year project.

The loan agreement, reached Dec. 7 after Lennar officials met in China with bank officials, provides for $1 billion in financing to a partnership led by Lennar to redevelop Hunters Point Shipyard-Candlestick Point, a site in southeast San Francisco spanning more than 700 acres, the person said. Plans for the mixed-use community call for nearly 12,000 residential units on the site. Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2013.

Under the pact, the Chinese bank would provide another $700 million to a partnership of Lennar, Stockbridge Capital Group and Wilson Meany, a real estate investment and development firm, to redevelop Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Islands in San Francisco Bay. Some 8,000 units of housing are planned for the mixed-use project on 535 acres. The U.S. Navy is set to turn over the first parcel of land to the development company in late 2013.

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Legislative leaders dish out salary increases to top staff

TALLAHASSEE --
Florida’s new legislative leaders handed out hefty raises and salaries to many of their top staff and newly hired talent even as thousands of state workers went for a sixth year without a bump in pay.

Senate President Don Gaetz and House Speaker Will Weatherford, who were sworn in last month, immediately hired new chiefs of staff and paid them more than taxpayers pay state Cabinet officials. They are paying 62 top policy advisors and staff directors more than $100,000 a year. And they gave salary increases totaling $252,000 to their 17 highest paid employees.

Giving the most in raises was Gaetz, R-Niceville, who promoted 10 people already making more than $100,000 a year in state jobs. The biggest promotion went to his top aide, Chris Clark, whose salary jumped from $77,000 as an aide in Gaetz’s legislative office to $150,000 as the Senate president’s chief of staff. Clark started in the Legislature in 1994, making $12,771 a year. Gaetz said his salary is commensurate with those who have held the job before.

Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, gave more modest pay increases to his highest earning staff. Seven employees, who earned more than $100,00, got raises totaling $52,000.

The salaries were “based on a number of factors including increased workload, matching offers made by other organizations, merit, recommendations from supervisors and years of service,’’ said Ryan Duffy, Weatherford spokesman. (Duffy is paid $95,000, a $20,000 increase over what he was making last year as spokesman for the House Republican office.)

State workers, by contrast, have not seen a pay raise in six years. Last year, the Legislature also tapped into their take-home pay by trimming three percent to pay the annual contribution to the Florida Retirement System. The result is a 15 percent drop in earning power for most state workers, labor unions say.

Unions have challenged the pension law, which was sponsored by Gaetz and supported by Weatherford, and are awaiting a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court.

“The mantra of legislative leadership is: ‘Do as we say, not as we do,” said Rich Templin, spokesman for the AFL-CIO. “They want to slash funding for teachers and go after state worker pensions, but they also see the taxpayer as funding their own little fiefdoms.”

Not everyone received a pay raise. Some House and Senate salaries remained the same, despite years on the job or increased education and training. And salaries for many returning staff in the House and Senate Democratic offices remained unchanged.

The legislative leaders also brought in new talent and paid them top dollar.

Weatherford hired Kathy Mears, a Tallahassee political consultant, for $145,000. She had previously worked as a deputy chief of staff under former Gov. Charlie Crist and was the communications director for former House and Senate leaders.

Gaetz lured Lisa Vickers, the former head of the Department of Revenue, to be one of his senior executive assistants. She now earns $135,000, a $15,000 annual boost in pay from the $120,000 she made as an agency head.

The Senate president’s communications director, Katie Betta, was hired as Gaetz’s deputy chief of staff. He gave her a $20,000 salary increase over the $107,000 she was making doing the communications job for former House Speaker Dean Cannon. Betta’s salary is higher than the $76,000 paid to the previous Senate president’s communications director, Lyndsey Cruley.

Jim Rimes, a former director of the Republican Party of Florida, was hired to be the director of the Senate Majority Office at $120,000. He last worked as a lobbyist representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, AT&T and Home Depot.

Together, the top members of the executive staffs of the two presiding officers earn $7.2 million a year — with $3.5 million spent by the House and $3.8 million spent by the Senate, according to a Herald/Times analysis.

The total cost to taxpayers of all legislative salaries, including district staff and the annual salary paid to each legislator is $27.8 million for 1,645 employees in the House, and $21.8 million and 1,644 employees in the Senate. Legislators earn $29,697 per year; Weatherford and Gaetz earn $41,181.

Not every union official objects to the staff pay raises. Doug Martin, spokesman for the American Federation of State and Federation, believes “the Legislature needs the best it can get because a poorly written law costs billions, not millions.”

He said Florida already has the smallest, least expensive government per capita “and one of the primary reasons for that efficiency is to have excellent long-term employees.”

But, Martin added, many of the people he represents were willing to forgo a raise to avoid layoffs during the economic crisis . “Now that the economy is improving,” he said, “they deserve a raise too.”

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'Bachelorette' Wedding Full of Love, No Red Roses

Fresh off their December 1 nuptials, J.P. Rosenbaum continues to keep the romance alive with wife Ashley Hebert.

The blissfully in love newlyweds met on The Bachelorette. History has shown that most such couples fizzle after the cameras go away, but not for these two lovebirds. "I think the romance part of it is the easy part. You know that's there. It's all about emotion and romance. That's what the franchise is all about. Just the question whether we'd get along as people," J.P. told ETonline. "Our real relationship started once we started living together."

Since exchanging personally written vows in their California ceremony, Ashley has found that the institute of marriage has brought "a sense of security and forever that didn't exist before" in the relationship.

The Princeton, NJ based couple selected a west coast destination as their venue because "of the options we had discussed with production and with ourselves internally, Pasadena was the most beautiful place we were considering," J.P. explained. "Not convenient for us east coasters, [but] far and away the nicest place we had seen."

Joining them at the altar was a familiar face, host of The Bachelorette. "When we were trying to figure out who we'd like to officiate, Chris Harrison really was our first choice," J.P said. "He has been there from the beginning. He's seen our good sides and bad sides. Even off the show, we keep in touch. It made sense to come full circle."

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As Ashley made her way down the aisle towards her awaiting groom, she was concerned about tripping on the long train of her custom-made Randi Rahm gown. The bride researched bridal fashion on Pinterest for inspiration and collaborated with the designer before settling on what she calls the "perfect dress."

The duo also teamed with famed wedding planner Mindy Weiss to create their fantasy affair. "We put everything in her hands," Ashley trusted. "[It was] above and beyond anything we could have done on our own." J.P. did have some input, though, asserting, "No red roses were allowed." Being under the very experienced care of Mindy, the biggest stress Ashley endured was rain on her wedding day, which is said to bring luck to a couple anyways. Skies cleared in time for the ceremony, though. And, J.P. struggled with cutting down the guest list.

Ashley's protective sister Chrystie Vachon, who was quite vocal on The Bachelorette that she didn't approve of J.P., quickly changed her tune after their initial sour meeting. Serving as maid of honor, Chrystie gave the couple her blessing and J.P. says they now get along very well. "She is like a sister to me. We Skyped in two days after we returned from Fiji," he reported.

Although Ashley maintained that the ceremony focused on "family and love," J.P. chose to incorporate some Jewish customs into the affair. "We got married under a chuppah, broke the glass, signed a ketubah, and I wore a yamaka," he shared. "We did dance the hora." Also at the reception, the Mr. and Mrs. were hoisted up in chairs to celebrate.

Proudly admitting it wasn't a "cookie cutter wedding," the bride and groom chose to forgo traditional vows. "I took the core things that I think make a marriage last. I made those promises. You definitely see some tears, but not as many as you might think. We were pretty composed," Ashley remembered. When the wedding is broadcast, will it be a tearjerker? J.P. gave the fans the disclaimer, "If my mom can make it through, you can make it through."

RELATED - Former 'Bachelorettes': Where Are They Now?

Other wedding staples the blushing bride omitted was incorporating something borrowed and something blue and the tossing of her bouquet. "I didn't even throw my bouquet. It was too pretty to throw," she giggled. "We had so much going on, we forgot about traditions." The husband and wife were serenaded for their first dance to the song Love in a live performance by Matt White.

Besides having the televised special to replay over and over, the couple made sure to record mental notes throughout their special day. J.P appreciated his friends' tip: "Stephen Stagliano and DeAnna [Pappas] had pulled us aside and said, 'Whatever you do, take ten minutes and go off to the side to take it all in…because it'll be over before you know it.' I did it a few times throughout the night. It was important because I will have those memories."

Although some special moments eluded the TV cameras, fans can look forward to a two-hour wedding extravaganza this Sunday on ABC. J.P didn't find the extra lenses "overly intrusive," but Ashley was concerned about keeping the anxiety level down amongst her family and friends who had never appeared on camera before. Had they not gone the televised route, J.P. was concerned he'd regret the decision in 20 years. Ashley also wanted their fans to "celebrate and enjoy a happy ending."

But, they don't want to over-share with audiences. They've deferred their honeymoon to the first half of 2013 and will shun cameras from their tropical getaway. Cameras in the delivery room are also out of the question, according to Ashley, when they eventually have children. "J.P. wants two, I want one," she said. She thinks she'll be protective of her kids' privacy and is unsure if she'd welcome reality TV cameras into her home.

It is a bit premature to predict if Sean Lowe will too be saying "I do" to his perfect gal when he stars in the upcoming installment of The Bachelor, premiering January 7 on ABC. Ashley doesn't know him personally, but "from watching he seemed like a good guy [with a] good head on his shoulders," she said, expecting an "honest season."

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Report finds teachers with more poor or disabled students likely to get lower ratings than peers

Teachers in classrooms with high numbers of poor or disabled students tended to get slightly lower ratings than their peers under the state’s new evaluation system, according to an outside review.

Similarly, teachers whose classes enrolled lots of already high-performing students were slightly more likely to earn better ratings on average, a report by the American Institute for Research found.

The trends came despite the fact that the evaluation system — which rates teachers based in part on the state test scores of their students — tries to account for the effects of poverty, disability, prior test scores and English proficiency on a student’s performance.

Experts say it’s because the new system doesn’t account for the effects of having large numbers of challenging or high-performing kids concentrated in one classroom.

“It certainly is a problem — although from what [the state has] presented so far, it isn’t apparent how big the problem is for individual teachers’ scores,” said Sean Corcoran, an associate professor of education economics at NYU.

The ratings, which are called “growth scores” because they look at a teacher’s ability to boost students’ test scores over prior years, account for only 20 percent of a teacher’s evaluation.

The state calculated those partial ratings for the first time this year - even though the city and dozens of other districts are still negotiating with teachers unions over the specific measures that will comprise the remaining 80 percent of a final rating.

The report by AIR, which only looked at the partial ratings that it helped create for the state, acknowledges that classroom characteristics shouldn’t correlate at all with a teacher’s growth score.

But both the reviewers and state officials sought to minimize the “minor” correlations that emerged by emphasizing that plenty of teachers serving challenging kids were able to earn good marks.

“The bottom line of it is that each teacher... has a roughly equal chance of being at the full range of performance,” State Education Commissioner John King told The Post. “There are teachers serving [classrooms of] 100% economically-disadvantaged kids who are getting... top ratings.”

State officials said the fact that teachers in high-performing classes got marginally better growth scores than their peers supports a recent study that found that the best teachers often work in top-notch classrooms or schools.

They said the uneven distribution of teacher talent would also explain why teachers in high-poverty schools — which have trouble attracting the best educators — tended to get slightly worse scores than their peers.

“It’s a question of, is this telling you something descriptive about where talent is placed? Or is it telling you something about the classroom effect [or] school effect of concentrations of students?” said King.

“This data alone can’t really answer that question, which is one of the reasons to have multiple measures — so that you have other information to inform your decision-making,” he added. “No one would say we should evaluate educators on growth scores alone. It’s a part of the picture, but it’s not the whole picture.”

State officials said they’re looking to control for classroom- and school-level student characteristics in coming years, using a more complex evaluation model known as “value-added.”

But Teachers College sociology and education professor Aaron Pallas said the failure to account for the effects of large concentrations of challenging kids could result in a biased review of certain teachers.

“The report tries to down-play this by saying that regardless of a teacher’s class characteristics, there can still be a wide range of [scores] — but that’s little consolation for the teacher who gets a lower score than she should have for reasons outside of her control,” he said.

Compared to teachers, there was an even higher correlation between principal ratings and the concentration of challenging or high-performing students in their schools.

The new principal evaluation system is similarly under negotiation between the principals’ union and the city.

The city has until January 17 to ink a deal with both unions or else forgo more than $250 million in state education aid.

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Tips for managing workplace stress

There are end of the year deals to close, budgets to meet, gifts to buy, and just thinking about it has your stress level rising. But when does stress turn into distress and at what point should your employer intervene?

For American workers, coping with workplace stress is a year-round concern that employers are beginning to see as partly their responsibility. Three-fourths of employees believe that workers have more on-the-job stress than a generation ago and nearly half say they need help in learning how to manage it, an Attitudes in the American workplace study by the American Institute of Stress shows.

Most of us harried workers struggle with the daily pressure of time demands, but some cross over into the danger zone. The telltale sign that a breakdown is near is a complete lack of work-life balance.

“Often these are the people working 14 hours a day and expecting others to do it, too,” said Charles Nemeroff, chairman of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “I’ll ask them when is the last time you had fun and they look at me like are you kidding?”

Service professionals such as lawyers, financial advisors, accountants and doctors particularly are susceptible with increased client demands and technology making it more difficult to shut off job stress. Often they push themselves harder and harder to achieve.

Attorney Harley Tropin, a shareholder at Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton, just doesn’t see that formula leading to a long career. He wants to help his lawyers strive for balance and change the way their brains and bodies react to stressors. Last month, he brought in medical experts to help them identify stressors and learn coping skills such as breathing and meditation. “It’s important to deal with stress the right way, to make a conscious effort to do something about it and not assume it will take care of itself,” Tropin says.

Tropin personally defuses the stress of arguing in court, by practicing Mindful Meditation, a widely adopted form of meditation that has become increasingly popular with business leaders. It involves focusing on your mind on the present and becoming aware of your breathing.

Alan Gold, a federal judge for the Southern District of Florida, also practices mindfulness meditation and has become a proponent of teaching practices for stress reduction to attorneys. Gold has advocated for the creation of a task force on the mindful practice of law with the Dade County Bar Association and the local Federal Bar Association.

Gold says he regularly sees attorneys shuffle into his courtroom on the brink of a breakdown. He links erosion in the degree of civility in the profession with lawyers’ inability to cope with extreme stresses.

They may lash out in anger at a co-worker, assistant, client — or even a judge.

“If you recognize you’re in this situation, the next step is to get out of it. The quickest and simplest way is to slow down and take time to focus on your breathing. This is not something that comes naturally for lawyers. It’s counterproductive to their bottom line way of doing business,” he says.

Outside of meditation, some employers are turning to on-site yoga, or just simply workload management to help employees better manage stress. At Kane & Company, a South Florida CPA firm, employees recently learned from a psychologist how to become more effective controlling their job-related stress. Suggestions included breathing exercises, exercise in general and focusing on relaxation techniques. Monte Kane, the firm’s managing director, says the workshops help his staff with everyday stress, but he makes it his responsibility to know when they have entered the burnout zone.

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SunPass investigation shows South Florida officers often go home early

South Florida police officers used to return to the station at the end of a shift to turn in their paperwork and patrol cars. But technology has revolutionized a cop's workday, and those laptops, radios and take-home cruisers make it possible to go AWOL or duck out of work early.

SunPass toll records analyzed by the Sun Sentinel found cops from Miami to Plantation cutting out before their shifts ended, sometimes signing off via the radio from locales nowhere near their jurisdiction.

"The truth is, it's easy," said Miami police Maj. Jorge Colina, who oversees internal affairs for the area's biggest municipal police force. "You're hoping you don't get dispatched to a call ... But you could get a head start and be up on the expressway out of the city when they tell you, 'OK, have a good night.'"

To read the entire two-day Sun Sentinel investigation click here.

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Isabelle Allen Beams Over Les Miserables Role

Just last year, Isabelle Allen was playing the lead (as a boy) in a production of The Pied Piper of Hamelin at her school. Tonight, the 10-year-old actress will attend the star-studded premiere of her first big movie, Les Miserables.

ET's Christina McLarty caught up with the young thespian (who portrays the younger version of Amanda Seyfried's Cosette) at Dylan's Candy Bar in New York City, her first-ever visit to the Big Apple.

Video: Stars of 'Les Mis' Singing Live on Set

In preparation for the night's big premiere, Isabelle reveals she picked out a special dress for the occasion to make her feel like a princess.

"It's a white dress and it's got a netted skirt with little bits of sparkles in it and a bow," said the young actress proudly.

Co-stars Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried and Russell Crowe are expected to join Isabelle on the red carpet Monday, and as it turns out, the burgeoning star tells ET she forged great relationships with everyone on set.

Related: Anne Hathaway Didn't Eat For 13 Days Filming 'Les Mis'

In particular, Isabelle says she loved spending time with Hugh who, during breaks, would help her sharpen her craft.

"I got lots from Hugh," she said. "We do a lot or running scenes from Javert so [he taught me] how to look really tired."

Watch the video for more!

Les Miserables opens Christmas Day.

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Cops hunting Bronx rape suspect

A sicko followed a young woman into a Bronx apartment building and brutally raped her, cops said today.

The creep stalked the 21-year-old woman as she walked on East 143rd Street in Mott Haven around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, cops said.

He forced the woman into a stairwell, where he raped her.

The suspect is described by cops as a black man in his 20s, about 5’7” tall and has a bump on his left cheek.

He was wearing black sweatpants, a black hooded sweatshirt and a Yankees cap.

Sketch of Bronx rape suspect.

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AutoNation: Back in the fast lane with expansion, higher sales

Despite an agonizingly slow economic recovery, the country’s largest auto retailer, Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, is thriving again as demand for vehicles expands.

The company, one of Florida’s largest, is posting increasingly strong profits and revenues. Just last week, in a sign of confidence, Autonation announced a major acquisition — buying six large auto stores in Texas — that will add about 700 employees to its national payroll of 19,400.

In announcing the deal Tuesday, which is expected to provide AutoNation with $575 million in additional revenues next year, the company’s CEO and chairman, Mike Jackson, expressed optimism about the prospects for continued growth in vehicle sales.

“You want to know what I’m thinking, look at what I do,” Jackson told viewers on CNBC’s Squawk Box program.

No information was released on the cost of the transactions, but in recent years auto dealerships sometimes sold for three to five times revenue, which would represent a significant investment for the company.

Tough times

To be sure, AutoNation has struggled through some tough times. It was battered by the Great Recession, which depressed sales and pushed the company into a $1.2 billion loss four years ago. As sales began to improve in 2010 and 2011, it was blindsided by a shortage of Japanese-made cars last year after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 shut down Japanese manufacturers of some essential components.

Since then, however, AutoNation has rebounded. Unit sales, revenues and profits all performed well in the first three quarters of this year, and the company expects new vehicle sales to continue their recovery nationwide, rising to the mid-14 million units this year, up from about 12.7 million in 2011. In the third quarter of 2012, AutoNation’s new car unit sales grew by 21 percent over the same period in 2011, doing better than an estimated 15 percent increase industry wide. November’s sales of new vehicles increased by 21 percent over November 2011 .

The big dealerships acquired sell Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen and Chrysler products in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets. They are expected to sell 14,000 new and used autos this year, and will add substantially to AutoNation’s future sales.

“We are in the right industry at the right time,” Jackson said during an interview. “The recovery in new vehicle sales is being driven by replacement demand,” added Jackson, who has 42 years of experience in the auto business. “The average age of the light vehicle fleet in the country has increased to 11 years, and even though cars and trucks last longer today, they can’t go on forever. About 12 to 13 million vehicles are scrapped every year and need to be replaced.”

Other factors are contributing to stronger demand for vehicles. “The population is growing, interest rates are low, there is ample credit available and manufacturers are producing a wide range of new models that offer attractive styling, power and greatly improved gas mileage,” said Jackson, who took over as AutoNation’s CEO in 1999. “Auto financing is more available than it has been in recent years. A little known fact is that people are more likely to default on a mortgage than on a vehicle loan.”

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U-Haul chase suspect appears in Miami-Dade court on Sunday

The suspect arrested in connection with Friday’s chase through the streets of Miami-Dade in a rental U-Haul truck appeared in front of judge Sunday morning.

Darrell Conyers, 45, made his first appearance in bond court.

Conyers faces a number of charges including grand theft, fraud and resisting arrest with violence.

During the hearing, the judge noted that the only charge before her was driving with a suspended license. For that she set bond at $2,000. Conyers will return to bond court at a later time for the additional charges.

Conyers was scheduled to appear in court on Saturday but was unable to do so because he was still in the hospital being treated for injuries he sustained at the end of the chase which apparently started as an attempted robbery at a tool shop on South Dixie Highway.

For 45-minutes the U-Haul truck weaved in and out of city streets, jumping on and off the Palmetto Expressway and headed in different directions along Southwest Eighth Street and Flagler Street.

The chase finally came to an end 12:45 p.m. next to Miami Senior High in Little Havana on Flagler Street and 26th Avenue.

When officers moved in to apprehend the driver, an unidentified Miami-Dade Police officer was injured when he was pinned between the U-Haul truck and a police vehicle. He was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital where he was treated for a broken leg.

Another Miami officer cut his hand from broken glass. Police say that happened when officers had to break the glass on the U-Haul truck to get the suspect out of it.

Police said Conyers has had previous run-ins with the law and has convictions for firearm violations, fleeing police and carjacking.

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Apple, Samsung face off in court again

SAN JOSE (Reuters) – Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics squared off again in court on Thursday, as the iPhone maker prepares to convince a U.S. district judge to ban sales of a number of the Korean company’s devices and defend a $ 1.05 billion jury award.

Apple scored a sweeping legal victory in August at the conclusion of its landmark case against its arch-foe, when a U.S. jury found Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad and awarded it $ 1.05 billion in damages.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh is expected to address a range of issues at the hearing, which began Thursday afternoon. They include setting aside any of the jury’s findings on liability, juror misconduct, and the requested injunction.

Twenty four of Samsung’s smartphones were found to have infringed on Apple’s patents, while two of Samsung’s tablets were cleared of similar allegations.

Koh began by questioning the basis for some of the damages awarded by the jury, putting Apple’s lawyers on the defensive.

“I don’t see how you can evaluate the aggregate verdict without looking at the pieces,” Koh said.

Samsung’s lawyers argued the ruling against it should be “reverse engineered” to be sure the $ 1.05 billion was legally arrived at by the jury, while Apple said the ruling should stand as is.

FIERCEST RIVAL

Samsung is Apple’s fiercest global business rival, and their battle for consumers’ allegiance is shaping the landscape of the smartphone and tablet industry, and has claimed several high-profile victims including Nokia.

While most of the devices facing injunction are older and, in some cases, out of the market, such injunctions have been key for companies trying to increase their leverage in courtroom patent fights.

In October, a U.S. appeals court overturned a pretrial sales ban against Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone, dealing a setback to Apple’s battle against Google Inc’s increasingly popular mobile software.

Some analysts say Apple’s willingness to license patents to HTC could convince Koh it does not need the injunction, as the two companies could arrive at a licensing deal.

Apple is also attempting to add more than $ 500 million to the $ 1 billion judgment because the jury found Samsung willfully infringed on its patents.

Samsung, for its part, wants the verdict overturned, saying the foreman of the jury in the trial did not disclose that he was once embroiled in litigation with Seagate Technology, a company that Samsung invested in.

Both Apple and Samsung have filed separate lawsuits covering newer products, including the Samsung Galaxy Note II. That case is pending in U.S. District Court in San Jose and is set for trial in 2014.

(Reporting By Poornima Gupta)

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Prince William Attends Centrepoint Winter Whites Gala Without Kate

Prince William made his very first public appearance since the announcement of wife Kate's pregnancy last week to attend a charity event in London sans his expectant bride.

Video: Prince William Visits Kate in the Hospital

Without Kate, the Prince continued on with his royal duties attending The Winter Whites gala at Royal Albert Hall in support of his homeless charity Centrepoint. Although the Duchess of Cambridge was originally expected to attend, Kate remained at Kensington Palace after recently being released from an extended hospital stay due to acute morning sickness.

William spoke at the event of his personal connection to the charity, telling the story of how he willingly spent the night on the streets of London to better understand the plight of homeless youths.

Pics: Will & Kate's Royal Romance!

"About this time a few years ago, I gave up the warmth and comfort of my bed and tried sleeping on the streets," he said. "After that night, the chief executive at Centrepoint, Seyi Obakin, and I decided that Centrepoint should set itself a goal: to eradicate homelessness in the next ten years. We are now several years into that decade and the problem remains as acute as ever."

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Saved! US troops rescue Colo. doc from Taliban — Special Ops soldier dies in effort

Morning Star Development

Colorado doctor Dilip Joseph was rescued from his Taliban captors in Afghanistan.

A doctor from Colorado who was kidnapped by Taliban thugs during a humanitarian mission in eastern Afghanistan was rescued over the weekend by US Special Forces, the White House said today.

But the raid to free Dr. Dilip Joseph, a medical advisor with the Colorado Springs-based Morning Star Development charity, sadly cost the life of one member of the elite team that got him out, according to President Obama.

“Yesterday, our special operators in Afghanistan rescued an American citizen in a mission that was characteristic of the extraordinary courage, skill and patriotism that our troops show every day,” he said in a statement. “Tragically, we lost one of our special operators in this effort.”

Joseph was rescued early yesterday after intelligence showed he was in danger of death or injury, officials said.

“This was a combined operation of U.S. and Afghan forces,” said 1st Lt. Joseph Alonso, a spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan. “Information was collected through multiple intelligence sources, which allowed Afghan and coalition forces to identify the location of Joseph and the criminals responsible for his captivity.”

He had been taken about 50 miles from the Pakistan border.

At least six of his captors, believed to be Taliban fighters, were killed in the raid and two suspected ring leaders were captured.

Joseph, 39, was approximately an hour’s drive of east of Kabul last Wednesday with two Afghan colleagues overseeing a medical clinic project when they were abducted, said Lars Peterson, executive director of Morning Star Development.

The two Afghan nationals were released on Saturday after long negotiations, but the abductors held onto Joseph, according to Peterson.

Eleven hours later the US and Afghan forces launched their raid.

Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said the joint-force planned, rehearsed and successfully conducted the operation.

“Thanks to them, Dr. Joseph will soon be rejoining his family and loved ones,” Allen said.

Kidnap for ransom plots are common throughout the region by criminal gangs and the Taliban.

“Morning Star Development does state categorically that we paid no ransom, money or other consideration to the captors or anyone else to secure the release of these hostages,” Peterson said.

Joseph is due to return to the US in a few days and will be reunited with his family.

With Post Wire Services

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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 martial arts-inspired 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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