Accelerator planned for healthcare-tech start-ups

A new start-up accelerator focused on the intersection of healthcare and technology is coming to Miami next year.

Project Lift Miami, designed to help develop young companies and prepare them for investment opportunities, is a partnership between Lift1428, an innovation design, strategy and communications firm; the Miami Innovation Center at the University of Miami Life Science & Technology Park and its developer, Wexford Science + Technology; and the UM Miller School of Medicine, said Robert Chavez, the project’s executive director. “We’re being proactive and trying to support innovative ideas and companies. … We’d like to keep them here and really help to transform the area into a healthcare innovation hub.”

The accelerator will offer entrepreneurial teams a structured 100-day program of classes, workshops and training directed by national and local healthcare experts as well as mentoring and strategic support that will continue well beyond the program, said David McDonald, CEO of Lift1428 and co-founder of Project Lift Miami.

“This meets a critical unmet need in innovation,” said Norma Kenyon, chief innovation officer at UM’s Miller School, explaining that novel ideas often don’t find appropriate mentors and funding until they are pretty far along. “Where do you go if you have a great idea that really could be transformative? This provides much-needed support for these very early-stage technologies.”

Ten to 15 start-ups will be selected for the first class, which will start in May. Each will be offered seed funding — probably $20,000 to $30,000 in cash and services in exchange for a small equity stake — and will get free office space at the research park, Chavez said. The program will run through August, closing with a Demo Day, when entrepreneurs present their businesses to potential investors.

“There’s so much regulation and there are privacy issues and other barriers to entry that are different in the healthcare industry. Having the access to the environment we have here to test your idea and prove your concept is a great advance,” said Chavez, who is also executive director of business intelligence at UM’s Miller School. “That kind of mentoring you won’t get at a general accelerator.”

If Miami’s program goes well, future Project Lift programs could be rolled out at other Wexford science and technology parks across the country, said Bill Hunter, Wexford’s regional director of leasing. “Project Lift is directly aligned with our mission to cultivate innovation in our community. You need investment in those early-stage opportunities.”

Entrepreneurs interested in applying for the inaugural 2013 class can contact Chavez at rchavez@lift1428.com or 305-345-8670, or stop by the Miami Innovation Center at the UM Life Science & Technology Park, 1951 NW Seventh Ave., Suite 300. There is also more information at www.lift1428.com/projectlift.

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Judge admonishes defendant in Rilya Wilson murder trial

A Miami-Dade judge admonished the woman accused of killing foster child Rilya Wilson after two brief courtroom outbursts Tuesday.

At the time, Geralyn Graham’s ex-lover, Pamela Graham, was on the stand testifying under cross-examination about why she was cooperating with authorities. The two are not related.

In front of the jury, Geralyn Graham yelled at Pamela Graham to stop lying. A few minutes later, Geralyn Graham again blurted out at the witness that the last time she saw Rilya, she “was in your arms.”

Geralyn Graham, 66, is on trial on charges of murdering the foster child whose disappearance a decade ago roiled the state’s child-welfare agency and led to a series of reforms. Rilya’s body was never found.

Pamela Graham, who was Rilya’s legal guardian, has testified over two days that Geralyn Graham abused Rilya, tying her to a bed and keeping her isolated in a laundry room. She has also cast Geralyn Graham as a dominating, manipulative woman who forced her to lie that a child welfare worker took the child.

During cross-examination by defense attorney Scott Sakin, Pamela Graham admitted the early story she gave to police investigators “was all lies.”

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Transformation, not

E.J. McMahon

By the time they near the end of their second year in office, it’s not unusual for first-term governors to shift their focus from tackling problems to taking bows — and Gov. Cuomo certainly has been no exception.

Buoyed by record-high poll ratings, Cuomo is crediting himself with nothing less than a transformation of New York — and legislative leaders are happy to echo the claim.

But the State Budget Crisis Task Force yesterday presented a report detailing just how much remains to be done to put New York on a financially sustainable footing. It duly recognized that Cuomo has made significant strides in both reducing and capping state spending in the short term — while also noting the persistence of more deeply seated, long-term problems.

Reuters

Like father, like son? New York’s longterm finances are as perilous today under Gov. Andrew Cuomo (c.) as they were under Gov. Mario Cuomo (l.).

For example:

* New York’s state government “has had a structural deficit, papered over with gimmicks, for decades.”

* The state has been deferring a chunk of its annual pension contribution, effectively borrowing hundreds of millions from its pension fund.

* It faces “staggering” infrastructure expenses that far outstrip its current capital resources.

* It’s very deeply into debt, having regularly sidestepped a constitutional requirement for voter approval of bond issues.

* And, thanks to its extremely heavy reliance on federal Medicaid reimbursements and taxes generated by the wealthy, New York could be clobbered by an impending deficit-reduction deal in Washington.

This isn’t exactly news to Albany watchers — in fact, with a few details altered, many of the same findings could have been issued 25 years ago, when Mario Cuomo was governor. Still, the Task Force provided a sobering and realistic frame for the challenging fiscal issues with which Andrew Cuomo still must grapple.

Headed by former New York Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, the privately organized, privately funded task force has looked at the finances of six major states. In terms of fiscal messes, the Empire State essentially ranked in the middle of the pack — in better shape than California, Illinois and New Jersey, but not nearly as solid as low-cost Texas or fiscally prudent Virginia.

The task force emphasized the deterioration of county, municipal and school-district finances around the state — pointing out that “fiscal stress runs downhill” and “local governments are badly strained in New York.”

In the case of our schools, the nation’s highest-spending, the governor has (to his credit) now capped state aid while also capping local property taxes. This, the task force said, “puts school districts on notice that they will have to control costs” — costs dominated by employees’ salaries and benefits, which in turn are driven by collective bargaining and personnel rules set in Albany.

Yet Cuomo has ignored the clamor among school districts for relief from state laws such as the Triborough Amendment, which locks in automatic pay hikes for teachers in the absence of a contract. In fact, just hours after the task force issued its report in Manhattan, a state Mandate Relief Council dominated by gubernatorial appointees met in Albany — and refused to classify Triborough or other aspects of employee compensation as cost-driving “mandates” at all.

Meanwhile, the task force also warned — in effect, if indirectly — that state tax policy is on the wrong track.

One year ago, Cuomo was celebrating a special-session deal with the Legislature to temporarily extend a nearly 30 percent personal-income tax hike for individuals earning at least $1 million. Just last week, the governor finally got around to appointing a promised “tax fairness” commission, which could set the stage for making that increase permanent.

In reality, as the task force put it, “Albany has increased [its] dependence on a small group of very wealthy taxpayers to keep the state going, which worsens revenue volatility and budget instability and heightens the state’s exposure to risks outside its control.” Those risks include a federal deficit-reduction deal that is likely to combine higher rates with tight new limits on state and local tax deductions for the very same wealthy households that now pay a hugely disproportionate share of New York’s taxes.

Fittingly enough, the Ravitch-Volker task force unveiled its findings in an Upper East Side townhouse that was once the New York City home of Franklin Roosevelt. Here in the cradle of the New Deal, the cost of state and local government clearly has far outrun the ability and the willingness of New Yorkers to fully pay for it.

If Cuomo can even begin to make these problems disappear, he’ll have accomplished a real transformation.

E.J. McMahon is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute’s Empire Center for New York State Policy.

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Miami-Dade court puts foreclosures on fast track

Miami-Dade Circuit Court — choked with foreclosure cases, many dating to 2009 — has gotten tough on pushing cases through the system.

Five months into a state-funded project, Florida’s busiest circuit court is conducting hundreds of foreclosure trials a week.

With $626,000 in special funds for the fiscal year ending July 31, 2013, the court has added two senior judge slots and a staff of case managers to help clear a backlog of some 53,668 foreclosure cases.

“It’s a rocket docket,” said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jon Gordon, a senior judge who is churning through about 50 trials a day.

Regular civil division judges also handle foreclosure proceedings, typically the more complicated ones, along with other cases.

Miami-Dade remains an epicenter for foreclosures. One in every 201 homes in Miami-Dade received some type of foreclosure filing in November, according to RealtyTrac, a California real-estate data firm. That compares with one in every 728 homes nationally.

The court’s challenge: to chip away at the mountain of cases, even as new foreclosure filings have picked up after a dramatic slowdown in 2010 and 2011, when banks faced regulatory challenges to egregious “robo-signing” practices.

“There is a consensus across the state that the locked up backlog [of foreclosure cases] is contributing to Florida’s economic difficulties, and the only way out of this is through it,” said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey, administrative judge for the civil circuit division. “We’ve been charged by the Supreme Court with this funding to move these cases.’’

Since June, the court has reduced the backlog by more than 3,300 cases.

Miami-Dade’s most controversial tactic: The court is setting foreclosure cases for trial, forcing often reluctant parties to take action.

In the past, “We relied on the parties to move the cases ahead, and that truism doesn’t apply with foreclosure cases,” Bailey said. “We said: ‘We’re setting cases for trials.’ That’s all we’re doing.”

In most other types of lawsuits, one or both parties are motivated to press forward, filing motions and seeking hearings that move the case along.

But foreclosures are often different. The property owners may try to delay as long as possible, allowing more time to live in a residence, usually without paying, or even renting it out.

The lenders may have reasons of their own to delay. They may not be ready to take title to a property because they are still working through a pile of homes they took back earlier. They may not want to have to begin paying condominium or homeowners association fees, or to assume responsibility for maintenance.

Bailey said a variety of earlier strategies aimed at cajoling the parties in foreclosure actions to move their cases ahead have largely failed. Among them are case management conferences. “We realized we were just spinning our wheels,” she said.

“We said for the better part of two years, ‘Move your cases forward,’ ” said Bailey, who notes that motions filed in the court are sometimes left pending for years because attorneys never press for a hearing. “We see every procedure you could possible imagine to avoid going to trial.”

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Miami-Dade court program helps young inmates change their lives

It was a graduation without pomp and circumstance.

There was marching in combat boots. No gowns.

The remarks by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beth Bloom were full of the hallmarks common at any graduation. She spoke of goals and achievement and of the opportunity.

But were it not for the “I’m Ready” program, many of Monday’s graduates would not be anticipating their release from jail in a few short weeks.

The 13 young men in “I’m Ready’s’’ inaugural class had already been convicted of some crime and sentenced to boot camp. But each had some medical or psychological problem that made him ineligible.

Take, for example 20-year-old Franklin Robinson. After being sentenced to boot camp after he violated his probation, Robinson underwent several tests, including an EKG that showed there was difficulty pumping blood to his heart. That prevented him from being admitted to boot camp and could have meant him ending up back in jail with the general population.

Instead, he ended up at the six-month “I’m Ready’’ program, which offers youths ages 14-24 education and services. They undergo behavior modification, life skills, job training, counseling and treatment.

The day begins at 5 a.m. A routine of schooling and vocational training in automotive technology or carpentry carries them through until about 8 p.m.

“I’m Ready” participants are housed in a separate unit to accommodate program activities rather than with the general jail population. They are referred to as “students,’’ not “inmates.’’

“There is a reason why boot camp is able to reduce recidivism,” Bloom said. “It sets the tone that they are there to learn.”

It’s not so different from boot camp, said Officer Cathy Harpp, who oversees the program.

“You can’t do pushups, but you can clean the floor and the toilet bowl with a toothbrush,” Harpp said.

The hardest part was getting them to be receptive to change and adapt to the new rules, Harpp said.

“Once they knew I was not going to let up, eventually, they cave in,” she said. “Here, they’re accountable for everything.”

The idea for the program came to Bloom after she oversaw the case of an insulin dependent diabetic with a 10th-grade education.

After he was deemed unfit for boot camp because of his health condition, Bloom wanted to know what would happen to him.

Young offenders like him would have been incarcerated with the general population of inmates, where there would be no access to training and no structure.

“I’ve seen far too many youth return to the criminal justice system,” Bloom said Monday at the program’s first graduation ceremony. “All of you have met your goal. The community needs you to be the different persons that you are.”

The group of 13 will be released Dec. 28. Twenty-two new students will replace them in January.

Before the new graduates students left the room in a final marching formation, Harpp offered one lasting piece of advice: “This is where the difference begins.”

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On the Baseball Diamond with Clint's 'Curve'

Clint Eastwood's heartwarming baseball drama The Trouble with the Curve steps onto the DVD/Blu-ray/Digital Download playing field on Tuesday, and we have an exclusive look behind the scenes!

Video: Watch the 'Trouble with the Curve' Trailer

Also starring Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake, The Trouble with the Curve casts Clint as Gus Lobel, one of the best scouts in baseball. But age is starting to catch up with him, and he refuses to be benched for the final innings of his career. When the Atlanta Braves front office starts to question his judgment, he reluctantly recruits his estranged attorney daughter Mickey (Adams) to be his eyes – forcing the two to reconcile and make new discoveries that could change their future. Timberlake plays Johnny Flanagan, a rival scout who has his sights on a career in the announcer's booth -- and romance with Mickey.

Video: Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams Talk 'Trouble'

The Trouble with the Curve marks the feature film directorial debut of Eastwood's longtime producing partner, Robert Lorenz, and also stars John Goodman, Robert Patrick, Matthew Lillard, newcomer Joe Massingill and Clint's son Scott Eastwood.

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Ex-con with Gambino ties found guilty of bank robbery and gun charges

An ex-con with links to the Gambino crime family was found guilty of bank robbery and firearms charges today after a mob associate flipped to testify against him.

A jury in Brooklyn federal court deliberated for less than two hours before convicting Gary Fama.

Fama, 47, who has previous convictions on firearms and drug charges, faces 17 years in prison when he is sentenced by Judge William Kuntz II.

His accomplice, Gambino associate Jack Mannino, 44, has cut a deal with prosecutors and is awaiting sentencing.

Mannino - who has 24 New York bank heists under his belt and was dubbed the “Seven Second Bandit” for his speedy robberies - testified that he and and Fama held up a Capital One Bank in Bensonhurst last Dec. 29.

Gary Fama , bank robber surveillance photos @ December 29, 2011 robbery of a Capitol One Bank on New Utrecht Ave. Brooklyn

They fled the bank with a bag of cash, but things went awry when a dye pack exploded inside the money pouch, and the transmission blew out on their getaway car, Mannino told the jury.

They panicked after hearing sirens of responding police cars and jumped out of the Lexus - leaving behind a wallet and cellphone, Mannino said.

That helped FBI agents track them down.

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Miami in spotlight at AVCC, other entrepreneurship events

Entrepreneurs from around the world took the stage during this packed week of entrepreneurship events in Miami: Florida International University’s Americas Venture Capital Conference (known as AVCC), HackDay, Wayra’s Global DemoDay and Endeavor’s International Selection Panel.

The events, all part of the first Innovate MIA week, also put the spotlight on Miami as it continues to try to develop into a technology hub for the Americas.

“While I like art, I absolutely love what is happening today... The time has come to become a tech hub in Miami,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez, who kicked off the venture capital conference on Thursday. He told the audience of 450 investors and entrepreneurs about the county’s $1 million investment in the Launch Pad Tech Accelerator in downtown Miami.

“I have no doubt that this gathering today will produce new ideas and new business ventures that will put our community on a fast track to becoming a center for innovative, tech-driven entrepreneurship,” Gimenez said.

Brad Feld, an early-stage investor and a founder of TechStars, cautioned that won’t happen overnight. Building a startup community can take five, 10, even 15 years, and those leading the effort, who should be entrepreneurs themselves, need to take the long-term view, he told the audience via video. “You can create very powerful entrepreneurial ecosystems in any city... I’ve spent some time in Miami, I think you are off to a great start.”

Throughout the two-day AVCC at the JW Brickell Marriott, as well as the Endeavor and Wayra events, entrepreneurs from around the world pitched their companies, hoping to persuade investors to part with some of their green.

And in some cases, the entrepreneurs could win money, too. During the venture capital conference, 29 companies —including eight from South Florida such as itMD, which connects doctors, patients and imaging facilities to facilitate easy access of records — competed for more than $50,000 in cash and prizes through short “elevator’’ pitches. Each took questions from the judges, then demoed their products or services in the conference “Hot Zone,” a room adjoining the ballroom. Some companies like oLyfe, a platform to organize what people share online, are hoping to raise funds for expansion into Latin America. Others like Ideame, a trilingual crowdfunding platform, were laser focused on pan-Latin American opportunities.

Winning the grand prize of $15,000 in cash and art was Trapezoid Digital Security of Miami, which provides hardware-based security solutions for enterprise and cloud environments. Fotopigeon of Tampa, a photo-sharing and printing service targeting the military and prison niches, scored two prizes.

The conference offered opportunities to hear formal presentations on current trends — among them the surge of start-ups in Brazil; the importance of mobile apps and overheated company valuations — and informal opportunities to connect with fellow entrepreneurs.

Speakers included Gaston Legorburu of SapientNitro, Albert Santalo of CareCloud and Juan Diego Calle of .Co Internet, all South Florida entrepreneurs. Jerry Haar, executive director of FIU’s Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center, which produced the conference with a host of sponsors, said the organizers worked hard to make the conference relevant to both the local and Latin American audience, with panels on funding and recruiting for startups, for instance.

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Sperm whale dies off Pompano Beach coast

The carcass of a 40-foot sperm whale that apparently died as it neared the shore off of Pompano Beach on Sunday afternoon later drifted back out to sea, ending a drama that had drawn the attention of beachgoers and scientists alike.

The whale was spotted about noon offshore near the 600 block of North Ocean Boulevard, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

Read the full story at Sun-Sentinel.com.

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SNL Pays Somber Tribute to Sandy Hook Victims

Saturday Night Live forwent their usual comedic cold open last night to pay their respects to the innocent lives lost at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday.

Related: President Fights Tears as He Addresses Nation

The New York Children's Chorus sang Silent Night in memory of the 20 children and six teachers and administrators shot and killed by a gunman who opened fire, and later shot himself dead, at the school in Newtown, Connecticut.

The night's musical guest, Sir Paul McCartney, later joined the young choir onstage to perform Wonderful Christmas Time.

Video: Riveting Details Emerge from CT School Rampage

Watch the emotional video in the player above.

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