Poll: 7 in 10 back FL medical-marijuana plan, could affect governor’s race

As many as seven in 10 Florida voters support a state constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana – more than enough to ensure passage and possibly affect the governor’s race — according to a new poll from a group trying to put the measure on the 2104 ballot.

Medical pot’s sky-high approval cuts across party and demographic lines, with Republican support the lowest at a still-strong 56 percent, the poll conducted for People United for Medical Marijuana, or PUFMM, shows.

The outsized support of Democrats and independents brings overall backing of the amendment to 70 percent; with only 24 percent opposed, according to the poll obtained by The Miami Herald.

Regionally, voters from the Miami and Orlando areas, among the most socially liberal in the state, want medical marijuana the most.

Non-Hispanic white women, blacks and Hispanics — all Democratic leaning — are the most-likely to back the measure and could be more likely to turn out to vote in two years if the medical marijuana makes the ballot.

“Supporters of the proposed amendment are less certain to cast ballots in the 2014 governor’s race,” David Beattie, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson’s pollster, wrote in an analysis of the poll of 600 registered voters taken Jan. 30-Feb. 3 by his firm, Hamilton Campaigns.

If it made the ballot, the measure would draw even more attention to Florida’s nationally watched 2014 election in which Gov. Rick Scott will fight for his political life.

“The proposal to allow the medical use of marijuana could provide a message contrast in the Governor’s race,” Beattie wrote, “heightening its effectiveness as a turnout mechanism.”

But, Beattie warns PUFMM in a memo, “don’t frame turnout efforts on the passage of the ballot initiative in a partisan way.”

To that end, former-Republican-operative-turned-Libertarian Roger Stone is planning to join PUFMM’s efforts to give it a bipartisan feel.

A longtime backer of marijuana legalization, Stone, a Miami Beach resident, is seriously considering a run for governor, where he’ll likely advocate for the initiative called “Right to Marijuana for Treatment Purposes.”

On the Democratic side, former Nelson and Hillary Clinton fundraiser Ben Pollara, of Coral Gables, is signing up as the group’s treasurer. Pollara said they’ve had discussions with Eric Sedler, managing partner at Chicago-based ASGK Public Strategies, which he started in 2002 with former White House advisor David Axelrod, still a President Obama advisor.

“The poll numbers were very encouraging,” Pollara said. “But it’s still a Herculean effort.”

That’s because Florida’s Legislature and voters have made it tougher than ever to get measures on the ballot by citizen petition. PUFMM needs to collect the valid signatures of 683,149 Florida voters. That could cost up to $3.5 million.

Right now, PUFMM has raised just $41,000 and has collected only 100,000 signatures, not all of which are valid. Some might be too old because they were collected as far back as 2009.

PUFMM’s Florida director, Kimberly Russell, said the group hopes that this poll and the top-notch campaign minds could turn things around.

“If we get this on the ballot, we have a great chance of getting this passed,” Russell said. “The more these pass in other states, the more people support it everywhere else.”

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Pretty Little Liars Sneak Peek Clip Out of Sight Out Of Mind Ezra's Son

Since day one, Pretty Little Liars fans have been hot for teacher, and thanks to the revelation that Ezra Fitz fathered a love child, he's now firmly cemented his status as a D.I.L.F. as well.

PHOTOS - TV's 10 Best Dressed Characters

Now, with the secret that threatened to tear Ezria apart out in the open at long last, PLL has also opened the door for Ezra's son to come to Rosewood -- which is exactly what happens in Tuesday's all new episode, titled Out of Sight, Out of Mind.

RELATED - Troian Talks Spencer's Spiral Downwards

ETonline scored a sneak peek at Aria's unexpected first meeting with Malcolm -- but that pales in comparison to the shock Ezra lays on her. Watch!

Pretty Little Liars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC Family.

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Macy’s CEO ‘hung up’ on Martha Stewart betrayal

Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren testified he was so shocked when Martha Stewart called him to break the news she had a secret deal with JCPenney that he hung up on her.

“I don’t remember hanging up on anyone in my life, “ Lundgren testified during a Manhattan Supreme Court trial over her pact with Penney. “That’s how frustrated I was with Martha Stewart on that phone call.”

After recovering from his initial shock, Lundgren said he repeatedly asked Stewart why she had not first told him about her talks with Penney so that he might have had a chance to counter the deal.

Stewart began answering him in stilted language as if she were reading from a text written by lawyers, he told the courtroom.

“I was completely shocked and blown away by what she was saying,” Lundgren testified. “She said this was going to be good for Macy’s. I think that’s when I hung up.”

Stewart wasn’t the only one cozying up to Lundgren as a friend while also double-dealing behind his back, the Macy’s CEO said.

Shortly after JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson made a splashy presentation to Wall Street on Penney’s turnaround plans, Lundgren said he wrote to Johnson to congratulate him.

“Thank you, Terry. Your note means a ton to me,” Johnson replied in an e-mail dated Jan. 27, 2012, which was submitted as evidence by Macy’s.

“I consider you a friend.”

Lundgren testified that he “didn’t know about those other e-mails [Johnson] was writing at the same time.”

Lundgren was referring to a flurry of catty e-mails disclosed last week, in which Johnson joked with colleagues that the surprise announcement with Stewart would give Lundgren a “migraine.”

Macy’s unleashed more provocative e-mails yesterday, including one in which a top Penny executive snarkily told Johnson it “sounds like Macy’s pretty unhappy with the Martha deal: [frowning- face symbol].”

Johnson’s sarcasm was apparent in his email reply to the colleague: “I am so sad… They look asleep at the wheel.”

Martha kept her talks with Johnson secret right up to the end, Lundgren said, despite the fact that she had sought several favors from him in the weeks leading up to the surprise announcement.

In addition to accepting Lundgren’s invite for a business trip to Haiti after its earthquake of the summer of 2011, Stewart also asked Lundgren just last October for a $10,000 VIP ticket to a posh New York event honoring Ralph Lauren and Oprah Winfrey.

A few weeks later, she asked for and got exclusive tickets to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

Lundgren’s testimony is the latest salvo in the battle over whether Stewart can legally keep her deal with Penney, in which the retailer shelled out $38.5 million for a 17-percent stake in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

The pact also includes a 10-year, $200 million licensing agreement for Martha Stewart brand home goods.

jcovert@nypost.com

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Miami medicine goes digital

About 10 years ago, Dr. Fleur Sack quit her practice as a family physician to become a hospital department head. Spurring her decision was the need to switch from paper records to electronic ones to keep her private practice profitable. “At that time, it would have cost about $50,000,” Dr. Sack recalled. “It was too expensive and it was too overwhelming.”

But times and technologies changed, and last year, Dr. Sack left her hospital job to restart her medical practice with an affordable system for managing electronic patient records. She agreed to a $5,000 setup fee and a subscription fee of $500 per month for the system. Her investment also qualified her for subsidy money, which the federal government pays in installments, and to date, her subsidy income has paid for the setup fee and about two years of monthly fees. “So far, I’ve got my check for $18,000,” she said. “There’s a total of $44,000 that I can get.”

That kind of cash flow is one reason why so-called EHR software systems for electronic health records have been among the hottest-selling commercial products in the world of information technology. EHR system development is a growth industry in South Florida, too. Life sciences and biotechnology are among the high growth-potential sectors identified by the Beacon Council-led One Community One Goal economic development initiative unveiled in 2012; already, the University of Miami has opened a Health Science Technology Park while Florida International University has launched a program in its graduate school of business oriented toward biotechnology businesses.

For many young businesses in the area’s IT industry, government incentives are paving the way. The federal government is pushing doctors and hospitals to use electronic health records to cut wasteful spending and improve patient care while protecting patient privacy — sending digital information via encrypted systems, for example, rather than regular email.

Under a 2009 federal law known as the HITECH Act, maximum incentive payments for buying such systems range up to $44,000 for doctors with Medicare patients and up to $63,750 for doctors with Medicaid patients. Hospitals are eligible for larger incentive payments for becoming more paperless. The subsidy program isn’t permanent; eligible professionals must begin receiving payments by 2016. But by then, the federal government will be penalizing doctors and hospitals that take Medicare or Medicaid money without making meaningful use of electronic health records.

“What the government did is, they incentivized, and now they’re going to penalize,” said Andrew Carricarte, president and CEO of IOS Health Systems in Miami, one of the largest South Florida-based vendors of online software service for physician practices. He said insurance companies also may start penalizing physicians for failing to adopt electronic health records because “the commercial payers always follow Medicare and Medicaid.”

It’s all part of the growth story at IOS Health Systems, which has more than 2,000 physicians across the nation using its online EHR system. Carricarte said many of the company’s customers buy their second EHR system from IOS after their first one flopped. “Almost 40 percent of our sales come from customers who had systems and are now switching over to something else,” he said.

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Cessna crashes into Biscayne Bay; four people rescued near Homestead

A Cessna carrying four people crashed into the waters of Biscayne Bay Sunday afternoon within Bayfront Park in Homestead.

The crash occurred at around noon. Four people onboard were rescued from the water by Miami-Dade fire rescue workers,” said U. S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios.

The plane was headed to the Florida Keys at the time of the accident.

“We understand the crash happened at the water entrance to the park,” Rios said.

The four onboard suffered minor injuries but were transported to local hospital for treatment.

It’s unknown if the plane was attempting an emergency landing in the water or crashed. The incident is under investigation

At this time, the Cessna remains submerged in the bay.

“We have sent out a Coast Guard vessel to determine if its a hazard to navigation,” Rios said.

An earlier version of this story implied the crash was near Miami’s Bayfront Park.

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Man commits suicide by leaping in front of Manhattan subway train

G.N.Miller/New York Post

A train at the Manhattan subway stop where a man jumped to his death today.

A suicidal man died after jumping in front of a subway train in Manhattan this morning, police said.

The unidentified victim was near the edge of the platform at Eighth Avenue and West 23rd Street in Chelsea around 9:30 a.m. as the E train neared the station, sources said. He stepped back about 10 feet before taking a running leap just before the train arrived, sources added.

The MTA suspended C trains and rerouted E trains below 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue for about two hours after the incident.

kconley@nypost.com

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South Beach Wine & Food Festival changes Miami's culinary scene, impacts economy

For Miami restaurateurs, this is Showtime.

With dozens of top chefs — Bobby Flay, Todd English, Daniel Boloud and Masaharu Morimoto among the list — in town for the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, the pressure is on everywhere, from Michy’s to the new Catch Miami. The goal: Show everyone from around the country that Miami’s food scene has arrived on the national stage.

Chef Michelle Bernstein’s staff whipped up dishes designed to impress guests at Michy’s — like foie gras, oxtail and apple tarte tatin — while she juggled menus for multiple events. Bernstein kept her cellphone handy to make sure any chef friends could get a table, even though her namesake restaurant was sold out.

As always, Joe’s Stone Crab was a must-do stop for many, including Paula Deen and New York restaurateur Danny Meyer. Aussie Chef Curtis Stone attracted a string of admirers as he ate his way around town, with stops at Prime 112, Pubbelly Sushi and Puerto Sagua. Khong River House and Yardbird Southern Table & Bar hosted Meyer, The Food Network’s Anne Burrell and Chef Anita Lo.

Michael’s Genuine was another hot spot.

“This is kind of our coming out party for Khong and it’s our chance to knock it out of the park and wow people,” said John Kunkel, owner of Khong and Yardbird.

Prime 112 owner Myles Chefetz admits he’s a fanatic about checking plates when they come back from a chef’s table. And he’s always on the lookout for the table ordering 20 different items, because that’s usually a restaurateur doing research.

“If you have Jean-Gorges or Bobby Flay eating at your restaurant, you want to make sure he has a great experience,” Chefetz said. “You want to put your best foot forward because you know you’re going to get scrutinized.”

The Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival is not just a forum for impressing the culinary elite. It’s among the top three tourist draws for Miami restaurants and hotels. In its 12th year, the festival draws more than 60,000 people to Miami Beach for a weekend of decadence, featuring more than 50 events spread over four days.

It is neck and neck with two of the area’s other most prominent weekends: Art Basel and Presidents’ Day (which coincides with the Miami International Boat Show).

There’s the immediate economic impact, of course, but the festival has made its mark in other ways: helping transform Miami’s food scene from a cultural wasteland to one of the country’s hot spots, one where top chefs all want to set up shop.

“Twelve years ago I don’t know if you could even name five really good restaurants. Now, you can’t think of where you want to eat because there are so many good restaurants,” said Lee Brian Schrager, festival founder and vice president of communications for Southern Wine & Spirits, its host. “What the festival can take credit for is introducing the culinary world to the great talent down here, and really highlighting South Florida as a great dining destination.”

There has been plenty of indulgence to go around. Flay finally broke his losing streak and took home top honors at the Burger Bash with his award-winning crunchified green chili burger. At the Q, barbecue lovers had their choice of Al Roker’s lamb ribs with baked beans or Geoffrey Zakarian’s smoked tagarashi crusted tuna, among other offerings.

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South Florida “dreamers” gather for information, maybe some financial aid

Carmen cleans Miami houses for $200 a week. So she turned up as early as she could Saturday at Miami Dade College to ask for the $465 grant that would pay for the application to legalize her undocumented daughter’s immigration status.

“This is a blessing,” the Peru-born Carmen said as she waited nervously, green application folder in hand, to chat with one of the immigration rights activists manning desks around the MDC classroom.

A coalition of activist groups hosting the session Saturday was taking the first applications from low-income migrants for the $465 grants – the cost of applying for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for undocumented youths.

The volunteers were also, as they have been doing at 14 to 15 clinics since August, providing legal advice to youths and parents dealing with a sometimes confusing process of filing the DACA applications to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“We work hard so they can have a future,” said Sandra Leyes, an Argentine who arrived in 2000 on a tourist visa with her then 3-year-old son. Gian is now a high school freshman with hopes of becoming a doctor with a specialty in sports medicine.

Leyes said she and Gian were at the clinic to make sure his application was correct and avoid having to pay an immigration lawyer for counsel, but they did not need the $465.

But Carmen said she definitely needs the money because her income barely covers costs. Her daughter Marianne is a senior in high school – top 10 percent of her class – and wants to be an architect.

Colombia-born dishwasher José said it would take his family months to save up the money for his son’s DACA application — if no one gets sick because they have no health insurance. Like others at the sessions, he asked that his last name not be published for fear of repercussions.

Immigrant rights activist Gaby Pacheco said the coalition sponsoring the clinics is hoping to provide the $465 grants to least 50 low-income youths. The groups already have received a $10,000 gift from the Fragomen law firm in Coral Gables.

Most of the DACA applicants seen at the South Florida clinics have been from Latin America, but one came from South Africa and another said he was a Roma – a gypsy – whose father might have been born in Bulgaria.

Youths at the clinic Saturday seemed to prefer to speak in English, jelled their hair in the latest style, wore tight jeans and hoodies and played with smart phones and portable game consoles. Their parents preferred to speak Spanish.

Manning the DACA information and application desks during Saturday’s session at the MDC InterAmerican campus on 27th Avenue and Southwest Eighth Street were law students from Florida International University, the University of Miami and St. Thomas University.

An immigration attorney reviewed the completed DACA applications, and then sent the youths and families to the Ecuador-born Pacheco if they wanted to apply for the $465 grants.

The volunteers have seen about 30 potential applicants at each of the clinics for undocumented youths held all around South Florida since August and completed applications with about 75 percent of them, Pacheco added.

The volunteers also are taking a survey in the hopes of explaining why the number of undocumented youths applying for DACA is far below the estimates of how many would apply.

Estimates of the number of undocumented youths in Florida alone range from 85,000 to 160,000. But the latest U.S. government report showed 19,336 individuals have requested DACA in the state.

Jose Machado, a leader of the group Students Working for Equal Rights (SWER), has said his own study showed the top reason for the gap is the $465 cost of the application to DHS.

Some fears of deportations may also linger, said Juan Carlos Gomez, head of the Carlos A. Costa Immigration and Human Rights Clinic at the FIU law school. And perhaps some have been waiting for the politics of immigration reform to settle down.

Republican presidential candidates promised tough anti-immigration policies if elected, Gomez noted. And now Republicans and Democrats in Congress have been talking about different immigration reforms.

Among the groups sponsoring the clinic and grant projects are SWER, Gomez’ clinic at FIU, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, and DREAMERs’ Moms. Their next clinic will be from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. on March 2 at the FIU law school, 11200 S.W. Eighth St.

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Double Take Celebrity Lookalikes

Alice Eve and Brooklyn Decker

ETonline has found the lookalikes to the stars and, as it turns out,
it's their Hollywood peers. Click the pics and let us know if you think
these celebs bear a resemblance to one another.

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Upper East Siders boo Christine Quinn over waste transfer station support at mayoral forum

They trashed her!

Upper East Siders opposed to the construction of a waste transfer station in their neighborhood booed City Council Speaker Christine Quinn at a mayoral forum today for her continued support of a controversial project that would send garbage trucks rumbling throughout posh area streets.

“I am not changing my position on the [marine transfer station],” Quinn declared to the crowd inside the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens on E. 93rd Street.

In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, new concerns have emerged about the E. 91st site, which is now classified as a flood zone, but Quinn said structural changes would be made to prevent any storm damage.

Warzer Jaff

Christine Quinn at today's mayoral forum

Immediately, the crowd jeered and heckled.

“Why have you never visited the site?” one person demanded.

Quinn did manage to raise a stink — about the jeers.

“Hang on — if you want an answer you have to listen,” she barked. “You can scream and yell. You could throw soft things after, but you have got to let me answer if I listen to your question with attention.”

She said that the five borough plan, which she supported in 2006 and of which the East Side station is a part, is meant to take the burden off of low income neighborhoods which traditionally get saddled with the stinky facilities. Part of the city scheme — the Gansevoort Street recycling center — sits in her own district, she noted.

“I can’t stand up in this neighborhood and say your neighborhood takes something if mine does not take one.”

Still, the heckling continued.

“Don’t expect us to vote for you!”

“That’s fine,” Quinn snapped.

Meanwhile, City Council Comptroller John Liu, who has previously supported the plan, flipped his position at the forum because of Hurricane Sandy-related issues.

“It doesn’t make sense to proceed while turning a blind eye to that simple fact,” he said.

Former City Comptroller Bill Thompson and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who voted in favor of the 2006 plan, said concerns over flooding left them both on the fence, and said they both planned to visit the site. The forum was sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney.

cgiove@nypost.com

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