The wife of Fort Lauderdale’s most infamous fraudster could soon be before a judge fighting for her own freedom.
Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein’s wife is scheduled to plead guilty on Feb. 1 to conspiring to hide more than $1 million in jewelry from federal authorities, one of her attorneys confirmed Wednesday.
Read the full story at Sun-Sentinel.com.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nintendo‘s TV-watching tool for the new Wii U game console beats my regular remote control hands down.
Called TVii, the service transforms how you watch television in three key ways. It turns the touch-screen GamePad controller for the Wii U into a remote control for your TV and set-top box. It groups your favorite shows and sports teams together, whether it’s on live TV or an Internet video service such as Hulu Plus. And it offers water-cooler moments you can chat about on social media.
It takes some getting used to, and I had a lot of re-learning to do after years of using my thumb to channel surf. But once I did, I found the service an advance from the mass of buttons on most TV remote controls.
TVii comes free with the Wii U, although it didn’t become available in the U.S. until mid-December, about a month after the game machine’s debut.
One nice touch is that TVii gives you a way to search for shows over Internet video apps and live TV all in one place. I can then choose whether to watch it on the big TV or on my controller’s touch screen, which measures 6.2 inches diagonally.
Handling these different sources of video at once is a tall order, and Nintendo Co. does it pretty well. No one else has combined live and Web TV as seamlessly before. As the lines blur between the two, I would hope some of TVii’s advances are copied and improved upon by other gadget makers and TV signal providers.
For starters, TVii asks for your TV maker, your set-top box maker, your location and your TV provider (that could be an antenna). TVii then uses infrared codes to control your TV just like the old remote, and it can offer a traditional channel guide for live TV shows. TVii also asks for your favorite shows, sports teams and movies. This helps it create an easy-to-understand grouping of shows you might want to watch.
I appreciate the way TVii walked me through the setup process. It was refreshing, given the misfortune I recently had of trying to program the remote control that came with my cable set-top box, which is about as fun as doing your tax returns. TVii takes away the need to read folded-up instruction manuals that appear to be written by and for electronics hobbyists.
After the setup, TVii presents you with a series of icons for Favorites, TV, Movies, Sports and Search. A little avatar of your identity is in one corner, and tapping on it lets you adjust your favorites or go through the setup again. Each person in a household can have a different avatar and set of favorites.
In Favorites, your shows are listed with cover art, and you can swipe through the offerings. Tapping one, say, “The Mindy Project,” will pull up an episode list with pictures and brief summaries. Choosing an episode will bring up a range of options — the channel if it’s on live TV, or buttons for Hulu Plus or Amazon, where you can pay for monthly access or just one episode through the service’s app. (The free version of Hulu is blocked on gadgets, including the Wii U and tablet computers. Apple’s iTunes, unsurprisingly, isn’t integrated.) The option of clicking through to Netflix will be added some time in 2013.
One hiccup is that if you want to watch a show on live TV now, it asks if your TV’s input source is already set to the set-top box, rather than the Wii U or another gadget such as a DVD player. If it is, you tap “yes” and the channel changes. If not, you have to tap until the source switches to the right one and then tap “yes.” Still, there’s no need to go back to your TV’s remote control.
The other menu items for TV, Movies, Sports and Search operate pretty similarly. Eventually you’ll get a range of options to watch. In the case of sports, you’ll likely see several game possibilities, with the latest score showing up on each game icon.
As an alternative, you can resort to a physical TV button on the GamePad that brings up touch controls that mimic a simplified, standard remote.
Another option is using an altogether separate interface in which favorite channels and other controls are displayed graphically on a semi-circular wheel. It looks strange, and I wouldn’t recommend it.
Anyone who is frustrated by the jumble of cables and boxes that now surround TVs will see TVii’s appeal. My wife said she liked the ease of holding and touching the controller, rather than fiddling with the button-laden remote. One downside I can see with TVii is that you have to keep looking down to figure out what to watch. And you have to plug it in frequently, as the GamePad controller will die out after three to five hours of use.
TVii also offers a standard channel guide in which you can scroll up and down for programs on different channels or right and left for different times of day. A touch will change the channel to the program, which is nice.
For certain shows and sporting events, TVii will supply a running list of key events called “TV tags.” These descriptions of events, like the precise moment when Mindy’s Christmas party descends into chaos, are displayed on the GamePad’s screen, along with a screenshot. Tapping on one opens up a comment window, and an onscreen keyboard allows you to make a comment. For sports, you get a description of each play, such as the number of yards thrown in a pass, beside a graphic that gets updated.
Not many people have Wii U consoles yet, nor is everyone tuned to TVii. As a result, I found myself with only one or two commenters to share my thoughts with.
If you’ve connected TVii to Facebook and Twitter (again, some sign-up is involved), your comments will go out to your friends and followers, but the TV tag that you are commenting on won’t show up, so they might not know what you’re talking about. TVii adds the hashtag “NintendoTVii” to help readers take a guess.
In the end, TVii isn’t perfect.
It isn’t yet able to program your digital video recorder, although it will do so for TiVo DVRs by March. Sports are limited to pro and college basketball and football, and there’s no integration with fantasy sports leagues. And the battery life of the GamePad is short.
A review unit I was sent failed to take a charge and had to be replaced, although I haven’t found others who have had the same problem.
These irritations aside, Nintendo has given us a way to control the clutter of channels, apps and devices crowding around the TV. It’s relatively easy and intuitive and some updates are on the way. Considering the garble of the TV universe, that’s pretty good.
___
About TVii:
TVii turns the GamePad controller for the Wii U into a remote control that integrates your live TV and Internet video experience. The service is free, but you’ll need a Wii U game console, which starts at $ 300. You’ll also need to pay extra to use video services such as Hulu Plus, Amazon and Netflix.
Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News
As the last of the Gangnam Style craze finally dies down, and after the long-awaited Mayan doomsday scenario failed to manifest, the year 2013 might seem a bit underwhelming. Thankfully, one major star from this past year is not poised to slow down one bit.
Lena Dunham, primarily known for her breakout HBO comedy Girls is something of a renaissance woman. It's one thing to be a part of a critically acclaimed show, but it's another thing entirely to produce, write, direct, and star in that show.
As we get ready to dive head-first into awards season, ET looks just a few months back to the 2012 Emmys where we caught up with Lena on her first major red carpet.
Before getting into her four Emmy nominations, ET asked Lena about her awards show fashion. Specifically, how she brought Williamsburg style to the Hollywood red carpet.
"That's a question we've been trying to tackle in the last few weeks," said Dunham. "I think it's about wearing something that sort of feels like your own and that sort of bridges the gap between...fashion and feeling like you're just wearing what you'd wear to get milk."
Comfort is indeed important. Still, it's not every day you'd shop for milk in the Prada dress that Lena was wearing.
See Also: What We Can Expect From 'Girls' Season Two Fashion
"This dress, I really loved. I both felt that I was wearing Queen Elizabeth's carpet and a T-shirt all at the same time."
While the hilarious TV star seemed to be poking a bit of fun at the fashion icon, she also confessed her adoration for the designer.
"Ms. Prada is one of my foremost artistic idols, so it's a pretty surreal experience just even referring to her as Ms. Prada."
And on her in vogue short haircut, Lena commented that it was a very functional cut, but was ultimately unlikely to follow in Jennifer Aniston's footsteps, and become the "new Rachel."
"I think that the Rachel was a pretty iconic moment we can't search to replicate. But I'm very happy if this haircut has inspired anyone. It requires a lot less maintenance and a lot less washing. I'm not an enthusiastic showerer so this is the thing for me."
See: Lena Dunham and other stars react to their Golden Globe nominations.
Girls follows up its multiple Emmy nominations with two for the Golden Globes, including one Best Actress in a TV Comedy or Musical nod for Lena. You can see if she wins at the Golden Globe Awards on January 13, which coincidentally is also the date for the second season premiere of Girls on HBO. If it weren't for DVR and/or HBOGO, that last sentence might have incited a minor panic.
He says it was all a wild Goose chase.
The alleged drunken driver who mowed down four pedestrians outside a Brooklyn club’s wild New Year’s Eve party claims he was fleeing a violent mob, angered that he accused them of stealing his bottles of pricey vodka, his attorney said today.
Staten Island carpenter Charles Amado, 34, was slapped with attempted murder charges at his Brooklyn criminal court arraignment for plowing through four fellow club-goers after the bar brawl spilled out onto a Bay Ridge sidewalk, prosecutors said.
Amado and his girlfriend, Andrea Jobity, 39, were partying at Lounge 93 when their bottle of expensive Grey Goose vodka was stolen right off their table. A bartender replaced the stolen booze, and then Amado caught somebody stealing that bottle, too, defense attorney Lance Lazzaro said.
The hijacked hooch sparked a fight and club security booted Amado, his girlfriend, and about 15 others outside, where the fight continued on 93rd Street at Third Avenue.
Jobity was punched in the face, the lawyer said.
“These people were coming after them with bats, bottles, you name it. So he took off in his car,” said Lazzaro. “Mr. Amado says that he would have been in a coma or dead if he had stuck around.”
Amado drove up onto the sidewalk and hit three pedestrians, then reversed and hit another, prosecutors said.
“Charles Amado and Andrea Jobity got into their car and drove headfirst into a crowd,” said ADA Theresa Shanahan. “Charles Amado then passed out and Andrea Jobity took the wheel. She reversed and hit more parked cars, then she passed out as well.”
Jobity was charged with driving while intoxicated and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Both she and Amado posted bail and were released, Lazzaro said.
But one of the pedestrians struck by Amado’s car said she didn’t buy his explanation for the crazed driving.
“That’s bulls---. I understand you probably had a lot to drink, but why would you drive into people?” said Vanessa Encalada, 27. “Everybody was trying to run away and he just accelerated forward. He hit me and then he reversed back. I was bleeding.”
Encalada said a friend hit by Amado still hasn’t regained consciousness.
A New York firm bought part of the Macy’s building in downtown Miami and is expected to acquire the rest. The next priority is negotiating a new lease to keep Macy’s as a tenant.
In a deal that could have implications for the future of downtown Miami’s anchor retail tenant, a New York real estate investment firm paid $15.55 million to acquire more than half the property that now houses Macy’s Flagler Street store.
The acquisition by Aetna Realty Group includes the 48,000 square feet of land that was leased to R.W. Burdine in 1917. Until the recent sale, the property was owned by 23 heirs of Richard and Harriet Ashby, who signed the initial 99-year lease with Burdine. The lease expires in 2016.
The Ashby family began taking steps to prepare the property at the intersection of Miami Avenue and Flagler Street for sale nearly four years ago, said Lewis R. Cohen, a GrayRobinson lawyer who represented the Ashby family in the transaction that closed on New Year’s Eve.
Over the years, Macy’s and its predecessor, Burdines, grew the site’s downtown presence well beyond the Ashby land, and the current building now extends another 30,000 square feet of land. Aetna has also made a commitment to purchase the remaining portion of the building, that is currently owned by Macy’s, Cohen said. But that deal hasn’t closed yet.
“That deal is a sure thing,” Cohen said. “They could not have closed with us without having an agreement with Macy’s completely nailed down.”
When Macy’s decided not to purchase the Ashby land itself, the owners soughta third-party that could control both pieces. The reason: Improvements made to the store over the years straddled both properties, such as elevators and escalators starting on one parcel and ending on another.
“Between the engineering difficulties of severing the properties and the legal issues involved, it would have been somewhere between extremely expensive and impossible” for different entities to share control, Cohen said.
Aetna was one of three bidders interested in the site, Cohen said. One of the other players was the Barlington Group, a Miami developer that in 2011 signed a deal with Macy’s to sub-lease 20,000 square feet of empty ground-floor space for a mix of restaurants and cafes.
Macy’s spokesman Jim Sluzewski said this transaction doesn’t impact Macy’s current lease. He declined to comment on any other pending transaction regarding the property the retailer owns in downtown Miami.
“It’s business as usual,” said Sluzewski, who also would not discuss Macy’s long-term plans for downtown Miami beyond the expiration of its lease. The company’s roots in downtown Miami date to 1898, when the first Burdines opened in a nearby downtown location.
Aetna and its local attorneys did not respond to calls Wednesday for comments.
But Cohen said Macy’s is in the process of finalizing a short-term deal with the new owners.
“They intend to stay for at least the foreseeable future,” Cohen said. “For a minimum of five years they’ll be there and possibly longer.”
Downtown scene
Macy’s long-term future on Flagler Street has been in doubt since 2007, when Macy’s Florida then-Chairwoman Julie Greiner took city leaders to task for the deplorable conditions in downtown and threatened that the retailer might leave.
In Israel, he’s already known as “Bibi’s Brain:’’ Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu’s master strategist.
But Ron Dermer, 42-year-old Miami Beach native, now Israeli citizen — the son of one Miami Beach mayor and brother of another — could soon add an official title to his resume: Mr. Ambassador.
Dermer is reportedly Netanyahu’s choice for Israeli ambassador to the United States to replace Michael Oren, who plans to step down in the spring after four years.
A political conservative with close ties to powerful American Republicans, Dermer would become Israel’s top diplomat in the United States, a position requiring the ability to represent his country’s interests across U.S. party lines.
Netanyahu’s office hasn’t commented on the reports. A spokesman for the Israeli consulate in Miami could not confirm the possible appointment, nor could Dermer’s older brother, former Mayor David Dermer, who called any speculation “premature.’’ A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the rumor was “baseless.’’ In any case, the Netanyahu government would have to survive a Parliamentary election later this month.
An Oxford-educated scholar-athlete who holds degrees in finance and management from the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton School, and who quarterbacked Israel’s flag football World Cup team three times, Dermer is known as smart, polished, and so competitive that “he wouldn’t let a 3-year-old beat him at Ping-Pong,” friend Tom Rose, former Jerusalem Post publisher, once said in an interview.
Dermer “cannot abide anybody being better at him than anything, particularly physically,” Rose said.
The mere speculation that Dermer might be named seemed to thrill South Florida politicians from both parties.
“It’s wonderful — one of our own being Israel’s ambassador to the U.S.,” said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, who knows Dermer. “It is just terrific. He is American as apple pie yet Israeli at heart as well. It is a good fit. He is very much a proud Miami Beach guy — very proud of his hometown.”
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chairwoman, said she met Dermer as part of a Congressional delegation to Israel in 2010. Dermer was the staff person who sat next to Netanyahu as they discussed the peace process, she said.
“It was just neat to see someone reach the heights he has — he hails from South Florida and comes from a political family here,” she said. “It made the connection and conversations with the prime minister really just that much more warm and intimate.”
U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, said that the job Dermer holds now — working behind the scenes and with the White House — is very different from being ambassador to the United States, which would require him to directly address Americans in speeches and through the media.
“Ambassador to the U.S. is the most high-profile diplomatic position in Israel,” Klein said. “It requires a tremendous amount of savvy and style that Americans can relate to.”
Taylor Swift and Harry Styles had equally amazing 2012's, and they kissed good-bye to the preceding 365 days together in Times Square last night.
After singing on ABC's New Year's Rocking Eve, Swift and Styles braved the crowds to watch the ball drop. And to the hordes of fans who'd gathered to count down to midnight, "Haylor's" ensuing smooch ended up being more captivating than all the twinkling lights in the sky.
WASHINGTON – A Senate-passed bill to keep the country from going off the fiscal cliff ran into trouble in the House today, as Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor came out against the deal.
"I do not support the bill,” Cantor said as he left a closed closed-door meeting of Republicans about the deal negotiated between Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
The Senate passed the deal by a wide margin just after 2 AM today, two hours after the country technically went over the fiscal cliff, when tax hikes and billions of spending cuts took effect.
With just hours left to try to act on the deal before financial markets open Wednesday morning, the House had yet to even schedule a vote.
“The Speaker and Leader laid out options to the members and listened to feedback,” said Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck. “The lack of spending cuts in the Senate bill was a universal concern amongst members in today’s meeting.”
“Conversations with members will continue throughout the afternoon on the path forward,” Buck said.
Rank and file Republicans complained about the deal’s lack of spending cuts.
“I’d be very surprised if the House passed what the Senate passed in the middle of the night – very surprised,” said Rep Steve King (R-Iowa) told the Post.
“I would be shocked if the bill doesn’t go back to the Senate” with spending cuts, said Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.).
Any changes made by the House would have to be matched by the Senate, and could scuttle the deal. But Republicans also cautioned against putting “poison pills” into the deal.
House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tried to hold House Republicans’ feet to the fire.
“Our Speaker has said when the Senate acts, we will have a vote in the House," she said. "That is what he said, that is what we expect, that is what the American people deserve…a straight up-or-down vote."
NEW YORK --
With it appearing that Washington lawmakers are working their way past the “fiscal cliff,” many analysts say that the outlook for stocks in 2013 is good, as a recovering housing market and an improving jobs outlook helps the economy maintain a slow, but steady recovery.
Reasonable returns in 2013 would send the S&P 500 toward, and possibly past, its record close of 1,565 reached in October 2007.
A mid-year rally in 2012 pushed stocks to their highest in more than four years. Both the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average posted strong gains in 2012. Those advances came despite uncertainty about the outcome of the presidential election and bouts of turmoil from Europe, where policy makers finally appear to be getting a grip on the region’s debt crisis.
“As you remove little bits of uncertainty, investors can then once again return to focusing on the fundamentals,” says Joseph Tanious, a global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds. “Corporate America is actually doing quite well.”
Although earnings growth of S&P 500 listed companies dipped as low as 0.8 percent in the summer, analysts are predicting that it will rebound to average 9.5 percent for 2013, according to data from S&P Capital IQ. Companies have also been hoarding cash. The amount of cash and cash-equivalents being held by companies listed in the S&P 500 climbed to an all-time high $1 trillion at the end of September, 65 percent more than five years ago, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.
Assuming a budget deal is reached in a reasonable amount of time, investors will be more comfortable owning stocks in 2013, allowing valuations to rise, says Tanious.
Stocks in the S&P 500 index are currently trading on a price-to-earnings multiple of about 13.5, compared with the average of 17.9 since 1988, according to S&P Capital IQ data. The ratio rises when investors are willing to pay more for a stock’s future earnings potential.
The stock market will also likely face less drag from the European debt crisis this year, said Steven Bulko, the chief investment officer at Lombard Odier Investment Managers. While policy makers in Europe have yet to come up with a comprehensive solution to the region’s woes, they appear to have a better handle on the region’s problems than they have for quite some time.
Stocks fell in the second quarter of 2012 as investors fretted that the euro region’s government debt crisis was about to engulf Spain and possibly Italy, increasing the chances of a dramatic slowdown in global economic growth.
“There is still some heavy lifting that needs to be done in Europe,” said Bulko. Now, though, “we are dealing with much more manageable risk than we have had in the past few years.”
Next year may also see an increase in mergers and acquisitions as companies seeks to make use of the cash on their balance sheets, says Jarred Kessler, global head of equities at broker Cantor Fitzgerald.
While the number of M&A deals has gradually crept higher in the past four years, the dollar value of the deals remains well short of the total reached five years ago. U.S. targeted acquisitions totaled $964 billion through Dec. 27, according to data tracking firm Dealogic. That’s slightly down from last year’s total of $1 trillion and about 40 percent lower than in 2007, when deals worth $1.6 trillion were struck.
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