Not in my backyard: Matthew Broderick slams NYU expansion

Ferris Bueller was busy on his day off.

Matthew Broderick made a matinee appearance in Manhattan Supreme Court today to show his opposition to the planned, 20-year, $6 billion expansion of New York University in Greenwich Village.

“I live in the Village, I have children, I like parks. The issue is personal,” the actor, currently starring in “Nice Work if You Can Get It” on Broadway, told reporters before heading off to prepare for an evening performance.

NYU was given the go-ahead by the City Council last summer to take four plots of parkland on Mercer Street between West 3rd and Houston streets for the almost 2 million-square-foot addition to its Greenwich Village campus.

Steven Hirsch

Matthew Broderick leaving the NYU expansion hearings.

Activists sued to block the move in September. And they packed Judge Donna Mills’ courtroom yesterday to hear attorneys argue over whether there will be a separate proceeding on the pocket parks, which is a facet of the larger case.

Judge Mills ordered the parties to state their positions in papers due by mid-March.

Broderick, who played the lead in the 1980s high school comedy “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” lives on Charles Street with his “Sex & the City” actress wife Sarah Jessica Parker and their three kids.

He joined about 100 of his fellow West Village residents who oppose the plan and turned out for the proceeding yesterday.

“I’m very interested in this whole change that’s potentially going to happen to the Village,” Broderick explained. “I grew up on Washington Square. NYU has just taken more and more of what I think of as a unique and important part of the Village where a huge amount of creativity has come from.”

Playwright and fellow Village resident Kenneth Lonergan, who wrote the screenplays for “Gangs of New York” and “Analyze This,” joined high school classmate Broderick at the hearing.

Outside the courtroom, he bemoaned changes in the neighborhood, saying it was “completely different” 20 years ago and “now there’s frankly huge ugly buildings. It’s appalling. NYU doesn’t own Greenwich Village.”

Last Friday former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern submitted an affidavit largely in support of the community groups.

The city Law Dept. said: “Our opponents’ motion is baseless, and we plan to oppose it. This project underwent thorough and proper review before it was overwhelmingly approved.”

jmarsh@nypost.com

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Don’t get too personal on LinkedIn

Have you ever received a request to connect on LinkedIn from someone you didn’t know or couldn’t remember?

A few weeks ago, Josh Turner encountered this situation. The online request to connect came from a businessman on the opposite coast of the United States. It came with a short introduction that ended with “Let’s go Blues!” a reference to Turner’s favorite hockey team in St. Louis that he had mentioned in his profile. “It was a personal connection … that’s building rapport.”

LinkedIn is known for being the professional social network where members expect you to keep buttoned-down behavior and network online like you would at a business event. With more than 200 million registered users, the site facilitates interaction as a way to boost your stature, gain a potential customer or rub elbows with a future boss.

But unlike most other social networking sites, LinkedIn is all about business — and you need to take special care that you act accordingly. As in any workplace, the right amount of personal information sharing could be the foot in the door, say experts. The wrong amount could slam it closed.

“Anyone in business needs a professional online presence,’’ says Vanessa McGovern, the VP of Business Development for the Global Institute for Travel Entrepreneurs and a consultant to business owners on how to use LinkedIn. But they should also heed LinkedIn etiquette or risk sending the wrong messages.

One of the biggest mistakes, McGovern says is getting too personal — or not personal enough.

Sending a request to connect blindly equates to cold calling and likely will lead nowhere. Instead, it should come with a personal note, an explanation of who you are, where you met, or how the connection can benefit both parties, McGovern explains.

Your profile should get a little personal, too, she says. “Talk about yourself in the first person and add a personal flair — your goals, your passion … make yourself seem human.”

Beyond that, keep your LinkedIn posts, invitations, comments and photos professional, McGovern says.

If you had a hard day at the office or your child just won an award, you may want to share it with your personal network elsewhere — but not on LinkedIn.

“This is not Facebook. Only share what you would share at a professional networking event,” she says.

Another etiquette pitfall on LinkedIn is the hit and run — making a connection and not following up.

At least once a week, Ari Rollnick, a principal in kabookaboo, an integrated marketing agency in Coral Gables, gets a request to connect with someone on LinkedIn that he has never met or heard of before. The person will have no connections in common and share no information about why they want to build a rapport.

“I won’t accept. That’s a lost opportunity for them,” Rollnick says.

He approaches it differently. When Rollnick graduated from Emory with an MBA in 2001, he had a good idea that his classmates would excel in the business world. Now, Rollnick wanted to find out just where they went and reestablish a connection.

With a few clicks, he tracked down dozens of them on LinkedIn, requested a connection, and was back on their radar. Then came the follow-up — letting them know through emails, phone calls and posts that he was creating a two-way street for business exchange. “Rather than make that connection and disappearing , I let them know I wanted to open the door to conversation.”

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Wanna play for the Miami Marlins — the organ, that is

For the first time since the team's inception in 1993, the Miami Marlins held open auditions for an organist Monday night at their new stadium.

Several local musicians showed up to vie for the special gig.

The chosen organist will be responsible for performing songs such as Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Let's Go Fish and Clap and Stomp at all 81 home games next season.

Among the requirements for the job were a good knowledge of all genres of music, knowledge of the Miami Marlins and creativity for all types of situations and spontaneous moments during a Major League Game.

Organs have been a standard feature at most baseball parks ever since the Chicago Cubs introduced them at Wrigley Field in 1941. The Marlins have had only two organists — Lowery Ballew and Dick Jans — but had never held an open tryout for the position.

It’s unknown how much the job pays.

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What's Next for Quvenzhane Wallis

As awards season comes to a close, ET caught up with Oscar's youngest nominee Quvenzhane Wallis at the Independent Spirit Awards to get the scoop on what's next for the 9-year-old actress.

Exclusive Pics: Inside the 'Vanity Fair' Oscar Party!

Shortly after we met with the spunky star, toting her now-signature puppy purse, it was announced Wallis was cast as the lead in an Annie remake that Will Smith is producing. Apparently she didn't get the memo.

When asked about what acting gigs she has lined up in the wake of Beasts of the Southern Wild's critical success, the spunky star replied "nothing" with a smile and a shrug.

Related: Oscar's Youngest Nominee Reacts to Honor

And were there any stars Wallis wanted to meet or work with?

"Nope," said the pint-sized actress, adding that what she was really looking forward to was returning to school on Monday.

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Cops 'n' robbers gunfight and car chase was a real life action movie

Testimony in a Queens trial sounded like it came from an action movie script today as witnesses described a wild police chase complete with guns blazing.

Cops described the terrifying moments when they heard gunfire ring out during a high-speed chase along Sutphin Boulevard.

“We were in a shooting together we could have died together,” said Officer Shawn Phillips who was the passenger in a patrol car chasing alleged robbery suspects, Urban Fermin and Darius Lowery on Feb 2, 2010.

The mayhem began at 7:40 a.m. when the men stole a car near 150th Avenue after a driver left it running while he went into a store, cops said.

About 40 minutes later, they pushed their way into a home on 133rd Avenue and stole a TV set, police sources said.

They then allegedly robbed a woman at gunpoint near a bus stop before cops gave chase.

Phillips’ partner Steven Betts said the cops were on their routine shift when they received a call for a robbery in progress on 150th Avenue where a white Ford Focus was stolen.

The cops were on their way to the location when they saw a vehicle that matched the description of the stolen car.

The officers turned on their lights and siren and gave chase.

“I saw a black handgun waving out the passenger’s window,” Betts said . The chase ended on a residential block on 153rd Street, where the officers were face to face with the alleged suspects and opened fire -- after Lowery allegedly “reached for his waistband,” they said.

Both suspects ran away in the hail of bullets from the officers who continued the hunt within a four block radius.

Lowery was apprehended at the scene by other officers moments later and Fermin was arrested within the same day.

ccarega@nypost.com

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Miami medicine goes digital

About 10 years ago, Dr. Fleur Sack quit her practice as a family physician to become a hospital department head. Spurring her decision was the need to switch from paper records to electronic ones to keep her private practice profitable. “At that time, it would have cost about $50,000,” Dr. Sack recalled. “It was too expensive and it was too overwhelming.”

But times and technologies changed, and last year, Dr. Sack left her hospital job to restart her medical practice with an affordable system for managing electronic patient records. She agreed to a $5,000 setup fee and a subscription fee of $500 per month for the system. Her investment also qualified her for subsidy money, which the federal government pays in installments, and to date, her subsidy income has paid for the setup fee and about two years of monthly fees. “So far, I’ve got my check for $18,000,” she said. “There’s a total of $44,000 that I can get.”

That kind of cash flow is one reason why so-called EHR software systems for electronic health records have been among the hottest-selling commercial products in the world of information technology. EHR system development is a growth industry in South Florida, too. Life sciences and biotechnology are among the high growth-potential sectors identified by the Beacon Council-led One Community One Goal economic development initiative unveiled in 2012; already, the University of Miami has opened a Health Science Technology Park while Florida International University has launched a healthcare informatics and management systems program in its graduate school of business.

For many young businesses in the area’s IT industry, government incentives are paving the way. The federal government is pushing doctors and hospitals to use electronic health records to cut wasteful spending and improve patient care while protecting patient privacy — sending digital information via encrypted systems, for example, rather than regular email.

Under a 2009 federal law known as the HITECH Act, maximum incentive payments for buying such systems range up to $44,000 for doctors with Medicare patients and up to $63,750 for doctors with Medicaid patients. Hospitals are eligible for larger incentive payments for becoming more paperless. The subsidy program isn’t permanent; eligible professionals must begin receiving payments by 2016. But by then, the federal government will be penalizing doctors and hospitals that take Medicare or Medicaid money without making meaningful use of electronic health records.

“What the government did is, they incentivized, and now they’re going to penalize,” said Andrew Carricarte, president and CEO of IOS Health Systems in Miami, one of the largest South Florida-based vendors of online software service for physician practices. He said insurance companies also may start penalizing physicians for failing to adopt electronic health records because “the commercial payers always follow Medicare and Medicaid.”

It’s all part of the growth story at IOS Health Systems, which has more than 2,000 physicians across the nation using its online EHR system. Carricarte said many of the company’s customers buy their second EHR system from IOS after their first one flopped. “Almost 40 percent of our sales come from customers who had systems and are now switching over to something else,” he said.

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Execution of murderer raises new questions about the death penalty in Florida

TALLAHASSEE --
The execution of Paul Augustus Howell scheduled for Tuesday has put Florida’s death penalty process under the microscope again.

Howell, 42, was convicted in 1992 of the pipe-bomb killing of Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Jimmy Fulford in Jefferson County, east of Tallahassee. If he dies by lethal injection as scheduled, his attorneys say, he will be the first Florida inmate to die without his case having been reviewed in federal court under a habeas corpus appeal. They argue Howell deserves that review — and a chance to seek another trial.

They say the court never heard about the conflict of interest involving his trial attorney, the failure to tell the court of Howell’s brain damage, his paranoia, child abuse or his lost court files. And the court never heard about Howell’s inadequate representation from the appellate lawyer who missed a crucial deadline for his federal review.

“Lawyers who never met the client in the 13 years they represented him lost his records in a flood and haven’t asked for new ones,” said Sonya Rudenstine of Gainesville, a new attorney hired by the inmate’s family. “If it weren’t so tragic, it would be a comedy of errors.”

The Florida Supreme Court rejected an appeal last week by Howell’s new attorneys. The court said it could not address claims he may raise in federal court. His attorneys have filed a new request in federal court in Tallahassee.

The habeas corpus review is routine in death-penalty cases in which the federal government provides inmates with an experienced, federally funded lawyer to have his case presented before a federal court as a final layer of protection before execution.

Howell’s last-minute appeal for more time comes as the Florida Legislature is moving in the other direction — toward limiting the time inmates should have to get their cases reviewed.

A bill being pushed through the Florida House by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Shalimar, would accelerate the time it takes to execute death row inmates in Florida by an estimated five years.

According to Gaetz, inmates spend an average of 14 years on death row before they are executed. His bill would not only limit the time state courts have to review the cases, it would ban any lawyer deemed ineffective by the court from taking a capital case for five years.

Without that, Gaetz argues, death penalty opponents will continue to have a compelling argument “that the punishment costs too much and doesn’t effectively deter crime.”

Howell, a member of a Jamaican drug posse, was convicted after building a pipe bomb to kill a Jackson County woman who had information that could link him to a drug-related murder in South Florida. He hid the bomb in a gift-wrapped microwave oven and had a driver deliver it.

As the car was traveling through Jefferson County, Trooper Fulford stopped it for speeding. He then inspected the vehicle, unwrapped the microwave oven and the bomb exploded, killing him.

Howell’s attorneys now want the court to recognize that he never should have been represented in the first case by his attorney, Frank Sheffield, who is now a state court judge in Jefferson County.

When Howell faced state murder charges, he was already under indictment in a federal trial for drug trafficking. Sheffield represented him in the case, but withdrew after his secretary, who was also his wife, told prosecutors she had received a telephone call from an anonymous caller who told her that “If Paul Howell goes down, Mr. Sheffield is going down also.”

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COUPLES ALERT! Date Night Pics at the Oscars

COUPLES ALERT: Date Night Pics at the Oscars

From expecting parents Channing Tatum & Jenna Dewan to Hollywood power couple Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban, Sunday's Oscars red carpet was full of well-suited celebrities! Click the pics to check out the hottest pairs on the red carpet!

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Death of ex-Post employee 'suspicious'

The death of a former New York Post employee whose body was found in her Cobble Hill apartment Friday is being investigated as suspicious, sources said.

Elizabeth Borst, 55, was found on her kitchen floor after her husband, Gaetano Lisco, called neighbors and asked them to check on the victim because he couldn't reach her.

Although Borst's death has not been ruled a homicide, the autopsy on her was inconclusive, and the victim had several unexplained injuries, sources said.

Borst suffered broken ribs, a broken wrist, a ruptured spleen and a gash to her head, sources said. Toxicology reports have not been completed.

The victim called cops on her husband for a domestic dispute March 4, 2010 but no one was injured, records show. He was grilled by detectives after she was found dead but released.

kconley@nypost.com

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South Beach Wine & Food Festival changes Miami's culinary scene, impacts economy

For Miami restaurateurs, this is Showtime.

With dozens of top chefs — Bobby Flay, Todd English, Daniel Boloud and Masaharu Morimoto among the list — in town for the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, the pressure is on everywhere, from Michy’s to the new Catch Miami. The goal: Show everyone from around the country that Miami’s food scene has arrived on the national stage.

Chef Michelle Bernstein’s staff whipped up dishes designed to impress guests at Michy’s — like foie gras, oxtail and apple tarte tatin — while she juggled menus for multiple events. Bernstein kept her cellphone handy to make sure any chef friends could get a table, even though her namesake restaurant was sold out.

As always, Joe’s Stone Crab was a must-do stop for many, including Paula Deen and New York restaurateur Danny Meyer. Aussie Chef Curtis Stone attracted a string of admirers as he ate his way around town, with stops at Prime 112, Pubbelly Sushi and Puerto Sagua. Khong River House and Yardbird Southern Table & Bar hosted Meyer, The Food Network’s Anne Burrell and Chef Anita Lo.

Michael’s Genuine was another hot spot.

“This is kind of our coming out party for Khong and it’s our chance to knock it out of the park and wow people,” said John Kunkel, owner of Khong and Yardbird.

Prime 112 owner Myles Chefetz admits he’s a fanatic about checking plates when they come back from a chef’s table. And he’s always on the lookout for the table ordering 20 different items, because that’s usually a restaurateur doing research.

“If you have Jean-Gorges or Bobby Flay eating at your restaurant, you want to make sure he has a great experience,” Chefetz said. “You want to put your best foot forward because you know you’re going to get scrutinized.”

The Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival is not just a forum for impressing the culinary elite. It’s among the top three tourist draws for Miami restaurants and hotels. In its 12th year, the festival draws more than 60,000 people to Miami Beach for a weekend of decadence, featuring more than 50 events spread over four days.

It is neck and neck with two of the area’s other most prominent weekends: Art Basel and Presidents’ Day (which coincides with the Miami International Boat Show).

There’s the immediate economic impact, of course, but the festival has made its mark in other ways: helping transform Miami’s food scene from a cultural wasteland to one of the country’s hot spots, one where top chefs all want to set up shop.

“Twelve years ago I don’t know if you could even name five really good restaurants. Now, you can’t think of where you want to eat because there are so many good restaurants,” said Lee Brian Schrager, festival founder and vice president of communications for Southern Wine & Spirits, its host. “What the festival can take credit for is introducing the culinary world to the great talent down here, and really highlighting South Florida as a great dining destination.”

There has been plenty of indulgence to go around. Flay finally broke his losing streak and took home top honors at the Burger Bash with his award-winning crunchified green chili burger. At the Q, barbecue lovers had their choice of Al Roker’s lamb ribs with baked beans or Geoffrey Zakarian’s smoked tagarashi crusted tuna, among other offerings.

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