Florida lawmakers to angry voters: We hear you

TALLAHASSEE --
What a difference an election can make.

As legislators return to Tallahassee for their two-month-long annual session, beginning Tuesday, they will tackle some of the state’s most intractable problems, and they vow to do it with a new tone.

From property insurance and foreclosure reform to implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and shoring up the state’s embattled education system, the issues are complicated and challenging.

Much of the debate in recent years has been driven by ideology, but this year the Republican-led Legislature faces no election. After Florida voted to reelect Democrat Barack Obama, the political rhetoric of GOP leaders has inched closer to the middle. The Legislature is undergoing an image makeover.

“In recent years, we may have done things that were more politically driven than policy driven,’’ said Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, the Senate Rules chairman, who is both a former speaker of the House and chairman of the Republican Party. “The longer you’re in, the more you realize you don’t know everything, and you may need to step back and adjust a little bit to move forward in a positive direction.”

Legislative leaders who campaigned against the president’s signature issue, healthcare reform, are now drafting legislation to implement it.

“The law is the law,’’ said Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville. “A lot of my friends don’t want to believe that. They believe that they can nullify Obamacare or we can pretend that it didn’t pass … but we are a nation of laws, and not a nation that develops our public policy on the passion of the moment.”

In other areas, decades-long fights over whether to tax internet sales in Florida could be resolved with a bill getting unprecedented attention this year. For the first time in six years, legislators are prepared to take on the utility giants and rewrite a law that has given power companies free rein to charge customers for nuclear power plants before they are built. A bill to ban texting while driving is also getting new traction.

And to improve the Legislature’s low rankings in the polls, lawmakers are on track to pass two bills early in the session with broad bi-partisan support: a rewrite of the state’s ethics laws and another to restore early voting days back to 14 from eight after the Election Day embarrassment.

“Yes, the Legislature made a mistake in the bill that we passed in the last two years,’’ said Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, who is shepherding the elections reform and ethics bills through the Senate. But he also blamed local elections supervisors for impeding early voting by failing to open more polling sites for it. “There’s enough blame to go around.”

Thrasher, who represents four northwest Florida counties, said voters sent him a message when, for the first time in his career, he lost one of his counties.

“All of us can learn from the past,’’ he said.

The election gave Democrats two new seats in the 40-member Senate, the first net gain in 30 years, and they picked up five seats in the 120-member House. Republicans still dominate with a 76-44 advantage in the House and a 26-14 majority in the Senate, but the margins ended the GOP’s veto-proof two-thirds majority.

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Modern Family Stars Get Stuck in Crowded Elevator

No good deed goes unpunished.

PICS: Candid Celeb Sightings

While on their way to a fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Kansas City on Friday night, three stars of ABC's hit sitcom Modern Family were trapped in a crowded elevator for almost an hour, ABC News reports.

Julie Bowen, Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson took pictures together during the ordeal, which Ferguson posted to his Twitter account.

"This is us right now. 45 minutes stuck in this elevator," Ferguson wrote, captioning the snapshot from the Sheraton Kansas City Hotel's third floor.

The actors were an hour late to the event after the Kansas City Fire Department rescued them, but they maintained a good sense of humor about their plight, reportedly joking about the ordeal on stage.

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Yes, Manti — they’re all real

Now that his fake-girlfriend nightmare is over, NFL prospect Manti Te’o scouts a squad of leggy cheerleaders in Atlantic City.

The Notre Dame linebacker was accepting the Maxwell Award and Chuck Bednarik Award as last year’s top player. At Friday’s ceremony, he dodged questions about his online romance with a terminally ill girl that was revealed to be a hoax.

WireImage

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When the latest layoff story is about you

It’s an odd feeling reading in the newspaper about losing your job. I didn’t learn about being fired in the newspaper but the story of losing my position was there. Why I lost my job (along with more than a dozen of my colleagues) was the lead story in the business section of The Miami Herald on Feb. 22. It even had a picture of me right next to the paragraph describing how we lost our jobs with the public television program Nightly Business Report.

What’s nice about sharing your employment woes with the entire community is the outpouring of support you get. I received dozens of emails from friends, fans and colleagues across the country, expressing sympathy and pledging to help any way they could. It is humbling to hear how you have impacted people’s lives, especially those you don’t know directly. The range of emotions you feel when you face a job loss can be overwhelming, but a short email or voicemail from an associate can lift your spirits, giving you the strength to press on. The medium of the messages does not matter. A tweet of support, LinkedIn endorsement or text message of sympathy fuels the encouragement to face the anxiety of joblessness.

After news of my job elimination was in the newspaper and blogosphere, there were compassionate glances from fellow parents on the sidelines of the kids’ weekend soccer games. I didn’t have to break the news — most had already read about it. A pedestrian on the sidewalk stopped me in mid-stride to express his disappointment. The inevitable questions came: What are you going to do? Will you stay? Do you have anything you’re working on?

I am lucky my employment status was on the business front page. Thousands of other people are treated as statistics. As a business journalist, I have been guilty of that. Company layoffs numbering in the dozens as ours did rarely demand attention. The cuts have to be in the thousands to have any hope of getting much media attention. Even then, it’s only a number. The names of those losing their jobs are known only to their HR departments, in order to fill out the paperwork. It’s unfortunate, but that’s the nature of job loss. Each job cut is a story that begins en masse in boardrooms and offices but plays out individually in kitchens and living rooms across America.

In January, there were more than 1,300 mass layoffs of U.S. workers. A mass layoff impacts at least 50 people from a single company. More than 134,000 individuals were involved in such action, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. My job loss and that of my colleagues won’t show up in February’s report. There were too few of us. Some of us will appear in other employment data, but we will be just statistics. Each of those statistics has groceries to buy, bills to pay and hope for a new opportunity.

In a $16 trillion economy, it’s understandable that we become statistics. The stakes are just too big to pick up the noise from any of our individual unemployment stories. The weekly and government reports I have spent my career reporting on don’t ask why. They don’t ask who. They only ask how many. It’s our friends and family and colleagues who ask, “How can I help?”

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Attorney for dad of missing Hallandale Beach baby says evidence was damaged

The tiny bones recovered from a backyard grave have a story to tell: Are these the remains of Dontrell Melvin, a baby whose family didn’t report him missing for 18 months? And how was the baby killed?

According to notes in the Hallandale Beach police lead investigator’s file, there was blunt force trauma to the child’s cranium after his death, likely caused during the search and recovery of the skeleton.

And that, says attorney Ed Hoeg, who is representing the baby’s father, could have an impact on the case against his client.

“If evidence is compromised, it could change how the case goes,” Hoeg said. “You would hope the evidence would be in pristine condition.”

Meanwhile, the missing child’s parents remain in Broward County jails. Brittney Sierra, 21, faces two counts of felony child neglect; Calvin Melvin, 27, was charged with three felony counts of providing false information to police.

But those charges could be increased if a Texas lab confirms that DNA from a tiny skeleton unearthed in January behind the couple’s former Hallandale Beach rental home matches that of their baby, Dontrell Melvin.

Dontrell, who would have turned 2 last month, had not been seen for nearly 18 months before police learned of his disappearance on Jan 9.

At first, Melvin told Hallandale Beach police that the child was with his family in Pompano Beach. But when police went there, they were told by the grandparents that they didn’t have the child and hadn’t seen him.

During questioning by police, Melvin changed his story several times, investigators said.

At one point, he told them he’d taken the baby to a fire station under Florida’s Safe Haven Law.

But police didn’t believe him and began questioning Sierra, as well. The couple, who have another child together, pointed fingers at one another, police said.

Their answers led police to the backyard of their former rental home at 106 NW First Ave.

It was there that tiny bones were found.

Nearly 90 percent of the baby’s remains were recovered and reconstructed. An initial review of the bones did not reveal any trauma to the bones, said Hallandale Beach Police Chief Dwayne Flournoy.

However, on Jan. 25, forensic anthropologist Heather Walsh-Haney briefed investigators, including Flournoy, Maj. Thomas Honan and Capt. P. Abut, on the case. In his notes, a Hallandale Beach investigator, who was not identified, wrote: “Dr. Walsh-Haney stated that there were no signs of perimortem blunt trauma. However, there was evidence of a postmortem blunt trauma to the cranium. She stated that said postmortem trauma had probably occurred during the search and recovery of the skeleton.”

The notes were provided to The Miami Herald by Hoeg.

The damage to the cranium, Hoeg said, could prove problematic for the case against his client.

“If there is only trauma afterward, did the damage destroy evidence?” he said.

But on Friday, Police Chief Flournoy insisted there was not any damage caused post-mortem to the skeleton. “The bones were not compromised in any way,” said Flournoy.

Regardless, the Texas lab working to identify the baby’s remains has enough evidence to work with.

All a scientist needs is a small bone fragment to create a DNA profile, said John Fudenberg, the president-elect for International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners.

“Unless there is significant trauma noted, it’s very difficult for a medical examiner to determine the cause of death,” Fudenberg added.

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Ellen DeGeneres Pens Open Letter to Supreme Court to Pass Prop 8 for Gay Marriage

With a touch of her trademark humor, Ellen DeGeneres tackles a very serious topic close to the talk show host's heart: gay marriage.

In an open letter posted to her website, Ellen reaches out to members of the Supreme Court, who will soon decide the fate of same-sex couples who wish to wed.

Pics: 'Amazing Race' Stars Cheer Up Bullied Gay Fan

"Portia and I have been married for 4 years and they have been the happiest of my life," she blogs of her longtime partner Portia De Rossi. "And in those 4 years, I don't think we hurt anyone else's marriage. I asked all of my neighbors and they say they're fine."

Ellen, who tied the knot in 2008 during a brief period when gay marriage was legal in California, now urges the powers that be to open their heart and extend the privilege to every gay couple.

"I hope the Supreme Court will do the right thing, and let everyone enjoy the same rights," Ellen writes. "It's going to help keep families together. It's going to make kids feel better about who they are. And it is time."

Related: Neil Patrick Harris: I Knew I was Gay at 6

In closing the comedian writes, "In the words of Benjamin Franklin, 'We're here, we're queer, get over it.'"

Read Ellen's entire plea to the supreme court here.

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How the West won Square

Jack Dorsey wanted to base his tech start-up, Square, in New York City — but he was in a hurry.

The 36-year-old Twitter co-founder said he changed his plan and based the payments platform in San Francisco because access to engineering talent was easier out West — and he wanted to build Square quickly.

Dorsey, a New York University dropout, made the comments at the school alongside his longtime investor Fred Wilson, of Union Square Ventures, who was chosen to be an early backer of Twitter because of his Big Apple moxie.

“He’s got that New York aggression,” Dorsey said of Wilson. “In Silicon Valley you have a lot of passive aggression.”

That attitude gave Wilson’s Union Square Ventures a leg up in its bid to invest in Twitter, he said.

The two were the featured event at NYU’s Entrepreneurs Festival, which runs through this weekend.

Twitter, which turns seven this month, is a $10 billion company likely headed for a public offering. Four-year-old Square raised $200 million last year at a more than $3 billion valuation.

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Tom Hudson: China’s new leaders plan quiet transition

If everything goes smoothly, you won’t hear much out of China in the new week. And that’s the way its new leaders want it. Even though the world’s second largest economy officially seats a new president and premier, the beginning of China’s parliamentary session on Tuesday comes without the usual pomp and circumstance. Instead, China’s new leaders hope to show their own version of austerity. For instance, there will be no booze at official meals.

The party leaders want a sober beginning to their terms as the hope for a more sober Chinese economy. They want to avoid any significant pronouncements that could threat China’s gentle economic recovery. The country’s biggest trading partner, Europe, continues to struggle, tensions with Japan have been rising and Chinese workers have been demanding (and in some cases getting) pay raises. Chinese home prices have heated up again as the Beijing government moved late last year to stimulate its economy.

It came after China’s economy grew at its slowest pace in 13 years. The new government knows that its political stability depends upon a steady economy. With choking air pollution, a horrendous record on food safety and sanctioned corruption, the new slate of leaders taking their seats this week would like to reduce China’s reliance on exports to fuel its economic expansion, reassure its trading partners it wants to play fair and stoke a steady and sustainable rise of living standards.

Since early December as the stimulus efforts began, the Shanghai Stock Exchange index has shot up 21 percent. Electricity production is rising and manufacturing has rebounded too. But the political volume has been muted.

Tom Hudson is a financial journalist based in Miami. He is the former co-anchor and managing editor of Nightly Business Report on public television.

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’Les Mis’ touring company works out to stay in shape at Wilton Manors gym

Even if you’re a Broadway dancer in top shape, it’s not easy looking good and staying fit when you’re on the road with a show like Les Misérables.

"Touring is a difficult life because you’re constantly moving," said Trinity Wheeler, production stage manager for the Les Mis touring company, playing through Sunday at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami.

"It’s not like you can go to a grocery store and have a kitchen and cook the foods that you want and have a consistent workout schedule. We created something that is consistent for the cast," said Wheeler, who is also a certified trainer. "Eating out every meal and stuff can be challenging to stay healthy. Being healthy and on tour is a goal we all try to accomplish."

Thursday morning, Wheeler held a “Guns of the Barricade” boot camp at Steel Gym in Wilton Manors. The workout session allows cast members and others to stay in shape while they’re on the road, Wheeler said.

The Les Mis touring company has 89 people who travel with the show: cast members, crew and musicians, according to Wheeler.

"It’s a large group of people that have this nomadic lifestyle," he said. "Having fitness incorporated into it, you feel better, you wake up, have more energy. It’s been really great for us as individuals, but also for the show."

Among the touring cast members: Wheeler’s partner, Alan Shaw, who plays Joly. The couple own a house in Fort Lauderdale’s Poinsettia Heights neighborhood.

" Les Mis is three hours long and we do eight shows a week. I realized early on because I’ve been with the show over two years now that if I don’t take care of my body and if I don’t eat right and if I don’t really stay on top of it, I can’t do eight shows a week," Shaw said. "We’re onstage in front of 2,000 people on average every night. You have to look your best. It’s part of our job."

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The CW Says Goodbye to 90210

The CW's remake of the '90s hit show 90210 will reportedly end its five-year run in May.

PICS: The High School Hotties of 90210

According to Us Weekly, the show (starring AnnaLynne McCord, Shenae Grimes, Matt Lanter, Jessica Stroup and Jessica Lowndes) has been canceled due to meager ratings.

The show has reportedly averaged 1.23 million viewers this season, being overshadowed by new hits The Vampire Diaries and Arrow.

"The CW has had five great seasons with America's favorite zip code, 90210," CW network president Mark Pedowitz announced in a statement. "I'd like to thank the talented cast, producers, and crew for all their hard work and dedication to the series. We are very proud of the West Beverly High alumni."

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Wireless deal in doubt

John Paulson is moving against MetroPCS.

The hedge-fund billionaire, whose Paulson & Co. hedge fund is the biggest shareholder of the wireless carrier, said yesterday he intends to vote against the proposed sale to T-Mobile.

“MetroPCS is contributing 42 percent to the pro forma company’s value but its shareholders are only receiving 26 percent of the pro forma company’s equity,” the firm said.

Paulson’s opposition throws the success of the deal into doubt.

T-Mobile, America’s fourth-largest carrier, has reached a deal to buy 74 percent of pre-paid leader MetroPCS in a stock and cash transaction.

The March 28 vote by shareholders is expected to be close, said a source.

Private-equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners, which in 2005 bought into MetroPCS and owns an 8.3 percent stake, supports the merger.

Paulson & Co., in a letter, said, “We believe that as an independent company MetroPCS will be able to pursue a higher value transaction with industry peers than previously made offers at significant premiums to MetroPCS’ current [$9.80] share price.

The hedge fund could be alluding to Sprint, which has been rumored to be interested in the company — but sources with direct knowledge of the situation said Sprint has no present plans to make a counter-proposal.

jkosman@nypost.com

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Don’t get too personal on LinkedIn

Have you ever received a request to connect on LinkedIn from someone you didn’t know or couldn’t remember?

A few weeks ago, Josh Turner encountered this situation. The online request to connect came from a businessman on the opposite coast of the United States. It came with a short introduction that ended with “Let’s go Blues!” a reference to Turner’s favorite hockey team in St. Louis that he had mentioned in his profile. “It was a personal connection … that’s building rapport.”

LinkedIn is known for being the professional social network where members expect you to keep buttoned-down behavior and network online like you would at a business event. With more than 200 million registered users, the site facilitates interaction as a way to boost your stature, gain a potential customer or rub elbows with a future boss.

But unlike most other social networking sites, LinkedIn is all about business — and you need to take special care that you act accordingly. As in any workplace, the right amount of personal information sharing could be the foot in the door, say experts. The wrong amount could slam it closed.

“Anyone in business needs a professional online presence,’’ says Vanessa McGovern, the VP of Business Development for the Global Institute for Travel Entrepreneurs and a consultant to business owners on how to use LinkedIn. But they should also heed LinkedIn etiquette or risk sending the wrong messages.

One of the biggest mistakes, McGovern says is getting too personal — or not personal enough.

Sending a request to connect blindly equates to cold calling and likely will lead nowhere. Instead, it should come with a personal note, an explanation of who you are, where you met, or how the connection can benefit both parties, McGovern explains.

Your profile should get a little personal, too, she says. “Talk about yourself in the first person and add a personal flair — your goals, your passion … make yourself seem human.”

Beyond that, keep your LinkedIn posts, invitations, comments and photos professional, McGovern says.

If you had a hard day at the office or your child just won an award, you may want to share it with your personal network elsewhere — but not on LinkedIn.

“This is not Facebook. Only share what you would share at a professional networking event,” she says.

Another etiquette pitfall on LinkedIn is the hit and run — making a connection and not following up.

At least once a week, Ari Rollnick, a principal in kabookaboo, an integrated marketing agency in Coral Gables, gets a request to connect with someone on LinkedIn that he has never met or heard of before. The person will have no connections in common and share no information about why they want to build a rapport.

“I won’t accept. That’s a lost opportunity for them,” Rollnick says.

He approaches it differently. When Rollnick graduated from Emory with an MBA in 2001, he had a good idea that his classmates would excel in the business world. Now, Rollnick wanted to find out just where they went and reestablish a connection.

With a few clicks, he tracked down dozens of them on LinkedIn, requested a connection, and was back on their radar. Then came the follow-up — letting them know through emails, phone calls and posts that he was creating a two-way street for business exchange. “Rather than make that connection and disappearing , I let them know I wanted to open the door to conversation.”

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2006 report detailed problems with Havana Palms condos in Little Havana

In January 2006, executives at Montara Land V, LLC, hired a firm to do an analysis of the roof, structure, plumbing, and other conditions of an apartment complex in Little Havana that they wanted to convert to condominiums.

This report, submitted to the state department that regulates conversions, concluded that the buildings, constructed in 1946, barely had five more years of “useful life.” The cost for repairs would be about $700,000, according to the analysis by architect James Chastanet.

“My report was based on the age of the building and on a visual inspection,” said Chastanet, who did not see structural damage. “It’s an old building and that had to be clearly highlighted in the report, which serves as disclosure for potential buyers.”

Montara Land’s executives presented this information to the 19 buyers, most of them low-income people who relied on government help to buy their condominiums between December 2006 and July 2010. Yet many of them never read this information, which was included as part of a large package of documents from the Havana Palms condominium association.

Last month, seven years after the analysis, the living-room floor of one of the condominiums collapsed and the owner had to move. The floors in other units also do not appear to be firm.

Aníbal Duarte-Viera, one of the partners of Montara Land, said Monday that he would have never knowingly bought a property with structural damage.

“As an investor, why would I do that?” asked Duarte-Viera. “I bought that property because it was pretty and it was a moment when everybody was making these conversions to condominiums.”

Public records show that Duarte-Viera and business partner Gabriel De la Campa bought the complex in 2005 for $2.5 million and invested about $120,000 in repairs to the electrical system and water pipes besides installing a central air conditioning system, according to city permits. They also installed tiles on the floors, though they did not get a city permit for that.

Duarte-Viera, a lawyer, said he had little involvement in managing the complex and therefore could not answer questions about repairs or the conversion, even though his signature appears on various documents. De la Campa has not responded to multiple calls from el Nuevo Herald in recent weeks.

The documents that Montara Land submitted to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation in Tallahassee indicate that the company deposited $62,000 in special accounts for roof and plumbing repairs as required by state laws.

Apparently, they were not obliged to open a reserve account for other structural repairs, although they had to make monthly payments to the association for each of the 32 condominiums for the general maintenance of the complex. As soon as they sold the condominiums, the responsibility for those payments — between $162 and $222 per month — passed to the new owners.

The Havana Palms unit owners began to notice in 2009 that the floors in some condominiums were sinking. Montara Land began some repairs. Records indicate the work was never completed.

By 2011, after the real estate market plunged, Montara sold the remaining 13 condominiums to investor Constantino Cicchelli for $475,000.

For now, a group of Havana Palms owners is talking to an attorney who has agreed to take their case pro bono. Meanwhile, city officials have asked the owners to present a repair plan for the floors to avoid a mass eviction.

Duarte-Viera said Wednesday that the condo owners should determine the extent of the structural damage and how it started. He added that he is willing to pay for a detailed evaluation.

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Christina Applegate's Gorgeous Wedding Ring

Christina Applegate and longtime boyfriend Martyn Noble said 'I do' on Saturday and now we have a look at the actress' stunning sparkler.

PICS: Most Memorable Celeb Weddings of All-Time

The dazzling diamond ring by Neil Lane completed Applegate's wedding attire along with a gown by Maria Lucia Hohan.

The event took place during a private ceremony at the couple's Los Angeles home. This marks Applegate's second marriage, as she divorced former husband Johnathon Schaech in 2007.

RELATED: Christina Applegate Ties the Knot!

Applegate and Noble share one child together, two-year-old daughter Sadie.

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LI man, ‘insider,’ arrested

Federal prosecutors charged a Long Island man with insider trading yesterday after he supposedly sold an advance earnings report to an undercover FBI agent for $7,000.

Damian Perna, 30, who works at Merrill Lynch, obtained draft earnings reports for several publicly traded firms before they were released, according to charges.

Perna, who lives in Oceanside, joined forces with unidentified cohorts and used the illegal information to make a series of trades from June 2011 through last October, said US Attorney Loretta Lynch.

Officials emphasized that Perna’s alleged misconduct took place before he worked at Merrill Lynch.

Getty Images

Loretta Lynch

Perna pleaded not guilty at a hearing yesterday.

Prosecutors told the judge that Perna had advance reports for Consolidated Graphics, Miller Industries and the Alamo Group — each listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Magistrate Judge Ramon Reyes released Perna on $100,000 bond.

mmaddux@nypost.com

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Would-be convention center developers make pitches to Miami Beach residents

Developers on Wednesday presented Miami Beach residents with competing ideas for what the city’s Convention Center could look like after an overhaul.

It was the public’s first glimpse of what could become of the 52-acre site. Two heavy-hitting teams are competing for the project, which could cost up to $1 billion.

Both teams – Portman-CMC and South Beach ACE – stressed that the concepts presented Wednesday were only preliminary ideas.

Both teams’ proposals focus on creating lush greenscapes and ways to connect the enormous convention center with abutting neighborhoods – things that residents at a prior public meeting asked of the developers.

To do that, Portman-CMC, the team led by Portman Holdings, proposed several scenarios. In one, a diagonal plaza would grace the corner of the current convention center property, creating a string of parks to connect the center to the existing Miami Beach Botanical Garden and SoundScape Park.

The design focused on creating shade through both the buildings and landscaping, which is basically nonexistent now.

“This place is a black hole in terms of green, in terms of trees. We aim to change that," said Jamie Maslyn Larson, a Partner of West 8, the company partnering with Portman to landscape the project.

West 8 also worked on Miami Beach’s SoundScape Park, which features free outdoor movies and audio and video feeds of performances at the adjoining New World Symphony.

South Beach ACE, the team led by Tishman Hotel and Realty, proposed an underground parking area to hide idling trucks and buses – an issue that residents have complained about. Above the parking lot would be a rolling greenspace, and views of the now-ignored Collins Canal would be incorporated.

World-renowned architect Rem Koolhaas, part of the South Beach ACE team, called the current convention center a "serious problem" in the middle of the "idyllic" Miami Beach. His team’s design aims to correct that.

Tishman’s proposal also preserves the current Jackie Gleason Theater. Residents have debated whether the theater, which is not deemed historic, deserves to be preserved. The Tishman proposal would essentially remove a back wall of the theater to create a two-stage amphitheater.

Portman-CMC has not made a decision about whether the theater itself would stay, but spoke to preserving the legacy of Gleason himself. The team launched a website to get more resident feedback about its proposal: www.portmancmcmiamibeach.com.

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Broward commissioner withdraws pit bull ban proposal

Pit bull lovers came out in force on Tuesday to oppose a county commissioner’s effort to get the breed banned in Broward County.

After hearing dozens make emotional pleas, County Commissioner Barbara Sharief agreed to withdraw her proposal for a ban and work with experts to help keep neighborhoods safe from all dangerous dogs.

Read the full story at Sun-Sentinel.com.

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Tina Fey and Amy Poehler Will Never Host the Oscars Together

To the dismay of William Shatner and fans around the world, Tina Fey recently revealed that she has no intention of ever emceeing the Academy Awards ceremony with or without her BFF, and Golden Globes co-host, Amy Poehler.

Pics: The 2013 Oscars!

When asked if she'd ever consider the gig, Fey told The Huffington Post that she wouldn't dare sign up for the task because the Oscars are far too much work.

"I just feel like that gig is so hard," she said, adding that her gender would make hosting duties extremely taxing.

Related: Stars React to Tina & Amy's Golden Globes Hosting Gig

Mused Fey, "The amount of months that would be spent trying on dresses alone ... no way."

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MTA ‘fare’ thee well

It’s the MTA’s most reliable service — constant fare hikes.

The transit agency will increase fares for the fourth time in five years this weekend, infuriating fed-up riders who are now searching for cheaper ways to get around town.

The hikes will send the cost of a monthly MetroCard to $112. At this time in 2008, the same card cost just $76.

That’s an incredible 47 percent increase in five years.

“I might invest in a bicycle,” said Steven Syrek, a 34-year old Ph.D. student who lives on the Upper West Side.

“After three months of not buying a MetroCard, I could afford a bike.”

He would, however, miss one subway benefit.

“I couldn’t read during my [two-wheel] commute,” he said.

Bean counters at the always-broke agency said they plan to hike fares every other year to make ends meet.

This year alone, said MTA officials, the agency needs the hikes to fill a $382 million budget gap.

Some straphangers said they’ll try to work from home to save on commuting costs.

“With the fare hike, I’ll try to avoid the subways as much as possible,” said Crown Heights, Brooklyn, resident Aliya Barnwell, 30, who rides the 4 train.

She’s even considering upgrading her current bicycle to a more rugged model to use during the winter.

“I’d rather make an investment than pay the MTA more,” she said.

The first wave of hikes kicks in on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Friday, when fares will increase by up to 9.3 percent.

“I’m mad about it but what can I do?” said physical-therapy student Joanna Esteves, who travels from Mineola to Penn Station on the LIRR.

“I can’t stop going to school,” she said.

To compensate, she’s considering opting for a less expensive iPad data plan, which should save her about $20 a month.

Also, “I think I won’t be able to eat out as much,” she said.

Anyone with an unlimited-ride MetroCard purchased before Sunday must activate it by March 10 to obtain the full value.

The MTA will also hike fares in 2015 — bringing in another $500 million.

Officials say they desperately need the money to pay for fixed costs, like soaring pensions and employee-health care.

jennifer.fermino@nypost.com

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Coral Gables native Martin Zweig, Wall Street wiz, dies in Florida

A decade before he foresaw the 1987 stock market crash, Coral Gables native Marty Zweig was already considered a Wall Street wizard.

Renown business journalist Dan Dorfman called him “the country’s hottest investment adviser” in 1981, his picture appeared on the cover of Money Magazine in 1982, and he was frequent guest on the PBS financial show Wall Street Week.

He wrote two best-selling books: Winning on Wall Street, in 1986, and Winning with New IRAs, in 1987.

On Oct. 19 that year, just as Zweig had predicted three days earlier on Wall Street Week, the market plummeted 23 percent.

Zweig, whose three-story Pierre Hotel penthouse is one of New York City’s most lavish residences, died Feb. 18 at another of his homes, on South Florida’s Fisher Island. He was 70. Zweig had been treated for cancer, and underwent a liver transplant in 2010 with tissue from his younger son.

Born Martin Edward Zweig on July 2, 1942, in Cleveland, he spent his formative years growing up in Coral Gables where he was known as Marty Gateman after his widowed mother remarried.

He attended Coral Gables Elementary and Ponce de Leon Junior High schools, was a Coral Gables High School varsity basketball player and track star — class of 1960 — and 2001 Cavalier’s school Hall of Famer.

Childhood friend Richard B. Bermont, a Miami financial adviser, remembered Zweig as a great poker player even in high school, “pretty much a jokester, and the ladies loved him.’’

He legally changed his last name back to Zweig when he was 21, after his mother and Dr. Gateman divorced, said former wife Mollie Friedman.

Zweig wrote that his interest in financial began when the 1948 Cleveland Indians were playing in the World Series.

“I was the kid who knew the most about the team and had a vague idea about what batting averages mean. I had begun to love numbers. Perhaps this was a tip-off that I’d later graduate to the market.’’

He earned a bachelor’s in economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1964, later an M.B.A. from the University of Miami and a doctorate in finance from Michigan State University.

In 1984, Zweig joined with stock picker Joe DiMenna, with whom he co-founded Zweig-DiMenna Partners, their first long/short hedge fund.

Zweig also created two closed-end funds traded on the New York Stock Exchange, according to his corporate biography: The Zweig Fund in 1986 and The Zweig Total Return Fund in 1988.

In his first book, he wrote: “When playing the market, remember you must deal with probabilities, employ sensible strategies to limit risk, and get aggressive only when conditions warrant.’’

He was as quirky in his private life as he was serious about investing. Stan Smith, a Fisher Island friend, said that last year, Zweig installed a “banana yellow’’ 1934 Packard convertible in his living room.

Zweig’s memorabilia collection includes the dress Marilyn Monroe wore to sing “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy in 1962, a pair of JFK’s silk pajamas, the suits The Beatles wore on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, Super Bowl rings, Heisman Trophies, Oscar statuettes and Gold Records; one of the Harley-Davidson Hydra-Glide motorcycles that actor Peter Fonda rode in the film “Easy Rider;” an outfit that Jimi Hendrix wore in concert; and the booking sheet from one of Al Capone’s arrests, and a letter written by baseball legend Mickey Mantle describing a sexual encounter at Yankee Stadium.

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