Double Take Celebrity Lookalikes

Alice Eve and Brooklyn Decker

ETonline has found the lookalikes to the stars and, as it turns out,
it's their Hollywood peers. Click the pics and let us know if you think
these celebs bear a resemblance to one another.

Read More..

Bank moves to foreclose on Kiss guitarist

YORKTOWN — One of the founding members of the rock band Kiss is in danger of losing a New York home to foreclosure.

The Journal News newspaper reports that a bank initiated foreclosure proceedings on Feb. 15 on a Yorktown property owned by former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley.

The three-bedroom house is in a wooded area off the Taconic State Parkway north of New York City.

U.S. Bank National Association said in a court filing that Frehley stopped paying his mortgage in 2011. The Yorktown tax receiver's office also lists liens for thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes on the house.

Getty

Singing the blues: former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley could lose his New York home.

Frehley was with Kiss in its 1970s heyday, performing in heavy makeup as a character known as the "Spaceman."

Read More..

The faces of Florida’s Medicaid system

The tea party governor now says he wants to expand Medicaid. The Republican Legislature isn’t as sure.

Hanging in the balance?

Access to health care for 1 million or more poor Floridians.

Billions of dollars in federal money.

The state budget, which — already — pumps $21 billion a year into care. Florida’s Medicaid system today serves more than 3 million people, about one in every six Floridians. The decision whether to expand the system by a full third will be made by men and women in suits in Tallahassee’s mural-filled chambers this spring.

But the impact is elsewhere, in children’s hospitals in Tampa and Miami, in doctors’ offices in New Port Richey and in the home of a woman who recently lost her full-time teaching job.

The Suddenly uninsured

This was not how she envisioned her 60s.

Jean Vincent dreamed of turning her five-bedroom home into a bed and breakfast. She painted murals on walls, created mosaics on floors and let her imagination guide the interior decorating. There is a “garden” room, a “bamboo” room and a “canopy” room.

In 2010, Vincent lost her full-time job teaching in Citra north of Ocala. Her mother became sick with cancer and needed around-the-clock care before dying in August. Then, doctors began prescribing Vincent costly medications to treat osteoporosis and early-onset diabetes.

“I started getting a little behind with my mortgage,” said Vincent, 61. “All of a sudden, I found out I had to have an emergency retina eye surgery.”

Today, Vincent is searching for roommates to move into her home and help pay the bills. She begs Gainesville’s Sante Fe Community College and City College to schedule her for as many classes as she can handle as an adjunct geography professor; this semester’s four is the most she’s ever had.

But her biggest worry? Not having comprehensive health care.

Vincent —who is too young for Medicare — is enrolled in CHOICES, a health services program the Alachua County government created for the uninsured. It covers preventative care like her flu shots and helps with her drug therapy. But if Vincent ever got so sick she needed to go to the hospital, she’d be on her own.

Under current Florida law, adults with no dependents are not eligible to participate in Medicaid no matter how little they make. Vincent’s four children are all grown, which means even as her income has dwindled she can’t become eligible for the health insurance program run jointly by the federal and state governments.

If Florida decides to expand the Medicaid system, people in Vincent’s position for the first time could be covered.

The expansion would allow any single adult making about $16,000 a year eligible for Medicaid.

On the matter, Vincent has become an activist. She joined with patient rights group Florida CHAIN and traveled to Tallahassee to lobby lawmakers.

“When I gave my testimony, that’s all I wanted them to do was see there were people out there that weren’t just trying to take advantage of the system,” she said.

This summer, she expects to only be assigned one class at Sante Fe. That will provide about $2,000 for her to live on for three months. Meanwhile, her retirement dreams are put on hold.

Read More..

Former MIA hotel supervisor admits to overbilling county

A lengthy investigation into alleged overbilling by the group that runs the Miami International Airport Hotel caught a big break this week, when the hotel’s chief engineer and maintenance supervisor turned himself in to law enforcement and promised to cooperate with authorities.

Nestor Aznar, 61, an employee of MIA hotel operator H.I. Development Corp., showed up at the State Attorney’s office on Thursday afternoon, and pleaded guilty to a single count of organized scheme to defraud.

The state attorney and Miami-Dade’s Office of Inspector General claim that Aznar — and possibly others — ran up bills with false overcharges and were later reimbursed for those amounts from the county.

“This is an ongoing probe,” said Miami-Dade Inspector General Christopher Mazzella.

Aznar, reached at his Cooper City home Friday afternoon, directed calls to his attorney, Ayuban Antonio Tomas. Tomas confirmed the charge and that his client had agreed to work with prosecutors, but wouldn’t comment further.

Law enforcement officials believe there are more arrests to come, and say the scheme used to steal at least $500,000 of county money was relatively simple.

According to the State Attorney’s Office and the OIG, workers with H.I. Development, which has operated the hotel since 1989, would bill the county when work was completed, then the county would reimburse the money. The hotel has recently undergone an extensive renovation.

Aznar is alleged to have overbilled the county for items that include wallpaper, tiles, and carpeting by as much as $500,000 over the past year. None of his coworkers — four who were removed from the airport and relieved of duty last year — have been charged with any criminal wrongdoing.

Airport Director Jose Abreu said about a year ago his staff noticed “irregularities” in billing, so he turned the bills over the airport’s chief financial officer. When the CFO couldn’t figure out exactly what was going on, the information was passed along to law enforcement.

The county’s inspector general said investigators later determined “there was some false invoicing of supplies purchased.”

Mazzella said under the plea agreement Aznar will cooperate with investigators, and that any agreed-upon sentence will be delayed until the case is closed. Aznar also agreed to pay restitution to the airport and cover the cost of the OIG investigation, Mazzella said.

The investigation came to light in early January when Mazzella told Abreu in a public memo that he couldn’t go into detail about the investigation. The unusual memo was prompted by an earlier letter from H.I. Development defending the company from Abreu’s criticism.

In that letter, H.I. Development President Andre P. Callen defended the employees Abreu and staffers had let go, saying none have been charged with any wrongdoing. The letter also made reference to what airport officials thought were questionable bills on bathtub and bathroom mirror projects, calling them “fully completed and properly billed.”

The county is now considering new bids from operators to manage the hotel. Before the process began, Abreu said he preferred bypassing the bidding process in case H.I. Development once again entered the contest. County commissioners and administrators chose to open the bidding process.

“Right now it’s up for bid,” said Abreu. “And H.I. could be one of the bidders.”

Read More..

Denise Richards House Tour

Denise Richards recently gave ET's Nancy O'Dell a personal tour of her home for her upcoming appearance on HGTV's Celebrities At Home, letting our cameras in to her intricately designed, spacious pad.

Richards' home is indicative of her personal tastes, including her super-feminine approach to design. Plush leopard seats, constant bedazzling and corset-inspired chairs in her closet are just some of the items you'll find in her swanky house.

Video: Denise Richards Defends Skinny Photos

An example of her dedication to detail?

She even replaced all her couch's buttons with crystals to make it "more unique to [her] personality."

"I bedazzled everything," she laughs. "Like I said -- everywhere I could put it, I did."

Related: Richards Says Working with Sheen Was 'Awkward'

Check out the video to see Richards' "sexy" entertainment room, wine room and closet, and to see why she might even be getting into a little trouble with Nancy regarding where she placed Nancy's Christmas gift to her!

Celebrities At Home airs Thursdays at 8.p.m./7 c on HGTV.

Read More..

Teens arrested over grade-school girls fight posted on YouTube

YouTube

Two teens were arrested today for orchestrating a fight between two grade-school girls in The Bronx that was videotaped and posted on YouTube, police said.

The girls, 14 and 15, were charged as juveniles with child endangerment, police said.

The twisted viral video shows the two youngsters, 6 and 7, pulling each other’s hair and hitting one another at Poe Park on Jan. 3.

Older girls can be heard laughing and egging children on.

The fight allegedly stemmed from an early fight between two older girls over candy, police source said.

Police are still determining whether anyone else was behind the video. The video has since been taken off YouTube.

Read More..

Jorge Perez: Large upfront payments for condos only works in Miami

Financing condo towers with large upfront payments in the United States basically only works in Miami, thanks to foreign buyers who don't expect to borrow heavily for real estate, Related CEO Jorge Perez said Friday.

"It's a very local market," he told the University of Miami Real Estate Impact Conference. "It's for people who are used to paying cash for most of their second homes."

When condo loans dried up during the housing crisis, Perez and other developers turned to a financing model popular in Latin America where builders demand significant payments throughout the construction process. That's a big change from the boom, when buyers could secure condo contracts for only 10 percent down or less.

Perez said the new model does not work well with U.S. buyers or others who are used to small down payments. "We see resistance to that (Latin American) model in even the Canadian market," he said.

DOUGLAS HANKS

Read More..

Jackson Health System earns $5.5 million in January

Jackson Health System reported strong financial results in January, with a surplus of $5.5 million due to an influx of patients, rigid cost controls and good cash collections, Chief Financial Officer Mark Knight told the board on Thursday.

Days of cash on hand remained at a low 14.5 days, far below the benchmark of 175 days of cash that financially successful hospitals are supposed to have.

While the system has been struggling for more than a year with a steady decline in patient volume, January reversed the trend -- with $87.2 million in net patient revenue, compared to $82.6 million in January 2012.

Because the audit for fiscal 2011-2012 showed a surplus of $8.2 million, Knight said that Chief Executive Carlos Migoya earned a bonus of $219,000 on top of his $590,000 salary.

Migoya negotiated a bonus possibility with the board when he started in 2011, in return for accepting a considerably lower salary than the maximum of the $975,000 that the board could have offered. Last March, union fliers accused him of laying off 1,000 workers so that he could earn a hefty bonus. Migoya responded that he would donate any bonus received to the Jackson Memorial Foundation.

On Thursday, Migoya reiterated his intention to donate the bonus.

Read More..

Store Manager Offers Weed to Undercover Boss

Toby Bost, CEO of O'Neill Clothing, likes to keep loose reigns on his company, but one store manager takes this creedo a little too far on the next Undercover Boss.

PICS: Candid Celeb Sightings

While going undercover as a clerk at one of O'Neill's retail stores, Toby gets acquainted with manager Jesus -- a stoner who is a firm non-believer in the brand.

"Jesus had a ton of attitude and he had a lot to say," said Toby.

"You will never see me wearing an O'Neill shirt," promised Jesus, which breaks Toby's cardinal (and only) rule. "I'm just straight up lazy, man," Jesus later confessed. "[I] come in, smoke a bowl before work just to calm down."

Watch the clip to see how Toby reacts. Check out an all-new Undercover Boss Friday at 8pm ET/PT on CBS.

Read More..

Crook who fatally shot cab driver refuses to apologize to family, gets 30 years

A defiant career criminal was sentenced today to 30 years in prison for the 2009 shooting death of a Bronx livery cab driver who refused to hand over his hard earned cash.

Benny Delgado, 35, stood emotionless during the sentencing and refused to apologize to the family of Jose Pena-Segura, a father of four daughters, who died shortly after he was shot in the head with a .25-caliber revolver handgun near St. Mary’s Park in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx.

Delgado faced life in prison if convicted of murder but he agreed to plea to first degree manslaughter and gun possession in exchange for 30 years.

“It’s over for him (Delgado)” said Sugura’s wife, Natalia Espinosa, who clutched one of the cabbie’s daughters. “But it’s not over for us --- we have to live the rest of our lives without the person we love.”

Read More..