Hollywood cardiologist’s ties with St. Jude sales rep raises red flags

Mark Sabbota, a Hollywood cardiologist, regularly implants $5,000 pacemakers in patients at Memorial hospitals in South Broward — generating, last year alone, more than a half-million dollars in sales for a manufacturer called St. Jude Medical.

Sabbota, public records show, also happens to be partners with a St. Jude sales rep in two corporations that run frozen yogurt shops.

What’s yogurt got to do with healthcare?

Perhaps nothing. Perhaps a lot. The question is connected to an on-going lobbying battle in Washington over a pending disclosure policy intended to more clearly reveal financial ties between physicians and the healthcare industry — often-murky relationships that have produced a long history of whistle-blower lawsuits, federal investigations and fines.

Sabbota, in a brief interview, adamantly denied any conflict of interest. “There has been no wrongdoing at all,” he said.

Memorial spokeswoman Kerting Baldwin also said the hospital saw no problem with the yogurt arrangement. As a “community” doctor, not a staff employee, Baldwin said Sabbota can select from a list of pacemakers approved by the hospital but has no say over what companies made the list.

“As for why he prefers to use St. Jude, I won’t speak for him,’’ she said. “You’d have to ask him that.”

But several medical ethics experts said such relationships fall in a gray area. They raise what Kenneth Goodman, bioethics director at the University of Miami, called “red flags” about whether the doctor’s motivation in choosing a device “is something other than the best interests of the patient.”

“Maybe it’s just a good business arrangement that has nothing to do with the devices he chooses,” said Charles D. Rosen, a California physician who is co-founder of the Association for Medical Ethics. “But the issue is public disclosure and transparency. You as a patient should have the right to know about a doctor’s financial relationships with companies.”

Concerns about the relationship between doctors and healthcare companies have been simmering for years. Americans are so suspicious of doctors’ connections that, in a 2008 Pew Charitable Trusts survey, 86 percent of patients said doctors should not be allowed to get free dinners from drug makers and 70 percent said doctors shouldn’t even be allowed to get free notepads and pens.

The 2010 Affordable Care Act includes a provision intended to address some aspects of these often-cozy relationships. Starting Jan. 1, healthcare companies were supposed to publicly post how much they were paying doctors. But that provision has been held up in the White House by intense lobbying.

“I don’t know why the hold-up, except the intense opposition of the industry,” Rosen said. His group, including members of the Harvard Medical School and Cleveland Clinic, wrote a letter to the Obama administration last month protesting the delay.

The group complains that the healthcare industry is trying to soften the rules so that foreign subsidiaries and doctors engaged in clinical trials wouldn’t have to reveal payments. But even if the disclosure rules are implemented, a side deal like Sabbota’s yogurt company would not have to be revealed under the new law, Rosen said.

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Gov. Rick Scott pushes “Finish in Four” tuition plan to save college students money

TALLAHASSEE --
Gov. Rick Scott’s push to keep tuition low includes a new twist submitted with his budget for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1. The governor’s idea: tuition should be the same when students graduate as when they start.

Scott has offered legislation that would hold tuition steady for four years for students entering a state university this fall or afterward. The governor did not highlight the bill during his press conference unveiling his proposed budget, but the proposal is in the package he’s sending to the Legislature.

And it sticks closely to something that Scott has pounded on now for months: his belief that an era of nearly annual tuition increases need to end.

“When I talk to universities, they know that we’ve got to hold the line on tuition, we’ve got to watch how we’re spending the money,” he said Thursday.

A summary packet about the budget handed out by the governor’s office makes the case for “Finish in Four,” which alludes to the hopes that the tuition guarantee will encourage students to finish their degree in four years to take advantage of the tuition freeze. Universities could also designate some degrees that they believe take longer than four years for a lengthier guarantee.

“The unpredictability of tuition increases makes it difficult for students and families to plan for the cost of higher education,” the packet reads.

Scott has also pushed state colleges to lower the cost of four-year degrees with a “challenge” to offer at least one degree at $10,000. Every college offering four-year degrees has agreed to be a part of that challenge, but not all have come up with how they will do it.

Sen. Bill Galvano, the Bradenton Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, said Friday that he wasn’t ready to take a position on the proposal. But when asked what an objection to the plan might be, he pointed to “unique challenges that students face that may make it impractical in certain circumstances” to finish in four years.

For example, jobs or other responsibilities could lengthen some students’ time at school — which would make them ineligible for the guarantee after four years.

Georgia recently experimented with a “Fixed for Four” program beginning in 2006, but abandoned it beginning with the 2009 freshman class, blaming it on budget cuts.

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Nebraska Lieutenant Governor Sheehy resigns over phone scandal

(Reuters) – Nebraska Lieutenant Governor Rick Sheehy, the leading candidate to replace the current governor in the next election, resigned on Saturday after a newspaper investigation raised questions about improper cell phone calls made to women.

The Omaha World-Herald investigation found that the 53-year-old Republican made about 2,000 late-night calls to four women, other than his wife, on his state-issued cell phone over four years. The newspaper plans to publish results of the investigation on Sunday.

Colleen Sheehy, his wife of 28 years, filed for divorce in July 2012, according to the newspaper.

Governor Dave Heineman announced the resignation of Sheehy, a rising star in state politics, at a news conference. The governor said he was “deeply disappointed” and that Sheehy had done good work, but “trust was broken.”

“Public officials are rightly held to a higher standard,” Heineman said at the news conference, provided on the Omaha World-Herald website.

Heineman will leave office in 2015 and Sheehy had announced that he would run for governor. He was considered a leading candidate. Heineman selected Sheehy as lieutenant governor in 2005 after moving into the governor’s office to replace Mike Johanns, who was tapped as U.S. agriculture secretary.

Heineman and Sheehy were elected to their first full term in 2006 and re-elected to a second term in 2010.

(Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Buzzmakers: SAG Winners Pics and Nicole Kidman Explains Jimmy Kimmel Lap Dance

What had ET readers buzzing this week?

1. PICS: SAG Winners with their Statues!

Some of Hollywood's biggest stars gathered Sunday night to honor acting achievements at the 2013 Screen Actors Guild Awards. Anne Hathaway -- winner of the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for Les Misérables -- kicks off our gallery of the stars accepting their handsome statuettes!

Click here for all the pics!

2. Nicole Kidman on Her Lap Dance for Jimmy Kimmel

Nicole Kidman raised eyebrows during Matt Damon's Jimmy Kimmel Live! takeover when she greeted Kimmel -- who was strapped to a chair -- with a lap dance. On the SAG Awards red carpet, the Oscar winner explained the move to Nancy O'Dell.

Kidman described the dance as "impromptu," saying that she was just following the lead of another one of the night's guests.

"Robin Williams had done it before, so I thought, 'Well, why not?'" Kidman explained.

For years Kimmel has had a running joke where he ends every episode by apologizing to Matt Damon for running out of time for him. On last week's special episode of the late-night show -- nine years in the making -- Damon recruited some friends (which included Andy Garcia, Sheryl Crow, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Robert DeNiro, Sarah Silverman, Demi Moore and Oprah Winfrey.

3. Top-Earning 'American Idol' Alums

American Idol is in the business of making music stars, and in turn, has made lots of money for some of their contestants. Forbes released their list of the top-earning Idol alums of 2012 a few names on this list are sure to surprise you.

Click here for the entire list!

4. Jennifer Lawrence Suffers Wardrobe Malfunction

It seemed like disaster for Jennifer Lawrence when her dress came apart just as she was called up to accept the award for Best Actress during the 2013 SAG Awards.

The Silver Linings Playbook star's apparent wardrobe malfunction caught the eye of both Marion Cotillard and Nicole Kidman, whose reaction to the getup coming apart at the seams was caught on camera. No disaster, here, though -- it turns out the dress was designed that way! A source close to designer Dior told ET that the dress did not rip -- that it was made with different layers of tulle and satin.

This minor outfit hitch comes after it was announced that Lawrence, 22, has walking pneumonia, making this one of the best and worst weeks for the award-winning actress.

5. Kris Jenner Lands Talk Show

Are you ready for a daily dose of Kris Jenner?

The TV personality will test the talk show waters this summer when Fox premieres a preview episode of Kris, a one-hour entertainment talk show. "This is something I have wanted to do all my life so it's definitely a dream come true," Jenner said in a statement! "I can't wait for this new adventure to begin and look forward to working alongside Twentieth Television and the Fox Television Stations."

Kris will be rolled out in a similar fashion to how Bethenny Frankel's talk show was last summer, with the network testing the waters to see if there's an audience appetite for more of this famous family. According to a press release, the show will "offer daytime viewers a daily jolt of celebrity guests, fashion & beauty trends; plus a mix of lifestyle topics -- all through the distinctive and unpredictable perspective of Kris Jenner. Filmed in Los Angeles, CA, the pop culture driven talk show will bring a cool blast of fun and high energy to summer television."

The trial run of Kris will launch this summer, with the program available on select Fox-owned stations in markets, including New York and Los Angeles.

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America's hunger games

For all the talk about our slow climb out of the worst recession since the Great Depression, this past week brought some alarming news: The unemployment rate climbed to 7.9 percent, and in the fourth quarter of 2012 the US economy shrunk again.

Most distressing is the years-long trend that shows no sign of reversing: The middle class is disappearing. A 2012 study by economists at Duke University and the University of British Columbia found that nine out of every 10 jobs lost during the recession were mid-level and mid-paying — positions often eliminated due to technology.

Contestants on “The Job” beg for work at The Palm. Ryan is in the middle, Jann second from right.

Of the 3.5 million jobs that have been added since June 2009 — the official end of the Great Recession — only 2% were middle-class positions. By contrast, 70% of jobs added were in low-paying sectors and 28% were in high-level ones.

“The jobs that are going away,” MIT’s Andrew McAfee has said, “aren’t coming back.”

Into this tragic, intractable economy comes a new CBS reality show called “The Job.” Premiering Friday, it’s billed as a feel-good program, a show that seeks to match middle-class job seekers of varying desperation with some of America’s most prestigious corporations.

But for all of the exploitations reality TV has to offer — from on-camera sex to drunken hillbillies — “The Job” may be the most offensive in television history.

We live in a time when a having a middle-class job has mutated from the American Dream to a luxury, when even those lucky enough to still have one live in perpetual fear that they’ll be fired next.

“The Job” turns this massive human toll into spectacle, dangling the prospect of an unspecified mid-level position in front of desperate contestants, who degrade themselves by telling their most pathetic personal histories in the paradoxical quest to regain some dignity.

Yet its creators believe they are doing middle-class America a great service.

“I’ve grown very tired of reality TV that is exploitative,” says Michael Davies, co-producer of “The Job.” “Yes, I’ve got to deliver an hour of entertainment, no doubt. But I don’t think this is gladiatorial.”

As much as the reality TV genre reflects — and contributes to — an intractable chipping-away of our national character, it’s usually easy to consign most shows to the bin of frivolity: sozzled, emotionally stunted housewives with status anxiety; proudly uneducated young adults aggressively making poor life decisions; weekend warriors willing to ingest bugs and risk tropical diseases in pursuit of money and fame; the aspirant looking to become America’s next top pop singer, designer, model, chef, comic, etc.

Have a comment on this PostOpinion column? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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Healthcare experts see bumpy road ahead: “Shift happens”

The healthcare industry in South Florida, like the rest of the country, faces huge challenges in the year ahead as major federal reforms kick in, experts told about 700 people at a University of Miami conference on Friday.

“We are at a critical time in health policy,” said Mark McClellan, former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “There are going to be some bumps along the way,” especially starting in 11 months, when the biggest changes in the Affordable Care Act kick in.

“Bumps may be understating what we may go through,” said Patrick Geraghty, chief executive of Florida Blue, the state’s largest health insurer.

They spoke at the conference on the Business of Healthcare Post-Election. The speakers accepted the federal reforms — often referred to as Obamacare — as not only inevitable but necessary. As Tom Daschele, a former Democratic U.S. senator from South Dakota, put it, “having 50 million uninsured is just unacceptable.”

But the reform act, signed into law in 2010, contains more than 2,000 pages, plus thousands of pages more of enabling regulations — details that will have major, and perhaps unexpected, impacts on the healthcare industry, which now makes up almost 20 percent of the nation’s economy.

In October, insurance exchanges will open for enrollment — groups that will allow individuals and small businesses to purchase policies with no exclusions for pre-existing conditions. Starting next January, virtually everyone will be required to have insurance, Medicaid will expand in many states, and businesses with more than 50 full-time equivalent employees will be required to provide insurance or pay fines.

“Jan. 1 is a very significant date,” said Steven Ullmann, director of health policy at the UM business school. He called reforms “a process” that will change over time.

“The one thing we know is that healthcare reform will be reformed,” said Chris Jennings, a Washington health policy advisor for the Clinton administration and three senators.

Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the insurers’ trade group, said she had strong ideas about tweaks that could minimize disruption. One arcane, but crucial provision of the law requires that an older person’s policy can be no more than three times as expensive as a young person’s.

The provision will mean huge increases in the policies of younger persons, to pay for the much higher costs of their elders. Insurers are asking for that policy to be postponed for two years, retaining the present maximum spread of about five to one, so that younger people could sign up for insurance without huge sticker shock.

For example, if a 25-year-old now pays $100 and a 60-year-old pays $500, the new rule would hike the younger person’s premium to $150 and cut the older person’s premium to $550 — a 50 percent increase for one and a 10 percent decrease for the other.

The thinking of lawmakers was that by lowering ratio, the costs of healthcare would be spread out and shared more equally by the population.

Anne Phelps, a healthcare principal with Ernst & Young, said she favored another change in the law, which now requires that next year a company with the equivalent of 50 employees to provide insurance for anyone working more than 30 hours a week or pay a fine. She thought the threshold should be raised to 32 or 34 hours.

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At University of Miami, Justice Sonia Sotomayor gets real

From her days as a young girl in the Bronx being raised by her mother after the death of her father to becoming the first Hispanic on the highest judicial body in the country, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor told the story of her journey before a captivated audience at the University of Miami on Friday night.

Sotomayor spoke with University of Miami President Donna E. Shalala at the BankUnited Center to University of Miami students, Coral Gables residents and perhaps a future Supreme Court justice about the inspiration behind her recently published memoir My Beloved World.

“Love and passion, that is the only way you do something well,” Sotomayor said. “Do a few things, but do them well.”

Sotomayor, 58, spoke of the many things that inspired her to share her story with the world, one of which was in responses to questions she hadn’t expected during her confirmation process, such as how children cope when a parent dies, especially if they don’t have a mother like hers.

“I began to understand that I couldn’t talk to every child in the country,” Sotomayor said. “I could give them the answers in a book.”

One child she did embrace and speak with on Friday evening was a young girl in the audience named Madeline. Madeline, who was introduced by Shalala, and Sotomayor turned out to have one thing in common: a love for Nancy Drew.

Sotomayor credits the lessons she learned from the fictional tales of a young girl detective as one of the motivations for her successful career.

“When she [Nancy Drew] was trying to solve people’s problems,” Sotomayor told Madeline, “she was trying to help people.”

“I think too many young lawyers forget that the law is the noblest profession you can enter,” Sotomayor said. “What you do is helping people.”

When asked what other profession she would have ever considered going into, Sotomayor said there was not one. “This fish found her pond, and she ain’t changing it,” Sotomayor said.

Shalala questioned Sotomayor about her life as a diabetic, which her memoir speaks of at great length.

“If you have diabetes and want to live a full life, you figure out how to have both things,” Sotomayor said.

She was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at 8 and she credits living with the chronic illness with teaching her discipline. “Every moment of every day I am self-monitoring inside,” Sotomayor said.

That constant discipline, she said, teaches you to do things like monitoring diet, something she feels everybody should do.

With many students in the audience, she was asked about her scariest experience in law school.

“Being there,” Sotomayor chuckled. “If you think you are smart in college, you realize how dumb you are.”

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BlackBerry chooses more traditional route to drum up buzz over Super Bowl ad

TORONTO – After a week of massive hype for its new smartphones, BlackBerry has decided to remain secretive about its Super Bowl commercial in an effort to squeeze every bit of juice out of the pricey advertising campaign.

The Waterloo, Ont.-based company, formerly known as Research In Motion (TSX:RIM), released a single frame of the 30-second TV spot on Friday, without any explanation of what it was, or what it meant.

The move goes against the trend of unleashing Super Bowl ads on the Internet ahead of the big game in an effort to generate extra hype.

This year, smartphone competitor Samsung chose to release its commercial starring comedians Seth Rogan and Paul Rudd on Thursday. Other major companies like Mercedes and Coke have also put their ads online.

Recent statistics have shown that advertisers gain more traction from their Super Bowl TV spots if they’re released online before the event, which takes place on Sunday.

Last year, the Super Bowl ads uploaded to YouTube before the game were viewed 600 per cent more times, an average of 9.1 million views, compared to the ones that were put online after the game, according to the streaming video service owned by Google.

Going against the trend, the BlackBerry maker will keep smartphone users guessing about what their advertisement is about and who it might feature. Certainly the company’s publicity team carefully chose which frame to release as its sneak preview.

The frame shows an early 1980s Honda Accord is parked alongside a meter. Behind it, there’s a colourful explosion of powder in front of stairs leading up to apartment No. 437.

The clues would suggest harkening back to the birth of the IBM personal computer, introduced to the market in 1981 using the coding 437 as its original character set, or more simply, the appearance of its font on screen.

It may be a clue because BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins has touted the launch of the new smartphones this week as a new era in mobile computing because the devices have nearly the same amount of processing power as a personal computer.

All of that won’t be proven true or false until the game on Sunday evening where the BlackBerry ad will air sometime after the third quarter, the company said.

The Super Bowl is the most-watched television event of the year, drawing 111.3 million U.S. viewers in 2012.

In Canada, last year’s broadcast drew a record 8.1 million viewers.

The event is also the most expensive event for advertisers, costing an average of $ 3.4 million for a 30-second spot on NBC last year, according to ratings firm Nielsen.

This year, estimates for how much CBS is charging for a 30-second spot vary wildly from between $ 3.6 million to $ 4 million. CTV declined to say how much it charges for Canadian airtime.

Also slated in the Super Bowl commercial lineup are advertisements from the Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO), with different versions airing on both sides of the border.

In the U.S., the company has purchased airtime in the midwest where its banks have a strong presence under the BMO Harris Bank brand. In the commercial, dubbed “Dream Home,” a young couple ponders the possibilities of buying a home, before they’re surprised when a real estate agent throws up a “For Sale” sign right in front of them.

BMO has also bought airtime in Canada, though it will be showing a commercial that has already aired during prime time.

Last year, a Harris-Decima Canadian Press poll found that more Canadians planned to watch the Super Bowl ads than the football game itself.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Brandi Glanville Talks Plastic Surgery and Says She's Done Talking About Eddie Cibrian and LeAnn Rimes

Brandi Glanville's new tell-all, Drinking and Tweeting: And Other Brandi Blunders, is chock-full of juicy stories about her ex husband Eddie Cibrian, but The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star says that after promotion wraps on the book, she will no longer speak out about the actor and his wife LeAnn Rimes.

Pics: LeAnn Rimes Defends Self with Teeny Weeny Bikini Photos

"As soon the book tour is over, I'm done. I'm not gonna be talking about them publicly," vows Brandi of the topic that has gotten her into a bit of trouble in the past. "I won't be answering questions about them publicly, this is my final chapter. This is all my side of the story is in the book and then I'm done."

As Brandi's book tour has yet to conclude, Eddie is still fair game.

In Drinking and Tweeting, out February 12, Brandi reveals that she took revenge on her ex by sticking him with a $12,000 credit card bill for vaginal rejuvenation surgery after finding out about his extra-marital affair with LeAnn.

Related: LeAnn Rimes On Twitter War with Brandi Glanville

Now swearing off invasive surgeries, Brandi has found more inventive ways to look young. Instead, the RHOBH star has opted for a visit to Beverly Hills dermatologist Dr. Simon Ourian to get cosmetic fillers injected into her hands, which she says are starting to look "old."

Watch the video to follow Brandi during the procedure!

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9-year-old falls three stories in Bronx

A nine year-old child fell three stories from an apartment window on Featherbed Lane and Nelson Avenue at 6:30 p.m., cops said.

"He was laying on the floor without a t-shirt on. He wasn't moving but he was crying for his mommy. He was crying 'mommy! mommy!' He was bleeding from the chest and he was almost naked,” Wanda Simonetti,59, a neighbor on the second floor said.

The boy who lives with his mom, grandparents and two year-old sister, is known to run rampant around the building, a neighbor said.

"Sometimes they see him on the roof. He has no supervision. The mom was at work and nobody watches the kid. His grandparents are too old. He's always running around,” a concerned second floor resident, Gina Ortiz said.

The young boy suffered an arm injury and other possible trauma but is expected to survive, EMS officials said.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the child was pushed, fell or jumped out the window, cops said.

The investigation is ongoing, cops said.

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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.

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Under fire, Miami-Dade nursing home closing its pediatric unit

A Miami Gardens nursing home linked to the deaths of two youngsters is closing its 60-bed children’s unit, the epicenter of a bitter dispute over Florida’s system of care for profoundly sick and disabled children.

About a week ago, Golden Glades Nursing & Rehabilitation Center informed state health administrators of its plan to shut down the harshly criticized pediatric unit. The facility was housing about 30 children late last year, although the number had since dropped to 19, said Lori Weems, a lawyer for Golden Glades’ owners.

“We have been aware of the facility’s plan to close the pediatric wing for a few weeks. Various staff from the agency have been assisting them and our nurse care coordinators are working with families,” said Michelle Dahnke, spokeswoman for the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration (ACHA). “Ultimately the transition location for the child will be determined by the parent and we want to ensure they are fully informed.”

Florida’s decision to house hundreds of profoundly disabled children in institutions designed for elders has drawn fire of late, both from children’s advocates and the U.S. Justice Department, which has accused the state of cutting in-home care for frail children so deeply that parents often have no choice but to institutionalize their loved ones.

Golden Glades is one of six nursing homes in the state licensed to care for children. Its problems, highlighted in a series of Miami Herald stories, included two deaths and a series of state and federal fines totaling over $300,000.

The home, which changed ownership last June, has sought to streamline the transfer of children by donating a special bed with protective netting to the family of one child, allowing the boy to return home to his parents. The child, who suffered from frequent spasms and movements, requires the netting to prevent him from falling out of bed or injuring himself against metal railing.

“That child,” Weems said, “is getting to go home.”

The nursing home also is “raising private funds to construct a wheelchair ramp” — which was, like the special bed, not covered by Medicaid — “so that a wheelchair-bound child whose parents very much want to care for him can go home,” Weems said. Medicaid is the state’s insurer for needy and disabled people.

For several days, Weems said, social workers and administrators at the home have been working with ACHA to provide options to the parents or other caregivers of the children who had been living there. They arranged tours of group homes, medical foster homes and other nursing homes, and offered to help find services for families that wanted to bring their children home.

The state Department of Children & Families had several foster kids who were living at the nursing home, said Joe Follick, a spokesman for the agency. As of Monday, three of the DCF kids remained at Golden Glades; one was moved to a medical foster home Wednesday, another is scheduled to move to a medical foster home “shortly,” and a third will be moved under the oversight of a sister department, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities.

“We have been diligently working to find a different home for them, and every child in a skilled nursing facility,” Follick said.

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BSkyB to offer sports channels online for daily fee

LONDON (Reuters) – BSkyB will offer its popular sports channels online for a daily fee, seeking new customers to offset slowing growth at its core pay-TV service amid sluggish consumer spending.

Sky, Britain’s dominant pay-TV group which provides fixed-line telephony, TV and broadband to 10.7 million households, has adapted its strategy during the economic downturn after years of chasing new subscribers to its core TV offering.

The group added 25,000 subscribers to its pay-TV service in the three months to the end of December, well down on the more than 100,000 users it used to routinely add each quarter.

In response, it has focused on selling more products such as high definition TV and broadband to existing customers, and moving online to reach those not willing to sign up to a monthly contract. The approach has enabled the group to consistently post strong financial results and pay higher dividends.

“Although we expect the consumer environment in 2013 to remain challenging, we have a strong set of plans for the year ahead,” Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch said on Thursday.

Darroch said the group would offer its sports channels, which show everything from Premier League soccer to Formula One motor racing and cricket, on its new online service called Now TV in the next few months.

Viewers, who do not need to sign up to a contract, will be able to pay 9.99 pounds to watch all six Sky Sports channels for 24 hours. It has already shown movies via the online offering to 25,000 customers since its launch last year.

The new internet drive will help BSkyB compete with existing online services such as Lovefilm and with BT Vision, which has won the right to show its own sports content, but it is also having to bet that its existing customers will not downgrade to the cheaper online offering to save money.

CUSTOMER LOYALTY

The group’s performance in the first half of the year showed that, despite the pressures on consumer spending, customer loyalty had remained relatively solid, with subscribers spending on average 568 pounds a year, up 24 pounds on the year before.

“Net additions were slightly below our estimates reflecting the tough consumer environment,” analysts at Numis said. “(But) encouragingly, take up of new products continues to increase, driving customer satisfaction and loyalty.”

Those customers taking all three main services – TV, broadband and telephony – accounted for 33 percent of the user base, up 4 percentage points year on year.

The rise in customers helped the group to post first-half operating profit up 8 percent to 647 million pounds ($ 1 billion) against a forecast of 632 million pounds. Cost control helped the group pay an interim dividend up 20 percent to 11 pence.

“We believe the BSkyB investment case has evolved over the past year or so, with the challenging consumer environment making the addition of new households to the (pay-TV) service more difficult,” Numis said.

“The group has rightly prioritized the increased penetration of multiple products, notably HD and broadband, which drive average revenue per user and reduce churn over the medium/long term. We are supportive of investment in products such as Now TV which offer an attractive risk/return in our view.”

Shares in BSkyB were up 1 percent to 819 pence in mid-morning trade, following a 21 percent rise in the last 12 months, and valuing the group at 13.2 billion pounds.

(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Rhys Jones and Mark Potter)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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E-Trade Baby Has the Time of His Life in Super Bowl Commercial

If this is how his life begins, we can't wait to see him in his prime!

PICS: Inside Beyonce's Super Bowl Rehearsals!

In the new E-Trade Super Bowl commercial, America's favorite talking toddler shows what an investor could do with all the money they could potentially save as an E-Trade client.

Check out the hilarious clip above to see photos of the perennial infant balling out of control at hip nightclubs and posh yachts, complete with bikini clad women.

For another look at E-Trade's big game spot, visit the E-Trade baby's Facebook page.

VIDEO: Rogen & Rudd's Ideas Stifled in Super Bowl Ad

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Hagel was so bad ...

John Podhoretz

‘I’ve said many, many things over many, many years,” said Chuck Hagel, the president’s nominee for secretary of defense, in a Senate hearing yesterday. He was trying, for the umpteenth time during his testimony, to explain away another of the many, many impolitic statements that have come to light over the past couple of months.

Well, as a result of this confirmation hearing — the most disastrous of its kind since another veteran senator, John Tower, blew himself up in his pursuit of the same post back in 1989 — Hagel has probably lost many, many votes to confirm him as secretary of defense.

ZUMAPRESS.com

Embarassing: Defense Secretary-designate Chuck Hagel yesterday actually claimed it’s not a policy-making job, among endless other boners.

Though he was being asked about things he had said over the course of the past 15 years, it was what Hagel said yesterday — and how he said what he said — that had his defenders reeling in shock and even his critics aghast at how poorly he handled himself.

Hagel said many, many things yesterday — incoherent things, confused things, wrong things, untrue things, and things that seemed to contradict other things he had said previously. Some were about Israel, some about Iran, some about American policy.

First he said it was the policy of the Obama administration to “contain” Iran — meaning it will allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon and then try to box it in.

Now, that is exactly what many of us fear is the true policy of the Obama administration, especially in light of Hagel’s appointment.

For not only has Hagel spoken approvingly of engaging with the Iranians, he has his own checkered history when it comes to holding Iran to account. It includes voting against a 2007 resolution that declared the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps — perhaps the world’s foremost trainer and funder of state-sponsored terrorism — a terrorist organization.

In trying to defend that vote yesterday, he said he had done so (along with newly minted Secretary of State John Kerry) because it was an assault on an “elected, legitimate” government — by which he meant Iran’s theocracy. And because, he said, voting for the resolution would have given the Bush administration a green light to go to war with Iran.

Well, that ludicrous notion is in the past. What’s in the present is that the stated policy of the Obama administration toward the Iranian nuke is “prevention” — that it will not allow Iran to get the bomb, period, and will do what is necessary to ensure it doesn’t happen.

So Hagel corrected himself, kind of: “I was just handed a note that I misspoke — that I said I supported the president’s position on containment. If I said that, I meant to say that we don’t have a position on containment.” Whatever that means.

Later he said he was sorry he’d called the Iranian government elected and legitimate; rather, he should have said it was recognized.

“I don’t understand Iranian politics,” Hagel said — which would be understandable if, say, Khloe Kardashian were testifying. But Hagel is going to be a key official determining US policy toward Iran, and one would hope he’d bring a bit of pre-existing knowledge to the table.

He was also sorry to have said Israel keeps the Palestinians “caged in like wild animals.” Oh, and he didn’t mean to have drawn a moral equivalence between Israel and Hezbollah by referring to “the sickening slaughter on both sides” during a war inaugurated entirely by Hezbollah’s rockets.

As for American policy, he and his ex-friend Sen. John McCain got into quite a tussle over the surge in Iraq, which Hagel described before it began as “the worst foreign-policy disaster since Vietnam.”

This is something about which he was obviously mistaken — even if you think the war itself was a foreign-policy disaster, the surge certainly made it far less of one — and yet he could neither find the words to defend his 2007 view nor the words to say things had worked out differently from how he had expected them to go.

“There are a lot of things I don’t know about,” Hagel said, when it came to America’s defenses. “If confirmed, I intend to know a lot more than I do.”

But why should he bother? After all, he said in perhaps the most head-shaking comment of the day, “It doesn’t matter what I think.”

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) begged to differ: “It matters what you think,” she found herself saying in response.

Or maybe this was the most head-shaking comment: Defense secretary is “not a policymaking position,” and because he has to work in consultation with others and in service to the president, he won’t be “running anything.”

After yesterday, maybe he won’t. Because maybe, after this horror show, the Senate will decide it just can’t countenance confirming Chuck Hagel. That would be a shocker, but no less shocking than his performance.

jpodhoretz@gmail.com

Have a comment on this PostOpinion column? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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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.

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Suspicious note on rental car at MIA leads to evacuation

A floor of the Miami International Airport rental car center was evacuated Wednesday after a report of a threatening note left on a rental car.

Police spokesman Javier Baez said the note was found on a Hertz rental car at the Miami Intermodal Center, 3900 NW 25th St. Service on Metrorail’s Orange Line, which goes to the airport, was temporarily suspended, according to Miami Herald news partner CBS 4.

The note was determined to be a hoax after the vehicle was inspected, police said.

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RIM rebrands as BlackBerry; launches nifty new devices

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Research In Motion Ltd on Wednesday unveiled the long-delayed line of smartphones it hopes will put it on the comeback trail, but it disappointed investors by saying U.S. sales of its all-new BlackBerry 10 devices will not start until March, sending its share price tumbling 12 percent.

Chief Executive Thorsten Heins also announced that RIM was abandoning the name it has used since its inception in 1985 to take the name of its signature product, signaling his hopes for a fresh start for the company that pioneered on-your-hip email.

“From this point forward, RIM becomes BlackBerry,” Heins said at the New York launch. “It is one brand; it is one promise.”

RIM, which is already starting to call itself BlackBerry, had initially planned to launch the new BlackBerry 10 devices a year ago. But it pushed the release date back twice as it struggled to perfect a new operating system.

Ahead of Wednesday’s announcements, analysts had said that any launch after February would be a black mark for the Canada-based company.

“The biggest disappointment was the delay in the U.S., that it will take so long before the devices get going there,” said Eric Jackson, founder and managing Partner at Ironfire Capital LLC in New York.

Heins said the delays reflected the need for U.S. carrier testing, although carrier AT&T Inc offered few clues on what that meant. Instead, the carrier merely stated it was enthusiastic about the devices and would announce availability, pricing and other information at a later date.

“Carriers in all other parts of the world get their devices through the testing process significantly faster than the U.S. carriers do,” said John Jackson, an analyst at IDC, adding that the U.S. process can often take “weeks” longer.

Nevertheless investors were extremely disappointed with the delay and RIM shares on the Nasdaq ended the day 12 percent lower at $ 13.78. Its Toronto-listed shares fell by almost the same margin to close at C$ 13.86.

RIM launched its first BlackBerry back in 1999 as a way for busy executives to stay in touch with their clients and their offices, and the company quickly cornered the market for secure corporate and government emails.

But its star faded as competition rose and the BlackBerry is now a far-behind also-ran in the race for market share, with a 3.4 percent global showing in the fourth quarter – down from 20 percent three years before. Its North American market share is even smaller – a mere 2 percent in the fourth quarter.

RIM shares have tumbled along with the company’s market share and the stock is down 90 percent since its 2008 peak. Despite the pullback on Wednesday, RIM‘s share price has more than doubled over the last four months, reflecting the growing buzz about its new devices.

TOUCH COMPETITION

The new BlackBerry 10 phones will compete with Apple’s iPhone and devices using Google’s Android technology, both of which have soared above the BlackBerry in a competitive market.

The BlackBerry 10 devices boast fast browsers, new features, smart cameras and – unlike previous BlackBerry models – enter the market primed with a large application library, including services such as Skype and the popular game Angry Birds.

The BlackBerry Z10 touchscreen device, in black or white, will be the first to hit the market, with a country-by-country rollout that starts in Britain on Thursday.

A Q10 model, equipped with a small “qwerty” keyboard that RIM made into its trademark, will launch globally in April.

“I’m still confident that a lot of the subscriber base are going to want the upgrade to BlackBerry 10. It’s a very strong improvement over what they currently have. This is not going to cause mass defections from iOS and Android, but it doesn’t have to be a success for RIM. You’ve got to start somewhere,” said Jackson of Ironfire, which owns shares in RIM.

The Z10 device won a lukewarm review from The Wall Street Journal’s tech blogger Walt Mossberg, who complained of a shortage of apps.

On the other hand, David Pogue, who writes for The New York Times, apologized for describing BlackBerry as doomed in the past. The Z10 touchscreen device was “lovely, fast and efficient, bristling with fresh, useful ideas,” he said.

While technology analysts conceded that RIM has done quite a remarkable job on many of the features of BlackBerry 10 and on the array of its app selection for a new platform, many argue it will be a very tough slog for RIM to regain its crown.

“I don’t think that RIM will return to its glory days,” said Charles Golvin, analyst at Forrester Research. “Success for them looks like staunching the bleeding and clawing back a percentage or point or two of market share.”

Announcements about pricing so far have been in line with expectations. U.S. carrier Verizon Wireless said the phone would cost $ 199 for a two-year contract, while Canada’s Rogers Communications is quoting C$ 149 ($ 150) for certain three-year plans.

GLITZY LAUNCH

RIM picked a range of venues for its global launch parties, including Dubai’s $ 650-a-night Armani Hotel, which occupies six floors of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower.

The New York event took place in a sprawling basketball facility on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, just north of the Manhattan Bridge. The BlackBerry has been “Re-designed. Re-engineered. Re-invented,” RIM said.

RIM, which is splurging on a Super Bowl ad to promote its new phones, also introduced Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Alicia Keys as its global creative director.

“I was in a long-term relationship with BlackBerry and then I started to notice some new, kind of hotter, attractive, sexier phones at the gym, and I kind of broke up with you for something that had a little more bling,” Keys said at the New York launch.

“But I always missed the way you organized my life and the way you were there for me at my job, and so I started to have two phones – I was kind of playing the field. But then … you added a lot more features … and now, we’re exclusively dating again, and I’m very happy,” she said.

($ 1=$ 1.0029 Canadian)

(Writing by Janet Guttsman; editing by Frank McGurty, Lisa Von Ahn, Peter Galloway, G Crosse)

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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First Look at Iron Man 3 Super Bowl Trailer

Tony Stark is back!

ET was first to preview Iron Man 3's highly anticipated Super Bowl spot tonight, and just in case you missed it, you can watch the :10 second teaser right here!

Pics: Stars on Set!

Be sure to tune in Sunday for the full spot.

In theaters May 3, 2013, Iron Man 3 pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy's hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

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Just sold!

Manhattan

HARLEM $1,995,000

111 Central Park North

Three-bedroom, three-bath condo, 1,914 square feet, with glass balcony, floor-to-ceiling windows, walk-in closet, washer/dryer and Central Park views; building features doorman, parking, roof deck, gym and party room. Common charges $2,170, taxes $467. Asking price $1,995,000, on market 34 weeks. Brokers: Michael Rosenblum, Douglas Elliman and Kristina Ojdanic, The Corcoran Group

UPPER EAST SIDE $1,400,000

300 E. 74th St.

Two-bedroom, two-bath co-op, 1,450 square feet, with windowed kitchen, dining room and balcony; building features doorman, gym, laundry and storage. Maintenance $2,042, 45 percent tax-deductible. Asking price $1,425,000, on market 21 weeks. Brokers: David Wolfenson, Maxwell Jacobs and Linda Chen, The Corcoran Group

Westchester

BEDFORD HILLS $2,385,000

33 Bedford Center Road

Five-bedroom, five-bath stone house, 6,731 square feet, with two-story conservatory, formal living and dining rooms, family room, guest wing and four antique fireplaces; landscaped property features fenced yard, pool and tennis court. Taxes $45,923. Asking price $2,750,000, on market 50 weeks. Broker: Angela Kessel, Houlihan Lawrence

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In later life, many Americans turn to ‘encore careers’

Don Causey was beginning to plan his retirement, selling off his profitable sporting newsletters when his life took a horrific turn. While on a safari on a long anticipated trip to Africa, a tree tumbled onto him, breaking his back. The process of getting a medical transport to take him from a remote village back to Miami proved arduous and costly.

Today Causey’s back is healed and at 70 he finds himself in a post retirement career — consulting for a company that sells travel memberships that include medical evacuation benefits. It’s a profitable part-time gig that Causey believes is an important service to travelers. Plus, he says, “It keeps my mind alive and keeps me connected with a community I care about, just in a different way.”

Like Causey, most Americans are crafting their own version of meaningful work in their later stages of life. It’s a direction that brings balance and an ability to be impactful in a whole new way.

“More and more people — sometimes by necessity, sometimes by choice — are forgoing traditional retirement and investing a new state of life and work,” says Marci Alboher, with and author of The Encore Career Handbook.

Alboher is part of a movement that has named this later-in-life stage “encore careers,” paid or volunteer work that has a social impact. An encore career can last from a few years to 20 or more. While 9 million Baby Boomers already have entered their encore phase, another 31 million will soon make the leap in that direction, according to Encore.org, a nonprofit organization that promotes second acts for the greater good.

The concept of an encore career is being buoyed by a convergence of trends: financial realities, layoffs, long life spans and the desire for a more purposeful existence during the aging process. “It’s a way to leave a mark that makes things better for future generations,” explains Alboher. “But usually it’s not quick or easy. It’s a slow metamorphosis involving baby steps, detours, persistence, creativity and a do-it-yourself spirit.”

An encore career job might be a nurse or health aide. It could be a teacher, tutor or fundraiser, founder of a nonprofit, or even an entrepreneur that solves a social problem. For many, it has become the answer to “now what?” and “what will be my legacy?”

Knowing what’s ahead, some people plan their encore career for years, beginning as early as their 50s. They use travel time to build alliances or weekends to take a community college course.

Though he’s far from retirement age, my 50-year-old husband surely will need an encore career. Even now, he can’t sit still on days off from work, filling his days with house projects and coming up with new ones once the current list is exhausted. Yet he regularly talks about how he looks forward to retirement — a disaster-in-the-making for a man without a mission.

The reignite-rather-than-retire movement has been recent, but it may already have played a role in curbing the high rate of suicide for older males. David Cohen, author of Out of the Blue, and a professor of psychology at University of Texas had previously discovered a high rate of suicide for males in the 65-to-74 year old age group, observing that this set was susceptible because of its preoccupation with lost status and higher risk of apathy and isolation. That high rate has lowered in recent years.

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South Miami police supplier hires chief's son

The Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics said last week that the South Miami Police Department can continue to purchase equipment from Lou’s Police Distributors, a company that recently hired the police chief’s son.

“The son has no direct or indirect financial ownership in the company and will not be involved in the local contract, or profit from it,” the commission on ethics said in a press release.

Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro had asked for the opinion.

The opinion comes at time when a majority of the commission wants Martinez de Castro out of a job. The chief has a case pending with the commission on ethics, after investigators reported finding evidence there were a few transactions involving the police department and his wife’s business. Also, Mayor Philip Stoddard has been accusing the chief of breaking state rules when he signed off on a $9,998 gun repair expense that used state forfeiture funds to pay for gun repairs at Lou’s Police Distributors.

Stoddard said that the police department broke Florida rules of use, because the purchase was an operating expense and it was not part of an “extraordinary” program.

Meanwhile, the chief’s eldest son, Christopher Martinez de Castro, is the new vice president of international sales at Lou’s Police Distributors, which has been a South Miami supplier for about two years, has contracts with many departments in Miami-Dade County and also sells weapons and tactical equipment in Central and South America.

“It’s an entirely different department. Where the city will piggyback on a bigger contract to get a better deal, I work with clients from around the world,” the chief’s son said. “I have nothing to do with sales to South Miami – absolutely nothing. It is just being brought up because they [commissioners] want to attack him.”

Stoddard and his supporters have been poring over public records related to the chief’s use of public funds. Most recently, Stoddard threatened to file a lawsuit against the city, after Maj. Ana Baixauli refused to release records related to ongoing criminal investigations, which are exempt from the state’s public records law.

Commissioners have accused the chief of abusing his position to target those who oppose him, after two commissioners’ friends were arrested — including Commissioner Bob Welsh’s friend who was a homeless Canadian undocumented migrant with a criminal record.

Commissioner Walter Harris said Martinez de Castro has continued to show a special interest in cases involving politicians’ friends and family. The chief has said that his officers have only been doing their job when the politicians’ friends and family have broken the law, because “any special treatment” would mean breaking the law.

On Jan. 5, Harris’ wife, Eda Sagi Harris, who has been active in South Miami politics for years, damaged a parked silver Honda Odyssey while backing out of a parking space at the Dadeland Station Mall garage in Southeast Miami-Dade. She was driving the commissioner’s blue Toyota Corolla and told police that she “scratched” the car but left the scene, because she didn’t “hit it.”

Several cars from Miami-Dade police and South Miami police showed up at her home, after surveillance video identified her. Miami-Dade police cited her for “leaving the scene of an accident,” which is a misdemeanor. The police reports referred to the incident as a hit-and-run and estimated the “minor” damage at $500.

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New BlackBerry to Be ‘Most Comprehensive in Mobile History’

RIM is finally ready with its answer to Apple’s iPhone and the many Android smartphones. After months of delays, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins, along with others from the company, will take the stage Wednesday in New York to unveil the final version of BlackBerry 10, the next version of RIM’s phone software, and the phones that will run it.

“We expect tomorrow to really be the kickoff for the introduction of Blackberry 10,” RIM’s Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben told ABC News in a phone interview. “We have been engaged for quite a period of time with the two main constituents — the carriers and the developers — and we’ve already said we are in the labs of more than 150 carriers around the world.”

Column: BlackBerry Burden: What RIM Must Do to Come Back

With more than 150 wireless carriers around the world planning to offer the latest BlackBerry, Boulben says it will be the most “comprehensive launch,” not only for the company, but in the history of the mobile industry.

“This makes it the most comprehensive launch in mobile history. There has never been a platform launching with that many carriers,” he said. When the iPhone 5 made its debut in September it actually had more — Apple said there would be 240 carriers by December. But Boulben points out that BlackBerry 10 is an entirely new operating system that doesn’t share a single line of code with previous BlackBerry software; the iPhone 5 and iOS 6, by contrast, was essentially an upgrade.

At Wednesday’s event the company will show its new handsets in detail. RIM is expected to release a touch-screen device called the Z10 and another with a physical keyboard. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon have said they will carry devices that run the new software. Boulben also said RIM will highlight major differences between BlackBerry 10 and the other leading mobile phone platforms.

“We are highly differentiated in four areas,” Boulben said. The first is with communications — RIM has designed the software around a messaging hub and new multitasking features. The second: the touch keyboard, which predicts words as you are typing them. Lastly, RIM says its BlackBerry Messenger and its BlackBerry Balance feature, which separates work from personal uses on the phone, set it apart.

Boulben would not address specifically how much market share RIM is hoping to gain back in the U.S., having lost the lead it had in the last decade. According to Kantar Worldpane ComTech’s data released in November 2012, the BlackBerry brand only had 1.6 percent of the American smartphone market. The iPhone had 48.1 percent of the market and Android had 46.7.

“It’s a change in smartphone experience — the dominant paradigm, introduced six years ago, was great and revolutionary at the time. But six years is a long time for a technology cycle, with a new user experience with a clear focus we have the opportunity to take market share back,” Boulben said.

RIM CMO: BlackBerry 10 Will Make Others Look Outdated

While RIM is of course bullish about its new products, it faces one big challenge it might not be able to control: apps. While the platform might be innovative, it will trail behind the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in variety of apps. Boulben says the momentum around apps is strong and that Wednesday the BlackBerry World store will launch with 70,000 new apps.

RIM BlackBerry 10 Launch

Apps that worked on previous BlackBerry 7 devices won’t work on the BlackBerry 10 platform, since it is completely new. Analysts say that apps are bound to be the pain point for the platform, but it’s not too late to rule out RIM from taking back at least some of what it has lost.

“Given the speed that the market is moving, it’s hard to be dismissive of RIM given the strength of their brand and continued loyalty of many users,” Michael Gartenberg, Gartner Research Director, told ABC News. “It will be important for RIM to show tomorrow how they’ve evolved the BlackBerry to meet the challenges of other platforms and at the same time show positive differentiation.”

And that seems to be exactly RIM’s plan. “The time was right to switch to a new platform, one that will allow us to continue true to our DNA but also take it to the next level,” Boulben said. “It is a major undertaking for the company. It has been two years in the making, but we are ready.”

RIM’s BlackBerry 10 event begins at 10:00 a.m. ET on Jan. 30, 2013. ABC News will be reporting on the news throughout the day.

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James Franco Disses Amazing Spider Man

It seems Spider-Man alum James Franco isn't too keen about the recent relaunch of the web-slinging franchise starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone.

In an interview with MTV News, Franco (who played Peter Parker's frenemy Harry Osborn in the series) is asked to share his thoughts on director Marc Webb's follow up to Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. His response was not exactly positive.

Pics: Amazing New 'Spider-Man' Posters

"Ehhhhh," answered Franco with hesitation. "They could have strayed a little bit more from the original… It was like, 'Why?'"

Both Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man series spin the tale of Peter Parker's journey to becoming NYC's crime-fighting vigilante, but Franco appears to imply that the team behind the reboot failed to get to the heart of the beloved tale, opting instead for profit over perfection.

Related: Emma & Andrew Spin New 'Spider-Man' Tales

"I guess they made a lot of money. Congrats. Good for them. Sam and I moved on. We made Oz."

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Ground Zero’s new face: No substitute for the twins

The Issue: The almost complete 1 World Trade Center at Ground Zero and its affect on the skyline.

***

If Steve Cuozzo thinks that freedom is singing at Ground Zero, he is seriously tone-deaf (“Freedom Sings,” PostScript, Jan. 27).

If Cuozzo were really a part of the common rabble, he would never have written a column that tried to build the Freedom Tower up by tearing the Twin Towers down.

Doesn’t he understand that when he attacks the Twin Towers, he is attacking the millions who thought they were marvelous?

Doesn’t he know that his propaganda gives aid and comfort to those who feel free to blow the public’s money?

J.C. Rice

View of 1 World Trade Center from Jersey City.

For years he has been cheerleading for a building that almost no one wanted and that is sucking commuters dry at Port Authority crossings.

It’s bad enough that the public is heavily subsidizing the rebuilding of Ground Zero, while Larry Silverstein gets a free ride.

Cuozzo’s effort to demolish the Twin Towers’ reputation was way over the top. M. L. Donovan

Manhattan

In regard to the newly built One World Trade Center, as beautiful as it looks, we need to have a second tower built.

Our hearts and the New York City skyline cry out for its twin.

James Lautier

Windsor, Conn.

Neither I nor anyone I know has anything but contempt for that travesty of a building.

It belongs in Cincinnati or Singapore, but not where the Twin Towers once stood.

Cuozzo didn’t like the Twin Towers, and he’s welcome to his opinion, but many of us did.

Furthermore, unlike 1 WTC, the Twin Towers were memorable, inspiring and the recognized signature of the Big Apple.

They were used as the establishing shot for almost every movie filmed in New York City from the time they were finished to the time they came down.

They were us. The Freedom Tower will never represent New York to the world.

It’s just another mediocre building in the skyline.

Now the Port Authority, meaning the toll-paying public, is on the hook for at least $7.5 billion for a project we don’t want and shouldn’t have had to pay for.

We’ve been played for suckers by Silverstein and his shills in the press. Only in New York.Richard Hughes

Manhattan

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Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge opens for entries

Entrepreneurs, please don’t let the name of our contest scare you.

As we launch our 15th annual Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge today, we are putting out our annual call for entries. But we aren’t looking for long, laboriously detailed business plans. Quite the contrary.

More and more, today’s investors in very early stage companies want to see a succinct presentation of your concept and how you plan to turn it into a success. We do, too.

If you have a business idea or an operating startup that is less than two years old, you can enter the Challenge, our annual celebration of South Florida entrepreneurship. Sponsored by the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center at Florida International University, our contest has three tracks — a Community Track, open to all South Floridians; an FIU Track, open to students and alumni of that university; and a High School Track, co-sponsored by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

Your entry may be up to three pages and you may attach one additional page for a photo, rendering, diagram or spreadsheet if you wish. Think of it as a meaty executive summary. Experts in all aspects of entrepreneurship — serial entrepreneurs, executives, investors, advisors and finance specialists (see judge bios on MiamiHerald.com/challenge) — will judge your short plan. In doing so, they will be looking at your product or service’s value to the customer, market opportunity, business model, management team and your marketing and financial strategies. See the rules on page 22, which also include tips on preparing your entry.

Your entry is due by 11:59 p.m. March 11. Entries should be sent to challenge@miamiherald.com, fiuchallenge@miamiherald.com or highschoolchallenge@miamiherald.com.

Don’t worry, we’re here to help!

“Frame your business from your customer’s perspective and not yours. Rather than diving into a detailed explanation of your product or service, a more compelling way to tell your business story is to clearly share the problem that you are solving for your customers and how your business is different, better, faster, cooler, cheaper, smarter,” says Melissa Krinzman, managing director of Venture Architects and a veteran Challenge judge.

On Feb 26 at 6:30 p.m. at Miami Dade College, we’ll host a free Business Plan Bootcamp, where you can bring your working plan with you for advice from experts, including Krinzman. Find the sign-up link on MiamiHerald.com/challenge.

And each week in Business Monday and on MiamiHerald.com/challenge, we’ll be bringing you advice and answering your questions. You can post your questions on the Q&A on MiamiHerald.com/challenge or email your questions to me at ndahlberg@miamiherald.com. Follow @ndahlberg on Twitter.

The top six finalists in the Community and FIU Tracks will present their 90-second elevator pitches for our popular video contest. Last year our People’s Pick contest drew more than 18,000 votes.

On May 6, in a special section of Business Monday, we will profile the winners — the judges’ top three selections in each track plus the People’s Pick winners. Along the way, we will unveil semifinalists and finalists to keep the suspense building.

Today, though, we are looking back on the entrepreneurial journeys of our 2012 winners. Funding was a nearly universal challenge, and many faced setbacks in developing their platforms. Throughout the entry period, we’ll also look back on other winners from the past 14 years.

Show us what you’ve got. Let’s make this the best Challenge yet.

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Lauderhill police investigating homicide; searching for suspect

Lauderhill police Monday night were investigating an apparent homicide.

Details were sketchy, but police said just before 9 p.m. a woman was shot and killed on the 2800 block of Northwest 55th Avenue.

The victim was dead at the scene.

K-9 units were in the area searching for a possible suspect and a public information officer is now at the scene.

This story will be updated as more details are available.

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His cat, his lunch and a high five: Harper’s day chronicled on Twitter

OTTAWA – One of the cardinal rules of social media: no one cares what you had for lunch. Unless, perhaps, you’re the prime minister.

The people behind Stephen Harper‘s Twitter account are using the first day of Parliament’s winter sitting to provide an intimate look at how the prime minister spends his day.

The posts include a video of Harper’s ride to work, photos of breakfast with his cat Stanley and a lunch that included fruit and a Diet Coke at his desk.

The behind-the-scenes look is the latest move by Harper’s team to bolster his presence on social media platforms.

Digital public affairs analyst Mark Blevis says it’s likely an effort to rebrand Harper in the lead-up to the next election, where he’ll face off against politicians far more adept online.

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2013 SAGs: ET Crowns Best and Worst Dressed Star

Who took the top (and bottom) spot this year?

Anne Hathaway, Kerry Washington, Jessica Chastain and Amanda Seyfried earned rave reviews for their fashionably flawless turns on the 2013 Screen Actor's Guild Award's red carpet on Sunday, but only one actress has the notable distinction of being crowned ET's best-dressed star.

Pics: The SAG Awards Fashion Tops & Flops

Click the video to see which lovely lady earned our highest praise! Plus, we reveal our worst-dressed celeb at the SAGs.

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NYC’s murder freeze

Murder took a break last week — New York enjoyed a 10-day stretch without a single homicide, a span that ended Saturday with a shooting in Queens at 6:03 p.m.

Many chalked it up to the frigid temperatures that descended on the city. But it was even icier in the Midwest. And yet that didn’t stop Chicago from seeing 12 people murdered with guns over the same 10-day stretch, including six men on Saturday night alone.

So far this January, Chicago has suffered 41 murders to New York’s 21, even though the Second City has less than a third of New York’s population.

AP

Raymond Kelly

Clearly, it’s not Old Man Winter who’s deterring killings in New York. It’s Ray Kelly and the policies he has pursued as police commissioner.

Fact is, 10 murder-free days on Kelly’s watch is stunning but not a total aberration: Homicides dropped to a record low in New York last year — 418, the fewest since the city began recording the data in 1963.

That good news comes thanks to great work by the nation’s finest police force, but again, this success is not just a matter of more feet on the ground. Chicago has just about as many cops per resident as New York, yet that hasn’t done anything to reduce that city’s alarming murder rate.

Which suggests that the NYPD’s style of policing has something to teach other cities about fighting crime. It begins with political will. From the start, Mayor Bloomberg has given Kelly the backing he needs for his aggressive program of clearing guns from New York’s streets.

In Chicago, by contrast, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has focused his fire on gunmakers instead of criminals. Last Friday he wrote to two major banks urging them to stop lending money to firearms manufacturers.

The grandstanding didn’t do anything, of course, to stop crime. The same day, a man was shot to death in Chicago. The day after, six more.

The point is that the best police cannot function without strong political backing for the often unpopular policies that save lives — including the much-criticized practice of stop-question-frisk used to great effect by the NYPD. For effective policing is always under assault: Just look at what federal Judge Shira Scheindlin is doing to render stop-and-frisk illegal.

That is pure folly. New Yorkers should celebrate the fruits of Kelly’s labors: not just 10 days of relative peace in a bustling city, but untold lives saved all year round.

And pity poor Chicago, which cannot.

Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge opens for entries

Entrepreneurs, please don’t let the name of our contest scare you.

As we launch our 15th annual Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge today, we are putting out our annual call for entries. But we aren’t looking for long, laboriously detailed business plans. Quite the contrary.

More and more, today’s investors in very early stage companies want to see a succinct presentation of your concept and how you plan to turn it into a success. We do, too.

If you have a business idea or an operating startup that is less than two years old, you can enter the Challenge, our annual celebration of South Florida entrepreneurship. Sponsored by the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center at Florida International University, our contest has three tracks — a Community Track, open to all South Floridians; an FIU Track, open to students and alumni of that university; and a High School Track, co-sponsored by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

Your entry may be up to three pages and you may attach one additional page for a photo, rendering, diagram or spreadsheet if you wish. Think of it as a meaty executive summary. Experts in all aspects of entrepreneurship — serial entrepreneurs, executives, investors, advisors and finance specialists (see judge bios on MiamiHerald.com/challenge) — will judge your short plan. In doing so, they will be looking at your product or service’s value to the customer, market opportunity, business model, management team and your marketing and financial strategies. See the rules on page 22, which also include tips on preparing your entry.

Your entry is due by 11:59 p.m. March 11. Entries should be sent to challenge@miamiherald.com, fiuchallenge@miamiherald.com or highschoolchallenge@miamiherald.com.

Don’t worry, we’re here to help!

“Frame your business from your customer’s perspective and not yours. Rather than diving into a detailed explanation of your product or service, a more compelling way to tell your business story is to clearly share the problem that you are solving for your customers and how your business is different, better, faster, cooler, cheaper, smarter,” says Melissa Krinzman, managing director of Venture Architects and a veteran Challenge judge.

On Feb 26 at 6:30 p.m. at Miami Dade College, we’ll host a free Business Plan Bootcamp, where you can bring your working plan with you for advice from experts, including Krinzman. Find the sign-up link on MiamiHerald.com/challenge.

And each week in Business Monday and on MiamiHerald.com/challenge, we’ll be bringing you advice and answering your questions. You can post your questions on the Q&A on MiamiHerald.com/challenge or email your questions to me at ndahlberg@miamiherald.com. Follow @ndahlberg on Twitter.

The top six finalists in the Community and FIU Tracks will present their 90-second elevator pitches for our popular video contest. Last year our People’s Pick contest drew more than 18,000 votes.

On May 6, in a special section of Business Monday, we will profile the winners — the judges’ top three selections in each track plus the People’s Pick winners. Along the way, we will unveil semifinalists and finalists to keep the suspense building.

Today, though, we are looking back on the entrepreneurial journeys of our 2012 winners. Funding was a nearly universal challenge, and many faced setbacks in developing their platforms. Throughout the entry period, we’ll also look back on other winners from the past 14 years.

Show us what you’ve got. Let’s make this the best Challenge yet.

Read More..

Free-market conservative leads Gov. Rick Scott’s jobs agency

TALLAHASSEE --
The Department of Economic Opportunity is one of the most critical agencies in Gov. Rick Scott’s administration, and it has run through four directors — two permanent, two interim — since it launched 16 months ago.

After the fleeting tenures of three bureaucrats and a banker, Scott’s handpicked director, Jesse Panuccio, began his term as the agency’s fifth director three weeks ago.

Panuccio, a 32-year-old attorney, is an outside-the-box choice for jobs chief. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 2006 and has been on Scott’s legal team since 2011, becoming the governor’s chief litigant last year.

After defending some of Scott’s most controversial laws in the courtroom, Panuccio faces the crucial task of executing the governor’s job-creation strategy from the state’s official boardroom.

“I chose Jesse for three reasons,” Scott said in a statement. “He is a problem solver, he is a skilled manager of people and he is experienced at holding people and organizations accountable.”

After graduating from Harvard Law, Panuccio clerked for a federal judge and then joined a boutique law firm in Washington, D.C. The New Jersey native said he took the Florida Bar Exam after spending much of his childhood vacationing in the Sunshine State, and was drawn to Scott’s campaign message in 2010. He left Washington and joined the governor’s transition team as deputy general counsel in January 2011.

Throughout Panuccio’s brief professional career, he has fought legal battles in support of conservative causes ranging from gun rights to traditional marriage to state’s rights. His new position will require a full embrace of Scott’s conservative job-creation agenda: less regulation, taxation and litigation.

“My overall view is that the economy, the free market flourishes when government gets out of the way,” he said.

The Department of Economic Opportunity, or DEO, is 1,600-person agency responsible for overseeing many of the state’s economic development initiatives. Created by Scott in 2011, DEO runs Florida’s unemployment compensation system, collaborates job training efforts with regional workforce boards and oversees business incentives programs. As the $140,000-a-year director, Panuccio leads efforts to coordinate local and regional job-creation efforts, and implement an overarching economic development vision for the future.

He shares Scott’s small-government approach to creating jobs, and embraces using taxpayer incentives to draw companies to Florida.

“I do think incentives, especially in a recessionary period like this, are a targeted way of reducing taxation and enhancing the business climate for competitive projects,” he said. “It is a reality right now that we’re competing with other states and other countries for these companies.”

So far, Scott’s approach on jobs has had mixed results. Florida’s economy has improved in the last two years with a rapid decline in unemployment, but job growth is considerably slower than the national pace and wages continue to lag.

Meanwhile, DEO has come under fire — and a federal probe — for restricting access to unemployment compensation benefits, making Florida one of the least generous states in the nation for those who are eligible for aid.

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