Chicago electric bills set to rise $1 a month next year

In the new year Chicago area residents can expect to pay about $1 more per month on average to have ComEd deliver electricity to their homes.

The new rates, approved Wednesday by the Illinois Commerce Commission, affect all 3.7 million residential electricity customers in ComEd's service territory, including those who have switched to other suppliers. ComEd, which owns the wires that flow into homes, delivers electricity and is responsible for fixing outages regardless of which company supplies the power.

The rate "update" is the second under a law enacted in 2011 that changed the way electricity delivery rates are determined. Rather than intensely debated court-like proceedings, electric rates are now set according to a fill-in-the blank formula. The formula devised by the ICC in May, however, has been controversial. ComEd has taken the regulators to court over 12 items that amount to $100 million per year for the utility.

For now, ComEd must use the formula.

Consumers saw lower bills through 2012 with thhe first electricity rates set under the law. Despite Wednesday's hike, customer bills remain lower than they were before the Energy Infrastructure and Modernization Act was passed. That law allows ComEd to charge customers to modernize the electric grid and recover those costs each year.

ComEd will file for another rate update in May to take effect in January 2014.

Separately, the ICC approved an electricity procurement plan by the Illinois Power Agency -- the government agency that procures electricity on behalf of ComEd and Ameren for  customers who continue to have their electricity both supplied and delivered by their legacy utility -- that has it not purchasing additional power in the New Year. The agency said that with about 1.5 million residential electricity customers recently fleeing for alternative electricity suppliers,  it has enough power on hand to serve the customers who remain.

At the same time, the plan helps a so-called clean coal plant slated for Morgan County, Ill. clear a major financial hurdle by requiring the state's electric utilities to purchase electricity from the power plant for 20 years. The federally-backed FutureGen project, long stalled, would mean retrofitting a coal plant in Merdosia in order to largely prevent carbon dioxide and other pollutants from entering the atmosphere. The plant is not expected to generate electricity until 2017 but its backers needed to prove the plant would have customers ready to purchase the electricity in order to receive government approval to move forward with preliminary design, pre-construction and engineering work.  

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Field Museum to cut staff, may reduce hours of operation

Battered by the recession and a high debt load, the Field Museum on Tuesday announced plans to cut staff, overhaul its operations and limit the scope of its research.

A comprehensive plan being drawn up by museum officials also could include changes to its hours of operation and the admission price for special exhibits. Staff reductions would be aimed at curators and scientists, according to museum officials.

"This may turn out to involve shrinking certain areas of inquiry," said John Rowe, chairman of the museum's board of trustees.

The Field Museum is both an international research institution and a vital cultural attraction for residents and tourists, drawing about 1.3 million visitors in 2011.

The natural history museum is home to Sue, the best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex in the world and a Chicago icon. But in the bowels of the museum and all around the world, Field scientists also are discovering new plants and animals — more than 200 last year alone — along with preserving rain forests and studying artifacts.

That complex, dual mission comes at a price, however, one that has grown increasingly difficult to cover amid the persistent economic downturn.

The cost-cutting plan announced Tuesday comes on the heels of a previous effort that included reducing operating costs by $5 million, mostly through staff cuts. Those measures were not enough to shore up an institution that in the past decade has doubled its bond debt and run multiple operating deficits amid flat revenues and shrinking government subsidies.

In April, the museum tapped former University of Oregon President Richard Lariviere to become president and CEO. Lariviere, who started in October, said he wants to use the cost-cutting measures as an opportunity to refocus the museum's mission.

"If we wrestle these issues to the ground successfully, our future is rosy," he said during a meeting with the Tribune's editorial board.

The effort will take shape between now and July 1, with input from the museum's staff and board members, who signed off on the approach Monday. The goal is to trim another $5 million in costs and, during the next few years, add $100 million to the museum's endowment.

Although the price of special exhibits may rise slightly, Lariviere said the average museum patron should feel little or no change in the short term. Over the long run, he said, the museum will rely more on its own collection, use technology to enhance its interaction with visitors and be more selective in choosing special exhibits it brings in from the outside.

Though the recession contributed significantly to the museum's financial struggles, its debt load is also to blame. The museum has more $170 million in outstanding bonds, which is "very high" compared with the Field's endowment of about $300 million, Lariviere said.

Those bonds cost the Field more than $7 million a year out of an operating budget of less than $70 million. The debt — along with the operating losses that the museum has seen in the past decade — has drawn the attention of Moody's Investors Service, which described the museum's finances as "imbalanced."

The high debt load means the museum is not able to borrow any more money, which affects its ability to shore up operations.

"Our credit cards are maxed out," Lariviere said.

He also suggested that it's possible the museum would seek to restructure its debt, taking advantage of historically low interest rates.

Despite the financial pressures, Lariviere said the museum benefits from a healthy endowment fund and loyal donors.

He and other museum officials outlined the broad strokes of their plan to staff members Tuesday. Those include shrinking its museum's staff and overhauling its management structure, he said.

Currently the museum is organized much like a university, with researchers divided into academic departments. Under Lariviere's plan, that structure would be simplified into four broad areas: science and education, programming, fundraising and operations.

He views those changes as a chance to better leverage the Field's world-renowned scientific collections to shed light on some of the most pressing questions of the day. Among them: climate change.

"Those kinds of climatological shifts, those kinds of questions related to the environment, are going to be one of the sweet spots of the museum going forward," Lariviere said.

The idea is to monetize the museum's one-of-a-kind collection while relying less on bringing in exhibitions from other institutions, which costs more money. "We've got to find a way to get more bang out of the exhibits," Lariviere said.

Museum officials said they also expect to cut research staff as they seek to narrow the scope of its mission, in part because support staffing already has been reduced.

Those cuts have been so drastic that Lariviere said it's now more of a crisis when a housekeeping staffer calls in sick than when a curator does.

With operational staff cut to the bone, Rowe said, "We have to get (savings) out of focusing our scientific work, but not eliminating it, out of reprioritizing our exhibitions and making certain that we are doing the right thing."

However, he acknowledged, those moves are likely to stir controversy inside the museum. "Over the next five months, we've got to come up with a more descriptive, positive agenda."

hgillers@tribune.com

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“Zero Dark Thirty” won’t be “Hurt Locker” at the Box Office

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Kathryn Bigelow‘s Osama bin Laden manhunt thriller “Zero Dark Thirty” hits theaters Wednesday, and when it comes to the box office, this isn’t going to be “Hurt Locker.”

That was Bigelow’s last film, a gritty Iraq war drama that upset “Avatar” for Oscar’s Best Picture in 2009 but took in just $ 17 million domestically. “Zero Dark Thirty” could well top $ 100 million, say industry analysts – and if the awards season breaks the right way for the Oscar Best Picture front-runner, it could go higher than that.

“ZDT” and this year’s winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, “Amour,” are making limited debuts Wednesday, while the Barbra Streisand-Seth Rogen comedy “Guilt Trip” and a 3D re-release of “Monsters Inc.” go into wide release.

Six more movies will roll out on Friday, including Judd Apatow‘s “This Is 40″ and the Tom Cruise starrer “Jack Reacher,” in what Hollywood is hoping will be a very busy pre-holiday week at the box office.

In the course of detailing the killing of Bin Laden, “ZDT” is an examination of the nation’s war on terror, its prosecution and its effect on America’s collective psyche, and that will help, not hurt, the film at the box office, Exhibitor Relations Senior analyst Jeff Bock told TheWrap.

“This movie is about the biggest American war story since Pearl Harbor,” Bock said. “The American people are at a place now where they are ready to look back and really think about what we’ve been through.

“This movie, particularly if it keeps getting awards buzz, is going to be talked about everywhere, and if you want to have an opinion, you’re going to have to see it.”

Despite all the newcomers arriving Wednesday and Friday, Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” is expected to continue dominating. It took in about $ 7 million Monday – on the heels of its $ 85 million debut weekend – and should cross the $ 100 million mark Tuesday

Sony Classic is rolling out “Amour,” Michael Haneke‘s dark and unsparing look at old age and death, at two theaters in New York and one in L.A. The French-language film was recently named the best film of 2012 by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, giving it an important boost during a season in which its chances outside the Oscar foreign-language category hinge on getting Academy voters to see it.

That honor stopped an awards run by “Zero Dark Thirty,” which Sony is rolling out on five screens. The intense tale had won the top award with the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review, the Boston Film Critics Society and the New York Film Critics Online.

“ZDT” was produced by Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures for about $ 45 million.

Sony’s plan is to go wide with it release on January 11 after the Academy Award nominations.

Beside the film itself and director Bigelow, her producing partner Mark Boal is a good bet for an Best Adapted Screenplay nomination, as is Jessica Chastain in the Best Actress category. All of those earned Golden Globes nominations in those categories.

The gritty and gripping tale is a critical favorite – it has a 97.7 percent rating at Movie Review Intelligence – but a lightning rod for political criticism, from both the left and right of the political spectrum. Some critics have charged the film is an apology for U.S. interrogation tactics that included waterboarding, while others say it’s intended to boost the image of President Obama.

“Our agenda isn’t a partisan agenda – it’s an agenda of trying to look behind the scenes at what went down,” screenwriter Boal told TheWrap earlier. “Hopefully art or cinema can present a point of view that’s a little above the political fray, but that doesn’t mean the political narrative doesn’t try to assert itself and pull you back in.”

“Amour” is a co-production between companies in Austria, France and Germany. It is Austria’s entry and a favorite in Oscar’s Best Foreign Language category, and it has a shot at a Best Picture nomination, too.

Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva star as Anne and George, an elderly couple who are retired music teachers and have a daughter (Isabelle Huppert) living abroad. The story, which Haneke wrote and directed based on a similar experience in his own family, focuses on what happens when Anne suffers a stroke.

It was nominated in six categories at the recent European Film Awards and won four, including Best Film and Best Director. The L.A. Film Critics named the 85-year-old Riva co-Best Actress (with Jennifer Lawrence in “Silver Linings Playbook”), and she has an outside shot an Oscar nomination in that category.

“Guilt Trip” is Streisand’s first film foray since “Little Fockers,” which debuted around the same time of year in 2010 for Universal – and her first starring role since 1996′s “The Mirror Has Two Faces.”

“Little Fockers,” a sequel to “Meet the Fockers,” opened to $ 30 million and went on to make $ 148 million. Distributor Paramount will be happy if the PG13-rated “Guilt Trip,” which will be on about 2,300 screens, can match half that debut.” The analysts are looking for it to wind up around $ 12 million.

It’s one of three Paramount releases this week; the Tom Cruise thriller “Jack Reacher” and concert film “Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away” debut Friday.

“They all play to distinctly different demographics, Paramount’s head of distribution Don Harris told TheWrap, “so other than being really busy, we don’t have any problem with these three all in the marketplace.”

What could provide some tough competition is Judd Apatow‘s R-rated comedy “This Is 40,” which Universal is rolling out on roughly 2,900 screens Friday.

Disney will have its 3D version of its 2001 animated hit “Monsters Inc.” in 2,400 theaters. It will be the third 3D re-release of a Disney film this year. The first two did unspectacular but solid business, particularly when you consider the only cost to the studio is the 3D conversion and marketing.

A 3D version of “Beauty and the Beast” debuted to $ 17 million in July and went on to make $ 47 million. In September, a converted “Finding Nemo” took in $ 16 million in its first week and wound up at $ 41 million.

Between “The Hobbit,” the holdover kids holiday film “Rise of the “Monsters Inc.” and a very crowded marketplace, “Monster Inc.” will have a tough time matching those numbers.

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Attackers in Pakistan Kill Anti-Polio Workers

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A Pakistani mother mourned her daughter, who was killed on Tuesday in an attack on health workers participating in a drive to eradicate polio from Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Gunmen shot dead five female health workers who were immunizing children against polio on Tuesday, causing the Pakistani government to suspend vaccinations in two cities and dealing a fresh setback to an eradication campaign dogged by Taliban resistance in a country that is one of the disease’s last global strongholds.

“It is a blow, no doubt,” said Shahnaz Wazir Ali, an adviser on polio to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf. “Never before have female health workers been targeted like this in Pakistan. Clearly there will have to be more and better arrangements for security.”

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, but most suspicion focused on the Pakistani Taliban, which has previously blocked polio vaccinators and complained that the United States is using the program as a cover for espionage.

The killings were a serious reversal for the multibillion-dollar global polio immunization effort, which over the past quarter century has reduced the number of endemic countries from 120 to just three: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

Nonetheless, United Nations officials insisted that the drive would be revived after a period for investigation and regrouping, as it had been after previous attacks on vaccinators here, in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Pakistan has made solid gains against polio, with 56 new recorded cases of the diseases in 2012, compared with 192 at the same point last year, according to the government. Worldwide, cases of death and paralysis from polio have been reduced to less than 1,000 last year, from 350,000 worldwide in 1988.

But the campaign here has been deeply shaken by Taliban threats and intimidation, though several officials said Tuesday that they had never seen such a focused and deadly attack before.

Insurgents have long been suspicious of polio vaccinators, seeing them as potential spies. But that greatly intensified after the C.I.A. used a vaccination team headed by a local doctor, Shakil Afridi, to visit Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, reportedly in an attempt to obtain DNA proof that the Bin Laden family was there before an American commando raid on it in May 2011.

In North Waziristan, one prominent warlord has banned polio vaccinations until the United States ceases drone strikes in the area.

Most new infections in Pakistan occur in the tribal belt and adjoining Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province — some of the most remote areas of the country, and also those with the strongest militant presence. People fleeing fighting in those areas have also spread the disease to Karachi, the country’s largest city, where the disease has been making a worrisome comeback in recent years.

After Tuesday’s attacks, witnesses described violence that was both disciplined and well coordinated. Five attacks occurred within an hour in different Karachi neighborhoods. In several cases, the killers traveled in pairs on motorcycle, opening fire on female health workers as they administered polio drops or moved between houses in crowded neighborhoods.

Of the five victims, three were teenagers, and some had been shot in the head, a senior government official said. Two male health workers were also wounded by gunfire; early reports incorrectly stated that one of them had died, the official said.

In Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, gunmen opened fire on two sisters participating in the polio vaccination program, killing one of them. It was unclear whether that shooting was directly linked to the Karachi attacks.

In remote parts of the northwest, the Taliban threat is exacerbated by the government’s crumbling writ. In Bannu, on the edge of the tribal belt, one polio worker, Noor Khan, said he quit work on Tuesday once news of the attacks in Karachi and Peshawar filtered in.

“We were told to stop immediately,” he said by phone.

Still, the Pakistani government has engaged considerable political and financial capital in fighting polio. President Asif Ali Zardari and his daughter Aseefa have been at the forefront of immunization drives. With the help of international donors, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, they have mounted a huge vaccination campaign aimed at up to 35 million children younger than 5, usually in three-day bursts that can involve 225,000 health workers.

The plan seeks to have every child in Pakistan immunized at least four times per year, although in the hardest-hit areas one child could be reached as many as 12 times in a year.

Declan Walsh reported from Islamabad, and Donald G. McNeil Jr. from New York. Salman Masood contributed reporting from Islamabad, and Zia ur-Rehman from Karachi, Pakistan.

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McDonald's urging franchisees to open on Christmas

McDonald's Corp. is urging U.S. restaurant owners to take the unusual step of opening on Christmas Day to deliver the world's biggest hamburger chain with the gift of higher December sales, AdvertisingAge reported Monday.

The request -- which comes as McDonald's tangles with resurgent rivals such as Wendy's, Burger King and Yum Brands' Taco Bell chain -- would be a break from company tradition of closing on major holidays.

"Starting with Thanksgiving, ensure your restaurants are open throughout the holidays," Jim Johannesen, chief operations officer for McDonald's USA, wrote in a Nov. 8 memo to franchisees -- one of two obtained by AdvertisingAge.

"Our largest holiday opportunity as a system is Christmas Day. Last year, (company-operated) restaurants that opened on Christmas averaged $5,500 in sales," Johannesen said.

"The decision to open our restaurants on Christmas is in the hands of our owner/operators," McDonald's spokeswoman Heather Oldani told Reuters.

Don Thompson took over as chief executive at McDonald's in July and has the difficult task of growing sales from last year's strong results in a significantly more competitive environment.

McDonald's monthly global sales at established restaurants fell for the first time in nine years in October, but unexpectedly rebounded in November.

The November surprise was partly due to a 2.5 percent rise in sales at U.S. restaurants open at least 13 months.

"Our November results were driven, in part, by our Thanksgiving Day performance," Johannesen wrote in a Dec. 12 memo to franchisees.

Oldani said 1,200 more McDonald's restaurants were open on Thanksgiving this year versus last year -- not 6,000 more as AdvertisingAge reported.

Still, the company has a high hurdle when it comes to posting an increase in restaurant sales this month because its U.S. same-restaurant sales jumped 9.8 percent in December 2011.

"It's an act of desperation. The franchisees are not happy," said Richard Adams, a former McDonald's franchisee who now advises the chain's owner/operators.

The push to open on the holidays goes against McDonald's cultural history, said Adams. In his first published operations manual, McDonald's Corp. founder Ray Kroc said the company would close on Thanksgiving and Christmas to give employees time with their families, Adams said.

"We opened for breakfast on Thanksgiving the last couple years I was a franchisee. It was easy to get kids to work on Thanksgiving because they want to get away from their family, but not on Christmas," Adams said.

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Quinn, Emanuel call for ban on assault-weapons

Mayor Emanuel attended the ribbon-cutting for a new police station today but his thoughts were on the tragedy in Connecticut.

Illinois' leading Democrats on Monday pushed for more gun control in the wake of last week's school shootings in Connecticut, but gun-owner rights groups criticized the move as politicizing a national tragedy and said they were prepared to fight in Washington and Springfield.

U.S. Sen Dick Durbin, the state's senior senator and the No. 2 Democrat in the chamber, called for congressional hearings aimed at finding constitutional limits to Second Amendment rights while Gov. Pat Quinn and Mayor Rahm Emanuel re-emphasized their long-standing call to ban semi-automatic, assault-style weapons at the state and federal level.

The efforts by the three Democrats, motivated by Friday's shootings in Newtown, Conn., that included the deaths of 20 schoolchildren, came against a backdrop of a federal appeals court ruling opening the way for concealed possession of firearms in public in Illinois.

"It's time that we as a city have an assault weapons ban, it's time that we as a state have an assault weapons ban, and it's time that we as a country have an assault weapons ban," Emanuel said at a Chicago Police Department graduation and promotion ceremony. "And I would hope the leadership in Congress now will have a vote of conscience. It is time to have that vote."

Quinn, at a separate appearance, said he hoped the scope of the tragedy would motivate state lawmakers to act by early next month on a state ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Lawmakers recently rejected Quinn's attempt to use his amendatory veto power to rewrite a bill to impose such a ban.

Officials for the Illinois State Rifle Association sent an email to their members accusing Quinn and Emanuel of being among the "political opportunists who have swooped down on Newtown like a flock of vultures hungry to devour the 2nd Amendment."

"The echoes of the sirens had hardly faded when Quinn and other gun-control extremists hit the airwaves calling for the passage of legislation that would effectively abolish the 2nd Amendment to our Constitution," the group said. "Law-abiding gun owners have grown used to being blamed for the misdeeds of others and we're equally used to mounting effective defenses against those who would deny us our rights."

The call to action by Emanuel and Quinn came as another home-state Democrat, President Barack Obama, appeared to be taking a more cautious approach on the gun issue. A day after Obama pledged to use the power of his office to prevent gun violence, the White House did not provide any details on an approach, and spokesman Jay Carney said it was a "complex problem that requires a complex solution."

Durbin, a prominent Obama campaign surrogate who introduced the president as the party's nominee at the last two presidential conventions, has long supported additional gun control laws. But he also appeared to follow the lead of the president and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who said the chamber "will engage in a meaningful and thoughtful debate about how to change laws and culture that allow violence to grow."

On the Senate floor Monday, Durbin asked gun control opponents and gun rights supporters to try to find common ground.

"What will it take for a majority of Americans to speak out for sensible firearms policy in our nation?" Durbin asked. "It will take more than the shootings on streets in Chicago, East St. Louis and cities across the country. And sadly, it will take more than 26 victims, including 20 children, in a Connecticut grade school."

Durbin said the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights will hold hearings on the Second Amendment and gun control early next year. Durbin is chairman of the subcommittee.

A federal ban on assault weapons — which prohibited 19 specific types of military-style semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines — expired in 2004 under the Republican White House of President George W. Bush and a GOP-controlled Congress after 10 years. Emanuel has repeatedly touted his work as a top aide to President Bill Clinton in enacting the ban.

Like Durbin, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy connected the Connecticut tragedy to the steady drumbeat of gun violence in America's cities.

"Any major city in this country is experiencing ongoing gun violence," McCarthy said. "It's these issues like this that all of the sudden explode and the gun debate starts and at the end of the day, nobody does anything about it. ... It would be nice if we see some action this time, and it would probably at least be some sort of way to try to make sense of a tragedy moving forward."

In Illinois, Quinn has called repeatedly for a state ban on semi-automatic weapons, most recently last week when the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it was unconstitutional for Illinois to ban comprehensively the carrying of firearms outside the home. The appeals court gave the state until June to try to craft new gun regulations.

Illinois is the only state in the nation to prohibit the concealed carrying of weapons in public.

In late July, when Quinn sought to write his own assault weapons ban onto another bill, it followed another mass killing — a shooting spree at a movie theater in Colorado that left a dozen dead and 50 people injured.

On Monday, the Democratic governor said he had reached out to legislative leaders as well as supporters of a ban on semi-automatic firearms and urged them to act quickly.

"This is the moment to do it," Quinn said.

"All of us who are parents, watching those grieving parents losing their children, their precious children, we've got to make sure that they did not die in vain. And one way to keep faith with those victims of that massacre on Friday is for Illinois, the heart of the heartland, to ban assault weapons," he said.

Lawmakers are scheduled to return into their lame-duck session shortly after the New Year, and Quinn already has called upon them to act on a number of high-profile issues, including gay marriage and public employee pension reform. A Quinn aide said the governor also is studying the possibility of pushing a gun measure after new legislators are sworn in Jan. 9, when more Democrats will take office.

The ban Quinn previously sought would have prohibited the sale, delivery, manufacture and possession of AR-15-style assault rifles, a civilian version of the military's M-16. A variant of that firearm was used in the Connecticut shooting, authorities said.

But the state rifle association, a lobbying group that holds great sway over Downstate Republican and Democratic lawmakers, urged gun owners to contact their state legislators "and deliver the message that lawful firearm owners will not play the role of scapegoat."

"As we have said many times before, gun control is a disease and you are the cure," the group told its members. "We're about to face an epidemic of attempted gun grabs. Be prepared and arm yourself with the resolve to uphold that which so many brave men and women have died to defend."

Tribune reporter Monique Garcia contributed.

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What If Nothing or Nobody is to Blame for Adam Lanza? Guns, Video Games, Autism or Authorities

What if there is nobody or nothing to blame for Adam Lanza‘s heinous acts? Other than Lanza, of course.

What if school security and the school psychiatrist kept an eye on Lanza since his freshman year? The Wall Street Journal has a compelling narrative about the red flags addressed.

What if he had a form of autism that has little or no link to violent behavior? Lanza may have had Asperger’s syndrome but, even so, that is not a cause.

(RELATED: How To Make Sense of America’s Confusing Patchwork of Gun Control Laws)

What if it’s too simple to lay the massacre at the feet of the gun lobby? Reader Larry Kelly tweets that shaming Aspies “makes about as much sense at stigmatizing the NRA. Pick an enemy … any enemy. Let outrage and fear rule.”

What if Lanza wasn’t provoked by video games? David Axelrod, a close friend an adviser of President Obama, tweeted last night: “In NFL post-game: an ad for shoot ‘em up video game. All for curbing weapons of war. But shouldn’t we also quit marketing murder as a game.”

When I asked whether he was laying groundwork for a White House initiative, Axelrod said no: “Just one man’s observation.” A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said today that Axelrod was not a stalking horse for Obama on this issue.

What if Lanza’s mother did everything she could, short of keeping her guns out her adult son’s reach? What if he wasn’t bullied?

What if there is nobody or nothing to blame? Would that make this inexplicable horror unbearable?

What if we didn’t rush to judgement? What if we didn’t waste our thoughts, prayers and actions on assigning blame for the sake of mere recrimination? What if we calmly and ruthlessly learned whatever lessons we can from the massacre — and prevented the next one?

What if it wasn’t one thing, but everything, that set off Lanza?

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Gabby Douglas, Adele among brightest young stars -Forbes magazine

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Fashion designer Carly Cushnie, actress Kate McKinnon and videogame creator Kim Swift may not be household names yet, but they are destined to do great things and will be tomorrow’s young stars, Forbes magazine said on Monday.

Along with Olympic Gold medalist gymnast Gabby Douglas, rapper Wiz Khalifa and researcher Josh Sommer, they have been chosen by the magazine for its “30 Under 30″ list of top achievers under 30 years old in their fields.

They are considered the top 30 achievers in 15 categories ranging from education, energy, music, science and healthcare to sports, technology games and apps and marketing.

“This is a celebration of youthful ambition and success. These are really amazing people and they are doing amazing things. It makes you very hopeful about the world,” Michael Noer, the executive editor of Forbes, said in an interview.

Many on the list, including singers Bruno Mars and Justin Bieber, as well as actresses Ashley and May Kate Olsen and fashion designer Alexander Wang, the newly appointed creative director at the French fashion house Balenciaga, are already well known.

Some are returnees to the list that was launched last year – like British singer and new mother Adele, the 24-year-old multiple Grammy Award winner, and American entrepreneur Kevin Systrom.

Noer said there has been a 60 percent turnover since 2011, so there are plenty of new faces on the list drawn up by Forbes staff and industry experts.

“I think there are a lot of interesting names on the list,” he said.

In energy, it is 28-year-old Leslie Dewan, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate and co-founder and chief science officer of Transatomic Power.

“They are developing a new type of nuclear reactor that uses nuclear waste,” said Noer.

In music, Pittsburgh-bred Khalifa, 25, topped the list. Swift, the 29-year-old creative director at Airtight Games, was noted for creating hit videogame Portal.

“Kate McKinnon, the actress from ‘Saturday Night Live’ who just joined in April is our Hollywood selection. She is being hailed as the next Tina Fey,” Noer said.

Sommer, the executive director of the Chordoma Foundation which raises funds for research into chordoma, a rare, slow-growing bone cancer most commonly found in the spine, is another young achiever, according to Forbes.

Sommer created the foundation with his mother after being diagnosed with the disease while a student at Duke University in North Carolina.

“He was diagnosed with a rare type of bone cancer, dropped out of school to find a cure and he has made some progress,” said Noer.

The full list will be published in the January 21 issue of Forbes and can also be found at www.forbes.com/under 30 .

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; editing by Paul Casciato and Mohammad Zargham)

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Philippine Lawmakers Pass Reproductive Health Bill

MANILA — After a ferocious national debate that pitted family members against one another, and some faithful Catholics against their church, the Philippine Congress passed legislation on Monday to help the country’s poorest women gain access to birth control.

Jay Directo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Supporters of a landmark reproductive health bill celebrated as the Philippine Congress passed legislation on Monday to help the country’s poorest women gain access to birth control. 

Jay Directo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Opponents of a reproductive health bill, including a Catholic nun, looked at portraits of Philippine legislators as they passed a landmark measure Monday.

“The people now have the government on their side as they raise their families in a manner that is just and empowered,” said Edwin Lacierda, a spokesman for President Benigno S. Aquino III, who pushed for passage.

Each chamber of the national legislature passed its own version of the measure — by 13 to 8 in the Senate and 133 to 79 in the House of Representatives — and minor differences between the two must be reconciled before the measure goes to Mr. Aquino for his signature.

The measure had been stalled for more than a decade because of determined opposition from the Roman Catholic Church. Roughly four-fifths of Filipinos are Catholic.

Birth control is legal and widely available in the Philippines for people who can afford it, particularly those living in cities. But condoms, birth control pills and other methods can be difficult to find in rural areas, and their cost puts them out of reach for the very poor.

“Some local governments have passed local ordinances that banned the sale of condoms and contraceptives and forbid their distribution in government clinics, where most poor Filipinos turn for health care,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement on the issue, adding that the new bill would override such ordinances.

The measure passed on Monday would stock government health centers, including those in remote areas, with free or subsidized birth control options for the poor. It would require sex education in public schools and family-planning training for community health officers. The Philippines has one of the highest birthrates in Asia, but backers of the legislation, including the Aquino administration, have said repeatedly that its purpose is not to limit population growth. Rather, they say, the bill is meant to offer poor families the same reproductive health options that wealthier people in the country enjoy.

The United Nations Population Fund estimates that half of the 3.4 million pregnancies in the Philippines each year are unintended, and that there are 11 pregnancy-related deaths in the country each day, on average. Most of those could be avoided, the organization says, through improved maternal health care, a need that proponents say the new legislation will directly address.

Catholic Church officials took a hard line against the measure, saying it was out of line with the beliefs of most religious Filipinos. The church equated contraception with abortion, which is illegal in the Philippines.

“These artificial means are fatal to human life, either preventing it from fruition or actually destroying it,” the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said in a statement on the eve of the votes in Congress.

The statement cited health risks associated with some forms of birth control, but the bishops’ strongest objections have been lodged on moral rather than medical grounds. In a pastoral letter, they said: “The youth are being made to believe that sex before marriage is acceptable, provided you know how to avoid pregnancy. Is this moral? Those who corrupt the minds of children will invoke divine wrath on themselves.”

The legislation prompted a heated national debate in the Philippines over the role that government should play in family planning and women’s health.

“This bill no doubt has inflicted a very wide chasm of division in our society,” said Juan Ponce Enrile, the president of the Senate. “Families are even divided, mother and daughter differing in their views, husband and wife differing in their views.” Mr. Enrile opposed the bill; his son, Juan, a congressman, voted in favor of it.

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McDonald's urging franchisees to open on Christmas

McDonald's Corp. is urging U.S. restaurant owners to take the unusual step of opening on Christmas Day to deliver the world's biggest hamburger chain with the gift of higher December sales, AdvertsingAge reported Monday.

The request -- which comes as McDonald's tangles with resurgent rivals such as Wendy's, Burger King and Yum Brands' Taco Bell chain -- would be a break from company tradition of closing on major holidays.

"Starting with Thanksgiving, ensure your restaurants are open throughout the holidays," Jim Johannesen, chief operations officer for McDonald's USA, wrote in a Nov. 8 memo to franchisees -- one of two obtained by AdvertisingAge.

"Our largest holiday opportunity as a system is Christmas Day. Last year, (company-operated) restaurants that opened on Christmas averaged $5,500 in sales," Johannesen said.

"The decision to open our restaurants on Christmas is in the hands of our owner/operators," McDonald's spokeswoman Heather Oldani told Reuters.

Don Thompson took over as chief executive at McDonald's in July and has the difficult task of growing sales from last year's strong results in a significantly more competitive environment.

McDonald's monthly global sales at established restaurants fell for the first time in nine years in October, but unexpectedly rebounded in November.

The November surprise was partly due to a 2.5 percent rise in sales at U.S. restaurants open at least 13 months.

"Our November results were driven, in part, by our Thanksgiving Day performance," Johannesen wrote in a Dec. 12 memo to franchisees.

Oldani said 1,200 more McDonald's restaurants were open on Thanksgiving this year versus last year -- not 6,000 more as AdvertisingAge reported.

Still, the company has a high hurdle when it comes to posting an increase in restaurant sales this month because its U.S. same-restaurant sales jumped 9.8 percent in December 2011.

"It's an act of desperation. The franchisees are not happy," said Richard Adams, a former McDonald's franchisee who now advises the chain's owner/operators.

The push to open on the holidays goes against McDonald's cultural history, said Adams. In his first published operations manual, McDonald's Corp. founder Ray Kroc said the company would close on Thanksgiving and Christmas to give employees time with their families, Adams said.

"We opened for breakfast on Thanksgiving the last couple years I was a franchisee. It was easy to get kids to work on Thanksgiving because they want to get away from their family, but not on Christmas," Adams said.

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