Inauguration offers brief pause from TV bickering

NEW YORK (AP) — The second inauguration of President Barack Obama gave television networks a chance to bask in the majesty of a Washington event that unites Americans of all beliefs and ideologies — at least for a moment.

Then it was back to business as usual: the dissemination of widely divergent views on what people had just seen for themselves.

ABC, CBS and NBC, along with the cable news networks, cast aside regular programming on Monday to carry the ceremonial swearing-in and Obama’s inaugural address. It didn’t carry the same sense of history that Obama’s first inauguration did. In 2009, even ESPN and MTV covered the swearing-in. This year, ESPN stuck to talk about the upcoming Super Bowl, and MTV aired “Catfish: The TV Show.”

Until the ceremony actually began, the networks were all challenged with the television equivalent of vamping for time. On MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell interviewed singer John Legend, who noted that one of his songs was on Obama’s Spotify playlist. NBC discussed first lady Michelle Obama’s new hairstyle.

“Well, what else are we going to talk about?” anchor Brian Williams said apologetically.

Obama’s inaugural address lasted about 18 minutes, seemingly only slightly longer than the inaugural poem and definitely shorter than the evaluations of on-air pundits paid to dissect it.

CBS veteran Washington hand Bob Schieffer, sifting through a transcript of Obama’s speech after it was delivered, said he “didn’t hear a line that kind of sums it all up.” His colleague, Scott Pelley, called it a civil rights speech and noted Obama’s citation of key moments in fights for equality among black Americans, women and gays.

“I felt during much of the speech, I felt like I was listening to a Democratic Ronald Reagan,” said ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl. “Where Reagan was unabashedly conservative, Obama was unabashedly progressive.”

While Karl’s colleague, conservative commentator George Will, said too much of the speech reprised campaign themes, he found links in language used by Obama and inaugural addresses by Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.

On CNN, historian and Obama biographer David Marannis said Obama’s address was much more positive and active than his first inaugural speech four years ago. “I could feel his heart beating this time,” he said.

Chris Matthews said on MSNBC that parts of the speech were “going to drive the right crazy.” A click away on the TV remote at Fox News Channel, analyst Charles Krauthammer was proving it.

“I found this sort of unrelenting,” Krauthammer said. “You get a sense of a man who said, ‘Alright, I’ve won my second election. I never have to face the electorate again. I’m going to be who I want to be, and I’m going to change the ideological trajectory of this country. That’s my job, and that’s why I’m here historically.’”

Fox’s Brit Hume drew a joking rebuke from a colleague when the camera showed a picture of Beyonce, and he said, “She looks stunning, doesn’t she?”

“Watch out,” Chris Wallace quickly said. “Brent Musburger got in trouble for that, my friend.” After the recent college football national championship, ESPN announcer Musburger was scolded by his bosses for lingering on the beauty of Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron’s girlfriend, the 2012 Miss Alabama USA.

Beyonce “is an incredibly beautiful woman, and there’s nothing wrong with pointing it out,” Fox’s Megyn Kelly said.

When the inauguration festivities moved indoors and cameras panned over politicians circling through the crowd, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow struck a note that a regular cable news viewer might question as too hopeful.

“I think the ceremony is cool, and the usual celebration is cool,” she said. “It is also really nice to see Republicans and Democrats, and liberals and conservatives, chatting very casually with each other without talking politics.”

As she spoke, the cameras focused on Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts smiling but standing alone.

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Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws

NEW YORK (AP) — Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.

A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home the next day, then loaded up on medicine and returned to work.

"It's a balancing act" between physical health and financial well-being, she said.

An unusually early and vigorous flu season is drawing attention to a cause that has scored victories but also hit roadblocks in recent years: mandatory paid sick leave for a third of civilian workers — more than 40 million people — who don't have it.

Supporters and opponents are particularly watching New York City, where lawmakers are weighing a sick leave proposal amid a competitive mayoral race.

Pointing to a flu outbreak that the governor has called a public health emergency, dozens of doctors, nurses, lawmakers and activists — some in surgical masks — rallied Friday on the City Hall steps to call for passage of the measure, which has awaited a City Council vote for nearly three years. Two likely mayoral contenders have also pressed the point.

The flu spike is making people more aware of the argument for sick pay, said Ellen Bravo, executive director of Family Values at Work, which promotes paid sick time initiatives around the country. "There's people who say, 'OK, I get it — you don't want your server coughing on your food,'" she said.

Advocates have cast paid sick time as both a workforce issue akin to parental leave and "living wage" laws, and a public health priority.

But to some business owners, paid sick leave is an impractical and unfair burden for small operations. Critics also say the timing is bad, given the choppy economy and the hardships inflicted by Superstorm Sandy.

Michael Sinensky, an owner of seven bars and restaurants around the city, was against the sick time proposal before Sandy. And after the storm shut down four of his restaurants for days or weeks, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that his insurers have yet to pay, "we're in survival mode."

"We're at the point, right now, where we cannot afford additional social initiatives," said Sinensky, whose roughly 500 employees switch shifts if they can't work, an arrangement that some restaurateurs say benefits workers because paid sick time wouldn't include tips.

Employees without sick days are more likely to go to work with a contagious illness, send an ill child to school or day care and use hospital emergency rooms for care, according to a 2010 survey by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. A 2011 study in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that a lack of sick time helped spread 5 million cases of flu-like illness during the 2009 swine flu outbreak.

To be sure, many employees entitled to sick time go to work ill anyway, out of dedication or at least a desire to project it. But the work-through-it ethic is shifting somewhat amid growing awareness about spreading sickness.

"Right now, where companies' incentives lie is butting right up against this concern over people coming into the workplace, infecting others and bringing productivity of a whole company down," said John A. Challenger, CEO of employer consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Paid sick day requirements are often popular in polls, but only four places have them: San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and the state of Connecticut. The specific provisions vary.

Milwaukee voters approved a sick time requirement in 2008, but the state Legislature passed a law blocking it. Philadelphia's mayor vetoed a sick leave measure in 2011; lawmakers have since instituted a sick time requirement for businesses with city contracts. Voters rejected a paid sick day measure in Denver in 2011.

In New York, City Councilwoman Gale Brewer's proposal would require up to five paid sick days a year at businesses with at least five employees. It wouldn't include independent contractors, such as Zavala, who supports the idea nonetheless.

The idea boasts such supporters as feminist Gloria Steinem and "Sex and the City" actress Cynthia Nixon, as well as a majority of City Council members and a coalition of unions, women's groups and public health advocates. But it also faces influential opponents, including business groups, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has virtually complete control over what matters come to a vote.

Quinn, who is expected to run for mayor, said she considers paid sick leave a worthy goal but doesn't think it would be wise to implement it in a sluggish economy. Two of her likely opponents, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Comptroller John Liu, have reiterated calls for paid sick leave in light of the flu season.

While the debate plays out, Emilio Palaguachi is recovering from the flu and looking for a job. The father of four was abruptly fired without explanation earlier this month from his job at a deli after taking a day off to go to a doctor, he said. His former employer couldn't be reached by telephone.

"I needed work," Palaguachi said after Friday's City Hall rally, but "I needed to see the doctor because I'm sick."

___

Associated Press writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

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Inauguration offers brief pause from TV bickering

NEW YORK (AP) — The second inauguration of President Barack Obama gave television networks a chance to bask in the majesty of a Washington event that unites Americans of all beliefs and ideologies — at least for a moment.

Then it was back to business as usual: the dissemination of widely divergent views on what people had just seen for themselves.

ABC, CBS and NBC, along with the cable news networks, cast aside regular programming on Monday to carry the ceremonial swearing-in and Obama's inaugural address. It didn't carry the same sense of history that Obama's first inauguration did. In 2009, even ESPN and MTV covered the swearing-in. This year, ESPN stuck to talk about the upcoming Super Bowl, and MTV aired "Catfish: The TV Show."

Until the ceremony actually began, the networks were all challenged with the television equivalent of vamping for time. On MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell interviewed singer John Legend, who noted that one of his songs was on Obama's Spotify playlist. NBC discussed first lady Michelle Obama's new hairstyle.

"Well, what else are we going to talk about?" anchor Brian Williams said apologetically.

Obama's inaugural address lasted about 18 minutes, seemingly only slightly longer than the inaugural poem and definitely shorter than the evaluations of on-air pundits paid to dissect it.

CBS veteran Washington hand Bob Schieffer, sifting through a transcript of Obama's speech after it was delivered, said he "didn't hear a line that kind of sums it all up." His colleague, Scott Pelley, called it a civil rights speech and noted Obama's citation of key moments in fights for equality among black Americans, women and gays.

"I felt during much of the speech, I felt like I was listening to a Democratic Ronald Reagan," said ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl. "Where Reagan was unabashedly conservative, Obama was unabashedly progressive."

While Karl's colleague, conservative commentator George Will, said too much of the speech reprised campaign themes, he found links in language used by Obama and inaugural addresses by Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.

On CNN, historian and Obama biographer David Marannis said Obama's address was much more positive and active than his first inaugural speech four years ago. "I could feel his heart beating this time," he said.

Chris Matthews said on MSNBC that parts of the speech were "going to drive the right crazy." A click away on the TV remote at Fox News Channel, analyst Charles Krauthammer was proving it.

"I found this sort of unrelenting," Krauthammer said. "You get a sense of a man who said, 'Alright, I've won my second election. I never have to face the electorate again. I'm going to be who I want to be, and I'm going to change the ideological trajectory of this country. That's my job, and that's why I'm here historically.'"

Fox's Brit Hume drew a joking rebuke from a colleague when the camera showed a picture of Beyonce, and he said, "She looks stunning, doesn't she?"

"Watch out," Chris Wallace quickly said. "Brent Musburger got in trouble for that, my friend." After the recent college football national championship, ESPN announcer Musburger was scolded by his bosses for lingering on the beauty of Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron's girlfriend, the 2012 Miss Alabama USA.

Beyonce "is an incredibly beautiful woman, and there's nothing wrong with pointing it out," Fox's Megyn Kelly said.

When the inauguration festivities moved indoors and cameras panned over politicians circling through the crowd, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow struck a note that a regular cable news viewer might question as too hopeful.

"I think the ceremony is cool, and the usual celebration is cool," she said. "It is also really nice to see Republicans and Democrats, and liberals and conservatives, chatting very casually with each other without talking politics."

As she spoke, the cameras focused on Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts smiling but standing alone.

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Investigators probe 787 battery maker

U.S. and Japanese aviation safety officials investigating problems with Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner visited the headquarters of the plane's battery maker on Monday, seeking clues into why one of the technologically advanced aircraft made an emergency landing last week.

A spokesman for GS Yuasa Corp., which makes batteries for the 787, said the company was fully cooperating with the investigation, and its engineers were working with the officials from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Japan's Civil Aviation Bureau (CAB) at the company's compound in Kyoto, where it makes airplane batteries.

CAB official Tatsuyuki Shimazu told reporters the investigating team had been briefed by GS Yuasa and had toured the plant, looking at battery design, production and quality. The Japanese investigation at the plant will continue on Tuesday on a more detailed level, including tracking battery batch numbers and production dates, he said.

Authorities around the world last week grounded the new lightweight Dreamliner, and Boeing halted deliveries after a problem with a lithium-ion battery prompted an All Nippon Airways 787 into the emergency landing at Takamatsu airport during a domestic flight. Earlier this month, a similar battery caught fire in a Japan Airlines' 787 parked at Boston Logan International Airport.

EXPANDED PROBE

U.S. safety investigators on Sunday ruled out excess voltage as the cause of the Boston battery fire on Jan. 7, and said they were expanding their probe to look at the battery's charger and the jet's auxiliary power unit. The battery is one part of the 787's complex electrical system, built by French company Thales SA.

“Results have shown the battery was abnormal in both the Boston and Takamatsu (incidents). They were the most damaged,” Shigeru Takano, a senior safety official at the CAB, told reporters ahead of the on-site visit to GS Yuasa. “We will look into if the work that took place, from design to manufacturing, was appropriate.”

Shares in GS Yuasa, valued at close to $1.5 billion, rose 1 percent on Monday, having dropped nearly 10 percent since the Boston fire. The benchmark Nikkei fell 1.5 percent.

The company, which employs nearly 12,300 staff, expects revenue of 288 billion yen ($3.2 billion) in the year to end-March - with only around 1 percent of that coming from its aircraft battery business. The company's batteries are used primarily in motorbikes, industrial equipment and power supply devices.

GS Yuasa, in which automaker Toyota Motor Corp has a 2.7 percent stake, reported an operating profit of around $160 million in the year to last March.

MORE FLIGHTS CANCELLED

The grounding of the Dreamliner, an advanced carbon-composite plane with a list price of $207 million, has forced ANA to cancel 151 domestic and 26 international flights scheduled for Jan. 23-28, affecting more than 21,000 passengers, the airline said on Monday.

The cancellations add to the 72 flights scheduled for Jan. 19-22 that ANA called off last week. ANA, which flies the most Dreamliners of any airline, said it will announce on Thursday its plans on flight cancellations for dates from Jan. 29.

ANA said it had not yet decided whether to seek compensation from Boeing for losses as a result of the 787's grounding. “At this point we're concentrating on getting the Dreamliner back in service, rather than considering requesting compensation,” said spokesman Ryosei Nomura.

Rival JAL said it cancelled four flights on its Tokyo-San Diego route for Jan. 27-28, adding to the 8 flights originally scheduled for Jan. 19-25 on the same route it called off last week. It said it had yet to decide changes for flights slated for Jan. 26.

“We've been able to rearrange routes originally scheduled to use the Dreamliner with alternative aircraft,” said JAL spokeswoman Sze Hunn Yap, adding there was no talk about compensation at this stage.

Japan is the biggest market to date for the Dreamliner, with JAL and ANA flying 24 of the 50 passenger jets that Boeing has delivered.
 

data by YCharts

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Harold Washington statue damaged on South Side

Police released this photo showing damage to a pedestal under the statue of the late Harold Washington. (Chicago Police Dept. / January 20, 2013)

Staff report

4:34 p.m. CST, January 20, 2013

Police are looking for the people responsible for damaging and stealing a portion of a statue of late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington on the South Side.

A front panel which contained a metal description of the late mayor was removed and stolen from the pedestal below the statue, according to a community alert issued by police.

The statue was located in front of the Harold Washington Cultural Center on the 4700 block of South Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, police said.

The incident happened late Saturday. No information about the people who damaged the statute was available, police said.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Area Central Bureau of Detectives at (312) 747-8380.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

Twitter:@ChicagoBreaking

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Analysis: Apple earnings need to overcome technical malaise

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - To those who study technical stock charts, Apple Inc looks broken.

Even though it is widely viewed to be undervalued after hitting an 11-month low this week and nine out of 10 brokerages recommend that investors buy or hold the stock, Apple shareholders could still be in for more rough times if technical strategists are right.

They note that trading charts show few price points where investors can expect clusters of buying to support Apple's shares. For example, the stock's medium-term momentum, based on its 50-day rate of acceleration, has been on a downward slope since March, but has not hit over-sold levels.

Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research, said it is hard to find an entry point at current levels, calling the stock "broken."

"There's been a lot of technical damage, but at the same time it still looks like it's in a downtrend," Detrick said. "This could still be a name you want to avoid and could very well still underperform in our opinion."

Apple has a chance to turn things around when it reports results for the December quarter on January 23. Investors are unusually nervous because of reports that Apple might be curtailing purchases of screens for its iPhone and iPad, which together account for over 70 percent of revenue.

If Apple can substantially beat Wall Street's subdued expectations, that would go a long way towards restoring confidence in the near term. It is not enough for Apple to just meet targets - that could cause shares to fall further in the short term, some analysts say. Apple has only missed analysts' profit forecasts four times in the last 10 years, two of those in the most recent reporting periods.

"If you have a 10 percent to 15 percent beat on estimates, it will be enough to have people say, 'Oh my gosh, Apple has its game back,'" said Chris Bertelsen, chief investment officer of Global Financial Private Capital, a Sarasota-based wealth manager with $1.7 billion assets under management.

The fund had cut back its holdings in Apple to less than 1 percent of its portfolio from about 5 to 6 percent last fall, but Bertelsen said it is now adding again. He likes Apple's longer-term prospects as the global smartphone market grows, particularly in developing countries such as India and Brazil.

Analysts on average estimate Apple's fiscal first-quarter earnings per share at $13.41, down slightly from $13.87 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue is seen up 18 percent at $54.7 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The December quarter is typically the strongest one of the year for consumer electronics sales and Apple had a new product, the iPad mini, in its holiday season line-up.

Wall Street estimates Apple sold between 47.5 million and 53 million iPhones, up considerably from the 26.9 million sold in the previous quarter, when the iPhone 5 had not made it to all markets. IPad sales are expected at 23 million to 25 million.

BULLS OUTNUMBER BEARS

Apple shares have fallen nearly 30 percent after hitting a record high in September, in part on worries that its mobile devices are no longer as popular as they were. As competition intensifies from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and others using Google Inc's Android software, investors are wondering if Apple's days of hyper growth are over.

There are still plenty of Apple bulls on Wall Street. Forty-eight out of 58 equity analysts who cover the stock rate it a "buy" or "strong buy" and another seven say it is a "hold," according to Thomson Reuters data. Only three recommend that investors sell the stock.

The median price target is $745, which is roughly 50 percent above Apple's Friday close of $500.

The company is expected to continue to post double-digit revenue growth into at least 2015 and a StarMine analysis of its expected growth over the next decade puts the stock's intrinsic value at about $708 a share.

"We still expect iPhone growth. They are still pointing to a strong December quarter and, if you think there's any momentum left, that they can grow on the high end (of the smart phone market) or find growth in other sectors, this is a buying opportunity," said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello, who has a fair value call on Apple at $770.

Investors also expect Apple to follow through on a promised $10 billion stock buy-back program.

"If the company is not buying back at this level, I think it's absurd and suggests that something is seriously wrong with the company," said Mark Mulholland, manager of the Matthew 25 fund, which has about 17 percent of its holdings in Apple.

Last year, the fund posted a considerable 29 percent gain, although it lost 2.8 percent in the last quarter as Apple slumped. (Apple shares gained 31 percent over 2012)

Mulholland values Apple at more than $1,000 per share, based on its growth prospects and cash level. Apple had cash and securities of $121.25 billion at the end of September, or about $129 per share.

Still, he agrees with technical analysts who say there is little momentum behind the stock. Some point to support near $425 per share, which means there is room for the stock to fall another 15 percent from current levels.

"Three things influence a stock price: growth, value and momentum. The growth and value are there, but you've completely lost your momentum," said Mulholland.

Apple shares are trading at 15.4 times projected 12-month earnings, a level that analysts say is unusually inexpensive for a company with its growth profile.

Samsung trades at a forward P/E of 7.6, while Nokia trades at 92.3 times.

Sandy Villere, portfolio manager of the $356 million Villere Balanced Fund, said the fund has been scooping up more shares as the price fell, but notes it is more fashionable to be down on the iPhone, iPad and Mac computer maker these days.

"It's becoming almost a contrarian thing to want to buy Apple shares," Villere added. It's "a great buying opportunity."

(Additional reporting by David Randall and Angela Moon; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Andre Grenon)

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Gore's TD run gives 49ers 28-24 lead over Falcons

ATLANTA (AP) — Frank Gore's 9-yard run midway through the fourth quarter gave San Francisco a 28-24 lead over the Atlanta Falcons in Sunday's NFC championship game.

The 49ers, who trailed 17-0 in the first half, took their first lead of the game on a short 38-yard drive set up by Ted Ginn Jr.'s 20-yard punt return.

Gore had a 5-yard touchdown run to cap an 82-yard drive to open the second half.

The high-scoring pace of the first half continued as the 49ers were impressive to open the second half. Colin Kaepernick had passes of 21 and 17 yards to Randy Moss in the drive. The 17-yarder moved the 49ers to the Falcons 5, setting up Gore's scoring run.

Matt Ryan threw three touchdown passes in the first half, including a 10-yard toss to Tony Gonzalez with 25 seconds remaining in the half. The score answered San Francisco's two straight touchdowns as Atlanta led 24-14 at halftime.

Ryan also threw touchdown passes of 20 and 46 yards to Julio Jones.

Ryan was hurt by two third-quarter turnovers. His pass for Roddy White was intercepted by cornerback Chris Culliver early in the third quarter. The 49ers couldn't take advantage of the game's first turnover when David Akers' try for a 38-yard field goal hit the left upright.

Later in the third quarter, Ryan fumbled a shotgun snap. Again the 49ers were denied when receiver Michael Crabtree fumbled at the goal line when stripped by Dunta Robinson. William Moore helped on the hit and Stephen Nicholas was credited with the recovery.

The Falcons led 17-0 following Ryan's 20-yard touchdown pass to Jones on the first play of the second quarter before Kaepernick and the 49ers answered.

Kaepernick threw a 4-yard scoring pass to tight end Vernon Davis and LaMichael James had a 15-yard touchdown run as the 49ers charged back.

Trailing 17-0, the 49ers finally answered with a long drive that consumed almost 7 minutes. The drive began with four straight runs by Gore.

On third-and-7 from the Falcons 42, Kaepernick completed a 27-yard pass to Davis to the 15. Following an incomplete pass on first down, James ran right behind a block by Davis for the touchdown.

The 49ers then went on an 82-yard touchdown drive. Big plays included Kaepernick's 19-yard pass to Davis and a 23-yard run by the dual-threat quarterback.

Falcons linebacker Nicholas helped the 49ers with a 15-yard penalty for unnecessary roughness.

On first down from the Falcons 4, Kaepernick rolled right before throwing to Davis for the touchdown.

Ryan opened the game with three straight scoring drives, including two touchdown passes to Jones. Ryan capped the Falcons' opening drive with a 46-yard touchdown pass to Jones.

Matt Bryant's 35-yard field goal capped the Falcons' second drive.

Ryan moved the Falcons 80 yards on seven plays on Atlanta's opening drive. Ryan completed passes of 13 yards to Jones and 16 yards to White on the drive.

On second-and-9 from the 49ers 46, Ryan faked a handoff to Jacquizz Rodgers. San Francisco safety Dashon Goldson bit on the fake, allowing Jones to run past Goldson. Jones was open for the deep pass as safety Donte Whitner trailed on the play.

Ryan completed a 27-yard pass to Jones to set up Bryant's field goal to end the Falcons' second drive. Jones beat Goldson on the catch.

On the first play of the second quarter, Ryan threw to Jones in the left corner of the end zone. Jones was closely covered by 49ers cornerback Tarell Brown. Jones made the catch over Brown and then looked down as he made sure he touched the end zone with both feet.

Jones' second foot was close to the back of the end zone, but the officials' review confirmed the touchdown.

Ryan completed 18 of 24 passes for 271 yards and three touchdowns in the half. Jones had seven catches for 135 yards and two touchdowns.

The Falcons had a strong start for the second straight week of the postseason. They led Seattle 20-0 at halftime in last week's divisional playoff game and lost the lead before winning 30-28.

___

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

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Katie Couric to interview Te’o, parents about girlfriend hoax

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Television’s Katie Couric will interview Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o, the linebacker entangled in a girlfriend hoax, and his parents on her daytime talk show, “Katie,” ABC News said on Sunday.

The interview will be his first on camera since news broke last week that his story about his girlfriend’s cancer death – and her existence altogether – was exposed as a fraud.

The tragic story of his girlfriend and her injuries from a car accident and death from leukemia was one of the most widely recounted U.S. sports stories last year as Notre Dame made a drive toward the college football national championship game.

Te’o has denied being in on the elaborate hoax, telling ESPN on Friday he had believed his relationship was real with a woman who turned out to be an online fabrication.

Te’o and his parents, Brian and Ottilia Te’o, will appear in an interview on “Katie” to be broadcast on Thursday, January 24, ABC said.

“I wasn’t faking it,” Te’o said in the off-camera ESPN interview, excerpts of which were posted on ESPN.com. “I wasn’t part of this.”

The ESPN interview was Te’o's first since the sports blog Deadspin.com on Wednesday exposed the tale of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, and her death as a hoax and that a friend of Te’o's named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was behind it.

Te’o acknowledged in a statement on Wednesday and the ESPN interview that he had never met the woman in person, although he considered her to be his girlfriend, and said he had been duped.

Notre Dame, one of the most powerful institutions in U.S. collegiate athletics, held a news conference within hours of the Deadspin.com article to say that Te’o had been duped.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Vicki Allen)

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Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws

NEW YORK (AP) — Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.

A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home the next day, then loaded up on medicine and returned to work.

"It's a balancing act" between physical health and financial well-being, she said.

An unusually early and vigorous flu season is drawing attention to a cause that has scored victories but also hit roadblocks in recent years: mandatory paid sick leave for a third of civilian workers — more than 40 million people — who don't have it.

Supporters and opponents are particularly watching New York City, where lawmakers are weighing a sick leave proposal amid a competitive mayoral race.

Pointing to a flu outbreak that the governor has called a public health emergency, dozens of doctors, nurses, lawmakers and activists — some in surgical masks — rallied Friday on the City Hall steps to call for passage of the measure, which has awaited a City Council vote for nearly three years. Two likely mayoral contenders have also pressed the point.

The flu spike is making people more aware of the argument for sick pay, said Ellen Bravo, executive director of Family Values at Work, which promotes paid sick time initiatives around the country. "There's people who say, 'OK, I get it — you don't want your server coughing on your food,'" she said.

Advocates have cast paid sick time as both a workforce issue akin to parental leave and "living wage" laws, and a public health priority.

But to some business owners, paid sick leave is an impractical and unfair burden for small operations. Critics also say the timing is bad, given the choppy economy and the hardships inflicted by Superstorm Sandy.

Michael Sinesky, an owner of seven bars and restaurants around the city, was against the sick time proposal before Sandy. And after the storm shut down four of his restaurants for days or weeks, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that his insurers have yet to pay, "we're in survival mode."

"We're at the point, right now, where we cannot afford additional social initiatives," said Sinesky, whose roughly 500 employees switch shifts if they can't work, an arrangement that some restaurateurs say benefits workers because paid sick time wouldn't include tips.

Employees without sick days are more likely to go to work with a contagious illness, send an ill child to school or day care and use hospital emergency rooms for care, according to a 2010 survey by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. A 2011 study in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that a lack of sick time helped spread 5 million cases of flu-like illness during the 2009 swine flu outbreak.

To be sure, many employees entitled to sick time go to work ill anyway, out of dedication or at least a desire to project it. But the work-through-it ethic is shifting somewhat amid growing awareness about spreading sickness.

"Right now, where companies' incentives lie is butting right up against this concern over people coming into the workplace, infecting others and bringing productivity of a whole company down," said John A. Challenger, CEO of employer consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Paid sick day requirements are often popular in polls, but only four places have them: San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and the state of Connecticut. The specific provisions vary.

Milwaukee voters approved a sick time requirement in 2008, but the state Legislature passed a law blocking it. Philadelphia's mayor vetoed a sick leave measure in 2011; lawmakers have since instituted a sick time requirement for businesses with city contracts. Voters rejected a paid sick day measure in Denver in 2011.

In New York, City Councilwoman Gale Brewer's proposal would require up to five paid sick days a year at businesses with at least five employees. It wouldn't include independent contractors, such as Zavala, who supports the idea nonetheless.

The idea boasts such supporters as feminist Gloria Steinem and "Sex and the City" actress Cynthia Nixon, as well as a majority of City Council members and a coalition of unions, women's groups and public health advocates. But it also faces influential opponents, including business groups, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has virtually complete control over what matters come to a vote.

Quinn, who is expected to run for mayor, said she considers paid sick leave a worthy goal but doesn't think it would be wise to implement it in a sluggish economy. Two of her likely opponents, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Comptroller John Liu, have reiterated calls for paid sick leave in light of the flu season.

While the debate plays out, Emilio Palaguachi is recovering from the flu and looking for a job. The father of four was abruptly fired without explanation earlier this month from his job at a deli after taking a day off to go to a doctor, he said. His former employer couldn't be reached by telephone.

"I needed work," Palaguachi said after Friday's City Hall rally, but "I needed to see the doctor because I'm sick."

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Associated Press writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.

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Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

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ABC News' Barbara Walters hospitalized after fall

NEW YORK (AP) — Veteran ABC newswoman Barbara Walters has fallen at an inauguration party at an ambassador's home in Washington and has been hospitalized.

Walters, 83, fell Saturday night on a step at the residence of Britain's ambassador to the United States, Peter Westmacott, ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said. The fall left Walters with a cut on her forehead, he said.

Walters, out of an abundance of caution, went to a hospital for treatment of the cut and for a full examination, Schneider said on Sunday. She was alert and was "telling everyone what to do, which we all take as a very positive sign," he said.

It was unclear when Walters might be released from the hospital, which ABC didn't identify.

Walters was TV news' first female superstar, making headlines in 1976 as a network anchor with an unprecedented $1 million annual salary. During more than three decades at ABC, and before that at NBC, her exclusive interviews with rulers, royalty and entertainers have brought her celebrity status. In 1997, she created "The View," a live weekday talk show that became an unexpected hit.

Walters had heart surgery in May 2010 but returned to active duty on "The View" that September, declaring, "I'm fine!"

Even in her ninth decade, Walters continues to keep a busy schedule, including appearances on "The View," prime-time interviews and her annual special, "10 Most Fascinating People," on which, in December, she asked New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie if he considered himself fit enough to be president someday. (Christie, although acknowledging he is "more than a little" overweight, replied he would be up to the job.)

Last June, Walters apologized for trying to help a former aide to Syrian President Bashar Assad land a job or get into college in the United States. She acknowledged the conflict in trying to help Sheherazad Jaafari, daughter of the Syrian ambassador to the United States and a one-time press aide to Assad. Jaafari helped Walters land an interview with the Syrian president that aired in December 2011.

Walters said she realized the help she offered Jaafari was a conflict and said, "I regret that."

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