HSBC to pay record $1.9B fine

HSBC has agreed to pay a record $1.92 billion fine to settle a multi-year probe by U.S. prosecutors, who accused Europe's biggest bank of failing to enforce rules designed to prevent the laundering of criminal cash.

HSBC Holdings Plc admitted to a breakdown of controls and apologised in a statement on Tuesday announcing it had reached a deferred-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, as first reported by Reuters last week.

"We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again. The HSBC of today is a fundamentally different organisation from the one that made those mistakes," said Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver.

"Over the last two years, under new senior leadership, we have been taking concrete steps to put right what went wrong and to participate actively with government authorities in bringing to light and addressing these matters."

The deferred prosecution agreement, when detailed by U.S. Justice Department officials later on Tuesday, could yield new information about a failure at HSBC to police transactions linked to Mexico, sources familiar with the matter said.

Details of those dealings were reported this summer in a sweeping U.S. Senate probe. 

The Senate panel alleged that HSBC failed to maintain controls designed to prevent money laundering by drug cartels, terrorists a nd tax cheats, when acting as a financier to clients routing funds from places including Mexico, Iran and Syria.

The bank was unable to properly monitor $15 billion in bulk cash transactions between mid-2006 and mid-2009, and had i nadequate staffin g a nd high turnover in it s c ompliance units, July's re port said.

HSBC on Tuesday said it expected to also reach a settlement with British watchdog the Financial Services Authority. The FSA declined to comment.

U.S. and European banks have now agreed to settlements with U.S. regulators totalling some $5 billion in recent years on charges they violated U.S. sanctions and failed to police potentially illicit transactions.

No bank or bank executives, however, have been indicted, as prosecutors have instead used deferred prosecutions - under which criminal charges against a firm are set aside if it agrees to conditions such as paying fines and changing behaviour.

HSBC's settlement also includes agreements or consent orders with the Manhattan district attorney, the Federal Reserve and three U.S. Treasury Department units: the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Comptroller of the Currency and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

HSBC said it would pay $1.921 billion, continue to cooperate fully with regulatory and law enforcement authorities and take further action to strengthen its compliance policies and procedures. U.S. prosecutors have agreed to defer or forego prosecution.

The settlement is the third time in a decade that HSBC has been penalized for lax controls and ordered by U.S. authorities to better monitor suspicious transactions. Directives by regulators to improve oversight came in 2003 and again in 2010.

Last month, HSBC told investors it had set aside $1.5 billion to cover fines or penalties stemming from the inquiry and warned costs could be significantly higher.

Analyst Jim Antos of Mizuho Securities said the settlement costs were "trivial" in terms of the company's book value.

"But in terms of real cash terms, that's a huge fine to pay," said Antos, who rates HSBC a "buy".

HSBC shares dipped 0.3 percent in early London trading to 63 9 pe nce, in line with a slightly weaker European bank index . I ts Ho ng Kong stock nudged up 0.3 percent to HK$79.70.

"It has been damaging for the brand, albeit not as bad as it might have been," said Ian Gordon, analyst at Investec Securities in London.

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Daley nephew due in court

Former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew is expected in court this morning after being indicted for involuntary manslaughter in the 2004 death of a northwest suburban man in a drunken fight on the city’s Near North Side.

Richard J. Vanecko is scheduled to appear in the presiding judge’s room at the Leighton Criminal Court Building at 26^th Street and California Avenue at 9:30 a.m., immediately following the normal judge-assignment call.

Cook County Judge Michael Toomin, who earlier this year appointed special prosecutor Dan Webb to investigate the death of David Koschman, will take over the bench to oversee Vanecko’s judge assignment, which will be determined by a “randomizer” machine that will arbitrarily assign the case to one of the courthouse’s 32 felony courtrooms.

Vanecko will then appear before the designated judge upstairs, where he is expected to enter a plea of not guilty and be released on a pre-negotiated bond of $100,000.

Typically, dozens of judge assignments are done by the “randomizer” machine before court begins. But in Vanecko’s case, Toomin will have the device with him on the bench to avoid any allegations of unfairness, according to courthouse sources. 

Both sides have the option to ask for a different judge if there are conflicts of interest, something that could arise since Vanecko is such a high-profile defendant and there have been allegations of police and prosecutorial misconduct surrounding the case.

Vanecko, who currently resides in Costa Mesa, Calif., turned himself in to authorities in Chicago on Friday afternoon and later posed for a mug shot in a jacket and tie.

Last week, a special grand jury found that Vanecko, who is the son of former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s sister, Mary, “recklessly performed acts which were likely to cause great bodily harm to another.”

Koschman, 21, of Mount Prospect, had been drinking in the Rush Street nightlife district early on April 24, 2004, when he and his friends quarreled with a group that included Vanecko. During the altercation, Koschman was knocked to the street, hitting the back of his head on the pavement. He died 11 days later.

Police at the time said Koschman was the aggressor and closed the case without charges. In announcing the indictment, Webb, a former U.S. attorney, noted that at 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds, Vanecko towered over Koschman, who was 5-foot-5 and 125 pounds.

Webb also said the grand jury is still probing how the original investigation was conducted.

Vanecko’s attorneys issued a statement last week saying they were disappointed by the indictment and noted that at the time of the confrontation, Koschman’s blood-alcohol content was three times the legal limit for a motorist.

Koschman “was clearly acting in an unprovoked, physically aggressive manner,” Vanecko’s legal team said. “We are confident that when all the facts are aired in a court of law, the trier of fact will find Mr. Vanecko not guilty.”

If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Vanecko faces from probation up to 5 years in prison. 

jmeisner@tribune.com

gknue@tribune.com

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Gabrielle Aplin tops UK charts with Power of Love

LONDON (Reuters) – English singer Gabrielle Aplin scored her first British number one on Sunday with a cover of the Frankie Goes To Hollywood hit “The Power of Love”, the Official Charts Company said.

Aplin climbed to number one from sixth place with the song, which first entered the charts in 1984 and is the theme for a Christmas television advert for British retailer John Lewis.

In the album charts, Olly Murs, a former runner-up in television’s X-Factor talent contest, held on to the top spot with his release “Right Place Right Time”, but saw his “Troublemaker” slip to third place in the singles ranks.

American singer Pink was the week’s highest climber in the singles top ten, jumping to eighth place from number 26 with “Try”.

(Reporting by Tim Castle; editing by Jason Webb)

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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The New Old Age Blog: Training Needed for Home Care Is Lacking

“H” from Chicago, I heard you when you joined a lively discussion over hospice at home here a couple of weeks ago and asked, “where can family members get the training to do all the nursing tasks?”

In the comments section, many readers wrote in to say that caring for relatives at the end of their lives was a duty and a privilege. Others said they were unprepared for the physical and emotional burdens of doing so.

Your question stood out because of its practical character. Do caregivers have to figure out how to handle all these complicated medical issues on their own? Or is some help out there?

For an answer, I called two of the authors of “Home Alone: Family Caregivers Providing Complex Chronic Care,” put out by the United Hospital Fund and the AARP Public Policy Institute. That study recently made headlines by reporting that 46 percent of the nation’s 42 million caregivers handle medical and nursing tasks such as giving injections, caring for wounds or administering I.V.s.

Susan Reinhard, senior vice president and director of the AARP Public Policy Institute, sighed when I reached her, and said “this is a huge gap,” referring to a notable absence of available training in demanding caregiving tasks.

To the extent training exists through local agencies on aging, disease-specific organizations or social service groups, it deals mostly with so-called “activities of daily living” — helping someone bath, dress, eat, or use the bathroom — not the demands of nursing-style care, Ms. Reinhard observed.

Really, this kind of training should be the responsibility of health care providers, but doctors and nurses often give only cursory, unsatisfactory explanations of complex tasks that fall to caregivers, said Carole Levine, director of the Families and Health Care Project of the United Hospital Fund.

That leaves the burden on caregivers to be assertive and ask for help, these experts agreed. If someone is hospitalized and ready to return home, they suggest asking a nurse or another provider “show me what you are doing so I can learn how to do it,” and then asking “now, watch me do it and tell me if I am doing it wrong or right.”

Don’t give up after the first time if you feel awkward or uncomfortable. Ask to do the task again, and ask again for feedback.

No videos or written manuals, can substitute for this one-on-one, hands-on instruction. If you don’t get it to your satisfaction before a loved-one is ready to go home, don’t sign the form that says you have been given instructions on what to do, Ms. Reinhard advised. The hospital is legally obligated to ensure that discharges are safe, and this operates in your favor.

The same goes for the pharmacy: don’t sign that sheet that the pharmacist hands you indicating that you have been adequately informed about the medications you are purchasing. If you are concerned about the number of prescriptions, what they are for, their possible side effects and whether all are necessary, ask the pharmacist to sit down with you and go over all this information. Again, don’t leave until you are satisfied.

Often, caregiving tasks will change as someone with a chronic condition like Parkinson’s disease or heart failure becomes more frail. Should this happen, consider calling a home care agency and asking for a nurse to come out and teach you how to administer oxygen or help transfer someone safely from a bed to a wheelchair, Ms. Reinhard said.

You may want to videotape the session so you can view it several times; most of us don’t pick these skills up right away and need repeat practice, Ms. Levine said.

Be as specific in your request for help as possible. Rather than complaining that you are overwhelmed, say something along the lines of, “I want to make sure I know how to clean this wound and prevent an infection” or “I need to know what texture the food should be so I can feed mom without having her choke,” Ms. Levine suggested.

Her organization has prepared comprehensive materials for caregivers called “Next Step in Care.” While the focus isn’t on nursing-style caregiving tasks, three might be useful: a self-assessment tool for family caregivers, a medication management guide, and a guide to hospice and palliative care.

Other helpful materials are few and far between. Ms. Levine’s staff identified a $24.95 American Red Cross training manual for family caregivers that has a DVD explaining the mechanics of transfers and a few other complicated tasks. Also, some videos are available for free at www.mmlearn.org, a Web site that says its mission is to provide caregivers with online training and education.

Asked about model programs, Ms. Reinhard said she knew of only one: the Schmieding Home Caregiver Training Program in Arkansas, operated by the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. The Schmieding program trains family caregivers as well as professional caregivers who work in people’s homes or nursing homes.

On the family side, it offers eight hours of instruction in “physical needs” associated with caregiving — managing incontinence, skin care, turning someone regularly in bed, using adaptive equipment, transfers from a bed to a wheelchair, helping patients remain mobile, and more. Classes are offered at five sites and four more are planned in the next several years, said Robin McAtee, associate director of the Reynolds Institute on Aging. If people, churches or senior centers want the instruction, which is free, Schmieding nurses will take the program to them. One-on-one instruction for tasks is also available on request.

A separate eight-hour program is available for caregivers dealing with dementia, who have additional concerns.

At a Web site called Elder Stay at Home, Schmieding sells a package of materials (three DVDs and a booklet, for $99) summarizing the content of its family caregiver training program. Separately, it has begun selling its curriculum for paid caregivers, and programs in California, Hawaii and Texas are among the first buyers. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences also has received a $3.7 million innovation grant from the government to expand the caregiver training program more broadly and develop online training materials.

Ms. Reinhard said AARP would like to see Schmieding-style programs rolled out across the country and begin to offer structured, reliable support to caregivers now providing nursing-style care in homes with little or no assistance.

What else am I missing here? Do you know of resources or other organizations providing intensive caregiver training along the lines of what I’ve been discussing? Where would you suggest people turn for this kind of help?

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Huppke: Don't be afraid to hire people with disabilities

One of the best experiences of my life was watching Jamie Smith, a young man with autism, leave his routine in Chicago, travel to the Special Olympics World Games in the chaotic Chinese city of Shanghai — and succeed.

Jamie's success — managing in a foreign country and bringing home a silver medal — was the result of one thing: hard work. And I've yet to meet a harder worker than him, or a person who more appreciates the opportunities a job presents.

Our workplaces have grown diverse, but jobs remain far too scarce when it comes to people with autism or other intellectual disabilities. Unemployment rates vary depending on the study but hover around 80 percent, and people with disabilities who do get jobs are routinely paid less than other workers. A stigma surrounds people with disabilities, and employers fear that accommodating workers from this demographic might be cost-prohibitive.

Fortunately, some progress is being made.

Walgreen Co., for example, has for years welcomed workers with intellectual disabilities. In 2007, it opened a distribution center in Anderson, S.C., with the goal that people with disabilities would make up 33 percent of the staff and be paid and treated the same as any other employee.

That number now tops 40 percent, and the company opened a similar center in Connecticut in 2009. It also has begun a separate program that recruits people with disabilities to work in Walgreen stores.

The results, according to Deb Russell, a manager in the company's diversity and inclusion department, have been statistically excellent. Turnover among employees with disabilities is 50 percent lower than that among nondisabled employees, and accuracy and productivity measurements are the same.

"People think accommodations will be expensive and daunting," Russell said. "What we found, especially on the accommodations front, is that it's minimal. Over the thousands of people we've had in the distribution centers, we've spent less than $50 per person. A lot of the time, all the accommodation they need is an open mind."

She said that more than 100 Fortune 500 companies have toured the South Carolina facility to learn more about the program.

"We've been so proud to see quite a few companies coming out recently with programs that are similar to ours," Russell said. "They take what we're doing and make it their own."

What's important to realize is that when Walgreen and other companies hire people with intellectual or other disabilities, they aren't doing it as an act of charity. They're doing it because the people they're hiring are good employees who help the company make money.

Scott Standifer, a University of Missouri researcher who studies employment issues affecting adults with autism, said he's encouraged to see large companies such as Walgreen, AMC Theatres and the investment firm TIAA-CREF, to name a few, aggressively employing people with disabilities.

"For decades the employment specialists who work with people with disabilities have been saying things like, 'These people are very dedicated; they will really love the work; they'll be very loyal employees,'" Standifer said. "The business community knows these agencies are trying to sell their clients, they're trying to convince the businesses to hire them, so they're skeptical. And there hasn't been any data to really back up their claims.

"But now we've got some large corporations who have invested and are evaluating their disability employment projects and are able to talk to other corporations as corporate peers. It's one thing to have job developers coming and saying these people are good workers, give them a chance. It's another to have Walgreens say, 'We are making more money by hiring these folks.'"

Standifer wrote a paper titled "Adult Autism & Employment: A Guide for Vocational Rehabilitation Professionals," which provides a wealth of information for employers, from advice on interviewing people with autism to explanations of the disability. That paper can be found at: tinyurl.com/autismemploy.

He also said he hopes to see more coordination between people in the autism community and an employment resource found in every state — the vocational rehabilitation agency. This agency, overseen by the federal Rehabilitation Services Administration, focuses on finding jobs for people with physical disabilities, often veterans.

But Standifer believes these agencies may be better equipped than state groups to assist people with autism and other intellectual disabilities.

"It's hard for anybody to find a job," he said. "But these state agencies (that work with people with intellectual disabilities) don't have the 80 years of history that the vocational rehabilitation program has. One of the things that I'm excited about is that the autism community, as they start to understand vocational rehabilitation, will also start to lobby for increased vocational rehabilitation funding."

Standifer also pointed out that study after study has shown employing people with disabilities saves the country money.

"It has turned out to be cheaper and better to do whatever it takes to get people with disabilities working," he said. "When you support that, they don't need as many other social services. They're not needing Social Security disability income and other things. It's cheaper, it's better and it's healthier."

And, dare I say, it's the way things should be. Our workplaces have always benefited from inclusion.

We should aspire to work alongside people with disabilities, not as an act of good will, but with the hope that we might benefit by learning from each other.

TALK TO REX: Ask workplace questions — anonymously or by name — and share stories with Rex Huppke at ijustworkhere@tribune.com, like Rex on Facebook at facebook.com/rexworkshere, and find more at chicagotribune.com/ijustworkhere.

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Firefighters on scene of South Side blaze

Firefighters battled a fire early Sunday in the 2700 block of East 75th Place. (Chicago Fire Department / December 9, 2012)

Staff report

7:05 a.m. CST, December 9, 2012

A man was taken to the hospital and seven people were displaced in a South Side fire that broke out early this morning in a two-story building in the South Shore neighborhood on the South Side.

Firefighters responded shortly before 5 a.m. to the building, which is in the 2700 block of East 75th Place.

First responders transported a man to Jackson Park Hospital after he experienced difficulty breathing due to the fire, Chicago Fire Department spokeswoman Meg Ahlheim said.

No other injuries were reported.

Firefighters struck out the blaze at 6:38 a.m., according to the Fire Department.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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Top Google executive forced off Twitter

Working at Google (GOOG) has its benefits — for one thing, the company’s reputation as an innovator is nearly unmatched — however things aren’t always as simple as they look. After making a joke on Twitter about Microsoft and Nokia’s Windows Phone partnership, Google’s senior vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra was told to stop using the micro-blogging site. Gundotra had been using the social network since December 2007 and suddenly stopped in July 2011. It had been previously speculated that Google CEO Larry Page had told the executive to stop, however nothing had been confirmed until now. While speaking at the SMX Social Media Marketing conference on Thursday, Gundotra confirmed that his “boss” had asked him to stop using the service.

“I was asked not to do that by my boss,” he said, according to TheNextWeb. “I tweeted a tweet about two companies that went viral, went very very viral and made a lot of headline news. And honestly, I didn’t anticipate that my comments would be interpreted in the way they were interpreted.”

The tweet in question was posted on February 11th 2011 and quipped that “two turkeys do not make an Eagle,” a shot at Microsoft (MSFT) and Nokia (NOK) joining to release a new wave of Windows Phones.

Gundotra admitted that he still checks Twitter and Facebook (FB), noting that it is part of his job to keep up on innovation. He can predominantly be found using Google+ these days, however.

Get more from BGR.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook

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Rolling Stones rock Brooklyn at anniversary gig

NEW YORK (AP) — It sure didn’t feel like a farewell.

The Rolling Stones — average age 68-plus, if you’re counting — were in rollicking form as they rocked the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for 2½ hours Saturday night, their first U.S. show on a mini-tour marking a mind-boggling 50 years as a rock band.

And although every time the Stones tour, the inevitable questions arise, — whether it’s “The Last Time,” to quote one of their songs — there was no sign that anything is ending anytime soon.

“People say, why do you keep doing this?” mused 69-year-old Mick Jagger, the band’s impossibly energetic frontman, before launching into “Brown Sugar.” ”Why do you keep touring, coming back? The answer is, you’re the reason we’re doing this. Thank you for buying our records and coming to our shows for the last 50 years.”

Jagger was in fine form, with strong vocals and his usual swagger — strutting, jogging, skipping and pumping his arms like a man half his age. And though he briefly donned a flamboyant feathered black cape for “Sympathy for the Devil” and later, some red-sequined tails, he was mostly content to prowl the stage in a tight black T-shirt and trousers.

The band’s guitarists, the brilliant Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, alternated searing solos and occasionally ventured onto a stage extension that brought them closer to the crowd. The now-gray Richards, wearing a red bandana, exuded the easy familiarity of a favorite uncle: “While we wait for Ronnie,” he said at one point, “I’ll wish you happy holidays.” Watts, the dapper drummer in a simple black T-shirt, smiled frequently at his band mates.

The grizzled quartet was joined on “Gimme Shelter” by Mary J. Blige, who traded vocals with Jagger and earned a huge cheer at the end. Also visiting: the Texas blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr.

The sense of nostalgia was heightened by projections on a huge screen of footage of the early days, when the Stones looked like teenagers. At one point, Jagger reminisced about the first time the band played New York — in 1964.

A carton of milk cost only a quarter then, he said. And a ticket to the Rolling Stones? “I don’t want to go there,” he quipped. It was a reference to the sky-high prices at the current “50 and Counting” shows, where even the “cheap” seats cost a few hundred dollars and a prime seat cost in the $ 700 range or higher.

From the opening number, “Get Off Of My Cloud,” the band played a generous 23 songs, including two new ones — “Doom and Gloom” and “One More Shot” — but mostly old favorites. The rousing encore included “Jumping Jack Flash,” of course, but the final song was “Satisfaction.” And though the song speaks of not getting any, the consensus of the packed 18,000-seat arena was that it was a satisfying evening indeed.

“If you like the Stones, this was as good a show as you could have had,” said one fan, Robert Nehring, 58, of Westfield, N.J., who’d paid $ 500 for his seat. “It was worth it,” he said simply.

The Brooklyn show was a coup for the new Barclays Center — there are no Manhattan shows. It followed two rapturously received Stones shows in London late last month. The band also will play two shows in Newark, N.J., on Dec. 13 and 15.

And just before that, the Stones will join a veritable who’s who of British rock royalty and U.S. superstars at the blockbuster 12-12-12 Superstorm Sandy benefit concert at Madison Square Garden. Also scheduled to perform: Paul McCartney, the Who, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Alicia Keys, Kanye West, Eddie Vedder, Billy Joel, Roger Waters and Chris Martin.

In a flurry of anniversary activity, the band also released a hits compilation last month with two new songs, “Doom and Gloom” and “One More Shot,” and HBO premiered a new documentary on their formative years, “Crossfire Hurricane.”

The Stones formed in London in 1962 to play Chicago blues, led at the time by the late Brian Jones and pianist Ian Stewart, along with Jagger and Richards, who’d met on a train platform a year earlier. Bassist Bill Wyman and Watts were quick additions.

Wyman, who left the band in 1992, was a guest at the London shows last month, as was Mick Taylor, the celebrated former Stones guitarist who left in 1974 and replaced by Wood, the newest Stone and the youngster at 65.

The inevitable questions have been swirling about the next step for the Stones: another huge global tour, on the scale of their last one, “A Bigger Bang,” which earned more than $ 550 million between 2005 and 2007? Something a bit smaller? Or is this mini-tour, in the words of their new song, really “One Last Shot?”

The Stones won’t say. But in an interview last month, they made clear they felt the 50th anniversary was something to be marked.

“I thought it would be kind of churlish not to do something,” Jagger told The Associated Press. “Otherwise, the BBC would have done a rather dull film about the Rolling Stones.”

There certainly was nothing dull about the band’s performance on Saturday, a show that brought together many middle-aged fans, to be sure, but also some of their children, who seemed to be enjoying the classic Stones brand of blues-tinged rock as much as their parents.

Yes, a Stone’s average age might be a bit higher than that of the average Supreme Court justice. (To be fair, the newest justices bring the average down). But to watch these musicians play with vitality and vigor a half-century on is to believe that maybe they were right when they sang, “Time Is On My Side.” At least for a few more years.

__

Associated Press writer David Bauder contributed to this report.

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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New Taxes to Take Effect to Fund Health Care Law

WASHINGTON — For more than a year, politicians have been fighting over whether to raise taxes on high-income people. They rarely mention that affluent Americans will soon be hit with new taxes adopted as part of the 2010 health care law.

The new levies, which take effect in January, include an increase in the payroll tax on wages and a tax on investment income, including interest, dividends and capital gains. The Obama administration proposed rules to enforce both last week.

Affluent people are much more likely than low-income people to have health insurance, and now they will, in effect, help pay for coverage for many lower-income families. Among the most affluent fifth of households, those affected will see tax increases averaging $6,000 next year, economists estimate.

To help finance Medicare, employees and employers each now pay a hospital insurance tax equal to 1.45 percent on all wages. Starting in January, the health care law will require workers to pay an additional tax equal to 0.9 percent of any wages over $200,000 for single taxpayers and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly.

The new taxes on wages and investment income are expected to raise $318 billion over 10 years, or about half of all the new revenue collected under the health care law.

Ruth M. Wimer, a tax lawyer at McDermott Will & Emery, said the taxes came with “a shockingly inequitable marriage penalty.” If a single man and a single woman each earn $200,000, she said, neither would owe any additional Medicare payroll tax. But, she said, if they are married, they would owe $1,350. The extra tax is 0.9 percent of their earnings over the $250,000 threshold.

Since the creation of Social Security in the 1930s, payroll taxes have been levied on the wages of each worker as an individual. The new Medicare payroll is different. It will be imposed on the combined earnings of a married couple.

Employers are required to withhold Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes from wages paid to employees. But employers do not necessarily know how much a worker’s spouse earns and may not withhold enough to cover a couple’s Medicare tax liability. Indeed, the new rules say employers may disregard a spouse’s earnings in calculating how much to withhold.

Workers may thus owe more than the amounts withheld by their employers and may have to make up the difference when they file tax returns in April 2014. If they expect to owe additional tax, the government says, they should make estimated tax payments, starting in April 2013, or ask their employers to increase the amount withheld from each paycheck.

In the Affordable Care Act, the new tax on investment income is called an “unearned income Medicare contribution.” However, the law does not provide for the money to be deposited in a specific trust fund. It is added to the government’s general tax revenues and can be used for education, law enforcement, farm subsidies or other purposes.

Donald B. Marron Jr., the director of the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, said the burden of this tax would be borne by the most affluent taxpayers, with about 85 percent of the revenue coming from 1 percent of taxpayers. By contrast, the biggest potential beneficiaries of the law include people with modest incomes who will receive Medicaid coverage or federal subsidies to buy private insurance.

Wealthy people and their tax advisers are already looking for ways to minimize the impact of the investment tax — for example, by selling stocks and bonds this year to avoid the higher tax rates in 2013.

The new 3.8 percent tax applies to the net investment income of certain high-income taxpayers, those with modified adjusted gross incomes above $200,000 for single taxpayers and $250,000 for couples filing jointly.

David J. Kautter, the director of the Kogod Tax Center at American University, offered this example. In 2013, John earns $160,000, and his wife, Jane, earns $200,000. They have some investments, earn $5,000 in dividends and sell some long-held stock for a gain of $40,000, so their investment income is $45,000. They owe 3.8 percent of that amount, or $1,710, in the new investment tax. And they owe $990 in additional payroll tax.

The new tax on unearned income would come on top of other tax increases that might occur automatically next year if President Obama and Congress cannot reach an agreement in talks on the federal deficit and debt. If Congress does nothing, the tax rate on long-term capital gains, now 15 percent, will rise to 20 percent in January. Dividends will be treated as ordinary income and taxed at a maximum rate of 39.6 percent, up from the current 15 percent rate for most dividends.

Under another provision of the health care law, consumers may find it more difficult to obtain a tax break for medical expenses.

Taxpayers now can take an itemized deduction for unreimbursed medical expenses, to the extent that they exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income. The health care law will increase the threshold for most taxpayers to 10 percent next year. The increase is delayed to 2017 for people 65 and older.

In addition, workers face a new $2,500 limit on the amount they can contribute to flexible spending accounts used to pay medical expenses. Such accounts can benefit workers by allowing them to pay out-of-pocket expenses with pretax money.

Taken together, this provision and the change in the medical expense deduction are expected to raise more than $40 billion of revenue over 10 years.

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WGN America may be channel of change for Tribune Co.

On Sunday night, WGN-Ch. 9 will air "Bozo's Circus: The Lost Tape," a 1971 episode that an alert archivist discovered after four decades of gathering dust.

At the same time, WGN America, the station's national cable counterpart, will beam reruns of the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" to its 75 million subscribers across the country.

Part of Tribune Co.'s future may rest with programming decisions like that.

Poised to emerge from its lengthy bankruptcy, the Chicago-based media company is expected to enter the new year with its holdings intact, a clean balance sheet and a plan to sell everything eventually.

The expected decision to name television executive Peter Liguori as Tribune Co.'s chief executive — he was the architect of basic cable powerhouse FX's first-run success — points to unlocking the value of the 34-year-old superstation as integral to a profitable exit strategy for the new owners of Tribune Co.

A source close to the situation told the Tribune that Liguori sees WGN America as an undervalued cable network with tremendous potential, if it gets the programming investment required. Developing the channel will "absolutely be a focus" after Liguori joins the company, which could happen within weeks.

"I'm sure that's the plan," said Derek Baine, a senior media analyst with SNL Kagan. "It all comes down to how much money you're investing in programming to get the viewers."

The new owners, senior creditors Oaktree Capital Management, Angelo, Gordon & Co. and JPMorgan Chase, have made it clear that monetizing Tribune Co.'s publishing, broadcasting and other holdings after a four-year slog through Chapter 11 is a matter of time. The process will likely challenge the maxim that the whole of Tribune Co. — estimated to be worth $4.5 billion post-emergence — is more than the sum of its parts. That's especially true when one of those parts is national cable channel WGN America, a low-rated repository of Cubs games and reruns, whose upside potential may dwarf all of the other assets combined.

Broadcasting assets, including 23 television stations, WGN-AM 720, CLTV and WGN America, represent the core profit center and account for $2.85 billion of Tribune Co.'s value, according to financial adviser Lazard. Tribune's eight daily newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, are worth $623 million, and other strategic assets, such as stakes in CareerBuilder and Food Network, are valued at $2.26 billion, according to a 2012 report by Lazard.

The value of the TV stations, including KTLA-TV in Los Angeles and WPIX-TV in New York, should benefit from an improving appetite for acquisitions, according to analysts. But WGN America, with the help of a few hit shows and some rebranding, could be the sleeping giant on the books. Turner Broadcasting's TBS, for example, has five times the audience and seven times the cash flow of WGN America and carries a distinct brand. It is worth more than twice that of the entire Tribune Co.

Liguori's success at FX Networks could well be the blueprint. After joining what was a small basic cable channel in 1998, Liguori was elevated to CEO in 2001 and transformed the network by offering original programming such as "The Shield," "Nip/Tuck" and "Rescue Me," building ratings and revenues in the process.

"You just need a couple of hit shows and then you can start building a schedule around them," Baine said. "A lot of these cable networks, you take one hit show and get people hooked on it and then you can stick another one in the time slot right behind it and start building on that."

Last year, FX had a cash flow of nearly $553 million on net revenue of more than $1 billion, making the network worth nearly $8 billion, Baine said.

WGN America is often compared with TBS to illustrate the upside, and the divergent paths the two original superstations have taken as the cable network model — a dual revenue stream of affiliate fees and advertising dollars — has evolved over the last two decades.

Both WGN and WTBS were uploaded to satellite in the late '70s, filling the programming void for distant cable systems with local baseball and "Andy Griffith" reruns. TBS became a division of Time Warner in 1996 and transformed into a full-fledged cable network, shelving old reruns for off-network sitcoms, benching the Atlanta Braves for national MLB coverage and rolling out first-run programming featuring everything from Tyler Perry to Conan O'Brien. The network dropped "superstation" and rebranded itself with slogans such as "very funny."

One advantage FX, which is part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., and TBS have enjoyed is the connection to a media empire with programming prowess and deep pockets.

Meanwhile, WGN has clung to the vestiges of its lower-cost superstation model, meaning cable and satellite systems can't insert local commercials and must pay copyright fees for the programming to the government. Content shifts between local and national, with Cubs baseball and Chicago news still broadcast across the country. There is a dearth of first-run programming, and the schedule is dotted with such fillers as "In the Heat of the Night" and "Walker: Texas Ranger." Even Andy Griffith remains in the mix with "Matlock," part of a block of programming to cover the "WGN Morning News," which is not broadcast nationally.

Not surprisingly, WGN America lags TBS and FX in ratings, revenue and distribution.

TBS is ranked 11th, FX is 13th and WGN America 40th in average viewership among cable networks through November, according to Nielsen.

Of the more than 114 million homes receiving cable in the U.S., TBS reaches 99.7 million, FX 97.9 million and WGN America 75 million, according to Nielsen. One of the biggest holes in WGN's coverage area is New York City, where the station has never quite found its way into the cable lineup. Nationally, TBS and FX are included in the basic packages for Dish Network and DirecTV, while WGN America is relegated to the second or third tier.

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