Spit hits the fan in teach suit

A tenured Queens math teacher confessed that he spit on a rowdy student — only because the pupil shoved chewed gum into his mouth, according to a new lawsuit.

David Pecararo, a 29-year veteran teacher and an outspoken union leader, was pulled from the classroom after a video caught him arguing and spitting on a student last February.

Pecararo hit the Department of Education with a lawsuit for threatening his termination from Beach Channel HS and leaking the video to YouTube, documents show.

Pecararo insists the student “engaged in severe misbehavior,” which he says explains the spitting spat, according to court papers.

The student allegedly put a wad of gum on the teacher’s rear end, then forced it into his mouth, causing Pecararo “to spit it out immediately.”

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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 a.m. 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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Stranded python hunters rescued from Broward Everglades

Two python hunters were rescued Thursday afternoon by Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue after they became stranded and disoriented in the Everglades.

According to Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles, a call came in shortly before 4 p.m. that the hunters, 22 and 25 years old and from Tennessee, were stranded 15 miles west of U.S. 27 near the Broward-Palm Beach County line.

“It doesn’t seem like they were familiar with the area,” Jachles said. “They underestimated the conditions. We had temperature in the 80s. “

The men, suffering from exhaustion and dehydration, complained of lightheadedness and weakness when air rescue located them. They were taken two miles from where they were found and treated by firefighters and paramedics.

“Fortunately our helicopter and rescue crews got to them before it would have gotten much worse,” Jachles said.

The victims, thought to be staying in their car, refused to be taken to a hospital for further treatment.

Jachles could not confirm that they were taking part in the ongoing “Python Challenge,” which began last month and offers cash prizes to hunters who kill the most, and longest, Burmese pythons, which have infested the Everglades in recent years.

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The Big Bang Theory Stars Talk Huge Ratings

With an average of 18 million viewers tuning in every Thursday night, The Big Bang Theory has become ratings gold for CBS. 

Despite six years of continued success, the cast of TV's #1 comedy tell ET they're still trying to wrap their heads around the extreme popularity of their show.

Pics: Star Sightings!

"When we hit 10 million a couple of years ago, Kaley [Cuoco] hunted me down at the gym to tell me," remembers Johnny Galecki with glee. "I was so excited. We thought that was the end-all, be-all."

What's the sitcom's secret? Star Jim Parsons has a theory.

"[Syndication] exposed us multiple times a day on a couple of different networks," speculates Parsons. "[It] will make you love us."

Related: Kunal Nayyar Goes 'Beyond' The 'Bang'

Of course, it doesn't hurt that co-star Simon Helberg is Big Bang's personal cheerleader in his free time.

"I hand out flyers over the weekend," Helberg jokes. "I dress up as Spider-Man…with the spinning sign."

Watch the video above for more from The Big Bang Theory's stars!

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CIA pick the drone ranger

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s pick to run the CIA defended the administration’s extensive use of drones to kill terrorists abroad — as senators overseeing his confirmation pushed for answers about the killings.

“What we were trying to do in this administration is to take every measure possible to protect the lives of American citizens whether it be abroad or the United States,” said John Brennan, considered the architect of the drone program as Obama’s top national security adviser.

Brennan appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday just hours after the White House relented and handed over a Justice Department memo to lawmakers outlining the basis of the authority to kill American citizens abroad.

AERIAL ASSAULT: CIA nominee John Brennan, at his Senate confirmation hearing yesterday, comes out strongly for the Obama administration’s use of unmanned drones (inset) to take out terrorists.

Members of the anti-war group “Code Pink” disrupted the hearing several times at the outset, as one protester called Brennan a “traitor to democracy.” Chairman Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) stopped the hearing and had Capitol Police eject the protesters.

Brennan, who spent 25 years at the CIA, managed to dodge a series of efforts to wrestle new details about the program.

Citing one US citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, killed by a drone strike in Yemen, Brennan said al-Awlaki was an al Qaeda leader tied to at least three attacks planned or carried out on US soil, including the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, that left 13 dead.

“He was intimately involved in activities to kill innocent men, women and children, mostly Americans,” Brennan said.

When Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked Brennan whether he’d provide a list of “any and all countries” where the CIA had used its “lethal authorities,” Brennan responded, “If I were to be confirmed as director of CIA, I would get back to you.”

But Brennan balked at the suggestion of establishing a court-like system to approve drone strikes. He said defending American lives was “inherently an executive-branch function.”

Years after 9/11, the hearings shed new light on the effort to go after Osama bin Laden even before the 2001 terror attacks. Brennan defended his decision to advise against a hit on bin Laden in 1998.

“Based on what I had known at the time, I didn’t think that it was a worthwhile operation and it didn’t have a chance of success,” Brennan said under questioning from Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) about whether he now “regrets” counseling against an operation to go after bin Laden.

Brennan also raised questions during his testimony about statements from top Bush-administration CIA officials that “enhanced interrogation techniques” helped the CIA identify bin Laden’s courier, a tactic that eventually led to bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan and the operation that killed the terror leader in 2011.

Brennan said he needed to review a 6,000-page Senate report on interrogation practices to reach a judgment.

“I don’t know what the facts are or the truth is. I really need to look at that,” Brennan said.

He said there were many things in the Senate report on enhanced interrogation that he found “very concerning and disturbing.”

Brennan called waterboarding “reprehensible” and “something that should not be done,” although he said such techniques during the Bush administration saved lives.

Brennan also acknowledged, “I did not take steps to stop the CIA’s use of those techniques. I was not in the chain of command of that program.”

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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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Judge angered after learning mentally ill Miami man was placed in assisted living facility, and escaped

After Cristobal Abreu was arrested when he allegedly stabbed a Hialeah SWAT officer with a large barbecue fork in December 2009, doctors deemed his mind too ravaged by mental illness to stand trial.

For years, he bounced around mental-health facilities.

Then a stay at a Miami Gardens assisted-living facility, where funds for his medications ran out and his mental state deteriorated, ended last month when the 72-year-old Abreu was shipped without a judge’s permission to Jackson North Medical Center.

Then last week, a Jackson caseworker — again, without permission from the court — sent him to an ALF in Little Havana.

Abreu promptly escaped.

“I’m free! I’m free,” he yelled as he shuffled away from the San Martin de Porras facility on Tuesday, according to lawyers and court personnel who described the episode over two days in court this week.

Abreu’s ping-ponging treatment drew the ire of Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Ellen Sue Venzer, who has now ordered hospital and state-contracted mental-health administrators to court Friday to explain what happened.

“The system is broken,” Venzer said angrily in court this week, adding: “What would have happened if Mr. Abreu had decompensated and gone out and hurt somebody else in our community?”

Abreu’s escape was short-lived: Police quickly detained him, committing him back to Jackson Memorial Hospital for an involuntary psychiatric evaluation.

The unusual episode underscores what mental-health advocates in Miami-Dade’s criminal-justice system say has been a recurring problem: “incompetent” defendants are often shuffled between facilities without the knowledge of the court tasked with supervising them.

ALFs mostly house the elderly and other people with mental-health issues or disabilities. It is not unusual for incompetent defendants, usually nonviolent ones, to be placed at an ALF in a residential neighborhood.

“The people in the social services arena have to recognize that a court order is sacrosanct,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle said Wednesday. “I really understand the judge’s ire. She has the absolute right to be livid with everyone in the system.”

Subpoenaed to appear before the judge on Friday: representatives from Jackson, the South Florida Behavioral Network, which contracts with the state to manage cases of the mentally ill defendants, and the New Horizons Community Mental Health Center, which monitored Abreu’s case.

A lawyer for the Florida Department of Children & Families will also appear.

“It sounds like all these different agencies are treating these individuals like hot potatoes,” Venzer said in court Wednesday.

Abreu was initially arrested in December 2009 on charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer. The attempted murder charge was later dropped; the SWAT officer was not hurt because the knife pierced his shield.

During a jailhouse interview with a psychologist, the incoherent Abreu admitted that he sometimes hears voices and sees visions of “flowers [and] gold diamonds.”

The court determined that Abreu was incompetent to proceed to trial, meaning he could not assist his lawyer in defending the accusations.

After stays in several other facilities, Abreu wound up in November at the Graceful Gardens ALF, 18101 NW 47th Ct.

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Justin Timberlake Reveals New Album Cover for 20 20 Experience

We're one step closer to The 20/20 Experience!

Justin Timberlake just dropped a major treat for his fans on Twitter, revealing the cover art and tracklisting to his upcoming solo album, The 20/20 Experience.

"I wanted you guys to see this first!!!," wrote Timberlake with a link to the cover (featuring the singer dressed to the nines behind a phoropter) and song titles.

Pics: Justin & Jessica's Long Road to the Altar

Check out the full tracklisting below:

-Pusher Love Girl

-Suit & Tie

-Don't Hold The Wall

-Strawberry Bubblegum

-Tunnel Vision

-Spaceship Coupe

-That Girl
Let The Groove Get In

-Mirrors

-Blue Ocean Floor

The 20/20 Experience hits stores on March 19.

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NYPD Daily Blotter

Manhattan

Police are looking for a well-dressed bandit who robbed an Upper East Side bank, authorities said.

The suspect (pictured) went into the Valley National Bank on Third Avenue at East 88th Street at around 3:40 p.m. Jan. 28 and passed a demand note along with a plastic bag to the teller, police said.

The teller filled the bag with an unknown amount of cash, and the suspect fled. He was wearing a tan trench coat, a dark-blue hat and sunglasses.

***

Cops are still hunting for a robber who apparently timed his heist at a Midtown bank more than four months ago, authorities said.

The suspect (above) went into the Valley National Bank on Third Avenue at East 88th Street at around 3:40 p.m. Jan. 28 and passed a demand note along with a plastic bag to the teller, police said.

The suspect (above) walked into the Bank of America branch on West 42nd Street at Sixth Avenue at 5 p.m. Sept. 27 as the teller was counting out cash. He grabbed her hand and demanded she fork over the dough, police said. She did so, and the man made his getaway.

The suspect (pictured) walked into the Bank of America branch on West 42nd Street at Sixth Avenue at 5 p.m. Sept. 27 as the teller was counting out cash. He grabbed her hand and demanded she fork over the dough, police said. She did so, and the man made his getaway.

Staten Island

A driver was busted in Old Town after trying to flee from police, authorities said.

A detective tried to pull over Luan Husic, 20, for driving recklessly, but Husic ignored him and made a U-turn on McClean Avenue near Lampert Boulevard, court papers claim.

He then blew through a red light and three stop signs, authorities said.

When police arrested him on the corner of Old Town Road and Albright Street, he refused to exit his car and tried putting his hands under him to avoid being cuffed, the records say.

Then, when police finally subdued him, they searched his vehicle and allegedly found painkillers.

Husic was charged with reckless driving, unlawful fleeing of a police officer in a motor vehicle, resisting arrest, and criminal possession of a controlled substance, a spokesman for DA Dan Donovan said.

The Bronx

An unidentified man was shot to death in a Morrisania housing project yesterday, authorities said.

A passer-by spotted the body in the 13th-floor stairwell of 3073 Park Ave. in the Morrisania Air Rights Houses at 1:52 a.m., cops said.

The victim, who was wearing a heavy winter coat, had been shot twice in the head.

It was not immediately known what motivated the murder, cops said.

Brooklyn

A gang leader apprehended in Pennsylvania was extradited to New York for an attempted murder in Red Hook, cops said at a 76th Precinct Community Council meeting.

Calvin Stallworth, 24, allegedly shot a man on Lorraine Street near Hicks Street last March after he skipped parole in Pennsylvania, cops said.

Stallworth is a known member of a Bloods off-shoot known as the Mad Dogs, which controls parts of the Red Hook Houses, and his return to Brooklyn led to a spike in violence, authorities said.

Stallworth was charged with attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon, according to court papers.

***

A man was arrested after he threatened a cop with a knife in Sunset Park, police sources said.

Nestor Arreaga, 21, allegedly menaced the officer on the southeast corner of Fourth Avenue and 47th Street at about 2:10 a.m. Jan. 26, sources said.

It was not immediately known what sparked the incident, but the cop was not hurt.

Arreaga was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, menacing, and harassment, records show.

Queens

Police yesterday released video of the thug they say slashed three men in a Jamaica subway station this week.

The suspect approached the three victims on the platform of the Jamaica Center Station at Parsons Boulevard and Archer Avenue at 3:30 p.m., Monday, cops said.

He stabbed an 18-year-old and a 19-year-old, each in the torso, and a 17-year-old in the leg, police said.

All three victims were taken to Jamaica Hospital, where each was in stable condition.

They told varying stories about what prompted the attack, so the motive is still unclear, sources said.

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Greenberg Traurig shuffles leadership

Law firm Greenberg Traurig on Tuesday announced a new management lineup that includes naming Hilarie Bass as the first female president in the firm’s history.

Bass, one of the firm’s Miami shareholders, most recently had been global operating shareholder. She will share the presidency with Brian L. Duffy, a Denver shareholder who has been global litigation chair, a position previously held by Bass.

As part of the shuffle, Miami shareholders Cesar L. Alvarez and Matt Gorson move to co-chairs and Larry Hoffman becomes founding chair. Alvarez previously served as executive chair, Gorson as president and Hoffman as chair.

These were just some of the new leadership changes announced by Greenberg’s Chief Executive Richard A. Rosenbaum. The firm began a leadership transition plan in 2010 when Rosenbaum took over the helm of the firm that today includes about 1,750 attorneys in 35 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

“We are pleased to have so many talented leaders and performers, not just those with titles,” Rosenbaum said in a statement. “We have never been about titles or politics, and titles do not create leaders. We and others already in place in our regions, offices and practices form a seamless team focused on respecting and serving our clients and lawyers.”

Rosenbaum, who will remain in his post, also announced four new vice presidents:

• Ernest Greer, Managing Shareholder of the firm’s Atlanta office.

• Brad Kaufman, Co-Chair of the National Securities Litigation Practice, leader of the firm’s Associate Development Program and a Palm Beach County shareholder.

• Patricia Menendez-Cambo, Chair of the Global Practice, Co-Chair of the Infrastructure and Project Finance Practice and a Miami shareholder.

• Keith Shapiro, Chair of the Chicago office and Co-Chair of the Business Reorganization Practice.

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