Officials: Threats from Broadwell led to FBI probe

The scandal that brought down CIA Director David Petraeus started with harassing emails sent by his biographer and paramour, Paula Broadwell, to another woman, and eventually led the FBI to discover the affair, U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Petraeus quit Friday after acknowledging an extramarital relationship.

The official said the FBI investigation began several months ago with a complaint against Broadwell, a 40-year-old graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and an Army Reserve officer. That probe led agents to her email account, which uncovered the relationship with the 60-year-old retired four-star general, who earned acclaim for his leadership of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The identity of the other woman and her connection with Broadwell were not immediately known.

Petraeus has been married for 38 years to Holly Petraeus, the daughter of the West Point superintendent when he was a student at the New York school.

Concerned that the emails he exchanged with Broadwell raised the possibility of a security breach, the FBI brought the matter up with Petraeus directly, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation. The FBI approached the CIA director because his emails in the matter were in most instances sent from a personal account, not his CIA one.

Petraeus decided to quit, abruptly ending a high-profile career that might high culminated with a run for the presidency, a notion he was believed considering.

"Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours," Petraeus wrote his staff.

Petraeus handed his resignation letter to President Barack Obama on Thursday, stunning many in the White House, the CIA and Congress. The news broke in the media before the House and Senate intelligence committees were briefed, officials say.

By Friday evening, multiple officials identified Broadwell, who spent the better part of a year reporting on Petraeus' time in Afghanistan.

Her best-selling biography, "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus," was written with Vernon Loeb, a Washington Post editor, and published in January. Since Petraeus's resignation on Friday, the book jumped from a ranking on Amazon of 76,792 on Friday to 111 by mid-Saturday.

The CIA was not commenting on the identity of the woman with whom Petraeus was involved.

Broadwell, who is married with two young sons, has not responded to multiple emails and phone messages. Broadwell planned to celebrate her 40th birthday party in Washington this weekend, with many reporters invited. But her husband emailed guests to cancel the event late Friday.

CIA officers long had expressed concern about Broadwell's unprecedented access to the director. She frequently visited the spy agency's headquarters in Langley, Va., to meet Petraeus in his office, accompanied him on his punishing morning runs around the CIA grounds and often attended public functions as his guest, according to two former intelligence officials.

As a military intelligence officer in the Army Reserve, Broadwell had a high security clearance, which she mentioned at public events as one of the reasons she was well suited to write Petraeus's story.

But her access was unsettling to members of the secretive and compartmentalized intelligence agency, where husbands and wives often work in different divisions, but share nothing with each other when they come home because they don't "need to know."

In one incident that caught CIA staff by surprise, Broadwell posted a photograph on her Facebook page of Petraeus with actress Angelina Jolie, taken in his 7th floor office where only the official CIA photographer is permitted to take photos. Petraeus had apparently given Broadwell the photo just hours after it was taken.

Petraeus' staff in Afghanistan similarly had been concerned about the time Broadwell spent with their boss on her multiple reporting visits to the war zone. Following standard military procedure with senior officers, they always had another staffer present when she met with him at his headquarters. Military officers close to him insist the affair did not begin when he was in uniform.

In the preface to her book, Broadwell said she first met Petraeus in the spring of 2006. She was a graduate student at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard; he was visiting the university to discuss his experiences in Iraq and a new counterinsurgency manual he was working on.

She had graduated from West Point with academic, fitness, and leadership honors, according to a biography posted on her publisher's website that lists authors available for speaking engagements.

Harvard invited some students to meet with Petraeus, and Broadwell was among them because of her military background, which she wrote included being recalled to active duty three times to work on counterterrorism issues after the Sept. 11 attacks.

After Obama put Petraeus in charge in Afghanistan in 2010, Broadwell decided to expand her research into an authorized biography.

Broadwell has deep ties and friendships throughout the Washington media sphere and often was sought for comment on Petraeus' viewpoints as he proved harder and harder to reach.

The CIA director had lowered his media profile, stopping his practice of emailing reporters and ending once-common background interviews by the agency. That was especially the case after GOP allegations last spring that the Obama administration was leaking sensitive material to burnish its foreign policy reputation ahead of the presidential election, after a series of stories appeared about top secret operations aimed at al-Qaida in Yemen, and Iran's nuclear program. A White House-ordered investigation of those leaks continues.

Petreaus's resignation comes just before a crucial scheduled appearance before congressional intelligence committees next week to testify on what the CIA knew, and what it told the White House, before, during and after the attacks that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Libya on Sept. 11.

Congressional officials say Petraeus' deputy, Michael Morell, will testify instead, as acting director of the CIA.

___

Associated Press writer Adam Goldman contributed to this report.

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Steam for Linux Launches Its Beta; 60,000 Sign Up in First Week

The creators of Portal, Team Fortress 2, and a ton of other AAA titles announced a few months ago that they were planning to bring their Steam digital distribution service to Linux. It’s basically an app store just for games, and it’s one of the most popular places to buy games for PC or Mac. Now the first wave of outside beta testers has been accepted, and gamers are buying and playing Steam games — including Valve’s — on Linux.

Buy why Linux?

Gabe Newell, Steam’s co-founder, isn’t optimistic about Steam’s future on Microsoft’s new version of Windows, Windows 8. In an interview with VentureBeat, he called it “a catastrophe for everyone” who works with PCs, and said that “margins are going to be destroyed” and they should “have alternatives to hedge against that.”

Why is Windows 8 a “catastrophe?”

From Newell’s perspective, one big reason is probably the new Windows Store. Both Windows 8 and OS X (on Macs) now have built-in app stores, which threaten to make Steam redundant. That’s because you have to go out of your way to install Steam and buy games from them, whereas on Windows 8 and OS X you can just click a button to buy from their stores.

Isn’t Valve unlikely to sell many games on Linux?

You’d think! Linux has always been pretty obscure, and there haven’t been comparatively many brand-name games or apps made for it.

A Linux OS called Ubuntu, however, has made it a lot more attractive to developers, by making Linux more popular and easier to use. Since then, the Humble Indie Bundle made pretty much all of its games run on Linux, and its publicly available sales figures show that a big chunk of its profits come from Linux gamers.

Newell said in the interview that “we’re trying to make sure that Linux thrives.” Valve is staking its reputation on helping make Linux a world-class gaming platform, and it’s been at this for longer than most people probably realize.

How many people would actually use Steam on Linux, though?

Well, as of right now more than 60,000 people have signed up to test out the beta. Not all of them have been accepted yet, but in true Linux fashion some of the ones who haven’t been accepted have figured out how to get in anyway (which may or may not violate Valve’s terms of service).

But what games are there? Aren’t they all Mac and Windows games?

A lot of the games on Steam already have Linux versions, thanks to the Humble Indie Bundle (which gives out Steam keys for all of its games). Meanwhile, Valve’s been working behind the scenes for awhile now to bring the Source engine, which powers many of its games, to Linux. There’s already an official Linux version of Team Fortress 2, Valve’s free-to-play multiplayer first-person shooter, and there are 25 titles in all which are supported for the Linux beta right now.

More games will almost definitely be available soon, as the title Valve’s internal testers were using to work out the bugs in the Steam client — Left 4 Dead 2 — hasn’t appeared in their Linux store yet. And, for the record? It ran faster on Linux than on Windows 7.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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“Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence will not diet for role

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “The Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence will not be dieting for a role any time soon.

Lawrence, 22, who plays the famished Katniss Everdeen in the life-or-death thriller series, told Elle magazine in an interview to be published on November 13 that dropping a few pounds will not be part of her script.

“I’m never going to starve myself for a part,” Lawrence said, a view out of step with many in diet-obsessed Hollywood.

Lawrence’s figure in “The Hunger Games” raised eyebrows of some critics, who believed the actress looked a little too healthy for a character struggling to eat.

“I don’t want little girls to be like, ‘Oh, I want to look like Katniss, so I’m going to skip dinner,” Lawrence said. “That’s something I was really conscious of during training…I was trying to get my body to look fit and strong – not thin and underfed.”

Suffering for a role by rapidly losing or gaining weight is part of Hollywood lore.

Natalie Portman was applauded for dropping some 20 pounds for her Oscar-winning role as a ballerina in 2010′s “Black Swan”. Likewise Robert De Niro nabbed an Oscar after packing on 60 extra pounds in 1980 boxing film “Raging Bull”.

Lawrence’s figure did not hurt the first installment of the “The Hunger Games” series, which was released in March and has grossed some $ 670 million worldwide. The actress has signed on for three sequels.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by David Gregorio)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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The New Old Age Blog: The Emotional Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy

Let’s talk about the emotional aftermath of the storm that left tens of thousands of older people on the East Coast without power, bunkered down in their homes, chilled to the bone and out of touch with the outside world.

Let’s name the feelings they may have experienced. Fear. Despair. Hopelessness. Anxiety. Panic.

Linda Leest and her staff at Services Now for Adult Persons in Queens heard this in the voices of the older people they had been calling every day, people who were homebound and at risk because of medical conditions that compromise their physical functioning.

“They’re afraid of being alone,” she said in a telephone interview a few days after the storm. “They’re worried that if anything happens to them, no one is going to know. They feel that they’ve lost their connection with the world.”

What do we know about how older adults fare, emotionally, in a disaster like that devastating storm, which destroyed homes and businesses and isolated older adults in darkened apartment buildings, walk-ups and houses?

Most do well — emotional resilience is an underappreciated characteristic of older age — but those who are dependent on others, with pre-existing physical and mental disabilities, are especially vulnerable.

Most will recover from the disorienting sense that their world has been turned upside down within a few weeks or months. But some will be thrown into a tailspin and will require professional help. The sooner that help is received, the more likely it is to prevent a significant deterioration in their health.

The best overview comes from a November 2008 position paper from the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry that reviewed the effects of Hurricane Katrina and other disasters. After Katrina, “the elderly had the highest mortality rates, health decline and suicide rates of any subgroup,” that document notes. “High rates of psychosomatic problems were seen, with worsening health problems and increased mortality and disability.”

This is an important point: Emotional trauma in older adults often is hard to detect, and looks different from what occurs in younger people. Instead of acknowledging anxiety or depression, for instance, older people may complain of having a headache, a bad stomachache or some other physical ailment.

“This age group doesn’t generally feel comfortable talking about their feelings; likely, they’ll mask those emotions or minimize what they’re experiencing,” said Dr. Mark Nathanson, a geriatric psychiatrist at Columbia University Medical Center.

Signs that caregivers should watch out for include greater-than-usual confusion in an older relative, a decline in overall functioning and a disregard for “self care such as bathing, eating, dressing properly and taking medication,” Dr. Nathanson said.

As an example, he mentioned an older man who had “been sitting in a cold house for days and decided to stop taking his water pill because he felt it was just too much trouble.” Being distraught or distracted and forgetting or neglecting to take pills for chronic conditions like diabetes or heart disease can have immediate harmful effects.

Especially at risk of emotional disturbances are older adults who are frail and advanced in age, those who have cognitive impairments like Alzheimer’s disease, those with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia or major depression, and those with chronic medical conditions or otherwise in poor physical health, according to the geriatric psychiatry association’s position paper.

A common thread in all of the above is the depletion of physical and emotional reserves, which impairs an older person’s ability to adapt to adverse circumstances.

“In geriatrics, we have this idea of the ‘geriatric cascade’ that refers to how a seemingly minor thing can set in motion a functional, cognitive and psychological downward spiral” in vulnerable older adults, said Dr. Mark Lachs, chief of the division of geriatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College. “Well, the storm was a major thing — a very large disequilibrating event — and its impact is an enormous concern.”

Of special concern are older people who may be in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia who are living alone. For this group, the maintenance of ordinary routines and the sense of a dependable structure in their lives is particularly important, and “a situation like Sandy, which causes so much disruption, can be a tipping point,” Dr. Lachs said.

Also of concern are older people who may have experienced trauma in the past, and who may suffer a reignition of post-traumatic stress symptoms because of the disaster.

Most painful of all, for many older adults, is the sense of profound isolation that can descend on those without working phones, electricity or relatives who can come by to help.

“That isolation, I can’t tell you how disorienting that can be,” said Bobbie Sackman, director of public policy for the Council of Senior Centers and Services of New York City. “They’re scared, but they won’t tell you because they’re too proud and ashamed to ask for help.”

The best remedy, in the short run, is the human touch.

“Now is the time for people to reach out to their neighbors in high-rises or in areas where seniors are clustered, to knock on doors and ask people how they are doing,” said Dr. Gary Kennedy, director of the division of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

Don’t make it a one-time thing; let the older person know you’ll call or come by again, and set up a specific time so “there’s something for them to look forward to,” Dr. Kennedy said. So-called naturally occurring retirement communities with large concentrations of older people should be organizing from within to contact residents who may not be connected with social services and find out how they’re doing, he recommended.

In conversations with older adults, offer reassurance and ask open-ended questions like “Are you low on pills?” or “Can I run out and get you something?” rather than trying to get them to open up, experts recommended. Focusing on problem-solving can make people feel that their lives are being put back in order and provide comfort.

Although short-term psychotherapy has positive outcomes for older adults who’ve undergone a disaster, it’s often hard to convince a senior to seek out mental health services because of the perceived stigma associated with psychological conditions. Don’t let that deter you: Keep trying to connect them with services that can be of help.

Be mindful of worrisome signs like unusual listlessness, apathy, unresponsiveness, agitation or confusion. These may signal that an older adult has developed delirium, which can be extremely dangerous if not addressed quickly, Dr. Nathanson said. If you suspect that’s the case, call 911 or make sure you take the person to the nearest hospital emergency room.

This is a safe place to talk about all kinds of issues affecting older adults. Would you be willing to share what kinds of mental health issues you or family members are dealing with since the storm so readers can learn from one another?

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Retailers plan earlier start to Black Friday

Cierra Hobson is a die-hard Black Friday shopper.

Every year she queues in front of one of her favorite stores, where she waits, in her pajamas, in hopes of bagging a good deal.

This year, Hobson and other deal-seekers will find some twists on the post-Thanksgiving Day ritual: coupons delivered via mobile phones and deeper discounts, maneuvers designed to make shopping easier for consumers and to set retailers on a strong start to the biggest shopping period of the year. But perhaps the biggest change will be an earlier start to the holiday rush.

Black Friday historically launched the day after Thanksgiving. But in recent years, stores have opened at 4 a.m., then midnight. Last year, retailers created a stir by opening at 10 p.m. Thursday. This year, Sears and Wal-Mart announced plans to open at 8 p.m.

"The name of the game this holiday season is who can do it best," said National Retail Federation spokeswoman Kathy Grannis.

"When (early openings) started in 2009, things were a little bit worse off in terms of consumer confidence," Grannis added. "At that point it was very necessary for retailers to get out there before anybody else, and that literally meant before midnight."

This year, holiday spending is expected to rise 4.1 percent, according to the retail federation. Last year, more than 24 percent of Black Friday shoppers were out before midnight and nearly 39 percent of shoppers were in the stores before 5 a.m.

Wal-Mart plans to greet shoppers with the likes of $89 Wii consoles and a $38 Blu-ray player. At Sears, there will be perks on sale items for members of its shopper loyalty program.

Both retailers are touting in-store pickup, allowing customers to buy items online and pick them up at the store, avoiding checkout lines.

The Disney Store plans to begin offering Black Friday deals on the Monday before Thanksgiving, though Disney stores will open at midnight in some markets and 5 a.m. in others. Ads leaked to Internet deal sites say Target stores will open at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving.

Last year, Wal-Mart recorded its most customer traffic at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving night, said spokesman Steven Restivo, adding that the retailer relied on focus groups, online surveys and other feedback to help it decide to open two hours earlier this year. "Our customers told us they loved our Thanksgiving event last year and wanted it again."

At Sears, staying open 26 consecutive hours through Black Friday gives its customers the flexibility they want and makes good business sense, said spokesman Brian Hanover.

"There's a segment of Sears customers who want that thrill of holiday shopping to start as soon as their Thanksgiving dinner ends," he said. "Traditionalists," he added, can wait for door busters at 4 a.m.

Despite discounts that often go beyond 50 percent, stores still make money on the sales, retail experts say. That's because shoppers in physical stores tend to spend more than they planned, said Sanjay Dhar, professor of marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

In the store, "you end up making purchases that aren't as marked down, in addition to the door-buster deals," he said.

Opening earlier and staggering door-buster deals is not only a good way to make money, but it's also necessary for crowd control, retail watchers say. In 2008, a store employee was trampled to death in a Black Friday door-buster stampede at a Long Island, N.Y., Wal-Mart.

Hobson said she doesn't plan to start shopping Thanksgiving night, but she said she'll be up before dawn to catch sales at Express, a clothing store.

"Just knowing that everybody is doing the same thing I'm doing on the same day feels like the beginning of Christmas," she said.

Others worry that super-early openings could backfire.

Sheri Petras, CEO of CFI Group, a Michigan-based consultancy, said store employees grumpy from having to leave their Thanksgiving festivities will take out their anger on customers.

"Consumers will not spend as much with cranky employees," she said.

Some employees at Wal-Mart, Sears and Target say they'd like the day off.

Change.org, an activist website, said Friday that more than 20 new petitions were submitted by employees and consumers asking retailers to reconsider their Thanksgiving evening openings.

It's the second year the website has administered petitions calling for retailers to stick to traditional Black Friday openings.

In a statement distributed by OUR Walmart, a labor rights group, Wal-Mart employee Mary Pat Tifft, of Wisconsin, said she would be "devastated" if she had to work on Thanksgiving, because she is expecting her son home from Afghanistan for the holiday.

"This early opening is one more example of Walmart's disconnect with the workers who keep its stores running and disregard for all of our families. As the largest employer in the country, Walmart could be setting a standard for businesses to value families, but instead, this is one more Walmart policy that hurts the families of workers at its stores," she said.

crshropshire@tribune.com

Twitter @corilyns

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CIA Director David Petraeus resigns over affair

David Petraeus has resigned as director of the CIA after admitting he had an extramarital affair. According to his letter of resignation, Petraeus asked President Barack Obama on Thursday to allow him to resign. On Friday the president accepted. (Nov. 9)

WASHINGTON—

 CIA Director David Petraeus resigned as head of the main U.S. spy agency on Friday, saying he had engaged in an extramarital affair and acknowledging that he "showed extremely poor judgment."

In a letter to the CIA workforce, Petraeus, 60, said that he met with President Barack Obama at the White House on Thursday and asked "to be allowed, for personal reasons, to resign from my position."

"After being married for 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair," he wrote. "Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours."

Obama, who was re-elected to a second term on Tuesday, said in a statement that he accepted Petraeus' resignation, praising him for his work at the CIA and for leading U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The sudden and dramatic turn of events appeared to end the public career of a widely admired man who played a key role in the Iraq war, led the U.S. Central Command and commanded U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Petraeus' name had circulated speculatively as a possible Republican presidential nominee before Obama tapped him as CIA chief. Before taking the CIA post, he retired as an Army general after nearly four decades of military service.

Petraeus had led the CIA for only 14 months. His sudden departure threatened to usher in a period of instability at the spy agency, which is grappling with a leveling off in its budget after a decade of steady increases.

The agency is also fending off questions about its performance before and after the attack that led to the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi, Libya.

U.S. officials insisted that the CIA's handling of the Benghazi incident had nothing to do with Petraeus' decision to resign.

TESTIFY ON CAPITOL HILL

Petraeus had recently traveled to Libya and the Middle East, and had been scheduled to testify about the Benghazi events next week behind closed doors to the House and Senate intelligence committees.

In his statement, Obama said, "I am completely confident that the CIA will continue to thrive and carry out its essential mission."

But there is no indication that he broke any agency rule in connection with his admitted affair, sources familiar with the matter said. The CIA has no broad rule banning officials from engaging in extramarital affairs, though if discovered, liaisons by CIA personnel with suspected foreign agents would pose security problems for a U.S. spy.

Obama, who accepted Petraeus' resignation in a phone call with him Friday afternoon, said that Michael Morell, the agency's long-time deputy director, would serve as acting CIA chief.

Morell, who is well respected at both the White House and on Capitol Hill, had previously served as acting director following the departure of former CIA chief Leon Panetta.

He is a leading candidate to be Petraeus' permanent successor, sources said. Other possible candidates being discussed on Capitol Hill include John Brennan, Obama's chief counter-terrorism adviser; Obama national security adviser Thomas Donilon; and former congresswoman Jane Harman, who chaired the House intelligence committee.

Petraeus' resignation also adds a new vacancy on Obama's national security team. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said she will leave after Obama's first term, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is widely expected to leave as well.

Petraeus' wife, Holly, has been an advocate for U.S. veterans and head of the Office of Servicemember Affairs at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Last month, Petraeus and Holly appeared together at a reception at the Canadian Embassy in Washington to celebrate the premiere of the Ben Affleck film "Argo," which chronicles a successful operation in which the CIA and Canadian diplomats smuggled a group of U.S. officials out of Tehran during the 1979-80 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis.

(Writing by Warren Strobel. Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick. Editing by Jackie Frank, Jim Loney and Philip Barbara)

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U.S. author Philip Roth says he’s done with writing

(Reuters) – Seminal American novelist Philip Roth, one of the world’s most revered authors, is retiring from writing, his publisher Houghton Mifflin said on Friday.

The “American Pastoral” author slipped his retirement announcement under the radar in an interview with French magazine Les Inrocks last month.

“To tell you the truth, I’m done,” Roth was quoted as telling the magazine. ” ‘Nemesis’ will be my last book,” he said of his 2010 short novel.

“He told me it was true,” Lori Glazer, Houghton Mifflin’s vice president and executive director of publicity, told Reuters on Friday.

Roth, 79, whose most famous works include “Goodbye, Columbus” and the sexually-explicit “Portnoy’s Complaint,” has never won the Nobel Prize for Literature despite his name often coming up as a leading contender for the award.

He is the author of more than 25 novels in a career spanning more than 50 years. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1997 novel “American Pastoral” and two National Book Awards.

But Roth told Les Inrocks that he had always found writing difficult and wanted nothing more to do with reading, writing or talking about books.

He said that at the age of 74, he started re-reading all his favorite novels by authors including Ernest Hemingway, Ivan Turgenev and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and then re-read all his own novels

“I wanted to see whether I had wasted my time writing,” he explained.

“After that, I decided that I was done with fiction. I no longer want to read, to write, I don’t even want to talk about it anymore,” he was quoted as saying.

“I have dedicated my life to the novel: I studied, I taught, I wrote, I read – to the exclusion of almost everything else. Enough is enough! I no longer feel this fanaticism to write that I have experienced all my life. The idea of trying to write again is impossible,” Roth told the French magazine.

The New Jersey-born novelist is best known for his semi-autobiographical and unreliable narrator Nathan Zuckerman.

The novella “Goodbye, Columbus” catapulted Roth onto the American literary scene in 1959 with its satirical depiction of class and religion in American life.

Published along with five other short stories, “Goodbye, Columbus” won the National Book Award in 1960 – an award he would go on to win again in 1995 with the novel “Sabbath’s Theater.”

(Reporting By Eric Kelsey in Los Angeles, Editing by Jill Serjeant, Jan Paschal and Claudia Parsons)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Advertising: Help Remedies Tries to Cure Ailments in Small Doses

DISAPPOINTED voters, runners with blisters and headache sufferers alike are getting some unexpected relief from a pop-up pharmacy that opened this week in the nation’s capital.

The “help shop,” which offers low-dose drugs for everyday woes, is the idea of Help Remedies, a start-up company that sells minimalist white packets directed at single medical issues like nausea, headache or insomnia.

The company, the collaboration of two marketers, is creating quirky scenes including a high-heel wearing model walking on a treadmill to market its “Help, I have a blister” packet of bandages, or a performer sleeping in a store window to drum up interest for its “Help, I can’t sleep” caplets.

This week, shoppers and passers-by attracted by the napper, for example, could go inside the temporary pharmacy to investigate its 10 over-the-counter remedies for conditions like body aches and allergies.

The store’s team fanned out to polling stations on Tuesday to hand out its headache packets, and then on Wednesday to the nearby Republican National Committee to share nausea relief. Their marketing may be seen as fun and zany, but the company founders, Richard Fine and Nathan Frank, say they have a serious message.

“We want people to see that there are simple solutions,” said Mr. Fine, who said his straightforward approach was influenced by his parents, who are medical professors specializing in epidemiology.

“Most people shop by brand or product, and it’s difficult to know what you should be buying and taking,” he said. “It is a confusing space for people who are not experts.”

Mr. Fine and Mr. Frank, who met while working in branding and advertising, decided to try to streamline what they see as an antiquated and cluttered pharmaceutical market.

“We wanted to take what’s basic and works, and make it human,” Mr. Fine said. Their strategy of providing single ingredients in low dosages is aimed at basic medical conditions that do not require hospitalization.

After starting the company in 2008, they consulted pharmaceutical sources to zero in on the drugs and dosages to use. Their “Help, I have a headache” formulation, for example, contains 325 milligrams of acetaminophen per caplet.

“That is less than the amount in an extra strength caplet,” said Mr. Fine. “If you need more, you can take more. But this is what pharmacists recommend.”

By that summer, Help Remedies was distributing its packets in some high-end hotel chains and business conferences. In 2009, the two men quit their jobs and started the company Web site, helpineedhelp.com, which includes a link to drug facts for each product.

To carve a niche in the crowded pharmaceutical market, Mr. Frank, who handles the company’s creative efforts, said he focused on offbeat marketing, including tactile packaging and performance windows, and viral videos that mixed up the serious, the absurd and even the goofy.

For the packaging, Mr. Frank settled on a flat, white, textured box that opens like a tin. Taking a page from product designers like Apple, he settled on a simple font called century schoolbook, in various colors.

The graphic work was originally done by ChappsMalina and Little Fury, design firms in New York, and was since updated by another firm, Pearlfisher.

Help Remedies, a privately held company, did not disclose its advertising spending, which was $400 in 2010 and $12,500 last year, according to figures from Kantar Media, a WPP unit.

With a small budget, the company has focused on spinning out lighthearted solutions to situations — like countering boredom by focusing on a bouncing ball or hangovers by staring at a rag — on its Web site, videos, bus shelters and other advertising and in the store windows of Ricky’s, a New York beauty supply company.

Help Remedies set up “living windows” like “Help, I’ve never been kissed,” with models on hand to give hugs and kisses in Ricky’s storefronts. There were also serious problems like “Help, I want to save a life,” that provided registration kits from the bone marrow donor center DKMS.

To expand, the company is adapting the living window approach to its first pop-up pharmacy, in Washington, which was delayed by Hurricane Sandy and got under way as the election results were unfolding.

In addition to giving “Help, I have a headache” packets to anyone who asked, the store manager, Melinda Welch, and her staff distributed 2,000 packets — for blisters and for body aches — to participants in the annual High Heel Race.

The company’s products are found in major pharmacy outlets like Duane Reade and CVS, as well as Target and Walgreens. Last year, the company reached $4 million in sales and is set to expand after Washington to San Francisco; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; Austin, Tex.; Chicago; and Miami.

As part of its expansion, the Washington store plans to hold a “Help, I am Insecure” event on Saturday with a life coach to provide support and advice, and a manicurist for those insecure about their nails, Ms. Welch said.

Other events at later dates include “Help, I am Lonely,” with an online dating site consultation, and “Help, I’m in an Argument with my Spouse,” with a relationship judge to settle differences.

William G. Daddi, the president of Daddi Brand Communications, said Help Remedies’s distinct packaging was well suited to compete in the crowded health and beauty market.

But he warned that tying so many products to whimsical marketing carried risks because “there will be consumer confusion and the remedies will be seen as novelty products.”

“To build a true brand, the consumer needs to see that the product is effective,” Mr. Daddi said. “There needs to be a link to tangible outcomes so people see that the product works.”

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Sandy to raise U.S. used-car prices

The estimated 250,000 cars flooded by Superstorm Sandy on the East Coast will drive up used-car prices, even as far away as California.

The supply shortage comes on the heels of an already tightened used-car market in the wake of the recession, when new car sales dried up. Some experts say prices could rise $700 to $1,000 on the typical used car in the short term. Although those effects will be felt most acutely near the flood zone, the increasingly digital and national market for used cars will spread the price shocks widely.

The flood of Sandy-damaged cars further poses the risk that many will wind up in the hands of unscrupulous dealers peddling to unwitting consumers. The vehicles pose both financial and health risks.

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"Cars that have been submerged in saltwater, and contaminated by bacteria and various toxins, will soon start to appear all over the country, even in states far from the center of the storm," said Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety.

Shahan said there were cases of Nissan vehicles flooded by Hurricane Katrina auctioned as "new" as far away as California after that storm.

She urged shoppers to look for signs of flood damage, including engines that hesitate or run roughly, musty interior smells or signs of silt residue or premature rust.

Buyers should also run the vehicle information number through the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System at vehiclehistory.gov. Insurers, salvage pools, auctions and junkyards in all 50 states are required to report all total-loss vehicles to this federal database within 30 days, Shahan said.

For new vehicles or those still within the factory warranty period, shoppers who suspect flood damage should call the manufacturer to ask if they will honor the warranty, which is typically nullified for flooded cars. If the vehicle was registered as a flood vehicle, the manufacturer won't honor the warranty, and the buyer will know there is a problem.

Although properly restored and titled salvage or flooded vehicles can be an "economical option," consumers should understand what they are getting.

"There is always a chance that there will be problems down the road with corrosion or malfunctions in the electrical systems," said Bob Passmore, senior director at the Property Casualty Insurers Assn. of America.

Rising prices caused by the storm might be one reason why consumers would turn to such cheaper options or fall victim to an attractively priced vehicle with hidden flood damage.

Prices are already comparatively high for late-model used cars, according to industry analysts. That's because of the low number of new cars sold in 2009 and 2010, which also slowed the flow of trade-ins into the used-car market. Leases, a major source of used cars, nearly disappeared.

Now the flood of Sandy-damaged cars is putting more pressure on the tight supply of late-model cars. Prices will go up at least 0.5% to 1.5% in December, said Jonathan Banks, an analyst with the National Automobile Dealers Assn. The dealer group said that amounts to a little more than $50 to $175 for the average used vehicle.

Auto information company Edmunds.com has a much higher estimate, saying that used-car prices will climb $700 to $1,000 "in the short term."

The price hikes will be highest on the East Coast but felt nationally, Banks said.

"We have seen a trend for dealers, regardless of where they are located, buying inventory online, and that means that geography is not as important as in the past," he said. "It used to be that dealers would buy cars from a physical auction near their dealership."

Pulling such a huge number of vehicles out of the U.S. fleet will have an effect at the national level, Banks said.

The problem is compounded by at least tens of thousands of new cars that were destroyed both at dealerships and storage yards in parts of New York and New Jersey hit hardest by the storm.

"Many dealers lost a significant amount of inventory. One Honda dealer told me he lost 600 new units," Banks said.

Fisker Automotive Inc., the Anaheim maker of $100,000 plug-in hybrid sports cars, said it lost 338 vehicles, with a retail value of nearly $34 million, at a port storage facility in New Jersey. Toyota Motor Corp. has said it might have lost as many as 4,500 new Toyota, Scion and Lexus vehicles to flooding and storm damage. American Honda Motor Co. said that more than 3,000 new vehicles at its dealers and storage yards suffered flood damage.

All this is going to create problems for consumers in the storm region who need to replace their rides quickly.

"Prices could really shoot up for consumers buying cars right away, because they will run into a severe inventory shortage," Banks said.

The dealers group believes that some replacement buying will start this month but will pick up in December and run through February. Banks expects that about 30% of buyers will purchase new cars and the remainder will choose used cars.

The buying, however, should provide a boost for the economy, said Edmunds.com Chief Economist Lacey Plache.

"Even if 100,000 damaged vehicles are replaced by the end of the year, it could boost auto sales 3% to 4% for the quarter," Plache said. "That has a positive effect on the economy overall."

jerry.hirsch@latimes.com

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Loughner faces life term for Giffords shooting rampage

Jared Loughner, the man who pleaded guilty to a deadly Arizona shooting rampage that also wounded then-Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, came face to face with his victims Thursday.

TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) - Former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords stood in federal court to face her would-be assassin on Thursday moments before he was sentenced to life in prison for killing six people and wounding 13 others, including Giffords, last year.

Jared Loughner, 24, a college dropout with a history of psychiatric disorders, received seven consecutive life terms plus 140 years in prison, without the possibility of parole, under a plea deal with prosecutors that spared him the death penalty.

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said the life sentences he imposed - one for each of the six people who lost their lives, and a seventh for the attempted assassination of Giffords - represented the individuality of the victims.

"He will never have the opportunity to pick up a gun and do this again," Burns said before Loughner was led away by federal marshals.

Giffords suffered a head wound in the January 8, 2011, shooting that left her with speech difficulties, a paralyzed right arm, diminished sight and a limp.

Loughner, who sat through the proceedings without addressing the court, showed no visible emotion as his sentence was pronounced or during statements delivered earlier in court by several survivors.

Giffords did not speak. Her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, spoke on her behalf.

"You may have put a bullet through her head, but you haven't put a dent in her commitment to make the world a better place," Kelly told him, with Giffords standing at his side as she impassively faced her assailant.

Loughner, seated next to his lawyer, Judy Clarke, appeared to gaze back at them without expression.

"Although you were mentally ill, you were responsible," Kelly told Loughner in a clear, ringing voice. "You have decades upon decades to contemplate what you did, but from this moment, Gabby and I are done thinking about you."

Giffords resigned from Congress in January to focus on her recuperation.

GUN CONTROL

Kelly also used the occasion to take a political swipe at Republican Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, a staunch gun-rights advocate, criticizing her for speaking out against proposed restrictions on high-capacity ammunition magazines, like the ones Loughner used, in the aftermath of the shooting.

"Jan Brewer said it had nothing to do with the size of the magazine. ... She said this just one week after you used a high-capacity magazine," Kelly said, also noting that she named a "state gun" weeks later instead of "fixing the education system."

Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson declined comment on the criticism leveled against the governor.

"On this solemn occasion, Governor Brewer isn't interested in engaging in politics," he said in a statement. "This is a day of justice and peace. Governor Brewer wishes both for the victims and their families."

The proceedings marked a dramatic epilogue to a rampage of gun violence that shocked many Americans, added to the long-running debate over gun control and cut short the political career of Giffords, a rising star in the Democratic Party.

Loughner pleaded guilty in August in federal court to 19 charges, including murder and attempted murder, in connection with the shootings outside a Tucson area supermarket.

He admitted going to Giffords' "Congress On Your Corner" event armed with a loaded Glock 19 pistol and 60 additional rounds of ammunition with plans to kill the Arizona Democrat.

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Exclusive: Google Ventures beefs up fund size to $300 million a year

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google will increase the cash it allocates to its venture-capital arm to up to $300 million a year from $200 million, catapulting Google Ventures into the top echelon of corporate venture-capital funds.

Access to that sizeable checkbook means Google Ventures will be able to invest in more later-stage financing rounds, which tend to be in the tens of millions of dollars or more per investor.

It puts the firm on the same footing as more established corporate venture funds such as Intel's Intel Capital, which typically invests $300-$500 million a year.

"It puts a lot more wood behind the arrow if we need it," said Bill Maris, managing partner of Google Ventures.

Part of the rationale behind the increase is that Google Ventures is a relatively young firm, founded in 2009. Some of the companies it backed two or three years ago are now at later stages, potentially requiring larger cash infusions to grow further.

Google Ventures has taken an eclectic approach, investing in a broad spectrum of companies ranging from medicine to clean power to coupon companies.

Every year, it typically funds 40-50 "seed-stage" deals where it invests $250,000 or less in a company, and perhaps around 15 deals where it invests up to $10 million, Maris said. It aims to complete one or two deals annually in the $20-$50 million range, Maris said.

LACKING SUPERSTARS

Some of its investments include Nest, a smart-thermostat company; Foundation Medicine, which applies genomic analysis to cancer care; Relay Rides, a carsharing service; and smart-grid company Silver Spring Networks. Last year, its portfolio company HomeAway raised $216 million in an initial public offering.

Still, Google Ventures lacks superstar companies such as microblogging service Twitter or online bulletin-board company Pinterest. The firm's recent hiring of high-profile entrepreneur Kevin Rose as a partner could help attract higher-profile deals.

Soon it could have even more cash to play around with. "Larry has repeatedly asked me: 'What do you think you could do with a billion a year?'" said Maris, referring to Google chief executive Larry Page.

(Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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James Bond returns: 007 things to know before seeing “Skyfall’

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Fifty years after Sean Connery traveled to Jamaica in “Dr. No,” James Bond is back for the 23rd time in “Skyfall,” an instant classic in the Bond canon and a breath of fresh air for the franchise.

Bond has been on hiatus for close to four years, leaving some with the sour taste of “Quantum of Solace” – a bloated, action-heavy film many would rather forget. Daniel Craig as Bond seemed so promising in “Casino Royale,” his first film as the trigger-happy secret agent, where we found him playing cards, swilling martinis and bedding Eva Green.

Now Bond returns Thursday in Sam Mendes‘ “Skyfall,” joining forces with some old allies (Judi Dench as M) and new friends (Ben Whishaw as Q and Ralph Fiennes as a government official).

For a franchise celebrating its golden anniversary, it’s hard to imagine 007 could still surprise, but Mendes has issued a full-blown reboot, and TheWrap is here to help you catch up with seven things even the biggest Bond fan should know before seeing “Skyfall.”

Who got rid of the Bond girls?

When you think of Bond, you think of scantily clad women and passionate sex scenes – Ursula Andress traipsing out of the water in her bikini. Denise Richards in a midriff-baring tank top. Green and Craig in a hotel in Montenegro.

This time around, Bond girls are left on the sidelines. Berenice Marlohe appears briefly for instant salivation. But aside from Naomie Harris, the Bond girls play smaller roles, and, to everyone’s surprise, are mostly clothed – no bikinis, no lingerie. Just one shower scene in the shadows.

Craig spends more time with his shirt off than all of the women put together. Eat your heart out ladies.

Where are the exploding pens?

Every Bond fan alive has gadget-envy. From the jet pack in “Thunderball” to the stun-gun cell phone in “Tomorrow Never Dies,” 007 always has an array of toys at his disposal.

No more. The more modern society gets, the less Bond has to work with. Facing the most dangerous cyber terrorist in the world, Q outfits the secret agent with little more than a gun (indeed, a special gun) and a radio.

Radio? Yes, radio.

Is James Bond too old for the job?

When we first see 007, he seems the same chiseled, debonair exemplar of British fortitude. Yet we soon discover much has changed in the world of the 00s. It appears Bond dies a few minutes into the movie, but he resurfaces as a scruffy drunk, taking shots of booze at a bar on a tropical island. This Bond would rather fall asleep drunk at a bar than go home to his gorgeous mate.

When Bond is subjected to a full physical and mental evaluation, his fitness is failing, his aim askew and his mental state muddled.

The government questions his return as a 00, leaving his future up in the air.

When did the villains stop caring about money?

MI6, the legendary British intelligence outfit, appears in even worse shape. It has long been home to some of the world’s best agents, willing to go undercover at a moment’s notice in service to queen and country.

Yet on Bond’s 50th anniversary, its strategies are antiquated, and its field agents, ready as ever to engage in fire fights, appear defeated. Long gone are villains like Goldfinger (“Goldfinger”) and crime syndicates like Janus (“Goldeneye”). Cyber-crime is the new danger, and its perpetrators don’t want money, they want chaos.

What’s a secret agent to do when nerds rule the world?

Is this a Bond villain to remember?

How is it that only the Coen Brothers and Mendes recognize Javier Bardem’s talent as a villain? After his chilling portrayal of Anton Chiguhr in “No Country for Old Men,” the Coen Brother’s Oscar-winning Western, Bardem returns to his evil ways as Raoul Silva, a former MI6 agent hell bent on revenge.

His hair is blonde, his accent is spine-tingling and his plan pure evil. He doesn’t fit the typical Bond stereotype. He’s not Russian, he’s not wealthy and he’s not affiliated with a larger organization. He’s a lone wolf.

He’s also the best Bond villain in years, leaving us to wonder: who will they recruit next?

Does the song remain the same?

For those living under a rock, Adele sings the “Skyfall” theme song, bringing a little extra cultural cache and British bluster to the film. It’s been years since a Bond movie used the classic opening, replete with fake blood, gunshots and a roving spotlight, but “Skyfall” takes us into new territory – underwater.

While plenty of Bond openings have featured fire and sexy silhouettes, Mendes chooses aquatic optics and a submerged graveyard. Though the scene will divide critics, the song itself shows off Adele’s powerful voice. Considering some of the recent entries – remember Madonna’s “Die Another Day”? – this is progress.

Did Christopher Nolan inspire Mendes?

James Bond is one of the most famous characters in film history, but “Skyfall” appears heavily influenced by Nolan’s Batman films. In keeping with the Craig-led Bonds (which began one year after “Batman Begins”), “Skyfall” is darker than earlier films, both literally (a night scene in Shanghai) and thematically (the constant fear of an attack at home).

When M makes a speech to Parliament, she proclaims the world scarier than ever because our enemies are now in the shadows – a choice Nolanism. The villains’ yearning for chaos rather than financial reward echoes Liam Neeson’s League of Shadows, Heath Ledger’s Joker and Tom Hardy’s Bane.

The new Bond also resembles the new Batman, a man struggling with his role in a changed world, an outcast who only wants to serve his country.

Believed dead, he only returns to England because of an attack on British soil.

Upon his return, Bond is now a lone vigilante a la the caped crusader, standing on a roof waiting for his next move – or perhaps the bat signal.

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Doctor and Patient: Comparative Effectiveness Studies Lack Impact

“Comparative effectiveness” studies, which compare one treatment for a particular illness against another to determine which works better, have received a lot of attention and billions of dollars in federal support in the last few years. But when I mentioned comparative effectiveness research recently to a colleague who I know is particularly interested in treatments and the clinical trials behind them, he let out a loud snort and guffaw before I even finished saying the words.

“It’s a great idea, but it’s not real life,” he said, regaining his composure. “Or at least not the real life of a lot of doctors and patients.”

To explain, he described a newly published study on treating children who are thought to have swallowed a small foreign object, like a coin or a toy. He reeled off a long list of laboratory tests, scans, scopes and X-rays that the researchers recommended for such cases, adding, “Those experts assume that everyone lives near big medical centers like theirs, but not all of my patients do. And what are we going to do if the insurance company doesn’t approve of all the tests we order?”

It took only a cursory review of comparative effectiveness research over the last decade for me to realize that my colleague was right. Despite many useful and even potentially cost-saving findings, many of them failed to change doctors’ practice and patient care.

Now a group of researchers has offered a cogent analysis in the journal Health Affairs to explain this failure. And they have done so using methods about as different from comparative effectiveness as research can be.

The researchers talked to more than 50 doctors, patient advocates and other health care experts, each of whom had created, conducted or evaluated comparative effectiveness research or helped introduce the findings into clinical practice. During the interviews, they referred to trials of blood pressure medications, spine surgery, antipsychotic drugs, a heart rhythm device, heart catheterizations and bone marrow transplantation, and then asked why some of these studies seemed to inspire enduring changes while others did not.

A handful of factors came up again and again. Those interviewed frequently referred to the fact that many of these studies did not address the actual needs of practicing clinicians and patients. For instance, one study of medications for treating psychosis focused on the differences in efficacy among the drugs, but mental health care providers really wanted to know about differences in safety.

Sometimes, too, a study’s conclusions required such a significant shift in thinking that doctors and patients had difficulty adjusting to the change, like the recent recommendations against using measures of the prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, as a screening test for cancer. Other times, the findings were so nuanced or ambiguous, with such complicated restrictions on what worked best when, that they simply were not incorporated into professional guidelines or recommendations.

But perhaps the most common reason for these studies’ failures came down to dollars. In the current health care system, clinicians are rewarded for doing and ordering more. Pharmaceutical and medical device firms reap fortunes from physicians’ orders, and a single change could cost them billions. Studies that endorse anything less than another expensive procedure or a newer and more expensive medication or the latest device are often destined for failure or a protracted struggle against drug and device companies that are willing to put up a costly fight.

“The incentives are all out of whack,” said Justin W. Timbie, the lead author and a health policy researcher at the RAND Corporation in Arlington, Va. “The current system favors treatments that are well paid, not necessarily those that are most effective.”

For example, one study found that generic diuretic pills that cost pennies a day worked better for patients with high blood pressure than newer drugs that could be as much as 20 times as expensive. Because hypertension affects tens of millions of Americans, this finding had the potential to save the health care system billions of dollars.

But the finding never really took hold; the percentage of patients taking the cheaper diuretics barely increased. Physicians had a difficult time changing their prescribing habits; limited funding prevented researchers from widely disseminating the results; and pharmaceutical companies waged an aggressive marketing campaign that included paying health care experts to speak about the study in a way that made their expensive drugs seem better.

Based on their findings from these interviews, Dr. Timbie and his fellow investigators offer several suggestions that may improve the impact of these studies. These include realigning financial incentives to support recommended changes in practice; incorporating a broad range of perspectives, like those of practicing doctors and patients, in the design, goals and interpretation of such studies; and, above all, proceeding with a clear strategy for all future comparative effectiveness research.

Despite the challenges, the researchers remain optimistic about the future. And for good reason. Their study was initiated by policy makers and financed by the federal office responsible for health care policy coordination and planning. And representatives from the new national organization, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, whose mission is to develop and oversee such studies, have reviewed and discussed the suggestions with Dr. Timbie and the other authors of the study.

“The track record to now has not been great, but for the first time, comparative effectiveness research is a priority for the country,” Dr. Timbie said. “The whole process of generating new evidence has a degree of governance that has never existed before.”

“It’s all about impact now,” he added.

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McDonald's sales drop, first time since 2003

McDonald's Corp. reported its first decline in monthly U.S. same store sales in nine years Thursday, as the chain began to suffer problems plaguing the rest of the fast food industry for several years.

Sales at restaurants open more than a year declined 2.2 percent. Same store sales also declined in Europe, 2.2 percent, and the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region, 2.4 percent.

The chain cited lower demand and greater competition for the lower sales. While hamburger competitors Burger King and Wendy’s were walloped by the onset of the recession, both  have changed hands in recent years and launched new menu items that better compete with McDonald’s including expanded breakfast offerings, improved coffee options and more innovative salads.

"Though October's sales results reflect the pervasive challenges of today's global marketplace, I am confident that our strategies and the adjustments we are making in response to the current business headwinds will build sales momentum and drive sustained, profitable growth," McDonald's CEO Don Thompson said. 

Although the decline is historic for the world's largest restaurant chain, which has been on a roll since the beginning of its historic turnaround in 2003, it was not unexpected. Analysts have been tempering expectations and downgrading the stock for months.

To rev up sales, McDonald's has been working to emphasize value in markets around the world.

In the U.S., for example, McDonald's is stepping up advertising for its Dollar Menu after its attempt to market an "Extra Value Menu" for slightly higher prices fell flat. But the company said Thursday that the efforts were offset by "modest consumer demand" and competition.

In particular, McDonald's is facing stiffer competition from longtime rivals Burger King and Wendy's, which are both in the midst of reviving their brands with new ad campaigns and improved menus. Taco Bell, owned by Yum Brands Inc., is also enjoying growth with the help of new offerings such as it Doritos Locos Tacos and higher-end Cantina Bell bowls and burritos.

Stock slipped 0.99 percent in pre-market trades, to $86 in early trading. McDonald's hit an all-time high of $101.74 in February.

Baird analyst David Tarantino maintained an outperform rating on McDonald's, saying in a research note that, "We are cautiously optimistic that better trends can emerge as McDonald's gets past a wall of challenging comparisons in upcoming months."

Tarrantino added that though results "could remain soft" through early 2013, "we see opportunity for better performance to emerge in 2013 as a whole," because of emphasis on value offerings, lower ingredient costs, and reduced currency impact.

eyork@tribune.com | Twitter: @emilyyork

- Reuters contributed to this report

MCD Net Income Quarterly data by YCharts

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Nor'easter wary United cancels 269 flights -- 116 at O'Hare

United Airlines has canceled 269 flights as a result of a Nor'easter poised to hit the East Coast. The same storm also caused more than 100 flights at O'Hare International Airport to be canceled Wednesday.

Chicago-based United said it would suspend most service to and from the New York and Philadelphia areas between noon Wednesday and noon Thursday.

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As of Wednesday afternoon, United was the most-affected airline, canceling 269 flights, according to FlightStats.com. That's followed by 251 canceled flights by ExpressJet, 146 by American Eagle and 140 by American Airlines.

The three major New York-area airports and Philadelphia International were most affected, but fifth on the list was O'Hare, with 116 cancellations, according to FlightStats data.

At Newark Liberty International Airport, United canceled all departures, including international flights, after 4 p.m. Wednesday and will cancel selected inbound flights, according to an update at United Hub online. It also canceled all United Express operations at the airport from 2 p.m. Wednesday through 10 a.m. Thursday.

At John F. Kennedy International, United planned departures through the early afternoon Wednesday. It won't resume operating until noon Thursday.

At LaGuardia, no United flights will operate between noon Wednesday and noon Thursday.

United said it has, where possible, rebooked travelers ticketed with connections at Newark through the airline's other hubs.

The airline will waive change fees and any additional fare that might apply to customers ticketed on flights to, from or through airports in the path of the storm from Nov. 6 through Nov. 8. Customers may reschedule itineraries no later than Nov. 15 with a one-time date or time change. Customers may also request refunds.

Airports affected acted are Allentown, Pa.; Hartford, Conn.; Manchester, N.H.; New York/Newark (Liberty, Kennedy and LaGuardia); Philadelphia and White Plains, N.Y.

Details and specific flight information is available at United.com.

gkarp@tribune.com

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Apple slides to five-month low, uncertainty grows

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War Widow’s Lawsuit Says Nat Geo, Fox Depicted Dead Husband’s Body, Aired Family Photo

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – An Army staff sergeant‘s widow says in a lawsuit against National Geographic and Fox that a documentary from the companies depicted her husband’s dead body and showed a private family photo she believes was taken from his laptop after he died.

The suit seeks unspecified damages and to ban Nat Geo and Fox from using military family members’ images, names or likenesses for commercial purposes without their permission.

Nat Geo declined to comment.

Donnice Roberts, of Carthage, Texas, has two children with Staff Sergeant Kevin Casey Roberts. He was killed by an IED in 2008 during what was to be his last mission in Afghanistan, after two tours in Iraq. He enlisted two months after the September 11 2001 attacks, and received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

A year after he died, according to the lawsuit, she learned from another service member that he had seen a documentary called “Inside: Afghan ER” on the Armed Forces Network, broadcast in German, that depicted her husband’s dead body. It also featured a family photo from a trip to Disney World that she believes was taken from his laptop.

“Mrs. Roberts was very disturbed that her image, and more importantly, her children’s image would be broadcast around the world without their knowledge or permission,” the lawsuit said. “This is particularly true given the fanaticism associated with jihadist determined to kill Americans, including American women and children.”

“Moreover, Mrs. Roberts has fears and concerns that her minor children are depicted as the children of a warrior in the war on terror, which is fought by fanatic, radical individuals who have shown a propensity and desire to kill Americans, including women and children,” the lawsuit adds.

The lawsuit said the lawsuit was produced and distributed by the National Geographic Society and further promoted and distributed by Fox Cable Networks, Inc. and Fox Entertainment Group, Inc. through the cable network NatGeo and affiliated websites. The suit said it aired worldwide.

Roberts said when she contacted National Geographic Society seeking a copy of the photo, she was told she would need to sign a waiver. She refused.

(Pamela Chelin contributed to this story)

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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A Collective Effort to Save Decades of Research at N.Y.U.

The calls started coming in late on Tuesday and early Wednesday: offers of dry ice, freezer space, coolers. By the end of Thursday there were dozens more: A researcher at Weill Cornell Medical College would clear 1,000 tanks to save threatened zebra fish; another, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, promised to replace some genetically altered mice that were lost; and a doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia even offered take over entire experiments, to keep them going.

As hurricane-driven waters surged into New York University research buildings in Kips Bay, on the East Side of Manhattan, investigators in New York and around the world jumped on the phone to offer assistance — executing a reverse Noah’s ark operation, to rescue lab animals and other assets from a flooding vessel.

“I’ve had 43 people who have offered to help so far, and some of them are direct competitors,” said Gordon Fishell, associate director of the N.Y.U. Neuroscience Institute, who lost more than 5,000 genetically altered mice when storm waters surged the night of Oct. 30, cutting off power. “It’s just been unbelievable,” he said. “It really buoys my spirits and my lab’s.”

Staff members at N.Y.U. worked around the clock to preserve research materials, running in and out of darkened buildings without elevator service, hauling dry ice and other supplies up anywhere from 2 to more than 15 floors.

The university’s medical center also got instant help, from almost every major research institution in the area.

The response reflects large shifts in the way that science is conducted over the past generation or so. Individual labs always compete to be first, but researchers increasingly share materials that are enormously expensive and time-consuming to reproduce. The loss of a single cell line or genetically altered animal can slow progress for years in some areas of biomedical research.

“We are totally dependent on each other in the life sciences now, for a very large number of cell lines and extracts, research animals and unique chemical tools and antibodies that might not have backup copies anywhere in the world, or in very few places,” said Dr. Steven Hyman, director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard. “Losing any of these tools tears a significant hole in the entire field.”

Danny Reinberg, a professor of biochemistry at N.Y.U.’s medical school, has studied genetics for 30 years, accumulating valuable mice strains and stocks of extracts from cell nuclei that would be extremely difficult to replace. The extracts must be stored at minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit.

Dr. Reinberg said he lost all of his mice: nine strains, including more than 1,000 animals that died in the storm surge. But he managed to save all of the cell extracts by moving some containers into freezers at N.Y.U. labs that weren’t affected and others to the Rockefeller, Columbia and Cornell medical centers, each of which cleared space, he said.

“We were able to save many things; it was just phenomenal to get that kind of help,” said Dr. Reinberg, whose house in New Jersey has had no power.

“Later in the week, at a Starbucks, I could finally download all my e-mail, and there were messages from people at the University of Pennsylvania and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, asking how they could help us re-establish the mouse lines we lost,” he said.

Some scientists have become interdependent because their students, who develop a specialty in specific tissues or animals, often move among labs. Research projects sometimes draw on experiments or analyses the students worked on at more than one place.

One researcher working in Dr. Fishell’s lab was formerly a student of Dr. Stewart Anderson of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who sent Dr. Fishell a text message on Wednesday to offer help. “I told him that even if it costs money, we’re happy to keep experiments rolling, if we’re able to,” Dr. Anderson said.

By late Thursday, freezer space in minus-112-degree units was extremely tight in the city. So was dry ice.

Susan Zolla-Pazner, director of AIDS research at the Manhattan Veterans Affairs Medical Center, had lost power in her 18th-floor lab in the department’s building at 23rd Street and First Avenue. She finally hired a company to haul her 20 freezers-full of specimens, for safekeeping.

“We spent all of Tuesday and Wednesday hauling 1,300 pounds of dry ice up to the 18th floor, using the stairs, to stabilize the freezers first,” said Dr. Zolla-Pazner, who is also a professor of pathology at N.Y.U. School of Medicine. “And the dry ice people would only take cash. I have about 25 to 30 people working for me, and everyone was out there on 23rd Street, reaching into their pockets to get what we needed. It was a herculean and heroic effort on the part of everyone here, and that is the story that needs to be told.”

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