Bachelor Sean Lowe Embarks on Hometown Dates

It's time to meet the parents!AshLee, Catherine, Lindsay and Desiree are set to embark on the coveted hometown dates this week with Sean, but for some, the Bachelor bubble is about to burst.First up is AshLee, who Sean admits has always been a frontrunner. After flying down to Houston, Texas to spend a romantic afternoon in an idyllic meadow with the 32-year-old personal organizer and her tiny pup,...

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Times talks: Tesla test tellingly tainted

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is still fast — but far less furious. After his dust-up with the New York Times, the paper’s public editor, Margaret Sullivan, offered her take on the now infamous Tesla test drive and found that the reviewer came up short.In a blog posting yesterday, Sullivan said the reporter, John Broder, didn’t always use “good judgment” and that...

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Open English expands across Latin America

Back in 2008, Open English, a company run from Miami that uses online courses to teach English in Latin America, had just a handful of students in Venezuela and three employees. Today the company has more than 50,000 students in 22 Latin American countries and some 2,000 employees.To fund this meteoric expansion, the founders of Open English — Venezuelans Andrés Moreno and...

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FIU turns to partnership firm for international online degrees

With its state funding shrinking — and online college classes rising in popularity — Florida International University is banking on students from abroad to boost its finances and expand its academic reach. In that endeavor, the college is turning to Academic Partnerships, an experienced, successful (and politically connected) player in the fast-growing Internet education...

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Mindy McCready Dies of Apparent Suicide

Sources confirm to ET that country music singer Mindy McCready has died. She was 37 years old.RELATED: Stars We LostAccording to a police report from the Cleburne County Sheriff's Office in Arkansas, deputies responded to a report of gun shots fired on Sunday afternoon. Upon arriving, officers reportedly found Mindy McCready's body on the front porch and pronounced her dead at the scene from what...

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Business briefs

Fb pulls a GEFacebook, which turned a $1.1 billion profit in 2012, took a page out of GE’s playbook when it did not pay a dime in federal and state income taxes, according to Citizens for Tax Justice. Facebook will get a $429 million refund.Headwinds US stocks could struggle to extend their seven-week winning streak as the quarterly earnings period draws...

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Small business lending rebounds in South Florida

For years, Pablo Oliveira dreamed of buying a property to house his high-end linen and furniture rental company, Nuage Designs, which has created settings for such glamorous events as the weddings of Carrie Underwood and Chelsea Clinton.A few months ago, that dream came true, when Oliveira purchased a warehouse across the street from his current Miami location. He is now...

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Speaker to discuss the Jews of Zimbabwe

You are invited to hear Modreck Zvakavapano Maeresera and Tudor Parfitt, as they lecture on "The Lamba Jews of Zimbabwe" at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday at the Jewish Museum of Florida, 301 Washington Ave. in Miami Beach. You will want to attend this event; Maeresera is a leader in the Lemba Jewish community in Zimbaabwe. He coordinates a program of Jewish cyber-learning, studying...

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Hugh Grant is a Dad Again

Hugh Grant confirmed Saturday that he is a dad again.PICS: Celebs and Their Cute KidsThe 52-year-old British actor tweeted, "In answer to some journos. Am thrilled my daughter now has a brother. Adore them both to an uncool degree. They have a fab mum."Hugh and actress Tinglan Hong welcomed a daughter named Tabitha in 2011. No word yet on what Tabitha's little brother is named.Related: Hugh Grant...

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Consumer confidence treaded water in Jan.

Consumer confidence didn’t fall in January, but it remains low, according to the Discover US Spending Monitor.The survey found that only 31 percent of respondents thought the economy improved in January, which was almost the same as the December number. And just 15 percent of those polled thought the economy was good or excellent, the same number as the...

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