Preservation board to decide on 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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Zynga seeks real-money gambling license in Nevada

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Social games maker Zynga Inc said on Wednesday it filed a preliminary application to run real-money gambling games in Nevada, a significant step in cracking a complex but potentially massive new market that could resuscitate its faltering business.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board will now examine whether Zynga is fit to hold a gaming license that would allow gamblers in the state to bet real money on the San Francisco-based company’s popular games like Zynga Poker, which currently involve only virtual chips with no monetary value.

Zynga is hoping that a lucrative real-money market could make up for a steep slide in revenue from its games like “FarmVille” and other fading titles that still generate the bulk of its sales.

“We anticipate that the process will take approximately 12 to 18 months to complete,” Zynga Chief Revenue Officer Barry Cottle said in a statement. “As we’ve said previously, the broader U.S. market is an opportunity that’s further out on the horizon based on legislative developments, but we are preparing for a regulated market.”

Zynga, along with many major gaming industry players, is hoping that a tide of proposed legislation to regulate gaming could sweep through states across the U.S. and open a massive new online market.

Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey are among the states that have moved or are moving toward interactive gaming after the U.S. Justice Department last year declared that only online betting on sporting contests was unlawful, presenting the opportunity for states to legalize some forms of online gambling, from lotteries to poker.

Although widespread legalization of online gaming in the United States appears years away at the minimum, obtaining a license in Nevada would be a meaningful foot in the door for Zynga’s nationwide aspirations.

Zynga has told investors in recent quarters that a concerted move into real-money gaming could represent a hefty – and badly needed – source of new revenue for the company, which has seen revenues sag and its stock plummet by more than three-quarters in the past year as gamers abandoned titles like “CityVille.”

In October, the company slashed its 2012 full-year earnings outlook for the second time and laid off employees to trim costs, while CEO Mark Pincus implored investors to give him time to turn around the company by pursuing initiatives like real-money gaming.

That month, Zynga struck a deal with bwin.party, a Gibraltar-based gaming company, to provide real money casino games like poker and slots in the United Kingdom beginning in the first half of 2013.

(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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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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Woman gives birth at Syracuse zoo

SYRACUSE — An upstate New York zoo got a surprise visit from the stork.

A woman gave birth on a wildlife path at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse on Friday, delivering her baby girl with the help of zookeepers not far from the bear exhibit.

Zoo educator Liz Schmidt tells The Post-Standard that she rushed over from the reindeer pen to find the 21-year-old woman pushing out the baby.

Other zoo workers arrived with blankets to keep mom and baby warm.

The zoo's elephant expert herded away curious zoo patrons.

An ambulance soon arrived to take the newborn to a hospital. Zoo Director Ted Fox says the zoo plans to send a gift to the family.

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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 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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Thousands of rejected Miami-Dade absentee ballots show perils of voting by mail

Absentee ballots are often touted as a pain-free, easy way to cast a vote without having to stand in long lines at a polling station.

But nearly 2,500 Miami-Dade County voters had their absentee ballots rejected this election in what amounts to a wake-up call for those who ignore or fall prey to the perils and pitfalls of not voting in person. Another 2,100 ballots were rejected in Broward County.

Some voters forgot to sign their ballots. The county elections office negated others because the signature on the ballot didn’t match the voter’s on-file John Hancock. And three voters died in between Election Day and the time they sent in their absentee ballots.

Most absentee ballots in Miami-Dade and Broward were rejected because they arrived well after Nov. 6 at the elections office.

Many voters were angry. They cast their mail-in ballots from home for convenience, only to face a greater inconvenience when their vote didn’t count.

“I voted absentee because I realized lines in Miami-Dade County would be horrendous and I didn’t feel I wanted to deal with that hassle,” Patricia Tepedino, a 45-year-old Democratic Obama voter, wrote in an email.

Tepedino’s ballot was received after 7 p.m. Election Day. So it didn’t count. And now Tepedino says the experience “kind of does” give her pause about absentee-ballot voting in the future. Others said this was the first and last time they’d vote absentee.

The Miami Herald contacted more than 1,000 Miami-Dade voters, hundreds of whom responded by email and phone with explanations and recriminations concerning their rejected absentee ballots.

A large number of voters blamed the post office or the effects of Hurricane Sandy, which interrupted mail service in New York, where many Floridians live part-time. They said their ballots often arrived from the county just before or on Election Day.

A few criticized consulates or embassies from Abu Dhabi to Mexico to Jerusalem.

A family of three in Cali, Colombia had all of their ballots tossed over technical reasons. In Jerusalem, 56-year-old Ben Rose said he put his absentee ballot in the mail along with his wife’s at the same time. His ballot arrived Nov. 19 and didn’t count. His wife’s made it Oct. 21.

More people than ever voted by absentee ballot this year, nearly 2.4 million in Florida. About 245,000 came from Miami-Dade, of which about 1 percent were rejected, about the same rate as in 2008.

Only Pinellas County in Tampa Bay had more absentee ballots cast, nearly 249,000, in Florida. The county did not provide the number late of ballots that weren’t accepted, but said .3 percent were rejected for other reasons. Voters in neighboring Hillsborough County cast 171,000, of which 1 percent were rejected.

Broward County cast the third-highest number of absentee ballots in Florida, about 172,000, of which 1.2 percent were rejected.

Palm Beach County, which had the fifth-highest number of absentee ballots cast, about 129,000, rejected about 1.1 percent.

Total statewide figures won’t be available until month’s end and will change as more absentee ballots arrive late.

President Barack Obama’s margin of victory over Mitt Romney in Florida was less than 1 percent — about 74,000 votes.

Obama’s campaign made an unprecedented push for Democrats to vote by absentee ballot this year because the Republican governor and Legislature reduced the number of days for in-person early voting, which Democrats typically dominate.

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Crowdfunding websites clamor for clearer regulation

LONDON (Reuters) – A new breed of internet-based financiers are calling for action to end regulatory uncertainty they say is preventing them from getting money to the small and medium-sized businesses that need it.

The so-called crowdfunding sector raises cash from members of the public to fund lending and investment. Regulators, however, have proved resistant to pleas for adjustments to rules that are tailored to more traditional markets.

“Operators of these platforms find it difficult to launch and flourish because existing EU and UK regulation does not fit the new models,” operators within the sector said in an open letter to EU and UK policymakers on Friday.

The plea coincides with a summit to discuss proposals for regulating a market that has developed in reaction to reduced bank lending to small and medium-sized enterprises because of tougher capital rules and greater regulatory scrutiny.

A host of alternative financing models have cropped up online, many allowing individuals to lend to, or invest in, companies with sums from as little as 10 pounds ($ 16). Massolution, a research and advisory firm specializing in the sector, says that 1.2 billion euros ($ 1.6 billion) was raised globally from crowdfunding last year.

Though some crowdfunding websites have tried to fit their operations within the existing regulatory framework, most remain largely outside it.

Part of the problem in drawing up appropriate regulation is the wide range of activities involved. Some offer debt, some equity, while others seek donations for charity or funding for creative projects in return for some non-financial reward.

With little or no expected returns from the latter, the main regulatory focus would be on equity crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending.

As well as making sure that individuals are aware of the inherent risk involved with putting money in start-ups, the industry wants to avoid the risk of scams by ensuring that platforms vet businesses adequately.

LOST IN THE CROWD

Britain’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) warned in August that inexperienced investors should be aware of the risks in crowdfunding websites. A few days later United States securities regulators put crowdfunding at the top of their annual investment scams list.

Views differ about how to tackle these risks without stifling an increasingly important source of funding, and the matter is complicated by the varying rules already in place in different countries across Europe.

Measures taken by Seedrs, the only crowdfunding website to have received FSA approval, include requiring investors to pass a test to show that they understand the risks.

“It is hard to come up with a whole securities regulation; sometimes it does have to be a bit incremental and adaptive,” Seedrs founder Jeff Lynn said. “There is no question at all this is going to be a space that will continue to move.”

Some would like the operation of such platforms to be a distinct regulated activity, but others argue for smaller steps, such as a cap on the sums that people can invest or lend.

The British government, keen to improve the flow of finance to small businesses to boost the sluggish economy, has set up a working group to look at all aspects of policy on such sites.

The FSA said that it considers authorization of crowdfunding schemes case by case. The European Commission, meanwhile, is considered as so far having had a largely observational role.

Though the introduction of a separate regulated activity could still be some way off, the co-founder of peer-to-peer site Zopa, Simon Deane-Johns, believes that increased engagement with governments and regulators shows that things are moving in the right direction.

“Over the next year or two it should become progressively easier to set up a platform,” he said, “possibly through a combination of the FSA understanding more readily where things fit within the current regime and balancing that with some self-regulation.”

(Editing by Alexander Smith and David Goodman)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Restless Clip Michelle Dockery

Emmy nominee Michelle Dockery is sporting an updated look, but still bringing the drama, in the Sundance Channel's new miniseries, Restless (premiering December 7) and ETonline scored an exclusive clip from the can't miss TV event!

PHOTOS - Go Inside Downton Season Three!

The two part series tells the story of Ruth Gilmartin (Dockery), who discovers that her mother Sally (the powerful Charlotte Rampling) was recruited as a spy during World War II. In fact, Sally is actually Eva Delectorskaya, a spy for the British Secret Service who has been on the run for thirty years.

RELATED - Downton Mastermind Creates New NBC Show

Through a series of flashbacks, we see Sally/Eva circa WWII (played by a never better Hayley Atwell) as she fights for love, honor and country.

Check out ETonline's exclusive clip above and tune in to part one of Restless on December 7 at 9 p.m. on the Sundance Channel!

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Blow hard Baldwin rips into Quinn

Council Speaker Chrstine Quinn has landed on bloviator Alec Baldwin’s enemies’ list.

The “30 Rock” actor ripped into Quinn as unworthy to be mayor because she overturned term limits to extend Mayor Bloomberg’s tenure.

“Quinn has that blood on her hands,” Baldwin said when asked about the mayor’s race by CNN’s Piers Morgan. “She was the one who singlehandedly killed the voter referendum at Bloomberg’s behest and gave him a third time.”

“In terms of her political aspirations, she a very untrustworthy person. She’s very self-seeking.”

Oh, by the way. Baldwin said he’s backing Public Advocate Bill deBlasio to become the next mayor.

Splash News

Alec Baldwin

But instead of saying nice things about deBlasio, he immediately unleashed his fury at Quinn.

He also said he disliked Quinn’s candidacy because he perceives her as Bloomberg’s “hand-picked successor” and “I resent that to some degree, that Bloomberg feels he needs to control the fate of City Hall and Gracie Mansion beyond his term.”

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Miami Beach Walgreens property sold for $30 million

Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services said Friday that it has arranged a $30 million sale of a 22,857-square foot Walgreens drugstore at 5th Street and Collins Avenue in Miami Beach. The price, which equates to $1,312 per square foot, is the second highest paid for a drugstore in the United States this year, the real estate firm said.

Trans World Entertainment Corp. was the seller of the property, which was purchased by an unnamed international investor, who paid all cash, Marcus & Millichap said.

Walgreens will continue to lease the property, thorugh a 60-year triple-net lease that began in July 2008, with 25 years firm, the company said.

INA PAIVA CORDLE

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State lawmakers cautious about projected $437 million budget surplus

TALLAHASSEE --
Initial, positive indications about Florida’s budget for the coming fiscal year could be overtaken by events if the Florida Supreme Court strikes down changes to state employees or the nation plunges over the fiscal cliff, the state’s top economist warned Wednesday.

Speaking to the first meeting of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Amy Baker — coordinator of the Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research — told lawmakers that the current projection of a $436.8 million budget surplus could still change.

"I think the message is that this is not a large cushion," Baker said. "It could evaporate on you if economic circumstances turn against us."

Lawmakers have long watched a decision in the case challenging a 2011 law that required employees to contribute 3 percent of their income to their retirement funds, along with other changes. It could cost the state around $2 billion if the Supreme Court strikes down the law.

A Leon County circuit court judge voided the changes for employees hired before July 1, 2011; justices seemed hesitant about upholding that ruling at oral arguments earlier this year.

But Baker said the so-called "fiscal cliff," a package of federal spending cuts and tax increases set to take effect on Jan. 1 unless Congress and President Barack Obama can reach agreement, also looms large.

If there is a long delay in reaching a deal — one that stretches past January and into March — it could cost the state as much as $375 million, Baker said, comparing it to the debt-ceiling fight in August 2011 that dragged down the state economy.

Even if there is an agreement, it is likely to include some measures that will reduce estimated state income by hundreds of millions of dollars, Baker said.

"There is no likelihood that Florida will escape from the final decision with no changes to our budget," Baker said.

The uncertainty has pushed lawmakers who are optimistic about the numbers to nonetheless urge caution. Senate Appropriations Chairman Joe Negron, R-Stuart, told the committee that he wanted to boost the budget stabilization fund, one of the state’s reserves, to $1.5 billion. That’s at least $500 million over where the fund is projected to be, Negron said.

After the meeting, Negron told reporters that might be as much as the Legislature can do.

"You can never have too much in a reserve, but realistically I think $1.5 billion is a reasonable target to shoot for," he said.

Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, said the situation should send a message to advocates for various state agencies in the audience.

"They need to be on notice that there is a lot of uncertainty out there and that this budget if these two things come to fruition is going to be very, very difficult to put together," Thrasher said. "And I think either one of them could devastating to us."

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Windows 8: A ‘Christmas gift for someone you hate’

Microsoft (MSFT) is no stranger to criticism these days, and the company’s new Windows 8 platform is once again the target of a scathing review from a high-profile user. Well-known Internet entrepreneur and MIT professor Philip Greenspun handed Windows 8 one of its most damning reviews yet earlier this week, calling the new operating system a “Christmas gift for someone you hate.” Greenspun panned almost every aspect of Microsoft’s new software, noting that Microsoft had four years to study Android and more than five to examine iOS, but still couldn’t build a usable tablet experience.

“The only device that I can remember being as confused by is the BlackBerry PlayBook,” Greenspun wrote on his blog after using Windows 8 on a Dell (DELL) XPS One All-in-One desktop PC. The acclaimed computer scientist noted that Microsoft omitted all of the best features from the most popular touch-focused platforms and instead created a user interface he describes as a “dog’s breakfast.”

“Suppose that you are an expert user of Windows NT/XP/Vista/7, an expert user of an iPad, and an expert user of an Android phone… you will have no idea how to use Windows 8,” Greenspun wrote.

He continued, “Some functions, such as ‘start an application’ or ‘restart the computer’ are available only from the tablet interface. Conversely, when one is comfortably ensconced in a touch/tablet application, an additional click will fire up a Web browser, thereby causing the tablet to disappear in favor of the desktop. Many of the ‘apps’ that show up on the ‘all apps’ menu at the bottom of the screen (accessible only if you swipe down from the top of the screen) dump you right into the desktop on the first click.”

The only praise Greenspun offered was that “some of the supplied apps are wonderful,” pointing to Microsoft’s Bing Finance application as an example.

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Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Prince Charles 'Thrilled' About Kate Middleton's Pregnancy

Prince Charles has given his first reaction to the news that Prince William and Kate Middleton are expecting their first child. 

Speaking to reporters Thursday in London, the Prince of Wales said he is looking forward to the prospect of becoming a grandfather to the royal offspring. "I'm thrilled, it's marvelous. It's a very nice thought of grandfatherhood in my old age, if I may say so, so that's splendid."

Video: Prince William Visits Kate in the Hospital

Prince Charles also spoke about Kate's recent hospitalization while she recovered from acute morning sickness. "I'm very glad my daughter-in-law is getting better -- thank goodness," he said. Kate -- whose formal title is the Duchess of Cambridge -- was discharged from the hospital on Thursday. 

When first approached by reporters, the Prince joked: "How do you know I'm not a radio station?" The remark referred to the incident earlier this week in which DJs from an Australian radio station called the hospital posing as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles and were able to obtain information about Kate's condition from a nurse. 

RELATED: Kate Middleton's Hospital Apologizes for Prank

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NJ Transit suffered $400M damage from Sandy

New Jersey Transit – which has faced criticism for storing trains in flood-prone areas during Sandy – suffered $400 million in storm-related damages, including $100 million in rolling stock, the executive director testified today.

The staggering losses include heavily damaged dual-powered locomotive engines – which were brand new – and dozens of multi-level rail cars that need repairs, NJ Transit head James Weinstein said at a US Senate commerce sub-committee hearing on the storm’s impact.

Weinstein, however, defended the agency’s decision to place trains in Hoboken and Kearney, two flood-prone areas that were completely inundated in the storm of the century.

“Based on the information that we had … there was a likelihood in the 80 to 90 percent range that no flooding would happen there,” he said. “And that combined with the history that the Meadowlands [Kearney] … has never flooded in the history of our railroad led us to conclude that that was the appropriate place to put the equipment.”

He said it takes 12 hours to shut down the entire NJ Transit rail system, so they were making decisions well before the storm hit.

In addition, the agency – which is conducting an internal review to its response to the storm – was leery of storing trains in its Pennsylvania facility because that area ended up cut off when last year’s tropical storm Irene damaged the northeast corridor.

“Obviously we’re informed by this storm and we’ll make adjustments in the future,” he said.

US Senator Frank Lautenberg – who chaired the sub-committee – said that it seemed the agency did the best it could.

“It doesn’t sound like there were other choices,” he said.

MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota and Port Authority Executive director Pay Foye also testified.

Foye said that all of the PA’s facilities were impacted by the storm, but that the PATH system took the hardest hit.

The New Jersey-New York subway system is still running limited service.

MTA head Lhota said that the subway is still running fewer trains because of damaged sustained during Sandy.

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Macy’s to open round the clock for last minute shopper

Last minute shoppers will have a marathon opportunity to finish their holiday purchases at Macy’s during any hour of the day or night.

The department store chain announced Thursday that the majority of its stores across the country -- including South Florida -- will be open round the clock for 65 hours straight starting at 7 a.m. Friday, Dec. 21 through midnight, Sunday, Dec. 23. Macy’s will be offering a special holiday One Day Sale for 48 hours running from 7 a.m. Friday until 7 a.m. Sunday.

Macy’s began the tradition of keeping stores open 24 hours in 2006 in New York. Over the years it was offered in a couple dozen locations, but never at any stores in South Florida.

“Our customers love it,” said Melissa Goff, Macy’s southeast spokeswoman. “It’s a planned customer centric opportunity that we’re rolling out nationwide.”

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Get your decorated home into our Holiday Lights showcase

It’s that time of year to decorate your home and tell us how wonderful it looks!

We’re seeking all entries for our annual Holiday Lights showcase. Tell us about your home, your decorations and where you live. Send this information to Lidia at ltzdinkova@gmail.com. by Monday, Dec. 10 or to Joan Chrissos, Holiday Lights, Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fl., 33132. Please include a daytime phone number.

We will feature the homes in Neigbors on Sunday, Dec. 16.

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PlayStation 3 was the world’s No.1 Netflix streaming device this year

There are dozens of devices that can stream Netflix (NFLX), but only one can machine be crowned the king of the living room. According to Netflix, that device is Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 3 console. Without revealing any specific figures, Netflix announced on its blog “in the U.S. and globally, PS3 is the largest TV-connected platform in terms of Netflix viewing” and that “at times, PS3 even surpassed the PC in hours of Netflix enjoyment to become our No. 1 platform overall.” 

Netflix’s blog is quick to mention why the PS3 is the most popular streaming device this year, applauding it for being the first console to have 1080p HD video and 5.1-channel Dolby Digital Plus surround sound, post-play, second screen controls, subtitles and easy app updates.

While the Xbox 360 is gaining ground in terms of how many hours users spend watching videos on it, streaming video services such as Netflix requires an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription. One reason why the PlayStation 3 might be leading Netflix streaming is because it doesn’t require a subscription fee to have access to the Netflix app, or any other streaming video app such as Amazon (AMZN) Instant Video.

“The PlayStation and Netflix communities both share a strong passion for high quality entertainment,” Sony Computer Entertainment of America CEO and president Jack Tretton said. “Netflix provides a fantastic experience for watching TV shows and movies on PS3, and our joint development will continue to produce innovations for our customers that further demonstrate PS3 as the true home for entertainment in the living room.”

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Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Paula Deen Delivers Holiday Hams to Storm Victims

ET caught up with celebrity chef Paula Deen as she traveled to storm-devastated Staten Island this week to deliver food aid and provide recipes to help feed victims of Hurricane Sandy. 

Deen said she'd been trying to get to the area for weeks before finally being able to make her visit on Tuesday. "We've been trying for a month to get here because you could see on TV what horrible, horrible shape all these people were in, especially Staten Island and Atlantic City."

VIDEO: Paula Deen Opens Up About Diabetes & New Diet

The TV chef said she wanted to see in person the devastating damage and pointed out that just two blocks from the location of her visit to Staten Island, 24 lost their lives after drowning in storm waters. "I can't come this far from Savannah and not want to see what the power of this storm did to this part of our country," she said. 

Deen -- who showed up with holiday hams in her partnership with the company Smithfield -- called the volunteers working in the area "angels" and said that sometimes disaster can bring out the best in people. "Tragedy is sometimes a wonderful reminder to us about out sisters and brothers that share this country with us -- the generosity and love and compassion they have in them."

VIDEO: Paula Deen on Battling Her Anxiety Disorder

Watch the video to also hear Deen give a health and diet update and to find out the recipe she brought to the on-site "soup master."

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FDNY safety inspector gets 2 1/2 years for pocketing bribes in day-care scam

A corrupt FDNY safety inspector was sentenced today to 2-1/2 years in the slammer for pocketing $61,000 in bribes to help a ring of crooked day-care center operators run a massive scam on the city.

Carlos Montoya pleaded guilty earlier this year to falsifying records and overlooking violations at centers run by "the Congregation," a group of Russian immigrants who soaked taxpayers for more than $1 million by falsely claiming to care for needy kids.

Defense lawyer Robert Osuna argued in court that Montoya, 54, only kept $5,000 from the bribes he was paid and passed along the rest to an unidentified architect who allegedly assisted him in the scheme.

Chad Rachman/New York Post

Carlos Montoya in January

But Manhattan federal Judge Paul Gardephe said, "whether he kept the money or chose to give it to someone else is not relevant," noting the "long history" of city inspectors who have been convicted of taking bribes.

"It must be understood by city employees with inspection responsibilities, that if they betray the public trust, they will go to jail," Gardephe said.

Montoya, a 20-year FDNY veteran who resigned in disgrace after his guilty plea, admitted making "a bad judgment."

"I apologize to my colleagues in the Fire Department," he said.

"We are a brotherhood, and I brought shame to their office and the city of New York, which I served so faithfully for so many years."

City Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn noted that Montoya was among six city employees convicted of taking payoffs from "the Congregation."

She said the case -- dubbed "Operation Paycare" -- "delivers the clear message that the city and its law-enforcement partners will uncover corruption and protect the safety of infants and children in city-administered day care.”

Mastermind and ringleader Liudmila Umarov is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty earlier this year to charges including mail fraud and bribery.

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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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State elections officials to investigate voting problems in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties

TALLAHASSEE --
Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner told a Senate committee Tuesday morning that he plans to dispatch a team of experts to Miami-Dade next week to investigate more fully the “problems” with the recent election, including long lines at the polls and an overwhelming surge of last-minute absentee ballots.

Detzner, who is Gov. Rick Scott’s chief elections officer, said Miami-Dade is one of five Florida counties his staff will make fact-finding visits to, beginning in Tampa next week.

Referring to Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, Detzner said: “The mayor gets it. He knows what the problem is in Dade County and how to solve the problem.”

Testifying before the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee, Detzner said the “problem” could be anything from a lack of early voting sites to a lack of money for office operations. He said his office will spend a week in Broward, Palm Beach, Lee and St. Lucie counties, and that his office will first visit a sixth county, Hillsborough, where Supervisor of Elections Earl Lennard is retiring and where “a couple of issues” need attention.

“He had some lines,” Detzner said. “I want to use him as a benchmark in our first interview process as a good performer, to benchmark some of the other counties.”

The 13-member elections panel is chaired by Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, who began the two-hour session by emphasizing the need to reform not only the voting process but the ethics laws, which Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, has said are too lax in Florida.

“There’s always a few that would bring disgrace to all of us,” Latvala said. “Our job is to make that a little harder to happen in the future.”

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Is the iPad Mini as Good as the iPad?

The iPad Mini‘s screen doesn’t have the same “resolutionary” Retina display as its bigger brother, but don’t worry: the Apple snobs appear to have gotten over that. After spending time with his new baby-tablet, The New York Times‘s Nick Bilton gave in, calling the gadget his new “Desert Island Device.” (It replaced his iPhone, by the way.) The inferior screen had worried Bilton like it had others, but no longer: ”I used it for two weeks and my concerns about the screen’s quality are completely irrelevant.” It’s not that Bilton prefers the “fuzzy” screen, as he called it. But the portability of the lightweight Mini outweighs that for him, making this tablet, in his opinion, really the best tablet Apple has ever made.

RELATED: Prepare for an iPad Mini This Month

Considering all the fawning over the Retina display on the iPad proper, it’s pretty amazing to see reviewers toss that upgrade for something that Steve Jobs forbid the company to create. Bilton’s not the only one to prefer the new cousin, even if it is technically worse. Noted Apple-phile Jonathan Gruber said he hadn’t touched the fourth-generation iPad that Apple released this year as well “I’ve gone small and fuzzy,” he wrote. When the Retina display first came out, Gruber called it “pure joy” for his “dream iPad.” But a funny thing happened on the way out of the hype cycle: Apple put out something the masses were supposed to like more than the techies, and that just made everyone like it even more. Call it a holiday miracle, but the Apple snobs may be snobs no more.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Scandal Who Shot Fitz Exclusive Video

The already-electrifying second season of ABC's Scandal ramped up the drama up one-million notches when President Fitzgerald was shot in the closing moment of last week's episode, causing #WhoShotFitz to trend for hours.

RELATED - TV's 10 Best Dressed Stars

How will Olivia react? Was Mellie involved in her husband's attempted assassination? What does this mean for James' vote-rigging expose? Two of those questions are (seemingly) answered in ETonline's exclusive clip from Thursday's Scandal, which -- much like this sensational sophomore year -- is heartbreaking and heart-pounding in equal measure!

VIDEO - Kerry Washington Hits The Big Screen

Titled Happy Birthday, Mr. President, the episode not only forces Olivia to return to work at the White House, but gifts the audience with another string of fascinating flashbacks, revealing the inaugural days of Fitz's presidency. 

Watch ETonline's exclusive sneak peek of the most important Scandal to date, airing Thursdays at 10 p.m. on ABC.

RELATED - Vanity Fair takes heat for placement of African American actresses on 'Young Hollywood' cover

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Worker crushed by falling refrigerator

A construction worker was crushed to death when a giant refrigeration unit fell from a crane at Bronx-Lebanon Medical Center this morning, authorities said.

Witnesses said the boom of the crane hoisting the boxed refrigeration unit snapped at about 10:50 a.m. outside the hospital, at 1650 Grand Concourse.

The shipping container-sized unit fell to the sidewalk, crushing the worker beneath it.

The refrigerator “just fell straight down on him,” said witness Joseph Contreras, 22. “He was just flat beneath it. You couldn’t see him at all.”

“It was very loud — it sounded like thunder and it shook the building,” said Stephanie Dominguez, 19, a student who lives on the Grand Concourse across the street from the hospital.

“I ran to the window and saw five people scrambling and yelling,” Dominguez said.

“One man went between the wall and blue box and started yelling, ‘I can see him! I can see him! We have to get the ambulance!’ ”

The construction worker was dead on arrival at the hospital emergency room, authorities said.

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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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Family of worker killed in MDC garage collapse has filed suit against contractors

Family members of one of the workers killed when the garage at Miami Dade College West campus collapsed have filed a lawsuit against five companies involved in the construction.

The garage was almost complete when a part of it collapsed on Oct. 10, killing four workers.

Samuel Perez, 53, was driving a cement truck and the time of the collapse and was trapped by the rubble in the truck’s cab.

It took rescue workers 17 hours to reach him, after amputating his legs to free him. He did not survive. He died three hours later in the hospital.

Now his widow Migdalia Lopez is suing Ajax Building Corporation and other companies contracted for the project. Allegations include gross negligence, failure to comply with safety standards and rushing the operation to meet a deadline.

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Happy Birthday! Texting turns 20

Twenty years ago today a 22-year-old British engineer unknowingly invented both the scourge of intimate dinner conversations and the center of every teenager's social life.

On Dec. 3, 1992 Neil Papworth used his computer in the sleepy town of Newburty, Berkshire, to send "Merry Christmas" to the cell phone of Vodaphone executive Richard Jarvis and a trillion-message a year phenomenon was born.

The birth of text messaging, officially called Short Messaging Service, was not a short labor — it took more than seven years for the 160 character or less messaging service to really take off.

AFP/Getty Images

The first SMS text message was sent 20 years ago today in England.

That's because cell phone companies, and Papworth himself, never thought people would want to type messages on their phones' tiny keypads when they could just talk to them.

"We thought SMS was a clever way for a company's staff to send simple messages to one another," Papworth told The Guardian.

But as cell phone popularity grew, rival networks needed to distinguish themselves and texting became one of many features that companies used in the fight for customers.

Texting's popularity soon exploded with eight trillion messages being sent last year alone.

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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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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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Bachelorette Ashley Hebert and JP Rosenbaum are Married

Ashley Hebert is a bachelorette no more!

The 28-year-old dentist and her construction manager fiancé J.P. Rosenbaum, 35, walked down the aisle on Saturday in Pasadena, California, reports People Magazine.

The ceremony, officiated by Bachelor and Bachelorette host Chris Harrison, was attended by familiar faces from the series including Ali Fedotowsky, Emily Maynard, and Jason and Molly Mesnick.

Video: 'Bachelorette' Ashley Hebert and Fiance J.P.'s Passionate PDA

Ashley and J.P.'s exchanging of vows will be televised December 16 on a two-hour special on ABC.

The season seven sweeties will be the second Bachelorette couple ever to televise their walk down the aisle, following in the footsteps of Trista and Ryan Sutter, who married in December 2003.

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Chiefs take field vs. Panthers as owner calls the past 24 hours 'incredibly difficult'

Getty Images

Kansas City Chiefs players huddle in prayer in the tunnel to the field prior to their game against the Carolina Panthers today.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt offered his condolences Sunday to the families affected by the murder-suicide involving one of his players, calling it "an incredibly difficult 24 hours for our family."

Hunt spoke to The Associated Press on the field before the Chiefs' game against the Carolina Panthers. He said the Chiefs consulted with the league about whether to play the game as scheduled, but ultimately left it up to coach Romeo Crennel and the team captains to decide.

AP

Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt

Crennel and general manager Scott Pioli were in the parking lot of the Chiefs' practice facility Saturday morning when linebacker Jovan Belcher shot himself in the head. Belcher had shot his girlfriend multiple times at a nearby residence just minutes earlier.

CHIEFS LB FATALLY SHOOTS GIRLFRIEND, KILLS SELF IN FRONT OF COACH & GM

BELCHER MOURNED BY LONG ISLAND HOMETOWN

VACCARO: MURDER-SUICIDE LEAVES COUNTLESS QUESTIONS

BELCHER DEATH STUNS CHIEFS, NFL COMMUNITY

Hunt said Pioli called him from the parking lot immediately after the shooting, and that he flew from his home in the Dallas to Kansas City on Saturday afternoon.

"I spent the evening last night at the team hotel with them," Hunt said. "I wanted to be there with the team, with the coaches, to let them know I love them and support them and know what they're going through, and particularly the guys who were present in the parking lot when Jovan took his life. I know this has to be incredibly difficult."

The Chiefs had several counselors on hand at the team hotel Saturday night. The NFL and the players' association have also pledged their support to the team.

Hunt said that Belcher was "a player who had not had a long concussion history."

Belcher was in his fourth year with the Chiefs after making the team as an undrafted free agent out of Maine, and team officials said he was particularly close to Pioli.

"We have a lot of players who were struggling, people who had spent countless hours with Jovan over the last several years, the linebacking group in particular," Hunt said. "I know it's going to be difficult for them today. I told them all we can do in a situation like this is pull together as a family and support each other."

Kansas City police have not released a motive for the shooting of 22-year-old Kasandra M. Perkins, other than to say the couple had been arguing in recent days.

They left behind a 3-month-old daughter, Zoe.

"We lost two members of the Chiefs family," Hunt said. "Kasandra was part of our Chiefs women's organization, and had done things in the community with the CWO group. They have a daughter now, Zoe, who is an orphan. I can't imagine how difficult that's going to be for her."

Hunt said that he had a number of conversations Saturday with Commissioner Roger Goodell on whether to play the game against Carolina as scheduled. Ultimately, Hunt asked Crennel to discuss with team captains how they wanted to proceed.

"Of course, the captains had been in conversation with their teammates," Hunt said, "and they unanimously believed the right thing to do was play the game."

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Boat Show may block Miami’s 2016 Super Bowl bid

This winter, the biggest NFL match-up in South Florida might be Super Bowl versus Boat Show.

As South Florida readies a bid for the 2016 Super Bowl, it must contend with a major potential conflict on the tourism calendar. The National Football League may move the Super Bowl to Presidents’ Day weekend, already home to the five-day Miami International Boat Show since the 1940s.

It’s a significant enough conflict that, in the past, local tourism officials have declined to pursue a Super Bowl if it fell on boat show weekend. But this time around they may have no choice. For the first time, the NFL is requiring that potential host cities agree to a Presidents’ Day weekend Super Bowl if they want to pursue the big game at all, said two people who have seen the NFL request for Super Bowl bids.

The NFL “invited South Florida [to bid] knowing there was going to be an issue with Presidents’ Day weekend and the boat show,” said Nicki Grossman, Broward’s tourism director. “In the past, South Florida has not responded to a Super Bowl date that included Presidents’ Day weekend. This package is different.”

South Florida vies with New Orleans as the top Super Bowl host, with government and tourism leaders touting the game as both a boon to the economy and a publicity bonanza. But the notion of accommodating both Super Bowl and boat show — not to mention a major arts festival in Coconut Grove — strikes some top tourism officials as a bad idea.

“There is not sufficient hotel inventory available in Miami that weekend to host a Super Bowl,” said William Talbert, president of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We have taken a close look at that weekend, and it’s not physically possible in Miami to host Super Bowl during the Presidents’ Day weekend because of the boat show and the Coconut Grove Arts Festival. The hotel inventory is all being used for these two great events.”

His comments are at odds with the region’s top Super Bowl organizer and reflect the burden that the boat show may be to South Florida’s Super Bowl hopes for 2016 and 2017. The NFL invited Miami and San Francisco to bid for the 2016 Super Bowl by April 1, with the loser vying with Houston for the 2017 game. Talbert said the bid package states both decisions will be made in May.

For now, South Florida’s Super Bowl organizers face a largely hypothetical challenge, because the current NFL schedule has the Super Bowl occurring two weeks before Presidents’ Day weekend. The bid requirements for the ’16 and ’17 Super Bowls include three consecutive weekends as possibilities for the game, with the latest falling on the Presidents’ Day holiday.

Still, possible logistical hurdles may combine with political obstacles if the Miami Dolphins resume their push for a tax-funded renovation of Sun Life Stadium, the Super Bowl’s South Florida home.

Last year, the Dolphins proposed that Broward and Miami-Dade counties subsidize a $225 million renovation at Sun Life as a way to keep the region competitive for Super Bowls and other large events. The renovation includes a partial roof that would prevent the kind of drenching Super Bowl spectators suffered in 2007 when a rare February downpour hit Miami Gardens.

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