Postponed by U.S. violence, “Gangster Squad” opening in theaters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – After having its release delayed and scenes reshot because of last summer’s mass movie-theater killing in Aurora, Colorado, crime drama “Gangster Squad” finally hits theaters on Friday.

“Gangster,” set in 1949 Los Angeles, stars Sean Penn as real-life gangster Mickey Cohen, who is ultimately brought down by a band of cops led by Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling.

After the Colorado tragedy, Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros. studio, which is releasing the film, removed the scene in “Gangster” that eerily depicted a similar movie-theater shooting.

It substituted a new sequence, set in Chinatown.

At a press event in December, “Gangster Squad” director Ruben Fleischer said, “We should all respect the tragedy and not draw associations to our film.”

But ironically, after “Gangster’s” initial September 7 release date was pushed back four months – presumably to allow for time after the Colorado rampage – the film will now open less than a month after the massacre of 20 children and six adults by a gunman at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Brolin also cautioned at the December event against linking “Gangster” and other movies with real-world violence and suggested the public look at the “grand scheme of things” including social problems such as drug abuse and unenmployment.

“There’s no one reason” for mass attacks, Brolin told reporters. “There will always be violence in movies. And whether it lends (itself) to the one psychotic that’s out there thinking the worst thoughts you can possibly think is always going to be a mystery.”

Details of the Aurora multiplex shooting that left 12 dead and 58 wounded during a showing of the new Batman film were relived this week at a preliminary hearing of the accused gunman, former grad student James Holmes.

ACTORS RESEARCHED ROLES WITH THEIR CHARACTERS’ FAMILIES

“Gangster,” based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Paul Lieberman, depicts a battle between a small group of Los Angeles cops who secretly take on Cohen and his crew to wrestle away control of the city from Cohen’s mob.

Former Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective Will Beall wrote the script to the film, which also stars Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi and Michael Pena.

Rather than dwelling on connections drawn by others to real-life tragedies, Fleischer sought to underscore positive themes.

“I think this movie is about people standing up for their beliefs, doing what’s right,” he said. “It’s a celebration of these cops who rid L.A. of organized crime of vice and corruption.”

And, he added, “It’s to honor the memory of these police officers who stood up for justice and didn’t allow crime to overtake the city.”

Brolin, a seventh-generation Californian who plays a cop based on an actual police sergeant named John O’Mara, said he spoke with O’Mara’s daughter to glean some insights about the man before creating “a composite character.”

His own father, 72-year old actor James Brolin, visited the set and recounted to his son personal stories from his days as a 9-year-old boy in Los Angeles during that era and going to the backdoors of Sunset Strip nightclubs “looking for Mickey Cohen.”

Gosling also had a chance to speak to relatives of his character, Sergeant Jerry Wooters, and learned “a lot of great stories and lot of great details” from Wooters’ children.

“Apparently when he ashed his cigarettes, he would ash in the cuff of his pants, and at the end of the day he would dump out his cuffs and dump out all his ashes,” Gosling said.

Still, no one ever expected the kind of eerie parallels that occurred between the movie’s theater-shooting scene and the real gun violence on July 20, when a man armed with a semi-automatic rifle a shotgun and a pistol walked into midnight screening of the “The Dark Knight Rises” and sprayed the audience with bullets.

In an interview with Reuters TV, Brolin said the scene in question in “Gangster Squad” was “bizarrely similar” to the Aurora event, and praised Warner Bros. for replacing the scene.

“The fact that is was as parallel as it was, I think there was no way to keep it in,” he said.

“The Aurora shooting was an unspeakable tragedy, and out of respect for the families of the victims, we felt it was necessary to reshoot that sequence,” Fleischer said.

“I’m proud of the fact that we did that. I think that we didn’t compromise the film or our intent.”

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Americans Under 50 Fare Poorly on Health Measures, New Report Says

Younger Americans die earlier and live in poorer health than their counterparts in other developed countries, with far higher rates of death from guns, car accidents and drug addiction, according to a new analysis of health and longevity in the United States.

Researchers have known for some time that the United States fares poorly in comparison with other rich countries, a trend established in the 1980s. But most studies have focused on older ages, when the majority of people die.

The findings were stark. Deaths before age 50 accounted for about two-thirds of the difference in life expectancy between males in the United States and their counterparts in 16 other developed countries, and about one-third of the difference for females. The countries in the analysis included Canada, Japan, Australia, France, Germany and Spain.

The 378-page study by a panel of experts convened by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council is the first to systematically compare death rates and health measures for people of all ages, including American youths. It went further than other studies in documenting the full range of causes of death, from diseases to accidents to violence. It was based on a broad review of mortality and health studies and statistics.

The panel called the pattern of higher rates of disease and shorter lives “the U.S. health disadvantage,” and said it was responsible for dragging the country to the bottom in terms of life expectancy over the past 30 years. American men ranked last in life expectancy among the 17 countries in the study, and American women ranked second to last.

“Something fundamental is going wrong,” said Dr. Steven Woolf, chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, who led the panel. “This is not the product of a particular administration or political party. Something at the core is causing the U.S. to slip behind these other high-income countries. And it’s getting worse.”

Car accidents, gun violence and drug overdoses were major contributors to years of life lost by Americans before age 50.

The rate of firearm homicides was 20 times higher in the United States than in the other countries, according to the report, which cited a 2011 study of 23 countries. And though suicide rates were lower in the United States, firearm suicide rates were six times higher.

Sixty-nine percent of all American homicide deaths in 2007 involved firearms, compared with an average of 26 percent in other countries, the study said. “The bottom line is that we are not preventing damaging health behaviors,” said Samuel Preston, a demographer and sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania, who was on the panel. “You can blame that on public health officials, or on the health care system. No one understands where responsibility lies.”

Panelists were surprised at just how consistently Americans ended up at the bottom of the rankings. The United States had the second-highest death rate from the most common form of heart disease, the kind that causes heart attacks, and the second-highest death rate from lung disease, a legacy of high smoking rates in past decades. American adults also have the highest diabetes rates.

Youths fared no better. The United States has the highest infant mortality rate among these countries, and its young people have the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy and deaths from car crashes. Americans lose more years of life before age 50 to alcohol and drug abuse than people in any of the other countries.

Americans also had the lowest probability over all of surviving to the age of 50. The report’s second chapter details health indicators for youths where the United States ranks near or at the bottom. There are so many that the list takes up four pages. Chronic diseases, including heart disease, also played a role for people under 50.

“We expected to see some bad news and some good news,” Dr. Woolf said. “But the U.S. ranked near and at the bottom in almost every heath indicator. That stunned us.”

There were bright spots. Death rates from cancers that can be detected with tests, like breast cancer, were lower in the United States. Adults had better control over their cholesterol and high blood pressure. And the very oldest Americans — above 75 — tended to outlive their counterparts.

The panel sought to explain the poor performance. It noted the United States has a highly fragmented health care system, with limited primary care resources and a large uninsured population. It has the highest rates of poverty among the countries studied.

Education also played a role. Americans who have not graduated from high school die from diabetes at three times the rate of those with some college, Dr. Woolf said. In the other countries, more generous social safety nets buffer families from the health consequences of poverty, the report said.

Still, even the people most likely to be healthy, like college-educated Americans and those with high incomes, fare worse on many health indicators.

The report also explored less conventional explanations. Could cultural factors like individualism and dislike of government interference play a role? Americans are less likely to wear seat belts and more likely to ride motorcycles without helmets.    

The United States is a bigger, more heterogeneous society with greater levels of economic inequality, and comparing its health outcomes to those in countries like Sweden or France may seem lopsided. But the panelists point out that this country spends more on health care than any other in the survey. And as recently as the 1950s, Americans scored better in life expectancy and disease than many of the other countries in the current study.

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Boeing backs its Dreamliner after 3 incidents

Chicago-based Boeing Co. has "extreme confidence" in its new and highly trumpeted  787 Dreamliner, and the plane is safe, Mike Sinnett, the chief project engineer for the 787 said during a news conference Wednesday.

The public statements came on the third day in a row that different Boeing 787s sustained high-profile problems, including an electrical battery fire on Monday, a fuel leak on Tuesday and a reported problem with the braking system on Wednesday.

"Clearly, there are issues," Sinnett said, adding that he won't be happy until the Dreamliner is completely reliable. However, all new planes have such "teething pains," and the 787 problems are similar to incidents experienced when the Boeing 777 went into service, he said.

"Just like any new airplane program, we work through those issues and we move on," he said. "I am 100 percent convinced that the airplane is safe to fly. I fly on it myself all the time."

Aviation experts, industry analysts and some Boeing customers have echoed that, saying that all new aircraft have such problems for the first year or two and that such glitches don't make flying in a 787 unsafe.

The first 787 Dreamliner was delivered 15 months ago -- more than three years late because of design and production delays -- to a Japanese airline, and there are now 50 Dreamliners in service with various airlines around the world.

Chicago-based United Airlines has six 787s. Since early November, the airline has been flying a temporary 787 route between Chicago O'Hare and Houston, as well as on other domestic routes. The Chicago route is scheduled to end March 29, when United will move the 787s to international routes. United conducted a special inspection of its 787s after an electrical fire occurred on a Japanese Dreamliner on Monday, but United has not released results of that inspection.

LOT Polish Airlines will operate the first regular 787 route out of O'Hare -- to Warsaw -- starting with an inaugural flight scheduled for next week.

The Dreamliner is touted as offering greater passenger comforts and better fuel efficiency than any other airplane in its class, largely due to far more use of light composite materials rather than metals.

However, it has seen its share of problems, including a rash of incidents recently.

Japan's All Nippon Airways said Wednesday that it was forced to cancel a 787 Dreamliner flight scheduled from Yamaguchi prefecture in western Japan to Tokyo due to brake problems. That followed a fuel leak on Tuesday that forced a 787 operated by Japan Airlines to cancel takeoff at Boston's Logan International Airport, a day after an electrical fire on another 787 after a Japan Airlines flight to Boston from Tokyo.

Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered inspections on 787s for a problem with fuel leaks.

In a news conference Wednesday dominated by technical discussions of the 787's electrical systems and batteries, Sinnett emphasized the "redundancies" or backup protections built into the aircraft's electrical systems. For example, the plane has six power generators but can fly with just one functioning, he said.

The 787 more heavily relies on electrical components than any other aircraft, in an effort to shed the weight of traditional pneumatic systems and improve fuel efficiency, he said.

Overall, the plane is meeting goals for fuel efficiency and passenger comfort, Sinnett said. "We're very, very happy with how the airplane is performing," he said.

Asian customers rallied behind the Boeing, saying such troubles were not uncommon on new planes and confirming they had no plans to scale back or cancel orders for the aircraft, which has a list price of $207 million.

Japan is by far the biggest customer for the Dreamliner to date, with JAL and All Nippon Airways (ANA) operating a total of 24 of the 49 new planes delivered to end-December. The aircraft entered commercial service in November 2011, more than three years behind schedule after a series of production delays. Boeing has sold 848 of the planes.

JAL spokesman Kazunori Kidosaki said the carrier, which operates seven Dreamliners, had no plans to change orders it has placed for another 38 aircraft. ANA, which has 17 Dreamliners flying its colors, will also stick with its orders for another 49, spokesman Etsuya Uchiyama said.

State-owned Air India, which on Monday took delivery of the sixth of the 27 Dreamliners it has ordered, said precautionary measures were already in place and its planes were flying smoothly.

"It's a new plane, and some minor glitches do happen. It's not a cause of concern," said spokesman G. Prasada Rao. There was no immediate suggestion that the 787 Dreamliner, the world's first passenger jet built mainly from carbon-plastic lightweight materials to save fuel, was likely to be grounded as investigators looked into the fire incident.

Air China, which sees the 787 as a way to expand its international routes, and Hainan Airlines also said they were keeping their orders for 15 and 10 of the planes.

"New airplanes more or less will need adjustments, and currently we have no plans to swap or cancel orders," said an executive at future 787 operator Hainan Airlines, who was not authorized to talk to the media and did not want to be named.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker, who has previously criticized technical problems or delays with Boeing or Airbus jets, said there were no technical problems with the five 787s currently in use by the Gulf carrier. "It doesn't mean we are going to cancel our orders. It's a revolutionary airplane," he said.

gkarp@tribune.com

Reuters contributed

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Quinn throws Hail Mary on pension reform

Chicago Tribune political editor Eric Krol reports on Gov. Pat Quinn's pension reform efforts.

SPRINGFIELD --- The Illinois House adjourned this afternoon without even voting on Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn's desperation pension reform plan.

Quinn threw his support behind a bill that would set up a commission to decide how to fix Illinois' financially failing government worker retirement systems.

Conventional efforts to craft a compromise on pension changes have gone nowhere during the lame-duck session. The new measure filed today would set up an eight-member commission appointed by the four legislative leaders. The panel would issue a report on pension system changes that would become law unless the General Assembly voted to overturn it.

Testifying before a House panel, Quinn said the measure represents "extraordinary action" to break the gridlock. It is modeled after federal military base closing commission reports to Congress. "We must have some sort of movement," Quinn said.

While the committee advanced the measure to the full House, Democratic Speaker Michael Madigan of Chicago later adjourned the lame-duck session without calling Quinn's plan for a vote.
Labor leaders immediately called it a "clearly unconstitutional delegation of power" and a "sad attempt to get something done."

Quinn maintained the approach has been upheld as constitutional. The governor said he wanted the pension systems fully funded by the end of December 2045, saying it is critical to "act promptly on this crisis."

Under questioning, Quinn acknowledged, "we need a new mechanism or different structure" because political gridlock had not yielded a solution.

House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, said she would support the bill in committee as a nod to the governor but had serious questions of the constitutionality of the proposal.

Further, Currie said she worried the proposal would "take us three steps back." Currie said she thought the legislative negotiators on pension bills had made progress.

The committee voted 7-2 to advance the bill to the full House.

Quinn's latest plan came after he urged lawmakers to take a vote on government worker pension reform before the new legislature is sworn in at noon Wednesday, saying Illinois' economy is being held hostage by "political timidity."

The Democratic governor suggested there needs to be compromise, but did not offer specifics on how he thinks the gridlock on pensions could be broken.

Quinn decided to hold his news conference despite being told by House Speaker Michael Madigan that demanding a vote, even for symbolic reasons, didn't make sense when there aren't enough votes to pass the bill, according to Steve Brown, a Madigan spokesman.

Brown said forcing such a tough vote could irk lawmakers who are coming back in the new General Assembly and whose votes may be needed to pass pension reform down the road.

So far, House sponsors have been unable to line up enough votes to pass a comprehensive plan that would freeze cost-of-living increases for six years, delay granting pension inflation bumps until retirees hit 67 and require employees to pay more toward their retirement.

Even if that plan passed the House, it could face an uphill climb in the Senate, where senators went home last Thursday and would have to quickly return to vote. In addition, Senate President John Cullerton has indicated he prefers his own version of pension reform that he argues is constitutional, unlike the House plan.

With time running short, Quinn today said all parties need to double their efforts to reach a comprehensive bill that clears up the state's worst-in-the-nation $96.8 billion in a generation.

Pension reform is essential to put the Illinois economy on "sound financial footing," Quinn said.

"We cannot allow the state's economy to be held hostage by political timidity," Quinn said.

Quinn said more compromises need to be reached on legislative proposals, but he said he did not favor the Senate plan that dealt with state rank-and-file workers and legislators because it was not comprehensive.

A bill pending on the House floor reins in pension costs and addresses the state's pensions for four pension systems. The two additional systems are for university workers and and public school teachers from the suburbs and downstate.

Quinn said the Senate and House are both going to be in Springfield today, although the Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, had said it would be back if the House passed a significant pension bill.

"We've put them on stand-by," said Rikeesha Phelon, Cullerton's spokeswoman. "It's still tentative."

She said the Senate is awaiting House action before it returns. "I don't know how to be more clear," Phelon said.

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James Franco Does His Best Justin Bieber

We realize there’s only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:  

RELATED: All We Want for Christmas Is Jimmy Fallon and Mariah Carey Singing to Us

Remember when Justin Bieber was struggling for relevance and James Franco was the super serious, super educated actor destined for greatness? Well, Franco clearly doesn’t want you to:

RELATED: Dating Is Just So Depressing

RELATED: A Dubstep Birthday for Michael Jackson and One Soggy Koala

So what do you do when someone gets their dream wedding ruined by a doomed hot-air balloon ride? Well, if you’re the Today show, you make a macabre Wedding Crashers joke: 

RELATED: Ai Weiwei’s ‘Gangnam Style’ Isn’t Bad

RELATED: ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ Gets Beautiful

Here’s perhaps one of the better arguments against that trillion-dollar coin, courtesy of Homer Simpson and company:

And this guy seems pretty down on the squandered opulence of cruise ships:

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Gaps Seen in Therapy for Suicidal Teenagers

Most adolescents who plan or attempt suicide have already gotten at least some mental health treatment, raising questions about the effectiveness of current approaches to helping troubled teenagers, according to the largest in-depth analysis to date of suicidal behaviors in American teenagers.

The study in the journal JAMA Psychiatry found that 55 percent of suicidal teenagers had received some therapy before they thought about suicide, planned it or tried to kill themselves, contradicting the widely held belief that suicide is due in part to a lack of access to treatment.

The findings, based on interviews with a nationwide sample of more than 6,000 teenagers and at least one parent of each, linked suicidal behavior to complex combinations of mood disorders like depression and behavior problems that include attention-deficit and eating disorders, as well as alcohol and drug abuse.

The study found that about one in eight teenagers had persistent suicidal thoughts at some point, and about a third of them had made a suicide attempt, usually within a year of having the idea.

Previous studies have had similar findings, based on smaller, regional samples. But the new study is the first to suggest, in a large nationwide sample, that access to treatment does not make a big difference.

The study suggests that effective treatment for severely suicidal teenagers must address not just mood disorders, but also behavior problems that can lead to impulsive acts, experts said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,386 people between the ages of 13 and 18 committed suicide in 2010, the latest year for which numbers are available.

“I think one of the take-aways here is that treatment for depression may be necessary but not sufficient to prevent kids from attempting suicide,” said Dr. David Brent, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, who was not involved in the study. “We simply do not have empirically validated treatments for recurrent suicidal behavior.”

The report said nothing about whether the therapies given were state of the art, or carefully done, said Matt Nock, a professor of psychology at Harvard and the lead author; and it is possible that some of the treatments prevented suicide attempts. “But it’s telling us we’ve got a long way to go to do this right,” Dr. Nock said. His co-authors included Ronald C. Kessler of Harvard, and researchers from Boston University and Children’s Hospital Boston.

Margaret McConnell, a consultant in Alexandria, Va., said that her daughter Alice, who killed herself in 2006, at the age of 17, was getting treatment at the time. “I think there might have been some carelessness in the way the treatment was done,” Ms. McConnell said, “and I was trusting a 17-year-old to manage her own medication; we found out after we lost her that she wasn’t taking it regularly.”

In the study, researchers surveyed 6,483 adolescents from the ages of 13 to 18 and found that 9 percent of male teenagers and 15 percent of female teenagers experienced some stretch of having persistent suicidal thoughts. Among girls, 5 percent made suicide plans and 6 percent made at least one attempt (some were unplanned).

Among boys, 3 percent made plans and 2 percent carried out attempts – which tended to be more lethal than girls’ attempts.

(Suicidal thinking or behavior was virtually unheard-of before age 10.)

Over all, about one-third of teenagers with persistent suicidal thoughts went on to make an attempt to take their own lives.

Almost all of the suicidal adolescents in the study qualified for some psychiatric diagnosis, whether depression, phobias, or generalized anxiety disorder. Those with an added behavior problem – attention-deficit disorder, substance abuse, explosive anger – were more likely to act on thoughts of self-harm, the study found.

Doctors have tested a range of therapies to prevent or reduce recurrent suicidal behaviors, with mixed success. Medications can ease depression, but in some cases can increase suicidal thinking. Talk therapy can contain some behavior problems, but not all.

One approach, called dialectical behavior therapy, has proved effective in reducing hospitalizations and attempts in people with so-called borderline personality disorder, who are highly prone to self-harm, among others.

But suicidal teenagers who have a mixture of mood and behavior issues are difficult to reach. In one 2011 study, researchers at George Mason University reduced suicide attempts, hospitalizations, drinking and drug use among suicidal adolescent substance abusers. The study found that a combination of intensive treatments – talk therapy for mood problems, family-based therapy for behavior issues and patient-led reduction in drug use – was more effective that regular therapies.

“But that’s just one study, and it’s small,” Dr. Brent said. “We can treat components of the overall problem, but that’s about all.”

Ms. McConnell said that her daughter’s depression seemed mild and that there was no warning that she would take her life. “I think therapy does help a lot of people, if it’s handled right,” she said.

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United reportedly finds improper wiring in 787s

United Airlines inspected its new Boeing 787 airplanes after an electrical fire Monday on the same model and reportedly found improperly installed wires.

"We continue to work closely with Boeing on the reliability of our 787s," United spokeswoman Mary Ryan said.

Chicago-based United conducted the inspection on its six Dreamliners, after a fire Monday aboard a Japan Airlines 787 in Boston, Ryan said.

But, Ryan would not say what the result of that inspection was.

However, citing unnamed sourced, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that United found improperly installed wires in the plane's auxiliary power unit, the system involved in the fire Monday.

Also Tuesday, a fuel leak forced a different Japan Airlines 787, also in Boston, to cancel its takeoff and return to the gate.

A string of incidents lately, including inspections for fuel leaks ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration last month, add to the woes of Chicago-based Boeing, which has been criticized for delivering the 787 more than three years late because of design and production problems.

gkarp@tribune.com

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No vote on Illinois House pension plan today

SPRINGFIELD—

The Illinois House adjourned for the day without voting on a major government worker pension overhaul, casting grave doubt on the reform plan's fate.

The bill passed out of a committee earlier today, but proponents are still trying to round up enough votes to get it out of the full House.

The clock is ticking down until a new legislature is sworn in Wednesday. The Senate is not in town, and it's unclear whether enough lame-duck senators would return to vote on a pension plan even if it passed the House.

The House will return at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

"Sponsors will continue to work to find the votes and move the bill forward," said Ryan Keith, a spokesman for Democratic Reps. Elaine Nekritz of Northbrook and Daniel Biss of Evanston.

Earlier today, the plan won approval from a House committee. Workers would chip in more from their paychecks and automatic cost-of-living increases would be reined in for retirees under the proposal. Retirees would not get automatic annual inflation bumps until age 67 and cost-of-living increases would be frozen for six years.

The legislation emerged as the most comprehensive pension overhaul for government workers to reach the House floor with bipartisan support since estimates of the nation's worst-funded retirement system hit $96.8 billion. The proposal moved to the full House on a 6-3 vote.

Rank-and-file state workers, university employees, legislators, and suburban and downstate public school teachers and retirees would be impacted.

Sponsoring Rep. Elaine Nekritz called for action because the state's pension finances are "in crisis." She said the proposal is not the "ideal solution" but represented a solid compromise that lawmakers can pass before a new legislature is sworn in Wednesday.

"The choice is clear. The time is now," Nekritz testified in the House hearing. Failing to act would mean less money for schools, health care, social services and other state operations, she said.

House Republican leader Tom Cross of Oswego hailed Nekritz and Rep. Dan Biss, D-Evanston, for jump-starting a "give-and-take process" that has resulted in a "very good product" that will lower the debt by $30 billion.

"This is not going to get better, the economy will not save it and it's got to be fixed," said Cross, who threw his support behind the bill after working two years for pension reform. "This is something that has to happen."

He warned that the state must act or its already-poor credit ratings will drop farther and it will cost Illinois more to borrow money. Businesses already are wary about staying or moving to Illinois because of the uncertainty over the state's financial albatross, and workers deserve to know the fate of their pension plans, he said.

Cross said the state pension systems are only 39 percent funded and "it's not getting any better" because the state is on the hook for nearly $7 billion a year in pension payments ---nearly a quarter of the state's overall operating budget.

Biss maintained it is the only bipartisan legislation that has come forth that "truly solves theproblem" and has a "rationale, sensible framework."

In stark disagreement, Michael Carrigan, president of the Illinois AFL-CIO and a leader in a coalition of unions fighting the changes, maintained the pension proposal would disenfranchise people who have made their payments over the years and "played by the rules." 

Proponents maintained the proposal would be constitutional, but opponents maintained it represented "an all-out assault on employees" and a violation of the state charter's ban on diminishing benefits once they are given.

Illinois Federation of Teachers President Dan Montgomery charged lawmakers would violate their oaths of office if they supported the "illegal plan" and urged them to follow the "better angels of your nature."

Henry Bayer, who heads the union representing the most state workers, contended the measure "shifts costs away from state and onto the backs" of public workers and retirees.

The plan represented a "Tea Party approach" of "cut, cut, cut," said Bayer, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31.

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

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

The goal is to put in place a 30-year plan that would fully fund the Illinois pension systems

Even if the House plan passes, the Senate would have to come back to the Capitol Tuesday or early Wednesday to vote on it. It's unclear how many senators would return for such a vote and whether Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, would help pass it. Cullerton prefers his own plan that he says would pass constitutional muster.

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Year-end Wii U sales steady, says Nintendo chief

KYOTO (Reuters) – Nintendo Co Ltd‘s year-end sales of its Wii U games console were steady, though not as strong as when its Wii predecessor was first launched, the Japanese game maker’s top executive told Reuters on Monday.

The company, which grew from making playing cards in the late 19th century into the blockbuster Super Mario video game series, is pinning its hopes on the Wii U after posting a first operating loss last year, as gamers ditch console games to play on smartphones and tablets.

“At the end of the Christmas season, it wasn’t as though stores in the U.S. had no Wii U left in stock, as it was when Wii was first sold in that popular boom. But sales are not bad, and I feel it’s selling steadily,” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said in an interview.

Iwata gave no details on sales or forecasts, but said Nintendo needed to focus on developing attractive software for its 3DS handheld device to draw new users, and increase Wii U sales as it battles competition from popular mobile devices. The Wii U carries video content from Netflix Inc and Hulu, and has a dedicated social gaming network called Miiverse, which allows users to interact and share games tips.

Nintendo said in October it aimed to sell 5.5 million Wii U devices by end-March. Wii U, the successor to the blockbuster Wii machine, went on sale in the United States on November 18. The company later said it sold more than 400,000 of the video game consoles in the first week.

Nintendo sold 638,339 Wii U consoles in Japan between December 8 and 30, according to data from game magazine publisher Enterbrain. The company has sold nearly 100 million of the original Wii units since its launch in 2006.

Rival Microsoft Corp sold more than 750,000 of its Xbox 360 console during the Black Friday week in November – one of the busiest U.S. consumer shopping periods of the year, beating sales of both Sony Corp’s

DOUBLE CHALLENGE

Iwata acknowledged the challenge of producing two Wii U models at the same time, as most customers wanted the premium package, which sold out quickly in many places, while there was a glut of the slightly cheaper Wii U model on store shelves.

“It was the first time Nintendo released two models of the game console at the same time … and I believe there was a challenge with balancing this. Specifically, inventory levels for the premium, deluxe package was unbalanced as many people wanted that version and couldn’t find it,” he said.

Iwata noted a weaker yen would have little impact on Nintendo’s profits this fiscal year, but would positively impact its foreign denominated assets.

Nintendo’s Osaka-listed shares earlier ended down nearly 2.1 percent on Monday at 8,980 yen, and have fallen 15 percent since the Wii U was launched.

(Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

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‘Mary Poppins’ to close on Broadway in the spring

NEW YORK (AP) — “Mary Poppins” is closing up its big umbrella on Broadway.

An official close to the show’s producers said Monday that the 6-year-old musical will end performances in March at the New Amsterdam Theatre and eventually be replaced by a musical adapted from the film “Aladdin.”

The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak before the official announcement. The New York Post first reported the news, citing an anonymous source. A Disney representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Mary Poppins,” co-produced by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh, is based both on the children’s books by P.L. Travers and the 1964 movie starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. It tells the story of the world’s most practically perfect nanny in Edwardian London.

With a big cast, lavish sets and stunts that include Mary flying with her umbrella and Bert the chimney sweep tap dancing upside-down, the show was a hit after opening in 2006, two years after debuting in London.

When it closes, it will have been performed 2,619 times and have been seen by more than 4 million people. It recouped its initial Broadway investment within a year, and has gone on to be among the top 10 grossing shows for the past six years and top five for attendance. It will rank as the 22nd longest-running show in Broadway history.

Its soon-to-be vacant home at the New Amsterdam Theatre will be taken by the musical “Aladdin,” which has melodies by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice — the same team who created the animated film version that starred Robin Williams. The musical, with a book by Chad Beguelin, had its premiere in Seattle in summer 2011.

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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