AutoNation: Back in the fast lane with expansion, higher sales

Despite an agonizingly slow economic recovery, the country’s largest auto retailer, Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, is thriving again as demand for vehicles expands. The company, one of Florida’s largest, is posting increasingly strong profits and revenues. Just last week, in a sign of confidence, Autonation announced a major acquisition — buying six large auto stores in...

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Tower Theater remains an asset for Little Havana

More than 20 years ago, when the city of Miami bought an historic but abandoned theater on Southwest Eighth Street, city leaders expressed their hope that the investment would help revitalize Little Havana.The troubled neighborhood that’s considered the symbolic heart of Miami’s Cuban exile community couldn’t afford to wait to see if “something will fall from the sky and...

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Golden Globes Flashback: Bill Murray 2004

Bill Murray had been acting over a quarter of a century before he won his first Golden Globe, also receiving a coveted Oscar nomination that year. Nevertheless, as he fielded questions in the pressroom after winning the award, he took the spotlight off himself and turned it on the film.Beginning his Saturday Night Live days in 1975, the actor and comedian had received his first Golden Globes nomination...

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Iran: Data decoded from CIA drone captured in 2011

EPAGeneral Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, right, looks at the US RQ-170 drone which reportedly crashed in eastern Iran near the city of Kashmar on December 4, 2011.TEHRAN, Iran — Iran says the country's Revolutionary Guard has decoded all of the data from an advanced CIA spy drone captured last year.Tehran has previously said it recovered information from the RQ-170...

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AutoNation: Back in the fast lane with expansion, higher sales

• AutoNation’s announcement December 4 that it was acquiring six auto stores in Texas, its second most important market after Florida, forms part of the company’s national growth strategy.• AutoNation operates in 15 states and, according to CEO Mike Jackson, prefers to build its brand network in existing markets rather than expand to new markets. It grows either...

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State scraps plan to have private vendors make license tags

TALLAHASSEE -- Backing away from a possible court fight, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles announced Friday that it will halt its attempt to bid license tag services to private vendors.Tax collectors — who distribute state tags — and two manufacturing groups tried to block the change by lobbying elected officials and filing legal action against...

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Barnes and Noble Nook HD+ is a Big Screen, Good Value Tablet

Barnes and Noble Nook-HD+Click here to view this gallery.[More from Mashable: 7 Stylish iPad Cases With Notepads]The other night I handed the new Barnes and Noble HD+ to my son to see his reaction to one of the latest 9-inch tablets. He held it, played with the screen and said, “Which one is this?” I told him and he answered, “I can’t tell the difference anymore.” It’s true, with the sudden explosion...

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How They Pulled Off 'The Impossible'

The true story of the devastating 2004 tsunami that consumed the coast of Phuket, Thailand -- and how one family survived it -- is reenacted by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor in The Impossible. Watch the video to go behind the scenes...Video: Tsunami Survivor Petra Nemcova Reacts to Latest Disaster in JapanIn theaters December 21, The Impossible finds Naomi as Maria and Ewan as her husband Henry, who...

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US drone kills senior al Qaeda leader in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A US drone strike has killed a senior al Qaeda leader in Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghan border, Pakistani intelligence officials said, in the latest blow to the Islamic militant network.Sheik Khalid bin Abdel Rehman al-Hussainan, who was also known as Abu Zaid al-Kuwaiti, was killed when missiles slammed into a house Thursday...

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Events showcase Miami’s growth as tech center

One by one, representatives from six startup companies walked onto the wooden stage and presented their products or services to a full house of about 200 investors, mentors, and other supporters Thursday at Incubate Miami’s DemoDay in the loft-like Grand Central in downtown Miami. With a large screen behind them projecting their graphs and charts, they set out to persuade...

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