US homebuilder sentiment slips in March

U.S. homebuilders are feeling slightly less confident in their sales prospects, but their overall sales outlook remains favorable.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index released Monday slipped to 53 this month, down two points from 55 in February. It's the third monthly decline in a row for the index.

Readings above 50 indicate more builders view sales conditions as good, however.

Labor shortages, a dearth of available land parcels cleared for new home construction and tougher mortgage-lending standards weighed on builders' confidence this month, said David Crowe, the builder group's chief economist.

"These obstacles notwithstanding, we are expecting solid gains in the housing market this year, buoyed by sustained job growth, low mortgage interest rates and pent-up demand," Crowe added.

Despite the increasingly favorable economy, home sales have been sluggish so far this year after a lackluster 2014.

Sales of new U.S. homes were basically flat in January, slipping 0.2 percent from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 481,000. Sales climbed 5.3 percent from a year earlier, when harsh winter weather caused home-buying to stall.

Still, lower mortgage rates and job gains over the past year are among the factors pointing to stronger sales this spring buying season, traditionally the peak period for home sales.

Mortgage rates remain near historic lows. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 3.86 percent last week, according to the mortgage giant Freddie Mac. A year ago it stood at 4.37 percent.

Meanwhile, employers have stepped up hiring. The economy added a solid 295,000 jobs last month, helping to bring down the national unemployment rate to a seven-year low of 5.5 percent. More Americans earning paychecks should eventually push home sales higher.

The latest NAHB index was based on responses from 346 builders. Its measure of current sales conditions fell three points to 58, while a gauge of traffic by prospective buyers declined two points to 37. Builders' outlook for sales over the next six months held steady at 59.

Though new homes represent only a fraction of the housing market, they have an outsize impact on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in tax revenue, according to NAHB data.

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Flawed Social Security data say 6.5M in US reach age 112

WASHINGTON — Americans are getting older, but not this old: Social Security records show that 6.5 million people in the U.S. have reached the ripe old age of 112.

In reality, only few could possibly be alive. As of last fall, there were only 42 people known to be that old in the entire world.

But Social Security does not have death records for millions of these people, with the oldest born in 1869, according to a report by the agency's inspector general.

Only 13 of the people are still getting Social Security benefits, the report said. But for others, their Social Security numbers are still active, so a number could be used to report wages, open bank accounts, obtain credit cards or claim fraudulent tax refunds.

"That is a real problem," said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. "When you have a fake Social Security number, that's what allows you to fraudulently do all kinds things, claim things like the earned income tax credit or other tax benefits."

Johnson is chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which plans a hearing Monday on problems with death records maintained by the Social Security Administration.

Johnson said he is working on legislation to make it easier for Social Security to use information from states to maintain more accurate death records.

"There's got to be a legislative solution here, and that's the thing that we're going to try and determine," Johnson said. "The best death statistics really come from states, the vital statistics agencies."

The agency said it is working to improve the accuracy of its death records. But it would be costly and time-consuming to update 6.5 million files that were generated decades ago, when the agency used paper records, said Sean Brune, a senior adviser to the agency's deputy commissioner for budget, finance, quality and management.

"The records in this review are extremely old, decades-old, and unreliable," Brune said.

The internal watchdog's report does not document any fraudulent or improper payments to people using these Social Security numbers. But it raises red flags that it could be happening.

For example, nearly 67,000 of the Social Security numbers were used to report more than $3 billion in wages, tips and self-employment income from 2006 to 2011, according to the report. One Social Security number was used 613 different times. An additional 194 numbers were used at least 50 times each.

People in the country illegally often use fake or stolen Social Security numbers to get jobs and report wages, as do other people who do not want to be found by the government. Thieves use stolen Social Security numbers to claim fraudulent tax refunds.

The IRS estimated it paid out $5.8 billion in fraudulent tax refunds in 2013 because of identity theft. The head of the Justice Department's tax division described how it's done at a recent congressional hearing.

"The plan is frighteningly simple — steal Social Security numbers, file tax returns showing a false refund claim, and then have the refunds electronically deposited or sent to an address where the offender can access the refund checks," said acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline Ciraolo.

In some cases, she said, false tax returns are filed using Social Security numbers of deceased taxpayers or others who are not required to file.

The Social Security Administration generates a list of dead people to help public agencies and private companies know when Social Security numbers are no longer valid for use. The list is called the Death Master File, which includes the name, Social Security number, date of birth and date of death for people who have died.

The list is widely used by employers, financial firms, credit reporting agencies and security firms. Federal agencies and state and local governments rely on it to police benefit payments.

But none of the 6.5 million people cited by the inspector general's report was on the list. The audit analyzed records as of 2013, looking for people with birth dates before 1901.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act in 1935, and the first old-age monthly benefit check was paid in 1940.

Many of the people cited in the inspector general's report never received benefits, though they were assigned Social Security numbers so spouses and children could receive them, presumably after they died.

The agency says it has corrected death information in more than 200,000 records. But fixing the entire list would be costly and time-consuming because Social Security needs proof that a person is dead to add them to the death list, said Brune, the agency official.

Brune noted that the inspector general's report did not verify that any of the 6.5 million people are actually dead. Instead, the report assumed they are dead because of their advanced age.

"We can't post information to our records based on presumption," Brune said. "We post information to our records based on evidence, and in this case it would be evidence of a death certificate."

"Some of those records may not even exist," Brune added.

Nearly all the Social Security numbers are from paper records generated before the agency started using electronic records in 1972, Brune said. Many of the records contain errors, with multiple birthdates and bits of information about different family members.

"We did transcribe paper records into the electronic system and over time that information's been purified," Brune said.

"But our focus right now is to make sure our data is as accurate and complete as it can be for our current program purpose," said Brune. "Right now, we're focused on making sure we're paying beneficiaries properly, and that's how we're investing our resources at this time."

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

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Unions in Hungary seek referendum to overturn shopping ban

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungarian trade unions will try to launch a referendum to overturn a new rule banning most stores from opening on Sundays.

Istvan Gasko, president of the Democratic League of Independent Trade Unions, said Monday the government had held only "pretend negotiations" before making the decision, which affects most stores across the country from March 15.

"Together with the country's largest employers' group, the National Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers, we decided to initiate a referendum to conclude this matter and ask people whether or not they support the Sunday closures," Gasko said.

He explained that the change hurts employees, many of whom earn the minimum monthly wage of 105,000 forints ($365) before taxes, because they will lose Sunday bonuses, while consumers will lose the comfort of Sunday shopping.

The unions need an electoral committee's approval and 200,000 signatures to have a referendum.

The "Free Sunday" initiative proposed by the Christian Democrats, a small ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party, has not found favor with most consumers.

Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said the new rules were similar to those in some other European countries and that any negative effects on consumer spending, a key factor in Hungary's economic growth, would be temporary.

"We believe that what is working in Germany, in Austria, in Norway, in Holland, is going to work in Hungary," Kovacs said. "The goal is that people are not forced to work on Sundays."

A poll by Ipsos found that 68 percent of respondents were totally or somewhat against the ban, although 77 percent said they did not usually shop on Sundays.

Some shoppers were clearly upset by the ban.

"I don't agree at all with shops being closed on Sundays ... because people work so much and until so late on weekdays that they have no other time" (to shop), said Budapest resident Gabriella Szentgyorgyi.

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Factory output falls for third straight month in February

WASHINGTON — Output at U.S. factories fell for a third straight month in February, driven by a big drop in production at auto plants.

The Federal Reserve said Monday that manufacturing output fell 0.2 percent in February, following a decline of 0.3 percent in January. Overall industrial production edged up a slight 0.1 percent in February, as unusually cold weather in many parts of the country led to a surge at utilities.

The weakness at factories is attributed in part to a stronger dollar, which makes U.S. exports more expensive on overseas markets, and supply disruptions from the labor dispute at West Coast ports.

Analysts, however, aren't too concerned. They say rising consumer spending will likely offset the recent lackluster showing in manufacturing. Solid job gains and lower gasoline prices should give households more to spend on other items.

"We expect that the strong domestic economy will ensure that manufacturing output continues to grow at a reasonable pace despite the strong dollar," said Paul Dales, senior economist at Capital Economics.

The February factory weakness was led by a 3 percent plunge in production of motor vehicles and parts, the third straight decline in the category. Production of machinery and primary metals such as steel and appliances also fell.

Manufacturing growth has slowed over the past six months. U.S. producers have had to contend with a rising dollar, which makes their goods more expensive in foreign markets. Production has also been hurt by supply disruptions from the West Coast labor dispute. The dispute was settled in the third week of February, but analysts said it could take months to work through a massive backlog of containers at the port.

The 7.3 percent surge in utility output reflected frigid temperatures on the East Coast and record snowfall levels in the Northeast.

Output in mining fell 2.5 percent in February, with oil and gas well drilling down 17.3 percent — the biggest one-month drop in nearly three decades. Oil prices have skidded by about half since last summer, which has led drilling companies to hold off on new wells and reduce oil and gas extraction.

The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group for purchasing managers, reported that its index of manufacturing activity slipped to 52.9 in February, marking the fourth straight drop and the lowest reading since January 2014. The ISM index showed that orders, hiring and production all slowed last month.

The rising dollar is expected to contribute to bigger trade gap this year. The trade deficit widened in the October-December quarter, subtracting 1.1 percentage points from the economy's growth rate during the period.

Growth slowed to a rate of 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter, and many analysts believe the pace will be similar in the January-March quarter.

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Obama administration: 16.4M have gained health insurance

WASHINGTON — More than 16 million Americans have gained insurance coverage as a result of President Barack Obama's health care law, the administration said Monday as the White House prepares to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the law's signing.

In releasing the latest estimates, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell called it "the largest reduction in the uninsured in four decades."

Obama signed the Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010, but it has been politically divisive from the start.

Democrats hailed it as the culmination of decades of effort to guarantee health coverage for all Americans, including people with health problems who until then could have been turned away by insurance companies. Republicans called it government overreach, and haven't stopped trying to repeal or roll back what they dismiss as "Obamacare."

Burwell said the administration now estimates that 16.4 million people have gained coverage as a result of the law.

The program offers subsidized private coverage for people who don't have health insurance on the job, along with an expanded Medicaid program that a majority of states have accepted.

Most of those gaining coverage — 14.1 million adults — got their insurance after the law's big expansion began at the end of 2013.

Another 2.3 million people had gained coverage previously. Those were young adults allowed to remain on a parent's plan until age 26 under one of the law's most popular provisions.

Independent studies, including the extensive Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, have documented the same general trend.

The administration said all racial and ethnic groups have seen gains in coverage, but the biggest improvement has come among minority groups.

Since the start of last year, the uninsured rate dropped by more than 12 percentage points among Hispanics, more than 9 percentage points among African-Americans and more than 5 percentage points among whites.

The coverage gains haven't settled the political debate. Republicans now in charge of both chambers of Congress remain committed to repeal, although Obama is sure to veto any such legislation.

The biggest question hanging over the health care law now is a case before the Supreme Court, in which its opponents have argued that subsidies are illegal in most states. They contend that the exact wording of the law only allows subsidized coverage in states that have set up their own insurance markets, and most have not done so. The administration counters that the context of the law makes it clear its purpose was to expand coverage in every state.

Independent estimates say about 8 million people could lose coverage if the subsidies are struck down. A decision is expected by the end of June.

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Associated Press writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.

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UNH hosting 2nd robotics competition

DURHAM, N.H. — Nearly 2,000 high school students from teams in New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts and Connecticut are participating in a FIRST Robotics Competition at the University of New Hampshire this month.

The competition pits teams of high school students — mentored by professional engineers — against each other for a shot at the national championships and at scholarships. UNH is hosting for the second year, the weekend of March 21-22.

Each team has six weeks to build a robot from a common kit of parts for the competition. This year's contest is a recycling-themed game played by two teams of three robots each. The robots score points by stacking notes on scoring platforms, capping those stacks with recycling containers and disposing of pool noodles, representing litter.

"FIRST is more than robots. The robots are a vehicle for students to learn important life skills," said Dean Kamen, president of Manchester's DEKA Research & Development and the founder of FIRST. Its name is short "for inspiration and recognition of science and technology."

"Kids often come in not knowing what to expect - of the program nor of themselves," Kamen said. They leave, even after the first season, with a vision, with confidence, and with a sense that they can create their own future."

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BCEC expansion weighed against other needs

Boston officials yesterday weighed in on the debate over spending $1 billion to expand the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center amid a deep budget deficit and a crumbling public transit system.

"In difficult economic times we have to look at every single thing ... and determine what's best for now and the long term," said Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson. "Everyone has to take a look at their budgets. We need to look at the T not only as transportation, but as critical infrastructure, and it's literally the driver of our economy."

The Herald reported yesterday the convention center authority's expansion committee held an emergency closed-door session over fears the bond offering meant to pay for the expansion would be cut by Gov. Charlie Baker.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh yesterday said he supports the convention center expansion, which backers say will draw bigger — and more lucrative — shows to Boston, but said the T is in desperate need of a fix.

"The governor has to look at the budget, look at the numbers and how they work for him, but I'll be talking to him as well. I think the expansion of the convention center is about economic development and the future of our city, and this region," Walsh said. "Certainly the governor has a big concern with the MBTA ... it's not going to be one easy fix, the governor inherited a big problem here."

During the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority's public meeting on Friday, MCCA head Jim Rooney said he "has a high level of confidence" that the project will go forward.

Baker remained noncommittal on his plans yesterday, saying his administration needs to look at the numbers involved.

"We're just getting started on the capital budget, and until we have a better understanding about where the capital budget sits — not just for this year but for the next year and the year after — we're not going to say much more about it than that," Baker said. "We need to do a thorough deep dive on the capital budget before we talk about specifics or proposals."

Baker said his administration will spend the next 30 days reviewing capital projects.

In January, Baker told the MCCA he would delay the bond offering until March 30, to give the incoming administration time to review the project. The expansion will add 1.3 million square feet to the South Boston expo center.

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Juries in the drivers' seats

Two federal lawsuits brought by a Boston labor attorney are going to trial thanks to rulings by federal judges in California last week — with vast implications for Uber and Lyft.

"The judges soundly rejected the companies' arguments that they are not in the car business, they are a technology business," said Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney who brought the suits.

Two judges both denied a motion for summary judgment, ruling that the cases would have to be decided by juries.

The suits center on how Uber and Lyft classify their drivers. The companies claim the drivers are independent contractors, but Liss-Riordan and her clients say the drivers should be treated as full employees. By classifying drivers as independent contractors, Uber and Lyft avoid having to pay for benefits including unemployment insurance, worker's compensation and overtime. If the companies are required to pay their drivers as employees, it would mean a huge change to their business model.

"Companies like Uber and Lyft save enormously on their labor costs by calling their workers independent contractors," she said.

The problem, the two federal judges said separately, is that neither the legal definition of employee or contractor seems to describe Uber and Lyft drivers.

Uber and Lyft drivers can choose their own hours and accept or reject ride requests, like independent contractors. However, like employees, the drivers are subject to control and potential termination at will by the ride-for-hire companies.

"The jury in this case will be handed a square peg and asked to choose between two round holes," Judge Vince Chhabria wrote of the Lyft case.

"The application of the traditional test of employment — a test which evolved under an economic model very different from the new 'sharing economy' — to Uber's business model creates significant challenges," wrote Judge Edward Chen in the Uber case. "Arguably, many of the factors in that test appear outmoded in this context."

The lawsuits will only apply to California right now, but another case that would apply to Massachusetts is ongoing. The companies have come under fierce fire in Massachusetts, largely by taxi companies and cab drivers who claim they are being driven out of business.

Traditional employment laws have a long way to go to catch up with the rise of the so-called gig economy, said Pat Petitti, chief executive of HourlyNerd, which connects freelance consultants with companies looking for outside expertise.

"Neither the employee or contractor definition fits what an Uber driver does," he said. "The traditional definitions for an employee and contractor are not correct — they don't work in a world like this, where technology is changing the workforce."

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Officials: Listeriosis not cause of 3 deaths, may be factor

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A foodborne illness linked to some Blue Bell ice cream products might have been a contributing factor in the deaths of three hospital patients in Kansas, health officials said Saturday.

But listeriosis didn't cause the deaths, according to Kansas Department of Health and Environment spokeswoman Sara Belfry.

Officials have not released the names of the five patients at Via Christi St. Francis hospital in Wichita, Kansas, who developed listeriosis in after eating products from one production line at the Blue Bell creamery in Brenham, Texas.

But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the five individuals were older adults and three of them are women. The CDC did not specify the gender of those patients who died.

The five patients became ill with listeriosis during their hospitalizations for unrelated causes between December 2013 and January 2015. But hospital spokeswoman Maria Loving said she couldn't discuss why the patients were hospitalized, citing patient confidentiality laws.

According to the CDC, information available for four of the five patients shows they had eaten while hospitalized milkshakes made with Blue Bell ice cream product called "Scoops" in the month before the infection.

The FDA says listeria bacteria were found in samples of Scoops, as well as Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Country Cookies, Great Divide Bars, Sour Pop Green Apple Bars, Cotton Candy Bars, Vanilla Stick Slices, Almond Bars and No Sugar Added Moo Bars.

Blue Bell spokeswoman Jenny Van Dorf said the company has recovered all recalled products from all 23 states where they were sold, as well as those that were in storage.

Cincinnati-based supermarket chain Kroger removed recalled Blue Bell products from 860 of its 2,625 stores and the company is alerting customers through its recall notification system, spokesman Keith Dailey said in an email.

"We would not sell any product that we believed to be potentially harmful to our customers," Dailey responded when asked if Kroger has confidence in Blue Bell products not affected by the recall and that remain on store shelves.

Blue Bell says its regular Moo Bars were untainted, as were its half gallons, quarts, pints, cups, three-gallon ice cream and take-home frozen snack novelties.

The Texas Department of State Health Services said facilities like Blue Bell's are inspected on a monthly basis. The agency added that no enforcement action has previously been taken against the facility in Brenham and it is operating in compliance with food safety laws.

"Our last full inspection was February. We cited a couple minor issues but nothing related to this issue," agency spokeswoman Carrie Williams said in an email.

Van Dorf said the machine that the contamination was traced to has been shut down permanently.

It's not unusual to see listeria outbreaks linked to dairy products, including ice cream, said William Marler, an attorney who represented victims of a 2011 listeria outbreak that killed 33 people and was traced to a Colorado cantaloupe farm.

In December, an ice cream company in Snohomish, Washington, recalled nearly a year's worth of ice cream and related products because of possible listeria contamination that sickened two men.

Marler said he thought Blue Bell had responded appropriately once it knew its products were linked to illnesses and deaths. His only criticism was that Blue Bell didn't mention the patients who were sickened or died in Kansas in a statement on its Web site, instead highlighting that this was the first product recall in its 108-year history.

Listeriosis is a life-threatening infection caused by eating food contaminated with bacteria called Listeria monocytogenes, the CDC said. The disease primarily affects pregnant women and their newborns, older adults, and people with immune systems weakened by cancer, cancer treatments, or other serious conditions.

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Lozano reported from Houston.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter at www.twitter.com/juanlozano70

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News outlets fight to keep Massachusetts court records open

BOSTON — Judges across Massachusetts are sealing court documents with increasing regularity, forcing news organizations and First Amendment groups into costly and time-consuming legal battles to ensure the basic workings of the judicial system remain public.

In the run up to Aaron Hernandez's ongoing murder trial in Fall River, for example, a judge sealed search warrants and hundreds of pages of related documents following the former New England Patriots star's 2013 arrest.

In Falmouth, similar documents were barred from release related to the Feb. 5 shooting of two Coast Guard officers and a local Bourne police officer by Coast Guardsman Adrian Loya.

In both cases, the defense lawyers argued that the release of information could harm their client's constitutional right to a fair trial. Judges eventually unsealed the records after news organizations challenged the rulings, but journalists say the documents should never have been secret in the first place.

"What we're talking about is some of the most basic public information that has been always presumed to be available and transparent," said Paul Pronovost, editor-in-chief of the Cape Cod Times, which prevailed in its challenge in the Loya case.

Advocates and news editors say it's not clear the extent of the problem or its causes.

Matthew Segal, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, suggests the tendency toward secrecy stems, in part, from post-9/11 concerns about national security and how that thinking now pervades all levels of government across the country.

But he also submits that it is driven by factors unique to Massachusetts: The state has one of the weakest public records laws in the nation, and some government agencies have a tendency not to honor even those low standards.

"There isn't exactly a cheerful willingness to do what the law requires," Segal says. "You have to fight for every inch. The culture here does not favor openness."

News editors and First Amendment advocates say the problem is not exclusive to high-profile cases.

Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition that counts lawyers, journalists and historians among its members, points to lesser known cases — from child custody disputes and domestic violence incidents — where news organizations across the region have lodged challenges, and, in many cases, won.

"What makes me nervous is in these lower courts where you're not able to get that media presence," he says. "What's going unnoticed? What information is being sealed that we will never know about?"

To be sure, not every case where court records are sealed raises red flags.

In the federal terrorism trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, for example, many of the legal briefs filed by defense lawyers and prosecutors — as well as related decisions by the judge — have been sealed.

Advocates concede confidentiality is likely warranted in many of those instances. One notable exception: the Boston Globe, CNN and the radio station WBUR-FM filed a request earlier this month asking the judge to unseal the witness and exhibit list, which are normally made public.

"The information contained in the lists ... is not by its nature private since all of the exhibits are presumptively public and all of the witnesses will testify in open court," the news organizations argue in their filing.

And not all judges are erring on the side of secrecy.

In the case of Philip Chism, a Danvers High School student accused of killing his math teacher, a judge recently rejected a bid by defense lawyers to seal their client's videotaped police confession after news organizations objected.

"The First Amendment was not intended to make life easy," Superior Court Judge David Lowy wrote in his Jan. 23 decision. "The exacting scrutiny of the press ... in covering the courts and providing an unobstructed view of the proceedings, therefore, remains at the core of protecting ordered liberty, the rule of law, and ultimately not just democracy, but constitutional democracy itself."

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