Mercantil Commercebank boosts its earnings

Merantil Commercebank, based in Coral Gables, on Wednesday reported a net profit of $10.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2012, up from $7.7 million reported for the same quarter of 2011.

The bank earned $31.8 million for the full year of 2012, nearly double the $16.2 million it earned in 2011. The bank said its positive results primarily reflect strong growth in loans and improved asset quality.

Mercantil Commercebank had $6.8 billion in total assets at year-end 2012. It has 18 branches, including 15 in South Florida, one in New York and two in Houston.

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Study: Medicaid expansion may save state money

Florida would save money over the next decade — not lose billions as Gov. Rick Scott has argued — by accepting Medicaid expansion under federal healthcare reforms, according to a detailed economic study.

Miami-Dade legislators and healthcare industry leaders, getting together on Monday, heard about the report by Georgetown University — the most positive yet on a highly debated provision of what is often called Obamacare.

Jack Hoadley, a senior researcher with the Georgetown Health Policy Institute, said the study was the first to calculate spin-off savings in other state programs if Florida accepted the expansion, which over the next 10 years could bring $26 billion in federal funds to provide insurance to an estimated 815,000 to 1.3 million Florida residents who are now uninsured.

In Miami-Dade, expansion would cover an additional 150,000 to 225,000, according to the Georgetown projections. That reduction in the uninsured would bring huge relief to the county’s hospitals, which by federal law must treat anyone who comes to the emergency room, regardless of ability to pay.

The top-level meeting, at the United Way of Miami-Dade headquarters, was convened by United Way, Health Council of South Florida and Health Foundation of South Florida.

At the very least, the Georgetown findings and other recent analyses have some critics reconsidering opposition to the 2010 Affordable Health Care Act.

State Sen. Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, who previously was an “absolute no” vote against Medicaid expansion, said after the meeting that he was now “open to the thought” that expansion makes sense.

State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez, R-Hialeah, said he was still concerned about the debt-ridden feds’ ability to fund Medicaid over the long term, but “we are looking at all the options.”

Estimates about the real costs of expansion have varied wildly based on the law, which requires the federal government to pay all costs of the expansion for the first three years. Starting in 2017, the state will start paying a small share, which will reach 10 percent of the expansion costs for 2020 and beyond.

Gov. Scott, who has long been critical of Obamacare, contended in December that expansion would cost Florida taxpayers more than $26 billion over 10 years. Opponents and healthcare experts criticized that estimate as way too high, and earlier this month the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration gave a much lower estimate of $3 billion for the decade.

That was lower even than a report by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, a Washington research group, which in November estimated that expansion would cover an additional 1.2 million residents at a cost to the state of $5.4 billion over 10 years.

Georgetown’s Hoadley said Monday that the Kaiser study used only rough data for all 50 states, while the Georgetown study, funded by two Florida nonprofit foundations, looked in detail at how Medicaid expansion would save money in other areas. The Georgetown study found that the state would have to spend less for safety-net hospitals such as Jackson Health System, mental-health and substance-abuse programs and the medically needy program.

Hoadley said the savings calculations were “a very cautious estimate.”

The Georgetown report projected that the state would save $300 million in 2014, the first year of Medicaid expansion, and $100 million in 2020, when the state would be paying for 10 percent of the expansion costs.

The Georgetown study found that expansion was especially important in Florida, where almost one in three — 30 percent — of nonelderly adults are uninsured, compared to 18 percent nationwide.

In South Florida, the figures are even higher for uninsured non-elderly adults: 57 percent in Hialeah, 50 percent in the city of Miami, 48.5 percent in Deerfield Beach and 31.2 percent in Kendall.

Hospitals strongly support the expansion. On Monday, Phillis Oeters, an executive with Baptist Health South Florida, told legislators that hospitals have already seen their Medicare and Medicaid payments reduced greatly in other areas.

“Enough is enough,” she said. “Hospitals can’t take it anymore.”

A study done for the Florida Hospital Association estimated that the infusion of federal funds from Obamacare would add 56,000 jobs to the state.

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Apple announces iPad with double storage capacity

(Reuters) – Apple Inc said on Tuesday that it will sell a version of its iPad tablet computer with 128 gigabytes of storage, which is twice the capacity of its existing models.

Apple, which has sold more than 120 million iPads so far, said that the new iPad will go on sale February 5, in black or white, for a suggested retail price of $ 799 for the iPad with just Wi-Fi model, and $ 929 for the version that also has a cellular wireless connection.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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The San Francisco 49ers Take a Pop Culture Quiz

ET's Rocsi Diaz got up close and personal with the San Francisco 49ers in New Orleans Tuesday during Media Day, where they're gearing up for Super Bowl Sunday. But though all their energy will be focused on winning the coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy, how much do the 49ers know about this year's halftime performer, the one and only Beyonce?

Pics: Inside Beyonce's Super Bowl Rehearsals!

Ranging from some clearly pop culture savvy players, to those who need more than a little help (ahem Garrett Celek), click the video to see the 49ers have a little fun before the big game and to find out which Beyonce song is quarterback Colin Kaepernick's favorite!

Video: Mary J. Blige -- Beyonce Will Be 'Amazing' at the Super Bowl

Super Bowl XLVII, featuring the San Francisco 49ers vs. the Baltimore Ravens, airs this Sunday, February 3 on CBS.

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Violent parolee sentenced to 35 years in prison for murdering Brooklyn liquor-store clerk

A violent parolee who killed a beloved Brooklyn liquor-store clerk was sentenced to 35 years in prison today.

Eion Klass, 36, had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter and robbery for the 2010 killing of Yoseph Robinson at his shop in Midwood.

Robinson, 34, was shot three times during a struggle with a robber at MB Vineyards, where he worked when he wasn’t lecturing about Judaism and studying the Torah.

The clerk was a former small-time criminal and record label worker who converted to Orthodox Judaism over 10 years ago.

“Your senseless cowardly act cost us way too much,” Robinson’s girlfriend, Lahavah Wallace wrote in a victim impact statement. “[Yoseph] ran the streets but left that alone to make something of himself.”

“When you walked in that night you stopped being a man, but Yoseph never will. I pity you. Enjoy the rest of the miserable existence you think is a life.”

Robinson was behind the store's counter, chatting with Wallace and a friend, when Klass, wearing a mask, entered and demanded money and jewelry.

Wallace handed over her jewelry, but Robinson lunged across the counter, and struggled with Klass, who shot him.

Judge Neil Firetog sentenced Klass to 25 years for the shooting and 10 years for the robbery.

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ReStockIt.com acquired by Acme Paper & Supply Co.

ReStockIt.com, a Davie-based ecommerce supplier for small-to-medium sized businesses, has been purchased by Acme Paper & Supply Co., a Baltimore-based distributor of packaging, supplies and equipment for janitorial, foodservices, manufacturing and retail industries.

ReStockIt.com was founded in 2004 by David Redlich and Matt Kuttler. From 2008 to 2011, the company nearly doubled its revenue to $25.6 million. Over the years, Inc. magazine ranked ReStockIt.com on its List of America’s 500 Fastest-Growing Companies and it was a Florida Finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards. The company offers 200,000 products from more than 2,350 manufacturers, in the primary categories of restaurant supplies, cleaning and janitorial supplies, office supplies, industrial packaging and custom-designed packaging.

With the acquisition, Acme is adding 30 full-time ReStockIt.com employees and additional categories to its offerings, including office supplies, electronics and tools, the company said.

Founded in Baltimore in 1946 by Edward and Mildred Attman, Acme Paper & Supply Co., Inc. is a third generation family-owned and operated company led by brothers and co-owners Ron, David and Steve Attman together with their father Ed. Acme said it is among the nation’s largest distributors of disposable food service packaging, janitorial equipment and supply, restaurant equipment and supply, retail and industrial packaging, and custom-designed packaging.

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Miami Heat’s LeBron James at White House event: ‘Mama, I made it!’

Out of uniform and looking dapper, Miami Heat players were honored Monday at the White House by President Barack Obama, a basketball fan who gushed over the play of team stars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

In the packed East Room of the White House just before 2 p.m., Obama recapped the team’s road to victory in last year’s NBA championship, as 25 players, Coach Erik Spoelstra and team owner Micky Arison stood behind him.

He singled out James’ performance during Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, describing it “as one of the best in basketball history.”

He also kidded Wade about his outfit, a gray suit worn with stylish-sneakers

At one point, James asked the president if he could say a few words.

“Hey, it’s your world, man,” the president answered.

James praised his team and expressed excitement at being at the White House.

“Mama, I made it!” he said.

Miami Herald reporter Luisa Yanez contributed to this report.

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Crucial, long-overdue BlackBerry makeover arrives

TORONTO (AP) — The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company.

Thorsten Heins, chief executive of Research In Motion Ltd., will reveal the first phone with the new BlackBerry 10 system in New York on Wednesday. Repeated delays have left the once-pioneering BlackBerry an afterthought in the shadow of Apple’s trend-setting iPhone and Google’s Android-driven devices.

Now, there’s some optimism. Previews of the software have gotten favorable reviews on blogs. Financial analysts are starting to see some slight room for a comeback. RIM‘s stock has nearly tripled to about $ 16.30 from a nine-year low in September, though it’s still nearly 90 percent below its 2008 peak of $ 147.

Most analysts consider a BlackBerry 10 success to be crucial for the company’s long-term viability.

“The old models are becoming obsolete quickly,” BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis said. “There is still a big user base but it’s going to rotate off. The question is: Where do they rotate to?”

The BlackBerry, pioneered in 1999, has been the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people. Corporate information-technology managers like the phones because they’re relatively secure and easy to manage.

The BlackBerry has also crossed over to consumers. President Barack Obama couldn’t bear to part with it when he took office. Oprah Winfrey declared it one of her “favorite things.” People got so addicted that the device was nicknamed “the CrackBerry.”

But when the iPhone came out in 2007, it showed that phones can do much more than email and phone calls. They can play games, music and movies. Android came along to offer even more choices. Though IT managers still love BlackBerrys, employees were bringing their own devices to the workplace — a trend Heins acknowledged RIM was slow to adapt to.

Suddenly, the BlackBerry looked ancient.

Even as BlackBerry sales continued to grow in many parts of the world, many BlackBerry users in North America switched to iPhones and Android devices. BlackBerry’s worldwide subscriber based peaked at 80 million in the quarter that ended Sept. 1, before dropping to 79 million in the most-recent quarter. In the U.S., according to research firm IDC, shipments of BlackBerry phones plummeted from 46 percent of the market in 2008 to 2 percent in 2012.

RIM promised a new system to catch up, using technology it got through its 2010 purchase of QNX Software Systems. RIM initially said BlackBerry 10 would come by early 2012, but then the company changed that to late 2012. A few months later, that date was pushed further, to early 2013, missing the lucrative holiday season. The holdup helped wipe out more than $ 70 billion in shareholder wealth and 5,000 jobs.

Although executives have been providing a glimpse at some of BlackBerry 10′s new features for months, Heins will finally showcase a complete system at Wednesday’s event. Devices will go on sale soon after that.

RIM redesigned the system to embrace the multimedia, apps and touch-screen experience prevalent today.

“Historically there have been areas that have not been our strongest points,” Rick Costanzo, RIM’s executive vice president of global sales, said in an interview. “Not only have we caught up, but we may even be better than some of the competition now.”

Costanzo said “no one else can touch” what RIM’s new system offers.

The new operating system promises better multitasking than either the iPhone or Android. Simply swipe a finger across the phone’s display screen to switch to another program.

All emails and notifications from such applications as Twitter and Facebook go to the BlackBerry Hub, a nerve center accessible with a finger swipe even if you have another application open. One can peek into it and open an email, or return to the previous application without opening the email.

“You are not going in and out of applications; you’re flowing through applications with one simple gesture of your finger,” Costanzo said. “You can leave applications running. You can effortlessly flow between them. So that’s completely unique to us.”

That said, multitasking will be limited and won’t allow for extensive use of apps side by side, as is typically permitted on traditional computers. If you’re watching a video, it will still run while you check for email. But it will pause if you decide to open an email and resume when you are done.

The BlackBerry’s touch-screen keyboard promises to learn a user’s writing style and suggest words and phrases to complete, going beyond typo corrections offered by rivals. See the one you want, and flick it up to the message area. Costanzo said that “BlackBerry offers the best keyboard, period.”

Gus Papageorgiou, a Scotiabank financial analyst who has tried it out, agreed with that assessment and said the keyboard even learns and adjusts to your thumb placements.

The first BlackBerry 10 phone will have only a touch screen. RIM has said it will release a version with a physical keyboard soon after that. That’s an area RIM has excelled at, and it’s one reason many BlackBerry users have remained loyal despite temptations to switch.

Another distinguishing feature will be the BlackBerry Balance, which allows two personas on the same device. Businesses can keep their data secure without forcing employees to get a second device for personal use. For instance, IT managers can prevent personal apps from running inside corporate firewalls, but those managers won’t have access to personal data on the device.

With Balance, “you can just switch from work to personal mode,” Papageorgiou said. “I think that is something that will attract a lot of people.”

RIM is also claiming that the BlackBerry 10′s browser will be speedy, even faster than browsers for laptop and desktop computers. According to Papageorgiou, early, independent tests between the BlackBerry 10 and the iPhone support that claim.

Regardless of BlackBerry 10′s advances, though, the new system will face a key shortcoming: It won’t have as many apps written by outside companies and individuals as the iPhone and Android. RIM has said it plans to launch BlackBerry 10 with more than 70,000 apps, including those developed for RIM’s PlayBook tablet, first released in 2011. Even so, that’s just a tenth of what the iPhone and Android offer. Papageorgiou said the initial group will include the most popular ones such as Twitter and Facebook. But RIM will have to persuade others to make a BlackBerry version, when they are already struggling to keep up with both the iPhone and Android.

Like many analysts, Papageorgiou recently upgraded RIM’s stock, but cautions that longtime BlackBerry users will have to get used to a whole new operating system.

He said RIM can be successful if about a third of current subscribers upgrade and if the company can get 4 million new users overseas, especially in countries where the BlackBerry has remained popular. IDC said smartphone shipments grew 44 percent in 2012. If those trends continue, it will be possible for the BlackBerry to grow even if iPhone and Android users don’t switch.

“This doesn’t have to be the best smartphone on the planet to be a success for RIM,” he said. “I think the big question though is, if it fails, is it just too late? Are the other two ecosystems just so advanced that no one can catch up? That’s a big risk.”

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Natalie Zea Talks The Following

Last week The Following terrified over 10 million viewers with its pilot episode, but you best believe me when I say that you ain't seen nothing yet!

Not only does tonight's second episode begin to shine a light on my favorite storyline, but it deepens every character's backstory and reveals previously unseen connections. Like with Claire Matthews and Ryan Hardy, whose hinted at history comes into full view over the next two episodes as Claire continues to fret over her abducted son while avoiding all dark corners.

Earlier this month, I caught up with Natalie Zea to talk about her attraction to Claire and The Following at The Television Critics Association Press Tour.

ETonline: When you read this script, what made you want to play Claire?

Natalie Zea: I have to say it was less about the character and more about the script as a whole. I was so confused by what I was reading; was it a film script, a pilot script or episode 207 of some amazing TV show? Kevin Williamson was able to avoid the trap that so many writers fall in of setting up characters and the world; he was able to make sure we knew all that information without it being predictable. As a reader, it's so refreshing to be kept so on your toes. I couldn't quite figure it out, which is what anyone who has read 15 million pilot scripts, like I have, wants to see. Make me question everything that's going on.

VIDEO - Inside The Following

ETonline: The next few episodes see Claire stressing about her son's abduction -- did any part of you yearn for more to do up front, or did you feel like it was all working towards something greater?

Zea: All that is very intentionally prolonged. The brilliance of it is that the audience will feel the frustration just as much, so when we all collectively -- the actress, the audience, the character -- decide that enough is enough, it's earned. It's hard to play and challenging, but I don't dig ditches for a living, so ...

ETonline: And sometimes you make out with Kevin Bacon, so...

Zea: With Ren from Footloose...

ETonline: Did you have that moment of "I'm kissing Ren" with those flashbacks?

Zea: Oh yeah. I had a giggle fit ... not in his presence because I'm able to keep it together and we had become so friendly throughout the course of preparing to shoot. It wasn't like other projects where "Nice to meet you, take your top off" happens on day one. But we'd known each other for months, so I was kind of surprised by my reaction.

RELATED - How Scream 3 Became The Following

ETonline: This is the most terrifying show I've ever seen -- are you good with scary stuff?

Zea: Yeah. It doesn't stay with me. I don't know if that means there's something wrong with me, but I'm able to separate pretty well. I tend to get more caught up in relationship dramas. I get really attached to those worlds and those characters, whether I'm playing them or watching them. Like, I've gotten sucked into many episodes of Breaking Bad or Mad Men. As a TV actor, all you want is to be on a show that makes people call into work sick so they can stay home and watch. That's the sign of a good show.

ETonline: Is there anything about the scripts that click with audiences that stands out to you in the script reading phase?

Zea: Oh God, I have no idea what makes people watch what they do. My taste is starting to line up with the public's much more now, but there was a time when any show I watched was canceled two episodes in. I was such a show killer. But, it's pure luck. There have been no scripts that I've read and gone after because "It's the one." Instead, I'm going after scripts because of a role, or I find it compelling, or the synergy works well. I never try to pick a hit because I'm the worst to ask.

RELATED - 2013's 6 Best New Shows

ETonline: Looking ahead, what are you excited for people to see this season with The Following?

Zea: I'm excited for them to be proven wrong. I think a lot of people are going in with expectations that are, not bad, but wrong. I did it too -- I assumed this show would be about one thing and have been proven wrong time and time again. The reality of what they're going to get is so much better. If you can surprise people, and turn the tables on them ... that's really cool.

The Following airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on Fox.

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48-year-old man found dead with bag over head in Hamilton Heights

A 48-year-old Hamilton Heights man was found dead in his apartment this morning -- tied up with a bag over his head, law-enforcement sources said.

The victim’s home attendant found him inside the Manhattan pad on Hamilton Place near West 142 Street at 10:20 a.m., cops said.

The dead man's name has not been released pending proper family notification, cops said.

The investigation is ongoing, cops said.

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