Stranded python hunters rescued from Broward Everglades




















Two python hunters were rescued Thursday afternoon by Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue after they became stranded and disoriented in the Everglades.

According to Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles, a call came in shortly before 4 p.m. that the hunters, 22 and 25 years old and from Tennessee, were stranded 15 miles west of U.S. 27 near the Broward-Palm Beach County line.

“It doesn’t seem like they were familiar with the area,” Jachles said. “They underestimated the conditions. We had temperature in the 80s. “





The men, suffering from exhaustion and dehydration, complained of lightheadedness and weakness when air rescue located them. They were taken two miles from where they were found and treated by firefighters and paramedics.

“Fortunately our helicopter and rescue crews got to them before it would have gotten much worse,” Jachles said.

The victims, thought to be staying in their car, refused to be taken to a hospital for further treatment.

Jachles could not confirm that they were taking part in the ongoing “Python Challenge,” which began last month and offers cash prizes to hunters who kill the most, and longest, Burmese pythons, which have infested the Everglades in recent years.





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The Big Bang Theory Stars Talk Huge Ratings

With an average of 18 million viewers tuning in every Thursday night, The Big Bang Theory has become ratings gold for CBS. 

Despite six years of continued success, the cast of TV's #1 comedy tell ET they're still trying to wrap their heads around the extreme popularity of their show.

Pics: Star Sightings!

"When we hit 10 million a couple of years ago, Kaley [Cuoco] hunted me down at the gym to tell me," remembers Johnny Galecki with glee. "I was so excited. We thought that was the end-all, be-all."

What's the sitcom's secret? Star Jim Parsons has a theory.

"[Syndication] exposed us multiple times a day on a couple of different networks," speculates Parsons. "[It] will make you love us."

Related: Kunal Nayyar Goes 'Beyond' The 'Bang'

Of course, it doesn't hurt that co-star Simon Helberg is Big Bang's personal cheerleader in his free time.

"I hand out flyers over the weekend," Helberg jokes. "I dress up as Spider-Man…with the spinning sign."

Watch the video above for more from The Big Bang Theory's stars!

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Miss-&-tell supporters








This beauty says she’s not the only one who knows the ugly truth about the Miss USA competition.

Ex-Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin, who ignited a firestorm after alleging that last year’s pageant was rigged, claims in court papers that several fellow beauty queens have since sent her messages of support.

A day after she made her allegations on the “Today” show, Monnin says, one gal texted her, “I back u 100% on what u heard and I am appalled that no one else is speaking up bc SO many others heard the same.”

The Manhattan federal court filing says another contestant sent a text saying, “Hopefully this brings more awareness to how shady this particular competition really was.”





AP






Monnin, who resigned as Miss Pennsylvania, doesn’t reveal the supporters’ names but says she’ll make them available to the court on request.

She is seeking to overturn an arbitrator’s order that she pay $5 million to the Miss Universe Organization, which runs Miss USA, for defamation.

She says retired Manhattan federal Judge Theodore Katz “exceeded his powers” and disregarded the law when he found her liable for damages.

A lawyer for Miss Universe didn’t return a request for comment.

bruce.golding@nypost.com










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Miami startup that turns text to video receives $1 million in seed funding




















Guide, a new technology startup based in Miami, announced Tuesday it has closed a $1 million round of seed funding from investors including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Sapient Corp., MTV founder Bob Pitman, actor and producer Omar Epps, and early Google employee Steve Schimmel. The Knight Foundation is supporting Guide through its new early-stage venture fund, the Knight Enterprise Fund.

Led by CEO and founder Freddie Laker and COO Leslie Bradshaw, Guide’s team of seven is focused on turning online news, social streams and blogs into video for users who may be cooking, exercising, commuting or getting ready in the morning. The free application offers consumers a selection of about 20 “anchors” — including a dog, a robot and an anime character — that will read the article and present the accompanying photos, pull-out information and video clips in its video presentation. Revenue drivers for Guide could include in-app purchases, advertising-based anchors and customizations from publishers, said Laker, a former vice president at SapientNitro.

Laker and his team plan to launch a public beta next month, which they plan to do with a splash at the huge technology conference South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.





Read more about Guide here on the Starting Gate blog. Follow Nancy Dahlberg on Twitter @ndahlberg





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Judge angered after learning mentally ill Miami man was placed in assisted living facility, and escaped




















After Cristobal Abreu was arrested when he allegedly stabbed a Hialeah SWAT officer with a large barbecue fork in December 2009, doctors deemed his mind too ravaged by mental illness to stand trial.

For years, he bounced around mental-health facilities.

Then a stay at a Miami Gardens assisted-living facility, where funds for his medications ran out and his mental state deteriorated, ended last month when the 72-year-old Abreu was shipped without a judge’s permission to Jackson North Medical Center.





Then last week, a Jackson caseworker — again, without permission from the court — sent him to an ALF in Little Havana.

Abreu promptly escaped.

“I’m free! I’m free,” he yelled as he shuffled away from the San Martin de Porras facility on Tuesday, according to lawyers and court personnel who described the episode over two days in court this week.

Abreu’s ping-ponging treatment drew the ire of Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Ellen Sue Venzer, who has now ordered hospital and state-contracted mental-health administrators to court Friday to explain what happened.

“The system is broken,” Venzer said angrily in court this week, adding: “What would have happened if Mr. Abreu had decompensated and gone out and hurt somebody else in our community?”

Abreu’s escape was short-lived: Police quickly detained him, committing him back to Jackson Memorial Hospital for an involuntary psychiatric evaluation.

The unusual episode underscores what mental-health advocates in Miami-Dade’s criminal-justice system say has been a recurring problem: “incompetent” defendants are often shuffled between facilities without the knowledge of the court tasked with supervising them.

ALFs mostly house the elderly and other people with mental-health issues or disabilities. It is not unusual for incompetent defendants, usually nonviolent ones, to be placed at an ALF in a residential neighborhood.

“The people in the social services arena have to recognize that a court order is sacrosanct,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle said Wednesday. “I really understand the judge’s ire. She has the absolute right to be livid with everyone in the system.”

Subpoenaed to appear before the judge on Friday: representatives from Jackson, the South Florida Behavioral Network, which contracts with the state to manage cases of the mentally ill defendants, and the New Horizons Community Mental Health Center, which monitored Abreu’s case.

A lawyer for the Florida Department of Children & Families will also appear.

“It sounds like all these different agencies are treating these individuals like hot potatoes,” Venzer said in court Wednesday.

Abreu was initially arrested in December 2009 on charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer. The attempted murder charge was later dropped; the SWAT officer was not hurt because the knife pierced his shield.

During a jailhouse interview with a psychologist, the incoherent Abreu admitted that he sometimes hears voices and sees visions of “flowers [and] gold diamonds.”

The court determined that Abreu was incompetent to proceed to trial, meaning he could not assist his lawyer in defending the accusations.

After stays in several other facilities, Abreu wound up in November at the Graceful Gardens ALF, 18101 NW 47th Ct.





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Justin Timberlake Reveals New Album Cover for 20 20 Experience

We're one step closer to The 20/20 Experience!

Justin Timberlake just dropped a major treat for his fans on Twitter, revealing the cover art and tracklisting to his upcoming solo album, The 20/20 Experience.

"I wanted you guys to see this first!!!," wrote Timberlake with a link to the cover (featuring the singer dressed to the nines behind a phoropter) and song titles.

Pics: Justin & Jessica's Long Road to the Altar

Check out the full tracklisting below:

-Pusher Love Girl

-Suit & Tie

-Don't Hold The Wall

-Strawberry Bubblegum

-Tunnel Vision

-Spaceship Coupe

-That Girl
Let The Groove Get In

-Mirrors

-Blue Ocean Floor

The 20/20 Experience hits stores on March 19.

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She’s a disgrace to women









headshot

Andrea Peyser









Young women, I beg you — don’t be like Rihanna!

The ravishing songstress and Bad Example for Girls waltzed into an LA court yesterday with her past and present and, I guess, forever boyfriend, Chris Brown, who isn’t man enough to pick on men or dames his own size.

Smiling as she walked in, she blew a kiss in Brown’s direction. RiRi came to stand by the man who once pummeled her face into a bloody mess for the lamest of reasons. Rihanna had confronted Brown about racy texts from random babes.

But yesterday, she walked into the courtroom as if saying, That’s OK! Every man gets a freebie.




With young women wanting to grow up to be Rihanna, this is a disgrace.

Brown showed up in the downtown LA court, where the state of California has expended scads of expensive court time, zillions of man hours and a forest-worth of paper to avenge the songstress for the bloody bruising Brown inflicted on her noggin in 2009.

For there was Rihanna, trailing Brown like an idiot puppy. She was not there to glare at her man, or give him a richly deserved smack upside the head.

RiRi instead engifted Brown with a little lovin’ before he faced a judge.

She humiliated herself.

She embarrassed all women.

Then she sat in the gallery beside Brown’s mom, Joyce Hawkins, in a show of support so vile, RiRi seemed to be telling the world that women secretly deserve to be punished.

Is this lady begging to be treated like well-dressed dog meat from a guy so wimpy and weird he can’t fathom waling on adult males?

Brown was in court to answer prosecutors’ charges that he faked records for the community service he was supposed to perform in his native Virginia, ironically as punishment for the felony assault of Rihanna. Cheating, whether on community labor or on a woman, seems part and parcel of Brown’s character.

I had nearly forgotten how starstruck and accommodating LA judges can be to celebrity morons.

I almost gasped in 2009, watching as Judge Patricia Schnegg awarded Brown a get-out-of-jail-free card — sentencing him to a slap on the wrist: five years’ probation and six months of “labor’’ in Virginia for a crime that would put away an ordinary hood for several years.

Then the judge praised Brown like a young, star-struck girl.

“I think it is commendable you took responsibility for your conduct.’’

Really? Why not send him to bed with milk and cookies? This is LA, where if you have a big enough name and enough money, anything is possible.

With kid-glove treatment like this, it’s no wonder that Brown thinks he can do no wrong.

Brown is accustomed to having women throw themselves at his head. And with her “kick me’’ attitude, Rihanna is setting an example I wouldn’t want my daughter to see.

There is no excuse for a man using a girl as a punching bag.

There is no excuse for a woman flaunting her abuse to save him.

Chris Brown already got away with using his fists to rearrange Rihanna’s face. And Rihanna has rewarded him for it.

He kept his lady, his recording contract, his fame and, among men with anger issues who think women ask for it, he kept his reputation. If Rihanna forgives him, why can’t the rest of us?

I’ll tell you why. He’s a chicken who can’t even seem to do a lick of work.

RiRi, if you want to make yourself into a fool, keep it away from impressionable girls who aspire to be just like you.

I’ve lost any respect I ever had for you.

andrea.peyser@nypost.com










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Greenberg Traurig shuffles leadership




















Law firm Greenberg Traurig on Tuesday announced a new management lineup that includes naming Hilarie Bass as the first female president in the firm’s history.

Bass, one of the firm’s Miami shareholders, most recently had been global operating shareholder. She will share the presidency with Brian L. Duffy, a Denver shareholder who has been global litigation chair, a position previously held by Bass.

As part of the shuffle, Miami shareholders Cesar L. Alvarez and Matt Gorson move to co-chairs and Larry Hoffman becomes founding chair. Alvarez previously served as executive chair, Gorson as president and Hoffman as chair.





These were just some of the new leadership changes announced by Greenberg’s Chief Executive Richard A. Rosenbaum. The firm began a leadership transition plan in 2010 when Rosenbaum took over the helm of the firm that today includes about 1,750 attorneys in 35 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

“We are pleased to have so many talented leaders and performers, not just those with titles,” Rosenbaum said in a statement. “We have never been about titles or politics, and titles do not create leaders. We and others already in place in our regions, offices and practices form a seamless team focused on respecting and serving our clients and lawyers.”

Rosenbaum, who will remain in his post, also announced four new vice presidents:

• Ernest Greer, Managing Shareholder of the firm’s Atlanta office.

• Brad Kaufman, Co-Chair of the National Securities Litigation Practice, leader of the firm’s Associate Development Program and a Palm Beach County shareholder.

• Patricia Menendez-Cambo, Chair of the Global Practice, Co-Chair of the Infrastructure and Project Finance Practice and a Miami shareholder.

• Keith Shapiro, Chair of the Chicago office and Co-Chair of the Business Reorganization Practice.





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Miami Heat has scholarships for graduation high school seniors




















The Miami Heat is offering South Florida high school seniors college scholarships for the 2013-2014 school year.

Four scholarships of $2,500 each will go to seniors who excel in academics and community service.

One of the four scholarships is reserved for a student who plays sports.





Applicants must have at least a 3.2 grade point average by their final semester in high school, attend school in Miami-Dade, Broward or Palm Beach counties, be accepted to an accredited four-year college or university and demonstrate financial need.

Applications are available at nba.com/heat/community/community_education_scholarships.html and must be submitted by April 6.





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Bachelor Recap: Tierra a Victim of the Elements Again

Tonight's episode marks the second time Bachelor contestant Tierra has been in need of rescue from her Prince Charming (and an EMT crew), for those keeping score.

The rugged outdoors was the theme of Tuesday's show, as the girls were split apart into two one-on-one dates and a group date involving the treacherous elements of snowy Alberta, Canada.

Pics: 'The Bachelor' Scorecard (Did the Relationships Sizzle or Fizzle?)

While Catherine's exploratory snow bus outing and Desiree's 400-ft mountain descent made for thrilling excursions, Sean's frozen swim date with the other seven ladies took the cake for the night's most exhilarating adventure.

Only six volunteered (minus Selma) to brave the icy waters and most came out of the plunge feeling a buzz from the frozen feat. That is, everyone except Tierra. The resident bad gal of the group immediately came down with a case of apparent hypothermia and was whisked away by medical crew to Sean's dismay.

He later visited the ailing Tierra back at her hotel, urging her to spend the night recovering rather than attend the party, but she ultimately ignores his advice and crashes cocktail time.

Despite the unexpected intrusion, the girls are less perturbed than would have been expected. Unfortunately, during a private moment with Sarah, Sean comes to realize that he's been forcing a connection and sends her home.

Related: 'Bachelor' Sean Questions Tierra's Motives

During the night, Sean hits new milestones with AshLee, Lesley and Selma, who finally succumbs to a smooch on national television, despite her disapproving parents.

Apparently, the kiss wasn't enough to keep her in the game. Sean sent Selma home along with Daniella during the rose ceremony.

Catherine and Desiree were safe to date another day as they were both awarded roses during their one-on-ones.

Tune in to The Bachelor next Monday on ABC as Sean and the final six slip on their bikinis and hit the sunny St Croix Virgin Islands.

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