Bears game day: A sense of urgency vs. Vikings

MINNEAPOLIS -- As snow steadily descended outside the Metrodome on Sunday, the Chicago Bears were reminded that their playoff fate will be determined in the final four games of the regular season.

The Vikings represented clear and present danger as the Bears sought to at least cling to a share of the NFC North lead. Upcoming games at home against the Packers and on the road at Arizona and Detroit loomed throughout the December. The Atlanta Falcons own the best record in the conference at 11-1.

The Bears came in with an 8-4 record, having lost three of their previous four games. Injuries to Brian Urlacher, Tim Jennings, Earl Bennett and Lance Louis were among a handful of problems the Bears would attempt to overcome.

“You want to control what happens to you, and to have that be against your division opponents, it doesn’t get any better than that,” Bears coach Lovie Smith said earlier in the week. “We have a few injuries. For the most part, we have our team ready to go and the guys are excited about it and you can’t ask for anything more.”

Trying to contain Vikings running back Adrian Peterson would the top priority of the Bears defense. Peterson leads the NFL with 1,446 yards, more yards than 22 NFL teams. He came in with six consecutive 100-yard-plus games.

“Gang tackling, gap security, knowing exactly what we're doing and playing hard and fast… that game he played last week, it was special,” Bears defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said. “So we know what we've got in store for us. Competing for a championship, we've got to get him on the ground.”

Without Urlacher in the lineup, Nick Roach would start at middle linebacker.

“Nick has got great movement, great speed, he's been here for a long time,” Marinelli said. “He understands the system; he's done it before and he's fast. So he's a very good tackler. He brings a lot to the table.”

The Vikings approached Sunday’s game in desperation mode with a 6-6 record.

The Bears came into the game as the fifth seed in the NFC, having beaten the Vikings 28-10 two weeks ago. A home loss to Seattle last Sunday left the Bears sorely in need of a triumph at the Metrodome. The Bears and Packers entered the day tied with 8-4 records, but Green Bay held the tiebreaker after beating Chicago in Week 2. The Packers host the Lions on Sunday night.

The Bears entered Sunday with a six-game winning streak against Minnesota.

fmitchell@tribune.com

Twitter @kicker34

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Software guru McAfee did not have heart attack: lawyer

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Software pioneer John McAfee did not have a heart attack in Guatemala as originally thought, but is suffering from stress and hypertension, his lawyer Telesforo Guerra said on Thursday.

“He never had a heart attack. Nothing like that,” Guerra said in Guatemala City. “I’m not a doctor. I’m just telling you what the doctors told me. He was suffering from stress, hypertension and tachycardia (an abnormally rapid heartbeat).”

After being rushed to a hospital in an ambulance on Thursday, McAfee, 67, was later spirited out of the building out of sight of reporters and into a police patrol car, Guerra said.

McAfee, who is fighting deportation from Guatemala, was detained on Wednesday after crossing illegally into the country from neighboring Belize. Police in Belize want to question McAfee in connection with his neighbor’s murder.

Earlier, Guerra said McAfee had suffered two mild heart attacks in the morning.

(Reporting by Lomi Kriel; Editing by Stacey Joyce)

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Kevin Smith: “Clerks III” will be my last writing/directing effort

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Clerks III” will be Kevin Smith‘s last writing/directing effort, the filmmaker tweeted on Friday morning:

“So with the ‘HIT SOMEBODY‘ shift, the minute Jeff Anderson signs on, my last cinematic effort as a writer/director will be ‘CLERKS III’”

Referring to the ice-hockey comedy he’s writing that takes place over the course of 30 years, the “shift” means now it will be not a theatrical release but a television mini-series.

“Since ‘HIT SOMEBODY’ is now gonna be a mini-series,” the 42-year-old wrote. “Yes – that leaves room for a new final flick before I retire from directing feature films.”

So pending the participation of Anderson, the actor who played Randal Graves in the first two “Clerks” films, Smith’s fans will get the ultimate goodbye gift – a complete trilogy for the convenient store comedy franchise.

The first installment was the director’s mirco-budgeted breakthrough independent film, which launched characters Jay and Silent Bob into pop culture and led to four more spinoffs.

Minimum-wage earners Randal and Dante (Brian O’Halloran) were featured in a series of “Clerks” comics in the late ’90s before becoming the focus of a short-lived animated television series in 2000 (and eventually making it back to the big screen for a quick cameo in 2001′s “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”). Smith finally finished their story in 2006′s “Clerks II.”

Or so we thought. Apparently, he wants to end his film-directing career with the characters and actors that helped it begin. However, the tweet heard around the world of cinema suggests it may be somewhat of a challenge to persuade at least one half of the “Clerks” duo to come aboard.

Beyond “Hit Somebody” and “Clerks III,” Smith will keep himself busy with “SModcast,” a weekly podcast, and AMC’s “Comic Book Men,” which has been renewed for a second season.

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New Taxes to Take Effect to Fund Health Care Law

WASHINGTON — For more than a year, politicians have been fighting over whether to raise taxes on high-income people. They rarely mention that affluent Americans will soon be hit with new taxes adopted as part of the 2010 health care law.

The new levies, which take effect in January, include an increase in the payroll tax on wages and a tax on investment income, including interest, dividends and capital gains. The Obama administration proposed rules to enforce both last week.

Affluent people are much more likely than low-income people to have health insurance, and now they will, in effect, help pay for coverage for many lower-income families. Among the most affluent fifth of households, those affected will see tax increases averaging $6,000 next year, economists estimate.

To help finance Medicare, employees and employers each now pay a hospital insurance tax equal to 1.45 percent on all wages. Starting in January, the health care law will require workers to pay an additional tax equal to 0.9 percent of any wages over $200,000 for single taxpayers and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly.

The new taxes on wages and investment income are expected to raise $318 billion over 10 years, or about half of all the new revenue collected under the health care law.

Ruth M. Wimer, a tax lawyer at McDermott Will & Emery, said the taxes came with “a shockingly inequitable marriage penalty.” If a single man and a single woman each earn $200,000, she said, neither would owe any additional Medicare payroll tax. But, she said, if they are married, they would owe $1,350. The extra tax is 0.9 percent of their earnings over the $250,000 threshold.

Since the creation of Social Security in the 1930s, payroll taxes have been levied on the wages of each worker as an individual. The new Medicare payroll is different. It will be imposed on the combined earnings of a married couple.

Employers are required to withhold Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes from wages paid to employees. But employers do not necessarily know how much a worker’s spouse earns and may not withhold enough to cover a couple’s Medicare tax liability. Indeed, the new rules say employers may disregard a spouse’s earnings in calculating how much to withhold.

Workers may thus owe more than the amounts withheld by their employers and may have to make up the difference when they file tax returns in April 2014. If they expect to owe additional tax, the government says, they should make estimated tax payments, starting in April 2013, or ask their employers to increase the amount withheld from each paycheck.

In the Affordable Care Act, the new tax on investment income is called an “unearned income Medicare contribution.” However, the law does not provide for the money to be deposited in a specific trust fund. It is added to the government’s general tax revenues and can be used for education, law enforcement, farm subsidies or other purposes.

Donald B. Marron Jr., the director of the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, said the burden of this tax would be borne by the most affluent taxpayers, with about 85 percent of the revenue coming from 1 percent of taxpayers. By contrast, the biggest potential beneficiaries of the law include people with modest incomes who will receive Medicaid coverage or federal subsidies to buy private insurance.

Wealthy people and their tax advisers are already looking for ways to minimize the impact of the investment tax — for example, by selling stocks and bonds this year to avoid the higher tax rates in 2013.

The new 3.8 percent tax applies to the net investment income of certain high-income taxpayers, those with modified adjusted gross incomes above $200,000 for single taxpayers and $250,000 for couples filing jointly.

David J. Kautter, the director of the Kogod Tax Center at American University, offered this example. In 2013, John earns $160,000, and his wife, Jane, earns $200,000. They have some investments, earn $5,000 in dividends and sell some long-held stock for a gain of $40,000, so their investment income is $45,000. They owe 3.8 percent of that amount, or $1,710, in the new investment tax. And they owe $990 in additional payroll tax.

The new tax on unearned income would come on top of other tax increases that might occur automatically next year if President Obama and Congress cannot reach an agreement in talks on the federal deficit and debt. If Congress does nothing, the tax rate on long-term capital gains, now 15 percent, will rise to 20 percent in January. Dividends will be treated as ordinary income and taxed at a maximum rate of 39.6 percent, up from the current 15 percent rate for most dividends.

Under another provision of the health care law, consumers may find it more difficult to obtain a tax break for medical expenses.

Taxpayers now can take an itemized deduction for unreimbursed medical expenses, to the extent that they exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income. The health care law will increase the threshold for most taxpayers to 10 percent next year. The increase is delayed to 2017 for people 65 and older.

In addition, workers face a new $2,500 limit on the amount they can contribute to flexible spending accounts used to pay medical expenses. Such accounts can benefit workers by allowing them to pay out-of-pocket expenses with pretax money.

Taken together, this provision and the change in the medical expense deduction are expected to raise more than $40 billion of revenue over 10 years.

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WGN America may be channel of change for Tribune Co.

On Sunday night, WGN-Ch. 9 will air "Bozo's Circus: The Lost Tape," a 1971 episode that an alert archivist discovered after four decades of gathering dust.

At the same time, WGN America, the station's national cable counterpart, will beam reruns of the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" to its 75 million subscribers across the country.

Part of Tribune Co.'s future may rest with programming decisions like that.

Poised to emerge from its lengthy bankruptcy, the Chicago-based media company is expected to enter the new year with its holdings intact, a clean balance sheet and a plan to sell everything eventually.

The expected decision to name television executive Peter Liguori as Tribune Co.'s chief executive — he was the architect of basic cable powerhouse FX's first-run success — points to unlocking the value of the 34-year-old superstation as integral to a profitable exit strategy for the new owners of Tribune Co.

A source close to the situation told the Tribune that Liguori sees WGN America as an undervalued cable network with tremendous potential, if it gets the programming investment required. Developing the channel will "absolutely be a focus" after Liguori joins the company, which could happen within weeks.

"I'm sure that's the plan," said Derek Baine, a senior media analyst with SNL Kagan. "It all comes down to how much money you're investing in programming to get the viewers."

The new owners, senior creditors Oaktree Capital Management, Angelo, Gordon & Co. and JPMorgan Chase, have made it clear that monetizing Tribune Co.'s publishing, broadcasting and other holdings after a four-year slog through Chapter 11 is a matter of time. The process will likely challenge the maxim that the whole of Tribune Co. — estimated to be worth $4.5 billion post-emergence — is more than the sum of its parts. That's especially true when one of those parts is national cable channel WGN America, a low-rated repository of Cubs games and reruns, whose upside potential may dwarf all of the other assets combined.

Broadcasting assets, including 23 television stations, WGN-AM 720, CLTV and WGN America, represent the core profit center and account for $2.85 billion of Tribune Co.'s value, according to financial adviser Lazard. Tribune's eight daily newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, are worth $623 million, and other strategic assets, such as stakes in CareerBuilder and Food Network, are valued at $2.26 billion, according to a 2012 report by Lazard.

The value of the TV stations, including KTLA-TV in Los Angeles and WPIX-TV in New York, should benefit from an improving appetite for acquisitions, according to analysts. But WGN America, with the help of a few hit shows and some rebranding, could be the sleeping giant on the books. Turner Broadcasting's TBS, for example, has five times the audience and seven times the cash flow of WGN America and carries a distinct brand. It is worth more than twice that of the entire Tribune Co.

Liguori's success at FX Networks could well be the blueprint. After joining what was a small basic cable channel in 1998, Liguori was elevated to CEO in 2001 and transformed the network by offering original programming such as "The Shield," "Nip/Tuck" and "Rescue Me," building ratings and revenues in the process.

"You just need a couple of hit shows and then you can start building a schedule around them," Baine said. "A lot of these cable networks, you take one hit show and get people hooked on it and then you can stick another one in the time slot right behind it and start building on that."

Last year, FX had a cash flow of nearly $553 million on net revenue of more than $1 billion, making the network worth nearly $8 billion, Baine said.

WGN America is often compared with TBS to illustrate the upside, and the divergent paths the two original superstations have taken as the cable network model — a dual revenue stream of affiliate fees and advertising dollars — has evolved over the last two decades.

Both WGN and WTBS were uploaded to satellite in the late '70s, filling the programming void for distant cable systems with local baseball and "Andy Griffith" reruns. TBS became a division of Time Warner in 1996 and transformed into a full-fledged cable network, shelving old reruns for off-network sitcoms, benching the Atlanta Braves for national MLB coverage and rolling out first-run programming featuring everything from Tyler Perry to Conan O'Brien. The network dropped "superstation" and rebranded itself with slogans such as "very funny."

One advantage FX, which is part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., and TBS have enjoyed is the connection to a media empire with programming prowess and deep pockets.

Meanwhile, WGN has clung to the vestiges of its lower-cost superstation model, meaning cable and satellite systems can't insert local commercials and must pay copyright fees for the programming to the government. Content shifts between local and national, with Cubs baseball and Chicago news still broadcast across the country. There is a dearth of first-run programming, and the schedule is dotted with such fillers as "In the Heat of the Night" and "Walker: Texas Ranger." Even Andy Griffith remains in the mix with "Matlock," part of a block of programming to cover the "WGN Morning News," which is not broadcast nationally.

Not surprisingly, WGN America lags TBS and FX in ratings, revenue and distribution.

TBS is ranked 11th, FX is 13th and WGN America 40th in average viewership among cable networks through November, according to Nielsen.

Of the more than 114 million homes receiving cable in the U.S., TBS reaches 99.7 million, FX 97.9 million and WGN America 75 million, according to Nielsen. One of the biggest holes in WGN's coverage area is New York City, where the station has never quite found its way into the cable lineup. Nationally, TBS and FX are included in the basic packages for Dish Network and DirecTV, while WGN America is relegated to the second or third tier.

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2 killed in extra-alarm fire

The blaze killed one man and hospitalized another person, officials said. It happened in the 900 block of South Kensington Avenue about 1:30 a.m., according to police. (Posted Dec. 8th, 2012)

Staff report

11:00 a.m. CST, December 8, 2012

A 3-11 alarm fire broke out in southwest suburban La Grange early this morning, killing a man and a woman, officials said.

Firefighters rushed to a home in the 900 block of Kensington Avenue about 1:30 a.m., said Captain David Rapp of the La Grange Fire Department.

A man in his 90s was transported from the home to Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:32 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

A woman whose age was not available was transported to the same hospital, Rapp said. She was pronounced dead at 5:18 a.m. at the hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Firefighters have extinguished the fire, but officials are still working to determine its cause, Rapp said.

Check back for more information.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com
Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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Zynga seeks real-money gambling license in Nevada

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Social games maker Zynga Inc said on Wednesday it filed a preliminary application to run real-money gambling games in Nevada, a significant step in cracking a complex but potentially massive new market that could resuscitate its faltering business.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board will now examine whether Zynga is fit to hold a gaming license that would allow gamblers in the state to bet real money on the San Francisco-based company’s popular games like Zynga Poker, which currently involve only virtual chips with no monetary value.

Zynga is hoping that a lucrative real-money market could make up for a steep slide in revenue from its games like “FarmVille” and other fading titles that still generate the bulk of its sales.

“We anticipate that the process will take approximately 12 to 18 months to complete,” Zynga Chief Revenue Officer Barry Cottle said in a statement. “As we’ve said previously, the broader U.S. market is an opportunity that’s further out on the horizon based on legislative developments, but we are preparing for a regulated market.”

Zynga, along with many major gaming industry players, is hoping that a tide of proposed legislation to regulate gaming could sweep through states across the U.S. and open a massive new online market.

Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey are among the states that have moved or are moving toward interactive gaming after the U.S. Justice Department last year declared that only online betting on sporting contests was unlawful, presenting the opportunity for states to legalize some forms of online gambling, from lotteries to poker.

Although widespread legalization of online gaming in the United States appears years away at the minimum, obtaining a license in Nevada would be a meaningful foot in the door for Zynga’s nationwide aspirations.

Zynga has told investors in recent quarters that a concerted move into real-money gaming could represent a hefty – and badly needed – source of new revenue for the company, which has seen revenues sag and its stock plummet by more than three-quarters in the past year as gamers abandoned titles like “CityVille.”

In October, the company slashed its 2012 full-year earnings outlook for the second time and laid off employees to trim costs, while CEO Mark Pincus implored investors to give him time to turn around the company by pursuing initiatives like real-money gaming.

That month, Zynga struck a deal with bwin.party, a Gibraltar-based gaming company, to provide real money casino games like poker and slots in the United Kingdom beginning in the first half of 2013.

(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

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Quentin Tarantino: if you think “Django Unchained” is violent, try slavery

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – If you think “Django Unchained” is violent, Quentin Tarantino has a historical reality check for you: Try slavery.

The “Pulp Fiction” auteur is back with an Antebellum revenge flick that according to early screenings pours on the blood and gore. Tarantino told an audience of British Academy of Film and Television Arts members on Thursday that if anything he spared the lash in his depiction of slavery, according to the Guardian.

“We all intellectually ‘know’ the brutality and inhumanity of slavery,” Tarantino said, “but after you do the research it’s no longer intellectual any more, no longer just historical record – you feel it in your bones. It makes you angry and want to do something … I’m here to tell you, that however bad things get in the movie, a lot worse shit actually happened.”

Tarantino’s comments indicate that he anticipates the irreverent “Django Unchained” – which opens on Christmas Day – will court controversy for setting its story against the backdrop of the slave trade.

The film centers on a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) who partners with a freed slave (Jamie Foxx) to take down a plantation owner, Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) who controls his wife. Candie, who speaks with Magnolia-scented menace in the trailers, owns a mixed-race club in Greenville, Miss., and deals in slave-fights.

Perhaps because the film features Tarantino’s trademark sardonic humor, some early viewers have compared “Django Unchained” to the works of Mel Brooks.

“Just watched what was basically a three-hour homage to BLAZING SADDLES,”@LouLumenick tweeted.

But despite the humor, in an interview with Howard Stern this week, Tarantino indicated that he took the responsibility of depicting slavery very seriously. In particular, he said that shooting a scene where a female slave is brutalized brought him to tears and deeply impacted the crew.

“It was early on in the production, and it was the first time we started officially dealing with that kind of ugliness,” Tarantino said. “We later got used to dealing with that kind of ugliness. But that first – it was traumatizing to everybody, none less because of the fact that we were doing it in the real slave area of a real plantation where the slaves lived.

“This actually happened on the grounds,” he added. “There was blood in that ground. Those trees had memories of everything that happened there. We could feel the spirits of the old slaves on the property.”

Of course, Tarantino has taken on controversial subjects before. He turned an ultra-violent and satiric eye at the Nazis and an SD colonel nicknamed the “Jew Hunter” and turned it into “Inglourious Basterds.” Dealing with charges of insensitivity, it nonetheless collected over $ 300 million worldwide and was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

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Integrys Energy Services tapped to supply Chicago's electricity

The same company that heats homes in Chicago has been picked to provide the electricity that powers them.

Integrys Energy Services, a sister company to Peoples Gas, on Friday was named the city's choice to supply electricity to about 1 million Chicagoans. It's the largest such deal negotiated by a city on behalf of its residents.

The City Council is to vote on the contract Wednesday after a Monday public hearing.

Chicagoans should see discounts of 20 to 25 percent from March through June. Afterward, savings are expected to drop. Overall, the average household is expected to save $130 to $150 through May 2015, when the contract ends, according to the mayor's office.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Friday the deal "will put money back into the pockets of Chicago families and small businesses."

The contract calls for the elimination of power produced from coal, the largest source of greenhouse gases. About 40 percent of Chicago's electricity is from coal.

"That's a giant step toward healthier air and clean, renewable energy that supports good paying jobs in the technologies of tomorrow," said Jack Darin, executive director of the Sierra Club's Illinois chapter and a member of the advisory committee that worked on the deal.

However, the no-coal provision is largely symbolic since there is no way to know the precise origin of electricity flowing into Chicago homes.

Integrys Energy Services, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Integrys Energy Group, was chosen from eight bidders and was the only company other than Exelon-owned Constellation NewEnergy that made it to the final round.

Integrys Energy Group's board includes William Brodsky, head of the Chicago Board Options Exchange and a member of World Business Chicago, which Emanuel chairs.

The Integrys unit won the electrical aggregation contract despite Emanuel's connection to Constellation through its parent company, Exelon, which also owns Commonwealth Edison. While working at investment banking firm Wasserstein Perella & Co. after leaving the Clinton White House in 1998, Emanuel helped set up the merger that created Exelon.

Price was the determining factor, the mayor's office said.

Bidding documents, including pricing and how the contract would be structured, were not made public Friday.

In picking a price, Integrys must account for a large number of customers that will come and go. If electricity prices rise, Integrys risks losing money. Still, Integrys stands to become a dominant player in the retail electricity business and gain about $300 million in yearly revenue.

"Scale is important in this business," said Travis Miller, a utilities analyst with Chicago-based Morningstar. "The winner is immediately going to gain a huge scale advantage within the retail market."

ComEd still will be responsible for delivering electricity and fixing outages. ComEd makes its money delivering electricity, not supplying it. Customers' new bills will look like the old bills, except that the portion titled "electricity supply services" will have a new rate and include the new supplier's name.

Chicagoans can opt out and stick with ComEd or choose their own supplier like thousands of people already have.

Tribune reporter John Byrne contributed.

jwernau@tribune.com

Twitter @littlewern

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Crews recover WWII fighter plane near Waukegan

Nearly 100 people watched as crews pulled a WWII fighter plane from Waukegan Harbor this morning -- the first leg of a journey that could land it in a Glenview naval museum.

“It’s a pretty inspiring thing,” said Charles Greenhill, a 78-year-old pilot from Mettawa who paid for the recovery. “You think you get used to it, but you don’t.”

The plane will be shipped Greenhill’s hangar in Kenosha, Wis., and from there it will be transported to the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Fla. where a full restoration could take at least five years. A local group hopes to make the plane’s permanent home in a proposed museum on the site of the former Naval Air Station Glenview.

“It’s better than I thought,” Greenhill said as he watched the plane emerge from the water.

The FM-2 Wildcat had been used during World War II to train pilots for landing on aircraft carriers. It rolled off a converted steam ship on Dec. 28, 1944 and sank about 45 miles southeast of Waukegan after the engine failed during its third take-off.

The pilot, William Edward Forbes, was rescued and finished his training. He died in 2008 at 85.

Crews from A & T Recovery of Chicago began towing the wildcat under water on Sunday, getting it to Waukegan Harbor on Tuesday. They decided to wait until today, Pearl Harbor Day, to pull it from the water.

jbullington@tribune.com

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