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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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 13,000 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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Reese Witherspoon's Priceless Christmas Present

Santa came early this year for Reese Witherspoon and husband Jim Toth when their son Tennessee was born on September 27. On Friday, the actress was appropriately honored as a role-model mother at the March of Dimes' Celebration of Babies.

"It's always such an exciting time in your life when you have a brand-new baby," Witherspoon gushed. "It's Christmas and it's so nice to have this beautiful present in our lives."

RELATED: Brian Austin Green Dishes on Son's Secret Birth

Megan Fox quietly became a mom around the time that Witherspoon welcomed her third child, and she and husband Brian Austin Green had nothing but good things to say about March of Dimes.

"It's an amazing organization," said Green. "Anyone that supports and takes care of children and newborns and pregnant women -- you can't lose."

March of Dimes is a leading nonprofit organization for pregnancy and baby health.

Other notable attendees included Hilary Duff, Elizabeth Banks and the master of ceremonies Nick Cannon. Watch the video for more.

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DA drops fight against pair wrongfully convicted in Bronx cabby slay

Robert Kalfus / Tomas E. Gaston

Eric Glisson (left), gets a hug and Cathy Watkins (right) beams after their release in October.

Bronx prosecutors are giving up their fight in the case of a man and woman wrongly convicted in the notorious robbery-slaying of a cabby — and may also drop charges against three other suspects in the case.

Eric Glisson, 37, and Cathy Watkins, 44, were freed in October after spending 17 years in prison in the January 19, 1995 slaying of cabby Baithe Diop. They will be able to remove their ankle monitoring bracelets after a hearing next week.

In court papers filed today, Bronx DA Robert Johnson’s office admitted that new evidence uncovered in the case last year may also clear the other three suspects — Devon Ayers, Michael Cosme and Carlos Perez. The DA has agreed on a near hearing to hear evidence in their cases.

Two gang-bangers admitted to Diop’s killing in an unrelated federal investigation, and have already pleaded guilty to a federal robbery charge in his death. They can’t be prosecuted further.

The Bronx DA is holding the line for now on the convictions of Ayers, Cosme and Perez in the slaying of Denise Raymond, a Fed Ex executive found dead in her Soundview home three days before Diop was killed.

But the trio also hopes for a new hearing in that case as well. They said fresh evidence shows Raymond was murdered by an ex-boyfriend, who is now deceased.

Glisson and Watkins were not charged in Raymond’s death.

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Driver of MIA bus crash that killed two offers apology

The driver behind the wheel of a bus that rammed into an overpass at Miami International Airport — killing two passengers and leaving many more injured — issued an apology Thursday, while a group of survivors began speaking with a lawyer.

On Thursday, a relative sent out a short statement in Spanish from driver Ramon Ferreiro. In it, Ferreiro extended his sympathies to the families of those killed in the crash.

“I know there are no words of comfort for what happened, but my family and I are praying for all those affected and their loved ones,” he wrote in Spanish. “I’m emotionally and physically very shocked by what happened, and for this reason I ask you to respect my family’s privacy during this difficult time.”

The crash happened a few minutes before 7:30 a.m. Saturday. The bus carried members of a Jehovah’s Witness congregation on their way to the annual general assembly meeting in West Palm Beach.

Ferreiro, 47, took a wrong turn on South Le Jeune Road. He was going too fast. He sped past multiple signs warning of the low clearance at the airport’s arrival concourse, smashing the 11-foot-tall bus into an overpass.

Two people sitting in the front were killed; the remaining 30 passengers went to hospitals for examinations and treatment.

As of Thursday, four people from the crash remained at Jackson, spokeswoman Lidia Amoretti said. Of the group, three were in good condition and one was in critical.

Another eight people admitted after the crash already had been discharged.

And some of the survivors have begun speaking with West Palm Beach lawyer Patrick Cousins.

Cousins, who also is Jehovah’s Witness, said that members of his religion tend to shy away from legal battles, and that’s why he hopes to settle the matter with the bus service’s insurance company out of court.

The goal, he said, would be to get compensation for costs such as their hospital bills.

“We are not the type of people to create problems or issues,” Cousins said. “But this is not something we really created. We just want to make sure everybody gets their compensation.”

Saturday’s accident appears to be the first blemish on the record of both the driver and the bus company, Miami Bus Service Corporation, which is own by Mayling and Alberto Hernandez.

Ferreiro has a valid commercial driver’s license with the proper endorsement to carry passengers, according to records from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

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Roger Ebert Hospitalized With Hip Fracture

Legendary film critic Roger Ebert has been admitted to the hospital following an unidentified incident which fractured the 70-year-old's hip.

Roger's wife Chaz confirmed the news to The Associated Press on Thursday, explaining that "doctors are making assessments" about her husband's condition. She later took to Twitter to assuage fans' worry, all the while keeping a sense humor about the situation.

Related: Roger Ebert's Amazing Medical Transformation

"Roger in hospital with hip fracture (tricky disco dance moves) but he is doing well," Chaz tweeted. "[He's] asking for computer, will probably tweet."

Not long after, Roger posted, "Yes, fracture. But no surgery needed. Details follow. :)"

In recent years, the Chicago Sun-Times film critic has battled thyroid cancer and ultimately lost his lower jaw and the ability to speak after a tracheostomy. Roger now communicates via pen and paper or text-to-speech computer software.

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Jury to start deciding the fate of the 'Vaad Father' accused of sexually abusing 12-year-old-girl

Prosecutors say he was a feared power broker in the most insular of Orthodox Jewish sects in Brooklyn who thought he could get away with anything — including the alleged sexual abuse of a 12 year old girl.

That’s the argument an impassioned assistant district attorney made to jurors today as the nearly two-week-long sex abuse trial of Hasidic counselor Nechemya Weberman drew to a close.

“What happens in the defendant’s office stays in the defendant’s office,” prosecutor Linda Weinman said, referring to the secrecy surrounding the small room where Weberman, 54, allegedly forced himself on the girl — and where he also admittedly hosted other pretty young Satmar women.

Spencer Burnett

Nechemya Weberman enters the Brooklyn Supreme Court.

Prosecutors argued the now 18-year-old alleged victim was terrified to report the three years of abuse because of Weberman’s exalted status in the cloistered Satmar sect in Williamsburg.

“Who’s going to believe a 12-year-old girl?” Weinman said in Brooklyn Supreme Court. “She was afraid. She believed he was a member of Vaad Ha’Tnius.”

Weberman has denied he was ever a member of Vaad Ha’Tnius, the modesty committee that enforces Satmar rules and dress codes — and in her closing remarks, his lawyer downplayed his power among the ultra-Orthodox.

“They want you to believe Mr. Weberman is the Vaad-Father,” quipped attorney Stacey Richman, who compared the prosecution of her client to the Salem witch trials and the Red Scare of the 1950s.

“If Mr. Weberman’s so powerful, why can’t he keep [her] in school?” Richman said, referring to the multiple schools the teen was asked to leave while receiving counseling from Weberman.

Richman also hammered away at the prosecution’s lack of physical evidence.

“The only evidence in this case is the word of [the alleged victim.] That’s it,” Richman said, questioning why years of frequent alleged sexual abuse failed to leave any emails, witnesses or DNA.

“Three years of oral sex? That’s a lot of semen!” she said.

“We’ve all seen ‘CSI,’ Richman said, referring to the TV crime lab show. “DNA lasts forever.”

Richman repeated the defense argument that the teen falsely accused Weberman because she was angry he told her father she had an older boyfriend.

Judge John Ingram barred the defense from telling the jury that her father then secretly filmed the couple having sex and used the footage to have the boyfriend arrested for statutory rape, infuriating the teen.

“He listened to her. He was truly her friend. But when she found that she had been betrayed, she went wild,” Richman said. “It’s all about revenge.”

Prosecutors scoffed at the notion that the teen had an ulterior motive for reporting Weberman.

“She said, ‘I had a responsibility. I didn’t want anybody else to go through what I went through,’” Weinman said, quoting the teen’s testimony last week. “Those are not the words of someone seeking revenge. They are words of pain.”

Richman also used the OJ defense tactic of, If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit, showing photos of a faulty lock on a door the victim claims locked her inside Weberman’s office

“It doesn’t fit. It never fit,” Richman said.

Hasidic women in wigs supporting Weberman buried their heads in their hands and prayed when prosecutors described graphic sexual acts. One prayed so loudly a court officer shushed her.

The jury will begin its deliberations tomorrow. Court will end early for the Jewish Sabbath.

jsaul@nypost.com

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Watchdog groups say transparency program could save millions

TALLAHASSEE --
On the same day Senate leaders announced they would conduct an intensive review of the state budget, two government watchdog groups said a budget transparency program — put on hold by the Senate — could "save Florida millions of dollars” and revolutionize budget accountability.

The web site, Transparency 2.0, was developed and licensed by the Senate for $4.5 million. But it is scheduled to be shelved at the end of the month as the Senate and the governor’s office feud over which has responsibility for maintaining it and paying the $1 million annual license fee.

“Transparency 2.0 has the ability to help all Floridians and policy makers oversee their state government – and hold it accountable – with a businesslike, searchable and measurable web site,’’ wrote Integrity Florida, a non-profit, non-partisan organization, and the Florida First Amendment Foundation, in a report released Wednesday.

The joint report was requested by Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, and the office of Gov. Rick Scott after the Herald/Times reported that the program provides a searchable way to track spending on government contracts, salaries and budgets. It was funded by the Senate, but has been kept on hold for the past year.

The report, submitted to the governor and Gaetz late Wednesday, said that if state leaders make the web site accessible to the public, the governor could achieve his goal in budget accountability; policymakers could hold state agencies accountable for their performance; and, state officials “would be forced to justify the way they spend Floridians tax dollars.”

The Senate transferred management of Transparency 2.0 to the governor’s office in June, but the governor’s office has refused to accept ownership because of suspicions about the $5 million no-bid contract given to the company by Steve MacNamara, the former Senate chief of staff who later worked for Scott in a similar position.

A 2011 law requires the governor to create a web portal that makes the state budget and related documents transparent to the public. Last year, legislators put $2.5 million in the governor’s budget to pay for the effort.

The report was released on the same day Sen. Joe Negron, a Palm City Republican and the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, announced the Senate would conduct an “intensive review” of the state budget, including an examination of spending that is renewed each year with little review.

“Transparency 2.0 would enable that intensive review and allow that budget scrutiny to happen,’’ said Dan Krasner, executive director of Integrity Florida. Negron has said he has not seen the transparency program and believes it is being handled by the governor’s office.

The web site was developed by Spider Data Systems, a Tallahassee-based company run by two former legislative budget staff members who patented the software that allows accounting, personnel, contracting and budgeting data to be merged and cross-referenced in a single search. The program lets legislators dig into details of the state’s base budget — such as which programs are automatically continued and which agencies have unfilled vacancies — instead of relying on budget staff , agency officials and lobbyists for the information.

Integrity Florida and the First Amendment Foundation compared the Transparency 2.0 web site to two existing budget accountability web sites now run by the Legislature and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and, in a side-by-side comparison, concluded the Transparency 2.0 site is more comprehensive, easy to use, and provides documents and context that the other two sites don’t offer.

“Transparency 2.0 gives you not just the information but the context for the information — which makes it more meaningful,’’ said Barbara Petersen, executive director of the First Amendment Foundation. “I am so impressed by it that I think it would be a crime if the governor and the legislature don’t go forward with it.”

The Integrity Florida/FAF report acknowledges the questions raised about the no-bid contract given to Spider Data because of its patented software, but called it “ironic since the ... web site would provide complete sunlight on any such proposals going forward” and “the most detailed and comprehensive history of every state vendor contract available in the system.”

Krasner said that while his organization prefers contracts be competitively bid “this might be the rare exception to the rule where you have patented technology no one else had.”

Gaetz’s office said he is reviewing the request for an extension of the contract.

The groups said they will make the report available to the public on Friday.

Mary Ellen Klas can be reached at meklas@MaryEllenKlas and on Twitter @MaryEllenKlas

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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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List of Hollywood's Most Powerful Women Revealed

The Hollywood Reporter has unveiled its annual list of Top 100 Women in Entertainment and ET was on the red carpet to speak to some of the honorees.

During the breakfast ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel, actress Diane Keaton also received the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award -- which is named after the former actress and film studio executive who remains one of the most powerful and connected women in Hollywood.

VIDEO: Kathy Griffin Razzes Mitt Romney

Among the stars to stop by the red carpet to share their thought on being a successful woman in the entertainment world were stand-up comedian/reality star Kathy Griffin, The Office star Mindy Kaling and attorney/political activist Sandra Fluke. We also spoke with THR's No. 1 most powerful woman in Hollywood,
Anne Sweeney, who serves as co-chairman of Disney Media Networks and
president of Disney/ABC Television Group.

Sweeney -- who has now received the top honor for the third year in a
row, had a word of advice for young women just entering the business.
"Don't do it unless you really, really love it. Because if you love it
you're going to spend the time, you're going to spend the energy, you're
going to meet and get to work with amazing people, and you're going to
have a great life."

RELATED: Mindy Kaling: From The Office to Author

Also once again making this year's Power 100 list was Linda Bell Blue, Executive Producer of Entertainment Tonight and The Insider.

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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.

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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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Florida highway agency may be headed to court over license plates

TALLAHASSEE --
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles may be on the road to court after failed attempts Tuesday to settle a dispute over who will make and distribute the state’s new license tags.

County tax collectors and other groups say Florida is breaking the law as it moves to pay private companies for services that have for decades been done by state workers. The tax collectors’ protest could go before an administrative law judge in January.

In a meeting closed to the public, tax collectors asked the state highway agency to withdraw its request for bids from private companies and create a committee to study whether tax collectors or private businesses are best positioned to improve cost savings and customer service.

The department politely shut down both ideas, said Ken van Assenderp, an attorney for the tax collectors.

“We’re not saying that we’re not open to other solutions,” van Assenderp said. “But don’t try to get into ways of changing things without getting us involved from the beginning, and without having an eye toward service.”

The other two groups that have filed protests are Avery Dennison, a labeling and packaging company that provides materials for plate manufacturers, and PRIDE, a St. Petersburg-based nonprofit company that uses inmate labor to make tags.

Both say the state’s bidding requirements eliminate them—and almost every other company— from applying for $31.4 million in contracts to make the tags and to distribute online and mail orders.

They also take issue with the state’s request that potential vendors be immediately ready to make plates with flat — rather than raised — characters. Florida wants to give its license plates a makeover, and flat plates are generally believed to be more legible by toll and red light cameras.

Avery Dennison and PRIDE do not have the technology to make the flat plates, and “it would not be feasible to obtain all of the equipment necessary,” says the PRIDE complaint.

PRIDE could go out of business if the state follows through with its proposals, it said.

Highway safety officials say this isn’t an attempt to put anyone out of work, but to learn about possible cost savings for taxpayers.

“At least four prospective vendors who expressed interest in (working with the state) did not protest,” said department spokeswoman Courtney Heidelberg.

State officials will not make any decisions until after they meet with Avery Dennison Wednesday, Heidelberg added.

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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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REPORT: Hugh Hefner Gets Marriage License

Hugh Hefner and Crystal Harris have obtained a marriage license, Us Weekly reports.

RELATED: Crystal Harris Apologizes for Spilling Hugh Hefner Sex Secrets

According to the news source, Hefner, 86, and Harris, 26, acquired the license from the Beverly Hills courthouse on Tuesday.

This news follows a Playboy source confirming to E! News yesterday that the couple is engaged again after Harris called off their 2011 wedding just five days before the ceremony. The couple is reportedly planning to wed on New Year's Eve.

RELATED: Hefner Engaged to Crystal Harris Again

In a post on Sunday, the Playboy model tweeted a photo of her hand showing off a sapphire ring, with the caption, "New ring (not that kind of ring) topaz and diamonds #love #fashion." In another recent tweet, she said, "Dear past, thank you for all the lessons. Dear future, I'm ready."

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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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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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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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Four Things Google’s Nexus 4 Has in Common with the iPhone 4

Besides being each company’s flagship smartphone (and having the number 4 in their names), Google‘s new Nexus 4 and the 2010 iPhone 4 have a fair bit in common with each other.

This could be a good thing, if you remember just how popular the iPhone 4 was. Unfortunately, in this case it’s more of a bad thing, and hearkens back to “Antennagate” and the iPhone 4′s other problems. Do any of these features remind you of anything?

​A glass back

With the iPhone 5, Apple finally moved from a crack- and scratch-prone glass backplate to a solid, aluminum unibody construction. Google doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo that the former may have been a bad idea, however, and the Nexus 4 has a sparkly glass back surface.

While sparkly things obviously have their fans, the Nexus 4′s chassis also seems to lean towards the brittle side. Joshua Topolsky, who reviewed the Nexus 4 for The Verge, managed to crack the glass when he accidentally knocked his phone off the table. Meanwhile, Droid-Life’s Kellex found that setting the phone on a stone countertop caused its glass back to fracture in two.

​No 4G

Even Topolsky’s glowing review of the Nexus 4 said “It feels slow,” and “There’s simply no way to ignore this deficit.” That’s because, like the iPhone 4, the Nexus 4 lacks a 4G radio (even though it has the chip to support one if it had it).

The iPhone 4, however, was released in 2010, when 4G was still a new thing and the Android “superphones” which supported it had enormous screens and horrible battery life. Today, even the iPhone has 4G. Possibly because of bad blood between Google and the wireless carriers, which appear to resent Google’s selling phones unsubsidized and sans “customizations,” the Nexus 4 does not.

​Selling out fast

Every one of Apple’s iPhone models has sold out faster, and more dramatically, than the one before. Google’s Android devices, in contrast, haven’t tended to do so … although the new Nexus smartphones and tablets are starting to have this problem.

How bad is it? After Google finally got a new wave of Nexus 4s up for sale, they sold out in about a half-hour. Google claims that it hasn’t actually sold out, but even if you spotted the Nexus 4 on Google Play, chances are you ran into technical glitches which kept it out of your shopping cart. Tipster “Syko Pompos” told the Android Police blog how to get around this and place your order, but expect to wait months to receive it.

​Public relations nightmares

It hasn’t quite reached Antennagate levels yet, perhaps partly because the Nexus brand isn’t as well-known as the iPhone (the iPhone 4′s antenna problems were actually shared by many smartphones). But most of the press coverage of the Nexus 4 lately has been about how you can’t get one. Or else, how if you want one you’ll have to either buy it on contract or pay a lot more to get it unsubsidized from T-Mobile.

On the plus side (for the Nexus), this problem is only partly caused by the Google Play store’s technical errors. The biggest reason it’s taking so long to get out to people is, like with the iPhone 4, simply how popular it is.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Is Pregnant Kate Middleton Having Twins

The royal couple has something extra to be thankful for this holiday season.

Related: Prince William & Kate Middleton Expecting a Baby

Prince William and his bride Kate, The Duchess of Cambridge, announced they're expecting a baby in the coming months. Tomorrow, ET breaks down all of the exciting details including rumors the mother-to-be is pregnant with twins.

Also Tuesday, Melissa McCarthy's Vanity Fair exclusive!

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Brooklyn yeshiva principal convicted of sex abuse

The principal of a Brooklyn yeshiva was convicted today of sexually abusing three young brothers, authorities said.

Emanuel Yegutkin, 33, abused the boys after he became close friends with their father and was invited regularly to Friday night shabbat dinners, the meal that marks the start of the weekly Jewish day of rest.

The abuse began when two of the boys were just 7 years old, according to the Brooklyn District attorney’s office.

“He would touch me under the table,” one of the brothers testified last month. “I wasn’t taught about sexuality so I wasn’t sure if it was right or wrong.”

When the jury returned the verdict, Yegutkin was immediately taken into custody and his wife began to cry.

He faces up to 25 years in prison on the top charge alone.

“This violent sexual predator faces the remainder of his life behind bars,” said DA Charles Hynes. “This should serve as a clear message that those who would sexually abuse children in this country will be punished severely.”

jsaul@nypost.com

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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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Here’s How to Turn Nicki Minaj into Jay-Z

We realize there’s only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:

RELATED: It’s Sort of Fun Watching Pippa Middleton Squirm

This is silly, but it’s Friday and a unicorn lair has been found in North Korea, rendering all other silliness moot. But the folks over at Reddit seem to dig the idea of slowing down Nicki Minaj’s songs so much that they sound like an over-enunciating Jay-Z. And well, it’s oddly relaxing: 

RELATED: ‘Roseanne’ Predicted Internet Addiction; A Weather Alert from Hell

RELATED: The Honey Boo Boo Nature Special; Everyone’s Favorite Sleepwalking Mom

Another week has passed by and we still haven’t figured out the Fiscal Cliff situation. Let’s fix it—and not just because we want to avoid getting downgraded (again). Because honestly, we just don’t think CNBC’s Rick Santelli can make it another two weeks: 

RELATED: Cookie Monster Takes a Bite Out of ‘Call Me Maybe’

RELATED: Paul Ryan Was In a Band Called Steak Baby

James Lipton, let’s hang out: 

Finally, it’s Friday. What are you still doing here?  Go enjoy the weekend or something or … watch this video of a husky which sort of sounds like Dame Edna at time imitating a baby until 6 p.m. rolls around: 

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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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: report

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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