The New Old Age Blog: On the Alert for Fraud

Unlike some forms of elder abuse, financial exploitation leaves no visible scars. It is under-reported and hard to prosecute. Adding to the tangled dynamics, the abuser is frequently a family member, increasing the victim’s humiliation and denial.

Better by far to try to prevent financial abuse before it wipes out an older person’s assets and hopes for a secure retirement. Though this has proved easier in theory than in practice — most authorities believe financial exploitation and abuse is actually increasing — vigilance represents a crucial first step.

The National Center on Elder Abuse and the Eldercare Locator (the federal service that helps older adults and caregivers find local programs and agencies) have just published “Protect Your Pocketbook,” a brief consumer guide for families and their older relatives. It maps out risk factors, warning signals and prevention strategies and tells where to turn for help.

You can download it from the Web  or order it online through the Eldercare Locator Web site. Or you can call the Locator at 1-800-677-1116 and ask to have a copy mailed to you.

Holidays, when so many adult children head “home,” tend to spur campaigns of this sort: attempts to integrate potentially painful conversations and questions with feasts and gifts.

I have always wondered about the timing of these discussions — first the pies, then the questions about unexplained bank withdrawals and credit card bills? But it is true that our elders can sound dandy during weekly phone calls, then surprise us with their frailty and their struggles when we are there in person to witness them.

Financial abuse, which I have written about before (see scam prevention advice here, along with a sad story), is only part of the picture, but it is a vital issue.

Apart from the advice in the brochure, we would appreciate hearing from readers who have tackled this problem and can tell us what has worked and what hasn’t.

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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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Public-private group wins bid for delinquent mortgages

A homeowner with a delinquent mortgage speaks with a mortgage specialist at a JPMorgan Chase foreclosure consultation event in New York in 2011. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters File Photo / December 3, 2012)

By Mary Ellen Podmolik




Tribune reporter

5:19 p.m. CST, December 3, 2012

A public-private partnership headed by the Illinois Housing Development Authority has emerged as one of the winning bidders in a September auction of delinquent mortgages held by the Federal Housing Administration.
 
Mortgage Resolution Fund will use $25 million of federal hardest-hit funds awarded to the state to buy 324 delinquent loans on Chicago-area properties. The loans, which were part of a neighborhood stabilization pool have an unpaid principal balance of about $62 million and the properties are valued at $40 million.
 
After the note sale closes, homeowners whose delinquent mortgages are part of the loan pool will be contacted by a new servicer in early 2013 that will offer to write down the principal balance of the loans and set up more affordable repayment terms to eligible homeowners. Those homeowners pay no cost to receive the loan modifications.
 
"We want to help as many borrowers as possible achieve long-term stability so they can stay in their homes without the fear of foreclosure," said Mary Kenney, executive director of the Illinois Housing Development Authority.
 
Separately, Florida-based Bayview Acquisitions LLC submitted a winning bid of about $70 million for 1,430 other Illinois loans in a neighborhood stabilization pool that had an unpaid principal balance of about $269 million and an estimated property value of $155 million. Another 299 delinquent Illinois mortgages were sold as part of other pools.
 
Nationally, the note sale involved about 9,400 distressed loans. Bids were submitted to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in September.
 
HUD said plans to sell another 10,000 to 15,000 distressed loans during the first quarter of 2013, and at least 40,000 during the next year in an effort to remove distressed loans from its portfolio.
 
mepodmolik@tribune.com | Twitter @mepodmolik

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Orange Bowl bid, new coach cap wild weekend for NIU

It was an incredible weekend for the Northern Illinois football program.

A 44-37 double-overtime victory over Kent State in the Mid-American Conference championship game kicked off the exhilaration Friday night at Ford Field in Detroit. That was followed by the announcement on Saturday that Dave Doeren had accepted the coaching position at North Carolina State.

On Sunday came the historic news that the Huskies were bound for Miami on New Year's Day to face Florida State in the Orange Bowl, becoming the first team from the MAC to earn a berth in a BCS bowl game.

"We're 12-1," NIU quarterback Jordan Lynch told ESPN. "We faced tons of adversity this year. We won tons of games. … We definitely deserve to be in there."

Capping things off, the school announced Sunday night the head coaching vacancy had been filled by promoting offensive coordinator Rod Carey.

"It has been crazy; it has been nuts. That's the only way to explain it," said Carey, who agreed to a five-year contract. "But it has been good. All of that has been wonderful … and what a privilege for our kids to go to the Orange Bowl. They were so excited they could barely stand up."

While some college observers vehemently argued that NIU didn't belong in the game, Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher told reporters in Tallahassee that he had no such qualms.

"You don't get in this game unless you're a good football team," Fisher said. "It's easy for talking heads to say that (NIU doesn't belong). They've earned the right to be here, they've earned the right to have this opportunity.

"We know we're going to get an inspired opponent, an opponent that's going to be ready to prove something."

NIU now has its third coach in three years. Jerry Kill left after the 2010 season to take the head coaching job at Minnesota. Doeren was 23-4 in just two seasons on the DeKalb campus. NIU athletic director Jeff Compher is hoping for a smooth transition from Doeren to Carey.

"That's why they did what they did in such a short amount of time," Carey said. "Because I have been here and they want the transition to be as seamless as it can be.

"I don't have any reason today to sit here and say that I want to go somewhere else. Listen, I was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and I went to high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Joe Novak (former NIU head coach) was the defensive coordinator at Indiana when I played there. So my ties and my knowing about NIU have gone back a long time. And I have wanted to be at this place for a lot of different times in my career. And I finally got here and now this has happened. I don't know why I would want to go anywhere else."

It is not yet clear how many other members of the NIU coaching staff will join Doeren at N.C. State.

"It will be a challenge; I don't know how it will all play out," Carey said. "But I do know that this staff just won back-to-back MAC championships. And as far as I am concerned, it's the finest staff I've worked with. So I would love to coach with all of these guys for a long time."

This year, Carey helped mold an offensive line of five new starters that helped Lynch become one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the nation. Carey transitioned into the role of offensive coordinator after the first game of the season when Mike Dunbar had to step away from that role while battling a serious illness.

"Mike Dunbar is one of the most high-character people and unbelievable people I have ever been around," Carey said. I have learned more from that man … he and coach Doeren I have learned more from."

fmitchell@tribune.com

Twitter@kicker34

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Letterman, Hoffman, Zeppelin honored by Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) — David Letterman‘s “stupid human tricks” and Top 10 lists vaulted into the ranks of cultural acclaim Sunday night as the late-night comedian received this year’s Kennedy Center Honors with rock band Led Zeppelin, an actor, a ballerina and a bluesman.

Stars from New York, Hollywood and the music world joined President Barack Obama at the White House on Sunday night to salute the honorees, whose ranks also include actor Dustin Hoffman, Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy and ballerina Natalia Makarova.

The honors are the nation’s highest award for those who influenced American culture through the arts. The recipients were later saluted by fellow performers at the Kennedy Center Opera House in a show to be broadcast Dec. 26 on CBS.

Obama drew laughs from his guests when he described the honorees as “some extraordinary people who have no business being on the same stage together.”

Noting that Guy made his first guitar strings using the wire from a window screen, he quipped, “That worked until his parents started wondering how all the mosquitoes were getting in.”

The president thanked the members of Led Zeppelin for behaving themselves at the White House given their history of “hotel rooms trashed and mayhem all around.”

Obama noted Letterman’s humble beginnings as an Indianapolis weatherman who once reported the city was being pelted by hail ‘the size of canned hams.’”

“It’s one of the highlights of his career,” he said.

All kidding aside, Obama described all of the honorees as artists who “inspired us to see things in a new way, to hear things differently, to discover something within us or to appreciate how much beauty there is in the world.”

“It’s that unique power that makes the arts so important,” he added.

Later on the red carpet, Letterman said he was thrilled by the recognition and to visit Obama at the White House.

“It supersedes everything, honestly,” he said. “I haven’t won that many awards.”

During the show, comedian Tina Fey said she grew up watching her mom laugh at Letterman as he brought on “an endless parade of weirdos.”

“Who was this Dave Letterman guy?” Fey said. “Was he a brilliant, subtle passive-aggressive parody of a talk show host? Or just some Midwestern goon who was a little bit off? Time has proven that there’s just really no way of knowing.”

Alec Baldwin offered a Top 10 reasons Letterman was winning the award, including the fact that he didn’t leave late night for a six-month stint in primetime — a not-so-subtle dig at rival Jay Leno.

Jimmy Kimmel, who will soon compete head-to-head with Letterman on ABC, said he fell in love with Letterman early in life and even had a “Late Night” cake on his 16th birthday.

“To me it wasn’t just a TV show,” Kimmel said. “It was the reason I would fail to make love to a live woman for many, many years.”

For Buddy Guy, singers Bonnie Raitt, Tracy Chapman and others got most of the crowd on its feet singing Guy’s signature “Sweet Home Chicago.”

Morgan Freeman hailed Guy as a pioneer who helped bridge soul and rock and roll.

“When you hear the blues, you really don’t think of it as black or white or yellow or purple or blue,” Freeman said. “Buddy Guy, your blue brought us together.”

Robert De Niro saluted Hoffman, saying he had changed acting, never took any shortcuts and was brave enough to be a perfectionist.

“Before Dustin burst on the scene, it was pretty much OK for movie stars to show up, read their lines and, if the director insisted, act a little,” De Niro said. “But then Dustin came along — and he just had to get everything right.”

By the end of the night, the Foo Fighters, Kid Rock and Lenny Kravitz got the crowd moving to some of Zeppelin’s hits at the Kennedy Center.

Jack Black declared Zeppelin the “greatest rock and roll band of all time.”

“That’s right. Better than the Beatles. Better than the Stones. Even better than Tenacious D,” he said. “And that’s not opinion — that’s fact.”

For the finale, Heart’s Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson sang “Stairway to Heaven,” accompanied by a full choir and Jason Bonham, son of the late Zeppelin drummer John Bonham.

Zeppelin front man Robert Plant and his bandmates John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page seemed moved by the show.

Meryl Streep first introduced the honorees Saturday as they received the award medallions during a formal dinner at the U.S. State Department hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton said ballerina Makarova “risked everything to have the freedom to dance the way she wanted to dance” when she defected from the Soviet Union in 1970.

Makarova made her debut with the American Ballet Theatre and later was the first exiled artist to return to the Soviet Union before its fall to dance with the Kirov Ballet.

Clinton also took special note of Letterman, saying he must be wondering what he’s doing in a crowd of talented artists and musicians.

“Dave and I have a history,” she said. “I have been a guest on his show several times, and if you include references to my pant suits, I’m on at least once a week.”

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Follow Brett Zongker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Study Bolsters Link Between Routine Hits to Head and Long-Term Brain Disease

The growing evidence of a link between head trauma and long-term, degenerative brain disease was amplified in an extensive study of athletes, military veterans and others who absorbed repeated hits to the head, according to new findings published in the scientific journal Brain.

The study, which included brain samples taken posthumously from 85 people who had histories of repeated mild traumatic brain injury, added to the mounting body of research revealing the possible consequences of routine hits to the head in sports like football and hockey. The possibility that such mild head trauma could result in long-term cognitive impairment has come to vex sports officials, team doctors, athletes and parents in recent years.

Of the group of 85 people, 80 percent (68 men) — nearly all of whom played sports — showed evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., a degenerative and incurable disease whose symptoms can include memory loss, depression and dementia.

Among the group found to have C.T.E., 50 were football players, including 33 who played in the N.F.L. Among them were stars like Dave Duerson, Cookie Gilchrist and John Mackey. Many of the players were linemen and running backs, positions that tend to have more contact with opponents.

Six high school football players, nine college football players, seven pro boxers and four N.H.L. players, including Derek Boogaard, the former hockey enforcer who died from an accidental overdose of alcohol and painkillers, also showed signs of C.T.E. The study also included 21 veterans, most of whom were also athletes, who showed signs of C.T.E.

The study was conducted by investigators at the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy and the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, in collaboration with the Sports Legacy Institute. It took four years to complete, included subjects 17 to 98 years old, and more than doubled the number of documented cases of C.T.E. The investigators also created a four-tiered system to classify degrees of C.T.E., hoping it would help doctors treat patients.

The volume of cases in the study “allows us to see the disease at all stages of severity and how it starts and spreads in the brain, which gives us an idea of the mechanism of the injury,” said Ann McKee, the main author of the study, who is a professor of neurology and pathology at Boston University School of Medicine and works at the V.A. Boston.

Those categorized as having Stage 1 of the disease had headaches and loss of attention and concentration, while those with Stage 2 also had depression, explosive behavior and short-term memory loss. Those with Stage 3 of C.T.E., including Duerson, a former All-Pro defensive back for the Chicago Bears who killed himself last year, had cognitive impairment and trouble with executive functions like planning and organizing. Those with Stage 4 had dementia, difficulty finding words and aggression.

Despite the breadth of the findings, the study, like others before it, did not prove definitively that head injuries sustained on the field caused C.T.E. To do that, doctors would need to identify the disease in living patients by using imaging equipment, blood tests or other techniques. Researchers have not been able to determine why some athletes who performed in the same conditions did not develop C.T.E.

The study also did not demonstrate what percentage of professional football players were likely to develop C.T.E. To do that, investigators would need to study the brains of players who do not develop C.T.E., and those are difficult to acquire because families of former players who do not exhibit symptoms are less likely to donate their brains to science.

“It’s a gambler’s game to try to predict what percentage of the population has this,” said Chris Nowinski, a co-author of the study and a co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University School of Medicine. “Many of the families donated the brains of their loved ones because they were symptomatic. Still, this is probably more widespread than we think.”

Researchers expected the details in the study to dispel doubts about the likelihood that many years of head trauma can lead to C.T.E. The growing connections between head trauma and contact sports, though, have led some nervous parents and coaches to assume that any concussion could lead to long-term impairment. Some doctors say that oversimplifies matters. Rather, the total amount of head trauma, including smaller subconcussive hits, as well as how they were treated, must be considered when evaluating whether an athlete is more at risk of developing a disease like C.T.E.

“All concussions are not created equal,” said Robert Cantu, a co-author of the study and a co-director of the encephalopathy center. “Parents have become paranoid about concussions and connecting the dots with C.T.E., and that’s wrong. The dots are really about total head trauma.”

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Heat is on Groupon's Andrew Mason

In June 2011, Groupon Inc. Chief Executive Andrew Mason took the stage at a conference hosted by influential technology blog AllThingsD.

When co-executive editor Kara Swisher asked him whether an initial public offering was coming soon, he shot her what she later dubbed his "death stare."

The audience laughed and broke into applause.

The tone was decidedly more subdued last week, when Mason found himself at another tech industry confab, fielding questions from Business Insider's Henry Blodget, this time about whether Groupon's directors were going to fire him at their meeting the next day. AllThingsD had reported a day earlier, citing anonymous sources, that Groupon's board of directors was considering replacing Mason with a more experienced CEO to lead the Chicago-based daily deal company's turnaround.

The contrast between those two appearances underscores the swift and dramatic tumble of Mason's standing in tech and business circles within a few years. The young founder and CEO graced the cover of Forbes in 2010 and was named Ernst & Young's National Entrepreneur of the Year in the "emerging" category a year later.

Those accolades are a far cry from the cloud hanging over Mason, 32, and the company he launched four years ago. The leak to AllThingsD appeared to be deliberately timed to embarrass the executive, forcing him to field questions about his own competence at a scheduled appearance. This public hint of internal strife has fueled speculation around Mason's fate even as other public tech companies, such as Facebook and social game-maker Zynga, have also seen their stock prices drop since their IPOs.

Groupon's board met Thursday and took no action on the CEO's job, with company spokesman Paul Taaffe saying the board and management were "working together with their heads down to achieve Groupon's objectives."

Markets, however, seemed unconvinced. Groupon's beleaguered stock closed slightly higher Thursday but dropped 8.7 percent to $4.14 Friday. Shares debuted at $20 in November 2011.

Investors "want experience in leadership," said Raman Chadha, a clinical professor at DePaul University and co-founder of the Junto Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership, a training program for startup founders. "And as a result, where Andrew's background was cool and sexy — and maybe even bordering on amusing — when Groupon was a pure startup, that's in the mindset of those of us who are observers and supporters … and fellow entrepreneurs. I think in the minds of the investor community and Wall Street, (it's different) because now the company has a lot more to lose. And if it's going to fall, it's going to fall really hard and really far."

For Chadha, Mason's unconventional pedigree as a music major-turned-startup-founder was part of the appealing, media-friendly story of Groupon's origin. The company was launched as recession-weary consumers were eager for deals, and it achieved rapid growth while earning a reputation for antics like decorating a conference room in the style of a fictional, possibly deranged tenant of Groupon's headquarters who had lived there before the startup moved into the offices.

The scrutiny of Groupon was tremendous given the "high-flying" nature of the company, said David Larcker, a corporate governance expert at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

"You have a founder as CEO," he said. "He's the public face of the company. He has set the culture. All of that stuff."

That culture, driven in large part by Mason, turned from a lovable quirk to a major liability as the company ran into controversy over its poorly received Super Bowl ads in February 2011 and a series of missteps in the run-up to its IPO. Then, within months of its public debut, it disclosed an accounting flaw that forced it to restate financial results.

The larger question surrounding Groupon is the long-term viability of its basic business model. The company has been expanding offerings beyond its core daily deals, which have seen growth rates tail off. It's also dealing with a recession in the key European market as well as continued competition in the U.S.

But the biggest challenge facing Mason now is probably his own performance, or rather the perception that he isn't up to the task of running the global, publicly traded business worth billions that he founded but that now needs a turnaround. The stock is down 80 percent from its IPO price.

"It's an oft-told, oft-expected story that the genius entrepreneur steps aside when he or she succeeds at building a company big enough to need an experienced CEO," said Erik Gordon, a business professor at the University of Michigan.

The example Gordon and others cite is Google, which flourished after its co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin made way for a more seasoned executive in Eric Schmidt.

"The Google guys did it, and the results were spectacular," Gordon said.

Chadha said many startups tend to become more corporate in outlook, and less quirky, as they grow, because they bring in experienced executives from large companies that may have difficulty adapting to an entrepreneurial culture or reject it outright as not professional enough.

"I think that's where Google is very different," Chadha said. "(The company) sought out entrepreneurial, startup types — people that became part of their management team." That free-form element of Google's culture comes out in such things as the Google doodles — the offbeat tributes to notable anniversaries or famous people that pop up on the main search page.

Mason has acknowledged areas where Groupon needs to improve and has hired senior executives with experience at more mature tech companies. That hasn't always worked either. Margo Georgiadis, who came from Google as chief operating officer, returned to that company after five months.

Whether there's still room for Mason on the top management team remains to be seen. He was direct in his interview last week with Blodget, offering a minimum of jokes as he focused on discussing the job he and others at Groupon must accomplish.

"I care far more about the success of the business than I care about my role as CEO," he said.

A year ago, when he spoke to author Frank Sennett for his book "Groupon's Biggest Deal Ever," Mason was unapologetic about his management style.

"You only live once, and all I'm doing is being myself," he told Sennett. "I think a normal CEO is trying to appear in some way that's not actually them. That's probably not what they're like."

In the same book, former President and Chief Operating Officer Rob Solomon offered this blunt assessment of his ex-boss: "Andrew at thirty-five and forty is going to hate Andrew at twenty-nine and thirty; I guarantee it."

Melissa Harris and Bloomberg News contributed.

wawong@tribune.com

Twitter @VelocityWong

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Kansas City Chiefs linebacker kills girlfriend, self

Chiefs Player Involved in Murder-Suicide (Posted Dec. 1st, 2012)

Minutes after fatally shooting his girlfriend Saturday morning in the home they shared, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher drove five miles to the team's practice facility and parked out front.

The 25-year-old player got out of his car, and, while holding a gun to his head, spoke briefly with Chiefs coach Romeo Crennel and General Manager Scott Pioli, who had come outside to meet him. He thanked them for the opportunity to play in the NFL.

When police arrived on the scene, Belcher turned, walked about 30 feet west toward an empty parking lot, pulled the trigger and took his life.

Around the same time, Belcher's girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, 22, was being taken to the hospital. She died about 30 minutes after she was shot. The couple had a 3-month-old daughter who was in the house at the time of the shooting but was in another room. It was Belcher's mother, who had recently moved into the home from New York, who called police.

“Think about your worst nightmare and multiply it by five,” Kansas City Mayor Sly James told the Kansas City Star after meeting with Pioli at the stadium. “Put somebody you know and love into that situation, and give them a gun, and stand three feet away from them and watch them kill themselves … . It's unfathomable.”

The Chiefs, who play host today to the Carolina Panthers, had scheduled a team meeting for 9:30 a.m. — about 11/2 hours before Belcher pulled into the parking lot — so there were about 20 people at the facility when he shot himself.

“The entire Chiefs family is deeply saddened by [Saturday's] events, and our collective hearts are heavy with sympathy, thoughts and prayers for the families and friends affected by this unthinkable tragedy,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said in a statement released by the team.

The horrific murder-suicide reverberated through the NFL on what is typically a quiet day of preparation for games.

“He was a great kid, one of my favorites,” said former Chiefs coach Todd Haley, now offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers. “He hugged me after the game when we played them a couple weeks ago and was bragging about his new daughter.

“ ... It's crazy. In season, nothing like has ever happened, nothing of this magnitude that I can remember.”

Belcher and Perkins reportedly had a tumultuous relationship and, police said, had been fighting in the hour leading up to the shooting. Perkins had been out late Friday night, attending a Trey Songz concert. Haley said Belcher and Perkins had met through another Chiefs player.

On her Facebook page, Perkins, who is from Dallas, posted several pictures of the couple and their daughter, including one of Belcher gently cradling the baby. That photo's caption reads “My loves.”

Another picture features Belcher leaping over a player to get to Arizona's quarterback and is captioned “In LOVE with SUPERMAN.”

Among the “likes” on Belcher's Facebook page was one for “Male Athletes Against Violence,” a project founded at his alma mater, the University of Maine, aimed at raising awareness about the problem of male violence against women.

Belcher grew up in Long Island, N.Y., and was an outstanding wrestler. Maine was the only school that offered him a football scholarship. From there, he made the improbable rise from undrafted free agent in 2009 to starting inside linebacker for Kansas City.

“Coming from a small high school, a small college, you're looked down upon like you can't do some of the things that other kids are doing who went to bigger schools,” Belcher told the Star in 1999. “In my position, I've always been the underdog.”

He was second on the team with 87 tackles last season, and had 38 in 11 games for the 1-10 Chiefs this season.

“I am devastated and heartbroken,” Chiefs offensive lineman Jeff Allen wrote on Twitter. “I'm sending prayers out to everyone involved. Always show love and never be afraid to talk.”

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Ricky Martin finds new home on small screen

NEW YORK (AP) — Ricky Martin is saying goodbye to Broadway’s “Evita.” But don’t cry for him.

The Latin superstar has a slew of new projects in the works, including two television series and a children’s book.

“It’s about growing,” said Martin in an interview Friday. “It’s a moment in my life where I just need to absorb and be surrounded by amazing actors and musicians and grow as an entertainer. I think this is going to be an amazing year for that.”

Martin takes his final bow in the Andrew Lloyd Webber revival on Jan. 26. Then he heads down under to join the second season of the Australian edition of “The Voice.” But the Grammy winner says not to expect any biting, Simon Cowellesque critiques.

“I don’t believe in tough love. I believe in love, and I believe in being nurturing to new talented men and women,” he said at an M.A.C. Viva Glam event for Saturday’s World AIDS Day. Martin partnered with the cosmetics brand to raise awareness and funding for HIV/AIDS programs worldwide.

The “Livin’ la Vida Loca” singer is developing a new series for NBC, expected in 2013. He’s producing, writing and will star in the currently untitled dramedy, where he hopes to tackle social issues with humor.

He’s also writing his second book and admitted he didn’t have to look far for inspiration.

“I think it’s time to write about things that I’ve been through with my kids that I’m sure many daddys out there will understand,” said the father of 4-year-old twins Matteo and Valentino.

The family-friendly story about self-esteem is slated for release next summer.

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AP writer Sigal Ratner-Arias contributed to this story.

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Follow Nicole Evatt on Twitter at http://twitter.com/NicoleEvatt

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Opinion: A Health Insurance Detective Story

I’VE had a long career as a business journalist, beginning at Forbes and including eight years as the editor of Money, a personal finance magazine. But I’ve never faced a more confounding reporting challenge than the one I’m engaged in now: What will I pay next year for the pill that controls my blood cancer?

After making more than 70 phone calls to 16 organizations over the past few weeks, I’m still not totally sure what I will owe for my Revlimid, a derivative of thalidomide that is keeping my multiple myeloma in check. The drug is extremely expensive — about $11,000 retail for a four-week supply, $132,000 a year, $524 a pill. Time Warner, my former employer, has covered me for years under its Supplementary Medicare Program, a plan for retirees that included a special Writers Guild benefit capping my out-of-pocket prescription costs at $1,000 a year. That out-of-pocket limit is scheduled to expire on Jan. 1. So what will my Revlimid cost me next year?

The answers I got ranged from $20 a month to $17,000 a year. One of the first people I phoned said that no matter what I heard, I wouldn’t know the cost until I filed a claim in January. Seventy phone calls later, that may still be the most reliable thing anyone has told me.

Like around 47 million other Medicare beneficiaries, I have until this Friday, Dec. 7, when open enrollment ends, to choose my 2013 Medicare coverage, either through traditional Medicare or a private insurer, as well as my drug coverage — or I will risk all sorts of complications and potential late penalties.

But if a seasoned personal-finance journalist can’t get a straight answer to a simple question, what chance do most people have of picking the right health insurance option?

A study published in the journal Health Affairs in October estimated that a mere 5.2 percent of Medicare Part D beneficiaries chose the cheapest coverage that met their needs. All in all, consumers appear to be wasting roughly $11 billion a year on their Part D coverage, partly, I think, because they don’t get reliable answers to straightforward questions.

Here’s a snapshot of my surreal experience:

NOV. 7 A packet from Time Warner informs me that the company’s new 2013 Retiree Health Care Plan has “no out-of-pocket limit on your expenses.” But Erin, the person who answers at the company’s Benefits Service Center, tells me that the new plan will have “no practical effect” on me. What about the $1,000-a-year cap on drug costs? Is that really being eliminated? “Yes,” she says, “there’s no limit on out-of-pocket expenses in 2013.” I tell her I think that could have a major effect on me.

Next I talk to David at CVS/Caremark, Time Warner’s new drug insurance provider. He thinks my out-of-pocket cost for Revlimid next year will be $6,900. He says, “I know I’m scaring you.”

I call back Erin at Time Warner. She mentions something about $10,000 and says she’ll get an estimate for me in two business days.

NOV. 8 I phone Medicare. Jay says that if I switch to Medicare’s Part D prescription coverage, with a new provider, Revlimid’s cost will drive me into Medicare’s “catastrophic coverage.” I’d pay $2,819 the first month, and 5 percent of the cost of the drug thereafter — $563 a month or maybe $561. Anyway, roughly $9,000 for the year. Jay says AARP’s Part D plan may be a good option.

NOV. 9 Erin at Time Warner tells me that the company’s policy bundles United Healthcare medical coverage with CVS/Caremark’s drug coverage. I can’t accept the medical plan and cherry-pick prescription coverage elsewhere. It’s take it or leave it. Then she puts CVS’s Michele on the line to get me a Revlimid quote. Michele says Time Warner hasn’t transferred my insurance information. She can’t give me a quote without it. Erin says she will not call me with an update. I’ll have to call her.

My oncologist’s assistant steers me to Celgene, Revlimid’s manufacturer. Jennifer in “patient support” says premium assistance grants can cut the cost of Revlimid to $20 or $30 a month. She says, “You’re going to be O.K.” If my income is low enough to qualify for assistance.

NOV. 12 I try CVS again. Christine says my insurance records still have not been transferred, but she thinks my Revlimid might cost $17,000 a year.

Adriana at Medicare warns me that AARP and other Part D providers will require “prior authorization” to cover my Revlimid, so it’s probably best to stick with Time Warner no matter what the cost.

But Brooke at AARP insists that I don’t need prior authorization for my Revlimid, and so does her supervisor Brian — until he spots a footnote. Then he assures me that it will be easy to get prior authorization. All I need is a doctor’s note. My out-of-pocket cost for 2013: roughly $7,000.

NOV. 13 Linda at CVS says her company still doesn’t have my file, but from what she can see about Time Warner’s insurance plans my cost will be $60 a month — $720 for the year.

CVS assigns my case to Rebecca. She says she’s “sure all will be fine.” Well, “pretty sure.” She’s excited. She’s been with the company only a few months. This will be her first quote.

NOV. 14 Giddens at Time Warner puts in an “emergency update request” to get my files transferred to CVS.

Frank Lalli is an editorial consultant on retirement issues and a former senior executive editor at Time Warner’s Time Inc.

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After a billion, what next for Facebook?

MENLO PARK — In just eight years, Facebook signed up more than half the world's Internet population.

Now it's going after the rest.

Facebook wants to reach every single person on the Internet whether they are logging on from a laptop in Santa Monica, an iPhone in Tokyo or a low-tech phone with a tiny screen in Nairobi.

It's parachuting into market after market to take on homegrown social networks by currying favor with the locals and venturing where many people have spotty — if any — access to the Internet.

In Japan, it lets users list their blood types, which the Japanese believe — like astrological signs in the Western world — give insight into personality and temperament. In Africa, Facebook markets a stripped-down, text-only version of its service that works on low-tech mobile phones.

International growth is crucial to maintain its dominance as the world's largest social network. The company's scorching pace of growth has cooled especially in the United States. Facebook must coax users to sign up — and make sure it remains popular with the users it already has — or risk being knocked from its lofty perch.

"We're not a company that is just trying to add more people," said Chris Cox, Facebook's vice president of product. "What we are trying to do is build a service that everyone in the world can use."

But overseas growth that once seemed to come so easily is slower now. Facebook has already saturated most major markets around the globe. Eight out of 10 Facebook users are outside of the U.S.

"I don't think that Facebook has a chance of attracting another billion users," Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said.

Inside Facebook's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters is a small army out to prove naysayers wrong. Above their desks they have hung flags from around the world that represent their nationalities. They obsessively scan screens that track user growth around the world.

They cheered and popped open champagne in September when the number of active Facebook users crossed 1 billion. But the moment of jubilation quickly passed as they redoubled their efforts to spread Facebook around the globe.

Naomi Gleit is the soft-spoken, headstrong 29-year-old product manager in charge of growth at Facebook. She says Facebook's future is on mobile devices, the medium by which most people will experience the Web in coming years. Facebook now works on more than 2,500 different phones, helping it gain a foothold in emerging markets. And it is forging relationships with mobile phone operators around the world.

Gleit's 150-member team has boots on the ground in far-flung places armed with low-tech phones and cheap data plans. Even team members here carry Nokia phones alongside their iPhones to update their status or check their News Feed.

"We originally built a product for ourselves," Gleit said. "This is different. Now we need to understand the experience of users who are not like us."

Analysts say Facebook already has established an impressive track record of uprooting entrenched competitors. In Britain, it displaced the dominant social network Bebo, forcing AOL to sell it at a huge loss. In Germany, Facebook overtook the homegrown StudiVZ. Facebook even broke Google social network Orkut's stranglehold on Brazil and India.

In 2009, it launched a clever tool to help Facebook users find their Orkut friends on Facebook and instantly send them friend requests. Two years later it swiped Google's top executive in Latin America, Alexandre Hohagen. Facebook sprinted ahead of Orkut one year ago, and now has 61 million active users in Latin America's largest country.

Facebook is treating India as a test lab for how it can spread in other emerging markets such as Indonesia. Facebook, which has offices in Hyderabad, India, has grown from 8 million users in 2010 to 65 million users today. It is aggressively targeting India's youth. A few hundred young Indian programmers recently jammed a Facebook hackathon at a Bangalore convention center to chug chai and brainstorm new apps that would appeal to their friends.

But Facebook has its eyes on a much bigger prize beyond the country's 100 million Internet users: the 900 million-plus Indians on mobile phones. Some analysts predict India will have more Facebook users than any other country including the United States by 2015.

The company also faces significant challenges in India. It must make the service captivating on low-tech mobile phones with unreliable Internet connections and it must gingerly navigate demands from the Indian government to remove objectionable content without alienating users.

Facebook is making some of its biggest moves in Russia, South Korea and Japan, the only major markets where it operates but has penetration of less than 50%, according to research firm ComScore.

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