TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Three tickets, two purchased in Broward County, matched all five Fantasy 5 numbers to collect a jackpot worth $92,069.38 each, the Florida Lottery said Sunday.
The winning tickets were bought in Plantation and Tamarac and in Homosassa, lottery officials said.
The numbers drawn Saturday night were 1-3-16-18-25
The 463 tickets matching four numbers won $96 each.
There was no Florida Lotto winner. The jackpot is now $16 million for Wednesday’s drawing.
A Miami-Dade police officer, who routinely stopped women drivers without cause and engaged in lewd conversations, was convicted in federal court Friday.
Prabhainjana Dwivedi, a seven-year veteran, was found guilty on six of seven counts of depriving people of their civil rights. He was found not guilty on the seventh count involving an undercover police officer.
Following the ruling, U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez immediately remanded Dwivedi back into custody pending sentencing scheduled for sometime in April, according to prosecutor Karen Gilbert. The trial began Monday.
Dwivedi faces up to a year in prison for each count.
A grand jury indicted Dwivedi after he was arrested by FBI agents Sept. 5 at Miami-Dade police headquarters.
Dwivedi, 33, was charged after an investigation into complaints filed for stops made in May and June of 2011 in which he detained “numerous women” for “unreasonable” length of time “without probable cause, reasonable suspicion or other lawful authority to conduct a stop,” a criminal complaint said.
None of the questionable stops were ever listed on his daily reports or called into dispatch.
According to the complaint, Dwivedi who worked overnight patrolling an area from Key Biscayne to Jackson Memorial Hospital, stopped a 24-year-old bartender who was driving from South Beach to Broward County on her way home from work at about 5:30 a.m. on June 25, 2011, in the area of the Golden Glades interchange.
The bartender, identified as M.F., was accused by Dwivedi of driving under the influence. Pleading her innocence, she requested to have a sobriety test performed. Her request was refused.
Noticing a child’s safety seat in the back seat, Dwivedi threatened M.F. that she would lose custody of her son if she were to be arrested on DUI charges, the criminal complaint said. Then the conversation turned sexual.
According to the complaint, Dwivedi, began to inquire about her surgically enhanced breasts and asked “if she had any scars or incisions from the surgery.”
Dwivedi then asked to see the scars. M.F. obeyed, lifting her shirt and exposing her breasts.
According to the complaint written by FBI special agent Susan Funk, “M.F. stated that Dwivedi did not touch her breast.”
, Dwivedi then allowed her to drive home, but said he would follow her to make sure she got safely home. Once at M.F.’s residence, Dwivedi said he was thirsty and asked for a glass of water. Once inside her home, he lingered for an hour speaking of his personal life.
In the end, Dwivedi left without ever reporting anything to dispatch or making any notes of the stop in his daily reports, the criminal complaint said.
A month earlier, Dwivedi made another questionable stop.
According to the complaint, Dwivedi stopped a19-year-old woman at 2:20 a.m. on May 27, 2011, on her way home from a nightclub with two friends. The woman, identified, as A.R., was informed the traffic stop was a result of a failure to turn on her headlights.
Dwivedi also claimed she was driving under the influence, but A.R. disputed the accusation.
A.R. was instructed to sit in the back seat of his marked cruiser and then Dwivedi “instructed A.R. to lower the zipper on the front of her dress down past her breasts to her mid-stomach” according to the complaint.
An hour and 20 minutes later, A.R. was on her way home without any citation and Dwivedi again made no mention or note of the stop, the complaint said.
Miami Herald staff writer Jay Weaver contributed to this report.
BOCA RATON --
Infamous squatter Andre Barbosa has been evicted from a Boca Raton mansion, police said.
Bank of America retook possession of a $2.5 million home where the 23-year-old Brazilian national had been staying since December.
Bank representatives, with the assistance of police, cleared out the foreclosed home at 580 Gold Harbor Dr. at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
There was no one inside and the home’s locks were changed, said Officer Sandra Boonenberg, spokeswoman for Boca police.
Barbosa, also known as Lokiboy954, had been occupying the home since filing an “adverse possession” claim in December.
Adverse possession was created hundreds of years ago when hand-scrawled property records could more easily be lost, damaged or muddled. Allowing for adverse possession kept land in productive use when ownership was unclear, or, for example, the owner died with no heirs.
If the person claiming adverse possession stays in the home for seven years, paying taxes and caring for the property, they can take permanent ownership.
Barbosa is not facing any charges at this point and police are not actively searching for him, Boonenberg said.
Bank of America issued a statement regarding Thursday’s action.
“We appreciate the assistance of local authorities and the patience of neighbors as we worked to have the trespassers removed.
“We take trespassing seriously and, in the interest of the community, we will take appropriate legal action to protect this and all properties we service.”
WEST PALM BEACH --
Minutes after a jury late Wednesday awarded a mentally challenged Pahokee girl $1.7 million for the trauma she suffered when she was raped on a Palm Beach County school bus when she was 3, the girl’s mother rushed toward those who had given her daughter a second chance.
“Wait,” she called out just before they filed out the door. “I want to thank all of you.”
In turn, she hugged each of the four women and two men who rejected the school board’s claims that her daughter wasn’t hurt by the 2007 attack. School board attorneys argued the girl was too young and too mentally disabled to understand what a 15-year-old emotionally disturbed youth did to her on the bus filled with special needs kids.
With tears streaming down her face, the mother looked at the girl’s father. Both heaved sighs of relief.
“It means a lot to me,” she said of the verdict. “My daughter finally got justice.”
The School Board never denied the girl was molested. Both the bus driver and the aide who was on the bus to protect the students were fired. The aide, Grenisha Williams, was convicted of child neglect in connection with the incident and put on probation. Sexual battery charges were filed against J.C. Carter, the youth school police said assaulted the child. The School Board even changed policies, decreeing that young children should no longer be allowed to ride buses with older kids.
But, the district never agreed to compensate the now 9-year-old girl for the trauma that her attorneys argued exacerbated her considerable learning problems.
“I think the jury got it,” attorney Stephan Le Clainche said.
Despite School Board attorneys’ claims to the contrary, he said: “The jury realized that any child of a tender age who is the victim of physical or sexual violence is going to carry the stain of it their entire life.”
But, he acknowledged, the battle is far from over. Under Florida law, government agencies in 2007 could only be forced to pay $100,000 for injuries caused by their wrongdoing. (The cap on so-called sovereign immunity, that comes from the English concept that the King can do no wrong, has since been raised to $200,000.) But to get more than $100,000, the girl’s attorneys must now persuade a typically stubborn Florida Legislature to life the cap so the girl can get the $1.7 million the jury said she deserves.
“We have a long road to go,” Le Clainche said. The $100,000 will barely cover the court costs that included paying $25,000 to a psychiatrist who persuaded the jury that the girl carries deep psychological scars that will take years of counseling and private schooling to salve.
The mother said she was well aware of the looming battle. “I’ve been waiting all this time. I guess I can wait some more,” said the mother, who lost her job as a cook when the always shaky economy in the Glades got even worse in the recent recession.
Jurors declined comment on the verdict, as did attorneys representing the school board. Attorney Scott Krevens said they don’t comment on pending litigation.
But the two sides argued their cases vigorously Wednesday in their last appearances before the jury after a five-day trial.
Attorney Tom McCausland, one of the school board’s two attorneys, suggested that the jury give the girl $250,000 for the pain she endured on the day of the attack and $31,000 for family counseling.
“A quarter-million dollars is a way of saying we’re sorry it happened,” he said.
Le Clainche bristled at McCausland’s suggestion that the money was an apology and not a recognition that the girl needs years of therapy.
McCausland insisted the girl has no memory of the attack. “Her brain has not been able to form to grasp the event,” McCausland told jurors. “This very, very heinous act, fortunately, is not something the girl remembers.”
Le Clainche translated McCausland’s argument this way: “Your harm is worth nothing because you’re already damaged.” Then, he added, “That is an incredible, outrageous defense.”
The psychiatrist hired by the girl’s team testified that the attack stymied the girl’s emotional and intellectual growth. A psychologist hired by the school board told jurors trauma doesn’t affect cognitive development.
In the end, it was clear the jury accepted the long-standing child-rearing concept that early childhood development impacts a youngster’s entire life.
About two hours into their deliberations, the jurors sent out a question: “Can the possibility of future sexual problems be considered as future pain and suffering?”
Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley said they could.
Less than 15 minutes later, they announced their verdict.
A former Miami police homicide sergeant is expected to surrender to authorities on charges he ditched his car at an Interstate 95 car wreck.
A judge signed off on the warrant Wednesday for Juan “Johnny” Herrera, a longtime homicide investigator who retired after the Sept. 8 accident that injured four University of Miami students in a taxi.
Herrera will be charged with leaving the scene of an accident with injuries. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Florida Highway Patrol investigators believe that Herrera rear ended the taxi on I-95 south near the Southwest 25th Road exit at about 3:40 a.m., then disappeared after leaving the car on foot. DNA taken from blood on the car’s airbag eventually placed him behind the wheel of his Mercedes-Benz that night.
Investigators, who found a six pack of beer in the car, could never test Herrera’s blood alcohol content because he was not at the scene.
Herrera is well known to viewers of The First 48, the A&E reality show that follows Miami homicide detectives as they investigate real-life murders.
For updates, follow David Ovalle on Twitter: @DavidOvalle305
Frank Falestra is standing at the backyard bar of Churchill’s Pub, tinkering with a lighting board that has a broken switch.
It’s an urgent repair because the switch controls red light.
“Red is important at a rock bar,” he says.
Falestra, better known as Rat Bastard, is hailed as the godfather of Miami’s noise scene and the founder of International Noise Conference, an annual festival celebrating musical nonconformity.
Every year, the festival draws hundreds to three-decades-old Churchill’s Pub, where noise fans and other revelers gather to sing, dance, screech and, sometimes, bloody each other’s noses.
International Noise Conference will kick off its 10th year starting 10 p.m. Wednesday at Churchill’s, 5501 NE Second Ave. The festival continues at 9 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday.
Falestra, 54, expects more than 100 bands to show up. That number is about the same as the last few years, but the fourth night of the festival is new, thanks to funding from the Knight Foundation’s Knight Arts Challenge.
Admission to the festival, as always, is free.
“We keep the money thing completely out of it,” Falestra said. “That’s probably why it’s still going.”
There are only two hard-and-fast rules for musicians performing at INC: no laptops, and get off the stage in 15 minutes or less.
The laptop rule is to prevent the show from getting boring, Falestra says.
But the time limit? Artists have flown all the way from France and Australia to perform at INC. And they only get 15 minutes?
According to Falestra, a 30-year veteran of the Miami music scene, that’s all you need to get the point across.
“Usually 20 minutes of anybody is too much,” he said. “Like the Foo Fighters. You wouldn’t want to see them for 20 minutes. Ten minutes would kill you.”
Page 27, a Denver-based noise band, has one of the farthest commutes on the set list this year. Like most of the other bands, INC is the only show pulling Page 27 away from its hometown this time of year.
But member John Gross, 35, said the band is looking forward to the networking opportunities as much as the brief set. The best part for him, he said, is going to the tables in the back of the bar to trade CDs, tapes and records with other bands. “You end up finding a lot of music that you don’t see anywhere else,” Gross said.
The first two days of the festival, which feature local bands almost exclusively, are heavy on different music genres. Thursday is usually the most outrageous night. Sometimes, Falestra says, people get naked.
Many of the bands will play noise sets regardless of their typical musical style. This might include an avant-garde mix of improvisational drumming, playing non-musical objects such as sheets of glass or screaming into a microphone.
Novice noise fans shouldn’t be afraid, though. In spite of its name, INC doesn’t require that every set consist of noise. It’s possible to hear something approaching listenable music at the show.
Although he disdains the pop-punk bands that flood college radio stations these days (he has a particular distaste for Green Day), Falestra said he’s not averse to tossing more mainstream acts into the lineup to keep things from getting predictable.
Former Conch Key resident Carolyn Dukeshire has the next 30 years to think about the can of Busch Light beer she never got from neighbor Martin Mazur.
That's the reason Dukeshire, 62, shot and killed Mazur, 64, last July 29 — she asked Mazur for a beer and he said no. That's when she shot him five times outside his Conch Key home.
Dukeshire — known by her friends and co-workers as the Seahag — pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Thursday, accepting an agreement with the Monroe state attorney's office for a maximum 30 years in prison. Assistant Public Defender Patrick Stevens represented her.
A grand jury handed down a first-degree murder charge against Dukeshire in August.
Assistant State Attorney Tanner Demmery said Mazur's brother was at Thursday's hearing before acting Circuit Court Judge Ruth Becker.
"The brother of the victim, he elected to have the victim advocate read his prepared statement to the court. Ms. Dukeshire had no comment," he said.
Demmery said Dukeshire submitted a statement to Becker indicating her remorse and that she'd pay the rest of her life for losing composure in that moment.
A 17-year Keys resident, Dukeshire had no previous arrest history in Monroe County.
According to a Monroe County Sheriff's Office report, just before the shooting, Dukeshire reportedly asked Mazur, for whom she had previously done some lobster-trap work: "Do you have a cold beer for me?" He reportedly replied, "I have absolutely nothing for you."
That's when Dukeshire shot Mazur twice in the lower right abdomen, twice in the back and once in the right wrist.
Deputy Michael Claudy's report says "it seems apparent" Mazur was attempting to flee from the gunfire but collapsed near a tiki bar in his backyard.
Mazur's reported business partner, Casey Whippo, 30, witnessed the shooting and told police he struggled with Dukeshire for the gun. Sheriff's office divers recovered the small-caliber weapon the next day in a canal behind the house.
After a block and a half they came to the Clevelander, a legendary South Beach bar bearing no resemblance to anything that has ever existed in Cleveland. On a small stage next to the packed bar a woman wearing a basically invisible bikini was writhing to inhumanly loud pounding music. Nearby, beneath a sign that said D.J. BOOGA WOOGA was a man wearing black lace-up boots and a purple thong held up by orange suspenders. He was shouting into a microphone: “LAST CALL FOR THE MISS HOT AMATEUR BOD CONTEST! LADIES COME ON UP! FIRST PRIZE IS ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS! COME ON LADIES! LET’S SEE WHAT YOU GOT!”
Standing near the DJ were a dozen young women wearing garments that, if all of them were combined, might have provided enough fabric to make a sock.
“We should stop here,” said Kevin.
“No we shouldn’t,” said Seth. “We need to get to the Ritz.”
“We can’t get to the Ritz,” said Kevin. “Admit it. We tried, and we failed.”
“Plus,” said Marty, “they don’t have Miss Hot Amateur Bod at the Ritz, not to mention D.J. Booga Wooga.”
Seth looked back out at Ocean Drive. Still no taxis.
“Maybe there’s a bus to Key Biscayne,” said Big Steve.
“Shut up, Steve,” said Kevin.
“Come on, Seth,” said Marty. “One drink.”
“OK,” said Seth, dragging his suitcase toward the bar. “One drink.”
* * *
Three hours later, they were on their fifth pitcher of margaritas. The pitchers were $50 apiece, plus a generous tip for Vicki the bartender, with whom Kevin had fallen deeply in love. Kevin was also in love with Cyndi Friend Gonzalez, an outgoing young woman who had finished fourth in the Miss Hot Amateur Bod competition, and who was wearing a dress made from roughly one square inch of some extremely stretchy material. At Kevin’s invitation, Cyndi had joined the Groom Posse at the bar; she had in turn been joined by a friend of hers, a large bald man named Duane.
The posse was not thrilled about Duane, but nobody told him to leave, because in addition to being large, he had an 11-foot Burmese albino python named Blossom draped over his shoulders. Duane made his living collecting tips from tourists who wanted to have their pictures taken with Blossom. He’d been doing this for eight years and considered himself a professional. He also considered himself an ambassador for Miami, and upon learning that Seth was about to get married, he had appointed himself as tour guide.
“This is my town,” he said. “ ¿Se hablo españolo? You need weed? Oxy?”
“I think we’re good,” said Seth.
Duane brandished Blossom. “You want to hold her? No charge for the groom, man.”
“Maybe later,” said Seth, leaning back to avoid Blossom’s flicking tongue.
“Just say the word,” said Duane, pouring Seth and himself another glass from the pitcher, finishing it. Kevin waved to Vicki for another.
The Clevelander was now very crowded and making far more noise than the entire state of Nebraska. The sea-salted night air was warm and sticky and thick with the aromas of spilled beer and cigar smoke and Axe body spray and billowing clouds of do-me perfume worn by women who were not wearing a whole lot else. Seth was staring at one of these women, wondering how she sat down in that dress and hoping she would attempt to do so soon, when he realized that Big Steve was shouting something into his ear, trying to be heard over the all-obliterating boom-boom issuing from the coffin-sized speakers of D.J. Booga Wooga.
“WHAT?” said Seth.
“THE HOTEL!” said Big Steve. He held up his phone so Seth could see the time: 9:30. Seth frowned. He swiveled toward Marty, grabbing the bar to keep from falling off the stool.
“MARTY.”
“WHAT?”
“WE NEED TO GET TO THE HOTEL!”
“WHAT?”
“THE HOTEL!”
Marty frowned deeply for several seconds, processing this concept, then said, “WHAT?”
“Never mind,” said Seth. Realizing it was time to take matters into his own hands, he turned away from Marty and slid smoothly off the stool. He continued sliding smoothly until he found himself on all fours under the bar. He decided to remain that way for a bit, collecting his thoughts.
He’d been down there a while and had yet to collect any when he became vaguely aware of voices shouting above him in the thumping din. He heard his name, and realized that the voices belonged to Marty, Big Steve and Kevin, who, apparently unaware that he was under the bar, were trying to figure out where he was.
“Hey!” said Seth. “Down here!”
They didn’t hear him. Their voices were louder now, and more concerned.
“Hey!” Seth repeated, again going unheard. He thought about attempting to stand up, but at the moment that didn’t seem to be a good idea, or even possible. He decided to collect his thoughts some more and soon fell asleep with his back against the bar.
In Hollywood beach, the groundhog was not hiding in its burrow.
Instead, the 6-foot tall huggable Punxsutawney Phil (AKA Kevin Maloney) was tap dancing, mingling with guests and waiting for the crowd to jump in the water.
For the ninth year in a row, Hollywood Beach has celebrated Groundhog Day by inviting locals and snowbirds to enjoy a 6:30 a.m breakfast, watch the sunrise, get a quick dip in the water and raise funds for the local lifeguards.
“We always wanted something beach-related,” said organizer, Jeff Hasen, who fell in love with the tradition after celebrating it in Punxsutawney for seven years. The first year he decided to do it in Hollywood Beach, he only had two swimmers. “It’s all about having fun, just a great event for silly people.”
Although the Punxsutawney’s famous groundhog predicted early spring, the Hollywood beach groundhog decided that extending winter is going to be much better for the tourist.
Just like the tradition, the beach was crowded with men and women dressed in top hats and tuxedo tails, except here, they all wore their colorful bathing suits underneath. The children, wore groundhog costumes, painted their cheeks with groundhog whiskers and took turns hugging Phil the groundhog.
“He is the biggest groundhog I ever saw,” said 7-year old Olivia Cruz who was happy to wake up before 6 a.m. to come to Saturday’s Groundhog Day celebration. “I want six more weeks of winter-- I don’t like the cold water but I do like the cold air.”
But the highlight of the morning was when the crowd gathered at the shoreline for the legendary swim, despite the 60-degree weather.
“It’s cold but I brought two towels and I’ll live,” said 71-year old Saundra Bishop, a snowbird from Chicago who wore a bright pink bathing suit. “I put it on my bucket list last year, so I had to do it.”
About 50 brave swimmers ran to the water at once, but it only took about 30 seconds for the majority of them to come running back out of the water.
“I love it, I love it,” shouted Leonard Younger from Ft.Lauderdale who couldn’t contain his joy as he came out of the water. “I’m having such a good time!”
But while Younger lifted his hands to show his accomplishment, others shivered and ran to get towels and sweaters.
“It was cold. But we get together to have a good time for a good cause,” said Paul Schuman, a former lifeguard, who pulled on a big red hoodie after just seconds of being in the water.
In the end, no one knew what the official Punxsutawney’s famous groundhog prediction was, but that didn’t matter. In Hollywood, the folklore says that the beach is good all year long.
Efforts to protect native animals in Florida Keys wildlife refuges will trap feral cats and other unwanted "pests," say federal managers.
The "Final Integrated Pest Management Plan" for the Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges, released this week, says U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff "will begin actively controlling and removing certain exotic animals from public lands within these refuges."
That includes national wildlife lands at Crocodile Lake on North Key Largo, National Key Deer Refuge based on Big Pine Key, and the Great White Heron and Key West refuges in the Lower Keys.
"They've been talking about this for several years but this is the first we've heard that they're actually going to begin implementation," said Jerry Dykhuisen, an officer of Forgotten Felines, a cat-rescue group in the Middle and Lower Keys.
Forgotten Felines and several other national animal groups oppose trapping feral cats, which often are considered unadoptable and put to death.
A number of conservation groups including the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation and the American Bird Conservancy support the plan, saying birds and local endangered species have few defenses against predatory cats that do not belong in Keys wild areas.
"In terms of influencing the Lower Keys marsh rabbit or Key Largo woodrats chance of persisting, the significance of cat predation exceeds other threats," says the management plan. "Cats impact a remarkable proportion of species in affected communities."
White-crowned pigeons and many other protected bird species "depend upon Keys habitats to sustain them before and after long, over-water migrations," said Audubon Florida's Julie Wraithmell in an FWS statement. "This management plan helps ensure a future for these species in the Florida Keys."
Phillip Hughes, an FWS biologist and acting manager at the Key Deer refuge, said the agency will not mount a large-scale trapping program, but will place traps in known areas where cats and wildlife may come together.
Cats captured will be taken to local animal shelters where staff "can use their expertise regard final disposition of the cats..."
That could include trying to place the cats with "responsible pet owners or placement in long-term cat care facilities on the mainland."
The county-contracted shelter closest to Big Pine Key is based in Marathon.
"When they were talking about this before, there was a no-kill shelter on Big Pine where people could go to get their pets back," Dykhuisen said. "Now there's no shelter at all, so that's a complicating factor."
Iguanas, also considered an unwanted exotic species that eats plants needed by native wildlife, also could be targeted under the plan.
When the draft Pest Management Plan was published in late 2010, the Fish and Wildlife Service received 9,614 comments. The final plan says "over 99 percent" of those were "Internet-generated letters with standard comments."
The elementary school winner of the Miami Gardens MLK Oratorical Contest brought the crowd to their feet after his performance—which included a spoken-word poem and an a capella rendition of Lift Every Voice and Sing.
This was Micah Clarke first oratorical competition and he was excited to win.
“I was shocked when they called my name,” said Micah, 8. “Actually my teacher signed me up. I didn’t know I was going to be in it. This is my first time doing an oratorical contest.”
The third grader, who attends Parkview Elementary in Miami Gardens, competed against 18 other elementary students. The competition took place on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 21, at the Betty T. Ferguson Recreational Center in Miami Gardens. This was the city’s ninth year hosting the event, which is open to students who live or go to school in Miami Gardens.
Each contestant wrote an original speech centered around the theme: "What needs to change in America and/or the world in order for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to be realized?” Each student was to focus on one thing they thought should be changed and explain why and how making that change would better adopt King’s dream.
Tamilla Mullings, who works in the Miami Gardens Events and Media department, planned and organized the King day event. Mullings, who is also a Miami Gardens resident, said that seeing all the talent in the students gave her hope for the future of Miami Gardens.
“Our youth have a lot to say about our society in this day and time,” said Mullings. “The contest gives our young people a voice and platform to showcase their multitude of amazing talent.”
Germa Clarke, Micha’s mother, suggested that he sing as well as recite his speech. Clarke said that performing is what Micah loves to do, although this was his first oratorical contest.
“It was not the first time I’ve seen him perform, actually he’s involved in church. He’s preached before,” Clarke said. “His talent is singing so to incorporate that with the speech, I thought that would have been best.”
Denise McArthur, 19, a judge for the contest who is a spoken-word artist, said that originality and confidence made the winners stand out from all the rest. She said she made to that each winner effectively expressed the judging guidelines. But it was no easy feat to chose a winner.
“They were all very talented and did very well,” said McArthur. “But I looked for uniqueness. It kind of was a tough decision but the winners captured me.”
Among the elementary school finalist were second place winner Ronzell St. Louis, 10 who attends Hibiscus Elementary, and third place winner Nykalia Buddle, 8, who attends Parkview Elementary.
The high school students also brought their flair to the completion with their interpretation of continuing King’s legacy. Second place winner Crystal Richards, 17, who attends Miami Norland Senior high school explained how African Americans in Miami Gardens must break the cycle of violence in their communities to fulfill King’s dream.
Each winner earned a certificate and a $100 Visa gift card.
Samantha Bryant,16, was the high school winner for the oratorical contest. Samantha is junior who attends New World School of the Arts in Downtown Miami, and has been writing poetry since the sixth grade. She learned of the contest a week before it took place.
Her piece spoke of the little talked-about color complex in the African American community — which she called “internalized racism”. Her piece mentioned how it serves a weight that keeps blacks from lifting one another up.
“Growing up I was always the lightest, and I was always preferred” said Samantha. “But I never really understood that.”
During her oration, she told the story of her being a second grader and her grandmother telling her that she wouldn’t win a spelling bee against a white girl because she believed white people were smarter. Samantha that she remembered King’s words and that gave her the encouragement to study hard, which led her to win.
“It was a personal thing that affected me and I think it’s one of the things that affects the African American race. It causes division.” said Samantha
The 15-year-old South Miami-Dade student charged with a girl’s fatal shooting aboard a school bus can leave his house only for classes, church and to meet with lawyers, a judge said Wednesday.
Jordyn Howe, now charged as an adult with manslaughter with a deadly weapon, made his first appearance in circuit court.
“There will be no hanging out at the mall, no hanging out the friends’ houses,” Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Ellen Sue Venzer told the slender teen with a baby face.
Jordyn, who is out on bond, also was ordered to attend mental-health counseling.
Miami-Dade police say Jordyn was showing off his stepfather’s pistol to classmates about a school bus in Homestead just before Thanksgiving. The weapon accidentally discharged, fatally striking Lourdes Guzman-DeJesus in the neck as her 7-year-old sister looked on.
Lourdes, 13, attended Palm Glades Preparatory Academy. Jordyn has since returned to school at Somerset Academy Silver Palms.
Wednesday’s court hearing also marked the first time that Lourdes’ mother, Ady Guzman-DeJesus, saw the shooting suspect and his family in person. Visibly shaken, she began to bawl as the judge instructed Jordyn.
Adding to the pain: Lourdes’ father committed suicide after his daughter's death.
“This family has been torn apart,” her lawyer, Ron Book, told reporters after Wednesday’s court hearing.
The lawyer said that DeJesus recognized the boys’ stepfather as a man who had once employed her at a restaurant.
Book also said that the family is dismayed that Jordyn is allowed to go to classes at the same school that Lourdes’ little sister attends. He also questioned why the boy’s stepfather had not been charged for not properly securing the weapon, which Jordyn had taken to school “not once, not twice but on multiple occasions.”
Jordyn had been in juvenile custody, but prosecutors charged him as an adult last week. He is also charged with possession of a firearm by a minor and carrying a concealed weapon.
Florida would save money over the next decade — not lose billions as Gov. Rick Scott has argued — by accepting Medicaid expansion under federal healthcare reforms, according to a detailed economic study.
Miami-Dade legislators and healthcare industry leaders, at a meeting convened by United Way on Monday, heard about the report by Georgetown University — the most positive yet on a highly debated provision of what is often called Obamacare.
Jack Hoadley, a senior researcher with the Georgetown Health Policy Institute, said the study was the first to calculate spin-off savings in other state programs if Florida accepted the expansion, which over the next 10 years could bring $26 billion in federal funds to provide insurance to an estimated 815,000 to 1.3 million Florida residents who are now uninsured.
In Miami-Dade, expansion would cover an additional 150,000 to 225,000, according to the Georgetown projections. That reduction in the uninsured would bring huge relief to the county’s hospitals, which by federal law must treat anyone who comes to the emergency room, regardless of ability to pay.
At the very least, the Georgetown findings and other recent analyses have some critics reconsidering opposition to the 2010 Affordable Health Care Act.
State Sen. Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, who previously was an “absolute no” vote against Medicaid expansion, said after the meeting that he was now “open to the thought” that expansion makes sense.
State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez, R-Hialeah, said he was still concerned about the debt-ridden feds’ ability to fund Medicaid over the long term, but “we are looking at all the options.”
Estimates about the real costs of expansion have varied wildly based on the law, which requires the federal government to pay all costs of the expansion for the first three years. Starting in 2017, the state will start paying a small share, which will reach 10 percent of the expansion costs for 2020 and beyond.
Gov. Scott, who has long been critical of Obamacare, contended in December that expansion would cost Florida taxpayers more than $26 billion over 10 years. Opponents and healthcare experts criticized that estimate as way too high, and earlier this month the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration gave a much lower estimate of $3 billion for the decade.
That was lower even than a report by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, a Washington research group, which in November estimated that expansion would cover an additional 1.2 million residents at a cost to the state of $5.4 billion over 10 years.
Georgetown’s Hoadley said Monday that the Kaiser study used only rough data for all 50 states, while the Georgetown study, funded by two Florida nonprofit foundations, looked in detail at how Medicaid expansion would save money in other areas. The Georgetown study found that the state would have to spend less for safety-net hospitals such as Jackson Health System, mental-health and substance-abuse programs and the medically needy program.
Hoadley said the savings calculations were “a very cautious estimate.”
The Georgetown report projected that the state would save $300 million in 2014, the first year of Medicaid expansion, and $100 million in 2020, when the state would be paying for 10 percent of the expansion costs.
The Georgetown study found that expansion was especially important in Florida, where almost one in three — 30 percent — of nonelderly adults are uninsured, compared to 18 percent nationwide.
In South Florida, the figures are even higher for uninsured non-elderly adults: 57 percent in Hialeah, 50 percent in the city of Miami, 48.5 percent in Deerfield Beach and 31.2 percent in Kendall.
Hospitals strongly support the expansion. On Monday, Phillis Oeters, an executive with Baptist Health South Florida, told legislators that hospitals have already seen their Medicare and Medicaid payments reduced greatly in other areas.
“Enough is enough,” she said. “Hospitals can’t take it anymore.”
A study done for the Florida Hospital Association estimated that the infusion of federal funds from Obamacare would add 56,000 jobs to the state.
Four No Name Key residents filed a $10 million discrimination lawsuit against Monroe County Thursday in Circuit Court.
Jim and Ruth Newton, along with Robert and Julianne Reynolds, allege the county has for years willfully denied the Lower Keys island commercial power without proper cause. Currently homes there are powered by solar and generators.
"The county has a long history of discrimination against that island and the residents and its very flagrant. And if it's not discrimination, it's ignorance," Reynolds said Friday.
The crux of the plaintiffs' argument is Chief Circuit Court Judge David Audlin's ruling in 2011 that the state Public Service Commission has jurisdiction over the matter, not the county.
That ruling came about from a county filing asking Audlin to decide whether county law allows commercial electricity on No Name. County officials say the law doesn't allow it and that it can't issue permits for it.
The suit concentrates on Monroe County fighting the installation of 62 Keys Energy Services power poles last year, as well as a 2001 county ordinance creating a coastal barrier overlay district prohibiting commercial utilities in federal coastal barrier areas.
Congress created the Coastal Barrier Resource System in 1982, and updated it in 1990, to protect undeveloped coastal barrier areas.
The lawsuit also addresses the Newtons' controversial application last year for an electrical building permit from the county. Originally granted, it was revoked when county officials realized their home is on No Name.
In addition to the $10 million in damages -- which Reynolds called a "low" number-- the plaintiffs want Audlin to void the county's coastal barrier overlay district law and grant homeowners electrical permits.
"If you knew what this has done to the friendships and relationships there ... it's pretty much the only thing they think about and talk about. I don't know what the value of my peace of mind is, but in my mind it's pretty significant," Reynolds said.
He's owned a house on No Name since 2005.
Warm congratulations to my friend and Miami Woman’s Club sister Dolly MacIntyre, who will be honored as the club’s Historian of the Year for 2013 on Tuesday at the monthly luncheon meeting.
Dolly has been a resident of Miami for 56 years. She began her involvement with local history and historic preservation in 1966. She is a kind and unassuming woman who goes about doing good works without blowing her own horn and she is a highly acclaimed activist for historic preservation and the recipient of numerous awards for dedicated service.
In 2012, she received the Mary Call Darby Collins Award from the state of Florida for her preservation work. Early on, she became a charter member of the Villagers and founding president of the Dade Heritage Trust, and today she remains active in both organizations.
Dolly is a lonttime member and past officer of the MWC, the Woman’s Club of Coconut Grove, the Dade County Federation of Women’s Clubs and the Women’s History Coalition. In addition, she is a board and committee member of many community organizations.
The luncheon will begin at 11:30 a.m. with networking, with lunch and the program to follow at noon in the Ballroom of the Doubletree Grand Hotel, 1717 N. Bayshore Dr.
You can still make reservations and pre-order for vegetarian option by calling Nancy Smith at 305-891-3789. The cost is $25 for members and $35 for non members.
Retired FIU professor honored for book
There’s a lot to be happy about today. Howard B. Rock, Florida International University professor of history emeritus, recently was awarded the Everett Family Foundation Jewish Book of the Year at the 2012 National Jewish Book Awards. The award was announced Jan. 15 by the Jewish Book Council and was for the three-volume series City of Promises: A History of the Jews of New York of which Rock wrote the first volume, Haven of Liberty: New York Jews in the New world, 1654-1865.
Rock shared the top Jewish book award with Annie Polland and Daniel Soyer, who authored the second volume, "Emerging Metropolis: New York Jews in the Age of Immigration, 1840-1920", Jeffrey S. Gurock, who wrote the third volume, "Jews in Gotham: New York Jews in a Changing City, 1920-2010", and noted Jewish historian Deborah Dash Moore, who was the general editor of the project.
Rock, a Miami resident and member of Temple Israel of Greater Miami, also co-authored a history of New York Jewry. He taught American history for 36 years at FIU. His speciality is early American history to 1815, early American social history, the history of New York City, early American labor history and early American political history. In addition, he has published an/or edited five books, including Artisans of the New Republic, The New York Artisan, Keepers of the Revolution, The American Artisans, and A History of New York Images.
Guest composer at FIU
The Florida International School of Music will present a program, “East Meets West,” with guest composer Chinary Ung and the FIU Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Wertheim Performing Arts Center, 10910 SW 17th St.
Also featured on the program is the Amernet String Quartet and the NOBUS ensemble and the music of Ung, Garcia, Sudol, Jen and Colangelo.
The concert is free and open to the public.
MDC leader to speak in Homestead
You are invited to hear Jeanne Jacobs, president of the Miami Dade College Homestead campus at noon on Feb. 4, at the Homestead Community Center, 1601 N. Krome Ave. Jacobs is the Black History Month speaker at the Bea Peskoe Lunchtime Lecture series, presented free by the Homestead Center for the Arts.
Eight years have passed since Michelle Spence-Jones was elected to the Miami City Commission.
She isn’t willing to leave just yet.
Spence-Jones — who was charged with bribery and grand theft in 2009, suspended from office, acquitted and reinstated to her post — is seeking reelection, she announced Friday. She represents District 5, which includes Overtown, Little Haiti and Liberty City.
Whether Spence-Jones could run again has been the subject of much debate. The Miami city charter limits commissioners to two terms and Spence-Jones has twice won election. But City Attorney Julie O. Bru opined that Spence-Jones could run again because her second term was interrupted by the suspension.
“Our charter prohibits a commissioner or the mayor for running for reelection after that commissioner or mayor has served two consecutive terms,” Bru reaffirmed to Spence-Jones at a City Commission meeting Thursday. “You are eligible to seek reelection because you did not serve two full consecutive terms.”
Spence-Jones’s opponent isn’t buying it.
“The bottom line is, Michelle is term limited,” said the Rev. Richard P. Dunn II, who held the commission seat in Spence-Jones’s absence. “She received financial compensation for the time she was away and she was fully vested in the pension. Are the citizens of Miami going to pay her twice?”
Dunn plans to file a legal challenge “immediately,” he said.
Spence-Jones wants the additional term, she said, “to finish what I started.”
She pointed to the improvements she’s spearheaded along Northeast Second Avenue in Little Haiti. “We cleaned the place up, repainted many of the buildings and recreated a Caribbean feel by adding steeples,” she said.
The ultimate goal, Spence-Jones said, is to make Little Haiti a destination for tourists akin to Little Havana’s Calle Ocho. She has a similar vision for Overtown, which was once the cultural hub of Miami’s black community. To that end, Spence-Jones pushed for improvements to Northwest Third Avenue and provided grant money for local businesses.
“Now we’re going to move forward with a marketing campaign and build relationships with cruise lines and tour operators,” Spence-Jones said. “But these sorts of things take time.”
Other big projects are in the works.
Earlier this year, Spence-Jones pushed through a $50 million bond issue for improvements in Overtown — the largest investment the blighted community has seen in decades. The money will go toward affordable housing and some retail projects.
But Spence-Jones takes an equal amount of pride in some of her smaller initiatives, including a project that brought Hollywood director Robert Townsend to Overtown to film an independent movie. Students from the University of Miami and several local high schools had the opportunity to serve as interns. The film will debut this summer.
She plans to focus future efforts on Liberty City. She is already laying the groundwork for a program that will train residents to become laboratory technicians. A second program will help people with criminal records pursue careers in the automotive industry.
Spence-Jones’s tenure has been somewhat of a rollercoaster. After being elected to her second term, she was charged with bribery and grand theft in two separate cases and removed from office by then-Gov. Charlie Crist. Jurors later acquitted her of bribery, and prosecutors dropped the grand-theft charges.
A vindicated Spence-Jones returned to City Hall in August with newfound political heft.
Spence-Jones is now suing Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle and Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado, accusing them of conspiring to destroy her political career via the prosecutions. She declined to talk about the suit, saying only: “I’m going to let my lawyers fight that battle.”
She may have another legal fight ahead.
Dunn believes the city attorney’s opinion giving Spence-Jones the go-ahead to run again won’t withstand a legal challenge. He says Spence-Jones has served two consecutive terms because she was paid for two consecutive terms.
Dunn also criticized the city attorney, saying she likely felt pressured to give that opinion because Spence-Jones is her boss.
“If it stands up in a court of law, I will respect that,” said Dunn, who attended Thursday’s commission meeting and took notes on a legal pad. “But I’m not going to be whitewashed by a city attorney’s opinion that’s biased by her boss’s posturing position.”
Dunn, who also sat on the commission in the mid-‘90s after Commissioner Miller Dawkins was removed from office, pointed to his own accomplishments as a commissioner. He said he helped secure funding for Gibson Park,and quelled racial tensions after Miami police officers shot and killed seven black men in 2010 and 2011.
“Michelle Spence-Jones does not own that seat,” he said. “It’s owned by the people of District 5.”
No other candidates have announced they are running for the post.
A Pompano Beach contractor has been charged by federal authorities with bribery for accepting money to steer a state Department of Transportation contract to a subcontractor working on traffic signals in the Florida Keys, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Ron Capobianco Jr., 40, is charged with committing bribery in connection with programs receiving federal funds. If convicted, he could get 10 years in prison. He had his first appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Seltzer Wednesday morning.
He is accused of accepting $4,000 for steering a $25,000 contract to a subcontractor. Prosecutors did not say who that subcontractor is or whether the subcontractor approached authorities or they approached the subcontractor.
Prosecutors say Capobianco worked as an engineering and inspection consultant at Miami's Metric Engineering Inc. DOT contracted with Metric to provide services including designing, inspecting and troubleshooting construction of roads, signs and traffic signals.
DOT considered Capobianco an expert on signalization and lighting construction, including the use of video cameras for traffic signalization and control. Prosecutors say that around 2009, DOT began its work in Marathon to improve traffic flow.
They say that around May 2009, an agent of the subcontractor offered to pay Capobianco $5,000 if the subcontractor could receive at least $25,000 to install video detection equipment. Capobianco reportedly agreed to the deal, enabling the subcontractor to make a significant profit.
The subcontractor's estimate was approved and subsequently paid by the state after the equipment was installed. Then around May 2009, Capobianco reportedly met with an agent of the subcontractor in Plantation in Broward County and was paid $4,000 in cash for his help getting the subcontractor the work.
Jurors on Thursday morning began deliberating in the Rilya Wilson murder case.
Twelve jurors will decide whether caretaker Geralyn Graham is guilty of killing the 4-year-old foster child, then telling a slew of lies to cover-up the child’s demise.
Graham, 67, is charged with aggravated child abuse, kidnapping and first degree murder. She faces life in prison. Jurors retired to begin deliberating at 10:45 a.m.
Defense lawyer Michael Matters, in his final argument Wednesday, ripped the state’s key witness, Robin Lunceford, a convicted armed robber who testified that Graham confessed in jail to smothering the girl with a pillow.
“Every bit of the story she concocted about my client is absolutely unbelievable,” Matters told jurors. “She graduated from prison life with a master in manipulation and a doctorate in deceit.”
Lunceford, an eccentric con who was doing life in prison, testified in exchange for a 10-year plea deal on armed robbery case.
The body of Rilya, whose disappearance sparked turmoil at the Florida Department of Children and Families, has never been found.
Miami-Dade prosecutor Sally Weintraub said Lunceford learned intimate details known only to a few people. That included an episode — backed up by other witness testimony — in which Graham grew angry because Rilya wanted to dress as Cleopatra, not an angel, for Halloween.
“Robin Lunceford is big, loud, aggressive, obscene, in-your-face, unpleasant. The kind of person you might just write off,” Weintraub told jurors. “How you feel about her is not what you have to consider … what the testimony is, the defendant’s words, that’s what you must consider.”
A Miami-Dade judge ruled Wednesday he will not throw out Miami-Dade County’s ordinance governing the collection of absentee ballots.
Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch said Sergio Robaina, who is accused of illegally collecting absentee ballots for elderly voters, cannot claim his constitutional rights were violated because of the 2011 ordinance outlawing possession of more than two absentee ballots.
The reason: Those voters whose ballots Robaina collected would have to be the ones to go to court.
“Sergio Robaina cannot demand their rights to vote,” Hirsch wrote in a 15-page order released Wednesday. “Sergio Robaina cannot assert their rights to vote.”
Prosecutors say Robaina illegally collected the absentee ballots, and filled out two against the wishes of two voters, one of them a woman with dementia. Robaina has long insisted he was just helping elderly citizens who could not deliver their absentee ballots themselves.
Robaina is charged with two misdemeanor counts of violating the ordinance, and two felony counts of voter fraud. On Wednesday, the judge denied a move by Robaina’s lawyers to throw out the two misdemeanor charges.
Two years ago, in an effort to crack down on perceived election fraud, the Miami-Dade County Commission passed the ordinance that outlawed the possession of more than two absentees ballots, making it a misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days in jail or a fine of up to $1,000.
This past election season, as allegations of absentee ballot fraud arose in Miami-Dade, police used the ordinance as a probable-cause stepping stone to investigate felony charges of voter fraud.
Robaina’s charges stem from a case involving 164 absentee ballots dropped off at a post office by an aide to Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo, who is not accused of wrongdoing.
Robain, the uncle of former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina, has blamed a Bovo aide who is now a key witness against him.
In a motion to dismiss the misdemeanor charges, Robaina’s lawyers claimed the ordinance is fundamentally unfair because it applies only in Miami-Dade, while some ballots include races for districts that stretch into neighboring counties.
They also said the ordinance violates a citizen’s right to vote, free speech and the right to assemble.
“It cuts off a certain class of voters, for the most part elderly Hispanics who probably live in the Sweetwater area who are accustomed to having confidence in certain people and they talk to them about how to vote,” defense lawyer Joseph Klock told the judge during a hearing last week.
Oren Rosenthal, an assistant county attorney, argued that the commission had every right to enact the ordinance under state law. He also said the ordinance “cuts off a class of fraud that has been proven unique in Miami-Dade County over the years.”
In Wednesday’s order, the judge acknowledged that absentee ballot fraud is a problem unique to Miami-Dade. He also noted that the relationship between voters and absentee-ballot brokers is not protected by law and that county commission has the right to legislate how the ballots are collected.
“Such a determination was well within the competence of the commission, as the legislative power of the county, to make,” Hirsch wrote.
The judge also suggested that the ordinance does not violate voters’ constitutional rights because they can also use the U.S. Postal Service mail carriers to pick up ballots.
And, “friends of Mr. Robaina remain free to invite him over for café y pastelitos to discuss the pros and cons of each electoral choice before filling out ballots,” Hirsch wrote.
Defense lawyer Thomas Cobitz said his client will consider an appeal of Hirsch’s ruling because it honed in on Robaina not having standing to make his claim.
“Obviously, we’re not happy with the outcome,” Cobitz said after Wednesday’s brief court hearing. “Obviously, he’s the smartest judge in the building, but at first blush, it looks like he ruled on a small issue.”
Some AT&T customers in South Florida and in other U.S. markets were without their U-verse service Monday night and into Tuesday morning.
Sheri Felipe, who works at her Hollywood home as a graphic designer, said her Internet service went out about 9:30 p.m. Monday and did not return until about 8 a.m. Tuesday.
“It’s working – for now,” she said about 10:15 a.m. Tuesday.
Dantes Gutierrez, a pharmacy technician who lives in Kendall, said his U-verse Internet service was not working Tuesday morning. “It seems to be a monthly problem,” he said.
“A team of engineers and technicians are working to resolve the issue, and we apologize for any inconvenience to our customers,” Kelly Lane Starling, an AT&T spokeswoman for South Florida, said in an email.
No further details were immediately available about the reason for the outage or when all customer’s service would be restored. U-verse service includes broadband Internet service, as well as phone and TV services.
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