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Pinecrest

M O N T H LY

CBS4 News Magazine NOVE M B E R 2012 / PI N EC RES T

November 2012

Automotive pg. 46

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Home Improvement pg. 54

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Marketplace pg. 66

CONTENTS November 2012

04 10 24 44

THE HUNT FOR THE “COCAINE GODMOTHER” Griselda Blanco had quite a few nicknames: the godmother, the queen of cocaine, the black widow. Regardless of what she went by she left a lasting impression on South Florida’s history.

SAVING MONEY WITH PREPAID SMARTPHONES Love your smartphone, but hate the bill? You may want to consider signing up for prepaid wireless because even the most popular smartphones are available for prepaid users. So it may be worth considering if you’d like to shave some bucks on your cell plan.

CBS4 INVESTIGATES: DOES YOUR VOTE COUNT? Ion Sancho, one of the most veteran election supervisors in the state of Florida, thinks there’s plenty for him and his colleagues to lose sleep over. What keeps him awake at night? Whether you can trust the machine you will be voting on.

TAX REFUND FRAUD VICTIMS GETTING LEFT BEHIND Tax refund fraud has kept federal prosecutors in South Florida busy as the crime continues to grow in popularity. Just this year, two former NFL players pleaded guilty to taking part in tax refund fraud.

MAN 3 NOW FILMS 15 IRON IN SOUTH FLORIDA

16 CALENDAR OF EVENTS NEIGHBORHOOD BARS 18 BEST IN MIAMI: CORAL GABLES BENEATH THE SEA 40 SECRETS CALL OUT FOR CHANGE

PRINTED IN THE USA, COPYRIGHT © 2012 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 Marco G. Inc. or WFOR CBS4. Requests for permission should be directed to: info@cbs4newsmagazine.com. CBS4 and/or Marco G. Inc do not assume any liability for products and/or services claimed in advertisements herein. 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.

[ 2 ] November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest

MIAMI (CBSMiami.com)

Photos of CocaineCowboys.com PhotosCourtesy courtesy of Rakontur.com

Griselda Blanco had quite a few nicknames: the godmother, the by queen of cocaine, the black widow. Regardless of what she went she left a lasting impression on South Florida’s history. Authorities say she imported thousands of kilos into South Florida in the 1970’s and 80’s and killed anyone who got in her way.

Recently CBS4 sat down to interview the man who took her down. DEA agent Robert Palombo spent 11 years of his life chasing a ghost.

Reporting David Sutta

“I don’t wish death on anybody,

but if anybody deserved the ultimate punishment…it was her,” he told CBS4’s David Sutta.

On Labor Day 2012, the 69-year-old Blanco was assassinated in a butcher shop in Colombia. She had lived longer than anyone expected. She escaped jail sentences, the electric chair, and dozens of enemies eager to kill her. It was the final chapter in a story that began years ago.

In 1983, Miami Vice’s Crockett and Tubbs were rounding up drug dealers on television, in reality though the drug dealers were winning.

“We were outgunned by them; outnumbered,” Palombo said.

Palombo started his career in New York. He seemed to gravitate to Colombian drug cases. Suddenly, he was re-assigned to a South Florida task force waging war against a bloody drug trade.

“Violence was the mainstay,” Palombo said. “It was as if the cocaine distribution was a byproduct of the violence rather than vice versa.”

In the aftermath of a shooting at the Dadeland Mall that left two dead, authorities discovered what they coined a war wagon. The steal reinforced armored truck, labeled Happy Time Complete Party Rentals, was loaded with a cache of weapons. Palombo had no idea it was linked to a woman named Griselda Blanco.

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 5 ]

“I mean you just can’t make this up. It was the final chapter.”

“I made her stand up and at the point I just went over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She was bewildered. Had no idea why I did it,”

“Griselda never showed on the radar. Her name was mentioned but she was never physically seen by any of us.”

Palombo said.

He had actually been chasing the ghost of Griselda from a 1974 drug case in New York. She vanished and he assumed she was living in Colombia. It was by sheer chance he came across her in Miami when a tip came in. His partner was on duty answering a tip line.

“He happened to take a call from a woman, a Miami native who was complaining that her daughter was dating this Hispanic low-life, obviously involved in some sort of illegal activity and more than likely drugs,” Palombo remembered.

Uber Blanco was the “low-life.”

Palombo soon realized he was on to one of Griselda Blanco’s four sons. Uber lived the high life in Turnberry Isle. With the help of a Colombian arrested in Oklahoma, now turned informant, Palombo got close to Blanco’s children.

Each one bragged to the informant about how important they were according to Palombo. He recorded them using hidden microphones in an attaché.

“He was talking about how he and his brothers had really taken over the business from mom,” Palombo said. “They

[ 6 ] November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest

were moving tremendous amounts of cocaine both on the West Coast and as well as Miami. And that mom had taken a semi-retirement role.”

The investigation was moving along.

The informant moved small amounts of money for the brothers. Forty-thousand dollars here; $50,000 there. The DEA was building a case against the Blanco brothers when a huge break came in.

“Out of the blue the informant gets a call and low and behold it’s Griselda,” Palombo said. “He was shocked and unnerved about the call.”

He had the informant set up a meeting in California where she was.

Palombo remembers the first time he saw her entering the Newport Beach Marriott lobby.

“When she turned and walked past us again; we took one look and we could see the dimples and the cleft and we just looked at each other and it was ‘this is it. It’s her,’” Palombo said.

After the meeting was over with the informant they didn’t move in. She left them $500,000 to get to her bank accounts in Panama.

Palombo said they began to peel back her massive operation for about a year. The DEA, through the informant, began money laundering for Griselda. They moved millions of dollars for her. They tracked her violent orders.

No one knows exactly her many her henchmen killed, just that it was more than serial killers Jeffery Dahmer and Ted Bundy combined.

“Does it make a difference whether it’s 50 or 100. I don’t think so,” Palombo said. “I would say that conservatively I would say anywhere between 75 and 100.”

Their case hit a wall though when the DEA tried to get drugs from Griselda. A misunderstanding led the trail to go cold overnight. Palombo explained he had coached the informant to make the request without scaring Blanco.

“You basically want to say something to the effect that you are having a party and you need a couple people taken care of. So you need a few things and see what she says,” Palombo told the informant.

When the conversation went down Griselda told the informant it wouldn’t be a problem and gave them the pager number for Jorge “Riverito” Ayala. Ayala was one of Blanco’s hitman. The informant met with Riverito at Victoria Station on 36th street in Miami.

Palombo said everything was going fine until the informant asked for the drugs.

“He looked at me like I had 10 heads. And he said, ‘what

are you talking about.”

Palombo told CBS4’s Sutta the meeting ended abruptly. “The informant tried to connect with Griselda and she wasn’t returning his calls. We became extremely upset and concerned.”

Palombo’s world was collapsing.

“During the time we had lost touch with her, she was giving me premature gray hair. And my wife was not very happy that I was spending all this time, long periods of time, in southern California when I had two young children,” Palombo explained. “It was becoming a bit of a strain. When is this going to end? So one day I just blurted out if I ever catch her. I’m going to give her a kiss of death because she is driving me crazy.”

The veteran DEA agent returned back to Blanco’s weakness…her sons.

Osvaldo Blanco was a car nut. Palombo knew he visited a Beverly Hills dealership often. They sat in the Beverly Hills Willshire Hotel for days watching the dealership. When Osvaldo appeared, Palombo had his informant accidentally bump into him.

“It worked like a charm. They partied all night long,” Palombo said.

They tracked bodyguards back to Griselda’s home in Irvine California and early on February 17, 1985 Palombo finally moved in. With the house covered they watched as Michael Corlone, her 6-year-old son at the time, walked out the front door with a nanny.

On the front porch Griselda suddenly appeared to give him a kiss. He headed off with the nanny to the park. Griselda went back inside. Palombo said he walked up to the front door and knocked. An old woman answered. To this day he’s unsure who she was but speculates it could have been her mother.

As they cleared the house, Palombo made his way up the stairs. He came upon a room and discovered Griselda sitting in bed.

“She was at that point in bed propped up reading the bible. You can’t make this up. She looked up at first in a bit of a shock,” Palombo said he leaned in and said, “Griselda we finally meet.”

She had no clue who he was. He then delivered on his promise.

“I made her stand up and at the point I just went over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She was bewildered. Had

no idea why I did it,” Palombo said.

Blanco never really said anything to investigators.

They found a gun on the nightstand. She never made an effort to reach for it though. She was booked and Palombo finally felt relief. He still had no idea how big the case was until he noticed what happened to crime stats.

“The fact that the homicide rate dropped dramatically after she was arrested,” Palombo said.

Blanco would be sentenced to 15 years in prison on drug trafficking charges. Palombo believes the sentence was rigged. He thought the judge over the case, Eugene Spellman, played favorites with Blanco’s lawyers.

“She should have received a minimum of 35 years,” said Polombo.

After just 10 years Blanco was released from federal prison.

By then, Miami-Dade prosecutors had three murder cases against her. Griselda appeared headed for the electric chair when the prosecution became caught up in a sex scandal with a key witness. It ended with a plea deal. She served just 7 years.

“Betrayal. That’s the best way to describe it. We felt betrayed by the system,” Palombo said.

He believed they shouldn’t have thrown a good case away.

“The homicide prosecution was totally salvageable,” he said. “There was another witness that had nothing to do with the sex case that was ready willing and able to get up and testify to the same basic evidence.”

In 2004, when Griselda exited the state prison she was deported back to Colombia. He assumed she was dead the moment she landed, yet somehow she held on eight years.

The on Labor Day 2012 in Medellin a motorcycle assassin pulled up to butcher store. The cyclists with his helmet still on pulled out a gun and shot Blanco twice in the head.

Palombo called it poetic justice.

“Here we have a butcher being killed in a butcher shop. By an individual who employs the very technique, the motorcycle technique that she kind of invented,” Palombo said. “I mean you just can’t make this up. It was the final chapter.”

Palombo now works as a consultant.

As for Blanco she was buried earlier this month in the same cemetery as notorious drug trafficker Pablo Escobar. It appeared she was out of the drug trafficking business.

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 7 ]

MIAMI (CBSMiami.com)

Saving

Money

Prepaid Smartphones

With

Reporting Al Sunshine

Love your smartphone, but hate the bill? You may want to consider signing up for prepaid wireless because even the most popular smartphones are available for prepaid users.

So it may be worth considering

if you’d like to save some bucks on your cell plan.

Saving money is important when you have six kids and that’s why Tiffany Wong switched to a prepaid wireless smartphone.

“If I can get the same service for less than half the money, I’m going for it,” said Tiffany.

Tiffany got a prepaid droid which includes: unlimited texting, internet and phone calls for forty-dollars a month.

Her old “contract based carrier” bill was about one hundred dollars a month for the same services and benefits. The sixty dollars a month savings was such a good deal, she got her son Ryan a prepaid smartphone too, which he uses to surf the web.

“Since there’s eight people in my family, someone’s almost always using the computer,” said Ryan.

We found the prepaid smartphone market is ringing off the hook. Sales more than tripled over the past year. Customers ditching those annual contracts are now one of the fastest growing smartphone segments in the U.S. With prepaid mobile you don’t make any contract commitments to one carrier, and you pay a set flat monthly fee upfront. That eliminates any surprise overage charges, which may come in handy with tweens.

“You wouldn’t want to give them a high end smartphone with an expensive post paid plan where they might get overages on and blow out your family budget,” said John Breyault with the National Consumers League.

The latest news in the prepaid market involves the iPhone.

Virgin Mobile and Leap-Cricket are now offering prepaid iPhone service.

T-Mobile says if you currently have an iPhone, ask your carrier to unlock it, bring it to their store, they’ll pop in a new SIM card and you can get inexpensive prepaid service.

“Often those customers find even with a penalty to cancel a contract they’re able to save money by switching,” according to T-Mobile’s Larry Petrone.

Some drawbacks to having contract-free cell service? If you want a smartphone, you’ll pay the entire retail cost of the device, which can be more than five hundred dollars in some cases. Also very few prepaid family plans are available, so you really need to figure out the savings for your household.

“You have to incorporate the higher upfront cost of the device itself versus the cost of keeping, adding another line to your family plan,” explained Breyault.

“T-Mobile says if you currently have an iPhone, ask your carrier to unlock it, bring it to their store, they’ll pop in a new SIM card and you can get inexpensive prepaid service.”

Even though Tiffany had to pay full price for two new smartphones, she says she’s still coming out ahead.

One analyst says right now the prepaid market is primarily younger, less affluent users, who are “highly mobile” and “live” on their smartphones.

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 11 ]

What’s In Your Shower Could Be

Reporting Josh Benson

Making You Sick MIAMI (CBSMiami.com)

Katie Keating couldn’t understand what was happening to her. “You don’t have the strength to do anything,” Keating said. “Initially, I thought bronchitis.” She was out of breath, had a constant cough and was rapidly losing weight. “I thought that it would go away,” said Keating.

She went to doctor

after doctor but her symptoms only got worse and nobody knew what was wrong.

Finally, Keating learned she had an illness called nontuberculous mycobacteria or NTM, and even more shocking– she likely got it from her shower.

“They are small bacteria. They cause disease in humans, pulmonary disease,” said Keating.

You don’t just contract this illness from the shower. It can come from any water. The microscopic bacteria are also in bath water. We cook with them and even drink them.

Dr. Joseph Falkinham is a biologist who knows all about these bacteria.

“Humans are surrounded by these organisms,” Dr. Falkinham said.

As household water became cleaner most bacteria were killed off, but NTM bacteria are extremely resilient and now more and more people are becoming sick as the bacteria silently destroys lung tissue.

“We’ve created a better environment for these organisms,” said Dr. Falkinham.

The cleaner the water experts say–the more these bacteria thrive.

Pulmonologist Dr. David Camelhar says most people are not susceptible to the bacteria. But for those who have a history of lung and bronchial problems, for elderly patients and for people with compromised immune systems, NTM can be life threatening.

And the proof is right in front of us. Dr. Falkinham took off a shower head and revealed the source of some of the trouble.

For Keating, life has changed dramatically. She no longer takes showers and she only drinks bottle water, but at least she is feeling better.

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 13 ]

MIAMI (CBSMiami.com)

Ready, Set, Action:

3

Iron Man Now Films In South Florida Reporting Lisa Cilli

Have you had a Robert Downey Jr. sighting yet? You might very soon because the Iron Man 3 movie shoot has officially moved from Wilmington, North Carolina to South Florida.

Wednesday, the crew is scheduled to shoot scenes at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens.

Robert Downey Jr., who plays Tony Stark in the superhero saga, has already been spotted on the set in Dania Beach where filmmakers built a phony tiki restaurant at the Dania Beach Bar and Grill and renamed it Neptune’s Net, a Malibu, Calif. Seafood restaurant.

Other locations are expected to include Coconut Grove and Pine Tree Drive in Miami Beach.

This is the first time Downey has been back on the set since he injured his ankle six weeks ago, causing a brief production delay.

Filming is supposed to last through September, and take place mostly in and around Miami.

Iron Man 3 is the third and final installment in the solo superhero saga.

It is scheduled to open May 3rd, 2013.

Another big film is also currently filming in Miami. It’s “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.” Other recent film and television projects in South Florida include “Rock of Ages,” A&E’s series “The Glades,” USA’s “Burn Notice,” Starz’s “Magic City,” ABC’s “Charlie’s Angels,” and VH1’s “Tough Love,” among others.

s_bukley / Shutterstock.com

PINECREST CALENDAR OF EVENTS / NOVEMBER 2012

Sister Cities Wine & Spirits Series NOVEMBER 15, 2O12 305/603-8067 www.coralgablesmuseum.org Sister Cities Wine and Spirits Series continues with the Spirits of Colombia.

Tasting, cocktails, food and a lecture on the history of spirits in Colombia. $15 for members, $20 for non-members. 6 p.m.

Jazz At Pinecrest Gardens: Spam Allstars NOVEMBER 10, 2012 305/669-6990 www.pinecrestgardens.com Latin Grammy nominated Spam Allstars is one of the pioneer bands of the new Miami-fusion sound, blending vintage funk, Latin groove, true jazz improvisation, soul, hip-hop, and electronic. Gates open at 6:30 p.m.; performance begins at 8 p.m.

Miami Book Fair International Granfondo Miami NOVEMBER 10-11, 2012 www.granfondo-world.com An Italian-inspired cycling experience comprised of twelve long distance, mass participation cycling events. This year’s GranFondo World series will include six all new United States based events in San Diego, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Vail, Reno and Miami. Visit the website for details.

NOVEMBER 11-18, 2012 305/237-3940 www.miamibookfair.com One of the nation’s finest and largest literary gatherings treats book lovers to more than a week of cultural and educational activities, including author readings, book signing, the Evenings With series, the IberoAmerican Authors program, the popular Street Fair on the actual closed streets of downtown Miami surrounding the campus, Children’s Alley, and much more.

Friday Nights: Carnival! NOVEMBER 16, 2012 - 305/532-4006 Let your hair loose and throw out the rules. It’s Friday night and Carnival is ready to get started. Show girls, contortionists, fire priests, saxophonists, artists, percussionists and Samba dancers are just a few of the performers that bring cultures from the Caribbean, South + Central America, Europe and Asia to South Beach in a global-style show. Starts at 8 p.m.

Florida Grand Opera:

La Bohème NOVEMBER 17 - DECEMBER 02, 2012 800/741-1010 - www.fgo.org/ To be young, in love, and in Paris…the magic of the famous Latin Quarter and Puccini’s unmatched ability to capture in his music love’s passion, hope, and sorrow have made La bohème one of the world’s best loved operas.

Miami Short Film Festival NOVEMBER 21 - DECEMBER 1, 2012 305/586-8105 www.miamishortfilmfestival.com MSFF’s goal year after year is focused on motivating directors, screenwriters, actors, and producers to make their films and share them with fellow film makers and industry professionals. The ultimate goal is to bring exposure to independent up-and-coming filmmakers.

Downtown Miami Riverwalk Festival & Boat Parade NOVEMBER 10, 2012 305/416-6868 www.miamiriverwalkfestival.com This special multicultural event provides an opportunity for local residents and visitors to explore and interact among local arts and culture vendors, while also showcasing the unique surroundings at the mouth of the Miami River.

FREE. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 17 ]

Best Of MiaMi

Best Neighborhood Bars in Miami:

Coral Gables

The Bar

Coral Gables is one of the oldest communities in South Florida, first established in the early 1920s. Villas with gardens in Mediterraneaninspired style, the famous Biltmore Hotel and the most renown private schools can all be found in a community that is predominantly family oriented and old school.

The neighborhood feel of Coral Gables can be easily found among its bars and local hangouts.

www.gablesthebar.com Decorated with that dark English pub feel that shies away from the sunlight, wooden oak booths, old bottles and stained glass lamps, The Bar surprises patrons with its dual personality. Early in the evening in a relaxed atmosphere you may sit at the bar and enjoy one of the largest variety of imported beers in the neighborhood. Later in the night, the volume gets loud and the bar area transforms into a dance floor. The Bar is not a dive where you may end up playing board games, but is intimate enough for a first date and warm enough to host a birthday party. The acclaimed Key Lime Pie is not to be missed.

The Local Craft Food & Drink www.thelocal150.com Limited seating and cozy ambiance make this restaurant and bar a place where you want to meet with friends after work and unwind with a chilled specialty beer and some tapas, or as the The Local Craft calls it, gastropub flare. Frequented by a young crowd of twenty-something professionals that have share a passion for great American craft beer and conversation, this is a college student’s dream bar. The 24 rotating taps means that there’s always something new to sip on. Just save room for dessert––the bacon beignet with rosemary maple syrup and whipped cream is a must-try.

Tarpon Bend www.tarponbend.com In Miami, a restaurant that’s been in business since 1999 is the equivalent of an old staple, hands down. Part of a small chain, Tarpon Bend still maintains its warm and casual atmosphere, welcoming its aficionados mainly for lunch and happy hour. This is the destination on the Mile for oysters and seafood and its famous Thursday Mojito Madness.

Titanic Brewery www.titanicbrewery.com The original concept for Titanic Brewery was a maritime themed microbrewery, and it was then extended to a fish and seafood restaurant (even the menu has ships everywhere) and a stage for live entertainment. Understated, unpretentious and laid back are the best attributes of both the crowd and the décor, since the center of the attention is behind the bar where you can see the beers being brewed as you drink them. Titanic is that typical hangout place to meet friends after work or to chill after a fishing excursion. As a drink to choose, with The Sampler you can have a taste of six of the brewery’s nine homebrewed beers to find your favorite.

19th Hole Sports Bar and Grill www.biltmorehotel.com 19th Hole Sports Bar and Grill is the best kept secret in Coral Gables. Whether you are finishing up your 18 holes or coming out of the Baltimore Hotel’s spa, 19th Hole is a pleasant venue overlooking the course. This is the perfect place to enjoy a quiet lunch or a chilled drink at sunset with pals. There’s a spectacular view with a breeze and the waterfall of the pool serves as a soundtrack while enjoying a salad or a burger in a mini escape in your own backyard.

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 19 ]

MIAMI (CBSMiami.com)

The Frightening

Reality Of

Marybel Rodriguez

Face Blindness

Imagine you couldn’t recognize people’s faces, and even your own family looked unfamiliar.

It’s a puzzling and disabling neurological disorder that prevents sufferers from being able to recognize the faces of people that they see every day.

The rare disorder is

known as prosopagnosia or face blindness. It doesn’t cause victims to forget people but it does make it impossible for them to recognize them.

“I literally have walked right past my kids on the street and not known it was them,” said James Cooke.

“I don’t forget people, I just can’t recognize them,” Dori Frame said. “I have shaped my life so I don’t have to come in contact with people and rely on recognizing people.”

The disorder can prevent a victim from being able to recognize a person who they have known for years.

“The first 49 years of my life, I could walk in a room and just scan the room and know who I knew and who I didn’t know. Now, I don’t even bother looking,” James Cooke said.

Experts say the disorder only affects 3 percent of the population and that while some people are born with it, others may develop it later in life as a result of an accident or other medical condition.

“Stroke, traumatic brain injury, degenerative causes,” were all among factors listed by Dr. Todd Feinberg, a neurologist, as possible causes of prosopagnosia.

Frame said that she has developed a system of techniques to help her distinguish different people. She uses the sound of a person’s voice or distinctive features like short hair, or a crooked mouth to identify people.

Help may be on the way for sufferers in the form of specially trained dogs who can recognize family members and close friends while out in public or at large social functions.

“All I have to say is, ‘find Greg’ and he’s off like a shot through the crowd,” Frame explained.

The disorder can be difficult to deal with for those who are close to its victims as well.

“I really didn’t understand at first. What do you mean you can’t recognize me? You’re my dad,” said Cooke’s son, Tommy.

There is no cure or treatment for face blindness and some people may not even realize that they have it.

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 23 ]

MIAMI (CBSMiami.com)

CBS4 Investigates:

Does Your

Count

The Overvote Worries

?

Reporting Michele Gillen

Imagine going to the polls and casting your vote for President Barack Obama or Governor Mitt Romney and somehow the machine thinks you voted for both candidates. That’s called an overvote, and your vote may be thrown out. Sound impossible? It isn’t.

“You are getting to the

crux of the problem with this technology. We are supposed to trust what goes on back there blindly,” voting rights advocate and attorney Lida Rodriguez-Taseff told CBS4 Chief Investigator Michele Gillen.

Rodriguez-Taseff has spent a decade battling to pull back the curtain on election transparency. She helped get the touch screen machines tossed in Florida in favor of getting voters a paper ballot and paper trail – only to learn that the variety of optical scan machines now in use now across America and Florida may have flaws no one could have predicted. Or could they have?

“Nobody has done and in-depth study to determine how well those machines are really working,” Rodriguez-Taseff cautioned Gillen. “It absolutely leaves me pause that we’re not looking at those machines more closely. The technology that is used for voting is generally inferior to the computing technology that most people have in their homes. And in their cars and their iPhones and cell phones. So the fact that we’re not looking more closely at this technology is really troubling to most people yes,” said Rodriguez-Taseff.

Kitty Garber knows the optical scan ballot and its history in Miami-Dade. She is the co-founder of the Florida Fair Election Center, and she’s worried about the optical scan system Miami-Dade county residents will cast their ballots on this presidential election. In fact, she’s been concerned over how we cast ballots here for the past five years.

At the heart of Garber’s concern is how often the machine – the ES&S DS200 in Miami Dade County, registers an overvote. That’s when, according to the machine, a voter has voted for two candidates in the same race. Their vote may then be invalidated… thrown out. Where does MiamiDade Stand in terms of overvotes visa vie the whole state of Florida?

“It’s the worst,” said Garber referring to the top two races studied by the state of FLorida in 2010 and in the top race, she said, “Miami-Dade again came up with 43% of all the overvotes statewide. It’s awful. It’s terrible. There should be virtually no overvotes,” said Garber.

What concerns voting rights advocates? A lack of answers as to what’s causing this problem?

“The problem could arise from many different places. It could arise from the fact that voters need to be trained not to overvote. It could arise from the fact that oncevoters overvote… they aren’t being properly notified and it could arise from the fact that voters are not being made to correct their ballot. Lastly of course it could arise from the fact that the machine has a problem and is recording overvotes when it shouldn’t be,” said Rodriguez-Taseff.

That’s exactly what was just discovered to have happened in a 2010 race in the Bronx NY. “It became obvious that this was a machine error and not a voter error,” says Larry Norden of NYU’s Brennan Center of

Law who helped expose that that the machine misread dozens of votes as overvotes– with no one noticing.

“It is unacceptable. The whole point of elections is for people to make their choices known And we should have technology that is able to do that,” says Norden.

It was what Norden says was the alarming number of overvotes detected in Miami- Dade races, that caught his attention and led the Brennan Center to investigate the ES&S DS200 machines in use in a 2010 race in the Bronx.

“We looked at the record in Florida and saw that there were very high numbers of over votes, particularly in Miami-Dade county which was using this machine but particularly in all of the counties that were using this particular voting machine in Florida,” Norden added.

According to Norden, after the machines were left on for a few hours of voting— one machine wrongly read dozens of votes as over votes… and all those votes were lost.

The conclusion of the manufacturer was essentially summed up this way. “It appears that the unit was out of calibration and when the unit heated up over a period of time, the scanned image was distorted and the system recorded votes that were not marked.”

“It is absolutely chilling to hear their account of what happened with the machines. The problem is they can make whatever diagnosis they want. They can say, oh it was the temperature of the machine you don’t know. There’s no way for outsiders to know,” said Rodriguez-Taseff.

Keep in mind, that while Miami Dade and the Bronx both use the DS200, our investigation finds that the software in the machines are different versions. Could that affect or prevent the same problem from having happened here, or happening in the future?

CBS4 investigates has tried to find out.

Despite the Bronx meltdown making New York headlines and raising questions about the machines in use around the country – the Supervisor of Elections in Miami-Dade and the department’s supervisor have denied our requests for an interview regarding the optical scanners, the problems in NY and whether anything has been done to prevent, preclude or

“The advocates do not have the information required to make a real analysis of whether or not the problem can happen here,” said Rodriguez-Taseff. “And part of the problem is that the technology is considered proprietary so they don’t give access to anyone other than the state. And even the state has limited access.

The manufacturer has written CBS4 Investigates that following the Bronx problem: it “issued a best practices technical bulletin to all DS200 users reminding them of the need to properly calibrate and clean units prior to an election.”

Broward County Supervisor of Elections, Brenda Snipes sat down with Gillen and answered a wide range of questions on the machines and concerns raised over what happened in the Bronx. Asked if she found out that a similar problem affected her machines, would she be outraged? ”That goes without saying,” said Snipes. “Now do I have the ability or the resources to go in and test… what do we have… 12-13 hundred machines? No I don’t. No I don’t,” she pointed out and added, “It appeared to be that it was isolated to the Bronx.

Broward County’s Department of Elections has given CBS4 Investigates access to shoot their machines. They too use the DS200 with software different from that used in Miami-Dade or in the Bronx.

Unlike Miami-Dade, Broward does not have what voting observers consider a red flag number of overvotes.

“It is unacceptable. The whole point of elections is for Because of the potential fallibility of people to make their choices known And we should the current machines— Taseff says its more urgent than ever that elections have technology that is able to do that.” audit as many of the paper ballots as possible. Currently, by law in Florida, the identify a similar problem here. departments are only allowed to audit a very small sample On why they refuse to do an interview on the subject: “The of the paper ballots, and only after the winner is declared Department cannot comment on the issue that was experiand certified. enced in New York with one of their voting units. However, we “We need to pay more attention to what is going on behind can confidently state this has no impact on voting in Miamithese machines so we can make sure that the next elecDade County,” said Deputy Supervisor of Elections, Christina tion is actually successful and every vote is counted,” said White, in a prepared statement sent to CBS4 Investigates.

Rodriguez-Taseff.

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 25 ]

Government Eases

Travel Restrictions HAVANA (CBSMiami.com)

For Citizens

Cuba will scrap broad travel restrictions starting in January, easing most Cubans’ exit and return, in the communist island’s first major immigration reform in half a century.

The Cuban government

imposed restrictions on travel starting in 1961 to try to stop a mass migration of people fleeing after the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power.

The government will lift the much reviled requirements to obtain an exit visa and letter of invitation and allow Cubans to simply show a passport and a visa from the country they’re travelling to if needed, the Communist Party newspaper Granma said.

“The Cuban government, in full function of its sovereignty, has decided to eliminate the procedure of soliciting the Permission to Exit for trips outside the country and to make ineffective the requirement for a Letter of Invitation. Starting on the 14th of January 2013, a current passport will be the only requirement and a visa for the destination country if required,” the anchor read on state-run television.

The changes are part of work “to update the current migratory policy adjusting it to prevailing conditions in the present

and foreseeable future,” the paper said.

The statement added: “Certain measures will be maintained to preserve human capital created by the Revolution from the theft of talents practiced by the powerful nations.”

The travel changes will take effect starting Jan. 14, Granma said.

It is the most significant advance this year in President Raul Castro’s five-year plan of reform that has already seen the legalization of home and car sales and a big increase in the number of Cubans owning private businesses.

“It is the most significant advance this year in President Raul Castro’s five-year reform plan.”

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 27 ]

MIAMI (CBSMiami.com)

CEO’s Book Targets

The

Me GeneraTion Reporting Cynthia Demos

How selfish are you?

When someone turns their blinker on in traffic to get in front of you do you let them or do you speed up? A South Florida CEO is focusing on the ‘unselfish world movement.’

He wrote a book and created a website to teach all of us the value of paying it forward. CBS4 put his creation to the test. After all, in this busy world are you just focused on you, or do you remember there are other people around to consider?

The book, Unselfish World, sets out to make you think before you act. CBS4 rounded up three 20-somethings, known as the more selfish generation, to check out the book.

We started with FIU student Melissa Caceres. CBS4 asked Melissa on a scale of one to ten, ten being the most selfish, on how she would rank herself.

Melissa said, “I’d rank myself of 6.”

Twenty-year-old Steven Payne and 24-year-old Daniel Jurado said they didn’t really think they were selfish people overall, but they were willing to go through the test.

CBS4 asked the 20-somethings a series of questions outlined in the book. We asked Steven if he ever played music with no regard to the people around him. He replied, “Yes, all the time.”

We asked Daniel Jurado if he ever left a mess for others to clean up. Daniel said, “yes, of course.”

We asked Melissa if she ever took two seats when one would do. With her purse sitting in the seat next to her she laughed and said, “Yes, I have.”

They could all admit they knew when they were being selfish. So, CBS4’s Cynthia Demos gave each 20-something a copy of the book; while they were reading away Demos tracked down the author, CEO of MSC Cruises in North America, Rick Sasso.

“If we remind ourselves often enough we may end up doing that unselfish act instinctively,” Sasso said.

The author has travelled all over the world and studied behavior. He said it boils down to people not thinking. His book is just a vehicle to get people to his website unselfishworld.org where people can share stories and learn how to get more people involved in the movement.

Sasso will also speak to corporations and try to get the unselfish world premise into mission statements for major companies across the globe. After all, Sasso said, “it’s easier to be polite than it is to be selfish.”

So what kind of effect did this book and website have on our twenty-somethings? We checked in a week later.

Steven said, “I noticed that the book made me more aware of all the small things.” Melissa concurred saying,”I like the

message that was put out by the book.” Daniel agreed, “It was a nice refresher reinforcement.”

Daniel said he became a more courteous driver on the road. “It’s basically living the example,” Daniel said. Melissa gave up her seat on the bus and said, “It doesn’t take much effort on my part.”

Melissa had ranked herself a six on the selfish scale before reading the book with 10 being the most selfish. She now said she’s about a 4 1/2. Steven said he actually bought lunch for two strangers.

“It makes you feel warm on the inside,” he said.

So if the book could have a positive influence on the so-called ‘selfish generation’, they say imagine the effects it could have beyond them. Steven summed it up, “It actually makes you a better person through and through.”

“The author has travelled all over the world and studied behavior. He said it boils down to people not thinking.

His book is just a vehicle to get people to his website unselfishworld.org where people can share stories and learn how to get more people involved in the movement.”

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 29 ]

Miami Children’s Hospital Receives Anonymous

iPad Donations MIAMI (CBSMiami.com)

Anyone who has ever been

in a hospital knows it can get quite boring so imagine if you’re a kid.

Now, children recovering from various operations and treatments at Miami Children’s Hospital can spend their time playing games, watching movies or listening to music on brand new iPads, thanks to an anonymous donor.

Dr. Chad Perlyn, plastic surgeon at MCH and co-chair of the Miami Children’s Young Ambassadors, recently spoke at a Miami Children’s Hospital Foundation fundraising meeting on how powerful the effects of technology can be for children in recovery. Within a matter of weeks of the July 2012 meeting, 10 brand new iPads arrived at MCH. “When children are recovering from surgery, they are often confused and disoriented, so medications are often administered to promote relaxation. This can make the recovery process longer,” says Dr. Perlyn. “Caregivers in the post-surgical units are experts in the art of pain relief and creative distraction of patients. The iPads have proven to be an irresistible tool and great patient satisfier,” he said.

The devices are not only popular among patients in

For Kids

recovery, physicians and nurses at MCH also feel that these electronic devices enable patients to take their minds off of their illnesses enough to minimize the use of pain medication.

Parents and families usually find their loved ones smiling with the iPads in the recovery room.

“The use of electronics has taught nurses that there is more than one way to help a patient,” says Ana Bonet, clinical educator at MCH. “Technology helps us think outside the box in terms of pain management and allows us to visit other strategies in pain reduction,” she says.

Whether the patient is a young toddler or even a teenager, the iPads offer age-appropriate entertainment for all types of patients. As soon as the iPads were put to use, Dr. Perlyn said the difference was night and day.

“There is no question that our recovery room is now a much warmer and more comforting environment for the patients.

It was a nice way for the Young Ambassadors to give back to the hospital,” he said.

To learn more about how to donate to the Miami Children’s Hospital Foundation please visit www.mchf.org.

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 31 ]

MIAMI (CBSMiami.com)

You’re Not

Did You Know

Sleeping Alone?

Did you know you’re not sleeping alone? Millions of mites live in your pillows, your mattress, stuffed animals and even your car.

All of these creepy crawly creatures may really creep you out, especially when you realize that you’re sleeping with millions of them every night but there is something you can do about it.

Erick Machadu realized mites were affecting him in a terrible way.

“Every time I would wake up in the morning. I would have a rash, a little itch,” said Machadu.

Elie Andray said she had terrible allergies too.

“When I woke up in the morning it was the worst,” said Andray.

Millions of Americans have allergic reactions to mites but it’s not exactly the mites they are allergic too but the mites feces people inhale while they sleep. Some people can also have a reaction to the dead bodies of the mites that turn to dust.

“As long as you have hair and skin that shed and they can drink from air, they can flourish,” explained Dr. Bassem Chahine.

Dr. Chahine said mites eat hair and skin particles and with the humidity levels in Florida, they drink from the air without a problem.

The issue is particularly bad in South Florida thanks to the constant humidity.

So what can you do about it?

“Basically your bed may be loaded with these particles, you just seal them in.”

If you get the proper pillow and mattress covers you can seal them in. Also, a dehumidifier helps and if you are still sneezing, stuffy and itchy, you can get a vaccine that’s effective in 4 out of 5 people.

Machadu said it worked for him and Andray agreed.

If you are prone to this allergy like 10-percent of the population is, you will have problems unless you address it.

If you are not prone to this allergy, than not sleeping alone, won’t affect you at all.

“Mites eat hair and skin particles and with the humidity levels in Florida, they drink from the air without a problem. The issue is particularly bad in South Florida thanks to the constant humidity.”

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 33 ]

MIAMI (CBSMiami.com)

Sales Of Electric Cars Not Exactly

Shocking Reporting Al Sunshine

Juan Cordero is car shopping again.

Business has been good enough for the South Miami furniture designer to head back out to the local showrooms. While he wants to save money at the gas pump, he’s still not sure about the latest hybrids or electric cars hitting the market, like Chevy’s Volt.

As a careful shopper, Cordero said prices in the mid $40,000 range is too much for him.

“One is the price and maybe they haven’t tweaked it enough, haven’t done what the consumer is looking for,” said Cordero. “It’s a good looking car, but too small and too expensive.”

With an almost three month inventory of Volts, General Motors temporarily shut down its assembly line. To boost sales and move existing inventory, it’s offering new incentives

like 0% financing and $3000 markdowns.

“We sell about two to three Volts a month so it’s not one of our big production cars, big volume cars,” said sales manager Gabriel Camps of Maroone Chevrolet in Doral. “There’s not much coming in looking for it” It’s not alone.

Nissan’s all-electric Leaf is also a slow seller with its price tag in the mid-$30,000 and limited battery range of about 100 miles per charge. Nissan has reportedly bought back several

“I think it is more fear of the unknown right now.

I think infrastructure has something to do with it.

Once that’s in place and once the battery technology elevates that range past 100 miles per charge, I think you’ll see a much greater acceptance of the project,”

of them after owners complained they didn’t get the battery life Nissan advertised.

“We’d like to see more growth, no doubt about it,” said Dave Rodriguez, General Manager at Maroone Nissan of Miami.

Publically available electric charging stations for all-electric or plug-in hybrids are one of the biggest attractions for owners of electric vehicles. All they need to do is plug the standardized cables from the station into the vehicle’s universal charging plug. That sounds easy enough, but that’s also one of the biggest problems for anyone who owns an all-electric vehicle in South Florida.

What’s the problem?

It turns out there are hardly any public charging stations in the tri-county area. A new one was just installed in the City of Miami Beach’s Parking Garage at 13th and Collins Avenue.

It’s believed to be the first of its kind in Miami Beach.

Critics say without more of them, electric car owners have few choices where they can drive before having to recharge.

“The local and national infrastructure is a work in progress and we haven’t seen, we probably haven’t see as much of an advancement in that area as of yet as we’re hoping to,”

said Rodriguez.

Because of battery problems and a lack of consumer demand, Toyota in Japan just pulled the plug on its production of the new all-electric “E-Q” mini car. The company decided to only make about 100 of them and offer them for sale in Japan and California.

Other carmakers including Ford and Mitsubishi, however, are still developing their electric and hybrid projects.

To sweeten the deal for car shoppers, there’s a $7,000 income tax credit to encourage sales throughout the United States.

“I think it is more fear of the unknown right now. I think infrastructure has something to do with it. Once that’s in place and once the battery technology elevates that range past 100 miles per charge, I think you’ll see a much greater acceptance of the project,” said Rodriguez.

Battery and hybrid technology are expected to improve in the future.

The big question right now is “Are consumers ready to spend money today for a technology that has yet to deliver all that it promises?”

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 35 ]

Best Of MiaMi

Best

In d ie Booksh

ops In Miami

The Bookstore in the Grove

When it comes to independent bookstores in Miami, there’s not much competition. But don’t go thinking that the chain stores dominate. Sure, we’ve got our Borders and Barnes & Nobles, even our Books-a-Bajillion or whatever those discount places are called. But that’s not exactly what we’re talking about here.

The book market is bound in a completely different way in this town – and oh yeah, we like it. –Jen Karetnick

Coconut Grove, FL www.thebookstoreinthegrove.com A former Borders, The Bookstore in the Grove qualifies not only as the best indie bookshop in Miami, but also as the bravest. After all, it’s taken over the site of the enemy. For all that, though, it’s thrived, running 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. daily (from 8 a.m. on the weekends) in the Shoppes at Mayfair since 2007. The store is greatly personalized by owners Felice Dubin and Sandy Francis, who give personal recommendations based on their preferences.

Other features include a book club that provides special discounts, a unique computer repair center on the premises, and custom order options. This indie bookshop is even dedicated to organic ingredients in the wraps, empanadas and shade-grown, organic coffee that they serve. Where else can you get all these services and be picky, too?

Spellbound Books & Gifts Homestead, FL spellboundbooks.blogspot.com To be one of the best indie bookshops, you don’t have to be new all the time. Located south of Miami in Homestead, Spellbound Books & Gifts does stock new books, but owner Dennise Sleeper also features gently used ones. Open since December 2006, Spellbound operates much like a community library, with children’s story hour, art and culture events, and tutoring taking place on the premises.

Much of the activities dovetail with Sleeper’s stated intentions to improve the quality of the local education and assist the elementary and secondary children in getting to the next levels of their education. Though it closes on the early side (open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.) Spellbound also keeps writers’ groups in its sights. We can’t help but applaud all of that.

Books & Books

Coral Gables, FL - Miami Beach, FL Bal Harbour, FL. - Miami International Airport www.booksandbooks.com Opened in 1982 as a single unit by Mitchell Kaplan, a high school English teacher who found himself more enslaved to literature than his students, Books & Books has grown to three local locations, plus one in the Miami International Airport (there’s also a spot in the Hamptons and a site in Grand Cayman Island). But Kaplan doesn’t rest on his paperback laurels. He also runs the Miami International Book Fair, where nearly 400 prominent authors gather to read every November, and nearly all of his bookstores have had full-scale cafes added on to them as well. No local author considers himself “made” until he’s read at Books & Books, and no lit-minded visitor considers a vacation complete until he’s browsed for autographed stock in at least one of the stores, which is easy to do considering the hours – the Coral Gables and Miami Beach locations, for instance, are open until midnight on the weekends. But do call first to inquire. Special events and readings are always going on.

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 37 ]

MIAMI (CBSMiami.com)

Reporting Shannon Hori

A South Florida businesswoman is on a mission to educate other women about ovarian cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer death.

Shelley Golden said

what she learned firsthand can help save others much heartache. Golden, who founded the See Eyewear stores with her husband Richard, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007, just before her son got married.

“My knees buckled, that was the beginning,” recalled Richard Golden.

Shelley underwent surgery and chemotherapy. She lost her hair, but did not lose her positive attitude.

The cancer went into remission. But like other ovarian cancer survivors, she must get her blood level checked every three months for CA-125. Women with ovarian cancer will have elevated levels of that blood protein. She gets the results at the Sylvester Cancer Center.

“Every time I come you can’t help but relive it a little,” Shelley said.

“The ride from our place here in Miami to Sylvester to get the results is a very, very stressful tense situation,” said Richard Golden.

Two years ago Shelley found out that the cancer came back.

She fought it again. But now the hardest thing for her to live with is knowing what she could have done differently. It’s something that would have basically eliminated her chances of getting ovarian cancer.

Shelley’s doctor is Dr. Joseph Lucci, III at University of Miami’s Sylvester Cancer Center.

“It’s very frustrating when these women have long family histories yet never been connected to genetic counseling,

testing or any kind of programs,” Dr. Lucci said.

Shelley’s mother had breast cancer that spread to her ovaries. Her grandfather had breast cancer. Shelley later learned she tested positive for the BRCA gene, which determines cancer risk. Had Shelley gotten her ovaries removed after she had children, she would have reduced her chances of getting ovarian cancer by 85 percent.

At their 27 See Eyewear stores across the country this month, there are pamphlets and t-shirts front and center for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Shelley Golden hopes women like her daughter Jessica will see it, and pay attention.

“It’s my mission now to get the word out and educate women so they never have to go through what I went through,” Shelley said.

Shelley discovered she had ovarian cancer after experiencing pain in her lower back. But Dr. Lucci said women should also get a doctor’s opinion if they have a change in bowel or bladder habits, feel full early, or bloated.

“It’s my mission now to get the word out and educate women so they never have to go through what I went through”

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 39 ]

Secrets (CBSMiami.com)

Beneath The Sea Call Out For

Change Reporting Michele Gillen

Beneath the Atlantic Oceans’ shining waters lies a potential risk and experts are raising alarming questions about the health of our oceans and the impact it could have on the life above and below the sea. CBS4 Chief Investigator Michele Gillen recently looked into the problem with an undersea explorer who has the ocean in his blood.

Meet Fabien Cousteau, he’s a third-generation ocean explorer who sees a lifeline for humans in desperate trouble.

“When you look out at this magnificent ocean what do you see?” Gillen asked Cousteau.

“I see the future. I see mystery. I see a place that really needs to be understood,” Cousteau said.

But he is also sounding out a warning: “What we are putting in our water system is coming back to haunt us.”

Cousteau, the grandson of the great granddad of the seas Jacques Cousteau, carries on the late pioneer’s passion to fight poisoning of our oceans, which is now reflected in face of sick and mutant fish.

“We’re injecting chemicals by the tens of thousands into the ocean,” Cousteau said. “That ends up in our plates, through that fish, through that sea life.”

CBS4’s Gillen also asked him about recent reports of fishermen pulling up shrimp with no eyes.

“With no eyes, with too many legs or that are all one sex,” Cousteau added.

An undersea photographer and advocate for the world’s aquatic backyard, Cousteau is raising awareness over disfigured and sick fish turning up with open sores, lesions and tumors that researchers believe are harbingers of human health.

“We are actually seeing three-eyed fish. We are seeing alligators with stunted genitals. We are seeing bass that grow all female because of all the estrogen in the water,” Cousteau said.

Cancer causing PBC’s, mercury, arsenic, DDT are all showing up in fish, which we may eat.

Gillen said, “Unfortunately, so many more even more toxic chemicals are showing up in our fish.”

“Unfortunately, you are right,” Cousteau added.

He says the contaminants in the sea impact our health.

“There’s a garbage patch in every ocean. That plastic lasts forever. It ends up in the food web and it ends up in orcas, in ourselves,” he said.

“The orcas are a good example of an animal, a mammal that’s a direct reflection in the oceans. Orcas are now getting cancer rates. They are born with physical disabilities.”

And that’s why he’s trying to make a difference.

“When you open your eyes to the mysterious underwater world it’s impossible to turn your back on it. I guess in a sense it’s been infused in my blood,” Cousteau said.

He took his first dive with his grandfather at 4 years old,

a man he remains in awe of.

“I think my grandfather was a pioneer and a visionary,” he said.

Now, some three decades later, he works to expose problems, offer solutions, and make an imprint in Florida taking Gillen on his mission to plant red mangrove seeds at John U. Lloyd State Park.

“Some might say it’s a dirty job, but this one seedling could make a huge difference,” he said.

As the mangroves provide the environment for fish to breed- he’s christened his campaign -plant a fish.

“It’s planting things that fish depend on. Mangroves, corals which are the rainforests of the sea. Sea turtles which are iconic and the gardeners of the sea,” he said. “I’m walking a fine line, that blue line between land and sea. Selfishly, I’m much more comfortable underwater. But in order to invite others to my world I want to get them to walk on the beach.

On a river, next to a lake, anywhere where the circulatory river of life connects us. At the end of the day it’s not about hugging sharks, it’s not about loving whales. It’s about ourselves. The survival of our species.”

Cousteau’s biggest concern remains the impact of the BP Oil spill in the Gulf. Researchers, fisherman and Cousteau say that while the disaster has largely vanished from the headlines, the potential effects may just be becoming more visible.

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 41 ]

MIAMI (CBSMiami.com)

Tourist Fights and Beats

Miami Red Light Camera Ticket Reporting Al Sunshine

Red light traffic cameras are automatically documenting violations all over South Florida and generating traffic tickets for drivers who run red lights. But a recent visitor from Maryland said he got no help at all trying to fight a Miami red light ticket which charged him with basically being in two places at the same time.

Harry Connolly recently booked

a trip to Key West for a vacation in paradise. He wanted to visit his brother who lives in the Florida Keys. It was also celebration of his sons’ college graduation Back in May, the Townsend, Maryland family flew into Ft. Lauderdale and the freelance photographer rented a car for a drive down to Key West. But a few weeks later he got an unexpected bill from the rental company: A $176 ticket for running a red light in Miami.

Harry couldn’t understand it.

“In June we got a letter from Enterprise car rental indicating the car we rented had run a red light in Miami on May 19th on a Saturday evening around 7:30 at night. And I went back to our calendar and I realized on May 19th we were in Key West, not in Miami,” said Connolly.

He checked the website of the company that administers the cameras for the city and found a car that looked like his rental running a red-light off NW 27th Avenue and 7th street.

“I called Enterprise car rental and they basically washed their hands and said they don’t handle this,” said Connolly, “They were going to charge me an $18 administration fee on top of the $158 dollar ticket.”

A few weeks later Connolly got a formal ‘notice of violation’ and the fine had grown to $277.

Connolly complained to the administrators of Miami’s red light camera program.

“Somebody’s wrong here and they insist their day and

time are always correct. The Enterprise car rental, they haven’t helped a bit. The ticket people, they have no interest in helping me, they’re collecting money for Miami,” said Connolly. “None of them have been of any help whatsoever. It’s ridiculous.”

Veteran Miami traffic lawyer David Brenner said in many cases, local red light cameras are documenting legitimate safety violations. But, he adds, the camera program still has its problems.

“I think the system has many flaws in it and it’s new.

It’s only been around for a couple of years, maybe less and they are still working on it. But I think there are flaws, there are glitches in the system,” said Brenner. “There are problems when it’s a rental car, there are problems when you fill out an affidavit and try to assign it to somebody else, there are problems with it. I think it can be better.”

After checking out Connolly’s complaint and documentation along with check with the company that runs the camera program, Miami police finally dismissed his ticket.

Investigators said they believe the car rental agreement had the wrong license plate number and it probably wasn’t Connolly’s rental car that ran the red light.

“I think the system has many flaws in it and it’s new. It’s only been around for a couple of years, maybe less and they are still working on itBut I think there are flaws, there are glitches in the system.”

It’s not uncommon, said Brenner, for mistakes to be made on car rental forms and you don’t even realize it.

“Sometimes you’ll see the tag on the vehicle does not match the tag on the ticket, or the car is different, or the color of the car is different and that would be a reason to dismiss it,” said Brenner.

Enterprise Car rental said the red light camera misidentified Connolly’s license plate.

The company which runs the red light camera program said they may have been provided with the wrong information from the car rental agency.

Connolly said nothing happened to his repeated complaints to both companies until after asking CBS Miami to check them out.

He’s glad the ticket was finally dismissed and he does plan on visiting South Florida again.

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 43 ]

d n u f s e m i R t c d i x n i a V T raud Left Beh om) mi.c a i M BS MI (C MIA

F etting G

ne nshi l Su A g ortin Rep

Tax refund fraud has kept federal prosecutors in South Florida busy as the crime continues to grow in popularity. Just this year, two former NFL players pleaded guilty to taking part in tax refund fraud.

“Identity theft,

tax refund scams are really no less than a tsunami that is barreling towards us,” said U.S. attorney Wifredo Ferre. For victims like South Dade’s Lauri King, waiting for help from the Internal Revenue Service is getting harder. She still doesn’t know when the agency may get around to mailing out her refund.

“I think they are overwhelmed,” King said of the IRS. “I think this is something they never planned for, never expected to happen.”

King filed her tax refund seven months ago. She expected to get her refund a few months later, but continues to wait for the IRS to finally act.

“Just two weeks ago, I mentioned to my husband, did we ever get our IRS refund and he said, ‘No,’” King said. “So we called and actually got to talk with a person and she informed us that we had an issue with identity theft.”

Miami has the highest fraudulent tax return rate in the nation according to Ferre.

“Over 74,000 potentially fraudulent returns filed in Miami resulting in $280 million in bogus returns in 2010,” Ferre said.

“The city of Miami per capita numbers of fraudulent returns based on id theft was 46 times the national average…this is absolutely outrageous.”

While the IRS investigates an estimated $5.2 billion dollars worth of phony tax refunds nationwide, tax payers like Lauri King are running out of patience while she waits for her tax refund.

“I feel like I’m nobody; I feel like whatever happens, happens,” King said. “It’s a very defeating feeling, you work all year long, you’re one little bit of change you get can back to have a little freedom with. Nope, just a name, just a number that’s all.”

Several weeks ago CBS4 News asked the IRS how many identity theft victims were still waiting to get their tax refunds? The agency said it’s not releasing that information publicly and wouldn’t even let CBS Miami go inside its Plantation Customer Service Center with a camera to talk with taxpayers who are critical of the way the agency’s treating them.

The agencies local customer service offices are so crowded, warning signs are often posted before noon that they don’t have any more time to meet with taxpayers.

“I don’t see anything to assist them with getting a refund or getting the credit processed and going foward in any kind of expedited basis,” Miami tax lawyer Kevin Packman said.

Packman said federal prosecutors are making progress arresting the scammers, but he believes more needs to be done to help the victims and warns victims like Lauri, “Could

still be dealing with this somewhere for 12-18 months.”

CBS4’s Al Sunshine asked if he’s heard of people dealing with this for more than a year? Packman answered “Yes, definitely.”

The IRS insists it’s changing procedures, tightening up its electronic processing systems to avoid more scams next season. But what about getting tax fraud victims’ legitimate refunds back this year?

In a prepared statement, the I-R-S said: “Refund times can vary depending on the complexity of the case, and we understand the frustration that taxpayer may have that have been identity theft victims. Along with taking steps toward faster resolution of identity theft cases, we are continuously improving the way we track and report on the status of all identity theft cases. We believe these improvements will reduce the time to work identity theft cases in coming filing seasons so that honest taxpayers will receive their refunds sooner. Additionally, better tracking and reporting means that we can spot – and correct – any flaws in the system more quickly.” - Michael Dobzinski, IRS Media Relations Specialist Still, with bills mounting and the holiday shopping season right around the corner, victims like Lauri think seven months is way too long for the IRS to get her refund back to her.

“The working public needs help to resolve issues like this,” King said. “It’s hard enough going to work every day and now you’re having your money stolen on top of it and then you have to prove your identity to make sure you’re the correct person. I don’t know how far it’s gone, is it just the IRS check, is it other things? Where does it stop, how does the IRS stop it from happening again? Where does it end, does it happen next year, does it happen a year after that?”

A recent Inspector Generals’ report warned these scams could cost Uncle Sam $21 billion dollars in fraudulent tax refunds over the next 5 years. The IRS continues to ask victims to be patient while they wait for their legitimate refund checks to be mailed out.

But it still declines comment on what it’s doing to make sure next year taxpayer refunds end up with the people who earned them, and not the criminals who’ve been so successful stealing them.

For more Information: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Identity-Protection http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/ www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f14039.pdf http://www.treasury.gov/

November 2012 CBS4 News Magazine Pinecrest [ 45 ]

Automotive M O N T H LY

AUTOMOTIVE

How To Check Tire Pressure & Inflate Tires Drive Safely While Saving Money and Gas

by Philip Reed, Senior Consumer Advice Editor Source: www.edmunds.com

Underinflated tires might cause an accident that could kill you. Need another reason for inflating your tires?

Underinflated tires increase tire wear, which could burn through a set of $400 tires a year early. Need another reason?

Underinflated tires waste gas. How much gas? The Department of Transportation estimates that 5 million gallons of fuel per day are wasted due to low tire pressure. That’s more than 2 billion gallons per year, just because people don’t take the time to inflate their tires properly.

OK, OK, you get the point. Inflating your tires to the specified pressure is important. So make it a habit to check and refill your tires once a month. And remember, you can’t tell if a tire is underinflated just by looking at it. If it actually looks underinflated, it is way underinflated.

Checking Your Tire Pressure Here’s how to check the pressure in your tires with the least amount of muss and fuss.

Buy a digital tire gauge and keep it in the car. (This will only set you back about $10.) Consider buying a small notebook that you can use to record your tire pressure and, later, your increased fuel economy.

Find the tire pressure level required for your car. This information is usually on a yellow sticker in the doorjamb on the driver side (and it is also contained in the owner’s manual). It might call for different pressure levels for the back tires and the front tires.

Check the pressure when the tires are cold. Tires heat up as they drive. They take about a half hour to cool down. Or you can just check the tires first thing in the morning.

Unscrew the valve cap and set it to the side or in a pocket where you won’t lose it.

Press the tire gauge onto the valve stem. There might be a slight hiss as you press down on the valve stem and again as you release it. You only need to do this for a second or two, long enough to get an accurate reading.

Read the tire pressure on the digital gauge. You might consider writing down the pressure of the tires as you go around the car. You can refer to this when you fill up the tires.

Now you can compare the tire pressure readings you got with the specified amount called for by the manufacturer (on the doorjamb or in the manual). If the level of pressure in your tires is below the specified amount, you need to fill the tires with air.

For example, the sticker on the doorjamb may say that the recommended level is 32 psi (pounds per square inch). When you check your tire you find it is 29 psi. You need to bring your tire pressure up to spec. It’s estimated that for every 3 psi below spec, you burn 1 percent more fuel (and add 10 percent more tire

wear). It’s not uncommon to be 10 psi below spec, which would waste 3 percent more fuel and increase tire wear by 45 percent.

Filling Your Tires There are at least two ways to refill your tires to bring them up to specification. You can go to an auto parts store and get a portable air compressor. If you do this you can refill your tires at your house or in your garage. Some of these compressors are cheap and not really up to the task of quickly inflating your tires.

Spend a few extra dollars to upgrade to a higher level compressor that connects to your battery terminals rather than running off the cigarette lighter.

Most people, however, will just refill their tires at the gas station. Even though many air compressors charge 50 cents, you can usually get the attendant to turn on the machine for free.

Adjusting Your Tire Pressure Here are the steps needed to adjust the pressure in your tires: Pull your car in close to the air compressor so the hose reaches all four tires.

Turn on the air compressor. (You will hear the compressor motor beginning to run.)

Remove the stem caps and set them to the side or in a pocket.

Press the hose fitting down on the valve stem and press the lever. You should feel air flowing through the hose and hear it inflating the tire. This can take a little effort to hold the hose on the valve stem.

Check to see when you have enough air pressure in the tires by releasing the inflation lever. The gauge on the hose fitting will show if you have approximately enough air pressure. You can check it again later with your own gauge. At this point, it is better to slightly overinflate the tire.

Adjust the pressure in all the tires in the same way. (Note: If the tires are warmed up, inflate the tire pressure to 3 psi over the specified amount.)

Recheck the tire pressure with the digital gauge. If the pressure is too high, press the gauge down just far enough to release some air from the tire. Check it again.

Replace the valve caps on all the tires.

If you get in the habit of checking your tire pressure once a month, you will eventually find a good gas station that has a conveniently located air compressor.

Now it’s time to enjoy improved fuel economy, reduced tire wear and — above all else — safe driving.

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AUTOMOTIVE

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AUTOMOTIVE

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Home Improvement M O N T H LY

Source: www.lowes.com

Outdoor decorating for the holidays can be a fun

plants, such as holly, mistletoe and Christmas cactus.

experience for the whole family and add color and charm

Make your own Christmas stars from twigs, cover them

to your home for the Christmas season. While bright

with string lights and hang them from the porch banisters

lights and holiday displays are an important part of any

or ceiling. Tie red ribbons around a lattice basket, and fill

holiday dĂŠcor, you can adorn your home and landscape

it with evergreen boughs. If you have a red sled, decorate

with other items that don't run up your utility bill. With

it with greenery, and prop it up against your porch. A

a little careful planning and creativity, decorating your

pair of ice skates next to the sled enhances the holiday

home's exterior for Christmas doesn't have to be a

theme.

competitive or expensive project.

HOME IMPROVEMENT

Tips for Decorating the Outdoors

Embellish Your Lampposts You can add lights and bows to your lampposts, and

Outdoor DĂŠcor for the Holidays

string white or multicolored lights around them. For a traditional look, tie a pine garland or wreath around the lamppost, securing it at both ends with a wire. You can also use red and white ribbons to create candy canes, and then wrap the ribbons around your lampposts.

Spruce Up Your Trees Consider decorating your yard's trees with string lights and small plastic ornaments that don't weigh down the branches.

Fill Your Birdbath Consider filling your birdbath with greenery, pine boughs, pine cones and twigs for a fashionable wintery display. Add some miniature lights for a bright nighttime look.

Cover Your Front Yard Christmas stepping stones add holiday cheer to any porch or walkway. Most come with holiday designs, like

Decorate Your Door

a Santa or snowflakes. Likewise, many birdhouses come

Attach a large wreath, garland, evergreen or brightly

with Christmas designs during the holidays. You can also

colored bow to your front door, and add a small

purchase or make Christmas planters to replace your old

Christmas ornament in the center. Highlight the display

flower pots. String some long plastic garlands along the

by adding some string lights, or shine a spotlight on the

top sides of your fence, and add red Christmas bows

wreath.

and string lights. Use ornament hooks to attach your

Create Seasonal Window Boxes

favorite Christmas ornaments onto your fence.

Display poinsettias or potted winter plants on your windowsills. For a natural look, use pine boughs or pine

Light Your Outdoor Displays

cones as a base, and mix in seasonal produce (e.g.,

Nativity scenes, inflatable Santas, reindeers,

corn, pumpkins, gourds).

snowmen and other Christmas characters are popular

Adorn Your Porch

holiday yard displays. For a more dramatic look, use an

Hang some grapevine wreaths of different sizes on

outdoor floodlight or spotlight to illuminate the displays.

the walls of your porch, and then add some seasonal

55

HOME IMPROVEMENT

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Marketplace M O N T H LY

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Pinecrest CBS4 News Magazine

November 2012