The Ticker

TurboTax shuts off state tax return filing

TurboTax, the country's most popular do-it-yourself tax preparation software, said yesterday that it has temporarily stopped processing state tax returns because of an increase in fraudulent filings.

The Massachusetts Department of Revenue says 160,000 refunds are currently in the pipeline, and due to the increase in the filing of fraudulent tax returns nationwide, it will more carefully scrutinize information on returns.

Other state agencies have also reported a rise in filings with stolen personal information, said Intuit, the company behind TurboTax. Most victims found out that a fraudulent tax return was submitted in their name when they received a rejection notice after filing their returns, said Intuit spokeswoman Julie Miller.

There haven't been issues with federal returns to date because the Internal Revenue Service has implemented stronger fraud detection policies, Miller said.

Intuit is working with security company Palantir to investigate the problem. So far, there has been no security breach of its systems, the company said. Instead, it believes personal information was stolen elsewhere and used to file returns on TurboTax.

West Coast dockworkers won't handle cargo due to labor dispute

Terminal operators at the 29 U.S. West Coast ports won't handle cargo this weekend as a labor dispute with dockworkers escalates, their bargaining agent said. Loading and unloading of vessels at ports from San Diego to Bellingham, Wash., will be suspended through Monday morning, according to an emailed statement from the Pacific Maritime Association.

Shipping lines and terminal operators can't justify paying overtime to unionized dockworkers who are handling cargo at reduced levels of productivity, an association spokesman, Wade Gates, said in the statement.

Consumer borrowing picks up in Dec.

Consumer borrowing picked up in December as Americans used their credit cards more after pulling back the previous month.

Total outstanding non-mortgage credit increased by $14.7 billion to $3.3 trillion, the Federal Reserve said yesterday. Economists expected a $15 billion rise.

Revolving debt, which includes credit cards, increased by $5.8 billion to $887.9 billion, the largest increase since April. That's a positive sign of growing consumer confidence amid strong job growth and falling gasoline prices.

Non-revolving credit, which is mostly auto and student loans, rose by $8.9 billion to $2.42 trillion. Auto sales have reached near-record levels as Americans replace aging vehicles and lending standards ease.

• Citizens Bank announced that Bradley L. Mattox, left, has been hired as a vice president and relationship manager for Citizens Commercial Banking. Mattox joins Citizens in Boston from BNY Mellon, where he was a vice president and senior private banker.

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Connector czar: It’s working great

The state's Obamacare czar yesterday proclaimed the Bay State to be "a million miles ahead of" last year's disastrous health care sign-ups, announcing the state has now enrolled 325,814 Bay Staters so far.

"That's a complete turnaround and, if we're being honest, not a lot of people thought it would be done," said Massachusetts Obamacare chief Maydad Cohen. "Just looking at the enormity of the problems and the calendar made even our biggest supporters skeptical."

To date, some 3.8 million users had accessed the state's pricey Obamacare website, and 440,546 users had determined which plans they're eligible for, Cohen said.

"The enrollment numbers themselves don't lie; the website is working," said Cohen. "People are getting insurance for themselves and their families and we're a million miles ahead of where we were last year — and that's an undisputable fact."

Open enrollment on the Health Connector website runs through Feb. 15. When the enrollment period started last year, the site crashed numerous times and it was plagued with problems for months, causing people to give up on trying to enroll and ultimately costing the state millions of dollars to fix.

It's hardly been a flawless process this year, as a representative from Attorney General Maura Healey's office noted during a conference call yesterday that many customers had called their hotline to complain.

A Healey spokesman said 131 consumer complaints had been received since open enrollment began on Nov. 15.

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Judge upholds ride-share rules

A bid by taxi medallion owners to halt regulations that have legalized transportation companies including Uber and Lyft has been rejected by a federal judge.

"Plaintiffs have failed to convince this court that medallion owners have a protected property interest in the market value of their medallions," U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton said yesterday in a court order. "Purchasing a taxicab medallion does not entitle the buyer to 'an unalterable monopoly' over the taxicab market or the overall for-hire transportation market,"

Gorton said the Boston Taxi Owners Association was not convincing in its argument for a preliminary injunction, rejecting its claims of violation of equal protection and "unconstitutional taking of their property."

The association has sued both Boston and the state in an effort to halt state regulations for Uber and Lyft that it sees as unfair. Initial statewide regulations for so-called transportation network companies went into effect last month, but require legislative approval.

"In order for Massachusetts' economy to thrive, we must continue to embrace technology and innovation as a means for growth," Gov. Charlie Baker said in a statement.

Boston is in the middle of its own regulatory process, with a Taxi Advisory Committee that has been looking at the issue for months. A spokeswoman for Mayor Martin J. Walsh said the city is pleased with the decision.

A lawyer for the Taxi Owners Association did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

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Audi A4 earns a high grade

The efficient 2015 Audi A4 with go-anywhere, all-wheel-drive is a solid choice for the New Englander not willing to compromise on performance or craftsmanship.

Audi's quattro all-wheel-drive system intuitively sends power to the wheels with the most grip. Although our tester had 19-inch, low-profile summer tires, I found the sedan provided superb traction on both wet and snow-covered roads.

The quattro system, which has been around for more than 35 years, was equally impressive on dry roads, giving the A4 sharp handling with a decent amount of feedback and providing the driver with an intimate connection to the road. The A4's sport-tuned suspension settled through bumps on the corners and the sedan's electronic, speed-sensitive steering had a heavy, precision feel.

Under the hood, the A4 packs a turbocharged 2.0- liter, inline four-cylinder engine that cranks out 220 horsepower. Audi offers three transmission choices with the A4: a six-speed manual, a continuously variable automatic, and an eight-speed automatic with manual override. My tester had the eight speed with paddle shifters, which allowed me to take control of the sedan, especially through the corners and on steep highway ramps. The multitude of gears allowed for smooth downshifting and maximized the transfer of power from the efficient engine. The A4 balances a respectable amount power with decent fuel economy for an all-wheel-drive sedan. The A4 did 21 miles per gallon in the city and 30 mpg on highway.

Silver and gray trim highlighted my A4's black interior. Leather heated front seats were firm and supportive. The centerpiece of the A4's cockpit was a distinctive flat bottom steering wheel, which was part of the $1,500 sport plus package that included the paddle shifters, a black headliner, and 19-inch, 5-arm aluminum wheels with a titanium finish. Three-zone climate controls allowed driver and passengers to individualize the cabin temperature. While the A4 is listed as a five-seater, my children looked cramped in the backseat for the lift to school. The rear seats fold down with a 60/40 split.

Red backlighting on switches and buttons played well against the dark interior. A 7-inch display screen was neatly integrated into the A4's dashboard. Navigation, stereo, cellphone, and vehicle settings were controlled with a joystick knob surrounded by an array of buttons on the center console. While the center stack was imposing at first glance, I found operating the A4's infotainment features intuitive and straightforward. The cluster of controls reduced the need to drill down through layers of menus. A push-button ignition button was located beside a conveniently placed electronic parking brake control.

My only dislike with the A4 was the location of the cruise control stalk behind the steering wheel. I guess it's just a distinctive quirk with Audi, but cruise control is much easier to use when located on the steering wheel.

The solidly built Audi A4 starts at $37,600 and my tester topped out just over $46,000, which puts it in the mix with the other premium sedans from Germany, such as the BMW 3-series or Mercedes-Benz C300. The A4 is also worth a test drive when considering the Cadillac ATS, Lexus IS, or Infiniti Q50.

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Cambridge condo mixes style, comfort

This stylish new condo is one of three carved out of a long, narrow stucco house in North Cambridge that features a long front porch topped with private decks.

The end Unit 1 at 130 Rindge Ave. is the last of the condos for sale, on the market for $975,000, and it features three bedrooms and three levels of living space.

There's not much yard space around the 1875-built property, but the rebuilt front porch does overlook a large, open green space in front of the upscale Wyeth apartments next door. The house's exterior has been completely restored, with new black mullion windows and white trim.

The front porch leads into a foyer, with dark-stained red oak floors that are featured throughout the property, along with 9-foot ceilings with crown molding on the first floor.

To the left of the foyer sits a stylish recessed-lit kitchen,­ with 22 white-­painted wood cabinets and Carrara marble-topped counters with a white beadboard back­splash. There's also a separate Carrara-­topped gray-painted island with a breakfast bar that seats three as well as a double-doored pantry/storage closet. High-end stainless-steel appliances include a Bosch refrigerator and dishwasher as well as a professional-grade Viking gas stove and a matching microwave above.

Adjacent is a dining area, with glass doors that open out to a back porch and down to a private fenced-in patio.

Back inside, to the right of the foyer sits a good-sized recessed-lit living room with crown molding and four six-over-six windows on three sides.

Oak stairs lead up to three oak-floored bedrooms on the second floor with a window at the top of the landing.

The master suite covers half the second floor, with oak flooring, crown molding and recessed lighting. Two front windows bring in light and a pair of glass doors lead out to a private deck over the front porch with views of the open space next door.

The master suite has four closets, all with built-in shelving. The stylish en-suite bathroom is completely marble finished — from its small tile floors to gray tile around a deep soaking tub and shower. And there's a Carrara-topped double-sink wood vanity.

The second bedroom features two windows, two closets and an overhead light/fan. Across the hall sits a small third bedroom best suited as a home office or nursery. It has one deep closet.

The second full bathroom on this floor is equally stylish, with green-and-white small tile marble floors and white marble tile surround with small green tile inlay around a deep soaking tub and a shower. This bathroom also has a Carrara marble-topped wood vanity.

The unit has a fully finished basement, with oak stairs leading down to a carpeted family room.

The large family room has one window and two closets. One holds the unit's two-zone high-efficiency heating and cooling system, and the other has a washer-dryer hookup as well as a Navien tankless water heater.

There's a full bathroom on this level, with small white ceramic tile floors and white ceramic tile surround for a deep soaking tub and shower.

The condo comes with two outdoor parking spaces on a long shared driveway.

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Data of 80M Anthem customers stolen

The computer breach at the country's second-largest insurer is the latest attack on a health care company as hackers aim their sights at valuable information found in medical records, one expert said.

"Everyone in health care knows it's a problem; everyone in health care is taking it very seriously," said John Halamka, chief information officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "Protecting patient data is our mission, but the problem is getting harder to solve than ever."

Yesterday, Anthem Inc., which covers more than 37 million people throughout the country, said data for about 80 million customers were stolen, including names, Social Security numbers, birthdates and street addresses, in a "very sophisticated" attack. Bloomberg reported the company is eyeing Chinese state-sponsored hackers.

Halamka said medical records are an inviting target to hackers. On the black market, medical records go for about $150 each, compared to a dollar for a credit card.

"What we're talking about with medical identity theft is a health care shopping spree; I can get the surgery I need, the health care I can't afford," he said.

Halamka said Beth Israel is spending roughly $3 million a year to keep patient data safe.

"Every day when I wake up, security is one of the first things that I think of," he said.

Anthem does not write policies in Massachusetts, but residents who work for companies based in other states may be affected, according to the state Division of Insurance. Attorney General Maura Healey's office plans to investigate the scope of the data breach in Massachusetts.

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Brian Williams' self-inflicted wound helps arm NBC's critics

Brian Williams is inevitably going to be criticized by lots of couch-bound observers who have never reported from a war zone (including yours truly), but given the forces eager to pounce on any slip by the news organization he represents, he has committed perhaps the worst kind of self-inflicted wound.

The NBC anchor's faulty and seemingly self-aggrandizing "memory" about his stint reporting from Iraq in 2003 pushes enough hot buttons to create a perfect storm of bad publicity. And NBC News has once again looked tardy, at best, in formulating a PR strategy in response to bad news, as it was during transitions at "Today" and "Meet the Press."

Williams has benefited from coming across as a likable anchor - as comfortable throwing out one-liners on a talkshow as he is delivering the news. But he has stepped into the proverbial hornets' nest, for reasons both of his own making and beyond his control.

Williams' embellishment of his experience is particularly damaging coming from a journalist. Essentially, his account has reduced him to the role of unreliable witness, somebody whose version of an event was exposed as being significantly at odds with the facts.

But the real problem is that the story itself - dealing with the military - hands a cudgel to those already inclined to hold a grudge against or distrust NBC News, which explains the almost-gleeful tone of the coverage on Websites like The Drudge Report and Breitbart.com.

Part of that has nothing to do with Williams. NBC happens to be affiliated with MSNBC, whose liberal profile and politics has made it a favorite target of conservatives. Although the two operate separately, they are part of the same corporate family and share talent, allowing many to conflate NBC and MSNBC into a single entity, feeding the perception of a liberal "mainstream media" that can't be trusted.

Those same quadrants were positively overjoyed when Dan Rather was involved in a report about then-President George W. Bush's National Guard service that hastened his exit from CBS News. And while Williams is unlikely to experience anything that serious in terms of the fallout, there's no doubt this cloud will linger over him for a while and be used to discredit or diminish both NBC News and its anchorman the next time the division is involved in something that irks the usual suspects.

Thus far, Williams' explanation of why he would foul up the story sounds like more of an evasion than a response, which won't hasten making the controversy go away. Certainly, the 12-year time lapse hardly covers mixing up something as memorable as being aboard a helicopter that was actually forced to land after having been struck by ground fire.

Finally, there's NBC News, which after awkwardly mishandling baton passes at "Meet the Press" and "Today" needed to look decisive in either disciplining Williams or giving him a vote of confidence. Admittedly, the story keeps changing -- with a helicopter pilot backing up part of what Williams has said on Thursday -- but either way, a guy who looked like the least of the division's problems has now added to its woes.

There's an old saying that just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that people aren't out to get you. But in this case, the reverse also applies: Just because people are out to get you doesn't mean that they're automatically wrong. On that score, Williams' Iraq war story is the epitome of an unforced error by providing his critics, even the unfair ones, legitimate ammunition.

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Staples merger to cut stores

Hundreds to as many as a thousand Staples and Office Depot store closings are expected if federal regulators sign off on the planned $6.3 billion merger of the nation's two largest office supplies chains.

With about half of their combined 3,200-plus U.S. stores within five miles of each other, Citi analyst Kate McShane estimates more than 500 locations could be closed. "We think store closings are likely to be announced down the road, once the deal is approved by the (Federal Trade Commission) and closed," McShane said.

Those closings would be on top of ones already planned by the individual companies, which are downsizing their retail footprint as they struggle to compete with online rivals. Staples has about 55 stores slated to be closed out of 225 it previously announced as part of its retail "reinvention." Office Depot has about 235 stores remaining to be shuttered out of 400 planned closures, according to McShane.

The store closings would be a small part of the estimated $1 billion-plus in annual cost savings that the two companies expect by the end of the third year after a merger closed.

"Store closings and real estate optimization as well as sales initiatives may bear fruit over time, but for now sales and margins continue to decline," said Carol Levenson, director of research, at Gimme Credit, a corporate bond research service.

About 1,000 store closings — either voluntary or forced by the FTC — are expected by Janney Capital Markets analyst David Strasser. That would save the merged company 
$350 million-plus in rent expenses, he said.

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Brian Williams and the lost art of the public apology

Brian Williams is sorry. The NBC anchor said so on his nightly newscast, on Facebook and in the pages of Stars and Stripes, the magazine that first unearthed his repeated lies about flying in a helicopter struck by an RPG over a decade ago in Iraq.

And yet it's not enough.

It's not that being apologetic isn't adequate repentance for Williams' sin. What isn't enough is the nature of the apology he is offering. Like so many wayward public figures who aren't getting the right damage-control advice, Williams seems to believe apologizing early and often will take care of the problem without giving sufficient attention to how they say they are sorry.

Williams and NBC Universal - which may be sweating even more than the anchor is about his future as the face of its news division-probably think they did their best just by addressing the situation head-on in multiple outlets. To make such an apology from the very anchor desk where so many Americans trust him to be unfailingly honest was intended to acknowledge the gravity of his fabrication.

But the substance of what Williams said, and the absence of even feigned contrition in his delivery, only made his predicament worse.

Let's start with the wording of his statement. First, the utterance "I made a mistake" should be retired by all crisis-PR experts for the rest of eternity. It is a sentence intended to sound forthright and remorseful in all its unambiguous pithiness. But overuse over the years has turned "I made a mistake" into the opposite of what it should be; it's such a stock phrase, it basically signifies nothing beyond doing what shamed public figures feel they have to do.

In situations where household names like Williams shock us with their misdeeds, people are more interested in hearing some sense of why the sinner in question did what they did than just blurting out "I'm sorry." Williams attempted to do this by offering what seems like a unbelievable excuse: the "fog of memory" led him to confuse the unharmed helicopter he was actually in with another helicopter that took fire.

Really?

It doesn't take a four-star general to remember correctly whether the aircraft they were in was struck by a missile.

But perhaps Williams could have even garnered some forgiveness for even such a far-fetched alibi had he squeezed even a scintilla of emotion into his written and oral apologies. This is where Williams and so many celebrities have gone wrong when the right words could actually do a lot to pull their feet out of the fire.

From Paula Deen to Amy Pascal, it's amazing how many public apologies are such bloodless, over-calculated nothingburgers that they do more harm than good.

Imagine had Williams spent more than just a minute at an anchor desk-perhaps even a good 10 minutes in a YouTube video, or even a whole hour on "Dateline NBC"-really speaking from the heart (or faking such sincerity).

Be authentic, even vulnerable. Agonize a little. Don't cry if it doesn't come naturally, but emote as if your career depends on it because-guess what?-it does.

Last year provided a decent example of a star who managed to do this correctly. Recall the accusations of homophobia Jonah Hill faced when he uttered some unfortunate epithets in a TMZ video. He went on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" and either gave a performance even better than his role in "Moneyball" or resembled an actual choked-up, torn-up human being.

What if Williams had dropped the robo-anchor persona and, rather than saying he got confused, spoke at length on camera about what really happened that day. The sight of a genuinely repentant individual could go a long way to repairing his reputation.

All this criticism of Williams may sound unsympathetic, but to the contrary: If he makes the right moves, a man who by all other indications is a good person who, like all of us sometimes, made an unfortunate mistake can turn this around. It's not too late to save his career.

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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US gains 257K jobs, unemployment rate ticks up to 5.7 pct.

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers hired at a stellar pace last month, wages rose by the most in six years, and Americans responded by streaming into the job market to find work.

The Labor Department said Friday that the economy gained a seasonally adjusted 257,000 jobs in January, and added far more in previous months than originally estimated. Businesses added 414,000 jobs in November, the government now says, the most in 17 years. Total job gains in December were also revised higher, to 329,000, up from 252,000.

Average hourly wages, meanwhile, jumped 12 cents to $24.75, the biggest gain since September 2008. In the past year, hourly pay has increased 2.2 percent.

The unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. More Americans began looking for jobs, though not all found work. Their job hunting suggests they are more confident about their prospects.

That is ahead of inflation, which rose just 0.7 percent in 2014. The sharp drop in gas prices in the past year has held down inflation and boosted Americans' spending power. Still, wages typically increase at a 3.5 percent pace in a fully healthy economy.

Strong hiring pushes up wages as employers compete for fewer workers. Job gains have now averaged 336,000 a month for the past three months, the best three-month pace in 17 years. Just a year ago, the three-month average was only 197,000.

The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring wages and other job market data as it considers when to begin raising the short-term interest rate it controls from a record low near zero. The Fed has kept rates at record lows for more than six years to help stimulate growth. Most economists think the central bank will start boosting rates as early as June.

Steady economic growth has encouraged companies to keep hiring. The economy expanded at a 4.8 percent annual rate during spring and summer, the fastest six-month pace in a decade, before slowing to a still-decent 2.6 percent pace in the final three months of 2014.

There are now 3.2 million more Americans earning paychecks than there were 12 months ago. That lifts consumer spending, which drives about 70 percent of economic growth.

More hiring, along with sharply lower gasoline prices, has boosted Americans' confidence and spending power. Consumer confidence jumped in January to its highest level in a decade, according to a survey by the University of Michigan. And Americans increased their spending during the final three months of last year at the fastest pace in nearly nine years.

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Staples seeks approval for Office Depot deal

Changes in the competitive landscape could pave the way for Framingham-based Staples to get a regulatory OK for its proposed $6.3 billion takeover of Office Depot — nearly two decades after the Federal Trade Commission nixed a merger of the No. 1 and 2 office supplies chains over concerns about higher prices for consumers.

Office Depot ended up merging with OfficeMax in 2013 in a $1.2 billion deal that took seven months for the FTC to approve. In its decision, the FTC noted the broader array of companies that sell office supplies, including Wal-Mart, Target, Costco and Sam's Club, and the office supplies chains' substantial loss of in-store sales to online competitors like Amazon.

"Both Staples and Office Depot have really carefully considered the anti-trust risk associated with the deal in concert with our respective legal advisers," Staples CEO Ron Sargent said yesterday. "We agree with (the FTC's) public statement following the closure of the (Office) Depot and (Office) Max investigation in 2013 (that) the market for the sale of consumable office supplies has changed significantly since 1997."

Still, Staples founder Tom Stemberg, who resigned as chairman in 2005, expects a "potentially long and nasty legal skirmish" with the FTC after it "created what's probably one of the biggest legal precedents in their history" with its 1997 decision.

"What's going to be curious is if they can walk away from that precedent by approving this deal or whether they'll probably figure out a way to fight it," he said on CNBC. "I think they have to fight it, and they'll jury-rig the market."

B. Riley & Co. analyst R. Scott Tilghman expects greater FTC scrutiny of the proposed merger given its sheer size. The FTC review likely also will put greater focus on the companies' commercial contract business, said Tilghman, but he expects the feds to sign off on the retail side of the merger.

"While some may argue that commercial office supplies is a highly fragmented business, we think large enterprise customers, large wholesalers like United Stationers and S.P. Richards, and the office supplies manufacturers are less enthusiastic about seeing significantly increased market share for the largest office supplies retailer," Citi analyst Kate McShane said in a research note yesterday.

Staples will pay Office Depot $250 million if the deal is terminated due to antitrust requirements.

The combined company would continue to be headquartered in Framingham and be led by Sargent.

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NBC's Brian Williams admits he told false story about Iraq expedition

The most-watched evening-news anchor on television today has acknowledged that he falsely claimed to have been on a helicopter that was shot down by enemy fire while on an NBC News reporting trip in Iraq in 2003.

In fact, Brian Williams of NBC News said in an interview with the military-focused outlet Stars & Stripes, he was on a different plane that was never under fire and that landed safely about an hour behind one that had.

Watch: Brian Williams tellI Iraq story to David Letterman in 2013

"I would not have chosen to make this mistake," Williams said in the interview. "I don't know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another."

And yet, as the newspaper determined, Williams has told the false story several times since making the 2003 trip. In promotional releases and in comments made as recently as earlier this month, Williams told and retold a story about how he and an NBC News crew had been aboard on a Chinook helicopter that was forced down by rockets and small-arms fire. In reality, according to crew members who were aboard the fallen whirlybird, Williams and his crew landed near the downed helicopter due to an impending sandstorm about to erupt in the Iraqi desert.

Williams addressed the issue Wednesday night on NBC's "Nightly News with Brian Williams," admitting that he "bungled" an attempt to thank one veteran in particular. "I made a mistake in recalling the events in 12 years ago. It did not take long to hear from the brave men and women and their crews," he said, alluding to the Iraq veterans who repudiated his account.

"I hope they know they have my greatest respect and now, my apology," he added.

A spokeswoman for NBC News did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Hackers access records for millions of Anthem customers

INDIANAPOLIS — Health insurer Anthem said hackers infiltrated its computer network and gained access to personal information for "tens of millions" of customers and employees, including CEO Joseph Swedish.

The nation's second-largest health insurer said it was contacting customers affected by what it calls a "very sophisticated" cyberattack that the company discovered last week. It said hackers gained access to names, birthdates, email address, employment details, Social Security numbers, incomes and street addresses of people who are currently covered or have had coverage in the past.

The Indianapolis-based insurer said credit card information wasn't compromised, and it has yet to find evidence that medical information such as insurance claims and test results was targeted or obtained. It was still trying to determine exactly how many people were affected.

A spokeswoman said the insurer was working with federal investigators to figure out who was behind the attack.

Anthem Inc., which recently changed its name from WellPoint, runs Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in more than a dozen states, including California, New York and Ohio. It covers more than 37 million people.

The insurer said all of its product lines were affected. It sells mainly private individual and group health insurance, plans on the health care overhaul's public insurance exchanges and Medicare and Medicaid coverage. It also offers life insurance and dental and vision coverage.

Affected brands include Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Amerigroup.

Anthem said Wednesday evening that the FBI is investigating and the company has hired Internet security company Mandiant to improve its network defenses. The insurer will provide free credit monitoring and identity protection services.

The FBI urged Anthem customers contacted by the insurer to report suspected instances of identity theft.

In 2013, the insurer agreed to pay $1.7 million to resolve allegations it left the information of more than 612,000 members available online because of inadequate safeguards. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that security weaknesses in an online application database left names, birthdates, addresses, telephone numbers, Social Security numbers, and health data accessible to unauthorized users.

The Health and Human Services Department said then that the insurer didn't have adequate policies for authorizing access to the database, didn't perform a needed technical evaluation after a software upgrade, and did not have technical safeguards to verify that the people or entities seeking access were authorized to view the information in the database.

In 2008, the insurer offered free credit monitoring after it said personal information for about 128,000 customers in several states had been exposed online. In 2006, backup computer tapes containing the personal information of 200,000 of its members were stolen from a Massachusetts vendor's office.

Swedish, who was not running the company when those security breaches occurred, apologized to customers on a website that the insurer established to explain the latest problem, www.anthemfacts.com.

"We will continue to do everything in our power to make our systems and security processes better and more secure, and hope that we can earn back your trust and confidence in Anthem," he said.

Anthem shares sank 2.6 percent, or $3.65, to $134 in premarket trading about an hour before the market open Thursday.

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Watch: Brian Williams tells Iraq story to David Letterman in 20

Brian Williams, who acknowledged Wednesday that he falsely claimed to have been on a helicopter that was shot down by enemy fire while on an NBC News reporting trip in Iraq in 2003, has apparently been telling the story for years.

In a 2013 clip from the "Late Show from David Letterman," Williams recounted the fabricated story to the CBS host, in which he claims to have been in the aircraft that came under attack.

"We were in the invasion," he said, noting it was the 10th anniversary of the incident.

"Two of our four helicopters were hit including the one I was in, RPG and AK-47."

But on Wednesday, the NBC News anchor admitted that he was on a different plane that was never, in fact, under fire and that he had "bungled" the true events.

"I don't know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another," he said in an interview published Wednesday.

According to military outlet Stars & Stripes, Williams has told the false story several times since making the 2003 trip, including once last month.

In 2004, Williams took over as NBC News anchor after veteran journalist Tom Brokaw retired.

"As a war correspondent, I am not terribly good at it," he said to Letterman in the 2013 video. "I do not do it full-time, I am New York based."

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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New Balance joins soccer market with Liverpool shirt deal

LIVERPOOL, England — Boston-based sportswear manufacturer New Balance is taking over as shirt supplier of Premier League club Liverpool from next season, in what the English team says is a "record-breaking" and "multi-year" deal.

Liverpool is currently three years into a six-year deal with Warrior, which is owned by New Balance. That deal was reported at the time to be worth 25 million pounds (then $38.6 million) a year to Liverpool, which is owned by Fenway Sports Group — the parent company of the Boston Red Sox.

New Balance will be responsible for designing the Liverpool shirts and training apparel.

Liverpool says in a statement released Thursday that the deal will "support the manufacturer's growth and entry into the football market."

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Virgin Galactic gets back on track toward space tourism

UPHAM, N.M. — The only thing interrupting the creosote and mesquite that makes up one of New Mexico's most remote stretches of desert is a pristine runway where Virgin Galactic plans one day to launch the world's first commercial space-line.

In the four years since its completion, however, the runway has seen little use. No constant roar of jet engines. No screeches from landing gear. Just promises, year after year, that it would shuttle paying passengers to the edges of Earth.

Virgin Galactic had proclaimed 2015 was finally going to be the year. That was until the company's rocket-powered spacecraft broke apart over California's Mojave Desert during a test flight last fall, killing one pilot and igniting speculation about the future of commercial space tourism and Spaceport America.

Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said things are on track now and testing will take off again this year.

"I really think we're turning the corner," Whitesides said. "We've gone through one of the toughest things a company can go through and we're still standing, and now we're really moving forward with pace."

He said the company and its investors aren't backing down from the goal of making space accessible.

Virgin Galactic's manufacturing crew is about two-thirds done with building a new spacecraft, and the operations team is ramping up for a test-flight program that will serve as one of the last major hurdles to getting off the ground.

"Our company has spent a lot of time and money to get to the point where we can carry out successful commercial operations at Spaceport America. We're still committed," he said.

Whitesides has always been reluctant to attach a timeline to the milestones the company needs to reach, but he's certain test flights will resume later this year.

That's what New Mexico taxpayers want to hear.

They've already funneled nearly a quarter of a billion dollars into the world's first purpose-built spaceport, and state lawmakers are being asked for nearly $2 million more this year to make up for the lost fees stemming from the delay in Virgin Galactic's commercial flights.

Some lawmakers have called for pulling the plug, adding fuel to criticisms that the project — first initiated by former Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, and British billionaire Richard Branson — is a boondoggle.

Others, including Republican Gov. Susana Martinez's administration, say the state has a chance to carve out a new niche for economic development and position itself on the front end of space tourism.

New Mexico has struggled to rebound from the recession, creating only 14,000 jobs over the past year while neighboring states have bounced back to 2008 employment levels.

Whitesides visited Spaceport America in December. The runway was quiet, but workers inside the massive, futuristic hangar continued to outfit it for the day Virgin Galactic opens.

"I really think we're on the edge of something truly incredible, which is enabling people and students to experience space, whether going themselves or sending their experiments," he said.

He added, "These things are hard. That's why they haven't happened yet."

Christine Anderson, the head of New Mexico's Spaceport Authority, pointed to the ill-fated Apollo I test launch and the 1986 Challenger explosion as examples of space exploration efforts that resulted in tragedy. Still, astronauts and scientists pushed on, and she said those backing Virgin Galactic and Spaceport America are doing the same.

"We have invested $218 million, so there's absolutely no reason to stop now," she said.

Virgin Galactic continues to pay its lease, and more money will come from lease and user fees related to the testing scheduled to begin this spring for a reusable rocket being developed by Elon Musk's SpaceX. But Anderson acknowledged that the spaceport needs to entice more tenants and host other events, including fashion and auto photo shoots, conferences and more rocket launches by companies such as UP Aerospace.

The spaceport in late February also expects to open its visitors' gallery at the site, which spans more than 28 square miles.

"The challenge was to build a commercial spaceport here. There was absolutely nothing here. We did it," Anderson said. "It's amazing to think of it."

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Ink Block area to get boutique hotel

A contemporary 200-room, design-focused boutique hotel is planned for Boston's South End, next to the Ink Block project that's helping to reshape a once drab area now undergoing significant redevelopment.

Newton's National Development hopes to start construction this year on an AC Hotel by Marriott on the former FW Webb and Independent Taxi sites on Albany Street, with a 2017 targeted opening.

"We've been trying to ... create an interesting and exciting urban community, and the hotel really supports the restaurants and retail activity that we're creating," managing partner Ted Tye said.

The Ink Block occupies the former Boston Herald headquarters site and includes a new Whole Foods Market and apartments. The Sepia condos are set to open in September, and multiple retail shops and restaurants are in the works. Herald publisher Patrick J. Purcell has a minority stake in the development.

As a select-service property, the hotel will not have its own large restaurant or meeting space, but will have a fitness facility and small bar, with parking at the Ink Block.

"We'll really focus on using the restaurants within Ink Block for the hotel," Tye said. "I want the activity of the Ink Block to be a real draw for (guests) of the hotel who want to stay down in this neighborhood."

National Development will own the hotel as a Marriott franchisee and hire an outside company to manage it.

AC Hotels started in Europe in 1998 before affiliating with Marriott in 2011. The chain has one U.S. hotel, in New Orleans, with others slated to open this year in Washington, D.C., Miami Beach and Kansas City.

It's a great brand for urban locations, particularly hip and gentrified ones, according to Andrea Foster, senior vice president and New England practice manager for PKF Consulting.

"The South End is a good location for an AC Hotel within Boston," she said.

And now is a good time in the hotel industry to build.

"We're still seeing improvements in performance (in the Boston market), and now we're seeing a lot of development happening because occupancy and rate increases are so good," Foster said.

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Australia cuts interest rate to record low 2.25 percent

SYDNEY — Australia's central bank cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low of 2.25 percent on Tuesday in a bid to jolt an economy weighed down by falling commodity prices.

The Reserve Bank of Australia's quarter percentage point rate cut at a monthly board meeting was its first since August 2013. It came as a surprise to many economists, who expected the bank to hold off on lowering the rate until later in the year. Subdued inflation, however, has given the central bank more scope to stimulate Australia's $1 trillion economy.

The news shook the Australian dollar which dropped 1.8 percent 76.5 cents. The stock market was boosted, with the S&P/ASX 200 up 1.5 percent.

Resource-rich Australia managed to avoid a recession during the global financial crisis thanks to a decade-long mining boom. But with the economy weakening in China, which is Australia's largest export market, prices for commodities such as iron ore and coal have dropped.

Australia's move follows monetary easing steps by other central banks though is modest compared with the unprecedented stimulus programs that Japan and Europe have embarked on to revive long stagnant economies.

In a statement, the central bank's governor Glenn Stevens said commodity prices have continued to decline, "in some cases sharply," particularly oil.

The bank also said that while the U.S. economy had strengthened, European and Japanese economies were weaker than expected, and forecasts for global growth this year were moderate.

"In Australia the available information suggests that growth is continuing at a below-trend pace, with domestic demand growth overall quite weak," Stevens said. The fall in oil prices would offer "significant support" to consumer spending but that is partly offset by weakening growth in incomes, he said.

"The economy is likely to be operating with a degree of spare capacity for some time yet," he said.

Treasurer Joe Hockey dubbed the rate cut good news that would bolster the country's economy.

"It is going to help to create more jobs because business is going to be able to pay less for their debt, as consumers should pay less for their debt and as people with a mortgage should pay less for their debt," he told reporters in Canberra, the nation's capital.

Stevens has repeatedly stressed that the Australian dollar is too high, despite the currency plummeting in recent weeks to around 77 U.S. cents, the lowest level since the global financial crisis. The Australian dollar reached an all-time high of $1.10 in 2011.

In his statement Tuesday, Stevens acknowledged the Australian dollar had declined noticeably, but said it remains above most estimates of its fundamental value. "A lower exchange rate is likely to be needed to achieve balanced growth in the economy," he said.

Spiros Papadopoulos, senior economist at National Australia Bank, suspects the bank will cut the rate again later this year, though not at its next meeting.

"The combination of weak growth, further increases in unemployment and a very subdued inflation outlook has really given them that room to maneuver," he said.

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Coke bets on 'premium milk' to boost declining category

NEW YORK — Coke is coming out with premium milk that has more protein and less sugar than regular. And it's betting people will pay twice as much for it.

The national rollout of Fairlife over the next several weeks marks Coca-Cola's entry into the milk case in the U.S. and is one way the world's biggest beverage maker is diversifying its offerings as Americans continue turning away from soft drinks.

It also comes as people increasingly seek out some type of functional boost from their foods and drinks, whether it's more fiber, antioxidants or protein. That has left the door open for Coke step into the milk category, where the differences between options remain relatively minimal and consumption has been declining for decades.

"It's basically the premiumization of milk," Sandy Douglas, president of Coca-Cola North America, said at an analyst conference in November. If developed properly, Douglas said it is the type of product that "rains money."

Fairlife, which Coca-Cola formed in partnership with dairy cooperative Select Milk Producers in 2012, says its milk goes through a filtration process that's akin the way skim milk is made. Filters are used to separate the various components in milk. Then, more of the favorable components are added, while the less desirable ones are kept out.

The result is a drink that Fairlife says is lactose free and has 50 percent more protein, 30 percent more calcium and 50 percent less sugar than regular milk.

The same process is used make Fairlife's Core Power, a drink marketed to athletes that has even more protein and calcium than Fairlife milk.

Sue McCloskey, who developed the system used to make Fairlife with her husband Mike McCloskey, said Fairlife will be marketed more broadly to women who are the "gatekeepers" for their families' nutritional needs.

Even while touting its nutritional advantages, however, Fairlife will need to be careful about communicating how its drink is made. Jonas Feliciano, senior beverage analyst for market researcher Euromonitor, noted people want drinks that "do something for me," but that Fairlife's juiced-up nutritional stats may make people hesitant about how natural it is.

"They have to explain that this is not an abomination of nature," Feliciano said.

Already, Fairlife has been subject to some teasing. After the drink was referenced in Coke's analyst presentation, comedian Stephen Colbert referred to it as "extra expensive science milk" and made fun of the elaborate way it's made.

"It's like they got Frankenstein to lactate," he said.

Colbert also took a dig at the wholesome image Fairlife is trying to project, noting that it's made by the "nature loving health nuts at Coca-Cola." That may explain why Coca-Cola is distancing itself from the product; a representative for the Atlanta-based company referred questions to Fairlife's outside representative.

In a phone interview, Fairlife CEO and former Coke executive Steve Jones said he thinks his company can help reverse the ongoing decline in milk consumption by offering a superior product. Major retailers including Wal-Mart, Target, Kroger and Safeway have agreed to carry it and Coca-Cola's Minute Maid team plans to make it available wherever milk is sold.

The drink, which comes in a sleek plastic bottle reminiscent of milk cartons, has already started appearing on shelves and is expected to continue rolling out nationally over the next several weeks.

At a supermarket in Indianapolis, a 52-ounce bottle of Fairlife was being sold for $4.59. By comparison, the national average cost for a half-gallon of milk, which is 64 ounces, is $2.18, according to the USDA. For organic milk, the average is $3.99.

Fairlife is just one of many ventures by Coca-Cola, which also recently took stakes in energy drink maker Monster Beverages and Keurig Green Mountain, which makes single-serving coffee machines and pods.

Over time, Coca-Cola is hoping premium milk can become a significant driver of growth. For now, Fairlife is still trying to find its footing in the marketplace.

This summer, the company ran ads in the test markets of Minneapolis and Denver featuring women wearing nothing but milk splashes in the shape of dresses. The images were accompanied by phrases like, "Better Milk Looks Good On You," leading them to be deemed sexist in some corners.

Jones said the ads were intended to be "disruptive," since new products need to grab people's attention. But moving forward, Fairlife plans to focus on its authentic milk taste and the farmers who produce it in national marketing, which will roll out around the end of March or April.

While declining to provide details, Jones said Fairlife intends to "crank up the awareness level very, very quickly."

___

Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

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Fiat Chrysler, Nissan report big Jan. US sales jumps

DETROIT — Fiat Chrysler and Nissan each reported double-digit U.S. sales increases in January, signs that car sales didn't spin out even with a major snowstorm hitting the Northeast.

Chrysler said Tuesday that its sales rose 14 percent last month to just over 145,000 vehicles for its best January since 2007.

Nissan reported that its sales rose 15 percent to just over 104,000 for the best January in company history.

Overall, U.S. sales of new vehicles were expected to jump by double digits in January, continuing the brisk pace of the last half of 2014. Kelley Blue Book predicts sales will rise 13 percent to 1.14 million vehicles, making this the best January in nine years. All automakers report U.S. sales results on Tuesday.

January is typically a slow month for the auto industry. Buyers have less incentive to shop, since automakers offer fewer deals and promotions after the holidays and tax bills are looming. Bad weather can also keep customers away.

But this January was a big improvement over last year, when the polar vortex caused record-setting cold in much of the country. This year, the East Coast blizzard was the only significant weather event that might have slowed sales at the end of the month, said Alec Gutierrez, senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book.

Gas prices continued to fall in January, hitting a six-year low of $2.03 per gallon on Jan. 26, according to AAA. That gave consumers the confidence to choose bigger vehicles. LMC Automotive, a forecasting firm, said trucks, vans and SUVs were expected to account for 55 percent of sales in January, the highest percentage since 2004.

At Chrysler, the Jeep brand posted its best January ever with sales up 23 percent. The new Cherokee small SUV led the way with a 44 percent increase to 15,154, the largest gain of any Jeep model. Ram pickup sales also were strong, rising 14 percent to 26,618.

Nissan was led by the Altima midsize car with sales up 17 percent to 26,408. Rogue small SUV sales rose 13 percent to 15,649.

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Tom Brady cameos in 'Ted 2′ Super Bowl spot

"Ted 2" really took advantage of the situation in its Super Bowl XLIX spot.

Universal unveiled a new clip of the sequel to 2012's "Ted," showing Mark Wahlberg and the titular Seth MacFarlene-voiced teddy making an unwanted appearance in the home of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

Unsurprisingly, there's penis jokes abound, and after Brady kicks the two out of his home, Wahlberg's character notes that the quarterback threw his pillow at them in a perfect spiral.

Amanda Seyfried will also star in the sequel, which MacFarlene is returning to write and direct in addition to his voice duties. "Ted 2" will hit theaters June 26.

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Record overnight ratings for game

NEW YORK — The Super Bowl scored its highest-ever overnight ratings for New England's thrilling win over Seattle, an early indication the game may be on the way to another viewership record.

The Nielsen company said Monday the game had a 49.7 rating in the nation's largest media markets, up 4 percent over last year's game. That means 49.7 percent of the nation's 116 million homes with television were watching the game.

Nielsen had no immediate estimate of the number of viewers. Last year's contest between Seattle and Denver was seen by 111.5 million, the annual game setting a record for the most-watched TV event in U.S. history for the fourth time in five years.

The game had a 72 share, meaning 72 percent of televisions on Sunday night were tuned to NBC's broadcast of the game in which the Patriots scored a 28-24 victory over the Seahawks.

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Super Bowl ads: The best, the worst, the movies and NBC

Super Bowl advertising is almost invariably overrated, which doesn't spare us from the impulse -- even the need -- to rate it.

As usual, the hype surrounding the ads turned many into a super-bust, suggesting that the folks on Madison Avenue are either bereft of ideas or, in some instances, taking too much advantage of liberalized pot laws.

There was some excitement going into the game about an influx of relatively new advertisers, offering the promise of new blood. But just as a wave of newcomers in 2000 preceded the dot-com meltdown, this year's crop of novice sponsors merely exposed a lot of not-ready-for-primetime players in the marketing world.

Of course, the criticism isn't limited to the new guys. Car companies in general had a bad day. And Budweiser- which traditionally wields the biggest stick during the game - didn't so much come up with new creative as recycle it, going back to the cross-species love affair between puppies and Clydesdales and erecting a giant Pac-Man maze to prove that, um, what was the point of that Bud Light spot again? (Admittedly, the puppy ad will no doubt be one of the day's most popular in snap polls.)

The overall mix once again seemed to careen from the hopelessly schmaltzy ("Care makes a man stronger," says Dove) to the simply goofy (Doritos strapping a rocket to a pig) to the borderline bizarre, such as Snickers dropping Danny Trejo and Steve Buscemi into an old "The Brady Bunch" episode.

There was also a surplus of poorly utilized celebrities, including Mindy Kaling for Nationwide; Kim Kardashian for T-Mobile, along with Chelsea Handler and Sarah Silverman; and Pierce Brosnan for Kia. And while Liam Neeson was great, can anybody remember what the product was?

Another subcategory would be the overproduced extravaganza, such as Mercedes' CGI "Tortoise & the Hare" retelling or Bud Light's aforementioned Pac-Man spot. Some of these fare well in audience surveys, but the link between creative and advertiser is so tenuous the benefits often seem exaggerated. And while it's not necessarily fair, both Microsoft and Toyota's ads featuring people walking thanks to prosthetic blades were undermined in part by the specter of Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius, who was found guilty of murder last year.

Finally, there were the public-service announcements, with the sobering NoMore.org domestic violence spot - which resonated in light of the NFL's Ray Rice fiasco - and Always' "Like a Girl" campaign. Yet as compelling as those spots were, they almost have to be broken out separately from more directly commercial advertising.

So what were the principal highlights and lowlights? Separating out movies (which are essentially their own animal), public-service announcements and NBC's promos for its midseason lineup, they loosely breakdown as follows:

THE BEST

ESurance: Tapping Bryan Cranston in "Breaking Bad" mode was a genius move, mostly because of the instant cool the association creates in the mind of the show's fans. In this case, they really did have a lot of us at hello.

Fiat: Look, we all know car ads are essentially about sex. Fiat made the connection overt by dropping a Viagra tablet into one of its cars. If not the best ad of the day, it was the most truthful, since it's hard to think of any other reason to drive a Fiat.

Carnival Cruises: Wedding John F. Kennedy's voice discussing man's love affair with the ocean to beautiful imagery of ships at sea accomplished the near-impossible: It almost made me forget Kathie Lee Gifford and think, at least momentarily, about taking a Carnival Cruise. Plus, in practical terms, the Kennedy-era contingent probably a big part of the company's target demo.

Coca-Cola: While it's unlikely spilling Coke on the Internet will sap the venom out of Web comments and our political discourse, it's hard not to applaud the underlying sentiment and idealism. Notably, McDonald's went for a similar uplifting spiel with its "Pay With Lovin'" ad, which is probably effective from a marketing standpoint but felt cloying as a commercial.

BMW: Great idea reuniting of Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel, using a 20-year-old clip of the former "Today" cohosts to make a point about technology. Even if you don't much care for the talent, it was certainly clever.

Avocados: The idea of going back to the first draft for the Ark was very funny and well suited to the occasion.

Wix.com: Using former NFL stars to pitch its service was an amusing, quick and easy way of explaining what the company offers.

THE WORST

Nationwide: "This kid never grew up because he died" is an awfully depressing message to peddle to a lot of people up to their eyeballs in nachos and beer. Just an enormous miscalculation.

GoDaddy: OK, in the past the company has been outrageous, but in hindsight, that's better than being completely boring.

Nissan: Yes, we should have gotten all choked up by Harry Chapin's "Cats in the Cradle," but couldn't help thinking the ad was as long as the actual song.

Dodge: The idea of featuring people 100 years old in an ad seemed great, right up until you realized it was a pitch for a 100-year-old car brand. As virtually every other car ad on Sunday made clear, auto technology is about the future, not the past.

Lexus: A perfect example of all style, no substance. In fact, 20 minutes later couldn't remember what it was about.

Squarespace: It's very nice that the company had enough money to hire Jeff Bridges and buy Super Bowl time. Now go away.

Jublia/Loctite: Toenail fungus isn't cute, even if you put a football helmet on it; ditto for setting glue to music. Seriously, guys, stick to advertising at 3 a.m. on cable news, where you belong.

THE MOVIES

Movies often have a hard time standing out during the Super Bowl, since the creative is invariably just a glorified cut-down of a theatrical trailer. Those limitations, however, haven't stopped action films in particular from capitalizing on this once-a-year opportunity to reach slightly drunken men in such enormous numbers.

In descending order on the "Yeah, that probably made me want to see it more" scale:

Jurassic World: Dinosaurs and Chris Pratt. What's not to like (assuming you can ignore all the other lousy "Jurassic Park" sequels)?

Fifty Shades of Grey: A lot of men are likely going to get dragged to this movie. The trailer almost felt calibrated, shrewdly, to whet their curiosity, playing up both the sex and its status as a cultural phenomenon.

Tomorrowland: Other than the fact George Clooney's in it, very hard to determine much about the plot or tone of this from the ad that ran. Plus, who would ever go see a movie based on a theme-park attraction. (What? "Pirates of the" who?)

Terminator Genisys: Yes, it's an enormously durable franchise, but this still looks like one of the most-anticipated movies of 1995, featuring an AARP-eligible Terminator.

Minions/Ted 2/Furious 7: If you didn't know these sequels were coming out later this year, well, now you do. Although have to say, that last one does blow stuff up real good.

NBC

The host network always uses the game to push its midseason lineup, with the move of "The Blacklist" to Thursday nights representing its biggest gamble.

That said, NBC's best promotion was, naturally, devoted to the show that probably needs such help the least: "The Voice." Not only did the "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome"-inspired spot actually make sense (which can be rare with these specifically produced efforts), but it looked like it cost a fortune.

As for "The Blacklist," the network's postgame telecast was the only real ad the show needed for its Thursday move, which is good, because the spots that ran during the game didn't do much to sell it to the uninitiated.

In terms of the new shows, NBC's "Odyssey" spot was too cryptic, while the network fared somewhat better with its teases for "Allegiance," "Heroes Reborn" and "A.D.," simply because the concepts aren't complicated. "The Slap" promo was also effective, although frankly, probably gave more away than it should.

Sister Comcast networks also squeezed into the act, with USA promoting "Dig," which looked big and theatrical; and E!'s plug for its first drama, "The Royals," which felt more like "Access Hollywood" outtakes than a TV show, even with Elizabeth Hurley strutting through it.

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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US consumer spending slips in December as auto sales weaken

WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer spending slipped in December, as the pace of motor vehicle sales slowed and more Americans saved their money.

The Commerce Department said Monday that consumer spending fell 0.3 percent in December, compared to a 0.5 percent increase in November. Cheaper gasoline and fewer auto sales accounted for most of the decline. Energy prices tumbled 5.2 percent in December for the sixth straight monthly decline.

Personal income rose 0.3 percent in December, aided by the steady wave of hiring over the past year. But rather than spend those gains, consumers saved 4.9 percent of their disposable income, up from 4.3 percent in November.

Despite the decrease, several indicators show that Americans are growing more comfortable about the economy and are spending money again.

"Further big real income gains and soaring confidence point to serious strength in spending," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. "(W)e would not be surprised to see gains approaching 5 percent annualized in the spring."

Consumer spending rose at an annual clip of 4.3 percent during the final three months of 2014, the strongest pace since early 2006, the government reported Friday. That surge helped drive overall economic growth of 2.6 percent, as roughly 70 percent of gross domestic product stems from consumer activity.

The University of Michigan reported that its consumer sentiment index stood at 98.1 percent in January, the highest reading since 2004. Half of the consumers surveyed expect the current expansion to continue for the next five years.

Similarly, incomes are rising at a slightly better pace. The Labor Department's employment cost index, which measures pay and benefits, climbed 2.2 percent in 2014, up from 2 percent the previous year. Despite the improvement, the index remains below its historical increase of 3.5 percent.

Much of the ongoing momentum will depend on whether the economy continues to spawn jobs, and most believe that that will be the case.

Economists expect the U.S. to report Friday that employers added 230,000 jobs. If the forecast proves accurate, the economy will have gained at least 200,000 jobs in each of the past 12 months, the best streak since the 16 months of gains in excess of 200,000 between 1993 and 1994.

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Netflix formally announces plans to raise $1 billion more debt to fund content

Netflix officially announced Monday that it intends to offer $1 billion in long-term debt, which the company plans to use for content acquisitions and other general purposes.

In reporting earnings last month, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells told investors they were planning to raise at least a billion dollars of debt, given the company's step-up in content investment as well as the "current favorable interest-rate environment."

"Over the next few years we expect to continue financing our original content expansion with long-term debt," Hastings and Wells wrote in the letter. "As long as the maturities are spread out, and the interest cost is built into our content budgets, we think long-term debt is the best way for Netflix to finance the production of content."

The execs said in the first quarter of 2015, it will increase the amount of cash used for original projects launching in the period. Upcoming series include the third season of "House of Cards," slated to launch Feb. 27. All told, the company this year expects to launch 320 hours of new and returning original series, as well as films, documentaries and stand-up comedy specials, which is three times the amount of original programming Netflix released in 2014, they said.

Netflix noted that the interest rate, maturity date and other terms of the debt will be determined via negotiations with the initial purchasers.

As of the end of 2014, Netflix reported $900 million in long-term debt on its balance sheet. The company issued $400 million in 10-year notes last year, after raising $500 million in 2013.

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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MassChallenge starts up 2015 with lots new

MassChallenge kicks off a new season on three continents this month, with a new managing director and new workspace for startups in Boston.

The accelerator and competition's programs in the Hub, Tel Aviv and its newest location — London — will accept applications from Feb. 11 to April 1.

At the helm of the Boston program is Scott Bailey, who started a year out of college as an unpaid intern at MassChallenge in 2010. Since then, he has held nearly every position at the startup accelerator, most recently leading partnerships and fundraising, before being promoted to managing director this month.

"It's been a wild ride," said Bailey, 27. "I feel like I've aged 10 years."

Bailey and Roman Kern, MassChallenge Boston's new director of programs and operations, will work closely with the board of advisers to refine and expand the organization's core offerings.

In addition to kicking off the Boston program this month, they'll launch Made@MassChallenge, a 5,000-square-foot space, adjacent to their Innovation District headquarters, where startups will be able to use hardware and software tools to build their prototypes.

MassChallenge also is in talks with the city of Newton about using a former branch library where the program's alumni could spend a year growing their companies.

"We're still shaping what that looks like," Bailey said. "We're always thinking of support for entrepreneurs, and there's a great mentor network there."

In the meantime, he said, MassChallenge is continuing to pursue its strategy of global expansion.

Boston will accept 128 startups into this year's class, Bailey said, and Israel will likely send 10 to 12 teams to the Boston program as finalists. The UK will decide how many finalists to accept, based on the quality of the applicant pool, he said. Applicants will be able to indicate which location they're interested in, Bailey said, and the finalists will be placed in the program that best suits their needs.

In Boston, finalists will be announced May 20 and have four months of free office space and mentoring, culminating in an Oct. 28 ceremony where they'll give their final pitches and compete for more than $1 million in no-strings-attached cash prizes.

The Israel and UK startups will not compete with the Boston finalists for the same prize money, Bailey said. Each program will award its own cash prizes.

Over the next five years, MassChallenge plans to open 10 new global hubs.

"We want there to be a MassChallenge location on every populated continent," Bailey said. "We have overwhelming interest and are researching the best places to open our next location."

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Harvard hacks for congress

A group of techies, political scientists and open government advocates are putting their heads together at a hackathon this weekend to develop new digital tools, policies and technologies to overcome the dysfunction gripping Congress.

"There are about 250 people from many walks of life and many disciplines here at Harvard Kennedy School to think through and hopefully start solving some of the biggest problems facing Congress — problems of access, problems of understandability, what my elected official or legislator is actually doing," said Seamus Kraft, executive director and co-founder of The OpenGov Foundation, which is holding the #Hack4Congress event with Harvard Kennedy School. "How can we use technology, design, data science, good old-fashioned American common sense (to help)?"

Maggie McKinley, one of the organizers and a fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School, said everyone has a stake in improving how Congress functions.

"Our country is facing a mess of big-picture problems, global warming, the deficit, the tax code, health care. Everyone from either side of the political spectrum has something big that they care about that Congress can't remedy or even talk about," she said. "We've seen some of the most dysfunctional congresses in recent history."

The two-day event that ends today is focusing on five problems: improving the lawmaking process, facilitating cross-partisan discussion, modernizing congressional participation, closing the representation and trust gaps and reforming campaign finance.

One solution, McKinley said, could be software that helps lawmakers work together across the aisle.

"Cross-partisan deliberation is a really interesting area that not a lot of people are working in. We talk a lot about how difficult it is for Congress to function in an era of hyper-partisanship," she said. "This solution looks at a platform in which discussion could get started that's civil and productive."

Kraft, a former congressional employee, said technology on Capitol Hill needs to catch up.

"We are literally running a country with the best technology that 1997 has to offer," he said.

One of the solutions he has in mind is a simple collaboration tool such as Google Docs that would let lawmakers and their staff work together, but take into account security and other federal government mandated concerns.

The groups that come up with winning solutions will be flown to Washington, D.C., in the spring to present their projects to lawmakers.

Jackie Lender, a junior at Harvard, won't be competing because her startup PolityPro is not focused on Congress, but she planned to jump in and help out on other people's projects. She said building new technology and tools for government is critical.

"I think government right now could benefit from a reinvigoration from the entrepreneurship sector," Lender said.

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The Ticker

Feds recall faulty airbags for second fix

Drivers, bring your vehicles back to the shop for more work on faulty air bags.

The government said yesterday more than 2 million Toyota, Chrysler and Honda vehicles need a second fix for air bags that may inadvertently inflate while the car is running.

The recall includes some Acura MDX, Dodge Viper, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Honda Odyssey, Pontiac Vibe, Toyota Corolla and Toyota Avalon models made from 2002 to 2004.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says all of the vehicles covered in yesterday's announcement had already been under a recall for the faulty air bags.

Mass. OKs tribe's casino impact report

The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe announced that Massachusetts has approved the tribe's final environmental impact report for Project First Light.

The tribe wants to build a resort destination casino in Taunton that would fall outside the state's licensing of three gambling palaces.

"This report not only represents the final step in the state's environmental review process, it also affirms the significant economic benefits the project will bring to the region," said Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell.

"The approval allows us to accelerate the final design phase of the overall project."

The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe is proposing to build a casino, with hotels, restaurants, shops and an events center on a 151-acre site. Project First Light will be built on land that will be acquired by the Department of the Interior and placed into trust on behalf of the tribe.

The Mashpee tribe is known as the "People of the First Light," hence the project's name.

TOMORROW

• Commerce Department releases personal income and spending for December.
• Institute for Supply Management releases its manufacturing index for January.
• Commerce Department releases construction spending for December.

TUESDAY

• Commerce Department releases factory orders for December.

WEDNESDAY

• Institute for Supply Management releases its service sector index for January.

THURSDAY

• Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.
• Labor Department releases fourth-quarter productivity data.
• Commerce Department releases international trade data for December.
• Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, releases weekly mortgage rates.

FRIDAY

• Labor Department releases employment data for January.
• Federal Reserve releases consumer credit data for December.

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Spark plugs need changing, but long warmup needless

I have a 2001 PT Cruiser with 100,000 miles on it. Would you recommend a spark plug change? Also, I keep hearing that it's not good to warm up your car nowadays. Hey, when it's 20-below I really don't care if it wastes a cup of gas! They say that the oil is much better these days, but is it really OK to jump in your car when it's very cold and take right off?

As I mentioned in my last column, there's no harm in allowing your vehicle to warm up a few minutes in extremely cold weather. Besides generating some temperature in the vehicle's fluids and warming the interior a bit, it gives you time to make sure the windshield, side and rear windows are clear of snow and ice before you drive.

Is it harmful to drive the vehicle as soon as it is started in cold weather? No. As you said, today's motor oils are far superior to oils of just a decade earlier. In addition, manufacturing materials and tolerances are far better and more precise. Add the engine management system's capabilities to fine-tune fuel/air mixture and ignition timing as well as limit engine output during the warmup period, and that means the most efficient and least stressful warmup method in all but extreme cold is to start the engine, let the idle stabilize and drop to normal, engage the automatic transmission, let it idle in gear for a moment or two, then drive the vehicle gently as it gets up to temperature.

My Alldata database says Chrysler recommends fresh spark plugs in this engine every 30,000 miles. After this many miles, take care in removing the old plugs to avoid stripping the threads in the cylinder head. Install new plugs with anti-seize on the threads.

Typically I change my own oil. Our newest vehicle has 23,000 miles on it and calls for 0W-20 synthetic oil. It's actually less expensive to let the dealer do it than to buy the oil and filter and do it myself. However, on the last two oil changes I've noticed that they seem to overfill it by 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 of a quart. What potential harm can come from overfilling?

Slightly overfilling the crankcase with oil, as you've described, usually isn't an issue. If the oil level is high enough to cause a problem, the excess oil is usually blown out of the engine through the PCV system, engine seals and gaskets as it seeks its normal oil level.

If the engine is grossly overfilled and the crankshaft whips the oil into a froth as it spins, the aerated oil can cause a loss of oil pressure and lubrication to engine bearings, potentially causing damage.

How can you tell if the engine is grossly overfilled? Fully warm up the engine while monitoring the oil pressure gauge or warning light. Shut the engine off and quickly pull the dipstick to check the oil for evidence of frothing.

I have a 2001 Toyota RAV4 with 68,248 miles. It has started to give out a puff of exhaust smoke when started in the morning. Oil and coolant levels show full and haven't changed. There is no smoke while driving. What could the problem be or is there even a problem?

I don't think there is a problem. A slight puff of bluish smoke on starting a 70G mile engine is not uncommon, nor is it harmful. The typical cause is oil that has collected on the valve stems slowly seeping past the valve seals and guides as the car sits overnight. When the engine is first started, this oil is drawn into the combustion chamber with the incoming air/fuel mixture and burned. Having owned and driven high-mileage vehicles for decades, I see this as
upper-cylinder lubrication at startup rather than a problem.

Paul Brand, author of "How to Repair Your Car," is an automotive troubleshooter, driving instructor and former race-car driver. Readers may write to him at: Star Tribune, 425 Portland Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn., 55488 or via email at paulbrandstartribune.com. Please explain the problem in detail and include a daytime phone number. Because of the volume of mail, we cannot provide personal replies.

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More millennials jumping into the mortgage market

WASHINGTON — Call them the prodigal millennials: Statistical measures and anecdotal reports suggest that young couples and singles in their late 20s and early 30s have begun making a belated entry into the home buying market, pushed by mortgage rates in the mid-3 percent range, government efforts to ease credit requirements and deep frustrations at having to pay rising rents without creating equity.

Listen to Kathleen Hart, who just bought a condo unit with her husband, Devin Wall, that looks out on the Columbia River in Wenatchee, Wash.: "We were just tired of renting, tired of sharing (housing) with roommates, and not having a place of our own. Finally the numbers added up."

Or listen to Erin Beasley, who with her fiance earlier this month closed on a condo unit in the Capitol Hill area of Washington, D.C. "With the way rents kept on going," she told me, "we realized it was time" after five years as tenants. "With renting, at some point you get really tired of it; you want to own, be able to make changes" that suit you, not some landlord.

Hart and Beasley are part of the leading edge of the millennial demographic bulge that has been missing in action on home buying since the end of the Great Recession. Instead of representing the 38 percent to 40 percent of purchases that real estate industry economists say would have been expected for first-timers, they've lagged in market share, sometimes by as much as 10 percentage points. But last week new signs began emerging that hinted that maybe the conditions finally are right for them to shop and buy:

• Redfin, a national real estate brokerage, said first-time buyers accounted for 57 percent of home tours conducted by its agents mid-month — the highest rate in recent years. Home-purchase education class requests, typically dominated by first-timers, has jumped so far this month by 27 percent over last January. "I think it is significant," said Redfin chief economist Nela Richardson. "They are sticking a toe in the water."

Kas Divband, a Redfin agent in D.C., assisted Beasley with her condo purchase.

• The Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey, which monthly polls 2,000 realty agents nationwide, reported that first-time buyer activity has started to increase much earlier than is typical. First-timers accounted for 36.3 percent of all home purchases last month, according to the survey.
• Anecdotal reports from realty brokers around the country also point to exceptional activity in the past few weeks. Perrin Cornell of Century 21 Exclusively in Wenatchee, Wash., who helped Hart and her husband buy their condo, said he is either actively working with or has serious inquiries from four times the number of first-timers than he'd typically see in January. Gary Kassan, an agent with Pinnacle Estate Properties in the Los Angeles area, said nearly half of his current clients are first-time buyers.

Assuming these early impressions could point to a trend, what's driving the action? The steady decline in interest rates, high rents and sheer pent-up demand play major roles. But there are other factors that could be at work. In the past few weeks, key sources of financing for entry-level buyers ­— the Federal Housing Administration and giant investors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — have announced consumer-friendly improvements to their rules. FHA cut its punitively high upfront mortgage insurance premiums and Fannie and Freddie reduced minimum down payments to 3 percent from 5 percent.

Price increases on homes also have moderated in many local areas, improving affordability across the board. Plus many younger buyers have discovered the wide spectrum of special financing assistance programs open to them through state and local housing agencies. Hart and her husband made use of one of the Washington State Housing Finance Commission's buyer assistance programs, which provides second-mortgage loans with zero interest rates to help with down payments and closing costs. Dozens of state agencies across the country offer help for first-timers, often with generous qualifying income limits.

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