Think you're a neat freak? Meet Alfreta.
Video-'Crazy Obsession': The $150K Love Doll Collection
The self-confessed germophobe not only spends the majority of her day scrubbing her home with gallons of bleach (as well as public bathrooms and friend's houses when she gets the chance), she utilizes her favorite cleanser to sanitize her meals before eating.
Check out a sneak peek in the player above!
Neat Freaks premieres Wednesday, December 5th on TLC.
Once again the specter of newsroom layoffs is hanging over the Gray Lady.
“The advertising climate remains volatile and we don’t see this changing in the near future,” said New York Times Publisher and Chairman Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger, Jr.
The company said it was looking for 30 volunteers from its non-unionized management ranks to take early retirement — and that if it didn’t get enough volunteers, pink slips will be handed out.
“The economic environment has grown more difficult in the second half of the year and I must reduce costs in the newsroom,” said Editor-in-Chief Jill Abramson in a memo announcing the cuts yesterday.
Abramson said the Newspaper Guild also asked that its newsroom, security and ad-makeup members also be offered a chance to take early retirement packages and the company is extending the offer to them as well.
The Guild, which recently ratified a new labor pact, told members they will have 45 days to decide if they want to take a package that will include three weeks pay for employees with 11-plus years of service.
Any Guild departures would be separate and apart from the 30 non-unionized exempted employees.
The company reported Nov. 3 that print advertising revenue fell 11 percent in the third quarter while operating costs rose 2.3 percent.
The last time there were extensive newsroom layoffs was in 2008 when about 100 people exited.
“You and I have been through this process together before and know that it is painful,” said Abramson.
Currently, the newsroom staff is about the same size as it was in 2003, Abramson said.
kkelly@nypost.com
This week, thousands of art collectors, museum trustees, artists, journalists and hipsters from around the globe will arrive for the phenomenon known as Art Basel Miami Beach. The centerpiece of the week: works shown at the convention center by more than 260 of the world’s top galleries.
Only two of those are from Miami.
While Art Basel has helped transform the city’s reputation from beach-and-party scene to arts destination in the years since its 2002 Miami Beach debut, the region’s gallery identity is still coming into its own.
“Certainly Miami as an art town registers mightily because of the foundations, the collectors who have done an extraordinary job,” said Linda Blumberg, executive director of the Art Dealers Association of America. “I think there’s a definite international awareness there. But the gallery scene probably has a bit of a ways to go. That doesn’t mean it’s not really fascinating and interesting.”
The gallery business, especially where newer artists are concerned, is a game of risk, faith and passion. Once a gallery takes on an artist who shows promise, they become an evangelist on their behalf, showing their work in-house and at fairs, presenting it to museums and curators and potential collectors and bearing the cost of that promotion.
For contemporary artists, most galleries take work on consignment, meaning they get a cut of as much as 50 percent when works sell. While local art galleries have been growing in number and popularity in the last several years — just try to find parking during the monthly art walk in Miami’s hot Wynwood neighborhood — even some of the area’s top art dealers say that while business overall is good, they struggle in the local marketplace.
“Our problem is that we have to do lots of art fairs in order to connect with the market that we need to connect with to sell the work that we have,” said Fredric Snitzer, a Miami-Dade gallery owner for 35 years. “The better the work is, the harder it is to sell in Miami. And that ain’t good.”
A handful of serious collectors call Miami home and store their own collections in Miami, including the Braman, Rubell, Margulies and de la Cruz families. But outside a relatively small local group, many gallerists say, their clients come from other parts of the country and world.
And some gallerists point out the troubling reality that even the powerhouse Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin could not stay open in Miami for more than a few years.
“The fact that big galleries have not been able to sustain their business models in South Florida tells you we’re obviously not at this high established point,” said gallery owner David Castillo. “It’s not like we’ve arrived, let’s sit back and watch Hauser & Wirth open down the street.”
Still, Miami’s gallery business has come a long way since the early 1970s, when a few dealers on Bay Harbor Island’s Kane Concourse were selling high-end pieces but the local scene was hardly embraced.
Virginia Miller, who owns ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in Coral Gables, first opened in 1974 to showcase Florida artists, though her focus soon added an international scope. She and other longtime observers credit several factors for Miami’s transformation, including the community’s diversity, the establishment of important museums, the Art Miami fair that started 23 years ago, the presence of major collections and, of course, Art Basel Miami Beach.
Six months into negotiations with federal regulators over Miami-Dade’s aging sewer system, the county has come up with a $1.5 billion, 15-year plan to rebuild pipes, pumps and sewage treatment plants that in some cases are almost 100 years old.
County leaders devised the proposal in an attempt to fend off a federal lawsuit, and potentially millions of dollars in fines, for not abiding by the federal Clean Water Act. The county also has proposed replacing or repairing a good portion of the 7,500 miles of sewer lines that regularly rupture and spill millions of gallons of raw waste into local waterways and Biscayne Bay.
Before any work is to begin, the Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency — which put the county on notice in May — must accept the county’s terms. The plan, referred to as a consent decree, also must be endorsed by a majority of county commissioners. That could come as soon as late January or early February.
One of the largest repair jobs would be a $555 million reconstruction of the controversial wastewater treatment plant on Virginia Key. Entire concrete structures would be rebuilt, and pump stations and electrical systems would be replaced. The plan calls for spending another $394 million on similar fixes to two other wastewater treatment facilities, in Goulds and North Miami.
Another $408 million would be spent replacing and rehabbing the county’s 1,035 pump stations, and miles of transmission lines that run to and from the plants.
The plan has already garnered some criticism.
The Biscayne Bay Waterkeepers, clean-water activists who filed to join the federal action against the county, say spending hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild on Virginia Key is a waste, because the spit of land is likely to be under water within 50 years.
The group points to a recent study by the journal Science that showed the polar ice caps in Greenland are melting at three times the rate originally believed. They also say a climate change compact Miami-Dade agreed to with three other counties — which accepted a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study that shows sea levels will rise 3 feet by 2060 — shows the Virginia Key plant could be in peril.
“Doubling down on Virginia Key the way they’re doing it is just stupid,” said environmental attorney Albert J. Slap, representing the Waterkeepers. “There’s not a dime in it for armoring the plant, or raising it. It’s on a barrier island.”
Doug Yoder, deputy director of the county’s water and sewer department, didn’t dispute the Army Corps findings, and said the county could abandon the Virginia Key plant for a new plant on the western edge of the county if federal regulators make such a demand.
“We certainly don’t want to spend a lot of money fixing up a facility we’ll soon abandon,” he said.
Most of the costs for the overall plan will be covered through county revenue bonds, Yoder said, meaning a future increase in water rates and debt service bills. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has been warning for months that rate hikes are in the offing.
To meet demands from the feds, the county also must abandon by 2027 an outflow system it now uses that dumps up to 120 million gallons of sewage each day miles offshore. The county has until July 2013 to come up with an alternate disposal method.
A project cited in the new plan that had not been publicly addressed previously is the installation of 7,660 linear feet of sewer mains in an industrial area just below State Road 112 and between Northwest 27th and 37th avenues, which now depends on septic tanks. The job of hooking up local businesses there to county sewers would cost a little over $2 million.
Federal regulators began talks with Miami-Dade in May after a series of massive raw sewage spills released more than 47 million gallons of untreated human waste throughout the county. DOJ and the EPA, along with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, sketched out the 78-page consent decree.
Four times between October and December 2011, the sewage treatment plant on Virginia Key alone ruptured, spilling more than 19 million gallons.
The county also has agreed to pay a $978,000 fine for past spills within 30 days of the plan being accepted, with about half the money going to the DOJ and the other half to the state.
DOJ spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle declined to comment Friday.
In October, the county denied 12 permit applications in the Coconut Grove area by businesses that wanted to install sinks, toilets or showers. The county said it was imposing a moratorium on new sewage outflow from a Coconut Grove-serving pump station.
Breezy’s back with a bang.
Chris Brown has returned to Twitter, after deleting his account last Sunday following an expletive-laced online fight with comedian Jenny Johnson.
PLAY IT NOW: Rihanna Discusses Her Fashion Sense & Tattoos
While the “Don’t Wake Me Up” singer still boasts 7.7 million followers, he has yet to grace the Twittersphere with a post since reactivating his account on Saturday.
However, the 23-year-old has been active on his Instragram account (with a handle we can’t repeat – you’ve been warned!), posting a photo of himself smoking, while a scantily clad Rihanna lays next to him with the caption, “What would music today sound like if these kids didn’t exist?”
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Rihanna: Burning Up The Stage!
Rihanna hasn’t been shy about sharing photos of Chris either.
In the last week she’s posted multiple photos of her seemingly-on-again beau – one with Chris lying shirtless on a bed, as well as a shot of her hugging the singer with the caption, “I don’t wanna leave! Killed it tonight baby!!!”
Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Chris Brown
Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Despite an attempt to salvage their rocky marriage in April, actor Dennis Quaid has officially filed for divorce from his wife of eight years, Kimberly Quaid.
Related: Dennis Quaid's Wife Files for Divorce
In court filings obtained by ET dated November 30, Quaid blames "irreconcilable differences" for the pair's split, listing their date of separation as October 1, 2012. Joint legal and physical custody has been requested of the former couple's five-year-old twins Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace.
Last March, Kimberly filed for divorce explaining in court papers that the marriage had "become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities." A month later she withdrew the divorce papers so they could work on their marriage.
The pair married in 2004. It was the third marriage for Quaid, who was married to Meg Ryan from 1991 to 2001, and actress P.J. Soles from to 1978 to 1983.
A man who suspected that his wife of 20 years had cheated on him allegedly bludgeoned her to death with a baseball bat yesterday — as their two teenage children frantically called 911 from another room of the family’s Staten Island house.
Gregory Surinaga, 45, described by neighbors as an FDNY mechanic, allegedly choked and beat Jodi Surinaga, 42, in their bedroom and then unsuccessfully tried to hang himself with a TV cable after taking pills.
Officers responding to the desperate 2:25 a.m. call cut him down and arrested him on murder and weapon-possession charges after finding his wife’s body in the Beechwood Place home in Castleton Corners, sources said.
Angelica Surinaga and her younger brother, Michael, were in another room when their dad’s temper allegedly erupted into a murderous rage.
Neighbors believe he snapped after discovering his wife’s alleged infidelity.
“She had an affair, and he moved out, and then they reconciled after a couple of months,” said Chris Dowling, 52, who lives across the street.
After a Sept. 23 verbal dispute at the home, a police report listed Gregory Surinaga as the victim, but there was no arrest.
This week, thousands of art collectors, museum trustees, artists, journalists and hipsters from around the globe will arrive for the phenomenon known as Art Basel Miami Beach. The centerpiece of the week: works shown at the convention center by more than 260 of the world’s top galleries.
Only two of those are from Miami.
While Art Basel has helped transform the city’s reputation from beach-and-party scene to arts destination in the years since its 2002 Miami Beach debut, the region’s gallery identity is still coming into its own.
“Certainly Miami as an art town registers mightily because of the foundations, the collectors who have done an extraordinary job,” said Linda Blumberg, executive director of the Art Dealers Association of America. “I think there’s a definite international awareness there. But the gallery scene probably has a bit of a ways to go. That doesn’t mean it’s not really fascinating and interesting.”
The gallery business, especially where newer artists are concerned, is a game of risk, faith and passion. Once a gallery takes on an artist who shows promise, they become an evangelist on their behalf, showing their work in-house and at fairs, presenting it to museums and curators and potential collectors and bearing the cost of that promotion.
For contemporary artists, most galleries take work on consignment, meaning they get a cut of as much as 50 percent when works sell. While local art galleries have been growing in number and popularity in the last several years — just try to find parking during the monthly art walk in Miami’s hot Wynwood neighborhood — even some of the area’s top art dealers say that while business overall is good, they struggle in the local marketplace.
“Our problem is that we have to do lots of art fairs in order to connect with the market that we need to connect with to sell the work that we have,” said Fredric Snitzer, a Miami-Dade gallery owner for 35 years. “The better the work is, the harder it is to sell in Miami. And that ain’t good.”
A handful of serious collectors call Miami home and store their own collections in Miami, including the Braman, Rubell, Margulies and de la Cruz families. But outside a relatively small local group, many gallerists say, their clients come from other parts of the country and world.
And some gallerists point out the troubling reality that even the powerhouse Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin could not stay open in Miami for more than a few years.
“The fact that big galleries have not been able to sustain their business models in South Florida tells you we’re obviously not at this high established point,” said gallery owner David Castillo. “It’s not like we’ve arrived, let’s sit back and watch Hauser & Wirth open down the street.”
Still, Miami’s gallery business has come a long way since the early 1970s, when a few dealers on Bay Harbor Island’s Kane Concourse were selling high-end pieces but the local scene was hardly embraced.
Virginia Miller, who owns ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in Coral Gables, first opened in 1974 to showcase Florida artists, though her focus soon added an international scope. She and other longtime observers credit several factors for Miami’s transformation, including the community’s diversity, the establishment of important museums, the Art Miami fair that started 23 years ago, the presence of major collections and, of course, Art Basel Miami Beach.
What began as a day of prayer and fellowship turned into a surreal scene of stunned, bloodied passengers and twisted metal.
There was the sickening sound of crunching metal early Saturday as a busload of Jehovah’s Witnesses was low-bridged by a concrete overpass at Miami International Airport, peeling back the top of the vehicle “like a can of sardines.”
Airport workers running to the scene found shocked passengers thrown into the aisle or trapped in their seats by the wreckage.
Riders in the front rows were crushed — two of them killed, others seriously injured.
The driver of the bus, 47-year-old Ramon Ferreiro, took a wrong turn off LeJeune Road, entering the airport by mistake, then rolled past multiple yellow signs warning tall vehicles. He drove on, approaching an overpass whose sign said “8ft-6in”. The driver either didn’t see it, couldn’t read it, or realized it too late.
The bus stood 11 feet tall.
“The last thing he should have done is to keep going,” said Greg Chin, airport spokesman. “That goes against all logic.”
Ferreiro, whose driver’s seat was lower than those of the passengers, was not injured.
One passenger, 86-year-old Miami resident Serfin Castillo, was killed on impact, and all 31 others were taken by ambulance to local hospitals. Thirteen ended up at Jackson Memorial’s Ryder Trauma Center, where one of them, 56-year-old Francisco Urana of Miami, died shortly after arriving.
Three remained in critical condition Saturday night, and three had been released.
Luis Jimenez, 72, got a few stitches on his lip and hurt his hand. He said the group left the Sweetwater Kingdom Hall about 7 a.m., bound for West Palm Beach.
“I was sitting in the back when it happened,” Jimenez said. “We were on our way to an assembly and lost a brother today. I’m very sad.”
Delvis Lazo, 15, a neighbor and member of the same congregation, described Castillo as a “nice, old man.” He often saw Castillo at religious gatherings, and their families have known each other for more than 15 years.
The last time Lazo saw him was about two months ago, as he prepped for a talk before his congregation.
“He gave me a thumbs up, told me that everything was going to be all right,” he said.
The bus, one of three traveling to the Spanish-language general assembly on Saturday, had been contracted by the congregation, which has fewer than 150 members.
According to public records, the bus belongs to Miami Bus Service Corporation, a Miami company owned by Mayling and Alberto Hernandez that offers regularly scheduled service between South Florida and Gainesville, often used by University of Florida students. At the home address listed for the company and the owners, Mayling Hernandez told The Miami Herald that passenger safety is her primary concern.
“At this time I’m worried about the driver and the families of the victims. I’m praying for them,” she said. “My job is to worry about the safety of the passengers who are our clients. What we do requires a lot of responsibility. I didn’t know the passengers but that doesn’t mean I’m not suffering.”
Neighbor Armando Bacigalupi described the owners as “caring people” and said he had seen buses park briefly in front of the house.
While Nintendo (NTDOY) has chosen to create second-screen experiences with the new Wii U GamePad, Microsoft’s (MSFT) strategy for the Xbox 360 involves bringing your own devices (BYOD) with the Xbox SmartGlass app for Android, iOS, Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. One of the more frustrating things initially about the Xbox SmartGlass app was that it wasn’t natively compatible with 7-inch Android tablets such as Google’s (GOOG) excellent Nexus 7, but Microsoft’s gone ahead and updated the app to take advantage of 7-inch Android tablets while squashing a batch of bugs at the same time. While still in its infancy, Xbox SmartGlass is a glimpse at the future of smartphones and tablet and how they connect to the TV.
Last month, we said: “SmartGlass isn’t just a fancy touchscreen remote control app for the Xbox 360 — it’s much more than that. With the app, users can start a movie on any mobile device and resume on the Xbox 360 (and vice versa), monitor real-time sports stats, bios and highlights on a secondary display, navigate the newly added Internet Explorer with multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom and enhance gameplay with new gameplay options.”
The new Xbox SmartGlass is available for free in Google Play Store here.
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