Miami-Dade considering support for Dolphins’ tax plan

The issue of tax-funded sports stadiums will soon be back on the Miami-Dade County Commission’s agenda.Commissioner Barbara Jordan is slated to introduce a resolution Wednesday backing the Miami Dolphins’ plan to use a state subsidy and local hotel taxes to fund about half of a $400 million renovation of Sun Life Stadium. The resolution urges Florida lawmakers to pass a bill...

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Nintendo’s Wii U problems turn into a crisis

In just a week, the problems Nintendo’s (NTDOY) new home console is facing have cascaded into something sinister. The traditional post-New Year slump hit Nintendo’s home market in the week ending January 12 and exposed cruelly how weak the consumer interest in Wii U truly is. According to Famitsu, Wii U sales slumped from a pace of 70,000 per week to just 21,000. The ancient PlayStation 3 sold the...

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Buzzmakers: Golden Globes Glamour and Jennifer Lawrence's Butt

1. Jennifer Lawrence: That's Not My Flabby Butt! Jennifer Lawrence has been silent long enough! The Silver Linings Playbook actress showed up on the Late Show With David Letterman this week to both clarify her Meryl Streep comments during her Golden Globes acceptance speech, and set the record straight on a photoshopped pic of her bikini backside.The actress is convinced that the paparazzi put a much...

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Lady Gaga to perform at inaugural ball

WASHINGTON — Watch out Beyonce and Katy Perry. There's another diva set to perform during the inauguration festivities — Lady Gaga.A person familiar with the inauguration tells The Associated Press that the pop star will perform at Tuesday's ball for White House staffers. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because that person wasn't authorized to...

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Miami-Dade considering support for Dolphins’ tax plan

The issue of tax-funded sports stadiums will soon be back on the Miami-Dade County Commission’s agenda.Commissioner Barbara Jordan is slated to introduce a resolution Wednesday backing the Miami Dolphins’ plan to use a state subsidy and local hotel taxes to fund about half of a $400 million renovation of Sun Life Stadium. The resolution urges Florida lawmakers to pass a bill...

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Gov. Rick Scott's staff ordered to testify in Carletha Cole trial

TALLAHASSEE -- Several current and former employees in the administration of Gov. Rick Scott are being ordered by a judge to testify in a sensational criminal case that centers on allegations of illegal taping.It is still unclear whether Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll will be forced to answer questions in the criminal case against her former aide that has also included allegations...

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With an air kiss or empty hug, Te’oing is Twitter craze

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Manti Te’o, the Notre Dame linebacker entangled in a girlfriend hoax that gives a whole new meaning to the term “air kiss,” is inspiring a new fad racing through social media: Te’oing.An avalanche of pictures of people hugging empty chairs or puckering up to an otherwise empty room were posted to Twitter with the hashtag #Te’oing days after the college football star’s story about...

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Sneak Peek of The Wanted's I Found You Music Video

ET has been rolling out sneak peeks of The Wanted's highly anticipated music video for I Found You all week, and this brand new exclusive clip features the one and only Siva Kaneswaran!Video: Max George Smolders in The Wanted's New VideoClick the video to check out the handsome 24-year-old showing off both his singing and guitar skills, with his outspoken band mate Jay McGuiness banging on the drums.Video:...

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2007 transcripts show Fed officials underestimated approaching financial crisis

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve officials in 2007 underestimated the scope of the approaching financial crisis and how it would tip the U.S. economy into the worst recession since the Great Depression, transcripts of the Fed's policy meetings that year show.The meetings occurred as the country was on the brink of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s....

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Bioethics commission meets at UM to consider testing anthrax vaccine on children

In “Dark Zephyr,” fictional terrorists released a cloud of anthrax on San Francisco. Adults were successfully vaccinated, but doctors didn’t know the safe dosage to give children. Fortunately this was just a practice exercise in emergency response in 2011. But the realization that modern medicine had no protocol to protect children from a deadly bacterial pathogen prompted...

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Amazon holiday results to show sales tax impact

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Acting as a tax collector may have hurt Amazon.com, Inc’s holiday sales analysts and industry executives said, but they expect to know more when the internet retailer reports its fourth-quarter results on January 29.Best Buy Co., an archrival of Amazon in consumer electronics, saw holiday online sales increase in three states where Amazon started collecting sales tax ahead...

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Advice Columnist Dear Abby Dies

Longtime newspaper advice columnist Pauline Friedman Phillips -- who wrote Dear Abby under the name Abigail Van Buren -- has died at age 94. Her publicist confirmed to the Associated Press that Phillips died Wednesday after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.Since her family revealed in 2002 that Phillips had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, her daughter, Jeanne Phillips (pictured above), has...

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JM Family Enterprises and Baptist Health South Florida make FORTUNE’s list of best companies

Two South Florida companies made the ranking on FORTUNE magazine's 2013 list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in America, released on Thursday.Diversified automotive company JM Family Enterprises, based in Deerfield Beach, was ranked No. 32, marking its 15th consecutive year on the list. Two-thirds of the company’s score is based on responses to an anonymous survey...

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Driver in Rickenbacker Causeway cyclist death to be sentenced

A motorist who killed cyclist Aaron Cohen in a hit-and-run crash on the Rickenbacker Causeway will learn his fate Wednesday.A Miami-Dade judge on Wednesday afternoon will sentence Michele Traverso, 26, who earlier pleaded guilty for the crash that killed Cohen last February.The fatality, and a similar hit-and-run wreck in 2010, has renewed calls for increased safety for cyclists...

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Facebook search to generate revenue, no rival to Google: analysts

(Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s new search tool has strong potential to generate revenue for the social networking company, though it is unlikely to challenge Google Inc as the world’s dominant search engine, Wall Street analysts said on Wednesday.Facebook’s “graph search” tool, rolled out on Tuesday, lets its more than 1 billion users trawl their network of friends to find everything from restaurants...

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First ET Interview: Naomi Watts

Naomi Watts is making waves with her intense performance in The Impossible, and now we're flashing back to Naomi's first-ever ET interview, when she sported brunette locks and was starring in a 1996 TV movie.Video: 'Impossible' Oscar Buzz Makes Naomi Watts Nervous Naomi starred opposite James Earl Jones, Ellen Burstyn, Richard Thomas and Kevin Kilner in Timepiece, a drama about an old clockmaker who...

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Flu activity high in all regions of NJ

TRENTON, NJ — The New Jersey Health Department says flu activity is now high in all regions of the state.But Health Commissioner Mary O'Dowd said Wednesday that the flu vaccine has shown to be "a very good match" for the various strains that have been circulating in the state.Three of the state's five regions had reported moderate flu activity last week,...

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Miami Dolphins bill would bring state money to aging stadiums

A bill drafted by the Miami Dolphins would give Florida sports teams $3 million a year in state money to improve older stadiums, provided the owner pays for at least half the cost of a major renovation. Under the law, the stadium would need to be 20 years old and the team willing to put in at least $125 million for a $250 million renovation. That’s less than the $400 million...

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Gov. Scott scolded by legislative black caucus

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Rick Scott heard a litany of complaints Tuesday from the Legislative Black Caucus, on matters ranging from judicial appointments to civil rights for ex-felons. Throughout an hour-long discussion, the Republican governor held his ground in the face of grievances from Democratic lawmakers.Criticized for making only a handful of black appointments to the...

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Apple supplier sees big Q4 boost, likely a good sign for iPhone 5 demand

Shares of Apple (AAPL) have been hit hard over the last few days. Investors continue to worry about the company’s profit margins, demand for its popular line of smartphones and tablets, and its future endeavors. With upcoming competition from Research in Motion (RIMM) and Microsoft (MSFT), and an ongoing battle with Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system, analysts fear that Apple’s mobile dominance...

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Justin Bartha The New Normal Interview

Save for Burt and Kurt Hummel, creating empathetic families has never been Ryan Murphy's strong suit. In fact, he's built an incredibly successful empire on the backs of the dysfunctional McNamara, Harmon and McQueen/McPherson clans. But with The New Normal, Murphy and co-EP Ali Adler have presented one of the most adorable blending broods currently on TV, reminding the world that it truly does take...

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Global entrepreneurship nonprofit Endeavor coming to Miami

Flawless execution helped propel Argentine Marcos Galperin’s e-auction site, Mercado Libre, above the competition to become a $3.8 billion company. Some 50,000 small businesses now use it to market their wares. Leila Velez and Heloísa Helena Assis, cousins who grew up in the slums of Rio, started with one product and one salon. Today their company, Beleza Natural, operates...

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Facebook unveils social search feature

APFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park today.MENLO PARK, Calif. —Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a new search feature on Tuesday in the company's first staged event at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters since its May initial public offering.Called "graph search," the new service lets users search their social...

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Miami police sergeant takes stand, denies accusations in federal corruption trial

A Miami police sergeant who headed a drug-fighting squad testified in his federal corruption trial Monday, denying ever planting drugs on a suspect or stealing drugs and money from dope dealers.Sgt. Raul Iglesias, 40, accused of being a dirty cop, also denied ever asking detectives in his unit for “throw-down dope’’ to plant on the suspect in a downtown Miami parking lot...

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Facebook shares rise in buildup to mystery event, earnings

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s stock opened on Monday above $ 32 for the first time since July as anticipation about upcoming products and financial results underscored Wall Street’s renewed confidence in the online social network.Facebook will on Tuesday host its first major press event at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, since its troubled initial public offering in May, triggering...

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Torrey DeVitto PETA Ad Exclusive

Thanks to her roles on The Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars, Torrey DeVitto's popularity with the high school sect has exploded in recent years, and alongside PETA, she's using that power to send a major message to education institutions across the country! VIDEO - Pretty Little Liars PreviewEvery year more than 10 million animals are dissected in secondary-school and college science classes,...

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Peacenik Russel Simmons wants unarmed mediators in schools

Hip hop mogul Russell Simmons called for funding for unarmed peacekeepers in schools during a press conference on City Hall's steps today saying, "when underserved communities are at risk, you're all at risk." The hip hop mogul joined NYC Council members Leroy Comrie, Ruben Wills, Jumaane Williams and Terrie Williams along with NYC nonprofit Life Camp founder...

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.CO sets sights on changing ‘the fabric of the Internet’

For the millions of people who equate the Web with .com, . CO Internet is out to change that mindset.The Miami company that manages and markets the .co domain is already making impressive gains — more than 1.4 million in 200 countries have hung their businesses, blogs, personal projects or dreams on a .co virtual shingle. Still, that’s just a tiny fraction of industry titan...

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Cyclist killed by hit-and-run driver on Ives Dairy Road

State troopers are looking for a driver in a hit-and-run crash that killed a cyclist on Ives Dairy Road in north Miami-Dade County early Sunday. The cyclist was riding west on Ives Dairy Road near Northeast 13th Court around 3:41 a.m. when the rider was struck and killed by a black Dodge Charger also traveling westbound. Eyewitnesses to the crash followed the car and obtained...

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Miss New York Mallory Hytes Hagan Wins Miss America

Brooklyn, New York native Mallory Hytes Hagan, 23, was crowned this year's Miss America -- beating out Miss South Carolina Ali Rogers and Miss Oklahoma Alicia Clifton, who placed second and third respectively.Hagan tap danced to James Brown's Get Up Off That Thing and answered a timely question about armed guards in schools – stating that violence is not the proper way to end violence – to clinch...

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.CO sets sights on changing ‘the fabric of the Internet’

For the millions of people who equate the Web with .com, . CO Internet is out to change that mindset.The Miami company that manages and markets the .co domain is already making impressive gains — more than 1.4 million in 200 countries have hung their businesses, blogs, personal projects or dreams on a .co virtual shingle. Still, that’s just a tiny fraction of industry titan...

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