Gov. Scott working on syllabus for Florida colleges: Less expensive and more practical

TALLAHASSEE --
Gov. Rick Scott went to college with one goal: make money.

He didn’t join a fraternity or become active in student government. He took only the classes he needed for his degree and not a credit more.

Married when he attended community college, he paid for a bachelor’s degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City with help from the G.I. Bill. And he worked full time in a donut shop he purchased with a friend.

The boy who grew up wanting to be rich knew from the start he wanted to become an attorney.

For Scott, college was a means to an end. Now he wants Florida colleges and universities to have the same razor-sharp focus — rein in tuition costs and create cheaper degrees that can get graduates jobs.

It’s an approach to higher education that has put Scott at odds with educators who argue dollars and cents aren’t the only factors determining the worth of a degree.

But Scott is convinced his ideas are best for the bottom lines of both the state and students.

And he’s got his personal history to prove it.

Cost is cornerstone

As a kid, Scott’s family didn’t have much. He vowed to become an adult who didn’t have to worry about money.

Becoming a lawyer, however, meant earning degrees his family could not afford. So he figured out a way to pay for it himself.

“I think junior college cost $200 a semester and the university cost $255 a semester. ... I could work 40 hours a week and be able to pay for my school,” said Scott, 60.

He spent a couple of years in the Navy as a radar technician, using his spare time to pass correspondence courses that earned credit toward an associate’s degree. That military experience made him eligible for financial aid through the G.I. Bill.

He returned home and attended the University of Missouri-Kansas City to earn a bachelor’s degree in 1975. But he also worked full time running a donut shop and set aside money that, along with his federal financial aid, paid for a law degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

As governor, cost is now the cornerstone of Scott’s higher education policy. He worries that tuition increases are putting college out of reach for working-class families like his.

“My wife and I put ourselves through college. We would not have been able to do it with tuition as high as it is today,” Scott said in a recent weekly radio address. “We must make our colleges more affordable for Florida families.”

He called on universities to halt tuition increases and vetoed a bill last year that would have allowed top-tier schools like the University of Florida and Florida State University to charge whatever they wanted in tuition.

More recently, state colleges have lined up to meet Scott’s challenge to create bachelor’s programs that cost $10,000 or less.

Universities have told Scott they are willing to hold the line on tuition, but only if the state agrees to contribute additional funding.

“I actually believe what Gov. Scott is saying about keeping tuition low is great,” said FSU President Eric Barron. “But that means then that the state has to fund the universities if we’re going to maintain the quality that the citizens in the state of Florida deserve.”

Pushing ‘practical’ degrees

But it’s not just the cost of degrees.

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Buzzmakers: New X Factor and Miss Universe Winners

What had ET readers buzzing this week?

1. 'The X Factor' Crowns A Winner!

And the $5 million recording contract goes to…

Tate Stevens! The 37-year-old country crooner beat out runner-up 13-year-old Carly Rose Sonenclar for the top prize Thursday night. 35 million votes were cast Wednesday to determine victory for L.A. Reid's mentee.

Near tears, the Raymore, Missouri native thanked his fans for their overwhelming support.

"This is the best day of my life," said an emotional Stevens.

Girl group Fifth Harmony, mentored by Simon Cowell, placed third in the competition. Earlier in the night, the holiday themed finale saw performances by One Direction and Pitbull.

Auditions for an all-new season of The X Factor USA have already begun online. In-person auditions will start on March 6, 2013 in Los Angeles.

The celebrity judging panel has yet to be announced, but L.A. Reid has already taken himself out of the running. Spears has expressed interest in returning to the show for season three, but nothing has been confirmed.

2. Miss Universe 2012 Crowned

Beauties from 89 countries strutted their stuff Wednesday night in pursuit of the Miss Universe crown, but only one woman would earn the coveted title.

In the end a panel of ten celebrity judges, including Cee Lo Green and U.S. Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings, appointed Miss USA Olivia Culpo the winner.

The 20-year-old Rhode Island native beat out Miss Brazil (Gabriela Markus) Miss Philippines (Janine Tugonon), Miss Mexico (Irene Sofía Esser Quintero), and Miss Australia (Renae Ayris) for the distinction.

Culpo follows in the footsteps of Miss Angola, Leila Lopes, who earned the crown in 2011.

The two-hour show was broadcast live from Las Vegas with musical acts One Direction and Train lending their talents to the annual extravaganza.

3. Exclusive: Arsenio on His Late Night TV Return

Break out the Woof! Woof! fist pump: Arsenio Hall is coming back to late night TV in the Fall of 2013 after a 17-year break from the game, and only ET is behind the scenes with the timeless talk show host as he shoots his first-ever promo for The Arsenio Hall Show!

"[This is] the first time America will see anything on television about the show," says Arsenio. "Instead of a commercial where I do something like say, 'I'm baaaaack' -- and everybody's, 'Ugh' -- they've come up with a real, unique, creative angle that -- actually, I looked at dailies, and it scared me. I looked at the dailies and I frightened myself."

The trailer-length promo from CBS Television Distribution pays homage to horror movies and begins airing today on all Arsenio Hall Show affiliate stations, kicking off the campaign for the new late night syndicated talk show that will be seen all across the country next year.

"I'm real excited about this; so many things have changed in pop culture since I left the air," says Arsenio about his return to late night. "I can't wait."

The Arsenio Hall Show premieres on 9/9/13. Look for much more with Arsenio between now and then, only on ET!

4. Claire Danes Gives Birth

It's a boy!

Homeland star Claire Danes and her husband Hugh Dancy welcomed their very first child together on Monday, December 17, her rep confirms to People Magazine.

The proud parents named their bouncing baby boy Cyrus Michael Christopher Dancy.

Danes, 33, wed Dancy, 37, in 2009 after two years of dating.

5. President Obama is Time's Person of the Year

For 2012, Time Magazine has selected President Barack Obama as their Person of the Year.

"For finding and forging a new majority, for turning weakness into opportunity and for seeking, amid great adversity, to create a more perfect union, Barack Obama is Time's 2012 Person of the Year," Time's Managing Editor Richzard Stengel explained.

He also cited both of the president's re-elections, snagging over 50 percent of the popular vote, as one reason he received this honor.

This is the second year Time has tapped Obama as their Person of the Year -- he previously was selected in 2008 for becoming the first black president of the United States.

Time previously named the eight finalists for 2012's Person of the Year. They included: Bill and Hillary Clinton, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Malala Yousafzai (the Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban for her crusade for better girls' education), Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and the three scientists who discovered the Higgs Boson particle.

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True meanings of Christmas

There are certain Christmas traditions that seem like they’ve been with us forever, from putting aside December 25 to celebrate the birth of the sun, to our collective worship of the great god Woden.

On second though, maybe things have changed more than we like to admit.

“The History of Christmas,” a new e-book by Wyatt North, recounts the history of many of the Christmas traditions we take for granted, showing how so many of these customs are as amorphous as they are joyous.

Here are just some of the treasured beliefs North helps shed a bit of Christmas light upon.

AP

The Rockefeller Center tree — slightly taller than Martin Luthor’s original Christmas tree.

CELEBRATING ON DECEMBER 25

North points out that early Christians in Europe “were part of an agrarian, pagan culture,” and that their early traditions included a post-harvest winter celebration called Saturnalia which “paid homage to the gods who ruled all aspects of sowing, planting and harvest.”

Consisting of “feasts, festivities and festivals” that included “conspicuous indulgence” and “raucous behavior,” Saturnalia took place in mid- to-late December to “honor the god of the sun, Saturn.”

Several other pagan celebrations — including one praising the birth of “the unconquerable sun” and another that worshipped “Mithra, the god of fertility, who was the son of the sun” — took place on the birth date of their gods, December 25.

Early Christian converts, writes North, were torn between the massive (and enjoyable) pagan feasts they had come to know and the life of relative moral austerity to which they were committing. As such, Christian celebrations often carried pagan elements over from their prior beliefs.

Understandably, this caused dissension between strictly religious Christians and those with a more lax and nostalgic approach, especially as some Christians continued worshipping the sun. North tells of how, in the 5th century, “Pope Leo lamented in a sermon that upon entering the basilica to celebrate Christ’s nativity, worshippers turned on the stairs to face the rising sun and bowed.”

When an 8th century English bishop was “horrified” by the “pagan debauchery” he saw over Christmastime in Rome, he wrote to Pope Zacharias, who in turn unleashed a barrage of cruelty and violence in order to curb the practice, establishing a tradition of Saturnalia horror that lasted for centuries.

But within this, the holiday also evolved, with 1103 seeing the introduction of the Old English phrase “Cristes-Maesse,” meaning the Mass of Christ. That phrase eventually morphed into the word we know today.

While the celebration itself remained controversial for centuries, so too was the date of this worship, as North reminds us that “the exact date of Christ’s birth is a controversial topic.” December 25 had been revered by early pagans, but Christians long settled on January 6 as their day of “epiphany, meaning God’s manifestation to humanity.”

Have a comment on this PostOpinion column? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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Time’s up for holiday shopping procrastinators

Last minute shoppers like Josette Tyne are in luck this year.

With a long weekend before Christmas, retailers want to make it easier for procrastinators to finish their gift buying. Macy’s for the first time is keeping all its stores open around the clock from Friday until Sunday at midnight. Toys “R” Us and Walmart Supercenters will be open non-stop until Christmas Eve.

Even those retailers skipping the all nighter still have added extended hours often as late as 11 pm or midnight. Coupled with a flurry of last minute promotions, they hope to lure shoppers, many of whom have been largely sitting on the sidelines since Black Friday.

Tyne, 33, just starting her shopping this week at Aventura Mall, armed with a list of about two dozen people and the presents they wanted. The list would have been longer if the Fort Lauderdale resident hadn’t limited it to the kids in her family.

“I’ll probably be shopping every day from now till Sunday,” said Tyne, as she wheeled the youngest of her three boys around H&M in a stroller before heading on to Game Stop, Urban Outfitters and BCBG. “Whatever catches my eye. Luckily the kids usually like everything I get. I’m the awesome Auntie.”

A Consumer Reports Poll released earlier this week found that with just five shopping days left until Christmas, a whopping 68 percent of shoppers — a projected 132 million Americans — have yet to finish their holiday shopping.

With an early Thanksgiving leaving an extra week until Christmas and a long weekend before Tuesday’s holiday, shoppers have felt little need to rush. They also haven’t found December deals to be quite as compelling as the November sales.

Based on disappointing sales trends earlier this month, ShopperTrak said Wednesday it was cutting its holiday sales forecast. The company, which counts foot traffic and its own proprietary sales numbers from 40,000 retail outlets across the country, now expects a 2.5 percent sales increase to $257.7 billion, down from the 3.3 percent growth it initially predicted. The National Retail Federation is sticking with its prediction of a 4.1 percent sales increase.

Online sales trends are more encouraging, up 13 percent to $35 billion from Nov. 1 through Dec. 16, according to comScore, an online research firm. But that pace is below the forecast of 17 percent for the season.

“It’s coming down to the wire,” said David Bassuk, managing director and co-head of the retail practice at AlixPartners, a global consulting firm. “It’s going to require retailers to be more aggressive with their promotions than they were hoping heading into the weekend.”

While the economy is certainly in a better position than it was during the recession, many consumers still feel uneasy this year about their financial future. Some are worried about the U.S. job market and others fear the stalemate between Congress and the White House over federal “fiscal cliff’’ that could lead to tax increases and less disposable income for shoppers.

That was the case for Latonya Jones, on the hunt for bargains at Aventura Mall, coupon-loaded iPad in hand.

“I wasn’t going to buy anything this year, because I wanted to save money,” said Jones, 39, of Miami Gardens, who was shopping with her daughter Richelle, 12, this week in Macy’s. “But then I changed my mind.”

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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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Google working on “X Phone”, “X” tablet to take on rivals – WSJ

(Reuters) – Google Inc is working with recently acquired Motorola on a handset codenamed “X-phone”, aimed at grabbing market share from Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Google acquired Motorola in May for $ 12.5 billion to bolster its patent portfolio as its Android mobile operating system competes with rivals such as Apple and Samsung.

The Journal quoted the people saying that Motorola is working on two fronts: devices that will be sold by carrier partner Verizon Wireless, and on the X phone.

Motorola plans to enhance the X Phone with its recent acquisition of Viewdle, an imaging and gesture-recognition software developer. The new handset is due out sometime next year, the business daily said, citing a person familiar with the plans.

Motorola is also expected to work on an “X” tablet after the phone. Google Chief Executive Larry Page is said to have promised a significant marketing budget for the unit, the newspaper said quoting the persons.

Google was not immediately reachable for comments outside regular U.S. business hours.

(Reporting by Balaji Sridharan in Bangalore; Editing by Richard Chang)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Google working on “X Phone”, “X” tablet to take on rivals – WSJ
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Goon beats & robs lady

A thug savagely beat a Bronx woman in her building elevator and fled with her purse, cops said yesterday.

The robber followed his petite 57-year-old victim into the elevator of her Washington Avenue building Thursday morning and jumped her when the elevator reached her floor, cops said.

Surveillance video released by the police shows the goon throwing her to the floor and pummeling her face before fleeing.

Cops described the punk as a black male in his late teens about 5-foot-11 with a black Polo jacket and black sweat pants.

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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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Reacting to users’ outcry, Facebook’s Instagram reverts to prior policy on advertising

SAN FRANCISCO – Instagram has abandoned wording in its new terms-of-service agreement that sparked outcry from users concerned it meant their photos could appear in advertisements.

In a blog post late Thursday, the popular mobile photo-sharing service says it has reverted to language in the advertising section of its terms of service that appeared when it was launched in October 2010.

Instagram is now owned by Facebook Inc. and maintains that it would like to experiment with different forms of advertising to make money.

Its blog post says that it will now ask users’ permission to introduce possible ad products only after they are fully developed.

The outcry to the changes announced earlier this week led the company to clarify that it has no plans to put users’ photos in ads.

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Reacting to users’ outcry, Facebook’s Instagram reverts to prior policy on advertising
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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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New Online Privacy Loophole Lets Facebook Advertise to Kids

Mark Zuckerberg‘s been eager to find a way to get more kids on Facebook for years, and on Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission handed it to him on a platter. That might be overstating it a little bit. It’s more like the FTC served it to him on a platter covered in plastic wrap with a note attached that says “Do not open.” Nevertheless, should Facebook decided to see what’s inside, experts in online privacy for children say the social network could legally start peddling everything from kids’ bicycles to that new gender-neutral Easy Bake Oven.

RELATED: German Official Urges Citizens to Stop Using Facebook

After months of deliberating and plenty of lobbying on both sides of the issue, the FTC updated the controversial Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) this week. The changes were absolutely designed to better protect children in the privacy-invading era of social media, especially from the data-hungry advertisers who want to sell them things. Websites like Facebook don’t allow kids to sign up without their parents permission, generally because COPPA has prohibited them from collecting the kinds of information they need to serve them ads. And why would they want a user to whom they couldn’t serve ads? Under the new FTC rules, parental permission is required for just about anything a kid would do on Facebook, including uploading photos, videos and geolocational information. Tracking tools like cookies are also verboten without a parent’s permission.

RELATED: What Police Learn About You When They Subpoena Your Facebook Account

But there’s a loophole. The new rules say very plainly that no parental permission is needed “for the sole purpose of supporting the website or online service’s internal operations, such as contextual advertising, frequency capping, legal compliance, site analysis, and network communications.” The key phrase there is “contextual advertising,” which is an ad product Facebook has been working on for a while. Facebook’s version basically reads your News Feed and shows you ads that are relevant, or contextual, to what you’re reading. As a few people have pointed out, this opens a door for Facebook to start exploring the idea of ad-supported profiles for kids. Alan Simpson, the vice president of child privacy advocacy group Common Sense, isn’t happy about this idea. “Common Sense doesn’t like this part, and the industry lobbyists probably do,” he told TechCrunch Monday evening.

RELATED: What Facebook Does to Kids’ Brains

Now, there are a lot of ifs in this scenario. Based on the magnitude and sensitivity of the issue, Facebook probably doesn’t want to go scaring a bunch of parents by sneaking through loopholes to show their kids Easy Bake Oven ads. It has been nearly a decade and a half since COPPA got an update, though, and Mark Zuckerberg isn’t really known for his patience. Of course, Facebook could do what they’ve been doing for ages, which is look over their shoulder while kids lie about having permission and sign up anyways.

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Weird but true

Anybody have change for a $500 million?

A man in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was busted for trying to pass off a counterfeit $500 million bill — but he won’t serve any time.

Judge William Dimitrouleas, calling the offense “laughable,’’ said, “It doesn’t promote respect for the law to send somebody to prison . . . for doing something so silly and outrageous.’’

The biggest bill circulated today is $100, but at one time, the government printed $10,000 notes.

***

“The Philharmonic will now perform the ‘Concerto for Violin, Trumpet and Hand Fart.’ ’’

An anonymous Canadian has become an Internet sensation by using his hands to squeeze out popular and classical music.

His repertoire ranges from Pink Floyd’s 1979 “Comfortably Numb,’’ to Johann Pachebel’s “Canon in D Major,’’ written sometime before 1700.

***

Some good news and bad news for people waiting for gasoline prices to come down.

Scientists have discovered a huge oil field, containing an astonishing 155,238,095,238,095,250,000 barrels of oil.

Only one problem: It’s 1,300 light years from Earth, in the Horsehead Nebula Galaxy.

***

Speaking of energy . . .

England’s Big Pit National Coal Museum has installed 200 solar panels.

The museum says the move will save it about $650,000 over 25 years

***

He was a bit overdressed for the occasion.

A frugal flier, trying to save costs for excess baggage, wore every item of clothing he was taking on a plane from China to Kenya.

In his various pockets were batteries, flash drives and assorted electronic items.

The man — described as looking like a sumo wrestler — was wearing 60 shirts and nine pairs of jeans.

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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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Leak reveals Polaroid’s Android-powered camera with interchangeable lenses

Samsung’s (005930) Galaxy Camera and Nikon’s (NINOY) Coolpix S800c are just the beginning of a swath of Android-powered cameras. Newly leaked images and specs point to Polaroid reviving its camera business with what could be the world’s first Android camera with interchangeable lenses. With no official name yet, the tentatively named IM1836 camera will reportedly feature a 18.1-megapixel sensor, 3.5-inch touchscreen, pop-up flash, Wi-Fi, HDMI and Android 4.0.

[More from BGR: A guide to all the insane predictions made by Google’s new engineering director]

The Galaxy Camera and Coolpix S800c do a fine job taking pictures that are considerably better than what you get from a smartphone, but they still can’t match a mirrorless camera with a good lens. At first glance, Polaroid’s camera looks to be a rebadged Nikon 1 J2, but the resemblance only runs skin deep, as PhotoRumors reports the camera only takes MicroSD cards.

[More from BGR: How not to fix Apple Maps]

Polaroid might not be a major player, but as more companies start incorporating Android into their cameras, there’s going to be a shift in the features consumers expect from them. In the next few years, novelty features such as Wi-Fi, cellular data and photo editing apps will be the norm and we’ll laugh at how we ever lived without them.

This article was originally published by BGR

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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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A home for the holidays: Sandy victims’ relief

Christmas came early for these Sandy victims.

The eight-months-pregnant Staten Island mom left homeless by the storm — because she was booted from her hotel after FEMA bungled her reservation — received a load of free goodies for her baby, furniture for her new rental and a fully-decorated tree.

“With a baby on the way, all I want to do is build a nest,” said a beaming Keri Christian, 27, as she stared at the van full of gifts compliments of a Staten Island nonprofit helping families that lost their homes to the hurricane.

Members of the group, the Staten Island Sandy Relief Fund, read about Christian’s plight in The Post, and decided to act.

Paul Martinka

THANKS! Keri Christian, husband Paul Anthony Marotto and baby Serafina yesterday at their new Brooklyn apartment, provided by a storm-relief group whose members read about their plight in The Post.

“This is so wonderful!” said Christian, whose husband, Anthony Marotto, 41, has been working to rebuild their home after it flooded and burned.

“It’s not about what we lost; it’s about getting back on track.”

Christian, who is due in January and has a 2-year-old daughter, and her family received about $2,500 worth of gifts for their new apartment in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

The haul includes an armchair and ottoman, a dresser with baby clothes, kitchenware, a cradle swing, a car seat and a pre-lit, 6-foot artificial Christmas tree already decked out with ornaments.

A queen-sized bed and toddler bed will arrive in the coming week. One of Christian’s favorite items is a dining table with six chairs.

“I’ve been staying in everybody else’s house and everybody has been cooking me dinner, and now I can have them come to my house!” she said.

“I’m happy to be able to celebrate the holidays. The hurricane didn’t take that away.”

After Sandy, Christian had been staying at the Nu Hotel in Brooklyn — until management suddenly notified her that her room was booked to someone else.

She had to haul suitcases, strollers and bags of clothes as she couch-surfed for several days.

“I didn’t think I was going to have it together here for Christmas,” she said. “It’s a week away and I had nothing. This Christmas is about how lucky we are to have friends and family.”

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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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Judge rejects Apple injunction bid vs. Samsung

(Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Monday denied Apple Inc‘s request for a permanent injunction against Samsung Electronics‘ smartphones, depriving the iPhone maker of key leverage in the mobile patent wars.

Apple had been awarded $ 1.05 billion in damages in August after a U.S. jury found Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad. The Samsung products run on the Android operating system, developed by Google.

Apple and Samsung are going toe-to-toe in a patents dispute that mirrors the struggle for industry supremacy between the two companies, which control more than half of worldwide smartphone sales.

For most of the year, Apple had been successful in its U.S. litigation campaign against Samsung. Apple convinced U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California to impose two pretrial sales bans against Samsung — one against the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the other against the Galaxy Nexus phone.

Apple then sought to keep up the pressure after its sweeping jury win. It asked Koh to impose a permanent sales ban against 26 mostly older Samsung phones, though any injunction could potentially have been extended to Samsung’s newer Galaxy products.

Yet the jury exonerated Samsung on the patent used to ban Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales, and Koh rescinded that injunction. Then, in October, a federal appeals court reversed Koh’s ban against the Nexus phone.

In her order late on Monday, Koh cited that appellate ruling as binding legal precedent, ruling that Apple had not presented enough evidence that its patented features drove consumer demand for the entire iPhone.

“The phones at issue in this case contain a broad range of features, only a small fraction of which are covered by Apple’s patents,” Koh wrote.

“Though Apple does have some interest in retaining certain features as exclusive to Apple,” she continued, “it does not follow that entire products must be forever banned from the market because they incorporate, among their myriad features, a few narrow protected functions.”

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on Koh’s ruling, and a Samsung representative could not immediately be reached.

In a separate order on Monday, Koh rejected a bid by Samsung for a new trial based on an allegation that the jury foreman was improperly biased in favor of Apple.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc. vs. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 11-1846.

(Reporting by Dan Levine in Oakland, California; Editing by Ron Popeski)

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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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Gun scare at B’klyn JHS

Jittery city parents yesterday brought their kids back to school for the first time since the Sandy Hook massacre — even as reports of gunfire forced one Brooklyn middle school into crisis mode.

Students at JHS 218 in East New York were thrust into a “lockdown” protocol — ushered to classroom corners or urged to get down on the floor for as long as an hour — after their principal heard gunshots across the street at around 10 a.m.

“They took us all into the locker room and closed the doors,” said eighth-grader Arman Uddin, 13, who was in gym class at the time.

“We were just sitting quietly and waiting,” she said. “It’s the first time we had a lockdown. It was scary.”

Police said nobody was injured.

The lockdown procedure used at JHS 218 was one of three put into place at all city public schools this fall — with the other two used to evacuate a building or to keep outside possible dangers from entering.

The procedures replaced potentially confusing coded words that were read over loudspeakers during emergencies, according to sources.

For example, while in the past school authorities alerted teachers to an emergency by using code phrases such as, “Mr. Jones, you left your lights on” or “Mr. Black, you left your keys in the office,” they now say straight up, “We are in a hard lockdown.”

Education Department officials yesterday asked schools to conduct one lockdown drill and practicean evacuation each year.

“After what happened [in Connecticut on Friday], I didn’t feel very safe. I still don’t,” said Theresa Figueroa, whose daughter attends kindergarten at PS 41 in Greenwich Village.

Emergency protocols for schools

LOCKDOWN (intruder inside building)

* Students move out of sight and maintain silence

* Teachers check hallways for kids, lock classroom doors, turn off lights, wait for “all clear” message

EVACUATE (fire alarm or related dangers)

* Students leave belongings behind and form single-file line.

* Teachers lead students to evacuation location, take attendance

SHELTER-IN (incidents outside building)

* Students must remain in building; no one allowed to enter

* Teachers increase situational awareness, but conduct business as usual

Additional reporting by Jessica Simeone

yoav.gonen@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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Top 5 Apps for Kids This Week

1. PHLIP

Ages 4-up Overall rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars Why we like it: PHLIP is a spatial relations puzzle where you “flip” or turn your screen left or right, like a steering wheel, to change the orientation of the set of tiles, in order to reassemble the picture. You can use photos you take, or choose one from your photo library. Need to know: The more tiles, the harder the puzzle. You can lock any tile by tapping on it. The physical rotation of the device develops motor and cognitive skills and hand-eye coordination. It can also cause your heavy iPad to slip out of your hands. This is a game that works much better on an iPad Mini. Ease of use: 8/10 Educational: 9/10 Entertaining: 7/10 $ 0.99

Click here to view this gallery.

[More from Mashable: How to Crowdsource Your Job Hunt]

Chris Crowell is a veteran kindergarten teacher and contributing editor to Children’s Technology Review, a web-based archive of articles and reviews on apps, technology toys and video games. Download a free issue of CTR here.

In this week’s Top 5 Kids Apps, your kids can play with a spatial puzzle that lets them reassemble photographs they upload themselves. There’s also a chance to learn and have fun with geography trivia and explore Australia with an illustrated story.

[More from Mashable: 4 Benefits of a Job Search Community]

Our friends at Children’s Technology Review shared with us these 5 top apps from their comprehensive monthly database of kid-tested reviews. The site covers everything from math and counting to reading and phonics.

Check back next week for more Top Kids Apps from Children’s Technology Review

Photo via iStockPhoto, cglade

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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‘Chokers’ wild!

Now they’ve both been acquitted of throttling transsexuals.

Kinky FDNY hunk Taylor Murphy, who successfully fought off felony strangulation charges brought by his jealous, blond, pre-op transsexual ex-girlfriend, is now dating another woman wannabe with a far more serious strangulation on her rap sheet.

Brunette pre-op transsexual Wanda Batista, 32, was all smiling and supportive of Murphy as she walked arm-in-arm with him at Manhattan Supreme Court last week, batting her eyelashes and calling him her “giant teddy bear.”

But in December 2004, the towering Batista was tried on charges she had fatally choked her transsexual pimp — and in a bizarre karmic twist, Batista was acquitted by a Brooklyn jury, just as her beefy fireman would be in Manhattan eight years later.

Steven Hirsch

NICE PAIR: Taylor Murphy, cleared of choking one transsexual lover, leaves court with another, Wanda Batista, who was acquitted of a strangle slay.

“The motive was money,” a law-enforcement source told The Post of the 2004 case. “They went there to rob her and ended up killing her,” the source said of victim Paola Matos, 31, a post-op transsexual who was found dead in the bedroom of her Bay Ridge apartment brothel.

“Police believed she was the killer — just the jury didn’t believe it,” the source said of Batista, who was a 24-year-old admitted prostitute at the time she was charged with choking Matos with her hands in a dispute over $4,000 Batista had allegedly made turning tricks but had failed to turn over to the doomed madam.

Batista — whose first name then was Fernando — fled to Puerto Rico after the killing, but was arrested there and brought back for trial, the source said. Jurors acquitted her of murder but hung on a charge of manslaughter. The case was not retried.

Last week, in the audience at her hunky hose-handler’s own choking trial — he was acquitted of the nonfatal assault against Claudia Charriez, 31 — Batista turned ashen, then waved her hand dismissively when asked by a reporter about her old strangulation rap.

Batista — who, like Charriez, has an active escort ad online, hers under the name Vanity Bucci — declined to comment.

Murphy was acquitted Thursday of choking Charriez in their Midtown hotel-room bed, but convicted of felony criminal contempt for contacting her in more than 1,000 phone calls, texts and e-mails, in violation of an order of protection.

He is due to be sentenced Feb. 20 by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice A. Kirke Bartley, and faces anywhere from no jail time to four years in prison.

dauer@nypost.com

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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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