Think local, former U.N. leader Kofi Annan tells Miami forum

In the Ritz-Carlton ballroom in Coconut Grove on Monday, Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, addressed a crowd of well-dressed world savers to open the Continuity Forum of the Americas Business Council (abc*). In a speech that touched on the environment, the Arab awakening, democracy in Latin America, the spiraling conflict in Syria, nuclear war and resource scarcity, Annan encouraged attendees to address these and other problems by thinking local.

“People ask me all the time, ‘what should one do to become a global citizen?’ I tell them, get involved with your community, your city, your town, your village,” Annan said.

For abc*, a think tank dedicated to “people, planet and philanthropy” in the Americas, Miami is the center of that community. Smack dab in the middle of the hemisphere, for two years Miami has hosted the annual Continuity Forum that attracts more than 300 people from all over North and South America. Rebecca Mandelman, senior director of the abc* based in Miami Beach, said she has recently seen more and more of these would-be world changers coming to Miami to stay.

“There’s this intellectual thirst in Miami that brings a lot of these forces together,” Mandelman said. Referring to the co-sponsoring organizations — many of them local, like the Knight Foundation, Univision, PODER magazine and technology company Ico Group — she said, “Miami is like the fulcrum, the center for people in our community.”

The three-day conference, which sold tickets in advance, features a full roster of impressive speakers, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes. But the main focus is the competition between 32 “social entrepreneurs” who will present their projects to be judged by the five chairman of abc* and the foundation’s 23 fellows. The best three projects will receive $100,000 grants, media support and business connections for two years.

“We evaluate them by their potential to make the greatest impact,” said Mario Scarpetta, director of Colombian cement and energy company Inversiones Argos and co-chairman of abc*. To evaluate their effectiveness, he said abc* would review each project’s “strategic business plans and economic models of their impact.”

The projects range from a museum of sacred Peruvian plants and an indigenous tourism agency in Mexico to a Nicaraguan organization dedicated to fighting cancer and a “green roof” sustainable building company. The presentations, videos and question-and-answer sessions took place in English and Spanish, and Mandelman said she hoped the casual conversations between sessions would lead to future ideas and organizations.

Even entrepreneurs whose projects are not chosen for the abc* grant have the opportunity this week to interact with investors and leaders of the industries they seek to influence. Pati Ruiz of Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda in Mexico said her alliance of five conservation organizations is already active in central Mexico, but if awarded the grant she would use it to expand to the rest of the country and into South America.

“The strength of our project is that it’s already up and running,” Ruiz said in Spanish after her presentation. “We have the tools to expand and reproduce what we’re doing.”

Although most of the conference attendees were excited about the ideas, some expressed frustration with the lack of avenues for individuals to get involved.

“I think that’s the problem with a lot of these conferences: There are no action items, nothing you can really do if you’re not a big-time donor,” said one attendee who didn’t want to be named because he works for one of the co-sponsors of the conference. “We come, watch, applaud and leave.”

Still, abc* continues to connect some of the most creative innovators in a younger generation to current political and business leaders who have the resources to give their ideas wings, Mandelman said, and the rest of the Continuity Forum promises to help make this happen.

“We believe that collective engagement can advance the Americas,” she said.

Read More..

Thieves makes off with $35,000 from Miami restaurant

For the second time in four months, thieves hit a Miami restaurant and made off with thousands of dollars in cash.

Late Sunday night or early Monday morning, crooks broke into the Caribe Café in the 7100 block of West Flagler Street. Miami police said they gained access to the restaurant by breaking into a business next door and then cutting a hole in the wall.

Once inside, they stole a safe which had about $35,000 inside. They also took the DVR system that records the restaurant’s surveillance cameras.

Read More..

Jeff Gordon Brawl on Racetrack

Tom Cruise famously said "Rubbin' is racing" in his 1990 checkered flag classic, Days of Thunder. But on Sunday, rubbin' was the start of a shocking racetrack brawl between Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer and their pit crews.

FIRST LOOK - The Hangover Part 3

The incident occurred at Sunday's Advocare 500 after Bowyer made contact with Gordon's car as the two battled it out for fifth place on Lap 305, slashing Gordon's tire and sending him into a wall. Then, after re-entering the race, Gordon used his car to return the favor, inadvertently causing a multi-car crash and a pit crew brawl that could have lasting repercussions for both drivers, and the sport.

Once Gordon and Bowyer returned to the garage, that's when the fight erupted. An incident that led to both men being summoned to the NASCAR hauler. "They've got to do what they've got to do just like I had to do what I had to do,'' Gordon said about possible fines, suspensions or punishments the organization may throw at him.

POLL: Who Would You Rather Date?

Gordon added that this was a long time coming. "Things just got escalated over the year, and I'd just had it,'' he said. ''Clint has run into me numerous times, wrecked me, and he got into me on the back straightaway and pretty much ruined our day. I've had it, fed up with it and I got him back.''

"It's pretty embarrassing for a four-time champion and what I consider one of the best the sport's ever seen to act like that," Bowyer told reporters after the incident. "It's completely ridiculous.

Check out the entire altercation below and decide if Gordon was out of line or justified in his actions.

Read More..

Major delays at Lincoln Tunnel after bus accident

Bus commuters can't catch a break after a morning fender-bender ties up the commute.

Two buses collided in New Jersey on the highway that leads to the Lincoln Tunnel.

The crash involves a NJ Transit bus and a bus operated by Martz Trailways.

Port Authority spokesman Ron Marsico says approximately 17 people were injured, including at least two in serious condition.

The accident forced officials to close the outbound Lincoln Tunnel.

Meanwhile, New Jersey Transit is offering more limited service on the rails two weeks after Superstorm Sandy damaged tracks, signals and overhead wires.

The Morris & Essex lines, including Midtown Direct, Bergen and Port Jervis are operating. However, service remains suspended along the Gladstone Branch and Montclair-Boonton Lines.

Limited service also continues on the Northeast Corridor.

Trains into New York City remain extremely limited.

NJ Transit is encouraging rail passengers to continue to use buses and ferries.

PATH, meanwhile, is operating limited service between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m. from Newark to 33rd Street in Manhattan.

Read More..

Self-publishing industry explodes, brings rewards, challenges

The publishing world is being upended, and reinvented, by people like Hugh Howey, Ily Goyanes and Kristy Montee.

They are part of a movement using the power of e-books and the Internet to lead publishing into a new frontier, and through the biggest upheaval of the industry since Guttenberg’s press.

“It’s the Wild West,” Montee said. “It is literally changing at the speed of light.”

Howey is a writer who authored, designed, formatted and self-published all but the very first of his 14 novelettes and stories as e-books — and saw his Wool series of sci-fi stories make the Top 100 Kindle Best Sellers of 2012, above J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy and the four-book bundle of George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones.

Goyanes is one of a new breed of independent publishers filling the void between self-publishing and traditional publishing giants, offering technical, marketing and distribution help for do-it-yourself authors.

Montee is a Fort Lauderdale-based writer better known to her readers — along with her sister and writing partner, Kelly Nichols — as P.J. Parrish, the pseudonymous author of the Louis Kincaid and Joe Frye thriller series. She’s among the new “hybrid authors,” with a foot in both traditional and the self-published worlds.

“For a long, long, long time in our business anything that you published yourself just had a stench of amateurism about it,” she said. “That was just for desperate people who couldn’t make their way through the labyrinth of the New York system, so they resorted to paying pretty much scam artists to publish their books for them at great expense. And then, Amazon came out with the Kindle, which pretty much changed everything.”

With the stigma fading, and Amazon’s help, self-publishing has exploded. On its website, Publishers Weekly last month cited a new analysis of data from Bowker, which shows the number of self-published books produced annually in the U.S. has nearly tripled, growing 287 percent since 2006, with 235,625 print and e-titles released in 2011.

As a “mid-list author” with 13 moderately successful books to her name, Montee felt the pressure when her publisher began trimming its author list to reduce costs.

“So a lot of us, and this includes a lot of my friends,” began looking for ways to survive independently, Montee said. “Amazon made it extremely easy and very attractive to go self-publish through their model.”

She and her sister regained rights to two of their early books to re-publish and have a novella in the works they plan to self-publish.

The advantages, and the profits, can be huge. The downside, of course, would make a Vegas gambler sweat.

“The largest, by far, percentage of authors are making less than $500 a year self-publishing, because there’s a glut,” said M.J. Rose, a best-selling novelist and founder of the writer’s marketing company AuthorBuzz.com. “There’s over 350,000 books being self-published every year and readers are not finding them. There’s just no way to expose people to all of these books.”

Howey, however, who spends mornings writing at his home in Jupiter, might be the perfect example of what “making it” looks like in this thoroughly modern twist on every writer’s dream. He began writing while working at a bookstore, and he received a modest advance when a small press picked up his first novel.

Read More..

Course to explore Jewish communities in Asia, Africa

Florida International University research professors Nathan Katz and Tudor Parfitt, considered to be the world’s leading authorities on Eastern Jewish communities, will explore the Jewish experience in Asia and Africa in a new, 13-week course to be offered at the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, 301 Washington Ave. in Miami Beach.

The course will look at the Jewish experience far beyond Florida, which has been the traditional focus of the museum. Among the Jewish populations of Africa to be explored include the Lemba of Zimbabwe, the Beta Israel of Ethiopia, and the Ibo of Nigeria. The Asian communities include the Jews of Kochi; Mumbai and northeastern tribal peoples of India; Shanghai, China, a home in the 19th century to Sephardic Jews seeking business opportunities and refuge in the 1930s-40s to European Jews fleeing Nazi persecution; and a "Judaizing " movement in Papua New Guinea.

Classes start in January and are open to both degree-seeking FIU students and community members interested in taking it on an auditing

basis. The class will be the first FIU offering at the Miami Beach museum, which recently joined the FIU family.

The classes will feature guest speakers, including a visiting member of Zimbabwe’s Lemba Jewish community.

Before joining FIU earlier this year, Parfitt was director of the Jewish Studies Center at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, where he was dubbed "Britain’s Indiana Jones" for his pursuit of the Ark of the Covenant and his discoveries of remote Jewish communities.

Katz is Bhagwan Mahavir Professor of Jain Studies and is director of FIU’s Program in the Study of Spirituality. He spent many years living in South Asoa and is a recipient of four Fulbright research and teaching awards. He was instrumental in bringing the Dalai Lama to Miami three times and has played an influential role in the interreligious dialogues between Jews and Hindus, Buddhists and Jains.

Degree-seeking FIU students may register for the class though Nov. 18. Community members who want to audit the class should contact the Center for the Advancement of Jewish Education at 305-576-4030, ext. 128 or by emailing carlaspector@caje-miami.org. The cost for the 13-week course is $295.

Books club at the garden

The Green Book Club will begin its monthly meetings on Nov. 13, at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden, 2000 Convention Center Dr. in Miami Beach.

My sources tell me the meetings, which are from noon to 2 p.m., are a great place to meet new people and become a better reader/writer by experiencing books in a whole new way.

The group reads and discusses environmentally-themed books chosen and read during the month preceding each meeting, which is on the second Tuesday of every month. This month’s pick is "Vita’s Other World: A Gardening Biography of V. Sackville-West," by Jane Brown (Viking, 1985).

Also, floral design classes, taught by accredited floral designers, will begin at the garden on Nov. 27. The designers will combine lectures, demos, and critiqued hands-on workshops to develop an understanding of the art of flower arranging. The class runs from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is the first part of a six-part floral design study hosted by the Miami Beach Garden Club.

The cost is $26 per class, or $150 for all six. A certificate from the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs will be awarded those who complete the six courses. Lunch is included in the cost. To register, email Nina Worth at ninanevanu@gmial.com or call 305-532-9987.

Read More..

How Apple’s iPad Mini compares with rivals

The iPad Mini is just one of several tablets of its size. Here’s a look at how the Mini compares with other tablets with comparable screens.

Apple Inc.’s iPad Mini

— Price: $ 329 for base model with Wi-Fi only and 16 gigabytes of storage, $ 429 with 32 GB, $ 529 with 64 GB. Add $ 130 for versions with cellular capability.

— Screen size: 7.9 inches diagonally

— Screen resolution: 1024 by 768 pixels

— Weight: 0.68 pound (0.69 pound for cellular versions)

— Cameras: 5-megapixel camera on back and a low-resolution camera on front, for videoconferencing

— Battery life: 10 hours

— Operating system: Apple‘s iOS

Pros: Unmatched access to third-party applications, high-quality Apple software and the iTunes store. High-resolution screen. Available with access to fast 4G wireless broadband networks, starting at $ 459. Larger-screen version available.

Cons: Data storage cannot be expanded with memory cards.

Barnes & Noble Inc.‘s Nook HD

— Price: $ 199 with 8 gigabytes of storage, $ 229 with 16 GB

— Screen size: 7 inches diagonally

— Screen resolution: 1440 by 900 pixels

— Weight: 0.69 pound

— Cameras: None

— Battery life: Up to 10.5 hours of reading and up to 9 hours of video

— Operating system: Modified version of Google‘s Android

Pros: Expandable with microSD card. High-definition screen. Larger-screen version available.

Cons: Selection of third-party applications is small. Lacks cameras and option for cellular broadband.

Amazon.com Inc.‘s Kindle Fire HD.

— Price: $ 199 with 16 gigabytes of storage, $ 249 with 32 GB

— Screen size: 7 inches diagonally

— Screen resolution: 1280 by 800 pixels

— Weight: 0.87 pound.

— Cameras: Front-facing camera.

— Battery life: 11 hours.

— Operating system: Modified version of Google’s Android

Pros: Cheap and portable. Convenient access to Amazon store. High-definition screen. Dolby audio. Larger-screen version coming Nov. 20, including option for cellular broadband.

Cons: Small selection of third-party applications available from Amazon. No rear camera for taking video and photos. Data storage cannot be expanded with memory cards.

Amazon.com Inc.’s regular Kindle Fire:

— Price: $ 159 with 8 gigabytes of storage

— Screen size: 7 inches diagonally

— Screen resolution: 1024 by 600 pixels

— Weight: 0.88 pounds

— Cameras: none

— Battery life: 8.5 hours.

— Operating system: Modified version of Google’s Android

Pros: Cheap and portable. Convenient access to Amazon store.

Cons: No-frills tablet lacks camera and microphone. Small selection of third-party applications available from Amazon. Data storage cannot be expanded with memory cards. No option for cellular wireless broadband.

Google Inc.’s Nexus 7

— Price: $ 199 with 16 gigabytes of storage, $ 249 with 32 GB. Add $ 50 for 32 GB model with cellular capability (available Nov. 13).

— Screen size: 7 inches diagonally

— Screen resolution: 1280 x 800 pixels

— Weight: 0.75 pounds

— Cameras: Front-facing, 1.2 megapixel camera

— Battery life: 8 hours

— Operating system: Google’s Android

Pros: Access to a variety of games, utilities and other software for Android devices, though not as extensive as apps available for iPad. Option for cellular wireless broadband.

Cons: Integrates with Google Play store, which is still new and isn’t as robust as Apple or Amazon’s stores. Data storage cannot be expanded with memory cards.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Buzzmakers: Brooke's Cancer Fight & World War Z

What had ET readers buzzing this week?

1. It's Brad vs. Zombies in World War Z

Zombie attack!!! Brad Pitt plays a family man and United Nations employee who faces a deadly zombie pandemic in World War Z -- we gave you an exclusive first look and now we've got the intense trailer!

Just when you thought that the zombie genre may be starting to generate less screams and more Zzzz's, World War Z arrives with an adrenaline shot in the arm for the genre -- complete with insane special effects and a claustrophobic urgency and realism not seen since the introduction of those "speed zombies" in 28 Days Later.

Directed by Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace), World War Z invades theaters June 21, 2013.

2. Oprah Reveals Her 2012 'Favorite Things'

It's officially the holiday season!

Oprah just revealed her "Favorite Things" for 2012, which includes such items as a $1,800 Jetson E-Bike, a $192 hand-picked Tom Ford lipstick palette and a $238 Lafco soap set.

"This luxuriously oversize, deliciously scented soap is my new go-to gift. I even brought a set to Mr. and Mrs. Colbert when I interviewed Stephen for Next Chapter," she says about the pricey soap set.

But of course if you don't have the income of Oprah, you can pick up O's December issue to learn how you can win all 49 of Oprah's favorite things, which hits newsstands November 6.

"Oprah's Favorite Things" is also getting its own two-hour, prime time special airing Nov. 18 on OWN. The special will surprise unsuspecting military spouses with items from the media mogul's exclusive must-have gift selections for the holiday season, and for the first time, viewers of Oprah's Favorite Things: 2012 will have the opportunity to watch and win select items featured in each segment of the show.

3. Brooke Burke-Charvet Reveals Cancer Diagnosis

Brooke Burke-Charvet released a video online Thursday to announce that she was recently diagnosed with a cancerous growth on her thyroid gland. In the video posted on her Modern Mom blog, the 41-year-old actress and TV host explained that a nodule was discovered on her thyroid and after a series of tests over the last few months, it was eventually determined to be cancerous and her thyroid will have to be removed.

"Which means that I'm going to have a nice big scar right her across my neck," Brooke said. "And I don't get to just walk around and pretend like nothing happened or not follow up or not share it, because it's going to be pretty much dead center."

Brooke said the discovery -- which originated from a regular physical -- came as a complete shock because she's otherwise healthy. "As crazy as it is, my head is in the right place, and it's going to be good," she said, adding that the doctors consider this a form of "good cancer" compared to many others and the prognosis is good. "I'm just going to make a positive out of this negative thing."

She said the surgery has been scheduled and she promised to keep her fans updated through her blog. "Now I'm ready to deal with it and I'm going to be fine. And I feel really, really strong."

Speaking on Thursday's episode of The Talk, Brooke's co-host on Dancing with the Stars, Tom Bergeron, commented on her cancer diagnosis. "My love and support are with you -- we are all there with her," he said. Bergeron added that he personally has a very positive outlook. "I've known about this for a few months. I have had experience with this in my family. You never want to hear the word cancer. But thyroid cancer is one of the most treatable cancers. It has an incredibly high success rate."

4. Kirstie on Secret Relationship with Swayze

Kirstie Alley reveals to ET's Chris Jacobs intimate details about what she says was a powerful attraction and hidden relationship with her North and South co-star, Patrick Swayze. Although both stars were married during filming of the mini-series, Alley tells Jacobs when she first saw Swayze, they had an intense attraction and she tried to avoid "going down that road," but they ultimately fell in love.

"Both of us were married. We did not have an affair. But again, I think what I did was worse. Because I think when you fall in love with someone when you're married, you jeopardize your own marriage and their marriage. It's doubly bad," said Alley.

Alley goes on to say that although she's friends with Patrick's wife, Lisa Niemi, who asked Alley to speak at Swayze's funeral, she is uncertain if Lisa is aware of their relationship.

5. One Direction & Drew Brees Play Catch - Exclusive

One Direction and Drew Brees teamed up last month to film an adorable Pepsi spot and during Thursday night's episode of The X Factor, the band will not only perform their newest singles, Live While We're Young and Little Things, but also reveal an alternate ending to the ad!

For those who missed the spot, the original ended with Drew Brees sacrificing his last can of Pepsi in order to become an unofficial member of One Direction. But, according to Angelique Krembs, VP Marketing for Pepsi, they also wanted to show fans what would happen if Drew won the last can of Pepsi. "Our latest Live For Now spot has received an enormous amount of buzz and online excitement," Krembs said. "And of course everyone wants to see the boys from 1D suit up in football gear and have some fun."

While you have to wait until Thursday to see the entire surprise ending to Pepsi's Live For Now television commercial, ETonline scored an exclusive sneak peek of One Direction tossing the pigskin around with Brees!

Tune in to The X Factor on November 8 at 8 p.m. to see the alternate ending!

Read More..

Home leveled, other houses ablaze in Indianapolis explosion

AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star, Matt Kryger

Firefighters battle the flames caused by a Saturday house explosion in Indianapolis.

INDIANAPOLIS — A roaring explosion that leveled two homes and set two others ablaze in a huge fire forced about 200 people from a devastated Indianapolis neighborhood where at least one person was killed, authorities said Sunday. The powerful nighttime blast shattered windows, crumpled walls and inflicted other damage on at least 14 other homes.

Two people were taken to a hospital with minor injuries after the explosion and fire, said Lieut. Bonnie Hensley, with the Indianapolis Fire Department. She said firefighters later put out the flames and searchers then went through the rubble and damaged homes one at a time in case others were left behind. At least one body has been recovered.

Some witnesses said in televised reports that they heard people screaming "help me! help me!" after the explosion and fire and that two parents and two children were safely pulled from one house that caught fire.

"This looks like a war zone; it really does," Hensley told The Associated Press. "Police officers and fire department officials remain at the scene searching for other possible victims." She said they used search lights until dawn as they peered into the damaged and ruined homes.

She declined to identify the only confirmed fatality, saying only that the body was found in one of the leveled homes after the fire was put out. Fire officials told AP after daybreak that they were not immediately releasing any further information until later Sunday morning.

The explosion at 11 p.m. Saturday destroyed two houses that were side by side and spread fire to two other nearby homes in the neighborhood on the south side of Indianapolis, she said, adding at least 14 other homes were damaged in the area by the blast's shock wave or flying debris it kicked up.

The blast was heard for miles all around, and authorities said they had no immediate information on the cause. An investigation by fire and other agencies was under way. Reports said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also was involved.

Many people were asleep at the time and had to be evacuated in pajamas, scooping up their pets as they left hastily, authorities said. They left what some described as a chaotic scene of tall flames rising on the Indianapolis skyline.

Survivors reported shattered windows, caved-in walls and garage doors knocked off their hinges. And of the two homes that were leveled by the blast, Hensley said: "There's nothing left."

Read More..

Gov. Rick Scott may shift stance on health reform law

With the reelection of President Barack Obama, Florida’s Republican leaders are reconsidering their fervent opposition to federal healthcare reform, triggering a discussion that could have huge repercussions for South Florida.

At stake is more than $6 billion in federal funding for Miami-Dade and Broward over the next decade and the possibility of health insurance for a large percentage of the 1.4 million people in the two counties who now lack coverage.

After the defeat of Mitt Romney, who vowed to halt Obama’s healthcare overhaul, the Republican leaders of the Florida House and Senate quickly said the Legislature needed to reexamine the federal act. On Friday evening, Gov. Rick Scott said he agreed there needed to be a discussion.

“Just saying ‘no’ is not an answer,” Scott said in a statement that repeated exactly what Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Destin, the incoming Senate president, told The Miami Herald on Thursday.

“I don’t like this law,” Gaetz also said, “but this is the law, and I believe I have a constitutional obligation to carry it out.” He added that he thinks “there needs to be some adult debate between Republicans and Democrats” on finding ways to make the law work.

Still, Gaetz, Scott and others in the Republican leadership, which controls both the Florida House and Senate, have many criticisms of what both parties now call “Obamacare.” Some are searching for compromises on how it is carried out in the state. What this means for patients and the healthcare industry in Florida — particularly South Florida — remains an enormous question mark.

Time is running short for decisions as the once-distant consequences of the Affordable Care Act are scheduled to kick in during the next 14 months.

The first deadline is Friday. That’s when states must tell Washington whether they plan to set up exchanges — marketplaces where individuals can purchase insurance at discounted group rates and cannot be denied because of pre-existing conditions.

Florida’s political leaders acknowledge they won’t make the deadline. The exchanges are scheduled to start Jan. 1, 2014, and if a state doesn’t set up an exchange, its residents can participate in a federal exchange.

The next provision starts Jan. 1 with an increase in Medicaid fees for primary care physicians. Primary care physicians, who have long complained about low rates for Medicaid, which provides coverage for the poor, are scheduled to be paid at considerably higher Medicare rates — with the feds picking up all of the added cost. But such a pay hike can only happen with the approval of the governor and Legislature, and it’s unclear whether that will happen.

The following year, on Jan. 1, 2014, the biggest changes are slated to start, including a major expansion of people covered by Medicaid. An analysis from the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida shows that if the state doesn’t expand coverage, Florida will lose $27.9 billion in federal funds over 10 years.

That breaks down to a $4.5 billion loss for Miami-Dade during that time, and a $2.3 billion loss for Broward, according to the alliance’s analysis.

Under the law, Washington will pay all Medicaid expansion costs for the first three years, but then the states would have to pay up to 10 percent of the costs in following years — an expense that the Safety Net Alliance calculates will come to $1.7 billion over 10 years in Florida. The expansion could provide coverage to an additional million-plus Floridians. Reform supporters say the expansion would provide cheaper basic care that would help prevent serious illnesses that lead to expensive hospital stays.

Read More..