News Backpacks

'Lincoln,' 'Les Miserables,' 'Playbook' lead SAG nominees

Label: World

Steven Spielberg’s historical biography “Lincoln,” the musical epic “Les Miserables” and the quirky romantic comedy “Silver Linings Playbook” dominated the Screen Actors Guild Award nominations Wednesday morning, receiving four nominations apiece.

“Lincoln” scored nominations in the lead actor category for Daniel Day-Lewis, supporting actress for Sally Field, supporting actor for Tommy Lee Jones and best ensemble in a motion picture. “Les Miserables,” which opens Christmas Day, earned nominations for lead actor Hugh Jackman, supporting actress Anne Hathaway, for best acting ensemble and best stunt ensemble.

And “Silver Linings Playbook” picked up nominations for lead actor Bradley Cooper, actress Jennifer Lawrence, supporting actor Robert De Niro, and best ensemble.

Arguably the biggest winner of the day, however, was 77-year-old Maggie Smith. The two-time Oscar-winning British actress scored the most SAG nominations Wednesday -- four in all. She picked up two nods – best supporting actress and ensemble -- for the feature film “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” a dramedy about a group of British retirees who move to a hotel in India. She also picked up best supporting and ensemble nods for playing the officious dowager in “Downton Abbey.”

The nominations come during one of the mostly closely watched weeks of the awards season: It’s literally make-or-break for Hollywood and the films and performers who are jockeying for recognition – and possibly Oscar gold.

Monday kicked off with the announcement of nominations for the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, followed quickly by Wednesday’s SAG nominations. In just 24 hours, the Golden Globe nominations are to be announced.

PHOTOS: 2013 SAG Award nominees

When the dust settles, those films and performers that emerge are instantly catapulted to front-runner status leading up to the Academy Award nominations, which are to be announced Jan. 10.

Although SAG winners often go on to win the Academy Award, it’s not a given. Just this year, Viola Davis won the SAG Award for best actress for “The Help” but Meryl Streep took home her third Oscar for “The Iron Lady.”

In other film nominations announced Wednesday, “Argo” rounded out the ensemble nominations, with Alan Arkin also scoring a supporting actor nod.

SAG AWARDS: TV nominees

Joining Day-Lewis, Cooper and Jackman in the lead actor category are John Hawkes for “The Sessions” and Denzel Washington for “Flight.” Notably missing from the list of nominees was Joaquin Phoenix for “The Master.” (Just earlier this week, Phoenix had won the L.A. Film Critics Assn. best actor honors.)

Vying with Lawrence in lead actress field are Marion Cotillard for “Rust and Bone,” Jessica Chastain for “Zero Dark Thirty,” Helen Mirren for “Hitchcock” and Naomi Watts for “The Impossible.”

Rounding out the supporting categories are Javier Bardem for “Skyfall,” Philip Seymour Hoffman in “The Master,” Helen Hunt in “The Sessions” and Nicole Kidman for “The Paperboy.” Not making the list: Amy Adams for “The Master,” a role that earned her a supporting actress honor from the L.A. Film Critics.

Unlike other honors, the Screen Actors Guild Awards are strictly for the performers -- there are no nominations for directors or screenwriters, for example.

The SAG Awards also honor performances in TV dramatic and comedy series, as well as movies and miniseries. There were very few surprises in the TV nominations.

The casts of the dramas “Boardwalk Empire,” “Breaking Bad,” “Downton Abbey,” “Homeland” and “Mad Men” were honored with nominations. On the comedy side, there were six nominees due to a tie: “30 Rock,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Glee,” “Modern Family,” “Nurse Jackie” and “The Office.”

FULL COVERAGE: SAG AWARDS 2013

Competing for lead actor in a drama series are Steve Buscemi for “Boardwalk Empire,” Bryan Cranston for “Breaking Bad,” Jeff Daniels for “The Newsroom,” Jon Hamm for “Mad Men” and Damien Lewis for “Homeland.” Lead actress nominations went to Claire Danes for “Homeland,” Michelle Dockery for “Downton Abbey,” Jessica Lange for “American Horror Story: Asylum,” Julianna Margulies for “The Good Wife,” and Smith for “Downton Abbey.”

Vying for lead actor in a comedy series are Alec Baldwin for “30 Rock,” Ty Burrell and Eric Stonestreet for “Modern Family,” Louis C.K. for “Louie” and Jim Parsons for “The Big Bang Theory.”

TV’s “Storage Wars” is rigged, fired cast member charges

Label: Lifestyle

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The popular TV show “Storage Wars” – in which treasure hunters bid to buy unseen items in abandoned units – is rigged, with producers sometimes planting valuable items among the junk, a former contestant said in a lawsuit on Tuesday.

David Hester, one of the reality TV show‘s longest-serving cast members, said producers buried a BMW Mini under trash in one unit featured in the A&E cable series, and a pile of newspapers announcing the death of Elvis Presley in another.

“A&E regularly plants valuable items or memorabilia,” Hester charged in his lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday against the cable channel and the show’s producers.

When he complained, Hester was fired from the show. He is claiming fraud, wrongful dismissal, breach of contract and unfair business practices, and asking for at least $ 750,000 in damages.

A&E declined to comment on the lawsuit on Tuesday, saying it did not comment on pending litigation.

“Storage Wars,” which made its debut in 2010, is the highest-rated non-fiction program on U.S. cable television, and draws about 5 million viewers per episode. It is also broadcast in Canada, Australia, Britain and other countries.

The show follows a group of modern treasure-hunters who compete at public auctions of abandoned storage lockers in the hope of finding valuable items which they can re-sell for a profit.

Hester said that “nearly every aspect of the show is faked.” He said producers regularly place in the lockers “valuable or unusual effects to add dramatic effect” and sometimes stage entire units, according to the lawsuit.

Hester, who lives in Orange County, California, has been featured on the show since 2010. He was fired in October 2012 shortly after a meeting in which he complained about rigging in a meeting with producers, the lawsuit says.

A&E Television Networks is a joint venture of the Hearst Corporation and Disney-ABC Television – a unit of Walt Disney Co.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Eric Walsh)

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Chicago best housing market -- for buyers

Label: Business

A sign stands outside a house for sale in the 4400 block of North Mozart Avenue in Chicago.
(Chris Sweda/ Chicago Tribune / December 12, 2012)

Tribune staff reporter

5:58 a.m. CST, December 12, 2012

The Chicago area again took the top spot in Zillow's ranking of the best real estate markets for homebuyers, an accolade that is unwelcome news to homeowners trying to sell their properties.

The real estate web site also tapped Chicago in July as the best buyer's market among the nation's 30 largest metropolitan areas.

To calculate its rankings, Zillow looked at selling prices versus list prices, the number of days a listing was on Zillow and the percentage of homes in a market with a price cut. Its ranking as the top buyer's market means properties in the Chicago area stay on the market longer, with more frequent price cuts and sell for less than their listing price, all factors that give prospective buyers more power at the negotiating table.

Among the local municipalities, Inverness, Lansing, Rolling Meadows, Winnetka and Darien were ranked as the top five markets for homebuyers. Sellers had the most negotiating power in Plano, Sycamore, Carpentersville, Elgin and Matteson, according to Zillow.

In November, Zillow identified Chicago as the only market of 30 it follows that experienced month-over-month home value declines in October.

mepodmolik@tribune.com | Twitter @mepodmolik

Pilot, 2 nurses killed in medical helicopter crash

Label: World

Three people were killed when a medical helicopter crashed Monday night near the city of Rochelle.

A medical helicopter crashed Monday night on its way to a hospital in Mendota, killing the pilot and two nurses on board, officials said.

The helicopter was registered to Rockford Memorial Hospital and was enroute to pick up a patient at Mendota Community Hospital, officials said.

The helicopter crashed about 8:30 p.m. in a field in the small town of Compton, near the city of Rochelle. The helicopter was destroyed in the crash, according to the FAA.

The Rockford hospital identified the helicopter's occupants as pilot Andy Olesen and flight nurses Jim Dillow and Karen Hollis.

"At Rockford Health System, our hearts are heavy," hospital spokesman Wester Wuori said in a statement. "We grieve the loss of three heroes who dedicated their careers to serving others."

On the hospital's Facebook page, hundreds of people, many of them paramedics and other emergency responders, offered their condolences to the victims' families.

Authorities established a staging area near the intersection of U.S. Route 30 and Illinois Route 251, a dispatcher with the Lee County Sheriff's Office said. The intersection lies between Rochelle and Mendota.

The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation into what caused the crash, according to the FAA.

The nurses and pilots who work in air ambulances are among the best trained in their fields, said Stephen Richey, a former flight respiratory therapist who lives in Indianapolis.

Pilots must be able to land on improvised landing sites on short notice, and the flight nurses on board often must deliver advance medical care to critically injured trauma patients.

The work draws those with years of experience and a deep commitment to helping patients, Richey said.

"You’ll never find a more dedicated group of professionals in your entire life," Richey said.

Medical flight crews also face daily risks. Richey became an aviation safety researcher after losing several friends in crashes, he said.

In October 2008, a medical helicopter crashed after striking a radio tower in Aurora, killing three crew members and a 1-year-old girl.

World Chefs: Keller shares memories, spotlight in latest book

Label: Lifestyle

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Thomas Keller, one of America‘s most respected chefs, shares the food memories of his childhood and his time in France in his new book “Bouchon Bakery,” which is also the name of his chain of pastry shops in the United States.

Keller is the only American chef who owns two three-Michelin-star restaurants – Per Se in New York City and The French Laundry in the Napa Valley wine region in California.

Earlier this year, Britain’s Restaurant Magazine named Per Se, which opened in 2004, the world’s sixth best restaurant. Keller also earned the magazine’s lifetime achievement award.

Like his four other books, his latest effort is a collaboration. He co-wrote it with his top pastry chefs Sebastien Rouxel and Matthew McDonald along with food writers Susie Heller, Michael Ruhlman and Amy Vogler.

The 57-year-old spoke to Reuters about the book, his pastry chefs and his place in the culinary world.

Q: Why did you collaborate with the leaders of your pastry team with this book?

A: “If you look at my other cookbooks, it’s always been a point with me to share these opportunities with those who share their skills and expertise with the general public. That was the reason why I did the book. Sebastien is one of the best pastry chefs in America. His techniques are unparalleled. I’m not trying to pretend that I’m a pastry chef by writing a book about baking and pastries. Nor am I trying to be a bread baker. I have Matthew McDonald, who is one of the best bakers in America. To be able to highlight his skills in the bread section was very important as well.”

Q: How did your time in France change your view about pastry and bread-making?

A: “When you are in France, especially in Paris, there were three or four boulangeries of different significance just on the block where I lived because they had pastry chefs with different levels of skills. You went to different ones for different things. To have a fresh baked baguette everyday was extraordinary. Anyone who lived in Paris for any length of time would say eating a fresh baguette is pretty special. Bread plays a real important part in the experience of the diners. To make sure we have the opportunity to significantly impact the experience by controlling the production and style of the bread was very important to me.”

Q: Do you have a favorite dessert?

A: “It depends on the day … There are so many things I love. I think anything that’s done really, really well. For me, that’s really something I really appreciate. I think one of the things that really resonate with the individual is that idea that eating, and eating through that experience, they have a memory. We are always trying to do something that’s good. Why put something on the menu that’s not very good?”

Q: The book emphasizes weighing ingredients over measuring with cups and spoons. Could that be difficult for home cooks?

A: “One of the things about pastry … it’s such an exact process. The most exact thing you practice is with weighing. There is an exactness to the execution, which gives you every opportunity to be successful.”

Q: French Laundry and Per Se are among two of the best restaurants in the country. Bouchon Bakery is a success. What more would you like to accomplish in the culinary world?

A: “I have accomplished today everything I wanted to accomplish, more than I ever dreamed was possible. Right now, I’m just focused on the restaurants we have and the book I just wrote. Let me enjoy this moment before you ask me what I’ll be doing tomorrow.”

Pecan Sandies for my mom (Makes 1-1/2 dozen cookies)

1 ¾ cups + 1 ½ teaspoons all-purpose flour (250 grams)

¾ cup coarsely chopped pecans (80 grams)

4 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature (170 grams)

¾ cup + 1 ¾ teaspoons powdered sugar (90 grams)

Additional powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

1. Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F (convection) or 350°F (standard). Line two sheet pans with Silpats or parchment paper.

2. Toss the flour and pecans together in a medium bowl.

3. Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on medium-low speed until smooth. Add the 90 grams/¾ cup plus 1¾ teaspoons powdered sugar and mix for about 2 minutes, until fluffy. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed for about 30 seconds, until just combined. Scrape the bottom of the bowl to incorporate any dry ingredients that have settled there.

4. Divide the dough into 30-gram/1½-tablespoon portions, roll into balls, and arrange on the sheet pans, leaving about 1½ inches between them. Press the cookies into 2-inch disks.

5. Bake until pale golden brown, 15 to 18 minutes if using a convection oven, 22 to 25 minutes if using a standard oven, reversing the positions of the pans halfway through. (Sandies baked in a convection oven will not spread as much as those baked in a standard oven and will have a more even color.)

6. Set the pans on a cooling rack and cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Using a metal spatula, transfer the cookies to the rack to cool completely. If desired, dust with powdered sugar.

Note: The cookies can be stored in a covered container for up to 3 days.

(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Patricia Reaney and James Dalgleish)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Mind: A Compromise on Defining and Diagnosing Mental Disorders

Label: Health

They plotted a revolution, fell to debating among themselves, and in the end overturned very little except their own expectations.

But the effort itself was a valuable guide for anyone who has received a psychiatric diagnosis, or anyone who might get one.

This month, the American Psychiatric Association announced that its board of trustees had approved the fifth edition of the association’s influential diagnostic manual — the so-called bible of mental disorders — ending more than five years of sometimes acrimonious, and often very public, controversy.

The committee of doctors appointed by the psychiatric association had attempted to execute a paradigm shift, changing how mental disorders are conceived and posting its proposals online for the public to comment. And comment it did: Patient advocacy groups sounded off, objecting to proposed changes in the definitions of depression and Asperger syndrome, among other diagnoses. Outside academic researchers did, too. A few committee members quit in protest.

The final text, which won’t be fully available until publication this spring, has already gotten predictably mixed reviews. “Given the challenges in a field where objective lines are hard to draw, they did a solid job,” said Dr. Michael First, a psychiatrist at Columbia who edited a previous version of the manual and was a consultant on this one.

Others disagreed. “This is the saddest moment in my 45-year career of practicing, studying and teaching psychiatry,” wrote Dr. Allen Frances, the chairman of a previous committee who has been one of the most vocal critics, in a blog post about the new manual, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM5.

Yet many experts inside and outside the process said the final document was not radically different from the previous version, and its lessons more mundane than the rhetoric implied. The status quo is hard to budge, for one. And when changes do happen, they are not necessarily the ones that were intended.

The new manual does extend the reach of psychiatry in some areas, as many critics feared it might. Hoarding is now a mental disorder (previously it was considered a symptom of obsessive-compulsive behavior). “Premenstrual dysphoric disorder,” a severe form of premenstrual syndrome, is also new (it was previously in the appendix).

And binge-eating disorder (also formerly in the appendix), a kind of severe, highly distressing gluttony, is now a full-blown diagnosis. This one by itself could tag millions of people considered healthy, if often overindulgent, with a psychiatric label, some experts said.

But the deeper story is one of compromise. It is most evident in how the committee handled three of the thorniest diagnoses in psychiatry: autism, depression and pediatric bipolar disorder.

The group working on depression declared early on that it wanted to eliminate the so-called bereavement exclusion, which stated that grieving the loss of a loved one should not be considered a clinical disorder, though it shares many of the same outward signs. Grief has always been a normal reaction to death, not a kind of depression.

Advocacy and support groups, such as those representing people who have lost a child, objected furiously to the idea that the bereaved might be given a diagnosis of depression.

“This was just astonishing, that they would eliminate the exclusion, and a distortion of the research on the subject,” said Jerome Wakefield, a professor of social work and psychiatry at New York University, who did not work on the manual.

In the end the committee cut a deal. It eliminated the grief exclusion but added a note in the text, reminding doctors that any significant loss — of a job, a relationship, a home — could cause depressive symptoms and should be carefully investigated.

“It’s like they took it all back,” Dr. Wakefield said. “I don’t like the way it was done — in a footnote — but it’s there.”

The debate over autism was even more furious, and it resulted in a similar rapprochement.

From the outset, the committee intended to tighten the definition of autism and simplify it, eliminating related labels like Asperger syndrome and “pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified,” or PDD-NOS. The rate of diagnosis of such conditions has exploded over the past decade, in part due to the vagueness of the definitions, and the committee wanted to draw clearer boundaries.

It proposed a single “autism spectrum disorder” category, with stricter requirements.

Some outside researchers raised concerns. In January one of them, Dr. Fred Volkmar of the Yale School of Medicine, who had quit the committee in protest, presented research suggesting that 45 percent or more of people who currently had an autism or related diagnosis would not have one under the proposed revision.

Autism groups reacted immediately, fearing that the change in the diagnosis would deny services to children and families who need them.

The committee countered with its own study, suggesting that the new definition would exclude about 10 percent of people currently with a diagnosis. And again, the experts took a half step back.

The new, streamlined definition was approved, but with language that took into account a person’s diagnostic history. “It’s explicit that anyone who’s had an Asperger’s or autism or PDD-NOS diagnosis before is now included,” said Catherine Lord, a committee member who worked on the new definition and who is director of the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain in New York. “Essentially everyone gets in.”

Pediatric bipolar disorder posed a different challenge.

In the 1990s and 2000s, psychiatrists began giving aggressive, explosive children a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in increasing numbers. The trend appalled many patient advocates and doctors.

Bipolar disorder, which is characterized by episodes of depression and mania, had previously been an adult problem; now the diagnosis is given to children as young as 2 — along with powerful psychiatric drugs and tranquilizers that also cause rapid weight gain. The committee wanted to stop the trend in its tracks, said experts who were involved.

Most of the children treated for bipolar disorder did not have it, recent research found. The committee settled on an alternative label: “disruptive mood dysregulation disorder,” or D.M.D.D., which describes extreme hostility and outbursts beyond normal tantrums.

“They essentially wanted to have some place for these kids, and D.M.D.D. was all they had in their kit,” said Dr. Gabrielle Carlson, a child psychiatrist at Stony Brook University Medical Center, who provided some outside consultation. “These are mostly kids who have A.D.H.D. or what we would call oppositional defiant disorder, but with this explosive feature. They need help; you can’t wait forever. The question was what to call it, without pretending we know enough to saddle them with a lifelong diagnosis” like bipolar disorder.

D.M.D.D. has its own problems, as many experts were quick to point out. It could be a symptom of an underlying condition, as Dr. Carlson argues. It could “medicalize” frequent temper tantrums. It’s brand new, and no one knows how it will play out in practice.

But it is now in the book — because it was the best solution available, experts inside and outside of the revision process said.

From beginning to end, many experts said, the process of defining psychiatric diagnoses is very much like finding the right one for an individual: it’s a process of negotiation, in many cases.

“That’s one of the take-aways from all this, and I think it’s a good one,” Dr. Carlson said. “A diagnosis is a hypothesis. It’s a start, and you have to start somewhere. But that’s all it is.”

One of the committee’s most ambitious proposals was perhaps the least noticed: a commitment to update the book continually, when there’s good reason to, rather than once every decade or so in a giant heave. That was approved without much fanfare.

HSBC to pay record $1.9B fine

Label: Business

HSBC has agreed to pay a record $1.92 billion fine to settle a multi-year probe by U.S. prosecutors, who accused Europe's biggest bank of failing to enforce rules designed to prevent the laundering of criminal cash.

HSBC Holdings Plc admitted to a breakdown of controls and apologised in a statement on Tuesday announcing it had reached a deferred-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, as first reported by Reuters last week.

"We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again. The HSBC of today is a fundamentally different organisation from the one that made those mistakes," said Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver.

"Over the last two years, under new senior leadership, we have been taking concrete steps to put right what went wrong and to participate actively with government authorities in bringing to light and addressing these matters."

The deferred prosecution agreement, when detailed by U.S. Justice Department officials later on Tuesday, could yield new information about a failure at HSBC to police transactions linked to Mexico, sources familiar with the matter said.

Details of those dealings were reported this summer in a sweeping U.S. Senate probe.

The Senate panel alleged that HSBC failed to maintain controls designed to prevent money laundering by drug cartels, terrorists a nd tax cheats, when acting as a financier to clients routing funds from places including Mexico, Iran and Syria.

The bank was unable to properly monitor $15 billion in bulk cash transactions between mid-2006 and mid-2009, and had i nadequate staffin g a nd high turnover in it s c ompliance units, July's re port said.

HSBC on Tuesday said it expected to also reach a settlement with British watchdog the Financial Services Authority. The FSA declined to comment.

U.S. and European banks have now agreed to settlements with U.S. regulators totalling some $5 billion in recent years on charges they violated U.S. sanctions and failed to police potentially illicit transactions.

No bank or bank executives, however, have been indicted, as prosecutors have instead used deferred prosecutions - under which criminal charges against a firm are set aside if it agrees to conditions such as paying fines and changing behaviour.

HSBC's settlement also includes agreements or consent orders with the Manhattan district attorney, the Federal Reserve and three U.S. Treasury Department units: the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Comptroller of the Currency and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

HSBC said it would pay $1.921 billion, continue to cooperate fully with regulatory and law enforcement authorities and take further action to strengthen its compliance policies and procedures. U.S. prosecutors have agreed to defer or forego prosecution.

The settlement is the third time in a decade that HSBC has been penalized for lax controls and ordered by U.S. authorities to better monitor suspicious transactions. Directives by regulators to improve oversight came in 2003 and again in 2010.

Last month, HSBC told investors it had set aside $1.5 billion to cover fines or penalties stemming from the inquiry and warned costs could be significantly higher.

Analyst Jim Antos of Mizuho Securities said the settlement costs were "trivial" in terms of the company's book value.

"But in terms of real cash terms, that's a huge fine to pay," said Antos, who rates HSBC a "buy".

HSBC shares dipped 0.3 percent in early London trading to 63 9 pe nce, in line with a slightly weaker European bank index . I ts Ho ng Kong stock nudged up 0.3 percent to HK$79.70.

"It has been damaging for the brand, albeit not as bad as it might have been," said Ian Gordon, analyst at Investec Securities in London.

Off-duty cop shot; superintendent vows to catch attacker

Label: World

A veteran Chicago police officer was shot twice early Monday during an attempted robbery outside his car as a young child sat inside, authorities said.

While the 34-year-old officer sustained gunshot wounds to the chest and wrist, his wounds did not appear to be life-threatening, Chicago Police Department Superintendent Garry McCarthy said.

The officer's wrist was broken, but the bullet that struck his chest inflicted only superficial damage, the superintendent said.

The wounded officer, Mohammad K. Shamah, has been with Chicago Police Department since 2002.

Officer Shamah was one of about 70 award recipients at the department's annual recognition ceremony last month, earning the Superintendent's Award of Valor for fatally shooting a knife-wielding man who threatened to kill three children.

According to a news release announcing the award, a "man with a knife" call was dispatched, stating a person was threatening to kill three children inside an apartment building.

Responding officers broke a ground-floor window while Shamah went to the second floor.He then entered one of the units and forced his way into a bedroom, when he saw a man holding a knife to one of the children and restraining the others with his legs. "In fear of the safety of the children, Officer Shamah fired his weapon, fatally striking the offender," the released stated.

The release did not state when or where the incident occurred.

"He's obviously shaken up, [but] he's in good spirits," McCarthy said this morning, after visiting the officer at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. "Right now it's as good as it could possibly be."

The shooting happened about 12:30 a.m. in the 6300 block of South Nashville Avenue, Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro said.

The officer had just parked his car and was preparing to take a child out of a car seat when the attacker approached, according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation.

The officer, who was off-duty at the time, fired in self-defense and may have struck his attacker, McCarthy said.

Early reports suggested the officer's wrist had sustained significant damage in the shooting, said the law enforcement source, who asked to remain anonymous.

Squad cars combed the area after the shooting, but police did not immediately take anyone into custody.

Despite some reports that police were looking for multiple suspects, police were searching for a single attacker, the law enforcement source said.

Police were reviewing video footage and robbery patterns in the area in hopes of identifying a suspect, McCarthy said.

"We're going to catch the guy [who did this]," the superintendent said. "We're going to hold them accountable."

Several family members joined the officer in the hospital after the shooting, the superintendent said. The officer, whose name has not been released, also received a visit from Rev. Daniel J. Brandt, the police department's chaplain.

"I'll say this: God is good," Brandt said afterward. "It could have been a lot worse."

More than a dozen police vehicles responded to the area of the shooting, including a mobile command unit and squad cars from neighboring Oak Lawn.

As they stood across the street from the cordoned-off shooting site, neighbors awakened by the commotion said they had heard about a half a dozen gunshots.

A couple that lives nearby said the officer lives in the neighborhood and had been returning from work.

asege@tribune.com

jgorner@tribune.com

rsobol@tribune.com

Twitter: @AdamSege

Hug It Out: Public Charter and District Schools Given $25 Million to Get Along

Label: Technology

If you need a loan, ask Bill and Melinda Gates. Or better yet, ask one of the seven cities that are splitting a new $ 25 million grant courtesy of the couple’s philanthropic foundation.

The funds are going to promote cross collaboration between charter and district schools, which have previously operated in a strict and contentious independence from one another.

The foundation announced the award this week, and the cities benefiting are Boston, Denver, Hartford (CT), New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia and Spring Branch (TX).

How did they get so lucky? They’re among a group of 16 communities that signed the Gates-sponsored “District-Charter Collaboration Compacts” pledging for an open-source collaboration between public charter and district public schools.

Communication between these two models is unusual to say the least; they’ve had a long and illustrious history of battling each other over tax dollars, students and even building space.

But when charter schools first opened 20 years ago, their original purpose was to create an experimental educational space which would then share its best methods with public district schools. Instead, the two grew into rivals and critics of each are vehemently opposed to the other.

Among the complaints, charter schools are seen as selfishly siphoning off the most motivated students from the district while upholding a rich-poor educational divide and failing to live up to the promise of a better education. Others say its district schools that are the issue for their unionized teacher complacency and a consistent inability to keep a large margin of students from falling through the cracks.

In truth, neither system is a slam-dunk, and both are experiencing closures nationwide due to underperformance.

The goal of the District-Charter Collaboration Compacts is to restore the original relationship of the two camps, effectively establishing a regular protocol of sharing their best practices, innovations and resources.

Don Shalvey, the deputy director at teh Gates Foundation told The New York Times, “It took Microsoft and Apple 10 years to learn to talk. So it’s not surprising that it took a little bit longer for charters and other public schools. It’s pretty clear there is more common ground than battleground.”

But what will this grand collaboration yield? If all goes according to plan, students from both camps will benefit from new teacher effectiveness practices, college-ready tools and supports, and innovative instructional delivery systems.

According to the Gates Foundation, only one-third of students meet the criteria of college ready by the time they graduate. And most of the kids who don’t are often minority students from lower income areas. By creating collaborative aims with charter and district, kids from all over can have access to a wider swath of teaching frameworks and curriculums.

Related Stories on TakePart:

• Public Dollars for Private Schools? Voices from the Voucher Debate

• School Vouchers: The Debate Heats Up Across the U.S.

• Howard Fuller: One of the Most Powerful Educators in America

A Bay Area native, Andri Antoniades previously worked as a fashion industry journalist and medical writer. In addition to reporting the weekend news on TakePart, she volunteers as a webeditor for locally-based nonprofits and works as a freelance feature writer for TimeOutLA.com. Email Andri | @andritweets | TakePart.com

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'Lincoln,' 'Les Miserables,' 'Playbook' lead SAG nominees

Top 2012 searches include Whitney, PSY, Sandy

TV’s “Storage Wars” is rigged, fired cast member charges

Chicago best housing market -- for buyers

Pilot, 2 nurses killed in medical helicopter crash

World Chefs: Keller shares memories, spotlight in latest book

Mind: A Compromise on Defining and Diagnosing Mental Disorders

HSBC to pay record $1.9B fine

Off-duty cop shot; superintendent vows to catch attacker

Hug It Out: Public Charter and District Schools Given $25 Million to Get Along

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