Attacks on Gov. Rick Scott’s Medicaid move mask Adam Putnam’s big-spending record

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam’s headline-grabbing criticism of fellow Republican Rick Scott over expanding Medicaid highlighted just how much the governor flip-flopped on government spending and entitlement programs.

But Putnam has a more extensive record of supporting expensive entitlements and big-government spending.

As a member of Congress from 2001-2011, Putnam voted for budget-busting legislation — including the massive Medicare prescription-drug entitlement program estimated to cost nearly $1 trillion over a decade. Putnam also stuffed the federal budget with hometown-spending and helped override vetoes by President Bush on what the White House called a “fiscally irresponsible” Medicare bill and a $300 billion farm bill.

Years later, Putnam called Scott’s call to expand Medicaid as irresponsible, costly and “naive.”

“Throughout my career as a public servant, I have fought for issues important to Floridians based on my belief in conservative values and smaller government,” Putnam said in a written statement.

“I have a strong record of supporting economic growth and ensuring taxpayer dollars are used to support valuable public programs and services,” he said, implicitly drawing a distinction between the Medicare program he voted to expand in 2003 and Scott’s request to expand Medicaid under President Obama’s health plan, which Putnam opposed in Congress in 2009.

The fallout between Scott and Putnam stoked speculation that Putnam might challenge Scott in a GOP primary next year. Putnam’s office downplayed the talk.

The GOP discord —as well as the tensions between each man’s rhetoric and record — is also emblematic of Obama-era Republican struggles. Many Republicans spent big under Bush then became deficit hawks under Obama. They railed against Obama policies, only to tacitly support some of them in the end.

Putnam said his opposition to Obamacare has been consistent.

Scott’s hasn’t.

Scott’s Feb. 20 call to expand Medicaid was an abrupt about-face for a man who campaigned against Obamacare — first as a private citizen, then as a candidate for governor. With low and stagnant polls numbers, Scott’s move was widely seen in Tallahassee political circles as a political move to the center.

Putnam, voicing widespread GOP concerns over Scott, struck quickly in a speech, press interviews, web postings and even a Republican Party of Florida email.

“I think we all have an obligation to look beyond the window of our own time in public life and think about the long-term impact of these policies in Florida,” Putnam told The Tampa Bay Times days after Scott’s Medicaid announcement.

The criticisms — about thinking long-term and leaving politics behind — were said years ago, in 2003, by conservative leaders who practically begged Capitol Hill Republicans like Putnam not to expand Medicare under Bush for political gain.

The measure barely passed in the GOP-controlled House. Years later, when Republicans lost the House, the measure was held up as a defining moment when the party lost its way.

Many conservatives haven’t forgotten, though they’ve forgiven.

“A lot of politicians and the political class think there was a reset with Obama,” said Mark Cross, an early tea party leader in Central Florida. “But voters remember your record.”

Read More..

Near-record warm winter for South Florida

Winter won’t officially be over for a few weeks but it’s already been a near-record warm one in South Florida – not including the cold front rolling through this weekend.

From December through February, Miami recorded the third warmest winter on record, the National Weather Service’s Miami office reported Friday. The average temperature of 72.3 degrees was 2.7 degrees warmer than normal.

Fort Lauderdale and Naples recorded the fifth warmest winters and West Palm Beach the ninth.

In Miami and Fort Lauderdale, November 2012 actually wound up colder than any of the three following winter months, the Weather Service said – something that has happened only twice since 1910.

Read More..

Knights Arts Challenge seeking grant applicants

Miami-Dade County Schools students diagnosed with physical, developmental and intellectual disabilities learned a new dance last year and performed it for their peers.

Florida Grand Opera sopranos and tenors performed in new locations.

And artists who worked with clay at The Ceramic League of Miami received new kilns and other studio tools.

These were some of the 31 winners of the 2011 Knight Arts Challenge, which distributed about $2.9 million in grants to artistic organizations in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties.

Five years ago, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation initiated the Knights Arts Challenge to help fund programs and makes the arts more accessible.

“The Knight Foundation’s mission is informed and engaged communities,” said Dennis Scholl, the Knight Foundation’s vice president for arts. “We also want to make art in Miami so everyone sees and hears cultural activities.”

In the last five years, about 6,600 organizations and individuals entered the challenge, Scholl said. About 140 of those entries were rewarded with a grant. Since 2008, the Knight Arts Challenge has distributed about $20 million to arts organizations in South Florida.

The foundation set up the program initially for five years. It has since extended it for another three years. About $3 million will be awarded each year for the next three years, Scholl said.

Karen Peterson and Dancers, a South Florida nonprofit for dancers with and without disabilities, received a $10,000 grant in 2011. Thanks to the grant, the organization was able to place a dance teacher in 23 schools, reaching 375 students, instead of the usual 200, said Karen Peterson, the organization’s founder and artistic director.

The nonprofit embarked on the in-school residencies in 2005. As a result of the grant, the group extended the teachers’ time in the schools from 15 to 20 weeks.

“A lot of the inner-city schools have had such programs canceled because of budget cuts,” said Peterson. “This might be the children’s only artistic, creative one hour per week. We as dance artists are encouraging them to be physically expressive, physically free. Those elements are not what Miami-Dade teachers do because they have to worry about the FCAT.”

Read More..

Jurors deliberating in money-laundering trial linked to South Florida ‘Ponzi scheme’

One-time Fort Lauderdale executive Steven Steiner and his former live-in partner, Henry Fecker III, had a taste for the finer things in life.

They owned multimillion-dollar homes on the waterfront in Fort Lauderdale and Camden, Maine, along with a Manhattan condo.

Now, a federal jury in Miami is deliberating whether the former partners laundered millions of dollars in ill-gotten profits from an investment scam allegedly run by Steiner’s former company, Mutual Benefits Corp. The company sold $1.25 billion worth of life insurance policies, held by people dying of AIDS, to investors who lost $830 million — among Florida’s biggest financial frauds, federal authorities say.

Both men, who stood trial for the past month, are charged with laundering millions through homes, hiding assets from authorities and lying to a court-appointed receiver who was seeking to reimburse Mutual Benefits investors who bought the so-called viatical policies.

The 54-count indictment charges them with conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice, which carry potentially lengthy sentences.

Steiner, 60, a former Mutual Benefits vice president, has been detained at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami since his arrest in August 2011. Fecker, 58, who was arrested in Maine that summer, has been out on bond.

During trial in February, Steiner testified that no fraud was committed at Mutual Benefits and that he complied with his settlement obligations with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the court-appointed receiver, who took over the bankrupt company in 2004. Steiner also testified that his company was a “victim” of the receiver’s decision to wind down the business.

On the witness stand, Steiner name-dropped Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Phil Donohue as friends.

Fecker’s lawyer, Valentin Rodriguez, argued that his client was a dupe who was misled by Steiner.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerrob Duffy depicted Steiner and Fecker as partners in crime, claiming they used “money from a massive Ponzi scheme” at Mutual Benefits to support their “lavish lifestyle.”

“When we started, we told you this case was about a crime spree, involving fraud, lies and deception,” Duffy said in closing arguments last week. “Now that you have heard all the evidence, you know that it is about ‘catch me if you can,’ a game of hide and seek.”

According to the indictment, Steiner and Fecker plotted to funnel nearly $11 million of Mutual Benefits proceeds through a consulting business, using the money for their Northeastern homes and lying about the real value of their assets to the court-appointed receiver for Mutual Benefits.

The receiver, Bob Martinez, was named by a federal judge in 2004 when the Securities and Exchange Commission shut down the company and froze its assets. The receiver recovered about $120 million for Mutual Benefits investors.

To obtain a favorable settlement with the SEC, Steiner and Fecker submitted a series of false and misleading documents to conceal their true financial condition, according to the indictment. In 2007, the SEC agreed to settle their liability for $5 million and later reduced the penalty to $3.95 million. But to date, Steiner and Fecker have paid only $750,000, according to Duffy and fellow prosecutor Dwayne Williams.

At trial, Duffy and fellow prosecutor Dwayne Williams sought to show that Steiner and Fecker actively thwarted the efforts of the court-appointed receiver and the Securities and Exchange Commission,

In one example, Fecker refinanced the waterfront Maine property in 2006 and placed the proceeds of $480,000 into a series of certified checks to conceal their existence from authorities, according to evidence at trial. Fecker then cashed the checks from 2008 through July 2011 to support him and Steiner.

In another instance, evidence showed that in late 2009, Steiner sold their luxury Manhattan apartment for $1.3 million but said the sale was for $1.1 million in documents submitted to the SEC and Mutual Benefits receiver.

Steiner allegedly provided “false and misleading testimony under oath” to the receiver about his assets, according to prosecutors.

Separately, Steiner is awaiting trial this spring on charges accusing him, his brother, Joel Steinger, and a one-time Mutual Benefits lawyer of conspiring to bilk investors between 1994 and 2003. (Although Steiner and Steinger are brothers, they spell their last names differently.)

Fecker was not charged in that fraud indictment, which was first filed in 2008.

So far, several former company employees, including president Peter Lombardi, have pleaded guilty and been sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

Read More..

Jurors to decide fate of Miami imam accused of aiding Pakistani Taliban

For two months, federal prosecutors portrayed Miami imam Hafiz Khan in the worst possible light: terrorist sympathizer, Taliban supporter and pathological liar.

“His whole defense is a lie,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley told 12 jurors Tuesday during closing arguments.

The 77-year-old Khan, with his hunched shoulders and flowing white beard, testified that he sent about $50,000 to Pakistan to help a religious school, the poor and his extended family overseas — not to arm Taliban militants bent on killing Americans and Pakistanis.

“This is America, folks,” his attorney, Khurrum Wahid, said during closings. “You don’t have to accept what the government tells you.”

Now, the jurors must decide the fate of Khan, the former Muslim cleric at the Flagler Mosque in Miami. Khan, who was arrested along other family members in May 2011, has stood trial on four counts of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and to a foreign terrorist organization, as well as providing actual support in both conspiracies.

Each count — built upon evidence of FBI-recorded phone conversations, a wired informant and bank transactions between 2008 and 2010 — carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

The prosecution’s case has had its share of setbacks. U.S. District Judge Robert Scola found that the evidence against Khan appeared “overwhelming” when he rejected the defendant’s bid for an acquittal at the end of trial. But the judge had also ruled midway through the trial that the government’s case against Khan’s son, Izhar Khan, a Broward imam, lacked evidence and threw it out.

Moreover, last summer prosecutors dropped the charges against another of Khan’s sons, Irfan, a Miami cab driver, without explanation.

Both brothers, along with another sibling, Ikram Khan, attended the closing arguments Tuesday with other supporters from the elderly imam’s mosque.

The case ultimately may come down to whether jurors believed Hafiz Khan, who was often evasive, unresponsive and rambling on the witness stand during four days of testimony last week.

Khan testified that he lied about his ostensible support for the Pakistani Taliban because he wanted to obtain $1 million from a purported Taliban sympathizer — who was actually an FBI informant — to help innocent victims of war in the Swat Valley region of Pakistan near the Afghanistan border.

Khan, who was unaware his conversations were being recorded, said he wished Americans would die in pursuit of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and that terrorists would destroy the Pakistan government. He was also recorded praising the attempted 2010 Times Square bomb plot in New York City.

But on the witness stand, Khan testified his recorded statements were “all lies,” meant to curry favor with the FBI informant, known as Mahmood Siddiqui, who was paid $126,000 by the federal government for his undercover work. Siddiqui had promised Khan the money to help poor victims of the war between the Taliban and Pakistan.

“There are many times I am agreeing with him, but that does not mean that I mean it,” Khan testified.

Khan, a naturalized U.S. citizen who came to this country in 1994, sparred during cross-examination with Shipley, who grew frustrated as the frail yet feisty imam dodged his questions about his true beliefs about terrorism.

Shipley, however, pointed out that Khan made similar comments in other telephone conversations with friends and relatives that also were intercepted by the FBI.

Shipley’s colleague, prosecutor Sivashree Sundaram, said during closing arguments that the case was “straight forward.”

“This defendant convicted himself with his own words and actions,” Sundaram told jurors. “These are not the words of a peace-loving man.”

Read More..

Citizens Property Insurance strains to pull in belt on spending

The Maryland insurance executive charged with cleaning house at Citizens Property Insurance has had trouble sticking to the tighter travel expense policy he put in place.

Since Barry Gilway became Citizens CEO in June, he has stayed in a hotel at nearly twice Citizens’ room rate cap, charged liquor to a corporate credit card in violation of company rules, submitted expense forms late and had to be reminded to include itemized receipts.

A review of travel costs shows that Citizens has taken some steps toward frugality since the Herald/Times revealed in August that executives were enjoying lavish meals and five-star hotel stays at the same time the state-run insurer was aggressively trying to raise rates.

But even with a new policy designed to rein in costs, old habits die hard.

Some executives, including Gilway, have failed to file expense reports within the required 15 days of a trip. They’re still spending hundreds of dollars to change airplane tickets. Co-workers are still dining with each other at company expense at high-end restaurants like Tampa’s Capital Grille and Orlando’s Ocean Prime.

Recent expense reports also indicate that Citizens could have done more in the past to hold down costs at Florida hotels.

For a board meeting in February, 2012, Citizens paid $179 a night for employees to stay at the Peabody in Orlando.

But after Citizens imposed a $150 cap on in-state lodging, the Peabody agreed to reduce its rate to $149 a night for a December meeting.

"We had to work very diligently to get the rate down and it was a one-time thing they were able to get done for us since we had done business with them previously,’’ said Christine Ashburn, a Citizens spokesperson. "Due to their rates we will no longer be working with them going forward.’’

Expense reports filed since the travel policy changed in October also show that good hotels in out-of-state cities were available at much lower rates than what Citizens executives customarily spent. Before last fall, Sharon Binnun, the chief financial officer, typically stayed in New York City hotels costing $350 a night and up. But for a recent trip, she booked a room at the swank Marriott Marquis in Times Square at a nightly rate of just $204.

Under the new travel policy, Citizens executives are allowed to charge the company up to $60 a day for meals, still far higher than the $36-a-day limit set by other state agencies. On numerous occasions in the past few months, executives sought only partial reimbursement for expensive meals to avoid exceeding the cap.

More changes may be in the works.

"We currently are reviewing our expense procedures to develop and implement policies that more closely align with state policies and expect to have the revised policy in place in early March,’’ Ashburn said.

Last year, Gov. Rick Scott called on his inspector general to investigate Citizens after the Herald/Times reported on extravagant spending and allegations of corporate misconduct and waste, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in severance packages paid to executives who resigned amid scandal.

Scott weighed in again last week after the Herald/Times reported that Binnun and other top executives had received raises between 12 and 24 percent. Scott called the raises "foolish" and urged the executives to return them. Gilway and Citizens board chairman Carlos Lacasa have repeatedly said high salaries and travel expenses are justified as the cost of doing business in the competitive insurance world.

Read More..

Cessna crashes into Biscayne Bay; four people rescued off Bayfront Park

A Cessna carrying four people crashed into the waters of Biscayne Bay Sunday afternoon within view of busy Bayfront Park.

The crash occurred at around noon. Four people onboard were rescued from the water by Miami-Dade fire rescue workers,” said U. S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios.

“We understand the crash happened at the water entrance to the park,” Rios said.

The four onboard suffered minor injuries but were transported to local hospital for treatment.

It’s unknown if the plane was attempting an emergency landing in the water or crashed. The incident is under investigation

At this time, the Cessna remains submerged in the bay.

“We have sent out a Coast Guard vessel to determine if its a hazard to navigation,” Rios said.

Read More..

Miami police union challenges officer’s firing for fatal shooting

The Fraternal Order of Police filed a lawsuit against the city of Miami on Friday, asserting that an officer who fatally shot an unarmed motorist in 2011 was improperly fired from the police department.

Officer Reynaldo Goyos shot and killed Travis McNeil as he sat in a car at a Little Haiti intersection. It was one of a string of seven deadly shootings of black men in the inner city by Miami police officers in 2010 and 2011.

Goyos was cleared of criminal wrongdoing by prosecutors in 2012. But he was terminated last month after the department’s Firearms Review Board concluded that the shooting was unjustified.

The police union lawsuit claims that the board violated state open-government laws by failing to open its meetings to the public.

Goyos “was improperly terminated by the city of Miami Police Department by a review board that violates the law,” union President Javier Ortiz wrote in a statement.

The lawsuit contends that Goyos should be reinstated.

City Attorney Julie O. Bru declined to discuss the specifics of the case. “We reviewed the allegations, and the city maintains that the board has operated consistent with the requirements of law,” she said.

Read More..

Florida task force says no major changes needed to Stand Your Ground law

TALLAHASSEE --
A 19-member task force commissioned by Gov. Rick Scott to review Florida’s Stand Your Ground law has put out its final report, largely voicing its support for the law.

The task force made a handful of recommendations for the Legislature, but began the report by stating that, at its core, the self-defense law is fine as it is.

“All persons who are conducting themselves in a lawful manner have a fundamental right to stand their ground and defend themselves from attack with proportionate force in every place they have a lawful right to be,” the report reads.

The controversial law grants immunity to people who use force, including deadly force, in response to a perceived threat of bodily harm. It was thrust into the spotlight last year after Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin was shot to death in Sanford by a man who later claimed self-defense under Stand Your Ground. The shooter, neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, was initially not charged, but now awaits trial on second-degree murder charges.

Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll chaired the task force, which held statewide hearings and consisted of two lawmakers who drafted the Stand Your Ground law and others who voted for it. Police, lawyers and neighborhood watch volunteers were also appointed. Critics blasted the group's makeup from the outset, predicting that it would not push for any significant changes to the law.

"It's what I expected,” said Sen. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, told the News Service of Florida. “When you put a task force together of people who wrote the bill and full of people who support Stand Your Ground I knew the task force wouldn't come up with anything earth-shattering in their final report."

The group’s recommendations included reconsidering the state’s 10-20-Life law, tightening standards for neighborhood watch groups and commissioning a study to look into issues of racial disparities and unintended consequences of Stand Your Ground.

The task force also urged the Legislature to consider whether Stand Your Ground should apply when an innocent bystander is caught in the crossfire and to clarify whether or not the law’s immunity provision prohibits police from detaining and questioning a shooter.

Two task force members — Miami-Dade State attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and Tallahassee-based pastor Rev. R.B. Holmes — each submitted letters indicating they wished the group had pushed for more significant changes.

“I have also seen not only from the experiences in my Office, but from the testimony of our citizens and experts who came before our Task Force, that the law has had some consequences which I believe were unintended,” Fernandez-Rundle wrote in a letter attached to the report. She said the law’s “immunity” provision should be scrapped.

Holmes, the vice chair of the task force, said he was concerned about inequalities in the application of the law, pointing out that it has been used to help criminals avoid prosecution and has been used in cases where a victim was shot in the back while fleeing.

“Other studies have shown that this law is associated with an increased death toll that falls disproportionately on minority groups,” Holmes wrote.

There are several bills before the Legislature that would repeal or amend the Stand Your Ground law, but they face long odds in Florida’s gun-friendly Legislature.

A “Million Hoodie March” vigil will take place in New York City on Tuesday, the one-year anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s death.

Read More..

Kids being bullied via calls and text messages? There’s an app for that

As you know, bullying and the prevention of it has become a major focus in our schools. But bullies are no longer limited to just verbal or physical bullying. Text bullying has become a serious problem among adolescents and teens.

Almost 9 out of 10 teens have a cell phone and about 1 in 5 will be victims of a text bully. About 1 in 10 teens engage in text bullying. Many of you have emailed me or called our office asking how you can control what happens with your child’s phone. So to make it easier for you I turned to one of our partners, Kelly Starling from AT&T for the types of apps that are available. Now there is a charge for some of these apps, but some are free but at least the below information gives you an idea as to what to ask for and how they work.

•  BullyBlock (Apple iOS, Android) This app captures and block bullies that are causing you and your family harm. The Bully Block app allows users to blocks bullies that utilize private or unknown numbers to engage in cyberbullying. Bully Block also has instant reporting features that allow the user to email or text abusive behavior to parents, teachers, and law enforcement. All audio, messages, and calls are stored on the phone memory card.

•  TipSubmitMobile (Apple iOS, Android) TipSubmit Mobile allows tipsters to submit secure and anonymous tips to Crime Stoppers, law enforcement agencies or school safety officers and administrators. Thousands of communities, schools and government agencies are covered by this application since it connects directly with TipSoft, an anonymous tip reporting system. Tipsters could receive rewards of up to $1,000 for information submitted to Crime Stoppers and nobody will know your identity.

•  Bully Stop (Android) This app helps protect your children from bully calls, texts and picture messages. The app gives your children the ability to block calls and messages from people they don’t want to hear from. Bully Stop uses a Block List to block unwanted callers and texters. The app maintains a password-protected call log of all attempted contact with your child so you can approach the relevant people, parents, teachers or police and show proof of the bullying communication.

Now here is a unique campaign to stop bullying: It’s called Pink Shirt Day, it’s an international event focused on stopping bullying, and it’s – coming up on Feb. 27, asking kids to wear something pink to school that day. This event started in Canada but it has rolled into the United States so I thought of sharing it with you. For more on the inspiring story of how Pink Shirt Day came about see http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2007/09/18/pink-tshirts-students.html

In closing I want to offer our condolences to the Hialeah Police Department and family of Joe Caragol Jr a detective who passed recently due to cancer. I have known Joe for many years and he truly was an exemplary person and he will be extremely missed.

Read More..

Health Foundation gives $1.8 million

Health Foundation of South Florida announced Tuesday the awarding of grants worth a total of $1.8 million to 21 organizations.

Among the awards in Miami-Dade were $197,000 to the Miami-Dade County Health Department, $200,000 to Open Door Health Center, and $107,000 to the University of Miami. Other Dade grants included $20,000 to the Banyan Community Health Center, $45,000 to Centro Mater Child Care Services, $230,000 to the Chapman Partnership, $51,000 to CHARLEE of Dade County, $75,000 to Farm Share and $60,000 to the Miami Dade College Foundation.

In Broward County, grants included $96,300 to Archways, $120,000 to Boys & Girls Club of Broward County and $150,000 to the Broward County Health Department.

In Monroe County: Rural Health Network of Monroe County received $130,000.

The foundation has awarded more than $98 million in grants and support since 1993.

Read More..

Tough gals: Roller derby players enjoy contact sport

For Danielle Shaffner, 33, raising three children with another on the way and having her husband patrol the streets on his police vehicle could be stressful.

That’s why she counts on a sport on wheels for relief: women’s roller derby.

“I let loose and become a little maniac on the rink,” said Shaffner, who is four month pregnant and goes by the name of Pree-T-Manik.

Shaffner, who lives near Palmetto Bay, is one of many professional women competing in Miami’s Vice City Rollers roller derby team. The team was formed back in 2011 and practices at the Palmetto Golf Course hockey rink, 9300 SW 152nd St. in South Miami-Dade.

“It just comes a little naturally,” said Shaffner, who works as a dental assistant and has skated since she was a child. “I love the adrenaline rush. I use it as anger management. It is a great way to make friends and socialize.”

Her pregnancy doesn’t allow her to have contact, so for now, she is taking advantage of the exercising the sport provides.

The team has started their second season on a high note defeating their fist opponent in January.

The game is played on a rink wearing quad roller skates. There are five players to a team. Games consist of a series of short match-ups where a designated player known as a jammer scores points by lapping members of the opposing team, who in turn try to stop the jammer from scoring.

Team president and skater Kristen De La Rua, 30, was instrumental in putting together the team. She and other teammates practiced for Broward’s team, the Gold Coast Derby Grrls. They felt it was only appropriate Miami had a roller derby team.

“Miami needed it’s own team,” she said. “We got a huge response.”

At first, she worried playing because her profession is of a massage therapist, so an injury to the wrist or hands could be costly.

“I was always getting scared because of my career, but I got over it,” she said. “Once I started playing it, it was not that bad.”

Players were recruited using Facebook. Each player pays $40 a month to cover the team’s cost such as paying for the practice location and travel fees.

The Women’s Flat Track Derby Association sanctions the games.

Currently, they are playing Florida teams, but plans are to travel and play teams outside of the state and overseas. There are about 30 members. Each player has a nickname that fits their character, but names are earned. The team is still considered amateur.

Edley Duclos is one of few males who practice with the girls. He is a referee and acknowledges the women’s hard work.

“I do it for the exercise, “he said. “Keeping up with these girls is hard.”

Wearing a pink helmet, elbow and knee pads, Marcy Mock skated around with teammates at the outdoor hockey rink, at Coral Reef Drive and U.S. 1.

She goes by the name of Pinky Gomez, 41. She is a graphic designer who travels from North Miami to practice. She says the game could lead to injuries, but the sport’s rush keeps her motivated. She suffered two broken ribs during a game and still came back to finish.

“You get this adrenaline rush that you don’t feel anything,” said Mock, who also teaches spinning classes.

Aside from the competition, Mock said their bond built between teammates and opponents is a great feeling.

“It doesn’t matter who wins,” she said. “You are playing this game and it’s a women’s driven game.”

Their next game is scheduled for March 2. All of their home games are held at the Palmetto Golf Course hockey rink.

For information visit facebook.com/miamirollerderby.

Read More..

Hawkins withdraws his name from Jackson Health System board post

In a kerfuffle with echoes from political battles almost two decades ago, former Miami-Dade commissioner and state legislator Larry Hawkins announced Monday he was withdrawing his name from nomination to the Jackson Health System board.

Hawkins, 68, who had been nominated to be the unions’ representative on the seven-member board, sent a letter to the clerk of courts saying he was “deeply honored” by the nomination but “after considering the time commitment and the physical demands associated with fulfilling the responsibilities of this position, I have decided to decline this opportunity to serve.”

In a telephone interview, Hawkins said his decision “had nothing to do with Katy Sorenson,” who defeated him in the 1994 election for his commission seat and had been calling journalists and union leaders objecting to his nomination.

Sorenson, now president the Good Government Initiative at the University of Miami, gave The Herald a statement on Friday: “It’s disturbing that the union, which represents so many hard-working women, would appoint a person with such disdain for women and a record of ethics violations.”

In 1995, the state ethics commission fined Hawkins $5,000 after finding that he had sexually harassed three aides while county commissioner. Hawkins, a disabled Vietnam vet who uses a wheelchair, said he had never made lewd comments and his actions had been misunderstood.

Hawkins also has strong supporters. On Monday, before Hawkins withdrew, Phillis Oeters, a South Florida civic leader, praised him as a “brilliant choice” for Jackson’s board because he knows a lot about healthcare and had a long reputation of government service.

Oeters decried dredging up charges from two decades ago. “As a society, can’t we forgive and forget, if forgiveness is even necessary in this case? ... We need the best and the brightest in the county to serve.”

Oeters, chairman of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and a vice president of Baptist Health South Florida, said her remarks reflected her personal views, not those of the organizations.

In his letter to the clerk’s office, Hawkins said he decided to withdraw because “over the past few days, I have had numerous conversations with current board members ... and have spoken with CEO Carlos Migoya regarding the meeting schedules and operations,” which include monthly committee days that start about 7 a.m. and end sometimes past 5 p.m.

Hawkins said his mother is in hospice care and his life was too busy to add Jackson to his schedule. He said that Sorenson, as commissioner, had approved him for volunteer board posts and he was mystified why she would object now based on old allegations. Jackson board members get no salary for their service.

County bylaws allow the unions to name one person to Jackson’s board. Last week, Andy Madtes, president of the South Florida AFL-CIO, announced Hawkins’ selection, which was scheduled to go to the County Commission Wednesday for approval.

On Monday, union leaders issued a statement accepting Hawkins’ decision to withdraw.

In a statement, Martha Baker, president of SEIU Local 1991, said: “Providing our patients and community with cutting edge, fully accessible patient care is our primary goal. We will be putting forward a new appointee as soon as possible...” She said a new nominee will be selected before the next commission meeting on March 5.

The SEIU local represents nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals at Jackson.

Read More..

Presidents' Day is observed Monday. Here is what will be open and closed

Holiday schedule

Federal offices: Closed

Miami-Dade County offices: Closed

Broward County offices: Open

Miami-Dade and Broward courts: Closed

Public schools: Closed

Garbage collection: Varies; check with your municipality

Banks: Most are closed

Stock markets: Closed

Post offices: Closed

Miami-Dade and Broward Transit: Regular schedule

Tri-Rail: Regular schedule

Miami-Dade libraries: Closed

Broward libraries: Open

Malls: Open

Read More..

Escobar Barber Shop in Little Havana gains fame with LeBron James’ commercial

The Escobar Barber Shop is more than a place to get a shave and a haircut.

For decades, it’s been a place to hear stories and see the occasional celebrity.

Comedian Leopoldo “Tres Patines” Fernández has been here. So have legendary boxer Roberto “Mano de Piedra’’ Durán and former Sen. Mel Martínez.

And now, the shop at 803 SW Fifth Ave. in Little Havana, can add Miami Heat superstar LeBron James to the list.

Escobar was the backdrop for James’ day-in-the-life commercial for the Samsung Galaxy Note II.

How did it happen?

Thomas Escobar, who with his brother, Evelio, has run the barbershop for 42 years, got a little suspicious one day when he saw someone taking photos of his business while another asked permission to tape a few scenes. Then they identified themselves as part of the team that manages the NBA star’s image and explained the purpose of the commercial.

But it was up to James to make the final call.

“They didn’t make any promises and only said that they would show the photos to LeBron and that he would make the decision,” said Thomas, born in Villa Clara, Cuba, 75 years ago. “That was a Thursday in the middle of October, and the following day about 10 trucks full of equipment came with 70 people who turned the barbershop upside down and stirred interest in the neighborhood.

“It became clear then that LeBron had liked it and that they were going ahead with the commercial.”

The production team got to work depicting two worlds: the nostalgia of a barbershop with the fast-moving communication via cellphones.

Instant attraction

James was attracted to the shop with its photos of Cuba and old-time conversations.

“They told us they had seen and photographed other barbershops with a better look and more luxurious, but LeBron had been attracted to this one,” said Neorlando Urdanivia, a 77-year-old barber born in the Cuban city of Cienfuegos who speaks with pride of his small contribution to the commercial.

“When he arrived and got off this tremendous SUV, there was quite an upheaval. Fortunately, I was sitting outside wearing my glasses and the first thing LeBron did was to say hello to me with a fist bump. That, as everybody can see, came out very well and very natural.”

Except for that segment with Urdanivia and another brief one with Evelio Escobar, the rest of the barbershop staff remained outside during the filming. James’ personal barber cut his hair. And he was surrounded by his inner circle.

In a matter of seconds, James enters the shop asking everyone how they are and telling the barber, “I need the best, because it’s an important day.”

Meanwhile, his friends show him a video on the phone in which someone is dunking a ball. The player, impressed by the image, sends it to others.

The phone is the center of the commercial, but the barbershop steals the show.

José Pañeda, a top executive of the Heat in charge of the team’s Hispanic market, wasn’t surprised that James and his team chose the Little Havana barbershop.

Latino base

“Since he came to the Miami Heat, LeBron has always felt sensitive toward the community and understands the growing importance of the Latino fan in a city like Miami,” Pañeda said. “He was recently in the Three Kings Parade on Calle Ocho and he knows that our team, because of its privileged geography, has millions of followers in Latin America.”

The video, released on Oct. 29, one day before the NBA season started, attracted interest from as far away as Russia, with people calling the barbershop to ask about James sitting in one of its chairs.

Once the filming ended and the cameras were turned off, James talked to each of the barbers and thanked them before leaving.

“Some people are saying that we are LeBron’s Cuban barbers,” Thomas Escobar said. “Because of the commercial they think that he always gets his haircuts here.

“If they ask me, I tell them the truth. But if others out there believe it, who am I to contradict them. Right?”

Read More..

Glades plan could siphon water from county wells

For years, Everglades restoration engineers and scientists have been working on ways to control the ripple effects when they finally start returning healthy water flows to the marsh.

Increased suburban flooding has long been the big concern from raising water levels in the Everglades but a critical plan now on the fast track surprisingly poses the opposite problem.

Initial computer modeling for the $1 billion plan, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is rushing to complete by year’s end, suggests the proposed re-plumbing of assorted levees, canals and pumps could divert too much water from a well field that supplies Miami-Dade County with much of its drinking water. At certain times of the year, it also could reduce already meager freshwater flows to southern Biscayne Bay that have turned much too salty.

Kim Taplin, chief of the Corps’s Central Everglades branch, acknowledged the results from the first modeling runs last month were unexpected but she also stressed that the suite of projects can be tweaked to ensure groundwater continues to recharge county wells in West Miami-Dade.

“It is truly a tentatively selected plan,’’ she said at a meeting on the plan this week. “There are a lot of policy issues that have to be worked out.’’

But the time frame for resolving the problem and other issues is short, and the stakes are high.

This particular plan, called the Central Everglades Planning Project, is an important experiment by the Corps to cut through the bureaucratic red tape that has tangled and slowed restoration since Congress first approved the joint state-federal restoration effort in 2000. The Corps — partnering with the South Florida Water Management District and a large “working group” of other state and federal agencies, environmentalists and outdoors groups — is trying to crunch its typical planning process of five-to-six years to 18 months.

The goal is to formally select a plan by April and have it approved by Corps leadership in Washington in time to include it among a handful of already authorized Everglades projects stalled until Congress approves funding — most likely through a massive public works spending bill. Such measures, called water resources development acts, are passed periodically, with the last one coming in 2007. Everglades supporters are pushing hard for another one.

The Central Everglades plan is designed to finally help the ailing heart of the Everglades — moving more water through state-owned water conservation areas south of Lake Okeechobee, down through the Shark River Slough, the historic headwaters of Everglades National Park and finally out into Florida Bay.

Though the plan wouldn’t do everything called for in the larger $13.5 billion restoration plan, which was expected to take decades to complete, it would represent a major first step toward restoring natural flow to a system long bottled up by dikes and drainage canals.

The plan calls for siphoning water currently released from the lake and “lost to tide” down the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers and redirecting it to the south.

The water — up to 65 million gallons annually — is intended to refresh long-parched swaths of the Glades and too-salty Florida Bay and offer relief to sections of state-owned marsh where water has historically been held too high, destroying tree islands and reducing wild life populations. After studying four alternatives, a working group hammering out the plan made a tentative choice last month, combining features from two alternatives. The new plan, known as 4R, includes nearly 20 separate projects to backfill portions of canals, remove or shorten levees, add gates and pumps, extend bridging along Tamiami Trail and remove the old road bed.

Read More..

Crime Watch: Steer clear of these latest email scams

Today I want to share with you some interesting scam emails shared by readers. We truly need to be super-careful and not open or respond to any of them.

I personally got the one from Kabul and had to laugh because this was a new one for me. I am not showing the email address, but trust me it looked very official especially when I do have friends that are stationed in Kabul. Here is the email I got:

Subj: Greetings from Kabul.. ... .

Hello,

I am CPT. Greg Hooper an officer of the U.S Army presently serving with the 395th CSSB peace keeping forces in Afghanistan. You may not know me but i really need your help as i have some very important packages to ship to you for safekeeping until i return back home to the USA.

I will explain in details only if you meet my conditions. Thanks for your prayers & support as we hope to return in one piece!!

CPT. Greg Hooper.

The second email I want to share came from a read who had some very good suggestions and its really worth sharing, since he had a personal experience with the email. Here is what he had to say:

Dear Carmen:

Thank you for your article in The Miami Herald on Jan. 6, 2013, titled "Two email scams you shouldn’t fall for." I haven’t seen the second one you mentioned yet, but I’ve received the first one several times over the last two or three years. It’s amazing how many of my friends and acquaintances have been robbed overseas in the last few years!

I’m writing because I thought there was one element to the scam that I thought important to be emphasized, and, if you ever decide to re-publicize the information, I’d suggest including it. Sometimes, when I’ve received those e-mails, they are not only from someone I know, but the email address in the "FROM" line is identical to the email address of the friend who is supposedly writing to me. This instantly leads a person to trust that the email is legitimate. And, since a quick "reply to" will allow the recipient to verify that it’s true, it’s easy to fall for it.

However, when you hit "reply to", the e-mail address to which the message will be sent is NOT the same as the one from which it appeared to have been sent. The address changes — very, very subtly.

For example, I could receive a message from a friend at "FRIEND101@gmail.com", but, when I hit "reply to", the message will be sent to "FRIEMD101@gmail.com" (the "N" was subtly changed to a "M") or "FRlEND101@gmail.com" (the capital "I" has been changed to a lower-case "L"). So if I sent an email to the person using "reply to", asking "is this true?!?", I would likely receive a message back from the scammer verifying it’s fictitious validity.

Thanks for listening and for aiming to protect the public!

Jeff Rothkopf

Folks, like I always say the Internet is a wonderful form of communication, but it brings its dangers, therefore we all must be vigilant and astute when using it.

Read More..

Mystery shrouds failure of Internet video link between Pakistani hotel, Miami terrorism trial

The mystery of who pulled the plug on the Internet connection linking witnesses testifying in Pakistan to a Miami terrorism trial remained unsolved Wednesday, stalling the high-profile proceeding until next Tuesday as the defense scrambles for an alternate solution.

A defense attorney for Miami imam Hafiz Khan, standing trial on charges of financially supporting the Pakistani Taliban, told a federal judge by phone that the Pakistan government’s foreign and interior ministries did not even know that the live video feed was cut off to Miami Tuesday morning.

A federal prosecutor said his office contacted an FBI legal attache in Islamabad, and the official checked in with several Pakistani government agencies and the staff at the hotel where the testimony was taken earlier this week. No one had a clue about the mysterious shutdown -- whether it was a technical glitch or the secret work of the Pakistan government.

Prosecutor John Shipley accused defense attorney Khurrum Wahid of trying to orchestrate the live testimony at the Serena Hotel in Islamabad “under the radar screen” of the Pakistan government -- an accusation strongly denied by Wahid.

U.S. District Judge Robert Scola, clearly exasperated by the high-tech failure 8,000 miles away, gave Wahid an ultimatum that must be met by Friday. Wahid could take the testimony of 10 remaining witnesses in a third country, such as a United Arab Emirate, as long as he could obtain travel visas for them and resume the depositions by next Tuesday. If not, the judge said, Wahid must abandon his alternate plan and return home over the holiday weekend to resume his defense in Miami.

“One way or the other, that’s the last accommodation I’m making,” Scola told Wahid by phone Wednesday morning.

A moment later, the judge told the 12 jurors: “We still don’t have any transmission from Pakistan. We are trying to make alternate arrangements.”

Perhaps the most befuddled in the bunch: Khan, 77, who is standing trial on charges of sending thousands of dollars to the Taliban terrorist organization, sworn enemies of the U.S. and Pakistan governments. Khan was the leader of the Flagler Mosque, 7350 NW Third St.

Despite safety concerns, the judge had allowed Khan’s defense attorney to travel to Pakistan to take live testimony from 11 witnesses so the defendant could receive a fair trial. Prosecutors opposed allowing the testimony, and refused to make the trip.

Everything seemed to be going well until about 11:20 a.m., or 9:20 p.m. Tuesday in Islamabad. The flat-screen televisions and video monitors in front of the judge, lawyers and jurors in Miami suddenly lost the signal and flashed “disconnected.”

Wahid explained to the judge by phone Tuesday that there was “absolutely no problem” until a prosecutor in Miami mentioned the name of the Serena Hotel, where the testimony was being taken, during cross-examination. He noted the hotel staff said “there were some intelligence operatives in the business center here, and they were taking pictures of us and our witnesses.”

Added Wahid: “I’ve been told by the hotel staff that it’s from outside the building and that ... the IP [Internet] address has been blacklisted by the Interior Ministry, I’m sorry, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.”

Read More..

Jackson Health System board member resigns abruptly

Joaquin del Cueto, secretary of the Jackson Health System board, has resigned abruptly in what appears to be a union-inspired maneuver to put a new person on the board.

Del Cueto, a retired Miami-Dade firefighter who announced his resignation Monday, was the union-named representative to the seven-member Financial Recovery Board, which sunsets at the end of May.

He did not respond to phone calls and emails Tuesday, but Martha Baker, president of SEUI Local 1991, which represents Jackson’s nurses and other healthcare professionals, issued a statement saying del Cueto’s resignation “was a mutual decision reached by Mr. Del Cueto and the union leadership. We are grateful for his honorable service over the past five years.

“Andy Madtes, president of the South Florida AFL-CIO, is responsible for designating a replacement to fill this vacancy. Following consultation with the union leadership, Mr. Madtes will notify the Clerk of the Board of County Commissioners of a chosen replacement by the end of the week,” Baker’s statement said.

Madtes did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Financial Recovery Board, created two years ago when Jackson was struggling with a deep financial crisis, has four members selected by Miami-Dade County Commissioners, one by the mayor, one by the head of the Miami-Dade legislative delegation and one selected by the AFL-CIO.

The process is beginning to select a new board that will take over in June. A new nine-member nominating committee, including one union representative, is scheduled to meet later this month. In essence, it will allow present board members to continue, with the committee selecting which members will serve staggered terms from one to three years.

Del Cueto, the most senior of present board members, often spoke out at meetings about how Jackson’s executives should pay attention to its talented labor force, and he consistently opposed management’s moves to explore out-sourcing services. He had been recently been appointed co-chair of the important strategy and growth committee, assigned to finding new sources of revenue to grow Jackson’s business.

Several sources in the gossipy healthcare community conjectured that his replacement will be Natacha Seijas, an ousted county commissioner who has been a strong union supporter.

“I’m not the one,” Seijas said Tuesday. She said she was on the board of the Penavler clinic, which was scheduled to meet Tuesday night to decide on a new contract with Jackson. “It would be a complete conflict for me to be on the Jackson board.”

Seijas praised del Cueto -- “he has my complete confidence.” She said Jackson Chief Executive Carlos Migoya “is doing a good job.”

Read More..

Carnival ship fire quickly extinguished as ship wallows in Gulf awaiting tug

The Carnival Triumph, a Galveston, Texas-based passenger cruise ship with the theme “Great Cities Around the World,” might have been better off sitting at port, as a court initially ordered.

As of Monday morning the 14-year old ship was going nowhere, operating on emergency generator power after a fire Sunday in one of the diesel generators killed its propulsion. The fire was quickly put out by an automatic fire extinguishing system, and none of the 4,229 passengers or crew are said to be in any danger

All were waiting patiently as a giant tug boat trudged toward the Triumph, now operating under generator power, with the intention of hauling the 100,000 ton, 893-foot vessel to the nearest port in Progreso, Mexico. It is expected in port some time Wednesday afternoon. Carnival Cruise Lines headquarters are in Miami-Dade.

“The cause of the fire is still to be determined,” said Carnival spokesman Vance Guliksen. In a brief news release, Guliksen said “there were no casualties to guests or crew.”

He said all passengers will be flown back to the United States and will be fully refunded.. Carnival said it will cover any additional transportation expenses. Passengers will also receive a free future cruise.

As of 11 a.m. Tuesday another Carnival ship, the Carnival Elation, was on the scene transferring food and beverages.

According to Carnival, some basic auxiliary power has been restored, cabin toilets are working on part of the ship and some elevators are operational. The dining areas are serving hot coffee and limited hot food.

The $420 million Triumph made news early last year after the family of a German tourist killed in the Costa Concordia disaster in the Mediterranean filed a $10 million lawsuit against Carnival. A judge found the family had standing, and ordered the ship held at port in Galveston. The court later allowed the ship to move between ports until a hearing takes place.

The lawsuit contends that Carnival Cruise Lines is the corporate parent of the Costa Concordia.

Read More..