1 killed, 8 wounded in overnight shootings

A 24-year-old man was killed and at least eight others were wounded in overnight gun violence on the city's West and South Sides, according to police.

In the latest attack, a 24-year-old man was shot multiple times about 6:10 a.m. in the 4000 block of West Wilcox Street, Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Laura Kubiak said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

No further details were immediately available about the shooting, which happened in the West Garfield Park neighborhood.

Shots rang out as the man was standing on the sidewalk in the 4600 block of South California Avenue, striking the man in the bicep and lower back, News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro said.

The man managed to drive 15 blocks to the 3100 block of South California, where he was found by first responders. Paramedics transported the man to Mount Sinai Hospital, where his condition was stabilized.

About 2:30 a.m. in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, a 24-year-old man was shot in both thighs while walking in an alley, authorities said.

The shooting happened in the 900 block of West 53rd Street, Alfaro said. The man was taken to John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, where his condition was stabilized.

About 9:50 p.m., a 17-year-old boy was shot multiple times near the intersection of 30th Street and South Tripp Avenue in the Little Village neighborhood, police said.

Two males exited a black SUV and approached the teenager as he walked down the sidewalk, shooting him multiple times, Alfaro said.

The teen was taken to Stroger, where he was listed in critical condition, Alfaro said.

Police officers found a vehicle matching the description of the suspects' SUV, and after a brief pursuit, the SUV struck a light pole in the 3900 block of West Cermak Road, Alfaro said.

Three occupants were taken into custody and were regarded as possible suspects. No injuries were reported.

Police described the shooting as gang-related, a description shared by a close family friend of the teenager, who asked to remain anonymous when interviewed near the crime scene.

About 8:30 p.m., two men and a woman were shot in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood. Two men emerged from a gangway in the 6200 block of South Rockwell Street and fired shots into a parked vehicle where the three people were sitting, Alfaro said.

A 19-year-old woman who was struck in the chest was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, Alfaro said. A 22-year-old man struck in the thigh and 23-year-old man shot in the chest and buttocks were both taken to Holy Cross Hospital, Alfaro said.

The conditions of all three were stabilized, Alfaro said.

About 7:45 p.m., a 31-year-old man was shot in Marquette Park neighborhood, News Affairs Officer Joshua Purkiss said. The man suffered a gunshot wound to the leg in the 7100 block of South Campbell Avenue and his condition was stabilized on the scene, said Purkiss.

About 6:30 p.m. in the Washington Park neighborhood, another 31-year-old man was shot in the left arm in the 6000 block of South Indiana Avenue, Purkiss said. His condition was stabilized on the scene, said Purkiss.

Purkiss had no hospital information or information on circumstances in the Marquette Park and Washington Park shootings. Fire department officials did not respond to attempts to contact them.

lford@tribune.com, asege@tribune.com

Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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Conn. lawmaker apologizes over Facebook post

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut lawmaker has apologized after saying in a Facebook post that shooting victim and former Arizona U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords should “stay out of my towns.”

Giffords last week visited Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 20 young children and six adults at an elementary school last month. The Democrat, who met with families of the victims, was critically wounded two years ago in a deadly mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz.

The Hartford Courant posted images Sunday showing Republican state Rep. DebraLee Hovey‘s Facebook comments. In one dated Friday she says, “Gabby Giffords stay out of my towns!!”

Hovey released a statement Monday saying her comments were insensitive and that she apologizes if she offended anyone.

Hovey had said in another post that the visit was political.

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Mariah Carey increased security in feud with fellow “Idol” judge

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pop diva Mariah Carey said she hired increased security following what she described as threats reportedly made against her by fellow ‘American Idol‘ judge Nicki Minaj, according to an interview on ABC News.

Carey, 42, one of three new judges to join the “American Idol” panel for the hit talent show’s new season on January 16, told Barbara Walters in an interview airing on Monday, “it felt like an unsafe work environment.”

“Anytime anybody’s reeling threats at somebody, you know, it’s not appropriate,” Carey said.

“I’m a professional. I’m not used to that type of environment,” she said, adding that she hired extra security.

The diva was alluding to widely reported tension between her and Minaj, who were seen arguing with one another in a video from the show’s audition phase.

Walters has reported that, according to Carey, others on the “Idol” set heard Minaj go further and say, off-camera, “If I had a gun, I would shoot that bitch.”

Minaj, a Trinidadian-born singer and songwriter, previously denied making any remarks about firearms, but Carey told Walters that beefing up her security “was the appropriate thing to do.”

“Sitting there on the road with two babies, I’m not going to take any chances,” she said, referring to her 20-month old twins with husband Nick Cannon.

But in a sign of media savvy, she noted that “for all the drama, I hope it helps the show.”

Walters also asked Carey about reports she is being paid $ 18 million for each “Idol” season.

“I think we’re in the ballpark, (but) I can’t even talk about those things,” the singer replied.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Paul Simao)

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The New Old Age Blog: Who Should Receive Organ Transplants?

Joe Gammalo had been contending with pulmonary fibrosis, a scarring of the lungs, for more than a decade when he came to the Cleveland Clinic in 2008 seeking a lung transplant.

“It had gotten to the point where I was on oxygen all the time and in a wheelchair,” he told me in an interview. “I didn’t expect to live.”

Lung transplants are a dicey proposition, involving a huge surgical procedure, arduous follow-up, the lifelong use of potent immunosuppressive drugs and high rates of serious side effects. “It’s not like taking out an appendix,” said Dr. Marie Budev, the medical director of the clinic’s lung transplant program.

Only 50 to 57 percent of all recipients live for five years, she noted, and they will still die of their disease. But there’s no other treatment for pulmonary fibrosis.

Some medical centers would have turned Mr. Gammalo away. Because survival rates are even lower for older patients, guidelines from the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation caution against lung transplants for those over 65, though they set no age limit.

But “we are known as an aggressive, high-risk center,” said Dr. Budev. So Mr. Gammalo was 66 when he received a lung; his newly found buddy, Clyde Conn, who received the other lung from the same donor, was 69.

You can’t mistake the trend: A graying population and revised policies determining who gets priority for donated organs, have led to a rising proportion of older adults receiving transplants.

My colleague Judith Graham has reported on the increase in heart transplants, but the pattern extends to other organs, too.

The number of kidney transplants performed annually on adults over 65 tripled between 1998 and last year, according to data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. In 2001, 7.4 percent of liver transplant recipients were over 65; last year, that rose to 13 percent.

The rise in elderly lung transplant candidates is particularly dramatic because, since 2005, a “lung allocation score” puts those at the highest mortality risk, rather than those who’ve waited longest, at the top of the list.

In 2001, about 3 percent of those on the wait list and of those transplanted were over 65; last year, older patients represented almost 18 percent of wait-listed candidates and more than a quarter of transplant recipients. (Medicare pays for the surgery, though patients face co-pays and considerable out-of-pocket costs, including for drugs and travel.)

The debate has grown, too: When the number of adults awaiting transplants keeps growing, but organ donations stay flat, is it desirable or even ethical that an increasing proportion of recipients are elderly?

Dr. Budev, who estimated that a third of her program’s patients are over 65, votes yes. As long as a program selects candidates carefully, “how can you deny them a therapy?” she asked. So the Cleveland Clinic has no age limit. “We feel that everyone should have a chance.”

At the University of Michigan, by contrast, the age limit remains 65, though Dr. Kevin Chan, the transplant program’s medical director, acknowledged that some fit older patients get transplanted.

“You can talk about this all day — it’s a tough one,” Dr. Chan said. Younger recipients have greater physiologic reserve to aid in the arduous recovery; older ones face higher risk of subsequent kidney failure, stroke, diabetes and other diseases, and, of course, their lifespans are shorter to begin with.

Donated lungs, fragile and prone to injury, are a particularly scarce commodity. Last year, surgeons performed 16,055 kidney transplants, 5,805 liver transplants and 1,949 heart transplants. Only1,830 patients received lung transplants.

“What if there’s a 35-year-old on a ventilator who needs the lung just as much?” Dr. Chan said. “Why should a 72-year-old possibly take away a lung from a 35-year-old?” Yet, he acknowledged, “it’s easy to look at the statistics and say, ‘Give the lungs to younger patients.’ At the bedside, when you meet this patient and family, it’s a lot different.”

These questions about who deserves scarce resources — those most likely to die without them? or those most likely to live longer with them? — will persist as the population ages. They’re also likely to arise when the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation begins working towards revised guidelines this spring. (I’d also like to hear your take, below.)

Lots of 65- and 75-year-olds are very healthy. Yet transplants themselves can cause harm and there’s no backup, like dialysis. Without the transplant, they die. But when the transplant goes wrong, they also die.

More than four years post-transplant, the Cleveland Clinic’s “lung brothers” are success stories. Mr. Conn, who lives near Dayton, Ohio, can’t walk very far or lift more than 10 pounds, but he works part time as a real-estate appraiser and enjoys cruises with his wife.

Mr. Gammalo, a onetime musician, has developed diabetes, like nearly half of all lung recipients. But he went onstage a few weeks back to sing “Don’t Be Cruel” with his son’s rock band, “a highlight of both our lives,” he said.

Yet when I asked Mr. Conn, now 73, how he felt about having priority over a younger but healthier person, he paused. “It’s a good question,” he said, to which he had no answer.

---

Paula Span is the author of “When the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions.”

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Sears CEO D'Ambrosio to step down

Sears Holdings Corp. said Monday night that Chief Executive Officer Louis D'Ambrosio will step down Feb. 2, due to family health matters, and Chairman Edward Lampert will add the role of CEO.

The surprise move fuels uncertainty at the Hoffman Estates-based company, which has struggled for years to re-establish itself as a department store in an ultracompetitive retailing industry dominated by low-price giant Wal-Mart and big box and specialty stores.

Shares of Sears Holdings were up 2.3 percent in premarket trading on the news.

The decision by Lampert, a hedge fund operator who is the company's biggest shareholder, to take over day-to-day control represents a reversal from his naming of D'Ambrosio as chief executive nearly two years ago after operating with an interim CEO.

"In light of Lou's decision to step down, the board feels it is important that there is continuity of leadership during this important period of transformation and improvement at Sears Holdings," Lampert said in a statement. "I have agreed to assume these additional responsibilities in order to continue the company's recovery and sustain the momentum we are experiencing, as well as further the development of the management team under the distributed leadership model, which provides our business unit leaders with greater control, authority and autonomy."

Sears Holdings, which operates Sears and Kmart, also updated its fourth-quarter earnings outlook Monday night. The company said it expects to report a net loss $280 million to $360 million, or $2.64 to $3.40 per diluted share, for the quarter ending Feb. 2. The loss includes a charge of about $450 million because of pension settlements and an additional $42 million in pension expenses.

Excluding pension expenses, Sears said it expects to earn $132 million to $212 million, or $1.25 to $2 per share.

Analysts polled by Bloomberg had been expecting adjusted net income of about $137 million.

For the fiscal year, Sears said it expects to lose $721 million to $801 million, or $6.80 to $7.56 per diluted share, which includes pension-related costs and other adjustments reported late last year. Excluding those items, the company said it expects to lose $123 million to $203 million, or $1.16 to $1.92 per share.

D'Ambrosio became CEO after working for the company as a consultant. The 16-year veteran of IBM Corp. had been CEO of a telecommunications company before joining Sears.

"I have worked very closely with Eddie over the past two years. I can say this: there is simply no one in the world that cares more about Sears Holdings and has thought more deeply about our company than Eddie," D'Ambrosio wrote to employees.

Lampert gained control of Sears in 2005 after engineering the merger between Kmart and Sears Roebuck & Co. For years, speculation about Lampert's intentions for the company focused on the value of its real estate, but under D'Ambrosio, Sears appeared to pay more attention to retail aspirations.

The company reported improved performance — it beat Wall Street expectations — in the previous quarter, but Sears stock has lost more than 35 percent of its value since November, closing Monday at $42.92, up 1.7 percent.

 Crshropshire@tribune.com | Twitter: @corilyns 

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House drops assault weapon ban plan, may tackle pension reform

The clock is ticking for Illinois lawmakers to come to an agreement on the pension crisis. CBS 2's Courtney Gousman reports.

SPRINGFIELD — With time running short in the lame-duck session, state lawmakers on Sunday dropped hot-button issues dealing with guns and marijuana but kept alive hopes of reforming pensions and giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

The slimmed-down agenda unfolded rapidly as the House, returning to the Capitol for the first time in a month, pulled an assault weapons ban from consideration and the sponsor of legislation to allow Illinoisans to use marijuana for medical purposes said the chances of quick passage is unlikely.

The spotlight on whether Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and legislators can come together on financial changes to the state's $96.8 billion government worker pension debt intensified Sunday. House Republican leader Tom Cross of Oswego signed onto a plan offered by two House Democrats and urged GOP members to support it.

Still, Cross acknowledged that Senate President John Cullerton believes a different measure is the only one that meets a state constitutional prohibition against impairing or diminishing public pensions. Cullerton's version, previously passed by the Senate, offers state employees a trade of access to state health care in return for a reduction in retirement benefits.

"Nobody has any idea what the court's going to do," Cross said. "We all have lawyers. There are a lot of lawyers in Chicago. People have opined on what works and doesn't work. The reality is, nobody knows."

Quinn spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said the administration, which wants the package passed before a new Legislature is seated Wednesday, is "encouraged with the momentum."

The pension proposal's fate is uncertain should it pass the House. The Senate went home Thursday but Cullerton left open the possibility of coming back. Cullerton spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon said senators would return to Springfield Tuesday "to review and hear" a significant pension reform bill if one is passed by the House.

"I can't make any predictions beyond that," she said.

When the governor and legislative leaders met Saturday, Cullerton said at various points he would lobby against the House plan, Cross said. But Cross also said Cullerton indicated that he would allow for a Senate vote if the pension measure passed the House.

Still, if Cullerton balks at the House pension plan, Springfield could devolve into an all-too-familiar political game: The House passes one version of legislation, the Senate passes another, lawmakers pat themselves on the back and then blame the other chamber for failing to achieve needed reform.

Among the key features of the House plan is a freeze on cost-of-living increases for all workers and retirees for as long as six years, although the length of time was still under discussion Sunday night. Once the cost-of-living bumps resume, they would apply only to the first $25,000 of pensions. The inflation adjustments also would not be awarded until a person hits 67, a major departure among public employees who have been allowed to retire much earlier in some cases and begin reaping the benefits of the annual increases immediately.

Under the proposal, employee contributions to pensions would increase 1 percentage point the first year and 1 percentage point the second year. A lid would be put on the size of the pensionable salary based on a Social Security wage base or their current salary, whichever is higher.

The goal is to put in place a 30-year plan that would fully fund the Illinois pension systems, which are considered the worst-funded in the nation.

Meanwhile, a proposal to allow undocumented immigrants to qualify for Illinois driver's licenses could get its first House test today. Sponsoring Rep. Eddie Acevedo, D-Chicago, said he would call the Senate-passed bill on the House floor if it advances from committee.

Also Sunday, a House panel defeated a bill to require companies to file public disclosure forms when they pay no state income taxes.

rlong@tribune.com

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”Texas Chainsaw” movie kills rivals at North America box office

(Reuters) – The return of the bloody “Texas Chainsaw” franchise sliced up movie box office rivals with a surprise win over the weekend, grabbing an estimated $ 23 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales.

The new “Texas Chainsaw 3D” pulled past Quentin Tarantino Western “Django Unchained,” the second place film from Friday through Sunday with $ 20 million. No. 3 movie “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” grabbed $ 17.5 million.

Going into the weekend, box office forecasters did not think the revival of the 40-year-old “Texas Chainsaw” franchise had enough buzz to top the holiday releases that are adding to their tallies during the month of January, a typically slow time for moviegoing.

Marketing efforts for “Texas Chainsaw” paid off for distributor Lions Gate Entertainment, the studio behind the horror franchise.

Lions Gate ran a social media campaign aimed at its core horror fan base – mostly young men and women – and ran promotions during AMC Networks’ TV zombie hit “The Walking Dead.” The studio aimed for a broader audience with promotions during college football bowl games and other sports programs after Christmas.

“The numbers were a little bit more than expected,” said Richie Fay, the president of domestic distribution for Lions Gate Entertainment.

“It is great to be No. 1. I think we held our own,” he added.

Lions Gate spent about $ 20 million to promote the movie, which was produced by Millennium Films.

The movie revives a franchise that started four decades ago with the 1974 film about a serial killer named Leatherface. Since then, the seven “Texas Chainsaw” movies have pulled in $ 175 million at North American (U.S. and Canadian) theaters, according to website Box Office Mojo. The films have generated $ 416 million domestically.

The new movie follows a woman who inherits a family home in the town of Newt, Texas, showing all of the blood and gore in 3D. The story picked up where the original left off and included cameos from original cast members.

“Texas Chainsaw” was the only new nationwide release in North America (United States and Canada) over the weekend. “The Hobbit,” the first of three movies based on the fantasy novel by J.R.R. Tolkien, brought its total domestic sales to $ 263.8 million since its December 14 debut. “Django Unchained,” released on Christmas Day, reached $ 106.3 million.

In fourth place for the weekend, musical “Les Miserables” earned $ 16.1 million, bringing its domestic sales to $ 103.6 million since its Christmas Day release. The No. 5 slot belonged to family comedy “Parental Guidance,” which grossed $ 10.1 million.

“The Hobbit” was distributed by Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros. studio. The Weinstein Co. released “Django Unchained.” Universal Studios, a unit of Comcast Corp distributed “Les Miserables.” “Parental Guidance” was released by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.

(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Tehran Is Choked by Annual Buildup of Air Pollution

TEHRAN — Already battered by international threats against their nation’s nuclear program, sanctions and a broken economy, Iranians living here in the capital are now trying to cope with what has become an annual pollution peril: a yellowish haze that engulfs Tehran this time of year.

For nearly a week, officials here and in other large cities have been calling on residents to remain indoors or avoid downtown areas, saying that with air pollution at such high levels, venturing outside could be tantamount to “suicide,” state radio reported Saturday.

On Sunday, government offices, schools, universities and banks reopened after the government had ordered them to shut down for five days to help ease the chronic pollution. Tehran’s normally bustling streets were largely deserted.

Residents who dare to go outside cover their mouths and noses with scarves or surgical masks, but their eyes tear up and their throats sting from the mist of pollutants, which a report by the municipality of Tehran says is made up of a mixture of particles containing lead, sulfur dioxins and benzene.

“It feels as if even God has turned against us,” Azadeh, a 32-year-old artist, said on a recent day as she looked out a window in her apartment that often offers a clear view of Tehran, a sprawling city that is home to millions. But on this day, Azadeh, who did not want her full name used, saw only the blurred outlines of high-rise buildings and the Milad communications tower in the distance. The setting sun was reduced to a yellowish coin by the thick blanket of smog.

The haze of pollution occurs every year when cold air and windless days trap fumes belched out by millions of cars and hundreds of old factories between the peaks of the majestic Alborz mountain range, which embraces Tehran like a crescent moon.

Iran is prominently represented in the World Health Organization’s 2011 report on air quality and health, with three of its provincial towns among the organization’s list of the world’s 10 most-polluted cities. According to the report, Tehran has roughly four times as many polluting particles per cubic meter as Los Angeles. Many cities known for their poor air quality, like Mexico City, Shanghai and Bangkok, are cleaner than Tehran.

But since 2010, when American sanctions on Iranian imports of refined gasoline began to bite, the situation has grown worse, according to the report by the municipality of Tehran.

Faced with possible fuel shortages, Iran surprised outsiders by quickly making up for the loss of imports by producing its own brew of gasoline. While the emergency fuel kept vehicles running, local experts warned that it was creating much more pollution.

A recently released report by Tehran’s department of air quality control contained blank spaces where there should have been information about levels of benzene and lead — components of gasoline — in the capital’s air. But the report did state that while Tehran experienced more than 300 “healthy days” in 2009, in 2011 there were fewer than 150.

Iran’s Health Ministry has reported a rise in respiratory and heart diseases, as well as an increase in a variety of cancers that it says are related to pollution.

The state newspaper Resalat on Saturday called the pollution a continuing crisis, and it urged the authorities to act. “Why is it that when the winds pick up, this problem is again quickly forgotten?” an editorial asked. Another newspaper, Donya-e-Eqtesad, which is critical of the government, pressed for an improvement in gasoline standards.

The pollution caused by the use of the emergency fuel concoction has been a taboo subject here, as officials try to portray each measure to counter the economic sanctions as a success that should not to be criticized by the local news media.

On state television, several officials have denied that the yellow haze has anything to do with the locally produced gasoline.

In an interview on Saturday, Ali Mohammad Sha’eri, the deputy director of Iran’s Environmental Protection Organization, strongly denied that the pollution was linked to gasoline. However, he said that only 20 percent of the emergency fuel was up to modern standards. “Hopefully in three months that level will be 50 percent,” he said.

Meanwhile, the government has imposed strict traffic regulations in Tehran, Isfahan and other major population centers. An odd-even traffic-control plan based on the last digit of vehicle license plates keeps about half of the approximately three and a half million cars in Tehran off the streets on a daily basis.

Other plans to combat the pollution have been less realistic, analysts say. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has long advocated a plan to move civil servants from Tehran to reduce overpopulation in the capital. In 2010, the governor of Tehran Province ordered crop-dusters to dump water on the smog in an effort to dissipate it. There have also been plans for placing air purifiers in the city, but experts say they will not work in open spaces.

For those living in Tehran and unable to leave town for a vacation home on the Caspian Sea, waiting for the winds to pick up seems to be the only option.

“My head hurts, and I’m constantly dead tired,” said Niloufar Mohammadi, a university student. “I try not to go out, but I can smell the pollution in my room as I am trying to study.”

Azadeh, the artist, said the pollution forced her to stay indoors, adding to her sense of isolation. Step by step her world was being curtailed, she said. The Western sanctions imposed on Iran make her feel like a pariah, she explained. The government’s mismanagement of the economy and the resulting inflation have left her with little purchasing power, she said; she has stopped shopping for everything but essential items. And last week, security officers removed her illegal satellite dish from her roof.

“The pollution is the last straw for me,” she said. “We should wait helpless for winds to pick up and clean the air before we can safely leave our houses. It shows we have lost all power to control our lives.”

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$10B bank settlement expected in foreclosures

Banks and regulators worked late Sunday to finalize a nearly $10-billion settlement that would halt a much-maligned program to review foreclosures from the height of the housing crisis, according to four people familiar with the talks.

At least 14 banks are involved. Since the reviews began in late 2011, the banks have paid $1.5 billion to consultants examining foreclosure records -- but not a penny to aggrieved borrowers. Both bankers and regulators found that result untenable, officials have said.

The new agreement could be announced as early as Monday morning by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the arm of the Treasury Department that regulates banks with national charters, four people familiar with the negotiations said.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions were sensitive and incomplete. The principal negotiators included six big banks that provide customer service on 90% of all U.S. home loans: Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., U.S. Bancorp and PNC Financial Services.

Regulators were presenting the deal late Sunday to eight smaller mortgage servicers that had agreed to the reviews in 2011 but were less involved in the settlement negotiations.

The regulators were prepared to announce a settlement even if some of the smaller banks declined to accept it, three of the people with knowledge of the talks said, in part because of pressure from bankers wanting to report a settlement when they announced fourth-quarter financial results.

Other efforts to help troubled borrowers and address foreclosure abuses include a $26-billion settlement last February among five giant banks and a coalition of federal agencies and state attorneys general.

The reviews of individual cases were distinctive, however, because they represented a chance to gauge the extent of the legal shortcuts, lost paperwork and abusive fees that had prompted widespread complaints.

Consumer advocates fretted that abandoning that process could mean there would be no such definitive accounting of the foreclosure mess. And they called for detailed disclosure of how the consultants had conducted reviews and how the nearly $10 billion would be spent.

“Unlike the AG settlement, which had a huge amount of scrutiny, there’s been a real lack of transparency in the foreclosure reviews and this settlement,” said Paul Leonard, California director of the Center for Responsible Lending.  

The proposed settlement includes $3.75 billion in cash payments to borrowers eligible for reviews, two people familiar with the proposed agreement said.

Under the original plan devised by the comptroller and the Federal Reserve in April 2011, 4.4 million Americans whose homes were in foreclosure proceedings in 2009 and 2010 could  request a free review. Only about half a million have done so.

Borrowers who never requested a review would get only a few hundred dollars under the proposed settlement. Those who requested reviews would get bigger payments. And those determined to have definitely or likely suffered harm from flawed foreclosures could be in line for much larger payments. 

Another $6 billion in "soft" aid would assist delinquent borrowers, mainly through loan modifications, relocation assistance and short sales, in which homeowners are allowed sell their home for less than they owe on their mortgage. Some, but not all, of those borrowers are among those who had been eligible for the foreclosure reviews. 

Payments will be allocated according to the share of the homes in foreclosure in 2009 and 2010. That would mean Bank of America, which at the time was the biggest servicer of the loans, would pay the most. 

After the initial agreement was reached with the 14 banks accused of improper foreclosures, the Federal Reserve filed enforcement actions accusing the giant Wall Street investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley of similar abuses. Those cases are pending and it couldn't be determined if those banks would sign on to a similar settlement. 

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Deal reached to end NHL lockout

By Chris Kuc




Tribune reporter

7:07 a.m. CST, January 6, 2013

The NHL and players association reached an agreement on the framework of a new collective bargaining agreement early Sunday morning, ending the lockout that began Sept. 15.

After a marathon session in New York, league commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr announced the deal.

"We have to dot a lof of the I's and cross a lot of T's," Bettman told reporters in New York. "There is still a lot of work to be done, but the basic framework has been agreed upon."

There will be a ratification process and the league Board of Governors and player will have to officially approve the new CBA, which reportedly will run 10 years.

"Any process like this in the system we have is difficult," Fehr told reporters. "We have the framework of a deal. We have to do the legal work ... and we'll get back to what we used to call busuness as usual just as fast as we can."

The final push during talks which lasted 16 hours was led by a federal mediator that helped the sides bridge the final gap on several key issues, including contract terms, salary cap and pensions.

Details on when the season will begin and how many games each team will play haven't been announced, but it is possible a 48-50-game schedule could begin Jan. 19 or even a few days sooner.

ckuc@tribune.com

Twitter @ChrisKuc

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