Mompreneur jumps into the ‘Shark Tank’

It all started with a 4 a.m. email nearly a year ago: “Do you think a baby bib could change the world? I do...”

Then Susie Taylor included a link to her website, bibbitec.com, and off it went to Shark Tank, the popular ABC television show where entrepreneurs pitch their companies to investors on the show — and by extension, 7 million viewers.

Four months later, as the “mompreneur” was leaving her Biscayne Park home to pick up her kids from school, she got a call from the show asking her to pitch on the spot. Driving with her phone on her shoulder, she told the Bibbitec story.

Shark Tank bit. After a few more back and forths, her segment was filmed last summer.

Friday night, Taylor is scheduled to be on the show pitching Bibbitec’s main product, “The Ultimate Bib,” a patented generously sized, stain-resistant and fast-drying child’s bib made in the USA — Hialeah, to be exact. Bibbitec’s $30 bib can be a burp cloth, changing pad, breast feeding shield, full body bib, place mat, art smock and more, Taylor says.

We won’t be getting any details on what happens Friday night when she and her husband, Stephen Taylor, get into the tank with Daymond John, Mark Cuban and the other celebrity sharks; Taylor has been contractually sworn to secrecy. But whatever the outcome, she believes it will be worth it for the marketing pop.

Taylor was inspired to create her bib after a long and very messy plane ride with her two young sons and started Bibbitec in 2008. She and her team — her husband is CFO, her sister, Heather McCabe, handles sales and marketing, her uncle, Richard Page, is in charge of production, and her aunt, Marcia Kreitman, advises on design — have expanded the line to include The Ultimate Smock for older children and the Ultimate Mini for babies. Coming soon: a smock for adults.

Taylor already got a taste of what a national TV show appearance can do for sales. In September, Bibbitec’s sales jumped 40 percent after she was on an ABC World News "Made in America" segment. “Within 30 seconds, we started getting sales from all over the country and they didn’t even mention our name on the air,” Taylor says. She said that confirmed her belief that a Shark Tank appearance would be worth it.

Plus, Taylor has been hooked on Shark Tank since the first time she watched it in 2008 as she was developing her product. Trained in theater, she admits she didn’t know much about business and learned from the show. She would practice how she would answer the questions.

“I’m all about empowering women who are sitting on the couch watching, because that’s what I was four years ago,” says Taylor. “All I wanted to do was to be on Shark Tank because I believed if I got on Shark Tank the world will see what I am trying to do and that’s all I need. I know it’s a great product.”

Will that theater training come in handy Friday night? Stay tuned. Shark Tank airs at 9 p.m. on ABC and Taylor hopes viewers will join in on Twitter using the hashtag #sharkbib.

Read More..

Miami cop fired for ‘unjustified’ shooting of unarmed man

A Miami police officer whose shooting of an unarmed motorist two years ago capped a string of fatal police encounters that sparked a public outcry and political upheaval was fired on Wednesday.

The reason: A review board finding that officer Reynaldo Goyos used “unjustified” deadly force when he shot and killed Travis McNeil and wounded friend Kareem Williams as they sat in car at a Little Haiti intersection.

The decision — coming seven months after the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office declined to prosecute after determining the shooting had not reached the level of criminal intent — didn’t offer much solace to the victim’s family. At the McNeil home in Overtown, the mood was subdued and somber.

“It doesn’t help my son a whole lot,” said McNeil’s mother, Sheila McNeil. “Nothing will bring Travis back.”

Across town, Fraternal Order of Police President Javier Ortiz blasted a decision that he vowed would not stick. The union intends to appeal.

Ortiz said Goyos, a seven-year veteran taking part in a multiagency undercover gang task force, had been put into harm’s way by a federal agent driving the vehicle carrying both of them. He also blamed McNeil for his own death, claiming he didn’t follow the officer’s command.

“There is no doubt that Officer Goyos will get his job back,” said Ortiz.

Chief Manuel Orosa formally announced the firing on Wednesday, nearly two months after the City of Miami Firearms Review Board concluded the shooting was unjustified.

In a short, seven-paragraph opinion released for the first time, the board found that the evidence surrounding the shooting was “inconsistent with Officer Goyos statement.” The report said McNeil had been struck in the rear left shoulder blade area, which didn’t match with Goyos description that he had approached the car from the passenger side and had seen “a black object on Mr. McNeil.’’

The review board found the shooting was in violation of the department’s deadly force policy because neither Goyos nor anyone else “was in imminent danger of death or serious physical injury’’ when the officer opened fire.

The review board also ruled that the officer “should have never approached the vehicle, but instead should have retreated and followed all training protocols regarding felony stops involving armed subjects or vehicles.”

Orosa refused comment pending the appeals process. According to union chief Ortiz, an arbitrator will review the firing and issue a binding decision.

The city’s Firearms Review Board is composed of officers and staff who review every police-involved shooting. As far as anyone could remember Wednesday, the board had never ruled an officer-involved shooting unjustified.

The shooting occurred on a Thursday night in February 2011. Goyos, joined by officers from Hialeah and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations, were targeting gang members, some who they believed spent time at a notorious Little River establishment called the Take One Cocktail Lounge on Northeast 79th Street. An hour before midnight McNeil, 28, and Williams, 32, were kicked out of the lounge for being drunk and drove off, but not before an officer in the parking lot radioed other officers that the men were leaving.

Read More..

Rape trial of teenaged football players to be open to public: Ohio judge

(Reuters) – The controversial trial of two high school football players accused of raping a classmate will remain open to the public and will not be relocated to another town, an Ohio judge ruled on Wednesday.

Prosecutors and an attorney representing the accuser had sought a closed trial, arguing that public access to the juvenile trial would subject the accuser to unwanted publicity and make potential witnesses reluctant to testify.

Visiting Hamilton County Judge Tom Lipps said the presence of the media would prevent inaccurate reporting and enhance public confidence in the juvenile justice system, according to his written ruling, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

“An open hearing is especially valuable where rumors, mischaracterizations and opinions unsupported by facts have reportedly been repeated in social media postings and other published outlets,” Lipps wrote. “An open hearing will diminish the influence of such postings and publications.”

Prosecutors have accused Ma’Lik Richmond and Trent Mays, both 16, of raping a classmate at a party attended by many teammates last August in Steubenville, a close-knit city of 19,000 near the Pennsylvania border.

The case attracted national attention after the hacker activist group Anonymous publicized a picture of two young men carrying a girl by her wrists and ankles and released a video showing other young men joking about the alleged assault.

Richmond’s lawyer, Walter Madison, said previously on CNN that his client was one of the young men in the photograph – which he said was taken out of context – but does not appear in the video. A lawyer for Mays has not publicly commented on the postings.

Community leaders have accused authorities of protecting the school’s popular football program by not charging more players who could have prevented the alleged attack.

Lipps also ruled on Wednesday that the trial will remain in Steubenville. He set a trial date for March 13.

Reuters generally does not identify people who say they have been victims of sex crimes.

(Editing by Paul Thomasch, Bernard Orr)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Rape trial of teenaged football players to be open to public: Ohio judge
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/rape-trial-of-teenaged-football-players-to-be-open-to-public-ohio-judge/
Link To Post : Rape trial of teenaged football players to be open to public: Ohio judge
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

5 Shocking Truths About the Making of Pulp Fiction

Daniel Day-Lewis as Vincent Vega? Almost two decades after the release of Quentin Tarantino's game-changing Pulp Fiction, it's impossible to imagine anyone else in the role made famous by John Travolta. But in a new Vanity Fair expose on the making of the 1994 Oscar winner, Travolta's career was so "cold" that producer Harvey Weinstein fought it tooth and nail.

Here are five shocking truths about the making of the movie, taken from the March issue of Vanity Fair, on newsstands in New York and L.A. on January 31 and nationally and on the iPad, Nook, and Kindle on February 5.

Pics: 13 Must-See Movies of 2013

1) Producer Harvey Weinstein was dead-set against giving the role of Vincent Vega to John Travolta and suggested Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Penn or William Hurt. When Weinstein saw the finished film, he reportedly said facetiously, "I'm so glad I had the idea to cast John Travolta."

2) Samuel L. Jackson was under the impression that the part of Jules Winnefield was his, but found out he might lose the role to Paul Calderone and flew to L.A. for a last-ditch audition with Tarantino. "I sort of was angry, pissed, tired," Jackson recalls, and insulted too, when a person related to the production told him, "I love your work, Mr. Fishburne." Richard Gladstein, then head of production at Miramax, recalls, "In comes Sam with a burger in his hand and a drink in the other hand and stinking like fast food. Me and Quentin and Lawrence [Bender] were sitting on the couch, and he walked in and just started sipping that shake and biting that burger and looking at all of us. I was scared shitless. I thought that this guy was going to shoot a gun right through my head. His eyes were popping out of his head. And he just stole the part."

3) Despite a scene where she overdoses and later has an adrenaline-filled needle jammed into her heart, Uma Thurman says she was most nervous about dancing with Travolta, "because I was so awkward and embarrassed and shy." Travolta says of the scene: "Quentin recommended the Twist. And I said, 'Well, Little Johnny Travolta won the Twist contest when I was eight years old, so I know every version. But you may add other novelty dances that were very special in the day.' He said, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'There was the Batman, the Hitchhiker, the Swim, as well as the Twist.' And I showed them to him, and he loved them. I said, 'I'll teach Uma the steps, and when you want to see a different step, call it out.'"

4) Every major studio passed on making Pulp Fiction, but producer Harvey Weinstein couldn't close the deal fast enough. At the time he was running Miramax under Disney, and he says, "When I read the Pulp Fiction script, I went to [then chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg] and said, 'Even though I have the right to make this, I want to clear it with you.' He read it and said, 'Easy on the heroin scene, if you can, but that is one of the best scripts I have ever read. Even though you don't need it, I am giving you my blessing.'"

Related: Tarantino Details 'Killer' 'Django' Trilogy Cap

5) Bruce Willis wanted to be involved with the film even though the role of Vincent Vega was taken – but the role of Butch the boxer had already been promised to Matt Dillon by Tarantino. But Dillon said that although he loved the script, he wanted to "sleep on it." According to Tarantino's agent, Mike Simpson, the director said, 'He's out. If he can't tell me face-to-face that he wants to be in the movie -- after he read the script -- he's out.'" The role then went to Willis. Says Tarantino, "Bruce Willis made us legit. Reservoir Dogs did fantastic internationally, so everyone was waiting for my new movie. And then when it was my new movie with Bruce Willis, they went apesh-t."

Read More..

Colombo underboss gets 63 months in jail

The underboss of the Colombo crime family was sentenced to 63 months in prison today on mob racketeering charges.

Benjamin “The Claw” Castellazzo, 75, will also have to pay $400,000 in restitution and serve three years probation.

The wiseguy - who's the second highest-ranking member of the Colombos - began his 55 year-long criminal career in 1958.

Castellazzo had pleaded guilty to a mob extortion stemming from a dispute over a stolen red sauce recipe from Brooklyn's L&B Spumoni Gardens pizza restaurant. He also admitted shaking down of a construction company.

Read More..

Mompreneur jumps into the ‘Shark Tank’

It all started with a 4 a.m. email nearly a year ago: “Do you think a baby bib could change the world? I do...”

Then Susie Taylor included a link to her website, bibbitec.com, and off it went to Shark Tank, the popular ABC television show where entrepreneurs pitch their companies to investors on the show — and by extension, 7 million viewers.

Four months later, as the “mompreneur” was leaving her Biscayne Park home to pick up her kids from school, she got a call from the show asking her to pitch on the spot. Driving with her phone on her shoulder, she told the Bibbitec story.

Shark Tank bit. After a few more back and forths, her segment was filmed last summer.

Friday night, Taylor is scheduled to be on the show pitching Bibbitec’s main product, “The Ultimate Bib,” a patented generously sized, stain-resistant and fast-drying child’s bib made in the USA — Hialeah, to be exact. Bibbitec’s $30 bib can be a burp cloth, changing pad, breast feeding shield, full body bib, place mat, art smock and more, Taylor says.

We won’t be getting any details on what happens Friday night when she and her husband, Stephen Taylor, get into the tank with Daymond John, Mark Cuban and the other celebrity sharks; Taylor has been contractually sworn to secrecy. But whatever the outcome, she believes it will be worth it for the marketing pop.

Taylor was inspired to create her bib after a long and very messy plane ride with two young sons and started her company in 2008. She and her team — her husband is CFO, her sister, Heather McCabe, handles sales and marketing, her uncle, Richard Page, is in charge of production, and her aunt, Marcia Kreitman, advises on design — have expanded the line to include The Ultimate Smock for older children and the Ultimate Mini for babies. Coming soon: a smock for adults.

Taylor already got a taste of what a national TV show appearance can do for sales. In September, Bibbitec’s sales jumped 40 percent after she was on an ABC World News "Made in America" segment. “Within 30 seconds, we started getting sales from all over the country and they didn’t even mention our name on the air,” Taylor says. She said that confirmed her belief that a Shark Tank appearance would be worth it.

Plus, Taylor has been hooked on Shark Tank since the first time she watched it in 2008 as she was developing her product. Trained in theater, she admits she didn’t know much about business and learned from the show. She would practice how she would answer the questions.

“I’m all about empowering women who are sitting on the couch watching, because that’s what I was four years ago,” says Taylor. “All I wanted to do was to be on Shark Tank because I believed if I got on Shark Tank the world will see what I am trying to do and that’s all I need. I know it’s a great product.”

Will that theater training come in handy Friday night? Stay tuned. Shark Tank airs at 9 p.m. on ABC and Taylor hopes viewers will join in on Twitter using the hashtag #sharkbib.

Read More..

Rick Ross raps about ducking hail of bullets

Rapper Rick Ross was keeping a low profile Tuesday, one day after his brush with bullets on the streets of Fort Lauderdale.

Though he has yet to comment on the incident, the self-proclaimed “Boss,” did what he does best: He rapped about the incident.

“I can’t believe I’m alive,” he said, dropping a rhyme about his near-death experience into a recording by a fellow rapper, Kendrick Lamar, titled “B---- Don’t kill my Vibe.” The verse was distributed through social media by his record label late Monday, and spread quickly over the Internet. Ross, whose real name is William L. Roberts II, also posted a link to a story about the shooting on his Facebook page. His publicist did not return phone calls.

Social media sites, however, were abuzz about the incident, mostly skeptical that he was the target of an attempted assassination. Many tweeters theorized the gunfire was staged to help boost his “street cred,’’ which has been a source of contention in the rap community. The timing of the episode also raised eyebrows, coming a little more than a week before the Grammy Awards. Ross is nominated for “Best Rap Album,’’ and referred to his nomination in the verse released Monday.

Rapper 50 Cent — who knows something about street violence, having been shot nine times in a single incident — declared the shooting a hoax, saying “lol it looks staged to me. No holes in the car,’’ referring to the 37-year-old Ross as “Fat Boy.”

Ross has frequently feuded with fellow rappers. He admitted to placing Young Jeezy in a choke hold at BET’s music awards last year and had reportedly received death threats from a group called “Gangster Disciples” a Chicago street gang that felt he disrespected one of their leaders by using his name in a song without paying him. Following the threats, Ross cancelled the second leg of his 2012 tour, though he denied he pulled the plug because of the threats.

In a move that may have further antagonized the gang, at a concert in Chicago, he made producers turn off the sound system as he arrived on stage in a $40,000 black Chinchilla coat.

“I told them to cut the music off. I wanted them to just look at me for a while,” he said in a December interview with Miami’s 99 Jamz. “Look at the beard, look at the coat, look at the walk. I’m here to make money.’’

The bulky, tattoo-covered rapper, who graduated from Carol City High and attended Albany State University on a football scholarship, formerly worked as a corrections officer, leading some to ridicule him for producing urban lyrics that seem to contradict his stable upbringing and law enforcement background.

Fort Lauderdale police were reviewing video surveillance tapes of the scene Tuesday, but released no new details of the shooting, which happened early Monday on Las Olas Boulevard, near the landmark Floridian diner. Witnesses said anywhere from five to 20 shots may have been fired, but they missed Ross, his girlfriend and the Rolls Royce they were riding in — no small target. Ross crashed the Rolls into some trees, but was not injured. His girlfriend, Shateria Moragne-el, is a native of Maryland who has her own fashion line.

Miami Herald staff writer Nadege Green contributed to this story.

Read More..

BlackBerry 10 said to be inadequate for helping RIM overcome its ‘demons’

After hitting a seven-year low of $ 6.22 this past summer, shares of Research in Motion (RIMM) have rebounded and climbed more than 100% in the past six months. The company that was previously written off by Wall Street investors has seen a significant boost in recent months as anticipation grows for its BlackBerry 10 operating system. But while a number of analysts have voiced their support for RIM, not everyone is convinced.

[More from BGR: Apple’s 128GB iPad shows the world exactly what Apple does best]

Jan Dawson of Ovum explained, per Benzinga, that RIM continues to “face the twin demons of consumer-driven buying power and a chronic inability to appeal to mature market consumers,” and he believes BlackBerry 10 won’t change this. The analyst said that due to a strong user base of 79 million subscribers and profitability still in the black, the company will remain for years to come. He was quick to note, however, that its glory days are in the past and “it is only a matter of time before it reaches a natural end.”

[More from BGR: Apple unveils new 128GB iPad]

Dawson previously wrote that RIM’s strategy seems to be focused on building the best devices for current BlackBerry users “rather than something that will necessarily win converts from other platforms.”

“The points of differentiation RIM has focused on in teasers for the new platform confirm this – better multitasking, productivity, email, contacts and calendar applications and so on, rather than a better gaming, content consumption or social networking experience,” he said.

Shares of RIM are down more than 6% on Monday, a day before the company is set to unveil its BlackBerry 10 operating system.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Ashley Judd and Husband Dario Franchitti Divorcing

After more than 10 years of marriage, Ashley Judd and Dario Franchitti are calling it quits.

"We have mutually decided to end our marriage. We'll always be family and continue to cherish our relationship based on the special love, integrity, and respect we have always enjoyed," said a spokesperson for the couple to People on Tuesday.

Pics: Top 10 Biggest Divorce Payouts

Judd, 44, tied the knot with Scottish race car driver Franchitti, 39, in 2001 after two years of courtship. The couple have no children together.

Read More..

American Airlines jet carried thousands with its emergency exits blocked

An American Airlines jet ferried thousands of passengers in December and January with its emergency exits blocked by misaligned passenger seats, sources told The Post.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the misplaced seats – which blocked the exits over the wings -- on the Boeing 757, which an aviation expert said would have endangered passengers’ lives in an emergency.

“It’s extraordinarily difficult to evacuate an airplane when everything goes perfectly, because of the sheer numbers and small space and minimum exits that exist,” said aviation lawyer Brian Alexander of the Manhattan firm Kreindler and Kreindler.

“When you take away an exit row by virtue of not being able to remove an exit door, that’s a very significant safety issue.”

The misaligned seats were discovered at Kennedy Airport on Saturday by an American Airlines crew during a routine maintenance check.

The seats were about 2 inches out of line — enough, said sources, to prevent the emergency hatches from properly opening.

American said the seats were only “slightly out of configuration,” and denied that the exits were blocked.

After all-day repairs by American workers at Kennedy, the plane was put back in service on Sunday morning.

Sources said the seats were aligned improperly when the plane was sent to a TIMCO Aviation Services Inc. facility in North Carolina early in December for interior cabin work.

TIMCO declined comment.

TIMCO was also blamed last fall for allegedly failing to properly bolt down the seats on several American 757s.

In that case, two of the planes were forced into unscheduled landings at Kennedy Airport because their seats were sliding around the cabin. Those incidents also resulted in an FAA investigation.

Read More..