LOS ANGELES (AP) — That was no wardrobe malfunction — that was couture.
When Jennifer Lawrence ascended the stairs to accept her SAG Award Sunday night, a bit of skin showed through the skirt of her gown, leading to some speculation that it had ripped.
Dior Couture told The Associated Press that wasn't so.
The design house said Lawrence's gown was designed by Raf Simons "with different levels of tulle and satin." That was what viewers saw on television when she lifted her gown to walk upstairs.
On an annual basis, home prices in the Chicago area rose only 0.8 percent in November, the smallest positive gain recorded among the 20 cities included in the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, released Tuesday.
Nationally, home prices rose 5.5 percent annually for the 20-city composite. Much of that gain can be traced to market improvements in once hard-hit places like Phoenix, where home prices have risen 22.8 percent in 12 months. Other cities recording strong yearly increases included Detroit, up 11.9 percent; Las Vegas, up 10 percent; San Francisco, up 12.7 percent; and Minneapolis, up 11.1 percent.
"Housing is clearly recovering," said David Blitzer, chairman of S&P Dow Jones Indices' index committee. "Prices are rising as are both new and existing home sales."
Most cities saw prices decrease in November from their October levels, which Blitzer tied with the housing market's typical winter weakness.
Nevertheless, Chicago turned in the worst monthly performance among the 20 cities. It was the third consecutive monthly decline for local home prices, which showed signs of strength earlier in 2012.
Condominium values in the Chicago market also fell for the second consecutive month. In November, they were down .9 percent from October but rose 2.7 percent from November 2011.
mepodmolik@tribune.com | Twitter @mepodmolik
DALLAS—
Lifting the ban would mark a dramatic reversal for the 103-year-old organization, which only last summer reaffirmed its policy amid heavy criticism from gay rights groups and some parents of scouts.
"The BSA is discussing potentially removing the national membership restriction regarding sexual orientation," spokesman Deron Smith said in an email to Reuters.
"The policy change under discussion would allow the religious, civic or educational organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting to determine how to address this issue," the spokesman said.
The organization, which had more than 2.6 million youth members and more than 1 million adult members at the end of 2012, "would not, under any circumstances, dictate a position to units, members, or parents," Smith said.
The Boy Scouts won a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing the organization to ban gays in 2000, but has come under increasing public pressure in recent years from activists including Zach Wahls, an Eagle scout with two lesbian mothers, and Jennifer Tyrrell, a lesbian mother from Ohio who was ousted as a Scout den leader and treasurer.
"This is absolutely a step in the right direction," Wahls said on Monday, adding that if the national board approves the change, he would turn to persuading local councils to enact nondiscrimination policies.
Wahls is the founder of Scouts for Equality, which collected more than 1.2 million signatures opposing the anti-gay policy. His group's membership includes 3,151 other Eagle scouts.
"I think the Boy Scouts is obviously a positive move, but they've been discussing this for a while," said Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Campus Pride, a national group supporting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's shareholders have been hit by one of the bloodiest weeks in the history of the stock, but wider fallout from such weakness might more important to the long-term value of their investments.
While Apple's iPhones, iPads and Macs remain gold standards, signs the company is losing some of its edge in the smartphone market suggest its clout with business partners could wane.
Recent comments from executives at phone carriers and component suppliers show they see room for at least some shift in the balance of power.
In particular, a move by No. 4 US mobile service provider T-Mobile USA to stop subsidizing smartphones around the time it starts selling the iPhone in three months time may put pressure on Apple, especially if other carriers follow the example.
U.S. phone companies mostly subsidize handsets in return for two-year contracts. If customers start paying the full price for an iPhone they might look for cheaper alternatives.
Asked whether carriers are now in a better position to negotiate lower prices with smartphone makers such as Apple, Fran Shammo, chief financial officer of Verizon Communications, said having four strong platforms - Apple, Android, Windows and BlackBerry - is leading to more competitive pricing.
"The more operating systems we have to compete in this area the better the competition," he told Reuters.
Verizon Communications Inc is the majority owner of Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile provider.
LOWER GROSS MARGINS
Apple sold a record 48 million iPhones in the December quarter, but its share of the overall market is expected to peak this year at 22 percent and become dependent on repeat business from loyal customers unless it accepts lower margins by making low-cost iPhones, according to ABI Research.
Meanwhile, arch-rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, with a range of handsets has overtaken Apple as the world's top smartphone seller.
If Apple's customers and suppliers, let alone rivals, smell blood and take a much harder line in negotiations, it could erode Apple's gross margins, which slipped to 38.6 percent in the last quarter from 44.7 percent a year ago.
Apple declined to comment on its business with partners, although when CEO Tim Cook was asked on an earnings conference call last July about subsidies potentially being reduced, he said the total subsidy carriers pay is fairly small compared with revenues over a two-year contract. He also said carriers told him the iPhone has many advantages, including lower churn rates and the ability to sell shared data plans for other Apple products such as the iPad.
Certainly, Apple's astounding run over the past decade and ever rising volume of iPhone sales have given it unrivaled power to negotiate with wireless carriers and component suppliers.
Last week's results fell short of Wall Street's estimates, sending Apple's share price down more than 14 percent. That underscored signs Apple is coming back down to earth, transforming from undisputed Wall Street darling to a more normal - if enormous and hugely profitable - company.
A less powerful Apple could be welcomed by telecommunications carriers and component suppliers that have grown accustomed to the tough terms Apple was able to exact thanks to its massive scale and leadership in the market.
Wireless carriers that once agreed to unfavorable contracts and hefty subsidies still cannot live without Apple, but experts say they could have more leeway in the future if Samsung and other device makers continue to grab market share.
HAS BEENS
Subsidies have been a major driver of the iPhone's success and in boosting Apple's earnings. Analysts estimate operators pay a roughly $400 subsidy for each iPhone they sell in comparison with subsidies of $250 to $300 for other smartphones.
But that may already be changing. T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG, has not disclosed the details of its deal with Apple, but CEO John Legere said it will not be as onerous as Sprint Nextel's commitment to pay $15.5 billion over four years. Instead of subsidizing smartphones, T-Mobile USA will let consumers pay the full price in monthly installments.
Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T, Apple's first partner for the iPhone, applauds T-Mobile USA's idea.
"That's something we've looked at on several occasions. I kind of like that idea," Stephenson said. "It's something we're going to be watching."
Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam told Reuters T-Mobile USA's strategy is "very intriguing," but wondered if consumers are ready to pay full price. An iPhone 5 with 16 gigabytes of storage that is not tied to a contract costs $649 on Walmart.com.
If subsidies are removed and payment plans widely adopted, some experts say consumers might opt for cheaper devices.
"The illogical love affair is over. Now it's just a great company," said a former top executive for a rival in the handset business. "The AT&Ts of the world will start to try to get themselves weaned off of paying such great subsidies to Apple."
In content, there are already signs of resistance. The company is meeting media executives in a potential effort to transform the living room with some kind of new Apple TV product, sources have said.
Its efforts are hindered, however, by the reluctance of movie and TV program makers to make content deals favorable to Apple. They saw how Apple's iTunes service helped decimate recording industry profits some years ago and they are very wary as a result, sources and analysts say.
Samsung led the global smartphone market with 29 percent market share in the fourth quarter, up from 22.5 percent a year ago. Apple was No. 2, but its share fell to 21.8 percent from 23 percent a year ago, according research firm IDC.
Apple's ability to extract low prices from the makers of chips and other components is one of the reasons it preserves margins in the 40 percent range on average.
But given increasing competition in the United States and its relatively weak position (sixth in smartphone sales) in the rapidly growing China market, that power might be hard to keep.
Supplier stock prices surge or plummet as result of being chosen or rejected by Apple. Chipmaker Audience Inc went public last year on the back of its Apple business, but the stock plummeted when Apple stopped using its chips. Audience's largest customer is now Samsung and its stock is recovering.
An executive at one chipmaker welcomed the prospect that one day his company might depend less on Apple.
Selling to Apple is "a double-edged sword," said the executive, who was not authorized to discuss his company's relationship with Apple. Having Apple as a customer guarantees huge volumes, but comes at the cost of accepting rock bottom prices that can cripple profit margins, the executive said.
Meanwhile, a few component maker are staking out territory in smartphones and tablets without Apple.
InvenSense Inc reported a 58 percent jump in quarterly earnings last Wednesday and its stock leaped 11 percent, partly because its gyroscope chips are used in hot-selling Android devices, including the Google Nexus 7, Samsung Galaxy S3 and Amazon Kindle Fire HD.
To be sure, InvenSense is trying to win Cupertino, California-based Apple's business. But even without Apple, it has become a key supplier in the smartphone and tablet market.
But as Samsung's share of the smartphone market grows further, it too is forcing suppliers to accept lower and lower prices, said Evercore Partners analyst Mark McKechnie.
"Samsung beats the heck out of people too. Be careful what you wish for," McKechnie said.
CULT STATUS
For now, Apple is still a mega player, even if it ships fewer phones than Samsung. For many consumers, its cult-like status remains unchallenged.
Despite recent stock market losses - more than $230 billion has been wiped off Apple's value since its September peak - the iPhone alone pulled in $30.66 billion in revenue last quarter, 43 percent more than Microsoft's entire sales for the period.
"Even though they're not gaining share, they're such a large piece of the market and such a driver of customer volume into their stores that people can't walk away yet," said David Yoffie, a professor who specializes in competitive strategy at Harvard Business School.
"Over the longer term, clearly there will be more and more pressure on Apple if they don't find new ways to innovate."
Even with slower growth, Apple is still widely seen as a highly successful company with a bright future and plenty of potential to produce another revolutionary product.
"What rabbit will Apple pull out of its hat to once again transform the industry?" asked Joseph Doyle, who co-manages wealth management firm Morris Capital Advisors' large cap strategy. "And if they can't do it, does that make it an awful investment? No, that will make it more like everything else."
(Additional reporting by Sinead Carew in New York and Sarah McBride in San Francisco; Editing by Martin Howell and Andre Grenon in New York)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Tom Brady is not playing in the Super Bowl. Neither is Ben Roethlisberger or either of the Mannings.
This Super Bowl has a pair of fresh faces in Colin Kaepernick and Joe Flacco, one of whom will leave New Orleans as the latest and greatest at football's glamour position.
For each, this is new territory.
Flacco, the only quarterback to win a playoff game in each of his first five NFL seasons, will lead the AFC champion Baltimore Ravens into Sunday's matchup with second-year QB Kaepernick and the NFC winners, the San Francisco 49ers. Not exactly a superstar matchup — yet.
It's the first time in a decade that neither Brady, Roethlisberger, Eli Manning or Peyton Manning has gotten to the Super Bowl.
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Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Celebrity newswoman Barbara Walters, who was hospitalized earlier this month after falling and injuring her head, is recovering from chicken pox, her co-host Whoopi Goldberg said Monday on “The View” talk show.
Goldberg said Walters, 83, who is in a New York hospital, has been told to rest and is not receiving visitors.
“You all know that she fell and cut her head 10 days ago and then was running a temperature,” Goldberg said on the show.
“But it turns out it is all the result of a delayed childhood. Barbara has the chicken pox,” Goldberg adding, saying Walters had never had the illness as a child.
Walters, 83, had been admitted to a Washington hospital during President Barack Obama‘s inauguration weekend after she fell and cut her head at the British ambassador’s residence, her network ABC said.
Goldberg joked: “She’s been told to rest, she’s not allowed any visitors, and we’re telling you, Barbara, no scratching.”
ABC-TV said Walters, who created the long-running talk show after working decades as one of television news’ best-known journalists, was transferred to a New York hospital late last week from Washington and was expected to be discharged soon.
Despite Goldberg’s light-hearted remarks about the illness, usually associated with children, chicken pox can be serious for adults and the elderly, accompanied by more severe itching from hundreds of blisters.
Headaches, fever and chills, sometimes leading to pneumonia, can follow if the illness is not properly treated and precautions are not taken, or if the patient has a compromised immune system.
(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Philip Barbara)
Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News
The first soldier to survive after losing all four limbs in the Iraq war has received a double-arm transplant.
Brendan Marrocco had the operation on Dec. 18 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, his father said Monday. The 26-year-old Marrocco, who is from New York City, was injured by a roadside bomb in 2009.
He also received bone marrow from the same dead donor who supplied his new arms. That novel approach is aimed at helping his body accept the new limbs with minimal medication to prevent rejection.
The military is sponsoring operations like these to help wounded troops. About 300 have lost arms or hands in the wars.
"He was the first quad amputee to survive" from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there have been four others since then, said Brendan Marrocco's father, Alex Marrocco. "He was really excited to get new arms."
The Marroccos want to thank the donor's family for "making a selfless decision ... making a difference in Brendan's life," the father said.
Surgeons plan to discuss the transplant at a news conference with the patient on Tuesday.
The 13-hour operation was led by Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, plastic surgery chief at Johns Hopkins, and is the seventh double-hand or double-arm transplant done in the United States. Lee led three of those earlier operations when he previously worked at the University of Pittsburgh, including the only above-elbow transplant that had been done at the time, in 2010.
Marrocco's "was the most complicated one" so far, Lee said in an interview Monday. It will take more than a year to know how fully Marrocco will be able to use the new arms, Lee said.
"The maximum speed is an inch a month for nerve regeneration," he explained. "We're easily looking at a couple years" until the full extent of recovery is known.
While at Pittsburgh, Lee pioneered the novel immune suppression approach used for Marrocco. The surgeon led hand transplant operations on five patients, giving them marrow from their donors in addition to the new limbs. All five recipients have done well and four have been able to take just one anti-rejection drug instead of combination treatments most transplant patients receive.
Minimizing anti-rejection drugs is important because they have side effects and raise the risk of cancer over the long term. Those risks have limited the willingness of surgeons and patients to do more hand, arm and even face transplants. Unlike a life-saving heart or liver transplant, limb transplants are aimed at improving quality of life, not extending it.
Quality of life is a key concern for people missing arms and hands — prosthetics for those limbs are not as advanced as those for feet and legs.
Lee has received funding for his work from AFIRM, the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, a cooperative research network of top hospitals and universities around the country that the government formed about five years ago. With government money, he and several other plastic surgeons around the country are preparing to do more face transplants, possibly using the new minimal immune suppression approach.
Marrocco expects to spend three to four months at Hopkins, then return to a military hospital to continue physical therapy, his father said. Before the operation, he had been living with his older brother in a handicapped-accessible home on New York's Staten Island built with the help of several charities.
The home was heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy last fall.
Despite being in a lot of pain for some time after the operation, Marrocco showed a sense of humor, his father said. He had a hoarse voice from a tube in his throat during the long surgery, decided that he sounded like Al Pacino, and started doing movie lines.
"He was making the nurses laugh," Alex Marrocco said.
___
AP writer Alex Dominguez contributed to this report.
NEW YORK (AP) — Taylor Swift says you can expect some of her bolder choices of late — from her music to her sexier image — to be incorporated in her upcoming tour.
Swift kicks off her worldwide tour in Omaha, Neb., next month in support of her latest album, "Red," which has sold more than 3 million copies since its release last fall and produced two No. 1 singles — "I Knew You Were Trouble" and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," which is up for record of the year at the Grammys next month.
The 23-year-old has been showing a more revealing side lately, with plunging necklines and shorter skirts. Swift says she's just growing up and exploring new options, but assures fans she won't be going too far or revealing too much.
While the Standard & Poor's 500 index ended the year up 13 percent, most large businesses in the region that counsel other companies on how to improve their operations saw their stock prices drop.
Business support services was one of the few sectors getting clobbered in a 2012 Tribune ranking of Illinois and northwest Indiana stocks' performance.
Stock prices gained at about 70 percent of the 127 companies on the list, and about half outperformed the S&P 500. Bank owners such as Taylor Capital Group emerged from their 2011 doldrums, and Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. and Discover Financial Services marked their second consecutive year of soaring stock prices.
The year's biggest decliner, down 76 percent, was Groupon, as once-torrid revenue growth at the daily deals offerer started slowing.
Career Education was the second-worst performer; its stock fell 56 percent. The highly scrutinized for-profit school chain said it would close campuses and cut jobs amid sinking revenue and financial losses.
Sectors boosted by broad gains in 2012 included electrical parts and equipment, industrial machinery, and specialty chemicals.
Of seven Illinois banks on the list, all but one outperformed the S&P 500, with price appreciation of those six ranging from 16 to 86 percent.
In contrast, stocks of four of five professional services firms — Navigant Consulting, Huron Consulting Group, Heidrick & Struggles International and R.R. Donnelley & Sons — closed down 2 to 38 percent.
Each had its own set of issues.
Navigant's services, for example, include advising companies that face disputes, litigation and investigations, including government probes, as well as businesses that need help valuing potential mergers and acquisitions.
"You see fewer government investigations during an election year, as regulators are leaving their jobs, and they don't want to start new ones," said Tobey Sommer, a SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst. "Also, worries about the 'fiscal cliff' slowed M&A because CEOs didn't want to look foolish acquiring a company in September ahead of the fiscal cliff when they might have been able to buy it for 20 percent less in January had we gone off."
Meanwhile, Heidrick's troubles included a slowing market for executive searches. In early 2012, analysts expected Heidrick's annual earnings to be in the range of about $1.30 per share. It appears that it will earn closer to 57 cents a share.
Huron's earnings estimates during 2012 were also trimmed, to about $2.10 from about $2.40 a share as the timing of fee payments to its health care consulting business proved volatile.
"Its underlying demand is strong," but an increasing number of clients had signed contracts where a larger portion of revenue was contingent on the outcome of Huron's consulting work, said Randle Reece, analyst with Avondale Partners LLC. That made it harder for the company and the analysts who cover it to predict the timing of revenues, since they are deferred.
For investors interested in "Dumpster diving," Morningstar Inc. considers Exelon, WMS Industries and Caterpillar to be high quality yet undervalued this year, said Heather Brilliant, chief equities strategist.
Navigant is among the region's beaten-down stocks liked by stock research firm EVA Dimensions LLC. "Its fundamentals are improving, and it's really cheap," said EVA analyst Andrew Zamfotis.
Best of the best
Here are the top three stock gainers of 2012:
The National Weather Service has issued a freezing rain advisory for northeast Illinois that warns of an ice storm that is expected to last until 9 p.m. this evening.
A mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain hit the Chicago area around noon, but there have been no reports of any major accumulation, said Bill Nelson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Still, Nelson warned that a heavy fog will roll in after 7 p.m. tonight and could last until mid to late Monday morning.
According to the agency, the region was going to be hit with freezing rain, possibly mixed with sleet, that will turn to rain as the temperatures rise above freezing in later afternoon or early evening. The agency warns of ice accumulation, up to a tenth-of-an-inch or two, making travel hazardous and possibly leading to downed tree limbs and power lines.
Because the ground is below freezing, the precipitation will freeze on contact, the agency said, leaving sidewalks as well as streets with that potentially dangerous coating of ice.
Forecasters don't expect the storm to have any major lasting effects other than a widespread, dense fog that could pose trouble for drivers once it arrives later tonight.
"We just urge everybody to exercise caution and take things slow," Nelson said.
Much of the ice from today will likely melt as temperatures in the Chicago area reach the mid-30s overnight and slowly increase to the upper 40s by Monday, according to forecasters. Nelson added that it is normal for a heavy fog to appear when cold air is replaced with warmer air and moisture.
Meanwhile, some city and state agencies have already deployed crews to salt streets as the ice storm continues. The city's streets and sanitation department earlier today deployed its full feet of 284 plows to salt main streets, including Lake Shore Drive, and residential roads.
The state's transportation agency has 360 trucks in the northeastern part of Illinois ready to salt roads as soon as precipitation hits the area, said Mike Claffey, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation.
IDOT will be monitoring weather conditions, but roads will likely be slick this afternoon when the ice storm arrives, Claffey said. He also cautioned drivers to stay off the roads.
"It's going to be very slippery, tricky driving conditions," Claffey said. "If you don't have to be out, you should not be."
jmdelgado@tribune.com
Twitter: @jendelgado1
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