If the size of the diamond is any indication of Hugh Hefner's love for bride-to-be Crystal Harris, it's a safe bet to say that he's head over heels.
RELATED: Hugh Hefner Gets Marriage License?
Harris revealed her engagement ring on Tuesday, via her Twitter feed.
"My beautiful ring from [Hugh Hefner]," Crystal posted along with photos of the giant sparkler.
The couple is reportedly planning to wed on New Year's Eve.
A masked gunman sprayed bullets yesterday in a busy mall near Portland, Ore. — and when the smoke had cleared, he and two others were dead.
Hundreds of terrified Christmas shoppers and store employees at the Clackamas Town Center mall ran for their lives or took cover.
Austin Patty, 20, saw a man in a white mask carrying a rifle and wearing a bulletproof vest. He heard the gunman say, “I am the shooter” before he opened fire.
In addition to the dead, one woman was seriously wounded.
Police have tentatively identified the gunman but would not release his name or give any information on a possible motive.
Q. Recently I’ve been unable to send emails from my home email address. In addition, my incoming email contains several notices of undeliverable emails that I didn’t send that are addressed to people I don’t know. I suspect that my computer is infected by some malicious software and is being used to send spam email — and that those that are undeliverable are being returned. What should I do?
Joseph Campbell Burnsville, Minn.
I agree that your PC has been taken over by hackers and is being used to send spam.
The fact that you aren’t able to send emails from your home account supports this theory, since it indicates that your Internet service provider believes you are spamming and has temporarily blocked your ability to send email to anyone.
I suggest you download and run the free version of security program Malwarebytes (go to www.tinyurl.com/cwbd73f and click “free download.”) If that doesn’t work, try Windows System Restore to eliminate recently installed software (see www.tinyurl.com/y9q9apj and www.tinyurl.com/ykgps6.) Then call your Internet service provider; explain what happened and what you’ve done to fix it. If your PC is clean, you’ll be allowed to send email again.Q. I’ve recently received a lot of spam, including some that appear to be from people I know — except that the messages come from the wrong email address. How does a spammer use a familiar name with a fake email address and send it to me?
Also, is there a way to find out the identity of the people who send spam emails? I’ve read that the email address of the sender is not always accurate.
Ginger Bramlett Rockwall, Texas
The bogus email that appeared to be from your friend, but came from the wrong email address, is from a spammer who is trying to trick you into opening the email.
Why did this happen? Your friend’s email may have been hacked and his or her address book stolen, providing the spammer with a host of addresses where an email bearing your friend’s name might be opened by the recipient.
It’s hard to find out who actually sent spam, because originating email addresses are easy to fake.
I suggest you send these emails to your spam filter so that you and others may be spared at least some spam in the future. In addition, your Internet service provider allows you to block spam that comes from a specific domain name — the part of the email address that follows the symbol, such as Yahoo.com. See www.tinyurl.com/cxmq4m7.
WASHINGTON --
Don’t expect South Florida’s congressional delegation to stray too far from party lines when it comes to dancing on the edge of the fiscal cliff, the end-of-the-year spending cuts and tax increases set to take effect if Congress and the president don’t address them.
Democrats are firmly with President Barack Obama, whose proposal seeks to raise $600 billion over a decade by eliminating tax deductions and $960 billion over the same period by raising tax rates for the top 2 percent of income earners. Many Democrats sounded as though the highly charged presidential campaign was still under way.
Republicans are just as committed to their party.
There’s been "no evidence thus far" that Republicans are truly interested in the middle class, said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of Weston, who the president just asked again to head the Democratic National Committee.
"We need to continue to focus on rebuilding our economy from the middle class out," she said during an appearance on MSNBC.
"President Obama talked eloquently and passionately during the campaign about making sure that we can get a handle on this deficit, that we can rebuild our economy from the middle class out, that we can focus on creating jobs and getting the economy turned around," she added.
Equally firm: South Florida Democratic Reps. Alcee Hastings, of Miramar and Frederica Wilson, of Miami. Both are members of the Congressional Black Caucus, which released a statement of principles this week calling for the Bush-era tax cuts to expire on the wealthiest Americans.
Social Security should be completely off the table, the caucus warned, and it said it would oppose any plans that change the eligibility for Medicare or cut Medicaid, the statement said.
Some Democrats made conciliatory moves, however. Sen. Bill Nelson said that during his campaign, voters told him they want consensus and an end to partisan gridlock.
"They want bipartisanship," he said in a video message. "They want to stop the ideological rigidity."
It’s the only way to rebuild the economy and reduce the federal deficit, while preserving Social Security and Medicare, he said. He called on people of both political parties "to reach across the aisle and work together so America doesn’t go over the cliff."
That’s unlikely to come from his Republican counterpart, Sen. Marco Rubio, who along with former vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was featured in a speech this week in Washington.
Rubio blamed the "complicated and uncertain tax code" for "hindering the creation of middle-class jobs." He gave no hint he would be interested in supporting the president’s tax proposal on the wealthiest Americans.
"You can’t open or grow a business if your taxes are too high or too uncertain. And that’s why I personally oppose the president’s plan to raise taxes," Rubio said. "This isn’t about a pledge. It isn’t about protecting millionaires and billionaires. For me, it’s about the fact that the tax increases he wants would fail to make even a small dent in the debt but it would hurt middle-class businesses and the people who work for them."
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, of Miami, was one of the few Republicans from South Florida to suggest she’d be open to tax reform, saying there needs to be a review of the tax code "to remove special interest tax loopholes used by the wealthy."
But she warned that the country’s debt exists "not because tax rates are too low, but because government spends too much."
Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, also of Miami, said he was less optimistic about a resolution now than he was right after the election.
He said he feels as though Republicans have moved closer to the president without getting credit for it.
"I’m very disappointed with the president’s response," he said in an interview.
"The speaker put forward a proposal, and whether you agree with it or not, there are a couple of things beyond debate: He’s gotten closer to the president’s position."
Even those on their way out of Congress made no move to cross party lines. Republican Rep. Allen West, of Plantation, who was ousted by Democrat Patrick Murphy, warned constituents in a letter that he didn’t think there was a true plan to reduce spending.
Rep. David Rivera, a Republican who lost his re-election bid and who will be replaced by Democrat Joe Garcia, did not respond to a request for comment.
Will Smith and his son Jaden haven't shared the big screen since 2006's The Pursuit of Happyness. Now the father-son duo pair up once more for M. Night Shyamalan's post-apocalyptic thriller After Earth, and we're showing you the new trailer.
RELATED: Will Smith Surprises Jada on The Talk
In the film, opening June 7, 2013, a father and son crash land on a now-abandoned Earth. While the father, General Cypher Raige lies dying after the accident, his 13-year-old son Kitai must play the soldier, searching for the rescue beacon -- their only chance to be saved.
Watch the video for more.
Strip-club honcho Robert Gans is being sued by the Midtown condo board of the city’s “sexiest building” for allegedly allowing an escort service to be run by one of his employees out of an apartment there.
Gans — the owner of Penthouse Executive Club, a massive strip club in Hell’s Kitchen that features what its Web site says are “sultry Swedish blondes” and Brazilians with “pulsating bottoms” — allegedly placed “girlfriend” Paula Echevri in a 41st-floor spread at the Atelier Condo at 635 W. 42nd St. without the permission of the board, the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit claims.
“Echevri is operating an illegal escort service using her unit as her place of business,” the suits alleges.
“Echevri invites male guests to the unit at all hours of the night during the week and weekend,” according to tenants and other condo owners cited in the suit.
The posh high-rise boasts a dizzying array of amenities, including a sky-lit indoor pool, tennis courts and a rotating contemporary art gallery, according to marketing materials.
Gans’ attorney, Neal Greenfield, said he was unaware of the suit and dismissed the escort-service allegations. “That’s ridiculous. I can’t imagine anyone would say such a thing,” he said.The building has been dubbed “NYC’s sexiest building” by the real-estate firm Prudential Douglas Elliman.
“Echevri has claimed to be Gans’ girlfriend, but Gans is married,” according to the lawsuit filed by the condo managers yesterday.
Greenfield refused to say whether Gans owned the condo unit.
The suit said Gans bought it in 2006 through a company he owns, Swingtime LLC.
It said Swingtime’s ownership came to light in a letter Greenfield wrote to the condo-board managers in September, when he complained that upstairs neighbors at the condo were illegally converting three floors into a triplex.
The suit seeks to oust Echevri from the condo and to fine Swingtime $5,000.
Despite an agonizingly slow economic recovery, the country’s largest auto retailer, Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, is thriving again as demand for vehicles expands.
The company, one of Florida’s largest, is posting increasingly strong profits and revenues. Just last week, in a sign of confidence, Autonation announced a major acquisition — buying six large auto stores in Texas — that will add about 700 employees to its national payroll of 19,400.
In announcing the deal Tuesday, which is expected to provide AutoNation with $575 million in additional revenues next year, the company’s CEO and chairman, Mike Jackson, expressed optimism about the prospects for continued growth in vehicle sales.
“You want to know what I’m thinking, look at what I do,” Jackson told viewers on CNBC’s Squawk Box program.
No information was released on the cost of the transactions, but in recent years auto dealerships sometimes sold for three to five times revenue, which would represent a significant investment for the company.
Tough times
To be sure, AutoNation has struggled through some tough times. It was battered by the Great Recession, which depressed sales and pushed the company into a $1.2 billion loss four years ago. As sales began to improve in 2010 and 2011, it was blindsided by a shortage of Japanese-made cars last year after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 shut down Japanese manufacturers of some essential components.
Since then, however, AutoNation has rebounded. Unit sales, revenues and profits all performed well in the first three quarters of this year, and the company expects new vehicle sales to continue their recovery nationwide, rising to the mid-14 million units this year, up from about 12.7 million in 2011. In the third quarter of 2012, AutoNation’s new car unit sales grew by 21 percent over the same period in 2011, doing better than an estimated 15 percent increase industry wide. November’s sales of new vehicles increased by 21 percent over November 2011 .
The big dealerships acquired sell Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen and Chrysler products in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets. They are expected to sell 14,000 new and used autos this year, and will add substantially to AutoNation’s future sales.
“We are in the right industry at the right time,” Jackson said during an interview. “The recovery in new vehicle sales is being driven by replacement demand,” added Jackson, who has 42 years of experience in the auto business. “The average age of the light vehicle fleet in the country has increased to 11 years, and even though cars and trucks last longer today, they can’t go on forever. About 12 to 13 million vehicles are scrapped every year and need to be replaced.”
Other factors are contributing to stronger demand for vehicles. “The population is growing, interest rates are low, there is ample credit available and manufacturers are producing a wide range of new models that offer attractive styling, power and greatly improved gas mileage,” said Jackson, who took over as AutoNation’s CEO in 1999. “Auto financing is more available than it has been in recent years. A little known fact is that people are more likely to default on a mortgage than on a vehicle loan.”
The suspect arrested in connection with Friday’s chase through the streets of Miami-Dade in a rental U-Haul truck appeared in front of judge Sunday morning.
Darrell Conyers, 45, made his first appearance in bond court.
Conyers faces a number of charges including grand theft, fraud and resisting arrest with violence.
During the hearing, the judge noted that the only charge before her was driving with a suspended license. For that she set bond at $2,000. Conyers will return to bond court at a later time for the additional charges.
Conyers was scheduled to appear in court on Saturday but was unable to do so because he was still in the hospital being treated for injuries he sustained at the end of the chase which apparently started as an attempted robbery at a tool shop on South Dixie Highway.
For 45-minutes the U-Haul truck weaved in and out of city streets, jumping on and off the Palmetto Expressway and headed in different directions along Southwest Eighth Street and Flagler Street.
The chase finally came to an end 12:45 p.m. next to Miami Senior High in Little Havana on Flagler Street and 26th Avenue.
When officers moved in to apprehend the driver, an unidentified Miami-Dade Police officer was injured when he was pinned between the U-Haul truck and a police vehicle. He was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital where he was treated for a broken leg.
Another Miami officer cut his hand from broken glass. Police say that happened when officers had to break the glass on the U-Haul truck to get the suspect out of it.
Police said Conyers has had previous run-ins with the law and has convictions for firearm violations, fleeing police and carjacking.
The big winner in Major League Soccer is its lobbying team.
The league is trying so hard to get a new stadium in Queens, it has paid lobbyists $1.48 million since March to score points with officials in Albany and the city.
The spending spree to help secure government approvals for a planned $300 million, 25,000-seat stadium in Flushing Meadows Park is on pace to rival similar lobbying campaigns for Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and the failed West Side football stadium plan.
MLS honchos say fielding a brand-new franchise on the eastern end of the park is a top priority. They hope to break ground by 2014 and have a team playing there by 2016.
The project has divided the community.
Many soccer-starved immigrants support it, saying they don’t want to travel 30 miles to Harrison, NJ, to watch the MLS’s Red Bulls play. But activists say the park is already too commercialized considering it’s home to Citi Field, the National Tennis Center and potentially a mall which the Mets’ owners want to build.
“It’s a joke that [MLS] is spending money like drunken sailors for a project that has strong community opposition,” said Geoffrey Croft of New York City Park Advocates.
Most of the MLS’s lobbying fees — $920,822 — were dished out to HR&A Associates, a politically connected firm staffed with many ex-city officials.
MLS spokeswoman Risa Heller downplayed HR&A’s contract, saying the firm works mostly as “real-estate advisers” and only “occasionally” as lobbyists.
Although the MLS plan is supported by Mayor Bloomberg, it still needs city and state approval because the project would take up 10 to 13 acres of city parkland that, by state law, must be replaced elsewhere. Complicating the process is that the project footprint includes two worn-out public soccer fields the city is in the process of replacing as part of a $2.8 million project.
City officials declined comment when asked if it is fiscally sound to spend tax dollars on new fields that could be ripped up months later to pave the way for a stadium.
However, MLS president Mark Abbott said the league plans to “invest tens of millions of dollars” in improvements for the park, including replacing both fields and renovating others.
Supporters like Mark Montaya, 34, of Flushing, say the “project isn’t just about bringing pro soccer to Queens, it’s about improving public soccer fields in the heart of a community that loves the soccer.”
The league says it will build the stadium without government subsidies, but sources say MLS is seeking a 35-year, a $1-a-year deal with the city that includes no property taxes or revenue-sharing.
Julie Wood, a Bloomberg spokeswoman, said the mayor supports the project because it “would not only be welcome news for local fans — it would mean thousands of jobs and boost the city’s economy.”
rcalder@nypost.com
Despite an agonizingly slow economic recovery, the country’s largest auto retailer, Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, is thriving again as demand for vehicles expands.
The company, one of Florida’s largest, is posting increasingly strong profits and revenues. Just last week, in a sign of confidence, Autonation announced a major acquisition — buying six large auto stores in Texas — that will add about 700 employees to its national payroll of 19,400.
In announcing the deal Tuesday, which is expected to provide AutoNation with $575 million in additional revenues next year, the company’s CEO and chairman, Mike Jackson, expressed optimism about the prospects for continued growth in vehicle sales.
“You want to know what I’m thinking, look at what I do,” Jackson told viewers on CNBC’s Squawk Box program.
No information was released on the cost of the transactions, but in recent years auto dealerships sometimes sold for three to five times revenue, which would represent a significant investment for the company.
Tough times
To be sure, AutoNation has struggled through some tough times. It was battered by the Great Recession, which depressed sales and pushed the company into a $1.2 billion loss four years ago. As sales began to improve in 2010 and 2011, it was blindsided by a shortage of Japanese-made cars last year after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 shut down Japanese manufacturers of some essential components.
Since then, however, AutoNation has rebounded. Unit sales, revenues and profits all performed well in the first three quarters of this year, and the company expects new vehicle sales to continue their recovery nationwide, rising to the mid-14 million units this year, up from about 12.7 million in 2011. In the third quarter of 2012, AutoNation’s new car unit sales grew by 21 percent over the same period in 2011, doing better than an estimated 15 percent increase industry wide. November’s sales of new vehicles increased by 21 percent over November 2011 .
The big dealerships acquired sell Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen and Chrysler products in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets. They are expected to sell 14,000 new and used autos this year, and will add substantially to AutoNation’s future sales.
“We are in the right industry at the right time,” Jackson said during an interview. “The recovery in new vehicle sales is being driven by replacement demand,” added Jackson, who has 42 years of experience in the auto business. “The average age of the light vehicle fleet in the country has increased to 11 years, and even though cars and trucks last longer today, they can’t go on forever. About 12 to 13 million vehicles are scrapped every year and need to be replaced.”
Other factors are contributing to stronger demand for vehicles. “The population is growing, interest rates are low, there is ample credit available and manufacturers are producing a wide range of new models that offer attractive styling, power and greatly improved gas mileage,” said Jackson, who took over as AutoNation’s CEO in 1999. “Auto financing is more available than it has been in recent years. A little known fact is that people are more likely to default on a mortgage than on a vehicle loan.”
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