Bears, Campbell pounded in 32-7 loss to 49ers

Postgame analysis of the Chicago Bears' 32-7 loss to the San Francisco 49ers with Chicago Tribune columnists Steve Rosenbloom and Fred Mitchell and sports editor Mike Kellams. (Posted on Nov. 19)

SAN FRANCISCO — It's too bad Colin Kaepernick wasn't available when Phil Emery set out to find a backup quarterback.

The first-year general manager had to strike quickly to find an experienced No. 2. The Bears invested big money in Jason Campbell, signing him to a one-year, $3.5 million deal at the outset of free agent.

Campbell making the 71st start of his career Monday night at Candlestick Park was nowhere near as good as Kaepernick making his first start. The 2011 second-round pick from Nevada led a destruction of the Bears defense as the 49ers won a 32-7 rout.

The Bears managed just 143 yards offense, their worst output since the 2010 game at the Giants when Jay Cutler was sacked nine times in the first half and concussed. Linebacker Aldon Smith of the 49ers had 51/2 sacks, a record versus the Bears.

"Tonight was probably the worst nightmare," Campbell said. "Our goals and everything are still set ahead of us, but we've got to start improving and improving quickly. The games don't get any easier."

The Bears must wonder if Cutler will be able to return from his latest concussion in time for Sunday's game against the Vikings at Soldier Field and coach Lovie Smith was optimistic afterward. Smith will have to contemplate what happened to his defense, which got mauled by the 49ers. The absence of Cutler had nothing to do with the Bears surrendering a 96-yard touchdown drive in just four minutes as San Francisco (7-2-1) jetted to a 20-0 lead.

All signs pointed to Alex Smith starting for the 49ers after he suffered a concussion a week ago, but news broke Monday morning that he had not passed his neurological exam. So Kaepernick was thrust into a starting role after Smith got much of the work in practice last week. Known for his running ability, Kaepernick carved up the secondary from the start to catch the Bears — in particular safeties Major Wright and Chris Conte — off guard.

Kaepernick completed 16 of 23 passes for 243 yards and touchdown passes to Vernon Davis and Michael Crabtree. He may have created a quarterback controversy in the Bay Area, where Alex Smith always has seemed to be on shaky ground. Coach Jim Harbaugh did little to quiet a brewing controversy afterward, saying, "We'll see. Usually tend to go with the guy who's got the hot hand."

Having lost two straight, the Bears (7-3) are in a tie with the Packers (7-3) atop the NFC North, but Green Bay won the Week 2 meeting. It sets up to be an interesting finish with the Vikings (6-4) only a game back. The Bears host the Packers on Dec. 16 in a game that could decide the division.

But the Bears cannot be thinking about the postseason after being worked over. The offense ended a drought of 111 minutes, 37 seconds without a touchdown when Campbell connected with Brandon Marshall for a 13-yard touchdown late in the third quarter. Lovie Smith's formula for takeaways was not successful as the Bears came up empty for the first time this season.

"It was embarrassing," center Roberto Garza said. "We're a much better team than that. This is not the type of team we are. We have to find out what is going on."

The run defense was vulnerable again as Frank Gore carried 17 times for 78 yards and backup Kendall Hunter gained 27 yards and scored on a 14-yard carry. This on the heels of consecutive 100-yard games by the Texans' Arian Foster and Titans' Chris Johnson with Vikings star Adrian Peterson set to face the Bears for the first time this season Sunday.

"You've got to admit they gave it to us," defensive end Corey Wootton said. "We got our butts kicked."

Meanwhile, the Bears failed in effort to get their ground game going. Matt Forte gained 63 yards on 21 carries and Michael Bush was ineffective. Campbell was under siege even before the score got out of hand. He completed 14 of 22 passes for 107 yards and was intercepted twice. He was sacked six times as outside linebacker Aldon Smith dominated tackles J'Marcus Webb and Gabe Carimi. The 49ers did a nice job covering Brandon Marshall as he was limited to two receptions for 21 yards.

If the previous two games have proved anything, it's that the first half of the schedule was packed with cupcakes. Emery has been out on the road scouting in advance of a big predraft meeting next month. He probably didn't need to see this wreck to know offensive linemen, plural, must be a priority even over a backup quarterback.

bmbiggs@tribune.com

Twitter @BradBiggs

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Yahoo shares reach 18-month high as investors warm to new CEO

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Yahoo Inc shares reached their highest level in a year and a half, as investor confidence grows that new Chief Executive Marissa Mayer can pull off a comeback that eluded three of her predecessors.

The Internet pioneer has yet to actually provide Wall Street with any hard evidence that its business is turning a corner – and she has warned that it will be a lengthy job – but investor faith in the ex-Google executive is running high.

Hedge funds Tiger Global Management and Greenlight Capital Management recently disclosed large stakes in Yahoo, accumulated during the third quarter.

“Money managers are staring to want to own this name again,” said Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Partners.

“For the amount of traffic they have, and the assets they have, they should be able to squeeze some value out of that,” Gillis said, referring to Yahoo. With Mayer at the helm, he said, Yahoo has “finally got somebody who the market believes can do that.”

Gravity Capital Management’s Adam Seessel said that Mayer’s recruitment of various Google Inc employees, including recently hired Yahoo Chief Operating Officer Henrique de Castro, has also helped burnish Yahoo‘s image.

“What the market is seeing is not (financial) numbers so much as they’re seeing people voting with their feet, people moving from Google to Yahoo,” said Seessel, whose firm owns Yahoo shares.

“All these people from Google wouldn’t be following her if they didn’t think that she didn’t have some good cards to play,” he said.

Shares of Yahoo finished Monday’s regular trading session up 2.8 percent at $ 18.36, amid a broad market rally. The last time Yahoo traded above $ 18.30 was in May 2011.

Yahoo ranks among the world’s most popular websites, with roughly 700 million monthly visitors. But the company’s revenue has eroded, amid competition from Google and Facebook and an industry-wide change in the online advertising market that has compressed prices for the online display ads that are key to its business.

The company has been rocked by internal turmoil: CEO Carol Bartz was fired over the phone and CEO Scott Thompson left after less than six months on the job due to questions about his academic credentials. Mayer, Google‘s first female engineer, took the top job at Yahoo in July.

In a conference call with investors last month, Mayer said that making Yahoo‘s online products more smartphone-friendly was her top priority.

Investors and analysts on Monday dismissed a weekend report in The Telegraph that said Yahoo was in discussions with Facebook about a search deal, particularly after Facebook issued a statement denying any such talks.

“People expect a better search experience on Facebook. We are working on improvements to better meet those expectations but are not in talks to enter into a new search partnership,” Facebook said in a statement on Monday.

Still, analysts say that search represents one of the key opportunities that Mayer will focus on as she moves to revive Yahoo‘s fortunes. A 2010 deal struck by former CEO Bartz outsourced the back-end technology of Yahoo‘s search to Microsoft Corp, but deal has failed to deliver an expected boost to Yahoo‘s search advertising revenue.

“Certainly search could be resuscitated,” said Gabelli & Company analyst Brett Harriss, who said Yahoo should be worth $ 26 a share based on a six-times multiple of its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

“It was a disaster for a year and a half,” said Harris. “Everybody hated the board, you had a while of transition where you went through three or four CEOs quickly.”

Now, he said, there’s finally a CEO “that investors can believe in.”

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

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International Emmys honor Lear, Alda, South American shows

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Television legend Norman Lear and veteran actor Alan Alda received special honors at the International Emmy Awards on Monday, while programming from South America dominated the competition, with Argentina and Brazil each winning two Emmys.

Lear, best known as creator of the ground-breaking 1970s hit comedy “All in the Family,” which premiered during a time of social upheaval and tackled issues such as race and women’s rights, said “the world will, and needs to, come together through the arts” as he accepted the honor.

The producer and writer received a special 40th anniversary Founders Award from the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, as did Alda, star of the long-running Korean-war set comedy, M*A*S*H* about doctors on the front lines.

Alda paid tribute to “the men and women in the hospital tents,” referring to real-life medical personnel who struggle to treat war injured, who he noted usually go unmentioned at award shows.

“Glee” creator Ryan Murphy received the annual International Founders Award, which was presented by Oscar-winner Jessica Lange, a star of his current series “American Horror Story.”

Argentina won both acting categories, with honors going to actress Cristina Banegas for the dramatic series “Television x La Inclusion,” in which she plays the mother of an ailing child waging battle with health insurers; while Dario Grandinetti picked up the best actor award for his performance as a racist taxi driver in the same series.

It marked the first time both honors were won by actors from the same program.

Brazil scored wins for comedy series for “The Invisible Woman,” while “The Illusionist” was named outstanding telenovela.

In bestowing its prizes, the Emmys, which honor television produced outside the United States, extended their reach after years of domination and even sweeps by the United Kingdom, which this year won two, for best TV movie or miniseries “Black Mirror” and best documentary “Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die.”

France, Germany and Australia each won one Emmy.

France took the best drama series prize for “Braquo season 2,” while Germany’s “Song of War” won for outstanding arts programming. The Australian franchise of the adventure competition “The Amazing Race” won the award for non-scripted, or reality, television.

The International Emmy directorate award went to Korean Broadcasting System president and CEO Dr. Kim In-Kyu.

Presenters at the ceremony, hosted by recently retired talk show host Regis Philbin, also included Victor Garber, Donnie Wahlberg, Cheyenne Jackson, Telenovela actress Edith González, German TV personalities Joko and Klaas and Indian actress Prerna Wanvari.

(Editing by Chris Michaud and Todd Eastham)

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Responding to Illnesses Manifesting Amid Recovery From Storm

Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

Dr. Aaron Gardener, center, attended to a patient at an ad hoc medical unit in Long Beach, N.Y. Many people have coughs, rashes and other ailments.

Day and night, victims of Hurricane Sandy have been streaming into ad hoc emergency rooms and relief centers, like the MASH-type medical unit on an athletic field in Long Beach, and the warming tent in the Rockaways the size of a small high school gym.

They complain of rashes, asthma and coughing. They need tetanus shots because — house-proud and armed with survivalist instincts — they have been ripping out waterlogged boards and getting poked by rusty nails. Those with back pain from sifting through debris receive muscle relaxants; those with chest pain from overexertion are hooked up to cardiac monitors.

“I’ve been coughing,” said Gabriel McAuley, 46, who has been working 16-hour days gutting homes and hauling debris in the Rockaways since the storm hit. “I’ve never felt a cough like that before. It’s deeper down.”

It is impossible to say how many people have been sickened by what Hurricane Sandy left behind: mold from damp drywall; spills from oil tanks; sewage from floodwater and unflushable toilets; tons upon tons of debris and dust. But interviews with hurricane victims, recovery workers, health officials and medical experts over the last week reveal that some of the illnesses that they feared would occur, based on the toxic substances unleashed by the storm and the experience of other disasters, notably Hurricane Katrina, have begun to manifest themselves.

Emergency rooms and poison control centers have reported cases of carbon monoxide exposure — and in New Jersey, several deaths have been attributed to it — from the misuse of generators to provide power and stoves to provide heat.

In Livingston, N.J., the Burn Center at St. Barnabas Medical Center had 16 burn cases over about six days, three times as many as usual, from people trying to dispel the cold and darkness with boiling water, gasoline, candles and lighter fluid.

Raw sewage spilled into homes in Baldwin and East Rockaway, in Nassau County, when a sewage plant shut down because of the surge and the system could not handle the backup. Sewage also spilled from a huge plant in Newark. “We tried to limit our presence in the house because the stink was horrible,” said Jennifer Ayres, 34, of Baldwin, who has been staying temporarily in West Hempstead. She said that she felt ill for several days, that her son had a scratchy throat, and that her mother, who lives in the house, had difficulty breathing, all problems she attributed to the two days they spent inside their house cleaning up last week. “I had stomach problems. I felt itchy beyond itchy on my face.”

Coughing — locally known as the Rockaway cough — is a common symptom that health officials said could come from mold, or from the haze of dust and sand kicked up by the storm and demolitions. The air in the Rockaways is so full of particles that the traffic police wear masks — though many recovery workers do not, worrying people who recall the fallout of another disaster.

“It’s just like 9/11,” said Kathy Smilardi, sitting inside the skeleton of her gutted home in Broad Channel, wrapped in a white puffy jacket, her breath visible in the afternoon cold. “Everyone runs in to clean up, and they’re not wearing masks. Are we going to wait 20 years to figure out that people are dying?”

Health officials and experts say the risks are real, but are cautioning against hysteria. Some coughing could be due to cold, damp weather. Lasting health effects from mold, dust and other environmental hazards generally require long-term, continuous exposure, they said. And the short-term effects can be mitigated by taking precautions like wearing masks, gloves and boots and removing mold-infested wallboard. “The reality is that cleaning up both muck and sewage and spills and removing walls and reconstruction and dealing with debris all do in fact pose concerns,” Daniel Kass, New York City’s deputy commissioner for environmental health, said Friday. “Are they vast or uncontrollable? No. But they depend on people doing work correctly and taking basic precautions.”

The Katrina cough was found to be temporary, said Roy J. Rando, a professor at Tulane’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Felicia Rabito, an epidemiologist at the school, said that healthy children exposed to mold after Hurricane Katrina showed no lasting respiratory symptoms when they moved back to new or renovated homes.

Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, lead levels in New Orleans’s soil dropped after the top layers of dirt, where lead from paint and gasoline can accumulate, were washed away. But in the two years afterward, soil testing found extremely high lead levels, Dr. Rabito said, which she theorized came from renovating old homes. “That’s a cautionary tale,” she said. Lead in soil can be tracked into homes and pose a health hazard to children playing inside or outside.

Though at least one outbreak of norovirus, a contagious gastrointestinal virus, occurred in a Brooklyn high school that was used as a shelter, New York and New Jersey health officials said they had not seen any significant spike in respiratory or gastrointestinal diseases related to the storm.

In Broad Channel, most homes on Noel Road, where Ms. Smilardi lives, have outdoor oil tanks that were overturned by the storm. The innards of many homes, built when asbestos was used, lie spilled among major and minor roads.

Ominous red spots covered both sides of Paul Nowinski’s burly torso. After the storm, Mr. Nowinski, a musician, waded into the basement of his childhood home on Beach 146th Street in the Rockaways to try to salvage records, books and instruments. He was up to his chest in water, which he thinks might have been contaminated with sewage. He said that he did not know the cause of the red marks; and that he had been too busy “schlepping” to go to the doctor.

Angela Macropoulos contributed reporting.

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Hostess, unions agree to mediation

Hostess Brands Inc agreed in court on Monday to enter private mediation with its lenders and leaders of a striking union to try to avert the liquidation of the maker of Twinkies snack cakes and Wonder Bread.

Hostess, its lenders and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union agreed to mediation at the urging of Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain of the Southern District of New York, who advised against a more expensive, public hearing regarding the company's liquidation.

"My desire to do this is prompted primarily by the potential loss of over 18,000 jobs as well as my belief that there is a possibility to resolve this matter," Drain said.

The 82-year-old Hostess was seeking permission to liquidate its business, claiming that its operations have been crippled by a bakers strike and that winding down is the best way to preserve its dwindling cash. Hostess suspended operations at all of its 33 plants across the United States last week as it moved to start selling assets.

Heather Lennox, a lawyer for Hostess, said it would be hard for Hostess to recover from the damage it sustained due to the strike even if an agreement was forthcoming. Yet following the hearing, Hostess Chief Executive Officer Gregory Rayburn told reporters that there was always a chance Hostess could be saved.

"I think we have to see what unfolds," Rayburn said. "My impression is that the judge wants to understand the parties' positions and some of their logic, but it doesn't change our financial position.

"I'm happy to have the help," he added, referring to Drain's mediation following a breakdown of communication between Hostess and the union. "Maybe the judge will help. But can I handicap how it's going to go? No way."

A lawyer for Hostess' creditors' committee declined to comment.

The court-sanctioned mediation could make both sides more willing to give, said Nick Kalm, a communications consultant specializing in labor relations.

"It makes it much more likely that the company will put forward something that is less draconian... and the union will take it. The union realizes they are out of options," said Kalm.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

The BCTGM called the strike on November 9 after Hostess sought and won court approval to impose wage and benefit cuts.

Unlike other unions representing workers at Hostess, the BCTGM did not contest Hostess's action -- which allowed it to reject a collective bargaining agreement and impose its offer.

Given the fact that the union did not fight Hostess's motion in court, Judge Drain said it was "somewhat unusual to say the least, and perhaps illogical" that the union would then strike against it.

"Its an odd approach," Drain said. "Before thousands of people are put out of work it would seem to me worthwhile for both the union and the debtors to explore why that happened."

Drain also questioned whether the union had held discussions with competitors or potential suitors about a shiftover of jobs, saying the union's response to Monday's motion implied that it sees "meaningful sales available out there beyond the piecemeal sales that this motion contemplates."

A lawyer for the union did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on whether such discussions had taken place.

BUYERS MAY EMERGE

Analysts have said Hostess' brands, which also include Nature's Pride, Dolly Madison and Drakes, are expected to draw interest from rivals including Flowers Foods, Pepperidge Farm owner Campbell Soup Co and Mexico's Grupo Bimbo.

Brian Boyle, a food industry investment banker at D.A. Davidson & Co, said it was hard to gauge the value of the Hostess assets, given that there are a lot of plants that are old and inefficient.

"The other wild card is whether you're going to see different buyers emerge for different segments of the business. So Flowers Foods, for instance, might want the cake segment and Bimbo could want the bread piece. So it comes down to 'are the parts greater than the whole?'," Boyle said. "In either case, significant labor and benefits concessions will be required."

Private equity firm Metropolous & Co said on Friday it was interested in pursuing the company, and on Monday, Fortune reported that Sun Capital Partners was interested. Sun Capital did not return a call seeking comment.

The company did have a potential white knight at one point, according to Hostess. Last spring, an outside equity investor had made a viable proposal that would help the company reorganize, it said, but the Teamsters union refused to agree to changes to the pension program and the outside investor walked away.

The company spent the summer and fall negotiating with all of the 12 unions trying to find a common path to reorganization, and did gain certain agreements with the Teamsters and many of the other unions, though not the BCTGM. At the same time the company started putting together a liquidation plan.

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Quinn's pension marketing push derided as 'juvenile'

After months of promising a major grass-roots effort to win public support for reforming the state's government worker pension system, Gov. Pat Quinn on Sunday unveiled a plan that featured an incomplete online strategy, children wearing red plastic megaphones and an animated "Squeezy the Pension Python" mascot.

There were, however, no solutions offered on how to fix the nation's most underfunded retirement system.

The Democratic governor, known for a style that sometimes veers into the corny, attempted to jump-start the pension overhaul push by lauding the power of "the people of Illinois, good and true" through what he called the "electronic democracy" of Twitter and Facebook. Quinn went so far as to encourage families gathering at the Thanksgiving dinner table to "speak to each other" about the pension crisis.

The approach left some lawmakers questioning whether the governor demeaned the severity of one of the most pressing unresolved problems facing state government in Illinois. State Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, called Quinn's strategy "juvenile."

"If he wants to do a grass-roots campaign, he should talk to the people directly about his proposal. But he doesn't even have one, which is why we can't get anything done. You can't follow someone who doesn't lead," Franks said.

"This has to be comprehensive reform. It can't be done in a vacuum and it can't be done with slogans and it certainly can't be done with cartoon characters," Franks said. "It's going to take some hard work."

Rep. Elaine Nekritz, of Northbrook, the lead pension reform negotiator for House Democrats, was more diplomatic.

"This is one way we can help build support for a solution," she said, "but we need to continue making sure that the right people are at the table and that we are focused on getting votes on legislation."

Quinn made reforming the state's pension systems a priority in the spring, but lawmakers left the Capitol without acting. In August, the governor summoned lawmakers into a fruitless special session on pensions when he had no reform plan on the table. After that failure, Quinn promised a grass-roots marketing plan, the one he delivered three months later on Sunday.

The pension system's unfunded liability now is estimated to be at least $96 billion. The governor has warned that without changes, future funding for public employee retirement will put the squeeze on state funding for education and social services. That led to the introduction of "Squeezy" about midway through a 3-minute, 44-second video produced in-house by the governor's office.

The strategy includes a website featuring a video on the history of pensions since ancient Rome and a chorus of children shouting "Thanks in advance" for fixing the retirement system. Quinn appeared at a Thompson Center news conference with about 15 children who wore red plastic megaphones with "Thanks in advance" stickers.

"This is not going to be solved just by the (politicians) in Springfield," Quinn said. "The people of Illinois are the heart and soul of our government ... and many times, citizens are ahead of legislators when it comes to demanding reform. We need to make sure those citizens get the facts they need about an important issue. I have fundamental faith in the common sense of the everyday people of Illinois."

The website offers no solutions on how the state's pension systems should be reformed. House Republican leader Tom Cross, of Oswego, who recently has adopted a conciliatory attitude toward the Democratic governor, said that while "the ideas may not be in (Quinn's marketing plan), I still think the fact that he is taking a step like this, I am going to view it as positive."

"I am still not sure that the public has accepted the facts and understands the ramifications of not doing pension reform," Cross said. "And what I mean by that is, if we do not do pension reform soon, not only may we not have a pension system, we may not have enough money to fund education or build roads and fix schools."

Lawmakers have considered but failed to enact plans that include giving current state employees the option of keeping a compounded cost-of-living increase for their pensions at the expense of adding future salary increases to their benefit base and forcing them to find their own retiree health insurance. Those that forgo the compounded increases would see future salary hikes included in their pension benefits and would have access to state health insurance at retirement.

Even before Quinn launched his marketing plan, the We Are Illinois coalition of labor unions contended the proposal was a "coercive diminishment" of modest retirement benefits and not a "real solution." The union group also warned it was a violation of the Illinois Constitution's guarantee of pension benefits and would "lead to costly litigation while the pension debt grows."

The governor's effort represents a back-to-the-future approach, attempting to merge his decades-long populist roots with modern social media tools. He invoked his history of petition drives stretching back more than 30 years that curbed the size of the legislature and altered lawmaker pay. Quinn even reverted to one of his political hallmarks, the Sunday news conference, to gain publicity on a traditionally slow news day.

Still, as he took questions from reporters, Quinn stopped short of his previous demand that any comprehensive pension plan should gradually shift the cost of pensions for teachers outside Chicago from the state onto local school districts — and local property taxpayers. Suburban Republicans and Democrats have adamantly opposed the cost shift.

While lawmakers are prepared to begin their postelection lame duck veto session during the final week of November, Quinn said he expected any action on pensions would not occur until January. The new year brings a lower voting requirement in the legislature to enact legislation.

The new website, thisismyillinois.com, remains a work in progress. It urges followers to "think web cam" to post pictures or videos on a related Facebook page that Quinn promised will be "shared with the legislators in Springfield."

There also are perils when it comes to social media. A Facebook search of "Governor Pat Quinn" turned up results that led with pages that called for the Democratic governor's removal from office. The same search on Twitter linked directly to Quinn's official account.

mcgarcia@tribune.com

rap30@aol.com

Twitter @moniquegarcia

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Shirtless photo a “joke,” says FBI agent who began Petraeus inquiry

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The FBI agent who began the investigation that led David Petraeus to resign as CIA director said that a shirtless photo he sent to a woman at the center of the probe was a “joke” sent to many friends, and was not meant to be sexual.

Frederick Humphries told the Seattle Times in an interview published Thursday that the photo in the unfolding adultery scandal that brought down Petraeus was sent to Tampa, Florida, socialite Jill Kelley in 2010.

Humphries, who has been identified in media reports on the scandal mainly as the “shirtless” FBI agent, was a “top-notch” operative, according to a prosecutor who worked with him on the “millennium bomber” case years ago.

Andrew Hamilton, now a senior deputy prosecutor for King County, Washington, said Humphries was assigned to the case partly because he spoke excellent French. Ahmed Ressam, who was convicted of plotting to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport on New Year’s Eve 1999, claimed to be from Quebec and spoke French.

“That’s the first time I met him, as a case agent,” Hamilton told Reuters. “We spent a lot of time together over the next couple years getting ready for trial, and I couldn’t have asked for more as a case agent. He was very, very thorough, and very honest. We always thought we were very lucky to have him.”

Five months ago, Kelley ignited the FBI investigation that led to Petraeus when she asked Humphries whether the bureau could look into harassing emails she had been receiving.

The investigation eventually revealed that the emails to Kelley were sent by Paula Broadwell, an Army reserve officer in military intelligence and co-author of a biography of Petraeus.

The FBI investigation revealed Broadwell’s affair with Petraeus, who cited the relationship when he resigned as CIA chief last week. The probe also ensnared General John Allen, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, whom agents found had exchanged “flirtatious” emails with Kelley, law enforcement officials said.

(Editing by David Lindsey and Jim Loney)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Justin Bieber dominates at American Music Awards

America proved its Bieber Fever was strong: The teen singer dominated the American Music Awards on Sunday night.

Bieber‘s wins included the show’s top award, artist of the year. His mom joined him onstage as he collected the trophy, beating out Rihanna, Maroon 5, Katy Perry and Drake.

“I wanted to thank you for always believing in me,” Bieber said, looking to his mom.

The 18-year-old also won the honor in 2010. He said it’s “hard growing up with everyone watching me” and asked that people continue to believe in him.

Bieber and Nicki Minaj performed together — and separately — at the AMAs, and were both multiple winners.

But another collaboration was the night’s most colorful performance: Korean rapper PSY and MC Hammer. Hammer joined the buzzed-about pop star for his viral hit “Gangnam Style.” PSY rocked traditional “Hammer” pants as they danced to his jam and to Hammer’s “Too Legit to Quit.”

Bieber won favorite pop/rock male artist in the first award handed out at Sunday’s show and gave a shout-out to those who didn’t think he would last on the music scene.

“I want to say this is for all the haters who thought I was just here for one or two years. I feel like I’m going to be here for a very long time,” he said.

He also won favorite pop/rock album for his platinum-selling third album, “Believe.” He gave a stripped down, acoustic performance of “As Long As You Love Me,” then transitioned to the dance-heavy “Beauty and a Beat,” where Minaj joined him onstage, grinding with the teen for a few seconds.

Minaj, who wore three different wigs and four outfits throughout the night, repeated her AMAs wins from last year, picking up trophies for favorite rap/hip-hop artist and album for “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.” She was in an all-white get-up, including fur coat and pink hair when she performed her new song “Freedom.” The scene was ghostly and snowy, as a choir — also in white — joined her onstage. One background singer stole the performance, belting semi-high notes as Minaj looked on.

As Bieber won his second award, he was kissed on the neck by Jenny McCarthy, who presented the award.

“Wow. I feel violated right now,” he said, laughing.

“I did grab his butt,” McCarthy said backstage. “I couldn’t help it. He was just so delicious. So little. I wanted to tear his head off and eat it.”

Bieber‘s red and black outfit seemed to be the night’s theme, as Taylor Swift and Usher wore similar ensembles.

Usher kicked off the three-hour show with green laser lights beaming onstage as he performed a medley of songs, including “Numb,” ”Climax” and “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop,” which featured a smoky floor and a number of backup dancers, as Usher jammed in all black, with the exception of his red shoes. He won favorite soul/R&B male artist.

Swift won her fifth consecutive award for favorite country female artist.

“This is unreal. I want to thank the fans. You guys are the ones who voted on this,” she said.

Swift gave a masquerade-themed performance of the pop song “I Knew You Were Trouble.” She sang onstage in a light dress while dancers wore mostly black. But then she changed into a red corset and black skirt, matching their dark mood. She even danced and sang on the floor as lights flickered throughout the performance.

Dick Clark, who created the AMAs, was remembered by Ryan Seacrest and an upbeat performance by Stevie Wonder.

“What a producer he was,” said Seacrest, as Wonder sang his hits, including “My Cherie Amour.”

Carly Rae Jepsen, who performed early in the night, won favorite new artist.

“I am floored. Wow,” she said, thanking Bieber and his manager, Scooter Braun.

Party girl Ke$ ha was glammed up on the red carpet, rocking long, flowy blonde hair and a light pink dress. She switched to her normal attire when she performed her hit single “Die Young.” It was tribal, with shirtless dancers in skin-tight pants, silver hair and skeleton-painted faces, who also played the drums. Ke$ ha was pants-less, rocking knee-high boots and rolling on the floor as she finished up the song.

Minaj and Christina Aguilera were blonde bombshells, too: Minaj’s hair was busy and full of volume and she sported a neon strapless gown to accept her first award. Aguilera wore a blonde bob in a purple dress that matched her eyeshadow.

Aguilera performed a medley of material from her new album and joined Pitbull onstage.

Kelly Clarkson also hit the stage, making a nod to her “American Idol” roots with a number on her dress and three judges looking on as she sang “Miss Independent.” Then she went into “Since U Been Gone,” ”Stronger” and “Catch My Breath.” It’s worth noting that “Idol” judge Randy Jackson introduced Clarkson, the first-ever winner of the show. He also advised people to donate through Red Cross for Superstorm Sandy victims.

Fellow “Idol” winner Carrie Underwood won best favorite country album and performed, hitting the right notes while singing “Two Black Cadillacs.” She talked about singing competition shows backstage.

“These people that go on these shows are so talented, you know? And I would love to see if so many of the other artists that are out there today would go back and try out for these shows, because they might get their behinds kicked by some of the contestants,” she said.

Luke Bryan won favorite country male artist and Lady Antebellum favorite country group.

American Music Awards nominees were selected based on sales and airplay, and fans chose the winners by voting online. At this award show, even the stars were fans: Pink said on the red carpet that she’d like to collaborate with Lauryn Hill. Cyndi Lauper said her musical playlist includes Pink and Minaj. Boy band The Wanted said they were excited to see PSY and Colbie Caillat wanted to watch No Doubt.

“What makes the American Music Awards special is the fans choose the winning artists,” said Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, who won favorite alternative rock artist and performed “Burn It Down,” as Brandy sang along and Gwen Stefani, Usher and Phillip Phillips bobbed their heads.

David Guetta won the show’s first-ever electronic dance music award. Non-televised awards went to Katy Perry for pop/rock female artist, Beyonce for soul/R&B female artist, Adele for adult contemporary artist and Shakira for Latin artist.

Along with Rihanna, Minaj was the top nominee with four nominations.

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AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

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Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MusicMesfin

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Online:

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MaleSurvivor Conference Examines Sexual Abuse in Sports

It was the summer before high school, and Christopher Gavagan, then 13, was preparing to leave the safe familiarity of the friends he had known during his boyhood. With a plan to excel at ice hockey, he began training on inline skates, moving through his New York City neighborhood, up and down the streets until, he said, “I turned down the wrong street.”

Gavagan, now a filmmaker, was one of eight panelists who participated Friday in a discussion about young athletes who have been sexually assaulted or abused by their coaches. The panel was part of the MaleSurvivor 13th International Conference, held this year at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The conference brought together men who have been sexually abused, as well as psychologists, social workers, academics and members of the legal community.

A dour procession of stories about sexual misconduct by coaches toward their male charges has come to light in recent months. Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach at Penn State, was sentenced in October to 30 to 60 years in prison on 45 counts of child molesting. Sugar Ray Leonard wrote in his autobiography last year that he was sexually molested by an Olympic boxing coach. The N.H.L. players Theo Fleury and Sheldon Kennedy were sexually abused as teenagers by their hockey coach Graham James.

The prevalence of sexual abuse among all boys 17 and under has been variously estimated to be as low as 5 percent and as high as 16 percent. For some of the millions of children who participate in sports nationwide, and their parents, sexual assault in a sports context has its own dynamic.

“Sports is a place where parents send their boys to learn skills, to learn how to be teammates and how to work together — to make boys stronger and healthier,” said Dr. Howard Fradkin, author of “Joining Forces,” a book about how men can heal from sexual abuse. “It’s the place where we send our boys to grow up. The betrayal that occurs when abuse occurs in sports is damaging because it destroys the whole intent of what they started out to do.”

When Gavagan, now 38, turned down that fateful street, and stepped briefly into the house of a man recommended as a hockey coach by a couple of female acquaintances, what greeted him, he said, was “a young boy’s dream come true.”

The dream Gavagan glimpsed was embodied in the trophy room of the house.

“It was everything I wanted to be right there,” recalled Gavagan, who is working on a feature-length documentary on sexual abuse in youth sports, in which he interviews other sexual-abuse victims and his own attacker, against whom he has never pressed charges. In addition to the shiny relics that seemed to give testimony to the man’s coaching prowess, Gavagan said, the trophy room had pictures of hockey teams the man had coached and workout equipment — the physical tools promising the chance to get bigger and stronger.

“To a skinny 13-year-old, it was like winning the lottery,” Gavagan said.

Christopher Anderson, the executive director of MaleSurvivor, said sexual abuse — basically nonconsensual touching or sexual language — is devastating under any circumstance, but coach and player often have a special relationship.

“Especially as you progress higher and higher, the coach can become just as important in some ways to an athlete as the relationship with his parents might have,” Anderson said. “In some cases, it’s a substitute for parents.”

He added: “There’s also a fundamentally different power dynamic. When you’re a young star, the coach can literally make or break your career as an athlete.”

But caution has to extend beyond coaches who guide future Olympians, Gavagan said, noting that his coach was not of that caliber.

“The entire grooming process was so subtle,” Gavagan said. “It’s not like when I first went into his house that he tried to grope me.”

First, Gavagan said, the coach said it was all right to curse in that house. On another visit it was fine to have a beer, which led on another day to Playboy magazine and on subsequent days to harder pornography and harder liquor. It was six months before the coach laid an explicitly sexual hand on him, Gavagan said.

“I didn’t feel like a sudden red line had been crossed — the line had been blurred,” Gavagan said, explaining that he avoided his parents when he returned home with liquor on his breath by telling them he was exhausted and going straight to his room. (Unlike many sexual-abuse victims, Gavagan said his parents, with whom the coach had ingratiated himself, were supportive of their son, and his was a loving family. He said that if he had approached them about the coach, they would have listened.)

Another aspect of sexual abuse in sports is the environment, which emphasizes a kind of macho ethic.

“What is most different about abuse is the sports culture itself,” Fradkin said. “It is a culture that promotes teamwork and teaches boys to shrug it off. When a boy or man is abused, he risks being thrown off the team if he should speak the truth because he’ll be seen as being disloyal — and weak.”

At 17, after four years with his coach, Gavagan said he “aged out” of his coach’s target age.

“At the time I had no idea of how it would impact my life, but the unhealthy lessons about relations, trust and the truth set a time bomb that would detonate my relationships for the next 10 years,” Gavagan said.

As a word of caution, Anderson said the lesson for parents should not be that sports are dangerous.

“It should be that there are sometimes dangerous people who gravitate to sporting organizations and our safeguards aren’t good enough yet to adequately protect our children,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that we should be pulling our kids from soccer and baseball and basketball. What it means is that parents need to be vigilant.”

He added: “They need to be proactive with athletic organizations to make sure that policies are in place — such as doing criminal background checks on staff and having a procedure where young athletes can complain about inappropriate behavior — that make sure children are protected.”

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Investors rush in to rent out foreclosures

The foreclosed home on Kenmore Street in Aurora was an outdated, unkempt eyesore until crews arrived this fall, performing thousands of dollars of work to make it attractive and modern, inside and out.

But it wasn't until workers walked across the street to ask for some water that neighbors Mario Cervantes and Oralia Balderas-Cervantes learned that a corporation, not a consumer, had bought the house, intending to turn it into a rental property. Despite being landlords themselves, the couple aren't sure they like the idea.

"If it's going to be a company that is watching out for the community, yes," Cervantes said. "If it's going to be a company that is watching out for themselves, no."

Added Balderas-Cervantes: "I'd rather see a homeowner. A lot of renters don't care. It's like renting a car versus buying a car. It's different."

Similar scenarios and concerns are unfolding across Chicago and in other markets hard-hit by the housing crisis. Well-capitalized, out-of-town private equity funds are scouring neighborhoods, paying cash for distressed single-family homes and renting them out. The opportunities are plentiful, enabling investment groups to profit from low home prices, rising rents and an increase in the number of potential renters.

The transactions are returning vacant properties to active use. But they also are stoking fears among neighbors and municipalities about the long-term effect of large, private investors — including many that are operating under the radar — in their communities.

"This scares the hell out of me," said Ed Jacob, executive director of Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago Inc. "In this rush to say this is a new asset class, are we creating the next community development problem?

"You talk to them and it's all about neighborhood recovery. They all have the narrative down."

In April, housing research firm CoreLogic named the Chicago area one of the better housing markets for institutional investor funds. It cited the area's large number of foreclosures, which will increase the number of vacant homes, and the estimated rental income relative to the low cost of acquisition.

The general strategy of the companies is the same: buy low, make the necessary upgrades, fill them with tenants and then sell the homes in three to seven years. With companies and analysts anticipating projected returns of at least 8 percent, there also is talk of creating publicly traded real estate investment trusts.

"What this reminds me of is the dot-com boom," said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of Carrington Mortgage Holdings LLC, a California firm whose asset management arm is actively looking in the Chicago market. "That's what this feels like. Every investor in America wants to buy foreclosures and turn them into rentals."

Two statistics increasing that appetite are the homeownership rate and rental rates. Foreclosures, tight lending conditions and wary consumers have pushed down the nation's homeownership rate to 65.5 percent at the end of September, according to census data. Meanwhile, the percentage of vacant rental units has been on a steady decline since 2010 as more people opt for leases rather than mortgages.

Tighter inventories are pushing up rents. As of October, annualized rents in Chicago were up 7.7 percent, more than the national increase of 5.1 percent, online real estate site Trulia found.

But investors aren't flocking to all neighborhoods equally. Most want homes in desirable neighborhoods with strong area employment. They also look at the strength of local rules protecting landlords in disputes with tenants.

After vetting the tenant and securing a lease, property managers say they routinely drive by the homes and sometimes schedule inside inspections to protect their investment.

Weighing risks, rewards

It remains to be seen whether their expectations will be met. One problem with the business model is there's no performance track record to speak of. And as housing prices slowly recover, acquisition costs also will increase and cut into returns.

There also isn't any history on property management firms tasked with overseeing so many scattered-site rental properties. Any well-publicized mistakes involving poorly maintained properties or wronged tenants could taint investors' reputations.

That's one reason why big-name players are likely to avoid buying in neighborhoods where they fear a greater chance of eviction proceedings occurring.

"You make one mistake in those properties and you'll be toast," Sharga said.

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