Sign of the times: ATM alerts vanish

Atm customers: Beware when going to other banks’ ATMs for quick cash, now that a new law has been signed by the president.

The bill — The Electronic Fund Transfer Act — was signed last week after unanimously passing both the Senate and House. It has an amendment that allows banks to take down the out-of-network fee signs.

The bank is still required to alert you on the screen what fees will be charged, but consumer advocates say that the measure will lead to more fees being generated by banks, at a time when they are looking for revenue.

“This is a great achievement for EFTA,” according to Kurt Helwig, president and chief executive of the Electronic Funds Transfer Association (EFTA).

“They will still be warned on the electronic screen that they will pay a fee; it is just that the banks will not be required to have a physical sign warning them, although some banks continue to do so,” says John Hall, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association (ABA).

Helwig added that other financial groups also had supported the measure. However, Tom Feltner, a spokesman for the Consumer Federation of America, said the group “took no position” on the measure.

Still, several other consumer groups said the dual-notification provision should stand.

“Physical notices on ATM machines are necessary to inform consumers that they may be assessed a fee prior to using the machines in any capacity,” wrote Michelle Jun, senior attorney for Consumers Union, in a letter to the Senate on behalf of a trio of consumer groups. She warned that “without this posted sign, a consumer may engage in the transaction before knowing the fee.”

And what’s the damage for not using your bank? The average out-of-network fee is now $1.57, which is up 11 percent from last year, according to BankRate.com. The owner of the ATM is paying $2.50, which is up some 4 percent from 2011, says BankRate.com. A card-industry observer said these charges can be significant over the long term.

“It may not seem like much, but over the course of a year these kinds of charges can add up to $90 or more,” says Bill Hardekopf, founder of LowCards.com.

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Week brings startup launches, social media advice for 2013

Jared Kleinert, a South Florida entrepreneur, plans to soon launch Synergist, a platform that allow social entrepreneurs to meet potential co-founders online, collaborate and crowdfund their new projects. He also just launched AliveNDead, a blog about risk-taking, and he interns for a Silicon Valley startup.

And when he’s not doing all that, he’s going to class — he’s a junior at Spanish River High School in Boca Raton.

Lester Mapp is CEO and founder of the new Miami-based startup called designed by m. His team has just designed a sleek, ultra-thin aluminum iPhone bumper and launched the project on Kickstarter. After just a few days, Mapp is already more than a third of the way to his $20,000 fund-raising goal.

Read about both these entrepreneurs on The Starting Gate blog, where there’s also a post on the most pressing issues facing small businesses in the coming year — taxes, healthcare, lending and a skilled worker shortage, for starters.

And as you are ringing in the New Year, you may be resolving to beef up your business’ social media strategy. Susan Linning's guest post offers five top tips for boosting your social media effectiveness. Among them: Go beyond retweets and make your posts original, fun and personal (but not too personal.) Use visuals, too. Find this and other news, views and tools for entrepreneurs on the blog, which is at the bottom of MiamiHerald.com /business.

Follow me on Twitter @ndahlberg and Happy New Year to all.

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Former Miami Beach resident may be next Israeli ambassador to U.S.

Ron Dermer, a top adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and who has family ties to two former Miami Beach mayors, may soon become the next Israeli ambassador to the United States, according to reports in an Israeli newspaper.

The daily Makor Rishon reported late Friday that the current ambassador, Michael Oren, plans to step down from his post in the spring of 2013 and would be replaced by Dermer.

Dermer was nicknamed “Bibi’s Brain’’ in a 2011 Tablet profile that compared his relationship with Netanyahu to that of Karl Rove and former President George W. Bush.

Dermer, a Florida-born conservative, reportedly planned Republican Mitt Romney’s trip to Israel last summer during the U.S. presidential campaign.

He has been Netanyahu’s senior adviser since 2009.

The Prime Minister’s Bureau and the Prime Minister’s Office declined comment on the newspaper’s report, according to Israeli media.

Family members in Miami Beach contacted by The Miami Herald also declined to comment.

Dermer is the brother of former Miami Beach Mayor David Dermer, whose first campaign he managed, and the son of former mayor Jay Dermer.

His father was a mayor in the 1960’s and his older brother David was mayor from 2001-2007.

Just two weeks before Ron’s bar mitzvah, his father died of a heart attack. Growing up in Miami Beach, he attended a Jewish day school.

Ron Dermer and his younger sister Esther moved to Israel in the late ’90s after completing their studies. He earned a degree in finance and management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University.

For three years, he wrote a column for the Jerusalem Post and, along with former Soviet dissident and Israeli politician Natan Sharansky, co-authored the book, “The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror.’’

He and his wife Rhonda have three children: Mayor, Zev and Ezra.

Dermer had to give up his U.S. citizenship in 2005 when he was appointed Minister for Economic Affairs to the Israeli Embassy.

In a 2011 interview with The Tablet, Dermer said he still thinks of himself as an American.

“When I think about Israel, I always ask myself, I call it the WWAD question: ‘What would America do?’”

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Android-powered Ouya console now shipping to 1,200 developers [video]

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Hitler pray art causes a furor

WARSAW, Poland — A statue of Adolf Hitler praying on his knees is on display in the former Warsaw Ghetto and provoking an angry response.

The work, “HIM,” by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, is visible only from a distance, and the artist doesn’t make explicit what Hitler is praying for. Organizers say the point is to make people reflect on the nature of evil.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish advocacy group, this week called the statue “a senseless provocation” of the Nazis’ Jewish victims.

“As far as the Jews were concerned, Hitler’s only ‘prayer’ was that they be wiped off the face of the earth,” the group’s Israel director, Efraim Zuroff, said in a statement.

However, many others are praising the artwork, saying it has a strong emotional impact. And organizers defend putting it on display in the former ghetto.

Fabio Cavallucci, director of the Center for Contemporary Art, which oversaw the installation, said, “There is no intention from the side of the artist or the center to insult Jewish memory.”

“It’s an artwork that tries to speak about the situation of hidden evil everywhere,” he said.

The Warsaw ghetto was an area of the city which the Nazis sealed off after they invaded Poland. They forced Jews to live in cramped, inhuman conditions there as they awaited deportation to death camps. Many died from hunger or disease or were shot by the Germans before they could be transported to the camps.

The Hitler installation is just one object in a retrospective of Cattelan’s work titled “Amen,” a show that explores life, death, good and evil. The other works are on display at the center itself, which is housed in the Ujazdowski Castle.

The Hitler representation is visible from a hole in a wooden gate across town on Prozna Street. Viewers only see the back of the small figure praying in a courtyard. Because of its small size, it appears to be a harmless schoolboy.

“Every criminal was once a tender, innocent and defenseless child,” the center said in a commentary on the work.

Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said he was consulted on the installation’s placement ahead of time and did not oppose it because he saw value in the artist’s attempt to try to raise moral questions by provoking viewers.

He said he was reassured by curators who told him there was no intention of rehabilitating Hitler but rather of showing that evil can present itself in the guise of a “sweet praying child.”

“I felt there could be educational value to it,” said Schudrich, who also wrote an introduction to the exhibition’s catalogue in which he says art can “force us to face the evil of the world.”

On Friday, a stream of people walked by to view the work, and many praised it.

“It had a big emotional impact on me. It’s provocative, but it’s not offensive,” said Zofia Jablonska, a 30-year-old lawyer. “Having him pray in the place where he would kill people — this was the best place to put it.”

Cattelan caused controversy in Warsaw in 2000 when another gallery showed his work “La Nona Ora” — or “The Ninth Hour” — which depicts the late Pope John Paul II being crushed by a meteorite. That offended many in Poland, which is both deeply Catholic and was John Paul’s homeland.

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Resources for South Florida small businesses

•  Florida Small Business Development Centers. Counseling and training at centers in South Florida and around the state, www.floridasbdc.org.

•  SCORE Workshops, online training and free coaching at local branches, www.score.org, miamidade.score.org, browardscore.org, southbroward.score.org

• Florida Women’s Business Center. Provides training, mentoring and resources to women entrepreneurs, http://www.flwbc.org.

• The Commonwealth Institute. Helps women entrepreneurs, CEOs and corporate executives build businesses through peer mentoring programs and annually honors top women-led businesses in Florida, www.commonwealthinstitute.org.

The Hispanic Business Initiative Fund of Florida. Nonprofit, with a Miami office, provides free bilingual seminars, workshops and technical assistance to Hispanic entrepreneurs launching or expanding businesses in Florida. www.HBIFflorida.org.

•  Barry University, Barry Institute for Community and Economic Development. Counseling, workshops and training for Miami-Dade small businesses through the Entrepreneurial Institute, www.barry.edu/biced.

•  Broward College. Offers a 24-credit entrepreneurship certificate, www.broward.edu. For noncredit business courses, including training through its Entrepreneurial Institute, http://www.broward.edu/ce.

•  Florida International University, Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center. Workshops, webinars and more, entrepreneurship.fiu.edu.

•  Miami Dade College. Offers a 12-credit entrepreneurship certificate program, www.mdc.edu/business. For noncredit classes, www.mdc.edu/ce. The Meek Entrepreneurial Education Center offers many programs, www.mdc.edu/north/eec.

•  University of Miami, The Launch Pad. Workshops, networking, resources and coaching, www.thelaunchpad.org.

•  Southern Florida Minority Supplier Development Council. Connects large businesses with minority businesses across South Florida, www.sfmsdc.org.

•  Startup Florida. Programs and training, plus register your company in this Startup America initiative, www.startupfl.org.

•  Partners for Self-Employment. Offers training, technical assistance and loans in Miami-Dade and Broward. www.partnersforselfemployment.com

•  Miami Bayside Foundation. Provides loans of $10,000 to $50,000 to minority-owned businesses in the city of Miami. www.miamibaysidefoundation.org..

•  MetroBroward. Nonprofit offers financing, incubation and training for businesses in low- to moderate-income areas of Broward, www.metrobroward.org.

• ACCION USA. Provides microloans up to $50,000 and financial education, with South Florida offices and programs, www.accionusa.org.

ClearPoint Credit Counseling Solutions. Nonprofit offers one-on-one, over the phone or Internet credit counseling to entrepreneurs and consumers with poor credit. 305-463-6739, ext 1019 or www.clearpointccs.org .

•  Incubate Miami. Start-up businesses in technology can get mentorship, office space and now early-stage funding, www.incubatemiami.com.

• The Technology Business Incubator at the Research Park at Florida Atlantic University. Offers mentors, investor connections and business services, http://www.research-park.org

•  South Florida Urban Ministries’ ASSETS Business Development. Nonprofit offers small business development program including one-on-one business coaching and consulting in areas of start-up, marketing, finance and more, www.sflum.org.

• United Way Center for Financial Stability. Center offers a wide array of tools and resources to help families and individuals achieve financial independence. www.unitedwaymiami.org/WhatWeDo/CFS.

•  The Startup Forum. Organization’s mission is to foster the development of vibrant regional startup communities, www.startupforum.net.

•  StartupDigest. Begun in Silicon Valley as a place to find events for entrepreneurs, this has spread to other cities, including Miami, www.startupdigest.com

If your organization should be on this list, email ndahlberg@miamiherald.com

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Miami-Dade camping law may clash with Supreme Court ruling

When Miami-Dade commissioners voted unanimously this month to ban overnight camping at “county facility property,” they opened the doors to debate about how police should apply the measure to homeless people.

The action was a clear shot at the Occupy Wall Streeters who flooded public spaces, including outside County Hall, in the summer of 2011.

In addition to making it illegal to camp on county property, the measure toughens permitting rules for public gatherings and permissible “free speech’’ zones. It also gives police the authority to arrest violators, including the homeless.

But a 25-year-old court ruling could present a conflict, some legal observers say. A 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Pottinger vs. The City of Miami case found that Michael Pottinger and about 6,000 other homeless people in Miami could not be harassed or punished for occupying public property because doing so would violate their fundamental right to travel, and to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.

The new ordinance specifically provides that if police direct a homeless person occupying a county facility to leave, the officer first must look for sleeping space for the homeless person at a county shelter. If there is none, or if the person refuses the option, he or she can be arrested for trespassing if they remain or return to the space.

An ACLU lawyer said the measure could again open the door for police to harass and arrest homeless people.

“We’re prepared to litigate should there be issues in the future,” said attorney Dan Palugyai, who sits on the board of the Greater Miami Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “Our past experience tells us it’s likely, even probable.”

During the commission meeting, County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said the homeless — at least in Miami — were protected from arrest by the Pottinger case.

The new law defines impermissible camping as the “setting up of tents, shacks, or shelters for sleeping activities or making preparations to sleep [including the laying down of bedding for the purposes of sleeping], from the hours of sunset to sunrise.”

Miami First Amendment lawyer Tom Julin said he’s troubled by that wording.

“They’re not allowing the general public to do the same type things that they, or organizations they approve of, do in a park,” he said, referring to the ING Miami Marathon and some concerts at Bayfront Park, both of which allow people to spend the night, even if there is no formal permission granted.

Commissioner Lynda Bell, who sponsored the ordinance, said it was “not meant to harm anyone.’’ After some homeless advocates expressed concern, the language was added directing police to first find shelter for homeless people and to arrest only as a last resort.

“We obviously think it’s legally sufficient,’’ said Assistant County Attorney Danny Frastai.

Still not entirely clear: How the new law would apply to county parks like Matheson Hammock Park or Haulover Beach Park. At the final meeting before the full board of Miami-Dade County Commissioners when the ordinance was adopted, it was amended from not allowing camping on “county property,” to not allowing it on “county facility property.”

“We interpret facility to mean some type of structure, like a building,” said Frastai. “If it’s a park that has a structure, we’d have to look at it.”

That’s just sloppy language, noted Palugyai, the homeless advocate. “Hopefully, there will be opportunities to clean it up.” The Occupy Wall Street crowd gathered on the west lawn at County Hall in Miami from the summer of 2011 until February, when they were finally evicted. The county says it spent $17,000 cleaning up the mess left behind.

Though the group obtained a permit to camp out there, Miami-Dade Internal Services Director Lester Sola said they should have been directed to a different spot. He blamed the confusion on vague wording in the old code, which was what led to the revision. During the discussion, Commissioner Jean Monestime wanted to know why the county needed to legislate a camping ban.

“My apprehension here is we may be opening a can of worms here.”

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Leaked BlackBerry 10 slides show video calling and screen sharing for BBM

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Fury at ‘school’ firing range

The Sandy Hook school-shooting kickback has hit the Hamptons.

Angry parents at an East End school, with students from kindergarten through eighth grade, have demanded that local cops stop firing their guns at a target range across the street from their frightened kids.

Youngsters at the Tuckahoe School in Southampton regularly hear gunfire from a Southampton Village police gun range directly across the street — and critics want the crackling volleys to cease.

While the range and school have co-existed for decades, the sound of bullets flying the week after the Sandy Hook massacre sent some residents over the edge.

School-board member Harald Steudte demanded cops stop shooting during school hours — after officers practiced even as kids sat in classrooms just days after the Connecticut bloodshed.

“It was unbelievable to me that they would choose that [week] to shoot there,” said Southampton Village Mayor Mark Epley. “I immediately gave an executive order to the Police Department to not shoot during school hours or activities. If they do, heads are going to roll.”

“It’s really disconcerting,” said PTA co-Vice President Kathy Grigo.

“It’s surprising to me that there could be a gun range so close to the school in the first place.”

Southampton village police use the wooded area to practice for their certification tests and to sharpen marksman skills. The firearms used, according to a law enforcement source, range from machine guns to flash grenades.

Someone even spray painted a large plywood sign at the site this week reading “Does a gun range belong here?”

Superintendent Chris Dyer confirmed that students often hear the shots in class and said that he has had complaints from parents over the years.

But Steudte said the Connecticut shooting should prompt the cops to move their operation elsewhere completely. “I’m happy that the mayor had them stop shooting during school hours,” he said. “But at this point I think it should not be there at all.”

Nearby residents in the heavily populated area said that they’ve grown accustomed to hearing gunfire.

“My little girl asks me what that sound is,” said a woman who lives across the street from the school. “It’s hard to explain.”

selim.algar@nypost.com

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5 issues small business owners will face in 2013

In 2013, small business owners will contend with many of the same issues that made it hard to run their companies during the past 12 months.

They’re also heading into the new year with a lot of uncertainty. It’s unlikely that negotiations in Congress will resolve all of lawmakers’ disagreements over tax and budget issues that affect small businesses. And there are still many questions about the implications of the healthcare law for small companies.

That points to continued caution — and perhaps slow hiring — among the nation’s small companies.

“Uncertainty is the bane of every small business,” says Scott Shane, a professor of entrepreneurship at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management in Cleveland. “Their only rational response is to pull in their horns and slow down.”

Small businesses aren’t likely to get much encouragement from the economy. It’s expected to grow by no more than 3 percent in 2013, according to the Federal Reserve. That’s a moderate pace, better than the 1.7 percent that the economy grew during the first three quarters of 2012. But it’s also far from robust.

Here’s a look at some of the issues facing small businesses in the coming year:

TAXES

Lawmakers are still haggling over what’s called the fiscal cliff, the combination of billions of dollars in tax increases and budget cuts. Even if Congress reaches an agreement, small business owners won’t have the certainty they need, according to Todd McCracken, president of the National Small Business Association, a group that lobbies on behalf of small companies.

“It almost surely won’t be comprehensive enough that we won’t be revisiting it next year,” McCracken says. He’s concerned that there’ll be another fiscal cliff in six months — which would mean more negotiations and more uncertainty.

Many small business owners are worried about their personal tax rates. Sole proprietors, partners and owners of what are called S corporations, all report the income from their businesses on their individual Form 1040 returns. That means their companies are in effect taxed at personal rates, which can be higher than corporate rates.

One of the most important tax provisions for small businesses, what’s known as the Section 179 deduction, will shrink to $25,000 next year from $125,000 in 2012. The deduction, which applies to equipment purchases, was $500,000 in 2011. Congress can increase the deduction at any time, even after 2013 has begun. But for the time being, business owners can’t count on getting a big break.

“It’s a huge change for companies planning on making investments,” McCracken says.

It’s not known if Congress will extend the 2 percentage point payroll tax cut that workers have had for two years. If it doesn’t, consumers will have less money in their paychecks to spend, and that is likely to affect retailers and any other small businesses that sell directly to the public.

HEALTHCARE

Healthcare has been another source of uncertainty for small business owners. The new year will bring some, but probably not all, of the answers to questions about how the new healthcare law will affect them. Many will have to devote some time to understanding the law — or hire someone to help them do it.

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