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Actress Lindsay Lohan is in hot water again, according to a report.
Lindsay Lohan is in hot water again, according to a report.
The troubled starlet, 26, was arrested this morning after getting into a fight at a New York City nightclub, TMZ reports.
LiLo was evidently at club Avenue - and after exchanging words with a fellow clubgoer, she punched the woman, sources told TMZ.
Lohan's latest career comeback attempt, the Lifetime movie "Liz & Dick," debuted Sunday.
City National Bank of Florida, the Miami bank purchased by Bankia (formerly Caja Madrid) of Spain in November 2008, said Wednesday that its parent has a “four-year window to evaluate alternatives” for the bank’s future ownership and will work closely with management in Miami during the process.
The Spanish government has reached and agreement with the European Union related to Spain’s financial system problems, which will result in a recapitalization of Bankia and other institutions, the bank said. The agreement calls for Bankia to sell non-core assets and its holdings outside of Spain so that Bankia will emerge with a solid capital position and be more focused on its core domestic business.
“Because City National Bank is so well capitalized, profitable and well positioned in the marketplace, we are going to take our time to fully evaluate all of our strategic alternatives,” City National Bank President and CEO Jorge Gonzalez said in a statement. “This does not impact our ongoing strategy of profitable growth and diversification or our commitment to the markets we serve. Our focus continues to be taking excellent care of our clients and employees. ”
City National, founded 65 years ago, has $4.32 billion in assets and 26 branches from Miami-Dade County to the greater Orlando area.
INA PAIVA CORDLE
A former TV weatherman who testified 12 days ago in a Miami federal courtroom that Latvian “Bar Girls” swindled him out of $43,000 on Miami Beach was back in the spotlight Tuesday over suggestive photos and tweets sent from his Twitter account.
John Bolaris, who was suspended from his job as a weather anchor for Fox affiliate WTXF in Philadelphia last year amid his allegations that as a tourist in South Florida in 2010 he was drugged and robbed, apparently was asleep Sunday when his fiancée Erica Smitheman drunkenly took over his Twitter account and promised to send out nude photos of herself, the New York Daily News is reporting.
The former Playboy model started her Twitter binge by writing: “Hello this is Erica…love John, he loves you all, I guess it’s ok if I send you all a naked photo or two…don’t tell my love.”
She continued to write suggestive tweets referring to her modeling past and hinting that she’d taken over Bolaris’ account while he slept, the newspaper reported.
“This is Erica, I did pose in Playboy…so what,” she wrote. “I will post my naked pictures…John has no clue... I am tweeting, he’s sleeping.”
Bolaris, who now appears on the Howard Stern radio show, has nearly 13,000 followers.
Smitheman did not post nude photos, only one suggestive one, but her offer caused a stir in the Twitterverse.
To read the New York Daily News story click here.
Bolaris last made headlines earlier this month in Miami when he testified about his misadventures in the hands of a Latvian crime ring, which used two beautiful women to lure him from a club and back to his hotel and in the process ran up his credit card, he said.
Here’s the story that ran in MiamiHerald.com on Nov. 16, the day after Bolaris testified in court:
More than two years after his “nightmare on South Beach,” former TV weatherman John Bolaris remains a little foggy about his close encounter with a couple of Latvian “Bar Girls” who swindled him for $43,000 in bogus booze charges billed to his AMEX card.
On Friday, Bolaris testified in Miami federal court that he didn’t have sex with them, though the thought crossed his mind after meeting the duo at the Delano Hotel in late March 2010. Bolaris, 55, was asked whether the B-girls suggested they go to his room at the Fontainebleau Hotel for a “threesome.”
“No, sir,” Bolaris told defense attorney Roderick Vereen. “In my right state of mind, I would not do that.” Vereen shot back: “What about in your intoxicated state of mind?”
Bolaris, who was fired last year from his job as a weatherman for FOX TV in Philadelphia, regaled a Miami jury with his tale of woe in the federal trial of four men who ran a ring of Russian-style clubs that fleeced Miami Beach tourists by deploying B-girls to seduce them.
The puppet master behind the alleged scam: admitted Russian mafioso Alec Simchuk, 46, a naturalized U.S. citizen who pleaded guilty to fraud and testified last month in the trial of his partners and associates.
In 2010, Miami Beach police and the FBI launched an undercover investigation into the B-girl network after Bolaris and other customers complained to their credit card companies about the outlandish bar tabs. A total of 18 defendants were charged in the fraud conspiracy.
TOKYO (Reuters) – Sony Corp has been approached by at least three investment banks offering to sell its battery business as the struggling Japanese group looks to offload non-core assets and focus on reviving its consumer electronics business, banking sources said.
Selling the unit, which employs 2,700 people and had sales last year of $ 1.74 billion, would help Sony cut costs and generate cash as it restructures its operations, three people involved in the preliminary discussions told Reuters.
The company, a byword for innovative gadgetry in the 1970s and 80s, has been battered by weak demand for its TVs in a fiercely competitive market. The TV business has racked up huge losses; Sony’s market value has slumped to below $ 10 billion and ratings agency Fitch last week downgraded the company’s debt to “junk” status – a move likely to push up borrowing costs and make asset sales more attractive.
CEO Kazuo Hirai has pledged to rebuild Sony around gaming, digital imaging and mobile devices, while nurturing new businesses such as medical devices. He is axing 10,000 jobs, closing facilities and selling assets. Any disposals would be part of a broader “garage sale” by Japan’s leading electronics groups that are hurting in weak markets and tight financing.
Potential buyers for Sony Energy Devices Corp – founded in 1975 as Sony-Eveready, a joint venture with Union Carbide Corp – could include Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry and BYD Co Ltd, a Chinese carmaker backed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, said one of the sources. Hon Hai is also in negotiations to become rival TV maker Sharp Corp’s biggest shareholder.
FOREIGN INTEREST
Despite a strong yen, interest is likely to come mainly from potential foreign buyers, said the sources, who did not want to be named as the talks are private.
Selling the business overseas may not go down well with a Japanese government that in the past has kept technology at home by promoting alliances between local producers. Panasonic Corp, NEC Corp and Hitachi Ltd also make lithium-ion batteries, though the firms’ fabrication technology differs.
Sony declined to comment on the possible sale of the business, which makes lithium-ion batteries used in smartphones, tablets and PCs. “At our corporate strategy announcement in April, (Hirai) said we would explore possible alliances in E-vehicle batteries and battery storage,” said spokesman George Boyd.
As with TVs, Sony has struggled to compete against South Korean rivals in a battery business that is worth $ 18 billion a year. The small cells that power mobile devices now account for around 60 percent of the market, ahead of those used in cars and electrical tools, according to research company IHS iSuppli.
While lithium-ion battery demand has steadily expanded with the boom in mobile consumer electronics, severe price competition has resulted in razor thin margins that favor large-scale manufacturers with weak local currencies.
“The battery business is a prime example of the company’s loss-making and unwanted assets. It doesn’t make sense for them to keep it,” said one of the banking sources.
FALLING MARKET SHARE
As Hirai doubles down on Sony’s strength in consumer electronics, the company has sold a chemicals company, with 2,900 workers, and may also let go its U.S. headquarters building in New York go. At the same time, it has spent close to $ 2 billion on a U.S. game clouding company and a stake in medical equipment maker Olympus Corp.
Sony produced 74 million lithium-ion battery cells in July-September – almost 40 percent fewer than in the first quarter of 2008, when its output topped Samsung SDI Co Ltd’s 110 million and LG Chem Ltd’s 54 million, according to Techno System Research in Tokyo. Sony’s market share is now 7 percent, dwarfed by Samsung SDI’s 27 percent, Panasonic’s 21 percent and LG Chem’s 17 percent.
Sony’s battery unit, which also makes button batteries for watches and smaller appliances and optical devices, has three factories in Japan and two overseas assembly plants in China and Singapore. It has yet to enter the more lucrative business for automotive batteries.
In its most recent filing, Sony valued the battery unit’s fixed assets, including production sites and machinery, at 52 billion yen ($ 633 million). Under Sony’s accounting rules, asset sales are typically booked as operating profit.
The cost to protect $ 10 million of Sony debt against default for five years has edged higher this week to almost $ 400,000. The CDS spreads had tumbled earlier this month – from above 480 basis points – after Sony said it would raise 150 billion yen ($ 1.9 billion) through a sale of convertible bonds.
($ 1 = 82.1200 Japanese yen)
(Additional reporting by Reiji Murai; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News
The Complete List: 'Dancing with the Stars' Winners
On Tuesday night, TV personality and former Bachelor contestant Melissa Rycroft became the latest Dancing with the Stars victor! Click through the gallery for a look back at all the previous mirror ball winners.
Wayne Carrington
LONG ISLAND NIGHTMARE: This Nassau County bus killed a Hempstead boy asleep in his bedroom last night.
A bus crashed into a home in Hempstead, LI, last night, killing a 6-year-old boy and injuring his 7-year-old brother — both of whom were sleeping peacefully inside.
“He was just in a bad spot,” said Hempstead Police Sgt. Mark Kirichenko, referring to the younger boy.
Eleven people on the bus and a pedestrian were also injured.
The tragedy occurred around 9:30 p.m. when the driver of a Nassau Inter County Express bus swerved to avoid striking a pedestrian, officials said.
The driver honked his horn three times, but the pedestrian continued crossing against the light, according to a police spokesman.
“He tries to avoid him and is forced to make a hard right turn, hops the curb and strikes the house,” the spokesman said.
José Antonio Villagran, 50, who lives in the Fulton Avenue home, said, “I was sleeping when suddenly, the big crash happened.”
“I heard a big boom and I thought it was the end of the world,” Villagran said.
He and another resident, Edgar Laso, saw the 6-year-old pinned by the bus and rushed to the child’s aid.
“Some of us tried to save the baby,” said Laso.
The boy, whose name was withheld, later died at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, cops said.
The victim’s older brother was also rushed to that hospital. A family friend said that boy’s injuries appeared minor.
The bus also hit the pedestrian — who was rushed to Nassau University Medical Center in East meadow in critical condition.
Carlos Lopez said he spoke to a witness who said the pedestrian had just left a 24-hour Laundromat when he was struck.
There were at least 20 passengers on the Route N70 bus when the accident occurred.
Police said that no criminality was suspected.
“NICE is cooperating with police officials, and has its own team investigating the incident,” a spokesman for the bus company said.
NICE was taken over by Veolia Transportation on Jan. 1 after Nassau County switched from the MTA, which had operated buses in the county for 37 years.
County Executive Edward Mangano decided on Veolia after the MTA said that Nassau needed to pay $26 million more for the bus services.
Nick Stein
Paramedics tend to one of the victims.
A man at Miami International Airport who said he had dynamite in his luggage — because he thought it would be funny — was arrested Monday, according to Miami-Dade police.
The suspicious luggage led to a partial evacuation at Concourse J. The Miami-Dade police bomb squad searched the bag and found no explosives, police said.
Alejandro Leon Hurtado, 63, of Guatemala, was at the TACA Airlines ticket counter shortly after noon, checking in for his flight, when a ticket agent asked if he had any hazardous materials in luggage, according to an arrest affidavit. Hurtado answered that he had dynamite.
The agent asked Hurtado again, the affidavit said, and a second time he said he had dynamite, then laughed.
“Once the defendant was told that the police were going to be called, the defendant stated that he was joking,” the affidavit said.
Hurtado told police that he had said he had dynamite and meant it to be a joke.
But the police didn’t find it funny. They charged him with one count of false report of a bomb or explosives at an airport.
The investigation delayed one outgoing Avianca Airlines flight by an hour. Some arriving international arrivals were also delayed, airport spokesman Greg Chin said.
Miami Herald staff writer Diana Moskovitz contributed to this report.
Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow reteams with her Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty, a chronicling of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and the two opened up to Nightline about how they recreated bin Laden's compound.
VIDEO: Zero Dark Thirty Trailer
The filmmakers built a full-scale version of the compound in Jordan, and Bigelow says that everything from the carpet to the marks on the walls were taken from ABC News footage that she studied frame by frame.
"Everything we could find from that video we replicated," Bigelow said. "Every conceivable piece of information that we could find we replicated."
As to the controversy over whether or not the filmmakers received classified information to make the movie, Mark Boal says, "I certainly did a lot of homework, but I never asked for classified materials. To my knowledge I never received any."
Zero Dark Thirty, starring Jessica Chastain, Kyle Chandler, James Gandolfini, Chris Pratt and Jennifer Ehle, hits theaters January 11.
The City Council and city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission sparred yesterday over a new taxi design that eliminates printed fares from the sides of taxicabs.
Councilman James Vacca (D-Bronx), Transportation Committee chair, is pushing a bill to require the TLC to reinstate the printed fares, which the city dropped earlier this year.
“I think passengers have a right to know before they get in a cab what the fare would be,” Vacca said.
He also criticized the TLC for changing the iconic “Taxi” decal on cabs to a single “T” decal.
TLC officials testified yesterday at Vacca’s hearing that the printed rates are confusing and ugly and that TV monitors inside taxis will soon show riders the rates in real time during their rides.
That feature will be available when the taxi TV system is upgraded in February.
Since the final cost of a trip “is really a formula” that depends on traffic, per-mile fares “can be misleading” to passengers, said Ashwini Chhabra, a TLC deputy commissioner.
He added,“The fact is, we now have technology aids that we didn’t have back when the exterior fare markings were originally conceived.”
The TLC opposes Vacca’s bill, which the mayor is likely to veto, should it pass the council.
It is unclear if the bill has the necessary support from Council Speaker Christine Quinn to move forward.
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