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The $14 million sale of Biscayne Harbour Shops in Aventura allowed the retail center and owner Taubco to escape foreclosure.

The company also used the strategy of buying its own loans to keep three other properties.

Last year, MUNB Loan Holdings, an affiliate of Bank of New York Mellon Corp., filed a foreclosure lawsuit against Biscayne 181, Causeway Village and Irwin Tauber, the CEO of Taubco, based on $16.1 million in mortgages. They covered Biscayne 181′s 49,252-square-foot shopping center at 18183 Biscayne Blvd. and Causeway Village’s vacant 4.1-acre site at 1850 NW 123rd St. in North Miami.

Olive Garden is the main tenant at Biscayne Harbour Shops, which is mostly empty.

Tauber said he purchased the mortgages from MUNB for 40 percent off their balances – a deal he said took extensive negotiations with the lender to complete.

On May 5, Biscayne 181 sold the shopping center to Aventura-based Blue Green Capital for $14 million. MUNB dismissed the foreclosure lawsuit.

The managers of Blue Green Capital are Jorge Linkewer, Mario Grosfeld and Thomas Strauss.

Tauber said Blue Green Capital only agreed to the sale after he had tenants sign lease deals for Biscayne Harbour Shops. After those tenants move in, the retail center will be 90 percent occupied, he said.

The Causeway Village property was not sold. Tauber said he plans to build a 200,000-square-foot retail/mixed-use center there, and is in the preleasing stage. He is confident that banks will provide him with financing for Causeway Village.

Meanwhile, MUNB dismissed its foreclosure lawsuits against Tauber and his Island Club Towers and Royal Club Towers over a multifamily property and a commercial building on Bay Harbor Islands. Tauber said he bought those loans, as well, and he plans to redevelop them as larger apartment buildings.

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D id you know that May is the National Skin Cancer/ Melanoma
Awareness Month? Do you know that your pets (cat, dog, and horse)
may be at high risk for this disease?

I have cautioned before about allowing pink-pigmented cats to
spend much time in the sun for just this reason. Studies have shown
that white cats living outdoors have a greater risk for developing
skin cancer. The face and ears of these animals are exposed to the
sun the most, and is generally where squamous cell carcinomas
develop. Felines are more susceptible than dogs to develop these
malignancies.

 Skin cancer frequently strikes the middle-aged to older cat
(6-14 years of age), and studies also have recently linked the
Feline immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) to the growth of cancerous
tumors.

 In our trapping efforts, we occasionally come across ferals
which have obvious cancers on their faces. Last year we had one
such female cat that had lost much of her left ear, part of the
left, and the nose also showed signs of tumors.

 With the return of warm weather and intense sun, please take
time to examine your animals now and on a regular basis. To catch
this killer disease early is to have a better chance of saving your
pet.

 Symptoms:

 1. A lump on or beneath the skin.

 2. A sore that will not heal.

 3. Frequent scratching or chewing on a particular spot.

 4. An area of the skin that is red, prone to bleed, or is
flaky.

 Diagnosis:

 1. Biopsy

 2. Cytology (microscopic examination of suspected cells)

 3. Complete blood count (CBC)

 4. Chemistry panel

 5. Urinalysis

 6. Chest X-rays (for examination of the lungs for tumors)

 Treatment (depends on the type and stage of the cancer):

 1. Surgery

 2. Radiation

 3. Chemotherapy

 4. Cryosurgery

 5. Photodynamic therapy

 Prevention:

 1. The obvious one is to limit your animal’s sun exposure,
especially between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm

 2. Ask your vet about sunscreens which can be safely used on a
pet’s ears.

 3. Frequently examine your pet for symptoms and contact your
veterinarian with any unusual findings.

Update on Amelia, the blind cat…

 She is worming her way into the hearts of the adult cats in the
house now, even wrestling with one of them this morning. She did
take a frightening fall from the upstairs balcony recently, which
thankfully has made her a bit more cautious. Follow her progress on
the new website www.maggiestories.com where my Scottish Terrier
blogs about “…life in a multi-species household and [her] work as
a foster mom to feral kittens.”

 Marci Kladnik is a board member of Catalyst for Cats, a Santa
Barbara County nonprofit organization dedicated to the welfare of
feral cats. For more information, call 685-1563 or visit
www.catalystforcats.org.

Tags: Your Pets by Admin
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SPRINGFIELD About half the annual $100 million the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services expects to save by switching health insurance plans for state employees and retirees would come from the Champaign-Urbana and Springfield areas, a Health Alliance Medical Plans executive said today.

Almost $30 million of the savings were coming from the Springfield market and $20 million were coming from the Champaign area, said Health Alliance CEO Jeff Ingrum.

Health Alliance held a press conference for noon today in Springfield to announce the findings of an actuary the company hired to analyze the state agencys savings projections.

Health Alliance one of five managed care companies currently covering state employees covers about 100,000 state members in an HMO plan, and its members would have to change health plans because its bid was rejected for the new benefits period in favor of Blue Cross and Blue Shield HMOs and Open Access Plans operated by PersonalCare and HealthLink.

Health Alliance and the other ousted HMO, Humana, have filed protests that are pending before the Executive Ethics Commission. Health Alliance obtained information used in its analysis from the Department of Healthcare and Family Services in connection with the protest, Ingrum said.

Milliman, the actuary firm hired by Health Alliance, was asked by the company to estimate the network discounts of other insurance carriers that were implied by the savings estimate shown in the state agency May 11 letter to Health Alliance.

Ingrum said the state agency claimed savings would come from Health Alliances core markets where the insurer gets its deepest discounts from medical providers, and the Milliman analysis showed other carriers would have to top those discounts.

However, he said, Health Alliance never provided the information that would have been needed by the state to calculate those savings, he said.

We never provided them with the detailed information to be making those judgments, and without that data theyre making wild assumptions, he said.

Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services spokeswoman Stacey Solano said her department hasnt been able to discuss insurance changes while the protests remain unsettled, but realizes its natural for people to be concerned about potential changes in their health coverage.

While we await the EECs ruling on the group health procurement, we have had to be very conservative in what we can tell the public, legislators and the press so as not to violate the strict ethics rules of the process and invalidate the procurement. These rules were set in place by the legislature when it passed the procurement legislation last year, and we must abide by them, she said.

We believe that once the EEC rules, and we are able to comment and explain the decisions, it will put to rest many of the fears and anxieties currently being fed by misinformation. We are absolutely confident not only in the integrity of the procurement process, but in the decision that was made based on the evaluation of the bids, and in any resulting cost savings. We believe that the vendors selected will offer quality health care for employees, retirees, and dependents while also reaping significant savings to the state of Illinois.

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NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Theres no obvious magic to an Apple(AAPL) Store — lots of light and glass, pale wood tables, a white-walled space all neatly divided into product groups — a space as timeless as when CEO Steve Jobs first introduced it a decade ago.

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A new bill aims to make it more difficult for workers to take out 401(k) loans, but easier to pay them back. Senators Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat, and Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, introduced a bill on Wednesday with provisions intended to prevent the leakage of savings from 401(k)s before retirement.

[See 10 Essential Sources of Retirement Income.]

Reduce early access. The Savings Enhancement by Alleviating Leakage in 401(k) Savings Act of 2011, or SEAL Act, reduces the number of loans that 401(k) participants can take to three at a time. Currently employers determine the number of loans available. While having access to a loan in an emergency is an important feature for many participants, a 401(k) savings account should not be used as a piggy bank, says Kohl . As the frequency of retirement fund loans have gone up, the amount of money people are saving for their retirement has gone down. The legislation also bans products that actively encourage 401(k) participants to tap into their savings before retirement, such as a debit card linked to a 401(k) account.

This legislation wouldnt prevent most 401(k) participants from accessing their money. The typical individual with a 401(k) loan had only one (69 percent) or two (29 percent) loans outstanding in 2010, according to an Aon Hewitt analysis of 110 large 401(k) plans with 1.8 million employees released this week. Only 2.5 percent of people who borrowed from their retirement account last year had more than two loans simultaneously.

[See Senate Considers Potential Social Security Changes.]

Longer loan repayment period. Repayment of 401(k) loans would get easier under the new legislation. Employees with 401(k) loans who lose their jobs generally must repay the entire outstanding balance of the loan within 60 days of job termination. Any amount not repaid is considered a 401(k) withdrawal and the account holder incurs tax penalties and, if under age 59frac12;, a 10 percent early withdrawal penalty. Nearly 70 percent of employees with 401(k) loans who lose their jobs default on the repayment and must pay the penalties, compared to 3 percent of continuously employed individuals who default on their loans, Aon Hewitt found.

The SEAL Act would give employees until their tax deadline that year to contribute the outstanding loan balance to an IRA before income tax and the early withdrawal penalty would be applied to the loan balance. Our bill would allow for a greater period of time for the loan to be paid back, thereby helping families pay back the loan and allowing the funds to be put back into their retirement savings, says Enzi.

Eliminate contribution restrictions. The bill would also allow 401(k) participants to continue to make contributions during the 6 months following a hardship withdrawal. Employees are currently prohibited from contributing to a 401(k) for 6 months after a 401(k) hardship withdrawal, which causes workers to miss out on any 401(k) match offered and discourages continued saving for retirement. Hardship withdrawals, which were for an average of $5,510 in 2010, are most often taken to avoid a home eviction or foreclosure or to pay for medical or education expenses.

[See Have 401(k)s Recovered Yet?]

401(k) loans are common among retirement savers, especially among individuals in their 40s and those earning between $40,000 and $60,000 annually. Approximately 28 percent of 401(k) participants had an outstanding loan in 2010, up from 22 percent in 2005, Aon Hewitt found. The average loan was $7,860, which represented 21 percent of these participants total retirement assets. Most 401(k) participants with a loan continue to save in the 401(k) plan (82 percent), but their average savings rate (6.2 percent of pay) is lower than those who do not have a loan outstanding (8.1 percent of pay).

Twitter: @aiming2retire

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D id you know that May is the National Skin Cancer/ Melanoma
Awareness Month? Do you know that your pets (cat, dog, and horse)
may be at high risk for this disease?

I have cautioned before about allowing pink-pigmented cats to
spend much time in the sun for just this reason. Studies have shown
that white cats living outdoors have a greater risk for developing
skin cancer. The face and ears of these animals are exposed to the
sun the most, and is generally where squamous cell carcinomas
develop. Felines are more susceptible than dogs to develop these
malignancies.

 Skin cancer frequently strikes the middle-aged to older cat
(6-14 years of age), and studies also have recently linked the
Feline immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) to the growth of cancerous
tumors.

 In our trapping efforts, we occasionally come across ferals
which have obvious cancers on their faces. Last year we had one
such female cat that had lost much of her left ear, part of the
left, and the nose also showed signs of tumors.

 With the return of warm weather and intense sun, please take
time to examine your animals now and on a regular basis. To catch
this killer disease early is to have a better chance of saving your
pet.

 Symptoms:

 1. A lump on or beneath the skin.

 2. A sore that will not heal.

 3. Frequent scratching or chewing on a particular spot.

 4. An area of the skin that is red, prone to bleed, or is
flaky.

 Diagnosis:

 1. Biopsy

 2. Cytology (microscopic examination of suspected cells)

 3. Complete blood count (CBC)

 4. Chemistry panel

 5. Urinalysis

 6. Chest X-rays (for examination of the lungs for tumors)

 Treatment (depends on the type and stage of the cancer):

 1. Surgery

 2. Radiation

 3. Chemotherapy

 4. Cryosurgery

 5. Photodynamic therapy

 Prevention:

 1. The obvious one is to limit your animal’s sun exposure,
especially between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm

 2. Ask your vet about sunscreens which can be safely used on a
pet’s ears.

 3. Frequently examine your pet for symptoms and contact your
veterinarian with any unusual findings.

Update on Amelia, the blind cat…

 She is worming her way into the hearts of the adult cats in the
house now, even wrestling with one of them this morning. She did
take a frightening fall from the upstairs balcony recently, which
thankfully has made her a bit more cautious. Follow her progress on
the new website www.maggiestories.com where my Scottish Terrier
blogs about “…life in a multi-species household and [her] work as
a foster mom to feral kittens.”

 Marci Kladnik is a board member of Catalyst for Cats, a Santa
Barbara County nonprofit organization dedicated to the welfare of
feral cats. For more information, call 685-1563 or visit
www.catalystforcats.org.

Tags: Your Pets by Admin
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Fresno – In one day, Fresno police bust two chop shops and recover three stolen cars and numerous parts.

The first chop shop was discovered at a home on the 1900 block of North Angus Avenue.

There, they found a car that was reported stolen at 4 oclock Wednesday morning.

By at 10 oclock Wednesday morning, police were tipped off to the location, where they found the 1998 Honda Civic completely stripped.

I put new seats in, I bought new rims for it, I got a new stereo, its all modified. I invested in a new engine. I probably invested a good $3,000 in it, said Ta, the owner of the stolen Civic. He did not want to be further identified.

He also protected his car with an alarm, a club, and a brake pedal lock in his car.

I was shocked that they went through all that trouble just to get the car, I was comfortable with my security system, said Ta.

Police found it 6 hours later.

They also arrested five people, but the day wasnt over yet.

Information gathered from the suspects at the home on Angus Avenue led police to a second chop shop Wednesday afternoon, at a home on Hammond Avenue.

They recovered more parts from the stolen Civic and two more stolen cars.

I kind of got an idea something was going on when I saw car seats, car doors, engines, the hoods up, and traffic at 3 oclock in the morning, said Laura Garcia, a neighbor to the chop shop.

She says the men who rented the home kept to themselves and were low key.

The owner of the stolen Civic identified his engine, seat, tires, and rims at the home on Hammond Avenue.

His car was stolen, stripped, and recovered in pieces in about 12 hours.

Usually you dont find that car until a week later, the parts are gone, and you never find the bad guys, but today, I was surprised they called me and they said they found the car, said Ta.

Two men were arrested at the second chop shop.

That makes seven arrested for auto theft in Fresno in one day.

Police can only hope the jail doesnt let them out early.

Always a fear of that. Its frustrating putting all this hard work into it and you see them released in the next two hours, thats difficult, said Sgt. Timothy Tietjen, with the Fresno Police Departments CCAT team.

Police say the men they arrested are members of the same gang. Theyre hoping to charge them with gang enhancements, so they can keep them in jail and prevent them from being released early because of overcrowding.

Tags: Shops by Admin
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Pets and humans are prone to developing skin cancer. It is the most common form of cancer in people and dogs and the second most common in cats.

Sunscreen on a furry coat doesnt protect against cancercausing sun rays.

Melanomas in people are estimated to kill one person every hour and generally arise from damage caused by ultraviolet radiation. Cats and dogs are also affected by melanomas, but theirs are usually found in the mouth.

Here are warnings signs of skin cancer for pets and their owners:

Lumps on the surface of the skin or within the skin.

A sore that does not heal in several weeks,

A skin growth that suddenly grows or becomes red or itchy, oozes or changes color or consistency.

A lump that appears in people older than 21 or in middle-aged pets.

What people should do if they or their pet has a suspicious lump:

Dont wait. Make an appointment to see a doctor or veterinarian immediately.

Testing may be as simple as removing a few cells for analysis or a biopsy.

Early detection of skin cancer increases the chances of a good outcome.

Here are ways to prevent skin cancer:

Limit sun exposure between 10 am to 2 pm, when the suns rays are the most intense,

Use sunscreen on a pet if it is a breed prone to sunburn. Ask a veterinarian what type of sunscreen is most appropriate.

People should wear protective clothing.

Perform routine examinations. Owners should rub their hands all over their pets and examine the skin in good lighting to look for changes.

Provided by Southern California Veterinary Medical Association.

Tags: Your Pets by Admin
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TORONTO-

If doomsayers are right and Saturday is Judgment Day — and youre lucky enough to be called heavenward — dont fear leaving your pets behind.

They will be looked after, promises leading biologist Eric Pianka.

The University of Texas at Austin professor — and critic of the way mankind is populating the Earth — isnt convinced the Rapture is upon us.

But if it is, and the truly devoted ascend to paradise, Pianka says: Those of us staying behind volunteer to look after your pets – As I understand it, they wont be following.

A well-funded California-based sectarian Christian organization, Family Stations Inc., has been busy with a high-profile publicity campaign across the US and Canada, hoping to convince people that May 21 is Judgment Day.

There are 85 billboards in this country, including in Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Montreal and Saskatoon, as well as associated street preachers and moving Bible caravans.

Their assertion of ascension is based on a complicated math formula the groups 89-year-old leader, Harold Camping, has used to interpret the Bible. He had to revise his calculations after making the same claim for September 1994.

Hes now convinced the day will include a massive earthquake near Australia which will move around the globe, heralding the last months of existence, before God strikes a final blow against survivors on Oct. 21.

California follower Tom Evans will spend the day in the company of his family and friends, waiting for the end.

Itll be a safe environment, he tells QMI Agency.

Just hanging out and praying.

But he adds he has no doubt the day will be bad. Real bad.

Biblical scholars have come out in droves to say theres nothing in the Bible to suggest Saturday has been designated the day true believers hope theyll be called by God — leaving everyone else behind.

Prof. Pianka isnt buying it either, having choice words to say about anyone who preaches intelligent design of the universe.

While not fearing Gods wrath, Pianka has also been a harbinger of doom, saying humanity is behaving like bacteria — bursting the limits of our global petri dish.

In 2006, after delivering an award acceptance speech, he fought creationists who accused him of advocating a 90% reduction of the population through disease, even by way of a strain of Ebola virus.

As a grandfather, he countered he could never advocate that.

But he still believes its only a matter of time before disease-causing microbes once again assert control over our population, since we are unwilling to control it ourselves.

If a calamity — or Gods hand — took a good portion of us out today, it would only scratch the service, the author of Evolutionary Ecology argues.

Even if (the population) were cut in half, it wouldnt save us, the professor warns.

And if the end is nigh right now, he stresses the offer to look after pets stands — even as those all around fall.

However, he adds: Therell be a fee.

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New evidence shows that Apple has interest in improving its tiny multi-touch iPod nano with a camera and support for new software such as games.

Potential features of a future touchscreen iPod nano were revealed this week in a new patent application published by the US Patent and Trademark Office entitled Environment Sensitive Display Tags. The document, discovered by AppleInsider, describes adding new sensors to the iPod nano, including a camera, to add new functionality.

The application concentrates on software features like screen savers, allowing information or content to be displayed on the device. Apples proposed invention would use sensors that would display unique content, or change the manner in which it is displayed.

But even more interesting are the illustrations shown in the application that include references to a camera and games. Currently, the sixth-generation iPod nano does not feature a camera, and cannot run software outside of what is preinstalled on the device.

In addition to a camera, the application also makes mention of the inclusion of a motion sensor, temperature gauge, and a microphone. Each of these sensors could be used to dynamically alter the way a screensaver would be played on an iPod nano.

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