6 Miami-Dade cops fired or suspended for loafing

A Miami-Dade police sergeant and two officers have been fired, and three others have been suspended, capping a two-year investigation into accusations that they ignored emergency calls, filed false police reports and lied about calls they handled, Miami-Dade police spokeswoman Nancy Perez said Tuesday.

The Miami-Dade Internal Affairs Bureau launched the investigation into the Kendall District police squad in 2010. The discharged officers are fighting to get their jobs back.

The officers — who worked the 2-to-10 p.m. shift — were followed, captured on video and tracked with GPS devices. More than 130 violations of department policy were documented.

Fired were Sgt. Jennifer Gonzalez and officers Dario Socarras and Jose Huerta. The other three — officers Jeffrey Price, Fabian Owens and Ivan Tomas — were suspended without pay in September and are back on the job.

Gonzalez was caught shopping, loading purchases into her patrol car and visiting her parents — all while on duty — according to CBS 4’s Jim Defede, who first reported the investigation and its outcome. Socarras ignored emergency calls, including a robbery, instead having a romantic rendezvous with his girlfriend at the Dadeland Mall.

A video captures him making out with the woman while in uniform. He also ignored a call involving a 5-year-old boy who was unconscious and locked inside a car, telling dispatchers he was on his way when, in fact, he was having a cup of coffee with Gonzalez and Huerta, who also ignored the emergency call.

The child was tended to by paramedics.

Price, Owens and Tomas were given suspensions of from five to 20 hours without pay. They, too, ignored a number of emergency calls.

Although police internal affairs investigations of individual officers are not uncommon in an agency as large as the Miami-Dade Police Department, a probe of an entire squad is unusual.

The boundaries of the Kendall District are Bird Road to the north, Coral Reef Drive to the south, Biscayne Bay on the east and Florida’s Turnpike on the west.

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Jessica Chastain Reveals Her Oscars Date Will Be Her Grandmother

Who will arrive arm-in-arm with Jessica Chastain on Oscar Sunday?

The 35-year-old beauty, who is nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work in Zero Dark Thirty, tells ET she plans to bring a very special date to Hollywood's biggest night!

"I'm going to take my grandmother to the Oscars," beamed Jessica at The Hollywood Reporter's award season bash at Spago in Los Angeles on Monday. "We did that last year and it was one of my favorite days of my life."

Pics: Fierce Fashions at the Oscar Luncheon

The star, along with many of her fellow nominees that morning, came straight to the festivities after attending the Academy's annual Oscar luncheon.

Amy Adams, who is no stranger to attending the star-studded class photo, opened up to ET about the experience which she still feels is a bit surreal.

"Just to be on the bleachers with everybody and to hear everyone's name called, it's always overwhelming to realize the company you're in," said Amy.

Like Jessica, The Master star is mixing it up, as far as her dates go, during the award show hoopla.

Related: Five Things You Don't Know About Jessica Chastain

"I'm bringing my friends," disclosed Amy. "My fiance's been taking some time off-- he's working on an art show he's doing-- so it's fun to infuse some new energy into it."

For more with this year's Oscar nominees, click the video above!

Visit ETonline for complete Oscar coverage Sunday, February 24 as the 85th Annual Academy Awards, hosted by Seth MacFarlane, airs live from the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles.

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Sad Muslim summit

Amir Taheri

Cairo - ‘May Allah protect believers against fear!” This is one of the slogans that greet visitors arriving at Cairo Airport for the Islamic summit set to open here today.

Yet, in a sign that Allah’s protection may not be quite enough, the Egyptian hosts have moved the summit’s venue from the old Palace of Conferences to a new luxury hotel near the airport.

Heads of state from 26 countries are expected to attend the summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, along with senior officials from 50 other Muslim-majority nations across the globe.

The venue change came after police said they might be unable to prevent anti-government demonstrators from laying siege to the “palace.”

For weeks, the government of Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi has been shaken by mass protests in Cairo and half a dozen other cities, with army chief Gen. Abdul-Fattah al-Sissi warning that the Egyptian state may face “total collapse.”

Al-Sissi’s melodramatic statement, posted on his Facebook page, may well be exaggerated, yet it’s clear that Morsi has lost a good part of the goodwill he had earned on his election last year.

The summit was supposed to come to Cairo back in 2011, while President Hosni Mubarak was still in charge. It was scrapped when the Arab Spring swept Mubarak away, paving the way for Islamist takeover under the Muslim Brotherhood with Morsi as president.

Morsi had hoped to use the summit to launch Egypt’s bid for the leadership of the Muslim world. But the demonstrations will make it hard to market his “Egyptian way,” which is supposedly midway between Turkey’s secular system and Iran’s theocratic setup.

Traditionally, Iran, Turkey and Egypt have been the main contenders for leadership in the so-called Muslim world. That rivalry was in abeyance for much of the 20th century, under secular regimes in all three countries.

Now, however, all three nations are back in the Islamic fold. Turkey is governed by a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Iran is run by mullahs, while Egypt has fallen under Brotherhood rule for the first time.

Yet all three countries are experiencing rough patches. On top of Egypt’s turmoil, Turkey’s “economic miracle” is fizzling out, while Iran is heading for a deep political crisis ahead of its presidential elections in June.

So some look to Saudi Arabia, the traditional dark horse in the race for Islamic leadership. But the Saudis, under aging leadership, may lack the political energy needed to promote a leadership claim.

Still, checkbook diplomacy has secured Saudi Arabia numerous allies in the Muslim world, notably Pakistan and several nations in sub-Saharan Africa. And the kingdom also hosts and finances the OIC’s headquarters in Jeddah.

Iran will be represented by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in his last major diplomatic appearance before his term ends in June. He has vowed to force the summit to “focus on the Palestinian issue” and relieve pressure on President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, where the bloody civil war continues.

But Egyptian sources tell me Ahmadinejad is likely to fail on both scores. Assad has been excluded from the summit, and Morsi has insisted that there should be no attempt at fomenting trouble between Egypt and Israel.

Plus, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan is slated to promote a new initiative on Syria that could include the use of force to protect a number of safe havens for victims of Assad’s campaign of repression.

With the leading powers all distracted and at odds, the summit may seek some “safe” issue to offer a veneer of unity. The group’s retiring secretary-general, Turkish diplomat Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, offers “the threat of disintegration” of a number of Muslim-majority countries in Africa, where non-Muslim communities feel threatened by the rise of ideological Islam. The secession of South Sudan from Muslim-dominated Sudan, he says, sets “a dangerous example” that others in Africa may follow.

Condemning the shrinkage of the Muslim world may well be all that the leaders of the Muslim world can agree upon.

Have a comment on this PostOpinion column? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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FMLA still helping families cope with illness

When I gave birth to my daughter, I returned home with a squirmy little bundle and immediately felt overwhelmed. Though I was exhausted from changing diapers and waking for feedings, I was thankful that my job was secure.

In our struggle to balance our family lives and our work lives, one law has made a giant difference for me and 35 million other American workers — the Family Medical Leave Act.

This week, the FMLA celebrates its 20th year in existence. It’s been a godsend for those of us who want time to bond with our newborn, care for an aging parent or deal with a health emergency without the fear of losing our jobs.

But two decades after President Bill Clinton signed the FMLA into law, advocates say they still have unfinished business.

“It was meant to be a first step toward a family-friendly American workplace. But it is 20 years and we haven’t gotten to the second step,” says Judith Lichtman, senior advisor to the National Partnership for Women & Families and an original advocate for passage of FMLA.

In many ways, the FMLA has been even more helpful to working families than expected. The law initially was conceived to allow working mothers like me to take time off for childbirth and post-maternity.

But over 20 years, it has been used 100 million times by all types of workers — about 40 percent of them men.

The FMLA has provided time off for women who needed medical care during difficult pregnancies, fathers who took time to care for children fighting cancer, adult sons and daughters caring for frail parents and workers taking time to recover from their own serious illnesses.

The federal law says we can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave if we work at a company with more than 50 employees, with a caveat that we must be employed there for a year. The big benefit is that our jobs are protected during that leave.

During the recession, the job security and the continuation of health insurance that FMLA guarantees proved particularly important.

Debbie Winkles, senior VP/director of human resources at Great Florida Bank in Miami Lakes, used FMLA three years ago when she needed to care for her husband who was battling cancer. Today, Winkles has male and female bank employees who are using FMLA to care for their newborns or to cope with illness.

Her company has created an easy spreadsheet system to track its employees’ FMLA leave. “With today’s health issues, so many people diagnosed with cancer are having chemotherapy, and employees need medical leave for themselves or a family member.”

In Wisconsin, Jill Delie is using FMLA to manage a chronic disease by taking a few days off each month for doctors appointments. In Maine, Vivian Mikhail used FMLA to care for her daughter, Nadia, when the little girl was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition that left her completely deaf.

Just this week, a longtime friend of mine told me how fortunate she feels to be able to take FMLA to spend time with her mother who has incurable lung cancer. “I don’t want to lose my job, but I can’t imagine not being there for her when she needs me,” my friend sighed.

Yet for all the benefit, FMLA doesn’t guarantee wages while workers are on leave, a component advocates had planned as a second step. According to a Department of Labor study, 78 percent of workers who needed FMLA leave did not use it because they could not afford to take unpaid leave. Proposed federal legislation would expand eligibility and introduce a paid family-leave insurance program. Funded through a small payroll tax, the program would provide two-thirds of an employee’s wages for up to 12 weeks of leave.

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Jury: Man deserves execution for slaying of elderly Little Havana woman

A Miami man should be executed for the savage stabbing of an elderly Little Havana woman in December 2000, a jury decided Monday night.

By a 7-5 vote, jurors recommended that Victor Guzman be executed for the slaying of 80-year-old Severina Dolores Fernandez. In September, the same jury convicted Guzman of first-degree murder.

Using a DNA match, police linked Guzman, 39, to the slaying of Fernandez, discovered naked and stabbed 58 times in her Little Havana apartment.

Ultimately, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Dennis Murphy will sentence Guzman at a later date.

Prosecutors urged the death penalty for Guzman because of the “heinous, atrocious and cruel” nature of the crime, plus an earlier sexual attack on a 12-year-old girl. His defense lawyers asked for life in prison, saying Guzman was an alcoholic who had a stormy upbringing in his native Peru.

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Carpet Countdown: Directors Turn Fans at DGAs

Filmmakers like Ben Affleck, Kathryn Bigelow and Tom Hooper have provided inspiration for young up-and-comers, who hope to reach their level of greatness, but who do the Oscar-nominated directors look up to? Click the video to find out.

RELATED: Hot Looks of the Oscar Luncheon

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The dirt on ‘Government motors’

Charles Gasparino

Maybe the most disturbing news in “American Turnaround,” Ed Whitacre’s new book that describes his stint as head of General Motors, is how naïve he was about what it means to run a company that’s been bailed out by the federal government, and is now regulated by the anti-business types who populate the Obama administration.

As Whitacre takes the job back in 2009, he thinks that the automaker’s government masters are rational people looking to help the company survive and thrive. Along the way, he finds out that they’re not.

In fact, their true goal wasn’t to maximize profits to ensure GM survives for the long term, but to keep control of the company as long as possible (the feds still hold a 26 percent stake today) to both keep its union allies fat and happy and to please its green buddies by forcing GM to produce hybrid vehicles that the vast majority of Americans can’t afford now, and never will.

You have to read between the lines to learn this, but it’s pretty clear to anyone who knows what was going on.

What Whitacre does explain is how his advice to the administration that it should accept a deal in which GM would get the government completely out of its hair by repaying all the bailout money was shot down — with little rational explanation.

In the book, he blames GM’s investment bankers, who said they were skittish because of market conditions at the time — afraid that an IPO might not raise enough to repay the government’s entire $43 billion investment.

But those bankers weren’t picked by the company, but in large part by the Obama Treasury Department. And it’s clear they didn’t view Whitacre as their client — these were some of the same fat-cat bankers who themselves got a federal bailout during the 2008 financial crisis, who’d say anything to appease their ultimate bosses in Washington.

And, as Whitacre notes, the partial IPO that the bankers allowed went well. On that day, GM didn’t just get a few additional orders for its $20.1 billion offering (then the largest IPO ever) but orders worth $86 billion — enough, he notes, that GM “could have easily repaid the government the entire $43 billion it owed, and given taxpayers a nice profit for their time and trouble on top of that.”

A longtime former telecom executive, including a stint as CEO of AT&T, Whitacre knows something about Wall Street deal-making — so it’s no surprise he was right.

Again, he doesn’t cast aspersions on the administration. He writes of meeting President Obama, who urged him to stay on as CEO (he retired at the end of 2010), saying the president had “no airs at all. I liked him right way.”

But he obviously didn’t like working for him. While he never complains outright about the money-losing hybrids, Whitacre says, “Government was getting a little too comfortable with having a grip on GM.” Answering to the feds made it hard to pay and attract talented managers, which had “negative impact on our people, and a negative impact on our psyche as a company,” now known derisively as “Government Motors.”

Whitacre says he supported the controversial bailout of GM, which is odd from a guy who spent his life in the free marketplace.

Yes, the alternative would’ve been bankruptcy and an uncertain future — but plenty of companies survive such reorganization in better shape. After all, bankruptcy lets you deal more effectively with issues like overly generous union pensions, which was at the heart of GM’s financial woes. And it would’ve avoided interference from political types who couldn’t care less about how many real (money-making) cars as opposed to (money-losing) hybrids are being sold.

In the end, the lesson to take from Whitacre’s muddled message about GM and its partnership with government (particularly for US corporate leaders operating in the new world of bailouts and an administration eager to control their activities for political purposes): Be wary of handouts.

The label “Government Motors” might come with free money to avoid natural market forces, but it also means you’re never really going to be independent, and that might be a fate worse than bankruptcy court.

Charles Gasparino is a Fox Business Network senior correspondent.

Have a comment on this PostOpinion column? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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Register for our free Business Plan Bootcamp

Whether you are planning to enter the Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge or want to refine a short business plan you already have, our free Business Plan Bootcamp later this month can help.

Melissa Krinzman, a veteran Business Plan Challenge judge and managing director of Venture Architects, will be leading a panel of experts who will give you advice on crafting a short business plan aimed at grabbing the attention of investors — or judges. If you are entering the Challenge, we encourage you to bring your entry with you because the panel will critique critical sections of the short plan.

Panelists include:

•  Richard Ginsburg, co-founder of G3 Capital Partners, a mid-market and early stage investment company.

•  Steven McKean, founder and CEO of Acceller, a Miami-based tech company, and a Challenge judge.

•  Mike Tomas, CEO of Miami-based Bioheart, president of ASTRI Group and a Challenge judge.

Time, date, place: 6:30 p.m. Feb. 26, Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus Auditorium (Room 1261, Building 1, 2nd floor).

To register: It’s free, but please register here.

You do not have to enter the Challenge to attend our free boot camp, but we hope you will. The Challenge deadline is March 11.

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Route of Barefoot Mailman – from Pompano Beach to South Beach – is revisited

Fred Kimball slipped off his worn sneakers and beige socks and picked up the 20-pound backpack he had already carried for some 35 miles.

He set out for the beach, wanting to feel the sand between his toes – just as he imagined the mailmen of the late 1800s did on the final leg of their grueling route from Palm Beach to Miami Beach.

Honoring the “through rain, hail, sleet or snow” creed of mail carriers is what the annual Barefoot Mailman Historic Hiking Trail is all about. The trek — from Pompano Beach to South Beach — honors the mailmen who walked 66 miles to deliver mail before a new post office opened and new roads were built.

Keeping alive the memory of the herculean effort is what has kept Kimball coming back to the annual event for decades.

“They had a lot of obstacles,” said Kimball, 57, who walked alongside Peter Lewis, 78, who has done the walk for 38 years. “This is just a little taste of it.”

The 49th annual walk, which is led by the Boy Scouts of America, South Florida Council, attracted more than 500 scouts and adults – ranging in agefrom 12 to 78.

“It honors a very unique period of South Florida history,” said Stephen Blair, who has coordinated the hike for about seven years.

For the young scouts, it’s also a test of endurance.

“The boys learn how to be more self-sufficient, they learn teamwork and it teaches them about goal achievement, as well as basic scouting skills,” Blair said.

The walk began at 5:30 a.m. Saturday at the east end of Atlantic Boulevard in Pompano Beach.

The group walked all day, camped overnight at Haulover Park and then gathered at Lummus Park on South Beach Sunday before taking off for the last stretch.

Some of the younger Cub scouts joined in for the second day of the walk.

Robert Goodin, 15, sat barefoot “giving his feet a rest,” as they waited to get to the finish line. A member of Troop 457 out of Palmetto Bay, Robert said the walk was tough, especially where the sand was soft.

“It’s definitely challenge,” said the teenager, who weighs about 100 pounds – and carried about 40 pounds of gear.

In the days of the barefoot mailman, letter carriers faced challenges like snakes and alligators; inlets where they needed dinghies to get across; and they had to live off the land.

The scouts faced challenges like blisters and sunburns. They also had to carry all their food and sleeping gear.

Blair said only a few dropped out.

One was Garry Alan Taylor Sr. Taylor started out with his son and grandson to make the trek as three generations, but had to stop after about 12 miles because of circulation issues.

But Garry Alan Taylor Jr. and his 12-year-old son Garry Alan Taylor III completed the walk together.

“He did great,” Garry Alan Taylor Jr. said of his son, who came as part of Troop 247 out of Palm Springs North. “He was in front of me the whole time.”

The first South Florida hike, led by scoutmaster John Sherwood, was held in 1964, and covered 50 miles. It was later reduced to nearly 36 miles.

Sherwood began the hike after he read Theodore Pratt’s book The Barefoot Mailman, which described the real barefoot mailmen’s 66-mile route.

Each walker carries a letter, which is then placed in a mailbag.

The letter, which is sent back to the walker, tells the story of James Hamilton, who was one men who walked the route.

Hamilton’s route took him about three days; he usually lived on oysters, turtle eggs and oranges.

On Oct. 11, 1887, Hamilton’s mail pouch and clothing were found, but not his body. They mystery was never solved.

Legend has it that he took off his clothes and left the mailbag behind to swim across to get his boat, which floated to the other side.

But no one knows what really happened to Hamilton.

So in his memory — and the other men who braved the treacherous route — the walk began.

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Xbox Hoax Leads Armed Cops to Family

Members of a Florida family were shocked to be awakened in the middle of the night to find their house surrounded by police with guns drawn shouting at them to put their hands up.

Police Lt. Mike Beavers said the commotion was “very rare” for the small town of Oviedo, about 20 miles northeast of Orlando.

“This is the first time I’ve heard of it happening in our little town,” Beavers told ABCNews.com.

The frightened family did not want to be identified but recounted the ordeal to ABC News’ Orlando affiliate WFTV.

“I heard the doorbell ring,” the father of two told WFTV. “We couldn’t see anybody at the front of the door. All we saw was the rifle barrel.”

The man said he and his wife originally believed they were being robbed.

“They have rifles, they have guns, and I said, ‘Let’s get out of the house,’ so we ran down the hallway and got our two boys up,” the father said.

“We were told to freeze and put our hands over our heads,” he recalled. “They said, ‘We’re the police,’ so that was a big relief.”

What the family didn’t realize was that an Xbox hoax had led the Oviedo police to its house. The police said they were responding to a call from AT&T saying it had received online messages from a person who said he was hiding inside the house, claiming that someone had been killed there and that others were being held hostage.

But when police arrived, all they found was a very surprised and confused family.

Upon investigation, police learned that the confusion all started when an Oviedo teenager living in another house called police saying his Xbox had been hacked.

The teenager said the hackers had threatened to call in bomb threats to his home if he did not meet their demands for gaming information.

When the teenager refused, the hackers sent fake messages reporting the killing and hostage taking at the teenager’s former home. His previous address, where police showed up, was still connected to his Xbox.

The teenager did some of his own investigating, police said, and provided authorities with some possible identifying information on the hackers.

“The caller gave information to officers regarding two possible suspects, including IP addresses, Twitter and Facebook accounts and a possible name of one of the suspects,” according to the police report. “The information provided to the officers revealed that both suspects were located in different states.”

The information has been turned over to Oviedo detectives for further investigation.

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