Miami Commissioner Spence-Jones sues Fernandez Rundle, Regalado

Battle-scarred Miami City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones has launched a legal offensive against Mayor Tomas Regalado and Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, accusing them of plotting to destroy her political career when Rundle twice charged the commissioner with political corruption.

In a federal lawsuit filed Monday, Spence-Jones’ lawyers accuse Fernandez Rundle, lead prosecutor Richard Scruggs and a state attorney’s investigator of fabricating evidence and misleading key witnesses — including developer Armando Codina and former County Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler — to back up their ultimately unsuccessful criminal cases.

Spence-Jones was acquitted in one case. The charges were dropped in the second prosecution.

The suit claims that Fernandez Rundle’s goal amounted to a “shocking, nefarious scheme” to remove Spence-Jones from the city commission from 2009-11 as a favor for the state attorney’s ally, Regalado, so that Spence-Jones, his nemesis, could be replaced by another politician to represent Miami’s black community in District 5.

The lawsuit asserts that Fernandez Rundle and her office “manufactured false evidence, hid and withheld exculpatory evidence, intimidated and manipulated witnesses, defamed Spence-Jones, and repeatedly attempted to manipulate the political process, in a corrupt attempt to remove, arrest, imprison, and forever ruin a dedicated Miami public servant.”

And when Spence-Jones prevailed in both cases, “Fernandez Rundle and her team covered up their own wrongdoing, recklessly and falsely accusing [the city commissioner] and her well-respected defense counsel of yet more crimes, to the entire world,” the 106-page suit asserts.

Spence-Jones’ racketeering-styled suit claims the defendants violated her civil rights. She is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Her suit was filed by Coral Gables lawyer Ray Taseff and the New York law firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady, which also represents the former North Carolina lacrosse players who are suing a now-disbarred district attorney in a notorious failed rape case.

A spokeswoman for Fernandez Rundle declined comment Monday. Regalado said Monday morning the lawsuit came as a surprise because he hadn’t been served, and all he knew was what he read on The Herald’s website.

“This is an issue between her and the state attorney,” the mayor said, adding that he was “a little offended” by Spence-Jones’ “politics.”

Spence-Jones’ counterattack fuels the legal and political drama that has dominated her life almost since her election to the city commission in 2005. She has endured at least six separate criminal investigations, ethics and campaign violations, a grand jury indictment, a fight in civil court to retain her seat and the successful defense at her bribery trial.

Spence-Jones represents Overtown, Liberty City and Little Haiti. She was arrested for the first time in November 2009, charged with grand theft stemming from her days as a city aide.

Voters in August retained Rundle, the county’s top prosecutor since she was appointed to replace Janet Reno in 1993. She was challenged in the Democratic primary by defense attorney Rod Vereen, who was actively supported by Spence-Jones. No Republican or independent candidate filed to run.

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Nokia Siemens to sell optical networks unit

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Mobile telecoms equipment joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks, which is focusing on its core business, is to sell its optical fiber unit to Marlin Equity Partners for an undisclosed sum.

Up to 1,900 employees, mainly in Germany and Portugal, will be transferred to the new company, NSN said on Monday.

The company, owned by Nokia and Siemens, has sold a number of product lines since it last year announced plans to divest non-core assets and cut 17,000 jobs, nearly a quarter of its total workforce.

Nordea Markets analyst Sami Sarkamies said he expected more divestments after the optical unit deal. This disposal was a small surprise, he said, because NSN needed some optical technology – where data is transmitted by pulses of light – for its main mobile broadband business.

The move may hint the company is preparing itself for further consolidation in the sector by cutting overlaps with other players, Sarkamies said.

The telecom equipment market is going through rough times with stiff competition. French Alcatel-Lucent is also cutting costs.

($ 1 = 0.7689 euro)

(Reporting by Harro ten Wold; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Dan Lalor)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Prince William & Kate Middleton Expecting a Baby

After much speculation and anticipation over the past year, the royal palace has confirmed that Prince William and Kate Middleton are expecting their first child.

An official statement was issued Monday announcing the news reads: "The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Harry and members of both families are delighted with the news." 

PICS: Kate Middleton, Style Icon!

The statement added that Kate was admitted to a London hospital on Monday to be treated for hyperemesis gravidarum, which is a more severe form of the nausea and vomiting that normally accompanies the early stages of pregnancy.

RELATED: Duchess Kate nostalgic touring her former elementary school

The statement adds: "Her Royal Highness is expected to stay in hospital for several days and will require a period of rest thereafter."

RELATED: Prince William Reveals He Wants Two Kids with Kate

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Co-author of allegedly fabricated 'Three Cups of Tea' commits suicide

PORTLAND, Ore — David Oliver Relin, co-author of the best-selling book "Three Cups of Tea" that drew allegations parts of it were fabricated, has committed suicide in Oregon, authorities said.

Relin, 49, died in the Portland-area town of Corbett on Nov. 14, deputy Multnomah County medical examiner Peter Bellant said late Sunday night.

He said Relin died of blunt force head injury, but declined to provide any other details.

Relin was co-author with Greg Mortenson of "Three Cups of Tea," which recounts how Mortenson started building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The cover of the book "Three Cups of Tea"

The book came under scrutiny last year when "60 Minutes" and author Jon Krakauer alleged that it contained numerous fabrications.

In April, U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon rejected a lawsuit by four people who bought the book, dismissing claims that the two authors, the publisher, and a charity conspired to make Mortenson into a false hero to sell books and raise money for the charity. Haddon called the claims overly broad, flimsy and speculative.

Mortenson had denied any wrongdoing, though he has acknowledged some of the events in "Three Cups of Tea" were compressed over different periods of time. The New York Times reported that Relin did not speak publicly about the charges.

The book describes how Mortenson lost his way after a failed mountaineering expedition and was nursed back to health in a Pakistani village. Based on the villagers' kindness and the poverty he saw, he resolved to build a school for them.

"Three Cups of Tea," which has sold about 4 million copies since being published in 2006, was conceived as a way to raise money for and tell the story of Mortenson's Central Asia Institute, which he co-founded in 1996 to build schools in Central Asia.

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The business behind the artist: Miami’s art gallery scene still evolving

This week, thousands of art collectors, museum trustees, artists, journalists and hipsters from around the globe will arrive for the phenomenon known as Art Basel Miami Beach. The centerpiece of the week: works shown at the convention center by more than 260 of the world’s top galleries.

Only two of those are from Miami.

While Art Basel has helped transform the city’s reputation from beach-and-party scene to arts destination in the years since its 2002 Miami Beach debut, the region’s gallery identity is still coming into its own.

“Certainly Miami as an art town registers mightily because of the foundations, the collectors who have done an extraordinary job,” said Linda Blumberg, executive director of the Art Dealers Association of America. “I think there’s a definite international awareness there. But the gallery scene probably has a bit of a ways to go. That doesn’t mean it’s not really fascinating and interesting.”

The gallery business, especially where newer artists are concerned, is a game of risk, faith and passion. Once a gallery takes on an artist who shows promise, they become an evangelist on their behalf, showing their work in-house and at fairs, presenting it to museums and curators and potential collectors and bearing the cost of that promotion.

For contemporary artists, most galleries take work on consignment, meaning they get a cut of as much as 50 percent when works sell. While local art galleries have been growing in number and popularity in the last several years — just try to find parking during the monthly art walk in Miami’s hot Wynwood neighborhood — even some of the area’s top art dealers say that while business overall is good, they struggle in the local marketplace.

“Our problem is that we have to do lots of art fairs in order to connect with the market that we need to connect with to sell the work that we have,” said Fredric Snitzer, a Miami-Dade gallery owner for 35 years. “The better the work is, the harder it is to sell in Miami. And that ain’t good.”

A handful of serious collectors call Miami home and store their own collections in Miami, including the Braman, Rubell, Margulies and de la Cruz families. But outside a relatively small local group, many gallerists say, their clients come from other parts of the country and world.

And some gallerists point out the troubling reality that even the powerhouse Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin could not stay open in Miami for more than a few years.

“The fact that big galleries have not been able to sustain their business models in South Florida tells you we’re obviously not at this high established point,” said gallery owner David Castillo. “It’s not like we’ve arrived, let’s sit back and watch Hauser & Wirth open down the street.”

Still, Miami’s gallery business has come a long way since the early 1970s, when a few dealers on Bay Harbor Island’s Kane Concourse were selling high-end pieces but the local scene was hardly embraced.

Virginia Miller, who owns ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in Coral Gables, first opened in 1974 to showcase Florida artists, though her focus soon added an international scope. She and other longtime observers credit several factors for Miami’s transformation, including the community’s diversity, the establishment of important museums, the Art Miami fair that started 23 years ago, the presence of major collections and, of course, Art Basel Miami Beach.

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Two dead after bus crash at Miami International Airport

What began as a day of prayer and fellowship turned into a surreal scene of stunned, bloodied passengers and twisted metal.

There was the sickening sound of crunching metal early Saturday as a busload of Jehovah’s Witnesses was low-bridged by a concrete overpass at Miami International Airport, peeling back the top of the vehicle “like a can of sardines.”

Airport workers running to the scene found shocked passengers thrown into the aisle or trapped in their seats by the wreckage.

Riders in the front rows were crushed — two of them killed, others seriously injured.

The driver of the bus, 47-year-old Ramon Ferreiro, took a wrong turn off LeJeune Road, entering the airport by mistake, then rolled past multiple yellow signs warning tall vehicles. He drove on, approaching an overpass whose sign said “8ft-6in”. The driver either didn’t see it, couldn’t read it, or realized it too late.

The bus stood 11 feet tall.

“The last thing he should have done is to keep going,” said Greg Chin, airport spokesman. “That goes against all logic.”

Ferreiro, whose driver’s seat was lower than those of the passengers, was not injured.

One passenger, 86-year-old Miami resident Serfin Castillo, was killed on impact, and all 31 others were taken by ambulance to local hospitals. Thirteen ended up at Jackson Memorial’s Ryder Trauma Center, where one of them, 56-year-old Francisco Urana of Miami, died shortly after arriving.

Three remained in critical condition Saturday night, and three had been released.

Luis Jimenez, 72, got a few stitches on his lip and hurt his hand. He said the group left the Sweetwater Kingdom Hall about 7 a.m., bound for West Palm Beach.

“I was sitting in the back when it happened,” Jimenez said. “We were on our way to an assembly and lost a brother today. I’m very sad.”

Delvis Lazo, 15, a neighbor and member of the same congregation, described Castillo as a “nice, old man.” He often saw Castillo at religious gatherings, and their families have known each other for more than 15 years.

The last time Lazo saw him was about two months ago, as he prepped for a talk before his congregation.

“He gave me a thumbs up, told me that everything was going to be all right,” he said.

The bus, one of three traveling to the Spanish-language general assembly on Saturday, had been contracted by the congregation, which has fewer than 150 members.

According to public records, the bus belongs to Miami Bus Service Corporation, a Miami company owned by Mayling and Alberto Hernandez that offers regularly scheduled service between South Florida and Gainesville, often used by University of Florida students. At the home address listed for the company and the owners, Mayling Hernandez told The Miami Herald that passenger safety is her primary concern.

“At this time I’m worried about the driver and the families of the victims. I’m praying for them,” she said. “My job is to worry about the safety of the passengers who are our clients. What we do requires a lot of responsibility. I didn’t know the passengers but that doesn’t mean I’m not suffering.”

Neighbor Armando Bacigalupi described the owners as “caring people” and said he had seen buses park briefly in front of the house.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the company has two drivers for its three passenger motor coaches.

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Bachelorette Ashley Hebert and JP Rosenbaum are Married

Ashley Hebert is a bachelorette no more!

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

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

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

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

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

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Israel rejects UN's endorsement of an independent state of Palestine

JERUSALEM — Israel on Sunday roundly rejected the United Nations' endorsement of an independent state of Palestine, announcing it would withhold more than $100 million collected for the Palestinian government to pay debts to Israeli companies.

It was the second act of reprisal since the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to support the Palestinians' statehood initiative. The following day, Israel announced it would start drawing up plans to build thousands of settlement homes, including the first-ever residential developments on a sensitive piece of land near Jerusalem. Actual construction would be years away.

Getty Images

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared the statehood campaign, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, as "a gross violation of the agreements signed with the state of Israel."

"Accordingly, the government of Israel rejects the UN General Assembly decision," he said. Israel, backed by the US, campaigned against the statehood measure, arguing that only negotiations can deliver a Palestinian state.

Abbas returned home Sunday to a hero's welcome in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Some 5,000 people thronged a square outside his headquarters, hoisting Palestinian flags and cheering. Large posters of the Palestinian leader, whose popularity had plummeted in recent months, adorned nearby buildings.

"We now have a state," he said to wild applause. "The world has said loudly, 'Yes to the state of Palestine.'"

Abbas warned of "creative punishments" by Israel. Referring to the latest settlement construction plans, he said, "We have to realize that your victory has provoked the powers of war, occupation and settlements because their isolation is deepened."

The UN resolution endorsed the Palestinian position that its state include the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.

Israel rejects a full pullback to its 1967 lines and says the resolution is a way to bypass negotiations.

In Sunday's response, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said the government would withhold taxes and customs collected from Palestinian laborers and businesses on behalf of Abbas' Palestinian Authority, which led the statehood campaign.

The money will be used to help pay off the authority's debts to Israel, including $200 million owed to the state-run Israel Electric Corp., government officials said. This month, more than $100 million was to have been transferred. Steinitz said Israel would decide later whether to withhold future transfers as well.

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Boat Show may block Miami’s 2016 Super Bowl bid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Two dead, 30 injured at bus accident at MIA

One male passenger was instantly killed and a second person died from injures after the top of a motor coach bus entering Miami International Airport smashed into an overpass at the airport’s arrivals entrance Saturday morning.

Thirty others were transported by ambulance to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Four of those were in critical condition, including the second passenger who died.

The male driver of the bus, who has not been identified, was not injured and did not require medical treatment, said Lt. Arnold Piedrahita a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokesman.

The accident, which happened at about 8 a.m., brought traffic in and out of the airport to a halt and authorities scrambled to rescue passengers trapped inside the large white bus, which was carrying 32 people.

The identities of the two dead passengers were not immediately released but authorities removed the body of a male passenger at about 11 a.m. A white Miami-Dade County van arrived at the scene about 10 minutes later to pick up the body.

Three people placed the body in a clear plastic bag, as six police officers used yellow plastic to block the view from arriving travelers. Two men carried the body off the bus at 11:20 a.m.

Piedrahita said the male passenger who died was sitting near the front of the bus. He was dead when emergency personnel arrived. The gender of the second dead passenger was not immediately released.

The front of the bus was so badly damaged that emergency personnel could not get inside through the front door. Instead, they used a Jaws of Life to cut a hole on the side of the bus, toward the rear, to remove the victims, Piedrahita said.

Many of those who were hurt suffered "major injuries," said Greg Chin, an airport spokesman.

According to public records, the bus belongs to Miami Bus Service Corporation, a Miami company owned by Mayling and Alberto Hernandez.

Mayling Hernandez, reached on her cell phone shortly after noon Saturday, to comment.

"I'm too busy dealing with this to talk at the moment," she said at 12:25 p.m. "I don't have time to talk about this at the time."

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the company has two drivers for its three passenger motor coaches.

The company had no unsafe driving or controlled substances violations based on a 24-month record ending on Oct. 26, 2012.

However, the company scored a 92.2 percent in the fatigued driving category, which means it exceeded the federal safety threshold based on roadside data or it has been cited with one or more serious violations in the past year.

At MIA, about a dozen fire trucks and six ambulances blocked the airport entrance, and traffic entering the airport was delayed by about 30 to 40 minutes. Although no flights were affected or delayed, traffic was tied up. Only one lane on the lower level arrivals entrance remained open through mid-day.

The departures entrance, on the upper level, was not blocked, but there was a long delay for many getting to or leaving the airport.

Pedro Gomez, a taxi driver, was among those stuck in traffic.

"We have been waiting three hours waiting to leave," he said.

People arriving from their flights were peeking from their windows to get a view of the scene. On the first floor, in arrivals, the crashed white bus remained on site with the top missing over the driver’s seat. Shattered glass covered the floor.

The back side emergency door was missing and a bus chair lay on the ground, as well as luggage, which had been packed into the lower level of the bus.

A large yellow sign warns drivers that the vehicles exceeding 8'6" cannot pass through, said Piedrahita, the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokesman, adding that he did not know the height of the bus.

"You would think the driver should have know his bus was too high," Susan Lillis said, who flying in from Baltimore. "You would think he would have been here before."

Peter Beltre, a taxi driver, speculated that the bus driver miscalculated the height of the overpass in the arrivals area.

"I have seen buses that are too high have a section to drop people off," Beltre said. "There are yellow signs with warnings."

Hernan Garcia, who works at the airport, guiding cruise ship tourists to buses taking them to the Port of Miami, said: "It’s clear that the driver was not familiar with the airport. There are designated routes for these type of buses and it is prohibited to speed in this area."

Only taxi drivers were allowed in the arrivals lanes as of mid-morning. Traffic homicide detectives were still at the scene, measuring the area and collecting evidence.

Among some of the arriving tourists who spotted the crash scene was three-year-old Edwin Aparicio of Bogota, Colombia.

"Wow, like a can of sardines," he said in Spanish, referring to the top of the bus, which bended like an accordion as it hit the iron ceiling.

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