POUGHKEEPSIE — Police say 74-year-old Hudson Valley man died after being struck by a car on a snowy street.
Town of Poughkeepsie police say Muril M. Hancock was hit around 12:30 p.m. Friday by a car as he walked near the shoulder of a street in this town 70 miles north of New York City. Hancock was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died.
The car's 18-year-old driver said she lost control because of snowy conditions. Police did not identify the driver.
Prepare your best pitch for the Miami Herald’s Small Business Forum, Feb. 21 at the south campus of our sponsor, Florida International University.
In addition to how-to panels and inspirational stories from successful entrepreneurs, our annual small business forum will include interactive opportunities with experts to learn about financing options and polish your personal and business brands.
During our finance panel, audience volunteers will be invited to explain their financing needs to the group. During our box-lunch session, they will be invited to pitch their business or personal brand to our coaches.
Those who prefer just to listen will be treated to a keynote address by Alberto Perlman, co-founder of the global fitness craze Zumba. Panels include success stories from the local entrepreneurs who founded Sedano’s, Jennifer’s Homemade and ReStockIt.com; finance tips from experts in small business loans, venture capital, angel investments and traditional bank loans; and insiders in the burgeoning South Florida tech start-up scene.
Plus, it’s a real bargain. $25 includes the half-day seminar, continental breakfast and a box lunch.
Register here.
Program
8 a.m.
Registration and continental breakfast, provided by Bill Hansen Catering
8:30 a.m. Welcome
Host: David Suarez, president and CEO, Interactive Training Solutions, LLC
• Jerry Haar, PhD, associate dean & director, FIU Eugenio Pino and Family Global
Entrepreneurship Center
• Alice Horn, executive director, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE South Florida)
• Jane Wooldridge, Business editor, The Miami Herald
Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge Overview:
• Nancy Dahlberg, Business Plan Challenge coordinator, The Miami Herald
8:45 a.m. Session I – Success Stories
Moderator: Jerry Haar, PhD, associate dean & director, FIU Eugenio Pino and Family Global
Entrepreneurship Center
Speakers:
• Jennifer Behar, founder, Jennifer’s Homemade
• Matt Kuttler, co-president of ReStockIt.com
• Javier Herrán, chief marketing officer, Sedano’s Supermarkets
10 a.m. Session II – All about Tech
Moderator: Jane Wooldridge, Business editor, The Miami Herald
Speakers
• Susan Amat, founder, Launch Pad Tech
• Nancy Borkowski, executive director, Health Management Programs, Chapman Graduate School of
Business, Florida International University
• Mark Slaughter, CEO, Cohealo.com
• Chris Fleck, vice president of mobility solutions at Citrix and a director of the South Florida Tech Alliance
11:15 a.m. Keynote
Speaker: Alberto Perlman, CEO and co-founder of Zumba® Fitness
Introduction: Jane Wooldridge, business editor, The Miami Herald
11:45 a.m. Session III – Show me the money: Financing your small business
An interactive session featuring audience volunteers who will be invited to make a short investment pitch before a panel, including experts in microlending, SBA loans, traditional bank loans, venture capital and angel investing. Audience volunteers should come prepared with a two-minute presentation that includes details about current backing, how much money they are seeking and a brief synosis of ow that money would be used.
Moderator: Melissa Krinzman, founder and managing director, Venture Architects
Panelists:
• Marjorie Weber, chairman, SCORE of Miami-Dade
• Cornell Crews, Jr., program director, Partners for Self Employment
• Darius G. Nevin, co-founder, G3 Capital Partners, a mid-market and early-stage investment company
• Boris Hirmas Said, chairman of the board, Tres Mares S.A. (Santiago, Chile) and entrepreneur in
residence at the Eugenio Pino and Family Global Entrepreneurship Center
1 p.m. Lunch session - Polish your Pitch, Brighten Your Personal Brand
An interactive session featuring audience volunteers who will be invited to make short pitches about their businesses and themselves. Audience volunteers should come prepared with a two-minute presentation.
Coaches: Melissa Krinzman of Venture Architects and Michelle Villalobos of Mivista Consulting
advise audience volunteers on how to best pitch themselves and their products.
Box lunch provided by Bill Hansen Catering
All speakers confirmed unless otherwise noted. Agenda is subject to change without notice .
BOCA RATON --
Infamous squatter Andre Barbosa has been evicted from a Boca Raton mansion, police said.
Bank of America retook possession of a $2.5 million home where the 23-year-old Brazilian national had been staying since December.
Bank representatives, with the assistance of police, cleared out the foreclosed home at 580 Gold Harbor Dr. at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
There was no one inside and the home’s locks were changed, said Officer Sandra Boonenberg, spokeswoman for Boca police.
Barbosa, also known as Lokiboy954, had been occupying the home since filing an “adverse possession” claim in December.
Adverse possession was created hundreds of years ago when hand-scrawled property records could more easily be lost, damaged or muddled. Allowing for adverse possession kept land in productive use when ownership was unclear, or, for example, the owner died with no heirs.
If the person claiming adverse possession stays in the home for seven years, paying taxes and caring for the property, they can take permanent ownership.
Barbosa is not facing any charges at this point and police are not actively searching for him, Boonenberg said.
Bank of America issued a statement regarding Thursday’s action.
“We appreciate the assistance of local authorities and the patience of neighbors as we worked to have the trespassers removed.
“We take trespassing seriously and, in the interest of the community, we will take appropriate legal action to protect this and all properties we service.”
The fashionista who jumped to her death from the George Washington Bridge felt under siege by five frenemies she barred from her funeral via suicide note — including one who told her to overdose, The Post has learned.
“Go try to kill yourself on Xanax again, you unstable loser. Go f--k yourself and never speak to me again,” Alison Tinari wrote in a Facebook exchange with troubled Ashley Riggitano, who killed herself Wednesday, her 22nd birthday.
The blond beauty left behind a multipage, handwritten note in a Louis Vuitton bag that excluded Tinari and four other women from the funeral because of their contentious relationships through the years.
A source identified the others as Teresa Castaldo, Beth Bassil, Victoria Van Thunen and Samantha Horneff.
Van Thunen was Riggitano’s business partner at Missfits, a jewelry-design business. Castaldo and Bassil were classmates at Midtown’s Laboratory Institute of Merchandising, and Horneff was a friend from New Jersey.
Riggitano placed her handbag on a walkway at about 4:40 p.m. Wednesday before leaping from a midway point in the Jersey-bound lanes of the upper level, authorities said.
Prescription drugs, including Adderall, which is used to treat ADHD, and Klonopin, an anti-panic drug, were found in her bag.
Riggitano’s suicide notes — written in girlish cursive on lined, loose-leaf paper — revealed the depths of her despair.
“To any funeral, these people should not be allowed based upon words and actions,” she wrote about the five women.
She also mentioned three others by first name only — calling them “only people I love & always there to tell sorry.”
She blasted her other pals, writing, “All my other ‘friends’ are in it for gossip, never there just 1/4 for gossip.”
Hours before the suicide, Van Thunen ripped Riggitano in a Facebook post.
“Those who incessantly blame others as the cause of their issues should perhaps take a step back and re-evaluate these situations,” Van Thunen, 21, wrote.
“The common thread may be that ‘they’ aren’t the problem, but rather that YOU are.”
About a month earlier, Riggitano initiated an ugly, two-day exchange with Tinari that led to the Xanax suicide comment.
The fight stemmed from Tinari’s ongoing friendship with Riggitano’s boyfriend, aspiring race-car driver Drew Heissenbuttel.
“It’s really horrible what happened. I feel really bad for her family. It’s crazy. I feel really bad for her. I never went after her; she went after me,” a remorseful Tinari told The Post yesterday, adding that she didn’t even know Riggitano before the exchange.
Homeowners who received letters recently from a company offering to sell them a copy of the deed on their home might want to think twice before writing a check.
The official-looking letters from Florida Certified Record Retrieval state that the government recommends having a certified copy of their home’s deed.
The letter offers to provide such a copy for a fee of $50, plus $4.50 for postage and handling.
Technically, it’s not a scam. The Davie-based company, which is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau, will get the record for you.
A recorded message on the company’s answering service states that Florida Certified Record Retrieval is not affiliated with any state or government agency. It is a private company that buys lists of real estate transactions, which are public record.
The message also states the company has no access to original documents, and cannot change information — such as correcting misspelled names — on a certified copy of a deed.
Although what the company does is not illegal, homeowners can buy copies of a deed directly from their county’s clerk of courts for much less, said David Rooney, Division Chief of Recording at the Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts Office.
To get a copy of your deed:
In Miami-Dade, visit www.miami-dadeclerk.com and select “official record search.” Records are searchable by name.
A scanned copy of the record can be printed from the website, or you can order certified copies of the deed from the same screen.
Copies cost $1 per page, plus a certification fee of $2 per document. The records are mailed within a week.
In Broward, visit www.broward.org, click on “Public Records Search” and then on “Deeds.”
WEST PALM BEACH --
Minutes after a jury late Wednesday awarded a mentally challenged Pahokee girl $1.7 million for the trauma she suffered when she was raped on a Palm Beach County school bus when she was 3, the girl’s mother rushed toward those who had given her daughter a second chance.
“Wait,” she called out just before they filed out the door. “I want to thank all of you.”
In turn, she hugged each of the four women and two men who rejected the school board’s claims that her daughter wasn’t hurt by the 2007 attack. School board attorneys argued the girl was too young and too mentally disabled to understand what a 15-year-old emotionally disturbed youth did to her on the bus filled with special needs kids.
With tears streaming down her face, the mother looked at the girl’s father. Both heaved sighs of relief.
“It means a lot to me,” she said of the verdict. “My daughter finally got justice.”
The School Board never denied the girl was molested. Both the bus driver and the aide who was on the bus to protect the students were fired. The aide, Grenisha Williams, was convicted of child neglect in connection with the incident and put on probation. Sexual battery charges were filed against J.C. Carter, the youth school police said assaulted the child. The School Board even changed policies, decreeing that young children should no longer be allowed to ride buses with older kids.
But, the district never agreed to compensate the now 9-year-old girl for the trauma that her attorneys argued exacerbated her considerable learning problems.
“I think the jury got it,” attorney Stephan Le Clainche said.
Despite School Board attorneys’ claims to the contrary, he said: “The jury realized that any child of a tender age who is the victim of physical or sexual violence is going to carry the stain of it their entire life.”
But, he acknowledged, the battle is far from over. Under Florida law, government agencies in 2007 could only be forced to pay $100,000 for injuries caused by their wrongdoing. (The cap on so-called sovereign immunity, that comes from the English concept that the King can do no wrong, has since been raised to $200,000.) But to get more than $100,000, the girl’s attorneys must now persuade a typically stubborn Florida Legislature to life the cap so the girl can get the $1.7 million the jury said she deserves.
“We have a long road to go,” Le Clainche said. The $100,000 will barely cover the court costs that included paying $25,000 to a psychiatrist who persuaded the jury that the girl carries deep psychological scars that will take years of counseling and private schooling to salve.
The mother said she was well aware of the looming battle. “I’ve been waiting all this time. I guess I can wait some more,” said the mother, who lost her job as a cook when the always shaky economy in the Glades got even worse in the recent recession.
Jurors declined comment on the verdict, as did attorneys representing the school board. Attorney Scott Krevens said they don’t comment on pending litigation.
But the two sides argued their cases vigorously Wednesday in their last appearances before the jury after a five-day trial.
Attorney Tom McCausland, one of the school board’s two attorneys, suggested that the jury give the girl $250,000 for the pain she endured on the day of the attack and $31,000 for family counseling.
“A quarter-million dollars is a way of saying we’re sorry it happened,” he said.
Le Clainche bristled at McCausland’s suggestion that the money was an apology and not a recognition that the girl needs years of therapy.
McCausland insisted the girl has no memory of the attack. “Her brain has not been able to form to grasp the event,” McCausland told jurors. “This very, very heinous act, fortunately, is not something the girl remembers.”
Le Clainche translated McCausland’s argument this way: “Your harm is worth nothing because you’re already damaged.” Then, he added, “That is an incredible, outrageous defense.”
The psychiatrist hired by the girl’s team testified that the attack stymied the girl’s emotional and intellectual growth. A psychologist hired by the school board told jurors trauma doesn’t affect cognitive development.
In the end, it was clear the jury accepted the long-standing child-rearing concept that early childhood development impacts a youngster’s entire life.
About two hours into their deliberations, the jurors sent out a question: “Can the possibility of future sexual problems be considered as future pain and suffering?”
Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley said they could.
Less than 15 minutes later, they announced their verdict.
We're one step closer to The 20/20 Experience!
Justin Timberlake just dropped a major treat for his fans on Twitter, revealing the cover art and tracklisting to his upcoming solo album, The 20/20 Experience.
"I wanted you guys to see this first!!!," wrote Timberlake with a link to the cover (featuring the singer dressed to the nines behind a phoropter) and song titles.
Pics: Justin & Jessica's Long Road to the Altar
Check out the full tracklisting below:
-Pusher Love Girl
-Suit & Tie
-Don't Hold The Wall
-Strawberry Bubblegum
-Tunnel Vision
-Spaceship Coupe
-That Girl
Let The Groove Get In
-Mirrors
-Blue Ocean Floor
The 20/20 Experience hits stores on March 19.
KTLA video still
A police chase in California ended in flames Wednesday night.
A Los Angeles police chase ended in a fireball Wednesday, with the high-speed pursuit caught on video.
KTLA video shows the chase - which involved a suspected drunken driver, the station reports.
The driver weaved in between cars, eluding authorities along a highway in Boyle Heights, a neighborhood on the east side of Los Angeles.
Eventually the suspect's car spun, crashing into a guardrail and bursting into flames.
As fire engulfed the wreckage, police approached the car and pulled the driver to safety.
FORT WORTH --
A merger between American Airlines and US Airways could be announced as early as next week as the two companies move closer to finalizing details of a deal, sources familiar with the negotiations say.
Neither airline's board has met to formally approve a union, however. The AMR Corp. board is expected to meet early next week.
US Airways Chief Executive Doug Parker is likely to lead the merged carrier, while AMR Chief Executive Tom Horton may serve as chairman for a specific period before departing, according to one source, who declined to be identified because the talks are private.
Discussions are also ongoing over the financial aspects. Creditors and bondholders at AMR have agreed on an equity split, sources said, though they cautioned that details could change.
Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that American creditors would own about 72 percent of the airline and US Airways shareholders about 28 percent, although those figures are tentative.
Both American and US Airways, which have signed a nondisclosure agreement, declined to comment.
The management plan being discussed is similar to what happened when United Airlines merged with Continental Airlines in 2010.
United CEO Glenn Tilton was named chairman while Continental Chief Executive Jeff Smisek kept the CEO and president titles. Tilton stepped down as chairman at the end of 2012.
An American-US Airways merger would create the largest airline in the U.S., with over $38.7 billion in revenue and more than 100,000 employees. The combined company is expected to retain the American Airlines name and be based in Fort Worth.
Wall Street analysts began speculating about a merger as soon as AMR filed for bankruptcy in November 2011. In April, Parker negotiated conditional labor agreements with American's three major unions and began to publicly advocate for a merger.
Until midsummer, Horton insisted that American would emerge from bankruptcy as a stand-alone carrier and evaluate possible partners afterward.
But pressure from creditors rose and merger discussions intensified when US Airways signed a nondisclosure agreement with American in August.
That allowed the two companies to share financial information and discuss the benefits and challenges of a merger.
Horton began to publicly discuss a possible merger within bankruptcy in the fall. After American's pilots union ratified a new contract in December and agreed to a memorandum of understanding on terms for a merger, a deal with US Airways has become increasingly more likely, analysts have said.
Executives at both companies, along with American's unsecured creditors committee and an ad hoc bondholder group, have been meeting in recent weeks to discuss a possible merger.
Previous media reports said the bondholders had signed a nondisclosure agreement that expires Feb. 15.
The agreement gives debt owners access to the discussions but restricts them from trading AMR or US Airways debt, giving them incentive to push for a quick deal.
On Friday, the US Airways pilots union is scheduled to release the results of a vote to approve or reject a memorandum of understanding with the carriers. Like the agreements signed by American's three major unions, it would outline details such as pay and seniority integration in a merger.
If the US Airways pilots reject the memorandum, it could delay a possible merger announcement. The airlines and the creditors committee had invited several unions into merger discussions to get a clearer picture of the labor costs that a combined airline may incur.
Last week, American asked the Bankruptcy Court to extend its exclusivity period to file a reorganization plan until April 15 from its current deadline of March 11.
If the carriers and the creditors committee work out a merger deal, the Bankruptcy Court would need to give other creditors time to examine it before approving a merger agreement.
The Miami Heat is offering South Florida high school seniors college scholarships for the 2013-2014 school year.
Four scholarships of $2,500 each will go to seniors who excel in academics and community service.
One of the four scholarships is reserved for a student who plays sports.
Applicants must have at least a 3.2 grade point average by their final semester in high school, attend school in Miami-Dade, Broward or Palm Beach counties, be accepted to an accredited four-year college or university and demonstrate financial need.
Applications are available at nba.com/heat/community/community_education_scholarships.html and must be submitted by April 6.
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