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Shake Shack eyes Harvard Square

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 30 April 2013 | 00.24

New York burger and frozen custard fave Shake Shack is eyeing Harvard Square for a second Massachusetts restaurant.

The company's application for a special permit for a fast-food operation at 57 JFK St., in the Harvard Square Galleria, will be heard by the Cambridge Board of Zoning Appeal next Thursday, according to the board's meeting agenda.

Restaurateur Danny Meyers' Union Square Hospitality Group opened its first Bay State Shake Shack at The Street shopping center, on Route 9 in Chestnut Hill, to long lines last month.


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Former Celtics center Jason Collins says he’s gay

Professional basketball center Jason Collins, who played in more than 30 games with the Boston Celtics this season, has come out as openly gay in the most recent issue of Sports Illustrated.

In the magazine's latest issue, Collins, 34, a 12-year veteran of the NBA, cited the 2011 NBA player lockout and the recent Boston Marathon bombings as some of the reasons why he decided to come out publicly.

"Some people insist they've never met a gay person. But Three Degrees of Jason Collins dictates that no NBA player can claim that anymore," Collins writes with Franz Lidz in Sports Illustrated. "Pro basketball is a family. And pretty much every family I know has a brother, sister or cousin who's gay. In the brotherhood of the NBA, I just happen to be the one who's out."

Advertising experts recently told the Herald that the first openly gay man in a major American team sport could reap millions of dollars in endorsements and speaking engagements.

The athlete who makes sports history by coming out will also likely be sought after by companies that want to appeal to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population, experts said.

Fellow Stanford University graduate U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Brookline) was quick to show support today for Collins, who appeared with Kennedy during last year's campaign.

"For as long as I've known Jason Collins he has been defined by three things: his passion for the sport he loves, his unwavering integrity and the biggest heart you will ever find," said Kennedy in a statement. "Without question or hesitation, he gives everything he's got to those of us lucky enough to be in his life. I'm proud to stand with him today and proud to call him a friend."


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EU aims to better protect bees from pesticides

BRUSSELS — The European Union plans to restrict the use of three pesticides to better protect dwindling bee populations.

The announcement Monday was cheered by environmentalists, disappointed chemical companies and came after the bloc's 27 nations failed to agree on a common stand.

EU Consumer Commissioner Tonio Borg said his agency will override the deadlock and move "in the coming weeks" to restrict three neonicotinoid pesticides on plants and cereals that attract bees. The measure takes effect Dec. 1 for two years unless decisive new information becomes available.

Beekeepers have reported an unusual decline in bees over the past decade, particularly in Western Europe, according to the European Food Safety Authority. It says bees are critically important to the environment, sustaining biodiversity by providing pollination for a wide range of crops and wild plants — including most of the food crops in Europe.

Borg said bees contribute over 22 billion euros ($29 billion) a year to European agriculture.

In all, 15 EU nations were for the restrictions, eight were against and four abstained. Borg said he still felt confident in moving ahead because "a majority of member states now support our proposal."

Environmentalists welcomed the move.

"Today's pesticide ban throws Europe's bees a vital lifeline," said Iain Keith of the Avaaz environmental group. "Europe is taking science seriously and must now put the full ban in place to give bees the breathing space they need."

But major chemical companies, which were against Borg's proposals, have questioned the scientific evidence for such a ban.

The head of the EU Parliament's environmental committee acknowledged that "precise data is still lacking" but applauded the consumer agency's action.

"We shall now try to understand how exactly neonicotinoids affect the behavior of bees," said Matthias Groote.


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State cracks down on ‘predatory’ Internet lenders

The state Division of Banks has ordered a Nevada debt collector to stop collecting payments on more than 100 illegal loans made to Massachusetts residents.

Licensed Nevada debt collector Delbert Services Corp. and owner John P. Reddam also were ordered to refund to Bay State consumers all collection fees received in connection with the loans.

Delbert Services had payments on loans ranging from $850 to $5,075 that were made by five unlicensed and "predatory" Internet-based lenders, who also were told to cease loan activities in Massachusetts.

The loans were illegal under the state's small-loan statute because they included excessively high fees and interest rates that in some cases exceeded 150 percent. Any business that makes loans of up to $6,000 at an interest rate greater than 12 percent in Massachusetts also must be licensed as a small-loan company by the Division of Banks, and the maximum annual rate of interest for these loans is 23 percent.

The small-dollar, high-interest rate loans, which are similar to "payday" loans, primarily are offered to consumers through the Internet and require access to their bank accounts and personal information.

"We believe that these businesses knew that these predatory loans created serious injury to consumers by charging outrageous and illegal fees," Barbara Anthony, undersecretary of the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, which includes the Division of Banks, said in a statement. "The division uncovered evidence that Delbert was not only collecting on illegal loans, but they were collaborating with a network of predatory lenders that were making loans with annual interest rates ranging from 59 percent to 169 percent, and with origination fees as high as $500."

The five unlicensed Internet lenders also are being required to refund all interest, finance charges and fees collected from Massachusetts consumers on the illegal loans.

Those companies are Cash Call Inc. and subsidiary WS Funding LLC of Anaheim, Calif.; GP Investors LLC of Sicklerville, N.J.; Novea Resource Management LLC of Surfside, Fla.; and Western Sky Financial LLC of Timber Lake, S.D.


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Celebrity Cruises inks deal with Red Sox

Celebrity Cruises and the Boston Red Sox announced a comprehensive marketing agreement today whereby Celebrity will be recognized as the team's official cruise line.

A result of the new partnership is the 2014 Red Sox Fan Cruise, which allows fans to meet and vacation with former Red Sox players and WEEI announcer Joe Castiglione. The fan cruise will take place aboard the Celebrity Silhouette ship, which leaves from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Jan. 12, 2014 on a seven-night Western Caribbean itinerary.

The partnership between both organizations also includes the following experiences at Fenway Park:

  • During four home games every month, Celebrity Cruises will have a presence at the park with fan giveaways and a chance to win a vacation for two on the 2014 Red Sox Fan Cruise.
  • Every time the Red Sox execute a double play at Fenway this season, one fan will win $200 off any seven-night or longer Celebrity cruise.
  • Celebrity Cruises will hold exclusive events at the park featuring Red Sox legend appearances and giveaways. The first event will be on May 19.
  • Celebrity Cruises will receive fixed signage behind home plate for 10 home games during the season, as well as branding opportunities in-suite and on stadium LEDs.

"We look forward to working with Celebrity Cruises and welcome them to the Red Sox as our official cruise line partner," said Troup Parkinson, Red Sox senior vice president of corporate sponsorships. "Their focus on premium experiences and quality service made this a logical partnership for both our organizations."


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Formation of Italian government shores up markets

LONDON — Italian financial assets were the big winners Monday at the start of an action-packed week in global markets, as investors cheered the news that a new government has been formed after two months of political deadlock.

The formation of the country's new coalition government, led by Premier Enrico Letta from the center-left Democratic Party, brings to an end a period of uncertainty in the country following inconclusive elections in February. The government, which is made up of forces from the center-left and the center-right, faces its first test later during a confidence vote in Parliament.

As the third-biggest economy among the 17 European Union countries that use the euro, Italy is hugely important to the future of the single currency. It has the second-highest debt burden in the eurozone after Greece, so it remains under market pressure to keep a lid on its borrowings. Over the past couple of years, Italy has done a lot to bring its debt down but at a high cost, with the economy back in recession and unemployment on the rise.

"Given the fractious nature of Italian politics, the new government headed by Enrico Letta is indeed progress," said Michael Hewson, senior markets analyst at CMC Markets.

"However it was done without any of the protagonists who had led Italy's main political parties in the original election campaign, which could bring into question the democratic legitimacy of the entire process with technocrats in a number of key positions," he added.

Despite those worries, Italy's FTSE MIB index outperformed all its peers. It rose 2.2 percent to close at 16,929.68. In another sign of optimism, the yield on the country's benchmark 10-year bond dropped around 0.15 percentage points to 3.87 percent. That's the first time it has dropped below 4 percent since November, 2010.

The euro was also solid, trading 0.4 percent higher at $1.3086.

Elsewhere in Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares rose 0.5 percent to close at 6,458.02 while Germany's DAX rose 0.8 percent to 7,873.50. The CAC-40 in France ended 1.5 percent higher at 3,868.69.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.6 percent at 14,804.32 while the broader S&P 500 index rose 0.8 percent to 1,594.03. Wall Street was buoyed by some solid U.S. consumption and housing data at the start of a week where investors will have a huge amount to ponder.

Before an expected interest rate reduction from the European Central Bank on Thursday, the Federal Reserve will hold a two-day policy meeting that culminates on Wednesday. And on Friday, nonfarm payrolls data for April will be published, probably the biggest event of the week for investors.

Markets have held up fairly well over the past few weeks despite a run of disappointing economic data, particularly out of Europe and the U.S. Investors have concluded that the "soft patch" is likely to mean that the world's major central banks will remain in crisis mode and maintain their easy and cheap monetary policies for a while longer yet.

"As recent economic numbers have painted a fairly moribund picture of the global economy, investors will be predicting a dovish tone from policy makers," said Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at Interactive Investor.

Earlier in Asia, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.6 percent to 5,125.80 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged up 0.3 percent to 22,580.77. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.2 percent to 1,940.70. Markets in mainland China and Japan were closed for holidays.

Oil prices tracked equities higher, with the benchmark New York rate up 99 cents at $93.99 a barrel.


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France to slash 24K military jobs, seeking savings

PARIS — France will cut a further 24,000 military jobs by 2019 as it faces up to its decades of deficit spending while still trying to maintain a force ready to deal with global threats, the government said Monday.

Uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, France's war in Mali and the civil war in Syria are among the events shaping France's defense outlook that were unforeseen in the last version of its defense strategy five years ago. But the effects of the global financial crisis and in particular Europe's ongoing economic stagnation are also major factors, according to the defense ministry's "White Book on Defense and National Security."

This is the only the fourth time in the past 40 years that France has undertaken such a top-to-bottom review of its defense posture, although the broad lines of the country's defense strategy — maintaining its nuclear deterrent and its place in NATO — are unchanged in the new review.

The previous review already decided to cut 55,000 jobs, most of which have gone already. The government says that France currently has 228,000 military personnel, with 10,000 jobs due to go soon. The cuts announced Monday will be in addition to those.

The government insisted France will remain the second-largest defense force by spending in the European Union. And France is far from alone in making defense cuts.

France has begun withdrawing its 4,000 troops from Mali, where it intervened in January to combat radical Islamists threatening to overrun the capital. It also keeps troops in Chad, Ivory Coast and Djibouti. France spends around 10 percent of its annual budget on defense, or around 1.5 percent of its gross domestic product.

President Francois Hollande underscored the need for the review, saying that all the threats identified five years ago — nuclear proliferation, terrorism, cyberattacks — "far from diminishing, have increased."

The plan foresees overall defense spending for the 2014-2025 period of 364 billion euros ($474 billion). That compares with the 377 billion euros that the previous plan forecast for the 2009-2020 period. The equipment budget, which had been forecast to reach 18 billion euros annually, is only 16 billion euros now, almost flat compared with the 2003-2008 average.

Actual decisions on what to cut and by how much will only come later this year when the government presents its military spending bill for 2014-2019. "We are going to see an extremely bloody set of discussions over the next few weeks between the defense and finance ministries," said Francois Heisbourg, an international analyst with the Foundation for Strategic Research.

According to Heisbourg, the United States' "pivot to Asia" and away from a front-line role in Europe is another strong motivator for France's new defense outlook. "That's a big change from 2008, and defense planning has to change accordingly," Heisbourg said.

But already Monday's white paper gives some insight into the French military's priorities and strategic outlook.

Smaller, more reactive forces are one area of emphasis, with a capability to field up to 7,000 troops in three separate zones concurrently.

The white paper puts particular emphasis on France's intelligence-gathering and cyber defenses, and calls for corporations in militarily strategic industries to step up their own protection against cyberattacks.

France is far from alone in making defense cuts. Across the Channel, its historic rival, Britain, is also in the midst of cuts that are expected to see the size of the army shrink from 102,000 troops to 82,000 by the end of the decade. Last year the government announced the scrapping of 17 major defense units. Plans for a new fleet of military jets and an aircraft carrier have been axed, while the introduction of new attack submarines has been put on hold.

___

Online:

http://www.defense.gouv.fr/english/portail-defense

___

Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Raphael Satter in London contributed to this article.


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Car used by Winston Churchill being sold on eBay

BERLIN — A rare car once used by Britain's wartime leader Winston Churchill is being sold on the auction site eBay.

Experts believe the vintage Daimler DB 18 Drophead Coupe is the only one of its kind left.

Germany-based seller Sabri Cakar says the U.K. prime minister used the car between 1944 and 1949.

Bids in the auction, which ends Monday shortly after 7 p.m. (1700 GMT), already top 470,000 euros ($616,000).

Cakar said original registration documents confirm the authenticity of the silver and black coupe.

The authenticity of the car was previously checked by British auction house Historics at Brooklands, which tried but failed to sell the vehicle earlier.

Company auction director, Edward Bridger-Stille, said it was "unusual" to sell such a car to the general public on eBay.


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Datawatch forms strategic alliance with Lavastorm Analytics

Chelmsford-based Datawatch Corp. said today it has formed a strategic alliance with another Bay State technology company, Lavastorm Analytics, to help customers resolve Big Data and unstructured data problems.

By combining Datawatch's Information Optimization Platform with the Lavastorm Analytics Engine, customers can build analytical applications faster and with greater data variety in areas such as machine data analytics for IT operations, billing verification and accuracy for communications service providers, and electronic data interchange analytics for health care, officials said.

"Lavastorm's visual design paradigm is unique and opens up the ability to develop complex process-driven analytical applications in a whole new way," said Datawatch President and CEO Michael Morrison in a statement. "We are often called upon to help develop applications where customers are looking to enhance processes that go beyond the capabilities of traditional business intelligence solutions. Through this partnership we now have a powerful tool in our arsenal to deliver these types of solutions both to our customers and as part of our overall solutions strategy."

Both companies will support the partnership through co-selling and joint marketing programs starting immediately, officials said, adding Datawatch has also begun to evaluate incorporating Lavastorm into its packaged solutions to "provide more flexibility to customers who wish to tune these applications once they are deployed."

The announcement comes days after Datawatch reported second-quarter revenue of $6.83 million, a 4 percent increase from the same period a year ago. The company's non-GAAP net income for the second fiscal quarter was $390,000, or 6 cents per diluted share, compared to $354,000, or 5 cents per diluted share for the second quarter of 2012.

Datawatch added it expanded its partner channel in the quarter by adding 18 new global partners.


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Goodyear, union begin contract talks for 6 plants

AKRON, Ohio — With the backdrop of an uncertain economy, shrinking unions and company cost-cutting, Goodyear and the Steelworkers are negotiating on a new national contract covering 8,000 tire workers at six plants.

The first round of talks in Cincinnati ended Thursday and recessed.

With the contract between the Akron-based Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and United Steelworkers of America expiring July 27, both sides have plenty of time and indicated the talks would be in recess until June while they evaluate each other's opening positions.

There's been no talk of a strike, and it wasn't clear whether the union would use the talks as a pattern to set the stage for negotiations during the summer with tire makers Bridgestone-Firestone and Michelin-BFGoodrich. The company contracts expire the same day.

Steelworkers struck Goodyear for three months in 2006.

The last time the national contract for Goodyear's union workforce expired in 2009, the nation was struggling to rebound from the Great Recession and unemployment was 9.4 percent. Goodyear lost $375 million that year.

Now, the unemployment rate in March in the U.S. fell to a four-year low of 7.6 percent. At the same time, the nation's union movement has seen its nationwide membership shrink to its lowest levels since at least the 1930s — 6.6 percent in the private sector.

Goodyear earned $183 million last year, aggressively pushing high-end tires and working to control costs.

The tire industry has been aided by a revived American auto industry, which had its best performance in five years in 2012.

The union signaled that it would highlight Goodyear's improving situation, particularly in its core North American market, in the talks.

"Overall, the industry is like the economy - it's limping along, although Goodyear North American Tire is doing much better due in part to work we have done in the past," USW international vice president Tom Conway said in an email Friday.

"The USW recognizes that fact and we will raise it with the company. The economy as a whole provides a somewhat better environment than it was during the 2009 talks when we were still fully in the grips of a recession."

Goodyear's earnings report on Friday underscored its push to trim expenses: it sold fewer tires globally in the first quarter of 2013 compared with the January-March 2012 period but earned $26 million, reversing an $11 million loss.

The talks cover workers at plants in Akron; Gadsden, Ala.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Topeka, Kan.; Danville, Va., and Fayetteville, N.C.

"Goodyear competes in a global industry, so cost is a significant challenge," company spokesman Ed Markey said in an email summarizing key goals in the negotiations.

"We will review many issues that are important to both sides, including productivity, flexibility in our factories and pensions and health care costs."

In 2006, the company won the green light to close a Tyler, Texas, plant and the outdated Union City, Tenn., plant closed after the 2009 contract left its jobs unprotected. The company declined to specify if any plant was on a current hit list to close or if it would seek contract concessions.

Commenting on the initial talks, Goodyear said they were progressing positively, adding, "Goodyear and the USW have exchanged a few beginning proposals and both sides have decided to work in their respective locations to review the details of the proposals with their actuaries."

The union said in a brief update that wages, health care and pensions top the list of issues at the bargaining table.

Thomas McIntosh, 50, a 25-year Goodyear employee who handles union grievances in Akron, said the economy and shrinking union rolls have limited rank-and-file expectations.

Their goal in the negotiations: "Keeping what they have and they are not really interested in gaining anything," McIntosh said in his union office located over a hill from Goodyear's slick new corporate headquarters.

"I don't hear anything about pay raises, you know, or more vacation, just, 'let me keep what I have'."

In its opening pitch to the union, the company pressed its case for more flexibility and understanding that higher wages would be passed along to customers.

"Manufacturing must be able to adjust and flex production," Steve McClellan, president of Goodyear's North American tire unit, told the union in the company's opening statement April 22.

"We must be flexible and responsive to remain competitive. It all comes back to building the right tire, at the right time, for the right cost."

For now, rank-and-file workers are wary and hoping for the best, McIntosh said.

"Any time it's a contract year, there's a heightened sense of doom and gloom just because what the company's going to come for," he said. "We're so whittled down now, we just want what we got."


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