A Brooklyn teen was found stabbed to death this afternoon, law-enforcement sources said.
The 18-year-old was discovered in his cousin's bedroom about 2:50 p.m. on Suydam Street near Wilson Avenue, sources said.
He had several stab wounds, and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The killer is still on the loose.
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
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.
This NCIS: Los Angeles star rose to fame in the 1980s to become one of the most successful rap artists of all time. Since then, he's established himself not only as an actor, but also an entrepreneur with his own record label, production company and social networking site. Here are five things you probably don't know about LL Cool J -- host of this Sunday's Grammy Awards!
1. Has said that Bruce Lee inspired him to act.
PICS: Star Sightings
2. Had to endure 12-16 hour filming days while writing his fitness book LL Cool J's Platinum 360 Diet and Lifestyle.
3. Is nearly fluent in Spanish and has studied Arabic because his NCIS: Los Angeles character Sam Hanna is fluent in the language.
VIDEO: LL Cool J Promises Night of Grammy Surprises
4. His favorite concerts ever were the 2009 launch of U2's "360 Degrees" tour in Barcelona and Run-D.M.C.'s "Raising Hell" tour.
5. His favorite cologne is Gendarme.
RELATED: LL Cool J Captures Intruder Inside His Home
A quick-thinking cop saved the life of a man in downtown Brooklyn, authorities said.
A distraught woman approached Officer Kenia Marte about 1:35 p.m. Jan. 22 while she was driving her sergeant on Schermerhorn and Nevins Street, cops said at a 76th precinct community council meeting yesterday.
When Marte reached the 53-year-old, he couldn't speak and was convulsing—but had two pills of nitroglycerin in his hand, which is used to treat heart conditions.
“She knew exactly what to do,” said Captain Jeffrey Schiff at the meeting.
Marte placed the medication under the man’s tongue, and began to administer CPR, while her sergeant called for an ambulance, authorities said.
Rebecca Harshbarger
Captain Jeffrey Schiff and Officer Kenia Marte.
FDNY paramedics responded, and gave him CPR until the patient reached Long Island College Hospital, where he stabilized, cops said.
Marte was recognized at the 76th precinct community council meeting yesterday for her life-saving work, where she was honored as the command’s cop of the month. She has five years on the job.
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
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 over state inaction on its two trauma-care licensing requests. Jackson complained that regulators have granted provisional licenses to Kendall and Ocala hospitals under a policy that state courts have ruled invalid.
The Jackson petition maintained 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 legal 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.” 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 the Health department had 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.”
State regulators are now working to come up with a trauma regulation that courts will deem 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.
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.
When Jennifer Lawrence took the stage to pick up her well-earned Best Actress SAG Award for Silver Linings Playbook, it appeared as if she had a wardrobe malfunction, with her dress coming apart at the seams. The world later learned that the dress was designed to do that, but at Monday's annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon, Jennifer explained that she wishes she could "take that back."
Pics: Fierce Fashions at the Oscar Luncheon
"The fashion moment that I wish I could take back was accepting the SAG Award and the bottom of my dress falling off," she says with a laugh to ET's Nancy O'Dell."I would definitely take that back. It didn't really fall off, it just gave the appearance of falling off, which is just the same. ... You can't put a tier dress on somebody that walks like a linebacker."
Watch the video to find out which designer Jennifer plans to go with on Oscar night, plus see her fun reaction to a photo of herself taken years ago for Teen Vogue!
Video: J-Law Suffers Wardrobe Malfunction?
Stay tuned to ETonline for complete Oscar night coverage when the 85th Annual Academy Awards hosted by Seth MacFarlane airs live on Oscar Sunday, February 24, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center.
A New Jersey-based crime ring with New York ties used fake identities to create 25,000 bogus credit cards and steal more than $200 million in one of the largest schemes ever investigated by federal authorities, officials said today.
Agents arrested 18 people who were allegedly involved in an elaborate fraud scheme that lasted nearly 10 years and stretched across dozens of states and several, according to a criminal complaint.
Authorities said the creative crew even doctored credit reports to pump up the fake cards’ spending and borrowing power, then borrowed and spent as much as they could without ever paying back the colossal debt.
To pull off the ruse, feds said the scammers would, in some cases, buy real Social Security numbers from people leaving the country.
In other cases, they just simply made up Social Security numbers.
They also created 80 sham companies that allowed them to run bogus charges through credit-card swipe machines.
And they also enlisted the services of small jewelry stores in Jersey City that supplied them with a steady stream of fresh IDs.
With their library of identities, the scammers ran up as much credit as they could on individual cards before tossing them aside and moving on.
“This type of fraud increases the costs of doing business for every American consumer, every day,” said Paul Fishman New Jersey’s US Attorney
Fishman said the suspects bought luxury cars, electronics, spa treatments, high-end clothing and millions of dollars in gold.
The leaders, Fishman said, were Babar Qureshi, 59, of Iselin, New Jersey, and Muhammad Shafiq, 38, of Bellerose, New Jersey.
Eleven live in New York, six in New Jersey, and one in Pennsylvania. Most are Pakistani, and some are US citizens, Fishman said.
The newest ships from Royal Caribbean International will be called Quantum of the Seas and Anthem of the Seas, the Miami-based cruise line announced Tuesday.
Royal Caribbean revealed the names of the 4,100-passenger vessels while announcing that the first piece of steel had been cut for the first of the two ships, Quantum of the Seas, which will launch in fall of 2014. Its sister ship will debut the following spring.
The new ships have been in the design and planning stage for three years; they will be built at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. A ceremony marking the start of construction was held recently at the yard.
Royal Caribbean late last year ordered a third Oasis-class vessel, the sibling to the largest cruise ships in the world. With room for 5,400 passengers, the ship is scheduled for delivery in mid-2016.
Copyright © News approved. All rights reserved.
Design 
And Business Directories
