Left’s misfire

The left’s incessant blaming of weapons and those who manufacture them for gun violence absolves those who pull the triggers and actually commit the crimes (“Moral Grandstanding,” George Will, PostOpinion, Feb. 4).

Because a large amount of gun violence is traced to gangs, that would seem a good place to start solving the problem.

President Obama’s executive orders did not address this issue. Rahm Emanuel as mayor of Chicago has also done nothing in this regard, and the murders there, especially among young minorities, continue like clockwork.

Yet liberal politicians continue to foment fear about legally licensed gun owners who live outside of urban areas.

Herb Eichen, Bayside

UMEZ’s mission

The Post’s editorial represents a new and reckless low in its campaign to discredit UMEZ (“NY’s Profitable ‘Nonprofits,’” Feb. 3).

It contains numerous inaccuracies and falsehoods, and most outrageously, hurls the baseless accusation of “graft” at an effective local-development corporation.

UMEZ has prudently invested over $230 million of public funds into the upper Manhattan economy, leveraged over $1 billion of private investment and created more than 8,000 jobs and one of the most successful urban revitalization initiatives.

Vital investments in Harlem USA, East River Plaza, Gotham Plaza, Best Yet Market, The Apollo, Studio Museum of Harlem, El Museo del Barrio, Museum of the City of New York and numerous small businesses, have helped transform Upper Manhattan.

Gov. Cuomo has modeled his regional approach to economic development based upon UMEZ’s success.

Sadly, The Post ignored these facts, and attempted to make a ridiculous categorical link between UMEZ and two former politicians outside of Manhattan.

Kenneth Knuckles, President and CEO, Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, Manhattan

Upstate waits...

Bob McManus scores a solid point about Gov. Cuomo’s poll-driven policies (“Cuomo’s Nixon Game,” PostOpinion, Feb. 8).

Cuomo does, in fact, have an upstate economic-development policy. So what if the policy is to bless the totally wretched and very sad-in-human-terms casino industry?

The governor has an environmental policy. So what if the “policy” is to study to death a job- and wealth-producing industry — natural-gas fracking — for our upstate economy?

I am convinced we can develop sound policies for leveraging our natural resources without wreaking environmental havoc and do so faster than the Egyptians built the pyramids.

John McMahon, Manhattan

Hungry for jobs

What’s so disgusting about this show is how it uses people to create entertainment, showcasing just how desperate they are to find work (“America’s Hunger Games,” Maureen Callahan, PostScript, Feb. 3).

The sadder reality is that the unemployment situation is very fixable.

Obama and most who have studied economics know this.

Our free-market economy is nothing more than people and companies making and selling products, and buyers purchasing what they want.

It’s only when government gets in the way that things go bad and the economy slows down.

D. Richardson, Bridgeport, Conn.

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Sign up for Feb. 21 Miami Herald Small Business Forum

Prepare your best pitch for the Miami Herald’s Small Business Forum, Feb. 21 at the south campus of our sponsor, Florida International University.

In addition to how-to panels and inspirational stories from successful entrepreneurs, our annual small business forum will include interactive opportunities with experts to learn about financing options and polish your personal and business brands.

During our finance panel, audience volunteers will be invited to explain their financing needs to the group. During our box-lunch session, they will be invited to pitch their business or personal brand to our coaches.

Those who prefer just to listen will be treated to a keynote address by Alberto Perlman, co-founder of the global fitness craze Zumba. Panels include success stories from the local entrepreneurs who founded Sedano’s, Jennifer’s Homemade and ReStockIt.com; finance tips from experts in small business loans, venture capital, angel investments and traditional bank loans; and insiders in the burgeoning South Florida tech start-up scene.

Plus, it’s a real bargain. $25 includes the half-day seminar, continental breakfast and a box lunch.

Register here.

Program

8 a.m.

Registration and continental breakfast, provided by Bill Hansen Catering

8:30 a.m. Welcome

Host: David Suarez, president and CEO, Interactive Training Solutions, LLC

•  Jerry Haar, PhD, associate dean & director, FIU Eugenio Pino and Family Global

Entrepreneurship Center

•  Alice Horn, executive director, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE South Florida)

•  Jane Wooldridge, Business editor, The Miami Herald

Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge Overview:

•  Nancy Dahlberg, Business Plan Challenge coordinator, The Miami Herald

8:45 a.m. Session I – Success Stories

Moderator: Jerry Haar, PhD, associate dean & director, FIU Eugenio Pino and Family Global

Entrepreneurship Center

Speakers:

•  Jennifer Behar, founder, Jennifer’s Homemade

•  Matt Kuttler, co-president of ReStockIt.com

•  Javier Herrán, chief marketing officer, Sedano’s Supermarkets

10 a.m. Session II – All about Tech

Moderator: Jane Wooldridge, Business editor, The Miami Herald

Speakers

•  Susan Amat, founder, Launch Pad Tech

•  Nancy Borkowski, executive director, Health Management Programs, Chapman Graduate School of

Business, Florida International University

•  Mark Slaughter, CEO, Cohealo.com

•  Chris Fleck, vice president of mobility solutions at Citrix and a director of the South Florida Tech Alliance

11:15 a.m. Keynote

Speaker: Alberto Perlman, CEO and co-founder of Zumba® Fitness

Introduction: Jane Wooldridge, business editor, The Miami Herald

11:45 a.m. Session III – Show me the money: Financing your small business

An interactive session featuring audience volunteers who will be invited to make a short investment pitch before a panel, including experts in microlending, SBA loans, traditional bank loans, venture capital and angel investing. Audience volunteers should come prepared with a two-minute presentation that includes details about current backing, how much money they are seeking and a brief synosis of ow that money would be used.

Moderator: Melissa Krinzman, founder and managing director, Venture Architects

Panelists:

•  Marjorie Weber, chairman, SCORE of Miami-Dade

•  Cornell Crews, Jr., program director, Partners for Self Employment

•  Darius G. Nevin, co-founder, G3 Capital Partners, a mid-market and early-stage investment company

•  Boris Hirmas Said, chairman of the board, Tres Mares S.A. (Santiago, Chile) and entrepreneur in

residence at the Eugenio Pino and Family Global Entrepreneurship Center

1 p.m. Lunch session - Polish your Pitch, Brighten Your Personal Brand

An interactive session featuring audience volunteers who will be invited to make short pitches about their businesses and themselves. Audience volunteers should come prepared with a two-minute presentation.

Coaches: Melissa Krinzman of Venture Architects and Michelle Villalobos of Mivista Consulting

advise audience volunteers on how to best pitch themselves and their products.

Box lunch provided by Bill Hansen Catering

All speakers confirmed unless otherwise noted. Agenda is subject to change without notice .

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Red light camera opponents find questionable champion in Rep. Campbell

Opponents of red-light cameras could have found a better advocate for their cause than state Rep. Daphne Campbell, D-Miami, who is sponsoring a bill to outlaw the practice.

A Honda minivan registered to her husband, Hubert, has five red-light camera violations, according to records obtained by the Herald/Times from American Traffic Solutions, or ATS, a Scottsdale, Ariz. vendor that provides the cameras for most cities and counties in Florida.

Two of the tickets, a May 10, 2010, violation in North Miami and a July 16, 2010, violation in Hallandale Beach, remain uncollected.

A ticket costs $158. If unpaid, a traffic citation is issued and may result in the termination of the vehicle registration and suspension of the owner’s driver’s license.

ATS provided a photo of the Honda Odyssey minivan at one of the violations. It has a Campbell campaign sticker on it. Two videos show the minivan making reckless turns on red, one left and the other right.

When reached Friday night, Campbell explained she was filing the bill for her constituents.

“My constituents complained and the people are hurting,” Campbell said. “I promised them when I went to Tallahassee that I would repeal the red-light cameras.”

Asked about the five tickets, Campbell said she didn’t know about them. Or at least four of them. She said she did know about a ticket she received in the mail for an Oct. 22 Miami Gardens violation.

But she said she had no clue about the others.

“Something is definitely wrong,” Campbell said. “You are the one who just told me about it. This is news to me.”

Despite the video footage of the minivan blowing through the red lights, Campbell wasn’t buying it.

“It’s a lie,” she said. “That camera is a made up story. You can do anything with the computer now.”

ATS spokesman Charles Territo said it was unlikely Campbell wouldn’t have gotten notice of the tickets, and he vouched for the accuracy of his company’s records and the photographic evidence.

“I don’t know how she wouldn’t know, unless her husband didn’t tell her,” Territo said. “Someone there knows about them because three have been paid.”

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Inside the 55th Annual Grammy Awards Gift Lounge with LL Cool J

Sunday's Grammy Awards will feature LL Cool J's second turn as host for the big show, but even this seasoned professional gets a few butterflies now and again.

ET caught up with the NCIS: Los Angeles star in a free moment as he perused the Grammy Gift Lounge, presented by MTG, featuring signature headwear by New Era, Gibson guitars, Solstice sunglasses, M London handbags (courtesy of KeepAmerica.com) and Simone I. Smith Jewelry . Although LL exuded a calm, cool demeanor, inside he's a bit nervous about stepping onto the stage come Sunday.

Pics: The Best Grammy Gowns of All Time!

"Of course [I get nervous]," LL revealed, adding that fear isn't always a bad thing. "It feels good to know that it's a challenge that you accept and you can embrace."

So what's his strategy to combat his nerves?

Related: Stars Share Their Biggest Musical Influences

"You can't rehearse nerves," said LL, accepting an onset of the jitters this weekend. "You just gotta get out there and do what you gotta do."

Watch the video for more from LL, plus a sneak peek at the goodies in this year's gifting lounge! The 55th Annual Grammy Awards air Sunday at 8 p.m. on CBS.

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The Dow at 14,000: not as good as gold

What an illuminating week for Wall Street — the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been bobbling just above and below the record high 14,000 mark, even as the country comes to grip with the reports that its economy has actually been slumping, with GDP shrinking 0.1 percent in the last quarter of 2012.

The Obama administration is trying to put a bright face on things — but the rest of us feel like we’re smoking more now and enjoying it less.

Well, guess what: While the Dow Jones Industrials have been edging past 14,000, the actual value of those stocks has been going down.

Bernanke: Has kept the Dow floating high by sinking the dollar’s value.

By this, I mean that if you take one share of each of the stocks in the Dow index, their combined value as measured in gold is lower than it used to be. The price in paper money may be going up, but the real value is slumping.

At about 14,000, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at nearly twice the 7,949 at which it stood on the day in January 2009 when President Obama first took the oath of office. But value of the stocks in the index has drifted downward; a portfolio of one share of each stock is worth only 8.3 ounces of gold, down from 9.3 ounces on Jan. 20, 2009.

There are those who will say that this is a trick, that no one measures things in ounces of gold anymore. Not since 1971, when President Richard Nixon finished taking America off the gold standard — which then still defined the dollar by law as a 35th of an ounce of gold.

Nixon’s move put us on a system of fiat money, in which the dollar isn’t backed by specie but nonetheless must be accepted in payment of debts.

Throughout history, though, people all over the world thought of gold and silver as the real money — and thinking of it that way can still be illuminating.

In his weekly radio address two years ago, the president spoke on soaring gasoline prices, saying there is “no silver bullet” to solve the problem.

It was a funny choice of words. It turns out that the value of gasoline — measured in ounces of silver (or gold) — hadn’t been going up at all. It had been going down.

In other words, it wasn’t the price of gasoline that was going up. It was the value of the United States dollar that was going down.

This is the part of the policy partnership of Barack Obama and Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernankethat no one likes to talk about. What it means is that there’s little joy on the street — Wall Street or (especially) Main Street — even in a week when the Dow Jones Industrial Average touches a historic high of 14,000.

Track the Dow in terms of gold, and you see what a collapse it’s been: The index was valued at 41.3 ounces of gold as recently as 2000.

Rep. Ron Paul is practically alone in Congress in paying attention to this warning. He confronted Bernanke with the question at a congressional hearing two years ago. The Fed chairman dodged by suggesting that consumers didn’t want to buy gold.

That was a funny argument to make at a time of soaring gold prices. And it’s a hard sell at a time when the Dow Jones average is at a historical high, yet the value of the stocks in it is slumping in terms of gold. Call it “the fiat Dow.”

It’s not just gadflies who are sounding these warnings. John Taylor, one of America’s savviest economists, argued in The Wall Street Journal this week that the Federal Reserve’s “quantitative easing” policy has not only failed to solve the economic problems in the country but has actually made things worse.

If you want to draw your own conclusions as to whether he’s right, track the value of your IRA or pension fund in terms of ounces of gold.

Lipsky@nysun.com

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

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Miami startup that turns text to video receives $1 million in seed funding

Guide, a new technology startup based in Miami, announced Tuesday it has closed a $1 million round of seed funding from investors including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Sapient Corp., MTV founder Bob Pitman, actor and producer Omar Epps, and early Google employee Steve Schimmel. The Knight Foundation is supporting Guide through its new early-stage venture fund, the Knight Enterprise Fund.

Led by CEO and founder Freddie Laker and COO Leslie Bradshaw, Guide’s team of seven is focused on turning online news, social streams and blogs into video for users who may be cooking, exercising, commuting or getting ready in the morning. The free application offers consumers a selection of about 20 “anchors” — including a dog, a robot and an anime character — that will read the article and present the accompanying photos, pull-out information and video clips in its video presentation. Revenue drivers for Guide could include in-app purchases, advertising-based anchors and customizations from publishers, said Laker, a former vice president at SapientNitro.

Laker and his team plan to launch a public beta next month, which they plan to do with a splash at the huge technology conference South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.

Read more about Guide here on the Starting Gate blog. Follow Nancy Dahlberg on Twitter @ndahlberg

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Stranded python hunters rescued from Broward Everglades

Two python hunters were rescued Thursday afternoon by Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue after they became stranded and disoriented in the Everglades.

According to Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles, a call came in shortly before 4 p.m. that the hunters, 22 and 25 years old and from Tennessee, were stranded 15 miles west of U.S. 27 near the Broward-Palm Beach County line.

“It doesn’t seem like they were familiar with the area,” Jachles said. “They underestimated the conditions. We had temperature in the 80s. “

The men, suffering from exhaustion and dehydration, complained of lightheadedness and weakness when air rescue located them. They were taken two miles from where they were found and treated by firefighters and paramedics.

“Fortunately our helicopter and rescue crews got to them before it would have gotten much worse,” Jachles said.

The victims, thought to be staying in their car, refused to be taken to a hospital for further treatment.

Jachles could not confirm that they were taking part in the ongoing “Python Challenge,” which began last month and offers cash prizes to hunters who kill the most, and longest, Burmese pythons, which have infested the Everglades in recent years.

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Grammys Producer Ken Ehrlich Speaks About Possible Wardrobe Malfunctions & Rules

With music's biggest night less than 48 hours away, ET's Rocsi Diaz was front and center at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on to give you a preview of Sunday's much-anticipated Grammy Awards!

Rocsi caught up with the Executive Producer of this year's show, Ken Ehrlich, who shared what viewers can expect from a special tribute number to be performed by superstars Rihanna, Sting and Bruno Mars!

PICS: Star Sightings

Ehrlilch also spoke about the recent buzz about possible wardrobe malfunctions and racy costumes after a list of CBS rules surfaced Thursday on the internet.

"There's awards show decorum and there's awards show not decorum," Ehrlich said. "People come here dressed great and people love what people are wearing here -- so we just want to make sure that everything's cool." He added that in those cases where a star's outfit does step over the live, they have plenty of emergency wardrobe choices on hand to properly handle the situation.

VIDEO: LL Cool J Promises Night of Grammy Surprises

Watch the video to also get a sneak peek at the teams making last-minute preps to the Staples Center before Sunday's big show! 

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Accused witch burned alive in Papua New Guinea

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea -- Assailants stripped, tortured and bound a woman accused of witchcraft, then burned her alive in front of hundreds of witnesses in a Papua New Guinea town, police said Friday after one of the highest profile sorcery-related murders in this South Pacific island nation.

Some of the hundreds of bystanders took photographs of Wednesday's brutal slaying. Grisly pictures were published on the front pages of the country's biggest circulating newspapers, The National and Post-Courier. The prime minister, police and diplomats condemned the killing

Kepari Leniata, a 20-year-old who had a child, had been accused of sorcery by relatives of a 6-year-old boy who died in the hospital the day before, police spokesman Dominic Kakas said.

She was tortured with a hot iron rod, bound, doused in gasoline, then set alight on a pile of car tires and trash in the Western Highlands provincial capital of Mount Hagen, Kakas said.

"Investigations are continuing. We've got good leads. The husband is the prime suspect," Kakas said.

Sorcery has traditionally been countered by sorcery in Papuan New Guinean culture. But responses to sorcery allegations have become increasingly violent in recent years.

Kakas said the death was the first the sorcery-related murder in Papua New Guinea in a year.

Police Commissioner Tom Kulunga described the murder as "shocking and devilish."

"We are in the 21st century and this is totally unacceptable," Commissioner Kulunga said in a statement.

He suggested courts be established to deal with sorcery allegations, as an alternative to villagers dispensing justice.

Prime Minister Pete O'Neill said he had instructed police to use all available manpower to bring the killers to justice.

"It is reprehensible that women, the old and the weak in our society should be targeted for alleged sorcery or wrongs that they actually have nothing to do with," O'Neill said.

The U.S. Embassy in the national capital Port Moresby issued a statement calling for a sustained international partnership to enhance anti-gender-based violence laws throughout the Pacific.

The embassy of Australia, Papua New Guinea's colonial ruler until independence in 1975 and now its biggest foreign aid donor, said "We join ... all reasonable Papua New Guineans in looking forward to the perpetrators being brought to justice."

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Greenberg Traurig shuffles leadership

Law firm Greenberg Traurig on Tuesday announced a new management lineup that includes naming Hilarie Bass as the first female president in the firm’s history.

Bass, one of the firm’s Miami shareholders, most recently had been global operating shareholder. She will share the presidency with Brian L. Duffy, a Denver shareholder who has been global litigation chair, a position previously held by Bass.

As part of the shuffle, Miami shareholders Cesar L. Alvarez and Matt Gorson move to co-chairs and Larry Hoffman becomes founding chair. Alvarez previously served as executive chair, Gorson as president and Hoffman as chair.

These were just some of the new leadership changes announced by Greenberg’s Chief Executive Richard A. Rosenbaum. The firm began a leadership transition plan in 2010 when Rosenbaum took over the helm of the firm that today includes about 1,750 attorneys in 35 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

“We are pleased to have so many talented leaders and performers, not just those with titles,” Rosenbaum said in a statement. “We have never been about titles or politics, and titles do not create leaders. We and others already in place in our regions, offices and practices form a seamless team focused on respecting and serving our clients and lawyers.”

Rosenbaum, who will remain in his post, also announced four new vice presidents:

• Ernest Greer, Managing Shareholder of the firm’s Atlanta office.

• Brad Kaufman, Co-Chair of the National Securities Litigation Practice, leader of the firm’s Associate Development Program and a Palm Beach County shareholder.

• Patricia Menendez-Cambo, Chair of the Global Practice, Co-Chair of the Infrastructure and Project Finance Practice and a Miami shareholder.

• Keith Shapiro, Chair of the Chicago office and Co-Chair of the Business Reorganization Practice.

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