Jobless rate climbs to 7.9% in January

U.S. job growth grew modestly in January and gains in the prior two months were bigger than initially reported, supporting views the economy's sluggish recovery was on track despite a surprise contraction in output in the final three months of 2012.

Employers added 157,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. There were 127,000 more jobs created in November and December than previously reported.

The unemployment rate, however, edged up 0.1 percentage point to 7.9 percent.

The closely watched report also showed an increase in hourly earnings and solid gains in construction and retail employment.

Coming on the heels of data on Wednesday showing a surprise contraction in gross domestic product in the fourth quarter, that should ease any worries the economy was at risk of recession, even though the unemployment rate ticked up.

GDP contracted at a 0.1 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, largely because of a sharp slowdown in the pace of inventory accumulation and a plunge in defense spending.

A monster storm that hit the East Coast in late October also weighed on output, a drag that should lift this quarter.

Federal Reserve officials said on Wednesday that economic activity had “paused,” but they signaled optimism the recovery would regain speed with continued monetary policy support. The Fed left in place a monthly $85 billion bond-buying stimulus plan.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected employers to add 160,000 jobs and the unemployment rate to hold steady at 7.8 percent last month.

The Labor Department also published benchmark revisions to payrolls data going back to 2008. It said the employment level in March 2012 was 422,000 higher on a seasonally adjusted basis than previously reported.

It also introduced new population factors for its survey of households from which the unemployment rate is calculated. This had a negligible effect on the major household survey measures.

MODEST JOB GROWTH

Job growth in 2012 averaged 181,000 a month, but not enough to significantly reduce unemployment. Economists say employment gains in excess of 250,000 a month over a sustained period are needed.

Though the unemployment rate dropped from a peak of 10 percent in October 2009, that was mostly because some unemployed Americans gave up the search for work because of weak job prospects.

The share of the working age population with a job has been below 60 percent for almost four years.

All the job gains in January were in the private sector, where hiring was as broad-based as it was in December and declines in public sector employment remained moderate.

Steady job gains could help the economy weather the headwinds of higher taxes and government spending cuts. A payroll tax cut expired on Jan. 1 and big automatic spending cuts are set to take hold in March unless Congress acts.

The goods-producing sector showed a third month of solid gains, with manufacturing employment advancing for a fourth straight month. Construction payrolls increased 28,000, adding to December's healthy 30,000 gain.

Construction jobs are expected to rise further as the housing market recovery gains momentum. Housing is expected to support the economy this year, taking over the baton from manufacturing.

Within the vast private services sector, retail jobs increased by a solid 32,600 jobs after rising 11,200 in December. Retail employment has now risen for seven straight months. Education and health payrolls added 25,000 jobs in January after employment grew by the most in 10 months in December.

Government payrolls dropped by 9,000 last month after falling 6,000 in December. The pace is moderating as local government layoffs, outside education, subside.

Average hourly earnings rose four cents last month. Hourly earnings have been rising steadily. They were up 2.1 percent in the 12 months through January.

“It may be that we are now getting to a point in the labor market where we are going to see an upward creep in average hourly earnings,” said RDQ Economics' Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York.

“That's going to be good for the consumer and they need help because they are being whacked by the payrolls tax increase,” he said before the release of the report.

The length of the workweek for the average worker was steady at 34.4 hours for a third straight month.
 

US Change in Nonfarm Payrolls data by YCharts

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Slain girl made anti-gang video

The sixth-grader can barely keep from smiling, self-conscious in front of the camera as she delivers a very serious message.

"Hi, my name is Hadiya. This commercial is informational for you and your future children," she begins. "So many children out there are in gangs and it's your job as students to say no to gangs and yes to a great future."

The video then shows shots of a boy slumped in a stairwell, another boy sprawled against a locker, a girl lying on the floor against a wall as a classmate next to Hadiya says, "So many children in the world have died from gang violence. More than 500 children have died from being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Four years after Hadiya Pendleton made that public service video at Carter G. Woodson Elementary School, police are saying the same thing about her.

Hadiya had just finished her final exams at King Prep High School, where she was a sophomore, and was hanging out with friends from the school's volleyball team when she was gunned down in a park in the 4400 block of South Oakenwald Avenue.

Hadiya and the others had sought shelter from a rainstorm under a canopy at the park around 2:20 p.m. Tuesday when a gunman jumped a fence, ran toward them and opened fire, police said.

As the teens scattered, Hadiya and two teenage boys were shot. Hadiya was hit in the back and pronounced dead at Comer Children's Hospital less than an hour after the shooting. The wounds suffered by the boys were not life-threatening.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy stressed that neither Hadiya nor anyone in the group she was with were involved with gangs. But it appears the gunman mistook the students for members of a rival gang, he said. The shooter was last seen fleeing in a white Nissan.

“These were good kids by everything that I learned," McCarthy said at a Wednesday news conference, where a reward of $11,000 was announced. "Wrong place at the wrong time.”

Hadiya was shot a little more than a week after performing with the King College Prep band in Washington during President Barack Obama's inauguration festivities. The shooting occurred in a park about a mile north of Obama's Kenwood home.

The shooting has drawn the attention of both the White House, which is pushing for national gun control, and City Hall as Chicago closes on a violent January. Hadiya was the 42nd homicide victim this year in the city, where killings last year climbed above 500.

Hadiya's father, Nathaniel Pendleton, pleaded for someone to step forward and bring the 15-year-old's killer to justice.

"She was destined for great things," he said.

Hadiya was a majorette with the band at King, one of the city's elite selective-enrollment schools. She dreamed of going to Northwestern University and talked about becoming a pharmacist or a journalist, maybe a lawyer.

Police have reported no arrests.

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The 7 most dedicated employees

You probably don’t want to forward this roster of tireless go-getters to your boss

Some people probably feel they deserve a medal for merely getting up and going to work every day, but only a few actually merit one. Take Deborah Ford, for example. This 64-year-old Detroit postal worker, who recently retired, didn’t use a single sick day in all of her 44 years on the job. Not a single one! For doctor’s appointments, she would take vacation days, and when she was feeling lousy she says she would just “shake it off.” At the end of her dedicated career, Ford had amassed a sick-leave balance of 4,508 hours. But before you give her the award for most dedicated employee, check out this lot:

1. Going the distance
Unless you work from home, chances are you endure a less-than-pleasant commute. But none is likely as arduous as that of Dave Givens. In 2006 the Mariposa, Calif., resident earned the unenviable award for “America’s Longest Commute” when tire company Midas set out to find the employee who trekked the most miles to work. From his ranch home in Mariposa, Givens drives 186 miles to his job at Cisco Systems, Inc., in San Jose. The electrical engineer has been making this 372-mile round trip, which equals a total of seven hours of driving, for 17 years. “I have a great job and my family loves the ranch where we live,” Givens said. “So this is the only solution.” His dedication to the horrendous commute earned Givens the grand prize of $ 10,000 and some much-needed gas money as well as an array of Midas maintenance services and products.

SEE ALSO: Today in business: 5 things you need to know

2. A life’s work
Rose Syracuse Richardone “just loves to work,” says Macy’s senior vice president Robin Hall of the 92-year-old employee. Richardone retired from Macy’s in September 2012 after working in a range of positions from her first job at the age of 17 in the accounts department — back when there weren’t credit cards and customers would set aside money in the in-store bank to pay for items — to her final position within the parade and entertainment group. To honor her 70th year with the company a few years ago, Macy’s management arranged for Richardone to cut the red ribbon that launched the iconic Thanksgiving parade. Had it not been for a broken hip, the diminutive employee might still be working today. “Life is good,” she said of her longevity. “You go on each day, you’re happy where you’re at. And people — bosses, supervisors, they appreciate you. And you stay.”

3. Hardest working unemployed man
You may not know Justin Knapp, but you’re likely familiar with his work. Knapp is a voluntary editor of the Wikipedia, and last April the 30-year-old became the first person to complete 1 million edits on the massive online, open-source encyclopedia. After coming across Wikipedia in 2003, Knapp registered as an editor in 2005 and now spends several hours per day combing, editing, and adding to Wikipedia articles. His edits can be as small as ensuring em dashes and en dashes are used properly or as substantial as building the most comprehensive George Orwell entry, which reportedly took about 100 hours. But Knapp relishes the work. “Editing these projects is relaxing and rewarding,” Knapp told Gizmodo. Knapp doesn’t get paid for his work, however plentiful, but he manages to get by financially with odd jobs while he pursues his nursing degree at Indiana University. Ultimately he feels his diligence is for the greater good. “Far be it for me to say that it’s an act of love to edit Wikipedia,” he said. “But I really do feel like that it helps other human beings. That makes me feel good — knowing that somehow I can be a small part of helping someone who I’ll never know.”

SEE ALSO: Today in business: 5 things you need to know

4. Dedicated volunteer
Don Moss is the “Energizer Bunny of volunteers.” As of 2010, the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center volunteer has clocked in more than 47,000 hours, setting a Guinness World Record for his time. For the last 28 years, Moss has worked at Wake Forest Monday through Thursday, 48 hours per week. The 63-year-old’s dedication is a personal one. In 1980, Moss was in a freak accident that landed him at Wake Forest Baptist where he spent three months in a coma with a major head injury. Doctors didn’t think he would make it and, after he woke up, specialists said he would never walk again. But Moss defied all expectations and now, after being encouraged to volunteer during his rehabilitation stint, he’s rarely idle. While working, Moss delivers letters to patients, helps out at the gift shop, and guides lost visitors to their destinations. And those free Fridays? Those are for his wife, he says: “That’s my honey-do list day.”

5. Hardest working mom
Dr. Helen Wright felt like she had it all — she loved her job as a headmistress at an exclusive British all-girls school, and she had time to enjoy her beautiful growing family. On February morning in 2010, when Wright was pregnant with her third child, she went into labor. Within an hour she had given birth to the baby, a girl named Jessica, and by lunchtime, Wright was back at work, her newborn in tow. This was nothing new for her. She had never taken maternity leave with any of her children. Her second child was born on a Friday; Wright was back at work by Monday. Given the ongoing can-women-have-it-all debate, Wright says she wants to be a role model for her students to show them that they too can have a career and a family, quite literally, in the same space. The rarely trodden path of bringing your baby to work is, Wright says, the option more women should consider. “Most women have a choice of taking maternity leave or going back to work and having their babies looked after. Why can’t there be a third way?”

SEE ALSO: Today in business: 5 things you need to know

6. Hardest working country
Do you feel like you work long hours? Well, here’s some food for thought: Employees in Asian countries have the highest proportion of employees who work more than 48 hours per week, which is considered “excessive.” Of those Asian countries, South Korea is the most overworked: According to data compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, South Koreans work a whopping 2,193 hours per year. Chile comes in second with 2,068 hours, which far exceeds the average for most developing countries, which is 1,718 hours annually. The United States is just below the average with 1,695 hours. Germany and the Netherlands remain on the low end of the scale with 1,408 hours and 1,377 hours per year, respectively. Tighter labor laws in developed countries, particularly Europe, have contributed to reduced working hours, so, you know, don’t feel too bad about it, you’re just playing by the rules.

7. Hardest working American town
Columbia, Mo., managed to keep its unemployment rate of 6.0 percent throughout the worst economic downturn since the Depression with the help of its robust health-care and education sectors. The town has six hospitals and the second highest number of hospital beds per capita in the country. It’s also home to the University of Missouri-Columbia, which employs some 8,000 people, as well as six other institutions of higher education. More than 80 percent of households are dual-income, and the city ranked second on likelihood to work on the weekends, according to data compiled by Parade magazine in 2012. 

SEE ALSO: Today in business: 5 things you need to know

Sources: BBC, Daily Mail, Gizmodo, Parade, The Stir, Yahoo

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ABC orders drama pilots from Martin Campbell, Maria Maggenti

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Casino Royale” director Martin Campbell is taking on another intrigue-filled project, this time with ABC.

The network has ordered a pilot for the drama “Reckless,” which Campbell, left, will executive produce.

The pilot involves David, a resourceful problem-solver whose wife is unjustly imprisoned during a political uprising overseas. Desperately to rescue her, he tries every legal option, but after being stymied by the U.S. government in the name of diplomacy, David moves outside of the law — and enters “a world of political intrigue, dangerous alliances and high emotional stakes.”

Chris Black (“Star Trek: Enterprise”) is writing the ABC Studios project.

ABC has also ordered a pilot for the dramedy “Murder in Manhattan.” Written by Maria Maggenti (“Monte Carlo”), the hour-long project follows a mother and daughter who team up as amateur sleuths in New York City.

ABC Studios and DarkFire TV are producing.

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During Trial, New Details Emerge on DuPuy Hip

When Johnson & Johnson announced the appointment in 2011 of an executive to head the troubled orthopedics division whose badly flawed artificial hip had been recalled, the company billed the move as a fresh start.

But that same executive, it turns out, had supervised the implant’s introduction in the United States and had been told by a top company consultant three years before the device was recalled that it was faulty.

In addition, the executive also held a senior marketing position at a time when Johnson & Johnson decided not to tell officials outside the United States that American regulators had refused to allow sale of a version of the artificial hip in this country.

The details about the involvement of the executive, Andrew Ekdahl, with the all-metal hip implant emerged Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court during the trial of a patient lawsuit against the DePuy Orthopaedics division of Johnson & Johnson. More than 10,000 lawsuits have been filed against DePuy in connection with the device — the Articular Surface Replacement, or A.S.R. — and the Los Angeles case is the first to go to trial.

The information about the depth of Mr. Ekdahl’s involvement with the implant may raise questions about DePuy’s ability to put the A.S.R. episode behind it.

Asked in an e-mail why the company had promoted Mr. Ekdahl, a DePuy spokeswoman, Lorie Gawreluk, said the company “seeks the most accomplished and competent people for the job.”

On Wednesday, portions of Mr. Ekdahl’s videotaped testimony were shown to jurors in the Los Angeles case. Other top DePuy marketing executives who played roles in the A.S.R. development are expected to testify in coming days. Mr. Ekdahl, when pressed in the taped questioning on whether DePuy had recalled the A.S.R. because it was unsafe, repeatedly responded that the company had recalled it “because it did not meet the clinical standards we wanted in the marketplace.”

Before the device’s recall in mid-2010, Mr. Ekdahl and those executives all publicly asserted that the device was performing extremely well. But internal documents that have become public as a result of litigation conflict with such statements.

In late 2008, for example, a surgeon who served as one of DePuy’s top consultants told Mr. Ekdahl and two other DePuy marketing officials that he was concerned about the cup component of the A.S.R. and believed it should be “redesigned.” At the time, DePuy was aggressively promoting the device in the United States as a breakthrough and it was being implanted into thousands of patients.

“My thoughts would be that DePuy should at least de-emphasize the A.S.R. cup while the clinical results are studied,” that consultant, Dr. William Griffin, wrote.

A spokesman for Dr. Griffin said he was not available for comment.

The A.S.R., whose cup and ball components were both made of metal, was first sold by DePuy in 2003 outside the United States for use in an alternative hip replacement procedure called resurfacing. Two years later, DePuy started selling another version of the A.S.R. for use here in standard hip replacement that used the same cup component as the resurfacing device. Only the standard A.S.R. was sold in the United States; both versions were sold outside the country.

Before the device recall in mid-2010, about 93,000 patients worldwide received an A.S.R., about a third of them in this country. Internal DePuy projections estimate that it will fail in 40 percent of those patients within five years; a rate eight times higher than for many other hip devices.

Mr. Ekdahl testified via tape Wednesday that he had been placed in charge of the 2005 introduction of the standard version of the A.S.R. in this country. Within three years, he and other DePuy executives were receiving reports that the device was failing prematurely at higher than expected rates, apparently because of problems related to the cup’s design, documents disclosed during the trial indicate.

Along with other DePuy executives, he also participated in a meeting that resulted in a proposal to redesign the A.S.R. cup. But that plan was dropped, apparently because sales of the implant had not justified the expense, DePuy documents indicate.

In the face of growing complaints from surgeons about the A.S.R., DePuy officials maintained that the problems were related to how surgeons were implanting the cup, not from any design flaw. But in early 2009, a DePuy executive wrote to Mr. Ekdahl and other marketing officials that the early failures of the A.S.R. resurfacing device and the A.S.R. traditional implant, known as the XL, were most likely design-related.

“The issue seen with A.S.R. and XL today, over five years post-launch, are most likely linked to the inherent design of the product and that is something we should recognize,” that executive, Raphael Pascaud wrote in March 2009.

Last year, The New York Times reported that DePuy executives decided in 2009 to phase out the A.S.R. and sell existing inventories weeks after the Food and Drug Administration asked the company for more safety data about the implant.

The F.D.A. also told the company at that time that it was rejecting its efforts to sell the resurfacing version of the device in the United States because of concerns about “high concentration of metal ions” in the blood of patients who received it.

DePuy never disclosed the F.D.A. ruling to regulators in other countries where it was still marketing the resurfacing version of the implant.

During a part of that period, Mr. Ekdahl was overseeing sales in Europe and other regions for DePuy. When The Times article appeared last year, he issued a statement, saying that any implication that the F.D.A. had determined there were safety issues with the A.S.R. was “simply untrue.” “This was purely a business decision,” Mr. Ekdahl stated at that time.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 30, 2013

A capsule summary of an earlier version of this article described the start of the DePuy trial incorrectly. It began last week, not this week.

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Slot maker WMS Ind. to be sold for $1.5B

Gaming machines maker WMS Industries Inc. is being swallowed up by larger rival Scientific Games Corp. for $1.42 billion in cash and debt.

The deal announced Thursday values WMS at $26 a share -- nearly 60 percent higher than the stock's closing price on Wednesday. Shares shot up in early trading Thursday after the deal was announced, rising 54 percent to reach $25.14, just under its 12-month high.

Scientific Games primarily makes instant lottery tickets and software. Executives said on a conference call that grabbing WMS will allow it to quickly expand its offerings in arcade-type games, slots and video poker.

While Scientific Games executives on a conference call rejected the characterization that WMS is in the midst of a "turnaround," business has certainly been improving in recent months for the Waukegan-based game maker.

WMS, formerly Williams, said in November is fiscal 2013 first-quarter profit tripled on a combination of higher revenue and lower costs. 

The revenue was driven by new initiatives, including social gaming on Facebook and mobile phones, that's paid off.

Those new ventures have compounded the growth WMS has seen as it gambled on some other new outposts for its business.

In September, it received one of the first licenses to operate online poker games in Nevada, the only state other than Delaware to legalize some form of Internet gambling.                       

Online sites in Nevada are expected to go live in early 2013, but only people physically within that state's borders will be able to play. For everyone else, there's WMS's Facebook app, "Jackpot Party Social Casino."

The companies plan to save about $90 million through operating efficiencies by the third year they're combined. They expect the deal to close by the end of the year, pending regulatory and other approvals.

Executives say they are still working out the details on how the combined company will be run, so there's no word yet on whether the company's headquarters will remain in Illinois or if there will be any layoffs. A spokeswoman for WMS didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

sbomkamp@tribune.com | Twitter: @SamWillTravel

WMS data by YCharts

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Ryan sent home after spending just hours at halfway house

Former Gov. George Ryan spent just hours at a halfway house on Chicago’s West Side this morning before he was released and sent to his Kankakee home, where he will be on home confinement until he completes his 6 ½-year sentence.

Ryan will not have to wear an electronic monitor while under house arrest, according to his lawyer, former Gov. Jim Thompson.

Speaking to a crowd of reporters outside Ryan’s Kankakee home late this morning, Thompson said Ryan was inside with more than a dozen relatives. He said the former governor would not be coming outside to address the media.

"He's doing fine inside. He's with 17 kids and grandkids," said Thompson as many of Ryan’s relatives, mostly children, gathered on the front stoop smiling and occasionally hugging one another.

Ryan left the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. at about 1 a.m., arrived at Thompson's home around 4:30 a.m. in sweats and changed clothes, Thompson said. He was processed at the halfway house and arrived in Kankakee at about 10:30 a.m.

Thompson said he suspected the Bureau of Prisons allowed Ryan to bypass the halfway house because of his age. He will be 79 next month.  "A halfway house wouldn't be helpful to him,” Thompson said. “They teach people how to write checks, how to construct a resume, how to look for a job."

Thompson said there was no point in Ryan taking the place of another inmate in a halfway house if others would benefit more from the services.

"When you leave the penitentiary, you are sent to either a halfway house or to home confinement," Thompson said. "Home confinement's a regular program of the Bureau of Prisons, just like a halfway house, because they can't fit everybody in a halfway house. So apparently the Bureau of Prisons decided home confinement was a better outcome."

Thompson said Ryan will have to follow the rules of the halfway house even though he is at home.

Thompson said he has not spoken with Ryan about how it feels to come home after the death of his wife, Lura Lynn.  "I imagine it's very hard. Just as I imagine it's been very hard ever since she died and it's been very hard ever since he left her. At least he's got closure now with his family."

Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke also insisted that Ryan did not receive special treatment. He said BOP officials would have made the decision based on several factors – including whether Ryan had a stable environment to go back to in Kankakee.

“There is no requirement to actually spend a minimum amount of time in the halfway house,” Burke said. “How much time is based on the needs of the offender. Whether or not he has financial support, family support, an approved release residence. His health issues.”

Burke said Ryan knew he would bypass the halfway house home confinement long before he left the federal prison.

“To surprise the inmate with something at the last minute would not be conducive to transitioning back to society,” he said. “It wouldn’t do any good to keep secrets from inmates.”

As for Ryan’s release from the prison in the middle of the night, Burke said that call would have been made by BOP officials who have to consider “special characteristics that an inmate may present.”

When asked if a former governor with intense media scrutiny would be on such characteristic, Burke replied, “That would be one thing.”

A somber and silent Ryan had arrived at the halfway house shortly before 7 a.m. Wearing a gray sports coat, white shirt and maroon tie, Ryan was surrounded by TV cameras as he walked down the street and entered the four-story red brick building.

Ryan smiled tightly as he refused to answer questions from reporters. Ryan's son, George Ryan Jr. and Thompson accompanied Ryan into the house.

After Ryan checked in, Thompson came back out and told reporters "today is another step in a long journey for George Ryan. . .He would like me to tell you he's grateful to leave the penitentiary. He's grateful also for the encouragement and support from many people. He has paid a severe price. The loss of his wife and brother while he was in the penitentiary, the loss of his pension, his office, his good name and 5 1/2 years of imprisonment. Now near 80 years old, that is a significant punishment. But he is going to go forward."

Ryan left the prison early this morning and managed to escape the notice of media camped at the facility. The first indication that Ryan has been released was around 6:45 a.m. when he left a building down the street and started walking toward the halfway house.

His son put his left hand on his father and guided him out the door. Ryan kept his head down, his hands in his pockets as he talked to his son and walked slowly through the knot of TV cameras.

As they neared the halfway house, a worker opened the door and tried to clear a path through the cameras. Ryan raised his head, his hands still in his pockets, his son to his right, as he walked down five steps and into the halfway house.

Thompson said Ryan didn't speak much during the van trip to Chicago.

"He didn't talk much, just small talk," Thompson said. "He looks good. He's been lifting weights. . .He knows something about carpentry now.

"He tied his own tie this morning, he hasn't forgotten that," Thompson said. "He's in decent spirits. He has to become accustomed to seeing things differently. . .We came down Michigan Avenue and he was looking at the lights left over from Christmas. That was sort of wonderful, I think. He hasn’t seen the city of Chicago in 5 1/2 years.”

Thompson said people forget that Ryan "was a very good governor." But he added that Ryan "is not bitter, he's not angry. He's accepting. This has been a long fight."

Ryan completed more than 5 years of a a 6 1/2-year prison sentence in Terre Haute, Ind. for a corruption conviction. Ryan entered prison on Nov. 7, 2007. His wife of more than 50 years, Lura Lynn, died of cancer in June 2011.

The halfway house, operated by the Salvation Army a few blocks east of the United Center, has been a way station for about 20,000 men and women since opening in 1975. Many corrupt Illinois politicians have finished their sentences at the facility. Among the most recent graduates was former Chicago Ald. Edward Vrdolyak.

Ryan's conviction for fraud, racketeering and other charges was the culmination of the federal Operation Safe Road investigation that exposed rampant bribery in state driver's license facilities while he was secretary of state as well as misdeeds as governor.

After a six-month trial, a federal jury convicted Ryan in 2006 of steering millions of dollars in state business to lobbyists and friends in return for vacations, gifts and other benefits to Ryan and his family.

The conviction overshadowed Ryan's long career in government.

The Kankakee native rose from speaker of the Illinois House to win statewide election as lieutenant governor, secretary of state and then one term as governor. His actions as governor included placing a moratorium on the death penalty and emptying death row, moves that won him international acclaim.

Thompson said Ryan may become involved in death penalty issues after his sentence ends in July. "It's way too soon to tell."

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

Twitter: @chicagobreaking

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California police probe stunts that shut down freeways

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The California Highway Patrol is investigating two apparently unrelated stunts that jammed freeways over the weekend, including one involving hundreds of motorcyclists celebrating a marriage proposal that inconvenienced motorists east of Los Angeles.

Both events created a flurry of viral Internet videos, fueling concerns about a repeat performance by copycats.

On Interstate 10 east of Los Angeles on Sunday, up to 300 bikers stopped traffic so that one of them could propose to his girlfriend, said Officer Vince Ramirez, a Los Angeles-area spokesman for the California Highway Patrol.

Video that surfaced online of the stunt showed some bikers creating a wall of smoke by spinning their tires against the concrete. In the middle of the gathering, pink smoke could be seen wafting into the air.

As they exited the freeway, several bikers were later ticketed for reckless riding unrelated to their possible role in the freeway shutdown, Ramirez said.

He said officers were working with the Los Angeles County District Attorney‘s office to prepare additional charges against some of the bikers.

The stunt did not cause any injuries or collisions, he said.

In Oakland on Saturday, traffic ground to a halt on Interstate 880 near the city’s sports coliseum, as several sports cars did doughnuts, spinning around and filling the air with tire smoke, officials said. Stunned motorists exited their cars and watched.

Several motorists caught in the sudden traffic jam were frightened or angry, according to recordings of calls to authorities released on Tuesday.

“I can’t believe this – I have three kids in the car,” one caller told an Oakland-area dispatcher. “It scares the hell out of me.”

Authorities have not found or identified any of the drivers, said California Highway Patrol Sergeant Diana McDermott.

California Highway Patrol officers said they feared the weekend events’ popularity on social media websites could start a dangerous trend. So far, such stunts have been rare, they said.

“That’s why the investigation is expanding,” Ramirez said.

“If there are any criminal charges that can be filed as a result of this incident, they will be filed,” he said.

(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis, Tom Brown and Eric Walsh)

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Barbra Streisand to sing at Oscars for first time in decades

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Actress, singer and director Barbra Streisand may be a familiar figure at Hollywood‘s Oscars, but she has only sung on the annual awards show once.

Streisand will perform again at the Academy Awards on February 24, producers said on Wednesday, without providing details about how her appearance would fit into the show or what she might sing.

Streisand, 70, has won two Oscars, one for best actress in “Funny Girl” and another for best original song, “Evergreen” from her 1976 vehicle “A Star Is Born.” Her performance of the song at the 1977 Oscars show was her only previous onstage stint at Hollywood’s biggest night.

“In an evening that celebrates the artistry of movies and music, how could the telecast be complete without Barbra Streisand?” producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron said in a statement. “We are honored that she has agreed to do a very special performance on this year’s Oscars.”

Streisand has also been nominated for several Oscars, including for best actress in “The Way We Were” and as producer for best picture nominee “The Prince of Tides.”

Most recently she co-starred with Seth Rogen in “The Guilt Trip,” a Christmas 2012 release.

Earlier this month, the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced that Streisand would be this year’s recipient of its annual Chaplin Award, a prestigious honor recognizing achievement in film.

The Oscars will be presented at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, hosted by Seth MacFarlane and broadcast live on ABC as well as in more than 225 countries worldwide.

(Editing by Chris Michaud and Lisa Von Ahn)

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The Consumer: The Drug-Dose Gender Gap

Most sleeping pills are designed to knock you out for eight hours. When the Food and Drug Administration was evaluating a new short-acting pill for people to take when they wake up in the middle of the night, agency scientists wanted to know how much of the drug would still be in users’ systems come morning.

Blood tests uncovered a gender gap: Men metabolized the drug, Intermezzo, faster than women. Ultimately the F.D.A. approved a 3.5 milligram pill for men, and a 1.75 milligram pill for women.

The active ingredient in Intermezzo, zolpidem, is used in many other sleeping aids, including Ambien. But it wasn’t until earlier this month that the F.D.A. reduced doses of Ambien for women by half.

Sleeping pills are hardly the only medications that may have unexpected, even dangerous, effects in women. Studies have shown that women respond differently than men to many drugs, from aspirin to anesthesia. Researchers are only beginning to understand the scope of the issue, but many believe that as a result, women experience a disproportionate share of adverse, often more severe, side effects.

“This is not just about Ambien — that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr. Janine Clayton, director for the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health. “There are a lot of sex differences for a lot of drugs, some of which are well known and some that are not well recognized.”

Until 1993, women of childbearing age were routinely excluded from trials of new drugs. When the F.D.A. lifted the ban that year, agency researchers noted that because landmark studies on aspirin in heart disease and stroke had not included women, the scientific community was left “with doubts about whether aspirin was, in fact, effective in women for these indications.”

Because so many drugs were tested mostly or exclusively in men, scientists may know little of their effects on women until they reach the market. A Government Accountability Office study found that 8 of 10 drugs removed from the market from 1997 through 2000 posed greater health risks to women.

For example, Seldane, an antihistamine, and the gastrointestinal drug Propulsid both triggered a potentially fatal heart arrhythmia more often in women than in men. Many drugs still on the market cause this arrhythmia more often in women, including antibiotics, antipsychotics, anti-malarial drugs and cholesterol-lowering drugs, Dr. Clayton said. Women also tend to use more medications than men.

The sex differences cut both ways. Some drugs, like the high blood pressure drug Verapamil and the antibiotic erythromycin, appear to be more effective in women. On the other hand, women tend to wake up from anesthesia faster than men and are more likely to experience side effects from anesthetic drugs, according to the Society for Women’s Health Research.

Women also react differently to alcohol, tobacco and cocaine, studies have found.

It’s not just because women tend to be smaller than men. Women metabolize drugs differently because they have a higher percentage of body fat and experience hormonal fluctuations and the monthly menstrual cycle. “Some drugs are more water-based and like to hang out in the blood, and some like to hang out in the fat tissue,” said Wesley Lindsey, assistant professor of pharmacy practice at Auburn University, who is a co-author of a paper on sex-based differences in drug activity.

“If the drug is lipophilic” — attracted to fat cells — “it will move into those tissues and hang around for longer,” Dr. Lindsey added. “The body won’t clear it as quickly, and you’ll see effects longer.”

There are also sex differences in liver metabolism, kidney function and certain gastric enzymes. Oral contraceptives, menopause and post-menopausal hormone treatment further complicate the picture. Some studies suggest, for example, that when estrogen levels are low, women may need higher doses of drugs called angiotensin receptor blockers to lower blood pressure, because they have higher levels of proteins that cause the blood vessels to constrict, said Kathryn Sandberg, director of the Center for the Study of Sex Differences in Health, Aging and Disease at Georgetown.

Many researchers say data on these sex differences must be gathered at the very beginning of a drug’s development — even before trials on human subjects begin.

“The path to a new drug starts with the basic science — you study an animal model of the disease, and that’s where you discover a drug target,” Dr. Sandberg said. “But 90 percent of researchers are still studying male animal models of the disease.”

There have been improvements. In an interview, Dr. Robert Temple, with the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the F.D.A., said the agency’s new guidelines in 1993 called for studies of sex differences at the earliest stages of drug development, as well as for analysis of clinical trial data by sex.

He said early research on an irritable bowel syndrome drug, alosetron (Lotronex), suggested it would not be effective in men. As a result, only women were included in clinical trials, and it was approved only for women. (Its use is restricted now because of serious side effects.)

But some scientists say drug metabolism studies with only 10 or 15 subjects are too small to pick up sex differences. Even though more women participate in clinical trials than in the past, they are still underrepresented in trials for heart and kidney disease, according to one recent analysis, and even in cancer trials.

“The big problem is we’re not quite sure how much difference this makes,” Dr. Lindsey said. “We just don’t have a good handle on it.”

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