Weeks of talks to bring the steamy event and its 51 contestants to South Beach paused recently, with parent company Miss Universe deciding against moving the primetime pageant to Miami Beach in 2012. Miss Universe and South Florida business and government representatives, however, are still working to bring the event to the Miami Beach Convention Center for a three-year run starting in 2013, according to ACT Productions and the Green modeling agency, two main figures in negotiations.

The playground of the rich and famous is home to a crippling housing crisis, one of the highest crime rates in the country, and lengthy daily commutes for workers, all of which have propelled it to the No. 1 position in the Forbes.com list.

The reason: The city’s mayor had called Principal Bernard Osborn after Futterman and her two children spoke against a controversial garbage-pickup contract at a recent North Miami City Council meeting.

Futterman, who has one of Mayor Andre Pierre’s children in her class, said she was flabbergasted.

“Who is he to call my place of employment?” said Futterman, who lives in North Miami. “I am offended as his son’s educator and as a citizen.”

The Jan. 24 meeting drew a crowd that packed the council chambers, with a spillover audience watching from the lobby as the council heard public comment about a plan to privatize the city’s garbage services. The mayor and his supporters have said the plan would reduce garbage and trash collection fees; critics have said it would lead to uneven service and higher fees in the long run. The council passed the measure on second reading by a 3-2 vote, with council members Michael Blynn and Scott Galvin dissenting.

The proposal has been the subject of scandal and controversy for months. The mayor’s nephew and reelection campaign manager, Ricardo Brutus, was arrested in March for allegedly accepting $4,000 from a local businessman to ensure the ordinance was delayed until after the May election. Brutus was caught on tape describing his influence in City Hall, although he has denied wrongdoing, and Pierre has sought to distance himself from the case.

At a meeting last month, the mayor bristled when Blynn brought up his nephew’s arrest, and angrily referred to Blynn’s daughters as “prostitutes” — a comment for which he later apologized.

Pierre said he called the principal out of concern about comments made by Futterman’s children, who he said were misinformed about the project. He said he did not realize their mother was a teacher at the school.

“I wasn’t concerned about the teacher; I was concerned about what the children were saying,” said Pierre. “I have a moral and legal obligation to let the principal know.”

Futterman’s children, like their mom, had questioned the council about whether the plan would include recycling.

No one on the council addressed the recycling question during the public comment period because the council takes questions after all comments have been made. By the time the council acknowledged recycling would be included, Futterman and her twin seventh-graders, Max and Toni Correa, had already left.

“I thought they would stay till the end,” said Pierre, who said he wanted to work with the principal to schedule a workshop on the new plan so students could be educated on the matter. “I understand it was a school night, but I am not going to stop a public meeting.”

Pierre said he asked the principal to confirm that the science teacher who spoke at the meeting was his son’s instructor. Pierre’s son, Dominique, is a sixth-grader at the school and is in Futterman’s honors science class. After the meeting, Pierre initially said he did not know the teacher, but after questioning by a Miami Herald reporter, he acknowledged he had met her previously at a school event.

Miami self-imposed a bowl ban this past season, and eight players were suspended for at least one game because of their interactions with the former booster, convicted Ponzi scheme architect Nevin Shapiro.

“Nobody knows what’s going to happen,” Howard said. “Nobody knows what the sanctions are going to be. … They took a bowl game away this year and players got suspended. They did their punishment. So what more can there be? There’s going to be a sanction. No doubt about it. I’m taking a chance.”

When he lifted a Hurricanes cap at Miramar High, surrounded by family members, Miami coaches working on campus about 25 miles away roared.

“Extremely relieved,” said Howard’s mother, Shaiy Howard.

Howard immediately became the gem of the Miami class, one that already included other highly rated players like Miami Columbus High defensive back Deon Bush, defensive tackle Jelani Hamilton of perennial national power St. Thomas Aquinas of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., wide receiver Angelo Jean-Louis of Palm Beach Central High and running back Randy “Duke” Johnson of Miami Norland High — Florida’s “Mr. Football” winner this past season.

Also Miami-bound: Howard’s Miramar teammate, wide receiver Malcolm Lewis, who said he left Howard alone in order to make his own decision.

“I just let everything play out,” Lewis said. “And it played out well. He committed. We’re going to do big things there.”

Miami coach Al Golden and his staff sold Howard, Johnson and other standouts from talent-rich South Florida on the notion of playing at home and being part of the latest Hurricanes’ rebuilding project.

Johnson committed to Miami more than year ago, even before Golden was hired as Randy Shannon’s replacement late in 2010. Johnson never wavered, and even became a de facto recruiter for the Hurricanes in recent weeks, doing what he could to woo his close friends like Howard into teaming up at Miami.

“That’s something we’ve been looking forward to,” said Johnson, who ran for 2,087 yards — an average of 10 per carry — and 29 touchdowns this past season for Norland, which won Florida’s Class 5A title and went a perfect 15-0. “Now that signing day is out of the way, we’re going to start figuring out how we’re going to do our next four years at Miami.”

According to the Occupy Miami release, their eviction from the site comes three days after the county denied a permit to stay where they were because of “current site conditions and unsafe activities.”

The Hurricanes (19-3, 8-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) never trailed and pulled to a double digit lead on Riquna Williams’ basket in the lane 5:44 into the game. Their advantage never dropped into single digits the rest of the way.

Jenny Fitz came from Bolivia to have it done last year.

“I love it. Tremendous change.Yeah because I had that square look,” Fitz said.

She joked that she used to look like SpongeBob Squarepants.

Plastic surgeon Constantino Mendieta says he invented the Miami Thong Lift around ten years ago.

“It’s just now entering into vogue. As a matter of fact, I’m going to Paris to lecture this week. I’ve been invited to Turkey, and we’re going to Belgium,” said Mendieta.

He credits Jennifer Lopez for making curves popular and more recently Kim Kardashian.

Mendieta says his practice is now almost 85 percent gluteal contouring.

It’s not simply making the buttocks bigger, it is more about creating an hourglass look.

Mendieta uses liposuction to remove fat from undesirable areas like the waist and belly, then he injects the patient’s own fat into the buttocks.

In some cases, he also removes fat from certain spots.

Not all this injected fat will stay put.

The body absorbs about 20 percent of it, and sometimes his patients do end up back in the operating room.

“The touch-up rate is around 5 to 10 percent for asymmetry or perhaps too much absorption. The majority of the interest is more in just going bigger,” said Mendieta.

Men are also getting the Miami Thong Lift.

Recovery from the procedure can be challenging.

To protect the newly injected fat cells, patients cannot sleep on their backs or put pressure on their buttocks for two months.

That means they have to lean forward while sitting with pillows for support.

As with any surgery, there is a small risk of infection.

The most serious but rare complication is fat moving to the lungs if it’s injected into the wrong place.

That’s why it’s important to find an experienced and certified plastic surgeon when considering cosmetic surgery.

“We’re on the move – and starting in May 2013, our new headquarters will be located at 3511 NW 91 Ave., on the 15-acre site that was formerly home to the U.S. Southern Command.”

The victims include the Roman Catholic prep school that 73-year-old Gaston Cantens once attended. He faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to a single count of wire and mail fraud conspiracy. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams set sentencing for April 4.

Rates for the four- and five-night cruises will start at $440 per person, double occupancy, for an inside cabin, according to a Disney Cruise release.