Needle reaches the inner groove for Spec’s

In the end, even the almighty Adele and Taylor Swift could not hold back the inevitable.Spec’s, one of the last great record stores, will close its flagship location in Coral Gables on U.S.1, thus joining once-favored chains like Virgin, Tower and Peaches, locally and abroad, that have withered from Internet shopping. With the closing, sometime in January after the merchandise...

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America’s Next Top Model brings its fierce style to Lauderdale

South Florida’s fiercest braved the rain Saturday for a chance to become America’s Next Top Model. The CW network reality TV show hosted auditions at the Fort Lauderdale Art Institute, and for the first time welcomed male models to try out.Miami Gardens resident Gregory Boudreaux, 24, was there with his best asset: his hair. His 6-inch afro sticks straight up into pointy...

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We Salute the First Baby Senator

We realize there’s only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:RELATED: Claire McCaskill and How to Attack the Opponent You’re Rooting ForHere’s our suggestion to improve...

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Cher Signs Development Deal with Logo

Logo just announced at The Television Critics Association in Pasadena, CA that the network has signed a development deal with the ultimate gay icon, Cher. AUDIO - Listen to Cher's New SongThe show, which is in its earliest stages of development, would mark Cher's first regular TV gig since The Sonny and Cher Show ended in 1977.While this could change before the show hits the air (if it actually does),...

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100 years of Grand Central

Grand Central Terminal has been the gateway to the city since it opened to great fanfare at 12:01 Feb. 2, 1913 and the first train left the station — the Boston Express No. 2 — a century ago.As journalist Sam Roberts explains in his new book, “Grand Central: How a Train Station Transformed America” (Grand Central Publishing), everything about the terminal...

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College championship won’t be easy money again

South Florida hotels should count their blessings from this weekend’s football bookings. The championship crowds won’t come this easily again. With Notre Dame playing for its first national title in more than 20 years, demand is unusually high for both hotel rooms and tickets for Monday’s championship game against Alabama. The teams have two of the largest fan bases in the...

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Lamberti praises agency’s work to reduce hate crimes in last news conference as Broward sheriff

In his last news conference as Broward’s top cop, Sheriff Al Lamberti praised his agency’s efforts to reduce hate crimes in the county — a finding reflected in the 2011 Hate Crimes in Florida report issued by the state attorney general’s office this week. But Lamberti, one of the most visible Republican elected officials in Broward, declined to say if he would ever run for...

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The Death of E-Readers Is All Your Fault

So there’s a reading gadget and a reading gadget with Angry Birds Star Wars. Which do you pick? Well, you, cultured person that you are, would select the dedicated e-reader, of course, just like you would rather watch Frontline instead of Honey Boo Boo, or pick up Vanity Fair instead of Us Weekly on the checkout line. Or at least that’s what the ideal version of yourself would...

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Rare Photo Of Teenage Princess Diana

A never-before-seen photograph featuring the late Princess Diana has been made public in the weeks before the rare pic is set to go up for auction.The black-and-white snapshot displaying a "not to be published" marking shows a teenage Diana lounging next to an until-now mystery pal, reportedly dating back to 1981. Pics: Remembering Diana 15 Years After Her Death "The young man was Adam Russell, the...

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Cops shoot B'klyn man toting gun

Cops shot a gun-toting man tonight in Brooklyn, police sources said.The incident occurred at the Cypress Hills housing project in East New York at about 7 p.m., sources added. The man was struck in the buttocks, the sources said.The man was taken to Brookdale Hospital and is expected to live, the sources added. ...

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The return of the cranes: Miami-Dade construction projects on the horizon in 2013

The cranes are coming back to Miami. The battered construction industry is going higher in the new year after showing strong signs of life in 2012. Will Miami feel more like Manhattan in a few years? It just might.So far, there has been more talk than action, fewer shovels in the ground than grand announcements. Even so, construction is underway on a dozen new condominiums...

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Miami-Dade Marine freed from Mexico jail says inmates threatened to behead him

Only days after U.S. Marine veteran Jon Hammar was thrown into a Mexican prison for carrying an antique shotgun into the country, gangsters in the jail warned him of his likely fate — beheading.“They threw every threat in the book at me,” Hammar said Thursday in his first public remarks since his release Dec. 21 after more than four months in prison.“They’d cut my head off,...

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Google emerges from FTC probe relatively unscathed

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google has settled a U.S. government probe into its business practices without making any major concessions on how the company runs its Internet search engine, the world’s most influential gateway to digital information and commerce.Thursday’s agreement with the Federal Trade Commission covers only some of the issues raised in a wide-ranging antitrust investigation that could...

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Celebrities Who Had Babies Before Marriage

Kim Kardashian and Jessica Simpson are just some of the stars bucking tradition and having children before they say "I do."Video- Kim K. Exclusive: Pregnancy is Hard Tomorrow on ET, we break down the celebrity couples who set to welcome their bundles of joy prior to making it official with their main squeeze.Also Friday, the world's thinnest woman shares her heartbreaking sto...

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Conservatives gone wild

John Podhoretz The most passionately anti-Obama Republican politicians and activists consider themselves the truest and purest of conservatives, and often unleash their scorn and fury on others who also call themselves conservative but differ on strategy and tactics.But in the realm of philosophy, “conservatism” from Thomas Hobbes onward...

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Portion of Macy’s Flagler Street property in downtown Miami sold

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...

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Heroin deaths creep up statewide as other opiates become too expensive

Every time her son, Tod, relapsed, Maureen Barrett sat with him all day at a rehab facility, hoping she could save him. Tod died last spring, after years of abusing opiates — everything from heroin to oxycodone. His death left Barrett, of Davie, to mourn the third child she lost to drugs.Years earlier, Palm Beach County resident Karen Perry sent her son off to college, not...

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Judge rejects part of Apple App Store suit vs Amazon

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Wednesday rejected part of Apple Inc‘s lawsuit against Amazon.com Inc‘s use of the term App Store, ruling Apple cannot bring a false advertising claim against the online retailer.U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California, granted Amazon‘s motion for partial summary judgment, which only challenged Apple’s false advertising allegations. Apple...

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Adam Lambert Criticizes Les Miserables Russell Crowe Responds

Adam Lambert was one of the Americans who forked over millions ($66 million, to be exact) to see Les Miserables over the Christmas holiday and his 9 Tweet review of the film garnered a lot of attention over the weekend.RELATED - Kris Allen Injured In Car Accident "Les Mis: Visually impressive w great Emotional performances. But the score suffered massively with great actors PRETENDING to be singers,"...

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Just sold!

ManhattanEAST HARLEM $400,000333 E. 109th St.One-bedroom, one-bath condo, 675 square feet, with Italian kitchen with stainless-steel appliances and Caesarstone counters and backsplash, tiled-and-teak bath with soaking tub and rainfall shower, washer/dryer and floor-to-ceiling windows; building features gym, courtyard, Jacuzzi, half-basketball court, BBQ,...

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Housing, jobs key to lifting S&P toward record

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...

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Man grazed by stray bullet in Miami on New Year’s Eve

A stray bullet fired into the air just after midnight on New Year’s Eve struck a man as he celebrated at a party in Miami, according to police.The bullet grazed the man’s upper left shoulder. Paramedics treated him outside the Allapattah home at Northwest 25th Avenue and 32nd Street. The man, who was not identified, wasn’t taken to a hospital.Miami police spokesman Detective...

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Armed robbers hit Paris Apple store

PARIS (Reuters) – Armed robbers targeted an Apple Inc store in central Paris on New Year’s Eve, taking thousands of euros (dollars) worth of goods, a police official said on Tuesday.The robbery took place at about 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Monday, three hours after closing time at one of Apple‘s flagship stores behind the Paris Opera which sells products ranging from iPhones and iPads to Mac computers.The...

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Taylor Swift Harry Styles New Years Eve Kiss

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...

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An ugly deal

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was a model of understatement yesterday when he declared: “This shouldn’t be the model for how to do things around here.”No kidding.With a pre-dawn vote yesterday, the Senate overwhelmingly approved a compromise package that undoes the Bush tax cuts for individuals making $400,000 a year and families making $450,000,...

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Florida colleges a bargain, says Kiplinger

Though Florida’s in-state tuition costs more than double what it did only a decade ago, many of the state’s public universities are still a good value, according to the latest annual “Best Values in Public Colleges” list compiled by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. Florida schools have long fared well in the magazine’s rankings, with this year being no exception. Six of Florida’s...

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Peeping tom suspect nabbed at Forever21 store at Sawgrass Mills mall

A suspected “peeping tom” was arrested Sunday after he was caught with video of women trying on clothes at the Forever21 store at the Sawgrass Mills mall. Andre Clements, 30, has been charged with video voyeurism and disorderly conduct, Sunrise police said. A manager at the store became suspicious when Clements, 30, was caught loitering in the dressing rooms. Customers...

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Movers roundup: Facebook, Best Buy

Among the stock activity stories for Monday, Dec. 31, from AP Business News:— Shares of Facebook Inc. rose after an analyst said advertising spending was picking up on the Internet social network and raised his rating on its stock.— Shares of Best Buy Co. rose on light volume as the struggling electronics retailer closed out a rocky year.— Shares of Duff & Phelps Corp. rose on news that the company...

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Here Come the Crazies

Here’s some scary news: The Cuomo administration is preparing to shove thousands of mentally ill New Yorkers out of supervised settings — where they can be forced to take their medication — into far less restrictive, far more dangerous “community housing.” This, despite two recent cases of people being fatally shoved from subway platforms — both allegedly...

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South Florida’s biggest business stories of 2012

For South Florida’s economy, 2012 centered on one main question: Would the recovery continue? The answer: Yes, and slowly.Housing values continue to climb, unemployment rates shrink, hiring grows and spending strengthens. And yet 2012 ends on the same general theme as 2011: Things are getting better, but at a slow enough pace that South Florida will have to wait at least...

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