Grammys Flashback: Backstreet Boys 1999

It's hard for many to imagine their lives without the Internet. It has changed the world, and at lightning speed. Therefore, it seems like ages ago when the medium through which we live our lives was viewed as a novelty. The Backstreet Boys take us back to that period in history.

While this flashback only rewinds the clock back fourteen years from the upcoming 2013 Grammys, listening to the way that Backstreet Boys' frontman Kevin Richardson talks about the Internet makes us realize how rapidly it's become an integral part of society.

VIDEO: New Kids On The Block & Backstreet Boys Spill Tour Secrets

"The Internet is a whole new generation. The Year 2000, the Internet, computers--I mean, it's a whole new means of communicating and getting in touch with people," Richardson said alongside his bandmates, who had been nominated for Best New Artist at that year's Grammys (the award went to Lauryn Hill).

Although nobody could have foreseen the adverse effect of the Internet on the music industry, the irony in Richardson's sure response of the Internet's ability to aid album sales is nevertheless a laughing point. Napster was launched a month after the Backstreet Boys released their next album, Millennium, and so set off a trending decline in album sales that lasted to the present day.

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However, the Internet only had a positive effect on Millennium, as the group would go on to sell a whopping 30 million copies worldwide of its U.S. sophomore album. As they looked towards the future as a band, Howie Dorough reveals his big hopes for The Backstreet Boys.

"Any time there's a similar formula [like] New Edition [or] New Kids on the Block, normally the odds are most of the times that most groups do split up, [but] our control of our careers [is] within our own destiny here," he says. "Right now we're all very happy as The Backstreet Boys and we plan on being around hopefully as long as The Eagles [and] The Beatles and hopefully doing several reunion tours and hopefully coming back here [in] several years."

VIDEO: Kevin Richardson is a Backstreet Boy Again

The band went on to earn five Grammy nominations for Millennium but never won a Grammy. Despite frontman Kevin Richardson leaving the group for a while, The Backstreet Boys have remained intact over the years and plan to release their eighth studio album in the coming years

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TLC voting on whether to allow people to use smartphone apps to nab a cab ride

Every New Yorker knows how to hail a yellow cab.

The next step for some might be to "e-hail" a cab using a smartphone.

Members of the city's Taxi & Limousine Commission are to vote Thursday on whether to allow people to nab a ride electronically. Downloaded apps would link customers with drivers.

If the vote is yes, companies offering the high-tech hailing method can compete for business.

TLC Commissioner David Yassky says the city would lay down some ground rules to accommodate people raising their arm to stop a cab the old-fashioned way. But the commissioner says that as long as the technology exists, it should be available to customers and drivers.

Till now, the city has banned yellow taxis from prearranging rides.

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Lennar to borrow $1.7 billion from Chinese bank

Miami-based Lennar Corp. has gotten approval on $1.7 billion in loans from China Development Bank to fund the development and construction of two major projects in San Francisco, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

The contract, set to close by Dec. 31 subject to various conditions, would mark the first U.S. loan by the big state-owned Chinese bank. One condition — tagged the “Chinese component”— is that China Railway Construction Corp. be included as a general contracting partner in the project, the person said.

Closing by year’s end is crucial because of new tax rules set to take effect, the person added.

The agreement, first reported in The Wall Street Journal, would provide funding for the first six years of what is envisioned to be a 20-year project.

The loan agreement, reached Dec. 7 after Lennar officials met in China with bank officials, provides for $1 billion in financing to a partnership led by Lennar to redevelop Hunters Point Shipyard-Candlestick Point, a site in southeast San Francisco spanning more than 700 acres, the person said. Plans for the mixed-use community call for nearly 12,000 residential units on the site. Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2013.

Under the pact, the Chinese bank would provide another $700 million to a partnership of Lennar, Stockbridge Capital Group and Wilson Meany, a real estate investment and development firm, to redevelop Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Islands in San Francisco Bay. Some 8,000 units of housing are planned for the mixed-use project on 535 acres. The U.S. Navy is set to turn over the first parcel of land to the development company in late 2013.

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Legislative leaders dish out salary increases to top staff

TALLAHASSEE --
Florida’s new legislative leaders handed out hefty raises and salaries to many of their top staff and newly hired talent even as thousands of state workers went for a sixth year without a bump in pay.

Senate President Don Gaetz and House Speaker Will Weatherford, who were sworn in last month, immediately hired new chiefs of staff and paid them more than taxpayers pay state Cabinet officials. They are paying 62 top policy advisors and staff directors more than $100,000 a year. And they gave salary increases totaling $252,000 to their 17 highest paid employees.

Giving the most in raises was Gaetz, R-Niceville, who promoted 10 people already making more than $100,000 a year in state jobs. The biggest promotion went to his top aide, Chris Clark, whose salary jumped from $77,000 as an aide in Gaetz’s legislative office to $150,000 as the Senate president’s chief of staff. Clark started in the Legislature in 1994, making $12,771 a year. Gaetz said his salary is commensurate with those who have held the job before.

Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, gave more modest pay increases to his highest earning staff. Seven employees, who earned more than $100,00, got raises totaling $52,000.

The salaries were “based on a number of factors including increased workload, matching offers made by other organizations, merit, recommendations from supervisors and years of service,’’ said Ryan Duffy, Weatherford spokesman. (Duffy is paid $95,000, a $20,000 increase over what he was making last year as spokesman for the House Republican office.)

State workers, by contrast, have not seen a pay raise in six years. Last year, the Legislature also tapped into their take-home pay by trimming three percent to pay the annual contribution to the Florida Retirement System. The result is a 15 percent drop in earning power for most state workers, labor unions say.

Unions have challenged the pension law, which was sponsored by Gaetz and supported by Weatherford, and are awaiting a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court.

“The mantra of legislative leadership is: ‘Do as we say, not as we do,” said Rich Templin, spokesman for the AFL-CIO. “They want to slash funding for teachers and go after state worker pensions, but they also see the taxpayer as funding their own little fiefdoms.”

Not everyone received a pay raise. Some House and Senate salaries remained the same, despite years on the job or increased education and training. And salaries for many returning staff in the House and Senate Democratic offices remained unchanged.

The legislative leaders also brought in new talent and paid them top dollar.

Weatherford hired Kathy Mears, a Tallahassee political consultant, for $145,000. She had previously worked as a deputy chief of staff under former Gov. Charlie Crist and was the communications director for former House and Senate leaders.

Gaetz lured Lisa Vickers, the former head of the Department of Revenue, to be one of his senior executive assistants. She now earns $135,000, a $15,000 annual boost in pay from the $120,000 she made as an agency head.

The Senate president’s communications director, Katie Betta, was hired as Gaetz’s deputy chief of staff. He gave her a $13,000 salary increase over the $107,000 she was making doing the communications job for former House Speaker Dean Cannon. Betta’s salary is higher than the $76,000 paid to the previous Senate president’s communications director, Lyndsey Cruley.

Jim Rimes, a former director of the Republican Party of Florida, was hired to be the director of the Senate Majority Office at $120,000. He last worked as a lobbyist representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, AT&T and Home Depot.

Together, the top members of the executive staffs of the two presiding officers earn $7.2 million a year — with $3.5 million spent by the House and $3.8 million spent by the Senate, according to a Herald/Times analysis.

The total cost to taxpayers of all legislative salaries, including district staff and the annual salary paid to each legislator is $27.8 million for 1,645 employees in the House, and $21.8 million and 1,644 employees in the Senate. Legislators earn $29,697 per year; Weatherford and Gaetz earn $41,181.

Not every union official objects to the staff pay raises. Doug Martin, spokesman for the American Federation of State and Federation, believes “the Legislature needs the best it can get because a poorly written law costs billions, not millions.”

He said Florida already has the smallest, least expensive government per capita “and one of the primary reasons for that efficiency is to have excellent long-term employees.”

But, Martin added, many of the people he represents were willing to forgo a raise to avoid layoffs during the economic crisis . “Now that the economy is improving,” he said, “they deserve a raise too.”

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Here’s the Pope’s First Tweet

The long wait is over and we’ve finally got the first words of Twitter wisdom from Pope Benedict XVI. 

Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart.

— Benedict XVI (@Pontifex) December 12, 2012

Ok, so not that funny, but it was all spelled right and we got blessed by a pope, so that’s a good start. And the Pope did actually send the message himself. Pope Benedict appeared on Wednesday morning for his regular weekly address in front of throngs of media and worshipers, and personally hit the tweet button himself on his iPad. Vatican officials say that before the end of the day he will be answering three questions that were submitted to the #askpontifex hashtag earlier this month. Here’s the first of those:

How can we celebrate the Year of Faith better in our daily lives?

— Benedict XVI (@Pontifex) December 12, 2012

By speaking with Jesus in prayer, listening to what he tells you in the Gospel and looking for him in those in need

— Benedict XVI (@Pontifex) December 12, 2012

He actually tweeted in Italian first and his other language accounts weren’t far behind. Follow @Pontifex for more 140 character sermons.

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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First section of WTC spire hoisted

The first section of a spire that will rise atop the World Trade Center's tallest building will be set into place on Wednesday.

Nine of 18 giant steel pieces of the spire arrived at the site in New York City Tuesday via barge from Port Newark, NJ.

The arrival marked the end of a 1,500-nautical-mile journey that started in Canada on Nov. 16.

A plant outside Montreal produced the 18 pieces. The spire will make the tower the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

The remaining nine pieces of the 408-foot, $20 million spire are being trucked in from Canada and another plant in South Plainfield, NJ.

Seth Gottfried

The first section of the spire being lifted into place Wednesday.

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The first wave of Windows 8 PCs

We’ve been benchmarking and field-testing new Windows 8 systems, including all-in-one desktops, traditional clamshell laptops and convertible laptops with displays that flip or twist around to form tabletlike devices.

Dell XPS One 27

Rating: 4 stars out of 5 (Excellent)

The good: Boasts the highest-display resolution among Windows 8 all-in-ones, and at an aggressive price.

The bad: A new adjustable display support arm is welcome, but stops short of reclining a full 90 degrees.

The cost: $1,999.99 to $2,099

The bottom line: Updated with a touch screen, a new stand and up-to-date components, the Dell XPS One 27 leads the inaugural class of Windows 8 PCs.

HP Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 (Very good)

The good: An attractive ultrabook with a respectable mix of components for its price, a responsive touch screen and a backlit keyboard.

The bad: It isn’t very configurable, so you can’t make it too much more powerful than it already is. It’s on the heavy side for an “ultrabook” (if you consider 4.5 pounds heavy). Its touch pad is jumpy at default settings.

The cost: $799.99 to $974.98

The bottom line: The HP Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4 is a good gateway to the Windows 8 experience with a responsive touch screen in a traditional laptop body.

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13

Rating: 4 stars out of 5 (Excellent)

The good: Looks as good as any 13-inch ultrabook, with the added attraction of a 360-degree screen and a laptop body that can fold into a tent, stand or slate.

The bad: Tablet mode leaves the keyboard exposed, and the Yoga 13 costs more than standard ultrabooks with similar components.

The cost: $1,099

The bottom line: The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 is a convertible touch-screen laptop/tablet that most importantly doesn’t compromise the traditional laptop experience.

Microsoft Surface RT

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 (Very good)

The good: Interface is innovative, elegant, powerful, and versatile. The tablet feels strong and well-built, includes Office 2013 and offers rich video and music services. Its keyboard cover accessories are the best ways to type on a tablet, period.

The bad: The tablet has sluggish performance, its Windows Store is a ghost town, Metro requires some practice to get the hang of and the desktop interface feels clunky and useless.

The cost: $499 to $599

The bottom line: If you’re an early adopter willing to forget everything you know about navigating a computer, the Surface tablet could replace your laptop. Everyone else: wait for more apps.

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South Florida pols sticking to party lines on fiscal cliff

WASHINGTON --
Don’t expect South Florida’s congressional delegation to stray too far from party lines when it comes to dancing on the edge of the fiscal cliff, the end-of-the-year spending cuts and tax increases set to take effect if Congress and the president don’t address them.

Democrats are firmly with President Barack Obama, whose proposal seeks to raise $600 billion over a decade by eliminating tax deductions and $960 billion over the same period by raising tax rates for the top 2 percent of income earners. Many Democrats sounded as though the highly charged presidential campaign was still under way.

Republicans are just as committed to their party.

There’s been "no evidence thus far" that Republicans are truly interested in the middle class, said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of Weston, who the president just asked again to head the Democratic National Committee.

"We need to continue to focus on rebuilding our economy from the middle class out," she said during an appearance on MSNBC.

"President Obama talked eloquently and passionately during the campaign about making sure that we can get a handle on this deficit, that we can rebuild our economy from the middle class out, that we can focus on creating jobs and getting the economy turned around," she added.

Equally firm: South Florida Democratic Reps. Alcee Hastings, of Miramar and Frederica Wilson, of Miami. Both are members of the Congressional Black Caucus, which released a statement of principles this week calling for the Bush-era tax cuts to expire on the wealthiest Americans.

Social Security should be completely off the table, the caucus warned, and it said it would oppose any plans that change the eligibility for Medicare or cut Medicaid, the statement said.

Some Democrats made conciliatory moves, however. Sen. Bill Nelson said that during his campaign, voters told him they want consensus and an end to partisan gridlock.

"They want bipartisanship," he said in a video message. "They want to stop the ideological rigidity."

It’s the only way to rebuild the economy and reduce the federal deficit, while preserving Social Security and Medicare, he said. He called on people of both political parties "to reach across the aisle and work together so America doesn’t go over the cliff."

That’s unlikely to come from his Republican counterpart, Sen. Marco Rubio, who along with former vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was featured in a speech this week in Washington.

Rubio blamed the "complicated and uncertain tax code" for "hindering the creation of middle-class jobs." He gave no hint he would be interested in supporting the president’s tax proposal on the wealthiest Americans.

"You can’t open or grow a business if your taxes are too high or too uncertain. And that’s why I personally oppose the president’s plan to raise taxes," Rubio said. "This isn’t about a pledge. It isn’t about protecting millionaires and billionaires. For me, it’s about the fact that the tax increases he wants would fail to make even a small dent in the debt but it would hurt middle-class businesses and the people who work for them."

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, of Miami, was one of the few Republicans from South Florida to suggest she’d be open to tax reform, saying there needs to be a review of the tax code "to remove special interest tax loopholes used by the wealthy."

But she warned that the country’s debt exists "not because tax rates are too low, but because government spends too much."

Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, also of Miami, said he was less optimistic about a resolution now than he was right after the election.

He said he feels as though Republicans have moved closer to the president without getting credit for it.

"I’m very disappointed with the president’s response," he said in an interview.

"The speaker put forward a proposal, and whether you agree with it or not, there are a couple of things beyond debate: He’s gotten closer to the president’s position."

Even those on their way out of Congress made no move to cross party lines. Republican Rep. Allen West, of Plantation, who was ousted by Democrat Patrick Murphy, warned constituents in a letter that he didn’t think there was a true plan to reduce spending.

Rep. David Rivera, a Republican who lost his re-election bid and who will be replaced by Democrat Joe Garcia, did not respond to a request for comment.

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Anna Faris Post Baby Body

Whoa, Mama!

Less than four months after giving birth to son Jack, Anna Faris rocked the red carpet last night, flaunting her bangin' post-baby body!

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Alongside husband Chris Pratt, Faris stunned in a pale lace down that showcased her new mom curves. The happy couple was celebrating the Los Angeles premiere of Zero Dark Thirty, in which Pratt plays a member of Seal Team 6, the special ops group that eliminated Osama bin Laden.

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Zero Dark Thirty opens nationwide on December 19.

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Man struck and killed by L train

Authorities say a man has been struck and killed by a subway train in Manhattan.

It occurred at about 7:15 a.m. Tuesday at the 14th Street and First Avenue station.

The victim was struck by a southbound L train and pronounced dead at the scene.

Police and fire officials had no other details.

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