MacFarlane surprises UCLA class, announces contest

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oscar host Seth MacFarlane is inviting college students to join him on stage at the Academy Awards.

The "Family Guy" creator made a surprise appearance at UCLA to announce a contest sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and MTV that will allow winning college students to appear on the Feb. 24 Oscar telecast.

The contest invites students to submit videos on the academy's Facebook page describing how they'll contribute to the future of film. At least six winners will serve as trophy carriers on the Oscar show, replacing the leggy models who usually perform the duties.

MacFarlane spent 40 minutes leading the undergraduate film and television class at UCLA's Westwood campus on Wednesday as part of MTV's "Stand In" series, which brings celebrities to colleges as guest lecturers.

"In re-imagining what we want the Oscar show to be, we wanted everyone appearing on that stage to feel a deep commitment to film and its legacy, and most importantly, its future," said Oscar telecast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron in a statement. "That was the impetus in creating this special honor for young film students who will inspire a new generation to create the films that will be honored in the future."

The contest is also aimed at drawing younger viewers favored by advertisers to the Oscars' aging TV audience. Like UCLA student Abby Smith, who immediately pulled out her smartphone to share the moment on Facebook when MacFarlane appeared before her class.

"Seth MacFarlane is speaking to my film lecture for the next hour," Smith posted. "I'm having a panic attack."

The 39-year-old entertainer urged the aspiring filmmakers and show-runners in the class to make a "commercially viable student film" before leaving school, adding that "Family Guy" was based on his own student film.

And MacFarlane said "Family Guy" could once again become a film. He said he's already come up with a concept for a feature-length movie and promised "it will happen at some point."

MacFarlane cheekily described the Academy Awards as "a crazy little variety show" and said "all I can do is do what I think is funny and most entertaining."

"The Oscars is a tricky venue," he said. "The (hosts) who have not done well, I would classify them as a noble failure, an honorable failure, because at least they were trying something new... If I can do it without torpedoing my career and getting drummed out of the business... All I can do is my very best."

He paused a beat, and added, "Lame (expletive) answer."

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AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy.

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Online:

http://www.facebook.com/TheAcademy/app_436081253118204

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Jewel parent says sale talks proceeding

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

By Emily Bryson York




Chicago Tribune reporter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cerberus officials could not be reached immediately for comment.

-- Reuters contributed to this report

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

SVU data by YCharts

SVU data by YCharts

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Winning Powerball tickets sold in Arizona, Kansas City area

The winning numbers for the record Powerball jackpot were drawn Wednesday night. The numbers are 5, 16, 22, 23, 29 and Powerball 6. The jackpot rose to $579.9 million by the time of the drawing.

Two lucky ticket holders — one in Arizona and another in Missouri — are waking up Thursday to new lives as multimillionaires after the largest Powerball jackpot drawing ever.

Powerball officials said two tickets matched all six numbers to win the record $587.5 million jackpot. The numbers drawn for Wednesday night, for the second-highest jackpot in U.S. lottery history, are 5, 16, 22, 23, 29. The Powerball is 6.

It was not clear whether the winning tickets belonged to individuals or were purchased by groups.

One of the winning tickets was sold at a Trex Mart convenience store in Dearborn, Mo., about 35 miles north of Kansas City, the state lottery commission said in a news release.

Earlier Thursday, Missouri Lottery spokesman Gary Gonder said he was on his way to that store to assist with the expected onslaught of media attention. That store will be awarded $50,000 for selling the winning ticket.

"I guess we'll be able to give out Christmas bonuses," said Trex Mart General Manager Kenny Gilbert. "That's nice, especially at this time of year."

It did not appear Wednesday's big winner had yet come forward.

"If you buy Powerball tickets at this location, please find them and check them closely," said May Scheve Reardon, executive director of the Missouri Lottery. "If you find you're holding the winning ticket, be sure you sign the back and put it in a safe place until you can take it to a Missouri Lottery office. You will also want to get some legal and financial advice before you claim."

The winner has 180 days to claim their share in the prize money.

Arizona lottery officials said early Thursday they had no information on the Grand Canyon State's winner or winners, but they planned to announce Thursday morning where the ticket was sold.

Americans went on a ticket-buying spree in the run-up to Wednesday's drawing, the big money enticing many people who rarely, if ever, play the lottery to purchase a shot at the second-largest payout in U.S. history.

Tickets sold at a rate of 130,000 a minute nationwide — about six times the volume from a week ago. That pushed the jackpot even higher, said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association. The jackpot rolled over 16 consecutive times without a winner.

Iowa Lottery spokeswoman Mary Neumauer said the jackpot was estimated at $587.5 million by early Thursday, adjusted slightly upward from the $579.9 million estimate at the time of the drawing. The cash payout was $384.7 million.

In a Mega Millions drawing in March, three ticket buyers shared a $656 million jackpot. This remains the largest lottery payout of all time.

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RIM jumps 10 percent in Toronto trade after Goldman upgrade

DEAR ABBY: My wife and I have been married for five years. I recently discovered that she made between 10 and 20 porn videos when she was 19. We got married when she was 27. We have four kids from two previous marriages.I am devastated. When I confronted her about it, she cried harder than I had ever seen. She said she was lost, and it's the biggest regret of her entire life.I understand how hard it can be to tell someone you have done something like this. I haven't led a perfect life either, and I have my own skeletons and things that I would never mention. But still, I can't get over this. ...

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Tagliabue holds Saints bounties hearing in DC

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and lawyers for the league and the players' union have arrived for a hearing in the Saints bounties case.

Tagliabue is overseeing the latest round of player appeals in Washington.

Former Saints assistant Mike Cerullo, a key witness in the NFL's investigation, is scheduled to speak Thursday. Former New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is to participate in Friday's session.

Two Saints players who were suspended, linebacker Jonathan Vilma and defensive end Will Smith, had said they plan to attend when Williams is there.

Vilma's lawyer attended Thursday's hearing at an office building.

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Simple measures cut infections caught in hospitals

CHICAGO (AP) — Preventing surgery-linked infections is a major concern for hospitals and it turns out some simple measures can make a big difference.

A project at seven big hospitals reduced infections after colorectal surgeries by nearly one-third. It prevented an estimated 135 infections, saving almost $4 million, the Joint Commission hospital regulating group and the American College of Surgeons announced Wednesday. The two groups directed the 2 1/2-year project.

Solutions included having patients shower with special germ-fighting soap before surgery, and having surgery teams change gowns, gloves and instruments during operations to prevent spreading germs picked up during the procedures.

Some hospitals used special wound-protecting devices on surgery openings to keep intestine germs from reaching the skin.

The average rate of infections linked with colorectal operations at the seven hospitals dropped from about 16 percent of patients during a 10-month phase when hospitals started adopting changes to almost 11 percent once all the changes had been made.

Hospital stays for patients who got infections dropped from an average of 15 days to 13 days, which helped cut costs.

"The improvements translate into safer patient care," said Dr. Mark Chassin, president of the Joint Commission. "Now it's our job to spread these effective interventions to all hospitals."

Almost 2 million health care-related infections occur each year nationwide; more than 90,000 of these are fatal.

Besides wanting to keep patients healthy, hospitals have a monetary incentive to prevent these infections. Medicare cuts payments to hospitals that have lots of certain health care-related infections, and those cuts are expected to increase under the new health care law.

The project involved surgeries for cancer and other colorectal problems. Infections linked with colorectal surgery are particularly common because intestinal tract bacteria are so abundant.

To succeed at reducing infection rates requires hospitals to commit to changing habits, "to really look in the mirror and identify these things," said Dr. Clifford Ko of the American College of Surgeons.

The hospitals involved were Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; Cleveland Clinic in Ohio; Mayo Clinic-Rochester Methodist Hospital in Rochester, Minn.; North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, NY; Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago; OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Ill.; and Stanford Hospital & Clinics in Palo Alto, Calif.

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Online:

Joint Commission: http://www.jointcommission.org

American College of Surgeons: http://www.facs.org

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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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AP Newsbreak: New Suzanne Collins book in 2013

NEW YORK (AP) — "The Hunger Games" novelist Suzanne Collins has a new book coming out next year.

The multimillion-selling children's author has completed an autobiographical picture story scheduled for Sept. 10, 2013, Scholastic Inc. announced Thursday. The 40-page book will be called "Year of the Jungle," based on the time in Vietnam served by Collins' father, a career Air Force officer.

"Year of the Jungle" is her first book since 2010's "Mockingjay," the last of "The Hunger Games" trilogy that made Collins an international sensation. More than 50 million copies of the "Hunger Games" books are in print and the first of four planned movies has grossed more than $600 million worldwide since coming out in March.

Collins' next project will be intended for ages 4 and up, a younger audience than those who have read, and re-read, her dystopian stories about young people forced to hunt and kill each other. But "Year of the Jungle" will continue, in a gentler way, the author's exploration of war. James Proimos, an old friend from her days as a television writer who helped persuade Collins to become a children's author, illustrated the book.

"For several years I had this little wicker basket next to my writing chair with the postcards my dad had sent me from Vietnam and photos of that year. But I could never quite find a way into the story. It has elements that can be scary for the audience and it would be easy for the art to reinforce those. It could be really beautiful art but still be off-putting to a kid, which would defeat the point of doing the book," Collins, 50, said in a statement released by Scholastic.

"Then one day I was having lunch with Jim and telling him about the idea and he said, 'That sounds fantastic.' I looked at him and I had this flash of the story through his eyes, with his art. It was like being handed a key to a locked door. So, I just blurted out, 'Do you want to do it?' Fortunately he said 'Yes.'"

"How could I refuse?" Proimos said in a statement. "The idea she laid out over burritos and ice tea during our lunch was brilliant and not quite like any picture book I had ever come across. The writing is moving and personal. What Suzanne does so well here is convey complicated emotions through the eyes of a child."

According to Scholastic, "Year of the Jungle" will tell of a little girl named Suzy and her fears after her father leaves for war. She wonders when he'll come back and "feels more and more distant" as he misses family gatherings. He does return, but he has changed and his daughter must learn that "he still loves her just the same."

Collins has said before that she wanted to write a book about her father. In a 2010 interview with The Associated Press, she explained that her father was a trained historian who made a point of discussing war with his family.

"I believe he felt a great responsibility and urgency about educating his children about war," she said. "He would take us frequently to places like battlefields and war monuments. It would start back with whatever had precipitated the war and moved up through the battlefield you were standing in and through that and after that. It was a very comprehensive tour guide experience. So throughout our lives we basically heard about war."

Scholastic also announced Thursday that "Catching Fire," the second "Hunger Games" book and originally released in 2009, is coming out in June as a paperback. The paperback edition usually comes within a year of the hardcover, but "Catching Fire" had been selling so well that Scholastic waited. "Mockingjay" has yet to be released as a paperback.

Next summer, Collins' five-volume "The Underland Chronicles," published before "The Hunger Games," will be reissued with new covers.

"'The Underland Chronicles,' with its fantasy world and 11-year old protagonist, Gregor, was designed for middle readers," Collins said in a statement. "The 'Hunger Games' trilogy features a teen narrator, Katniss Everdeen, and a stark dystopian backdrop for the YA (young adult) audience. 'Year of the Jungle' attempts to reach the picture book readers by delving into my own experience as a first grader with a father deployed in Vietnam."

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French court clears Continental in Concorde crash

French appeals court on Thursday absolved Continental Airlines of blame for a 2000 Concorde crash that killed 113 people and cleared a mechanic at the U.S. airline of the charge of involuntary manslaughter.

The verdict comes over a decade after the accident helped to spell the end of the supersonic airliner. A previous court ruled that a small metal strip that fell onto the runway from a Continental aircraft just before the Concorde took off from Paris, caused the crash.

Continental was originally fined 200,000 euros and ordered to pay the Concorde's operator, Air France, a million euros in damages. Continental appealed the verdict which it described as unfair and absurd.

Welder John Taylor was cleared of a 15-month suspended prison sentence for having gone against industry norms and used titanium to forge the piece that dropped off the plane.

Continental, now part of United Continental Holdings , had been ordered under the original ruling to pay 70 percent of any damages payable to families of victims. Airbus parent EADS would have to pay the other 30 percent.

The crash sped up the demise of the droop-nosed Concorde - the fastest commercial airliner in history and a symbol of Franco-British co-operation - as safety concerns coupled with an economic downturn after 9/11 drove away its wealthy customers.

The Air France Concorde, carrying mostly German tourists bound for a Caribbean cruise, was taking off from Paris on July 25, 2000 when an engine caught fire. Trailing a plume of flames, it crashed into a hotel near Charles de Gaulle airport. All 109 passengers and four people on the ground died.

After modifications, the plane returned to service but its operators, Air France and British Airways, retired it in 2003, citing high operating costs and a drop in demand.
 

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Sosa, Bonds, Clemens on Hall of Fame ballot

Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are first-timers are the Hall of Fame ballot. ((Chicago Tribune/AP file/Getty) / November 28, 2012)

By Phil Rogers, Tribune reporter

11:00 a.m. CST, November 28, 2012

Baseball's Hall of Fame ballot has been released, and it is sure to generate a lot of discussion between now and Jan. 9, when the election results will be announced.

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, arguably one of the three greatest hitters ever and one of the top 10 pitchers, are first-timers on the ballot along with former Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa, who is among the career leaders in home runs (609, eighth) and strikeouts (2306, third). They join holdovers Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGwire on the list of players who probably would be Hall of Famers if not for their ties to performance-enhancing drugs.

The other first-timers include Craig Biggio, who retired with 3,060 hits; Mike Piazza, the all-time leader for home runs by a catcher; Curt Schilling and Kenny Lofton.

The 14 holdovers on the ballot are led by Jack Morris, who finished only 48 votes short of election last year, receiving 66.7 percent of the ballot. Seventy-five percent is needed for election.

Jeff Bagwell and Lee Smith also received more than 50 percent of the vote a year ago, followed by Tim Raines, Alan Trammell, Edgar Martinez, Fred McGriff and Larry Walker. McGwire received only 19.5 percent of the vote, and Palmeiro received even less.

progers@tribune.com

Twitter @ChiTribRogers

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BlackBerry maker RIM loses patent dispute with Nokia

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Canada's Research In Motion (RIM) has lost a contract dispute over the use of Nokia patents in a case which could halt sales of its BlackBerry phones if it does not reach a deal to pay royalties to the Finnish company.

Nokia said on Wednesday a Swedish arbitrator had ruled that "RIM was in breach of contract and is not entitled to manufacture or sell WLAN products without first agreeing royalties with Nokia."

Wireless local access network (WLAN) technologies, usually marketed under the WiFi brand, are used across BlackBerry devices and by most other smartphones.

Nokia, which is trying to boost its royalty income as its phone business slides, said it had filed cases in the United States, Britain and Canada to enforce the arbitrator's ruling.

"This could have a significant financial impact to RIM, as all BlackBerry devices support WLAN," IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo said.

RIM declined to comment. At 6 a.m. EDT its Frankfurt-listed shares were down 5 percent at 8.245 euros. Nokia shares were down 1.6 percent at 2.526 euros.

"If a sales ban was imposed it would be a massive blow for RIM as it manages its transition to the new BlackBerry 10 software platform," said Canalys analyst Pete Cunningham.

However, analysts think it is much more likely that RIM will reach a royalty agreement with Nokia to avert such an outcome.

RIM, a smartphone pioneer, hopes new devices using BlackBerry 10 software, due early 2013, will rescue it from a prolonged slump in the face of competition from the likes of Apple and Samsung.

RIM promises its new devices will be faster than previous smartphones, and will have a large catalogue of applications, which are crucial to the success of any new line of smartphones.

CONTRACT ROW

Nokia said it signed a cross-license agreement with RIM covering standards-essential cellular patents in 2003, a deal that was amended in 2008.

RIM sought arbitration in March 2011 with the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, arguing the license should be extended to cover WLAN patents.

The arbitration tribunal concluded a nine day hearing in September 2012 and it issued a decision on November 6, Nokia said in a U.S. court filing seeking to enforce the ruling.

During arbitration RIM did not contest it manufactures and sells products using WLAN technology in accordance with Nokia's WLAN products, Nokia said, quoting the tribunal decision.

Nokia, along with Ericsson and Qualcomm, is among the leading patent holders in the wireless industry. Patent royalties generate annual revenue of about 500 million euros ($646 million) for Nokia.

Based on a Nortel patent sale and Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility, some investors and analysts say Nokia's patent portfolio alone merits its current share price of around 2.50 euros.

However, the patent market has cooled since those deals were made and industry experts say that fair value of patents in large portfolios is $100,000 to $200,000, pricing Nokia's portfolio at up to 0.50 euros per share.

(Editing by David Goodman and Mark Potter)

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