2015 Lincoln Navigator navigates blizzards with style

As the Blizzard of 2015 approached New England, I knew I would be called upon to photograph the impending snowstorm. I would have accepted any four-wheel-drive vehicle, but when a 2015 Lincoln Navigator 4x4 showed up in our lot, I thought why ride in coach when you can go first class.

My gray metallic tester with a split-wing chrome grille had 22-inch polished aluminum wheels that provided plenty of ground clearance and some visibility over the snowbanks. Doors automatically unlocked thanks to a passive entry system that senses when the key fob is in range of the vehicle. Power running boards dropped down automatically when the doors opened to provide a convenient step for climbing into the SUV. A push-button starter let me keep the key fob in my pocket under all the layers of clothing I had on for the storm.

As expected, the Navigator's interior was upscale. Dark wood trim on the center console, the top half of the steering wheel and the doors contrasted nicely with the plush light brown leather seats. As I cruised the city looking for snow photos with my window down, the Lincoln's climate control system kept the interior warm and comfy. Snow blown in by the intensifying blizzard quickly melted off the heated, 10-way power adjustable front seats. The third row seats folded flat with the push of a button to create a cavernous rear cargo area.

The Navigator's infotainment system had a 4.2-inch display in the instrument panel and an intuitive, 8-inch touch screen on the center stack. I appreciated the traditional knob controls below the touch screen and cruise, phone, and volume controls were integrated into the steering wheel.

The 5.4-liter V8 that has powered the Navigator for years has been replaced with a twin turbocharged 3.5-liter V6 engine. Lincoln reports that the new engine cranks out 380 horsepower and 430 pound-foot of torque with an undiminished towing capacity. I found the large SUV had ample power off the line and highway passing was effortless. A six-speed automatic transmission with a manual override option allowed me to take control of the gear shifting, which I found useful when descending steep and narrow, snow-covered streets.

The Navigator stomped through the accumulating snow as I ventured into Beacon Hill to look for people trying to dig out along the unplowed streets. The big SUV barely squeezed through the snow-clogged one-way streets, but never lost traction on the steep, frozen hills. A rear-view camera saved the day when I had to back down a side street blocked by snow removal crews.

Once the storm cleared, I switched the Navigator back into two-wheel drive and hit the highway. The Lincoln was quiet on the open road and handled like a much smaller vehicle, thanks in part to electronic power-assisted steering, which also made it easier to park. Road imperfections produced an occasional front end dive, which served as a reminder of the big SUV's size and weight.

The 2015 Lincoln Navigator might be the ultimate full-size 4x4 for New England weather. The Navigator has a base price of $61,920, which is considerably less than the Cadillac Escalade that starts at just under $73,000. My tester topped out at $73,895.

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Massachusetts details enrollment via revamped connector site

BOSTON — Massachusetts health connector officials say more than 125,000 people signed up for health insurance plans through the agency's rebuilt website during a more than three-month open enrollment period.

Another 286,000 people qualified for the state's Medicaid program.

The Massachusetts open enrollment period began on Nov. 15 and was to expire Feb. 15, but was extended until last Monday because of the severe winter weather.

The connector was forced to place hundreds of thousands of people into temporary Medicaid coverage a year ago when the initial website failed. It was relaunched in November and officials say it has operated well since then.

Gov. Charlie Baker has named a new executive director for the connector and recently asked for — and received — the resignations of four members of the connector board.

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Analytic, sports lovers hit Boston

Nothing unites communities quite so well as sports.

The MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference at the Boston Conventention and Entertainment Center brings competitive, information-driven sports professionals, intellects and aficionados from all over to discuss their beliefs, theories and findings with people who share their love of sports.

As Celtics assistant general manager Mike Zarren illustrated early in the day when he asked attendees whether sending a scout to a game counted as analytics, or if it only counted it they sent 10 scouts and aggregated their findings, the only arguments left to be had regarding the place of advanced statistics in today's sports' landscape are semantic ones.

New baseball commissioner Rob Manfred was arguably the biggest name at Sloan. Of the major American sports leagues, Major League Baseball is generally considered by fans to be the most in need of a retooling with an eye toward modernity. Though he is early in his tenure, all signs indicate that it's a challenge Manfred has welcomed.

"I think debate, discussion, conversation and analysis gets you to a better answer, at the end of the day, and I think it's very important to run an organization in a way that fosters that kind of exchange," said Manfred at the Commissioner's Perspective panel.

Manfred also admitted baseball is looking to innovate its fantasy sports product, exploring ways where MLB fantasy sports would not be a 162-game, 183-day commitment.

Of course, it wasn't long before the conversation turned toward the week's hot-button issue – length of games and pace of play.

"What I really hope to accomplish this year on pace of play is to take out some of the dead time," Manfred said. "You don't want to interfere with players' performing at their absolute best.

"By the same token, we need to be cognizant of the fact that we live in a society that's pretty fast-paced, and we want to keep the game attuned with society."

During the 2014 season, the on-field movement of every NFL player was digitally tracked. With the help of league partner Zebra Technology, each receiver route, rush and defensive formation was charted and itemized, to be used by all 32 teams as they evaluate player performance, strategy and opposing personnel.

Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk, Harvard grad and current NFL director of football development Matt Birk, and Super Bowl-winning New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton were all featured during the NFL's Next Generation Statistics panel, where they discussed the ways teams are incorporating comprehensive player data into franchise strategies.

Payton said the Saints wanted to use the data to find ways to minimize injuries, helping to make practices run even smarter. That's something that Faulk strongly believes in.

"I believe (player-tracking) is going to extend careers," said Faulk. "I think a lot of my talents were used up in practices, not games."

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Berkshire Hathaway's 4Q profit declines 17 percent

OMAHA, Neb. — Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s fourth quarter profit slid 17 percent because of declines in the paper value of its investments and derivative contracts.

Warren Buffett's company released its latest results Saturday along with his letter to shareholders.

Berkshire's quarterly net income declined to $4.16 billion, or $2,529 per Class A share, on $48.3 billion revenue. That's down from $4.99 billion, or $3.035 per share, on $47 billion revenue last year.

The biggest factor was investment and derivative gains of $192 million this year compared to $1.2 billion last year.

Buffett says operating earnings, which exclude investments, are often a better measure. Those were $3.96 billion, or $2,412 per share, up from $3.78 billion, or $2,297 per share.

The four analysts surveyed by FactSet expected operating earnings per of $2,655.09 on average.

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Buffett recommends investing in stocks but avoiding mistakes

OMAHA, Neb. — Billionaire Warren Buffett says owning stocks is the key to building wealth over time, but investors must avoid the common mistakes of trading too often and paying high investment fees.

The billionaire investor says there's every reason to expect stocks to perform well long-term, even if prices are volatile.

Buffett says his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. conglomerate benefited over the past 50 years from the S&P 500's growth from 84 to 2,059.

He says no commentator or investment adviser can predict the stock market. He said "market forecasters will fill your ear but will never fill your wallet."

Buffett isn't immune from investing mistakes. He told Berkshire shareholders the company lost $444 million on its investment in British retailer Tesco largely because he was slow to sell the $2.3 billion stake.

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News Guide: FCC 'net neutrality' vote and what it means

WASHINGTON — Internet activists scored a major victory after the Federal Communications Commission agreed to rules that would ban service providers from creating Internet fast lanes.

What "net neutrality" means and what is likely to happen next:

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THE ISSUE

Net neutrality is the idea that Internet service providers won't block or slow Web traffic, instead allowing all data to have equal access to its networks. That means you won't be more inclined to watch a particular show on Amazon Prime instead of on Netflix because Amazon has struck a deal with your service provider to load its data faster.

For years, providers mostly agreed not to pick winners and losers among Web traffic because they didn't want to encourage regulators to step in and because they said consumers demanded it. But that started to change around 2005, when YouTube came online and Netflix became increasingly popular. On-demand video began hogging bandwidth, and evidence surfaced that some providers were manipulating traffic without telling consumers.

By 2010, the FCC enacted open Internet rules, but the agency's legal approach was eventually struck down in the courts. Thursday's vote by the FCC was intended to erase any legal ambiguity by setting clear rules on what broadband providers can do.

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THE PLAN

The FCC put the Internet in the same regulatory camp as the telephone, regulating it like a public utility. That means whatever company provides your Internet connection, even if it's to your phone, will now have to act in the public interest and not do anything that might be considered "unjust or unreasonable." If it doesn't, you can complain and the FCC can step in to investigate.

Regulators say reclassifying the Internet as a telecommunications service under the 1934 Communications Act will empower the FCC to go after Internet service providers if they start blocking or slowing Web traffic.

The FCC says it won't apply some sections of the law, including price controls. That means rates charged to customers for Internet access won't be subject to preapproval. But the law allows the government to investigate if consumers complain that costs are unfair.

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NEXT STOP

Some of the big Internet providers, or possibly a group of them, are expected to file lawsuits. It's likely they will ask the courts to block implementation of the new rules. That legal wrangling could go on for years, probably well into the first term of the next president.

Meanwhile, congressional Republicans that oppose the regulation say they are committed to pushing for a legislative fix. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, is expected to lead this fight, starting with a March 18 hearing.

But how far the GOP and industry will get in Congress is unclear. The FCC regulations give most Democrats exactly what they wanted in the first place. And Obama likely would veto anything else. Democrats are unlikely to negotiate any deal until the courts weigh in.

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HOW THIS AFFECTS YOU

Consumers are unlikely to notice anything different about their Internet service. Industry says it's already operating under basic open Internet principals, and most providers say they have no desire to start throttling data for most of its customers.

What the FCC regulations do, however, is usher in a new era of government oversight where Internet service is deemed a public right. Consumers can complain if they don't believe they are being treated fairly. Regulators will have broad powers to go after companies they believe aren't acting in the public interest, including price gouging.

One open question is whether state taxes or fees on Internet service will eventually creep on to your bill. Right now, the Internet Tax Freedom Act prohibits that. But that law expires in October. While Congress is expected to renew the tax break, some states could start pushing back now that the Internet has been declared a public utility.

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Follow Anne Flaherty on Twitter at https://twitter.com/annekflaherty.

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Finding 2-bedrooms for under $2G

The price of Boston apartments in the city's most desirable neighborhoods and in newly opened luxury complexes are out of reach for most renters.

"It's tough on everyone, including young professionals just out of college," said Jason Schuster, founder of Proper Realty in Allston. "For a $2,000 apartment, renters need to be making $80,000-$100,000, and many are earning only half that."

But while you won't find many apartments under $2,000 in Boston's tonier districts, except for some tiny studios, go farther afield in the city and there's a wide variety of more affordable offerings where two roommates or couples can pay a more reasonable $1,000 or so each, which often includes parking.

We went searching for two-bedrooms under $2,000 in several Boston neighborhoods.

Schuster says the cost of two-bedrooms in Allston/Brighton are creeping over $2,000, but Proper Realty has a $1,900 renovated two-bedroom listing on Commonwealth Avenue in Brighton that includes heat and hot water and in-building laundry.

Rachael Kulik, office manager of JP Rentals and Sales, said there are several options for renters looking to get in under $2,000 a month — owner-occupied two- and three- families, condos for rent by owners who've moved on but kept properties as investments, and units in older buildings where the rent includes heat and hot water.

"Individual landlords and others with an emotional stake in their properties often care more about the quality of the tenants than gouging renters," said Kulik.

Kulik said you can still find decent two-bedrooms in Jamaica Plain for around $1,650-$1,850 a month, and while you won't get the top-of-the-line amenities, multifamily units are usually well-maintained.

"The rule generally is that the further you get from the T, the less expensive apartments are," she said.

JP Rentals has a large two-bedroom on Goodway Road for $1,650 a month. It has a living room, dining room, large eat-in kitchen, laundry and a covered outdoor porch, and is about a mile from the Forest Hills Orange Line station.

In neighboring Roslindale, even farther from the T and where you most likely need a car, two-bedrooms run from $1,600 to $1,750, Kulik said. A large sunny two bedroom on Mendelssohn Street with a big eat-in kitchen, living, dining and laundry is renting for $1,650.

Another good area to find two-bedroom rentals under $2,000 is in Dorchester — neighborhoods such as Adams Village, Neponset and Lower Mills, said Kristine Ryan of The Galvin Group. She said that many renters priced out of South Boston have come looking in south Dorchester.

Galvin Group has a two-bedroom on Granite Avenue in an older brick building for $1,650 a month including heat and hot water. Ryan is also listing a 1,200-square-foot two-bedroom in an owner-occupied house on Hilltop Street near Neponset Circle for $1,600 that has hardwood floors, lots of storage space and a screened-in porch.

"You can still find reasonably priced apartments here and most have recently updated kitchens and free parking with no resident stickers," Ryan said. "These apartments often rent quickly, sometimes by word of mouth."

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Life in the fast lane

Winners

President Obama

The president has repeatedly advocated for net neutrality. He hailed yesterday's decision, saying it would "protect innovation and create a level playing field for the next generation of entrepreneurs."

Activists

Internet users flooded the FCC with a record-breaking 4 million public comments, and a slowdown across many of the Web's most prominent sites last year showed the potential impact of Internet fast lanes and slow lanes.

Content creators

Services such as Netflix, whose shares closed up 1.7 percent yesterday, won't have to worry about paying more than the competition to ensure users get the best possible experience.

Losers

Republicans

The GOP opposed the regulations, and the two Republican appointees to the FCC voted against the rules. House Speaker John Boehner called it a "misguided scheme" that would "put the federal government in control of the Internet."

Internet service providers

Companies including Verizon and Comcast were staunchly against net neutrality, calling the regulation stifling and "heavy-handed."

Wireless providers

The regulations included wireless providers such as AT&T and Sprint, which were not covered by the original FCC rules in 2010.

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Bentley professors vote to unionize

Adjunct professors at Bentley University in Waltham yesterday voted by a more than a 2-to-1 margin to unionize, marking the third such faculty victory in as many weeks at a local university.

The 108-to-42 vote brings to nearly 3,000 the total number of Boston area adjuncts and lecturers who have joined the Service Employees International Union in a growing national movement to improve the lot of the university employees, who often work for poverty-level wages.

"There's a groundswell of support on campuses here and across the country for unionization as one step toward addressing a crisis in higher education," said Jason Stephany, a spokesman for SEIU Local 509.

This month alone, Bentley and Boston University adjuncts and full-time Tufts University lecturers all voted to unionize in the wake of similar votes over the past 17 months among part-time lecturers at Tufts and adjuncts at Lesley and Northeastern universities.

Although he has a Ph.D. in history, Doug Kierdorf, 67, was living on food stamps and the $5,000 he was earning per semester, teaching the only course available to him at Bentley University until the class was canceled last month.

And he's not alone in his predicament. Adjuncts make up 76.4 percent of faculty at U.S. colleges and universities, according to a 2014 report by the American Association of University Professors. And a U.S. House of Representatives study the same year showed many had wages below the federal poverty line.

In a statement yesterday, Bentley University said: "While Bentley has consistently stated its belief that having a union is not in the best interest of the faculty or the university, the university will, of course, bargain in good faith."

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Did ISPs bring the FCC's net neutrality action upon themselves?

In the wake of the FCC's net neutrality vote on Thursday, cable and telecommunications companies are characterizing the new set of regulations as something akin to a government sledgehammer.

They are chafing under a future of greater oversight over how they deliver Internet traffic to the consumer -- in other words, there's now a big check on who controls the pipes.

The FCC probably would not have even gotten to the point where they reclassified the Internet like a utility had Verizon not challenged a previous set of net neutrality rules, adopted in 2010, that had a lighter regulatory touch.

Those rules were imposed without Title II reclassification and, unlike the new regulations, exempted wireless providers from some of the more stringent provisions.

Back then, most ISPs said that they weren't crazy about the rules, but they could still live with them. Not Verizon. It challenged net neutrality and won, as the D.C. Circuit said that the FCC imposed them without establishing the proper regulatory authority.

In the immediate aftermath of the court's decision in January 2014, there was plenty of commentary that net neutrality was dead.

In April, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler proposed an approach that would have stopped short of reclassification. Yet his idea drew immediate criticism as being too weak and triggered a backlash that generated online protest campaigns, pickets outside the FCC offices and even, at one point, demonstrators who blocked the driveway of his home.

Through the summer the FCC was flooded with more than 4 million comments -- a massive outpouring that drew comparisons to the protest that helped sideline major antipiracy legislation, known as the Stop Online Piracy Act, in 2012.

The turning point, however, was in November, when President Obama threw his support behind reclassification.

So how did ISPs find themselves on the losing end of one of the FCC's most momentous policy debates?

After all, even congressional Republicans who once questioned the need for any net neutrality rules at all last month proposed legislation that would ban blocking, throttling and paid prioritization. The legislation also would apply to wired and wireless services, although Democrats have balked that it also limits what the FCC can do when technology changes in the future.

Net neutrality advocates had the advantage of framing the debate first, and having as their foe cable and telecom companies, which aren't exactly the most beloved of American companies.

It also helped that Netflix threw its weight behind the FCC's action, setting itself up as a chief foe to major ISPs and giving some urgency to the issue by claiming that it was pretty much forced into paying Comcast (CEO Brian Roberts pictured at right) and Verizon new sums to deliver their video traffic.

While ISPs argued that Netflix was skewing the issue, who is a consumer more likely to trust? Cable and telecom companies offering Internet service are in the unpopular position of also being bill collectors, to whom many consumers write three-figure checks each month. And those prices keep rising.

The situation would probably be a lot different if the FCC was about to extend its oversight over Internet companies, the Twitters and Facebooks and the Googles of the world, rather than companies that own the pipes.

Now the debate over net neutrality is likely to move to the courts and to Congress, where Republicans are investigating how it all came to this. There is likely to be an even louder chorus of voices that this is an unprecedented government power grab.

There's already been plenty of hyperbolic rhetoric that it's big government that is taking control of the Internet. But in this latest chapter of this long slog toward open Internet protections, net neutrality advocates were quicker to define the real threat as Internet service with no control at all.

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

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High-tech council creates data dashboard to keep state on right road

A top tech industry group unveiled a new tool to compare Massachusetts to other states yesterday as Gov. Charlie Baker said the state needs to solidify its position as a high tech leader by working harder to be more competitive and lowering the cost to do business.

"The goal here is to strengthen the areas we have a national lead in, and rectify or improve the areas we can now see a disadvantage," said Chris Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council. "This is actually going to be very helpful for not only keeping track of what our peer states are doing, but informing our decisions."

The Massachusetts' Technology, Talent and Economic Reporting System is a dashboard that can compare states by a number of metrics, including hiring difficulty for employers and workforce information. The information is focused on understanding the workforce and potential talent in the state.

"It's talent that's going to drive where we go, and it's going to determine which countries, which states, which towns, prosper and which don't," said Gary Beach who presented MATTERS at the council's annual meeting.

Baker, who gave the keynote address at the meeting, said Massachusetts cannot be complacent.

"It's pretty clear to us that we're going to have to work a lot harder to be competitive," he said. "We need to do a better job of lowering our cost of pretty much everything."

The event was a homecoming of sorts for Baker, who began his career at Mass High Tech. Organizers displayed a 30-year-old picture of a young Baker in front of a long-obsolete computer before the governor gave his address.

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Applications for US jobless aid rise to 313,000

WASHINGTON — More Americans sought unemployment aid last week, though the number of applications was still consistent with steady hiring.

The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications rose 31,000 to a seasonally adjusted 313,000, the most in six weeks. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, increased 11,500 to 294,500.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs. The average has been near or below 300,000 since September, a historically low number that suggests companies are holding onto their staffs and may even be stepping up hiring.

"Despite larger-than-expected weekly swings, the trend in claims remains consistent with an improving labor market," Derek Lindsey, an economist at BNP Paribas, said in a note to clients.

Jim O'Sullivan, an economist at High Frequency Economics, said the current four-week average is similar to the average in the final three months of last year. Employers added an average of 324,000 jobs each month in the fourth quarter.

Employers added more than 1 million jobs from November through January, the best three-month pace since 1997.

And more than 3.2 million jobs have been created in the past year. That has helped lower the unemployment rate to 5.7 percent in January from 6.6 percent 12 months earlier.

The strong job gains are showing some signs of finally lifting paychecks for more workers. Average hourly pay rose 0.5 percent in January, the most in six years, the Labor Department said earlier this month. While economists cautioned against reading too much into one month's figure, it suggested employers may finally feel the need to raise wages to attract new workers and keep the ones they have.

Big companies like Aetna and the Gap have already raised wages. Last week, Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, said it would raise the base pay for its employees to $9 an hour later this year and $10 next February. Retailer TJX followed with its own pay hike announcement Wednesday.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Tuesday that there has been broad improvement in the job market since last summer. Yet she also noted that "wage growth remains sluggish," and the number of Americans either working or looking for work is low by historical standards. The Fed is closely watching the jobs data as it considers when to begin raising short-term interest rates.

"Considerable progress has been achieved in the recovery of the labor market, though room for further improvement remains," Yellen said in testimony before a Congressional panel.

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Apps to track T in real time

Local software developers are creating a new crop of mobile apps to improve alerts and give MBTA riders a real-time snapshot of delayed or overcrowded trains as the beleaguered transit system struggles to get commuters to and from work.

"Right now it seems like the only voice that exists is the one from the MBTA to the people, but that's not a channel back from the people to the MBTA," said David Lago, one of the creators of MBTA Ninja. "We cannot trust the alerts from the T, because they're unreliable, they're not specific."

Lago, Geoffrey Litt and Radhika Malik built MBTA Ninja as part of last weekend's Code Across Boston hackathon. Lago said the three co-workers at Panorama Education had resorted to texting each other to find out about service issues because official T alerts weren't all encompassing — for instance, they don't report overcrowded trains.

Through MBTA Ninja, which is modeled after the GPS-based app Waze, riders can submit train issues and delays in real time. Litt said there were about 200 reports before yesterday's evening commute through the app, including medical emergencies MBTA Ninja reported before the MBTA.

Also aimed at monitoring T service, "Live MBTA Subway Mapping by Stefan!" offers riders a real-time look at the location of trains on all of the system's transit lines.

And another app, DELAID, by design firm Altr, uses analytics to determine which lines are most likely to have future delays based on weather and social media from commuters.

"If standing on a platform, freezing to near death is going to be a continued reality, an act of faith ... a total bet, then we want to show you the odds," the creators said in a blog post. DELAID is in development.

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Solons back Charlie Baker Olympics veto

Ninety lawmakers have signed on to a bill that would create a commission to ensure transparency in Boston's bid to host the 2024 summer Olympics and would give the governor the final say if the games require state money.

State Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, the North End Democrat who sponsored the bill, said the intent is to "create more accountability" for Boston 2024, the nonprofit leading the charge to bring the Olympics to the Hub, by, among other things, listing all public and private money spent on the games in an "Open Checkbook" registry on the Internet.

"Because we're talking about commonwealth tax money that is going to potentially play a large part in the process, we wanted to give the state's stakeholders some ability to have a seat at the table going forward," Michlewitz said. "That includes the governor having the ability to withdraw public funds if he feels that this is not living up to the standards."

Billy Pitman, a spokesman for Gov. Charlie Baker, said Baker "believes public input as well as transparency is vital to the bid process. He will review any legislation addressing those priorities should it reach his desk."

The bill would also require Boston 2024 to submit its bid documents to a 7-member appointed commission before the package is submitted to the International Olympic Committee.

Boston 2024 CEO Rich Davey said the organization is reviewing the bill "and supports the Legislature's goals of additional accountability and transparency."

Earlier this month, Mayor Martin J. Walsh called the bill redundant. But South End state Rep. Byron Rushing, who's still in the "middle" on whether Boston should host the 2024 games, said he thinks the mayor eventually will support the proposal due to growing calls for more transparency. Rushing pointed to Walsh's decision to renegotiate an agreement to strike a provision barring city employees from publicly criticizing the Olympic bid, weeks after city officials caught heat for signing it in the first place.

"The mayor looks forward to reviewing all legislation involving the Olympics to see what will work best for Boston and the commonwealth," Bonnie McGilpin, a spokeswoman for Walsh, said. "Mayor Walsh is committed to running an open and transparent process."

Rushing said he would like to have the bill, or a version of it, passed by June. He said he is hopeful the Legislature can do it, given the unusually large number of lawmakers backing it.

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German consumer groups warns Facebook over data protection

BERLIN — German consumer groups said Thursday they will file a lawsuit against Facebook unless the social network changes its terms of service.

The Federation of German Consumer Organizations said it has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Facebook's European headquarters in Ireland.

The letter cites 19 clauses in the company's terms of service and data protection guidelines that the consumer groups claim breach German law.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas backed the complaint, saying Facebook's data protection rules are too vague. He said users should be able to opt out of certain requirements without having to quit Facebook entirely.

The California-based company has faced regular legal challenges from privacy advocates in Europe.

Facebook told The Associated Press in an emailed statement it was reviewing the complaint, but was surprised that it "if focused on settled terms and features that have been part of Facebook and other online services for the past 10 years, such as real-name policies."

"We recently updated our terms and policies to make them more clear and concise, to reflect new product features and to highlight how we're expanding people's control over advertising," the company said. "We're confident the updates comply with applicable laws."

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Bay State sued over
 campaign finance law

A conservative Arizona think-tank and two Bay State businesses filed suit yesterday to change a state campaign finance law that allows unions to contribute up to $15,000, but blocks businesses from doing the same.

"I don't have the same voice, the same horse in the race, as my friends in the unions," said Michael Kane, who owns 126 Self Storage in Ashland and is a director of the conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. "It's really about fairness and equity. We're not asking for anything more."

The Arizona-based Goldwater Institute filed suit in Suffolk Superior Court on behalf of 126 Self Storage and 1A Auto in Pepperell.

"There is no legitimate justification for allowing unions to contribute thousands of dollars to candidates, parties and political committees, while completely banning any contributions from businesses," the lawsuit says. "This lopsided ban on political contributions violates Plaintiffs' rights of equal protection, free speech, and free association protected by the Massachusetts and United States constitutions."

State law allows certain groups that do not have any corporate money, including unions, to donate up to $15,000 to candidates, but corporations are banned from making any campaign contributions.

Jason Tait, a spokesman for the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, declined to comment on pending litigation.

Steven Tolman, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, said businesses already have enough power and influence.

"It's shocking that a right-wing funded group would want to come up in Massachusetts and challenge or try to make an argument that corporations don't have enough political juice," Tolman said. "It's absolutely outrageous."

Massachusetts is one of seven states that allow union donations, but bar business contributions, Goldwater attorney James Manley said.

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Uber partners with Starwood, giving hotel points for rides

NEW YORK — Uber is partnering with hotel chain Starwood to give riders a bit more incentive to choose the ride-hailing service over a taxi.

Uber passengers can now earn one Starwood rewards point for each dollar they spend on a ride in a car found through the San Francisco-based company's mobile app. Guests spending the night at one of Starwood's 1,200 hotels will earn two to four points per dollar spent, depending on their level of status with Stamford, Connecticut-based Starwood. Points can't be earned until the Uber passenger spends at least one night during the calendar year at a Starwood hotel.

Free hotel nights start at 3,000 points for the lowest tier of hotels, like the Four Points by Sheraton Tucson Airport in Arizona, and can be as high as 35,000 points a night for properties like the St. Regis Princeville Resort in Hawaii.

This is the first global deal where ground transportation passengers can earn hotel points for trips.

This potentially helps Uber in big cities such as New York, San Paulo, Brazil and Bangalore, India where it's going head to head with established taxi companies and car services.

Some airport car services do offer passengers airline miles for their trips, but those programs are open to a number of airlines. This new Uber partnership is exclusive to Starwood. Neither company would disclose the terms of the deal.

The hotel company, known for its Sheraton, Westin and W brands, already has similar partnerships with Delta Air Lines and Emirate Airline.

"Our guests get to us in many different ways," says Mark Vondrasek, Starwood's senior vice president of loyalty and partnership marketing. Through these partnerships, "we're trying to get members to concentrate their stays with us."

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Scott Mayerowitz can be reached at http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott.

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Blizzard of app use in Boston during snowstorms

Snowbound Bostonians turned to their mobile devices to get through the recent run of storms, sending app usage up as much as 30 percent when local colleges canceled classes or the MBTA halted service.

App usage increased between 17 percent and 29 percent during five snow days from Jan. 27 to Feb. 15, according to Localytics, a Boston application marketing and analytics company.

"The biggest thing that surprised me was just how much higher the app usage was," Localytics business analyst Dave Hoch said. "We looked at devices in Boston, which is a pretty big sample, and to see something up 30 percent higher on given days is a very big jump."

Localytics used a 30-day baseline average from Jan. 15 to Feb. 15 to make the comparison and based its analysis on its clients' approximately 28,000 apps.

The highest increases were on days when colleges closed down: 24 percent on Jan. 27, 29 percent on Feb. 2 and 27 percent on Feb. 9.

Not surprisingly, weather was the top app category, seeing increased usage of 46 percent. Retail therapy also apparently helped people cope with the snowiest month on record: Shopping app usage increased 37 percent on the snow days.

"One of the big takeaways to that is just because your brick-and-mortar store is closed, as long as you have a good mobile presence like an app, you don't have to lose all that valuable business," Hoch said.

Photography apps also saw a big bump in use — a 37 percent increase — as Hub residents documented the snowfall and crazy snow antics to share on social media and elsewhere. Books and news apps saw 30 percent and 25 percent increases, respectively, while gaming app usage jumped 23 percent.

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Massachusetts may cut coastal building

Massachusetts is considering limiting development in "high-hazard" coastal areas after decades of vicious, costly storms and predictions of many more in years to come, according to a state commission's draft report.

The report by the Massachusetts Coastal Erosion Commission, created by the Legislature in 2013, says one way to reduce the impact of erosion and flooding on property, infrastructure and natural resources is by siting new development and substantial redevelopment away from such areas.

"The recommendation was to evaluate potential setback approaches," said Bruce K. Carlisle, a commission member and director of the state Office of Coastal Zone Management. "It stopped short of recommending a setback approach."

The report calls for, among other things, adopting the 2015 International Building Codes for structures in floodplains and assessing the impact of rising sea levels during regulatory review of coastal projects.

The report also recommends a voluntary program to buy back high-hazard or storm-damaged properties after cost/benefit analyses.

"This is a provision of the environmental bond bill ... that did pass the state Legislature last July, so that's the authorization, but it has to be appropriated," Carlisle said. "The secretary (of energy and environmental affairs' office) is looking at that provision, but that's really all we can say at this time."

Massachusetts is a state where people have long treasured their beachfront homes, but taxpayers and insurance rate payers have borne the brunt of the high cost of bailing out storm-ravaged homes.

Since 1978, Federal Emergency Management Agency payments for Massachusetts storms with coastal impacts such as flooding and erosion have totaled more than $600 million. Over the past 30 years, the average erosion rates range from 8.70 feet per year in Yarmouth on Cape Cod to 0.99 feet per year in West Tisbury on Martha's Vineyard.

"We as human beings want to live as close to the water as we can, but we have to realize we're not in control of everything," said Paul Schrader, a commission member who has lived in Sandwich for 18 years. "Climate change is causing more violent storms. If we don't take a cautious approach, then we suffer very sad consequences."

After a series of public hearings next month, the commission will issue a final report to the Legislature in the spring or summer, Carlisle said.

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Eatery hit by marathon bomb to close doors

Forum, the Boylston Street bar and restaurant at ground zero of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, will close March 1 due to a large rent increase, according to owner Boston Nightlife Ventures.

"Unfortunately, the current real estate climate on Boylston Street has motivated Forum's landlord to raise rent this year by nearly three times our current rate," president Euz Azevedo said in a statement yesterday. "This rent increase makes it financially impossible for Boston Nightlife Ventures to operate and sustain a business at a location that means so much to us and to our city."

The second bomb exploded outside of Forum on April 15, 2013, while it was hosting a Joe Andruzzi Foundation fundraiser. The former New England Patriot was on-site and sprang into action along with staff and other party-goers to aid victims injured by the blast.

The restaurant, which suffered significant damage, reopened that August after reconstruction.

"With insurance claims still backed up by bureaucracy, our road to financial recovery was knowingly long," Azevedo said. "Boston Nightlife Ventures would like to offer our sincere gratitude to Forum's incredible staff and to each and every one of our patrons, from our regulars to those who came in after the marathon to show their support. We cried together, we smiled together — none of these times will be forgotten."

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The Ticker

Fed: Student loan 
deliquencies soar

Student loans had a higher delinquency rate than credit cards, auto loans and home mortgages over the past three years, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported recently.

Outstanding student loans in the country have reached $1.16 trillion, an increase of $77 billion from a year ago. About 11.3 percent were in default — more than 90 days delinquent — in the last quarter of 2014, compared with 11.1 percent in the previous quarter.

By comparison, 3.5 percent of car loans were past due, as were just 3.1 percent of mortgage loans.

"Although we've seen an overall improvement in delinquency rates since the Great Recession, the increasing trend in student loan balances and delinquencies is concerning," Donghoon Lee, research officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said in a statement.

But even as borrowers struggle to make payments, more continue to jump into the loan pool to help finance their schooling. Moreover, the age of student-loan borrowers is creeping upward. More than a third are older than 40, according to the New York Fed's Liberty Street Economics blog.

Vermont defends Gruber contract

A top aide to Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin is defending the administration's handling of a contract with Massachusetts Institute of Technology health economist Jonathan Gruber, after criticisms were lodged by the state auditor.

Administration Secretary Justin Johnson made public his reply to Vermont Auditor Doug Hoffer, in which Johnson says officials in the state office of health care reform kept a close eye on work done by Gruber.

Hoffer says the evidence suggests that Gruber overstated the hours worked by a $100-per-hour research assistant, and that top state health care officials ignored the obvious signs that something was amiss.

The state rewrote its contract with Gruber after he generated national headlines when videos were released of him talking about the "stupidity of the American voter."

Today

 Standard & Poor's releases S&P/Case-Shiller index of home prices for December and the fourth quarter.

 The Conference Board releases the Consumer Confidence Index for February.

TOMORROW

 Commerce Department releases new home sales for January.

THE SHUFFLE

CBRE Group Inc. announced that Todd Trehubenko has joined CBRE Capital Markets' debt & structured finance team as senior vice president. Based in Boston, he will originate multifamily loans with a particular focus on FHA-insured debt. Trehubenko previously worked at Walker & Dunlop, and also served as CEO of Recap Real Estate Advisors in Boston.

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Boston area rental rate skyrockets

Boston rents were up 
4.6 percent in January from a year earlier, according to new data — an ongoing trend that tenant advocates say is pricing more people out of the city.

Boston's median rent last month was $2,149, compared to the national median, which was up 
3.3 percent to $1,350, according to the research branch of Zillow, the real estate and rental market website.

"It's a crisis," said Kathy Brown of the Boston Tenant Coalition. "Think about how many living-wage — let alone minimum-wage — workers it would take to pay $2,149 a month, especially if you factor in all your other bills. This is why we've seen so many people getting pushed out of Jamaica Plain and across the city."

Renting is often considered a stepping stone to home ownership, but since 2000, rents have grown about twice as fast as wages, leaving many renters further and further away from their goal of saving enough for a down payment on a house in Boston, said Svenja Gudell, Zillow's senior director of economic research.

Greg Vasil of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board said the answer is to build more housing.

"It really is a supply-and-demand issue," Vasil said. "If there was more of a supply, it should cause rents to drop."

But Brown said that the majority of apartments being built in the city are luxury units, well beyond the grasp of even the middle class.

Under the city's Inclusionary Development Program, a developer is supposed to either make 
13 percent of the total number of units being built affordable, or pay $200,000 per unit into a fund the city can use to build affordable housing. The coalition wants the city to increase the portion of affordable units to 25 percent, and says the amount per unit a developer can alternatively pay should equal the building's price per unit.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh said in a statement, "In 2014, we announced a robust housing plan, with a goal to build 53,000 new units of housing by 2030, including 20,000 middle-income units. We are laying the groundwork to get to that number, making funds available for affordable housing development, creating incentives for developers to invest, and evaluating our IDP program. With 8,000 units of housing under construction now, we're creating new supply to answer the demand for housing, which will drive down the cost of housing in the city of Boston."

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Boston.com hires two editors

Boston Globe affiliate website Boston.com yesterday announced the hiring of two new editors to "strengthen a website beset by controversy."

Editor Tim Molloy and Deputy Editor Kaitlyn Johnston will begin March 16.

"Bringing in two great, experienced journalists with sound judgment and strong experience can only improve our process for telling great stories," Corey Gottlieb, Boston.com's general manager, told the Herald. Molloy was the digital editor for the PBS news magazine "Frontline." Johnston was digital editor at Boston magazine.

Boston.com was stung when a former deputy editor hawked T-shirts poking fun of a Harvard professor embroiled in a $4 flap with a Chinese restaurant owner — a story she reported on — and posted an article accusing the professor of sending a racist email. Another editor was fired for making light of death threats to U.S. House Speaker John Boehner.

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Business Protocol: Use LinkedIn to stand out

LinkedIn, with 300 million users worldwide, takes networking to the stratosphere.

Forget Facebook, that's for connecting with friends. Twitter is too cryptic. Instagram, too visual.

LinkedIn is a perfect online portal to share your professional accomplishments and career ambitions. But don't treat it too casually.

When posting to Linked-

In, remember to use a professional writing style, post a professional headshot and be more selective in sharing news. You want to be tactical and strategic to stand out with recruiters.

As for your LinkedIn profile, craft a professional headline and summary which says you are ready for prime time. Your employment history should be accurate and cover 10 years — list more only if your background is particularly impressive or relevant.

Dates and information should be accurate; inconsistencies will be exposed and can kill your professional reputation.

When it comes to sharing profiles, promote those you believe would be a good fit. Forward job listings to others, where appropriate, and pave the way for introductions to others. ("Be a friend to get a friend.")

When it comes to adding photos, avoid you at the beach, partying, or looking provocative. They're all a turn-off for recruiters.

As for updates, maintain balance in your update frequency. Frequent updates on Twitter are acceptable, if not required, to show you get it.

On LinkedIn, keep your update topics professional. Post creative information and links; establish yourself as a resource.

When it comes to the all-important recommendations, follow these quick tips:

• Select a few (raving fans!) who can articulate how you distinguish yourself; let others speak on your behalf.

• Request recommendations from colleagues after you have worked for or with them for at least six months. Offer to provide talking points.

• Be careful of pressuring anyone to write a reference and give more than you receive.

When mulling a connection request, try calling the person first. You'll increase your chances of being successful. When accepting requests to connect, be discerning and personalize the message once you do welcome someone onboard.

But, remember no app or website will ever replace the impact of a one-on-one personal connection.

Judith Bowman is the president and founder of Protocol Consultants International and author of "Don't Take the Last Donut: New Rules of Business Etiquette" and "How to Stand Apart @ Work … Transforming Fine to Fabulous!" Email: Judith@ProtocolConsultants.com.

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IUDs, hormone implants growing more popular among US women

CHICAGO — Long-acting but reversible methods of birth control are becoming increasingly popular among U.S. women, with IUDs redesigned after safety scares and the development of under-the-skin hormone implants, a government report shows.

Birth control pills remain the most popular contraceptive method nationwide, but intrauterine devices and implants are more effective at preventing pregnancy and they last for several years.

Highlights of the new report, released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

RISING USE

National surveys show 7 percent of U.S. reproductive-aged women used long-acting contraceptives in 2011-13, up from less than 2 percent in 2002. The most popular are IUDs, T-shaped devices containing hormones or copper that are inserted into the womb. They can work for up to about 10 years. Implants are matchstick-size plastic rods containing hormones that are inserted beneath the skin of the upper arm. They last about three years. Both types can cost hundreds of dollars but should be covered with no co-pays by most insurance plans under contraception mandates of the Affordable Care Act.

Long-acting contraceptives were used most by women in their mid-20s and 30s — 11 percent or more than double the rate in younger or older women. They were also more popular with women who had at least one child, versus those who'd never given birth. Use increased among whites, blacks and Hispanics from 2006-2013.

HISTORY

IUD use dropped sharply nationwide after serious complications linked with a now-defunct brand in the 1970s, but other brands have been redesigned. Hormonal implants using several small rods were introduced in the United States in the 1990s; single-rod implants became available about 10 years later.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended IUDs and implants as the most effective forms of reversible birth control in 2011 and called them safe for most women. Both long-acting methods are nearly 100 percent effective, with lower failure rates than birth control pills, patches and injections.

The brief report suggests newer IUD designs and availability of implants that last as long as some IUDs may make these methods appealing for more women, though it doesn't include specific reasons for the rise in popularity. 

OTHER METHODS

Among the nearly 61 million U.S. women aged 15-44, almost two-thirds used some form of contraception in 2011-13, an earlier CDC report found. Pills were the most common, used by 16 percent. About 15 percent chose sterilization but its popularity declined during those years. About 9 percent chose male condoms, which unlike pills and long-acting forms, protect against sexually transmitted diseases.

___

Online:

CDC: http://tinyurl.com/86pez7a

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Oscar scorecard by movie and studio

It was a grand night for Fox Searchlight, which scored the most wins at the 87th Academy Awards with its top two films: "Birdman" and "The Grand Budapest Hotel." The two films were awarded 4 statues each, after also tying in nominations (9 each).

"Birdman" took home the top prize for Best Picture, as well as Best Director for Alejandro Inarritu. The Michael Keaton-starrer also won for Cinematography and Original Screenplay.

"The Grand Budapest Hotel" shined in below-the-line categories, winning for Makeup and Hairstyling, Production Design and Costume Design. Alexandre Desplat, a double nominee, won the Oscar for Best Original Score.

Sony Pictures Classics also saw a successful evening, with "Whiplash" taking home 3 awards for J.K. Simmons, Editing and Sound Mixing.

See the film scorecard below:

"Birdman": 4
"The Grand Budapest Hotel": 4
"Whiplash": 3
"The Theory of Everything": 1
"Still Alice": 1
"Boyhood": 1
"The Imitation Game": 1
"Selma": 1
"American Sniper":
"Interstellar": 1
"Big Hero 6": 1
"CitizenFour": 1
"Ida": 1
"Feast": 1
"The Phone Call": 1
"Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1": 1

See the full studio scorecard below:

Fox Searchlight: 8
Sony Pictures Classics: 3
Walt Disney: 2
The Weinstein Company: 2
Paramount:2
Focus Features: 1
Warner Bros.: 1
IFC Films:1
Music Box Films: 1

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

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HSBC offers apology as CEO mired in scandal, too

LONDON — HSBC executives offered a fresh mea culpa Monday as its chief executive found himself personally mired in the scandal surrounding allegations that the bank helped wealthy clients dodge taxes.

Europe's biggest bank by market value said past practices at its Swiss private bank were "unacceptable" as it reported that 2014 net income fell 16 percent to $13.7 billion. Meanwhile, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported that Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver had an account at the same unit.

On a conference call with reporters, Gulliver said he opened the account through a Panamanian company to protect his own privacy because other executives at HSBC's Hong Kong offices were able to see what their colleagues were earning.

The account "enabled me him to have confidentiality within my own firm," he said.

While Gulliver insisted that he had paid all tax due on the money in the account - reportedly more than 5 million pounds ($7.7 million) - the Guardian's story offered fresh embarrassment for a business reeling from allegations that forced it to publicly apologize last week.

The cavalcade of troubles kept coming. HSBC acknowledged Monday that 2014 profits "disappointed" and said the figures included the costs of paying settlements to cover past failings. These include $550 million the bank set aside last year to cover penalties for manipulating foreign currency markets.

But Gulliver and Chairman Douglas Flint, on their first conference call since the tax avoidance scandal broke, said they should be given credit for the work they've done in addressing past wrongs. Flint, though, admitted in a statement the bank needed to demonstrate its "value to society."

"The recent disclosures around unacceptable historical practices and behavior within the Swiss private bank remind us of how much there still is to do and how far society's expectations have changed in terms of banks' responsibilities," Flint said in a written statement.

Gulliver explained the bank's past troubles by saying that its sheer size and rapid growth had caused control issues. HSBC, founded 150 years ago as the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp., now has more than 6,100 offices in 73 countries.

He said that under his leadership, HSBC had simplified its organizational structure and reduced its workforce by about 17 percent to 257,000.

"I don't think the firm is too big to manage," he said.

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Oscars: Social buzz was poor predictor of winners compared with gambling sites

It's the difference between just mouthing off and putting your money where your mouth is.

Leading up to Sunday night's 87th Annual Academy Awards, Facebook and Twitter -- along with third-party social analysis researchers Adobe, Hootsuite and Way to Blue -- issued predictions of Oscar winners based on digital buzz.

The results? Out of their 29 predictions for the six major categories (Twitter didn't have a pick for best director), the forecasts got only 13 correct.

By contrast, betting sites, based on their pre-Oscars odds, were far more reliable. PredictWise, which aggregates info from U.K.-based Betfair, Hollywood Stock Exchange and other "prediction markets," correctly predicted 20 of 24 total Oscars winners, including for the major categories. For example, PredictWise as of Sunday at 1 p.m. ET gave "Birdman" a certainty rating of winning best picture of 67% and assigned "Birdman" helmer Alejandro G. Inarritu a 57% edge over "Boyhood's" Richard Linklater at 43% for best director.

Among the social researchers, only Adobe and Way to Blue predicted "Birdman" would win best picture, while none had forecast Inarritu taking home the best director statue for the film. The only category they all got right was Julianne Moore's best actress win for "Still Alice" -- evidently the safest bet of the night.

Why does this matter? After all, Facebook, Twitter and the others offered disclaimers of one kind or another noting that they couldn't really predict the outcomes with certainty.

The Oscars exercise underscores an important point: The wisdom of crowds is only as good as the crowd you're listening to. It's worth noting that Way to Blue, a British PR and consulting firm, got five out of six right; it used a relatively small selection of comments (less than 100,000) culled from Twitter, blog and news sites. Some social-media hypesters would have you believe that Internet chatter, analyzed in aggregate, can produce all kinds of interesting and actionable insights for content owners and marketers alike. But there's an old computer-science maxim that applies here: garbage in, garbage out.

Here's what social companies and third-party analytics firms had predicted prior to Sunday's Oscars, with the correct picks designated in bold.

Facebook
Best Picture - "American Sniper"
Best Actor - Bradley Cooper
Best Actress - Julianne Moore
Best Supporting Actor - J.K. Simmons
Best Supporting Actress - Meryl Streep
Best Director - Richard Linklater

Twitter
Best Picture - "Selma"
Best Actor Benedict Cumberbatch
Best Actress - Julianne Moore
Best Supporting Actor - Mark Ruffalo
Best Supporting Actress - Meryl Streep
Best Director - N.A.

Adobe*
Best Picture - "Birdman"
Best Actor - Bradley Cooper
Best Actress - Julianne Moore
Best Supporting Actor - J.K. Simmons
Best Supporting Actress - Meryl Streep
Best Director - Wes Anderson

Hootsuite**
Best Picture - "The Theory of Everything"
Best Actor - Eddie Redmayne
Best Actress - Julianne Moore
Best Supporting Actor - Mark Ruffalo
Best Supporting Actress - Laura Dern
Best Director - Wes Anderson

Way to Blue***
Best Picture - "Birdman"
Best Actor - Eddie Redmayne
Best Actress - Julianne Moore
Best Supporting Actor - J.K. Simmons
Best Supporting Actress - Patricia Arquette
Best Director Richard Linklater

* Based on 3 million social mentions across Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and others from Jan. 15-Feb. 16.
** Based on data from more than 20 social-media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google+.
*** Based on data from Toronto-based Sysomos for comments Twitter, news, blogs and forums from Feb. 12-18.

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

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Dish founder Charlie Ergen stepping back in as CEO

Charlie Ergen, the brash entrepreneurial founder of Dish Network, will take over as CEO of the satcaster following the retirement of president and CEO Joe Clayton in March.

Dish announced Monday that Clayton, who has been its chief exec since June 2011, will retire from his position effective March 31, 2015, and will also depart Dish's board.

"Over the last four years, Joe's leadership has been instrumental to Dish as we have worked to engineer a fundamental transformation of our business," Ergen said in a statement. "He has set the stage for what will become a new company, and with that he has prepared a new class of management to address the adventures coming our way."

Also Monday, Dish announced financial results for the fourth quarter of 2014. For the full-year 2014, the satcaster reported total revenue of $14.6 billion, up 5.3% from the year earlier, while net income rose 17% to $945 million.

In Q4 2014, Dish lost a 63,000 net video subscribers to end the year with 13.978 million U.S. TV subs. Its total subscriber base dropped by 79,000 for the full year. In the fourth quarter, Dish's contract fight with Turner Broadcasting resulted in subs losing CNN and seven other networks for about a month.

Following Clayton's departure, Ergen's direct reports will include: executive VP and COO Bernie Han; EVP and general counsel Stanton Dodge; EVP and chief HR office Mike McClaskey; EVP/head of corporate development Tom Cullen; and Roger Lynch, CEO of Dish's recently formed Sling TV over-the-top division.

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

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2 UK politicians caught in lobbying sting deny wrongdoing

LONDON — Two former senior British government ministers denied wrongdoing Monday after they were caught in a hidden-camera sting appearing to offer access to politicians and diplomats in return for cash.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the allegations against Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind were "very serious matters" that should be investigated by Parliamentary authorities.

Straw, foreign secretary under Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Conservative former Foreign Secretary Rifkind were secretly filmed by reporters posing as representatives of a fictional Hong Kong-based communications agency. The reporters said they were seeking top U.K. politicians to join the firm's advisory board.

Rifkind was recorded as saying he could arrange "useful access" to ambassadors, while Straw spoke of using "charm and menace" to change politicians' minds.

The sting by Channel 4's "Dispatches" program and the Daily Telegraph newspaper reopened a debate about political lobbying. Currently, legislators can have outside business interests as long as they declare them.

Labour Party leader Ed Miliband has called for lawmakers to be banned from serving as consultants or company directors.

Rifkind and Straw, who are still lawmakers, have referred themselves to parliament's standards watchdog and both were suspended from their party caucuses.

Rifkind, who chairs the parliamentary committee that oversees the intelligence services, said allegations of wrongdoing were "unfounded" and defended lawmakers' right to make money.

"If you are trying to attract people of a business or a professional background to serve in the House of Commons ... it is quite unrealistic to believe they will go through their parliamentary career being able to simply accept a salary of 60,000 pounds ($92,000)," he told the BBC.

Legislators earn a basic salary of 67,000 pounds ($103,000).

Straw said his conversation related to activities he might undertake once he retires from Parliament in May. He said he had complied with the parliamentary ethics code and he had checked out the bogus firm before meeting with its purported representatives.

"My checks were not sufficient to overcome the skillful deception of the undercover reporters," he said.

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Lenders easing requirements for mortgages

WASHINGTON — A closely watched index that tracks mortgage credit availability — lender requirements on credit scores, down payments and other key loan terms — has some good news for potential homebuyers: Things are finally loosening up.

After years of progressively tighter rules on borrower eligibility in the wake of the housing bust, banks and mortgage companies have begun modestly easing their requirements and even expanding the types of mortgages they offer. The Mortgage Bankers Association's latest credit availability index reported improvements in all four of its loan categories during January. The improvements mainly reflect positive lender responses to government efforts to ease regulations and improve affordability in the housing market — all of which means an improved environment for mortgage shoppers.

Among the initiatives: Giant investor Fannie Mae's allowing of purchases of conventional mortgages with as little as 3 percent down. Freddie Mac, another major investor, is planning to begin similar 3 percent down loan purchases for mortgages closed on or after March 23. According to Mike Fratantoni, chief economist for the mortgage banker's group, "roughly 40 percent of investors" already have begun offering the Fannie 3 percent down program. The guidelines for the Freddie Mac program are in lenders' hands and there's likely to be a strong rollout for it.

Also contributing to better affordability: the Federal Housing Administration's reduction late last month of its costly upfront mortgage insurance premiums, a move that could expand eligibility for home purchases to thousands of buyers, according to industry estimates. Virtually all lenders who work with the FHA program began offering the lower mortgage insurance premiums when the reduction took effect in late January. FHA insures loans with down payments as low as 3.5 percent.

Brad Blackwell, executive vice president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, the country's largest-volume mortgage originator, is certain about what's underway in the market: "Things are looking better for homebuyers and refinancers" ­— not only in terms of underwriting requirements, but in the cost of credit as well.

Wells Fargo has been "gradually opening up the credit box," Blackwell told me in an interview, in part because of helpful policy clarifications and changes at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Those changes give lenders greater confidence in lending to a broader spectrum of borrowers, including those who don't have high credit scores and ready cash for big down payments. For example, he said, though the bank previously had a credit score minimum — 660 FICO on conventional loan applications — now it requires no hard and fast minimum. Instead, if Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's automated underwriting systems accept the application — say you've got a relatively low credit score, but strong compensating factors such as solid income, ample reserves and a large-enough down payment — the bank won't say no to you solely because of the low score. This could be especially important to people who had tough economic experiences during the recession that damaged their credit, but who are now excellent candidates for a loan. On FHA applications, the bank will now accept FICO scores as low as 600, down from its previous 640 standard.

Wells Fargo also has relaxed its policy on gifts to borrowers by relatives and friends to defray part of the down payment and closing costs. On conventional loans with 5 percent or lower down payments, Wells Fargo previously required borrowers to contribute at least 5 percent of the total costs from their own financial resources. Now that's been cut to 3 percent, which allows for more generous gift assistance.

Some major real estate firms confirm that they are seeing the first signs of credit easing by mortgage lenders, but that most potential first time and move-up borrowers are not yet aware of the changes.

Bottom line: If you've been stuck on the home buying sidelines, check out what's going on. Talk to lenders and mortgage brokers. Who knows? Maybe the opening of the credit box, even if it's just a crack, might be enough to help you buy a house at today's near-historic low rates.

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Machinima cuts staff, shuts some channels after new financing

Just because Machinima secured $24 million in new funding doesn't make it immune to some belt-tightening.

The digital content network laid off 13 of its 90 employees Friday, according to sources, as well as a few part-time staffers. The eliminated positions were all production jobs tied to programming being discontinued at Machinima.

Machinima Respawn, a gaming-themed YouTube channel that was once one of Machinima's most popular and longest-running attractions, is being canceled, as are some of the programs on another of its YouTube channels, Machinima Live. Also axed was a Machinima series titled "Ten FTW."

Staff assembled at Machinima headquarters Friday were told that the cuts were necessary due to the declining popularity of the programming with users and advertisers.

A spokeswoman for the company confirmed the cuts, and issued a statement on behalf of the company.

"As Machinima positions itself for the future, we must focus resources toward high-growth opportunities. Toward that end, today Machinima released 13 production staff associated with Respawn, TFTW and certain shows on Machinima LIVE as this content was simply not delivering the monetization that supports our path to profitability. Machinima is in development on its expanded 2015-16 original programming slate, details of which will be unveiled at its Newfront presentation on May 4. Separately, the company also has 15 open positions associated with programming, talent development, business intelligence, sales, marketing, product development and engineering."

The layoffs were the first round of cuts at Machinima since CEO Chad Gutstein came in nearly one year ago. Prior to his hire, the struggling company withstood several rounds of layoffs. Machinima was once one of the most popular multichannel networks on the Internet, but languished for years until recovering some momentum in 2014.

Warner Bros., which took an $18 million stake in Machinima last year, led a new round of financing Thursday that also included investments from Redpoint Venture, MK Capital, Coffin Capital and Allen DeBevoise.

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

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Getting homes shown this winter ‘daunting’

More than 8 feet of snow has put a damper on a Boston-area real estate market already constrained by limited inventory — creating logistical issues for home-sellers, buyers and real estate agents — but opportunity awaits for those undaunted by the weather.

"It's really light these past four or five weeks because people won't put their house on the market," said broker Glenna M. Gelineau, owner of Gelineau & Associates RE in Waltham. "Not to mention people don't want to come out in this weather."

Streets are hard to navigate, snow mounds are so high that for sale signs are buried, and buyers can't identify homes that are on the market.

"It's just daunting," Gelineau said. "It's dangerous. There's no parking. People have ice dams. They don't want snow trucked through their house. They have their own problems. It's just one whole layer to life that, unless people are absolutely under the gun, they'll say, 'I'll (list) it when the snow dissipates.'"

Home inspections can't be completed because homes and their foundations are covered in snow.

"(An) issue right now being presented by the ice dams is potential damage being done to a listing and the fact that either renovations or other temporary measures have to be taken before the property can be shown," said John Dul-
czewski, executive director of the Greater Boston Association of Realtors.

There also are liability issues for homeowners if buyers slip or fall on their property, said Michael Carucci, president of Group Boston Real Estate.

"Then, of course, we have the issue of no school and a bunch of kids at home," he said. "We typically don't like to show property when the owner is actually home. Where are they going to go in this weather — outside for three hours?"

Carucci has in excess of $10 million in inventory that won't hit the market until spring because of the weather. But there is a bright side, he said.

"My view is anybody out there in weather like this is seriously qualified," he said. "I don't think you're going to have tire-kickers out there."

And inventory is so light — a pre-existing issue exacerbated by the snow — that people are jumping at available opportunities.

Linda Burnett, a Realtor at Keller Williams Realty Boston-Metro, listed a four-bedroom West Roxbury colonial for $699,000 on Feb. 9, in the midst of another snowstorm, and had it under agreement the next Monday.

With more snow in the forecast, she shortened the normal open house schedule to that Saturday for 2.5 hours and asked real estate agents to show up in one car with their clients because of parking constraints. She brought in "staging" furniture for the house in between storms, along with shoe covers and extra boot trays.

"We had over 30 parties visiting the open house," Burnett said. "That's like an open house on a perfect day in June. If anybody is considering putting their house on the market during this horrible weather, I recommend doing that because there's no inventory. People who are motivated will really do well."

Eight offers were submitted for the West Roxbury home, and it sold for significantly more than the asking price, Burnett said.

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Montreal knows where to stick snow

After roughly 8 feet of snow in three weeks, mammoth snowbanks everywhere and a problem-plagued public transit system, many Bostonians are thinking there's got to be a better way to deal with snow.

In Montreal, which has been pounded by about 8 feet of snow this winter, once precipitation starts, crews go to work, spreading salt on sidewalks and streets. Once the snow reaches an inch, the city deploys 1,000 pieces of equipment manned by as many workers to begin clearing both sidewalks and streets.

"Our citizens don't have to shovel sidewalks," in contrast to Boston, Jacques Lacavallee, a city spokesman, said.

By the time the snow reaches 6 inches, Montreal deploys 2,200 pieces of equipment and 3,000 workers.

"It's literally an army that takes over the city," Lacavallee said. "This is part of our daily life, unlike you guys, who have been caught by surprise."

Small plows tackle the sidewalks, while two trucks working side by side clear the roads. One is essentially a huge blower that eats up the snow and then spits it out through a tube on top into an adjacent dump truck.

The trucks carts the snow away to one of 12 city-owned lots, or to one of 16 chutes connected to a water-
treatment unit, where salt, dirt and other impurities are removed.

The end result? Fresh water.

Unlike Boston's 118-year-old subway system — America's oldest — Montreal's is only 49 years old and, as far as Lacavallee can remember, has shut down only once — in 1972.

Bonnie McGilpin, a spokeswoman for Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, said the mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics has reached out to companies and professors from local universities, searching for innovative ways to deal with the record snow.

"One thing to keep in mind about Montreal," McGilpin said, is that its snow removal budget is $153 million, or 3.2 percent of its total budget, whereas Boston's is $18.5 million, or 0.7 percent of total spending.

Boston's streets also are not wide enough to accommodate the kind of large snowblowers and dump trucks that make their way, side by side, down Montreal's roads, she said.

Boston's Public Works Department uses more than 600 pieces of equipment during the height of storms to clear the streets. The snow is then brought to as many as 10 snow farms throughout the city, McGilpin said.

Since the first winter storm at the end of January, McGilpin said, the department has removed nearly 22,000 truckloads of snow, plowed 287,743 miles of roadway, put down more than 76,152 tons of salt and plowed for 180,314 hours.

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AP-GfK Poll: Most back Obama plan to raise investment taxes

WASHINGTON — The rich aren't taxed enough and the middle class is taxed too much. As for your taxes, you probably think they're too high as well.

Those are the results of an Associated Press-GfK poll that found that most people in the United States support President Barack Obama's proposal to raise investment taxes on high-income families.

The findings echo the populist messages of two liberal senators — Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont — being courted by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to run for president in 2016. The results also add weight to Obama's new push to raise taxes on the rich and use some of the revenue to lower taxes on the middle class.

Obama calls his approach "middle-class economics."

It's not flying with Republicans in Congress, who oppose higher taxes.

But Bob Montgomery of Martinsville, Virginia, said people with higher incomes should pay more.

"I think the more you make the more taxes you should pay," said Montgomery, who is retired after working 40 years at an auto dealership. "I can't see where a man makes $50,000 a year pays as much taxes as somebody that makes $300,000 a year."

According to the poll, 68 percent of those questioned said wealthy households pay too little in federal taxes; only 11 percent said the wealthy pay too much.

Also, 60 percent said middle-class households pay too much in federal taxes, while 7 percent said they paid too little.

Obama laid out a series of tax proposals as part of his 2016 budget released this month. Few are likely to win approval in the Republican-controlled Congress. But if fellow Democrats were to embrace his ideas, they could play a role in the 2016 race.

One proposal would increase capital gains taxes on households making more than $500,000. In the survey, 56 percent favored the proposal, while only 16 percent opposed it.

Democrats, at 71 percent, were the most likely to support raising taxes on capital gains. Among Republicans and independents, 46 percent supported it.

Obama's other tax plans didn't fare as well.

About 27 percent said they favored making estates pay capital gains taxes on assets when they are inherited, and 36 percent opposed it.

Just 19 percent said they supported the president's aborted plan to scale back the tax benefits of popular college savings plans, 529 accounts, named after a section in federal tax law. Obama withdrew the proposal after Republicans and some Democrats in Congress opposed it.

"I think that's a poor idea," said Jamie Starr of suburban Atlanta. "Being that I'm a mother of five children, that is a wonderful program."

"That's kids trying to make their own away in this world without having student loans," she said.

Obama's proposal to levy a new tax on banks was supported by 47 percent of those surveyed. Only 13 percent opposed it, while 36 percent were undecided.

It's tax season, that time of the year when people are confronted by their obligations to the government. The poll found that 56 percent of us think our own federal taxes are too high, and 4 percent said they pay too little.

If taxes are increased, a slight majority said the additional money should help pay down the national debt. Using the money to cut other taxes or fund government programs were less popular options.

Republicans, in general, are more likely than Democrats to oppose higher taxes, except when it comes to low-income families.

Only 19 percent of respondents said low-income families pay too little in federal taxes, but there was a significant split between the political parties. Just 10 percent of Democrats said low-income families pay too little, while 33 percent of Republicans said they don't pay enough.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the poorest 20 percent of households paid less than 1 percent of all federal taxes in 2011, the latest year for data. The top 10 percent paid more than half of all federal taxes.

That's OK, said Sen. Sanders, an independent from Vermont, because wealthy people have seen their incomes soar while the rest of the country's wages have been much more flat.

"Most people understand that at a time when the rich are becoming much richer, the middle class is continuing to disappear," Sanders said. "And people also understand that the very wealthy and large corporations are able to take advantage of huge loopholes, which enable them not to pay their fair share of taxes."

Obama has been pushing to raise taxes on the rich since his first campaign for president in 2008. He has had some success. In January 2013, Obama persuaded Republicans in Congress to let income tax rates go up for families making more than $450,000 a year. It was part of a deal that made permanent a large package of tax cuts first enacted under Republican President George W. Bush.

Some liberals are looking for a candidate to push for higher taxes on the rich in the 2016 race. Sanders and Democrat Warren would fit the profile, though Warren says she is not running for president and Sanders says he has not made up his mind.

Among Democrats, Hillary Rodham Clinton is seen as the front-runner for the nomination; she has yet to make her candidacy official.

Clinton hasn't offered specifics on how she would approach taxes as a candidate. But she offered a glimpse of her views following Obama's State of the Union Address in January, when she tweeted that Obama "pointed way to an economy that works for all. Now we need to step up & deliver for the middle class. #FairShot #FairShare."

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The AP-GfK Poll of 1,045 adults was conducted online Jan. 29-Feb. 2, using a sample drawn from GfK's probability-based KnowledgePanel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Respondents were first selected randomly using phone or mail survey methods, and later interviewed online. People selected for KnowledgePanel who didn't otherwise have access to the Internet were provided access at no cost to them.

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Online:

AP-GfK Poll: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

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Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

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