'Macho' Camacho gets big sendoff in East Harlem

Bolivar Arellano

Christian Camacho, 20, with his 14 year old brother Stanley Camacho both sons of deceased boxing Champion Hector 'Macho' Camacho. Here they were riding through the streets of East Harlem where their father was born and raised.

It was a goodbye fit for a king of the ring.

Boxing legend Hector “Macho” Camacho was given a royal sendoff today as his casket was paraded through the streets of East Harlem in a horse-drawn carriage as thousands of mourners wished him farewell.

The procession began at St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church on East 106th Street, went up First Avenue, cut across East 116th Street, traveled down Fifth Avenue and returned along East 106th Street, winding back to the church.

Revelers joined in along the way, marching behind the carriage and procession of vehicles carrying grieving family members and friends.

People were spotted hanging out car windows and sunroofs while wildly waving Puerto Rican flags and clutching pictures of Camacho in his fighting prime.

When the casket, draped in a Puerto Rican flag, arrived at St. Cecilia’s, a mob of people standing behind police barricades chanted, “Macho. Macho.”

“I love you guys,” Camacho’s mother, Maria Matias, shouted back while pumping her fist in the air. The line of people waiting to get inside and pay thier respects was several blocks long.

“I fought hard to bring my son here, where he belongs,” she told The Post.

“He fought here, he was raised here and now he is being buried here. Look at all these supporters here, it is amazing.

“They are telling me that Camacho is alive today. His spirit is not dead. He is a champion. I will always carry him in my heart.”

She recalled how Camacho started learning to box at the age of 7 and bought her a home with his career winnings.

“My son had a good heart... and took care of me.”

Camacho was shot Nov. 20 while sitting in a parked car in his hometown, Bavamon. He was 50.

Matias lashed out at her son’s killers.

“He did not deserve to die. They killed an innocent man for no reason. One bullet took my son’s life.”

She said that police have three men in custody and are tring to peice together a motive behind the slaying.

“They don’t have all the evidence yet, but soon they will.”

A farewell for Camacho in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday was marred by violence after Cynthia Castillo, 28, who claims to have been the pugilist’s girlfriend, angered his sisters by kissing him inside the open casket and walking to a VIP area designated for family and close friends.

She then fought with his former girlfriend Gloria Fernandez outside the chapel, according to the newspaper El Nuevo Dia.

Police were called in to pull the ladies apart.

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California Pizza Kitchen brings prototype to Sawgrass Mills

The restaurant chain that took barbecued chicken pizza mainstream is ready to push the culinary envelope again. How about a pizza topped with roasted Brussels sprouts and applewood smoked bacon or a Korean barbecue pizza with pork loin and spicy kimchee salad?

Innovative menu items are just one piece of what’s unique about California Pizza Kitchen’s new flagship restaurant unveiled Thursday at Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise. The first of its kind, the Sawgrass location aims to reinvigorate the brand that started in 1985 in Beverly Hills.

“The whole idea is about taking the best of what put us on the map and making it relevant for 2012 and beyond,” said G.J. Hart, who took over as chief executive officer of the chain just over a year ago. “Over the years the brand morphed from being a leader and it became a follower of food trends. We want to bring back the hip, cool feel.”

The changes are obvious from the moment you walk into the restaurant, which opens to the public Monday. The new look is all about focusing on the chain’s California roots. Very little of the bright yellow and chrome remains. The design is California-casual with earth tones and reclaimed wood everywhere from the walls to the floor and tables. An outdoor terrace with couches and fire pits is designed to encourage lingering. Large windows and glass doors let in lots of natural light and fold open to enjoy the weather.

Pizza is center stage with the kitchen designed so diners can watch the pizza makers at work. At the Sawgrass location — and by mid-2013 at all restaurants — pizzas will once again by hand-tossed. Currently the chain uses a pizza press to make the dough more uniform.

The new focus is on upping the culinary quotient across the board with dishes like a roasted beets and whipped goat cheese salad, plus a sweet pea carbonara featuring pea-filled pasta purses tossed with Italian pancetta and a Romano cream sauce. These are some of the unique items only on the Sawgrass menu, which also features a specialty menu of hand-crafted cocktails.

Chain-wide the company has actually slimmed the menu from more than 100 items to 74 in order to improve execution. But there are also more healthy choices like quinoa and arugula salad or a fire-roasted chile relleno stuffed with chicken, cheese, mushrooms, spinach and eggplant that dishes up at only 380 calories.

“As we grew, we didn’t keep up with the creativity on the menu and we tried to be all things to all people,” said Brian Sullivan, senior vice president of culinary innovation, who has been with the company for 24 years. “We’re always going to be pizza-centric. But we’ll continue to push the envelope with these specialty items that resonate with who we are. We don’t want items that you are going to see in other restaurants.”

The chain chose Sawgrass to unveil its new flagship location because of a combination of the area’s diverse demographic base and the influx of international visitors. South Florida has already been a strong market for the brand, which has seven locations in the tri-county area stretching from Coral Gables to Palm Beach Gardens.

The opening is the culmination of a new vision that began to take shape when Golden Gate Capital purchased California Pizza Kitchen in July 2011 for $470 million, taking the company private and bringing in Hart as the new chief executive.

“They saw a brand that was undervalued,” said Hart, who has an ownership stake in the chain. “This is an iconic brand with so much brand equity. If we can bring the excitement and enthusiasm back we’re only going to see it go up.”

Industry experts say the changes make sense because the brand still has a loyal following, although it has not kept pace with the competition.

“It’s a good time for them to go back to what were the fundamental things that made the brand so intriguing,” said Dennis Lombardi of WD Partners, a restaurant industry consultant. “The difficulty is going to be getting the word out to consumers that this is different. The devil is always in the details in these kind of evolutions.”

Based on consumer reaction, the plan is to take pieces of the Sunrise concept and introduce it into the chain’s other 268 existing restaurants. Some restaurants could be completely remodeled, but most will only get elements of the new prototype, which cost $2 million in Sunrise, Hart said. The company’s Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton locations could be strong candidates for remodeling next year or early 2014, he said.

Community and business leaders, who got a first look at the restaurant on Thursday, were impressed.

“This is phenomenal,” said Luanne Lenberg, general manager of Sawgrass Mills. “We’re so excited to have this caliber of restaurant and to be their test for the rest of the world.”

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Friend testifies foster mom borrowed dog cage for Rilya

A dozen years ago, Geralyn Graham called a friend and asked to borrow a dog cage — where Graham planned to keep her foster child, Rilya Wilson, during the night.

Graham “said she was going to use it to keep [Rilya] from doing harm to herself,” Graham’s friend, Detra Coakley Winfield, told jurors this week in Graham’s trial on murder and child-abuse charges.

Winfield said she supplied the dog cage, but she never saw Rilya inside it.Graham, 66, is accused of killing 4-year-old Rilya sometime around Christmas 2000, when the girl disappeared from the Kendall home that Graham shared with her domestic partner, Pamela Graham. Child welfare workers — who were supposed to be monitoring the foster child — did not notice Rilya’s disappearance until April 2002. The child’s body has never been found.

Graham has maintained that Rilya was taken from her home in January 2001 by an unidentified woman who claimed to be a worker with the Department of Children and Families — a story that prosecutors have called a lie, part of a cover-up to conceal the child’s death.

Miami-Dade prosecutors began their case this week by focusing on Geralyn Graham’s treatment of Rilya, and Graham’s shifting explanations for Rilya’s absence after December 2000.

Winfield said she once saw Rilya confined in a laundry room as punishment for misbehavior. She said Rilya — born to a crack-addicted mother and later placed in foster care — often seemed “sad” during the eight months she lived at the Graham house. Winfield said Rilya appeared to have behavior problems, and she once watched the child play with feces.

“To me, she had some issues, some mental issues,” Winfield told jurors Thursday.

Around Christmas 2000, Graham told Winfield that Rilya was going to go on a trip to New York with a “Spanish lady” who had befriended the child. Winfield said she saw the woman, but never spoke to her.

Winfield said she never saw Rilya again after that.

After Rilya’s disappearance made the news in 2002, Winfield said she called Graham, who told her that the “Spanish lady” had returned Rilya — before a DCF worker came to take Rilya away again.

But during her testimony, Winfield often appeared confused about the sequence of events, and said she didn’t recall many details after all these years.

And under questioning from defense attorney Michael Matters, Winfield said that she never saw Graham strike Rilya.

But on Wednesday, another family friend, Laquica Tuff, told jurors that she saw Rilya with scratches and a gash on her forehead about two months before the girl’s disappearance. Tuff said Graham told also told her that Rilya was going on a “road trip” to New York and Disney World.

Graham “said she would be gone for awhile,” Tuff said.

Graham’s trial will resume on Tuesday.

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Hip Hop producer gets 2 years for attempted gun possession

Hip Hop producer Bryan Leach -- credited with discovering Lil Jon and the Yin Yang Twins -- was sentenced to two years prison on attempted gun possession today, but is being allowed to remain free until April pending appeal.

Leach had been busted two years ago after allegedly driving his 2006 Bentley Continental erratically on West 72nd Street. His Kel-Tec handgun -- loaded with hollow-points -- was recovered from the car's console. His sentence before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lewis Bart Stone includes one and a half years of probation.

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Gift ideas for the techie on your list

The holidays are coming fast, and if you’re like me, you’ve probably gotten very little of your gift shopping done.

Here are suggestions for a variety of gifts for the techie and the not-so-techie people on your list.

Some of these items can be found in stores and some are only available online, but you should be able to order them in time for Christmas or Hanukkah.

IOMEGA EZ MEDIA & BACKUP CENTER

What is it? A hard drive that lives on your home network so you can share files, store all your photos and music and back up your home computers. Works on Macintosh, Windows and Linux computers.

The EZ Media & Backup Center is available in 1-, 2- and 3-terabyte capacities. It is simple to set up. It lives next to your home router and plugs into the network via Ethernet.

Major features include a built-in iTunes server so your music is available to all connected computers, Time Machine support for easy Macintosh backups and Iomega’s Personal Cloud to access your data from any Internet connection.

It can also stream your video files to your TV if you’ve got a compatible streaming box or an Internet-connected TV.

Software for backing up Windows PCs is also included.

Who’s it for? Any family that wants central storage for their digital lives. This is a great home for your digital photo, music or video library.

What does it cost? One terabyte for $169.99, two terabytes for $209.99, three terabytes for $279.99.

Where can you get it? Online at www.iomega.com, Amazon, Best Buy, Apple store, Fry’s.

NETATMO URBAN WEATHER STATION

What is it? A wireless indoor/outdoor weather station that displays through an application on your Apple or Android mobile device.

There are two parts, one that lives in your house and one you place outside.

The indoor component plugs into the wall and monitors the temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, carbon dioxide level and even the sound level in decibels.

The outdoor module is battery-powered and measures temperature and humidity.

Once you connect the Netatmo to your home Wi-Fi network, you can download the free app and see your weather stats from anywhere.

Setup was easy enough, and you can set the app to notify you when carbon dioxide rises to levels that you should be warned about — which is great.

Who’s it for? Weather geeks and people who like to know what the temperature is without having to fire up a browser.

What does it cost? $179

Where can you get it? www.netatmo.com

3M LED ADVANCED LIGHT

What is it? 3M’s first foray into the home light bulb market is with the LED Advanced Light, which uses light-emitting diodes (LED) to produce 800 lumens (the light of a 60-watt bulb).

The Advanced Light has a life span of 25 years and costs just $1.63 per year if it’s turned on for three hours per day.

The bulb lights instantly and is dimmable.

It’s a little intimidating to start buying light bulbs that might outlive me, but my wallet approves.

Who’s it for? Anyone who wants to save money or wants a bulb that might not have to be changed until 2035.

What does it cost? $25

Where can you get it? Select Wal-Mart stores. For more information, go to www.3mlighting.com/LED.

STEM IZON 2.0 WI-FI VIDEO MONITOR

What is it? A small, wireless video camera that you can monitor remotely with an iOS device.

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Wii U Sells 400,000 Units in First Week

Nintendo‘s Wii U sold 400,000 units during its first week of sales, and Nintendo’s president has said the console is “virtually sold out” at retailers.

[More from Mashable: YouTube-Exclusive ‘Halo’ Miniseries Nets 26 Million Views]

The Wii U, Nintendo’s next-generation console that features a touch screen as a controller centerpiece, was released on Nov. 18 across the United States. Despite large crowds at Nintendo’s flagship store in New York, users on Twitter reported there were few lines if they wanted to get their console on launch day.

The Wii U’s sales on made up only of a portion of Nintendo’s sales last week. Nintendo sold 300,000 Wii units last week; the console was released in 2006, but many retailers had Black Friday deals that dropped it under the $ 100 price point. Nintendo’s 3DS and DS handheld consoles also sold well, with 275,000 and 250,000 units respectively.

[More from Mashable: Double Fine Opens Top Secret Game Brainstorm to Fans]

For context, the Wii sold 475,000 units during its first eight days in the U.S. marketplace in 2006.

CNET reports that Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Amie said significant Black Friday discounts lead to the 8-year-old Nintendo DS to outsell the newer model. According to VGChartz, the 3DS has sold about 6 million units in America since being released last year.

BONUS: First Look at the Wii U

GamePad

The Wii U GamePad has a 6.2-inch touchscreen.

Click here to view this gallery.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Mark Hamill's 'Star Wars' Sequel Jedi Mind Trick

Does Mark Hamill know more about the upcoming Star Wars sequels than he's leading us to believe? Will Luke Skywalker appear in Episode VII? Is the man just using a Jedi mind trick on ET?

Related: Mark Hamill Tells New Stories from 'Star Wars'

"That's a really good question! I mean, it's also exciting, but I don't really know enough to be able to answer these questions – I have to watch Entertainment Tonight to find out," said the cagey star with a smile at the Tuesday premiere of his gritty new gangster movie, Sushi Girl.

As for whether or not he think Steven Spielberg may still opt to helm an installment of his buddy George Lucas' franchise, Mark said, "Anybody that loves movies would love for Steven Spielberg to be in the director's chair, but I understand why he probably wouldn't want to. He's a trendsetter. He doesn't really follow anybody else."

Mark volunteered that up next he'd like to climb into the director's chair himself with an adaptation of The Black Pearl, and told ETonline that he's working on the project with the writers of The Fighter.

Sushi Girl, out this week on VOD, follows a group of gangsters who reunite for dinner -- fresh sushi atop a naked girl -- several years after a diamond heist gone wrong. Determined to find out where the missing diamonds are, they torture one of the members who last had the jewels in his possession. Directed by Kern Saxton, the film boasts such co-stars as Tony Todd, James Duval and Noah Hathaway and features cameos by Danny Trejo, Sonny Chiba, Michael Biehn and Jeff Fahey.

Video: Sushi Girl -- Yes, This is Mark Hamill from 'Star Wars'

So why take on such a dark tale? "Because I don't get offered these kind of bizarre roles, and I get jealous of people like Philip Seymour Hoffman and Steve Buscemi, and I had fun playing a psycho when I did Joker [for the animated Batman series], so I should do it on camera once instead of just in cartoons. … Certainly darker characters and villains are a lot of fun to play, especially when you're known for something 180-degrees removed from that."

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Parachute Jump getting LED light system

Coney Island’s landmark Parachute Jump is finally getting its “bling.”

The city’s Economic Development Corp. has tapped the seaside neighborhood’s biggest amusement operator to fulfill Borough President Marty Markowitz’s vision of overhauling the 262-foot-tall structure’s lackluster lighting system with more “bling” so it could become Brooklyn’s “Eiffel Tower.”

Zamperla USA – which runs Luna Park and other attractions – was selected to install 8,000 colored LED lights across the Parachute Jump that will be programmable for shows and special events with music.

“The Parachute Jump will finally have enough ‘bling’ to be visible even from outer space,” crowed Markowitz, who secured $2 million in city funding for the project.

The new lighting proposal is set to go before city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission on Dec. 11 for final blessing.

If approved, the lights are expected to be installed and running by next summer, city officials said.

“With this new lighting design, the Parachute Jump will become a beacon for the neighborhood and show that Coney Island will not only recover from Hurricane Sandy, but continue its revitalization into New York’s premier oceanfront destination,” said EDC spokesman Kyle Sklerov.

The current lighting system, created by renowned lighting artist Leni Schwendinger, was installed in 2006.

But Markowitz was so unimpressed with it – he thought it was too “artsy,” and needed “blinging up” to capture Coney Island’s flash – that he convinced the mayor and City Council in 2008 to set aside $2 million to bring a new lighting system to long-inoperable ride.

The Parachute Jump is a former ride from the 1939 World’s Fair in Queens that was relocated to Coney Island in 1941. It ceased operations in 1968 and was declared a city landmark in 1989. It is part of a revamped Steeplechase Plaza that the city is hoping to create.

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FPL’s request for nuclear energy costs gets OK

The Florida Public Service Commission Monday approved $151 million in advance nuclear costs for Florida Power & Light Co., the total amount the utility requested.

The unanimous vote means that a customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours a month will be charged $1.69 a month for the advance costs beginning in January, the PSC said. This year that customer is paying $2.20 a month.

The commission also approved $142 million in nuclear costs for St. Petersburg-based Progress Energy Florida.

FPL’s breakdown for the costs includes $20 million for two proposed new reactors, Turkey Point 6 and 7, in South Miami-Dade.

Roughly $131 million is for expansions of two existing reactors at Turkey Point and two at the St. Lucie nuclear plant on Hutchinson Island.

The costs were approved despite objections from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, which has said that FPL has failed to demonstrate its intent to actually build the new Turkey Point reactors.

“The PSC accepted all of the PSC staff recommendations issued earlier this month — an unfortunate trend of rubber-stamping that we have seen year after year in spite of major obstacles and pitfalls that have made new reactor proposals in Florida less and less feasible,” SACE executive director Stephen Smith said in a statement Monday.

The group’s challenge of the constitutionality of a Florida law passed in 2006 that allows utilities to recover nuclear costs for expenses such as reactor design and licensing before construction is awaiting a decision by the Florida Supreme Court.

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Citizens leader criticize media coverage of firm’s problems

TALLAHASSEE --
Beleaguered by allegations of corporate misconduct and exorbitant executive spending, leaders at Citizens Property Insurance Corp. expressed outrage — at the media.

During a special hearing on Tuesday to address several corporate improprieties first reported by the Times/Herald, Citizens CEO Barry Gilway reserved some of his harshest criticism for news outlets that uncovered the laundry list of scandals at the state-run company.

“I am committed to making sure the reputations of innocent employees are appropriately protected,” said Gilway, claiming that reporters had defamed former Citizens employees accused of wrongdoing.

Gilway used words like “preposterous,” “absurd,” “pathetic,” and “shameful,” when discussing media coverage of the company’s internal troubles.

He defended his top officials — who have been beset by a laundry list of scandalous allegations in recent months, including questionable severance packages, sexual impropriety, and falsified documents.

The board largely voiced support of Gilway — who took the helm of the state-run insurer in June — and saved criticism for the media, the former CEO and a few “bad apple” employees.

In recent months, at least two top executives at Citizens have resigned and Gov. Rick Scott has called for two separate investigations into its top management.

Gilway stood by a claim that Citizens terminated internal investigators who discovered the misconduct as part of a company restructuring effort – not as retaliation for exposing the company’s dirty laundry.

Scott’s chief inspector general is looking into the terminations.

Gilway and board members acknowledged that Citizens needed to make some changes, and said the company is beginning to take “corrective action” to address the various scandals.

“We have a new day in this company,” said board chairman Carlos Lacasa. “And we will win back the credibility of the company in the eyes of the public.”

Lacasa also lashed out at the media, referring specifically to a recent editorial in the Palm Beach Post that branded Citizens a “corruption-ridden scam artist that threatens Florida’s economic recovery.”

Such media criticism of Citizens is “shameful” and “designed to incite the public,” he said.

Homeowners covered by Citizens have expressed outrage this year over the company’s unpopular home re-inspection program, an 11-percent rate hike and news that executives were spending upwards of $600 per night for luxury hotel rooms across the globe.

Scott’s inspector general is investigating such expenditures.

“The state of Florida gave them this blanket ability to pull in money from homeowners,” said Sharon Goessel, a 65-year-old from Palmetto Bay whose Citizens insurance rates are skyrocketing. “I want to be one of those executives at Citizens and go spend the night in a $580 hotel room.”

Sean Shaw, a former insurance consumer advocate who works for a law firm that represents insurance policyholders, blasted the board at Citizens and called for the resignation of top executives.

“Instead of spending time talking about fixing abuses of the public trust, the board seems more interested in blaming the media for finding out about it,” he said.

Some board members attacked Shaw, whose employer regularly battles Citizens in court, as someone who “has a direct financial stake” in seeing the company tarnished.

The board had less criticism for former employees and executives whose actions sullied Citizens’ reputation, including the underwriting executive who resigned after a sex scandal blew up and the Chief Administration Officer who resigned after several allegations of misconduct occurred within her unit.

Both received lucrative agreements worth tens of thousands of dollars after resigning, and Citizens helped the underwriting executive apply for unemployment compensation.

Gilway stopped short of criticizing the hefty severance agreements, but said a new policy will be drafted to clean up the process.

Citizens’ board also spent much of Tuesday’s meeting discussing the company’s preliminary budget for next year.

The company expects to shrink from about 1.5 million policies to 1.2 million policies by the end of 2013, advancing Gov. Rick Scott’s push to downsize the state-backed insurer.

“Unlike the private sector, that’s a good thing if we’re shrinking,” said Chief Financial Officer Sharon Binnun.

Toluse Olorunnipa can be reached at tolorunnipa@MiamiHerald.com or on Twitter at @ToluseO.

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