6 shot, 1 fatally, on S. Side

Six people were shot on the South Side of Chicago. Police investigate one of the crime scenes in the 4200 block of S. Wells St. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

A total of six people were shot, one fatally, in two shootings on the South Side, officials said.

In the first shooting, two 19-year-old men were reported shot on the 1100 block of West 51st Street, police said. The shooting was reported at 6:11 p.m., said Chicago Fire Department Chief Joseph Roccasalva.

The men were both taken in serious-to-critical condition to John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County.

One of the men was reportedly shot in the back and the second man was shot in the hand, leg, side and buttocks, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer VeeJay Zala.

Minutes after that shooting, four people were shot on the 4200 block of South Wells Street at 6:21 p.m., said Roccasalva.

A 30-year-old man sustained a gunshot wound to the head and a 38-year-old man was shot in the neck, both were taken to John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County. The younger man  reportedly died, officials said.

A 32-year-old man sustained a gunshot wound to the stomach. A 27-year-old man was shot in the leg and taken to Mercy Hospital, where his condition was stabilized.

Two of the victims were taken in serious-to-critical condition to Stroger Hospital, one person was taken to Mercy Hospital in fair-to-serious condition and one person was reported dead on the scene, said Roccasalva.

The four victims were shot inside and outside of a home in the 4200 block of South Wells Street, police said.

The man who was killed, 30-year-old William Martin, was shot in the head inside the home, according to police and the victim's family.

Martin was the second child Thelma Smith lost to gunfire this year, she said. Another son, Samuel Clay, was shot and killed in April near 45th Street and Saint Lawrence Avenue, she said.

"I don't know what this world is coming to, with all this shooting," Martin's mother, Smith, 48, said through tears from the porch of her mother's home on the next block.

She said Martin was in the home, where a friend of his lived, when the bullets pierced through the window and struck Martin and at least one other victim.

Smith, who has four other children, said Martin was studying to become a Jehovah's Witness. She said he had six children and got married last year. 

"Oh my God! I can't believe this! Another one of my kids is getting buried. I have to bury another one of my kids," said Smith.

Police said the gunshots may have come from an alley west of the home, across the street. No one is in custody.

Police couldn't say what led to the shooting, but the block is in the middle of an area where two gangs are in conflict with one another.

There's no indication the shooting is related to the other one at 51st and Wells Streets, police said.

About 20 onlookers gathered on sidewalks and stoops in the 4200 block of South Wells Street where beat cops and detectives were going door to door scouring for witnesses.

A female voice could be heard screaming down the block. Two others were consoling each other with tears in their eyes in the middle of the street.

One officer approached a group of people outside the yellow tape and asked loudly, "Did anybody see anything?"

Nobody said anything back to the officer as she walked away from them.

Rolita Lofton, 34, stood crying at the edge of the police tape Friday night near the shooting site on Wells Street.

"They hit my brother in the chest," Lofton said.

Lofton said her brother, Orivell Chester, 32, was one of the four shot Friday night.

Lofton said she was told her brother was in surgery but did not know the hospital. She said Chester worked at McCormick Place and recently got off work.

Marcus Keene, 38, said he heard the shooters came through the gangway on Wells Street and just started shooting at a group of men gathered on the porch.

He said two of the men shot were on the porch while the other two shot were sitting on the couch inside the next house over. Keene said he believes one of the men who was struck while inside the house had already died.

Keene, who works as a CTA bus driver, expressed frustration.

"Why? Who knows. Is this sad? Yes. The powers at be aren't doing what they should do and neither are the people here," Keene said.

Several police vehicles and an ambulance were also stationed on the block full of two-story apartment houses.

Linda McCullough was watching television at her home when she heard about five gunshots. She then went outside to see what was going on.

She says the neighborhood is usually quiet.

"We have some trouble maybe every four years," she said. "People start acting crazy."

In addition to those shootings, a man was found dead of apparent gunshot wounds on the 8200 block of South Dobson, police said.

The victim may have been dead for a few weeks, a police source said, citing preliminary information. The man sustained several gunshot wounds, police said.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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Dr. Dre ranks as Forbes’ highest-paid musician, at $100 million

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – You may be singing “Call Me Maybe” or dancing “Gangnam Style” to this year’s music, but it was veteran hip-hop artist Dr. Dre who topped Forbes‘ list of the 25 highest-paid musicians in 2012, released on Thursday.

California native Dre, 47, became one of the leading names in hip-hop and rap in the early 1990s and has worked with artists including Eminem and Snoop Dogg.

Along with his extensive back catalog, Dre‘s lucrative headphones business, Beats by Dre, helped him gross $ 100 million in pre-tax earnings according to Forbes.

The list’s top 10 was dominated by veteran musicians, with Pink Floyd‘s bassist and singer Roger Waters coming in at No. 2 with earnings of $ 88 million from his lucrative The Wall Live tour, and British singer Elton John at No. 3 with $ 80 million.

Last year’s highest-paid musicians U2 landed at No. 4 this year with combined earnings of $ 78 million from their three-year 360 tour. 1990s British boy band Take That, who reformed in 2005, rounded out the top five with $ 69 million, earned from an eight-date tour at London’s Wembley Stadium, which became the highest-grossing single stadium tour to date.

Forbes compiles its annual highest-paid musicians list by estimating artists’ earnings from music sales, live shows, endorsements and merchandising. Earlier this year, Dutch DJ Tiesto was named the highest-paid DJ in the fast-growing electronic dance music industry.

The only two artists under 30 to break the top 10 were country-pop darling Taylor Swift, 22, who tied with ex-Beatle Paul McCartney at No. 8 with earnings of $ 57 million, and Canadian pop star Justin Bieber, 18, who tied with country star Toby Keith at No. 10 with earnings of $ 55 million.

Pop star and “X Factor” judge Britney Spears entered the list at No. 7 with earnings of $ 58 million, cementing her comeback after a turbulent few years. Her earnings encompass her multi-million dollar “X Factor” deal, music sales and endorsements.

Spears led eight female artists in the top 25 list, including R&B star Rihanna at No. 12 with $ 53 million, coming ahead of Lady Gaga at No. 13 with $ 52 million. Grammy-winning British singer Adele notched No. 22 on the list, tied with Kanye West, with earnings of $ 35 million following a record year for her album “21.”

Music’s power couple, singer Beyonce and rapper Jay-Z, came in at No. 18 and No. 20, respectively, with earnings of $ 40 million and $ 38 million.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; editing by Jill Serjeant and Leslie Adler)

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Doctors Who Work for Hospitals Face a New Bottom Line

For decades, doctors in picturesque Boise, Idaho, were part of a tight-knit community, freely referring patients to the specialists or hospitals of their choice and exchanging information about the latest medical treatments.

But that began to change a few years ago, when the city’s largest hospital, St. Luke’s Health System, began rapidly buying physician practices all over town, from general practitioners to cardiologists to orthopedic surgeons.

Today, Boise is a medical battleground.

A little over half of the 1,400 doctors in southwestern Idaho are employed by St. Luke’s or its smaller competitor, St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center.

Many of the independent doctors complain that both hospitals, but especially St. Luke’s, have too much power over every aspect of the medical pipeline, dictating which tests and procedures to perform, how much to charge and which patients to admit.

In interviews, they said their referrals from doctors now employed by St. Luke’s had dropped sharply, while patients, in many cases, were paying more there for the same level of treatment.

Boise’s experience reflects a growing national trend toward consolidation. Across the country, doctors who sold their practices and signed on as employees have similar criticisms. In lawsuits and interviews, they describe growing pressure to meet the financial goals of their new employers — often by performing unnecessary tests and procedures or by admitting patients who do not need a hospital stay.

In Boise, just a few weeks ago, even the hospitals were at war. St. Alphonsus went to court seeking an injunction to stop St. Luke’s from buying another physician practice group, arguing that the hospital’s dominance in the market was enabling it to drive up prices and to demand exclusive or preferential agreements with insurers. The price of a colonoscopy has quadrupled in some instances, and in other cases St. Luke’s charges nearly three times as much for laboratory work as nearby facilities, according to the St. Alphonsus complaint.

Federal and state officials have also joined the fray. In one of a handful of similar cases, the Federal Trade Commission and the Idaho attorney general are investigating whether St. Luke’s has become too powerful in Boise, using its newfound leverage to stifle competition.

Dr. David C. Pate, chief executive of St. Luke’s, denied the assertions by St. Alphonsus that the hospital’s acquisitions had limited patient choice or always resulted in higher prices. In some cases, Dr. Pate said, services that had been underpriced were raised to reflect market value. St. Luke’s, he argued, is simply embracing the new model of health care, which he predicted would lead over the long term to lower overall costs as fewer unnecessary tests and procedures were performed.

Regulators expressed some skepticism about the results, for patients, of rapid consolidation, although the trend is still too new to know for sure. “We’re seeing a lot more consolidation than we did 10 years ago,” said Jeffrey Perry, an assistant director in the F.T.C.’s Bureau of Competition. “Historically, what we’ve seen with the consolidation in the health care industry is that prices go up, but quality does not improve.”

A Drive to Consolidate

An array of new economic realities, from reduced Medicare reimbursements to higher technology costs, is driving consolidation in health care and transforming the practice of medicine in Boise and other communities large and small. In one manifestation of the trend, hospitals, private equity firms and even health insurance companies are acquiring physician practices at a rapid rate.

Today, about 39 percent of doctors nationwide are independent, down from 57 percent in 2000, according to estimates by Accenture, a consulting firm.

Many policy experts praise the shift away from independent practices as a way of making health care less fragmented and expensive. Systems that employ doctors, modeled after well-known organizations like Kaiser Permanente, are better able to coordinate patient care and to find ways to deliver improved services at lower costs, these advocates say. Indeed, consolidation is encouraged by some aspects of the Obama administration’s health care law.

“If you’re going to be paid for value, for performance, you’ve got to perform together,” said Dr. Ricardo Martinez, chief medical officer for North Highland, an Atlanta-based consultant that works with hospitals.

The recent trend is reminiscent of the consolidation that swept the industry in the 1990s in response to the creation of health maintenance organizations, or H.M.O.’s — but there is one major difference. Then, hospitals had difficulty managing the practices, contending that doctors did not work as hard when they were employees as they had as private operators. Now, hospitals are writing contracts more in their own favor.

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Jewel parent says sale talks proceeding

Exterior of Jewel-Osco's first "Green Store" located at 370 N. Desplaines in Chicago. (Antonio Perez / November 29, 2012)

By Emily Bryson York




Chicago Tribune reporter

6:51 a.m. CST, November 30, 2012

Supervalu, the Minneapolis-based parent of Jewel-Osco said sale talks are proceeding after stock closed down more than 18 percent Thursday, to $2.28.

The beleaguered grocery chain was likely moving to combat reports that sale talks with suitor Cerberus Capital Management had stalled over funding.

"The company continues to be in active discussion with several parties," according to the statement. "There can be no assurance that this process will result in any transaction or any change in the Company's overall structure or its business model."

Supervalu, the third-largest U.S. grocery chain, has acknowledged sale talks since the spring. The company has been closing stores and cutting jobs as it has underperformed competitors like Dominick's parent Safeway and Kroger.

If Supervalu does not sell to Cerberus, it may have to restructure on its own or sell off individual assets, which could have big tax consequences, Bloomberg said.

Reuters reported last month that buyout firm Cerberus was preparing a takeover bid for Supervalu, the third-largest U.S. supermarket chain.

Cerberus officials could not be reached immediately for comment.

-- Reuters contributed to this report

In addition to Jewel, Supervalu owns Albertsons, Cub and other regional grocery chains.

SVU data by YCharts

SVU data by YCharts

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Male shot by police on South Side

An off-duty Chicago police officer who witnessed a crash during a police chase shot the driver of a stolen SUV after it struck a woman crossing the street late Thursday night, authorities said.

The SUV's drivert sustaine a non-life-threatening wound to his hand or arm, Fraternal Order of Police Spokesman Patrick Camden said.

The crash and subsequent shooting happened about 10 p.m. at the intersection of 37th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, two blocks south and three blocks east of the police department headquarters, in the city’s Bronzeville neighborhood, police said. 

A gray SUV was fleeing Wentworth District police northbound on King Drive when it made a left turn through a red light trying to head west on 37th Street, hit a light pole, hit a female pedestrian, and then hit a concrete wall that surrounds the massive three-story brick home on the corner, authorities said. 

An off-duty officer, on his way home from work with his girlfriend and his dinner, was stopped at the light facing south and saw the chase coming north up King Drive. His girlfriend was getting out of the passenger side about this time, Camden and police said. 

As the off-duty officer approached the stolen SUV, its driver tried to reverse back toward the officer, who fired twice, fearing that the SUV would hit his girlfriend. The SUV hit the officer’s black Yukon, Camden said, and its driver put the SUV into gear and tried to escape again. 

The officer fired two more times, hitting the man in the hand, who gave up and was taken to Mercy Hospital and Medical Center. 

The female pedestrian’s age wasn’t available, and she was taken to the University of Chicago Hospitals. The officer’s girlfriend, whose age wasn’t available, was also taken to Mercy Hospital and Medical Center. 

Police blocked King Drive in both directions between the 3500 block and 39th Street, and 37th Street was also blocked. The CTA rerouted buses in the area. 

pnickeas@tribune.com
Twitter: @peternickeas

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Microsoft Surface Pro battery will last roughly four hours

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Attorneys say Halle Berry, ex settle dispute

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Attorneys for Halle Berry and her ex-boyfriend have settled court issues that arose after a Thanksgiving Day fight at the actress’ home.

The fisticuffs involved Berry’s ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry and her fiance, actor Olivier Martinez. Aubry was arrested after the fight, which left him with a black eye, a broken rib and other injuries.

Aubry obtained a temporary restraining order against Martinez. The model and Berry have been battling over custody of their 4-year-old daughter for months and have appeared twice in a family law court since the fight.

Blair Berk, an attorney for Berry, and Shawn Holley, who represents Aubry, released a statement after Thursday’s hearing that said the two sides had reached an amicable agreement.

No details were released, and the attorneys declined to answer questions.

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Man Indicted in New Hampshire in Hepatitis Infections

A traveling medical technician who is believed to have infected at least 39 people with hepatitis C through his use of stolen hospital drugs and syringes was indicted late Wednesday in New Hampshire on 14 new charges.

The technician, David Kwiatkowski, known as the “serial infector,” was arrested in July and charged with tampering with a consumer product and illegally obtaining drugs, primarily fentanyl, a powerful anesthetic that is about 80 times more potent than morphine.

After a lengthy investigation that ranged over several states, he was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Concord, N.H., and charged with seven counts of tampering with a consumer product and seven counts of illegally obtaining drugs.

If convicted on the pending charges, Mr. Kwiatkowski, 33, faces up to 10 years in prison for each count of tampering with a consumer product and up to four years in prison for each count of obtaining controlled substances by fraud. Each offense is also punishable by a fine of $250,000.

Mr. Kwiatkowski had pleaded not guilty to the original charges and remains in federal custody in New Hampshire.

In announcing the indictment, John P. Kacavas, the United States attorney in New Hampshire, said that Mr. Kwiatkowski “used the stolen syringes to inject himself, causing them to become tainted with his infected blood, before filling them with saline and then replacing them for use in the medical procedure.”

He continued, “Consequently, instead of receiving the prescribed dose of fentanyl, patients instead received saline tainted by Kwiatkowski’s infected blood.”

The problem was discovered after several patients in the cardiac catheterization lab at Exeter Hospital, where Mr. Kwiatkowski worked, tested positive for a specific strain of hepatitis C, a chronic disease that can lead to cancer and is a major reason for liver transplants. Mr. Kwiatkowski tested positive for the same strain, leading to the testing of thousands of patients in New Hampshire this summer.

The outbreak was one of the largest in recent history. The investigation has been complicated because Mr. Kwiatkowski worked at 18 hospitals in seven other states (Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania) over the last decade. He was fired from at least two hospitals but was hired subsequently by four others.

Since Mr. Kwiatkowski’s arrest, thousands of patients in the other states have been tested for hepatitis C. More than 30 patients in New Hampshire, about a half-dozen in Kansas and one in Maryland have tested positive for the same strain.

A report in August by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said that syringes at Exeter Hospital were left unattended on medication carts by nurses in the cardiac catheterization lab.

Hospital officials have said that they received reports of concerns about Mr. Kwiatkowski but not that he was diverting drugs. A statement on the hospital’s Web site said: “We understand that this has been a difficult time for our patients and the community. Our focus remains on all of our patients and while this situation has shaken the community, we will continue to do everything we can to restore the community’s confidence by providing excellent care to the hundreds of patients who receive care within our health system each day.”

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U.S., state to fund battery research at Argonne

The U.S. Department of Energy has chosen Argonne National Laboratory, in suburban Lemont, to become America's capital for battery technology.

The announcement, to be made Friday, will include building a research facility to coordinate the clout and brainpower of five Department of Energy national laboratories, five universities and four private companies that independently have been working to advance battery technology.

Funded with $120 million from the DOE and a $35 million commitment from Gov. Pat Quinn, the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research is expected to develop lighter, cheaper batteries for everything from smartphones to electric vehicles that store more power and charge faster.

Chicago would be the fourth so-called Energy Innovation Hub that the DOE has established since 2010. The concept is modeled after research and development programs that spurred breakthroughs in the past, such as the Manhattan Project, which produced the first atomic bomb.

Other hubs have been devoted to modeling and simulating nuclear reactors, developing fuels from sunlight, and improving energy efficiency in buildings.

Like the space race of the 1960s, the U.S. is battling other nations to be at the forefront of a rapidly growing $42 billion worldwide market for rechargeable batteries that's growing 8.6 percent per year. That number comes from research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, which predicts the industry's growth rate and revenues to double by 2018.

A breakthrough in battery technology would have major implications for the auto, wind and solar industries. In particular, the wind and solar industries are looking for affordable batteries to store intermittent power so they can provide power even when the wind isn't blowing or the sun isn't shining.

Batteries that store electricity from the electrical grid are also in demand in countries where outages are frequent or in the case of natural disasters that black out cities for days.

"We're going to be the center of the universe when it comes to charging batteries and storing energy," Quinn told the Tribune in an interview Thursday.

Quinn committed the state to giving $5 million to the project through a capital construction budget he controls designed for job creation and said he will work with legislators to garner an additional $30 million in state funding to help with the building's construction.

The DOE will dole out the $120 million over five years. News of the hub was first reported by Crain's Chicago Business.

A successful battery hub in Illinois, Quinn said, would drive companies in the industry to set up shop nearby and encourage scientists and engineers to stay in the Midwest.

"These people would have the opportunity to change the world. It's transformational," Quinn said.

Earlier this week, Smith Electric Vehicles announced it would make battery-powered trucks in Chicago and hire about 200 workers. Wanxiang, a Chinese automotive company with North American headquarters in Chicago, is vying to purchase bankrupt Massachusetts-based battery-maker A123. As of last week Woodridge-based Palladium Energy became the largest independent battery pack-maker in the Americas and Europe after acquiring competitor MicroSun Technologies LLC.

The Chicago-based Clean Energy Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to accelerating the development of clean-energy businesses in the Midwest, will be responsible for ushering technology from Argonne to the marketplace with the help of Dow Chemical Co., Applied Materials Inc. and Johnson Controls Inc., which all have a financial interest in seeing batteries advance. Johnson, based in Milwaukee, also is vying for the A123 battery assets.

In addition to its own scientists, Argonne would be coordinating the research and development from Lawrence Berkeley, Pacific Northwest, Sandia and SLAC National Accelerator as well as students and researchers at Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Michigan.

"I think this is probably the greatest opportunity that we have seen in a long time to bring federal funding that's intended to promote the creation of new companies and jobs," said U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill.

Tribune reporter Ted Gregory contributed.

jwernau@tribune.com

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Local artists' handiwork part of White House holiday display

WASHINGTON ——

First lady Michelle Obama opened the festive, fir-draped doors Wednesday to the family's fourth White House Christmas, with Chicago talent helping put on the pageantry.

Joy to All is this year's holiday theme, with 54 live trees lending color and sparkle in the Executive Mansion. The largest is an 18-foot-6-inch Fraser fir festooned with ornaments made by children from military families.

Obama's first holiday guests this year were troops and their kids, many drawn to a gingerbread house that weighs almost 300 pounds and features replicas of the first lady's garden and the Obamas' dog, Bo.

For the third year, Obama engaged Chicago event planner Gabrielle Martinez, whose firm, agencyEA, began work in April.

Her challenge? "How can you make it bigger, better, more efficient, spend less money, make it the best possible experience for the volunteers and take it to the next level?" Martinez said.

About 85 volunteers were drawn from 38 states and the District of Columbia to assemble the holiday finery. They began work the day after Thanksgiving at an off-site location, then moved Sunday to the White House.

Artists from Chicago had distinctive roles. They were David Lee Csicsko, noted for projects including the mosaic in the CTA's Belmont station; David Condon, a glassmaker; Jami Darwin Chiang, a paper artist; and Heidi Feinerman, a terrarium designer.

Csicsko designed — and Condon built — glass medallions, each 4 feet in diameter, crafted to look like Christmas wreaths. The medallions are a mix of clear textured glass; recycled, cut-glass platters; and specialty glass from artisans across the country.

Csicsko said the experience was "fantastic" and observed: "I felt like I went from being a Chicago artist to an American artist."

Chiang employed her paper wizardry to make ornaments as well as banners for the Blue Room's fir that read "Joining Forces," "Liberty" and "Gratitude." Joining Forces is the first lady's campaign to support military families, but the phrase applies as well to the White House volunteers, Chiang said.

"Everybody was so enthusiastic," she said. "I don't know if it was because of the election, but everybody was willing to work hard, and whatever you asked them, they just jumped right in."

The guests included Capt. Luis Avila, 42, and his wife and son. Avila, still hospitalized, lost a leg and suffered a brain injury from a bomb in Afghanistan during his fifth wartime deployment.

"Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your service and your sacrifice," Obama told military families.

After entertaining the families, Obama hosted a reception for the volunteers. When the first lady alluded to the "four more years" her husband had won, Chiang said, "it brought a cheer from the crowd."

Event planner Martinez said Joy to All would have been the theme regardless of whether President Barack Obama had won a second term. She may help with inaugural events, but for now, it's all about glitter and garlands.

"It's a powerful force when so many positive, creative people come together on one project," Martinez said. "Amazing what you can achieve."

Feinerman created 40 blown-glass ornaments, which are terrariums with tiny succulents. One is shaped like the sculpture Cloud Gate (known as the Bean) in Chicago's Millennium Park. She also crafted snow globes, including a comic nod to Bo getting into mischief by helping himself to some candy.

The black-and-white Portuguese water dog is featured throughout the house and on the first family's Christmas card.

The expected 90,000 holiday visitors can find "Boflakes" and other whimsical touches everywhere, but the dog's private quarters — the Bo-val Office, so to speak — is not on the tour.

kskiba@tribune.com

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