Miami-Dade mayor reverses course on proposed tax-rate hike, downsizes animal-shelter plan

A day after proposing a property-tax rate hike in his 2013-14 budget, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said he would scale back the eyebrow-raising increase.

The mayor will drop his request to raise a portion of the tax rate to fully fund a $19 million plan to stop killing dogs and cats at the county?s shelter, Gimenez told the Miami Herald late Wednesday.

Instead, he said the animal services department would receive $4 million from within the budget to implement a bare-bones version of the no-kill shelter plan. That would limit the mayor?s proposed tax-rate hike to funding library and fire-rescue services.

?I?m hearing the voice of the people, and so I don?t think it?s good right now to raise the countywide millage,? Gimenez said.

Gimenez?s initial proposal was met with some resistance and disbelief Wednesday from politicians who noted the mayor was elected two years ago on a platform to shrink government following the ouster of Mayor Carlos Alvarez. Gimenez?s predecessor was recalled after pushing through an unpopular tax-rate hike and doling out employee pay raises in an economic recession.

The overall tax rate would still go up under Gimenez?s amended proposal. The increase would amount to 4.34 percent, rather than the 5.37 percent listed in the budget released Tuesday.

Compared to last year, that would amount to an $80.94 increase rather than a $102.52 increase for a homeowner with a taxable property value of $200,000 in an unincorporated neighborhood such as Kendall.

The higher fire and library rates would not affect residents of cities with their own departments for those services. The total increase includes a separate portion of taxes that pays for construction projects voters approved in a major bond issue a decade ago. County taxes make up only a portion of a total tax bill.

The animal-welfare plan was given a thumbs up by nearly 65 percent of Miami-Dade voters last November. ?We must respect the will of the voters,? Gimenez had said Tuesday.

But it was a straw-ballot question, and Gimenez said a day later that he heard from several people Wednesday that they would not have favored the measure if it had been binding.

Not so, said Michael Rosenberg, a Kendall businessman and co-founder of Pets Trust Miami, the grassroots group that promoted the ballot question.

?I know the community knew exactly what they were voting for,? he said after learning of Gimenez?s decision from a reporter.

?What is the point of voting anymore?? he added. ?The people spoke with a voice that resonated all over the country. We are in shock that the mayor killed the program, and with that, the killing of animals will continue.?

But some county commissioners have sounded skittish from the dais for weeks on the animal-welfare plan. The board agreed to a policy goal of not killing adoptable pets, but how to pay for it has been a thornier political question in a year when Gimenez?s administration faced a $50.7 million budget hole.

?When you?re dealing with a budget deficit, items like the pets trust issue kind of morph into a luxury that we may not be able to afford right now,? Commissioner Esteban ?Steve? Bovo, a leading skeptic of the animal-welfare tax hike, said Wednesday night.

He called Gimenez?s change in course encouraging but said he is still worried about any tax-rate increase.

?The climate of raising taxes is very toxic right now,? he said.

Commissioners will meet next Tuesday to set the maximum tax rate. They must approve a budget after two public hearings in September.

Gimenez said the alternative to raising the library and fire rates would be eliminating six fire units ? the equivalent of laying off about 120 firefighters ? and closing 17 branch libraries, 10 storefront libraries and the county?s bookmobiles.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/10/3494625/miami-dade-mayor-reverses-course.html

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GET RID OF WINDOWS PHONE APP AND BRING BACK/REBRAND THE ZUNE APP

THe WIndows Phone app is beying frustrating in ridiculously bugged. It does not catelogue musci properly, find album art correctly, it does not sync playlists at all, it adds the music twice to the phone, the UI is TERRIBLE.
This will hugely divert users from using the phone as music is a central feature of a phone and why people use them. FIX IT ASAP, it is SHOCKING

Source: http://windowsphone.uservoice.com/forums/101801-feature-suggestions/suggestions/4176242-get-rid-of-windows-phone-app-and-bring-back-rebran

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World's largest superyacht is now the fastest too

wealth

Robert Frank CNBC

14 hours ago

Klaus Jordan / Klaus Jordan

Azzam, the largest superyacht in the world.

Building the largest superyacht in the world apparently wasn't enough for the owner of Azzam. They also wanted the fastest.

Yachting executives say that Azzam, the largest yacht in the world at 590 feet, recently went through its first set of sea trials in the North Sea. The boat hit a staggering 31.5 knots?or about 37 miles per hour. At that speed it's believed to be the fastest yacht longer than 300 feet.

And that's not even top speed. Engineers say Azzam?with 94,000 horsepower driving giant water jets instead of propellers? can go even faster in deeper water. The 31.5 knot speed was recorded in water that was only about 60 feet deep.

"It can easily do more than 32 knots in deeper water," said one executive close to the project.

Azzam was officially launched in April, but won't be delivered to its owner until sometime this fall since it still needs to undergo further tests and finish work. The yacht, which cost more than $600 million to build, is believed to be owned by the royal family of the United Arab Emirates.

(Read More:Owning a Yacht, One Share at a Time)

Representatives for Lurssen, the company that built Azzam, declined any comment about the boat.

Azzam is nearly 30 percent faster than similarly sized yachts. Eclipse, the second largest yacht at 536 feet, hits a top speed of around 22 knots. Rising Sun, the 453 foot megayacht built for Larry Ellison and now owned by David Geffen, hits top speeds of around 28 knots.

(Read More:The Booming Business of Shipping Yachts)

There are smaller yachts that are faster, of course. A yacht called The World is Not Enough, a 140-footer built by the serial yacht builder John Staluppi, hit a top speed of 70 knots. But it's one-fourth the size of Azzam.

Fortuna, the yacht built for King Juan Carlos of Spain, hit 68 knots.

There are no immediate descriptions or images available of Azzam's interior, though we know it's in the hands of French interior designer Christophe Leoni, who's using a "turn of the century Empire style."

?By CNBC's Robert Frank. Follow him on Twitter @robtfrank.

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Spitzer, Weiner and the New York City road to redemption

NEW YORK ? Why have this city?s once-sleepy municipal elections suddenly become the nation?s most high-profile halfway house for sexually addled politicians?

It would have been enough that Anthony Weiner (resigned from Congress in 2011 in a sexting scandal) has emerged as a surprising top contender in the polls for the Democratic mayoral nomination. Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire Republican-turned-independent, is finishing his third term as mayor this year and will not seek re-election.

But then without warning on Sunday night, Eliot Spitzer (resigned as governor in 2008 in a prostitution scandal) suddenly announced he was running for comptroller, the city?s top financial job that few voters understand or can spell.

New York politics, once dominated by the political bosses of Tammany Hall, have never been for the faint-hearted. Two 20th century mayors (Jimmy Walker and William O?Dwyer) resigned and fled the country in the face of corruption charges. In 2000, Mayor Rudy Giuliani announced at a press conference that his marriage was over without first telling his wife, Donna Hanover, who then refused to move out of the mayoral residence at Gracie Mansion.

[Photo gallery: The return of Eliot Spitzer]

But nothing compares to the way that the 2013 elections have turned into a reality show called ?The Road to Redemption.?

Maybe New York voters are more forgiving than Job. That is basically Weiner?s theory. Referring to the giant front-page headlines (usually with puns dripping sexual innuendo) in the New York Post and Daily News, Weiner told me in an interview, ?There?s a disconnect between [the voters] and the people who write the wood for the tabloids.?

Hand-shaking Saturday afternoon in front of a Trader Joe?s in the middle-class Queens neighborhood of Rego Park, an area he once represented in Congress, Weiner drew apparent comfort from the warmth of his reception. He earnestly discussed stop-and-frisk police searches (?I believe it?s a legitimate tactic?) with a grey-haired woman criminal defense attorney. He tried to find common ground on guns with a burly man wearing a NASCAR cap (?You?re a second amendment supporter, what?s the argument for a big ammunition clip??). And he beguiled an 8-year-old girl and her younger brother with the story of his ill-fated campaign for third-grade class president (he neglected to provide lollipops).

Despite Weiner?s eager-to-please manner, these conversations do not necessarily translate into support. The woman attorney, who did not want her name used, was impressed by Weiner?s answer on stop-and-frisk. But she confided that she would not be voting for him. Why not? ?Two words,? she said, ?crotch shots.?

Spitzer, who radiates the coiled intensity of a former prosecutor, is the kind of in-your-face politician more apt to frighten children than charm them. But Monday afternoon, surrounded by a jostling scrum of reporters in Manhattan?s Union Square, Spitzer seemed in his element as the man in the arena. As he put it, ?I love the maelstrom. I love the screaming. I love the shouting.?

There is nothing rueful or apologetic about Spitzer, who both patronized call girls and prosecuted prostitution rings. Sure, he offered a few mechanical words like, ?I hope that anyone who has gone through what I?ve gone through ? and would have five years to reflect ? would change.? But when I asked him Monday whether he had learned anything from the 2007 Troopergate scandal (as governor he had misused the state police to tarnish a Republican rival), Spitzer huffed, ?That was not a scandal. That was Alice in Wonderland.?

More than Lewis Carroll, Tom Wolfe?s 1987 "The Bonfire of the Vanities" seems an apt guide to the upcoming Sept. 10 Democratic primary (with Weiner and presumably Spitzer on the ballot). In an election cycle certain to be dominated by the scapegrace sexual histories of these two high-octane politicians, the efforts of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to become New York?s first lesbian mayor seem almost quaintly Victorian in contrast.

So what is the significance of the ego-propelled return of Weiner and Spitzer? Is it just coincidence or the symbol of something larger about New York?s and the nation?s political culture?

Here are a few theories about why these days no errant politician, especially in New York, can bear to wear a scarlet letter for long.

It?s easier to win tabloid headlines than elections: Both Weiner and Spitzer could still be embarrassed in their respective primaries. The polls showing Weiner bouncing along with about 20 percent support against the four other leading Democratic mayoral candidates may partly be a function of name recognition at a time when few voters are taking the race to succeed Bloomberg seriously. As for Spitzer, a Marist Poll last fall found that nearly two third of New York City voters did not want him to run for mayor.

If I can make it here: New York City?s brutal media environment makes the White House press corps all like graduates of Emily Post etiquette classes. Dating back to mayors like Fiorello LaGuardia and Ed Koch, the kind of politicians who thrive here don?t take no for an answer. Ever. Even before their sexual kinks became tabloid fare, Spitzer and Weiner stood out as political narcissists. Is it any surprise that they did not devote years to anonymous charitable works before plotting their comebacks?

The Clinton factor: Weiner?s wife, Huma Abedin, is Hillary Clinton?s closest aide. But talking to voters in Rego Park, Weiner invoked Bill Clinton as the patron saint of political second chances. Clinton?s redemption as both a president who survived impeachment and as an ex-president known for his international good works may have put all sex scandals in a larger context.

In 2013, we?re beyond embarrassment: There were weird elements to the Spitzer (black socks) and Weiner (all pictures and no action) sagas. But in an era when everyone under 40 has posted something on Facebook that they regret, we may be moving towards a Gallic-shrug tolerance of the sexual transgressions of political figures. This is difficult to quantify and runs counter to the moralistic tone of tabloid headlines (?Lust for Power? was how the Daily News welcomed Spitzer to the race). But we may be reaching the point where the only politically unforgivable sin is cheating on a dying cancer-stricken wife (see Edwards, John).

Perhaps the best explanation is the simplest: After a decade marked by deep recession, war and partisan breakdown in Washington, we have become collectively bored with the issues and substance of governing. What we crave is the mindless entertainment of a summer blockbuster. And, boy, is New York City politics providing it.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/-spitzer--weiner-and-the-new-york-city-road-to-redemption-200456854.html

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Park service to light monument during restoration

WASHINGTON (AP) ? While the Washington Monument is closed for earthquake damage repairs over the next year, 488 lamps will restore the marble tower's glow each night on the National Mall.

Beginning Monday, the National Park Service will light the monument each night at dusk. A ceremony is planned for the first lighting with National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis and philanthropist David Rubenstein, who donated $7.5 million to fund half the cost of repairs.

A blue, semi-transparent fabric has been wrapped around the scaffolding that surrounds the monument as it undergoes extensive repairs of its 2011 earthquake damage. It will be lit from behind.

Architect Michael Graves was commissioned to design a scrim to decorate the monument between 1998 and 2000, when it was last restored. His same design was used this time to exaggerate the scale of the monument's stone pattern and the mortar that is being repaired.

National Mall Superintendent Bob Vogel told The Associated Press the lighting marks a milestone in the yearslong effort to restore and reopen the monument to President George Washington.

"We know that our visitors are disappointed that they can't actually go up in the monument," he said. "So, we hope that this will make up for it just a little."

The monument will be lit gradually from bottom to top. It takes several minutes for all 488 lights to come to full power, Vogel said. After the first lighting, sensors will light the monument automatically each night at dusk.

Many stones near the top of the monument were chipped or cracked, and mortar was shaken loose during a 5.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Aug. 23, 2011, along the East Coast.

Experts have completed a detailed analysis of each stone's damage. Now, they are working to ensure all the repair plans are just right, from the color of mortar to a process for injecting a sealant into cracked stones, Vogel said. Within days, they will begin making final repairs, working stone by stone across the surface and inside the obelisk.

The monument is expected to reopen once the repairs are completed in spring 2014, the park service has estimated.

In the meantime, the National Park Service is launching a live online EarthCam view of the monument and of the National Mall.

The monument lighting also marks Rubenstein's role in a larger campaign to restore neglected sites on the National Mall, officials said. The co-founder of the Carlyle Group investment firm has joined the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall as a co-chairman to help raise $350 million to preserve and restore sites in the nation's most-visited national park.

"He's taking his leadership role as a co-chair of the campaign for the National Mall very seriously," said Caroline Cunningham, the fundraising group's president. "We're really grateful for not only his passion about the restoration of the Washington Monument but his passion for the campaign to restore the National Mall."

___

Online:

http://www.nationalmall.org

http://www.earthcam.com/usa/dc/washingtonmonument

___

Follow Brett Zongker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/park-light-monument-during-restoration-090612624.html

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APPLE USB IPAD CHARGER IN Package NEW ( City of Toronto ) $10.00

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THL's W11 'Monkey King' phone packs a 13MP camera on both sides

THL is a name that makes us cringe whenever we come across it, not only because its logo is clearly "inspired" by HTC's older counterpart, but more so because it's been shamelessly cloning designs from the likes of HTC, LG and Samsung. Alas, these KIRF phones sell well in China, thus letting THL rapidly expand its retail business in recent years -- there are now a handful of THL stores in Shenzhen alone. But today, the company finally has something worth writing about: the Android 4.2.2-powered W11 aka "Monkey King" (a main character from the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West).

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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