On jobs, Obama calls 2014 'a year of action'

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is calling 2014 "a year of action" for creating jobs and economic opportunities for American families.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says the first step is for Congress to extend unemployment insurance for those without work.

The president also points to a new initiative to boost high-tech manufacturing and other steps he plans to announce next week to put people back to work.

Obama's message comes after the government reported just 74,000 new jobs in December and a dip in unemployment that's fueled by people giving up their search for work.

In the Republican address, Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi is pushing for Obama's health care law to be repealed or defunded. He says the nation should go back to the drawing board.

___

Online:

White House address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: www.youtube.com/gopweeklyaddress

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Zucker: GOP being run from Fox News headquarters

PASADENA, Calif. — The chiefs of CNN and Fox News Channel are throwing shots at each other, each suggesting the other's network is essentially out of the news business.

Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes struck first, saying in an interview published this week that it was interesting for CNN "to throw in the towel and announce they're out of the news business." It was a reference to CNN President Jeff Zucker's efforts to expand CNN's offerings beyond breaking news.

"We happen to be in the business, as opposed to some other fair and balanced network," Zucker responded at a news conference on Friday.

He suggested that Ailes' remarks, published in the Hollywood Reporter, were silly and an attempt to deflect attention from "The Loudest Voice in the Room," a book on Ailes and Fox by New York magazine writer Gabriel Sherman that is being published this month.

Zucker said he hadn't read the book, but that from what he heard it confirmed that "the Republican Party is being run out of News Corp. headquarters masquerading as a cable news channel."

A Fox News spokeswoman said that Ailes gave his Hollywood Reporter interview in December, suggesting it had nothing to do with Sherman's book. She had no other comment on what Zucker said during a meeting with journalists who cover television on Friday.

Zucker, in charge at CNN for a year now, has taken note of flat ratings in pushing CNN to diversify. Non-fiction shows with chef Anthony Bourdain and Morgan Spurlock, ordered before Zucker came to CNN, are consistently among the networks' highest-rated shows. CNN has also beefed up its documentary film unit.

The films drew some barbs from Ailes, as well, particularly the successful "Blackfish," about killer whales. "I guess he's going to do whales a lot," Ailes said. "If I were Discovery, I'd be worried."

Zucker said CNN had several other new non-fiction series in the works. In March, CNN will premiere "Death Row Stories," a crime series produced by Robert Redford and Alex Gibney and narrated by Susan Sarandon. CNN is also continuing its concentration on the 1960s with a 10-part series beginning in May. Later this month, CNN will air "The Sixties: The British Invasion" in the days before the 50th anniversary of the Beatles performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Despite such efforts, Zucker said CNN's first priority remains news. A succession of CNN leaders over the past two decades have struggled to figure out how CNN could get a consistent audience during slow news periods. Fox and MSNBC, which appeal heavily to audiences on opposite ends of the political spectrum, have taken viewers away from CNN.

"CNN is not and never will abandon our first and fundamental brand equity, which is news and breaking news," Zucker said.

He also shot down reports that CNN is looking to get into the late-night entertainment business, perhaps by hiring Jay Leno when Jimmy Fallon takes over on NBC's "Tonight" show next month. Zucker was once Leno's boss when he was head of NBC Universal.

"That's really not a priority for us at this time," he said. "We have some other things I'd like to concentrate on first."

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Up to 70M more Target-ed

Target Corp. yesterday acknowledged a security breach was far more wide-reaching than previously announced, saying the names, mailing addresses, phone numbers or email addresses of 70 million customers also were accessed by hackers.

That data theft was separate from the credit and debit card data of up to 40 million customers that the Minneapolis retailer disclosed as stolen Dec. 19, but it was accessed during the same Nov. 27 to Dec. 15 period, the company said.

"There's a potential that there's some overlap (between the two groups of customers)," spokeswoman Molly Snyder said. "We don't know to what extent at this point."

The new details were discovered during Target's ongoing investigation of the security breach.

"I know that it is frustrating for our guests to learn that this information was taken, and we are sorry they are having to endure this," CEO Gregg Steinhafel said in a statement.

It's likely Target still doesn't know the full extent of the breach, according to security analysts.

"I think they still have no idea how big this is," David Kennedy, who runs consulting firm TrustedSec LLC, told Reuters.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said yesterday she was joining a multi-state committee to investigate the breach.

It already is taking a financial toll on Target. Yesterday it trimmed its fourth-quarter guidance, saying while sales were stronger than expected prior to the announcement of the data theft, they've been "meaningfully weaker than expected" since then.

Jefferies & Co. analyst Daniel Binder expects softer sales will continue.

In an apparent attempt to stem slipping sales and win back customers, Target yesterday took the unprecedented step of offering one free year of credit monitoring and identity theft protection to all customers who have ever shopped at its U.S. stores. Target previously planned to offer free credit monitoring only to those customers whose information was accessed.

"We want to do as much as we can to give them additional peace of mind," Snyder said.

It's a smart move, but Target needs do more to earn back consumer trust, said David Johnson, CEO of Strategic Vision, which specializes in crisis communications.

Steinhafel should appear on consumer-oriented shows such as "Good Moring America" rather than CNBC's investor-oriented "Squawk Box," as he's slated to do Monday, he said.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

High court to hear Aereo case

Internet TV company Aereo will square off against the nation's biggest broadcast networks in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, pitting an upstart company with Boston ties against the giants of television.

The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to hear arguments from Aereo and the networks, which claim the service — which takes free over-the-air channels and retransmits them over the Internet to paying subscribers — violates copyright law.

"We look forward to presenting our case to the Supreme Court and we have every confidence that the court will validate and preserve a consumer's right to access local over-the-air television with an individual antenna," said Aereo founder and CEO Chet Kenojia.

Internet companies including Google and Yahoo have sided with Aereo, while sports leagues including the NFL and MLB have threatened to pull their games from broadcast TV if Aereo is allowed to continue to operate.

"We believe that Aereo's business model, and similar offerings that operate on the same principle, are built on stealing the creative content of others. We are pleased that our case will be heard and we look forward to having our day in court," CBS said in a statement.

Michael Carrier, a Rutgers University law professor, said the key issue is whether Aereo's service is a public or private performance.

"I don't know what they're going to find. It's a very discrete issue the court has not looked at before," Carrier said.

Aereo, which recently raised $34 million in funding to expand beyond the 10 cities it now operates in, has most of its employees in its Innovation District office in Boston.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Volkswagen sales up nearly 5 percent in 2013

BERLIN — Volkswagen AG said Saturday that it delivered a record 9.5 million cars and commercial vehicles last year, a 4.8 percent increase, as growing Chinese and North American demand compensated for a slight decline in Europe.

The Wolfsburg, Germany-based company said that the Volkswagen Group — which includes Audi, Porsche, Skoda and Seat — finished the year with a strong performance in December, when sales rose 6.3 percent over a year earlier to 833,200.

European deliveries slipped 0.5 percent to 3.65 million, but Chinese sales rose 16.2 percent to 3.27 million.

North American sales climbed 5.6 percent to 888,800, including a 2.6 percent gain to 611,700 in the United States. Deliveries in South America, however, dropped 10.1 percent to 908,000, led by a 12.6 percent decline in Brazil.

Volkswagen board member Christian Klingler said the company expects "market developments on a level similar to 2013" this year.

"Even though the situation in Europe would appear to be stabilizing, economic uncertainty will continue and the challenges we will be facing on markets will remain virtually unchanged," he added in a statement.

Volkswagen said that, adding in estimated sales by the MAN and Scania heavy truck brands, total group deliveries rose to more than 9.7 million vehicles last year — an increase of almost 5 percent.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cambridge company wins NASA job

NASA has awarded Cambridge-based Charles River Analytics a contract to build a system that analyzes satellite imagery to detect major changes, including volcanic eruptions, so scientists can respond more quickly to environmental events.

The $750,000 contract, which follows on an initial $125,000 award in 2012, will be used to develop the system known as DIPSARS for Discovery of Interesting Patterns and Semantic Analysis in Remote Space, said Daniel Stouch, who heads up the project for CRA. It will use CRA's Object Detection Framework, which sifts through the mountains of satellite pictures and detects changes in real-time, Stouch said.

"As we learn more about our world and the physical and social processes in it, it's important to be able to perceive and understand events and phenomena from a global perspective," Stouch said.

CRA said the system will let NASA "process and analyze which data is relevant, important and interesting enough to prompt follow-on action." A NASA spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

The ODF is best suited to quickly detect events such as volcanic eruptions, forest fires and algae blooms, Stouch said.

"It might be something you can see from space, but you might not see from the ground," Stouch said.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Briar defends breach delay

The Briar Group is defending a six-week delay in notifying the public that its restaurant customers' credit card data were stolen last fall, saying it took that long to confirm hackers had breached its system.

But security experts say it shouldn't take that long to establish a breach has occurred, noting that the Briar Group had hired the well-regarded firm McGladrey LLP to investigate the matter.

"It doesn't take a month to identify a breach," said Al Pascual, senior analyst of security, risk and fraud at Javelin Strategy & Research in Pleasanton, Calif.

Meanwhile, two weeks after confirming the breach, the Briar Group still doesn't know the number of customer accounts accessed and how, or the exact timeframe in which it occurred.

"Our investigation into the nature and scope of the breach is ongoing," spokeswoman Diana Pisciotta said.

After receiving initial calls from customers about unauthorized credit card transactions on Nov. 15, the Briar Group said it immediately asked McGladrey to investigate. The company notified Attorney General Martha Coakley of the investigation on Nov. 21. The Briar Group, which owns 10 restaurants including Ned Devine's, Harp, Anthem and M.J. O'Connor's, only publicly announced on Dec. 27 that its payment system was compromised, and stated it believed the breach ran from "sometime in October" to early November.

"Investigations into potential security breaches can take a significant amount of time," Pisciotta said. "We notified customers once we were aware that an actual breach had occurred and had enough information to provide reasonable notice, which wasn't until late December."

It was the second security intrusion for the company, which in 2011 paid $110,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by Coakley for its failure to secure customers' information in a 2009 breach.

Coakley spokesman Christopher Loh said in the current case, "Our investigation ... is focused on determining if any violations of state law and the prior consent judgment occurred, as well as the extent of the breach."

A good security team should have identified the breach quickly, but it's not uncommon for probes to take a month or longer, said Chris Morales, research director at NSS Labs, an information security research and advisory firm.

"It's not reasonable or practical, but it's really how long sometimes it takes," he said. "I've been to very large enterprises with very large security teams that are good that also have had similar issues. The whole industry still needs to change the way it does certain things."

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Micro-units perfect fit for young pros

Micro-apartments aren't for everyone, but for young professionals starting out who embrace a leaner and more collegial lifestyle, it doesn't seem that it's that much of a compromise.

A recent tour of Factory 63 on Melcher Street in South Boston's Fort Point neighborhood, which has 23 "innovation micro-apartments," dispelled some misconceptions about a living experiment seen as a way to keep young professional people in the city. Factory 63's units are all rented and there's a waiting list. And, there are hundreds more of these units set to be built in an area dubbed the Innovation District.

"The idea here is to engage the community, especially the artists who live here, in a way that adds value for the residents," said Factory 63 property manager Jessica Ryan, pointing to Fort Point artists' work hanging on the walls and revolving exhibits by Design Museum Boston, which occupies a gallery in the common space. "We want to respect and hold on to what is already here in the neighborhood."

The common space is open to the public during business hours, and there are five artist live/work spaces in the building.

At rents ranging from $1,699 for a 374-square-foot unit to $2,450 for 597 square feet, the market-rate micro-apartments at Factory 63 are expensive, though the rent does include heat and central air conditioning, with only a $30-a-month electric bill. But residents feel the expense is worth it.

When Ross Chanowski moved into his 447-square-foot micro-unit last March, he was working in a big local ad agency that had just moved to the Seaport District. He said he could have rented a regular-sized apartment, but chose the micro-apartment instead because of the character of the building, a former shoe factory, and the focus on integrating living and working.

"I didn't just want an apartment, but a place to live, work, play, innovate and create," the 25-year-old Newton native said. "It's in a great neighborhood near downtown and I've gotten to know most of the people in the building, made friends and business connections. You don't just shut your door."

Phoebe K. Flemming is living in only 337 square feet, with her two dogs, in a unit at Factory 63 she won through a city lottery system, paying about $1,200 a month. She said initially she was skeptical about the smaller space because her Southie apartment had 700 square feet.

"This place has more of a neighborhood feel than I thought it would, and I liked the common space," said Flemming, a 31-year-old dietician consultant and executive director of the nonprofit South Boston Grows.

Developer Gerding Edlen's support of sustainability also appealed to her. The building is LEED Gold certified, with energy-efficient heating and cooling, appliances and fixtures.

"I like the idea of lean and green," Flemming said.

The Wi-Fi-enabled common space on the first floor has free coffee and tea, benches to work on, couches to sit on and long tables, and a conference room to hold business meetings. There is no charge to use the space.

The units at Factory 63 have wood floors and exposed brick, 13-foot wood-beam ceilings and two tall windows, which makes the spaces feel larger and less cramped. The galley kitchens have white Corian counters, a few cabinets and full-size stainless steel appliances. Walls divide the kitchen from the combination living/dining area and bedroom area, which has enough space for a queen-size bed. The bathroom is surprisingly roomy, with a space-saving stacked washer and dryer.

Living in such small quarters requires residents to be neat and orderly.

"You can't have a lot of stuff," Flemming said " I've spent the past few years decluttering my life."

Each resident does get an extra 9-square-foot storage cube on the bottom floor.

Flemming, whose living/bedroom area is smaller than Chanowski's, built a loft bed, which gives her more living space in the main room.

"I have two couches in there and friends come over all the time," Flemming said. "My place is kind of a focal point. But it is small and you have to adapt to that."

Chanowski said he does not feel that his place is too small to live and work in, or have a few people over.

"It's not just that I have to live my life lean here, I want to live my life lean," Chanowski said. "My idea is to live small and think big."

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

More towns eye casino $

The state Gaming Commission is bracing for a rush of petitions from cities and towns that believe casino developers have wrongly denied them surrounding community status, which entitles them to payments to make up for the stress casinos would put on their roads and infrastructure.

Malden and Somerville have filed petitions for surrounding community status to Mohegan Sun's casino in Revere, and Northampton has filed for MGM's Springfield project. Chelsea is expected to file for Wynn Resorts' Everett project before Monday's deadline.

Mohegan reps met for the first time Tuesday with Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, who's said he may insist on host community status for both the Revere and Everett proposals, which would require a filing with the gaming panel and voter approval before either casino could be licensed.

The Gaming Commission plans to decide Feb. 6 who is and isn't a surrounding community. If communities disagree, they can seek arbitration.

"We look at the facts and we make a decision," Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby said. "If we decide they're not a surrounding community, because essentially there's no material adverse impact in our judgment, then it's over."

Mohegan has designated Boston, Winthrop and Chelsea surrounding communities to its project at Suffolk Downs in Revere, and has offered a separate joint agreement to Malden, Saugus, Lynn, Salem, and Medford. Still, Malden has petitioned the commission for surrounding community status.

"Malden shares its entire easterly border with the city of Revere, and it is reasonably foreseeable that Mohegan's proposed development will impact Malden's infrastructure," city solicitor Kathryn Fallon wrote in a memo dated Tuesday, which was obtained by the Herald.

Mohegan and Suffolk Downs spokesman Chip Tuttle said a joint agreement was presented because impacts were all transportation-related, and the deal aims to "create a way for all of them to share in a resource that would help with regional transportation issues."

Tuttle said Mohegan had a "great initial meeting" with Walsh and members of his staff Tuesday. Walsh's office did not comment on the meeting.

Chelsea city manager Jay Ash said Wynn Resorts — which designated only Boston and Medford as surrounding communities — abruptly stopped negotiations six weeks ago.

"I was befuddled and incensed," Ash said. "It's kind of preposterous to think that communities that are within a mile of a gaming establishment would not be considered surrounding communities."

Wynn spokesman Michael Weaver said, "We determined that Chelsea would not be negatively impacted by our project and consequently would not be designated a surrounding community."

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Target: Data breach caught up to 70M customers

NEW YORK — Target says that personal information — including phone numbers and email and mailing addresses — was stolen from as many as 70 million customers in its pre-Christmas data breach. That was substantially more customers than Target had previously said were affected.

The chain also indicated its sales have been hurt by the breach, cutting its forecast for fourth-quarter earnings and a key sales barometer.

Its stock slipped in early morning trading Friday.

Target Corp. announced in December that about 40 million credit and debit cards may have been affected by a data breach that happened between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15 — just as the holiday shopping season was getting into gear.

But the net has now been cast wider, with more shoppers potentially impacted.

The company told customers Friday that its ongoing investigation of the breach has shown that more personal information had been stolen than it was aware of before and more customers were affected. It previously disclosed to customers that names, credit and debit card numbers, card expiration dates, debit-card PINs and the embedded code on the magnetic strip on the back of cards had been stolen.

"I know that it is frustrating for our guests to learn that this information was taken and we are truly sorry they are having to endure this," Chairman, President and CEO Gregg Steinhafel said in a statement.

The company said customers won't be liable for the cost of any fraudulent charges that stemmed from the breach.

Target said it will try to contact customers it has email addresses for to provide tips on how to safeguard against consumer scams. The company said it won't ask customers for any personal information during its email communications.

It's also offering a year of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection to customers that shopped at its stores. Individuals will have three months to enroll in the program. Target said it will provide more details on that next week.

Target lowered its fourth-quarter adjusted earnings guidance to a range of $1.20 to $1.30 per share, down from $1.50 to $1.60 per share.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet expect earnings of $1.24 per share.

The Minneapolis company also said that it now foresees fourth-quarter sales at stores open at least a year will be down about 2.5 percent. It previously predicted those sales would be about flat.

This figure is a closely-watched indicator of a retailer's health. It excludes results from stores recently opened or closed.

Target cautioned that its fourth-quarter financials may include charges related to the data breach. The chain said the costs tied to the breach may have a material adverse effect on its quarterly results as well as future periods.

Shares of Target declined 32 cents to $63.03 shortly after the market opened.

The company has 1,921 stores, with 1,797 locations in the U.S. and 124 in Canada.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

John Henry pitches change at Globe

Boston Globe publisher Christopher Mayer's abrupt resignation yesterday appears to signal the start of an extensive restructuring of the broadsheet and came just hours after new owner John Henry hinted at new multimedia initiatives to Hub bigwigs.

Henry, who also owns the Red Sox and the Liverpool soccer club, told the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce he was looking to hire a chief operating officer. He also said the paper will soon develop a Globe television network.

But he was short on details about other initiatives he has in mind. He spoke vaguely about finding new ways to recruit sponsors and advertisers for Globe content, and unveiled a gift-voucher program for subscribers to support their favorite charity.

Mayer joined Henry at the business confab, but by the end of the day, he had emailed staff that he was stepping down.

Mayer — who had spent nearly three decades at the paper, the past four years as publisher — said he would be staying on as a senior adviser as the Globe moves "from a traditional newspaper structure to one that is better positioned for success in a hyper-competitive, fast-changing industry."

Mayer's departure came days after Henry brought on Hill Holliday chairman Michael Sheehan as an advertising consultant. Andrew Perlmutter, a former online operations manager at Newsweek, was hired last fall and reports directly to Henry.

Mark Jurkowitz, a former Globe media critic now at the Pew Research Center, said the moves are what you would expect from the "new breed of owner" embodied by Henry and Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos.

"Because they're largely self-made men and have a better understanding of the modern business world," Jurkowitz said, "that brings the expectation they're going to infuse the places they buy with different ideas about how the place should run and levels of innovation that haven't been seen."

Henry — who bought the Globe for $70 million from The New York Times Co. five months ago — 
acknowledged the challenges newspapers face in the 21st century during the chamber speech and said the Globe would be "aggressively relevant."

"In today's world we have to concentrate on things we're really good at," he said.

He also praised the rivalry between the Herald and Globe, saying: "One of the strengths of this city is that it has two newspapers."

Seth Mnookin of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the author of "Feeding the Monster" about Henry's Red Sox' moves, said, "He's someone who clearly has shown he's willing to move into new areas and upend things, but upend things in a way that doesn't destroy the core values of what was there. ... He can be very obsessive about things. It seemed like this was something he both cared about and looked at and saw some inefficiencies."

22.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Weekly US unemployment benefit claims drop to 330K

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell 15,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 330,000, signaling fewer layoffs and steady job growth.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the less volatile four-week average dropped 9,750 to 349,000.

A Labor spokesman said there was no indication that snow and freezing weather around much of the country caused the drop in applications.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs. They appear to have stabilized near pre-recession levels after a period of volatility around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. That suggests recent job gains will continue.

"The underlying trend is encouraging and supports the view that job creation is picking up momentum," said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said in a separate report that the number of announced job cuts fell 3 percent last year to 509,051. That's the fewest layoffs reported by the firm since 1997.

The decline in layoffs has coinciding with stronger hiring. Employers have added an average of 200,000 jobs a month from August through November. That's helped lower the unemployment rate to a five-year low of 7 percent.

The government will release the December jobs report on Friday.

There are signs that the job gains have helped to lift other parts of the economy. Consumer confidence and spending have picked up. Orders to U.S. manufacturers rose in November, a sign that businesses are investing more on factory-made items such as machinery, computers and electrical goods.

Many economists have become more optimistic about growth in the October-December quarter that just ended. Several are projecting a strong annual growth rate of 3 percent or more. That would follow growth at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the July-September quarter, the fastest pace since late 2011.

Not all the data have been positive. Income rose at a slower pace than spending last month. Americans are spending more but saving less. And sales of existing homes have fallen for three straight months, held back by higher prices and mortgage rates.

Even with the improvement in the job market, unemployment remains painfully high more than four years after the Great Recession officially ended. And nearly 4.2 million people received some form of unemployment benefits in the week ending Dec. 21, the latest data available.

The number of applications could fluctuate in the coming weeks because of harsh winter weather that closed some offices this week and last, said Yelena Shulyatyeva, a U.S. economist at the bank BNP Paribas.

Fewer people will likely receive benefits in 2014 because a five-year old emergency federal program expired Dec. 28. It provided up to 47 extra weeks of unemployment benefits, paid for by the federal government, to about 1.3 million people.

Congress is debating whether to revive the program for three more months.

The impact of 1.3 million people dropping off the unemployment benefit rolls probably won't show up in the data for at least another week, because the figures for the total number of recipients are released on a two-week lag.

Economists predict that the expired benefits will cause the unemployment rate to fall by as much as a quarter of percentage point in early 2014. But they say the decrease will likely happen because many of the former recipients will give up on their job searches, which are required in order to receive benefits. The government counts people as unemployed only if they are actively looking for work.

22.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Center Plaza deal good sign for Boston

Shorenstein Properties is the new owner of Boston's landmark Center Plaza in a $307 million deal.

At $400-plus per square foot, the San Francisco real estate investment firm's purchase of the three Government Center buildings at 1-3 Center Plaza, totalling 717,128 square feet, from the Blackstone Group is another bullish sign for Boston's commercial property market.

"The market has significant momentum right now, and these big-ticket office buildings that weren't selling a couple of years ago are moving like hotcakes," said Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics in New York. "There's more equity funds running around the U.S. looking for properties today than there was at the peak of the market in 2007."

And as a gateway city, Boston is certainly on the top of everyone's list, he said.

"We believe this property is well-positioned to benefit from our ability to add value over time through hands-on management and leasing expertise," Shorenstein CEO Douglas Shorenstein said in a statement.

Beacon Properties developed Center Plaza starting in the late 1960s and merged with Chicago's Equity Office Properties Trust in 1997. New York's Blackstone bought Equity in 2007 and recently has been selling its office buildings.

22.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Keolis to run commuter rail

The French company that will run Massachusetts' commuter rail system starting July 1 will face much higher penalties than the previous operator if trains don't run on time.

The state Department of Transportation's board of directors yesterday voted unanimously to award Keolis Commuter Services an eight-year, $2.69 billion contract, with the potential for two, two-year extensions that would bring the total to $4.28 billion.

"The new contract sets a 'no excuses' expectation that the operator will run the trains on time," MBTA General Manager Beverly A. Scott told the board. "In a major change, the new commuter rail contract does not include any incentive payments and, if performance standards are not met, imposes financial disincentives."

Keolis will be subject to penalties capped at more than $12 million per year for subpar performance such as late or dirty trains or trains without proper heating or air conditioning.

Under the current contract with the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co., which has run the rail system since 2003, financial penalties are limited to $3 million per year and are offset by incentive payments.

The MBCR contract also automatically grants the company relief from on-time performance requirements if there is overcrowding on the platforms, disabled freight trains or slippery rail conditions caused by falling leaves.

The contract with Keolis will do away with this list of acceptable excuses for lateness and require the operator to provide supporting documentation if it believes an event is beyond its control, Scott said.

For the first time, 50 percent of the amount of financial disincentives will be tied to elements of customer satisfaction, such as cleanliness, heating and air conditioning, maintenance of staff levels and customer communications, she said.

The contract also will require Keolis to adhere to a strict maintenance schedule, increase daily inspection requirements and allow the MBTA to require the company to implement a remedial action plan if its performance fails to meet expectations, Scott said.

22.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Report: Wasteful health care spending up in Mass.

BOSTON — A new report is estimating that nearly four out of every 10 dollars spent on health care in Massachusetts is doing little to improve the lives of patients.

The report by the Health Policy Commission said between 21 percent and 39 percent of health care expenditures in 2012 could be considered wasteful.

In dollars, that translates into between $14.7 billion and $26.9 billion.

The study defined wasteful spending as health care expenditures that could be eliminated without harming consumers or reducing the quality of care.

The report said examples of waste include $700 million in preventable acute hospital readmissions, $550 million in unnecessary emergency department visits and up to $18 million in health care-associated infections.

The report also said that just 5 percent of patients account for nearly half of all health care spending in Massachusetts.

22.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Barnes & Noble promotes Nook head to CEO

NEW YORK — Book seller Barnes & Noble has promoted the head of its Nook business to chief executive of company.

The struggling retailer said Wednesday Michael Huseby, 59, will take the role immediately. The post has been vacant since July when CEO William Lynch left the company.

It comes after the busy holiday season that can account for up to 40 percent of a retailer's sales. Barnes & Noble will release holiday sales figures on Thursday.

Huseby will take the helm of the New York company as it struggles to turn around results in the face of tough competition and a book market that is shifting to digital books. The company is also dealing with an accounting probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In its most recent fiscal second quarter ended Oct. 26, the company returned to a profit, helped by cost cuts, but revenue fell 8 percent declining across all segments.

The SEC told the bookseller Oct. 16 that it was investigating the company's restatement of earnings announced in July as well as an employee allegation that it improperly allocated some information-technology expenses between its Nook and retail segments. Barnes & Noble Inc. began reporting its Nook business sales separately from its retail business in late 2012 as it evaluated ways to become more profitable.

Huseby joined Barnes & Noble as CFO in 2012 and was promoted to president of the company and CEO of Nook Media in 2013. Before joining Barnes & Noble he was CFO of cable company Cablevision Systems Corp.

Barnes & Noble shares rose 6 cents to $14.81 in morning trading.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Germans defend exports as US Treasury's Lew visits

BERLIN — Germany's finance minister dismissed criticism of his country's export strength as his U.S. counterpart pressed for Europe's biggest economy to do more to fuel domestic demand.

Germany has long faced criticism from the U.S. and others for relying too heavily on its exports and, some contend, not importing enough to boost other economies in Europe.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew was visiting Berlin, part of a trip that also includes France and Portugal, as official data showed Germany's trade surplus widening further.

"We continue to believe that policies that would promote more domestic investment and demand would be good for the German economy and the global economy," Lew told a news conference after meeting German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's weeks-old government, an alliance of right and left, is planning to introduce a national minimum wage and invest in infrastructure. But it is broadly keeping unchanged its approach to Europe's debt crisis, in which it has made cutting budget deficits a priority.

Lew stressed the importance of "getting the balance right" between promoting short-term growth and getting public finances in order, and said that policy decisions by Germany's new government "are consistent with that approach."

Germany's Federal Statistical Office reported a trade surplus for November of 17.8 billion euros ($24.2 billion), up from 16.7 billion the previous month. Exports rose 0.3 percent to 93.2 billion euros when adjusted for seasonal and calendar factors, while imports declined 1.1 percent to 75.4 billion euros.

German officials have little time for criticism of the country's export performance. Schaeuble noted that Germany's economic growth has been driven mainly by domestic demand recently.

"The eurozone as a whole has a very small surplus .... and without the German surplus toward third countries, the eurozone would have no surplus at all, but a deficit," Schaeuble said. "The American deficit won't be improved by a European one being added to it."

Alongside criticism from the U.S., the International Monetary Fund has said a smaller surplus is the only way to even out the imbalances that plague the eurozone.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, cautioned that any German move to emphasize exports less may not have the positive effect on the eurozone that some expect.

"Stronger German export gains, especially to non-euro countries, helps boost business activity at companies within the euro area that are suppliers to German firms," he said.

German and European economic growth are expected to pick up this year after the eurozone emerged from a lengthy recession. Separate data released Wednesday showed that German industrial orders were up 2.1 percent in November, following an equivalent decline the previous month.

Orders from inside Germany increased by 1.9 percent, while demand from other countries in the eurozone was flat and orders from countries outside the currency area climbed 3.5 percent.

___

David Rising contributed to this report.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Clear Channel launches country festival in Austin

AUSTIN, Texas — Clear Channel Media and Entertainment got such an overwhelming response to country music performers during the iHeartRadio Music Festivals, they've decided to start one geared toward country fans.

The first iHeartRadio Country Festival will be held March 29 in Austin, Texas, with Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Eric Church, Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum and Florida Georgia Line heading up the initial lineup.

Clear Channel is giving listeners across its more than 120 country stations a chance to win their way to Austin when a six-week promotion kicks off next week.

Other artists scheduled to perform include Hunter Hayes and Jake Owen with more to be announced later. Fans who can't attend can watch the festival via stream on the websites of Clear Channel and its stations.

___

Online:

www.iheartradio.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Fears Fed could speed taper pushes weigh on stocks

PARIS — Fears that the U.S. Federal Reserve could rein in its stimulus more aggressively than previously weighed on stocks Wednesday.

Payroll processor ADP said Wednesday that companies added 238,000 jobs in the U.S. in December, up slightly from 229,000 in the previous month. November's figures were also revised higher.

While the numbers signal the growing strength of the world's largest economy, there are fears in the markets that they may prompt the Fed to speed up its plan to pare back its monthly financial asset purchases, which have kept a lid on borrowing rates over the past few years and shored up stocks. At its last policy meeting in December, the Fed took its first step to exit its current stimulus by deciding to trim its purchases by $10 billion to $75 billion this month.

"Fear of accelerated tapering has led to a slight sell-off," said Alex Conroy, a financial trader at Spreadex.

Investors were also likely viewing the ADP number skeptically, as historically they have not been the best guide to the official figures, which will be released on Friday.

The latest economic data from the eurozone wasn't able to buoy spirits, either. Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, said retail sales in the eurozone jumped 1.4 percent in November, far more than expected, while the unemployment rate held steady at 12.1 percent for the eighth month running.

Although the figures suggest the eurozone recovery might pick up, the bloc still faces big problems — the unemployment rate is at a record high and there are huge disparities across the region.

In afternoon trading, France's CAC-40 was down 0.2 percent 4,253, while the DAX in Germany dropped 0.1 percent 9,494. Britain's FTSE index fell 0.4 percent to 6,732.

The euro fell slightly to $1.3602, although that price is still relatively high.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.2 percent at 16,496 soon after the open while the broader S&P 500 index fell 0.1 percent to 1,835.

Earlier, Asian stocks mostly rose. Asian traders tend to be very sensitive to the U.S. economy, and they may have been anticipating the strong payrolls number. In addition, a decline in the U.S. trade deficit for November, which was partly due to increased domestic oil production, has raised expectations that fourth quarter economic growth will be higher than 3 percent.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gained 1.9 percent, closing at 16,121.45 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.3 percent to 22,996.59. Benchmarks in India, Southeast Asia and Taiwan also rose. China's Shanghai Composite lost early gains, closing 0.2 percent lower at 2,044.34.

In another sign there is hope the global economy is improving, energy prices rose Wednesday. Benchmark crude was up 14 cents to $93.81.

___

Associated Press writer Teresa Cerojano in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Probe: $27B in wasteful health-care spending in Mass. in 2012

More than one-third of health care spending in Massachusetts is wasteful, squandered on unnecessary hospital readmissions and emergency room visits, according to detailed new report released today.

Wasteful spending in 2012 may have amounted to almost $27 billion, the report estimated.

The biggest waste of money — $700 million — was spent on readmissions of patients recently released from hospitals. Unnecessary ER visits tallied up $550 million in waste.

The study from the Health Policy Commission, a state watchdog group charged with monitoring health care costs in Massachusetts, also found that preventable infections acquired in health care settings cost $10 million to $18 million a year.

"Wasteful spending often results in poorer outcomes for patients," the report said.

It also slammed high-cost hospitals for not always providing high-level care: "Some hospitals deliver high-quality care with lower operating expenses, while many higher-expense hospitals achieve lower quality performance."

Massachusetts spends more per capita on health care than any other state, and health care costs here have grown faster than the national average.

The Health Policy Commission will discuss the findings of its report at a meeting today.

Developing...

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

US trade deficit declines to $34.3B billion

WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit fell in November to its lowest level in four years, an encouraging sign that economic growth in the final three months of the year was stronger than analysts had forecast.

Gains in energy production and stronger sales of American-made airplanes, autos and machinery lifted exports to an all-time high.

The trade gap dropped 12.9 percent in November to $34.3 billion, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That's the lowest monthly trade deficit since October 2009.

Exports rose 0.9 percent to a record $194.9 billion. The gain was aided by a 5.6 percent rise in petroleum exports.

Imports dropped 1.4 percent to $229.1 billion. A decrease in demand for foreign oil offset a record level of imported autos.

A smaller trade deficit can boost economic growth. It typically shows that American companies are earning more from sales overseas, while U.S. consumers are buying fewer products from foreign companies.

Economists raised their growth forecasts for the October-December quarter after seeing the November trade report.

Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, noted that the trade gap declined in both October and November. She is currently forecasting growth at an annual rate of 2.4 percent. But after the trade report she said growth could end up being stronger.

Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said growth could be 3 percent or higher.

Through 11 months of 2013, the trade deficit is 12.3 percent lower than the same period in 2012. Exports have strengthened, while imports are slightly lower.

A domestic energy boom has boosted exports and lessened America's dependence on foreign oil. U.S. petroleum exports were up 10.8 percent through the first 11 months of 2013 compared with the same period in 2012. In that same period, petroleum imports have fallen 11.5 percent.

The drop in oil imports has been helped by lower global prices. After peaking at $102 per barrel in September, the average price of a barrel of imported crude oil has fallen and averaged $94.69 a barrel in November. Analysts are predicting the price of imported oil will decline further, noting ample supplies and a strengthening dollar

The U.S. deficit with China fell 6.7 percent in November from October to $26.9 billion. U.S. exports to China hit a record. The U.S. deficit with China, the largest with any country, is still on track to set another record this year.

The deficit with the European Union dropped 29.4 percent in November to $10.1 billion. That reflected a big drop in imports from that region, which offset a small dip in U.S. sales to Europe.

The overall economy grew at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the July-September quarter. Much of that strength reflected a buildup in business stockpiles. Economists believe inventory building slowed in the October-December quarter, which could dampen growth.

Still, other data have been encouraging. The rise in exports has lifted factory output. And a stronger job market has made Americans more confident in the economy and led to more spending. Those factors could offset some of the drag from lower inventory growth.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

JPMorgan settles Madoff fraud claims for $1.7B

NEW YORK — JPMorgan Chase & Co., already beset by other costly legal woes, has agreed to pay $1.7 billion to settle criminal charges accusing the bank of ignoring obvious warning signs of Bernard Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme, federal authorities said Tuesday.

The government said the $1.7 billion represented the largest ever bank forfeiture and the largest Department of Justice penalty for a Bank Secrecy Act violation. The settlement includes a so-called deferred prosecution agreement that requires the bank to acknowledge failures in its protections against money laundering but also allows it to avoid criminal charges. No individual executives were accused of wrongdoing.

The deal was announced by the office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who scheduled an afternoon news conference to detail the agreement to resolve criminal charges: two felony violations of the Bank Secrecy Act in connection with the bank's relationship with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, the private investment arm of Madoff's former business.

Under the agreement, the criminal charges will be deferred for two years as JPMorgan admits to its conduct, pays the $1.7 billion to victims of Madoff's fraud and reforms its anti-money laundering policies, prosecutors said in a release.

JPMorgan didn't immediately comment on the settlement. It shares fell 55 cents to $58.45 in morning trading Tuesday.

The deal was similar to one reached in late 2012 with the British bank HSBC, which agreed to pay $1.9 billion to settle claims it laundered money for Iran, Libya and Mexico's murderous drug cartels. Some observers called the HSBC settlement — which included a $1.25 billion forfeiture and $655 million in civil penalties — an example of the government stopping short of bringing criminal charges against a big bank or its executives because such prosecutions could be devastating enough to cause the institution to fail.

JPMorgan was Madoff's primary bank in the later years of a multi-decade fraud that ended in 2008 when he revealed to the FBI that his investment advisory business was a Ponzi scheme.

Account statements for thousands of clients showing $60 billion in assets were fiction. Of the roughly $17.5 billion in principal that was real, most of it was gone.

Since then, a court-appointed trustee has recovered more than $9.5 billion to redistribute to burned clients. The trustee sued JPMorgan for $6.4 billion in 2010, accusing the bank of being "willfully blind" and "thoroughly complicit" in the fraud, but an appeals court found in 2012 that he had no legal standing to make the claim.

The JPMorgan settlement is the latest in a series of major deals it has made to resolve its legal troubles. In November, the bank agreed to pay $13 billion over risky mortgage securities it sold before the financial crisis — the largest settlement to date between the Justice Department and a corporation.

JPMorgan still has several lawsuits pending against it related to the high-risk mortgage bonds that soured after the housing market collapsed in 2007. There's also an ongoing criminal investigation led by the office of U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner in Sacramento, Calif.

The bank may be negotiating or litigating over the issue for years and has set aside $23 billion to cover those costs. JPMorgan told regulators in a filing in October that it may need as much as $5.7 billion more.

Madoff, 75, pleaded guilty and is serving a 150-year prison term.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

US home prices tick up 0.1 percent in November

WASHINGTON — U.S. home prices barely rose in November from the previous month and year-over-year gains slowed, reflecting declines in sales in the fall.

Real estate data provider CoreLogic said Tuesday that prices increased just 0.1 percent in November from October. That's down slightly from October and far below August's 0.9 percent gain.

The figures aren't adjusted for seasonal patterns, such as cold winter weather that typically slows sales. Home prices have risen a healthy 11.8 percent from a year ago, CoreLogic said. But that's the smallest yearly gain since March.

Rising home prices and higher mortgage rates held back sales at the end of last year. Existing home sales fell from September through November.

But overall, 2013 represented the best year for housing since the financial crisis. Once December's figures are released, home prices will likely have risen 11.5 percent last year, according to Mark Fleming, CoreLogic's chief economist. That would be the biggest gain since 2005.

And sales of existing homes should reach 5.1 million in 2013, the National Association of Realtors forecasts. That would be up 10 percent from the previous year and the most since 2006. It's still below the 5.5 million generally associated with healthy housing markets.

Most economists expect sales and prices to keep rising this year, but at a slower pace. They forecast sales and prices will likely rise around 5 percent, down from double-digit gains in 2013.

A measure of signed contracts suggests sales are already starting to level off. The Realtors' group said last week that its index of pending home sales ticked up slightly in November after falling for five straight months.

Economists blame higher mortgage rates for dragging down sales. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose last week to 4.53 percent from 4.48 percent the previous week, the third straight gain.

Rates jumped about 1.25 percentage points from May through September, peaking at 4.6 percent. That increase occurred after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated that the Fed would start to slow its bond-buying program before the end of the year. The purchases are intended to lower long-term interest rates and spur more borrowing and spending.

At its December meeting, the Fed said it would cut its $85 billion monthly purchases in January by $10 billion a month. Interest rates have risen since then, reflecting greater optimism about the economy and the impact of the Fed's move.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Travelers spend night on 3 snowbound Amtrak trains

CHICAGO — Hundreds of Amtrak passengers who spent the night onboard three trains stranded in snow in northern Illinois have begun to arrive in Chicago, rail line officials said Tuesday morning.

About 300 passengers on two trains that were stuck near Mendota, about 80 miles from Chicago, boarded buses in Princeton for the final leg of their trip, said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari. They began arriving in downtown Chicago around 7 a.m. Tuesday and more were expected to arrive throughout the morning.

A third train loaded with 217 people spent the night at a BNSF rail yard in Galesburg; they were taking buses for the final 150 miles to Chicago.

The trains — The Southwest Chief from Los Angeles, the Illinois Zephyr from Quincy and the California Zephyr from the San Francisco Bay area — got stuck after 3 p.m. Monday in blowing, drifting snow and ice that Magliari said made the tracks impassable.

Several passengers speaking to news outlets by cellphone said conditions on the trains deteriorated and that they went long periods without food.

"The conditions is cold; we're wearing coats. And my husband is a diabetic. He hasn't had any food all day," Laurette Mosley told ABC News. "The bathrooms are flooded. The sinks are full with water and the toilets are flooded."

Mosely was traveling from California to Chicago to attend her mother's funeral.

Magliari said emergency workers were on standby, and that train crews handed out food and prepared for any medical issues, though he said there were none. He said the bathrooms on board the trains were working.

"There was no good reason to take people out of warm trains ... into the cold," he said. "We sheltered them in place."

Another passenger, Bryan Plummer, told ABC News that they were given dinner but no snacks during the 15 hours they were stranded.

"I inquired about breakfast service and they stated that at this time there was none planned. When the sheriff's officer that was on board here, when he left around 3 a.m. this morning, he stated that the Red Cross was involved and was trying to get us some meals," Plummer told ABC.

Amtrak canceled nearly two dozen trains in Illinois on Tuesday because of the cold and lingering snow from a weekend storm that dumped more than a foot of snow in some areas of Illinois.

Magliari said crews were clearing tracks and hoped to resume operations Wednesday.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Markets recover after lackluster start to year

LONDON — Stock markets turned higher on Tuesday, recovering from a rocky start to the year, despite concerns over the Chinese and U.S. economies.

Markets started the new year in lackluster fashion, especially compared with their stellar performance in 2013, after surveys indicated a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing and the U.S. services sector, two key parts of the world's two largest economies. That made investors cautious ahead of more indicators this week, particularly Friday's closely watched U.S. jobs report.

"What we've seen so far this year is most likely just a case of profit taking rather than anything else," said Craig Erlam, market analyst at Alpari. "That said, it has been accompanied by a number of disappointing economic releases, not just in the U.S., but also in other major economies."

Britain's FTSE 100 stock index was up 0.4 percent at 6,757.67 while Germany's DAX was 0.6 percent higher at 9,481.91. France's CAC-40 was up 0.5 percent at 4,246.51.

In Europe, a drop in inflation kept alive the possibility that the European Central Bank might further loosen its monetary policy in coming months, though few expect it to act at its meeting on Thursday.

"While the ECB may refrain from providing additional policy support on Thursday, we expect further action in the months ahead," said Ben May, analyst at Capital Economics.

Wall Street rose on the open, recovering from a three-day losing streak, its worst start to a year in almost a decade. The Dow gained 0.6 percent to 16,523.20 while the S&P 500 was up 0.5 percent 1,835.51.

The most closely watched economic report of the week will come on Friday, when the Labor Department is scheduled to release its jobs survey for December. That's going to influence the Fed's decision on how fast to reduce its financial asset purchases in the coming months. The Fed announced in December that the labor market has improved enough that it will begin reducing its $85 billion of monthly purchases, starting with a $10 billion reduction this month.

The money created by the stimulus over the past few years has been designed to try and keep long-term interest rates low.

Before then, the minutes to the Fed's last meeting, in December, will be released on Wednesday and scrutinized for clues on the policymakers' thinking.

Earlier, Asian markets closed lower, with Japan's Nikkei 225 down 0.6 percent at 15, 814.37.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.1 percent to 22,712.78 while China's Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.1 percent to 2,047.32 after the government said it would allow the creation of five private banks to support economic growth and competition.

In currencies, the euro was flat at $1.3622 while the dollar rose 0.4 percent to 104.58 yen.

The benchmark oil contract for February delivery was up 18 cents a barrel to $93.61 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 53 cents to close at $93.43 on Monday.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Stocks start mixed on first full week of 2014

NEW YORK — Stocks are getting off to a mixed start on the first full week of trading of the year.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell a point at 16,467 in the first few minutes of trading Monday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was flat at 1,831. The Nasdaq composite was down 12 points, or 0.3 percent, at 4,119.

Several stocks were moving on deal news.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers rose 4 percent after Men's Wearhouse said it was making a hostile takeover bid for the company.

Sirius XM Holdings jumped 7 percent following news that Liberty Media wants to acquire full ownership of the satellite radio broadcaster.

Trading was subdued last week with many investors out on vacation.

Later Monday the Commerce Department will report on factory orders for November.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

T-Mobile to buy spectrum licenses from Verizon

BELLEVUE, Wash. — T-Mobile said Monday that it's reached deals to buy spectrum licenses from Verizon Wireless for $2.37 billion in cash, allowing it to improve certain kinds of cellular service in markets across the U.S.

The agreements also include the transfer of other kinds of spectrum licenses from T-Mobile to Verizon Wireless that the companies value at about $950 million.

The deals, combined with T-Mobile's existing holdings, will give T-Mobile low-band spectrum in nine of the top 10 U.S. markets.

Low-band spectrum boosts cellular coverage inside buildings and in rural areas. It also has the ability to travel greater distances than high-band spectrum, making it a more efficient way to provide coverage at the edge of cities and in less densely populated areas.

Combined with T-Mobile's existing holdings, the low-band spectrum will cover about 158 million people in U.S. markets including New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Detroit.

T-Mobile USA, the No. 4 U.S. carrier, is owned by Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG. It said it plans to roll out service and compatible phones as early as the fourth quarter of 2014. The deals are expected to close in mid-2014 and remain subject to regulatory approvals.

T-Mobile US Inc. shares rose 17 cents to $32.74 in premarket trading.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mohegan Sun reaches labor pact with unions

BOSTON — Mohegan Sun has reached agreements with two labor groups to hire union carpenters and tradesmen should it win approval to build a casino in Revere.

The company also said Sunday it had signed a memorandum of understanding with several other Boston unions to allow for unionization of the casino's permanent workforce.

Mohegan Sun is vying for the state's only gambling license in the Boston area. Company executives have proposed a $1.3 billion resort on about 42 acres of land owned by Suffolk Downs horse track in Revere.

Mohegan Sun officials tell The Boston Globe (http://b.globe.com/1iJ7UZt ) the union agreements show they are committed to developing a healthy workforce if they secure both the state gambling license and voters' approval.

Revere residents will vote on a referendum regarding the casino Feb. 25.

___

Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.bostonglobe.com

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Dolby unveils technology to improve TV brightness

LAS VEGAS — Dolby, long known for pristine sound, is now trying to improve what you see.

On Monday, at the International CES gadget show, the company unveiled Dolby Vision, a technology that increases the brightness and contrast of TV sets. Prototype models will be on display from TV manufacturers such as Sharp and TCL.

Standard TV sets emit about 100 nits — a unit of brightness roughly equivalent to one candle per square meter. As a reference, a 100-watt lightbulb emits 18,000 nits. Dolby says its prototype monitor can put out 4,000 nits.

San Francisco-based Dolby Laboratories Inc. says the brightness isn't blinding because only the brightest parts of an image are rendered that way. Increasing the contrast of these images helps bring out more subtle color variations and richer details, Dolby says.

The company says it expects TVs featuring Dolby Vision to be available for purchase later in 2014.

Part of Dolby's solution is improving the signal that gets sent to TVs in the first place. Dolby says it is working with several video streaming partners including Microsoft's Xbox Video, Amazon Instant Video, Netflix and Vudu. Video streams using Dolby Vision will use 12 bits of data per pixel, up from today's standard 8 bits.

The higher data rate means more of what is captured by filmmakers in high-end digital cameras will end up on screen, even for sets not upgraded to handle the load, said Dolby's senior director of broadcast imaging, Roland Vlaicu. Software can trim the higher bit count for older sets.

"A lot of information is lost in the TV signals we have today," Vlaicu said.

Increasing the bit rate also raises the bandwidth required to handle the stream.

While there are physical limitations on the brightness of mass-production TV sets, viewers who tested the system preferred images rendered as bright as 10,000 nits, the limit of what Dolby Vision will support, Vlaicu said.

Consumer televisions in the near future will be able to emit 2,000 nits of brightness while remaining in line with Energy Star low-power requirements, he said.

___

Online:

Dolby blog:

Is your TV bright enough? http://bit.ly/1cAjnGU

Your TV is missing some colors http://bit.ly/18SniiQ

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Stocks open mixed on Wall Street

NEW YORK — Stocks were mixed early Monday at the start of first full week of trading of the year. This week investors will get a chance to see the final monthly jobs report of 2013 and minutes from the Federal Reserve's December policy meeting.

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 was flat at 1,831 in early trading. The Dow Jones industrial average fell one point to 16,468. The Nasdaq composite fell 10 points to 4,121.

The stock market got off to a sluggish start for 2014. The S&P 500 fell for the first two days of the year since 2005. Falling oil prices weighed on energy stocks.

HOSTILE HABERDASHER: Men's Wearhouse is going hostile in its takeover bid for Jos. A. Bank Clothiers. A $1.61 billion bid announced early Monday comes four months after Jos. A. Bank made its own takeover bid for its larger rival. Men's Wearhouse rejected the offer and bid for Jos. A. Bank. After failing to reach a deal, Men's Wearhouse is going directly to Jos. A. Bank shareholders. Jos. A. Bank rose $2, or 3.7 percent, to $56.41. Men's Wearhouse climbed 58 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $51.19.

RADIO STAR: Sirius XM rose 27 cents, or 7.6 percent, to $3.84 after Liberty Media said late Friday that it wants to take full ownership of the satellite radio company in a deal that would value it at nearly $23 billion.

TREASURIES AND COMMODITIES: The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.98 percent from 3 percent on Friday. The price of oil rose 14 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $94.09. Gold was little changed from Friday at $1,239.10 an ounce.

OVER THERE: World markets were mixed Monday. In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 was unchanged at 6,742 while Germany's DAX rose 0.1 percent to 9,448. France's CAC-40 was almost flat at 4,242. Tokyo's Nikkei shed 2.3 percent to 15,909 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.6 percent to 22,684.

TECH TIME: The biggest tech show in the Americas opens Monday in Las Vegas. At the International CES, look for sharper TVs, bigger phones, PCs that operate more like tablets and more motion-sensing technologies meant to free users from the keyboard.

COMING UP THIS WEEK: The minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee will be released on Wednesday. They will offer insight into the Fed's thinking after it began winding down its monthly $85 billion bond-buying program. The highlight of the week will likely be Friday when the Labor Department releases its jobs report for December. That's going to influence the Fed's decision as to the pace at which it reduces its bond purchases in coming months.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Price of bluefin tuna nosedives at Tokyo auction

TOKYO — Sushi restaurateur Kiyoshi Kimura paid 7.36 million yen (about $70,000) for a 507-pound (230-kilogram) bluefin tuna in the year's celebratory first auction at Tokyo's Tsukiji market on Sunday, just 5 percent of what he paid a year earlier despite signs that the species is in serious decline.

Kimura's record winning bid last year of 154.4 million yen for a 222-kilogram (489-pound) fish drew complaints that prices had soared way out of line, even for an auction that has always drawn high bids. Kimura also set the previous record of 56.4 million yen at the 2012 auction.

The high prices don't necessarily reflect exceptionally high fish quality.

"I'm glad that the congratulatory price for this year's bid went back to being reasonable," said Kimura, whose Kiyomura Co. operates the popular Sushi-Zanmai restaurant chain.

Environmentalists say growing worldwide consumption of bluefin tuna is leading to its depletion, and that those in charge of managing fisheries for the species are failing to take responsible action to protect it.

Japanese eat about 80 percent of all bluefin tuna caught worldwide, though demand is growing as others acquire a taste for the tender, pink and red flesh of the torpedo-shaped speedsters of the sea.

Stocks of all three bluefin species — the Pacific, Southern and Atlantic — have fallen over the past 15 years amid overfishing. Stocks of bluefin caught in the Atlantic and Mediterranean plunged by 60 percent between 1997 and 2007 due to rampant, often illegal, overfishing and lax quotas. Although there has been some improvement in recent years, experts say the outlook for the species is still fragile.

According to a stock assessment released last year by the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean, the bluefin tuna population is at less than 4 percent of its unfished size.

"The population has effectively been decimated," said Amanda Nickson, director for global tuna conservation for The Pew Environment Group. "Over 90 percent of bluefin tuna are caught before they reach reproductive age. You have to wonder if this remotely sustainable."

So far, governments and management bodies have failed to take measures to protect the species that reflect the seriousness of its decline, she said.

There were 1,729 tuna sold in Sunday's first auction for 2014, according to data from the city government, down from 2,419 last year. The 32,000 yen ($305) per kilogram paid for the top fish this year compares with 700,000 yen per kilogram last year.

Prices for bluefin tuna imported from other regions are much lower. A 189-kilogram (417-pound) farmed tuna imported from Spain sold for 662,000 yen (about $6,400) on Sunday, or 3,500 yen ($34) per kilogram, compared with a price of 4,800 yen ($46) a kilogram for the same type of fish sold at last year's first auction.

"You have to wonder what the last fish is going to cost," Nickson said.

___

Associated Press writer Miki Toda contributed to this report.

22.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Boeing contract cuts into local labor influence

SEATTLE — A new labor contract that was approved in a close vote by Boeing machinists secures a major airplane contract for the Seattle area, but it also moves workers away from pensions.

National union leaders, the state's governor and the company all hailed Friday contract approval — which defied local union bosses — as a vital boost to the region's economy.

The tight count exposed deep rifts in the once-powerful union, but with plenty of states lining up to give Boeing exactly what it wanted to get work on the 777X, the aerospace giant had a tremendous advantage.

"It shows that even a strong local is vulnerable and has a limited defensibility to slow the tide of concessions that has been going on across the country," said Leon Grunberg, a sociology professor at the University of Puget Sound who co-authored a book, "Turbulence: Boeing and the State of American Workers and Managers."

He added Saturday, "This is happening with a company that's doing very well financially."

Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers approved an eight-year contract extension late Friday by 51 percent, a turnaround from November when the same workers voted down a previous offer by 67 percent.

The passing margin was about 600 votes of about 23,900 counted, according to Wilson Ferguson, president of a local unit of District 751.

Ferguson said Saturday that the vote diminished the local union's power since it conceded some hard-fought benefits they won't be getting back.

Foes of the contract opposed the idea of freezing the machinists' pensions and moving workers to a defined-contribution savings plan.

"The very fact that Boeing was making these demands in the first place just has to be seen as discouraging for average workers," said Jake Rosenfeld, a sociology professor at the University of Washington who has a forthcoming book "What Unions No Longer Do."

"This is a very strong union, and if you have a strong union, being forced into givebacks of this sort ... then you can just imagine how little leverage other workers have when negotiating," he added.

But Richard Gritta, a finance professor at University of Portland, said Boeing needed to gain these concessions to remain competitive in the "dog-eat-dog industry" that has seen Boeing and Airbus trade dominance.

"It's a very tough industry. To gain these concessions from labor is critical," he said Saturday.

Local union officials had urged their 30,000 members to oppose the deal, arguing that the proposal surrendered too much at a time of company profitability. They had opposed taking a vote at all but were overruled by national leaders in the Machinists union.

A number of political leaders, including Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, praised the vote, which supporters said keeps thousands of well-paying jobs in the state and solidifies Boeing's presence in the Seattle area, where the company built its first airplanes nearly a century ago.

Inslee, a Democrat, said the vote secured Washington state's "future as the aerospace capital of the world."

Some local elected officials had said there was no other choice but to vote "yes."

Grunberg, the University of Puget Sound professor, said, "Everybody was scared about Boeing moving this huge new production out of state, so I think there was tremendous anxiety about losing this production."

More than 20 other states moved recently to bid for work on the 777X, an updated version of Boeing's best-selling 777. Boeing has said the 777X is expected to carry as many as 400 passengers and be more fuel efficient than the 777.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., on Friday said the decision wasn't an easy one and workers' concerns about income and retirement security were legitimate. But the Democrat also said the agreement guarantees "thousands of good-paying jobs and billions of dollars in economic growth."

Under the terms of the contract extension, Boeing said the 777X and its composite wing will be built in the Puget Sound area by Boeing employees represented by the Machinists union.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Ray Conner said Friday that "the future of Boeing in the Puget Sound region has never looked brighter."

Lynne Dodson, with the Washington State Labor Council, the largest labor group in the state with 450,000 members, didn't see Friday's vote as an indication of declining union influence. "It's an indication of just how far Boeing will go," she said. "It's more a reflection of corporate greed than of union power."

Ferguson, the local union leader, said Saturday morning: "This was a turning point in the labor movement. Pensions were hard-fought battles to get in the first place. Once they're gone, they're gone."

"Their fear and intimidation worked," he added.

22.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Fed chairman, farm bill on Congress' to-do list

Congress' agenda for 2014 extends from must-passed legislation and nominations to several maybes in a politically charged election year.

MUST DO:

—Senate confirmation of Janet Yellen to become chairman of the Federal Reserve. A vote is scheduled for Monday and the Senate is expected to approve President Barack Obama's nominee. Yellen would be the first woman to head the Fed, replacing Ben Bernanke. His second four-year term as chairman will end Jan. 31.

—A short-term spending bill to keep the government running. The current measure ends Jan. 15. The budget bill passed last year gave House and Senate Appropriations Committees time to work on an omnibus, trillion-dollar-plus measure to run the government through September 2014.

—Raising the nation's borrowing authority, which the Treasury Department says must be resolved by late February or early March. Obama has said he won't negotiate with congressional Republicans, but the GOP is seeking concessions on spending.

___

TANGLED UP, VOTES POSSIBLE:

—Renewal of the nation's farm bill, the five-year, roughly $500 billion measure. Compromise has been elusive for months as the House and Senate disagree over cuts to the $80 billion-a-year food stamp program. The House-passed bill would cut $4 billion annually; the Senate bill $400 million.

—Legislation to delay increases in flood insurance for policyholders. Sen. Mary Landerieu, D-La., and other lawmakers representing coastal states have pushed for the measure.

—A new round of penalties against Iran. Twenty-six senators back legislation that could raise sanctions on Iran and compel the United States to support Israel if it launches a pre-emptive attack on the Iranian nuclear program. Obama has pleaded with Congress to hold off, fearing it would undermine the nuclear deal that world powers reached with Tehran last year.

—An extension of unemployment benefits. An estimated 1.3 million people were cut off when the federally funded unemployment payments ended Dec. 28. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has scheduled a vote Monday night on whether to move ahead on legislation by Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., to extend jobless benefits for three months. Some Republicans are looking for the cost of extending benefits to be offset with spending cuts elsewhere.

___

TO BE DETERMINED:

—An overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. The bipartisan Senate bill that would provide a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally and tighten border security has stalled in the House. Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has spoken about a piecemeal approach, but some Republicans fear that will lead to negotiations with the Senate and an inevitable final product with some sort of citizenship.

22.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Dubai developer Nakheel to pay $1.1B debt in 2014

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The indebted builder of Dubai's palm-shaped islands says it plans to make early debt repayments of 4 billion dirhams, or $1.1 billion, this year.

Nakheel said in a statement Sunday that strong real estate growth and improved economic conditions in Dubai boosted its finances.

The company says it plans to pay another 3 billion dirham, or almost $817 million, in 2015 when the original first installment of 6.8 billion dirham was due.

The company owes $2.15 billion in bank debt and promises to repay trade creditors $1.23 billion in Islamic bonds that mature in 2016.

Nakheel's credit problems were a key trigger of Dubai's 2009 financial crisis, which prompted multibillion-dollar bailouts by the Abu Dhabi-based federal government.

22.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Plane skids off runway at NY's JFK; flights halted

NEW YORK — A plane from Toronto slid into snow as it turned onto a taxiway after landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sunday, leading the airport to temporarily suspend flights from taking off and landing because of icy runways.

No injuries were reported after Delta Connection 4100 landed at 8 a.m., Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said. The CRJ2 aircraft was turning off the runway onto a taxiway when it slid into the snow, she said.

The plane was then towed to a gate with passengers on board, she said.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, said 35 people were aboard the plane.

The airport temporarily suspended operations for domestic and international flights because of slick runways, though it remained open. Flights are still operating at other New York City-area airports, including at LaGuardia and Newark Liberty, the Port Authority said.

The landing came two days after a major snowstorm dumped a half foot of snow in New York City, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights and stranding passengers both in the city and throughout the country who were heading to New York.

The Delta Connection flight by Endeavor Air originated in Toronto. Endeavor Air was formerly Pinnacle Airlines.

22.27 | 0 komentar | Read More