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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

bmbiggs@tribune.com

Twitter @BradBiggs

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So What if Oprah Used an iPad to Tweet About Microsoft Surface?

Oprah Winfrey recently gave Microsoft‘s Surface her seal of approval when the gadget made her annual “Favorite Things” list. Oprah has been using Twitter and hashtag #FavoriteThings to endorse the Surface.

On Monday, however, criticism began bubbling up on blogs and social sites because it appears Oprah is typing her tweets on Apple‘s iPad (see screenshot above).

[More from Mashable: How Should Apple Name the Next Mac OS Series? [POLL]]

But, we have to ask, does that really matter?

Technology users own more than one gadget — often made from different companies — and as my colleagues point out, people use an iPad differently than a Surface. And for Oprah, that’s no different. She did put the iPad on her “Ultimate Favorite Things” list in 2010, saying, “I really think it’s the best invention of the century so far.”

[More from Mashable: Apple Stock Jumps More Than 7% After Falling to 6-Month Low]

Additionally, a good Twitter client doesn’t exist yet for Windows 8, says Mashable Tech Editor Pete Pachal.

Oprah, whose product endorsements usually boost sales for companies, compared the Surface to a Mercedes-Benz in O magazine’s “Favorite Things” list:

“The Surface, Microsoft’s first tablet, feels like a Mercedes-Benz to me, people! The full-size keyboard built right into the cover makes work easy, the very smart kickstand makes watching a movie or Skyping a friend a delight, the less than a pound-and-a-half weight makes a great alternative to a laptop, and the many other features make it fun for work and play. Now, that’s a wowser!”

The Surface will also appear in the televised Oprah’s Favorite Things 2012 two-hour special on Nov. 18.

How do you feel about Oprah raving about the Surface via an iPad? Does that raise red flags about the product’s capabilities? Or are people blowing this incident out of proportion? Weigh in below in the comments.

Microsoft Surface Powered Up

This is the Surface tablet with Touch Cover in place.

Click here to view this gallery. Screenshot of Oprah’s Tweet from Mashable’s Seth Fiegerman

Homepage photo via Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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‘Trapped’ on Broadway? R. Kelly is working on it

NEW YORK (AP) — Is Broadway ready for Twan, Sylvester, Pimp Lucius and “the package”? R. Kelly thinks so — and says he’s working to bring the wacky characters and plotlines in his even wackier “Trapped in the Closet” series to the Great White Way.

The superstar announced on Monday night that he’s had an offer to bring the cult classic to the stage, and he may even be in some performances.

“To transform it into a Broadway version, that’s what I’m working on,” he told a packed house at the Sunshine Theater, where he unveiled the latest chapters in “Trapped in the Closet,” which will debut on the IFC on Friday.

Kelly gave no other details about a possible Broadway adaptation of the wildly popular video opera. It got its start from a stirring series of songs Kelly debuted in 2005, which ended with a cliff-hanger. The songs captured so much attention, Kelly made an over-the-top video series about it that just got crazier and crazier as he added more chapters.

Kelly has often referred to “Trapped” as an alien, and on Monday, he said: “I’m glad to be one of the astronauts to take this thing to the unknown.”

He thanked the enthusiastic crowd for accepting the series, and admitted that he always wanted to act: “Somehow, I landed ‘Trapped in the Closet’ from being silly.”

He also joked about the ridiculous nature of the series.

“I’m just having a lot of fun. I don’t have a job so I sit in the studio all day and think of stuff to do and this is just something stupid I’ve done that’s been successful for me,” he said. “I’m having a lot of fun with it.”

The latest chapters introduce a few new faces, and like the others series, ends with a cliffhanger. While it’s taken Kelly five years to add these latest chapters to the series, Kelly says he won’t take as long to produce more.

“I want everybody to know I’ve got 85 chapters of ‘Trapped in the Closet’ waiting in the studio for y’all,” he said. “The chapters that are coming — the show, we call it — is going to exceed every chapter that you have ever seen.”

Kelly capped of the evening with a rendition of one of his biggest hits, “I Believe I Can Fly,” for the audience.

___

http://www.r-kelly.com

http://www.ifc.com

___

Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP’s Global Entertainment & Lifestyles Editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Responding to Illnesses Manifesting Amid Recovery From Storm

Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Angela Macropoulos contributed reporting.

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Hostess, unions agree to mediation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

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

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

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

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

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

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

BUYERS MAY EMERGE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Chicago man, 56, charged in stabbing at Michigan Avenue hotel

Authorities have charged a Chicago resident with attempted murder in connection with a stabbing Saturday evening near the front of a North Michigan Avenue hotel, police announced early Monday.

Jimmy Harris, 56, has been charged with one count of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated battery with intent to do great bodily harm and one count of aggravated unlawful restraint.

The charges stem from an attempted robbery Saturday evening in which a 67-year-old man was stabbed in the neck Saturday evening near the front of the Westin Hotel, authorities and witnesses said.

A second man was cut trying to stop the assailant from fleeing, police said.

The incident began shortly before 8 p.m. when the 67-year-old man was stabbed during an attempted robbery, Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Amina Greer said, citing preliminary information.

A 35-year-old man was cut in the chest as he tried to capture the assailant, Greer said.

Police took Harris into custody following the incident. A weapon was also recovered, Greer said.

The 67-year-old was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where his condition was stabilized, Greer said. The 35-year-old was taken to Northwestern in good condition.

According to the niece of the 67-year-old man, Jameela Ali, 28, of Lincoln Park, she and her uncle were part of a group of seven dining in a restaurant inside the Westin when her uncle was attacked inside a bathroom. She first heard a commotion inside the bathroom, then saw her uncle, badly injured, struggling with another man outside the bathroom.

"His left eye was bruised, totally swollen shut," Ali said. "There was blood gushing from his neck, blood all over his clothes. He looked like he had been punched in the face several times. I started screaming. I didn't know what to do."

Ali's uncle remained at Northwestern as of 1:30 am. Ali said he suffered a laceration to his external jugular vein and received exploratory surgery to ensure there was no further damage.

By 8:30 p.m., crime scene tape surrounded the entrance to the Westin Hotel on Delaware Street and Michigan Avenue with patches of blood visible on the pavement, and two police cars blocked the street.

Managers at the Westin declined to comment late Saturday and early Sunday.

Olivia Morrow, 18, said she and her friend were returning to the hotel around 8 p.m. to meet their parents when they saw police on the scene.

Morrow said shortly after that she saw about five hotel officials running out of the building toward the stairs leading to the Hancock Tower and the neighboring The Cheesecake Factory Restaurant.

"They had radios and phones in their hands, saying that (the attacker) was last seen running down the stairs," Morrow said.

Genevieve Waldron of Michigan City, Ind., was among the crowd waiting for a table outside when she and her mother saw dozens of officers sprinting toward the restaurant from every direction.

"They were obviously looking for somebody and we were trying to stay out of the way," Waldron said.

A few minutes later, two officers came back up the stairs, flanking a man who was handcuffed, and loaded him into the back of a marked car.

Neither The Cheesecake Factory nor the hotel were evacuated, as guests on the south-facing side of the building peered out of the windows to get a view of the scene. There appeared to be little commotion at the restaurant, where diners poured out into the hallways waiting for a table.

Tribune reporter Liam Ford contributed.

cdrhodes@tribune.com
Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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Bieber sweeps American Music Awards with big wins

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Canadian pop star Justin Bieber swept the American Music Awards on Sunday, topping strong competition from Rihanna and Nicki Minaj, and sending newcomers British boybands One Direction and The Wanted home empty-handed.

Bieber, 18, won all three categories in which he was nominated, including the night’s biggest award, artist of the year, over Rihanna, Katy Perry, Maroon 5 and Drake.

“This is for all the haters who thought that maybe I was just here for one or two years, but I feel like I am going to be here for a very long time,” Bieber said on stage, dedicating his first win of the night to his mother, Pattie Mallette, who accompanied him after his widely reported split from girlfriend Selena Gomez.

“It’s hard growing up with everything going on, with everyone watching me. I wanted to say that as long as you guys keep believing in me, I want to always make you proud,” Bieber said at the end of the night.

Bieber, who also won favorite pop/rock male artist and favorite pop/rock album for “Believe,” took to a bare stage to sing an acoustic stripped-down version of his latest single “As Long As You Love Me” before livening up the show with Nicki Minaj for “Beauty and a Beat.”

The American Music Award nominees and winners are voted online by fans, and the awards are handed out during a live three-hour broadcast featuring performances by artists.

R&B singer Rihanna, 24, and rapper Minaj, 29, led the nominees going into Sunday’s awards with four apiece.

Minaj won favorite rap/hip hop artist and rap/hip hop album of the year for “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.” The singer, known for her extravagant on-stage performances, sang her latest hit “Freedom” in a winter wonderland-themed set.

Rihanna came away with one win. She couldn’t make the show because she is in Berlin, midway through a seven-day tour across seven cities around the world promoting her upcoming “Unapologetic” album.

Canadian pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen, 26, picked up the coveted new artist-of-the-year award over One Direction, Australian artist Gotye, indie-pop band fun. and rapper J. Cole. She performed her hit “Call Me Maybe.”

“I am floored,” the singer said, thanking Bieber along with her fans in her acceptance speech.

ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC AWARD

Newcomer British-Irish boy bands One Direction, which had three nominations, and The Wanted, which had one nomination, went home empty-handed, losing out in the favorite pop/rock group category to well-established Los Angeles group Maroon 5.

French DJ David Guetta won the first-ever American Music Award for electronic dance music over DJs Calvin Harris and Skrillex.

“It’s wonderful also to see electronic music recognized at this level in the U.S.,” Guetta said in a taped acceptance speech.

Only 13 of the 20 awards were handed out during the live broadcast. Katy Perry was named favorite female pop/rock artist, Shakira was named favorite Latin artist, while Beyonce was voted favorite soul artist. None of the three attended the show.

Country-pop darling Taylor Swift, 22, scored the favorite female country artist award before performing her latest single “I Knew You Were Trouble” from her chart-topping album “Red,” on a masquerade ballroom-style stage with dancers in tuxedos, gowns and Venetian masks.

R&B star Usher kicked off the night with a medley of his hits on a laser-filled stage, while pop-rocker Pink teamed her performance of her latest single “Try” with a dramatic interpretive dance covered in paint with a male dancer on a stage filled with burning debris.

1990s ska-punk band No Doubt performed “Looking Hot” from their first album in a decade, “Push & Shove,” while rockers Linkin Park performed their latest “Burn It Down” after winning favorite alternative rock band over The Black Keys and Gotye.

Korean rapper Psy didn’t score any nominations, but he was named the AMA new media honoree for his viral hit music video “Gangnam Style,” accompanied by his trademark horse-riding dance.

The star closed out the show with his hit song, joined by surprise guest MC Hammer, one of the pioneering rappers from the 1980s, who was known for his catch phrase ‘Hammer Time.’

Singer Brandy paid tribute to the late Whitney Houston, who died suddenly at age 48 on the night before the Grammy Awards in February this year from accidental drowning.

AMA founder Dick Clark, who also passed away earlier this year, was given a touching tribute by veteran soul singer Stevie Wonder, who sang a medley of hits including “Hotter Than July” and “My Cherie Amour,” against a backdrop of pictures of Clark. Wonder was introduced by “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest, who also paid homage to Clark’s influence.

“Dick loved the power of music and the ability to create pure joy,” Seacrest said.

The awards show, which marked its 40th anniversary this year, treated the audience to some of its greatest moments, including R&B star Beyonce performing “Single Ladies” at the 2008 show, Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff at the 1989 awards show, and various clips of AMA regular, the late singer Michael Jackson.

(Additional reporting by Jill Serjeant, editing by Christine Kearney and Philip Barbara)

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Teenage Boys, Worried About Body Image, Take Health Risks

It is not just girls these days who are consumed by an unattainable body image.

Take David Abusheikh. At age 15, he started lifting weights for two hours a day, six days a week. Now that he is a senior at Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn, he has been adding protein bars and shakes to his diet to put on muscle without gaining fat.

“I didn’t used to be into supplements,” said Mr. Abusheikh, 18, who plans on a career in engineering, “but I wanted something that would help me get bigger a little faster.”

Pediatricians are starting to sound alarm bells about boys who take unhealthy measures to try to achieve Charles Atlas bodies that only genetics can truly confer. Whether it is long hours in the gym, allowances blown on expensive supplements or even risky experiments with illegal steroids, the price American boys are willing to pay for the perfect body appears to be on the rise.

In a study to be published on Monday in the journal Pediatrics, more than 40 percent of boys in middle school and high school said they regularly exercised with the goal of increasing muscle mass. Thirty-eight percent said they used protein supplements, and nearly 6 percent said they had experimented with steroids.

Over all, 90 percent of the 2,800 boys in the survey — who lived in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, but typify what doctors say is a national phenomenon — said they exercised at least occasionally to add muscle.

“There has been a striking change in attitudes toward male body image in the last 30 years,” said Dr. Harrison Pope, a psychiatry professor at Harvard who studies bodybuilding culture and was not involved in the study. The portrayal of men as fat-free and chiseled “is dramatically more prevalent in society then it was a generation ago,” he said.

While college-age men have long been interested in bodybuilding, pediatricians say they have been surprised to find that now even middle school boys are so absorbed with building muscles. And their youth adds an element of risk.

Just as girls who count every calorie in an effort to be thin may do themselves more harm than good, boys who chase an illusory image of manhood may end up stunting their development, doctors say, particularly when they turn to supplements — or, worse, steroids — to supercharge their results.

“The problem with supplements is they’re not regulated like drugs, so it’s very hard to know what’s in them,” said Dr. Shalender Bhasin, a professor of medicine at Boston Medical Center. Some contain anabolic steroids, and even high-quality protein supplements might be dangerous in large amounts, or if taken to replace meals, he said. “These things just haven’t been studied very well,” he said.

Anabolic steroids pose a special danger to developing bodies, Dr. Bhasin said. Steroids “stop testosterone production in men,” he said, leading to terrible withdrawal problems when still-growing boys try to stop taking them. Still, the constant association of steroids with elite athletes like Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds perpetuates the notion that they can be managed successfully.

Online, in bodybuilding forums for teenagers, boys barely out of puberty share weight-lifting regimens and body fat percentages, and judge one another’s progress. On Tumblr and Facebook, teenagers post images of ripped athletes under the heading “fitspo” or “fitspiraton,” which are short for “fitness inspiration.” The tags are spinoffs of “thinspo” and “thinspiration” pictures and videos, which have been banned from many sites for promoting anorexia.

“Lifted b4 school today felt good but was weak as hell,” wrote one boy who said he was 15 and from Tallahassee, Fla., on a message board on Bodybuilding.com in September, saying he bench-pressed 245 pounds. “Barely got it.”

Many of these boys probably see themselves in Mike Sorrentino, “The Situation” from the “Jersey Shore” series on MTV, or the Adam Sackler character, on the HBO series “Girls,” who rarely wears a shirt or takes a break from his crunches.

Mr. Abusheikh, for instance, has a Facebook page full of photos of himself shirtless or showing off his six-pack abs. At his high school, participation in the annual bodybuilding competition hit an all-time high of 30 students this year.

“They ask us about everything,” said Peter Rivera, a physical education teacher at Fort Hamilton High School who helps oversee the competition. “How do I lose weight? How do I gain muscle? How many times a week should I work out?” Some boys want to be stronger for sports, Mr. Rivera said, but others “want to change their body type.”

Compared with a sedentary lifestyle of video games and TV, an obsession with working out may not quite qualify as a health hazard. And instructors like Mr. Rivera say most boys are eager for advice on the healthiest, drug-free ways to get in shape.

With so little known about supplements, it can be difficult, particularly for teenagers, to make wise decisions.

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Investors rush in to rent out foreclosures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weighing risks, rewards

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

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

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

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

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2 hurt in stabbing at North Michigan Avenue hotel

A 67-year-old man was stabbed in the neck Saturday evening near the front of the Westin Hotel on North Michigan Avenue, and a second man was cut trying to stop the assailant from fleeing, authorities and witnesses said.

The incident began shortly before 8 p.m. when the 67-year-old man was stabbed during an attempted robbery, Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer said, citing preliminary information.

A 35-year-old man was cut in the chest as he tried to stop the assailant from fleeing, Greer said.

Police took a 56-year-old man into custody following the incident. A weapon was also recovered, Greer said.

The 67-year-old was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where his condition was stabilized, Greer said. The 35-year-old was taken to Northwestern in good condition.

By 8:30 p.m., crime scene tape surrounded the entrance to the Westin Hotel on Delaware Street and Michigan Avenue with patches of blood visible on the pavement, and two police cars blocked the street.

Mangers at the Westin declined to comment late Saturday and early Sunday.

Olivia Morrow, 18, said she and her friend were returning to the hotel around 8 p.m. to meet their parents when they saw police on the scene.

Morrow said shortly after that she saw about five hotel officials running out of the building toward the stairs leading to the Hancock Tower and neighboring The Cheesecake Factory Restaurant.

"They had radios and phones in their hands, saying that (the attacker) was last seen running down the stairs," Morrow said.

Genevieve Waldron of Michigan City, Ind., was among the crowd waiting for a table outside when she and her mother saw dozens of officers sprinting toward the restaurant from every direction.

"They were obviously looking for somebody and we were trying to stay out of the way," Waldron said.

A few minutes later, two officers came back up the stairs, flanking a young man who was handcuffed, and loaded him into the back of a marked car.

Neither The Cheesecake Factory nor the hotel were evacuated, as guests on the south-facing side of the building peered out of the windows to get a view of the scene. There appeared to be little commotion at the restaurant, where diners poured out into the hallways waiting for a table.

Tribune reporter Liam Ford contributed.

cdrhodes@tribune.com

Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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