Near-record warm winter for South Florida

Winter won’t officially be over for a few weeks but it’s already been a near-record warm one in South Florida – not including the cold front rolling through this weekend.

From December through February, Miami recorded the third warmest winter on record, the National Weather Service’s Miami office reported Friday. The average temperature of 72.3 degrees was 2.7 degrees warmer than normal.

Fort Lauderdale and Naples recorded the fifth warmest winters and West Palm Beach the ninth.

In Miami and Fort Lauderdale, November 2012 actually wound up colder than any of the three following winter months, the Weather Service said – something that has happened only twice since 1910.

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Beyonce Isabel Marant Exotic Skins Sneakers

Well here's one organization not feeling all the post-Super Bowl Beyonce love -- PETA, who's calling out the superstar for her new Isabel Marant wedge sneakers. ET can confirm that the exclusive sneakers are made out of crocodile and anaconda skins along with stingray, ostrich and calf hair.

"These custom-made kicks come with a high price -- and it's paid by the various animals who were beaten and skinned alive or cruelly farmed and killed. Although most people aren't as familiar with the types of animals (snakes, stingrays, crocodiles, and ostriches) killed for this single pair of sneakers as they are with the cats and dogs we share our homes with, these animals are highly sensitive living beings who try hard to avoid capture and suffer enormously when trapped, netted, speared, and skinned alive," PETA says in a statement. "We hope that Beyoncé will choose to wear more clothes from her own clothing line -- which features faux fur -- and that one day, she'll go completely cruelty-free. She can always choose the cruelty-free and 'green' fashion favored by compassionate, chic celebrities such as Natalie Portman and Anne Hathaway and designers such as award-winning fashion queen Stella McCartney."

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The shoes in question are custom designed by PMK, which explains the conception behind the design of the "King Bey" sneakers on its website.

"Summoned by King Bee and given the task to create a custom design worthy of her approval, PMK takes the Isabel Marant sneaker wedge back to the beginning of time and gives it what they call the Eden treatment. A hybrid of land and sea skins are used to create this handcrafted creation. Stingray, Ostrich, calfs fur, Crocodile, and Anaconda give the already impeccable design attitude and the tones of white mixed with gold stitched details produces a feeling of elegance, mimicking the southern belle’s sweet and fierce persona."

Pics: Beyonce's Gets Candid & Personal

The original Isabel Marant wedge sneakers -- sans the exotic skins -- have been a celeb favorite, worn by the likes of Anne Hathaway, Kate Bosworth and Gisele Bundchen. Beyonce herself wore an all-black suede version in the music video for her hit single Love on Top. Isabel Marant wedge sneakers retail for approximately $660 a pair.

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Families at Long Beach elementary schools getting $1,000 each in Sandy aid from Cantor Fitzgerald

The Long Island town of Long Beach was hit hard by Superstorm Sandy. Now families at the town's five elementary schools are getting $1,000 each in storm relief from the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald.

Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick announced in January that the firm would give a total of $10 million to families in 19 schools affected by Sandy.

As part of the effort, Lutnick and other Cantor officials were in Long Beach on Friday to distribute $1,000 debit cards to 1,350 families there.

Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 employees when the World Trade Center was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.

The firm set up a relief fund to help the surviving families of its employees. The fund now supports others in need.

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Florida class-action case takes aim at Citizens’ reinspection program

Thousands of Florida homeowners buffeted by higher windstorm premiums have sued state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. to recover potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in “back-door” rate increases driven by “arbitrary” reinspections of their residences.

The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed in Broward Circuit Wednesday, aims to halt Citizens’ reinspection program, claiming it has illegally stripped discounts from homeowners who had earned them under a 2007 inspection program approved by the Florida Legislature. Their original inspections were supposed to be valid for five years.

But in 2010, Citizens violated the due-process rights of homeowners, who had submitted official inspection forms, by arbitrarily reinspecting their properties to boost lost revenue that the agency could not generate lawfully through premium hikes, the suit said.

Lawyers who filed the suit, whose class representative is a Broward homeowner, said Citizens violated the due-process rights of its policyholders, costing each higher premiums averaging upwards of $1,000 — and possibly more — a year.

The collective cost to homeowners throughout Florida exceeds more than $100 million, said attorney Todd Stabinksi, whose Miami law firm, Stabinksi & Funt, filed the suit with Farmer, Jaffe of Fort Lauderdale and Kula & Samson of Aventura. They gathered Thursday for a press conference outside the West Broward County Courthouse in Plantation.

“Citizens got the benefit of lowering their risks, but Citizens’ policyholders did not get the benefit of lower premiums,” Stabinski said. “It should have been a mutually beneficial bargain.”

Consumer advocates have accused Citizens of using the reinspection program to impose “massive” rate hikes on homeowners. Citizens has denied the charge, saying that it is simply trying to get accurate information about the homes it insures.

“Since at least 2010, Citizens has used a wind mitigation reinspection program to systemtically deprive policy holders of legitimate wind mitigation credits,” said a nonprofit group, Florida Association for Insurance Reform, which praised the legal action.

A spokesperson for Citizens said the company has been operating under the law, and that the reinspections came after regulators changed the mitigation criteria. “Our position is Citizens’ reinspections were conducted under statutory authority afforded any insurer to verify, at the insurer’s expense, the accuracy of inspection reports submitted for a mitigation discount,” said spokesman Michael Peltier.

Discontent has been widespread among Citizens’ policyholders, who spent large sums of money on roof, window and other upgrades to earn windstorm mitigation discounts while protecting their homes against potential hurricane damage. In response, Citizens unveiled major changes to its home reinspection program last August, after consumers expressed outrage over media reports about a staggering $137 million in premium increases generated by the unpopular program.

Under its new plans, homeowners who lose insurance discounts because of a reinspection can receive a second inspection free of charge. They will have new tools to dispute the findings of the first reinspection. That decision could impact more than 200,000 property owners, who have already seen their premiums go up by an average of about $800 after the initial reinspection.

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Would-be convention center developers make pitches to Miami Beach residents

Developers on Wednesday presented Miami Beach residents with competing ideas for what the city’s Convention Center could look like after an overhaul.

It was the public’s first glimpse of what could become of the 52-acre site. Two heavy-hitting teams are competing for the project, which could cost up to $1 billion.

Both teams – Portman-CMC and South Beach ACE – stressed that the concepts presented Wednesday were only preliminary ideas.

Both teams’ proposals focus on creating lush greenscapes and ways to connect the enormous convention center with abutting neighborhoods – things that residents at a prior public meeting asked of the developers.

To do that, Portman-CMC, the team led by Portman Holdings, proposed several scenarios. In one, a diagonal plaza would grace the corner of the current convention center property, creating a string of parks to connect the center to the existing Miami Beach Botanical Garden and SoundScape Park.

The design focused on creating shade through both the buildings and landscaping, which is basically nonexistent now.

“This place is a black hole in terms of green, in terms of trees. We aim to change that," said Jamie Maslyn Larson, a Partner of West 8, the company partnering with Portman to landscape the project.

West 8 also worked on Miami Beach’s SoundScape Park, which features free outdoor movies and audio and video feeds of performances at the adjoining New World Symphony.

South Beach ACE, the team led by Tishman Hotel and Realty, proposed an underground parking area to hide idling trucks and buses – an issue that residents have complained about. Above the parking lot would be a rolling greenspace, and views of the now-ignored Collins Canal would be incorporated.

World-renowned architect Rem Koolhaas, part of the South Beach ACE team, called the current convention center a "serious problem" in the middle of the "idyllic" Miami Beach. His team’s design aims to correct that.

Tishman’s proposal also preserves the current Jackie Gleason Theater. Residents have debated whether the theater, which is not deemed historic, deserves to be preserved. The Tishman proposal would essentially remove a back wall of the theater to create a two-stage amphitheater.

Portman-CMC has not made a decision about whether the theater itself would stay, but spoke to preserving the legacy of Gleason himself. The team launched a website to get more resident feedback about its proposal: www.portmancmcmiamibeach.com.

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Behind the Scenes Jennifer Lawrence Dior Campaign

Nobody doubts Hollywood golden girl Jennifer Lawrence's award-winning acting chops, but in case you forgot, she's quite the fashionista too -- Jennifer's first ads for Miss Dior were related earlier this week to universal critical acclaim, and now this behind-the-scenes video gives us a look at how the beautiful photos came about.

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"Dior represents beauty and strength and women -- and that's how I feel when I'm wearing his clothes," Jennifer says as she artfully poses for photographer Willy Vanderperre. "It just makes you feel so confident."

....No doubt she was thinking that during her surprisingly graceful fall on Oscar night.

Video: In Depth -- Jennifer Lawrence's Road to Oscar

Click the video for a glimpse at J. Law's modeling skills, and how she feels about being part of such an iconic brand, which has been represented by the likes of Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis.

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Violent homeless crowd attacking patrons at Think Coffee shop

A violent homeless crowd is plaguing a popular Chelsea coffee shop — repeatedly attacking customers and each other with chairs and tables, the store’s management said.

Think Coffee manager Matt Fury told cops yesterday that he’s concerned with a lack of police response to his company’s 8th Avenue location, near 14h Street, where 911 calls are constant.

“One [homeless person] has thrown a chair once, one has hit someone, one has thrown a table,” Fury, 40, told NYPD brass yesterday at a Sixth Precinct community meeting.

“It always ends in violence.”

Christian Johnston

Think Coffee.

The manager said sometimes, when he called police, NYPD either didn’t respond or officers at the scene didn’t “take the matter seriously.”

“We opened a year ago and the problems started immediately, where different people who hang out on the corner started asking for ice, asking for cups,” Fury said.

“But as we became less tolerant they became more aggressive about not wanting to leave,” he added. “We are really surprised at how often the [911] calls were just not answered. I went to the precinct and the cop at the desk showed me the list of 19 unanswered calls.”

Several patrons and homeless people have been taken away in ambulances, according to Fury.

“One time the police officer said he would arrest me if I didn’t stop bothering him,” he charged.

The precinct’s commander, Deputy Inspector Brandon Delpozo, acknowledged the homeless community near Think Coffee has been problematic.

He added his officers are working to control the situation.

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Don’t get too personal on LinkedIn

Have you ever received a request to connect on LinkedIn from someone you didn’t know or couldn’t remember?

A few weeks ago, Josh Turner encountered this situation. The online request to connect came from a businessman on the opposite coast of the United States. It came with a short introduction that ended with “Let’s go Blues!” a reference to Turner’s favorite hockey team in St. Louis that he had mentioned in his profile. “It was a personal connection … that’s building rapport.”

LinkedIn is known for being the professional social network where members expect you to keep buttoned-down behavior and network online like you would at a business event. With more than 200 million registered users, the site facilitates interaction as a way to boost your stature, gain a potential customer or rub elbows with a future boss.

But unlike most other social networking sites, LinkedIn is all about business — and you need to take special care that you act accordingly. As in any workplace, the right amount of personal information sharing could be the foot in the door, say experts. The wrong amount could slam it closed.

“Anyone in business needs a professional online presence,’’ says Vanessa McGovern, the VP of Business Development for the Global Institute for Travel Entrepreneurs and a consultant to business owners on how to use LinkedIn. But they should also heed LinkedIn etiquette or risk sending the wrong messages.

One of the biggest mistakes, McGovern says is getting too personal — or not personal enough.

Sending a request to connect blindly equates to cold calling and likely will lead nowhere. Instead, it should come with a personal note, an explanation of who you are, where you met, or how the connection can benefit both parties, McGovern explains.

Your profile should get a little personal, too, she says. “Talk about yourself in the first person and add a personal flair — your goals, your passion … make yourself seem human.”

Beyond that, keep your LinkedIn posts, invitations, comments and photos professional, McGovern says.

If you had a hard day at the office or your child just won an award, you may want to share it with your personal network elsewhere — but not on LinkedIn.

“This is not Facebook. Only share what you would share at a professional networking event,” she says.

Another etiquette pitfall on LinkedIn is the hit and run — making a connection and not following up.

At least once a week, Ari Rollnick, a principal in kabookaboo, an integrated marketing agency in Coral Gables, gets a request to connect with someone on LinkedIn that he has never met or heard of before. The person will have no connections in common and share no information about why they want to build a rapport.

“I won’t accept. That’s a lost opportunity for them,” Rollnick says.

He approaches it differently. When Rollnick graduated from Emory with an MBA in 2001, he had a good idea that his classmates would excel in the business world. Now, Rollnick wanted to find out just where they went and reestablish a connection.

With a few clicks, he tracked down dozens of them on LinkedIn, requested a connection, and was back on their radar. Then came the follow-up — letting them know through emails, phone calls and posts that he was creating a two-way street for business exchange. “Rather than make that connection and disappearing , I let them know I wanted to open the door to conversation.”

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Owner of Keys island sick of trespassers

Many Keys visitors and locals know Money Key as a perfect spot to anchor up and spend a sunny day in the Keys, maybe even start a fire and camp overnight.

The problem is the small island about 800 feet off the Seven Mile Bridge oceanside near mile marker 42 is privately owned, and its visitors are apparently anything but conscientious.

"The problem is these formerly pristine islands turn into trash cans. We have squatters and it's just a nuisance," said Lance Kyle, whose family has owned the island since the 1970s.

"We don't encourage camping or visitation, but people feel entitled and that it's a government property and should be accessible," he said.

Kyle says he or a couple he pays to maintain the island has removed at least two makeshift toilets from the island the past couple of years.

"There's evidence of campfires and drums with a toilet seat on top. We had 10 coconut palms out there, but people have been chopping them down and using them for firewood," he said.

Kyle added that visitors apparently did not take kindly to recent attempts to curtail nuisance visitors to the island.

"I hired a local person to go out there and they went out and put up no-trespass signs on 4-by-4 pieces of wood with concrete footers. “About two weeks ago, somebody went in there and knocked them all down. They're all smashed up," he said.

Kyle, who lives in the Washington, D.C., area and said he visits the Keys several times yearly, said he was told by the Monroe County Sheriff's Office to file a police report.

"I think everything has been just too laissez faire over the years. It's getting to the point where people are just totally disrespectful. People have just stepped up the bad-behavior aspect," he said.

Kyle met with Sheriff's Office and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission staff, who agreed to monitor the island as part of normal patrols.

But it doesn't appear that authorities are able to go out of their way to police the island. Chad Scibilia, captain at the Marathon Sheriff's Office substation, said he has limited resources.

"I have one guy and one boat.” Deputy Willy Guerra” is going to do what he can to help him out," he said.

FWC spokesman Bobby Dube said if there is "proper signage in the right place ... we'd be able to enforce it" during normal patrols.

"If we do see someone there, we can address it," he said. "We can always ask them to leave because it is private property. Nine times out of 10, they'll leave."

Kyle said he pays caretakers "$300 or $400" annually to clean the island.

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Bobby Brown Sentenced to Jail for DUI

Bobby Brown has been sentenced to 55 days in jail for his second DUI conviction in a year.

The 44-year-old singer received the sentence Tuesday after his lawyer entered a plea of no contest on his behalf to charges that Brown was under the influence and driving on a suspended license when he was arrested in October 2012.

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He was ordered to report to jail beginning on March 20 and was also placed on four years of informal probation and will be required to complete an 18-month alcohol treatment program.

Brown also pleaded no contest last year to another charge of driving under the influence in connection with an arrest last April.

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