Architectural advisory panel rejects design plans for Midtown Miami Walmart

Controversial efforts to build a Walmart in Midtown Miami hit an unexpected roadblock Wednesday when members of Miami’s architectural advisory panel rejected the latest version of the plan.The unanimous vote to deny a permit application was unusual for the Urban Development Review Board, which functions as an advisory group to the city planning director, and rarely takes...

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More state spending on roads, ports

TALLAHASSEE -- If you think there’s too much road construction now, just wait.The state plans to increase transportation spending by 11 percent in an effort to boost jobs, build more roads, and get the state’s ports ready for the expansion of the Panama Canal. For motorists, that means navigating through more orange cones and thicker clouds of construction dust throughout...

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Mark Hamill on Star Wars VII, Sushi Girl & Spinoff Movies

Mark Hamill's new movie Sushi Girl hits DVD and Blu-ray this week, and while talking about the project, the Star Wars legend was more than happy to provide ETonline with an update on his involvement with the in-development Star Wars VII – and what he thinks of those planned spinoff movies…"It's all very, very exciting and so unexpected," says Hamill. "I think that's the quality I like about it most...

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Judge blocks city from Ken Burns film footage

Famed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns today beat back an effort by the city to obtain raw footage and outtakes from his recent movie on the infamous "Central Park jogger" rape case.A judge granted the PBS icon's request to quash a subpoena for the unused material on grounds that his production company, Florentine Films, is covered by the "reporter's privilege."Manhattan...

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Best photo apps for Android devices

Whether you want to slap a simple filter on your photo or get granular and change attributes like color levels and saturation, we’ve got a list of the Android apps you’ll want to use. Snapseed The good: With its unique gesture-based interface, this offers an incredible level of control over its effects and filters. The bad: The tools and interface aren’t...

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Pension reform plan put on hold

TALLAHASSEE -- House Speaker Will Weatherford’s push to close the state’s $136 billion pension system to new state employees is on hold.A report released Friday was supposed to provide an estimate of how much the change would cost to pay out benefits to the employees currently in the system while switching new state employees into 401(k)-style retirement plans.Instead, the...

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Newtown massacre gunman wanted to exceed Norway shooter's death toll

The gunman who carried out the Newtown school massacre was inspired by violent video games — and was trying to outdo a Norwegian mass murderer who killed 77 people, it was reported today.Adam Lanza believed he was in ghoulish competition with Anders Breivik, who carried out a bloodbath at two locations in July 2011, law enforcement sources told CBS News.Breivik,...

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Open English expands across Latin America

Back in 2008, Open English, a company run from Miami that uses online courses to teach English in Latin America, had just a handful of students in Venezuela and three employees. Today the company has more than 50,000 students in 22 Latin American countries and some 2,000 employees.To fund this meteoric expansion, the founders of Open English — Venezuelans Andrés Moreno and...

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Key West Lotto ticket wins $17 million jackpot

A Lotto ticket sold in Key West was the only one to match all six numbers in Saturday night’s drawing, and is worth $17 million, the Florida Lottery said Sunday.Saturday’s numbers were 8, 21, 26, 27, 30 and 40. The winning ticket was sold at the Publix supermarket at 3316 N. Roosevelt Blvd. The jackpot for the next drawing, on Wednesday, will ratchet back down to $2 million.In...

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A Good Day to Die Hard Bruce Willis Takes Over Box Office

Audiences agreed that it was a good weekend to die hard, as the fifth installment of the Die Hard franchise opened strong.RELATED: New Blu-ray & DVD Releases A Good Day to Die Hard is expected to pull in $28.2 million over the four-day holiday, beating out last weekend's winner, Identity Thief ($27.6 million), and Safe Haven ($25.4 million.This weekend is on pace to be the biggest international...

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