Fire 'rekindles' at Bridgeport warehouse

A vacant warehouse in Bridgeport continues to burn.

Staff report

10:50 a.m. CST, January 26, 2013

A nearly 100-year-old Bridgeport warehouse is on fire again this morning after it was gutted during a 5-alarm fire on Tuesday, according to the Chicago Fire Department.

About 10 a.m., a tower ladder truck was sent to the scene to handle the rekindle at the ruins, according to the fire department.

Last night, as crews began demolishing the warehouse at 3757 S. Ashland Ave., the fire department officially released its conclusion as to how it began.

"In layman's terms, that means something that was burning such as a flame or match got near something that would burn," Langford said.

Langford said the building had no gas or electric service and no one was known to be living there. But the night of the blaze, Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago told reporters that in the past, firefighters had been called to the warehouse for small fires caused when squatters lit fires to stay warm.

The matter has been forwarded to the Chicago Police Bomb and Arson unit to determine if the fire involved foul play, Langford and police said.

Friday morning, a private wrecking company hired by the owners of the building began its demolition, Chicago Fire Department spokeswoman Meg Ahlheim said.

Tuesday night, a fire department battalion chief spotted smoke from the blaze as he drove past around 9 p.m. A third of the department's on-duty personnel were called to fight a fire fed by century-old support timbers. Crews have remained there since, dousing flames from the smouldering debris.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

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Hackers claim attack on Justice Department website

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hackers sympathetic to the late computer prodigy Aaron Swartz claimed on Saturday to have infiltrated the website of the U.S. Justice Department’s Sentencing Commission, and said they planned to release government data.

The Sentencing Commission site, www.ussc.gov , was shut down early Saturday.

Identifying themselves as Anonymous, a loosely organized group of unknown provenance associated with a range of recent online actions, the hackers voiced outrage over Swartz’ suicide on January 11.

In a video posted online, the hackers criticized the government’s prosecution of Swartz, who had been facing trial on charges that he used the Massachusetts Institute of Technology‘s computer networks to steal more than 4 million articles from JSTOR, an online archive and journal distribution service.

Swartz had faced a maximum sentence of 31 years in prison and fines of up to $ 1 million.

The FBI is investigating the attack, according to Richard McFeely, of the bureau’s Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch.

“We were aware as soon as it happened and are handling it as a criminal investigation,” McFeely said in an emailed statement. “We are always concerned when someone illegally accesses another person’s or government agency’s network.”

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko; Editing by Vicki Allen)

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Singer Barry Manilow ill, Broadway comeback delayed

(Reuters) – Singer Barry Manilow on Thursday canceled the opening night and three other performances of his Broadway comeback run after coming down with bronchitis, according to Manilow‘s website.

The cancellations threaten to upend the “Could It Be Magic” singer’s return to Broadway following a more than two-decade absence.

The concerts, which had been slated for Thursday through Sunday, will be made up in February and March, his website said. Manilow, 69, will try to perform on Tuesday, the next scheduled show.

Manilow canceled two preview shows earlier in the week because of the illness, after which his website promised the singer would be ready for opening night “come hell or high water.”

“It turns out the only thing worse than hell and high water is bronchitis,” Manilow‘s website said of the cancellations. “Barry is deeply sorry to disappoint his fans and is doing everything he can to ensure a speedy recovery.”

Manilow has signed on for a 25-show run at the St. James Theatre in New York. The native New Yorker typically performs long-running shows at Las Vegas hotels.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Xavier Briand)

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Religious Groups and Employers Battle Contraception Mandate

Shawn Thew/European Pressphoto Agency

President Obama, with his health secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, offering a compromise on the contraception mandate last year.

In a flood of lawsuits, Roman Catholics, evangelicals and Mennonites are challenging a provision in the new health care law that requires employers to cover birth control in employee health plans — a high-stakes clash between religious freedom and health care access that appears headed to the Supreme Court.

In recent months, federal courts have seen dozens of lawsuits brought not only by religious institutions like Catholic dioceses but also by private employers ranging from a pizza mogul to produce transporters who say the government is forcing them to violate core tenets of their faith. Some have been turned away by judges convinced that access to contraception is a vital health need and a compelling state interest. Others have been told that their beliefs appear to outweigh any state interest and that they may hold off complying with the law until their cases have been judged. New suits are filed nearly weekly.

“This is highly likely to end up at the Supreme Court,” said Douglas Laycock, a law professor at the University of Virginia and one of the country’s top scholars on church-state conflicts. “There are so many cases, and we are already getting strong disagreements among the circuit courts.”

President Obama’s health care law, known as the Affordable Care Act, was the most fought-over piece of legislation in his first term and was the focus of a highly contentious Supreme Court decision last year that found it to be constitutional.

But a provision requiring the full coverage of contraception remains a matter of fierce controversy. The law says that companies must fully cover all “contraceptive methods and sterilization procedures” approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including “morning-after pills” and intrauterine devices whose effects some contend are akin to abortion.

As applied by the Health and Human Services Department, the law offers an exemption for “religious employers,” meaning those who meet a four-part test: that their purpose is to inculcate religious values, that they primarily employ and serve people who share their religious tenets, and that they are nonprofit groups under federal tax law.

But many institutions, including religious schools and colleges, do not meet those criteria because they employ and teach members of other religions and have a broader purpose than inculcating religious values.

“We represent a Catholic college founded by Benedictine monks,” said Kyle Duncan, general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has brought a number of the cases to court. “They don’t qualify as a house of worship and don’t turn away people in hiring or as students because they are not Catholic.”

In that case, involving Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, a federal appeals court panel in Washington told the college last month that it could hold off on complying with the law while the federal government works on a promised exemption for religiously-affiliated institutions. The court told the government that it wanted an update by mid-February.

Defenders of the provision say employers may not be permitted to impose their views on employees, especially when something so central as health care is concerned.

“Ninety-nine percent of women use contraceptives at some time in their lives,” said Judy Waxman, a vice president of the National Women’s Law Center, which filed a brief supporting the government in one of the cases. “There is a strong and legitimate government interest because it affects the health of women and babies.”

She added, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Contraception was declared by the C.D.C. to be one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.”

Officials at the Justice Department and the Health and Human Services Department declined to comment, saying the cases were pending.

A compromise for religious institutions may be worked out. The government hopes that by placing the burden on insurance companies rather than on the organizations, the objections will be overcome. Even more challenging cases involve private companies run by people who reject all or many forms of contraception.

The Alliance Defending Freedom — like Becket, a conservative group — has brought a case on behalf of Hercules Industries, a company in Denver that makes sheet metal products. It was granted an injunction by a judge in Colorado who said the religious values of the family owners were infringed by the law.

“Two-thirds of the cases have had injunctions against Obamacare, and most are headed to courts of appeals,” said Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel for the alliance. “It is clear that a substantial number of these cases will vindicate religious freedom over Obamacare. But it seems likely that the Supreme Court will ultimately resolve the dispute.”

The timing of these cases remains in flux. Half a dozen will probably be argued by this summer, perhaps in time for inclusion on the Supreme Court’s docket next term. So far, two- and three-judge panels on four federal appeals courts have weighed in, granting some injunctions while denying others.

One of the biggest cases involves Hobby Lobby, which started as a picture framing shop in an Oklahoma City garage with $600 and is now one of the country’s largest arts and crafts retailers, with more than 500 stores in 41 states.

David Green, the company’s founder, is an evangelical Christian who says he runs his company on biblical principles, including closing on Sunday so employees can be with their families, paying nearly double the minimum wage and providing employees with comprehensive health insurance.

Mr. Green does not object to covering contraception but considers morning-after pills to be abortion-inducing and therefore wrong.

“Our family is now being forced to choose between following the laws of the land that we love or maintaining the religious beliefs that have made our business successful and have supported our family and thousands of our employees and their families,” Mr. Green said in a statement. “We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate.”

The United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit last month turned down his family’s request for a preliminary injunction, but the company has found a legal way to delay compliance for some months.

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Shedd Aquarium looks to slice energy bill

Bob Wengel's job at Shedd Aquarium makes your typical thermostat war seem laughable.

For him, keeping everybody comfortable means manufacturing a 2 p.m. sunset for penguins attuned to the daylight rhythms of South America. It means maintaining 3 million gallons at a cool 58 degrees for blubber-laden whales while also satisfying tiny neon fish that won't tolerate less than 78 degrees.

"The first thing you've got to make sure is that your animals are happy," said Wengel, Shedd's vice president of facilities. "Then, your guests come next and, after that, the people who work here."

Until now it has also meant forking over $1.4 million for electricity and $154,000 for natural gas each year.

The Chicago cultural institution is in the early stages of a massive energy overhaul aimed at cutting energy consumption by half at the 83-year-old building. Under a plan developed pro bono by a public-private consortium, Shedd plans to swap out light bulbs, buy solar panels and sell "negawatts" (getting paid to power down) to the electrical grid to achieve its goal by 2020.

The idea: To create a road map other cultural institutions can follow.

"What we're talking about is bigger than the Shedd," said Mark Harris, president and CEO of the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition, which led the consortium that developed Shedd's energy saving plan.

The task won't be easy. Keeping 32,500 animals healthy, happy and well-lit takes a lot of, well, energy. Part zoo, part art space, the building is a life-support system for 1,500 species operating under the parameters of just about every time zone on the planet. Lighting clings to nearly every floor, ceiling and exhibit, mimicking sunlight, guiding visitors and attractively framing columns.

Most days a small ocean of water is chilled or run through heat exchangers, with excess heat released through cooling towers on the aquarium roof.

Staff members bike to work, diligently compost and exchange unwanted items instead of trashing them, and for years the aquarium has tracked its energy use and made changes where appropriate. Still, the energy consumed at Shedd has it claiming the carbon footprint of an endless 2,200-car traffic jam.

"If you ask me — 'What is sustainability?' — to someone like me who runs a facility, it's energy, waste, water," Wengel said.

In 2011, Shedd used so much energy that, if harnessed, it could power nearly 1,500 homes for a year.

If done right, Shedd's energy-shaving work will be mostly invisible.

Discerning visitors may notice a lighting change in Shedd's main entrance, where 600 light bulbs in the aquarium's octopuslike chandeliers were fitted this week with highly efficient LED bulbs, a change that will cut $7,000 a year off its electricity bills.

The sunlight that appears to grace the colorful, bustling exhibit of 450 reef dwellers just inside the main entrance is actually six LED lights that were first tested for their ability to mimic natural light.

"The solar on the rooftop will be visible," said Tom Hulsebosch, managing director for energy and utilities for West Monroe Partners in Chicago, the consulting firm that helped create Shedd's energy road map. "They might notice the subtlety of the LED lighting, but a lot of it is really behind the scenes."

Shedd's goal is to create an intelligent aquarium that is constantly communicating its energy needs to Wengel and his staff. That means letting them know in real time if a system is using more power than usual and where inefficiencies lie in everything from HVAC systems to life-support pumps.

According to the road map the coalition developed, the aquarium plans to participate in a program that pays big energy users to power down on days when the electric grid is strained by demand from air conditioners. But first that means finding out what in the aquarium can be safely powered down.

To start with, Shedd is installing individual meters on everything from lighting systems to chillers so it can track and analyze how and when energy is being used. From there it can determine which systems could safely be powered down without harming the animals or causing a disruption to patrons, and which could be used or timed differently to save money.

"They cannot compromise experience both on the visitor's side and on the animal side, and they cannot compromise performance because they have a life-support system they have to maintain. So just the fact that they can do this, with those huge barriers, is an incredible example," said Karen Weigert, chief sustainability officer for the city of Chicago, which worked with a coalition that developed the energy plan. Also part of the coalition were the Institute for Sustainable Energy Development and Citizens Utility Board.

The aquarium would simultaneously switch to a pricing scheme that rewards it for using the most energy at the times of day when demand is lowest and electricity prices are cheaper.

Also on the docket: solar panels with batteries for storing excess energy that could be sold back to the electric grid in the same way that power plants sell their power.

The plans are in line with that of Illinois, which in October 2011 approved a 10-year, $2.6 billion upgrade to the electrical grid that serves Shedd and the rest of the Chicago area. Half of that is being spent to create a smart grid that, according to ComEd, will bring 100-year-old electrical grid technology into the digital age, automatically reporting problems, rerouting power and eliminating the need for meter readers.

With a smart grid, Shedd could power up some systems while powering down others, and sell or buy electricity from the grid in real time according to the demands of the electrical grid.

To pay for these changes, Shedd plans to seek government grants and private donations. In time, say coalition members, those investments will reap dividends, financially, educationally and environmentally.

"The Shedd's in a unique position. It's been there for 100 years and it's going to be there for another 100 more; so, when you look at a 15-year return on investment, that's not too bad," Hulsebosch said.

jwernau@tribune.com

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Victim's mom removed from hearing

A basketball coach at a charter high school in the South Shore neighborhood is charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old student. (Source: WGN - Chicago)

The mother of an underage girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted by the basketball coach at her South Side high school began wailing at his bond hearing and had to be dragged out of the courthouse by supporters.

“That’s my (expletive) child!” the woman screamed over and over as prosecutors detailed allegations against the coach, Kevin Jones.

After deputies escorted the woman out of the courtroom, she fell to the floor wailing and later had to be physically pulled from the courthouse. Court personnel later identified her as the mother of one of two underage victims, both 17.

Jones, 33, a varsity boys basketball coach at Epic Academy Charter High School in the 8200 block of South Houston Avenue, was charged with two counts of criminal sexual assault and one count of attempted criminal sexual assault.

Prosecutors said Jones was driving the 17-year-old girl and her friend home from an away basketball game on Jan. 17 when he parked the car in an alley in the 8500 block of South Green Bay Avenue.

Jones got into the back seat of the car with the victims and unzipped his pants, Assistant State’s Atty. Joell Zahr said. He tried to force the girl into a sex act, but she resisted and was able to get out of the car.

As she stood outside the car trying to call for a ride home, the girl saw Jones engaged in a sex act with the other girl, Zahr said.

After Jones drove the one girl home, she told her mother about the incident a few days later, the prosecutor said. The girl who had escaped the car also reported the incident to a teacher at school and a friend, according to Zahr.

Jones’ attorney, Jeff Granich, said that in addition to coaching basketball at Epic, Jones was employed as a gym teacher at LEARN charter school in the 1700 block of West 83rd Street.  He is married with two young children, serves as a deacon at his church  and has no prior convictions, Granich said.

“At this point, we are shocked about these allegations, and we look forward to going to trial and clearing his name,” Granich said after court.

Judge Edward Harmening set bond at $500,000 and ordered Jones to have no contact with any children except his own if he is released from custody. 

Jones’ employment at Epic ended on Jan. 17, said Cindy Hansen, an attorney representing the school. She could not say whether he was fired or left on his own.

"The school has taken every action necessary to make sure people are safe," Hansen said. The school has "cooperated with police and the state's attorney's office," she said.

Officials at LEARN charter school were not immediately available for comment.

Tribune reporter Jeremy Gorner contributed.

jmeisner@tribune.com

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Everything You Need to Know About Kim Dotcom’s Mega

Click here to view the gallery: Hands On With Mega

Mega — the long-anticipated file sharing and cloud storage site from Kim Dotcom — is now open to the public.

[More from Mashable: Google Glasses Spotted and Two Other Stories You Need to Know]

Thanks to its association with the now-defunct Megaupload — and the legal issues facing its founder Kim Dotcom — the amount of press, user interest and hype surrounding Mega is greater than any file hosting/cloud storage launch in recent memory.

According to Dotcom, more than 1 million users signed up for Mega in the first 24 hours. On Twitter, the larger-than-life entrepreneur has continued to share usage stats and traffic graphs that compare Mega with perennial cloud favorite, Dropbox.

[More from Mashable: 9 Fresh YouTube Shows You’ll Love]

If you’re curious about the inner workings of Mega, how it works and how it handles security, we’ve got you covered.

The Phoenix of Megaupload

Mega is the spiritual successor to Kim Dotcom’s last business, the insanely popular file-hosting service Megaupload. Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice shut down Megaupload and pursued criminal charges against Dotcom. Dotcom, a New Zealand citizen, is actively fighting U.S. extradition orders.

Megaupload was targeted by the DoJ because of its role in illegally distributing copyright material — including digital copies of movies, TV shows, books, music and software.

Rather than try to start a new service eschewing the potential for copyright material to be uploaded and shared, Dotcom is positioning Mega as a service that cares about and protects its user’s privacy. In fact, Mega’s tagline is “the privacy company.”

How It Works

On the surface, Mega is a bare-bones cloud storage host. After signing up for accounts, users can upload files and folders of all types to the service. Those files can then be shared with others.

The free plan gives users 50GB of file storage. There are no hard limits on file size, meaning users can use Mega as a way to back up photos, documents and other data. Obviously, this means users can use Mega as a way to store media content — video files, music, DVD images — as well.

For now, Mega is optimized to work on desktop web browsers. Mega strongly encourages users to use Google Chrome. And while Mega has big plans for developers and client-side apps, for now, the only way to access files is via the web browser.

Files can be uploaded to the service using drag and drop or a file-upload menu. Users can create folders in the file manager.

Uploads and downloads take place in parallel. If you upload a large number of files at once, each file uploads one at a time. In the future, Mega says users will be able to change the upload order. If you need to upload or download multiple files at once, simply open a new Mega tab in your browser and select that file.

You can upgrade to a higher-tiered storage plan from within your account. Mega doesn’t sell these plans itself; instead it has resellers who sell vouchers for a service. A 500GB storage plan with 1TB of enhanced bandwidth is 9.99 euros a month or 99 euros a year (a little over $ 110 U.S. dollars). That’s cheaper than most of its competitors.

The Importance of Passwords

It’s very important to remember the password you select when setting up your Mega account. The password is a big part of how Mega encrypts data on both ends.

During the sign-up process, Mega uses your password to create a 2,048-bit RSA key. This is the key that tells the system you are who you say you are. If you forget your password, you’re not going to be able to get into your account.

Right now, Mega doesn’t even have a password reset or recovery feature. In the future, Mega says it will have a reset mechanism but it will only allow users access to files or folders they have file keys for (more on file keys below). Users won’t be able to access other files until or unless they remember their password.

Because your Mega password is also your master encryption key, it’s important that users choose a secure password. We recommend using a password manager and printing a copy of the password to store in a safe place.

Understanding File Security

Mega is focused on end-to-end encryption. This means that files are encrypted both on upload and on download. With most traditional file hosts or cloud storage lockers, a public link to a file also includes a file path. With Dropbox, for example, the public or shared link includes the file name.

With Mega, things are a bit different. While users can share specific files to other Mega users or via email, the URL to a file doesn’t contain a file name; instead, a cryptographic key is appended to the URL. Without this key, you can’t access the file. Once decrypted by the server, a user has the option to download the linked file.

Mega’s promise, in other words, is that users control who has access to their files and accounts and no one else.

For important files or folders, users might want to make a note of the file key and keep it in a safe place — if they are worried about getting locked out of their account.

How Safe Are Your Files

Since Mega is touting itself as “the privacy company,” it’s important to look at how the company stores files and content.

The end-to-end encryption scheme is only part of how Mega secures data. Still, some are already criticizing the service, noting that it’s not as secure as it says it is. An article for Forbes cites two professionals who have problems with Mega’s security.

Matthew Green, a cryptography professor at John Hopkins University, is particularly critical of the way Mega uses JavaScript to verify its encryption method telling Forbes that “it makes no sense.”

Mega has responded to Green’s claims on its own blog, noting that its scheme “basically enables us to host the extremely integrity-sensitive static content on a large number of geographically diverse servers without worrying about security.”

Meanwhile, at Ars Technia Lee Hutchinson raises concerns about how Mega comes up with its crypto key at sign-up, as well as how the company handles deduplication, or how it eliminates duplicate copies of data.

Again, Mega has taken to its blog to attempt to clarify its policies and the way it handles data.

While Mega’s crypto system certainly doesn’t seem any less secure than any other file locker, we do agree with critics who note that the system might be more about giving Mega culpability against claims that it knows infringing content is on its servers, rather than about protecting that data itself.

The service is still in beta and much of its code is available via open source, so security purists might want to watch how Mega’s system evolves before trusting it with important, sensitive data.

Will Mega Stick Around?

While security experts can quibble and argue over the way Mega uses cryptography and how it stores data on its array of servers, the bigger issue, for us, is long-term survival.

While I would argue that most users who actively used Megaupload were not using it as a traditional cloud service, the fact remains that when the service was shut down, user files went with it.

Already anti-piracy groups are campaigning to shut down payment processors to Mega’s resellers. One of the reasons Mega isn’t taking payments itself and is instead using resellers is to prevent those groups from shutting down payment processors or trying to seize funds.

This is worrisome because in addition to outside capital, Mega needs professional accounts to keep its site working.

It’s too early to say if Mega will be around for the long haul or not, but our advice is not to use Mega as your only file storage solution. Keep backups of crucial files on disk or other cloud-based services.

What do you think of Mega? Let us know in the comments.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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Veteran showman Dick Van Dyke reflects on lifetime’s work

(Reuters) – From “Mary Poppins” to “Night at the Museum” and his own long-running TV comedy, Dick Van Dyke has done it all during a show business career spanning seven decades.

On Sunday, Van Dyke, 87, gets a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild in Los Angeles, just a year after his 1960s “Dick Van Dyke Show” co-star Mary Tyler Moore received the same honor.

Reuters spoke to Van Dyke about his career, his thoughts on today’s comedies and being a newlywed in his 80s.

Q: Was it really as much fun working on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” as it seemed?

A: “It was just absolutely wonderful. (Co-star) Morey Amsterdam used to say it was like going to a party every morning. It was the perfect improv group. I think it was the best five years of all of our lives.”

Q: Do you have a favorite episode?

A: “‘Coast-to-Coast Big Mouth,’ where Mary gives away that Alan Brady, Dick’s boss (played by show creator Carl Reiner) is bald, is one that comes to mind. I tend to like the ones that I had the most fun on, and I think the one I recall immediately is ‘Where Did I Come From?,’ the story of Richie’s birth, and all the hijinks that happen with the nervous father. A lot of crazy things happened, a lot of slapstick, which, of course, I love to do. It was a farce, but I just had so much fun on that one.”

Q: How have sitcoms changed since “The Dick Van Dyke Show’s” run from 1961-66?

A: “I think the big change is that 10 minutes of every 30 are commercials. We had 28 minutes to tell our story. Today they get 20 minutes. It’s just a one-line joke and a canned laughter, and a one-line joke and a canned laughter. I won’t say it’s bad, it’s just that I have trouble understanding it.

“It seems to me that relationships are what’s missing. I think back to ‘All in the Family,’ when you knew what those relationships were and the comedy that came out of that. Today it’s just one line after another, and they seem to try to cover too much in the way of story in a short time. Then I think they signal when they’re trying to be funny, and the minute I catch someone trying to be funny, then I won’t laugh.”

Q: What do you watch on television?

A: “I have to admit, I don’t get the comedies today. Maybe it’s just my vintage. Actually I stick pretty much with the news, and I love ‘Jeopardy!’ I watch Al Jazeera. They have news that you can’t find anywhere else. They do great documentaries, too.”

Q: Do children tend to recognize you from your earlier roles in film classics such as “Mary Poppins” (1964), or for your more recent work in the 2006 family film “Night at the Museum“?

A: “It’s just thrilling. I get little kids who recognize me from ‘Mary Poppins,’ and it just delights me because it’s our third generation. I was in the market the other day and a woman said to her daughter, ‘Honey, that’s the man who played Bert.’ And she ran over to her little brother and said, ‘I just met Bert’s grandpa!’ So to be recognized by kids is just wonderful. Kids have all seen ‘Mary Poppins,’ almost every family has a copy of it, and the children have come up and sung all the words from the songs of ‘Mary Poppins‘ for me. It’s amazing.”

Q: You’re a member of the barbershop quartet, Dick Van Dyke and the Vantastix. Where do you perform?

A: “We sing mostly at fundraisers and benefits. We also sing the opening theme song from “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” Morey Amsterdam wrote the lyrics, but I don’t think they’ve ever been published. I sing with guys half my age in the group, so they keep me young. A couple years ago we sang at Ford’s Theater for the president, so that was a big thrill for us.”

Q: You married makeup artist Arlene Silver last February. You two met at the SAG awards seven years ago. How’s married life treating you?

A: “Absolutely wonderful! She sings and dances, so there is a lot of that going on around our house. She’s a joy and she just lights up my life!”

(Reporting by Jill Jacobs in New York; Editing by Eric Kelsey and Eric Beech)

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F.D.A. to Vote on Restricting Hydrocodone Products Like Vicodin

Trying to stem the scourge of prescription drug abuse in the United States, an advisory panel of experts to the Food and Drug Administration plans to vote Friday on whether to toughen restrictions on hydrocodone products like Vicodin, the most widely used narcotic painkillers in the country.

The recommendation, which the F.D.A. would likely follow, would limit access to the drugs by making them harder to prescribe, a major policy change that advocates said could help ease the growing problem of addiction to painkillers.

The change would have sweeping consequences for doctors, pharmacists and patients. Under the new rules, refills without a new prescription would be forbidden, as would faxed prescriptions and those called in by phone. Only written prescriptions from a doctor would be allowed and pharmacists and distributors would be required to store the drugs in special vaults. The vote comes after similar legislation in Congress failed last year, after intense lobbying by pharmacists and drugstores.

Prescription drugs account for about three-quarters of all drug overdoses in the United States, with the number of deaths more than tripling since 1999, according to federal data. Since 2008, deaths from overdoses have outpaced deaths from car accidents.

The F.D.A. convened the panel, made up of scientists and other experts, after a request by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which contends that the drugs are among the most frequently abused painkillers in the country.

“This is the federal government saying, ‘we need to tighten the reins on this drug,'” said Scott R. Drab, associate professor of pharmacy and therapeutics at the University of Pittsburgh. “Pulling in the rope is a way to rein in abuse, and consequently, addiction.”

At a two-day hearing at F.D.A. headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., many speakers opposed the change, including advocates for nursing home patients, who said older, frail residents needing pain medication would be required to make the arduous trip to a doctor’s office to continue using hydrocodone products. Other experts questioned how effective the change would be. Oxycodone, another highly abused painkiller, has been in the more restrictive category since it came on the market, but the limited access does not seem to have stemmed abuse, they said.

But others including parents who had lost their children to prescription drug abuse, as well as doctors and pharmacists, testified, sometimes emotionally. . Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat of West Virginia, where the scourge has been particularly deadly, made an impassioned plea for tougher restrictions.

“When I go back to West Virginia, I hear how easy it is for anybody to get their hands on hydrocodone drugs,” Mr. Manchin said on Friday. “For underage children, these drugs are easier to get than beer or cigarettes.”

He added that the current, less restrictive status “is fueling the prescription drug epidemic today.”

Dr. James P. Rathmell, chief of the division of pain medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, said hydrocodone products have similar biological effects as oxycodone products, and should unquestionably be in the same category of restrictiveness.

“Knowing what we know today, it was a mistake,” Dr. Rathmell said, referring to hydrocodone products being placed in the looser category when they came to market. “It should be corrected.”

Dr. Timothy Deer, chief doctor at the Center for Pain Relief in Charleston, W.Va., said that he feared for older patients, particularly in rural areas, who would have to drive great distances to get prescriptions renewed. But, he said, hydrocodone products have been by far the most widely prescribed painkiller because the restrictions were so loose. And on balance, particularly in a hard-hit state like his, the public health benefits of a recommendation to toughen restrictions on the drug probably outweigh the harm of additional burdens on legitimate pain patients.

“At the end of the day, the benefits of reducing abuse will outweigh the harm to legitimate pain patients,” he said. “This will likely reduce the amount of drug falling into the wrong hands.”

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Wrigley rooftops offer Cubs billboard revenue

Rooftop owners around Wrigley Field have come up with an idea they hope will get things moving on the ball park's renovation. ( Source: WGN - Chicago)

The rooftop clubs outside Wrigley Field unveiled a plan Friday to put digital signs on their buildings and give the revenue to the Chicago Cubs.

Representatives of the clubs said it is a better alternative to the team's plan to put up signs in the outfield that could potentially block the views from the rooftops and hurt their businesses.

"We believe this is common sense plan is a win-win for the community, rooftops, City Hall and the Cubs," said Beth Murphy, owner of Murphy's Rooftop.

The rooftop owners said they expect their businesses to contribute more than $185 million to the local economy in the next 20 years, $70 million of which would be earmarked for the Cubs. A sign detailing their estimates ended with the words, "Destroying one business to benefit another is not the answer."

Dennis Culloton, a spokesman for the Ricketts family, said that the rooftop owners should discuss their plan with the team "instead of holding press conferences."

A representative of the team, Cubs marketing specialist Kevin Saghy, tried to attend the press conference but was asked to leave the room during the video presentation of the rooftop plan. Saghy brought a tape recorder but did not wear any credentials to indicate he was a Cubs representative.

"A deadline is fast approaching for the team and the city of Chicago to move forward," Culloton said.

Culloton also said the team would bring in more money from advertising atop the back wall of the bleachers than ads on the rooftop buildings.

"Inside the ballpark is going to be infinitely more valuable than advertising outside the ballpark," Culloton said.

Culloton also reiterated the call of Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts for the city to free up the team to run the ballpark without a slew of restrictions.

"The Ricketts family and the Chicago Cubs want the right to run their business so they can continue to be good stewards of Wrigley Field and in doing so save the beloved ballpark for future generations," he said.

Ryan McLaughlin, a spokesman for the rooftop owners, said Cubs representatives were familiar with the general outline of the plan before today's press conference. Murphy presented it a community meeting Wednesday with Ald. Thomas Tunney, 44th, neighborhood groups and Cubs representatives present, he said.

Tunney suggested Friday the rooftop plan could be a part of the overall effort to rehab Wrigley.

"The advertising proposal from the rooftops can be part of the larger picture for preserving Wrigley," Tunney said in a prepared statement.

"I remain committed to working with the Cubs and small businesses in the neighborhood.  Most importantly, we will continue to engage our residents in discussions concerning Wrigley Field and their quality of life."

asachdev@tribune.com

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Chicago man gets 35 years for role in Mumbai terror attack

David Coleman Headley, the terrorist who played a key planning role in the Mumbai massacre that killed more than 160 people in 2008, was sentenced today in Chicago’s federal court  to 35 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber could have imposed a life sentence but chose the sentence recommended by federal prosecutors who wanted Headley rewarded for his extensive cooperation in spite of his help in the deadly attacks in India.

Before imposing the 35-year prison term, the judge said he wanted to make sure Headley, 52, is "never in a position again to commit a terrorist attack."

Leinenweber was skeptical of a letter that Headley recently wrote to him. "I don't have any faith in Mr. Headley when he says he's a changed person," the judge said.

Headley should be "under lock and key for the rest of his life," Leinenweber said.

In the letter, Headley claimed he was learning to embrace "American values" and coming to grips with how he was convinced to plan terrorist attacks under the guise of religious obligation, Leinenweber said.

"Mr. Headley's letter to the judge expressed his sincere remorse," Robert Seeder, one of Headley's attorney, told reporters after the sentencing. "He did explain in that letter what led him to this and how sorry he was. And I think we'll leave it at that."

During the hearing, another defense attorney told the judge that Headley "literally saved lives" by providing valuable information that "no one else knew" about terrorist activities. "He has never minimized his role," attorney John Theis said. "He has accepted responsibility."

Theis told reporters later he had asked the judge for a specific sentence for Headley, but he declined to reveal the length, saying the request was made under seal.

Before the sentence was handed down, a victim of the terror attack told the judge how surprised she was by the youth of the terrorists who stormed into a hotel’s first-floor cafe while she was eating there.

Linda Ragsdale, a Nashville woman who was shot in the back during the 2008 rampage, recalled wondering how a man as young as her son could kill innocent people.  Holding back tears, Ragsdale described a barrage of bullets so intense that "waves of heat clouded" her vision.

"I know what a bullet could do to every part of the human body," Ragsdale said. "I know the sound of life leaving a 13-year-old child. These are things I never needed to know, never needed to experience."

Ragsdale also read from a statement written by another survivor of the shooting at the Oberoi Hotel who said it would be an "appalling dishonor" if Headley was sentenced to the 30 to 35 years in prison recommended by federal prosecutors.

But former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, making a surprise appearance at the sentencing hearing, told Leinenweber he should consider the “unusual nature” of Headley’s cooperation even though Headley was involved in a “very, very heinous crime.”

On the night of his arrest at O’Hare International Airport, Headley “freely admitted” his role in the Mumbai massacre within half an hour of being given his Miranda rights, Fitzgerald said.

Headley, 52,  appearing amid heightened security in Leinenweber’s courtroom, faced up to life in prison. He pleaded guilty to scouting out sites to be targeted in the terrorist attack that killed more than 160 people – including six Americans -- in India’s largest city. He also admitted playing a similar role in an aborted plot to storm a Danish newspaper and behead staffers in retaliation for printing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.

Federal prosecutors have cited Headley’s extraordinary cooperation for seeking a sentence of 30 to 35 years in prison.

Headley, who was arrested at O'Hare as he prepared to fly overseas, detailed the inner-workings of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani terror organization that planned the Mumbai attacks. His information led to charges against seven terrorist figures, including his childhood friend from a Pakistani school, Tahawwur Rana, a former Chicago businessman.

Headley was the key witness at the trial of Rana, who was convicted of aiding the Denmark plot and providing support to Lashkar.  Judge Leinenweber sentenced him  last week to 14 years in prison, about half what prosecutors sought.

Headley, an American citizen of Pakistani descent, came to the United States at age 17 and was twice convicted of drug smuggling in the late 1980s. He later agreed to work as an informant for the DEA. Headley also revealed during testimony  at Rana’s trial that there was an overlap between his work for the DEA and his early days with Lashkar.

Headley became involved with Lashkar, a radical group that opposes Indian rule in divided Kashmir, around 2000, attending training camps between 2002 and 2005. He had moved to Chicago by 2009 and reconnected with Rana.

Though embraced by Rana’s family, Headley lived a very different life that included multiple wives and apparently indoctrinating even his children with his ideologies. His 5-year-old son once dropped to the ground in a Chicago park and pretended to fire a weapon after a soccer coach yelled "shoot, shoot!" to him during a game, Headley testified at Rana’s trial.

The charges against Headley and Rana likely represented the most significant terrorism case brought during Fitzgerald’s nearly 11 years as Chicago’s chief federal prosecutor.

Bomb-sniffing dogs checked the coats and bags of all the spectators entering Leinenweber’s courtroom today.  At one point, more than 100 people had lined up to attend the sentencing.

asweeney@tribune.com

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Women in Combat Stoke Twitter Debate

The Pentagon’s decision to allow women in combat has elicited some strong and controversial words from opponents of the move.

First, Tucker Carlson. Last night, the Daily Caller publisher tweeted: “Feminism’s latest victory: the right to get your limbs blown off in war. Congratulations.”

This drew some swift criticism on Twitter, and a counterpoint from The Week’s Marc Ambinder, who noted that one woman who lost limbs in combat, Tammy Duckworth, is now serving as a Democrat in the House of Representatives.

Then, Politico reported that Allen West, the former GOP congressman and Army lieutenant colonel, tweeted this morning: “Women in combat billets? Another misconceived lib vision of fairness and equality.”

West is already getting trashed on Twitter by users who took offense. After the controversial remarks made by Newt Gingrich in the mid-1990s and Rick Santorum last year, it’s no surprise that the Pentagon’s decision is stirring debate.

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Beyonce lets others do talking on lip-synch drama

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Beyonce‘s lips remained sealed on Wednesday over her headline-making rendition of the U.S. national anthem at President Barack Obama‘s inauguration, leaving others to do the talking over whether she lip-synched to a pre-recorded track.

Celebrity magazine Us Weekly quoted a source saying the Grammy-winning artist was disappointed by the controversy she stirred by singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Monday’s solemn ceremony using a backing track – and drew a comparison to late Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti.

As some of America’s singing stars offered sympathy and understanding, an inaugural official, who declined to be identified, told CNN that Beyonce “did not sing live.”

“Because she didn’t have time to rehearse with the U.S. Marine Band, she decided to use her recording with the Marine Band,” the official told CNN on Wednesday.

The U.S. Marine band said in a statement on Tuesday that no one in the band “is in a position to assess whether it was live or pre-recorded.”

Us Weekly meanwhile quoted a different, also unidentified source, as saying “She did sing, but used a track.”

“She didn’t think there was anything wrong with it,” the source told the celebrity magazine‘s website on Wednesday.

“Pavarotti has done it! It was freezing out, and if she messed up just one note, that would have been the story … Everybody uses these tracks, and the music director advised it,” the Us Weekly source added.

Pavarotti lip-synched his last performance, at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, because of the bitter weather and his failing health, according to orchestra conductor Leone Magiera in a 2008 book. The Italian tenor died in 2007 of pancreatic cancer at age 71.

Beyonce‘s publicist has declined to comment on the furor, but Aretha Franklin and Jennifer Lopez chimed in with their support.

“When I heard the news … that she was pre-recorded I really laughed,” Franklin, 70, who sang live at Obama‘s first inauguration in 2009, told ABC News.

“I thought it was funny because the weather down there was about 46 or 44 degrees and for most singers that is just not good singing weather … she did a beautiful job with the pre-record … next time I’ll probably do the same.”

Lopez told Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” on Tuesday that many performers resort to using pre-recorded tracks.

“You know, sometimes it happens,” Lopez said. “When you’re in certain stadiums and in certain venues, they do pre-record things because you’re going to have that terrible slapback.”

Beyonce, 31, was giving her first major public performance since giving birth to a baby in January 2012. On Sunday, she had posted on Instagram photo of herself in a recording studio holding the sheet music for “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

She is due to take the spotlight again next month by performing, live, at the February 3 Super Bowl halftime show.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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New Mutations Discovered in Melanomas

In a leap forward in understanding the basic science of one of the most lethal cancers, two groups of researchers have found mutations in most melanomas that are unlike any they have seen before in cancer. The changes are in regions that control genes, not in the genes themselves. The mutations are exactly the type caused by exposure to ultraviolet light, indicating they might be among the first DNA changes in a cell’s path to melanoma.

The discoveries, published online Thursday in two papers in the journal Science Express, do not immediately suggest new treatments or ways to prevent melanoma, researchers said. But the findings help explain how melanomas — and, possibly, other cancers — develop and what drives their growth, insights that may be critical to long-term efforts to develop ways to prevent or stop the cancer.

For years, cancer researchers have searched for mutations in genes, but this time, they looked for — and found — mutations in a region that regulates genes. They did it by examining the entire DNA of multiple tumors, studying not just genes but also what has been called the dark matter, the 99 percent of the DNA that includes regions that control genes.

“You could think of this as one glimmer in what has been called cancer’s dark matter,” said Dr. Levi A. Garraway of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of Harvard and M.I.T.

The complete DNA sequences of 70 malignant melanomas led to the new discovery. A small control region was mutated in 7 out of 10 of the tumors, and also, the investigators found, in liver and bladder cancers. The cancer cells had one of two tiny changes that together were more common than any mutation ever found in the genes of melanoma.

A team led by Rajiv Kumar of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg and Dirk Schadendorf of the University of Essen looked for the mutations in a family whose members tended to get melanoma. Four relatives who developed melanoma had inherited one of them, while four who remained melanoma-free did not have it. They also found the mutation in a 36-year-old member of the family who had not developed melanoma but had had many moles, often a sign of risk in families prone to melanoma.

Their findings indicate that those who inherit the mutations might be born with cells that have taken a first step toward cancer.

The mutations spur cells to make an enzyme, telomerase, that keeps cells immortal by preventing them from gradually losing the ends of their chromosome, the telomeres. When telomeres erode, a cell dies. But the enzyme also has other, poorly understood functions that are thought to keep cancer cells alive, said Robert Weinberg, an M.I.T. researcher who studies telomerase and cancer and was not involved with the research. “The paradigm that it does nothing but extend telomeres is a gross oversimplification,” he said.

Abundant telomerase is so important to cancers that it occurs in 90 percent of them, said Immaculata De Vivo, a Harvard Medical School researcher who studies telomerase and cancer and directs a DNA sequencing program. She, too, was not involved with the research.

The results of the two studies presented in the papers “are like a court of law — it’s the preponderance of the evidence,” she said. “We all knew telomerase was important for cancer, but now we are finding the mechanisms, the machinery.”

Scientists were surprised that the mutations in the dark matter of melanoma tumors were so commonplace. Dr. Garraway and his colleagues had the entire DNA sequences for a collection of melanomas — genes as well as the rest of the DNA including areas that turn genes on and off.

“We said, ‘Let’s just take a look and see if there are any mutations in a regulatory region,” Dr. Garraway said.

At first, they looked at the DNA sequences of 19 tumors. They were amazed to find one or the other of the two mutations in 17 of them. So the researchers decided to look at 51 additional melanomas and a handful of bladder and liver cancers. The mutations popped up again.

“It was really quite striking,” Dr. Garraway said.

But it’s not clear how to reverse the mutations’ cancer-causing effects, Dr. Garraway said. And although people have long wanted to block telomerase production in cancer cells, they have not found a drug to do it.

Still, the findings are highly significant, experts said.

“We have always known that just looking at genes alone would provide a limited number of answers about why cancer develops,” said Elaine Mardis of Washington University, who was not involved with the research. “The brakes or the gas that control the genes that cause cancer are as important as gene mutations,” she said. The new papers, Dr. Mardis added, “show where additional answers may lie.”

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United to cut 600 front-office jobs

United Continental Holdings Inc. will cut about 600 front-office jobs through voluntary and involuntary cuts, the company said Thursday as it announced disappointing financial losses for 2012.

The world's largest airline did not detail where cutbacks will take place, but Chicago is likely to be most affected considering the corporate headquarters and network operations center are in downtown Chicago and that Chicago O'Hare airport is one of the airline's largest hubs.

The job cuts were announced Thursday morning during a conference call about the airline's profits. United officials said they were disappointed in the airline company's 2012 performance and pledged to improve in 2013, both in financial performance and the airline's operational reliability.

They said they intend to win back corporate customers who defected to other airlines last year when the airline experienced periods of poor on-time performance and high cancellations rates. The operational problems, which have abated since the fall, stemmed from numerous computer-related glitches after the airline merged United and Continental customer reservation systems onto a common platform last March.

United CEO Jeff Smisek called 2012 "the toughest year of our merger integration," but that the airline was "back on track."

"Despite our integration pains, we accomplished an enormous amount and we are now in a position to go forward as a single carrier and compete effectively on a global scale," he said. "Our operations are running smoothly. Our many product improvements are rolling out and our customer satisfaction scores are climbing."

Smisek also said the airline maintains its confidence in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which was grounded in the U.S. and elsewhere after numerous glitches, including a serious fire hazard with its lithium ion batteries.

He said he had confidence in the airplane and "Boeing's ability to fix the issues just as they have done on every other new aircraft model they've produced."

Smisek said he has no indication on when the Federal Aviation Administration will allow the planes to fly again, including Dreamliner on a route between Chicago and Houston. Boeing is also based in Chicago.

United, the only U.S. carrier currently operating 787 planes, has six Dreamliners. Smisek said the company expects to take delivery of two additional 787s in the second half of this year.

EARNINGS

United Continental said it lost $723 million in 2012, or $2.18 per share. Excluding special charges of $1.3 billion, mostly related to merging United and Continental, the company earned $589 million, or $1.59 per share, meeting Wall Street analyst expectations.

In the fourth quarter, United lost $620 million, or $1.87 per share, compared with a loss of $138 million, or 42 cents per share, in the same quarter a year earlier.

It took charges of $430 million in the quarter, with much of that tied to paying off pension debt and costs for systems integration and training and severance. Excluding items, United said the 2012 quarterly loss was 58 cents a share, compared with a 61 cent loss expected by analysts on average, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue fell 2.5 percent to $8.7 billion.

Superstorm Sandy, which barreled through the U.S. Northeast in late October, reduced revenue by about $140 million and profit by about $85 million in the fourth quarter. The storm caused shutdowns at major New York area airports, including New Jersey's Newark Liberty International where United operates a major hub.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Customer service will be a larger focus for the airline, Smisek said during the conference call.

That focus includes a comprehensive customer service training program for airport agents, contact center agents and flight attendants, he said. It will also roll out a program called "It's Our Job," a companywide approach to customer service "that clearly explains our customer service standards and expectation for front line coworkers," Smisek said.

It will also include an expanded recognition program to reward employees for outstanding service, collecting more customer-satisfaction data and roll out of a new set of tools for airport agents, he said.

JOB CUTS

As far as the job cuts, they will not affect unionized workers, such as pilots, flight attendants and airport ground workers, a spokeswoman said. The airline in December reduced the officer ranks by several positions, representing 7 percent of managers with titles of vice president and higher. It will reduce management and administrative staff by 6 percent through voluntary and involuntary cuts and not filling empty positions.

Those cuts will begin in early February, Smisek said in a letter to employees Thursday morning.

gkarp@tribune.com

 

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2 men died in high-rise fire after rescuing elderly woman: officials

A high-rise fire on Chicago's south side killed two men and seriously injured a woman.

The two men who died in a South Shore high-rise fire had rescued an elderly woman on the seventh floor and had returned to the burning apartment with fire extinguishers when they apparently were overcome by smoke, officials said today.

Jameel Johnson, 36, and his co-worker, John Fasula, 50, were doing contract work for a cable company when the fire broke out on the seventh floor of the 16-story building in the 6700 block of South Shore Drive Tuesday morning. The two heard an 81-year-old woman screaming for help and placed her inside an elevator and pressed a button to take her to the first floor, according to police and David A. Fields Jr., Johnson’s cousin.

Fasula and Johnson returned to her apartment with fire extinguishers, police said. They were later found by firefighters, collapsed on the floor and were in full cardiac arrest, according to police and fire officials.

The woman collapsed on the floor of the lobby after the elevator doors opened, but was revived by paramedics and taken to the University of Chicago Hospitals, where she was listed in critical condition from smoke inhalation, according to police.

“He died a hero,” Fields said in a telephone interview. “They died saving a woman’s life.”

Johnson, the father of two girls, was working as a private contractor for a cable company, his family said. He did not like being inside high-rise buildings, but the company could not find a replacement, relatives said.

“He went with the understanding that maybe it was just a service call and he could be in and out,” Fields said. “He didn’t want to be in the high-rise building, that was his whole thing. He didn’t want to be there.”

Relatives described Johnson, an Englewood native, as a fun-loving man who did whatever he could to take care of his fiance and two children, ages 14 and 3. Johnson had ventured into different careers over the years, but returned to the cable business about a year ago.

“He was a good father who was just trying to make sure his kids had the best,” Fields said.

He had been with his fiance for 15 years and the family lives in Gary, Ind., Fields said. His youngest daughter still doesn’t understand what happened, relatives said.

“She’s still looking for her father to come home,” said Johnson’s aunt, Rosemary Cohns. “That’s the hardest part.”

Relatives of Fasula said they were not surprised to hear he risked his life for someone else.

“That’s how my brother-in-law was,” said Michelle Kozicki, 65, Fasula’s sister-in-law. “There’s never going to be another one like my brother-in-law Johnny. There’s not a bad bone in his body.”

Fasula was a maintenance manager for the CTA, spokeswoman Lambrini Lukidis said. He started working for the transit agency in 1983.

Fasula’s family knew he was at the apartment building for a “side job,” though she wasn’t sure what the work entailed. Kozicki said it was common for Fasula, who had been married for nearly 40 years, to work jobs outside his day job at the CTA.
 
“He didn’t like to sit still,” she said.

He went out of his way to help his father before he died in 2009. He was with him “every step of the way,” Kozicki said. For example, Fasula took time off of work to drive his father to doctor’s appointments.

Fire officials have said the fire apparently started in a bedroom on the seventh floor. Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said the cause is undetermined pending further analysis of electrical information.  It does not appear suspicious, he added.

“In short, it generally means we have to have some items looked at,” Langford said of the analysis.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

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Why the Future of TV Still Isn’t Here Yet

As content providers continue to intimidate tech companies with a seemingly endless couch-potato conundrum, the latest innovation in the war to win your living room isn’t some new gadget from Apple or Netflix, or even that exciting à la carte content delivery system from Intel — it’s a protocol that helps our screens better communicate with one another. YouTube and Netflix have teamed up to create something called DIAL, a competitor of sorts to Apple’s AirPlay, which, as GigaOm’s Janko Roettgers describes it, ”helps developers of second-screen apps to discover and launch applications on smart TVs and connected devices.” Basically, it turns your phone into a kind of wireless super-remote for your TV, as Roettgers explains: 

With DIAL, the Netflix app on your phone will automatically discover that there is a device with a Netflix app connected to your TV. It will fire up that app, and then the two apps are free to do whatever they want — which presumably involves some healthy binge-viewing.

This solves a “big problem” because it makes using those apps on your smart television a lot easier.  As of right now, controlling the Netflix app on a PlayStation still requires the console remote to open up the app on your television before controlling it from a phone or tablet. This eliminates a step — and that, ladies and gents, is the biggest thing actually happening in TV tech right now. Instead of letting us pay just for the content we want, the cable industry’s aging model is still forcing tech companies to help us sift through all the extras were forced to buy. Because with the big media companies refusing to budge on innovative content deals so far this year, “content discovery” tools like GIAL and AirPlay remain one of the only ways everyone can get along. 

RELATED: Netflix Is Winning the Internet

It wasn’t supposed to be this way, of course. Many expected hardware like a supped-up Apple TV or the Roku streaming stick to “fix” television — instead of some protocol that makes finding stuff on our TVs easier. But, as Netflix discovered when it tried to get in the hardware business, the total package can alienate the other key players. Back in 2007, the streaming company had a set-top box in the works that would transform Netflix into a cable competitor, reports Fast Company’s Austin Carr. But CEO Reid Hastings scrapped the idea because it was too competitive. “We could not be competing against Sony, LG, and Samsung,” says Steve Swasey, then the company’s VP of communications. On top of the potential loss of support from hardware makers, this separate Netflix box scared away the content owners, with which Netflix has worked so hard to get streaming TV deals. 

RELATED: The Future of Streaming Video Looks Like TV Reruns

The old-school media industry’s fear of tech-world competition has driven the future of television in a spiraling direction. When one of the too-many entities gets offended, the future falls apart, as we saw with Google TV in an experiment that ultimately scared off content providers as well. A protocol like DIAL is the politically correct solution: It doesn’t change how we pay for content — but it sure does work within the comfortable way we’re used to sitting down and watching TV!

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Shia LaBeouf’s “Charlie Countryman” finds love in gritty Romania

Park City, Utah (Reuters) – Shia LaBeouf and Evan Rachel Wood spin a twist on classic fairytales in their new film “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman,” a modern day love story that swaps castles in the sky for the underbelly of Romania’s capital, Bucharest.

The film, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival this week, is a dark story of love unfolding between two unlikely people against the backdrop of a violent and crime-filled eastern European city.

Charlie (LaBeouf), an American, finds himself on a journey of self-discovery that takes him to Bucharest, where he meets the mysterious and captivating Gabi (Evan Rachel Wood), and puts his life on the line for love.

“Love is always the easiest answer, but somehow it’s the hardest place to get for some people. I love the contrast of this world, which is filled with violence and hatred and crime, and above all there’s love,” Wood said.

Director Fredrick Bond picked Bucharest because he was looking for a place that has not been captured in film prominently, and would compliment the complex nature of Charlie and Gabi’s story.

“Charlie has to go through quite a tough journey and a very romantic journey, so I needed a city that had an edge,” he said.

Wood, 25, said the connection that Charlie and Gabi feel the moment they meet resonated with her because that is what she felt for her husband, actor Jamie Bell, when they first met at Sundance and started dating in 2005.

“It’s almost this karmic connection, this kindred spirit, this soulmate of some sort, where he looks at her and he immediately falls in love. He’s never said a word to her – that really happens. That’s how I met my husband,” Wood said.

“We fell in love immediately, because it was almost meant to be, it was fate.”

FINDING TRUTH IN LOVE

“Charlie Countryman” is the feature film debut from Swedish director Bond, an award-winning creator of commercials. Bond said he was eager to work with LaBeouf and Wood, calling them the “most talented young actors of their generation.”

“They have such a sense of truthfulness,” Bond said. “It’s a wild, crazy journey, I needed actors who could ground their performances … Evan and Shia are about truth.”

LaBeouf, a former child star who became a box office staple as the lead in the “Transformers” franchise, has been taking on grittier roles more recently, such as a bootlegger in gangster drama “Lawless.”

The 26-year-old actor said he had been drawn to the role of Charlie when he read the script three years ago.

“It spoke honestly to me, it was really original. It had a Zsa Zsa Gabor narrative and it just read like ‘The Graduate’ with a bloody nose,” he said.

Wood, who shot to fame as the troubled young lead of teen drama “Thirteen” in 2003, said she had wanted to work with LaBeouf for a long time.

For the role of Gabi, a complex Romanian cellist who has a penchant for bad boys, Wood had to perfect a Romanian accent without the help of a dialect coach, turning to her surroundings in Bucharest to draw inspirations.

“It’s very stressful because you want to do it justice, and I wanted it to be spot-on because a lot of times, it can be very distracting. You can overdo the accent,” the actress said.

The film co-stars Mads Mikkelsen and Til Schweiger as Romanian mobsters, with British actors Rupert Grint, best known as Ron Weasley in the “Harry Potter” movies, and James Buckley as Charlie’s errant friends.

Bond said the biggest filming challenges were the action-packed fight scenes, especially because LaBeouf did his own stunts.

“Shia wants to do everything for real, so he takes hits for real … which is fantastic, because it gives a reality to it, but you also have only so many takes, you have to be really well prepared to do it,” Bond said.

“Charlie Countryman” may defy the archetype of a traditional love story with its fierce characters in a harsh yet beautiful setting, but LaBeouf and Wood said they hoped audiences would take away messages of honesty in love from the film.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Mohammad Zargham)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Well: Can You Read the Face of Victory?

Picture a tennis player in the moment he scores a critical point and wins a tournament. Now picture his opponent in the instant he loses the point that narrowly cost him the title. Can you tell one facial expression from the other, the look of defeat from the face of victory?

Try your hand at the images below, of professional tennis players at competitive tournaments. All were included in a new study that suggests that the more intense an emotion, the harder it is to distinguish it in a facial expression.

The researchers found that when overwhelming feelings set in, the subtle cues that convey emotion are lost, and facial expressions tend to blur. The face of joy and celebration often appears no different from the look of grief and devastation. Winning looks like losing. Pain resembles pleasure.

But that is not the case when it comes to body language. In fact, the new study found, people are better able to identify extreme emotions by reading body language than by looking solely at facial expressions. But even though we pick up on cues from the neck down to interpret emotion, we instinctively assume that it is the face that tells us everything, said Hillel Aviezer, a psychologist who carried out the new research with colleagues at Princeton University.

“When emotions run high, the face becomes more malleable: it’s not clear if there’s positivity or negativity going on there,” he said. “People have this illusion that they’re reading all this information in the face. We found that the face is ambiguous in these situations and the body is critical.”

Dr. Aviezer and his colleagues, who published their work in the journal Science, carried out four experiments in which subjects were asked to identify emotions by looking at photographs of people in various situations. In some cases, the subjects were shown facial expressions alone. In others, they looked at body language, either alone or in combination with faces. The researchers chose photographs taken in moments when emotions were running high – as professional tennis players celebrated or agonized, as loved ones grieved at funerals, as needles punctured skin during painful body piercings.

According to classic behavioral theories, facial expressions are universal indicators of mood and emotion. So the more intense a particular emotion, the easier it should be to identify in the face. But the study showed the exact opposite. As emotions peaked in intensity, expressions became distorted, similar to the way cranking up the volume on a stereo makes the music unrecognizable.

“When emotions are extremely high, it’s as if the speakers are blaring and the signal is degraded,” said Dr. Aviezer, who is now at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. “When the volume is that high, it’s hard to tell what song is playing.”

In one experiment, three groups of 15 people were shown photographs of professional tennis players winning and losing points in critical matches. When the subjects were shown the players’ expressions alone — separated from their bodies — they correctly identified their emotion only half of the time, which was no better than chance. When they looked at images of just the body with the face removed — or the body with the face intact — they were far more accurate at identifying emotions. Yet when asked, 80 percent said they were relying on the facial expressions alone. Twenty percent said they were going by body and facial cues together, and not a single one said they were looking only for gestures from the neck down.

Then, the researchers scrambled the photos, mixing faces and bodies together. The upset faces of players were randomly spliced onto the bodies of celebrating players, and vice versa.

When asked to judge the emotions, the subjects answered according to the body language. The facial expression did not seem to matter. If a losing face was spliced onto a celebrating body, the subjects tended to guess victory and jubilation. If they were looking at the face of an exuberant player placed on the body of an anguished player, the subjects guessed defeat and disappointment.

Although they were not aware of it, the subjects were clearly looking at body language, Dr. Aviezer said. Clenched fists, for example, suggested victory and celebration, while open or outstretched hands indicated a player’s disappointment.

In another experiment, the researchers looked at four other emotional “peaks.” For pain, they used the faces of men and women undergoing piercings. Grief was captured in images of mourners at a funeral. For joy, they used images of people on the reality television show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” capturing their impassioned faces at the very moment they were shown their beautiful, brand new homes. And for pleasure, they went with a rather risqué option: images from an erotic Web site that showed faces at the height of orgasm.

Once again, the subjects could not correctly guess the emotions by looking at facial expressions alone. In fact, they were more likely to interpret “positive” faces as being “negative” more than the actual negative ones. When faces showing pleasure were spliced onto the body of someone in pain, for example, the subjects relied on body language and were often unaware that the facial expression was conveying the opposite emotion.

“There’s this point on ‘Extreme Makeover’ where people see their new house for the first time and the camera is on their face, so we have these wonderful photos of their expressions,” Dr. Aviezer said. “At that moment, they look like the most miserable people in the world. For a few seconds, it’s as if they are seeing their house burn down. They don’t look like you would expect.”

The researchers noted that they were not suggesting that facial expressions never indicate specific feelings – only that when the emotion is intense and at its peak, for those first few seconds, the expression is ambiguous. Dr. Aviezer said the facial musculature simply might not be suited for accurately conveying extremely intense feelings – in part because in the real world, so much of that is conveyed through situational context.

And this may not be limited to facial cues.

“Consider intense vocal expressions of grief versus joy or pleasure versus pain,” the researchers wrote in their paper. For example, imagine sitting in a coffee shop and hearing someone behind you shriek. Is it immediately obvious whether the emotion is a positive or negative one?

“When people are experiencing a very high level of excitation,” Dr. Aviezer said, “then we see this overlap in expressions.”

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