Pressure on for a Super Bowl Boat Show

Miami-Dade’s tourism bureau faces more pressure to endorse holding the 2016 Super Bowl during the Miami International Boat Show and drop objections that there aren’t enough hotel rooms in the Miami area to handle both events.

On Tuesday the mayor of Miami-Dade County, which helps fund the bureau, all but endorsed holding both events on the same weekend if the National Football League opts to move the championship game to President’s Day Weekend, the Boat Show’s home for decades.

“We can hold two parties at once,’’ Mayor Carlos Gimenez said during a County Commission discussion on pursuing the Super Bowl.

The Miami Dolphins and the team’s backers on the South Florida Super Bowl organizing committee contend downtown Miami is capable of holding Super Bowl during Boat Show, which is primarily based at the Miami Beach Convention Center. On Tuesday, the committee picked a downtown Miami hotel to announce new celebrity spokesmen for the region’s Super Bowl bid: Dolphin greats Bob Griese, Dan Marino and Jason Taylor.

“I think every Super Bowl, personally, should be in South Florida,’’ Marino said from the stage at the Intercontinental Miami hotel on downtown’s waterfront. “I’ve been telling people that for years.”

South Florida is competing against San Francisco for 2016, and the loser will take on Houston for the 2017 Super Bowl. Though South Florida has already hosted a record 10 Super Bowls, the latest campaign for the big game has brought new tensions.

For the first time, Broward and Miami-Dade were required to make separate presentations to the Super Bowl group, which intends to pick one “urban core” to be the hub for pre-game activities. Meanwhile, team executives are still mulling another push for tax dollars to renovate Sun Life Stadium, improvements NFL executives have said would help South Florida’s Super Bowl bid.

Broward’s tourism director, Nicki Grossman, drove from Fort Lauderdale to Miami for the Super Bowl committee’s first public event for the 2016 bid. The presentation included unveiling the group’s new logo featuring palm trees and the Roman numerals of the Super Bowls held in the Dolphins’ home stadium since 1968.

In past years, the Host Committee has held bid events at Sun Life Stadium. Rodney Barreto, a partner in one of Miami-Dade’s top lobby firms and long-time chair of the Super Bowl committee, said picking the Intercontinental for the unveiling wasn’t a sign that Miami leads Fort Lauderdale in the competition. “We have not made a decision,” he said. “We feel this is neutral territory.”

William Talbert, president of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, attended the event but declined to talk to The Miami Herald about the Boat Show issue afterward. He has said publicly and privately that he does not believe Miami-Dade’s 45,000 hotel rooms are enough to accommodate Super Bowl and Boat Show — not to mention the other major Miami event on President’s Day weekend , the Coconut Grove Arts Festival.

With NFL owners pushing the players’ union for an extended season, the league has begun asking cities to prepare for a Super Bowl held later than usual. In 2010 and 2011, the NFL requested that cities bid on three potential weekends for future Super Bowls, including President’s Day. But given the Boat Show conflict, South Florida declined and instead offered Super Bowl proposals for the other two weekends. South Florida lost out both times.

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Accused swindler Claudio Osorio stuck in jail without bond before Miami fraud trial

Claudio Osorio once lived in a Star Island mansion overlooking Biscayne Bay.

Today the accused international con man remains stuck in a tiny jail cell in downtown Miami.

Arrested earlier this month, Osorio is awaiting trial on federal charges accusing him of fleecing $50 million from investors and the U.S. government.

Osorio’s defense attorney, Orlando do Campo, said Monday his client chose not to challenge the government’s position that he should be held without bail, citing a recent problem in his bankruptcy case. Osorio, 54, is being held in the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami.

Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman originally granted Osorio a $1 million bond, including a $100,000 deposit to be made by his mother-in-law who lives in his native Venezuela. But the judge put it on hold so that a federal prosecutor, a bankruptcy trustee and Osorio’s bankruptcy lawyer could address a dispute over the source of the defendant’s funds.

The bankruptcy trustee is seeking to have Osorio found in contempt of court for allegedly forging a letter from a Canadian bank that purportedly claimed it had turned over all financial records related to his defunct company, InnoVida Holdings.

Osorio is accused of using the Miami Beach-based company, which claimed to produce high-tech building panels for low-cost housing in Haiti and other countries, to deceive investors and boost his lifestyle.

Last year, a bankruptcy judge ordered Osorio to sell the one major asset that belonged to him and his wife, Amarilis. The couple auctioned their one-acre, two-story Star Island home with infinity pool for $12.7 million. The sale of the heavily mortgaged property generated millions for banks and other lenders, and some money for his burned investors, including NBA star Carlos Boozer and Miami-Dade businessman Chris Korge.

Osorio, who once hosted fundraisers for Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and other big-time politicians at the Star Island home, was allowed to keep at least $500,000 of the sales proceeds.

In July, he and his wife paid nearly $924,000 for a four-bedroom, five-bathroom condominium in Aventura — but now federal prosecutors have moved to seize the property as part of the criminal case, which was investigated by the FBI.

According to an indictment, Osorio conspired to swindle $40 million from 10 investors and an additional $10 million from a federal government program between 2006 and 2011. He was formerly charged with wire fraud and money laundering.

A codefendant, Craig S. Toll, 64, of Pembroke Pines, who worked as InnoVida’s chief financial officer, was granted a $50,000 bond before trial. Toll’s attorney, Richard Klugh, said his client should not have been named in the indictment because he has committed no wrongdoing.

The indictment also refers to an “unindicted co-conspirator” who personally benefitted from Osorio’s alleged business scam. Although not identified by name, the co-conspirator is Osorio’s wife, Amarilis, according to sources familiar with the case.

The wife attended Monday’s bond hearing, but said nothing.

The arraignment for Osorio and Toll is set for Friday.

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Django Unchained Cancels Premiere Due to CT Shooting

Quentin Tarantino's 'Southern' gun-slinging film, Django Unchained, has become the latest film to cancel its premiere out of respect for those affected by the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting last week.

RELATED: Celebs Tweet Reactions to CT School Shooting

The Weinstein Company, the film production company behind the movie, released the following statement to ET: "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the tragedy in Newtown, CT and in this time of national mourning we have decided to forgo our scheduled event. However, we will be holding a private screening for the cast and crew and their friends and families."

Django Unchained's premiere was originally scheduled for tomorrow, December 18.

Tom Cruise's film Jack Reacher and the Billy Crystal/Bette Midler comedy Parental Guidance also altered their premiere dates -- both scheduled for last Saturday. Parental Guidance canceled their Saturday engagement, while Jack Reacher postponed their premiere for a later date.

A Jack Reacher screening scheduled for tonight was also canceled.

"The Film Society of Lincoln Center has postponed tonight's screening and conversation with Tom Cruise to benefit the 50th anniversary fund," the Film Society of Lincoln Center said in a statement released today. "Out of respect for the families who lost loved ones in Newtown, Connecticut, we are postponing tonight's event. We extend our love and condolences to you. Our community grieves with yours."

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Ex-con with Gambino ties found guilty of bank robbery and gun charges

An ex-con with links to the Gambino crime family was found guilty of bank robbery and firearms charges today after a mob associate flipped to testify against him.

A jury in Brooklyn federal court deliberated for less than two hours before convicting Gary Fama.

Fama, 47, who has previous convictions on firearms and drug charges, faces 17 years in prison when he is sentenced by Judge William Kuntz II.

His accomplice, Gambino associate Jack Mannino, 44, has cut a deal with prosecutors and is awaiting sentencing.

Mannino - who has 24 New York bank heists under his belt and was dubbed the “Seven Second Bandit” for his speedy robberies - testified that he and and Fama held up a Capital One Bank in Bensonhurst last Dec. 29.

Gary Fama , bank robber surveillance photos @ December 29, 2011 robbery of a Capitol One Bank on New Utrecht Ave. Brooklyn

They fled the bank with a bag of cash, but things went awry when a dye pack exploded inside the money pouch, and the transmission blew out on their getaway car, Mannino told the jury.

They panicked after hearing sirens of responding police cars and jumped out of the Lexus - leaving behind a wallet and cellphone, Mannino said.

That helped FBI agents track them down.

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Miami in spotlight at AVCC, other entrepreneurship events

Entrepreneurs from around the world took the stage during this packed week of entrepreneurship events in Miami: Florida International University’s Americas Venture Capital Conference (known as AVCC), HackDay, Wayra’s Global DemoDay and Endeavor’s International Selection Panel.

The events, all part of the first Innovate MIA week, also put the spotlight on Miami as it continues to try to develop into a technology hub for the Americas.

“While I like art, I absolutely love what is happening today... The time has come to become a tech hub in Miami,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez, who kicked off the venture capital conference on Thursday. He told the audience of 450 investors and entrepreneurs about the county’s $1 million investment in the Launch Pad Tech Accelerator in downtown Miami.

“I have no doubt that this gathering today will produce new ideas and new business ventures that will put our community on a fast track to becoming a center for innovative, tech-driven entrepreneurship,” Gimenez said.

Brad Feld, an early-stage investor and a founder of TechStars, cautioned that won’t happen overnight. Building a startup community can take five, 10, even 15 years, and those leading the effort, who should be entrepreneurs themselves, need to take the long-term view, he told the audience via video. “You can create very powerful entrepreneurial ecosystems in any city... I’ve spent some time in Miami, I think you are off to a great start.”

Throughout the two-day AVCC at the JW Brickell Marriott, as well as the Endeavor and Wayra events, entrepreneurs from around the world pitched their companies, hoping to persuade investors to part with some of their green.

And in some cases, the entrepreneurs could win money, too. During the venture capital conference, 29 companies —including eight from South Florida such as itMD, which connects doctors, patients and imaging facilities to facilitate easy access of records — competed for more than $50,000 in cash and prizes through short “elevator’’ pitches. Each took questions from the judges, then demoed their products or services in the conference “Hot Zone,” a room adjoining the ballroom. Some companies like oLyfe, a platform to organize what people share online, are hoping to raise funds for expansion into Latin America. Others like Ideame, a trilingual crowdfunding platform, were laser focused on pan-Latin American opportunities.

Winning the grand prize of $15,000 in cash and art was Trapezoid Digital Security of Miami, which provides hardware-based security solutions for enterprise and cloud environments. Fotopigeon of Tampa, a photo-sharing and printing service targeting the military and prison niches, scored two prizes.

The conference offered opportunities to hear formal presentations on current trends — among them the surge of start-ups in Brazil; the importance of mobile apps and overheated company valuations — and informal opportunities to connect with fellow entrepreneurs.

Speakers included Gaston Legorburu of SapientNitro, Albert Santalo of CareCloud and Juan Diego Calle of .Co Internet, all South Florida entrepreneurs. Jerry Haar, executive director of FIU’s Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center, which produced the conference with a host of sponsors, said the organizers worked hard to make the conference relevant to both the local and Latin American audience, with panels on funding and recruiting for startups, for instance.

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Doyle Conner, longtime Florida ag commissioner, dies at 83

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Doyle Conner, the youngest House speaker in Florida history who went on to spend 30 years as the state's agriculture commissioner, died Sunday. He was 83.

Conner, who had been in poor health in recent years, died Sunday morning at the Cross Landing Nursing Home in Monticello. The Bevis Funeral Home in Tallahassee said it had received his body and was handling funeral arrangements. Conner would have been 84 on Monday.

“Our state has lost a great Floridian with the passing of Doyle Conner,” said current agriculture commissioner Adam Putnam. “Doyle was a mentor to me and defined the role of Commissioner of Agriculture for all others to follow. My prayers are with his family and the thoughts of the entire department are on him at this time.”

Florida's agriculture sales increased from $900 million when Conner was elected commissioner in 1960 to $6.2 billion by the time he left the post. Hog cholera was eradicated during the same period and Florida developed a method for detecting the Mediterranean fruit fly that became the worldwide standard.

He also created the Office of Consumer Services, now an official part of the agency formally known as the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Born Dec. 17, 1928, in the north Florida town of Starke, Conner was elected to the Florida House in 1950 at the age of 21 during his sophomore year at the University of Florida after getting his start in politics as the state president of Future Farmers of America.

A Democrat at the time his party held a virtual stranglehold on Florida, Conner won re-election to subsequent terms and was selected speaker in 1957 at the age of 28.

After five terms in the House, he was elected agriculture commissioner shortly before his 32nd birthday. Conner handily won re-election until his retirement in January 1991.

“These past 30 years have been mostly exhilarating, sometimes disappointing, but never, ever dull,” Conner said upon leaving office.

The agency has widespread responsibilities, ranging from inspecting red meat, poultry and dairy products to testing the accuracy of fuel pumps at Florida's service stations and ensuring the safety of the state's citrus crop.

When Conner first took office, the department also supervised the state prisons system and managed public land matters – responsibilities reassigned after its reorganization in 1969.

Conner's management style engendered lifetime loyalties from former associates.

“In all the time I worked for him, he had a policy that anytime any employee wanted to come to visit him they could have a 15-minute appointment to talk about whatever they wanted,” said Lee Hinkle, now a vice president at Florida State University, who worked for Conner eight years. “He was principled, a gentleman and understood the true politics of the South: Respect for people of both parties and respect for the process.”

During his college days, Conner was president of UF's agriculture club and a member of Florida Blue Key. He was later president of the university's national alumni association.

Conner, who grew up raising livestock and farming on 400 acres, retired to country life near Lloyd in Jefferson County after leaving his Cabinet post.

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Be Careful When Downloading Your Twitter Archive

Twitter is rolling out the long-awaited feature of downloading your entire tweet history, it seems, but be careful. You might not like what you find in there. Sometimes we remember our tweets with rose-colored lenses.

RELATED: ‘Human Virus’ Snakes Through Twitter

The Next Web was the first to notice a few users posting about being able to download their tweet history this weekend. Not everyone can do it, though. Twitter is slow-rolling the new feature, so only a limited number of people have access to the option. To check if you’re one of the lucky few, go to your settings page. At the very bottom there should be a new section with a big button offering you the chance to download your archive. Twitter will send you an email with three different compression files of your tweet history after a few minutes. You’ll decompress a .html file and be able to sort through all the dumb stuff you’ve said on Twitter by month and by year. 

RELATED: Twitter Finally Grows Up

The Verge has the best screen shots of what the process looks like. One of their readers even posted a link to his history in the comments of their post. You can check it out here if you’re interested to see what the feature is like. Just don’t judge the poor guy too harshly. 

RELATED: Sexy Piggy Banks, Analogies and Haley Barbour

We don’t have the option to download our archive yet. We checked. And, in case you think you’re clever, we checked to see if you could game the url to get your history by subbing in your username into the Verge commenter’s URL. You can’t, unfortunately. 

RELATED: Arm Wrestling, Strangers and Pricey Prophylactics

Twitter CEO Dick Costello promised the feature would be here by the end of the year, so it seems like he’s just delivering what he promised. You should get it soon, too. 

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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The Hobbit Breaks December Box Office Records

Peter Jackson's feature film adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit set a new box office record this weekend with an estimated $84 million in U.S. ticket sales.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey made history as the biggest December opening of all time for its first week. The flick also stands as the highest first-weekend earner among Jackson's Lord of the Rings films (without adjustments for inflation).

Related: 'The Hobbit' Stars on 'Returning to Middle-Earth'

In a far second, the family friendly Rise of the Guardians earned $7.4 million. Stephen Spielberg's Lincoln placed a close third with $7.2 million.

Skyfall, the latest James Bond film starring Daniel Craig, took in $7 million for forth. Life of Pi rounded out the top five with $5.4 million.

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Man fires 50 shots at Calif. mall parking lot, sending crowds running for cover — then 'just gives up'; no one hurt

AP

Orange County Sheriff deputies at the Fashion Island mall in Newport Beach, Calif., where a man fired some 50 rounds — hitting no one — just a day after the Newtown massacre

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — A suspect who fired about 50 shots in the parking lot of a crowded Southern California shopping mall, sending shoppers sprinting for safety, was cooperative when officers took him into custody, authorities said Sunday.

Witnesses said people ran, screaming and ducking for cover, when 42-year-old Marcos Gurrola fired into the air and onto the ground Saturday afternoon near the Macy's department store at the open-air Fashion Island mall in Newport Beach.

AP

Suspect Marcos Gurrola gave up without a fight after causing mall panic.

He paused to reload several times, police said.

Then Gurrola put the gun down and offered no resistance when bicycle officers arrested him around 4:30 p.m., said Lt. John Lewis.

"He just gave up," Lewis said.

Investigators have no motive, Lewis said.

Gurrola, of Garden Grove, was charged with shooting at an inhabited dwelling. He was being held Sunday on $250,000 bail. Police recovered a handgun and ammunition.

Officials said one person suffered a minor injury while running away, and was treated at the scene.

The gunfire caused panic, coming a day after a gunman killed 26 children and adults at a Connecticut elementary school, and days after a deadly mall shooting in Oregon.

The mall, near Pacific Coast Highway in the heart of Newport Beach, was crowded with holiday shoppers and the parking lot was full. Many people ran into stores, a movie theater and other businesses.

"It's a miracle nobody got injured," said Sven Maric, who said he was celebrating his wife's birthday at a restaurant patio about 50 yards away. "The bullets had to land somewhere, and he shot so many."

Some stores voluntarily closed their doors and kept shoppers inside while police investigated.

Bret McGaughey, 22, of Laguna Beach, said he was with his mom in the Apple store when shoppers ran to the rear of the store as employees locked the front entrance. He estimated that up to 100 people stayed in the back of the store for about 30 minutes until Apple employees announced that police said it was safe to reopen the doors.

Gurrola is a licensed security guard whose firearm permit expired in 2001, according to the Orange County Register, which cited state records.

Gurrola doesn't appear to have a criminal record, the newspaper said.

A telephone number for a Marcos Gurrola was disconnected.

On Tuesday, a gunman at an Oregon shopping mall killed two people and wounded a third amid a holiday crowd estimated at 10,000 people. Clackamas County authorities are still trying to determine why the gunman opened fire before killing himself.

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Miami in spotlight at AVCC, other entrepreneurship events

Entrepreneurs from around the world took the stage during this packed week of entrepreneurship events in Miami: Florida International University’s Americas Venture Capital Conference (known as AVCC), HackDay, Wayra’s Global DemoDay and Endeavor’s International Selection Panel.

The events, all part of the first Innovate MIA week, also put the spotlight on Miami as it continues to try to develop into a technology hub for the Americas.

“While I like art, I absolutely love what is happening today... The time has come to become a tech hub in Miami,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez, who kicked off the venture capital conference on Thursday. He told the audience of 450 investors and entrepreneurs about the county’s $1 million investment in the Launch Pad Tech Accelerator in downtown Miami.

“I have no doubt that this gathering today will produce new ideas and new business ventures that will put our community on a fast track to becoming a center for innovative, tech-driven entrepreneurship,” Gimenez said.

Brad Feld, an early-stage investor and a founder of TechStars, cautioned that won’t happen overnight. Building a startup community can take five, 10, even 15 years, and those leading the effort, who should be entrepreneurs themselves, need to take the long-term view, he told the audience via video. “You can create very powerful entrepreneurial ecosystems in any city... I’ve spent some time in Miami, I think you are off to a great start.”

Throughout the two-day AVCC at the JW Brickell Marriott, as well as the Endeavor and Wayra events, entrepreneurs from around the world pitched their companies, hoping to persuade investors to part with some of their green.

And in some cases, the entrepreneurs could win money, too. During the venture capital conference, 29 companies —including eight from South Florida such as itMD, which connects doctors, patients and imaging facilities to facilitate easy access of records — competed for more than $50,000 in cash and prizes through short “elevator’’ pitches. Each took questions from the judges, then demoed their products or services in the conference “Hot Zone,” a room adjoining the ballroom. Some companies like oLyfe, a platform to organize what people share online, are hoping to raise funds for expansion into Latin America. Others like Ideame, a trilingual crowdfunding platform, were laser focused on pan-Latin American opportunities.

Winning the grand prize of $15,000 in cash and art was Trapezoid Digital Security of Miami, which provides hardware-based security solutions for enterprise and cloud environments. Fotopigeon of Tampa, a photo-sharing and printing service targeting the military and prison niches, scored two prizes.

The conference offered opportunities to hear formal presentations on current trends — among them the surge of start-ups in Brazil; the importance of mobile apps and overheated company valuations — and informal opportunities to connect with fellow entrepreneurs.

Speakers included Gaston Legorburu of SapientNitro, Albert Santalo of CareCloud and Juan Diego Calle of .Co Internet, all South Florida entrepreneurs. Jerry Haar, executive director of FIU’s Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center, which produced the conference with a host of sponsors, said the organizers worked hard to make the conference relevant to both the local and Latin American audience, with panels on funding and recruiting for startups, for instance.

Read More..