MBTA won’t be capitalizing on station naming rights

The MBTA won't be putting corporate names on stations anytime soon as only one bid for naming rights was filed by yesterday's deadline, and it didn't meet the minimum qualifications, officials said.

"We have to figure out why it didn't work this time," said state Sen. Mark Montigny (D-New Bedford). "You have got to make this easy. We know the companies and nonprofits and individuals like to name things."

Montigny, who introduced the amendment to last summer's transportation bond bill, said he will continue to push for naming rights to be sold.

"Anywhere you can actually sell or lease something to the private sector to lessen the burden on riders, it's a no-brainer," he said.

The lone proposal for the Blue Line did not meet the minimum bid of $1.2 million per year, said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo.

Supporters had estimated naming rights could generate up to $20 million, but the lack of bids won't leave a budget gap.

"The MBTA did not craft its budget with a reliance on potential revenue from corporate sponsors," Pesaturo said.

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MFA director Rogers retiring after 20 years

Malcolm Rogers, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, announced his plans to retire yesterday after nearly 20 years with the museum.

Appointed in 1994, Rogers helped to open the Art of the Americas Wing in 2010, which features 53 galleries and the glass-enclosed Shapiro Family Courtyard. He was also focused on "opening doors" to communities around Boston, eliminating admission fees for children and extending the museum's hours, the museum said in a statement.

In May, Rogers became the longest-
serving director in the MFA's 144-year history, bringing "innovative exhibitions," and expanding the museum's "encyclopedic collection," as well as expanding arts education and community outreach programs, and renovating the landmark building, the museum said.

"Malcolm's accomplishments over two decades have touched every aspect of the MFA — he has transformed the museum. He will forever be a part of the foundation of this museum and of an arts and culture renaissance in Boston," said MFA trustees chairwoman Grace Fey. "As we prepare to search for his successor, we will strive to build upon his legacy of community enrichment and global engagement — cultivating the future growth and evolution of this world-class museum and its collections."

The museum will celebrate Rogers' 20th anniversary this fall with a series of events. He will remain as director until a successor is chosen.

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‘Moneyball’ event playing in Hub

A "who's who" of the professional sports world — from owners, coaches and athletes to business leaders, researchers and other supporting players — converges on Boston today to examine the increasing role that analytics play in the industry.

Some 2,000 attendees are registered for the eighth annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, which runs through tomorrow at the Hynes Convention Center. Speakers include NBA commissioner Adam Silver, former Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson, Red Sox owner John Henry, Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens, Kraft Group president Jonathan Kraft and Indianapolis Colts QB Matt Hasselbeck.

A 1,000-strong waiting list, cut off a month ago, speaks to the growth of the conference since 2006, said co-chairman Jessica Gelman, vice president of customer marketing and strategy for the Kraft Group.

"At the beginning, sports analytics wasn't very widely used and, basically today, if you're not doing analytics either on the team or the business side, the question is 'why?'" she said.

Sports analytics reached a mainstream audience through the 2011 film "Moneyball" starring Brad Pitt. The Kraft Group, owners of the New England Patriots and Revolution, are longtime proponents.

"Analyzing athletes in a non-cap era was about your experience in watching them and working with them as opposed to the numbers related to their contracts," Kraft said. "As salary caps and luxury taxes came into the major sports leagues, analytics became more important on the personnel side and, as these businesses turned into larger and more complex businesses, analytics were needed on the business side."

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Mass. may ditch Obamacare website

State officials still grappling with a backlog of 54,000 paper applications are considering scrapping Massachusetts' botched Obamacare website, which already has cost taxpayers about $15 million.

The state's options include continuing to try to fix vendor CGI's platform, using parts of health care exchanges set up by other states and the federal government, or starting over, Sarah Iselin, Gov. Deval Patrick's Obamacare czar, said at a meeting yesterday of the Health Connector board.

"We are frankly hedging our bets," she said.

Iselin told reporters afterward it's still unclear exactly how long it will take to fix the Health Connector website or how much it would cost. Of the $69 million the state budgeted, it has already paid about $15 million, said Jason Lefferts, a Connector spokesman.

Over the past two weeks, the Connector has made some progress, including enrolling 21,000 more residents into transitional coverage and reducing the average time it takes to enter paper applications from two hours to 39 minutes, Iselin said.

But it still has a paper application backlog of 54,000, 15,000 of which already have coverage and 39,000 of which have yet to be screened.

"There's clearly a sense of urgency," said state Rep. Carolyn Dykema (D-Holliston).

Dykema stopped short of saying that the website should be scrapped, but said the state "absolutely" should consider looking at what has worked in other states.

Connecticut, for example, has so far exceeded its own expectations for getting people to sign up for health insurance through its website that it is setting up a consulting practice to help other states.

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Estimated Q4 economic growth rate cut to 2.4 pct.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy grew at a 2.4 percent annual rate last quarter, sharply less than first thought, in part because consumers didn't spend as much as initially estimated.

Severe winter weather is expected to further slow the economy in the current quarter. But as temperatures warm, most economists think growth will rebound beginning in the spring.

The Commerce Department on Friday reduced its estimate of economic growth in the October-December quarter from an initial 3.2 percent annual rate. The revised estimate of 2.4 percent annual growth is the weakest quarterly showing since the first quarter of 2013.

A key reason for the downgrade was that consumer spending is now estimated to have expanded at a 2.6 percent annual rate, below the initial estimate of 3.3 percent though still the strongest quarterly spending by consumers in nearly two years.

Economists said the more sluggish pace of consumer spending resulted from bad weather at the end of the year, which cut into vehicle sales, among other purchases. But they pointed to one key point of encouragement in the report: The government's estimate of business investment was revised up to an annual rate of 7.3 percent — the best quarterly showing in a year and sharply higher than the initial 3.8 percent annual rate.

Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, said that while she expects bad weather to limit this quarter's growth to a tepid annual rate of around 1.7 percent, she's looking for a solid rebound for the rest of the year.

"Due to Mother Nature, quarter one is not going to be anything worth writing home about," Lee wrote in a research note. "The rebound ... and all of that pent-up demand won't show up until the second quarter."

For all of 2013, the economy grew at a lackluster 1.9 percent. Analysts think growth will rebound in 2014, possibly to as high as a 3 percent increase in the gross domestic product, the economy's total output of goods and services.

Growth was held back last year by higher federal taxes and government spending cuts enacted to combat soaring budget deficits. Economists estimate that the squeeze from the government subtracted about 1.5 percentage points from growth last year. If growth does reach 3 percent this year, it would be the strongest performance since the recession ended almost five years ago.

After enduring the deepest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the economy has struggled to gain momentum and the weak growth has made it harder for people who lost jobs during the downturn to find work.

The revisions in fourth-quarter growth were the result of updated data that the Commerce Department did not have when it made its first estimate a month ago. Commerce will make one further estimate of fourth-quarter GDP next month.

The biggest factor in the revised estimate of growth last quarter came from the reduction in consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of economic activity. The revision reduced purchases of durable goods such as autos, non-durable goods and services. Smaller downward revisions came from a reduction in the amount of stockpiles businesses built up, fewer exports, which increased the trade deficit, and weaker state and local government spending.

Government activity was a big drag in the fourth quarter, subtracting 1.1 percentage points from growth. The federal government accounted for 1 percentage point of the reduction, reflecting lower defense spending.

Spending on home construction, one of the economy's standouts in 2013, fell in the fourth quarter. This setback is expected to be temporary and partly a result of the bad weather.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Thursday that the Fed still expects the economy to strengthen this year, which would help put more people to work. But she told the Senate Banking Committee that recent economic data have pointed to weaker-than-expected gains in consumer spending and job growth. She said the Fed will be watching to see whether the slowdown proves only a temporary blip caused by severe winter weather.

The Fed is gradually reducing its monthly bond purchases, which have been intended to keep long-term loan rates low to encourage spending and growth. It reduced its original $85 billion monthly pace in December and again in January in $10 billion steps to a current level of $65 billion.

Many economists think that as long as the economy keeps improving, the Fed will keep cutting the bond purchases by $10 billion at each meeting this year until ending the program in December.

But Yellen stressed, as she has before, that the Fed's course is not preset and could be modified if there was a "significant change" in the Fed's outlook.

She again repeated a commitment to keep a key short-term interest rate at a record low "well past" the time unemployment drops below 6.5 percent. The unemployment rate is now 6.6 percent.

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Medford dials into Smart911

Calling 911 with an emergency is getting smarter, thanks to Framingham-based Rave Mobile Safety's Smart911.

Launching in Medford today, Smart911 allows residents to fill out profiles in advance, giving first responders valuable information before they get on scene.

"When you call from a mobile phone, there's very little information provided," said Todd Miller, an executive at Rave Mobile Safety. With Smart911, "all of that critical safety profile information is shared."

Smart911, which is in more than 450 cities and towns nationwide, can tell first responders about medical conditions, or a caller's apartment number if they live in a large apartment complex. That supplemental information helps dispatchers to send an appropriate response as soon as they receive the call, Miller said.

"It's going to help develop a better quality of life as it relates to emergency services," said Medford Mayor Michael J. McGlynn. "You know if they have a boa constrictor or a pit bull, you know what their medications are."

Medford is the first Bay State city to sign on with Smart911, but the service is already live in towns including Milford and Framingham. More towns will be announced in the coming weeks, Miller said.

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US safety agency to probe GM recall response

DETROIT — The U.S. government's auto safety watchdog is investigating whether General Motors acted quickly enough to recall 1.6 million older-model small cars in a case linked to 13 deaths.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Wednesday night that it opened the probe "to determine whether GM properly followed the legal processes and requirements for reporting recalls."

The agency has the authority to fine GM as much as $35 million under legislation that went into effect late last year. The previous maximum fine automakers faced per incident was $17.35 million. Automakers must report evidence of safety defects within five days of discovering it.

On Tuesday, GM doubled the number of cars in the recall for faulty ignition switches. The problem has been linked to 31 front-end crashes that caused the 13 deaths. The company also issued a rare apology, saying its process to examine the problem was not robust enough when it surfaced about a decade ago.

A chronology of events filed Monday with NHTSA by GM show it knew of the problem as early as 2004.

Since undergoing a painful bankruptcy in 2009, GM has removed layers of bureaucracy, improved the quality of its vehicles and is quicker to issue recalls when problems occur. However, the admission that its procedures were lacking 10 years ago shows how the old culture can still haunt the automaker.

"The chronology shows that the process employed to examine this phenomenon was not as robust as it should have been," GM North America President Alan Batey said in a statement Tuesday. "Today's GM is committed to doing business differently and better."

On Feb. 13, GM announced the recall of more than 780,000 Chevrolet Cobalts and Pontiac G5s (model years 2005-2007). Then on Tuesday, it doubled up, adding 842,000 Saturn Ion compacts (2003-2007), and Chevrolet HHR SUVs, Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky sports cars (2006-2007). Most of the cars were sold in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

GM says a heavy key ring or jarring from rough roads can cause the ignition switch to move out of the run position and shut off the engine and electrical power. That can knock out power-assisted brakes and steering and disable the front air bags. In the fatalities, the air bags did not inflate, but the engines did not shut off in all cases, GM said.

It was unclear whether the ignition switches caused the crashes, or whether people died because the air bags didn't inflate.

Margie Beskau, of Woodville, Wis., whose teenage daughter, Amy Rademaker, died in an October, 2006, crash involving a Chevy Cobalt, said she was relieved that GM agreed to the recall. The move finally gave her family answers about what happened in the crash that killed Rademaker, 15, and her friend, Natasha Weigel, 18.

"I feel like we're getting justice for Amy and Tasha because GM had to step forward and let people know what happened," she said. "That was huge."

According GM's chronology, the company knew of the problem as early as 2004, and was told of at least one fatal crash in March of 2007. GM issued service bulletins in 2005 and 2006 telling dealers how to fix the problem with a key insert, and advising them to warn customers about overloading their key chains. The company's records showed that only 474 vehicle owners got the key inserts.

GM thought the service bulletin was sufficient because the car's steering and brakes were operable even after the engines lost power, according to the chronology.

By the end of 2007, GM knew of 10 cases in which Cobalts were in front-end crashes where the air bags didn't inflate, the chronology said. GM's chronology also shows that NHTSA knew about the problem and a fatal accident in March of 2007. In its investigation, NHTSA likely will try to find out if GM withheld information or was slow to produce it.

In 2005, GM initially approved an engineer's plan to redesign the ignition switch, but the change was "later canceled," according to the chronology.

GM spokesman Alan Adler said that initially the rate of problems per 1,000 vehicles was too low to warrant a recall.

GM has hired an outside law firm to find out what went wrong in the ignition recall. But Adler wouldn't say whether the firm will look into other safety problems that occurred around the same time. "We are focused on this case," he said.

GM also said Wednesday that it will send letters to all 1.6 million owners globally starting March 10 telling them to use only the key in the ignition until repairs are made. Another letter will go out in April telling people they can take their cars in for repairs.

If General Motors Co. is fined, it will be the third automaker to face significant penalties for being slow to report safety problems. From 2010 through 2012, Toyota Motor Corp. paid a series of fines totaling more than $66 million for delays in reporting unintended acceleration problems. Ford Motor Co. last year paid $17.35 million for being too slow to report sticky gas pedals in some Escape SUVs.

____

AP Reporter Amy Forliti contributed to this report from Hammond, Wis.

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Smarterer raises $1.6M, adds new CEO

Smarterer, a Boston company that offers online skill assessments through quizzes, has raised $1.6 million for its new product for businesses, Flock.

With the investment led by Rethink Education, an education technology venture capital firm, Smarterer will continue to grow and develop Flock, a shift from the company's existing consumer focused skills quizzes. 

"We started realizing that enterprises have a huge need to understand their teams," said co-founder Dave Balter. "You can then use that to provide supplemental training, recruiting, you can use it for succession planning."

Flock is designed for businesses to better understand the skills their employees have, and gaps that may need to be filled.

"We think the most valuable asset in an organization are its people," Balter said. Balter said Flock is already being used by "a number of Fortune 500 companies."

"We can evaluate anyone's skills in ten questions and 120 seconds, in anything," he said.

Balter, the founder and former CEO of social marketing company BzzAgent when it was sold in 2011, will step in as CEO for Smarterer. Balter co-founded Smarterer in 2010, and had previously served as the executive chairman of the board.

"I've always had an absolute soft spot for the business," Balter said. "I said I just want to make this thing go."

Deborah Quazzo and repeat investors True Ventures and Boston Seed Capital also participated in the funding round. Smarterer has now raised $4.6 million, including money from Google Ventures.

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Applications for US jobless benefits rise to 348K

WASHINGTON — The number of people applying for U.S. unemployment benefits rose 14,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 348,000, though the broader trend in applications remained stable.

But the four-week average was unchanged at 338,250, the Labor Department said Thursday. Applications are a rough proxy for layoffs. The average is not far above pre-recession levels, a sign companies are laying off few workers.

Economists said that winter storms two weeks ago may have caused some people to delay submitting their applications until this week, temporarily boosting the figures.

"Other evidence continues to point clearly to reasonably robust labor demand so we very much doubt the underlying trend in claims is picking up," Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said in a note to clients.

Applications have been mostly steady in recent weeks, even though hiring faltered in January and February. That suggests employers may be reluctant to add many jobs, but they aren't worried enough about future growth to step up layoffs.

Nearly 3.5 million people received unemployment aid in the week ending Feb. 8, the latest data available. That's about 25,000 fewer than the previous week.

Harsh winter weather has chilled hiring in recent months. Employers added just 113,000 jobs in January. That followed a gain of only 75,000 in December. Those figures are about half the monthly pace of the past two years.

On the positive side, the unemployment rate fell in January to a five-year low of 6.6 percent from 6.7 percent, as more of those out of work found jobs. And hiring rose in manufacturing and construction, two higher-paying industries that are key drivers of growth.

Still, the bitterly cold weather has contributed to a run of disappointing economic data since the start of the year. Sales of existing homes plummeted in January to the slowest pace in 18 months, held back by the weather, higher interest rates and rising home prices.

Builders broke ground on 16 percent fewer homes in January compared with December, the Commerce Department said this week. That was the second straight decline. Developers also requested fewer permits in January for the third straight month, a sign homebuilding will remain lackluster in the near future.

And Americans cut back on their spending in retail stores and restaurants in January, the second straight drop.

With consumers cautious and the housing recovery slowing, economists have scaled back their forecasts for the January-March quarter. Most now expect growth in the first three months of the year to be 2 percent at an annual rate or below, down from forecasts of about 2.5 percent at the beginning of the year. Most expect growth to then pick up and reach nearly 3 percent for the full year, up from under 2 percent in 2013.

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Ukraine crisis roils markets in Europe

LONDON — An escalation in tensions in the Ukrainian region of Crimea rocked European markets on Thursday before a relatively calm opening on Wall Street helped to ease the nerves.

Worries that the crisis in Ukraine was spreading accentuated soon after Europe's markets opened following reports that dozens of heavily armed pro-Russia gunmen seized control of local government buildings in Crimea.

With Russia scrambling fighter jets to patrol its border and reportedly giving shelter to Ukraine's fugitive president, investors in Europe grew concerned that the crisis was taking a new, more dangerous turn.

Over the past couple of weeks, investors had monitored developments in Ukraine with a degree of nonchalance. Now they are worrying that Russia may be drawn in. Geopolitical concerns tend to prompt investors to search out the sanctuary of safe haven assets such as gold and the dollar in place of stocks.

"The situation in the Ukraine remains uncertain and unstable," said Nick Bennenbroek, an analyst at Wells Fargo Bank.

That was particularly evident in Ukraine and Russia. The Ukrainian currency, the hryvnia, was down 10 percent at 11 per U.S. dollar, having earlier touched a record low of 11.25. In Russia, the RTS stock index was down 2.1 percent.

Elsewhere in Europe, Germany's DAX was down 1 percent at 9,567, while Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.1 percent at 6,791. The CAC-40 in France was 0.4 percent lower at 4,379.

Shares across Europe's main indexes had been trading far lower earlier in the session before a solid start on Wall Street in the wake of upbeat earnings from the likes of J.C. Penney and Best Buy contained the selling . The Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.1 percent at 16,182 while the broader S&P 500 index fell the same rate to 1,844.

In other markets, there was also a calmer mood following the U.S. open, with the price of an ounce of gold up 0.3 percent to $1,332 and the euro steady at $1.3685.

While keeping an eye on developments in Ukraine, investors will also be monitoring comments later from the Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen to the Senate's Banking Committee. Stocks jumped on Feb. 11 when Yellen reassured Congress over the central bank's market-friendly, low-interest rate policies.

Earlier in Asia, shares were mixed with most of the news reports over Crimea coming after the close.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.7 percent to 22,828.18 and Seoul's Kospi added 0.4 percent to 1,978.43. Markets in Southeast Asia were also mostly higher and China's Shanghai Composite added 0.3 percent to 2,047.35. Japan's Nikkei 225 stock index edged 0.3 percent lower to 14,923.11.

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Spark Capital hires firm's first woman VC

Spark Capital, one of the most high profile venture capital firms in Boston, has hired former Google employee Katie Bolin as an associate, the firm's first female investor.

Bolin, formerly the analytical lead/acting sales operations manager at Google, will be based in Spark's Boston office.

"I've advised friends on their startup ideas in the past, and I have also toyed around with a few different ideas of my own over the years," Bolin said in a blog post. "I know this new chapter will be a great one, and I'm thrilled to be here at Spark."

"It's not easy to find someone with the passion for startups, intelligence, and chemistry that we look for as a member of our small team. We want to surround ourselves with the best people at Spark. I'm delighted to be working with Katie.said Andrew Parker, a VC with Spark.

Spark Capital was an early investor in Twitter, and its portfolio includes local companies Runkeeper and Wayfair.

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Data-breach costs take toll on Target profit

NEW YORK — Target Corp. will be feeling the financial pain for a while from the theft of credit card numbers and other information from millions of its customers.

The retailer said Wednesday that its fourth-quarter profit slumped 46 percent. It also reported that revenue slipped 5.3 percent as the breach scared off customers.

During the holiday shopping season, personal data from millions of Target customers was stolen by hackers who targeted credit card terminals in its stores. The incident has scared shoppers away, and the company says its profits will be affected well into 2014.

"As we plan for the new fiscal year, we will continue to work tirelessly to win back the confidence of our guests. ... We are encouraged that sales trends have improved in recent weeks," Gregg Steinhafel, chairman, president and CEO of Target, said in a statement.

The data breach comes on top of other woes, including sluggish sales in the U.S. and a disappointing foray into Canada.

The retailer, based in Minneapolis, said it earned $520 million, or 81 cents per share, for the three months that ended Feb. 1. That compares with a profit of $961 million, or $1.47 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $21.5 billion from $22.7 billion. Revenue at stores open at least a year, an important retail measurement, fell 2.5 percent.

Analysts had expected a profit of 80 cents on revenue of 21.5 billion, according to FactSet estimates.

The breach resulted in $17 million of net expenses in the fourth quarter, Target said, with $61 million of total expenses partially offset by the recognition of a $44 million insurance receivable. The company said it can't yet estimate how much more the data breach will cost.

Target said expenses may include payments to card networks to cover losses and expenses for reissuing cards, lawsuits, government investigations and enforcement proceedings.

The costs could hurt the company's first-quarter and full-year earnings, it said.

Shares of Target rose 68 cents to $57.19 in premarket trading Wednesday as the earnings results beat Wall Street estimates by a penny. The stock has fallen about 10 percent since the company disclosed the breach in mid-December.

While the company said that sales have been recovering, the big issue is how much work Target will need to do to bring back customers who are still scared to shop there.

The massive data breach compromised 40 million credit and debit card accounts between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15.

Target disclosed the breach Dec. 19 and then on Jan. 10 it said that hackers also stole personal information — including names, phone numbers as well as email and mailing addresses — from as many as 70 million customers.

When the final tally is in, Target's breach may eclipse the biggest known data breach at a retailer, one disclosed in 2007 at the parent company of TJMaxx that affected 90 million records.

Target is offering free credit monitoring services for a year to those who had their data compromised.

It isn't clear when Target will fully recover from the breach, but Avivah Litan, a security analyst at Gartner Inc., puts the costs of the breach at between $400 million and $450 million. That would include the bills associated with fines from credit card companies and services for customers like free credit card report monitoring.

Target's results are also being weighed down by stumbles in its expansion into Canada, its first foray outside the U.S.

Target is trying to fix problems with pricing and shortages in various items. The company has been opening stores in waves that added up to about 124 stores, at locations once owned by Canadian retailer Zellers, by the end of last year.

The company said it expects earnings per share for the current quarter to range from 60 cents to 75 cents. Analysts had previously expected 88 cents.

For the full year, Target expects earnings per share to range between $3.85 and $4.15. Analysts had expected $4.21.

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Stock futures rise as investors assess earnings

NEW YORK — U.S. stock futures edged higher as investors assessed company earnings and waited for new data on the housing market.

KEEPING SCORE: Dow Jones industrial average futures were up three points at 16,190 as of 9:18 a.m. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose one point to 1,847 and the Nasdaq futures climbed two points to 3,691.

HOME IMPROVEMENT: Lowe's climbed $2.54, or 5.3 percent, to $50.65 in trading before the opening bell. The company said its net income rose 6 percent in the most recent quarter, as the home-improvement retailer continued to benefit from the housing market's recovery.

DON'T LET THE SUN GO DOWN: First Solar tumbled Wednesday, after it reported quarterly earnings that fell short of financial analysts' expectations. The company's stock fell $6.58, or 11.3 percent, to $51.45 in pre-market trading.

CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR: The S&P 500 index has climbed above its record closing high of 1,848.38 during the last two trading days only to fall below that level as the market closed.

TREASURIES AND COMMODITIES: The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was little changed from Tuesday at 2.70 percent. The price of oil rose 40 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $102.22 a barrel. Gold fell $8.60, or 0.6 percent to $1,334.20.

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Hoffman's friend creates playwriting foundation

NEW YORK — A close friend of Philip Seymour Hoffman has settled a libel lawsuit against The National Enquirer by creating a playwriting foundation to be initially funded by the tabloid.

In a one-page ad Wednesday in The New York Times, The Enquirer said it "responsibly acknowledged its error" for a story that purported to be an exclusive interview with David Bar Katz. The Enquirer also apologized to Katz, a playwright who discovered Hoffman's body.

The actor died of an apparent heroin overdose Feb. 2.

The Times reported on the settlement and said the ad was part of the agreement.

The American Playwriting Foundation will award $45,000 yearly for an unproduced play that embodies Hoffman's "passion for truth." Katz's lawyer told the Times the amount won't be disclosed.

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Police: No charges for singer Bieber's driver

SANDY SPRINGS, Georgia — Police near Atlanta say they've decided not to charge a driver for Justin Bieber with any crimes after a photographer said his camera was stolen during a confrontation with the singer's entourage.

Sandy Springs police said Wednesday morning in a statement that detectives won't charge 49-year-old Terrance Johnson. They say he was driving one of three Cadillac Escalades that brought the pop star and his associates to the Sandy Springs Funhouse family entertainment complex Tuesday.

A bodyguard for Bieber faces a court date on a felony charge of entering the photographer's automobile. Fulton County sheriff's spokeswoman Tracy Flanagan says 32-year-old Hugo Hesny of Davie, Fla., is scheduled to make his first appearance at 11 a.m. Thursday in Atlanta.

Police on Tuesday said they had taken Hesny and Johnson into custody on felony theft charges.

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US home prices dip for second straight month

WASHINGTON — U.S. home prices fell for the second straight month in December as brutally cold weather, tight supply and higher costs slowed sales.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index declined 0.1 percent from November to December, matching the previous month's decline. The index is not adjusted for seasonal variations, so the dip partly reflects slower buying as winter weather set in.

For all of 2013, however, prices rose by a healthy 13.4 percent, mostly because of big gains earlier in the year. That was the largest calendar year gain in eight years. But the year-over-year gain slowed from November's 13.7 percent pace. That's only the second time that year-over-year increases have declined since prices began recovering two years ago.

The figures come after other reports show that home sales and construction have slowed after strong gains last year. Most economists expect the housing recovery will continue this year, though likely at a slower pace.

"The market should continue its slow march back to normal, as annual (price) appreciation rates fall to more sustainable levels around 3 percent," said Stan Humphries, chief economist at real estate data provider Zillow.

The Case-Shiller index covers roughly half of U.S. homes. The index measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The December figures are the latest available.

"Gains are slowing ... and the strongest part of the recovery in home values may be over," said David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P's index committee. "Higher home prices and mortgage rates are taking a toll on affordability."

Even some cities in warmer areas saw declines. Home prices in Phoenix fell 0.3 percent, the first drop after 26 months of big increases.

Only six cities recorded higher prices in December: Dallas, Las Vegas, Miami, San Francisco, Tampa, Fla., and Washington, D.C. Home prices in all 20 cities rose compared with a year ago.

Mortgage rates are roughly a full percentage point higher than they were last spring, although they remain low by historical standards. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said last week that the average rate on the 30-year loan is 4.33 percent.

Sales of existing homes plunged in January to the slowest pace in 18 months. And builders broke ground on 16 percent fewer homes in January compared with December, the Commerce Department said this week. That was the second straight decline.

Builders also requested fewer permits in January for the third straight month, suggesting construction remained weak this month.

The declines came after existing home sales reached 5.1 million in 2013, the best showing in seven years. And builders started work on 976,000 houses and apartments last year, the most in six years.

Some economists say the Case-Shiller figures overstate recent price gains because they include foreclosures. Foreclosed homes usually sell at steep discounts. As the proportion of those sales declines, the index rises more sharply.

Other indexes that exclude foreclosures show smaller but steady increases.

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German cartoonist regrets Zuckerberg caricature

BERLIN — A German cartoonist has apologized for causing offense by depicting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as a hooked-nose octopus.

The cartoon published Friday in an early edition of Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung prompted complaints of anti-Semitism from Jewish groups.

Later editions showed an empty hole where Zuckerberg's face had been.

Cartoonist Burkhard Mohr says he had intended to make a point about Facebook devouring rival WhatsApp and didn't realize the caricature resembled the kind of incitement to anti-Semitism printed by the Nazis.

Mohr told The Associated Press that he deeply regrets "this misunderstanding and any readers' feelings I may have hurt."

Facebook didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Rebekah Brooks: I felt 'horror' at Dowler hacking

LONDON — Former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks said Tuesday that she never sanctioned phone hacking, and was horrified when she learned the tabloid had targeted the cellphone of a missing teenager.

Brooks answered "no" when asked by her lawyer whether she had ever approved eavesdropping on voicemails.

She said that as editor of the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid between 2000 and 2003 she didn't know phone hacking was against the law, but would have considered it a "serious breach of privacy."

"I don't think anybody, me included, knew it was illegal," Brooks said during her third day on the witness stand at Britain's phone-hacking trial. "No one, no desk head, no journalist, ever came to me and said 'We're working on so-and-so a story but we need to access their voicemail' or asked my sanction to do it."

Brooks said it was not until July 2011 that she discovered the paper had hacked the phone of 13-year-old Milly Dowler, who was abducted and murdered in 2002. She said her reaction was "shock, horror, everything."

Brooks said she was on holiday in Dubai during the period in 2002 when Dowler's phone was hacked. Her deputy and sometime lover, Andy Coulson, was in charge of the newspaper. Coulson, who went on to become Prime Minister David Cameron's communications chief, is also on trial.

Asked by her lawyer, Jonathan Laidlaw, whether the hacking of Dowler's phone was brought to her attention while she was on vacation, Brooks said: "Absolutely not."

Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old News of the World in July 2011 amid public outrage at the hacking of Dowler's phone. Murdoch's media empire has since paid millions to settle invasion-of-privacy lawsuits from dozens of celebrities, politicians and others.

Brooks, Coulson and five others are on trial at London's Central Criminal Court, accused of charges including phone hacking, bribery and obstructing a police investigation. All seven have pleaded not guilty.

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Stocks open lower ahead of confidence report

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are getting off to a weak start as investors hold back ahead of a report on consumer confidence.

The Standard & Poor's 500 fell three points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,844 in the first few minutes of trading Tuesday. Energy and bank stocks fell the most.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 35 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,171. The Nasdaq composite was flat at 4,291.

Investors will get a report on consumer confidence for February at 10 a.m. Eastern. Economists expect confidence fell slightly in February.

Tenet Healthcare sank 6 percent after the hospital operator reported a loss in the fourth quarter as it took on more debt.

Home Depot rose 2 percent after the nation's largest home improvement chain reported higher income than analysts were expecting.

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USDA spending $3M to feed honeybees in Midwest

MILWAUKEE — The U.S. Department of Agriculture will spend millions of dollars to help farmers and ranchers improve pastures in five Midwestern states to provide food for the nation's struggling honeybees under a program to be announced Tuesday.

Commercial honeybees pollinate an estimated $15 billion worth of produce each year. Many beekeepers bring hives to the Upper Midwest in the summer for bees to gather nectar and pollen for food, then truck them in the spring to California and other states to pollinate everything from almonds to apples to avocadoes.

But agricultural production has been threatened by a more than decade-long decline in commercial honeybees and their wild cousins due to habitat loss and pesticide use. Colony collapse disorder, in which honeybees suddenly disappear or die, has made the problem worse, boosting losses over the winter to as much as 30 percent per year.

The USDA hopes to stem those losses by providing more areas for bees to build up food stores and strength for winter. The new program, details of which were provided to The Associated Press ahead of the announcement, will be "a real shot in the arm" for improving bees' habitat and food supply, said Jason Weller, chief of USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Dairy farmers and ranchers in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas can qualify for about $3 million to reseed pastures with alfalfa, clover and other plants appealing to both bees and livestock. Farmers also can get help building fences, installing water tanks and making other changes that better enable them to move their animals from pasture to pasture so the vegetation doesn't become worn down. The goal is to provide higher quality food for insects and animals.

"It's a win for the livestock guys, and it's a win for the managed honeybee population," Weller said. "And it's a win then for orchardists and other specialty crop producers across the nation because then you're going to have a healthier, more robust bee population that then goes out and helps pollinate important crops."

The USDA is focusing on those five states because 65 percent of the nation's estimated 30,000 commercial beekeepers bring hives there for at least part of the year. With limited funds, Weller said, the goal is to get the biggest payoff for the investment.

Corn, soybean and other farmers can qualify for money to plant cover crops, which typically go in after the regular harvest and help improve soil health, or to grow bee-friendly forage in borders and on the edges of fields.

The program is just the latest in a series of USDA efforts to reduce honeybee deaths. The agency has partnered with universities to study bee diseases, nutrition and other factors threatening colonies. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack also recently created a working group on bees to coordinate efforts across the department.

The work is already paying off with changes to once-common beekeeping practices, such as supplementing bees' diet with high-fructose corn syrup, said David Epstein, a senior entomologist with the USDA. He noted that the quality of bees' food is as important as the quantity.

"You can think of it in terms of yourself," Epstein said. "If you are studying for exams in college, and you're not eating properly and you're existing on coffee, then you make yourself more susceptible to disease and you get sick."

Tim Tucker, who has between 400 and 500 hives at sites in Kansas and Texas, said he may take some of his bees to South Dakota this year because the fields around his farm near Niotaze, Kan., no longer provide much food for them.

"There used to be a lot of small farms in our area that had clover and a variety of crops, whereas in the last 20 years it's really been corn, soybean and cotton and a little bit of canola," Tucker said. "But those crops don't provide a lot of good nectar and pollen for bees."

Tucker, who is president of the American Beekeeping Federation, said the last "really good" year he had was 1999, when he got more than 100 pounds of honey per hive. Last year, he averaged about 42 pounds per hive.

He hopes dairy farmers, beef cattle ranchers and others will sign up for the new USDA program by the March 21 deadline.

It's not a "cure all," Tucker said, but "anything we do to help provide habitat for honeybees and for native bees and pollinators is a step."

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