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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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'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...

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Health Foundation gives $1.8 million

Health Foundation of South Florida announced Tuesday the awarding of grants worth a total of $1.8 million to 21 organizations.Among the awards in Miami-Dade were $197,000 to the Miami-Dade County Health Department, $200,000 to Open Door Health Center, and $107,000 to the University of Miami. Other Dade grants included $20,000 to the Banyan Community Health Center, $45,000...

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Tough gals: Roller derby players enjoy contact sport

For Danielle Shaffner, 33, raising three children with another on the way and having her husband patrol the streets on his police vehicle could be stressful.That’s why she counts on a sport on wheels for relief: women’s roller derby. “I let loose and become a little maniac on the rink,” said Shaffner, who is four month pregnant and goes by the name of Pree-T-Manik. ...

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Jeremy Jordan Talks Smash Episode 3

If Let Me Be Your Star was the underlying theme of Smash's first season, there's no question that Broadway Here I Come is the message for season two, as almost every character is striving to claim their spot on The Great White Way. VIDEO - Talking Smash w/ Hudson, Hilty & McPheeAnd that amazing season one song got an equally chill-inducing counterpart in the season two premiere when Jeremy Jordan...

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