South Florida hospitals could lose $368 million from sequestration

A detailed survey shows that South Florida hospitals could lose $368 million over 10 years in federal budget cuts starting next Friday, if the sequestration program kicks in as scheduled.

The Florida Hospital Association, using data from the American Hospital Association, estimates that over the next decade, sequestration would cause Miami-Dade hospitals to lose $223.9 million and Broward facilities $144.4 million under the Congress-mandated budget cuts that hit virtually all federal programs unless Republicans and Democrats can work out a compromise.

The New York Times and other national news organizations are reporting that sequestration, unlike the New Year’s fiscal cliff, seems virtually certain to take place.

The law requires across-the-board spending cuts in domestic and defense programs, with certain exceptions. Because healthcare represents more than one in five dollars of the federal budget, it will be a huge target for cuts.

For hospitals and doctors, the major impact will be felt in Medicare cuts, which according to the budget law are limited to 2 percent of Medicare payments. Medicaid, food stamps and Social Security are exempted from cuts, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The FHA study calculates that over 10 years, Jackson Memorial Hospital stands to lose $30.6 million, Mount Sinai Medical Center on Miami Beach $27.3 million, Holy Cross in Fort Lauderdale $23.8 million and Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood $21.4 million.

“The problem with sequestration is that it just makes broad cuts across the board,” said Linda Quick, president of the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association. “The Affordable Care Act is looking at all sorts of intelligent ways to reduce costs,” including coordinated care that will stop duplicated tests and reduce hospital readmissions. “But sequestration takes an ax, and that doesn’t make any sense.”

FierceHealthcare, which produces trade publications, says sequestration cuts over the next decade will include $591 million from prescription drug benefits for seniors, $318 million from the Food and Drug Administration, $2.5 billion from the National Institutes of Health, $490 million from the Centers for Disease Control and $365 million from Indian Health Services.

The National Association of Community Health Centers estimates that 900,000 of its patients nationwide could lose care because of the cuts. The group said the cuts were “penny wise and pound foolish” because they would mean less preventive care while more and sicker patients would end up in emergency rooms.

Like the fiscal cliff, Republicans and Democrats agreed on a sequestration strategy, with the idea that the drastic measure would force the two sides to reach agreement on more deliberative budget adjustments. That hasn’t happened.

The White House reports that the law will mean that nondefense programs will be cut by 5 percent, defense programs by 8 percent. But since the first year’s cuts must be done over seven months, that means in 2013, nondefense programs need to be cut by 9 percent, defense programs by 13 percent.

Read More..

In David Rivera investigation, suspected ringer charged in federal court in $81,485 scheme

A one-time candidate whose suspicious campaign finances led to an investigation of former Miami Congressman David Rivera was formally charged Friday in federal court with three crimes.

Justin Lamar Sternad pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, false-statement and illegal campaign-contribution charges.

Sternad, however, is expected to strike a plea deal as he cooperates with federal authorities as part of their investigation into Rivera, a Republican, and the former U.S. representative's close friend, Ana Alliegro, who managed Sternad's disastrous campaign. Sternad ran as a Democrat.

Neither Rivera nor Alliegro is listed by name in the 10-page federal charging document, which lists nameless “co-conspirators.”

The co-conspirators helped steer $81,485 in cash to Sternad, who intentionally disguised the illegal campaign contributions by failing to list them on his federal campaign-finance reports.

The money paid for printing and mailing services for a batch of fliers, some of which attacked a Rivera rival, Democrat Joe Garcia, who beat Sternad in the Aug. 14 Democratic primary for the Kendall-to-Key West Congressional District 26 seat. Garcia went on to beat Rivera in the general election.

During the primary, Garcia's campaign complained that Sternad was a ringer, a stand-in attack dog doing Rivera's bidding.

Rivera, who has maintained his innocence, refused comment but pointed to past statements in which he said he never has been informed by authorities of a federal investigation.

Read More..

Vin Diesel 'Riddick' Still

Fast & Furious star Vin Diesel is returning for a third time to his Riddick character this fall, and he's teasing fans with a brand-new image of his title character sitting on a throne with a troubled brow, very reminiscent of Arnold Schwarzenegger's pose at the end of Conan the Barbarian. Coincidence?

Pics: Role Call -- Who Got Hired in Hollywood

Diesel posted the shot on his Facebook page with the accompanying caption: "It has been 9 years since The Chronicles of Riddick was released... all along I knew I would eventually have to return to that dark place, the mind of an Alpha Furyan..."

Following 2000's Pitch Black and 2004's The Chronicles of Riddick, the new sci-fi film, simply titled Riddick, is set to hit theaters and IMAX on September 6 and reunites Diesel with director David Twohy for a more pared-down film in which our anti-hero finds himself up against an alien race of predators. Activating an emergency beacon, he catches the attention of two passing ships – one carrying a new breed of mercenary, and the other captained by a man from Riddick's past.

Video: Watch Vin Diesel Cover Rihanna's 'Stay'

Also co-produced by Diesel, the Riddick cast includes Karl Urban, Katee Sackhoff, Bokeem Woodbine, Dave Bautista, Jordi Molla and Matt Nable.

Read More..

Man pleads guilty to smuggling military-grade sniper scopes

A man pleaded guilty today to illegally trying to smuggle restricted military-grade night-vision sniper scopes out of the US to Ukraine.

Volodymyr Ponomarenko was charged in Brooklyn federal court with attempting to ship the high-tech devices overseas without a Customs export license that is required to transport restricted technology out of the country.

US Customs and Border Protection officers at New York's JFK airport had discovered the items in Dec. 2011 during a search of parcels destined for Ukraine, officials said.

Inside they found two night-vision rifle sniper scopes, a thermal imaging camera, and three high-powered sniper scopes, Brooklyn federal prosecutors say.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents traced the shipment to a freight forwarder in Elizabeth, NJ., and eventually tracked down and arrested Ponomarenko - who is a citizen of Ukraine, prosecutors said.

Under federal law, certain types of rifle scopes cannot be exported without a special license from the US government out of concern that they might be diverted to terrorists, insurgents, or others who could utilize them to kill US armed forces overseas, officials said.

Ponomarenko faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced.

Read More..

Miami Springs hotel makes Top 10 list

The Comfort Suites Miami Airport North, just over a year old, is winning praise.

The 102-suite hotel, at 657 Minola Dr. in Miami Springs, was named one of the top 10 airport-adjacent hotels in the nation by TripAdvisor.

The hotel earned its seventh-place showing thanks to reviews by travelers. The travel site said the list was based on the most highly rated hotels within two miles of major airports in the United States.

Comfort Suites, which opened in November of 2011, was lauded by reviewers for its free breakfast buffet, 42-inch high-definition TV sets and heated outdoor pool. The hotel also offers free parking and free shuttle service to and from the airport.

Read More..

South Florida existing home sales, prices rose again in January

The median price of an existing single-family home in Miami-Dade County rose 14.8 percent to $194,000 in January from a year earlier, according to the Miami Association of Realtors.

The median price of a condominium in Miami-Dade jumped 24.1 percent year over year.

Compared with December 2012, the median price for a single family home fell 9.4 percent in January and was off 4.9 percent for condos.

Sales of previously owned homes and condos in Miami-Dade rose 7.5 percent in January to 1,947 units. That included a 19.1 percent spike in the sale of existing single-family homes while condo sales were essentially flat, with a 0.3 percent increase in volume year over year.

The scenario was similar in Broward County, where the median price of an existing single-family home jumped 24.5 percent to $224,088 in January from a year earlier, according to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors.

The median price of a condominium or townhouse in Broward increased 26.5 percent to $94,900 in January from a year earlier.

Sales of single-family-home in Broward increased 15.3 percent in January to 1,033 from a year earlier, while closings on townhouses and condos increased 10.7 percent year over year, the Realtors group said.

Extremely tight inventory continues to shape South Florida’s recovering housing market.

“There’s like nothing for sale. Inventory is so tight,’’ said Lisa Dority, an agent with REMAX/Advance Realty. “When something comes on the market, it’s a stampede with multiple offers and back-up contracts.’’

In Miami-Dade, the total inventory of residences available for sale plunged 10.7 percent in January to 13,316 from a year earlier, with single-family home inventory down 12.9 percent and existing condominium listings off 9.3 percent, the Miami Realtors group said.

In Broward, the number of single-family homes available for sale on the multi-listings service plunged 26.5 percent in January to 4,510 from a year earlier. The number of available listings of condos and townhouses on the market was down 11.2 percent year over year to 6,407 units in Broward in January, the group said.

The months of supply of existing single-family homes fell to 3.8 months in Broward, while the inventory of condos and townhouses shrank to 4.7 months. A six-month supply of homes for sale is considered a balanced market between buyers and sellers, while a lower level favors sellers, helping fuel price increases, Realtors say.

Broward homes are selling more quickly and for levels closer to their asking prices in Broward. In January, existing single-family homes fetched 93.4 percent of their listing price, up from 90.9 percent a year earlier. Condos and townhouses went for 93.8 perenct of their asking price, an increase of 1.4 percent from a year earlier.

The median days on the market was 48 for a single-family home, down from 53 a year earlier, and 42 days for a condo or townhouse, down from 43 in January 2012.

“I’m seeing strength right across the board,’’ said Charles Bonfiglio, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors and head of AAA Realty Group. Many Broward residences are fetching multiple offers, frequently above the asking price, he said.

Statewide in Florida, sales of existing homes jumped 11.7 percent in January to 13,679 units from a year earlier, while condominium and townhouse sales totaled 6,670 units, a 2 percent increase year over year, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.

The median sales price for a single-family existing home across Florida rose 12.4 percent to $145,000 in January from a year earlier while the median price for condomiums and townhouses was up 18 percent year over year to $112,000, the Florida Realtors said.

Read More..

Biden tries to rally support for gun control in Conn. speech

DANBURY, Conn. — Vice President Joe Biden is trying to rally support for the administration's proposals to curb gun violence, saying there will be a moral price to pay for inaction.

Biden is speaking Thursday at a conference in Danbury, Conn., just a few miles from the scene of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He says that America has changed its views of gun control since the Dec. 14 massacre of 26 people inside the Newtown school.

Other speakers, including the parents of a 7-year-old girl killed at Sandy Hook, urged Congress to honor the memories of the victims with strong action.

Getty Images

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a conference on gun violence at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, Connecticut.

Meanwhile, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced he wants to immediately ban high-capacity ammunition magazines, require background checks for the transfer of firearms and expand the state's assault weapons ban.

Read More..

IKEA to open in Sweetwater in 2014

IKEA announced that it has hired a contractor to build its Miami store and is on track for opening in Summer 2014.

Balfour Beatty Construction will oversee construction of the IKEA store to be built in Sweetwater on land adjacent to Dolphin Mall, located at the intersection of State Road 836 and Florida’s Turnpike.

The Swedish retailer known for its cheap, chic home furnishings is awaiting a building permit from the city of Sweetwater and expects to break ground within the next two months. The 417,000-square foot store would become the largest of IKEA’s four Florida locations.

The retailer has been looking for a site in Miami for nearly a decade. But the challenge has been finding a big enough piece of land with the kind of central location and highway frontage that IKEA requires. IKEA already has a store in Sunrise.

Read More..

No mistrial after surprise evidence surfaces in trial of Miami cop-killing suspect

A judge won’t grant a mistrial, for now, in the case of cop-killing suspect Dennis Escobar after a startling police audiotape surfaced that could taint the man’s confession.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Leon Firtel made the decision against the backdrop of history: In 1997, the Florida Supreme Court threw out Escobar’s original conviction and death sentence. It took until last week for Escobar to finally begin his new trial.

“I don’t want to deny the defendant his rights but this judge has an obligation to the State of Florida to get this case to trial after 15 years,” a frustrated Firtel told prosecutors and defense lawyers, who had agreed to ask for a mistrial.

Firtel on Monday will reconsider granting a mistrial after lawyers hash out more legal issues. Jurors, for now, are on standby.

Escobar, 52, is accused of shooting Miami Officer Victor Estefan to death after the veteran officer pulled him and his brother, Douglas Escobar, over in a stolen Mazda in Little Havana in March 1988.

The brothers fled to California, where they were wounded in a shootout with highway patrol troopers about 180 miles north of Los Angeles.

Police have long maintained that Escobar, while in a California prison hospital room, agreed to waive his right to remain silent and talk to Miami homicide detectives. Three days later, he confessed to killing Estefan.

But on Sunday, an unmarked, undated cassette tape was found in an evidence box that depicted Escobar refusing to speak, instead telling Detective Jorge Morin to talk to his lawyer.

Morin himself discovered the tape and alerted prosecutor Reid Rubin, who immediately turned it over to Escobar’s defense team.

With the case significantly weakened, prosecutors floated an offer to the brothers: no death penalty if they plead guilty and agreed to life in prison.

Escobar has yet to decide whether to accept the deal. The brothers are already serving a life prison term in California for the attack on the troopers.

Defense attorney Phillip Reizenstein may also ask the judge to throw out the confession. That would deliver a major blow to the prosecution’s case in this trial — or a future one.

As Escobar mulled the plea offer Tuesday night, prosecutors found a second audiotape, this one of Escobar’s interview with California detectives investigating the attack on the highway patrol troopers.

The second tape wasn’t wholly a surprise: Lawyers on each side long had a transcript of that interview.

But the additional discovery was enough that Judge Firtel ordered lawyers to listen to and document every tape left in evidence, about 15 or so, to make sure none others could impact the trial. Firtel gave them until Monday to finish.

Escobar’s defense team has also asked the judge to conduct a hearing to find out why the state attorney’s office, years ago, never turned over the tape to Escobar’s previous lawyer.

Reizenstein said the current prosecution team “did their job honorably” in immediately turning over the tape. Rubin has also told the defense, many months ago, that the evidence box of cassette tapes was available for examination.

But Detective Morin, or the original prosecutors, should have to explain why the tape was never disclosed years ago, and if prosecutors knew that Morin lied under oath at previous hearings, Reizenstein told the judge.

Read More..

'Blade Runner' wanted to build an arsenal: report

JOHANNESBURG — Oscar Pistorius applied for firearm licenses for six more guns weeks before the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp inside his house on Feb. 14, according to official records obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The applications were made on Jan. 22, just over three weeks before Pistorius shot his girlfriend dead in his home with a licensed 9 mm pistol.

The athlete says the killing of Steenkamp was accidental as he thought she was a dangerous intruder inside his bathroom. Prosecutors say the double-amputee athlete intended to kill his girlfriend and have charged him with premediated murder.

In details obtained from the South African Police Service's National Firearms Center and given over the telephone, Pistorius applied for licenses for a Smith & Wesson model 500 revolver, a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver, a Vector .223-caliber rifle and three shotguns: A Mossberg shotgun, a Maverick shotgun and a Winchester shotgun.

PROSECUTORS SLAM PISTORIUS' DEFENSE

TESTIMONY: PISTORIUS VS COPS

BLADE RUNNER'S HARROWING TALE OF HOW HE DID IT

PROSTHETIC STRAP-ONS KEY TO 'MURDER' RAP

ANGUISH, OUTRAGE AT REEVA FUNERAL

PHOTOS: REEVA STEENKAMP

The details were given to the AP by two separate officials at the government department. They refused to give their names because they were not authorized to speak to the media, although the records are available to the public.

Pistorius registered the 9 mm handgun used in the Valentine's Day killing for self-defense, the firearm center officials said. The six outstanding applications listed those guns for Pistorius' private collection.

The six recent firearm license applications were sent back to a police and firearms station in Johannesburg to be reapplied for on Monday, four days after Steenkamp's killing, the officials said. No reasons were given why the applications were sent back to be refiled.

Pistorius' license for the 9 mm Parabellum pistol that was used in Steenkamp's shooting was issued to Pistorius on Sept. 10, 2010 on appeal after an initial application in 2008 was rejected. One of the officials said the rejection was procedural as Pistorius had passed his competency test and had no criminal record.

The 9 mm pistol license card was printed on Sept. 16, 2010 and received by Pistorius on Sept. 27, 2010, the officials said.

Under South Africa's strict gun laws, you need a license for every firearm you own. An applicant must undergo a competency test — which includes gun safety training — before a license can be issued.

Pistorius would also have had to provide three character referees, one of the firearms center officials said, one of whom must be a family member and one of whom must be a neighbor.

Getty Images

Oscar's Weapons: a graphic illustrating the weapons Oscar Pistorius has applied for at the central firearms registry. Six applications are pending.

Read More..