Robaina Loans Investigated
Rundle Removes Rivera Prosecutor
for alleged acts of loan sharking, mortgage fraud and tax evasion, CBS4 News has learned.
Rundle is dramatically scaling back the resources her office is dedicating to the investigation of Congressman David Rivera
Miracle Mile Gets Million $ Makeover The legendary Coral Gables Miracle Mile is getting a $16 million makeover.
February 2011 | Pinecrest Edition | www.cbs4newsmagazine.com
Out Of This World Tourism Deal book an out-of-thisworld vacation.
CBS4 News Magazine | CONTENT
Internal Revenue Service Prison Tax Fraud Worse Than Initially Thought Federal Internal Revenue Service auditors now say prison inmates are stealing up to four times more tax dollars than first thought. 7
Robaina Loans Investigated Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina, who earlier this month announced he was running for mayor of Miami-Dade County, is being investigated for alleged acts of loan sharking, mortgage fraud and tax evasion, CBS4 News has learned. 9 Rundle Removes Rivera Prosecutor Miami Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle is dramatically scaling back the resources her office is dedicating to the investigation of Congressman David Rivera, CBS4 News has learned. 11 How Your Teeth Could Possibly Save Your Life In a move that would put the Tooth Fairy in the unemployment line, doctors now say they can extract stem cells from teeth. 15 Miracle Mile Gets Million $ Makeover The legendary Coral Gables Miracle Mile is getting a $16 million makeover. 19 Study Linking Vaccine To Autism Was Fraud A new report finds that the first study to link a childhood vaccine to autism was based on doctored information about the children involved. 19 Tips To Make Your Possessions Last Longer If you want to make food and clothing last as long as you can, there are a few tricks experts say will save you time, and money, throughout the year. 21 Miami 3rd Worst Job Market In U.S. The Sunshine State has long been the destination for people looking to escape the big cities. But, as the Great Recession hit, the jobs vanished from Florida as quickly as they appeared. 31 Out Of This World Tourism Deal South Floridians who want to book an out-of-this-world vacation can now do so at three local travel agencies. The agencies, according to the Sun Sentinel, are among a small list of firms authorized to sell trips to space aboard Virgin Galactic, the world’s first space line. 31 PRINTED IN THE USA, COPYRIGHT Š2010 BY MARCO G, INC. All rights reserved. The CBS4 News Magazine, a free publication, is published monthly by MARCO G, Inc. Material in this publication must not be stored or reproduced in any form without permission from CBS4. Requests for permission should be directed to info@cbs4newsmagazine.com. CBS4 and its logo (s) are protected through trademark registration. The use of logos, content and/or artwork in whole or in part is strictly prohibited. For more information please contact 305-477-1699.
4 | February 2011 | Pinecrest Edition
5 | February 2011 | Pinecrest Edition
I-Team: MIAMI (CBS4) – Federal Internal Revenue Service auditors now say prison inmates are stealing up to four times more tax dollars than first thought. A recently released report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration shows potentially hundreds of millions of tax dollars are stolen every year by prison inmates filing tax returns for work they never did asking for tax refunds they aren’t due. It’s a tax refund scam first uncovered by CBS4 I-Team Investigator Stephen Stock who now adds up the cost to every legitimate American taxpayer: nearly a quarter billion dollars stolen by prison inmates already doing time for other crimes. “They stole my identity,” said Broward County resident Denise “Dee” Platt. At first Platt was concerned because she had had her identity stolen. Then Platt became concerned because the IRS didn’t seem to understand what had happened to her and to the tax refund money the government was supposed to send her but sent to the person who’d stolen her identity. “(I was) very frustrated. Everything seemed hopeless,” said Platt. Finally Platt lost patience after the IRS kept sending tax refund checks to the person who posed as her, the person who stole her identity. The IRS sent the refund checks to the thief’s address even after “Dee” formally notified the IRS exactly what was going on by filing official paperwork with the government.
person and had not notified Dee Platt that it had done so.
returns was up to four times worse than first estimated.
As if pouring salt into an open wound, the IRS then sent Platt a 1099-INT form showing that the IRS was taxing her on the interest of the refund it, the government, had sent to the wrong person, the person who stole her identity. This despite the fact that an official admitted to Ron Wise that the IRS “had made a mistake” and sent the check to the wrong person, the person who scammed “Dee’s” identity.
You can read the latest TIGTA (December 29, 2010) report by clicking here. “As the Inspector General, I am troubled,” said J. Russell George, the Inspector General for Tax Administration. Inspector George has served as Inspector General since 2004 and leads hundreds of employees and inspectors out the TIGTA office in Washington, D.C.
This did not endear the IRS to “Dee” Platt. “It’s an agency that’s like the Wizard of Oz,” said Platt. “They’re behind this curtain that you can’t reach but I learned that the IRS is not infallible. They make mistakes.” Compare that, the IRS’s dogged pursuit of “Dee” Platt to the agency’s apparent ignoring a much larger and much more costly scam for taxpayers: the tax refund scam being run by inmates out of prisons across the country. These are scams that have been going on for decades and are getting worse every year. The CBS4 I-Team has learned prison inmates continue to file false tax returns for work they never do, often listing employing companies that don’t exist, then get refunds they aren’t due. This, despite the fact that Congress even enacted a law in 2008 (Inmate Tax Fraud Prevention Act of 2008) to help plug holes that allow this prison tax scam while requiring the IRS to be more proactive in
“They had sent my refund to another person’s bank,” said Platt.
George even testified before Congress on this problem and released a report back in 2005 outlining the fraud. A follow-up report a year later found much the same thing. According to the latest (December 29, 2010) TIGTA report the number of fraudulent tax returns claimed by prison inmates nearly tripled, from 18,103 to 44,944 in the five years between 2004 and 2009 (the last year data is available.) The report shows the amount of fraudulent money claimed by prison inmates more than quadrupled (4.3 times) from $68.1 Million in 2004 to $295.1 Million in 2009 (last year data available). And the latest audit reports shows that amount the IRS actually acknowledges was stolen by inmates tripled (2.9 times) from $13.4 Million in 2004 to $39.1 Million in 2009 (the last year for which data is available). “My charge is to ensure that no dollars are wasted, that no dollars are scammed,” said Inspector General George. “And I won’t rest until the IRS does what it is supposed to do.” Congress’ continued on mandate page 13 to fix
So Platt sought the help of a former IRS criminal agent, Ron Wise, of MRW Consulting of Fort Lauderdale. Wise had served as the Chief of Criminal investigations for the IRS out of its Atlanta Fraud unit and remains very connected with the agency. Wise and his partners at MRW Consulting all used to work as special investigative agents in various IRS criminal divisions. Using his expertise Wise was able to uncover information within the IRS that showed the agency knew it had made a mistake in sending the tax refund check to the wrong
addressing and stopping this fraud. But an auditor’s report from the US Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) which oversees the IRS found the theft of tax dollars by prison inmates filing false tax 7 | February 2011 | Pinecrest Edition
Robaina Loans
INVESTIGATED HIALEAH (CBS4) — Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina, who earlier this month announced he was running for mayor of Miami-Dade County, is being investigated for alleged acts of loan sharking, mortgage fraud and tax evasion, CBS4 News has learned. The investigation, confirmed by three law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the ongoing federal probe, stems from allegations made against Robaina by Luis Felipe Perez, who pled guilty last year to operating a $45 million Ponzi scheme. Perez, known by the nickname Felipito, has been cooperating with federal prosecutors for months in an attempt to reduce his ten-year prison term. Robaina denies he has done anything wrong and has repeatedly denied he is being investigated. Robaina claims he is nothing more than a victim of Perez, who tricked middle-class and wealthy individuals in Hialeah into investing in his jewelry business and a string on non-existent pawn shops in New York City. “We were investing in his business, which he bought and sold precious gems, or at least that’s what he represented to us,” Robaina said. “We were victims of a friend who took advantage of us, but we are not under investigation.” Robaina said the reason he believes he is not being investigated is simply that “we have never been notified of any investigation against us.” But investigators have subpoenaed records from both Robaina and his wife. And agents and prosecutors interviewed Robaina at length sometime around July of last year. His wife was interviewed approximately three months ago. Both voluntarily agreed to meet with agents and prosecutors, although they each did bring an attorney with them.
illegal.
The Robaina investigation centers on a series of loans the couple made to Perez over an 18-month period starting in 2006 or 2007. The total amount of money Perez borrowed from the Robainas was $750,000.
Perez claims the mortgage documents and promissory notes were deliberately falsified to cover the illegal transaction. He has also claimed that the illegal portion of the payments were made in cash to Robaina.
Perez needed the money to keep his Ponzi scheme afloat.
“Completely false, completely false,” Robaina said. “The notes are there, they are registered notes and the interest rates are on those notes and that is what he was obligated to pay.”
The loans, some of which were made in the form of mortgages on Perez properties, stipulated on paper an interest rate of 18 percent. But Perez has reportedly told prosecutors that the actual interest rate was 36 percent – a usury rate that would be
Robaina said he has provided, through his attorney, documents to investigators showing what the interest payments were and what he did with whatever money Perez repaid.
“We have provided our paperwork to let them know this exactly where the dollars came from, this is how they were reported to the IRS, this is how the income was reported to the IRS,” Robaina said. Robaina argues that once investigators have a chance to see everything there will be no doubts in their mind. “I believe that’s where we are heading,” he said. “I believe that’s where it is going. Obviously this is a big investigation there are a lot of people who are being looked at, people who did commit a crime. In our case we were victims.” continued on page 15 9 | February 2011 | Pinecrest Edition
I-T e am :
R un dle R e m ove s R ive ra P ro s e c uto r
MIAMI (CBS4) – Miami Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle is dramatically scaling back the resources her office is dedicating to the investigation of Congressman David Rivera, CBS4 News has learned. Late last week, Rundle ordered Assistant State Attorney Richard Scruggs removed from the case, even though Scruggs is the most experienced public corruption prosecutor in the office. She also sidelined Robert Fielder, a highly-respected investigator, and Christine Zahralban, a prosecutor who specializes in researching and litigating complex criminal issues.
work the case with FDLE. It is an amazing turn of events in a case that has been building for weeks. As CBS4 News first reported, prosecutors have been investigating more than half a million dollars in secret payments from the owners of Flagler Dog Track to a company owned by Congressman David Rivera’s mother and godmother.
Rundle has also decided that her office will no longer take the lead role in investigating the case – opting instead to turn the politically sensitive matter over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Her office would support FDLE’s efforts.
Rundle’s aides also maintained the MiamiDade Police Department’s public corruption unit, which had been working on the Rivera case with Scruggs, would phase out of the case “in the next few weeks” and that they were turning over all of their materials to FDLE. But sources within the Miami Dade Police Department said that even though Rundle was trying to push them off of the Rivera investigation they were going to continue to
A spokesman for Rundle maintained that Assistant State Attorney Joe Centorino, who remains on the Rivera investigation, is more than capable to handle the case. Centorino is the head of the Miami Dade State Attorney Office’s public corruption unit and has been with the office for more than 20 years. He was responsible for the prosecutions of Miami Dade County Commissioners Bruce Kaplan and Miriam Alonso. Centorino late Wednesday said he found it “insulting” that anyone would think his approach would be anything less than aggressive. Scruggs could not be reached for comment.
“It’s very disappointing,” said one senior law enforcement official. Another law enforcement source described Rundle’s actions as “disgraceful.” Rundle did not return calls seeking her comment. A spokesman for Rundle said she decided to let FDLE take the lead because FDLE had opened its own file on Rivera a couple of weeks before Scruggs started his investigation at the State Attorney’s Office.
Rundle’s office. A former head of the U.S. Attorney’s public corruption unit he is responsible for some of the biggest cases in South Florida including the prosecution of Yahweh Ben Yahweh, Art Teele and Michelle Spence-Jones.
When Scruggs joined the Miami Dade State Attorney’s Office in 2003, Rundle hired him in part to quiet her critics who complained she was weak on public corruption cases. And this past Sunday, CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald reported prosecutors were widening their investigation to include Rivera’s campaign expenditures, including thousands of dollars that went to his mother’s firm and another $75,000 went to the daughter of one of legislative aides.
“My critics can say what they want, but I’ll match my record on corruption against any prosecutor,” Rundle told the Miami Herald in 2003. “I brought Richard Scruggs in to join the team because I am tough on public corruption, and I have been and will continue to be tough on public corruption.”
And yet just when it seemed that the Rivera investigation was heating up, Rundle has dramatically cut both manpower and resources. Late last week, Rundle ordered Scruggs, Zahralban, and Fielder off the case.
But now Rundle will have to answer those questions all over again after removing Scruggs from what could have been her office’s most important public corruption case in more than a decade.
Scruggs has more experience prosecuting public corruption cases than anyone else in
11 | February 2011 | Pinecrest Edition
Toning Clothing:
Can You Wear Your Workout?
MIAMI (CBS4) — What if your clothes could give you a work out? Some athletic companies are marketing new apparel that promise to give your body the burn. So can you really wear your workout? The toning trend started with footwear, like sneakers and flip flops that promise to shape and sculpt. Now, there’s hosiery that claims to burn calories, even toe sox to give your feet a workout. “You can actually feel the fabric exerting some force against your muscle. So if you’re walking in them you have to move your leg a little bit harder in order to move it forward,” said Jennifer Estabrook of Fila. Estabrook says their clothing line increases muscle exercise by as much as 50 percent. And you don’t have to be a tri-athlete to reap the benefits. “The effect is that whatever you’re doing in the pant you expend a little bit more energy and a little bit more workout while you’re wearing them,” Estabrook said. Reebok’s new Easy Tone clothing has built-in resistance bands that target problem areas. “It smoothes your back — no more ugly bra bulge. The resistance bands are built right in so
you are burning more calories as you work out,” Meghan Murphy said.
and feel better you might be more apt to work out a little harder,” Mains said.
Andrea Jackson-Williams, 34, said wearing Fila’s toning pants helped her finish the New York City Marathon recently.
The key is to get moving.
“I feel my thighs, my inner thighs and my glutes, compressing when I wear them and I’m held in. So I don’t feel my thighs moving around. I have pretty thick thighs but I don’t feel them moving around. And when I wear the top as well everything is held in the same spot,” JacksonWilliams said. Physical therapist Sonja Mains said you need resistance to make muscles work, but she’s not convinced about the benefits of wearing toning clothing.
“This shirt isn’t going to do bicep curls. These pants aren’t going to do squats for you,” Murphy said. “If you just put them on and sit on the couch you’re not going to get a workout. If you put on these pants, whatever you’re doing they make it more efficient. They make you work harder,” Estabrook added. This spring, a sleek new swimwear line will be launched to help women look great in the pool.
“If you just have tightened clothing it might make you look and feel better, but I haven’t seen any research that actually makes the muscle work harder when there’s just restrictive or tight clothing around it,” Mains said. But she said these clothes may give you a psychological edge. “If you wear something that makes you look
continued from page 7 But so far, the IRS seems to be ignoring Congress’ mandate to fix things or even to take steps to fix things. According to the same TIGTA audit report even though “The Inmate Tax Fraud Prevention Act of 2008… …provides the IRS with the authority to disclose information on prisoners…the IRS has not completed the necessary agreements to share prisoner information.” And therefore the audit report shows that inmate tax fraud continues to grow in size and is not slowing down. According to an internal IRS breakdown of known fraudulent tax forms obtained by CBS4? s I-Team, Florida leads the country in false tax returns filed by inmates, 8,777 fraudulent returns or 20 percent of the fraudulent prison tax returns filed in the entire country.
sheriff calls evidence for open and shut criminal cases. Finally, on January 14, 2011, an inmate, 49 year-old Danilo Suarez, formerly of Key West, was sentenced by a U.S. District Court Judge to five years in prison after Suarez and two members of his family were convicted of running the tax refund scam out of the Key West jail. “It took over three years in fact almost four years before finally something was done,” said Sheriff Peryam. Sheriff Peryam says he has evidence of up to fifty more inmates running the same scam. “We had inmates admitting to it,” said Sheriff Peryam. But so far, only one other inmate has even been charged by the feds.
“It was a huge scam going on in our facility,” said Monroe County sheriff Robert “Bob” Peryam.
“It (the IRS’s inaction in these scam cases) angers you. It absolutely angers you,” said Sheriff Peryam.
The scam went on for years at the Monroe County jail in Key West despite the fact Sheriff Peryam said his investigators caught on pretty quickly and handed over to U.S. prosecutors and investigators what the
So why isn’t the IRS doing more to stop these scams of taxpayer dollars?
like her alone and concentrate on stopping all that prison fraud. Platt says by saving those dollars lost in prison tax scams that tax money could go to people currently unemployed or struggling to pay their mortgages. “That money could be going to help these people instead they’re paying off these fraudulent returns and they do nothing about it. I don’t understand that,” said Platt. “It’s mind boggling.” Not only was Danilo Suarez sentenced to five years in prison his 25 year-old daughter, Sandra Suarez, and 54 year-old sister, Belkis Mendez, both got a six months sentence in federal prison by a judge back last November for helping run the tax scam from jail. Three United States Senators, including Florida’s Bill Nelson, are now demanding action from the IRS and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The senators, lead by US Senator Charles Schumer of New York said “it’s outrageous” that both the IRS and the Federal Bureau of Prisons continue to fail to comply with a law passed and put into place almost three years ago (Inmate Tax Fraud Prevention Act of 2008).
It’s a question that baffles Dee Platt who wishes the IRS would leave her and others 13 | February 2011 | Pinecrest Edition
How Your Teeth Could Possibly
Save Your Life MIAMI (CBS4) – In a move that would put the Tooth Fairy in the unemployment line, doctors now say they can extract stem cells from teeth. In South Florida and around the country, dentists are pulling baby teeth, wisdom teeth and even normal adult teeth and sending them to labs to have the stem cells spun out of them.
Massachusetts. In the lab, the teeth are spun out and frozen to more than 100 degrees below zero. They are then stored for future use. “These are teeth we’ve been discarding as dental waste,” said Miami Beach oral surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Blum, “We might as well get some use out of them.”
Doctors say those stem cells can be used to regrow lost teeth and someday even repair damaged bones, hearts, pancreases, muscles and brains, according to CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald.
Not all teeth qualify for the stem cell preservation. The teeth must be pulled before they fall out naturally so that the blood supply is preserved, allowing them to stay healthy.
But for mothers, like Hialeah resident Naidelys Montoya, the cost is equivalent to a necessary insurance policy for her 6 year-old son Raul Estrada.
Here’s how it works: dentists extract healthy teeth and immediately ship them in a temperaturecontrolled steel container to a lab in
The cost may also be a big deterrent. It is $590 up front, with a $100 annual fee to keep the stem cells from up to four teeth in storage for up to 20 years.
“I believe in this,” Montoya said. “I did as a precaution against things that could happen in the future.”
continued from page 9 But Perez’s attorney, Alvin Entin, says many of the people who claim to be victims of Perez really aren’t victims at all. “Luis Perez is a nice young man,” Entin said. “He had a jewelry business and borrowed money from people who were loan sharks to get the business moving, couldn’t keep up with the payments to the loan sharks, started borrowing more money and before he knew it he was in the middle of a Ponzi.” One reason federal authorities are so interested in Perez’s allegations is that it takes them into the world of Hialeah loan sharking. Unlike typical loan shark activities involving organized crime figures, the loan sharking business in Hialeah is allegedly dominated by so-called “pillars of the community.” They
center around prominent and politically influential Cuban-American families who become the community’s private bank of last resort. Interest rates range anywhere from 36 percent to 50 percent.
Perez was providing information against, Entin said: “I’m afraid I can’t comment on that.” Robaina said he is not worried about the stories Perez might make up. Robaina said he did nothing wrong.
But unlike the stereo-typical mobster who would threaten to break a person’s legs if they fail to repay the loan, in Hialeah force is applied through threats of being ostracized both socially and professionally.
“Luis Felipe is someone who is facing ten years in jail,” Robaina said. “I’m not sure what he’s telling them. I can tell you what the facts are and what all of the corresponding paperwork shows.” But Perez’s attorney maintained prosecutors will not have to simply rely on Perez’s word.
“I can tell you that my client is still cooperating,” Entin said. “There are other subjects and targets of governmental interest out there. My client has provided some very useful information and I think the government is proceeding on it.” Asked if Robaina was one of the individuals
“Things that Luis did he didn’t do in a vacuum,” Entin said. “There were people around him who were privy to it. There were books, there were records, there were documents you can track and trace. There is a lot of corroboration out there.”
15 | February 2011 | Pinecrest Edition
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Journal:
St udy Linking Vaccine To Aut is m Was Fraud MIAMI (CBS4) – A new report finds that the first study to link a childhood vaccine to autism was based on doctored information about the children involved. The conclusions of the 1998 paper by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues was renounced by 10 of its 13 authors and later retracted by the medical journal Lancet, where it was published. Still, the suggestion the MMR shot was connected to autism spooked parents worldwide and immunization rates for measles, mumps and rubella have never fully recovered. A new examination found, by comparing the reported
Thursday in the medical journal, BMJ. In an accompanying editorial, BMJ editor Fiona Godlee and colleagues called Wakefield’s study “an elaborate fraud.” They said Wakefield’s work in other journals should be examined to see if it should be retracted. Last May, Wakefield was stripped of his right to practice medicine in Britain. Many other published studies have shown no connection between the MMR vaccination and autism. But measles has surged since Wakefield’s paper was published and there are sporadic outbreaks in Europe and the U.S. In 2008, measles was deemed endemic in England and Wales. One South Florida doctor describes today’s findings as a big sigh of relief to parents. “I think for families its a reaffirmation in the fact that the vaccines are safe and there’s no relationship between autism and the MMR vaccine,” said Dr. Jose Rosa, pediatrician at Miami Children’s Hospital.
diagnoses in the paper to hospital records, that Wakefield and colleagues altered facts about patients in their study.
Regardless of the report, many parents say they trust their gut, and their doctors, when making the decision to vaccinate.
The analysis, by British journalist Brian Deer, found that despite the claim in Wakefield’s paper that the 12 children studied were normal until they had the MMR shot, five had previously documented developmental problems. Deer also found that all the cases were somehow misrepresented when he compared data from medical records and the children’s parents.
“I’m for immunizations, I feel if we didn’t have immunizations we’d have a lot of illness,” says mother Kara Castellucci. “I’d rather be safe than sorry so I made the choice with my son.” (© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Deer’s article was paid for by the Sunday Times of London and Britain’s Channel 4 television network. It was published online
Couture
Miracle Mile Gets Million $ Makeover MIAMI (CBS4) – The legendary Coral Gables Miracle Mile is getting a $16 million makeover.
atmosphere. Nearby Restaurant Row also will get a facelift, according to CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald.
The massive transformation is designed to bring customers back who have left for more urban settings. The plans are nine years in the making, formed with efforts by architects, residents and business owners.
Planned are Bismark palms and small gardens along wider sidewalks. Parallel parking spaces will line the street facing white buildings with colored awnings. There will be a lawn for performances and a fountain by City Hall and colorful pavers in front of restaurants.
City leaders voted Thursday and unanimously endorsed the new plan that will change the way the mile looks and its
The Herald is reporting that City Manager Patrick Salerno said the city would issue bonds for $16.1 million. It will take 20 years
and $1.1 million per year to pay off the bonds. Half the money would come from city taxpayers at large, while the other half would come from companies that would benefit directly from the makeover. Salerno told commissioners that $250,000 has already been budgeted for the debt during that period.
19 | February 2011 | Pinecrest Edition
PHOTOGRAPH OF THE MONTH - February 2011
Frosted Leaf Orion Credit & Copyright: Masahiro Miyasaka Captured above Japan earlier this month, a picturesque night sky was photographed behind a picturesque frosted leaf. The reflecting ice crystals on the leaf coolly mimic the shining stars far in the background. The particular background sky on this 48-second wide angle exposure, however, might appear quite interesting and familiar. On the far left, although hard to find, appears a streaking meteor. Below and to the right of the meteor appears a longer and brighter streak of an airplane. The bright star on the left is the dogstar Sirius, the brightest star on the night sky.
If you have a photograph you would like to share and possibly have published please email it in high resolution to pics@cbs4newsmagazine.com.
Tips To Make Your Possessions Last
LONGER MIAMI (CBS4) – If you want to make food and clothing last as long as you can, there are a few tricks experts say will save you time, and money, throughout the year. When it comes to food, there are items that don’t necessarily have to abide by their “best by” date. Milk, for example, can last up to a week past its sell by
date w h e n stored properly in the back of the refrigerator. Same goes for eggs. They can have a much longer shelf life when stored with the milk, and if they are housed in the
s a m e carton they are sold in.
In your produce drawer, try to keep fruits that emit gasses away from other fruits and vegetables. Apples, for example, give off a type of gas that can spoil other food, like broccoli, so make sure they stay apart.
When it comes to your apparel, stop washing your jeans. No, really. Levi, the company that’s been making jeans for more than 150 years says if you buy a new pair of jeans avoid washing them for the first 6 months. After that, only wash them once every two weeks and hang them to air dry upside-down. The company says infrequent washing ensures the jeans preserve their length, shape and color.
To keep the tires on your car in tip-top shape, always make sure they are inflated properly. According to reports, Americans throw away 280 million tires every year due to excess wear and tear or blowout. Keeping them at optimal pressure can dramatically extend their life.
Scott: Citizens Needs To Up Rates TALLAHASSEE – (CBS4) – Millions of homeowners who rely on Citizens Property Insurance may not like the news that rate hikes will be required to make it “actuarially sound,” according to newly elected Gov. Rick Scott
Since then, many private insurers have fled leaving many homeowners little choice. About 1.3 million Floridians use Citizens Insurance which covers a total of $457 million worth of property.
But raising homeowners’ rates by 55 percent is the state’s largest insurance company only alternative to achieve that goal, officials have said.
Binnun says if Citizens doesn’t hike rates, then they may not have enough money to pay claims in the event of a storm.
That’s according to a response given by Citizens Chief Financial Officer Sharon Binnun to members of the Florida House of Representatives Banking & Insurance Subcommittee Wednesday.
Should a storm hit and if Citizens could not pay out the claims, the insurer would have to make up the shortfall by taxing all insurance policyholders, including those on private companies.
However, it will be a tough battle as legislation prohibits Citizens from increasing rates by more than 10 percent. Those restrictions on hikes come after the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons – which is when the state had eight storms over a two-year period.
(© 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Orlando Sentinel contributed to this report.)
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Attorney: Citizens Insurance Ends Policies For Tainted Chinese Drywall Homes MIAMI (CBS4) — Florida’s insurer of last resort has decided once again to suspend policies for homeowners who bought properties with tainted Chinese drywall, according to attorney David Durkee. Durkee, an attorney for homeowners with the tainted Chinese drywall, says Citizens Property Insurance Corp., has reversed course once again, saying it will suspend policies for those individuals. Durkee says his clients have begun receiving notices informing them their coverage will be dropped by Citizens. The company made the same move in 2009, but then reversed course after bad publicity over the decision. Thousands of homeowners, mostly in Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, have reported problems with the Chinese-made drywall, which was imported in large quantities during the housing boom and after a string of Gulf Coast hurricanes.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission says homes tainted by Chinese drywall should be gutted and that electrical wiring, outlets, circuit breakers, fire alarm systems, carbon monoxide alarms, fire sprinklers, gas pipes and drywall need to be removed. The drywall has been linked to corrosion of wiring, air conditioning units, computers, doorknobs and jewelry, along with possible health effects. Preliminary studies have found a possible link between throat, nose and lung irritation and high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas emitted from the wallboard, coupled with formaldehyde, which is commonly found in new houses, the commission said.
The Chinese Drywall Complaint Center is doing everything possible to get a meaningful federal response for hundreds of thousands of US citizens stuck in this toxic Chinese drywall mess. For more information please contact the Chinese Drywall Complaint Center anytime at 866-714-6466, or contact the group via its web site at ChineseDrywallComplaintCenter.com. (© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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Forbes:
Miami 3rd Worst Job Market In U.S. MIAMI (CBS4) – The Sunshine State has long been the destination for people looking
t o escape the big cities. But, as the Great Recession hit, the jobs vanished from Florida as quickly as they appeared. Now, some of Florida’s biggest cities have garnered even more negative
ratings in a new Forbes survey of the worst job markets in t h e
Forbes’ logic. The website found that there are more than 9 applicants for every one position in the city. Forbes said the real estate initially knocked Miami down, but trade, tourism and Miami’s Latin American connection could change things in a hurry. “Miami’s recovery will be among the fastest in the nation,” Moody’s Economy.com wrote about the city. The only problem is that many of the new jobs that will be created will be low-paying service-sector positions, according to Forbes. Orlando and Jacksonville also ranked in the top 10 worst job markets at number 10 and 9 respectively. So where should you go to have the best chance of getting a job? Forbes found that Washington, D.C. was the best job market. D.C.’s federal government jobs have helped stave off the recession in the area. But, Forbes warned that a large reduction in government spending could slow the District’s hiring rate. Still, with companies needing to woo the federal government for lucrative contracts, many will still relocate to the area and bring jobs with them.
country.
Boston was the second-best job market on Forbes’ list followed by: Austin, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Forbes ranked the best and worst job markets in the country, and Florida had three major cities in the top 10, led by Miami. The list pegged Miami as the number 3 worst job market in the country. With unemployment over 12 percent, it’s not hard to follow
Out Of This World Tourism Deal MIAMI (CBS4) — South Floridians who want to book an out-of-this-world vacation can now do so at three local travel agencies. The agencies, according to the Sun Sentinel, are among a small list of firms authorized to sell trips to space aboard Virgin Galactic, the world’s first space line.
Each flight can carry six passengers and two pilots, according to a news release.
Starting next year, Virgin Galactic plans to fly tourists to the edge of space, or about 60 miles above the Earth’s surface, where passengers experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth.
Here’s how the trips work: The aircraft will set off connected to a mother ship, which will rise 50,000 feet before detaching. The Enterprise’s rocket motors will ignite, accelerating the ship to three times the speed of sound, taking it up above the Earth’s atmosphere.
The cost? $200,000 with deposits starting at $20,000. The company says it has taken reservations and deposits from more than 400 people. There are only 76 travel agencies nationwide authorized to sell Virgin Galactic space trips; 6 of them are in Florida and only 3 in South Florida. They are: Forest Travel of Aventura, Sixth Star Travel of Plantation and Unique Travel of Delray Beach. Virgin Galactic, the travel company launched by Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines and music, recently flew their first space craft over the Mojave Desert in California to complete their flight in New Mexico, home to the company’s Spaceport America terminal.
Engines will then shut off, leaving passengers weightless, where they can view the Earth from space. After four or five minutes, gravity will begin to drag the Enterprise back down to earth. The entire trip is over in less than one hour, Forest Travel said in a news release.
Plans call for Virgin Galactic to offer three flights a day, five days a week. 31 | February 2011 | Pinecrest Edition
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