Fourth victim accuses Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash of sexual abuse

A Miami man has become the fourth to accuse Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash of sex abuse when he wasa teenager in the 1990s.

The alleged victim, “John Doe,” now age 33, met Clash when the puppeteer vacationed in South Florida sometime about 1995 or ’96, said his attorney, Jeff Herman of Aventura.

“He was on South Beach looking for a job when he met Kevin. He was going in and out of stores in South Beach. That’s when Kevin saw him,” Herman told The Miami Herald.

After Clash, now 52, returned home to New York, he stayed in touch with the teen by telephone. Soon, he invited the boy to visit him, Herman said.

“He had previously been abused before,” Herman said of the teen. “He was hesitant to go to New York, but Kevin convinced him he’d be a father figure to him. Kevin used the word ‘dad.’ Once there, it was a sexual thing.”

Four days later, the “homesick” teen returned to South Florida, Herman said.

Clash — the original voice of TV puppet Elmo — resigned from Sesame Street after a second man alleged abuse.

His New York attorney, Michael Berger, has denied the puppeteer did anything wrong in the previous cases. Berger has not commented on the newest allegation.

Herman described the latest accuser, originally from the Caribbean, as “a compliant victim.”

“A compliant victim participates in the sexual contact. They can’t consent because they are too young,” said Herman, who also is representing three other alleged Clash victims.

Herman declined to identify the latest alleged victim, who still lives in Miami-Dade County.

“Unfortunately, he’s had a lot of problems I see in other victims,” said Herman, who also represents other alleged abuse victims who have sued the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts. “He’s had addictions, antisocial behavior including trouble with the law. He’s been arrested for theft. His life was really a mess. Hopefully, this will be a stepping stone for him to take back the power to heal.”

Herman explains why the accuser never before told his story:

“The reason the he’s able to come forward now is that, I believe, there’s this collective empowerment,” Herman said. “They never feel anyone’s going to believe them. When they see other victims coming forward, they think maybe they will believe me. Maybe its safe to come forward.”

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China party chief stresses reform, censors relax grasp on internet

BEIJING (Reuters) – China must deepen reforms to perfect its market economy and strengthen rule of law, Communist Party chief Xi Jinping said in southern Guangdong, echoing groundbreaking comments by reformist senior leader Deng Xiaoping in the same province 20 years ago.

Xi’s call for reform was reported on Monday, coinciding with an apparent easing of Internet search restrictions that the party has energetically used to suppress information that could threaten one-party rule.

China’s largest microblog service unblocked searches for the names of many top political leaders in a possible sign of looser controls a month after new senior officials were named to head the ruling party.

Searches on the popular Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblog for party chief Xi Jinping, Vice Premier Li Keqiang and other leaders – terms that have long been barred under strict censorship rules – revealed detailed lists of news reports and user comments.

Xi’s comments on the economy came on Sunday during a trip to Guangdong where he paid tribute to Deng, whose visit in 1992 ushered in an era of breakneck economic reform and growth.

“The government earnestly wants to study the issues that are being brought up, and wants to perfect the market economy system … by deepening reform, and resolve the issues by strengthening rule of law,” Xi was quoted by Xinhua state news agency as saying.

Experts say that unless the stability-obsessed party leadership pushes through stalled reforms, the nation risks economic malaise and social woes that could deepen unrest and threaten its grip on power.

It was too early to detect a change of heart on censorship, but Zhan Jiang, a professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said the signs were good.

“Things are changing quietly, and it matches what Xi Jinping said before – to achieve progress and change in a steady way,” Zhan said.

Various search terms for Premier Wen Jiabao, who was at the centre of recent New York Times reports that said his family had accumulated massive fortunes during his tenure, were still blocked on Monday.

Chinese social media sites have posed a unique challenge for party leaders whose overarching goal is to maintain political control, while at the same time allowing people to blow off steam.

Analysts have been searching for signs that China’s new leaders might steer a path of political reform. Many expected at least a temporary loosening of censorship rules after the 18th Party Congress.

“Excessively strict control of the Internet will only make things worse,” said Hu Xingdou, a professor at Beijing Institute of Technology. “So we need to allow people to speak and allow them to voice their grievances.”

(Writing by Michael Martina and Terril Yue Jones. Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard, Sally Huang and Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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The Beekman Boys on their 'Amazing' Win

Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge pulled off a surprising upset in Sunday night's Amazing Race finale, winning the million dollar prize despite trailing the pack during much of the second half of the race, and narrowly avoiding elimination multiple times. ETonline catches up with the winners to talk about the finale and their perspective on the race.

ETonline: Congrats on winning. Do you feel like the ultimate underdogs?

Brent: We feel like a million bucks!

Josh: It was an amazing journey the entire race. Every leg of the way was a race for us. And it's kind of just surreal now that it's over. We never told a single person – we never told our family, we never told our parents, we never told any friends, or employees, or anyone the outcome. So it was so much to fun to have the people we love sort of watch the race in real time and run it in real time with us.

Related: The Beekman Boys Share Holiday Survival Tips

ETonline: Throughout the race, even when you were coming in toward the back of the pack, and having bad luck along the way at certain points, did you feel like you were going to win?

Brent: One thing that living on the farm has taught us is, you never count your chickens before they hatch. So I would never say that we felt we could win, but we never felt like losers. We knew that the only thing that we had to do was win in the leg that counted, and that only meant not getting out on any particular leg along the way. And that's what we did – that was our strategy going in, and that's what worked for us.

ETonline: It definitely did. So last night in the finale, how did it feel when the other three teams, who arguably were all pretty physically fit and didn't seem to need an extra boost, decided to make an alliance to exclude you?

Josh: I think that that's actually just a natural dynamic of the race. Actually, of life. They hadn't seen us in several legs, we'd been on a whole different race than they were on, and they became fast friends, so we were outsiders re-joining them. And I think it was a natural reaction. It was certainly demoralizing when we first heard it, but then immediately after, it was incredibly motivating.

Brent: And as the twins told us right after the race, it was never an alliance to exclude us, it was just an alliance to help them win. That's the way they conceived it.

ETonline: And it probably made sense in the same way that you two were working with Abbie and Ryan, it seems like it makes sense to try to make friends with people because then they're sticking with you and not necessarily getting ahead of you.

Brent: Right, it's always good to have your competitor within your sight.

Josh: Also with Abbie and Ryan, I think a lot of people were confused by, you know they felt that the last two teams were just getting together and hugging it out, but in reality it was a really strategic thing for us to stay together. Because we knew that the only chance for either of us to succeed, was that we had to eat into that time lag as much as possible. So by working on the tasks together, we actually did accomplish that, and people can see that by the time Brent and I left for Spain, we were only three hours behind the next team, versus 14 1/2 hours behind in Moscow.

ETonline: That's a good point. Last night, during the dog food challenge, it seemed like the twins were getting really personal, but was that more joking, in reality, than it seemed like it was on TV?

Brent: Oh, absolutely, it was good-natured trash-talking. And actually, we used that against them in the midst of that, because we quickly realized that they couldn't keep up their zingers and actually finish the task at the same time. And we were much more skilled at doing two things at once, so we just continued to let them trash talk, to throw them off of what they should have been focusing on.

ETonline: That was pretty smart. Going into the final challenge, it was pretty cerebral, so did you feel like you were well-suited to that, Josh?

Josh: I guess I realized that the advantage I had was when I figured out that it was purely going to be a process of elimination challenge. The advantage I had was that I figured that out. The disadvantage was that I realized how hard that was going to be, the process of elimination, I didn't realize that there were 1,000 different combinations. That was a little soul-crushing when I realized that. And I think you see on Lexi's face, she realized it too. But there was no option, either I was going to sit there and wait for the other ones to go through those 1,000 combinations or I was going to do it.

Related: Rob from 'The Amazing Race': The Beekman Boys Opened My Eyes

ETonline: Was it hard to pull the flag up that pole, was it physically hard to keep doing that?

Josh: Yes, I wound up with blisters on my hands for the next few weeks.

ETonline: I wanted to ask both of you, what is the most important life lesson that you take away from the race?

Brent: You know, I think that the race, especially when you watch it on television played back at you, really is so symbolic of life itself, you know, the ups and downs and being able to roll with what's coming your way. And dealing with other people, and dealing with your own relationship, it's like a perfect representation of what we all go through in our lives every single day.

Josh: Just condensed, compressed, and add in a million dollars.

ETonline: So, Josh, have you quit your job? Are you both living on the farm full-time?

Brent: We haven't gotten our check yet. (Everyone laughs)

Josh: It's all happening now, the rest of the world found out last night, so we're working things through.

ETonline: I was actually thinking about that -- if all of a sudden you were sprucing up the farm and spending all this money, then people would probably figure out that you had won.

Photos: Life on the Farm with the Beekman Boys

Check back here tomorrow for part two of our interview with the Beekman boys, including new details about their upcoming wedding. To learn more about Josh and Brent, visit www.Beekman1802.com.

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Transsexual 'loves' FDNY ex accused of roughing her up

"I do love you!" glamorous train-wreck tranny Claudia Charriez wailed on the witness stand to her hunky FDNY ex, Taylor Murphy, as the War of the Hoses waged again today in a Manhattan courtroom.

Charriez, a rail-thin-with-implants pre-op transsexual, took the witness stand for the third day in the wacky assault trial, in which she's accusing the burly smoke-eater of punching, biting and choking her during a love-quarrel in their bed at a Midtown hotel room last August.

"I do love him," she told jurors, when asked by Murphy's lawyer on cross examination about a series of love- and hate-filled texts she has sent Murphy even in the months after the alleged assault.

"I will have love for him," she told jurors, her voice filled with emotion. This, despite other far-less friendly texts, including one in which she urged him on the night of his arrest, "Enjoy sucking your cell mate's d---."

Then she turned to face Murphy, who sat across the courtroom at the defendant table, looking down at his hands.

"I do love you!" she shouted.

Charriez had come to court all in black -- from her six-inch platform stilettos to her black woolen poncho, trimmed in furry black balls, and when she professed her love, she raised her arms and the poncho's trimming bobbled like a restless litter of rodents.

"This is just-- " she stuttered.

Murphy kept on giving the defense table a pained look . "You know?" Charriez asked, before her face crumpled into sobs.

Charriez's cross examination by defense lawyer Jason Berland continued throughout the afternoon -- getting ugly at times as the lawyer cornered her into admitting multiple inconsistencies in her police statements.

"Is this law and order?" she snapped at the lawyer at one point. "I'm so intimidated by you," she claimed helplessly at another. "Just chill out," she advised him. "Like, seriously!"

Testimony continues tomorrow -- with the defense planning to call ex-madam-and-gubernatorial candidate Kristin Davis to describe to jurors two phone calls in which Charriez allegedly made jealous, vengeful threats against Murphy, who Davis knew from her campaign.

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AutoNation: Back in the fast lane with expansion, higher sales

Despite an agonizingly slow economic recovery, the country’s largest auto retailer, Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, is thriving again as demand for vehicles expands.

The company, one of Florida’s largest, is posting increasingly strong profits and revenues. Just last week, in a sign of confidence, Autonation announced a major acquisition — buying six large auto stores in Texas — that will add about 700 employees to its national payroll of 19,400.

In announcing the deal Tuesday, which is expected to provide AutoNation with $575 million in additional revenues next year, the company’s CEO and chairman, Mike Jackson, expressed optimism about the prospects for continued growth in vehicle sales.

“You want to know what I’m thinking, look at what I do,” Jackson told viewers on CNBC’s Squawk Box program.

No information was released on the cost of the transactions, but in recent years auto dealerships sometimes sold for three to five times revenue, which would represent a significant investment for the company.

Tough times

To be sure, AutoNation has struggled through some tough times. It was battered by the Great Recession, which depressed sales and pushed the company into a $1.2 billion loss four years ago. As sales began to improve in 2010 and 2011, it was blindsided by a shortage of Japanese-made cars last year after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 shut down Japanese manufacturers of some essential components.

Since then, however, AutoNation has rebounded. Unit sales, revenues and profits all performed well in the first three quarters of this year, and the company expects new vehicle sales to continue their recovery nationwide, rising to the mid-14 million units this year, up from about 12.7 million in 2011. In the third quarter of 2012, AutoNation’s new car unit sales grew by 21 percent over the same period in 2011, doing better than an estimated 15 percent increase industry wide. November’s sales of new vehicles increased by 21 percent over November 2011 .

The big dealerships acquired sell Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen and Chrysler products in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets. They are expected to sell 14,000 new and used autos this year, and will add substantially to AutoNation’s future sales.

“We are in the right industry at the right time,” Jackson said during an interview. “The recovery in new vehicle sales is being driven by replacement demand,” added Jackson, who has 42 years of experience in the auto business. “The average age of the light vehicle fleet in the country has increased to 11 years, and even though cars and trucks last longer today, they can’t go on forever. About 12 to 13 million vehicles are scrapped every year and need to be replaced.”

Other factors are contributing to stronger demand for vehicles. “The population is growing, interest rates are low, there is ample credit available and manufacturers are producing a wide range of new models that offer attractive styling, power and greatly improved gas mileage,” said Jackson, who took over as AutoNation’s CEO in 1999. “Auto financing is more available than it has been in recent years. A little known fact is that people are more likely to default on a mortgage than on a vehicle loan.”

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State scraps plan to have private vendors make license tags

TALLAHASSEE --
Backing away from a possible court fight, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles announced Friday that it will halt its attempt to bid license tag services to private vendors.

Tax collectors — who distribute state tags — and two manufacturing groups tried to block the change by lobbying elected officials and filing legal action against the department.

Highway Safety Chief Julie Jones had wanted to save money by paying private companies $31.4 million over two years to make tags and distribute mail and online orders, but she abandoned the idea under pressure from Attorney General Pam Bondi and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, among others.

“We listened to what everyone had to say, considered questions that vendors posed and received information from our tax collector partners,” Jones said. “Based on the input, we have decided to withdraw [efforts to privatize].”

The decision will keep Florida out of administrative court, which is where it seemed headed Tuesday after department lawyers shut down tax collectors’ requests to retract its invitation to bidders.

Jones’ change of heart earned praise from Bondi, who said the department “did the right thing.”

Manufacturing company Avery Dennison and St. Petersburg-based PRIDE, a nonprofit organization that uses prisoners to manufacture tags, filed formal protests and met with state officials this week.

For them, the state’s decision may only be a temporary victory.

Stephen Hurm, an attorney for the state highway agency, told tax collectors Friday the department will not seek to privatize plate distribution but could reignite the push as early as January to bid out the manufacturing role.

The state may want to switch from raised tags to the more modern flat tags that are thought to be more legible for red light and toll cameras. PRIDE doesn’t have the equipment to make flat tags.

Hillsborough County Tax Collector Doug Belden says he will fight the state if it moves to exclude PRIDE.

“Why change a system that is working well and that customers enjoy? My job as an elected official is to provide the most friendly, capable customer service for the best price. We’re doing that,” said Belden, who criticized Jones for excluding tax collectors in her decisions.

Belden, along with PRIDE lobbyist Wilbur Brewton, argue that flat tags are no easier to read and are more expensive — which will result in more fees for motorists. The company may try to invest in new technology if that’s what it takes to continue working with the state, Brewton said.

“Is the equipment currently sitting in the plant to do it? No,” he said. “This could cause harm, but we would have to calculate that once we see the details.”

Jones hasn’t committed to any tag — flat or raised, she said. She just wants something legible and well-priced.

“We want to get the best product moving into the future in terms of technology, but at a cost that’s affordable,” Jones said. “This is going to be done in a cost-effective manner.”

The controversy over the tags is not expected to stall a planned redesign.

Floridians can continue to vote on four designs for a new state tag at Vote4FloridaTag.com. About 50,000 people have weighed in. The deadline is Dec. 14.

Brittany Alana Davis

can be reached at bdavis@tampabay.com .

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U.S. judge names lead plaintiffs in Facebook litigation

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A group of investors including state pension funds in North Carolina and Arkansas will be the lead plaintiffs in securities lawsuits arising out of Facebook Inc’s $ 16 billion initial public offering, a U.S. judge ruled on Thursday.

The investors, in a proposed class-action case, have accused Facebook of misrepresenting its financial condition in the run-up to the May stock offering. They are represented by law firms Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann and Labaton Sucharow.

The ruling helps set a structure for the Facebook IPO litigation, a headache for the social media company and a nagging reminder of the technical glitches in the highly anticipated stock market debut.

U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet in Manhattan also named lead plaintiffs for lawsuits against NASDAQ OMX Group Inc stemming from the IPO. NASDAQ was sued over allegations that orders to buy and sell Facebook were not properly executed on the first day of trading.

Facebook, which has defended its pre-IPO disclosures, declined to comment on Thursday. A spokesman for NASDAQ declined to comment on the litigation.

Facebook shares made their debut at $ 38 per share, and later fell as much as 50 percent. On Thursday, they closed at $ 26.90, down 2.6 percent.

Sweet consolidated the cases and picked lead plaintiffs to head up most of the 42 lawsuits before him arising out of the IPO.

Under a federal law governing securities lawsuits, courts routinely select a lead plaintiff in class actions. The lead plaintiff typically is the shareholder with the biggest losses, though judges have discretion to pick a different investor.

The plaintiff group picked to lead 31 cases alleging securities violations against Facebook includes the North Carolina Retirement Systems, Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, the Fresno County Employees’ Retirement Association and Banyan Capital Master Fund Ltd.

The group has collectively claimed a combined $ 7.1 million in losses.

“Its members are large, institutional investors with experience representing shareholder classes in similar litigation with the resources to pursue the action,” Sweet said.

In the securities lawsuits against NASDAQ, the judge said First New York Securities LLC, T3 Trading Group LLC, and Avatar Securities LLC would act as co-lead plaintiffs. The group traded a combined $ 316 million in Facebook shares the day of the IPO, the decision said.

The case is In re Facebook, Inc, IPO Securities and Derivative Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, MDL No. 12-2389.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Martha Graybow)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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How They Pulled Off 'The Impossible'

The true story of the devastating 2004 tsunami that consumed the coast of Phuket, Thailand -- and how one family survived it -- is reenacted by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor in The Impossible. Watch the video to go behind the scenes...

Video: Tsunami Survivor Petra Nemcova Reacts to Latest Disaster in Japan

In theaters December 21, The Impossible finds Naomi as Maria and Ewan as her husband Henry, who are enjoying their winter vacation in Thailand with their three sons. On the day after Christmas, their relaxing holiday in paradise becomes an exercise in terror and survival when their beachside hotel is pummeled by an extraordinary, unexpected tsunami.

Video: Watch the Trailer for 'The Impossible'

The Impossible tracks just what happens when this close family and tens of thousands of strangers must come together to grapple with the mayhem and aftermath of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time.

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'High' crime: NYPD traffic agent busted on pot, weapons charges

An NYPD traffic-enforcement agent has been busted on gun and drug charges, police said today.

Jannine Blake, 31, was arrested along with her boyfriend, Karim Watkins, 31, after police went to the couple's Fordham apartment to execute a search warrant and found pot out in the open, sources said.

A search turned up more pot and two loaded weapons, cops said.

Blake and Watkins were arrested and charged with drug and gun possession, police said.

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Events showcase Miami’s growth as tech center

One by one, representatives from six startup companies walked onto the wooden stage and presented their products or services to a full house of about 200 investors, mentors, and other supporters Thursday at Incubate Miami’s DemoDay in the loft-like Grand Central in downtown Miami. With a large screen behind them projecting their graphs and charts, they set out to persuade the funders in the room to part with some of their green and support the tech community.

Just 24 hours later, from an elaborate “dojo stage,” a drummer warmed up the crowd of several hundred before a “Council of Elders” entered the ring to share wisdom as the all-day free event opened. Called TekFight, part education, part inspiration, and part entertainment, the martial arts-inspired program challenged entrepreneurs to earn points to “belt up” throughout the day to meet with the “masters” of the tech community.

The two events, which kicked off Innovate MIA week, couldn’t be more different. But in their own ways, like a one-two punch, they exuded the spirit and energy growing in the startup community.

One of the goals of the TekFight event was to introduce young entrepreneurs and students to the tech community, because not everyone has found it yet and it’s hard to know where to start, said Saif Ishoof, the executive director of City Year Miami who co-founded TekFight as a personal project. And throughout the event, he and co-founder Jose Antonio Hernandez-Solaun, as well as Binsen J. Gonzalez and Jeff Goudie, wanted to find creative, engaging ways to offer participants access to some of the community’s most successful leaders.

That would include Alberto Dosal, chairman of CompuQuip Technologies; Albert Santalo, founder and CEO of CareCloud; Jorge Plasencia, chairman and CEO of Republica; Jaret Davis, co-managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurig; and more than two dozen other business and community leaders who shared their war stories and offered advice. Throughout the day, the event was live-streamed on the Web, a TekFight app created by local entrepreneur and UM student Tyler McIntyre kept everyone involved in the tournament and tweets were flying — with #TekFight trending No. 1 in the Miami area for parts of the day. “Next time Art Basel will know not to try to compete with TekFight,” Ishoof quipped.

‘Miami is a hotbed’

After a pair of Chinese dragons danced through the audience, Andre J. Gudger, director for the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs, entered the ring. “I’ve never experienced an event like this,” Gudger remarked. “Miami is a hotbed for technology but nobody knew it.”

Gudger shared humorous stories and practical advice on ways to get technology ideas heard at the highest levels of the federal government. “Every federal agency has a director over small business — find out who they are,” he said. He has had plenty of experience in the private sector: Gudger, who wrote his first computer program on his neighbor’s computer at the age of 12, took one of his former companies from one to 1,300 employees.

There were several rounds that pitted an entrepreneur against an investor, such as Richard Grundy, of the tech startup Flomio, vs. Jonathan Kislak, of Antares Capital, who asked Grundy, “why should I give you money?”

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