TV drama production in L.A. plunges by 20% in 2012

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – The filming of TV dramas and reality shows in Los Angeles plummeted in 2012, according to figures released Tuesday by FilmL.A., the non-profit agency that coordinates location shoots in the region.

TV drama shoots were off by 20 percent from 2011, while the filming of reality shows dropped by 11.8 percent. Those numbers overshadowed the report’s good news on overall location shooting, movie production and commercial filming, all of which were up from the previous year.

The TV drama number is critical to the overall health of local filming, because those shows — mainly hour-long, high-end and multiple episodes – employ more people and bring more economic benefits than other types of productions. A typical 22-episode-a-year network series has a budget of $ 60 million and generates 840 direct and indirect jobs, according to the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

The numbers confirm what many had feared since a midyear FilmL.A. report indicated that L.A. was losing its grip on this critical production sector.

Of 23 TV drama pilots launched last year, just two were based in L.A., with the rest being shot in Canada, and other U.S. states including New York and North Carolina.

The TV drama figures clouded the otherwise positive report. Paced by upticks in feature film and commercial shoots, overall on-location production in 2012 rose 4.7 percent from the previous year, to its highest level since 2008.

FilmLA measures filming activity by permitted production days. Last year there were 46,254, compared to 45,484 in the previous year.

Overall TV production was dragged down by the drama and reality losses, falling 3.4 percent for the year (16,762 PPD in 2012 vs.17,349 in 2011). It would have been worse, but for a surge in sitcom production that powered an 11.9 percent fourth quarter increase.

L.A. still dominates in terms of sitcom production, but those are mainly half-hour shows shot primarily on soundstages. Comedy pilots employ fewer people and cost about $ 2 million to produce, compared to $ 5.5 million for drama pilots, the agency said.

“We know that part of the decline in our TV drama figures stems from producers’ desire to cut costs by filming more on studio back-lots and soundstages,” said FilmLA president Paul Audley. “Unfortunately, last year we also saw a record number of new TV drama series shot out of state, resulting in negative economic consequences.”

On-location movie production increased 3.7 percent for the year (5,892 PPD in 2012 vs. 5,682 PPD in 2011). This was the category’s best year since 2008, the year before feature production declined precipitously and state lawmakers enacted the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program.

The Warner Bros.’ movie “Gangster Squad,” which qualified for the state tax credit, provided a bright spot for the program.

The film, which opens Friday, was shot entirely in the city of Los Angeles and prominently features a number of local landmarks including City Hall and Union Station.

It reversed a trend that had seen L.A.-set period films “Hollywoodland” and “Black Dahlia” go elsewhere to film. Those 2006 movies shot some exteriors in Los Angeles, but “Hollywoodland” was produced mainly in Toronto and “The Black Dahlia” was filmed in Bulgaria.

In all, projects that qualified for the state tax credit accounted for 5.9 percent of the total movie shoots last year. Among the films that were shot utilizing the program were “10 Things I Hate About Life,” “Baggage Claim,” “The Bling Ring,” “Dark Skies,” “The Hive,” “Jesus in Cowboy Boots,” “Look of Love,” and “Plush.”

“Last year saw our industry rocked by dramatic changes in the local production landscape,” Audley said. “If we seek a more secure future for filming in Los Angeles, we must continue to innovate and expand upon the programs proven to attract new projects to California.”

Lawmakers last year voted to extend the program, which has been over-subscribed and provides lesser breaks than several competing states, through the 2016-17 fiscal year. New York in particular has become a major lure for producers, having added post-production tax credits last year, on top of filming incentives.

Other projects driving a significant amount of location filming in the L.A..area in 2012 included “Bad Words” and “Star Trek Into Darkness” from director J.J. Abrams.

Commercials production was another bright spot. Commercial shoots increased 14.1 percent for the year (8,078 PPD in 2012 vs. 7,079 in 2011), driven in part by a surge in the number of locally produced Internet commercial projects. Their production accounted for 7.9 percent of the commercials total, well up from the 1.7 percent web-based commercials generated when FilmL.A. first began tracking them in 2008.

Roughly 585,850 jobs directly or indirectly tied to the entertainment industry brought in $ 43.3 billion in labor income in 2011, according to the most recent figures from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Commission. That’s equivalent to 17.6 percent of L.A. County’s 3.3 million jobs. The industry generated $ 5.6 billion in state and local taxes that year.

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Recipes for Health: Cauliflower and Tuna Salad — Recipes for Health

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

I have added tuna to a classic Italian antipasto of cauliflower and capers dressed with vinegar and olive oil. For the best results give the cauliflower lots of time to marinate.

1 large or 2 small or medium cauliflowers, broken into small florets

1 5-ounce can water-packed light (not albacore) tuna, drained

1 plump garlic clove, minced or pureéd

1/3 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

3 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

3 tablespoons sherry vinegar or champagne vinegar

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Place the cauliflower in a steaming basket over 1 inch of boiling water, cover and steam 1 minute. Lift the lid for 15 seconds, then cover again and steam for 5 to 8 minutes, until tender. Refresh with cold water, then drain on paper towels.

2. In a large bowl, break up the tuna fish and add the cauliflower.

3. In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix together the garlic, parsley, capers, lemon juice, vinegar, and olive oil. Season generously with salt and pepper. Add the cauliflower and toss together. Marinate, stirring from time to time, for 30 minutes if possible before serving. Serve warm, cold, or at room temperature.

Yield: Serves 6 as a starter or side dish

Advance preparation: You can make this up to a day ahead, but omit the parsley until shortly before serving so that it doesn’t fade. It keeps well in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Nutritional information per serving: 188 calories; 15 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 10 grams monounsaturated fat; 10 milligrams cholesterol; 8 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 261 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 9 grams protein

Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”

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Rosenthal: New Sears boss hopes to be a new kind of merchant

He's been a big-time investor in the retail sector for more than 15 years and was chairman of Kmart after it emerged from bankruptcy about a decade ago. A few years later, he paired it with once-dominant Sears.

Yet even as Eddie Lampert is poised next month to add the role of chief executive to that of chairman at retail giant Sears Holdings, he's still characterized generally as just a hedge fund guy.

This, Lampert suggested in a rare interview Tuesday, fails to acknowledge changes in the 21st century retail industry as well as the Hoffman Estates-based company he seeks to revive.

"The most successful guy in retail right now is Jeff Bezos, and he was a (Wall Street) hedge fund guy," Lampert, 50, said by phone. "I think a lot of times when people talk about merchants it's almost a nostalgic look back at the time where the world moved at a very different pace and information was very different."

Lampert has decided to succeed Lou D'Ambrosio, who is leaving to tend to a family health issue. Critics complain that this is just the latest missed opportunity to have a world-class merchandiser run the struggling company.

"So it's Eddie Lampert who's going to be there, and he's a smart guy and insightful when it comes to doing deals, but he doesn't have a track record at running a retail operation," said Evan Mann, an analyst with Gimme Credit.

Lampert argues that a new kind of sales, one that encompasses e-commerce, traditional bricks-and-mortar, mobile and more, requires a new kind of merchant.

"Trying to move the volume of products we're talking about from place to place to get it ultimately into the customer's hands, to price these items, to market these items, I think the retail business is incredibly complex," Lampert said. "But if you get it right, it's a beautiful thing."

"I'm not denying that there are still great merchants," he said. "But to operate a company of the size of Sears Holdings or Wal-Mart or Target or Home Depot or Lowe's, you need a combination of skills, and each of those skills needs to be sufficiently strong."

Lampert can make the case that he is a modern-day merchant. He still hasn't proved he's a good one. For six successive years, Sears Holdings has seen no top-line growth, due to slipping sales and store closings.

"I understand and I appreciate people looking at same-store sales as an indicator," D'Ambrosio said during the call. "I think when you look at the financial shape of the company, there's clear progress."

D'Ambrosio noted four consecutive quarters of EBITDA growth and the fact the company raised $1.8 billion of liquidity in 2012 while reducing net debt by $400 million.

Overshadowed in Monday's news of the leadership change were other glimmers of hope: Sears' domestic comparable-store sales for the nine weeks ended Dec. 29 were up 0.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the strategy of technological convergence, which included a loyalty program, has yielded a wellspring of consumer data and changed customers' relationship with the retailer. Kmart and U.S. Sears' online sales are up 20 percent.

"It's never a good time for a transition, but what I would tell you is, five years ago, we put in place a more distributed leadership structure," Lampert said. "Despite what people may have said or written, there is a difference between a chairman role and a CEO role, and I've never been in the CEO role in this company."

D'Ambrosio predicted Lampert will offer strategic continuity. But handicappers have long questioned whether the old horse had any giddy-up left in its step to catch up to and keep pace with Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon.

And not to beat a dead metaphor, but the suspicion among many all along has been that Lampert saw neither a thoroughbred nor tireless workhorse in the parent of Sears and Kmart as so many parts to be cut up, boiled down and sold off.

"I was very clear why we put these companies together and what our goals were," Lampert said. "It was really to allow both Sears and Kmart to compete in what I thought was going to be a more challenging but evolving industry. The framework which was placed upon me and the company was: 'OK, this was all about real estate. It's about selling real estate.' Then when we didn't sell real estate, it became: 'Well, they missed the opportunity in 2006, 2007 to sell the real estate.'

"I've never denied there was substantial real estate value in the company," he said. "Suffice it to say that … the most value can be created if we actually transform it."

Fortune in 2006 called Lampert "the best investor of his generation." A Forbes contributor last year ranked him No. 2 on a list of the worst CEOs, and while acknowledging Lampert was Sears Holdings' chairman and not CEO, the contributor argued that "Lampert has called the shots, he's missed every target" and that he had "destroyed Sears."

D'Ambrosio said he doesn't recognize the Lampert he sometimes sees described by critics.

"I've never worked with somebody who understands business models and how to re-imagine a business model and has a view on the way buying will change going forward better than Eddie," D'Ambrosio said.

It turns out, his image is the thing he's least interested in selling at Sears Holdings.

"I do think what we've been trying to do at the company has been very clear," Lampert said. "If people want to doubt it or put a spin on it, they're entitled to do it. We just have to perform."

philrosenthal@tribune.com

Twitter @phil_rosenthal

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Magical run for Irish ends in rout

Notre Dame lost 42-14 on Monday.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — On a flawless South Florida night, Notre Dame players saw a legend emerge in present time. To their bone-deep disbelief, it was not them.

The eruption of streamers and confetti and joy surrounded them, and their shock and desolation filled the spaces in between. A program lost for a quarter-century might not be directionless, but the top looked far away from here.

A moment the Irish believed they were meant to have ended in a quiet walk out of sight and into another year of what might be. Alabama is the national champion, again, the SEC's marauding run extended to a seventh straight year with a 42-14 humiliation of Notre Dame in the BCS title game Monday, the Irish's first loss also their most excruciating.

Most left the field with distant gazes as the Crimson Tide hoisted newspapers with headlines blaring, "BAMA AGAIN." Nose guard Louis Nix limped off slowly. Tailback Theo Riddick pulled a towel over his head to hide his tears, which then burst forth by his locker stall. Across the room, freshman cornerback KeiVarae Russell tried to laugh through crying he couldn't stop.

Twenty-four years since that last title in 1988, wandering through losses and death and empty promise. When everyone saw the light at the end of it all, what they saw was that crystal football hoisted skyward. It remained far, far beyond their grasp at Sun Life Stadium and claimed by a different reborn college football dynasty.

"They're back-to-back national champs," Irish coach Brian Kelly said. "So that's what it looks like. Measure yourself against that, and it was pretty clear across the board what we have to do."

It was an oppressive deluge of unprepared and nerve-racked play from the start, the most yards (529) surrendered by Notre Dame (12-1) all year and the most points ever surrendered by Notre Dame in a bowl game. Eddie Lacy rampaged for 140 yards, AJ McCarron threw for 264 and four touchdowns and Alabama (13-1) did, basically, whatever it wanted.

Alabama players called a meeting shortly after their arrival in Florida, and some mused that it reflected a fracture in the focus of the defending champs. But the stoicism they demonstrated all week turned out to be determination to kick the ever-loving tar out of the nation's No. 1 team.

"We knew one team would break," Alabama defensive end Damion Square said, "and it wasn't going to be us."

It required only five plays for Alabama to find the end zone. Lacy was the sledgehammer, and it was 7-0 after the longest touchdown drive and the first first-quarter touchdown allowed by Notre Dame all season.

The curb-stomping didn't end. McCarron threw a touchdown pass, then set up a T.J. Yeldon score with 25- and 28-yard passes, then dumped a short toss to Lacy that the junior hauled into the end zone. It was a 28-0 lead, arrived at brutally, with special indifference to destiny and fortune.

"They did not dominate us," Nix said. "We just didn't play our ballgame, man. We didn't make tackles. Everything we did or had lined up should have worked."

In whatever context or interpretation, Alabama was destroying everything Notre Dame built over a brilliant season, stomping validation into a million little pieces.

"It felt like we were sinking in quicksand," guard Chris Watt said. "We couldn't get out of it."

It was 35-0 before Notre Dame at last responded with an 85-yard drive to an Everett Golson 2-yard option keeper, ending the Tide's 108-minute shutout streak in BCS championship appearances. When McCarron answered with another scoring toss to Amari Cooper, all that was left was getting out alive and figuring where to go from here.

After that last title in 1988, the pall descended. Lou Holtz left, and then it was Bob Davie and George O'Leary's resume and Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis' decided schematic advantage. Then Kelly arrived, and there was no definable reason to expect a title run to happen this year, and then it did.

It seemed, regardless of the outcome, Notre Dame might be a fully functional college football leviathan humming along. Then came the mighty Tide and a dent in the validation.

So, yes, the Irish making it this far proved a great deal.

"Nobody had us in this position to start the season," said receiver DaVaris Daniels, a bright spot with 115 receiving yards, "and look how far we've come, so quick."

And yet the Irish absorbing such a bracing setback means they must prove so much more.

"At Notre Dame, you're expected to win national championships," Watt said. "A lot of the things we did this season were just unbelievable. Those were all wonderful things. But it doesn't really mean anything when you don't win a national championship. You can't really win anything else here."

So off they went, dazed and empty-handed. All around them the new college football dynasty celebrated. All around them, Notre Dame saw what it desperately wanted to become.

Off they went, into the tunnels, a brilliant season ending well short of legend. And the Irish would do what everyone before them had done for a quarter-century, and wake up in the morning just waiting to get back.

bchamilton@tribune.com

Twitter @ChiTribHamilton

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Galaxy phones power Samsung to record $8.3 billion profit

SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics, the world leader in mobiles and memory chips, said it likely earned a quarterly profit of $ 8.3 billion, as it sold close to 500 handsets a minute and as demand picked up for the flat screens it makes for mobile devices, including those for rival Apple Inc products.

That run of five straight record quarters may end in January-March on weaker seasonal demand, though a strong pipeline of smartphones – the South Korean group’s biggest earner – and improving chip prices have eased concerns that earnings growth could slow this year, powering Samsung shares to record levels last week.

The stock closed down 1.3 percent on Tuesday, in a Seoul market that fell 0.7 percent.

“Investors are a bit concerned that Samsung’s momentum may slow in the first half. The smartphone market is unlikely to sustain its strong growth as advanced markets are nearing saturation despite growth in emerging countries,” said Kim Sung-soo, a fund manager at LS Asset Management.

Samsung has outpaced Apple – its biggest rival and biggest customer – despite the U.S. firm’s launch of the latest iPhone 5, with sales momentum boosted by its Galaxy Note II phone-cum-tablet, or ‘phablet’, in the fourth quarter. IPhone 5 sales were a little below expectations, analysts said.

While Apple rolled out just a single new smartphone last year globally, Samsung bombarded the market with 37 variants tweaked for regional and consumer tastes, from high-end smartphones to cheaper low-end models. By comparison, Taiwan’s HTC Corp released 18 models, Nokia 9 and LG Electronics 24.

HTC on Monday said its fourth-quarter profit slumped more than 90 percent as its sales continue to trail those of the Galaxy range and the iPhone.

Samsung, valued at close to $ 230 billion, gave its October-December earnings guidance on Tuesday, ahead of the full earnings release expected by January 25.

A HIGH NOTE

Shipments of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S III, which overtook the iPhone 4S in the third quarter to become the world’s best-selling smartphone, are likely to have slipped to around 15 million in the last quarter from 18 million in July-September, analysts estimate, but sales of around 8 million Galaxy Note II ‘phablets’ should more than make up for that – pushing overall smartphone shipments to around 63 million.

“The Note was selling well, boosting fourth-quarter profit, while iPhone 5 sales were less than expected,” said Song Myung-sub, an analyst at HI Investment & Securities.

“Samsung’s profit will drop in the current quarter because of decreased phone profits. It will launch the Galaxy S IV only in March or April so, without new models, phone sales prices will fall this quarter. For the whole year, Samsung will launch new models faster than Apple and have the upper hand in the smartphone market.”

The new Galaxy, widely expected to be released within months, may have an unbreakable screen and full high-definition quality resolution boasting 440 pixels per inch, as well as a better camera and a more powerful processor.

“Samsung’s smartphone shipments are likely to grow even in a seasonally weak first quarter. The early launch of the Galaxy S IV would drive second-quarter growth momentum,” said BNP Paribas Securities analyst Peter Yu, who predicts Samsung’s 2013 operating profit will grow 25 percent to almost $ 35 billion.

Samsung is expected to increase its smartphone sales by more than a third this year, and widen its lead over Apple as it offers a broader range of mobile devices, said Neil Mawston, executive director at market researcher Strategy Analytics, which forecasts Samsung will sell 290 million smartphones this year, up from a projected 215 million in 2012.

Kim Sung-in, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities, sees Samsung shipping 320 million smartphones this year and doubling sales of its tablets to 32 million.

STRONG NUMBERS

Samsung said its October-December operating profit jumped 89 percent to 8.8 trillion won from a year ago, just ahead of a forecast for 8.7 trillion won by 16 analysts surveyed by Reuters. That is 8.6 percent higher than its previous record of 8.1 trillion won in July-September.

Analysts expect profits from the mobile division to more than double from last year and increase slightly from the previous quarter, to around 5.8 trillion won. A recovery in chip prices and flat screens should also boost component earnings, helped by booming sales of mobiles carrying Samsung’s chips, micro-processors and flat screens.

Reflecting the strong outlook, shares in Asia’s most valuable technology stock last week hit a life high of 1.584 million won ($ 1,500). The stock gained 44 percent last year, topping Apple’s 31 percent increase and easily outpacing a 9 percent rise on the broader Korean market.

Samsung, led by founding family member and chairman Lee Kun-hee, is embroiled in a patent legal battle with Apple globally. Apple won a $ 1.05 billion verdict against Samsung in August, but has failed to win a permanent sales ban on several, mostly older Samsung models.

(Additional reporting by Joyce Lee and Narae Kim; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

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David Bowie breaks long silence with new music release

LONDON (Reuters) – British singer David Bowie released his first new song in nearly a decade on Tuesday in a surprise launch coinciding with his 66th birthday.

“Where Are We Now?”, produced by his long-term collaborator Tony Visconti, is a mournful look back to the time he spent in Berlin in the 1970s with an accompanying video featuring black-and-white footage of the city when it was still divided.

The song, available on iTunes and free to view on his re-launched website, was recorded in New York and will be followed by his first studio album since 2003, “The Next Day”, due to hit shelves in March.

Bowie’s label Columbia Records said the new song was a “treasure” that appeared “as if out of nowhere”, underlining the element of surprise from a release that ends years of speculation among fans over whether he would record again.

“Throwing shadows and avoiding the industry treadmill is very David Bowie despite his extraordinary track record that includes album sales in excess of 130 million not to mention his massive contributions in the area of art, fashion, style, sexual exploration and social commentary,” the label said.

The album will consist of 14 songs, and a deluxe edition will feature three bonus tracks.

The glam-rock star shot to fame with “Space Oddity” in 1969, and later with his alter ego Ziggy Stardust, before establishing himself as a chart-topping force in the early 1980s.

Known for his constant desire to re-invent and experiment with different musical genres, Bowie is considered one of the most influential, and unusual stars of the pop era.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White)

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The New Old Age Blog: Who Should Receive Organ Transplants?

Joe Gammalo had been contending with pulmonary fibrosis, a scarring of the lungs, for more than a decade when he came to the Cleveland Clinic in 2008 seeking a lung transplant.

“It had gotten to the point where I was on oxygen all the time and in a wheelchair,” he told me in an interview. “I didn’t expect to live.”

Lung transplants are a dicey proposition, involving a huge surgical procedure, arduous follow-up, the lifelong use of potent immunosuppressive drugs and high rates of serious side effects. “It’s not like taking out an appendix,” said Dr. Marie Budev, the medical director of the clinic’s lung transplant program.

Only 50 to 57 percent of all recipients live for five years, she noted, and they will still die of their disease. But there’s no other treatment for pulmonary fibrosis.

Some medical centers would have turned Mr. Gammalo away. Because survival rates are even lower for older patients, guidelines from the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation caution against lung transplants for those over 65, though they set no age limit.

But “we are known as an aggressive, high-risk center,” said Dr. Budev. So Mr. Gammalo was 66 when he received a lung; his newly found buddy, Clyde Conn, who received the other lung from the same donor, was 69.

You can’t mistake the trend: A graying population and revised policies determining who gets priority for donated organs, have led to a rising proportion of older adults receiving transplants.

My colleague Judith Graham has reported on the increase in heart transplants, but the pattern extends to other organs, too.

The number of kidney transplants performed annually on adults over 65 tripled between 1998 and last year, according to data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. In 2001, 7.4 percent of liver transplant recipients were over 65; last year, that rose to 13 percent.

The rise in elderly lung transplant candidates is particularly dramatic because, since 2005, a “lung allocation score” puts those at the highest mortality risk, rather than those who’ve waited longest, at the top of the list.

In 2001, about 3 percent of those on the wait list and of those transplanted were over 65; last year, older patients represented almost 18 percent of wait-listed candidates and more than a quarter of transplant recipients. (Medicare pays for the surgery, though patients face co-pays and considerable out-of-pocket costs, including for drugs and travel.)

The debate has grown, too: When the number of adults awaiting transplants keeps growing, but organ donations stay flat, is it desirable or even ethical that an increasing proportion of recipients are elderly?

Dr. Budev, who estimated that a third of her program’s patients are over 65, votes yes. As long as a program selects candidates carefully, “how can you deny them a therapy?” she asked. So the Cleveland Clinic has no age limit. “We feel that everyone should have a chance.”

At the University of Michigan, by contrast, the age limit remains 65, though Dr. Kevin Chan, the transplant program’s medical director, acknowledged that some fit older patients get transplanted.

“You can talk about this all day — it’s a tough one,” Dr. Chan said. Younger recipients have greater physiologic reserve to aid in the arduous recovery; older ones face higher risk of subsequent kidney failure, stroke, diabetes and other diseases, and, of course, their lifespans are shorter to begin with.

Donated lungs, fragile and prone to injury, are a particularly scarce commodity. Last year, surgeons performed 16,055 kidney transplants, 5,805 liver transplants and 1,949 heart transplants. Only1,830 patients received lung transplants.

“What if there’s a 35-year-old on a ventilator who needs the lung just as much?” Dr. Chan said. “Why should a 72-year-old possibly take away a lung from a 35-year-old?” Yet, he acknowledged, “it’s easy to look at the statistics and say, ‘Give the lungs to younger patients.’ At the bedside, when you meet this patient and family, it’s a lot different.”

These questions about who deserves scarce resources — those most likely to die without them? or those most likely to live longer with them? — will persist as the population ages. They’re also likely to arise when the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation begins working towards revised guidelines this spring. (I’d also like to hear your take, below.)

Lots of 65- and 75-year-olds are very healthy. Yet transplants themselves can cause harm and there’s no backup, like dialysis. Without the transplant, they die. But when the transplant goes wrong, they also die.

More than four years post-transplant, the Cleveland Clinic’s “lung brothers” are success stories. Mr. Conn, who lives near Dayton, Ohio, can’t walk very far or lift more than 10 pounds, but he works part time as a real-estate appraiser and enjoys cruises with his wife.

Mr. Gammalo, a onetime musician, has developed diabetes, like nearly half of all lung recipients. But he went onstage a few weeks back to sing “Don’t Be Cruel” with his son’s rock band, “a highlight of both our lives,” he said.

Yet when I asked Mr. Conn, now 73, how he felt about having priority over a younger but healthier person, he paused. “It’s a good question,” he said, to which he had no answer.

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Paula Span is the author of “When the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions.”

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Sears CEO D'Ambrosio to step down

Sears Holdings Corp. said Monday night that Chief Executive Officer Louis D'Ambrosio will step down Feb. 2, due to family health matters, and Chairman Edward Lampert will add the role of CEO.

The surprise move fuels uncertainty at the Hoffman Estates-based company, which has struggled for years to re-establish itself as a department store in an ultracompetitive retailing industry dominated by low-price giant Wal-Mart and big box and specialty stores.

The decision by Lampert, a hedge fund operator who is the company's biggest shareholder, to take over day-to-day control represents a reversal from his naming of D'Ambrosio as chief executive nearly two years ago after operating with an interim CEO.

"In light of Lou's decision to step down, the board feels it is important that there is continuity of leadership during this important period of transformation and improvement at Sears Holdings," Lampert said in a statement. "I have agreed to assume these additional responsibilities in order to continue the company's recovery and sustain the momentum we are experiencing, as well as further the development of the management team under the distributed leadership model, which provides our business unit leaders with greater control, authority and autonomy."

Sears Holdings, which operates Sears and Kmart, also updated its fourth-quarter earnings outlook Monday night. The company said it expects to report a net loss $280 million to $360 million, or $2.64 to $3.40 per diluted share, for the quarter ending Feb. 2. The loss includes a charge of about $450 million because of pension settlements and an additional $42 million in pension expenses.

Excluding pension expenses, Sears said it expects to earn $132 million to $212 million, or $1.25 to $2 per share.

Analysts polled by Bloomberg had been expecting adjusted net income of about $137 million.

For the fiscal year, Sears said it expects to lose $721 million to $801 million, or $6.80 to $7.56 per diluted share, which includes pension-related costs and other adjustments reported late last year. Excluding those items, the company said it expects to lose $123 million to $203 million, or $1.16 to $1.92 per share.

D'Ambrosio became CEO after working for the company as a consultant. The 16-year veteran of IBM Corp. had been CEO of a telecommunications company before joining Sears.

"I have worked very closely with Eddie over the past two years. I can say this: there is simply no one in the world that cares more about Sears Holdings and has thought more deeply about our company than Eddie," D'Ambrosio wrote to employees.

Lampert gained control of Sears in 2005 after engineering the merger between Kmart and Sears Roebuck & Co. For years, speculation about Lampert's intentions for the company focused on the value of its real estate, but under D'Ambrosio, Sears appeared to pay more attention to retail aspirations.

The company reported improved performance — it beat Wall Street expectations — in the previous quarter, but Sears stock has lost more than 35 percent of its value since November, closing Monday at $42.92, up 1.7 percent.

 Crshropshire@tribune.com

Twitter: @corilyns 

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Police: Good Samaritans foil North Side robbery

Jose Rodriguez, 30. (Chicago Police Department / January 6, 2013)

By Adam Sege




Tribune reporter

10:40 p.m. CST, January 6, 2013

A screwdriver-wielding parolee was tackled by two good Samaritans after he stole a woman's purse in the Lincoln Park neighborhood Saturday night, police said.

About 11:45 p.m., Jose Rodriguez, 30, approached a woman from behind in the 800 block of West Diversey Parkway, the Chicago Police Department said in a news release. 

Rodriguez held an arm around the 29-year-old woman's neck, placed a screwdriver against her torso, and demanded money, police said.

Rodgriguez ran off with the woman's purse shortly after, police said.

A 20-year-old witness took off in pursuit, and when Rodriguez approached a 24-year-old man walking in the opposite direction, the 20-year-old yelled for him to stop the robber, police said.

Together, the men tackled Rodriguez and restrained him until police showed up, police said.

Rodriguez was arrested and charged with armed robbery with a dangerous weapon and a parole violation.

asege@tribune.com

Twitter: @AdamSege

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‘Facebook Dead’: How to ‘Kill’ Your Friends

Rusty Foster discovered he was dead last week, at least according to Facebook. He had been locked out of his account, which had been turned into a “memorial page,” because someone had reported the Maine man as deceased to the social media site.

He tweeted Thursday, “Facebook thinks I’m dead. I’m tempted to just let it,” then “Did you know that you can report any of your Facebook friends dead & Facebook will lock them out of their account with no evidence needed?”

As one of Foster’s friends discovered, it doesn’t take much to convince Facebook that somebody is dead. By simply going to the ” Memorialization Request” page and filling out a form, including a link to an obituary, anybody can take someone else off Facebook.

The obituary needs to have the same name (or at least a close name), but doesn’t need to match any other details on the profile. The obituary Foster’s friend used to prove Foster’s death was for a man who was born in 1924 and died in 2011 in a different state than the one Foster lists on Facebook as his home state.

Foster, 36, said he never got any notification his account was going to be locked, and only discovered it when he attempted to log in. He filled out a form to report the error, and received a response that began with “We are very sorry to hear about your loss.”

More than a full day later, Foster’s account still hadn’t been unlocked. Buzzfeed, tipped off by Foster, posted an article in which one editor “killed” another editor, John Herrman, on Facebook. According to the article, about an hour after Herrman reported the error to Facebook, his profile was reactivated. About an hour after that, 27 hours after Foster first reported his erroneous death, he was “resurrected” by Facebook and allowed back into his account.

Foster does not know the total amount of time he was “Facebook dead.” He told ABC that nothing was different with his account when he logged back in, only that some of his friends had a little fun with his status.

“The only thing that happened was some of my friends posted little mock-eulogies for me, because word got around that I was locked out, due to a temporary case of death,” Foster wrote in an email with the subject line, “Rusty, the Facebook zombie.”

When pages are memorialized, they are removed from sidebars, timelines and friend suggestions and searches. This is likely to prevent people from seeing their friends who have died pop up on their newsfeed, and to prevent people from hacking into the accounts of dead people.

Foster said he understands the position Facebook is in when it comes to the death of one of its users, but believes there are better options for the social media site.

“There ought to be an email sent to the account’s email address informing it that the account has been reported dead and providing a link or something to dispute the report before any action is taken,” Foster wrote.

Foster said the most frustrating part was not being able to get into his account to “click the ‘I’m not dead’ button that should also be there.”

This has apparently been the same “memorialization” process since at least 2009, when another user took to his personal blog to write about his experience of being “Facebook dead.” In his case, the obituary his friend used to have him declared dead wasn’t even close to his real name. Instead, the man who performed the funeral services had a similar name.

In a statement to ABC News, Facebook said the system is in place in order to respect the privacy of the deceased.

“We have designed the memorialization process to be effective for grieving families and friends, while still providing precautions to protect against either erroneous or malicious efforts to memorialize the account of someone who is not deceased,” the statement reads. “We also provide an appeals process for the rare instances in which accounts are mistakenly reported or inadvertently memorialized.”

Also Read
Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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