Brooklyn resident wins Miss America crown

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A 23-year-old blonde from Brooklyn, N.Y., won the Miss America crown Saturday night after responding to a question about armed guards in schools, saying she opposed fighting violence with violence.

En route to her victory in the Las Vegas pageant, Mallory Hagan also tap danced to James Brown's "Get Up Off of That Thing," strutted down the runway in an asymmetrical white gown, and donned a revealing black string bikini.

She defeated Miss South Carolina Ali Rogers, who took second, and Miss Oklahoma Alicia Clifton, who finished third.

She wins a $50,000 college scholarship and gets the crown for one year. Her platform, the issue she will promote during her reign, is fighting child sexual abuse. She said the issue is close to her heart because the women in her family themselves grappled with sexual abuse.

The aspiring cosmetic company executive has been competing in beauty pageants for a decade, starting as a teen in the Miss Alabama's Outstanding Teen contest. She competed for Miss New York in 2010 and 2011 before winning last year.

She is the first Miss America from Brooklyn and the fourth from New York state. The previous winner from that state was actress Vanessa Williams, who became the first black winner when she took the crown in 1984.

Hagan said she moved to New York from Alabama with less than $1,000 in her pocket. She lives in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn and studies communications at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

She was good enough during preliminary Miss Universe contests to be chosen as one of 16 semifinalists who moved on to compete in the main show. Her bid lasted through swimsuit, evening wear, and talent competitions that saw cuts after each round.

Moments before she won, "Good Morning America" weatherman Sam Champion asked her if schools should hire armed guards in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. shooting.

"I don't think the proper was to fight violence is with violence," she replied. "I think the proper way is to educate people on guns and the ways we can use them properly. We can lock them up, we can have gun safety classes, we can have a longer waiting period."

Hagan defeated several competitors who grabbed headlines this year because of their backstories.

Miss District of Columbia plans to undergo a preventive double mastectomy to reduce her risk of breast cancer, which killed her mother and grandmother.

Miss Montana was the pageant's first autistic contestant. Miss Iowa has Tourette's syndrome. And Miss Maine lost more than 50 pounds before winning her state crown.

During the opening number, when all the queens gave short quips about their states, Hagan referenced last year's superstorm, saying, "Sandy may have been swept away our shores but never our spirit."

She is expected to spend her title reign on a nationwide speaking tour and raising money for the Children's Miracle Network, the organization's official charity.

The 92nd Miss America annual show held this year at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip is the culmination of a week of preliminary competitions and months of preparations for the titleholders from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The pageant, which started as little more than an Atlantic City bathing suit revue, broke viewership records in its heyday and bills itself as one of the world's largest scholarships programs for women.

But like other pageants, the show has struggled to stay relevant as national attitudes regarding women's rights and civil rights have changed.

More recently, the rise of reality television has provided a superabundance of options for Americans interested in seeing attractive young people in competitive pursuits.

___

Hannah Dreier can be reached at http://twitter.com/hannahdreier

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The story behind Tribune's broken deal

At the end of 2007, real estate tycoon Sam Zell took control of Tribune Co. in a deal that promised to re-energize the media conglomerate. But the company struggled under the huge debt burden the deal created, and less than a year later, it filed for bankruptcy.

One of Chicago's most iconic companies — parent to the Chicago Tribune — was propelled into a protracted and in many ways unprecedented odyssey through Chapter 11 reorganization.

On Dec. 31, after four years, Tribune Co. finally emerged from court protection under new ownership, but at a heavy cost. The company's value was diminished, its reputation was tarnished and its ability to respond to market opportunities during its long bankruptcy was constrained.

Tribune Co.'s bankruptcy saga began as an era of superheated Wall Street deal-making fueled by cheap money was coming to an end. The company's tale is emblematic of the American financial crisis itself, in which a seemingly insatiable appetite for speculative risk using exotic investment instruments helped trigger an economic collapse of historic proportions.

Tribune reporters Michael Oneal and Steve Mills, in a four-part series that begins today, tell the story of Tribune Co.'s journey into and through bankruptcy, throwing a spotlight on the key decisions and missed opportunities that marked a perilous time in the history of the company, the media industry and the economy.

Read the full story, "Part one: Zell's big gamble," as a digitalPLUS member.
To view videos and photos and for a look at the rest of the series visit, chicagotribune.com/brokendeal.

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Bulls hold on to beat Knicks 108-101

Bulls beat the Knicks 108-101 on Friday.

NEW YORK — Three players and a coach were not around to witness the end of the last Bulls-Knicks game at Madison Square Garden.

That coach was New York's Mike Woodson, who forecasted another battle royale.

"Chicago, the Celtics, Indiana … teams that play defense and get after it, there will be (intense) games," he said. "I expect (this) will be no different."

It turned out completely different, a walk in the park for the Bulls — for 44 minutes. But even after giving up 12 straight points late in the fourth quarter, Chicago left town with a solid 108-101 victory.

"When you build a cushion," coach Tom Thibodeau said, "you can withstand things not going your way. The most important thing is getting the win."

Marco Belinelli came through at the end, hitting 5 of 6 free throws and making a steal to lock up the victory. The Bulls improved to 3-0 against the Knicks, a mark that pleases native New Yorker Joakim Noah to no end.

"It feels great," he said. "Everybody's locked in when we play the Knicks. It's easy to get up for games like this — big stage, playing in the Garden."

Luol Deng scored 33 points on 13-for-18 shooting, besting his season high of 29 that came Dec. 21 in that wild, four-point Bulls victory in New York that featured nine technical fouls.

"Honestly it's not about the scoring," he said. "I just want to play well. I score for the team, but I don't go out trying to get big numbers. I never focus on one thing."

Carmelo Anthony scored 39 points, but most came after the game was decided. And he shot just 14-for-32.

"(Deng) guarded Carmelo about as well as you can," Thibodeau said.

There were no scraps or technical fouls Friday, just superb basketball from the visitors, who improved to 9-1 on the road against Eastern Conference foes.

The Bulls scored the game's first five points and cruised to a 57-36 halftime lead.

Noah (nine points, eight rebounds, four assists, four blocks) surprised observers by reprising his "finger guns" celebration after nailing a 15-foot jumper in the first quarter. Noah had ditched that after the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

"I just got too hyped," he said, implying he would not do it again.

The Bulls allowed New York to score 41 points in the fourth quarter — and nail 11 of 17 from deep in the second half.

"We opened up the 3-point line against a team that can shoot the 3," Thibodeau said. "We want to learn and improve. (But) I want to look at the game in totality."

Until the late flurry, the Bulls were totally dominant, building a 101-80 lead with 3 minutes, 47 seconds to play.

"I wish every game was here," Noah said. "It's the best, man."

tgreenstein@tribune.com

Twitter @TeddyGreenstein

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Softbank to sell stake in eAccess to Samsung, others: source

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Softbank Corp is in final talks to sell its stake in eAccess Ltd, representing around 67 percent of voting rights, to Samsung Electronics Co and 10 others, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The sale would ease concerns that Softbank could hold a monopoly on spectrum allocation designated by Japan's Communications Ministry, the source said.

Softbank, which is awaiting regulatory approval to buy a 70 percent stake in No. 3 U.S. mobile carrier Sprint Nextel Corp , bought Japanese rival eAccess last October as it stepped up competition with its nearest competitor KDDI Corp .

Softbank turned eAccess into a wholly owned subsidiary on January 1 after a share exchange, using 220 billion yen ($2.47 billion) worth of its own shares.

After dividing eAccess shares into voting and non-voting shares, Softbank is considering reducing its ownership of eAccess voting rights to less than one-third, the source said.

Non-voting shares make up around 1 percent of overall shares. The sale of eAccess' voting rights would total several billion yen.

Other than Samsung, likely buyers include Sweden's LM Ericsson , Orix Corp , the source said, adding that the eAccess voting shares would be divided between companies into hundreds of millions of yen each.

Softbank said on Saturday the news was not announced by the company and that it continued to mull options regarding its share holdings.

The Nikkei business newspaper reported earlier on Saturday that Softbank was also considering selling the eAccess stake to Finland's Nokia Siemens Networks and five Japanese leasing companies.

Softbank cutting its eAccess stake would allow the company to work around the Communications Ministry's policy on spectrum allocation to telecom service providers and avoid suggestions of any monopoly, but still allow Softbank or eAccess to seek spectrum.

Under the policy, either a parent company, or one of its units in which it owns more than 33 percent, can apply for an allocation of spectrum.

Softbank will remain the top shareholder in eAccess but lose veto power after the sale, which is expected to close by end January and raise several billion yen, the Nikkei daily said.

(Additional reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bangalore, Writing by Mari Saito; Editing by Michael Perry)

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Rookies rule at the Sony Open

HONOLULU (AP) — Two days into his PGA Tour career, Russell Henley was in the record book.

Henley putted for birdie on every hole Friday on his way to a second straight round of a 7-under 63, giving him a two-shot lead over fellow rookie Scott Langley and Scott Piercy in the Sony Open.

He was at 14-under 126, breaking the 36-hole tournament scoring record by two shots.

"It's pretty surreal," Henley said.

In the first full-field event of the season, the rookies were leading the way. All they did on another windy, warm day along the shores of Oahu was trade places atop the leaderboard. Langley opened with a 62 and followed that with a 66. That typically would be enough to stay in the lead.

Langley said he tried to stay aggressive, and then he felt he had no choice. He birdied his last three holes to reach 128.

Piercy looked as though he had a chance to catch Henley in the afternoon, even as a gentle wind turned into nothing more than a breeze, but he spent most of his time grinding over pars. A birdie on the par-5 ninth, his last hole, gave him another 64.

That means Henley and Langley will be paired together for the third straight day, this time in the last group going into the weekend.

The college graduates have been good friends for the past few years, each helping when the other was going through a bad spell. They have been linked together since they shared low amateur honors at Pebble Beach in the 2010 U.S. Open.

"It's never easy to back up a really good round, I kind of got off to a little slower start," Langley said. "But it was certainly nice to finish the way I did and kind of get back in it with Russ. He played so well, and I was just trying to keep pace as much as I can. To finish that way was really good."

The previous 36-hole record at the Sony Open was 128 by five players, most recently John Cook in 2002.

Matt Kuchar made eagle on the 18th hole to finish off a 63. He was three shots behind.

That the scores were low — six players had a 63 or better on Friday — was no surprise. Oahu hasn't received much rain over the last several months, and in tropical sunshine, the fairways were running fast and the greens were pure. And for those coming over from a windy week on Maui, it truly felt like paradise.

"Coming from last week, it feels really easy out there," Kuchar said. "This course, as simple as it seems, it's one of the tougher courses on tour. If you're not playing well, you're going to make some bogeys. ... I understand the wind is supposed to really die down over the weekend, so I certainly expect low scoring. The course is in great shape, greens are beautiful, so there's going to be a lot more birdies and foot has definitely got to be down on the pedal."

Dustin Johnson won't get a chance to match Ernie Els as the only players to sweep the two Hawaii events. Johnson, who won last week at Kapalua, withdrew after playing nine holes because of the flu.

"I feel like I'm coming down with whatever my caddie's got," said Johnson, who was 3 over at the turn. "Just not feeling well. Stomach hurts, headache, tired."

Chris Kirk made a pair of tap-in eagles — a 5-iron into the wind to 3 feet on the ninth, a 7-iron with the wind to 2 feet on the 18th — for a 62 that put him at 10-under 130 along with Tim Clark (66) and Charles Howell III (64).

Pat Perez, working on his new attitude of seeing silver linings instead of black clouds, ran off three straight birdies early in his round for a 63 and was another shot back.

The last rookie to win his PGA Tour debut was Garrett Wilson when he captured the Tucson Open in 2001, the same week as the winners-only Mercedes Championships at Kapalua. The Sony Open is only at the halfway point, which made the debut of the rookies no less impressive.

Henley took over the lead for the first time with a shot into 8 feet to a front pin on No. 2, his 11th hole of the day. With birdies on the fifth and sixth holes, it looked as though he might pull away when he stretched his lead to four shots.

Langley came to life with a 7-iron and a 20-foot birdie putt on the seventh, then a sand wedge into the par-4 eighth and more work than he wanted on the par-5 ninth, when he got up-and-down for birdie from near the hospitality tent to the right of the green.

"This feels like a Monday qualifier," Langley said of the low scores, not to mention the company he has been keeping. Langley and Henley were born two weeks apart.

They became friends after Pebble Beach when they flew together to Royal Portrush for the Palmer Cup, and they helped each other on the practice range when their games were in need of repair.

The difference was their road to the PGA Tour.

Henley won a Nationwide Tour event while still at Georgia, and then he won twice on that tour last year to easily finish among the top 25 on the money list.

Langley, a former NCAA champion from Illinois, went through a bad patch last year when he finished last in the second stage of Q-school and had no status. He kicked around the smaller tours, tried a few Monday qualifiers, and then made his way through Q-school and earned his card with two shots to spare.

They're neck-and-neck going into the weekend, both hopeful they ride their momentum.

Piercy didn't know much about them, and he wasn't alone.

"It's Russell something and Langley? I think Russell won when he was in college, right?" Piercy said. "Hey, they're playing well. I think I played in five final groups as a rookie and didn't come through. There's a learning curve. But maybe their curve is quicker than mine."

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Alicia Keys, Katy Perry top bill at Obama inauguration parties

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – R&B singer Alicia Keys, country guitar slinger Brad Paisley and pop star Katy Perry are some of the A-list performers who will entertain partygoers at President Barack Obama’s inaugural celebration, organizers said on Friday.

Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder, two prominent elder statesmen of American music, also will perform at one of the three official parties planned for the onset of Obama’s second term in office, the inaugural committee said.

Other performers include salsa singer Marc Anthony, rappers Far East Movement and Nick Cannon, pop band fun., R&B singers Usher and John Legend, gospel choir Soul Children of Chicago, and members of the cast of the TV show “Glee.”

Obama’s swearing-in ceremony on January 21 is expected to draw up to 800,000 people, less than half of the 1.8 million who flocked to Washington in 2009 to celebrate the United States’ first African American president.

That historic event featured 10 official balls. This time around, organizers are planning only two – one for military servicemembers and one for the general public. Organizers also plan a children’s concert for the Saturday before the event.

Organizers did not say who would perform at which event.

The inauguration committee previously announced performers for the swearing-in ceremony. R&B star Beyoncé Knowles will sing the national anthem, while country singer Kelly Clarkson is scheduled to give a rendition of “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.” Singer-songwriter James Taylor will perform “America the Beautiful.”

It will be Beyoncé’s third inauguration performance. Four years ago, she serenaded the first couple with Etta James’ “At Last” at an inaugural ball, and in 2001 she performed at the children’s concert with her band, Destiny’s Child.

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan)

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Flu season puts businesses and employees in a bind

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly half the 70 employees at a Ford dealership in Clarksville, Ind., have been out sick at some point in the past month. It didn't have to be that way, the boss says.

"If people had stayed home in the first place, a lot of times that spread wouldn't have happened," says Marty Book, a vice president at Carriage Ford. "But people really want to get out and do their jobs, and sometimes that's a detriment."

The flu season that has struck early and hard across the U.S. is putting businesses and employees alike in a bind. In this shaky economy, many Americans are reluctant to call in sick, something that can backfire for their employers.

Flu was widespread in 47 states last week, up from 41 the week before, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. The only states without widespread flu were California, Mississippi and Hawaii. And the main strain of the virus circulating tends to make people sicker than usual.

Blake Fleetwood, president of Cook Travel in New York, says his agency is operating with less than 40 percent of its staff of 35 because of the flu and other ailments.

"The people here are working longer hours and it puts a lot of strain on everyone," Fleetwood says. "You don't know whether to ask people with the flu to come in or not." He says the flu is also taking its toll on business as customers cancel their travel plans: "People are getting the flu and they're reduced to a shriveling little mess and don't feel like going anywhere."

Many workers go to the office even when they're sick because they are worried about losing their jobs, says John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an employer consulting firm. Other employees report for work out of financial necessity, since roughly 40 percent of U.S. workers don't get paid if they are out sick. Some simply have a strong work ethic and feel obligated to show up.

Flu season typically costs employers $10.4 billion for hospitalization and doctor's office visits, according to the CDC. That does not include the costs of lost productivity from absences.

At Carriage Ford, Book says the company plans to make flu shots mandatory for all employees.

Linda Doyle, CEO of the Northcrest Community retirement home in Ames, Iowa, says the company took that step this year for its 120 employees, providing the shots at no cost. It is also supplying face masks for all staff.

And no one is expected to come into work if sick, she says.

So far, the company hasn't seen an outbreak of flu cases.

"You keep your fingers crossed and hope it continues this way," Doyle says. "You see the news and it's frightening. We just want to make sure that we're doing everything possible to keep everyone healthy. Cleanliness is really the key to it. Washing your hands. Wash, wash, wash."

Among other steps employers can take to reduce the spread of the flu on the job: holding meetings via conference calls, staggering shifts so that fewer people are on the job at the same time, and avoiding handshaking.

Newspaper editor Rob Blackwell says he had taken only two sick days in the last two years before coming down with the flu and then pneumonia in the past two weeks. He missed several days the first week of January and has been working from home the past week.

"I kept trying to push myself to get back to work because, generally speaking, when I'm sick I just push through it," says Blackwell, the Washington bureau chief for the daily trade paper American Banker.

Connecticut is the only state that requires some businesses to pay employees when they are out sick. Cities such as San Francisco and Washington have similar laws.

Challenger and others say attitudes are changing, and many companies are rethinking their sick policies to avoid officewide outbreaks of the flu and other infectious diseases.

"I think companies are waking up to the fact right now that you might get a little bit of gain from a person coming into work sick, but especially when you have an epidemic, if 10 or 20 people then get sick, in fact you've lost productivity," Challenger says.

___

Associated Press writers Mike Stobbe in Atlanta, Eileen A.J. Connelly in New York, Paul Wiseman in Washington, Barbara Rodriguez in Des Moines, Iowa, and Jim Salter in St. Louis contributed to this report.

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Britney Spears and fiance end yearlong engagement

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney Spears announced Friday that she has ended her yearlong engagement, capping a week of changes that included her leaving "The X Factor" and promising fans she was returning her focus to music.

Within hours of confirming her departure from the Fox reality series, Spears also announced that her relationship with talent agent Jason Trawick had ended.

"Jason and I have decided to call off our engagement," Spears said in the statement. "I'll always adore him and we will remain great friends."

Spears' publicist Jeff Raymond said the breakup was a difficult decision made by "two mature adults."

"I love and cherish her and her boys, and we will be close forever," Trawick said in a joint statement that was first reported by People magazine.

Trawick also resigned his role Friday as a Spears' co-conservator, with Superior Court Judge Reva Goetz approving his departure from the case.

Spears and Trawick got engaged in December 2011 and he was added as her co-conservator in April.

Spears, 31, has been under a court-supervised conservatorship since February 2008, with her father and another co-conservator, Andrew Wallet, having control over numerous aspects of her personal life. The case was opened after several incidents of erratic behavior by the pop singer and a pair of hospitalizations, but Spears has recovered and she appeared weekly on "X Factor."

She said in a statement that judging young talent made her miss performing. "I can't wait to get back out there and do what I love most," she said in a statement.

Her father Jamie Spears met with Goetz for about an hour on Friday but left before a hearing where Trawick's resignation was announced.

Trawick has served as Spears' agent and the pair started dating in 2009.

Trawick did not have authority over Spears' finances, which have rebounded since her public meltdown. Goetz recently reviewed and approved of an accounting that showed Spears ended 2010 with more than $27.5 million in assets, including nearly $15 million in cash.

Attorneys handling the case are expected to file updated financial statements in the coming months.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP .

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Boeing Dreamliner to undergo federal safety review

Plagued by one mishap after another, Boeing Co.'s much-heralded 787 Dreamliner passenger jet for the 21st century is feeling new heat from federal regulators.

Days after one of the planes caught fire while parked in Boston and another experienced a fuel leak, the Federal Aviation Administration has launched an unusual "comprehensive safety review of Boeing 787 critical systems." This includes a sweeping evaluation of the way Boeing designs, manufactures and assembles the aircraft.

The review — just 17 months after the FAA gave the go-ahead to the new $200-million-plus plane — does not ground the 50 Dreamliners currently being flown by eight airlines around the globe.

Since the inception of its next-generation passenger jet, Boeing has touted the revolutionary way the Dreamliner is made and the way it operates. But those novel technologies will now attract greater scrutiny from U.S. regulators after recent events have raised questions about Dreamliner safety.

New planes, in general, have "teething" issues as they are introduced. But, industry analysts said, the type of review the Dreamliner is undergoing is rare, and passenger jets haven't been subject to this sort of sweeping government review for decades.

Boeing said it will participate in the review with the FAA and believes the process will underscore customers' and the traveling public's confidence in the reliability of the aircraft.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA chief Michael Huerta launched the effort Friday at a news conference in Washington, revealing plans for a "comprehensive safety review of Boeing 787 critical systems." This includes a complete evaluation of the aircraft, including an assessment of the way Boeing designs, manufactures and assembles the aircraft.

The move comes despite the "unprecedented" certification process in which FAA technical experts logged 200,000 hours of work over nearly two years and flew on numerous test flights, Huerta said. There were more than a dozen new special conditions developed during the certification process because of the Dreamliner's innovative design.

"The purpose of the review is to validate the work that we've done," Huerta said, "and to look at the quality and other processes to ensure that effective oversight is being done."

Certification of the Dreamliner was completed Aug. 25, 2010, and the first plane was delivered to All Nippon Airways a month later. It was more than three years late because of design problems and supplier issues.

The Dreamliner, a twin-aisle aircraft that can seat 210 to 290 passengers, is the first large commercial jet with more than half its structure made of composite materials (carbon fibers meshed together with epoxy) rather than aluminum sheets. Another innovative application is the changeover from hydraulically actuated systems typically found on passenger jets to electrically powered systems involving lithium ion batteries.

For instance, Boeing has said electric brakes "significantly reduce the mechanical complexity of the braking system and eliminate the potential for delays associated with leaking brake hydraulic fluid, leaking valves and other hydraulic failures." Because of these technologies, Boeing says, the new plane burns 20% less fuel than other jetliners of a similar size.

But the use of such extensive electronic systems was called into question when a smoldering fire was discovered Monday on the underbelly of a Dreamliner operated by Japan Airlines Co. after the 173 passengers and 11 crew members had deplaned at the gate.

The incident prompted the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate.

"We don't know the cause of the fire, but it's a serious issue," said Scott Hamilton, an aviation industry consultant and managing director of Leeham Co. in Issaquah, Wash. "Did the FAA miss something? Did Boeing have an oversight in the design process? Was there a problem in the supply chain? These are questions we don't have answers to."

In December, the FAA ordered inspections of fuel line connectors because of risks of leaks and fires.

On the same day, a United Airlines Dreamliner flight from Houston to Newark, N.J., was diverted to New Orleans after an electrical problem popped up mid-flight. Qatar Airways, which had accepted delivery of a Dreamliner just a month earlier, grounded the aircraft for the same problem that United experienced.

Still, both LaHood and Huerta insist the Dreamliner is safe. Ray Conner, Boeing's chief executive of commercial aircraft, attended the conference and said the company was "fully committed to resolving any issue related to the safety" of the Dreamliner.

The Chicago company has taken 848 orders for Dreamliners from airlines and aircraft leasing firms around the world. The price ranges from $206.8 million to $243.6 million per jet, depending on the version ordered.

Major parts for the plane are assembled at various locations worldwide — including Southern California, Russia, Japan and Italy — and then shipped to Boeing's facilities in Everett, Wash., where they are "snapped together" in three days once production hits full speed, compared with a month the conventional way.

Boeing currently is making five Dreamliners a month. The company plans to reach 10 a month late this year.

Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with Teal Group Corp., a Virginia research firm, said the review will be beneficial for the Dreamliner program in the long run.

"There's no showstopper here; it's a short-term embarrassment for the company," he said. "Then again, this program is full of short-term embarrassments."

william.hennigan@latimes.com

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Cyanide: 'A poison we fear'

If Urooj Khan's remains are exhumed in coming days as expected, authorities will attempt to retrace the devastating course of one molecule through his body.

Cyanide, a toxic combination of carbon and nitrogen, exists throughout nature in trace amounts in certain plants, seeds and soils. It is also produced by some bacteria and fungi.

In its pure solid or gas forms, however, cyanide can be acutely poisonous, earning it an ignoble reputation in human history as an efficient killer — from World War II Nazi death camps to the Jonestown massacre to the Chicago Tylenol murders.

"It is a poison we fear," said Frank Paloucek, a pharmacist and toxicologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "It is a really dangerous poison, and once you get enough of it, there is not much we can do."

That appears to be the case for Khan, a West Rogers Park businessman who died of cyanide poisoning in July just weeks after winning a million-dollar lottery jackpot. The Cook County medical examiner's office initially found that Khan died of natural causes, and he was buried in Rosehill Cemetery. But after a relative voiced concern, extensive toxicological tests showed he died of lethal levels of cyanide. Chicago police and Cook County prosecutors are investigating his death as a homicide.

The murder mystery, first revealed in the Tribune on Monday, has sparked worldwide interest. It comes more than 30 years after the murders of seven Chicago-area residents who ingested cyanide-spiked Tylenol capsules spread fear across the country. The FBI reopened its investigation into the killings four years ago, but no one has ever been charged.

"In the rare event of homicidal poisoning, cyanide is not an uncommon (substance) to use," Dr. Gregory Schmunk, a forensic pathologist and president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, said Thursday.

Indeed, just last year, the wife of a former Communist Party leader in China was accused of killing a British businessman after ordering her butler to spike his drink with cyanide.

It is, however, more commonly seen in suicides, such as in the case of an Arizona businessman who poisoned himself in a courtroom with cyanide last year after he was found guilty of arson, according to experts.

The compound kills quickly.

Once inside the human body, it prevents cells from using oxygen. If enough cells absorb cyanide, a person's body and brain will become so oxygen-deprived that their tissues will begin to die.

As the body fights to provide more oxygen, heart and breathing rates rise. Cramping and headaches can occur, followed by loss of consciousness and eventually death.

Death may come in anywhere from 15 minutes to a couple of hours, Paloucek said.

Cyanide is typically detected during a medical examination by a scarlet red discoloration or a "bitter almond" odor emitting from the body, according to experts. But neither is a sure measure — darker pigmentation can mask red skin coloration, and many people can't smell cyanide.

In its powder form, a toxic dose of cyanide may only be about 200 milligrams, roughly the amount of any common pain medication pill, according to Paloucek.

"We are dealing with a poison that has a very fast knockdown rate," said John H. Trestrail III, a clinical and forensic toxicologist who consults with law enforcement agencies on such cases.

For that reason, investigators have been looking closely at the events that happened around the time that Khan died, including the last meal he ate, which his wife acknowledged preparing.

Cyanide can come as a gas or in a solid powder that looks like white sugar. It is commonly used in research laboratories, in mining to extract certain metals and by jewelers. It also used to be widely used in the United States to kill various pests.

"One hundred years ago, you could go into a pharmacy and buy cyanide to kill wasps," Trestrail said. "But you don't do that anymore."

Now cyanide suppliers maintain a "poison register" that would include information like proof of purchase, the name of the buyer and its intended use, according to Trestrail.

Outside the United States, however, cyanide is readily available, according to Paloucek. And even within the U.S., there have been cases of people giving false information to cyanide suppliers to obtain the substance.

"If you're persistent, it is not hard to get your hands on it," Schmunk said.

Local authorities plan to ask a Cook County Circuit Court judge on Friday for permission to exhume Khan's body in the next week or two. The remains would be autopsied by the medical examiner's office, according to its spokeswoman, Mary Paleologos.

Investigators will take samples of Khan's stomach contents to see if and how the cyanide was ingested, Paleologos said. They will also take more fluid and blood samples and look at other organs such as the lungs, to see if it may have been inhaled, she said. Investigators will also try to rule out chronic cyanide poisoning in which long-term exposure to the compound may have contributed to his death.

"A lot depends on if the body is in good or poor condition," Paleologos said. "If it's in good condition, of course (the medical examiner) can get decent samples, but if it's in poor condition, the quality of the samples will be poor as well."

cdizikes@tribune.com

asweeney@tribune.com

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