6 ways to tweet yourself out of a job

Hate your job? Want to leave without giving two weeks notice? Thanks to Twitter, it’s never been easier to get fired, says Rob Lammie at Mental Floss

Step 1: Drunk tweet
As any Spring Break partier knows, drinking impairs your judgment. It seems to have also impaired the judgment of Major League pitcher-turned-sports-radio-host Mike Bacsik, who put on quite a show during a San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks NBA game in April 2010. While watching the game, Bacsik bragged that he was “About 12 deep and some shots.” He proceeded to unleash a string of insults aimed at NBA commissioner David Stern, accused the refs of fixing the game, and even threatened to blow up the NBA’s offices. But the one that really got people riled up came after the Mavericks lost the game, when Bacsik tweeted: 

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@MikeBacsik: “Congrats to all the dirty mexicans in San Antonio.”

After sobering up, Bacsik deleted the offending tweets and issued an apology. But it was too little, too late. Numerous people complained to his radio station, which first suspended Bacsik and later fired him. After his dismissal, he told ESPN Dallas, “When you tweet like that, it’s not a playful, harmless thing… I’m very sorry and will try my best for my actions to speak louder than my tweets.”

Step 2: Break the law (or just anger your governor)
Twitter has become a great tool for politicians to connect to the voting public. Former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, for one, has really embraced the technology as a way to share his opinions and views. For example, in December 2009, he sent out a tweet saying:

 @HaleyBarbour: “Glad the Legislature recognizes our dire fiscal situation. Look forward to hearing their ideas on how to trim expenses.”

Jennifer Carter, one of his Twitter followers who worked for the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMC), read this message and offered up a suggestion on how Governor Barbour could personally save the taxpayers money:

“Schedule regular medical exams like everyone else instead of paying UMC employees overtime to do it when clinics are usually closed.” 

This “Oh, snap!” moment referred to an incident that had occurred three years earlier, when the governor requested the medical center open on a Saturday, when they were normally closed, and bring in a staff of 15-20 people who were paid overtime to administer his annual check-up. This happened before Carter worked for UMC and she was simply repeating what she had been told by other employees. 

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The governor’s office tracked down Carter and made a formal complaint to UMC, saying Carter had violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a privacy law that states no employee of a medical facility can reveal any information about a person’s “protected health information.” Some argued that Carter didn’t violate HIPAA, since she didn’t actually give out any information about the health of the governor. However, others believe that simply saying the governor had even visited a doctor is a violation. 

Semantics aside, UMC administrators said it was a violation, so they suspended Carter for three days without pay and strongly suggested she resign to avoid further disciplinary action, which she did.

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Step 3: Have an NSFW lifestyle
St. Louis-based blogger “The Beautiful Kind” had been writing online about her polyamorous sex life for years. Knowing that not everyone would agree with her chosen lifestyle, she was always very careful about maintaining her anonymity, especially when it came to the workplace. So when she signed up for Twitter, she wanted to be anonymous there as well. She thought that, thanks to the similarities between the two, it was like signing up for an online message board — you supplied your real name to the website privately, but could choose to be known publicly by your username only. But when she logged in for the first time and saw that, not only did it show her username (@TBK365), but also her real name on her profile, she immediately went back and removed it. 

Thinking she was now safely anonymous, she used Twitter to promote her blog and to discuss sexually explicit topics with her followers. However, when her boss at the non-profit group where she worked was told by upper management to do a Google search of all employees, TBK’s Twitter account information — with her real name still associated — came up on the Twitter tracking site topsy.com.

The next day, TBK was called into her boss’ office and fired on the spot. Afterwards, her former boss sent her a letter saying, “While I know you are a good worker and an intelligent person, I hope you try to understand that our employees are held to a different standard. When it comes to private matters, such as one’s sexual explorations and preferences, our employees must keep their affairs private.” Because Missouri is an at-will employment state, meaning employers can fire someone for just about any reason, TBK was SOL.

Step 4: Question company policy
When California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) traded in their standard white shirts for black ones, employee Tim Chantarangsu wasn’t happy with the change. So he tweeted @calpizzakitchen his opinion:

@traphik: “black button ups are the lamest s**t ever!!!”

He didn’t expect anyone to notice or care, but the next day he received a direct message from corporate asking what restaurant he worked for. He knew better than to respond, but they tracked him down anyway and he was fired. They not only referenced his tweet about the shirts, but also an earlier one where he had said he was getting ready to work at “Calipornia Skeetza Kitchen.” 

Little did they know that Chantarangsu is kind of a big deal on another social website, YouTube. Under the name TimothyDeLaGhetto2, Chantarangsu has hundreds of thousands of subscribers, accounting for over 10,500,000 views of his videos at the time. Of course he made a YouTube video telling his Twitter story and it has been viewed well more than 100,000 times. Shortly after the incident, he asked his followers to bombard CPK’s Twitter account with RTs (re-tweets) of his offending message, which they were more than happy to oblige.

Step 5: Make a celebrity look bad
During his five years on the job, Jon Barrett-Ingels had served a lot of celebrities as a waiter at Barney Greengrass, an upscale restaurant in Beverly Hills. One day, Jane Adams, star of the HBO series Hung, came in and had lunch to the tune of $ 13.44. Unfortunately, when the bill came, Adams realized she had left her wallet in the car. Ingels knew who she was, so he told her she could run out and grab it and come back. The actress left, but didn’t return. Instead, someone from her agency called the next day and paid the bill. However, they didn’t leave a tip. Ingels had recently signed up for Twitter and so, his sixth tweet to his 40 followers said:

@PapaBarrett: Jane Adams, star of HBO series “Hung” skipped out on a $ 13.44 check. Her agent called and payed the following day. NO TIP!!!” 

Over the next few weeks, Ingels started using Twitter to send out a few harmless observations about celebrities that came in to eat — mainly what they ordered or what they looked like that day. Then, out of the blue, Jane Adams came back to the restaurant. According to Ingels’ blog, she was clearly upset and begrudgingly slapped $ 3 on the bar for Ingels as a tip. Surprised, Ingels told the actress she really didn’t have to do that, but her gesture was appreciated. She allegedly replied with, “My friend read about it on Twitter!” before storming off. Adams complained about the tweet to management, so someone from Barney’s corporate started following Ingels on Twitter to see what he was up to. After reading his celebrity tweets, it didn’t take long before they gave him the boot.

Step 6: Don’t get hired in the first place
If you’ve followed steps 1 – 5 and you still have a job, here’s the ultimate way to make sure Twitter will keep you from gainful employment.

When recent college grad Skye Riley heard back from Cisco, the computer networking giant, about her job application, one of her first instincts was to tweet about it. Unfortunately, this is what she tweeted:

@theconnor: Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.

The unfortunate part? An employee of Cisco, Tim Levad, came across her post while doing a Twitter search for Cisco. He replied to her by saying:

@timmylevad: Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.

Riley’s story was the tweet heard round the world. It became a hot topic on tech blogs for weeks afterwards, with writers calling it the “Cisco Fatty” incident. She later claimed that the tweet was taken out of context — that part of her message was referring to a well-paid internship she had turned down — but it appears the damage had already been done. While only she and Cisco know what really happened, according to her online resume, she has never worked for the company.

 — Rob Lammie

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“Big Bang Theory” actress Mayim Bialik, husband divorcing

NEW YORK (Reuters) – “The Big Bang Theory” actress Mayim Bialik and her husband are divorcing after nine years of marriage, she said in a statement on her Facebook page.

Bialik, who starred in the 1990s sitcom “Blossom,” and Michael Stone have two sons together.

“Divorce is terribly sad, painful and incomprehensible for children,” Bialik, 36, said in the statement. “It is not something we have decided lightly.”

Bialik, a proponent of “attachment parenting” who authored a book on the subject that was published in September, said it “played no role” in the couple’s divorce.

Attachment parenting advocates the nurturing of strong bonds between parents and children, which can include extended breast-feeding and parents and children sleeping in the same bed until the children are as old as 7. A controversial Time magazine cover on the subject in May drew strong reactions across the United States.

“The main priority for us now is to make the transition to two loving homes as smooth and painless as possible,” Bialik wrote in the statement, which was posted to her Facebook page on Wednesday. “Our sons deserve parents committed to their growth and health and that’s what we are focusing on.”

“We will be OK,” the statement concludes.

Bialik is a former child star who appeared in the 1980s television series “Webster” and “The Facts of Life” before landing the title role in the coming-of-age television show “Blossom,” which ran from 1991 to 1995. The show was about a smart teenage girl whose parents have divorced and is learning about life.

The actress attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where she obtained a doctorate in neuroscience.

She met Michael Stone, a fellow graduate student, in calculus class, according to a description of her wedding she previously posted online.

In her most recent role on CBS comedy “The Big Bang Theory,” Bialik plays Amy Farrah Fowler, a neuroscientist who dates one of the two main stars of the show, the socially inept but brilliant physicist Sheldon Cooper.

(Reporting By Chris Francescani; Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Bill Trott)

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Indian Prostitutes’ New Autonomy Imperils AIDS Fight

MUMBAI, India — Millions once bought sex in the narrow alleys of Kamathipura, a vast red-light district here. But prostitutes with inexpensive mobile phones are luring customers elsewhere, and that is endangering the astonishing progress India has made against AIDS.

Indeed, the recent closings of hundreds of ancient brothels, while something of an economic victory for prostitutes, may one day cost them, and many others, their lives.

“The place where sex happens turns out to be an important H.I.V. prevention point,” said Saggurti Niranjan, program associate of the Population Council. “And when we don’t know where that is, we can’t help stop the transmission.”

Cellphones, those tiny gateways to modernity, have recently allowed prostitutes to shed the shackles of brothel madams and strike out on their own. But that independence has made prostitutes far harder for government and safe-sex counselors to trace. And without the advice and free condoms those counselors provide, prostitutes and their customers are returning to dangerous ways.

Studies show that prostitutes who rely on cellphones are more susceptible to H.I.V. because they are far less likely than their brothel-based peers to require their clients to wear condoms.

In interviews, prostitutes said they had surrendered some control in the bedroom in exchange for far more control over their incomes.

“Now, I get the full cash in my hand before we start,” said Neelan, a prostitute with four children whose side business in sex work is unknown to her husband and neighbors. (Neelan is a professional name, not her real one.)

“Earlier, if the customer got scared and didn’t go all the way, the madam might not charge the full amount,” she explained. “But if they back out now, I say that I have removed all my clothes and am going to keep the money.”

India has been the world’s most surprising AIDS success story. Though infections did not appear in India until 1986, many predicted the nation would soon become the epidemic’s focal point. In 2002, the C.I.A.’s National Intelligence Council predicted that India would have as many as 25 million AIDS cases by 2010. Instead, India now has about 1.5 million.

An important reason the disease never took extensive hold in India is that most women here have fewer sexual partners than in many other developing countries. Just as important was an intensive effort underwritten by the World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to target high-risk groups like prostitutes, gay men and intravenous drug users.

But the Gates Foundation is now largely ending its oversight and support for AIDS prevention in India, just as efforts directed at prostitutes are becoming much more difficult. Experts say it is too early to identify how much H.I.V. infections might rise.

“Nowadays, the mobility of sex workers is huge, and contacting them is very difficult,” said Ashok Alexander, the former director in India of the Gates Foundation. “It’s a totally different challenge, and the strategies will also have to change.”

An example of the strategies that had been working can be found in Delhi’s red-light district on Garstin Bastion Road near the old Delhi railway station, where brothels have thrived since the 16th century. A walk through dark alleys, past blind beggars and up narrow, steep and deeply worn stone staircases brings customers into brightly lighted rooms teeming with scores of women brushing each other’s hair, trying on new dresses, eating snacks, performing the latest Bollywood dances, tending small children and disappearing into tiny bedrooms with nervous men who come out moments later buttoning their trousers.

A 2009 government survey found 2,000 prostitutes at Garstin Bastion (also known as G. B.) Road who served about 8,000 men a day. The government estimated that if it could deliver as many as 320,000 free condoms each month and train dozens of prostitutes to counsel safe-sex practices to their peers, AIDS infections could be significantly reduced. Instead of broadcasting safe-sex messages across the country — an expensive and inefficient strategy commonly employed in much of the world — it encircled Garstin Bastion with a firebreak of posters with messages like “Don’t take a risk, use a condom” and “When a condom is in, risk is out.”

Surprising many international AIDS experts, these and related tactics worked. Studies showed that condom use among clients of prostitutes soared.

“To the credit of the Indian strategists, their focus on these high-risk groups paid off,” said Dr. Peter Piot, the former executive director of U.N.AIDS and now director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. A number of other countries, following India’s example, have achieved impressive results over the past decade as well, according to the latest United Nations report, which was released last week.

Sruthi Gottipati contributed reporting in Mumbai and New Delhi.

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Walmart protests draw crowds, shoppers largely unfazed

Dozens of local workers, and hundreds nationally, took advantage of Black Friday crowds and camera crews at major retailers like Walmart to call for wage increases.

But there was little evidence that the chanting disrupted holiday shoppers.

Steven Restivo, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores, said the chain had done its "best Black Friday event ever" despite protests organized by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union in Chicago and other cities.

At a Walmart in Chicago's Chatham neighborhood on the south side, only one of the store's 500 employees took part in the demonstration, the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer said. "Almost all the folks you'll see protesting today are not Walmart associates," Restivo said. "I guess you can't believe everything you read in a union press release."

According to the union, protests took place in Miami and Washington, D.C., with additional events planned at Midwestern and Southern stores.

Walmart has so far avoided a union presence, which has become cumbersome for competitors like Jewel-Osco and Dominick's Finer Foods. Those chains have been closing stores as Walmart has expanded locally.

Separately Friday, dozens of members of the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago and its supporters marched from the Loop to the Magnificent Mile to demand a $15 minimum wage and union contracts for downtown workers. Organized on November 15, the union has about 150 members and has received financial support from Service Employees International Union, Action Now and Stand Up Chicago.

Deborah Sims, marching Friday, said she worked at Macy's for 12 years, eventually making $13 an hour, before losing her job during the recession. She was rehired last holiday season, but at $8.50 an hour, with no benefits.

Sims said she expects retailers to turn to younger, less-experienced workers because "$8.25 an hour is going to look good to them."

Macy's did not respond to a request for comment.

Peter Gill, a spokesman for the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, called the demand for a $15 minimum wage dangerous "because people are out looking for jobs and it's tough in this economy."

He explained that if retailers were forced to nearly double the starting hourly wage, "you're going to have to cut the number of employees."

Reuters contributed to this story.

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Man dies after driving into lake

Emergency crews work in the water where someone drove their vehicle early Friday morning. (WGN-TV / November 23, 2012)

Staff report

1:30 p.m. CST, November 23, 2012

An 18-year-old man driving an SUV into Lake Miltmore was pronounced dead and another person rescued after four Lake County sheriff’s deputies jumped into the water to pull the people from the SUV, authorities said.

A passenger got out but told responding officers that a driver was still in the upside-down car, which went through a T intersection at Engle and Nathan Hill and drove into the lake about 2 a.m.

The SUV was traveling eastbound Engle Drive and crossed over Nathan Hale Drive before driving approximately 200 feet through a yard, struck a boat lift, and came to rest upside down approximately 50 Feet into Lake Miltmore, officials said.

After deputies learned the driver was trapped inside the vehicle, four Lake County sheriff’s deputies entered the water in an attempt to rescue the driver, officials said. During the rescue attempt the Lake Villa dive team arrived and eventually removed the driver from the vehicle.

The driver and passenger were transported to Condell Hospital where the driver was pronounced dead. He was identified as Nicholas Bonilla of Lindenhurst, according to Lake County Coroner Artis Yancey.

"The front-seat passenger was already out upon our arrival but he was indicating that there was another occupant in the vehicle, the driver, so that’s why my deputies went in the water – in an effort to make a rescue to get him out,” said Lieutenant Jeff Burke, of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

The four deputies were treated on the scene.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com
Twitter: @chicagobreaking

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Halle Berry’s ex headed to court after Thanksgiving brawl

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The father of Halle Berry‘s daughter is headed to court after he was arrested following a fistfight with her fiancé outside the Oscar winning actress’ Los Angeles home on Thanksgiving, police said.

Canadian model Gabriel Aubry, 37, was later released on $ 20,000 bail after being charged with misdemeanor battery following the punch-up with Berry’s fiancé, French actor Olivier Martinez, 46, in the driveway of her house on Thursday.

The altercation occurred during a custodial hand-off involving Berry’s 4-year-old daughter with Aubry, Nahla, according to Los Angeles police officer Julie Boyer.

Following the scuffle, Aubry and Martinez were both taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with “non-life-threatening injuries,” Boyer said. Aubry is due to appear in court on December 13.

Berry, 46, who won a best actress Oscar for her role in 2001 film “Monster’s Ball,” has been embroiled in a bitter custody battle with Aubry since they broke up in April 2010. Earlier this month, a judge denied Berry’s request to move to France with Nahla.

Berry and Martinez met while filming the movie “Dark Tide.” They announced their engagement in March.

A judge has since issued an emergency protective order requiring Aubry to stay at least 100 yards (meters) from Berry, their daughter and Martinez, according to celebrity website, TMZ.com.

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Inquiry Sought in Death in Ireland After Abortion Was Denied

DUBLIN — India’s ambassador here has agreed to ask Prime Minister Enda Kenny of Ireland for an independent inquiry into the death of an Indian-born woman last month after doctors refused to perform an abortion when she was having a miscarriage, the lawyer representing the woman’s husband said Thursday.

The lawyer, Gerard O’Donnell, also said crucial information was missing from the files he had received from the Irish Health Service Executive about the death of the woman, Savita Halappanavar, including any mention of her requests for an abortion after she learned that the fetus would not survive.

The death of Dr. Halappanavar, 31, a dentist who lived near Galway, has focused global attention on the Irish ban on abortion.

Her husband, Praveen Halappanavar, has refused to cooperate with an investigation being conducted by the Irish health agency. “I have seen the way my wife was treated in the hospital, so I have no confidence that the H.S.E. will do justice,” he said in an interview on Wednesday night on RTE, the state television broadcaster. “Basically, I don’t have any confidence in the H.S.E.”

In a tense debate in the Irish Parliament on Wednesday evening, Robert Dowds of the Labour Party said Dr. Halappanavar’s death had forced politicians “to confront an issue we have dodged for much too long,” partly because so many Irish women travel to Britain for abortions.

“The reality is that if Britain wasn’t on our doorstep, we would have had to introduce abortion legislation years ago to avoid women dying in back-street abortions,” he said.

After the debate, the Parliament voted 88 to 53 against a motion introduced by the opposition Sinn Fein party calling on the government to allow abortions when women’s lives are in danger and to protect doctors who perform such procedures.

The Irish president, Michael D. Higgins — who is restricted by the Constitution from getting involved in political matters — also made a rare foray into a political debate on Wednesday, saying any inquiry must meet the needs of the Halappanavar family as well as the government.

In 1992, the Irish Supreme Court interpreted the current law to mean that abortion should be allowed in circumstances where there was “a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother,” including the threat of suicide. But that ruling has never been codified into law.

“The current situation is like a sword of Damocles hanging over us,” Dr. Peter Boylan, of the Irish Institute of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told RTE last week. “If we do something with a good intention, but it turns out to be illegal, the consequences are extremely serious for medical practitioners.”

Dr. Ruth Cullen, who has campaigned against abortion, said that any legislation to codify the Supreme Court ruling would be tantamount to allowing abortion on demand and that Dr. Halappanavar’s death should not be used to make that change.

Dr. Halappanavar contracted a bacterial blood infection, septicemia, and died Oct. 28, a week after she was admitted to Galway University Hospital with severe back pains. She was 17 weeks pregnant but having a miscarriage and was told that the fetus — a girl — would not survive. Her husband said she asked several times for an abortion but was informed that under Irish law it would be illegal while there was a fetal heartbeat, because “this is a Catholic country.”

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Chicago shopping frenzy gets early start

Ambitious holiday shoppers skipped dessert on Thanksgiving to get a good spot in line for this Black Friday. (Posted Nov. 23rd, 2012)

Black Friday frenzy is not created equal for all retailers.

Even if they don't have specials or promotions, small and independent businesses can be subject to a shopping center's early opening hours.

At the Woodfield Mall, Candy World owner Parul Patel manned her shop alone starting at midnight Friday without any specials.

The store's customer base is made up of children and teenagers, and the merchandise is at a low price point. This means business was normal, if not slow during some parts of the night, Patel said.

To fill some of the time, she read a newspaper, topped off candy containers and people-watched. The mall was busier than usual, but Patel said: "Nobody is here, you can see."

This year was the first mandatory 12 a.m. opening for the metro area's largest shopping center. Of Woodfield Mall's nearly 300 businesses across 2.2 million square feet, only about 20 stores didn't open at that time, according to the  mall's general manager, Marc Strich.

Retailers and customers had asked for the early hours, Strich said. Last year, the mall held a "volunteer" midnight opening, and about 20 stores participated.

As is typical, stores other than big-box retailer are required to be open when the mall is, Strich said, though he declined to talk about whether there were any fined or punishments for those that aren't.

Sears opened Thursday at 8 p.m., while Nordstrom's didn't open until 9 a.m. Friday, Strich said.

Amanda Lewkowicz, the store manager at PJ's Avon Beauty Center, said it didn't initially want to open at midnight after disappointing sales last year.

"We didn't want to be open at midnight because it didn't pick up until 5 a.m. last year," Lewkowicz said. "We felt it didn't benefit us."

The store is a rare brick-and-mortar outlet for Avon beauty products, which is typically sold through catalogs and sales representatives. That "destination" business model for PJ's Avon means customers typically seek them out, Lewkowicz said.

Being independently owned also requires its own promotional efforts, which included emailing its customer list and cold-calling others.

"(Other stores) do commercial advertising. We can only do so much," Lewkowicz said.

Jessica Foch had only sold one pack of cigarettes by noon at the smoke shop on Division Street in Wicker Park, in spite of her boss's insistence that a Black Friday special on hookahs would bring in throngs of shoppers.

The 24-year-old store manabger admitted that 25 percent off a $300 hookah is a pretty big discount but said she didn't expect to see them fly off the shelf.

"People don't go to little shops like this on Black Friday. They go to Target and Kmart," she said.

With pink hair, sparkly black nail polish and fingerless gloves, Foch said she once worked for Wal-Mart and hates the way people treat each other on Black Friday

She plans to spend at least $100 on her boyfriend and give generously to friends. But she won't be shopping today.

"I know somebody who got punched in the face for a toaster," she said, "a toaster."

The line may seem impressive outside St. Alfred's -- a streetwear clothier in Wicker Park -- but that's because the tiny shop is only letting in one person at a time, apparently to avoid a run on the Michael Jordan sneakers out Friday.

"But we don't even want them," said Armin Hajdarovic, 17, bundled up outside the store with a half a dozen friends as it began to snow.

The crew of Northsiders was waiting to get inside to buy shirts at 20 percent off.

Asked who they were shopping for, the group said: themselves, of course.

By 9:30 a.m. on Black Friday, still a half hour before Yorktown Shopping Center in Lombard would open on any other weekday, Santa was in his green armchair and lines had queued at Caribou Coffee for those refueling, some after an entire night of shopping.

At the food court, three sisters sipped from cartons of orange juice, their daughters having awakened them hours before dawn for a 4 a.m. excursion. One, Patricia Baker, 54, of Maywood, had made an 8 p.m. jaunt to Target Thursday and a midnight run to Anna's Linens.

Now, she and her sisters, Donna Holliday, 48, of Bellwood, and Carolyn Baker, 56, of Lombard, and their daughters had spread their J.C. Penney, Forever 21, Victoria's Secret and Bath and  Body Works bags across several tables, taking a break before heading to Chicago Premium Outlets in Aurora.

The sisters hadn't been able to get together for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, so shopping signified bonding time.

"I'm just hanging with my sisters and nieces," said Holliday. "Just hangin'."

Baker added that she lets her daughter, Jahanna Baker, 19, and nieces, Azia and Amber Welch, both 17, do most of the shopping while she and her sisters chat at the follow. 

"My income has become more secure," said Carolyn, a nurse. "The fear has died down. My work hours are more steady." She plans to spend a couple thousand dollars more this year, including a new stove she bought for herself.

Holliday, too, says she has been working more hours this year and plans to spend a couple  hundred dollars more .

"I buy what I like," she said, "as long as I'm not broke."

At the courtyard in front of Von Maur at Yorktown, three generations of shoppers sat on a bench with bags from the Gap, Justice, Claire's and Aeropostale around their feet.

Kathy Zuehlke, 69, had driven in from Rantoul, in central Illinois, to go shopping with her daughter, Lisa Salgado, 43, and granddaughter Alicia Salgado, 14, both of Rockford.

It was the first time Alicia had joined the decade-long tradition, which Kathy views as "a chance to get together because we're all spread out across Illinois."

They followed a system, scouring the circulars from three newspapers before plotting a course that took them to Target on Thanksgiving evening, back at a relative's house to nap for a few hours and on to Kohl's, Best Buy, Toys "R" Us and Yorktown.

They had budgeted about as much for gifts this year as the last, about $300 to $500 for Lisa and $800 to $900 for Kathy, who says she has several grandchildren to spoil.

They pay in cash, however, so as not to overspend.  The deals they snagged on Black Friday, including 60 percent off most apparel, helped them stay within budget, too.

In Chicago's rapidly gentrifying Logan square neighborhood, most shops and restaurants were closed Black Friday, but not Torres-Omar Jewelry.

The tiny shop, near the Blue Line stop, was offering double discounts on watches.

Bob Garza -- dressed as Santa Claus and handing out fliers for the jewelry store and candy canes as CTA riders exited the train station -- said he usually delivers groceries for Mariano's but the shop is closed through the weekend so he got out his Santa outfit to make a little extra cash.

Tomorrow, Santa will be handing out Chamber of Commerce fliers on Belmont.

"The economy is bad right now," he said. "There's work out there. You just have to create it."

Across the street at the jewelry store, Jose Torres, the store's owner, said they've been in the same location since 1980 and stay open Black Friday because their regular customers expect it.

"We're always open," he said. The store was quiet, but Torres said traffic to the store looked better than last year.

Just before 7 a.m. the door busters and the crowds had dwindled at the Target in Schaumburg. Store leader Aaron Stephenson said that while the store was still busy, the crowd had died down a bit. "This is what I consider normal busy for a weekend," said Stephenson.

This is the Minneapolis-based Target's first year offering staggered door busters, the first at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving, when the store opened and the second, at 4 a.m. Friday. Beyond consumer electronics, housewares had been popular according to Stephenson and by early morning some had also disappeared, including a Dyson Vacuum, a Farberware 18-piece cook set and a Pyrex 20-piece set.

The stack of PlayStation 3 and XBox 360's also were gone and toys, including Legos, he said, flew off the shelves. There are plenty of still good deals, Stephenson added. "We still have quite a few big TVs," he said.

In a form of subtle protest, several people who roamed Yorktown Shopping Center in Lombard as early as 4 a.m. started buying when they usually did -- on Friday morning -- and refused to give into retailers that opened their doors on Thursday evening.

"I boycotted anything midnight or earlier," said Chrissy Wojdyla, 29, of Downers Grove. "I will not shop there. I think it's ruining Thanksgiving tradition and infringing on my family." Moving Black Friday hours up to Thanksgiving, she added, "takes people away from their families." 

Instead, Wojdyla, her sister, Mary Steele, 26, and their mother, Patti Wojdyla, 54, dedicated their Thanksgiving Day to family and food, withholding themselves from any kind of shopping until they met at Yorktown at 4 a.m. Friday.

"Four a.m. is early enough!," said Patti, of Glen Ellyn. "Why would anyone want to do it on Thanksgiving evening? You're full. You're tired."

Steele, also of Glen Ellyn, said that caring for her young kids all day had made Thanksgiving too tiring to shop. 

Plus, she said, "when you start on Thanksgiving Day, it's not even Black Friday. We enjoy our 4 a.m. Friday tradition."

So they all got sleep on Thursday, ranging from 1 to 6 hours , and woke up to glam themselves out with glitter, tiaras and garland necklaces for their early morning of shopping. Steele wore a paper crown that read "Happy Holidays." |

For their efforts to keep with Yorktown's "bling" theme, Lynette Steinhauser, the assistant marketing director at the mall, rewarded them with $10 gift cards to Von Maur, which prompted a profusion of delighted thank-yous. 

Outside of J.C. Penney, Ramiro Carrizales, 44, waited with his wife, Lorena Carrizales, 40, in a seven-people-deep crowd for the store to open at 6 a.m.

They were looking for good clothing deals for their kids, specifically Mickey Mouse-themed items, but the couple, who lives in Forest Park, adamantly stuck to early Friday morning shopping hours instead of venturing out on Thursday evening. 

On Thanksgiving, said Ramiro, "I wanted to spend time with family. I didn't want to go out."

Post-Thanksgiving shopping also is a ritual for Elk Grove's Krys Slattery, Chris Duncker and Gina Wirth -- a decade-long tradition among friends.

Each year, they finish Thanksgiving dinner with their families and embark upon a 12-hour pilgrimage to knock-out the bulk of the Christmas shopping by visiting several stores in and around Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg. They power-up with coffee and breakfast at Panera and then wind-down the spree at Olive Garden for lunch. 

"We're constantly laughing," said Duncker.  "It's not just about the deals for us really, It's all about the experience, we love it," added Wirth. 

On Thanksgiving night they were in the Target on Higgins Road in Schaumburg.  Each with carts, a list and Target's "door buster" circular holding folded in their hands. All three giggled and called out to each other, squealing with delight when they spied a good deal.

After picking-up some blue sequined slippers for her teenage daughter, Slattery held them up for Wirth and Duncker to inspect.  "Do you think she'll like these?" she said.

This year Slattery was lucky. Target was opening earlier than ever -- at 9 p.m. so her mother cooked Thanksgiving dinner.

The trio weren't alone, the Target on Higgins Road in Schaumburg was swarmed, many pushing carts piled high with merchandise, from 50-inch televisions, to game consoles, tablet computers, MP3 players, apparel and cameras, which manager Brett Thiele said sold out in an hour.

The scene was similar at Yorktown Shopping Center in Lombard. 

Laura Maxey and six of her closest friends shrieked when they saw the black bags. They had carved out a spot in front of the information booth at Yorktown, standing for 5 1/2 hours at the head of a 250-person line, until the mall officially opened at 5 a.m. Friday and the staff began handing out goodie bags filled with multicolored totes and $10 gift cards to stores throughout the mall.

"We pretty much just slept over at the mall," said Laura, 14, of Lombard. "We wanted to be first."

Their parents had dropped the friends, plus two older brothers, off at the mall shortly before midnight, and they rushed to the booth to claim their spots -- only the first 200 people in line would receive gift bags, with another 50 turned away -- before taking turns to embark on a shopping rotation that included Victoria's Secret, American Eagle and PacSun. At Charlotte Russe, they picked up $15 jeans.

The friends said they were at the mall for the joy, the deals and the once-a-year feel of Black Friday, and they were hardly the only ones caught up in the retail frenzy.

"I got a suitcase thrown at my head!" said Melanie Malczewski, 14, of Lombard, recalling her experience at Victoria's Secret, though she was smiling broadly at the memory later that morning.

Lynette Steinhauser, assistant marketing director at Yorktown, said that this, her 14th Black Friday at the mall, "is the busiest it's ever been." About half of the stores had been open since midnight, she said, with nearly all the rest the turning on their lights when the mall officially opened at 5 a.m. Steinhauser compared the foot traffic at 5: 30 a.m. on Black Friday to what it feels like on a Saturday afternoon.

"Everyone is in a really happy mood," she said. "And festive!"

Black Friday, which for years kicked-off the holiday shopping season for retailers and consumers, has bled into Thanksgiving, with retailers including Target, Sears and Toys R US opening on Thursday night aiming to boost their bottom lines by enticing consumers to shop early and often.  

Holiday shopping is crucial for retailers -- it accounts for up to 40 percent of their yearly sales. That's why it's called "Black Friday" as for years they've used the day to go from red to black -- or turn a profit.  

This year, retail watchers are expecting holiday shoppers to oblige.  Consumers are expected to spend, on average, $586.1 billion this year on gifts for friends and family, just over a 4 percent increase from last year. Experts are saying this pick-up in spending is conservative, but a glimpse at popular hotspots for early Black Friday shopping, it wasn't apparent.  

This year a handful opened earlier than ever, Walmart set an 8 p.m. opening and Sears followed suit.  Target opted for an opening scheduled an hour later at 9 pm.

Despite some criticism around the increasingly early open times, shoppers in Schaumburg were out in full-force last night.  A Deloitte survey found that 60 percent of consumers plan to shop over Thanksgiving weekend, aiming to take part in sales that offer merchandise at prices the dip below 50 percent off. 

Experts said that this year, as in most years, low-priced flat screen televisions would move fast.  So would deeply discounted Android-powered tablet computers. 

The line to get into the Sears at Woodfield Mall stretched along the building by 7 p.m., an hour before opening time.  

Manager April Buehler said the line outside the store looked larger than last year, and about a mile away at Target, Thiele said this year the store was filled with more families, instead of the hardcore, deal-hunter that typically shows up when the store opens early on Friday morning.  "It's a lot more casual shopper, which I'm excited about," said Thiele. "It's not necessarily people that had to get up super early and be dedicated, just people going out with families. Grandparents and grandkids," he said. 

Carol and Russel Freitas fall into the deal-hunter category.  It's date night for the Palatine couple of 26 years when they head out to shop each year after dinner, leaving their two teenaged sons behind to tackle the stores.  They said they love it.

They waited patiently in line for more than an hour, hoping to snag one of Sears' hot door busters, a 32-inch flat screen for less than $100. 

As it turns out, they waited in vain.  By the time the store opened, they were in the first third of the line, but the Sears employee had run out of TV vouchers when she got to the Freitas' in line.  "It's okay," said Carol Freitas, "There's other stuff on our list, we're going to head to the boys' department to get shirts for my son."

Shortly before Sears opened, about 12 feet away from the Freitas, there was a small, but growing crowd of suspected "line jumpers,"  who stood about 12 feet away staring at the line.

At close to 9:30 at Target, some shoppers could be seen pushing carts stockpiled with 32 inch flat screen for $147.  Alex Gackle  from Fargo, N.D., left his grandmother's dinner with his dad and brother-in-law to buy  another of the Minneapolis-based retailer's most sought-after deals: They bought  four televisions. One for himself, another for his grandmother, one for her caretaker and the fourth for his father.  They waited in line for more than an hour and things were calm, said Gackle.  That changed when Target's doors opened, said Gackle. "That's when people started getting crazy and rushing toward things."

By 10:30 a long line of shoppers were still waiting to get inside the Toys R Us in Schaumburg.  Customers said they were told that shoppers would be allowed in the store every 10 minutes in increments of 50.

After 10 p.m. the temperature had dropped and Laura Saul stood in a sweater with her two daughters and their cousin to get into Toys R Us.  The item of the evening -- "Monster High" dolls for her 10-year-old daughter, Emily.  She pointed to Emily and said, giggling, "She conned us to do this."  Saul's old daughter, Lauren, who stood nearby, was not in such good spirits, "I could be sleeping," she said.

The trio from Elk Grove shopping at Target said over the years they've seen it all -- fights and shoving matches.  As the 10 p.m. hour approached at Target, they thought things were pretty calm.  At Target People get angry, but this is fun for us," said Wirth.  "Even if we don't get what we want, we don't care."

Julie Wernau and Erin Chan Ding contributed to this story.

crshropshire@tribune.com | Twitter: @corilyns

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Mild weather will give way to colder temperatures

Mild weather greeted the annual Thanksgiving Parade. (Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune / November 22, 2012)

By Heywood Hoffman

12:32 p.m. CST, November 22, 2012

Thanksgiving in Chicago is nice this year, with mild temperatures flirting with the 60s -- but a change is on the way.

Clouds and some showers are headed into the area and the thermometer will begin to drop. By the time leftover turkey omelets are served tomorrow morning, temperatures will struggle to get above freezing.

Highs on Friday are expected to remain in the 30s, perhaps touching 40, and for the next few days showers could drift by at any time. High temperatures are not expected to get much above the low 40s with overnight lows dropping below freezing -- and even into the low 20s by the middle of next week.

For the latest radar, conditions and forecasts, go to The Chicago Weather Center.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com
Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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Ex-’Price is Right’ model gets $8.5M in damages

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The producers of “The Price is Right” owe a former model on the show more than $ 7.7 million in punitive damages for discriminating against her after a pregnancy, a jury determined Wednesday.

The judgment came one day after the panel determined the game show’s producers discriminated against Brandi Cochran. They awarded her nearly $ 777,000 in actual damages.

Cochran, 41, said she was rejected when she tried to return to work in early 2010 after taking maternity leave. The jury agreed and determined that FremantleMedia North America and The Price is Right Productions owed her more than $ 8.5 million in all.

“I’m humbled. I’m shocked,” Cochran said after the jury announced its verdict. “I’m happy that justice was served today not only for women in the entertainment industry, but women in the workplace.”

FremantleMedia said it was standing by its previous statement, which said it expected to be “fully vindicated” after an appeal.

“We believe the verdict in this case was the result of a flawed process in which the court, among other things, refused to allow the jury to hear and consider that 40 percent of our models have been pregnant,” and further “important” evidence, FremantleMedia said.

In their defense, producers said they were satisfied with the five models working on the show at the time Cochran sought to return.

Several other former models have sued the series and its longtime host, Bob Barker, who retired in 2007.

Most of the cases involving “Barker’s Beauties” — the nickname given the gown-wearing women who presented prizes to contestants — ended with out-of-court settlements.

Comedian-actor Drew Carey followed Barker as the show’s host.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP .

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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