A woman was gunned down this morning behind Brookdale Hospital, authorities said.
Shalema Gaskin, 32, was standing outside of the hospital on Hegeman Avenue and East 98th Street when a passerby opened fire around 3:10 a.m., police said.
She was hit once in the neck and rushed inside the hospital where she later died, police said.
Gaskin was at the hospital with her 8-year-old child, who had suffered an asthma attack, police sources said.
Despite an agonizingly slow economic recovery, the country’s largest auto retailer, Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, is thriving again as demand for vehicles expands.
The company, one of Florida’s largest, is posting increasingly strong profits and revenues. Just last week, in a sign of confidence, Autonation announced a major acquisition — buying six large auto stores in Texas — that will add about 700 employees to its national payroll of 19,400.
In announcing the deal Tuesday, which is expected to provide AutoNation with $575 million in additional revenues next year, the company’s CEO and chairman, Mike Jackson, expressed optimism about the prospects for continued growth in vehicle sales.
“You want to know what I’m thinking, look at what I do,” Jackson told viewers on CNBC’s Squawk Box program.
No information was released on the cost of the transactions, but in recent years auto dealerships sometimes sold for three to five times revenue, which would represent a significant investment for the company.
Tough times
To be sure, AutoNation has struggled through some tough times. It was battered by the Great Recession, which depressed sales and pushed the company into a $1.2 billion loss four years ago. As sales began to improve in 2010 and 2011, it was blindsided by a shortage of Japanese-made cars last year after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 shut down Japanese manufacturers of some essential components.
Since then, however, AutoNation has rebounded. Unit sales, revenues and profits all performed well in the first three quarters of this year, and the company expects new vehicle sales to continue their recovery nationwide, rising to the mid-14 million units this year, up from about 12.7 million in 2011. In the third quarter of 2012, AutoNation’s new car unit sales grew by 21 percent over the same period in 2011, doing better than an estimated 15 percent increase industry wide. November’s sales of new vehicles increased by 21 percent over November 2011 .
The big dealerships acquired sell Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen and Chrysler products in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets. They are expected to sell 14,000 new and used autos this year, and will add substantially to AutoNation’s future sales.
“We are in the right industry at the right time,” Jackson said during an interview. “The recovery in new vehicle sales is being driven by replacement demand,” added Jackson, who has 42 years of experience in the auto business. “The average age of the light vehicle fleet in the country has increased to 11 years, and even though cars and trucks last longer today, they can’t go on forever. About 12 to 13 million vehicles are scrapped every year and need to be replaced.”
Other factors are contributing to stronger demand for vehicles. “The population is growing, interest rates are low, there is ample credit available and manufacturers are producing a wide range of new models that offer attractive styling, power and greatly improved gas mileage,” said Jackson, who took over as AutoNation’s CEO in 1999. “Auto financing is more available than it has been in recent years. A little known fact is that people are more likely to default on a mortgage than on a vehicle loan.”
More than 20 years ago, when the city of Miami bought an historic but abandoned theater on Southwest Eighth Street, city leaders expressed their hope that the investment would help revitalize Little Havana.
The troubled neighborhood that’s considered the symbolic heart of Miami’s Cuban exile community couldn’t afford to wait to see if “something will fall from the sky and drop in the middle of Eight Street,” then Commissioner Miriam Alonso implored during a 1991 meeting. “The time for that area is now”.
After spending some $3 million to purchase and restore the Tower Theater, the city in 2002 handed the management duties to Miami-Dade Community College (now Miami Dade College), which committed to showing films and cultural events at affordable prices.
Today, many consider the Tower Theater the beacon on Southwest Eight Street that attracts lovers of international film, including many Cuban immigrants who once lived in the neighborhood but now own homes in the suburbs and tourists who are unfamiliar with Miami’s cubaneo.
“The relationship with Miami Dade College has been one of this neighborhood’s success stories,” said Pablo Cantón, who retired this summer from his longtime post as administrator of the city’s Neighborhood Enhancement Team in Little Havana. “The theater has helped local businesses because when people come to see movies they also go across the street to buy dinner. And you have people who haven’t set foot in Little Havana in years who are now returning to watch a movie.”
Nearly 50,000 people attended films at the theater last year, said MDC spokesman Alejandro Ríos. It is also a principle venue for MDC’s Miami International Film Festival and has been the site of several major educational events, including the world premier of the documentary Oscar’s Cuba, about the famed Cuban dissident Oscar Elias Biscet.
“It can certainly be argued that the Tower Theater has been at the core of the Calle Ocho’s cultural renaissance,” he said. “It has brought new audiences into the city and the college. It has been visited by major actors, governmental leaders and thinkers with international acclaim.”
But the past decade of use has started to wear on the theater, built in 1926. This summer, city officials discovered that the roof had some water damage. Meanwhile, MDC President Eduardo Padrón presented a list of possible improvements to the theater, from replacing its four heating and air conditioning units to rebuilding the stage area to attract better live acts.
Currently, the college manages the theater on what’s essentially a month-to-month contract. The original five-year contract, which was renewed in 2007, expired in May. Padrón was out of the country last week and could not be reached for comment. Ríos did not respond directly to questions about the contract but said that the infrastructure improvements could cost some $700,000.
The city can’t afford to pay for repairs out of its general fund, so earlier this year, officials considered deeding the property to MDC with the understanding that the college would then finance the capital improvements.
“We considered that option with the clause that if they stopped maintaining the building or using it as a theater, the property would revert to the city,” said Henry Torre, director of public facilities. “The intent was to keep it open as a community center that services the residents of Little Havana.”
City administrators never brought the plan before the commission after learning that district commissioner, Frank Carollo, was opposed. “This has nothing to do with the college, which has a great reputation in this community,” he said. “It has to do with the fact that the city has given away so many other properties to other municipalities or government agencies, and I don’t think it’s necessary in this case.”
Instead, Carollo has proposed using a portion of federal Community Block Development Grantfunds designated for his district to pay for the capital improvements. A plan to pass the funds to the college will be presented at the commission’s first meeting in January, said George Mensah, director of the city’s Community and Economic Development Department. As the owner, the city must agree to all the work performed, Mensah assured.
Bill Fuller, a Little Havana developer, said it makes sense that the city hold on to the property. “The folks at Miami Dade College have been great stewards of the theater, but it’s a city asset, not a college asset,” said Fuller, who owns several properties along Southwest Eighth Street. “The Tower Theater is the centerpiece of the entire neighborhood and any community would be blessed to be able to preserve its local theater.”
Notorious bad boy Charlie Sheen is opening up to ET's Chris Jacobs in an exclusive interview, commenting to Chris on a loan he made to his ex co-star Lindsay Lohan.
Pics: Charlie Sheen's Meltdown Timeline
Sheen struck up a kinship with his co-star Lindsay Lohan on Scary Movie 5, and reportedly gifted the troubled starlet with $100,000.
In speaking with ET, Sheen admitted he had indeed given Lohan an unspecified amount of money, saying only that it was payment she was owed from a project. Although he says he was happy to "pay it forward," Sheen reveals that he has yet to have received any form of gratitude from Lohan.
Related: Lindsay Lohan Arrested After Bar Fight
"I'm still waiting for a text to say 'thank you,'" laughed Sheen. "Anything, you know?"
Nevertheless he wished "the best" for Lohan, explaining that she's "a very good and decent young lady that is just going through a lot."
He added, "She just needs a little bit of time…People need to give her time to get her s**t together."
Bus driver Ophadell Williams said not a not moment passes without sad thoughts about last year’s horrific crash that killed 15 passengers returning from a gambling jaunt.
William emerged from his Brooklyn home this morning, seeing morning daylight for the first time since he was acquitted Friday on manslaughter charges.
“I feel sorry every day,” Williams told The Post. "This is my first day out of that house, since I have been home."
The soft-spoken Williams donned a tan suit and strolled through his Brownsville neighborhood, sharing handshakes and hugs with neighbors who haven’t seen him in more than a year.
Pool photo
Ophadell Williams after being acquitted on manslaughter charges Friday.
“I’m home, you know, I’m free,” the bus driver added.
Williams said he greatly appreciated the support from family, friends, neighbors and strangers throughout the trial.
"Just the amount of prayers, how many people prayed, all over the world, not just in New York City,” he said.
The 41-year-old Williams had faced up 15 years in prison for 54 criminal counts, emerging from the March 12, 2011 tragedy.
A Bronx jury cleared Williams of any criminal wrongdoing, except for driving without a valid license. He was fined $500.
"The anticipation, believe me, it's overwhelming -- sometimes I can't even breathe,” Williams said about his final days in jail and court before last week’s verdict.
The NTSB ruled that Williams was driving 78 mph in a 50 mph zone on I-95 on virtually no sleep. His World Wide Tours bus tours was taking passengers from the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut back to Manhattan Chinatown.
Williams wasn’t sure what his next job would be. He reminisced how much he enjoyed being a bus driver.
"I loved my job. I really loved it,” Williams said. "It was a wonderful job."
He’s just happy not waking up inside Rikers Island anymore.
"It is great [to be home],” he said. "I mean, that Rikers Island was not made for humans."
He called the city’s biggest lockup “crazy” and “daunting.”
Additional reporting by David K. Li
• AutoNation’s announcement December 4 that it was acquiring six auto stores in Texas, its second most important market after Florida, forms part of the company’s national growth strategy.
• AutoNation operates in 15 states and, according to CEO Mike Jackson, prefers to build its brand network in existing markets rather than expand to new markets. It grows either by acquisitions or by obtaining new franchises from manufacturers. Some recent acquisitions:
• The purchase of Audi, Chrysler, Dodge Ram, Jeep, Porsche and Volkswagen dealerships in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets, announced December 4, is projected to increase the company’s revenue by about $575 million per year in the Lone Star State, which accounted for 20 percent of revenue last year. The outlets are expected to sell about 14,000 new and used autos this year.
• In early 2011, AutoNation bought a Toyota dealership in Fort Myers with annual sales of $135 million.
• In 2006, the company made its largest purchase prior to the December acquisition: a Mercedes-Benz store in Pompano Beach that had annual revenues of $230 million.
Source: AutoNation
South Florida auto dealers
Despite an agonizingly slow economic recovery, the country’s largest auto retailer, Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, is thriving again as demand for vehicles expands.
The company, one of Florida’s largest, is posting increasingly strong profits and revenues. Just last week, in a sign of confidence, Autonation announced a major acquisition — buying six large auto stores in Texas — that will add about 700 employees to its national payroll of 19,400.
In announcing the deal Tuesday, which is expected to provide AutoNation with $575 million in additional revenues next year, the company’s CEO and chairman, Mike Jackson, expressed optimism about the prospects for continued growth in vehicle sales.
“You want to know what I’m thinking, look at what I do,” Jackson told viewers on CNBC’s Squawk Box program.
No information was released on the cost of the transactions, but in recent years auto dealerships sometimes sold for three to five times revenue, which would represent a significant investment for the company.
Tough times
To be sure, AutoNation has struggled through some tough times. It was battered by the Great Recession, which depressed sales and pushed the company into a $1.2 billion loss four years ago. As sales began to improve in 2010 and 2011, it was blindsided by a shortage of Japanese-made cars last year after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 shut down Japanese manufacturers of some essential components.
Since then, however, AutoNation has rebounded. Unit sales, revenues and profits all performed well in the first three quarters of this year, and the company expects new vehicle sales to continue their recovery nationwide, rising to the mid-14 million units this year, up from about 12.7 million in 2011. In the third quarter of 2012, AutoNation’s new car unit sales grew by 21 percent over the same period in 2011, doing better than an estimated 15 percent increase industry wide. November’s sales of new vehicles increased by 21 percent over November 2011 .
The big dealerships acquired sell Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen and Chrysler products in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets. They are expected to sell 14,000 new and used autos this year, and will add substantially to AutoNation’s future sales.
TALLAHASSEE --
Backing away from a possible court fight, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles announced Friday that it will halt its attempt to bid license tag services to private vendors.
Tax collectors — who distribute state tags — and two manufacturing groups tried to block the change by lobbying elected officials and filing legal action against the department.
Highway Safety Chief Julie Jones had wanted to save money by paying private companies $31.4 million over two years to make tags and distribute mail and online orders, but she abandoned the idea under pressure from Attorney General Pam Bondi and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, among others.
“We listened to what everyone had to say, considered questions that vendors posed and received information from our tax collector partners,” Jones said. “Based on the input, we have decided to withdraw [efforts to privatize].”
The decision will keep Florida out of administrative court, which is where it seemed headed Tuesday after department lawyers shut down tax collectors’ requests to retract its invitation to bidders.
Jones’ change of heart earned praise from Bondi, who said the department “did the right thing.”
Manufacturing company Avery Dennison and St. Petersburg-based PRIDE, a nonprofit organization that uses prisoners to manufacture tags, filed formal protests and met with state officials this week.
For them, the state’s decision may only be a temporary victory.
Stephen Hurm, an attorney for the state highway agency, told tax collectors Friday the department will not seek to privatize plate distribution but could reignite the push as early as January to bid out the manufacturing role.
The state may want to switch from raised tags to the more modern flat tags that are thought to be more legible for red light and toll cameras. PRIDE doesn’t have the equipment to make flat tags.
Hillsborough County Tax Collector Doug Belden says he will fight the state if it moves to exclude PRIDE.
“Why change a system that is working well and that customers enjoy? My job as an elected official is to provide the most friendly, capable customer service for the best price. We’re doing that,” said Belden, who criticized Jones for excluding tax collectors in her decisions.
Belden, along with PRIDE lobbyist Wilbur Brewton, argue that flat tags are no easier to read and are more expensive — which will result in more fees for motorists. The company may try to invest in new technology if that’s what it takes to continue working with the state, Brewton said.
“Is the equipment currently sitting in the plant to do it? No,” he said. “This could cause harm, but we would have to calculate that once we see the details.”
Jones hasn’t committed to any tag — flat or raised, she said. She just wants something legible and well-priced.
“We want to get the best product moving into the future in terms of technology, but at a cost that’s affordable,” Jones said. “This is going to be done in a cost-effective manner.”
The controversy over the tags is not expected to stall a planned redesign.
Floridians can continue to vote on four designs for a new state tag at Vote4FloridaTag.com. About 50,000 people have weighed in. The deadline is Dec. 14.
Brittany Alana Davis
can be reached at bdavis@tampabay.com .
The true story of the devastating 2004 tsunami that consumed the coast of Phuket, Thailand -- and how one family survived it -- is reenacted by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor in The Impossible. Watch the video to go behind the scenes...
Video: Tsunami Survivor Petra Nemcova Reacts to Latest Disaster in Japan
In theaters December 21, The Impossible finds Naomi as Maria and Ewan as her husband Henry, who are enjoying their winter vacation in Thailand with their three sons. On the day after Christmas, their relaxing holiday in paradise becomes an exercise in terror and survival when their beachside hotel is pummeled by an extraordinary, unexpected tsunami.
Video: Watch the Trailer for 'The Impossible'
The Impossible tracks just what happens when this close family and tens of thousands of strangers must come together to grapple with the mayhem and aftermath of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time.
ALBANY — Two Democratic senators are proposing federal tax breaks to help victims recover faster from Superstorm Sandy.
Sens. Charles Schumer of New York and Robert Menendez of New Jersey want to make all repair expenses fully tax deductible, reducing the tax bite of victims in their returns covering the current year.
The breaks would also include credits to subsidize home and business repairs and help businesses keep workers on the payroll.
The proposal wouldn't cost either state any of its scarce revenues as they try to rebound. But it would reduce payments to Washington as it seeks to reduce deficits.
REUTERS
Residents look through the debris of a house that was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in Union Beach, New Jersey.
The breaks announced Sunday would also provide relief for those who provided free temporary housing for victims and waive penalties for victims who have to withdraw from their retirement accounts to pay for storm costs.
"These changes to existing tax law are a common sense and simple way to help disaster victims, and a quick way to get them aid to repair their homes, to recover losses, and to support their businesses," Schumer said.
Businesses would see a tax credit for continuing to pay employees even when the business was shut down.
"This bill will provide critical tools to help families recover their losses, rebuild shattered businesses and restore communities devastated by the storm," Menendez said.
One by one, representatives from six startup companies walked onto the wooden stage and presented their products or services to a full house of about 200 investors, mentors, and other supporters Thursday at Incubate Miami’s DemoDay in the loft-like Grand Central in downtown Miami. With a large screen behind them projecting their graphs and charts, they set out to persuade the funders in the room to part with some of their green and support the tech community.
Just 24 hours later, from an elaborate “dojo stage,” a drummer warmed up the crowd of several hundred before a “Council of Elders” entered the ring to share wisdom as the all-day free event opened. Called TekFight, part education, part inspiration, and part entertainment, the tournament-style program challenged entrepreneurs to earn points to “belt up” throughout the day to meet with the “masters” of the tech community.
The two events, which kicked off Innovate MIA week, couldn’t be more different. But in their own ways, like a one-two punch, they exuded the spirit and energy growing in the startup community.
One of the goals of the TekFight event was to introduce young entrepreneurs and students to the tech community, because not everyone has found it yet and it’s hard to know where to start, said Saif Ishoof, the executive director of City Year Miami who co-founded TekFight as a personal project. And throughout the event, he and co-founder Jose Antonio Hernandez-Solaun, as well as Binsen J. Gonzalez and Jeff Goudie, wanted to find creative, engaging ways to offer participants access to some of the community’s most successful leaders.
That would include Alberto Dosal, chairman of CompuQuip Technologies; Albert Santalo, founder and CEO of CareCloud; Jorge Plasencia, chairman and CEO of Republica; Jaret Davis, co-managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurig; and more than two dozen other business and community leaders who shared their war stories and offered advice. Throughout the day, the event was live-streamed on the Web, a TekFight app created by local entrepreneur and UM student Tyler McIntyre kept everyone involved in the tournament and tweets were flying — with #TekFight trending No. 1 in the Miami area for parts of the day. “Next time Art Basel will know not to try to compete with TekFight,” Ishoof quipped.
‘Miami is a hotbed’
After a pair of Chinese dragons danced through the audience, Andre J. Gudger, director for the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs, entered the ring. “I’ve never experienced an event like this,” Gudger remarked. “Miami is a hotbed for technology but nobody knew it.”
Gudger shared humorous stories and practical advice on ways to get technology ideas heard at the highest levels of the federal government. “Every federal agency has a director over small business — find out who they are,” he said. He has had plenty of experience in the private sector: Gudger, who wrote his first computer program on his neighbor’s computer at the age of 12, took one of his former companies from one to 1,300 employees.
There were several rounds that pitted an entrepreneur against an investor, such as Richard Grundy, of the tech startup Flomio, vs. Jonathan Kislak, of Antares Capital, who asked Grundy, “why should I give you money?”
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