Crowd reacts after robbery suspect shot to death by police

A man believed to be one of four robbers who held up a truck driver this morning was shot to death by police a short time later in the city's Back of the Yards neighborhood, sparking a mob reaction at the scene, authorities said.

The shooting happened just before 11:30 a.m. in the 1600 block of West Garfield Boulevard near a gas station, police said. Chicago Police Department News Affairs confirmed that police shot someone in that area. A man in his 20s was shot to death at that location, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Chicago Police Sgt. Michael Martin, speaking near where the shooting took place, said a mob scene ensued after the man was shot.

"People were throwing bricks and bottles at cop cars," Martin said. "A few squad cars are damaged."

Citing preliminary information, authorities said four robbers with guns held up a truck driver near 38th Street and Kedzie Avenue between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.

The robbers attacked the truck driver, authorities said, but it's not immediately clear if they got away with any proceeds before fleeing the scene.

According to preliminary information, district officers responded to a dispatch call of the robbery in progress, said Pat Camden, a spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police.

Several suspects in a SUV were reported to have broken into a stopped truck. The driver had gotten out of his truck and confronted the thieves, and they pulled a weapon out, Camden said.

The driver called 911 and told a dispatcher that he was robbed and the robbers may be armed, Camden said.

Witnesses were able to give police a detailed description of the robbers' vehicle -- a silver SUV, authorities said. Officers eventually spotted the SUV and chased it before it struck a light pole at Garfield and Ashland Avenue, authorities said.

Three of the robbers ran from the SUV, authorities said, but the fourth was involved in a confrontation with responding officers at the scene before he was shot.

One of the officers caught one of the fleeing individuals, and the man "body-slammed" the officer to the ground, Camden said.

The other officer went to that officer's aid to try to subdue the suspect, and he saw the suspect reaching for a black metal object that was in his pocket, Camden said.

The officer, fearing it was weapon, fired at the man, Camden said.

That man's condition was not immediately known, but the other three are at large this afternoon.

Both officers were taken to Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, but Camden did not know their conditions. Camden said the suspect, described as in his 20s, was taken to Saint Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center.

Witnesses at the scene said the man was dead, but that has not been confirmed with the medical examiner's office.

When asked if a weapon was found at the scene, Camden said, "Not to my knowledge."

Camden said the shooting was still under investigation.

Hundreds of police and emergency vehicles lined Garfield Avenue near the gas station at Ashland Avenue.

A damaged silver SUV was seen getting towed away from the crash scene early this afternoon.

Cold rain fell as yellow police tape roped off the scene near the accident.

A group of bystanders gathered at the White Castle across the street said a handful of bystanders recorded the shooting on their phones.

Authorities said the robbery crew might be linked to another hold-up that occurred earlier this morning, prior to the one at 38th and Kedzie.

dawilliams@tribune.com, jgorner@tribune.com

Twitter: @neacynewslady

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Chicano rock pioneers Los Lobos marking 40 years

LOS ANGELES (AP) — They are seen as the progenitors of Chicano rock ‘n’ roll, the first band that had the boldness, and some might even say the naiveté, to fuse punk rock with Mexican folk tunes.

It was a group called Los Lobos that had the unusual idea of putting an accordion, a saxophone and something called a bajo sexto alongside drums and Fender Stratocaster guitars and then blasting a ranchera-flavored folk tune or a Conjunto inspired melody through double reverb amps at about twice the volume you’d normally expect to hear.

“They were Latinos who weren’t afraid to break the mold of what’s expected and what’s traditionally played. That made them legendary, even to people who at first weren’t that familiar with their catalog,” said Greg Gonzalez of the young, Grammy-winning Latino-funk fusion band Grupo Fantasma.

To the guys in Los Lobos, however, the band that began to take shape some 40-odd years ago in the hallways of a barrio high school is still “just another band from East LA,” the words the group has used in the title of not one but two of its more than two dozen albums.

As a yearlong celebration of Los Lobos‘ 40th anniversary gets under way, having officially begun on Thanksgiving, much is likely to be made of how the band began as a humble mariachi group, toiling anonymously for nearly a decade at East LA weddings and backyard parties before the unlikely arrival of rock stardom.

That’s, well, sort of true.

For long before there was mariachi in Los Lobos‘ life, there was power-chord rock ‘n’ roll. Before the Latin trio Las Panchos had an impact, there was Jimi Hendrix.

“I actually went to go see him when I was 14 or 15,” says drummer-guitarist and principal lyricist Louie Perez, recalling how he had badgered his widowed mother to spend some of the hard-earned money she made sewing clothes in a sweatshop on a ticket to a Hendrix show.

“I sat right down front,” he recalls, his voice rising in excitement. “That experience just sort of rearranged my brain cells.”

About the same time, he had met a guitarist named David Hidalgo in an art class at James A. Garfield High, the school made famous in the 1988 film “Stand and Deliver” that profiled Jaime Escalante’s success in teaching college-level calculus to poor barrio kids. Soon the two had recruited fellow students Conrad Lozano and Cesar Rosas, both experienced musicians.

“Cesar had played in a power trio,” Perez recalls, while Lozano had been playing electric bass guitar for years.

It was sometime in November 1973 (no one remembers the exact day so they picked Thanksgiving) when the band is believed to have been born.

And the group might have stayed just another garage band from East LA, had it not been for a Mexican tradition called Las Mananitas.

“It’s a serenade to someone on their birthday,” Perez explains, and the group members’ mothers had birthdays coming up.

“So we learned about four or five Mexican songs and we went to our parents’ homes and did a little serenade,” Hidalgo recalled separately.

They were such a hit that they began scouring pawn shops for genuine Mexican instruments and really learning to play them.

Because they were at heart a rock ‘n’ roll band, however, they always played the music a little too loud and a little too fast. That was acceptable at the Mexican restaurants that employed them, until they decided to break out the Stratocaster guitars they had so coveted as kids.

“They said, ‘Well, that’s not what we hired you for,’” Perez says, chuckling.

So they headed west down the freeway to Hollywood, where initially the reaction wasn’t much better.

Saxophonist Steve Berlin recalls seeing the hybrid group showered with garbage one night when they opened for Public Image Ltd. Two years later, however, when they opened for Berlin’s group the Blasters, the reaction was different.

“It was quite literally an overnight success kind of thing,” the saxophonist recalls. “By the next morning, everybody I knew in Hollywood, all they were talking about was this band Los Lobos.”

A few nights later, they asked Berlin if he might jam with them. They were working up some tunes melding punk rock with Norteno, a Latin music genre that uses an accordion and a saxophone, and they needed a sax player.

For his part, Berlin says, he had never heard of Norteno music.

Something clicked, however, and soon he was producing the group’s first true rock album, 1984′s “How Will the Wolf Survive?” At the end of the sessions he was in the band.

The next 28 years would be pretty much the same kind of up-and-down ride as the first 12 were.

The group became international rock stars in 1987 with their version of the Mexican folk tune “La Bamba” for the soundtrack of the film of the same name. They melded 1950s teen idol Ritchie Valens’ rock interpretation with the original Son Jarocho style and sent the song to No. 1.

A two-year tour and a couple albums that nobody bought followed, leaving the group broke and disillusioned.

So they poured their anger and disillusionment into the lyrics and power chords of “Kiko,” the 1992 album now hailed as their masterpiece. A new version, recorded live, was released earlier this year.

The influence of Los Lobos‘ cross-cultural work can be heard to this day in the music of such varied young Latino groups as the hip-hop rockers Ozomatli, the Son Jarocho-influenced alt-music band Las Cafeteras and the Latino pop-rock group La Santa Cecilia, says Josh Kun, an expert on cross-border music.

“All of these bands inherited, wittingly or not, the experimental and style crossing instincts that Los Lobos proved were possible while hanging onto and developing your roots as a Mexican-American group,” said Kun, who curated the Grammy Museum’s recent “Trouble in Paradise” exhibition that chronicled the modern history of LA music.

For Los Lobos, winner of three Grammys, that was just the natural way of doing things for guys, Perez says, who learned early on that they didn’t fit in completely on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border.

“As Mexican-Americans in the U.S. we’re not completely accepted on this side of the border. And then on the other side of the border it’s like, ‘Well, what are you?’” he mused.

“So if that’s the case,” he added brightly, “then, hey, we belong everywhere.”

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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School Yoga Class Draws Religious Protest From Christians

T. Lynne Pixley for The New York Times

Miriam Ruiz during a yoga class last week at Paul Ecke Central Elementary School in Encinitas, Calif. A few dozen parents are protesting that the program amounts to religious indoctrination. More Photos »

ENCINITAS, Calif. — By 9:30 a.m. at Paul Ecke Central Elementary School, tiny feet were shifting from downward dog pose to chair pose to warrior pose in surprisingly swift, accurate movements. A circle of 6- and 7-year-olds contorted their frames, making monkey noises and repeating confidence-boosting mantras.

Jackie Bergeron’s first-grade yoga class was in full swing.

“Inhale. Exhale. Peekaboo!” Ms. Bergeron said from the front of the class. “Now, warrior pose. I am strong! I am brave!”

Though the yoga class had a notably calming effect on the children, things were far from placid outside the gymnasium.

A small but vocal group of parents, spurred on by the head of a local conservative advocacy group, has likened these 30-minute yoga classes to religious indoctrination. They say the classes — part of a comprehensive program offered to all public school students in this affluent suburb north of San Diego — represent a violation of the First Amendment.

After the classes prompted discussion in local evangelical churches, parents said they were concerned that the exercises might nudge their children closer to ancient Hindu beliefs.

Mary Eady, the parent of a first grader, said the classes were rooted in the deeply religious practice of Ashtanga yoga, in which physical actions are inextricable from the spiritual beliefs underlying them.

“They’re not just teaching physical poses, they’re teaching children how to think and how to make decisions,” Ms. Eady said. “They’re teaching children how to meditate and how to look within for peace and for comfort. They’re using this as a tool for many things beyond just stretching.”

Ms. Eady and a few dozen other parents say a public school system should not be leading students down any particular religious path. Teaching children how to engage in spiritual exercises like meditation familiarizes young minds with certain religious viewpoints and practices, they say, and a public classroom is no place for that.

Underlying the controversy is the source of the program’s financing. The pilot project is supported by the Jois Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in memory of Krishna Pattabhi Jois, who is considered the father of Ashtanga yoga.

Dean Broyles, the president and chief counsel of the National Center for Law and Policy, a nonprofit law firm that champions religious freedom and traditional marriage, according to its Web site, has dug up quotes from Jois Foundation leaders, who talk about the inseparability of the physical act of yoga from a broader spiritual quest. Mr. Broyles argued that such quotes betrayed the group’s broader evangelistic purpose.

“There is a transparent promotion of Hindu religious beliefs and practices in the public schools through this Ashtanga yoga program,” he said.

“The analog would be if we substituted for this program a charismatic Christian praise and worship physical education program,” he said.

The battle over yoga in schools has been raging for years across the country but has typically focused on charter schools, which receive public financing but set their own curriculums.

The move by the Encinitas Union School District to mandate yoga classes for all students who do not opt out has elevated the discussion. And it has split an already divided community.

The district serves the liberal beach neighborhoods of Encinitas, including Leucadia, where Paul Ecke Central Elementary is, as well as more conservative inland communities. On the coast, bumper stickers reading “Keep Leucadia Funky” are borne proudly. Farther inland, cars are more likely to feature the Christian fish symbol, and large evangelical congregations play an important role in shaping local philosophy.

Opponents of the yoga classes have started an online petition to remove the course from the district’s curriculum. They have shown up at school board meetings to denounce the program, and Mr. Broyles has threatened to sue if the board does not address their concerns.

The district has stood firm. Tim Baird, the schools superintendent, has defended the yoga classes as merely another element of a broader program designed to promote children’s physical and mental well-being. The notion that yoga teachers have designs on converting tender young minds to Hinduism is incorrect, he said.

“That’s why we have an opt-out clause,” Mr. Baird said. “If your faith is such that you believe that simply by doing the gorilla pose, you’re invoking the Hindu gods, then by all means your child can be doing something else.”

Ms. Eady is not convinced.

“Yoga poses are representative of Hindu deities and Hindu stories about the actions and interactions of those deities with humans,” she said. “There’s content even in the movement, just as with baptism there’s content in the movement.”

Russell Case, a representative of the Jois Foundation, said the parents’ fears were misguided.

“They’re concerned that we’re putting our God before their God,” Mr. Case said. “They’re worried about competition. But we’re much closer to them than they think. We’re good Christians that just like to do yoga because it helps us to be better people.”

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Retailers hope shoppers pick up pace

Debbie Scarlati experienced a bit of anxiety when she realized that Christmas Day was just 11 days away.

"Truly, I was a whole week off," she said, holding three bags at Oakbrook Center on Friday. "I had a little bit of a panic attack, and now, I'm done."

The Downers Grove mom planned to cut her holiday spending this year but had trouble reining in herself.

"I really should be spending less," she said, "but I have this real fault that if I see it, and sometimes because you're under the gun and you have to get it, you just get it. You just buy it."

Scarlati's late start and weakness for shopping is what stores are counting on. Sales over Black Friday weekend soared to a record $59.1 billion, but they tapered off in the following weeks.

The number of shoppers and sales in stores during the first week of December lagged last year's, according to ShopperTrak. Consumers postponed their purchases and mild temperatures slowed sales of cold-weather gear.

Now, with 10 days to Christmas, businesses must get shoppers like Scarlati to spend.

On Friday, Wal-Mart took the rare step of slashing prices on some iPads and the latest iPhones. Kohl's has promised to pick up the tab for one shopper a day.

This weekend, Sears is rolling out another round of door-buster sales. And next weekend — just days before Christmas — Macy's will stay open for 48 hours straight and Toys R Us for 88 hours.

Experts expect prices to fall even further as Christmas approaches. Retailers, desperate to unload inventory, will offer steep percentage discounts. "This year, 40 percent is standard fare," said Wendy Liebmann, CEO of WSL Strategic Retail.

Discounts are likely to creep to 50 percent, she said, in part due to fierce competition with online merchants.

The sales not only appeal to frugal shoppers, but to people who probably shouldn't still be shopping at all. "Promotions at this late in the game are geared to get people to spend more than they intended," said Tom Compernolle, principal in Deloitte's retail practice.

Stores are also trying fancy promotions to gain shoppers' attention. Clothing store Banana Republic has touted airline tickets and Fiat car giveaways in an effort to grab market share.

Other big-name retailers such as Amazon, Target and Wal-Mart have engaged in price-matching wars. "No retailer wants to be outflanked, and when they see a competitor doing something, they want to match it," Compernolle said.

Retailers have plenty of people to win over. Nearly a fifth of consumers have yet to start holiday shopping, while another fifth plan to drop into stores again after taking a break, research firm NPD Group estimated.

With Christmas on a Tuesday, this year's shopping season has five weekends, not the typical four. There are two left.

"We might see the rush this weekend," said Suzanne Cook-Beres, Oakbrook Center's marketing manager.

This year, the mall is trying social media to reel in customers. People who take photos and post them on photo-sharing site Instagram are eligible to win a $20 gift card. "We looked at this to be a great opportunity to say … what will this do?" Cook-Beres said. To beat last week's lull, Oakbrook promised shoppers who spent $250 or more a $20 mall gift card that can be used at most stores.

At Northbrook Court, mall executives are focusing on entertainment, offering "pet night" on Monday evenings and a day at the "elf academy" for children, marketing manager Stacy Kolios said.

The question is whether shoppers will give in to special perks and lower prices.

Compernolle predicts they will, despite the looming "fiscal cliff," because "consumer confidence has climbed since September," he said.

But retail consultant Jeff Green isn't convinced.

Discounts will likely draw shoppers, but promotions, like Kohl's plan to pick up one shopper's tab every day until Christmas Eve, are a "little obscure for most people," Green said.

"If you're a power shopper you'll care, but the general public probably won't," he said.

Corilyn Shropshire is a Tribune reporter; Erin Chan Ding is a freelance writer. Tribune Newspapers' Shan Li contributed.

crshropshire@tribune.com

Twitter @corilyns

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Connecticut school shooting killed 20 children, 6 adults

A man opened fire Friday inside the Connecticut elementary school where his mother worked as a teacher, killing 26 people, including 20 children, as youngsters cowered in their classrooms and trembled helplessly to the sound of gunfire reverberating through the building.

The killer, armed with two handguns, committed suicide and another person was found dead at a second scene, bringing the toll to 28, authorities said.

The attack, coming less than two weeks before Christmas, was the nation's second-deadliest school shooting, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 people dead in 2007.

Panicked parents raced to Sandy Hook Elementary School, about 60 miles northeast of New York City, looking for their children. Students were told to close their eyes by police as they were led from the building.

Schoolchildren — some crying, others looking frightened — were escorted through a parking lot in a line, hands on each other's shoulders.

"Our hearts are broken today," a tearful President Barack Obama, struggling to maintain composure, said at the White House. He called for "meaningful action" to prevent such shootings.

Youngsters and their parents described teachers locking doors and ordering the children to huddle in the corner or hide in closets when shots echoed through the building.

A law enforcement official identified the gunman as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, the son of a teacher. A second law enforcement official said his mother, Nancy Lanza, was presumed dead.

Adam Lanza's older brother, 24-year-old Ryan, of Hoboken, N.J., was being questioned, the first official said. Earlier, a law enforcement official mistakenly identified Ryan as the shooter.

Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about the unfolding investigation.

The gunman drove to the school in his mother's car, the second official said. Three guns were found — a Glock and a Sig Sauer, both pistols, inside the school, and a .223-caliber rifle in the back of a car.

Lanza's girlfriend and another friend were missing in New Jersey, the official also said.

Robert Licata said his 6-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst in and shot the teacher.

"That's when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door," he said. "He was very brave. He waited for his friends."

He said the shooter didn't utter a word.

Stephen Delgiadice said his 8-year-old daughter was in the school and heard two big bangs. Teachers told her to get in a corner, he said.

"It's alarming, especially in Newtown, Connecticut, which we always thought was the safest place in America," he said. His daughter was fine.

Mergim Bajraliu, 17, heard the gunshots echo from his home and ran to check on his 9-year-old sister at the school. He said his sister, who was fine, heard a scream come over the intercom at one point. He said teachers were shaking and crying as they came out of the building.

"Everyone was just traumatized," he said.

Mary Pendergast, who lives close to the school, said her 9-year-old nephew was in the school at the time of the shooting, but wasn't hurt after his music teacher helped him take cover in a closet.

Richard Wilford's 7-year-old son, Richie, is in the second grade at the school. His son told him that he heard a noise that "sounded like what he described as cans falling."

The boy told him a teacher went out to check on the noise, came back in, locked the door and had the kids huddle up in the corner until police arrived.

"There's no words," Wilford said. "It's sheer terror, a sense of imminent danger, to get to your child and be there to protect him."

Obama's comments on the tragedy amounted to one of the most outwardly emotional moments of his presidency.

"The majority of those who died were children — beautiful, little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old," Obama said.

He paused for several seconds to keep his composure as he teared up and wiped an eye. Nearby, two aides cried and held hands as they listened to Obama.

"They had their entire lives ahead of them — birthdays, graduations, wedding, kids of their own," Obama continued about the victims. "Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children."

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Sony’s PlayStation 4 could lose to the next Xbox before it’s even released

I love all game consoles equally. My Xbox 360 is used equally as much as my PlayStation 3. The Wii — oh, I’ll just leave it at that. The current generation of consoles is all but over — 10-year life cycle be damned — and new consoles are rumored to be coming next fall. If not next fall, then in 2014. Whatever is the case, Sony (SNE) can’t afford to lag in third place again. Sure, the Xbox 360 and PS3 are neck-in-neck in global lifetime sales, and the Xbox 360 did have a one year head start, but coming off the disappointing PS Vita, “confidence is less high” that Sony will deliver a console next year in time to compete with Microsoft (MSFT), according to Kotaku.

[More from BGR: Has the iPhone peaked? Apple’s iPhone 4S seen outselling iPhone 5]

I want a new console just as much as any other gamer. There’s a reason people are still pouncing on those Wii U consoles and flipping them on eBay. Six years is unusually long for a console to still be kicking around.

[More from BGR: Apple execs said to be ‘seething’ over Google Maps praise]

According to the well-informed Stephen Totilo, Editor-in-Chief of Kotaku, the game blog that first broke news on the next-gen Xbox, Microsoft’s “Durango” is ”on the mark” and “Sony appears to inspire less confidence…due to the on-and-off troubles of the PlayStation 3 and the struggles of the Vita vs. how much lost confidence is due to any problems looming for PS4.“

Totilo says “confidence is high that the next Xbox will be out in time for next Christmas” and confidence is low that the PS4 will be right there on store shelves next to it.

The “on-and-off troubles of the PlayStation 3″ Totilo is referring to is the anchor that’s weighed the console down since launch: tougher development due to the Cell processor and less available RAM – 256MB vs. 512MB in the Xbox 360.

In the months before the PS3′s launch in 2006, Sony said the console would be the most powerful console ever created, and here we are six years later and multi-platform games on the console consistently end up being buggier and uglier than on the Xbox 360 in many cases. Cases in point: Skyrim, Mass Effect 3 and Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Sony’s in a rut right now. It has the chops to build beautiful and powerful hardware that’s a developer’s dream (ex: PS Vita), but at the same time, it’s always launching after the competition nowadays.

If Sony’s learned any lessons in the last half a decade, it better apply them to the PS4. The console needs to offer next-level processing and graphics. It needs to be backward-compatible with PS3 games and play Blu-ray discs. It should be small and quiet. It should have a strong online platform, support a greater array of apps and most importantly be easy for developers to program for.

Game exclusives will always be important, but now that games are million-dollar productions, multi-platform will be where developers hope to reap back their costs.

With Microsoft said to be preparing an “Xbox 720″ and an “Xbox Lite,” Sony can’t make the mistake of launching late or pricing the console too high. A launch in spring of 2014 would mean Sony will miss Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the two biggest shopping days of the year that bring in massive sales.  Ceding sales and market share to Microsoft and Nintendo by launching late would be disastrous.

The PS3 screwed up too many times. At this point, the PS4 needs to be perfect out of the door.

This article was originally published by BGR

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Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Matt Damon fracking film in Berlin festival lineup

BERLIN (Reuters) – The Berlin film festival on Thursday announced the first movies of its 2013 lineup, and among the main competition entries will be U.S. director Gus Van Sant‘s drama starring Matt Damon and centering around the controversial shale gas industry.

“Promised Land” will have its international premiere at the annual cinema showcase, although it is scheduled to be launched first in the United States.

According to online reports, “The Bourne Identity” star Damon was originally down to direct the movie tackling the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” for shale gas, which has raised concerns over its environmental impact.

The film reunites the actor and film maker after Van Sant directed Damon in the acclaimed 1997 drama “Good Will Hunting”.

Damon was nominated for a best actor Academy Award for his performance and won a screenplay Oscar along with co-writer Ben Affleck for a movie that helped launch their Hollywood careers.

Also in the main competition in Berlin is “Gloria”, directed by Chilean film maker Sebastian Lelio, Korean entry “Nobody’s Daughter Haewon” directed by Hong Sangsoo and Romanian picture “Child’s Pose” by Calin Peter Netzer.

There will be a world premiere for “Paradise: Hope”, the final installment of Austrian director Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise trilogy, while out of competition in Berlin is 3D animation film “The Croods”, featuring the voice of Nicolas Cage.

And under the Berlinale Special heading comes documentary “Redemption Impossible”.

The 63rd Berlin film festival runs from February 7-17.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Well: Latke Recipes for Health

Here at the Well blog we have learned not to mess with the latke. Readers love the traditional dish just as it is. But as Martha Rose Shulman discovered in this week’s Recipes for Health, it can also be exciting to experiment with the recipe and develop new flavors so that latkes can be enjoyed every day of the year.

I decided to experiment with other vegetables for my latkes, combining carrots and spinach, cabbage and kale, sweet potatoes and apples. I even used up the broccoli stems that were lingering in my refrigerator bin in one batch, mixing them with red cabbage and carrots. I used exotic spices like nigella seeds, cumin, and caraway, as well sweet spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. My vegetable latkes were not as crispy as potato latkes but nobody seemed to mind; they were still delicious.

Here are five new ways to make latkes.

Spicy Carrot and Spinach Latkes: I think it is the nutty flavor of the nigella seeds that makes these so addictive.

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Sweet Potato and Apple Latkes With Ginger and Sweet Spices: A sweeter version of a Hanukkah staple.

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Butternut Squash and Sage Latkes: A favorite flavor combination makes for a delicious latke.

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Cabbage, Carrot and Purple Kale Latkes: A trio of vegetables results in a nutrient-dense latke.

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Red Cabbage, Carrot and Broccoli Stem Latkes With Caraway and Sesame: A surprising use for broccoli stems in a favorite holiday dish.

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Push for minimum wage hike intensifies

NEW YORK — Before the recession, Amie Crawford was an interior designer, earning $50,000 a year patterning baths and cabinets for architectural firms.

Now, she's a "team member" at the Protein Bar in Chicago, where she makes $8.50 an hour, slightly more than minimum wage. It was the only job she could find after months of looking. Crawford, now 56, says she needed to take the job to stop the hemorrhaging of her retirement accounts.

In her spare time, Crawford works with a Chicago group called Action Now, which is staging protests to raise the minimum wage in a state where it hasn't been raised since 2006.

"Thousands of workers in Chicago, let alone in the rest of the country, deserve to have a livable wage, and I truly believe that when someone is given a livable wage, that is going to bolster growth in communities," she said.

If it seems that workers such as Crawford are more prevalent these days, protesting outside stores including Wal-Mart, McDonald's and Wendy's to call for higher wages, it may be because there are more workers in these jobs than there were a few years ago.

Quiz: How much do you know about the 'fiscal cliff'?

Of the 1.9 million jobs created during the recovery, 43% of them have been in the low-wage industries of retail, food services and employment services, whose workforces include temporary employees who often work part time and without benefits or health insurance, according to a study by Annette Bernhardt, policy co-director of the National Employment Law Project in New York.

At the same time, many workers such as Crawford who have been displaced from their jobs are experiencing significant earnings losses after getting a new job. About one-third of the 3 million workers displaced from their jobs from 2009 to 2011 and then reemployed said their earnings had dropped 20% or more, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"What these protests are signaling are that working families are at breaking point after three decades of rising inequality and stagnant wages," Bernhardt said.

The rise of low-paying jobs in the recovery, experts said, has cut the spending power of workers who once worked in middle-class occupations. Construction workers who made $30 an hour, for example, during the housing boom may now find themselves working on a temporary basis.

"You see workers trading down their living standards," said Joseph Brusuelas, a senior economist for Bloomberg who studies the U.S. economy.

Now, Brusuelas said, there's an oversupply of workers and they're willing to take any job in a sluggish economy, even if they're overqualified. That includes temporary jobs without benefits, and minimum wage positions such as the one Crawford took.

Although the 2012 election might have brought the idea of income inequality to the forefront of voters' minds, efforts to increase wages for these workers are sputtering in an era of austerity when businesses say they are barely hiring, much less paying workers more.

The New Jersey state legislature handed Gov. Chris Christie a bill to raise the state's minimum wage to $8.50 an hour from the federal minimum of $7.25 this month, but he hasn't signed it and has signaled he might not. An earlier effort in New Jersey to tie the minimum wage to the consumer price index was vetoed by the governor.

Democratic lawmakers in Illinois are also trying to push a bill that would increase the minimum wage — an earlier effort this year failed. The Legislature last voted to raise its minimum wage in 2006, before the recession, and the governor agreed.

"A higher minimum wage means a person has to pay more for each worker," said Ted Dabrowski, vice president of policy at the Illinois Policy Institute, which opposes raising the minimum wage. "Companies have a few choices — increase prices, reduce the number of people they hire, cut employee hours or reduce benefits. When employees become too expensive, they have no choice but to reduce the number of workers."

The Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., however, says there is little indication from economic research that increases in the minimum wage lead to lower employment, and, because higher wages mean workers have more money to spend, employment can actually increase.

A bill to raise the federal minimum wage was introduced to the U.S. Senate by Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) in July and referred to committee, where it has sat ever since.

"Business lobbyists are aware of the campaign and are aggressively working to stop it," said Madeline Talbott, the former lead organizer of Chicago's Action Now. "We've had a hard time getting our legislature to approve it."

But Talbott and other advocates say that the protests that have spread throughout Illinois and the country in recent weeks might force the issue to its head.

"You saw it happening 18 months ago when Occupy started — workers are now realizing that they have rights too in the workplace," said Camille Rivera, executive director of United NY, one of the groups working to raise the minimum wage in New York. "It's a good time for us to be fighting these issues, when companies are making millions of dollars in profits."

The protests are bringing out people who might not usually participate, including Marcus Rose, 33. Rose, who has worked the grill at a Wendy's for 21/2 months, was marching outside that Wendy's in Brooklyn recently on a day of protests, responding as organizers shouted lines such as "Wendy's, Wendy's, can't you see, $7.25 is not for me."

"If you don't stand up for nothing, you can't fall for anything," he said.

Talbott, the Action Now organizer, says that people such as Rose may make a difference in whether lawmakers at the state and national level will listen to the protests. The Obama victory energized the working class to believe that they could fight against big-money interests and win, she said.

"It comes down to the traditional situation — whether the power is in the hands of organized money or of organized people," she said. "The organized money side tends to win, but it doesn't have to win. The more people you are, the more chance you have against money."

alana.semuels@latimes.com

ricardo.lopez2@latimes.com

Semuels reported from New York and Lopez from Los Angeles

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23-year-old aspiring comedian dies after falling down smokestack

The man, 23, was trying to take a photo from the top of the Intercontinental Hotel on Michigan Avenue. (Posted Dec. 13th, 2012)

An aspiring comedian and improv actor who was taking pictures from the top of the Intercontinental Hotel on Michigan Avenue died after falling 22 feet down a smokestack, authorities said.

It took rescue crews four hours to remove Nicholas Wieme, 23, at one point cutting through a wall and wedging boards in the shaft to keep him from falling farther down.

Covered in a white sheet, Wieme was wheeled into an ambulance inside the hotel's basement garage around 5:05 a.m. and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the Fire Department and the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Rescue crews responded to the hotel at 505 N. Michigan Ave. around 1:10 a.m. after someone called and reported a person threatening to jump from the roof. Firefighters later learned Wieme had fallen down the smokestack, according to Fire Department spokeswoman Meg Ahlheim.

A "confined space rescue" was called, bringing 30 companies and about 125 firefighters and paramedics to the scene.

They discovered Wieme about 20 feet down a 5-foot wide smokestack, slumped on a ledge before the steel shaft angled down 42 floors, Ahlheim said. Crews cut into the wall and used wood boards to block him from falling any farther, she said.

"We had to send members from the top down on ropes to assess his condition. The whole time we’re monitoring the situation for toxic gases," said Special Operations Chief Michael Fox. "We found the best way to get out him was to go about two floors below, and we had to cut the duct work for the chimney, which was made out of steel. And eventually we ended up sliding the victim down into the hole and removing him from the building.

“It turned very precarious because two feet after where we made the hole was a drop that would have went 42 floors to the basement," Fox said. "So it took us a little time to cut the hole in the right spot and shore it up, so when we brought him out, he would not fall into the basement."

Wieme was unconscious when firefighters arrived, according to District Fire Chief Kevin Krasneck, correcting earlier reports from officials that he was initially communicating with his girlfriend by phone.

Wieme began to take pictures and climbed a ladder along the chimney, police said. Moments later, his girlfriend lost sight of him.

Wieme grew up in Pipestone, Minn., a small town near the South Dakota border but recently lived on the North Side. He was an aspiring comedian who posted several of his routines online. Relatives said he also wanted to be a movie director, and had edited and directed several videos.

His brother, Jamie Wieme, said Nick "began taking up the hobby of stand-up comedy" while at Minnesota State University in Moorhead.

"Nick experienced a good deal of success in this endeavor and followed it to where it led him: Chicago," Jamie Wieme said. "Upon arriving to Chicago, his interest switched from comedy to improv. In this, he found even more success, performing at a number of improv establishments on a regular basis. Those that watched him perform often attested that Nick had a way of unintentionally stealing the show.

"Nick's amazing talents were only topped by fierce love and loyalty to his family and friends," his brother added. "Nick was truly a family man, a phenomenal friend (as literally hundreds would attest to), and would do anything to help anyone. When it came to people, Nick's as good as they come."

Wieme’s coach at the iO Improv, Matt Griggs, described him as the “best in the world in long-form improvisation” who also was a “very skilled filmmaker and storyteller.”

Griggs said he first noticed Wieme when he was affiliated with the iO Improv as a student and saw him earn a coveted spot there as a performer.

“He had such a joyousness,” Griggs added, “and you couldn’t help but watch him.”

Kyja Nelson, an associate professor at Minnesota State Moorhead who chaired cinema arts and digital technologies instruction, had Wieme as a student in production classes and said he was “very creative and had a really sharp sense of humor.”

Nelson said Wieme was “just full of life and almost larger than life in a way. Everything he did, he had fun doing it. That’s part of his vibrancy.”

Nick Wieme is survived by his parents, two brothers, a sister-in-law and a niece.

Raymond Vermolen, general manager of the hotel, released a statement saying Intercontinental "holds the safety, comfort and well-being of our guests and employees as our top priority and concern. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the guest at this difficult time. The hotel staff will continue to cooperate fully with authorities in their investigation. All further questions should be directed to the Chicago Police Department."

Peter Nickeas is a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, Paul Walsh is a reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune

pnickeas@tribune.com
Twitter: @peternickeas

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Verizon Offering $5 Shared 4G Plan for Samsung Galaxy Camera

Imagine the powerful Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone, except that it can’t make phone calls and its backplate has been replaced by a digital camera — handgrip, zoom lens, and all. That’s basically the Samsung Galaxy Camera in a nutshell, and whether it’s a small, awkwardly-shaped Android tablet or a digital camera that you can play Modern Combat 3 on depends on how you look at it.

When the Galaxy Camera launched last month, it was only available in white, and cost $ 499 on AT&T’s network with a month-to-month data plan. But on Dec. 13, it launches on Verizon’s network, in both white and black. The Verizon Galaxy Camera costs $ 50 more up front, but in return it has 4G LTE instead of HSPA+, and Verizon is offering a “promotional price” for the monthly charge: Only $ 5 to add it to a Share Everything plan, instead of the usual $ 10 tablet rate.

A 4G digital camera

While it’s capable of functioning as an Android tablet (or game machine), the biggest reason for the Samsung Galaxy Camera’s 4G wireless Internet is so it can automatically upload photos it takes. Apps such as Dropbox, Photobucket, and Ubuntu One offer a limited amount of online storage space for free, where the Galaxy Camera can save photos without anyone needing to tell it to. Those photos can then be accessed at home, or on a tablet or laptop.

Most smartphones are able to do this already, but few (with the possible exception of the Windows Phone powered Nokia Lumia 920) are able to take photos as high-quality as the Galaxy Camera’s.

Not as good of a deal as it sounds

Dropbox is offering two years’ worth of 50 GB of free online storage space for photos and videos, to anyone who buys a Samsung Galaxy Camera from AT&T or Verizon. (The regular free plan is only 2 GB.)

The problem is, you may need that much space. The photos taken by the Galaxy Camera’s 16 megapixel sensor take up a lot more space, at maximum resolution, than ordinary smartphone snapshots do. Those camera uploads can eat through a shared data plan, and with Verizon charging a $ 15 per GB overage fee (plus the $ 50 extra up-front on top of what AT&T charges) it may make up for the cheaper monthly cost.

On top of that, the Galaxy Camera’s photos are basically on par with a $ 199 digital camera’s — you pay a large premium to combine that kind of point-and-shoot with the hardware equivalent of a high-end smartphone.

It does run Android, though, right?

The Galaxy Camera uses Samsung‘s custom software for its camera app, and lacks a normal phone dialer app. Beyond that, though, it runs the same Android operating system found on smartphones, and can run all the same games and apps.

Some apps don’t work the same on the Galaxy Camera as they do on a smartphone, however. Apps which only run in portrait mode, for instance, require you to hold the camera sideways to use them (especially unpleasant when they’re camera apps). And while it can make voice and even video calls over Skype, it lacks a rear-facing camera or the kind of speaker you hold up close to your ear. So you may end up making speakerphone calls and filming the palm of your hand.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Documents: Prisoner plotted to kill Justin Bieber

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — An imprisoned man whose infatuation with Justin Bieber included a tattoo of the pop star on his leg has told investigators in New Mexico he hatched a plot to kill him.

Court documents in a New Mexico district court say Dana Martin told investigators he persuaded a man he met in prison and the man’s nephew to kill Bieber, Bieber’s bodyguard and two others not connected to the pop star.

He told investigators that Mark Staake and Tanner Ruane headed east, planning to be near a Bieber concert scheduled in New York City. They missed a turn and crossed into Canada from Vermont. Staake was arrested on an outstanding warrant. Ruane was arrested later.

The two men face multiple charges stemming for the alleged plot.

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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World’s Population Living Longer, New Report Suggests

A sharp decline in deaths from malnutrition and diseases like measles and tuberculosis has caused a shift in global mortality patterns over the past 20 years, according to a new report, with far more of the world’s population now living into old age and dying from diseases more associated with rich countries, like cancer and heart disease.

The shift reflects improvements in sanitation, medical services and access to food throughout the developing world, as well as the success of broad public health efforts like vaccine programs. The results are dramatic: infant mortality has declined by more than half between 1990 and 2010, and malnutrition, the No. 1 risk factor for death and years of life lost in 1990, has fallen to No. 8.

At the same time, chronic diseases like cancer now account for about two out of every three deaths worldwide, up from just over half in 1990. Eight million people died of cancer in 2010, 38 percent more than in 1990. Diabetes claimed 1.3 million lives in 2010, double the number in 1990.

But while developing countries made big strides – the average age of death in Brazil and Paraguay, for example, jumped to 63 in 2010, up from 28 in 1970 – the United States stagnated. American women registered the smallest gains in life expectancy of all high-income countries between 1990 and 2010. The two years of life they gained was less than in Cyprus, where women gained 2.3 years of life and Canada, where women gained 2.4 years. The slow increase caused American women to fall to 36th place in the report’s global ranking of life expectancy, down from 22nd in 1990.

“It’s alarming just how little progress there has been for women in the United States,” said Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a health research organizationfinanced by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at the University of Washington that coordinated the report. Rising rates of obesity among American women and the legacy of smoking, a habit women in this country formed later than men, are among the factors contributing to the stagnation, he said.

The World Health Organization issued a statement Thursday saying that some of the estimates in the report differ substantially from those done by United Nations agencies, though others are similar. All comprehensive estimates of global mortality rely heavily on statistical modeling because only 34 countries – representing about 15 percent of the world’s population – produce quality cause-of-death data.

Health experts from more than 300 institutions contributed to the report, which measured disease and mortality for populations in more than 180 countries. It was published Thursday in the Lancet, a British health publication.

The one exception to the trend was sub-Saharan Africa, where infectious diseases, childhood illnesses and maternal causes of death still account for about 70 percent of all illness. In contrast, they account for just one-third in South Asia, and less than a fifth in all other regions. Sub-Saharan Africa also lagged in mortality gains, with the average age of death there rising by fewer than 10 years from 1970 to 2010, compared to a more than 25-year increase in Latin America, Asia and North Africa.

The change means that people are living longer, an outcome that public health experts praised. But it also raises troubling questions. Behavior affects people’s risks of developing noncommunicable diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes, and public health experts say it is far harder to get people to change their ways than to administer a vaccine that protects children from an infectious disease like measles.

“Adult mortality is a much harder task for the public health systems in the world,” said Colin Mathers, a senior scientist at the World Health Organization in Geneva. “It’s not something that medical services can address as easily.”

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Illinois foreclosures up for 11th month

Foreclosure activity in Illinois posted the 11th straight year-over-year increase in November, but compared with a month earlier, filings are trending in the right direction, according to new data released Thursday.

RealtyTrac said the 13,520 properties within the state that received a foreclosure notice last month was a decrease of 9 percent from October but up 9 percent from November 2011. last month's activity, which equated to one out of every 392 homes in the state receiving a notice, gave Illinois the nation's third-highest state foreclosure rate, surpassed by only Florida and Nevada.

In the Chicago-area counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake and Will, almost 11,000 homes received a foreclosure notice in November, a decrease of 10.5 percent from October's level of activity but up 1.6 percent from November 2011

Most of that activity was in Cook County, where about 2,299 homes received initial notices of default, another 2,651 homes were scheduled for court-ordered sales and 2,086 homes were repossessed by lenders.

Among the nation's metropolitan areas, Rockford and Chicago ranked 11th and 13th, respectively, in terms of their foreclosure rates.

Nationally, the number of homes that were repossessed by lenders and became bank-owned rose on a year-over-year basis for the first time  since October 2010, the company said. In November, more than 59,000 homes across the country were repossessed, an increase of 11 percent from October and 5 percent from November 2011.

"The drop in overall foreclosure activity in November was caused largely by a 71-month low in foreclosure starts for the month, more evidence that we are past the worst of the foreclosure problem brought about by the housing bubble bursting six years ago," said Daren Blomquist, a company vice president. "But foreclosures are continuing to hobble the U.S. housing market as lenders finally seize properties that started the process a year or two ago, and much longer in some cases."

mepodmolik@tribune.com | Twitter @mepodmolik

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Aldermen OK $6 million in drunk city worker case

The City Council today voted to pay $6.25 million to a man who suffered brain damage and permanent disability when he was hit by a drunken city worker who plowed his pickup truck into a crowd on a Gold Coast sidewalk.

The tab for the city following the May 2011 crash is expected to increase — three additional lawsuits on behalf of four other victims are pending, city attorney Leslie Darling said earlier this week.

The $6.25 million payment settles a case brought by Richard Chang, who was pinned under the truck, and his wife Leeann Chang, who sustained far less severe injuries. They accused the city of failing to properly supervise Dwight Washington, who is serving a 9-year prison term after pleading guilty to four counts of aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol.

Chang, who was a computer scientist earning $80,000 a year, suffered brain injuries and “cannot return to his profession and is not expected to achieve his previous level of independence,” Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, chairman of the Finance Committee, said Monday.

Chang already has spent $572,000 on medical expenses, Burke added, calling the incident “a sad tale.”

Other crash victims included nanny Jennifer Anton, who was pushing a stroller with a 20-month-old girl and shoved the child out of harm’s way before she was hit and severely injured.

An open bottle of brandy was found stuck under the gas pedal in the city truck driven by Washington, whose blood-alcohol level was measured after the crash at .183 percent, more than twice the legal limit.

The council also voted to pay $750,000 to the estate of Juhnna Hardin, 35, who was killed in November 2006 when her car was hit by a police squad car driven by Officer Mark Farmer in the intersection of 79th Street and South Loomis Boulevard.

The suit alleged that Farmer sped through an intersection without checking for traffic. “While the officer was responding to an emergency, evidence contradicts his statements that he entered on a green light at a slow speed,” Darling said.

Aldermen also approved a $500,000 settlement in the case of Kentrell Reese, a teen who was shot and wounded by Officer Michael Pettis in July 2007.

“If this case were to proceed to trial, the city would face great difficulty overcoming Officer Pettis’ conflicting statements as to why he shot 14-year-old Reese,” Darling said. “Further, plaintiff will be sympathetic to the jury by virtue of the fact that he was an unarmed 14-year-old who had . . . Police Department employees testifying on his behalf.”

The City Council today voted to pay $6.25Ö millionÖ to a man who suffered brain damage and permanent disability when he was hit by a drunken city worker who plowed his pickup truck into a crowd on a Gold CoastÖ sidewalk.

The tab for the city following the MayÖ 2011Ö crash is expected to increase — threeÖ additional lawsuits on behalf of fourÖ other victims are pending, city attorney LeslieÖ Darling said earlier this weekÖ said  .

The $6.25 million payment settles a case brought by RichardÖ ChangÖ, who was pinned under the truck, and his wife LeeannÖ Chang, who sustained far less severe injuries. They accused the city of failing to properly supervise Dwight WashingtonÖ, who is serving a 9-yearÖ prison term after pleading guilty to four counts of aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol. per March 2012 clip and IDOC web search

Chang, who was a computer scientist earning $80,000 a year, suffered brain injuries and “cannot return to his profession and is not expected to achieve his previous level of independence,” Ald. Edward BurkeÖ, 14thÖ, chairman of the Finance CommitteeÖ, said MondayÖ. Chang already has spent $572,000 on medical expenses, Burke added, calling the incident “a sad tale.”

Other crash victims included nanny JenniferÖ AntonÖ, who was pushing a stroller with a 20-month-old girl and shoved the child out of harm’s way before she was hit and severely injured.

An open bottle of brandy was found stuck under the gas pedal in the city truck driven by Washington, whose blood-alcohol level was measured after the crash at .183Ö percent, more than twice the legal limit.

The council also voted to pay $750,000Ö to the estate of JuhnnaÖ Hardin, 35, who was killed in November 2006Ö when her car was hit by a police squad car driven by Officer Mark Farmer in the intersection of 79th Street and South Loomis BoulevardÖ.

The suit alleged that Farmer sped through an intersection without checking for traffic. “While the officer was responding to an emergency, evidence contradicts his statements that he entered on a green light at a slow speed,” Darling said.

Aldermen also approved a $500,000Ö settlement in the case of KentrellÖ ReeseÖ, a teen who was shot and wounded by Officer Michael PettisÖ in July 2007Ö.

“If this case were to proceed to trial, the city would face great difficulty overcoming Officer Pettis’ conflicting statements as to why he shot 14-year-old Reese,” Darling said. “Further, plaintiff will be sympathetic to the jury by virtue of the fact that he was an unarmed 14-year-old who had . . . Police Department employees testifying on his behalf.”

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“Lincoln,” “Les Miserables,” “Playbook” lead acting nominations

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hollywood‘s actors cast their net wide on Wednesday, nominating performers from big awards contenders “Lincoln” and musical “Les Miserables” for Screen Actors Guild honors while also singling out the likes of Denzel Washington and Javier Bardem.

“Lincoln,” “Les Miserables” and comedy “Silver Linings Playbook” led the nominations for the SAG awards with four apiece, including the top prize of best movie ensemble cast.

Joining them with two nominations each were the cast of Iranian hostage drama “Argo” and, in a surprise choice, British comedy “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.”

The awards from the Screen Actors Guild are among the most-watched honors during Hollywood film awards season leading up to the Academy Awards because actors make up the largest voting group when the Oscars come around in February.

SAG voters focus on performances rather than directing and writing, meaning that action and effects-heavy films like “The Hobbit” are usually sidelined.

Consequently, SAG largely shunned the expected Oscar contender “Zero Dark Thirty” about the U.S. hunt for Osama bin Laden, giving it just one nomination for Jessica Chastain’s performance as a CIA agent.

But the latest James Bond blockbuster “Skyfall” made it onto SAG‘s list, with nominations for its stunt ensemble and Spanish actor Bardem’s supporting turn as blond-haired villain Silva.

Other perceived Oscar-worthy movies, including slavery era Western “Django Unchained,” went unmentioned, while cult drama “The Master” had just one nomination – for actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Nicole Kidman made the best supporting actress list for her turn in the steamy but little-seen independent movie “The Paperboy,” while Britain’s Helen Mirren was recognized for her portrayal of Alfred Hitchcock’s long-suffering wife in “Hitchcock.”

The SAG awards will be given out in Los Angeles on January 27 in a live telecast on the TBS and TNT networks.

Golden Globe nominations are announced on Thursday and Oscar nominations will be revealed on January 10.

‘LINCOLN’ PICKS UP STEAM

“Lincoln,” director Steven Spielberg’s well-reviewed film about U.S. President Abraham Lincoln‘s battle to outlaw slavery, has been picking up multiple accolades from U.S. critics in the busy Hollywood awards season.

On Wednesday, it brought SAG nominations for lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis and supporting actors Sally Field as his wife, and Tommy Lee Jones as powerful Congressman Thaddeus Stevens.

Hugh Jackman was nominated for best actor while Anne Hathaway is in the race for her supporting role in the movie adaptation of hit stage musical “Les Miserables.”

Other actors nominated on Wednesday included the stars of quirky comedy “Silver Linings Playbook” – Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert DeNiro. John Hawkes and Helen Hunt also have a stake, for playing a disabled man and his sex therapist in heart-warming independent movie “The Sessions.”

“Being recognized by your peers is something I could only dream of happening and to be included in this group of actors is not only humbling but quite frankly, surreal,” Cooper, a first-time SAG nominees, said in a statement.

Washington, a two-time Oscar winner, was nominated for playing an alcoholic pilot in “Flight,” a role that has been largely overlooked in early critics award.

Perhaps the biggest surprise on Wednesday was “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” the story of a group of elderly Britons who retire to a ramshackle Indian hotel.

The film, which boasts a strong British cast including Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson and Bill Nighy, had two nominations – best ensemble and best supporting actress for Maggie Smith.

Smith also was nominated in SAG‘s television category for her role as a sarcastic countess in period drama “Downton Abbey.”

The popular British show was among the picks for ensemble acting in the TV category.

Other TV drama nominations went to the casts of “Boardwalk Empire,” “Homeland,” “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad.”

In TV comedy, old favorites “30 Rock,” “Glee,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Modern Family,” “Nurse Jackie” and “The Office” were nominated for their ensemble casts.

(Editing by Xavier Briand and Bill Trott)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Health Centers Find Opportunity in Brownfields

PHILADELPHIA — The community health center rising on a derelict corner here in West Philadelphia never would have broken ground if not for the asbestos inside the building that was demolished to make way for it. Because of the contamination, Spectrum Health Services received a $2 million federal cleanup grant, the first piece of a $14 million construction financing puzzle.

When complete, the 36,000-square-foot building will provide a new home for a health center that has been squeezed into a deteriorating strip mall nearby for decades. It will also be the latest in a nationwide trend to replace contaminated tracts in distressed neighborhoods with health centers, in essence taking a potential source of health problems for a community and turning it into a place for health care. In recent years, health care facilities have been built on cleaned-up sites in Florida, Colorado, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Oregon and California.

“These health care providers are getting good at it,” said Elizabeth Schilling, policy manager for Smart Growth America, an advocacy group. “They have internalized the idea that this is an opportunity for them.”

Because these sites are contaminated, many qualify for government tax credits and grants, providing health centers with vital seed money to build. Community health centers, by design, exist to serve populations in poor neighborhoods, where there also tend to be available but contaminated properties like old gas stations, repair shops and industrial sites.

In fact, many of the country’s 450,000 contaminated sites, known as brownfields, are in poor neighborhoods, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. These tracts are disproportionately concentrated in poor communities because contaminated sites are more difficult to redevelop if property values are depressed. Banks are often reluctant to finance construction on a property that might require a costly cleanup.

“In communities where the real estate market isn’t working that well, you end up with a brownfield,” said Jody Kass, executive director of New Partners for Community Revitalization, a brownfield advocacy group.

“It’s a Catch-22,” said Phyllis B. Cater, chief executive of Spectrum Health Services. “The environmental issues are significant and yet there are scarce resources for communities to do the cleanup and remediation that’s required.”

But if the state or federal government provides the first piece of financing, other funders are more likely to fall into step.

Community health centers, in particular, are under pressure to grow. By 2015, the number of Americans who rely on community health centers for care is expected to double to 40 million from the 20 million who relied on the centers in 2010, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers. The Affordable Care Act allocated $11 billion to expand these centers. Of that, $1.5 billion was allotted to construction.

But finding a viable site is not always easy. It took Spectrum 15 years to find its new home on Haverford Avenue. The original building, an aging medical office, went up for auction in 2007 after the owner was arrested on a tax evasion charge. Spectrum bought the property for $650,000. Ms. Cater speculated that if Spectrum hadn’t bought the site, it most likely would have fallen into disrepair like the decaying row houses and the dilapidated bodega across the street that Spectrum hopes to redevelop eventually.

Spectrum currently occupies 10,000 square feet in a rundown strip mall four blocks away. The center is divided among three crowded spaces, so employees must walk outside to get from the medical offices to the billing department. The treatment rooms are dreary and cramped, with holes in the drywall and collapsing ceiling panels.

“I’ve seen better centers in rural Mississippi. This is not how you support a community,” Ms. Cater said.

When it opens next summer, the new, three-story center will have 34 exam rooms, eight dental rooms, a spacious community center and a full-service laboratory. It will also employ twice as many people as the current facility, adding 66 jobs to Spectrum’s payroll.

The 50-year-old building was in poor shape, but it was the presence of asbestos that allowed Spectrum to qualify for the critical first piece of financing: a $2 million brownfield redevelopment grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The organization also received an additional $2 million H.U.D. loan that was tied to the brownfield grant, a $1.7 million redevelopment grant from Pennsylvania and $3.45 million in other loans.

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