Upstate fire department's squirrel hunt fundraiser draws ire

HOLLEY — A weekend squirrel-shooting contest in upstate New York is a sell-out, with all 1,000 tickets spoken for, organizers said, despite a push by animal rights groups and others to cancel the event.

The 7th annual "Hazzard County Squirrel Slam" will raise money for the volunteer Holley Fire Department, the event sponsor.

Prizes ranging from $50 to $200 will be given out Saturday for the largest squirrel shot and the heaviest group of five squirrels. Five rifles and shotguns are to be raffled off, according to a flier on the western New York fire department's website.

Critics have sought to stop the event through online petitions and protests, calling the event cruel and a bad example for children. The contest targeting red and gray squirrels is open to anyone over age 12 with a hunting license.

"Declaring someone a winner for killing the most animals influences children and the wider community to believe that wildlife is unimportant and killing for a monetary prize is meritorious," Brian Shapiro, New York state director of the Humane Society of the United States, wrote in a letter to Holley Fire Chief Pete Hendrickson.

Supporters say hunting is just part of life upstate, including in the largely rural village of 1,800 people on the Erie Canal.

"This is a community of hunters and they're going to hunt anyways. Why not hold a fundraiser that will reach our community," the event's chairwoman, Tina Reed, told the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester. She said the event has grown each year: This year, 1,000 tickets were made available after it sold out of 200 tickets last year.

Participants must abide by New York's hunting regulations, hunting only where it is permitted and killing no more than six squirrels in a single day. Shooting will be followed by a weigh-in, then a dinner.

State Sen. Tony Avella, a Queens Democrat, called the contest insane during an Albany news conference with the group Friends of Animals earlier this week. The group planned to protest outside the Holley Fire House on Saturday afternoon.

Avella's upstate colleague, Sen. George Maziarz, a Democrat who represents Holley, defended the fundraiser, saying hunting, fishing and shooting sports are part of the region's lifestyle.

"It's like a fishing derby but it's squirrels, not fish," Maziarz spokesman Adam Tabelski said Friday.

Neither the fire department nor members of its board of directors returned telephone and email messages from The Associated Press.

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Van Myers, former president of Wometco, dies at 95

Sylvan “Van” Myers spent 44 years at Wometco, rising through the ranks, first to head the data division, later as executive vice president of bottling, vending and food service operations and finally as president and CEO of the company.

After retiring in 1984, Myers devoted himself to the South Florida community and working to improve people’s lives, said son Bruce Myers.

“I think he was a role model, a leader,” Bruce Myers said. “He would’ve made a good politician, but people like that don’t want to run for office.”

An avid sports fan, devoted father and husband of 72 years to wife Jane, Myers died Tuesday. He was 95.

Born in Norfolk, Va., in 1917, Myers’ father wanted him to join him in the family’s mattress company. But Myers had bigger plans and left home for Harvard University.

It was there that an acquaintance gave Myers the phone number for a young woman, a senior in high school. Jane and Van began dating, eventually marrying in 1940.

But the honeymoon was short — Myers soon went into the Navy and served as a lieutenant during World War II. He was assigned to an amphibious craft in Okinawa.

After the war, he returned briefly to Boston, but was soon contacted by Mitchell Wolfson, the co-founder of Wometco Enterprises, a prominent Miami-based entertainment company that founded WTVJ, Miami’s first television station.

Myers followed Wolfson down to Miami in 1946 and never left.

At Wometco, he was a born leader. He rarely raised his voice, said his son, but he had a quality that made people follow him.

“He’s just the type of person you would want to be around and work for,” Bruce Myers said.

When Wolfson died in 1983, Myers became president and CEO, responsible for overseeing its sale to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.

Although his presidency was brief, he made sure to stick around long enough to advocate for his former employees, his son said.

By the time Kohlberg Kravis Roberts took over the company in 1984, Wometco’s assets included 45 movie theaters, three TV stations, 47 cable TV systems, the Miami Seaquarium, the Citrus Tower and one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers in the nation

Ever concerned with giving back to the city and the people he loved, Myers remained on several community boards in his retirement, including WPBT-Channel 2 and The Family Counseling Service. He was a founding member of Feeding South Florida and an original board member of the Mitchell Wolfson Foundation, of which he was a member when he died.

“He was literally the soul of decency, in my estimation,” said Dave Lawrence, a former publisher of The Miami Herald and founder of The Children’s Trust. His warm sense of humor and his thoughtfulness made him a good leader and a great friend, Lawrence said.

Myers was a tireless sports fan, often taking his two children to see the Miami Dolphins, the Miami Heat and the University of Miami Hurricanes. Another weekly family activity, during his time at Wometco, was Friday screenings of movies the company wanted to show at its theaters.

Well into his 90s, Myers still insisted on going somewhere outside his home every day. He had an endless reading list, as a longtime member of the Book of the Month Club, and he was interested in every subject.

In addition to his wife Jane and son Bruce, Myers is survived by daughter Catherine Myers and sister Valerie Rothschild.

There will be a celebration of his life at 1 p.m. Feb. 23 at the Coral Gables Country Club, 997 N. Greenway Dr.

In lieu of flowers, Myers’ family requests that donations be made to WPBT-Channel 2 or Feeding South Florida.

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Miley Cyrus Talks Liam Hemsworth and Cosmopolitan Cover

Liam Hemsworth is one lucky man, and he knows it.

Miley Cyrus recently made a big hoopla about how gorgeous she finds her soon-to-be hubby Liam in the pages of Cosmopolitan magazine, and who can blame her? At Cosmo's big bash in NYC, celebrating the issue's launch, Miley tells ET that her fiancé can't get enough of her sexy compliments.

Pics: Miley Cyrus & Liam Hemsworth Through the Years

"I'm the only fiancee that pimps her fiancé out," Miley laughs, clarifying that by "pimps" she means "talks about how hot" her beau is.

"All these women are reading about sex in Cosmo, and then it's like Liam naked in the pool. So he loves it, I'm sure."

And speaking of sexy, Miley touched upon her daring topless cover shoot for the mag. When asked if it way her idea to strip down for the issue, the singer took responsibility for her skin-baring stunt.

Related: I'll Never Have Long Hair Again, Says Miley Cyrus

With a sigh she says, "I guess it's always all my fault."

For Miley's hot interview with Cosmopolitan, pick up the mag's March issue which is on stands now.

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Fugitive ex-cop Dorner shot himself at flames closed in

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner killed himself as the cabin he was barricaded inside caught fire following a shootout with officers, police revealed Friday while also confirming he spent most of his time on the run in a condominium just steps away from the command center set up to find him.

"The information that we have right now seems to indicate that the wound that took Christopher Dorner's life was self-inflicted," sheriff's Capt. Kevin Lacy told reporters at a news conference.

Authorities initially were unsure whether Dorner killed himself, had been struck by a deputy's bullet or had died in a fire that engulfed the cabin during the shootout.

AP

Christopher Dorner

The search for Dorner began last week after authorities said he had launched a deadly revenge campaign against the Los Angeles Police Department for his firing, warning in a manifesto posted on Facebook that he would bring "warfare" to LAPD officers and their families.

Within days he had killed four people, including two police officers.

He killed the daughter of a former LAPD captain and her fiance Feb. 3 and later a Riverside police officer he ambushed at a traffic light before disappearing into the San Bernardino National Forest near Big Bear Lake where his burned-out truck was found last week.

From there he eluded a huge manhunt for several days until Karen and Jim Reynolds found him inside their cabin-style condo within 100 yards of a command post for the manhunt when they arrived Tuesday to ready it for vacationers.

Dorner, who at the time was being sought for three killings, confronted the couple with a drawn gun, "jumped out and hollered 'stay calm,'" Jim Reynolds said at a news conference.

His wife screamed and ran, but Dorner caught her, Reynolds said. The couple said they were taken to a bedroom where Dorner ordered them to lie on a bed and then on the floor. Dorner bound their arms and legs with plastic ties, gagged them with towels and covered their heads with pillowcases.

"I really thought it could be the end," Karen Reynolds said.

The couple believed Dorner had been staying in the cabin at least since Feb. 8, the day after his burned truck was found nearby. Dorner told them he had been watching them by day from inside the cabin as they did work outside. The couple, who live nearby, only entered the unit Tuesday.

"He said we are very hard workers," Karen Reynolds said.

After Dorner fled in their purple Nissan Rogue, Karen Reynolds managed to call 911 from a cellphone on the coffee table.

Police have not commented on the Reynoldses' account. But the notion of him holed up just across the street from the command post was shocking to many, though not totally surprising to some experts familiar with the complications of such a manhunt.

"Chilling. That's the only word I could use for that," said Ed Tatosian, a retired SWAT commander for the Sacramento Police Department. "It's not an unfathomable oversight. We're human. It happens."

Law enforcement officers, who had gathered outside daily for briefings, were stunned by the revelation. One official later looking on Google Earth exclaimed that he'd parked right across the street from the Reynoldses' cabin each day.

Timothy Clemente, a retired FBI SWAT team leader who was part of the search for Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph, said searchers had to work methodically. When there's a hot pursuit, they can run after a suspect into a building. But in a manhunt, the search has to slow down and police have to have a reason to enter a building.

"You can't just kick in every door," he said.

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Investigators probe cash missing from Hollywood Police Department’s evidence room

Broward County and state law enforcement authorities are investigating a tip that as much as $175,000 may be missing from the Hollywood Police Department’s evidence room, prompting an investigation into possible criminal wrongdoing by police officers or other city employees, sources have told The Miami Herald.

The missing money has drawn the attention of the Broward State Attorney’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

A recently retired police sergeant whose job included overseeing the evidence locker for the last few years is said to be the focus of the probe, although everyone who has overseen the evidence locker for the past few years is being scrutinized, the sources said. The sergeant was allegedly captured on video moving boxes out the property room’s back door.

The inquiry is the latest in a stream of crises the city has faced over many years and comes just days after Hollywood officials traveled to the state Capitol to answer questions about gross mismanagement of city finances before a Joint Legislative Auditing Committee. At the hearing, state senators grilled the city’s financial director and city attorney about their decision to declare a state of “financial urgency” in 2010.

The move led to higher taxes, layoffs and pay cuts for city employees, and may not have been necessary, the auditors concluded.

The Police Department, which has weathered an abundance of corruption scandals over the years, has a new interim police chief, Vince Affanato, a former Hollywood police major who replaced retired chief Chad Wagner a few weeks ago.

Affanato did not return repeated phone calls by The Miami Herald. Wagner, now a captain at the Broward Sheriff’s office, also did not return phone calls.

The money allegedly disappeared under the watch of Sgt. John Nevins, who retired in April. He is now part of the criminal investigation, although nothing in his personnel file reviewed by The Herald indicates that the police department’s Internal Affairs unit or then-chief Wagner took any action.

However, Frank Fernandez, Hollywood’s assistant city manager who supervises the police department, said Thursday that he first became aware of the issue just after he was hired in August. He said Wagner informed him of the probe that had been referred to FDLE and the state attorney.

“I don’t know specifics,” he said.

Reached Thursday night outside his Cooper City home, Nevins said he was not aware of the investigation.

“The rumor mill has been going and there have been a lot of phone calls as of late,” he acknowledged. “Many people worked in there.”

The Broward State Attorney’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are handling the probe. Spokesmen for those two agencies declined to provide details.

However, Jeff Marano, head of the Broward County police union, said he was aware that there has been some questions raised about missing evidence, including money.

“They went to retrieve some evidence for a case and apparently found that some money was missing,’’ Marano said. The money, which went missing sometime last year, ranges anywhere from $125,000 to $175,000, according to several sources close to the investigation.

The evidence depository, which is under video monitoring and scanned inventory control, stores all property seized in connection with a criminal case. Often this includes money, drugs, guns and other valuables collected at a crime scene.

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American Airlines, US Airways announce merger

After a nearly yearlong courtship, the union became official Thursday: American Airlines and US Airways have formally announced plans to merge.

An early morning announcement by the airlines confirmed reports widely circulated after boards of both companies approved the merger late Wednesday.

The move brings stability to one of Miami-Dade County’s largest private employers more than a year after the airline and its parent company filed for bankruptcy protection, leaving the fate of thousands of employees — and the largest carrier at Miami International Airport — in question.

According to the Thursday announcement, the deal was approved unanimously by the boards of both companies, creating the world’s biggest airline with implied market value of nearly $11 billion, based on the Wednesday closing price of US Airways stock. The airline will have close to 100,000 employees, 1,500 aircraft, $38.7 billion in combined revenue.

The deal must be approved by American’s bankruptcy judge and antitrust regulators, but no major hurdles are expected. The process is expected to take about six months, according to a letter sent to employees Thursday by American CEO Tom Horton.

Travelers won’t notice immediate changes. The new airline will be called American Airlines. It likely will be months before the frequent-flier programs are merged, and possibly years before the two airlines are fully combined. The new airline will be a member of the oneWorld airlines frequent flier alliance.

And for Miami travelers, it’s unlikely that much will change at any point. American and regional carrier American Eagle handled 68 percent of traffic at the airport last year, while US Airways accounted for just 2 percent. American boasts 328 flights to 114 destinations from Miami.

“We don’t expect any substantial changes at MIA if the merger occurs because our traffic is largely driven by the strength of the Miami market and not the airlines serving it,” said airport spokesman Greg Chin.

American has said for more than a year that its long-term plan calls for increasing departures at key hubs, including Miami, by 20 percent. That pledge has already started to materialize; in recent months, the airline has added new service to Asuncion, Paraguay and Roatán, Honduras.

During its bankruptcy restructuring, about 400 American employees lost jobs, leaving American and its regional carrier, American Eagle, with 9,894 employees in Miami-Dade County and 43 in Fort Lauderdale. US Airways has few employees in the area.

“It really isn’t going to affect Miami in a very major way anytime soon,” said Michael Boyd, an aviation consultant in Evergreen, Colo. “Only because US Airways isn’t a big player in South Florida.”

At Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, American and US Airways combined would still only be the fifth-largest airline after Southwest, Spirit, JetBlue and Delta, a spokesman said. The two airlines have little overlap in routes from Fort Lauderdale.

Despite the lack of major changes, Boyd said the merger would be a good development for Miami.

“It should be positive for the employees and it should be positive for the communities that the airlines serve,” he said.

Robert Herbst, an independent airline analyst and consultant, said US Airways will add a “significant amount” of destinations in the Northeast, including Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

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Jessica Chastain's Retro-Modern Style

ET caught up with Zero Dark Thirty star Jessica Chastain at the Calvin Klein Collection fashion show in New York City on Thursday, getting the Academy Award nominee to dish on her red carpet style and what she might be wearing to the Oscars.

PICS: Stars at New York Fashion Week

"I think my sense of style is all about embracing silhouettes from the past, especially feminine silhouettes, and making it modern," the actress said. "I love the actresses of the 1940s and '50s and '60s, and I think Calvin Klein does do that."

This style inspired the dress that Chastain wore to the Golden Globes, where she took home the statuette for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama.

"[Women's Creative Director of Calvin Klein] Francisco [Costa] designed my Golden Globes dress and I really felt it was like Rita Hayworth -- the silhouette -- but he made it very modern and striking and interesting," said Chastain.

Olivia Wilde voiced a similar perspective, saying, "Francisco always comes up with something really modern and really cool while maintaining that chic simplicity ... It's not over-the-top and that's why it's always timeless."

As for what Chastain has in mind for the Oscar red carpet, she told us, "I'll probably wear color. I won't be the wallflower at the Oscars -- that's for sure."

Watch the video for more.

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Designer rapist Anand Jon has 48 sex-attack counts dropped, still faces 54 years

Manhattan prosecutors have dropped almost their entire case against a notorious California fashion designer-turned-serial rapist, allowing him to plead guilty to just a single sex-attack count in what was once a twelve-victim, 49-count indictment.

Under a plea taken in Manhattan Supreme Court today, Anand Jon -- whose designs have been worn by Paris Hilton, Oprah Winfrey and Janet Jackson -- admitted only to forcing oral sex on one adult, aspiring female model.

On April 2, Jon will be sentenced to the five years he has already served in California; he still has 54 years-to-life remaining on that sentence, which covers his convictions on casting-couch sex assaults involving 16 women and girls.

AP

Fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander in LA court in 2008.

He still faces additional similar charges in Texas, prosecutors said.

ADA Maxine Rosenthal told a judge that the deal was accepted, "to spare the victims from having to testify at multiple proceedings" and in consideration of his lengthy sentence in California.

Jon lawyers called the deal a victory, and said that some of the materials turned over by Manhattan prosecutors as part of the pre-trial process here will be extremely valuable as he continues work on his California appeal.

"We've accomplished what we wanted, which was to obtain records," said Jon lawyer Kimberly Summers.

Jon's appeal argues that he had ineffective counsel in California; the Manhattan documents indicate that the CA lawyers never obtained vital police documents and correspondence showing his accusers were squaring their stories among themselves and with civil lawyers, Summers said.

The designer - who has appeared on America's Next Top Model - didn't let prison hurt his style. He appeared in court in a dapper Mandarin collared grey suit and freshly cut hair.

"Considering that the initial 49 charges included allegations of rape, drugging and mafia death threats, the settlement of one conviction involving Mr. Alexander's giving oral sex to an adult female is acceptable," defense lawyer Angelyn Gates said in a written statement.

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Was that Che in Beach hotel? Not any longer

Gus Exposito, 51, of Davie, couldn’t believe what he saw in the marble walls of South Beach’s W Hotel: a larger-than-life framed photograph of what looked like communist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

“He was a mass murderer, killed thousands of Cubans execution-style,” Exposito wrote in an email, comparing the long-dead Fidel Castro pal to Adolf Hitler or the Ku Klux Klan. “I spoke to the manager and he referred to it as art!”

A hotel employee said complaints started almost as soon as the photo, about seven feet tall, went up last week. It came down Tuesday.

“We did it as a matter of respect and sensitivity toward the local community,” hotel manager Damien O’Connor said. “We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused.”

The man in the photo looks a little different from the iconic image of Che Guevara taken by Alberto Díaz “Korda” Gutiérrez in 1959. Is this a younger Che or someone dressed like Che? Or perhaps a post-modern self-portrait of artist Gavin Turk?

In The Guardian, a London newspaper, Turk said he made a photo of himself posed as Che to advertise an exhibition: “It was quite a degraded, grainy image, so I could photograph myself in such a way that you wouldn’t recognize that it was me and not, in fact, Che. You only need key elements of the photo — the beret, the long hair, the position of the eyes (as with classical icons, looking up and to the right), a bit of beard — to make it function as a symbol.”

But it sure looks like Che.

The image is common enough, and enough time has passed since the 1959 revolution, that not every Cuban-American is outraged. Asked about the idea of hanging a Che poster in a South Florida hotel, a regular Miami Herald reader named Mario Iglesias said it’s time to grow up.

“I think the Cuban-American community has to mature and learn that the right to put up a picture of Che is the very reason we find Castro and Che so repugnant — because they would act to quash opposing speech,” he wrote in an email. “It is the very result of being in favor of a free society that there will be holocaust survivors who have to tolerate Nazi marches and Cuban-Americans have to recognize that not protesting a Che poster is not the same as supporting Castro.”

For Exposito, though, the right to post a Che picture doesn’t translate into a good reason to display it. It seemed to ruin his night out.

“We went to dinner with my wife and two couples at Mr. Chow and after dinner we took a walk to the rear to smoke a cigar, and — bang — there it was. We could not believe our eyes!” he wrote.

El Nuevo Herald Staff Writer Juan Carlos Chavez contributed to this report.

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Now owned by top executives, Cruise Planners on course toward continued growth

With a background in travel and present-day focus on raising her two small children, Lori Jahner set out to find work she enjoyed that would give her the flexibility she needed.

The 33-year-old from Aurora, Colo. decided on Cruise Planners — American Express Travel, a home-based travel agent network headquartered in Coral Springs.

“They have so much training to offer, ongoing education, and the branded name alone is so reputable and distinctive,” Jahner said. “Out of all the ones that I kind of looked into, this is the one that was standing out. More or less, it’s just the perfect opportunity so that I can do what I love, which is raising my kids but also selling travel.”

She has plenty of company. More than 850 franchise owners around the country are actively selling travel through Cruise Planners after paying startup costs that range from zero to $9,995. Those costs cover initial and continued training, marketing and advertising programs, a website, accounting and customer management software and support from the home office.

Fueled by everyone from stay-at-home moms to firefighters and retirees, the number of franchisees has grown by 14 percent annually for the last few years.

That has not gone unnoticed by cruise lines, who welcome more voices pitching their product.

“I think they are very important,” said Camille Olivere, Norwegian Cruise Line’s senior vice president of sales in North America. “They’re big supporters of ours and they’re bringing new people into the industry — and that is something that we desperately need.”

Cruise Planners agents sold $156 million in travel and related services last year, a 16 percent increase over 2011 and 48 percent jump over 2009.

Confident in continued growth, top Cruise Planners executives bought the company late last year from Palm Beach Capital, the private equity firm that had been majority owner since 2007.

CEO Michelle Fee, who has always held a stake in the company and now owns 50 percent, said she and fellow owners chief financial officer Tom Kruszewski and chief operating officer Vicky Garcia did not want to risk Cruise Planners being taken over by another investment group that might try to make changes.

“We wanted to make sure that whatever we keep doing is in the best interest of the company,” said Kruszewski, 60.

Before, Fee said, agents often asked whether the investment company would try to sell or change Cruise Planners. She said the purchase sends a good message.

“It shows them that we’re in this with you,” said Fee, 50, who co-founded the company with two partners 19 years ago. Those partners retired in 2007.

The company has invested about $2 million in technology upgrades and equipment in the last few years, including a mobile reservations system for agents that was introduced about a year and a half ago, and a consumer mobile app for iPhones and Androids that should launch later this month.

“We just have to be cutting edge,” Fee said. “Travel is technology; we have to be there with the big guys. Not only are we matching them, but we want to be better.”

Janet Fernandez, who started her Crise Planners franchise, Cruise Impressions, last July after working in different parts of the cruise industry since 1998, said she is already taking advantage of the latest tech innovations.

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