Preservation board to decide on historic designation of the Miami Herald building

The city of Miami’s historic preservation office has compiled a lengthy, detailed report that substantially bolsters the case for designation of The Miami Herald’s “monumental’’ bayfront building as a protected landmark based on both its architectural merits and its historic significance.

Somewhat unusually, the 40-page report by city preservation officer Megan McLaughlin, which is supplemented by 30 pages of bibliography, plans and photographs, carries no explicit recommendation to the city’s preservation board, which is scheduled to decide the matter on Monday.

But her analysis gathers extensive evidence that the building’s history, the influential executives and editors associated with it, and its fusion of Mid-Century Modern and tropical Miami Modern (MiMo) design meet several of the legal criteria for designation set out in the city’s preservation ordinance and federal guidelines. A building has to meet just one of eight criteria to merit designation.

A spokeswoman for the city’s historic preservation office said there is no obligation to make a recommendation and the city’s preservation board didn’t ask for one.

Supporters of designation, including officials at Dade Heritage Trust, the preservation group that has received sometimes withering criticism from business and civic leaders for requesting designation, said they felt vindicated by the report, even as they concede that persuading a board majority to support it remains an uphill battle.

“It’s important that an objective expert is saying basically the same thing we’ve been saying, particularly in an environment where there is so much pressure,’’ said DHT chief executive Becky Roper Matkov. “It’s very hard to refute. When you look at the building’s architecture and history, it’s so blatantly historic, what else can you say?’’

The report also rebuts key pieces of criticism of the designation effort leveled by opponents of designation, including architects and a prominent local preservation historian hired by Genting, the Malaysian casino operator that purchased the Herald property last year for $236 million with plans to build a massive destination resort on its 10 acres. The newspaper remains in the building rent-free until April, when it will move to suburban Doral.

Citing federal rules, McLaughlin concluded that the building dates to its construction in 1960 and 1961, and not to its formal dedication in 1963. That’s significant because it makes the building legally older than 50 years. Buildings newer than that must be “exceptionally significant’’ to merit designation under city regulations. Opponents of designation have claimed the building does not qualify because it’s several months short of 50 years if dated from its ’63 opening.

The property also has a “minimal’’ baywalk at the rear but there is room to expand it, the report indicates. The building is considerably set back from the edge of Biscayne Bay, between 68 feet at the widest point and 23 feet at its narrowest, the report says. That’s comparable to what many new buildings provide, thanks in part to variances granted by the city, and could blunt criticism that the Herald building “blocks’’ public access to the bay.

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How They Pulled Off 'The Impossible'

The true story of the devastating 2004 tsunami that consumed the coast of Phuket, Thailand -- and how one family survived it -- is reenacted by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor in The Impossible. Watch the video to go behind the scenes...

Video: Tsunami Survivor Petra Nemcova Reacts to Latest Disaster in Japan

In theaters December 21, The Impossible finds Naomi as Maria and Ewan as her husband Henry, who are enjoying their winter vacation in Thailand with their three sons. On the day after Christmas, their relaxing holiday in paradise becomes an exercise in terror and survival when their beachside hotel is pummeled by an extraordinary, unexpected tsunami.

Video: Watch the Trailer for 'The Impossible'

The Impossible tracks just what happens when this close family and tens of thousands of strangers must come together to grapple with the mayhem and aftermath of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time.

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Speeding SUV slams into Jeep, which then runs over family of four in Brooklyn

Benny J. Stumbo

This jeep flipped over and hit a family of four during a terrible accident in Brooklyn sparked by a speeding SUV.

An out-of-control SUV driver blew a stop sign and caused a domino effect of destruction — hitting a jeep that flipped over and struck a group of pedestrians in Brooklyn this afternoon, witnesses and authorities said.

Horrified onlookers watched as Jeep hit a family of four standing on a sidewalk, leaving one member clinging to life, witnesses and authorities said.

At least four others were injured in the massive accident.

“My mother and I heard screaming and a huge explosion coming from [the street.] I immediately thought my brother could be out there,” said Diana Babbo, 18.

“I ran up the street and saw that a Jeep was flipped over. An entire family was pinned between the jeep and a parked car on the street, she said.

“A lady was completely dead or passed out. It was horrifying. An infant and two other people were under the car. It was so terrible. I’m trembling thinking about it.”

Babbo bawled as they pulled the car off the woman, she said.

“She was turning blue,” the teen recalled.

“The guy driving the Jeep had his head cracked open. He was walking towards the police after they cut him out of his car.”

The man passed out on the street, she said.

“I pray to god everybody is okay. I can’t get their faces out of my head.”

Other residents like Mohammed Umair, 17, said accidents have happened at this location many times before.

“This cross street is a death trap,” he said.

“A car smashed into a house. This isn’t going to stop until there are more lights and signs put up. More people are going to die if something isn’t done.”

cgiove@nypost.com

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Events showcase Miami’s growth as tech center

One by one, representatives from six startup companies walked onto the wooden stage and presented their products or services to a full house of about 200 investors, mentors, and other supporters Thursday at Incubate Miami’s DemoDay in the loft-like Grand Central in downtown Miami. With a large screen behind them projecting their graphs and charts, they set out to persuade the funders in the room to part with some of their green and support the tech community.

Just 24 hours later, from an elaborate “dojo stage,” a drummer warmed up the crowd of several hundred before a “Council of Elders” entered the ring to share wisdom as the all-day free event opened. Called TekFight, part education, part inspiration, and part entertainment, the tournament-style program challenged entrepreneurs to earn points to “belt up” throughout the day to meet with the “masters” of the tech community.

The two events, which kicked off Innovate MIA week, couldn’t be more different. But in their own ways, like a one-two punch, they exuded the spirit and energy growing in the startup community.

One of the goals of the TekFight event was to introduce young entrepreneurs and students to the tech community, because not everyone has found it yet and it’s hard to know where to start, said Saif Ishoof, the executive director of City Year Miami who co-founded TekFight as a personal project. And throughout the event, he and co-founder Jose Antonio Hernandez-Solaun, as well as Binsen J. Gonzalez and Jeff Goudie, wanted to find creative, engaging ways to offer participants access to some of the community’s most successful leaders.

That would include Alberto Dosal, chairman of CompuQuip Technologies; Albert Santalo, founder and CEO of CareCloud; Jorge Plasencia, chairman and CEO of Republica; Jaret Davis, co-managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurig; and more than two dozen other business and community leaders who shared their war stories and offered advice. Throughout the day, the event was live-streamed on the Web, a TekFight app created by local entrepreneur and UM student Tyler McIntyre kept everyone involved in the tournament and tweets were flying — with #TekFight trending No. 1 in the Miami area for parts of the day. “Next time Art Basel will know not to try to compete with TekFight,” Ishoof quipped.

‘Miami is a hotbed’

After a pair of Chinese dragons danced through the audience, Andre J. Gudger, director for the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs, entered the ring. “I’ve never experienced an event like this,” Gudger remarked. “Miami is a hotbed for technology but nobody knew it.”

Gudger shared humorous stories and practical advice on ways to get technology ideas heard at the highest levels of the federal government. “Every federal agency has a director over small business — find out who they are,” he said. He has had plenty of experience in the private sector: Gudger, who wrote his first computer program on his neighbor’s computer at the age of 12, took one of his former companies from one to 1,300 employees.

There were several rounds that pitted an entrepreneur against an investor, such as Richard Grundy, of the tech startup Flomio, vs. Jonathan Kislak, of Antares Capital, who asked Grundy, “why should I give you money?”

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South Florida summit message: Climate change is here

South Florida took the threat seriously before most everybody else, with four counties reaching a landmark compact in 2009 to work together to start addressing the risks of global warming.

But four years and one “super storm” named Sandy later, the risks to Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties — as well as much of coastal Florida — seem only bigger, scarier and no longer quite so far down the road.

An eye-opening example: Fort Lauderdale’s famous “strip,” where waves from Sandy, followed by routine high tides and heavy seas three weeks later, chewed away beach, seawall, sidewalk and roadbed, leaving a four-block-long swath of State Road A1A whittled from four lanes to two.

During a two-day regional climate change summit that ended Friday in Jupiter, political leaders and climate experts stressed two messages: One, South Florida faces a long, immensely costly war to protect its heavily developed coast and economy from the rising sea and increasingly destructive flooding from hurricanes like Sandy. Two, the “super storm” underlined why the region should quickly ramp up “adaptation” efforts and spending to reduce its exposure — from restoring beach dunes to building bigger sea walls to elevating roads and homes and maybe even moving them from the most vulnerable areas.

“Planning is nice, but now it’s all about implementation,’’ said Susanne Torriente, an assistant city manager in Fort Lauderdale who helped craft a wide-ranging climate-change action plan approved by Broward and Monroe counties in the past few months. County commissions in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach are expected to consider the plans by early next year.

Fort Lauderdale, Torriente said, is working with Broward County and state transportation experts on shoring up its heavily eroded strip. Repairs will easily run into the tens of millions of dollars and include elevating some of the iconic strip or building beach dunes, which some residents have long resisted because it spoils the view from AIA.

“Adaptation is not something we’re talking about in textbooks any more. It’s happening right in our backyard,” she said. “People like to see the water, but let’s be realistic.”

Though Sandy’s worst impacts were in the Northeast — where the storm killed more than 100 people, flooded New York City subways, swamped New Jersey coastal — it also caused extensive erosion along much of the South Florida coast.

While it remains uncertain what if any impact climate change had on Sandy, the devastating storm, which caused tens of billions of dollars in damage, gave both the public and political leaders across the country a glimpse of potential future scenarios. It also has injected new urgency in efforts in South Florida, many of the elected officials, planners, scientists, engineers and other experts at the annual regional summit agreed.

John Englander, an oceanographer who this year published a book called High Tide on Main Street, called Sandy a wake-up call for many coastal communities like Fort Lauderdale.

“People are starting to get increasing awareness to their vulnerability from storm surge,’’ he said. “They just can’t ignore the beach and walk away from billions of dollars worth of hotels.’’

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The Era of Twitter Without Instagram Has Now Begun

We know everyone is a little bummed about all those filtered photos disappearing from your Twitter streams this weekend, but let’s not get all worked up about it: They are disappearing, and there is no scandal.

RELATED: Why You Can’t See Instagram Photos on Twitter Anymore

TechCrunch’s  Drew Olanoff got a little too excited on Friday and thought a single in-stream photo meant that Instagram was allowing its Twitter cards back on Twitter and thought the two services were planning a sudden reunion. You may have seen some, too, but a Facebook spokesperson assured users these Instagram photos on Twitter were the last holdouts in the switchover. ”What you are seeing now may be some sort of regression depending on the mobile client, but we’re checking in with the engineers,” read Facebook’s statement, via Talking Points Memo’s Carl Franzen.

RELATED: How to Get Over the Twitter-Instagram War on Photos

Which means the end of this particular social-media marriage is upon us. Despite the immediate user backlash, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom has made it pretty clear that the photo-sharing app doesn’t plan on making nice with Twitter. In case you hadn’t accepted the reality of Silicon Valley competition the first time around, this photo-friendly weekend might be the time to check out our handy three-step guide to getting over it. 

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Lady Antebellum Singer Hillary Scott is Pregnant

Newlyweds Hillary Scott and Chris Tyrell of Lady Antebellum have announced that they are expecting their first child together.

RELATED: Lady Antebellum's Lady Talks Weekend Wedding

"Chris & I are excited to announce that our Christmas gift has arrived a little early this year! We are having a BABY!" Scott tweeted on Friday. "We feel so blessed!!!"

Newborns seem to be a new trend in country music, as this news follows the birth of Sugarland singer Jennifer Nettles' son Magnus Hamilton on Thursday.

Scott and Tyrell wed January 7 after getting engaged on Independence Day in 2011. On Monday Lady Antebellum announced the launching of their new charity, LadyAID. The mission of the organization is to aid children's hospitals.

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Bonanno mob underboss gets 2 years in racketeering case

The underboss of the Bonanno crime family was sentenced to two years in prison today on racketeering extortion charges after he was caught on tape by the ex-husband of a “Mob Wives” star.

Nicholas “Nicky Mouth” Santora, 70, the crime family’s reputed second-in-command, must also serve three years probation and forfeit $5,000 - although he says he doesn't have the cash.

Part of his sentence — four months — is a penalty for spending time with wiseguys and committing the extortion while on probation for an earlier mob conviction.

Brooklyn federal Judge Carol Amon noted that Santora was present at a sit-down discuss of an overdue loan and "played a critical role" in the collection negotiations.

Robert Miller

Nicholas 'Nicky Mouth' Santora after his arrest in January.

Santora already had pleaded guilty to taking part in the Mafia shakedown from 2006 to 2008 to recoup a debt.

“I was trying to collect the money — that’s all,” Santora said at an earlier hearing.

His arrest last year came after Hector “Junior” Pagan, a Bonanno associate and the ex-husband of “Mob Wives” star Renee Graziano, recorded more than 70 conversations with Santora that centered on talk about Mafia business, officials say.

Pagan - who was featured on the VH1 reality show - left the mob to become a DEA informant.

mmaddux@nypost.com

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Pilots approve new contract

DALLAS --
Pilots at American Airlines approved a new labor contract, which could clear the way for consideration of a merger with US Airways.

The pilots’ union announced Friday that 74 percent of its members voted to ratify the contract. Pilots rejected a similar offer in August, but union leaders lobbied hard for passage the second time around.

Under the contract, pilots will get pay raises and own 13.5 percent of American Airlines’ parent AMR Corp. after it emerges from bankruptcy protection.

Union officials and analysts say the vote gives AMR creditors certainty about the company’s labor costs, making it easier for them to weigh which gives them more money — American on its own, or getting bigger through a merger with US Airways.

“This contract represents a bridge to a merger with US Airways,” said union spokesman Dennis Tajer. He said the vote “should not in any way be viewed as support for the American stand-alone plan or for this current management team.”

American also hailed the vote as a key step in its turnaround after years of heavy losses.

The pilots’ vote “gives us the certainty we need for American to successfully restructure,” said Denise Lynn, American’s senior vice president of people, in a statement. She added that “the modernization of our company is well under way, and we remain focused on emerging as a competitive, world-class airline.”

American employs 9,000 workers at its Miami International Airport hub.

“The members of the unions and other employees are relieved this part of the process is over,” Sidney Jimenez, president of Transport Workers Union 568, said in an email to The Miami Herald, “but now we have to adjust, take a deep breath and once again look towards the challenges ahead. Most prominent is the reported merger between American and US Airways which hold its own set of obstacle we must now contend with and overcome.

“It seems we’re in the middle rounds of a heavyweight fight and we haven’t been knocked out despite all the blows. We’re getting our wind back and preparing for the second half of the bout. Don’t count us out yet.”

AMR and American filed for bankruptcy protection in November 2011. With the pilots’ deal in hand, the company could exit Chapter 11 early next year, a faster reorganization than those in the last decade at United Airlines and Delta Air Lines.

Friday’s vote filled in the last unknown piece in AMR’s labor-cost puzzle. The company’s creditors “very much wanted a contract because they want some visibility on what the cost structure will be,” said Ray Neidl, an airline analyst for Maxim Group PLC.

US Airways has proposed a merger that would give AMR creditors 70 percent of the combined company, which would be run by US Airways Group Inc. CEO Doug Parker, according to a person familiar with the discussions and who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

There have been reports that AMR might seek up to 80 percent for its creditors, which could be unacceptable to US Airways shareholders, the person said. Last month, a committee of bondholders told the pilots’ union they would only support an independent American if AMR had a new board that would pick managers to run the airline.

The airlines have exchanged confidential financial information and talked about a potential merger for several weeks, although a deal is not certain.

American has about 7,500 active pilots plus a few hundred others on furlough. The union said the vote to ratify the contract was 5,490 to 1,951.

The six-year contract will raise pilots’ pay by 4 percent on signing and 2 percent per year after that, with an adjustment in the third year to bring pay in line with that at other big airlines. The union will get 13.5 percent of the stock in the new AMR when it emerges from bankruptcy, which analysts estimate would amount to at least $100,000 per pilot.

In exchange, pilots will fly more hours and American will get more flexibility to outsource flying to other airlines.

American, which has already frozen pension plans and made other changes in benefits and work rules, is trying to use the bankruptcy process to cut annual labor costs by 17 percent or about $1 billion.

In recent months flight attendants and ground workers have ratified separate contracts that reduced benefits and outsourced thousands of jobs. American expects to cut about 10,000 jobs, with 3,000 layoffs and the rest coming from early retirements and attrition.

Miami Herald staff writer Hannah Sampson contributed to this report.

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A year away: Miami Art Museum’s new name, site, building on Biscayne Bay

By this time next year, if all goes according to a very immodest plan, the modern-art museum that bears Miami’s name will metamorphose into something almost entirely new.

The institution soon to be formerly known as the Miami Art Museum will have a conspicuous new location, at the downtown edge of Biscayne Bay; a striking new building designed by the Swiss “starchitecture” firm of Herzog & de Meuron; and a new, if not uncontroversial, name and less-than-sonorous acronym.

When it opens in time for Art Basel/Miami Beach in 2013, it will be as the Perez Art Museum Miami, or PAMM, after the Related Group’s Jorge Perez, a prominent Miami developer who made a contribution of cash and art valued at $35 million.

The fresh start, museum backers and administrators say, will propel PAMM toward the status that has long eluded the institution, launched in 1984 as a public exhibition hall with no collection: Art-world player. Agent of transformation.

“We have huge ambition for this institution,’’ said MAM director Thom Collins. “We have outsized ambition. In terms of scope and exhibitions and new commissions, it’s like going zero to 100, not zero to 60.’’

The new building, the product of an infusion of $100 million in public money and a private obligation to raise $120 million more in contributions, is rising at the foot of the MacArthur Causeway. The site occupies several acres of 29-acre Bicentennial Park, a desolate space that’s also slated for an eventual makeover as Museum Park.

Next to PAMM’s home, and about a year behind it in construction, will be a new cutting-edge science museum. The two buildings will flank a lushly planted new public plaza designed by James Corner Field Operations, landscape architects for New York’s High Line, the elevated rail running along the west side of Manhattan that was famously converted into a park.

For an art museum, Herzog & de Meuron’s building has an unusual configuration, designed to provide considerable exhibition flexibility and take maximum advantage of the waterfront location. It’s an arrangement of stacked, interconnected concrete boxes containing dramatically expansive exhibition and performance spaces that were made possible by a structural system that all but dispenses with interior columns.

“It really gives us much more space and makes it possible for us to create unusual juxtapositions,’’ Collins said. “We can do one gigantic thing or we can do multiple things of different character.’’

Large, hurricane-resistant windows will afford views of bay and skyline, and a grand staircase will lead down to a new baywalk. An open terrace wraps around the building and will be shaded by a massive, overhanging lattice-like canopy just now being installed. The landscape plan looks like a surreal dream out of a J.G. Ballard novel: Vines will hang from the canopy and trees will grow through the terrace, as if a subtropical jungle were about to engulf the building.

Like so many recent museum commissions, the building was conceived in part as a revitalization scheme. Forming a cultural nexus with the nearby Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, the museum should bring new life to the once-forlorn north end of downtown Miami, civic and government leaders say.

But museum backers’ hopes extend well beyond that. They say they want PAMM to function as cultural rocket fuel for the city and its maturing arts community, providing greater local visibility for contemporary art and helping boost Miami artists to the world stage. They plan to do so by bringing the best of the art world to show at PAMM, but also to work here and mix it up with the locals.

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First Look: Bloom is Back for Third 'Hobbit' Flick

Talk about third breakfast! The first film in the new Hobbit trilogy hits theaters in just one more week, and we've got a look at the return of Orlando Bloom in the third film of the trilogy -- The Hobbit: There and Back Again -- to whet your insatiable Middle-earth appetite for even more goodies.

Video: Exclusive -- The Hobbit's Naughty Dwarf Calendar?!

In this exclusive first photo from Entertainment Weekly, Orlando's loyal Elf Legolas appears opposite Bard the Bowman, played by Luke Evans. There and Back Again serves as a narrative bridge between The Hobbit trilogy and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and having a few familiar faces like Orlando's certainly helps the transition, even though Legolas does not appear on paper in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.

Also helping ease the Hobbit transition are returning Lord of the Rings stars Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins, Ian Holm as the elder Bilbo Baggins, Christopher Lee as Saruman and, of course, Ian McKellen as Gandalf.

Video: Watch 'The Hobbit' Trailer

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey rides into theaters in 3D and 2D in select theaters and IMAX on December 14. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will be released Dec. 13, 2013; while the third installment in the series, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, will hit theaters July 18, 2014.

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City agrees to pay out nearly $10M in Judith Leekin child abuse lawsuit settlement

New York City agreed today to pay out nearly $10 million as the first settlement in a lawsuit that followed one of the more disturbing child abuse cases in recent history.

The money will go to victims of Judith Leekin, who 30 years ago in Queens began mistreating foster kids in her care, then moved to Florida, adopted 11 special-needs children from New York, and abused and tortured them - all while collecting more than $1 million in government subsidies.

A federal judge in New York sentenced her to 11 years in prison in 2008 on fraud charges.

A judge in St. Lucie County sentenced her to 20 years in prison in 2009 for abuse of children and disabled adults.

AP

Judith Leekin.

Among them was an autistic boy - now an adult - who spent his childhood "essentially in a bucket, where he would eat, sleep, urinate and defecate," according to letter used at one trial.

Authorities in Florida said that Leekin had utilized numerous aliases - including Judith S. Johnson, Judith Lee-kin-de Johnson, Michelle Wells and Eastlyn J. Giraud - to adopt the 11 children and disabled young adults in New York between 1993 and 1996.

Child welfare officials have said the adoptions took place before a policy was instituted in 1999 to take fingerprints from adoptive parents to verify their identities.

After one of Leekin's trials in 2008, attorneys for the victims slammed New York state's Office of Children and Family Services for the lax oversight that led to Leekin's adoptions, saying that that "the process to foster and/or adopt children in New York during this time was easier than buying a used car."

The victims' identities are not revealed in court papers, because they were juveniles at the time the crimes took place.

Of the $9.7 million settlement, $6 million will go to two of the victims, officials said. The remaining $3.7 will be shared among the eight other victims, officials said.

Claims against a variety of other agencies named in the lawsuit are still pending in Brooklyn federal court, officials said.

"Judith Leekin’s extraordinary criminal scheme was unprecedented," said Bruce Strikowsky, an attorney who represented the city.

"Though the city had strong legal defenses, this settlement will benefit those harmed most by Leekin -- the children she abused. They have been, and continue to be, the city's primary concern," the attorney said.

mmaddux@nypost.com

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New equity options exchange owned by Miami company starts trading on Friday

MIAX Options Exchange, a new fully electronic, equity options trading exchange, said it will begin trading on Friday.

MIAX Options Exchange is based in Princeton, N.J., but its parent company is Miami International Holdings. While MIAX’s executive offices, technology development center and national operations center are based in Princeton, additional executive offices, and a multi-purpose training, meeting and conference center will be located in Miami, the company said.

MIAX Options Exchange’s trading platform has been developed in-house and designed for the functional and performance demands of derivatives trading, the company said.

INA PAIVA CORDLE

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Leon County judge accused of using office to promote for-profit religious business

TALLAHASSEE --
Leon County Judge Judith W. Hawkins was charged Wednesday with misconduct, accused of using her office to promote a business that sells Bible study books, souvenirs and other products to attorneys and others who regularly appear in her courtroom.

The charges focus on Gaza Road Ministries, a business that sells books, stages seminars and conferences and sponsors mission trips to other countries, including Guyana, Romania, Mongolia, Mexico and Brazil.

Her sermons have included “Your Day in Court,’’ emphasizing that “God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it is good or whether it is evil.’’ In October she appeared at a seminar discussing, “When Life Gives You Lemons,” turning obstacles into opportunities.

Florida’s Judicial Qualifications Commission alleges that these activities and the use of a judicial assistant who has helped promote the ministry take time away from judicial duties for a profit-making business.

The Commission also alleges that selling and attempting to sell her books, study guides and other publications in her Leon County Courthouse chambers and courtroom to attorneys and court staff is an abuse of Hawkins’ position.

In 2011, Hawkins reported it as a business interest that generated more than $13,500 in income, the Commission noted.

“You often take time away from your judicial duties to promote your business to the detriment of the prompt and efficient administration of justice,’’ the commission charged.

Hawkins was elected in 1996, the first African-American elected in the Second Judicial Circuit that includes Leon County. She is married to Dr. James Hawkins, former dean of the school of journalism at Florida A&M University.

Contacted at the courthouse shortly after the charges were released by the Florida Supreme Court, Hawkins said she could not discuss them because she had yet to receive a copy.

She has 20 days to respond to the charges. The commission has the authority to recommend a reprimand or removal from office after a hearing. The final decision is up to the state Supreme Court.

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Ensemble 'Argo' Cast Getting More Kudos

Ben Affleck's nail-biting '70s Iran hostage tale Argo is a box office hit and gathering steam as it heads into awards season. Ben and his players first received The Hollywood Ensemble Acting Award at The Hollywood Film Awards Gala Ceremony back in October, and now the cast is set to be honored with the Ensemble Performance Award at this year's Palm Springs Film Festival on January 5th.

Related: Hollywood Awards Toast 'Argo' Cast

Watch the video to catch the new, behind-the-scenes Argo featurette which contains new interviews with Ben, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Bryan Cranston and more.

Video: The Secrets Behind the Incredible True Tale 'Argo'

In theaters now, Argo finds Ben directing and starring as a CIA "exfiltration" specialist who comes up with an audacious plan to get the six Americans safely out of the country in the midst of the 1979 Iranian revolution and hostage crisis: Devise a fake Hollywood sci-fi movie called Argo as a cover to allow a rescue team to get in behind enemy lines to pull it off. Based on a true story, the plan was so incredible, it could only happen in the movies…

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Chief's Belcher's daughter to receive $1M from NFL

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The estate or guardian of the infant of the Chiefs player who killed her mother before turning a gun on himself will receive more than $1 million under terms of the NFL's collective-bargaining agreement.

Jovan Belcher's 3-month-old daughter, Zoey, stands to receive $108,000 annually over the next four years, $48,000 in the fifth year and then $52,000 each year until age 18. She'll continue to receive that amount until age 23 if she attends college.

The beneficiary of Belcher, who was in his fourth season, also will receive $600,000 in life insurance, plus $200,000 for each credited season. There is also $100,000 in a retirement account that will go to his beneficiary or estate.

Facebook

Kasandra Michelle Perkins and daughter Zoey.

Players' beneficiaries are kept confidential.

The current collective bargaining agreement was ratified in August 2011.

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Innovate MIA puts spotlight on startup community

If you think the next week is all about art, you may be surprised to learn there are also six entrepreneurship events vying for your time.

And that is all by design.

In much the way that Art Basel helped put Miami’s arts community on the international map, organizers of the first Innovate MIA hope their weeklong grouping of events will shine a light on the city’s growing tech startup community and its position as the gateway to Latin America.

Many of the events — ending with Florida International University’s Americas Venture Capital Conference — are after Art Basel. That’s also why the third annual AVCC was moved to Dec. 13-14 from its previous mid-November dates.

“Our message is come for Art Basel, and stay for AVCC,” said Juan Pablo Cappello, a lawyer, entrepreneur and investor who is on the steering committee of the venture capital conference and several other Innovate MIA events. And all week, there will be plenty of opportunities for Miami’s entrepreneurs, creatives and investors to mingle with their counterparts from all over the Americas and beyond.

In addition to the AVCC, there’s Incubate Miami’s DemoDay, where its class of startups present their companies, the martial arts-inspired TekFight and HackDay, which dangles a $50,000 cash prize. Endeavor, the global nonprofit that promotes high-impact entrepreneurship in emerging economies, is bringing its two-day International Selection Panel to Miami, and Wayra, an international accelerator, is holding a one-day event to showcase its promising startups from Latin America and Spain. It’s all part of Innovate MIA week: “I don’t think anything like it has ever been organized here in South Florida,” Cappello said.

The AVCC will be the big draw, with about 300 people expected to attend the two-day event at the JW Marriott Brickell. The conference, themed “Data, Design & Dollars,” will feature thought leaders from all over the world, particularly Latin America, and presentations by 29 selected companies. This year, the format has been overhauled and energized, with lots of short talks and more time for question-and-answer sessions and networking, said Jerry Haar, associate dean of FIU’s College of Business, director of the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center and AVCC co-chair.

The AVCC’s 36 speakers include Martin Varsavsky, Argentine tech entrepreneur, investor and founder of Viatel, Ya.com, Jazztel and FON; Hernan J. Kazah, co-founder and managing partner at Kaszek Ventures and co-founder of Mercadolibre; and Jason L. Baptiste, CEO and co-founder of Onswipe. There’s also Michael Jackson, former COO of Skype and now a venture capitalist; Albert Santalo, founder and CEO of Miami-based CareCloud; and Bedy Yang of 500 Startups.

Chosen from more than 100 applicants, the 29 presenting companies hailing from all over the Americas will be giving either two-minute or five-minute pitches, fielding questions from a panel of judges and competing for prize packages valued at about $50,000. Eight of the startups are from South Florida: itMD, Kairos, Trapezoid Digital Security, Esenem, LiveNinja, OnTrade, Rokk3r Labs and Zavee.

The presenting companies have “proven innovation, proven management teams and the ability to scale well and be a pan-regional player,” said Faquiry Diaz Cala, president of Tres Mares Group and co-chair of AVCC. “The word is out this is a great place to come and pitch to great investors in addition to potentially being one of the prize winners.”

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Top Fla. economic official resigns amid questions

TALLAHASSEE --
Gov. Rick Scott’s chief job creator abruptly resigned Tuesday after less than eight months following disclosures that he collected unemployment benefits while traveling in Europe before he was hired.

Hunting Deutsch quit his $140,000-a-year job as executive director of the Department of Economic Opportunity, the new agency created by Scott to coordinate Florida’s job-creation efforts and attract new or expanding businesses. Scott now must find his third director of the agency in less than a year.

“I find the current media focus on my personal matters a distraction to the agency and your administration and believe it is best for me to leave,” Deutsch wrote in a resignation letter to Scott dated Tuesday. His last day on the payroll will be Dec. 14.

Deutsch resigned while Scott is on a three-day trade mission to Bogota, Colombia, leading a delegation of nearly 200 people seeking to bolster economic ties between Florida and the Latin American nation.

Reached by the Associated Press, Deutsch refused to answer questions about the benefits.

“Quite frankly, it’s a personal matter,” Deutsch said.

The agency Deutsch ran distributes unemployment benefits to jobless workers in Florida, which unions and other worker advocates say are the stingiest in the country — at $275 a week for a maximum of 23 weeks.

Deutsch collected unemployment benefits for 91 weeks over a two-year period from 2009 to 2011 when he was traveling in Europe with his wife, according to the Florida Current, the online news site of LobbyTools.com, which broke the story Nov. 7.

The 91 weeks in benefits were eight short of the 99 he could have drawn because of emergency federal rules in place at the height of the national recession.

“I’m fortunate enough where I’ve worked for very successful companies for a long period of time and luckily sold all my bank stocks — most of them at the right time, at the right price — and quite frankly, didn’t have to work,” Deutsch told the Current. “So my wife and I took time off and traveled a great bit; we were in Europe several times.”

Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said Deutsch did the right thing by resigning.

“I think it was bad form for him to seek unemployment while he was off on a trip to Europe,” Gaetz said. “I think those of us in public life should have a higher standard of performance.”

Scott welcomed Deutsch to “our team” in April, praising his “strong and experienced background” as a senior executive in the banking industry, most recently at BankUnited in Miami, where he was executive vice president of wealth management. Deutsch also spent more than 20 years in a variety of posts at SunTrust Banks in Orlando.

Deutsch is the second executive director of DEO to depart following controversy.

The agency’s first leader, Doug Darling, resigned in January under pressure from Scott’s former chief of staff, Steve MacNamara, four days after Darling sent MacNamara a note complaining about excessive travel by the state film commissioner. Shari Kerrigan had been recruited to her post by MacNamara.

Herald/Times staff writer Mary Ellen Klas contributed to this report, which includes information from the Associated Press.

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Stars Return to Middle-earth for 'The Hobbit'

Are you ready to return to Middle-earth? Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is coming to theaters and IMAX everywhere in 3D on December 14, and the extensive cast of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and Wizards features a pleasant mixture of new and returning faces to new, first installment of the growing, six-movie franchise.

Video: An Unexpected Journey to the NZ 'Hobbit' Premiere

"It's been 10 years since Lord of the Rings and we had no interest in making a sequel," says Peter Jackson about the new movie, which serves as a prequel to Rings. "But fortunately J.R.R. Tolkien had written this incredibly charming children's fairytale. … It's a much more charming, humorous story, and that was really the attraction for us -- the fact that we were able to go back and be the same storytellers, the same filmmakers, going back into Middle-earth again, but following a different story with a different group of characters largely. And a different tone – a lot more humor."

The long-awaited big-screen adaptation follows the adventures of the diminutive Hobbit Bilbo Baggins (played by Martin Freeman) as he journeys with a group of 13 Dwarves to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. On the way, they must battle treacherous Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and sly Sorcerers. And when Bilbo gains possession of Gollum's (the returning Andy Serkis) "preciousss" ring, the fate of Middle-earth hangs in the balance.

"We've seen Bilbo already with the brilliant Ian Holm, and [in this movie] you start with the younger Bilbo. Suddenly it's the beginning of his journey, and it's the classic sequel," explains Martin Freeman, who adds that the newcomers to the franchise were welcomed with open arms by the family-like cast and crew: "We were made to feel like we had every right to be there, and we were well looked after."

Richard Armitage, who plays exiled Dwarf king Thorin Oakenshield, says, "I do think Peter has done something really interesting by kind of connecting the blood flow from the Rings trilogy into The Hobbit, very much in the prologue and all of the other characters that sort of link the two films together, and that has given it some sort of oxygen that fans will really enjoy."

Video: Precious Gollum Moments in New 'Hobbit' Trailer

Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and Elijah Wood never imagined that they would return to Middle-earth to put on Hobbit feet and pointy Elven ears, and Elijah says, "The whole notion of coming back, it was a gift. It isn't something that any of us really expected. … It was an amazing experience."

And how different is Gollum this time around? "Well, he's 60 years younger, so he's only 540, and I think pretty sexy," jokes Serkis, who also served on The Hobbit as second-unit director: "It was doubly thrilling," he said of the unexpected offer from Jackson, joking of the opportunity, "He's known I've wanted to direct for a long time, and so it was really like being given a Maserati when you haven't passed your driving test. … It was a fantastic experience and hugely challenging."

The epic film also features returning The Lord of the Rings cast members Ian McKellen, Ian Holm and Christopher Lee alongside new faces Manu Bennett, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Barry Humphries, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Sylvester McCoy, Bret McKenzie, Graham McTavish, James Nesbitt, Dean O'Gorman, Conan Stevens, Ken Stott and Aidan Turner.

Pics: 'The Hobbit' Photo Exclusive

So why will The Lord of the Rings fans love The Hobbit? "Because they'll be totally surprised by it," says Weaving, who especially loves the scene in which the Dwarves sing. "It was transporting … and moving." Cate agrees, "I found it really rich and surprising," pointing out that she's "really cool this month" to her three boys!

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Rapper likens self to one of world's greatest composers

Big-talking rapper Ryan Leslie -- who set fire to the front page of The Post for reporting on a $1 million jury verdict against him -- is now likening himself to one of history's greatest composers.

Leslie told Vibe magazine that he plans to title his next album "Black Mozart," and will record some of it in the capital of classical music, Vienna.

Last week, a Manhattan federal court jury rapped Leslie for reneging on a $1 million reward he offered for a laptop and hard drive that were stolen while he was on tour in Germany in 2010.

Auto-repair shop owner Armin Augstein found the gear while walking his dog, but Leslie ignored Augstein's efforts to claim the reward.

bruce.golding@nypost.com

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The business behind the artist: Miami’s art gallery scene still evolving

This week, thousands of art collectors, museum trustees, artists, journalists and hipsters from around the globe will arrive for the phenomenon known as Art Basel Miami Beach. The centerpiece of the week: works shown at the convention center by more than 260 of the world’s top galleries.

Only two of those are from Miami.

While Art Basel has helped transform the city’s reputation from beach-and-party scene to arts destination in the years since its 2002 Miami Beach debut, the region’s gallery identity is still coming into its own.

“Certainly Miami as an art town registers mightily because of the foundations, the collectors who have done an extraordinary job,” said Linda Blumberg, executive director of the Art Dealers Association of America. “I think there’s a definite international awareness there. But the gallery scene probably has a bit of a ways to go. That doesn’t mean it’s not really fascinating and interesting.”

The gallery business, especially where newer artists are concerned, is a game of risk, faith and passion. Once a gallery takes on an artist who shows promise, they become an evangelist on their behalf, showing their work in-house and at fairs, presenting it to museums and curators and potential collectors and bearing the cost of that promotion.

For contemporary artists, most galleries take work on consignment, meaning they get a cut of as much as 50 percent when works sell. While local art galleries have been growing in number and popularity in the last several years — just try to find parking during the monthly art walk in Miami’s hot Wynwood neighborhood — even some of the area’s top art dealers say that while business overall is good, they struggle in the local marketplace.

“Our problem is that we have to do lots of art fairs in order to connect with the market that we need to connect with to sell the work that we have,” said Fredric Snitzer, a Miami-Dade gallery owner for 35 years. “The better the work is, the harder it is to sell in Miami. And that ain’t good.”

A handful of serious collectors call Miami home and store their own collections in Miami, including the Braman, Rubell, Margulies and de la Cruz families. But outside a relatively small local group, many gallerists say, their clients come from other parts of the country and world.

And some gallerists point out the troubling reality that even the powerhouse Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin could not stay open in Miami for more than a few years.

“The fact that big galleries have not been able to sustain their business models in South Florida tells you we’re obviously not at this high established point,” said gallery owner David Castillo. “It’s not like we’ve arrived, let’s sit back and watch Hauser & Wirth open down the street.”

Still, Miami’s gallery business has come a long way since the early 1970s, when a few dealers on Bay Harbor Island’s Kane Concourse were selling high-end pieces but the local scene was hardly embraced.

Virginia Miller, who owns ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in Coral Gables, first opened in 1974 to showcase Florida artists, though her focus soon added an international scope. She and other longtime observers credit several factors for Miami’s transformation, including the community’s diversity, the establishment of important museums, the Art Miami fair that started 23 years ago, the presence of major collections and, of course, Art Basel Miami Beach.

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President Obama keeps Debbie Wasserman Schultz as Democratic Party chair

WASHINGTON --
President Barack Obama on Monday asked Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida – who led the Democratic Party in a triumphant election year but also was criticized for a platform snafu during the party’s convention – to serve another term as the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.

“I’ve asked Debbie Wasserman Schultz to continue her excellent work as chair of the DNC. Thanks for all you do, Debbie,” the president tweeted.

“Thank you, Mr. President,” the Broward County Democrat tweeted in response. “I am honored to serve.”

The Democratic National Committee is all but certain to ratify Obama’s decision at its winter meeting in January. Party chairs usually are elected for four-year terms. Wasserman Schultz would head the party during the 2014 election cycle, a tough task since a second-term president’s party historically suffers losses in midterm elections.

Wasserman Schultz, 46, of Weston, won her fifth term in Congress last month when she easily defeated two challengers. She won the district, which includes Miami-Dade and Broward counties, with 63 percent of the 216,000 votes cast.

In her national role, Wasserman Schultz is credited with helping to steer the Democratic National Committee to a successful election. Democrats did even better than pollsters and analysts had predicted, with net gains of two Senate seats and at least seven seats in the House of Representatives. Obama won a popular-vote majority and a big electoral-vote majority over Republican Mitt Romney.

“She’s done a good job. You can’t argue with the results of the election,” said Kathy Sullivan, Democratic national committeewoman from New Hampshire and a former chairwoman of the state party.

Wasserman Schultz supported Hillary Clinton over Obama in the 2008 Democratic nominating contest, and she’s credited with helping to push the Clintons to campaign vigorously for the party this fall.

Though party officials regard her highly, Wasserman Schultz came under some fire earlier this year at the Democratic National Convention. The gathering in Charlotte, N.C. – carefully calibrated to give Obama a rousing sendoff for the general election campaign – erupted in chaos when the platform failed to mention God or to say that Jerusalem is Israel’s rightful capital.

Wasserman Schultz called the omissions “essentially a technical oversight.” The language was changed after the issues were made public, but the revisions came only after a confused scene on the convention floor. Convention Chairman Antonio Villaraigosa, the mayor of Los Angeles, called for voice votes, but the verdict was unclear. He finally said the changes had been approved, as many on the floor booed.

The controversy died quickly, and Wasserman Schultz was widely praised within the party Monday.

“You don’t mess with success,” said Dick Harpootlian, the chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party. “There’s a very small group of people involved with and enthralled by the party platform, but it often doesn’t affect the vote.”

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ET Confirms Jamie Foxx in 'Spider-Man' Sequel

Jamie Foxx has some electrifying news for ET: He will definitely be starring in the sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man!

Related: Did 'Spidey' Director Just Reveal New Villains?

"Electro is a great character," Jamie tells ET's Nancy O'Dell when she asks him if he's confirmed to be in the next installment of the blockbuster franchise "I met with the director, Mark Webb, I met with Andrew Garfield, and we talked. … I think Electro will be an exciting character to play because he's a … genius electrician-type person, and he gets the short end of the stick from the whole world, and the next thing you know he turns it on."

Rumors had been swirling for quite some time that Jamie would be taking on the role of Spidey's nemesis, and he fueled the fire the day after Halloween when he tweeted that he dressed up as the character.

Plus, Webb alluded to the super-villain being a part of the next movie while promoting the upcoming release of The Amazing Spider-Man on Blu-ray and listing his favorite villains: "I like Green Goblin. I like Electro a lot. I think Electro is pretty fantastic."

Earlier today it was announced today that Chronicle and Lincoln star Dane Dehaan will join the super sequel as Harry Osborn, with Webb tweeting, "Meet Harry Osborn. So excited to have him on board. @danedehaan."

Of course, Spidey fans know that Harry Osborn is the son of Norman Osborn, who becomes The Green Goblin, and Harry himself eventually becomes the super-villain Hobgoblin. So who are the official baddies of the next Spider-Man film? No actual names have been announced, but the information is all there for those who want to connect the dots.

Video: 'Spider-Man' Sequel Secrets Hidden in Blu-ray?

Also starring Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx and Shailene Woodley, the new film in the Spider-Man saga is set for release in 3D on May 2, 2014. Production will begin in early 2013.

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Pink B'klyn brownstone gets repainted

Now the Park Slope “pinkstone” is like every other Brooklyn brownstone.

The new owners of the once notorious Pepto-Bismol-pink house at 233 Garfield Place recently slapped brown primer over the façade of the four-story home, ridding neighbors and preservationists of what they long considered an eyesore in the landmark district.

“Every neighbor we’ve encountered is happy to see the pink finally gone,” said Jeanne Accetta, who recently bought the home with her husband, Joseph for $2.075 million.

Accetta said the new brown facade is just primer paint and that the couple is working with the Landmarks Preservation Commission to pick a shade of brown paint that best blends in with the rest of the neighborhood.

The house had been pink since the 1960s and the gaudy look was grandfathered in years before the block was designated part of the special district, which requires approval for any changes to facades.

The couple is also seeking commission approval for other improvements, including the removal of some upper-level rear windows and the addition of a backyard deck.

The previous owner, Bernard Henry, a retired 95-year-old tailor, had previously claimed that he accidentally painted the home that distinctive shade of pink only after buying the wrong color paint. He lived there for five decades.

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The business behind the artist: Miami’s art gallery scene still evolving

This week, thousands of art collectors, museum trustees, artists, journalists and hipsters from around the globe will arrive for the phenomenon known as Art Basel Miami Beach. The centerpiece of the week: works shown at the convention center by more than 260 of the world’s top galleries.

Only two of those are from Miami.

While Art Basel has helped transform the city’s reputation from beach-and-party scene to arts destination in the years since its 2002 Miami Beach debut, the region’s gallery identity is still coming into its own.

“Certainly Miami as an art town registers mightily because of the foundations, the collectors who have done an extraordinary job,” said Linda Blumberg, executive director of the Art Dealers Association of America. “I think there’s a definite international awareness there. But the gallery scene probably has a bit of a ways to go. That doesn’t mean it’s not really fascinating and interesting.”

The gallery business, especially where newer artists are concerned, is a game of risk, faith and passion. Once a gallery takes on an artist who shows promise, they become an evangelist on their behalf, showing their work in-house and at fairs, presenting it to museums and curators and potential collectors and bearing the cost of that promotion.

For contemporary artists, most galleries take work on consignment, meaning they get a cut of as much as 50 percent when works sell. While local art galleries have been growing in number and popularity in the last several years — just try to find parking during the monthly art walk in Miami’s hot Wynwood neighborhood — even some of the area’s top art dealers say that while business overall is good, they struggle in the local marketplace.

“Our problem is that we have to do lots of art fairs in order to connect with the market that we need to connect with to sell the work that we have,” said Fredric Snitzer, a Miami-Dade gallery owner for 35 years. “The better the work is, the harder it is to sell in Miami. And that ain’t good.”

A handful of serious collectors call Miami home and store their own collections in Miami, including the Braman, Rubell, Margulies and de la Cruz families. But outside a relatively small local group, many gallerists say, their clients come from other parts of the country and world.

And some gallerists point out the troubling reality that even the powerhouse Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin could not stay open in Miami for more than a few years.

“The fact that big galleries have not been able to sustain their business models in South Florida tells you we’re obviously not at this high established point,” said gallery owner David Castillo. “It’s not like we’ve arrived, let’s sit back and watch Hauser & Wirth open down the street.”

Still, Miami’s gallery business has come a long way since the early 1970s, when a few dealers on Bay Harbor Island’s Kane Concourse were selling high-end pieces but the local scene was hardly embraced.

Virginia Miller, who owns ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in Coral Gables, first opened in 1974 to showcase Florida artists, though her focus soon added an international scope. She and other longtime observers credit several factors for Miami’s transformation, including the community’s diversity, the establishment of important museums, the Art Miami fair that started 23 years ago, the presence of major collections and, of course, Art Basel Miami Beach.

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Two dead after bus crash at Miami International Airport

What began as a day of prayer and fellowship turned into a surreal scene of stunned, bloodied passengers and twisted metal.

There was the sickening sound of crunching metal early Saturday as a busload of Jehovah’s Witnesses was low-bridged by a concrete overpass at Miami International Airport, peeling back the top of the vehicle “like a can of sardines.”

Airport workers running to the scene found shocked passengers thrown into the aisle or trapped in their seats by the wreckage.

Riders in the front rows were crushed — two of them killed, others seriously injured.

The driver of the bus, 47-year-old Ramon Ferreiro, took a wrong turn off LeJeune Road, entering the airport by mistake, then rolled past multiple yellow signs warning tall vehicles. He drove on, approaching an overpass whose sign said “8ft-6in”. The driver either didn’t see it, couldn’t read it, or realized it too late.

The bus stood 11 feet tall.

“The last thing he should have done is to keep going,” said Greg Chin, airport spokesman. “That goes against all logic.”

Ferreiro, whose driver’s seat was lower than those of the passengers, was not injured.

One passenger, 86-year-old Miami resident Serfin Castillo, was killed on impact, and all 31 others were taken by ambulance to local hospitals. Thirteen ended up at Jackson Memorial’s Ryder Trauma Center, where one of them, 56-year-old Francisco Urana of Miami, died shortly after arriving.

Three remained in critical condition Saturday night, and three had been released.

Luis Jimenez, 72, got a few stitches on his lip and hurt his hand. He said the group left the Sweetwater Kingdom Hall about 7 a.m., bound for West Palm Beach.

“I was sitting in the back when it happened,” Jimenez said. “We were on our way to an assembly and lost a brother today. I’m very sad.”

Delvis Lazo, 15, a neighbor and member of the same congregation, described Castillo as a “nice, old man.” He often saw Castillo at religious gatherings, and their families have known each other for more than 15 years.

The last time Lazo saw him was about two months ago, as he prepped for a talk before his congregation.

“He gave me a thumbs up, told me that everything was going to be all right,” he said.

The bus, one of three traveling to the Spanish-language general assembly on Saturday, had been contracted by the congregation, which has fewer than 150 members.

According to public records, the bus belongs to Miami Bus Service Corporation, a Miami company owned by Mayling and Alberto Hernandez that offers regularly scheduled service between South Florida and Gainesville, often used by University of Florida students. At the home address listed for the company and the owners, Mayling Hernandez told The Miami Herald that passenger safety is her primary concern.

“At this time I’m worried about the driver and the families of the victims. I’m praying for them,” she said. “My job is to worry about the safety of the passengers who are our clients. What we do requires a lot of responsibility. I didn’t know the passengers but that doesn’t mean I’m not suffering.”

Neighbor Armando Bacigalupi described the owners as “caring people” and said he had seen buses park briefly in front of the house.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the company has two drivers for its three passenger motor coaches.

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Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 2 Tops Box Office Again

In its third week of release, Breaking Dawn: Part 2 continues to dominate the box office.

Related: The Ultimate 'Twilight' Guide to 'Breaking Dawn' Actors & Their Characters

The final film in the Twilight Saga series raked in $17.4 million in ticket sales over the weekend, putting the vampire drama ahead of Skyfall, which earned $17 million for second place.

The spy thriller beat out Steven Spielberg's biopic Lincoln ($13.5 million) and the family friendly flick Rise of the Guardians, which took in $13.5 million.

Ang Lee's Life of Pi rounds out the top five with $12 million.

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Chiefs linebacker Belcher struggled with head injuries, alcohol and painkillers before he snapped and killed girlfriend, friends say

Kansas City Chiefs linebacker and former Long Island high-school star Jovan Belcher was allegedly battling football-related head injuries and booze, painkiller and domestic problems when he snapped and murdered his girlfriend before killing himself in front of two coaches Saturday.

A pal of Belcher’s told the Web site Deadspin.com that Kasandra Perkins, the mother of Belcher’s 3-month-old daughter, had threatened to leave him for good amid fighting between the pair.

The couple had only recently reconciled after Perkins left their rented house in Kansas City with the baby at one point to stay with friends. Perkins had returned, but friends said the relationship was still volatile.

Kansas City Chiefs running back Jovan Belcher (right) battled head injuries, drugs and alcohol before he snapped and killed his girlfriend Michele Perkins (left), friends said.

It didn’t help that he was drinking every day and taking painkillers while dealing with the effects of debilitating head injuries, the friend said.

Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said today that Belcher was "a player who had not had a long concussion history.’’

Belcher, 25, and Perkins, 22, had argued for the last time when she returned home late from a concert Saturday morning. But the Belcher friend said the concert was only a “tipping point.”

“This was the result of a long-term conflict,” the pal said. “She made it clear that she was leaving and would contact a lawyer’’ to fight for custody and child support.

Cops today revealed that Belcher shot Perkins nine times before committing suicide with a different gun. His mother witnessed the slaying; she had been in town to help Perkins with the new baby, sources have said.

Belcher’s mother, Cheryl Shepherd, will now take custody of the couple’s infant daughter and plans to return with the child to the family’s West Babylon home, where her troubled son grew up, his relatives said.

The kin said the baby was in another room when Belcher snapped and unloaded on Perkins.

“[Shepherd’s] taking it as anyone else would've taken it,” said Belcher’s cousin, Eric Oakes, 20, who lives in the mom’s renovated house where Belcher grew up. “She just lost a son. We're all coming together.”

Oakes, wearing a game-warn Chief’s jersey with Belcher’s number 59 on it, said his cousin was his role model.

"[He's] always trying to steer me right. That's the only person I wanted to be like. A role model, basically my father. He's the person who made me play football,” said Oakes, who played running back for West Babylon HS.

In Kansas City, relatives trickled in an out of the home that had become a murder scene.

“I think she was home alone a lot,” said Kristen Van Meter, 31, a neighbor who went to community college with the victim. “He was kind of quiet. he would come and go.”

When he was there, she said, there were lots of parties.

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Boat Show may block Miami’s 2016 Super Bowl bid

This winter, the biggest NFL match-up in South Florida might be Super Bowl versus Boat Show.

As South Florida readies a bid for the 2016 Super Bowl, it must contend with a major potential conflict on the tourism calendar. The National Football League may move the Super Bowl to Presidents’ Day weekend, already home to the five-day Miami International Boat Show since the 1940s.

It’s a significant enough conflict that, in the past, local tourism officials have declined to pursue a Super Bowl if it fell on boat show weekend. But this time around they may have no choice. For the first time, the NFL is requiring that potential host cities agree to a Presidents’ Day weekend Super Bowl if they want to pursue the big game at all, said two people who have seen the NFL request for Super Bowl bids.

The NFL “invited South Florida [to bid] knowing there was going to be an issue with Presidents’ Day weekend and the boat show,” said Nicki Grossman, Broward’s tourism director. “In the past, South Florida has not responded to a Super Bowl date that included Presidents’ Day weekend. This package is different.”

South Florida vies with New Orleans as the top Super Bowl host, with government and tourism leaders touting the game as both a boon to the economy and a publicity bonanza. But the notion of accommodating both Super Bowl and boat show — not to mention a major arts festival in Coconut Grove — strikes some top tourism officials as a bad idea.

“There is not sufficient hotel inventory available in Miami that weekend to host a Super Bowl,” said William Talbert, president of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We have taken a close look at that weekend, and it’s not physically possible in Miami to host Super Bowl during the Presidents’ Day weekend because of the boat show and the Coconut Grove Arts Festival. The hotel inventory is all being used for these two great events.”

His comments are at odds with the region’s top Super Bowl organizer and reflect the burden that the boat show may be to South Florida’s Super Bowl hopes for 2016 and 2017. The NFL invited Miami and San Francisco to bid for the 2016 Super Bowl by April 1, with the loser vying with Houston for the 2017 game. Talbert said the bid package states both decisions will be made in May.

For now, South Florida’s Super Bowl organizers face a largely hypothetical challenge, because the current NFL schedule has the Super Bowl occurring two weeks before Presidents’ Day weekend. The bid requirements for the ’16 and ’17 Super Bowls include three consecutive weekends as possibilities for the game, with the latest falling on the Presidents’ Day holiday.

Still, possible logistical hurdles may combine with political obstacles if the Miami Dolphins resume their push for a tax-funded renovation of Sun Life Stadium, the Super Bowl’s South Florida home.

Last year, the Dolphins proposed that Broward and Miami-Dade counties subsidize a $225 million renovation at Sun Life as a way to keep the region competitive for Super Bowls and other large events. The renovation includes a partial roof that would prevent the kind of drenching Super Bowl spectators suffered in 2007 when a rare February downpour hit Miami Gardens.

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