Wacky Herald Hunt contest kicks off with funky dance moves

The 20th annual Herald Hunt kicked off from Miami’s Peacock Park with hundreds of Hunt contestants chasing clues throughout Coconut Grove.Contestants filed out of the park in teams shortly after noon, with maps in hand, and they huddled around brain-twisting puzzles such as the "Cha Cha Cha to the Caribbean," a small stage where two Carnival performers danced a series of...

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Sony’s radical PlayStation 4 controller concept: A motion-control device you can split in half

While Nintendo (NTDOY) has been busy innovating with unique controllers on the Wii and Wii U, Sony’s (SNE) DualShock controller for its PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 has remained virtually the same since 1997. A newly discovered patent reveals Sony might be planning on a radical overhaul of the DualShock for the PlayStation 4 that’s rumored to arrive next year. U.S. patent 20120302347A1...

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Buzzmakers: AJ is a Dad and Angus Apologizes

What had ET readers buzzing this week?1. Charges Filed Against Lindsay LohanCalifornia prosecutors have officially filed charges against Lindsay Lohan.The charges, which include willfully resisting, obstructing, or delaying an officer in the course of their duties, supplying false information to a police officer and reckless driving, stem from the car accident Lohan was involved in last June when...

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Brooklyn Bridge 'vandal' may have stolen Calvin Klein poster from art gallery

Cops are investigating whether a grafitti artist busted yesterday for vandalizing the Brooklyn Bridge swiped an expensive Calvin Klein poster from a Manhattan art gallery, police sources said.Enno Tianen, 32, of Queens was arrested about 1 p.m. for allegedly spraypainting the tag tag “LEWY” on the midspan part of the bridge on June 25, cops said.Sergeant...

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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....

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Remembering the rhythm: Fans celebrate life of Jaco Pastorius

Tammy Goss is sitting on a park bench in a small patch of green wedged between Dixie Highway and the FEC railroad tracks. Staring down from the southeast wall of the corner community center is a huge blue-toned mural of a man’s face, his fingers curled around an electric bass guitar. She knows his name.“Jaco Pastorius, I think,” said Goss, 45.But that’s all she really knows...

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Study: DVRs now in half of US pay-TV homes

NEW YORK (AP) — A new survey finds that digital video recorders are now in more than half of all U.S. homes that subscribe to cable or satellite TV services.Leichtman Research Group‘s survey of 1,300 households found that 52 percent of the ones that have pay-TV service also have a DVR. That translates to about 45 percent of all households and is up from 13.5 percent of all households surveyed five...

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Katie Holmes 'Dead Accounts' Broadway Opening Night

ET caught up with a radiant-looking Katie Holmes Thursday night at the big Broadway opening of her new play Dead Accounts, in which the 33-year-old plays Lorna, a single woman trying to put her life together while living with her aging parents in Cincinnati."You know, it feels really exciting. So many friends and family were here supporting and that means so much," Katie said about the highly anticipated...

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Pressuring GOP, Obama takes his fiscal plan to Pa.

REUTERSPresident Obama gestures next to Michael Araten, right, President of Rodon, and Joel Glickman, Vice Chairman, at the Rodon Group, a manufacturer of toys in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, Friday.HATFIELD, Pa. — President Obama argued Friday that allowing taxes to rise for the middle class would amount to a "lump of coal" for Christmas," while Republican...

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Banking regulators release Helm Bank’s and Great Eastern Bank’s enforcement actions agreed to in October

Helm Bank USA, based in Miami, signed a consent order with federal and state banking regulators Oct. 17, according to information on October enforcement actions released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday.Helm Bank must deveop a Bank Secrecy Act compliance plan, implement internal controls and a training program, revise its strategic plan and develop a plan...

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Opera’s Second Act

Laura Horton’s grandmother always dreamed of becoming an opera singer.Today, Horton’s 10-year-old daughter, McCall, is living her great-grandmother’s deferred dream.“My grandmother was a professional singer and she wanted to be in the opera,” said Laura Horton, an attorney who lives with her family in Coral Gables. “Though she passed away this year, when I hear the opera,...

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Chris Colfer Glee Interview Land of Stories 2 Details

Earlier this year, I had the great pleasure of catching a screening of Struck By Lighting; the brave, funny, inspiring and touching film Chris Colfer wrote and starred in. Now, he's revisting the character of Carson Phillips in Struck By Lightning: The Carson Phillips Journal, a novel that serves as the perfection companion piece to the film.On the small screen, Colfer recently lost his perfect companion...

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Activist busted for spray-painting anti-jihad subway poster promises to take case to trial

The Egyptian-born activist arrested for blasting pink spray paint on what she saw as an offensive Times Square subway poster -- because it called the jihadist enemies of Israel "savages" -- is promising to take the case to trial.Mona Eltahawy, 45, came to Manhattan Criminal Court for a routine appearance on her misdemeanor graffiti case today and declined...

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Miami-Dade pending home sales spiked in October

Despite a dearth of homes and condos on the market in Miami-Dade County, pending sales rose 67 percent in October with 4,172 residential properties going under contract compared with 2,488 a year earlier, according to the Miami Association of Realtors.The number of pending sales rose 18 percent in October from September.In a statement, Martha Pomares, chairman of the board...

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Powerball dreamers include Miami Heat’s LeBron and Haslem

He may have it all, but LeBron James knows how to dream.He says he’s buying Powerball tickets for Wednesday night’s $550 million drawing. James makes more than $17 million a year in salary without having to worry about hitting the numbers. But still ... “Damn right I am,” he said when asked if he’s buying tickets. “And I’m going to make sure to take care of you if I win.”...

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Actors' Body Transformations For Roles

Jared Leto After a major weight gain in the 2007 film Chapter 27, Jared Leto slimmed down drastically in 2012 for his role as a transsexual named Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club, the same movie Matthew McConaughey dropped weight for. "I waxed my entire body, including my eyebrows. I've lost a lot of weight because I'm playing a young person with AIDS," he told ETonline...

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Ex-cop gets 15 years in prison for selling NYPD guns to drug ring

William FarringtonNicholas Mina in court today.A former New York City police officer is going to prison. He admitted to stealing guns from police lockers and selling them to drug dealers to pay for his addiction to the painkiller oxycodone.The Manhattan district attorney's office said Wednesday that Nicholas Mina was sentenced to 15½ years in prison.Authorities...

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Miami police: Crime down after year-long Operation Resilience

Violent criminals are not the only threat to neighborhoods, Miami police say. Prostitutes, drug users, and even motorists who disobey the rules of the road can jeopardize the safety of residents.That’s why Miami police cast a broad net with Operation Resilience, a citywide crackdown that launched in December 2011 and concluded in November with more than 1,000 arrests made...

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Google Breaks All Android App Reviews, Threatens Android Fans’ Safety

“A Google User” is now the number one Android game and app reviewer on Google Play, Android’s version of Apple’s App Store. That’s because every single one of the millions of existing reviews, possibly including yours, has had its author replaced with this nameless, faceless person.Screenshots taken by Jeremiah Rice of the Android Police blog show this prolific (but completely generic) author has...

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Alex O'Loughlin's Baby Blues

If Alex O'Loughlin seems a bit frazzled or incoherent, it's because the Aussie hunk just became a new dad and is not getting much sleep -- and the Hawaii Five-O star doesn't mince words about the realities of fatherhood.Video: Does 'Five-0' Cast Enjoy Working in Hawaii? "Why do people say congratulations when you have a child? It's awful," he says with amusing candor to ET Canada. "You don't sleep,...

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Batty blond Baldwin 'stalker' back behind bars

Alec Baldwin's perky, unhinged accused stalker was hauled in cuffs out of Manhattan Criminal Court this afternoon — charged with violating the order of protection barring her from any contact with the actor or his yoga instructor wife."Why am I being arrested! " Genevieve Sabourin, a shapely French Canadian blonde, sobbed. "Tell me why I am being arrested!"...

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Case-Shiller: Miami, U.S. home prices up again

The good news keeps coming for housing.Miami area home prices rose 7.4 percent in September from a year earlier, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.Home prices in Miami inched up 0.1 percent in September from August, the report, issued by S&P Dow Jones Indices, said. Seasonally adjusted, Miami posted a 0.3 percent gain in home prices in September...

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Man who died during roach-eating contest choked on bug parts, autopsy says

A man who collapsed during a roach-eating contest last month at a a Broward pet shop died from choking on insect parts, according to the Broward medical examiner.The death of Edward Archbold, 32, of West Palm Beach, has been ruled an accident, Medical Examiner Craig Mallak said Monday in an advisory. An autopsy tested negative for toxic substances.Archbold’s airway became...

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Larry Hagman's Manager Reveals Funeral Details

Larry Hagman's manager is opening up about funeral arrangements for the Dallas star who passed away on Friday at age 81. RELATED: Dallas Star Larry Hagman DiesJohn Castonia confirms exclusively to ET that the Hagman family will hold two private invitation-only memorial services this week, one in Texas and another in California.RELATED: Barbara Eden Mourns Death of Larry HagmanCastonia also revealed...

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Crane collapses in Hell's Kitchen

A crane mounted in a truck fell over in a vacant lot this morning in Hell's Kitchen, authorities said.No one was injured in the accident, which occurred around 10:05 a.m. on West 38th Street near Dyer Avenue, said a spokesman for the FDNY.The city Buildings Department is investigating the cause.It was at least the second crane accident in the city in a...

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Shifting tides of Panama real estate echo Miami trends

PANAMA CITY, Panama — As a real estate agent shows off a model apartment — white leather sectional, stainless steel appliances, open concept, ocean views — in the 59-story Yacht Club Tower, and touts its fitness center and pool deck designed to mimic a ship floating on the sea, he makes a telling statement:“We tried to emulate the Miami style in this building.”Approaching...

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South Florida responders returning home from Sandy recovery work

A group of South Florida medical responders are returning home Sunday and Monday after spending two weeks assisting with Hurricane Sandy recovery in New York.The team of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, paramedics and mental health experts are expected to arrive at local airports. While in New York, the medical responders staffed a field hospital in Long Beach providing first...

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Saudi telco regulator suspends Mobily prepaid sim sales

(Reuters) – Saudi Arabia‘s No.2 telecom operator Etihad Etisalat Co (Mobily) has been suspended from selling pre-paid sim cards by the industry regulator, the firm said in a statement to the kingdom’s bourse on Sunday.Mobily’s sales of pre-paid, or pay-as-you-go, sim cards will remain halted until the company “fully meets the prepaid service provisioning requirements,” the telco said in the statement.These...

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Larry Hagman Dies

Larry Hagman, best known for playing Dallas villain J.R. Ewing, died Friday morning from complications stemming from his recent battle with cancer.He was 81 years old.Video: Larry Hagman Talks 'Dallas', Cancer and Veganism "Larry was back in his beloved Dallas, re-enacting the iconic role he loved most," his family said in a statement via The Dallas Morning News. "When he passed, he was surrounded...

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NY gets $27 million federal grant to hire Sandy cleanup workers

New York has gotten a $27 million federal grant that will go toward hiring people to help Superstorm Sandy cleanup efforts.Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the National Emergency Grant on Sunday. The money is going to go to communities that were hit hard by the storm so that they can hire people.The state Department of Labor is administering the funds.At an event in Brooklyn about the grant, a throng of...

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Is the electric car dying again?

A second administration of President Barack Obama will be forced to revisit the issue of subsidies for renewable energy and, with it, those for electric vehicles. Despite the millions of dollars spent on government incentives, marketing and promotion, sales of fully electric cars are well below projected targets. Investment in vehicle charging infrastructure also has fallen...

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