A Cobble Hill woman died early today after being found yesterday with head trauma, police said.
The 55-year-old was discovered unconscious in a Clinton Street residence near Sackett Street about 10:33 p.m., cops said.
She died at Long Island College Hospital about 4:30 a.m.
The medical examiner will determine the cause of death.
A detailed survey shows that South Florida hospitals could lose $368 million over 10 years in federal budget cuts starting next Friday, if the sequestration program kicks in as scheduled.
The Florida Hospital Association, using data from the American Hospital Association, estimates that over the next decade, sequestration would cause Miami-Dade hospitals to lose $223.9 million and Broward facilities $144.4 million under the Congress-mandated budget cuts that hit virtually all federal programs unless Republicans and Democrats can work out a compromise.
The New York Times and other national news organizations are reporting that sequestration, unlike the New Year’s fiscal cliff, seems virtually certain to take place.
The law requires across-the-board spending cuts in domestic and defense programs, with certain exceptions. Because healthcare represents more than one in five dollars of the federal budget, it will be a huge target for cuts.
For hospitals and doctors, the major impact will be felt in Medicare cuts, which according to the budget law are limited to 2 percent of Medicare payments. Medicaid, food stamps and Social Security are exempted from cuts, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
The FHA study calculates that over 10 years, Jackson Memorial Hospital stands to lose $30.6 million, Mount Sinai Medical Center on Miami Beach $27.3 million, Holy Cross in Fort Lauderdale $23.8 million and Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood $21.4 million.
“The problem with sequestration is that it just makes broad cuts across the board,” said Linda Quick, president of the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association. “The Affordable Care Act is looking at all sorts of intelligent ways to reduce costs,” including coordinated care that will stop duplicated tests and reduce hospital readmissions. “But sequestration takes an ax, and that doesn’t make any sense.”
FierceHealthcare, which produces trade publications, says sequestration cuts over the next decade will include $591 million from prescription drug benefits for seniors, $318 million from the Food and Drug Administration, $2.5 billion from the National Institutes of Health, $490 million from the Centers for Disease Control and $365 million from Indian Health Services.
The National Association of Community Health Centers estimates that 900,000 of its patients nationwide could lose care because of the cuts. The group said the cuts were “penny wise and pound foolish” because they would mean less preventive care while more and sicker patients would end up in emergency rooms.
Like the fiscal cliff, Republicans and Democrats agreed on a sequestration strategy, with the idea that the drastic measure would force the two sides to reach agreement on more deliberative budget adjustments. That hasn’t happened.
The White House reports that the law will mean that nondefense programs will be cut by 5 percent, defense programs by 8 percent. But since the first year’s cuts must be done over seven months, that means in 2013, nondefense programs need to be cut by 9 percent, defense programs by 13 percent.
In its effort to crack down on voter fraud, Miami-Dade County has the authority to limit how many absentee ballots a voter can possess, a judge ruled Friday.
The ruling came in the case of Sergio “El Tio” Robaina, whose lawyers had challenged a county ordinance that makes it a misdemeanor to collect multiple absentee ballots.
Prosecutors say Robaina, 74, illegally collected absentee ballots and filled out two against the wishes of two voters, one of them a woman with dementia. He faces two felony counts of voter fraud, and two misdemeanor counts of illegally possessing absentee ballots.
The Miami-Dade County Commission, worried about the perception of election fraud, passed the ordinance two years ago. A person may turn in only two absentee ballots in addition to their own: one belonging to an immediate family member and another belonging to a voter who has signed a sworn statement designating that person as responsible.
Friday’s order by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch was his second ruling against Robaina.
Last month, Hirsch ruled that Robaina did not have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the ordinance. His lawyers argued that the law disenfranchise elderly Hispanic voters who rely on friends and associates to help them deliver absentee ballots.
In Robaina’s latest request, lawyers claimed that Miami-Dade County — under a recent state voting law — did not have the power to enact the ordinance because elections also feature state and national candidates.
But Florida, in 1885, granted Miami-Dade County sweeping powers because of its unique status as the state’s preeminent city.
Hirsch pointed out that decades ago, the state’s Supreme Court said Miami-Dade was a “teeming, cosmopolitan city” that needed broad powers to legislate its affairs. The same hold true even today, Hirsch ruled.
“Miami has become one of the crossroads of the world,” Hirsch wrote in a 15-page order. “It is a leader on a global scale, in countless commercial, cultural and other activities.”
The judge agreed with county attorneys, who said absentee ballot fraud had become a “cottage industry” unique to Miami-Dade. The ordinance, the judge said, still does not prevent a Miami voter from filling out an absentee ballot and mailing it.
Robaina has long admitted to collecting the ballots, but merely as a way to help elderly citizens. The probe started after authorities discovered 164 absentee ballots dropped off at a North Miami-Dade post office.
The bundle was dropped off by an aide to Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo, who has not been accused of wrongdoing. Robaina, the uncle of former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina, has consistently shifted the blame to that aide, now a key witness against him.
Malin Akerman
February 22, 2013
A makeup-free Malin Akerman showed off her natural pregnancy glow shopping at Bed Bath & Beyond in Hollywood.
ALSO IN THIS GALLERY:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the $250 million New York City schools stand to lose amid a standoff on teacher evaluations is important, but the city "cannot compromise on having a real evaluation system."
The mayor spoke on his WOR-AM radio show Friday. On Thursday, a judge blocked the state from withholding the money, at least for now.
The judge froze any sanctions until the resolution of a lawsuit filed by parents. The state plans to appeal.
School districts had to have evaluation systems in place by Jan. 17 to get a state aid increase this school year.
Bloomberg's administration and the teachers' union couldn't agree on a system, so the city missed the deadline.
The city has said the lost money means eliminating 700 guidance counselor and teacher positions.
A panel of frosted glass puts everything in perspective for Delphine Dray as she oversees a years-long, multi-million dollar renovation project at the National Hotel on Miami Beach.
“Chez Claude and Simone,” says the piece of glass stationed between the lobby and restaurant, a reference to Dray’s parents, who bought the hotel in 2007.
“Every time I am exhausted and I pass that glass, I remember why,” said Delphine Dray, who joined her father — a billionaire hotel developer and well-known art collector in France — to restore the hotel after the purchase.
After working with him for years, she is finishing the project alone. Claude Dray, 76, was killed in his Paris home in October of 2011, a shooting that remains under investigation.
In a recent interview and tour of the hotel’s renovations, which are nearly finished, Dray did not discuss her father’s death, which drew extensive media coverage in Europe. But she spoke about the evolution of the father-daughter working relationship, the family’s Art Deco obsession and the inspiration for the hotel’s new old-fashioned touches.
The National is hosting a cocktail party Friday night to give attendees a peek at the progress.
Dray grew up in a home surrounded by Art Deco detail; her parents constantly brought home finds from the flea market. By 2006, they had amassed a fortune in art and furniture, which they sold for $75 million at a Paris auction in 2006.
That sale funded the purchase of the National Hotel at 1677 Collins Ave., which the Drays discovered during a visit to Miami Beach.
After having lunch at the Delano next door, Dray said, “My dad came inside the hotel and fell in love.” The owner was not interested in selling, but Claude Dray persisted, closing the deal in early 2007. Her family also owns the Hôtel de Paris in Saint-Tropez, which reopened Thursday after a complete overhaul overseen by Dray’s mother and older sister.
Delphine Dray said she thought it would be exciting to work on the 1939 hotel with her father, so she moved with her family to South Florida. She quickly discovered challenges, including stringent historic preservation rules and frequent disagreements with her father.
“We did not have at all the same vision,” she said.
For example, she said: “I was preparing mojitos for the Winter Music Conference.” Her father, on the other hand, famously once unplugged a speaker during a party at the hotel because the loud music was disturbing his work.
“We were fighting because that is the way it is supposed to be,” she said. “Now, I understand that he was totally right.”
She described a vision, now her own, of a classic, cozy property that brings guests back to the 1940s.
Joined by her 10-year-old twin girls, Pearl and Swan, and 13-year-old son Chad, Dray pointed out a new telephone meant to look antique mounted on the wall near the elevators on a guest floor. She showed off the entertainment units she designed to resemble furniture that her parents collected. And she highlighted Art Deco flourishes around doorknobs and handles.
“It’s very important for us to have the details,” she said.
With those priorities in mind, she is overseeing the final phase of the renovation, an investment that general manager Jacques Roy said will top $10 million. In addition to the small details, the renovation includes heavier, less obvious work: new drywall in guest rooms, for example, and new windows to replace leaky ones.
Painting of the building’s exterior should be finished in the next two to three weeks, Roy said. Dray compared its earlier unfinished state to resembling “a horror movie — the family Addams.”
And the final couple of guest room floors, as well as the restoration of the original Martini Room, should be done by the end of April.
“At the end, I will be very proud,” Dray said.
The National’s renovation wraps up as nearby properties such as the SLS Hotel South Beach and Gale South Beach & Regent Hotel have been given new life. Jeff Lehman, general manager of The Betsy Hotel and chair of the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority, said the National has always been true to its roots. He managed the hotel for 10 years, including for a few months after Dray bought the property.
“I think historic preservation and the restoration of the hotels as they were built 70, 80 years ago is such a huge piece of our DNA,” he said. “It’s a lot of what sets us apart from any other destination on the planet.”
Music is “a great conversation starter,” says Ezequiel Beltrame, an 18-year-old flutist from Hollywood Hills High School. “Even if you have nothing to talk about, you can talk about music. And that usually leads to other things.”
For Beltrame and more than 50 other South Florida Youth Pride Band students, who perform Sunday at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, post-music discussion topics include sexual orientation, gender identity and bullying.
“We don’t talk about it enough,” says Beltrame, who identifies as pansexual. “Most people don’t even know what that is. It means that gender is not a factor in my attraction.”
The Youth Pride Band is a project of the South Florida Pride Wind Ensemble, an LGBT band that marched last month in President Barack Obama’s inaugural parade in Washington, D.C.
“It started as an idea of our board in April 2011,” said ensemble member Adam DeRosa, youth band coordinator and president of the international Lesbian and Gay Band Association.
In June 2011, the Community Foundation of Broward gave the adult ensemble $5,000 to launch a youth band. In 2012, 23 students participated in the three-week program, and the ensemble awarded five $1,000 college scholarships.
Last year, the Community Foundation gave another $8,000. Private donors have also contributed, and additional scholarships will be announced at Sunday’s concert.
The youth band will be joined on stage after intermission by the adult ensemble. The program, called “Taking Flight,” will feature songs including Come Fly With Me, Defying Gravity from Broadway’s Wicked and Theme from Superman.
“The concept of bringing in the 50-some young musicians to sit beside the older musicians is a fantastic learning opportunity,” said Grammy-winning vibraphonist Gary Burton of Fort Lauderdale, who has guest-starred with the wind ensemble. “I’ve heard other gay bands around the country, and I have to say it’s one of the best.”
Ensemble director Dan Bassett said the adults advertised in high school marching band programs and relied on word of mouth to reach teen musicians from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
“The kids get out of it a real sense of camaraderie,” said Bassett, assistant principal and band director at St. Mark’s Episcopal Academy in Oakland Park.
There’s no requirement that youth members be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. “It’s not something we ever ask,” DeRosa said. “We don’t ask our own members and they’re adults.”
Ensemble members want to nurture the students and provide a safe space for them, he said. “The most important thing is we want it to be an outstanding musical experience for the kids. The idea of the organization is to celebrate diversity and be a positive way to combat bullying.”
“This is my second year here,” said clarinetist Jake Glass, 17, of Pompano Beach and North Broward Prep. “It’s a great experience. ... Because it’s a gay-straight alliance band, it’s an extremely open community. I’m straight myself, but I have a number of friends who have been bullied or suffered through it because they are gay or bisexual.”
Clarinetist Natalie Mullen, 18, of McArthur High School in Hollywood, said the band experience has taught her much.
Calista Flockhart
February 21, 2013
A bravely bare-faced Calista Flockhart accompanied her husband Harrison Ford to the Conservation International conference in Sao Paulo.
ALSO IN THIS GALLERY:
WEST GREENWICH, RI — Rhode Island State Police have charged two New York City residents with obtaining credit cards through fraudulent means after finding dozens of cards in their vehicle.
Col. Steven O'Donnell said 22-year-old Emendjer Mathurin and 37-year-old Abdul Springer, both of Queens, NY, were arrested this week after a trooper stopped them for speeding on Interstate 95 in West Greenwich and found dozens of credit cards. Some had the name of the driver and others had the names of unknown people.
Authorities say the credit cards were encoded with information from stolen cards. State Police says the two were arraigned on Wednesday and did not enter pleas. They were released on $5,000 surety bail each.
A message was left for Mathurin. A current listing for Springer couldn't be found.
The median price of an existing single-family home in Broward County jumped 24.5 percent to $224,088 in January from a year earlier, according to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors.
The median price of a condominium or townhouse in Broward increased 26.5 percent to $94,900 in January from a year earlier.
Sales of single-family-home in Broward increased 15.3 percent in January to 1,033 from a year earlier, while closings on townhouses and condos increased 10.7 percent year over year, the Realtors group said.
Extremely tight inventory continues to shape the market. The number of single family homes available for sale on the multi-listings service plunged 26.5 percent in January to 4,510 from a year earlier. The number of available listings of condos and townhouses on the market was down 11.2 percent year over year to 6,407 units in Broward in January, the group said.
The months of supply of existing single-family homes fell to 3.8 months, while the inventory of condos and townhouses shrank to 4.7 months. A six-month to nine-month supply is considered a balanced market between buyers and sellers, while a lower level favors sellers, helping fuel price increases, Realtors say.
Broward homes are selling more quickly and for levels closer to their asking prices in Broward. In January, existing single-family homes fetched 93.4 percent of their listing price, up from 90.9 percent a year earlier. Condos and townhouses went for 93.8 perenct of their asking price, an increase of 1.4 percent from a year earlier.
The median days on the market was 48 for a single-family home, down from 53 a year earlier, and 42 days for a condo or townhouse, down from 43 in January 2012.
“I’m seeing strength right across the board,’’ said Charles Bonfiglio, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors and head of AAA Realty Group. Many Broward residences are fetching multiple offers, frequently above the asking price, he said.
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