EveryBlock shuts down

Hyper local news and social media site EveryBlock.com has shut down, the company said Thursday.

"Though EveryBlock has been able to build an engaged community over the years, we're faced with the decision to wrap things up," a item on the EveryBlock.com blog said.

The posting said Everyblock faced increasing challenges to build a profitable business. It had 10 employees, including President Brian Addison.

The company was founded in 2007 by Naperville native Adrian Holovaty and acquired by MSNBC.com in 2009. NBC News acquired MSNBC.com last year.

NBC News Chief Digital Officer Vivian Schiller said EveryBlock's financial losses "were considerable," although she declined to offer specific financial results.

"Hyper local is a very tough business. This isn't about anything being a failure, but more about our need to stay focused on the strengths of NBC News' digital portfolio," she added in an email.

Schiller said the company looked for various options for EveryBlock, such as a sale, but none of the options ended up being viable.

"EveryBlock was among the more innovative and ambitious journalism projects at a time when journalism desperately needed innovation and ambition. RIP," Holovaty wrote Thursday in a blog post on his site Holovaty.com.

Holovaty wrote that he believes EveryBlock, founded with the help of a $1.1 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, was a successful attempt to push innovation in newspapers and journalism.

"It was a great site, beautifully designed and lovingly crafted. It made a difference for people, particularly in Chicago," he wrote.

Holovaty left the site in August to pursue other interests.

Hyper local sites in general have surged in popularity in recent years, but with the success came an explosion of competitors, making generating revenue extremely difficult. In 2007, about 1 in 8 Americans lived in a town with a local blog, according to data from Placeblogger.com, which indexes local weblogs. Today, more than half do.

Still, limited revenue streams make for a shaky future.

"Most of these companies have the structural integrity of a wet cardboard box," said Lisa Williams, Placeblogger's founder and CEO.

Williams said the sudden shutdown of EveryBlock and others like highlights the boom-and-bust cycles in technology businesses, but also underscores the impatience of the big companies who acquire them.

"Whenever someone invests in you there's always a ticking clock attached to money," she said. "It's a very high-turn business. You have to either get big or get out."

In the Chicago area, hyper local news has proved itself to be a competitive and challenging niche, with both local and out-of-town organizations trying to gain traction.

The Chicago News Cooperative, which had a publishing deal with the New York Times, closed down in 2012 after a little more than two years. AOL's Patch has had a rough time, with one investor estimating last year that the national collection of hyperlocal sites, including dozens in Illinois, lost $147 million in 2011.

Tribune Co.  partnered last year with Journatic, a Chicago-based company, to provide hyperlocal content for the Chicago Tribune's TribLocal.  Tribune Co. then suspended Journatic over ethical lapses, and after a lengthy investigation resumed limited use of Journatic with added safeguards.

The Chicago Tribune also at one time hosted a search box on its web site that directed readers to EveryBlock data.

sbomkamp@tribune.com | Twitter: @SamWillTravel

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Michelle Obama to attend funeral for Hadiya Pendleton

Michelle Obama will attend the funeral of Hadiya Pendleton.

WASHINGTON -- First lady Michelle Obama plans to attend Saturday’s funeral in Chicago for 15-year-old slaying victim Hadiya Pendleton, according to a White House official who asked not to be named.

Pendleton, an honor student at King College Prep, was fatally shot last week about a mile from the Obamas’ Kenwood home. A majorette with the school band, she had participated in inaugural festivities near Washington about a week before her death.

The first lady is not expected to make public remarks during her visit, and the Obamas’ daughters, Malia and Sasha, are not expected to accompany their mother.

Scheduled to speak at the funeral is Gov. Pat Quinn, who mentioned Pendleton during his annual State of the State speech on Wednesday as he called for tougher gun control measures. Quinn said he spoke to the teen’s family this week.
 
"There are no words in the English language, or any language, to relieve the pain of parents who lose a child," said Quinn, who has two adult sons.
 
The White House official who confirmed Michelle Obama’s plans said that senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will also attend the funeral. Both are Chicagoans.

Community activists had urged the Obamas to come to Chicago to speak out about recent violence. A petition on the White House website had called on the Obamas to attend Pendleton’s funeral.

The president reached out to the family last week to offer his condolences, according to people close to the family. Early on, the family had expressed concern that the president’s attendance would overshadow the funeral and make it difficult for Pendleton’s many friends to say their goodbyes to her.

After learning today that the first lady planned to attend, Shatira Wilks, a cousin who serves as the family’s spokesperson, said they are still committed to making the funeral a celebration of the teen’s life.

“It’s a nice gesture and we appreciate it,” Wilks said. “But that is who we are.”

Those close to the family said the parents are still trying to come to grips with what has happened.

“It’s a lot to take in. It’s an overwhelming experience,” said LaKeisha Stewart, Hadiya’s godmother. “We are very thankful the people are coming to support the family. We realize that this young lady has touched a lot of people and this goes beyond us.”

Pendleton was killed at Harsh Park on Jan. 29, near the end of the deadliest January for Chicago homicides in a decade. There is a $40,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in the teen’s death. 

Visitation is scheduled for 2 to 9 p.m. Friday in Calahan Funeral Home at 7030 S. Halsted St. On Saturday, the wake continues at 9 a.m. followed by the funeral at 11 a.m. in Greater Harvest Baptist Church, 5141 S. State St.

Tribune reporters Katherine Skiba and Monique Garcia contributed to this report.
 
dglanton@tribune.com
khennessey@tribune.com

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Well: The 'Monday Morning' Medical Screaming Match

I did not think I would ever see another “morbidity and mortality” conference in which senior doctors publicly attacked their younger colleagues for making medical errors. These types of heated meetings were commonplace when I was a medical student but have largely been abandoned.

Yet here they were again on “Monday Mornings,” a new medical drama on the TNT network, based on a novel by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent and one of the executive producers of the show. Such screaming matches may make for good television, but it is useful to review why new strategies have emerged for dealing with medical mistakes.

So-called M&M conferences emerged in the early 20th century as a way for physicians to review cases that had either surprising outcomes or had somehow gone wrong. Although the format varied among institutions and departments, surgery M&Ms were especially known for their confrontations, as more experienced surgeons often browbeat younger doctors into admitting their errors and promising to never make them again.

Such conferences were generally closed door — that is, attended only by physicians. Errors were a private matter not to be shared with other hospital staff, let alone patients and families.

But in the late 1970s, a sociology graduate student named Charles L. Bosk gained access to the surgery department at the University of Chicago. His resultant 1979 book, “Forgive and Remember,” was one of the earliest public discussions of how the medical profession addressed its mistakes.

Dr. Bosk developed a helpful terminology. Technical and judgment errors by surgeons could be forgiven, but only if they were remembered and subsequently prevented by those who committed them. Normative errors, which called into question the moral character of the culprit, were unacceptable and potentially jeopardized careers.

Although Dr. Bosk’s book was more observational than proscriptive, his depiction of M&M conferences was disturbing. I remember attending a urology M&M as a medical student in which several senior physicians berated a very well-meaning and competent intern for a perceived mistake. The intern seemed to take it very well, but my fellow students and I were shaken by the event, asking how such hostility could be conducive to learning.

There were lots of angry accusations in the surgical M&Ms in the pilot episode of “Monday Mornings.” In one case, a senior doctor excoriated a colleague who had given Tylenol to a woman with hip pain who turned out to have cancer. “You allowed metastatic cancer to run amok for four months!” he screamed.

If this was what Dr. Bosk would have called a judgment error, the next case raised moral issues. A neurosurgeon had operated on a boy’s brain tumor without doing a complete family history, which would have revealed a disorder of blood clotting. The boy bled to death on the operating table. “The boy died,” announced the head surgeon, “because of a doctor’s arrogance.”

In one respect, it is good to see that the doctors in charge were so concerned. But as the study of medical errors expanded in the 1990s, researchers found that the likelihood of being blamed led physicians to conceal their errors. Meanwhile, although doctors who attended such conferences might indeed not make the exact same mistakes that had been discussed, it was far from clear that M&Ms were the best way to address the larger problem of medical errors, which, according to a 1999 study, killed close to 100,000 Americans annually.

Eventually, experts recommended a “systems approach” to medical errors, similar to what had been developed by the airline industry. The idea was to look at the root causes of errors and to devise systems to prevent them. Was there a way, for example, to ensure that the woman with the hip problem would return to medical care when the Tylenol did not help? Or could operations not be allowed to occur until a complete family history was in the chart? Increasingly, hospitals have put in systems, such as preoperative checklists and computer warnings, that successfully prevent medical errors.

Another key component of the systems approach is to reduce the emphasis on blame. Even the best doctors make mistakes. Impugning them publicly — or even privately — can make them clam up. But if errors are seen as resulting from inadequate systems, physicians and other health professionals should be more willing to speak up.

Of course, the systems approach is not perfect. Studies continue to show that physicians conceal their mistakes. And elaborate systems for preventing errors can at times interfere with getting things done in the hospital.

Finally, it is important not to entirely remove the issue of responsibility. Sad to say, there still are physicians who are careless and others who are arrogant. Even if today’s M&M conferences rarely involve screaming, supervising physicians need to let such colleagues know that these types of behaviors are unacceptable.

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Barron H. Lerner, M.D., professor of medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center, is the author, most recently, of “One for the Road: Drunk Driving Since 1900.”

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Chicago sees surge in foreclosure auctions

More than 35,000 homes and small multifamily buildings in the Chicago area completed the foreclosure process last year, the highest number since the housing crisis began, and the vast majority of them became bank-owned.

An increase in foreclosure auctions was expected since lenders shelved many foreclosure cases while state and federal authorities investigated allegations of faulty foreclosure processes. Still, the heightened level of auctions — 35,244 in 2012, compared with 20,281 in 2011 — along with an increase in initial foreclosure filings, shows the local housing market has a long road to recovery, according to the Woodstock Institute.

"There's going to be pain in the housing market in the short term," said Katie Buitrago, senior policy and communications associate at Woodstock. "There's still high levels of filings. Five years into it, there is still work to be done to help people save their homes."

The Chicago-based public policy and research group is expected to release its report on 2012 foreclosure activity Wednesday.

The year-end numbers show that, with few exceptions, all Chicago neighborhoods and suburban communities saw high double-digit percentage gains in auctions last year. Across the six-county area, 91.3 percent of the foreclosed properties were repossessed by lenders. At the same time, notices of initial default sent to homeowners, the first step in the foreclosure process, increased by 2.9 percent last year, to 66,783.

Real estate agents have worried for more than two years about a glut of foreclosed properties — a shadow inventory — that banks would list for sale en masse and cause home values to plunge. That largely has not happened, but the vast number of distressed properties in the market has kept a lid on local home values.

On Tuesday, for instance, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's websites listed 2,415 Cook County homes for sale that the two agencies had repossessed.

Chicago-area home prices, including distressed sales, fell 2.3 percent in December from a year ago, housing analytics firm CoreLogic said Tuesday. Illinois was one of only four states to see home-price depreciation.

The increase in auctions "is a mixed blessing," Buitrago said. "We've been having a lot of trouble in the region with vacant properties that have been languishing for years. The longer they're vacant, the more likely they are to be a destabilizing force in their communities."

Woodstock found that within the city of Chicago, there were 20 communities where more than 1 in 10 owner-occupied one- to four-unit residential buildings and condos went through foreclosure from 2008 to 2012. Five of those neighborhoods are included in the city's 18-month-old Micro-Market Recovery Program, a coordinated effort to stabilize neighborhoods and property values hit hard by foreclosures and vacant buildings.

Also designed to benefit hard-hit areas are the recent establishment of a Cook County Land Bank and legislation waiting for Gov. Pat Quinn's signature that will fast-track the foreclosure process for vacant, abandoned homes while providing financial resources to foreclosure prevention efforts.

mepodmolik@tribune.com

Twitter @mepodmolik

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Quinn wants minimum wage hike, assault weapons ban

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn today called on lawmakers to raise the minimum wage, ban assault weapons, allow online voter registration in an annual State of the State speech that sounded a lot like the launch of his 2014 re-election campaign.

Returning to the populist notes that have defined his political career, Quinn laid out a series of choices in a 13-page speech.

“Do we want, in the years to come, a prosperous Illinois where working people continue to have good jobs, where businesses thrive, and where all our children have a world-class education?” Quinn told the House and Senate. “Or do we want to stop the progresss and watch our economic recovery stall?”

Quinn wants Illinois' minimum wage to increase from $8.25 to $10 an hour over the next four years. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, but Illinois' rate has been higher for years. Business groups are likely to oppose such a change.

The Democratic governor also reiterate his support for gay marriage.

Quinn called for a statewide ban on assault weapons and the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines. He wants to strengthen background checks and require gun owners to report lost or stolen guns to avoid so-called “straw purchasers.”

The governor also offered some of what he wants as the state moves toward allowing conceal carry following a federal appellate ruling that tossed out the state’s long standing ban.

“Of course, we must abide with the second amendment. But there is no place in our state for military-style assault weapons designed for rapid fire at human targets at close range,” he said. “We must ensure that guns are kept out of everyday public places, because guns don’t belong in our schools, shopping malls, or sports stadiums.”

Elections also was a theme as the governor seeks to allow voters to register online. That could draw criticism from Republicans, who often cry foul about Democratic voting efforts in Chicago.

Quinn also revisited a proposal he has long supported: Asking lawmakers to pass legislation allowing for an open primary in which voters would not have to declare their political party before casting a ballot.

The idea is to increase voter participation, and it comes as Democrats and Republicans alike have begun to shift their focus to the 2014 governor's race. One of Quinn's potential Democratic rivals, former White House chief of staff Bill Daley, recently suggested that Illinois do away with partisan primary elections.

Quinn hopes to seize on a new legislature that may be more willing to consider the idea. In 2010, he tried to push the issue by using his amendatory veto power to rewrite a bill to allow voters to declare their party affiliation privately, but the attempt was rebuffed by legislators.

Political parties historically have opposed open primaries because the elections act as a form of membership drive. By requiring voters to declare a political affiliation in order to vote in primaries, they can create voter lists used to drive fundraising and guide get-out-the-vote efforts.

Quinn also touched on the state's budget woes, specifically the growing pension debt that is pegged at almost $97 billion. Quinn contends that while a lot has been done to turn around the state's economy, it will never fully recover unless legislators pass sweeping reforms to bring the retirement system out of the red.

Quinn has been unsuccessfully pushing since placing it at the top of his priority list during last year's speech.

The governor has backed various proposals, most recently throwing his support behind hybrid legislation sponsored by Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago. The measure is an attempt to combine proposals put forth by legislators in the House and the Senate, which have had differing ideas on how to tackle the problem.

Cullerton has said he wants a vote on the measure as soon as possible, but acknowledged it may take time to build support. Those efforts may get a boost next month, when Quinn is expected to lay out his budget plan, which the administration has already warned will include cuts given the pressure pensions have put on spending priorities.

Quinn’s quest to boost the minimum wage comes right out of the Democratic playbook of his predecessor, Rod Blagojevich, while wooing blue-collar labor at the same time. The two Blagojevich campaigns for governor used the minimum wage as a fruitful way to woo the hearts of the state’s minimum wage earners through basic pocketbook politics, often underscoring the point while on the stump in minority and working-class neighborhoods.

The issue fell into a Democratic agenda when Blagojevich, the first Democratic governor in a quarter century, entered office with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. Only months after he won election, Blagojevich pressed forward with his campaign pledge and passed increases that boosted the minimum wage at that time from $5.15 to $6.50 an hour by 2005, the year before he ran for re-election.

After winning re-election, he pushed through more increases that gradually pushed the state’s minimum wage to current levels.

In his own 2010 campaign, Quinn said Illinois’ minimum wage should be increased every year to reflect the rising cost of living. The position put him sharply at odds with Republican challenger Bill Brady, a Bloomington senator who dismissed Quinn’s campaign position as “populist demagoguery.”

Brady initially supported lowering the minimum wage if he beat Quinn and the state rate remained higher than the federal rate—a posture that prompted Quinn’s campaign to contend Brady wanted to “turn back the clock.” Eventually, Brady said the state minimum wage should hold steady to let the federal minimum wage catch up.

The speech marked Quinn's fourth State of the State address since assuming office after lawmakers impeached and removed ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is serving a 14-year sentence in a Colorado prison following his conviction on federal corruption charges.

Quinn had been out of public sight for nearly a week as he wrote and rehearsed the speech. The governor once again used a teleprompter after his 2010 off-the-cuff address drew criticism as being rambling and unfocused.

rlong@tribune.com

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raguerrero2@aol.com

Twitter @RayLong

Twitter @moniquegarcia

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The New Old Age Blog: For Women, Reduced Access to Long-Term Care Insurance

“This was a very, very good business for a short time, with people buying long-term care insurance like it was candy in a candy store,’’ said Michael Perry, a vice president at the Opus Advisory Group, a strategic financial planning firm in Purchase, N.Y.

No more. Mr. Perry has sold only one long-term care policy in the last six months and is “backing off from marketing’’ them as he watches this corner of the insurance business contract, raise premiums, tighten eligibility requirements and reduce key benefits. Long-term care insurance is a comparatively new product, launched in the late ’80s, and only now, as claims begin to pour in, have the actual costs to insurers become apparent.

Companies like MetLife, Prudential Financial, Allianz and Berkshire Financial (a subsidiary of Guardian) have stopped selling new policies and are hiking premiums for the ones already in place — up 37 percent, by one estimate, in 2011. Insurers are increasing elimination periods — the period during which a beneficiary must cover his or her own costs — and reducing inflation protection to 3 percent from 5 percent, once customary. They are requiring home visits instead of phone interviews from new applicants, as well as blood tests and a thorough examination of their medical records.

But the change that has generated the most public attention is so-called gender-distinct pricing, a new strategy that will raise rates for single women by as much as 40 percent beginning in April. Genworth Financial, the nation’s largest long-term care insurance provider with more than a million policy holders, is the first to win approval by state insurance commissions to raise rates for single women purchasing new policies. Women, most of them single by the time they reach advanced age, cost the company $2 of every $3 in benefits paid so far, according to Steve Zabel, Genworth’s senior vice president for long-term care insurance.

The company also will introduce what Mr. Zabel called “enhanced underwriting,” or more stringent qualifying standards, including blood testing to check for nicotine, drugs and markers of cardiovascular disease for all new applicants, regardless of gender or marital status.

Now permitted in all states except Montana and Colorado, gender-distinct pricing will not affect Genworth’s current policyholders, only new applicants. But all other carriers are likely to follow, according to Jesse Slome, executive director of the American Association for Long-Term Insurance, a trade group in Westlake Village, Calif. With the entire industry headed toward higher rates, Mr. Slome recently warned women that “the window is closing” and that now is the time to grab a policy while the price is still manageable.

Women have always paid less than men for life insurance. But because they live longer, women are the disproportionate beneficiaries of long-term care insurance, which paid out $6.6 billion in benefits in 2011. Mr. Slome expects that number to top $7 billion in 2012.

The reasons are well known:

* On average, women outlive men by five years. Among those born in 1960, the average man will live to age 67 and the average woman to age 73. And women who reach age 65 can expect to live an average of 20 more years.

* By age 75, 7 in 10 women are widowed, divorced or have never been married. Some 40 percent of them live alone, compared to 22 percent of men. Two-thirds of those past the age of 85 are women, as are 80 percent of centenarians.

* Women who live to age 65 experience on average two years of disability requiring assistance before death. Those who reach age 80 will require three years of assistance.

* In nursing homes, the most expensive form of long-term care, 7 in 10 residents are women. They represent 76 percent of the residents in assisted living facilities and two-thirds of the recipients of home care. Virtually none of this is paid for by Medicare, the government’s health plan for those 65-and-over. In nursing homes, Medicaid, a poverty program, kicks in for residents who run out of money.

“Woman live longer than men,” said Suzanna de Baca, a vice president of wealth strategies at Ameriprise Financial. “This may mean we experience a longer period of decline. Unfortunately, we are often less likely to have a partner around to help take care of us than our male counterparts.’’

Long-term care, Mr. Slome said, “is truly a women’s issue.”

While acknowledging the extra expense of caring for women, Mr. Slome said that in his view insurance carriers are being disingenuous in blaming the new policies on long-apparent gender differences. Rather he said, the culprit in the changing requirements is interest rates. “Blame the Federal Reserve,’’ he said.

Insurance carriers invest premiums and need to earn enough on that investment to pay benefits. When interest rates were higher, it was not all that difficult. Now the numbers don’t pencil out, and stockholders are fuming. But it is illegal to file for premium increases with the state insurance commissions based on changes in the financial market, Mr. Slome said.

This position does not endear Mr. Slome to his membership, at least one of whom disputes the claim. Asked if the new rate policies were related to interest rates, Mr. Zabel of Genworth, in an e-mail, replied with a succinct “no.”

Insurers say they were not able to judge the costs of care until the payouts began in earnest.

So what is a woman trying to prepare for old age supposed to do, especially after the elimination of the Class Act, a modest attempt to include long-term care in the Affordable Care Act?

Ms. da Baca suggests “careful and thorough budgeting,” “focusing on wellness,” and “proactive steps” to research suitable places to live when home is no longer an option. Ms. da Baca also advises women to make home modifications — incrementally, as one’s budget permits — to increase the chances that you’ll be able to stay there longer.

Mr. Perry, of the Opus Advisory Group, suggests an intriguing option: life insurance with a chronic care rider, which permits the policy-holder to spend money for such needs while alive, although doing so will reduce the tax-free death benefit. Still, not all buyers — or their survivors — are willing to sacrifice those benefits.

“The need is still there, no question about it,’’ Mr. Perry said. But long-term care insurance is likely to become much harder for everyone to find and afford, especially women.

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Deficit hits 5-year low, but cuts drag economy

WASHINGTON -- The federal deficit will drop to less than $1 trillion for the first time in five years, but massive spending cuts that have improved the budget outlook are also slowing the economy, according to a report released Tuesday by the Congressional Budget office.

The nonpartisan arbiter of federal budgets said the combination of new tax revenue from the "fiscal cliff" deal as well as looming cuts that kick in March 1 will push the deficit down to $845 billion for fiscal 2013. Deficits have topped $1 trillion in recent years.

The projections will fuel the coming budget debates, which started Tuesday as President Obama was calling on Congress to steer around the coming budget cuts.

The budget office said the cuts will contribute to an economy that lags in 2013. The unemployment rate likely will remain above 7.5% through the year. It predicted that the gross domestic product will be well below its potential, growing by just 1.4%, more than half a percentage point slower than would happen if the spending cuts were averted.

At the same time, the nation's debt load is expected to fluctuate but ultimately rise to record levels this decade, largely because of increased spending on healthcare and the federal safety net for older Americans with the aging of the baby boom population.

Additionally, the outlook shows how difficult it will be for House Republicans to accomplish their goal of balancing the budget in 10 years with potentially deep austerity measures.

Even though revenue is rising and spending is decreasing, the overall budget outlook remains stark. By the end of the decade, public debt is set to rise to 77% of GDP, a decade of highs on par with debt levels in World War II.

"The projected path of the federal budget remains a significant concern," the CBO wrote.

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Lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

Twitter: @LisaMascaroinDC

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Father saw 'horrifying' accident injure son during opera rehearsal

A fire-breathing stilt walker burned when flames flared up on his face during a dress rehearsal at the Lyric Opera of Chicago is expected to be released from the hospital Thursday, his father told the Chicago Tribune.

“It’s horrifying,” said Clifton Truman Daniel, 55, who was in the audience watching his son Wesley when the mishap occurred late Monday afternoon. “You don’t believe it. At first, everything’s fine. You’re proud of him. You’re amazed at what he’s learned to do, and suddenly he’s in trouble.”

The 24-year-old actor was taken in serious-to-critical condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital suffering burns to his throat and second-degree burns to his face, fire officials said. Initially, it was thought Daniel was not suffering breathing problems, but he apparently was and was transferred to Loyola University Medical Center in critical condition, officials said.

Doctors intubated Daniel as a precaution to help him breathe, his father said. But there was no damage to his lungs or airway and the tube was removed Monday night, according to his father.

"Doctors likened them to a severe sunburn and he will heal,” his father said of the burns. “He shouldn’t have any scarring.”

Clifton Daniel said he was happily sitting in the audience of the Lyric Opera, watching his son walk on stilts and spit fire out of his mouth.

He watched as Wesley Daniel picked up a torch and a little jar of fluid and blew two fire balls. Then suddenly his son’s mask was on fire and he started patting his neck and chest before walking across the stage toward stagehands who were carrying fire extinguishers.

Daniel said he ran to his son backstage, where he was being treated with compresses. Paramedics had already been called and his son was upbeat, even giving a thumbs-up, the father said.

Clifton Truman Daniel said he is the grandson of former President Harry S. Truman and Wesley Daniel is the president's great-grandson.

Wesley Daniel said his son graduated from Roosevelt University and has been acting for about three years. He was hired as a back-up for the opera “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg” in case someone called in sick or didn’t show up. Wesley Daniel stepped in when an actor was injured last week, his father said.

David Kersnar, who directed Daniel in Lookingglass and Next Theatre productions last year and also worked with him at Roosevelt University, described the young actor as an experienced physical performer with circus training. 

“It was the first time he was on the Lyric stage, but this is what he does,” said Kersnar, a Roosevelt adjunct professor. “He’s very funny, very strong, very skilled and smart. He doesn’t do stupid stuff. I was very surprised to hear this went wrong.”

Kersnar said Daniel performed various stunts for him, such as dressing as an ingenue and lifting the title character of “Pulcinella,” at the Lookingglass performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. “This is the actor life. They do a lot of different things. He’s a jack of all trades.”

Kersnar was on his way to visit Daniel in the hospital Tuesday after the actor had emailed him a photo. “He’s all bandaged up but he’s got this funny look in his eyes like, ‘Look at the mess I’ve got myself into,’” Kersnar said.

Tribune photographer Jason Wambsgans, who was at the rehearsal, said it appeared Daniel had spilled propellant "on his chin or his chest or something. It kind of consumed him, and he was staggering across the stage and then fell off his stilts on the opposite side of the stage.”

Wambsgans said he arrived at the rehearsal at the beginning of the third act to take pictures for an upcoming Tribune review of the opera “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.”

The first scene of the third act took about an hour. It was in the second scene when Wambsgans pulled out a telephotoe lens to take pictures of the busy stage full of extras, in this case, circus performers. Daniel was one of them.

When it appeared that Daniel, on stilts, was ready to put some sort of propellant in his mouth to shoot fireballs, Wambsgans said he started snapping and captured the flames flaring up on Daniel.

Wambsgans said he saw people in the wings of the stage spraying Daniel with fire extinguishers. “Half of the extras were transfixed by that,” Wambsgans said.

It took about 15 more seconds before the rest of the extras stopped singing and acting, realizing what had happened, he said.

After a 30-minute break, a visibly distressed crew was back rehearsing, Wambsgans said. But the rehearsal was cut short, ending about 6 p.m.

Daniel was wearing a flame-proof costume and mask, a spokeswoman for the Lyric said in an email.  The dress rehearsal was interrupted, but it later resumed and was in the last act of “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg” by about 5:30 p.m.

Daniel was performing a stunt that had been approved by the Fire Department, according to the Lyric.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened up an investigation into the incident after hearing about Wesley’s accident through the media, said spokesman Scott Allen. A compliance officer went to the Lyric Opera House this morning and talked to witnesses and employees to find out what may have caused the accident and if the opera house violated any OSHA regulations, he added.

Drew Landmesser, the Lyric’s deputy general director who focuses on backstage activities, said the company is still trying to determine the accident’s cause.

“We don’t exactly know the cause of the accident, just that it was a terrible accident and he seems to be doing well,” Landmesser said.

He stressed that Daniel was experienced with such a fire-spitting stunt, which he characterized as routine in the entertainment world.

“You’ve seen this a thousand times: at carnivals, at Renaissance fairs, at kids parties,” Landmesser said. “It’s a common routine for a performer like this.”

That said, Daniel was the replacement for a previous performer who was removed after a mishap involving the same stunt.

“He had a handlebar mustache, and handlebar mustaches and fire-spitting don’t go well together,” Landmesser said, noting that the mustache “got singed, but there was no injury.”

Landmesser said Daniel’s mask never caught fire; nor did his costume.

“The fuel he was spitting was the only thing that was on fire,” he said, adding that the stunt has been removed from the production mostly so audience members won’t become distracted during one of the opera’s climatic scenes. “I think that frankly the press made something hysterical that was a rather calm event, but why upset people, let anyone misunderstand what happened or how safe it is?”

jdelgado@tribune.com

lford@tribune.com

ehirst@tribune.com

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SciTimes Update: Recent Developments in Science and Health News

Red Bull Stratos/European Pressphoto Agency

Felix Baumgartner of Austria jumps from 24 miles up in Roswell, New Mexico.

Tuesday in science, sharks with an image problem, good teeth get more dates, dog geniuses and remembering your dreams. Check out these headlines and other science news from around the Web.

Supersonic Skydiver: Skydiver Felix Baumgartner was faster than he or anyone else thought during his record-setting jump last October from 24 miles up. The Austrian parachutist known as “Fearless Felix” reached 843.6 mph, reports The Associated Press.

Stress Through Generations: For the first time, genes chemically silenced by stress during life have been shown to remain silenced in eggs and sperm in mice, possibly allowing the effect of stress to be passed down to the next generation, reports The Washington Post.

Man Bites Shark: A new study refutes the shark’s reputation as a bloodthirsty stalker of humans, reports Reuters. There’s no basis for believing that sharks have a taste for human flesh, the study argues. Human swimmers, often dressed in black wet suits and looking like seals, are instead mistaken for sharks’ usual prey.

What Singles Want: Good teeth, grammar and humor are important to singles, a new USA Today survey reports.

The Farmer’s Workout: Farmers -- the people counted on to feed the nation -- are facing weight gains of their own, reports Gannett News.

Yes, They Do Windows: The Wall Street Journal reports on window-washing robots.

Staying In: To keep patients out of the hospital, health care providers are bringing back revamped versions of a time-honored practice: the house call.

Spill Your Secrets: Teenagers who share their secrets in confidence with parents and friends have fewer headaches and depressed moods and are more confident in social situations than those who keep secrets to themselves, according to a report in The Journal of Adolescence.

Drilling on Mars: NASA’s Curiosity rover, the S.U.V.-sized robot exploring Mars, is getting ready to spin its drill bit for the first time, reports The Christian Science Monitor.

Couch Potatoes: Men who watch a lot of television have lower sperm counts than those who don’t watch any, reports ScienceNews.org.

Dream a Little Dream: Anyone who has ever awoken feeling amazed by their night’s dream only to forget its contents by the time they reach the shower will understand the difficulties of studying such an ephemeral state of mind, reports New Scientist.

Smart Dogs: Scientific American explores the science of dog intelligence.

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S&P says US to sue over ratings

Standard & Poor's on Monday said it expects to be the target of a U.S. Department of Justice civil lawsuit over its ratings of mortgage bonds prior to the recent financial crisis.

The lawsuit against the McGraw-Hill Cos unit focuses on its ratings in 2007 of various U.S. collateralized debt obligations (CDO), S&P said.

It would be the first federal enforcement action against a credit rating agency over alleged illegal behavior tied to the financial crisis.

"A DOJ lawsuit would be entirely without factual or legal merit," S&P said in a statement. "The DOJ would be wrong in contending that S&P ratings were motivated by commercial considerations and not issued in good faith."

The Justice Department was not immediately available for comment.

Several state attorneys general are expected to join the case, The Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. The expected charges follow the breakdown of talks between the department and S&P, the newspaper said, citing the people.

In afternoon trading, McGraw-Hill shares were down $2.39, or 4.1 percent, at $55.95.

S&P and its main rivals, Moody's Corp's Moody's Investors Service and Fimalac SA's Fitch Ratings, have long faced criticism from investors, politicians and regulators for assigning high ratings to thousands of subprime and other mortgage securities that quickly turned sour.

The rating agencies are paid by issuers for ratings, a standard industry practice that has nonetheless raised concern about potential conflicts of interest.

In January 2011, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission called the agencies "essential cogs in the wheel of financial destruction" and "key enablers of the financial meltdown."

McGraw-Hill had acknowledged last July that the Justice Department and SEC were probing potential violations by S&P tied to its ratings of structured products, and that it was in talks to try to avert a lawsuit.

The New York-based company had previously disclosed an SEC probe into its ratings of a $1.6 billion CDO known as Delphinus CDO 2007-1. It was not immediately clear whether that CDO is a focus of the potential lawsuits.

Last July, Mizuho Financial Group Inc agreed to a $127.5 million settlement to resolve SEC allegations that a U.S. unit obtained false credit ratings for Delphinus.

In a variety of lawsuits brought by investors, S&P has maintained that its ratings constitute opinions protected by the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Last August, a Manhattan federal judge refused to dismiss one such case, brought by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, King County in Washington state, and other investors against S&P, Moody's and Morgan Stanley over losses in Cheyne, a structured investment vehicle.

Cheyne went bankrupt in August 2007. A trial is scheduled to begin on May 6, court records show.

In its statement, S&P said it "deeply regrets" how its CDO ratings failed to anticipate the fast-deteriorating mortgage market conditions, and that it has since spent $400 million to help bolster the quality of its ratings.

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