French actor Depardieu sides with Putin, criticizes opposition






MOSCOW (Reuters) – French actor Gerard Depardieu, recently awarded Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin, has praised the former KGB spy and said his political opponents offer no real alternative.


Depardieu, who has been accused in France of abandoning his homeland to avoid a proposed 75 percent tax for millionaires, told the state-run Rossiya-24 television that Putin personified Russia’s complex and fascinating national character.






“I like this man very much, he is a very powerful political activist. He has political wisdom,” the 63-year-old star of “Cyrano de Bergerac” and “Green Card” said in comments aired late on Sunday, according to the channel’s Russian translation.


The translation was dubbed over the original French, which Rossiya-24 said would not immediately be made available.


Depardieu, who is also due in court to answer charges of crashing his scooter in Paris with more than three times the legal alcohol limit in his blood, said Putin had admitted to liking his “hooligan essence” when the two met in the Russian resort of Sochi last week.


Putin’s opponents accuse him of cracking down on dissent since his return to the presidency for a six-year third term last May. The European Union and the United States have also expressed concern that Moscow is rolling back democratic freedoms.


“The Russian opposition has no program, nothing. There are very smart people there, like (former world chess champion Garry) Kasparov, but what works well for chess is completely unsuited to politics,” Depardieu said.


Opposition activists were quick to react. Violetta Volkova, defense lawyer for several opposition members facing charges over anti-Putin protests, wrote sarcastically on Twitter: “Prominent political analyst Depardieu…”


Putin’s critics have failed to make inroads into his grip on power in over a year of protests sparked by accusations of widespread fraud in parliamentary elections in December 2011, and the presidential vote last March.


The protest movement has gradually lost steam, though tens of thousands of people marched through Moscow on Sunday to protest against a Kremlin-backed law that bans Americans from adopting Russian children.


After the protest, leftist opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov was quoted as inviting Depardieu to take part in the next anti-Putin rallies, given his interest in Russian politics.


Putin says he has developed a friendly personal relationship with Depardieu, a popular figure in Russia, where he has appeared in many advertising campaigns, including for ketchup.


(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Kevin Liffey)


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Justin Timberlake releases new song 'Suit and Tie'


NEW YORK (AP) — Mr. "SexyBack" is back.


Justin Timberlake released his new single, "Suit and Tie," late Sunday night. It features rapper Jay-Z.


The upbeat jam is the 31-year-old's first musical offering since 2006's critically acclaimed "FutureSex/LoveSounds." His third solo album, "The 20/20 Experience," will be out later this year.


In a letter posted on his website, Timberlake said he began recording music in June. He wrote that the "inspiration for this really came out of the blue."


Timberlake co-wrote and co-produced "Suit and Tie" with Timbaland, who produced much of the Grammy-winning "FutureSex/LoveSounds."


The buzz around the pop star's return to music kicked off Friday when he posted a video on his website that showed him walking into a studio, putting on headphones and saying: "I'm ready."


___


Online:


http://www.justintimberlake.com


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Some Illinois coal plants looking to clean up









BALDWIN, Ill. ——





Nowhere is coal's effect more visible than here at Illinois' largest coal-fired power plant, where the train cars are flipped upside down, tracks and all, to feed boilers the size of skyscrapers.


Once reviled as one of the dirtiest coal plants in the U.S., today the Baldwin plant is a different kind of poster child.





Last month, Houston-based Dynegy Inc. completed $1 billion in environmental upgrades at Baldwin and its three sister Illinois plants, a calculated bet that it will emerge as one of the coal plant operators left standing as rivals are clobbered by a depressed electricity market that leaves little money to add federally mandated pollution controls.


Dynegy's move, together with the closures of several coal-fired plants in and around Chicago, should add up to cleaner air for Cook County, which has consistently failed to meet federal health standards for air quality.


The pollution spewing from three massive smokestacks at Baldwin, about a five-hour drive southwest of Chicago, had plagued the city and other downwind communities for decades, contributing to the smog and soot that trigger asthma and other ailments.


"Hundreds of people in the state have died in recent years and thousands have been sickened simply because they had no choice but to breathe the pollution being pumped out by huge coal power plants. What we are starting to see now are the real health benefits of legal enforcement actions taken years ago," said Brian Urbaszewski, director of environmental health programs for the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago.


The closures of the coal-burning Crawford and Fisk power plants in Chicago and the State Line plant just across the border in Indiana mirror a story playing out across the country. The abundance of natural gas, a cheaper fuel than coal, has cut into profits of coal plant operators just as states and the federal government have pressed for expensive pollution upgrades.


The Brattle Group, a financial consulting firm, predicts that one-fourth of the nation's coal-fired electricity will be wiped off the map by 2016; more than 100 coal-fired generating units have been mothballed since 2009. The state's other two major coal plant owners — Ameren Corp.'s generating arm and Edison International's Midwest Generation — largely have been cast off by their parent companies because of poor financial performance. And they have pleaded with regulators for more time to meet pollution standards.


As a result of upgrades, it is more costly to operate Baldwin and Dynegy's other Illinois coal plants in Wood River, Havana and Hennepin than those of competitors. But Dynegy doesn't expect that to be a burden long term. Fewer players making electricity means surviving power plant operators will receive higher payments from grid operators that pay reservation fees for power.


"There's short-term pain until you flush the noncompliers out of the game," said Robert Flexon, Dynegy's president and chief executive.


Longer term, if coal-fired plants keep closing as Dynegy anticipates, it expects to earn $100 million more per year beginning in 2016 in so-called capacity payments from grid operators.


Cleaning up


Dynegy's decision to upgrade its plants was not altogether altruistic. The improvements stem from a 2005 settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice that set deadlines for the company to clean up its plants or close them.


The Baldwin plant, an hour's drive from St. Louis, is massive; its white smokestack plumes can be seen for miles in this flat farming area. Its fuel comes in by rail.


The cars, brimming with 120 tons of coal every 2 1/2 minutes, are flipped over, rails and all, only to return full in an eight-day loop that begins in Wyoming. The amount of coal burned every two months is enough to fill Willis Tower.


It is just the start of a laborious process that strips the coal of toxic pollutants. Truckloads of lime are shipped to the plant each day to supply the sulfur dioxide scrubbers. After the coal is burned, the resulting coal gas is piped to the building-size scrubbers, each containing 20 nozzles that spray a mixture of limestone and ash to chemically remove the sulfur dioxide.


The pollutants bind to the slurry mixture, drop to the bottom and are recycled, while the coal gas pushes through to two smaller buildings called "bag houses," essentially giant filters that catch tiny particles that would otherwise enter the air.


To avoid nitrogen oxide emissions, the coal is burned at a lower temperature.


All told, improvements since 1998 have reduced 93 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions, 85 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions and 88 percent of particulate matter emissions, according to Dynegy.


"All that's really coming out that stack now is carbon dioxide and water vapor," Dave Glosecki, Baldwin's maintenance director, told a group during a recent plant tour.





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Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz dies from suicide









Even as an eighth-grader in Winnetka, Aaron Swartz showed signs of the computer wizardry that would lead to his Internet activism and development of software used by websites worldwide.

But the Highland Park native who had attended North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka and as a 13-year-old had created an online public encyclopedia for a school competition got into trouble as an adult.






He faced trial in April on federal charges that he had illegally downloaded millions of journal articles from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the intention of posting them to a file-sharing site.

The prospect of the trial was too much for him, his family said. Swartz, 26, committed suicide inside his New York apartment, authorities said Saturday.

In a statement sent through a spokesman, his family said Swartz hanged himself the day before out of worry that he faced more than 30 years in federal prison.

“Aaron’s insatiable curiosity, creativity, and brilliance; his reflexive empathy and capacity for selfless, boundless love; his refusal to accept injustice as inevitable — these gifts made the world, and our lives, far brighter,” the statement in part read.

Along with developing an early version of rich site summary, or RSS, technology, Swartz is credited with co-founding the popular Reddit website that allows users to vote for their favorite news stories of the day.

Increasingly active in efforts to make information more readily available on the Internet, he also founded Demand Progress, a lobbying group that advocates for civil liberties and government reform.

In that role, Swartz led a successful effort to stymie the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2011, which sought to restrict access to websites that illegally shared copyrighted property. The bill was eventually withdrawn after widespread protests.

“He refined advocacy for the progressive and open-information movement,” said David Moon, program director for Demand Progress. “He was ultimately pretty brilliant at that.”

On Saturday, Swartz’s death spurred an outpouring of sympathy and tributes throughout social media, many of which hailed his multiple accomplishments at a young age.

Several commenters heaped scorn upon federal prosecutors in Massachusetts for indicting Swartz in 2011. He was accused of downloading millions of academic journal articles and breaking into a university closet to plug into the school’s computer network, which prompted charges of computer fraud, wire fraud and other crimes. Swartz had pleaded not guilty.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Massachusetts declined to comment, citing the family’s privacy.

Moon, who met Swartz in 2010 and last saw him about a month ago, declined to speak in detail about the circumstances surrounding his death.

“The stresses he was facing was obvious, and those who know him can attest to that,” Moon said.

Tribune wire services contributed.

Saho@tribune.com
cdrhodes@tribune.com

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Oracle Corp to fix Java security flaw "shortly"


BOSTON (Reuters) - Oracle Corp said it is preparing an update to address a flaw in its widely used Java software after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security urged computer users to disable the program in web browsers because criminal hackers are exploiting a security bug to attack PCs.


"A fix will be available shortly," the company said in a statement released late on Friday.


Company officials could not be reached on Saturday to say how quickly the update would be available for the hundreds of millions of PCs that have Java installed.


The Department of Homeland Security and computer security experts said on Thursday that hackers figured out how to exploit the bug in a version of Java used with Internet browsers to install malicious software on PCs. That has enabled them to commit crimes from identity theft to making an infected computer part of an ad-hoc computer network that can be used to attack websites.


Java is a computer language that enables programmers to write software utilizing just one set of codes that will run on virtually any type of computer, including ones that use Microsoft Corp's Windows, Apple Inc's OS X and Linux, an operating system widely employed by corporations. It is installed in Internet browsers to access web content and also directly on PCs, server computers and other devices that use it to run a wide variety of computer programs.


Oracle said in its statement that the recently discovered flaw only affects Java 7, the program's most-recent version, and Java software designed to run on browsers.


Java is so widely used that the software has become a prime target for hackers. Last year, Java surpassed Adobe Systems Inc's Reader software as the most frequently attacked piece of software, according to security software maker Kaspersky Lab.


Java was responsible for 50 percent of all cyber attacks last year in which hackers broke into computers by exploiting software bugs, according to Kaspersky. That was followed by Adobe Reader, which was involved in 28 percent of all incidents. Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer were involved in about 3 percent of incidents, according to the survey.


The Department of Homeland Security said attackers could trick targets into visiting malicious websites that would infect their PCs with software capable of exploiting the bug in Java.


It said an attacker could also infect a legitimate website by uploading malicious software that would infect machines of computer users who trust that site because they have previously visited it without experiencing any problems.


They said developers of several popular tools, known as exploit kits, used by criminal hackers to attack PCs, have added software that allows hackers to exploit the newly discovered bug in Java.


Security experts have been scrutinizing the safety of Java since a similar security scare in August, which prompted some of them to advise using the software only on an as-needed basis.


At the time, they advised businesses to allow their workers to use Java browser plug-ins only when prompted for permission by trusted programs such as GoToMeeting, a Web-based collaboration tool from Citrix Systems Inc.


Java suffered another setback in October when Apple began removing old versions of the software from Internet browsers of Mac computers after its customers installed new versions of its OS X operating system. Apple did not provide a reason for the change and both companies declined to comment at the time.


(Reporting by Jim Finkle; editing by Gunna Dickson)



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Kaepernick delivers, 49ers beat Packers 45-31


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The unproven kid thoroughly beat the former Super Bowl champion and reigning MVP.


With a strong arm that allowed him to pick the Packers apart from the pocket and speedy legs that helped him break free for big gains, Colin Kaepernick did a little bit of everything in a record-setting, sensational playoff debut — and Aaron Rodgers just couldn't keep up.


Kaepernick passed for 263 yards and ran the San Francisco 49ers right back to the NFC championship game with a 45-31 win over Green Bay in an NFC divisional game Saturday night.


Kaepernick rushed for a quarterback playoff record 181 yards and two touchdowns and threw two scoring passes to Michael Crabtree. Next up for the Niners: a game on Jan. 20 for a spot in the Super Bowl, against the winner of Sunday's game between the Seattle Seahawks and Falcons at Atlanta.


"It feels good. We're one step closer to where we want to be," Kaepernick said. "I feel like I had a lot to prove. A lot of people doubted my ability to lead this team."


And what a playoff debut it was by the second-year pro making just his eighth NFL start. No doubting Jim Harbaugh's big midseason gamble switching quarterbacks now.


Rodgers never got in sync for the Packers (12-6), finishing 26 of 39 for 257 yards with two touchdowns.


Kaepernick ran for scores of 20 and 56 yards on the way to topping the rushing mark of 119 yards set by Michael Vick in 2005 against St. Louis. Crabtree caught TD passes of 12 and 20 yards in the second quarter and wound up with nine receptions and 119 yards for the Niners (12-4-1) in the NFC divisional matchup.


Kaepernick, sporting a burgundy beanie partially covering his head, was greeted at his locker after the game by former 49ers quarterback John Brodie.


San Francisco had 579 total yards with 323 on the ground, scoring its third-most points in the franchise's storied playoff history.


"Our offensive line did an amazing job today," Kaepernick said. "They shut everybody down inside. Our receivers, our tight ends, blocked great outside, and our running backs were running hard, so it made it easier on me."


Frank Gore and Anthony Dixon each added 2-yard touchdown runs in the fourth quarter for the No. 2 seed NFC West champions, slim favorites on their home field in a rematch of Week 1. They added to their memorable night by setting a franchise postseason record for yards rushing, 119 of those by Gore to complement Kaepernick.


Rodgers, the former Cal star passed up by San Francisco with the No. 1 pick in the 2005 draft, never got going. Rodgers rooted for the Niners as a kid in Northern California.


This was another early exit for the Packers, who lost in the divisional playoffs to the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants a year ago and were denied a chance to defend the title they won after the 2010 season.


Those Green Bay road stars of two years ago — they won three away from Lambeau Field on the way to the Super Bowl — didn't have it this time against San Francisco's stingy defense and a no-fear, second-year quarterback who would not be denied. A kid who was born in Milwaukee and grew up a big Green Bay fan until the day he was drafted in 2011 out of Nevada.


"I didn't know how fast he was," Green Bay defensive back Charles Woodson said. "Coming in I really never paid attention to it. But he is fast."


San Francisco advanced to back-to-back NFC title games for the first time since reaching three in a row following the 1992-94 seasons, with 1994 their last trip to the Super Bowl.


With the sellout crowd at Candlestick Park waving red flags reading "Quest for Six" — a sixth Super Bowl title, that is — Kaepernick did his part and then some to deliver in the first key step. Even after an early interception that gave Green Bay all the momentum in a hostile road stadium.


Kaepernick topped Vick's mark with the 56-yard keeper on an option play in the third quarter. That gave Kaepernick 163 yards on 12 carries, also setting a 49ers franchise record for the postseason.


"The execution for the 49ers on the read option was excellent, but our issues were bigger than that," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "We did not a very good job of keeping him the pocket. He was able to get out of the pocket for a number of big conversions."


Kaepernick joined Jay Cutler in 2011 and Otto Graham in both 1954 and '55 as the only players with two rushing and two passing touchdowns in a playoff game.


David Akers kicked a 36-yard field goal moments before halftime to give San Francisco a 24-21 lead at intermission after Green Bay tried to ice the struggling veteran by calling timeout before his kick.


Mason Crosby's 31-yard field goal tied the game at 24 midway through the third quarter, then Kaepernick took over again. San Francisco's defense handled the rest.


Kaepernick had 11 carries for 107 yards rushing by halftime.


Pick six, no problem.


The strong-armed Kaepernick brushed off the interception he tossed on the fourth play of the game that Sam Shields ran back 52 yards for a touchdown, then took control with his pinpoint passing to his favorite go-to guy — Crabtree — and with his quick-burst ability out of the pocket.


"He does a great job of responding," Harbaugh said. "He has done that any time there has been an interception he has thrown, a safety or a turnover, he's responded with a scoring drive. That's rare. I think that's a rare quality. So far he's shown that he's got that ability to come back."


San Francisco, fueled all year by its near miss in overtime of the NFC title game, made it two victories against Rodgers and Co. this season after a 30-22 Week 1 win at Lambeau Field.


Kaepernick bounced back from the early interception and again after a second-quarter taunting penalty in which he threw the ball down in the face of safety M.D. Jennings after being hit by Jennings and Erik Walden. Center Jonathan Goodwin grabbed Kaepernick in an effort to settle him down after his 15-yard run was negated by the 15-yard flag.


Two plays later, Kaepernick found Crabtree for his 20-yard TD as San Francisco capitalized on another Packers turnover.


Rodgers answered right back on the Packers' next chance, driving his team 80 yards on six plays and hitting James Jones on a 20-yard touchdown of his own that tied the game at 21. Green Bay got help from a 15-yard personal foul penalty by Dashon Goldson for a helmet-to-helmet hit on DuJuan Harris.


"We felt like we gift-wrapped them 14 points off turnovers in the first half and our defense was playing all right," Rodgers said. "And then we just didn't get it done in the second half. I knew we were going to have to score some points. We knew we were going to have to put up at least 38 points."


Former California receiver Jeremy Ross fumbled Andy Lee's punt early in the second and C.J. Spillman recovered as San Francisco got the ball back at the 9. Kaepernick threw a 12-yard TD pass to Crabtree three plays later.


Rodgers' streak of 183 passes without an interception spanning the previous five games ended when Tarell Brown picked off the ball on a deep third-down throw in the second quarter. Brown had another interception in the waning moments.


"We expected them to try to get him out on the perimeter. But we didn't expect to let him do what he did," Woodson said. "Give him a lot of credit. He played a great game. He made a lot of great plays out there today. It was hard to swallow."


Harris ran 18 yards for a score in the final minute of the first quarter as Green Bay took a 14-7 lead. Rodgers connected with James Jones on a 44-yard completion one play earlier before Harris easily ran right up the middle into the end zone for a Packers team that managed 45 total yards rushing in the season-opening loss.


Such moments were few against a 49ers defense happy to welcome back All-Pro lineman Justin Smith after he missed the final two regular-season games with a partially torn left triceps muscle.


Notes: The Green Bay defense gave up the most total yards (579), yards rushing (323) and second-most points in the playoffs in franchise history. ... San Francisco improved to 13-3 at home in divisional playoff games. ... The 49ers had 48 offensive plays in the first half to 20 by Green Bay.


___


Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL


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“Jurassic Park 4″ to arrive June 2014, Steven Spielberg to produce






LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Jurassic Park 4″ will arrive in theaters June 13, 2014, Universal announced on Friday. Steven Spielberg won’t be directing this time around, but he is going to produce the project with Frank Marshall.


Universal has yet to pick a director for the fourth installment of the dinosaur film franchise, which it plans to shoot and release in 3D. The studio and Spielberg have converted the original film to 3D and it will be a re-released in theaters on April 5. Spielberg was very involved in the conversion according to executives at the studio, trying to ensure it merited a theatrical re-release.






The three movies have grossed close to $ 2 billion worldwide to-date with the original film alone making $ 914 million. Based on Michael Crichton’s novel and characters, the film has also spawned an amusement park ride at Universal Studios Hollywood.


Spielberg, who this week postponed his next directing job in “Robopocalypse,” directed the first two films before handing off the third to Joe Johnston. He confirmed at Comic-Con in 2011 that a writer was working on a new version, divulging little more. Giving the film a release date firms up the time table as Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver work on the script.


“Jurassic Park 4″ will open in a summer already teeming with sequels. Universal has scheduled it one week before the next “How to Train Your Dragon” and two weeks before the next “Transformers.” Both the final “Hobbit” movie and the next “X-Men” movie are set to open in July while the next “Spider-Man” and “Planet of the Apes” films will debut in May.


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Q&A: Scramble for vaccine as flu season heats up


WASHINGTON (AP) — Missed flu-shot day at the office last fall? And all those "get vaccinated" ads? A scramble for shots is under way as late-comers seek protection from a miserable flu strain already spreading through much of the country.


Federal health officials said Friday that there is still some flu vaccine available and it's not too late to benefit from it. But people may have to call around to find a clinic with shots still on the shelf, or wait a few days for a new shipment.


"We're hearing of spot shortages," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


Colorado offers an example. Kaiser Permanente, which has 535,000 members in the state, stopped giving flu shots this week. But it expected to resume vaccinations when new shipments arrive, expected this weekend.


Some questions and answers about flu vaccines:


Q: Are we running out of vaccine?


A: It's January — we shouldn't have a lot left. The traditional time to get vaccinated is in the fall, so that people are protected before influenza starts spreading.


Indeed, manufacturers already have shipped nearly 130 million doses to doctors' offices, drugstores and wholesalers, out of the 135 million doses they had planned to make for this year's flu season. At least 112 million have been used so far.


The nation's largest manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur, said Friday that it still has supplies of two specialty vaccines, a high-dose shot for seniors, and an under-the-skin shot for certain adults, available for immediate shipment. But it also is working to eke out a limited supply of its traditional shots — some doses that it initially hadn't packaged into syringes, said spokesman Michael Szumera. They should be available late this month.


And MedImmune, the maker of the nasal spray vaccine FluMist, said it has 620,000 extra doses available.


Q: Can't they just make more?


A: No. Flu vaccine is complicated to brew, with supplies for each winter made months in advance and at the numbers expected to sell. Although health officials recommend a yearly flu vaccination for nearly everybody, last year 52 percent of children and just 39 percent of adults were immunized. Most years, leftover doses have to be thrown out.


Q: Should I still hunt for a vaccine?


A: It does take two weeks for full protection to kick in. Still, health officials say it's a good idea to be vaccinated even this late, especially for older people, young children and anyone with medical conditions such as heart or lung diseases that put them at high risk of dangerous flu complications. Flu season does tend to be worst in January and February, but it can run through March.


Q: I heard that a new flu strain is spreading. Does the vaccine really work?


A: Flu strains constantly evolve, the reason that people need an updated vaccine every year. But the CDC says this year's is a good match to the types that are circulating, including a new kind of the tough H3N2 strain. That family tends to be harsher than other flu types — and health officials warned last fall that it was coming, and meant this winter would likely be tougher than last year's flu season, the mildest on record.


Q: But don't some people get vaccinated and still get sick?


A: Flu vaccine never is 100 percent effective, and unfortunately it tends to protect younger people better than older ones. But the CDC released a study Friday showing that so far this year, the vaccine appears 62 percent effective, meaning it's working about as well as it has in past flu seasons.


While that may strike some people as low, Frieden said it's the best protection available. "It's a glass 62 percent full," he said. "It's well worth the effort."


Q: What else can I do?


A: Wash your hands often, and avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Viruses can spread by hand, not just through the air. Also, cough in your elbow, not your hand. When you're sick, protect others by staying home.


And people who are in those high-risk groups should call a doctor if they develop symptoms, added CDC spokesman Tom Skinner. They might be prescribed antiviral medication, which works best if given within the first 48 hours of symptoms.


___


AP Medical Writers Lindsey Tanner and Mike Stobbe contributed to this report.


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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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