Fla. socialite at center of scandal

If you were to diagram the increasingly tangled sex scandal involving former CIA Director David Petraeus, nearly all lines would lead back to one person: Jill Kelley, a 37-year-old Tampa socialite who hosted parties for the nation's top military brass.

Kelley's complaint about anonymous, threatening email triggered the FBI investigation that led to Petraeus' downfall. And now she is at the center of an investigation of the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan over alleged "inappropriate communications" between the two.

Kelley is a close friend of the Petraeus family, and photographs circulating in the media show the dark-haired woman at parties with Petraeus, his wife, and Kelley's husband, Scott, a cancer surgeon. She served as a sort of unofficial social ambassador for U.S. Central Command in Tampa, holding gatherings for the general when he was commander there from 2008 to 2010.

She also met Gen. John Allen while he was at Central Command, and now investigators are looking at 20,000-plus pages of documents and emails between Kelley and Allen, some of which have been described as "flirtatious." The general has denied any wrongdoing.

For her part, Kelley has taken a low profile since Petraeus' affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, became public. The Kelleys have retained high-powered Washington lawyer Abbe Lowell, who did not immediately return a call.

On Tuesday, Kelley could be seen through the large windows of her South Tampa home, a stately, two-story brick house with a half-dozen white columns. In the driveway was a silver Mercedes with a license plate marked "Honorary Counsel." Kelley's identical twin sister, Natalie Khawam, also lives there.

In the afternoon, Kelley, wearing dark sunglasses, left through the front door and ignored reporters' questions as she drove off in the Mercedes.

South Tampa is a conservative Southern community of big houses, big bank accounts, garden clubs and wives who pride themselves on volunteer work. A lot of the brass from MacDill Air Force Base, where Central Command is headquartered, lives or socializes in South Tampa, and helping members of the military is a major volunteer activity.

Former Mayor Pam Iorio said that she went to several parties to benefit the military at the Kelleys' home, and they drew MacDill's top brass, including Petraeus. But they were by far not the only parties held around the city for MacDill's officers.

"Our community's relationship with MacDill is just multi-faceted," said Iorio, who later invited the Petraeuses over to her own home for dinner. "It's something that is generational. People sincerely care about the military."

Petraeus aides said Kelley took it to another level, winning the title of "honorary ambassador" for her extensive entertaining. Petraeus even honored Kelley and her husband with an award in a special ceremony at the Pentagon.

The Kelleys invited then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist to their home, but he never accepted. Instead, he had dinner with the Kelleys at a steakhouse in Tampa with Petraeus.

"Lovely people. I remember I had a nice dinner with she and her husband and the general and his wife," Crist said.

Ken Walters, a neighbor, said he went to a party the couple had to celebrate their first son's baptism. The Kelleys have two other children.

"Natalie and her sister, they're certainly not shrinking violets," Walters said. He recalled that when the sisters first entered the South Tampa social scene, they "rubbed people the wrong way. I think they probably stepped on a couple of toes."

Petraeus' affair with Broadwell was discovered after Kelley told an FBI agent friend that she had received email warning her to stay away from Petraeus. The email turned out to be from Broadwell, who apparently regarded Kelley as a rival for Petraeus' affections. Kelley's family and Petraeus aides have said Petraeus and Kelley were just friends.

In another strange footnote to the scandal, long before the case involving Petraeus got under way, the FBI agent sent Kelley shirtless photos of himself, according to a federal law enforcement official.

Kelley's brother, David Khawam, told WPVI-TV in Philadelphia on Monday night that the allegations have spilled out quickly.

"It's a shock. We're trying to figure out where the pieces are falling right now," he said in an interview at his law office in Westmont, N.J.

He said that his family left Lebanon for suburban Philadelphia's Huntingdon Valley in the 1970s to escape the turmoil in their homeland. His parents opened a Middle Eastern restaurant in Voorhees, N.J., called Sahara.

"My family is very patriotic; we came from Lebanon at a young age," he said.

Kelley later married and moved to Florida with her husband, who works at a cancer clinic.

Jill and Scott Kelley have been involved in at least nine legal actions since arriving in Tampa, according to court records. Most involve real estate transactions, including one foreclosure and an $11,000 judgment against the couple in a Pennsylvania case.

In another twist in the scandal, court records indicate that Petraeus and Allen intervened two months ago in a messy custody dispute on behalf of Jill Kelley's sister. Both four-star generals wrote letters supporting Natalie Khawam.

The judge in the case awarded Khawam's ex-husband custody last year of their son. He also called Khawam dishonest and lacking in integrity.

Khawam is a lawyer who works on health care fraud and whistleblower cases, according to her LinkedIn profile, which has been removed from the professional networking site. The sisters also competed in a cook-off filmed for a Food Network show called "Food Fight" in 2003.

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Associated Press writers Kimberly Dozier and Pauline Jelinek in Washington, and Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Fla., contributed to this report.

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RIM to release new BlackBerrys soon after Jan. 30

TORONTO (AP) — Research In Motion Ltd. will release its much-delayed BlackBerry 10 smartphones “not too long” after a launch event on Jan. 30, a senior executive said Tuesday.

Chief Operating Officer Kristian Tear said the company is still fine-tuning the new phones.

The new phones are seen as critical to RIM‘s survival as the smartphone pioneer struggles in North America to hold on to customers who are abandoning BlackBerrys for flashier iPhones and Android phones. The new BlackBerry 10 system is designed for the touch screen, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers now expect. RIM’s current software is still focused on email and messaging and is less user-friendly, agile and robust than iPhone or Android.

On Monday, RIM said details on the BlackBerry 10, including specific availability, will be announced at the event. A touch-screen-only device is expected to be released first followed shortly after by a version with a physical keyboard. Many people still gravitate to BlackBerrys specifically for their physical keyboards, and RIM hasn’t succeeded in the past with touch-only offerings.

Tear said RIM wants to be the No. 1 mobile computing platform, despite the dominance of Apple and Android. He said the Waterloo, Ontario-based company believes it can compete with Silicon Valley because it has access to a lot of talented people and two great universities in the area. He said he’s been involved in two turnarounds before with Sony Ericsson and Ericsson and believes in RIM’s new management.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Tear said. “But everybody is super-focused and super-commited. We’re going to show the world that we are turning this around.”

Steve Zipperstein, RIM’s new chief legal officer, said RIM invented the smartphone and has been the innovator in the mobile space for a long time.

“We’re not going away,” Zipperstein vowed. “We’re going to succeed with BB 10. We’re going to impress our customers. We’re going to fight every day.”

Tear and Zipperstein were hired this past summer by CEO Thorsten Heins, who took over RIM in January after it lost tens of billions of dollars in market value. Heins had vowed to do everything he could to release BlackBerry 10 this year but said in June that the timetable wasn’t realistic. The new BlackBerrys will be released after the holiday shopping season and well after Apple’s September launch of the iPhone 5.

Heins is counting on BlackBerry 10 for a turnaround.

RIM’s platform transition is happening under a new management team and as RIM lays off 5,000 employees as part of a bid to save $ 1 billion this year.

RIM was once Canada‘s most valuable company with a market value of more than $ 80 billion in 2008, but the stock has plummeted since, from over $ 140 per share to around $ 8. Its decline evokes memories of Nortel, another former Canadian tech giant, which declared bankruptcy in 2009.

RIM’s stock fell 41 cents, or 4.7 percent, to close at $ 8.40 Tuesday in New York after rising as high as $ 9.07 the previous day, when RIM announced its Jan. 30 launch date.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Petraeus enlisted for cameo in ‘Call of Duty’ game

LOS ANGELES (AP) — David Petraeus has landed on his feet with a new gig in “Call of Duty: Black Ops II.”

The retired Army general who stepped down as CIA director last week amid a scandal surrounding his extramarital affair pops up in the highly anticipated Activision Blizzard Inc. first-person shooter game released Tuesday.

A character with Petraeus’ name and likeness voiced by Jim Meskimen briefly appears as the Secretary of Defense in the year 2025.

The cameo was first reported by the gaming site Kotaku.com.

“Call of Duty” games have often employed virtual renditions of political figures.

“Black Ops II” also features an encounter with Manuel Noriega, a female president resembling current Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, an aircraft carrier named the USS Barack Obama and an appearance by retired Lt. Col. Oliver North.

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Kidney Donors Given Mandatory Safeguards

ST. LOUIS — Addressing long-held concerns about whether organ donors have adequate protections, the country’s transplant regulators acted late Monday to require that hospitals thoroughly inform living kidney donors of the risks they face, fully evaluate their medical and psychological suitability, and then track their health for two years after donation.

Enactment of the policies by the United Network for Organ Sharing, which manages the transplant system under a federal contract, followed six years of halting development and debate.

Meeting at a St. Louis hotel, the group’s board voted to establish uniform minimum standards for a field long regarded as a medical and ethical Wild West. The organ network, whose initial purpose was to oversee donation from people who had just died, has struggled at times to keep pace with rapid developments in donations from the living.

“There is no question that this is a major development in living donor protection,” said Dr. Christie P. Thomas, a nephrologist at the University of Iowa and the chairman of the network’s living donor committee.

Yet some donor advocates complained that the measures did not go far enough, and argued that the organ network, in its mission to encourage transplants, has a conflict of interest when it comes to safeguarding donors.

Three years ago, the network issued some of the same policies as voluntary guidelines, only to have the Department of Health and Human Services insist they be made mandatory.

Although long-term data on the subject is scarce, few living kidney donors are thought to suffer lasting physical or psychological effects. Kidney donations, known as nephrectomies, are typically done laparoscopically these days through a series of small incisions. The typical patient may spend only a few nights in a hospital and feel largely recovered after several months.

Kidneys are by far the most transplanted organs, and there have been nearly as many living donors as deceased ones over the last decade. What data is available suggests that those with one kidney typically live as long as those with two, and that the risk of a donor dying during the procedure is roughly 3 in 10,000.

But kidney transplants, like all surgery, can sometimes end in catastrophe.

In May at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, a 41-year-old mother of three died when her aorta was accidentally cut during surgery to donate a kidney to her brother. In other recent isolated cases, patients have received donor kidneys infected with undetected H.I.V. or hepatitis C.

Less clear are any longer-term effects on donors. Research conducted by the United Network for Organ Sharing shows that of roughly 70,000 people who donated kidneys between late 1999 and early 2011, 27 died within two years of medical causes that may — or may not — have been related to donation. For a small number of donors, their remaining kidney failed, and they required dialysis or a transplant.

The number of living donors — 5,770 in 2011 — has dropped 10 percent over the last two years, possibly because the struggling economy has made it difficult for prospective donors to take time off from work to recuperate. With the national kidney waiting list now stretching past 94,000 people, and thousands on the list dying each year, transplant officials have said they must improve confidence in the system so more people will donate.

The average age of donors has been rising, posing additional medical risks. And new ethical questions have been raised by the emergence of paired kidney exchanges and transplant chains started by good Samaritans who give an organ to a stranger.

Brad Kornfeld, who donated a kidney to his father in 2004, told the board that it had been impossible to find good information about what to expect, leaving him to search for answers on unreliable Internet chat rooms. He said he had almost backed out.

“If information is power,” said Mr. Kornfeld, a Coloradan who serves on the living donor committee, “the lack of information is crippling.”

Under the policies approved this week, the organ network will require hospitals to collect medical data, including laboratory test results, on most living donors to study lasting effects. Results must be reported at six months, one year and two years.

Similar regulations have been in place since 2000, but they did not require blood and urine testing, and hospitals were allowed to report donors who could not be found as simply lost.

That happened often. In recent years, hospitals have submitted basic clinical information — like whether donors were alive or dead — for only 65 percent of donors and lab data for fewer than 40 percent, according to the organ network. Although the network holds the authority, no hospital has ever been seriously sanctioned for noncompliance.

“It’s time we put some teeth into our policy,” said Jill McMaster, a board member from Tennessee.

By 2015, transplant programs will have to report thorough clinical information on at least 80 percent of donors and lab results on at least 70 percent. The requirements phase in at lower levels for the next two years.

Dr. Stuart M. Flechner of the Cleveland Clinic, the chairman of a coalition of medical societies that made recommendations to the organ network, said 9 of 10 hospitals would currently not meet the new requirement.

Donna Luebke, a kidney donor from Ohio who once served on the organ network’s board, said the new standards would matter only if enforcement were more rigorous. She noted that the organization was dominated by transplant doctors: “UNOS is nothing but the foxes watching the henhouse,” she said.

Another of the new regulations prescribes in detail the medical and psychological screenings that hospitals must conduct for potential donors. It requires automatic exclusion if the potential donor has diabetes, uncontrolled hypertension or H.I.V., among other conditions.

The new policies also require that hospitals appoint an independent advocate to counsel and represent donors, and that donors receive detailed information in advance about medical, psychological and financial risks.

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Microsoft executive exits at a shaky time

Turns out Microsoft Corp.'s radical overhaul of its Windows operating system last month wasn't the only big change in store for the company.

The abrupt departure of Steven Sinofsky, president of Windows and Windows Live, is being called poor timing for the tech behemoth. It's also seen as a sign that longtime Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has no plans to step down anytime soon.

Sinofsky's exit, just weeks after the company rolled out the Windows 8 operating system, "doesn't necessarily reflect well on the company," said Kirk Materne, managing director at Evercore Partners.

"I think if you're Steve, having this happen right after creates a level of distraction that you don't want in the first place," he said. "It's never great when you've had this much turnover at the senior level of a company that is really trying to gain its footing in markets like tablet and mobile."

Shares of Microsoft slid 90 cents, or 3.2%, to $27.09 on Tuesday. Its stock has languished in the last decade — virtually unchanged — while shares of rival Apple Inc. have climbed more than 6,700%.

Microsoft is under pressure to impress consumers and investors with its latest offerings, which include Windows 8 and its new Surface device, a hybrid tablet-laptop that launched last month.

But both products have been met with lackluster interest. Windows 8 debuted to low investor expectations, and reviews for the revamped operating system have been mixed, with some users saying it's at times confusing to use.

The Surface, meanwhile, was buzz-worthy when it was first unveiled, but analysts seem unconvinced that it will make a dent in a market currently dominated by Apple's iPad. Although the hardware is sleek, the Surface lacks applications compared with the iPad, and its highly touted snap-on keyboard that doubles as a cover is difficult to accurately type on, reviewers have said.

The Windows 8 launch was said to be the biggest revamp of the operating system in nearly two decades. The latest update includes a new interface called the Start screen that was designed for tablets and touch-screen computers and features moving tiles similar to those on Windows Phone devices. Microsoft wants the new Start screen interface to be the future of Windows.

"The general conclusion of Win 8 is on the surface, it's a solid first start," Materne said. "It's not mind-blowing, it's not going to immediately recapture market share, but it gets them back in the ballgame to a certain degree."

Sinofsky, a 23-year Microsoft veteran, was in charge of the Windows 8 and Surface efforts at the Redmond, Wash., company. He was a polarizing figure in the office with a tough management style and was rumored to be in line to succeed Ballmer, who has been chief executive since 2000.

In an employee memo Monday, the day Microsoft announced his departure, Sinofsky said he had decided to leave to seek "new opportunities."

"With the general availability of Windows 8/RT and Surface, I have decided it is time for me to take a step back from my responsibilities at Microsoft," he said. "I've always advocated using the break between product cycles as an opportunity to reflect and to look ahead, and that applies to me too."

Now that Sinofsky has left, analysts — some of whom speculated there had been a rift between Sinofsky and Ballmer — say they expect a new direction for the Windows division.

"Sinofsky was a highly talented operator who hit product release dates, got delivery in Windows to be more reliable, and was pivotal to successful Office and Win 7 releases," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Holt said in a note to investors. "While he is a loss for Microsoft, Windows has entered a different phase where cultivation of developers, collaboration between product groups, integration with the mobile operating system and a focus on applications become more important."

Sinofsky will be replaced by Julie Larson-Green, who has been with the company since 1993 and oversaw program management, user interface design and research for Windows 7 and 8. She will lead all Windows software and hardware engineering.

Tami Reller, Windows chief financial officer and chief marketing officer, also will assume responsibility for the business of Windows.

There could be a bit of a learning curve in the meantime, said equity analyst Angelo Zino of S&P Capital IQ.

"We are surprised by the announcement, given Sinofsky's recent success as well as a belief by many that he could eventually have been the successor to CEO Steve Ballmer," he said. "While we are confident in the abilities of both individuals, we see the change increasing product development risk to future Windows releases."

andrea.chang@latimes.com

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A challenge unmet

Chicago elementary school students with learning or emotional disabilities miss far more school days than their peers without disabilities, the Tribune found in an analysis of internal attendance data from the district.

These missed days undermine the education of an already-vulnerable population.

Consider the students in grades K-8 whose designated primary diagnosis is a learning disability — a disorder generally affecting the ability to use or understand language. On average, each of these 17,000 students racked up two weeks of truancy and excused absences in the 2010-11 school year. That's about 20 percent more than those with no disability.

Also frequently gone from school were the 1,500 elementary students with a primary diagnosis of an emotional disorder — children whose behavior or feelings impede their learning and ability to get along with others.

On average, students in grades K-8 with an emotional disorder missed four weeks of school to truancy and other absences. They also accrued 10 times as many suspension days as children without a disability, the Tribune's analysis found.

Federal law requires schools to provide these students with counselors, aides and other support to help them succeed, and it specifically protects them from being excluded from school through excessive suspensions or informal push-outs.

But in Chicago, advocates for the disabled say, many children with learning and emotional disabilities go undiagnosed for too long and are then given inadequate assistance. Alienated from classrooms they find humiliating and unrewarding, youth tend to tune out or lash out, leading to suspensions and other missed days.

One school report for a student with a learning disability showed that "an intervention for minor infractions has been for her mother to bring or keep (the girl) home with her in order to avoid further escalation of (the girl's) anger and behavior."

That intervention — which advocates for the disabled called a potential violation of federal law — "has resulted in poor exposure to the general education curriculum," the report noted.

Chicago Public Schools officials denied that the intervention was intended to keep the child at home in violation of school policies or the law.

While not commenting specifically on any Chicago cases, Harvard University education professor Thomas Hehir said excessive suspensions and informal exclusions from school are a nationwide problem for youth with disabilities.

"Once you get into that pattern, the implicit message you're giving the child is that school is not important, you don't need to be here," Hehir said. "It becomes a vicious circle."

Students with learning and emotional disabilities "are kids who have a lot of potential," Hehir added. "It's a myth that they can't be highly successful in school, if given the appropriate supports."

Read the full story, "A challenge unmet," as a digitalPLUS member. To view videos and photos and for a look at the rest of the series, visit chicagotribune.com/truancy.

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U2′s Bono to urge U.S. politicians not to cut aid programs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Irish rocker and anti-poverty campaigner Bono will appeal to Democrats and Republicans during a visit to Washington this week to spare U.S. development assistance programs from cuts as Congress tries to avert the looming “fiscal cliff” of tax hikes and spending reductions early next year.

The U2 lead singer’s visit comes as the Obama administration and congressional leaders try to forge a deal in coming weeks to avoid the economy hitting the “fiscal cliff” – tax increases and spending cuts worth $ 600 billion starting in January if Congress does not act.

Analysts say the absence of a deal could shock the United States, the world’s biggest economy, back into recession.

Kathy McKiernan, spokeswoman for the ONE Campaign, said Bono will hold talks with congressional lawmakers and senior Obama administration officials during the November 12-14 visit.

During meetings he will stress the effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance programs and the need to preserve them to avoid putting at risk progress made in fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, she said.

Bono, a long-time advocate for the poor, will argue that U.S. government-funded schemes that support life-saving treatments for HIV/AIDS sufferers, nutrition programs for malnourished children, and emergency food aid make up just 1 percent of the U.S. government budget but are helping to save tens of millions of lives in impoverished nations.

The One Campaign would not elaborate which lawmakers and senior Obama administration officials Bono will meet.

On Monday, Bono will discuss the power of social movements with students at Georgetown University. He will also meet new World Bank President Jim Yong Kim for a web cast discussion on Wednesday on the challenges of eradicating poverty.

(Editing by W Simon)

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Q & A: Weighing the Evidence

Q. My husband weighs twice as much as I do, yet we take the same dose of over-the-counter medications, as recommended on the packaging. Shouldn’t weight be a factor?

A. There is little information about using weight as a factor in adjusting doses of either prescription or over-the-counter medications, said Dr. Steven A. Kaplan, director of the Iris Cantor Men’s Health Center at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital.

“We are beginning to study different responses by weight,” he said, but he and other researchers have reached no conclusions on recommendations for therapy.

“In my own field, urology,” he added, “my opinion is that it is more likely for the recommended dose to be ineffective in a larger person rather than to be toxic in a thinner adult.”

Some prescription drugs, like chemotherapy agents, already have their dosages adjusted for weight because of their highly toxic nature. As for over-the-counter drugs, recommended doses generally tend to be weighted in favor of safety rather than efficacy, Dr. Kaplan said.

He and other doctors emphasized the importance of following package directions. For example, acetaminophen (like Tylenol) can present a life-threatening risk if the liver cannot process a high dose. If you find that the recommended dose does not work for you, Dr. Kaplan said, speak to your doctor.

C. CLAIBORNE RAY

Readers may submit questions by mail to Question, Science Times, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018, or by e-mail to question@nytimes.com.

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Chicago's top employers named

The Chicago Tribune released its annual Top Workplaces survey Monday, with a broad cross section of companies -- and dozens of new names -- earning recognition as the best places to work in Chicago. 

Abt Electronics and Coyote Logistics repeated as the top large and midsize employers, respectively, with iD Commerce + Logistics making the list for the first time as the top-ranked small company.  

This is the third year the Tribune has partnered with Workplace Dynamics to rank the top 100 companies as judged by their own employees, using criteria ranging from clued-in managers to flexible work schedules. More than 1,600 companies were invited to participate, with a record 254 completing the survey.

Pennsylvania-based Workplace Dynamics partnered with 32 newspapers and surveyed 1.5 million employees nationwide last year as part of its research efforts into what environments are best for employees. 

"We all spend an awful lot of time at work," said Doug Claffey, CEO of Workplace Dynamics. "Creating a really great workplace for employees is something that I think businesses have an obligation to do.  In addition to making money, you need create an environment where your people want to be."

Beyond Glenview electronics retailer Abt,  the top five large companies were Hyatt Hotels, Baird & Warner, ATI Physical Therapy and FedEx -- all new to this category this year.

Chicago-based Coyote Logistics was followed by kCura, Slalom Consulting, Edward Jones and Mercy Home for Boys & Girls among companies with 250 to 999 employees.  

Wood Dale-based id Commerce topped Webster Dental, 2011 winner Red Frog Events, Assurance Agency and LeasePlan USA among small companies.

Full survey results and a variety of top workplace profiles will be published in a magazine insert included in Tuesday's Chicago Tribune.

rchannick@tribune.com | Twitter @RobertChannick

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Bears lose Cutler to concussion, fall 13-6 to Texans

The Chicago Bears had their six-game winning streak snapped and lost quarterback Jay Cutler to a concussion in Sunday night's 13-6 loss to the Houston Texans in front of a crowd of 59,989 at rainy Soldier Field.
 
Cutler, who was not playing well prior to suffering the concussion, took a hard hit to the head late in the second quarter but remained in the game until the intermission. He did not return in the second half as Jason Campbell took over.
 
Houston improved to 8-1, while the Bears fell to 7-2.

"You can't make the mistakes we did early on," Bears coach Lovie Smith. "If we're ever minus-2 on the turnover differential, it's not going to be a good day for us. ... But we got beat by a good football team tonight. You have to give the Texans a lot of credit.

"We're disappointed right now with the loss, but we have to get back up as soon as we possibly can."

As for Cutler's status, Smith said it was too early to say if he would be available for next Monday night's game at San Francisco. Smith did say that Cutler's concussion symptoms started to clear up during the second half and that the quarterback wanted to go back in, but "that decision was made for him" by the team doctors.

Smith said he didn't know which hit that Cutler took might have caused the concussion, and said he didn't know what concussion symptoms were present.

"I try not to be Dr. Smith too often," said Smith, adding that he accepted what he was told by the doctors.

Asked what he took away from the game, Smith said, "It's a loss, so you have to go from there. We were beaten by a good football team. We're 7-2, though. It's one game. ... There's a lot of football left to go. We'll bounce back."

Campbell replaced Cutler, who took a big hit from Texans linebacker Tim Dobbins late in the second quarter, to start the second half with the Bears trailing 10-3. Robbie Gould's 24-yard field goal pulled the Bears to within 10-6 with 1:55 left in the third quarter, but Shayne Graham connected from 42 yards with 4:49 to play in the game to put the Texans ahead 13-6.

Gould tried to bring the Bears to within a point early in the final quarter, but missed a 48-yard field goal attempt that caromed off the left upright with 11:40 left after the Bears had driven to the Houston 30.

Campbell was unable to direct another scoring threat and finished 11-for-19 for 94 yards. Matt Forte was held to 39 rushing yards on 16 carries. Brandon Marshall had eight receptions for 107 yards.

"It was tough," Campbell said. "Tonight was my first reps since the season started. If I have to play (next week at San Francisco), then of course, during the week, I'll get those practice reps and get the guys used to (having) me as the quarterback."

The Texans entered with the best record in the AFC, matching the Bears’ NFC North-leading record. The hitting was fierce from the outset, with six turnovers being forced in the first half and Bears rookie defensive end Shea McClellin also being ruled out for the game early in the first quarter with a concussion.

Arian Foster made a diving catch of a 2-yard pass from Matt Schaub to give the Texans a 10-3 lead with 4:14 remaining in the first half.

The Bears trailed at the break after accumulating a mere 99 total yards of offense. Cutler completed 7 of 14 first-half passes for 36 yards. He was intercepted twice and had a passer rating of 16.7.

Cutler did manage to run for 37 yards in the first half to lead the Bears’ rushing game. Forte ran for 11 yards on seven carries and Michael Bush had one run for 11 yards, although he lost a fumble at the end of that run.

Gould's 51-yard field goal pulled the Bears into a 3-3 tie with 12:52 to play in the second quarter. The score was set up when Tim Jennings intercepted his second pass of the night and returned it 10 yards to the Houston 38. The interception was Jennings' league-high eighth of the season. A deep third-down pass intended for Marshall into the end zone failed.

The Bears turned the ball over on their first play from scrimmage when Cutler passed six yards to tight end Kellen Davis. A fumble was forced by former Bears safety Danieal Manning at the Bears' 43 and recovered by Dobbins. When the Texans' drive stalled at the 2, Graham kicked a 20-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.

The Bears also turned the ball over on their next possession when Bush fumbled after an 11-yard run and Houston recovered at the Texans' 27. The fumble was forced by Glover Quin and recovered by Bradie James with 4:40 left in the first period.

The Bears got the ball back when Schaub's pass intended for Keshawn Martin was intercepted by Jennings at the Houston 45 with 2:24 left in the first quarter.

On second down, however, Cutler's deep pass intended for Davis was intercepted by Manning at the Houston 5.

The Bears entered with a six-game winning streak, their longest such stretch since they won seven in a row in 2006 en route to a Super Bowl appearance.

fmitchell@tribune.com

Twitter @kicker34

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