2 children dead in Englewood fire, 2 others rescued

A young boy and girl died this morning in a fire in the Englewood neighborhood, officials say.

A young boy and girl died this morning after they and two other children were left home alone in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side, officials say.

The girl, 2, and the boy, 3, were found in a back bedroom after firefighters cut through burglar bars on the brick and stone two-flat in the 6400 block of South Paulina Street.

"Please, sergeant, please," a relative pleaded with an officer outside the home. "They're 2 and 3 years old."

A hot plate being used for heat sparked the fire while the four children, alone in the apartment, slept in two bedrooms, according to fire officials. Police said the children's mother and aunt were being questioned.

The surviving children, a 7-year-old boy and his 4-year-old brother, were rescued by an aunt and interviewed by investigators at a neighbor's home.

Darnell, 7, said he and Marquis, 4, had fallen asleep watching Batman cartoons. The two other children -- his 2-year-old sister and 3-year-old cousin -- were asleep in another bedroom. When he woke up, the fire was already burning.

"When the fire started, everything shut off," Darnell said.

The boy said he and Marquis were in a bedroom by the kitchen and "the fire was in the front room where the couch is at. When we saw the fire, it was like in the front room, then it was by the bathroom door."

Darnell said his aunt came rushing through the front door. "When (she) saw the fire, she called all our names. When I opened the door, she told me, 'Come on, the fire's getting closer.' I coughed, my auntie was choking. My sister was banging on the door.

"When we got outside, police passed us, then drove backward and came up because there was a fire," he said.

Darnell's sister died in the fire, along with his cousin.

Darnell and Marquis were brought to a neighbor's house, where investigators from the Bomb and Arson unit and the Office of Fire Investigations (OFI) talked to them.

The investigator from OFI squatted down while talking to the boys. Only Darnell spoke. Marquis was quiet the entire time. Darnell spoke to a Tribune reporter afterward as he sat with four neighbors in their home.

The children were later taken into protective custody by the Department of Children and Family Services.

When firefighters arrived around 3:30 a.m., they weren't able to get into the home because of intense heat and fire, a Fire Department official said. Fire was heavy throughout the basement and first floor, he said.

Firefighters cut through burglar bars on the windows, he said.

The basement windows were all shattered. A white Christmas tree, smudged with smoke, stood near front room window. 

A neighbor told an investigator that the second-floor tenants recently moved out of the brick and stone two-flat.

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Facebook’s new easier-to-manage ‘Privacy Shortcuts’ rolling out globally

Managing Facebook (FB) privacy settings can be a daunting nightmare. Facebook’s new “Privacy Shortcuts” is designed to make sharing items as transparent as possible with always-visible privacy button on the top toolbar. The update also brings “an easier-to-use Activity Log, and a new Request and Removal tool for managing multiple photos you’re tagged in.” The new Facebook privacy controls are rolling out globally starting on Friday and will arrive for all users by the end of the year. For the full details on all of the new changes, be sure to visit Facebook’s Newsroom here.

[More from BGR: Fan-made tweak gives Apple a blueprint for better multitasking in iOS 7 [video]]

This article was originally published by BGR

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Ridley Scott, Paul Attanasio Working on “Vatican” Pilot for Showtime

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Showtime is once again preparing to go papal.

The network, which already has a Pope-centric hit in the form of “The Borgias,” has given the green light to pilot tentatively titled “The Vatican,” from Ridley Scott and Paul Attanasio, Showtime said Thursday.

A contemporary exploration of the politics and power plays within the Catholic church, “The Vatican” will be written by Attanasio and directed by Scott, marking the first pilot that Scott has directed.

“The Vatican” is described as “a provocative contemporary genre thriller about spirituality, power and politics – set against the modern-day political machinations within the Catholic church” that will “explore the relationships and rivalries as well as the mysteries and miracles behind one of the world’s most hidden institutions.”

Production on “The Vatican,” which is being produced by Sony Pictures Television in association with Showtime, will begin next year.

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Alabama to End Isolation of Inmates With H.I.V.

Jamie Martin/Associated Press

The H.I.V. ward of an Alabama women's prison in 2008. The state was ordered to stop segregating inmates with the virus.

A federal judge on Friday ordered Alabama to stop isolating prisoners with H.I.V.

Alabama is one of two states, along with South Carolina, where H.I.V.-positive inmates are housed in separate prisons, away from other inmates, in an attempt to reduce medical costs and stop the spread of the virus, which causes AIDS.

Judge Myron H. Thompson of the Middle District of Alabama ruled in favor of a group of inmates who argued in a class-action lawsuit that they had been stigmatized and denied equal access to educational programs. The judge called the state’s policy “an unnecessary tool for preventing the transmission of H.I.V.” but “an effective one for humiliating and isolating prisoners living with the disease.”

After the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, many states, including New York, quarantined H.I.V.-positive prisoners to prevent the virus from spreading through sexual contact or through blood when inmates tattooed one another. But most states ended the practice voluntarily as powerful antiretroviral drugs reduced the risk of transmission.

In Alabama, inmates are tested for H.I.V. when they enter prison. About 250 of the state’s 26,400 inmates have tested positive. They are housed in special dormitories at two prisons: one for men and one for women. No inmates have developed AIDS, the state says.

H.I.V.-positive inmates are treated differently from those with other viruses like hepatitis B and C, which are far more infectious, according to the World Health Organization. Inmates with H.I.V. are barred from eating in the cafeteria, working around food, enrolling in certain educational programs or transferring to prisons near their families.

Prisoners have been trying to overturn the policy for more than two decades. In 1995, a federal court upheld Alabama’s policy. Inmates filed the latest lawsuit last year.

“Today’s decision is historic,” said Margaret Winter, the associate director of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the inmates. “It spells an end to a segregation policy that has inflicted needless misery on Alabama prisoners with H.I.V. and their families.”

Brian Corbett, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections, said the state is “not prejudiced against H.I.V.-positive inmates” and has “worked hard over the years to improve their health care, living conditions and their activities.”

“We will continue our review of the court’s opinion and determine our next course of action in a timely manner,” he wrote.

During a monthlong trial in September, lawyers for the department argued that the policy improved the treatment of H.I.V.-positive inmates. Fewer doctors are needed if specialists in H.I.V. focus on 2 of the 29 state’s prisons.

The state spends an average of $22,000 per year on treating individual H.I.V.-positive inmates. The total is more than the cost of medicine for all other inmates, said Bill Lunsford, a lawyer for the Corrections Department.

South Carolina has also faced legal scrutiny. In 2010, the Justice Department notified the state that it was investigating the policy and might sue to overturn it.

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Emanuel explores Midway privatization

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration will explore the possibility of privatizing Midway Airport but will take a shorter-term, more tightly controlled approach than was employed by former Mayor Richard Daley's team on the city's first go-round.

Chicago's last try, a 99-year lease that would have brought in $2.5 billion, died in 2009 when the financial markets froze up.

The city's latest intentions are expected to be formally announced Friday, ahead of a Dec. 31 deadline for deciding whether to retain a slot for Midway in the Federal Aviation Administration's airport privatization pilot program. The city put off this decision several times previously.

The move, preliminary as it is, is sure to be politically charged, given the anger over the way Daley's 75-year parking meter privatization deal has played out, with proceeds used to plug operating deficits and meter rates rising sharply.

With that historical backdrop, Emanuel is suggesting a more conservative approach. It includes a shorter-term lease of less than 40 years; a "travelers' bill of rights" aimed at ensuring any changes will benefit passengers; and a continuing stream of revenue for the city, giving it a shot to capture some growth.

And unlike the parking meter and Chicago Skyway lease deals, a new Midway transaction would not allow proceeds to be used to plug operating deficits or to pay for operations in any way, Emanuel said in an interview Thursday.

"I will not let the city use it as a crutch to not make the tough decisions on the budget," he said.

But while a shorter lease and greater city control may play well locally, those sorts of terms may not appeal to investors, experts said in interviews this month.

"The shorter the lease term, the lower the bid prices are going to be — that's just the math," said Steve Steckler, chairman of the Infrastructure Management Group, a Bethesda, Md.-based company that advises infrastructure owners and operators. "I'd be shocked if investors offered more than $2 billion for a 40-year lease," Steckler said.

Emanuel said: "Nobody knows until you talk to people. … I'm the mayor and I'm not agreeing to … 99 years. I'm saying it's either 40 years or less." His office has not offered an estimate of what such a deal could bring in, saying it would be premature.

"No final decisions have been made, but we can't make a decision until we evaluate fully if this could be a win for Chicagoans," Emanuel said.

A private operator would take over management of such revenue-producing activities as food, beverage and car rental concessions and parking lots. The FAA would continue to provide air traffic control, while the Transportation Security Administration would continue to provide security operations. The city would retain ownership.

Few details were provided about how privatization would affect travelers and Midway employees. Emanuel said specifics will emerge over time.

By year's end, the city will send the FAA a preliminary application, a timetable and a draft "request for qualification," a document the city will put out early next year to identify qualified bidders for the project. A review of the potential bidders will be conducted in the spring.

Last year, Emanuel expressed hesitation in pursuing a private lease for Midway unless a careful vetting process was in place, saying taxpayers were correct to be wary, given the city's history.

The evaluation process will be deliberate and open to public view, he said Thursday.

He pledged to create a committee of business, labor and civic leaders that will provide updates to the public on a regular basis and that will select an independent adviser to vet the transaction. The committee will deliver a report to the City Council, and there will be a 30-day review period before any vote.

"I set up a different process and a different set of principles that stand in stark contrast to what was discussed or done in the past," Emanuel said.

The FAA pilot program frees cities from regulations that require airport revenue to be used for airport purposes. It allows money to be withdrawn for other uses.

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Bank robber caught 2 days after bed sheet jailbreak

Police entered ahomein Southwest suburban Tinley Park about 11:30 Tuesday morning, searching for two escaped prisoners.

Police cars swarmed a block on the North Side overnight and arrested one of the two bank robbers who escaped out the window of the federal jail in the South Loop earlier this week, officials said.

Joseph "Jose" Banks was taken into custody by FBI agents and Chicago police around 11:30 p.m. Thursday in the 2300 block of North Bosworth Avenue, according to the FBI.

A young man and a woman who left the building about an hour after the arrest declined to talk.
“We’re not in the mood to answer any questions,” the man said.

Colm Marron said he stepped out of a bar on Fullerton Avenue and saw about a half-dozen unmarked police cars gathering in the Walgreens parking lot around the corner from the building. “They flew out, just down there,” he said, motioning from inside the bar toward Bosworth Avenue.

Seconds later he heard a “huge bang.”

“I was surprised how loud the bang was. It wasn’t like any thunder I’ve ever heard,” he said. “There wasn’t any echo to it, just that loud, off the bat.”

A few minutes later, a handful of marked Chicago police cars arrived, he said.

At a BP gas station at Fullerton, Clybourn and Ashland avenues, an attendant working the overnight shift said he saw two Chicago police cars – an SUV and a squadrol – with an unmarked car in the front and back.

“It’s not like there was a big old mob out there looking,” said Ralph De LaRosa, 45. 

He noticed the flashing lights while he stood inside the gas station.

The police cars, their lights flashing, took off west on Fullerton, then south on Ashland.

Banks and his cellmate, Kenneth Conley, both convicted bank robbers awaiting sentencing, were last accounted for at 10 p.m. Monday during a routine bed check at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, authorities said.

About 7 a.m. Tuesday, jail employees arriving for work saw ropes made from bedsheets dangling from a hole in the wall near the 15th floor. The two had put clothing and sheets under blankets in their beds to throw off guards making nighttime checks, authorities said.

Cameras mounted to the side of the 28-story federal jail captured Banks and Conley sliding down the building shortly after 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to an employee who wished to remain anonymous.

The men left view briefly, but it was believed they landed on the roof of a garage below. Moments later, footage from a different camera showed them hopping a black fence marking the perimeter of the property, the employee said.

The FBI said a surveillance camera a few blocks from the jail showed the men, wearing light-colored clothing, hailing a taxi at Congress Parkway and Michigan Avenue. They also appeared to be wearing backpacks, according to the FBI.

The manhunt for the inmates included several high-profile raids Tuesday in the southwest suburbs of Tinley Park and New Lenox, where Conley's family and associates lived. Conley is still unaccounted for as of Friday morning.

A $50,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the two fugitives was announced by the FBI.

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Nokia to get payments in patent deal with RIM

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Struggling Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has settled its patent dispute with BlackBerry maker Research in Motion in return for payments, as it tries to exploit its trove of technology patents to boost its finances.

Terms of the agreement were confidential, but Nokia said on Friday it included a one-time payment to be booked in the fourth quarter, as well as ongoing fees, all to be paid by RIM.

Nokia is one of the industry’s top patent holders, having invested 45 billion euros ($ 60 billion) in mobile research and development over the past two decades.

It has been trying to make use of that legacy to ensure its survival, amid a fall in sales as well as cash. The Finnish firm is battling to recover lost ground in the lucrative smartphone market to the likes of Apple and Samsung.

The agreement with RIM settles all existing patent litigation between the two companies, Nokia said, adding similar disputes with HTC Corp and ViewSonic still stood.

“This agreement demonstrates Nokia’s industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market,” said Paul Melin, Nokia’s chief intellectual property officer.

Nokia has earned around 500 million euros a year from patent royalties in key areas of mobile telephony.

Some analysts have said it could earn hundreds of millions more if it can negotiate with more companies successfully.

Analysts estimated its June 2011 settlement with Apple was worth hundreds of millions of euros.

($ 1 = 0.7555 euros)

(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters and Mark Potter)

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‘Zero Dark Thirty’ One of Biggest Mid-Week Limited Debuts Ever

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Zero Dark Thirty” has been slammed by several senators for its depiction of torture, but the issue only appears to have helped it at the box office.

Director Kathryn Bigelow‘s dramatization of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden racked up an estimated $ 124,848 in five theaters in New York City and Los Angeles on Wednesday. That’s an average of $ 24,969, making it one of the biggest limited mid-week openings in history.

Other Oscar-bait films in limited release scored far less in their debuts. “American Beauty” grossed $ 73,000 in 6 theaters and “Little Miss Sunshine” grossed $ 66,000 in 7 showings on their opening days.

The film arrives in theaters boasting four Golden Globe nods, including a nomination for Best Motion Picture – Drama, and a boatload of strong reviews.

In Slate, Dana Stevens praised the film for its unflinching depiction of the global manhunt.

“Zero Dark Thirty, as single-minded and emotionally remote as its heroine, plays its cards so close to its vest that it’s impossible to tell,” Stevens wrote. “But this is a vital, disturbing, and necessary film precisely because it wades straight into the swamp of our national trauma about the war on terror and our prosecution of it, and no one – either on the screen or seated in front of it – comes out clean.”

Not everyone has loved “Zero Dark Thirty”s’ moral ambiguity, however. Senators John McCain, Dianne Feinstein and Carl Levin have criticized the film for seeming to argue that torture helped the CIA locate bin Laden.

In a letter to Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Michael Lynton, the senators said that the studio should state that the film is a work of fiction and its depiction of torture’s role in the operation to find bin Laden is fictitious.

In a statement provided to TheWrap, Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal said critics were taking the torture scene out context.

“This was a 10-year intelligence operation brought to the screen in a two-and-a-half-hour film. We depicted a variety of controversial practices and intelligence methods that were used in the name of finding bin Laden,” the statement reads. “The film shows that no single method was necessarily responsible for solving the manhunt, nor can any single scene taken in isolation fairly capture the totality of efforts the film dramatizes.”

“Zero Dark Thirty” stars Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton and Chris Pine. It opens in wide release on January 11.

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Emanuel explores Midway privatization

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration will explore the possibility of privatizing Midway Airport but will take a shorter-term, more tightly controlled approach than was employed by former Mayor Richard Daley's team on the city's first go-round.

Chicago's last try, a 99-year lease that would have brought in $2.5 billion, died in 2009 when the financial markets froze up.

The city's latest intentions are expected to be formally announced Friday, ahead of a Dec. 31 deadline for deciding whether to retain a slot for Midway in the Federal Aviation Administration's airport privatization pilot program. The city put off this decision several times previously.

The move, preliminary as it is, is sure to be politically charged, given the anger over the way Daley's 75-year parking meter privatization deal has played out, with proceeds used to plug operating deficits and meter rates rising sharply.

With that historical backdrop, Emanuel is suggesting a more conservative approach. It includes a shorter-term lease of less than 40 years; a "travelers' bill of rights" aimed at ensuring any changes will benefit passengers; and a continuing stream of revenue for the city, giving it a shot to capture some growth.

And unlike the parking meter and Chicago Skyway lease deals, a new Midway transaction would not allow proceeds to be used to plug operating deficits or to pay for operations in any way, Emanuel said in an interview Thursday.

"I will not let the city use it as a crutch to not make the tough decisions on the budget," he said.

But while a shorter lease and greater city control may play well locally, those sorts of terms may not appeal to investors, experts said in interviews this month.

"The shorter the lease term, the lower the bid prices are going to be — that's just the math," said Steve Steckler, chairman of the Infrastructure Management Group, a Bethesda, Md.-based company that advises infrastructure owners and operators. "I'd be shocked if investors offered more than $2 billion for a 40-year lease," Steckler said.

Emanuel said: "Nobody knows until you talk to people. … I'm the mayor and I'm not agreeing to … 99 years. I'm saying it's either 40 years or less." His office has not offered an estimate of what such a deal could bring in, saying it would be premature.

"No final decisions have been made, but we can't make a decision until we evaluate fully if this could be a win for Chicagoans," Emanuel said.

A private operator would take over management of such revenue-producing activities as food, beverage and car rental concessions and parking lots. The FAA would continue to provide air traffic control, while the Transportation Security Administration would continue to provide security operations. The city would retain ownership.

Few details were provided about how privatization would affect travelers and Midway employees. Emanuel said specifics will emerge over time.

By year's end, the city will send the FAA a preliminary application, a timetable and a draft "request for qualification," a document the city will put out early next year to identify qualified bidders for the project. A review of the potential bidders will be conducted in the spring.

Last year, Emanuel expressed hesitation in pursuing a private lease for Midway unless a careful vetting process was in place, saying taxpayers were correct to be wary, given the city's history.

The evaluation process will be deliberate and open to public view, he said Thursday.

He pledged to create a committee of business, labor and civic leaders that will provide updates to the public on a regular basis and that will select an independent adviser to vet the transaction. The committee will deliver a report to the City Council, and there will be a 30-day review period before any vote.

"I set up a different process and a different set of principles that stand in stark contrast to what was discussed or done in the past," Emanuel said.

The FAA pilot program frees cities from regulations that require airport revenue to be used for airport purposes. It allows money to be withdrawn for other uses.

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Theater review: Hilarious, hometown 'Book of Mormon'

Most of the audience flocking to “The Book of Mormon,” which officially descended on Chicago Wednesday night like satirical manna from some warped “South Park” heaven, are looking for amusement and escape. They'll surely find salvation from the rough old world in this new production of the deliciously over-eager 2011 Broadway hit, newly crafted for Chicago with a clutch of utterly committed, fresh-faced, faux-Mormon lads.

The true revelation in this brand new Chicago production — directed by Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker and that stands up well to the original Broadway edition — is one Ben Platt, a hilariously funny young actor who finds an entirely different way into Elder Cunningham, the loser-geek Mormon, first played in New York by Josh Gad. He is the partner on this mission to Uganda for the alpha Elder Price (Nic Rouleau, who comes direct from Broadway and is also sharp and generally terrific, although very much in the original mold of the role). Platt, whose comic instincts are exquisite, really leans into this part, throwing himself out there with the abandonment of youth and shrewdly pushing the sincerity and charm of the character while downplaying the obvious manifestation of his quirks. Physical resemblance notwithstanding, Platt kicks the dangerous Jonah Hill-like cliches half way to Christendom, and makes the sidekick role about four times as funny and ten times as believable. He's no “American Idol” vocalist, but you won't care.

Laughs flow like Mormon wagon trains rolling West. But “The Book of Mormon,” like the enigmatic volume it lampoons so mercilessly, is actually a many-layered beast and therein, verily, lies its brilliance.

I'll try and not spoil narrative surprises. Somehow, the writing and composing team of Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone managed to poke wicked fun at the all-American religion without frying on the third rail of religious faith — and all the while convincing their audience that they actually are enjoying a rather sweet show.

“The Book of Mormon” is exquisitely toned. It brilliantly exploits the protection afforded by edges and extremes and mitigates its use of gags about such comedic untouchables as Jesus Christ, AIDS, Africa and genital mutilation (and those are the printable topics) with an earnestness impossible for even a nervous prude to resist. On Wednesday, those prudes were sputtering into their shirt collars with mirth.

In terms of risky content, “The Book of Mormon” makes the Monty Python boys look like they were writing the Acts of the Apostles. Yet it has a sweetness that few other satirical dramatic works have achieved. These Mormons are so lovable you feel half-inclined to take a couple of ‘em home with you. (It’s not like anyone ever wanted to give Mel Brooks a hug.)

Thanks mostly to Lopez, the show not only has a strikingly traditional and whip-tight musical structure; fans of the genre will recognize little stylistic spoofs of “Defying Gravity” from “Wicked,” “Tomorrow” from “Annie” and, of course, the hilarious Act 2 centerpiece wherein earnest Ugandans mangle Mormon doctrine in a skewering of “The Small House of Uncle Thomas” from “The King and I.” Jesus also looks remarkably like Prince Herbert from “Spamalot.”

But for those who hate musicals — and plenty of “South Park” fans are in that category — the caustic, relentless Parker-Stone worldview is very much is in evidence—especially in the truly inspired “spooky Mormon Hell” nightmare sequence centered on Adolf Hitler, Johnnie Cochran (“if it don't fit ..”) and dancing cups of illicit, mock Starbucks. These, they declare, are what keeps the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints awake at night. They may well be right. This show steers closer to the truth than you might think.

On a further viewing, I was blown away again by the disciplined narrative logic these writers applied to their outrageous storytelling. That's what comes of creating a TV show from whole imaginative cloth, almost every week for 16 years. One learns how to ensure the outlandish makes perfect sense.

Look behind the gags and you can find much pondering of the central problem faced by all people of faith: the apparent inability of religion to end the suffering of the innocent. You can find discussion of how faith is an all-or-nothing proposition; who could believe about 50 percent of Mormonism? The show lampoons the ability of persons of faith to compartmentalize and, most brilliantly of all, the pervasive nature of racial condescension. Indeed, it's in the racial arena (speaking of third rails) that this show is at its most risky and most admirable, as when white Mormon missionaries sing “We Are Africa” (a dead-on take-down of the smugness of “We Are the World”) even as actual Africans (well, African characters) stare at them in quiet amazement. Chicago actor James Vincent Meredith, who plays Mafala likes he's doing Athol Fugard, is a huge asset to the show.

The one performer who needs work is Syesha Mercado, who plays the lead ingenue role of Nabulungi (her name is constantly bungled as “Neutrogena” and the like by Elder Cunningham). Mercado sings well, albeit at a certain remove, but she has yet to grab hold of the necessary vulnerability of her character and hit the lyrical gags. She was a late replacement and surely will improve with time. Pierce Cassedy, as Elder McKinley (a Mormon who insists on turning off his gay identity) is hilarious and, more importantly, very poignant.

With tickets this scarce and prices this high, you might well wonder if “The Book of Mormon” is worth your time and elevated expectations. Be not afraid, suburban pilgrim. The Chicago production pulses with the just the right combination of Broadway production values, proven material, sufficient buy-in by the original creative team (who all took a bow on opening night) and new young men on a mission, not quite from God.

cjones5@tribune.com

Twitter@ChrisJonesTrib

THE BOOK ON ‘THE BOOK': Check out the Tribune's site dedicated to all things “Book of Mormon” at chicagotribune.com/bookofmormon.

When: Through June 2

Where: Bank of America Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St.

Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Tickets: $42-$107 at 800-775-2000, broadwayinchicago.com

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