Stars Tweet Over Gun Control Following Elementary School Shootings In Connecticut — Updated

Celebrities were outraged over the tragic elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn. on Friday, and many immediately turned to Twitter, to share their sadness.

And some even urged America’s leaders to address gun control.

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“Gun control is our only road to freedom. Freedom from the fear of senselessly losing children. I’m so saddened. WE NEED LAWS NOW,” “Parks and Recreation” actress Rashida Jones Tweeted.

Singer Michelle Branch also touched on the topic in her Tweet, writing, “Gun control people!!! My heart is breaking. As a parent this is my worst nightmare.”

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“Two and a Half Men’s” Holland Taylor wrote, “Just heard re CT shooting coming in from a walk… MY GOD. The “right” to carry concealed weapons … this has become a truly INSANE issue.”

Michael Raymond-James, who plays Neal Cassady on “Once Upon A Time,” also tackled gun control in his Tweet, writing, “Unfortunately, we have more access to assault weapons than we do to quality mental health care. That needs to change. #HowManyMoreTimes.”

Brit Piers Morgan wrote, “Why does any civilian in America need a weapon that can fire 100 rounds of ammunition at rapid speed? Give me ONE good reason?” and added, “#GunControl.”

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Filmmaker Michael Moore Tweeted, “The way to honor these dead children is to demand strict gun control, free mental health care, and an end to violence as public policy.”

“General Hospital” actress Lisa LoCicero also Tweeted about gun control, in the wake of the tragedy, writing, “anyone still not ready for us to err on the side of losing some gun rights at this point, needs to leave the country.”

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“Raising Hope” star Martha Plimpton Tweeted, “When can we talk about it? WHEN? Ever? Never? If not now, when we are staring it in the face, then WHEN? #GunControl.”

Motley Crue singer Vince Neil wrote, “Sad day today. Prayers to all the families. Gun Control!!!”

“True Blood” star Denis O’Hare Tweeted, “When do we get to seriously talk about gun control?”

“Malibu Country” actor Jai Rodriguez also Tweeted about gun control, writing, “Sick over what happened in the world this week. We need better gun laws. My heart goes out to all those affected by the horrors.”

Eric Benet Tweeted, “Half of the U.S. will say,”How dare u bring up gun control at a time like this?!” But the sane half will say,”How dare we not!?” pls RT”

Susan Sarandon wrote, “How much more suffering & loss will it take before we better regulate the sale of arms in our country? Let @NRA know how you feel.”

Jaime King wrote, “We do not have time to wait to tighten gun control- we cannot loose anymore innocent lives. I beg the government to stop F-ing around.”

Jason Biggs Tweeted, “Hey-I love guns. I’ve shot, killed, n eaten my own food-n grown cuz of the experience. But clearly, restrictions need to be put into place.”

Hill Harper ‏Tweeted, “Can we please re-institute the assault weapons ban & a ban on selling high load gun clips.”

Ginnifer Goodwin wrote, “I just emailed my representative & it was super easy. http://m.house.gov/ #guncontrol.”

“General Hospital” star Finola Hughes Tweeted, “I believe that ‘other day’ for debating gun laws is now.”

Mehcad Brook, from the USA series “Necessary Roughness” Tweeted, “Why do we go through more scrutiny getting a driver’s license bcuz cars CAN kill than we do obtaining a gun which ONLY kills?”

Other stars shared their deep sadness over the senseless deaths in Connecticut.

“God have mercy!!!! No one deserves this! Praying for the families of the victims of the Connecticut shooting!! What a Christmas it will be,” Rihanna wrote.

“Everyone reading this PLEASE get on your knees and PRAY for the sweet babies, families, and for everyone hurting in Connecticut right now,” Lady Antebellum singer Hillary Scott Tweeted.

“There have been 31 school shootings since Columbine, 14yrs ago. This time, kindergarteners. #NoWords,” Anika Noni Rose wrote.

Jennifer Hudson Tweeted, “Yal, we need to pray! This can’t keep happening . My mama always said ” if u think you’ve seen it all just keep on living.’”

Oprah Winfrey responded to Jennifer’s Tweet, writing, “@IAMJHUD for sure . Pray and take action.. Another WAKE UP for guns.”

Here’s more of what the stars had to say on Twitter:

Katie Couric: Shocked & saddened to hear this morning’s news… My heart goes out to the families of #SandyHook Elementary children, faculty, staff

Joy Behar: My thoughts and prayers are with the families of Sandy Hook Elementary.

Maksim Chmerkovskiy: I hate the “my heart is with” this and “my prayers go out” that… We ALL need to get f***ing angry and DO something more than ‘feel sad’…

Vivica A. Fox: Wow! It seems like we r gonna have to put metal detectors everywhere and armed guards! Seems like u can’t b safe anywhere!! WTH??

Jack Wagner: OMG prayers 4 those affected by the shooting in Connecticut…so sad

Ian Somerhalder: We are sad.Our hearts,thoughts&help are w/you.Im so sorry to all affected by this.So sorry.May all thelove in the world hug you in this time

Ralph Macchio: There are no words… Prayers #Connecticut

Rachel Dratch: Our weekly mass shootings aren’t happening in other countries. And this time, children? WHEN WILL OUR “LEADERS” PUT AN END TO THIS INSANITY?

Teresa Giudice: On days like this, we should hug our children just a little bit tighter.

Steve Levitan: My thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the victims. I should have said that first, but I’m tired of these tragedies. #standuptothenra

Marlee Matlin: I am numb as the numbers of the dead – children and adults – keep ticking up. #PrayForNewtown

Christina Applegate: There are just no words. Only sorrow. We are all shedding tears today for those families.

Karina Smirnoff: We need to pray for all the families affected by the Newtown, CT school shooting. Absolutely devastating….

Kim Kardashian: These kids come to school to learn, never expecting this tragedy to happen. They didn’t deserve this. Praying for everyone involved!

Brandi Glanville: I can not believe this school shooting, what is wrong with people!!!! My heart is breakking for the kids and families.

Jackie Collins: My heart breaks for the Newtown community…for these families.

Damon Lindelof: I’m not “politicizing” squat. I’m heartbroken, angry, confused and scared and I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THIS KEEPS HAPPENING.

DJ Pauly D: My Prayers Go Out To Everyone Affected By This Horrible Shooting In Connecticut

Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Weight Watchers anniversary cookbook out in May

NEW YORK (AP) — Weight Watchers is marking its 50th year by shedding its old publisher and hoping to expand its audience for an anniversary cookbook.

“Weight Watchers 50th Anniversary Cookbook: 270 Delicious Recipes for Every Meal,” will come out in May. The release starts a partnership between the diet company and St. Martin’s Press. Weight Watchers had previously released its cookbooks through Wiley.

According to a joint announcement Friday from Weight Watchers and St. Martin’s, the new cookbook will offer new and old recipes and “fun facts” on Weight Watchers history,

Weight Watchers and St. Martin’s plan another cookbook later in 2013 and more publications in 2014.

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The Neediest Cases: Disabled Young Man and His Protective Mother Deal With Life’s Challenges

Though he would prefer to put his socks on without his mother’s help, Zaquan West, 25, does not have a choice.

Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

Joann West is a constant caretaker for her son, Zaquan. Though Ms. West works as a receptionist, the family fell behind on rent.

For the past 100 years, The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund has provided direct assistance to children, families and the elderly in New York. To celebrate the 101st campaign, an article will appear daily through Jan. 25. Each profile will illustrate the difference that even a modest amount of money can make in easing the struggles of the poor.

Last year donors contributed $7,003,854, which was distributed to those in need through seven New York charities.

2012-13 Campaign

Previously recorded:

$3,104,694

Recorded Thursday:

$137,451

*Total:

$3,242,145

Last year to date:

$2,862,836

*Includes $596,609 contributed to the Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.

The Youngest Donors

If your child or family is using creative techniques to raise money for this year’s campaign, we want to hear from you. Drop us a line on Facebook or talk to us on Twitter.

A genetic disorder has encumbered Mr. West all his life, but he has needed assistance with this particular task since only last year. In November 2011, he had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor on his left thigh that was as big as a football, but he was left less flexible.

“He doesn’t do well with disability, with the label,” his mother, Joann West, 55, said. “He doesn’t tell people that he has a disability. If they can’t see it, they just can’t see it.”

When her son was 13 months old, Ms. West learned he had neurofibromatosis, a disorder that causes tumors to grow on the nerves and, in some cases, to infringe on vital organs, or as was the case last year, to become malignant. It also creates large bumps on the skin known as nodules.

At ages 5 and 8, Zaquan had operations to remove neurofibromatosis clusters that were eating away at his left hip bone. The disease has left his left leg a few inches shorter than his right. After each operation, he had to relearn how to walk.

Because of his physical disability, he was placed in a special-education class at school and given the same homework every night, his mother said.

“I advocated for him,” Ms. West said. “I kept fighting, because he was no dummy. He was physically impaired, not mentally. I went out of my way to try to give him a better life. The system would have failed him more than it did if I hadn’t stepped in.” Her efforts led to his being moved from a special-education classroom to a regular one in second grade.

Ms. West, a single mother, acknowledges that her protective instincts made her a very controlling parent, and she did not allow Zaquan out of the house much, which limited his friendships.

“I was afraid for him,” she said. “The streets, they don’t care about your disability.”

When Mr. West entered high school, it was the first time he had truly been away from his mother’s watchful eyes. He began skipping class, often going to the park or wandering their Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, neighborhood with truant friends. He eventually dropped out of school.

“It was just me being out on my own and making my own choices,” Mr. West recalled.

Though she did not agree with her son’s decisions, Ms. West said that his need to explore was in some ways a result of her actions. “At a point, I stepped back,” she said, “to allow him to do certain things on his own and do what he wanted to do.”

In 2007, a couple of years after he dropped out, Mr. West joined the Door, an organization focused on empowering young people to reach their potential. There, he obtained his high school equivalency diploma.

Today, Mr. West is job hunting so that he can help pay his and his mother’s expenses.

But paying the monthly bills has become a struggle, Ms. West said, in part because of a recent change in her budget. In August, after an increase in income, they stopped receiving $324 a month in food stamps. The additional income did not cover all their expenses, however, and Ms. West eventually fell behind in the rent on their apartment.

Ms. West, who has been employed in various administrative jobs, currently works as a receptionist for Howie the Harp Advocacy Center, an agency that provides employment help to people with psychiatric disabilities. Her annual salary is about $25,000 before taxes. Her son receives $646 in Social Security disability benefits. After the family’s food stamps were cut off, Mr. West applied individually, and he now receives $200 in food stamps each month.

With the addition of Mr. West’s disability benefits and food stamps, their net monthly income is $2,213. Their contribution for the Section 8-subsidized apartment Ms. West has lived in for the past 30 years is $969.

Knowing she was in need of help, Ms. West’s boss told her about the Community Service Society, one of the organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. And the society drew $1,598 from the fund to cover her debt.

Ms. West remains a constant caretaker for her independent-minded son, who, she says, has come to accept her help grudgingly. She says that even if they are not on speaking terms after a disagreement, she is there to lend him a hand.

Both are continuing to deal with the inevitable challenges: Mr. West is awaiting word from doctors on whether a new growth in his lungs is cancerous. But one of his greatest assets, given all that he has overcome, is that he is comfortable in his own skin.

“I’m just always going to be me,” he said, “so why deal with somebody else?”

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3 innovations from Chicago science scene

Julian Gordon and Prasanthi Gandhi pose for a photograph amid various air-purifying devices in their lab at Inspirotec, 2201 W. Campbell Park Dr., Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012, in Chicago. The duo created the company that plans to develop and market an all-in-one air collector-detector, which will allow consumers to find out what allergens and pathogens might be in the air around them. (John J. Kim / December 14, 2012)

By Melissa Harris

11:15 p.m. CST, December 14, 2012

Internet-centered technology has advanced to the point that smartphone apps and e-commerce sites seemingly sprout overnight. Indeed, many can be built inexpensively from off-the-shelf software in weeks. Scientific breakthroughs, however, often require decades of research and millions of dollars. At the end of every year, I feature three teams of Chicago innovators whose ideas won’t hit the big-time soon but have the potential to improve, even save, our lives a decade from now.

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Man Tasered at Chicago police station and hospital dies

A man died Thursday night after getting Tasered at the Chicago Police Department's 5th District Station and again at a Far South Side hospital, authorities said.

By Peter Nickeas




Tribune reporter

8:13 a.m. CST, December 14, 2012

A man died after officers used a Taser on him at the 5th District police station on the Far South Side and again at Roseland Community Hospital, authorities said.

Philip O. Coleman, 38, was arrested around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday for beating his 69-year-old mother, injuring her head and legs, police said in a statement. Coleman "became combative" and spit blood on the faces of an officer and a supervisor, police said.

On Thursday, officers were taking Coleman from the 5th District station to court when "he again became combative" and a Taser was used "to gain control of the subject," police said.

Coleman was then taken to Roseland Community Hospital "where he became physically aggressive with hospital staff and accompanying CPS officers," police said. "Once again, reasonable force was employed, including a Taser deployment, to gain control of the offender."

Coleman was admitted to Roseland, where he was given a sedative and later died, police said in the statement. The department did not release any other details of the death.

Coleman was pronounced dead at 5:47 p.m. Thursday at Roseland. An autopsy is scheduled for today.

Coleman's father, Percy Coleman, said today that police “aren’t going to get away with it.”

“My son … (has) never been in trouble,” he said. “He’s a grad of the University of Chicago. They won’t be able to run him out that he’s a drug dealer, this and that.”

Percy Coleman refused to comment further.

The Independent Police Review Authority is investigating the incident, a spokesman for the agency said.

pnickeas@tribune.com
Twitter: @peternickeas

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Online gambling companies struggle to clear EU hurdles

LONDON (Reuters) – A partnership stuck on Friday between bwin.party Digital Entertainment and a Belgian casino group has defused one of many disputes pitting online gambling companies against governments across Europe.

The agreement came a month after bwin.party’s co-CEO was questioned by Belgian authorities in an escalating license dispute the company said was costing it 700,000 euros ($ 916,000) in monthly revenue.

By joining forces with Belcasinos, a unit of local casino owner Group Partouche, bwin.party neatly met a requirement to have a presence in Belgium to win a license for online poker, casino and sports betting.

The agreement is a rare bright spot in a tough regulatory environment for online gambling companies across the continent.

Betting online on sports events or playing poker on the Internet are increasingly popular pastimes in Europe, where operators say they are held back by unfair and discriminatory rules in many European Union countries.

“It is not a European Union in any way, it is a patchwork of different countries who happen to be in the EU,” said Professor Leighton Vaughan Williams, director of the betting research unit at Nottingham Business School in central England.

“Different countries have different vested interests and different ideas they are trying to promote. Are they trying to protect consumers or to maximize their tax take?” he said.

The 27 EU member states retain the right to regulate their gambling sectors as they see fit, but rules must comply with EU law, broadly meaning they must be consistent and proportionate.

Some companies are scaling back activities in European markets where, they say, regulatory risks are too high or tax rates are punitive.

Betting exchange operator Betfair for instance said this week it was halting marketing and investment in unregulated markets, including EU members Cyprus, Germany and Greece.

William Hill, Britain‘s largest bookmaker, has joined Betfair in pulling out of Greece and has also stopped offering sports betting to German residents because of a 5 percent turnover tax.

STAKES RISE

The stakes are high. Online gambling is growing at an annual rate of almost 15 percent in the EU and will be worth an estimated 13 billion euros ($ 17 billion) by 2015, according to EU figures.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive, stepped in to the debate in October when it published a medium-term plan to clarify regulations and promote cooperation between member states, ruling out EU-wide legislation for the time being.

“All citizens must be adequately protected, money laundering and fraud must be prevented, sport must be safeguarded against betting-related match-fixing and national rules must comply with EU law,” Internal Market and Services Commissioner Michel Barnier said, setting out his approach.

The online operators accuse the European Commission of failing to follow through properly on complaints lodged about regulation in no fewer than 20 or the 27 EU member states.

Barnier has written to member states accused of breaching EU law in the way they handle gambling, seeking an update on the situation by the end of the year.

However, the industry questions whether the EU will go into battle over gambling when it is facing so many other problems.

“They will chip away at some of the most blatant ones,” said Clive Hawkswood, chief executive of trade body the Remote Gambling Association. “What we really need is for them to take some to the European Court and take enforcement action.”

BRITISH TAXES

Gambling companies themselves have taken advantage of different tax regimes where they work in their favor.

This is illustrated in Britain, historically the biggest betting market in Europe and a place with a well-developed gambling culture where bookmakers have operated in town centers for 50 years.

In recent years, most betting companies have moved their British online betting operations to Britain’s overseas territory of Gibraltar. There they are sheltered from a 15 percent tax on gross profit faced by operators based in Britain.

New legislation will close off that loophole after 2014. The shift to a taxation model based on the location of the consumer was expected to cost gambling companies as much as 270 million pounds ($ 435 million) by 2016-17.

Analyst Nick Batram at brokerage Peel Hunt said smaller players would likely be picked off because of the impact of higher tax and regulatory burdens across Europe.

“It is getting more complicated and more expensive. There is more change afoot but it should ultimately play into the hands of the better-capitalized companies.”

In that vein, William Hill has provisionally agreed a 485 million pound takeover of smaller rival Sportingbet, keen to get its hands on the company’s regulated Australian betting business.

“I think there is a lot more M&A activity to come,” said Batram.

(Additional reporting by Rosalba O’Brien; Editing by David Holmes)

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Sally Struthers enters not guilty plea for DUI

YORK, Maine (AP) — Sally Struthers has entered a not guilty plea on charges she drove drunk in Maine, where she was performing in a musical.

The Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/XleJBq) reports the 65-year-old Struthers did not appear in York District Court on Thursday, and entered the plea through her lawyer.

Police arrested Struthers on Sept. 12 on U.S. Route 1 in the resort town Ogunquit (oh-GUHNG’-kwit). She was charged with criminal operating under the influence.

Struthers is best known for her role as Gloria Stivic in the 1970s TV sitcom “All in the Family.” She had been performing at the Ogunquit Playhouse in the musical “9 to 5.”

Struthers is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 13 for a bench trial.

___

Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com

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HealthBridge Managemant Ordered to Reinstate Striking Workers

A federal judge in Hartford has ordered a Connecticut nursing home chain to reinstate nearly 600 workers who have been on strike since July 3, and to rescind the pension and health care cuts it had imposed.

Judge Robert N. Chatigny of the United States District Court in Connecticut ruled on Tuesday night that the nursing homes’ owner, HealthBridge Management, had broken the law by refusing to bargain in good faith and by imposing the cuts before a true negotiating impasse had been reached.

Judge Chatigny issued an injunction that ordered HealthBridge to reinstate the workers by next Monday, even if it means ousting hundreds of the replacement workers hired to run the nursing homes after the strike began.

“Everybody is quite happy about the decision,” said Vern Scatliffe, a nurse’s aide, as he picketed outside Danbury Health Care Center, one of the five nursing homes — the others are in Milford, Newington, Stamford and Westport — where the workers walked out to protest the cuts HealthBridge had imposed. “The judge’s order is a big relief to me. I can now go back to work and earn my living again.”

Saying the company was disappointed by the judge’s decision, Lisa Crutchfield, a HealthBridge spokeswoman, said it had filed an appeal with the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, asking it to overturn the injunction.

“We are acting in the best interests of our residents — their well-being is paramount to us,” she said. Ms. Crutchfield said the order to reinstate the strikers would “expose residents to the very people who sought to do them harm” during the walkout. HealthBridge has accused the strikers of several acts of sabotage, including changing the names on several patients’ doors and wheelchairs and switching the names of some residents in Alzheimer’s units.

Deborah Chernoff, a spokeswoman for the strikers’ union, the New England Health Care Employees Union, said it had opposed any sabotage. She suggested that the allegations themselves were suspicious, noting that they were first made two weeks after the strike began.

The strike began after HealthBridge declared the negotiations deadlocked and then imposed changes that included freezing the workers’ pensions, requiring many to pay at least $6,000 more a year for family health coverage and eliminating six paid sick days and a week’s vacation for many workers.

Two weeks after the strike began, the striking employees, who belong to a branch of the Service Employees International Union, offered to return to work, but the company refused to take them back. Judge Chatigny said it was “just and proper” to reinstate them “because there is a pressing need to restore the status quo” from before the company made the changes, which he found to be illegal.

The judge acted only after the National Labor Relations Board’s office in Hartford sought an injunction.

David Pickus, president of the strikers’ union, said, “This ruling is a decisive victory for workers and a sign that HealthBridge cannot get away with its unfair and illegal treatment of its employees.”

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Push for minimum wage hike intensifies

NEW YORK — Before the recession, Amie Crawford was an interior designer, earning $50,000 a year patterning baths and cabinets for architectural firms.

Now, she's a "team member" at the Protein Bar in Chicago, where she makes $8.50 an hour, slightly more than minimum wage. It was the only job she could find after months of looking. Crawford, now 56, says she needed to take the job to stop the hemorrhaging of her retirement accounts.

In her spare time, Crawford works with a Chicago group called Action Now, which is staging protests to raise the minimum wage in a state where it hasn't been raised since 2006.

"Thousands of workers in Chicago, let alone in the rest of the country, deserve to have a livable wage, and I truly believe that when someone is given a livable wage, that is going to bolster growth in communities," she said.

If it seems that workers such as Crawford are more prevalent these days, protesting outside stores including Wal-Mart, McDonald's and Wendy's to call for higher wages, it may be because there are more workers in these jobs than there were a few years ago.

Quiz: How much do you know about the 'fiscal cliff'?

Of the 1.9 million jobs created during the recovery, 43% of them have been in the low-wage industries of retail, food services and employment services, whose workforces include temporary employees who often work part time and without benefits or health insurance, according to a study by Annette Bernhardt, policy co-director of the National Employment Law Project in New York.

At the same time, many workers such as Crawford who have been displaced from their jobs are experiencing significant earnings losses after getting a new job. About one-third of the 3 million workers displaced from their jobs from 2009 to 2011 and then reemployed said their earnings had dropped 20% or more, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"What these protests are signaling are that working families are at breaking point after three decades of rising inequality and stagnant wages," Bernhardt said.

The rise of low-paying jobs in the recovery, experts said, has cut the spending power of workers who once worked in middle-class occupations. Construction workers who made $30 an hour, for example, during the housing boom may now find themselves working on a temporary basis.

"You see workers trading down their living standards," said Joseph Brusuelas, a senior economist for Bloomberg who studies the U.S. economy.

Now, Brusuelas said, there's an oversupply of workers and they're willing to take any job in a sluggish economy, even if they're overqualified. That includes temporary jobs without benefits, and minimum wage positions such as the one Crawford took.

Although the 2012 election might have brought the idea of income inequality to the forefront of voters' minds, efforts to increase wages for these workers are sputtering in an era of austerity when businesses say they are barely hiring, much less paying workers more.

The New Jersey state legislature handed Gov. Chris Christie a bill to raise the state's minimum wage to $8.50 an hour from the federal minimum of $7.25 this month, but he hasn't signed it and has signaled he might not. An earlier effort in New Jersey to tie the minimum wage to the consumer price index was vetoed by the governor.

Democratic lawmakers in Illinois are also trying to push a bill that would increase the minimum wage — an earlier effort this year failed. The Legislature last voted to raise its minimum wage in 2006, before the recession, and the governor agreed.

"A higher minimum wage means a person has to pay more for each worker," said Ted Dabrowski, vice president of policy at the Illinois Policy Institute, which opposes raising the minimum wage. "Companies have a few choices — increase prices, reduce the number of people they hire, cut employee hours or reduce benefits. When employees become too expensive, they have no choice but to reduce the number of workers."

The Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., however, says there is little indication from economic research that increases in the minimum wage lead to lower employment, and, because higher wages mean workers have more money to spend, employment can actually increase.

A bill to raise the federal minimum wage was introduced to the U.S. Senate by Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) in July and referred to committee, where it has sat ever since.

"Business lobbyists are aware of the campaign and are aggressively working to stop it," said Madeline Talbott, the former lead organizer of Chicago's Action Now. "We've had a hard time getting our legislature to approve it."

But Talbott and other advocates say that the protests that have spread throughout Illinois and the country in recent weeks might force the issue to its head.

"You saw it happening 18 months ago when Occupy started — workers are now realizing that they have rights too in the workplace," said Camille Rivera, executive director of United NY, one of the groups working to raise the minimum wage in New York. "It's a good time for us to be fighting these issues, when companies are making millions of dollars in profits."

The protests are bringing out people who might not usually participate, including Marcus Rose, 33. Rose, who has worked the grill at a Wendy's for 21/2 months, was marching outside that Wendy's in Brooklyn recently on a day of protests, responding as organizers shouted lines such as "Wendy's, Wendy's, can't you see, $7.25 is not for me."

"If you don't stand up for nothing, you can't fall for anything," he said.

Talbott, the Action Now organizer, says that people such as Rose may make a difference in whether lawmakers at the state and national level will listen to the protests. The Obama victory energized the working class to believe that they could fight against big-money interests and win, she said.

"It comes down to the traditional situation — whether the power is in the hands of organized money or of organized people," she said. "The organized money side tends to win, but it doesn't have to win. The more people you are, the more chance you have against money."

alana.semuels@latimes.com

ricardo.lopez2@latimes.com

Semuels reported from New York and Lopez from Los Angeles

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Man dies after falling from Mag Mile hotel while taking photos

A man who fell down the smoke-stack at a downtown hotel has died.The man, 23, was trying to take a photo from the top of the Intercontinental Hotel on Michigan Avenue. (WGN - Chicago)

By Peter Nickeas




Tribune reporter

8:58 a.m. CST, December 13, 2012

A man trying to take a photo from the top of the Intercontinental Hotel on Michigan Avenue died after falling 22 feet down a smokestack, authorities said.

It took rescue crews four hours to remove the 23-year-old man from Minnesota, at one point cutting through a wall and wedging boards in the chute to keep him from falling farther down.

Covered in a white sheet, he was wheeled into an ambulance inside the hotel's basement garage around 5:05 a.m. and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the Fire Department and the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Rescue crews responded to the hotel at 505 N. Michigan Ave. around 1:10 a.m. after someone called and reported that a person threatening to jump from the roof. Firefighters later learned the man fell down the smokestack, according to Fire Department spokeswoman Meg Ahlheim.

A "confined space rescue" was called, bringing 30 companies and about 125 firefighters and paramedics to the scene.

They discovered that the man had fallen 22 feet down a 6-foot wide smokestack and was wedged where the chute angled before dropping 42 floors, Ahlheim said. Crews cut into the wall and used wood boards to block the man from falling any farther, she said.

"We had to send members from the top down on ropes to assess his condition. The whole time we’re monitoring the situation for toxic gases," said Special Operations Chief Michael Fox. "We found the best way to get out him was to go about two floors below, and we had to cut the duct work for the chimney, which was made out of steel. And eventually we ended up sliding the victim down into the hole and removing him from the building."

The man was able to communicate with his girlfriend, either with phone calls or text messages, Ahlheim said, but firefighters lost contact with him around 3:15 a.m.

A representative of the hotel was not available for comment.

pnickeas@tribune.com
Twitter: @peternickeas

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