US survivors of Algerian hostage crisis plagued by nightmares, guilt

Mark Cobb was so close to the terrorists, he could hear their footsteps. Steve Wysocki escaped after hearing his boss taken hostage next door. Nick Frazier was on a bus that al Qaeda-linked militants sprayed with hundreds of bullets.

Although the three Americans escaped the harrowing attack on a petrol plant in Algeria with their lives, they are still racked with guilt, plagued with nightmares and haunted by memories of their ordeal and the co-workers they left behind.

Cobb, Wysocki and Frazier described the attack -- in which 37 workers died -- to Charlie Rose in an extensive 60 Minutes interview which airs Sunday.

AP

Algerian soldiers stand guard at the gas plant in Ain Amenas, seen in background.

Cobb, who is a manager at Ain Amenas field in the Sahara, described how he hid under a pile of maps in a locked room with several co-workers after gunfire broke out on January 16.

“If they started poking at the maps with an AK-47 or peeling maps off the top…I knew it was over,” Cobb told Rose.

“I heard them kick open the front door. That’s I guess at the point, in all honesty that I felt pure terror… I elected to begin to make my calls to my family and say my goodbyes.”

Cobb’s door was one of two the militants failed to kick in and he eventually escaped to a nearby Algerian Army base through a hole in the fence.

“The nightmares for me are all the same thing,” Cobb said. “It’s the sound of those footsteps as they came down that hallway towards that door.”

Oil and gas expert Wysocki also escaped through the fence, but not before hearing the terrorists find his boss, Gordon Rowan, who did not survive.

“I’m like ‘Why couldn’t I have done something to help? And…(I) feel guilty that I was paralyzed with fear and not do(ing) anything,” Wysocki told Rose. “I’m especially guilty because they lost their lives and I didn’t.”

BP petrol engineer Frazier described how his bus was peppered with hundreds of bullets before Algerian army soldiers rushed to the rescue, resulting in a 30-minute gun battle.

“They saved our lives,” said Frazier. “They returned…heavy, heavy gunfire…they stood by the bus and shot back and kept the terrorists from getting onto the bus.”

Rowan and gas workers Frederick Buttaccio and Victor Lovelady were the three Americans who died during the standoff, which ended when Algerian special-forces stormed the facility, freeing 685 Algerians and 107 foreigners. More than 30 militants died during the attack.

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Miami startup that turns text to video receives $1 million in seed funding

Guide, a new technology startup based in Miami, announced Tuesday it has closed a $1 million round of seed funding from investors including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Sapient Corp., MTV founder Bob Pitman, actor and producer Omar Epps, and early Google employee Steve Schimmel. The Knight Foundation is supporting Guide through its new early-stage venture fund, the Knight Enterprise Fund.

Led by CEO and founder Freddie Laker and COO Leslie Bradshaw, Guide’s team of seven is focused on turning online news, social streams and blogs into video for users who may be cooking, exercising, commuting or getting ready in the morning. The free application offers consumers a selection of about 20 “anchors” — including a dog, a robot and an anime character — that will read the article and present the accompanying photos, pull-out information and video clips in its video presentation. Revenue drivers for Guide could include in-app purchases, advertising-based anchors and customizations from publishers, said Laker, a former vice president at SapientNitro.

Laker and his team plan to launch a public beta next month, which they plan to do with a splash at the huge technology conference South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.

Read more about Guide here on the Starting Gate blog. Follow Nancy Dahlberg on Twitter @ndahlberg

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Judge orders state to release emails in suit over Gov. Scott's plan for Tallahassee park

TALLAHASSEE --
Some governors left bronze statues behind. Others contributed a library or a sun room to the Governors’ Mansion.

Gov. Rick Scott envisions a legacy that would create Governor’s Park, across a six block by three and a half block area in downtown Tallahassee.

The boundaries of the proposal are contained in a memo and maps that state officials attempted to withhold from disclosure in a lawsuit filed by Tallahassee lawyer Steve Andrews as part of a fight over land that once belonged to Gov. LeRoy Collins.

Citing Florida’s public records law, a judge ordered release of documents that outline the park plan after reviewing 120 records that the Department of Environmental Protection tried to shield from public view.

"After conducting an in camera inspection of 120 emails, the court finds that 105 emails were public records … and improperly withheld from the plaintiff after a public records request,’’ Circuit Judge John Cooper wrote in his Jan. 29 order.

Andrews sought the records after filing a lawsuit against Scott and 15 other officials involved in the state’s attempt to block him from buying land where his office is located. The land in question is owned by the Collins estate and fronts Monroe Street, the north-south thoroughfare through the heart of the capital city.

The proposed park would surround the Governor’s Mansion and an adjacent site known as The Grove, the ancestral home of territorial Gov. Richard Keith Call and the final home of the Collins family.

The state bought the Collins home in 1985 with plans to create a museum and visitors center. Maps included in the email released Wednesday indicate that the park would include both mansions and about 120 additional lots now in private ownership in an area between Monroe and Bronough streets.

Andrews signed a contract to buy his office building for $580,000 after then-Secretary of State Kurt Browning signed a letter rejecting the state’s right of first refusal to buy the property. Scott’s office objected at the last minute, and Scott and the Cabinet voted to buy it a year ago in spite of the contract between Andrews and the Collins estate.

The lawsuit grinds on, with more than a dozen lawyers representing various state agencies and a separate lawsuit filed by Scott and the Cabinet against John Aurell, Collins’ son-in-law and executor of the Collins estate. The judge has rejected state accusations of fraud and breach of contract against Aurell, calling them without merit.

Andrews said the state will spend some $10-million if it proceeds with the park plan as outlined.

"It’s a lot of money when you think that Governor Collins’ legacy is that he was the first southern governor to advocate publicly for the passage of civil rights legislation,’’ Andrews said. "Even Gov. Charlie Crist refused to do repairs and paint the Governor’s Mansion because so many people in the state were losing their homes to foreclosure.’’

A spokeswoman for Scott did not respond to questions about the cost of the plan or explain why the records were withheld from public view.

The tradition of governors enhancing the mansion is longstanding. Some redecorated; others added a pool, tennis courts, fencing and a garage, often at state expense.

Since Gov. Bob Graham’s wife Adele created a private foundation, additions have mostly been paid for with private donations. The Grahams built a large sun room on the north side of the mansion.

Former Gov. Bob Martinez raised money for a bronze manatee sculpture on mansion grounds, and former Gov. Lawton Chiles left a large bronze sculpture of children walking on a log. Former Gov. Jeb Bush used his fundraising ability to add a library.

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Will Smith Explains Why Willow Smith Dropped Out of 'Annie'

Will Smith explains why daughter Willow has dropped out of the big-screen Annie reboot, telling the audience of Real Talk with Sister Souljah and Will Smith at Philly's Temple University that his high-profile daughter really wants to act her age.

Pics: Stars and Their Cute Kids

Will told the audience, "Willow was supposed to be doing Annie, we got Jay-Z to do the movie, got the studio to come in and Willow had such a difficult time on tour with Whip My Hair and she said, 'You know Daddy, I don't think so,' and I said, 'Baby, hold up!' I said, 'No, no, no, listen, you'll be in New York with all of your friends and Beyoncé will be there. You will be singing and dancing,' and she looked at me and said, 'Daddy, I have a better idea, how about I just be 12.'

The Smith clan has been in creative career overdrive, with 2010 alone packed with the release of Whip My Hair, The Karate Kid, Hawthorne and the Nobel Concert when Barack Obama won his Nobel Peace Prize. This summer, Will's sci-fi movie with son Jaden, After Earth, hits theaters.

"Don't be clapping yet, that wears you out," explains Will. "The thing that had become very clear to me is the danger of a material world and focusing so hard on coming up with money or a house or a job. You focus so hard on those things, and sometimes you can lose focus on why you are doing it in the first place. The only reason to do any of that is to have love."

Video: Will & Jaden Smith Survive 'After Earth'

He continued, "I'm really learning through Willow the necessity that we have to snap ourselves back and refocus on the emotional needs of the people that we love. Someone's emotional needs can be very, very different from your dreams and what you think they should be doing and where they are supposed to be."

So it looks like Willow will slow things down a bit for now and just focus on being a kid. Lesson learned, Will, lesson learned.

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Woman fighting for life after Hamilton Heights car crash

A woman is fighting for her life after being involved in a serious car accident today in Hamilton Heights, authorities said.

A van and car collided on Broadway and West 135th Street at 2:15 p.m. -- critically injuring one passenger, police said.

“I heard a bang. I turned around as the car was still traveling,” said mailman Clairmonte Coppin, 41.

“I ran over and me and a few guys tried to push the vehicle back.”

The van crushed the smaller car into the window of a pharmacy, pinning the passengers inside, witnesses said.

“The van hit the red car and drove it up onto the sidewalk, I thought it was going to go through the pharmacy. It was a big bang and then there was glass from the red car exploding from the impact,” Anna Polanco, 22.

Two people were rushed to St. Lukes Hospital -- one in cardiac arrest, the FDNY said.

Police are still investigating the cause of the accident.

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Miami startup that turns text to video receives $1 million in seed funding

Guide, a new technology startup based in Miami, announced Tuesday it has closed a $1 million round of seed funding from investors including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Sapient Corp., MTV founder Bob Pitman, actor and producer Omar Epps, and early Google employee Steve Schimmel. The Knight Foundation is supporting Guide through its new early-stage venture fund, the Knight Enterprise Fund.

Led by CEO and founder Freddie Laker and COO Leslie Bradshaw, Guide’s team of seven is focused on turning online news, social streams and blogs into video for users who may be cooking, exercising, commuting or getting ready in the morning. The free application offers consumers a selection of about 20 “anchors” — including a dog, a robot and an anime character — that will read the article and present the accompanying photos, pull-out information and video clips in its video presentation. Revenue drivers for Guide could include in-app purchases, advertising-based anchors and customizations from publishers, said Laker, a former vice president at SapientNitro.

Laker and his team plan to launch a public beta next month, which they plan to do with a splash at the huge technology conference South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.

Read more about Guide here on the Starting Gate blog. Follow Nancy Dahlberg on Twitter @ndahlberg

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Jackson Health System, Kendall Regional battle over trauma

Kendall Regional Medical Center lost one battle in the trauma wars Tuesday at the Miami-Dade County Commission, but has launched a new attack in Tallahassee, asking state regulators to reject a Jackson Health System request that Kendall maintains would force it to close its trauma center.

With about 100 supporters packing commission chambers wearing red T-shirts saying “Kendall Trauma Saves Lives,” Commissioner Javier Souto asked his colleagues to reconsider a Jan. 23 resolution, passed 10-0, authorizing Jackson to take legal action to protect its trauma programs.

Jackson has been complaining that its Ryder Trauma Center has been losing about $28 million a year since the state allowed Kendall Regional to open a second Dade trauma unit in November 2011. State regulators meanwhile have delayed granting licenses for trauma centers at Jackson North and Jackson South hospitals.

Souto said his office had been bombarded by 4,000 emails complaining that the commission had acted hastily in granting Jackson legal approval. “A big chunk of people are very offended.”

Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz said many of the “thousands” of emails he received quoted a Kendall executive as saying that the commission resolution was intended to “force Kendall to close its trauma center.”

“That’s a lie,” Diaz said. The commission simply gave Jackson an ability “to defend itself.”

The motion to reconsider died on a 6-6 vote.

Mark McKenney, medical director of the Kendall center, issued a statement calling the commission vote “a shame.” During his center’s first 15 months, “we have seen more than 2,550 trauma patients. ... Kendall Regional is dedicated to providing care to a community of 2.5 million people that, as the seventh most populated county in the U.S., has been greatly underserved. The facts are clear about the need for trauma services, and we will continue to fight to provide these vital medical services.”

Meanwhile, the fight at the state level continues. In early January, Jackson asked Department of Health officials for an administrative hearing because the department had not granted trauma licenses for its North and South community hospitals. That filing stated that state courts had ruled invalid the state regulations used to grant provisional licenses to Kendall and Ocala hospitals.

The Jackson petition maintained that “the ultimate facts that will be established at a hearing” would show that “all provisional licenses issued under the invalid trauma need rule should be revoked.”

On Monday, the Kendall and Ocala hospitals filed their own motions in the case, asking that Jackson’s petitions be dismissed because it “had no right” to request that the licenses of other centers be rejected. If those motions were rejected, the HCA facilities asked that they be allowed to intervene in the Jackson proceedings.

Also on Monday, Jackson Chief Executive Carlos Migoya sent an email to county and state political leaders saying that the trauma filings were “highly technical. It is vital to understand that Jackson has not initiated any legal action against any other hospital, hospital system or trauma center in this issue.” Its state petition was for an administrative hearing on the matter, not a lawsuit against rivals.

On Tuesday Jackson spokesman Edwin O’Dell said, “We are limited as to what we can say during these complex regulatory proceedings.” But he noted that Health suspended Jackson’s trauma applications while approving others. “We seek a level playing field on which our community’s taxpayer-owned hospital system is treated fairly and can compete fairly. We have all invested so much to build Ryder Trauma Center’s world-class program, and we must protect our legal opportunities to mirror that service at other Jackson facilities.”

State regulators are now working to come up with a trauma regulation that will pass muster in the courts as being fair to all parties. Health officials have been insisting that Miami-Dade, with 2.5 million people, needs several trauma centers.

On Tuesday, an advisory committee from the American College of Surgeons told Florida Health officials about steps they could take to come up with fair trauma regulations. The group’s final report will be finished in about eight weeks.

Jackson officials maintain that, with helicopter transport, its Level 1 trauma center is just minutes away from any place in the county and that it has a highly experienced trauma staff always on duty, while Kendall Regional, a Level 2 center, has to call in specialists to treat complex cases.

Herald staff writer Patricia Mazzei and Tampa Bay Times reporter Tia Mitchell contributed to this article.

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Twilight Star Nikki Reed Kisses and Tells

Gillette is conducting a social experiment to settle the debate over what's more kissable -- stubble or shaven -- and the conversation is drawing attention from celebrities like Twilight star Nikki Reed.

PICS: Hottest Bachelors

For Nikki, who is married to bearded rocker Paul McDonald, the guy should commit one way or the other.

"I like to go for either totally clean shaven or a real full-on beard," said Nikki, who helped launched Gillette's Kiss & Tell tour in New York City. "I think stubble kind of kills the kiss."

Singer Keri Hilson, who joined the tour in Los Angeles, had a different take: "I think we're going to find that most women today prefer a smoothly shaven face."

We'll be announcing the results on Valentine's Day from Gillette's Kiss & Tell event in NYC. CLICK HERE to cast your vote.

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MTA execs get big checks

It’s payday for MTA big shots!

The transit agency — which constantly socks riders with fare hikes, the latest coming in March — handed four MTA execs checks totalling $253,000 right before Joe Lhota left the agency to run for mayor.

The checks were cut on Lhota’s last day on the job, Dec. 31.

The execs include Metro-North boss Howard Permut, Michael Horodniceanu, the head of mega-projects like Second Avenue Subway, LIRR head Helena Williams, and MTA Bus President Joseph Smith.

Permut, who earns $243,000 a year, received a $98,000 check; Horodniceanu makes $262,000 a year and saw a $61,000 lump-sum check; Williams makes $243,000 and took home a check for $56,000 and Smith was cut a check for $38,000 for unusued vacation and sick time.

Lhota said he was honoring contracts that all three had signed between four and five years ago that called for raises between 3 and 6 percent.

The execs had agreed to forgo the raises for a few years at the request of past MTA chiefs. They weren’t willing to continue the practice and at least one was threatening to sue, sources told the Post.

“A contract is a contract is a contract. It’s as simple as that,” Lhota told the Post. “I inherited those contracts. They were never declining raises, they were only deferring them.”

Lhota said he refused to pay interest on the deferred payments, but agreed to cut the checks for what they were owed after consulting attorneys.

The deferments began under former MTA chief Elliot Sander in 2007 as the agency was begging the Legislature for a bailout to help it close its budget gap and avoid service cuts.

“The MTA is keeping its word,” MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg said. “They were asked not accept the raises at the time but not to permanently forgo them.”

MTA managers are now in their fourth year without a raise, while their unionized underlings have gotten annual bumps for the past three years.

In 2011, the Transport Workers Union snagged a 3 percent pay hike for its workers on top of 2.5 percent pay hikes in 2009 and 2010.

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CMZ Group says former official left before SEC suit

Fred Davis Clark, Jr. — a Cayman Islands man who was accused of securities fraud in a civil suit filed Jan. 30 by the Securities and Exchange Commission — sold his ownership interest and resigned his posts at a separate Cayman Islands business a day before the SEC suit was filed, according to a spokeswoman for the firm, CMZ Group Ltd.

CMZ Group Ltd., a Cayman Islands company that includes a Caribbean pawn shop network among other ventures, said in a statement that Clark “is no longer affiliated with our company, and, in fact, separated from the company before (Jan. 29) the U.S. SEC complaint was filed (Jan. 30th.)’’

The SEC had identified Clark, 54, as “co-chairman of CMZ’’ in a complaint that accused him and four other former real estate executives at the defunct Cay Clubs Resorts and Marinas of defrauding nearly 1,400 investors of more than $300 million in an alleged Ponzi scheme between 2004 and 2007.

“We put in our complaint the most current information available,’’ Eric Bustillo, director of the SEC’s Miami regional office, said Tuesday. The SEC complaint is pending in U.S. District Court in Miami. A hearing hasn’t been set.

According to the SEC suit, Clark operated Cay Clubs Resorts from his home in Key Largo and moved to the Cayman Islands after the real-estate investment business closed, leaving investors hanging.

Jeffrey L. Cox, a Boca Raton attorney for Clark, declined to comment Tuesday.

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