Miami mothers fight cause of mental impairment

Almost from the beginning, Michele Kaplan knew something was amiss.

Her son Matthew’s childhood milestones – walking, talking – were delayed.

“We knew we had a developmental problem and after going to pediatricians and geneticists, he was finally diagnosed,’’ says Kaplan, 37, of Miami. “I don’t know what is scarier: not knowing what was wrong, or getting the diagnosis of such a rare syndrome.’’

Matthew, now 7, has Fragile X, a genetic syndrome that causes intellectual disability and is most commonly found in boys. The diagnosis sent Kaplan scrambling to seek treatment options and find other families in a similar position. She had little success. That scarcity of support and help in navigating the still-developing Fragile X world inspired Kaplan, along with another mother, to establish a foundation.

The Families for Fragile X foundation, now celebrating its fifth anniversary, has offered support for dozens of families with children diagnosed with the condition. To mark the anniversary, the non-profit foundation is hosting a fundraiser 5K trail run/walk Saturday at Virginia Key along with other activities for children.

“For parents dealing with Fragile X, it is difficult and a very long road. Often, they have already had concerns when the child is, say, 14 or 15 months, when they are already experiencing delays, but in so many cases, they are not diagnosed until they are 3 years old,’’ said Dr. Deborah Barbouth, director of the South Florida Fragile X Clinic, which currently serves about 60 families. “We know through research that early intervention can really help which is why education is so important.’’

Fragile X is the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability and the leading genetic cause of autism. An estimated 1 in 4,000 males and 1 in 8,000 females have the condition. Behaviors and characteristics include developmental delays, anxiety and hyperactivity, elongated faces and protruding ears.

So far, the foundation has raised more than $500,000 to aid in medical research and education, some of which benefits the South Florida Fragile X clinic, part of the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine. The foundation has provided 12 grants to needy families for evaluations at the clinic – each ranging from $500 to $2,500 -- one of first critical steps to addressing the condition. It has also sponsored educational conferences and pushed for early Fragile X screening.

“Fragile X is overwhelming in the sense that your world changes as you try to deal with the behavioral issues. That’s why it’s so important to have a strong support system,’’ said Kaplan, a wife and mother of three children. “We want to make it as easy as possible for families facing Fragile X.’’

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New Trailer: Aaron Eckhart in 'Erased'

Looks like Aaron Eckhart has taken a cue from Taken with his new action-thriller Erased, playing a former CIA agent who must protect his alienated teen from killers looking to have him and his family, well, erased. Watch the edge-of-your-seat trailer…

Pics: Stars Who Have Played the President

In theaters May 10 (and On Demand April 5), Erased finds Eckhart as ex-CIA operative Ben Logan who moves to Belgium with his teen daughter (played by Liana Liberato) to make a fresh start. When his workplace literally disappears and forces conspire to erase his involvement as head of security for the company, he embarks on a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in an effort to uncover the truth behind the corporate conspiracy. Olga Kurylenko also stars as a CIA agent assigned to track Logan down, no matter what the costs.

Video: Eckhart is the Prez Under Fire in 'Olympus'

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Tavern on the Green re-opening in jeopardy

Tavern on the Green is running out of green before it even re-opens, The Post has learned.

The cash crunch threatens the expected fall re-launch of the Central Park restaurant, sources said.

Philadelphia-based restaurateurs Jim Caiola and David Salama need more dough to cover operating costs at the landmark eatery when it re-opens later this year after their financial backer tightened the purse strings.

“Their backer is not coming up with as much [cash] as they expected, so they are looking for extra funds,” confirmed Steven Hall, a rep for Caiola’s and Salama’s Emerald Green Group.

A hospitality industry insider with access to big bucks confirmed he was approached by Emerald Green to help find an alternative cash supply.

Emerald Green’s backer is Capital Spring, several sources said, which provides debt, equity and “creative capital” for restaurants and franchises, according to its Web site.

Emerald Green aims to open Tavern’s doors to the public in November or December. The city is spending $10 million to restore the buildings to their original 19th century state with new landscaping and an outdoor terrace, while Emerald Green is paying for up to $10 million of interior work.

Under a 20-year license agreement with the Parks Department, Emerald Green will pay the city the greater of $1 million or 6 percent of revenue the first year, rising to $1 million or 15 percent annually in later years.

The city still plans to turn the keys over to Emerald Green in July, and sources emphasized the cash shortfall has not interfered with the company’s ongoing construction and cooperation with city agencies.

But the problem could hit home when the Philly boys have to start paying for food, labor and utilities, which can be tens of millions of dollars annually.

Although smaller than the old Tavern, the new eatery will still have 600 seats indoors and out.

The new Tavern is expected to have about 120 employees compared with 400 in the past. Although Emerald Green has a peace pact with Local 6 of the New York Hotel Trades Council, which previously represented Tavern employees, a new contract still must be nailed down.

Representatives for Capital Spring at 950 Third Ave. didn’t return calls.

Reached at her Brooklyn home, Katy Sparks, the 3-star chef who will run Tavern on the Green’s kitchen, said she “knew nothing” about any financing issue, adding that she had been at the Tavern site just last week.

Through their rep, Caiola and Salama declined to comment.

Asked to comment on the financing glitch, Parks Dept. spokesman Arthur Pincus said only, “The city’s work on Tavern on the Green is continuing as is the concessionaire’s.”

The looming cash crunch is only the latest embarrassment for the Bloomberg administration at the site.

Tavern, once the nation’s highest-grossing restaurant, has been dark for three years since the city refused to renew Jennifer LeRoy’s license. An attempt by Boathouse Café owner Dean Poll to re-open it crashed and burned over union issues.

Last summer, the city surprised the restaurant world by choosing little-known Emerald Green, which runs a small Philadelphia creperie, to bring Tavern on the Green back to life.

In addition to questions raised about Emerald Green’s limited track record, Post City Hall Bureau Chief David Seifman revealed that Salama is the brother-in-law of former Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey, a close pal of Mayor Bloomberg and a top executive at Bloomberg LP.

The city denied favoritism played any role in choosing Emerald Green. Comptroller John Liu, after saying his office would “investigate” the selection, signed off the license agreement last fall.

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Don’t get too personal on LinkedIn

Have you ever received a request to connect on LinkedIn from someone you didn’t know or couldn’t remember?

A few weeks ago, Josh Turner encountered this situation. The online request to connect came from a businessman on the opposite coast of the United States. It came with a short introduction that ended with “Let’s go Blues!” a reference to Turner’s favorite hockey team in St. Louis that he had mentioned in his profile. “It was a personal connection … that’s building rapport.”

LinkedIn is known for being the professional social network where members expect you to keep buttoned-down behavior and network online like you would at a business event. With more than 200 million registered users, the site facilitates interaction as a way to boost your stature, gain a potential customer or rub elbows with a future boss.

But unlike most other social networking sites, LinkedIn is all about business — and you need to take special care that you act accordingly. As in any workplace, the right amount of personal information sharing could be the foot in the door, say experts. The wrong amount could slam it closed.

“Anyone in business needs a professional online presence,’’ says Vanessa McGovern, the VP of Business Development for the Global Institute for Travel Entrepreneurs and a consultant to business owners on how to use LinkedIn. But they should also heed LinkedIn etiquette or risk sending the wrong messages.

One of the biggest mistakes, McGovern says is getting too personal — or not personal enough.

Sending a request to connect blindly equates to cold calling and likely will lead nowhere. Instead, it should come with a personal note, an explanation of who you are, where you met, or how the connection can benefit both parties, McGovern explains.

Your profile should get a little personal, too, she says. “Talk about yourself in the first person and add a personal flair — your goals, your passion … make yourself seem human.”

Beyond that, keep your LinkedIn posts, invitations, comments and photos professional, McGovern says.

If you had a hard day at the office or your child just won an award, you may want to share it with your personal network elsewhere — but not on LinkedIn.

“This is not Facebook. Only share what you would share at a professional networking event,” she says.

Another etiquette pitfall on LinkedIn is the hit and run — making a connection and not following up.

At least once a week, Ari Rollnick, a principal in kabookaboo, an integrated marketing agency in Coral Gables, gets a request to connect with someone on LinkedIn that he has never met or heard of before. The person will have no connections in common and share no information about why they want to build a rapport.

“I won’t accept. That’s a lost opportunity for them,” Rollnick says.

He approaches it differently. When Rollnick graduated from Emory with an MBA in 2001, he had a good idea that his classmates would excel in the business world. Now, Rollnick wanted to find out just where they went and reestablish a connection.

With a few clicks, he tracked down dozens of them on LinkedIn, requested a connection, and was back on their radar. Then came the follow-up — letting them know through emails, phone calls and posts that he was creating a two-way street for business exchange. “Rather than make that connection and disappearing , I let them know I wanted to open the door to conversation.”

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More misconduct allegations arise at Citizens

TALLAHASSEE --
In an attempt to clear its name after a series of scandals involving corporate misconduct and improper spending, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. released a laundry list of 474 internal complaints Wednesday.

While Citizens released the documents to prove that it has properly handled allegations of misconduct in recent years, the move also shined an embarrassing light on much of the company’s internal dirty laundry. The list of complaints reads like a trove of office sex affairs, corporate corruption, fraud, workplace pornography, discrimination, theft and other allegations. In at least one case, a Citizens employee swiped his corporate credit card at a strip club. Names of employees were not disclosed. But law enforcement authorities were alerted in cases of possible alleged criminal activity.

“This review is an important piece of Citizens’ ongoing efforts to strengthen internal policies to ensure that our employees are held to the highest standards of corporate integrity,” said company president Barry Gilway, in a statement. The company stated that “all complaints were addressed and corrective action taken in accordance with Citizens’ policies in place at the time.”

The release of the complaint information is the latest dustup for Citizens, which is still reeling from revelations about lavish corporate spending, large raises for executives and various allegations of impropriety.

Gilway has said that he was immediately hit with news of various corporate scandals when he joined the company last June. After taking what he called “a bashing in the press,” Gilway asked Citizens’ Internal Auditor, Joe Martins, to look over the company’s handling of misconduct allegations. Martins — who disbanded the company’s Corporate Integrity Office and gutted one of its most scathing reports — found that Citizens had handled internal complaints well over the last five years.

“Where we found weaknesses, we are making necessary improvements to strengthen our complaints and disciplinary procedures,” Martins said in a statement. Many of the complaints involved run-of-the-mill employee grievances, such as a supervisor “wearing too much cologne.”

But others involved more serious allegations, including fraud and improper gifts from vendors who do business with Citizens, a multibillion-dollar company backed by state taxpayers.

The release comes as Citizens is looking to reform itself after a series of scandals. Over the past year, the Herald/Times has documented evidence of luxurious business trips, drunken exploits on company retreats, large raises for executives and the abrupt firing of four internal investigators. Many of the misconduct allegations surfaced as Citizens was raising rates on homeowners and reducing coverage.

Before it was disbanded, the Office of Corporate Integrity was responsible for investigating many of the complaints listed in Wednesday’s document release.

The abrupt firing of the OCI investigators — who had recently discovered evidence of misconduct by Citizens’ highest executives — led to allegations that the company was seeking to cover up the group’s findings. In addition to huge severance packages for disgraced executives, the investigators found that Citizens had mishandled several internal complaints and shown favoritism to some employees, including top execs.

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My Strange Addiction: Audrey's Stuffed Lamb

27-year-old Audrey shares a "spiritual connection" with her stuffed lamb.

The young woman, who carries a pint-sized powder blue plush everywhere she goes, is profiled in Wednesday's My Strange Addiction.

Pics: Star Sightings

"The lamb is my best friend," she explains of the animal who's been her companion for five years. "He is really just carefree, adventurous and awesome."

Audrey's sister, however, is not a fan.

"[Her] relationship with the lamb is strange," says her concerned sibling Ansley. "She's in her '20s and she's got a stuffed animal that she wants to take around."

Related: 'Addicted To Fame'

Watch a sneak preview in the player above!

This episode of My Strange Addiction, also featuring a woman addicted to eating deodorant sticks, airs tonight at 10pm on TLC.

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Fortune teller pleads not guilty in $150K scheme

Manhattan prosecutors have thrown the book at a pretty Greenwich Village fortune teller, charging her in a 16-count indictment with scheming to steal $150,000 from two customers.

Brunette beauty Sylvia Mitchell, 38, turned heads in a trimly-tailored black cocktail dress as she pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court to scheme to defraud and grand larceny.

"This defendant masquerades as a fortune teller, swindling people out of tens of thousands of dollars," prosecutor James Bergamo told the judge of Mitchell, who works out of the "Zena Clairvoyant" shop on Seventh Avenue.

Steven Hirsch

Sylvia Mitchell in court.

Mitchell is accused of stealing more than $120,000 from one customer, Singapore-native Lee Choong, 40, by taking her money in exchange for "cleansing" the woman of "bad spirits." The second victim allegedly lost some $28,000.

Even in Central Booking after her arrest this month, Mitchell couldn't help engaging in a little pro-bono clairvoyance, according to police statements released by officials following today's brief court appearance.

"Do you have kids?" she asked one cop. "I knew you had too boys," she added, knowingly.

Defense lawyer Joseph Murray told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro that he will seek to try the two cases separately.

"This indictment is not worth the paper it is printed on and I look forward to defending my client against this smear campaign being perpetrated against her by the NYPD, and the Manhattan DA's office," the lawyer told The Post after court.

Investigators took "desperate efforts to convince previously happy and satisfied clients of Ms. Mitchell that they are really not happy and are actually crime victims," he complained.

Mitchell remains free on no bail and is due back in court in May.

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Appeal court says dispute over island is Bahamian issue

The ownership of a private island in the Bahamas that was previously a retreat of the late, prominent South Florida designer James Wallace Tutt III — and which has been at the center of a five-year legal dispute — is now in the hands of the Bahamian court.

The Third District Court of Appeal in Miami on Wednesday affirmed three lower court judges’ decisions that the matter has to be decided in the Bahamas and not in Miami.

Tutt, an interior designer and developer whose elegant style attracted celebrity clients including Cher, Gianni Versace, Robert De Niro and Diane von Furstenberg, died in 2010 at age 53 on Harbour Island in the Bahamas. His death was apparently heart related, according to a statement from his family at the time.

Tutt moved to South Florida in the 1980s after working as a lawyer and builder in Washington, D.C.

Here, he gained notoriety for transforming the mansion of the late Italian designer Versace into Casa Casuarina, a South Beach icon.

Tutt and his life partner, Don Purdy, moved to Harbour Island in 2002, where they transformed a 1940s home into a luxury 10-room hotel, Rock House.

Tutt also bought Caribe Cay, a three-acre private island with a home, off Harbour Island, as a retreat.

In 2006, Tutt agreed to sell the island to Guy Mitchell, an investor with a home in Coral Gables, said Tutt’s longtime lawyer Stuart Sobel, a partner in Siegfried, Rivera, Lerner, De la Torre & Sobel in Coral Gables.

Over several months, Mitchell paid $2.9 million of the $2.925 million purchase price but never took title to the island for reasons that were never clear, Sobel said.

Mitchell, who had real estate investments in New York, ran into financial trouble, and two companies that had judgments totaling $57 million against him tried to seize his assets — including either the Caribe Cay property or the proceeds from its sale.

Lawsuits followed and have waged on for years, ultimately resulting in the appeal court’s decision.

“We’re looking forward to delivering the deed to whichever entity the Bahamian court decides is entitled,” said Sobel, who has represented Tutt’s estate in the litigation. “As the court wrote, while the facts were complex and convoluted, the issues were really simple and always have been.”

Calls to several attorneys representing the appellants were not returned.

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Woman dies during Key Biscayne scuba dive excursion

A “disturbing” accident Sunday left one scuba diver dead and others with many questions about how that could have happened.

Forty-year-old Hua Liu was part of an expedition off Key Biscayne, about three nautical miles off Bill Baggs Cape, on the vessel BigCom Ocean.

There were about 40 divers on board, and all were instructed to stay with their “diving buddy” during the length of the dive, and never to leave him or her alone.

Panic set in when the group realized it was one diver short during a “roll call” when it was time to head back ashore.

Immediately, they began to conduct a search and called the Coast Guard at about 3:30 p.m.

The Coast Guard “immediately took action,” said Commander Darren Caprara, who is the chief of response for Coast Guard sector Miami and was supervising the case. They put out a broadcast, diverted a 45-foot Coast Guard boat that was headed to another location, called air station Miami to get a helicopter, brought in an auxiliary special team that does routine patrols and a 110-foot Coast Guard cover.

Within about 30 minutes of searching, the team on the diving vessel found Liu’s buoyancy control device (BCD), which is used to help a diver float, and tank.

“That’s the point when we became very concerned and more serious,” said Jaclyn Hesse, an experienced diver who was aboard. “It’s difficult to stay afloat without that for a long time.”

In tandem with the Coast Guard, which Hesse estimated arrived about 20 minutes after being called, the divers continued to search for Liu. Two dive masters from the dive vessel were towed from the boat so they could search the ocean floor. (The Coast Guard in Miami does not have divers who perform underwater rescue missions, Caprara said).

When they had been searching for about 40 minutes, a dive master raised her hand to tell the boat to stop. She dived to the bottom and pulled up Liu, who was still wearing her weighted scuba diving belt. “She was blue when they pulled her up,” Hesse said.

The Coast Guard staff then verbally instructed the dive master to pull Liu’s body aboard the diving vessel. Caprara said that is because the diving vessel was lower to the water and closer.

“Whenever you have a person in the water, particularly one who might be injured or hurt, the priority is to get that person safely out of the water and onto a stable platform where you can give medical care,” he said. “The dive vessel had a spacious open back deck and a low-to-the-water platform.”

At that point, the dive masters aboard began to give Liu CPR.

But it was too late.

The whole experience was “terrible,” Hesse said. Besides Liu’s tragic death, “There were children on board the vessel, and they were fully aware of what was happening,” she said.

In the wake of the incident, few details have been released about the circumstances leading to Liu’s death.

The Miami-Dade police department, which handled the case, said it is awaiting autopsy results, and it is not “readily apparent” if there should be reason to suspect foul play.

“Dive rules state you need to go where your buddy goes,” Hesse said. “There was something really wrong happening.”

Caprara also said further investigation is necessary to determine more specifically what happened during Liu’s dive.

“I can’t speak to that,” he said. “Something unfortunate happened.”

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Stars Stay Peppy Through Wee Hours of Oscar Night

For those fortunate enough to be invited, Oscar Sunday is an all-day, non-stop event. ET caught up with the stars to get their tips on making it through the madness while maintaining their energy.

PICS: Awards Season Fashion

"This is just fun," said Academy Award winner Halle Berry. "I see all my friends and peers."

"You just gotta enjoy it and then have a good dinner at the Governor's Ball, because you probably haven't eaten today," said Oscar nominee Queen Latifah. "And then we hit the after parties."

John Leguizamo named caffeine as a primary source for his energy.

"It's a long night," the actor admitted. "But you get jacked up meeting all your heroes."

From the People's Choice Awards to the 85th Academy Awards, this awards season, ET's red carpet runs on Dunkin'.

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