Integrys Energy Services tapped to supply Chicago's electricity

The same company that heats homes in Chicago has been picked to provide the electricity that powers them.

Integrys Energy Services, a sister company to Peoples Gas, on Friday was named the city's choice to supply electricity to about 1 million Chicagoans. It's the largest such deal negotiated by a city on behalf of its residents.

The City Council is to vote on the contract Wednesday after a Monday public hearing.

Chicagoans should see discounts of 20 to 25 percent from March through June. Afterward, savings are expected to drop. Overall, the average household is expected to save $130 to $150 through May 2015, when the contract ends, according to the mayor's office.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Friday the deal "will put money back into the pockets of Chicago families and small businesses."

The contract calls for the elimination of power produced from coal, the largest source of greenhouse gases. About 40 percent of Chicago's electricity is from coal.

"That's a giant step toward healthier air and clean, renewable energy that supports good paying jobs in the technologies of tomorrow," said Jack Darin, executive director of the Sierra Club's Illinois chapter and a member of the advisory committee that worked on the deal.

However, the no-coal provision is largely symbolic since there is no way to know the precise origin of electricity flowing into Chicago homes.

Integrys Energy Services, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Integrys Energy Group, was chosen from eight bidders and was the only company other than Exelon-owned Constellation NewEnergy that made it to the final round.

Integrys Energy Group's board includes William Brodsky, head of the Chicago Board Options Exchange and a member of World Business Chicago, which Emanuel chairs.

The Integrys unit won the electrical aggregation contract despite Emanuel's connection to Constellation through its parent company, Exelon, which also owns Commonwealth Edison. While working at investment banking firm Wasserstein Perella & Co. after leaving the Clinton White House in 1998, Emanuel helped set up the merger that created Exelon.

Price was the determining factor, the mayor's office said.

Bidding documents, including pricing and how the contract would be structured, were not made public Friday.

In picking a price, Integrys must account for a large number of customers that will come and go. If electricity prices rise, Integrys risks losing money. Still, Integrys stands to become a dominant player in the retail electricity business and gain about $300 million in yearly revenue.

"Scale is important in this business," said Travis Miller, a utilities analyst with Chicago-based Morningstar. "The winner is immediately going to gain a huge scale advantage within the retail market."

ComEd still will be responsible for delivering electricity and fixing outages. ComEd makes its money delivering electricity, not supplying it. Customers' new bills will look like the old bills, except that the portion titled "electricity supply services" will have a new rate and include the new supplier's name.

Chicagoans can opt out and stick with ComEd or choose their own supplier like thousands of people already have.

Tribune reporter John Byrne contributed.

jwernau@tribune.com

Twitter @littlewern

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Ex-Dixon official's home: Pool, baby grand, chandelier with pistols

Disgraced former Dixon comptroller Rita Crundwell's home has an in-ground pool, six-stall horse barn and baby grand piano in the living room.

U.S. Marshals offered tours to prospective buyers and media Friday as the items go up for an auction that ends Saturday. Crundwell pleaded guilty last month to stealing $53 million from the northern Illinois city's coffers to fund a lavish lifestyle.

That lifestyle included her home on 6 acres with a seven-stall dog kennel with heating and air conditioning. The Western-themed home is filled with custom leather and cowhide furniture. A chandelier in the dining room is made from revolvers and spurs. All of the items in the home were tagged and catalogued.

So far, the government has raised about $7.4 million from the sale of Crundwell's belongings.

Jason Wojdylo, a chief inspector with the Marshal Service's forfeiture division, said liquidating Crundwell's assets into cash will bring authorities “closer to easing our responsibility.” Crundwell's plea agreement requires her to pay full restitution.

Next year authorities plan an online auction of Crundwell's jewelry with an estimated value of about $500,000.

So far, the government has raised about $7.4 million from the sale of Crundwell's horses, luxury motor home, vehicles and other equipment.

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UK’s Kate and William “saddened” by nurse’s death

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate said on Friday they were “deeply saddened” by the death of a nurse who fell victim to a prank call from an Australian radio station seeking details of the duchess’s condition while she was in hospital for morning sickness.

The King Edward VII hospital earlier confirmed the death of the nurse, Jacinda Saldanha.

“Their Royal Highnesses were looked after so wonderfully well at all times by everybody at King Edward VII Hospital, and their thoughts and prayers are with Jacintha Saldanha‘s family, friends and colleagues at this very sad time,” said a statement from William’s office.

(Reporting by Tim Castle; editing by Stephen Addison)

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O'Hare affected by United's latest computer glitch

United Airlines experienced more computer problems Friday, causing systems to slow down.

"We have been experiencing short-term, intermittent Internet connectivity issues, causing some systems to run more slowly than normal," United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson said.

However, the airline is continuing to operate flights and "take care of customers," he said, adding that interruptions last for about five minutes.

The problem is only at some locations, including Chicago O'Hare International Airport, he said.

The glitch has not harmed the airline's on-time performance, which was running at 91.5 percent for United Airlines flights and about 85 percent for United Express flights, he said. Those rates are higher than normal for United, which has been running closer to 80 percent on time.

Computer problems have plagued the airline this year, starting in March when it switched to a new reservations system. During the summer its operations were especially poor, with rampant flight delays and cancellations.

gkarp@tribune.com

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Mother and son charged in drug overdose death

Carol Stedronsky, left, and her son Brian Stedronsky are charged with drug-induced homicide. Lake County Sheriff's Department photo (handout / December 6, 2012)

By Deanese Williams-Harris




Tribune reporter

2:35 p.m. CST, December 6, 2012

A mother and a son have been charged in the death of an Ingleside man, who died after using patches containing a strong pain killer that he had bought from them. 

Authorities launched an investigation in September after the death of Jeffrey Ferris, 30, who had been dropped off by Brian Stedronsky and his aunt,  police said. The two had dropped Ferris off about 1 a.m. on Sept. 18 after a night of partying, police said. It was not clear from police information if Ferris was dropped off at home or a hospital.

Brian Stedronsky told detectives he sold Ferris two patches containing fentanyl that he had purchased from his mother Carolyn Stedronsky. Ferris cut the patches open and sucked out the medication, police said.

Brian later admitted the patches were the second and third that he had sold Ferris, police said.

Carolyn Stedronsky told investigators she took the patches from her husband, who was prescribed the medication for an injury, police said.

The mother and son, both from Ingleside, were charged with a Class X felony of drug-induced homicide. The mother has been ordered held on $250,000 bail, the son on $300,000 bail, police said.

Brian and Carolyn Stedronsky are both being held at the Lake County Jail. Their next court dates are  Dec. 11.

dawilliams@tribune.com

Twitter: @neacynewslady

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Apple and Samsung return to court to battle over $1 billion verdict

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mtvU honors Frank Ocean, wounded Pakistani teen

NEW YORK (AP) — The mtvU network is honoring a rap superstar who detailed his love for another man and a Pakistani girl shot for her education advocacy as its Man and Woman of the Year.

Frank Ocean, who earned six Grammy nominations Wednesday, published a letter online about his first love, a man, just as his “channel ORANGE” disc was being released. MtvU on Thursday called it “an incredibly brave move for an artist on the verge of superstardom.”

Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai (mah-LAH’-lah YOO’-suf-ZAY’) blogged about her support of education for girls in Pakistan. For that, Taliban militants stormed her school bus and shot her in the head and neck, but she survived.

The mtvU network is geared toward college students and is seen on more than 750 campuses.

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Well: Running in Reverse

This column appears in the Dec. 9 issue of The New York Times Magazine.

Backward running, also known as reverse or retro running, is not as celebrated as barefoot running and will never be mistaken for the natural way to run. But a small body of science suggests that backward running enables people to avoid or recover from common injuries, burn extra calories, sharpen balance and, not least, mix up their daily routine.

The technique is simple enough. Most of us have done it, at least in a modified, abbreviated form, and probably recently, perhaps hopping back from a curb as a bus went by or pushing away from the oven with a roasting pan in both hands. But training with backward running is different. Biomechanically, it is forward motion’s doppelgänger. In a study published last year, biomechanics researchers at the University of Milan in Italy had a group of runners stride forward and backward at a steady pace along a track equipped with force sensors and cameras.

They found that, as expected, the runners struck the ground near the back of their feet when going forward and rolled onto the front of their feet for takeoff. When they went backward though, they landed near the front of their feet and took off from the heels. They tended to lean slightly forward even when running backward. As a result, their muscles fired differently. In forward running, the muscles and tendons were pulled taut during landing and responded by coiling, a process that creates elastic energy (think rubber bands) that is then released during toe-off. When running backward, muscles and tendons were coiled during landing and stretched at takeoff. The backward runners’ legs didn’t benefit from stored elastic energy. In fact, the researchers found, running backward required nearly 30 percent more energy than running forward at the same speed. But backward running also produced far less hard pounding.

What all of this means, says Giovanni Cavagna, a professor at the University of Milan who led the study, is that reverse running can potentially “improve forward running by allowing greater and safer training.”

It is a particularly attractive option for runners with bad knees. A 2012 study found that backward running causes far less impact to the front of the knees. It also burns more calories at a given pace. In a recent study, active female college students who replaced their exercise with jogging backward for 15 to 45 minutes three times a week for six weeks lost almost 2.5 percent of their body fat.

And it aids in balance training — backward slow walking is sometimes used as a therapy for people with Parkinson’s and is potentially useful for older people, whose balance has grown shaky.

But it has drawbacks, Cavagna says — chiefly that you can’t see where you’re going. “It should be done on a track,” he says, “or by a couple of runners, side by side,” one facing forward.

It should be implemented slowly too, because its unfamiliar motion can cause muscle fatigue. Intersperse a few minutes periodically during your regular routine, Cavagna says. Increase the time you spend backward as it feels comfortable.

The good news for serious runners is that backward does not necessarily mean slow. The best recorded backward five-kilometer race time is 19:31, faster than most of us can hit the finish line with our best foot forward.

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Local sales of homes in foreclosure jump 65% in 3Q

Sales of Chicago-area homes in the foreclosure process but not yet repossessed by banks soared during the third quarter, RealtyTrac reported Thursday.

The online foreclosure marketplace said 3,531 pre-foreclosure homes in the greater Chicago area sold in the three months that ended in September, up 34 percent from the second quarter and 65 percent year-over-year. Separately, third-quarter sales of repossessed, bank-owned properties rose to 5,731 properties, up 37 percent from June and 45 percent from 2011's third quarter.

Increased sales of distressed homes are a good sign for the market's long-term health because overall prices will rise as discounted properties are removed from the market. Also, the increase in pre-foreclosure short sales has enabled homeowners to benefit from the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, which does not treat the forgiven part of the unpaid debt as taxable income. The legislation is set to expire at year's end.

Natiionally, the 98,125 pre-foreclosure short sales completed during the third quarter just outnumbered the sale of 94,934 bank-owned properties.

"The shift toward earlier disposition of distressed properties continued in the third quarter as both lenders and at-risk homeowners are realizing that short sales are often a better alternative than foreclosure," said Daren Blomquist, a RealtyTrac vice president.

However, he added, "The prospect of being taxed on potentially tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income may motivate more distressed homeowners to forgo a short sale and allow the home to be foreclosed."

On average, Chicago-area homes sold through short sales, a transaction where the homeowner sells the property for less than the amount owed on the mortgage, with the bank's permission, sold for an average discount of 41 percent from non-distressed sales. Bank-owned homes sold at an average discount of 54 percent.

RealtyTrac said sales of distressed properties accounted for 28 percent of Chicago-area home sales during the third quarter. The company's definition of the Chicago area extends from southern Wisconsin to Northwest Indiana.

mepodmolik@tribune.com | Twitter @mepodmolik

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Government orders Dreamliners inspected for fuel leaks

Boeing Co.'s new 787 Dreamliners must undergo inspections in the United States after discovery of fuel leaks traced to a manufacturing flaw at Boeing plants.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday issued a safety order that requires inspection of fuel line couplings in the engine pylons to make sure they are correctly assembled and installed, the FAA said. The order "makes mandatory inspections already recommended by Boeing," the Chicago-based company said.

The order applies to just three airplanes in the U.S. because Chicago-based United Airlines is the only domestic carrier to operate the aircraft and has only in recent months begun to take its first deliveries of the new planes from Boeing. The Dreamliner is touted as offering greater passenger comforts and better fuel efficiency, largely due to far more use of lighter composite materials than metals.

The FAA order is unrelated to a an issue Tuesday when a United Airlines 787 with 184 people aboard was forced to make an emergency landing in New Orleans after experiencing a mechanical problem on a flight from Houston to Newark, N.J. Boeing and United say they are investigating the nature of that problem.

The mechanical issues constitute a twin blow this week to Boeing, which was dogged by production problems that delayed delivery of the 787 for 3-1/2 years.

While it's understandable that mechanical problems on a new plane -- especially one as highly touted as the Dreamliner -- will garner notice, such issues are not unusual, said Aaron Gellman, professor of transportation at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

"New airplanes always have glitches, always," Gellman said. "There's never an occasion that I know of where a new airplane didn't have some problems associated with its introduction."

The description of the fuel leak problem made this issue sound "relatively easy to fix," he said. "It's probably not something that needs to be worried about."

Such problems are why airlines, such as United, keep new planes on domestic routes before putting them into service on international routes, Gellman said.

Still, Boeing will view the setback as damage to its reputation, already tarnished by the extremely late delivery of the Dreamliner, he said.

While United is the only U.S. operator of the 787, another 33 are in service with foreign operators. Two Japanese airlines, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, took some of the earliest deliveries of 787s and both found and repaired the fuel-leak problem, Bloomberg News reported.

The fuel leaks were due to the improper assembly of the couplings at Boeing factories, the FAA said. The 787-8 has one rigid coupling and one flexible coupling per engine for a total of four per airplane.

"We are issuing this (directive) to detect and correct improperly assembled couplings, which could result in fuel leaks and consequent fuel exhaustion, engine power loss or shutdown, or leaks on hot engine parts that could lead to a fire," the FAA directive says, adding that the unsafe condition is likely to "to exist or develop in other products of the same type design."

Boeing also said that improperly installed fuel line connectors could lead to fuel leaks, loss of engine power or fire. But it said there were "multiple layers of systems to ensure none of those things happen."

The repair is estimated to cost $2,712 per plane, the FAA said.

The safety order, known as an airworthiness directive, requires operators to inspect for correctly installed lockwires on the engine fuel line couplings within seven days of its publication. Within 21 days, operators must inspect the couplings to verify they have been assembled correctly.

Boeing advised airlines flying the 787 to make inspections last month, and it said about half of the 33 jets in service have already been inspected.

Reuters contributed to this story.

gkarp@tribune.com

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