Bears' list grows with Texans' Dennison, report says

As the number of teams searching for a head coach shrinks, the list of candidates for the Chicago Bears continues to grow.

General manager Phil Emery has requested and been granted permission to interview Houston Texans offensive coordinator Rick Dennison, according to ESPN. Dennison becomes the ninth candidate to be identified on Emery’s list and the seventh with an offensive background.

NFL rules dictate that Emery will have an opportunity to meet with Dennison this week before the Texans, a wild-card winner over the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday, play at New England in the divisional round next Sunday. Emery is expected to interview Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy today.

Dennison, 54, has spent 18 seasons in the NFL with the Texans and Broncos. He has been an offensive coordinator for six years and also has a background as an offensive line and special teams coach. He played linebacker for the Broncos from 1982 to 1990 and was a member of three Super Bowl teams.

Dennison joined Texans coach Gary Kubiak in Houston in 2010 and their offenses have consistently been among the best in the NFL with a power rushing attack led by Arian Foster. The Texans also have a play-action passing game that is effective. Houston ranked eighth in points (26.0) and seven in yards (372.1) this season. In 2010, the Texans were third in yardage.

As Emery continues to add to his list of candidates, now only five teams are seeking a head coach as the Buffalo Bills hired Syracuse coach Doug Marrone overnight and the Kansas City Chiefs already filled their vacancy with Andy Reid. The Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles are reportedly locked in a battle for the services of Oregon coach Chip Kelly. The Arizona Cardinals and San Diego Chargers are also seeking a coach.

On Saturday, the name of Montreal Alouettes head coach Marc Trestman surfaced. He is a former offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in the NFL. Emery interviewed Cowboys special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis on Saturday. He has already interviewed Falcons special teams coordinator Keith Armstrong, Buccaneers offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan and Saints offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael. He is scheduled to have interviews this coming week with Packers offensive coordinator Tom Clements and Colts offensive coordinator Bruce Arians.

Emery said his search would involve coaches with a defensive background but none have been indentified yet. The plan is for the Bears to develop a small group of finalists and have them go through a second round of interviews that would involve ownership and likely team president Ted Phillips. With so many candidates remaining to be intrerviewed, Emery’s first round could stretch through the entire coming week.

bmbiggs@tribune.com

Twitter @BradBiggs

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RIM unveils a new BlackBerry phone! (But it’s only a Curve for T-Mobile running BlackBerry 7)

Research In Motion (RIMM) on Thursday took the wraps off a brand new BlackBerry smartphone — but it’s not the kind of smartphone BlackBerry fans have been waiting more than a year for. Instead, it’s a low-end BlackBerry Curve 9315 that will launch later this month on T-Mobile. The phone features the BlackBerry 7.1 operating system, a 3.2-megapixel camera, microSD memory expansion and a full QWERTY keyboard, and it will launch on January 23rd… just seven days before RIM unveils its first BlackBerry 10 phones. Pre-sales for the Curve 9315 begin on January 16th and the phone will cost $ 49.99 out of pocket plus a $ 10 payment each month as part of Equipment Installment Plan. T-Mobile’s full press release follows below.

[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]

BlackBerry Curve 9315 Smartphone Introduced By T-Mobile and RIM

[More from BGR: RIM teases BlackBerry 10 launch with image of first BB10 smartphone]

T-Mobile’s most affordable BlackBerry smartphone provides productivity tools and features to keep customers connected

BELLEVUE, Wash. and WATERLOO, ON – Jan. 3, 2013 – T-Mobile USA, Inc. and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced the most affordable BlackBerry® smartphone on T-Mobile’s nationwide network – the BlackBerry^® Curve^™ 9315. Powered by the BlackBerry® 7.1 operating system with 3G connectivity, the sleek new smartphone is easy-to-use and provides tools that enable customers to stay connected to the people and information that matter most.

“At T-Mobile, our goal is to delight customers. The new BlackBerry Curve 9315 will delight customers with unprecedented value while also allowing them to combine their mobile business and personal use in one great device,” said Brad Duea, senior vice president of product management at T-Mobile. “The Curve 9315 is the most affordable BlackBerry smartphone on our nationwide network and provides our customers with a wide variety of productivity and social features to keep them connected and make their mobile lives easier.”

“We’re pleased to work with T-Mobile to bring the BlackBerry Curve 9315 to customers,” said Richard Piasentin, managing director for the U.S. at Research In Motion. “The Curve 9315 is designed to make it incredibly easy to stay connected with friends, family and coworkers and will be popular with customers upgrading to a smartphone for the first time, as well as existing Curve customers looking for a step up in speed and functionality.”

Combining an intuitive interface with a QWERTY keyboard, the BlackBerry Curve 9315 features built-in Wi-Fi® connectivity for voice and data, enabling customers to access the information they need when and where they need it, and Wi-Fi calling, allowing calls and messages over an available Wi-Fi network. With a dedicated BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) key, preloaded apps for Facebook® and Twitter® and the Social Feeds 2.0 app, customers can easily interact with their friends, coworkers and social networks whether it’s instant messaging, posting or tweeting.

The new BlackBerry Curve 9315 offers a 3.2-megapixel camera with LED flash and digital zoom as well as video recording capabilities. Customers also have the ability to geo-tag the location of their pictures by utilizing the smartphone’s built-in GPS. In addition, the smartphone features a microSD card slot for up to 32GB of additional media storage and a built-in FM radio letting customers tune in to local FM stations. With the BlackBerry App World™ storefront, customers have exclusive access to a wide range of apps, allowing them to enhance their smartphone experience with entertainment, personalization and productivity apps of their choosing.

The BlackBerry Curve 9315 will be available in an exclusive pre-sale for T-Mobile business customers beginning January 16 and is expected to be available in T-Mobile retail stores, via http://www.T-Mobile.com, and with select dealers and national retailers beginning January 23, 2013. For well-qualified customers, the Curve 9315 will require a $ 49.99 out-of-pocket down payment and 20 equal monthly payments of $ 10 per month via T-Mobile’s Equipment Installment Plan (EIP)¹, with a two-year service agreement and qualifying T-Mobile Value voice and data plan. Customers may also purchase the Curve 9315 for $ 49.99 after a $ 50 mail-in rebate card, with a two-year service agreement and qualifying T-Mobile Classic voice and data plan.²

This article was originally published by BGR

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French actor Depardieu gets Russian passport

MOSCOW (AP) — The day after receiving his new Russian passport from President Vladimir Putin, French actor Gerard Depardieu flew Sunday to the provincial town of Saransk, where he was greeted as a local hero and offered an apartment for free.

Depardieu had sought Russian citizenship as part of his battle against a proposed super tax on millionaires in France.

Putin granted his request last week and then welcomed the actor late Saturday to his residence in Sochi, the host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Russian television showed the two men embracing and then chatting over supper, discussing a soon-to-be-released film in which Depardieu plays Russian monk Grigory Rasputin.

Depardieu flew Sunday to Saransk, a town about 500 kilometers (300 miles) east of Moscow, where he was met at a snow-covered airport by the governor and a group of women in traditional costume singing folk songs. He flashed his new passport to the crowd before setting out on a tour of the town.

The governor invited Depardieu to settle in Saransk and offered him an apartment of his choice, according to reports on state television.

Depardieu has not said where he would take up residence in Russia, only that he did not want to live in Moscow because it is too big and he prefers a village.

The Frenchman has spent a fair bit of time in Russia in recent years, including for the filming of the French-Russian film “Rasputin,” and he expresses an admiration for Putin. But it is Russia’s flat 13 percent income tax that appears to be the biggest draw at the moment as he flees high taxes in France.

France’s new Socialist government tried to raise the tax on income above €1 million ($ 1.3 million) to 75 percent from the current 41 percent. That plan was struck down by the highest court, but Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac said Sunday that the government is reworking the law so the superrich will still be asked to pay an elevated rate. He said the government is also considering putting the new tax in place for longer than the two years initially imagined.

“I find it a bit pathetic that for tax reasons this man — whom by the way I admire infinitely as an actor — has decided to exile himself,” Cahuzac said.

___

Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris contributed to this report.

.

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Despite New Health Law, Some See Sharp Rise in Premiums

Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration’s health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers.

Bob Chamberlin/Los Angeles Times

Dave Jones, the California insurance commissioner, said some insurance companies could raise rates as much as they did before the law was enacted.

Particularly vulnerable to the high rates are small businesses and people who do not have employer-provided insurance and must buy it on their own.

In California, Aetna is proposing rate increases of as much as 22 percent, Anthem Blue Cross 26 percent and Blue Shield of California 20 percent for some of those policy holders, according to the insurers’ filings with the state for 2013. These rate requests are all the more striking after a 39 percent rise sought by Anthem Blue Cross in 2010 helped give impetus to the law, known as the Affordable Care Act, which was passed the same year and will not be fully in effect until 2014.

 In other states, like Florida and Ohio, insurers have been able to raise rates by at least 20 percent for some policy holders. The rate increases can amount to several hundred dollars a month.

The proposed increases compare with about 4 percent for families with employer-based policies.

Under the health care law, regulators are now required to review any request for a rate increase of 10 percent or more; the requests are posted on a federal Web site, healthcare.gov, along with regulators’ evaluations.

The review process not only reveals the sharp disparity in the rates themselves, it also demonstrates the striking difference between places like New York, one of the 37 states where legislatures have given regulators some authority to deny or roll back rates deemed excessive, and California, which is among the states that do not have that ability.

New York, for example, recently used its sweeping powers to hold rate increases for 2013 in the individual and small group markets to under 10 percent. California can review rate requests for technical errors but cannot deny rate increases.

The double-digit requests in some states are being made despite evidence that overall health care costs appear to have slowed in recent years, increasing in the single digits annually as many people put off treatment because of the weak economy. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that costs may increase just 7.5 percent next year, well below the rate increases being sought by some insurers. But the companies counter that medical costs for some policy holders are rising much faster than the average, suggesting they are in a sicker population. Federal regulators contend that premiums would be higher still without the law, which also sets limits on profits and administrative costs and provides for rebates if insurers exceed those limits.

Critics, like Dave Jones, the California insurance commissioner and one of two health plan regulators in that state, said that without a federal provision giving all regulators the ability to deny excessive rate increases, some insurance companies can raise rates as much as they did before the law was enacted.

“This is business as usual,” Mr. Jones said. “It’s a huge loophole in the Affordable Care Act,” he said.

While Mr. Jones has not yet weighed in on the insurers’ most recent requests, he is pushing for a state law that will give him that authority. Without legislative action, the state can only question the basis for the high rates, sometimes resulting in the insurer withdrawing or modifying the proposed rate increase.

The California insurers say they have no choice but to raise premiums if their underlying medical costs have increased. “We need these rates to even come reasonably close to covering the expenses of this population,” said Tom Epstein, a spokesman for Blue Shield of California. The insurer is requesting a range of increases, which average about 12 percent for 2013.

Although rates paid by employers are more closely tracked than rates for individuals and small businesses, policy experts say the law has probably kept at least some rates lower than they otherwise would have been.

“There’s no question that review of rates makes a difference, that it results in lower rates paid by consumers and small businesses,” said Larry Levitt, an executive at the Kaiser Family Foundation, which estimated in an October report that rate review was responsible for lowering premiums for one out of every five filings.

Federal officials say the law has resulted in significant savings. “The health care law includes new tools to hold insurers accountable for premium hikes and give rebates to consumers,” said Brian Cook, a spokesman for Medicare, which is helping to oversee the insurance reforms.

“Insurers have already paid $1.1 billion in rebates, and rate review programs have helped save consumers an additional $1 billion in lower premiums,” he said. If insurers collect premiums and do not spend at least 80 cents out of every dollar on care for their customers, the law requires them to refund the excess.

As a result of the review process, federal officials say, rates were reduced, on average, by nearly three percentage points, according to a report issued last September.

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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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Escaped convict was using cane and beret as disguise

Chicago Tribune reporter Jason Meisner on the recent arrest of Kenneth Conley, a convicted bank robber who escaped from federal jail in December. (Posted on: Jan. 4, 2013.)

Kenneth Conley was last seen by authorities making a daring escape down the side of a high-rise federal jail under the cover of night.

Friday afternoon, he was found hobbling down a Palos Hills street with a cane, one part of a flimsy disguise that included a bulky overcoat and a beret pulled low over his face.

An 18-day manhunt for the escaped bank robber ended after a maintenance employee working at a residential building in the southwest suburb called 911 about a suspicious man.

Conley, as it turns out, had not gone very far from places he used to live and homes where friends and family still reside.

But law enforcement sources said Friday that he apparently had no help — the former strip club employee was sleeping in the building's basement.

Conley was scheduled to appear in federal court at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

The spectacular jailbreak — the first at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in almost 30 years — embarrassed federal authorities and seemed to be meticulously planned. Conley and Joseph "Jose" Banks rappelled to freedom using a rope fashioned from bedsheets. But like Banks, who was arrested two days after the escape in the North Side neighborhood where he was raised, Conley had no apparent plan for life on the run and was found holed up in an area where he had known ties.

Palos Hills police said a maintenance worker at a building in the 10200 block of South 86th Terrace called police about 3:30 p.m. to report the "suspicious person" who might be sleeping at the premises. Officers arrived to find a man walking down the street in an overcoat and pretending to use a cane. He appeared to be trying to look older than his actual age, police said.

"Our officers stopped to talk to him and he said he was just visiting," Deputy Chief James Boie told the Tribune. "He gave them a phony name, and while they're trying to run the information, he got wise that they were going to figure it out, and he pushed one of the officers down and took off running."

Boie said two additional officers responding to the scene caught Conley about a block away as he was trying to force his way into the Scenic Tree apartment complex, which is across the street from the police headquarters. He was wrestled down but did not offer any other resistance. Conley and one officer were taken to Palos Community Hospital for observation, he said.

Police found a BB pistol in Conley's pocket. He had no cash or other weapons, Boie said.

Residents in the sprawling, low-rise apartment complex where Conley was apprehended said they had seen a lot of police activity in the area earlier in the day, including K-9 units.

Chris Stevens, who has lived in the complex for a decade, said FBI agents knocked on her door at about 7 a.m., showed her a photo of Conley and asked if she had seen him. The agents told her he had been spotted in the area.

By the afternoon, Stagg High School junior David Griffith, 16, said he was with a friend taking out the garbage at the complex when he heard shouting and saw an officer run past him into a grassy area behind his building.

"We ran back in my house, opened the patio door, looked in the back and just saw a whole bunch of police officers just tackle (Conley)," Griffith said. "It was crazy. Nothing ever happens over here."

According to court records, Conley once lived in an apartment near the scene of his arrest. Boie said Conley was known to Palos Hills police because he'd had multiple resisting and obstructing arrests in 2004. Even still, they were surprised when they realized whom they had just arrested.

"I'm sure they were a little surprised that they had the guy standing in front of them,'' Boie said.

A law enforcement source told the Tribune that U.S. marshals and FBI agents met this week to discuss the hunt for Conley and went to Palos Hills on Friday morning to canvass specific addresses where he had ties. Some of the doors they knocked on were in the same block where Conley was found later in the day, the source said.

Conley, 38, was awaiting sentencing for a single bank holdup when authorities said he and Banks removed a cinder block from their cell wall and scaled down about 15 stories of the sheer wall of the jail early on Dec. 18. The cellmates were last accounted for during a routine bed check, authorities said. About 7 a.m. the next day, jail employees arriving for work saw the bedsheets dangling from a hole in the wall down the south side of the facade.

The FBI said a surveillance camera a few blocks from the jail showed the two wearing light-colored clothing hailing a taxi at Congress Parkway and Michigan Avenue about 2:40 a.m. They also appeared to be wearing backpacks, according to the FBI.

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A+E Networks and Amazon Prime Reach Licensing Deal

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Pawn Stars” fans, rejoice; you’ll now be able to catch Big Hoss and Chumley on Amazon Prime.

Amazon announced Friday that it has struck a licensing deal with A+E Networks to carry A&E, bio, History and Lifetime programs on its premium Prime Instant Video service. The deal includes prior seasons of programs such as “Pawn Stars,” “Storage Wars” and “Dance Moms.”

Amazon Prime, which allows subscribers to stream videos through a variety of gadgets, costs $ 79 a year.

The pact between Amazon and A+E Networks comes a few months after rival streaming service Netflix decided to drop all but about 300 hours of A+E programming. Netflix, which had been seeking exclusivity from A+E for its content, opted not to renew its agreement with the company.

Brad Beale, Amazon’s director of digital video content acquisition, said that Amazon has more than doubled the amount of content for Amazon Prime customers.

“We remain focused on adding TV episodes and movies to Prime Instant Video that we think our customers will enjoy,” Beale said. “A+E Networks has some of the most popular shows on television and we know our customers will love streaming the A+E content with Prime Instant Video.”

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Venezuela searches for fashion boss Missoni’s plane

CARACAS/MILAN (Reuters) – Venezuelan emergency services mounted a sea and air rescue mission on Saturday after a plane carrying fashion executive Vittorio Missoni went missing off the coast of Venezuela.

The plane carrying Missoni, 58, his wife, Maurizia Castiglioni, another couple and two Venezuelan crew members disappeared after taking off from the resort of Los Roques, an archipelago off the coast of Venezuela, Italian media said.

“It disappeared yesterday. They have been looking for it with helicopters and ships, but have not found anything yet. They are still searching for it this morning,” the Italian consul in Venezuela, Giovanni Davoli, told Reuters by phone.

Missoni is the oldest son of the founders of the fashion house famous for its exuberantly coloured knits, featuring bold stripes and zigzags. He is co-owner with siblings Luca and Angela, who handle the technical and design sides of the firm.

“The Missoni family has been informed by the Venezuelan consulate that Vittorio Missoni and his wife are missing, but we don’t know any more,” said Missoni spokeswoman Maddalena Aspes.

Other members of the Missoni family are travelling back to Italy from a holiday in France, Aspes said.

Missoni and his siblings took over managing the company from their parents Ottavio and Rosita in 1996, aiming to relaunch the brand to a larger, younger market as rivals Gucci and Burberry have done. Under Vittorio’s tenure, Missoni has opened hotels in Edinburgh and Kuwait and launched the Missoni Home collection.

By 2011, the brand’s appeal was wide enough for U.S. mass-market retailer Target to ask it to design a collection.

The brand will celebrate its 60th anniversary this year.

(Reporting by Jennifer Clark and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Scare Amplifies Fears That Clinton’s Work Has Taken Heavy Toll

Pool photo by Brendan Smialowski

Hillary Rodham Clinton with Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi in Cairo in July.

WASHINGTON — When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton fractured her right elbow after slipping in a State Department garage in June 2009, she returned to work in just a few days. Her arm in a sling, she juggled speeches and a trip to India and Thailand with physical therapy, rebuilding a joint held together with wire and pins.

It was vivid evidence of Mrs. Clinton’s indomitable stamina and work ethic — as a first lady, senator, presidential candidate and, for the past four years, the most widely traveled secretary of state in American history.

But after a fall at home in December that caused a concussion, and a subsequent diagnosis of a blood clot in her head, it has taken much longer for Mrs. Clinton to bounce back. She was released from a hospital in New York on Wednesday, accompanied by her daughter, Chelsea, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. On Thursday, she told colleagues that she hoped to be in the office next week.

Her health scare, though, has reinforced the concerns of friends and colleagues that the years of punishing work and travel have taken a heavy toll. Even among her peers at the highest levels of government, Mrs. Clinton, 65, is renowned for her grueling schedule. Over the past four years, she was on the road for 401 days and spent the equivalent of 87 full days on a plane, according to the State Department’s Web site.

In one 48-hour marathon in 2009 that her aides still talk about, she traveled from talks with Palestinian leaders in Abu Dhabi to a midnight meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, then boarded a plane for Morocco, staying up all night to work on other issues, before going straight to a meeting of Arab leaders the next morning.

“So many people who know her have urged me to tell her not to work so hard,” said Melanne S. Verveer, who was Mrs. Clinton’s chief of staff when she was first lady and is now the State Department’s ambassador at large for women’s issues. “Well, that’s not easy to do when you’re Hillary Clinton. She doesn’t spare herself.”

It is not just a matter of duty, Ms. Verveer and others said. Mrs. Clinton genuinely relishes the work, pursuing a brand of personal diplomacy that, she argues, requires her to travel to more places than her predecessors.

While there is no medical evidence that Mrs. Clinton’s clot was caused by her herculean work habits, her cascade of recent health problems, beginning with a stomach virus, has prompted those who know her best to say that she desperately needs a long rest. Her first order of business after leaving the State Department in the coming weeks, they say, should be to take care of herself.

Some even wonder whether this setback will — or should — temper the feverish speculation that she will make another run for the White House in 2016.

“I am amazed at the number of women who come up to me and tell me she must run for president,” said Ellen Chesler, a New York author and a friend of Mrs. Clinton’s. “But perhaps this episode will alter things a bit.”

Given Mrs. Clinton’s enduring status as a role model, Ms. Chesler said women would be watching which path she decides to take, as they plan their own transitions out of the working world.

“Do remember that women of our generation are really the first to have worked through the life cycle in large numbers,” she added. “Many seem to be approaching retirement with dread.”

For now, aides say, Mrs. Clinton’s focus is on wrapping up her work at the State Department. She would like to take part in a town hall-style meeting, thank her staff and sit for some interviews. But first she has to get clearance from her doctors, who are watching her to make sure that the blood thinners they have prescribed for her clot are working.

Speaking to a meeting of a foreign policy advisory board from her home in Chappaqua, N.Y., on Thursday, Mrs. Clinton said she was crossing her fingers and encouraging her doctors to let her return next week. “I’m trying to be a compliant patient,” she said, according to a person who was in the room. “But that does require a certain level of patience, which I’ve had to cultivate over the last three and a half weeks.”

While convalescing, Mrs. Clinton has spoken with President Obama and has held a 30-minute call with Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, whom Mr. Obama nominated as her successor.

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Shares in Jewel parent soar on report of deal

Stock in Jewel-Osco parent Supervalu soared 13.5 percent Friday on speculation that the company is on the brink of a deal with Cerberus Capital Management.

Shares for the Eden Prairie, Minn-based grocery company closed at $2.94.

Supervalu spokesman Mike Siemienas said the company is in talks with several suitors, though a deal is not assured.  A representative for Cerberus Capital Management, a New York-based investment firm, declined to comment for this story.

The Eden Prarie, Minn-based company, which also owns Albertsons, Cub, Acme and Save-A-Lot stores, said it was exploring strategic alternatives, including a sale, in July. Days later, Supervalu dismissed CEO Craig Herkert, and Chairman Wayne Sales stepped in to run the troubled grocer.

Supervalu sales and earnings have lagged those of competitors for years. In 2012, the company's stock price fell 69.6 percent and return on investment declined 68.6 percent, according to Bloomberg. Average stock prices in the broader consumer staples market rose 7.4 percent and returns gained 10.7 percent in the period.

For the fiscal year ended Feb. 25, Supervalu reported a loss of $1.04 billion, which included a $519 million operating loss and $509 million in interest expense. Sales declined 3 percent, to $27.9 billion. The company has carried an onerous debt load since buying Albertsons, which included Chicago's Jewel-Osco chain, in 2006, making Supervalu the subject of bankruptcy  speculation.

Cerberus is rumored to be in the mix to buy parts of the company. The firm has experience in the food retail sector and was an investor in the 2006 Albertsons deal. Cerberus still holds a stake in Albertsons and Strategic Restaurants, a Burger King franchisee with more than 250 restaurants.

eyork@tribune.com | twitter: @emilyyork

SVU data by YCharts

SVU data by YCharts

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