Target to match some rivals’ online prices year-round






(Reuters) – Target Corp said on Tuesday it will match on a year-round basis the prices found on the websites of key rivals Amazon.com Inc, Best Buy Co Inc, Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Toys R Us, its latest tactic to hold onto shoppers focused on price.


The move extends an online price-matching program that Target introduced over the holiday season and which was supposed to last only from November 1 to December 16. It also comes after Target last week reported flat sales growth in December at stores open at least a year.






In November Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel said the retailer was not seeing a lot of price-match activity in its stores.


While shopping online has grown rapidly in recent years, it still represents a small fraction of overall shopping in the United States. Target’s policy of matching online prices differs from policies at several chains, which match only printed advertised prices for items sold at stores.


Target said that throughout the year it will match the price when a customer buys an eligible item at one of its stores and finds the same item at a lower price in the following week’s Target circular or in a local competitor’s printed ad. It will also match the price if the customer finds the same item at a lower price within a week on Target’s website or the websites of Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Toys R Us.


Amazon says it offers competitive prices and does not offer price matching when an item’s price drops after a customer buys it, with the exception of televisions. Walmart matches the prices of print ads from competitors. Walmart also says it checks the prices of 30,000 items at competing chains each week to make sure it has the lowest prices.


Best Buy matches the price from a local competitor’s store, a local Best Buy store or its own web site. Toys R Us matches in-store prices and certain online prices.


(Reporting By Jessica Wohl in Chicago and Phil Wahba in New York; Editing by Alden Bentley and John Wallace)


Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Cops shoot suspect in carjacking they say held 'dark object'








A teen who ran from South Chicago District officers after being stopped on suspicion of carjacking was fatally shot as he fled the stolen car when officers saw he had a "dark object" in his hand, police said.

The man or boy died after being to Northwestern Memorial Hospital following the shooting about 1:45 p.m. near 75th Street and Jeffery Boulevard, according to a a release from Chicago Police News Affairs. The teen, whose exact age was unavailable, was declared dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital at 2:43 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

The Independent Police Review Authority confirmed a police-involved shooting took place about that time. No police officers were injured in the incident, an IPRA spokesman said.

Two South Chicago District tactical officers saw a grey Dodge Charger with Wisconsin plates heading west on 75 th Street a little before 1:45 p.m.  and checked to see if the car was wanted in any crimes, Chicago Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 spokesman Patrick Camden. said. The driver appeared to be the only person in the car, and when the search turned up nothing, the officers let the car proceed in traffic without stopping it, Camden said.

Less than a minute later, however, a police radio broadcast alerted the officers to the Charger having been stolen not long before in an armed carjacking, Camden said.

The officers realized “that’s the car!” and sped on to where the Charger was stopped in traffic, with vehicles in front and behind, Camden said. The officers got out of the car, one on each side, and told the driver they were police.

The driver raised his left hand, but appeared to be reaching for something in the passenger seat, then jumped out and ran, Camden said.

The officers chased the driver, who had a black object in his hand, until he turned toward them and appeared to be pointing the object at the officers, Camden said.

"Believing the dark object to be a firearm and being in fear for (his) life, the officer fired at the offender, wounding him," police News Affairs said in the release.

It was not immediately known what the object was, Camden said.


lford@tribune.com

Twitter: @ltaford






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NBC chief braces for ratings drop after strong fall season






PASADENA, California (Reuters) – NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt said he expects the network’s ratings to slip in the coming months after an unexpectedly strong fall season, though he hopes some coming new shows will break out to help stem the decline.


The Comcast-owned network made a surprise comeback in the final months of 2012 after years in the ratings basement. The network’s viewership jumped 24 percent among the 18- to 49-year-old age group that advertisers crave, the only increase among the four major TV broadcast networks.






Critics are skeptical of whether NBC can stay on top of its competitors through the rest of the TV season. The NBC schedule received a boost in the fall from “Sunday Night Football,” singing competition “The Voice,” and new drama “Revolution.” NFL football games are gone from NBC until next fall, and “The Voice” and “Revolution” will not return until March 25.


Greenblatt said he was “totally prepared” for NBC ratings to decline in the coming weeks. “I think it’s inevitable,” Greenblatt told reporters at a meeting of the Television Critics Association.


He said NBC had a “very robust” mid-season plan that includes new shows such as “1600 Penn,” a comedy about a First Family living in the White House; soapy “Deception” about a murder in a wealthy family; and “Do No Harm,” a thriller about a neurosurgeon.


“I’m hoping that out of this new crop of shows we’ll get lucky,” Greenblatt said.


He said he decided to keep “Revolution” off the air until late March, rather than bringing it back in January, so the rest of the show’s first season can run without being interrupted by repeats.


“It’s a little bit more of a cable model,” Greenblatt said. “If you market properly and have the goods, and then you can run them all in a row without repeats, I actually think that’s the better long-term play,” he said.


When “The Voice” returns, it will have new judges Usher and Shakira in place of Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green. NBC also is bringing back Broadway musical drama “Smash” for a second season starting in February.


Greenblatt began his presentation to reporters and TV critics with a litany of ratings numbers from the fall season, many with double-digit percentage gains.


“I’m going to bore you with some statistics,” he said, “because I’m not sure when I’m going to have the chance to do this again.”


(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)


TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Oil Sand Industry in Canada Tied to Higher Carcinogen Level


Todd Korol/Reuters


An oil sands mine Fort McMurray, Alberta.







OTTAWA — The development of Alberta’s oil sands has increased levels of cancer-causing compounds in surrounding lakes well beyond natural levels, Canadian researchers reported in a study released on Monday. And they said the contamination covered a wider area than had previously been believed.




For the study, financed by the Canadian government, the researchers set out to develop a historical record of the contamination, analyzing sediment dating back about 50 years from six small and shallow lakes north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, the center of the oil sands industry. Layers of the sediment were tested for deposits of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, groups of chemicals associated with oil that in many cases have been found to cause cancer in humans after long-term exposure.


“One of the biggest challenges is that we lacked long-term data,” said John P. Smol, the paper’s lead author and a professor of biology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. “So some in industry have been saying that the pollution in the tar sands is natural, it’s always been there.”


The researchers found that to the contrary, the levels of those deposits have been steadily rising since large-scale oil sands production began in 1978.


Samples from one test site, the paper said, now show 2.5 to 23 times more PAHs in current sediment than in layers dating back to around 1960.


“We’re not saying these are poisonous ponds,” Professor Smol said. “But it’s going to get worse. It’s not too late but the trend is not looking good.” He said that the wilderness lakes studied by the group were now contaminated as much as lakes in urban centers.


The study is likely to provide further ammunition to critics of the industry, who already contend that oil extracted from Canada’s oil sands poses environmental hazards like toxic sludge ponds, greenhouse gas emissions and the destruction of boreal forests.


Battles are also under way over the proposed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would move the oil down through the western United States and down to refineries along the Gulf Coast, or an alternative pipeline that would transport the oil from landlocked Alberta to British Columbia for export to Asia.


The researchers, who included scientists at Environment Canada’s aquatic contaminants research division, chose to test for PAHs because they had been the subject of earlier studies, including one published in 2009 that analyzed the distribution of the chemicals in snowfall north of Fort McMurray. That research drew criticism from the government of Alberta and others for failing to provide a historical baseline.


“Now we have the smoking gun,” Professor Smol said.


He said he was not surprised that the analysis found a rise in PAH deposits after the industrial development of the oil sands, “but we needed the data.” He said he had not entirely expected, however, to observe the effect at the most remote test site, a lake that is about 50 miles to the north.


Asked about the study, Adam Sweet, a spokesman for Peter Kent, Canada’s environment minister, emphasized in an e-mail that with the exception of one lake very close to the oil sands, the levels of contaminants measured by the researchers “did not exceed Canadian guidelines and were low compared to urban areas.”


He added that an environmental monitoring program for the region announced last February 2012 was put into effect “to address the very concerns raised by such studies” and to “provide an improved understanding of the long-term cumulative effects of oil sands development.”


Earlier research has suggested several different ways that the chemicals could spread. Most oil sand production involve large-scale open-bit mining. The chemicals may become wind-borne when giant excavators dig them up and then deposit them into 400-ton dump trucks.


Upgraders at some oil sands projects that separate the oil bitumen from its surrounding sand are believed to emit PAHs. And some scientists believe that vast ponds holding wastewater from that upgrading and from other oil sand processes may be leaking PAHs and other chemicals into downstream bodies of water.


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Sears CEO D'Ambrosio to step down









Sears Holdings Corp. said Chief Executive Officer Louis J. D’Ambrosio will step down at the end of its fiscal year on Feb. 2, due to family health matters.  Chairman Edward S. Lampert will step into the role of CEO.


The surprise move adds new uncertainty for the Hoffman Estates-based company, which has struggled for years to re-establish itself as a department store in an ultra-competitive retailing industry dominated by the low-price giant Walmart and  big box and specialty stores.


 The decision by Lampert, a hedge fund operator who is the company’s biggest shareholder and driving force,  to reassert day-to-day control represents a reversal from his naming of D’Ambrosio as chief executive nearly two years ago after operating with an interim CEO previously.   





 "In light of Lou's decision to step down, the Board feels it is important that there is continuity of leadership during this important period of transformation and improvement at Sears Holdings,” Lampert said in a statement. “I have agreed to assume these additional responsibilities in order to continue the company's recovery and sustain the momentum we are experiencing, as well as further the development of the management team under the distributed leadership model, which provides our business unit leaders with greater control, authority and autonomy.”


Sears Holdings, which operates Sears and Kmart, also updated fourth quarter earnings outlook Monday night.  The company said it expects to report a net loss of between $280 million and $360 million, or $2.64 and $3.40 per diluted share, for the quarter ending Feb. 2. The loss includes a non-cash charge of roughly $450 million due to pension settlements and an additional $42 million in pension expenses.  


 Excluding pension expenses Sears said it expects to earn $132 million and $212 million, or between $1.25 and $2.00 per share. 


For the year, Sears said it expects to lose between $721 million and $801 million, or between $6.80 and $7.56 per diluted share, which also includes pension-related costs and other adjustments reported in regulatory filings late last year. Excluding those items, the company said it expects to lose between $123 million and $203 million or between $1.16 and $1.92 per share. 


D'Ambrosio became CEO after working for the company as a consultant.  The 16-year veteran of IBM Corp. had been CEO of a telecommunications company before joining Sears.


 “I have worked very closely with Eddie over the past two years. I can say this: there is simply no one in the world that cares more about Sears Holdings and has thought more deeply about our company than Eddie,” D’Ambrosio wrote in a memo to employees.


Crshropshire@tribune.com


Twitter: @corilyns 





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Kuwait sentences second man to jail for insulting emir: lawyer






DUBAI (Reuters) – A Kuwaiti court sentenced a man to two years in prison on Monday for insulting the country’s ruler on Twitter, his lawyer said, the second to be jailed for the offence in as many days.


The U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state has clamped down in recent months on political activists who have been using social media websites to criticize the government and the ruling family.






Kuwait has seen a series of protests, including one on Sunday night, organized by the opposition since the ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, used emergency powers in October to change the voting system.


The court sentenced Ayyad al-Harbi, who has more than 13,000 followers on Twitter, to the prison term two months after his arrest and release on bail.


Harbi used his Twitter account to criticize the Kuwait government and the emir. He tweeted on Sunday: “Tomorrow morning is my trial’s verdict on charges of slander against the emir, spreading of false news.”


His lawyer, Mohammed al-Humidi, said Harbi would appeal against the verdict. “We’ve been taken by surprise because Kuwait has always been known internationally and in the Arab world as a democracy-loving country,” Humidi told Reuters by telephone. “People are used to democracy, but suddenly we see the constitution being undermined.”


On Sunday, Rashid Saleh al-Anzi was given two years in prison over a tweet that “stabbed the rights and powers of the emir”, according to the online newspaper Alaan. Anzi, who has 5,700 Twitter followers, was expected to appeal.


Kuwait, a U.S. ally and major oil producer, has been taking a firmer line on politically sensitive comments aired on the Internet.


In June 2012, a man was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of endangering state security by insulting the Prophet Mohammad and the Sunni Muslim rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain on social media.


Two months later, authorities detained Sheikh Meshaal al-Malik Al-Sabah, a member of the ruling family, over remarks on Twitter in which he accused authorities of corruption and called for political reform, a rights activist said.


Public demonstrations about local issues are common in a state that allows the most dissent in the Gulf, and Kuwait has avoided Arab Spring-style mass unrest that has ousted four veteran Arab dictators in the past two years.


But tensions have risen between Kuwait’s hand-picked government, in which ruling family members hold the top posts, and the elected parliament and opposition groups.


(Reporting by Mahmoud Habboush; Editing by Mark Heinrich)


Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Hawks' Toews: 'Excited' to play but 'a lot of damage was done'

The NHL and NHLPA came to a tenative agreement to end the lockout early Sunday morning. The deal must still be ratified, but the regular season is expected to begin in Mid-January.









It happened while most of them were sleeping. Though for one, the news arrived right before he stepped onto the ice half a world away.


The email sent from the NHL Players' Association early Sunday morning that informed the Blackhawks and the rest of the NHL's players that a tentative agreement to end the 113-day lockout had been reached set off a whirlwind of activity — and emotions.


"I'm excited to play hockey again, although it's bittersweet because a lot of damage was done to our game," Hawks captain Jonathan Toews said via text. "As players we need to keep showing our fans we care. We might have a long road ahead of us there, but for now it's great to know we'll be back on the ice very soon."








Exactly how soon is still being determined, but barring any last-minute hiccups in the legalese included in a new collective bargaining agreement, the Hawks know they will embark on a new — albeit truncated — season within two weeks.


"For the players and the fans it's great news," center Dave Bolland said. "I got up in the morning and my phone was going crazy. It was great to see that and it will be great to get back on the ice.


"It showed it could have been done a long time ago … but you know how long these things take with lawyers and mediators. But everybody's happy right now."


Viktor Stalberg, who opted to play in Europe during the lockout, arrived at an arena in Russia and found out his regular job many times zones away was about reappear. The winger played in Atlant's 1-0 overtime loss to Minsk in the KHL before hustling to his apartment to start packing for a trip to Chicago.


"Some part of me kind of kept saying, 'It's going to get done somehow,' " said Stalberg, who plans to return Tuesday after a stop in his native Sweden. "We were not that far apart and it's not worth losing a season over it, and clearly both sides felt that too."


The next step in the process is for both the NHL's Board of Governors and union to vote for ratification of a new 10-year CBA. Once that happens, a shortened training camp will be followed by a 48- or 50-game season.


"We appreciate the fans' patience and we look forward to both the owners and players ratifying the handshake agreement," Hawks Chairman Rocky Wirtz told the Tribune in his first public statement about the lockout since it began Sept. 15.


While no snafus are expected to hold up the process, Hawks defenseman Steve Montador — a member of the NHLPA's negotiating committee — wasn't prepared to fully embrace the agreement until the ink is dry.


"(Not) until we have something that says this is what the deal is going to look like and it's in writing and signed off on both sides will I feel the lockout will have ended," Montador said. "We all want to make sure what is tentatively agreed upon is what's actually agreed upon. The process moved along pretty quickly in the last couple of days and it's gotten a lot of people excited and that's a good thing."


Added Toews: "I'm really happy this is over. A lot of credit goes to the players who were in the bargaining sessions and worked very hard to get a deal done."


If everything is signed, sealed and delivered without delay, the Hawks will have to prepare quickly for a season that likely will include a condensed schedule and an almost immediate postseason race.


"It will take one or two or three games to get the kinks out," Bolland said. "I think we'll pick it up pretty quick. Everybody's been staying fit and training and staying on the ice. The first one or two games will be a little ugly, but after that we'll get right back into it."


The next question is whether fans will fully support their teams following a prolonged lockout that without question damaged the sport in the eyes of paying customers.


"You never want these things to happen, but we have some great fans around the entire league," Bolland said. "I hope the fans don't take it the wrong way and are sticking beside us."


ckuc@tribune.com


Twitter @ChrisKuc





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Schwarzenegger is back, and Hollywood hopes he’s still a star






LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – As he famously droned on-screen in his signature “Terminator” movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger is back.


A year after leaving the California governor’s office and becoming tabloid fodder for fathering a boy with his family’s housekeeper and splitting with his wife, Maria Shriver, the 65-year old former bodybuilder will star in no less than three Hollywood movies over the next 12 months.






None are likely to win Schwarzenegger an Oscar. Indeed, the movies, and Schwarzenegger‘s own fee, are low-budget compared with his global blockbusters of yore. But studio executives are betting that overseas fans especially will once again respond to a personality whose 24 films generated worldwide ticket sales of $ 3.9 billion, according to boxoffice.com.


“He is still a worldwide star who resonates with action audiences around the world,” said Rob Friedman, the co-chairman of the Lionsgate motion picture group, which is scheduled to release his next two films. “The Last Stand” will open on January 18, and “The Tomb” in September.


“Ten,” the third film, is scheduled for release in January 2014 by Open Road Films, a joint venture of the AMC and Regal Theater chains.


“When you have left the movie business for seven years, it’s kind of a scary thing to come back because you don’t know if you’re accepted or not,” Schwarzenegger said at a Saturday press event for “The Last Stand.”


“There could be a whole new generation of action stars that come up in the meantime.”


The actor said he was “very pleasantly surprised” by what he called a “great reaction” to his cameo in the 2010 action film “The Expendables,” which featured fellow action stars Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham. The film grossed $ 103.1 million in U.S. ticket sales and $ 274.5 million worldwide.


Since then, Schwarzenegger appeared in a second “Expendables” and says he will join a fifth installment of the “Terminator” if it is made.


Comcast’s Universal Pictures wants to “do a bunch” of new films based on the 30-year-old “Conan The Barbarian” movie, said Schwarzenegger, in which he would reprise his role as a barbarian.


He added that Universal, after 10 years of prodding by Schwarzenegger, also wants to do a sequel to the 1988 comedy “Twins,” in which he and Danny DeVito played mismatched twins, to be called “Triplets.”


Schwarzenegger no longer commands the $ 25 million paychecks he cashed in his heyday and will get between $ 8 and $ 10 million for each of his next three films, according to two people with knowledge of his salary but who were not authorized to speak publicly about it. He also gets a percentage of the profits, according to one of the people.


The new Schwarzenegger calculus banks on his films doing outsized business overseas while operating within budgets that are a fraction of the $ 200 million cost of his last action film, the 2003 “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.” The budget for “The Last Stand” is estimated at $ 50 million, according to movie resource site IMDB.com.


“He has significant value outside the United States and Canada, where he is still revered by people who have grown up with him throughout the years,” said Jere Hausfater, chief operating officer of film production company Aldamisa International, which hopes to do a film with Schwarzenegger in the future.


What audiences will see is a aging star who isn’t afraid of showing his drooping muscles and widening paunch, or of making fun of being past his prime. In the “The Last Stand,” a less than rock hard Schwarzenegger plays a retired Los Angeles policeman who becomes the sheriff of a small border town and is then called on to stop a violent drug lord from crossing.


In “Ten” he plays an aging drug agent, and in “The Tomb” an older prison inmate.


“We all go through the same dramas, we look at the mirror and say, what happened? You once had muscles and slowly they are deteriorating,” said Schwarzenegger at “The Last Stand” press event.


“The great thing in the movie is that they we’re not trying to play me as the 35-year-old action hero but the one who is about to retire, and all of a sudden there is this challenge where he really needs to get his act together.”


The one-time muscle man compares his career metamorphosis to that of his friend Clint Eastwood, who transitioned from his Dirty Harry days to a wiser person who’s not afraid to make fun of his slipping abilities in recent films like “Trouble with the Curve.”


“That’s called evolution,” said Sylvester Stallone, who stars with Schwarzenegger as aging inmates in “The Tomb.” “There are no more wooly mammoths. Things change, but the one thing you cannot replace is charisma. Certain people have it, and will have it until the day they die.”


Schwarzenegger‘s infamy in fathering a son outside of his high-profile marriage to Shriver initially seemed to hurt his popular appeal. Within weeks of the disclosure, “The Governator,” a comic book that would feature his likeness, was canceled.


Ultimately, though, moviegoers will be less interested in Schwarzenegger‘s political adventures and personal scandals than in what he puts on the screen, says Peter Sealey, founder of The Sausalito Group and a former Columbia Pictures president of marketing and distribution.


“The movie-going audience really don’t care about things like infidelity, DUIs,” added publicist Howard Bragman, vice-chairman of the firm called Reputation. “They overlook a lot. Ultimately, it remains, how are the movies? Is he credible? Is he going to be a joke?”


(Reporting by Ronald Grover and Zorianna Kit; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Cynthia Osterman)


Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Drug-Testing Company Tied to N.C.A.A. Draws Criticism





KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A wall in one of the conference rooms at the National Center for Drug Free Sport displays magazine covers, each capturing a moment in the inglorious history of doping scandals in sports.







Steve Hebert for The New York Times

The National Center for Drug Free Sport, in Kansas City, Mo., tries to deter doping with programs for high school, college and professional leagues.








Monica Almeida/The New York Times

Don Catlin, formerly of U.C.L.A.’s Olympic Analytical Lab, has raised questions about drug testing at colleges.






The images show Ben Johnson, the sprinter who lost his 1988 Olympic gold medal after testing positive; and Barry Bonds, the tarnished home run king; and Lyle Alzado, one of the first pro football players to admit to steroid use.


“People always assume that it’s the athletes at the top of their sport or the top of their game that are using,” said Frank Uryasz, Drug Free Sport’s founder and president. “But I can assure you that’s not the case. There’s always that desire to be the best, to win. That permeates all level of sport — abuse where you just wouldn’t expect it.”


Over the past quarter-century, athletes like Johnson, Bonds and Alzado stirred widespread concern about doping in sports.


Professional leagues without drug-testing programs have put them in; leagues with drug-testing programs have strengthened them. Congress and medical experts have called on sports officials at all levels to treat doping like a scourge.


It was in this budding American culture of doping awareness that Uryasz found a niche business model. He has spent the past decade selling his company’s services to the country’s sports officials.


The company advises leagues and teams on what their testing protocols should look like — everything from what drugs to test for to how often athletes will be tested to what happens to the specimens after testing. It also handles the collection and testing of urine samples, often with the help of subcontractors.


Drug Free Sport provides drug-testing programs for high school, college and professional leagues.


A privately held company with fewer than 30 full-time employees, it counts among its clients Major League Baseball, the N.F.L., the N.B.A., the N.C.A.A. and about 300 individual college programs.


Many, if not all, of the players on the field Monday night for the Bowl Championship Series title game between Alabama and Notre Dame have participated in a drug-testing program engineered by Drug Free Sport.


Uryasz says his company’s programs provide substantial deterrents for athletes who might consider doping.


Critics, however, question how rigorous the company’s programs are. They say Drug Free Sport often fails to adhere to tenets of serious drug testing, like random, unannounced tests; collection of samples by trained, independent officials; and testing for a comprehensive list of recreational and performance-enhancing drugs.


The critics, pointing to a low rate of positive tests, question Drug Free Sport’s effectiveness at catching athletes who cheat. Since the company began running the N.C.A.A.’s drug-testing program in 1999, for example, the rate of positive tests has been no higher than 1 percent in any year — despite an N.C.A.A. survey of student-athletes that indicated at least 1 in 5 used marijuana, a banned substance. (The N.C.A.A. tests for marijuana at championship competitions but not in its year-round program.)


Uryasz said the rate of positive tests was not meaningful. “I don’t spend a lot of time on the percent positive as being an indicator of very much,” he said.


Independent doping experts contend that having a contract with Drug Free Sport allows sports officials to say they take testing seriously without enacting a truly stringent program.


Don Catlin, the former head of U.C.L.A.’s Olympic Analytical Lab, best known for breaking the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative doping ring, oversaw the testing of many of Drug Free Sport’s urine samples when he was at U.C.L.A. He said the work by Drug Free Sport and similar companies could be used to mislead fans.


“The problem with these schools is they all want to say they’re doing drug testing, but they’re not really doing anything I would call drug testing,” he said.


A Company’s Origins


Uryasz said he became interested in working with student-athletes while tutoring them as an undergraduate at Nebraska. After he graduated, he earned an M.B.A. from Nebraska and worked in health care administration in Omaha. He said he heard about an opening at the N.C.A.A. through a friend.


Driven in part by scandals in professional sports, the N.C.A.A. voted at its 1986 annual convention to start a drug-testing program.


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Chicago restaurateurs shrug off economic worries









Chicago may have lost a few of its Michelin-starred restaurants in 2012 and waved goodbye to the inimitable Charlie Trotter's, but the higher-end restaurant scene is powering up in ways not seen since prerecession days, according to industry players and observers.


Local operators with a hit or two are embarking on ambitious ventures, though keeping an eye on startup costs and menu prices. A handful of chefs with established followings, among them Curtis Duffy and Iliana Regan, are sticking out their necks with riskier fine-dining ventures. And some prominent out-of-towners are investing on a grand scale, with a Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse just opened in the former Esquire Theater on Oak Street, and an Italian food and wine marketplace, Eataly, planned for the former ESPN Zone site in River North.


The flurry of activity is seen by some as a signal the economy has stabilized, at least for now.





"People are out spending money again, and corporations are hosting expensive dinners again, and there was a period when that was not happening," said Neil Stern, senior partner at McMillanDoolittle, a retail consultancy. "It affects the high end significantly."


Still, the bubbling of enthusiasm for the upper end of the market is something of an anomaly. The rebound in Chicago restaurant startups across all price ranges is tenuous. The city issued 1,458 new retail food licenses in 2012, only 11 more than in 2010 and below the 1,589 issued in 2007, the year leading into the recession.


Just as there are new arrivals, there were some big losses last year in this notoriously volatile business. Notable exits include Charlie Trotter's, Crofton on Wells, Il Mulino, One Sixtyblue, Pane Caldo and Ria at the Waldorf Astoria, one of several luxury hotels to step away from fine dining.


Weak economic conditions played a role for some, and the forecast for 2013 remains uncertain.


"It's a precarious market, and one economic blip really can take demand out of the market very, very quickly," Stern said.


Still, upscale-restaurant operators are moving ahead, betting on Chicagoans' seemingly endless fascination with food trends, dining out and the city's robust roster of accomplished chefs.


"When I was a child, people would go to each other's homes for a dinner party every week and would rarely go to restaurants — now it is almost the opposite," said David Flom, who with his business partner Matthew Moore hit a grand slam with Chicago Cut Steakhouse in River North, which opened in 2010. Steaks range from $34 to $114; soup, salad, sauces, vegetables and potatoes all are extra.


In December, they opened The Local at the Hilton Suites in Streeterville, a more modestly priced venue where executive chef Travis Strickland, formerly of the Inn at Blackberry Farm, is serving locally sourced comfort food. Meatloaf made with prime dry-aged beef goes for $24, rotisserie chicken pot pie for $22.


"People can use The Local as an everyday restaurant," Flom said. "People can say, 'Let's just grab a burger at The Local.' It doesn't have to be $100 a person, it can be $25."


At Chicago Cut, the average check, per person, is $82, including drinks, versus $44 at The Local, he said.


Industry observer Ron Paul, president and CEO of Technomic Inc., said he is particularly intrigued by the growing strength of such emerging independents, who are nipping at the heels of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Inc., even as that homegrown powerhouse continues to churn out winning concepts.


As restaurant real estate broker Randee Becker, president of Restaurants!, put it: "People who are doing north of $8 million to $10 million of sales are expanding in a big way."


After establishing a high-style, large-scale foothold in River North with the opening of Epic in 2009, proprietors Steve Tavoso and Jeff Krogh last fall embarked on a second act in the neighborhood. They engaged prominent chefs — Thomas Elliott Bowman and Ben Roche, who worked together at Moto — but kept their initial investment more modest this time.


Their latest entry, the eclectic Baume & Brix, opened last fall in the former Rumba space, which had most of the necessary mechanical, electrical, plumbing and kitchen elements in place. Startup costs were about $1.5 million, compared with more than $5 million spent to open Epic. "I took raw space (for Epic) — I would never do that again," Tavoso recalled.


Mercadito Hospitality, whose Chicago offerings include high-energy Latin American tapas spots Mercadito and Tavernita, also is watching its pennies on startups, its most recent being Little Market Brasserie in the Talbott Hotel. Led by chef/partner Ryan Poli, the restaurant has quietly opened with a Parisian decor and American small plates. Its grand opening is expected Jan. 18.


"We are aware of the fact the economy is not fully recovered, so we try to keep our expenses down without sacrificing quality," said managing partner Alfredo Sandoval.


The Chicago-based group intends to keep expanding. It just signed a lease at a River North spot with a 4 a.m. liquor license, with plans to open a drinks-focused venue there in 2013.





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