Watchdog groups question tourism agency’s CEO pick

TALLAHASSEE --
The day after the CEO of the state’s top tourism agency announced he was stepping down, board members quickly handpicked his replacement.

There was only one problem. Picking Visit Florida’s chief marketing officer Will Seccombe to head the agency without doing a national search could upset the agency’s main funders — state legislators and Gov. Rick Scott.

Visit Florida’ solution: give a recruiting firm a no-bid, $45,000, two-month contract to conduct a nationwide CEO search. The firm, Minnesota-based Searchwide, just happened to be the same one that brought in Seccombe five years earlier.

Now, a state watchdog group is slamming the agency's recruiting process, saying it suggests either favoritism, government waste, or both.

The developments highlight the awkward relationship between Visit Florida's board and elected state officials who control so much of the agency's budget. While the board appears set to hire Seccombe, its handling of the transition process could lead to more scrutiny from the very lawmakers who control the agency's purse strings

“Visit Florida claims to be an equal opportunity employer, but it appears they have rigged their hiring process to unfairly benefit the acting president,” said Dan Krassner, executive director for Integrity Florida, which advocates for tougher ethics laws, and is now questioning whether the swift recruiting process is completely open and fair.

Searchwide, which signed the contract on Oct. 5, did not respond to requests for comments. The agency is expected to complete its nationwide search by early December.

Experts in the field of executive talent recruitment say that such a short period is abnormal for a national CEO search.

“That’s a really aggressive timetable,” said Theresa Rohr, senior associate at Stanton Chase International, a global executive search firm with offices in San Francisco. “For a CEO, very aggressive.”

While Searchwide is a top name in the hospitality industry, Visit Florida has used it only once before: to recruit Seccombe in 2007.

Visit Florida’s former CEO, Chris Thompson, who left in October to head up a national tourism agency, defended the decision to give the contract to Searchwide. While Seccombe may have an advantage as an “incumbent,” all candidates will be considered, he said.

He pointed out that Searchwide also had been retained by Visit Orlando for an executive search this year.

“It is absolutely in no way, shape or form going through the motions,” Thompson said. “It is a legitimate search.”

But Visit Orlando offers a useful comparison. The Central Florida tourism agency hired Searchwide to do a national search for a CEO back in May. A spokesman said the organization doesn’t expect the process to be completed until January. Several other companies that have contracted with Searchwide have given the company more than six months to complete a national search.

When Thompson announced he was leaving, some board members, in an emergency meeting, quickly decided to promote Seccombe to the $225,000-a-year CEO position.

Doing so would allow the state-funded agency to have a permanent CEO in place before Scott and the Legislature began making crucial decisions about how much taxpayer money the organization should get next year.

“I don’t think we need to put the time, money and effort into a nationwide search,” said John Perez, a hotel executive who sits on Visit Florida’s board. “I think we have a very competent replacement for Chris, in Will, already in place.”

But some board members were concerned about the perception of appointing a new CEO without consulting the Legislature or conducting an official search — something they believed Scott, Florida’s businessman-turned-governor, would expect.

Visit Florida relies on the Florida Legislature for a large chunk of its operating revenue. The public-private organization bolsters its budget with free advertising from private partners, but its cash revenue is overwhelmingly taxpayer-funded. That means the Legislature and governor hold sway over the future finances of the organization.

Visit Florida has been a darling of Scott and the Legislature in recent years. As most state agencies weathered drastic budget cuts in the last two years, Visit Florida saw its taxpayer funding more than double to $54 million.

At least one Visit Florida board member said the Legislature feels it should have a say in how the agency conducts because of lawmakers’ generosity.

“I think if we’ve all learned anything from our past, it is that there is a certain entitlement from the Legislature because there’s so much funding that they now allow us to have,” said Carol Dover, president of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association.

The organization should “dot all our I’s and cross all our T’s” before appointing Seccombe as CEO, she warned.

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Concert tells tale of a ‘Tough Turkey’

Orchestra Miami will present a series of free family concerts, designed to introduce young children to classical music. At 7 p.m. Friday , the orchestra will perform "Tough Turkey in the Big City: A Thanksgiving Odyssey," by Bruce Adolphe and Louise Gikow at Miami Shores Presbyterian Church at 602 NE 96th St.

At 1:30 p.m. Saturday the orchestra will bring the concert to the North Dade Regional Library at 2455 NW 183rd St. in Miami Gardens.

The story behind the music is what happens when a turkey from the sticks meets a Park Avenue pigeon? Tough Turkey... follows the comic blunders of Tom Turkey, who leaves the farm to try his luck in the big city. The story is told to the audience by a narrator and illustrates a close call with a menacing chef, a tussle at the "Turkey Club," a brief romance with a pigeon, and a happy mix up at the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Tom is portrayed by the bass trombone and his barnyard friends by the violin and clarinet.

The two concerts are sponsored in part by the Miami-Dade Public Library System. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, children are asked to bring canned goods to be donated to local food banks.

Handbell choir

Some sacred music seems all the more beautiful when the choir is accompanied by a handbell choir, and on Saturday (Nov. 17) churches with handbell choirs and individual ringers are invited to a workshop to be from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Grace Lutheran Church, 254 Curtiss Pkwy. in Miami Springs.

The workshop is sponsored by the Miami Chapter of the Amrican Guild of Organists and will be conducted by Maryann Tobin.

A free lunch will be provided and following the workshop, the ringers will perform a short concert.

For more details call the church before 1 p.m. weekdays at 305-888-2871.

‘TED’-style lectures

Rabbi Mitchell Chefitz will continue the monthly "TED"-style lecture series at 10 a.m. Sunday in the board room of Temple Israel of Greater Miami 137 NE 19th St. The talk is entitled, "Blessings and Prayers That Work in Real Time."

Just in case you don’t know, the rabbi said TED is the acronym for Technology, Entertainment, Design, an online collection of thought- and soul-provoking talks on a wide range of topics, given by some of the world’s most innovative thinkers, Chefitz is a TED fan and in his talks, which he calls "Moshe Talks," he has put a Jewish spin on the concept with a four-part series of TED-style discourses he said he wished he’d heard to enhance his own Jewish education.

"I regret I never heard these talks," said Chefitz, a bestselling author and scholar-in-residence at Temple Israel. "But now, 40 years later, I know how to give them."

The series which began Oct. 14, will run through January. The event is open to the community and is free. For more information call the temple at 305-573-5900 or email info@templeisrael.net.

‘Five Keys to Health’

The public is invited to a free health lecture presented by Dr. Matthew Westrich, at 7 p.m. today in the fellowship hall at Silver Palm United Methodist Church, 15855 SW 248th St. Westrich will speak on the topic, "Five Keys to Health." Attendees are asked to bring a can of food in support of the church’s Family Food Ministry, which provides food weekly on Fridays to the families of children attending Redland Elementary and Middle Schools.

Call Margaret Cross at 305-255-5894 for more information.

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Ellen Throws Keira Knightley a Bridal Tea Party

In light of Keira Knightley's engagement to Klaxons keyboardist James Righton, Ellen DeGeneres has a refined surprise for British actress on her next show.

PIC: Knightley 'Doesn't Mind' Going Topless

The TV host throws Knightley a bridal tea party as a celebration of her upcoming wedding, which the Anna Karenina star admits she hasn't put much thought into.

"The problem is ever since [our engagement] everyone keeps going, 'So when is it going to happen and what's they dress like?'" explains Knightley, who announced her engagement in May. "I'm just not one of those girls that's had the kind of fantasy wedding thing, so we haven't planned anything and it's all quite terrifying and I sort looked up on the Internet, 'if you're getting married what should you do?'"

RELATED: Knightley Engaged to Indie Rocker

In addition to her future nuptials, Knightley also discussed her topless Allure cover, which came out to her liking.

"I know that sometimes you have not been happy with the way your breasts have appeared in certain things and you're happy with this?" Ellen asked.

Knightley responded, saying that she sometimes doesn't appreciate the alterations made in past shoots to make her breasts seem bigger.

"You know, I'm happy with them -- with the size they are," said Knightley. "I'm alright with it unless they make them really droopy. Then I kind of think, 'Okay, if you're going to invent that fact that I have big t--s any way, could they at least be perky ones?' It seems a little unfair to go from nothing to a big droop. So that's when I get quite unhappy about it."

Catch Knightley's entire interview Thursday, November 15 on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Check your local listings.

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Rocket attack from Gaza Strip kills 3 Israelis

REUTERS

A rocket is seen after its launch from the northern Gaza Strip towards Israel Thursday.

JERUSALEM — Militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip killed three Israelis on Thursday in a rocket attack likely to deepen a bruising Israeli air, naval and artillery offensive, the most intense assault on the Palestinian territory in four years.

The casualties were the first in Israel since it launched its operation on Wednesday with the assassination of Hamas' top military commander, followed by an onslaught of airstrikes and shelling by tanks and naval gunboats. Eleven Palestinians, including two children and seven militants, have been killed and more than 100 wounded in Gaza since the Israeli operation began.

Few in the Palestinian territory's largest urban area, Gaza City, came out following the call for dawn prayers on Thursday, and the only vehicles plying the streets were ambulances and media cars.

About 400 angry mourners braved the streets, however, to bury Hamas mastermind Ahmed Jabari, whose body was draped in the green flag of the Islamic militant Hamas movement. Some fired guns in the air and chanted, "God is Great, the revenge is coming." When the body was brought into a mosque for funeral prayers, some tried to touch or kiss it. Others cried.

"This crime will not weaken us. It will make us stronger and more determined to continue the path of jihad and resistance," Hamas lawmaker Mushir al-Masri said in a eulogy. "The enemy opened the battle and shall bear the consequences."

Israel said Jabari's assassination was the start of a broader offensive, launched after days of rocket fire from the coastal territory. It was Israel's most intense attack on Gaza since its full-scale war there four years ago.

The fighting has deepened the instability gripping the Middle East. Egypt recalled its ambassador to protest the military operation.

Just days earlier, Israel was drawn into Syria's civil war for the first time, firing missiles into its northern neighbor for the first time in four decades after stray mortar fire landed in Israeli-occupied Syrian territory.

Israeli aircraft, tanks and naval gunboats resumed pounded Gaza early Thursday and about 60 rockets thudded into southern Israel as terrified residents on both sides of the frontier holed up in their homes.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said two Israeli men and a woman died after a rocket struck their four-story apartment building in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Malachi. A 4-year-old boy was seriously wounded in and two babies lightly wounded in the strike.

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Steve Wozniak, Chris Hughes share tales with Coconut Grove audience

Co-founders from two of Silicon Valley’s most innovative companies gave a South Florida audience a glimpse into the early days of developing the technology that would reshape the world.

Steve Wozniak, of Apple, and Chris Hughes, of Facebook, were back-to-back speakers for the three-day Americas Business Council’s Continuity Forum that wrapped up Wednesday at the Ritz-Carlton in Coconut Grove.

The conference brought together innovators, activists, and thought leaders in entrepreneurship and philanthropy and also showcased 32 emerging social entrepreneurial ventures from around the Americas.

On Wednesday afternoon, both men relayed plenty of stories.

As a teenager, Wozniak used to hole up in his bedroom on the weekends, designing a computer on paper.

And he made a game of it — every weekend he would try to make a machine that would work just as well or better but cost a little less than the last design.

That engineering mentality to build things more efficiently as well as the desire to learn never left him, he told the audience. “I would buy my college books on a Friday and be halfway through before the first class on Monday.”

Then he met Steve Jobs, and began working with him on a variety of projects. “Steve Jobs was a hippie with no money. I was an engineer with no money. We had to think creatively. I designed projects for fun, and he would figure out how to make money,” Wozniak recalled as he told how he invented the Apple I and Apple II that started it all and the company’s ups and downs through the years. He called the iPhone the greatest product ever.

As one of the Facebook co-founders that lived in the famous Harvard dorm room, Chris Hughes said the movie The Social Network got a lot of things wrong.

“Our dorm wasn’t like a luxury condo, there was no sex in the bathroom, as far as I know. An alcohol-fueled hackathon, while it looked like a lot of fun, didn’t happen.”

Hughes told the real story of Facebook and described his roommate Mark Zuckerberg as “highly analytical and very skeptical of conventional wisdom.” What the movie did get right, Hughes told the crowd: “Facebook is the defining example of American ingenuity and entrepreneurship of the 21st century.” And at the core: “There’s a new universal respect for the entrepreneur.”

Hughes, now owner and publisher of The New Republic, also talked about his current passion: How to use mobile and social technologies to support serious long-form journalism into the 21st century.

“Conventional wisdom says this kind of journalism isn’t sustainable. Cynics say the golden age of journalism has past,” said Hughes.

Yet, over the past six months Hughes said it is the long, in-depth New Republic stories that have gone viral.

“Folks are reading just as much news today, if not more. ... We have an opportunity to deliver it across a limitless number of devices. [These trends] all come together to suggest … we are entering a true golden age of journalism.”

Follow Nancy Dahlberg on Twitter at @ndahlberg.

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Transit worker who was killed was walking on Metrorail tracks from disabled train

George Andrews, a Miami-Dade Transit employee who was killed Monday near the Earlington Heights station when a moving train struck him, was walking on the tracks after parking his train on a side track because it had been malfunctioning, the director of MDT, Ysela Llort, said Tuesday.

“He had a train that was not functioning correctly and central control told him to park the train in what we call a pocket, north of Earlington Heights. He then was walking back to the station and was 30 yards from the station.”

Llort declined to give further details saying the case is still under police investigation. Miami-Dade police detectives, who are investigating the incident, said they will not provide all details until the investigation is completed.

Jeffrey Mitchell, vice president of the Transport Workers Union Local 291, which represents Metrorail operators, said walking on the track after parking a disabled train is normal procedure for MDT. What is unclear, he added, is why the train hit Andrews while he walked on the track.

A train operator who parks a train on a side track and then begins to walk on the track must advise his position to central control and technicians there must warn all trains, said Mitchell.

"The problem is that the trains are not like cars," said Mitchell. "The operator of the train that hit him may have seen him on the track, and may have applied the brakes immediately, but the train does not stop immediately."

Llort's explanation of the incident departs from the original explanation released by county police.

“According to investigators, the decedent, a Miami-Dade County Transit employee, was working on the Metrorail tracks when he was struck by the moving train. He died on the scene,” the police statement said Monday.

According to Llort, Andrews was operating a Green Line train between Dadeland South station and Palmetto station when the tragedy occurred.

Llort said Andrews was a highly valued employee of MDT. He was 47 and would have turned 48 on Friday. His family could not be reached Tuesday.

“He was a very beloved family member, and very well thought of by the transit family,” said Llort. “This is a tragedy to the transit family and we are in mourning.

Llort said she had ordered that every employee receives counseling if desired.

Andrews began working as bus operator trainee on Nov. 23, 1987, said Llort. Then he became a Metrorail operator full time in the summer of 2003.

Metrorail has two routes, the Green Line from Dadeland South to Palmetto station and the Orange Line from Dadeland South to Miami International Airport (MIA).

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Cellphones may get smaller Holiday lift: Gartner

(Reuters) – The pre-Christmas shopping season is likely to boost cellphone sales less that usual this year as a weaker global economy forces consumers to cut back, research firm Gartner said on Wednesday.

“It will be a cautious quarter. Consumers are either cautious with their spending or finding new gadgets like tablets, as more attractive presents,” Gartner analysts said.

Gartner said sales of cellphones declined 3 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, falling for the third quarter in a row, while sales of smartphones grew 47 percent.

Smartphone growth this year is boosted by strong demand in China, where annual sales will grow to 165-170 million from 78 million a year earlier, it said.

“There is huge growth coming from the Chinese market,” said Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta.

This is helping local players to climb in global cellphone rankings, with ZTE, Huawei and TCL now among the seven largest cellphone vendors globally, Gartner said.

Samsung Electronics continues to lead the global cellphone sales ranking, ahead of Nokia and Apple. In smartphone sales Nokia, which still lead the market early last year, dropped to No 7, Gartner said.

(Reporting By Tarmo Virki)

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Turn out lights on LIPA boss

Now LIPA’s chief has something in common with thousands of Long Island residents — they’re out of power.

Interim CEO Mike Hervey — who still has 45,000 total customers without electricity after Hurricane Sandy — will step down at the end of this year.

“On behalf of the Board of Trustees I have accepted his resignation, with regret,” said LIPA Chairman Howard Steinberg.

Hervey resigned the same day Gov. Cuomo authorized a commission to “investigate the response, preparation, and management of New York’s power utility companies with major storms hitting the state over the past two years, including Hurricanes Sandy and Irene, and Tropical Storm Lee,” according to a statement from the governor. The commission can issue subpoenas and examine witnesses under oath.

AP

LIVING IN THE DARK AGES: Virginia Portella lugs a cart full of groceries up to her third-floor apartment in Brooklyn’s Red Hook Houses yesterday as the elevator remains out and residents are forced to live without electricity more than two weeks after Hurricane Sandy struck.

LIPA customers aren’t the only ones still in the dark.

Neighborhoods and buildings across the region are still without electricity 16 days after Sandy struck and utility companies are sticking some of the blame on powerless residents.

About 424,000 customers in the Rockaways, Gerritsen Beach, Red Hook, Staten Island, the Lower East Side, Midland Beach, Coney Island, Nassau, Suffolk and New Jersey still need juice, utility officials said yesterday.

About 39,000 of those outages, mostly Con Ed and LIPA customers, could get power, but an electrician needs to inspect their home equipment first.

It’s a slow and confusing process.

Richard Aloi, 57, a Staten Island landlord, had power restored to two of his Midland Avenue buildings yesterday, but not before he shelled out $400 to have an electrician inspect four meters that he said were not even touched by water.

“They’re afraid to get sued — they misled me on everything!” Aloi said.

In Manhattan, Knickerbocker Village residents are still freezing as they wait for electricity to get turned back on after flooding in the basement.

“Some days it’s warmer outside than it is in the house,” said Debbie Felice, 43, an MTA station supervisor, who lives in the Lower East Side facility.

“It’s like we’ve been forgotten about over here. It’s tough trying to get up and go to work when it’s freezing in the house and there’s no hot water, there’s no heat. I still have no electricity in the apartment either. It’s terrible.”

Con Ed has 4,000 customers waiting to have their homes inspected.

And those numbers grow considerably when Con Ed factors in affected public housing complexes where a “customer” can be hundreds of residents.

As of Sunday, 30,000 New York City Housing Authority residents didn’t have power — though that number has dropped since then.

Still, a Con Ed executive declared yesterday, “We essentially have power up in all areas.

“The only issues that exist now is if customers are able to take the power from us,” spokesman Bob McGee said.

As for LIPA, 10,000 people in Nassau and Suffolk still have outages, and another 35,000 in the Rockaways, Nassau and Suffolk need inspections.

And in New Jersey, only 78 percent of 1.7 million PSE&G customers have power restored — 375,000 remain in the dark due to downed lines.

Mayor Bloomberg yesterday said the city will open seven centers in Far Rockaway, Gravesend, Coney Island, Staten Island, Red Hook, Breezy Point and Throggs Neck-Pelham to connect residents and businesses with financial, health, environmental, nutritional, FEMA and residential services.

“There are a lot of residents who are going to be without power for a long time. Rather than complain about it or even write about it, we’re trying to do something about it,” Bloomberg said.

As for NYCHA houses, he said they “see the finish line” for power.

And Council Speaker Christine Quinn proposed a $20 billion initiative to protect the city from storm surges, with a sea wall, bulkheads, dunes, wetlands and floodgates.

In other developments:

* Bloomberg said gas rationing will go on for at least five more days.

* The Brooklyn Battery Tunnel opened one lane for cars.

* Alternate-side-of-the-street parking regulations will be reinstated in most areas.

* Nassau County police are investigating an assault of a Florida utility worker — here to help Sandy relief efforts — who was beaten outside an East Meadow restaurant as he got out of his truck.

Tomorrow, President Obama will visit many areas without power, such as Staten Island, the Rockaways and Nassau.

“He should definitely come [here],” said Brenda Pratt, 49, of Coney Island. “This is a disaster. He should look at what Sandy did to us. I gave him my vote, I want to see him.

Additional reporting by David Seifman, Sally Goldenberg, Liz Sadler and Kieran Crowley

leonard.greene@nypost.com

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Miami police: Two found shot inside a car

Two people were found shot in a car early Tuesday morning, according to Miami police.

Investigators are at the shooting at Northwest 11th Avenue and 43rd Street.

This article will be updated as more information becomes available.

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One Direction on What They Look for in a Girl

Ellen DeGeneres is holding her biggest outdoor concert ever with British pop sensation One Direction on Thursday, and we have an advance clip.

RELATED: One Direction Plays Catch with Super Bowl Champ

During the sit-down portion, the boys answer the crucial questions: Which members are single and what do they look for in a girl?

"I like someone that's cute. Someone I can have a laugh with. And I also like people that are American. And you all qualify," said Niall Horan, 19, sending the crowd of teenage girls into frenzy.

Tune in to The Ellen DeGeneres Show November 15 for the full interview and concert. The band's sophomore studio album Take Me Home is available now.

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