AutoNation acquires six dealerships in Texas, adds 1,000 employees

Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, the country’s largest retailer of cars and light trucks, on Tuesday said it has agreed to acquire six large auto retail stores in Texas with annual revenues of about $575 million.

Mike Jackson, AutoNation’s chairman and CEO, said in a television interview that the deal “is probably the largest in over a decade” in the auto retailing business.

AutoNation has seen its unit sales increase steadily during the country’s slow economic recovery, and the new acquisitions are a sign that the giant auto retailer expects continued growth. “You want to know what I’m thinking, look at what I do,” Jackson said on CNBC’s Squawk Box program.

He also announced that his company’s November new unit sales totaled 22,571 units, up 21 percent over the same month last year.

The sale price of the acquisitions was not announced. An AutoNation spokesperson said that the sellers did not want to reveal this information. In the past, the sales price of dealerships has been around three to five times annual revenues, according to industry estimates.

The acquisitions, which are expected to sell around 14,000 new and used vehicles in 2012, will add about 1,000 employees to AutoNation’s payroll, which stood at 19,400 at the end of 2011.

AutoNation is buying five stores from Boardwalk Auto Group in the Dallas area with annual sales of about $375 million. The five are three Volkswagen stores and one each for Audi and Porsche. Boardwalk Porsche ranked among the top ten in new vehicle sales for the brand thus far this year. Boardwalk, founded by Scott K. Ginsburg, the main shareholder, will continue to own and operate several other luxury car dealerships.

In Houston, AutoNation is acquiring Spring Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram from the current owners, Alfred Flores and Bruce Glascock. Spring is the highest volume Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram dealer in the Texas market and the fourth largest in the United States.

The deals are expected to close by the end of the year.

The purchase of these new stores will give AutoNation a total of 227 stores. Upon completion of the deals, the company will own and operate 50 new car franchises in Texas.

AutoNation’s most recent acquisition was in early 2011, when it bought a Toyota dealership in Fort Myers with annual sales of $135 million. It largest recent purchase prior to Tuesday was a Mercedes-Benz store in Pompano Beach, which had annual revenues of $230 million.

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Miami Commissioner Spence-Jones sues state attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, Mayor Regalado

Battle-scarred Miami City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones has launched a legal offensive against Mayor Tomas Regalado and Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, accusing them of plotting to destroy her political career when Rundle twice charged the commissioner with political corruption.

In a federal lawsuit filed Monday, Spence-Jones’ lawyers accuse Fernandez Rundle, lead prosecutor Richard Scruggs and a state attorney’s

investigator of fabricating evidence and misleading key witnesses — including developer Armando Codina and former County

Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler — to back up their ultimately unsuccessful criminal cases.

Spence-Jones was acquitted in one case. The charges were dropped in the second prosecution.

The suit claims that Fernandez Rundle’s goal amounted to a “shocking, nefarious scheme” to remove Spence-Jones from the city commission from 2009-11 as a favor for the state attorney’s ally, Regalado, so that Spence-Jones, his nemesis, could be replaced by another politician to represent Miami’s black community in District 5.

The lawsuit asserts that Fernandez Rundle and her office “manufactured false evidence, hid and withheld exculpatory evidence, intimidated and

manipulated witnesses, defamed Spence-Jones, and repeatedly attempted to manipulate the political process, in a corrupt attempt to remove,

arrest, imprison, and forever ruin a dedicated Miami public servant.”

And when Spence-Jones prevailed in both cases, “Fernandez Rundle and her team covered up their own wrongdoing, recklessly and falsely accusing [the city commissioner] and her well-respected defense counsel of yet more crimes, to the entire world,” the 105-page suit asserts.

Spence-Jones’ racketeering-styled suit claims the defendants violated her civil rights.She is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Her suit was filed by Coral Gables lawyer Ray Taseff and the New York law firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady, which also represents the former North Carolina lacrosse players who are suing a now-disbarred district attorney in a notorious failed rape case.

Spence-Jones’ counterattack fuels the legal and political drama that has dominated her life almost since her election to the city

commission in 2005. She has endured at least six separate criminal investigations, ethics and campaign violations, a grand jury

indictment, a fight in civil court to retain her seat and the successful defense at her bribery trial.

Spence-Jones represents Overtown, Liberty City and Little Haiti. She was arrested for the first time in November 2009, charged with grand

theft stemming from her days as a city aide.

The investigation centered on $75,000 in grants from the Miami-Dade Action Plan Trust, or MMAP, a quasi-county agency that administers

grants to community groups. In September 2004, Barbara Carey-Shuler, then-chairwoman of the county commission, directed the agency to award

$25,000 grants to three groups.

One grant went to the Rev. Gaston Smith, Spence-Jones’ pastor, who later paid her a $8,000 “consulting” fee. Smith later was convicted of

stealing the money.

Carey-Shuler, in a letter, later asked MMAP to re-direct the other $50,000 to Spence-Jones’ family company. Carey-Shuler initially told

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Howard Stern to Return to 'America's Got Talent'

NBC announced on Monday that Howard Stern will return as a judge for a second season of America's Got Talent.

The 58-year-old outspoken radio host teamed up with fellow judges Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel during his first season with the hit variety/talent show, which has been on the air since 2006.

VIDEO: Howard Stern Weighs in on Idol Judges' Exit

"Howard Stern's towering presence and opinions on last season's show as a new judge made a dramatic impact and added a sharper edge to the fascinating developments on stage," said Paul Telegdy, president of NBC's alternative and late-night programming.

Auditions for the new season of America's Got Talent will be held in the coming weeks in cities across the country. 

VIDEO: Howard Stern Proclaims Himself 'America's Judge'

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Tennis ref accused of husband's murder knew 'justice would be served' after charges dropped

The tennis ref, once accused of murder, said she always knew “justice would be served” and now plans to get back to court -- the one with nets, not prosecutors.

Lois Goodman, 70, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she’s delighted Los Angeles prosecutors dropped their murder case against her, in connection to the death of husband Alan Goodman, 80, in April at their California home.

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She was arrested on Aug. 21 in New York, when she arrived in town to work as a line judge at the US Open.

"I was so happy. Elated. I can't tell you," Goodman said. "It came earlier than I thought it would, but I always knew, somehow, justice would be served, and my name would be cleared."

Goodman has steadfastly maintained her innocence. A judge threw out the case on Friday at the behest of prosecutors. Her defense lawyer Robert Sheahen thanked the Los Angeles DA.

"The prosecutors did a great thing here," he said. "DAs don't stand up to the police department. They don't dismiss these cases. For these prosecutors to dismiss this case, they did a good thing.

"They dismissed it; more power to them. I give them all of the professional credit in the world. It got out of hand. The prosecutors corrected it."

Cops busted Goodman, accusing her bludgeoning Alan Goodman with a coffee mug and then stabbing him with the broken pieces.

The tennis ref theorized her husband suffered a horrible fall and then crawled back into bed.

"I wasn't there. Poor thing … I beat myself up all the time,” she said. “If I had been at home, I could have helped him. But I wasn't. It's just hard for me to realize that he's gone, I miss him.”

The grandmother said she wants to return to the game she loves.

"I want to go back to work," Goodman said. "I miss my friends and being on the court, and my friends said, 'I've already got you booked on four tournaments that I'm running, so clear your calendar.' "

Not surprisingly, Goodman said she relishes her time in sunshine and open air, after 24 terrible hours locked up at Rikers Island following her New York arrest.

"[Rikers] was horrible," she said. "Dark and dingy, and it was depressing. Terrible, in the cell for 23 hours out of 24. [It was] hard, I couldn't believe it."

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The business behind the artist: Miami’s art gallery scene still evolving

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.

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Two dead after bus overpass crash at Miami International Airport

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.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the company has two drivers for its three passenger motor coaches.

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7 Quirky Christmas Gift Ideas

‘Tis the season to give…bacon-shaped Christmas tree ornaments? Stocking-stuffer candy simulating black lumps of coal? Crime scene tape for wrapping packages? How about a dreidel with Santa’s picture on it?

Yes to all these and more, say fans of quirky gifts.

Online retailers specializing in leg-lamps–the kind made famous by the movie “A Christmas Story”–and in Emergency Santa Kits say business is brisk.

Seattle novelty-seller Archie McPhee, for instance, which makes the Emergency Santa Kit, reports its business is up 20 percent from last year. Each Kit contains an inflatable white beard and red hat. “It’s in case you’re ever on an airplane flight and you suddenly have to play Santa,” explains McPhee’s spokesperson and self-styled Director of Awesomeness, David Wall.

Anything involving bacon, he says, has been selling well—so well that McPhee dedicates a portion of its website to bacon-inspired items, including candy canes, ornaments and toothpaste.

“People just naturally enjoy bacon,” he says. “At a time when everybody is so health-conscious, it’s become a kind of ‘rebel’ food. It seems naughty. To our customers, bacon has become a sign of rebellion against the status quo.”

Online retailer Perpetual Kid sells black, lump-shaped candy-coal. Says vice president Wendy Paula, “We’re definitely seeing people looking for silly products this year—things you buy for their ‘smile value.’ Candy coal has been Christmas season favorite for us for years.” She herself grew up with it. “It’s just got to be in your stocking.”

Unlike some novelty purveyors, says Paula, Perpetual Kid, shies away from anything that could be considered offensive or in bad taste. Not so Things You Never Knew Existed, a website that appears to have cornered the market on flatulent-Santa items. These include a Pull My Finger Santa’ and a spherical ornament simulating Santa’s buttocks.

For a slideshow of quirky items appropriate (or not) for holiday giving, read on.

“The world’s only beanie with a built-in beard,” trumpets website Fab.com. The tightly-knit cap and attached face-warmer is perfect for snowball fights, says the site, and will keep any chin warm on the coldest of days. “A great gift for the facial-hair challenged.” ($ 29)

Website for Perpetual Kid calls this cinnamon-flavored candy coal the perfect stocking stuffer: “You can always tell who has been naughty Christmas morning, since this candy will temporarily turn your mouth blue! Great for office parties and gift exchanges.” ($ 4.49)

The dreidel depicts Santa on one side, a Christmas tree on the other. “Don’t choose between Christmas and Hanukkah,” says Archie McPhee’s website. “Choose Chrismukkah! Imagine the fun you’ll have playing the dreidel game by the light of the menorah while waiting for Santa and his reindeer to arrive.” ($ 4.50)

“Big bacon flavor in a candy cane,” promises Archie McPhee. Canes come in both regular size and colossal. Of the collosal, the site says, “If there were a king of bacon, this would be his scepter. It’s bacon-y Christmas perfection.” For proper dental hygiene, you’ll want to brush afterwards with bacon-flavored toothpaste, also available on the website. (Colossal cane, $ 5.00)

Archie McPhee doesn’t explicitly recommend this tape for sealing up the seams of wrapping paper you have used to decorate your gifts—but just think how festive and disturbing it will look underneath the tree. Alternatively, says the website, you can use it to “mark off the scene of an itty-bitty murder.” ($ 4.50).

Christmas-in-a-tin, Archie McPhee calls its Emergency Santa Kit. “Let’s say you’re on a long flight, and everyone around you is frowning and grumpy,” says the site. Each Kit contains an inflatable white beard and jaunty Santa hat. “Just open the tin, inflate the beard, put on the hat, and shake your belly like a bowl full o’ jelly.” Before you know it, “Everyone will be sitting on your lap.” ($ 12.00)

The morning after Christmas you’ll run no risk of oversleeping if someone has been kind enough to give you this especially aggressive alarm clock. Hit its snooze button once too often, and Clocky takes matters into its own hands (or feet) by rolling away from you on powered wheels. “It will literally jump off your nightstand and scurry way, forcing you to get up out of bed and go get it to turn it off,” says a spokesperson for novelty retailer Fab.com. ($ 45.00)

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Bachelorette Ashley Hebert and JP Rosenbaum are Married

Ashley Hebert is a bachelorette no more!

The 28-year-old dentist and her construction manager fiancé J.P. Rosenbaum, 35, walked down the aisle on Saturday in Pasadena, California, reports People Magazine.

The ceremony, officiated by Bachelor and Bachelorette host Chris Harrison, was attended by familiar faces from the series including Ali Fedotowsky, Emily Maynard, and Jason and Molly Mesnick.

Video: 'Bachelorette' Ashley Hebert and Fiance J.P.'s Passionate PDA

Ashley and J.P.'s exchanging of vows will be televised December 16 on a two-hour special on ABC.

The season seven sweeties will be the second Bachelorette couple ever to televise their walk down the aisle, following in the footsteps of Trista and Ryan Sutter, who married in December 2003.

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Staten Island man in police custody after wife beaten to death

A Staten Island man was taken into custody after his wife was brutally beaten to death, police said.

It was not immediately clear what led to the fatal beating in the family's home on Beechwood Place around 2:25 a.m. this morning, police said.

Cops found 42-year-old Jodi Surinaga unconscious and unresponsive after one of the couple's two children inside the home called 911, sources said.

The mother suffered blunt force trauma to the head, according to police. EMS pronounced the victim dead at the scene.

Investigators did not immediately say whether the children witnessed the horrific crime.

Seth Gottfried

The scene of this morning's fatal beating in Staten Island

Cops took the victim's 45-year-old husband into custody.

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Boat Show may block Miami’s 2016 Super Bowl bid

This winter, the biggest NFL match-up in South Florida might be Super Bowl versus Boat Show.

As South Florida readies a bid for the 2016 Super Bowl, it must contend with a major potential conflict on the tourism calendar. The National Football League may move the Super Bowl to Presidents’ Day weekend, already home to the five-day Miami International Boat Show since the 1940s.

It’s a significant enough conflict that, in the past, local tourism officials have declined to pursue a Super Bowl if it fell on boat show weekend. But this time around they may have no choice. For the first time, the NFL is requiring that potential host cities agree to a Presidents’ Day weekend Super Bowl if they want to pursue the big game at all, said two people who have seen the NFL request for Super Bowl bids.

The NFL “invited South Florida [to bid] knowing there was going to be an issue with Presidents’ Day weekend and the boat show,” said Nicki Grossman, Broward’s tourism director. “In the past, South Florida has not responded to a Super Bowl date that included Presidents’ Day weekend. This package is different.”

South Florida vies with New Orleans as the top Super Bowl host, with government and tourism leaders touting the game as both a boon to the economy and a publicity bonanza. But the notion of accommodating both Super Bowl and boat show — not to mention a major arts festival in Coconut Grove — strikes some top tourism officials as a bad idea.

“There is not sufficient hotel inventory available in Miami that weekend to host a Super Bowl,” said William Talbert, president of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We have taken a close look at that weekend, and it’s not physically possible in Miami to host Super Bowl during the Presidents’ Day weekend because of the boat show and the Coconut Grove Arts Festival. The hotel inventory is all being used for these two great events.”

His comments are at odds with the region’s top Super Bowl organizer and reflect the burden that the boat show may be to South Florida’s Super Bowl hopes for 2016 and 2017. The NFL invited Miami and San Francisco to bid for the 2016 Super Bowl by April 1, with the loser vying with Houston for the 2017 game. Talbert said the bid package states both decisions will be made in May.

For now, South Florida’s Super Bowl organizers face a largely hypothetical challenge, because the current NFL schedule has the Super Bowl occurring two weeks before Presidents’ Day weekend. The bid requirements for the ’16 and ’17 Super Bowls include three consecutive weekends as possibilities for the game, with the latest falling on the Presidents’ Day holiday.

Still, possible logistical hurdles may combine with political obstacles if the Miami Dolphins resume their push for a tax-funded renovation of Sun Life Stadium, the Super Bowl’s South Florida home.

Last year, the Dolphins proposed that Broward and Miami-Dade counties subsidize a $225 million renovation at Sun Life as a way to keep the region competitive for Super Bowls and other large events. The renovation includes a partial roof that would prevent the kind of drenching Super Bowl spectators suffered in 2007 when a rare February downpour hit Miami Gardens.

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