Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz dies from suicide

Even as an eighth-grader in Winnetka, Aaron Swartz showed signs of the computer wizardry that would lead to his Internet activism and development of software used by websites worldwide.

But the Highland Park native who had attended North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka and as a 13-year-old had created an online public encyclopedia for a school competition got into trouble as an adult.

He faced trial in April on federal charges that he had illegally downloaded millions of journal articles from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the intention of posting them to a file-sharing site.

The prospect of the trial was too much for him, his family said. Swartz, 26, committed suicide inside his New York apartment, authorities said Saturday.

In a statement sent through a spokesman, his family said Swartz hanged himself the day before out of worry that he faced more than 30 years in federal prison.

“Aaron’s insatiable curiosity, creativity, and brilliance; his reflexive empathy and capacity for selfless, boundless love; his refusal to accept injustice as inevitable — these gifts made the world, and our lives, far brighter,” the statement in part read.

Along with developing an early version of rich site summary, or RSS, technology, Swartz is credited with co-founding the popular Reddit website that allows users to vote for their favorite news stories of the day.

Increasingly active in efforts to make information more readily available on the Internet, he also founded Demand Progress, a lobbying group that advocates for civil liberties and government reform.

In that role, Swartz led a successful effort to stymie the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2011, which sought to restrict access to websites that illegally shared copyrighted property. The bill was eventually withdrawn after widespread protests.

“He refined advocacy for the progressive and open-information movement,” said David Moon, program director for Demand Progress. “He was ultimately pretty brilliant at that.”

On Saturday, Swartz’s death spurred an outpouring of sympathy and tributes throughout social media, many of which hailed his multiple accomplishments at a young age.

Several commenters heaped scorn upon federal prosecutors in Massachusetts for indicting Swartz in 2011. He was accused of downloading millions of academic journal articles and breaking into a university closet to plug into the school’s computer network, which prompted charges of computer fraud, wire fraud and other crimes. Swartz had pleaded not guilty.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Massachusetts declined to comment, citing the family’s privacy.

Moon, who met Swartz in 2010 and last saw him about a month ago, declined to speak in detail about the circumstances surrounding his death.

“The stresses he was facing was obvious, and those who know him can attest to that,” Moon said.

Tribune wire services contributed.

Saho@tribune.com
cdrhodes@tribune.com

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Rovio has more monthly active users than Twitter

Rovio announced today it hit 263 million monthly active users in December 2012. This happened precisely three years after the first Angry Birds game debuted at the end of 2009. Incidentally, the somewhat better-known Twitter hit the 200 million monthly active user mark in December 2012. And since Twitter was launched in the summer of 2006, Rovio’s user growth has been notably brisker.

[More from BGR: Samsung cancels Windows RT plans in U.S.]

Rovio has recently been able to demonstrate it is a tad more than a flash in the pan. Angry Birds Star Wars has now remained the #1 paid iPhone app in America for 65 days. Angry Birds Space still clings to #6 slot nearly 300 days after its debut. And Bad Piggies is at #9 more than three months after the game was launched.

[More from BGR: LG reportedly halts Nexus 4 production to make way for new Nexus device]

Rovio thus holds three of the top 10 positions in the United States iPhone chart. Disney’s hottest title, the heavily promoted Where’s My Water has slumped to #24 after having a strong year in 2012. Three years in, Rovio has pulled off a remarkable fete: It’s been able to avoid boring consumers even as it saturation-bombs them with cutesy animals.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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“Jurassic Park 4″ to arrive June 2014, Steven Spielberg to produce

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Jurassic Park 4″ will arrive in theaters June 13, 2014, Universal announced on Friday. Steven Spielberg won’t be directing this time around, but he is going to produce the project with Frank Marshall.

Universal has yet to pick a director for the fourth installment of the dinosaur film franchise, which it plans to shoot and release in 3D. The studio and Spielberg have converted the original film to 3D and it will be a re-released in theaters on April 5. Spielberg was very involved in the conversion according to executives at the studio, trying to ensure it merited a theatrical re-release.

The three movies have grossed close to $ 2 billion worldwide to-date with the original film alone making $ 914 million. Based on Michael Crichton’s novel and characters, the film has also spawned an amusement park ride at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Spielberg, who this week postponed his next directing job in “Robopocalypse,” directed the first two films before handing off the third to Joe Johnston. He confirmed at Comic-Con in 2011 that a writer was working on a new version, divulging little more. Giving the film a release date firms up the time table as Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver work on the script.

“Jurassic Park 4″ will open in a summer already teeming with sequels. Universal has scheduled it one week before the next “How to Train Your Dragon” and two weeks before the next “Transformers.” Both the final “Hobbit” movie and the next “X-Men” movie are set to open in July while the next “Spider-Man” and “Planet of the Apes” films will debut in May.

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City Room: Cuomo Declares Public Health Emergency Over Flu Outbreak

With the nation in the grip of a severe influenza outbreak that has seen deaths reach epidemic levels, New York State declared a public health emergency on Saturday, making access to vaccines more easily available.

There have been nearly 20,000 cases of flu reported across the state so far this season, officials said. Last season, 4,400 positive laboratory tests were reported.

“We are experiencing the worst flu season since at least 2009, and influenza activity in New York State is widespread, with cases reported in all 57 counties and all five boroughs of New York City,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement.

Under the order, pharmacists will be allowed to administer flu vaccinations to patients between 6 months and 18 years old, temporarily suspending a state law that prohibits pharmacists from administering immunizations to children.

While children and older people tend to be the most likely to become seriously ill from the flu, Mr. Cuomo urged all New Yorkers to get vaccinated.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said that deaths from the flu had reached epidemic levels, with at least 20 children having died nationwide. Officials cautioned that deaths from pneumonia and the flu typically reach epidemic levels for a week or two every year. The severity of the outbreak will be determined by how long the death toll remains high or if it climbs higher.

There was some evidence that caseloads may be peaking, federal officials said on Friday.

In New York City, public health officials announced on Thursday that flu-related illnesses had reached epidemic levels, and they joined the chorus of authorities urging people to get vaccinated.

“It’s a bad year,” the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, told reporters on Thursday. “We’ve got lots of flu, it’s mainly type AH3N2, which tends to be a little more severe. So we’re seeing plenty of cases of flu and plenty of people sick with flu. Our message for any people who are listening to this is it’s still not too late to get your flu shot.”

There has been a spike in the number of people going to emergency rooms over the past two weeks with flulike symptoms – including fever, fatigue and coughing – Dr. Farley said.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mr. Cuomo made a public display of getting shots this past week.

In a briefing with reporters on Friday, officials from the C.D.C. said that this year’s vaccine was effective in 62 percent of cases.

As officials have stepped up their efforts encouraging vaccinations, there have been scattered reports of shortages. But officials said plenty of the vaccine was available.

According to the C.D.C., makers of the flu vaccine produced about 135 million doses for this year. As of early this month, 128 million doses had been distributed. While that would not be enough for every American, only 37 percent of the population get a flu shot each year.

Federal health officials said they would be happy if that number rose to 50 percent, which would mean that there would be more than enough vaccine for anyone who wanted to be immunized.

Two other diseases – norovirus and whooping cough – are also widespread this winter and are contributing to the number of people getting sick.

The flu can resemble a cold, though the symptoms come on more rapidly and are more severe.

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The story behind Tribune's broken deal

At the end of 2007, real estate tycoon Sam Zell took control of Tribune Co. in a deal that promised to re-energize the media conglomerate. But the company struggled under the huge debt burden the deal created, and less than a year later, it filed for bankruptcy.

One of Chicago's most iconic companies — parent to the Chicago Tribune — was propelled into a protracted and in many ways unprecedented odyssey through Chapter 11 reorganization.

On Dec. 31, after four years, Tribune Co. finally emerged from court protection under new ownership, but at a heavy cost. The company's value was diminished, its reputation was tarnished and its ability to respond to market opportunities during its long bankruptcy was constrained.

Tribune Co.'s bankruptcy saga began as an era of superheated Wall Street deal-making fueled by cheap money was coming to an end. The company's tale is emblematic of the American financial crisis itself, in which a seemingly insatiable appetite for speculative risk using exotic investment instruments helped trigger an economic collapse of historic proportions.

Tribune reporters Michael Oneal and Steve Mills, in a four-part series that begins today, tell the story of Tribune Co.'s journey into and through bankruptcy, throwing a spotlight on the key decisions and missed opportunities that marked a perilous time in the history of the company, the media industry and the economy.

Read the full story, "Part one: Zell's big gamble," as a digitalPLUS member.
To view videos and photos and for a look at the rest of the series visit, chicagotribune.com/brokendeal.

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Bulls hold on to beat Knicks 108-101

Bulls beat the Knicks 108-101 on Friday.

NEW YORK — Three players and a coach were not around to witness the end of the last Bulls-Knicks game at Madison Square Garden.

That coach was New York's Mike Woodson, who forecasted another battle royale.

"Chicago, the Celtics, Indiana … teams that play defense and get after it, there will be (intense) games," he said. "I expect (this) will be no different."

It turned out completely different, a walk in the park for the Bulls — for 44 minutes. But even after giving up 12 straight points late in the fourth quarter, Chicago left town with a solid 108-101 victory.

"When you build a cushion," coach Tom Thibodeau said, "you can withstand things not going your way. The most important thing is getting the win."

Marco Belinelli came through at the end, hitting 5 of 6 free throws and making a steal to lock up the victory. The Bulls improved to 3-0 against the Knicks, a mark that pleases native New Yorker Joakim Noah to no end.

"It feels great," he said. "Everybody's locked in when we play the Knicks. It's easy to get up for games like this — big stage, playing in the Garden."

Luol Deng scored 33 points on 13-for-18 shooting, besting his season high of 29 that came Dec. 21 in that wild, four-point Bulls victory in New York that featured nine technical fouls.

"Honestly it's not about the scoring," he said. "I just want to play well. I score for the team, but I don't go out trying to get big numbers. I never focus on one thing."

Carmelo Anthony scored 39 points, but most came after the game was decided. And he shot just 14-for-32.

"(Deng) guarded Carmelo about as well as you can," Thibodeau said.

There were no scraps or technical fouls Friday, just superb basketball from the visitors, who improved to 9-1 on the road against Eastern Conference foes.

The Bulls scored the game's first five points and cruised to a 57-36 halftime lead.

Noah (nine points, eight rebounds, four assists, four blocks) surprised observers by reprising his "finger guns" celebration after nailing a 15-foot jumper in the first quarter. Noah had ditched that after the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

"I just got too hyped," he said, implying he would not do it again.

The Bulls allowed New York to score 41 points in the fourth quarter — and nail 11 of 17 from deep in the second half.

"We opened up the 3-point line against a team that can shoot the 3," Thibodeau said. "We want to learn and improve. (But) I want to look at the game in totality."

Until the late flurry, the Bulls were totally dominant, building a 101-80 lead with 3 minutes, 47 seconds to play.

"I wish every game was here," Noah said. "It's the best, man."

tgreenstein@tribune.com

Twitter @TeddyGreenstein

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Why We Hate the Word ‘Phablet’ So Much

It appears we have reached Peak Phablet — and not just because sales are up and the big-screen cellphones were all over the Consumer Electronics Show this week. No, we have also reached Peak “Phablet” — the term for the popular (and quite awkward) devices has also this week been called ”horrible,” “stupid,” and ”worst word of the year” (to which we’re about two weeks in). The name itself has become as popular to loathe as the gadgets have to buy. Even linguists says so:

RELATED: Smackdown: Is There a Right Way to Speak English?

Problem No. 1: A Poor Blend

RELATED: Exploring the Character of a Bad Word

“A satisfying blend is derived from two words that overlap in their sounds, such as motor+hotel = motel, where the ‘o’ is shared,” University of Pennsylvania linguistics professor Gene Buckley wrote to us Friday. “But phone and tablet don’t share any sounds at all, so that might be why it sounds clumsy.”

RELATED: Let’s Fix Allllll Our …. Email Punctuation Problems

Problem No. 2: A Bad “ph” Scale

RELATED: The Evolution of the Emoticon

English words generally use “ph” as eff for words from Greek origin, Ben Zimmer explained today in his Word Routes column. Now “phablet” obviously isn’t Greek, but the Greek words it conjures sound kind of gross, Stanford linguistics PhD candidate Lelia Glass told us; a lot of “ph” words followed by the letter “a” happen to be body parts — ”like ‘phallus’ and ‘phalanges,’ which perhaps grosses people out,” Glass said.

RELATED: Auto-Correct Is Not Ruining Spelling

Zimmer has a different theory. “Phablet” isn’t the first non-Greek word we’ve made up with a “ph” making an eff sound, but unlike other modern word innovations — like “phat” — it doesn’t have a sense of humor, or at least not a very good one. Zimmer wrote to The Atlantic Wire:

Historically, “ph” has represented the /f/ sound only in words of Greek origin, and extensions of that spelling have been made playfully — think of the Phillie Phanatic, or “phat” in hiphop usage. In the tech world, “phreak(ing)” led the way (with the “ph-” from “phone”), and then other playful respellings such as “phishing” followed suit. But in “phablet” the “ph-” on its own isn’t really enough to suggest the “phone” component of the blend, so it ends up looking like a silly version of “fablet” (a fabulous tablet?). Of course, when the word is spoken, the connection to the “ph-” of “phone” is lost entirely.

Yes, those macho tech writers would not find a fab tablet very funny — it makes their manly gadgets sound wussy. Glass notes that the suffix “-et” or “-ette” is often used to signify cute/little things, which give “phablet“ another strike against manliness. 

Problem No. 3: A Bad Subconscious 

Face it, Zimmer adds: “Phablet” sounds too much like “flab” and “phlegm” and other words that remind us of things we don’t like. But, as we’ve noted, phablets look kind of awkward when you hold them up to your ear, despite their many other benefits. An ugly word for an ugly product, no?

Problem No. 4: A Thing Thing

Glass says we might just have “thing discrimination,” with everyone disliking the term because it represents the coming of a gadget of which they don’t approve. The techies seem to have it out for the big phones, even as people are buying them. 

Problem No. 5: A Pure Hatred

“Ultimately, such word aversion is rather arbitrary (look at the hostility against “moist,” for instance),” Zimmer told us. “Some people have a big problem with another techie blend, ‘webinar,’ but that one seems completely innocuous to me.”  

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Alicia Keys, Katy Perry top bill at Obama inauguration parties

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – R&B singer Alicia Keys, country guitar slinger Brad Paisley and pop star Katy Perry are some of the A-list performers who will entertain partygoers at President Barack Obama’s inaugural celebration, organizers said on Friday.

Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder, two prominent elder statesmen of American music, also will perform at one of the three official parties planned for the onset of Obama’s second term in office, the inaugural committee said.

Other performers include salsa singer Marc Anthony, rappers Far East Movement and Nick Cannon, pop band fun., R&B singers Usher and John Legend, gospel choir Soul Children of Chicago, and members of the cast of the TV show “Glee.”

Obama’s swearing-in ceremony on January 21 is expected to draw up to 800,000 people, less than half of the 1.8 million who flocked to Washington in 2009 to celebrate the United States’ first African American president.

That historic event featured 10 official balls. This time around, organizers are planning only two – one for military servicemembers and one for the general public. Organizers also plan a children’s concert for the Saturday before the event.

Organizers did not say who would perform at which event.

The inauguration committee previously announced performers for the swearing-in ceremony. R&B star Beyoncé Knowles will sing the national anthem, while country singer Kelly Clarkson is scheduled to give a rendition of “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.” Singer-songwriter James Taylor will perform “America the Beautiful.”

It will be Beyoncé’s third inauguration performance. Four years ago, she serenaded the first couple with Etta James’ “At Last” at an inaugural ball, and in 2001 she performed at the children’s concert with her band, Destiny’s Child.

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan)

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Former Lab Technician Denies Faulty DNA Work in Rape Cases

A former New York City laboratory technician whose work on rape cases is now being scrutinized for serious mistakes said on Friday that she had been unaware there were problems in her work and, disputing an earlier report, denied she had resigned under pressure.

The former lab technician, Serrita Mitchell, said any problems must have been someone else’s.

“My work?” Ms. Mitchell said. “No, no, no, not my work.”

Earlier, the city medical examiner’s office, where Ms. Mitchell said she was employed from 2000 to 2011, said it was reviewing 843 rape cases handled by a lab technician who might have missed critical evidence.

So far, it has finished looking over about half the cases, and found 26 in which the technician had missed biological evidence and 19 in which evidence was commingled with evidence from other cases. In seven cases where evidence was missed, the medical examiner’s office was able to extract a DNA profile, raising the possibility that detectives could have caught some suspects sooner.

The office declined to identify the technician. Documents said she quit in November 2011 after the office moved to fire her, once supervisors had begun to discover deficiencies in her work. A city official who declined to be identified said Ms. Mitchell was the technician.

However, Ms. Mitchell, reached at her home in the Bronx on Friday, said she had never been told there were problems. “It couldn’t be me because your work gets checked,” she said. “You have supervisors.”

She also said that she had resigned because of a rotator cuff injury that impeded her movement. “I loved the job so much that I stayed a little longer,” she said, explaining that she had not expected to stay with the medical examiner’s office so long. “Then it was time to leave.”

Also on Friday, the Legal Aid Society, which provides criminal defense lawyers for most of the city’s poor defendants, said it was demanding that the city turn over information about the cases under review.

If needed, Legal Aid will sue the city to gain access to identifying information about the cases, its chief lawyer, Steven Banks, said, noting that New York was one of only 14 states that did not require routine disclosure of criminal evidence before trial.

Disclosure of the faulty examination of the evidence is prompting questions about outside review of the medical examiner’s office. The City Council on Friday announced plans for an emergency oversight committee, and its members spoke with outrage about the likelihood that missed semen stains and “false negatives” might have enabled rapists to go unpunished.

“The mishandling of rape cases is making double victims of women who have already suffered an indescribably horrific event,” said Christine C. Quinn, the Council speaker.

A few more details emerged Friday about a 2001 case involving the rape of a minor in Brooklyn, in which the technician missed biological evidence, the review found. The victim accused an 18-year-old acquaintance of forcing himself on her, and he was questioned by the police but not charged, according to a law enforcement official.

Unrelated to the rape, he pleaded guilty in 2005 to third-degree robbery and served two years in prison. The DNA sample he gave in the robbery case was matched with the one belatedly developed from evidence the technician had overlooked in the 2001 rape, law enforcement officials said. He was recently indicted in the 2001 rape.

Especially alarming to defense lawyers was the possibility that DNA samples were cross-contaminated and led to false convictions, or could do so in the future.

“Up to this point,” Mr. Banks said, “they have not made information available to us, as the primary defender in New York City, to determine whether there’s an injustice that’s been done in past cases, pending cases, or allowing us to be on the lookout in future cases.” He added, “If it could happen with one analyst, how does anyone know that it stops there?”

The medical examiner’s office has said that the risk of cross-contamination was extremely low and that it does not appear that anyone was wrongly convicted in the cases that have been reviewed so far. And officials in at least two of the city’s district attorneys’ offices — for Brooklyn and Manhattan — said they had not found any erroneous convictions.

But Mr. Banks said the authorities needed to do more, and that their statements thus far were the equivalent of “trust us.”

“Given what’s happened,” he said, “that’s cold comfort.”

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Boeing Dreamliner to undergo federal safety review

Plagued by one mishap after another, Boeing Co.'s much-heralded 787 Dreamliner passenger jet for the 21st century is feeling new heat from federal regulators.

Days after one of the planes caught fire while parked in Boston and another experienced a fuel leak, the Federal Aviation Administration has launched an unusual "comprehensive safety review of Boeing 787 critical systems." This includes a sweeping evaluation of the way Boeing designs, manufactures and assembles the aircraft.

The review — just 17 months after the FAA gave the go-ahead to the new $200-million-plus plane — does not ground the 50 Dreamliners currently being flown by eight airlines around the globe.

Since the inception of its next-generation passenger jet, Boeing has touted the revolutionary way the Dreamliner is made and the way it operates. But those novel technologies will now attract greater scrutiny from U.S. regulators after recent events have raised questions about Dreamliner safety.

New planes, in general, have "teething" issues as they are introduced. But, industry analysts said, the type of review the Dreamliner is undergoing is rare, and passenger jets haven't been subject to this sort of sweeping government review for decades.

Boeing said it will participate in the review with the FAA and believes the process will underscore customers' and the traveling public's confidence in the reliability of the aircraft.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA chief Michael Huerta launched the effort Friday at a news conference in Washington, revealing plans for a "comprehensive safety review of Boeing 787 critical systems." This includes a complete evaluation of the aircraft, including an assessment of the way Boeing designs, manufactures and assembles the aircraft.

The move comes despite the "unprecedented" certification process in which FAA technical experts logged 200,000 hours of work over nearly two years and flew on numerous test flights, Huerta said. There were more than a dozen new special conditions developed during the certification process because of the Dreamliner's innovative design.

"The purpose of the review is to validate the work that we've done," Huerta said, "and to look at the quality and other processes to ensure that effective oversight is being done."

Certification of the Dreamliner was completed Aug. 25, 2010, and the first plane was delivered to All Nippon Airways a month later. It was more than three years late because of design problems and supplier issues.

The Dreamliner, a twin-aisle aircraft that can seat 210 to 290 passengers, is the first large commercial jet with more than half its structure made of composite materials (carbon fibers meshed together with epoxy) rather than aluminum sheets. Another innovative application is the changeover from hydraulically actuated systems typically found on passenger jets to electrically powered systems involving lithium ion batteries.

For instance, Boeing has said electric brakes "significantly reduce the mechanical complexity of the braking system and eliminate the potential for delays associated with leaking brake hydraulic fluid, leaking valves and other hydraulic failures." Because of these technologies, Boeing says, the new plane burns 20% less fuel than other jetliners of a similar size.

But the use of such extensive electronic systems was called into question when a smoldering fire was discovered Monday on the underbelly of a Dreamliner operated by Japan Airlines Co. after the 173 passengers and 11 crew members had deplaned at the gate.

The incident prompted the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate.

"We don't know the cause of the fire, but it's a serious issue," said Scott Hamilton, an aviation industry consultant and managing director of Leeham Co. in Issaquah, Wash. "Did the FAA miss something? Did Boeing have an oversight in the design process? Was there a problem in the supply chain? These are questions we don't have answers to."

In December, the FAA ordered inspections of fuel line connectors because of risks of leaks and fires.

On the same day, a United Airlines Dreamliner flight from Houston to Newark, N.J., was diverted to New Orleans after an electrical problem popped up mid-flight. Qatar Airways, which had accepted delivery of a Dreamliner just a month earlier, grounded the aircraft for the same problem that United experienced.

Still, both LaHood and Huerta insist the Dreamliner is safe. Ray Conner, Boeing's chief executive of commercial aircraft, attended the conference and said the company was "fully committed to resolving any issue related to the safety" of the Dreamliner.

The Chicago company has taken 848 orders for Dreamliners from airlines and aircraft leasing firms around the world. The price ranges from $206.8 million to $243.6 million per jet, depending on the version ordered.

Major parts for the plane are assembled at various locations worldwide — including Southern California, Russia, Japan and Italy — and then shipped to Boeing's facilities in Everett, Wash., where they are "snapped together" in three days once production hits full speed, compared with a month the conventional way.

Boeing currently is making five Dreamliners a month. The company plans to reach 10 a month late this year.

Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with Teal Group Corp., a Virginia research firm, said the review will be beneficial for the Dreamliner program in the long run.

"There's no showstopper here; it's a short-term embarrassment for the company," he said. "Then again, this program is full of short-term embarrassments."

william.hennigan@latimes.com

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Cyanide: 'A poison we fear'

If Urooj Khan's remains are exhumed in coming days as expected, authorities will attempt to retrace the devastating course of one molecule through his body.

Cyanide, a toxic combination of carbon and nitrogen, exists throughout nature in trace amounts in certain plants, seeds and soils. It is also produced by some bacteria and fungi.

In its pure solid or gas forms, however, cyanide can be acutely poisonous, earning it an ignoble reputation in human history as an efficient killer — from World War II Nazi death camps to the Jonestown massacre to the Chicago Tylenol murders.

"It is a poison we fear," said Frank Paloucek, a pharmacist and toxicologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "It is a really dangerous poison, and once you get enough of it, there is not much we can do."

That appears to be the case for Khan, a West Rogers Park businessman who died of cyanide poisoning in July just weeks after winning a million-dollar lottery jackpot. The Cook County medical examiner's office initially found that Khan died of natural causes, and he was buried in Rosehill Cemetery. But after a relative voiced concern, extensive toxicological tests showed he died of lethal levels of cyanide. Chicago police and Cook County prosecutors are investigating his death as a homicide.

The murder mystery, first revealed in the Tribune on Monday, has sparked worldwide interest. It comes more than 30 years after the murders of seven Chicago-area residents who ingested cyanide-spiked Tylenol capsules spread fear across the country. The FBI reopened its investigation into the killings four years ago, but no one has ever been charged.

"In the rare event of homicidal poisoning, cyanide is not an uncommon (substance) to use," Dr. Gregory Schmunk, a forensic pathologist and president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, said Thursday.

Indeed, just last year, the wife of a former Communist Party leader in China was accused of killing a British businessman after ordering her butler to spike his drink with cyanide.

It is, however, more commonly seen in suicides, such as in the case of an Arizona businessman who poisoned himself in a courtroom with cyanide last year after he was found guilty of arson, according to experts.

The compound kills quickly.

Once inside the human body, it prevents cells from using oxygen. If enough cells absorb cyanide, a person's body and brain will become so oxygen-deprived that their tissues will begin to die.

As the body fights to provide more oxygen, heart and breathing rates rise. Cramping and headaches can occur, followed by loss of consciousness and eventually death.

Death may come in anywhere from 15 minutes to a couple of hours, Paloucek said.

Cyanide is typically detected during a medical examination by a scarlet red discoloration or a "bitter almond" odor emitting from the body, according to experts. But neither is a sure measure — darker pigmentation can mask red skin coloration, and many people can't smell cyanide.

In its powder form, a toxic dose of cyanide may only be about 200 milligrams, roughly the amount of any common pain medication pill, according to Paloucek.

"We are dealing with a poison that has a very fast knockdown rate," said John H. Trestrail III, a clinical and forensic toxicologist who consults with law enforcement agencies on such cases.

For that reason, investigators have been looking closely at the events that happened around the time that Khan died, including the last meal he ate, which his wife acknowledged preparing.

Cyanide can come as a gas or in a solid powder that looks like white sugar. It is commonly used in research laboratories, in mining to extract certain metals and by jewelers. It also used to be widely used in the United States to kill various pests.

"One hundred years ago, you could go into a pharmacy and buy cyanide to kill wasps," Trestrail said. "But you don't do that anymore."

Now cyanide suppliers maintain a "poison register" that would include information like proof of purchase, the name of the buyer and its intended use, according to Trestrail.

Outside the United States, however, cyanide is readily available, according to Paloucek. And even within the U.S., there have been cases of people giving false information to cyanide suppliers to obtain the substance.

"If you're persistent, it is not hard to get your hands on it," Schmunk said.

Local authorities plan to ask a Cook County Circuit Court judge on Friday for permission to exhume Khan's body in the next week or two. The remains would be autopsied by the medical examiner's office, according to its spokeswoman, Mary Paleologos.

Investigators will take samples of Khan's stomach contents to see if and how the cyanide was ingested, Paleologos said. They will also take more fluid and blood samples and look at other organs such as the lungs, to see if it may have been inhaled, she said. Investigators will also try to rule out chronic cyanide poisoning in which long-term exposure to the compound may have contributed to his death.

"A lot depends on if the body is in good or poor condition," Paleologos said. "If it's in good condition, of course (the medical examiner) can get decent samples, but if it's in poor condition, the quality of the samples will be poor as well."

cdizikes@tribune.com

asweeney@tribune.com

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Three witnesses won’t be charged in Ohio football rape case: documents

(Reuters) – At least three members of a high school football team in Steubenville, Ohio, received word they would not be prosecuted just days before testifying against teammates accused of raping a 16-year-old girl, according to documents obtained by Reuters.

In letters from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office addressed to each student’s lawyer, the state committed to not prosecuting Evan Westlake, Anthony Craig and Mark Cole, three witnesses for the prosecution.

But DeWine said on Thursday his office had made no deal with any of the witnesses involved in the case.

“We have offered nothing, made no promises to any witness in this case. … No deals have been cut with anybody,” DeWine told WTOV television in comments confirmed by his spokesman.

The case has unsettled Steubenville, a city of 19,000 near the Pennsylvania border where football has a powerful influence.

Community leaders have criticized authorities, voicing suspicion they have avoided charging more players who could have been involved in order to protect the school’s beloved football program.

Days after the letters were sent, all three players testified at a pre-trial hearing against teammates Ma’lik Richmond and Trenton Mays, both 16, who were charged with raping a classmate at a party attended by many teammates last August. Richmond and Mays were set to be tried as juveniles in February.

Although evidence in the criminal case showed each player “may not have conducted himself in a responsible or appropriate manner, his behavior did not rise to the level of any criminal conduct,” all three letters say. “Therefore, we will not prosecute your client for his actions on August 11-12, 2012.”

Walter Madison, an attorney who represents one of the students charged with rape, verified the letters’ authenticity, but declined to comment further.

The letters can protect the players from criminal charges, said John Burkoff, a criminal law professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

“If the government says that it won’t prosecute you and then changes its mind, you can argue that it can’t go back on that,” he said. “It’s constitutional estoppel (an impediment).”

The letter to Westlake, dated September 28, was signed by Ohio Associate Attorney General Marianne Hemmeter. The other two letters were signed by Ohio Associate Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Brumby and dated October 9, three days before the trio testified against their teammates. Brumby and Hemmeter conducted the questioning at that hearing.

Attorney General spokesman Dan Tierney said the state decided the students would go uncharged only for the crime of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material.

“We would stand by the attorney general’s previous comments,” he told Reuters on Thursday.

The case shot to national prominence last week when the online activist group Anonymous made public a picture of the purported rape victim being carried by her wrists and ankles by two young men. Anonymous also released a video that showed several other young men joking about an assault.

(Editing by Daniel Trotta and Peter Cooney)

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Relatives of singer Jenni Rivera’s co-passengers sue over plane crash

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Family members of four passengers who died with singer Jenni Rivera when her plane crashed in northern Mexico last year sued her corporation and the current and former owners of the aging Learjet they called a “bucket of bolts” on Thursday.

The plaintiffs alleged in their Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that the 43-year-old aircraft was unsafe and being flown by two unqualified pilots when it nosedived from 28,000 feet into mountainous terrain.

“We are trying to unravel the mystery of how this came to be. Who selected this plane, what condition was this plane in and how did these pilots get behind the stick of this aircraft?” plaintiffs’ attorney Paul Kiesel said.

“We want to provide answers for my clients and for the community mourning these brilliant lives,” he said.

Rivera and her fellow passengers were flying from Monterrey, Mexico, to an airport in the Mexico City suburb of Toluca in the early morning hours of December 9 when the Learjet 25 went down.

The 43-year-old California-born singer, best known for her work in the Mexican folk Nortena and Banda genres, had been headed to Mexico City for an appearance on the TV singing competition “The Voice Mexico.”

Killed with her were publicist Arturo Rivera (no relation), make-up artist Jacobo Yebale, attorney Mario Macias Pacheco and hair stylist Jorge Armando “Gigi” Sanchez Vasquez, along with the pilot and co-pilot.

Since the plane was registered in the United States, members of the National Transportation Safety Board are taking part in the investigation, which was expected to last a year.

Representatives for Jenni Rivera Enterprises and for Starwood Management, the charter company that owned the aircraft at the time of the crash, could not be reached by Reuters for comment on the lawsuit.

A Starwood executive previously told the Los Angeles Times that the plane was properly maintained and suggested that the 78-year-old pilot, Miguel Perez Soto, might have suffered a heart attack or become incapacitated in some way.

According to the 22-page lawsuit, the multi-engine plane involved in the crash had been built in 1969 and “was such an old airplane that it was referred to as a ‘bucket of bolts.’”

The lawsuit says it struck a runway marker at an airport in Texas in 2005, which left the plane with structural damage.

The plaintiffs also say in the court papers that Soto was not licensed to fly the Learjet above 18,000 feet or with paying passengers. The co-pilot, 20-year-old Alejandro Jose Torres, also lacked certification for flying the plane under those conditions, according to the lawsuit.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)

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Parental Consent Rule May Proceed for a Circumcision Ritual, a Judge Says

New York City health officials may proceed temporarily with a plan to require parental consent before an infant may undergo a particular Jewish circumcision ritual, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

City officials say 12 cases of herpes simplex virus have likely resulted from the procedure, known as metzitzah b’peh, since 2000, including one Brooklyn case reported this week. Two infants died, and two suffered permanent brain damage. Most Jews no longer practice metzitzah b’peh, in which the circumciser uses his mouth to suck blood from the wound, but it remains common among some ultra-Orthodox communities.

Citing the risk of infection, health officials in September introduced a regulation that would require parents to provide written consent stating that they were aware of the health risks.

But the Central Rabbinical Congress of the United States and Canada, Agudath Israel of America, and the International Bris Association sued in October to stop the rule from taking effect, calling it an infringement of their constitutional rights. They also denied the procedure posed a risk and asked a federal court to put the rule on hold while the litigation proceeded.

In denying the request for a preliminary injunction, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of the United States District Court for the Southern District wrote that the risks were clear.

“In light of the quality of the evidence presented in support of the regulation, we conclude that a continued injunction against enforcement of the regulation would not serve the public interest,” she wrote.

City lawyers said they were gratified by the ruling, but Andrew Moesel, a spokesman for the plaintiffs, said the groups would appeal. “We continue to believe that this case is a wrongful and unnecessary intrusion into the rights of freedom of religion and speech,” he said.

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Boeing to cut 40% of jobs, space at Texas plant

Guest are reflected in a Dreamliner fuselage at the jet's debut July 8, 2007, at the Boeing plant in Everett, Wash. (Robert Sorbo/Reuters / January 10, 2013)

5:06 p.m. CST, January 10, 2013

Boeing Co. said it will cut a little more than 40 percent of jobs, or 160 positions, at its El Paso, Texas, plant in response to planned U.S. defense budget reductions.

The company said it will trim occupied square footage 50 percent at the plant by moving from three buildings to one. The plant in Texas manufactures electronics for a variety of Boeing products.

The cuts will be completed by the end of 2014, the company said.

Boeing announced a major restructuring of its defense division in November that would cut 30 percent of management jobs from 2010 levels, close facilities and consolidate several business units.

The company's shares closed at $77.09 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.

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New General Assembly to face many old issues

SPRINGFIELD—

— A new Illinois General Assembly was inaugurated Wednesday, but lingering beyond the flowers, family and speeches was a host of unfinished business.

The old Legislature adjourned Tuesday without fixing the state's broken public pension system. Also left unresolved were the divisive issues of same-sex marriage, gun regulation and gambling expansion. It'll be a while before such problems are tackled — the part-time lawmakers are scheduled to go home for a few weeks before returning to the Capitol.

In the House, Speaker Michael Madigan remains in charge, as he has for all but two of the past 30 years. In the Senate, President John Cullerton starts his fifth year running the show. Both Chicago Democrats now wield veto-proof majorities after many voters throughout the state opted against the Republican alternative in November legislative races.

That new Democratic power brings added pressure to perform was not lost on Cullerton, who said his party's 40-19 advantage over the GOP is the largest in the nation and in state history.

"I know a lot of you are thinking, 'This is great. We've got 40 members. I don't have to take any tough votes,'" Cullerton told his Democrats in a decorated Senate chamber as family members were entertained by a rendition of the 1960s tune "Feeling Good."

"But if everybody thought like that, we wouldn't get anything done, would we?" he said.

Madigan, the longest-serving speaker in state history, told House members that key issues remain "terribly contentious, terribly divisive."

"We have to call upon our inner resolves to dedicate ourselves to the solution of these problems, working cooperatively with the other members of the House of Representatives and the Senate," said Madigan, who leads a 71-47 Democratic majority.

Still, Madigan gave a grave assessment of the poorly funded pensions, saying he would "emphasize the absolutely serious nature of the fiscal condition."

In the waning days of the legislative session that concluded Tuesday, Madigan made what he said was a good-faith effort to spur pension talks by lifting a demand that suburban and downstate teacher retirement costs be shifted from the state to local school districts. That's now back on the table for Madigan, who called it a "free lunch."

"Serious, serious problem, and if we're serious about solving the problem, that must be addressed," Madigan said.

The cost-shift provision is adamantly opposed by Republicans and some suburban Democrats who maintain that it will lead to local property tax increases.

After failing to come up with a pension solution before the clock ran out this week, Cullerton said that Senate Bill 1, legislation often symbolizing the top agenda item, would be a pension measure combining aspects of unresolved Senate-passed and House-sponsored plans.

"The finances of our pension system have to be addressed in a fair and constitutional manner. The issue has lingered for generations and threatens to doom future generations if something isn't done," Cullerton said.

"We are on the verge of our state budget being turned into a financial plan that funds pension benefits, not essential services. Our investments in higher, elementary and secondary education and human services are increasingly crowded out — some might say, squeezed — by our pension costs," Cullerton said in a nod to Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, whose grass-roots pension reform movement used a cartoon mascot, Squeezy, the Pension Python.

Though Cullerton cast a vote for Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno of Lemont for Senate president, as she did for him in a symbolic display of bipartisanship, Radogno said "many people in Illinois really don't have a lot of confidence in us and hopefully we can turn that around."

"We have to come to grips with some of the very real problems that we have," she said. "The underlying pillar that will allow us to begin to address them is solving the pension problem."

House Republican leader Tom Cross of Oswego called for "incredibly bold ideas and incredibly bold solutions."

"We're facing challenges in the state that we probably haven't seen as a General Assembly since the Great Depression," Cross said.

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Three top U.S. wireless carriers to embrace BlackBerry 10

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Three of the top U.S. cellphone carriers signaled this week that they would support Research In Motion’s BlackBerry 10 products, the first of which are due to be unveiled Jan 30, offering a hopeful sign for RIM’s comeback effort.

Executives at Verizon Communications , AT&T Inc and T-Mobile USA all said they are looking forward to the devices, which will be crucial for RIM’s chances of regaining lost ground from rivals such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics .

“We’re hopeful its going to be a good device,” Lowell McAdam, chief executive of Verizon Communications, majority owner of the biggest U.S. mobile service Verizon Wireless.

“We’ll carry it,” McAdam said in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

BlackBerry 10 is RIM’s next-generation mobile operating platform and it is preparing to launch new smartphones later this month. Word that major carriers will offer the devices is good news for RIM.

RIM, which once commanded the lead in the smartphone market, has rapidly lost ground to Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s line of Galaxy products, especially in North American and European markets, as customers abandon its aging BlackBerry devices.

It has been testing the new BlackBerry 10 devices with carriers so they can assess their compatibility with networks.

No. 4 U.S. mobile provider T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom , also plans to carry the new BlackBerry 10.

“We’re extremely optimistic that it’s going to be a successful product and our business customers are extremely interested in it,” Chief Executive John Legere said.

AT&T has promised to support the BlackBerry 10 platform, according to Chief Marketing Officer David Christopher, but he would not discuss specific devices.

However, AT&T handset executive Jeff Bradley made it clear that the No. 2 U.S. mobile operator would carry the phone.

“It’s logical to expect our current (BlackBerry) customers will have the best BlackBerry devices to choose from in the future,” Bradley said.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Award winning U.S. reporter Richard Ben Cramer dies of lung cancer

(Reuters) – Pulitzer-Prize winning correspondent and author Richard Ben Cramer, best known for his chronicle of the 1988 U.S. presidential election, died on Monday in Baltimore.

The cause of death was lung cancer, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, where Cramer worked for seven years. He was 62.

Cramer won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize in international reporting for his coverage of Middle Eastern affairs for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Esquire named his 1986 profile of Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams one of the seven greatest stories published in the magazine’s history.

“What It Takes: The Way to the White House,” Cramer’s 1,000-page account of the 1988 presidential campaign, painted a rich portrait of American political luminaries such as former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, former Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis, former Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole and current U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

Though it received tepid reviews at the time of its 1992 publication, it was ultimately hailed as one of the best books of political journalism. New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute named “What It Takes” one of the top 100 works of U.S. journalism in the 20th century.

Cramer’s prolific writing career included stints at the Inquirer and Baltimore Sun newspapers, contributions to magazines like Esquire and Sports Illustrated, and multiple books on topics as diverse as the Israel-Palestine conflict and the life of New York Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio.

A native of Rochester, New York, Cramer earned degrees from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. At the time of his death, he was living in Chestertown, Maryland in an old white farmhouse that he picked out with the help of Biden, Politico reported in 2010.

Cramer had been working on a book about New York Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez, tentatively titled “The Importance of Being Alex: A Life with the Yankees,” before taking a hiatus in 2012, the New York Daily News reported in June.

(Reporting by Peter Rudegeair; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Andrew Hay)

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Pap Test May Prove Useful at Detecting More Types of Cancer, Study Suggests

The Pap test, which has prevented countless deaths from cervical cancer, may eventually help to detect cancers of the uterus and ovaries as well, a new study suggests.

For the first time, researchers have found genetic material from uterine or ovarian cancers in Pap smears, meaning that it may become possible to detect three diseases with just one routine test.

But the research is early, years away from being used in medical practice, and there are caveats. The women studied were already known to have cancer, and while the Pap test found 100 percent of the uterine cancers, it detected only 41 percent of the ovarian cancers. And the approach has not yet been tried in women who appear healthy, to determine whether it can find early signs of uterine or ovarian cancer.

On the other hand, even a 41 percent detection rate would be better than the status quo in ovarian cancer, particularly if the detection extends to early stages. The disease is usually advanced by the time it is found, and survival rates are poor. About 22,280 new cases were expected in the United States in 2012, and 15,500 deaths. Improved tests are urgently needed.

Uterine cancer has a better prognosis, but still kills around 8,000 women a year in the United States.

These innovative applications of the Pap test are part of a new era in which advances in genetics are being applied to the detection of a wide variety of cancers or precancerous conditions. Scientists are learning to find minute bits of mutant DNA in tissue samples or bodily fluids that may signal the presence of hidden or incipient cancers.

Ideally, the new techniques would find the abnormalities early enough to cure the disease or even prevent it entirely. But it is too soon to tell.

“Is this the harbinger of things to come? I would answer yes,” said Dr. Bert Vogelstein, director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Genetics and Therapeutics at Johns Hopkins University, and a senior author of a report on the Pap test study published on Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. He said the genomes of more than 50 types of tumors had been sequenced, and researchers were trying to take advantage of the information.

Similar studies are under way or are being considered to look for mutant DNA in blood, stool, urine and sputum, both to detect cancer and also to monitor the response to treatment in people known to have the disease.

But researchers warn that such tests, used for screening, can be a double-edged sword if they give false positive results that send patients down a rabbit hole of invasive tests and needless treatments. Even a test that finds only real cancers may be unable to tell aggressive, dangerous ones apart from indolent ones that might never do any harm, leaving patients to decide whether to watch and wait or to go through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation with all the associated risks and side effects.

“Will they start recovering mutations that are not cancer-related?” asked Dr. Christopher P. Crum, a professor at Harvard Medical School who was not involved in the research.

But he also called the study a “great proof of principle,” and said, “Any whisper of hope to women who suffer from endometrial or ovarian cancer would be most welcome.”

DNA testing is already performed on samples from Pap tests, to look for the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes cervical cancer. Dr. Vogelstein and his team decided to try DNA testing for cancer. They theorized that cells or DNA shed from cancers of the ovaries and the uterine lining, or endometrium, might reach the cervix and turn up in Pap smears.

The team picked common mutations found in these cancers, and looked for them in tumor samples from 24 women with endometrial cancer and 22 with ovarian cancer. All the cancers had one or more of the common mutations.

Then, the researchers performed Pap tests on the same women, and looked for the same DNA mutations in the Pap specimens. They found the mutations in 100 percent of the women with endometrial cancer, but in only 9 of the 22 with ovarian cancer. The test identified two of the four ovarian cancers that had been diagnosed at an early stage.

Finally, the team developed a test that would look simultaneously for cancer-associated mutations in 12 different genes in Pap samples. Used in a control sample of 14 healthy women, the test found no mutations — meaning no false-positive results.

Dr. Luis A. Diaz, the other senior author of the report and an associate professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins, called the research a step toward a screening test that at first blush appears very effective at detecting endometrial cancer, though obviously less so at finding ovarian cancer.

“Probably one of the most exciting features of this approach,” Dr. Diaz said, “is that we wanted a test that would seamlessly integrate with routine medical practice that could be utilized with the same test that women get every day all over the world, the Pap smear.”

But, he added: “We can’t say it’s ready for prime time. Like all good science, it needs to be validated.”

He and other members of the team said it might be possible to improve the detection rate for ovarian cancer by looking for more mutations and by changing the technique of performing Pap tests to increase the likelihood of capturing cells from the ovary. The change might involve timing the test to a certain point in a woman’s monthly cycle, using a longer brush to collect cells from deeper within the cervix or prescribing a drug that would raise the odds of cells being shed from the ovary.

The technique also needs to be tested in much larger groups of women, including healthy ones, to find out whether it works, particularly at finding cancers early enough to improve survival. And studies must also find out whether it generates false positive results, or identifies cancers that might not actually need to be treated.

Michael H. Melner, a program director in molecular genetics and biochemistry for the American Cancer Society, called the research “very promising,” in part because it is based on finding mutations.

“It tells you not just that cancer is there, but which mutation is there,” Dr. Melner said. “As we learn more and more about which mutations are associated with more or less severe forms of cancer, it’s more information, and possibly more diagnostic.”

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Mortgage lending rules to limit loan options

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is planning a Thursday morning announcement of new lending rules that it hopes will move the mortgage market toward a sustainable middle ground, somewhere in between the free-wheeling days of no-documentation loans and the current, restrictive environment.

For most borrowers, the rules will mean no more interest-only mortgages, no more loans where the principal due increases over time, no more loans that carry a balloon payment and no more loan terms of more than 30 years. In addition, would-be borrowers will be less likely to qualify for a mortgage unless their total debts account for no more than 43 percent of their monthly gross income.

These so-called qualified mortgages are expected to be embraced by lenders, because by following the criteria, they will have a better chance of shielding themselves from lawsuits from consumers whose loans go bad.

The provisions of the Ability-to-Repay rule, which follow closely the lines of protections called for in 2010's Dodd-Frank legislation, will take effect in January 2014. Richard Cordray, the bureau's director, is expected to detail the regulations at a public hearing Thursday in Baltimore.

A senior official of the consumer protection bureau, the agency charged with implementing the new mortgage requirements, said the lending standards are not much different than the guidelines currently in place. Still, while the rules might ease uncertainty among lenders who have worried about the scope of the regulations, it could cause additional anxiety for consumers trying to qualify for a home loan.

"It will add some certainty to the mortgage industry about what the rules of the road are going forward," said Guy Cecala, president and CEO of Inside Mortgage Finance, a trade publication. "But it basically says we want everybody to make plain-as-vanilla mortgages.

"The legitimate concern is that this will cement the tight mortgage underwriting standard that we currently have in place, and most people agree, from (Federal Reserve Chairman) Ben Bernanke to the person on the street, that they're too tight."

To not upend the housing market's recovery and assist consumers who can't meet the 43 percent debt-to-income threshold, the agency said it was establishing a second, temporary category of qualified mortgages that meet most of the new guidelines but also would qualify to be purchased, guaranteed or insured by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or various other federal agencies. The temporary provision would end as those agencies issue their own qualified mortgage guidelines or if Fannie and Freddie end their government conservatorship or in seven years.

The bureau wanted to give the mortgage market time to adjust to the new standards and ensure that well-qualified people could still buy homes, the agency official said.

For all types of mortgages, to help determine a borrower's ability to repay, lenders must look at eight factors. They include current income and assets, employment status, credit history, the mortgage's monthly payment, other loan payments associated with the property, monthly payments for such things as property taxes, other debt obligations and a borrower's monthly debt-to-income ratio.

Teaser interest rates no longer will be allowed to be used to judge a borrower's creditworthiness. For homebuyers who apply for adjustable-rate mortgages, the monthly payments no longer can be computed using just an introductory rate that might be artificially low. Instead, the monthly payment must be computed using whichever is higher, the fully indexed rate or the introductory rate.

In addition to the other rules defining a qualified mortgage, the bureau also mandated that a qualified loan cannot charge to the consumer points and fees that exceed 3 percent of the total loan amount.

The mortgage lending industry has worried for months about the rules and heavily lobbied for protection from lawsuits brought by borrowers.

Under the new rules, lenders who make qualified mortgages to well-qualified borrowers that carry a lesser chance of defaulting could be shielded from lawsuits from these prime borrowers who say the lender did not satisfy the ability-to-repay requirements. Riskier, subprime borrowers could challenge the lender's assessment of their ability to repay the loan but borrowers would have to prove that a lender didn't adequately factor in living expenses and other debts.

"They appear to favor lenders' interests above consumers," said Diane Thompson, of counsel at the National Consumer Law Center. "You have to prove what's in the creditor's records. It may be that no homeowners are able to challenge it. Otherwise, you're relying on regulatory oversight, and we saw how well that worked."

The rules, in various forms, have been in the works for years. Other agencies continue to formulate their own rules, and one still in development about what constitutes a qualified residential mortgage might increase a consumer's mortgage down payment in order to ensure that borrowers have more "skin in the game."

mepodmolik@tribune.com

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Attorney: Poisoned lottery winner's widow has 'nothing to hide'

The widow of a West Rogers Park man who died of cyanide poisoning weeks after winning a $1 million lottery jackpot was questioned extensively by Chicago police last month after the medical examiner's office reclassified the death as a homicide, her attorney told the Tribune on Tuesday.

Authorities investigating the death of Urooj Khan also executed a search warrant at the home he had shared with his wife, Shabana Ansari, according to Steven Kozicki, her attorney. Ansari later was interviewed by detectives for more than four hours, answering all their questions, the attorney said.

"She's got nothing to hide," Kozicki said.

The mystery surrounding Khan's death — first reported by the Tribune in a front-page story Monday — has sparked international media interest.

Cook County authorities said Tuesday that they plan to go to court in the next few days for approval to exhume Khan's remains at Rosehill Cemetery. In a telephone interview Tuesday, Medical Examiner Stephen J. Cina said he sent a sworn statement to prosecutors laying out why the body must be exhumed.

"I feel that a complete autopsy is needed for the sake of clarity and thoroughness," Cina said.

Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office, confirmed that papers seeking the exhumation would be filed soon in the Daley Center courthouse.

Khan, who owned a dry cleaning business on the city's North Side, died unexpectedly in July at 46, just weeks after winning a million-dollar lottery prize at a 7-Eleven store near his home. Finding no trauma to his body and no unusual substances in his blood, the medical examiner's office declared his death to be from natural causes and he was buried without an autopsy.

About a week later, a relative told authorities to take a closer look at Khan's death. By early December, comprehensive toxicology tests showed that Khan had died of a lethal amount of cyanide, leading the medical examiner's office to reclassify the death a homicide and prompting police and prosecutors to investigate.

While a motive has not been determined, police have not ruled out that Khan was killed because of his big lottery win, a law enforcement source has told the Tribune. He died before he could collect the winnings — about $425,000 after taxes and because he decided to take a lump-sum payment.

According to court records obtained by the Tribune, Khan's brother has squabbled with Ansari over the money in probate court. The brother, Imtiaz, raised concern that because Khan left no will, his 17-year-old daughter from a previous marriage would not get "her fair share" of her father's estate. Khan and Ansari did not have children.

Al-Haroon Husain, an attorney for Ansari in the probate case, said the money was all accounted for and the estate was in the process of being divided up by the court. Under Illinois law, the estate typically would be split evenly between the surviving spouse and Khan's only child, he said.

Kozicki, Ansari's criminal defense attorney, said his client adored her husband and had no financial interest in seeing harm come to him.

"Now in addition to grieving her husband, she's struggling to run the business that he essentially ran while he was alive," Kozicki said. "Once people analyze it, they (would) realize she's in a much worse financial position after his death than she was before."

Reached by phone Tuesday evening at the family dry cleaners, Ansari denied reports that she had fed her husband a traditional Indian meal of ground beef curry before he died. She said he wasn't feeling well after awakening in the middle of the night. She said he sat in a chair and soon collapsed. She then called 911.

Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, speaking Tuesday at an unrelated news conference, remarked that he had never seen a case like this in 32 years in law enforcement.

"So I'll never say that I've seen everything," he told reporters.

jmeisner@tribune.com

jgorner@tribune.com

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The next CIA’s director’s challenges

qWhat John Brennan faces after confirmation

I see no reason why the Senate won’t confirm John Brennan, President Obama‘s chief counter-terrorism adviser, to be the next director of the CIA. There will be pro forma inquiries into his past entanglements with the NSA’s domestic surveillance program and his knowledge and approval of the CIA’s “Greystone” torture protocols, but he will have ready answers for the questions and he will say plenty in private to sooth the concerns of those whose concerns need to be soothed.

Assuming Brennan becomes the DCIA, as he will thenceforth be acronymed, he’ll inherit a powerful spy agency facing a set of tough questions. Actually, every CIA director since the advent of the age of Al Qaeda has more or less dealt with these same issues. The daily demands of the job require tactical thinking and leave little room for attention to the bigger picture.

SEE MORE: Why Django is better than Lincoln

# Is the CIA a paramilitary force? Should it go back to its roots as a source of intelligence and warning?  You see this question phrased as such a lot, but it ignores virtually all of the CIA’s history, except for a period in the 1990s when the “Peace Dividend” and director John Deutch pulled back significantly on the agency’s ambit. The CIA has always been both and will always be both. From the start, the agency has very broadly and probably (in an affront to the original understanding of the National Security Act of 1947) interpreted its mandate to do stuff to further American interests abroad, even and often to the point of violence, as Adam Elkus reminds us today. The question really is one of authorities and chains of command: how are American resources properly allocated? Are the mechanisms of accountability sufficient? Is there really anything better than an ad hoc framework for determining whether combined CIA-military operations are really CIA operations or military operations?

# There is no such thing as secrecy anymore, at least not in the way that the CIA has understood the term. We live in an era of open source everything, which means that the agency’s crown jewels have very short lifespans and that public interest in what the CIA does is bound to increase exponentially. The agency has to figure out a posture on the New Secrecy that satisfies its mission while accepting the Open Source reality. Younger analysts have different expectations of how to gather and collect information and are less satisfied with the complicated and fairly broken traditional secrecy rules.

# Similarly, it is exceedingly difficult for would-be spies to come to the CIA without significant social media trails, and it is very hard for them to work in the world without leaving electromagnetic detritus for everyone to exploit and discover. How can the CIA’s case officers maintain their cover identities? Is the era of fully-fledged cover identities over? Will the CIA continue to rely (and over-rely) on foreign intelligence services for critical human intelligence operations? 

# The same Open Source world that hinders CIA secrecy also provides the agency with far more data than it ever imagined having. The CIA will never face a problem of not having enough intelligence. It will face the problem of having too much and not knowing what it has or how to use it.

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“From Broadway With Love” benefit concert raising money for Sandy Hook victims

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Broadway is lending a helping hand to the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Brett Boles, author of the musical “Foreverman,” and Tony Award-winning producer Van Dean have organized a benefit concert later this month to raise money for United Way of Western Connecticut’s Sandy Hook School Support Fund.

“From Broadway with Love: A Benefit Concert For Sandy Hook,” featuring song, dance and other appearances from some of Broadway‘s biggest names, will take place at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, Conn., on January 28. Waterbury is 20 miles from Newtown.

A long list of Tony Award-winning or nominated performers are scheduled to appear, including Brian Stokes Mitchell (“Kiss Me Kate”), Stephen Schwartz (“Wicked”), Marc Shaiman (“Hairspray”) and Christine Ebersole (“Grey Gardens”).

“The outpouring of love and support from the Broadway community has been incredibly heartwarming,” Dean said in a statement. “Everyone was looking for a way they could use their talents to bring something positive to the community. ‘From Broadway With Love’ provides them with the perfect outlet to do so.”

Although the evening will be free for Sandy Hook families and first responders, some tickets will be available to the public for $ 50 to $ 250.

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