Traditional exterior hides modern home

This stylish new townhouse is one of six similar available units that's bringing a contemporary look to a traditional but highly desirable Somerville neighborhood between Davis and Teele squares.

Each unit at 39-43 Elmwood St. has four levels of living space and features a private outdoor deck carved into its roof. The exteriors of the two buildings are Hardieplank clapboard with white trim with gables as a nod to the existing neighborhood. But the interiors are completely contemporary.

The units feature high-tech components such as iBot smart-home technology, Nest learning thermostats, Sonos music systems and Kohler digital shower valves. Units also come with induction cooktops, Navien tankless water heaters and high-efficiency gas heating and central air-conditioning systems.

In the staged model unit, you enter via a small front porch into a 15-foot high foyer and step up into an open, recessed-lit living/dining area with 13-foot ceilings, oak-stained floors and lots of tall windows with transoms above. In one corner sits a horizontal gas fireplace with a metallic porcelain finished surround. And overhead is built-in surround sound with a Sonos music system that can be operated through a smartphone or iPad.

It's a half flight up to a high-end kitchen, which features custom maple cabinetry including a recipe desk. There are white quartz countertops with glass mosaic backsplash and a quartz island/breakfast bar with contemporary pendant light­ing. High-end Energy­Star appliances include a Sub Zero refrigerator, a Bosch dishwasher and wall ovens and a Bosch electric induction cooktop. Off the kitchen is a half-bath.

The second floor features two bedrooms, two full bathrooms and a closet with a washer/dryer hookup. The oak-floored master bedroom has a walk-in closet with built-in wardrobe system. The en-suite porcelain-tiled bathroom has a walk-in shower with a stylish rolling glass door and a Kohler DTV digital shower valve.

The second bedroom is a bit on the small side, but there is a second full porcelain bathroom with a white subway tile surround for a tub/shower.

The third floor features a third bedroom, a flex space that could also be a home office, study or gym. It opens out onto a private deck cut into the roof of the building.

The lower level features direct access to a one-car garage and a half flight farther down to a carpeted space, ideal for a family room, with an adjacent half bathroom.

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ReWalk Robotics to go public

The company behind a revolutionary $69,500 exoskeleton that lets paralyzed patients walk again is planning to go public.

ReWalk Robotics, based in Israel and Marlboro, disclosed plans to raise 
$57.5 million through an initial public offering.

The company develops and sells a robotic exoskeleton that has allowed paralyzed patients, including vets, to walk thanks to an onboard computer and motion sensors. In ReWalk's regulatory filing, the company said its future could depend on being able to successfully go public.

"Without additional capital, from this offering or otherwise, we may run out of cash in the second half of 2014," the filing said. The company also said in the filing it is unclear how the exoskeletons will be viewed by insurance companies.

Still, the market for the exoskeletons is relatively untested. In June, ReWalk was given FDA approval to sell its systems directly to patients to use in their homes, but has not started selling them yet. The exoskeletons are currently used in rehabilitation hospitals.

So far this year, IPOs from medical device companies have not fared well, a trend experts blame
partly on a slow response by insurance companies.

"The recent results for medical device IPOs has been poor, perhaps related to the uncertainty of medical reimbursements," said Kathleen Smith of IPO investment firm Renaissance Capital.

"However, if ReWalk is seen as a unique robotics company, there may be more interest by IPO investors. "

A spokeswoman for ReWalk declined to comment, citing the SEC-mandated quiet period.

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E-coupon app ringing it up

For mobile commerce to be successful, consumers — not the merchants — have to be the driving force, and one of the few companies that has figured that out is our own Waltham-based e-Coupons service SavingStar, which is announcing a huge expansion on Monday.

Rather than trying to get consumers to forgo their credit cards or lure them with "game theory," as Square and LevelUp have done, SavingStar is doing something simpler — and maybe even nobler: They've spent the past three years trying to modernize the ol' grocery store coupon.

Launched in 2011, the digital grocery savings service began helping shoppers earn cash back on purchase at stores such as Stop & Shop, Hannaford, Shaw's, CVS, Wegmans, Roche Bros., and Price Chopper. The soon-to-be-announced expansion adds partnerships with Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Walgreens, Family Dollar and Dollar General.

Spun from Newton-based marketing corporation 
Upromise, SavingStar is a mobile app for Android and iOS that organizes and provides coupons from leading manufacturers — essentially the digital equivalent of the supermarket circular.

But it's more valuable to merchants than paper coupons because it encourages consumers to use their customer loyalty cards at checkout. And that gives the merchants better data about consumption.

As for consumers, they don't see the discount at the register, but in the form of rewards that accumulate as cash, transferable to Paypal, Amazon gift cards or a bank account.

It's brilliant, really. Nothing generates loyalty like checking your bank statement and seeing that a company has actually deposited money rather than withdrawn it.

In addition to the merchant partner expansion, SavingStar is also adding a new feature, allowing consumers to earn discounts just by taking a picture of their receipt.

SavingStar, which claims 
five million users, has raised 
$27.4 million in venture capital since its founding, including a $9.1 million fourth round last year, according to CrunchBase.

SavingStar is consumer-driven, and I wouldn't be surprised if a company like Amazon scoops them up soon.

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New group helps artists brush up biz skills

A new hub for artists trying to mix their creativity with business savvy is holding its annual Marketplace tomorrow in Somerville.

Jessica Burko, a mixed-media artist, photographer and founder and director of Boston Handmade, is holding the event from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow in Union Square.

"Our group exists to support creative entrepreneurs in their microbusinesses," said Burko, 40, of Roslindale. "When you go to art school, you don't necessarily get any business training. So our group is all about filling that gap."

Boston Handmade also offers workshops on topics such as how to use social media to market your business.

"I really wanted to meet a group of fellow artists and crafts people like that to bounce ideas off of," said Dana Garczewski, an illustrator whose studio, The Patterned Peacock, is in Watertown.

Garczewski, 36, sees events like the Boston Handmade Marketplace as a chance to show people the value of buying goods handmade locally.

"It's an opportunity to get to know the artists in your own backyard," she said, "and experience art and crafts in a very hands-on way."

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Wine lovers raise a glass to direct shipping law

BOSTON — Whether it's pinot noir, merlot, chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon, wine lovers in Massachusetts will soon be able to have some of their favorite bottles shipped straight from the vineyards to their homes.

A provision in the new state budget lifts a long-standing prohibition on direct deliveries from wineries to consumers. It follows a spirited campaign by out-of-state producers and customers that recently received a major endorsement from former New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who operates a winery in Washington state.

The law won't take effect until Jan. 1, but connoisseurs in a state with one of the nation's highest per capita wine consumption rates are anxious to enjoy the convenience of ordering brands that are currently difficult or impossible to find on local store shelves.

"It definitely opens the door to us wine geeks to have, right on our doorsteps, these cool, funky, small-producers' wines," said Lorraine Martinelle, of Worcester.

Although she's made frequent trips to wine country in California and abroad, the best Martinelle said she could do was to have her favorites shipped to her son's home in neighboring Connecticut.

According to Free the Grapes, an industry-backed group based in Napa, California, direct wine shipping occurs in all but nine other states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Utah.

"It's about consumer choice," said Jeremy Benson, a spokesman for Free the Grapes, who added that wine lovers from Massachusetts had been among the most vocal of those in states with direct shipping bans.

Under the new law, domestic wine producers will initially pay $300 for a direct shipper's license, with a $150 renewal fee each subsequent year. Shippers may deliver no more than 12 cases of wine (containing no more than 9 liters per case) to each person in a year.

The wine must be for personal consumption only and cannot be resold. Wineries must report all deliveries to the state each year and pay Massachusetts excise taxes.

The American Wine Consumers Coalition complained that the new law would still prevent direct shipments of most international wines because they are only available in the U.S. through wine retailers, who remain barred from direct shipping under the law.

Resistance to direct shipping had come from liquor store owners who feared a loss of business and from those concerned that wine could easily be delivered to underage drinkers. The law requires that wine packages bear the words "contains alcohol" and be signed for at delivery by a person 21 years or older.

Violations could bring fines and license suspensions.

A 2006 law allowed some small wineries that didn't have a wholesale contract in the state to ship wine directly to consumers. But large producers objected, and a federal judge later struck down the law as unconstitutional.

Emily Murray, a Worcester resident and wine lover who said she had been frustrated by a lack of direct shipping, said the state's reluctance to lift the ban wasn't surprising, given that Massachusetts was also slow to end many of its blue laws, such as its former prohibition on Sunday liquor store sales.

Yet it may well have been Bledsoe, who played for the Patriots from 1993 to 2001 and was inducted into the team's Hall of Fame, who nudged the direct shipping effort over the goal line by visiting the Statehouse last year to push for the bill.

Bledsoe, owner of the Doubleback winery, explained to lawmakers that he was having trouble providing samples to friends, fans and former teammates in Massachusetts, including Tom Brady, who succeeded him as New England's quarterback.

"Tom actually bought the wine, and he shipped it to his dad's house" in California, Bledsoe said. But the plan went awry when Brady's father drank the wine before his son got there.

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Gov. Patrick signs compound pharmacy regulation measure

Two years after a deadly nationwide meningitis outbreak linked to a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday signed a law he said would address a "gray area" between state and federal oversight of the pharmacies.

The measure includes new licensing and labeling requirements and steps up fines for violations of state rules.

It also reorganizes the board that oversees pharmacies and requires the board's inspectors to be trained in sterile and non-sterile compounding practices.

A tainted steroid produced by the now-closed New England Compounding Center in Framingham was blamed for the fungal meningitis outbreak that caused 64 deaths and hundreds of illnesses in 20 states.

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FairPoint unions begin strike vote meetings Friday

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. — Nearly 2,000 union employees of telecommunications firm FairPoint in northern New England are set to begin voting on whether to authorize a strike.

A meeting about the strike authorization vote is scheduled for Friday in South Burlington, Vermont. More meetings are set for Saturday in Bangor, Maine and Sunday in Portland, Maine and Manchester, New Hampshire.

The workers' contracts expire Aug. 2. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers System Council T-9 and Communications Workers of America Local 1400 began negotiating April 25.

The vote is required in advance of a work stoppage, but doesn't require the union members to strike. Union leadership could make that decision later.

The company says service to customers will continue if there is a strike. Company officials say their offers to the union have been fair.

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FTC sues Amazon over in-app buys

The Federal Trade Commission is suing Amazon over charges that the company has not done enough to prevent children from making unauthorized in-app purchases, according to a complaint filed yesterday in federal court.

The move had been expected since last week, when Amazon said it wouldn't settle with the FTC over the charges. Amazon said in a letter to the FTC last week that it had already refunded money to parents who complained and was prepared to go to court. Yesterday Amazon said its statements in the letter still apply and did not comment further.

The dispute is over in-app charges in children's games on Kindle devices, where it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate whether users are spending virtual or real currency to acquire virtual items.

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Cape Wind wants staging option in R.I.

The developer of a planned wind farm off Cape Cod wants the option to lease land in Rhode Island for a staging and assembly area, the Quonset Development Corp. announced.

Cape Wind is looking at a one-year lease option at the Quonset Business Park, with two one-year extensions for about 14 acres at the Port of Davisville in North Kingstown. The development corporation's board is scheduled to take up the lease option during a meeting on Tuesday, and it won't release the financial details until then.

Much of the work for the $2.6 billion, 130-turbine renewable project in Nantucket Sound was planned for a New Bedford marine commerce terminal that is being built specifically to support the construction and deployment of offshore wind turbines.

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NHTSA probes 500K Ford cars for steering issues

NEW YORK — The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it is investigating steering problems in about 500,000 Ford cars.

The investigation covers 2004 to 2007 Crown Victoria, Grand Marquis and Marauder models.

NHTSA says a heat shield in the car can rust, dislodge and cause the steering shaft to jam. It has received 5 complaints about the issue and knows of one injury. In that case, the steering froze as a driver entered a high entrance ramp, causing the car to roll over and cause injuries.

Ford Motor Co. says it will cooperate with the NHTSA on the investigation.

Ford shares rose 14 cents to $17.34 in morning trading Friday. They have risen more than 11 percent in the past three months.

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Sun Valley: Barry Diller goes biking, Rupert Murdoch makes it a family affair

Summer camp for billionaires is back in session as media and technology barons were out in force at the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on Wednesday.

UTA chairman Jim Berkus and IAC/InterActiveCorp chairman Barry Diller biked through the resort's mall area despite signs asking guests to stick to walking, not wheels.

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt and Resolution founder Jeff Berg chatted amiably while leaving one of the morning sessions.

Wences Casares, CEO of Bitcoin startup Xapo, searched for a bar or restaurant in which to watch the World Cup match between his native Argentina and the Netherlands.

Twenty-first Century Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch made it a family affair, walking into the conference flanked by sons Lachlan and James.

And Discovery CEO David Zaslav and his wife, Pam, walked hand in hand past the media cadre, while former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a sort of swatting gesture at the assembled press.

Other guests glimpsed in and around the exclusive confab were Walt Disney Co. chairman Bob Iger, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, ESPN president John Skipper, the Weinstein Co. co-chairman Harvey Weinstein, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Not seen: drones, despite a Bloomberg report that the event's security team were looking to the skies in the off-chance any unmanned crafts appeared to photograph or imperil guests.

The outfits screamed vacation. Venture capitalist Peter Thiel sported a crisp white polo shirt, Imagine Entertainment co-founder Brian Grazer showcased camouflage shorts and NBCUniversal vice chairman Ron Meyer expressed his institutional pride with a black "Fast 5" T-shirt, in what appeared to be Portuguese.

It can take work to appear so casual. Alice + Olivia CEO and creative director Stacey Bendet Eisner, resplendent in a silver dress, confessed she changed into three outfits a day, crediting her husband, Eric Eisner, a film producer and son of former Disney chief Eisner, with carrying all her luggage.

Guests listened to presentations by basketball great Phil Jackson and Google's Larry Page, but the main event will take place on Friday when Secretary of State John Kerry is slated to take the stage.

Part of the appeal of the conference is that it unfolds behind closed doors or, in this case, massive hedges, away from the prying eyes of the press. Reporters, with the exception of the New Yorker's Ken Auletta and Charlie Rose, are prevented from attending the discussions or crossing hastily assembled barriers. That gives the moguls' entrances and exits into the conference events the feeling of an informal red carpet, one that features shorts and T-shirts instead of haute couture.

(C) 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Experts see job growth for CEOs, other execs

Massachusetts executives are on track to switch jobs at a greater rate than last year as the companies prepare to emerge from their recession-induced hibernation and start expanding again, experts said.

"As a general rule, when there's a lot of management change, (the economy is) actually better," said Richard Jacovitz, senior vice president of Liberum Research. "It's starting to trend up again,"

So far in 2014, 126 executive positions in public companies have been filled either through promotions or new hires, compared to 221 over the entirety of 2013, according to Liberum.

CEO changes around the country this year have also outpaced 2013, with 661 through June compared to 1,246 in 2013, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas, an employment research firm. Massachusetts companies account for 19 of the CEO departures.

Included in the departures this year are William Swanson, former CEO of Raytheon, Robert Kauffman, chief medical officer for Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and James Malerba, executive vice president of State Street.

"You've got an economy that has stabilized," said Rick Cobb, executive vice-president of Challenger, Gray and Christmas. "The company management team tends to shift from maintenance to, 'Let's see if we can up our game and take it to the next level.' "

As the economy has improved, companies are moving away from stopping losses and saving every penny to looking for potential investments and longer-term growth opportunities.

Since the beginning of 2014, the unemployment rate has dropped .5 percent and the S&P 500 is up 6.73 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen nearly 2.5 percent.

Companies are willing to make changes and make a different, strategic change," Jacovitz said.

Retirements are not necessarily related to the economy, but lately many have been, Cobb said.

"There's a lot of people who took the reins in 2008, 2009," Cobb said. Those executives who put off retirement to bring their firms through the recession are now stepping down, in part because their jobs seem to be done, but also in part because improvements to the stock market make various stock options and their pension more lucrative.

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Mayor Walsh joins federal push for vet housing

The city's homeless veterans should all have roofs over their heads by the end of 2015, Mayor Martin J. Walsh vowed yesterday as he challenged real estate owners and landlords to help make it happen.

"I don't think it's a daunting promise. I think it's our obligation to do it," Walsh said. "We need the entire city to pull together."

The initiative called "Boston Homes for the Brave" seeks to house the city's 400 homeless veterans and is part of the federal Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness. Walsh said landlords may need to offer discounts or whatever it takes to help vets.

Jamie Maddox, 59, a homeless vet, tearfully described his return to the New England Center for Homeless Veterans in Boston where he found "a lot of love" — and the help he needed to get back on his feet.

Federal, state and city agencies will begin putting together the technology and strategies that will help identify veterans and connect them to supporters, housing and employment.

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Aereo tries a new legal approach in effort to survive Supreme Court defeat

Following its loss at the Supreme Court last month, Aereo is pursuing a new legal strategy in an effort to keep its broadcast streaming business alive.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan on Wednesday, Aereo's legal team is claiming that it is eligible for the same statutory license that cable companies pay in providing broadcast transmissions to their subscribers.

Aereo cites the Supreme Court majority opinion, which was rooted in the idea that because Aereo was "substantially similar to" a cable system, it fell under provisions of the 1976 Copyright Act that target such multichannel distributors.

"The Supreme Court's holding that Aereo is a cable system under the Copyright Act is significant because, as a cable system, Aereo is now entitled to the benefits of the copyright statutory license pursuant to the Copyright Act," the company's lawyers said in their letter to Nathan. "Aereo is proceeding to file the necessary statements of account and royalty fees."

Broadcasters, however, object to Aereo's shift in strategy, noting that Aereo previously said that it did not fall under the definition of a cable company. The issue came up during oral arguments before the Supreme Court, but Aereo's attorney David Frederick said it was an equipment provider, not a cable service.

"Whatever Aereo may say about its rationale for raising it now, it is astonishing for Aereo to contend the Supreme Court's decision automatically transformed Aereo into a cable system under Section 111 given its prior statements to this court and the Supreme Court," broadcasters' lawyers wrote.

But Aereo said that it was taking the approach because the Supreme Court "has announced a new and different rule governing Aereo's operations last week."

Other broadcast streaming services have pursued such an approach, but have lost in court. In 2010, ivi Inc. claimed that it should be eligible for a statutory license because it was functioning like a cable company, but the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that approach. The company ceased operations.

Aereo contends that the Supreme Court's decision essentially overturned the 2nd Circuit's ivi decision. That would have tremendous implications for all sorts of over-the-top services, but broadcasters are likely to argue that the Supreme Court's ruling was limited in scope.

Aereo also suggests that if Nathan rejects their effort to qualify for a statutory license, their would seek to limit any injunction to the simultaneous or near-simultaneous streaming of broadcast signals. "The Supreme Court did nothing to prohibit -- and indeed reaffirms the vitality of -- non-simultaneous playback from copies created by consumers," Aereo's lawyers wrote.

Several days after the court ruling, Aereo announced that it was pausing its operations. The company's founder, Chet Kanojia, sent a message to its users on Wednesday that linked to the letter and was headlined, "Our Path Forward."

"From the beginning, it has been our mission to build a lawful technology that would provide consumers with more choice and alternatives in how they watch television," he wrote. "We believed that providing an innovative cloud-based individual antenna would provide consumers with a convenient way to use an antenna to watch the live, free-to-air signals broadcast over public spectrum that belongs to them."

(C) 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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US unemployment aid applications fall to 304,000

WASHINGTON — Fewer people sought U.S. unemployment benefits last week, driving down the level of applications to nearly the lowest in seven years.

Weekly applications for unemployment aid dropped 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 304,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's not far from a reading of 298,000 two months ago, which was the lowest since 2007, before the Great Recession began.

The four-week average, a less volatile measure, dipped 3,500 to 311,500, the second-lowest level since August 2007. Applications are a proxy for layoffs, so the low readings indicate that employers are letting go of fewer workers.

The figures are the latest sign that the job market is steadily improving. Employers are adding jobs at a healthy clip and the unemployment rate is at a 5 1/2-year low.

"The ... data remain extremely encouraging," said Jim O'Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics. The four-week average is down from last year's average of 343,000, he noted.

Still, some economists warned that the figures could be volatile in the weeks ahead. That's because auto manufacturers typically close their plants in July to prepare for new models to be released in the fall. That can cause spikes in temporary layoffs.

The number of people receiving benefits ticked up 10,000 to 2.58 million. That's down from about 4.5 million a year ago. Much of that decline has occurred because an extended benefits program expired at the end of last year.

A separate government report Tuesday showed that total layoffs in May fell below 1.6 million, lower than even pre-recession levels. And more workers are quitting their jobs, the report found, which can be a sign of confidence, since most workers quit when they have new positions or are confident they can find one.

In addition, the number of open jobs jumped to the highest level in seven years, a sign that companies could step up hiring in the months ahead.

Employers, meanwhile, added 288,000 jobs in June, the fifth straight month of job gains above 200,000. That's the first such stretch since 1999. The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent, the lowest since September 2008.

However, the steady hiring gains have yet to spur big increases in wages, which have barely kept pace with inflation since the end of the recession five years ago.

But more people with jobs means more paychecks, which could boost consumer spending and growth. After a sharp contraction in the economy in the first three months of the year, most economists expect growth to return in the April-June quarter and top 3 percent at an annual pace in the second half of 2014.

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Website apologizes for Clooney mother-in-law story

LONDON — The British website Mail Online apologized Wednesday to George Clooney for alleging that his fiancee's mother opposed their marriage on religious grounds — a story Clooney called both wrong and irresponsible.

Clooney is engaged to Beirut-born London lawyer Amal Alamuddin, whose father Ramzi belongs to a prominent Druse family. The Druse are adherents of a monotheistic religion based mainly in Lebanon, Syria and Israel.

Citing unnamed family "friends," Mail Online, which is affiliated with Britain's Daily Mail tabloid, reported this week that Baria Alamuddin wanted her 36-year-old daughter to marry a Druse man.

It said Amal Alamuddin risked being "cast out of the community" if she wed Clooney and claimed that several Druse women had been murdered for not abiding by strict Druse rules.

Clooney called the story "completely fabricated."

In a statement issued to USA Today, he said Baria Alamuddin — a well-known journalist — was not Druse and "is in no way against the marriage."

Clooney, 53, added that "to exploit religious differences where none exist is at the very least negligent and more appropriately dangerous."

"We have family members all over the world, and the idea that someone would inflame any part of that world for the sole reason of selling papers should be criminal," he said.

Mail Online said Wednesday in a statement that the story had been "supplied in good faith by a reputable and trusted freelance journalist."

"We accept Mr. Clooney's assurance that the story is inaccurate and we apologize to him, Miss Amal Alamuddin and her mother, Baria, for any distress caused," it said.

Mail Online said it had removed the article and will contact Clooney's representatives "to discuss giving him the opportunity to set the record straight."

Clooney and Alamuddin have not announced a date yet for their nuptials. It is the second marriage for him and the first for her.

The Druse are a close-knit community and rarely marry outside their sect, but some Druse have welcomed Clooney.

Walid Jumblatt, political leader of the sect in Lebanon, told The Associated Press recently he hoped the couple would soon visit the Druse heartland.

Clooney will bring us "great publicity," Jumblatt said. "He can make a movie about the Druse sect."

___

Associated Press writer Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.

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Obama officials pledge to stem immigration tide

WASHINGTON — Obama administration officials defended their response to the immigration crisis on the Southwest border Wednesday and pledged to get control of the flood of unaccompanied children arriving from Central America.

"We believe we will stem this tide," the officials said in a joint statement prepared for a Senate hearing.

Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Thomas Winkowski appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee a day after President Barack Obama asked Congress for $3.7 billion in emergency spending to deal with the crisis.

The officials were expected to face questions on the request, which is encountering some resistance from Republicans who believe more wholesale changes are needed. Democrats seem generally receptive to the spending, which would go for more immigration judges, detention facilities, and deterrence efforts, though some say it should focus more on helping the kids than on enforcement.

For President Barack Obama, the humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border is increasingly becoming a political liability, giving Republicans a fresh opportunity to question his administration's competence and complicating the debate over the nation's fractured immigration laws.

But the president has resisted calls to visit the border during his fundraising trip to Texas on Wednesday. Instead, Obama plans to meet in Dallas with faith leaders and Texas officials, including Republican Gov. Rick Perry. Obama's decision to skip a border visit is likely to provide more fodder for the Republicans and the handful of Democrats who say the president hasn't responded quickly and forcefully enough to the mounting crisis.

Perry, a possible GOP presidential candidate in 2016, has been scathing in his criticism of Obama, saying the White House has failed to respond to his repeated warnings about a flood of minors at the border. But Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said the White House wasn't worried about the optics of the president traveling to Texas without visiting the border. Officials also pointed to Obama's request to Congress on Tuesday for additional resources at the border as a sign of the president's engagement in the crisis.

The officials testifying at Wednesday's congressional hearing didn't address the spending request in prepared testimony but outlined steps the administration already is taking to get a handle on the crisis, from aiming to increase detention space to working with governments in the region.

The children are coming mostly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, many fleeing cartel violence but also hearing rumors, sometimes from smugglers, that once they arrive in the U.S. they would be allowed to stay. More than 50,000 have arrived already since fall, a number that's expected to rise to 90,000 by the end of this fiscal year. Thousands of families also are coming.

The unexpected immigration spike is overwhelming immigration courts and holding facilities in the Southwest and turning into a major political crisis for the Obama administration.

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Google picks 5 charities to create ideas for Glass

WASHINGTON — Google has chosen five charities to develop ideas using Web-connected Google Glass to enhance their work.

After receiving 1,300 proposals, Google is announcing five nonprofits Wednesday that'll get a free pair of the glasses, a $25,000 grant and support from developers.

Classroom Champions of Jacksonville, Florida, will use the glasses to create first-person educational videos by Paralympic athletes for high-need schools.

Lumberton, North Carolina-based 3,000 Miles to a Cure will deliver information to riders participating in a bicycle race for charity.

Mark Morris Dance Group of New York will create dance-based tools for people with Parkinson's disease.

Women's Audio Mission in San Francisco will develop music and media-based learning programs for women and girls.

And Baltimore-based Hearing and Speech Agency will develop new ways to help people with communication difficulties.

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Markets steady as Wall Street recovers its poise

LONDON — Stock markets in Europe steadied Wednesday as Wall Street opened solidly following positive earnings news from aluminum company Alcoa.

The company reported better than expected results in an after-hours statement Tuesday. Alcoa traditionally kicks off the quarterly reporting season and its results helped soothe some concerns in the markets.

U.S. corporate earnings could be the biggest driver in markets over the coming weeks as investors look for signs that the strengthening U.S. economy has translated into higher sales and profits.

"With Alcoa kicking things off in style there is now going to be added pressure on companies to perform and back up the recent equity gains with strong corporate performances," said James Hughes, chief market analyst at Alpari.

Alcoa's results helped steady sentiment somewhat in the Europe and the U.S. following sizeable losses the previous day.

In Europe, France's CAC-40 was up 0.2 percent at 4,351 while Germany's DAX rose the same rate to 9,792. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.4 percent at 6,714.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.2 percent at 16,939 while the broader S&P 500 index rose 0.3 percent to 1,970.

The focus later will center on the release of the minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's last policy meeting. After that meeting wrapped up, the Fed made clear that it sees no need to raise short-term interest rates from record lows anytime soon.

"While we don't expect too many surprises from them, given recent commentary from some Fed officials the market could well be underestimating the timing of a rise in interest rates in the U.S.," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

Earlier, Asian markets were mostly marked down as investors across the region responded to the previous day's rout across Europe and the U.S.

Japan's Nikkei 225 recouped some of its losses from earlier in the day to close down 0.1 percent at 15,302.65. Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 1.6 percent to 23,176.07.

Seoul's Kospi dropped 0.3 percent to 2,000.50 and China's Shanghai Composite fell 1.2 percent to 2,038.61. Markets in Australia and Southeast Asia also fell.

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Medicare providers complain of duplicative audits

MIAMI — Health care companies say they're losing millions of dollars that are tied up in appeals because of increasing numbers of Medicare audits. But a new report says the rise in the often duplicative audits has failed to reduce Medicare fraud.

A report released Wednesday by the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging reveals Medicare fraud in the fee-for-service program has steadily declined since 2009. But improper payments rose between from $30 billion to $36 billion between 2011 and 2012, according to the report that cites the most recent data available.

Around that same time, officials started using a $77 million technology screening system designed to fight fraud the way credit card companies scan charges and can freeze accounts.

Health care companies and other stakeholder are meeting with committee chairman Sen. Bill Nelson on Wednesday to discuss what they call burdensome audits and reviews.

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US companies post most jobs in 7 years in May

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers advertised more jobs in May than in any month in the past seven years, a sign that this year's strong hiring trend is likely to continue.

More Americans also quit their jobs, a good sign because it usually occurs when workers find new and higher-paying jobs. It also opens up more positions for those out of work.

The Labor Department says that employers posted 4.64 million jobs, a 3.8 percent increase from April's total of 4.46 million. That's the fourth straight strong gain and is the highest number since June 2007.

Hiring slipped in May, to 4.72 million from 4.77 million in the previous month. Still, it has risen 4.5 percent since January after being flat in the previous six months.

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Group urges caution on abortion clinic bill

BOSTON — An anti-abortion group is calling on lawmakers to proceed cautiously as they consider ways to strengthen security around abortion clinics.

In a letter sent Tuesday to members of the House and Senate, Massachusetts Citizens for Life warned that any new law could meet with another constitutional challenge.

The U.S. Supreme Court last week struck down the state's 35-foot buffer zone law, deeming it a restraint on the free-speech rights of anti-abortion protesters.

Gov. Deval Patrick and Attorney General Martha Coakley say they're working to craft a bill that would address the concerns of the court, with the hope it could be approved before the legislative session ends July 31.

The letter urges lawmakers to "please think carefully as to whether or not the latest version will pass constitutional muster."

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AbbVie raises its bid for Shire by about 11 pct

NEW YORK — U.S. drugmaker AbbVie has boosted its offer for Shire by 11 percent to about $51.3 billion, hoping it will be enough to pique the interest of its British counterpart.

Shire, known for its rare-disease drugs, has rejected three AbbVie offers to date.

North Chicago, Illinois-based AbbVie is now making an unsolicited offer of 51.15 British pounds ($87.57) per Shire PLC share in cash and stock. Its prior bid was worth about 46.26 pounds ($79.20) per share for a total value of 27 billion pounds ($46.2 billion).

AbbVie said that its revised proposal also increases the ownership held by Shire shareholders to about 24 percent of the new holding company. It previously offered approximately 23 percent ownership.

Shire said in a statement that it did not get a look at AbbVie's revised proposal before the company's announcement. Shire said its board will meet to consider the bid and that it will make a further announcement "in due course."

Last month AbbVie said that one of the reasons it was interested in Shire was that it saw a compelling tax break. AbbVie said at that time that it expected the combined company to pay a tax rate of about 13 percent by 2016 after AbbVie reincorporates on the British island of Jersey, where Shire is headquartered. That would be down from its current rate of roughly 22 percent.

Several other U.S. companies are using mergers to reincorporate in countries with lower tax rates. These moves are raising concerns among U.S. lawmakers since they can cost the federal government billions in tax revenue.

AbbVie executives have also said that the product portfolios of the two companies complement each other, and that the combination would immediately give Shire a broader geographic reach.

Shire has said that AbbVie's overtures undervalue the company and its prospects. The drugmaker has also said that its board had concerns about AbbVie's interest in making the move for tax purposes.

AbbVie, which was spun off from Abbott Laboratories last year, has until July 18 to either announce a firm offer or confirm that it won't make one under United Kingdom takeover laws.

AbbVie's stock fell $1.18, or 2.1 percent, to $56.22 in Tuesday morning trading.

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Shares drift as US indexes pull back from highs

LONDON — Stock markets fell Tuesday as U.S. indexes pulled back from record highs ahead of the start of the quarterly U.S. corporate earnings reporting season.

Over the coming weeks, earnings will feature large in investors' thoughts as they try to gauge the state of the U.S. economy. Aluminum company Alcoa unofficially kicks the latest earnings season off later with its second quarter results.

"The focus will be on whether US companies can manage a bounce back from the first quarter, mirroring the shift in economic news," said David Madden, market analyst at IG.

In Europe, France's CAC-40 was down 1.2 percent at 4,353 while Germany's DAX dropped 1 percent to 9,808. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1 percent, to 6,756.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was 0.7 percent lower at 16,904 while the broader S&P 500 index fell 0.6 percent to 1,966.

Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 index tracked Wall Street's previous day's declines, slipping 0.4 percent to 15,314.41 despite fresh data showing the current account surplus was larger than expected in May. South Korea's Kospi regained lost ground, rising 0.1 percent to 2,006.66. Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended flat at 23,541.38.

As well as awaiting U.S. earnings this week, investors will be interested to see the latest Chinese inflation figures on Wednesday.

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US stocks slip early ahead of earnings reports

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are falling in morning trading Tuesday as investors await corporate earnings reports this week. Tech and small companies fell sharply. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped below 17,000 for the first time since crossing that threshold last week on news that employers have been hiring more.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow fell 117 points, or 0.7 percent, to 16,905 as of 11:15 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite fell 63 points, or 1.4 percent, to 4,387. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 14 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,963.

Investors sought out defensive stocks. Utilities rose 0.5 percent, one of just two sectors of the 10 in the S&P 500 that rose. Telecommunications stocks fell the most, 1.4 percent. The Russell 2000, which tracks small-company stocks, fell 17 points, or 1.5 percent, to 1,169.

EARNINGS WATCH: Investors are watching second-quarter earnings reports for clues about the strength of the U.S. economy. The reports begin in earnest when Alcoa reports its quarterly results after the U.S. stock market closes Tuesday. Wells Fargo, the No. 1 home mortgage lender in the U.S., reports Friday.

Financial analysts expect earnings per share for the S&P 500 to have risen 6.5 percent from a year earlier, according to S&P Capital IQ, a research firm. That is about double the increase in the first quarter. They expect earnings growth to accelerate for the rest of the year, topping 11 percent in the fourth quarter.

DEAL SWEETENER: Drugmaker AbbVie fell $1.48, or 2.6 percent, to $55.92 after news that it boosted its offer to buy another drug company, Shire. The target, known for its rare-disease drugs, has rejected three AbbVie offers.

EUROPE: France's CAC-40 and Germany's DAX fell 1 percent each. Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 0.9 percent.

ASIA: Japan's Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.4 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended flat. China is due to release inflation figures, which are a key indicator for both policy and economic performance, on Wednesday. Meanwhile, investors are also watching for the outcome of a presidential election Thursday in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation and its third-largest democracy.

BONDS AND OIL: U.S. government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.57 percent from 2.61 percent late Monday. In energy markets, U.S. crude for August delivery fell two cents to $103.50.

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Stocks fall after market hit milestones

NEW YORK — Stocks were modestly lower in mid-morning trading Monday as investors looked ahead to the start of corporate earnings season. The market gave up some of its gains from late last week, which were driven partly by news of a surge in hiring last month.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average lost 43 points, or 0.3 percent, to 17,025 as of 10:45 a.m. Eastern. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost five points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,980 and the Nasdaq composite fell 12 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,474.

The Dow closed above 17,000 for the first time Thursday following the strong jobs report. U.S. financials markets were closed Friday for the Independence Day holiday.

EARNINGS BEGIN: Investors will get a sense of how corporate profits are faring as earnings season begins this week. Aluminum mining giant Alcoa reports its latest results on Tuesday and Wells Fargo, the No. 1 U.S. mortgage lender, reports on Friday. Investors are expecting second quarter profits to be up 4.9 percent from a year ago, according to FactSet.

PROMISING RESULTS: BioDelivery Sciences International surged 16 percent after the drug developer said its treatment for severe pain fared better than a placebo in another late-stage study. The company said the trial triggered another $10 million milestone payment from Endo International Plc, which has a licensing agreement with BioDelivery. BioDelivery's stock rose $1.92 to $13.92.

BONDS AND COMMODITIES: In the market for government bonds, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.62 percent from 2.64 percent late Thursday. Bond yields fall when prices rise. U.S. crude for August delivery fell 57 cents to $103.49 a barrel.

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Stocks slip in early trading after holiday

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are falling in early trading as investors look ahead to corporate earnings this week.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 59 points, or 0.4 percent, to 17,009 Monday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped five points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,980. The Nasdaq fell nine points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,476.

Investors will get a sense of how companies are faring when some big names report quarterly results this week, including Alcoa and Wells Fargo.

BioDelivery Sciences International surged 15 percent after the company said its pain treatment fared better than a placebo in a study.

The Dow closed above 17,000 for the first time Thursday after the U.S. reported strong job gains. U.S. financials markets were closed Friday for July 4th.

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Global stocks dip after US indexes hit record

LONDON — Global stock markets turned lower on Monday after key U.S. indexes hit record highs in the wake of strong job numbers last week.

Stocks had rallied last week after the official U.S. jobs report showed the world's largest economy generated a stronger-than-expected 288,000 jobs in June and that the unemployment report fell to 6.1 percent.

"The market saw another piece of evidence that the U.S. economy is gathering steam while at the same time central bank rhetoric remains dovish," said Credit Agricole CIB in a report.

But on Monday, after a long weekend in the U.S., traders seemed reluctant to chase stocks any higher.

By midafternoon in Europe, France's CAC-40 was down 1 percent to 4,423.37 while Germany's DAX was off 0.6 percent to 9,953.96. Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 0.5 percent to 6,830.77.

On Wall Street, the Dow traded 0.4 percent lower at 16,939, having closed above 17,000 for the first time on Thursday ahead of the three-day Independent Day weekend. The S&P 500 fell 0.3 percent to 1,979.04.

Investors are keeping an eye on upcoming corporate earnings.

"Companies in the U.S. are widely expected to report better earnings after the winter slumber," said Desmond Chua of CMC Markets in a report.

Earlier, in Asia, China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was little changed while Tokyo's Nikkei 225 shed 0.4 percent to 15,379.44. Sydney and Seoul also declined.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was flat at 23,540.92. Taiwan, India and Jakarta rose.

U.S. crude for August delivery was down 26 cents to $103.80 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In currency trading, the euro rose to $1.3598 from $1.3594 late Friday. The dollar fell to 101.86 yen from 102.08 yen.

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Germany takes aim at foreign drivers with car toll

BERLIN — Germany plans to introduce a car toll that seeks to make money off the millions of foreigners who drive through the country every year, the transport minister said Monday.

Germany has a truck toll but, unlike many European countries, no car toll. Alexander Dobrindt said it wasn't fair that foreign drivers do not contribute to maintaining the roads, and that "fairness gap" should be closed.

Dobrindt plans to introduce toll stickers in 2016 for all cars using any roads in Germany, not just highways. Foreign drivers will be able to get one-year, two-month or 10-day stickers online or at filling stations. The cheapest option, the 10-day sticker, will cost 10 euros ($13.60).

Annual fees will vary according to cars' engine size and environmental credentials and will average 88 euros, while a separate car tax will be reduced so that German drivers won't pay more overall. Dobrindt put the expected proceeds over four years at about 2.5 billion euros ($3.4 billion).

Dobrindt's Bavaria-based conservative party, the smallest of three in Chancellor Angela Merkel's government, has insisted on introducing a car toll for foreigners despite the long-standing misgivings of its coalition partners. Merkel vowed before last year's German election that "there will be no car toll with me," but later agreed to the plan.

Many worry that the system won't be compatible with European Union law because only foreign car owners will pay more. After spending months putting together the elaborate plan, Dobrindt said he's confident that won't be a problem.

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TV meteorologist hurt in fireworks accident

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — A meteorologist at a Detroit-area television station has been injured in a fireworks accident in Iowa.

WXYZ-TV says its chief meteorologist, Dave Rexroth, on Wednesday is to undergo surgery that will begin the process of implanting a prosthetic eye.

According to the station, Rexroth lost sight in his left eye during a fireworks mishap Friday night that occurred while he was vacationing with his family in Iowa City. In response to a request for information on the incident, an Iowa City police spokesman said he doesn't have a report that lists Rexroth's name.

WXYZ says Rexroth is expected to recover by September.

General manager Ed Fernandez says Rexroth and his family have the station's "full support during this difficult time," and he looks forward to Rexroth's return.

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Information from: WXYZ-TV, http://www.wxyztv.com

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17 coal miners trapped underground in west China

BEIJING — Rescuers on Sunday worked to free 17 miners trapped following a gas explosion at a coal mine in western China, the country's official news agency reported.

The blast at the mine 120 kilometers (70 miles) from Urumqi, the capital of the sprawling Xinjiang region, happened on Saturday evening, according to the Xinhua News Agency. It said three other people working inside the mine at the time had been rescued.

China has the world's deadliest mines, although the safety record has been improving in recent years as regulators have strengthened enforcement of safety rules.

Xinhua said the pit is mined by Dahuangshan Yuxin Coal Mining Co. Ltd., owned by the sixth agricultural division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. It is a paramilitary organization that was revived by the central government in the 1980s to aid the region's construction and development.

Calls to the organization rang unanswered on Sunday. A duty officer at Xinjiang's work safety bureau said he had no information about the incident.

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Report: Ordinary Americans caught up in data sweep

WASHINGTON — When the U.S. National Security Agency intercepted the online accounts of legally targeted foreigners over a four-year period it also collected the conversations of nine times as many ordinary Internet users, both Americans and non-Americans, according to a probe by The Washington Post.

Nearly half of those surveillance files contained names, email addresses or other details that the NSA marked as belonging to U.S. citizens or residents, the Post reported in a story posted on its website Saturday night. While the federal agency tried to protect their privacy by masking more than 65,000 such references to individuals, the newspaper said it found nearly 900 additional email addresses that could be strongly linked to U.S. citizens or residents.

At the same time, the intercepted messages contained material of considerable intelligence value, the Post reported, such as information about a secret overseas nuclear project, double-dealing by an ostensible ally, a military calamity that befell an unfriendly power, and the identities of aggressive intruders into U.S. computer networks.

As an example, the newspaper said the files showed that months of tracking communications across dozens of alias accounts led directly to the capture in 2011 of a Pakistan-based bomb builder suspected in a 2002 terrorist bombing in Bali. The Post said it was withholding other examples, at the request of the CIA, that would compromise ongoing investigations.

The material reviewed by the Post included roughly 160,000 intercepted e-mail and instant-message conversations, some of them hundreds of pages long, and 7,900 documents taken from more than 11,000 online accounts. It spanned President Barack Obama's first term, 2009 to 2012, and was provided to the Post by former NSA analyst Edward Snowden.

The daily lives of more than 10,000 account holders who were not targeted were catalogued and recorded, the Post reported. The newspaper described that material as telling "stories of love and heartbreak, illicit sexual liaisons, mental-health crises, political and religious conversions, financial anxieties and disappointed hopes." The material collected included more than 5,000 private photos, the paper said.

The cache Snowden provided to the newspaper came from domestic NSA operations under the broad authority granted by Congress in 2008 with amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, according to the Post.

By law, the NSA may "target" only foreign nationals located overseas unless it obtains a warrant based on probable cause from a special surveillance court, the Post said. "Incidental collection" of third-party communications is inevitable in many forms of surveillance, according to the newspaper. In the case of the material Snowden provided, those in an online chat room visited by a target or merely reading the discussion were included in the data sweep, as were hundreds of people using a computer server whose Internet protocol was targeted.

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Online:

Washington Post: washingtonpost.com

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How to handle emergency with push-button ignition

In your column you gave advice on what to do if someone experienced a stuck throttle. With a traditional key I understand the steps you mentioned. But our next vehicle may be equipped with a push-button ignition. How would we handle an emergency situation like a stuck accelerator or unintended acceleration? Also, one of the vehicles we are interested in has a push-button transmission, not a normal gear shifter. Does shifting to neutral still apply?

We currently have a vehicle with electronic rather than mechanical door locks and a fob-in-pocket push-button ignition on the dash. I don't care for either of these. If the car battery goes dead, the doors cannot be unlocked from the outside. You must use an emergency key stored in the fob to unlock the rear hatch and pull a cable to mechanically unlock the front door. If you are inside the vehicle when the battery fails and the doors are locked — exceptionally rare, of course, but still a possibility — you must pull an emergency door release lever to open the door.

As modern and slick as this technology is, I can't help but wonder what the true benefits are. A remote keyless entry system opens doors from the outside and a key-in-the-ignition switch started and stopped the engine. Mind you, these electronic systems aren't necessarily bad but I don't see any real advantage.

In reference to dealing with a stuck throttle or unintended acceleration, the push-button ignition switch does suggest a possible complication. In order to shut off the engine, one must depress and hold in the button for a short period of time — a demanding and difficult procedure when dealing with an emergency.

To deal with a stuck throttle/unintended acceleration with a system like this, shift the transmission into neutral, then steer and brake the car to a safe stop — as I suggested in my earlier column. Again, modern engine management systems will prevent the engine from over-revving in neutral in this situation.

Whether the shift mechanism is push-button, floor-mounted or on the steering column doesn't matter. Immediately shift into neutral and then deal with the situation.

I love my Dodge Intrepid, but the headlights have never been adequate. I keep the lenses polished and clear but the lights are worse than the 6-volt bulbs in my 1951 Ford sealed-beam headlights. What can I do? I need better lights to drive at night.

Age and your eyes may be part of this, but regardless, you can upgrade the halogen bulbs in your composite headlamp assemblies. Probably your best choice would be to install a xenon HID (high-intensity discharge) headlamp kit. HID headlamps are original equipment on many newer vehicles and offer a significant improvement in lighting. The installation isn't quite as simple as replacing the standard bulb — it requires a ballast assembly and additional wiring harness. Prices are in the $100-$300 range for the kit.

I have a 2007 Chevy 1500 V8 that can burn E85. I got the flex fuel option when E85 was about 65 cents per gallon less than gas. Now I am seeing a difference of about 25 cents, which means it doesn't make sense to burn E85. Is there a formula for figuring the break-even point? If you use E85 on every fill, will that harm the engine or make it run rough?

There's no perfect answer here. E85 prices vary state-to-state from about 10 to 25 percent less than gasoline, thus the economics vary tremendously. The EPA combined mileage estimates for a 2014 Chevy 5.3-liter K1500 4WD are 18 mpg on gasoline and 13 mpg on E85 — a difference of more than 25 percent. Compare this with the percentage difference in cost between fuels and you'll have your answer for that fill-up. While there is no benefit to engine reliability or durability, E85 won't harm your engine.

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Website sells work of disabled artists

Allen Chamberland has lived on disability for the past decade, but a startup that sells the work of disabled and homeless artists might just change that one day.

About three years ago, Chamberland began doing paper cuttings, intricate designs cut out of a single sheet of paper.

"At first, it started as a hobby to give me something to do," said the 49-year-old South End resident, who was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which makes it difficult for him to breathe.

He never thought he'd be successful at it until a chance encounter last year with Liz Powers, who was looking for works by homeless and disabled artists for a show at Boston's Prudential Center. By the end of the show, a dozen of Chamberland's works had sold.

So last December, Powers and her brother, Spencer, started ArtLifting, a low-profit LLC with a website that initially featured the work of Chamberland and three other artists.

"It was very clear these artists would benefit from having a way to sell their work not just once a year but every day," Spencer Powers said. "And it was also clear that customers loved their work."

Within one month, the company sold $11,000 worth of work, with 55 percent of the profits going to the artists ­­— compared to a typical gallery split of 50/50 — and the rest going toward overhead.

"That first month was a shocker to us," Spencer Powers said. "It showed we could build something great."

The company's first corporate client, Jay Connolly, bought more than two dozen for the commercial buildings his Beverly firm, Connolly Brothers, Inc., owns and manages.

"People have actually come down to our management office and asked what ArtLifting is," Connolly said. "Some of the people in our office even went and bought the original works once they saw the prints."

In May, ArtLifting was one of 128 finalists in the Boston startup accelerator and competition MassChallenge, entitling the company to free office space, mentoring and a chance at a share of 
$1.75 million in cash prizes. Its goal is to one day reach homeless and disabled artists across the country.

"A month or so ago, somebody saw my work on ArtLifting, and because of that, I'm having my first solo show in Cambridge in October," Chamberland said. "If things keep going like this, I won't have to live on disability anymore. And that feels great."

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Nonprofits' contraceptive cases next for justices

WASHINGTON — Faith-affiliated charities, colleges and hospitals are leading the next legal dispute over religion, birth control and the health law that's likely to be resolved by the Supreme Court.

The issue in more than four dozen lawsuits from religious nonprofit groups that oppose some or all contraception as immoral is how far the Obama administration must go to accommodate them.

Just this past week, the justices relieved businesses with religious objections of their obligation to pay for women's contraceptives among a range of preventive services the law calls for in their health plans.

The nonprofits already could opt out of covering the contraceptives. But they say the administration's accommodation is not enough because they remain complicit in the provision of government-approved contraceptives to women covered by their plans.

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