Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher kills girlfriend, self

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

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The NFL was left reeling in horror on Saturday after Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher murdered his girlfriend and committed suicide.

The 25-year-old Belcher shot Kasandra Perkins at their home on Saturday morning then drove his car to the team's training facility near Arrowhead Stadium and turned the gun on himself just as police arrived.

"As officers pulled up and were getting ready to get out of their car, they heard a gunshot," Kansas City police spokesman Darin Snapp said.

"The individual, it appears, took his own life."

Snapp said Belcher shot himself in the head in front of Chiefs coach Romeo Crennel and general manager Scott Pioli.

"He was not threatening the employees at all," Snapp said. "He was just talking to them and thanking them for everything they had done for him."

Snapp said police had earlier been called to a nearby house after reports that a woman, identified as Belcher's 22-year-old girlfriend Perkins, had been shot multiple times. She was later pronounced dead at hospital.

Local media reported that Belcher and Perkins had a three-month-old daughter and Perkins' mother witnessed the killing and called police.

"This is part of the tragedy of urban living in this country," Kansas City Mayor Sly James told reporters outside the practice facility.

"Handguns all over the place, people blowing themselves away, and others. At some point we have to get a handle on this kind of stuff. We are not doing a good job of it."

The Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt issued a statement.

"The entire Chiefs family is deeply saddened by today's events, and our collective hearts are heavy with sympathy, thoughts and prayers for the families and friends affected by this unthinkable tragedy," Hunt wrote.

"We will continue to fully cooperate with the authorities and work to ensure that the appropriate counseling resources are available to all members of the organization."

The Chiefs have won just one of 11 games this season, the worst record in the NFL. They were due to host the Carolina Panthers at Arrowhead on Sunday.

The Chiefs confirmed to the NFL that the game would go ahead.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the Chiefs and the families and friends of those who lost their lives in this terrible tragedy," an NFL spokesman said.

"We have connected the Chiefs with our national team of professional counselors to support both the team and the families of those affected. We will continue to provide assistance in any way that we can."

Belcher was signed by the Chiefs in 2009 after he was overlooked in the NFL draft and established himself as a regular starter in his second season.

Earlier this year, he signed a one-year deal worth just under $2 million. This season Belcher started 10 of 11 games, making 38 tackles.

Belcher is just the latest NFL player to commit suicide in recent years, amid increasing concerns about the long term dangers of head injuries from repeated concussions in the sport.

The tight-knit NFL community was stunned by the latest news.

"There is nothing profound or comforting to say that can help us understand or explain a situation like this," tweeted NFL Players Association assistant executive George Atallah.

Defensive end Justin Tuck, a two-time Super Bowl winner with the New York Giants, also passed on his condolences to the Chiefs on his Twitter account.

"Man prayers go out to the KC Chiefs community and families after this morning's tragic incident," he wrote.

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App of the Week: Hooked

App Name: Hooked

Price: Free

Available Platforms: Android

What does this app do? Words with Friends, Angry Birds, Mahjong Connect – these are just a few of the popular apps in the Google Play Store for Android devices. For game app lovers, wading through the possibilities can be daunting.

Hooked, a game recommendation app developed by Hooked Media Group, can help.

“There are hundreds of thousands of apps out there people may really enjoy,” says Pita Uppal, CEO of the San Francisco based company.

Uppal, who recognizes people like to play with variety game apps but may have no idea what to try, likens Hooked to Netflix and Pandora rolled into one.

Once you download the app, Hooked analyses more than 40 factors, such as device type, the kinds of games a user has on his or her device, and usage statistics. By looking at what a consumer already has and how he or she is using those games, Hooked aims to offer users intelligent suggestions.

From the homescreen, select the menu button at the top and then search categories such as “Top Picks for You,” which provides a customized, star-rated list of recommendations. Press the tools key in the upper right hand corner and customize your recommendations by category, such as puzzle and racing, or by price.

Select “My Games”, and the app displays a dashboard of icons to help you understand your game activity. A folder icon, for example, shows what and how many games you have installed, and a clock icon tells you the amount of time you’ve spent playing a particular game. I spent an entire minute playing “Stupid Zombies.”

Logging in through Facebook or Google+ allows you to see what your friends and connections are playing, too.

Is it easy to set up? Yes, the 2.1MB app installs quickly. Log in with your account and go.

Should I try it? Hooked is like a personal shopper for game-loving app users, and the more you use it the more it understands what you might like. For the moment, it is only available for Android, but Uppal says the company plans to launch Hooked for iOS in the coming months.

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NBC sets premiere date for “Do No Harm” drama

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – NBC will premiere its new drama “Do No Harm” at 10 p.m. on January 31, NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt said Friday.

The premiere date takes advantage of the one-hour series finale of “30 Rock,” which will air at 8 p.m. on that same night.

“Do No Harm” stars “Rescue Me” alum Steven Pasquale as Dr. Jason Cole, a neurosurgeon whose life is going swimmingly until his dangerous alter-ego emerges, hell-bent on creating havoc on Cole and those around him.

“January 31 will be a special night as one classic series will mark its finale with a great hour-long send-off episode while a promising new drama will make its debut on Thursdays,” Greenblatt said. “‘30 Rock’ is acclaimed as a legendary comedy and we will see a truly memorable and fitting last episode. In ‘Do No Harm,’ viewers will have a unique new dramatic storyline with an exciting new star in Steven Pasquale that takes them into dark and uncharted territory.”

To accommodate “Do No Harm,” “Rock Center With Brian Williams” will move to Fridays at 10 p.m., following “Dateline,” beginning February 8.

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Adderall, a Drug of Increased Focus for N.F.L. Players

The first time Anthony Becht heard about Adderall, he was in the Tampa Bay locker room in 2006. A teammate who had a prescription for the drug shook his pill bottle at Becht.

“ ‘You’ve got to get some of these,’ ” Becht recalled the player saying. “I was like, ‘What the heck is that?’ He definitely needed it. He said it just locks you in, hones you in. He said, ‘When I have to take them, my focus is just raised up to another level.’ ”

Becht said he did not give Adderall another thought until 2009, when he was playing in Arizona and his fellow tight end Ben Patrick was suspended for testing positive for amphetamines. The drug he took, Patrick said, was Adderall. Becht asked Patrick why he took it, and Patrick told Becht, and reporters, that he had needed to stay awake for a long drive.

Those two conversations gave Becht, now a free agent, an early glimpse at a problem that is confounding the N.F.L. this season. Players are taking Adderall, a medication widely prescribed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, whether they need it or not, and are failing drug tests because of it. And that is almost certainly contributing to a most-troubling result: a record-setting year for N.F.L. drug suspensions.

According to N.F.L. figures, 21 suspensions were announced this calendar year because of failed tests for performance-enhancing drugs, including amphetamines like Adderall. That is a 75 percent increase over the 12 suspensions announced in 2011 and, with a month to go in 2012, it is the most in a year since suspensions for performance-enhancing drugs began in 1989.

At least seven of the players suspended this year have been linked in news media reports to Adderall or have publicly blamed the drug, which acts as a strong stimulant in those without A.D.H.D. The most recent examples were Tampa Bay cornerback Eric Wright and New England defensive lineman Jermaine Cunningham last week.

The N.F.L. is forbidden under the terms of the drug-testing agreement with the players union from announcing what substance players have tested positive for — the urine test does not distinguish among types of amphetamines — and there is some suspicion that at least a few players may claim they took Adderall instead of admitting to steroid use, which carries a far greater stigma. But Adolpho Birch, who oversees drug testing as the N.F.L.’s senior vice president for law and labor, said last week that failed tests for amphetamines were up this year, although he did not provide any specifics. The increase in Adderall use probably accounts for a large part of the overall increase in failed tests.

“If nothing else it probably reflects an uptick in the use of amphetamine and amphetamine-related substances throughout society,” Birch said. “It’s not a secret that it’s a societal trend, and I think we’re starting to see some of the effects of that trend throughout our league.”

Amphetamines have long been used by athletes to provide a boost — think of the stories of “greenies” in baseball clubhouses decades ago. That Adderall use and abuse has made its way to the N.F.L. surprises few, because A.D.H.D. diagnoses and the use of medication to control it have sharply increased in recent years.

According to Dr. Lenard Adler, who runs the adult A.D.H.D. program at New York University Langone Medical Center, 4.4 percent of adults in the general population have the disorder, of which an estimated two-thirds are men. Birch said the number of exemptions the N.F.L. has granted for players who need treatment for A.D.H.D. is “almost certainly fewer” than 4.4 percent of those in the league.

The rates of those with the disorder fall as people get older; it is far more prevalent in children and adolescents. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, using input from parents, found that as of 2007, about 9.5 percent or 5.4 million children from ages 4 to 17 had A.D.H.D. at some point. That was an increase of 22 percent from 2003. Boys (13.2 percent) were more likely to have the disorder than girls (5.6 percent).

Of children who currently have A.D.H.D., 66.3 percent are receiving medication, with boys 2.8 times more likely to receive medication. Those 11 to 17 years old are more likely to receive medication than younger children.

But Adderall, categorized by the Drug Enforcement Administration as a Schedule II controlled substance because it is particularly addictive, is also used by college students and even some high school students to provide extra energy and concentration for studying or as a party drug to ward off fatigue.

Dr. Leah Lagos, a New York sports psychologist who has worked with college and professional athletes, said she had seen patients who have used Adderall. She said she believed the rise in its use by professional athletes mimicked the use by college students. Just a few years ago, she said, it was estimated that 1 in 10 college students was abusing stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin. That estimate, Lagos said, has almost doubled.

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Jewel parent says sale talks proceeding

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

By Emily Bryson York




Chicago Tribune reporter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cerberus officials could not be reached immediately for comment.

-- Reuters contributed to this report

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

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Officials: 6 shot, 1 fatally, on South Side

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She says the neighborhood is usually quiet.

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

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

The victim may have been dead for several weeks and was found in a half-way house, a police source said. The man sustained several gunshot wounds, police said.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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“iCarly” and “Victorious” spinoff gets greenlight from Nickelodeon

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Tweens of the world, rejoice: “iCarly” may be relegated to the dustbin of TV-programming history, but a part of it will live on.

Nickelodeon has greenlit “Sam & Cat,” a hybrid spinoff of “iCarly” – which ended its run last week – and the Nickelodeon series “Victorious.”

The series – from “iCarly” and “Victorious” creator Dan Schneider – will star Jennette McCurdy (who played Sam Puckett on “iCarly”) and Ariana Grande (perhaps better known as Cat Valentine to “Victorious” viewers). Both will reprise theo become teen entrepreneurs by starting their own after-school babysitting business.”

The 20-episode first season of “Sam & Cat” will premiere next year; production will begin in January in Los Angeles.

“Jennette and Ariana are adored by our audience, and it’s great to unite these talented actresses in this hilarious new comedy from Dan Schneider,” Nickelodeon’s president of content development and production Russell Hicks said. “This show promises to deliver on what our audience loves most about these two favorite characters – laugh-out-loud humor and non-stop adventure, and is sure to be a compelling new chapter for our new comedic duo.”

The “iCarly” series finale last week drew 6.4 million viewers.

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Doctors Who Work for Hospitals Face a New Bottom Line

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

Joshua Roper for The New York Times

St. Luke's Health System dominates the market in Boise, Idaho, and critics say patients are paying more.

Chad Case for The New York Times

Dr. Julie A. Foote, an endocrinologist in Boise, questions whether patients are getting cost-effective care as a result of consolidation in the medical field.

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

Today, Boise is a medical battleground.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Drive to Consolidate

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

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

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

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

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

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Jewel parent says sale talks proceeding

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

By Emily Bryson York




Chicago Tribune reporter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cerberus officials could not be reached immediately for comment.

-- Reuters contributed to this report

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

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Wacker project set to cross finish line

The rebuilt north-south section of Wacker Drive will be completely open to traffic Friday, including the lower-level roadway connection to Congress Parkway, Chicago transportation officials said Thursday.

The plan calls for the Wacker-Van Buren Street intersection to open between 8 and 9 a.m., according to the Chicago Department of Transportation.

Then, in the early afternoon, Lower Wacker is scheduled to fully reopen in phases, for the first time since 2010, to allow for a controlled and orderly debut of the new underground ramp that is designed to provide drivers with a more gradual merge onto Congress Parkway, CDOT spokesman Pete Scales said.

Lower Wacker should be fully open in time for the evening rush, he said Thursday as crews were finishing up lane striping and testing the new lighting.

The reopenings mark the completion, except for landscaping next spring and minor items, of the $300 million reconstruction of Wacker between Randolph Street and Congress.

The stretch, which features wider sidewalks and crosswalks, is used by 150,000 pedestrians on an average weekday, CDOT said. It also serves about 60,000 vehicles, half on Upper Wacker and half on Lower Wacker. The average daily traffic count on Congress is 75,700 vehicles.

"Re-creating a double-deck highway boulevard through the downtown was no small task,'' Chicago Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein said. "Now it's a modern, much more safe and efficient roadway whether you are in a car, using transit, biking or walking.''

jhilkevitch@tribune.com

Twitter @jhilkevitch

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