Miami photographer sentenced to 10 years in child-porn case

A Miami-area photographer who secretly videotaped children while they changed clothes in his home studio was sentenced in federal court Friday to 10 years in prison.

Diego Tobias Matrajt, 37, pleaded guilty in September to distribution and possession of child pornography.

Last February, Matrajt distributed 10 images of child pornography to an undercover agent by using a peer-to-peer file sharing program, according to court records.

In April, FBI agents did a search of his home and computers, uncovering 26 video images of boys and girls changing clothes alone in a guest bedroom with their genitalia exposed, records show.

Matrajt admitted surreptitiously video recording children under the age of 12 as they changed clothes in the guest bedroom during photo shoots.

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Riveting Details Emerge from CT School Rampage

As morning turned to afternoon on Friday, further details continued to emerge from Newtown, CT, a tight-knit community shaken by a massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School that took the lives of innocent students and teachers, in addition to the gunman, reportedly identified as Adam Lanza.

RELATED: President Fights Tears as He Addresses Nation

As President Barack Obama touched on in his tear-jerking press conference, this is not the first time the nation has witnessed a tragedy of this kind. The recent mass shooting at an Aurora, CO movie theater is just one instance of such violence. Columbine High School and Virginia Tech also resonate as prime examples.

Hollywood's biggest stars were quick to react to the news on Twitter and made an outcry for stricter gun control regulations.

Watch the video for ET's complete coverage of today's biggest headline.

RELATED: Celebs Tweet Reactions to CT School Shooting

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Victims in Connecticut massacre ID'd as police find 'very good evidence' that could help illuminate shooter's motives

The unhinged gunman who slaughtered 26 children and adults yesterday in a elementary school arrived with guns blazing — blasting his way into the building, according to Connecticut State police.

“He was not voluntarily let into the school at all,” Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance said at a Saturday morning press conference outside Sandy Hook Elementary School, where Adam Lanza unleashed one of the worst massacres in US history before committing suicide.

“He forced his way into the school.”

THE POST'S COMPLETE COVERAGE OF THE CONNECTICUT MASSACRE

AFP/Getty Images

Distraught relatives leave a Newtown fire station after hearing news of their loved ones from officials yesterday.

PHOTOS: SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING

RAW SOUNDS OF NEWTOWN TRAGEDY

Vance said investigators at the school, as well as a secondary crime scene — the home of Lanza’s mother, Nancy, who at one time worked at the school and was also found dead — have uncovered “very good evidence,” that will be able to “paint the how, and more importantly, the why.”

But the investigation won’t be completed for up to two days or longer, Vance cautioned.

“We have done everything we need to do to peel back the onion,” Vance said at the press conference, which was delayed over two hours.

As soon as investigators are done combing through every “crack and crevice” inside and outside the building, officials would release a list of all the names of the victims — 20 of whom are children, Vance said. He did say that all of the victims had been identified.

He said a trooper or an officer has been assigned to parents to help “maintain their solitude.”

Vance refused to name Lanza, 20, and said the shooter's name would be released at the same time as the victims.

The senseless killings touched families across the region and the world.

“The members of the NYC Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association join the nation and the world in sending our thoughts and prayers to all of those who lost a loved one in the senseless shooting at the Sandy Hook school, especially to our colleague Lt. James Giblin, whose nephew was lost to this tragedy,” said PBA president Patrick J. Lynch said.

“We will also keep the first responders, the police, EMS and everyone whose difficult job causes them to deal with the aftermath of this tragedy in our thoughts and we stand ready to offer any assistance we can give to help them get through this horrific event. We pray that we will never see another tragedy like this again.”

A crisis intervention team from Yale University is being set up to help stunned residents of bucolic Newtown—a close-knit community of about 27,000 that’s 60 miles northeast of New York City—cope with the tragedy.

gbuiso@nypost.com

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Miami in spotlight at AVCC, other entrepreneurship events

Entrepreneurs from around the world took the stage during this packed week of entrepreneurship events in Miami: Florida International University’s Americas Venture Capital Conference (known as AVCC), HackDay, Wayra’s Global DemoDay and Endeavor’s International Selection Panel.

The events, all part of the first Innovate MIA week, also put the spotlight on Miami as it continues to try to develop into a technology hub for the Americas.

“While I like art, I absolutely love what is happening today... The time has come to become a tech hub in Miami,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez, who kicked off the venture capital conference on Thursday. He told the audience of 450 investors and entrepreneurs about the county’s $1 million investment in the Launch Pad Tech Accelerator in downtown Miami.

“I have no doubt that this gathering today will produce new ideas and new business ventures that will put our community on a fast track to becoming a center for innovative, tech-driven entrepreneurship,” Gimenez said.

Brad Feld, an early-stage investor and a founder of TechStars, cautioned that won’t happen overnight. Building a startup community can take five, 10, even 15 years, and those leading the effort, who should be entrepreneurs themselves, need to take the long-term view, he told the audience via video. “You can create very powerful entrepreneurial ecosystems in any city... I’ve spent some time in Miami, I think you are off to a great start.”

Throughout the two-day AVCC at the JW Brickell Marriott, as well as the Endeavor and Wayra events, entrepreneurs from around the world pitched their companies, hoping to persuade investors to part with some of their green.

And in some cases, the entrepreneurs could win money, too. During the venture capital conference, 29 companies —including eight from South Florida such as itMD, which connects doctors, patients and imaging facilities to facilitate easy access of records — competed for more than $50,000 in cash and prizes through short “elevator’’ pitches. Each took questions from the judges, then demoed their products or services in the conference “Hot Zone,” a room adjoining the ballroom. Some companies like oLyfe, a platform to organize what people share online, are hoping to raise funds for expansion into Latin America. Others like Ideame, a trilingual crowdfunding platform, were laser focused on pan-Latin American opportunities.

Winning the grand prize of $15,000 in cash and art was Trapezoid Digital Security of Miami, which provides hardware-based security solutions for enterprise and cloud environments. Fotopigeon of Tampa, a photo-sharing and printing service targeting the military and prison niches, scored two prizes.

The conference offered opportunities to hear formal presentations on current trends — among them the surge of start-ups in Brazil; the importance of mobile apps and overheated company valuations — and informal opportunities to connect with fellow entrepreneurs.

Speakers included Gaston Legorburu of SapientNitro, Albert Santalo of CareCloud and Juan Diego Calle of .Co Internet, all South Florida entrepreneurs. Jerry Haar, executive director of FIU’s Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center, which produced the conference with a host of sponsors, said the organizers worked hard to make the conference relevant to both the local and Latin American audience, with panels on funding and recruiting for startups, for instance.

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Miami-Dade elections group to discuss potential changes to state law

An advisory group poring over Miami-Dade elections problems will hold its second meeting Friday, this time to focus on what changes to request from state lawmakers.

County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who convened the group, and his appointed elections supervisor, Penelope Townsley, already asked Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner — the state’s chief elections officer — on Tuesday to make several recommendations to Gov. Rick Scott to tweak elections laws.

But the 13-member advisory group might choose to make additional suggestions. And while the meeting with Detzner was more informal, the Miami-Dade group plans to make its requests in writing, and incorporate them into the county’s annual package of policies to lobby for in Tallahassee. County commissioners are scheduled to vote on the legislative package Tuesday.

The 2013 state legislative proposals drafted by the elections department include allowing early-voting sites in more locations — a request Miami-Dade has been making since 2006. State law currently limits the sites to elections offices, city halls and libraries.

The department also plans to ask legislators to reinstate 14 days of early voting. Scott, a Republican, signed a law passed by the GOP-led Legislature last year reducing the number of days to eight, while keeping the total number of hours offered on the books — 96 — the same.

The law also guaranteed one Sunday of early voting, but prohibited voting the Sunday before Election Day. African-American churches with large numbers of Democratic voters had traditionally used that day to bring “souls to the polls.”

About 90,000 fewer Miami-Dade voters cast early ballots in 2012 compared to 2008, according to the department.

The third request proposed by the department would limit the number of words printed on state constitutional amendments on the ballot, keeping them to the same length as county charter amendments. The county caps its ballot measures at 75 words; this year, one of the constitutional amendments took up a full page in Miami-Dade, where ballots are printed in English, Spanish and Creole. The 2012 presidential ballot ran 10 to 12 pages long, depending on the voter’s location, compared to four to six pages in 2008.

Federal law requires that ballots be available in other languages for minorities whose population meets a certain threshold.

In a letter she sent to the mayor last month, U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami Gardens, recommended that the county print separate ballots in each of the three languages. “Printing all three languages creates the false impression that the ballot is excessively long,” she wrote. It is unclear how that proposal would work.

She also made other requests, including that the county support extending early voting.

Gimenez replied Thursday that most of Wilson’s recommendations “are in line with what we are proposing.”

In addition, the Miami-Dade elections department would like more time to count absentee ballots, which have become an increasingly popular voting method. State law currently allows tallying to begin 15 days prior to Election Day.

Other requests include:

• Remove political party executive committeeman and committeewoman races from the primary ballot in presidential election years, and require the parties to pay for those elections. This change would shorten the ballot, reduce the number of different ballots printed in the county, and save money.

• Do away with the term “absentee ballot” and replace it with “vote by mail.” The mayor has endorsed this change, saying absentee voting is a misnomer because Florida no longer requires that voters provide a reason — such as being ill or out of town — for voting by mail.

• Require that community development district elections be carried out only by mail. This change would shorten the ballot and reduce the number of different ballots. Community development districts are special taxing districts of 1,100 acres or more.

The advisory group will meet at 9 a.m. on the 18th floor of the Stephen P. Clark Government Center, 111 NW First St.

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Home invasion victim gets help over Xbox headset

NORTH APOLLO, Pa. (AP) — Police say a Pennsylvania man used his Xbox headphones to call for help after being bound with duct tape and menaced with a gun during a home invasion.

Investigators say the 22-year-old suburban Pittsburgh man was playing video games in an upstairs bedroom when he heard his front door open. The man initially thought it was a family member but saw an armed man wearing a ski mask when he looked downstairs.

Authorities say the intruder bound Derick Shaffer and led him around the North Apollo home to locate valuables, then fled in Shaffer’s car. Shaffer reached a friend over his Xbox Live headset and had him call police.

The missing car was located about an hour later. Police questioned three people but are still trying to identify a suspect.

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Gunman dead, teacher shot in foot at elementary school in Connecticut

NEWTOWN, Conn. — A shooting at a Connecticut elementary school Friday left the gunman dead and at least one teacher wounded and sent frightened pupils into the parking lot.

The shooter was killed and apparently had two guns, a person with knowledge of the shooting said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way.

It wasn't clear how many people were injured at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. A dispatcher at the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps said a teacher had been shot in the foot and taken to Danbury Hospital.

AP

In this photo provided by the Newtown Bee, Connecticut State Police lead children from the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., following a reported shooting there.

Stephen Delgiadice said his 8-year-old daughter heard two big bangs and teachers told her to get in a corner. His daughter was fine.

"It's alarming, especially in Newtown, Connecticut, which we always thought was the safest place in America," he said.

The superintendent's office said the district had locked down schools in Newtown, about 60 miles northeast of New York City. Schools in neighboring towns also were locked down as a precaution.

State police said Newtown police called them around 9:40 a.m.

A photo posted by The Newtown Bee newspaper showed a group of young students — some crying, others looking visibly frightened — being escorted by adults through a parking lot in a line, hands on each other's shoulders.

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Wynwood co-working center funded by Knight Foundation, angel investors

The LAB Miami announced Thursday it will open a 10,000-square-foot co-working center in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and local angel investors are investing $650,000.

As Miami’s startup community continues to grow, The LAB Miami said its “work-learn campus” will offer an in-house mentor network that will include investors and serial entrepreneurs, said Wifredo Fernandez, co-founder of The LAB Miami with Danny Lafuente and Elisa Rodriguez-Vila.

The LAB Miami, now in a 720-square-foot space in the same neighborhood, turned a Goldman building at 400 NW 26th Street into an artsy, modern space that can support 300 members, including tech startups, programmers, designers, investors, nonprofits, artists and academics.

In addition to offering space to work, the new co-working space plans to offer courses and workshops in business and technology — including a startup school and code school — as well as art, design and education, Fernandez said. It will be a welcoming space for traveling Latin Americans, too. “We want this to be a community center for entrepreneurs,” said Fernandez, explaining that the mix of activities and workshops will be structured by the needs of the LAB’s members.

While the Knight Foundation’s Miami office has sponsored many entrepreneurship events in the past four months, this is the foundation’s largest investment announced so far in its efforts to help accelerate entrepreneurship in Miami, said the Knight Foundation’s Miami program director, Matt Haggman. The Knight Foundation’s Miami office, which made accelerating entrepreneurship one of its key areas of focus this year, is investing $250,000 with the rest of the funding coming from a group of investors lead by Marco Giberti, Faquiry Diaz-Cala, Boris Hirmas Said and Daniel Echavarria.

“This is an important part of our strategy,” said Haggman. “Entrepreneurs need places to gather, connect and learn.”

The LAB Miami has already hosted several events, including HackDay and Wayra DemoDay earlier this week, and the co-working space plans to open for membership in January.

Co-working space will start at $200 a month to use the communal tables, and private offices that will accommodate up to six are also available. The LAB will also offer “Connect” memberships for $40 a month, which allows members who do not need co-working space to participate in events. In addition, there will be phone booths, classrooms, flexible meeting spaces, a lounge area, a kitchen, a “pop-up shop” for local fashion, art or technology products, a shower for those who bike to work and an outside garden with native landscaping.

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Miami city Commission considers hiring attorney to defend mayor against commissioner

The Miami City Commission will convene its final meeting of the year on Thursday.

The agenda is long, but few of the proposals are expected to be controversial except for an item from Mayor Tomás Regalado.

Regalado is asking the commission for an outside attorney to defend him in a lawsuit filed by Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones. The suit accuses the mayor and Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle of plotting to destroy Spence-Jones’s political career. Spence-Jones successfully fought a pair of political corruption charges last year.

Regalado says that City Attorney Julie O. Bru cannot defend him because she was a player in some of the alleged activities outlined in the lawsuit.

“The city attorney is totally conflicted out,” he said.

He believes the city should foot the bill because he was sued for actions he took in his capacity as mayor.

Regalado would like to be represented by attorney José Quiñón, according to the meeting agenda.

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Lidl Christmas dinner offer goes viral on Twitter

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Discount retailer Lidl faces a 200,000-euro ($ 260,000) Christmas dinner bill after an offer of chicken vol-au-vents and ice cream cake for the poor went viral.

The supermarket launched a Twitter campaign in Belgium on Monday, saying it would hand out five four-course Christmas dinners to food banks for each tweet on a hash tag.

Lidl had expected to hand out about 1,000 of the 20-euro dinner packs, consisting of tomato soup, vol-au-vents with chips, an ice-cream cake and chocolates, a spokesman for the German-based company’s Belgium unit said on Wednesday.

But local newspapers wrote about the offer and people retweeted using the hash tag – #luxevooriedereen, Dutch for “luxury for everyone”.

By the end of the 24-hour campaign, 1,500 people had tweeted, meaning Lidl has to deliver 7,500 dinners. That sparked reports the supermarket had been caught out by its campaign.

To quash such talk, Lidl rounded up the number of dinners to 10,000, and branded the campaign a success.

Lidl said it had not yet decided whether to repeat the exercise next year.

“We’ve learnt quite a few lessons over the past 48 hours, to say the least,” the spokesman said.

($ 1 = 0.7693 euros)

(Reporting By Ben Deighton. Editing By Sebastian Moffett.)

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Stars React To Their Golden Globe Nominations

The 70th Annual Golden Globe nominations were announced this morning from Hollywood, recognizing the best in film and television. From Nicole Kidman to Tim Burton, read on below for the stars' reactions to their big honors!

Leonardo DiCaprio, nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Django Unchained:
"I'm truly honored to be nominated by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association today. Django Unchained was a remarkable experience and I consider myself lucky to work with Quentin and the entire cast on the film. I'm particularly proud to be named alongside my fellow Django nominees."

Daniel Day-Lewis, nominated for Best Actor - Drama, Lincoln:
"Just so happy to have a really good reason to stop Christmas shopping for a day. Opening a bottle immediately to celebrate my Golden Globe nomination for Homeland. I'm thrilled that Claire and Mandy were also nominated for their performances, and look forward to celebrating with the whole cast in Los Angeles in January. Thank you HFPA!"

Taylor Swift, nominated for Best Original Song, Safe & Sound for The Hunger Games:
"What an amazing and unexpected present! I'm blown away by my first-ever Golden Globe nomination, and so honored to be nominated with T Bone Burnett and The Civil Wars. Writing music for The Hunger Games was a labor of love -- I was a fan of the stories and the characters, and we all wanted the music to have an authenticity that matched the tone of the movie and the emotions expressed in the book. This is a huge honor, and I'm really excited and so flattered. THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association!"

Nicole Kidman, nominated for Best Supporting Actress, The Paperboy and Best Actress Mini-Series or TV Movie, Hemingway & Gellhorn:
"As an actor you look for roles that are rich, complicated, and that stretch you and this year I was blessed to find two. To have the chance to play them was a gift in itself and to then be acknowledged this way is icing on the cake. Thank you to the Hollywood Foreign Press!"

Related: 2013 Golden Globes -- And the Nominees Are ...

Tim Burton, nominated for Best Animated Feature, Frankenweenie:
"I'm thrilled to be recognized by the HFPA. Frankenweenie is a very personal project for me and the nomination goes as much to the animators who labored frame by frame to bring this film to life."

Clive Owen, nominated for Best Actor, Mini-Series or TV Movie, Hemingway & Gellhorn:
"I'd like to say a big thank you to The Hollywood Foreign Press. I am really thrilled as this recognition is for a piece of work I'm very proud of and had such a good time on."

Amy Adams, nominated for Best Supporting Actress, The Master:
"Thank you to the Hollywood Foreign Press for this nomination. I’m so appreciative to have been part of Paul Thomas Anderson’s extraordinary film and to have had the opportunity to star alongside such respected actors as Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix who were nothing short of brilliant in their performances."

Bradley Cooper, nominated for Best Actor, Silver Linings Playbook:
"To see this film recognized by the HFPA is huge for us. And for me, personally, to be in a room with Bill Murray, Daniel Day-Lewis? Forget about it!," Cooper tells The Hollywood Reporter. "We released the film in limited theaters, so it's all been about word of mouth in a very positive way. These nominations bode well for more people being able to see it. At all these screenings and Q&As, so many people say they are very affected by it; that the family feels real and relatable…that's all [director] David O. Russell. That's the film he set out to make. A movie about real people."

Ewan McGregor, nominated for Best Actor, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen:
"Thank you to the Hollywood Foreign Press for this nomination. It's wonderful that our movie left its mark. Emily Blunt is such a talent and a joy to work with, and I'm so happy the HFPA recognized her performance, as well as our film. I look forward to the Golden Globes, as they are always fun and send my congratulations to all those who believed and participated in Lasse's vision."

Emily Blunt, nominated for Best Actress, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen:
"I'm so incredibly thankful to the Hollywood Foreign Press for recognizing our little movie that could. Ewan and the entire cast and crew could not be more deserving of this honor, and I'm thrilled that I'm able to share this moment among such a fantastic group of nominees."

Jack Black, nominated for Best Actor - Comedy or Musical, Bernie:
"Ok...I'm only doing Richard Linklater movies from now on. I'm so proud of our little engine that could. Thank you HFPA!"

Hayden Panettiere, nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Nashville:
"I'm the epitome of surprise and shocked!," Panettiere tells The Hollywood Reporter. "I didn't know whether to ball hysterically or jump up and down on the bed so I decided to do both. I feel like I'm going through the same struggles as Juliette: she wants to be respected in her craft, she knows how people perceive her and what they think she's capable of but she knows capable of more and I feel like I've been fighting the same battle and it's paid off. I'm so flattered and humbled."

Glenn Close, nominated for Best Actress - Drama, Damages:
"Damages was one of the greatest adventures of my career. I am deeply grateful to The Hollywood Foreign Press for their recognition of my work in our final season. I represent our entire Damages team in thanking them for their support over the past five years. Patty Hewes was the inspiration of a brilliant team of writers, honed by her interactions with a remarkable roster of guest stars. I couldn’t have had a better partner in the exquisite Rose Byrne. The relationship of Patty Hewes and Ellen Parsons is unique storytelling. Their journey resulted in what I think is a great modern American tragedy that will stand the test of time."

Max Greenfield, nominated for Best Supporting Actor, New Girl:
"I got the phone call at 5:30 in the morning, and now the house is awake -- including my daughter, who is never up this early. She has demanded Dora The Explorer, so that is happening," Greenfield tells The Hollywood Reporter. "This is amazing, though. There was an email going around when it happened with my manager and my agent and a bunch of people, and my only response was 'Does this mean I'm as good of an actor as [fellow nominee] Ed Harris?' I can literally tell you what movie theater and where exactly I was sitting when I saw Pollock."

Lena Dunham, nominated for Best Actress - Comedy or Musical and Best Series - Musical or Comedy, Girls:
"This is an incredible honor and the most wonderful ending to an amazing year. Thank you to the Hollywood Foreign Press. I'm thrilled to share this with our amazing cast and crew."

Rachel Weisz, nominated for Best Actress - Drama, Deep Blue Sea:
"I am deeply grateful for this nomination, and in particular, for the HFPA's recognition of the hard work and passion that Terence Davies brought to this wonderful British indie. I am thrilled that this nomination might allow his beautiful work to reach a larger audience."

Alan Arkin, nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Argo:
"I am deeply grateful for this honor and particularly moved in being in the company of Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Tommy Lee Jones who I deeply admire. I am also thrilled that Ben is getting the attention he so much deserves, as is Argo."

Matt LeBlanc, nominated for Best Actor - Comedy or Musical, Best Series - Comedy or Musical, Episodes:
"It's an incredible honor to be nominated again for a show that I am so proud to be a part of. And I am thrilled that the show has been recognized as well because everyone involved works so hard. Thank you Hollywood Foreign Press."

Quentin Tarantino, nominated for Best Picture - Drama, Best Director and Best Screenplay, Django Unchained:
"It's very gratifying to get this many nominations from the HFPA for a film I worked so hard on and am so passionate about. I look forward to having fun at the Golden Globes with my cast mates and fellow nominees."

Steve Buscemi, nominated for Best Actor - Drama, Boardwalk Empire:
"I'm so grateful to be able to play Nucky, it never gets old."

Jeff Daniels, nominated for Best Actor, Drama and Best Series, Drama, The Newsroom:
"To me, being honored with a Golden Globe Nomination means even more because it's for THE NEWSROOM."

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, nominated for Best Actress - Comedy or Musical, Veep:
"The reason that I do this job is to serve, not to receive accolades and trophies. That said, I'm freakin' stoked. God bless America and the Hollywood Foreign Press, specifically."

Don Cheadle, nominated for Best Actor - Comedy or Musical, House of Lies:
"I'm over the moon for the nom. This is a great show and a great cast and this is a recognition of all of us... But mostly me."

Mandy Patinkin, nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Homeland:
"I am thrilled to be a part of this company. Working on HOMELAND has been one of the joys of my life. We have such gifted writers - I have to pinch myself every day that I get to be a part of this company. Still - the real big news we are all waiting for is Claire's baby. When I get that call, the fireworks will really start."

Kathryn Bigelow, nominated for Best Director and Best Picture - Drama, Zero Dark Thirty:
"It's an honor, sincerely, and very humbling to be singled out this way by the HFPA. We're grateful, and encouraged by their support, especially since our film has such a diverse, international cast, and as the HFPA represent so many countries across the globe. And a big congratulations to the amazing Jessica Chastain and my producing partner and screenwriter Mark Boal."

John Hawkes, nominated for Best Actor - Drama, The Sessions:
"I'm so honored by these nominations and excited that the film is receiving this recognition."

Homeland co-creator Howard Gordon, nominated for Best Drama Series:
"It's a been a great year for television and to be recognized by the HFPA in the company of such extraordinary nominees is an incredible thrill. We're grateful to all the other shows on television for raising the standards each year and to everyone involved with Homeland – from the cast and crew to Showtime and Fox 21 for their hard work, creativity and support."

Director Rich Moore, nominated for Best Animated Feature, Wreck-It Ralph:
"Wreck-It Ralph was a labor of love for our entire team at Walt Disney Animation. We are so proud of the hard work that went into making this film, and to see it be recognized with a nomination from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is truly an honor for all of us."

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Best Buy founder expected to make fully-financed offer for electronics retailer by mid-December deadline: report

Best Buy Co Inc founder Richard Schulze is expected to make a fully financed offer to buy the consumer electronics retailer by a mid-December deadline, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported, citing a source.

Schulze's bid would be at least $5 billion to $6 billion, the newspaper reported late Wednesday, citing the source.

Best Buy shares jumped 14.5 percent to $13.94 in early trading. At that price, the retailer has a market value of $4.71 billion.

Schulze's bid at that level would be well below his initial offer range in August, when he said could acquire Best Buy for $24 to $26 per share, or a total between $8.16 billion and $8.84 billion. Including debt, it would be as much as $10.9 billion.

AP

Richard Schulze

The size of such a deal, combined with Best Buy's weak performance in the last two years, has made many on Wall Street doubt it could get done.

"There was skepticism in the market that he could get financing for the deal," Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy said, and with better odds that a deal will get done, the share price has increased.

Still, he wasn't sure that Best Buy's board or investors would go for such an offer, which would come to about $15-$18 a share.

A representative for Schulze did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Best Buy declined to comment on the report.

Since August the shares have fallen, and last month Best Buy reported a decline in same-store sales for the ninth time in the last 10 quarters.

Schulze will meet with his top advisers, including Brad Anderson, a former Best Buy chief executive, and Al Lenzmeier, a former president, in Minnesota on Thursday and Friday, the Star Tribune reported.

Schulze, who founded Best Buy in 1966, has said he would fund any deal through a combination of private equity and debt financing, as well as the reinvestment of some of his own equity in the company. He is Best Buy's biggest shareholder, with 20 percent ownership.

Last month, sources told Reuters that at least three private equity firms - Apollo Global Management LLC, TPG Capital Management LP and Leonard Green & Partners LP - were considering joining Schulze in the bid.

Best Buy's dominance has faded in recent years as consumers increasingly use its big box stores to browse and try out products, then buy them online at Amazon.com Inc or other websites.

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Wynwood co-working center funded by Knight Foundation, angel investors

The LAB Miami announced Thursday it will open a 10,000-square-foot co-working center in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and local angel investors are investing $650,000.

As Miami’s startup community continues to grow, The LAB Miami said its “work-learn campus” will offer an in-house mentor network that will include investors and serial entrepreneurs, said Wifredo Fernandez, co-founder of The LAB Miami with Danny Lafuente and Elisa Rodriguez-Vila.

The LAB Miami, now in a 720-square-foot space in the same neighborhood, turned a Goldman building at 400 NW 26th Street into an artsy, modern space that can support 300 members, including tech startups, programmers, designers, investors, nonprofits, artists and academics.

In addition to offering space to work, the new co-working space plans to offer courses and workshops in business and technology — including a startup school and code school — as well as art, design and education, Fernandez said. It will be a welcoming space for traveling Latin Americans, too. “We want this to be a community center for entrepreneurs,” said Fernandez, explaining that the mix of activities and workshops will be structured by the needs of the LAB’s members.

While the Knight Foundation’s Miami office has sponsored many entrepreneurship events in the past four months, this is the foundation’s largest investment announced so far in its efforts to help accelerate entrepreneurship in Miami, said the Knight Foundation’s Miami program director, Matt Haggman. The Knight Foundation’s Miami office, which made accelerating entrepreneurship one of its key areas of focus this year, is investing $250,000 with the rest of the funding coming from a group of investors lead by Marco Giberti, Faquiry Diaz-Cala, Boris Hirmas Said and Daniel Echavarria.

“This is an important part of our strategy,” said Haggman. “Entrepreneurs need places to gather, connect and learn.”

The LAB Miami has already hosted several events, including HackDay and Wayra DemoDay earlier this week, and the co-working space plans to open for membership in January.

Co-working space will start at $200 a month to use the communal tables, and private offices that will accommodate up to six are also available. The LAB will also offer “Connect” memberships for $40 a month, which allows members who do not need co-working space to participate in events. In addition, there will be phone booths, classrooms, flexible meeting spaces, a lounge area, a kitchen, a “pop-up shop” for local fashion, art or technology products, a shower for those who bike to work and an outside garden with native landscaping.

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South Florida pols sticking to party lines on fiscal cliff

WASHINGTON --
Don’t expect South Florida’s congressional delegation to stray too far from party lines when it comes to dancing on the edge of the fiscal cliff, the end-of-the-year spending cuts and tax increases set to take effect if Congress and the president don’t address them.

Democrats are firmly with President Barack Obama, whose proposal seeks to raise $600 billion over a decade by eliminating tax deductions and $960 billion over the same period by raising tax rates for the top 2 percent of income earners. Many Democrats sounded as though the highly charged presidential campaign was still under way.

Republicans are just as committed to their party.

There’s been "no evidence thus far" that Republicans are truly interested in the middle class, said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of Weston, who the president just asked again to head the Democratic National Committee.

"We need to continue to focus on rebuilding our economy from the middle class out," she said during an appearance on MSNBC.

"President Obama talked eloquently and passionately during the campaign about making sure that we can get a handle on this deficit, that we can rebuild our economy from the middle class out, that we can focus on creating jobs and getting the economy turned around," she added.

Equally firm: South Florida Democratic Reps. Alcee Hastings, of Miramar and Frederica Wilson, of Miami. Both are members of the Congressional Black Caucus, which released a statement of principles this week calling for the Bush-era tax cuts to expire on the wealthiest Americans.

Social Security should be completely off the table, the caucus warned, and it said it would oppose any plans that change the eligibility for Medicare or cut Medicaid, the statement said.

Some Democrats made conciliatory moves, however. Sen. Bill Nelson said that during his campaign, voters told him they want consensus and an end to partisan gridlock.

"They want bipartisanship," he said in a video message. "They want to stop the ideological rigidity."

It’s the only way to rebuild the economy and reduce the federal deficit, while preserving Social Security and Medicare, he said. He called on people of both political parties "to reach across the aisle and work together so America doesn’t go over the cliff."

That’s unlikely to come from his Republican counterpart, Sen. Marco Rubio, who along with former vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was featured in a speech this week in Washington.

Rubio blamed the "complicated and uncertain tax code" for "hindering the creation of middle-class jobs." He gave no hint he would be interested in supporting the president’s tax proposal on the wealthiest Americans.

"You can’t open or grow a business if your taxes are too high or too uncertain. And that’s why I personally oppose the president’s plan to raise taxes," Rubio said. "This isn’t about a pledge. It isn’t about protecting millionaires and billionaires. For me, it’s about the fact that the tax increases he wants would fail to make even a small dent in the debt but it would hurt middle-class businesses and the people who work for them."

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, of Miami, was one of the few Republicans from South Florida to suggest she’d be open to tax reform, saying there needs to be a review of the tax code "to remove special interest tax loopholes used by the wealthy."

But she warned that the country’s debt exists "not because tax rates are too low, but because government spends too much."

Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, also of Miami, said he was less optimistic about a resolution now than he was right after the election.

He said he feels as though Republicans have moved closer to the president without getting credit for it.

"I’m very disappointed with the president’s response," he said in an interview.

"The speaker put forward a proposal, and whether you agree with it or not, there are a couple of things beyond debate: He’s gotten closer to the president’s position."

Even those on their way out of Congress made no move to cross party lines. Republican Rep. Allen West, of Plantation, who was ousted by Democrat Patrick Murphy, warned constituents in a letter that he didn’t think there was a true plan to reduce spending.

Rep. David Rivera, a Republican who lost his re-election bid and who will be replaced by Democrat Joe Garcia, did not respond to a request for comment.

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Fergie Dresses Up as 'Naughty Santa' For Josh Duhamel

Fergie revealed how she and husband Josh Duhamel keep things hot during the holiday season -- and it involves a sexy costume.

"One day every holiday season, he comes home and there's a naughty Mrs. Claus," the Black Eyed Peas front woman revealed to Ellen DeGeneres. "It depends how good he's being!"

A playful Fergie, 37, added, "It's a surprise. It's naughty and nice at the same time. It's super cute and fun."

Ellen also checked in on the thong she gifted Duhamel, 40, with the last time he was on her show. "It was too small," Fergie admitted. Ellen quipped back, "That's more information than we needed!"

RELATED: Stars In Their Best Holiday Gear

The Hollywood couple are known to send out holiday cards with a picture of themselves, but the singer confessed that they haven't mailed them out yet this year. "My husband orchestrates the whole thing and we're late this year because he's been filming a movie. He just finished Safe Haven with Julianne Hough and now he's doing You're Not You with Hilary Swank. I haven't been on the ball, so I'm waiting for him and we're going to have to do something last minute this year."

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Qns. thug brutally killed both parents within 15 months: officials

A Queens man will be arraigned tomorrow for murdering his two parents a mere 15 months apart, authorities said today.

On Aug. 20, Gregory Cucchiara, 36, allegedly killed his father Carmelo, 75, who was found smothered to death inside an Astoria apartment.

Investigators believe Cucchiara is also responsible for the death of his 66-year-old mother, Josephine, who was discovered drowned in a bathtub in her Bayside home on May 25, 2011.

In the August slay, blood was splattered on a pillow and the medical examiner ruled the cause of death as asphyxia from obstruction of the nose and mouth, according to court records.

During the autopsy, DNA evidence was removed from the dead man’s fingernails and a genetic profile match was made to Cucchiara, the court papers state.

Cucchiara was arrested Nov. 13 for murder and is being held without bail on Rikers Island, records show.

In the earlier murder, Cucchiara’s mom died from submersion of her head in water followed by blunt force trauma to the skull, according to the medical examiner’s office.

After Cucchiara was picked up for his father’s killing, he fought with detectives from the 114th Precinct, court records show. While swinging his arms, he hit a detective in his chest and injured a lieutenant’s shoulder, documents state.

For this incident, he was slapped with an additional assault rap.

He was most recently collared on April 12 for slashing tires on four cars, police sources said. He also has three other busts for felony assault, felony vehicular assault and DWI, sources added.

His rap sheet also boasts a bust in Sept. 2010 for possession of drug paraphernalia in Florida, records show.

He is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow on the two murder raps, said a spokeswoman for the Queens DA’s office.

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AutoNation: Back in the fast lane with expansion, higher sales

Despite an agonizingly slow economic recovery, the country’s largest auto retailer, Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, is thriving again as demand for vehicles expands.

The company, one of Florida’s largest, is posting increasingly strong profits and revenues. Just last week, in a sign of confidence, Autonation announced a major acquisition — buying six large auto stores in Texas — that will add about 700 employees to its national payroll of 19,400.

In announcing the deal Tuesday, which is expected to provide AutoNation with $575 million in additional revenues next year, the company’s CEO and chairman, Mike Jackson, expressed optimism about the prospects for continued growth in vehicle sales.

“You want to know what I’m thinking, look at what I do,” Jackson told viewers on CNBC’s Squawk Box program.

No information was released on the cost of the transactions, but in recent years auto dealerships sometimes sold for three to five times revenue, which would represent a significant investment for the company.

Tough times

To be sure, AutoNation has struggled through some tough times. It was battered by the Great Recession, which depressed sales and pushed the company into a $1.2 billion loss four years ago. As sales began to improve in 2010 and 2011, it was blindsided by a shortage of Japanese-made cars last year after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 shut down Japanese manufacturers of some essential components.

Since then, however, AutoNation has rebounded. Unit sales, revenues and profits all performed well in the first three quarters of this year, and the company expects new vehicle sales to continue their recovery nationwide, rising to the mid-14 million units this year, up from about 12.7 million in 2011. In the third quarter of 2012, AutoNation’s new car unit sales grew by 21 percent over the same period in 2011, doing better than an estimated 15 percent increase industry wide. November’s sales of new vehicles increased by 21 percent over November 2011 .

The big dealerships acquired sell Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen and Chrysler products in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets. They are expected to sell 14,000 new and used autos this year, and will add substantially to AutoNation’s future sales.

“We are in the right industry at the right time,” Jackson said during an interview. “The recovery in new vehicle sales is being driven by replacement demand,” added Jackson, who has 42 years of experience in the auto business. “The average age of the light vehicle fleet in the country has increased to 11 years, and even though cars and trucks last longer today, they can’t go on forever. About 12 to 13 million vehicles are scrapped every year and need to be replaced.”

Other factors are contributing to stronger demand for vehicles. “The population is growing, interest rates are low, there is ample credit available and manufacturers are producing a wide range of new models that offer attractive styling, power and greatly improved gas mileage,” said Jackson, who took over as AutoNation’s CEO in 1999. “Auto financing is more available than it has been in recent years. A little known fact is that people are more likely to default on a mortgage than on a vehicle loan.”

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Preservation board to vote on whether Herald building is historic

Miami's historic preservation board is meeting Monday to consider an application for designation of The Miami Herald building.

The public hearing, which is expected to take most of the day, began at 9:20 a.m. with a packed auditorium at Miami City Hall.

The city’s preservation officer opened the hearing by saying the building, occupied in 1962, meets the 50-year guideline for designation, which opponents of the move had questioned.

The property's new owner, casino operator Genting, is opposing designation, but the board can designate the building without the company's consent.

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Tom Brady: My Daughter Will Be An Athlete

After news hit that Gisele Bundchen gave birth to daughter Vivian Lake this past week, doting dad Tom Brady gushed over his new bundle of joy.

"It feels good,’’ Brady, 35, told the Boston Herald of the latest addition to his family. "Whatever we would have had, I would have been happy. We've got two beautiful boys, now a girl. It's great."

This is the third child for Brady, who has a 2-year-old son, Benjamin, with his supermodel wife, and a 5-year-old son, John, with actress Bridget Moynahan. Ben turned three on Saturday.

The New England Patriots QB assured the local newspaper that his wife and daughter were happy and healthy, adding that his little girl is "going to be an athlete."

Bundchen, 32, confirmed on her Facebook page Friday that she and Brady welcomed their second child together on Wednesday night. "We feel so lucky to have been able to experience the miracle of birth once again and are forever grateful for the opportunity to be the parents of another little angel," she said of her newborn.

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UK bank agrees to pay $330M to settle money laundering accusations

Finally!

UK bank Standard Chartered agreed to shell out roughly $330 million to resolve money laundering accusations levied by a team of US banking regulators and federal law enforcement.

The 150-year-old multinational financial institution, which handles transactions for countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. among others, admitted to the Department of Justice, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department that it violated New York state law by falsifying the records of its New York-based financial institution and by submitting false statements to its state and federal regulators about its business conduct.

The fat fine comes three months after hard-charging new regulator Ben Lawsky, head of the New York State Department of Financial Services, fined the British bank $340 million, accusing it of flouting US sanctions and laundering $250 billion for the dictatorial Iranian regime.

Back in September, Lawsky’s rapid-fire maneuvering angered StanChart officials and Lawsky’s fellow regulators, who saw the DFS boss as disruptive to the process of foreign negotiations.

Standard Chartered’s $327 million fine today breaks down to $100 million resolution with the Federal Reserve, a $132 million fine with the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and the remainder going to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s office and the Department of Justice.

“Investigations of financial institutions, businesses, and individuals who violate US sanctions by misusing banks in New York are vitally important to national security and the integrity of our banking system,” Vance said in a written statement.

The US agencies have been quietly negotiating to strike an agreement with the UK’s second largest bank over the past several months after conducting a three-year long investigation.

In a statement Standard Chartered said it doesn’t believe it violated laws on the vast majority of the billions in transactions it processed for foreign entities like Iran between 2001 and 2007.

“While [Standard Chartered Bank’s] omission of information affected approximately 60,000 payments related to Iran totalling $250 billion, the vast majority of those transactions do not appear to have been violations of the Iranian transactions regulations,” the bank wrote in a statement.

Standard Chartered run by CEO Peter Sands also said that it has taken steps to improve its screening of the entities which it does business.

The agreement brings the total amount of sanctions against banks in breach of money-laundering rules, including HSBC Bank, to roughly $2 billion.

That said, some have viewed the fines as a drop in the bucket compared with the billions of dollars allegedly laundered.

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AutoNation: Back in the fast lane with expansion, higher sales

• AutoNation’s announcement December 4 that it was acquiring six auto stores in Texas, its second most important market after Florida, forms part of the company’s national growth strategy.

• AutoNation operates in 15 states and, according to CEO Mike Jackson, prefers to build its brand network in existing markets rather than expand to new markets. It grows either by acquisitions or by obtaining new franchises from manufacturers. Some recent acquisitions:

• The purchase of Audi, Chrysler, Dodge Ram, Jeep, Porsche and Volkswagen dealerships in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets, announced December 4, is projected to increase the company’s revenue by about $575 million per year in the Lone Star State, which accounted for 20 percent of revenue last year. The outlets are expected to sell about 14,000 new and used autos this year.

• In early 2011, AutoNation bought a Toyota dealership in Fort Myers with annual sales of $135 million.

• In 2006, the company made its largest purchase prior to the December acquisition: a Mercedes-Benz store in Pompano Beach that had annual revenues of $230 million.

Source: AutoNation

South Florida auto dealers

Despite an agonizingly slow economic recovery, the country’s largest auto retailer, Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, is thriving again as demand for vehicles expands.

The company, one of Florida’s largest, is posting increasingly strong profits and revenues. Just last week, in a sign of confidence, Autonation announced a major acquisition — buying six large auto stores in Texas — that will add about 700 employees to its national payroll of 19,400.

In announcing the deal Tuesday, which is expected to provide AutoNation with $575 million in additional revenues next year, the company’s CEO and chairman, Mike Jackson, expressed optimism about the prospects for continued growth in vehicle sales.

“You want to know what I’m thinking, look at what I do,” Jackson told viewers on CNBC’s Squawk Box program.

No information was released on the cost of the transactions, but in recent years auto dealerships sometimes sold for three to five times revenue, which would represent a significant investment for the company.

Tough times

To be sure, AutoNation has struggled through some tough times. It was battered by the Great Recession, which depressed sales and pushed the company into a $1.2 billion loss four years ago. As sales began to improve in 2010 and 2011, it was blindsided by a shortage of Japanese-made cars last year after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 shut down Japanese manufacturers of some essential components.

Since then, however, AutoNation has rebounded. Unit sales, revenues and profits all performed well in the first three quarters of this year, and the company expects new vehicle sales to continue their recovery nationwide, rising to the mid-14 million units this year, up from about 12.7 million in 2011. In the third quarter of 2012, AutoNation’s new car unit sales grew by 21 percent over the same period in 2011, doing better than an estimated 15 percent increase industry wide. November’s sales of new vehicles increased by 21 percent over November 2011 .

The big dealerships acquired sell Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen and Chrysler products in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets. They are expected to sell 14,000 new and used autos this year, and will add substantially to AutoNation’s future sales.

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State scraps plan to have private vendors make license tags

TALLAHASSEE --
Backing away from a possible court fight, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles announced Friday that it will halt its attempt to bid license tag services to private vendors.

Tax collectors — who distribute state tags — and two manufacturing groups tried to block the change by lobbying elected officials and filing legal action against the department.

Highway Safety Chief Julie Jones had wanted to save money by paying private companies $31.4 million over two years to make tags and distribute mail and online orders, but she abandoned the idea under pressure from Attorney General Pam Bondi and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, among others.

“We listened to what everyone had to say, considered questions that vendors posed and received information from our tax collector partners,” Jones said. “Based on the input, we have decided to withdraw [efforts to privatize].”

The decision will keep Florida out of administrative court, which is where it seemed headed Tuesday after department lawyers shut down tax collectors’ requests to retract its invitation to bidders.

Jones’ change of heart earned praise from Bondi, who said the department “did the right thing.”

Manufacturing company Avery Dennison and St. Petersburg-based PRIDE, a nonprofit organization that uses prisoners to manufacture tags, filed formal protests and met with state officials this week.

For them, the state’s decision may only be a temporary victory.

Stephen Hurm, an attorney for the state highway agency, told tax collectors Friday the department will not seek to privatize plate distribution but could reignite the push as early as January to bid out the manufacturing role.

The state may want to switch from raised tags to the more modern flat tags that are thought to be more legible for red light and toll cameras. PRIDE doesn’t have the equipment to make flat tags.

Hillsborough County Tax Collector Doug Belden says he will fight the state if it moves to exclude PRIDE.

“Why change a system that is working well and that customers enjoy? My job as an elected official is to provide the most friendly, capable customer service for the best price. We’re doing that,” said Belden, who criticized Jones for excluding tax collectors in her decisions.

Belden, along with PRIDE lobbyist Wilbur Brewton, argue that flat tags are no easier to read and are more expensive — which will result in more fees for motorists. The company may try to invest in new technology if that’s what it takes to continue working with the state, Brewton said.

“Is the equipment currently sitting in the plant to do it? No,” he said. “This could cause harm, but we would have to calculate that once we see the details.”

Jones hasn’t committed to any tag — flat or raised, she said. She just wants something legible and well-priced.

“We want to get the best product moving into the future in terms of technology, but at a cost that’s affordable,” Jones said. “This is going to be done in a cost-effective manner.”

The controversy over the tags is not expected to stall a planned redesign.

Floridians can continue to vote on four designs for a new state tag at Vote4FloridaTag.com. About 50,000 people have weighed in. The deadline is Dec. 14.

Brittany Alana Davis

can be reached at bdavis@tampabay.com .

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MiFi With Touchscreen is a Road Warrior’s Dream

Meet the Novatel MiFi Liberate: the first mobile access point with a touchscreen, letting you configure it without connecting it to a computer.

If you’re not familiar with mobile access points, these handy gadgets allow you to hook up to the Internet via cellular networks. It’s useful, often essential, if you’re in an area that has no Wi-Fi. If you’re in range of a cellular tower, this MiFi Liberate lets you connect 10 Wi-Fi devices of any kind to the Internet.

[More from Mashable: Google Considering Wireless Network [REPORT]]

Mobile access points are ideal for frequent travelers, accommodating anyone who needs to get online wherever they are. Just the fact that you’re no longer at the mercy of hotels and their Wi-Fi price-gouging makes it worth the cost of admission.

The Novatel MiFi device we tested connects to the AT&T LTE network. That resulted in spectacular upload and download speed, rivaling that of wired broadband networks. The speed of LTE is variable — depending on how many people are using it and how close you are to one of its broadcast towers — but if you’ve been limping along with 3G connectivity, you’ll probably be astonished at the difference.

[More from Mashable: Samsung Galaxy Camera Goes on Sale Nov. 16]

How fast was this MiFi Liberate? We took multiple readings in a variety of locations. It averaged a zippy 19.70 Mbps for downloads, and a tremendous 20.66 Mbps for uploads. That kind of speed can make a big difference in your work, especially if you’re dealing with large files. In many ways, though, that’s more of a testament to the speed of AT&T’s network, rather than the alacrity of this particular device. Your mileage may vary.

Lovely Touchscreen

The best new feature of this device is its excellent 2.8-inch LCD capacitive touchscreen, the first of its kind. It responds to the slightest touch, letting you easily wander around its menus. And even while using that gorgeous screen, it still has in excess of 10 hours of battery life per charge.

That screen can come in handy in unexpected ways. For example, we were impressed with the way it indicated when a device has connected. Once it has, you can drill down farther, finding out more about that device. The screen adjusts for orientation, righting itself when you turn it upside down just like smartphones do.

If you and others are connected to this MiFi unit, it lets you share movies, photos and music via DLNA, with all of you accessing content on a microSD card inserted into the side of this versatile gadget.

It’s Expensive

All that versatility and convenience doesn’t come cheap. While the MiFi Liberate costs $ 49.99 with a two-year contract, you’ll also need to pay a monthly tariff for your LTE connectivity. Because of its blazing speed, we’re thinking you might want to spring for the 5 GB a month plan for $ 50 from AT&T. That takes the MiFi Liberate out of the value-priced category, and into one that you hope your boss will be willing to pay for.

After spending a couple of weeks with this unit, it was easy to conclude that the Novatel MiFi Liberate is the best portable access point we’ve ever tested.

If you need connectivity on the go at the fastest possible speed, this one will do the trick. And if you want to observe and adjust the unit on a bright and responsive touchscreen, look no further.

MiFi Liberate, Side View

It’s nice and small, except for that bulge, which contains a changeable lithium-ion battery.

Click here to view this gallery.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Tech 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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Federal tax breaks proposed for Sandy victims

ALBANY — Two Democratic senators are proposing federal tax breaks to help victims recover faster from Superstorm Sandy.

Sens. Charles Schumer of New York and Robert Menendez of New Jersey want to make all repair expenses fully tax deductible, reducing the tax bite of victims in their returns covering the current year.

The breaks would also include credits to subsidize home and business repairs and help businesses keep workers on the payroll.

The proposal wouldn't cost either state any of its scarce revenues as they try to rebound. But it would reduce payments to Washington as it seeks to reduce deficits.

REUTERS

Residents look through the debris of a house that was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in Union Beach, New Jersey.

The breaks announced Sunday would also provide relief for those who provided free temporary housing for victims and waive penalties for victims who have to withdraw from their retirement accounts to pay for storm costs.

"These changes to existing tax law are a common sense and simple way to help disaster victims, and a quick way to get them aid to repair their homes, to recover losses, and to support their businesses," Schumer said.

Businesses would see a tax credit for continuing to pay employees even when the business was shut down.

"This bill will provide critical tools to help families recover their losses, rebuild shattered businesses and restore communities devastated by the storm," Menendez said.

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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 martial arts-inspired 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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