Think local, former U.N. leader Kofi Annan tells Miami forum

In the Ritz-Carlton ballroom in Coconut Grove on Monday, Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, addressed a crowd of well-dressed world savers to open the Continuity Forum of the Americas Business Council (abc*). In a speech that touched on the environment, the Arab awakening, democracy in Latin America, the spiraling conflict in Syria, nuclear war and resource scarcity, Annan encouraged attendees to address these and other problems by thinking local.

“People ask me all the time, ‘what should one do to become a global citizen?’ I tell them, get involved with your community, your city, your town, your village,” Annan said.

For abc*, a think tank dedicated to “people, planet and philanthropy” in the Americas, Miami is the center of that community. Smack dab in the middle of the hemisphere, for two years Miami has hosted the annual Continuity Forum that attracts more than 300 people from all over North and South America. Rebecca Mandelman, senior director of the abc* based in Miami Beach, said she has recently seen more and more of these would-be world changers coming to Miami to stay.

“There’s this intellectual thirst in Miami that brings a lot of these forces together,” Mandelman said. Referring to the co-sponsoring organizations — many of them local, like the Knight Foundation, Univision, PODER magazine and technology company Ico Group — she said, “Miami is like the fulcrum, the center for people in our community.”

The three-day conference, which sold tickets in advance, features a full roster of impressive speakers, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes. But the main focus is the competition between 32 “social entrepreneurs” who will present their projects to be judged by the five chairman of abc* and the foundation’s 23 fellows. The best three projects will receive $100,000 grants, media support and business connections for two years.

“We evaluate them by their potential to make the greatest impact,” said Mario Scarpetta, director of Colombian cement and energy company Inversiones Argos and co-chairman of abc*. To evaluate their effectiveness, he said abc* would review each project’s “strategic business plans and economic models of their impact.”

The projects range from a museum of sacred Peruvian plants and an indigenous tourism agency in Mexico to a Nicaraguan organization dedicated to fighting cancer and a “green roof” sustainable building company. The presentations, videos and question-and-answer sessions took place in English and Spanish, and Mandelman said she hoped the casual conversations between sessions would lead to future ideas and organizations.

Even entrepreneurs whose projects are not chosen for the abc* grant have the opportunity this week to interact with investors and leaders of the industries they seek to influence. Pati Ruiz of Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda in Mexico said her alliance of five conservation organizations is already active in central Mexico, but if awarded the grant she would use it to expand to the rest of the country and into South America.

“The strength of our project is that it’s already up and running,” Ruiz said in Spanish after her presentation. “We have the tools to expand and reproduce what we’re doing.”

Although most of the conference attendees were excited about the ideas, some expressed frustration with the lack of avenues for individuals to get involved.

“I think that’s the problem with a lot of these conferences: There are no action items, nothing you can really do if you’re not a big-time donor,” said one attendee who didn’t want to be named because he works for one of the co-sponsors of the conference. “We come, watch, applaud and leave.”

Still, abc* continues to connect some of the most creative innovators in a younger generation to current political and business leaders who have the resources to give their ideas wings, Mandelman said, and the rest of the Continuity Forum promises to help make this happen.

“We believe that collective engagement can advance the Americas,” she said.

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Appeals court: Miami judge should step off murder case for critical comments from bench

A Miami-Dade judge should step down from a murder case after publicly criticizing relatives of the slain victim, an appeal court says.

The unusual ruling comes less than a month after Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch, while on the bench, said relatives of Oscar Padilla showed “gross disrespect” for him when they appeared on a Spanish-language television news program to complain about one his rulings.

Hirsch was presiding over the murder case against Emin Rosales Ramirez, who is accused in the August killing of Oscar Padilla. After his remarks, prosecutors complained to the Third District Court of Appeal.

The appeals court, in a ruling Friday, said that Hirsch’s comments “would place a reasonably prudent person in fear of not receiving a fair and impartial trial.”

Rosales is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Padilla, 62, and wounding his wife, Iris Colindres, 51. Authorities say Rosales, looking to kill Colindres’ two adult sons, shot the couple as they drove in Brownsville on Aug. 12.

Miami-Dade police detectives say Rosales’ target was Colindres’ sons. The reason: He believed they spray-painted his truck with the Spanish word “ cornudo,” or cuckold, an insult that suggested Rosales’ girlfriend was cheating on him.

After an extended bond hearing in October, Hirsch signaled that he didn’t think prosecutors proved Rosales was a danger to the community. Afterward, Padilla’s relatives complained publicly during a segment on Miami’s Telemundo station.

Then at a later hearing, a prosecutor told Hirsch that the Padilla family feared for their lives. Hirsch shot back that the argument was hard to make because of the relatives’ appearance on television to criticize him.

“They are entailed to their First Amendment rights but as Justice Jackson says, The Constitution affords the good citizens more rights than he and his sense of duty will exercise,’” Hirsch said. “They can say anything they want, but words have consequences.”

At that hearing, the judge granted Rosales a $100,000 bond and house arrest pending trial. However, Rosales is still in custody because immigration authorities have targeted him for possible deportation to his native Honduras.

Elected in 2010, Hirsch is not shy about making controversial legal decisions.

Last month, he curtailed long-accepted expert testimony about fingerprints, a ruling that prosecutors are expected to appeal. Last year, when a Tampa federal judge ruled that Florida’s drug law was unconstitutional, Hirsch was the only local state judge to follow suit. He tossed out more than two dozen cases but Miami’s appeals court later reversed Hirsch’s decision.

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Donda West's Surgeon on What Really Killed Her

Celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Jan Adams operated on Kanye West's mom, Donda West, the day before she died, and was subsequently enveloped in controversy. Now, the doctor sits down with ET's Chris Jacobs for his first interview, telling his side of the story.

PICS: Most Talked-About Plastic Surgery Transformations

"I feel responsible totally, because I'm the surgeon and I'm the guy in charge," says Dr. Adams. "But I'm not the guy to blame."

Dr. Adams, who was cleared by the Los Angeles Coroner of any wrongdoing in the Donda West case, blames the media for the controversy that followed him after Donda's passing.

In a single surgery in 2007, Donda underwent a breast augmentation, tummy tuck and liposuction. Dr. Adams believes that aspiration (the sucking of fluid or other substances into the airway when breathing in) is to blame for her death, saying that she probably "laid down, ate, had narcotics onboard, aspirated, her lungs got all this food in it and then four minutes later she passed away."

"It's a tragedy that she's not here," says Dr. Adams. "She was a wonderful woman."

RELATED: Worst Celebrity Plastic Surgery Disasters

Following the Donda West case, Dr. Adams served eight months of jail time and surrendered his medical license after a series of DUIs. He's now petitioning the medical board to get his license reinstated, which he expects to happen soon.

Dr. Adams insists that he "never struggled with alcohol before" and that he no longer drinks, as "it doesn't serve [him]."

Dr. Adams' book The Other Side of the Fire is available now.

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Accused mom-killing Harlem man Daniel Elias held without bail

An alleged matricidal maniac was ordered held without bail in Manhattan today, charged with fatally stabbing his mother in the chest and nearly fatally slashing and incinerating his brother in their East Harlem apartment Saturday afteroon.

Accused mom-murderer and arsonist David Elias, 31, was led from Manhattan Criminal Court to jail, staggering and swaying as if drugged in his handcuffs and leg chains. He wore a hospital gown, gym shorts and socks, replacements for his blood soaked sweater, pants and shoes.

Elias, 31, has confessed to the attack on his mother, Ruth Montano, 55, and his brother, William, 32, prosecutors said.

"This is a very serious case -- one of the most serious crimes a defendant can commit," assistant district attorney Shawn McMahon told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon in asking successfully for no bail.

"He attacked his brother with a kitchen knife," the prosecutor told the judge. "He stabbed his mother at least twice in the chest."

Elias then allegedly set fire to a couch in the living room, a fire that quickly spread, trapping the injured brother in a back bedroom, the prosecutor said.

As he left the building, which is on Park Avenue near 135th Street, "The defendant's face was covered in blood," as were his sweatshirt, sneakers, pants and shoes, the prosecutor said.

Mom Ruth Montano, 55, had asked her emotionally-disturbed son to leave the apartment as the family members argued, and died trying to save her other son as Elias stabbed him in the head and torso, a law enforcement source told The Post.

"The mother tried to stop him from stabbing the brother," the source said. "That's when she got killed."

Elias, who has been treated for mental illness in the past and did not live at the mother's home, was arrested soon after the attack as he walked in his blood-soaked clothes into 125th Street subway station on Lexington Avenue.

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Noven’s niche: The Miami company is key producer of transdermal patches

At the Noven Pharmaceuticals plant in southwest Miami, scientists and technicians use highly specialized machinery to blend prescription medications and adhesives to make layered transdermal patches that release precise quantities of drugs over time after being applied to a patient’s skin.

Noven, a subsidiary of Japan’s Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical, has about 700 employees nationwide and ranks as a relatively small player among pharma giants. Nonetheless, the company, a leading research and development center for medicinal patches, produces a line of specialty pharmaceuticals and is the U.S. market leader in sales of estrogen patches for women.

“By industry standards, Noven is a small company,” said Jeffrey F. Eisenberg, Noven’s Miami-based president and CEO. “But we have a line of specialized products that competes successfully in the U.S. and overseas. We are experts in developing transdermal patches and produce other pharmaceutical products.”

In one key market — estrogen patches for women — Noven holds about a 68 percent share, he added. And the company has a robust research and development department in Miami at work on a variety of new drugs.

Medications may be delivered to patients orally, via injection or through transdermal patches, which can administer drugs slowly over an extended period of time. While Noven makes products other than medicinal patches, it devotes an important share of resources to transdermal patch technology.

“We have a talented group of scientists who are at the forefront of this specialty,” Eisenberg said. “We have M.D.s, PhDs in biology and chemistry and chemical engineers who specialize in pressure-sensitive adhesives and polymer chemistry.”

Noven has won more than 30 U.S. and 100 international patents and is developing several new drugs. The company recently announced it is making progress on studies to evaluate a new, amphetamine-based transdermal patch for treating Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents. Currently, there is no such patch approved for use with ADHD, the company said.

Noven also has applied to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for approval of a new oral, non-hormonal medication to treat menopausal hot flashes.

Making patches is a complex process that requires the design and development of an ideal combination of drug, adhesive and backing, Eisenberg said. Patches must be formulated so that they will deliver a safe and effective dose of medication over a period of time and adhere to the skin as required.

At the Noven patch facility, which has the capacity for making 500 million patches per year, active drug compounds are mixed with custom adhesives in large, specialized kettles. The mix of drug and adhesive is then applied to sheets of release liner material under very precise tolerances. Noven removes a blending solvent from the compound and applies the backing material, making a three-layer patch. Laminate rolls subsequently are sent to punching, pouching and packing machines (Patches are punched into different sizes.). All of this occurs under strict quality control procedures and is not open to the public.

Noven was founded in 1987 by Steven Sablotsky, a chemical engineer, who had worked for another pharmaceutical firm and was an expert in transdermal patches. Noven went public in 1988 and operated as a publicly-traded company until it was taken over in 2009 by Hisamitsu, a Japanese pharmaceutical company that also manufactures and markets transdermal patches. (Salonpas, an over-the-counter analgesic patch widely advertised in South Florida, is made by Hisamitsu.)

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New Miami-Orlando passenger rail service would build big downtown station

All Aboard Florida, the proposed passenger rail service between Miami and Orlando, would build a big new train station with tracks elevated on a platform four stories up on mostly vacant land between the Government Center and Overtown Metrorail stations in downtown Miami, a report newly issued by the company says.

In an exhaustive environmental assessment report to federal regulators, the company, a subsidiary of Florida East Coast Industries, lays out its preferred location and schematic outlines for three new stations that could become landmarks not just in Miami, but also in the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

The Miami station, by far the largest of the three, would provide train passengers with “a panoramic entry into the city’’ and “a celebrated piece of engineering and architecture,’’ the report by an All Aboard consultant says. The station would be designed by the noted firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill — architects of the signature Southeast Financial Center in Miami and the new Freedom Tower on the site of the World Trade Center in Manhattan — in collaboration with the Miami firm Zyscovich Architects.

That station project would occupy nine acres owned by Florida East Coast and could also encompass two midrise towers for hotel, residential and office use, extensive retail and a garage for 1,050 cars, according to the report. The property was the site of the original train station serving industrialist Henry Flagler’s railroad, which gave rise to the city of Miami. The FEC is the successor to Flagler’s rail company.

In Fort Lauderdale, the contemplated station and train platform would rise on the north side of Broward Boulevard between Northwest Second and First avenues, and the West Palm station would occupy the corner of Quadrille Boulevard and Evernia Street, north of the City Place redevelopment and just west of the resurgent Clematis Street district.

All Aboard and its consultant chose the station locations and layouts from several possibilities as the most feasible, in part because these would eliminate or minimize street closures and traffic delays at busy intersections, the report says.

An All Aboard executive declined comment on the report, noting it is in a 30-day public comment period that precludes proponents from influencing public opinion. All Aboard vice president Husein Cumber said the detailed report, which covers potential impacts on noise, auto traffic, street-crossing safety and waterways and the natural environment, “speaks for itself.’’

Because the passenger service would double-track existing right of way on which an FEC affiliate already runs cargo trains, All Aboard executives have previously said they don’t expect major impacts. Waits for trains to clear street crossings would be just 52 seconds, for instance, the report estimates.

The Fort Lauderdale and West Palm stations straddle existing tracks. The Miami station would connect to existing tracks at Northwest Eighth Street, where the FEC rail line bends northward from its terminus at the Port of Miami.

Raising the Miami station platform and tracks in the air would keep two principal east-west streets, Northwest Fifth and Sixth, open and uninterrupted by train traffic, the report says — as well as provide passengers a dramatic arrival in Miami. The elevated “viaduct’’ would also hurdle over the Metromover guideway and station at Northwest Fifth Street, avoiding the need to reconfigure it.

The 60,000-square-foot station’s main hall would be “light-filled’’ and occupy the space below the platform, the report says. The main entrance would sit across from the new U.S. Courthouse on Northwest First Avenue.

The FEC announced it would proceed with building the passenger service in March following months of study. The company says it will finance and run the $1 billion rail line privately and without public subsidies, expressing confidence that an attractive and frequent train service can siphon off enough of the 50 million tourists, Floridians and business people who now fly or drive between Miami and Orlando to turn a profit.

All Aboard would also build a new rail spur between Cocoa Beach and the Orlando airport, where a planned multimodal center would connect to a new local rail-transit line. The company wants to use public right-of-way along the Beachline Expressway, but the state says it’s required to consider competing bids. Responses to a request for proposals are due Dec. 7.

The company hopes to launch trains in 2014 with hourly service and a three-hour travel time between Miami and Orlando.

Amtrak now provides twice daily service from Miami but it can take longer than five hours to reach Orlando.

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Malaysian charged with Facebook insult of sultan; sister says he’ll file police complaint

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – The sister of a Malaysian man who has been charged with insulting a state sultan on Facebook says he is innocent and plans to lodge a complaint over his detention.

Anisa Abdul Jalil, sister of Ahmad Abdul Jalil, says her brother was charged Thursday with making offensive postings on Facebook last month.

She says the charges are ridiculous because there is no evidence linking Ahmad to the posts in question, which were made by someone using the name “Zul Yahaya.”

Ahmad was freed on bail Thursday after six days of detention. Anisa says he will file a complaint with police for unlawful detention and intimidation.

Nine Malaysian states have sultans and other royal figures. Though their roles are largely ceremonial, acts provoking hatred against them are considered seditious.

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Exclusive New Mike and Molly Clip for Yard Sale Episode

It's never too late for a bit of spring cleaning.

Related: Melissa McCarthy Happy at Any Size

Molly (Melissa McCarthy) decides a yard sale is in order when she realizes her house is too crowded, but it isn't long before the move proves more trouble than it's worth.

Watch an exclusive sneak peek in the player above!

You can catch this new episode of Mike & Molly tonight on CBS.

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Obama honors sacrifice made by nation's veterans (VIDEO)

REUTERS

President Barack Obama pauses after placing a Veterans Day wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., today.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama paid tribute at a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery to "the heroes over the generations who have served this country of ours with distinction."

He said the wreath he laid earlier at Tomb of the Unknowns was intended to remember every service member who has worn a uniform and served the nation.

In a speech at the Memorial Amphitheater during the brisk, sunny morning, Obama said America will never forget the sacrifice made by its veterans and their families.

"No ceremony or parade, no hug or handshake is enough to truly honor that service," the president said, adding that the country must commit every day "to serving you as well as you've served us."

He spoke of the Sept. 11 generation, "who stepped forward when the Towers fell, and in the years since have stepped into history, writing one of the greatest chapters in military service our country has ever known. You've toppled a dictator and battled an insurgency in Iraq. You pushed back the Taliban and decimated al-Qaida in Afghanistan. You delivered justice to Osama bin Laden."

Obama also said this was the first Veterans Day in a decade with no American troops fighting and dying in Iraq, and that a decade of war in Afghanistan is coming to a close.

Over the next few years, he said, more than 1 million service members will make the transition to civilian life. As they come home, Obama urged their fellow citizens to always be there for them and their families.

Later, the president and his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, and Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, greeted families in the cemetery's Section 60, home to graves of service members killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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Gov. Rick Scott may shift stance on health reform law

With the reelection of President Barack Obama, Florida’s Republican leaders are reconsidering their fervent opposition to federal healthcare reform, triggering a discussion that could have huge repercussions for South Florida.

At stake is more than $6 billion in federal funding for Miami-Dade and Broward over the next decade and the possibility of health insurance for a large percentage of the 1.4 million people in the two counties who now lack coverage.

After the defeat of Mitt Romney, who vowed to halt Obama’s healthcare overhaul, the Republican leaders of the Florida House and Senate quickly said the Legislature needed to reexamine the federal act. On Friday evening, Gov. Rick Scott said he agreed there needed to be a discussion.

“Just saying ‘no’ is not an answer,” Scott said in a statement that repeated exactly what Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Destin, the incoming Senate president, told The Miami Herald on Thursday.

“I don’t like this law,” Gaetz also said, “but this is the law, and I believe I have a constitutional obligation to carry it out.” He added that he thinks “there needs to be some adult debate between Republicans and Democrats” on finding ways to make the law work.

Still, Gaetz, Scott and others in the Republican leadership, which controls both the Florida House and Senate, have many criticisms of what both parties now call “Obamacare.” Some are searching for compromises on how it is carried out in the state. What this means for patients and the healthcare industry in Florida — particularly South Florida — remains an enormous question mark.

Time is running short for decisions as the once-distant consequences of the Affordable Care Act are scheduled to kick in during the next 14 months.

The first deadline is Friday. That’s when states must tell Washington whether they plan to set up exchanges — marketplaces where individuals can purchase insurance at discounted group rates and cannot be denied because of pre-existing conditions.

Florida’s political leaders acknowledge they won’t make the deadline. The exchanges are scheduled to start Jan. 1, 2014, and if a state doesn’t set up an exchange, its residents can participate in a federal exchange.

The next provision starts Jan. 1 with an increase in Medicaid fees for primary care physicians. Primary care physicians, who have long complained about low rates for Medicaid, which provides coverage for the poor, are scheduled to be paid at considerably higher Medicare rates — with the feds picking up all of the added cost. But such a pay hike can only happen with the approval of the governor and Legislature, and it’s unclear whether that will happen.

The following year, on Jan. 1, 2014, the biggest changes are slated to start, including a major expansion of people covered by Medicaid. An analysis from the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida shows that if the state doesn’t expand coverage, Florida will lose $27.9 billion in federal funds over 10 years.

That breaks down to a $4.5 billion loss for Miami-Dade during that time, and a $2.3 billion loss for Broward, according to the alliance’s analysis.

Under the law, Washington will pay all Medicaid expansion costs for the first three years, but then the states would have to pay up to 10 percent of the costs in following years — an expense that the Safety Net Alliance calculates will come to $1.7 billion over 10 years in Florida. The expansion could provide coverage to an additional million-plus Floridians. Reform supporters say the expansion would provide cheaper basic care that would help prevent serious illnesses that lead to expensive hospital stays.

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