JM Family Enterprises and Baptist Health South Florida make FORTUNE’s list of best companies

Two South Florida companies made the ranking on FORTUNE magazine's 2013 list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in America, released on Thursday.

Diversified automotive company JM Family Enterprises, based in Deerfield Beach, was ranked No. 32, marking its 15th consecutive year on the list. Two-thirds of the company’s score is based on responses to an anonymous survey sent to 1,664 randomly selected associates in the United States, and the remainder is determined by an evaluation of the company’s overall culture, JM Family Enterprises said.

Baptist Health South Florida also made FORTUNE’S list, coming in at No. 76. Baptist Health, based in Miami, has 14,145 employees, up 6.8 percent in 2012, according to FORTUNE.

INA PAIVA CORDLE

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Driver in Rickenbacker Causeway cyclist death to be sentenced

A motorist who killed cyclist Aaron Cohen in a hit-and-run crash on the Rickenbacker Causeway will learn his fate Wednesday.

A Miami-Dade judge on Wednesday afternoon will sentence Michele Traverso, 26, who earlier pleaded guilty for the crash that killed Cohen last February.

The fatality, and a similar hit-and-run wreck in 2010, has renewed calls for increased safety for cyclists and joggers on the popular causeway. Fellow cyclists staged a memorial ride and erected a billboard overlooking Interstate 95 in Cohen’s honor.

Members of Miami’s avid cycling community are expected to be on hand for the 1 p.m. sentencing.

Traverso, driving on a suspended license, struck Cohen and cycling partner Enda Walsh as the two rode in the northbound lanes near the crest of the bridge. Traverso surrendered to police 18 hours after the crash.

Though there were reports of Traverso drinking in Coconut Grove that night, investigators could not prove that his blood alcohol content level was above the legal limit because of the delay in turning himself in.

Traverso pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident involving a death, leaving the scene of an accident with great bodily harm, and driving with a suspended license. He also pleaded guilty to earlier cocaine possession charge.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge William Thomas could sentence him to as little as 22.8 months in prison, and as much as 35 years behind bars.

In May, Thomas told Cohen’s widow, Patricia Cohen, that he would be unlikely to deliver the maximum sentence, although he could consider “20 or 25 years” after hearing from her and Traverso’s own family at a possible sentencing.

The Cohen family is suing Traverso and his father, who owned the car.

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Facebook search to generate revenue, no rival to Google: analysts

(Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s new search tool has strong potential to generate revenue for the social networking company, though it is unlikely to challenge Google Inc as the world’s dominant search engine, Wall Street analysts said on Wednesday.

Facebook’s “graph search” tool, rolled out on Tuesday, lets its more than 1 billion users trawl their network of friends to find everything from restaurants to movie recommendations and is the company’s biggest foray into online search.

Graph search contains some category suggestions that can be easily monetized, BofA Merrill Lynch analysts said in a note.

“It should be easy to incorporate commercial search results via Facebook’s partnership with Bing,” they added.

Facebook currently has a partnership with Microsoft Corp, whose Bing search engine provides search results for external websites. Microsoft also integrates certain Facebook results into its Bing search results.

BofA Merrill Lynch analysts estimated Facebook could add $ 500 million in annual revenue if it can generate just one paid click per user per year, and raised its price target on the stock by $ 4 to $ 35.

Facebook’s shares were flat at $ 30.10 in early trading on Wednesday. They have jumped about 50 percent since November to Tuesday’s close after months of weakness following its bungled Nasdaq listing in May.

However, analysts at J.P. Morgan Securities said the lack of a timeline for the possible launch of graph search on mobile devices may weigh on the tool’s prospects.

The success of the graph search, which will rely heavily on local information, depends on Facebook launching a mobile product, the analysts said. Half of all searches on mobile devices seek local information, according to Google.

Graph search also lacks the depth of review content of Yelp Inc, the analysts added.

Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser said monetization potential would be largely determined by Facebook’s ability to generate a significant portion of search query share volumes and he expects that quantity to be relatively low.

“Consumers are likely to continue prioritizing other sources, i.e. Google. Advertisers would consequently only use search if they can, or are perceived to, satisfy their goals efficiently with Facebook,” Wieser said.

NO GOOGLE KILLER

Analysts mostly agreed that Facebook’s search tool was unlikely to challenge Google’s dominance in web search at least in the near term.

“As of now, we do not see Graph Search as a threat to Google Web search. Looking forward, Facebook Graph searches could be competitive with certain categories of Google searches, such as Places and Maps,” BofA Merrill said.

Internet search, social networking tools and e-commerce are among the biggest weapons that companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon.com Inc have in their battle for supremacy. A successful combination of the three could win the day for them.

Google has been trying to combine social networking and search for more than a year by integrating Google+ into its search engine.

“Overall, Graph Search offers users a unique view to information not available on Google, but does not replace Google. We view the relationship between Facebook Graph Search and Google as both competitive and complementary,” Piper Jaffray & Co analysts said.

The brokerage said users looking to buy a cellphone, for example, could search for friends’ reviews on Facebook and expert reviews on Google.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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Beyonce GQ Cover Shoot BRoll

Earlier this week, ETonline revealed that Beyonce had been named Miss Millennium in the February issue of GQ and now we've got some behind-the-scenes video of her steamy photoshoot!

PHOTO - Beyonce Debuts Her Incredible Post-Baby Body

Titled Home Alone with Miss. Millennium, the video chronicles Terry Richardson's sexy shoot with the new mom (although you'd never know it judging from her bangin' bod)!

VIDEO - Beyonce Reveals Blue Ivy's Ultrasound

So go inside Beyonce's filthy (you'll see) photoshoot, and click here to see the other 99 women who were named to GQ's list of The Millennium's Sexiest Women!

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Geriatric Colombo underboss must see out 8 year sentence: court

A 95-year-old mob boss who authorities say boasted about killing 60 people in a lifetime of crime must serve his eight-year prison sentence after his racketeering conspiracy conviction, a federal appeals court said Wednesday.

John "Sonny" Franzese was sentenced last January after his conviction for extorting Manhattan strip clubs and a Long Island pizzeria while he was underboss of the Colombo crime family.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction, finding that it resulted from a fair trial and his sentence was proper. The court also upheld the convictions and sentencing of two others in the case.

AP

John "Sonny" Franzese, left, arrives at federal court in the Brooklyn.

An FBI agent testified that Franzese bragged about killing 60 people over the years and once contemplated arranging his own son's death after he became a government cooperator.

Federal prosecutors had sought to imprison him for at least 12 years after calling one of his sons, John Franzese Jr., to testify against him.

Franzese was once a regular at the Copacabana nightclub, where he could be seen with singers Frank Sinatra and Sammy David Jr. He also had a stake in the classic porn film "Deep Throat."

Authorities say an informant had recorded him bragging about mob killings, saying he "killed a lot of guys" but was "never caught." They say he also recommended that the best way to dispose of body parts was to dry them out with a microwave and grind them up in a garbage disposal. He was arrested in the racketeering case in 2008 and was later freed on $1 million bail.

With credit for good behavior and time served awaiting his trial, Franzese is scheduled to be released in June 2017. A message left with his lawyer seeking comment was not immediately returned Wednesday.

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Miami Dolphins bill would bring state money to aging stadiums

A bill drafted by the Miami Dolphins would give Florida sports teams $3 million a year in state money to improve older stadiums, provided the owner pays for at least half the cost of a major renovation.

Under the law, the stadium would need to be 20 years old and the team willing to put in at least $125 million for a $250 million renovation. That’s less than the $400 million redo of Sun Life Stadium that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross proposed this week, which he hopes will win state approval thanks to his offer to fund at least $200 million of the effort to modernize the 1987 facility.

Miami-Dade and Florida would fund the rest through a mix of county hotel taxes and state general funds set aside for stadiums. Sun Life currently receives $2 million a year through the program, and the Dolphins want to create a new category that would give them an additional $3 million.

While the Miami Marlins and Miami Heat both play in stadiums subsidized by county hotel taxes, the Dolphins receive no local dollars. The bill would change that by allowing Miami-Dade to increase the tax charged at mainland hotels to 7 percent from 6 percent, and eliminate the current rule that limits the money to publicly owned stadiums. Sun Life Stadium, in Miami Gardens, is privately owned but sits on county land.

The bill pits enthusiasm for one of Florida’s most popular sports teams against a lean budget climate and lingering backlash against the 2009 deal that had Miami and Miami-Dade borrow about $485 million to build a new ballpark for the Marlins. Ross also must navigate a Republican-led Legislature that has twice rebuffed his requests for public dollars.

“I would be surprised if that bill even got a hearing in committee,” said Mike Fasano, a Republican representative from the Tampa area and a critic of tax-funded sports deals. “I’m a big Dolphin fan, and have been for years. But with all due respect, we’ve got people who are struggling throughout this state right now . .. The last thing we should be doing is giving a professional sports team or facility additional tax dollars.”

While the bill would open up the $3 million subsidy to other the teams, the Dolphins see it as unlikely that another owner would be willing to put up as much money for renovations as Ross, a billionaire real estate developer.

If the bill were enacted today, any stadium opened before 1993 would be eligible for the money, provided it could show the proposed renovation would generate an additional $3 million in sales taxes.

Ross and his backers are pitching the renovation as a boon to tourism, with Sun Life a magnet for the Super Bowl, national college football games and other major events. The National Football League is considering South Florida and San Francisco for the 2016 Super Bowl, and the Dolphins say approval of renovation funding is crucial to winning the bid.

Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens, who sponsored the Senate bill, said the funding makes sense because when Sun Life hosts a Super Bowl, the entire state benefits from both tourism dollars and publicity.

“It’s a small price to pay for economic development, and for all the shine we get from major sporting events,” said Braynon, whose district includes Sun Life. Rep. Eduardo “Eddy” Gonzalez, R-Hialeah, is the sponsor on the House side.

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Gov. Scott scolded by legislative black caucus

TALLAHASSEE --
Gov. Rick Scott heard a litany of complaints Tuesday from the Legislative Black Caucus, on matters ranging from judicial appointments to civil rights for ex-felons. Throughout an hour-long discussion, the Republican governor held his ground in the face of grievances from Democratic lawmakers.

Criticized for making only a handful of black appointments to the judiciary, Scott said he’s limited to the choices given him by nominating panels and won’t appoint judges who believe in “judicial activism.” He said 6.5 percent of his judges are African-American (Florida’s black population is more than twice that). But Scott broke the tension by pointing out that he has appointed the wives of Reps. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, and Joe Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach, to state boards.

Faulted for signing a flawed election law that cut back the days of early voting, Scott said: “We’ve got to make changes, I agree. I didn’t have anything to do with passing it.” Scott’s administration, however, did spend more than $500,000 in legal fees last year successfully defending the law against numerous legal challenges.

Black lawmakers make up about one-fifth of the Legislature’s membership. They remain angry at Scott for one of his first decisions as governor: He and the three Republican Cabinet members imposed a five-year waiting period after ex-felons leave prison before they can apply for restoration of their civil rights.

“Once you’re out as a felon, you should spend time making sure you’re doing the right thing before you get your rights back,” Scott told the group, seated around a large square table.

The meeting ended with a plea that Scott appoint a task force to look at disparities in sentencing that affect young black men. Scott did not directly respond to the request.

“It’s deja vu all over again from last year,” said Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, as the session ended. “He’s still stuck on judicial activism. He wants everyone to think like him. He wants to run the state like a corporation, like it’s Florida, Inc. He’s not flexible on a lot of things.”

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Apple supplier sees big Q4 boost, likely a good sign for iPhone 5 demand

Shares of Apple (AAPL) have been hit hard over the last few days. Investors continue to worry about the company’s profit margins, demand for its popular line of smartphones and tablets, and its future endeavors. With upcoming competition from Research in Motion (RIMM) and Microsoft (MSFT), and an ongoing battle with Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system, analysts fear that Apple’s mobile dominance may be a thing of the past. While we won’t officially know anything until the company reports its holiday earnings on January 23rd, a small German company has painted a calming picture for Apple shareholders.

[More from BGR: HTC One SV review]

Dialog Semiconductor announced last week that it expects to report a significant increase in sales for its December quarter. The company noted that the increase was due to “a stronger than anticipated end of year, underpinned by a strong late surge in demand for smartphone and tablet products.” Dialog Semiconductor now expects to report revenues of $ 268 million, an increase from between $ 215 million and $ 235 million.

[More from BGR: Extensive BlackBerry Z10 demo video posted by German website [video]]

The important thing to note is that, as of this past fall, Apple is Dialog’s largest customer and accounts for 60% of its total revenue.

Logic dictates that solid demand for Apple’s iPhone and iPad during the holidays helped boost Dialog’s performance. This could also mean that the iPhone-maker will report not only a strong December quarter, but a better-than-expected March quarter as well.

It looks like all this talk about customers losing interest in Apple may indeed be premature.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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Zooey Deschanel TCA Winter Press Tour Interview 2013

Season two of Fox's New Girl has so far taken audiences deeper into the weird lives of star Zooey Deschanel and her three roommates (and model best friend), while teasing but not quite pursuing a possible love-connection between Zooey's character Jess, and the ever-cynical Nick Miller, played by Jake Johnson.

Also from TCA: 2013's Six Best New Shows

The pair is seemingly always exchanging undeniable chemistry, only to find themselves pursuing other people. While this frustrating cycle has led to some great guest stars like David Walton and Olivia Munn, Zooey and Jake hinted to ET at the 2013 TCA Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, CA that the conclusion of season two will finally see Jess and Nick's relationship start to heat up.

"I think it's been split," Jake said of the fan reaction to his character's relationship with Olivia Munn, adding, "whenever Nick dates anybody that's not Jess... it's split."
Adding support for the get-together, Zooey herself.

"I like the chemistry and I think that they have kind of an amazing thing going," said the actress. "I don't know if they're ready for each other yet, but I want them to get together."

That's when Jake alluded to the episodes to come.

"The writers are naturally going there. Starting to put these two together more and seeing what happens.... The end of season two gets pretty heavy with Nick and Jess."

While it's good that it doesn't seem like the show's writers will keep fans waiting too much longer for the Jess and Nick romance that virtually everybody wants to happen, does this signal trouble for David Walton's recurring role as Jess' boyfriend?

While commenting on how Walton is "so handsome," Zooey did add that "[Jess is] always kind of messing up a little bit."

"That's kind of the nature of the show, is that everybody screws up," added Jake.

See Also: Kaling talks 'Mindy Project' Upcoming Guest Stars

In addition to Jess and Nick's budding relationship, the co-stars dished on guests we can expect to see in the coming months on New Girl. Names included Brooklyn Decker, Nate Corddry, The Social Network actress Brenda Song, and former Law & Order detective Dennis Farina. Who knows what's in store for the actors, but Zooey and Jake do hint that the remainder of season two will feature a horse-track, a murder-mystery, and the return of the roommates' fan-favorite fictitious drinking game 'True American.' Sounds like the rest of the season promises to be as crazy as it is hilarious.

Watch the video above for more of ET's TCA interview with Zooey Deschanel and Jake Johnson. New Girl airs Tuesdays at 9/8c.

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318 FDNY 'probies' sworn in

After years of court battles, the city today swore in its first class of probationary firefighters since 2008.

Mayor Bloomberg told the 318 "probies” that they made up “our most diverse class ever … a class as diverse as the communities you serve.”

Some 42 percent of the class is black, Hispanic or Asian, compared with the 35 percent minority members in the last class in December 2008.

The FDNY had been entangled for years in a legal dispute over whether its hiring has been biased against minorities.

FDNY Commissioner Salvatore Cassano today said the delay in hiring a new group of probies was due to a budget crisis and because “we got ordered by the court to hire in a certain way that we didn’t think was the right way to hire.”

FDNY Photo Unit

FDNY 'probies' being sworn in.

In September, a federal judge approved a new entrance exam, allowing hiring to resume.

Cassano said the FDNY is still below its desired staffing level.

“We’re short almost 800 firefighters,” he said at the Randall’s Island swearing-in ceremony. “But it’s a start.”

The probies were already working for the department as emergency medical technicians and paramedics.

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