Foreclosure fraud complaints flood Florida Bar
Complaints about foreclosure fraud are pouring into the Florida Bar, with four times more cases pending than there were six months ago, as property owners trying to save their homes increasingly take on their banks and their lenders' lawyers. The bar, which regulates lawyer conduct in Florida and most states, has opened 202 foreclosure fraud grievance investigations since November, with 226 now pending. Such complaints target lenders' attorneys, some of whose huge practices process thousands of foreclosures a month. These practices, nicknamed foreclosure mills, have been making headlines for months as they face accusations by homeowners and state regulators of allegedly submitting false or misleading paperwork, and having employees "robosign" piles of documents without verifying them. Yet among the total 46 foreclosure fraud cases closed so far, none have resulted in any sanctions against attorneys — including David J. Stern, whose Plantation operation once employed more than 1,000 people and became synonymous nationwide with the term "foreclosure mill." Stern, who is the target of a civil investigation by the Florida Attorney General, also has faced bar scrutiny since last year. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]MUST-KNOW FLORIDIAN
Meet Rick Beckwitt. He served as Lennar Corporation's Executive Vice President since March 2006 and was elected President of the company earlier this year. |
For busy doctors, apps are the cure
When Dr. Jose Soler got a late-night call about a critically ill patient, he grabbed his iPad and checked the results of the electrocardiogram test that just had been administered. Thanks to an app that zooms within half a millimeter of every heartbeat rhythm variation, Soler made a diagnosis within two minutes.
Before the Northwest Medical Center cardiologist began using the AirStrip Cardiology mobile app, he had to wait for a nurse to fax him a printout or log into a computer to load a PDF of the data — which was often hard to read.
"Having the ability to get that information on your iPhone to make a quick decision versus looking for a fax machine — it just changed the paradigm," Soler said.
Soler is among 40 cardiologists at HCA East Florida Hospitals who are the first physicians in the world to incorporate the EKG-reading app into their practices. Northwest, located in Margate, along with Westside Regional Medical Center in Plantation and JFK Medical Center near West Palm Beach, began using it two weeks ago on their personal iPads and iPhones.
Increasingly, doctors across South Florida are using mobile apps to access patient information.
[Source: Miami Herald]
Ocala business incubator plans are cooking
The Accelerate Ocala leadership group continues to look for ways to develop a business incubator in the city of Ocala's former engineering building.
"We have to figure out what the management looks like, if a university is involved or the Chamber (of Commerce) will do our own management of it," said Jaye Baillie, president and chief executive officer of the Ocala/Marion County Chamber of Commerce. "Many incubators that are successful in the nation have a university affiliation."
Baillie said Accelerate Ocala is in discussions with the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida and will seek proposals from both.
"We are excited to be having these conversations," Baillie said. "There's a lot of interest in it."
UCF has opened eight incubators, including one recently in Volusia County. Farther from home, Baillie points to the Art Center of Kansas City, which has started an art incubator where artists can learn business and marketing skills.
Baillie said Accelerate Ocala, which is comprised of people from the business, education, government and new entrepreneur segments, hopes to make an announcement about its plans in June and have the incubator open before the end of the year or even sooner.
[Source: Ocala Star-Banner]
Army's Orlando agency to provide simulation-training for VA hospitals nationwide
In a landmark deal, the Army's Orlando-based training-and-simulation agency has won a $5 million contract to provide medical-care training systems for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' new Orlando medical center and for VA hospitals nationwide.
The one-year deal — the first of its kind by the VA — begins what is expected to become a long-term relationship potentially worth tens of millions of dollars to the Army agency and to Central Florida's training-and-simulation industry, officials said Monday.
Terms call for the Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training & Instrumentation, also known as PEO-STRI, to become the acquisition agent for all medical simulation-training systems used by VA hospitals throughout the country.
Work has already begun to equip Orlando's new VA hospital, which is under construction in Lake Nona's Medical City and set to open in August 2012. The VA also chose Orlando last year as the site of a national "center of excellence" in medical simulation-training.
[Source: Orlando Sentinel]
Titusville small-biz owners walk fine line between success, failure
Like many longtime Titusville residents, Gregory Pillar vividly remembers the doomed launch in January 1986 of space shuttle Challenger — the orbiter that exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing its seven-member crew, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.
He also vividly recalls the aftermath of the launch, as it affected his photo-processing and camera business. Because his was among the only Titusville businesses in operation at the time that could process film the same day it was submitted, many people who photographed the launch streamed into his shop, anxious eager to see their pictures images of the Challenger disaster they took with their cameras.
Pillar worked for almost 24 hours straight to meet the demand.
"Everybody thought they had the winning photograph of the disaster," he said.
Now, a quarter-century later, another milestone event in the space program has helped Pillar decide to close his Miracle Photo business for good after 30 years in Titusville: the impending end of the shuttle program itself.
[Source: Florida Today]
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