Miami Police Department, torn by scandal, steps up scrutiny of its own

From the outside, the Miami Police Department seems perpetually torn by scandal, with the latest rip in the fabric — Wednesday’s arrest of a veteran officer accused of extortion — coming only days after a narcotics sergeant was convicted of corruption in an embarrassing federal trial that pitted a group of veteran detectives against their own boss.But police and city officials...

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Vine Is Teaching Everyone This Terrible Habit

“No more vertical videos.” – Joan Crawford’s message for the digital generation.Twitter’s new snap-and-share video service, Vine, has forced users to break the first rule of iFilm making: never shoot vertical videos.[More from Mashable: 10 Awesome Pranks to Play On Your Facebook Friends]SEE ALSO: Vine Mania! 10 Creative Vines on TwitterOf course, Vine’s videos appear as a square, so you could argue...

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Exclusive PIC: 2013 SAG Awards Seating Chart GigaPan Photo

Where the stars will be sitting at this year’s SAGs?You don't have to wait until Sunday to see which celebs will be seated together! ET has your first look at the 2013 SAG Awards seating chart. Pics: The 10 Best SAG Awards Dresses of All Time Explore our exclusive interactive GigaPan (high-res panoramic photo) below! Related: Pick The Winners with ET's SAG Awards Ballot! Don't miss the 19th Annual...

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Bloomberg giving $350 million to alma mater Johns Hopkins; he's first to donate more than $1B to single US university

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is giving $350 million to alma mater Johns Hopkins University, pushing his lifetime giving to the private Baltimore university past $1 billion, the university said today.University officials believe Bloomberg, who earned his fortune creating the global financial services firm Bloomberg LP, is now the first person to give more than...

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Crisis has Americans raiding their 401(k)s

WASHINGTON -- As the father of two college-age kids, Rob Harris knew that finding money to pay soaring tuition costs wasn’t going to be easy. Reluctant to saddle himself or his children with loans, the 55-year-old product development manager from Kansas City, Mo., tapped another source: his retirement savings. Harris plans to pay himself back, but his decision to prioritize...

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Appeals court again upholds power of Miami’s Civilian Investigative Panel

An appeals court has struck down a police officer’s challenge to the validity of Miami’s Civilian Investigative Panel — the second time the panel has withstood a legal challenge from police officers in the past five years. Police Lt. Freddy D’Agastino and the Fraternal Order of Police filed a lawsuit arguing that the civilian panel, which reviews citizen complaints against...

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BlackRock to buy $80 million Twitter stake: source

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management company, has taken an $ 80 million stake in Twitter Inc, a person with knowledge of the deal said Friday.The six-year old social media company will not raise new capital as part of the private deal that values the firm at more than $ 9 billion. BlackRock will buy shares directly from early Twitter employees seeking to liquidate...

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Burt Reynolds Hospitalized with Flu

Burt Reynolds is recuperating in a Florida intensive care unit after being hospitalized for dehydration and severe symptoms relating to the flu.A representative for the 76-year-old actor tells CNN that, as of Friday afternoon, Reynolds is "doing better" after being admitted to the ICU.Related: Burt Reynolds Undergoes Open Heart Surgery "We expect, as soon as he gets more fluids, he will be back in...

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Caught: Suspect who escaped during bathroom break nabbed in Bronx

They finally flushed out this fugitive!A murder suspect who escaped from a Brooklyn police precinct yesterday by asking a cop for a bathroom break was captured today by cops hiding out in a friend’s Bronx apartment, the NYPD said.Brandon Santana, 24, was apprehended at 3:15 p.m. at 3930 Third Avenue by NYPD officers and the Regional Fugitive Task Force,...

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Economist: Euro crisis could erupt again this year

DAVOS, Switzerland -- Is the euro crisis over? A leading U.S. economist says not by a long shot. Even as the head of the European Central Bank talked Friday of “positive contagion” in the markets and predicted an economic recovery for the recession-hit eurozone later this year, economist Barry Eichengreen warned that the debt crisis that has shaken Europe to its core could...

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