Bishop Dorsey dies in Orlando of cancer

Bishop Norbert M. Dorsey, who served as an auxiliary bishop with the Archdiocese of Miami in the late 1980s, died Thursday night in Orlando after a long fight with cancer.

Born Leonard James Dorsey on Dec. 14, 1929 in Springfield, Mass., he was 83.

His religious studies led him to Munich, London and Rome, and he was ordained a priest in April 1956.

In addition to his religious degrees, he was a composer of music, holding the degree of Maestro from the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music.

Throughout the 1960s and ’70s, Father Dorsey was a popular preacher of parish missions and retreats throughout the United States and Canada.

In the early 1980s, while based in Rome, he shared the life and experience of the church in five continents during his periodic “visitations” to most of the 52 countries where the passionists are established.

He learned to speak several languages, including Spanish, Italian, French and Creole.

On Jan. 10, 1986, Pope John Paul II nominated Father Dorsey Titular Bishop of Mactaris and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Miami. He was consecrated by Archbishop Edward J. McCarthy at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Miami on March 19, 1986.

In Miami, Bishop Dorsey served as Vicar General and Executive Director of the Ministry of Persons. He also served on the boards of St. Thomas University and Barry University in Miami, and St. Leo College near Tampa.

He was installed as the third bishop of Orlando in 1990. Under his leadership, the diocese nearly doubled there to 400,000 Catholics.

I 1996, Bishop Dorsey gathered 11,000 people together for the first Diocesan-wide celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation. On this memorable day, Catholics came together from near and far to show their unity and passion for their faith. Bishop Dorsey was the first bishop to establish the Blue Mass, a celebration of the gifts of public safety personnel, in the Diocese of Orlando.

Soon after establishing Bishop Grady Villas, a 10-acre residential community in St. Cloud for adults with disabilities in 2004, Bishop Dorsey retired.

In lieu of flowers, Bishop Dorsey asked that contributions be made to the Passionist Community Support Fund, Passionist Pastoral Center 111 S. Ridge St., Suite 300, Rye Brook, NY 10573 or Bishop Dorsey Colloquium on Priestly Life and Ministry, for clergy education and care, Diocese of Orlando, P.O. Box 4905, Orlando, FL 32802-4905.

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Oscars Flashback: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck 1998

In 1998, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck transcended from two aspiring actors and filmmakers to Oscar winners. As one can imagine, they and everybody they had ever known were ecstatic amid the exciting acclaim--so much so that Affleck received a call while in the press room.

Childhood friends from Cambridge, Mass., Damon and Affleck went on the ultimate journey together after writing Good Will Hunting and watching it come to fruition with them co-starring alongside Robin Williams.

PICS: Look Who's Presenting at The Oscars!

The film not only went on to rake in over $225 million at the box office ($318 million, inflation-adjusted) but also earned them high honors, including a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Screenplay.

The two were baffled and truly humbled by the success of their film. They brought their moms along as their dates to the Oscars and had a slew of family members and friends eagerly waiting to potentially watch them win their first Oscar that night.

VIDEO: Globes Flashback '98: Affleck's in Shock

While Damon and Affleck are fielding questions from the media about winning the Best Original Screenplay award, Affleck fidgets about, pulls his StarTAC phone (the most technologically advanced phone at the time) out of his pocket, and answers it while Damon continues to answer the question.

After quickly hanging up his phone, Affleck recounts the comical experience of having his mother with him for the Oscars.

Think You Can Pick This Year's Oscar Winners?

"My mother told me that...she's considering this her grandson and she's holding it for ransom until she gets a real one," the then-25-year-old actor says.

As for the experience as a whole, Damon, who was also nominated for Best Actor, summed it up perfectly when asked which award he wanted to win more.

"Are you kidding me, man? I've never even been here before," he says. "I didn't care."

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United drops Boeing 787 from flying planes through June 5

Getty Images

A grounded Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet operated by United Airlines is parked at LAX.

United Airlines cut the grounded Boeing 787 from its flying plans at least until June and postponed its new Denver-to-Tokyo flights on Thursday, as airlines continued to tear up their schedules while the plane is out of service.

Investigators are still trying to figure out what caused a battery fire in one plane and forced the emergency landing of another plane last month. The world's 50 787s have been grounded since Jan. 16.

United spokeswoman Christen David said the plane could still fly earlier than June 5 if a fix is found. At that point it would be used as needed around United's system, she said.

United was due to begin flying from Denver to Tokyo's Narita airport on March 31. It's postponing the start of those flights at least until May 12, or longer if the 787 isn't cleared to fly. That would be almost a year after United began selling tickets for the flight.

United has said the flights are a perfect fit for the 787, which is mid-sized and very fuel-efficient. The thinking is that Denver would be unlikely to fill a bigger plane for a flight to Tokyo. But it can fill the plane's 219 seats, and the plane is fuel-efficient enough to turn a profit.

LOT Polish Airlines has pulled its two 787s from its schedule through October. The planes are off of All Nippon Airways' schedule through at least March 30.

Switching the plane to be used on a flight is more complicated than passengers might think. Pilots trained to fly one type might not be able to fly the replacement, creating scheduling problems. Seats are laid out differently, meaning seating assignments have to be redone.

Boeing has deployed hundreds of workers on the project to find and fix the problem with the 787's batteries.

Boeing has long used lithium ion batteries in its satellites, according to Dennis Muilenburg, who runs Boeing's defense and space business. He said at an analyst conference on Thursday that about 20 engineers from the satellite business are among those working on solving the 787 problem.

"We have broadly grabbed ahold of the best expertise in the world, and all of that is being harnessed and applied to work on this issue, and work on it with a sense of priority," Muilenburg said.

The Federal Aviation Administration has said it won't clear 787s to fly until Boeing can show they're safe. Boeing intends to propose a plan to federal regulators on Friday to temporarily fix problems with the 787's lithium ion batteries, a congressional official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Boeing has declined to talk about any planned meetings with federal officials.

The company is in the middle of multiple probes related to the 787. The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are looking into the Jan. 7 battery fire on a Japan Airlines 787 parked at Boston's Logan International Airport. A Japan Airlines emergency landing in Japan is being examined by investigators in that country. And more broadly, the FAA is reviewing the design, certification, manufacture and assembly of the 787.

So far industry and labor have been mostly supportive of Boeing and the government probes. Air Line Pilots Association President Lee Moak said the union is confident that when the investigations are done "we'll have known the reasons behind the system failures and we'll be able to move forward."

He sidestepped a question from a reporter in Washington on Thursday about how pilots would view a potential decision to return the 787 to the air before investigators have found the root cause of the battery problems.

"We're confident the process in place is a good one ... Once that is complete then a decision will be made. But until that time it's still an open and ongoing investigation," he said.

Shares of United Continental Holdings Inc. fell 17 cents to close at $25.91 on Thursday. Boeing Co. rose $1.23 to close at $76.01.

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National Hotel nears end of long renovation

A panel of frosted glass puts everything in perspective for Delphine Dray as she oversees a years-long, multi-million dollar renovation project at the National Hotel on Miami Beach.

“Chez Claude and Simone,” says the piece of glass stationed between the lobby and restaurant, a reference to Dray’s parents, who bought the hotel in 2007.

“Every time I am exhausted and I pass that glass, I remember why,” said Delphine Dray, who joined her father — a billionaire hotel developer and well-known art collector in France — to restore the hotel after the purchase.

After working with him for years, she is finishing the project alone. Claude Dray, 76, was killed in his Paris home in October of 2011, a shooting that remains under investigation.

In a recent interview and tour of the hotel’s renovations, which are nearly finished, Dray did not discuss her father’s death, which drew extensive media coverage in Europe. But she spoke about the evolution of the father-daughter working relationship, the family’s Art Deco obsession and the inspiration for the hotel’s new old-fashioned touches.

The National is hosting a cocktail party Friday night to give attendees a peek at the progress.

Dray grew up in a home surrounded by Art Deco detail; her parents constantly brought home finds from the flea market. By 2006, they had amassed a fortune in art and furniture, which they sold for $75 million at a Paris auction in 2006.

That sale funded the purchase of the National Hotel at 1677 Collins Ave., which the Drays discovered during a visit to Miami Beach.

After having lunch at the Delano next door, Dray said, “My dad came inside the hotel and fell in love.” The owner was not interested in selling, but Claude Dray persisted, closing the deal in early 2007. Her family also owns the Hôtel de Paris in Saint-Tropez, which reopened Thursday after a complete overhaul overseen by Dray’s mother and older sister.

Delphine Dray said she thought it would be exciting to work on the 1939 hotel with her father, so she moved with her family to South Florida. She quickly discovered challenges, including stringent historic preservation rules and frequent disagreements with her father.

“We did not have at all the same vision,” she said.

For example, she said: “I was preparing mojitos for the Winter Music Conference.” Her father, on the other hand, famously once unplugged a speaker during a party at the hotel because the loud music was disturbing his work.

“We were fighting because that is the way it is supposed to be,” she said. “Now, I understand that he was totally right.”

She described a vision, now her own, of a classic, cozy property that brings guests back to the 1940s.

Joined by her 10-year-old twin girls, Pearl and Swan, and 13-year-old son Chad, Dray pointed out a new telephone meant to look antique mounted on the wall near the elevators on a guest floor. She showed off the entertainment units she designed to resemble furniture that her parents collected. And she highlighted Art Deco flourishes around doorknobs and handles.

“It’s very important for us to have the details,” she said.

With those priorities in mind, she is overseeing the final phase of the renovation, an investment that general manager Jacques Roy said will top $10 million. In addition to the small details, the renovation includes heavier, less obvious work: new drywall in guest rooms, for example, and new windows to replace leaky ones.

Painting of the building’s exterior should be finished in the next two to three weeks, Roy said. Dray compared its earlier unfinished state to resembling “a horror movie — the family Addams.”

And the final couple of guest room floors, as well as the restoration of the original Martini Room, should be done by the end of April.

“At the end, I will be very proud,” Dray said.

The National’s renovation wraps up as nearby properties such as the SLS Hotel South Beach and Gale South Beach & Regent Hotel have been given new life. Jeff Lehman, general manager of The Betsy Hotel and chair of the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority, said the National has always been true to its roots. He managed the hotel for 10 years, including for a few months after Dray bought the property.

“I think historic preservation and the restoration of the hotels as they were built 70, 80 years ago is such a huge piece of our DNA,” he said. “It’s a lot of what sets us apart from any other destination on the planet.”

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Davie criticizes town attorney, but doesn’t fire him

Davie’s town attorney will keep his job while the Town Council considers setting up an in-house legal department or hiring a private legal firm.

Council member Bryan Caletka brought a motion to terminate town attorney John Rayson at Wednesday night’s Town Council meeting, Feb. 20, but it did not receive a second.

“He gives different opinions to different members of council,” Caletka said at the meeting. “He’s given bad opinions. Mediocre at best describes the legal services that are being provided by the attorney.”

Caletka said he doesn’t trust Rayson’s legal advice and cannot work with him, and that it’s affecting the town.

Mayor Judy Paul and council member Susan Starkey have also criticized Rayson’s performance.

In evaluation forms completed in February, Paul gave Rayson’s performance an overall score of three out of five for “meets expectations,” but wrote in a comment that he should not interject personal opinion when asked for legal advice. Starkey criticized him for not providing Town Council members with training on legal matters like Florida’s open records laws.

Caletka wrote, “He will tell a council member an opinion and in less than an hour communicate the complete opposite in a Town of Davie Council meeting. It is odd that opinions change so quickly, yet the law does not.”

Rayson remained silent while the council discussed his performance.

But in a letter submitted to the council, he summarized his achievements since his 2007 appointment, listing cases he’d settled and his creation of a pre-trial diversion program, which he wrote saves the town money in public defender fees.

“I am honored to be the Davie Town Attorney,” he wrote. “I enjoy the work and look forward to continuing the successful, productive provision of legal services to the Town.”

Vice Mayor Marlon Luis, who gave Rayson the highest evaluation score possible, a five out of five, called Caletka’s criticisms political.

Rayson’s pre-trial diversion program had brought the town money, said Luis, and within six months of becoming town attorney, Rayson had settled a number of backlogged cases.

"I’m sorry to sit up here and listen to this man disparaged like this," said Luis. "To say he’s done a bad job, that’s really disheartening, and I wish we’d just drop this whole thing."

Luis said Rayson was available around the clock to provide legal advice for the town, and that if a council member called him when he was busy or on the phone with someone else, he’d give them a callback time they could set their watch by.

Rayson also received a positive evaluation from council member Caryl Hattan, who wrote that his work served the town and his diversion program brought in money.

Mayor Paul said she had spoken with Rayson about the need to separate his legal opinion from his personal one, but disagreed with Caletka’s statement that the attorney’s performance was mediocre.

“I believe if somebody meets expectations, they’re not mediocre. They’re meeting expectations,” she said.

The town was also on the verge of retaining an in-house attorney, said Paul, and it might be more costly to terminate Rayson than to keep him on as Davie makes the transition.

Starkey said an in-house attorney would cost the town money for staff, benefits and overhead, and shouldn’t be the only option considered. Other municipalities have had success with private law firms, she said, and Davie should consider hiring one.

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Stars Without Makeup!

Calista Flockhart

February 21, 2013

A bravely bare-faced Calista Flockhart accompanied her husband Harrison Ford to the Conservation International conference in Sao Paulo.

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Couple hoping to obtain class-action status for lawsuit filed against Carnival over stranded cruise ship

MIAMI — A couple are hoping to obtain class-action status for a lawsuit they've filed against Carnival Cruise Lines following an engine-room fire that stranded a ship for days in the Gulf of Mexico.

The suit filed Monday by Matt and Melissa Crusan of Oklahoma seeks to represent the more than 3,000 passengers who were on the Carnival Triumph when the fire broke out on Feb. 10.

A judge must approve the motion to grant class-action status. Carnival requires all lawsuits to be filed in Miami, where the liner is based.

Texas resident Cassie Terry was the first to sue the company, filing a lawsuit less than 24 hours after the boat docked.

AP

The cruise ship Carnival Triumph is towed into Mobile Bay near Dauphin Island, Alabama last Thursday.

Maritime attorneys say it's difficult to win such cases unless the plaintiffs can show actual injury or illness.

Carnival has said it won't comment on Triumph lawsuits.

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Broward doesn’t plan to sit out of Super Bowl

As the Miami Dolphins push Miami-Dade County to raise hotel taxes in pursuit of Super Bowl 50, Broward County’s tourism industry may be fighting for some home-field advantage.

Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is pledging to base future championships in Miami-Dade if his proposed financing plan gets approved, and he has come close to apologizing for the central role Broward played as host of the 2010 Super Bowl.

“We are the Miami Dolphins,” Ross said the day he proposed using $199 million in state and county dollars to fund half of the upgrades for the 25-year-old stadium. “We know the NFL headquarters will be in Miami. The last time it was in Broward, way before I got involved. I can tell you, it will be in Miami. That’s who is going to benefit.”

The pursuit of the 2016 Super Bowl looms large in the Dolphins’ effort to win Miami-Dade taxes for the upgrade, with team executives campaigning for a referendum in time for the May meeting when Ross and his fellow NFL owners award the 50th championship game. The push isn’t sitting well in Broward, which paid $2 million toward Super Bowl expenses in 2010 but now warns that local organizers can’t count on the money this time around.

“The news out of Miami-Dade County about what goes where and what may happen with the Super Bowl certainly doesn’t lend itself to Broward saying: ‘How can we participate?’ ” said Nicki Grossman, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, a county agency. “Why would we make a significant contribution to the host committee if we’re getting no Super Bowl events?”

Private sponsors fund the bulk of local Super Bowl budgets, which typically land somewhere between $12 million and $15 million, said Rodney Barreto, the longtime chairman of the region’s host committee for the games. In 2010, Miami-Dade paid $1.5 million to the committee, and its tax-funded tourism bureau paid about $400,000. Losing Broward’s contribution would mean more of an uphill climb for the committee’s fundraisers, though Broward would likely offer to pay something in order to participate in the bid.

But the issue is a prickly one. In 2007, Miami-Dade lost top billing for local Super Bowls when the NFL changed the official host from “Miami” to “South Florida.” The regional brand continued in 2010, when Broward played host to the Super Bowl’s official media center, headquarters hotel and other official NFL events. An economic study funded by Barreto’s host committee put the 2010 game’s impact at $58 million in Broward compared to $40 million in Miami-Dade.

But when the Dolphins in 2011 proposed changing state law to allow both Broward and Miami-Dade to raise hotel taxes to fund a Sun Life renovation, Broward commissioners berated the plan. Mike Dee, the team’s CEO, later warned the vote against the plan might cost Broward a role in future Super Bowl bids. And the Dolphins have hinted at a bigger shift south for spending tied to the NFL, with Dee’s telling Miami-Dade commissioners the team wouldn’t rule out moving its training facility out of Davie and into Miami-Dade as part of a financing deal.

Dolphins executives declined to be interviewed for this article, issuing a statement that said in part: “Miami-Dade will receive a significant return on any investment it makes.”

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Election reform, bridge repairs top Miami-Dade Commission agenda

Miami-Dade commissioners are expected Wednesday to urge the state legislature to allow Election Day voters to drop off their absentee ballots at their local precincts, and ask the mayor to identify funding to repair and upgrade the county’s 203 bridges.

Returning absentee ballots to local precincts was one of 13 recommendations in a report by an Election Advisory Group that needs local and state approval to become law. Now, absentee ballots can only be returned to election headquarters in Doral.

The advisory group, created after the embarrassing November presidential election saw people waiting in lines for up to six hours, also wants to change the name of absentee ballots to “Vote by Mail.”

Other recommended voting changes include expanding early voting days from eight to 14, including the last Sunday before an election; expanding the number of permissible voting sites; limiting ballot language on constitutional amendments to 75 words; and expanding the number of days elections supervisors are allowed to total and check votes from 15 to 20.

Commissioners are also expected Wednesday to urge Mayor Carlos Gimenez to identify funding sources to repair the county’s bridges. The county estimates that over the next two decades it will need as much as $450 million for repairs. The issue came to light in early January when the county was forced to close down the west-bound half of Bear Cut Bridge leading to Key Biscayne, after structural flaws were found.

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Worn Out? Stars Step Out in Same Style

Shailene Woodley vs. Gemma Arterton

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters star Gemma Arterton sported this black Stella McCartney tuxedo jumpsuit to the British Fashion Awards -- a look that has already been worn by The Descendants breakout star Shailene Woodley to the 2012 MTV Movie Awards. Both paired the designer jumpsuit with Stella McCartney shoes, though Shailene went with a chic pair of strappy sandals, while Gemma sported a more daring pair of chunky platform wedges.

Who looks best in the sexy menswear-inspired look, Shailene or Gemma?

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