Police search for alleged ex-LAPD killer in snowy CA mountain town

BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. — Police spent all night searching the snowy mountains of Southern California but were unable to find the former Los Angeles police officer accused of carrying out a killing spree because he felt he was unfairly fired from his job.

Authorities planned a midmorning Friday news conference about 80 miles east of LA at Big Bear Lake, where Christopher Dorner's torched pickup was found Thursday. The area was under a winter storm warning, with snow falling and temperatures well below freezing.

Local ski areas were open, but Bear Valley schoolchildren had the day off because of the manhunt.

AP

San Bernardino Sheriff's Department officer Steven Spagon mans a check point during the search for fired Los Angeles officer, Christopher Dorner in Big Bear Lake, Calif. Friday, Feb. 8, 2013.

AP Photo/Los Angeles Police Department

Christopher Dorner

About 150 miles to the south, up to 16 San Diego County sheriff's deputies spent the night surrounding and searching a rural home after a hoaxer reported Dorner was there. There were people at home but Dorner wasn't one of them, said Lt. Jason Rothlein. Investigators have a pretty good idea who made the call and will seek criminal charges, he said.

Though the focus is on the resort area, the search for Dorner, 33, stretches across California, Nevada, Arizona and northern Mexico. LAPD officers are especially on edge because Dorner, who was fired from the force in 2008 after three years on the job, promised in rambling writings to bring "warfare" to police and their families.

"We don't know what he's going to do," said Cindy Bachman, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, one of many law enforcement agencies whose primary purpose has become finding Dorner. "We know what he's capable of doing. And we need to find him."

Tracks that surrounded the truck and hours of door-to-door searching around Bear Mountain Ski Resort turned up nothing, and authorities conceded that the whereabouts of Dorner, also a former Naval reservist and onetime college running back, remained a mystery.

"He could be anywhere at this point," said San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon, who had 125 deputies and police officers and two helicopters searching the community of Big Bear Lake, where light snow fell early Friday morning.

The saga began Sunday night, when Monica Quan, the daughter of a former Los Angeles police captain, and fiance Keith Lawrence were found shot in their car at a parking structure at their condominium in Irvine. Quan was an assistant women's basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton.

The following morning in National City, near San Diego, some of Dorner's belongings, including police equipment and paperwork with names related to the LAPD, were found in a trash bin.

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Sign up for Feb. 21 Miami Herald Small Business Forum

Prepare your best pitch for the Miami Herald’s Small Business Forum, Feb. 21 at the south campus of our sponsor, Florida International University.

In addition to how-to panels and inspirational stories from successful entrepreneurs, our annual small business forum will include interactive opportunities with experts to learn about financing options and polish your personal and business brands.

During our finance panel, audience volunteers will be invited to explain their financing needs to the group. During our box-lunch session, they will be invited to pitch their business or personal brand to our coaches.

Those who prefer just to listen will be treated to a keynote address by Alberto Perlman, co-founder of the global fitness craze Zumba. Panels include success stories from the local entrepreneurs who founded Sedano’s, Jennifer’s Homemade and ReStockIt.com; finance tips from experts in small business loans, venture capital, angel investments and traditional bank loans; and insiders in the burgeoning South Florida tech start-up scene.

Plus, it’s a real bargain. $25 includes the half-day seminar, continental breakfast and a box lunch.

Register here.

Program

8 a.m.

Registration and continental breakfast, provided by Bill Hansen Catering

8:30

Welcome

Host: David Suarez, president and CEO, Interactive Training Solutions, LLC

•  Jerry Haar, PhD, associate dean & director, FIU Eugenio Pino and Family Global

Entrepreneurship Center

•  Alice Horn, executive director, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE South Florida)

•  Jane Wooldridge, Business editor, The Miami Herald

Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge Overview:

•  Nancy Dahlberg, Business Plan Challenge coordinator, The Miami Herald

8:45 a.m.

Session I – Success Stories

Moderator: Jerry Haar, PhD, associate dean & director, FIU Eugenio Pino and Family Global

Entrepreneurship Center

Speakers:

•  Jennifer Behar, founder, Jennifer’s Homemade

•  Matt Kuttler, co-president of ReStockIt.com

•  Javier Herrán, chief marketing officer, Sedano’s Supermarkets

10 a.m.

Session II – All about Tech

Moderator: Jane Wooldridge, Business editor, The Miami Herald

Speakers

•  Susan Amat, founder, Launch Pad Tech

•  Nancy Borkowski, executive director, Health Management Programs, Chapman Graduate School of

Business, Florida International University

•  Mark Slaughter, CEO, Cohealo.com

•  Chris Fleck, vice president of mobility solutions at Citrix and a director of the South Florida Tech Alliance

11:15 a.m.

Keynote speaker: Alberto Perlman, CEO and co-founder of Zumba® Fitness

Introduction: Jane Wooldridge, business editor, The Miami Herald

11:45 a.m.

Session III – Show me the money: Financing your small business

An interactive session featuring audience volunteers who will be invited to make a short investment pitch before a panel, including experts in microlending, SBA loans, traditional bank loans, venture capital and angel investing. Audience volunteers should come prepared with a two-minute presentation that includes details about current backing, how much money they are seeking and a brief synosis of ow that money would be used.

Moderator: Melissa Krinzman, founder and managing director, Venture Architects

Panelists:

•  Marjorie Weber, chairman, SCORE of Miami-Dade

•  Cornell Crews, Jr., program director, Partners for Self Employment

•  Darius G. Nevin, co-founder, G3 Capital Partners, a mid-market and early-stage investment company

•  Boris Hirmas Said, chairman of the board, Tres Mares S.A. (Santiago, Chile) and entrepreneur in

residence at the Eugenio Pino and Family Global Entrepreneurship Center

1 p.m.

Lunch session - Polish your Pitch, Brighten Your Personal Brand

An interactive session featuring audience volunteers who will be invited to make short pitches about their businesses and themselves. Audience volunteers should come prepared with a two-minute presentation.

Coaches: Melissa Krinzman of Venture Architects and Michelle Villalobos of Mivista Consulting

advise audience volunteers on how to best pitch themselves and their products.

Box lunch provided by Bill Hansen Catering

All speakers confirmed unless otherwise noted. Agenda is subject to change without notice .

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Jury awards girl sexually assaulted on school district bus $1.7 million

WEST PALM BEACH --
Minutes after a jury late Wednesday awarded a mentally challenged Pahokee girl $1.7 million for the trauma she suffered when she was raped on a Palm Beach County school bus when she was 3, the girl’s mother rushed toward those who had given her daughter a second chance.

“Wait,” she called out just before they filed out the door. “I want to thank all of you.”

In turn, she hugged each of the four women and two men who rejected the school board’s claims that her daughter wasn’t hurt by the 2007 attack. School board attorneys argued the girl was too young and too mentally disabled to understand what a 15-year-old emotionally disturbed youth did to her on the bus filled with special needs kids.

With tears streaming down her face, the mother looked at the girl’s father. Both heaved sighs of relief.

“It means a lot to me,” she said of the verdict. “My daughter finally got justice.”

The School Board never denied the girl was molested. Both the bus driver and the aide who was on the bus to protect the students were fired. The aide, Grenisha Williams, was convicted of child neglect in connection with the incident and put on probation. Sexual battery charges were filed against J.C. Carter, the youth school police said assaulted the child. The School Board even changed policies, decreeing that young children should no longer be allowed to ride buses with older kids.

But, the district never agreed to compensate the now 9-year-old girl for the trauma that her attorneys argued exacerbated her considerable learning problems.

“I think the jury got it,” attorney Stephan Le Clainche said.

Despite School Board attorneys’ claims to the contrary, he said: “The jury realized that any child of a tender age who is the victim of physical or sexual violence is going to carry the stain of it their entire life.”

But, he acknowledged, the battle is far from over. Under Florida law, government agencies in 2007 could only be forced to pay $100,000 for injuries caused by their wrongdoing. (The cap on so-called sovereign immunity, that comes from the English concept that the King can do no wrong, has since been raised to $200,000.) But to get more than $100,000, the girl’s attorneys must now persuade a typically stubborn Florida Legislature to life the cap so the girl can get the $1.7 million the jury said she deserves.

“We have a long road to go,” Le Clainche said. The $100,000 will barely cover the court costs that included paying $25,000 to a psychiatrist who persuaded the jury that the girl carries deep psychological scars that will take years of counseling and private schooling to salve.

The mother said she was well aware of the looming battle. “I’ve been waiting all this time. I guess I can wait some more,” said the mother, who lost her job as a cook when the always shaky economy in the Glades got even worse in the recent recession.

Jurors declined comment on the verdict, as did attorneys representing the school board. Attorney Scott Krevens said they don’t comment on pending litigation.

But the two sides argued their cases vigorously Wednesday in their last appearances before the jury after a five-day trial.

Attorney Tom McCausland, one of the school board’s two attorneys, suggested that the jury give the girl $250,000 for the pain she endured on the day of the attack and $31,000 for family counseling.

“A quarter-million dollars is a way of saying we’re sorry it happened,” he said.

Le Clainche bristled at McCausland’s suggestion that the money was an apology and not a recognition that the girl needs years of therapy.

McCausland insisted the girl has no memory of the attack. “Her brain has not been able to form to grasp the event,” McCausland told jurors. “This very, very heinous act, fortunately, is not something the girl remembers.”

Le Clainche translated McCausland’s argument this way: “Your harm is worth nothing because you’re already damaged.” Then, he added, “That is an incredible, outrageous defense.”

The psychiatrist hired by the girl’s team testified that the attack stymied the girl’s emotional and intellectual growth. A psychologist hired by the school board told jurors trauma doesn’t affect cognitive development.

In the end, it was clear the jury accepted the long-standing child-rearing concept that early childhood development impacts a youngster’s entire life.

About two hours into their deliberations, the jurors sent out a question: “Can the possibility of future sexual problems be considered as future pain and suffering?”

Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley said they could.

Less than 15 minutes later, they announced their verdict.

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Taylor Swift Talks Valentine's Day Plans

Taylor Swift called in Thursday morning to On Air with Ryan Seacrest, where the newly single superstar was game enough to talk Valentine's Day plans.

"I'm probably going to be with my friends or rehearsing … I'll be like working on the lighting rig and like, the lighting cues," she told Seacrest. "And I don't think I'd rather be anywhere else to be honest."

Pics: Taylor Swift's Polka Dot Obsession

Swift split from her latest boyfriend, One Direction's Harry Styles, in early January, but it looks like she has her upcoming tour and Grammy performance to focus on, and of course, her famous besties which include Selena Gomez and Emma Stone.

"I'd say I have like 15 best friends," she said. "I'd much rather have more friends, rather than put up all these walls around your life and not trust people. I've trusted people more and more as this [her career] has gotten thankfully, bigger."

Video: Exclusive -- Taylor Swift's Cool Keds Campaign

As for her Grammy performance Sunday, she revealed that she'll be the opening act!

"What's interesting is we presented this performance to the Grammy committee … and they said, 'Okay, cool you have a performance spot.' And then like a week ago they call us and are like, 'Oh, by the way, you're opening the show.' It's not like they approach you … It just surprised me I was going to go first."

And despite all her recent highly publicized relationship drama, Taylor said that it's felt like "the best year" ever.

"Hands down it's just been the best year. It's been amazing, it's been exciting," she said. "I got to make a record that was different than anything I'd ever done before ... That stuff really surprises me, the fact that I was able to branch out and everybody is really embracing it. It feels like the best year I've had so far. It's been really wonderful."

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Ackman fires off 40 pages of questions aimed at Herbalife

Bill Ackman has a lot of questions for Herbalife — as a matter of fact, 284 of them.

The hedge fund manager fired off 40 pages of questions at the controversial nutrition company that he has called a “pyramid scheme” and is shorting to the tune of $1 billion.

Ackman, the founder of Pershing Square Capital, focused his questions on the lack of clarity about retail sales and product consumption. He also hammered away at the company’s recruiting practices and its much-touted “Nutrition Clubs,” which are forbidden from advertising or selling products.

REUTERS

Bill Ackman

Ackman also brought up some new issues regarding product safety at a manufacturing facility and asked if the company was aware of alleged money laundering through an Herbalife account in Mexico, which was the subject of a published reported a year ago.

The hedge fund activist, who announced his short thesis against Herbalife in detail on Dec. 20, promised to come back to Herbalife with a set of questions after the company refuted his initial claims at a Jan. 17 investor presentation.

“Herbalife executives have repeatedly committed to have a fact-based conversation and total transparency about Herbalife’s business,” said Ackman in introducing his laundry list of questions.

“If the company is committed to ‘total transparency’ as it has claimed, Pershing Square would welcome responses to the following questions.”

Ackman’s latest attack on Herbalife quoted several legal opinions related to the pyramid scheme issue.

He cited a 1986 California injunction that restricts Herbalife from compensating its distributors on anything other than retail sales. But since the company has repeatedly said it doesn’t and cannot track retail sales, Ackman asked, ”How is it possible for the company to be in compliance with the injunction?"

In its Jan. 17 presentation, Herbalife also claimed that most of its distributors buy the product to get a discount for their own consumption and that of family and friends — not to make money.

That would help explain why 88 percent of their US distributors make no money, according to new figures the company released yesterday.

But if that’s the case, Ackman asked: “Why are discount customers required to sign a 48,000-word Distributor Agreement in order to purchase Herbalife products?”

Ackman’s presentation also noted a Federal Trade Commission statement posted on its website Jan. 28 after it shut down Fortune High-Tech Marketing. The statement read:

“If the money you make is based on your sales to the public, it may be a legitimate multilevel marketing plan. If the money you make is mainly based on the number of people you recruit and your sales to them, it’s a pyramid scheme.”

“In light of the above statements by the FTC, does the Company still believe that it can be indifferent to the amount of product sold or consumed within the network versus the amount of sales to independent third parties in the determination as to whether Herbalife is a pyramid scheme?” Ackman asked.

Ackman also asked the company whether it knows if the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Herbalife “or any of its affiliates” or if there are any ongoing investigations by Herbalife by any US federal or state agencies or by any foreign regulatory agencies.

The market seemed unimpressed. By midday, Herbalife stock had jumped 2.8 percent to $36.81.

mcelarier@nypost.com

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Miami startup that turns text to video receives $1 million in seed funding

Guide, a new technology startup based in Miami, announced Tuesday it has closed a $1 million round of seed funding from investors including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Sapient Corp., MTV founder Bob Pitman, actor and producer Omar Epps, and early Google employee Steve Schimmel. The Knight Foundation is supporting Guide through its new early-stage venture fund, the Knight Enterprise Fund.

Led by CEO and founder Freddie Laker and COO Leslie Bradshaw, Guide’s team of seven is focused on turning online news, social streams and blogs into video for users who may be cooking, exercising, commuting or getting ready in the morning. The free application offers consumers a selection of about 20 “anchors” — including a dog, a robot and an anime character — that will read the article and present the accompanying photos, pull-out information and video clips in its video presentation. Revenue drivers for Guide could include in-app purchases, advertising-based anchors and customizations from publishers, said Laker, a former vice president at SapientNitro.

Laker and his team plan to launch a public beta next month, which they plan to do with a splash at the huge technology conference South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.

Read more about Guide here on the Starting Gate blog. Follow Nancy Dahlberg on Twitter @ndahlberg

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Miami U.S. attorney issues warning and crackdown on ID theft, tax-refund fraud

Guard your identity with your life, warns South Florida’s top law enforcement official.

U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer says the double whammy of ID theft and tax-refund scams are the “new Medicare fraud,” picking the pockets of hard-working people and the federal government every year for billions of dollars.

“We need to protect our personal identities as best we can,” Ferrer told The Miami Herald. “One of the best ways to protect yourself is to file your tax returns as early as possible to beat the criminals to the punch.”

The Miami area, infamous for its smorgasbord of fraud schemes, is among the worst spots for what he described as an “epidemic” ID-theft crime wave. To drive home his point at the height of the tax season, Ferrer’s office unveiled the latest prosecutions of 14 defendants in a variety of tax-refund rackets.

Among them: Yet another case of a South Florida hospital employee swiping patients’ Social Security numbers and dates of birth to defraud the Internal Revenue Service.

According to an indictment filed in January, Boca Raton Regional Hospital scheduler Shalamar Major, 32, of Deerfield Beach, stole the personal information of patients and supplied the data to Tanisha Wright in exchange for a split fee for every successful false return submitted to the IRS.

Wright, 27, of Fort Lauderdale, is accused of filing the returns electronically and getting the IRS to direct-deposit the refunds on pre-paid reloadable debit cards, so she could make withdrawals at ATMs or retail purchases. In total, she filed 57 returns seeking $306,720, according to the indictment.

Other prosecutions include:

•  In an IRS undercover sting last month, Nael Dawud Sammour, 52, was charged with theft of public money after he tried to cash 75 fraudulently obtained tax-refund checks totaling $750,369, according to an indictment. Sammour was arrested after he allegedly used counterfeit driver’s licenses and Social Security cards to cash the refunds through IRS agents posing as check cashers. Agents seized $30,128 from him.

•  Two other defendants, Fednol Pierre, 34, of Miami, and Jeanson Pata, 31, of West Palm Beach, were charged in January with stealing government funds and aggravated ID theft involving six fraudulent refunds totaling $52,535.

•  Last week, five defendants — Jeffrey Andre Young Jr., 31, of Miami, Joseph Bshara, 27, of Miami Shores, Siham Benabdallah, 23, of Miami Shores, along with Douglas Michael Young, 41, and Nicole Young, 42, owners of two Miami tax preparation companies — pleaded guilty to a fraud conspiracy involving $37,749 in cashed refund checks.

Perpetrators in South Florida, Tampa and other regions of the country steal the identities of people who don’t file income tax returns in order to avoid having the IRS detect duplicate filings, authorities say. They also swipe people’s IDs to file phony tax returns. Combined, the schemes have robbed the U.S. government of billions of dollars yearly since the crime began spreading in 2008, according to a Treasury Department report.

South Florida victims of these and similar crimes run the gamut: police officers, Holocaust survivors, U.S. Marines stationed in Afghanistan, school children, hospital patients and senior citizens.

What’s fueling the fraud? Florida has the highest rate of identity theft in the country, with 178 complaints per 100,000 residents last year, followed by Georgia, with 120 complaints per 100,000 residents, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

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Exclusive: D23 Magazine Rachel Weisz in 'Oz the Great and Powerful'

Disney's Oz The Great and Powerful lands in theaters March 8, and along the yellow brick road Disney's spring issue of Disney twenty-three magazine has plenty of lollipop details about the incredible production. We have a sneak preview, plus an exclusive image of Rachel Weisz from the article!

Pics: Stars on the Set!

"I thought it would be really fun to be bad, to be wicked," says Weisz of what drew her to play the witch Evanora, whose headdress was designed to give her the look of a bird of prey.

The flagship magazine of D23: The Official Disney Fan Club hits stands February 12 with an exclusive tour of the Land of Oz in the cover story A Great and Powerful Odyssey.

The feature article includes interviews with Weisz, Michelle Williams and Zach Braff and behind-the-scenes craftsmen about working on the magical Sam Raimi film on soundstages in Pontiac, MI. Details include the thought process behind the 50/50 split between real and virtual sets, such as the giant tea kettles of China Town's teacup village, and how the Deco-style architecture of Emerald City is a completely original take on designs inspired by Hugh Ferriss (the highly influential delineator whose look inspired Batman's Gotham City and many real-life architects).

Video: Watch the 'Oz The Great and Powerful' Trailer

The new Disney twenty-three also has a sneak peek of 2014's Maleficent starring Angelina Jolie, and continues the Oz theme with Emerald City fashions, a great story detailing Walt Disney's early attempts to bring Oz to the big screen, plus a fond, full-color look back at Disney's Return to Oz from 1985, a stunning film with incredible production design that was sadly overlooked at the box office at the time of its release, but now is considered a cult classic.

The mag also celebrates the 15th anniversary of Disney's Animal Kingdom, concept art from November's upcoming Disney movie Frozen in Time, and much more.

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Cop's tweets proved right after 2 parolees arrested again for crimes in B'klyn

Eduardo Guzman, left and Efrain Gauthier, right.

He was right.

A Brooklyn captain who took heat for using his Twitter account to warn the public about the release of parolees in his command was on to something -- two career criminals he tweeted about were recently cuffed again for crimes in Brooklyn.

Captain Jeffrey Schiff, the commanding officer of the 76th precinct, had tweeted about the release of parolee Eduardo Guzman, as well a criminal wanted for grand larceny in his command.

Guzman, 39, was arrested on Jan. 24 for stealing women’s clothing from a Carroll Gardens apartment building, Schiff said at a recent community council meeting.

A cop spotted him pushing a shopping cart with women’s garments wrapped in plastic, and a woman’s name and address on it about 12:30 p.m. Jan. 24, court papers state.

He was charged with petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

Schiff had also tweeted about Efrain Gauthier, who was wanted for grand larceny, and said at the meeting that police had cuffed him in Bay Ridge.

Gauthier was arrested on Jan. 24 for speeding down a sidewalk on 8th Avenue and 70th Street in a bike while holding onto a second bicycle, according to court papers.

When he was arrested, police found a pipe with crack cocaine and a hypodermic needle in his bag. He allegedly told cops that they were the leftovers from the day before, when he was shooting up heroin, court papers state.

He was charged with disorderly conduct, criminally possession of a hypodermic instrument, possession of burglar’s tools and operating a bicycle on the sidewalk.

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Can’t find time for play? Try scheduling it

If your resolutions for 2013 include achieving a better work-life balance, your calendar holds the key to your success.

But, to pull off your goals, you’re going to need to turn the traditional way of thinking upside down.

Most people schedule their work commitments on their calendars and squeeze in family, friends and fun around it. Instead, schedule your work around your personal life, say Michelle Villalobos and Jessica Kizorek, speakers, personal branding consultants and co-creators of Make Them Beg, a professional self development program. For example, they suggest you block out gym time, reading for pleasure time, coaching your kid time and date night. Even a person with almost no flexibility in his or her work schedule can block out 15 minutes for a walk rather than eating lunch at their desks.

“You have to plan for play. Otherwise work expands and there’s no time for play,” Kizorek says. Today, it’s easy to stay a little later at the office or work through lunch because there’s always more to do. Using your calendar effectively can help you with boundaries.

Villalobos says once you put “play” into your schedule, it helps to get people who are important in your life to keep you committed. For example, she blocks out three hours twice a week on her calendar to paint. She has asked her boyfriend to help her stick to that schedule.

Realistically, there will be times when you have to reschedule a fun activity because of work demands. “At least you know what you missed so if you don’t do it, you move it to another day,” Villalobos says.

If you’re in a relationship, experts advise letting your partner participate in creating your calendar. A friend of mine sends his spouse an electronic invite to his poker night signaling that she has the night free to schedule her own fun activity.

Scheduling everything may seem rigid. “That’s the opposite,” Villalobos insists. “By putting things on your calendar, you can focus on what you need to do in the moment. It allows you to be far more present.”

With more people converting to electronic calendars or hovering between paper and online options, how we coordinate our schedules is in flux. But for balance, it’s often better to track personal and professional in one place.

Sharon Teitelbaum, a Boston-based work-life coach, says to calendar all important life events including birthdays. It may sound like common sense to calendar your son’s birthday, but people forget and schedule business travel, she has found. She also advises putting work events in your calendar as far in advance as possible and tasks that lead up to them. “You don’t want to agree to host a dinner party the weekend before a work retreat.”

For many busy people, the traditional way of scheduling needs to change from calendaring a due date to creating a timeline. If you have a big project you need to have completed by Feb. 15, Teitelbaum says break it into weekly tasks leading up to that date. “People vastly underestimate how long things take and the number of interruptions they have to contend with,” she says.

Julie Morgenstern, who created the Balanced Life Planner for Delray Beach-based specialty retailer Levenger, says that even on a daily basis people don’t plan realistically. “By bravely recognizing the limits of each day and how long each to-do on your list will take, we can see in advance what will or won’t fit into our calendar, and become more strategic,” she said.

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