UM student documents the emotional growth of young dancers as they prepare for Nutcracker performance




















University of Miami visual journalism student Monica Herndon spent several months photographing the advanced ballet students of the Thomas Armour Youth Ballet/Miami Conservatory in preparation for their annual Nutcracker held in conjunction with the New World School of the Arts.

The young dancers spent hours in class and rehearsal each week. They do not even reach the advanced level until they put in their approximately “10 thousand hours” of practice, according to director Ruth Wiesen.

At that point, the dancers begin to work on their artistry, while still perfecting their ballet technique.





“Moving Past Technique” explores the emotional growth of young dancers as they strive for perfection in their training. The voices in the piece are Karina Fernandez, 15, and Daniella Bernal, 15.





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Best of 2012 Lists Movies TV Fashion Scandal

ETonline has spent the last week showing love to the Best of 2012 -- from film to television to fashion and celeb scandals, we reviewed and ranked the last 365 days, bringing you only the best!

In case you missed any of our Year End Roundups, they're all available below!

12 Most Exciting Stars of 2012

12 Best TV Shows of 2012

12 Biggest Celebrity Scandals of 2012

12 Most Gorgeous Gowns of 2012

12 Best Movies of 2012

12 Favorite Celebrity Couples of 2012

12 Most Memorable News Stories of 2012

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Bronx mom in Newtown 'scam' also solicited funds claiming they were for Hurricane Sandy relief








Alleged scammer Nouel Alba leaves Hartford Ct. Federal court after making $50K bail.

MyFOXCT

Alleged scammer Nouel Alba leaves Hartford Ct. Federal court after making $50K bail.


The Bronx mom accused of posing as the aunt of Newtown massacre victim Noah Pozner to collect bogus charity donations also solicited funds she claimed were for Hurricane Sandy relief, The Post found.

Nouel Alba -- out on $50,000 bond in the alleged Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting scam – set up at least two organizations in the wake of the devastating October superstorm and asked folks to send money for victims to her personal PayPal account or home address.




Sources said yesterday that New York law enforcement is “aware” of Alba’s post-storm solicitations.

Just days after Hurricane Sandy, Facebook pages, Web sites and blogs sprung up on the Internet, listing Alba’s personal gmail account and Clason Point home on Beach Avenue as contacts.

One group – the NYC Hurricane Relief Fund – claimed to be “a registered charity” whose “founder [has] been funded by the Alba family,” and whose home served as “a drop off location and distribution center.” The charity vowed to find clothing, kitchen appliances, mattresses, furniture and shelter for devastated Sandy families, and claimed “we assign someone to manage each family to ensure that they receive most of the things they need to get back on their feet.”

“100 % of all proceeds goes toward these families,” boasted the site. It provided a tax-ID number that does not show up in state or IRS record databases.

Another charity, Operation Hurricane Sandy Relief for Teachers and Students, ostensibly collected money, backpacks and school supplies. Alba also personally set up an Amazon “wish list” for donated school items, her online footprint shows.

All of the Alba-connected hurricane relief sites have been disabled but cached versions remain online.

Connecticut authorities said yesterday that Alba used Facebook, the phone and texts to solicit donations for a “funeral fund” for her “nephew” Noah after the Newtown bloodbath that killed the little boy, 19 of his classmates and 6 educators.

Alba asked that funds be sent via her personal PayPal account or direct bank deposit, according to a federal complaint against her.

The twisted Alba, 36, even told prospective donors that she had to enter Sandy Hook Elementary School after the bloodbath and identify her “nephew” for police — and said the child had “11 gun shots in his little body.”

Noah’s family has said Alba is no relation.

Alba allegedly sent out her first calls for cash within hours of the shooting.

The next day, she said in an online posting that a funeral fund had been set up “for my brother and families,” according to the complaint in Hartford federal court.

Alba allegedly claimed in a text to one mark that she met President Obama with other family members and he “hugged us even cried [sic] with us.”

Several people were duped into giving donations, the complaint says, although she refunded them before her arrest. Alba was charged with lying to federal agents and released on a $50,000 bond.

She has denied setting up the Newtown donation sites and claims she was framed by Facebook enemies, the feds said.

“I thought it was a really rotten thing to do and I am glad she got caught,” said Rabbi Shaul Praver of Congregation Adath Israel of Newton, a friend of the Pozner family.

Additional reporting by Doug Auer










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Florida Blue teams up with Holy Cross Hospital




















In its latest move to reshape how healthcare is delivered, Florida Blue, the state’s largest health insurance network, has formed an alliance with Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale to deliver integrated care intended to improve quality and lower healthcare costs.

Starting Jan. 1, the insurer will join the 230 doctors in Holy Cross’ Physician Partners to form an accountable care organization (ACO), in which the groups will share savings that are expected to come from coordinated care while maintaining specific quality standards.

Florida Blue already has similar arrangements with a group of Miami-Dade oncologists and Baptist South Florida; Moffitt Cancer Center and Baycare Health System in the Tampa Bay area; and the NCH hospital system in Naples. Jonathan Gavras, the insurer’s chief medical officer, said several more ACOs will be announced shortly.





The ACOs are part of a larger effort by Florida Blue to move away gradually from the expensive fee-for-service model, in which providers are rewarded for each additional treatment.

The plan is replace it with an integrated system that uses evidence-based standards to coordinate care to avoid unnecessary expenses such as duplicated diagnostics and reduce such things as hospital readmissions by ensuring that patients receive the necessary post-hospital services.

The ACOs require that providers and the insurer share financial and quality data — something that both sides have been highly reluctant to do in the past. The reward will be that all will share in savings generated by the system.

While many healthcare theorists believe ACOs may be a major way for the nation to reduce its healthcare costs, Gavras said they’re not a simple fix. “It’s hard work,” he said to get hospitals, doctors and insurers — traditional rivals — to work together.

Shawn Franklin, the Holy Cross executive in charge of physician services, said Holy Cross joined with Florida Blue because “we see ... a huge benefit integrating services, ultimately improving the quality of care ... and lowering cost.”

Holy Cross has been a leader in the national trend of hiring doctors. It now has about 150 on staff and another 80 community doctors that are in its provider network. Physician services continue to lose money for the hospital, Franklin said, but executives are convinced that ACOs will be a large revenue builder in the future.

Unlike the old gatekeeper model of health maintenance organizations, with the new ACOs “you can’t share in any savings without meeting quality criteria,” Franklin said.

Large hospital networks around the country have also been hiring doctors as a prelude to setting up ACOs, and other insurers, too, are starting to get involved. Earlier this month, Aetna announced a new integrated partnership with Baycare in Tampa Bay.

Linda Quick, president of the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association, said some other hospitals in the area are starting to explore the possibility of setting up their own ACOs but have yet to act.

Florida Blue has been an aggressive leader in this field of restructuring healthcare. It has set up a bundled payment system with the Mayo Clinic — paying for an episode of care, rather than for each individual service.

More widespread is its move that has put more than 700,000 patients in medical homes — generally with a primary care doctor coordinating their care, offering extended office hours and other benefits — so that basic care is easily available, reducing the need for expensive emergency room trips.

Unlike the old gatekeeper HMOs, the new medical home involves the insurer paying primary care doctors more so that they spend more time with patients. The medical home program was set up in partnership with the Florida Academy of Family Physicians, Gavras said.

“Physicians make more money but overall costs go down,” Gavras said. “You’re investing money up front to get better outcomes.” Unlike the old gatekeepers, doctors in medical homes get bonuses for quality care. “The data is much better” these days, he said. “It’s much easier to measure provider performance.”

The first year of the medical homes program showed “it really works the way everybody thought it would work,” Gavras said, with quality up and costs down. “And physician satisfaction was up.”

Medical homes and ACOs are now separate concepts, but they’re likely to dovetail in the future, Gavras said, with medical homes becoming part of larger ACOs.

Both concepts are emphasized in the federal Affordable Care Act, but Gavras said Florida Blue had been planning for both well before the act was passed in 2010.

“We knew that the healthcare cost trend was unsustainable ... Even if it was repealed tomorrow, we would still be moving toward this model,” Gavras said.





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Crime Watch: New computer for Christmas? Use it safely




















Last week I received several emails from readers who wanted me to write again about computer safety since many got a computer for Christmas. Therefore, I pulled some information from one of our crime prevention partners, The National Crime Prevention Council, and here are tips you need to take seriously whether you are a senior or a parent:

• Use anti-virus software and keep it up-to-date. The software is designed to protect your computer against known viruses but, with new viruses emerging daily, anti-virus programs need regular updates. Check with the website of your anti-virus software company to see sample descriptions of viruses and to get regular updates for your software. I do updates on my computer every other day.

• Don’t open emails or attachments from unknown sources. Be suspicious of any unexpected email attachments even if they appear to be from someone you know. Should you receive a suspicious email, the best thing to do is to delete the entire message, including any attachment.





• Protect your computer from Internet intruders by using firewalls. These create a protective wall between your computer and the outside world. They come in two forms, software firewalls that run on your personal computer and hardware firewalls that protect a number of computers at the same time. Firewalls also ensure that unauthorized persons can’t gain access to your computer while you’re connected to the Internet.

• Use hard-to-guess passwords. Mix upper case, lower case, numbers or other characters, and make sure your passwords are at least eight characters long. Don’t share your password and don’t use the same password in more than one place. Don’t use your maiden name or the names of your mother, your children or your spouse’s family. Those are easy to figure out.

• Disconnect your computer from the Internet when not in use. This lessens the chance that someone will be able to access your computer. Also, if you haven’t kept your anti-virus software up to date or don’t have a firewall in place, someone could infect your computer or use it to harm someone else on the Internet.

• Check your security on a regular basis. You should evaluate your computer security at least twice a year.

• Back up your computer data on a thumb drive, just in case we have a hurricane, you can take it with you. There is nothing worse than losing pictures, information and work when a computer crashes.

Last, I want to remind all parents, if you gave a computer to your child, no matter what age, please make sure that the computer is somewhere you can see it.

In closing, I want to wish everyone a blessed 2013, I wish you the best of health and happiness!

With that said, I must remind everyone that there are crazy people out there that like to shoot guns into the air, a deadly habit, therefore the first shot fired you hear please call the police immediately. You might think it’s fire crackers, but it may not be so please stay away from windows or outside at midnight. Remember what goes up must come down, and that is when people get hurt.

Have a great week!





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iOS apps see Christmas sales spike shrink in 2012






Distimo just released its statistics on Christmas Day app downloads and revenue growth… and the download spike is far smaller than it was last year. Back in 2011, Christmas Day iOS app download volume spiked 230% above the December average. This year, the increase was just 87% — far below industry expectations. The revenue spike came in at 70%.


[More from BGR: Google names 12 best Android apps of 2012]






Interestingly, iPad downloads increased by 140% this Christmas, implying that the iPhone download bounce was really modest.


[More from BGR: New purported BlackBerry Z10 specs emerge: 1.5GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 8MP camera]


A few weeks ago, AppAnnie released statistics showing that iOS app revenue growth had stalled over the summer of 2012, whereas Android app revenue growth was relatively strong at 48% over a five month period. Both Distimo and Appannie are respected companies and their analytics are closely followed by app industry professionals. Could it be that the pace of iPhone app revenue growth has slowed down sharply from 2011 levels, even if Distimo and AppAnnie numbers aren’t entirely accurate?


This article was originally published by BGR


Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Brandy is Engaged

Looks like Brandy hasn't given up on love just yet.

The singer, 33, is engaged to music executive Ryan Press, her rep confirmed to ET.

"They are thrilled and happy and Brandy feels this is so right," an insider tells Us Weekly.

In October, Brandy told ET that prior to Press, she "had given up on love." She tells her personal story of past relationships and how she's gotten to the happy place where she is now in her single Wildest Dreams.

VIDEO: Brandy Gave Up on Love Before Two Eleven

Brandy's latest album, Two Eleven, is available now.

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Galleon Group insider trader Raj Rajaratnam to pay $1.45m in civil suit settlement








A hedge fund founder currently serving the longest prison term ever given for insider trading will also be writing the government a big check.

Raj Rajaratnam, 55, convicted last year of trading on inside information from 2003 through 2009, will pay nearly $1.45 million to settle a civil case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to court documents.

A federal judge approved the deal Thursday.

The settlement includes $1.29 million representing profits gained and losses avoided as a result of trading on tips from former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. director Rajat Gupta, who was convicted separately in June. It also includes $147,738 in prejudgment interest.





AP



Raj Rajaratnam





Sri Lanka-born Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group of hedge funds, is serving 11 years at a Massachusetts federal prison, and has appealed.










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Gov. Scott reaches out to Obama to help avoid crippling strike at ports




















Florida Gov. Rick Scott appealed to President Barack Obama Thursday to use his authority to halt a potentially devastating longshoreman’s work stoppage that could cripple ports along the eastern seaboard and Gulf Coast.

On a conference call from Tallahassee with most of the state’s port directors, Scott asked the president to invoke the seldom-used Taft-Hartley Act to stop thousands of longshoremen — many who operate the giant gantry cranes that tower over the ports — from walking out on their jobs after midnight Saturday.

The governor said a walkout would indirectly affect 550,000 jobs statewide and would cut into more than $66 billion in economic activity at Florida’s ports.





“Our message to President Obama is simple — a shutdown of Florida ports is simply not an option,” said Scott.

The International Longshoreman’s Association has said it will halt activity this weekend if the U.S. Maritime Alliance does not back off its demand that royalties, or bonuses paid to its 14,650 workers for every container they load, are cut or done away with. Those royalties in many instances come to about half of a longshoreman’s salary, which is typically around $50,000 a year.

Taft-Hartley, which was last invoked by President George W. Bush in 2002 during a crippling West Coast strike, mandates an 80-day cooling off period, and mediation. The two sides had been negotiating a new contract since March, until talks broke off Dec. 18. At the pushing of a federal mediator, the sides agreed to resume talks this week, though little has leaked out about how the talks are going, or even if the sides have come face-to-face.

Strikes are expected at 15 ports across the nation, from New York and New Jersey, down the eastern coast through Florida, and on up into the Gulf Coast from Tampa to Houston. The cruise industry is not expected to be affected.

Thursday, with leaders from six Florida ports in tow, Scott said he had not heard back from the president since an initial request last week that the president use all his power to stop the looming strike. A port strike has become a critical issue for Scott, who campaigned on bringing down skyrocketing unemployment, and who said Thursday that statewide employment levels have reached a four-year low.

The governor said the state has invested $421 million since his inauguration into ports that primarily do trade with South and Central America.

“It’s such a vital part of the job market,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that Obama Spokesman Matt Lehrich said the White House was monitoring the situation and is urging the parties to “continue their work at the negotiating table to get a deal done as quickly as possible.”

Bill Johnson, who directs PortMiami, said a work stoppage could be devastating to the entire U.S. economy. His port, he noted, is the second largest generator of wealth and jobs in South Florida. He said 90 percent of the nation’s consumer goods come through the nation’s ports. PortMiami alone does about $18 billion a year in container business.

“You would start to see within a number of days products disappearing from shelves,” said Johnson.

Port Everglades CEO Steven Cernak noted that petroleum, which has a large distribution operation at his port, would not be affected. He said he remains “cautiously optimistic.”

A strike would be more harmful to PortMiami than to Port Everglades. PortMiami does almost $20 billion a year in container activity, which makes up about 40 percent of the ports business. Hundreds of longshoremen work in PortMiami for giant container transport companies like Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company. Only two container transport companies in Broward use longshoremen.

A strike, however, wouldn’t completely paralyze the nation.

A memo last week from the ILA said the only items likely to be affected by a strike are some frozen goods and non-perishables like clothing. Union members are still expected to ship items such as fresh fish and flowers, military cargo, and mail.

One of the louder voices in the struggle has been the National Retail Federation. Jonathan Gold, vice president of Supply Chain and Customs Police for the federation told CNBC earlier this week that the 2002 West Coast strike cost the U.S. $1 billion a day in economic activity, and that it took more than six months to recover.

Paul Anderson, who recently left his post at chief executive at JaxPort to become chief executive of Tampa’s Port Authority, noted that 34,000 containers pass through Florida’s ports each week, distributed to or from more than 60 ships. He feared a strike could lead to a national tipping point.

“A strike this Saturday,” said Anderson, “combined with the fiscal cliff negotiations, could be a one-two punch to our nation’s economy.”





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Kendall’s Dadeland Mall to get new Microsoft Store




















Microsoft announced Wednesday it’s opening six new permanent stores in early 2013 - and one will be at Dadeland Mall in Kendall.

“We’re thrilled to ring in the New Year by announcing the locations of our first new store locations for 2013,” said Jonathan Adashek, Microsoft’s general manager for sales and marketing, in a news release.

An official opening day for the store has not been released.





For the holidays, Microsoft had a temporary store at Dadeland Mall near Abercrombie & Fitch.

Other permanent Microsoft Stores set to open soon are in San Antonio; Beachwood, Ohio; San Francisco; Salt Lake City and St. Louis, the release said.





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iPad is a Christmas graveyard for ‘Grand Theft Auto’ and ‘Modern Combat’






At the beginning of December, the traditional video game industry attempted another iPad invasion. New versions of “Grand Theft Auto,” “Modern Combat” and “Baldur’s Gate” hit the iOS app market priced between $ 5 and $ 10. Over the past years, we have seen repeated attempts by major console and PC industry franchises to tailor their blockbuster games for iPhone and iPad platforms. None have succeeded. As the iOS app market increasingly favors free games with in-app purchases, the old-timers have started failing spectacularly.


[More from BGR: Microsoft Surface trampled at the bottom of the tablet pile this Christmas]






December is the most important month of the year for the iOS app market and the days around Christmas are the hottest period. As consumers upgrade their iPhones or receive their very first iOS devices, they tend to go on mobile app buying binges. That is why mega franchises like GTA and “Modern Combat” launched their latest iOS products at the beginning of the month. The games were supposed to stay alive for at least three weeks. They did not.


[More from BGR: Mark Cuban: Nokia Lumia 920 ‘crushes’ the iPhone 5]


The lavishly marketed “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” peaked on iPhone app chart at No.2 on December 8th and plunged to No.36 by December 22nd. It rebounded to No.25 on December 25th. On the iPad, the game plummeted to a shocking No.52 by the all-important Christmas Day, when new iPad owners go berserk on iTunes.


Here is the kicker: on the revenue chart for U.S. iPad apps, the new GTA game had tanked to No.75 by December 25th. This is even worse than the No.52 position on the download chart. I find that genuinely fascinating, because it means that a game with a very stiff download price of $ 5 is showing weaker revenue performance than on raw download volume.


The GTA title is priced at $ 5 at a time when 80% of the top-grossing iPad games are free downloads. The top free apps have compelling in-game purchase strategies — “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” does not. As a result, it is getting beaten by titles such as “Fairway Solitaire” and “My Little Pony” in revenue generation. Having massive name recognition and hundreds of millions of units in console game sales helps very little in the brutally competitive iOS game market.


“Modern Combat 4″ has also plunged out of top-50 on the iPad revenue chart just three weeks after its high-profile debut. The $ 10 update of “Baldur’s Gate” is out of top-200, brought low by its ridiculously high sticker price.


The proud console and PC game champions keep repeating the same gambit in the iOS market: price ‘em high and ignore the in-app purchase angle. They keep failing. When are we going to see a major console game franchise finally adapt to the Apple (AAPL) ecosystem and create an iOS game that is free to download but lures users into an in-app purchase trap effectively?


This article was originally published by BGR


Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Russian parliament endorses anti-US adoption bill








MOSCOW — Defying a storm of domestic and international criticism, Russia moved toward finalizing a ban on Americans adopting Russian children, as Parliament's upper house voted unanimously Wednesday in favor of a measure that President Vladimir Putin has indicated he will sign into law.

The bill is widely seen as the Kremlin's retaliation against an American law that calls for sanctions against Russians deemed to be human rights violators. It comes as Putin takes an increasingly confrontational attitude toward the West, brushing aside concerns about a crackdown on dissent and democratic freedoms.




Dozens of Russian children close to being adopted by American families now will almost certainly be blocked from leaving the country. The law also cuts off the main international adoption route for Russian children stuck in often dismal orphanages: Tens of thousands of Russian youngsters have been adopted in the U.S. in the past 20 years. There are about 740,000 children without parental care in Russia, according to UNICEF.

All 143 members of the Federation Council present voted to support the bill, which has sparked criticism from both the U.S. and Russian officials, activists and artists, who say it victimizes children by depriving them of the chance to escape the squalor of orphanage life. The vote comes days after Parliament's lower house overwhelmingly approved the ban.

The U.S. State Department said Wednesday it regretted the Russian parliament's decision.

"Since 1992, American families have welcomed more than 60,000 Russian children into their homes, providing them with an opportunity to grow up in a family environment," spokesman Patrick Ventrell said in a statement from Washington. "The bill passed by Russia's parliament would prevent many children from enjoying this opportunity ...

"It is misguided to link the fate of children to unrelated political considerations," he said.

Seven people with posters protesting the bill were detained outside the Council before Wednesday's vote. "Children get frozen in the Cold War," one poster read. Some 60 people rallied in St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city.

The bill is part of larger legislation by Putin-allied lawmakers retaliating against a recently signed U.S. law that calls for sanctions against Russians deemed to be human rights violators. Although Putin has not explicitly committed to signing the bill, he strongly defended it in a press conference last week as "a sufficient response" to the new U.S. law.

Originally Russia's lawmakers cobbled together a more or less a tit-for-tat response to the U.S. law, providing for travel sanctions and the seizure of financial assets in Russia of Americans determined to have violated the rights of Russians.










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90-year-old real estate baron, philanthropist Jay Kislak is forever young




















Real estate baron Jay I. Kislak discovered a Fountain of Youth of sorts that springs from an inquisitive and acquisitive mind.

At 90, Kislak is wheeling and dealing in real estate, and he’s exploring history and art with the fervor of a man generations younger.

The patriarch of The Kislak Organization marked 74 years in real estate this year, 59 spent in Miami.





While he has long since appointed a protégé, Thomas Bartelmo, as president and CEO of the diverse family-owned real-estate businesses, Kislak remains chairman. And he is a regular at the headquarters in Miami Lakes.

That is, when he’s not off to Maine for the summer.

Or busy chairing a blue-ribbon commission named by the U.S. Interior Secretary to orchestrate the 450th anniversary in 2015 of the founding of St. Augustine.

Or jetting off to evaluate a possible acquisition. (Kislak recently looked at the potential for real estate development in North Dakota, booming with shale oil, but decided to pass.)

Kislak’s empire has gone through dramatic changes over the years. He built — and eventually sold — commercial banking, mortgage servicing and insurance firms.

Today, with annual revenue in excess of $28 million, his organization focuses on the commercial brokerage business started by his father, Julius Kislak, in Hoboken, N.J., more than a century ago; on owning a portfolio of apartments and other property (Kislak is on the prowl for more), and on managing funds of property-tax certificates, a niche created by the economic downturn.

Looking out his office window at a bustling interchange recently, Kislak mused: “I remember when they built the Palmetto Expressway and you could drive down it and never see another car.”

“The same thing with I-95: There was hardly any traffic,” said Kislak, a slender man with a signature mustache and a thick Hoboken accent that never faded.

Kislak moved to Miami in 1953 to grow the mortgage business, but his world view hardly dates to 1950s Florida. Already a book lover, he began pulling on a thread of Florida history, soon broadening his interest to the early Americas.

Over the decades, Kislak, bankrolled by a stream of brokerage commissions, mortgage fees and apartment rent, grew into a prominent collector of rare books and maps, manuscripts, artifacts and art to feed his fascination with the pre-Columbian era and the European exploration of America.

His wife Jean Kislak shares his passion for collecting. They met at a party for Andy Warhol; it would be her second marriage, his third. Their quest for art, history and collecting has taken them to all continents, even Antarctica.

“We don’t quit [collecting]. But we are going to quit,” said Jean, a former corporate art director. “Acquisition has always been a part of my life. I don’t know if it’s a sickness.”

In 2004, Kislak gave away much of the treasure. His foundation donated more than 3,000 rare maps, manuscripts, paintings and artifacts to the Library of Congress. The gift, estimated to be worth in excess of $150 million, is housed in the ornate Thomas Jefferson building in an exhibit that bears his name. Kislak also funds fellowships for studies of the collection, part of his diverse efforts over the years to support education. Among other things, his family foundation endowed the Kislak Real Estate Institute at Monmouth University, in West Long Branch, N.J., and has provided key support to a real estate program at Florida State University.





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Causeway victim Ronald Poppo finds peace but not healing




















When Ronald Poppo was a kid in the 1950s and ’60s, a family Christmas in Brooklyn meant wind-up model trains circling the tree, Italian dinners of lasagna and stuffed squid, and, because Dec. 25 was also his father’s birthday, ricotta-filled cassata cake.

There was always music, because the Poppos have musical talent. Ronnie, as his older sister and two older brothers called him, played the violin as a child and guitar as a teenager.

And there was church, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, as their mother was a devout Baptist.





An aunt brought Christmas presents, recalled Ronald’s sister, Antoinette Poppo, who still lives in New York.

“We were poor, but we didn’t know we were poor,’’ she said.

It’s hard to say when Ronald Poppo last enjoyed childhood Christmas memories, had a merry — or even comfortable — Christmas. After vanishing from the family in the early 1970s, he encamped on the gritty streets of Miami, an inebriated vagrant drifting ever further from the mainstream.

His last known home was the concrete stairwell of a tourist-attraction parking garage.

He surfaced again May 26 as the hapless victim in one of South Florida’s most sensational, blood-drenched crimes. That day, a naked, crazed, 31-year-old Rudy Eugene attacked 65-year-old Poppo on the MacArthur Causeway, stripping away his clothes then gnawing on Poppo’s face, leaving him mutilated and blind.

Police shot and killed Eugene about 18 minutes into the assault.

Through news of the event, Poppo’s stunned siblings learned he’d been alive all along, and people from his past began to emerge with snippets of information about his life before he disappeared onto the streets.

Following intensive medical treatment at Jackson Memorial Hospital, Poppo moved to Jackson Memorial Perdue Medical Center, an 11-acre, 163-bed nursing home/rehab facility in South Miami-Dade, its halls now cheerily decked with holiday decorations.

He has refused all interview requests since the incident, and apart from allowing doctors to hold a news conference in June, he hasn’t authorized his treating physicians to talk about his medical condition.

Jackson officials closely guard his privacy.

Photos displayed at the June news conference showed Poppo’s face as a mass of clots and raw tissue, his eye sockets hidden under flaps of skin, his nose gone, his cheeks and forehead partially so. Doctors had to remove one mangled eyeball but at the time hoped to save the other, and at least some sight.

They weren’t able to.

His sister says that when they talk, brother Ronnie doesn’t mention the attack, the past, or how he spends his time. But he did recently say that he likes his accommodations and the people who care for him.

“He says they take him outside and walk him around the place,’’ Antoinette Poppo said. “He’s glad to be there. ... He doesn’t really talk much at all. He says, ‘Take care of yourself.’ It’s so sad he can’t see, and has to depend on other people.’’

He told her that “his face hasn’t healed yet,’’ but that he doesn’t want more surgery because “it’s going to hurt.’’

If so inclined, Poppo could have participated in all sorts of Christmas festivities at Perdue, where well-wishers from The Cocoplum and Cutler Ridge Women’s Clubs, the Soroptimist Club of Coral Gables, the Grupo de Kendall, Bethel Baptist Church, and the Teddy Bear Club brought gifts for residents including shampoo, batteries, home-made goodies — and teddy bears.





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Netflix suffers Christmas Eve outage, points to Amazon






NEW YORK (Reuters) – An outage at one of Amazon‘s web service centers hit users of Netflix Inc.’s streaming video service on Christmas Eve and was not fully resolved until Christmas day, a spokesman for the movie rental company said on Tuesday.


The outage impacted Netflix subscribers across Canada, Latin America and the United States, and affected various devices that enable users to stream movies and television shows from home, Netflix spokesman Joris Evers said. Such devices range from gaming consoles such as Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 to Blu-ray players.






Evers said that the issue was the result of an outage at an Amazon Web Services‘ cloud computing center in Virginia, and started at about 12:30 p.m. PST (2030 GMT) on Monday and was fully restored Tuesday morning, although streaming was available for most users late on Monday.


“We are investigating exactly what happened and how it could have been prevented,” Evers said.


“We are happy that people opening gifts of Netflix or Netflix capable devices can watch TV shows and movies and apologize for any inconvenience caused last night,” he added.


An outage at Amazon Web Services, or AWS, knocked out such sites as Reddit and Foursquare in April of last year.


Amazon Web Services was not immediately available for comment. Evers, the Netflix spokesman, declined to comment on the company’s contracts with Amazon.


(Reporting by Sam Forgione; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)


Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Lady Gaga Documentary Announced

The nearly 33 million Little Monsters who follow Lady Gaga on Twitter got a massive Christmas present this morning as the singer revealed she'll soon be coming to a theater near you!


VIDEO - Lady Gaga Hosts Fame Picnic in Paris

"Merry Christmas little monsters," Gaga wrote. "Terry Richardson is making a #LadyGagaMOVIE documenting my life, the creation of ARTPOP + you!"

"Thank you for being so patient waiting for my new album ARTPOP I hope this gets u excited for things to come. I love you with all my heart!" Gaga announced her fourth album on August 6, 2012 and featured several of the songs in contention for inclusion on her recent Born This Wall Ball. Although no release date is yet known, it's rumored to be due out in Spring 2013.


VIDEO - The Secret Lady Gaga Never Told Beyonce

Gaga has previously collaborated with Richardson on countless magazine covers and 2011's Lady Gaga x Terry Richardson photobook.

Lady Gaga won't be the only major musician to be featured in a documentary next year. It was revealed on November 26 that HBO would be airing a Beyonce documentary on February 16, 2013.


VIDEO - Get A Sneak Peek at Beyonce's Documentary

The film promises extensive first-person footage -- some of it shot by Beyonce on her laptop -- in which she reflects on the realities of being a celebrity, the refuge she finds onstage and the joys of becoming a mother after giving birth to her daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, in January 2012. Watch a sneak peek below.

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Affleck won't run for Kerry's Senate seat

BOSTON -- Ben Affleck is taking his name off the list of possible candidates for U.S. Sen. John Kerry's seat, which would be open if the Democratic senator from Massachusetts is confirmed as secretary of state.

Affleck says in a Monday posting on his Facebook page that while he loves the political process, he will not be running for public office.

Speculation about the Cambridge, Mass., native rose slightly when he did not completely rule out a Senate bid during an appearance on CBS' Face The Nation on Sunday.

In his Facebook posting, Affleck says he would continue working with the Eastern Congo Initiative, a nonprofit organization that helps direct humanitarian aid to the war-torn region, and for other causes.




Getty Images



John Kerry (left) and Ben Affleck.



Affleck says Kerry would make a great secretary of state.

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Miami: We’re still busiest cruise port




















Florida’s ports are steaming bow-to-bow in the race to be the world’s businest cruise ship port.

Though some publications have reported Port Canaveral in the lead with 3,761,056 million for its fiscal year ending Sept. 30, PortMiami officials Monday said they had hosted 3,774,452 passengers during the same period, putting it slightly ahead. Fort Lauderdale’s PortEverglades reported 3,689,000 passengers for the period, putting it slightly behind the others in third place.

“We’re all very close,’’ said Paula Musto, PortMiami spokeswoman.





PortMiami has slipped below its previous high of 4 million plus passengers because of changing ship deployments, she said. That number is expected to again cruise past 4 million in 2013 as several new ships homeport in Miami.

Jane Wooldridge





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For Nochebuena, it’s all about the pig




















It’s a holiday tradition that goes back more than 500 years: Gathering the family together on Nochebuena — “Good Night’’ in Spanish — and pigging out.

And if you’re in South Florida for a Nochebuena feast, that pig might have come from Mary’s Ranch in Hialeah or Blue Sky Food By the Pound in Miami.

“It’s an extremely big day for us,’’ said Maria Gonzalez, an assistant manager at Blue Sky. The store had sold close to 100 whole pigs on Monday, she said.





And at Mary’s Ranch — also known as Matadero Cabrera — more than 2,000 pigs have been sold since the weekend, said manager Jack Cabrera.

“The line was crazy,” said a very busy Cabrera. “It happens every year.”

The pigs at Mary’s can range from 30 pounds to 300 pounds — and with the market charging $1.85 a pound, plus a $15 slaughter and cleaning fee, that can mean customers shelling out well over $500 for the feast’s main course.

It’s often accompanied by black bens and rice, yuca bread, a salad and Spanish turrones, or almond nougats.

The tradition dates back to the 15th century when Caribbean colonists hunted down pigs and roasted them whole as the family gathered for Christmas Eve.

Cabrera said Monday he was looking forward to going home and enjoying his own lechón feast. A 50-pound pig spent Sunday in a being marinated in salt, sour oranges and other spices. Early Monday, his wife’s family put it in a “caja china’’ where it will roast over hot coals.

“The pig is as important for Nochebuena as the turkey is for Thanksgiving,” Cabrera said.





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Sprint salesman refuses to sell iPhone to customer, says his ‘fingers are too fat’ to use it







We’ve known for a while now that some mobile carriers have been instructing their sales staff to start pushing their customers away from Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and toward Android or Windows Phone devices. The reason is simple: carriers pay a lot more to subsidize Apple’s popular smartphone than they do with other devices and they’d prefer to have higher gross margins at the end of each quarter. But now a Tom’s Hardware reader reports that a Sprint (S) representative has taken pushing non-iPhone products to a whole new level and is actually insulting people who insist on buying the device.


[More from BGR: Online retailers caught using ‘discriminatory’ practices to target shopping discounts]






When the customer told the Sprint representative that he wanted to get an older iPhone 4 for free as part of his upgrade, the representative called the device “a piece of s—” that breaks too easily and is too small for many users.


[More from BGR: First photos of BlackBerry 10 ‘N-Series’ QWERTY smartphone leak]


Instead, the salesman recommended that the customer by a Samsung (005930) Galaxy S III. When the customer again refused, the salesman took things a step farther and told the man that his fingers were simply too fat to use the iPhone and that he’d need a larger screen to use a smartphone properly.


Needless to say, these up-sell-by-insult tactics weren’t exactly effective for the salesperson and the customer angrily stormed out of the store without buying a new phone.


This article was originally published by BGR


Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News





Title Post: Sprint salesman refuses to sell iPhone to customer, says his ‘fingers are too fat’ to use it
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ET Exclusive: Jamie Foxx Opens His Home & Heart

Jamie Foxx may be the most eligible bachelor in Hollywood, and our own Nancy O'Dell is exclusively with the Oscar winner at his Santa Monica, CA home to talk about his career, his family and how he handles the media when there's a woman in his life.

The star of the upcoming Django Unchained says the worst thing that can happen in a relationship is to go public with it: "I like to stay quiet with anyone that dating; that I'm really, really dating, "he says. "If there's somebody that you're dating, the worst thing that you can do is let that [camera] touch you. Because once the camera touches you, [it's out]."

Video: Jamie & Kerry Party 'Django' Style

Watch the video to get a tour of Jamie's amazing home that he shares with his whole family, set on 40 acres with a stunning pool, a recording studio and an avocado grove!

One thing you won't find at Jamie's home, however, is his Best Actor Oscar statuette that he won for his performance in Ray.

Pics: Jamie & Leo Smolder in 'Django'

"I never wanted to keep it at the house -- I never wanted to get stuck," says Jamie, whose pal and former manager Jamie King holds onto the statuette for him. "It changes you. … I just wanted to go back to being funny."

Watch the video for more of Jamie's interview, including his reaction to the current Oscar buzz for Django Unchained!

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Outer borough metered cabs head to NY's highest court








This cab fight is going straight to the top.

The city has received permission to bypass the Appellate Division and go directly to the state's highest court -- the Court of Appeals -- to try to overturn a lower court ruling blocking a new class of 18,000 taxis that would be allowed to pick up street hails outside Manhattan.

"We are very grateful that this important case can move forward far more quickly..." said Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo.

Still, it may be a while before there's a decision in the high-stakes case.

Michael Woloz, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, said he expects that the high court won't hear oral arguments before April or May.





Alamy



A woman hails a cab in Manhattan.





"It really was a mutual decision," he said of the speeded-up schedule.

"We were all going to end up at the Court of Appeals any way."

The city has a lot riding on the outcome.

As part of his proposal to expand metered cab service to Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, Staten Island and northern Manhattan, Mayor Bloomberg also got to sell 2,000 more yellow cab medallions.

The sale was expected to haul in $1.46 billion over three years.

Both the taxi expansion and the medallion sale were approved by Albany.

But the taxi industry sued. In August State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ruled it was unconstitutional for the state Legislature to green light the mayor's plan without a "home rule" message from the City Council.

As a result, the mayor decided to remove the anticipated medallion revenue from this year's budget.










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Shoppers found bigger sales, smaller crowds




















Shoppers who waited until the final days before Christmas were rewarded with big bargains and lighter crowds. But their last-minute deal hunting may hurt stores.

Although fresh data on the holiday shopping season aren’t yet available, analysts expect growth from last year to be modest. Several factors have dampened shoppers’ spirits, including fears that the economy could fall off the “fiscal cliff,” triggering tax increases and spending cuts early next year.

On Christmas Eve, Taubman Centers, which operates 28 malls across the country including Miami-Dade’s Dolphin Mall, reported a “very strong weekend.” But many last-minute shoppers in cities including New York, Atlanta and Indianapolis were spending less than they did last year, and taking advantage of big discounts of up to 70 percent that hurt stores’ profits.





Kris Betzold, 40, of Carmel, Ind., was out at the Fashion Mall at Keystone in Indianapolis on Monday looking for deals on toys, and said she’s noticed the sales are “even better now than they were at Thanksgiving.” She said the economy has prompted her and her husband to be more frugal this year.

“We under-budgeted ourselves by $400 for Christmas because we just wanted to put that money back in savings,” she said.

Dianne Ashford, 40, was at the Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta on Monday, said she was spending $500 on gifts this year, down from the $1,000 she normally spends.

“Times are hard,” said Ashford, who works for a film production company. The best deal she found this year was a guitar for her mother, half off at $79.

Other last-minute shoppers said they were holding off as much as possible for even bigger post-holiday sales.

Chris Ailes, a 37-year-old TV producer, also was at the Lenox Square on Monday to pick up last-minute gifts for his mom and grandmother. With the economy so shaky, he and his family are trying to cut back on spending. So he said he’s looking forward to discounts after Christmas.

“That’s when the sales are going on,” he said.

At Macy’s in New York, shopper Maureen Whyte had a similar game plan in mind. Whyte, a 33-year-old who works for an insurance company, was picking up last-minute stocking stuffers for her kids. For some toys, however, she was holding off for the post-Christmas sales and her kids understood why.

“I told them, `Whatever Mommy didn’t get you, you’ll get after this week,“’ she said, noting that her children, ages 5 and 10, are fine waiting as long as they know they’ll eventually get their toys.

That’s grim news for retailers, which typically get 40 percent of their annual sales in the critical November to December period. Although the week after Christmas is considered part of the season, by that time retailers are backed into a corner since it’s their last chance to get rid of items that have been sitting on shelves for months. The steep discounts during that time mean sales are less profitable.

ShopperTrak, which counts foot traffic and its own proprietary sales numbers from 40,000 retail outlets across the country, last Wednesday cut its forecast for holiday spending down to 2.5 percent growth to $257.7 billion, from prior expectations of a 3.3 percent rise.

Online, sales rose just 8.4 percent to $48 billion from Oct. 28 through Saturday, according to a measure by MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse. That is below the online sales growth of between 15 to 17 percent seen in the prior 18-month period, according to the data service, which tracks all spending across all forms of payment, including cash.

Marshal Cohen, chief research analyst at the market research firm NPD Inc., said retailers will have to be more aggressive than usual with discounts in the days after Christmas to get shoppers to spend. That could mean some stores will slash prices by as much as 80 percent to make shoppers believe the sales are a “once in a lifetime opportunity.”

“Consumers are going to be rewarded for waiting until after the holidays,” he said.





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Broward warns boaters of high number of manatees in waterways




















During the current cold snap, Broward officials are asking boaters to lookout for the record number of manatees in the county’s waterways this year.

The staff of the Natural Resources Planning and Management Division has counted 477 manatees during the first week of December — more than twice the historical average for this time of year. That number has since decreased.

“The current cold front should cause the number to jump back up well into the hundreds,’’ said Pat Quinn, Marine Resources with Broward County NRPMD.





The county is urging boaters to strictly obey posted speed restrictions in manatee-protection zones.

To help spot the manatees, boaters should also wear polarized sunglasses and watch for the large telltale circular slicks on the surface of the water, called manatee “footprints,” that indicate the presence of manatees.

The majority of the manatees will be traveling south in the Intracoastal Waterway to the warm-water refuges of the Lauderdale Power Plant cooling lakes and Port Everglades' Power Plant cooling canal.

Besides the Intracoastal, other poplar manatee hubs are w the New River, South Fork of New River, Dania Cutoff Canal and surrounding waters of Port Everglades.

The 2012 manatee season runs from November 15 to March 31, 2013.

Statewide, 78 manatees have been killed by boats in 2012 with three of those deaths occurring in Broward.





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Obama joins mourners at memorial service for late Sen. Inouye in Hawaii








AFP/Getty Images


President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama stand in respect as the casket carrying the late Senator Daniel Inouye is carried past at the National Memorial Cremetary of the Pacific in Honolulu.



HONOLULU — President Barack Obama, Gov. Neil Abercrombie and other dignitaries attended a memorial service for the late Sen. Daniel Inouye on Sunday.

A 19-gun cannon salute was fired as Inouye's coffin arrived for the service at Honolulu's National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, the final resting place to thousands of World War II veterans. More than 400 members of the storied Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team — of which Inouye was a part — are buried at the site.





REUTERS



President Barack Obama hugs Irene Hirano Inouye, widow of the late U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye, after she receives the flag that draped his casket at the memorial service at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.




EPA



Senator Daniel Inouye died at the age of 88 Dec. 17. He was first Japanese-American elected to both houses of Congress and the second-longest serving senator in US history.





Several cabinet secretaries and a number of senators also attended the service, including fellow Hawaii Democrat Daniel Akaka and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

"Daniel was the best senator among us all," Reid told those assembled. "Whenever we needed a noble man to lean on, we turned to Sen. Dan Inouye. He was fearless."

The 88-year-old Inouye died of respiratory complications on Dec. 17.

He was the first Japanese-American elected to both houses of Congress and the second-longest serving senator in U.S. history.

The past week has been marked by tributes and honors for Inouye, with services held in Washington and in Hawaii. He lay in state at both the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Thursday and the Hawaii state Capitol on Saturday.

Inouye was a high school senior in Honolulu on Dec. 7, 1941, when he watched dozens of Japanese planes fly toward Pearl Harbor and other Oahu military bases to begin a bombing that changed the course of world events.

He volunteered for a special U.S. Army unit of Japanese-Americans and lost his right arm in a battle with Germans in Italy. That scratched his dream of becoming a surgeon and went to law school and into politics instead.

He became known as an economic power in his home state as part of the Senate Appropriations Committee, where he steered federal money toward Hawaii to build roads, schools and housing.

Obama eulogized Inouye during a service at Washington's National Cathedral on Friday, saying that Inouye's presence during the Watergate hearings helped show him what could be possible in his own life.

The president arrived early Saturday in Honolulu for his annual Christmas family vacation.










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Time’s up for holiday shopping procrastinators




















Last minute shoppers like Josette Tyne are in luck this year.

With a long weekend before Christmas, retailers want to make it easier for procrastinators to finish their gift buying. Macy’s for the first time is keeping all its stores open around the clock from Friday until Sunday at midnight. Toys “R” Us and Walmart Supercenters will be open non-stop until Christmas Eve.

Even those retailers skipping the all nighter still have added extended hours often as late as 11 pm or midnight. Coupled with a flurry of last minute promotions, they hope to lure shoppers, many of whom have been largely sitting on the sidelines since Black Friday.





Tyne, 33, just starting her shopping this week at Aventura Mall, armed with a list of about two dozen people and the presents they wanted. The list would have been longer if the Fort Lauderdale resident hadn’t limited it to the kids in her family.

“I’ll probably be shopping every day from now till Sunday,” said Tyne, as she wheeled the youngest of her three boys around H&M in a stroller before heading on to Game Stop, Urban Outfitters and BCBG. “Whatever catches my eye. Luckily the kids usually like everything I get. I’m the awesome Auntie.”

A Consumer Reports Poll released earlier this week found that with just five shopping days left until Christmas, a whopping 68 percent of shoppers — a projected 132 million Americans — have yet to finish their holiday shopping.

With an early Thanksgiving leaving an extra week until Christmas and a long weekend before Tuesday’s holiday, shoppers have felt little need to rush. They also haven’t found December deals to be quite as compelling as the November sales.

Based on disappointing sales trends earlier this month, ShopperTrak said Wednesday it was cutting its holiday sales forecast. The company, which counts foot traffic and its own proprietary sales numbers from 40,000 retail outlets across the country, now expects a 2.5 percent sales increase to $257.7 billion, down from the 3.3 percent growth it initially predicted. The National Retail Federation is sticking with its prediction of a 4.1 percent sales increase.

Online sales trends are more encouraging, up 13 percent to $35 billion from Nov. 1 through Dec. 16, according to comScore, an online research firm. But that pace is below the forecast of 17 percent for the season.

“It’s coming down to the wire,” said David Bassuk, managing director and co-head of the retail practice at AlixPartners, a global consulting firm. “It’s going to require retailers to be more aggressive with their promotions than they were hoping heading into the weekend.”

While the economy is certainly in a better position than it was during the recession, many consumers still feel uneasy this year about their financial future. Some are worried about the U.S. job market and others fear the stalemate between Congress and the White House over federal “fiscal cliff’’ that could lead to tax increases and less disposable income for shoppers.

That was the case for Latonya Jones, on the hunt for bargains at Aventura Mall, coupon-loaded iPad in hand.

“I wasn’t going to buy anything this year, because I wanted to save money,” said Jones, 39, of Miami Gardens, who was shopping with her daughter Richelle, 12, this week in Macy’s. “But then I changed my mind.”





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