Scott Israel talks about BSO’s future

On Tuesday, Broward Sheriff-elect Scott Israel will take over the most powerful elected post in the county, overseeing about 5,500 employees and a $670 million budget.

Past Broward sheriffs have generated colorful and political headlines. Nick Navarro, elected in 1984, ordered deputies to cook crack cocaine to use in drug stings, and ordered the arrest of the rap group 2 Live Crew for obscenity. Ken Jenne, a former state senator, plastered his name on everything from pencils to Frisbees to rugs before he pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 2007 and landed in federal prison.

Then Gov. Charlie Crist appointed longtime BSO official Al Lamberti as sheriff. On Election Day a year later, Lamberti won as a Republican in Florida’s most Democratic county. Tens of thousands of voters who turned out to elect President Barack Obama skipped the sheriff’s race, helping Lamberti defeat Israel, a Democrat.

But in 2012, fewer voters skipped the sheriff’s race on their ballot and Israel — with the help of key political allies — ousted Lamberti.

Israel set to work changing BSO immediately. In December, his transition team sent emails to 28 high-ranking employees telling them they would be out once Israel took over. Many top officials had already announced they would be leaving, including BSO spokesman Jim Leljedal, attorney Judith Levine and Undersheriff Tom Wheeler.

After 35 years at BSO, Lamberti said Friday that he has not applied for any jobs and doesn’t plan to open a security firm. (He has been joking about the fact that there is an opening at the CIA.)

Bob Butterworth, a former Broward sheriff and Florida attorney general, calls the sheriff’s job the “most challenging office” in Broward.

“If you can deal with the issues of substance abuse and mental health — and a sheriff can if they wish to do that — I think you can reduce crime in this community by a lot and also reduce the jail population,” Butterworth said.

Beyond staff changes, it is not yet clear how Israel, a 56-year-old former Fort Lauderdale police captain and North Bay Village police chief — will change BSO.

But emails from Israel’s transition team to BSO show that Israel has sought information about every aspect of the agency, including budget forecasts, contracts for everything from garbage collection to lobbying, statistics about the race of employees and even about the protocol for military casket arrivals.

Israel’s senior command staff includes many who played key roles in his campaign, including his new general counsel, Ron Gunzburger, son of County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger, and Lisa Castillo, who worked on Israel’s campaign. The name of her husband, Pembroke Pines Commissioner Angelo Castillo, is also being bandied about as having a role in the Israel administration.

Israel, who lives with his wife, Susan, and teenage triplets in Parkland, will be sworn in at a public ceremony by Broward Circuit Judge Ilona Holmes at 11 a.m. Tuesday at The Faith Center in Sunrise.

The Miami Herald spoke to Israel recently about his views on gun control, politics and other topics.

Q. The Broward sheriff is often described as the most powerful elected post in Broward. Your predecessor, Al Lamberti, tried to define himself as a law enforcement professional — not a politician. Do you view yourself as a politician?

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Alleged Ohio rapists may not get fair trial: defendant’s lawyer

(Reuters) – Two Ohio high-school football players accused of raping a teenage girl may not get a fair trial after a photo and video allegedly associated with the case were posted on the Internet by the computer hacking group Anonymous, a lawyer for one of the accused said on Friday.

Ma’lik Richmond and Trenton Mays, both 16 and members of the Steubenville High School football team, are charged with raping a 16-year-old fellow student last August, according to statements from their attorneys to local and national media.

Their juvenile court trial is scheduled for February in Steubenville, a city of 19,000 about 40 miles west of Pittsburgh.

The case shot to national prominence this week when Anonymous activists made public a picture allegedly of the rape victim, being carried by her wrists and ankles by two young men, and of a video that showed several other young men joking about an alleged assault.

Richmond’s lawyer, Walter Madison, said on CNN that his client was one of the young men in the photograph, but does not appear in the video.

But the picture “is out of context,” Madison said. “That young lady is not unconscious,” as has been widely reported.

“A right to a fair trial for these young men has been hijacked,” Madison said, adding that social media episodes such as this have become a major threat to a criminal defendant’s right to a fair trial.

“It’s very, very serious and fairness is essential to getting the right decision here,” he said.

Mays’ attorney Adam Nemann could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday. In an interview on Thursday with Columbus, Ohio, broadcaster WBNS-10TV, Nemann raised concerns about the effect the Anonymous postings could have on potential witnesses in the case.

“This media has become so astronomically ingrained on the Internet and within that society, I am concerned witnesses might not want to come forward at this point. I would be surprised now, if there weren’t witnesses now who might want to start taking the Fifth Amendment,” Nemann told the station.

The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution offers protection against self-incrimination in criminal proceedings.

The case has also been a challenge for local officials because of conflicts of interest. Both the local prosecutor and police have close ties to the school that the defendants attend.

As a result, the case is being investigated and prosecuted by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office.

Interviewed on CNN on Friday, DeWine said it was not unusual for his office to prosecute or investigate cases in small towns where close ties within the community caused conflicts of interest to arise.

He also voiced concern about how social media may affect the case.

“This case needs to be tried not in the media, not in social media,” DeWine said.

He said Anonymous’ attempt to shame the alleged attackers had actually harmed the victim.

Not only is the victim hurt by the initial crime, but “every time something goes up on the Internet, the victim is victimized again,” DeWine said.

(Reporting by Dan Burns and Peter Rudegeair; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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Smash Season Two TCA Trailer

After a very public behind the scenes shake-up, the newly installed Smash EP, Joshua Safran, and the cast addressed the press at the Television Critics Association Tour in Pasadena, CA today.

First thing first, Safran wanted to make it clear that this rejiggered season is still very much the Smash you fell in love with last year. "I don't really think it's changed that much. The stuff you loved last year is still there and the stuff you thought went off on tangents, we tried to find ways to pull together."

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"It's bigger, with more music, younger in some regards, but I hope the people who watched it still see the same show they loved."

Having watched the two-hour premiere, I can attest that what Safran says is true. The episode is fast-paced, more grounded yet dares all the characters to dream higher. All in all, it's simply more of what you loved to begin with.

To play off that, Smash introduces Hit List, a second burgeoning Broadway musical this season, which is how newbies Jeremy Jordan and Andy Mientus (they play Hit List's writers) come into the picture. "We have more original music, more musical sequences per episode [and] more diverse styles," Safran added. "If you look at Broadway, there are shows that take place in the 1800s and shows that take place today. I wanted to represent that [on our show]."

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Check out a brand new sneak peek above and tune in to the season two premiere of Smash, February 5 at 9 p.m. on NBC.

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Syria’s agony

The death toll in Syria’s 22-month civil war has topped a staggering 60,000 — far higher than had been suspected.

That’s according to an “exhaustive analysis” undertaken by the UN’s human-rights chief, Navi Pillay.

And even that figure is probably an underestimate, experts say.

What’s ironic is that the number of Bashar al-Assad’s victims is now higher than the number of Arabs, including Palestinians, killed in wars with Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War.

But the UN Security Council — which automatically races to condemn Israel every time a West Bank Palestinian gets so much as a hangnail — has remained silent on Syria.

AP

John McCain

To her credit, Pillay castigated the Security Council in her report, saying Assad’s unchecked bloodshed “shames us all.”

Particularly President Obama — who, as Sen. John McCain noted last week, isn’t “leading from behind,” as he did on Libya, but “waiting from behind.”

This, even as the rate of killings has accelerated since July to more than 5,000 a month.

McCain has called on the White House to establish a no-fly zone over part of Syria and to directly arm the anti-Assad rebels.

To no avail.

True, the US and European countries have provided “humanitarian” aid — but experts say 70 percent of that winds up in government hands.

As has happened in so many previous “humanitarian aid” efforts.

Obama says he has a red line in Syria that will prompt strong US action: if Assad uses chemical weapons.

But McCain says he’s been told by Syrians that Assad sees this not as a red line but a green light — “to use all other weapons of war to massacre them with impunity.”

The Syrian body count is an affront. What will it finally take to shame the world into action — starting with Washington?

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Needle reaches the inner groove for Spec’s

In the end, even the almighty Adele and Taylor Swift could not hold back the inevitable.

Spec’s, one of the last great record stores, will close its flagship location in Coral Gables on U.S.1, thus joining once-favored chains like Virgin, Tower and Peaches, locally and abroad, that have withered from Internet shopping.

With the closing, sometime in January after the merchandise is liquidated, 64 years of history becomes memory for countless people who discovered a love of music in the home Martin “Mike” Spector built in 1948 when U.S.1 was but a two-lane road.

The original store, which sold cameras alongside 78-rpm records, was a few blocks south on the highway in South Miami and is now an Einstein’s bagel spot. The present location, opened in 1953 in Coral Gables, lived through the bobby sox era, Beatlemania, disco, punk, hip hop/rap, grunge, electronic dance music and all the format changes including 12-inch vinyl, 45-rpm, reel to reel, 8-track, cassette, compact disc and mp3.

After the first music industry recession in the late 1970s, Spec’s still managed to double in size by breaking through the walls of two restaurants in 1980 on its north side. The original room on the south side of the building would house, first, Spec’s’ VHS movie rentals and sales — Saturday Night at Spec’s! — and, later, one of the most expansive collections of classical music in town.

“It’s the soundtrack of our lives,” said store manager Lennie Rohrbacher, who spent 23 years of his life working at Spec’s, from Clearwater to Coral Gables

Music sales

At its peak, the Spec’s chain grew to some 80 stores in Florida and Puerto Rico. In 1993, annual sales exceeded $70 million. Spec’s went public in 1985 and, in 1998, the Spectors sold to Camelot Music Group, which was acquired by Trans World Entertainment Corp.

Trans World, which did not return several telephone messages, shrewdly kept the Spec’s name attached to the flagship store as goodwill even though, technically, it operated under the company’s retail subsidiary, F.Y.E. (For Your Entertainment).

But those are the cold, hard business facts.

Spec’s was “not like another Eckerd’s,” a drug store chain that also slipped into oblivion amid changing times, said Rohrbacher. “This was part of the community, part of my life. It’s not another store going under.”

Indeed, Spec’s was, first and foremost, a community gathering spot to share a love of music. In the ‘70s and ‘80s Spec’s resembled a makeshift camp site where people would sleep overnight in the parking lot to get the best shot at concert tickets in a pre-Internet world. Spec’s, a hop-skip from the University of Miami’s music school, served as its own music education outlet thanks to a knowledgeable sales staff.

Music education

“The proximity to the UM is prime real estate. Not to have it there will really be different. Even if they didn’t have what I was looking for, the staff was knowledgeable and you were sort of tapping into this knowledge base of people who could turn you on to new music. That’s what I’ll miss about it and the community around the store,” said Margot Winick, an employee at the Coral Gables Spec’s in the mid-1980s when she was a freshman at the UM.

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

South Florida’s fiercest braved the rain Saturday for a chance to become America’s Next Top Model.

The CW network reality TV show hosted auditions at the Fort Lauderdale Art Institute, and for the first time welcomed male models to try out.

Miami Gardens resident Gregory Boudreaux, 24, was there with his best asset: his hair. His 6-inch afro sticks straight up into pointy peaks.

“I usually get casted because of my hair,” said Boudreaux, who works in a retail store setting up displays and has walked in some Miami Beach fashion shows.

Even the makeup artist took notice of his ‘do as she dabbed foundation under Boudreaux’s eyes.

“Your hair, oh my God,” said makeup artist Jude Andam. “It’s so angular. It looks... not real.”

More than 300 gorgeous guys and gals auditioned in Fort Lauderdale with the goal to land a spot on the show, created and hosted by supermodel Tyra Banks. On the show, in its 20th cycle, supermodel wanna-bes live together and compete through photo shoots in exotic locations. Past contestants have lived in New York and Los Angeles, and have traveled as far as China, Brazil and Italy for photo shoots.

One by one, models get booted off the show while the rest move closer to top prize: a modeling feature, $100,000 and partnerships with fashion companies to help launch a top-notch modeling career.

Judges on Saturday were looking for models between the ages 18 to 27. Women under 5’7” and men under 5’10” were cautioned to not apply.

A panel of industry experts will pick their local favorites and recommend them to the casting director. Viewers can also pick their favorite by voting online starting Jan. 7-14. The judges’ and viewers’ picks will be revealed in a spot inside the premiere of TV show Carrie Diaries 8 p.m. on Jan. 14 on SFL-TV, The CW.

Jeslie Mergal got her picture snapped for the viewer’s choice contest. Her nerves began to bubble up as she got closer to her short appearance in front of judges.

“Standing in line, it’s not that bad. But as you get closer, it gets worse and worse,” she admitted.

Mergal grew up in Hialeah but moved to Orlando in elementary school. She made the drive down to Fort Lauderdale with her father for two reasons: to audition for the show, and to celebrate her birthday with her grandmother in Hialeah Gardens. The nursing student turned 21 the same day.

The only thing standing in the way of a carefree birthday lunch with her family was a nerve-wracking stint in front of the judges.

Mergal took to the short, wooden platform that served as a catwalk, and introduced herself.

“Why do you want to be on America’s Next Top Model?” a judge asked.

It’s the same question every contestant gets — Mergal knew that. But up until moment before, she admitted she wasn’t sure how’d she answer.

“I know if you put me on the show, I’m going to win,” she answered to the judges. “I will make it: whether it’s here or somewhere else.”

Then she strutted up and down the short catwalk, and ended with a smile and her hands on her hips.

The whole ordeal — from signing up, to orientation, to hair and makeup, and finally, the audition — took about two hours.

“I can’t wait to get my callback,” Mergal said.

Follow @Cveiga on Twitter.

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We Salute the First Baby Senator

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

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Here’s our suggestion to improve the (already pretty hilarious) swearing-in process for U.S. Senators: Each new member of Congress must bring a cute baby.

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Apparently the BBC has decided to market a line of lunch boxes specifically made for hungry polar bears. They are still working out the kinks: 

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The Golden Globes will be bittersweet this year. Don’t get us wrong — we’re really excited to watch Amy Poehler and Tina Fey entertain us. But we’ll also be also really sad when this thing is over because it means the end of these promos:

And finally, it’s Friday. And it’s time to dance. Enjoy your weekend. 

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Cher Signs Development Deal with Logo

Logo just announced at The Television Critics Association in Pasadena, CA that the network has signed a development deal with the ultimate gay icon, Cher.

AUDIO - Listen to Cher's New Song

The show, which is in its earliest stages of development, would mark Cher's first regular TV gig since The Sonny and Cher Show ended in 1977.

While this could change before the show hits the air (if it actually does), Cher's Logo show is set to revolve around Hollywood in the 1960s. It's unknown what Cher's on-screen participation will be like at this time. 

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100 years of Grand Central

Grand Central Terminal has been the gateway to the city since it opened to great fanfare at 12:01 Feb. 2, 1913 and the first train left the station — the Boston Express No. 2 — a century ago.

As journalist Sam Roberts explains in his new book, “Grand Central: How a Train Station Transformed America” (Grand Central Publishing), everything about the terminal is massive, starting from the entrance on 42nd Street. A 13-foot-wide clock, bedecked with the world’s largest display of Tiffany glass, is surrounded by a stunning 48-foot-high limestone sculpture of three mythological figures, Minerva, Mercury and Hercules.

Helayne Seidman

The two most frequently asked questions are: “How do I get out of the building?” and “Where is the bathroom?”

Once inside, a visitor is awed by the 38,000-square-foot concourse, under a celestial ceiling of stars. It is an urban cathedral, New York City’s front door, where, in its first days, red carpets literally were rolled out for train passengers.

And it keeps growing. In 1947, some 65 million passengers arrived and departed from Grand Central, more commonly known as Grand Central Station even though it is a terminus. By 2011, its ridership surpassed 82 million, with Metro-North as the nation’s busiest commuter rail line.

On its hundredth birthday, it is heading toward 100 million commuters.

It took 10 years to build this sprawling 48-acre hub, at the cost of $2 billion in today’s dollar. To lay 67 tracks and build 44 platforms, 3 million cubic yards of earth and rocks had to be excavated.

It’s been ranked by Travel and Leisure magazine as sixth among the world’s most visited attractions.

But its much more than a pretty ediface. The terminal has been the site of ransom demands, mail train robberies and Nazi saboteurs. In “Grand Central,” Roberts explains some of the Terminal’s stories and hidden wonders. A selection:

Let there be light

There are 4,000 bare light bulbs illuminating public areas of the station. When Grand Central opened, most of the city was still lit by gaslight, but the Vanderbilt’s the shipping and railroad magnates who built the station, wanted to boast that it had been wired for electricity. Leaving the bulbs bare was a way to impress the public of its modernity. In 2008, it took six people to switch all the incandescent bulbs to fluorescent.

Nuts!

There are acorns everywhere in the terminal, carved into archways and walls. Because the Vanderbilts had no official family crest, they adopted the acorn as their own, with the motto, “From the little acorn a mighty oak grows.”

A celestial mistake

Gazing up at the station’s ceiling of stars may be heavenly, but upon a closer look the constellations are backwards. An amateur astronomer commuting from New Rochelle in 1913 noticed the stars were in reverse. It’s concave 128-floor high ceiling created a view of the heavens from Aquarius to Cancer in an October sky of 2,500 stars, 59 of them illuminated. Red-faced officials quickly explained that while no mortal had even seen the stars from this vantage point, it actually represented God’s view. Actually, the painters mistakenly looked at the diagram on the floor and copied it from there, rather than holding diagram up at the ceiling.

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

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College championship won’t be easy money again

South Florida hotels should count their blessings from this weekend’s football bookings. The championship crowds won’t come this easily again.

With Notre Dame playing for its first national title in more than 20 years, demand is unusually high for both hotel rooms and tickets for Monday’s championship game against Alabama. The teams have two of the largest fan bases in the country, making this BCS game the biggest sports draw since the 2010 Super Bowl was held in Miami Gardens.

But if this game means an enviable match-up for the tourism industry, it also marks the end of South Florida’s automatic dibs on the championship every four years.

Next year will be the last time that college’s football championship rotates among the four cities that host major bowl games. In its place, college conferences will open up hosting duties to any community willing to bid on the championship game — a process bound to pit South Florida against larger subsidies and better stadiums offered by hungry rivals

“There are a lot of communities in the country that would love to host this event, like the Final Four and like the Super Bowl, ” said Michael Saks, COO of the Orange Bowl Committee, which organizes the BCS game when it comes to Miami Gardens.

This weekend’s BCS turnout should offer a tempting target for cities eager to wrest the game from its rotation among Pasadena, Calif. ( home to the Rose Bowl); Scottsdale, Arizona (Fiesta Bowl); New Orleans (Sugar Bowl); and Miami Gardens.

Turnout for Notre Dame alumni is so strong that organizers have set up a special hospitality tent off South Beach’s Ocean Drive. Notre Dame boosters have about 85 busses ready to bring in fans from as far away as Boca Raton for a 7 p.m. pep rally. “They’re thinking it could be 50,000 people,’’ said Graham Winick, of Miami Beach’s special-events division. “We’ve had multiple phone conversations.”

Alabama has its own pep rally at 4 p.m., but Winick wasn’t worried about that event. With Alabama playing for its third championship in four years, organizers are expecting a strong turn-out from the Crimson Tide but not a swarm.

Tickets for Monday’s game start at about $1,000, but sitting on the Notre Dame side of Sun Life Stadium costs about $500 more, said Michael Lipman, owner of the Tickets of America brokerage in Miami.

“The least expensive seats are being bought up by Alabama,’’ he said. “The lower bowl is going to have more Notre Dame fans, and the upper bowl is going to have more Alabama fans.”

Stubhub.com, the top ticket reselling site, said the BCS game is its best-selling event ever in terms of total sales volume. The average BCS ticket was going for $1,800 on the site midweek, up from the $1,200 price tag for the last two BCS games in 2012 and 2011, spokeswoman Shannon Barbara said.

At the Loews hotel in Miami Beach, all but a few of the 790 rooms are booked this weekend. The hotel’s eight poolside cabanas were also booked up at about $600 a day, giving guests access to the two-story apartments with showers, televisions and the option to order some fan-themed indulgences.

Fighting Irish supporters can drink a Pickled Irishman (Jameson’s Irish whisky and pickle juice) and eat Irish Nachos (waffle fries topped with Guinness-braised short ribs.) Fans of the Crimson Tide can order an Alabama Slammer (Southern Comfort, peach schnapps and sour mix) and Roll Tide ribs (soaked in “moonshine sauce.”)

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