AP Source: Hernandez on verge of new deal with M's

SEATTLE (AP) — Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners are working on a $175 million, seven-year contract that would make him the highest-paid pitcher in baseball, according to a person with knowledge of the deal's details.

The person spoke to The Associated Press Thursday on condition of anonymity because the agreement has not been completed. USA Today first reported the deal.

Seattle would add $134.5 million of guaranteed money over five years to the contract of the 2010 AL Cy Young Award winner, whose current agreement calls for him to receive $40.5 million over the next two seasons.

Hernandez's total dollars would top CC Sabathia's original $161 million, seven-year contract with the New York Yankees and his $25 million average would surpass Zack Greinke's $24.5 million under his new contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers and tie him for the second-highest in baseball with Josh Hamilton and Ryan Howard behind Alex Rodriguez ($27.5 million). Hernandez's new money would average $26.9 million over five years.

Hernandez agreed to a $78 million, five-year contract in January 2010 and has earned an additional $2.5 million in escalators and $300,000 in bonuses. He is due $20 million this year and $20.5 million in 2014, which would be superseded by the new deal.

Seattle general manager Jack Zduriencik said he could not comment when reached on Thursday, and Hernandez's representatives didn't immediately return messages.

If the deal is finalized, it would leave Detroit's Justin Verlander and the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw as the most attractive pitchers eligible for free agency after the 2014 season. Tampa Bay's David Price is eligible after the 2015 season.

Hernandez has become the face of Seattle's struggling franchise, transforming from a curly haired 19-year-old who wore his hat crooked to one of the most dominant and exciting pitchers in baseball. Known as "King Felix," he became the first Seattle pitcher to throw a perfect game in a 1-0 win over Tampa Bay last August.

His fiery enthusiasm on the mound and his willingness to first sign a long-term deal in 2010 have endeared him to fans in the Pacific Northwest who have gone more than a decade without seeing postseason baseball.

Hernandez, who will turn 27 on April 8, is 98-76 with a 3.22 ERA in eight seasons with the Mariners. He won a career-high 19 games in 2009 when he finished second in the Cy Young voting then won the award a year later when he went just 13-12 but had a 2.27 ERA and 232 strikeouts.

Hernandez appeared to be making another Cy Young push last year before going 0-4 in his last six starts, which left him at 13-9 with 223 strikeouts.

His career record would be even better if he didn't play with one of baseball's worst offenses. Seattle had the lowest batting average in the major leagues in each of the last three seasons. Hernandez has taken 10 losses during that span when he's given up two earned runs or less.

For his career, Hernandez has allowed two earned runs or less in 141 of 238 starts, but the team is only 99-42 in those games due to the offensive problems.

Locking up Hernandez long-term won't solve all of the problems that have left Seattle looking up at Texas, Oakland and the Los Angeles Angles in the AL West for most of the last 10 years. The Mariners have tried to address some of those issues this offseason by trading for Kendrys Morales and Michael Morse to provide more punch to go along with young prospects Dustin Ackley, Kyle Seager and Jesus Montero, who have all shown flashes early in their careers.

But should the deal be finalized, the Mariners at least have the security of knowing who'll be at the top of their rotation for most of this decade.

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AP Sports Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.

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Health officials: Worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.

The number of states reporting intense or widespread flu dropped again last week, U.S. health officials said Friday.

The season started earlier than normal, spiking first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths have been dropping for two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said in an email.

It's been nine years since a conventional flu season started like this one. That was the winter of 2003-04 — one of the deadliest in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths. Like this year, that season had the same dominant flu strain, one that tends to make people sicker.

But back then, the flu vaccine didn't protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated each year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed this year's version is about 60 percent effective.

So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.

The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 such deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week.

On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.

Flu vaccinations are recommended for everyone 6 months or older.

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Tyler, Fleetwood go to privacy hearing in Hawaii

HONOLULU (AP) — Rock stars Steven Tyler and Mick Fleetwood appeared Friday at a Hawaii legislative hearing to push a bill aimed at protecting celebrities' privacy.

The so-called Steven Tyler Act would give celebrities or anyone else the power to sue paparazzi who take photos or video of their private lives in an offensive way.

Tyler says he had his manager draft the bill and requested that Sen. Kalani English introduce it on his behalf.

The former "American Idol" judge recently bought a multi-million dollar home in English's district on Maui.

"The paradise of Hawaii is a magnet for celebrities who just want a peaceful vacation," Tyler said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press a day ahead of the hearing. "As a person in the public eye, I know the paparazzi are there and we have to accept that. But when they intrude into our private space, disregard our safety and the safety of others, that crosses a serious line that shouldn't be ignored."

More than two-thirds of the state Senate co-sponsored the measure. Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne are among more than a dozen celebrities who submitted testimony supporting the bill.

The stars say paparazzi have made simple activities like cooking with family and sunbathing elusive luxuries and the bill would give them peace of mind.

National media organizations oppose the measure and say the law would infringe on constitutional rights.

The National Press Photographers Association said the bill is "well-meaning but ill-conceived."

The New York-based organization represents numerous national media organizations, including the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press Media Editors and the American Society of News Editors.

The Motion Picture Association of America also opposes the bill, saying it could make it harder to police movie piracy.

The bill would open up photographers, videographers and distributors to civil lawsuits if they take, sell or disseminate photos or videos of someone during private or family moments "in a manner that is offensive to a reasonable person."

The bill doesn't specify whether public places, like Hawaii's beaches, would be exempt. The bill says it would apply to people who take photos from boats or anywhere else within ocean waters.

Hawaii's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing marks the first time lawmakers will discuss the bill publicly. English has said the bill is not intended to limit beach photos.

The state's largest newspaper, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, published an editorial Thursday that called lawmakers who support the bill "star-struck."

The newspaper said the bill might not affect only journalists.

"It could also make lawbreakers out of anyone taking photographs in public places, be it an ordinary photojournalist or someone with a camera phone," the editorial said.

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Anita Hofschneider can be reached at http://twitter.com/ahofschneider

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S&C relay at center of Super Bowl outage

An electrical relay device provided by Rogers Park's S&C Electric Co. was found to be the cause of the Super Bowl power outage in New Orleans, the company acknowledged Friday.

S&C Electric Co. said the outage, which lasted for more than 30 minutes at Sunday's game, was due to the demand for Superdome stadium power needs exceeding a "trip setting" for an electrical relay it supplied.

The device was specifically designed to prevent an outage if a cable connection to the stadium failed. Testing since the game has revealed that a higher power setting would have prevented the equipment from causing the disconnection, S&C said in a statement.

S&C doesn’t control the power settings on the equipment it provides.

"S&C continues to work with all those involved to get the system back online, and our customers can continue to rely on the quality and performance of our products," Spokesman Michael Edmonds said in a statement.

S&C equipment is commonly used where high reliability is critical, he said, including data centers for United Parcel Service Inc., drug manufacturing centers and hospitals. The company also works with other stadiums throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The power provider for Sunday's game, Entergy New Orleans, a unit of Entergy Corp., said the relay device had functioned properly at other high-profile sporting events, including the Sugar Bowl.

The device has since been removed and replacement equipment is being examined, Entergy said in a statement.

That statement came before a special meeting of the New Orleans City Council's Utility Committee Friday morning to discuss the root cause of the outage.

Immediately after the game, Entergy indicated its equipment was functional and the problem must have come from the Superdome, but later said it was launching an investigation to determine the source of the problem.

"While some further analysis remains, we believe we have identified and remedied the cause of the power outage and regret the interruption that occurred during what was a showcase event for the city and state," Entergy New Orleans President and CEO Charles Rice said.

sbomkamp@tribune.com | Twitter: @SamWillTravel

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Michelle Obama to attend funeral for Hadiya Pendleton

Michelle Obama will attend the funeral of Hadiya Pendleton.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Google must extend payments across Europe for use of content

LISBON (Reuters) - Google Inc must extend its offer made last week to pay French publishers for use of their content to all media companies across Europe, the head of the European Publishers Council said on Thursday.

Last week, the internet search giant agreed to pay 60 million euros ($80 million) into a special fund to help French media develop their presence on the Internet. It will not pay them for posting links to their content.

French publishers had demanded licensing fees for headlines and snippets of articles in its search engine results.

Google settled a similar case with Belgian publishers in December by helping them boost online revenue, but still faces a dispute with publishers in Germany.

"Search engines get more than 90 percent of revenues from online advertising and a substantial part of these come directly or indirectly from the free access to professional news or entertainment content produced by the media," Francisco Pinto Balsemao told Reuters.

"The situation is very bad for media groups (in Europe). This use is carried out without the authorization from copyright holders or without any payment in return. So, all aggregators, like Google, should pay.

"Google's openness to negotiate and talk looks like a good step that must now be followed in other (European) countries."

The EPC represents 26 of the main media groups operating in Europe, including Thomson Reuters, Prisa, News International, Axel Springer and Impresa.

Advertising revenues in Portugal fell by 90 million euros last year to 526 million euros, its lowest since 1997.

Balsemao is also Chief Executive Officer of Portuguese media group Impresa, which owns Portugal's best-selling weekly Expresso and television channel SIC.

($1=0.7469 euros)

(Reporting by Filipe Alves; Writing by Daniel Alvarenga, editing by Axel Bugge and Mike Nesbit)

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Armstrong sued for $12 million bonus

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Dallas promotions company sued Lance Armstrong on Thursday, demanding he repay $12 million in bonuses and fees it paid him for winning the Tour de France.

SCA Promotions had tried in a 2005 legal dispute to prove Armstrong cheated to win before it ultimately settled and paid him.

Armstrong recently acknowledged using performance-enhancing drugs, and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in 2012 detailed a sophisticated doping program by his Armstrong's teams. Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France victories and given a lifetime ban from sports.

Now, the company contends in its lawsuit, Armstrong and agent Bill Stapleton conspired to cheat SCA out of millions. The lawsuit notes that Armstrong repeatedly testified under oath in the 2005 dispute that he did not use steroids, other drugs or blood doping methods to win, all of which he now admits to doing.

"It is time now for Mr. Armstrong to face the consequences of his actions," the lawsuit said. "He admits he doped; he admits he bullied people; he admits he lied."

The lawsuit names Armstrong, Stapleton and Tailwind Sports, Inc., the team's management entity, as defendants.

Tim Herman, an attorney for Armstrong and Stapleton, did not immediately return telephone messages. Herman has previously noted that SCA previously settled its case with Armstrong and said it should not be allowed to reopen the matter.

SCA's lawsuit counters that the case was settled only after Armstrong's lies under oath prevented it from proving he doped.

The lawsuit seeks to recover $9.5 million in bonus money and another $2.5 million paid to Armstrong for other costs and fees.

Separately, USADA chief executive Travis Tygart said Wednesday the agency has been in contact with him Armstrong and is giving him more time to decide if he wants to cooperate with its investigators and tell more about what he knows of doping in cycling.

USADA extended its original Wednesday deadline to Feb. 20 to work out an interview with investigators under oath.

Just two weeks ago, Herman had strongly suggested Armstrong would not be interested in talking with USADA investigators. Tygart said it was Armstrong who asked for more time.

"We understand that he does want to be part of the solution and assist in the effort to clean up the sport of cycling," Tygart said in a statement. "We have agreed to his request for an additional two weeks to work on details to hopefully allow for this to happen."

The agency has said cooperating in its cleanup effort is the only path open to Armstrong if his lifetime ban from sports is to be reduced.

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Southern diet, fried foods, may raise stroke risk

Deep-fried foods may be causing trouble in the Deep South. People whose diets are heavy on them and sugary drinks like sweet tea and soda were more likely to suffer a stroke, a new study finds.

It's the first big look at diet and strokes, and researchers say it might help explain why blacks in the Southeast — the nation's "stroke belt" — suffer more of them.

Blacks were five times more likely than whites to have the Southern dietary pattern linked with the highest stroke risk. And blacks and whites who live in the South were more likely to eat this way than people in other parts of the country were. Diet might explain as much as two-thirds of the excess stroke risk seen in blacks versus whites, researchers concluded.

"We're talking about fried foods, french fries, hamburgers, processed meats, hot dogs," bacon, ham, liver, gizzards and sugary drinks, said the study's leader, Suzanne Judd of the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

People who ate about six meals a week featuring these sorts of foods had a 41 percent higher stroke risk than people who ate that way about once a month, researchers found.

In contrast, people whose diets were high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish had a 29 percent lower stroke risk.

"It's a very big difference," Judd said. "The message for people in the middle is there's a graded risk" — the likelihood of suffering a stroke rises in proportion to each Southern meal in a week.

Results were reported Thursday at an American Stroke Association conference in Honolulu.

The federally funded study was launched in 2002 to explore regional variations in stroke risks and reasons for them. More than 20,000 people 45 or older — half of them black — from all 48 mainland states filled out food surveys and were sorted into one of five diet styles:

—Southern: Fried foods, processed meats (lunchmeat, jerky), red meat, eggs, sweet drinks and whole milk.

—Convenience: Mexican and Chinese food, pizza, pasta.

—Plant-based: Fruits, vegetables, juice, cereal, fish, poultry, yogurt, nuts and whole-grain bread.

—Sweets: Added fats, breads, chocolate, desserts, sweet breakfast foods.

—Alcohol: Beer, wine, liquor, green leafy vegetables, salad dressings, nuts and seeds, coffee.

"They're not mutually exclusive" — for example, hamburgers fall into both convenience and Southern diets, Judd said. Each person got a score for each diet, depending on how many meals leaned that way.

Over more than five years of follow-up, nearly 500 strokes occurred. Researchers saw clear patterns with the Southern and plant-based diets; the other three didn't seem to affect stroke risk.

There were 138 strokes among the 4,977 who ate the most Southern food, compared to 109 strokes among the 5,156 people eating the least of it.

There were 122 strokes among the 5,076 who ate the most plant-based meals, compared to 135 strokes among the 5,056 people who seldom ate that way.

The trends held up after researchers took into account other factors such as age, income, smoking, education, exercise and total calories consumed.

Fried foods tend to be eaten with lots of salt, which raises blood pressure — a known stroke risk factor, Judd said. And sweet drinks can contribute to diabetes, the disease that celebrity chef Paula Deen — the queen of Southern cuisine — revealed she had a year ago.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, drugmaker Amgen Inc. and General Mills Inc. funded the study.

"This study does strongly suggest that food does have an influence and people should be trying to avoid these kinds of fatty foods and high sugar content," said an independent expert, Dr. Brian Silver, a Brown University neurologist and stroke center director at Rhode Island Hospital.

"I don't mean to sound like an ogre. I know when I'm in New Orleans I certainly enjoy the food there. But you don't have to make a regular habit of eating all this stuff."

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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Afghan boys from nominated film to walk red carpet

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Fawad Mohammadi has spent half his life peddling maps and dictionaries to foreigners on a street of trinket shops in Kabul. Now the 14-year-old Afghan boy with bright green eyes is getting ready for a trip down the red carpet at the Oscars.

It will also be his first time out of the country and his first time on a plane.

Mohammadi was plucked from the dingy streets of the Afghan capital to be one of the main stars of "Buzkashi Boys," a coming-of-age movie filmed entirely in a war zone and nominated in the Best Live Action Short Film category.

The movie is about two penniless young boys — a street urchin and a blacksmith's son — who are best friends and dream of becoming professional players of buzkashi, a particularly rough and dangerous game that somewhat resembles polo: Horseback riders wrangle to get a headless goat carcass into a circular goal at one end of the field.

It's also part of an American director's effort to help revive a film industry devastated by decades of civil war and by the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist movement that banned entertainment and burned films and theaters during its five years in power.

Sam French, a Philadelphia native who has lived in Afghanistan for about five years, said his 28-minute movie was initially conceived as a way of training local film industry workers — the first installment in his nonprofit Afghan Film Project.

"We never dreamed of having the film come this far and get an Oscar nomination," French, 36, said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, where he is preparing for the Feb. 24 Academy Awards and raising money to fly the two young co-stars in for the ceremony.

The two boys playing the main characters — Mohammadi and Jawanmard Paiz — can barely contain their excitement about going to the Oscars.

"It will be a great honor for me and for Afghanistan to meet the world's most famous actors," said Mohammadi, whose real-life dream is to become a pilot. He's also hoping to go see the cockpit during the flight.

The farthest Mohammadi has ever traveled was to the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif when he was younger.

Mohammadi's father died a few years ago, leaving him with his mother, five brothers and a sister. He started selling chewing gum when he was about 7 years old and soon expanded his trade to maps and dictionaries.

He learned to speak English hustling foreigners on Chicken Street, the main tourist area in Kabul with shops selling multicolor rugs, lapis bowls and other crafts and souvenirs, and gained a reputation for being polite, helpful and trustworthy. He was even able to enroll in a private school, thanks to the generosity of some other foreigners unrelated to the film project.

In the movie Mohammadi plays the blacksmith's son, Rafi, whose father wants him to follow in his footsteps.

"His life was so much harder than mine," Mohammadi said. "The blacksmith made him go out on the streets. I came myself here (to Chicken Street). My family didn't make me come. I wanted to make money to feed myself and to feed my family. He didn't have a home. They lived in the blacksmith shop."

Ironically it's not Mohammadi but Paiz, the youngest son of a well-known Afghan actor, who plays the homeless boy Ahmad.

Paiz, also 14, already was an experienced actor: He's appeared in films since the age of 5 and has gone to the Cannes Film Festival.

Paiz and Mohammadi had a lot to learn from each other and became friends. He gave Mohammadi tips for acting and handling himself in live interviews, while Fawad taught him about life outside his sheltered surroundings.

"When I saw Fawad was such a good actor even though he was a street boy and he was so brave in acting, I was very surprised and I said to myself, 'Everybody can achieve what they desire to do,'" Paiz said during an interview this week, shivering in the snow-covered courtyard of the Afghan Film Institute while a local TV series was being filmed nearby.

French, who co-wrote the script and produced "Buzkashi Boys" with Martin Roe of the Los Angeles-based production company Dirty Robber, launched a fundraising drive that's raised almost $10,000 so far to help bring the boys to Los Angeles for the ceremony. Any extra money will be placed in a fund to provide for Mohammadi's education and help his family. The boys will travel with an escort and will stay with the extended Afghan family of one of the film's producers, French said.

French said he's aware of the pitfalls in working with child actors from developing countries.

The makers of "Slumdog Millionaire," the rags-to-riches blockbuster about three poor Indian children, have struggled to make a better life for the young stars, and four boys who acted in "The Kite Runner" had to leave Afghanistan out of concern they could be ostracized or subject to violence because of a rape scene in the movie.

French said he and others involved in the "Buzkashi Boys" took pains to involve the community and made sure to avoid any scenes that could be offensive.

"We're not filmmakers who just do a film and leave. We remain there and present," he said. "We had lots and lots of tea with lots and lots of people."

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says there have been three documentary features nominees filmed at least in part in Afghanistan since 2007 — all about the U.S. military. The Kite Runner, which was nominated for original score in 2007, was set in Afghanistan but not filmed there.

Afghanistan had a burgeoning film industry starting in the early 20th century, but it suffered from fighting during the civil war and the Taliban campaign to stamp out entertainment. Actors and film industry workers like Paiz's father and the actor who plays the blacksmith, Wali Talash, fled the country. They returned only after the 2001 U.S.-led assault that ousted the Islamic movement and its al-Qaida allies.

Talash, 56, said he hopes the "Buzkashi Boys" will show the world the rich culture of Afghanistan, which too few in the world know beyond reports of roadside bombs and suicide attacks.

"I hope if this movie wins that it will be an earthquake that will shake the industry and help Afghan filmmakers get back on their feet," he said.

Mohammadi, meanwhile, says he knows the money and fame he earned from the movie can carry him only so far. He still sells maps, though not so often as before, because he has school.

"For my work I used to know a lot of foreigners and I still do, but before they used to know me as a map seller. Now they know me as an actor," he said, waving a plastic-covered map as weary Afghans walked by on the muddy street. "Most of them take pictures with me and sometimes they buy maps from me even if they don't need any just because they spotted me in the movie."

___

Associated Press writer Steve Loeper in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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Online:

Fundraising site — https://rally.org/buzkashiboys

Film website — http://www.buzkashiboys.com/

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EveryBlock shuts down

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Holovaty left the site in August to pursue other interests.

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

Still, limited revenue streams make for a shaky future.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

sbomkamp@tribune.com | Twitter: @SamWillTravel

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