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.
ET has learned that Chris Brown was involved in a solo, non-injury traffic collision in Beverly Hills at noon today, blaming the paparazzi for losing control of his Porsche and colliding with a wall.
Pics: Remembering Whitney Houston
A statement from Lieutenant Lincoln Hoshino of the Beverly Hills police details the incident: "On February 9, 2013 at approximately 12:03 p.m., entertainer Chris Brown was involved in a solo, non-injury traffic collision in the 600 Block Bedford Drive/Camden Drive alley. Mr. Brown was the driver of the vehicle and collided with a wall. Brown stated that he was being chased by paparazzi causing him to lose control of his vehicle. Brown's Black Porsche was towed from the scene at his request."
Related: Rihanna Accompanies Chris Brown to Court
Earlier this week, Brown visited an L.A. courthouse with girlfriend Rihanna on to oppose a motion to revoke his probation stemming from his 2009 assault on Rihanna. Prosecutors claim Brown did not show sufficient evidence that he completed his required community labor sentence.
AP
Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman in a scene from "Identity Thief"
LOS ANGELES — "Identity Thief" has turned out to be the real thing at the box office.
The comedy starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy debuted at No. 1 with a $36.6 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.
"Identity Thief" opened solidly despite the winter storm that buried much of the Northeast. Distributor Universal Pictures estimates the storm might have choked off as much as 10 percent of the movie's business.
"It took such a chunk out of the business this weekend. But we can't control Mother Nature," said Nikki Rocco, Universal's head of distribution. "We probably could have hit $40 million if it weren't for the weather this weekend."
The previous weekend's top movie, the zombie romance "Warm Bodies," fell to No. 2 with $11.5 million. That raises its domestic total to $36.7 million.
The weekend's other new wide release, Steven Soderbergh's thriller "Side Effects," had a modest opening of $10 million, coming in at No. 3.
Tom Cruise's 1986 hit "Top Gun" took flight again in theaters with a 3-D reissue that pulled in $1.9 million in narrow release of 300 theaters. The movie has a short run on the big-screen leading up to its Feb. 19 3-D release on DVD and Blu-ray.
Overall domestic revenues were down sharply from a year ago, when four movies had big openings — "The Vow," ''Safe House," ''Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" and a 3-D reissue of "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace."
Receipts totaled $105 million, down 45 percent from the same weekend last year — which was the only non-holiday weekend to have four movies open with more than $20 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
"The same weekend a year ago was such a tremendous weekend," said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "It's really tough to live up to a weekend like we had last year. It was sort of a foregone conclusion that this was going to be a down weekend."
"Identity Thief" came in above industry expectations despite the storm and poor reviews for the comedy, which stars Bateman as a man chasing down a con artist (McCarthy) who has racked up thousands of dollars of charges in his name.
The combination of the actors and the premise made it a review-proof comedy, Rocco said.
"I think people just want to be entertained," Rocco said. "The chemistry between Jason and Melissa is the reason why this picture is doing so well."
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Identity Thief," $36.6 million ($230,000 international).
2. "Warm Bodies," $11.5 million.
3. "Side Effects," $10 million.
4. "Silver Linings Playbook," $6.9 million.
5. "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters," $5.8 million ($11.6 million international).
6. "Mama," $4.3 million ($6.1 million international).
7. "Zero Dark Thirty," $4 million.
8. "Argo," $2.5 million.
9. "Django Unchained," $2.3 million.
10. "Bullet to the Head," $2 million.
Miami Heat President Pat Riley sold his spectacular bayfront mansion in gated Gables Estates for $16.8 million last March.
The 12,856-square-foot Mediterranean-style dream house at 180 Arvida Parkway has a theater, wine cellar, library, and a sprawling pool with waterfalls and an aqua bar.
But that’s all coming down.
Turns out the lure was the lot: a rare fingertip of prime land, nearly two acres, jutting into the turquoise waters of Biscayne Bay.
In December, the buyer — listed as 180 Arvida LLC represented by Miami attorney Mark Hasner — presented the city of Coral Gables with plans to tear down the home, built in 1991, and erect an even grander estate along the 900 linear feet of bayfront.
“Most people would move in and be perfectly happy, but clients are looking for perfection — really good stuff,” said Jorge Uribe, a senior vice president at One Sotheby’s International Realty, who wasn’t involved but sold an even bigger trophy property last year: a $39.4 million estate at 14 Indian Creek Dr., in Indian Creek Village, dubbed “Miami’s Billionaire Bunker” by Forbes magazine.
“The trend in the last several years is a demand for very high-quality product. People are looking for really good locations, really good materials, and they’re willing to pay for it,” Uribe said.
Miami’s ultra-luxury market is on fire. Prices for the fanciest single-family homes and condominiums have soared to levels never before seen in the area, fueled by strong foreign demand and renewed interest from New Yorkers and others in the Northeast.
With Miami’s global image burnished by Art Basel Miami Beach and the debut of other cultural and entertainment venues, the city is emerging as an even greater magnet for the world’s super-rich.
In January, a penthouse at the Setai Resort & Residences on Miami Beach fetched $27 million, a new high for a Miami-Dade condominium. “Every building we do business in is at its highest price of all time,” said Mark Zilbert, president of Zilbert International Realty, which represented the buyer in the Setai deal.
Last August, a sleek, new home, built on spec at 3 Indian Creek Dr., sold for $47 million, a record high for a Miami-Dade residence. The buyer, whose identity has not been revealed, is Russian.
“People are realizing how valuable the bay waterfront is,” said Oren Alexander, co-founder of the Alexander Group at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, who co-listed the 3 Indian Creek property with The Jills team at Coldwell Banker and represented the buyer for the home. His father, Shlomy Alexander, developed the property with partner Felix Cohen.
Shlomy Alexander is working on two more extravagant spec homes — one at 30 Indian Creek Dr. and a second that is set to break ground shortly at 252 Bal Bay Dr. in Bal Harbour, his son said. Plans envision a tropical modern-style project that fuses the indoors and outdoors — a concept popular in Brazil.
The elder Alexander recently traveled to Italy to shop for exclusive stone for the projects, said the son.
“It’s really trending to the ultra-luxury. All sorts of exotic materials — exotic woods, exotic marbles, exotic stones,” said Sean Murphy, an executive vice president at Coastal Construction, a major builder of luxury hotels and condominiums that also has erected some of the most extravagant mansions in the region. “Everything is so exotic.”
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.
What had ET readers buzzing this week?
1. David Beckham Strips Down to His Skivvies
He may have a new job with the Paris Saint-Germain team but David Beckham is still finding time to strip down for his American fans. The overwhelmingly good-looking soccer dad shared photos from his new underwear line that he, of course, is modeling. Posting not one, but two shirtless shots, Beckham wrote on his Facebook page: "Here are a few campaign shots from my latest H&M range."
Click here for a closer look at the fashionisto's sexy photos!
2. Miley Cyrus: I'll Never Have Long Hair Again
Though Miley Cyrus' super-short 'do definitely has its fair share of haters, according to Miley herself, she has no intentions of growing it out -- ever.
"You will never see me with long hair again!," she tells E! News. "My fiancé [Liam Hemsworth] loves it…It's so easy and [I] don't need to wash it. It looks better grungy and not washing it."
And clearly, she doesn't miss her formerly long locks "in any way."
"I feel like I had bun every day of my life," she says, referring to her often-copied topknot. "I hated the extensions hair -- that's sewn into your head. It's creepy."
Miley first debuted the drastic cut in August, and seems to be cutting her hair even shorter progressively.
3. Stars Flock to Super Bowl XLVII
Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson kicked off the Super Bowl Sunday with stunning renditions of the national anthem and America the Beautiful (respectively).
Check out the pics here!
4. Designer: Beyonce Was 'Losing Weight Every Day'
One of the most anticipated events at this year's Super Bowl was Beyonce's performance during the halftime show and ET spoke exclusively to the superstar's costume designer about her rigorous rehearsals and how much work went into her various outfits.
"When a performer is working so vigorously, they're shrinking constantly, and so she was losing weight every day," fashion designer Rubin Singer told ET. "So we had to keep taking it in and taking it in and taking it in and doing tweaks and changes."
Singer said he was based in New Orleans all last week preparing for Beyonce's Super Bowl performance and that a team of 14 people put about 200 man hours into producing and tweaking the costumes. "When you have the dress rehearsals and you actually get to see the footage the next day, or that night, and you see all the little nuances that you need to change," he said.
In addition to Beyonce's costumes, Singer also created the outfits for former Destiny's Child band member Michelle Williams as well as the jackets for the show's 120 backup dancers.
5. Jennifer Love Hewitt Debuts Lingerie Music Video
Jennifer Love Hewitt's Lifetime series The Client List is known for pushing the envelope with racy story lines and revealing wardrobe. In advance of the show's upcoming second season, we've got a sneak peek of a sexy new music video in which Jennifer sings, struts and strips down to lingerie!
"I had a dream about it in the middle of the night," Jennifer explains about how the video came about. She said she loves the song -- I'm a Woman from the Broadway play Smokey Joe's Cafe -- and thought it would be fun to do something burlesque-oriented "to shake things up a bit."
In the show, Jennifer plays a Texas single mother who secretly also provides sexual favors for money at a day spa. She said one of the things she's most proud of about the show is that she feels it portrays the subject matter in a way that is not degrading to women. "I feel like we've been able to take an unconventional story line and make it female empowerment in some weird way."
Watch the video for scenes from the steamy music video and also to hear Jennifer talk about getting in shape for the shoot and then splurging at the end.
REUTERS
A man operates a snow plow in New York today.
A massive winter storm dumped as much as 2½ feet of snow on Long Island overnight and left thousands there without power while New York City residents, despite a foot of snow, counted themselves lucky Saturday.
Police in Suffolk County, on the eastern end of the island, used snowmobiles to reach some motorists stranded on the Long Island Expressway. Ambulances, fire trucks, police vehicles and some snowplow trucks as well as passenger vehicles got stuck overnight throughout the area, said Vanessa Baird-Streeter, spokeswoman for Suffolk County.
PHOTOS: SNOWSTORM HITS NY
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FOLLOW @NYPMETRO ON TWITTER FOR THE LATEST ON THE STORM
About 10,000 utility customers, most in eastern Suffolk, did not have electricity Saturday morning, said Wendy Ladd of the National Grid.
Ladd said those without power could be restored within a day if crews can get to them, but "access is an issue."
"We have plenty of crews available to do the restoration work, and if we can get to them, we're saying we can get them back in 24 hours," Ladd said. "But the issue is whether our big trucks can get to them if streets aren't plowed."
Suffolk County was hit harder than neighboring Nassau County, a relief for communities that were flooded during last October's Superstorm Sandy. The Weather Service said coastal flooding did not create major problems during the new storm.
REUTERS
A car buried in snow along the Long Island Expressway
Meteorologist David Stark said the community of Upton, where the weather service has a headquarters, had 30.3 inches of snow. Several other towns topped 2 feet: Setauket, Smithtown, Port Jefferson, Mount Sinai, Islip, Huntington and Commack.
In Nassau, by contrast, Wantagh reported 11 inches.
In New York City, the reading in Central Park was 11.4 inches and 12.1 at LaGuardia Airport. Stark said the city had a longer period of sleet rather than snow, which held town the totals.
But the city was spared the worst of the storm, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
He said more than 2,200 vehicles plowed streets overnight, clearing every major thoroughfare at least once and even most secondary streets. Traffic was flowing easily through most of the city's busiest streets.
"We're in great shape. We're lucky. ... We've dodged a bullet," Bloomberg told plow workers at a sanitation garage in Queens.
Bloomberg said all city streets will be cleared of snow by the end of Saturday and that all primary, most secondary and "60 percent" of tertiary streets have already been plowed.
Noting that areas to the north and east of the city got hit far worse, the mayor said he would make the city's equipment and manpower available if needed in Long Island, Connecticut and elsewhere.
"We want to make sure we provide whatever they need. When we were in trouble, the country came to our aid and we want to make sure we do the same," he said.
Later Saturday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said several hundred snow plows from around the state are heading to Suffolk County on Long Island.
He said snowplows had a hard time because about 150 cars were stranded on the Long Island Expressway.
Hundreds of motorists had abandoned their vehicles on New York's Long Island, and even snowplows were getting stuck. Emergency workers used snowmobiles to try to reach stranded motorists, some of whom spent the night stuck in their cars.
Richard Ebbrecht, a chiropractor, left his office in Brooklyn at 3 p.m. on Friday and head for his home in Middle Island, N.Y., in Suffolk County, but got stuck six or seven times on the Long Island Expressway and other roads.
"There was a bunch of us Long Islanders. We were all helping each other, shoveling, pushing," he said. He finally gave up and spent the night in his car just two miles from his destination. At 8 a.m., when it was light out, he walked home.
"I could run my car and keep the heat on and listen to the radio a little bit," he said. "It was very icy under my car. That's why my car is still there."
Plows and personnel from across the state and New York City were heading to Connecticut and Massachusetts as well as Suffolk County to clear roads, Cuomo said.
City residents didn't have too much trouble getting around.
AP
A shirtless jogger runs through Central Park today.
"It's not that bad," said carpenter Kevin Byrne, as he dug his car out of its Manhattan parking spot. "It's not as bad as everybody said it was going to be."
But he said he left his shovel at home.
"I'm using a scraper to shovel out, which is not good," he said. "But was anybody prepared? The last two winters have been so mild."
Efrain Burgos, a native New Yorker, took no chances on driving.
"I took the subway for the first time in 10 years," said Burgos, who took the No. 2 train from his home in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx.
He said that while roads were well-plowed near the Upper West Side neighborhood where he works as a doorman, in the Bronx, "the roads are packed with ice."
On Father Capodanno Boulevard in Staten Island's Midland Beach, frigid gusts blew in from the water, but those residents who have moved back in to their houses said the wind wasn't as bad as feared even at the height of the storm. "Not like during Sandy, when the roof was flying away," said Dmitriy Pilguy.
He chuckled a bit at the pre-storm hype. "It's only snow," Pilguy said as he cleared his driveway. "I'm from Russia. I don't care."
REUTERS
A child sits buried in the snow waiting for his father to take his photo in Central Park.
Bloomberg said police have been checking on families from Superstorm Sandy who still have no heat but had encountered no problems so far.
Con Edison's Mike Clendenin said there were just 317 customers without power in the city on Saturday morning, mostly in Brooklyn. He said the number could increase as people wake up and discover they have no electricity.
But he said the low total "is certainly encouraging." There were no failures reported in Westchester County he said, although some villages there, including Scarsdale and Bronxville, reported more than 20 inches of snow.
Clendenin said there were about 3,000 power failures reported during the storm, "but we've been able to keep up and get them back."
Stark said winds had not been as strong as expected in the northern suburbs, with gusts remaining below 35 mph. In Suffolk, he said, they reached 50 mph.
The New York region's three major airports have also reopened after the snowstorm but flights are limited.
Port Authority spokesman Anthony Hayes says commercial flights started taking off from Kennedy and LaGuardia airports at around 9 a.m. Saturday. He said commercial flights should take off from Newark Liberty Airport at around 11 a.m.
Hayes says many flights have been canceled and passengers should check with their airline before heading to the airport.
The Port Authority says the first inbound passenger flight at JFK International Airport landed at 9:30 a.m.
Boston's Logan Airport remains closed but said it expects to reopen Saturday afternoon. Across the region, flights are expected to be back on close to normal schedules on Sunday.
Flight-tracking website FlightAware says airlines have canceled 5,368 flights due to the storm.
New York City subways are running with scattered delays. City buses are running.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says hourly service on the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem and Hudson lines will resume after 11 a.m. The MTA says service on the New Haven line will remain suspended because of heavy snow accumulations.
Service is limited on the Long Island Rail Road.
New Jersey Transit resumed bus service north of Interstate 195 as of 7 a.m. Saturday, including service into New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal.
NJ Transit suspended all northern bus service Friday evening due to treacherous driving conditions.
The agency says rail service on the Morris & Essex, Montclair-Boonton and Midtown Direct lines will resume at noon. It was suspended at 8 p.m. Friday.
Meanwhile, Amtrak said the New York-Boston train route would remain closed Saturday as crews cleared tracks of snow and fallen trees. Trains were running south from New York, and between New York and Albany.
REUTERS
A woman takes a photo of a snow man that was erected at the fountain at Lincoln Center during New York Fashion Week on Friday.
Meanwhile, snow totals in New Jersey ranged from 5-15 inches, with the highest snowfalls spread across the northern part of the state while other areas were spared.
The National Weather Service reports River Vale in northern Bergen County got 15 inches. West Milford, Hillsdale and Scotch Plains all got more than a foot of snow. Cedar Grove residents woke up to about 10 inches of snow Saturday morning.
Newark had been projected to get up to a foot of snow or possibly more but received about 5 or 6 inches. About 5 inches fell on Jersey City and about 6 inches fell at Newark Airport.
More than 28 inches of snow had fallen on central Connecticut by early Saturday, and areas of southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire notched 2 feet or more of snow — with more falling.
At least five deaths were being blamed on the storm, three in Canada and two in upstate New York. In southern Ontario, an 80-year-old woman collapsed while shoveling her driveway and two men were killed in car crashes. In New York, a 74-year-old man died after being struck by a car in Poughkeepsie; the driver said she lost control in the snowy conditions, police said.
A 23-year-old man in Germantown, NY has died after he went off the edge of a roadway while plowing his driveway with a farm tractor in Columbia County, state police said.
Troopers say the accident happened shortly after 9 p.m. Friday, about 35 miles south of Albany. The National Weather Service says about 7.5 inches of snow has accumulated in that area overnight. The tractor rolled down a 15-foot embankment.
The man was pronounced dead at Columbia Memorial Hospital. His name hasn't been released.
More than 650,000 people across the Northeast were without power this morning, with most of the outages occurring in New England.
New York City suffered surprisingly few power outages during the snowstorm.
Con Edison spokesman Mike Clendenin says the city has just 317 customers out, 206 in Brooklyn. No outages were reported in Westchester County.
In New Jersey, the state's two largest utilities were reporting minimal outages as of Saturday morning.
By late Saturday morning, about 5,000 customers in the state were without power. About 4,900 of those are customers of Atlantic City Electric in Atlantic County, with a handful of customers in Gloucester County also awaiting restoration.
The state's two largest utilities reported minor power failures. PSE&G had just 16 customers without service, while JCP&L reported fewer than 25. Orange & Rockland Electric reported no outages in New Jersey.
It's a far cry from the 2.7 million customers left in the dark after Superstorm Sandy last October, or a similar number affected by a snowstorm in October 2011.
Forecasters said wind gusts exceeding 75 mph could cause more widespread power outages and whip the snow into fearsome drifts.
On Saturday, Connecticut Gov. Malloy ordered all roads closed until further notice, saying that stalled or abandoned vehicles will only slow the recovery process. The storm dumped more than 2 feet of snow over much of the state.
State police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance says drivers and even some troopers have been getting stuck on the snow-covered highways. He said a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle and killed Friday night in Prospect.
Vance said troopers are still out responding to calls but it's imperative that people stay off the roads.
In New York City, there will be delayed openings at public libraries in all five boroughs. Most will be open from noon until 5 p.m.
With Post Staff
To help combat fraud by tax preparers, the Internal Revenue Service created the “Registered Tax Return Preparer” program. Then just before the tax season got under way, the agency was told by a federal judge that it doesn’t have the authority to regulate the hundreds of thousands of tax preparers covered under the program.
Although some tax-return preparers are licensed by their states or enrolled to practice before the IRS, many don’t have to pass a government or professionally mandated competency test to prepare a federal return. When the IRS issued its last “dirty dozen” tax scams, return preparer fraud was third on the list.
“Tax return preparers sometimes alter return information without their clients’ knowledge or consent in an attempt to obtain improperly inflated refunds or to divert refunds for their personal benefit,” wrote Nina E. Olson, the national taxpayer advocate, in her most recent report to Congress. “Often, the refunds are directed to an account in the preparer’s control.”
In other instances, preparers lure clients by promising large refunds even before reviewing their tax information.
The IRS program would have required any individual who is compensated for preparing or assisting in the preparation of a return to obtain a preparer tax identification number, pass a qualifying exam and complete annual continuing-education requirements.
Three independent tax preparers joined the Institute for Justice in challenging the IRS’ authority to create the program. Recently, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled against the agency.
Said Dan Alban, the lead attorney on the case: “The licensing requirements harmed the ability of mom and pop operations to compete with big tax preparation firms. Two of the three plaintiffs would have been put out of business because of the cost of complying with the regulations.”
The ruling now means tax return preparers who would have been covered by the program are not required to complete competency testing or secure continuing education, the IRS said. However, all paid preparers are still required to have a preparer tax identification number.
There are tax professionals — attorneys, certified public accountants and enrolled agents — who were exempt from the program but are licensed by state or federal authorities and are subject to censure, suspension or disbarment from practice before the IRS in the event of wrongdoing. The ruling does not affect the regulatory requirements for these professionals.
Still hoping to continue with the regulatory program, the IRS asked the court to delay the ruling pending its appeal. The motion was denied.
“The IRS continues to have confidence in the scope of its authority to administer this program and is working with the Department of Justice to address all options, including a planned appeal,” the agency said in a statement.
In response to the lawsuit, the IRS said it has established 250 testing centers, that the program has cost more than $50 million to roll out, and nearly 100,000 preparers have registered to take the competency test.
When the IRS first announced the program, I was in favor of licensing preparers. Though many tax professionals do their jobs well, there are enough unscrupulous preparers to warrant some changes. Olson, the national taxpayer advocate, has recommended that Congress enact a federal registration, examination, certification and enforcement program for unenrolled tax-return preparers. “Creating a class of certified return preparers is a very positive step toward combating fraud,” she said in her report.
But perhaps Judge Boasberg has it right. He said his ruling doesn’t require the IRS to dismantle the registration scheme.
The IRS “may choose to retain the testing centers and some staff, as it is possible that some preparers may wish to take the exam or continuing education even if not required to,” Boasberg said in his decision. “Such voluntarily obtained credentials might distinguish them from other preparers.”
And some preparers might still take the exam in case his ruling is reversed on appeal, “just as the IRS may similarly decide it is financially more prudent not to shutter the centers in hopes of an appellate victory or congressional action,” Boasberg wrote.
“We have no opposition to preparers going through the program voluntarily,” Alban said. “If you are in the market looking for a new tax preparer, there could be value in selecting one with the registered tax return preparer certification. Keeping it voluntary allows consumers to decide what’s important rather than the IRS.”
I see great service to consumers in the IRS preparer program. So until things are settled, Boasberg offers a good compromise.
Three gunmen open fired in front of a Miami Gardens home on Super Bowl Sunday, killing Brandon Bryant, a local promoter, and injuring his father and brother.
At a press conference Friday morning, police released graphic footage of the shooting.
From a red four-door sedan, gunfire can be seen coming from the passenger-side back-seat window. The car stops and the driver, dressed in dark orange or red, jumps out with a gun and disappears from the screen. The passenger slides over to the driver seat and also begins to fire. As the driver returns to the car, the passenger exits with a long barreled gun and continues to shoot before he too gets back in the car, and they drive off.
In all, police say they are looking for three gunmen.
Miami Gardens police and Bryant’s family at Friday’s press conference asked for the community to come forward with any tips about the shooting.
“We believe that someone out there has information that can help bring closure to this family and bring these violent individuals to justice,” said Police Chief Matthew Boyd
Bryant and his family were at a Super Bowl barbecue watching the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers face off in New Orleans. Witnesses told police at least 30 shots rang out near the home on the 2300 block of Northwest 204th Street
Police say one of the victims remains in the hospital, but declined to say which one. Police would not release their names or a motive for Sunday night’s shootings.
A Miami Gardens pastor who has spoken publicly about the prevalent no-snitching culture pleaded with Miami Gardens residents to break the cycle.
“Remember today is their day, tomorrow could be your day,” he said.
Bryant’s family describe the 25-year-old as a beloved member of their family who had an entrepreneurial spirit.
He ran a marketing and artist-development firm that worked with local hip-hop artists. He was the father of two young boys, ages 15 months and 4 months.
“It’s very difficult for us right now to endure this,” said Nina Packer, Bryant’s aunt and the family’s spokesperson.
“As lifelong members of this community, this has got to stop,” she said. “This is a problem”
Police ask anyone with information to contact Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers anonymously at 305-471-8477 or Miami Garden Police at 305-474-4673.
The manhunt continues in the mountains of Southern California for Christopher Jordan Dorner, the ex-LAPD officer accused of killing three people including law enforcement members, wounding two others, and posting a manifesto on Facebook threatening "unconventional and asymmetrical warfare" against police. Anderson Cooper received a parcel from the fugitive containing a coin with bullet holes in it, and he detailed his feelings about it on Anderson Live.
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"It's a very strange feeling," said Anderson. "This man, Dorner, had written a lengthy manifesto on his Facebook page naming a number of reporters, and he had mentioned me. He said I should stop interrupting guests. He had little advice for me, but he was in general complimentary, but he clearly had a message that he wanted to get out to reporters, and I am sure he sent them to other people as well."
The CNN newsman explained that he was unaware that he had even received a parcel from Dorner as he receives a large volume of mail: "It arrived February first at our offices at CNN, he sent it to me directly," he said. "As you can imagine, I get a lot of mail and a lot of it sometimes is from folks who have issues or are disturbed one way or another, so I actually don't end up seeing a lot of the stuff, and it usually just gets forwarded on to security folks, as was the case in this. So, I didn't know that I had been contacted by this person until just yesterday."
As for the contents of the parcel, Anderson singled out "a coin with three bullet holes in it, and it's a coin that formerly belonged to Will Bratton, who was the head of the LAPD, who was his chief. … I don't know if those are actual bullet holes or if he just punched something through them." He also said it contained "a couple of messages, as well as a DVD, and obviously we alerted law enforcement."
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Anderson concluded, "He's still on the loose and police are obviously still looking for him, and it's a very serious situation. If anyone does see him, he is considered armed and dangerous and they should contact their local authorities. It's a crazy, crazy time."
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