Miami photographer sentenced to 10 years in child-porn case




















A Miami-area photographer who secretly videotaped children while they changed clothes in his home studio was sentenced in federal court Friday to 10 years in prison.

Diego Tobias Matrajt, 37, pleaded guilty in September to distribution and possession of child pornography.

Last February, Matrajt distributed 10 images of child pornography to an undercover agent by using a peer-to-peer file sharing program, according to court records.





In April, FBI agents did a search of his home and computers, uncovering 26 video images of boys and girls changing clothes alone in a guest bedroom with their genitalia exposed, records show.

Matrajt admitted surreptitiously video recording children under the age of 12 as they changed clothes in the guest bedroom during photo shoots.





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Riveting Details Emerge from CT School Rampage

As morning turned to afternoon on Friday, further details continued to emerge from Newtown, CT, a tight-knit community shaken by a massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School that took the lives of innocent students and teachers, in addition to the gunman, reportedly identified as Adam Lanza.

RELATED: President Fights Tears as He Addresses Nation

As President Barack Obama touched on in his tear-jerking press conference, this is not the first time the nation has witnessed a tragedy of this kind. The recent mass shooting at an Aurora, CO movie theater is just one instance of such violence. Columbine High School and Virginia Tech also resonate as prime examples.

Hollywood's biggest stars were quick to react to the news on Twitter and made an outcry for stricter gun control regulations.

Watch the video for ET's complete coverage of today's biggest headline.

RELATED: Celebs Tweet Reactions to CT School Shooting

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WATCH: Obama discusses tragedy during weekly address








President Obama discussed the Connecticut school tragedy during his weekly radio and Internet address this morning, calling for politicians to put partisanship aside in order to better address gun violence.

“Our hearts are broken today,” Obama said in the address, echoing sentiments from his Friday press conference. “We grieve for the families of those we lost. And we keep in our prayers the parents of those who survived. Because as blessed as they are to have their children home, they know that their child's innocence has been torn away far too early.”




The Newtown shooting rocked the nation, leaving 20 children and six adults dead. The gunman, identified as Adam Lanza, 20, turned the gun on himself after storming Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Obama referenced recent mass shootings during his address, including a July movie theater shooting in Colorado and an August shooting at a Wisconsin Sikh temple.

“As a nation, we have endured far too many of these tragedies in the past few years,” he said. “Any of these neighborhoods could be our own. So we have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this from happening, regardless of politics.”

Today’s statement followed Obama’s Friday speech when he choked on his words – and wiped a tear from his eye – while addressing the nation.

Republicans normally issue a counter-statement to Obama’s weekly addresses, but this week they ceded their time so Obama could speak for the nation.

With AP










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Miami in spotlight at AVCC, other entrepreneurship events




















Entrepreneurs from around the world took the stage during this packed week of entrepreneurship events in Miami: Florida International University’s Americas Venture Capital Conference (known as AVCC), HackDay, Wayra’s Global DemoDay and Endeavor’s International Selection Panel.

The events, all part of the first Innovate MIA week, also put the spotlight on Miami as it continues to try to develop into a technology hub for the Americas.

“While I like art, I absolutely love what is happening today... The time has come to become a tech hub in Miami,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez, who kicked off the venture capital conference on Thursday. He told the audience of 450 investors and entrepreneurs about the county’s $1 million investment in the Launch Pad Tech Accelerator in downtown Miami.





“I have no doubt that this gathering today will produce new ideas and new business ventures that will put our community on a fast track to becoming a center for innovative, tech-driven entrepreneurship,” Gimenez said.

Brad Feld, an early-stage investor and a founder of TechStars, cautioned that won’t happen overnight. Building a startup community can take five, 10, even 15 years, and those leading the effort, who should be entrepreneurs themselves, need to take the long-term view, he told the audience via video. “You can create very powerful entrepreneurial ecosystems in any city... I’ve spent some time in Miami, I think you are off to a great start.”

Throughout the two-day AVCC at the JW Brickell Marriott, as well as the Endeavor and Wayra events, entrepreneurs from around the world pitched their companies, hoping to persuade investors to part with some of their green.

And in some cases, the entrepreneurs could win money, too. During the venture capital conference, 29 companies —including eight from South Florida such as itMD, which connects doctors, patients and imaging facilities to facilitate easy access of records — competed for more than $50,000 in cash and prizes through short “elevator’’ pitches. Each took questions from the judges, then demoed their products or services in the conference “Hot Zone,” a room adjoining the ballroom. Some companies like oLyfe, a platform to organize what people share online, are hoping to raise funds for expansion into Latin America. Others like Ideame, a trilingual crowdfunding platform, were laser focused on pan-Latin American opportunities.

Winning the grand prize of $15,000 in cash and art was Trapezoid Digital Security of Miami, which provides hardware-based security solutions for enterprise and cloud environments. Fotopigeon of Tampa, a photo-sharing and printing service targeting the military and prison niches, scored two prizes.

The conference offered opportunities to hear formal presentations on current trends — among them the surge of start-ups in Brazil; the importance of mobile apps and overheated company valuations — and informal opportunities to connect with fellow entrepreneurs.

Speakers included Gaston Legorburu of SapientNitro, Albert Santalo of CareCloud and Juan Diego Calle of .Co Internet, all South Florida entrepreneurs. Jerry Haar, executive director of FIU’s Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center, which produced the conference with a host of sponsors, said the organizers worked hard to make the conference relevant to both the local and Latin American audience, with panels on funding and recruiting for startups, for instance.





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Clemency board grants full pardon to wrongfully convicted man




















After a wrongful murder conviction that put him behind bars for 27 years, William Michael Dillon received formal forgiveness from the state Thursday.

Dillon, who was awarded a $1.3 million settlement by the state in March, stood before Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet and recounted how far his life has come since he was released from a maximum security prison four years ago, exonerated by DNA evidence.

Clemency hearings, in which elected officials grant pardons and rule on whether to restore civil rights for convicted felons, are usually somber, even tearful. But Dillon’s testimony was upbeat, drawing smiles from an audience of freed felons waiting for their own opportunity to ask for the legal system’s fullest measure of forgiveness.





In Dillon’s case, his civil rights — the ability to sit on a jury, own guns, hold public office and vote — were returned after he was exonerated. But for him, the pardon he was granted Thursday was the real vindication.

“It’s a great, great, great day to be here...” Dillon said, a silver necklace of a soaring bald eagle draped over his blue tie. “Now my life is good, I’m moving on, and I’m definitely going to make a positive impact from here on out.”

Dillon was 21 years old in 1981 when law enforcement officers approached him at a Brevard County gas station to ask him about James Dvorak, who had been beaten to death in a wooded area nearby.

Dillon worked two jobs — as a bowling alley mechanic and construction worker. And he spent his free time chasing pretty girls and trying to figure out what to do with his life. Innocent and unconcerned, he answered officers’ questions.

But the interrogation resulted in an arrest and a deeply flawed investigation that was later discredited.

Dillon’s full pardon Thursday was a foregone conclusion.

Scott apologized on behalf of the state when he signed a claims bill during an emotional March ceremony. Attorney General Pam Bondi, after Thursday’s hearing, said she was pleased to give the pardon.

“I hope he can go on with his life and be a productive citizen,” she said.

Dillon has big plans for the rest of his life, many of them colored by his desire to fix a flawed justice system.

He the focus of a documentary on the Discovery Channel’s I Didn’t Do It, which first aired Monday and is scheduled for another run Sunday.

He’s written 600 pages for a book about his life. And he performs in an all-exoneree band.

He recently joined the board of the Innocence Project of Florida, which advocates for the exoneration of wrongfully convicted inmates.





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Sweet and Lowe: How a captivating Twitter feed sealed Rob Lowe’s comeback






By Virginia Heffernan


@RobLowe follows 135 people on Twitter. Among them is not @HilaryASwank, the Oscar-winning ex-wife of his brother, @ichadlowe.






@RobLowe does, however, follow @ikimlowe, the new wife of his brother, who helpfully identifies herself on the site as “wife of @ichadlowe.” Would @HilaryASwank, a formidable actor who does not use Twitter very often, have consented to live in her lesser-known husband’s Twitter shadow? Perhaps not. Perhaps that’s why they div—


But what am I doing? This is where Twitter can lead a person: to deranged, speculative pointless nosiness. To mindlessly customizing a version of Us Weekly magazine by reading between the Twitter lines of who follows whom, who tags whom, who seeks whose attention with tags and hashtags.


So forget that. I’m just going to keep following @RobLowe. His Twitter feed is one for the ages, and he’s on a tear, having just hit half a million followers. And I swear I follow Rob Lowe for the epigrams and jokes—why else?—though, yes, I once had a poster of the matinee idol from “St. Elmo’s Fire” on my wall. (But only because I learned that science had proven that he and Jaclyn Smith were the most perfectly symmetrical, beautiful humans ever to exist—and who ever would exist. It was a duty of citizenship in the human race to have a poster!)


Not long after “St. Elmo’s Fire,” @RobLowe, the record reflects, had a speedy fall after an early-adopter DIY sex tape (1988! Paris Hilton’s was not ’til 2003!). As Lowe’s first-rate autobiography reports, this was part of a bigger personal unraveling into promiscuity and dissipation on an NBA/Lohan scale. Eventually Lowe found deliverance in sobriety (which he names as one of his interests on Twitter) and the love of a good woman, @Sheryl_Lowe (business) or @Sheryllowe61 (personal).


Lowe also evidently found something in Twitter. As his career has done more than rebound—it has fully realized itself, with his comic-stilted-earnest-inimitable performances on “The West Wing,” “Brothers & Sisters” and, now, “Parks and Recreation”—he has built a sturdy and complementary Twitter feed.


Lowe’s Twitter presence seals his comeback. It is freewheeling, wide-ranging and among his best work. The onetime incorrigible gadfly, who might have died outside the Viper Room like River Phoenix or been left howling at the moon like Charlie Sheen, now knows who he is, has a gift for observational humor and lives his life with something that looks like joy.


Lowe recently retweeted this observation from the Telegraph’s Damian Thompson:


More:


Another Lowe tweet:


Which of us–especially those of us who were born in the 1960s–doesn’t feel like saying that aloud every year?


And speaking of Lowe’s vintage, it’s appealing that he’s not afraid to use our generation’s corny locutions on young-skewing Twitter. As he put it recently:


The merciless “pumped” kills me. Do people never leave the slang (or bands?) of their 20s? Lowe is big on “dude,” too.


At the same time, Lowe seems to enjoy aging:


He wrote this last month, referring to Chris Traeger, his character on “Parks and Recreation,” who exercises without cease, gunning for eternal life. In Traeger’s intense specificity—his needs in beverages, for example, are so idiosyncratic as to require paragraphs of instructions—he is a perfect new-sitcom archetype. One thing he is not is cool.


And neither is Lowe cool in his Twitter feed. Often he is sending out blessings to his followers or his family, or reveling in mere existence, with the hashtag #LoveLife. Lowe’s autobiography makes clear that the Handsome Man, a cultural slot in which he found himself early on, invites way too much resentment if he doesn’t start spoofing himself with gusto. It’s imperative he find the joke in life, and the dignity in himself, or he’ll yield to prettiness and silliness, as well as drugs and sex tapes.


Look on that @RobLowe Twitter feed, and learn from it, ye handsome millennials!


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Anne Hathaway Fashion Time Warp

Anne Hathaway is having quite a year. 

Pics: Anne Hathaway's Stunning 'Les Mis' Premiere Looks

Not only is the 30-year-old beauty receiving major critical acclaim for her Golden Globe-nominated performance in Les Miserables, the newlywed recently underwent a dramatic makeover and now looks better than ever!

Join us as we look back at Anne's best and worst looks of red carpets past.

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WATCH: 2012's odd, bad and heroic acts









What a year!

Real-life became reality TV when people were caught by surveillance cameras and amateur video this year.

The spray paint flew in a Manhattan subway station.

A man was caught trying to rob a 99 cent store.

Watch some of the most bizarre, bad and heroic acts caught on camera in 2012.











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Wynwood co-working center funded by Knight Foundation, angel investors




















The LAB Miami announced Thursday it will open a 10,000-square-foot co-working center in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and local angel investors are investing $650,000.

As Miami’s startup community continues to grow, The LAB Miami said its “work-learn campus” will offer an in-house mentor network that will include investors and serial entrepreneurs, said Wifredo Fernandez, co-founder of The LAB Miami with Danny Lafuente and Elisa Rodriguez-Vila.

The LAB Miami, now in a 720-square-foot space in the same neighborhood, turned a Goldman building at 400 NW 26th Street into an artsy, modern space that can support 300 members, including tech startups, programmers, designers, investors, nonprofits, artists and academics.





In addition to offering space to work, the new co-working space plans to offer courses and workshops in business and technology — including a startup school and code school — as well as art, design and education, Fernandez said. It will be a welcoming space for traveling Latin Americans, too. “We want this to be a community center for entrepreneurs,” said Fernandez, explaining that the mix of activities and workshops will be structured by the needs of the LAB’s members.

While the Knight Foundation’s Miami office has sponsored many entrepreneurship events in the past four months, this is the foundation’s largest investment announced so far in its efforts to help accelerate entrepreneurship in Miami, said the Knight Foundation’s Miami program director, Matt Haggman. The Knight Foundation’s Miami office, which made accelerating entrepreneurship one of its key areas of focus this year, is investing $250,000 with the rest of the funding coming from a group of investors lead by Marco Giberti, Faquiry Diaz-Cala, Boris Hirmas Said and Daniel Echavarria.

“This is an important part of our strategy,” said Haggman. “Entrepreneurs need places to gather, connect and learn.”

The LAB Miami has already hosted several events, including HackDay and Wayra DemoDay earlier this week, and the co-working space plans to open for membership in January.

Co-working space will start at $200 a month to use the communal tables, and private offices that will accommodate up to six are also available. The LAB will also offer “Connect” memberships for $40 a month, which allows members who do not need co-working space to participate in events. In addition, there will be phone booths, classrooms, flexible meeting spaces, a lounge area, a kitchen, a “pop-up shop” for local fashion, art or technology products, a shower for those who bike to work and an outside garden with native landscaping.





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‘Jewish Spirituality’ lecture series to start Dec. 16




















Temple Israel of Greater Miami will kick off its Jewish Spirituality Series on Sunday with Rabbi Arthur Green, who was named one of the "top 50 rabbis in America for 2012," by Newsweek Magazine.

Green will speak on the topic, "Spirituality for a New Era."

A highly respected scholar, teacher and expert in the field of contemporary Jewish spirituality, Green is rector of Hebrew College Rabbinical School and professor emeritus at Brandeis University. He also is the author of several books, including Radical Judaism: Rethinking god and Tradition. His most recent book is titled Hasidic Spirituality for a New Era.





The event will start at 9:30 a.m. with a light breakfast followed at 10 a.m. by the program, at which time Green will engage participants in an open conversation about the future and how each person can play a more active role shaping it.

The series will continue on Jan 22, when Nathan Katz, who arranged for the Dalai Lama to come to Miami three times, will speak on "Contemporary Global Spirituality."

According to a press release from the temple, more and more Americans describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious." In his lecture, Katz will focus on the question, "What is spirituality, and can it truly be separated from religion?"

The author of 15 books, including Who Are the Jews of India, a National Jewish Book Award finalist, and his recent memoir, Spiritual Journey Home, Katz is a Florida International University research professor in the School of International and Public Affairs, the Bhagwan Mahavir professor of Jain Studies, academic director of the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, and director of the Program in the Study of Spirituality, which is a co-sponsor of the series.

Rabbi Rami Shapiro, an award-wining author, poet, educator and the founding rabbi of Temple Beth Or in Miami, will close out the series on March 1, with the topic, "Amazing Chesed."

According to the press release, many Jews do not believe that grace is a central concept in Judaism, and an essential element in living "Jewishly." Shapiro disagrees and will draw from many facets of Jewish wisdom to answer that question in the affirmative.

Shapiro is recognized as one of the most creative figures in contemporary American Judaism and his prayers are included in worship services across the denominational spectrum of American congregations.

Admission to the series is free and open the public, and will be held in the Wolfson Auditorium at Temple Israel, 137 NE 19th St.

For more information call the temple at 305-573-5900 or email info@templeisrael.net.

New dean

Warm congratulations to the Very Rev. Douglas Wm. McCaleb, who recently was elected the new dean of the Episcopal North Dade Deanery.

McCaleb, the spiritual leader at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral at 464 NE 16th St., was elected at the 43rd Annual Diocesan Convention.

The Diocese of Southeast Florida is composed of six deaneries, divided geographically for both administrative purposes and for representation on the diocese’s Executive Board. McCaleb is the executive head of the deanery, which is responsible for the planning and financial aspects of the deanery, as well as being responsible for the study of the needs and opportunities of the church and to evaluate diocesan programs. In his position of leadership, McCaleb will also delegate the necessary authority and responsibility to carry out such work.





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Google Maps finally comes to iOS. Again [updated]






Apple has had quite a bumpy car ride so far with it’s mapping product. That all ends in just a couple hours, however, because late Wednesday evening Google is planning on bringing Maps back to iOS with the release of the company’s own software. AllThingsD is reporting that Google’s app will be available for download in the App Store shortly, and we’ll provide some initial thoughts on it soon after.


UPDATE: Google Maps is now available on Apple’s App Store for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.






Get more from BGR.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook


Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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EXCLUSIVE: Brandi Glanville Releases Book Cover

Brandi Glanville's upcoming book, Drinking and Tweeting: And Other Brandi Blunders, is picking up buzz in the Twittersphere what with The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star's notorious back-and-forths with LeAnn Rimes, and ET has an exclusive first look at the cover art of the hardcover.

RELATED: Brandi Says Her Son Got Sick Eating LeAnn's Laxatives

The book supposedly details Brandi's split from ex-husband Eddie Cibrian (who's now married to LeAnn Rimes), telling the story from her point of view.

In an interview with Fox 411, Brandi described the book, saying, "It's a cautionary tale about breaking up and making sure that before you become part of a 'we' you have to become an 'I' and I wasn't. It's just a tale of what I went through, the mistakes I made, what I'd do differently, the things that I did that I'm proud of. There's a lot of embarrassing detail. I want people to not be embarrassed going through breakups and divorces, to know what to do before they get involved in a relationship."

Drinking and Tweeting will be released February 12.

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NY voters want legalized marijuana, stricter building codes post-Sandy








ALBANY - Legalize it.

Most New York voters favor legalizing marijuana, but by a slim 51-44 majority, according a new poll.

Quinnipiac University found the younger the voters, the higher they are on the idea, with 62 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds favoring legalization.

Meantime homeowners and businesses destroyed by Hurricane Sandy should rebuild to stricter building codes, according to 65 percent of voters - including 68 percent in the city and 67 percent on Long Island, the hardest hit regions.

Eight percent think destroyed structures shouldn't be rebuilt at all, the Dec. 5-10 telephone survey of 1,302 voters found.




While 74 percent say they're concerned about climate change and two thirds expect their community to be hit by a major storm in the next decade, only 45 percent think Sandy actually resulted from climate change. Half of voters didn't - including 83 percent of Republicans.

Voters are split on fracking - and on Gov. Cuomo's non-decision so far on the controversial issue.

The poll found 44 percent support drilling for natural gas upstate because of potential economic benefits while 42 percent are opposed for fear of environmental damage.

Most favor a tax on gas drilling companies (54-32 percent) and believe high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing will create jobs (78-15 percent), while half think the practice of fracturing shale with a pressurized chemical, water and sand mix to extract gas will damage the environment (50-17 percent).

On Cuomo, 26 percent say he's “carefully evaluating the issue" while 25 percent accuse him of “dragging his feet."

Four of every five voters favor raising the minimum wage (80-18), with strong support even among Republicans (61-38). And 43 percent even support an increase above the $8.50 an hour Cuomo and fellow Democrats have proposed.

Still, 49 percent think small businesses will reduce hiring if the minimum wage is raised to 44 percent who don't.










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Lennar to borrow $1.7 billion from Chinese bank




















Miami-based Lennar Corp. has gotten approval on $1.7 billion in loans from China Development Bank to fund the development and construction of two major projects in San Francisco, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

The contract, set to close by Dec. 31 subject to various conditions, would mark the first U.S. loan by the big state-owned Chinese bank. One condition — tagged the “Chinese component”— is that China Railway Construction Corp. be included as a general contracting partner in the project, the person said.

Closing by year’s end is crucial because of new tax rules set to take effect, the person added.





The agreement, first reported in The Wall Street Journal, would provide funding for the first six years of what is envisioned to be a 20-year project.

The loan agreement, reached Dec. 7 after Lennar officials met in China with bank officials, provides for $1 billion in financing to a partnership led by Lennar to redevelop Hunters Point Shipyard-Candlestick Point, a site in southeast San Francisco spanning more than 700 acres, the person said. Plans for the mixed-use community call for nearly 12,000 residential units on the site. Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2013.

Under the pact, the Chinese bank would provide another $700 million to a partnership of Lennar, Stockbridge Capital Group and Wilson Meany, a real estate investment and development firm, to redevelop Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Islands in San Francisco Bay. Some 8,000 units of housing are planned for the mixed-use project on 535 acres. The U.S. Navy is set to turn over the first parcel of land to the development company in late 2013.





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Parents of students at Broward school warned of Legionnaires’ Disease exposure




















Parents of students at Olsen Middle School in Dania Beach were being informed on Tuesday that their children may have been exposed to someone diagnosed with Legionnaires’ Disease, Broward School District officials said.

The person with Legionnaires’ Disease was not a student, district spokeswoman Nadine Drew said. They did not say if the infected person was a teacher.

Automated ‘robo-calls’ were made to the telephones of Olsen Middle School parents that explained how the district was working with the Broward Health Department





To read the entire Sun Sentinel story click here.





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Hugh Hefner's Fiancee Shows Off Engagement Ring

If the size of the diamond is any indication of Hugh Hefner's love for bride-to-be Crystal Harris, it's a safe bet to say that he's head over heels.

RELATED: Hugh Hefner Gets Marriage License?

Harris revealed her engagement ring on Tuesday, via her Twitter feed.

"My beautiful ring from [Hugh Hefner]," Crystal posted along with photos of the giant sparkler.

The couple is reportedly planning to wed on New Year's Eve.

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More NY voters want coalition to run state Senate, say no to Hillary Clinton for mayor








ALBANY — Hail to the chiefs!

More New York voters prefer a bipartisan coalition to run the state Senate than outright control by Democrats or Republicans, according to a new poll.

Quinnipiac University found 48 percent favor a power-sharing coalition — as Senate Republicans and five breakaway Democrats have formed — to 31 percent backing a Democratic majority and 17 percent GOP control.

And 53 percent called such an alliance a "good way to create effective government," while 30 percent call it a power grab, the survey found.

The poll also found:

- Voters disagree with Mayor Bloomberg's suggestion that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton succeed him, with 51-46 opposition in the city to the former first lady and ex-U.S. senator from New York running for mayor and 58-36 opposition statewide.




- 73 percent of voters say government corruption is a "very serious" or "somewhat serious" problem in New York.

- Voters oppose by 51-39 public financing of state campaigns, as Gov. Cuomo and fellow Democrats have pushed.

The Dec. 5-10 telephone survey of 1,302 voters followed last week's announcement of an agreement under which Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos of Long Island and Independent Democratic Conference leader Jeff Klein of The Bronx will share equal power in running the Senate when the new legislative session begins next month.

For now, voters still disapprove of the job the state legislature is doing by 46-35 percent.

“Maybe the new coalition leadership in the state Senate finally will lift the state legislature out of the job approval swamp," said poll spokesman Maurice Carroll.

Yet Cuomo hit his all-time high for job approval in a Quinnipiac poll at 74 percent. Just 13 percent disapproved of his performance, while 80 percent rated his handling of Hurricane Sandy "excellent" or "good."

Newly-re-elected U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) also notched her highest job approval rating ever, 61-18, with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) at 63-23.










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With spam, it’s better not to give or receive




















Q. Recently I’ve been unable to send emails from my home email address. In addition, my incoming email contains several notices of undeliverable emails that I didn’t send that are addressed to people I don’t know. I suspect that my computer is infected by some malicious software and is being used to send spam email — and that those that are undeliverable are being returned. What should I do?

Joseph Campbell Burnsville, Minn.

I agree that your PC has been taken over by hackers and is being used to send spam.





The fact that you aren’t able to send emails from your home account supports this theory, since it indicates that your Internet service provider believes you are spamming and has temporarily blocked your ability to send email to anyone.

I suggest you download and run the free version of security program Malwarebytes (go to www.tinyurl.com/cwbd73f and click “free download.”) If that doesn’t work, try Windows System Restore to eliminate recently installed software (see www.tinyurl.com/y9q9apj and www.tinyurl.com/ykgps6.) Then call your Internet service provider; explain what happened and what you’ve done to fix it. If your PC is clean, you’ll be allowed to send email again.Q. I’ve recently received a lot of spam, including some that appear to be from people I know — except that the messages come from the wrong email address. How does a spammer use a familiar name with a fake email address and send it to me?

Also, is there a way to find out the identity of the people who send spam emails? I’ve read that the email address of the sender is not always accurate.

Ginger Bramlett Rockwall, Texas

The bogus email that appeared to be from your friend, but came from the wrong email address, is from a spammer who is trying to trick you into opening the email.

Why did this happen? Your friend’s email may have been hacked and his or her address book stolen, providing the spammer with a host of addresses where an email bearing your friend’s name might be opened by the recipient.

It’s hard to find out who actually sent spam, because originating email addresses are easy to fake.

I suggest you send these emails to your spam filter so that you and others may be spared at least some spam in the future. In addition, your Internet service provider allows you to block spam that comes from a specific domain name — the part of the email address that follows the symbol, such as Yahoo.com. See www.tinyurl.com/cxmq4m7.





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South Florida pols sticking to party lines on fiscal cliff




















Don’t expect South Florida’s congressional delegation to stray too far from party lines when it comes to dancing on the edge of the fiscal cliff, the end-of-the-year spending cuts and tax increases set to take effect if Congress and the president don’t address them.

Democrats are firmly with President Barack Obama, whose proposal seeks to raise $600 billion over a decade by eliminating tax deductions and $960 billion over the same period by raising tax rates for the top 2 percent of income earners. Many Democrats sounded as though the highly charged presidential campaign was still under way.

Republicans are just as committed to their party.





There’s been "no evidence thus far" that Republicans are truly interested in the middle class, said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of Weston, who the president just asked again to head the Democratic National Committee.

"We need to continue to focus on rebuilding our economy from the middle class out," she said during an appearance on MSNBC.

"President Obama talked eloquently and passionately during the campaign about making sure that we can get a handle on this deficit, that we can rebuild our economy from the middle class out, that we can focus on creating jobs and getting the economy turned around," she added.

Equally firm: South Florida Democratic Reps. Alcee Hastings, of Miramar and Frederica Wilson, of Miami. Both are members of the Congressional Black Caucus, which released a statement of principles this week calling for the Bush-era tax cuts to expire on the wealthiest Americans.

Social Security should be completely off the table, the caucus warned, and it said it would oppose any plans that change the eligibility for Medicare or cut Medicaid, the statement said.

Some Democrats made conciliatory moves, however. Sen. Bill Nelson said that during his campaign, voters told him they want consensus and an end to partisan gridlock.

"They want bipartisanship," he said in a video message. "They want to stop the ideological rigidity."

It’s the only way to rebuild the economy and reduce the federal deficit, while preserving Social Security and Medicare, he said. He called on people of both political parties "to reach across the aisle and work together so America doesn’t go over the cliff."

That’s unlikely to come from his Republican counterpart, Sen. Marco Rubio, who along with former vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was featured in a speech this week in Washington.

Rubio blamed the "complicated and uncertain tax code" for "hindering the creation of middle-class jobs." He gave no hint he would be interested in supporting the president’s tax proposal on the wealthiest Americans.

"You can’t open or grow a business if your taxes are too high or too uncertain. And that’s why I personally oppose the president’s plan to raise taxes," Rubio said. "This isn’t about a pledge. It isn’t about protecting millionaires and billionaires. For me, it’s about the fact that the tax increases he wants would fail to make even a small dent in the debt but it would hurt middle-class businesses and the people who work for them."

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, of Miami, was one of the few Republicans from South Florida to suggest she’d be open to tax reform, saying there needs to be a review of the tax code "to remove special interest tax loopholes used by the wealthy."

But she warned that the country’s debt exists "not because tax rates are too low, but because government spends too much."

Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, also of Miami, said he was less optimistic about a resolution now than he was right after the election.

He said he feels as though Republicans have moved closer to the president without getting credit for it.

"I’m very disappointed with the president’s response," he said in an interview.

"The speaker put forward a proposal, and whether you agree with it or not, there are a couple of things beyond debate: He’s gotten closer to the president’s position."

Even those on their way out of Congress made no move to cross party lines. Republican Rep. Allen West, of Plantation, who was ousted by Democrat Patrick Murphy, warned constituents in a letter that he didn’t think there was a true plan to reduce spending.

Rep. David Rivera, a Republican who lost his re-election bid and who will be replaced by Democrat Joe Garcia, did not respond to a request for comment.





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Recent hacking of U.N. nuclear agency not first attempt: IAEA






WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A recently announced hacking of the U.N. nuclear agency’s computer servers was not the first time an attempt had been made to break into the organization’s computer system, the head of the agency said on Thursday.


Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that a few months ago a group broke into the agency’s computer system and stole personal information of scientists working on peaceful uses of nuclear energy.






In response to questions at a Council on Foreign Relations event in Washington, Amano repeated what he said last week after the hacking was revealed: no sensitive information about the IAEA‘s nuclear inspections had been stolen.


The IAEA has shut down the server that had been hacked and is continuing an investigation, Amano said. But he also said it wasn’t the first attempt to break into the system.


“If you ask if this is the only case? I would say there have been some other tries but we are doing our best to protect our system,” Amano said.


The hackers – a group using an Iranian-sounding name – have posted scores of email addresses of experts who have been working with the U.N. agency on a website, and have urged the IAEA to investigate Israel’s nuclear activity.


Israel, which has an undeclared nuclear arsenal, and the United States accuse Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability. Tehran denies such ambitions.


Amano would not say if he believed Iran was behind the attacks on the IAEA, whose missions include preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and which is investigating Iran’s disputed nuclear activities.


“The group … they have what looks like an Iranian name. But that does not mean that the origin is Iran,” he said.


There has been an increase in suspected Iranian cyber attacks this year, coinciding with a deepening standoff with the West over Tehran’s nuclear program.


(Reporting by Deborah Charles. Editing by Warren Strobel and Doina Chiacu)


Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Will and Jaden Smith Survive After Earth

Will Smith and his son Jaden haven't shared the big screen since 2006's The Pursuit of Happyness. Now the father-son duo pair up once more for M. Night Shyamalan's post-apocalyptic thriller After Earth, and we're showing you the new trailer.

RELATED: Will Smith Surprises Jada on The Talk

In the film, opening June 7, 2013, a father and son crash land on a now-abandoned Earth. While the father, General Cypher Raige lies dying after the accident, his 13-year-old son Kitai must play the soldier, searching for the rescue beacon -- their only chance to be saved.

Watch the video for more.

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Man executed on busy Midtown street in planned ‘hit’








David McGlynn


Police investigate the scene where a man was executed on West 58th St.



A man in a business suit was executed in broad daylight on a Midtown street packed with holiday shoppers, tourists and workers returning from lunch yesterday, in what authorities called a carefully coordinated “assassination.”

The victim, 31-year-old Los Angeles resident Brandon Lincoln Woodard, had just left a hotel and was walking on West 58th Street shortly before 2 p.m. when his silent assassin came out of nowhere, authorities and witnesses said.

Woodard, the father of a 4-year-old girl, was texting before the shooting, sources said.





GORY DETAIL: With a barrier to shield the bloody scene from passers-by, police look over the scene where Brandon Lincoln Woodard (right) was gunned down yesterday.

Getty Images





GORY DETAIL: With a barrier to shield the bloody scene from passers-by, police look over the scene where Brandon Lincoln Woodard (right) was gunned down yesterday.






The killer walked up behind him, whipped out a silver semiautomatic handgun and fired once into the back of his head.

SEE A MAP OF HOW THE MURDER WENT DOWN

Woodard fell on his back with blood pouring from his face outside St. Thomas Choir School, a Christian boys boarding school at 202 W. 58th St., about a block from Carnegie Hall and Columbus Circle.

The shooter disappeared as if he were “a ghost,’’ one witness said.

He coolly hopped into a waiting light-colored Lincoln sedan, with a getaway driver behind the wheel.

The car headed east but initially was caught in traffic and stopped at a red light at the intersection.

But both coldblooded riders didn’t panic and stayed inside the car — just feet from Woodard’s body — before turning down Seventh Avenue and disappearing.

“There was no rush,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said of Woodard’s killer. “He just walked up, shot him and walked away.”

A police source said the shooting was “definitely a hit, an assassination.”

Investigators are probing a possible connection to drug dealing.

Woodard was charged with cocaine possession in California last June and has prior arrests for robbery, petty theft and leaving the scene of an accident.

Police are also exploring to what extent Woodard — who once claimed he was roughed up by bodyguards working for R&B superstar Usher — had ties to the music industry, law-enforcement sources said.

Woodard, who was wearing a black suit, was dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital.

The shooter was described as black, wearing a dark coat with a brown hoodie and khaki pants.

David Mirambeau, 29, a UPS worker delivering packages, said the sound of the gunshot reverberated down the street.

“I just heard a gunshot. It was loud. There was blood all over his face,” he said of Woodard. “He was gasping for air. He was still alive.”

Mirambeau said several cellphones and an iPod lay near the man’s body.

The grisly exit wound on Woodard’s face led witnesses to report he had been shot in the front, not the back, of the head.

Witnesses ran to a firehouse at 215 W. 58th St. to say a man had been shot.

“I ran over to the Fire Department, banged on the door, and they came out immediately,” said Benny Harris, 44.

“Within minutes, they were cutting the guy’s clothes off,” he said.

“We didn’t see the perp,” Harris added. “We all ran over there, and nobody was around. He must’ve been a ghost.”

Police sources said investigators had found surveillance footage of the gangland-style murder but were unsure whether to release it because it doesn’t show the killer’s face — and it’s extremely graphic.

A single shell casing was recovered, police said.

Relatives poured into the Woodard family home in LA to pay condolences, but declined to comment.

“Brandon was a wonderful man — kind heart, smart, good person,” said family friend Chrissy Roussel, who added that Woodard was attending Whittier Law School in California and was visiting friends in New York.

Woodward’s father, J. Lincoln Woodard, 72, said, “It was a shock.”

The victim worked at United International Mortgage, an LA firm founded by his mother, Sandra McBeth-Reynolds.

Additional reporting by Chuck Bennett, Matthew McNulty and Jamie Schram in New York and Genevieve Wong in Los Angeles

kirstan.conley@nypost.com










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AutoNation: Back in the fast lane with expansion, higher sales




















Despite an agonizingly slow economic recovery, the country’s largest auto retailer, Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, is thriving again as demand for vehicles expands.

The company, one of Florida’s largest, is posting increasingly strong profits and revenues. Just last week, in a sign of confidence, Autonation announced a major acquisition — buying six large auto stores in Texas — that will add about 700 employees to its national payroll of 19,400.

In announcing the deal Tuesday, which is expected to provide AutoNation with $575 million in additional revenues next year, the company’s CEO and chairman, Mike Jackson, expressed optimism about the prospects for continued growth in vehicle sales.





“You want to know what I’m thinking, look at what I do,” Jackson told viewers on CNBC’s Squawk Box program.

No information was released on the cost of the transactions, but in recent years auto dealerships sometimes sold for three to five times revenue, which would represent a significant investment for the company.

Tough times

To be sure, AutoNation has struggled through some tough times. It was battered by the Great Recession, which depressed sales and pushed the company into a $1.2 billion loss four years ago. As sales began to improve in 2010 and 2011, it was blindsided by a shortage of Japanese-made cars last year after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 shut down Japanese manufacturers of some essential components.

Since then, however, AutoNation has rebounded. Unit sales, revenues and profits all performed well in the first three quarters of this year, and the company expects new vehicle sales to continue their recovery nationwide, rising to the mid-14 million units this year, up from about 12.7 million in 2011. In the third quarter of 2012, AutoNation’s new car unit sales grew by 21 percent over the same period in 2011, doing better than an estimated 15 percent increase industry wide. November’s sales of new vehicles increased by 21 percent over November 2011 .

The big dealerships acquired sell Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen and Chrysler products in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets. They are expected to sell 14,000 new and used autos this year, and will add substantially to AutoNation’s future sales.

“We are in the right industry at the right time,” Jackson said during an interview. “The recovery in new vehicle sales is being driven by replacement demand,” added Jackson, who has 42 years of experience in the auto business. “The average age of the light vehicle fleet in the country has increased to 11 years, and even though cars and trucks last longer today, they can’t go on forever. About 12 to 13 million vehicles are scrapped every year and need to be replaced.”

Other factors are contributing to stronger demand for vehicles. “The population is growing, interest rates are low, there is ample credit available and manufacturers are producing a wide range of new models that offer attractive styling, power and greatly improved gas mileage,” said Jackson, who took over as AutoNation’s CEO in 1999. “Auto financing is more available than it has been in recent years. A little known fact is that people are more likely to default on a mortgage than on a vehicle loan.”





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U-Haul chase suspect appears in Miami-Dade court on Sunday




















The suspect arrested in connection with Friday’s chase through the streets of Miami-Dade in a rental U-Haul truck appeared in front of judge Sunday morning.

Darrell Conyers, 45, made his first appearance in bond court.

Conyers faces a number of charges including grand theft, fraud and resisting arrest with violence.





During the hearing, the judge noted that the only charge before her was driving with a suspended license. For that she set bond at $2,000. Conyers will return to bond court at a later time for the additional charges.

Conyers was scheduled to appear in court on Saturday but was unable to do so because he was still in the hospital being treated for injuries he sustained at the end of the chase which apparently started as an attempted robbery at a tool shop on South Dixie Highway.

For 45-minutes the U-Haul truck weaved in and out of city streets, jumping on and off the Palmetto Expressway and headed in different directions along Southwest Eighth Street and Flagler Street.

The chase finally came to an end 12:45 p.m. next to Miami Senior High in Little Havana on Flagler Street and 26th Avenue.

When officers moved in to apprehend the driver, an unidentified Miami-Dade Police officer was injured when he was pinned between the U-Haul truck and a police vehicle. He was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital where he was treated for a broken leg.

Another Miami officer cut his hand from broken glass. Police say that happened when officers had to break the glass on the U-Haul truck to get the suspect out of it.

Police said Conyers has had previous run-ins with the law and has convictions for firearm violations, fleeing police and carjacking.





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Singer Jenni Rivera Feared Dead in Plane Crash

The remains of a private plane carrying singer Jenni Rivera have been found in Mexico with no survivors following a suspected crash. 

Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, Mexico's Secretary of Communications and Transportation, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that, on Sunday, officials found the remains of an airplane that was carrying the Mexican-American superstar and her entourage who were traveling from Monterrey to Toluca, Mexico.

Video: Remembering the Tragic Loss of Aaliyah

The small jet had been carrying seven passengers (Rivera included) and lost radio contact with the airport a few minutes after departing in the early hours of the morning following a concert, reports THR.

The singer's father and brother later confirmed to Telemundo that Rivera died in the crash.

With the sad news, Latin artists all over the world took to Twitter to express their heartbreak.

Gloria Estefan mourns, "Our deepest sympathy to the family & fans of @jennirivera & those that accompanied her on what was to be her last voyage. Rest in peace."

Ricky Martin says, "This is sad. A bit in shock. Much peace to your family." (Translated from Spanish)

Eva Longoria writes, "My heart breaks for the loss of Jenni Rivera & everyone on the plane. My prayers go out to her family. We lost a legend today."

William Levy tweets, "My heart goes out to the families. I wish them all the strength in the world." (Translated from Spanish)

Paulina Rubio mourns, "My friend! Why? There is no consolation. God help me!" (Translated from Spanish)

Pitbull writes, "I highly respected #JenniRivera 4 being a gr8 performer but more then tht being real & gr8 example 4 us all que dios la bendiga &may she RIP"

Rivera, 43, was currently a featured coach on The Voice Mexico. A California native, the singer earned several Latin Grammy nominations and recently signed on to star in an American sitcom with ABC titled Jenni.

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Long after storm, LIRR restores normal service








The Long Island Rail Road is running on a normal rush hour schedule for the first time since Superstorm Sandy forced it to trim service.

The busy commuter railroad suffered a big hit when floodwaters rushed into two critical rail tunnels beneath the East River, damaging the signal system used by LIRR and Amtrak trains.

Repairs are still ongoing, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday that work crews had restored enough of the system for the LIRR to resume a regular schedule on Monday. Trains have been running for weeks, but service had been limited.



That meant bigger crowds on some trains and platforms.

Work will continue on the signal system in a second tunnel over the next few weeks.










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Back in the fast lane: AutoNation expanding again




















Despite an agonizingly slow economic recovery, the country’s largest auto retailer, Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, is thriving again as demand for vehicles expands.

The company, one of Florida’s largest, is posting increasingly strong profits and revenues. Just last week, in a sign of confidence, Autonation announced a major acquisition — buying six large auto stores in Texas — that will add about 700 employees to its national payroll of 19,400.

In announcing the deal Tuesday, which is expected to provide AutoNation with $575 million in additional revenues next year, the company’s CEO and chairman, Mike Jackson, expressed optimism about the prospects for continued growth in vehicle sales.





“You want to know what I’m thinking, look at what I do,” Jackson told viewers on CNBC’s Squawk Box program.

No information was released on the cost of the transactions, but in recent years auto dealerships sometimes sold for three to five times revenue, which would represent a significant investment for the company.

Tough times

To be sure, AutoNation has struggled through some tough times. It was battered by the Great Recession, which depressed sales and pushed the company into a $1.2 billion loss four years ago. As sales began to improve in 2010 and 2011, it was blindsided by a shortage of Japanese-made cars last year after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 shut down Japanese manufacturers of some essential components.

Since then, however, AutoNation has rebounded. Unit sales, revenues and profits all performed well in the first three quarters of this year, and the company expects new vehicle sales to continue their recovery nationwide, rising to the mid-14 million units this year, up from about 12.7 million in 2011. In the third quarter of 2012, AutoNation’s new car unit sales grew by 21 percent over the same period in 2011, doing better than an estimated 15 percent increase industry wide. November’s sales of new vehicles increased by 21 percent over November 2011 .

The big dealerships acquired sell Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen and Chrysler products in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets. They are expected to sell 14,000 new and used autos this year, and will add substantially to AutoNation’s future sales.

“We are in the right industry at the right time,” Jackson said during an interview. “The recovery in new vehicle sales is being driven by replacement demand,” added Jackson, who has 42 years of experience in the auto business. “The average age of the light vehicle fleet in the country has increased to 11 years, and even though cars and trucks last longer today, they can’t go on forever. About 12 to 13 million vehicles are scrapped every year and need to be replaced.”

Other factors are contributing to stronger demand for vehicles. “The population is growing, interest rates are low, there is ample credit available and manufacturers are producing a wide range of new models that offer attractive styling, power and greatly improved gas mileage,” said Jackson, who took over as AutoNation’s CEO in 1999. “Auto financing is more available than it has been in recent years. A little known fact is that people are more likely to default on a mortgage than on a vehicle loan.”





Read More..

State scraps plan to have private vendors make license tags




















Backing away from a possible court fight, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles announced Friday that it will halt its attempt to bid license tag services to private vendors.

Tax collectors — who distribute state tags — and two manufacturing groups tried to block the change by lobbying elected officials and filing legal action against the department.

Highway Safety Chief Julie Jones had wanted to save money by paying private companies $31.4 million over two years to make tags and distribute mail and online orders, but she abandoned the idea under pressure from Attorney General Pam Bondi and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, among others.





“We listened to what everyone had to say, considered questions that vendors posed and received information from our tax collector partners,” Jones said. “Based on the input, we have decided to withdraw [efforts to privatize].”

The decision will keep Florida out of administrative court, which is where it seemed headed Tuesday after department lawyers shut down tax collectors’ requests to retract its invitation to bidders.

Jones’ change of heart earned praise from Bondi, who said the department “did the right thing.”

Manufacturing company Avery Dennison and St. Petersburg-based PRIDE, a nonprofit organization that uses prisoners to manufacture tags, filed formal protests and met with state officials this week.

For them, the state’s decision may only be a temporary victory.

Stephen Hurm, an attorney for the state highway agency, told tax collectors Friday the department will not seek to privatize plate distribution but could reignite the push as early as January to bid out the manufacturing role.

The state may want to switch from raised tags to the more modern flat tags that are thought to be more legible for red light and toll cameras. PRIDE doesn’t have the equipment to make flat tags.

Hillsborough County Tax Collector Doug Belden says he will fight the state if it moves to exclude PRIDE.

“Why change a system that is working well and that customers enjoy? My job as an elected official is to provide the most friendly, capable customer service for the best price. We’re doing that,” said Belden, who criticized Jones for excluding tax collectors in her decisions.

Belden, along with PRIDE lobbyist Wilbur Brewton, argue that flat tags are no easier to read and are more expensive — which will result in more fees for motorists. The company may try to invest in new technology if that’s what it takes to continue working with the state, Brewton said.

“Is the equipment currently sitting in the plant to do it? No,” he said. “This could cause harm, but we would have to calculate that once we see the details.”

Jones hasn’t committed to any tag — flat or raised, she said. She just wants something legible and well-priced.

“We want to get the best product moving into the future in terms of technology, but at a cost that’s affordable,” Jones said. “This is going to be done in a cost-effective manner.”

The controversy over the tags is not expected to stall a planned redesign.

Floridians can continue to vote on four designs for a new state tag at Vote4FloridaTag.com. About 50,000 people have weighed in. The deadline is Dec. 14.

Brittany Alana Davis

can be reached at bdavis@tampabay.com .





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Top Google executive forced off Twitter












Working at Google (GOOG) has its benefits — for one thing, the company’s reputation as an innovator is nearly unmatched — however things aren’t always as simple as they look. After making a joke on Twitter about Microsoft and Nokia’s Windows Phone partnership, Google’s senior vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra was told to stop using the micro-blogging site. Gundotra had been using the social network since December 2007 and suddenly stopped in July 2011. It had been previously speculated that Google CEO Larry Page had told the executive to stop, however nothing had been confirmed until now. While speaking at the SMX Social Media Marketing conference on Thursday, Gundotra confirmed that his “boss” had asked him to stop using the service.


“I was asked not to do that by my boss,” he said, according to TheNextWeb. “I tweeted a tweet about two companies that went viral, went very very viral and made a lot of headline news. And honestly, I didn’t anticipate that my comments would be interpreted in the way they were interpreted.”












The tweet in question was posted on February 11th 2011 and quipped that “two turkeys do not make an Eagle,” a shot at Microsoft (MSFT) and Nokia (NOK) joining to release a new wave of Windows Phones.


Gundotra admitted that he still checks Twitter and Facebook (FB), noting that it is part of his job to keep up on innovation. He can predominantly be found using Google+ these days, however.


Get more from BGR.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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How They Pulled Off 'The Impossible'

The true story of the devastating 2004 tsunami that consumed the coast of Phuket, Thailand -- and how one family survived it -- is reenacted by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor in The Impossible. Watch the video to go behind the scenes...

Video: Tsunami Survivor Petra Nemcova Reacts to Latest Disaster in Japan

In theaters December 21, The Impossible finds Naomi as Maria and Ewan as her husband Henry, who are enjoying their winter vacation in Thailand with their three sons. On the day after Christmas, their relaxing holiday in paradise becomes an exercise in terror and survival when their beachside hotel is pummeled by an extraordinary, unexpected tsunami.

Video: Watch the Trailer for 'The Impossible'

The Impossible tracks just what happens when this close family and tens of thousands of strangers must come together to grapple with the mayhem and aftermath of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time.

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Police shoot, kill man in Queens after he pulls a gun on officers: report








Gabriella Bass


Officers shot and killed a man in Queens Saturday.



Police shot a man to death late last night after he pulled a gun on officers, according to a report.

The shooting happened before 11 p.m. near the intersection of Gates and Seneca Avenues in Queens.

Police told CBS 2 that the man, who's in his forties, has a lengthy arrest record.

He pulled a gun on officers and police fired, shooting the man in the chest. There's no word on what precipitated the incident.

The unidentified man was taken to the hospital but later died, CBS 2 reports. A weapon was recovered at the scene.











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Events showcase Miami’s growth as tech center




















One by one, representatives from six startup companies walked onto the wooden stage and presented their products or services to a full house of about 200 investors, mentors, and other supporters Thursday at Incubate Miami’s DemoDay in the loft-like Grand Central in downtown Miami. With a large screen behind them projecting their graphs and charts, they set out to persuade the funders in the room to part with some of their green and support the tech community.

Just 24 hours later, from an elaborate “dojo stage,” a drummer warmed up the crowd of several hundred before a “Council of Elders” entered the ring to share wisdom as the all-day free event opened. Called TekFight, part education, part inspiration, and part entertainment, the tournament-style program challenged entrepreneurs to earn points to “belt up” throughout the day to meet with the “masters” of the tech community.

The two events, which kicked off Innovate MIA week, couldn’t be more different. But in their own ways, like a one-two punch, they exuded the spirit and energy growing in the startup community.





One of the goals of the TekFight event was to introduce young entrepreneurs and students to the tech community, because not everyone has found it yet and it’s hard to know where to start, said Saif Ishoof, the executive director of City Year Miami who co-founded TekFight as a personal project. And throughout the event, he and co-founder Jose Antonio Hernandez-Solaun, as well as Binsen J. Gonzalez and Jeff Goudie, wanted to find creative, engaging ways to offer participants access to some of the community’s most successful leaders.

That would include Alberto Dosal, chairman of CompuQuip Technologies; Albert Santalo, founder and CEO of CareCloud; Jorge Plasencia, chairman and CEO of Republica; Jaret Davis, co-managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurig; and more than two dozen other business and community leaders who shared their war stories and offered advice. Throughout the day, the event was live-streamed on the Web, a TekFight app created by local entrepreneur and UM student Tyler McIntyre kept everyone involved in the tournament and tweets were flying — with #TekFight trending No. 1 in the Miami area for parts of the day. “Next time Art Basel will know not to try to compete with TekFight,” Ishoof quipped.

‘Miami is a hotbed’

After a pair of Chinese dragons danced through the audience, Andre J. Gudger, director for the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs, entered the ring. “I’ve never experienced an event like this,” Gudger remarked. “Miami is a hotbed for technology but nobody knew it.”

Gudger shared humorous stories and practical advice on ways to get technology ideas heard at the highest levels of the federal government. “Every federal agency has a director over small business — find out who they are,” he said. He has had plenty of experience in the private sector: Gudger, who wrote his first computer program on his neighbor’s computer at the age of 12, took one of his former companies from one to 1,300 employees.

There were several rounds that pitted an entrepreneur against an investor, such as Richard Grundy, of the tech startup Flomio, vs. Jonathan Kislak, of Antares Capital, who asked Grundy, “why should I give you money?”





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