Great-grandmother leads annual Miami-Dade, Monroe toy drive




















Beginning in August, Bunchy Gertner puts aside her social life, her needs and even her great-grandchildren to head over to the “North Pole,” the place where she stores, wraps and distributes thousands of toys destined for foster care children in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.

“This is top banana,” said Gertner referring to the nonstop volunteer work she has done for the past 16 years. “Every kid will get a gift and — even if it’s just for a moment — they will know that someone cares.”

It’s Gertner who dedicates her time to planning and execution of the toy drive that will distribute 3,400 gifts to the children under Our Kids, a non-profit agency that provides foster care and related services in Miami and the Florida Keys.





“She focuses solely on the toy drive and lives to match the right toy with the right child,” said Fran Alegra, Our Kids CEO. “I don’t have staff that would be able to dedicate the time that she gives to this.”

Over the years, 78-year-old Gertner has not only given every foster child a gift, but she has made sure that everyone receives a good quality, age appropriate present.

“I think I have 3,400 children,” said Gertner. “Thank God I didn’t give birth to all of them and they’ve all left the house. But I feel like they’re all mine.”

Gertner has even made it her mission to look after the children who are aging out of foster care and are considered independent living. For these teens, she prepared a gift that includes a comforter, sheets, pillow cases, hand towels, bath towels, glass wear, pillows, dishes, pots and pans.

“They have no money when they leave foster care,” said Gertner. “I give them what a mom and dad would give a child who was going off to college or going off on their own.”

In order to raise money and collect presents, Gertner has relied on about 50 sponsors, who are responsible for collecting gifts. She distributes the first names of children with their age, gender and ethnicity to provide each child with an appropriate gift.

“I became a beggar. I got down on my hands and knees and begged everyone that I met,” said Gertner. “I write letters, I make phone calls and ask if they would want to help or if they know anyone who would want to do it.”

Once she receives the gifts from the sponsors, they are taken to her North Pole, which this year is an empty store donated by Gulfstream Park.

There, she sorts the presents that come with a specific child’s name by agency and begins wrapping the gifts that she receives with no specific name.

“I couldn’t do it alone,’’ said Gertner, who refers to her helpers as elves. “If it weren’t for the people helping me wrap and the sponsors, I wouldn’t have a toy drive.’’

On any given 10-hour work day, the volunteers, which range in numbers from a handful to two dozen, show up to wrap and sing holiday songs.

“This is better than staying at home in bed all day,” said Rivly Breus, a student at Florida Atlantic University. With a little experience under her belt from wrapping at Macy’s, Breus decided to Google a way she could volunteer her talents.

“It was hard for me growing up so it’s good to be able to shine a light on others,” Breus said.

Some come with no experience, like Gonzo Gonzalez, who often has to patch the spaces where he didn’t use sufficient paper.

“I didn’t have it easy growing up, but at least I had my parents,” said Gonzalez, who wrapped about 30 footballs on a recent Sunday. “It’s good to be able to give back. The kids who don’t have parents are not expecting anything.”

Although, Gertner does not give the presents directly to the children for privacy reasons, she is satisfied with knowing that there is a child at the end of every present. She said she will continue to do it until she can’t anymore.

“I know in my heart that what I do is enough,” said Gertner. “When I go to bed I know that I have fulfilled my mission and done my job well.”





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NYPD Daily Blotter








Manhattan

***

A quick-thinking straphanger snapped a photo (above) of a man who had allegedly rubbed up against her in a subway car on the Upper East Side, authorities said.

The suspect was aboard the No. 4 train Monday at 9:40 a.m. between 86th and 59th streets when the victim felt the perv’s unwelcome advances, police said.

The victim says the man came up behind her and rubbed against her buttocks, cops said.

The suspect is in his early 40s and was wearing a blue baseball cap and a black jacket, police said.

***

The NYPD Harbor Unit pulled the body of a woman from the Hudson River yesterday off Hamilton Heights, authorities said.




The body of the unidentified woman in her 30s was spotted at 11:05 a.m. by a jogger near 12th Avenue and West 135th Street, cops said.

The Medical Examiner’s Office is working with detectives to identify the body and determine the cause of death, authorities said.

Brooklyn

***

A man was gunned down amid a botched home-invasion robbery yesterday in East New York, authorities said.

Edwin Pacheco, 41, was in his home on Logan Avenue near Grace Avenue at 6:20 a.m. when three men in ski masks burst in, police said.

One of the men shot Pacheco in the head and pistol-whipped a relative, police said.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Cops said the thieves were looking for money, and the robbery appears to be drug-related.

***

A father of two was found shot to death in the driveway of an East Flatbush building yesterday, police said.

The victim, in his 30s, was shot in the head on East 92nd Street near Avenue B and found at about 9:30 a.m., police said.

A witness said she had heard shots between 1 and 2 a.m. and spotted three shell casings on the ground.

“He had two daughters. He loved them dearly. He’d do anything for them,” said the victim’s brother-in-law, who declined to be identified by name.

The victim, who had just put up a Christmas tree for his kids, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

“This is not right,” the brother-in-law said. “My two nieces are going to grow up without a father.”

The Bronx

***

Police are looking for the thief pictured above who robbed an Edenwald store at gunpoint, authorities said.

The suspect entered the establishment at East 233rd Street and Grace Avenue Monday at 7:20 a.m. and demanded money, police said.

An employee forked over an undetermined sum of cash, police said.

Queens

***

Police released a picture (above) of the suspect who they believe is responsible for shooting two people in Rochdale.

The suspect, in his late 30s, shot a 21-year-old man in the stomach and a 16-year-old boy in the leg on Nov. 9 on Guy Brewer Boulevard near 134th Avenue, police said.

The gunman fled in a silver Dodge Magnum station wagon, police said.

He’s about 6-foot-1 and sports a short afro, police said.










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Investors shuffling assets ahead of fiscal cliff




















Some citizens aren’t waiting to find out if the White House and Republicans in Congress will be able to reach a last-minute deal to pull the country away from the “fiscal cliff.”

They are selling securities while capital gains tax rates are still low or transferring millions into trusts for the benefit of children and grandchildren before estate tax laws become more stringent. Others are getting out of the markets and parking money in less risky accounts.

Miami financial planner Cathy Pareta has been counseling her upper middle class clients — “the Johnsons, not the Rockefellers” — on whether to adjust investment portfolios, accelerate income or realize capital gains sooner than planned.





“Some people are going to get hit hard,” said John Bacci, a financial planner in Linthicum, Md., who has gone down his client list and run projections on what higher taxes would look like for them. He’s looking at tax-friendly alternatives for some clients, such as annuities or rental property.

At year’s end, the country will leap off the “fiscal cliff” unless politicians reach a compromise on mandated spending cuts and the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts.

For most investors, the expiring cuts will mean that the tax rate for long-term capital gains will rise from 15 percent to 20 percent. Dividends also will no longer be taxed at 15 percent but treated as ordinary income, which could mean a tax rate as high as 39.6 percent. And individuals with multimillion-dollar estates will find much more of their money subject to the federal estate tax.

Estate planning lawyers say the demand is so intense that they are putting in grueling hours to set up trusts.

“It’s very stressful. We are working day and night,” said Diana Zeydel, an estate planning lawyer with Greenberg Traurig in Miami. “Were doing three times what we normally do for end-of-the-year planning.”

Zeydel said many of her clients waited until after the elections in November to gauge how the political tide would affect their future finances. This gave them little more than a month to make major decisions about their wealth.

Most observing the political jousting in Washington expect taxes will go up even if the political leaders reach a deal — they’re just not sure how much. Many aren’t taking any chances.

Jim Ludwick, a financial planner in Odenton, Md., said one client in his late 50s cashed out stock and bond funds totaling $1.7 million not long after the election and stashed the proceeds in a money market fund.

The client, anticipating a market plunge due to the “fiscal cliff” and other issues, said he spent his entire working life building up a nest egg and wouldn’t have time to wait for his portfolio to recover, according to Ludwick. The client fears it won’t be safe to re-enter the stock market for another year.

“We have a number of clients who are taking capital gains this year, expecting that if they wait until next year, they will have to pay higher taxes on those same gains,” said Daniel McHugh, president of Lombard Securities in Baltimore. Some of those clients are realizing six-figure gains but are still willing to take the tax hit now, he said.

Of course, the downside is that the stock market could take off, and these investors will miss out on even higher gains, McHugh said. But, he added: “Given the state the economy is in, that’s a very small risk.”





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Bay of Pigs invasion veterans mark 50 years since release




















In the days before Christmas 50 years ago this weekend, 1,113 Bay of Pigs fighters captured by Fidel Castro’s forces and imprisoned for 20 months were finally released to a heroes’ welcome in Miami.

The first planeload of POWs arrived at Homestead Air Force Base on Dec. 23, 1962. Gaunt and betrayed by the John F. Kennedy administration, members of the proud Brigade 2506 were bused to Miami’s Dinner Key Auditorium, where waiting relatives engulfed them with hugs at a massive reunion that made front-page news. Five days later, JFK and his wife Jackie would be at the Orange Bowl to welcome them, too.

On Saturday, the 50th anniversary of those pivotal days will be observed as surviving brigade members — now in their 70s and 80s — hold a and 11 a.m. Mass and reunion at the Bay of Pigs Museum in Little Havana.





The release of the men was the one bright spot in the disastrous April 1961 CIA-backed invasion to overthrow the two-year old Castro government. Yet the fighters’ return also sent the somber message that exiles would not reclaim Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis that October had set the course of U.S.-Cuba relations until today.

Back then, it was sinking in: The Cuban exile community was in Miami to stay.

A defeated Jose Andreu, now 76, the first brigade member to sign up for the invasion, was among those who arrived home that bittersweet day.

“My wife to-be was there to meet me, along with my sister and my father,” Andreu said. “I remember hugging and crying. After leaving the auditorium, I remember being so hungry I went to a Royal Castle and my girlfriend bought me, I think, 18 small cheeseburgers.”

Among the young people waiting at the auditorium that day in 1962 was a teen-aged Ninoska Perez Castellon, there with her family to welcome her brothers and uncle, all brigade members.

“I remember being in that packed auditorium ... I can truly say as a child I viewed those men as my first heroes. I still do,” said Perez-Castellon, who grew up to become one of Miami’s most influential radio personalities.

Perez and her family still have black-and-white snapshots of the joyful reunion, showing her late grandmother proudly hugging her son.

The behind-the-scenes negotiations that finally led to the release of the brigadistas 50 years ago this week were the stuff of Hollywood movies. They involved months of haggling with Castro by everyone from a former first lady to a high-profile diplomatic negotiator who led the group that finally succeeded — a group of the prisoners’ mothers, wives and fathers who made up the Cuban Families Committee.

Their effort resulted in a now-forgotten 7,857 exodus of Cuban refugees, many relatives of the brigadistas, who arrived in cargo ships at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale from December 1962 to July 1963.

Two women in the committee played key roles — one in Cuba, motivated by a mother’s love; the other in Miami, seeking to free her husband.

Havana socialite, Berta Barreto, whose oldest son, Alberto Oms Barreto, had been captured during the invasion, made the initial contact with Castro and promised that the ransom he had set for the men would be paid. Years later, her second son, Pablo Perez-Cisneros Barreto, wrote the definitive book on the negotiations called After the Bay of Pigs, soon to be published in Spanish. “What my mother and the others managed to do, with no experience in high-level negotiating, was extraordinary,” Perez-Cisneros Barreto said.





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Jennifer Lawrence Fashion Time Warp

"It" girl Jennifer Lawrence is getting a lot of attention this year, and with good reason! 

The recent Golden Globe nominee has proven herself worthy of the big-screen hype thanks to the box office success of The Hunger Games and Silver Linings Playbook. On top of that, the beauteous bombshell has become a fashion-forward phenomenon.

Related: Five Things You Don't Know About Jennifer Lawrence

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

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Former Gov. Patterson canned from radio hosting gig








William C Lopez


Former Gov. David Patterson is out of work once again.



Former Gov. David Paterson is looking for a new job — again.

Clear Channel canned him yesterday as the 4-6 p.m. weekday talk show host on WOR-AM 710 radio – less than two years after he was out of work following his tumultuous and abbreviated tenure at the state’s helm.

“As governor, he was oftentimes in position to dish it out, so he is certainly someone who can take it,” Paterson spokesman Sean Darcy said, adding the state’s first black chief exec “has been exploring a number of different options both in and out of the media.”




Paterson decided against running for governor in 2010 after ascending to the job when former Gov. Eliot Spitzer quit in March 2008 over a hooker scandal.

He landed the WOR gig in September 2011, but Clear Channel bought the station earlier this year and the conglomerate began layoffs this week.

Paterson had told Post columnist Fredric U. Dicker on his own radio show on Albany’s Talk 1300 AM recently that his job wasn’t a sure thing.

Paterson’s face and name were gone from the WOR web site’s “personalities” section yesterday, and the site’s schedule had no listing for his normal show time.

Execs for the station and Clear Channel could not be reached for comment.










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The Cuban government Thursday denounced what it called the “unjust and illegal” multi-million dollar fines the U.S. government slapped on two foreign banks for violating Washington’s sanctions on the island.

The U.S. actions show that its “ferocious persecution of financial and commercial transactions by Cuba and those with legitimate relations … has only changed but has hardened,” a Foreign Ministry official said in a statement.

The British-based HSBC bank agreed to pay $1.9 billion to the U.S. government last week to settle accusations that it laundered drug money through its Mexican and other branches, and violated U.S. economic sanctions on Cuba.





The next day Washington announced that Japan’s Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ bank had agreed to pay $8.6 million to settle what the Cuban statement called “a supposed violation of the unilateral sanctions of the United States against various countries, including Cuba.”

Under the trade embargo, banks cannot move Cuban funds through U.S. financial institutions or handle U.S. dollar deposits for Cuban entities or citizens. Cuba is subject to other sanctions as well because it is on the U.S. list of countries that support international terrorism.

The Foreign Ministry statement noted that the sanctions came one month after the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for the 21st time to condemn the 50-year-old trade embargo against Cuba.

While the HSBC settlement was reported to be one of the largest ever, the U.S. Treasury Department has hit several other foreign banks in recent years for violating sanctions on Cuba and other countries, especially Iran.

The Netherlands’ ING bank agreed to a $619 million settlement earlier this year. Credit Suisse agreed to pay $539 million in 2009. And the Swiss UBS bank was hit with a $100 million settlement in 2004.





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Slip-N-Slide’s Ted Lucas teams up with Miami Heat’s James Jones for All-Star Holiday weekend




















Record executive Ted Lucas and Miami Heat star James Jones joined forces to bring holiday cheer to Miami Gardens kids — and motivate them to achieve academically — earlier this month

The All-Star Holiday weekend started with a toy distribution at North County K-8 Center on Dec.13

Lucas and Jones, who got good grades when growing up in Miami Gardens, got some help Santa Claus and Heat mascot Burnie to distribute bicycles, iPod Nanos and gift cards to those students who did well on their FCAT scores.





Later that evening, Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones and Miami Beach Commissioner Jonah Wolfson hosted a kick-off party at W Hotel Miami Beach. Lucas and Jones each received the key to the City of Miami Beach from Wolfson. Lucas is president of Slip-N-Slide Records, located on South Beach.

The weekend’s festivities also included a DREAM reception at Mercedes-Benz of Miami that highlighted talented local youth and honored teachers and included live performances by the Miami Norland High School drumline, DJ Elle and recording artist Sebastian Mikael.

The All-Star Holiday Weekend concluded with a special community fair at Buccaneer Park in Miami Gardens. Hundreds of residents from the surrounding area attended the free celebration for a day of games, activities, music, treats and giveaways.





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GOP’s Sandy $lash








WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans yesterday offered their own Hurricane Sandy relief bill — which is less than half the original proposed amount.

The GOP version calls for $23.8 billion to be spent on disaster relief for New York and New Jersey — while the bill offered by President Obama totaled $60.4 billion.

Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) introduced the new legislation, which would fund aid through the first three months of next year.

Coats said the lower figure eliminated unnecessary spending — such as $150 million for fisheries in Alaska and Mississippi.




“The concept behind this, of course, is to be as careful as we can with the taxpayers’ money and make sure that each dollar spent is spent on something that has been thoroughly examined,” Coats said.

The bill isn’t likely to pass the Senate, which Democrats control with 52 votes.,

One of the biggest cuts in the funding involves reducing Community Development Block Grants from $15 billion to $2 billion. That money is viewed as critical to helping homeowners socked by the storm.

The move would also eliminate close to $11.3 billion in funding for future storm protection. Republicans left in the $9.7 billion to pay out claims from the National Flood Insurance Program.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) slammed the offer.

“This proposal is not even in the ballpark of what New York and New Jersey need,” Schumer said yesterday.










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Accelerator planned for healthcare-tech start-ups




















A new start-up accelerator focused on the intersection of healthcare and technology is coming to Miami next year.

Project Lift Miami, designed to help develop young companies and prepare them for investment opportunities, is a partnership between Lift1428, an innovation design, strategy and communications firm; the Miami Innovation Center at the University of Miami Life Science & Technology Park and its developer, Wexford Science + Technology; and the UM Miller School of Medicine, said Robert Chavez, the project’s executive director. “We’re being proactive and trying to support innovative ideas and companies. … We’d like to keep them here and really help to transform the area into a healthcare innovation hub.”

The accelerator will offer entrepreneurial teams a structured 100-day program of classes, workshops and training directed by national and local healthcare experts as well as mentoring and strategic support that will continue well beyond the program, said David McDonald, CEO of Lift1428 and co-founder of Project Lift Miami.





“This meets a critical unmet need in innovation,” said Norma Kenyon, chief innovation officer at UM’s Miller School, explaining that novel ideas often don’t find appropriate mentors and funding until they are pretty far along. “Where do you go if you have a great idea that really could be transformative? This provides much-needed support for these very early-stage technologies.”

Ten to 15 start-ups will be selected for the first class, which will start in May. Each will be offered seed funding — probably $20,000 to $30,000 in cash and services in exchange for a small equity stake — and will get free office space at the research park, Chavez said. The program will run through August, closing with a Demo Day, when entrepreneurs present their businesses to potential investors.

“There’s so much regulation and there are privacy issues and other barriers to entry that are different in the healthcare industry. Having the access to the environment we have here to test your idea and prove your concept is a great advance,” said Chavez, who is also executive director of business intelligence at UM’s Miller School. “That kind of mentoring you won’t get at a general accelerator.”

If Miami’s program goes well, future Project Lift programs could be rolled out at other Wexford science and technology parks across the country, said Bill Hunter, Wexford’s regional director of leasing. “Project Lift is directly aligned with our mission to cultivate innovation in our community. You need investment in those early-stage opportunities.”

Entrepreneurs interested in applying for the inaugural 2013 class can contact Chavez at rchavez@lift1428.com or 305-345-8670, or stop by the Miami Innovation Center at the UM Life Science & Technology Park, 1951 NW Seventh Ave., Suite 300. There is also more information at www.lift1428.com/projectlift.





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Judge admonishes defendant in Rilya Wilson murder trial




















A Miami-Dade judge admonished the woman accused of killing foster child Rilya Wilson after two brief courtroom outbursts Tuesday.

At the time, Geralyn Graham’s ex-lover, Pamela Graham, was on the stand testifying under cross-examination about why she was cooperating with authorities. The two are not related.

In front of the jury, Geralyn Graham yelled at Pamela Graham to stop lying. A few minutes later, Geralyn Graham again blurted out at the witness that the last time she saw Rilya, she “was in your arms.”





Geralyn Graham, 66, is on trial on charges of murdering the foster child whose disappearance a decade ago roiled the state’s child-welfare agency and led to a series of reforms. Rilya’s body was never found.

Pamela Graham, who was Rilya’s legal guardian, has testified over two days that Geralyn Graham abused Rilya, tying her to a bed and keeping her isolated in a laundry room. She has also cast Geralyn Graham as a dominating, manipulative woman who forced her to lie that a child welfare worker took the child.

During cross-examination by defense attorney Scott Sakin, Pamela Graham admitted the early story she gave to police investigators “was all lies.”





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Angelina Jolie to Direct Unbroken Film

Angelina Jolie is in final negotiations to direct her second film, Unbroken, based on the story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympian-turned-World War II prisoner of war, according to Deadline.

Video: Angelina Jolie Talks Kids, 'Blood and Honey'

"I was so moved by Louie Zamperini's heroic story, I immediately began to fight for the opportunity to make this film," said The Oscar-winning actress in a statement. "Louie is a true hero and a man of immense humanity, faith and courage. I am deeply honored to have the chance to tell his inspiring story."

Adapted from Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption, the feature film will tell the real-life tale of American Olympic distance runner Louis Zamperini, who was captured and imprisoned by the Japanese Navy during World War II.

Unbroken will be the second film directed by Jolie. The 37-year-old made her debut in 2011's In The Land Of Blood And Honey.

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Relief for rebuilding








The city Department of Buildings will waive agency fees for work on the 1,000 or more local buildings damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Sandy.

The charges won’t go back into effect until October 2014, under a bill the City Council passed yesterday.

The city will also delay plumbing and electrical fees for repairs to those damaged buildings until April 2013.

The council acted on the heels of Mayor Bloomberg’s emergency order last month to waive the fees.

The council yesterday also announced a series of hearings it will hold in January and February to assess the administration’s response to the storm.



Meanwhile, members yesterday introduced bills to strengthen the city’s infrastructure against future storms. One would study the feasibility of burying power lines in certain areas — an extremely expensive endeavor; another would raise by several feet elevation requirements for flood-zone construction.

The federal government is set to put out new maps within the next week that will delineate the city’s most flood-prone areas.










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Stocking stuffers and last-minute gift ideas




















In the portable electronic world, stocking stuffers are easy to find. Here are some for those last-minute holiday gifts on everyone’s list.

•  WATER-POWERED CLOCK: Aside from telling time, the eco-friendly Bedol Water Clock is a portable alarm that is also waterproof in the event you feel like standing in a rain storm or showering with it.

It’s battery-free so all you do to keep the clock running indefinitely is just fill it with water.





A natural chemical reaction between two of its internal metallic plates generates enough power to keep it running indefinitely.

Details: www.bedolwhatsnext.com $17

•  CHAT OR SCROLL: Logitech’s Apple-friendly Broadcaster Wi-Fi webcam is great for online chatting and its wireless functionality makes it a great companion as a second angled video camera beyond what your computer, iPhone or iPad’s camera will do.

The camera has an internal battery, which is charged via USB for 2 hours of life and has a built-in mono microphone along with a port to add an external mic.

Video is captured in HD 720p and can be moved to any angle since it’s wireless.

Logitech has designed the camera to let users press a button to switch to the camera, giving your chatting partner a different angle.

The Broadcaster ($199.99) works with Mac video applications including QuickTime, Photo Booth, iMovie, Final Cut Pro or chatting with FaceTime, iChat or Skype.

• Logitech also has a few cool high tech-looking Windows 8 friendly mice with the t400 and t620.

The Logitech Zone Touch Mouse t400 ($39) has the functionality of a traditional mouse along with a touch strip to support horizontal and vertical scrolling.

Just click on the top of the touch zone for instant access the Windows 8 Start Screen and clicking on the bottom of the touch zone will scroll you through all your open applications.

The Touch Mouse t620 ($49) features a full touch surface letting you scroll horizontally and vertically from anywhere on the mouse, and to access the Windows 8 start screen you just swipe the edges of the mouse.

Details: www.Logitech.com

•  EARBUDS WITH A MIC: iFrogz EarPollution Plugz with Mic noise isolating earbuds are as simple as they get and work just fine.

You get three sizes of ear pieces to get the right fit along with an in-line microphone for cellphone use and most any portable electronic device.

The sound is decent and it makes a great hands-free choice.

Details: www.iFrogz.com $9.99 — in a big selection of colors.

•  TRAVEL POWER: Bracketron’s Universal USB Travel Power Kit ($26) includes an Apple 30-pin and Micro USB connections 3-foot cable for charging just about any device on the go.

The cable can be connected to a computer or the included USB AC adapter for 2.1 Amp charging, which includes power hungry tablets.

A 12V car charging USB adapter is also included.

Bracketron’s MetalDock ($18.91) is a contemporary-looking charging dock for the iPhone 4/4S, built with heavy-duty metal construction resulting in a lightweight and portable design.

It connects to any USB port for charging/syncing with its embedded 3-foot cable and works in landscape or portrait modes.

A company representative has emailed me that Dec. 12-17 everything on the Bracketron site is 40 percent off.

Details: www.Bracketron.com





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Miami-Dade court program helps young inmates change their lives




















It was a graduation without pomp and circumstance.

There was marching in combat boots. No gowns.

The remarks by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beth Bloom were full of the hallmarks common at any graduation. She spoke of goals and achievement and of the opportunity.





But were it not for the “I’m Ready” program, many of Monday’s graduates would not be anticipating their release from jail in a few short weeks.

The 13 young men in “I’m Ready’s’’ inaugural class had already been convicted of some crime and sentenced to boot camp. But each had some medical or psychological problem that made him ineligible.

Take, for example 20-year-old Franklin Robinson. After being sentenced to boot camp after he violated his probation, Robinson underwent several tests, including an EKG that showed there was difficulty pumping blood to his heart. That prevented him from being admitted to boot camp and could have meant him ending up back in jail with the general population.

Instead, he ended up at the six-month “I’m Ready’’ program, which offers youths ages 14-24 education and services. They undergo behavior modification, life skills, job training, counseling and treatment.

The day begins at 5 a.m. A routine of schooling and vocational training in automotive technology or carpentry carries them through until about 8 p.m.

“I’m Ready” participants are housed in a separate unit to accommodate program activities rather than with the general jail population. They are referred to as “students,’’ not “inmates.’’

“There is a reason why boot camp is able to reduce recidivism,” Bloom said. “It sets the tone that they are there to learn.”

It’s not so different from boot camp, said Officer Cathy Harpp, who oversees the program.

“You can’t do pushups, but you can clean the floor and the toilet bowl with a toothbrush,” Harpp said.

The hardest part was getting them to be receptive to change and adapt to the new rules, Harpp said.

“Once they knew I was not going to let up, eventually, they cave in,” she said. “Here, they’re accountable for everything.”

The idea for the program came to Bloom after she oversaw the case of an insulin dependent diabetic with a 10th-grade education.

After he was deemed unfit for boot camp because of his health condition, Bloom wanted to know what would happen to him.

Young offenders like him would have been incarcerated with the general population of inmates, where there would be no access to training and no structure.

“I’ve seen far too many youth return to the criminal justice system,” Bloom said Monday at the program’s first graduation ceremony. “All of you have met your goal. The community needs you to be the different persons that you are.”

The group of 13 will be released Dec. 28. Twenty-two new students will replace them in January.

Before the new graduates students left the room in a final marching formation, Harpp offered one lasting piece of advice: “This is where the difference begins.”





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YouTube Announces Top 10 Videos of 2012

YouTube has just released their top 10 videos of 2012 along with one dazzling video bound to become a viral sensation in its own right.

Watch the clip to see the Rewind YouTube Style video featuring the website's biggest stars acting out a parody of Gangnam Style and Call Me Maybe. The video was shot at the new YouTube Space in Los Angeles, a place for YouTube creators to come learn, collaborate, and create great content to put up on their YouTube channels.

Check out the list of 2012's greatest YouTube moments below:

1) PSY - Gangnam Style: The Korean pop music video that surprised the world is set to hit 1 billion views and has become the most viewed video of all time in just six months.

2) Walk off the Earth: This is the most-viewed cover song of 2012, attracting 140 million views this year.

3) KONY 2012: This video contained a call to action and collected 31 million views in a single day -- the most views ever for a YouTube video.

4) Call Me Maybe - Bieber, Gomez, Pena: This video, covering the song of the summer, kicked off a trend of lip sync videos that spanned from the Harvard baseball team and celebs to Olympians.

5) Epic Rap Battles - Obama vs. Romney: This episode featured well-known Obama impersonator Alphacat, and is one of the better known instances of the 2012 trend of Obama and Romney videos.

6) Dramatic Surprise: This video, featuring a mysterious sign in the middle of a Flemish square, brought in 25 million views in its first week.

7) Why You Asking All Them Questions: Comedian Emmanuel Hudson's popularity exploded this year partly from this video that garnered 39 million views -- almost half of which came from mobile devices.

8) Lindsey Stirling: Lindsey's trademark dubstep violin styles created a lot of buzz this year -- especially in the U.S., Germany and Poland. This video, which was shot by Lindsey's fellow YouTube creator Devin Graham, has over 500,000 likes and 100,000 comments.

9) Facebook Parenting: This video taught us not to mess with Dad. Bringing in 11 million views in one day, this video was the catalyst for an international discussion about parenting and Facebook.

10) Stratos Highlights: This live stream of Felix Baumgartner's free-fall from 128,000 feet shattered previous live stream records with 8 million concurrent views.

Visit youtube.com/rewind for more.

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NBC man MIA








Richard Engel, NBC’s award-winning chief foreign correspondent, has been missing in war-torn Syria since last week, Turkish media reported yesterday.

A Turkish journalist working with Engel, Aziz Akyavas, also is missing. The pair has not been in contact with NBC since Thursday, according to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet.

Engel, 39, is fluent in Arabic and covered Iraq during the country’s last two wars and served as NBC’s Mideast bureau chief before he was promoted to top foreign correspondent.

NBC has not confirmed Engel’s disappearance, but the Turkish news report quickly went viral on social media.





RICHARD ENGEL -


RICHARD ENGEL






Engel’s NBC colleague David Schuster tweeted, “Original report from Turkish media . . . Praying it is wrong.”

In his latest report, which aired on NBC’s “Nightly News” last week, Engel interviewed rebel fighters in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and said President Bashar al-Assad’s regime appeared to be doomed.

Engel also described the city’s massive war damage, power outages and the food and health-care shortages that residents are enduring.

Engel, a Peabody Award winner, had previously reported on the Libyan civil war, the revolt that overthrew Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, and other events of the Arab Spring.

Western news organizations did not report the kidnapping of New York Times reporter David Rohde in Afghanistan in 2008. His plight was disclosed only after he and an associate, who was also abducted by the Taliban, managed to escape after eight months.

Syria has been especially dangerous for foreign journalists, and several have been held captive, wounded or even killed since the civil war erupted there in early 2011.

American Marie Colvin, a correspondent for Britain’s Sunday Times who was originally from Oyster Bay, LI, was killed along with a French photographer in a February shelling attack in the central city of Homs.

More than 40,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad’s government began, according to the United Nations.

With

andy.soltis@nypost.com










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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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Sperm whale dies off Pompano Beach coast




















The carcass of a 40-foot sperm whale that apparently died as it neared the shore off of Pompano Beach on Sunday afternoon later drifted back out to sea, ending a drama that had drawn the attention of beachgoers and scientists alike.

The whale was spotted about noon offshore near the 600 block of North Ocean Boulevard, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

Read the full story at Sun-Sentinel.com.








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Mother devoted her life to him – then he ended it








Nancy Lanza doted on her son — and he repaid her by fatally blasting her four times in the head and killing 26 others with a gun she taught him to use.

In the weeks leading up to Adam Lanza’s rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School, his mom was focused on helping the troubled but brilliant 20-year-old build a life for himself. He was mulling a move to a new town for college — and she was ready to go with him, her friends told The Post.

“She doted on that child. She loved him more than anything. Nancy’s life revolved around him,” said Russ Hanoman, who knew Nancy for seven years and had spent time with Adam.





BETRAYED: Nancy Lanza, mother of the gunman, had “loved him more than anything,” a friend says.

Rex / Rex USA





BETRAYED: Nancy Lanza, mother of the gunman, had “loved him more than anything,” a friend says.






Nancy, 52, was dedicated to her youngest son — described as “a near-genius” who suffered from the autism-related Asperger’s syndrome — and she had spent months going over his options for engineering schools, Hanoman said.

“They had recently gone to many different colleges looking for the right program for Adam, and the right living situation,” he said.

“He wanted to study engineering. Nancy was going to move wherever he was going to go. Not to live with him but to live near him.

“They were looking at schools in Seattle and one of the Carolinas. “It was his goal to be independent.”

Another friend, Rich Collins, said Nancy had a hard time dealing with her son’s difficulties — especially his inability to express love.

“She would get very upset that he wouldn’t let her hug him,” said Collins, who himself has a son with autism and would often commiserate with Nancy when the two would meet at a local bar.

“She was proud of the boys, but she would get upset about Adam not being affectionate,” he said.

Nancy would take Adam to a nearby shooting range to try to forge a bond with him, he said.

“This was something she could do to connect with her son, who couldn’t show emotions toward her,” Collins, 54, told The Post.

But that gun training turned deadly Friday, when Lanza shot his mother multiple times as she lay in her bed in their $1.6 million Newtown, Conn., home.

Sources said Nancy was shot in the head four times at close range, leaving her nearly unrecognizable. She was wearing her pajamas when she was slain, The Washington Post reported.

Adam — who had learned to drive only last summer — then took her black Honda to nearby Sandy Hook Elementary, where he unleashed the slaughter, opening fire in two classrooms and gunning down 20 first-graders and six educators before blowing his brains out with a single shot to the head.

Adam had attended Sandy Hook as a child, then the St. Rose of Lima Church’s Catholic school. He was later home-schooled and graduated from the local high school early, Nancy’s friends said.










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Five years after the recession, a slow recovery plods on




















Five years ago this month, the Great Recession began. Which leads to this question: How much longer until South Florida can erase the damage?

Officially, the recession ended in June 2009. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the national economy began contracting in December 2007 and did not grow again for 19 months. Using taxable sales figures, it’s probably safe to say South Florida experienced a longer downturn. Overall spending contracted for the first time in South Florida in March 2007 and didn’t post a year-over-year gain until February 2010.

“Miami was at the forefront of the housing boom and bust,’’ said Karl Kuykendall, an economist who follows South Florida for IHS Global Insight. “It’s no surprise Miami was early into the recession and somewhat late coming out.”





But whatever the actual duration of the downturn, it doesn’t take much math to realize the economy still feels shaky. South Florida lost its first net job in more than two years in October, when a tiny decline of 300 payroll slots interrupted 26 months of consistent expansion. The upcoming November report out Friday will show whether the losing streak continues.

And while unemployment is off near-record highs set in April 2010, more than 180,000 South Floridians were listed as officially out of work in the last count. That’s almost 90 percent more than the 98,000 people listed as out of work in the first month of the recession.

Tourism posted an early recovery, particularly in Miami-Dade, where foreign visitors helped hotels shake-off a sharp drop in U.S. vacationers and business travelers. But the recession lingers in Broward’s tourism industry, which is just now retiring past records.

Housing suffered the most dramatic crash throughout the recession and was also the last of the major indicators to begin its recovery. The Case-Shiller real estate index pegs May 2006 as the peak of the bubble in South Florida. Although each neighborhood is different, the average South Florida house worth $200,000 that month would have fallen down to $97,600 by the time the market hit bottom just over a year ago, in November 2011.

Values have recovered 9 percent since then, meaning the same house should be worth just over $105,0000. That’s a loss of 47 percent over six years.

Recovering from that kind of crash takes time, and five years clearly isn’t enough. To give a hint of the progress underway, Business Monday checked into businesses and residents on the frontlines of the recovery. The reports follow:

Housing

After fending off a foreclosure and battling to get out from under an onerous option ARM mortgage, Marie and Wilson Destin recently worked out a loan modification on their 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom house near Miami Lakes.

With the help of Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida, a nonprofit agency that helps people navigate the Byzantine home financing landscape, the Destins cut their monthly mortgage payment to $1,500 from $1,900 under a new fixed-rate loan.

In 2006, when the housing market was booming, the Haitian-American couple had taken out an option ARM loan on the property, which they had owned for several years.

“Somebody came to the house and approached me with an option ARM loan,’’ said Wilson Destin. “They said I would pay less.’’

The option ARM — which has triggered financial woes for thousands of homeowners during the downturn — allowed for flexible payments and negative amortization, practically encouraging people to defer payments.





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7-year-old in critical condition after accident




















Police were investigating an accident involving a 7-year-old who was struck by a vehicle in a Lauderhill neighborhood late Saturday, Lauderhill Police spokesman Rick Rocco said.

The vehicle and its driver, who has not yet been identified, remained on scene after the incident near the intersection of Northwest 27th Court and 56th Avenue.

The child was transported to Broward Health Medical Center in critical condition immediately after the incident, police said.





Details of the accident were not immediately available.

This post will be updated as we receive more information.





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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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Hasid détente in Gropez ruin









The downfall of Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez could yield a political détente in the fierce war that has been raging for years among the Satmar Hasidim in Brooklyn.

The once tight-knit community has been bitterly split since the death of Grand Rebbe Moses Teitelbaum in 2006 left two sons, Aaron and Zalman, in a blood feud over succession rights.

Lopez, the borough’s Democratic Party boss, long ago formed an alliance with the larger Zalman-led faction, which controls a huge social-services apparatus in Williamsburg.

When the “Zalies” needed government help, especially on housing issues, he was there as chairman of the Assembly Housing Committee.





VITO LOPEZ Favored Zalman faction.


VITO LOPEZ Favored Zalman faction.





When Lopez needed their 6,000 to 7,000 votes at election time, they dutifully marched in lock step to the polls.

Any friend of the Zalies was an enemy of the Aaronites, who control about 3,000 to 4,000 votes.

That made for high drama in some hard-fought elections. But it also diluted the political strength of each side.

With Lopez facing sexual-harassment charges and stripped of many of his powers, some political observers see an opening for a possible political rapprochement.

“We have never been in this situation before,” observed political consultant Michael Tobman. “Vito’s absence, combined with open countywide and citywide races where 10,000 Brooklyn votes can make a very real difference, makes a compelling case.”

Former City Councilman Ken Fisher said common sense would dictate an end to the hostilities.

“When the community was united and elected officials knew they could deliver a bloc of 10,000 votes or more, the door to the statehouse and City Hall was open to them,” said Fisher.

“When it’s net a couple of thousand votes for one side or the other and it means getting involved in controversy for those votes, it’s a less effective proposition for candidates.”

Officials who’ve had to deal with the opposing sides for years remain skeptical.

“I don’t see any evidence of this happening,” said one elected official.

But Rabbi David Niederman, who oversees the huge social-services network run by the Zalies, said practicality has always been at the heart of the community’s relationship with politicians who come looking for endorsements.

“We don’t work on political decisions,” he said. “We work on meat and potatoes.”

Niederman also disputed the notion that Lopez — his longtime ally — was a factor.

“Vito, what does he have to do with the two sides?” he asked.

david.seifman@nypost.com










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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.





Read More..