In Dominican Republic, eye doctor linked to Sen. Menendez known for philanthropy, thirst for celebrity

SANTO DOMINGO --
Dr. Salomon Melgen arrives at galas here in a blue Mercedes-Benz, his four bodyguards in tow.

He rarely goes unnoticed. The stout 58-year-old ophthalmologist is a regular on the society pages, where he is almost always pictured with important politicians. Late last year he made national headlines for performing free eye surgery on a 28-year-old woman who had been shot in the face.

“He’s a national treasure,” said Eduardo Gamarra, an international relations professor at Florida International University who has polled extensively in the Dominican Republic. “He has the reputation of a miracle worker.”

But Melgen’s carefully crafted public image began to unravel this week, when federal investigators raided his West Palm Beach eye clinic as part of a probe into potential Medicare fraud. Separately, The Miami Herald confirmed the existence of a federal corruption investigation involving his ties to U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey.

Family members in the Dominican Republic defended the doctor on Friday, characterizing the allegations as an orchestrated effort by his political opponents to destroy his reputation.

“Everybody in this country loves him,” said his cousin, Vinicio Castillo Semán, a member of a powerful family in the Dominican Republic. “He lives his life helping people, returning their sight to them, as he did for Jose Jose,” a famous Mexican performer.

Among eye patients he has treated: former Dominican presidents Joaquín Balaguer and Juan Bosch.

Few others here would speak openly about Melgen. But published reports and public records paint Melgen as a man with business and political savvy — and a thirst for celebrity and influence.

Melgen has not returned calls to his cellphone, homes or offices. His family says he has stayed under the radar since allegations surfaced that he brought Menendez on free trips to the Dominican Republic, some of which were alleged to have involved underage prostitutes.

Menendez issued a statement this week saying he had gone on three trips to the Dominican Republic with Melgen, a friend and campaign contributor, but denied all allegations involving the prostitutes. The senator later cut a check for more than $58,000 to cover the costs of two of the flights.

Some of Melgen’s influence stems from his business interests. In addition to a successful ophthalmology practice in the United States, he has two real estate companies registered under his name in the Dominican Republic, government records show. He also holds at least 50 percent of Dominican company ICSSI, which in 2002 won a lucrative 20-year government contract to scan cargo at ports.

Both ICSSI and Melgen have come under intense public scrutiny in light of new allegations that Menendez used his influence to help revive the port contract, which had been dormant for nearly a decade. Menendez has denied wrongdoing.

Melgen also has the power of the press. In 2012, he launched his own Web publication — an English-language news site known as VOXXI. The startup, which is geared toward Hispanic audiences, drew praise from U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Miami Republican, among other federal lawmakers.

Family members say Melgen takes great pride in his philanthropic efforts. On his résumé and website, the doctor boasts that he has been awarded the Medal of Duarte, Sanchez and Mella — the Dominican Republic’s highest honor for charity work — and has served as the country’s alternate ambassador to the U.N.

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Hackers target Twitter, access about 250,000 user accounts

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Anonymous hackers have targeted Twitter this week and gained access to roughly 250,000 user accounts though only “limited information” such as email addresses was compromised, the microblog said on Friday.

Twitter has already reset passwords for affected users, and will notify them soon, it said in a blog post. The cyberattacks come days after the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal revealed they had been the target of a well-coordinated hacking effort.

“This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident,” Twitter said. “The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked.”

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Gary Hill)

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Next ET: 2013's Oscar Class Photo

Jennifer Lawrence beams in the official 2013 Oscars portrait.

See George Clooney, Anne Hathaway and more nominees in the annual photo on Monday's ET.

Pics: The Fierce Fashions of the 2012 Oscars

Plus, Bachelor Sean Lowe shirtless in the shower!

Check your local listings.

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Ratepayers in for a shock if Cuomo closes Indian Point plants

Ratepayers would be zapped more than $800 million to keep New York juiced up if Gov. Cuomo succeeds in closing the controversial Indian Point nukes, two big players in the electricity business said.

Figuring that Con Ed’s three million Westchester and New York City customers use about half of Indian Point’s output, the proposals would cost each ratepayer around $130, spread over a number of years.

But that might be only the beginning of the costs.

The $800 million plan Con Ed and the New York Power Authority filed with the state Public Service Commission says the state should also seek proposals for other unspecified transmission and generating projects.

Until the bids come in, the costs of those “incremental” projects won’t be known.

Con Ed and NYPA say their plan should be enough to replace the twin nuclear plants in northern Westchester County by 2016.

In the filing, Con Ed and NYPA proposed two projects to boost transmission from upstate power plants.

One is the $76 million replacement of 22 miles of high voltage wires on a transmission line that runs from Oneida County south to Sullivan County.

The other is construction of a $123 million second line next to an existing Con Ed line in Orange and Rockland counties.

A third transmission project is a $312 million worth of improvements to lines providing power to Staten Island and Brooklyn.

Con Ed and NYPA also suggest allotting $300 million in various energy conservation programs.

Entergy, which owns the Indian Point nukes, says the planning by Con Ed and NYPA is “prudent,” but will come to naught.

One federal Indian Point license expires in September, the other in December 2015. Entergy expects the battle over renewing licenses could drag on long past their expiration dates.

“We think Indian Point will be operating well past 2016 on its current license,” said Entergy spokesman Jim Steets.

But Indian Point opponents say the Con Ed/NYPA proposal is a strong counterpoint to those who say the state can’t do without the nukes.

“This debate over Indian Point has been answered,” said Phillip Musegaas of the environmental group Riverkeeper. “We can replace it in time, and there are a number of ways to do it.”

bsanderson@nypost.com

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Healthcare experts see bumpy road ahead: “Shift happens”

The healthcare industry in South Florida, like the rest of the country, faces huge challenges in the year ahead as major federal reforms kick in, experts told about 700 people at a University of Miami conference on Friday.

“We are at a critical time in health policy,” said Mark McClellan, former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “There are going to be some bumps along the way,” especially starting in 11 months, when the biggest changes in the Affordable Care Act kick in.

“Bumps may be understating what we may go through,” said Patrick Geraghty, chief executive of Florida Blue, the state’s largest health insurer.

They spoke at the conference on the Business of Healthcare Post-Election. The speakers accepted the federal reforms — often referred to as Obamacare — as not only inevitable but necessary. As Tom Daschele, a former Democratic U.S. senator from South Dakota, put it, “having 50 million uninsured is just unacceptable.”

But the reform act, signed into law in 2010, contains more than 2,000 pages, plus thousands of pages more of enabling regulations — details that will have major, and perhaps unexpected, impacts on the healthcare industry, which now makes up almost 20 percent of the nation’s economy.

In October, insurance exchanges will open for enrollment — groups that will allow individuals and small businesses to purchase policies with no exclusions for pre-existing conditions. Starting next January, virtually everyone will be required to have insurance, Medicaid will expand in many states, and businesses with more than 50 full-time equivalent employees will be required to provide insurance or pay fines.

“Jan. 1 is a very significant date,” said Steven Ullmann, director of health policy at the UM business school. He called reforms “a process” that will change over time.

“The one thing we know is that healthcare reform will be reformed,” said Chris Jennings, a Washington health policy advisor for the Clinton administration and three senators.

Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the insurers’ trade group, said she had strong ideas about tweaks that could minimize disruption. One arcane, but crucial provision of the law requires that an older person’s policy can be no more than three times as expensive as a young person’s.

The provision will mean huge increases in the policies of younger persons, to pay for the much higher costs of their elders. Insurers are asking for that policy to be postponed for two years, retaining the present maximum spread of about five to one, so that younger people could sign up for insurance without huge sticker shock.

For example, if a 25-year-old now pays $100 and a 60-year-old pays $500, the new rule would hike the younger person’s premium to $150 and cut the older person’s premium to $550 — a 50 percent increase for one and a 10 percent decrease for the other.

The thinking of lawmakers was that by lowering ratio, the costs of healthcare would be spread out and shared more equally by the population.

Anne Phelps, a healthcare principal with Ernst & Young, said she favored another change in the law, which now requires that next year a company with the equivalent of 50 employees to provide insurance for anyone working more than 30 hours a week or pay a fine. She thought the threshold should be raised to 32 or 34 hours.

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Kids to vacate nursing home where 2 died

A Miami Gardens nursing home linked to the deaths of two youngsters is closing its 60-bed children’s unit, the epicenter of a bitter dispute over Florida’s system of care for profoundly sick and disabled children.

About a week ago, Golden Glades Nursing & Rehabilitation Center informed state health administrators of its plan to shut down the harshly criticized pediatric unit. The facility was housing about 30 children late last year, although the number had since dropped to 19, said Lori Weems, a lawyer for Golden Glades’ owners.

“Since late January, the owners and management of Golden Glades have worked very closely with the Agency for Health Care Administration, specialty nursing homes, and medical foster homes” to make new arrangements for the children, Weems said.

Florida’s decision to house hundreds of profoundly disabled children in institutions designed for elders has drawn fire of late, both from children’s advocates and the U.S. Justice Department, which has accused the state of cutting in-home care for frail children so deeply that parents often have no choice but to institutionalize their loved ones.

Golden Glades is one of six nursing homes in the state licensed to care for children. Its problems, highlighted in a series of Miami Herald stories, included two deaths and a series of state and federal fines totaling over $300,000.

The home, which changed ownership last June, has sought to streamline the transfer of children by donating a special bed with protective netting to the family of one child, allowing the boy to return home to his parents. The child, who suffered from frequent spasms and movements, requires the netting to prevent him from falling out of bed or injuring himself against metal railing.

“That child,” Weems said, “is getting to go home.”

The nursing home also is “raising private funds to construct a wheelchair ramp” — which was, like the special bed, not covered by Medicaid — “so that a wheelchair-bound child whose parents very much want to care for him can go home,” Weems said. Medicaid is the state’s insurer for needy and disabled people.

For several days, Weems said, social workers and administrators at the home have been working with the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration to provide options to the parents or other caregivers of the children who had been living there. They arranged tours of group homes, medical foster homes and other nursing homes, and offered to help find services for families that wanted to bring their children home.

The state Department of Children & Families had several foster kids who were living at the nursing home in recent months, said Joe Follick, a spokesman for the agency in Tallahassee. As of Monday, three of the DCF kids remained at Golden Glades; one was moved to a medical foster home Wednesday, another is scheduled to move to a medical foster home “shortly,” and a third will be moved under the oversight of a sister department, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities. “We have been diligently working to find a different home for them, and every child in a skilled nursing facility,” Follick said.

“We have created a new system to help ensure that every child in our care — except in extremely sensitive medical situations — can live in a home setting where they can receive the same attention and love that every child deserves,” he added.

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Online bingo shows its worth at Rank

LONDON (Reuters) – It may lack the noisy camaraderie of a trip to the bingo hall, but the online version of the numbers game has proved more profitable for Britain‘s Rank Group than the original.

The merits of the online business were further emphasized when Rank said a snowy January had cost it 3 million pounds ($ 4.7 million) in revenue as Britons opted not to venture out to its bingo halls and casinos.

Operating profit from online bingo was 11.4 million pounds, just beating the 11.1 million earned from the venues themselves.

The company, majority owned by Malaysia’s Guoco, reported a 4 percent decline in pretax profit to 31.3 million pounds in the six months to December, with its loss-making Blue Square betting business proving a drag.

Many parts of Britain have seen heavy snow over the last two weeks and there are fears that the bad weather will hit economic activity and push the country back into recession.

Pub groups Enterprise Inns and Mitchell & Butlers both said the recent cold snap had hit sales.

“Allowing for the slow start to the second half we remain confident in our prospects for the remainder of the year and in our longer-term growth strategy,” Rank Chief Executive Ian Burke said.

Rank’s main activities are in Britain where it runs 35 Grosvenor Casinos and more than 100 Mecca bingo clubs.

Profits growth in its online bingo business mirrors that in the gambling industry as a whole where online betting is the fastest growing part of the market, helped by the popularity of smart phones and tablets.

However, Rank has said it is reviewing the future of its own struggling online betting business Blue Square, a relative minnow in a crowded sector.

“We felt the losses were not losses we could continue to sustain,” said Burke.

Blue Square reported an operating loss of 4.8 million pounds in the six months and Rank has now cut its spending on marketing the business.

“There were 11 or 12 competitors advertising and that spending just wasn’t cutting through,” said Burke.

He declined to comment further on the future of the business pending completion of the review.

Rank is awaiting regulatory clearance for a planned 205 million pound deal to buy the casino business of Gala Coral.

A preliminary report by the Competition Commission said Rank could have to sell six casinos to get the deal approved.

($ 1 = 0.6332 British pounds)

(Editing by Louise Ireland and Brenda Goh)

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ANTM Winner Lisa D'Amato on Her Freak Accident

America's Next Top Model winner Lisa D'Amato faced a possible career-ending injury when she crushed her face after a nasty fall. Now, D'Amato is recovering nicely from her freak accident and telling ET what happened.

PICS: America's Next Top Model Hall of Fame!

While enjoying some down time on the set of an independent movie in Colorado earlier this month, D'Amato was doing handstands and flips with a crew member. D'Amato says that she was being held upside down by the ankles when she fell and the crew member landed on top of her.

"Then I just felt a waterfall going down my throat, and that's when I looked down and my hands were completely covered with blood," says D'Amato, who has modeled for companies as varied as Guess and the Ford Motor Company.

D'Amato's husband Adam promptly called 9-1-1 and she was rushed into medical and cosmetic surgery.

READY: ANTM Winner Suffers Horrible Face Injury

Today, things are looking better for D'Amato. On Saturday she visited the plastic surgeon who reconstructed her face, Dr. Ryan Naffziger, to remove the top layer of stitches from her nose.

D'Amato plans on keeping her new nose for a long time, promising to be more cautious in the future.

"I am just gonna be careful and not trust anyone else," says D'Amato. "No more duo moves!"

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Man convicted in murder of pregnant ex-girlfriend

A Queens man was convicted today for the murder of his pregnant ex-girlfriend and her toddler.

Jimmy Humphrey was found guilty of strangling Linda Anderson to death and setting her lifeless body on fire. The fire ultimately killed her 2-year-old son, Aiden Hayes, as he searched for his mother through the smoke in their St. Albans apartment.

"I'm not happy about the verdict, I really don't know how to feel. My little sister, Aiden and Gabriel are all gone," said Anderson's heartbroken older brother Rob, 40, outside of Queens Supreme Court.

The 6-foot 2, muscular Humphrey, 25, choked back tears as the forewoman read eight "guilty" verdicts to the court.

Humphrey will be sentenced on March 6.

Anderson, 25, was seven months pregnant with Humphrey's son -- to be named Gabriel -- when their complicated relationship escalated to a crime of passion on July 13, 2010.

Humphrey testified that after their altercation he went home to for a few hours to call his girlfriend and called 911 to report the fire from a pay phone three blocks away.

"I'll be alright, I love ya'll," said Humphrey, who faces up to 50 years in prison, to his family.

Both of Anderson's brothers are expected to give impact statements.

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Mompreneur jumps into the ‘Shark Tank’

It all started with a 4 a.m. email nearly a year ago: “Do you think a baby bib could change the world? I do...”

Then Susie Taylor included a link to her website, bibbitec.com, and off it went to Shark Tank, the popular ABC television show where entrepreneurs pitch their companies to investors on the show — and by extension, 7 million viewers.

Four months later, as the “mompreneur” was leaving her Biscayne Park home to pick up her kids from school, she got a call from the show asking her to pitch on the spot. Driving with her phone on her shoulder, she told the Bibbitec story.

Shark Tank bit. After a few more back and forths, her segment was filmed last summer.

Friday night, Taylor is scheduled to be on the show pitching Bibbitec’s main product, “The Ultimate Bib,” a patented generously sized, stain-resistant and fast-drying child’s bib made in the USA — Hialeah, to be exact. Bibbitec’s $30 bib can be a burp cloth, changing pad, breast feeding shield, full body bib, place mat, art smock and more, Taylor says.

We won’t be getting any details on what happens Friday night when she and her husband, Stephen Taylor, get into the tank with Daymond John, Mark Cuban and the other celebrity sharks; Taylor has been contractually sworn to secrecy. But whatever the outcome, she believes it will be worth it for the marketing pop.

Taylor was inspired to create her bib after a long and very messy plane ride with her two young sons and started Bibbitec in 2008. She and her team — her husband is CFO, her sister, Heather McCabe, handles sales and marketing, her uncle, Richard Page, is in charge of production, and her aunt, Marcia Kreitman, advises on design — have expanded the line to include The Ultimate Smock for older children and the Ultimate Mini for babies. Coming soon: a smock for adults.

Taylor already got a taste of what a national TV show appearance can do for sales. In September, Bibbitec’s sales jumped 40 percent after she was on an ABC World News "Made in America" segment. “Within 30 seconds, we started getting sales from all over the country and they didn’t even mention our name on the air,” Taylor says. She said that confirmed her belief that a Shark Tank appearance would be worth it.

Plus, Taylor has been hooked on Shark Tank since the first time she watched it in 2008 as she was developing her product. Trained in theater, she admits she didn’t know much about business and learned from the show. She would practice how she would answer the questions.

“I’m all about empowering women who are sitting on the couch watching, because that’s what I was four years ago,” says Taylor. “All I wanted to do was to be on Shark Tank because I believed if I got on Shark Tank the world will see what I am trying to do and that’s all I need. I know it’s a great product.”

Will that theater training come in handy Friday night? Stay tuned. Shark Tank airs at 9 p.m. on ABC and Taylor hopes viewers will join in on Twitter using the hashtag #sharkbib.

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