The Complete List: 'Dancing with the Stars' Winners
On Tuesday night, TV personality and former Bachelor contestant Melissa Rycroft became the latest Dancing with the Stars victor! Click through the gallery for a look back at all the previous mirror ball winners.
Wayne Carrington
LONG ISLAND NIGHTMARE: This Nassau County bus killed a Hempstead boy asleep in his bedroom last night.
A bus crashed into a home in Hempstead, LI, last night, killing a 6-year-old boy and injuring his 7-year-old brother — both of whom were sleeping peacefully inside.
“He was just in a bad spot,” said Hempstead Police Sgt. Mark Kirichenko, referring to the younger boy.
Eleven people on the bus and a pedestrian were also injured.
The tragedy occurred around 9:30 p.m. when the driver of a Nassau Inter County Express bus swerved to avoid striking a pedestrian, officials said.
The driver honked his horn three times, but the pedestrian continued crossing against the light, according to a police spokesman.
“He tries to avoid him and is forced to make a hard right turn, hops the curb and strikes the house,” the spokesman said.
José Antonio Villagran, 50, who lives in the Fulton Avenue home, said, “I was sleeping when suddenly, the big crash happened.”
“I heard a big boom and I thought it was the end of the world,” Villagran said.
He and another resident, Edgar Laso, saw the 6-year-old pinned by the bus and rushed to the child’s aid.
“Some of us tried to save the baby,” said Laso.
The boy, whose name was withheld, later died at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, cops said.
The victim’s older brother was also rushed to that hospital. A family friend said that boy’s injuries appeared minor.
The bus also hit the pedestrian — who was rushed to Nassau University Medical Center in East meadow in critical condition.
Carlos Lopez said he spoke to a witness who said the pedestrian had just left a 24-hour Laundromat when he was struck.
There were at least 20 passengers on the Route N70 bus when the accident occurred.
Police said that no criminality was suspected.
“NICE is cooperating with police officials, and has its own team investigating the incident,” a spokesman for the bus company said.
NICE was taken over by Veolia Transportation on Jan. 1 after Nassau County switched from the MTA, which had operated buses in the county for 37 years.
County Executive Edward Mangano decided on Veolia after the MTA said that Nassau needed to pay $26 million more for the bus services.
Nick Stein
Paramedics tend to one of the victims.
The holidays are coming fast, and if you’re like me, you’ve probably gotten very little of your gift shopping done.
Here are suggestions for a variety of gifts for the techie and the not-so-techie people on your list.
Some of these items can be found in stores and some are only available online, but you should be able to order them in time for Christmas or Hanukkah.
IOMEGA EZ MEDIA & BACKUP CENTER
What is it? A hard drive that lives on your home network so you can share files, store all your photos and music and back up your home computers. Works on Macintosh, Windows and Linux computers.
The EZ Media & Backup Center is available in 1-, 2- and 3-terabyte capacities. It is simple to set up. It lives next to your home router and plugs into the network via Ethernet.
Major features include a built-in iTunes server so your music is available to all connected computers, Time Machine support for easy Macintosh backups and Iomega’s Personal Cloud to access your data from any Internet connection.
It can also stream your video files to your TV if you’ve got a compatible streaming box or an Internet-connected TV.
Software for backing up Windows PCs is also included.
Who’s it for? Any family that wants central storage for their digital lives. This is a great home for your digital photo, music or video library.
What does it cost? One terabyte for $169.99, two terabytes for $209.99, three terabytes for $279.99.
Where can you get it? Online at www.iomega.com, Amazon, Best Buy, Apple store, Fry’s.
NETATMO URBAN WEATHER STATION
What is it? A wireless indoor/outdoor weather station that displays through an application on your Apple or Android mobile device.
There are two parts, one that lives in your house and one you place outside.
The indoor component plugs into the wall and monitors the temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, carbon dioxide level and even the sound level in decibels.
The outdoor module is battery-powered and measures temperature and humidity.
Once you connect the Netatmo to your home Wi-Fi network, you can download the free app and see your weather stats from anywhere.
Setup was easy enough, and you can set the app to notify you when carbon dioxide rises to levels that you should be warned about — which is great.
Who’s it for? Weather geeks and people who like to know what the temperature is without having to fire up a browser.
What does it cost? $179
Where can you get it? www.netatmo.com
3M LED ADVANCED LIGHT
What is it? 3M’s first foray into the home light bulb market is with the LED Advanced Light, which uses light-emitting diodes (LED) to produce 800 lumens (the light of a 60-watt bulb).
The Advanced Light has a life span of 25 years and costs just $1.63 per year if it’s turned on for three hours per day.
The bulb lights instantly and is dimmable.
It’s a little intimidating to start buying light bulbs that might outlive me, but my wallet approves.
Who’s it for? Anyone who wants to save money or wants a bulb that might not have to be changed until 2035.
What does it cost? $25
Where can you get it? Select Wal-Mart stores. For more information, go to www.3mlighting.com/LED.
STEM IZON 2.0 WI-FI VIDEO MONITOR
What is it? A small, wireless video camera that you can monitor remotely with an iOS device.
The Florida Public Service Commission Monday approved $151 million in advance nuclear costs for Florida Power & Light Co., the total amount the utility requested.
The unanimous vote means that a customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours a month will be charged $1.69 a month for the advance costs beginning in January, the PSC said. This year that customer is paying $2.20 a month.
The commission also approved $142 million in nuclear costs for St. Petersburg-based Progress Energy Florida.
FPL’s breakdown for the costs includes $20 million for two proposed new reactors, Turkey Point 6 and 7, in South Miami-Dade.
Roughly $131 million is for expansions of two existing reactors at Turkey Point and two at the St. Lucie nuclear plant on Hutchinson Island.
The costs were approved despite objections from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, which has said that FPL has failed to demonstrate its intent to actually build the new Turkey Point reactors.
“The PSC accepted all of the PSC staff recommendations issued earlier this month — an unfortunate trend of rubber-stamping that we have seen year after year in spite of major obstacles and pitfalls that have made new reactor proposals in Florida less and less feasible,” SACE executive director Stephen Smith said in a statement Monday.
The group’s challenge of the constitutionality of a Florida law passed in 2006 that allows utilities to recover nuclear costs for expenses such as reactor design and licensing before construction is awaiting a decision by the Florida Supreme Court.
Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow reteams with her Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty, a chronicling of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and the two opened up to Nightline about how they recreated bin Laden's compound.
VIDEO: Zero Dark Thirty Trailer
The filmmakers built a full-scale version of the compound in Jordan, and Bigelow says that everything from the carpet to the marks on the walls were taken from ABC News footage that she studied frame by frame.
"Everything we could find from that video we replicated," Bigelow said. "Every conceivable piece of information that we could find we replicated."
As to the controversy over whether or not the filmmakers received classified information to make the movie, Mark Boal says, "I certainly did a lot of homework, but I never asked for classified materials. To my knowledge I never received any."
Zero Dark Thirty, starring Jessica Chastain, Kyle Chandler, James Gandolfini, Chris Pratt and Jennifer Ehle, hits theaters January 11.
The City Council and city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission sparred yesterday over a new taxi design that eliminates printed fares from the sides of taxicabs.
Councilman James Vacca (D-Bronx), Transportation Committee chair, is pushing a bill to require the TLC to reinstate the printed fares, which the city dropped earlier this year.
“I think passengers have a right to know before they get in a cab what the fare would be,” Vacca said.
He also criticized the TLC for changing the iconic “Taxi” decal on cabs to a single “T” decal.
TLC officials testified yesterday at Vacca’s hearing that the printed rates are confusing and ugly and that TV monitors inside taxis will soon show riders the rates in real time during their rides.
That feature will be available when the taxi TV system is upgraded in February.
Since the final cost of a trip “is really a formula” that depends on traffic, per-mile fares “can be misleading” to passengers, said Ashwini Chhabra, a TLC deputy commissioner.
He added,“The fact is, we now have technology aids that we didn’t have back when the exterior fare markings were originally conceived.”
The TLC opposes Vacca’s bill, which the mayor is likely to veto, should it pass the council.
It is unclear if the bill has the necessary support from Council Speaker Christine Quinn to move forward.
Shoppers swooped into stores in droves on Thanksgiving weekend, topping last year’s sales, as more retailers opened their doors earlier than ever on Thursday, luring bargain hunters away from eating another plate of turkey.
And now Cyber Monday is expected to set a record for online shopping this year, for those who prefer the Internet to the mall.
Spending per shopper nationwide averaged $423 — $25 more than last year — from Thursday to Sunday, while total spending increased nearly 13 percent, to an estimated $59.1 billion, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation.
“I think the only way to describe the Thanksgiving openings is to call it a huge win,” said Matthew Shay, the trade group’s president and chief executive. Shopping, he said, “has really become an extension of the day’s festivities.”
South Florida was no exception, as a flurry of stores, as well as several malls, opened on Thanksgiving. Thursday has seemingly become the new Black Thursday, taking a bite out of the old-fashioned kickoff day of the holiday, Black Friday.
“We had an excellent weekend,” said Humberto Maldonado, director of marketing for Dadeland Mall, which opened at midnight on Thursday. Sales figures are not yet in, but the overall trend was up from last year, he said Monday.
“It was really busy from midnight to 5 a.m., then it slowed, and picked up again at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m., and stayed busy all day on Friday,” Maldonado said.
Nationwide, about 35 million people visited stores and shopping websites Thursday, up from 29 million last year. More than double that number — 89 million, up from 86 million — shopped on Black Friday.
“There were more people shopping every single day of the weekend,” Shay said.
Topping off the weekend, Cyber Monday’s early results, tabulated at 3 p.m. Monday, showed that online shopping was up a whopping 25.6 percent compared with the same time period a year ago, according to figures by IBM Benchmark.
Nationwide, most of the weekend’s shoppers — roughly 58 percent — bought clothing and accessories. Another 38 percent bought electronics and 35 percent shelled out for toys, National Retail Federation figures show.
Retailers made an effort to lure people in, with updated mobile shopping applications for smartphones and tablets, and expanded shipping and layaway options.
Still, it remains to be seen whether increased sales over the Thanksgiving weekend will translate to higher sales throughout the holiday shopping season. Analysts have been predicting mediocre sales this year, nationwide, as shoppers remain uncertain about the broader economy. Overall holiday sales are expected to increase 4.1 percent from 2011, compared with sales growth of 5.6 percent last year, the National Retail Federation said.
However, Florida is expected to beat those figures. Buoyed in large part by tourists and snowbirds, the Florida Retail Federation is forecasting a 5.3 percent gain this year over last, to $58 billion, marking the highest percentage growth predicted since the recession. Pre-recession, retail sales peaked at $54.3 billion in 2006.
Christian Cutillo, 26, of Weston, hit Walmart, then Sears, Target and Old Navy after eating Thanksgiving dinner.
She began at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and by 3 a.m. Friday she had finished shopping for all 15 people on her list, mostly buying clothing and toys.
An ongoing investigation into an elaborate scheme to counterfeit state-issued tags for spiny lobster traps has pulled in a second suspect.
Jesus Alonso Perez, 51, of Miami was charged with possession of phony trap tags after his arrest last week by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers in Miami-Dade County.
Perez is the first person arrested in the case since Ramon Rojas, 44, of Hialeah was arrested on Monroe County and Miami-Dade warrants earlier this month.
Rojas has been charged with dozens of conservation counts for possessing and using fake trap tags, and fishing traps without required state certificates. A handful of Rojas' personal traps bearing counterfeit trap tags were hauled from water off Big Pine Key before his arrest.
"During the investigation, we were able to determine [Rojas] actually was in the midst of selling some of these counterfeit tags and ended up selling 100 at $50 a pop," said FWC Officer Jorge Pino, an agency spokesman. "We knew some of these tags were being used already."
The case could lead to additional state and federal counts.
Investigation started June 29 when U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents intercepted a suspicious package shipped to Florida from Colombia.
Inside the package were 1,512 yellow plastic tags bearing serial numbers and state identification. The package was passed along to federal wildlife officers, who forwarded it to the FWC.
"To an untrained eye, they might have looked like real tags but our inspector immediately identified the tags as counterfeit," Pino said. "Not to mention, they were coming into Florida from Colombia."
The package was re-sealed for delivery, with FWC officers keeping watch. Other details on the investigation are still considered confidential.
"We've seen counterfeit trap tags before so that wasn't a surprise," Pino said. "We were a little surprised at the lengths he went to, going to another country to get this many."
"This goes contrary to everything the FWC is trying to achieve as a conservation agency in terms of protecting the resource," Pino said. "Putting what could have been a large number of illegal traps in the water has the potential to do a lot of damage."
Trap tags have been required by the state since 1992 as part of an effort to control and reduce the number of traps used by Florida commercial fishermen. Currently about 490,000 tags are issued annually, down from a peak of 750,000. Lobstermen receive an allocation of tags based on their history of commercial trap harvests.
People who want to enter the fishery or increase their trap numbers must buy trap certificates, which include the right to buy trap tags, from other fishermen. A tag itself costs only $1 each from the state but certificates can sell for more than $100 each.
After catching a bit of flack for meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister in a decidedly casual pair of overalls, Justin Bieber took to Instagram Sunday to explain himself.
Related: Justin Bieber on Selena, His Favorite Things
"The pic of me and the Prime Minister was taken in a room in the arena where I was performing at that day," Bieber wrote in response to a journalist who criticized the move as "white trash."
"I walked straight from my meet and greet to him," he explained further. "It wasn't like it was like I was going into his environment we were at a hockey arena. Wow am I ever white trash."
The superstar (seen above) was snapped in Canada this week to accept a Diamond Jubilee Medal from the leader of his home country, Stephen Harper.
AP
Cyber Monday is likely to be the year's busiest online sales day.
Bye-bye Black Friday. So long Small Business Saturday. Now, it's Cyber Monday's turn.
Cyber Monday, coined in 2005 by a shopping trade group that noticed online sales spiked on the Monday following Thanksgiving, is the next in a series of days that stores are counting on to jumpstart the holiday shopping season.
It's estimated that this year's Cyber Monday will be the biggest online shopping day of the year for the third year in a row: According to research firm comScore, Americans are expected to spend $1.5 billion, up 20 percent from last year on Cyber Monday, as retailers have ramped up their deals to get shoppers to click on their websites.
Amazon.com, which is starting its Cyber Monday deals at midnight on Monday, is offering as much as 60 percent off a Panasonic VIERA 55-inch TV that's usually priced higher than $1,000. Sears is offering $430 off a Maytag washer and dryer, each on sale for $399. And Kmart is offering 75 percent off all of its diamond earrings and $60 off a 12-in-1 multigame table on sale for $89.99.
Retailers are hoping the deals will appeal to shoppers like Matt Sexton, 39, who for the first time plans to complete all of his holiday shopping online this year on his iPad tablet computer. Sexton, who plans to spend up to $4,000 this season, already shopped online on the day after Thanksgiving known as Black Friday and found a laptop from Best Buy for $399, a $200 savings, among other deals.
"The descriptions and reviews are so much better online so you can compare and price shop and for the most part get free shipping," said Sexton, who lives in Queens, N.Y., and is a manager at a utility company.
Sexton also said that it's easier to return an online purchase to a physical store than it had been in previous years. "That helps with gifts," he said.
How well retailers fare on Cyber Monday will offer insight into Americans' evolving shopping habits during the holiday shopping season, a time when stores can make up to 40 percent of their annual revenue. With the growth in high speed Internet access and the wide use of smartphones and tablets, people are relying less on their work computers to shop than they did when Shop.org, the digital division of trade group The National Retail Federation, introduced the term "Cyber Monday."
"People years ago didn't have ... connectivity to shop online at their homes. So when they went back to work after Thanksgiving they'd shop on the Monday after," said Vicki Cantrell, executive director of Shop.org. "Now they don't need the work computer to be able to do that."
As a result, the period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday has become busy for online shopping as well. Indeed, online sales on Thanksgiving Day, traditionally not a popular day for online shopping, rose 32 percent over last year to $633 million, according to comScore. And online sales on Black Friday were up 26 percent from the same day last year, to $1.042 billion. It was the first time online sales on Black Friday surpassed $1 billion.
For the holiday season-to-date, comScore found that $13.7 billion has been spent online, marking a 16 percent increase over last year. The research firm predicts that online sales will surpass 10 percent of total retail spending this holiday season. The National Retail Federation estimates that overall retail sales in November and December will be up 4.1 percent this year to $586.1 billion
But as other days become popular for online shopping, Cyber Monday may lose some of its cache. To be sure, Cyber Monday hasn't always been the biggest online shopping day. In fact, up until three years ago, that title was historically earned by the last day shoppers could order items with standard shipping rates and get them delivered before Christmas. That day changes every year, but usually falls in late December.
Even though Cyber Monday is expected to be the biggest shopping day this year, industry watchers say it could just be a matter of time before other days take that ranking.
"Of all the benchmark spending days, Thanksgiving is growing at the fastest rate, up 128 percent over the last five years," said Andrew Lipsman, a spokesman with comScore.
Copyright © Marketed News. All rights reserved.
Design 
And Business Directories
