Mike the gas man at large after gas garb scheme

Riverside police say an arrest this week derailed a sophisticated scheme of stealing gasoline by overriding the pump counter and filling 5-gallon jugs.

The investigation began Jan. 20 when a Riverside officer pulled into a 7-Eleven at 26th Street and Harlem Avenue, then saw a man hurriedly leave the store with a gasoline nozzle still in his vehicle, tearing off the hose as he drove away.

The officer reviewed video surveillance, at first to get a license plate number but discovering what appeared to be an involved ruse to steal fuel, according to a news release from the Riverside police.

The video showed one person pulling up to a pump and removing its housing, then disabling the electronic device that measures the amount of gasoline delivered and tally of dollars owed.

That person then drove off, and a second person pulled up to the overridden pump and began to fill the SUV's tank and 11 5-gallon professional grade water fountain bottles in the back, police said. The second person appeared to panic and fled when the officer drove into the lot, tearing off the pump's hose.

Suspecting a sophisticated scheme, Riverside police didn't immediately chase after the SUV but were able to track the license plate and discover that the registered owner was already due in court on a previous charge of retail theft of motor vehicle fuel.

On Friday, Riverside police attended Bridgeview Court and arrested Darius Williams, 35, of the 400 block of Irvine in Hillside, and according to officials he gave a full confession detailing the scheme.

The second suspect, a man known to Williams only as "Mike the gas man," was the brains behind disabling the pump counters, Williams said, and also took part in selling stolen gasoline from the water bottles at $10 for 5 gallons.

Police searched the SUV owned by Williams and found 10 5-gallon water bottles, a hose and pump used for siphoning gasoline, and other materials used for transporting fuel, police said.

For the Riverside incident, Williams -- who told police he also stayed on the 11700 block of South State Street in Chicago -- was charged with retail theft of motor vehicle fuel and criminal damage to property, police said, both misdemeanors because he had fled the scene after only taking about $73 worth of gas.

"The defendant in this case gave a full statement that he and another individual known as 'Mike the gas man' conceived this plan to steal gasoline and then sell it on the West Side of Chicago," Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said in the release.

"This is an example of excellent work done by the original responding officer as well as the follow-up investigation by detectives," Weitzel said. "They looked beyond the simple theft complaint and were able to build a case."

"Mike the gas man" remained at large Saturday night, police said.

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FTC issues guidelines for mobile applications

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Trade Commission has issued a wide-reaching set of new guidelines for makers of mobile platforms and developers of applications for mobile telephones and tablets to safeguard users’ privacy.

The non-binding guidelines, published in a report on Friday, include the recommendation that companies should obtain consumers’ consent before including location tracking in software and applications, consider developing icons to depict the transmission of user data, and consider offering a “Do Not Track” mechanism for smartphone users.

The report also recommended that application developers have an easily accessible privacy policy, obtain consent before collecting and sharing sensitive information and consider participating in self-regulatory programs.

The FTC has been heightening its scrutiny of mobile devices, which are now the primary source of communication and Internet access for many users.

Among the companies who could be affected by the report are firms like Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

(Reporting By Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Afghan singer’s star is rising, as are the threats

KABUL (Reuters) – With a scarf loosely covering a fancy television hairstyle, Latifa Azizi raised her arms in victory after surviving another elimination round on the hit talent show, “Afghan Star“.

But the victory pales into insignificance when compared with the larger battle 17-year-old Azizi is fighting – to pursue her dream of becoming a famous singer despite the censure of ultra-conservative Afghan society.

“Whether I win or lose, my family can’t go back home, it’s too dangerous,” Azizi, from the relatively liberal northern capital of Mazar-e-Sharif, told Reuters in the show’s dressing room.

Azizi and her family fled Mazar for the Afghan capital, Kabul, soon after she appeared on the show in November. Her community was angry with her appearance, saying it was un-Islamic for a woman to sing and appear on television. The family began to receive death threats.

“Latifa will have no life here after what she’s done. We don’t do such things and we don’t accept people who do,” said Sayed Mohammad Kasem, a member of Azizi’s tribe in Mazar-e-Sharif.

The threats began after the airing of her audition for “Afghan Star”. With an audience of 11 million, the six-year-old show has become an important vehicle for young Afghans aspiring to become famous singers.

“I went to school the day after my audition aired to take my final exams and my classmates started to shout horrible things and pulled at my hair,” Azizi said in a soft low voice.

“I ran away crying,” she said. “Not even my teachers tried to help me.”

Azizi said she was eventually expelled. The school’s headmaster, Mohammad Kalanderi, denied that when contacted by Reuters and said Latifa could come back whenever she wanted.

The backlash Azizi faces is not out of the ordinary for Afghan women who become public figures. Female actors and singers are often harassed, and sometimes beaten and killed.

In a 2009 documentary about “Afghan Star”, one contestant was forced to leave her hometown of Herat in the country’s west after her head scarf slipped to her shoulders during a performance.

During the 1996-2001 reign of the Taliban, women were banned from school, voting and most work. They were not allowed to leave their homes without a man.

Many women’s rights have been painstakingly won back since the Taliban’s overthrow, but there are fears violence against women is under-reported.

Last year also saw a worrying spike in violence, including several cases of female school students being poisoned.

This has led to fears that, when most NATO-led forces withdraw from the country next year, women may once again be subject to Taliban-style repression and violence.

“Every day that passes by, you’re supposed to move forward, but we keep moving backwards,” said singer and “Afghan Star” judge Shahla Zaland, whose mother was also a famous singer in the 1960s.

“The struggles female singers had to overcome fifty or sixty years ago are being faced by these girls today.”

Even in Kabul, Azizi and the only other female contestant receive constant threats.

People follow their cars as they travel to rehearsals to try to discourage them from attending, and issue threats of violence over the phone.

Azizi told Reuters she would not let the threats stop her from appearing on the show. Her father, Sayed Ghulam Shah Azizi, agreed.

“Our family is angry but my daughter had a dream,” he said in the family living room. “What else was I to do but encourage her to pursue it?”

(Additional reporting By Bashir Ansari; Editing by Dylan Welch and Nick Macfie)

(This story was refiled to fix the spelling of Sayed Ghulam Shah Azizi)

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Ferrol Sams, Doctor Turned Novelist, Dies at 90

Ferrol Sams, a country doctor who started writing fiction in his late 50s and went on to win critical praise and a devoted readership for his humorous and perceptive novels and stories that drew on his medical practice and his rural Southern roots, died on Tuesday at his home in Fayetteville, Ga. He was 90.

The cause, said his son Ferrol Sams III, also a doctor, was that he was “slap wore out.”

“He lived a full life,” his son said. “He didn’t leave anything in the tank.”

Dr. Sams grew up on a farm in the rural Piedmont area of Georgia, seven mud-road miles from the nearest town. He was a boy during the Depression; books meant escape and discovery. He read “Robinson Crusoe,” then Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. One of his English professors at Mercer University, in Macon, suggested he consider a career in writing, but he chose another route to examining the human condition: medical school.

When he was 58 — after he had served in World War II, started a medical practice with his wife, raised his four children and stopped devoting so much of his mornings to preparing lessons for Sunday school at the Methodist church — he began writing “Run With the Horsemen,” a novel based on his youth. It was published in 1982.

“In the beginning was the land,” the book begins. “Shortly thereafter was the father.”

In The New York Times Book Review, the novelist Robert Miner wrote, “Mr. Sams’s approach to his hero’s experiences is nicely signaled in these two opening sentences.”

He added: “I couldn’t help associating the gentility, good-humored common sense and pace of this novel with my image of a country doctor spinning yarns. The writing is elegant, reflective and amused. Mr. Sams is a storyteller sure of his audience, in no particular hurry, and gifted with perfect timing.”

Dr. Sams modeled the lead character in “Run With the Horsemen,” Porter Osborne Jr., on himself, and featured him in two more novels, “The Whisper of the River” and “When All the World Was Young,” which followed him into World War II.

Dr. Sams also wrote thinly disguised stories about his life as a physician. In “Epiphany,” he captures the friendship that develops between a literary-minded doctor frustrated by bureaucracy and a patient angry over past racism and injustice.

Ferrol Sams Jr. was born Sept. 26, 1922, in Woolsey, Ga. He received a bachelor’s degree from Mercer in 1942 and his medical degree from Emory University in 1949. In his addition to his namesake, survivors include his wife, Dr. Helen Fletcher Sams; his sons Jim and Fletcher; a daughter, Ellen Nichol; eight grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

Some critics tired of what they called the “folksiness” in Dr. Sams’s books. But he did not write for the critics, he said. In an interview with the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, Dr. Sams was asked what audience he wrote for. Himself, he said.

“If you lose your sense of awe, or if you lose your sense of the ridiculous, you’ve fallen into a terrible pit,” he added. “The only thing that’s worse is never to have had either.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: February 2, 2013

An earlier version of this obituary misstated the town in which Mr. Sams died. It was Fayetteville, Ga., not Lafayette, Ga.

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Chicago beer firm Crown Imports is caught in antitrust fight

An antitrust brouhaha in Washington has thrown the future of Crown Imports, a Chicago-based beer importer, into question.

The company, which ranks third in U.S. beer sales volume, is a joint venture between New York-based Constellation Brands Inc. and Mexico's Grupo Modelo, which makes Corona Extra, the leading imported beer in the U.S., and other brands. Crown sells Modelo brands as well as China's Tsingtao.

As part of its proposed sale to Anheuser-Busch InBev, Grupo Modelo agreed to sell its 50 percent stake in Crown to Constellation Brands for $1.85 billion. The separate transaction was meant to ease possible antitrust concerns that the merger would eliminate Crown Imports as a competitor.

But on Thursday the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit against AB InBev to block its acquisition of Grupo Modelo. Antitrust officials said the merger would further increase the concentration of the U.S. beer market, leading to higher prices for American consumers.

The lawsuit said the sale of Modelo's interest in Crown Imports to its partner would only create "a facade of competition" between AB InBev and the importer.

"In reality, Defendants' proposed 'remedy' eliminates from the market Modelo — a particularly aggressive competitor — and replaces it with an entity wholly dependent on ABI," the Justice Department said in the lawsuit.

The suits cites as evidence part of an internal memo that Crown's chief executive, Bill Hackett, wrote to employees after the transactions were announced in June. According to the suit, Hackett wrote, "Our #1 competitor will now be our supplier ... it is not currently or will not, going forward, be 'business as usual.'"

Under the terms of the proposed merger with Modelo, AB InBev also had the option to terminate its agreement with Crown Imports after 10 years, giving it full control of Corona distribution.

Constellation Brands on Friday attacked the Justice Department, saying in a statement that the suit "demonstrates its incomplete understanding" of the proposed merger. Constellation and AB InBev have indicated that they plan to challenge the suit.

In a detailed defense, Constellation said its full control of Crown would improve competition, not harm it. According to the lawsuit, Modelo controls about 7 percent of U.S. beer sales, far behind AB InBev's market-leading 39 percent.

Constellation attempted to ease concerns that AB InBev's merger with Modelo would lead to higher prices. Hackett said in a statement: "Our Crown team independently develops, implements and refines pricing, promotional and sales strategies for each of our brands in the U.S."

The proposed beer merger had reduced uncertainty hanging over Crown Imports because the Modelo-Constellation joint venture was set to expire at the end of 2016. The Justice Department action creates a new level of uncertainty, said Benj Steinman, president of Beer Marketer's Insights, a beer industry trade publication.

"Crown's fate is hanging in the balance," Steinman said.

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Killer fired at least 10 times at woman on Lake Shore Drive

A 32-year-old woman was shot and killed inside a Dodge mini-van on Lake Shore Drive overnight. (WGN - Chicago)

By Peter Nickeas




Tribune reporter

7:28 p.m. CST, February 1, 2013

A woman was shot to death while driving a van when someone pulled alongside her on the ramp from Lake Shore Drive to the Stevenson Expressway and fired 10 to 14 times Friday morning, police said.

The Chicago woman, 32, was hit at least once and died at the scene. She later was identified as Michelle Smith, of the 5000 block of South Paulina Avenue, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. A 37-year-old woman in the van escaped unharmed and was being questioned by police, officials said.

“A brown full-sized van approached in the left lane,” Illinois State Police Capt. Luis Gutierrez said at a press conference on the scene. “That vehicle shot at our victim approximately 10 to 14 rounds."

Gutierrez said police were able to talk to the passenger, who was not harmed, and police believe that "this incident stems from drug and gang activity." Police are reviewing video footage from near the scene.

The victim's criminal history includes several drug-related arrests and a four-year sentence given in 2007 for a felony narcotics conviction, records show.

Illinois State Police learned of the shooting about 4:20 a.m. from Chicago police, who got to the scene after the van crashed.

Police closed access to interstates 94 and 55 from southbound Lake Shore Drive. Flares were laid out to keep vehicles off the ramp but they were quickly extinguished by wind. The ramp was reopened about 11:30 a.m., according to the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

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Hackers target Twitter, access about 250,000 user accounts

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Anonymous hackers have targeted Twitter this week and gained access to roughly 250,000 user accounts though only “limited information” such as email addresses was compromised, the microblog said on Friday.

Twitter has already reset passwords for affected users, and will notify them soon, it said in a blog post. The cyberattacks come days after the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal revealed they had been the target of a well-coordinated hacking effort.

“This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident,” Twitter said. “The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked.”

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Gary Hill)

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Julia Stiles Joins Mary Pickford Biopic ‘The First’

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Julia Stiles has joined the cast of the Mary Pickford biopic “The First” to play famed screenwriter Frances Marion, Poverty Row Entertainment announced Thursday.

Marion was the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, taking the prize in 1930 for “The Big House.” She collaborated often with Pickford, writing the scripts for “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” and “The Poor Little Rich Girl.”

“The First,” based on Eileen Whitfield‘s biography, “Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood,” tells the story of one of Hollywood’s first superstars.

“Julia is someone I could instantly envision in that era and within the world of Old Hollywood,” director Jennifer DeLia said in a statement. “I’ve watched her work since I was a kid in the mid-90′s when she was emerging as a very cool and very talented actress, and in my eyes, she has never wavered from being someone totally dedicated to what she does. “

Stiles last appeared in David O. Russell‘s Oscar-nominated “Silver Linings Playbook” and the YouTube series “Blue,” a show on Jon Avnet and Rodrigo Garcia’s WIGS channel. She recently finished shooting John Crowley’s “Closed Circuit” and will next appear in “Aguar Rojas” for Jonathan King and Participant Media.

In “The First,” she joins a cast that includes Lily Rabe as Pickford, Michael Pitt as Pickford’s first husband Owen Moore and Ryan Simpkins as a young Pickford.

DeLia and producer Julie Pacino will be taking meetings at the Berlin Film Festival for the movie and must still cast roles such as Pickford’s second husband and fellow star, Douglas Fairbanks. Fairbanks’ great grandson Dominick Fairbanks is a producer on the project.

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Birth Control Rule Altered to Allay Religious Objections

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday proposed yet another compromise to address strenuous objections from religious organizations about a policy requiring health insurance plans to provide free contraceptives, but the change did not end the political furor or legal fight over the issue.

The proposal could expand the number of groups that do not need to pay directly for birth control coverage, encompassing not only churches and other religious organizations, but also some religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and social service agencies. Health insurance companies would pay for the coverage.

The latest proposed change is the third in the last 15 months, all announced on Fridays, as President Obama has struggled to balance women’s rights, health care and religious liberty. Legal experts said the fight could end up in the Supreme Court.

Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said the proposal would guarantee free coverage of birth control “while respecting religious concerns.”

But Kyle Duncan, the general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in Washington, which is representing employers in eight lawsuits, said the litigation would continue. “Today’s proposed rule does nothing to protect the religious freedom of millions of Americans,” Mr. Duncan said.

Religious groups dissatisfied with the new proposal want a broader, more explicit exemption for religious organizations and protection for secular businesses owned by people with religious objections to contraceptive coverage.

The tortured history of the rule has played out in several chapters. The Obama administration first issued standards requiring insurers to cover contraceptives for women in August 2011, less than a month after receiving recommendations to that effect from the National Academy of Sciences. In January 2012, the administration rejected a broad exemption sought by the Roman Catholic Church for insurance provided by Catholic hospitals, colleges and charities. After a firestorm of criticism from Catholic bishops and Republican lawmakers, the administration offered a possible compromise that February. But it left many questions unanswered and did not say how coverage would be provided for self-insured religious organizations.

Under the new proposal, churches and nonprofit religious organizations that object to providing birth control coverage on religious grounds would not have to pay for it.

Female employees could get free contraceptive coverage through a separate plan that would be provided by a health insurer. Institutions objecting to the coverage would not pay for the contraceptives.

Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, who helped develop the proposal as deputy director of the federal office that regulates health insurance, said: “Under the proposed rule, insurance companies — not churches or other religious organizations — will cover contraceptive services. No nonprofit religious institution will be forced to pay for or provide contraceptive coverage, and churches and houses of worship are specifically exempt.”

Moreover, she said, “Nonprofit religious organizations like universities, hospitals or charities with religious objections won’t have to arrange, contract or pay for coverage of these services for their employees or students.”

But some of the lawsuits objecting to the plan have been filed by businesses owned by people who say they have religious reasons for not wanting to provide contraceptive coverage. Under the proposed rule, “for-profit secular employers” would have to provide birth control coverage to employees, even if the business owners had a religious objection to the idea.

Insurers said they were studying the proposal, but had questions about how it would work. Many insurers asked where they would get the money to pay for birth control pills if — as the proposed rule says — they cannot “impose any premium, fee or other charge” for the coverage. The 2010 health care law generally requires employers to provide women with coverage at no cost for “preventive care and screenings,” which the administration says must include contraceptives for women under most health plans.

The administration says employers must cover sterilization and the full range of contraceptive methods approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including emergency contraceptive pills, like those known as ella and Plan B One-Step. Employers that do not provide such coverage will be subject to financial penalties.

The proposed rule is somewhat ambiguous about exactly who would pay the cost of contraceptive coverage.

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Apple phones outsell Samsung in the U.S. in the fourth quarter

Bolstered by sales of its iPhone 5, Apple sold more mobile phones in the U.S. in the fourth quarter than any other maker, including its rival Samsung.

It marks the first time since 2008 that Samsung was not the top phone seller in a quarter.

Still, Samsung retained its crown for all of 2012, selling 53 million devices. Apple was second with 43.7 million phones sold.

For the fourth quarter, Apple sold 17.7 million units, or 34% of the phones sold in the quarter, according to a report released Friday morning by Strategy Analytics. That was up from 12.8 million devices sold in the year-earlier period.

Samsung was next with 16.8 million phones, or 32% of all phones sold in the quarter. Total sales  represented an increase for Samsung, which sold 13.5 million phones a year earlier. 

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"This was a good performance from Samsung, as its market share (of phones sold in the fourth quarter) rose 5 points from 27% a year earlier, but it was not enough to hold off a surging Apple," the report says.

Samsung "will surely be keen to recapture that title in 2013 by launching improved new models such as the rumored Galaxy S4," the report says. 

Third place in the U.S. was LG, which sold 6.9 million phones, 9% of all phones sold during the fourth quarter.

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