Global Update: Meningitis Vaccine Gets Longer Window Without Refrigeration

In what may prove to be a major advance for Africa’s “meningitis belt,” regulatory authorities have decided that a new meningitis vaccine could be stored without refrigeration for up to four days.

The announcement was made last week at a conference in Atlanta of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. While a few days may seem trivial, the hardest part of protecting poor countries is often keeping a vaccine cold while moving it from electrified cities to villages with no power. In antipolio drives, for example, the freezers, generators and fuel needed to make ice for the shoulder bags of vaccinators can cost more than the vaccine.

The new vaccine, MenAfriVac, made in India for 50 cents a dose, was introduced in 2010. In bad years, epidemics during the hot harmattan winds have killed as many as 25,000 Africans and disabled 50,000 more. In Chad this year, vaccination drove down cases to near zero in districts where it was used, while others nearby had serious outbreaks.

Experts decided that the vaccine is safe for four days as long as it stays below 104 degrees.

While temperatures get higher than that in Africa, said Dr. Godwin Enwere, medical director for the Meningitis Vaccine Project, teams normally get the vaccine out of coolers at dawn, drive to villages and finish before the day heats up. Other experts said it should be kept in the shade and monitored with colored paper “dots” that darken after hours in the heat.

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Hostess, unions agree to mediation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

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

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

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

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

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

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

BUYERS MAY EMERGE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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CTA, union agree to tentative 4-year deal

(Tribune illustration / March 2, 2012)

By Jon Hilkevitch




Tribune reporter

4:52 p.m. CST, November 19, 2012

The CTA and the union representing bus drivers and rail operators reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract, the transit agency announced Monday.

Details were not provided, but the deal clears the way for the CTA to release its proposed 2013 budget this week, officials said.

Check back for additional details.

jhilkevitch@tribune.com

Twitter: @jhilkevitch

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GetGlue Acquired by Viggle for $25million, Stock

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Viggle Inc. has purchased GetGlue for $ 25 million in cash and 48.3 million shares in stock, with the goal of making the merged companies the dominate force in social TV. Together, the two companies will have more than 4 million users.

Viggle stock was up 10.81 percent in early trading Monday, to $ 1.23 a share. That makes the value of GetGlue’s stock payout nearly $ 60 million.

Viggle Inc., a reward-based site that launched in January, will operate both brands. GetGlue founder and CEO Alex Iskold will join Viggle in a senior executive position on its management team and as a member of its Board of Directors. Viggle will also hire all 34 GetGlue employees.

“With this deal, we are combining very experienced and creative product, engineering and management teams that will continue to build great user experiences and provide industry leading platforms for consumers, networks and advertisers,” said Viggle CEO Robert F.X. Sillerman. “We will also be vastly increasing the Viggle user base and quadrupling our network partnerships.”

“We are very excited to join forces with Viggle! GetGlue has built a Social TV product that people love, and Viggle has become their favorite loyalty program for TV,” Iskold said. “Together we are positioned to deliver the next generation second screen experiences that delight and benefit users, networks and major brands.”

New York City-based GetGlue, founded in 2007, enables users to tell friends what they’re watching, track their favorite shows, and find videos, images, and links. It has more than 3.2 million registered users.

Viggle has 1.2 million registered users who receive points for loyalty and engagement. They can redeem points from businesses including Best Buy, Amazon, Fandango, Hulu Plus and iTunes.

The deal is only the latest for Sillerman, whose SFX Entertainment also recently purchased the electronic dance music companies Disco Donnie Presents and Life in Color. He said SFX expects up to 50 additional deals to come to fruition in the near future.

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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News Analysis: Tainted-Drug Deaths Spawn Heated Debate Over F.D.A.’s Powers

If she kept being defensive, Mr. Dingell warned, “I would assure you that you are putting your head in the noose.”

Hearings like this may be partly theater, a chance for politicians to strut their righteous indignation and threaten tough new laws. But a public health disaster had occurred on Dr. Hamburg’s watch, one about which she has been mostly silent, and the hearing was a chance for her to show leadership and mastery. Instead, her answers were vague and long-winded, and it was clear by the reactions of the panel members that they brought more frustration than clarity.

The hearing was titled “The Fungal Meningitis Outbreak: Could It Have Been Prevented?” But the question was never really answered, and hours of testimony left the ominous impression that the country has few safeguards to prevent an outbreak like that from happening again.

Democrats on the committee wanted to quickly pass new legislation to strengthen the F.DA.’s ability to police rogue drug makers, but Republicans seemed less eager. It was not clear whether the hearing would actually accomplish anything.

So far, 33 people have died and 447 others have become ill from injections of a fungus-contaminated steroid drug made by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass. The number of cases is still rising. Inspections of the drug maker have revealed a stunning array of dangerous practices and unclean equipment, as well as vials of medicine with visible blobs of fungal matter floating in it. The center has been shut down.

Joyce Lovelace, a white-haired woman with a soft voice and a Southern accent, addressed the committee from a wheelchair. She described the illness and death of her husband, Eddie, who at 78 had still been serving as a judge in Kentucky.

“It was not an easy death we witnessed,” Mrs. Lovelace said. She added, “These committees, the F.D.A., the N.E.C.C., whoever is responsible, I want them to know their lack of attention to their duties cost my husband his life.”

The next witness was Barry Cadden, the chief pharmacist and an owner of the New England Compounding Center. Flanked by his lawyers, he invoked the right to avoid incriminating himself and did not answer any questions.

Mr. Cadden’s company was shipping a huge array of drugs to clinics and hospitals around the country, including some of the nation’s most prestigious medical centers. The business, which opened in 1998, had several run-ins with the F.D.A. and with health officials in Massachusetts over the years, and pharmacy boards in other states had complained about its practices. But it kept operating.

Dr. Hamburg came in for a grilling because a deadly outbreak from a contaminated drug is exactly the kind of public health tragedy that her agency is meant to prevent.

She used much of her testimony to insist that the agency’s authority over the New England Compounding Center and other companies like it was not clear, and that new laws were required. Currently, she said, companies like New England Compounding could thwart oversight by suing the F.D.A. if it tried to regulate them, and by refusing to allow inspections without search warrants.

But the lawmakers said that existing laws gave the agency all the power it needed, and that it had simply failed to use that power.

“Commissioner, two agencies here have dropped the ball,” Mr. Dingell said, referring to the F.D.A. and the Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy.

The issue is that New England Compounding identified itself as a compounding pharmacy, a practice that is supposed to involve making unusual drug formulations to fill prescriptions for individual patients with special needs. Compounding is legal on a small scale, and does not have to follow the strict rules that apply to mass-produced drugs. It is generally regulated by states rather than the federal government, which has jurisdiction over manufacturers.

But the company was mass-producing drugs and shipping them all over the country, without the manufacturing standards or inspections imposed on big drug makers. It shipped 16,676 vials of the contaminated steroid, methylprednisolone, to 23 states, and 14,000 people were injected with it.

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Best October in 6 years for area home sales

The Chicago area's housing market last month regained the momentum it lost in September, resulting in more homes being sold than in any October since 2006.

Sales of existing single-family homes and condominiums in the nine-county Chicago area totaled 8,326 properties in October, according to figures released Monday by the Illinois Association of Realtors. While below some of the monthly sales totals recorded earlier in the year, the volume was an increase of 11.3 percent over September and 44.1 percent higher than the 5,776 homes sold in October 2011.

Within the city of Chicago, 2,009 homes were sold in October, an improvement of 8.8 percent over September and up 53.1 percent from October 2011. Condos accounted for 60 percent of the city's sales volume.

The strong sales continue to remove excess inventory for the market, which is necessary before price appreciation can truly begin. The number of homes listed for sale is at its lowest point in five years, according to Midwest Real Estate Data LLC, the local multiple listing provider. 

Meanwhile, the number of pending home sales in the Chicago area, meaning properties that are under contract but the sales have not yet closed, totaled 10,364 in October, the highest it's ever been except for April 2010 when home sales were affected by federal homebuyer tax credit programs.

For the Chicago area as a whole, the median price of a home was $153,000, the lowest it's been since March but still ahead 2.1 percent from October 2011's $149,900.  Among local counties, DuPage County was one of those that saw double-digit, year-over-year monthly appreciation, rising 11.4 percent in October, to $195,000.

Within the city, the median price rose to $175,000, up 8 percent from a year ago but again, the lowest monthly price recorded since March. In the condo market, the median price fell 8.7 percent from September, to $210,000. However, that sum was a 13.5 percent increase from October 2011.

Last month, 43 percent of sales within the city were either foreclosures or short sales.

The median is the point at which half the homes are sold for more and half for less.

"There's a great deal of end-of-the year excitement," said Zeke Morris, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors. "Typically our numbers are down in the fourth quarter but we're beginning to catch up to other markets in Illinois."

Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, a University of Illinois economist, attributed the improved sales performance to a slowly improving economy, stronger consumer confidence and continued low mortgages rates.

The monthly average commitment rate for the benchmark 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage in the Chicago area was 3.36 percent in October, compared with 3.49 percent in September and 4.07 percent in October 2011, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. Last week, Freddie Mac said average mortgage rates hit a new all-time low in its weekly survey, of 3.34 percent for a 30-year, fixed rate mortgage.

mepodmolik@tribune.com | Twitter @mepodmolik

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1 dead after minivan rear-ends car stopped in express lanes

Emergency vehicles at the scene of a fatal collision on the Dan Ryan Expressway. Video by Stacey Wescott.

A Steger man was killed and three other people were hurt when a minivan rear-ended a car stopped in the express lanes of the Dan Ryan Expressway near 26th Street this morning.

At about 4:20 a.m., a 2005 Chrysler Pacifica was stopped for traffic ahead while traveling northbound in the express lanes on I-94 near 26th Street, Illinois State Police Sgt. Jose R. De Jesus said in an e-mailed statement.

While stopped, the Chrysler was rear-ended by a 2005 Chevrolet Uplander minivan, which caused the Chevrolet to hit the right wall and flip over, the statement said.

The minivan was occupied by three people, but at this time, it is not clear who was behind the wheel, the statement said.

One of the minivan's occupants was taken to Northwestern Hospital and listed as being in serious condition while another, 32-year-old Dennis Moore of Steger, was transported to John Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, the statement said.

Moore, of the 3000 block of West 34^th Street in the south suburb, was pronounced dead at 5:08 a.m. at Stroger, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

The driver of the Chrysler was also transported to Stroger hospital with non-life threatening injuries.  

The investigation remains ongoing and no charges have been filed at this time, the statement said.

Local lanes remained open even after the accident, but express lanes had earlier been closed at 26th Street before re-opening in mid-morning.

Fire officials transported four people to area hospitals in critical condition, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Kevin MacGregor said.

All of the injured had to be extricated from their vehicles, MacGregor said.

Two of those injured were taken to Stroger hospital, and two were taken to Northwestern Memorial, MacGregor said.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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One Direction top British single and album charts

LONDON (Reuters) – Boy band One Direction topped Britain’s singles and album charts on Sunday, outselling new releases from rock veterans Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones, the Official Charts Company said.

The English-Irish quintet shot to number one in the album charts with “Take Me Home”, with one of its tracks, “Little Things”, also taking first place in the singles rankings.

Singer Rod Stewart had to settle for number two for his new collection of seasonal classics “Merry Christmas Baby”, while the Rolling Stones were third with their 50th anniversary compilation “GRRR!”.

Also new in the album lists were British tenor Alfie Boe at number six with “Storyteller”, while American punk band Green Day entered in tenth place with “¡Dos!”.

American singer Bruno Mars took second place in the singles charts with “Locked Out Of Heaven”, just ahead of “DNA” at number three from British girl group Little Mix.

(Reporting by Tim Castle; Editing by Will Waterman)

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Ashlyn Blocker, the Girl Who Feels No Pain

Jeff Riedel for The New York Times

Ashlyn Blocker, who feels no pain, at home in Patterson, GA.

The girl who feels no pain was in the kitchen, stirring ramen noodles, when the spoon slipped from her hand and dropped into the pot of boiling water. It was a school night; the TV was on in the living room, and her mother was folding clothes on the couch. Without thinking, Ashlyn Blocker reached her right hand in to retrieve the spoon, then took her hand out of the water and stood looking at it under the oven light. She walked a few steps to the sink and ran cold water over all her faded white scars, then called to her mother, “I just put my fingers in!” Her mother, Tara Blocker, dropped the clothes and rushed to her daughter’s side. “Oh, my lord!” she said — after 13 years, that same old fear — and then she got some ice and gently pressed it against her daughter’s hand, relieved that the burn wasn’t worse.

Tara Blocker

When Ashlyn was 2, her mother had to wrap her hands to keep her from biting them.

“I showed her how to get another utensil and fish the spoon out,” Tara said with a weary laugh when she recounted the story to me two months later. “Another thing,” she said, “she’s starting to use flat irons for her hair, and those things get superhot.”

Tara was sitting on the couch in a T-shirt printed with the words “Camp Painless But Hopeful.” Ashlyn was curled on the living-room carpet crocheting a purse from one of the skeins of yarn she keeps piled in her room. Her 10-year-old sister, Tristen, was in the leather recliner, asleep on top of their father, John Blocker, who stretched out there after work and was slowly falling asleep, too. The house smelled of the homemade macaroni and cheese they were going to have for dinner. A South Georgia rainstorm drummed the gutters, and lightning illuminated the batting cage and the pool in the backyard.

Without lifting her eyes from the crochet hooks in her hands, Ashlyn spoke up to add one detail to her mother’s story. “I was just thinking, What did I just do?” she said.

Over six days with the Blockers, I watched Ashlyn behave like any 13-year-old girl, brushing her hair, dancing around and jumping on her bed. I also saw her run without regard for her body through the house as her parents pleaded with her to stop. And she played an intense game of air hockey with her sister, slamming the puck on the table as hard and fast as she could. When she made an egg sandwich on the skillet, she pressed her hands onto the bread as Tara had taught her, to make sure it was cool before she put it into her mouth. She can feel warmth and coolness, but not the more extreme temperatures that would cause anyone else to recoil in pain.

Tara and John weren’t completely comfortable leaving Ashlyn alone in the kitchen, but it was something they felt they had to do, a concession to her growing independence. They made a point of telling stories about how responsible she is, but every one came with a companion anecdote that was painful to hear. There was the time she burned the flesh off the palms of her hands when she was 2. John was using a pressure-washer in the driveway and left its motor running; in the moments that they took their eyes off her, Ashlyn walked over and put her hands on the muffler. When she lifted them up the skin was seared away. There was the one about the fire ants that swarmed her in the backyard, biting her over a hundred times while she looked at them and yelled: “Bugs! Bugs!” There was the time she broke her ankle and ran around on it for two days before her parents realized something was wrong. They told these stories as casually as they talked about Tristen’s softball games or their son Dereck’s golf skills, but it was clear they were still struggling after all these years with how to keep Ashlyn safe.

A couple of nights after telling me the story about putting her hand in the boiling water, Ashlyn sat in the kitchen, playing with the headband that held back her long brown hair. We had all been drawing on napkins and playing checkers and listening to Ashlyn and Tristen sing “Call Me Maybe,” when all of a sudden Tara gasped and lifted the hair away from her daughter’s ears. She was bleeding beneath it. The headband had been cutting into her skin entire time we were sitting there.

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Investors rush in to rent out foreclosures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weighing risks, rewards

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

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

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

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

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