Lance’s crying shame








A teary-eyed Lance Armstrong finally showed some emotion last night while confessing to Oprah Winfrey that he was guilted into telling his children he was pro cycling’s biggest cheater.

Armstong said he had little choice but to ’fess up over the holidays when he learned that his oldest son, Luke, 13, was regularly defending him in public.

“He never asked me; he never said, ‘Dad is this true?’ ” Armstrong said. “He trusted me.”

Regarding his talk with Luke and Lance’s two 11-year-old twin girls, Armstrong recounted saying, “Listen, there’s been a lot of questions about your dad. I said, ‘I want you to know it’s true.’





OWN





DADDY’S DISGRACE: Lance Armstrong lost his composure when he told Oprah Winfrey how he confessed his sordid lies to his children.





“I told them, ‘Don’t defend me anymore’ . . . They didn’t say much . . . They just accepted it,” added Armstrong, who also has two younger children.

During the second half of the long-awaited confession, he also admitted that his most “humbling” moment during his fall from grace was in November when he was pressured into cutting all ties with Livestrong, the cancer charity he helped found.

“The foundation was like my sixth child,” he said, adding that that experience was even more humiliating than losing tens of millions of dollars in sponsorship deals from companies such as Nike.

He later said with a straight face that he believes he deserves to compete professionally again.

“I deserved to punished. I don’t deserve the death penalty,” he said, referring to his lifetime ban.

Armstrong’s remarks aired hours after some people he had burned on his way to the top said he fell flat during the first part of his on-air mea culpa with Winfrey, which aired Thursday.

The wife of a former teammate who long said that Armstrong was a doper ripped the admitted drug user after his limited confession.

Betsy Andreu testified in 2006 that she heard Armstrong admit to doping in an Indiana hospital 10 years prior. After years of denying her charges and attacking her, Armstrong refused to address those claims.

“I’m really disappointed,” Andreu told CNN. “You owed it to me, Lance, and you dropped the ball.”

Max Miley, 52, who rode with Armstrong as teenagers in Texas, told The Post he thought the fallen star was “evasive” at times.

“He’s been lying for 15 years and it’s hard to believe that [he’s] telling the truth now,” Miley said.

Miley, a cycling coach and founder of Max Fitness Inc., did not believe Armstrong was completely forthcoming.

“The fact that he said he took drugs every Tour de France [he won] . . . to hear it from his mouth is a big admission on his part.”

But Armstrong needs to unload everything, Miley said. “It can’t hurt to change things, but he cannot move forward unless he truly comes clean,” he said.

Sports officials agreed.

A day after stripping Armstrong of his bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the International Olympic Committee said Armstrong should give authorities details about his doping program to “bring an end to this dark episode.

“If he thinks this interview would help him get credibility back, I think this is too little, too late,” said IOC Vice President Thomas Bach, who heads the committee’s anti-doping investigations.

In Thursday’s installment on Oprah’s network, Armstrong said he didn’t feel he was cheating while using steroids to win seven consecutive Tour de France races, and didn’t supply any names of those who helped him.

Armstrong’s rep did not respond to a request for comment.

dmacleod@nypost.com










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King’s son brings message to South Florida




















The past few days have kept the eldest son of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. busy. He’s been to at least three states to carry on his father’s message: ending violence and learning from historical wrongs.

In a Fort Lauderdale Baptist church early Friday, he delivered another directive:

“A nation is judged on how we treat our most prized possession,” Martin Luther King III said. “And our most precious resource, I think, is our children.”





King served as the keynote speaker at the ninth annual Martin Luther King Jr. inspirational breakfast hosted by the YMCA of Broward County.

More than 500 gathered inside the First Baptist Church on Broward Boulevard, selling out the $2,500 per table event, to honor King’s legacy.

“My concern was that it would not be reduced to a day of relaxation,” said King III. “We have to look at this as a day on — not a day off.”

The Rev. King, a prominent civil rights leader, was born this week 84 years ago. He lead peaceful protests and bus strikes working for racial equality until his 1968 assassination.

The younger King told the South Florida audience about spending his youth at the local YMCA in Birmingham, learning to swim and working out with his dad.

“Those were wonderful experiences, experiences that I will never forget,” he said.

Like his father, King III has been a fighter for human rights, justice and non-violence in the United States and abroad. He also served as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s president, a position his father once held.

During his 2009 inauguration, President Barack Obama declared the holiday honoring King should be spent as a national day of service.

At Friday’s event, 15 youngsters from the Lauderhill YMCA were honored for their service to the community. The young friends managed to clean up a popular overpass and get rid of gangs who were harassing children.

They called their project “Own the Overpath.” The idea started when 14-year-old Kervens Jean-Louis was attacked by a gang on a fenced in walkway that spans the Florida Turnpike while coming from the YMCA, based at Boyd Anderson High School. But Jean-Louis didn’t back down.

He and other students mobilized and launched a campaign to clean-up the area surrounding the “overpath.” The youngsters made a formal presentation to the Lauderhill City Commission and Florida Department of Transportation officials.

Now, there is a $400,000 project in the works to install more lights on the bridge to increase visibility. The city broke ground in November.

“I learned that when you speak out loud it makes a difference,” said Jean-Louis.

For Jean-Louis, speaking loud meant going back to the bridge to warn others of the dangers of traveling across it at night.

He will spend this upcoming Saturday as a volunteer, painting and cleaning up a garden.

“Now I tell others what’s going on and how they can help out,” he said, much like the man they had all come to honor.

After the youngsters were honored, King III left the crowd to ponder a final thought: “We can either be a thermometer or a thermostat.”

A thermometer, he explained, takes the temperature while a thermostat regulates the temperature.

Despite the progress his father saw in his lifetime, and the decades since his death, there is still much work to be done, King III said.

“I always come with a heavy heart in January,” he said. “Because we have not fully realized the dream.”





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Samsung, Apple seen pulling ahead in smartphone race: poll






HELSINKI (Reuters) – Samsung and Apple pulled ahead in the global smartphone race last quarter, according to forecasts by analysts in a Reuters poll, while Nokia and others are expected to have fallen further behind.


Overall shipments of handsets are expected to have risen in the fourth quarter, with most of that growth dominated by Samsung. Analysts forecast the South Korean company shipped 61 million smart devices, up 71 percent from a year earlier.






Samsung forecast earlier this month that it expected to earn a quarterly profit of $ 8.3 billion on strong sales of its Galaxy handsets as well as solid demand for flat screens used in mobile devices. Samsung’s full results are due by Jan 25.


While some are wary that Samsung’s momentum may slow in coming quarters owing to market saturation, it is still expected to outpace Apple as sales of the new iPhone 5 appear slightly weaker than originally forecast.


Apple is forecast to have shipped 46 million iPhones in the quarter, up 25 percent from a year earlier, according to the poll.


Shares in Apple dipped below $ 500 earlier this week for the first time in almost a year after reports it was slashing orders for screens and other components as intensifying competition eroded demand for the new iPhone.


The poll showed analysts expect Apple’s full-year shipments to grow to 167 million this year from 134 million in 2012, while Samsung’s shipments are expected to grow to 283 million smartphones in 2013 compared to 210 million in 2012.


NOKIA, RIM AIM TO CATCH UP


Nokia, once the world’s biggest handset maker, is expected to have lost more market share. It is now pinning its recovery hopes on Lumia smartphones, which use Microsoft’s Windows Phone software.


Analysts forecast Nokia’s fourth-quarter shipments of mobile phones fell 15 percent to 80 million units while those of smartphones, including Lumias, fell 65 percent to 7 million units.


Nokia last week said it sold around 4.4 million Lumia handsets in the fourth quarter. Full results are due on Jan 24, and analysts are anxious to hear whether Nokia is confident that Lumia sales will continue to grow in coming quarters.


BlackBerry-maker RIM, another handset maker struggling to claw back market share, is expected to report a 30 percent fall in fourth-quarter shipments to 7 million units, the poll showed.


RIM is to launch new BlackBerry 10 smartphones later this month. The poll showed, however, that analysts expect its full-year sales to fall to around 30 million in 2013 from 33 million in 2012.


(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Sophie Walker)


Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Drew Barrymore on Oprah's Next Chapter

Drew Barrymore opens up about her complicated childhood and the lessons she's learned when it comes to being a new mother on Oprah's Next Chapter, and we have a sneak peek!

Pics: Celebs and Their Cute Kids

Marking the first time cameras have ever been allowed inside her home, Drew also talks to Oprah about her new marriage to Will Kopelman, shares details about their newborn baby Olive, and reveals the story behind why her mother did not attend her wedding.

Related: Drew Barrymore's Daughter Olive Lands First Cover

Oprah's Next Chapter with Drew Barrymore airs Sunday at 9 pm ET/PT on OWN.

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Norwegian Cruise Line launches strong IPO




















Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line joined its larger local competitors on Wall Street Friday in a strong debut.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. raised nearly $447 million in an initial public offering of about 23.5 million shares and saw stocks sail 30 percent in trading.

Shares closed Friday afternoon at $24.79, up $5.79 from the $19 offering price set late Thursday night. That was above the range of $16-$18 that the company had expected.





“I think this was a classically beautiful IPO, albeit relatively small in terms of total dollars,” said Roderick McLeod, partner in the management consulting practice McLeod.Applebaum & Partners and a former cruise executive.

In regulatory filings, the company has said it plans to use proceeds from the IPO to reduce debt and pay expenses related to the offering. Norwegian is giving the underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to an additional 3.5 million shares.

Previously, the company was privately held in a partnership of Genting Hong Kong, with 50 percent of the cruise line, and private equity firms Apollo Management and TPG. Genting Hong Kong is a subsidiary of gambling and resort conglomerate Genting Group, which purchased the land currently occupied by The Miami Herald in 2011 for $236 million.

After the IPO, the three groups own a total of about 88 percent of the company’s ordinary shares.

Norwegian, with a fleet of 11 ships and three more on the way by the fall of 2015, has made its name by emphasizing a “freestyle” type of cruising that allows guests to choose from a variety of dining, entertainment and rooming options.

In an interview Friday morning, Norwegian Cruise Line President and CEO Kevin Sheehan said that the timing was right for the offering.

“It just seemed like a very logical time: We’re into 2013, we’ve got these beautiful new ships coming out soon and the marketplace is very excited about them,” he said. “The locomotive is moving and we’re at the tipping point with the brand.”

As the industry grows by just about 2.5 percent over the next five years, Sheehan said, Norwegian will grow capacity by more than 10 percent.

“It’s the double whammy,” he said. “Lower growth in the future with a phenomenal set of assets.”

He said the benefits of going public include raising capital, allowing the company to strengthen its balance sheet and putting it in the same playing field as its competitors. Carnival Corp., the world’s largest cruise ship company, and rival Royal Caribbean Cruises are both publicly traded. Carnival closed up about a percent at $38.58 Friday, while Royal Caribbean dropped just over a percent to $36.90.

“Now we’re out there and people can look at our results and the analysts can talk about us freely,” he said.

The launch capped years of attempts by Norwegian to go public, all abandoned for economic reasons.

Miami cruise expert Stewart Chiron, CEO of CruiseGuy.com, said the timing was good, with an industry performing well and a vastly improved company.

“I’m glad they finally got it done,” he said. “This was by far one of the important milestones that they wanted to cross.”

McLeod remembers an effort when he was president and chief operating officer at Norwegian that coincided with the stock market crash in October of 1987. He has also worked in senior positions at Royal Caribbean Cruises and Carnival Corp.

“I think we’ve all kind of known this was coming eventually and some of us have known it’s coming for 25 years,” McLeod said. “It’s never too late to do the right thing; this is the right thing for them to do.”

The move is smart, McLeod said, for several reasons.

“In addition to improving their leverage, reducing their debt, this expands their strategic options,” he said. “This is a currency, and that can work for them in lots of different ways.”

This report was supplemented with information from the Associated Press.





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B'klyn teen dialed 911 more than 400 times for fake emergencies: police








A Brooklyn teen dialed 911 more than 400 times to phone in fake emergencies, police said yesterday.

Dean Whylie, 16, disguised his voice as a girl when he made 404 calls reporting non-existent incidents, starting on May 26 of last year, police added.

“He reported police officers needing assistance, shots fired, motor vehicle accidents and disputes,” a police source said.

Whylie allegedly used two phones that weren’t yet activated, but were set up for emergency calls only — which made it difficult to trace the hundreds of fake reports, police said.




At least 329 bogus incidents were reported at locations in the 70 Precinct, which includes Kensington, cops added. Other fake calls reported crimes in Borough Park and other parts of southern Brooklyn, according to police.

Investigators finally traced cell phone pings to the teen’s home on East 22nd Street in Ditmas Park, where he made his last call Monday, police said.

The teen gave no explanation as to why he made the prank calls, cops said.

He was arrested Tuesday afternoon and charged with reckless endangerment, criminal impersonation, obstruction of governmental administration, filing false reports and criminal nuisance, police said.

One of the two phones — which had been used to dial 186 bogus calls — was recovered, cops added.










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Sen. Marco Rubio to swear in Miami-Dade commissioner Rebeca Sosa on Friday




















Miami-Dade Commissioners Rebeca Sosa becomes Miami-Dade commission’s first Hispanic chairwoman when she is sworn in on Friday by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.

Also being sworn in is fellow commissioner Lynda Bell, who is now the vice chair. Miami-Dade County Judge Gladys Perez will swear in Bell

The installation ceremony will be at 11:30 a.m. ceremony at the commission chambers at the Stephen Clark Center, 111 NW First St.





First elected in 2001, Sosa represents District 6, which includes areas of Miami, Coral Gables, West Miami, Hialeah and Miami Springs, as well as unincorporated zones.

Sosa’s office explained the Florida Senator is doing the honors at the historic swearing in because the two are long-time friends.

Bell who was elected in 2010 represents District 8, which encompasses a significant area of southeastern Miami-Dade, including the municipalities of Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay and Homestead with portions of Kendall an the Redlands.

Sosa and Bell won two-year terms in November.

The installation ceremony is open to the public.





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Obama Wants More Violent Video Game Studies, and That’s Okay






Here’s an interesting fact that came out of the recent debate over gun control: Thanks to the U.S. Congress, the government has been unable to fully research firearm safety for the last 16 years.


In 1996, as Reuters tells it, the National Rifle Association pressured lawmakers into cutting $ 2.6 million worth of Centers for Disease Control funding, which was being used for firearms research. Congress later restored the funds, but with a restriction on any research that “may be used to advocate or promote gun control.” Apparently the NRA had been dismissing past studies as “anti-gun propaganda,” but it’s hard to see the group as anything but afraid of what we might learn through more research.






Now that President Obama wants Congress to fund research into violent video games, I’m sad to see a parallel among some of my fellow gamers and game journalists, who think the government should just leave games alone.


“Dear Mr. President, We are not ignorant about the relationship between media including videogames and violence. Studies show there isn’t one,” Garnett Lee, Editorial Director of GameFly Media, wrote on Twitter.


“No matter how many studies show no links, it’ll never be seen as a reason to not fund another one,” Wired Editor Chris Kohler wrote.


Sorry, but I can’t join in on this collective freak out. For as defensive as I am about video games, and my right to enjoy them like any other form of speech, I draw the line at declaring we don’t need any more knowledge.


True, there isn’t much strong evidence to prove that violent video games make children violent in the real world. That’s why, in 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to let California outlaw the sale of violent games to minors. The state didn’t have enough evidence to prove that violent video games cause violence — certainly not more than any other media — so just like the movie and music industries, the video game industry gets to regulate itself. It uses its own ratings system, and retailers take it upon themselves not to sell mature-rated games to minors. They happen to do an extremely good job, too, according to the FTC.


But just because existing research doesn’t link violent games with violent behavior doesn’t mean we know everything there is to know about how these games affect us. Just today, Kotaku published a lengthy story on everything we do know from violent games research. One of the most surprising takeaways: hardly anyone has studied whether video games are bigger primers for aggression than non-interactive media, such as movies. As Polygon reports, the CDC has supported violent media research before, and believes there’s more work to be done. We shouldn’t be afraid of that.


We also shouldn’t be afraid of the implications. There is a serious debate to be had about whether a certain level of media violence — I’m talking really gruesome, depraved stuff — deserves the same type of classification as pornography, which is illegal to sell to minors in the United States. The Supreme Court actually allowed for this possibility in its 2011 ruling, but it tossed out California’s violent game law in part because it was too broadly-defined, and because it unfairly targeted video games instead of all media. The government long ago decided that minors shouldn’t be allowed to see hardcore sex on the belief that it’s harmful, so either we start figuring out similar parameters for media violence, or we decide that trying to legally prevent minors from seeing anything is an impractical and misguided enterprise. Either way, it’s hard to have that debate without more knowledge about how violent media affects us.


I do wish Obama hadn’t singled out video games over all other media in Wednesday’s briefing to the press. And I admit that the parallel to the NRA’s crackdown on firearms research is a bit unfair. After all, guns literally are weapons; video games are not. One of these things is clearly more dangerous to possess than the other, and unless you’re NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre, it shouldn’t be hard to recognize which.


The good news is that the Obama administration seems to be aware of all this, and I don’t see much evidence that there’s a video game witch hunt at hand. Obama’s official memorandum on gun violence research doesn’t specifically mention video games at all, and mentions the importance of giving parents the tools to decide what media their children consume. Even the video game industry’s main trade group, the Entertainment Software Association, is okay with Obama’s push for more research. That’s a pretty good indication that the government isn’t coming after our right to virtually shoot aliens in the face. It just wants to know more about what happens in our brains when we do. So should we.


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Undercover Boss Gets Chastised by Pushy Manager

A verbally abusive manager is bound to get his comeuppance on the next Undercover Boss.

PICS: Celebrity Dream Jobs

President of Moe's Southwest Grill, Paul Damico, gets a rude awakening while going through employee training at one of the restaurant's branches. Under the alias Marc, Paul is chastised by a store manager on a power trip.

"Tito's a little flippant with me," Paul says, who felt the atmosphere was less than professional. "As the leader of the brand, I don't like to see managers run a shift like this."

Paul grows more irritated as he realizes that Tito has been treating all of the associates with the same lack of respect.

"I'm not okay with what is happening in front of the guests," says Paul.

Click the video for more. Watch an all-new Undercover Boss Friday at 8/7c on CBS.

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Prices for Miami Beach luxury condos soar to records




















Ultra-luxury condominiums on South Beach are fetching nosebleed prices.

On Tuesday, a penthouse at the Setai Resort at 2001 Collins Avenue closed for $27 million — the highest price ever for a South Florida condominium, according to real estate agents.

“We’re definitely seeing the market turning upward,” said Jeff Miller, of Zilbert International Realty in Miami, who represented the buyer in the sale of the palatial 7,100-square-foot condominium. “We’re seeing buyers come in from all over the globe.”





Just a few weeks ago, Ohio coal mining businessman Wayne Boich Jr. completed the sale of his Icon South Beach penthouse at 450 Alton Road in the uber-trendy South of Fifth neighborhood for just under $21 million.

The 6-bedroom, 7 1/2-bath Icon condo sparked a bidding war that drove the sale $2 million above the listing price — a level that is three times the $7 million Boich paid in July 2007 in the depths of the bust. It was a record price for a Miami Beach bayside condo.

“The luxury market is on fire in South Beach — especially the South of Fifth neighborhood,” said Dora Puig, principal of PuigWerner Real Estate Services, who was the listing broker for the Icon unit. “It’s moving Miami to totally different pricing points.”

The Setai’s record may not reign for long.

Penthouse 2 in the decade-old Continuum South tower at 100 South Pointe Drive in the South of Fifth neighborhood is on the market for $39 million.

That is a record listing price for a Miami-Dade condominium, according to Puig, who also snagged that listing.

Amid the market sizzle, Puig bumped up the asking price late last summer from $35 million.

The penthouse, which has 11,000 square feet of interior space, belongs to Manhattan real estate developer Ian Bruce Eichner, who built the Continuum project at the tip of South Beach and kept the trophy for himself.

The Continuum penthouse, which has 6,000 square feet of deck and a rooftop heated pool, boasts sweeping 13 1/2-foot ceilings that give the feel of a single-family home. The floor-to-ceiling glass walls offer a 360-degree view of the Atlantic Ocean, Biscayne Bay, downtown Miami and Miami Beach from 40 stories up.

“It looks down on Fisher Island, way down,” Puig said with a smile.

The unit has a private interior elevator, of course, and stretches over two indoor levels and two largely exterior levels.

One big plus: It has a gated entrance and sits on an expansive enclave of rolling lawns and gardens adjacent to a city park at the tip of the island.

The unit comes with an additional 874-square-foot guest quarters that would delight most mortals. “The guest unit is intended for professional quarters: the maid, the nanny, the chef, the pilot,” Puig explained.

Also included is a snazzy cabana on the beach.

Eichner has used it as a vacation home and once rented it to Tom Cruise for a couple of months while he was in Miami to film Rock of Ages.

On Thursday, Puig hosted Miami’s power brokers for a look at the Continuum penthouse over champagne and hors d’oeuvres. Next week, she plans to spend three days in New York touting the property to high-end brokers.

Such palatial properties typically are paid for in cash. But what would a monthly payment be?

With a 20 percent down payment of $7.8 million, the buyer would have to finance $31.2 million.

“I don’t know that I’d be able to find anybody willing to go that high on one unit,” warned Steve Schneider, a mortgage broker who is owner and president of Abacus Lending Group in South Miami.

If a buyer could line up a 15-year fixed rate mortgage at 3.5 percent, the monthly payment for principal and interest would be $223,043.35.

“I’d hate to see the tax bill,” said Schneider.

According to Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser records, the 2012 property tax bill on the Continuum penthouse was $264,896.17. That was based on an assessed value of just $9.5 million, less than half what the Property Appraiser listed as the market value of $19.3 million. The tax break came as a result of the state law that caps increases in assessed values on non-homesteaded property at 10 percent a year.

The condo maintenance fee for Eichner’s unit runs $7,624 a month. “I think that’s low for what you get,” said Puig.





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Ex-pal: Lance is ‘a criminal’








Lance Armstrong’s former right-hand man blasted the cycling cheat yesterday, saying that he should be in jail for lying about taking steroids.

“He’s a petty criminal,” Mike Anderson told The Post after the disgraced champion admitted to Oprah Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs.

“This is a guy who never had a real job in his life. If he had not weaseled his way into [the] sport and undertook this incredible fraud, he would be a petty criminal.”

Anderson sued his former boss in 2005 for allegedly reneging on a deal to help him open a bike shop after serving as his assistant for more than two years. Armstrong settled.




Their relationship fractured in early 2004, shortly after Anderson found Armstrong’s stash of steroids in an apartment where the star cyclist stayed while training, according to court papers.

Anderson says he’s vindicated by the confession, but still wants to see his former boss locked up.

“I’d like the guy to be brought to justice — jail would be good,” he said.

Winfrey hasn’t revealed many details on the “emotional” interview, which is set to air tonight and tomorrow night.

“I left it all on the table with her, and when it airs, the people can decide,” Armstrong told The Associated Press.

His former cancer charity said it expects full disclosure.

“We expect Lance to be completely truthful and forthcoming in his interview and with all of us in the cancer community,” Livestrong said.

The TV confession comes after Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and barred for life from Olympic sports.

Armstrong faces a slew of possible legal troubles over his confession. The Department of Justice was reportedly considering joining a whistleblower lawsuit against the doper, and could still reopen a criminal probe, sources said.

Armstrong’s attorney declined to comment. A rep did not respond to an e-mail.










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Scammers to be sentenced for selling fake Cuban birth certificates to people seeking U.S. residency




















U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga is expected Friday to sentence members of a network who sold false Cuban birth certificates to undocumented immigrants so they could pretend to be Cubans and obtain green cards.

Thanks to the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, Cubans who arrive in the United States without a visa can remain in the country and apply for residence after a year and one day. This immigration benefit is available only to people who can prove they are Cuban citizens.

The case in Miami federal court exposed the first public details of what has become an increasingly common practice in South Florida.





Miami immigration attorney Wilfredo Allen said he has represented more than a half-dozen clients in the past few years who have been accused by immigration authorities of carrying residence cards obtained illegally with false Cuban documents.

Allen said immigration authorities have developed sophisticated methods to discover the fraud related to the Cuban Adjustment Act, and can verify, if they have any suspicion, whether the applicant is presenting an authentic Cuban document.

The network, consisting of four members, three from Naples and one from Kissimmee, was dismantled in September, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested and charged them with conspiring to commit immigration fraud.

All initially pleaded not guilty, but changed their minds and their pleas. Since then, Judge Altonaga has sentenced one of them to six months in prison and two years of parole, including nine months of house arrest.

Two more are scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.

The accused are Nelson Daniel Silvestri Soutto, Laura María Ponce Santos and Amelia Osorio of Naples, and Fidel Morejón Vega of Kissimmee.

People familiar with the case said Morejón and Osorio are Cubans and Silvestri and Ponce are Uruguayans. Their clients were of various nationalities, including Argentineans, Colombians, Costa Ricans, Mexicans, Peruvians, Salvadorans and Venezuelans.

None of the defense attorneys or immigration authorities would comment Wednesday.

Documents available in court pointed to Morejón as the presumptive leader of the group.

He was charged with selling Cuban birth certificate at prices ranging from $10,000 to $15,000 each while posing as a high-ranking immigration official when meeting with potential clients. One was an undercover agent who posed as a Mexican.

For 3 ½ years, beginning in 2009, at least 50 undocumented immigrants bought false birth certificates, according to court documents. Some of them became residents, including some of the accused who then acted as recruiters for Morejón, the court documents state.

The scam netted more than half a million dollars, according to a memorandum in the case.

Other court documents indicate that Morejón may have obtained the birth certificates in Cuba. They don’t specify whether Morejón obtained the certificates at a Cuban government office or received them from a corrupt official who printed them himself.

One of the network’s clients, identified in court records only as J.R., cooperated with investigators and introduced Morejón to an undercover agent who wanted to buy a Cuban birth certificate.

The court documents include transcripts of some of the conversations between Morejón, J.R. and the undercover agent, identified as Rolando.

In one of the transcripts, Morejón said that for the fraud to be successful, Rolando and J.R. would be taken to the Florida Keys and left there as newly arrived rafters. Morejón told them that when the immigration officials picked them up they had to say they were Cubans and know the details of their birth certificates by heart.

In the conversation taped surreptitiously, Morejón advised them on how to respond to questions, but J.R. stumbled when he tried to remember where he was born in Cuba.

“So, if they ask you, ‘Where were you born?’ at that moment you have the birth certificate. ‘Where were you born?’ asks Morejón in the transcription.

“I was born in Havana . . . no, in Guinness, Guinness, Cuba,” responds J.R, referring to the city of Güines, 25 miles southeast of Havana.

Morejón also advised J.R. not to talk too much while in the custody of immigration authorities before being paroled, apparently to avoid detection of their non-Cuban accents or saying things that a Cuban could not say or know.

“You’re going to be at a place where there would be seven or eight people,” Morejón tells J.R., according to the transcript. “ ‘Hey, how did you get here?’ ‘In a raft.’ ‘Are you Cuban?’ ‘Yes.’ That’s all. That’s all. You don’t have to say more or make much conversation.”





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Mysterious Samsung smartphone pictured with Verizon branding







Earlier this week, a mysterious Samsung (005930) smartphone appeared on GLBenchmark’s database with the model number SCH-I425. The number fell in line with previous Verizon (VZ) devices, leading us to speculate that it could be the Stratosphere III. New images posted by Engadget on Wednesday confirmed that the handset is real, however it does not feature earlier Stratosphere devices’ signature QWERTY keyboard. The device resembles the Galaxy S III mini, although the smartphone includes four capacitive buttons rather than Samsung’s physical home key. As the benchmarks revealed, the SCH-I425 is also equipped with a 720p display, a 1.4GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 4G LTE and Android 4.1.2. While the actual screen size is unknown, it appears to be in the 4-inch range. A second image of the unannounced phone follows below.


[More from BGR: The true genius of Facebook’s Graph Search]






This article was originally published on BGR.com


Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Kirstie Alley's Cheers Reunion

It's been nearly two decades since Cheers went off the air, but the onscreen chemistry hasn't changed between Kirstie Alley and Rhea Perlman, as seen in Kirstie's new TV Land pilot, Giant Baby.

On the show, Kirstie plays a Broadway diva whose life gets up-ended.

VIDEO: Kirstie Alley Celebrates 62nd Birthday with ET

"You know, we were planning this when we were doing Cheers," Kirstie said of reuniting with Rhea. "We said when Cheers isn't on the air anymore we'll do a show together."

Rhea plays Kirstie's best friend on Giant Baby, but she's also been a close friend to the Golden Globe winner in real-life, as Kirstie mentions in her New York Times bestseller, The Art of Men.

Kirstie's book, detailing her sexual exploits and struggles with drug addiction, has had so much success that it's attracted readers that Kirstie never thought would buy it.

"It never dawned on me that my dad would read my book," Kirstie said. "I didn't give it to him!"

Click the video for more.

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Miami Dolphins bill would bring state money to aging stadiums




















A bill drafted by the Miami Dolphins would give Florida sports teams $3 million a year in state money to improve older stadiums, provided the owner pays for at least half the cost of a major renovation.

Under the law, the stadium would need to be 20 years old and the team willing to put in at least $125 million for a $250 million renovation. That’s less than the $400 million redo of Sun Life Stadium that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross proposed this week, which he hopes will win state approval thanks to his offer to fund at least $200 million of the effort to modernize the 1987 facility.

Miami-Dade and Florida would fund the rest through a mix of county hotel taxes and state general funds set aside for stadiums. Sun Life currently receives $2 million a year through the program, and the Dolphins want to create a new category that would give them an additional $3 million.





While the Miami Marlins and Miami Heat both play in stadiums subsidized by county hotel taxes, the Dolphins receive no local dollars. The bill would change that by allowing Miami-Dade to increase the tax charged at mainland hotels to 7 percent from 6 percent, and eliminate the current rule that limits the money to publicly owned stadiums. Sun Life Stadium, in Miami Gardens, is privately owned but sits on county land.

The bill pits enthusiasm for one of Florida’s most popular sports teams against a lean budget climate and lingering backlash against the 2009 deal that had Miami and Miami-Dade borrow about $485 million to build a new ballpark for the Marlins. Ross also must navigate a Republican-led Legislature that has twice rebuffed his requests for public dollars.

“I would be surprised if that bill even got a hearing in committee,” said Mike Fasano, a Republican representative from the Tampa area and a critic of tax-funded sports deals. “I’m a big Dolphin fan, and have been for years. But with all due respect, we’ve got people who are struggling throughout this state right now . .. The last thing we should be doing is giving a professional sports team or facility additional tax dollars.”

While the bill would open up the $3 million subsidy to other the teams, the Dolphins see it as unlikely that another owner would be willing to put up as much money for renovations as Ross, a billionaire real estate developer.

If the bill were enacted today, any stadium opened before 1993 would be eligible for the money, provided it could show the proposed renovation would generate an additional $3 million in sales taxes.

Ross and his backers are pitching the renovation as a boon to tourism, with Sun Life a magnet for the Super Bowl, national college football games and other major events. The National Football League is considering South Florida and San Francisco for the 2016 Super Bowl, and the Dolphins say approval of renovation funding is crucial to winning the bid.

Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens, who sponsored the Senate bill, said the funding makes sense because when Sun Life hosts a Super Bowl, the entire state benefits from both tourism dollars and publicity.

“It’s a small price to pay for economic development, and for all the shine we get from major sporting events,” said Braynon, whose district includes Sun Life. Rep. Eduardo “Eddy” Gonzalez, R-Hialeah, is the sponsor on the House side.





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Dad of Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz blames government for suicide








Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz’s heartbroken dad yesterday blamed the US government for his son’s suicide in an emotional eulogy at the young man’s funeral.

“Aaron did not commit suicide — he was killed by the government. And [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology] betrayed all its basic principles” in helping the feds, said grieving dad Robert Swartz to 200 mourners packing Central Avenue Synagogue in Highland Park, Ill.

“Aaron did something that wasn’t illegal and was destroyed by it,’’ Robert added. “He could have done so much more.”

Aaron, 26, hanged himself Friday in his Brooklyn apartment amid charges that he had illegally hacked into millions of archived MIT documents.





SUICIDAL GENIUS: Aaron Swartz died Friday in Brooklyn. Girlfriend Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman (above) yesterday was among 200 mourners at his funeral.

John Smierciak





SUICIDAL GENIUS: Aaron Swartz died Friday in Brooklyn. Girlfriend Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman (above) yesterday was among 200 mourners at his funeral.




Aaron Swartz


Aaron Swartz





As the feds bore down in a case that many experts considered basically much ado about nothing, Aaron became so tormented that he finally “fell into the pain,’’ said his weeping girlfriend, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman.

“Aaron wanted so bad to change the world. He believed you had to see the world for how it really was to change it,” she told mourners through tears.

“With this [upcoming] trial and everything he was facing the last two years, I think [Aaron] fell into the pain.

“I love him, I miss him and I’ve learned so much from him,” she said.

Mourners included Aaron’s stricken mother, Susan, and two younger brothers, Noah and Ben.

Also attending the service were members of the hacktivist group Anonymous — which offered its own defiant “tribute” yesterday.

The group hacked into two Web sites run by MIT — where Aaron had been studying ethics when he infiltrated its computer systems — to post an “in memoriam.’’

“The situation Aaron found himself in highlights the injustice of US computer-crime laws, particularly their punishment regimes,” Anonymous wrote.

Aaron had planned to post the MIT documents on the Web as a statement in favor of freedom of information. He faced decades behind bars and millions of dollars in fines.

He killed himself two days after his lawyer had futilely tried for a second time to negotiate a no-jail plea deal with prosecutors. But the government’s lawyers had insisted Aaron do at least six months behind bars.

Assistant US Attorney Steve Heymann in Boston was leading the probe. It was revealed yesterday that he also was the prosecutor pushing the 2008 hacking case against Jonathan James, 24, who wound up committing suicide, too.

Heymann could not be reached for comment.










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FIU to take over underwater lab in Keys




















The last underwater research lab in the world, an 81-ton yellow pressurized steel tube anchored 60 feet down next to a Key Largo reef, won’t be scuttled after all.

Florida International University announced Tuesday that it will take over operation of Aquarius, an aging but unique underwater facility the federal government had considered putting on the chopping block because of budget cuts.

“For our students and our marine sciences program, Aquarius offers fantastic new possibilities and is a natural fit for the work we are doing in the Florida Keys and throughout the world,’’ said Mike Heithaus, executive director of FIU’s school of environment, arts and society.





Last year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which owns the lab, had called for ending Aquarius’ operation, even though it cost a relatively paltry $1.2 million to $3 million a year to run.

But after backlash from scientists and a campaign led by South Florida political leaders — including Republican Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart — NOAA awarded FIU a $600,000 six-month grant to cover basic maintenance of the facility, which boasts six bunks, a bathroom, galley, science lab and “wet porch” allowing divers easy entry and exit.

Ultimately, the Obama administration agreed the lab was a valuable asset that couldn’t simply be left to rust. Removing it could run up to an estimated $5 million, said FIU biology professor Jim Fourqurean, who will take over direction of Aquarius.

“This is a big, expensive piece of hardware on the bottom of the ocean,’’ he said. “You just can’t leave it there.’’

To continue its operation, however, FIU plans to develop a new business plan for the lab that will rely on financial support from other government agencies, private industry and groups and other universities, Fourqurean said.

Aquarius, the last of more than 60 underwater habitats once in operation around the world, allows scientists to literally immerse themselves for hours, days or weeks in a coral reef community without having to worry about repeatedly surfacing for air or decompressing from long dives. The facility, previously managed by the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, has hosted 117 research missions and also served filmmakers, Navy divers and 40 NASA astronauts who trained for the working conditions of space stations and zero gravity.

Fourqurean said the lab offers a perfect platform for students, faculty and outside researchers to study many of the problems plaguing South Florida’s water, from climate change to pollution and over-fishing.

It also will raise FIU’s profile in the Florida Keys, said Fourqurean, who is director of FIU’s new marine education and research initiative for the Keys. The school will close Aquarius’ current land base, hidden in a neighborhood, and intends to open a new more visible office along the main highway, he said.

“This fits the strategic vision of FIU growing into the Florida Keys,’’ Fourqurean said.





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Apple scoops PBS on “Downton Abbey” episodes, but PBS is cool with it






NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Apple is making the entire third season of “Downton Abbey” available on iTunes before every episode airs on PBS – and that’s just fine with PBS.


Fans who buy a season pass on iTunes beginning January 29 will get to see three episodes before they air on PBS. The Season 3 finale airs February 17.






But PBS CEO Paula Kerger isn’t worried that viewers will watch the show online, then tune out PBS. In fact, she says, Apple isn’t the only place Americans can see “Downton” before they can see it on her network.


“You can also buy the DVD sets. They’re being shipped at the end of January, and the DVD sets and Apple are going up at the same time,” Kerger told TheWrap. “I think that for people who are really passionate and want to have it, it’s a great thing.”


Kerger says she hopes more viewers will discover “Downton” on whatever format they like best – and then watch it on PBS next season.


“At the end of the day, my interest is just in seeing it get to the widest possible audience, and there are people that would pick it up on Apple that may not pick it up anywhere else,” she said.


The first episode of the third season premiered to a record 7.9 million viewers earlier this month. Many of those viewers, no doubt, caught up on the previous seasons online or through DVD viewing.


“Downton” airs in the U.K. in the fall but on PBS in January, which means PBS viewers must shield themselves from spoilers. That has led to some grumbling from American fans.


But Kerger said airing the show in January allows the show to get more attention domestically than it might otherwise receive in the crowded fall season.


Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Megan Fox Apologizes for Lindsay Lohan Comments

In the process of explaining her reason for removing a Marilyn Monroe tattoo on her forearm to Esquire magazine, cover girl Megan Fox unleashed what appeared to be a harsh criticism of actress Lindsay Lohan. In light of all the attention Fox's words have garnered, the star has taken to Facebook in an attempt to clarify her comments. 

Pics: New Mom Megan Fox's Sexiest Shoot Yet

"In the newly released article that I did for Esquire, there is a reference that is made to Lindsay Lohan that I would like to clarify before it snowballs into something silly," began Fox in an open letter posted to her personal page.

"The journalist and I were discussing why I was removing my Marilyn Monroe tattoo, especially since, in his opinion, Marilyn was such a powerful and iconic figure for women. I attempted to draw parallels between Lindsay and Marilyn in order to illustrate my point that while Marilyn may be an icon now, sadly she was not respected and taken seriously while she was still living.

"Both women were gifted actresses, whose natural talent was lost amongst the chaos and incessant media scrutiny surrounding their lifestyles and their difficulties adhering to studio schedules etc.

"I intended for this to be a factual comparison of two women with similar experiences in Hollywood. Unfortunately it turned into me offering up what is really much more of an uneducated opinion. It was most definitely not my intention to criticize or degrade Lindsay.

"I would never want her to feel bullied, as she does not deserve that. I was not always speaking eloquently during this interview and this miscommunication is my fault."

Related: How Megan Fox Lost All That Baby Weight

Fox's original quote to Esquire reads as follows:

"I started reading about [Marilyn] and realized that her life was incredibly difficult. It's like when you visualize something for your future. I didn't want to visualize something so negative.

"She was sort of like Lindsay [Lohan]. She was an actress who wasn't reliable, who almost wasn't insurable. ... She had all of the potential in the world, and it was squandered. I'm not interested in following in those footsteps."

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Miami Dolphins bill would bring state money to aging stadiums




















A bill drafted by the Miami Dolphins would give Florida sports teams $3 million a year in state money to improve older stadiums, provided the owner pays for at least half the cost of a major renovation.

Under the law, the stadium would need to be 20 years old and the team willing to put in at least $125 million for a $250 million renovation. That’s less than the $400 million redo of Sun Life Stadium that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross proposed this week, which he hopes will win state approval thanks to his offer to fund at least $200 million of the effort to modernize the 1987 facility.

Miami-Dade and Florida would fund the rest through a mix of county hotel taxes and state general funds set aside for stadiums. Sun Life currently receives $2 million a year through the program, and the Dolphins want to create a new category that would give them an additional $3 million.





While the Miami Marlins and Miami Heat both play in stadiums subsidized by county hotel taxes, the Dolphins receive no local dollars. The bill would change that by allowing Miami-Dade to increase the tax charged at mainland hotels to 7 percent from 6 percent, and eliminate the current rule that limits the money to publicly owned stadiums. Sun Life Stadium, in Miami Gardens, is privately owned but sits on county land.

The bill pits enthusiasm for one of Florida’s most popular sports teams against a lean budget climate and lingering backlash against the 2009 deal that had Miami and Miami-Dade borrow about $485 million to build a new ballpark for the Marlins. Ross also must navigate a Republican-led Legislature that has twice rebuffed his requests for public dollars.

“I would be surprised if that bill even got a hearing in committee,” said Mike Fasano, a Republican representative from the Tampa area and a critic of tax-funded sports deals. “I’m a big Dolphin fan, and have been for years. But with all due respect, we’ve got people who are struggling throughout this state right now . .. The last thing we should be doing is giving a professional sports team or facility additional tax dollars.”

While the bill would open up the $3 million subsidy to other the teams, the Dolphins see it as unlikely that another owner would be willing to put up as much money for renovations as Ross, a billionaire real estate developer.

If the bill were enacted today, any stadium opened before 1993 would be eligible for the money, provided it could show the proposed renovation would generate an additional $3 million in sales taxes.

Ross and his backers are pitching the renovation as a boon to tourism, with Sun Life a magnet for the Super Bowl, national college football games and other major events. The National Football League is considering South Florida and San Francisco for the 2016 Super Bowl, and the Dolphins say approval of renovation funding is crucial to winning the bid.

Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens, who sponsored the Senate bill, said the funding makes sense because when Sun Life hosts a Super Bowl, the entire state benefits from both tourism dollars and publicity.

“It’s a small price to pay for economic development, and for all the shine we get from major sporting events,” said Braynon, whose district includes Sun Life. Rep. Eduardo “Eddy” Gonzalez, R-Hialeah, is the sponsor on the House side.





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VOTE for the worst liar in history








Lance Armstrong’s lies weren’t the first to lead to a stunning crash. Here is a list of the rest of history’s 10 all-time greatest liars, a rogues gallery of devious dissemblers who can all be enshrined in the forked tongue Hall of Shame.






AFP/Getty Images


RICHARD NIXON — You know when a guy says “I am not a crook,” watch out. “Tricky Dick” Nixon took presidential perfidy to new heights, when he went on TV on August 15, 1973 and said “I had no prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in.” A year later, he resigned.








AP



BERNIE MADOFF — He was more of a Ponzi King than the scam’s inventor, Charles Ponzi. Madoff pretended to be one of the most savvy investors in New York, but his firm was a bogus house of cards that wound up costing his investors $50 billion when it collapsed. Now Bernie cooling his heels in prison.

Spencer A. Burnett



TAWANA BRAWLEY — Her lie set racial tensions in New York to boiling in the 1980s. The Dutchess County teen falsely claimed to have been abducted and raped by a group of men, including a cop and a prosecutor. In 1988, a grand jury found her story was a horrific hoax.

AP



JOHN EDWARDS — A slick haircut doesn’t mean you’re honest. The clean-cut Edwards went from possible President to loathed liar when — after two years of denials — he admitted in 2010 to siring a love child with mistress Rielle Hunter while his wife, Elizabeth, was dying of cancer.

AP



MILLI VANILLI — Their album may have been called “Girl You Know It’s True, ” but it was really a big lie. The “musical” duo of Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, became laughing stocks in 1990 when they had to return their Grammy for best new artist after it was revealed they did not actually sing the songs on the album.

AP



ANTHONY WEINER — Sure, you were “hacked” Mr. Weiner. When a picture of the Queens Congressman’s “member” wound up on the internet he tried to claim he got shafted — by a hacker to stole the picture and put it on line. Later it was revealed that he actually sent the pic to a young woman who was not his wife. He finally admitted “I have not been honest,” and short time later resigned.

AP



PETE ROSE — He was known as “Charlie Hustle.” It was an appropriate nickname. Baseball’s all time hit leader denied for years that he ever gambled on baseball, even though he was banned from the game in 1989. Then in 2004, he admitted he did place bets on the national passtime, and even bet on his own team, the Cincinnati Reds “every night.”

AP



MARION JONES — She lost her golds on the track, but still takes top honors for lying. The disgraced track star had the five medals she won in the 2000 Summer Olympics stripped for doping, charges she initially denied. She was later sentenced to six months in jail for lying to federal prosecutors who were probing use of steroids.



PINOCCHIO — History’s all time greatest liar, this little wooden “boy” wouldn’t know the truth if it bit him. His fibs were so devious that they actually made his nose grow, making him the forerunner of all politicians throughout history.











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Miami City Commissioner Francis Suarez: I’m running for mayor




















It’s official: Miami City Commissioner Francis Suarez is running for mayor.

The 35-year-old son of former Mayor Xavier Suarez will make the formal announcement Tuesday at a press conference at his Coral Gate home.

Suarez’s candidacy has long been the subject of speculation around City Hall. The chatter intensified late last week, when campaign finance reports showed that in the last three months of 2012 he raised $460,000 through his “political communications organization.”





Suarez, in an interview Monday with The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, outlined his vision for the city. It includes replenishing rainy-day funds, promoting small business, beefing up the police department and making the mayor a player on the national stage.

“It starts with having a stable government that is forward-thinking and innovative,” he said.

Despite having flush campaign coffers and key allies, Suarez faces a tough road to the Nov. 5 election. Incumbent Mayor Tomás Regalado has already launched his bid for reelection, and observers say his popularity remains high among likely voters.

“It is going to be a competitive race,” said Barry University political science professor Sean Foreman.

Suarez, a real estate attorney, first ran for the City Commission in 2009. He was elected to represent District 4, which includes Flagami and stretches to the city’s western edge, and was previously held by Regalado.

Early on, Suarez and Regalado often appeared in public together. The mayor asked Suarez to serve as City Commission chairman in late 2011.

But the relationship soured last summer, when Suarez grew increasingly critical of Regalado’s administration. He voiced concerns about the high turnover among top staffers and questioned the finance department’s ability to balance the $500 million budget on time.

Suarez said those frustrations prompted his decision to run for mayor.

“I fundamentally believe that the administration is not being run professionally,” he said. “I have concerns about what will happen if nothing is done about it.”

Suarez said he has already proven his leadership abilities. He points to a pair of controversial motions he made, both of which passed the commission: one to cut employee salaries and another to fire then-Police Chief Miguel Exposito, who was feuding with the mayor at the time.

“I’ve taken the lead on very difficult positions,” he said.

During his three years in office, Suarez has had mixed results passing policy. In 2011, he championed changes to the city zoning code that made it easier to build affordable housing. But his biggest legislative push to date — an effort to create a strong-mayor form of government — failed to find support.

Suarez said he has a couple of new proposals to pitch, including a measure that would reduce permit fees for home repairs that cost less than $2,500. He also said he has ideas for using technology to make city departments run more smoothly.

If campaign contributions are any indication, Suarez will have the support of key business leaders, including Jackson Health System CEO and former city manager Carlos A. Migoya and former Mayor Manny Diaz.

Regalado, who has raised about $160,000 for his campaign and enjoys popularity in neighborhoods like Little Havana and Flagami, said he welcomed the competition.





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Can We Trust CNET Again After a Scandal This Shady?






CNET, one of the Internet’s first and most influential authorities on gadgets and tech news, watched its editorial integrity spiral out of control Monday, with staffers quitting and editors left to explain themselves in the wake of explosive new charges over its annual Consumer Electronics Show awards — a scandal, it would appear, that goes all the way to the top of its corporate umbrella, and could shake the entire ecosystem of online tech journalism.


RELATED: CBS Puts CNET in an Ethically Questionable Spot at CES






Contrary to an already controversial move first reported last Friday, CNET parent company CBS didn’t just asked the site to remove Dish’s Slingbox Hopper from consideration for its Best of CES Awards amidst a lawsuit between CBS and Dish; the removal came after executives learned the gadget would take the top award, and that request came down from CBS CEO Leslie Moonves himself, sources tell The Verge’s Joshua Topolsky. Now, CNET’s corporate responsibilities appear to have made the long trusted site bend at will and, despite desperate pushback from some of its writers and editors, it appears CNET may have moved to cover up the series of events that led to the removal of the award.


RELATED: Following Time and CNN, The Washington Post Suspends Zakaria


For CNET, all of this looks very bad. How can readers trust the site for its famously unbiased reviews and industry news coverage if a media-conglomerate overlord is insisting that some things just “can’t exist”? The events that have unfolded since the scandal broke wide open haven’t exactly restored anyone’s faith. Greg Sandoval, a seven-year veteran of the site, announced his resignation Monday morning on Twitter, citing a lack of “editorial independence” from CBS as his motivation. In a separate tweet, he called CNET’s dishonesty about its parent company‘s involvement with Dish “unacceptable.” Since, both CNET and CBS have released not-too-convincing statements. 


RELATED: Does The Times’ Public Editor Regret Its Adventures in Social-Media Babysitting?


Following the Verge report and Sandoval’s resignation, CNET Editor in Chief Lindsay Turrentine explained how CNET editors did everything in their power to fend off corporate insistence on its editorial decisions, but found the power of a pending deal between two bigger media companies too intimidating. So the editors gave in, and waited. “We were in an impossible situation as journalists,” Turrentine wrote, adding that she thought about resigning. “I decided that the best thing for my team was to get through the day as best we could and to fight the fight from the other side.” 


RELATED: What Kind of David Brooks Hater Are You?


Speaking for many a media and tech pundit, Reuters’s Megan McCarthy questioned the front side of the internal debate: 



CNET’s editor-in-chief’s explains why she caved to CBS. Why didn’t she just refuse to award the Best in Show? : news.cnet.com/8301-30677_3-5…


— Megan McCarthy (@Megan) January 14, 2013


For her part, Turrentine seems to have one major regret: “I wish I could have overridden the decision not to reveal that Dish had won the vote in the trailer.” That doesn’t exactly scream editorial independence, as The Verge’s Sean Hollister pointed out on Twitter.



CNET doesn’t get it either. “I wish I could have overridden the decision not to reveal” is NOT editorial independence. cnet.co/VWBv5o


— Sean Hollister (@StarFire2258) January 14, 2013


Turrentinge went on to say that if she had to face this “dilemma” again, she would not quit. Meaning, if this turns into more than a one-time incident, she wouldn’t have a problem bending to CBS again? 


RELATED: Did Cops Target Journalist’s Wife’s Spa with Prostitution Raid as Payback?


CBS’s statement to The Verge hasn’t calmed the critics, either. “In terms of covering actual news, CNET maintains 100% editorial independence, and always will. We look forward to the site building on its reputation of good journalism in the years to come,” reads the CBS reply. But when you’re dealing with angry tech readers, their nerdfest of the year, and the corporate responsibilities  therein, 100 percent of trust is tough to build back.


While CNET struggles to emerge from this mess, the situation appears to be threatening the entire ecosystem of the technology press, which has a history of reinventing its standards on bias in product reviews. A number of gadget and tech-news sites fall under larger corporate umbrellas: AOL owns Engadget; NewsCorp owns The Wall Street Journal and its influential tech coverage; BuzzFeed FWD has to answer to its investors, who put money in all sorts of tech ventures; IAC invests in companies like Aereo but owns The Daily Beast. Turns out this wasn’t just a family feud — the CNET and CBS scandal at CES could set a precedent for years to come.


Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Nicki Minaj Cannot Trust Herself on American Idol

On tomorrow's episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, American Idol judge Nicki Minaj confesses that she's worried about looking like 'a crazy psycho again' on the popular singing competition.

"I am not really a crazy psycho you guys," Nicki says, referring to the infamous web video that showed the singer/rapper launching into a tirade during Idol auditions. "No, I am serious. I am really not."

Nicki calls the outburst a defense mechanism, explaining that she began to suspect that fellow judge Mariah Carey was displeased with her being on the panel.

VIDEO: Nicki Minaj on Idol Drama: There is No Feud!

With the incident still fresh in her mind, Nicki admits that she is "not looking forward to live shows" because she "cannot trust [herself]."

"Just, like, if there's a slick comment being made..." Nicki says before catching herself. "I just want it to go well. It's about the contestants."

Watch the entire interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Tuesday, January 15. Check your local listings.

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.CO sets sights on changing ‘the fabric of the Internet’




















For the millions of people who equate the Web with .com, . CO Internet is out to change that mindset.

The Miami company that manages and markets the .co domain is already making impressive gains — more than 1.4 million in 200 countries have hung their businesses, blogs, personal projects or dreams on a .co virtual shingle. Still, that’s just a tiny fraction of industry titan VeriSign’s 105 million .com registrants.

“We want to change the fabric of the Internet,” Juan Diego Calle, founder and CEO of .CO Internet, said during an interview in .CO’s Brickell office. “We can only make that happen not by changing what happened in the last 25 years of the Web, which is owned by .com. We want to change the next 25.”





About 2½ years after the launch of .CO Internet, .co — the country code of Colombia — continues to be one of the fastest-growing Internet domains in the world and grew by 24 percent in 2012. .CO Internet is profitable and is projecting to bring in more than $25 million in revenues this year, the company said. The early success of .CO Internet, with operations in Miami and Colombia, is powered by passion and perseverance.

Calle moved to Miami from Colombia at age 15 with his family. He started several businesses, including one he sold in 2005 providing seed capital for what would come next. “I can’t say I ever sat still.” When he learned Colombia would be commercializing the country's .co domain extension in late 2006, he said it hit him like a lightning bolt.

With the right strategy and by “marketing the hell out of it,” the entrepreneur believed .co could solve a huge problem in the market — vanishing Internet domain names. If you’ve tried to nab a new .com address lately, you can relate — it’s difficult to find one that hasn’t been snatched up.

Calle thought that by appealing to the hearts and minds of the entrepreneur, .co could go where .info, .biz, .net or .me had never gone before. But first he needed the right team.

One of this first stops: The Big Apple, to visit Nicolai Bezsonoff, who had been an advisor and shareholder in Calle’s TeRespondo.com, a sort of Ask Jeeves for the Latin American market that was sold to Yahoo in 2005. At the time, Bezsonoff was the director of technology and operations at Citigroup.

“We went out for coffee, he started pitching me on a napkin. I said ‘really dude you want me to leave a big job at Citigroup for this?’ ” said Bezsonoff. “But he kept showing me the numbers … Later, that napkin was on my desk and it was one of those boring days and I kept looking at it and thought maybe I should.” He would become .CO’s chief operating officer.

Lori Anne Wardi, a lawyer and serial entrepreneur who was working at a venture capital firm at the time, became vice president in charge of brand strategy, business development and global communications. “She’s the heart and soul of the company,” said Calle. Eduardo Santoyo, based in Bogota, would become corporate vice president over policy and be the liaison with the Colombian government. “Some would say it was overkill talent but I needed the best. ... When you have a big dream, you have to think big and hire the right people,” Calle said.





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Whole new nightmare for teen molest ‘victim’









headshot

Andrea Peyser









He JUST wants justice for his son.

It may never come.

In the 2 1/2 years since Mordechai Jungreis’ boy revealed the awful truth — the mentally disabled teen was allegedly molested in a Jewish ritual bathhouse — Jungreis (pictured) has turned from a respected member of the Hasidic community into a leper. A nobody.

Pond scum.

Jungreis, his wife and four children were kicked out of their apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and forced to move to the community’s outskirts. They found a new synagogue that would accept them.

His son, “badly damaged” by the alleged abuse, was targeted a second time, he said, expelled from two yeshivas. Summer camp, too.





Paul Martinka






People on the street crossed to the other side when Jungreis walked by. Words of abuse were hurled anonymously into the telephone. Or on the street.

As a Jew, I’m horrified that, in 2013, Jungreis, 38, could be punished, vilified and treated worse than a criminal. All for publicly accusing a fellow Jew of a heinous crime?

Finally, tomorrow, Meir Dascalowitz, 29, the man charged in 2010 with molesting the teen, is scheduled for a pretrial hearing in a crime that, Jungreis says, he discovered after finding blood on his boy’s underwear. Jungreis hopes this exercise in jurisprudence will put his nightmare to rest.

He expects nothing.

“I went through hell,” Jungreis, who once considered himself a member of the Bobov ultra-Orthodox community, told me.

“We used to pray in the park, because I wasn’t allowed in the synagogue. My son is not in school.’’

And now, Dascalowitz has the full support of Jungreis’ neighbors.

“Everyone is running away from my child,’’ said Jungreis, whose son is afflicted with learning disabilities and a low IQ. The boy, now 17, is tested regularly for HIV.

“What about my child? This is a disabled child. And they’re screaming at me in the street!”

The ugly cloak of secrecy that has long ruled the Jews of Williamsburg was ripped to shreds last month. A Brooklyn jury convicted Satmar Nechemya Weberman of 59 counts for sexually abusing a now-18-year-old woman from the time she was 12.

The parallels with Jungreis’ case are inescapable. Weberman’s victim contends she was maimed again by her fellow Jews after she came forward. As Weberman, 54, prepares to be sentenced next week, one question remains:

Have things changed?

“On the one hand, advocates and victims feel empowered” by Weberman’s conviction, said Ben Hirsch, spokesman for Survivors for Justice, which supports sex-abuse victims.

But “the courageous victim in the Weberman case has been publicly vilified by the grand rabbi of Satmar, and thousands of Hasidim have publicly supported Weberman.” Hirsch accused Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes of lacking the guts to fight Jewish leaders who intimidate victims.










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SunPass coming to Rickenbacker, Venetian causeways in 2014




















The introduction of SunPass on two Miami-Dade causeways is the latest in a series of initiatives to expand use of Florida’s electronic toll-collection system beyond state highways.

“We are hoping that a year from now, in 2014, the new system will be in place on both the Rickenbacker and then the Venetian Causeway,” said Michael R. Bauman, chief of the Miami-Dade public works and waste management department’s causeways division.

Originally, the county had planned to activate SunPass on the causeways in 2012, but the project was delayed because of contractor issues and efforts by all Florida tolling agencies to centralize back-office operations that include billing and other customer services, Bauman said.





Conversion of causeways’ C-Pass system to SunPass transponders will be one of the most significant changes in the history of the storied roads that carry tens of thousands of commuters every day to and from the mainland.

The 5.4-mile Rickenbacker, the longer of the two causeways, is also the newest. It opened in 1947. The 2.8-mile Venetian opened in 1925.

Tolls have been charged on both causeways for decades. The Rickenbacker was the first to adopt electronic tolling in 1997 with the C-Pass system, followed by the Venetian shortly after.

Both causeways still take cash at some toll plaza lanes.

While the plan is to eliminate cash tolls, Bauman said details are more advanced for the Rickenbacker than for the Venetian.

As a result, he said in an interview, details of how SunPass will operate on the Venetian remain undecided.

On the Rickenbacker, however, he said the toll plaza will be removed and its eight lanes will be reconfigured into four lanes with electronic gantries. Cash will no longer be accepted.

In both cases, said Bauman, lower annual tolls paid by residents and commuters served by the Rickenbacker and Venetian will be preserved under the SunPass arrangement.

The vehicles of residents and commuters already registered with causeway systems will be recognized by SunPass, and no additional toll charges will be made, Bauman said.

The current cash toll price on both causeways is $1.50. Whether that rate will remain once SunPass kicks in is still under discussion, Bauman said.

On the Rickenbacker and Venetian, residents with C-Pass transponders pay a flat $24 per year. Nonresidents who drive the Rickenbacker pay $60 per year and Venetian commuters pay $90.

Registration will continue, but it will be done online.

Drivers who don’t have SunPass will still be allowed to use the causeways. They will be billed later via Toll-by-Plate, Bauman said.





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Almacenamiento en nubes crecerá y permanecerá por años






(Paquete Tecnológico)


México, 13 Ene. (Notimex).- Ante el crecimiento de la industria de almacenamiento en nubes híbridas abiertas y ampliables, se prevé que esta tendencia se mantenga por muchos años más, anticipó Red-Hat.






Lo anterior debido al crecimiento de este sector en los últimos años, como consecuencia de la demanda en la aparición de datos no estructurados e implementaciones de nubes híbridas abiertas.


Durante 2013 el panorama de la industria informática no sólo cambiará, sino que la innovación en estos espacios surgirá al ritmo que los clientes necesiten y no al paso que imponen los proveedores, estimó la compañía de soluciones de código abierto (open source).


Para ello, prevé el surgimiento de soluciones de almacenamiento que ofrezcan un enfoque unificado para la obtención, el aprovisionamiento y la gestión de los datos de las empresas.


Explicó que estas deberán ser independientes de la clase de datos, tales como de archivos, objetos, bloques y datos semi-estructurados o no estructurados.


Al implementar estas soluciones, las empresas obtendrán grandes beneficios que se traducirán en menores gastos y en mayores niveles de servicio para sus usuarios finales, expuso la firma tecnológica.


Asimismo, consideró que el uso de software de almacenamiento de código abierto por parte de las empresas en lugar de software de almacenamiento propietario gravitará hacia el enfoque de código abierto para resolver los desafíos de almacenamiento de dicho sector.


Destacó que el rol del administrador de almacenamiento cambiará radicalmente con las implementaciones de nubes híbridas abiertas y se enfocarán en asegurar que el almacenamiento en el centro de datos funcione de manera óptima.


NTX/ILC/MDT


Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Golden Globes Fashion Video

From Jessica Chastain's tantalizingly low-cut Calvin Klein creation to Jennifer Lopez's curve-hugging Zuhair Murad gown, the stars definitely brought their fashion A-game to the 2013 Golden Globes.

Pics: Hit or Miss -- The 2013 Golden Globes!

Click the video for an in-depth look at the show-stopping ensembles of Hollywood's elite!

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Miami Dolphins worry Marlins stand between them and a tax-funded redo for Sun Life Stadium




















The Miami Dolphins are reviving their failed bid to win tax dollars for a football stadium. But team executives want no comparisons to a successful bid to win tax dollars for a baseball stadium.

Dolphins owner Stephen Ross has called a press conference for Monday to unveil a plan for an improved Sun Life Stadium. Sources say the plan will include asking state and local governments to help pay for a $400 million renovation of the 1987 facility.

State lawmakers in recent years rebuffed the Dolphins when the team asked for help on a less-expensive renovation. And while the economy and state finances are more favorable this time around, Dolphin executives see a bigger challenge now from lingering backlash against the $639 million ballpark taxpayers built for the Miami Marlins in order to move the baseball team from their old home in Sun Life. .





“It can’t be anything close to what the Marlins did,’’ said state Sen. Oscar Braynon, a Democrat whose Miami Gardens district includes Sun Life Stadium and who sponsored a 2011 bill to raise hotel taxes to fund the Dolphins renovation plan. “Unless you do something totally counter to what the Marlins did, nobody is going to vote for it.”

Both the Marlins and the Dolphins declined to comment for this story. The Dolphins have not released details of how they want to pay for the renovation, or what they want to do the stadium. But sources close to the team describe an extensive renovation of Sun Life, including adding a partial roof, a redesign of the seating configuration to improve views of the field, and shifting capacity from the low-priced seats in the upper deck to the more expensive seating closer to the sidelines. Without the space demands of a baseball field, the front row will move 18 feet closer to the field, according to a person briefed on the plans.

Polls showed Miami and Miami-Dade’s 2009 votes to build the baseball stadium with 75 percent public money were never popular. But the Marlins’ recent stripping of star players from their payroll has made the new Little Havana park Topic A when it comes to plotting a Dolphins’ victory for winning tax dollars themselves.

Dolphins executives plan to pursue two funding sources from state and local government, according to several people familiar with the team’s plans. For the first funding stream, the Dolphins plan to ask Miami-Dade to raise taxes charged mainland hotels from 6 percent to 7 percent and earmark the extra money for the stadium. The Dolphins also plan to ask Florida for an additional $2 million rebate on sales taxes on top of the $2 million the stadium already receives from the state each year under a special subsidy for professional sports teams.

Ross is expected to pledge a significant amount of the renovation money himself. Sources who have been briefed on the Dolphins’ proposal say the total pricetag for the project is $400 million. That’s almost double the renovation budget the Dolphins proposed when the team last went to the Legislature for money in 2011.

Staying competitive

At the time, the Dolphins unveiled a $225 million redo of Sun Life with expanded sideline seating, high-definition lighting and a partial roof that would both shade seats during hot games and shield spectators from the kind of downpour that drenched the stands during the 2007 Super Bowl in Miami Gardens. The Dolphins, top executives at the NFL and some community leaders have warned that without upgrades to Sun Life, South Florida risks losing its standing as one of the nation’s top venues for the Super Bowl and college football championships.





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Too big to fall








Size does matter!

The 400-pound Queens pedestrian who crashed through an Upper East Side sidewalk said yesterday that a thinner woman might have died from that fall.

“Thank God, they said that my size was the only thing that saved me,” Ulanda Williams, 32, told The Post as she was discharged from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

Williams, of Springfield Gardens, was waiting for a bus at about 9:10 p.m. Friday when she tried to hide from the rain under an awning.

The ground suddenly disappeared beneath her — and she was swallowed whole by the cavernous space adjacent to the cellar of The Blue Room on Second Avenue.





STUFFED: Ulanda Williams (above) leaves New York-Presbyterian Hospital yesterday after falling through, and getting stuck in, a city sidewalk (below).

Warzer Jaff





STUFFED: Ulanda Williams (above) leaves New York-Presbyterian Hospital yesterday after falling through, and getting stuck in, a city sidewalk (below).






“It was horrible, absolutely horrible,” said Williams, who broke her arm in two places in the 6-foot fall.

The social worker, who wore an arm brace as she left the hospital, had bruises and cuts all over her face and neck from the fall.

She said there were no warning signs indicating that any possible sidewalk danger.

“Nothing, nothing,” she said. “It happened so instantly that I didn’t even recognize anything. Cement was all over me, debris. They had a bed frame down there, broken pipes and wood pieces. It was a hollow place.”

“I was standing there approximately 10 seconds and when that occurred, I just fell right through,” said Williams, who stands about 6-foot-5.

The FDNY had to use a crane and cargo net to get her out.

City Department of Buildings inspectors found that a 4-by-6-foot section of sidewalk had collapsed into a vault cellar in front of the building.

Further investigation revealed defective steel doors leading to the vault, and a first-floor staircase was loose.

The building at 301 E. 60th St., at the corner of Second Avenue near a ramp to the 59th Street Bridge, has several open violations, according to the DOB Web site, including a 2011 complaint that the facade was coming loose.

After the collapse, DOB issued another violation to building owner Forward Realty, for failing to maintain the building.

Forward owner Remo Salta, 52, of Ridgewood, NJ, said his property has no violations.

“I didn’t hear anything about this,” he said of Williams’ fall.

Salta, who bought the residential and commercial building in 1995 as an investment, said he has a management company taking care of the property.

“The city, I know, is constantly doing work in that area. I don’t know if they excavated anything next to my property,” he said. “I know they’re always working on Second Avenue.”

Neighborhood resident Bobby Robertson, 56, said the building could use some work.

“When I’m standing here waiting for the bus, I take a look around once in a while and notice how decrepit the street and buildings look,” he said. “You can see cracks in the walls and in the concrete, too. The owners don’t do any upkeep.”

Frank Lupo, 47, a maintenance worker who lives in the building next door to the sidewalk collapse, said the fall could easily have been fatal.

“It doesn’t look it from street level, but that’s one hell of a drop,” he said. “I’m glad she’s alive.”










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