Five shot on South, West sides

A 19-year-old man was shot behind the ear Friday night in a church parking lot on the West Side, police said, one of at least five people shot since about 7:40 p.m.

The bullet came out his neck and the man is still alive, police said. Police taped off the entire parking lot, which sits between the 2600 blocks of Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard, while detectives and evidence technicians began their investigation. 

People gathered at the rented-out church for a birthday party when someone shot the man outside, in the parking lot. Police said the partygoers apparently didn't see what happened. 

The man was taken to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, police said. 

About the same time, a man in his 20s was shot near Pulaski Road on Grenshaw Street. He called police from there and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, police said, with a gunshot wound to the back. 

A male whose age wasn't available was shot in the leg about 9:30 p.m. in the 3300 block of West Walnut Street in the East Garfield Park neighborhood, police said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital.

About a half hour earlier, a 24-year-old woman was shot in the ankle in the 3100 block of West 39th Place in the Brighton Park neighborhood. She was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition.

At 7:40 p.m. a 19-year-old man was shot in the leg in the Calumet Heights neighborhood. He was shot in the 9000 block of South Colfax Avenue, ran home, called police and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in good condition.

The three people with leg wounds are expected to survive.

Check back for more information.

pnickeas@tribune.com
Twitter: @peternickeas

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Walmart Moves Up Black Friday

Walmart is kicking off Black Friday shopping earlier than ever this year, opening stores at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.

“In addition to offering amazing low prices on the season’s top gifts, Walmart is taking the historic step to ensure wishlist items like the Apple iPad2 are available for customers during a special one-hour event on Thanksgiving,” the world’s largest retailer said in a statement today.

“We know it’s frustrating for customers to shop on Black Friday and not get the items they want,” said Duncan Mac Naughton, chief merchandising and marketing officer, Walmart U.S. “This year, for the first time ever, customers that shop during Walmart’s one-hour event will be guaranteed to have three of the most popular items under their tree at a great low price.”

Other retailers will also be opening earlier, including Sears at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, moved up from 4 a.m. on Black Friday last year. Kmart will be open Thanksgiving Day 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., then it will close and reopen 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. Macy’s, Kohl’s and Best Buy open at midnight; Toys R Us hasn’t announced its plans. Advice on how to snag the best deals.

To help convince folks to head out to the store after dinner, Walmart said it will guarantee that customers who are inside the store and in line between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. can get these deals:

Apple iPad ®2 16GB with Wi-Fi – $ 399 plus get a $ 75 Walmart Gift Card

Emerson ® 32 720p LCD TV – $ 148

LG ® Blu-ray™ Player – $ 38

“If any of these items happen to sell out before 11 p.m. local time, Walmart will offer a Guarantee Card for the item which must be paid for by midnight and registered online. The product will then be shipped to the store where it was purchased for the customer to pick up before Christmas,” the retailer said.

A few of the top items available in store, while supplies last, include:

8 p.m. on November 22: Gifts for the Entire Family – Toys, Gaming, Home and Apparel

Xbox 360 ® 4GB + SkyLanders ™ Bundle – $ 149

Wii ™ Console- $ 89

More than 100 video games priced at $ 10, $ 15 or $ 25 each

Top Toys of the Season: Leappad ® 1.0 Learning Tablet ($ 65) and Furby ® ($ 45)

Razor ® Accelerator 12-Volt Electric Scooter – $ 79

Fisher Price Power Wheels ® Jeep ® Wrangler 6-Volt Ride Ons (Hot Wheels ® and Barbie ®) – $ 89 each

Licensed Boys’ and Girls’ 2-Piece Sleep Set – $ 4.50 each

Mens and Ladies Denim – $ 9.50 each

Home appliances such as a Crock Pot ® 6-Quart Slow Cooker and Mr. Coffee ® Programmable 12-Cup Coffee Maker – $ 9.44 each

Shark ® Steam Pocket Mop and Ninja ® Pulse Blender – $ 39 each

Fashion Dolls such as Barbie ®, Bratz ™ and Disney ® Princess – $ 5 each

Hundreds of DVD and Blu-ray movies such as Brave, The Amazing Spiderman, Hunger Game ranging from $ 1.96 to $ 9.96 each

Better Homes and Gardens ® 700-Thread Count Sheet Set – $ 19.96

48″ Air-Powered Hockey Table – $ 29.86

14′ Trampoline with Enclosure and Bonus Flash Light Zone – $ 159

10 p.m. on November 22: The BIG Event – Brand Name Electronics

Vizio ® 60″ 720p LED Smart TV with built in Wi-Fi – $ 688

Samsung ® 43″ 720p 600Hz Class Plasma HDTV – $ 378

HP ® 15.6″ Laptop with 4GB and 320GB hard drive – $ 279

Nikon ® D3000 Digital Camera with Lens Kit – $ 449

Samsung ® Smart ST195 Digital Camera – $ 99

Beats by Dr. Dre ® Headphones – $ 179.95

Nook ® Color ™ 8GB Tablet – $ 99

Virgin Mobile ® 3G/4G Hotspot – $ 39.88

5 a.m. on Nov. 23: Caffeine Not Needed – Great Savings on Gifts from Jewelry to Tires

Sharp ® 70″ 1080p 120Hz HDTV – $ 1,798

Acer ® 13.3″ Ultrabook ™ with 4GB and 320GB solid state drive – $ 499

$ 100 Walmart gift card with the purchase of select smartphones such as the Samsung ® Galaxy S III, Droid RAZR M by Motorola ® and HTC ® One X

Goodyear Tires ranging from $ 59 – $ 99 each

Forever Bride 1/3 -Carat T.W. Diamond Ring in 10K Gold – $ 198

Stanley ® 6-Drawer Rolling Tool Cabinet with 85-Piece Mechanic Tool Set – $ 99

Singer ® Sew Mate 5400 60-Stitch Sewing Machine – $ 99.97

5? Pre-Lit Harrison Christmas Tree – $ 20

Better Homes and Gardens Deluxe Recliner – $ 199

Black Friday Specials & More Online:

Samsung 50″ Class LED 1080p 60Hz HDTV – $ 698

Ematic 7″ Tablet Android 4.0 1GHz, 4GB – $ 49

Dsi XL Ultimate Bundle – $ 129

Razor A Kick Scooter, Multiple Colors – $ 25

Also Read
Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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“Lincoln” Reviews: Is Steven Spielberg’s biopic Oscar-worthy?

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Lincoln,” with a cast of acting titans like Daniel Day-Lewis and Tommy Lee Jones, arrives in theaters Friday with many predicting big things come Oscar night. But does Steven Spielberg‘s biopic of the Great Emancipator live up to the early hype?

Based on initial reviews, it seems like Spielberg and company have delivered. Critics are raving about Day-Lewis’ performance and crediting the film with taking a historical figure who is cloaked in myth and making him relatable and sympathetically human. Instead of uncoiling a birth-through-death chronology of Father Abraham, “Lincoln” narrows its gaze to a few key months in 1865 when the president was trying to simultaneously end the Civil War and pass an amendment abolishing slavery.

The film, which will expand nationally next week after opening in limited release this weekend, scored a bullish 92 percent “fresh” rating on critics aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

In TheWrap, Alonso Duralde lavished praise on the film and its literate script from Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner for finding the man behind the monument. His one bone of contention was not with the film itself but with its gauzy ad campaign.

“The dreadful trailer makes ‘Lincoln‘ look like an awful collection of Spielbergian excesses, including swelling John Williams moments (admittedly, there are one or two) and Janusz Kaminski’s honey-baked lighting (OK, granted, it appears, but not too often), not to mention Tommy Lee Jones‘ terrible wig (which actually winds up being organic in his memorable turn as Thaddeus Stevens),” Duralde writes. “Don’t let the marketing campaign keep you from seeing one of the best American movies this year, and Spielberg’s finest work in decades.”

Perhaps no critical enthusiasm could match that of A.O. Scott. In a glowing review in The New York Times, Scott sounds the trumpets for Spielberg’s epic, urging parents to bundle their children into the local multiplex to see history unfurl across the screen.

“Some of the ambition of ‘Lincoln‘ seems to be to answer the omissions and distortions of the cinematic past, represented by great films like D. W. Griffith‘s ‘Birth of a Nation,’ which glorified the violent disenfranchisement of African-Americans as a heroic second founding, and ‘Gone With the Wind,’ with its romantic view of the old South,” Scott writes. “To paraphrase what Woodrow Wilson said of Griffith, Mr. Spielberg writes history with lightning.”

For Kenneth Turan, the greatness of the film lies in its understatedness. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, he lauded Spielberg for abandoning his more bombastic impulses to focus on the interior life of an American president.

“There is nothing bravura or overly emotional about Spielberg’s direction here, but the impeccable filmmaking is no less impressive for being quiet and to the point,” Turan writes. “The director delivers selfless, pulled-back satisfactions: he’s there in service of the script and the acting, to enhance the spoken word rather than burnish his reputation.”

It’s an “A,” declares Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman, who hails the film for getting its hands dirty while depicting the sausage-making of politics.

“The Lincoln we see here is that rare movie creature, a heroic thinker,” he writes. “He has the serpentine intellect of a master lawyer, infused with a poet’s passion. ‘Lincoln’ brilliantly dramatizes the delicacy of politics, along with the raw brutality of it.”

In New York magazine, David Edelstein savored the film, but admitted that a few moments could have gone down more smoothly. In particular, he said the film’s initial scenes suffered from musty dialogue and some of the political wrangling it depicted was difficult to follow. Ultimately, however, he credited the picture with finding a fresh take on a president whose legacy has been dissected and debated for generations.

“By the time the movie ends, you don’t feel as if you know Lincoln – few, in his own time, claimed to know him,” Edelstein writes. “But you feel as if you know what it was like to be in his presence. And so an icon (it’s a measure of how promiscuously that word is thrown around that it seems inadequate for one of history’s truly iconic figures) has become a man – and, startlingly, within reach.”

There were a few critics, of course, who were not ready to endorse “Lincoln.” In the Newark Star-Ledger, Stephen Whitty slammed the movie for choking on its own self-serious and mocked it for too many scenes of intense debates held by men with copious facial hair.

“So if you’ve been sitting around wondering, ‘Gee, when is Spielberg ever going to make another ‘Amistad?’ ’ here’s your answer,” Whitty writes.

Apparently, Whitty would prefer another “Jaws.”

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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FEMA Chief Tours Damaged NYU Langone Medical Center

The federal government’s emergency management chief trudged through darkened subterranean hallways covered with silt and muddy water Friday, as he toured one of New York City’s top academic medical centers in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The basement of the complex, NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan, smelled like the hold of a ship — a mixture of diesel oil and water.

“You’re going to deal with the FUD — fear, uncertainty and doubt,” W. Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told NYU Langone officials afterward, as they retreated to a conference room to catalog the losses. “Don’t look at this. Think about what’s next.”

NYU Langone, with its combination of clinical, research and academic facilities, may have been the New York City hospital that was most devastated by Hurricane Sandy. What’s next is a spectacularly expensive cleanup.

Dr. Robert I. Grossman, dean and chief executive of NYU Langone, looking pale and weary — as if he were, indeed, struggling to hold back the FUD — estimated that the storm could cost the hospital $700 million to $1 billion. His estimate included cleanup, rebuilding, lost revenue, interrupted research projects and the cost of paying employees not to work.

As the hurricane raged, the East River filled the basement of the medical center, at 32nd Street and First Avenue, knocked out emergency power and necessitated the evacuation of more than 300 patients over 13 hours in raging wind, rain and darkness. It disrupted medical school classes and shut down high-level research projects operating with federal grants.

Mr. Fugate arrived to inspect the damage and help plot the institution’s recovery, the advance guard of what aides said would be a hospital task force. He was brought in by Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, who kept saying that there was nothing like seeing the damage firsthand to understand how profound it really was.

“What was that movie — ‘Contagion?’ ” Mr. Schumer said, marveling at the hellish scene.

NYU Langone’s patients, a major source of revenue, have been scattered to other hospitals, creating a risk that they may never return. Dr. Grossman said he was counting on those patients’ loyalty.

John Sexton, president of New York University, which includes NYU Langone, and who also met with Mr. Fugate, raised fears that researchers might be lured away to other institutions because their grants were ticking away on deadline or because they must publish or perish. Outside the hospital, tanks of liquid nitrogen testified to the efforts to keep research materials from spoiling.

In inky blackness, the group stood at the brink of the animal section of the Smilow Research Center, where rodents for experiments had been kept, but they did not go inside. On Nov. 3, a memo sent to NYU Langone researchers said the animal section, or vivarium, was “completely unrecoverable.”

Dr. Grossman said that scientists had managed to save some rodents by raising their cages to higher ground.

A modernized lecture hall with raked seats used by medical students had been filled “like a bathtub,” he said, though it was dry on Friday. The library, he said, “is basically gone.”

Four magnetic resonance scanners, a linear accelerator and gamma knife surgery equipment, kept in the basement, were now worthless. Dr. Grossman said that in the future, he wanted to move such equipment, which is very heavy, to higher floors.

Electronic medical records were protected by a server in New Jersey, he said.

Richard Cohen, vice president for facilities operations, took the group past piles of sandbags and a welded steel door that had been blown out by the force of the flood. “That door was put in around 1959 to 1960, when doors were really doors,” Mr. Cohen said. “And this thing is completely torsionally twisted. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Walking to the back of the hospital, Mr. Cohen used a loading dock as a measuring stick to estimate that the surge had risen to 14 ½ feet. “We were prepared for 12 feet, no problem,” Dr. Grossman said.

Dr. Grossman said it would take a couple of more weeks of assessing the damage to determine when the hospital could reopen. Outpatient business is already returning. Research and some inpatient services will come next.

Mr. Fugate said his agency would help cover the uninsured losses, and urged NYU Langone officials to move ahead.

At this point, Dr. Grossman said, he could only theorize as to why the generators had shut down. All but one generator is on a high floor, but the fuel tanks are in the basement. The flood, he said, was registered by the liquid sensors on the tanks, which then did what they were supposed to do in the event, for instance, of an oil leak. They shut down the fuel to the generators.

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Retailers plan earlier start to Black Friday

Cierra Hobson is a die-hard Black Friday shopper.

Every year she queues in front of one of her favorite stores, where she waits, in her pajamas, in hopes of bagging a good deal.

This year, Hobson and other deal-seekers will find some twists on the post-Thanksgiving Day ritual: coupons delivered via mobile phones and deeper discounts, maneuvers designed to make shopping easier for consumers and to set retailers on a strong start to the biggest shopping period of the year. But perhaps the biggest change will be an earlier start to the holiday rush.

Black Friday historically launched the day after Thanksgiving. But in recent years, stores have opened at 4 a.m., then midnight. Last year, retailers created a stir by opening at 10 p.m. Thursday. This year, Sears and Wal-Mart announced plans to open at 8 p.m.

"The name of the game this holiday season is who can do it best," said National Retail Federation spokeswoman Kathy Grannis.

"When (early openings) started in 2009, things were a little bit worse off in terms of consumer confidence," Grannis added. "At that point it was very necessary for retailers to get out there before anybody else, and that literally meant before midnight."

This year, holiday spending is expected to rise 4.1 percent, according to the retail federation. Last year, more than 24 percent of Black Friday shoppers were out before midnight and nearly 39 percent of shoppers were in the stores before 5 a.m.

Wal-Mart plans to greet shoppers with the likes of $89 Wii consoles and a $38 Blu-ray player. At Sears, there will be perks on sale items for members of its shopper loyalty program.

Both retailers are touting in-store pickup, allowing customers to buy items online and pick them up at the store, avoiding checkout lines.

The Disney Store plans to begin offering Black Friday deals on the Monday before Thanksgiving, though Disney stores will open at midnight in some markets and 5 a.m. in others. Ads leaked to Internet deal sites say Target stores will open at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving.

Last year, Wal-Mart recorded its most customer traffic at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving night, said spokesman Steven Restivo, adding that the retailer relied on focus groups, online surveys and other feedback to help it decide to open two hours earlier this year. "Our customers told us they loved our Thanksgiving event last year and wanted it again."

At Sears, staying open 26 consecutive hours through Black Friday gives its customers the flexibility they want and makes good business sense, said spokesman Brian Hanover.

"There's a segment of Sears customers who want that thrill of holiday shopping to start as soon as their Thanksgiving dinner ends," he said. "Traditionalists," he added, can wait for door busters at 4 a.m.

Despite discounts that often go beyond 50 percent, stores still make money on the sales, retail experts say. That's because shoppers in physical stores tend to spend more than they planned, said Sanjay Dhar, professor of marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

In the store, "you end up making purchases that aren't as marked down, in addition to the door-buster deals," he said.

Opening earlier and staggering door-buster deals is not only a good way to make money, but it's also necessary for crowd control, retail watchers say. In 2008, a store employee was trampled to death in a Black Friday door-buster stampede at a Long Island, N.Y., Wal-Mart.

Hobson said she doesn't plan to start shopping Thanksgiving night, but she said she'll be up before dawn to catch sales at Express, a clothing store.

"Just knowing that everybody is doing the same thing I'm doing on the same day feels like the beginning of Christmas," she said.

Others worry that super-early openings could backfire.

Sheri Petras, CEO of CFI Group, a Michigan-based consultancy, said store employees grumpy from having to leave their Thanksgiving festivities will take out their anger on customers.

"Consumers will not spend as much with cranky employees," she said.

Some employees at Wal-Mart, Sears and Target say they'd like the day off.

Change.org, an activist website, said Friday that more than 20 new petitions were submitted by employees and consumers asking retailers to reconsider their Thanksgiving evening openings.

It's the second year the website has administered petitions calling for retailers to stick to traditional Black Friday openings.

In a statement distributed by OUR Walmart, a labor rights group, Wal-Mart employee Mary Pat Tifft, of Wisconsin, said she would be "devastated" if she had to work on Thanksgiving, because she is expecting her son home from Afghanistan for the holiday.

"This early opening is one more example of Walmart's disconnect with the workers who keep its stores running and disregard for all of our families. As the largest employer in the country, Walmart could be setting a standard for businesses to value families, but instead, this is one more Walmart policy that hurts the families of workers at its stores," she said.

crshropshire@tribune.com

Twitter @corilyns

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Obamas trying to keep life normal as girls grow up

WASHINGTON — When her father's second term as president is up, Malia Obama will be 18 and entering adulthood. She and her younger sister, Sasha, will have spent their formative years in the White House, a place their parents have attempted to shape into something resembling a normal home.

Over the past four years, Barack and Michelle Obama — though jetting around the country and the world — have put an emphasis on being home for family dinner at 6:30 most days. The president has been an assistant coach of 11-year-old Sasha's basketball team, the Vipers, and has often gathered with both daughters and their friends on Sundays for basketball practice. Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, moved from Chicago into the White House so she could meet her granddaughters after school and keep an eye on them.

"I'm so proud of you guys," the president told his daughters during his acceptance speech early Wednesday after being re-elected. "Sasha and Malia, before our very eyes, you're growing up to become two strong, smart, beautiful young women."

As the president's daughters grow up in such a public way, there are challenges that could pierce even their tightly knit circle. The repercussions of an Obama daughter being caught acting "bratty" have been discussed within the family, Michelle Obama has said.

"I think they are ... the first kids in the White House growing up where everybody's got a cellphone and everybody's watching," the first lady told the women's website iVillage last month. "You may be having a moment, but somebody could use that moment and try to define you forever."

Neither Obama daughter is on Facebook, though their parents have said they have active social lives. Both go trick-or-treating with friends, attend sports tournaments and have sleepovers, she told late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel two weeks ago. This past summer, the girls went to sleep-away camp in New Hampshire, a privilege their mother said they were allowed in part because of the Secret Service detail that accompanies them.

They have been spotted with friends around Washington, but the press corps that follows their parents' every word and move does not routinely write about the first daughters, unless they are with their parents at an official event.

Politics is not a central part of the children's lives, their parents have said. The girls were largely absent from the campaign trail this year. They made appearances at the Democratic National Convention and flew to Chicago after school Tuesday to have dinner with their parents and see their father voted into a second term — but that was it.

Before big speeches on such occasions, their father's pep talks consist of a plea, such as, "Just look like you're listening." Their mother reminds them to smile. They have no "poker face," she told Kimmel.

"The last thing you want is yawning," the first lady said.

In the coming days, after catching their breath, the president and first lady will get "back to work, starting, like, right away," said Valerie Jarrett, the president's senior adviser and a close friend of the family. The same is true for their daughters, the president recently told Brian Williams on NBC's "Rock Center."

"Right now, what my family is thinking about is making sure Sasha and Malia are doing their homework," he said.

Malia will presumably want to learn how to drive while living in the White House, which could be challenging given that her parents travel in motorcades.

Then there's the angst-ridden challenge of dating while living in the White House. Michelle Obama has promised not to discuss her daughters' potential dating lives but has relished the idea that dating the president's daughter will instill no small amount of trepidation in young men. The eldest Obama daughter attended her school's homecoming dance with a group of friends from Washington's Sidwell Friends, where both Obama girls are students. Malia is a freshman in the upper school; Sasha is a sixth-grader in the lower campus.

The Obamas have given every indication that they hope to keep their daughters' lives as normal as possible over the next four years. Although being the president's daughters has meant meeting celebrities like Beyonce and Jay-Z, the girls also have to make their beds, and Malia has to do her own laundry.

"I don't want her to be that kid who is 15 or 16, and (she's saying), 'Oh, I don't know how to do laundry.' I would cringe if she became that kid," Michelle Obama told Oprah Winfrey last year.

"We have real discussions about responsibility, not taking things for granted. And not having a bunch of grown-ups doing stuff for you when you're completely capable of doing it yourself, and being able to take care of your own business. And you're not living in the White House forever — you're going to college. ... We have those discussions."

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US video game sales drop 25 percent in October

NEW YORK (AP) — A research firm says U.S. retail sales of new video game hardware, software and accessories fell 25 percent in October.

The drop marks the 11th straight month of declining sales for physical game products. Many gamers are waiting for big holiday releases such as Activision Blizzard Inc.‘s “Call of Duty: Black Ops II.”

The NPD Group said Thursday that sales fell to $ 755.5 million from $ 1 billion a year earlier.

Sales of video games themselves, excluding PC titles, fell 25 percent to $ 432.6 million. Sales of hardware such as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 fell 37 percent to $ 187.3 million. Sales of accessories, meanwhile, grew 5 percent to $ 135.6 million.

NPD estimates that retail sales account for about half of all video game spending. The rest is downloads, apps and the like.

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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“Twilight” fans camp out days ahead of “Breaking Dawn-Part 2″

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Dozens of excited “Twilight” fans set up tents in Los Angeles on Thursday ahead of next week’s world premiere of the last film in the vampire romance franchise.

Some 2,200 people from all over the world have registered to camp on a concrete plaza outside a downtown Los Angeles movie theater, movie studio Summit Entertainment said.

The fans – most of them young women – will get guaranteed spots to see stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner walk the red carpet for the November 12 premiere of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2.”

Summit has laid on special activities during the five day wait, including a marathon screening of the four other films in the blockbuster franchise, surprise appearances from some cast members, and a “Twilight”-themed workout.

“We figured it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for some of us. This is the last movie. We’re never going to get to do it again and we wanted to hang out with some of our friends for the last one,” Bri-Anne Glover told Reuters Television as she settled in at the camp on Thursday.

“I love ‘Breaking Dawn’ because that’s kind of where I am in my life. I’ve got the husband, I’ve got my children, and we’re getting on with our lives and having a happy life and the same with Edward and Jacob and Bella,” said fan Eryka Bradford.

The “Twilight” books by author Stephenie Meyer have been a publishing sensation and the four movies have made more than $ 2.5 billion combined at box offices worldwide.

The final film sees the bliss of newlyweds Bella (Stewart) and Edward (Pattinson) and their daughter threatened by an ancient vampire coven.

“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2″ opens in several European countries on November 14 and arrives in U.S. movie theaters on November 16.

(Reporting by Lindsay Claiborn, editing by Jill Serjeant)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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States Rush to Meet Tight Health Care Deadlines

Jim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency

Supporters of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act celebrated at the Supreme Court in June after the justices upheld the law.

After nearly three years of legal and political threats that kept President Obama’s health care law in a constant state of uncertainty, his re-election on Tuesday all but guarantees that the historic legislation will survive.

Now comes another big hurdle: making it work.

The election came just 10 days before a critical deadline for states in carrying out the law, and many that were waiting for the outcome must now hustle to comply. Such efforts will coincide with epic negotiations between Mr. Obama and Congress over federal spending and taxes, where the administration will inevitably face pressure to scale back some of the costliest provisions of the law.

Mr. Obama faces crucial choices about strategy that could determine the success of the health care overhaul: Will the administration, for example, try to address the concerns of insurers, employers and some consumer groups who worry that the law’s requirements could increase premiums? Or will it insist on the stringent standards favored by liberal policy advocates inside and outside the government?

But for now — with Democrats retaining control of the Senate and Mitt Romney’s vow to “repeal and replace” the law no longer a threat — supporters are exulting.

“For our district and for our country, the debate on Obamacare is over,” declared Bill Foster, a Democrat elected Tuesday to the House from a suburban Chicago district.

Many supporters feel one of Mr. Obama’s most important tasks will be to step up efforts to promote and explain the law to a public that remains sharply divided and confused about it. In exit polls on Tuesday, nearly half of voters said the law should be either partly or fully repealed.

“There is still a tremendous amount of disinformation out there,” said Jeff Goldsmith, a health industry analyst based in Virginia. “If you actually are going to implement this law, people need to know what’s in it — not just the puppies-and-ice-cream parts, but ‘Here are the broader social changes intended and how they can help you.’ ”

Already, advocacy groups eager for the law to succeed have shifted into a higher gear. One such group, Families USA, held a conference call on Thursday with about 300 advocates around the country to strategize about next steps, said Ronald F. Pollack, the group’s executive director. Enroll America, a sister organization, will hold focus groups next week in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas to collect ideas for a public education campaign.

Much depends on the states as they decide in the coming weeks and months whether to build online marketplaces known as insurance exchanges, where individuals and small businesses can shop for health plans, and whether to expand their Medicaid programs to reach many more low-income people.

The clock is ticking on the exchange question in particular: states have until next Friday to decide whether they will build their own exchange or let the federal government run one for them. Some states have asked the administration for more time.

So far, only about 15 states and the District of Columbia have created the framework for exchanges through legislation or executive orders; three others have committed to running exchanges in partnership with the federal government. A number of Republican governors, including those in Arizona, Idaho, New Jersey, Virginia and Tennessee, had said they would decide after the election, giving themselves only a 10-day window before the deadline.

“I would expect that starting today there are a significant number of fascinating conversations going on behind closed doors in state capitols all over America,” said John McDonough, a professor of public health at Harvard who helped draft the law.

With deficit-reduction talks beginning in Washington next week, some observers believe that the law’s most expensive provisions — like federal subsidies to help families with incomes up to 400 percent of the poverty level pay their insurance premiums — could be scaled back in the name of deficit reduction.

“We know folks on the Hill are talking about this already,” said David Smith, an analyst at Leavitt Partners, a consulting firm that advises states on the law. “There are a lot of competing factors, but they have to find the savings and we believe health care will be one of the places where they will go.”

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Chicago sets brisk timeline for electric aggregation deal

The City of Chicago laid out a timeline Thursday for how it intends to quickly complete a deal that would move approximately 950,000 Chicagoans to a new electricity supplier.

The timing of the deal is important because Chicagoans stand to save the most money over Commonwealth Edison's rate between now and June 2013, when ComEd's prices are expected to drop because pricey contracts they entered into years ago will expire. The timeline has Chicagoans moving to the new supplier in February 2013.

In Tuesday's election, Chicago voters passed a proposal to allow the city to negotiate for better electricity prices on behalf of residential customers and small businesses. The city is one of hundreds of Illinois communities participating in so-called electricity aggregation and is by far the largest city in the nation to attempt such a large bulk purchase for electricity.

Michael Negron, deputy chief of policy and strategic planning for the mayor's office, said electricity suppliers have shown great interest in snagging Chicago's service. Nearly 100 people packed a conference Monday for the city's "request for qualifications" process. The bidders ranged from multi-billion corporations to smaller providers from all over the country, he said. Industry analysts say the deal could be worth hundreds of millions of dollar to the winning supplier or suppliers.

The timeline is as follows:

Nov. 14: Municipal aggregation ordinance introduced as substitute ordinance in city finance committee

Nov. 21: Bidder responses to request for qualifications due

Nov. 26 - Dec. 11: Finance committee will conduct two public hearings on aggregation ordinance

Early December: City and Delta Institute convene stakeholder process for identifying options for a portion of savings to go toward increased energy efficiency or the development of cleaner, renewable energy sources.

Dec. 5: Qualified pool of energy providers announced

Dec. 6: Issuance of request for pricing; responses due within days. The sole selection criteria at this point will be price because the RFQ phase will have screened out bidders based on their capacity, financial stability, customer service and ability to deliver cleaner energy.

Dec. 12: City Council considers aggregation ordinance

Mid/Late-December: Opt-out letters are sent to approximately 1 million customers

Early January: Opt-out data processed and final customer list prepared.

February: Participating Chicago customers are switched over the course of the month

March: All Chicago ratepayers who have not opted out are under the new supplier. City will announce its plan for investment of savings into cleaner energy or improved energy efficiency.

Read more about the Chicago electricity deal.

jwernau@tribune.com | Twitter @littlewern

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Mayor hopes Obama's 2nd term proves fruitful for funding

As he looks ahead to President Barack Obama's second term, Mayor Rahm Emanuel expects funding for roads and mass transit and a push for education reform to be high on the White House's to-do list.

Not surprisingly, those agenda items also are close to Emanuel's heart.

"As a mayor, one of the key goals the president mentioned, as you know I talked a lot about investing in our infrastructure so we can grow our economy," Emanuel said late Tuesday at McCormick Place. "And the president has committed as part of his jobs plan and economic plan to invest in our roads, our bridges, our airports, our mass transit."

The perception endures that local governments benefit from close relationships with federal officials when largesse flows from Washington, D.C., to cities and states. Emanuel is particularly tight with Obama, having served as his chief of staff before returning to their shared hometown to run for mayor.

Emanuel also was a key campaign surrogate for Obama, traveling to Florida and Ohio on his behalf in recent weeks, raising money for an Obama-aligned super PAC and appearing repeatedly on Sunday morning talk shows to make the president's case.

"I don't think it's an overstatement to say there is no mayor in America that has a better link to the White House than Mayor Emanuel. But that's self-evident," said Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, when asked whether Obama's Tuesday win strengthens the mayor.

Ald. Patrick O'Connor, 40th, the mayor's City Council floor leader, said Obama may be in a better position to loosen the federal purse strings in a second term.

"I think that from the standpoint of a president now who isn't looking at a re-election coming up in his rearview mirror all the time, he might be a little more free to do things for the entire country," O'Connor said. "I would hope that would include Chicago."

Emanuel has worked hard to position himself as a mayor who builds things. He formed an infrastructure trust to find ways for moneyed interests to back public projects while getting a return on their investments. And he raised water and sewer fees as a way to pay for a makeover of Chicago's aging underground pipes.

Among recent federally funded infrastructure projects, dozens of miles of the city's arterial streets were resurfaced using federal stimulus money after Obama took office. Stimulus money helped pay for the $20 million revamp of Congress Parkway in the South Loop. And the $133 million Englewood Flyover rail bridge project was covered almost entirely by federal money.

But Emanuel has expressed disappointment with the piecemeal nature of federal funding programs. He hopes that changes in Obama's second term.

"I've been talking about that, it's key for our economic growth, it's key for our job creation," the mayor said. "And that would be helpful if we got an infrastructure, highway, mass transit bill that cities like Chicago, cities across America, regardless of size, will have the investments necessary to move their economies forward."

Among the major transportation projects the mayor hopes to find federal funding for is the extension of the Red Line from 95th Street to 130th Street. Estimates in recent years have put the price tag for that undertaking at more than $1.4 billion.

In addition, Emanuel said he expects Obama to continue "strengthening education, and pushing even further on Race to the Top." Emanuel helped design the president's signature national education initiative, which requires school districts to compete for funding.

Tribune reporter Hal Dardick contributed.

jebyrne@tribune.com

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Siemens to sharpen its game with 6 billion euros of savings

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Mom of “Modern Family” actress denies abuse claims

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The mother of “Modern Family” star Ariel Winter on Wednesday denied that she abused her daughter after a judge temporarily placed the 14-year-old actress in her sister’s care.

“It’s all untrue, it’s all untrue,” Chris Workman, Winter’s mother, told People magazine. “I have my doctor’s letter that my daughter’s never been abused.”

According to court papers, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge last month put Winter, who plays the precocious teenager Alex Dunphy on the Emmy-winning TV comedy, under the temporary guardianship of her older sister, Shanelle Gray.

Celebrity website TMZ.com said Winter’s mother was alleged to have slapped and emotionally abused the teen, and had been ordered to stay away from her. Ariel has left her mother’s home, TMZ said.

Gray will retain guardianship of Winter at least until a November 20 hearing, a judge said.

Winter’s publicist did not return calls for comment on Wednesday.

“Modern Family” portrays the lives of three zany families and has won three consecutive Emmy award as American television’s best comedy series.

(Reporting By Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant)

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Recipes for Health: Cabbage, Onion and Millet Kugel — Recipes for Health

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Light, nutty millet combines beautifully with the sweet, tender cabbage and onions in this kugel. I wouldn’t hesitate to serve this as a main dish.

 

1/2 medium head cabbage (1 1/2 pounds), cored and cut in thin strips

Salt to taste

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup chopped fresh dill

Freshly ground pepper

1 cup low-fat cottage cheese

2 eggs

2 cups cooked millet

 

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Oil a 2-quart baking dish. Toss the cabbage with salt to taste and let it sit for 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy skillet and add the onion. Cook, stirring, until it begins to soften, about 3 minutes, then add a generous pinch of salt and turn the heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring often, until the onion is soft and beginning to color, about 10 minutes. Add the cabbage, turn the heat to medium, and cook, stirring often, until the cabbage is quite tender and fragrant, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the dill, taste and adjust salt, and add pepper to taste. Transfer to a large bowl.

3. In a food processor fitted with the steel blade, purée the cottage cheese until smooth. Add the eggs and process until the mixture is smooth. Add salt (I suggest about 1/2 teaspoon) and pepper and mix together. Scrape into the bowl with the cabbage. Add the millet and stir everything together. Scrape into the oiled baking dish. Drizzle the remaining oil over the top and place in the oven.

4. Bake for about 40 minutes, until the sides are nicely browned and the top is beginning to color. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into squares or wedges.

Yield: 6 servings.

Advance preparation: The cooked millet will keep in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days and freezes well. The kugel will keep for 3 days in the refrigerator. Reheat in a medium oven.

Nutritional information per serving (6 servings): 195 calories; 7 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 64 milligrams cholesterol; 23 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 148 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 10 grams protein

Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”

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What electricity aggregation means for your bill

Voters in 81 communities in Commonwealth Edison's service territory voted Tuesday to allow their local governments to shop for electricity on their behalf.

Vote totals are being tallied, but early results indicate that measures to allow so-called electricity aggregation passed in the vast majority of communities, including Chicago.

Illinois consumers have been allowed to shop for electricity for more than a decade, but the concept didn't take off until 2011, when legislators enacted a law allowing municipalities to negotiate for better rates on behalf of residents.

If your town voted yes to aggregation, here's what you need to know:

The switch to a new supplier won't happen right away.

Even with referendum passage, the process is just beginning. Communities need time to invite suppliers to bid, create a plan of governance, reach out to residents, choose a supplier and provide an opt-out period. Based on past deals, you can expect to be switched over to a new supplier sometime from January to March.

You will have an opportunity to opt out.

Check your mailbox in the coming months for instructions from your municipality about how to opt out of the program. If you opt out, you will remain with ComEd or you can shop for electricity on your own.

You can do nothing.

Unless you opt out, you will be automatically switched to the supplier your municipality chooses. Excluded are customers who have switched to suppliers of their own choosing or who are on an alternative pricing plan with ComEd. In general, those customers have not been included in aggregation deals.

You are a ComEd customer.

ComEd is responsible for delivering your electricity and keeping the lights on, regardless of who supplies your power. ComEd, a "wires only" utility, makes its money from delivering electricity, not from supplying it. Your new bill will look like your old bill, except that the portion titled "electricity supply services" will have a new rate and include the new supplier's name.

You are not alone.

Residents of 175 ComEd communities have switched suppliers and have cut their bills about in half through May 2013, paying an average of 4.83 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Customer beware, you may not save money.

Electricity pricing is constantly changing, and deals that look good now may not look great later. Several municipalities are locked into 12- and 24-month contracts with alternative suppliers that are higher than what consumers could find by shopping on their own, and they come with early termination fees. Some towns have not required suppliers to beat ComEd's prices if they drop below current rates. Some have customers automatically stay on with a supplier after a contract expires, even if rates increase.

Expect to be popular.

Electricity suppliers will hound you to pick them and opt out of aggregation. In the process, savvy consumers may be able to snag discounts on hotels and restaurants. But if you plan to shop, refer to the Illinois Commerce Commission (pluginillinois.org), Power2Switch (power2switch.com) and the Citizens Utility Board (citizensutilityboard.org).

Beware of scammers.

About 44 percent of people know nothing about electricity aggregation, according to a recent poll, which can make them ripe for victimization by scammers and identity thieves. You do not have to sign anything or provide personal information to be part of municipal aggregation.

SOURCES: City of Chicago, Power2Switch, Citizens Utility Board, Commonwealth Edison, Environmental Law & Policy Center

jwernau@tribune.com

Twitter @littlewern

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Exclusive - Amazon to win EU e-book pricing tussle with Apple

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Alarm Over India’s Dengue Fever Epidemic

Enrico Fabian for The New York Times

A man at the Yamuna River, an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes. Filthy standing water abounds in New Delhi. More Photos »

NEW DELHI — An epidemic of dengue fever in India is fostering a growing sense of alarm even as government officials here have publicly refused to acknowledge the scope of a problem that experts say is threatening hundreds of millions of people, not just in India but around the world.

India has become the focal point for a mosquito-borne plague that is sweeping the globe. Reported in just a handful of countries in the 1950s, dengue (pronounced DEN-gay) is now endemic in half the world’s nations.

“The global dengue problem is far worse than most people know, and it keeps getting worse,” said Dr. Raman Velayudhan, the World Health Organization’s lead dengue coordinator.

The tropical disease, though life-threatening for a tiny fraction of those infected, can be extremely painful. Growing numbers of Western tourists are returning from warm-weather vacations with the disease, which has reached the shores of the United States and Europe. Last month, health officials in Miami announced a case of locally acquired dengue infection.

Here in India’s capital, where areas of standing water contribute to the epidemic’s growth, hospitals are overrun and feverish patients are sharing beds and languishing in hallways. At Kalawati Saran Hospital, a pediatric facility, a large crowd of relatives lay on mats and blankets under the shade of a huge banyan tree outside the hospital entrance recently.

Among them was Neelam, who said her two grandchildren were deathly ill inside. Eight-year-old Sneha got the disease first, followed by Tanya, 7, she said. The girls’ parents treated them at home but then Sneha’s temperature rose to 104 degrees, a rash spread across her legs and shoulders, and her pain grew unbearable.

“Sneha has been given five liters of blood,” said Neelam, who has one name. “It is terrible.”

Officials say that 30,002 people in India had been sickened with dengue fever through October, a 59 percent jump from the 18,860 recorded for all of 2011. But the real number of Indians who get dengue fever annually is in the millions, several experts said.

“I’d conservatively estimate that there are 37 million dengue infections occurring every year in India, and maybe 227,500 hospitalizations,” said Dr. Scott Halstead, a tropical disease expert focused on dengue research.

A senior Indian government health official, who agreed to speak about the matter only on the condition of anonymity, acknowledged that official figures represent a mere sliver of dengue’s actual toll. The government only counts cases of dengue that come from public hospitals and that have been confirmed by laboratories, the official said. Such a census, “which was deliberated at the highest levels,” is a small subset that is nonetheless informative and comparable from one year to the next, he said.

“There is no denying that the actual number of cases would be much, much higher,” the official said. “Our interest has not been to arrive at an exact figure.”

The problem with that policy, said Dr. Manish Kakkar, a specialist at the Public Health Foundation of India, is that India’s “massive underreporting of cases” has contributed to the disease’s spread. Experts from around the world said that India’s failure to construct an adequate dengue surveillance system has impeded awareness of the illness’s vast reach, discouraged efforts to clean up the sources of the disease and slowed the search for a vaccine.

“When you look at the number of reported cases India has, it’s a joke,” said Dr. Harold S. Margolis, chief of the dengue branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Neighboring Sri Lanka, for instance, reported nearly three times as many dengue cases as India through August, according to the World Health Organization, even though India’s population is 60 times larger.

Hari Kumar contributed reporting.

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Political futures traders pick Obama

WASHINGTON -- The votes of traders in political futures have been pouring in for months, and they say President Obama lands a second term in Tuesday's election.

The chances that Obama is reelected stood at about 71% on Tuesday morning on Intrade, near a one-month high and up about 3% for the day in early trading. The chances that Republican Mitt Romney wins the presidency were about 29%, close to a low for the past month and down about 4%.

Most people buying political futures on the site also apparently believe that Republicans will retain control of the House and Democrats will hold on to their majority in the Senate.

Intrade's futures have an excellent track record. They accurately predicted the result in every state in the 2004 presidential election, and all but two in the 2008 contest, according to CNNMoney.

This year, Intrade gives Obama a 73% chance of winning the crucial battleground state of Ohio, with Romney at about 27% as of Tuesday morning. And the site predicts that Obama will win 294 electoral votes to Romney's 235.

The market will remain open all day, "until a winner is clearly known," an Intrade spokesman said.

Intrade bettors correctly predicted in January that Romney would win the Republican nomination, but at no point in the 2012 presidential campaign did the political futures traders have Romney beating Obama.

That's somewhat surprising given that Obama's odds of winning plunged in the summer of 2011 to about even money after the contentious battle over raising the nation's debt ceiling and the Standard & Poor's credit downgrade that followed.

But Romney has closed a huge late-September gap on Intrade's presidential election market, when Obama's reelection odds neared 80%.

ALSO:

Romney top bet to win Iowa on political futures trading site

Obama's reelection odds sink on political futures trading site

Wall Street may rally regardless of presidential election winner

Follow Jim Puzzanghera on Twitter and Google+.

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