Independence Party nominates Carrion to run for mayor

There’s going to be a three way race for mayor.

The Independence Party shook up the race for City Hall tonight by unanimously nominating former Bronx President Adolfo Carrion as its standard bearer.

Carrion will face against whoever the Democratic and Republicans elect in their respective party primaries.

“Today the Independence Party gave New Yorkers a real choice. I will not let you down,” Carrion told about 50 of the party’s delegates following their vote at the Scholastic Book Store in Soho.

Carrion, 51, served in the Obama administration as the White House director of urban affairs and later as regional director in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, after his tenure as borough president.

He switched his party affiliation from Democrat to independent last fall.

“The issues are more important than any political party,” Carrion said.

It’s a change of strategy for the Independence Party, who backed Mike Bloomberg in the last three elections. But Bloomberg also ran on the Republican line – and the votes from the two lines combined helped him defeat his three Democratic opponents.

It will be a much more difficult challenge for Carrion to win as a third party candidate – and without Bloomberg’s financial resources . He is also seeking Republican Party support. But because he is not a registered Republican, he needs the backing of three GOP county leaders to run in a Republican primary and that support hasn’t materialized..

But Independence Party political strategist Jacqueline Salit was enthused about Carrion running as a “third force.”

“This is going to be a three way race that’s going to chage the dynamics of politics in New York. Adolfo’s candidacy is defining the race,” Salit said.

Read More..

Caribbean cell phone company asks South Florida relatives to buy minutes for family back home

An Irish billionaire’s telecommunications company, which has revolutionized cell phone usage in some of the world’s poorest countries, is bringing it’s latest marketing pitch to South Florida.

Digicel is tapping into South Florida’s close ties to Haiti and Jamaica in a campaign that asks families stateside to send minutes home.

Irish billionaire Denis O’Brien has staked a claim in the telecommunication industry by building his cell phone company in developing countries in the Caribbean and South America The South Florida Digicel campaign includes bus bench ads, billboards and television spots. The message is simple: “Send minutes home.”

Customers stateside can pay to send airtime minutes to family and friends’ pre-paid cell phones in the Caribbean. The concept is not new, but Digicel is seeking to broaden it’s reach.

It is a nod to South Florida’s ties to the Caribbean and the financial influence of the region’s diaspora. Families in Haiti and Jamaica rely heavily on remittances from abroad.

Haiti received $2.1 billion in remittances in 2011, which represents more than one quarter of the national income, according to the Inter-American Development Bank . In 2011, Jamaica received nearly $2 billion in remittances.

“We understand the value of the diaspora,” said Valerie Estimé, CEO of Digicel’s diaspora division. “They are our lifeline.”

Typically the company relies on ethnic media outlets like radio programs and niche publications for advertising, but there was a gap in reaching second- and third- generation Caribbean Americans, who are more plugged in to mainstream media, said Andreina Gonzalez, head of marketing in Digicel’s diaspora division.

“There was an opportunity to step up and go a little further,” Gonzalez said.

The campaign comes at a time when the company is facing some public relations backlash in Haiti and Jamaica. Customers from both islands have taken to social media to decry shoddy connections and poor customer service.

In Haiti, the problems were so acute that Digicel released an apology letter to its customers in December. When the company tried to integrate Voilà, a competitor Digicel acquired, into its network, the integration caused system failures.

“Quite simply, we did not deliver what we promised and we did not communicate effectively with customers through the problem times,” Damian Blackburn, Digicel’s Haiti CEO wrote in the apology.. “We apologize for letting our customers down and want to thank them for their patience and understanding.”

In South Florida, the marketing pitch is family-centered and draws on the diaspora’s need to stay connected. Digicel representatives say airtime minutes are as valuable as the cash remittances families send to the Caribbean.

The advertising features members of a culturally ambiguous animated family smiling and talking on cell phones.

The ads that appear in Little Haiti, North Miami and North Miami Beach are largely targeting the Haitian community. In South Broward, the focus shifts to the Jamaican population.

A similar campaign has also been launched in New York.

Prices range for $7 to $60 to add minutes to a relative’s Digicel account. Transactions can be made online or at participating stores in South Florida.

“You’re able to make a very big difference with a very small amount of your disposable income,” said Estimé. “We know how important it is to be able to get in touch with a mother, a sister or a brother.”

The company recognizes that some of its older customer base prefer the retail model, while younger and more savvy consumers would rather send pay for minutes directly from their computers or cell phones.

“It was really impressive to see Digicel online,” said Geralda Pierre, a Miami Gardens resident who sends minute to Haiti. “It’s so convenient to add minutes for my dad in Haiti who is sick. It makes it easier for me to get in touch with him.”

For now, Digicel says it will continue to mix the old and new. The Creole-language advertisements on Haitian radio and Island TV, a Creole language cable network, are here to stay.

“We are bringing first world convenience in some cases to third world countries,” Estimé said. “Digicel has in a way improved the lives of our loved ones back home.”

Follow @nadegegreen on Twitter

Read More..

Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez to speak at Miami’s Freedom Tower

Dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, who is on a world tour after 10 years of being barred from leaving her homeland, plans to visit Miami April 1 and speak at the iconic Freedom Tower.

“It is such an honor to not only have Yoani speak at what we affectionately call Democracy’s College, but also at the Freedom Tower. I can think of no better venue for this historic conversation in Miami,” said Dr. Eduardo J. Padrón, president of Miami Dade College., in an email Tuesday night.

The Freedom Tower, which is located on the MDC campus, was the old headquarters of The Miami News but went on to a second life as a center for processing and offering services to Cuban refugees who fled the Castro regime in the 1960s.

The federal government sold the Mediterranean Revival style building in 1972 and after changing hands a few times, it was donated to Miami Dade College.

Sánchez will take part in what is billed as a special conversation with community leaders and students at 2 p.m. on April 1. The conversation will be live-streamed from the tower, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Cuban blogger, who began an international tour this week that will stretch to nearly three months, will receive the Miami Dade College Presidential Medal for championing human rights.

Past honorees have included President Bill Clinton; Lech Walesa, former Polish president and leader of the Solidarity Movement, and Mikhail Gorbachev, who brought economic and political change to the Soviet Union..

“I think it’s wonderful that she’s coming,’’ said Andy Gomez, a senior fellow at the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.

“It will give her the opportunity to see how embracing the Cuban-American people are to Cubans on the island and how much we care about them. I hope she will go back and tell this to the Cuban people.’’

More importantly, he said, it will give people here and at the other venues Sánchez plans to visit the ability to see Cuba from the point of view of a journalist, “a simple blogger’’ and help them understand the hardships of daily life in Cuba.

“We need to listen to their voices; a lot of times the voices on the island are different but they are so important in building bridges between here and there,’’ Gomez said.

But he added, “I think too much pressure is being put on the shoulders of Yoani. She’s not a politician; she’s not an academic; she’s not a public figure by design and people abroad have made her into a public figure.

“She’s one of the many — many dissidents on the island. I hope she doesn’t burn out,’’ said Gomez.

But during her first stop in Brazil this week, Sánchez proved resilient in the face of pro-Cuba hecklers who disrupted the screening of a film about press freedom in which she appears. On her arrival in the Brazilian state of Bahia, protesters also threw fake dollar bills at her and accused her of being financed by the CIA.

But during a news conference Tuesday, Sánchez, 37, said, “I’ve found something here like what Cuba could be in 20 years in terms of diversity of opinion.’’

Asked about her future role in Cuba, she said she hoped to work in a Cuban newsroom free of censorship.

“I have a dream of founding a media outlet in my country because I believe in the power of journalism as a regenerative force,” said Sánchez.

Her critical blog posts, tweets and columns are followed by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, although because Internet access is so limited in Cuba, she is not well-known on the island.

Through the years, Sánchez has had to turn down many invitations to visit abroad because the Cuban government wouldn’t give her an exit visa.

But under a travel and migration reform last month, Cubans are no longer required to obtain the so-called tarjeta blanca to leave the island. And they are allowed to stay outside the country for extended periods without losing their Cuban citizenship rights.

Sánchez requested her passport soon after the reform went into effect and began planning an itinerary that includes several stops in the United States, an appearance at an Inter American Press Association meeting in Mexico, and visits to a number of European nations.

Sánchez, who also plans to visit her sister while in South Florida, appeared at the 2011 Miami Book Fair International — but via a phone call and a pre-recorded video message. Earlier this month she participated in the live program Avanza Cuba — a collaboration of MDC and TV Marti, via phone.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Read More..

Emma Stone and Nicolas Cage Get Animated for The Croods Movie

Emma Stone will soon make her very first foray into the world of CGI with DreamWorks' caveman comedy The Croods, and the starlet tells ET that the project got her animated in every sense of the word.

"I didn't really realize that there was going to be so much movement playing an animated character," laughs Stone about lending her voice to adventurous teen cavegirl Eep in the film. "It was pretty fun."

Pics: Stars on Set

In fact, Eep's rambunctious zest for life made accepting the role, opposite Nicolas Cage and Ryan Reynolds, a no-brainer for the actress.

"I liked her rebellion and I liked her strength physically," said Stone, who adds that she was especially impressed by Eep "being able to physically pull people over her shoulder" as cave people are apt to do. "There's a lot I could relate to about her."

Video: Watch Andrew & Emma's 'Spider-Man' Screen Test

Watch the video for more from Emma Stone and her co-star Nicolas Cage, who play's the Crood family's over-protective patriarch.

Catherine Keener, Clark Duke and Cloris Leachman also star in the family-friendly film, in theaters March 22.

Read More..

Judge blocks city from Ken Burns film footage

Famed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns today beat back an effort by the city to obtain raw footage and outtakes from his recent movie on the infamous "Central Park jogger" rape case.

A judge granted the PBS icon's request to quash a subpoena for the unused material on grounds that his production company, Florentine Films, is covered by the "reporter's privilege."

Manhattan Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis ruled that Florentine proved its "journalistic independence" when Burns' daughter and collaborator on the film, Sarah Burns, "presented specific facts demonstrating an intent to publish at the time newsgathering commenced."

Ellis also said city lawyers were "misleading" when they claimed that Ken Burns told the trade magazine Variety that the "purpose" of last year's "The Central Park Five" was to spur settlement of a $250 million civil-rights suit filed by the five men whose convictions were tossed in 2002.

"Burns does not indicate what the film's 'purpose' is, and the quoted portion by defendants mischaracterizes the quote and Ken Burns' position," Ellis wrote.

The city claimed that it needed what Burns left on the cutting-room floor to help defend itself against wrongful-conviction claims by Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Kharey Wise, Raymond Santana and Kevin Richardson, whose pending suit was filed 10 years ago.

Ellis said upcoming depositions "will provide full access fo the main plaintiffs" and give city lawyers "the opportunity to pose questions concerning contradictions in the edited film and elsewhere."

Executive Assistant Corporation Counsel for Public Safety Celeste Koeleveld said the city was "disappointed" and considering its options.

"While journalistic privilege under the law is very important, we firmly believe it did not apply here," Koeleveld said.

"This film is a one-sided advocacy piece that depicts the plaintiffs' version of events as undisputed fact. It is our view that we should be able to view the complete interviews, not just those portions that the filmmakers chose to include."

Burns said he, his daughter and her husband, David McMahon -- who also worked on the film -- "are grateful for this important decision; we feel the judge made exactly the right ruling."

"We are also mindful that this ruling goes far beyond our current situation; this adds a layer of important protection to journalists and filmmakers everywhere," Burns added.

"We recognize too that this attempt to subpoena our outtakes and notes only further delayed the nearly decade long efforts by the plaintiffs to seek redress. We hope this serves as a positive impetus to move that original suit to a resolution."

bruce.golding@nypost.com

Read More..

Best photo apps for Android devices

Whether you want to slap a simple filter on your photo or get granular and change attributes like color levels and saturation, we’ve got a list of the Android apps you’ll want to use.

Snapseed

The good: With its unique gesture-based interface, this offers an incredible level of control over its effects and filters.

The bad: The tools and interface aren’t intuitive, so it could take a while to get familiarized. Also, the lack of a zoom function makes it difficult to see finer adjustments.

The cost: Free

The bottom line: If you’re a serious mobile photographer looking for an app with which to fine-tune your photos, Snapseed is your best choice.

Pixlr Express

The good: Offers more than 600 effects that all work well and are easy to use. Auto Fix and Focal Blur (tilt-shift) are particularly effective.

The bad: The app doesn’t warn you before backing out, which can result in lost work. A Recent Files picker upon launch would be nice.

The cost: Free

The bottom line: One of the most powerful Android apps in its category. Despite its minor flaws, it should be your go-to mobile photo editor.

Instagram

The good: An excellent way to turn mundane images into cool-looking photos you can share with friends. Mapping features mean people can easily browse all your geotagged shots.

The bad: Photo Map features default to showing all your geotagged shots, which could be dangerous under some circumstances.

The cost: Free

The bottom line: If you like taking retro-looking shots and sharing them, Instagram is tough to beat. Mapping features and frequent updates to the app mean your pictures will have a longer browsing life span.

Photo Grid

The good: Offers a huge menu of grid templates and a dead-simple interface for combining photos into framed collages.

The bad: The app unfortunately doesn’t let you customize the thickness of collage borders or the level of curvature on rounded panels.

The cost: Free

The bottom line: Even though it’s missing a couple of nifty customization tools other collage apps have, Photo Grid’s simple interface and outstanding menu of predesigned grids make it the best collage app on the market.

Read More..

Work begins on State Road A1A repairs in Fort Lauderdale

The battered section of northern Fort Lauderdale’s shoreline will start to take its former shape this week, when pieces of a 2,600-foot-long sea wall made of corrugated steel are installed.

The repairs, initiated to undo the damage left by Hurricane Sandy in October, will not be complete before spring break or possibly the Fort Lauderdale Air Show in April, Florida Department of Transportation officials said.

“All the work that we are doing should take until April,” said Barbara Kelleher, spokeswoman for the transportation department. “It’s just to make emergency repairs.”

The urgent need erupted after the beach area became so badly eroded that the outer edges of State Road A1A began to crumble from the lack of support underneath.

The old concrete barrier wall, which was built to withstand powerful currents, was no match for the storm in several spots north of Sunrise Boulevard. The resulting damage to the oceanfront road prompted the state to accelerate its repairs.

The estimated cost of the repairs: $8.3 million. They are expected to be complete by early May, Kelleher said.

The new A1A between Northeast 14th Court and Northeast 17th Street will narrow to two lanes from four until the city of Fort Lauderdale initiates a much broader plan for the mostly residential stretch of the busy road.

A series of trails called greenways will be built after the state transportation department completes the essential improvements. The trails will provide a safe and scenic way for bicyclists, joggers and dog walkers to travel along A1A.

The city has asked for feedback from residents on a website called Restore A1A to decide how the restored stretch of A1A should look.

As the larger plan comes together, Broward County will pick up the $1.2 million tab for the thousands of tons of sand to replenish the beach along the road.

“The city and the county are sort of sharing the cost at this point,” said Eric Myers, a county natural resources administrator. “It’s supposed to be a much more robust structure.”

As part of the emergency repairs, 44-foot-long pieces of creased steel will be sunk 42 feet into the ground, forming a barrier that, Kelleher says, will be more stable than the concrete embankment that Sandy ravaged.

The new wall will be capped with wood that residents can sit on when the project is completed. The undamaged portions of the sea wall farther south will stay put.

“There hasn’t been any erosion problem there yet,” Kelleher said.

Read More..

Newtown massacre gunman wanted to exceed Norway shooter's death toll

The gunman who carried out the Newtown school massacre was inspired by violent video games — and was trying to outdo a Norwegian mass murderer who killed 77 people, it was reported today.

Adam Lanza believed he was in ghoulish competition with Anders Breivik, who carried out a bloodbath at two locations in July 2011, law enforcement sources told CBS News.

Breivik, a paranoid ultra nationalist, fatally shot 69 people at a summer camp after murdering eight others in downtown Oslo.

Lanza wanted to exceed Breivik’s death toll, according to investigators.

He chose the Sandy Hook (Conn.) Elementary School because it was the “easiest target” with the “largest cluster of people,” two officials who have been briefed about the investigation said.

Lanza saw his victims as characters in a shooting video game and the higher the death toll, the better his “score.”

Investigators said they had found evidence that Lanza was obsessed with Breivik, who posted a bizarre extremists manifesto the day of his attacks.

Sources told CBS that investigators have also uncovered a “trove” of video games from Lanza’s basement.

He is believed to have spent much of his free time in a basement play room, with the windows blacked out, engaged in a kind of target practice on video games.

It was not disclosed which games he played. But Breivik boasted that he trained for his rampage by playing a war-simulation game named “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.”

He said he developed “target acquisition” by practised his aim using a “holographic aiming device” on the game, which he believed was being used to train combat soldiers.

Norwegian prosecutors also said Breivik played “World of Warcraft” an astounding average of six hours and 50 minutes a day for four months while he was preparing his attacks.

The fate of the two mass murderers turned out differently.

Lanza, 20, killed himself after slaying 20 children and six adults before police closed in.

But Breivik surrendered to police and is being held in a Norwegian jail on a 21-year sentence, the longest allowed in his country.

In his manifesto and afterward Breivik said he was inspired by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the Knights Templar of the Middle Ages, al Qaeda, “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, and Japanese “banzai” warriors.

He said he was motivated by fear of an Islamic takeover of Europe, a decline in Western values and the growth of Europe’s left-leaning political parties.

No manifesto or written explanation from Lanza of his rampage has been found.

Before his fatal spree he destroyed the hard drive on his computer, which may have kept some of the records of the games he played and who he played with.

But investigators are believed to be making progress in tracing Lanza’s on-line life.

Read More..

Open English expands across Latin America

Back in 2008, Open English, a company run from Miami that uses online courses to teach English in Latin America, had just a handful of students in Venezuela and three employees. Today the company has more than 50,000 students in 22 Latin American countries and some 2,000 employees.

To fund this meteoric expansion, the founders of Open English — Venezuelans Andrés Moreno and Wilmer Sarmiento and Moreno’s American wife, Nicolette — began with $700. Over the last six years, the partners have raised more than $55 million, mostly from private investment and venture capital firms.

Their formula for success? The founders rejected traditional English teaching methods in physical classrooms and developed a system that allows students to tune into live classes every hour of the day from their computers at home, in the office or at school, and learn from native English-speaking teachers who may be based anywhere. Courses stress practical conversations online and the company guarantees fluency after a one-year course, offering six additional months free if students fail to become fluent.

“We wanted to change the way people learn English,” said Andrés Moreno, the 30-year-old co-founder and CEO, who halted his training as a mechanical engineer and worked full-time at developing the company with his partners. “And we want students to achieve fluency. Traditionally, students have to drive to an English academy, waste time in traffic, and try to learn from a teacher who is not an native English speaker in a class with 20 students.”

Using the Internet, Open English offers classes usually with two or three students and a teacher, interactive videos, other learning aids and personal attention from coaches who phone students regularly to see how they are progressing.

Courses cost an average of $750 per year and students can opt for monthly payments. This is about one-fifth to one-third of what traditional schools charge for small classes or individual instructors, Andrés noted.

“We work at building confidence with our students and encourage them to practice speaking English as much as possible during classes,” said Nicolette Moreno, co-founder and chief product officer, who met Andrés in Venezuela while she was working there on a service project. “Students are taught to actively participate in conversations like a job interview, traveling and talking on a conference call,” said Nicolette, who previously lived in Los Angles, worked with non-profits to create environmentally friendly products and fight poverty in emerging markets, and was head equity trader at an asset management firm. “Students need to speak English in our classes, even though it is sometimes difficult. They learn through immersion.”

Open English has successfully tapped into an enormous, underserved market. Millions of people in Latin America want to learn English to advance in their jobs, work at multinational companies, travel or work overseas and understand the popular music, movies and TV shows they constantly hear in English. Many of them take English courses at public and private schools and learn little if any useful conversational English. While students at private schools for the upper middle class and wealthy often learn foreign languages extremely well from native English-speaking teachers, most people can’t afford these schools or courses designed for one or two students.

Read More..

The builders of the Sen. Marco Rubio brand

WASHINGTON --
Sen. Marco Rubio is on a breathless rise, a testament to his political skill and demographic appeal that last week saw him delivering the Republican State of the Union response and appearing on the cover of Time as “The Republican Savior.”

But behind the scenes is a relentless, methodical effort to build the Rubio brand, aided by a team of strategists and media handlers positioning the 41-year-old Floridian for an expected presidential run.

They include members of Rubio’s Senate staff and presidential campaign veterans who work for the political committee Rubio formed ostensibly to help elect other conservatives.

Instead the Reclaim America PAC has focused on consultants and building a national fundraising network. Last year, his PAC spent more than $1.7 million, with the vast majority going toward staff and fundraising, and about $110,000 going to other candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

“It connotes a machine, someone who is grooming his image for a jump to higher position,” said the center’s executive director Sheila Krumholz.

Rubio’s team plots policy and publicity moves, including his recent foray into the immigration debate. He was among eight senators working on a proposal, but Rubio took them by surprise — and ensured he would be front and center — with a Wall Street Journal piece laying out the framework before the group announced it.

The Rubio machine cultivates the image of a new breed of Republican, youthful, and as at ease talking about Tupac and the Miami Dolphins as talking about budget deficits. At the same time, advisors dole out nuggets to the news media, they aggressively contest even the smallest points in articles.

The political fascination with Rubio has made it easier for his team to build helpful story lines. When he first took office in the U.S. Senate, it was Rubio the humble, political star keeping his head down. That followed with periodic “major” policy rollouts — foreign policy, job creation, the middle class. When Rubio gives a speech, it’s invariably a “major” address. A young assistant is always there to record it on video and take photographs.

“It’s almost like he’s the Backstreet Boy of American politics, a Hollywood creation of what a model political candidate should be,” said Chris Ingram, a Republican communications consultant from Tampa who has been critical of Rubio. “He has to deliver on the hype but from a P.R. perspective, it’s textbook.”

And constant. Last week, Rubio issued 17 press releases. By comparison, former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, another potential 2016 candidate, released three.

Behind the scenes

Rubio’s political inner circle includes PAC employees Heath Thompson and Terry Sullivan, two operatives who made their names in South Carolina’s bare-knuckled political culture and are close with former Sen. Jim DeMint. The hyper-competitive Thompson is a college football fanatic more comfortable in a baseball cap than suit and tie.

For broad messaging strategy, there is the roguishly charming Todd Harris who knows practically everybody in the political media and is never shy about excoriating reporters.

The Senate staff includes Alberto Martinez, who goes back to Rubio’s days as speaker of the Florida House and can anticipate where critics might attack Rubio, and Alex Burgos, another Rubio campaign alum and true believer who pushes back at any hint of negativity in Rubio coverage.

Read More..