In Key West, women earn more than men

Key West is one of just four cities in the United States where the median income for women exceeds that of men, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The American Community Survey, which goes beyond population figures and analyzes comparative social, economic and educational data, found that nationwide, men older than 16 working full-time and year-round earn an average of $47,233.

The same group of women on average earns around 78 percent of that, $37,199.

But it's different in Key West; Sebring, Fla.,; Madera, Calif.; and Fort Payne, Ala., according to survey data from 2011, the most recent figures released.

In the Southernmost City, women on average earn $33,956 while men earn $31,716.

Tiffany Horton, director of sales at the Ocean Key Resort and Spa and formerly the revenue manager for the Marriot Beachside, pointed to Key West's hospitality-driven economy as an explanation.

"I think it's a great area of success for women because of their compassion and their motherly instinct," she said. "In hospitality, sales and the hotel industry, you have to relate to so many different people and understand different personalities and work with them."

In Sebring, total earnings for both groups are slightly less but women still out-earn men, taking in an average of $28,677 compared to $27,094.

Jodi Weinhofer, executive director of the Lodging Association of the Florida Keys and Key West, noted there are many high-level female executives and managers in Key West's hospitality industry, as well as numerous female guesthouse owners.

"I do think the hospitality industry is somewhat blind to men and women," she said. "In hospitality, it doesn't matter who you are. Across the board, it's all about performance."

Catherine Hill, director of research for the American Association of University Women, said of the comparative pay levels, "The big issue is what type of industries you have in that city."

"Every industry has its own drivers in terms of where you see higher wages, lower wages, more equality, and food service or hospitality is one of those," she said. "There's also such a thing as a culture. In some communities, you see a much more level playing field."

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Jewish liturgical music festival continues through Sunday

The Fifth International Festival of New Jewish Liturgical Music is being celebrated in Miami through Sunday. It will feature new works from composers from throughout the United States, Canada, Israel and the United Kingdom. The music reflects a diverse range of musical styles and traditions.

The six-day festival is presented by Shalshelet: The Foundation for New Jewish Liturgical Music and will include school and youth workshops and Shalshelet composers in residence at area congregations over Shabbat.

The main festival events will include workshops from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at Beth Torah Benny Rok Campus, 20350 NE 26th Ave., and the Festival Concert at 7 p.m.

As a part of the festival, composer Raquel Pomerantz Gershon, who is known for her uplifting, original take on Jewish sacred music, will sing her own songs and traditional prayers in the Kabbalat Shabbat service at 6 p.m. Friday at Beth David Congregaton, 2625 SW Third Ave. The service will be followed by a Shabbat dinner.

Gershon started composing songs in her teens and has won awards at past Shalshelet festivals. She has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Israel. She has recorded three CDs, including "Jerusalem on My Mind," and lives in Dallas with her husband Rabbi Bill Gershon and their three children.

For more information on the Kabbalat service and the dinner following the service, call 305-854-3911 or go to www.bethdavidmiami.org.

Wenski to say Mass for members of religious orders

Archbishop Thomas Wenski will celebrate a thanksgiving Mass for all consecrated men and women, who have chosen religious life. The Mass will be at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at St. Mary Cathedral, 7525 NW Second Ave. The Archdiocese of Miami will also celebrate those who this year will celebrate their 25th, 50th and 60th anniversaries of consecrated life.

Also, on Feb. 24, the 2013 Archbishop's Motorcycle Poker Run will take place at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary-St. Richard Catholic Church at 7500 SW 152nd St. in Palmetto Bay.

The event starts at 8 a.m. with Mass; registration at 9 a.m., and Kick Stands up at 9:30 a.m., with the poker run concluding at Peterson's Harley Davidson, 19400 NW Second Ave in Miami Gardens.

Registration is $25 for rider entrance fee, and includes a commemorative T-shirt. The winning hand receives a $500 Peterson's Harley Davidson gift card. Proceeds will benefit Catholic Charities and St. Luke's Center.

Art exhibit highlights graffiti

Catalyst, a program geared toward reaching out to the hip-hop youth culture in Miami and its sponsor, Greater Miami Youth For Christ, will have its first Graffiti Art Exhibit from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday at Pyramid Art Studios, 8890 SW 129th Terr in The Falls Art District.

Vivian Stigale, Catalyst spokeswoman said the exhibit is called "26," and will feature the work of 26 different street artists.

"It takes much skill, dedication and strength to do graffiti — aerosol art and street-style murals — and is often misunderstood and is frequently criminalized," Stigale said.

The Catalyst program, founded nearly a decade ago in Miami Springs by Joel Stigale, allows emcees, break dancers, graffiti artists and DJs to practice their art in a safe, drug-free environment while being challenged to embrace a relationship with Jesus Christ.

For more information call Bonnie Rodriguez or Vivian Stigale at 305-271-2442.

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Artists You Should Know: Emeli Sande

British recording artist and songwriter Emeli Sandé is already making waves in the UK and hopes to become the latest in a growing list of British musicians that have taken over the world in recent times. Her debut album Our Version of Events is the UK's biggest selling album of 2012 and with her lyrically rich songs powered by an incredible voice, I have no doubt she is the next Global superstar. I recently chatted with Emeli before her gig at the ChapStick Sessions Concert in partnership with MySpace. Check out our full interview below and be sure to watch the concert footage above for a special performance of her latest single, Next To Me.

PICS: Candid Celeb Sightings

ETonline: You are one of music's rising stars, have a number one album (UK) for Our Version of Events, sang at the open and closing of the Olympics, and a new hit single Next To Me, how has the ride to fame been for you?

Emeli: It definitely feels surreal. It's been an incredible year and so much has happened that I didn't expect to happen so quickly. It's definitely been the type of year that you dream about as a kid so I'm very happy.

How much would you say your life has changed?

Dramatically it's definitely changed a lot. But I try to keep grounded by just focusing on the music so that part hasn't changed. But day to day it's so busy and you have less and less time to have alone and to write but it's all good that's why you do it in the first place.

A lot of wonderful talent has emerged from the UK in recent years so I've got to ask you, what's in the water over there??

(Laughs) Yeah I'm not sure! It feels like a really good time and I'm really proud to be part of this kind of new generation of musicians that are doing something quite creative. I think we all feel kind of free to experiment with different genres and it's such a small place so we all know each other and can learn from one another.

Tell me about your writing process. Are certain types of songs more easily driven by a lyric or music?

Sometimes when I play something on piano, the tone of it can inspire a feeling. But usually it's a concept that will pop in to my mind or a phrase or if I'm reading something it will spark something or a different way of thinking about the same subject. Usually it's the words but sometimes when I sit at the piano it all falls into place.

What would you say is your favorite lyric you've ever written?

I really like "when the floor is more familiar than the ceiling," just because whenever I sing that lyric I imagine somebody stuck to the floor, someone stuck to the ceiling. I've always been inspired by people that can make you see things so clearly with few words. And that's what I try to channel when I'm writing.

Is there any artist you're hoping to collaborate with in the future? Who are you currently listening to?

I think Drake is amazing lyrically; he's really doing something different I think. I love Frank Ocean as well. There's a lot of new people too, Ed Sheeran ... there's a lot of people I think are great. I love Rihanna, everyone does, and I think what she's doing is very honest and I really respect that.

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Nixon advised President Clinton on navigating the post-Cold War world

YORBA LINDA, Calif. — In the final months of his life, Richard Nixon quietly advised President Bill Clinton on navigating the post-Cold War world, even offering to serve as a conduit for messages to Russian President Boris Yeltsin and other government officials, newly declassified documents show.

Memos and other records show Nixon's behind-the-scenes relations with the Clinton White House. The documents are part of an exhibit opening Friday at the Nixon Presidential Library, marking the centennial of his birth.

Clinton has talked often of his gratitude to Nixon for his advice on foreign affairs, particularly Russia. In a video that will be part of the exhibit, Clinton recalls receiving a letter from the 37th president shortly before his death on April 22, 1994, at a time when Clinton was assessing US relations "in a world growing ever more interdependent and yet ungovernable."

AP

President Nixon in 1969

"I sought guidance in the example of President Nixon, who came to the presidency at a time in our history when Americans were tempted to say, 'We've had enough of the world,'" Clinton says in the video. "But President Nixon knew we had to continue to reach out to old friends and to old enemies alike. He knew America could not quit the world."

The documents from late February and early March 1994 show Nixon, then 81, in his role of elder statesman. It was two decades after he left the White House in disgrace during Watergate.

The exhibit is an attempt to present a fuller picture of Nixon. It includes the wooden bench he often warmed as a second-rate football player in college, and illustrates events often eclipsed by the scandal that drove him from office.

Media reports from the time discussed interaction between Nixon and Clinton before his trip, including a phone call. The records, provided to The Associated Press by the library, fill in the backstory, detailing Nixon's advice as well as his willingness to assist U.S. interests abroad.

They include a confidential National Security Council memo from a senior Clinton aide who spent three hours with Nixon, shortly before the former president would make his 10th, and final, trip to Russia that year.

The aide, R. Nicholas Burns, writes that Nixon is generally supportive of White House policy on Russia but thinks the administration has not been tough enough when it comes to Russia's dealings with its neighbors. Nixon also advises that U.S. aid to Russia should be linked to US security aims, such as nuclear balance and a reduced threat from the Russian military, rather than emphasizing the value of domestic reforms there.

Nixon also offered to carry messages to Yeltsin and others as his own, the memo says.

The documents, released through Clinton's presidential library for the exhibit, also include talking points Clinton apparently used in his call with Nixon.

Nixon's trip to Russia was followed closely in the media, in part because Yeltsin froze the former president out of the Kremlin and took away bodyguards and a limousine the government had provided for him after Nixon held meetings with Yeltsin adversaries.

Yeltsin later backed off and urged Russian officials and parliament members to meet with Nixon.

In another glimpse into their relationship, a handwritten note will be on display from Nixon to Clinton that praises the former Arkansas governor's 1992 presidential campaign that helped put him in the White House. Nixon said the campaign was one of the best he had ever witnessed.

"The strongest steel must pass through the hottest fire. In enduring that ordeal you have demonstrated that you have the character to lead not just America but the forces of peace and freedom in the world," Nixon wrote.

Clinton in his younger days was no fan of Nixon — as a college student in the 1960s, he opposed escalation of the Vietnam War. And his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, was a young lawyer advising a House committee when she helped draw up impeachment papers against Nixon.

But Clinton's views changed. He led the nation in paying tribute to Nixon at his funeral in California in April 1994, declaring, "May the day of judging President Nixon on anything less than his entire life and career come to a close."

He later told interviewer Larry King that he was deeply grateful for Nixon's counsel since he took office and wished he could call the former president for advice.

Clinton echoed that statement in the video tribute.

"After he died, I found myself wishing I could pick up the phone and ask President Nixon what he thought about this issue or that problem, particularly if it involved Russia. I appreciated his insight and advice and I'm glad he chose, at the end of his life, to share it with me," Clinton says.

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American Airlines, US Airways announce merger

After a nearly yearlong courtship, the union became official Thursday: American Airlines and US Airways have formally announced plans to merge.

An early morning announcement by the airlines confirmed reports widely circulated after boards of both companies approved the merger late Wednesday.

The move brings stability to one of Miami-Dade County’s largest private employers more than a year after the airline and its parent company filed for bankruptcy, leaving the fate of thousands of employees — and the largest carrier at Miami International Airport — in question.

According to the Thursday announcement, the deal was approved unanimously by the boards of both companies, creating the world’s biggest airline with implied market value of nearly $11 billion, based on the Wednesday closing price of US Airways stock. The airline will have close to 100,000 employees, 1,500 aircraft, $38.7 billion in combined revenue.

The deal must be approved by American’s bankruptcy judge and antitrust regulators, but no major hurdles are expected.

Travelers won’t notice immediate changes. The new airline will be called American Airlines. It likely will be months before the frequent-flier programs are merged, and possibly years before the two airlines are fully combined. The new airline will be a member of the oneWorld airlines frequent flier alliance.

And for Miami travelers, it’s unlikely that much will change at any point. American and regional carrier American Eagle handled 68 percent of traffic at the airport last year, while US Airways accounted for just 2 percent. American boasts 328 flights to 114 destinations from Miami.

“We don’t expect any substantial changes at MIA if the merger occurs because our traffic is largely driven by the strength of the Miami market and not the airlines serving it,” said airport spokesman Greg Chin.

American has said for more than a year that its long-term plan calls for increasing departures at key hubs, including Miami, by 20 percent. That pledge has already started to materialize; in recent months, the airline has added new service to Asuncion, Paraguay and Roatán, Honduras.

During its bankruptcy restructuring, about 400 American employees lost jobs, leaving American and its regional carrier, American Eagle, with 9,894 employees in Miami-Dade County and 43 in Fort Lauderdale. US Airways has few employees in the area.

“It really isn’t going to affect Miami in a very major way anytime soon,” said Michael Boyd, an aviation consultant in Evergreen, Colo. “Only because US Airways isn’t a big player in South Florida.”

At Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, American and US Airways combined would still only be the fifth-largest airline after Southwest, Spirit, JetBlue and Delta, a spokesman said. The two airlines have little overlap in routes from Fort Lauderdale.

Despite the lack of major changes, Boyd said the merger would be a good development for Miami.

“It should be positive for the employees and it should be positive for the communities that the airlines serve,” he said.

Robert Herbst, an independent airline analyst and consultant, said US Airways will add a “significant amount” of destinations in the Northeast, including Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

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Key West’s ‘Scrub Club’ reportedly scrubbing debit cards of adult-entertainment clients

Key West has a long-held reputation as an anything-goes party town that tolerates -- and in many cases facilitates -- an array of bawdy pastimes.

A stroll down Duval Street yields strip clubs, clothing-optional bars and establishments catering to alternative lifestyles. But the Adult Entertainment Club, formerly and colloquially known as the Scrub Club, at 1221 Duval is different.

In the 765-day period between Jan. 1, 2011, and this past Feb. 4, Key West police logged 301 calls related to the Adult Entertainment Club -- that's a call every 2.5 days, a staggering number for an 800-square-foot place in a neighborhood otherwise populated by cafes, wine shops, boutiques and art galleries.

The main complaint: Unauthorized use of customers' debit or credit cards, often to the tune of thousands of dollars.

The club's website, signs and brochures offer scantily clad women available for "bachelor parties, fantasy and fetish shows, nude snorkeling, nude parasailing [and] divorce parties." It offers "free shuttle and 24/7 escort service."

But the voluminous police reports, along with a long trail of Internet posts, message-board threads and complaints with the Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida and the Caribbean, paint a far different picture of what goes on inside. But barring specific complaints, the Key West Police Department has no plan to take a closer look.

The pattern is usually the same:

It's late at night and an intoxicated man steps inside, where he pays an entrance fee, usually more than $100. That begins a conversation with one of the female employees, described on the business website as "classy and sophisticated," leading to a private room.

From there, it's not clear what goes on other than the price goes up, the man supplies his debit card and personal identification number to the woman -- he's generally nude at this point -- and she leaves the room. Later on, the man notices unauthorized charges on his card and contacts police.

Case in point: On Feb. 4 around 2 a.m., a Russian tourist who told police "he had been drinking" went into the club and agreed to pay $100, according to a report prepared by Officer David Fraga.

"While in the club [the tourist] said he gave his ATM card to one of the employees along with his PIN." Four hours later, "He saw there was a total amount of about $2,500 charged on his card."

Fraga told the man to "go to the business and fill out a complaint form for the issue."

A few days earlier, on Jan. 31, a man from St. Johns, Fla., called police to report that on Jan. 26, when he was in town visiting, he went into the Adult Entertainment Club and "agreed to pay $200 with one of the females working on this date for sex," according to a report prepared by Officer Tricia Milliken.

He also said he agreed to tip the female $100 prior to the services being rendered and gave her his Visa debit card and PIN. He "stated he expected sex from the female and she would not give him what he expected, so he got dressed and left the establishment."

When he returned to St. Johns, he said he realized his card was charged $1,000, not $100. Milliken provided him with a case number.

Police spokeswoman Alyson Crean said the department has heard the Adult Entertainment Club is about more than just "entertainment," but that the department focuses its attention on higher-priority initiatives like dealing with aggressive vagrants drinking and panhandling on city streets, and quelling drug dealing.

"We do not get complaints of prostitution," she said via e-mail. "Certainly there are intimations and innuendoes that this activity may be occurring. That being said, without any complaints, there are other, higher priorities set by the community and by the department."

"Look at the issue of vagrancy and panhandling. A task force made up of business owners, residents and even the mayor has told the department that the community will not tolerate certain behaviors, and we have four quality-of-life officers dedicated to seeing that priority is addressed."

"Getting drug dealers off the streets is another issue that the community has made very clear is a top priority for our city. Same thing with reducing incidents of burglary. So in those terms, I would answer that there is no specific enforcement strategy for this business."

The city's Code Compliance Department has been more proactive, fining the business $500 last year after investigating offsite promotional and solicitation activity. Basically, club employees would park their advertisement-emblazoned vehicle in other parts of Old Town and hand out brochures for the business in violation of code.

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Oscar Nominees Before They Were Famous

As hard as it may be to believe, Oscar nominees Bradley Cooper, Ben Affleck, Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway and Jennifer Lawrence were once fresh-faced actors itching for their big break in the biz.

Pics: Star Sightings!

Click the video to see the five stars (before they became famous) in their very first on-screen roles!

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In weekly audience, Pope Benedict XVI says he's resigning for 'the good of the church'

VATICAN CITY — Looking tired but serene, Pope Benedict XVI told the thousands who gathered for his weekly audience that he was resigning for "the good of the church" — an extraordinary scene that unfolded in his first appearance since dropping the bombshell announcement.

The 85-year-old Benedict basked in more than a minute-long standing ovation when he entered the packed hall for his traditional Wednesday catechism lesson. He was interrupted repeatedly by applause, and many in the audience of thousands had tears in their eyes.

A huge banner reading "Grazie Santita" (Thank you Your Holiness) was strung up at the back of the room.

REUTERS

Pope Benedict XVI blesses at the end of his Wednesday general audience at the Vatican today.

Benedict appeared wan and spoke very softly, but his eyes twinkled with joy at the flock's warm and heartfelt welcome. He repeated in Italian what he had told his cardinals Monday in Latin: that he simply didn't have the strength to continue.

"As you know, I have decided to renounce the ministry that the Lord gave to me on April 19, 2005," he said, to applause. "I did this in full liberty for the good of the church."

He thanked the faithful for their prayers and love, which he said he had "physically felt in these days that haven't been easy for me." And he asked them to "to continue to pray for me, the church, and the future pope."

The atmosphere was festive and warm, if somewhat bittersweet, as if the faithful were trying to persuade Benedict to stay with them for just a bit longer. A chorus of Italian schoolchildren serenaded him with one of his favorite hymns in German — a gesture that won over the pope, who thanked them for singing a piece "particularly dear to me."

"He gave us eight wonderful years of his words," Ileana Sviben, an Italian from the northern city of Trieste who couldn't hide her sadness. "He was a wonderful theologian and pastor."

The Rev. Reinaldo Braga Jr., a Brazilian priest studying theology in Rome, said he too was saddened when he first heard the news.

"The atmosphere was funereal but nobody had died," he said. "But then I realized it was a wise act for the entire church. He taught the church and the world that the papacy is not about power but about service."

It was a sentiment the retiring Benedict himself emphasized Wednesday when he told his flock that the "path of power is not the road of God."

The audience included groups of nuns waving papal flags, and among the clerics, US Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned as archbishop of Boston at the height of the clerical sex abuse scandal in the United States.

Benedict is the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years, and the decision has placed the Vatican in uncharted waters: No one knows what he'll be called or what he'll wear after Feb. 28.

The Vatican, however, has made it clear that Benedict will play no role in the election of his successor, and once retired, he will be fully retired. He plans to live a life of prayer in a converted monastery on the far northern edge of the Vatican gardens.

As a result, Benedict's final public appearances — his last general audience will be Feb. 27 — are expected to draw great crowds, as they may well represent some of the last public speeches for a man who has spent his life — as a priest, a cardinal and a pope — teaching and preaching.

And they will also represent a way for the faithful to say farewell under happier circumstances than when his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, died in 2005.

"We were just coming for vacation, and now we are getting all of this!" marveled Terry Rodger, a tourist from New Orleans as he headed to the audience. "I am very excited. I'm surprised."

The audience was the start of a busy day for Benedict: he will also preside over Ash Wednesday services later in the day to mark the official start of the Catholic Church's solemn Lenten season. The service is usually held in a church on Rome's Aventine hill, but was moved at the last minute to St. Peter's Basilica. The Vatican said the shift was made to accommodate the crowds, though it will also spare the pope the usual procession to the church.

The Vatican insisted no serious medical ailment was behind Benedict's decision to retire, though it admitted for the first time on Tuesday that Benedict has had a pacemaker for years and recently had its battery replaced.

The move sets the stage for a conclave of cardinals by mid-March to elect a new pope.

"It is the perfect occasion to give a cordial and affectionate goodbye to this pope who has given us a great example of courage, humility, inner honesty, and a great love for the church," said Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli, head of the Vatican's communications office.

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Marriott skyscraper coming to old Miami Arena site?

Is a massive new skyscraper coming to the site of the old Miami Arena?

Two of the city’s top real estate blogs caused a stir Tuesday when they shared an architect’s video rendering of a huge tower called the Marriott at MWC. The video posted on YouTube by Nichols Brosch’s Igor Reyes was a computer-generated aerial shot of a potential mixed-use complex superimposed on the site. The land is owned by the developers of the proposed Miami World Center, a stretch of lots last recently positioned as a possible home to a Las Vegas Sands casino.

ExMiami .org posted the video first, followed by Curbed Miami, at miami.curbed.com. “If this is an actual thing, and not just an architect's dream, then this is biiiiig news,” Curbed wrote. Shortly after the posts, the Reyes video was made private. Nichols Brosch did not immediately respond to an interview request.

Representatives of the Miami World Center group, which includes Art Falcone and Nitin Mitwani, declined to comment, a spokeswoman said. The old arena site was turned into a park and then sold to the Miami World Center group last year. Marriott spokesman John Wolf said Tuesday: “We are always interested in development opportunities. It would be premature to comment any further.”

DOUGLAS HANKS

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Miami-Dade police officer stabbed during prisoner transport near Dallas

Authorities are looking for an escaped prisoner who reportedly stabbed a Miami-Dade police officer outside a Walmart in Grapevine, Texas.

Alberto Morales, 42, was being taken to Las Vegas for a court appearance when officers stopped at the store just outside of Dallas, around 11 p.m. Monday according to reports from NBC6.

Texas news stations are reporting the officers and the suspect decided to drive to Las Vegas from the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. During a “pit stop” at the Walmart, the suspect grabbed a sharp object and stabbed one of the accompanying officers in the back.

The unidentified Miami-Dade officer was taken to Parkland Hospital where he underwent surgery and is expected to recover, according to reports.

Morales was wearing a belly band with his hands shackled to it at the time of his escape. Police said he may still be in shackles.

This report will be updated with more information.

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